On this Tuesday, April 5th, an asteroid the size of a house flew by the Earth. This asteroid flew by 79,000 miles away from us, which is actually pretty close. That distance is around 1/3 the distance between us and the Moon. Although there is always some panic that an asteroid could hit Earth, this asteroids path was carefully calculated, and assurance was given that no collision was possible. Although this seems like a mere asteroid passing, this actually gave astronomers the opportunity to collect a lot of data on asteroids that had not been previously calculated. The last time something similar to this happened was when the asteroid blew up near Russia in 2013. One thing that NASA is not testing is whether the impact on an asteroid would change its direction. Nasa launched a spacecraft in November of last year that plans to collide with an asteroid on September 26 of this year. It plans to travel to the Didymos asteroid system.
Perhaps one of the best chances of finding life on another world in our solar system, one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, is a world of great interest. Although considerably smaller than our own Moon, Enceladus is a small world composed of a top layer of ice, which is on average 20 km thick across the whole moon. However, beneath the icy surface lies a liquid water ocean composed of the chemical building blocks for life. At Enceladus’s south pole, massive geysers spew salty water vapor, organic compounds, and frozen ice particles far enough that they go into space, helping form Saturn’s E-Ring. What’s even more interesting is why these geysers spew liquid from the subsurface oceans: tidal heating. Similar to how Earth experiences tidal forces from the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon, Enceladus is close enough to Saturn that the tidal forces imposed on Enceladus by the giant cause enough friction to generate heat within the moon’s layers. Without Saturn, it’s very likely that Enceladus’s ocean would have been frozen within 30 million years; however, the heat from the friction has kept it warm enough to remain liquid, and this is the main point of interest when it comes to considering life on Enceladus.
The reason Enceladus is thought to hold alien life is due to the organic compounds within the subsurface global ocean underneath the thick base layer of ice. It’s quite apparent that Enceladus is well outside the habitable zone of life for our solar system, so the discovery of any signs of life could open the possibility for life beyond Earth. If life so happens to be similar to the makeup of life on Earth, theorists could conclude that life must have originated on a place other than Earth and was simply brought to our solar system by chance. However, if life turns out to be much more different than that on Earth, it could stand to reason that there is much more alien life elsewhere in the universe. I think these are both interesting theories because it gives even people who aren’t astronomers a lot to think about. If life was able to originate on two worlds in completely different environments, would more people be inclined to believe in life beyond the solar system? Would we want to explore Enceladus and the life it has to offer or would we be wary knowing the destruction humans can have? Another important thing to think about is the timing in terms of how long it takes life to develop. What if there had originally been life on Enceladus, but the timelines of life on that moon and Earth are just much too far apart that they never coincide? Whatever the questions are, we can only wait until we develop the technology to properly explore worlds such as Enceladus and the mysteries they hold.
Pluto is a very weird, and unknown “mass”. Since being alive, our generation has known Pluto as the 9th planet of the solar system, and now as a giant rock, or dwarf planet. Despite this, Pluto has some very cool features that aren’t seen other places in the solar system, such as Ice Volcanos. Although these seem like a mere cool edition of this dwarf, this actually gives astrologists evidence that Pluto might have some inner functioning heating. These volcanoes erupt Methane and Ammonia, two Hydrogen compounds that as learned in class are very evident in the outer solar system. Also interesting to astrologists is the fact that these volcanoes must’ve formed recently. This was concluded because craters around these volcanoes show no sign of being filled or erased. One possible cause of the cryovolcanism (which means ice volcanoes), could be cracks and fractures underneath the crust of Pluto. This all is significant because this provides striking evidence that Pluto might not be dead. This could provide astronomers with loads of data and research in the future, when a deeper dive into Pluto is more easily accessible.
Amateur Astronomer Kai Ly used images from the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope taken in 2003 to identify a previously undiscovered Satellite orbiting Jupiter, the first planetary moon discovered by an amateur astronomer. The telescope used was the 3.6 meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope located on Mauna Kea. Ly used an image captured in February 2003 to identify a set of 3 possible moons. Ly then cross-referenced these bodies with images taken by in March and April of the same year, noticing that one of the potential moons was consistent across all of the photos. He then used orbit tracking to confirm that this body orbited Jupiter. The moon has since been dubbed EJc0061, and belongs to the Carme Cluster. Scientist estimates point to the moon having a diameter of a few miles across.
A recent discovery published by Nature Communications has revealed a series of ice volcanoes on the surface of Pluto. The images which lead to this discovery were captured by Nasa’s New Horizons in 2015, but it was only recently that scientists were able to identify specific peaks that they now believe are ice volcanoes, known as cryovolcanoes. in reality, these peaks are volcanic vents which erupt a mixture of water ice, methane and ammonia. However, the surface temperature on Pluto, which is located in the Kuiper Belt at the outside of the solar system, is a frosty -232 Degrees Celsius, so any liquid slush erupted by the volcano quickly freezes.
The scientists also marked that the area near the volcano peaks are devoid of craters like the rest of Pluto, indicating that the volcanoes were active as recently as 100 million years ago, and they may become active again.
Conclusions drawn from the finding of these volcanoes is that Pluto’s subsurface ocean may still be present, feeding the mixture which erupted out of these cryovolcanoes. Moreover, these recent eruptions demonstrate that Pluto’s interior is still active and hot.
Kepler-186f is an extrasolar planet that was discovered on July 23, 2015. It was the first rocky planet about the size of Earth found in the habitable zone. The habitable zone is an area around a star where the temperature is good for liquid water. Other planets have been found in the habitable zone, but […]
Perhaps the most challenging obstacle between humans and interstellar travel is the distance it would take to traverse the light-years of distance to even the closest stars. The closest star to Earth, besides the Sun, is known as Proxima Centauri, at about 4.25 light-years. For reference, the fastest a human spacecraft has traveled was a probe at 450,000 miles per hour, and while that does seem very fast, it would take approximately 6,633 years to reach Proxima Centauri. As clearly shown, it will not be possible to reach even the closest stars unless humans can devise a way to travel much faster than they ever have, and this is where the solution of the warp drive comes into the picture.
As many know, there is a universal speed limit, the speed of light, as proposed by Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Consequently, the concept of the warp drive must hold true to the principles stated by Einstein, while still being able to radically change the way we think about spacetime travel in order to traverse farther distances much quicker. The warp drive achieves this by implementing the idea of warping the spacetime continuum as an effective means of travel. This concept involves a ship theoretically compressing the spacetime in front of it and then expanding the spacetime as it travels behind the ship. In other words, if two points, A and B, were 1 light-year away, the warp drive would compress this distance in spacetime to a more realistic distance of travel, so it would actually take much less time to get from A to B. In other words, travelling faster than the speed of light would theoretically be possible, except you are just warping the distance between two points rather than exceeding the universal limit of speed.
At first, the concept of a warp drive seems like something only possible in a science fiction movie. However, in 1994, theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre actually used Einstein’s theory of general relativity to prove that compressing spacetime in front of a traveling ship and expanding it as it passes by is possible within the laws of the universe. A theoretical “bubble” of flat spacetime would be created warping the spacetime around the ship; however, the only way for this concept to work would be with the use of negative energy, creating an imbalance with particles and antiparticles. This negative energy would require an inconceivable amount of mass which would make a warp drive impossible, but more recent models have found a theoretical way to create a warp drive without the use of negative energy. This would make a warp drive theoretically possible, allowing humans to finally achieve interstellar travel. Of course, these are all just theoretical devices, but one day through the use of warp drives, we might all see ourselves exploring and visiting distant worlds.
The famous used to be planet kicked out by none other than Neil deGrasse Tyson is now considered a dwarf planet, ever since 2006. Pluto was reclassified because it didn’t meet the three criteria the IUA uses to define a full sized planet
Other planets and galaxies in space have been the subject of many science fiction novels and television shows, most notably Star Trek. This week, NASA officially confirmed that 5,000 exoplanets outside of our Solar System exist. This discovery is monumental within the astronomy community, because although it has been speculated that there are millions or even billions of other planets, it is a crucial step in science to move forward through facts rather than assumptions. Of these 5,000 exoplanets, 5% are terrestrial planets like Earth which begs the question of whether or not there is other life in our Universe. While it is currently unknown, in several decades we may actually learn whether there is life on other planets.
Nuclear fusion is the fundamental source of energy generation in our universe. Stars (like our Sun) undergo nuclear fusion in their cores and emit energy in the form of heat and light. This stellar energy stands in the way of a dark, cold, lifeless universe, and provides the necessary ingredients for life on Earth. Sadly, the energy source that is responsible for powering the vast universe, and its hundreds of billions of galaxies, is non-existent on Earth’s power grid.
Nuclear fusion produces energy at magnitudes a thousand times greater than nuclear fusion (in nuclear reactors) and millions of times greater than natural mechanical energy (e.g. wind turbines and hydroelectric dams) or fossil fuel combustion. The fuel necessary for nuclear fusion, Hydrogen, is quite abundant on Earth, and we need not worry about running out of Hydrogen for billions of years. This fuel source compares favorably to the relatively sparse availability of fossil fuels (e.g. coal and natural gas) and fission elements (Uranium). Nuclear fusion also has limited unintended consequences, and does not result in a fatal radioactive risk (as in fission) or environmental catastrophe (as in burning fossil fuels). Nuclear fusion generates immense energy potential (could power the entire world), essentially unlimited reusability and limited downside… so why aren’t humans employing nuclear fusion right now?
Over the past 50 years, it has become painfully clear that generating a self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction is incredibly difficult. A self-sustaining reaction produces more usable energy than is required to initiate and sustain the reaction. Hydrogen bombs release energy through fission and fusion reactions far in excess of its’ inputs; however, that released energy is not “usable” (or harnessed). Scientists are currently attempting to initiate and control a fusion reaction within a system that can run continuously and emit usable levels of energy (no explosions). To date, no self-sustaining, controlled nuclear fusion reaction has been established. The bottlenecks lie primarily in the immense difficulty of the problem and a remarkable lack of public funding for nuclear fusion projects. One day, nuclear fusion reactions will solve Earth’s energy problems and generate the power for every city and person in the world. Until then, we will continue to be reliant on dangerous, harmful or costly energy solutions.
