Climate model shows that Venus could never have had oceans
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47
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Whether Venus, one of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets, ever had oceans remains an unsolved puzzle. Although an American study hypothesized that it did, this is now challenged in a paper published on October 14, 2021 in Nature, involving in particular scientists from the CNRS and University of Versailles-Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines1 (UVSQ).
Using a state-of-the-art climate model, San Andreas Fault-like tectonics discovered on Saturn moon Titan
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47 Write a comment
Strike-slip faulting, the type of motion common to California's well-known San Andreas Fault, was reported recently to possibly occur on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. New research, led by planetary scientists from the University of Hawai?i at Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), suggests this tectonic motion may be active on Titan, deforming the icy surface.
On m Scientists find evidence the early solar system harbored a gap between its inner and outer regions
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47 Write a comment
In the early solar system, a "protoplanetary disk" of dust and gas rotated around the sun and eventually coalesced into the planets we know today.
A new analysis of ancient meteorites by scientists at MIT and elsewhere suggests that a mysterious gap existed within this disk around 4.567 billion years ago, near the location where the asteroid belt resides today.
The team's results, ap The October Council edition of ESA Impact is online
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:35 Write a comment
ESA Impact October Council edition
Great images and videos of climate change on view, BepiColombo flies by Mercury, Cheops gets a surprise, and more
Polish Armed Forces enlist industry consortium for imaging nanosatellites
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 04:00 Write a comment
Under the recently launched Polish Imaging Satellites (PIAST) project, a consortium formed by local space industry players will develop three nanosatellites to be operated by the country’s armed forces and placed into orbit in 2024.
Fledgling European space businesses still lacking the funds to fly
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 02:59 Write a comment
A lack of accessible financing options is holding European space startups back as supply shortages and price rises risk derailing the industry’s post-pandemic recovery, warns a white paper from the Access Space Alliance (ASA) small satellite industry group.
NASA selects gamma-ray telescope mission for development
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 01:48 Write a comment
NASA will develop a gamma-ray telescope intended to study the formation of chemical elements in the galaxy as its next small astrophysics mission.
Investigations of U.S. Space Command’s basing decision to continue into 2022
Monday, 18 October 2021 22:19 Write a comment
The Government Accountability Office and the Defense Department’s inspector general are still months away from completing their investigations of the decision to relocate U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.
Betting on flexibility: Intelsat’s post-bankruptcy growth strategy
Monday, 18 October 2021 18:30 Write a comment
SpaceNews spoke with Samer Halawi, Intelsat’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, to learn more about the satellite giant’s post-restructuring growth strategy.
NASA Selects Gamma-ray Telescope to Chart Milky Way Evolution
Monday, 18 October 2021 18:08 Write a comment
NASA has selected a new space telescope proposal that will study the recent history of star birth, star death, and the formation chemical elements in the Milky Way. ‘We go together’: US Space Force chief seeks deeper space cooperation with South Korea
Monday, 18 October 2021 17:21 Write a comment
The U.S. Space Force’s top general expressed hope for deepening cooperation with South Korea's military Oct. 18, saying “Katchi Kapshida,” which means “We go together” in Korean, a symbolic slogan of the long-standing Korea-U.S. alliance.
Titan's river maps may advise Dragonfly's sedimental journey
Monday, 18 October 2021 15:34 Write a comment
With future space exploration in mind, a Cornell-led team of astronomers has published the final maps of Titan's liquid methane rivers and tributaries—as seen by NASA's late Cassini mission—so that may help provide context for Dragonfly's upcoming 2030s expedition.
The fluvial maps and details of their accuracy were published in the Planetary Science Journal. In addition to the maps, the work examined what could be learned by analyzing Earth's rivers by using degraded radar data—similar to what Cassini saw.
Like water on Earth, liquid methane and ethane fill Titan's lakes, rivers and streams. But understanding those channels—including their twists and branch-like turns—is key to knowing how that moon's sediment transport system works and the underlying geology.
"The channel systems are the heart of Titan's sediment transport pathways," said Alex Hayes, associate professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Death in space: Here's what would happen to our bodies
Monday, 18 October 2021 13:50 Write a comment
As space travel for recreational purposes is becoming a very real possibility, there could come a time when we are traveling to other planets for holidays, or perhaps even to live. Commercial space company Blue Origin has already started sending paying customers on sub-orbital flights. And Elon Musk hopes to start a base on Mars with his firm SpaceX.
This means we need to start thinking about what it will be like to live in space—but also what will happen if someone dies there.
After death here on Earth, the human body progresses through a number of stages of decomposition. These were described as early as 1247 in Song Ci's The Washing Away of Wrongs, essentially the first forensic science handbook.
First the blood stops flowing and begins to pool as a result of gravity, a process known as livor mortis. Then the body cools to algor mortis, and the muscles stiffen due to uncontrolled build-up of calcium in the muscle fibers. This is the state of rigor mortis.
Op-ed | Small states in outer space: Monaco’s ambitions for the NewSpace age
Monday, 18 October 2021 13:30 Write a comment
Previously seen as a source of national pride reserved only for superpowers, space exploration has now become the focus of emerging and smaller nations.
RUAG Space: Ten times more accurate satellite positioning
Monday, 18 October 2021 13:00 Write a comment
A new software from RUAG Space for its GNSS receivers makes it possible to determine the position of a satellite in orbit ten times more accurately.