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NASA astronauts stranded in space

<p>Two astronauts are stranded in space after a simple week-long trip to the International Space Station (ISS) has turned into a possible eight-month trip. </p> <p>NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams encountered technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft days after departing for their eight-day trip in June and now may be stuck indefinitely. </p> <p>The trip Mr Wilmore, 61, and Ms Williams, 58, were on was designed to see how the new spacecraft performs before it is used more regularly.</p> <p>However, problems emerged as it made its approach to the ISS, including leaks in its propulsion system and some of its thrusters shutting down.</p> <p>While they made it to the space station safely, they will need an alternative mode of transport to get home if the Starliner is not deemed safe to return to Earth.</p> <p>One potential option being considered to get the astronauts safely home is to attach the two astronauts to a separate mission that is scheduled to launch in September, and return them to earth with that mission in February 2025.</p> <p>That flight to the space station will be made by a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft, and while the initial plan was for four crew members to be aboard, two of the seats could be left empty if needed.</p> <p>That plan would mean the astronauts would spend more than eight months, rather than eight days, aboard the International Space Station.</p> <p>NASA officials said it could take a week or more for a final decision to be made about how to get the stranded astronauts safely home. </p> <p>Thankfully, NASA has used a SpaceX rocket to deliver more food and supplies to the ISS, including extra clothes for the two astronauts, as the pair remain in high spirits. </p> <p><em>Image credits: NASA</em></p>

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How satellites, radar and drones are tracking meteorites and aiding Earth’s asteroid defence

<p>On July 31 2013 a <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">constellation of US defence satellites</a> saw a streak of light over South Australia as a rock from outer space burned through Earth’s atmosphere on its way to crash into the ground below.</p> <p>The impact created an explosion equivalent to about 220 tonnes of TNT. More than 1,500km away, in Tasmania, the bang was heard by detectors normally used to listen for <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/international-relations/security/asno/Pages/australian-ims-stations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extremely low-frequency sounds</a> from illegal tests of nuclear weapons.</p> <p>These were two excellent indications that there should be a patch of ground covered in meteorites somewhere north of Port Augusta. But how could we track them down?</p> <p>My colleagues and I who work on the <a href="https://dfn.gfo.rocks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Desert Fireball Network (DFN)</a>, which tracks incoming asteroids and <a href="https://dfn.gfo.rocks/meteorites.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the resulting meteorites</a>, had a couple of ideas: weather radar and drones.</p> <p><strong>Eyes in space</strong></p> <p>Finding meteorites is not an easy task. There is a network of high-quality ground-based sensors called the <a href="https://gfo.rocks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Fireball Observatory</a>, but it only covers about 1% of the planet.</p> <p>The <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US satellite data</a> published by NASA covers a much larger area than ground-based detectors, but it only picks up the biggest fireballs. What’s more, they <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/483/4/5166/5256650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">don’t always give an accurate idea of the meteor’s trajectory</a>.</p> <p>So, to have any chance to find a meteorite from these data, you need a little outside help.</p> <p><strong>Weather radars</strong></p> <p>In 2019, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology started making its weather radar data <a href="https://www.openradar.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">openly available</a> to researchers and the public. I saw this as an opportunity to complete the puzzle.</p> <p>I combed through the record of events from the Desert Fireball Network and NASA, and cross-matched them with nearby weather radars. Then I looked for unusual radar signatures that could indicate the presence of falling meteorites.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496384/original/file-20221121-22-iwtkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496384/original/file-20221121-22-iwtkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496384/original/file-20221121-22-iwtkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=334&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496384/original/file-20221121-22-iwtkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=334&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496384/original/file-20221121-22-iwtkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=334&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496384/original/file-20221121-22-iwtkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=420&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496384/original/file-20221121-22-iwtkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=420&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496384/original/file-20221121-22-iwtkve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=420&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="An annoyed aerial photo showing the locations of the Woomera radar station and the falling meteorites." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">The Woomera weather radar station captured reflections from the falling meteorites.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Curtin University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>And bingo, the 2013 event was not too far from the Woomera radar station. The weather was clear, and the radar record showed some small reflections at about the right place and time.</p> <p>Next, I had to use the weather data to figure out how the wind would have pushed the meteorites around on their way down to Earth.</p> <p>If I got the calculations right, I would have a treasure map showing the location of a rich haul of meteorites. If I got them wrong, I would end up sending my team to wander around in the desert for two weeks for nothing.</p> <p><strong>The search</strong></p> <p>I gave what I hoped was an accurate treasure map to my colleague Andy Tomkins from Monash University. In September this year, he happened to be driving past the site on his way back from an expedition in the Nullarbor.</p> <p>Thankfully, Andy found the first meteorite within 10 minutes of looking. In the following two hours, his team found nine more.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496385/original/file-20221121-16-he3p7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496385/original/file-20221121-16-he3p7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496385/original/file-20221121-16-he3p7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496385/original/file-20221121-16-he3p7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496385/original/file-20221121-16-he3p7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496385/original/file-20221121-16-he3p7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496385/original/file-20221121-16-he3p7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="Photo of several people walking through a desert field looking at the ground." /><figcaption><span class="caption">A field team from Monash University searched for meteorites in the strewn field.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monash University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>The technique of finding meteorites with weather radars <a href="https://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/meteorite-falls/how-to-find-meteorites/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was pioneered</a> by my colleague Marc Fries in the US. However, this is the first time it has been done outside the US NEXRAD radar network. (When it comes to monitoring airspace, the US has more powerful and more densely packed tech than anyone else.)</p> <p>This first search confirmed there were lots of meteorites on the ground. But how were we going to find them all?</p> <p>That’s where the drones come in. We used a method developed by my colleague Seamus Anderson to <a href="https://gfo.rocks/blog/2022/03/14/First_Meteorite_Found_with_Drone.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">automatically detect meteorites from drone images</a>.</p> <p>In the end we collected 44 meteorites, weighing a bit over 4kg in total. Together they form what we call a “strewn field”.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496386/original/file-20221121-13-qssltc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496386/original/file-20221121-13-qssltc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496386/original/file-20221121-13-qssltc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496386/original/file-20221121-13-qssltc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496386/original/file-20221121-13-qssltc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496386/original/file-20221121-13-qssltc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496386/original/file-20221121-13-qssltc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496386/original/file-20221121-13-qssltc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="An aerial view of a desert field with a black dot (a meteorite) highlighted by a yellow square." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">A machine-learning algorithm identified meteorites from drone photos.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Curtin Uni</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Strewn fields <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maps.13892" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tell us a lot</a> about how an asteroid fragments in our atmosphere.</p> <p>That’s quite important to know, because the energy of these things is comparable to that of nuclear weapons. For example, the 17-metre asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia in 2013 produced an explosion 30 times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.</p> <p>So when the next big one is about to hit, it may be useful to predict how it will deposit its energy in our atmosphere.</p> <p>With new telescopes and better technology, we are starting to see some asteroids <a href="https://skymapper.anu.edu.au/news/great-balls-fire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">before they hit Earth</a>. We will see even more when projects such as the <a href="https://www.lsst.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vera Rubin Observatory</a> and the <a href="https://atlas.fallingstar.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS)</a> are up and running.</p> <p>These systems might give us as much as a few days’ notice that an asteroid is heading for Earth. This would be too late to make any effort to deflect it – but plenty of time for preparation and damage control on the ground.</p> <p><strong>The value of open data</strong></p> <p>This find was only made possible by the free availability of crucial data – and the people who made it available.</p> <p>The US satellites that detected the fireball are presumably there to detect missile and rocket launches. However, somebody (I don’t know who) must have figured out how to publish some of the satellite data without giving away too much about their capabilities, and then lobbied hard to get the data released.</p> <p>Likewise, the find would not have happened without the work of Joshua Soderholm at Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, who worked to make low-level weather radar data openly accessible for other uses. Soderholm went to the trouble to make the radar data <a href="https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">readily available and easy to use</a>, which goes well beyond the vague formulations you can read at the bottom of scientific papers like “data available upon reasonable request”.</p> <p>There is no shortage of fireballs to track down. Right now, we’re on the hunt for a meteorite that was spotted in space last weekend before <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/science/fireball-asteroid-toronto-new-york.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blazing through the sky over Ontario, Canada</a>.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194997/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em>Writen by Hadrien Devillepoix. Republished with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-satellites-radar-and-drones-are-tracking-meteorites-and-aiding-earths-asteroid-defence-194997" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: NASA</em></p>

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New NASA images capture birth of a star

<p dir="ltr">The James Webb Space Telescope continues to stun with its images of the universe following the release of an image showing a “fiery hourglass” housing a newborn star.</p> <p dir="ltr">The image of the protostar (a young star that is still unstable and cocooned in a cloud of dust and gas) has offered scientists insight into what stars might look like “in their infancy”.</p> <p dir="ltr">With the star located in the dark cloud L1527 and only visible in infrared light, the image was captured using Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).</p> <p dir="ltr">The protostar itself is hidden from view within the “neck” of the hourglass shape.</p> <p dir="ltr">"An edge-on proto-planetary disk is seen as a dark line across the middle of the neck," NASA said in <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-catches-fiery-hourglass-as-new-star-forms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a release</a>.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5b29e609-7fff-75b1-1c05-9a8cee017e57"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">"Light from the protostar leaks above and below this disk, illuminating cavities within the surrounding gas and dust."</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/11/star-birth1.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a photo of a young star using its infrared camera. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Blue and orange clouds forming above, below and around the protostar that form the hourglass represent empty spaces created as material shoots away from the protostar and collides with surrounding matter, with the colours being caused by layers of dust between the camera and the clouds.</p> <p dir="ltr">The thicker the dust, the more orange the clouds appear, since blue light is unable to escape and be perceived by our eyes.</p> <p dir="ltr">While it may appear small, the disk in the middle of the hourglass is about the size of our solar system.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to NASA, the protostar is relatively young at about 100,000 years old and considered a class 0 protostar, “the earliest stage of star formation”.</p> <p dir="ltr">‘Protostars like these, which are still cocooned in a dark cloud of dust and gas, have a long way to go before they become full-fledged stars,” NASA said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"L1527 doesn't generate its own energy through nuclear fusion of hydrogen yet, an essential characteristic of stars.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-83fc6d66-7fff-9fca-4c7e-d55b846fada4"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">"Its shape, while mostly spherical, is also unstable, taking the form of a small, hot and puffy clump of gas, somewhere between 20 and 40 percent the mass of our Sun."</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Our universe is beautiful. <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAWebb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NASAWebb</a> captured a stellar birth which is so poetically nestled in this hourglass shape. A truly stunning marker of time. <a href="https://t.co/8UflbFPdid">pic.twitter.com/8UflbFPdid</a></p> <p>— Shannon Stirone 💀 (@shannonmstirone) <a href="https://twitter.com/shannonmstirone/status/1593026314310934528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The protostar will get closer to stable nuclear fusion (the requirement to be a star) as it gathers more mass and its core compresses.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The scene shown in this image reveals L1527 doing just that," NASA said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The surrounding molecular cloud is made up of dense dust and gas being drawn to the centre, where the protostar resides.</p> <p dir="ltr">“As the material falls in, it spirals around the centre.</p> <p dir="ltr">"This creates a dense disk of material, known as an accretion disk, which feeds material to the protostar.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Ultimately, this view of L1527 provides a window into what our Sun and solar system looked like in their infancy.”</p> <p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><em>Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)</em></p>

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We steered a spacecraft into an asteroid

<p dir="ltr">From seeing further into space than ever before to viewing our neighbouring planets in brand new detail, it’s safe to say more of us are talking about the skies above than in previous years.</p> <p dir="ltr">Now, NASA has made headlines for crashing a spacecraft into a distant asteroid in a historic first for humanity.</p> <p dir="ltr">After leaving Earth last November, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spaceship travelled at a speedy 23,500 kilometres per hour for ten months to reach its target, an asteroid moonlet called Dimorphos.</p> <p dir="ltr">Dimorphos is a relatively small asteroid with a diameter of 160 metres - about the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza - that orbits Didymos, a larger asteroid boasting a diameter of 780 metres.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-6fbbb56c-7fff-3b7c-bda5-0ec6342814cd"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">DART, meanwhile, is approximately the size of a refrigerator - but size isn’t everything.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/09/dart-collision0.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is dwarfed by its target, Dimorphos, as well as Didymos, which Dimorphos orbits. Image: NASA / John Hopkins APL</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Located 11.2 million kilometres away from us, Dimorphus might not pose any risk to Earth, but it did serve as a suitable target for NASA to test whether a head-on collision from DART could cause the asteroid to change its orbit.</p> <p dir="ltr">This experiment, which uses a technique called kinetic impact to change the asteroid’s orbit, could determine whether it’s possible to prevent asteroids and other cosmic objects from colliding with Earth and avoid the devastating aftereffects of such a collision.</p> <p dir="ltr">NASA Administrator Bill Nelson explained that the experiment is part of the organisation’s overall planetary defence strategy.</p> <p dir="ltr">“At its core, DART represents an unprecedented success for planetary defence, but it is also a mission of unity with a real benefit for all humanity,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“As NASA studies the cosmos and our home planet, we’re also working to protect that home, and this international collaboration turned science fiction into science fact, demonstrating one way to protect Earth.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Rebecca Allen, an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology told the <em>ABC </em>that everything from the location of the impact, how fast DART travelled, and even its size are factors that could affect Dimorphos’ orbit.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-15585374-7fff-10ba-cc0e-78c10d40f192"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">"This vending-sized machine spacecraft, will it have enough kinetic impact to drastically or really measurably change the orbit of this asteroid? That's what we're trying to learn,” she added.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/09/dart-collision1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Shots taken from DART’s onboard camera showed asteroids Dimorphos and Didymos (left), and an up-close look at Dimorphos before DART crashed (right). Images: NASA / John Hopkins APL</em></p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>What happens now?</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Though DART successfully collided with Dimorphus on Tuesday morning (AEST), we won’t know whether the collision actually resulted in a change in orbit.</p> <p dir="ltr">It will take anywhere from several days to weeks to determine whether it worked, and we can expect to learn more over the coming months.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Over the next two months we’re going to see more information from the investigation team on what what period change did we actually make,” Dr Elena Adams, a DART Mission Systems Engineer, said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“That’s our number two goal, number one was hit the asteroid, which we’ve done but now number two is really measure that period change and characterise how much we actually put out.”</p> <p dir="ltr">In a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-dart-mission-hits-asteroid-in-first-ever-planetary-defense-test" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, NASA said researchers are expecting the path Dimorphos takes around Didymos to shorten by just one percent, or about 10 minutes.</p> <p dir="ltr">But even this seemingly tiny change can have an impact over time, experts stress.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Just a small change in its speed is all we need to make a significant difference in the path an asteroid travels.” said Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, an associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA’s Washington headquarters.</p> <p dir="ltr">The next few months will also see NASA use telescopes positioned on Earth and in space to observe the outcome of the collision, including measuring changes to Dimorphos’ orbit.</p> <p dir="ltr">Images will also be taken by LICIACube (Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging Asteroids), which deployed from DART fifteen days before the impact, with the European Space Agency’s Hera project scheduled to conduct surveys of Dimorphos and Didymos - with a focus on the crater created by the collision - in 2026.</p> <p dir="ltr">The images will add to the collection of photos taken by DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance Camera for Optical navigation), which was onboard DART when it crashed. </p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-2ace8485-7fff-36e0-9e45-208735e6bd71"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">As well as shots showing Didymos and Dimorphos, the images depict the rocky terrain of Dimorphos’ surface up close.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/09/dart-collision2.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>DART’s onboard camera, DRACO, captured the final moments before the spacecraft crashed into the surface of Dimorphos. Images: NASA / John Hopkins APL</em></p> <p dir="ltr">The last photo, taken about one second before impact, was being transmitted to Earth when the craft crashed, resulting in a partial picture.</p> <p dir="ltr">“DART’s success provides a significant addition to the essential toolbox we must have to protect Earth from a devastating impact by an asteroid,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer. </p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3681f89e-7fff-545a-e424-65d63358e4f2"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“This demonstrates we are no longer powerless to prevent this type of natural disaster.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: NASA / John Hopkins APL</em></p>

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Spinetingling audio of a black hole goes viral, here’s why

<p dir="ltr">Audio that allows us to “hear a black hole” has gone viral online since it was shared by NASA, with listeners describing it as “creepy” and “ethereally beautiful”.</p> <p dir="ltr">NASA first shared the audio taken from the black hole in the Perseus galaxy cluster in May, which it described as a remixed sonification of sound waves discovered in 2003, but a recent re-posting on Twitter has seen it gone viral.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-f388abe3-7fff-2cd0-68cf-89aaead1f146"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Here’s how it sounds:</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole! <a href="https://t.co/RobcZs7F9e">pic.twitter.com/RobcZs7F9e</a></p> <p>— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAExoplanets/status/1561442514078314496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Nearly twenty years ago, researchers at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory “discovered that pressure waves sent out by the black hole caused ripples in the cluster’s hot gas that could be translated into a note”.</p> <p dir="ltr">But, said note was too low for humans to hear, being the equivalent of a B-flat 57 octaves below the middle C note on a piano, according to NASA.</p> <p dir="ltr">To create something we could actually hear, scientists used a process called sonification, which is where astronomical data is translated into sound.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to NASA, the  creepy sound was created using sound waves extracted outwards from the centre of the Perseus cluster, with astronomers increasing the frequency by 57 and 58 octaves.</p> <p dir="ltr">A radar-like scan around the image was also used to help us hear sound waves emitted in different directions.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b422c896-7fff-4c03-4c1f-0b305a6f28e2"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“Another way to put this is that they are being heard 144 quadrillion and 288 quadrillion times higher than their original frequency,” NASA said.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">I was today years old when I found out that sound could travel into space.<br />In fact, NASA released sound waves received from a black hole!<br />Creepy 😲<br />Next, music please? 🎶<a href="https://t.co/myk0laXDV4">pic.twitter.com/myk0laXDV4</a></p> <p>— Elie Habib (@elie_h) <a href="https://twitter.com/elie_h/status/1561773483092320256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">James Miller-Jones, a Professor of Astrophysics at Curtin University, told the <em><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-24/nasa-audio-black-hole-sounds-viral-hear-space/101360094" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a></em> that the frequencies of these sound waves are impacted by gases in the Perseus cluster.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Those sound waves are bumping into regions of dense gas, hotter gas, cooler gas, so they'll move in slightly different speeds in different directions," he explained.</p> <p dir="ltr">"That means they don't have a perfect circular shape. So as they scan around the cluster … it's capturing slightly different pitches."</p> <p dir="ltr">While this isn’t the first time the space agency has <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/technology/hear-recordings-of-space-from-nasa-s-spacecraft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared sounds from space</a>, these sounds of the Perseus cluster differ in that they also use sound waves.</p> <p dir="ltr">"This is the only one that I've seen that is really translating real sound waves into the sonification, and to me that's just a beautiful demonstration of what is going on. It's quite powerful," Professor Miller-Jones said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It tells us a lot about the cluster, and how energy is transported through it."</p> <p dir="ltr">Kimberly Arcand, the principal investigator of the sonification project, described the sound as “a beautiful Hans Zimmer score with the moody level set at really high” when she first heard it in late 2021.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was such a wonderful representation of what existed in my mind,” she told <em><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/23/nasa-black-hole-sound/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a></em>, adding that it was a “tipping point” for the project in that it “really sparked people’s imagination”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The idea that there are these supermassive black holes sprinkled throughout the universe that are … belching out incredible songs is a very tantalising thing,” Arcand added.</p> <p dir="ltr">The decision to release the “re-sonification” of the sound waves nearly two decades later came as part of NASA’s efforts to share complex scientific discoveries in plain English with its millions of social media followers.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-afb09788-7fff-6723-82cd-3c0338da2593"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Though some experts have cautioned that NASA’s clip isn’t exactly what you’d hear in space, others argue that it would be realistic to believe that it would be what we’d hear if we had ears that were sensitive enough.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">I'm not religious, but I'm starting to think that those souls sent to Hell actually end up in a black hole.</p> <p>Sound ON to be horrified <a href="https://t.co/75v74pkkhu">https://t.co/75v74pkkhu</a></p> <p>— Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePlanetaryGuy/status/1562065393581277185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Even so, plenty of social media users have shared their thoughts on the sound, making comparisons to the Lord of the Rings and Silent Hill series or sharing it was an image of an intergalactic puppy overlaid.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I can confirm that the black hole noise Nasa released is the sound of hell,” one user <a href="https://twitter.com/SlimeRegis/status/1562005777488945152" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“New genre just dropped: Cosmic Horror,” another <a href="https://twitter.com/cybxrart/status/1561690611983343616" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-4a0fce13-7fff-7e3a-478a-a1cb41c49d94"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @NASAExoplanets (Twitter)</em></p>

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NASA releases highest-resolution images of infrared Universe

<p dir="ltr">New images released by NASA have captured the Universe in a level of detail never before seen and shows a cluster of galaxies as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.</p> <p dir="ltr">The images, taken by the $13 billion James Webb Space Telescope, depict galaxy cluster <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SMACS 0723</a> using composite images from its near-infrared camera that were taken at different wavelengths.</p> <p dir="ltr">The galaxy cluster has been photographed previously by the Hubble Space Telescope, though its smaller mirrors and closer orbit to Earth mean its images are less detailed and that it can’t peer back as far in time in comparison to the James Webb telescope, as reported by the <em><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-13/nasa-webb-hubble-telescope-universe-image-comparison/101233396" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a></em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">As a result, the structures of distant galaxies are now visible, including clusters of stars and other features, according to a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">release</a> from NASA.</p> <p dir="ltr">“We are looking back in time to within a billion years after the big bang when viewing the youngest galaxies in this field,” the release reads.</p> <p dir="ltr">In total, four images have been released by NASA, depicting the cosmic cliffs of the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-reveals-cosmic-cliffs-glittering-landscape-of-star-birth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carina Nebula</a> (a star-forming gaseous cavity created from ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds), <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-sheds-light-on-galaxy-evolution-black-holes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen’s Quintet</a> (a group of five growing galaxies which appeared in the film <em>It’s a Wonderful Life</em>), the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-captures-dying-star-s-final-performance-in-fine-detail" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southern Ring Nebula</a> (a dying star surrounded by rings of gas and dust), and SMACS 0723.</p> <p dir="ltr">Spectra of the atmosphere surrounding <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-reveals-steamy-atmosphere-of-distant-planet-in-detail" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WASP-96 b</a>, a hot gas giant exoplanet, was also released. It shows evidence of water, as well as clouds and haze in the atmosphere of the planet, which orbits a distant Sun-like star.</p> <p dir="ltr">These images and spectra collected from Webb’s other instruments, will be used by scientists to learn more about the masses, ages, histories and compositions of the distant galaxies.</p> <p dir="ltr">Experts from around the world have shared their excitement at the release of the images and what it will mean for future research.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Wow wow wow!!! The Webb telescope continues to absolutely amaze and delight with these first images!” Dr Kim-Vy Tran, an associate professor at UNSW and a professional astronomer, said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Stephan’s Quintet is a fabulous system of close galaxies, you can almost feel the shockwaves as these galaxies collide and tumble in their cosmic dance. Bound together by gravity, these galaxies are important for understanding the future of galaxies like our Milky Way.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Carinae nebula is also just superb. It’s a stellar nursery full of baby stars where we’re seeing incredible levels of detail for the first time.</p> <p dir="ltr">It’s like before we could see just the trees in the forest, but now we can see down to the branches and even the leaves of individual trees. Some of these baby stars are super-charged giants that are radiating huge amounts of energy, imagine a UV index of a gazillion!"</p> <p dir="ltr">Dr Themiya Nanayakkara, an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology and the Australian point of contact for the James Webb Space Telescope user support, described seeing the images as “quite humbling”.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It is quite humbling to see the sharpest images of our birth clouds in our cosmic neighbourhood,” Dr Nanayakkara said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“As a person who has spent many nights using the largest telescopes on Earth to detect the faintest signatures of the early cosmos, I feel the transformation to JWST will be game-changing. The released spectra show that we don’t just detect one faint line, we can get the full suite of chemical elements in these galaxies.</p> <p dir="ltr">“This, for the first time, gives us unique human DNA-like signatures of the first galaxies in the Universe to build up the origin story of life and everything around us. And to think of that the most exciting times from this telescope are yet to come!"</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-131f1508-7fff-8c0e-70f5-200ccbb07932"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: </em><em>NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI</em></p>

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Two nearby, newly discovered exoplanets mirror Earth

<p>Scientists have found two rocky exoplanets – not much larger than Earth – orbiting a star so close to us that they are practically in our solar system’s backyard.</p> <p>The star, HD 260655, is a low-mass M-class star, a type known as a red dwarf, about 33 light years away. The discovery was announced by Rafael Luque of the University of Chicago and the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Spain, at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society in the US.</p> <p>To put that distance into perspective, 33 light years is so close that if you constructed a scale model of the galaxy, in which the Sun was in Pasadena (site of the meeting) and HD 260655 was in neighbouring Hollywood (18km away), then the centre of our galaxy (the Milky Way) would be somewhere around Nepal.</p> <p>That’s important because it puts the two new planets close enough to us to make them prime targets for the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope.</p> <p>The planets were first observed in late 2021, when NASA’s planet-hunting space telescope <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/tess-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)</a> spotted them passing between us and their star, causing its light to dim as they eclipsed a portion of it.</p> <p>That was interesting enough, but when Luque’s team looked back at prior observations of the same star from telescopes on Earth, they found that its motion appeared to wobble as it was tugged alternately toward and away from us – exactly what would happen if it was being affected by the gravity of orbiting planets. That wobble hadn’t been strong enough to alert scientists to the presence of the planets at the time, but combined with the TESS observations, it was a smoking gun.</p> <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p195069-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> <form class="wpcf7-form mailchimp-ext-0.5.62 spai-bg-prepared init" action="/space/astrophysics/two-nearby-newly-discovered-exoplanets-mirror-earth/#wpcf7-f6-p195069-o1" method="post" novalidate="novalidate" data-status="init"> <p style="display: none !important;"><span class="wpcf7-form-control-wrap referer-page"><input class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text referer-page spai-bg-prepared" name="referer-page" type="hidden" value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/" data-value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/" aria-invalid="false" /></span></p> <p><!-- Chimpmail extension by Renzo Johnson --></form> </div> </div> <p>Better yet, Luque says, combining the TESS data (which gave the diameter of the two planets by the degree to which they blocked their sun’s light) with the wobble data (which revealed their masses), it was possible to calculate their density. “We found that these planets, despite being slightly larger than the Earth, have a density pretty similar to ours,” he says.</p> <p>This means they aren’t water worlds or gas-dominated worlds like those in our own outer solar system. “Both are consistent with having a composition consistent with rocks,” Luque says.</p> <p>Not that this means they are twins of Earth, let alone suggests that they can support life as we know it. The one nearest to its star might be nearly as hot as Venus, and the other might still have a surface temperature as high as 284°C.</p> <p>But even if they prove to be too hot for complex life, they are important targets for study because they might teach us more about a truly Earthlike world, once we find one at the right distance from its star. “Both are ranked among the ten best targets to look at,” Luque says.</p> <p><!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --></p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=195069&amp;title=Two+nearby%2C+newly+discovered+exoplanets+mirror+Earth" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><!-- End of tracking content syndication --></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrophysics/two-nearby-newly-discovered-exoplanets-mirror-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/richard-a-lovett" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richard A Lovett</a>. Richard A Lovett is a Portland, Oregon-based science writer and science fiction author. He is a frequent contributor to Cosmos.</em></p> <p><em>Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech</em></p> </div>

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NASA’s Perseverance rover sends back Mars soundscape playlist

<p>Nearly two years after its <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/mars-is-the-place-in-space-to-be/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launch</a>, and almost 18 months after <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/mars-news-all-good/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">landing on Mars</a>, NASA’s Perseverance rover has hours of audio recordings from the red planet’s atmosphere.</p> <p>So, what does Mars sound like? On the whole, it’s quiet. Very quiet. But the recordings did pick up interesting weather events and changes which give us a better overall picture of Mars’s clime.</p> <p>Perseverance’s primary mission is to explore sediments in a dormant river delta on the edge of the 45 kilometre-wide <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/weekly-edition/one-year-mars-perseverance-rover/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jezero Crater</a>, to learn about the crater’s formation and hopefully find signs of ancient life. But microphones are light and cheap, so it made sense to add a couple to the rover’s instruments.</p> <p>The <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/engineering/the-bizarre-acoustics-of-mars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first audio from Mars</a> was sent by Perseverance earlier this year. Now, a year’s worth of recording from the Martian atmosphere has been condensed into about five hours of sound.</p> <p>The findings are due to be presented by Baptiste Chide of the Los Alamos National Lab during a seminar, “Mars soundscape: Review of the first sounds recorded by the Perseverance microphones,” at the <a href="https://acoustics.org/world-wide-press-room/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America</a> tomorrow, May 25, in Denver  in the US.</p> <p>With no large dynamical natural phenomena, extant animal species (that we know of), industrial civilisation, or extreme weather events, you’d expect Mars to be pretty silent. And it is. Under the same conditions on Earth, sounds are 20 decibels louder than on Mars.</p> <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p192195-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> <form class="wpcf7-form mailchimp-ext-0.5.61 spai-bg-prepared init" action="/space/nasa-perseverance-rover-soundscape/#wpcf7-f6-p192195-o1" method="post" novalidate="novalidate" data-status="init"> <p style="display: none !important;"><span class="wpcf7-form-control-wrap referer-page"><input class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text referer-page spai-bg-prepared" name="referer-page" type="hidden" value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/" data-value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/" aria-invalid="false" /></span></p> <p><!-- Chimpmail extension by Renzo Johnson --></form> </div> </div> <p>“It is so quiet that, at some point, we thought the microphone was broken!” says Chide.</p> <p>But, like giving a new music album a second run-through, closer listening revealed some fascinating phenomena. The group heard much variability in the wind and abrupt changes in the atmosphere, see-sawing from calm to intense gusts.</p> <p>The team noticed that the red planet’s soundscape is seasonal. During winter, carbon dioxide freezes in the polar caps. This causes changes in atmospheric density, and environmental volume fluctuates by about 20%. Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> also causes high-pitched sounds in the distance to become fainter.</p> <p>The rover also used laser sparks to calculate the speed of sound’s dispersion, confirming a theory that high-frequency sounds travel faster than low frequencies.</p> <p>“Mars is the only place in the solar system where that happens in the audible bandwidth because of the unique properties of the carbon dioxide molecule that composes the atmosphere,” notes Chide. While the rover will continue to record audio as it travels across Mars’s surface, Chide believes that the technique could be applied to studies of other celestial bodies. Planets and moons with denser and more volatile atmospheres, such as Venus and Titan, may yield even more information as sound waves interact more strongly and travel further.</p> <p><!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --></p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=192195&amp;title=NASA%E2%80%99s+Perseverance+rover+sends+back+Mars+soundscape+playlist" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><!-- End of tracking content syndication --></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/nasa-perseverance-rover-soundscape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/evrim-yazgin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Evrim Yazgin</a>. Evrim Yazgin has a Bachelor of Science majoring in mathematical physics and a Master of Science in physics, both from the University of Melbourne.</em></p> <p><em>Image: NASA</em></p> </div>

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Hear recordings of space from NASA’s spacecraft

<p dir="ltr">When we look at the stars and sun in the sky, it’s easy to think of them existing in silent and mostly empty space - but that couldn’t be further from the truth.</p> <p dir="ltr">Over the years, NASA’s spacecraft have explored various corners of space collecting photos, videos, data, and radio emissions.</p> <p dir="ltr">It’s these emissions that the scientists at the top space agency have converted into sound waves that are freely available to hear for yourself.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-65494a72-7fff-8aec-115e-9411fe7730ca"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Some, like the whistling sounds captured in Saturn’s radio emissions by the Cassini spacecraft, are eerie to say the least, and so are droning tones resulting from the sonification of the Sun’s radio waves.</p> <p><iframe style="overflow: hidden; border: initial none initial;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNASA%2Fvideos%2F259558922952746%2F&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=560&amp;t=0" width="560" height="429" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p dir="ltr">Other interesting sounds have come from the encounter between NASA’s Stardust spacecraft and a comet called Temple 1 in 2011, as the craft’s protective shield was pelted by icy dust particles and rocks.</p> <p dir="ltr">And then there’s the sounds from plasma waves - movements of electrons in the magnetic fields surrounding Earth - with some, called ‘whistler waves’, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-listens-in-as-electrons-whistle-while-they-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sounding</a> like a flock of noisy birds in parts of space that are warmer, or like the sound effects of a Space Invaders game after lightning strikes.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fcc040dc-7fff-a5fb-537a-f00c93ed2975">In 2018, the first “sounds” of winds on Mars were recorded by NASA’s InSight lander, which later went on to record ‘Marsquakes’ using a seismometer. The vibrations it recorded were then also turned into <a href="https://soundcloud.com/nasa/dinks-and-donks-sample" target="_blank" rel="noopener">audio</a> (it’s recommended to listen with headphones for the best experience).</span></p> <p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m9cCuW9nIQg" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p dir="ltr">To hear more sounds of space, click <a href="https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sets/spookyspacesounds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/connect/sounds/index.html#Apollo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9b48c6e7-7fff-bda9-6f9f-001308454ac6"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: NASA</em></p>

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The bizarre acoustics of Mars

<p>Shortly after NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/perseverance-pays-off/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">landed</a> and unlimbered its instruments, scientists turned on one of the more unusual of them – a microphone system – and for the first time listened in on an alien world: first to the wind, then to the sounds of the rover driving, and later yet to the <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/exploration/ingenuity-helicopter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ingenuity helicopter</a> on one of its early flights.</p> <p>It was captivating. But it also seemed to be of limited scientific value – the type of thing you’d do because today’s microphones are so lightweight that there’s no real cost to including a couple on the rover (and being able to listen to it might help diagnose mechanical problems if they arose).</p> <p>But it turns out there are a lot of other things you can do with microphones, once you have them.</p> <p>The simplest is to measure the speed of sound. On Earth, says Baptiste Chide, a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, US, that’s about 340 metres per second. In the thin Martian air, it was expected to be more like 240 m/s.</p> <p><a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/audio/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sounds on Mars</a> were also expected to be about 20 decibels lower than on Earth, Chide said at this year’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in The Woodlands, Texas. The Red Planet, he says, is also the “quiet planet.”</p> <p>The difference, he adds, is particularly pronounced at higher frequencies – something borne out by the muted sounds first released by NASA.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <div class="entry-content-asset"> <div class="embed-wrapper"> <div class="inner"><iframe title="NASA's Perseverance Rover Captures the Sounds of Mars" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GHenFGnixzU?feature=oembed" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div> </div> </div> </div> </figure> <p>To a large extent, Chide says, “you can only hear bass sounds on Mars”.</p> <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p185282-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> <form class="wpcf7-form mailchimp-ext-0.5.56 resetting spai-bg-prepared" action="/science/engineering/the-bizarre-acoustics-of-mars/#wpcf7-f6-p185282-o1" method="post" novalidate="novalidate" data-status="resetting"> <p style="display: none !important;"><span class="wpcf7-form-control-wrap referer-page"><input class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text referer-page spai-bg-prepared" name="referer-page" type="hidden" value="https://www.google.com/" data-value="https://www.google.com/" aria-invalid="false" /></span></p> <p><!-- Chimpmail extension by Renzo Johnson --></form> </div> </div> <p>Weirder yet, due to strange properties of its thin carbon dioxide atmosphere, sounds on Mars travel at different speeds depending on their frequency, with those above 400 hertz (about that of the G above middle C) travelling 4% faster than those of lower pitch.</p> <p>“Let’s imagine that we have this <a href="https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2022/pdf/1357.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">talk</a> on Mars,” Chide said at the LPSC meeting. “My voice is between 200 hertz and 1000 hertz. You would receive all of the high-frequency tones before the low-frequency tones, so it might [be] distort[ed], not understandable.”</p> <p>But things like that are mere curiosities. The true scientific value of the microphones came into play when Chide’s team realised they could use them to measure rapid fluctuations in the air temperature in the vicinity of the rover.</p> <p>It works, he says, because air temperature is another factor that affects the speed of sound. And one way the rover produces sound is by firing its mast-mounted laser at nearby rocks.</p> <p>The primary purpose of the laser is to vaporise tiny puffs of rock so that other instruments can determine their composition from spectroscopic analysis of the escaping vapor.</p> <p>But the vaporisation process produces an audible pop when the laser hits the rock, and by timing how quickly that is heard after the laser is fired, Chide says, it’s possible to determine the temperature of the intervening air.</p> <p>That makes the microphone a useful complement to the rover’s onboard weather station, because it gives much more rapid readings, repeating each time a laser pulse is fired, which can be as often as three times a second.</p> <p><!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --></p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=185282&amp;title=The+bizarre+acoustics+of+Mars" width="1" height="1" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /></p> <p><!-- End of tracking content syndication --></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/engineering/the-bizarre-acoustics-of-mars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/richard-a-lovett" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richard A Lovett</a>. Richard A Lovett is a Portland, Oregon-based science writer and science fiction author. He is a frequent contributor to Cosmos.</em></p> <p><em>Image: NASA</em></p> </div>

Technology

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The International Space Station to crash to Earth in 2030

<p dir="ltr">The International Space Station is expected to stay in operation until the end of 2030, after which time it will be crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, <a href="https://7news.com.au/technology/space/nasa-to-retire-the-international-space-station-by-2031-by-crashing-it-into-the-pacific-ocean-c-5549714" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to newly published plans from NASA.</p><p dir="ltr">Since its launch in 2000, the ISS has orbited 227 nautical miles (420.4 kilometres) above Earth, during which time more than 200 astronauts from 19 countries enjoyed stints aboard.</p><p dir="ltr">After 2030, NASA said the ISS would be replaced by commercially operated space platforms as a venue for collaboration and scientific research.</p><p dir="ltr">“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance,” Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA, said in a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-provides-updated-international-space-station-transition-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>.</p><p dir="ltr">“We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space.</p><p dir="ltr">“The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030.”</p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-ddb56a6d-7fff-9f23-f423-5f64adf3a599"></span></p><p dir="ltr">In the International Space Station Transition Report produced by NASA, the organisation said the plan was for the ISS to fall to Earth and land in an area called the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area - also known as Point Nemo.</p><p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/02/space-iss1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p><p dir="ltr"><em>The International Space Station has been the source of many scientific innovations and firsts, including the first chilli peppers to be grown in space (Pictured). Image: NASA</em></p><p dir="ltr">Named after the submarine operator in Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Point Nemo is an area in the ocean that is the farthest from land.</p><p dir="ltr">The area is approximately 4800 kilometres from the eastern coast of New Zealand and 3200 kilometres north of Antarctica.</p><p dir="ltr">The ISS won’t be the first to make Point Nemo its final resting place, with estimates that more than 263 pieces of space debris have been sunk there by the US, Russia, Japan, and European countries since 1971.</p><p dir="ltr">According to the report, the ISS is expected to deorbit in January 2031 and perform thrusting manoeuvres to ensure a “safe atmospheric entry”.</p><p dir="ltr">Though an end date has been set, work will continue on the ISS until the very end, with NASA saying goals for the space lab include using it as an “analog for a Mars transit mission”.</p><p dir="ltr">“The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a groundbreaking scientific platform in microgravity,” Robyn Gatens, the director of the ISS at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement.</p><p dir="ltr">“This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration, continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit.</p><p dir="ltr">“We look forward to maximising these returns from the space station through 2030 while planning for transition to commercial space destinations that will follow.”</p><p dir="ltr">During its time in orbit, the ISS has been home to many scientific firsts in space, including the first items to be 3D-printed, the first sequencing of DNA, and growing of lettuces, radishes and chillies.</p><p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-1cd41515-7fff-ce61-9732-a28d780a7c98"></span></p><p dir="ltr"><em>Image: NASA</em></p>

Technology

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NASA-inspired Bubble House goes on the market

<p>“In what may well be one of the weirdest homes you’ll ever find in Australia, architect owner Graham Birchall took almost a decade to complete the construction – a true labour of love that’s part NASA space base and part-Queensland engineering genius,” writes <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.realestate.com.au/news/bizarre-bubble-house-hits-market-for-first-time/" target="_blank">RealEstate.com.au</a> of the one-of-a-kind property in Ipswich, west of Brisbane.</p> <p>Having gone on sale for the first time, interest in the incredibly fascinating Bubble House has been pouring in from all corners of the globe.</p> <p>"Sometimes people don't believe it when I tell them where I live," Mr Birchall told the ABC. "There are 11 domes in all ranging from four metres in diameter to eight metres in diameter, it has 16 rooms over three levels so it's rather large.</p> <p>"It's got two libraries, a movie theatre, and circular windows that open and close with an iris.</p> <p>"I love it because it is so spacious. You don't even notice the ceiling and the spaces just flow on from one to the other."</p> <p>The Ipswich architect built the astonishing property in Karalee, west of Brisbane, in the 1980s after an idea he had during his final university thesis. "It took 10 years to build,” he said. “We built on weekends from Father's Day 1983 to Father's Day 1993.</p> <p>"There were a lot of challenges – we had to invent a lot of tools like a curved ladder to build it.</p> <p>"It was a lot of fun to do.</p> <p>"Half of it is the Flintstones and the other half looks more like the Jetsons."</p> <p>After contacting NASA for some design tips, Mr Birchall was pleased to actually hear back from them.</p> <p>"I knew they had something like it on their mars rover and they sent the drawings to me, I was surprised they answered the phone call," he said.</p> <p>Mr Birchall said the decision to put the quirky property up for sale after decades of living and working there was a tough one – but he was excited to be moving closer to his grandchildren.</p> <p>IMAGES: RealEstate.com.au</p>

Real Estate

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5 of the best air-cleaning plants according to NASA

<p>The best plants are the ones that do double duty – and all of these purify your air of toxic chemicals. Even better, they’re easy to grow. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, our homes can have three to five times more pollutants than the outdoors. You could be living in a “sick” house and not realize it: Substances like xylene (in paint and lacquers), benzene (furniture wax, insect sprays) trichloroethylene (cleaners, adhesives), and formaldehyde (upholstery, air fresheners) – can produce symptoms like headaches, sore throats, or allergy-like breathing troubles. The NASA Clean Air Study was designed to find effective and simple ways to detox the air in the space station – and it reveals that common house plants have air purifying superpowers.</p> <p><strong>1. Boston Fern</strong></p> <p><span>Boston ferns are native to tropical forests and swamp areas so they will thrive in low light and high humidity – they’re ideal for your bathroom. The moisture from your shower will hydrate the plant, requiring little extra care from you. Besides being a pretty and decorative addition to your bathroom, the Boston fern helps remove xylene and – the NASA study revealed – it was the top house plant for removing formaldehyde.</span></p> <p><strong>2. Spider plant</strong></p> <p>Talk about a plant that keeps giving. It removes impurities from the air like formaldehyde and carbon monoxide. NASA’s study found that spider plants removed 95 per cent of formaldehyde from a sealed plexiglass chamber in 24 hours. Even better, the main plant sends out shoots, called “spiderettes” that flower and eventually grow into baby spider plants that you can transplant. That also helps: Research indicates that people are more relaxed and happy after caring for plants – say, for example, when they’re re-potting them.</p> <p><strong>3. Bamboo plant</strong></p> <p>This plant boasts elegance and height in addition to removing harmful elements like benzene and formaldehyde. Bamboo palms also help keep indoor air moist, making it a welcome addition in dry winter months. This palm takes a bit more care: It loves bright, but not direct sunlight and needs monthly fertilising and regular misting; when it outgrows its container (every two to three years), you’ll need to re-pot it.</p> <p><strong>4. Devil’s ivy</strong></p> <p>Devil’s ivy is actually quite angelic. It’s considered one of the most effective indoor air purifiers from benzene, formaldehyde and xylene. Plus, if you’re new to growing house plants, this is a great first plant to get. It’s lush, hardy and inexpensive. Another nice feature is that it can grow up to 2.5 metres long and in a variety of directions. In a hanging basket, it will trail downwards. Place it a pot and train it to climb a totem or trellis or place in a pot on a mantle or coffee table and let it grow horizontally.</p> <p><strong>5. Gerbera</strong></p> <p>These colourful and cheerful daisies were mainly outdoor plants until florists started using them in arrangements. Grown indoors, they can produce flowers at any time of the year, in white, red, orange, pink and purple. The flowers usually last around four to six weeks, but even without the flowers, the gerbera or Barberton daisy has lush, dark green leaves that are effective at filtering out formaldehyde, benzene and trichloroethylene. They are most happy with full sun and plenty of water and well-drained soil.</p> <p><em><span>Written by Lisa Marie Conklin. Republished with permission of </span></em><span><a href="https://www.mydiscoveries.com.au/stories/top-spot-australians-retire-2019/"><em>Handyman</em></a><em>.</em></span></p>

Home & Garden

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NASA release never-before-seen Pluto flyby video

<p>NASA has released a never-before-seen Pluto flyby video, which has created a new, highly detailed image of the dwarf planet’s mysterious, elusive surface.</p> <p>The footage, which you can see before, was released to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the mission that saw the US spacecraft fly within 12,550 kilometres of Pluto.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">On the 2-year anniversary of <a href="https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons">@NASANewHorizons</a>’ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PlutoFlyby?src=hash">#PlutoFlyby</a>, take a ride with us over the ridges &amp; features on Pluto <a href="https://t.co/M9Oeac3qEH">https://t.co/M9Oeac3qEH</a> <a href="https://t.co/mPD3akr9zN">pic.twitter.com/mPD3akr9zN</a></p> — NASA (@NASA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA/status/885914837909479424">July 14, 2017</a></blockquote> <p>"I think the most surprising thing is how complex that little planet is," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, told Space.com.</p> <p>"It outstripped everyone's expectations, and I am certain that we’re going to need an orbiter follow-up to make sense of Pluto. Fortunately, now we know how to do that and what new instruments to bring to bear."</p> <p>What do you make of the footage? </p>

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Hidden Figures cast bring out NASA’s 98-year-old Katherine Johnson at the Oscars

<p>The <em>Hidden Figures</em> stars presented the award for Best Documentary at the Oscars.</p> <p>Taraji P Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae surprised the audience by bringing NASA’s Katherine Johnson onto the stage with them.</p> <p>Katherine Johnson was one of the NASA mathematicians who assisted in the Apollo 11 mission with John Glenn.</p> <p>Before announcing the award, Taraji welcomed the “true NASA and American hero” to the stage.</p> <p>Taraji portrayed the character of Katherine in <em>Hidden Figures</em>.</p> <p>Katherine Johnson is now 98-years-old and the audience received the hero with a standing ovation.</p> <p>Viewers watching the Oscars responded to Katherine’s appearance at the Oscars with online encouragement of the mathematician’s accomplishments. </p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/movies/2017/02/shortest-ever-oscar-nominated-film/"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>This 100-second-long Oscar-nominated film will blow you away</em></span></strong></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/news/news/2017/01/la-la-land-meets-titanic-record-for-most-oscar-nominations/"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>La La Land matches Titanic’s record for most Oscar nominations</em></span></strong></a></p> <p><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/music/2016/10/best-james-bond-themes/"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>5 best James Bond theme songs</em></span></strong></a></p>

News

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NASA discovers 7 Earth-like planets orbiting nearby star

<p>Just over two hours ago, NASA held a press conference confirming it had discovered seven planets with Earth-like characteristics orbiting the nearby star, Trappist-1, 40 light-years (376.4 trillion km) from Earth and located within the constellation Aquarius. Three of these planets are reportedly “habitable” and potentially capable of sustaining life.</p> <p>“The planets are all close to each other and very close to the star, which is very reminiscent of the moons around Jupiter,” said Michaël Gillon of the University of Liège. “Still, the star is so small and cold that the seven planets are temperate, which means that they could have some liquid water – and maybe life, by extension – on the surface.”</p> <p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39034050" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">According to BBC’s Science Editor</span></strong></a>, David Shukman, the reason why the discovery has been a source of so much hype is that not only are so many of the planets Earth-sized and potentially habitable, but also because the star around which they orbit is unusually small, cool and dim, preventing telescopes from becoming “dazzled”, as they frequently are by brighter stars.</p> <p>“The next phase of research has already started to hunt for key gases like oxygen and methane which could provide evidence about whatever is happening on the surface,” Shukman explains.</p> <p>So, how long might we expect to reach this solar system? Sadly, it won’t be in any of our lifetimes. As one commenter pointed out during NASA’s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5vkoyd/were_nasa_scientists_exoplanet_experts_ask_us/?st=izhf2kt5&amp;sh=af79d03a" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">“Ask me anything” session on Reddit</span></strong></a>, “If we reach the same 165,000 mph that one probe reached by slingshotting by Jupiter, I think it'll take about 160,000 years or so.”</p> <p>Nevertheless, the breakthrough is incredibly exciting and could lead to further discoveries – potentially even life beyond our solar system. Tell us in the comments below, do you believe there are other lifeforms in the universe?</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2017/02/nasa-discovery-beyond-solar-system/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>NASA has made a discovery beyond our solar system</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2017/02/qantas-introduces-dimmable-windows/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Qantas getting rid of window shutters</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2017/02/never-charge-phone-in-public-port/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Why you should never charge your phone in a public port</strong></em></span></a></p>

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NASA has made a discovery beyond our solar system

<p>For centuries, mankind has contemplated the mysteries of not only our solar system, but the entire universe. Now, it seems, we could be on the brink of a breakthrough.</p> <p>NASA have announced they will hold a news conference today (Wednesday 22) at 1pm EST (tomorrow 7am NZT) to present exciting new findings on exoplanets – that is, “planets that orbit stars other than our sun”.</p> <p>The nature of the discovery is not yet known, but due to the high-profile researchers due to attend the announcement, many are optimistic that it may concern extra-terrestrial life. These exoplanets are our main hope for life beyond our solar system, given their close resemblance to our own planet.</p> <p>Members of the public will be given the opportunity to speak directly to NASA scientists following the press conference, either on Twitter using the hashtag #AskNASA or during an AMA (“Ask me anything”) session on Reddit.</p> <p>Do you believe scientists will discover life beyond our solar system in our lifetime? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2017/02/qantas-introduces-dimmable-windows/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Qantas getting rid of window shutters</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2017/02/monopoly-replaces-thimble-after-82-years/"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>Monopoly to replace the thimble after 82 years</em></span></strong></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2017/02/never-charge-phone-in-public-port/"><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Why you should never charge your phone in a public port</strong></span></em></a></p>

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Grandpa breaks record for most days in outer space

<p>Astronaut (and proud grandfather) Jeff Williams reached a major milestone this week, breaking the record for most cumulative days in space by an American.</p> <p>On Wednesday Williams surpassed the 520 day record previously held by NASA colleague Scott Kelly. By the time Williams returns to Planet Earth on September 6, he will have spent an extremely impressive 534 days in outer space in total.</p> <p>The record for most cumulative days in outer space is still held by Russia’s Gennady Padalka, who put together 879 days, but Williams’ achievements is nothing to shirk at. But if you ask the astronaut himself, the American record is just another number.</p> <p>In a recent interview with <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>CBS News</strong></span></a>, Williams said, “What comes to mind is just the honour of being part of the International Space Station from the beginning all the way through the assembly to now, and working with this great team. I would say the partnership has never been stronger than it is today. It occurred to me yesterday, I haven’t seen it this productive, we’re doing very significant work, since we were assembling this thing with a visiting shuttle crew.”</p> <p>Williams is now looking to spend more time on our planet, with his grandchildren.</p> <p>What an achievement! Send messages of congratulations in the comments. </p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2016/02/astronaut-posts-photos-from-space/"><strong>Astronaut posts amazing photos of the UK from space</strong></a></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2016/01/nasa-pictures-first-flowers-in-space/"><strong>NASA astronaut shares pictures of first flowers grown in space</strong></a></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2015/11/astronaut-plays-amazing-grace-bagpipe/"><strong>Astronaut plays Amazing Grace on bagpipes from space</strong></a></em></span></p>

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Earth’s horizon from the International Space Station

<p>The world is certainly a beautiful space, and in this video from the International Space Station we see our planet like we’ve never seen it before.</p> <p>Filmed from the International Space Station, this time-lapse video released by NASA gives us a rare opportunity to view our planet from a unique perspective.</p> <p>It’s amazing to see the activity on the planet’s surface below and it certainly makes you feel very small in the grander scheme of things.</p> <p><em>Video credit: YouTube / David Peterson</em></p> <p><strong><em>Have you arranged your travel insurance yet? Tailor your cover to your needs and save money by not paying for things you don’t need. <a href="https://elevate.agatravelinsurance.com.au/oversixty?utm_source=over60&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=link1&amp;utm_campaign=travel-insurance" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Click here to read more about Over60 Travel Insurance</span></a>.</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>For more information about Over60 Travel Insurance, call 1800 622 966.</em></strong></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/travel/international/2016/03/aircraft-flies-new-york-to-london-in-11-minutes/"><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Aircraft flies New York to London in 11 minutes</strong></span></em></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2016/01/5-planets-to-align-in-rare-celestial-display/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>5 planets set to align in rare celestial display</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/news/news/2016/01/aussie-geologists-discover-meteorite/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Aussie geologists win a race against time to recover rare 4-billion-year-old meteorite</strong></em></span></a></p>

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