Astronomical News Update #1

Frozentophat

Frozentophat

TNPer
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(to be) Published Weekly by FrozenTopHat
big thanks to Goyannes for the heading​

Foreword​
Space is something I find to be very important - the human race is naturally inclined to explore, and with our comparatively small planet, the only place left to go is space. I can't think of a time in my life that I wasn't obsessed with the idea of space, an infinite platform of exploration and discovery. Modern science pushes us deeper and deeper into space, from the first satellite in orbit of our planet 60 years ago to the first man on the moon just 12 years later. I think that our advancements in space science, tech, and politics is important to know in this day and age - so I present to you my weekly Astronomical News Update.


NASA Books More Astronaut Flights from SpaceX, Boeing --> Read the full article here

Since NASA's space shuttle program ended in 2011, the agency has had to depend on buying seats aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which launch from Kazakhstan, to fly American astronauts to the space station. NASA currently has contracts with Russia's Roscosmos space agency to fly astronauts on six Soyuz flights in 2017 (for a total of $458 million). The agency will also pay Roscosmos another $490 million to fly astronauts on six more flights in 2018.

NASA has booked more astronaut flights to the International Space Station aboard private space taxis built by Boeing and SpaceX. Each vehicle will carry up to four astronauts and 220 lbs. (100 kilograms) of cargo to the ISS. They can also serve as "lifeboats" to bring astronauts back to Earth in the event of an emergency.



New NASA Mission Will Search for Monster Black Holes and More --> Read the full article here

Monster black holes, neutron stars and pulsars are the targets of a new NASA space telescope mission scheduled to launch in 2020. The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission was selected for launch by NASA's Astrophysics Explorers program and will be led by Martin Weisskopf, principal investigator of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Italian Space Agency is helping to develop the cameras capable of measuring the powerful X-rays radiating from black holes. Ball Aerospace will provide the IXPE spacecraft and mission integration.



Surprise! Monster Burst of Radio Waves Arose in Tiny Galaxy --> Read the full article here

For the first time, scientists have directly traced an incredibly intense, blindingly bright burst of radio waves - known as an FRB - back to its home galaxy. Surprisingly, this impressive cosmic radio flasher has somewhat humble origins, according to three new studies detailing the findings. What cosmic event could release such an intense burst of radio waves? That's still a mystery, but narrowing down the precise location of one of these radio blasts is a big step toward cracking the case.

The new study shows that the burst, known as FRB 121102, originated about 3 billion light-years away from Earth, from inside a dwarf galaxy - a collection of stars much smaller than large galaxies like the Milky Way. The surprising finding could provide clues about the source of these radio bursts.



Happy Anniversary, Spirit! Mars Rover Landed 13 Years Ago Today --> Read the full article here

NASA's epic and ongoing Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission began its Red Planet operations 13 years ago today (Jan. 3), with the touchdown of a six-wheeled robot named Spirit. Spirit landed on the night of Jan. 3, 2004, and its twin, Opportunity, followed three weeks later. The two MER rovers were tasked with hunting for signs of past water activity near their touchdown sites, which were in very different parts of the Red Planet.

That search was initially supposed to last just three months, but both Spirit and Opportunity kept chugging along for years. Spirit finally got bogged down in soft Martian sand in April 2009; as a result, the rover wasn't able to re-orient its solar panels to track the sun through the harsh Red Planet winter, and Spirit essentially froze to death, NASA officials have said.



NASA Unveils 2 New Missions to Study Truly Strange Asteroids --> Read the full article here

NASA's next low-cost planetary missions will attempt to unravel the mysteries of some seriously bizarre asteroids. The space agency has selected projects called Lucy and Psyche via its Discovery Program, which funds highly focused space missions to destinations throughout the solar system. The Lucy project will investigate the Trojan asteroids, which share an orbit with Jupiter, while Psyche will journey to the asteroid belt to study a huge, metallic asteroid named 16 Psyche that resides there.

"This is what Discovery Program missions are all about - boldly going to places we've never been to enable groundbreaking science," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., said in a statement today (Jan. 4).



Space Colonies Will Start Out Like the Wild West, Grow Family-Friendly --> Read the full article here

As humans explore other worlds, the colonies they develop may change over time. While the first settlements may rely on individuals, as the outposts grow more self-sustaining, families will likely become the colonists of choice, a panel of experts said. "The socioeconomic origins of colonists are going to change over time," science fiction author Charles E. Gannon told Space.com.

Initially, space colonization may function a great deal like the American West. The first forays into the wilderness were made by travelers like Lewis and Clark, individuals who cut their way across the country to map it for those who stayed behind. The intrepid explorers had to carry their own supplies, all fabricated back home. The panel likened this sort of exploration to visits to the moon and Mars by small groups of astronaut explorers.



Lucky Shot! Skywatcher Captures Space Station Soaring Over Vienna --> Read the full article here

Skywatcher Matthias Raudonis had only one chance to catch the International Space Station (ISS) over Vienna. With a bit of luck and precise timing, he captured the shot. The space station is currently home to a crew of six: three Russian cosmonauts from Roscosmos, two Americans from NASA and a French astronaut from the European Space Agency. As a permanently occupied outpost in outer space, it serves as a stepping-stone for further space exploration.

"I went up to the rooftop of my apartment tower. I was lucky because the sky was almost clear and I waited eagerly for the ISS to show up," Raudonis wrote in an email to Space.com. The International Space Station is the largest spacecraft ever built and can easily be seen by the unaided eye if you know when and where to look.



Wow! Mars Probe Snaps Stunning Photo of Earth and Moon --> Read the full article here

A NASA spacecraft has given humanity a breathtaking, Mars-eye view of Earth and its moon. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera to capture this new telescopic image of our planet and its natural satellite on Nov. 20, 2016. At the time, Mars and Earth were about 127 million miles (205 million kilometers) apart, NASA officials said.

The amazing new photo is actually a composite of two separate exposures taken to calibrate HiRISE, which is so powerful that it's able to resolve features as small as 3.3 feet (1 meter) across on the Martian surface from MRO's orbital perch.

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Boeing's Starliner (left) and SpaceX's Dragon (right).


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Spirit operated for more than six Earth years on Mars.


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An artist's rendering of the Mars Ice Home concept.


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The ISS as seen above Vienna, 1/7/17.


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The Earth/Moon system as seen from Mars.

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Afterword​
I started writing this post approximately 2 1/2 hours ago, marking this as probably my longest project here in TNP yet. As written in the title, I'd like to make this a weekly series, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. A couple things I'd like to mention before I wrap this up are that, yes, I am American, so the majority of the news I post will be NASA or SpaceX - related. International news simply doesn't come up as often when I search "space news", so by all means, please feel free to post any news from your region below. Thank you so much for your time and expect more news next week! FTH out.
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Edit: resized pictures, apologies for blurriness.
Edit 2: resized pictures again, apologies for even more blurriness.
 
Thank you and thank you! I don't give nearly as much as I get from this community so I'm happy to have found a way to give back.
 
Frozentophat:
Thank you and thank you! I don't give nearly as much as I get from this community so I'm happy to have found a way to give back.
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No problem! :P

Would you like to see these updates as part of The Northern Light Issues next term? I can certainly see them in there, just from the quality you have produced thus far.
 
It certainly could be. I don't know if it really fits the theme of TNL, which is more about NS than real life; I'd certainly like to participate in the creation of issues next term though, now that I'm back.
 
Frozentophat:
It certainly could be. I don't know if it really fits the theme of TNL, which is more about NS than real life; I'd certainly like to participate in the creation of issues next term though, now that I'm back.
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The Northern Lights is a general news publisher. We could have a topic-free article in there somewhere, we don't have to stick to 100% NS.
 
An impressive collation, on a topic I'm very interested in. Good job.

Do you have any opinion on "Tabby's star"?
 
Had to read an article on it (here's an article for anyone unfamiliar). I'm sure scientists will find some explanation for it, and I'm skeptical that there is a sentient alien race that had technology that much more advanced, thousands of years ago. I don't know which scientific explanation I would back, and it's not like I'm an expert - I have no idea what could cause it either.

Needless to say, it's exciting to imagine an alien race constructing a Dyson Swarm, thousands of years ago. Maybe they're really cool.
 
Frozentophat:
Had to read an article on it (here's an article for anyone unfamiliar). I'm sure scientists will find some explanation for it, and I'm skeptical that there is a sentient alien race that had technology that much more advanced, thousands of years ago. I don't know which scientific explanation I would back, and it's not like I'm an expert - I have no idea what could cause it either.

Needless to say, it's exciting to imagine an alien race constructing a Dyson Swarm, thousands of years ago. Maybe they're really cool.
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To add to your comments:

It is believed that we humans, and Earth as a planet, are too late. It has been theorized that Aliens have existed millions of years before two-cell organisms came into existence. We're not talking simple Aliens here, either - sentient, advanced and extremely powerful Alien species may have, and are much more likely to have, existed before us. This may be the explanation for why we cannot contact them, our technology to them, is the level of complexity we find in the simplest of concepts. Trying to contact Aliens may be impossible for us, since we do not have the technological capabilities.

Imagine an ant trying to communicate with a bear. Trust me. For the bear, it would be as easy as stomping the little critter under it's huge paw - or it could ignore it, or even miss it. Now amplify that visualization up to the scales of the cosmos. You'll find the bear and the ant might represent the human species and other celestial species - Aliens may already know we exist, but choose rather to interact with more similar and advanced species than ourselves. They might see us as a complete waste of time, not capable of understanding their technology, their culture or their beliefs.

It puts things into perspective when you realize that if we are too late, compare how much we have advanced as a species - and then multiply that rate of progress by millions. If Aliens are close to us, chances are we will destory ourselves, or be destroyed by natural causes, before we can ever say hello.
 
Very interesting indeed! Our solar system is a very late entry to the Universe, generally accepted to be 4.6 billion years ago. That leaves almost 10 billion years for other sentient species to emerge, thrive, and probably die out at this point. But I can't imagine a heartless enough species to completely ignore a complex form of life such as ourselves - after all, the black bear will take the time to stoop down to eat ants.
 
Frozentophat:
Very interesting indeed! Our solar system is a very late entry to the Universe, generally accepted to be 4.6 billion years ago. That leaves almost 10 billion years for other sentient species to emerge, thrive, and probably die out at this point. But I can't imagine a heartless enough species to completely ignore a complex form of life such as ourselves - after all, the black bear will take the time to stoop down to eat ants.
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Do you pay attention to the bacteria on your fingertips? I didn't think so, they are of no concern to you, and even though there are ways of viewing them, doing so would be a waste of your time.

This is how advanced alien species would see us. To ourselves, we may seem like complex beings of superior intellectual ability, but to Aliens, we could be nothing more than a dumb, desperate and self destructive organism on a lucky planet.
 
But even some of the bacteria on our fingertips protect more harmful things from entering the body; my point is that I think, even if they would not pay attention to us, they would recognize our place in the galaxy and at least interact with us in some way.

I'm not disagreeing with you, though. There are infinite possibilities in an infinite universe. Who knows what's out there, and how different and unique it can be - whether simple organisms or beings beyond our comprehension?
 
As much as we're a late entry into the universe, there are still plenty of solar systems that have emerged at roughly the same time as ours and even since.
 
Abbey:
As much as we're a late entry into the universe, there are still plenty of solar systems that have emerged at roughly the same time as ours and even since.
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But the chances of the exact circumstances of our creation being replicated in similar ways? The chances are unfathomably small, and therefore, we may never locate another Alien species. When you add in the factors for our existence, and the existence of other life forms in the cosmos, it dawns upon you that there might never be a 'hello' for us to remember, certainly not within our lifetimes.
 
Oh, I don't expect that we'll hear a 'hello' in our lifetimes, but I do think that complex life is out there.

If not complex life, then certainly lower forms of life.
 
Abbey:
Oh, I don't expect that we'll hear a 'hello' in our lifetimes, but I do think that complex life is out there.

If not complex life, then certainly lower forms of life.
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I completely agree, there probably are other life forms out there. Complex or not, people are very human-oriented when it comes to the appearance and concept of aliens. They may be based on completely different elements to us, and may be structured differently aswell.
 
Oh agreed - but as I've seen argued by scientists in the field, we need a frame of reference. We know that life can evolve using carbon and chemistry tells us that other elements might struggle to sustain life, so we might as well look for carbon-based life.
 
@Kasch- For all we know, we could be a primitive world in the territorial space of an interstellar empire.
 
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