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Superflares Could Pose Serious Risk to Mars Mission

May 24, 2016 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

Solar flames usually cause geomagnetic interference.

NASA scientists have studied the effects of solar flares and Superflares. It seems that, while our planet is properly shielded, such an event posing a danger only to our communication systems, not our lives, the rest of the solar system is not that lucky.

In 1989 a solar eruption caused a 9-hour blackout in Quebec, leaving over 6 million people in the dark. However, that was only a small example of what the whims of the Sun could do to our technology.

Back in 1859 a Superflare, also known as the Carrington Event, caused panic among the inhabitants of our planet. Even though the level of technological development wasn’t incredible, communications were affected, the sky lit, and the people believed that the Sun was going to explode.

It seems that the Carrington Event is not the only incident involving a Superflare. According to the calculations of NASA astronomers, in 775 a giant solar flare reached our planet, causing a very potent geomagnetic storm.

Unfortunately, we have no means of checking the impact that the flare had on the human population that roamed the Earth at the time.

However, a geomagnetic storm is far from posing actual dangers to our lives. Luckily, we have a thick atmosphere that protects us from the other effects of such a solar occurrence.

Superflares are not only loaded with magnetic energy, but they also contain high, very lethal doses of cosmic and solar radiation. In the event in which the Mars mission will be en route, or even on the surface of the Red Planet when one occurs, the crew will die in a matter of minutes due to radiation poisoning.

NASA researchers are currently working on ways to keep the crew safe from such an unpredictable incident by testing out all kinds of emergency equipment.

Solar flares and Superflares are unpredictable. Their occurrence seems to be random, mathematicians and astronomers alike trying and failing to find a pattern of the explosions.

The good news is that in the case in which such a flare is emitted by the Sun while the Mars mission is happening, NASA found a way to detect them and warn the crew before the radiation reaches them.

Let’s hope that the Sun will be on its best behavior by 2030 when the first Mars Mission is scheduled to take place.

Image source: Wikipedia

What Will Happen to Humans When Earth Becomes Uninhabitable?

May 17, 2016 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

In the case in which Earth becomes uninhabitable, humankind will seek refuge on Jupiter’s moons.

Life on our planet depends on the intensity of the Sun. However, astronomers have studied numerous stars throughout all of their life stages, and it seems that in a couple billion years, things will get pretty heated in our solar system. When the temperatures will rise the oceans will boil, and all life will disappear. Or will it? What do scientists think will happen to humans when Earth becomes uninhabitable?

According to Lisa Kaltenegger and Ramses Ramirez, humankind will be able to survive on more distant grounds. Mars isn’t the only possible new home for humans. Jupiter’s moons Enceladus and Europa are both perfect for hosting life in the event in which the Sun starts shining brighter.

Scientists have discovered that Enceladus and Europa both have warm, dense cores that will generate just the right amount of gravity. Furthermore, Enceladus even has massive frozen water deposits that, in the case of a warm up, will turn into an ocean that will take over the entire satellite. Just imagine Bora Bora, only on the whole moon.

The most exciting part of this scenario is the fact that the heat wave could bring back to life all of the organisms that are currently under the ice on Enceladus and all other planets that have not seen a warm ray of sun in millions of years.

However, if Earth becomes uninhabitable in a couple billions of years, humans may not be limited just to the planets and satellites within our solar system. NASA is already planning to send a manned mission to Mars in 14 years; Stephen Hawking is working on an array of minuscule probes that will explore outer systems, searching for additional signs of life.

It’s not impossible for them to find uninhabited Earth-like planets where humankind will be able to move once our Sun starts to turn our world into an uninhabitable wasteland.

Currently, astronomers have discovered 23 red giant stars that are only 100 light-years away from our solar systems. In a couple of billions of years, researchers will certainly find thousands upon thousands of systems capable of harboring human life.

Moreover, at the rate in which technology is advancing, humans might just build their own planets by the time Earth becomes uninhabitable.

Image source: Pixabay

What Really Happens To The Missing Asteroids Up There

February 19, 2016 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

Asteroids are spectacularly destroyed before reaching the Sun.

New study reveals what really happens to the missing asteroids up there, in our Solar System. An international team of scientists have debunked the theory that asteroids and comets end their existence with a final plunge into the sun. It turns out, they disintegrate long before that.

Asteroids are nothing but small, airless rocky worlds revolving around the sun, that are too small to be called planets. They are also known as planetoids or minor planets. In total, the mass of all the asteroids is less than that of Earth’s moon. But despite their size, asteroids can be dangerous. Many have hit Earth in the past, and more will crash into our planet in the future.

That’s one reason scientists study asteroids and are eager to learn more about their numbers, orbits and physical characteristics. This is how they came up with this new finding regarding the death of these ‘minor planets’. The study may bring us closer to understanding how to protect the Earth from an asteroid strike.

Until recently, scientists believed that the demise of asteroids close to Earth happen in a fiery collision with the sun. But by examining nearly 9,000 near-Earth objects, or NEOs, an international team of researchers have recently found that asteroids and comets crumble long before they reach the surface of the blazing star.

So, it turns out that the asteroids are actually dying a slow death, not unlike humans in their later stages of life, they are simply breaking down.

The team’s work also helps explain several discrepancies between observations and predictions of the distribution of small objects in our Solar System. Meteors are such an object. These are effectively tiny bits of dust and rock dislodged from the surfaces of asteroids and comets that then end their lives burning up as they enter our atmosphere.

Observations and studies have established that meteors often travel in ‘streams’ that follow the path of their parent object. However, in almost all cases astronomers have been unable to match most of the meteor streams on orbits closely approaching the Sun with known parent objects.

What the latest study suggests is that the parent objects were completely destroyed when they came too close to the Sun, leaving behind streams of meteors but no parent NEOs. They also found that darker asteroids are destroyed farther from the Sun than brighter ones.

This case is explained by an earlier discovery that NEOs that approach closer to the Sun are brighter than those that keep their distance from the Sun. The fact that dark objects are more easily destroyed implies that dark and bright asteroids have a different internal composition and structure.

So, brighter asteroids, survive longer than dark asteroids, which absorb more light. And smaller asteroids disintegrate faster than bigger ones.

According to Mikael Granvik, a research scientist at the University of Helsinki and lead author of the study, their new finding allows planetary scientists to understand a variety of recent observations from a new perspective. It also leads to a more profound advance in asteroid science.

Perhaps the most intriguing outcome of this study is that it is now possible to test models of asteroid interiors simply by keeping track of their orbits and sizes.

Granvik stated.

However, the strange case of the missing asteroids is now solved. Perhaps our world would be far different today if it weren’t for the Sun destroying vast numbers of these space-borne objects.

Image Source: wallpaper4me.com.

Philae’s 60 Hours Stay On Comet 67/P

November 18, 2014 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

The play of Philae’s moderate fall, bob and sad slide into hibernation was a standout amongst the most exciting science stories of an era. Anyhow, what did it attain in its short 60 hours of life on Comet 67/P?

The short answer is systematic chemistry.

Philae’s freight included 3 instruments that are truly common in science labs, however, when conveyed on a comet could answer queries about the inceptions of the earth’s planetary system and life itself.

Right or Left Handed Life

About 4 billion years ago the earth’s planetary system was an unsettled spot. Earth was experiencing substantial assault by space rocks (asteroids) and comets. This ceaseless shower may have conveyed a considerable amount of water to our planet. However, the comets weren’t simply messy snowballs. A third of their contents was presumably intricate organic (that is, carbon-based) particles. These mixes may well have set off the science that prompted life on our planet.

One of the major objectives of Philae was to provide the evidence that the organic chemicals on a comet are sufficiently like the building pieces of life to hold up the comet sway hypothesis for abiogenesis. A key variable is whether Comet 67/P (and by expansion other comets) contain transcendentally right- or left-handed particles.

Numerous particles come in one of two structures, known as stereoisomers, which physicists assign as left- or right-handed. These two structures are indistinguishable, despite of the fact that they are mirror images of one another.

Your hands are a flawless similarity. Structurally, they are the same with the exception of the way that you can’t superimpose one on the other. And so is the case with stereoisomers.

Unusually, life on Earth is entirely based on left-handed particles. It is consummately doable to make the right-handed editions, yet life simply doesn’t. Where this inclination for left-handedness originates from — is a riddle. One hypothesis is that the predisposition originated from within the chemistry of comets. In the comets, right-handed particles may have been specially devastated by a mix of daylight (to give vitality to activate chemical reactions) and liquid water (with which the organic compounds could react).

COSAC instrument of Philae is intended to sniff away at the comet’s natural substance and evaluate whether they resemble the building pieces of life and, vitally, whether the comet contains the same inclination for lefty chemistry as Earth-bound life.

Homegrown Waste Or Alien Debris

Most speculations hold that comets were created from the same cloud (nebula) that formed the rest of the earth’s planetary (solar) system. However, this is not the situation. It may be the case that they are genuinely antiquated bodies that altogether, or partially, originate before the solar system, or maybe they have congregated here substantially as of late? Philae’s Ptolemy instrument means to answer this inquiry by looking at the proportions of distinctive isotopes inside Comet 67/P.

A given component is characterized by the quantity of protons in its core. For instance, carbon dependably has 6 protons. Though, the quantity of neutrons can differ giving rise to carbon-12 (6 protons and 6 neutrons), carbon-13 (with 7 neutrons) and carbon-14 (with 8 neutrons). All these distinctive varieties are known as isotopes. The proportion of these isotopes in any given body will fluctuate relying upon its sources. Also, since the material in the earth’s planetary system originated from pretty much the same spot, the isotopic carbon proportions for the Sun, the Earth and space rocks (asteroids) are essentially the same.

At the same time comets may be distinctive, indeed remote estimations of comet Hale-Boop recommend that it might be an extra-solar alien. The issue is there were substantial vulnerabilities in these readings, so we can’t make certain of their exactness. By sending the Ptolemy instrument to the surface of a comet this ought to all be determined, as its isotopic estimations are intended to be as exact as those performed on Earth, and the solar or alien origins of Comet 67/P can be affirmed.

Snowball Production Lines

If comets originated from the same stock as whatever is left of the earth’s planetary system; where and how were they formed? The Hubble telescope seen comets in the Kuiper belt simply beyond Neptune, in the mean time the Oort Cloud (another 10,000 times farther away) is thought to contain cold bodies that may, incomprehensibly, has dense closer to Jupiter and Saturn.

Evaluating where 67/P may have begun is the job of APXS, an instrument intended to find out the elemental composition of dusty parts of the comet. By contrasting this with the material on Earth, the causes of which we are more certain about, we should be able to evaluate the origination of 67/P.

Massive Sunspot Keeps Shooting Huge Solar Flares

October 27, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

The massive sunspot observed on the sun has been brewing strong solar flares from the past week, and it’s still producing powerful solar storms.

Sunspots are the solar system’s active regions that look like dark spots. These are caused by powerful magnetic activity and can cause flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. These flares intimidate power and communication systems when directed to the Earth.

According to National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center, today, the huge sunspot fired off a large solar flare, peaking at around 10:47 a.m. EDT (1447 GMT). The flare caused a strong radio blackout on Earth. This solar flare is the 4^th X-flare, which is the most powerful kind of solar storms in as many days.

On 26^th Oct, Sunday, the giant sunspot spewed out a solar flare, which peaked at about 6:56 a.m. EDT (1056 GMT). The sunspot, dubbed AR 12192 (also known as Active Region 12192), also shot out another powerful flare on Saturday. Saturday’s flare is classified as an X1 flare while, today and Sunday’s flares measured as X2. X-class flares are categorized as the most powerful of solar flares and they are linked with solar radiation storms mostly if they come with CMEs.

Karen Fox, NASA spokesperson wrote in an update yesterday (Oct. 26), “the Sunday’s X2-class flare was “the third X-class flare in 48 hours, exploding from the largest active region seen on the sun in 24 years. Moreover, AR 12129 also shot out an X3.1-class flare on Friday (Oct. 24).”

Since Friday, the active region on the sun is also responsible for spewing out two big M-class flares, also known as moderate solar storms. The most recent M-class flare (categorized as an M6.7) peaked this morning at about 6:09 a.m. EDT (1009 GMT).

Fox further told, “An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.”

Tony Phillips, an astronomer at Spaceweather.com stated, “Sometimes, big solar flares are followed by huge bursts of hot plasma known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) spewing out from the sun. Large CMEs can cause geomagnetic storms or supercharge Earth’s auroras, but the earlier storms released by the current sunspot have not had any major accompanying CMEs.

NASA Released New IRIS That Reveals Secrets of Sun in Depth

October 18, 2014 By Germaine Hicks Leave a Comment

Way back in 2013, NASA launched the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph probe in order to keep an eye on the sun and it’s revealed secrets thus far unknown by astronomers and scientists.

A recent report conducted by several astronomers and researchers stated that, they have been finding no end of interesting things about the star at the center of our solar system. One of the most interesting discoveries so far includes incidents dubbed as “nano-flares”. Nano-flares are the tiny solar flares that could be contributing to the intense heat of the sun’s corona. Besides nano-flares, the researchers have also discovered the phenomena such as high-power jets of plasma, which seems to be the mechanism behind solar wind and so-called “plasma bombs” on the surface of the sun.

When it comes to the IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) probe, it’s a highly advanced satellite, which has the ability to observe and detect spectrographic differences near and inside the sun at resolutions that were certainly unknown before its development. IRIS does this all from the relative safety of its orbit above the Earth, 93 million miles away from the sun and its devastating temperatures. Even the outer atmosphere of our home star reaches a sweltering 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit, obliging long-distance study.

According to the Max Planck Institute’s Hardi Peter, Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph probe is believed to be the perfect equipment for long-distance examination as of its specialized instruments. The resolution IRIS provides is easily 3 to 4 times sharper than any of its predecessors, he added.

As per the topography of the sun and its atmosphere instigates at the photosphere that is the actual surface of the star and what humans can actually see without the help of spectrographic analysis. On top of the photosphere is the chromospheres that are in fact hotter than the surface and then the corona. These regions give out ultraviolet light, a wavelength that is invisible to the human eye. Observing this light from space is necessary; the majority of these UV rays are absorbed by the Earth’s upper atmosphere. In other words, it’s simply impossible to observe these wavelengths from the surface of the Earth, even with advanced spectrographic sensors or else, you need to be placed solar observation satellites such as IRIS in orbit to get a clear view.

Jack O’ Lantern Image of the Sun

October 13, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee

Would not it be surprising if sun also celebrates Halloween with the world?. Recently, NASA has unveiled few combined pictures of the sun from 8 Oct in order to show sun like a Jack O Lantern. Jack O Lantern is carved pumpkin that people generally associate with Halloween.

In these images scientists merged two different wavelengths that usually emerge in gold and yellow color. One wavelength is about 171 and the other is nearly of 193 angstroms. These two wavelengths gave a monstrous look through the first coating of the pumpkin and hollow internal side.

Moreover, NASA informed that they utilized some special instruments to examine the light of the sun since it is difficult to view this light with naked eyes. These three instruments the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and the Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment played a vital role in the formation of these images.

The 193 angstrom displays relatively hotter area of the corona. This aura of plasma wraps the entire sun and is merely visible at the time of solar eclipse.

On the other hand, the 171 angstrom demonstrates the atmosphere of the sun and the massive arcs of the corona.

The website of NASA stated that the active areas seem brighter due to the amount of energy and light it releases. These active regions indicate the powerful and complicated field of the corona which is present in the atmosphere of the sun.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is particularly designed to analyze the impact of the sun on Earth and its surroundings. SDO took all these pictures that show 171 in gold and 193 angstrom in yellow color.

Sun Changes Get-Up For Halloween In Advance: NASA Report

October 11, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee 1 Comment

One might not suspect that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration aka NASA would have a sense of humor but when it comes to this year’s Halloween festivities they’ve really outdone themselves.

In a display of jocularity, the space agency took a composite photo of our Sun and it looks surprisingly like a traditional Jack O’ Lantern.

This photo should be a hit for Halloweenphiles and kids all over who celebrate the ancient festival but is not an official holiday in the US.

These fantastic pics were captured by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio that took a series of images and composed them into the eerie grinning image of the Jack O’ Lantern. It was on October 8 the photos were taken and each wavelength of light that the sun was emitting was captured and processed through special filters to separate them from other light wavelengths.

The brighter spots on the pics are areas that are more active meaning the energy and light released are of a higher intensity. The swirling magnetic field that appear in the upper atmosphere of the star are the reason for the complex fluctuations. At work here are two specific wavelengths, 171 Angstroms and 193 Angstroms. An Angstrom is an infinitesimally small unit of measurement measuring only 0.1 nanometers, or one ten billionths of a meter and usually is used to measure electromagnetic wavelengths and other small measurements like that of other microscopic objects. The two wavelengths have generally been colored using hues of yellow and gold light.

NASA says that because the pictures came out like the traditional colors of a Jack O’ Lantern was not intended.

This photo-op by NASA is just another good way of engaging the public in a friendly manner. The space program needs more support, and although there are tantalizing tales of projects that include manned missions to Mars, NASA has become disappointing due to their probes to Mars not finding life after decades of searching, a Space Shuttle program now ended and the Russians making forays into space as well as civilian corporations that are taking the thunder away from NASA.

Good public relations are fine and NASA needs to do more. Make space interesting and understandable so that the public can feel part of the action and see where their tax dollars are going.

Researchers Revealed: Black Hole P13 Swallowing Gas Faster than Earlier Believed

October 10, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

University of Strasbourg Astronomers recently took a long look at the Galaxy’s black hole P13, located approximately 12 million light years from Earth. It has been observed that the object was 100 times brighter than our Sun, that’s why it was usually presumed very large.

Dr Roberto Soria of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) stated, “The maximum speed at which black hole could swallow gas and produce light was strongly determined by its size. So, it makes sense that P13 was bigger than the ordinary, less bright black holes present in our Milky Way galaxy.”

Moreover, the researchers said that, there is no hard and fast rule to predict how much a black hole can swallow. Certainly, P13’s donor star is 20 times heavier than our Sun and one side of the star is always brighter than the other, researchers stated.

Dr Sooria further stated that, “It actually enabled us to gauge the time it takes for P13 and the donor star to revolve around each other, which is 64 days, and to model the velocity of the two objects and the shape of the orbit. From this, we concluded that the black hole was 15 times less than the mass of our Sun.”

The black hole was swallowing gas from the ‘donor’ star at the rate of 10X larger than what was formerly believed, researcher claimed. Simultaneously, P13 is ingesting a weight equivalent to 100 billion hot dogs every min.

Though, hot dogs seem to be a bad choice for the measurement purpose, as their weight is not standardized. But, as per the reports of Self Nutrition Data, they are equivalent to 1/10^th of one pound. With the help of this data, we can presume that the black hole is swallowing 5 quadrillion (5,000,000,000,000,000) tons of gas per minute.

This study is published in ‘Nature’ Journal.

Water That We Consume Is Maybe Older Than The Sun, Study Briefs

September 28, 2014 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

‘Significant fraction’ of Earth’s water is older even before the existence of solar system and the birth of Sun, Boffins claimed.

The study conducted by Boffins Ilsedore Cleeves, at the University of Michigan states that, ‘significant fraction’ of Earth’s water was created by 4.5bn years ago.

This study is published in the Science journal, revealing the thought that water might be discovered elsewhere in the universe. And, where there is water, there is life.

The study stated that some parts of the water originated in ocean, comets, as well as meteorites and on the moon, which actually predate the sun’s origin. There is just one option that it is formed in the cold, the interstellar cloud from which the sun itself created, Boffins stated.

Boffins Ilsedore Cleeves revealed about the planet forming disks around young stars. These disks act as a shield from galactic rays developed due to strong solar winds which drastically changing the chemistry happening within the disks. He further told that, it seems very difficult for the region present within the disks to synthesize new molecules. Cleeves wrote in an email to Discovery News stating that “This was actually an ‘aha’ minute for us. The only place these gases would have come from, without creating water, was the chemically rich interstellar gas from which the solar system formed.”

The study result has implications concerning search for life beyond Earth, as water appears to be necessary for life.

Cleeves added, “If the sun was formed through the conventional interstellar ices, including water, are expected to have common elements needed for the creation of all planetary systems that set a magnificent view on the prospect of other life in the universe.”

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