Scientists who study space have found a strange burst of radio waves that took a very long time, about 8 billion years, to travel to our planet Earth. The fast radio burst is a really far away and powerful signal that scientists have seen.
Fast radio bursts are really strong and really quick bursts of radio waves that we don’t know where they come from. The first FRB was found in 2007, and since then, scientists have detected many more of these fast flashes from faraway places in space.
The explosion called FRB 20220610A was very short, lasting less than a millisecond. However, during that very brief time, it released as much energy as the sun emits in 30 years. This information comes from a study published in the journal Science on Thursday.
FRBs are very short bursts of bright radio waves that vanish quickly. This makes it hard to study them.
Radio telescopes, like the ASKAP array in Western Australia, have helped astronomers track fast cosmic bursts. Scientists studying space used a special device called ASKAP to find a Fast Radio Burst (FRB) in June 2022 and figure out where it came from.
“Dr(Study coauthor) said that we were able to find out exactly where the burst came from by using ASKAP’s group of (radio) dishes. ” Stuart Ryder, who is a scientist studying space at Macquarie University in Australia, said in a statement. Afterwards, we used a powerful telescope in Chile, called the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, to look for the galaxy where the signals came from. We found that this galaxy is very old and located at a greater distance compared to other sources of Fast Radio Bursts discovered so far. It is probably situated within a small group of merging galaxies.
The group of researchers found that the burst came from a couple of galaxies that are combining, interacting, and creating new stars. This discovery supports the idea that fast radio bursts may come from magnetars. Magnetars are really powerful things that form when stars explode.
Scientists think that fast radio bursts could help us find out how much stuff there is in the universe by measuring the matter that is missing between galaxies.
Ryan Shannon, a professor at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, said that when we tally up all the regular stuff in the Universe (like atoms), we see that more than half of it is not where it should be. We believe that the matter that is missing could be in the empty areas between galaxies. However, it might be really hot and spread out, making it impossible to see with regular methods.
Currently, the ways we measure how much the universe weighs don’t match up, which means we might be missing some of the universe.
“According to Shannon, fast radio bursts can detect this charged material. ” Even in very empty space, they are able to detect all the electrons. This helps us determine the amount of matter between the galaxies.
The late Australian astronomer Jean-Pierre Macquart showed in 2020 how we can use fast radio bursts to find missing matter.
J-P found that the further a fast radio burst is, the more spread out gas it shows between the galaxies. Now, people refer to this as the Macquart relation,” Ryder said. Some recent bursts of radio waves were different than what scientists expected them to be.
Our measurements show that the Macquart relation is true for more than half of the Universe that we already know about.
Almost 50 quick radio bursts have been located to find where they came from, and about half of them were discovered using ASKAP.
Shannon stated that although the cause behind these powerful bursts of energy is still unknown, the paper confirms that fast radio bursts happen frequently in space. These bursts can help us detect matter in the areas between galaxies and gain a deeper understanding of the Universe’s structure.
Scientists who study space said they believe that new radio telescopes being built in South Africa and Australia will help them find many more fast radio bursts, which are bursts of energy from outer space, even farther away than before.
Shannon said it’s incredible how frequent FRBs are. This shows how good the field can be. You’re not only going to do this for a short time, but you can do it for a very long time. You can create a new map of the universe and use it to find answers to important questions about space.
Tag: Earth
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Radio transmission from 8 billion years ago hits Earth
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Large asteroid fragment has touched down on earth
A big piece of a very large flying rock that comes close to earth every six years has just landed on earth.
Nasa has collected clean samples of the asteroid called Bennu to study, and the samples have landed in the Utah desert with the help of a parachute.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, sent by NASA, has been collecting rocks and dust from Bennu’s surface since 2020. It was launched in 2016 as part of NASA’s first mission to gather samples from an asteroid.
During a quick visit to Earth, the main spacecraft released a small container from a distance of 63,000 miles.
The little capsule landed on the ground after four hours while the main spaceship went on a mission to another asteroid.
The people at Nasa stood up and clapped when the piece landed safely on time, but even earlier than expected.
After the capsule lands 70 miles west of Salt Lake City, it will be taken to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, along with the samples it contains.
We made special tools to study things and one of them can look at really tiny things.
The team wants to learn more about how asteroids were important in forming the solar system long ago. They think Bennu, which is around 4. 5 billion years old, can give them information like a time capsule about the secrets of the universe.
It will take Nasa two years to study the asteroid. After that, there is still more than 150 years left before any possible crash could happen.
One-fourth of the group will be given to more than 200 people from 38 different institutions around the world. These institutions include scientists from the University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum.
Scientists think that the capsule contains at least a cup of rubble, but they can’t be certain until they open it.
A few rocks spilled out and floated away because the spacecraft collected too much and the lid got stuck when it picked them up three years ago.
Japan is the only other country to have collected samples from an asteroid. They collected about a teaspoon’s worth of samples during two missions.
The rocks and dirt symbolize the largest collection of things found outside of the moon.
The preserved pieces that were created at the beginning of our solar system 4. 5 billion years ago will assist scientists in gaining a clearer understanding of how the earth and life came to be.
Scientists think that in the future, a space rock called Bennu could hit our planet. It nearly hit us three times already, in 1999, 2005, and 2011. This was reported by Sky News.
The asteroid might come near the Earth in September 2182. There is a small chance, about 1 in 2,700, that it could crash into our planet that year. -
‘Traveling into space with mum was serene and loving’
Observing the Earth firsthand while in space is an incredibly serene and loving encounter.
Two weeks prior, Ana Mayers found herself floating effortlessly in the vastness of space, completely devoid of any gravitational pull. And she went with her mother.
The two people,as well as former Olympian Jon Goodwin, were on Virgin Galactic’s first tourist trip. This trip made them the first mother and daughter to go to space together.
Two weeks later, Ana is going to the University of Aberdeen to keep studying philosophy and physics.
BBC News beat spoke to the student before she traveled from Antigua in the Caribbean, where she lives, back to Scotland earlier.
“She said the entire experience made her feel deeply connected and emotional. “
The view is incredibly beautiful and amazing.
“It has made me realize that we should value and take care of Earth. We should seize this chance to explore and develop a bond with nature.”Ana, her mom Keisha, and Jon Goodwin were very happy after their 90-minute journey into space.
Ana and her mom, Keisha Schahaff, who is 46 years old, won a competition and got the chance to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Ana says that she was sleeping in her university dorm when she found out about it.
“She called me on Face Time late at night out of nowhere, and all I could see on the screen was my own face, with nothing else. ”
“Richard Branson grabbed the phone, and I was really shocked. ”
The two people, together with an 80-year-old man named Jon, left from Spaceport America in New Mexico on 10 August.
The flight lasted for about an hour and a half. During the flight, they experienced a feeling of weightlessness. This happened when they reached a height of about 85 kilometers or 280,000 feet above the Earth’s surface. From that height, they were able to see a very unique view of the planet.
It is not surprising that the space tourists received a lot of training to get ready for their trip. But Ana says she did not feel nervous when it was finally time to take off.
“It feels like you’re on a regular flight, very calm,” she says.
But I remember when they began counting down, saying there were three minutes left until they released something, and then one minute left. I thought to myself, “Oh my God, this is actually happening. “According to Ana, she has never “been so engaged with anything in my life” as she has been with the space voyage.
And many people have begun to look to her as an inspiration now that she has returned to Earth.
She says, “I feel very honoured to be able to inspire so many others.
“I sincerely hope that it’s expanding people’s minds to other aspects of life as well as just space.
“I hope it’s motivating people to seriously consider themselves and to put in the necessary time and effort.
You must be willing to accept opportunities when they come your way.
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37 boulders detected by Hubble in the area of the DART-hit asteroid
A cluster of rocks has been seen by the Hubble Space Telescope surrounding the asteroid Dimorphos, which NASA’s DART probe purposefully collided with last autumn.
On September 26, 2022, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, which weighs roughly 1,200 pounds (544 kilogrammes), collided with Dimorphos head-on at a speed of 13,000 miles per hour (20,921 km per hour) to alter the space rock’s velocity.
The results demonstrated how this kinetic impact technique could be used to divert asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth. It was the first time humans attempted to alter the motion of a celestial object. There is no danger to Earth from either Dimorphos or Didymos, the larger asteroid it circles.
The DART impact was successful, changing Dimorphos’ orbital period around Didymos by 33 minutes. This first test of planetary defense, which took place 7 million miles (11.3 million kilometers) from Earth, also released over 1,000 tons of material into space.
Some of that material includes 37 boulders, ranging in size from 3 feet to 22 feet (0.9 meters to 6.7 meters) in diameter, according to new data captured by Hubble. The rocks, likely shaken loose from Dimorphos’ surface after impact, are drifting away from the asteroid at about a 0.5 mile per hour (0.8 kilometer per hour), or the walking speed of a giant tortoise, according to a Hubble news release.
Scientists estimate the boulders represent about 0.1% of Dimorphos’ mass.
“This is a spectacular observation — much better than I expected. We see a cloud of boulders carrying mass and energy away from the impact target. The numbers, sizes, and shapes of the boulders are consistent with them having been knocked off the surface of Dimorphos by the impact,” said planetary scientist David Jewitt, a distinguished professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in a statement.
“This tells us for the first time what happens when you hit an asteroid and see material coming out up to the largest sizes. The boulders are some of the faintest things ever imaged inside our solar system.”
Jewitt and his colleagues have used Hubble to track changes in Dimorphos both during and after the DART impact, but another mission will take an even closer look.
The European Space Agency’s Hera mission is set to launch in 2024. The spacecraft, along with two CubeSats, is expected to arrive at the asteroid system in late 2026.
Hera will study both asteroids, measure physical properties of Dimorphos, and examine the DART impact crater and the moon’s orbit, with the aim of establishing an effective planetary defense strategy.
“The boulder cloud will still be dispersing when Hera arrives,” Jewitt said.
“It’s like a very slowly expanding swarm of bees that eventually will spread along the binary pair’s orbit around the Sun.”Surface boulders and other possible theories
Researchers believe the boulders were already sitting on the surface of Dimorphos, based on the final close-up photos taken by the DART spacecraft before impact. It’s much less likely that the rocks are shattered pieces of the asteroid, according to the Hubble observation team monitoring Dimorphos.
Jewitt estimated that 2% of the boulders on the surface were released into space after the crash. The rocks were likely ejected at the same time as the debris trail, also captured by Hubble. It’s also possible that a seismic wave from the impact lifted the rocks.
“The boulders could have been excavated from a circle of about 160 feet across (the width of a football field) on the surface of Dimorphos,” he said.
Future observations from Hera could help scientists pin down the actual size of the impact crater left by DART.
Scientists think Dimorphos may have formed from material shed by Didymos as it collided with another object, according to the European Space Agency. The material from Didymos would have formed a ring that eventually came together due to gravity, so Dimorphos may be what’s known as a rubble pile asteroid — rocky debris loosely held together by gravity, rather than a solid space rock.
Studying the DART experiment’s aftermath can help space agencies determine whether this impactor technology is the right approach to deflecting asteroids that may pose a threat to Earth in the future — or if it may result in creating more rocky hazards heading toward the planet.
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Groundwater pumping by humans has caused the Earth’s axis to tilt – New study
A new study found that the inexhaustible human hunger for groundwater has drained so much water from underground reservoirs that it is altering the tilt of the Earth.
When it doesn’t rain much, groundwater assists with crop irrigation and provides drinking water for humans, livestock, and plants. The axis on which our globe rotates has been moved, however, according to recent research, tilting it over to the east at a rate of around 1.7 inches (4.3 centimetres) each year as a result of chronic groundwater extraction over a period of more than 10 years.
According to a study published on June 15 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, this shift is so noticeable that it can even be seen on the surface of the Earth. It causes the sea level to increase globally.
“Earth’s rotational pole actually changes a lot,” said lead study author Ki-Weon Seo, a professor in the department of Earth science education at Seoul National University in South Korea, in a news release. “Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.”
You might not be able to feel Earth’s rotation, but it’s spinning on a north-south axis at a rate of about 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 kilometers per hour).
The ebb and flow of seasonal change is linked to the angle of the planet’s rotational axis, and over geologic time, a wandering axis could affect climate on a global scale, said Surendra Adhikari, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the release. Adhikari was not involved in the study.
Earth’s interior is layered with rock and magma surrounding a dense, hot core. But in the outermost rocky layer, there are also vast quantities of water. Below the planet’s surface, rocky reservoirs known as aquifers are estimated to contain over 1,000 times more water than all the surface rivers and lakes in the world.
Between 1993 and 2010, the period examined in the study, humans extracted more than 2,150 gigatons of groundwater from inside Earth, mostly in western North America and northwestern India, according to estimates published in 2010. To put that into perspective, if that amount were poured into the ocean, it would raise global sea levels by about 0.24 inches (6 millimeters).
In 2016, another team of researchers found that drift in Earth’s rotational axis between 2003 and 2015 could be linked to changes in the mass of glaciers and ice sheets, as well as the planet’s reserves of terrestrial liquid water.
In fact, any mass change on Earth, including atmospheric pressure, can affect its axis of rotation, Seo told CNN in an email.
But axis changes caused by atmospheric pressure shifts are periodic, which means that the rotational pole wanders and then returns to its prior position, Seo explained. Seo and his colleagues had questions about long-term changes to the axis — specifically, how groundwater contributed to that phenomenon. It had not been calculated in prior research.
Shifts in Earth’s axis are measured indirectly through radio telescope observations of immobile objects in space — quasars — using them as fixed points of reference. For the new study, scientists took the 2010 data about groundwater extraction and incorporated it into computer models, alongside observational data about surface ice loss and sea level rise, and estimates of rotational pole changes.
The researchers then evaluated sea level variations “using the groundwater mass change from the model,” to pinpoint how much of the axis shift was caused by groundwater pumping alone, Seo said.
The redistribution of groundwater tilted Earth’s rotational axis east by more than 31 inches (78.7 centimeters) in just under two decades, according to the models. The most notable driver of long-term variations in the rotational axis was already known to be mantle flow — the movement of molten rock in the layer between Earth’s crust and outer core. The new modeling reveals that groundwater extraction is the second most significant factor, Seo said.
“This is a nice contribution and an important documentation,” Adhikari said. “They’ve quantified the role of groundwater pumping on polar motion, and it’s pretty significant.”
Future models can use observations on Earth’s rotation to illuminate the past, Seo added. “The data is available since the late 19th century,” he said. With that information, scientists can peer back in time and trace changes in planetary systems as the climate warmed over the last 100 years.
Groundwater pumping can be a lifeline, particularly in parts of the world that are heavily affected by drought caused by climate change. But subterranean reserves of liquid water are finite; once drained, they are slow to replenish.
And groundwater extraction doesn’t merely deplete a valuable resource; the new findings demonstrate that this activity has unintended global consequences.
“We have affected Earth systems in various ways,” Seo said. “People need to be aware of that.”
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Volcanoes may cover surface of the of Earth – Report
An Earth-sized planet that is entirely unlike Earth has been discovered by astronomers.
Instead, the exoplanet, known as LP 791-18 d, is most likely covered with volcanoes and may have eruptions as frequently as Jupiter’s moon Io, our solar system’s most volcanically active location.
The exoplanet was discovered using information from ground-based telescopes, the decommissioned Spitzer Space Telescope, and NASA’s planet-hunting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. The results of a study were released in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
LP 791-18 d circles a tiny red dwarf star in the Crater constellation, about 90 light-years from Earth.
Two other known planets also orbit the star, including LP 791-18 b, which is estimated to be 20% bigger than Earth, and LP 971-18 c, about 2.5 times Earth’s size and more than seven times its mass. And astronomers believe the massive planet LP 971-18 c might be contributing to the newly detected exoplanet’s possible volcanism.
As the two objects orbit their star, LP 971-18 c and the newfound exoplanet LP 791-18 d closely pass each other, allowing the gravitational pull of the larger planet LP 971-18 c to tug on planet d and reshape its orbit. With each trip around the star, planet d’s path shifts, becoming slightly more oval-shaped. The elliptical revolutions cause the interior of the planet to heat up, driving volcanic activity.
This phenomenon is similar to what occurs on Io, caught in a gravitational crossfire between Jupiter and its larger moons.
But there is no direct evidence yet to prove that volcanoes exist across LP 971-18 d.
“We don’t know that there are any volcanoes here,” said study coauthor Ian Crossfield, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, in a statement. “All we know is that this is a small planet that’s experiencing a straight-up periodic stretching due to its orbit around its star and near the other planets. That might cause lots of volcanoes like on Jupiter’s moon Io, which is the most volcanically active thing in our solar system. We know about that because we’ve sent things nearby and taken pictures. There’s not yet that kind of clear evidence yet with LP 791-18 d.”
Future observations of the planet could provide more data as astronomers continue the search for potentially habitable Earth-size planets.
Volcanic activity and planetary atmospheres
Astronomers estimate that LP 791-18 d falls within the inner edge of the habitable zone, the distance from a star where a planet is warm enough to support liquid water on its surface.
“LP 791-18 d is tidally locked, which means the same side constantly faces its star,” said study coauthor Björn Benneke, professor of astronomy at the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the University of Montreal, in a statement. “The day side would probably be too hot for liquid water to exist on the surface. But the amount of volcanic activity we suspect occurs all over the planet could sustain an atmosphere, which may allow water to condense on the night side.”
Although volcanic activity sounds like an impediment to water and potential life, it may actually help the planet maintain an atmosphere. Volcanoes can drive interactions between the interior and exterior of a planet.
“A big question in astrobiology, the field that broadly studies the origins of life on Earth and beyond, is if tectonic or volcanic activity is necessary for life,” said study coauthor Jessie Christiansen, a research scientist at NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. “In addition to potentially providing an atmosphere, these processes could churn up materials that would otherwise sink down and get trapped in the crust, including those we think are important for life, like carbon.”
Astronomers are intrigued by how volcanic activity can drive changes on planets. Venus, similar enough in size to Earth to be called its twin, may have once been more like our world.
“On Venus, volcanic carbon dioxide stayed in the atmosphere, pushing the planet into a runaway greenhouse state,” said study coauthor Stephen Kane, professor of planetary astrophysics at the University of California Riverside, in a statement. “Today, surface temperatures on Venus are more than 850 degrees Fahrenheit (454.4 degrees Celsius) — as hot as a wood-fired pizza oven — and odds of life there are slim. But it may not always have been that way. Volcanoes might be a big piece of the puzzle about what actually happened on Venus. Planets like LP 791-18d can shed important insights into how volcanoes shape planetary environments with time, including those of Venus and Earth.”
The larger planet LP 971-18 c is already on the list of targets that the James Webb Space Telescope will observe in the future, and now the study team believes that the newly spotted planet d is also a prime candidate. Astronomers are using the Webb telescope to search for signs of atmospheres around exoplanets and peer into them to determine the chemicals that make up these extraterrestrial atmospheres.
The discovery of LP 971-18 d points to the importance of data collected by space telescopes. The planetary system was one of the last observation targets of the Spitzer Space Telescope before the observatory was retired in January 2020.
“It is incredible to read about the continuation of discoveries and publications years beyond Spitzer’s end of mission,” said Joseph Hunt, Spitzer project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement. “That really shows the success of our first-class engineers and scientists. Together they built not only a spacecraft but also a data set that continues to be an asset for the astrophysics community.”
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SpaceX: Nasa crew describe rumbles and jolts of return to Earth
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have described the rumbles, heat and jolts of returning from space in the Crew Dragon spacecraft on Sunday.
Behnken vividly described the clouds rushing by the window and jolts that were like being “hit in the back of the chair with a baseball bat”.
But Hurley and Behnken said the spacecraft performed just as expected.
They splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, ending the first commercial crewed mission to the space station.
“As we descended through the atmosphere, I personally was surprised at just how quickly events all transpired. It seemed like just a couple of minutes later, after the [de-orbit] burns were complete, we could look out the windows and see the clouds rushing by,” he said at a news conference broadcast from Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“Once we descended a little bit into the atmosphere, Dragon really came alive. It started to fire thrusters and keep us pointed in the appropriate direction. The atmosphere starts to make noise – you can hear that rumble outside the vehicle. And as the vehicle tries to control, you feel a little bit of that shimmy in your body.
“We could feel those small rolls and pitches and yaws – all those little motions were things we picked up on inside the vehicle.”
As the spacecraft – named Endeavour by its crew – descended through the atmosphere, the rumbles increased in magnitude and the thrusters began to fire continuously. “I did record some audio but it doesn’t sound like a machine, it sounds like an animal,” said Behnken.
During the return from the International Space Station (ISS), the crew module has to separate from a section called the trunk, which has solar panels and heat-removal radiators.
“All the separation events, from the trunk separation through the parachute firings, were very much like getting hit in the back of the chair with a baseball bat,” said Bob Behnken. “Pretty light for the trunk separation but with the parachutes it was a pretty significant jolt.”
Behnken also described feeling some “warming” inside the capsule. He praised the engineers who worked on the Crew Dragon spacecraft: “I can’t say enough about how well the SpaceX team trained us,” he said.
Upon splashdown on Sunday, a flotilla of private boats approached the bobbing Dragon, which came down in the sea off Pensacola, Florida.
They were asked to leave amid concern over hazardous chemicals venting from the capsule’s propulsion system.
“We certainly appreciate the folks wanting to participate in the event, but there are some safety aspects that – as the administrator [Nasa chief Jim Bridenstine] said – we’ll have to take a look at, because it can’t happen like it did before.”
Hurley said they were not aware of the boats while they were sitting in the capsule because of the scorch marks over the windows. “You see it was daylight outside but very little else,” he said.
But reflecting on the historic nature of the mission, Hurley said it “was one of the true honours of my entire life, but certainly my professional career”.
Nasa is handing over the transport of astronauts to and from the ISS to private companies, namely SpaceX and Boeing. Since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, the United States has had no vehicle with which to launch astronauts from its soil.
In the intervening years, it has paid Russia tens of millions of dollars per seat to launch US crew members on the Soyuz vehicle.
During the last ever shuttle mission – STS-135 – in 2011, the crew left a US flag on the space station with the intention that the next crew to launch on a US vehicle return it to Earth. Nine years later, Hurley and Behnken have brought back the symbolic item, which also flew on the first shuttle mission in 1981.
Source:Â bbc.com