The sky (no) is the limit | Starlink on Mars, support from Neil deGrasse Tyson and more!



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In the frenzy of everyday life, we are not always able to follow the news as we would like, especially considering the daily “avalanche” of information arriving from all over. Many people interested in science, among other things, end up being excluded from the latest events, and precisely for this reason the Canaltech every week he dedicates himself to the preparation of this “summary” with the main scientific news of the last seven days.

And here’s this week’s compilation!

Starlink on Mars, the “free planet”

(Image: Playback / SpaceX)

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

Additionally, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell also said that the company intends to create an Earth-like Starlink constellation in the orbit of Mars so that future Red Planet settlers have this Internet to their disposition.

You are curious? Click here to find out more!

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson encourages Brazilian science

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

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

The Japanese probe dropped more than 200 rocks on the Ryugu asteroid

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

More than 200 new rocks have been identified on the surface of the Ryugu asteroid. 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 brought to Earth.

More details on all this can be found here.

Einstein’s theory confirmed itself in an unprecedented way

In General Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein predicted gravitational redshift, as an effect that light experiences under the influence of gravity, becoming 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 managed to confirm the theory in an unprecedented way: they did so by detecting redshift in a distant star system.

There was little evidence found in places further away from 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.

Understand this story better! Click here.

“Strange” molecule in the atmosphere of Titan’s moon

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

In the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, they have just discovered a “strange” molecule: cyclopropenylidene had so far only been found in clouds of gas and dust between star systems, without ever being observed in the atmosphere. It is a carbon and hydrogen-based molecule that may be one of the precursors of the more complex compounds, the ones that form the building blocks of life as we know it.

Understand why this discovery is important by clicking here.

The black hole in the center of the Milky Way is “lazy”

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 *, rotates slowly. This was the first time the rotation of this black hole has been accurately measured. According to the study authors, if Sagittarius A * had a significantly high spin, the orbital planes of the stars at birth would be out of alignment. Since this is not the case, the pair tried to measure this rotation rate, also concluding that Sagittarius A * is unlikely to have a jet, as is not uncommon in other supermassive black holes.

Here you can find more information on this topic.

Half of the Sun-like stars may have habitable planets

Representation 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)

Looking for answers to the question “how many planets orbiting other stars can life host?”, NASA scientists, analyzing data from the Kepler Space Telescope, concluded that half of the stars with a temperature similar to that of Sun could have in their 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: Reproduction / 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 kilometers long, while the smallest is 28 kilometers long. It is not yet known exactly how they formed: if three different objects reached the Red Planet at different times, creating the overlap, or if the single object that caused this impact broke in three before reaching the ground, forming the trio.

Find out more by clicking here.

There was water on Mars much longer than we imagined

Due to the color, the Martian meteorite received the nickname “Black Beauty” (Image: Reproduction / NASA / Luc Labenne)

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

All this and more you can find out 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)

Behind Mars an asteroid was discovered with a composition very similar to that of the Moon. Scientists understand that this rock could be what remains of the debris from the period in which the Moon was formed: the most accepted theory here is that the Moon is the result of the union of the remaining debris from a huge impact between the planet Theia and Earth, billions of years ago.

Here you can find more details on this analysis.

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