The sky is (not) the limit | A puzzle on Mars, a perseverance vehicle image and more

Mars was the talk this week. In addition to the Creativity Helicopter making a new flight to accompany the first science mission of the Persevering Rover, Percy’s own attempt to collect samples from Mars soil failed. Not that there was anything wrong with the rover, it did all the actions correctly, but it still couldn’t collect anything. What happened to the sample?

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The Perseverance Chariot carried out all independent procedures to collect a sample of Martian soil, but after drilling into the soil, there was nothing inside the collection tube. The expedition team found nothing unusual about the rover, which had already been able to use the drill to excavate and collect some debris, but the contents seemed to be gone. the NASA He investigated the case and concluded that the problem was on the ground, not in the persistence hardware or software.

This conclusion makes sense, since the rover was able to drill an 8-cm hole in the floor of the Red Planet, but data from the drilled cavity showed that the properties of the rocks could be responsible. It may not have been captured because the rover dug into “too soft” rock, The team concluded. If this is the case, the soil structure is so fragile that digging has resulted in dust fine enough to escape from the collecting tube.

can you find me I took creativity seriously at work while exploring the South of Sittah here at Jezero Crater. https://t.co/zzMWUTsAOY

– NASA Perseverance on Mars (@NASAPersevere) August 11, 2021

Last week, an Ingenuity helicopter completed its 11th flight on Mars, lasting just over two minutes, and filming Perseverance from a distance of 500 metres. The rover was so small in the image that NASA took the opportunity to play “Where’s Wally?” On the mission’s official Twitter profile. The image taken by the helicopter shows the persevering rover during its first science campaign. Can you find it? Tip: You need to enlarge the image.

The shadow of creativity appears prominently at the bottom of the image, but perseverance is a long way off. If you look closely at the top of the image, you will find a small dark shape with a small soft reflection, right in front of the dunes. Here is Percy working on the exploration of Mars soil!

NASA wants to use the ‘robot dog’ spot from Boston Dynamics, to investigate the caves of Mars. The initiative was already announced last year, but the space agency has now begun exploring Earth caves similar to those seen on the Red Planet. The goal is to improve robot technology and artificial intelligence so that it can be used on Mars missions.

With its own artificial intelligence nebula, the futuristic “austronaut” robot will be able to process information and make decisions while exploring caves without any prior information. It was precisely this ability that NASA tested in terrestrial caves. The team of researchers remained outside the cave, while performing actions that scientists might take during an actual mission to Mars.

A team of scientists has created a computer simulation to try to find out what type of object fell to Earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The study is based on geochemical analyzes of the impacts of the impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, in the Chicxulub crater, located on the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico. These analyzes concluded that the asteroid could be a carbonaceous chondrite, a primitive group of space objects that likely formed during the “infancy” of the solar system.

The simulation result showed that asteroids with a diameter of more than 9.6 kilometers can be launched from the outer part of the asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, on a collision course with Earth. More specifically, this can happen once every 250 million years on average. Interestingly, the Chicxulub crater appears to have formed as a result of an impact estimated to have occurred within the past 250 million years.

RS Ophiuchi OUTBURST
Captured by Ernesto Guido, Marco Roccetto and Adriano Valvasori on August 9, 2021 @remotely from Australia via TELESCOPE LIVEhttps://t.co/ttjH74mm0l

Recurrent nova RS Oph in case of an outbreak. The last major explosion of RS Oph occurred in February 2006, → pic.twitter.com/FMqDZEQ0Xx

– Mizuho Kai (@mizuho73700856) August 9, 2021

An amateur astronomer witnessed a rare event: a supernova exploding once every fifteen years. The event took place between August 8 and 9 and made the star RS Ophiuchi so bright that the supernova could be observed with the naked eye. Only 10 stars of the recurring type (that is, those that explode at certain intervals) have been discovered in the Milky Way so far.

These explosions are not as catastrophic as supernovae, which completely extinguish the star. The periodic starters occur because the star is part of a binary system, consisting of a white dwarf and a red giant. They both orbit each other, while the white dwarf devours matter from its companion until it gains enough mass to detonate a thermonuclear explosion.

Researchers are comparing the properties of the Sun, a G-type star, with other stars considered “cool”. The parameter was a measure of stellar activity determined by combining the star’s rotation speed and the underground fluid flow, factors that influence the distribution of magnetic flux on its surface. The study indicates that these wonderful stars are not very different from each other, which was a surprise.

What surprised astronomers most was the fact that the process by which a magnetic field is generated in a star can be very similar to cold stars. The study could help astronomers better understand the behavior of magnetically active stars.

A comet was discovered during its journey into the inner solar system, and it may be visible to the naked eye when it orbits the sun. It’s C/2021 O3 (PanSTARRS), discovered on August 1st. The bad news is that it probably won’t survive perihelion when a celestial body reaches its maximum approximation with another body – in this case, the Sun.

Currently, the comet does not show a tail because it is so far from the Sun, but the images reveal a combined coma (or comet’s atmosphere) and a parabolic orbit. When it was discovered, it had an apparent magnitude of 20 and was located in the constellation Pegasus, 4.3 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.

Data collected by OSIRIS-REx, the unmanned space mission that researched the large asteroid Bennu, is helping scientists predict the risks of Earth’s impact. This information can be used to test the limits of astronomical models and calculate Bennu’s future trajectory with a higher degree of certainty than if it were analyzed only from a distance.

More precisely, the data should be used in simulations from the year 2135, when Bennu could be attracted by Earth’s gravity and then go on a collision course. While this risk is not certain, scientists need to predict how Earth’s gravity will affect the body’s orbit around the sun. It does. However, preliminary analysis shows that the chances of Bennu hitting Earth are very low.

The development of new spacesuits for NASA astronauts scheduled to land on the moon in 2024 will be delayed by nearly two years, potentially undermining plans for the Artemis program. The suits, dubbed the Expeditionary Vehicle Mobility Module (xEMU), were revealed in 2019, but there have been delays related to the closure of NASA centers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Elon MuskYes, CEO SpaceX, offered to produce the suits and assist NASA in this task. The proposal isn’t entirely surprising, as SpaceX is one of NASA’s partners in the Artemis program, tasked with developing the first commercial lander that will carry astronauts to the lunar surface.

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