cosmic seastar

  Data from the JWST indicates that a planet 124 light years away could host life. However, it’s more speculation than fact.  Artist's concept of K2-18b as a hycean world; Source: Wikipedia A few months ago, NASA made an exciting announcement: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have found signs of life on the distant exoplanet K2-18b.  According to this data, the planet might be a Hycean world — a planet covered in a global water ocean beneath a rich hydrogen atmosphere. The JWST discovered an abundance in methane and carbon dioxide but a lack in ammonia, strengthening the hypothesis. But what it also found is a possible detection of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) , a molecule which on Earth is mainly produced by phytoplankton in our oceans.  Sounds promising, right? Since DMS is only produced by life, this must surely mean that K2-18b is an inhabited world!  Before scientists can confirm anything for sure, the JWST has been directed once more at the system t...

  No spacecraft has visited Uranus and Neptune since the historic Voyager 2 almost 40 years ago. But our chances of launching a new mission in time will soon slip by. Despite saying that a mission to the ice giants is the greatest priority, problems already delay the launch.  Eyes on the outer Solar System From the buzz and warmth of the inner Solar System, we quickly forget what lies beyond the rocky planets that surround our neighborhood. A quick look through a telescope reminds us of the protective gas giants Jupiter, with its vibrant clouds, and Saturn, with its distinctive ring system.  But beyond that, silence. Emptiness. Ice.  As the amount of time it takes sunlight to reach the outer Solar System increases to hours, the colder it gets, with temperatures approaching near total zero.  In this icy realm, two giant blue worlds emerge: Uranus and Neptune, travelling around the Sun in 84 and 164 Earth years, respectively. Their blue color makes these plan...

  Planets orbiting close to a red giant are destroyed once the star dies, yet we have evidence of planets orbiting stellar remains. How is that even possible? Artist's concept of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a white dwarf; Source: Wikipedia Dying stars are weird. Every star normally resides on the main sequence, where they happily fuse hydrogen to helium for millions or billions of years — just like our Sun is doing at the moment and for five billion years to come. However, when there’s no hydrogen left, the star throws a tantrum, growing to sizes that engulf any planet in its way.   At this red giant stage, the star fuses elements heavier than helium until it reaches a point where it can no longer burn heavier elements — then, as if someone pulled the plug, the star sheds its outer layers into space, leaving only an exposed Earth-sized core behind. At least, that’s how our Sun’s going to end its life.  The core that remains is called a white dwarf, as dead as can be, ...

  The Martian helicopter Ingenuity proved just how viable the choice of aircraft for exploration is. Not only will Ingenuity unleash a new era of helicopters, there are already concepts for airplanes and airships to explore our Solar System.  Ingenuity, aka Ginny, fulfilled 72 flights on Mars; Source: Wikipedia Exploring Mars via airplane  Mars is a quiet planet — not only because it lacks the ambient sound of life as we experience it on Earth, Mars’ thin atmosphere doesn’t carry sound very far. So it’s easy to think that the atmosphere is static; however, it’s much more complicated than that.  Extreme temperature variations cause atmospheric instability, with strong pressure fluctuations. Martian dust can make that only worse, especially when the planet experiences one of its famous global dust storms. During these storms, wind speeds can reach up to 100kph/62mph, only accelerated by the lack of obstruction through vegetation as we have it on Earth. Because Mars...

From the first rover that landed on Mars 27 years ago, Sojourner, to car-sized Curiosity and Perseverance – we’ve seen quite an evolution in how these rovers improved. Not only have they got more technologic ally advanced, they also unleashed a culture of cuteness that we associate with rovers. Pathfinder photographs Sojourner as it analyzes the rock Yogi; Source: Wikipedia On December 4, 1996, a Delta II rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, carrying one of the most meaningful missions of its time: the Mars Pathfinder. About half a year after launch, Pathfinder touched down on the Red Planet.  After the successful landing, Pathfinder made way for a tiny but revolutionary companion: Sojourner. Being the first rover to explore Mars, the microwave-sized Sojourner became quite a celebrity. And Sojourner was the beginning of a new era of space exploration — ever since, rovers became bigger and technologically more complex.  But how did these rovers shape our understanding and fasci...