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01 / 05
The Sun Will Destroy the Earth One Day, Right? Maybe Not

Curiosities | Space

The Sun Will Destroy the Earth One Day, Right? Maybe Not

“Scientists have discovered a rocky world orbiting another star that already went through its red giant phase. This planet now orbits a white dwarf, the smaller stellar body that remains after a star burns out. Crucially, the planet looks like it once orbited the star in the same position Earth currently travels around our sun, and did so until it was pushed to a more distant orbit, twice the Earth-sun distance, sometime before the dying giant could eat it. This makes it the first potential rocky world to be observed orbiting a white dwarf.

‘We don’t know if Earth can survive,’ said Keming Zhang, an astrophysicist at the University of California, San Diego, who led the work published on Thursday in the journal Nature Astronomy. ‘If it does, it’ll end up somewhere like this system.'”

From New York Times.

New York Times | Space

Artemis II Successfully Kicks off 10-Day Lunar Mission

“A towering orange-and-white NASA rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday evening, lifting four astronauts toward space and transporting spectators’ imaginations to a future in which Americans may again set foot on the moon.

As they did during the heyday of the Apollo program, which first put men on the lunar surface, spectators squeezed onto the beaches along Central Florida’s Space Coast. The crowds cheered when the powerful rocket launched into the clear sky at 6:35 p.m. Eastern time. It traveled eastward, over the Atlantic Ocean, on a journey that will take astronauts around the moon but not land there.”

From New York Times.

404 Media | Space

Complete Set of DNA Ingredients Discovered on Asteroid

“Scientists have discovered all five nucleobases—the fundamental components of DNA and RNA—in pristine samples from the asteroid Ryugu, according to a study published on Monday in Nature Astronomy. The finding strengthens the case that the ingredients for life are abundant in the solar system and may have found their way to Earth from space.”

From 404 Media.

New York Times | Space

Asteroid-Smashing NASA Mission Sped up Space Rocks’ Journey

“In 2022, NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid named Dimorphos. The goal of this interplanetary smashup was to prove that if a killer space rock ever threatened Earth in the future, humans could deflect it and save our world.

The mission, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, worked: The crash shortened Dimorphos’s orbit around a larger asteroid, Didymos, by 32 minutes. It also generated a giant cloud of dust and debris captured by telescopes around the world and in space.

A new study shows that DART achieved more than that. Scientists found that the spacecraft’s impact shifted not only the orbit of Dimorphos around its parent asteroid, Didymos, but also the trajectory of the pair around our sun.”

From New York Times.

New York Times | Space

Start-up Wants to Launch a Space Mirror to Power Solar Farms

“A start-up company wants to light up the night with 50,000 big mirrors orbiting Earth, bouncing sunlight to the night side of the planet to power solar farms after sunset, provide lighting for rescue workers and illuminate city streets, among other things…

It is an idea seemingly out of a sci-fi movie, but the company, Reflect Orbital of Hawthorne, Calif., could soon receive permission to launch its first prototype satellite with a 60-foot-wide mirror. The company has applied to the Federal Communications Commission, which issues the licenses needed to deploy satellites.

If the F.C.C. approves, the test satellite could get a ride into orbit as soon as this summer.”

From New York Times.