The surface ice of comet 67P and its outgassing activities follow a cycle based on the sun’s illumination on the object. #rosettaspaceprobe #comet67P #comets - http://clapway.com/2015/09/25/comet-67p-has-nights-and-days123/

The Rosetta space probe has made a new discovery regarding the water-ice cycle of comet 67P/Churmov-Gerasimenko. As it turns out, the surface ice of the comet and its outgassing activities follow a cycle based on the sun’s illumination on the object, and it is theorized that this very cycle may be used by other comets.

Maria Cristina de Sanctis, part of INAF-IAPS (Institute of Astrophysiology and Spacial Planetology at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome), reveals that the probe, owned by the European Space Agency, observed a process that replenishes the surface of the comet with fresh ice with every new rotation. This helps to keep the comet alive in a sense. Comets (for those who don’t know) are formations of the solar system made up of dust, rocks, and ice; they are scattered around the sun and move in their own orbits.

THE “DAY AND NIGHT” CYCLE OF COMET 67P

Using Rosetta’s Visible Infrared and Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS), researchers have found a one square km region of Comet 67P’s neck where this process occurs, in which the water-ice on its surface dissipates and reappears in relation to its rotational position.

How does this happen? Well, when a comet nears the sun, the heat of the giant star vaporizes its icy surface into gas in a process known as outgassing. As the ice starts to sublimate, dust and rock in the comet is released and floats away from the comet’s surface, giving the celestial body its signature halo and tail.

By contrast, when the same area is not under sunlight, the surface cools until it re-freezes and the comet is re-covered with a very thin layer of ice. The process, driven by the day/night cycle, restarts when sunlight once again glides over the comet.

“We saw the tell-tale signature of water ice in the spectra of the study region but only when certain portions were cast in shadow,” states Maria Cristina. “Conversely, when the Sun was shining on these regions, the ice was gone. This indicates a cyclical behaviour of water ice during each comet rotation.”

The findings of this study are now published in the journal Nature.

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WE MARVEL IN ALL THE WONDERS OF SPACE:

Comet 67P Has A Night And Day Cycle Too

Phantom Planet Posited as Fifth Outer Giant - http://clapway.com/2015/08/15/phantom-planet-posited-101/

An amalgamate of icy bodies occupying roughly the same region of space as Pluto might be proof that the early solar system used to be home to a fifth giant planet, scientists have hypothesized. If it exists, this mystery giant’s gravity might have had a brief but major interaction with Neptune’s gravity well while Neptune was already on its migration away from the sun 4 billion years ago. This would have caused the ice giant to jump to its current, more distant orbit, and scattered a cluster of its satellites into the Kuiper belt, and the far reaches of our own solar system.

THEORIES OF PLANET FORMATION INSUFFICIENT

This cluster of thousands of icy rocks, lovingly known by the name “kernel,” has been a source of mystery for astronomers for quite some time. The rocks composing the kernel huddle together, and never stray from the orbital plane of the planets, much different from other bodies of ice present in the belt. Studies performed before have hypothesized that such kernels of ice are the result of violent collisions of bigger parent bodies of ice, but this proposal could not stand up to scrutiny after scientists learned that these descendants of collision should then be scattered across the entire Kuiper belt.

NEPTUNE WAS AN UNSTABLE PLANET

However, recently one scientist in particular believes he’s discovered an empirical narrative that happens to fit the facts of this Kuiper belt mystery. An astronomer named David Nesvorny at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, thinks the jumping Neptune theory (published in the September issue of The Astronomical Journal) has merit. Tracing the kernel’s movements back 4 billion years with the help of computer simulations, David discovered that such icy objects were swept up in Neptune’s gravitational field as it moved farther from the sun, long, long ago. Originally (if such an adjective makes sense on a solar scale), the blue gas giant orbited near Saturn and Jupiter, but as it left their vicinity, Neptune tugged pieces of the early star system with it, and they began to follow a revolve around the sun at about twice the pace of Neptune.

PHANTOM PLANET WREAKS HAVOC

Roughly 4.2 billion kilometers (2.61 billion miles) from the sun, having nearly reached its current home about halfway to the Kuiper belt’s present edges, Neptune’s orbit was jerked out of normal sync, and migrated out an additional 7.5 million kilometers (4.66 million miles). This happened faster than the cluster of icy bodies could cop, so they were suddenly launched out of their orbit to one 6.9 billion kilometers (4.29 billion miles) from the sun, where they remain to the present day.

Nesvorny believes the only possible way such a sudden alteration in the kernel’s orbit could have occurred is if Neptune experienced a gravitational distortion from another body, of comparable gravitational force. It can’t have been the work of Uranus, Saturn or Jupiter, since their orbits have never interacted with Neptune’s in a way specific enough to create this cluster’s behavior. It thus must be David’s giant phantom planet.

Scientists are unsure what might have happened to the phantom planet, but Nesvorny’s earlier planetary model from 2011 could only account for the present’s orbital patterns by positing a fifth giant planet.

WHERE IS THE PHANTOM PLANET NOW?

It’s likely that the phantom planet was ejected from the solar system after changing the orbits of the surviving planets, said Nesvorny. Not all planets formed in an early solar system survive the process of settling orbits.

“The Kuiper belt is the clue,” Nesvorny explains. “You see the structures there, and you try to figure out what kind of evolution would fit those structures.”

HISTORY OF PLANET MODELS

Before choosing his current model of Kernel formation, Nesvorny tested 100 other alternative models. JJ Kavelaars of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, Canada levels that one of the most difficult parts of modeling is to successfully predict the motion of multiple objects in the solar system so that they still end up in their present locations, with the same velocities, with the same trajectories.

Nesvorny’s next step is to identify more Kuiper belt objects, specifically those still within the kernel. This will in turn assist future scientists as they endeavor to improve model accuracy, and David believes studying the origins of the outer solar system at summer’s end is the way to go.

Phantom Planet Posited as Fifth Outer Giant

Philae Lander Post-Perihelion To Awaken - http://clapway.com/2015/08/13/philae-lander-post-perihelion-101/

Scientists of European persuasion have made an important change of plans for the Philae lander , a detached component of the Rosetta spacecraft with a spotty service record. The Europeans are now hopeful of retrieving new imagery and data on drill samples as soon as communications are restored.

WHY DOES PHILAE PERFORM BADLY?

This may be a misrepresentation of the facts; Philae was impeccably designed, and is fully capable of performing its duties, but upon beginning its final descent last November, the lander had a few issues, bounced on the surface several times, and came to rest in a small valley. Since the lander is solar powered, the absence of sunlight precludes its operating at full capacity, causing it to go into hibernation mode periodically.

SUMMER’S DELIVERY

But in June, the tenacious lander reawoke, much to scientists at the European Space Agency’s surprise, and caused the ESA to rush plans for Philae to perform as many experiments as possible before they risked the more dangerous drilling experiment.

However, as mentioned above, because of Philae’s position, periodic black outs are to be expected. “The problem is not power, but communications,” Aurelie Moussi from space agency CNES said in a webcast on Thursday. “We have to find something to do in a shorter duration.”

PHILAE EXPECTED TO UNVEIL MYSTERIES OF LIFE

Scientists are hopeful that new samples from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s surface will yield more insight into the fundamentals of planet formation, and how such a frigid and hostile environment can be host to the complex organic compounds capable of seeding life.

The Rosetta spacecraft has spent the past two weeks studying a part of the comet inaccessible to Philae, but as of August 11th the mother probe has returned to its position above Philae, and is awaiting its signal.

PHILAE IS DAMAGED

So far, no more contact between the two machines has been documented, but Barbara Cozzoni, Philae operations engineer laments that this may be because one of the lander’s transmitters is broken, along with two receivers that refuse to function properly.

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

Since the comet passed through its perihelion phase at 185 million kilometers (roughly 115 million miles) from the sun, activity on the comet has picked up drastically. Just as the hottest day of the year occurs after the summer solstice, so too will comet 67P’s most active day follow its perihelion. As of now, the comet is ejecting nearly 1,000 kg of dust and a volume of water sufficient to fill two bathtubs per second. Comparatively, upon Rosetta’s original rendezvous, comet 67P was losing only two small glasses of water per second.

In addition to this increased loss of matter and H20, magnificently powerful gas jets were also observed shooting from the comet’s surface. But this spectacle is sideshow to what Philae may reveal to us, soon.

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Philae Lander Post-Perihelion To Awaken

Moon Surrounded by Dust Cloud - http://clapway.com/2015/06/18/moon-surrounded-by-dust-cloud345/

New observations show that the moon is surrounded by a permanent dust cloud, one different from what astronauts had seen on some of the Apollo missions. The data leading to these observations came grace of NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE. It reveals a new cloud, completely unlike the “glow” that was observed by astronauts on Apollo 15 and 17.

Dust cloud has large particles, low density.

According to lead researcher Mihaly Horanyi, professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s laboratory for atmospheric and space physics, stated in an email that the cloud has a few properties that make it strange. The low-density cloud is made up of larger particles that are few and far apart, and thus could likely not have been observed by the astronauts as a “cloud.”

Newly discovered dust cloud probably a result of impacts with comets.

The rocky cloud formation is likely a result of comet collisions, according to the new observations. When LADEE began taking measurements in late 2013, it found 140,000 dust hits in eighty days. The cloud was shaped irregularly, which implied to the scientists that the impacts were probably from cometary dust particles, which hit the lunar surface at an angle. Around once a week, the spacecraft would detect a quick succession of 10 to 50 particle hits in less than a minute, suggesting that the particles in those intervals all originated from the same collision minutes before.

Finding the cloud took special instrumentation.

NASA’s LADEE mission was the first one in low-altitude orbit to feature an instrument specially dedicated to detecting dust. Previous attempts were done with remote sensing imaging, which led to struggles with line-of-sight issues, according to Horanyi. When LADEE began its mission, Horanyi was excited at the possibility that the explorer would detect evidence of phenomena like dust charging and electrostatic dust mobilization on the surface of the moon. The study of those occurrences falls under the field of plasma physics, in which dust particles, electrons, and ions have strange and interesting interactions. LADEE was a successful mission right down to its crash into the lunar surface, which had always been part of the plan.

Discovery has implications for all bodies without atmospheres in our solar system.

The team of researchers behind the finding further theorizes that every single one of the other bodies in our solar system that’s devoid of an atmosphere is also engulfed by a dust cloud, as a result of being repeatedly struck by objects from the Kuiper belt near the border of our solar system.

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Moon Surrounded by Dust Cloud

Impact Glass Found on Mars Could Hold Signs of Ancient Life - http://clapway.com/2015/06/09/impact-glass-found-on-mars-could-hold-signs-of-ancient-life-876/

Impact glass, the glass formed from the heat produced when a meteorite or comet crashes into a planet, could hold within it evidence of past Martian life. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has recently detected some of this glass in Martian craters. A team of Brown University scientists has written a report about Martian impact glass data in the online journal Geology.

 

Impact glass on Earth has also preserved ancient signs of life.

 

The reason that scientists believe impact craters on Mars may hold traces of past life is that the same thing happened on Earth. Impact glass from craters formed by collisions with meteorites and comets on our own planet has preserved life before. In 2014, a study found organic molecules as well as plant matter contained in glass made during an impact that took place millions of years ago in Argentina.

Finding Martian impact glass was a tricky process.

In order to find the large impact glass deposits in certain craters on Mars, scientists had to measure the spectral band of light reflected off the surface of the planet. The tough part in this is that the glass’s signal is a weak one which tends to get drowned out by bits of rock signal. Yet, one of the Brown researchers, Kevin Cannon, figured out a way to isolate that spectral signal and measure it so as to be able to precisely identify it. Cannon, working in a lab, mixed powders of similar composition to Martian rocks and baked them in an oven to make glass. After that, he measured that glass’s spectral signal. That signal would then be compared to the one detected by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Some of these impact features may be targets of future manned Mars missions.

When the human mission to Mars will happen sometime in the 2030s, possible targets include some of these glass-containing impact craters. One of them is called Hargraves, and it’s near a 400 mile-long trough called Nili Fossae. Nili Fossae has been singled out as a possible landing site for the rover NASA will have on the red planet in the year 2020.

 

Impact Glass Found on Mars Could Hold Signs of Ancient Life

The exact origins of the strange swirls on the Moon have long been pondered by astronomical and cosmological researchers. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/02/the-mystery-of-the-swirls-on-the-moon-234/

The Moon has always been known to have a mysterious effect on vast things like the ocean’s movement. Who knew the crash of comets affected the moon’s appearance so greatly? On the topic of our one and only Moon, you’ll definitely want to check out this beautiful Strawberry Moon.

Researchers from Brown University — Providence, R.I. — recently discovered that the mysterious swirls all over the Moon may have been caused by crashing comets. This wasn’t an instantaneous thing. Crashing comets over the course of the last 100 million years — how’s that for the opposite of instant gratification?

How Comets Alter the Appearance of the Moon

They examined the dynamics of the swirls on the Moon using the latest in computer models to create simulations of the Moon’s groundwork. The simulations gave way to information about how comet impacts could very possibly explain the mysterious features — particularly the swirls on the Moon. This hypothesis might even explain the presence of magnetic anomalies near those swirls. The reason for this is that comet impacts could cause the melting away of some particles of the Moon’s surface. The Moon is iron-rich, so of course, the melted away particles would be too. As those particles are iron-rich, after impact, these particles start to melt, and then finally cool. In the middle of this process, they are imprinted with whatever magnetic field is present at the time of this cosmic interaction.

Patterns of Swirls on The Moon Long-Debated

The exact origins of the strange swirls on the Moon have long been pondered by astronomical and cosmological researchers. As far as the eye can see, the Moon has always had its pattern of strange, bright swirls, but there hadn’t really been a definitive answer. For years, scientists have tried to tie their conclusions about the Moon’s shapes with theories regarding the Moon’s interior magnetism, or Moon dirt and solar wind interactions, but these theories have left the community wanting.

This new comet collision theory is well-backed by the state-of-the-art computer simulation models. The case for cometary collisions is strong because the simulations show that impacts along the Moon’s groundwork would cause its icy core to blow away small particles on top of it and create the swirls on the Moon. The simulation show that the impacted surface can feasibly create swirling that might extend from the impact point for long distances.

On the topic of our one and only Moon: you’ll definitely want to check out this beautiful Strawberry Moon.

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The Mystery of The Swirls on The Moon