This week in space from Fraser Cain
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I mentioned last week that the European Space Agency's Gaia Mission unveiled its 2018 data release, which included the location and movements of 1.7 billion stars in the Milky Way. To go along with this data release, ESA provided this amazing photo of the Milky Way, except, this isn't a photo!
It's an all-sky map of the sky made out of data from Gaia. Wherever there are more stars, the pixels are brighter. And the end result is, something that looks exactly like a photograph of the Milky Way.
We just published a new video all about the Gaia mission and how it's provided astronomers with one of the most comprehensive datasets about our place in the Universe. I think you'll like it.
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today
As always, if you have comments or questions, or suggestions on how I can improve this newsletter, please don't hesitate to reply this email or send me an email at frasercain@gmail.com. |
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We've explored Mars, but we still haven't brought any samples back to Earth to study. Well, that's about to change now that NASA and ESA are working together to build a sample return mission that will take material from Mars and bring it back home so we can study it.
After Hubble comes James Webb, and then after Webb comes WFIRST. What comes after that? There are a group of monster telescopes in the works that could fly in the 2030s that would dwarf even these big telescopes.
It can't happen, of course, the Earth is going to keep turning in its current direction. But haven't you ever wondered what would happen if the Earth started turning in the opposite direction? Catastrophe or mild annoyance?
Have you noticed that bright star near the Moon? That's no moon, it's a space station. Wait, no that's wrong, it is the Moon, but that's no star, it's Jupiter. The giant planet is big and bright, and reaches opposition on May 9th. Finally, so many planets to enjoy in the night sky again.
According to new measurements from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, the crust of Mercury is only about 25 km thick, but more dense than aluminum. This cool photograph shows the various minerals spread across the planet.
SpaceX has mastered retrieving the first booster stage, and now they're working on ways they can recover the rocket fairing. It's a work in progress, but here's a photo of a fairing on its way home, which was shared by Elon Musk.
Remember when ESA's Schiaparelli lander crashed into the surface of Mars? Fortunately, the orbiter portion of that mission was a total success, and this week it sent back its first images from the Red Planet, including this photo of Korolev Crater.
Okay, this sucks. Even though NASA was given the priority of returning to the Moon by the White House, they've just canceled their upcoming lunar rover mission: the Lunar Resource Prospector. The purpose of the mission was to dig up materials from the surface of the Moon like hydrogen, oxygen and water from the poles, to help support future exploration.
In a few billion years, we're going to merge with the Andromeda Galaxy. But that's nothing compared to the cosmic pileup that's happening in this distant galaxy cluster, where 14 separate big galaxies are coming together. Seeing a big group like this come together so quickly was actually a big surprise for astronomers.
The distances between stars is so vast that it could take generations to travel to the nearest star. One cool idea would use an asteroid as spaceship, which could then be mined and processed over hundreds of years to give travelers the resources they need to make the journey. Check out this article from Ian O'Neill.
In NASA's recent Innovative Advanced Concepts program they awarded a phase 1 grant to a group that wants to build a 30-meter space telescope out of a self-assembling swarm of modules that would assemble themselves autonomously.
The biggest radio telescope in the world, the 500-meter FAST observatory, is still in its commissioning phase, but it's already turned up 20 new pulsars, including one that spins once on its axis every 5.19 milliseconds.
Stars, even supermassive stars can have binary companions. And when those supermassive stars die in a supernova explosion, the companion star takes the brunt of the detonation. For the first time, astronomers have found one of these surviving stars, still there after its partner went kaboom a few years ago.
Other Interesting Space Stuff
Amazing Astrophotography
This beautiful image of sand dunes near Port Stephens, Australia was captured by @avi_astronomer. The composition of the sand dune with the Milky Way in the background is absolutely perfect.
We feature a different astrophotographer every day on our Instagram page. Want to do a takeover? Use the hashtag #universetoday and I'll check out your photos. |
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