Within a two-week period Io, Jupiter’s moon, experienced two massive outbursts in August 2013. Astronomers speculated that these volcanic eruptions could be regular phenomenon that can spew materials in huge quantities above the surface. If we talk about ratio, it could be somewhere from one huge outburst per one or two years but Io suggested more than this. Io is the innermost moon out of the planet’s four large Galilean moons. It is more than 3,600 km across. It is the only space body that is known so far, by…
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Earlier Asteroid Impacts led to the formation of Earth’s Crust: Geological Evolution
Last year we talked about how meteor impact led to pastoral revolution and now recent research on Earth’s surface revealed that the planet was in a constant reprocessing process due to the huge asteroid impacts. The new approach utilizing the terrestrial bombardment model based on lunar and terrestrial data disclosed that asteroid collisions where the game changer which caused evolution of the topmost layers of Earth during its initial stages, which happened around 4.5b years ago. Yvonne Pendleton, NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) Director added that repeated…
Building 3D Products in Space: Printing the Metals of the Future
One of the major drawbacks of 3D printing is its lack of ability to use varied types of materials in printing a particular product. The same inability has been hindering 3D printing in space travel as well, where at times, situation demands fabrication of certain parts from several different materials. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) space scientists in collaboration with researchers from Caltech and Penn State University have been working closely to resolve this problem of bringing 3D printing closer to space travel. They developed a process that allowed for…
US military to develop a Reusable Unmanned Spacecraft: The Experimental Spaceplane project
The US military is looking forward to create an affordable and efficient robotic space plane that has an ability of embarking payloads directly into the orbit. DARPA has already granted the design contract to three firms namely, Boeing, Masten Space Systems and Northrop Grumman. For the initial stage of the Experimental Spaceplane project, also called the XS-1, the firms have collaborated with similar other aerospace companies. For instance, Boeing is working with Blue Origin, Masten is teaming up with XCOR Aerospace and Northrop Grumman is collaborating with the Virgin Galactic.…
Tidal Forces influence Planets in Eccentric Orbits: Possibility of creating Habitable Worlds
Fixation towards heat for survival is the key element across planet earth and the solar system. During the origination of human life, early man stumbled upon the discovery of fire by rubbing sticks and since then it has evolved gradually. In an interesting study, researchers at NASA have discovered a similar fixation towards heat for survival across constellation. The findings are primarily based on the Earth sized planets in other star systems. Excessive heat denotes destruction but right amount of same heat results in creating habitual climatic conditions.
Frozen Steller Twins Discovered: Orbits in Binary Star System
Lately a binary star system has attracted attention of many space scientists. This binary system consists of twin stars, mutually orbiting around a common center of mass. Situated around 3,000 light years away from Earth, astronomers’ expecting that it could shed some information regarding similar Earth like bodies floating in space. The planet weighs twice that of the Earth and orbits, in binary system, one star. Distance between the two corresponds to the distance between the Earth and the Sun. However, unlike the Sun, the planet’s host star is dimmer…
Titan’s Ice Shell overlies Salty Ocean: As Salty as Earth’s Dead Sea
NASA’s Cassini mission has given strong confirmation regarding the saltiness of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Space scientists have even compared the salt content with Earth’s Dead Sea. The result corresponds to 10 years observation, where Cassini was busy accumulating the gravitational and topographical data. Researchers organized this information and developed a model based on Titan’s structure. This resulted in gaining better insights of the moon’s exterior ice shell.
Kepler-10c the mega-Earth Discovered: Godzilla of Earths
Space scientists have discovered a new planet to which they call as “Godzilla of Earths”, maybe because of its rocky exteriors. The exoplanet weighs more than 17 times that of Earth. Until now researchers believe that the planet is all solid and is much gigantic with respect to previous discoveries of super-Earth, hence it falls into the casket of mega-Earth. Sasselov, one of the astronomers believe that Kepler-10c, the newly found mega-Earth, is high on probability with respect to implications for life.
10 Easiest Internet Tricks: Simplest Googling Tips to Remember
Lately, I realized that I have been using the following ten most simple tips while am working over internet. So I thought of jotting them down in form a post. Like me, some of you would find them equally interesting. I am sure, most of you have already know these tricks however, this post is for those who are still struggling and taking the long routes for particular tasks. So here we go, 1) Downloading music Type the following snippet into the google search bar. It’ll give you music downloads…
Bright Points in Solar Atmosphere: Gateway to Sun’s Roiling Interior
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been able to collect data regarding the depth of the shining star, bright spots in the solar atmosphere and the strings of magnetic signatures observed on the surface of Earth. With this data, space scientists will get a peek into the insights related to the real-time mapping of the sun’s roiling interior. These understandings will help them on converging the decade long investigations of its 22-year sunspot cycle and emission of solar flares. As per Scott McIntosh, one of the lead researchers, this data…
Growing Vegetables on Mars: Farming goes Extraterrestrial
After NASA’s attempt to grow plants on the moon by 2015, researchers are now trying to explore whether they can grow plants on the red planet as well. This research would be also beneficial for the Mars One project which is planning to make permanent human settlement on the planet.
Planet X and Nemesis Myth Debunked: WISE Survey
In an attempt to find the reasons, which led to the wobbly effect of Uranus’s orbit, researchers discovered other planets like Neptune and Pluto but there was no Planet X anywhere. Similarly, the hunt for Sun like star, Nemesis, which they claim might have wiped out the age of dinosaurs completely, is still a far-fetched dream. It’s been an effort of more than two centuries and now the researchers want to draw line to reach a conclusion. Kevin Luhman an astronomer at the University of Pennsylvania asserted that there are no such…
First Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration Goes Successful
Researchers from NASA and MIT have been trying to create a two-way laser link communication between the Moon and the Earth. The effort has been initiated last year in the month of Oct. First step concluded by beaming of laser light from a spacecraft orbiting the moon to the earth, at White Sands, New Mexico. And then the beam was sent to the spacecraft from the lab and this process went for about a month. Space scientists have dubbed it as Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD). The entire mechanism went…
Satellite Servicing: Refueling Missions versus Resurrecting Satellites
Satellites do not know concepts like repairing or re-fueling. Once they are put into orbit, they last until the task is completed and then de-orbit. In case of malfunctioning, they are just forgotten about and are left to contribute to space junk. So what exactly would robots in manned cosmonautics do, although researchers envision that the bots would help in repairs and maintenance at the ISS along with other things including minimize human work. Interestingly, DARPA is trying to resurrect the ‘dead’ satellites by imparting the required skills to its…
Mars Once Had Pools Of Fresh Water
The red planet had fresh water puddle on its surface around 4 billion years ago, as revealed by NASA Mars Opportunity Rover upon analyzing some of the oldest minerals. The same facts have been confirmed by the Curiosity, the newcomer collecting data on the other side of the planet. Planetary scientist Ray Arvidson, with Washington University in St. Louis said,the pool of water was so fresh that could have sustained all life forms.