Dimorphos grows a tail. More Europa pictures from Juno. The horrifying possibility of ads in the night sky. Why Jupiter’s atmosphere is surprisingly hot.
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Didimoon’s New Tail
After NASA’s DART mission slammed into asteroid Dimorphos, astronomers have been focused on the region, watching to see what happens next. Within a few days of the impact, astronomers measured a huge dust tail stretching off the asteroid that was 10,000 kilometers long. A few days after that, it extended to 50,000 kilometers long. The tail is caused by light pressure from the Sun, pushing the particles away from the asteroid, just like a comet grows a tail.
More of Europa’s Flyby of Jupiter
We’ve gotten even more pictures from the recent Juno flyby of Europa. Citizen scientists like Kevin Gill have been working to process the images, giving us one of the clearest views of Europa we’ve ever seen. The picture above was taken using a secondary camera system on board the spacecraft called the Stellar Reference Unit, a star camera used for orientation. This new image covers a region just 150 km across and shows a fine grooves and double ridges network. It’s a sneak preview of the upcoming Europa Clipper, which arrives in 2030.
Horrifying Idea of Ads in Space
Satellite pollution of the night sky is becoming worse and worse. But at least most satellites provide useful services, like internet connectivity. However, there might be an even more annoying use case. An article in the Journal Aerospace suggests using a small constellation to display ads in the night sky. I guess, there isn’t much to say about it except ‘NO, NEVER DO THAT’.
More about ads taking over the night sky.
Crew-5 goes to the ISS
Crew-5, the next team of astronauts to fly to the International Space Station, blasted off from Cape Canaveral this week in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. On board is Commander Nicole Mann become, the first Native American woman in space, and she is joined by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, as well as pilot and NASA astronaut Josh Cassada. They arrived at the station after a 29-hour flight in orbit.
Why Jupiter is Surprisingly Hot
Jupiter is a strange place. One of the mysteries that it has is its temperature. Despite the planet being far from the Sun, its atmosphere can reach up to 700 degrees near its poles. Recent studies link this high temperature to Jupiter’s auroras and the way its magnetosphere interacts with moons like Io and the Sun.
Debris on Mars. Again
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter completed its 33rd flight on Mars on September 24th, 2022. In the video from the flight, engineers noticed that there was some material hanging down from one of its legs. It’s believed this is another piece of debris from the Perseverance Rover’s landing system. The residue wasn’t there during flight 32 and was gone by the end of flight 33. Fortunately, it didn’t cause any problems during the flight.
More about weird stuff on Mars.
World Largest Steerable Telescope Construction
With the loss of the Arecibo Telescope, astronomers have one fewer radio telescopes to observe the Universe. There’s the 500-meter FAST Telescope in China, which is even more powerful than Arecibo. Now the Chinese are looking to break another record by building the world’s largest steerable radio telescope, the 110-meter QiTai Radio Telescope, which will be 10 meters bigger than the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia.
More about upcoming Chinese radiotelescope.
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