The Space Thread

In theory, the Milky Way could be a 'galactic transport system': "Based on the latest evidence and theories our galaxy could be a huge wormhole and, if that were true, it could be "stable and navigable." Astrophysicists combined the equations of general relativity with an extremely detailed map of the distribution of dark matter in the Milky Way when proposing this possibility."

A hard drive from space: Hidden magnetic messages uncovered: "The dying moments of an asteroid's magnetic field have been successfully captured by researchers, in a study that offers a tantalising glimpse of what may happen to the Earth's magnetic core billions of years from now.

Using a detailed imaging technique, the research team were able to read the magnetic memory contained in ancient meteorites, formed in the early solar system over 4.5 billion years ago. The readings taken from these tiny 'space magnets' may give a sneak preview of the fate of the Earth's magnetic core as it continues to freeze. The findings are published today (22 January) in the journal Nature.

Using an intense beam of x-rays to image the nanoscale magnetisation of the meteoritic metal, researchers led by the University of Cambridge were able to capture the precise moment when the core of the meteorite's parent asteroid froze, killing its magnetic field. These 'nano-paleomagnetic' measurements, the highest-resolution paleomagnetic measurements ever made, were performed at the BESSY II synchrotron in Berlin."

Random question: would it be possible to have a habitable planet in the Fomalhaut trinary system?

That star is pretty young. So I am dubious on whether a planet is dry behind the ears, so to speak, and thus habitable.

Musk really annoys me sometimes. It's not a second internet just because it's in space, it's an extension of the existing one.

Also stop claiming the hyper loop is a completely new form of transport. It's a different take on trains is all. An interesting one but still.

Black hole on a diet creates a 'changing look' quasar: "Astronomers have identified the first 'changing look' quasar, a gleaming object in deep space that appears to have its own dimmer switch. The discovery may offer a glimpse into the life story of the universe's great beacons."

Ten new Rosetta images that reveal comet 67P in all its glory: "In August 2014, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Once in orbit, it swooped as low as 10 kilometers to get unprecedented data from the comet (and to drop off its short-lived Philae lander). Today, Science is publishing a suite of new papers detailing some of the mission’s first findings, including discoveries from Rosetta’s main science camera, OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System). Images like these reveal 67P to be a far more diverse place than anyone expected."

Peering into cosmic magnetic fields: "The generation of cosmic magnetic fields has long intrigued astrophysicists. Since it was first described in 1959, a phenomenon known as Weibel filamentation instability—a plasma instability present in homogeneous or nearly homogeneous electromagnetic plasmas—has generated tremendous theoretical interest from astrophysicists and plasma physicists as a potential mechanism for seed magnetic field generation in the universe.

However, direct observation of Weibel-generated magnetic fields remained challenging for decades. In a Nature Physics paper (link is external) published this week, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers report for the first time well-developed, oriented magnetic filaments generated by the Weibel mechanism in counter-streaming, collision-less flows generated by high-power lasers."

Scientists To Plan Missions And Explore Mars Through Holograms: "For planetary scientists, a hologram of a distant planet might be the next best thing to being there. While NASA’s goal to send astronauts to Mars sometime in the 2030s is still a long time off, researchers will start setting their feet down on a data-based three-dimensional representation of the red planet later this year.

In other words, the first iteration of a NASA science holodeck is here.

It was just yesterday that Microsoft announced its HoloLens, what the company bills as a powerful holographic computing headset. “For the first time ever, Microsoft HoloLens brings high-definition holograms to life in your world, where they integrate with your physical places, spaces, and things,” the company says.

While many applications for virtual and augmented reality systems have already been identified thanks to projects like Google Glass and Oculus Rift, the U.S. space agency is sounding vocal support for the science applications of HoloLens from the get-go."

edited 22nd Jan '15 1:06:57 PM by rmctagg09

New research re-creates planet formation, super-Earths and giant planets in the laboratory: "New laser-driven compression experiments reproduce the conditions deep inside exotic super-Earths and giant planet cores, and the conditions during the violent birth of Earth-like planets, documenting the material properties that determined planets' formation and evolution processes."

NASA spacecraft almost to Pluto: Smile for the camera!: "It's showtime for Pluto. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has traveled 3 billion miles and is nearing the end of its nine-year journey to Pluto. Sunday, it begins photographing the mysterious, unexplored, icy world once deemed a planet.

The first pictures will reveal little more than bright dots—New Horizons is still more than 100 million miles from Pluto. But the images, taken against star fields, will help scientists gauge the remaining distance and keep the baby grand piano-sized robot on track for a July flyby."

New space telescope concept could image objects at far higher resolution than Hubble: "University of Colorado Boulder researchers will update NASA officials next week on a revolutionary space telescope concept selected by the agency for study last June that could provide images up to 1,000 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.

CU-Boulder Professor Webster Cash said the instrument package would consist of an orbiting space telescope and an opaque disk in front of it that could be up to a half mile across. According to Cash, diffracted light waves from a target star or other space object would bend around the edges of the disk and converge in a central point. That light would then be fed into the orbiting telescope to provide high-resolution images, he said."

Physicist suggests new experiments could make or break axion as dark matter theory: "Leslie Rosenberg, a physicist with the University of Washington has published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describing the current state of research that involves investigating the possibility that axions are what make up dark matter. He also offers some perspective on the work suggesting that at least one project is likely to lead to either proving or disproving that axions are dark matter.

For several years now, scientists have been hard at work trying to detect WIMPs, the thinking has been that if they can be detected, than it would go a long way towards proving that they are what makes up dark matter—the theoretical stuff that is now believed to make up approximately 85 percent of all mass in the universe. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, scientists have not yet been able to detect the presence of a single one, causing some to wonder if they exist at all. That doubt has led some scientists to consider other types of particles as dark matter candidates—one of them is the neutrino, though more and more it appears to be falling from favor. Another is the axion, a particle first theorized in the early 70's. One of its major proponents is Rosenburg, who has been developing experimental devices with the purpose of either proving that dark matter is made up of axions, or it is not.

Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturn's: "Astronomers at the Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, and the University of Rochester, USA, have discovered that the ring system that they see eclipse the very young Sun-like star J1407 is of enormous proportions, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn. The ring system - the first of its kind to be found outside our solar system - was discovered in 2012 by a team led by Rochester's Eric Mamajek.

A new analysis of the data, led by Leiden's Matthew Kenworthy, shows that the ring system consists of over 30 rings, each of them tens of millions of kilometers in diameter. Furthermore, they found gaps in the rings, which indicate that satellites ('exomoons') may have formed. The result has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal."

Ancient star system reveals Earth-sized planets forming near start of universe: "A Sun-like star with orbiting planets, dating back to the dawn of the Galaxy, has been discovered by an international team of astronomers. At 11.2 billion years old, it is the oldest star with Earth-sized planets ever found and proves that such planets have formed throughout the history of the Universe."

Asteroid that flew past Earth has moon: "Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, have released the first radar images of asteroid 2004 BL 86. The images show the asteroid, which made its closest approach on Jan. 26, 2015 at 8:19 a.m. PST (11:19 a.m. EST) at a distance of about 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers, or 3.1 times the distance from Earth to the moon), has its own small moon."

NASA's Dawn spacecraft captures best-ever view of dwarf planet Ceres: "NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned the sharpest images ever seen of the dwarf planet Ceres. The images were taken 147,000 miles (237,000 kilometers) from Ceres on Jan. 25, and represent a new milestone for a spacecraft that soon will become the first human-made probe to visit a dwarf planet."

... A free-moving asteroid has a satellite of its own?

It gets lonely out there flying through space

There are other asteroids with moons as well. In a way, our Moon is also attached to a free moving planet.

I use "free-moving asteroid" to describe asteroids whose orbits are 1) clearly removed from the asteroid belt, and 2) will eventually cross through or quite close to the orbits of the star system's planets (a la Pluto), or alternatively have a very irregular orbit (e.g. it is at a non-trivial angle to the system's "plane").

... Come to think of it, it's remarkable that all nine planets' orbits have been pretty much on the same plane since what seems like millions of years ago.

edited 28th Jan '15 12:42:04 AM by MarqFJA

CAT scan of nearby supernova remnant reveals frothy interior: "Cassiopeia A, or Cas A for short, is one of the most well studied supernova remnants in our galaxy. But it still holds major surprises. Astronomers have now generated a new 3-D map of its interior using the astronomical equivalent of a CAT scan. They found that the Cas A supernova remnant is composed of a collection of about a half dozen massive cavities — or 'bubbles.'"

How would the world change if we found extraterrestrial life?: "How extraterrestrial life would change our world view is a research interest of Steven Dick, who just completed a term as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair of Astrobiology. The chair is jointly sponsored by the NASA Astrobiology Program and the John W. Kluge Center, at the Library of Congress."

Some potentially habitable planets began as gaseous, Neptune-like worlds: "Two phenomena known to inhibit the potential habitability of planets—tidal forces and vigorous stellar activity—might instead help chances for life on certain planets orbiting low-mass stars, University of Washington astronomers have found.

In a paper published this month in the journal Astrobiology, UW doctoral student Rodrigo Luger and co-author Rory Barnes, research assistant professor, say the two forces could combine to transform uninhabitable 'mini-Neptunes'—big planets in outer orbits with solid cores and thick hydrogen atmospheres—into closer-in, gas-free, potentially habitable worlds."

Black holes do not exist where space and time do not exist, says new theory: "The quintessential feature of a black hole is its "point of no return," or what is more technically called its event horizon. When anything—a star, a particle, or wayward human—crosses this horizon, the black hole's massive gravity pulls it in with such force that it is impossible to escape. At least, this is what happens in traditional black hole models based on general relativity. In general, the existence of the event horizon is responsible for most of the strange phenomena associated with black holes.

In a new paper, physicists Ahmed Farag Ali, Mir Faizal, and Barun Majunder have shown that, according to a new generalization of Einstein's theory of gravity called 'gravity's rainbow,' it is not possible to define the position of the event horizon with arbitrary precision. If the event horizon can't be defined, then the black hole itself effectively does not exist."

Meteorite may represent 'bulk background' of Mars' battered crust: "NWA 7034, a meteorite found a few years ago in the Moroccan desert, is like no other rock ever found on Earth. It's been shown to be a 4.4 billion-year-old chunk of the Martian crust, and according to a new analysis, rocks just like it may cover vast swaths of Mars."

... What does the phrase "does not exist below a certain length and time interval" even mean?

I suspect it's one of those things you really need to be in deep with physics to understand properly.

It sounds like they're saying you can't definitively state the exact position of a black hole's event horizon, and that means that black holes doesn't exist.

Which makes almost no sense because we've got a crapload of evidence for both existing.

edited 1st Feb '15 9:42:20 AM by Joesolo

It's not just that. The article says that that line also applies to normal objects. You know, like us. And plants. And rocks. And every physical object, period. How does that work?

If it's as far into physics as it sounds, it won't make sense. At the micro or macro-level, the world becomes very odd...

It's a quantized space/time theory. Or plainly, each timespan or space is made out of a finite amount of units, the quantums. And time/space dimensions smaller than such a quantum do not exist, or are unmeasurable.

Think of pixels/voxels on a computer - they are the smallest unit of a 2D/3D space.

Once you get deep into physics shit stops actually existing but it does exist because these numbers, that are imaginary, say it does.

'Live fast, die young' galaxies lose the gas that keeps them alive: "Galaxies can die early because the gas they need to make new stars is suddenly ejected, new research suggests. Most galaxies age slowly as they run out of raw materials needed for growth over billions of years. But a pilot study looking at galaxies that die young has found some might shoot out this gas early on, causing them to redden and kick the bucket prematurely."

Astronomers find new details in first known spiral galaxy: "Case Western Reserve University astronomers peered deep into space to discover new features of a galaxy that's been sketched and photographed for 170 years.

The researchers were able to see faint plumes extending from the northeast and south of the nearby spiral galaxy M51a, also called the "Whirlpool Galaxy," by taking what is essentially a photograph made by a 20-hour exposure.

The image also provides new details of the linear northwest plume, which itself is nearly 120,000 light-years long, and reveals a lack of stars in a portion of the southeast tail."