Dec 4, 2020 03:49 AM
Jupiter and Saturn’s ‘Christmas Star’ to light up sky for first time in 800 years
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/ju...55652.html
INTRO: The two largest planets in our solar system are set to align in a conjuction for the first time in 800 years to create a “Christmas Star”. Jupiter and Saturn will line up on December 21 and appear to form a double planet - just in time for the festive season... (MORE)
Supercomputer simulation shows how the Moon may have formed through the collision of Earth with Mars-sized planet Theia 4.5 billion years ago
https://phys.org/news/2020-12-supercompu...ation.html
KEY POINTS: University of Durham computer simulations show how Theia may have hit Earth. Theia is generally thought by experts to have been an ancient 'wandering planet'. Rocky debris from its collision with Earth would have gone on to form the Moon. While the researchers are careful to say that this is not definitive proof of the Moon's origin, they add that it could be a promising stage in understanding how our nearest neighbour might have formed. The findings are published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.... (MORE - details)
‘WTF?’: newly discovered ghostly circles in the sky can’t be explained by current theories, and astronomers are excited
https://theconversation.com/wtf-newly-di...ted-142812
EXCERPTS: . . . Our team searched the rest of the data by eye, and we found a few more of the mysterious round blobs. We dubbed them ORCs, which stands for “odd radio circles”. But the big question, of course, is: “what are they?”
At first we suspected an imaging artefact, perhaps generated by a software error. But we soon confirmed they are real, using other radio telescopes. We still have no idea how big or far away they are. They could be objects in our galaxy, perhaps a few light-years across, or they could be far away in the Universe and maybe millions of light years across.
[...] We have ruled out several possibilities for what ORCs might be. ... In our paper about ORCs, which is forthcoming in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, we run through all the possibilities and conclude these enigmatic blobs don’t look like anything we already know about.
So we need to explore things that might exist but haven’t yet been observed [...] Or perhaps they are something else entirely. Two Russian scientists have even suggested ORCs might be the “throats” of wormholes in spacetime. From the handful we’ve found so far, we estimate there are about 1,000 ORCs in the sky... (MORE - details)
Mysterious Objects In Space Scientists Can't Explain!
World's biggest drone to launch satellites into space from mid-air
https://newatlas.com/space/worlds-bigges...nch-space/
EXCERPTS: . . . Much like Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Virgin Orbit and a number of other startups, Aevum hopes to improve access to space with a novel launch system that can deliver payloads to orbit with high frequency. Its solution to this was to develop what it says is the biggest drone in the world, which can autonomously take off and land on runways as short as one mile (1.6 km) long and requires only 8,000 square feet (743 sq m) of hangar space.
The giant Ravn X drone is 80 ft (24 m) long, 18 ft (5.5 m) tall, has a wingspan of 60 ft (18 m) and uses the same jet fuel as a regular airplane. Aevum says the Ravn X is almost weather agnostic and can launch in nearly all conditions, while 70 percent of the drone is reusable, with the company eyeing something closer to full reusability down the track.
[...Unlike other, similar launch systems...] the Ravn X won’t require pilots onboard to operate, therefore removing the risk to human life. Safety issues aside, Aevum says a full fleet of autonomous RavnX vehicles will be capable of firing a payload into space every 180 minutes. ... it has already earned more than US$1 billion in launch contracts. Among its customers is the US Space Force... (MORE -details)
Aevum rolls out Ravn X, the world's largest drone
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/ju...55652.html
INTRO: The two largest planets in our solar system are set to align in a conjuction for the first time in 800 years to create a “Christmas Star”. Jupiter and Saturn will line up on December 21 and appear to form a double planet - just in time for the festive season... (MORE)
Supercomputer simulation shows how the Moon may have formed through the collision of Earth with Mars-sized planet Theia 4.5 billion years ago
https://phys.org/news/2020-12-supercompu...ation.html
KEY POINTS: University of Durham computer simulations show how Theia may have hit Earth. Theia is generally thought by experts to have been an ancient 'wandering planet'. Rocky debris from its collision with Earth would have gone on to form the Moon. While the researchers are careful to say that this is not definitive proof of the Moon's origin, they add that it could be a promising stage in understanding how our nearest neighbour might have formed. The findings are published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.... (MORE - details)
‘WTF?’: newly discovered ghostly circles in the sky can’t be explained by current theories, and astronomers are excited
https://theconversation.com/wtf-newly-di...ted-142812
EXCERPTS: . . . Our team searched the rest of the data by eye, and we found a few more of the mysterious round blobs. We dubbed them ORCs, which stands for “odd radio circles”. But the big question, of course, is: “what are they?”
At first we suspected an imaging artefact, perhaps generated by a software error. But we soon confirmed they are real, using other radio telescopes. We still have no idea how big or far away they are. They could be objects in our galaxy, perhaps a few light-years across, or they could be far away in the Universe and maybe millions of light years across.
[...] We have ruled out several possibilities for what ORCs might be. ... In our paper about ORCs, which is forthcoming in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, we run through all the possibilities and conclude these enigmatic blobs don’t look like anything we already know about.
So we need to explore things that might exist but haven’t yet been observed [...] Or perhaps they are something else entirely. Two Russian scientists have even suggested ORCs might be the “throats” of wormholes in spacetime. From the handful we’ve found so far, we estimate there are about 1,000 ORCs in the sky... (MORE - details)
Mysterious Objects In Space Scientists Can't Explain!
World's biggest drone to launch satellites into space from mid-air
https://newatlas.com/space/worlds-bigges...nch-space/
EXCERPTS: . . . Much like Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Virgin Orbit and a number of other startups, Aevum hopes to improve access to space with a novel launch system that can deliver payloads to orbit with high frequency. Its solution to this was to develop what it says is the biggest drone in the world, which can autonomously take off and land on runways as short as one mile (1.6 km) long and requires only 8,000 square feet (743 sq m) of hangar space.
The giant Ravn X drone is 80 ft (24 m) long, 18 ft (5.5 m) tall, has a wingspan of 60 ft (18 m) and uses the same jet fuel as a regular airplane. Aevum says the Ravn X is almost weather agnostic and can launch in nearly all conditions, while 70 percent of the drone is reusable, with the company eyeing something closer to full reusability down the track.
[...Unlike other, similar launch systems...] the Ravn X won’t require pilots onboard to operate, therefore removing the risk to human life. Safety issues aside, Aevum says a full fleet of autonomous RavnX vehicles will be capable of firing a payload into space every 180 minutes. ... it has already earned more than US$1 billion in launch contracts. Among its customers is the US Space Force... (MORE -details)
Aevum rolls out Ravn X, the world's largest drone