The Great Dark Spot

Posted on April 17, 2021 by brynicdew

We have all heard about the Great Red Spot, the constant, giant storm that could hold multiple Earths with unbelievable winds. However, what if I was to say that Jupiter was not the only planet with a mind-blowing storm. Enter the incredible storm of Neptune: the Great Dark Spot.

Great Dark Spot - Wikipedia
Neptune’s Dark Spot

The Great Dark Spot (GDS) is actually about the same size as the Earth and about half the size of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. However, since Neptune is so much smaller than Jupiter, the Great Dark Spot actually covers a larger percentage of Neptune, spanning a quarter of Neptune’s surface. It is an anticyclonic storm with winds that can reach speeds of 1200 miles per hour. Just imagining how catastrophic tornadoes and hurricanes on Earth are with speeds of 200 miles per hour, I can’t even fathom winds 6x that. Unlike the Great Red Spot which can last for hundreds of years at a time, the Great Dark Spot forms and fizzles out every few years. Because of this, astronomers were recently able to witness the creation of this storm for the first time.

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What do astronauts eat?

Posted on April 17, 2021 by allyworthington

You may have seen advertisements for “astronaut ice cream” in novelty food stores. This freeze-dried version of ice cream is just one example of what astronauts can eat during space missions in weightless environments.

It probably comes as no surprise that astronauts have to consume a balanced diet with proper nutrition. Categories of space food, along with examples of their most common representations, are as follows: beverages (freeze dried drink mixes), fresh foods (fresh fruits and vegetables delivered via resupply missions), irradiated meat (beef steak that does not spoil), intermediate moisture (beef jerky; does not immediately spoil), natural form (nuts, cookies, granola bars), rehydratable foods (reheat in hot water), and extended shelf-life bread products (scones and waffles).

Food from the International Space Station, via Wikipedia

Naturally, the packaging that the food is in must be conducive to preparing and consuming the food in a weightless environment. NASA tends to use pouches within containers that fit onto a specially designed tray. The tray keeps all food secure, and can attach itself to a surface.

Functional food tray from the International Space Station, via Wikipedia
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What Exactly Happened During the Big Bang?

Posted on April 17, 2021 by jagobillot

I think the Big Bang is such an interesting piece of the Universe’s creation. An explosion that created everything that we observe right now. While the Big Bang is popularly known, I don’t think many people grasp how quickly and powerfully this explosion happened.

For 10-43 seconds, the universe was inside of a microscopic pinpoint. This is the point where the universe is “infinitely dense.” A white-hot fireball ready to expand outward.

And then the initial force that has caused our universe to rapidly expand since the beginning of time. From 10-35 to 10-33 seconds, the “inflation process” begins. The explosion filled a vast area around it, the energy given off turned into all the matter and energy in our Universe.

After this the formation of basic elements, and 300 million years later, the Universe gives birth to its first star.

This is a cool video about the Big Bang

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solar system superlatives: Planet 9

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Peter Taylor

Welcome back! Today, we are going to learn about the current leader in our Solar System’s ongoing game of hide-and-seek: Planet Nine.

First, a disclaimer. No one actually knows if Planet Nine is real or not. It’s existence is only hypothesized, and we have literally never seen it. But, for now, let’s assume its real and celebrate its dominant hiding performance. The possible existence of Planet Nine was first suggested in 2015 (and, technically, it still has even been found). Prior to this, Pluto was the most recently discovered planet, and that happened in 1930.

Planet Nine depicted as a dark sphere distant from the Sun with the Milky Way in the background.
artist’s rendition of Planet Nine – the white ellipse is Neptune’s orbit for reference

Planet Nine was first hypothesized based on studies that show many objects in the Kuiper Belt exhibiting clustered orbits. Planet Nine and the forces it would exert on objects in the Kuiper Belt would then explain the clustered orbits, according to researchers at Caltech.

However, since the proposal of its existence six years ago, no one has been able to find Planet Nine. And, now, some scientists are offering an alternative hypothesis: Planet Nine may not be a planet at all, but rather a very small black hole. If this hypothesis turns out to be true and scientists can discover a more precise location of Planet Nine, we could theoretically send spacecraft into orbit around it. Then, we could finally get a closer look at black holes, which are some of the most mysterious objects in the entire universe!

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Deflecting Asteroids Headed to Earth

Posted on April 17, 2021 by lauryn28

While the chances of a deadly asteroid hitting Earth are low, the damage that one could produce could result in a cataclysmic event. While it may seem that stopping an asteroid en route to Earth is impossible, there are actually certain technologies that could possibility lessen the damage. The most important thing to do is accurately track asteroids that could collide with Earth. In terms of actually deflecting an asteroid, the best option is to send a robotic probe on a collision course with the goal of knocking it off course. Scientists believe this would be effective with asteroids up to 1,300 feet.

While cataclysmic asteroid events are rare, smaller ones are much more frequent and can still cause immense damage. Thus tracking asteroids remains an important issue for those studying space.

Image via Space.com
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Which Exoplanet Could Be Planet B?

Posted on April 17, 2021 by brandonlipper
The Intellect Zone

The transit method has already been used to discover a few thousand exoplanets and continues to discover more through both old observations and current missions. With this method, the brightness levels of stars in other solar systems are measured. When the brightness dims, this is a sign that an extrasolar planet may have passed in front of the star. It is possible for the change in brightness to be due to natural changes in the star so the exoplanet is confirmed through both continued monitoring of the star (to see if the planet passes through again along its orbit) and another method of detection such as the Doppler method.1 Despite the fact that the transit method can only discover planets with orbits that are edge-on to Earth, it is the exoplanet detection method that has found the greatest number of extrasolar planets.

This method can be used to discover useful data about the planets, including the size of the planet, the size of the planet’s orbit, and the composition of the planet’s atmosphere. The planet’s period can be determined by how long it takes to return to the near-side of the star and its size can be determined by how much the star’s brightness dims when the planet passed in front of it. When light from the star travels through the planet’s atmosphere, we can determine its atmospheric elements. These factors, along with the temperature of the star itself, are crucial to our analysis regarding the habitability of the planet.

Three major missions have been and continue to be crucial to our discovery of extrasolar planets. The Kepler Mission led to the discovery of over 2500 extrasolar planets1 and its data could lead to thousands more. The TESS mission is about a day away from its third birthday as of the time of this blog post and has observed 75% of the sky. It has confirmed 66 new exoplanets and has found about 2100 candidates to possibly be confirmed by scientists on Earth. Finally, the European Space Agency has produced the CHEOPS mission with a 19 arcmin by 19 arcmin view of the sky.

Hopefully one of these exoplanets either currently holds life or has the potential to hold life as our “Planet B.”

[1] Bennett, Jeffery, et al. The Cosmic Perspective: The Solar System. 9th ed., Pearson, 2020.

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4,375+ Exoplanets

Posted on April 17, 2021 by laineroberts

With earth being the only known habitable planet in our solar system and little knowledge regarding what lies outside of our solar system, its easy to feel like we are the only ones in the universe. However, would you still think that if you knew that NASA has confirmed 4,375 planets outside of our solar system? Along with that, they have discovered 3,274 planetary systems. The first exoplanet was discovered only 26 years ago so it is likely that they will discover many many more exoplanets! Through the use of a space telescope, NASA has gathered enough information to estimate that there are actually more planets than stars in our solar system. Many of the planets that have been discovered are also similar in size to Earth. While the idea of aliens may seem crazy, the thought of discounting any possibility of life among the thousands (that we know of, and probably many many more) of planets that exist outside our solar system (that we know essentially nothing about) is even crazier to me!

NASA Exoplanet Archive tracks the constant stream of new planet discoveries!
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The Oddities of Titan

Posted on April 17, 2021 by jagobillot
Titan

Titan is one of 62 moons revolving around Saturn. Before 2004, not much was known about Titan, other than the fact that it is Saturn’s largest moon. NASA sent the Cassini spacecraft to the outer to investigate and send back information about Titan. Cassini sent back pictures of a very planet-like moon with a dense atmosphere. This makes Titan the only moon in our solar system with a rich atmosphere.

            Titan also has its own water cycle, meaning liquid hydrocarbons are rained from the atmosphere. As it is too cold for liquid water, liquid nitrogen, methane and ethane create most of the hazy atmosphere, and gather on Titan’s surface to create the icy mountains and massive seas that are seen by Cassini. Under the surface, however, scientists believe that Titan has an active core creates a layer of liquid water and ammonia.

            Despite the vast distance from the Sun, Titan is one of the most habitable places for life in our Solar System.

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Ceres

Posted on April 17, 2021 by lauryn28

Ceres is a dwarf planet discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801. Its mass is only .015 percent of Earth’s and it is actually small enough to be classified as both a dwarf planet and an asteroid. Moreover it is sometimes referred to as the largest asteroid in the solar system.

Ceres is round, though it has a bugle at its equator due do its rotation and recent probing has led many scientists to believe that there may be a possibility of water on its surface and ice volcanoes.

While there is still much that is unknown about Ceres, its low mass and closer proximity to Earth have led scientists to believe that it could one day act as a launching point for deep space missions in the future.

Image from NASA

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Ceres

Posted on April 17, 2021 by justinboreskyvanderbiltedu

Unlike recently discovered dwarf planets, Ceres was discovered in 1801. Ceres was the first asteroid discovered, it was first spotted on Jan. 1, 1801 by Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. Ceres was named after the Roman goddess of agriculture. An interesting fact about Ceres was that after it was discovered an element in the period table was named after it(cerium). Cerium is the most abundant of rare-earth materials. In the last decade there were 2 bright-spots found on Ceres, Due to Ceres’s massive size for a dwarf planet(590 miles) its actually far more spherical than other dwarf planets. A very cool fact about Ceres is its potential to have an atmosphere, even though Ceres is very far away from the sun its temperature comes to around -37 Fahrenheit . Thus the ice water could sublimate into a gas causing an atmosphere to form.

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