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

The hottest star

✨With a surface temperature of 210,000°C (!), WR 102 claims to be the hottest star known to us in the Universe.

WR 102 is a Wolf-Rayet oxygen star located 9,800 light-years from Earth in the Sagittarius constellation. It features high luminosity and stands very close to a supernova explosion✨

#TheHottestStar
👉 @AstroMechanics

NASA Artemis Moon Missions: launch dates & facts
https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/nasa-moon-mission-artemis-program-launch-date

Gravitational microlensing🔍

✨Gravitational microlensing is an observational effect that was predicted in 1936 by Einstein using his General Theory of Relativity. When one star in the sky appears to pass nearly in front of another, the light rays of the background source star become bent due to the gravitational "attraction" of the foreground star.

🚀The gravitational microlensing method allows planets to be found using light from a distant star. The path of the light from this star will be altered by the presence of a massive lens – in our case, a star and a planet. Thus, for a short period of time, the distant star will appear brighter✨

#GML
👉 @AstroMechanics