Astro Blog

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/science/enceladus-moon-cyanide-life-saturn.html By Kenneth Chang , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Scientists have detected a poison among the spray of molecules emanating from a small moon of Saturn. That adds to existing intrigue about the possibility of life there. The poison is hydrogen cyanide, a colorless gas that is deadly to many Earth creatures. But it could have played a key role in chemical reactions that created the ingredients that set the stage for the advent of life. ...Mr. Peter and his collaborators, Tom Nordheim and Kevin Hand of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, reported their findings in a paper published on Thursday in the journal Nature Astronomy.... 

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/protecting-power-grids-from-space-weather By Rachel Fritts , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Activity from the Sun, such as  solar flares , can cause fluctuations in Earth’s geomagnetic field that send electrical currents flowing through power grids. These  geomagnetically induced currents  (GICs) can cause problems ranging from temporary voltage instability to widespread blackouts to reduced life spans for transformers. It is therefore important to develop effective mitigation strategies that protect against GIC-induced power disruptions while maintaining power to consumers. Suggested solutions have included installing equipment such as capacitors to block GICs and making changes to network configurations.  Mac Manus et al .  worked with the energy company Transpower New Zealand Ltd. to test four mitigation strategies that could be used throughout the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The team did this by ...modeling potential ...

https://www.science.org/content/article/astronomers-stunned-six-planet-system-frozen-time By DANIEL CLERY , Science.  Excerpt: Astronomers have discovered a highly unusual planetary system ...six planets, all bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, a variety that is absent in our Solar System but common across the Milky Way. Moreover, all of the planets orbit in rhythmic harmony, which suggests the system has remained undisturbed since its formation billions of years ago. The brightness of the star, its relative proximity to Earth, and its six orbiting oddities could make the system a perfect laboratory for studying the formation of these planets, known as sub-Neptunes. ...the study, published today in  Nature . The planets’ orbits are all tighter than Mercury’s. ...a mysterious [size] gap persists: Planets between 1.5 and two Earth diameters seem almost entirely absent and astronomers are eager to know why. ...The new system’s discovery involved two space telescopes, mult...

https://www.science.org/content/article/cosmic-blast-seared-earth-s-atmosphere-2-billion-light-years-away By DANIEL CLERY , Science. Excerpt: On 9 October 2022, for 7 minutes, high energy photons from a gigantic explosion 1.9 billion light-years away toasted one side of Earth as never before observed. The event, called a gamma ray burst (GRB), was 70 times brighter than the previous record holder. ...It also ionized atoms across the ionosphere, which spans from 50 to 1000 kilometers in altitude, researchers say. The findings highlight the faint but real risk of a closer burst destroying Earth’s protective ozone layer.... See also New York Times article A Supernova ‘Destroyed’ Some of Earth’s Ozone for a Few Minutes in 2022 .

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/lucy-mission-flies-by-asteroid-dinkinesh-finds-a-little-surprise By EMILY LAKDAWALLA , Sky & Telescope. Excerpt: On November 1st, the Lucy mission zipped past the tiny asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh and discovered that it was actually a binary. ...While the probe caught a view of the Dinkinesh's small satellite in the one of the first images of the flyby, the mission turned as it flew by and captured another view from a different angle. That new perspective revealed that the little asteroidal moon is actually a  contact binary , meaning it's made of two objects in contact with one another. This is the first contact binary asteroid moon discovered. Read more details on  NASA's website ....

https://www.science.org/content/article/new-space-telescope-embarks-biggest-3d-map-universe By DANIEL CLERY , Science. Excerpt: The European Space Agency (ESA) today  released the first pictures of galaxies  taken by its new space telescope, Euclid, which aims to help researchers understand the dark components that make up 95% of the universe. ...the Perseus Cluster..., one of the most massive structures in the universe, shows 1000 of its galaxies 240 million light-years from Earth, as well as 100,000 more distant ones, some as far away as 10 billion light-years. Over its 6-year mission, Euclid, launched in July, is  expected to take 30,000 such images , cataloging 1 billion galaxies across one-third of the sky. Researchers will use them to create the biggest 3D map of the universe, spanning three-quarters of its history....

https://eos.org/articles/the-moon-is-even-older-than-scientists-thought By Matt Hrodey , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Thanks to one of the slowest-ticking clocks in the universe, scientists have determined the Moon is about 40 million years older than previously thought. That means the Earth was a young 100 million years old when an object about the size of Mars slammed into it, slinging magma out into Earth’s orbit. ...As the Moon’s mantle cooled, it formed tiny zircon crystals, ...sometimes contain other elements, such as uranium ...can be used to date when the crystal originally formed, going back billions of years, if necessary. ...the researchers obtained lunar dust collected by Apollo 17 in 1972 and analyzed the tiny zircon crystals and uranium contained inside. ...Radioactive isotopes of uranium (such as Uranium-238) contain unstable combinations of protons and neutrons in their nuclei and will eventually break down into lead... Scientists determined the age of the Moon by counting th...