Top Image credit: Yeshe Fenner, STcI, AURA, NASA, ESA
Ever want to learn the breakdown for the habitable sweet spot for binary star systems? Click the link to find out!
The technical viability of the project has been repeatedly called into question, though detailed critiques are hard to come by because the project is so vague (the New York Times summed up the general feeling in a recent article that talked about the “significant skepticism” that Mars One “has raised in some quarters”).
Critics also criticized Mars One for its attempt to turn the trip into an extravagant and potentially dangerous reality TV show. The first round of the application process allows people to vote on applicants based on their public profiles to push them through to the next qualifying round (though there is not, per the current design, any public involvement going forward).
But neither Hamm nor Meszaros see themselves as fame seekers. “I don’t, right now, have a strategy for progressing, other than trying to get across my passion… for this endeavor,” Meszaros told me. Hamm said that he has been pushing his application and name out on sites like Facebook (“my friends are already a little tired of it”) but notes he has “never applied to another reality show.”
Reality show foofaraw or none, gaaah, just thinking that this could take place in my lifetime is giving me the good kind of chills. People will be living on Mars! And when people do what people invariably do, my generation might be the first to witness children being born on another planet. God, this is so cool.
(Source: oldmanyellsatcloud)
Hubble and the Horsehead, Then and Now
To celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch next week, astronomers released a new image (top) of the iconic Horsehead Nebula. It is stunning.
The clouds of stellar gas almost jump right out of my screen! It’s a far cry from the view of the nebula that we’re used to, in the bottom image. Phil Plait has a great description of what you’re seeing at Bad Astronomy:
Just off the top of the Hubble picture is the bright star system Sigma Orionis, composed of five incredibly luminous stars. Combined, they shine with the power of over 75,000 Suns! They are responsible for heating and exciting the gas behind the Horsehead.
The Horsehead itself is the site of ongoing star formation. The dense gas and dust inside the nebula is collapsing to form stars, and, at the same time, the edges are being eroded away by the fierce ultraviolet light of Sigma Orionis. The top of the Horsehead is acting a bit like a shield, protecting the material beneath it, which is why it’s taken on that umbrella-like shape. You can see more sculpted pillars of material around the sides, too, like sandbars in a stream.
Well done, Hubble team. Keep up the good work. You’ve inspired millions.
(via sesca)
WANTED: Astronauts for one-way trip to Mars
A non-profit organization that aims to land four astronauts on Mars in 2023 has signed its first deal with a supplier for the ambitious space colonization effort. They are now starting their search for the astronauts that will live on Mars.
For those of you considering a break from it all. I’ve really got to write some good Martian miner songs.
(via sesca)
Researchers Develop Model for Identifying Habitable Zones Around Star |
Researchers searching the galaxy for planets that could pass the litmus test of sustaining water-based life must find whether those planets fall in a habitable zone, where they could be capable of having liquid water and sustaining life. New work, led by a team of Penn State researchers, will help scientists in that search.
Using the latest data, the Penn State Department of Geosciences team has developed an updated model for determining whether discovered planets fall within a habitable zone. The work builds on a prior model by James Kasting, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Penn State, to offer a more precise calculation of where habitable zones around a star can be found.
Comparing the new estimates with the previous model, the team found that habitable zones are actually farther away from the stars than previously thought.
“This has implications for finding other planets with life on them,” said post-doctoral researcher Ravi kumar Kopparapu, a lead investigator on the study, which will be published described in Astrophysical Journal.
For the paper, Kopparapu and graduate student Ramses Ramirez used updated absorption databases of greenhouse gases (HITRAN and HITEMP). The databases have more accurate information on water and carbon dioxide than previously was available and allowed the research team to build new estimates from the groundbreaking model Kasting created 20 years ago for other stars.
(via relay314)
I’m so happy to be alive in 2013.
(via evangotlib)
(Source: therealneo, via wilwheaton)
Ion Thruster Sets World Record
While the Dawn spacecraft is visiting the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, NASA Glenn has been developing the next generation of ion thrusters for future missions. NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Project has developed a 7-kilowatt ion thruster that can provide the capabilities needed in the future.
An ion thruster produces small levels of thrust relative to chemical thrusters, but does so at higher specific impulse (or higher exhaust velocities), which means that an ion thruster has a fuel efficiency of 10-12 times greater than a chemical thruster. The higher the rocket’s specific impulse (fuel efficiency), the farther the spacecraft can go with a given amount of fuel. Given that an ion thruster produces small levels of thrust relative to chemical thrusters, it needs to operate in excess of 10,000 hours to slowly accelerate the spacecraft to speeds necessary to reach the asteroid belt or beyond.
The NEXT ion thruster has been operated for over 43,000 hours, which for rocket scientists means that the thruster has processed over 770 kilograms of xenon propellant and can provide 30 million-newton-seconds of total impulse to the spacecraft. This demonstrated performance permits future science spacecraft to travel to varied destinations, such as extended tours of multi-asteroids, comets, and outer planets and their moons.
