The sky is (not) the limit | Starlink on Mars, the support of Neil deGrasse Tyson and more.



[ad_1]

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we cannot always follow the news as we would like, especially considering the daily “rush” of information that comes from everywhere. Many people who are interested in science, by the way, end up being left out of the latest events, and precisely for that reason the Canaltech is dedicated, each week, to the preparation of this “summary” with the main scientific news of the last seven days.

And here is this week’s compilation!

Starlink on Mars, the “free planet”

(Image: Playback / SpaceX)

Now that Starlink Internet is offered to the public in beta, some of Elon Musk’s “beauties” are starting to go public. One of them is hidden in SpaceX’s terms of service: the company requires that to use Internet Starlink, it must recognize Mars as a free planet, and also accept that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. .

In addition, the president and COO of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell, also said that the company intends to create, in the orbit of Mars, a Starlink constellation similar to that of the Earth, so that the future colonists of the Red Planet have this internet at their disposal. provision.

Are you curious? Click here to find out more!

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson promotes Brazilian science

Famous for being the current host of the series. Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson published, on his Twitter, an open letter to promote Brazilian science. The text, in fact, is part of his new book, called Letters from an Astrophysicist (“Answers from an astrophysicist”), previously sold here in Brazil.

By clicking here, you can read the full text and in Portuguese.

Japanese probe dropped more than 200 rocks on asteroid Ryugu

Detail of the surface of the asteroid Ryugu (Image: Playback / JAXA / Jaumann)

More than 200 new rocks have been detected on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu. They were released with the impact of the Japanese probe Hayabusa-2, whose mission was precisely to open a crater in the space object, collecting samples that will be taken to Earth.

More details about all this can be found here.

Einstein’s theory is confirmed in an unprecedented way

In the General Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein predicted gravitational redshift, as an effect that light undergoes under the influence of gravity, turning redder as it moves away from a large cosmic object. This had already been confirmed in observations in the Solar System, but now a team of researchers has succeeded in confirming the theory in an unprecedented way: they did so by detecting the redshift in a distant star system.

Little evidence was found farther out in the Solar System to determine that this effect is universal. However, a new study shows how a team of researchers detected a gravitational redshift in a two-star system at a distance of 29,000 light-years.

Better understand this story! Click here.

“Strange” molecule in the atmosphere of the moon Titan

The mapped surface of the moon Titan (Image: Playback / VIMS Team / U. Arizona / U. Nantes / ESA / NASA)

In the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, a “strange” molecule has just been discovered: cyclopropenylidene has so far only been found in clouds of gas and dust between star systems, and has never been observed in an atmosphere. It is a molecule based on carbon and hydrogen that can be one of the precursors of the most complex compounds, those that form the pillars of life as we know it.

Understand why this discovery is important by clicking here.

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is “vague”

The simulation shows the orbits of stars very close to Sagittarius A *. One of these stars orbits the black hole every 16 years and passed very close to it in May 2018 (Image: Reproduction / ESO / L. Calçada / Spaceengine.org)

According to a new study, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, called Sagittarius A *, spins slowly. This was the first time that the rotation of this black hole had been accurately measured. According to the study authors, if Sagittarius A * had a significantly high spin, the stars’ orbital planes at birth would be misaligned. As this is not the case, the pair went to great lengths to measure this rate of rotation, also concluding that Sagittarius A * is unlikely to have a jet, as is not uncommon in other supermassive black holes.

Here you will find more information on this topic.

Half of the stars similar to the Sun can have habitable planets

Rendering of Kepler-186f, the first planet with a validated Earth size orbiting a star in the habitable zone (Image: Reproduction / NASA Ames / JPL-Caltech / T. Pyle)

In search of answers to the question “how many planets orbiting other stars can support life?” NASA scientists, analyzing data from the Kepler space telescope, came to the conclusion that half of the stars with a temperature similar to that of the Sun could have in its orbit, a rocky planet with liquid water on its surface.

Click here for more details on this study.

Trio of craters discovered on Mars

Craters in perspective (Image: Playback / ESA / DLR / FU Berlin)

Data from the Mars Express mission revealed a “new” trio of craters in the southern hemisphere of Mars, as they appear to overlap. The largest is 45 km long, while the smallest is 28 km. It is not yet known exactly how they formed: whether three different objects reached the Red Planet at different times, creating the overlap, or whether the single object that caused this impact broke into three before hitting the ground, forming the trio.

Learn more by clicking here.

There was water on Mars for much longer than we imagined

Due to the color, the Martian meteorite was nicknamed “Black Beauty” (Image: Playback / NASA / Luc Labenne)

Meteorites discovered in the Sahara desert, here on Earth, have recently been analyzed, and researchers have discovered more details about the past of Mars, where these rocks came from. By studying the chemical signatures of the objects, the scientists deduced that it was very likely that there was water on the red planet 4.4 billion years ago. Furthermore, the analysis also suggests that such an impact could have released large amounts of hydrogen, which would have contributed to global warming at a time when Mars already had a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide.

You can find out all this and more by clicking here.

Lost “brother” of the Moon found behind Mars

Representation of Mars and Trojans surrounding Lagrange points L4 and L5 (Image: Reproduction / Armagh Observatory)

An asteroid with a composition very similar to that of the Moon was discovered behind Mars. Scientists understand that this rock may be what remains of the debris from the period when the Moon was formed; The most accepted theory here is that the Moon is the result of the binding of the remaining debris from a large impact between the planet Theia and Earth. Earth, billions of years ago.

Here you can find more details about this analysis.

Read also:

Did you like this article?

Subscribe your email to Canaltech to receive daily updates with the latest news from the world of technology.



[ad_2]