May 16, 2019Volume 12, Issue 7

“One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.” Jeff Bezos

CONTENTS

ASTRONEWSLETTER

• Surprise4,000-Mile‘ Ice

Corridor ’FoundonSaturn’s

MoonTitan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

•BlueMoon:Here’sHowBlueOrigin’s

NewLunarLanderWorks. . . . . . . 1

•NewWaterCycleonMars

Discovered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

•NASACrownsWinnerin

•MarsHabitatCompetition . . . . . . 2

•BrazilianScientistsInvestigate

DwarfPlanet’sRing . . . . . . . . . . 3

•OurHistoryintheStars. . . . . . . 3

Blue Origin’s billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, revealed the company’s plans tolandaspacecraftnamed“BlueMoon”onthelunarsurface.Duringanexclusivepresentation here at theWalter E.WashingtonConvention Center onMay 9th,BezoslaidoutthedetailsofBlueMoonandallthewaysitcanbeusedtoexploreEarth’snaturalsatellite.

Fromnewtechtopossiblecrewedmissionstothelunarsurface,there’salottounpackfromBezos’presentation.BlueMoonbearssomeresemblancetoNASA’soldApollolunarmodules,buttherearesomenoticeabledifferences.Themostobvious,asidefromitssleekerdesign,istheenormous,sphericalfueltankwiththewords“BlueMoon” printed in big, blue letters on its side. BlueMoon is arelatively large lunar lander that’sdesigned todeliver sciencepayloads,moonroversandevenastronautstothelunarsurface.

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AlthoughCassini’smissionendedin2017,its data lives on, and planetary scientistscontinue to learnmoreabout thehistoryand surface features of this strangelyEarth-like moon. The new technique iscalled principal components analysis(PCA),anditcouldbeagame-changerforTitan-ophiles.To test their new tool, the internationalteamofresearchersappliedPCAtohalfofTitan’s surface, from30° S to 30°N.Onceeverything was correlated and indeedfound to be accurate, the team was leftwith a hi-def distribution ofwater ice onTitan. And curiously, the authorswrite, itformed in a noticeablepattern.“Our PCAstudyindicatesthatwatericeisunevenly,but not randomly, exposed across Titan’stropical surface.Mostof theexposed ice-richmaterial follows a long, nearly linear,corridor thatstretches6,300 (kilometers),”or nearly 4,000 miles (6,400 km). That’sabout 40 percent of Titan’s entirecircumference.

Surprise 4,000-Mile ‘Ice Corridor’ Found on

Saturn’s Moon Titan

Astronomy.comAstro Newsletter

Space.com

Blue Moon: Here’s How Blue Origin’s New Lunar Lander Works

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New Water Cycle on Mars Discovered

Billionsofyearsago,Marswasaplanetrich in water with rivers, and even anocean. Since then, our neighboringplanethaschangeddramatically.Today,only small amounts of frozen waterexistintheground;intheatmosphere,watervaporoccursonlyintraces.Allinall,theplanetmayhavelostatleast80percentofitsoriginalwater.IntheupperatmosphereofMars,ultravioletradiationfromthesunsplitwatermoleculesintohydrogen (H) and hydroxyl radicals(OH).Thehydrogenescapedfromthereirretrievably into space.Measurementsby spaceprobes and space telescopesshowthateventoday,waterisstill lostinthisway.Buthowisthispossible?Themiddle atmosphere layer of Mars, likeEarth’stropopause,shouldactuallystopthe rising gas. After all, this region isusuallysocoldthatwatervaporwouldturntoice.HowdoestheMartianwatervaporreachtheupperairlayers?

In their current simulations, theRussian and German researchers finda previously unknown mechanismreminiscent of a kind of pump. Theirmodel comprehensively describesthe flows in the entire gas envelopesurrounding Mars from the surfaceto an altitude of 160 kilometers. Thecalculations show that the normallyice-cold middle atmosphere becomespermeabletowatervaportwiceaday—butonlyatacertain location,andatacertaintimeofyear.

What would life onMars look like?NASA thinks it’s getting one stepclosertofiguringitout.TheAgencyhas awarded a combined $700,000to thefirstandsecond-place teamsinits3D-PrintedHabitatChallenge.

Self-described “multi-planetaryarchitecturalandtechnologydesignagency” AI SpaceFactory, basedin New York, took first place with$500,000.AteamofprofessorsfromPenn State finished in secondwith$200,000.AISpaceFactorybeatover60 other teams in the finale of anongoing competition that beganin 2015. NASA ran the contest inconjunctionwithBradleyUniversityof Peoria, Illinois, where the finalchallenges were held. For the On-SiteHabitatCompetition,teamshadto autonomously print a one-third-scalehabitat.Thishabitathadtobebuiltfromrecyclablesandmaterialsthatcouldbe foundondeep-spacedestinations, like the Moon andMars.

Teams built their habitats in 10-hour increments as a panel ofjudges watched. Once complete,the structures were tested formaterial mix, leakage, durabilityand strength. ”The final milestoneofthiscompetition isaculminationof extremely hard work by bright,inventivemindswhoarehelpingusadvance the technologieswe needfor a sustainable human presenceontheMoon,andthenonMars,”says

MonsiRoman,programmanagerforNASA’s Centennial Challenges, in apressstatement.

“Wecelebratetheirvision,dedicationand innovation in developingconcepts that will not only furtherNASA’s deep-space goals, but alsoprovide viable housing solutionsrighthereonEarth.”

Thewinningdesign,namedMARSHA,was built from a biopolymer basaltcomposite and “marks a radicaldeparture from previous Martiandesignstypifiedbylow-lyingdomesor buried structures,” accordingto the winning team. Instead ofbuildingMARSHAtofightoffgravityandwind,AISpaceFactorydesignedit to combat internal atmosphericpressureandstructuralstresses.Forthe design firm, that means usinga vertical container with aminimalfootprint.

“It’s light, and it’s strong, like anairplane,”saysLexAkers,DeanoftheCaterpillar College of Engineeringand Technology at BradleyUniversity, in the press statement.“That’s going to be very importantforthesetypesofhabitats.”Researchshowsarchitecturehasanimpactonhumanpsychology,andanyhabitaton Mars would likely carry extraemotional significance due to itsisolation, at least at first.Thatgiveshousingaresponsibilitytodrawoutaperson’ssocialtendencies.

New Water Cycle on Mars Discovered NASA Crowns Winner in

Mars Habitat Competition

Phys.org

PopularMechanics.com

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Brazilian Scientists Investigate Dwarf Planet’s Ring

Astro NewsletterSpaceDaily.com

Brazilian Scientists Investigate Dwarf Planet’s Ring

Astronomers map the substancealuminum monoxide (AlO) in a cloudaround a distant young star - OriginSource I. The finding clarifies someimportant details about how our solarsystem, and ultimately we, came tobe. The cloud’s limited distributionsuggests AlO gas rapidly condensesto solid grains, which hints at what anearlystageofoursolarevolutionlookedlike. Professor Shogo Tachibana of theUTokyo Organization for Planetary andSpace Science has a passion for space.From small things like meteorites toenormousthingslikestarsandnebulae-hugecloudsofgasanddustinspace-heisdriventoexploreoursolarsystem’sorigins.

Minerals present in CAIs indicate thatouryoungsolarsystemmusthavebeenextremely hot. Physical techniquesfor dating these minerals reveal afairly specific age for the solar system.However, Tachibana and colleagueswishedtoexpandonthedetailsof thisstage of evolution. ”Thanks to ALMA,we discovered the distribution of AlOaround a young star for the first time.ThedistributionofAlO is limitedtothehotregionoftheoutflowfromthedisk.This impliesthatAlOrapidlycondensesas solid grains - similar to CAIs in oursolar system.” explainedTachibana.Theteamnowplanstoexploregasandsolidmolecules aroundother stars togatherdatausefultofurtherrefinesolarsystemmodels.

Our History in the Stars

SpaceDaily.com

Discovered in 2004, Haumea isa dwarf planet located beyondPluto’s orbit in a region of theSolar System called the KuiperBelt. Plutowas demoted from thecategoryoffullyfledgedplanetsin2006 because of the discovery ofHaumea and other dwarf planets.Haumea was officially recognizedas a dwarf planet in 2008. ItsellipsoidalshaperesemblesthatoftheballusedinrugbyorAmericanfootball. It has two moons and aring. Because of its ring, Haumeais a member of a group of SolarSystem objects comprising theplanets Saturn, Uranus, NeptuneandJupiter,aswellastheasteroidsChariklo and Chiron, which orbitbetweenJupiterandNeptune.

Haumea’s ring has never beendirectlyobserved.Itsexistencewasinferredin2017byaninternationalgroup of astronomers who tookdetailedmeasurementsofthelightfluctuations as Haumea occulted(passedinfrontof )astar.Inspace,an occultation occurs when oneobject passes in front of anotherfromanobserver’sperspective.

“The light from the star wasobserved from Earth as the starwas occulted by Haumea. Itsbrightness decreased as Haumeapassed in front of it, enabling theastronomerstoobtaininformationabout Haumea’s shape,” saidOthon CaboWinter, Full Professorat Sao Paulo State University’s

Engineering School (FE-UNESP)in Guaratingueta, Brazil. Theresearchers who discovered thering in 2017 suggested that itsorbit around Haumea was veryclose to the 1:3 resonance region,meaning that ring particles makeone revolution every three timesHaumea rotates. A new study byWinter, Tais Ribeiro and GabrielBorderes Motta, who belong toUNESP’s Orbital Dynamics andPlanetology Group, shows that adegree of eccentricity would berequired for this resonance to acton the ring particles. Accordingto Winter, the fact that the ringis narrow and practically circularprevents action by the resonance.However, the group identifieda specific type of stable, almostcircular,periodicorbit in thesameregionasHaumea’sring.Aperiodicorbit is an orbit that repeats overtime.

“Our study isn’t observational.We did not directly observe thering.Nooneeverhas,”Wintersaid.The reason is that the ring is verytenuous and much too far-flungto be seen by the astronomicobservatories here on Earth. TheaveragedistancebetweenHaumeaandtheSunis43timesthedistancebetween Earth and the Sun. Inan article published in MonthlyNotices of the Royal AstronomicalSociety,theresearchersexplorethedynamicsof individualparticles intheregionwheretheringislocated.

TheMilkyWaydoesn’tlookquitethiscolorfulandbrighttotheeye,butarocketlaunchdoes. So a separate deep exposurewith a sensitive digital camerawasused in this composite skyscape to bring out our galaxy’s central crowdedstarfieldsandcosmicdustclouds.InthescenefromMerrittIslandNationalWildlifeRefuge,anineminutelongexposurebegunabout20minutesaftertheMikyWayimagerecordedarocketlaunchandlanding.TheFalcon9rocket,namedfortheMillenniumFalconofStarWarsfame,appropriatelylaunchedaDragonresupplyshiptotheInternationalSpaceStationintheearlymorninghoursofMaythe4th.Theplumeandflareat thepeakof the launcharcmark the rocket’sfirst stageboostbackburn.Twoshorterdiagonal streaksare the rocketenginesbringingtheFalcon9stagebacktoanoffshorelandingonautonomousdroneship.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Schools in Action

4 Astro Newsletter

apod.nasa.gov

Milky Way, Launch, and Landing

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Schools in Action

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Someofthemarereallyexcitedandsomeoftheothershaveanairofconfidence.Wetrulybelievesomeofthoseprojectswillbecome

realinthefuture.Thankyouallfortheamazingprojectsyouhavemade.

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