Frozentophat
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As eclipse hunters flood the United States this August to watch what scientists are calling the Great American Total Solar Eclipse, new data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (among other sources) will provide them with the most accurate maps ever for where to catch the eclipse.
In past years, totality maps haven't been fully accurate. That's because they assume that everyone is sitting at sea level (definitely not the case for many U.S. observers) and that the moon is completely bereft of craters and mountains. NASA, however, can publish more accurate eclipse maps, thanks to work from visualizer Ernie Wright at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Astronauts spacewalk to replace International Space Station batteries --> Read the full article here
Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson spent six and a half hours outside the station, swapping out old batteries used by the station’s power system with new ones delivered on a Japanese cargo spacecraft last month.
The astronauts completed the work ahead of schedule, giving them time to perform some additional tasks at the end of the spacewalk. Kimbrough and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will perform a similar spacewalk on Friday to complete the battery replacement work. How New Hubble Telescope Views Could Aid Interstellar Travel --> Read the full article here
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have gotten their best looks yet at the mysterious interstellar clouds surrounding the solar system, a new study finds. These observations could shed light on the challenges that future interstellar missions dispatched to the nearest stars might face, the researchers said.
In 2012, NASA's Voyager 1 probe crossed the so-called heliopause — the giant bubble of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields surrounding the sun — and, in the process, became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, launched in 1977, giving the world some of its first good looks at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the moons of these planets. Newfound Asteroid Gives Earth a Close Shave --> Read the full article here
A smallish asteroid zoomed past Earth this morning (Jan. 9), just two days after scientists first spotted the space rock. The asteroid, known as 2017 AG13, flew by our planet at just half the distance from Earth to the moon today at 7:47 a.m. EST.
2017 AG13 is thought to be between 36 and 111 feet (11 to 34 meters) wide, according to astronomers at the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For perspective, the object that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, injuring more than 1,000 people, was thought to be about 65 feet (20 m) wide. SpaceX's Return-to-Flight Rocket Launch Slips to Saturday (Today!) --> Read the full article here
SpaceX's first Falcon 9 rocket launch since an explosion in September will now lift off no earlier than Saturday (Jan. 14), a five-day delay that's due to high winds, rain and schedule conflicts at the company's California launch site.
SpaceX representatives announced the launch delay on Twitter on Sunday (Jan. 8). At the time, SpaceX was targeting a Monday launch of Falcon 9 from a pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base to send 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into orbit for satellite operator Iridium. US Presidential Transition and Space: Experts Forecast Changes to Come --> Read the full article here
A new presidential administration always brings changes for the U.S. space science and spaceflight communities. So what does the current transition period reveal about how the new administration will handle science and space? A panel of space policy experts here at the 229th meeting of the American Astronomical Society gathered to discuss the possibilities.
During the panel session, the speakers focused on the state of the presidential transition, including the arrival of a "landing team" at NASA that is helping the agency move over to the new administration. The panel also covered what space policies President-elect Trump might support, as well as how members of the science community can best get involved in the political processes that affect them. China launches 1st commercial space mission with new rocket --> Read the full article here
China today (Jan. 9) successfully sent three satellites into space in its first commercial mission using an updated version of the low-cost Kuaizhou-1A rocket, amidst the Communist giant's determined bid to expand its ambitious space programme.
The KZ-1A rocket was developed from the Kuaizhou-1 rocket with improvements in adaptability. It is a low-cost solid-fueled carrier rocket with high reliability and short preparation period and was designed to launch low-orbit satellites weighing under 300kg, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Odd Shadow Around Young Star May Be Sign of Newborn Planet --> Read the full article here
Astronomers might have just found a new way to discover alien planets. A bizarre shadow cast on the disk of dust and gas surrounding the young star TW Hydrae is likely evidence of an unseen exoplanet orbiting within the disk, astronomers report in a new study.
The research team noticed the shadow after analyzing 18 years' worth of observations of TW Hydrae, which is about 8 million years old and lies 192 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Hydra. The images, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, showed that the shadow rotates around the 41-billion-mile-wide (66 billion kilometers) disk once every 16 years. How Old Is the Moon? Scientists Say They Finally Know --> Read the full article here
The moon is a very old soul, it turns out. A new analysis of lunar rocks brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts suggests that the moon formed 4.51 billion years ago — just 60 million years after the solar system itself took shape.
Some previous studies have come up with similar estimates, while others have argued for a younger moon that coalesced 150 million to 200 million years after the solar system was born. The new finding, which was published today (Jan. 11) in the journal Science Advances, should settle this long-standing debate, team members said. 'Garnet Planets' Would Be Hostile to Life --> Read the full article here
Earth's surface is ever-changing, with tectonic plates bumping together to cause earthquakes and volcanoes, grow mountains and replenish and redistribute elements - and that dynamic environment helps life thrive. But with a slightly different ratio of elements in the sun, the planet could have been far less forgiving.
Planets are mostly made of the same stuff as their stars, and researchers have used that fact to simulate two very different rocky planets: one whose upper mantleis mostly the mineral olivine, like Earth's, and one with a stiff upper mantle made of garnet. Mysterious Planet Nine May Be a Captured 'Rogue' World --> Read the full article here
Planet Nine may be even more exotic than astronomers had thought. The putative world, which some scientists think lurks unseen far beyond Pluto's orbit, could be a former "rogue planet" that was captured by our solar system at some point in the past, a new study suggests.
It is very plausible" that Planet Nine is a captured rogue - a world that cruises through space unattached to a star - lead author James Vesper, an undergraduate at New Mexico State University (NMSU), said Friday (Jan. 6) during a news conference at the 229th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Grapevine, Texas. Spying on Our Stellar Neighbors: New Strides Made in Alpha Centauri Planet Hunt --> Read the full article here
Earth's lonely sun is an outlier: Most of the nearest sun-like stars have a stellar buddy or two in orbit with them. And researchers are getting closer to probing those complicated systems to directly image their planets.
At last winter's meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), Space.com reported on a talk by Ruslan Belikov, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, about how to complete a seemingly impossible task: using a deformable mirror to help cancel out the interfering light of two stars in a system like our neighbor, Alpha Centauri, revealing any planets that may lurk in their habitable zones. 8 Months on 'Mars'! Mock Space Mission to Launch in Hawaii --> Read the full article here
A crew of six scientists and engineers is geared up and ready for an eight-month mock mission to study how humans living in Mars-like conditions behave and interact.
This will be the fifth mock Mars mission for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), which is funded by NASA. HI-SEAS' goal is to simulate what life might be like for astronauts on long-duration space-exploration missions, such as the journey to Mars, by putting groups of volunteers inside a dome-shaped habitat for months at a time, isolated from the rest of the world. Green Glow from Ancient Galaxies Surprises Scientists --> Read the full article here
The galaxies are greener on the other side of the universe, it seems: A new analysis reveals that some of the most distant galaxies ever observed are radiating green light, a finding that could deeply affect developing models of those early galaxies.
"It's a very distinctive, intense green light that these galaxies are just pouring out," Matt Malkin, a professor of physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the new research, said on Dec. 8 during a news conference at the 229th American Astronomical Society meeting. Orbital ATK's Next Cygnus Cargo Launch for NASA Set for March 16 --> Read the full article here
Orbital ATK's next Cygnus cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station for NASA will lift off on March 16, NASA officials said Tuesday (Jan. 10). A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will launch the unmanned Cygnus spacecraft's OA-7 resupply mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"Orbital ATK will launch Cygnus atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket for delivery of essential crew supplies, equipment and scientific experiments to astronauts aboard the International Space Station," NASA officials wrote in a statement. "The 30 minute launch window opens at 12:29 a.m. EDT."
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NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson replace ISS batteries.
SpaceX's Falcon 9, Friday morning.
China's KZ-1A rocket launched three satellites to orbit.
These images reveal a shadow moving counterclockwise around young star TW Hydrae.
A potential planet around the star Kepler 102, dominated by olivine, and a planet around Kepler 407, which would have a hard, garnet-dominant composition.
The geodesic dome atop the Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii
The results of a deep field survey by the Subaru Telescope - nearly 1,300 distant galaxies.
Orbital ATK's OA-6 Cygnus cargo ship arriving at the ISS on Oct. 23, 2016.
A photo of the Rocky Mountains taken earlier this week by Thomas Pesquet.
"The Rocky mountains are a step too high - even for the clouds to cross," Pesquet wrote on Twitter.
Afterword
Thank you again for joining me for this week's Astronomical News Update! Found quite a bit more this week than last week, and I was able to throw in some politics and international news unlike last time.Again, all comments, questions, and critique are greatly appreciated and I'll be checking all week to see what you guys thank. Huge thanks to everyone last week for the great discussion on intelligent ET life. See you next week! -FTH
