Science

Is there life on Mars? Maybe, and it could have dropped its teddy

Published

2 months ago

January 31, 2023

Harry Miller

Larger than the average bear: there’s a 2-kilometer-wide bear’s face on the surface of Mars, space scientists say.

Yogi, Paddington and Winnie the Pooh, move over. There’s a new bear in town. Or on Mars, anyway.

The beaming face of a cute-looking teddy bear appears to have been carved into the surface of our nearest planetary neighbor, waiting for a passing satellite to discover it.

And when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passed over last month, carrying aboard the most powerful camera ever to venture into the Solar System, that’s exactly what happened.

Scientists operating the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment), which has been circling Mars since 2006, crunched the data that made it back to Earth, and have now published a picture of the face.

“There’s a hill with a V-shaped collapse structure (the nose), two craters (the eyes), and a circular fracture pattern (the head),” said scientists at the University of Arizona, which operates the kit.

Each one of the features in the 2,000-meter (1.25-mile)-wide face has a possible explanation that hints at just how active the surface of the planet is.

“The circular fracture pattern might be due to the settling of a deposit over a buried impact crater,” the scientists said.

“Maybe the nose is a volcanic or mud vent and the deposit could be lava or mud flows?”

HiRISE, one of six instruments aboard the Orbiter, snaps super-detailed pictures of the Red Planet helping to map the surface for possible future missions, either by humans or robots.

Over the last ten years the team has managed to capture images of avalanches as they happened, and discovered dark flows that could be some kind of liquid.

They’ve also found dust devils twirling across the Martian surface, as well as a feature that some people thought looked a lot like Star Trek’s Starfleet logo.

One thing they have not found, however, is the little green men who were once popularly believed to inhabit the planet.

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Is there life on Mars? Maybe, and it could have dropped its teddy (2023, January 31)
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Science

Solar Storm That Caused Dazzling Auroral Display Could Linger

Published

5 hours ago

March 25, 2023

Harry Miller

(Bloomberg) — A brilliant display of northern lights touched off by a massive geomagnetic storm was visible to a wide swath of the world Friday, and the aurora could linger through Saturday in many places if the weather is clear.

Red, purple and green streamers of the aurora borealis dazzled viewers in North America on Friday and were seen much farther south than normal, with people in California, Arizona and Texas reporting they could see it, according to AccuWeather, Inc. Typically, the spectacular display is only visible in northern locales like Alaska, North Dakota, Canada and Iceland.

The display was touched off by a severe geomagnetic storm that peaked about 12:04 a.m. Friday, according to the US Space Weather Prediction Center, and if the weather is clear, more could be in store on Saturday.

A coronal mass ejection, an explosion of magnetic fields and plasma from the sun’s atmosphere, hit Earth early Friday with more force than initially forecast. These events can disrupt Earth’s magnetic field causing auroral displays, as well as disrupting satellites, communication and electric grids.

Read more: A Swedish Resort Lets You See the Northern Lights From Your Room

The US Space Weather Prediction Center had originally expected a G2 level storm Friday on its five-step scale, the event measured in at G4, one of the strongest triggered on Earth since 2017.

In addition to the dazzling auroral displays, a G4 storm can cause headaches for power grid operators and force spacecraft to adjust their orbits. The storm can also degrade satellite navigation, radio broadcasts and even cause pipelines to build up an electric charge. In early 2022, Elon Musk’s SpaceX lost 40 Starlink satellites because of a solar storm.

The impacts from the coronal mass ejection have trailed off, but energy coming from what scientists call a “coronal hole” will continue at least through Saturday and that could mean the aurora could be seen by viewers across Europe, Asia and North America through Sunday, the UK Met Office said on its website.

There are currently eight sunspot clusters visible on the side of the sun facing Earth, however another coronal mass ejection blasting toward us isn’t forecast, the UK Met Office said.

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Science

An airplane-sized asteroid will pass between the Earth and moon’s orbits Saturday

Published

6 hours ago

March 25, 2023

Harry Miller

An asteroid dubbed “city killer” for its size will pass harmlessly between the moon and the Earth Saturday evening.

The asteroid 2023 DZ2 will pass at a distance of over 100,000 miles, less than half the distance between the Earth and the moon. It’s about 160 feet long — about the size of an airliner. An asteroid that size could cause significant damage if it hit a populated area, hence its nickname.

“While close approaches are a regular occurrence, one by an asteroid of this size (140-310 ft) happens only about once per decade, providing a unique opportunity for science,” NASA Asteroid Watch tweeted.

Astronomers from the International Asteroid Warning Network, established about 10 years ago to coordinate international responses to potential near-Earth object impact threats, will be monitoring and learning from this asteroid.

NASA Asteroid Watch called the opportunity “good practice” in case “a potential asteroid threat were ever discovered.”

Near-Earth objects are asteroids or comets that pass close to the Earth’s orbit, and they generally come from objects that are affected by other planets’ gravity, moving them into orbits that push them close to Earth, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

The European Space Agency maintains a risk list of 1,460 objects, which catalogs every object with a non-zero chance of hitting Earth over the next 100 years. Asteroid 2023 DZ2, which is in orbit around the sun, is not on the risk list.

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Large asteroid to zoom between Earth and Moon

Published

10 hours ago

March 25, 2023

Harry Miller

On Saturday, the 2023DZ2 will come within a third of the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

A large asteroid will safely zoom between Earth and the Moon on Saturday, a once-in-a-decade event that will be used as a training exercise for planetary defence efforts, according to the European Space Agency.

The asteroid, named 2023 DZ2, is estimated to be 40 to 70 metres (130 to 230 feet) wide, roughly the size of the Parthenon, and big enough to wipe out a large city if it hit our planet.

At 19:49 GMT on Saturday, it will come within a third of the distance from the Earth to the Moon, said Richard Moissl, the head of the ESA’s planetary defence office.

Though that is “very close”, there is nothing to worry about, he told AFP news agency.

Small asteroids fly past every day, but one of this size coming so close to Earth only happens about once every 10 years, he added.

The asteroid will pass 175,000km (109,000 miles) from Earth at a speed of 28,000 kilometres per hour (17,400 miles per hour). The Moon is roughly 385,000km (239,228 miles) away.

An observatory in La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, first spotted the asteroid on February 27.

Last week, the United Nations-endorsed International Asteroid Warning Network decided it would take advantage of the close look, carrying out a “rapid characterisation” of 2023 DZ2, Moissl said. That means astronomers around the world will analyse the asteroid with a range of instruments such as spectrometers and radars.

The goal is to find out just how much we can learn about such an asteroid in only a week, Moissl said. It will also serve as training for how the network “would react to a threat” possibly heading our way in the future, he added.

The asteroid will again swing past Earth in 2026, but poses no threat of impact for at least the next 100 years – which is how far out its trajectory has been calculated.

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