Clouds on Pluto, Distant Galaxies and Radio Signals

Following the recent announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves, you can help in the further discovery of more signals - link here.
In news from the New Horizons team, something is eating away at Pluto, creating a huge gouge in the Western hemisphere.
Don't panic though, it 's probably just material evaporating ...
Another recent discovery is what appear to be actual clouds on Pluto - caveat, I say actual clouds, but these are nitrogen with traces of methane, not water clouds.
Smelly acid rain then, don't forget your brolly.
Or breathing apparatus, obv.

Impossibly hard to see  wispy clouds on Pluto.  pic NASA

This discovery is possible through the ongoing downloads of material from the September flypast by New Horizons.

The downloads will continue until near the end of this year.
It's a slow process - after all, New Horizons is getting further away, heading for a rendezvous in the Oort cloud in 2019, so it is putting serious miles between us , travelling at approximately 30,000 mph in the opposite direction .
Don't forget the download speed is pathetically low; at an underwhelming 2000 bits a second - there are no Wi - Fi relay / booster stations out there !
Clouds on Pluto are exciting news because they could help in the reclassification of Pluto as a planet (remember it was downgraded in 2006) .
This would create a whole new set of problems with the ongoing search for the mysterious Planet X , which would then become a tenth planet in our solar system.

On its way out of service, Hubble has just imaged the most distant object in the known universe at 13 billion light years distant, which makes it just  aspproximately 400 hundred million years from the Big Bang.

JWST artists impression    pic NASA

Anyway, the incoming James Webb Telescope should easily surpass that, perhaps even revealing the finger of The Supreme Being hovering over the button marked ' Start .'

But I digress...

In other news, the source of the mysterious signal FRB 121102 has been pinpointed (approximately) -but they are none the wiser as to what exactly it is .
The actual signals seem to be clustered irregularly, which implies an artificial nature, perhaps designed to be noticed.
Beyond that, there is only speculation at present - but the 'alien megastructure' theory is no longer viable.
To add to the confusion, doubts have already been cast on the validity of the report - the internet is no slouch when it comes to raining on parades !
Despite this, the internet can also have its uses - for instance, here's a link to many Russian films, including the only horror film made in the old USSR 'Viy', and the mesmerising ' Stalker' - pointless and strange ? Exactly, that's why we're here !

Leap Year Post - The ninth planet, and Mir

I decided to upset the regularity (!) of my posts by creating this special post just for today - because today is that strangest of days, the 29th of February, which only occurs once in every four years.

The tradition of the extra day was instigated by Julius Caesar, although it was his son Augustus who added a day every four years, as opposed to every three years (Julius didn't do the math).
It is a day on which women can propose marriage to their beloved, flying in the face of convention.

In Scotland and Greece, the day is considered bad luck .

Meanwhile, on the outer reaches of our solar system...

The search for the elusive planet 9 continues, with the Cassini craft being roped in , hopefully to reveal the planet through millimetre wavelength recordings.
Having thoroughly imaged Saturns moons, it is now tasked with helping to discover the ninth planet, before being sent to a fiery death in Saturns atmosphere in 2017.

Cassini on extra duties before death in 2017     pic © Lockheed Martin

Mike Brown leads the search ( pantomime boo - hiss ! ) - Yes, he's the guy who demoted Pluto to its dwarf planet status.
So planet 9 better be BIG .
Allegedly it is ten times bigger than  Earth, but on a 10,000 year orbit of the sun, which puts it WAYYYY out there.
Good luck to Cassini !

The Mir Spektr module after being hit        pic NASA

When I first saw the picture above, I did a double take - after all, we expect objects in space to look pristine , clean and new.
Yet here is a battered reality - no mechanics in space - no valet service to wax the bodywork .
Just a working craft with a long and chequered history;
The ancestor of the ISS, no less .
The damage was caused by a Soyuz refuelling craft which hit the Mir twice.


Mir made history in many ways - launched in February 1986,  it was the first long term space station - and it spanned the collapse of the former Soviet republic, with astronaut Sergei Krikalev becoming known as ' The Last Soviet citizen' - he took off from the U.S.S.R., and landed in Kazakhistan.
It gathered unwanted notoriety after falling into disrepair and almost ending the lives of two astronauts, and when it was hit twice by a refuelling Soyuz craft, which struck the Mir module, damaging solar panels and causing depressurisation.
The first astronaut from the U.K., Helen Sharman boarded MIR  in 1991 and reported it as being full of flickering lights and BO.
Probably not well regarded as a venue on AirBnB, or Trip Advisor, then.

The historic and troubled Mir is no more, having been sent to a fiery death on re-entry in 2001, with the bulk of its wreckage burning up in the Earths atmosphere.

On the plus side, it lasted three times longer than expected, (fifteen years as opposed to five), and its legacy survives as the International Space Station,

For completists, the story of Mir is detailed in the books Dragonfly, and Off The Planet .

Lightsails, Femme Fatales, Martian Maps and Matters of Faith

Photonic propulsion is very much in the news , being touted as a way of taking a crew to Mars in good time (in practical terms, about five weeks) at a potentially large ( 30% ) proportion of the speed of light.
Its simplicity (solar power) makes it economical, and its potential for upscaling makes it suitable for interstellar use - no more rockets laden with heavy fuel - it is seriously threatening the much touted SLS as a means of travel.
I imagine that light sails could become quite a common mode of travel within our solar system. It is environmentally friendly, using a renewable power source , it ticks all the boxes - the only down side to carrying humans would be the sheer scale of the thing - small is beautiful seems to be the key at present, with the possibility of tiny satellites being made of smartphones !


The excitement from the recent discovery of gravitational waves continues with news that radio telescopes can be set to do likewise, and NANOGrav are now monitoring 54 pulsars (which can witness the collision of binary black holes ).

Further news tells us that the source of a mysterious FRB has been found to be a galaxy some 6 billion light years away - it is possibly a collision from two neutron stars.
Nothing greatly exciting then - and this info comes to us from the Parkes observatory in Australia.
Last year, they told us excitedly of a massive radiation burst from deep space - which turned out to be the microwave oven next door.
Ahem.

Artist impression of AIM        image ©ESA

One craft heading into space soon (well, 2020) is the Asteroid Impact Mission - now that  ESA have proved that it is possible to land on an asteroid (although sadly, there is no more word from the lander  Philae), they have decided to launch the Asteroid Impact Mission , which along with the NASA  DART* mission will test our capability for deflection of rogue asteroids from potential collision with Earth - infact, for lovers of morbid scenarios in which doom arrives from space in the form of an errant asteroid, 30th June is Asteroid Day, raising awareness of the threat of potential global destruction.

So hurrah for that -
Any excuse for a fun day off...

Our Galaxy                           pic byESA

An indepth new view of the milky way reveals more of everything.
The view was taken by ATLASGAL - APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy.
Almost makes the DART * acronym ( Demonstration of Autonomous Reconnaisance Technology) seem simple...

Meanwhile, back on Mars...

If you watched 'The Martian' wishing you were there (despite the deadly irradiated landscape) , then you can get the next best thing - an ordinance survey map of the planet !
Yes, the standard piece of kit for any fell walker in the uk now covers the Red Planet too.
Did you know that the O.S. department in the U.K. was spawned by the volume of accurate measurements required for the building of the Embankment in London ?

Remaining on (virtual) Mars, apparently tomatoes or even strawberries would make good first crops, rather than the humble potato.
I'm not sold on the logic, although the water content of tomatoes might be a bonus on such a dry, arid world.

 Back on Earth - 

Preserved in amber, and 15 million years too late to be a crop on Mars (although I'm sure a mad scientist may see opportunity for disabling the populace), is a beautiful , but deadly strychnos flower, the ancestor of strychnine and cyanide ,  much admired by the Borgias, for example.

Lucrezia Borgia

The online world is a battlefield.

Everyone thinks they have the answer, and social media is full of opinions - like this one.
Of course, in this topsy - turvy world we now live in , we get extremes - hence the re-appearance of  Flat-Earthers .
Ahem.
I'm sure there are those who deliberately 'farm' strong opinions - certainly on FB, after all it adds a degree of interest to any newsfeed - and people like the opportunity to air their views; we tend to surround ourselves with like - minded friends, and so are often ' preaching to the converted', whereas a wider audience involves fresh opinions and input.
Of course, occasionally things descend into the 'trolling' level of personal insults , but that is generally the response from someone who feels cornered and threatened - either through a lack of ability to reason or to argue a point, or just through playing 'devils advocate'.
This pointless waffle brings me neatly to a potential image for debate - a map of the world according to the  friendliness of nations !
I was in two minds about including the map purporting to show nations according to how welcoming they are, on the grounds that it may be biased , and lets not introduce political favour - but although this is generated in the U.S.A, it doesn't favour that country - infact the U.S.A. is about halfway - Canada seem to be the friendly guys here - and speaking of friendly (and outwardly hostile) , this link takes you to a map showing hostilities worldwide - if you drill down to the original site, you can manipulate the dates etc, for greater accuracy. It's obviously incomplete, and very Euro-centric, but even so, a rather grim rendition of battles mostly around us.

It's almost midnight here (GMT), and the candle is guttering here in the shed, so I shall post this piece, and repair to the great beyond.
It's almost impossible to know when to stop at the moment, as there is an abundance of space related stuff out there - perhaps it's the season, or just an exponential increase, following high profile stuff like Ceres and the asteroid landing and last years Pluto flypast.
What I'm saying is goodnight, and watch the sky, and this space !
TTFN !

Solar Sails, Ripples in Spacetime, and Holidays on Distant Moons

Of course, the big news this week is the proof of the existence of Gravitational Waves .
The dedicated team at LIGO made the announcement on Thursday, 11th Feb.
Some of those involved have made the search their lifes work , and the initial team was assembled back in 1975.
It brings to a conclusion the decades of speculation (and false signals), and the vindication of Albert Einsteins prediction , over a hundred years ago.
It also tells us that 'spacetime' is flexible, and not rigid, as a medium: this will fuel all manner of sci-fi conjecture.
This is a truly amazing revelation , which will lead to game - changing discoveries.
It enables us to better understand gravity, but also opens a whole new realm of exploration.
In essence, visual wavelengths have been used to observe stellar phenomenon - but this discovery brings the dimension of sound into play.
The initial sound of the  two black holes merging which led to this discovery has already been timestretched into an ambient, hour - long piece - it is essentially a rising scale on a cosmic keyboard up to middle C - (maaan).
The number crunching is mind blowing in itself - the gravitational wave began with two black holes colliding 1.3 billion years ago, unleashing an energy equivalent to the observable universe x50 - but which ultimately only affected the measuring devices by one ten thousandth the width of the nucleus of an atom.
Cue my mind melting.
We are dealing with next level science here, way beyond my own ability to fathom : infact, it's so far out, that I found myself drawn to the human element of the story - Dr Ron Drever, one of the earliest members of the team, could not join in the celebrations as he is now in a nursing home in Edinburgh, suffering with dementia.
His colleague, Dr  Rainer Weiss maintains that it was Dr Drevers creative genius that helped to propel the discovery.

Planetary Society LightSail

Solar Sails

In the last post, I extolled the virtues of nuclear fusion, and have decided to redress the balance by writing up solar sails, which are unrivalled as a means of distance travel through deep space .
I don't want to get bogged down in the arguments for and against , but certainly in terms of deep space, the solar sail has the edge.
Although the force employed (photons) is very small, the push is continuous, so the acceleration is constant.
It's been estimated that a craft with a 1300 foot sail could travel 1.3 billion miles a year, and leave our solar system within ten years
The only real issue for deep space travel would be the need for a huge laser firing photons at the sail, in lieu of sunlight.
In 2010, the Japanese craft Ikaros employed a solar sail 46 feet wide, and recently (albeit with limited success) the Planetary Society unfurled a larger sail.
The sheer scale of the sails required for interstellar journeys is incredible, and would create quite a visual impact in the darkness of space.
Attempts to guess the fastest method of travel to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) give us a possible 9 years using a massive solar sail (600 miles / 945 km diameter) .
Nine years travel may sound a lot , but Proxima Centauri is 4 light years distant, so 9 years is actually pretty fast - well, unless you compare it to your daily commute.
Quite apart from the sheer scale of the thing, it would need boosting from a giant laser once it leaves the area of influence of our sun, so for now at least, this is in the realms of sci-fi.

©NASA

In Other News...

NASA have released a series of retro 'travel' posters extolling the virtues of 'space breaks'- if you were uncertain as to choosing a holiday on Enceladus as opposed to Titan, for instance.
I think they are great, although my past playthroughs of the computer game ' Bioshock ' gives  me reservations about such Art Deco styling.

Bioshock

Apparently, an asteroid heading our way on March 5th could fly past Earth at a distance of 11,000 miles, which is a mere whisker (in cosmic terms).
The comet in question ( designated 2013 TX68 ) - was only discovered three years ago, and as such, has no given name.
There is a one in 250 million chance of impact, hardly enough to cause sleepless nights - but then, what about the comets we didn't discover yet ?
Goodnight

Capturing the Sun, Lunar Flashlights and Mirror Magic

The Stellarator - limitless power ?

Research into Nuclear Fusion is making great leaps forward as news comes in of the generation of hydrogen plasma which reached 80 million° C for a quarter of a second .
That may not seem a big deal, but for a brief time, we emulated the sun .
In the Max Planck Institute in Germany, they have achieved the beginnings of what could be limitless fuel from a source that is little more than salt water.
News to ponder.
This gives us a huge insight into future power.
MIT in the U.S.A. have also made inroads into this research although it's being detailed with reference to 'Tony Stark'.
I doubt whether it has anything to do with Iron Man (personally, in my childhood, I preferred Daredevil, but hey ho ) .
The point is that ultimately we get closer to a real alternative to fossil fuels and the resultant pollutants.

Could we see the return of the lightbulb ?

Staying with the MIT thread, they have been busy redefining lightbulbs - I don't know about you, but part of me was sad to see the decline of the familiar lightbulbs in favour of the energy efficient but colder LEDs.
Apparently, MIT have found a way to reflect wasted energy back into filament bulbs as even more light !
It may not be up there with potential limitless energy, but it's still a move in the right direction.
So yay, for all those who are working for the good of humanity .

Elsewhere - in Barcelona, Spain to be exact, scientists have created a wormhole (in a bathtub, apparently)
The article states that this wormhole is more like the ' cloak of invisibility' , as though people can't digest accurate scientific information without populist allegories, but I have wandered off topic - the point is that the wormhole is capable of moving information in the form of a magnetic shield from one place to another.
For me, the relevant parallel is that it could be used to remotely assess brain / body issues without the need for an MRI scan - anyone unfortunate enough to have endured this claustrophobic machine will know what a bonus that would be.

Scientists following genomes and DNA have discovered a possible overhaul of history, with not one, but two apparent population upsets - one approximately 50,000 years ago, and one 15,000 years ago just after the last ice age, when indigenous hunter-gatherers were supplanted by a sudden influx from an unknown populace.
It's early days yet, but this could seriously upset the apple cart.


The James Webb Telescope has had all of its mirrors attached, and is nearing completion.
Due for launch in French Guiana in 2018, it will afford unprecedented views of ancient galaxies, possibly right back to the purported ' Big Bang' - well, a couple hundred million years after, but who's counting ?

Artists impression of the 'Lunar Flashlight'    pic © NASA

Space Launch System / Orion is basically a rocket full of hitchhikers (well, 13 CubeSats, TBH ) and is due to launch soon-ish.
One of its payloads is shown above .
It's a cubesat with a hovering flashlight, for exposing those dark craters on the moon - specifically hidden areas of frozen water ice, although I'm sure that many will hope for hidden alien bases and such.
The Lunar Flashlight will also boast a Solar Sail, which , as well as powering the CubeSat flight to the moon, will be used to reflect sunlight into the dark craters.
On an almost serious level though - did anyone wonder how we managed to name all the moons in our solar system except our own ?
Just asking.

2,274 satellites overhead...

 An 'overseer' satellite , part of the EDRS initiative was recently launched (29th Jan 2016) and is now dutifully logging information from all the other satellites currently orbiting the Earth.
 It's good to know that at least there is an attempt to centralise information from the ever-increasing number of satellites (2,274 at last count) around our globe.


...and finally, a recent picture of the North polar vortex at Saturn, taken by Cassini. The explorer will next flyby Titan on Feb 16 2016.

NASA / JPL / Caltech

The Midnight Rambler and a Cloud called Smith.

There is a cloud called Smith, and it's heading this way at 700,000 miles an hour from the distant outer edge of our galaxy.
It's a gas cloud full of cosmic chemicals, the stuff of stars.
Don't worry though, it's not due to collide with us for another 30 million years, so panic over.
I think I'll be tidying the shed that day.
By all accounts, it will be quite a sight, though, as it could give birth to up to two million stars.
I love these giant space numbers - they remind me of how insignificant I really am, in the greater scheme of things.
Enough navel gazing - the cloud was discovered by Gail Smith , hence the name.

Jupiter image ©NASA / JPL

Apparently the ancient Babylonians used algebra to plot the passage of Jupiter across the night sky, taking its origins (calculus) back some 1500 years.
My personal caution is that we are approaching 'ancient astronauts' territory here, and will next hear of the alien race who bequeathed this knowledge - puts me in mind of the claims regarding the Dogon tribe of Mali.

Remaining on the subject of possible alien interlopers, we are advised that there will be further pictures of the mysterious lights / salts in the craters of Ceres.
The Dawn mission is currently taking images from a new lower orbit of 240 miles. Images thus far look great, but the relevant ones are conspicuous by their absence.

Moscow viewed from ISS  pic ESA / 

Only last night, I saw a photo taken over Moscow which looked not unlike the Occator region - pareidolia possibly, but even so.
I'm still quietly excited.

Occator lights, Ceres   pic NASA / JPL / Caltech

There now follows a close up image of comet 67P Churyumov - Gerasimenko on which the lander Philae has apparently died a cold and lonely death, but will be joined in September when mothership Rosetta finally sets down to become one with the now famous hunk of icy rock as it continues its journey through space.
the comet was originally from the Kuiper belt, until a brush with Jupiter in 1959 knocked it out of it's orbit **, and Jupiter is where we came in, so...

Close up of comet 67P Churyumov - Gerasimenko           23 Jan 2016  ©ESA

* 'they' = the government, obv.
** which makes the comet a 'centaur' technically, as it's a hybrid.

FYI, this post was edited on Feb 5th 2016 to remove my 'midnight ramble' which frankly adds nothing to the post. Thank you all.

By the way, if anyone is wondering about my name change - it's to avoid being labelled a bot on social media - so the initials still mean 'Alias Me', ok ? Thank you !

The Ninth Planet and Giant Mirrors

It's busy up in space, so NASA have created this useful spread for us.


I'm a little underwhelmed by the hyperbole around Ceres, though.
Can't help feeling there's something - missing ?
Oh yes, the mysterious ' lights' in the Occator crater ?


Speaking of missing, they've 'found' a Ninth planet in our solar system - well, to be precise, the scientist responsible for the Pluto downgrade has allegedly found a new ninth planet, four times the size of Earth, with an orbit taking 10 - 20,000 years to loop around the sun.
Except, they haven't actually found anything.
Its existence is based on the unusual orbits of other bodies.
Beware the hype !

Orbits which supposedly prove the ninth planet exists ©Caltech / 

There is a live feed from NASA which allows you to watch the building of the Webb telescope
Hardly world shattering, but don't forget, when this thing gets to space, it will be able to see further than ever before, with its infra-red capabilities and position on the second Lagrange point at a distance of 1.5 million km from Earth.
Okay, October 2018 is the projected launch date from French Guiana, so a little wait yet,
although I'm sure citizen astronomers will be on the case already.

Znamiya 2.5             pic Triz Journal

Productivity bonus!
There once was an attempt to turn night to day, thus enabling more productive times on Earth - well, Cold - War era Soviet Russia.
Far from being a flakey idea, the man behind the huge space mirror created the spaceship docking system still in use today at the ISS.

In other non-news
There is a new allusion to illustrate quantum mechanics, which says that three pigeons can be put in two holes without the same pigeons occupying any hole.
Which is like saying that a thing does not exist until it is noted.
I think.
My problem with this example is why not have two pigeons in one hole without being in the same hole ?
Surely that is more quantum ?
Remaining in the realm of hypothesis and brain-ache , two strands of possible systems are being reconciled - yes, they have found common ground between string theory and looping quantum physics , which may close the chasm of incompatibility.
For the layman like myself, it just means that interstellar travel may be possible sooner .
Or at all.
My brain hurts.

Final words in a pointless post
In my endless drifting through the world of social media news aggregates (tough, repetitive work, but someone has to do it), I notice with dismay the new tendency to over-use superlatives.
It's almost as though everything is awesome incredible shocking.
I suppose in our news hungry modern world, these are the superlatives needed to grab attention.
I can't help thinking though, that ultimately something really amazing will be overlooked, and left ignored, swamped by a sea of viral puffery.
For those who wonder what 'puffery' means, it's pointless trivia like this :
Did you know that the Wikipedia article on Jesus has been edited more than 25,000 times?
That's more than the article on The Beatles (only 22,000 edits, approx}.
So it's true to say that Jesus is more famous than The Beatles, now.
Which is only slightly funny for a few people.
Oh well.