NASA plans to send a flagship mission to Uranus by 2049

✨A committee of NASA scientists has recommended that a flagship mission to Uranus be NASA's highest-priority major planetary science mission for the next decade.

Uranus is a virtually unexplored world; NASA's only visit to the seventh planet was a short flyby on January 24, 1986, during which scientists discovered the planet's rings and several additional moons.

At this point, an orbiter and probe to Uranus is not a specific mission, but a concept✨

#Astroinfo
👉 @AstroMechanics

Europeans explore caves on the Moon🗻

✨For a long time, NASA representatives have been curious about the underground world on the Moon. The European Space Agency also began to study it. Specialists argue that the existing caves on our planet's satellite may be quite suitable for the construction of space bases.

It is no secret that the Moon has no atmosphere. Radiation on the surface is extremely high. In addition, meteorites that fall on the moon have nowhere to burn. Therefore, during the construction of various structures for the life of the colonizers must be protected.

According to researchers, the best option is the lunar caves. Also water and minerals can be found there, both of which are useful for life support of lunar bases✨

#MoonCaves
👉 @AstroMechanics

SDSS 153636.22+044127.0

✨A binary black holes have been found sitting in the center of quasar SDSS 153636.22+044127.0 at a distance of about 4 billion light years from Earth✨

#Blackhole
👉 @AstroMechanics

What is the minimal size of black holes?

✨The mass of a black hole formed by the collapse of a larger star is limited by the Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit. Its exact value is not known, as it depends on many poorly understood parameters. In general, this limit lies between 2.14 and 2.17 solar masses.

All stars lighter than 2.14 solar masses are definitely not black holes. The highly probable BH candidates known today have significantly higher masses, from 6 solar masses and higher.

For primary (small) black holes the lower value is the Planck mass: 2.176⋅10^(-8) kg. But primary black holes are hypothetical objects and have not been discovered yet✨

#Blackhole
👉 @AstroMechanics

Rigel (Beta Orion) are 4 stars that are visible in the sky as one bright blue dot

✨The supergiant and three main-sequence stars rotate around a common center of mass with a period of 24 thousand years✨

#BrightBlueDot
👉 @AstroMechanics

Newly discovered glow of Martian atmosphere defies simple explanation

✨Scientists from the Mars mission, launched by the UAE, have observed a wavy, snake-shaped atmospheric glow that stretches over half of the Red Planet's surface.

This discovery of a "wavy, discrete" atmospheric glow, which was observed high in the atmosphere and is the result of the interaction of solar radiation with magnetic fields.

The intensity of the magnetic field of Mars is heterogeneous, and, in some places, it lacks field at all, so it is difficult to track the glow of the atmosphere on this planet✨

#NewDiscovery
👉 @AstroMechanics

New Horizons approached Pluto

New Horizons approached Pluto at a distance of 12,500 kilometers. For comparison, satellites in geostationary orbit "hang" over the Earth at a distance of 36,000 kilometers, which is almost 3 times farther

The apparatus has spent 9.5 years in transit and flew about 5 billion kilometers. At such a scale of travel, the accuracy of the "hit" is amazing.

#Pluto
👉 @AstroMechanics

Experiment to grow plants in soil from the Moon proved poor results

Scientists at the University of Florida planted cress seeds in 4 grams of lunar soil from each of the three Apollo missions and tracked their growth for 20 days.

Within 60 hours of planting, the research team found that the seeds had sprouted in all soil samples. Between day 6 and 8, the team removed a few seedlings so that only one plant grew for every gram of soil.

On the removed plants, they found that the roots grown in the lunar soil were stunted compared to plants grown in Earth's volcanic soil.

#Experiment
👉 @AstroMechanics

Moon Dust

In 1972, Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan got so caught up in being the last humans on the Moon that they forgot to "wipe their feet" before entering their landing module. Which, in general, is rather surprising as they already knew how awful that lunar dust was.

It had already managed to clog all the articulations of their spacesuits during the mission. So much so that they couldn't move properly. And the dust was so sharp that it rubbed through three layers of Kevlar-like fabric on their boots!

Such negligence brought this very lunar dust inside their ship, and they had to fly all the way home with it. Constantly making sure it didn't kill them.

#Moondust
👉 @AstroMechanics

Fire in Space🔥

✨On July 18, 2014, astronaut Reid Wiseman managed to produce a jellyfish-like fire sphere in an experiment. The results of his experiments could lead to better engines on Earth✨.

#Fire
👉 @AstroMechanics

Is the speed of light really that fast?

✨A beam of light makes 7.5 revolutions per second around the Earth. Seems fast, let's zoom in.

It already takes 1.255 seconds to get to the Moon for this procedure. It took 3 minutes for the beam of light to travel from Earth to Mars.

Conclusion: the speed of light is not that fast, especially on the scale of the Universe✨

#Light
👉 @AstroMechanics

#Fun😂
👉 @AstroMechanics

What's the difference between a meteorite and a meteor?

✨Plenty of asteroid fragments are scattered in space, moving along an arbitrary trajectory, or have fairly stable orbits.

When such a fragment enters the planetary gravitational field, its trajectory changes and it gradually rushes toward the planet's surface.

Meteor is a glowing streak left by a space object in the night sky as it burns up in the atmosphere.

When a space body reaches the planet's surface, it may be termed a meteorite✨

#Meteorite
👉 @AstroMechanics

Human Orbital Stay World Record

✨The world record for the space flight duration belongs to Russian cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov. He spent 437 days on the Mir station.

And this year the NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei intends to break the record for the United States. For this purpose, he has to stay aboard the ISS until April 2021✨

#AmazingRecord
👉 @AstroMechanics

What age do astronauts retire at?

✨Each astronaut retires when their health no longer allows them to fly or for personal reasons. No upper limit is set, it all depends on the individual astronaut.

Twenty-three years ago, 77-year-old American John Glenn proved that advanced age is no barrier to spaceflight. Since 1962, when Glenn was first on board the space shuttle, he has dreamed of flying again.

And on October 29, 1998, he finally made his dream come true. The gap between the astronaut's first and last flight was 36 years✨

#Astronaut
👉 @AstroMechanics

Why do astronauts not fly to the dark side of the Moon?

✨The point is that there is no radio communication with Earth on the other side of the Moon.

One solution to this problem is to use a constellation of satellites to send a signal, though this approach is expensive and difficult.

Sending people to the Moon without constant communication is an unreasonable risk❗

#Moon
👉 @AstroMechanics

Planet HD 189733 b

✨The planet's surface rains glass and winds up to 2 kilometers per second.

But the worst thing is the surface temperature, which exceeds 1000 degrees Celsius. The exoplanet is similar in size to Jupiter and is about 63 light years away from Earth✨

#Planetinfo
👉 @AstroMechanics