A quick look at everything space related that tickled my fancy this past week.
Let’s kick things off with tiny quantum fluctuations making a big impact:
According to Futurism:
“For the first time, scientists noticed that tiny fluctuations of quantum energy actually ‘kicked’ a large mirror out of alignment — the first tangible impact of quantum noise at the human scale.
The nudge happened inside the LIGO gravitational wave detector. And while it’s a fascinating discovery, it actually poses a bit of a practical problem for the observatory’s continued research, according to a press release. Because of that, the LIGO team is now using something called a ‘quantum squeezer’ to protect their research.”
Moon Gel
Scientists have finally figured out the true nature of a mysterious green gel found on the far side of the Moon last year! And no, it’s not aliens.
CNET explains:
“When China’s Yutu-2 rover spotted a weird greenish gel-looking substance in a crater on the far side of the moon last year, there was an understandable sense of excitement. What was it? Aliens? Space snot? Melted rock?
A team led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published an analysis of the substance in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
South Pole Wall
One of the largest ever cosmic structures has been discovered!
According to Live Science:
“Spectacular 3D maps of the universe have revealed one of the biggest cosmic structures ever found — an almost-inconceivable wall stretching 1.4 billion light-years across that contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies.
The South Pole Wall, as it’s been dubbed, has been hiding in plain sight, remaining undetected until now because large parts of it sit half a billion light-years away behind the bright Milky Way galaxy. The South Pole Wall rivals in size the Sloan Great Wall, the sixth largest cosmic structure discovered. (One light-year is roughly 6 trillion miles, or 9 trillion kilometers, so this “biggest cosmic structure” is mind-bendingly humongous.)”
Odd Radio Circles
The South Pole Wall wasn’t the only new discovery. Astronomers also discovered a new class of space object never before detected, weird glowing circles visible only in radio light, that they have dubbed Odd Radio Circles.
So what are they?!
According to Vice:
“The circles might be the fallout of exploded stars, or bubbles blown out by winds in galactic star factories, or ‘Einstein rings,’ which are signatures of warped spacetime created by the gravity of massive objects. They could be the ghosts of highly energetic events that occurred millions of years ago, such as gamma ray bursts, fast radio bursts, or plasma jets emitted by active galactic cores.”
Evolving Language
Long-term space travel may present new challenges. For instance, during generational travel human language may evolve either on board the ship or off of it making it possible that future space travelers won’t be able to communicate with those humans left on Earth when they return from their journey!
As Science Alert puts it:
“By building a ship that can accommodate multiple generations of human beings (aka. a Generation Ship), humans could colonize the known Universe.
But of course, there are downsides to this imaginative proposal. During such a long voyage, multiple generations of people will be born and raised inside a closed environment. This could lead to all kinds of biological issues or mutations that we simply can’t foresee.
But according to a new study by a team of linguistics professors, there’s something else that will be subject to mutation during such a voyage – language itself!”
Solar System Travel Restrictions
Earthlings dealing with COVID-19 aren’t the only ones dealing with heightened travel restrictions. One day space travelers will have strict guidelines to follow as well to avoid contamination.
According to Space.com:
“NASA has unveiled new policies to protect the moon and Mars (and Earth) from contamination as human spaceflight advances.
The agency released two NASA Interim Directives (NIDs) today (July 9) that detail new requirements for human and robotic missions traveling to and from the moon and Mars. These directives were enacted to protect the planetary bodies from any possible biological contamination that could originate on Earth and ultimately interfere with scientific research (or additionally, in the case of Mars, to also prevent any possible biological material from being brought home to Earth.)”
There’s a lot happening out in space nowadays.
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