What did the solar system look like before all the planets migrated?
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 15:16
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Early planetary migration in the solar system has been long established, and there are myriad theories that have been put forward to explain where the planets were coming from. Theories such as the Grand Tack Hypothesis an the Nice Model show how important that migration is to the current state of our solar system. Now, a team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has come up with a novel way of trying to understand planetary migration patterns: by looking at meteorite compositions.
The researchers, led by postdoc Jan Render, had three key realizations. First, that almost all the meteorites that have fallen to Earth originated from the asteroid belt. Second, that the asteroid belt is known to have formed by sweeping material up from all over the solar system. And third, and perhaps most importantly, that they could analyze the isotopic signatures in meteorites to help determine where a given asteroid had formed in the solar system.
With that knowledge, they could then extrapolate out to other asteroids of the same type. There are approximately 100 different types of asteroids, with different isotopic signatures, in the asteroid belt.
ExoMars orbiter's 20000th image
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 14:00 Write a comment
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ExoMars orbiter's 20000th image Simulating space
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 12:54 Write a comment
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Simulating space Artificial intelligence behind 21st Century spaceflight
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 12:30 Write a comment
- Maintaining safety of operations and maximising scientific return are key concerns as satellites increase in number and complexity
- Artificial intelligence offers promising solutions to modern spaceflight challenges
- ESA and Germany’s DFKI institute have launched a new lab ‘ESA_Lab@DFKI’ for artificial intelligence research
NASA prepares for Mars 2020 landing
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 12:24 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is on track for a landing next month that will begin in earnest an effort to return samples of the planet to Earth.
The spacecraft, launched July 30, is scheduled to land in Jezero Crater at 3:55 p.m.
Electron launch demonstrated enhanced kick stage
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 10:22 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab stretched the performance of the kick stage of its Electron rocket on its most recent launch, the first in a series of milestones the company has set out for this year.
First evidence that water can be created on the lunar surface by Earth's magnetosphere
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 08:50 Write a comment
Mapped by Sentinel-1 for Vendée Globe safety
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 08:20 Write a comment
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Competitors of the Vendée Globe sailing race are now nearing the finishing point, but while they were near the treacherous iceberg-infested waters of the Southern Ocean they remained relatively safe thanks to satellite observations. On nights before a full moon, people go to bed later and sleep less
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
For centuries, humans have blamed the moon for our moods, accidents and even natural disasters. But new research indicates that our planet's celestial companion impacts something else entirely - our sleep.
In a paper published Jan. 27 in Science Advances, scientists at the University of Washington, the National University of Quilmes in Argentina and Yale University report that sleep cycles NASA's Perseverance Rover 22 days from Mars landing
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is just 22 days from landing on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft has about 25.6 million miles (41.2M km) remaining in its 292.5-million-mile (470.8M km) journey and is currently closing that distance at 1.6 miles per second (2.5 kilometers per second).
Once at the top of the Red Planet's atmosphere, an action-packed seven minutes of descent aw Purported phosphine on Venus more likely to be ordinary sulfur dioxide,
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
In September, a team led by astronomers in the United Kingdom announced that they had detected the chemical phosphine in the thick clouds of Venus. The team's reported detection, based on observations by two Earth-based radio telescopes, surprised many Venus experts. Earth's atmosphere contains small amounts of phosphine, which may be produced by life. Phosphine on Venus generated buzz that the NASA spacewalk partially hooks up new science platform
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
Two NASA astronauts were unable to complete work during a spacewalk Wednesday on hooking up Europe's new Bartolomeo science platform outside the International Space Station.
Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover spent 6 hours, 56 minutes on the spacewalk. The assignment was the first spacewalk for Glover, the first Black astronaut to live and work aboard the space station.
Nearly halfwa Welding underway on Orion indended for landing astronauts on the Moon
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
At NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, technicians from Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin have welded together three cone-shaped panels on Orion's crew module for the Artemis III mission that will land the first woman and next man on the Moon.
The crew module's primary structure, the pressure vessel, is comprised of seven machined aluminum alloy pieces that are welded tog NASA's Artemis Base Camp on the Moon will need light, water, elevation
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
American astronauts in 2024 will take their first steps near the Moon's South Pole: the land of extreme light, extreme darkness, and frozen water that could fuel NASA's Artemis lunar base and the agency's leap into deep space.
Scientists and engineers are helping NASA determine the precise location of the Artemis Base Camp concept. Among the many things NASA must take into account in choos How heavy is dark matter
Wednesday, 27 January 2021 06:48 Write a comment
Scientists have calculated the mass range for Dark Matter - and it's tighter than the science world thought.
Their findings - due to be published in Physics Letters B in March - radically narrow the range of potential masses for Dark Matter particles, and help to focus the search for future Dark Matter-hunters. The University of Sussex researchers used the established fact that gravity act