Magnetized plasma emissions to drive interplanetary spacecraft

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Adriana

A revolutionary new system of magnetized plasma emissions, already designed but not yet built, would boost spacecraft speeds high enough, for example, dramatically reduce travel time of a manned spacecraft to Mars, facilitating similarly its return. It would be possible to travel to Mars and return to Earth in 90 days instead of 2 ½ years and now it would take to get there and back by conventional space propulsion technology.

The system would allow interplanetary space travel will become a quick and routine.

Furthermore, projecting jets of plasma away from this class would be feasible to expel useless satellites and other space junk in orbit now occupied, without any device install them annoying to those objects. Thus, it could sweep most congested orbits, making it much safer and easier driving on them for space vehicles in use. Continue reading →

New evidence of water erosion on Mars

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Adriana

The Mars Express of ESA shows a region of the Red Planet appears to have been carved by flowing water. These images are added to the long list of evidence for the existence of large bodies of water on the surface of Mars at some point in their past.

On 21 June last year, Mars Express said its high-resolution stereo camera (HRSC) to the western part of Acidalia Planitia, a huge basin in the northern lowlands of Mars, near where it meets Tempe Terra, a higher ground and oldest.

Acidalia Planitia is a region so extensive that it can be seen from Earth with an amateur telescope.

The famous astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli named this great dark spot under the name of the mythical Fountain Acidalia in Boeotia, where according to Greek mythology Venus bathed with the three Graces. Continue reading →

The dark cloud which is to be born a star

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Adriana

Through radio observations in the infrared has been achieved behind the scenes glimpse of a cloud of gas and dust at a crucial stage prior to the birth of the first of a dozen stars.

The scientists studied a giant cloud about 770 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. They used the Herschel Space Observatory, European Space Agency and the GBT radio telescope of the National Science Foundation United States. This allowed them to make detailed observations of a kind of lump or lump that contains about 100 times the mass of the Sun within the cloud.

It is believed that the typical mechanism by which stars form is where one of such clouds of dust and gas gravitationally collapses on itself, first in lumps, and then dense cores, each of which may even begin to pack Moreover, to form a star. The details of how this happen is not yet well understood. One of the difficulties to find out, but also one of the major impediments to any detailed observation of the process is that in most regions where this process is underway already formed nearby stars. These stars affect the subsequent formation of stars in their neighborhood, through their stellar winds during their normal activity, and by shock waves when they explode as supernovae. Continue reading →

Possible explanation for the enigma of the magnetic anomalies of the Moon

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Adriana

Although there is no evidence that the moon has in the past possessed a global magnetic field itself, there are some indications of the existence long ago of a field that was also strong enough to cause the magnetic anomalies observed in previous studies geology. How then to explain this apparent contradiction?

In the nearly five decades since the first lunar studies were carried out as part of NASA’s Apollo program, scientists have proposed a series of increasingly complex theories to explain the huge amounts of highly magnetic material that were found in parts of the lunar crust.

But now a team of researchers has proposed a surprisingly simple explanation for these unusual findings: Magnetic anomalies are geological traces of the collision of a massive asteroid on the Moon. Continue reading →

The twin GRAIL spacecraft begin work in orbit to the Moon

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Adriana

The twin spacecraft of NASA’s GRAIL mission, orbiting the moon, have recently started an official program of work. Over a period of about three months, scientists will get data that will produce a high resolution map of the lunar gravitational field, to know the composition and internal structure of the Moon with a level of unprecedented detail. The data also allow to better understanding how they formed and evolved on Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system.

During this phase of the mission, the spacecraft will transmit radio signals on the rate and extent of changes in the distance between them. The strategy is based on a subtle but measurable force of gravity. The distance between the ships changing a bit as you fly over areas of varying severity, the characteristics of gravity derived from visible geological features such as mountains and craters, as well as accumulations of greater than normal mass hidden below the lunar surface. Continue reading →

Subsidence craters on Mars could harbor life

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Adriana

The Mars Express ESA has shown several subsidence crater chains on the side of one of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System. Depending on how they are formed, they can be a very tempting place to look for microbial life on the Red Planet.

These images, taken on June 22, 2011, show the formations of Tractus Catena, in the quadrangle of Arcadia. This area is part of the vast region of Tharsis, which is also a group of volcanoes, among them the three Tharsis Montes called. To the north lies the Monte Alba or Alba Patera, one of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System in terms of area and volume.

Tractus Catena pits are based on the southeastern slope of Mount Alba, and consist of long strings of circular depressions that extend along fractures in the crust.

The subsidence crater chains could have a volcanic origin. Sometimes the lava emitted by a volcano begins to solidify on the surface, creating a tube through which molten lava continues to flow. Continue reading →

The oldest planets in the universe

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Adriana

When the first planets were formed in the universe? Are you still there? Is there anyone in our cosmic neighborhood? The recent detection of two planets around a star very old formed mainly of hydrogen and helium created directly by the Big Bang (the colossal explosion that gave birth to the universe) suggests that both worlds are two relics of that first generation of planets.

This and other previous find something primeval planets could reveal many of the mysteries of planet formation in the older age of the universe, under very different from those prevailing in the cosmos when they formed new stars like our Sun.

The newly discovered planetary system has the star HIP 11952 and consists of two known planets. One of them takes 290 days to complete one orbit around the star, while the other only takes 7 days. So far, nothing called too much attention. What is unexpected that the star HIP 11952 is ancient: the estimated age is about 12,800 million years, not much smaller than the universe itself, and in keeping with this, is very poor in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Continue reading →

Detection of oxygen in Dione

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Adriana

The NASA Cassini spacecraft has detected the first molecular oxygen ions around Dione, a moon of Saturn rich in ice. The finding confirms the presence of a very thin atmosphere.

The finding also confirms that Dione, in addition to the rings of Saturn and the satellite Rhea is a source of oxygen molecules in the Saturn system. This indicates that the molecular oxygen is common in this region.

The oxygen ions in the atmosphere of Dione are scarce. There is only one for every 11 cubic centimeters (0.67 cubic inches) of space. In fact, the atmosphere of Dione hardly deserves to be considered as such because on the surface of the satellite’s atmosphere has a density similar to that which has the atmosphere of our planet at 480 miles up, where orbiting spacecraft and Queen a much more characteristic of the space from the atmosphere. Continue reading →

Asteroids swallowed by a huge black hole in the center of our galaxy

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Adriana

The giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way may be vaporizing and eating asteroids, which could explain the frequent and peculiar flashes observed in their environment. This is the conclusion reached in a new research that has been analyzed data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA.

For several years, Chandra has detected intense bursts of X-rays about once a day, from the vicinity of the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*. These intense bursts lasting a few hours, reaching brightness that is between a few times and almost one hundred times greater than the normal bursts near the black hole. These intense bursts have also been caught on infrared observations Telescope VLT, European Southern Observatory (ESO), located in Chile.

The scientific community thought unlikely that asteroids could form in the harsh environment near a supermassive black hole. However, the results of the new study, by the team Kastytis Zubovas and Sergei Nayakshin of University of Leicester in the UK, suggests not only that that is the nature of the stars swallowed by the black hole, but it also requires an immense amount of asteroids to produce these intense bursts. Continue reading →

The high rotational energy fuels the radio emission of magnetars

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Adriana

A European team of researchers led by the National Research Council (CSIC), Spain, has discovered that the high rotational energy fuels the radio emission of the magnetar, a type of neutron stars with very high magnetic fields. This mechanism would, therefore, very similar to that occurs in radio pulsars, neutron stars emitting regular pulses detectable with a telescope.

The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letter and highlighted in the latest issue of Science in Editor’s choice, is based on the analysis of some 1,000 radio pulsars and magnetars discovered about 20 far. Although both stellar objects share their training from an exploding supernova, magnetars are characterized by high magnetic field and drive in short periods of time huge amounts of energy as X rays and gamma rays.

Until recently, the properties defining a magnetar are, inter alia, non-radio emission and the presence on the surface of the poles of magnetic field above a critical value. “It believed that magnetars were driven by magnetic energy rather than by rotation. The discovery last year of pulsars in radio frequency and a low magnetar magnetic field suggests that there is no clean separation between radio pulsars and magnetars. Moreover, it is likely that a radio pulsar at its center can accommodate a magnetar,” explained CSIC researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Nanda Rea. Continue reading →

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