All posts tagged: Nasa

The Mysterious Inner Workings of Io, Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon

The Mysterious Inner Workings of Io, Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon

Published by skeptic

Crucially, unlike Io’s odd magnetic field, which seemed to indicate that it concealed an ocean’s worth of fluid, Europa’s own Galileo-era magnetic signal remains robust. “It’s a pretty clean result at Europa,” said Robert Pappalardo, the Europa mission’s project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The icy moon is far enough from Jupiter and the intense plasma-flooded space environment of Io that Europa’s own magnetic induction signal “really sticks out.” But if both moons are tidally heated, why does only Europa have an inner ocean? According to Nimmo, “there’s a fundamental difference between a liquid-water ocean and a magma ocean. The magma wants to escape; the water really doesn’t.” Liquid rock is less dense than solid rock, so it wants to rise and erupt quickly; the new study suggests that it doesn’t linger at depth long enough inside Io to form a massive, interconnected ocean. But liquid water is, unusually, denser than its solid icy form. “Liquid water is heavy, so it collects into an ocean,” Sori said. “I think that’s the big-picture message from …

Trump’s cuts to NASA and the National Science Foundation will have huge consequences

Trump’s cuts to NASA and the National Science Foundation will have huge consequences

Published by skeptic

Artemis I sits at Launch Pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy The Stern-Gerlach experiment is, in my opinion, truly the first test that forced the results of quantum mechanics onto the scientific community. Proposed by Otto Stern and conducted by Walther Gerlach in 1922, it showed that atoms have a quantum structure. Electrons, it turned out, must follow quantum rules. The Stern-Gerlach experiment also highlights a weird feature of the quantum world: it seems that the observer can determine the possible properties a particle can have. If I measure a quantum property known as spin, the fact the measurement happened seems to change the possible values of spin a particle can have later. In other words, whether a particle was observed or not determines its future. In physics, we are socialised to the idea that we are outside of the physical system, watching it. In this experiment, suddenly we aren’t. In my experience, students initially absorb this as a fact they must accept. Only after being forced to think about it …

NASA is facing the biggest crisis in its history

NASA is facing the biggest crisis in its history

Published by skeptic

NASA faces massive cuts under a proposed budget homas Lammeyer/imageBROKER/Shutterstock The Trump administration’s proposal to wipe out a quarter of NASA’s budget has left scientists reeling, with multiple missions and spacecraft facing cancellation. That proposal was followed by the news that the man slated to lead the agency is no longer up for the role. The intended new leader for NASA, US billionaire Jared Isaacman, had his nomination for the role revoked by US President Donald Trump, leaving the US space agency in turmoil. Source link

Trees can provide early warning of volcanic eruptions, NASA finds

Trees can provide early warning of volcanic eruptions, NASA finds

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Volcanoes often give little warning before they erupt, but now scientists have discovered an unexpected early warning sign—trees. This new finding comes from a joint study by researchers from NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and various universities who have shown that changes in tree leaves can indicate rising volcanic activity. More importantly, satellites can spot these changes, potentially providing a safe, cost-effective way to predict volcanic eruptions. How Trees Warn Us About Volcanic Activity Volcanic eruptions begin deep beneath Earth’s surface, as magma pushes upward. This magma releases gases, primarily carbon dioxide, before reaching the surface. Unlike sulfur dioxide, which satellites detect easily, volcanic carbon dioxide often blends in with the atmosphere, making it tough to track from space. However, trees near volcanoes respond visibly to this gas, becoming greener and healthier. According to volcanologist Robert Bogue from McGill University, carbon dioxide emissions from volcanoes directly influence nearby vegetation. “The whole idea is to find something we could measure instead of carbon dioxide directly,” Bogue explained, “to give us a proxy to detect changes in volcano …

Incoming NASA Administrator Throws Elon Musk’s Mars Plans Under the Bus

Incoming NASA Administrator Throws Elon Musk’s Mars Plans Under the Bus

Published by José

Incoming NASA administrator and billionaire fighter jet pilot-turned-SpaceX astronaut Jared Isaacman isn’t keen on president Donald Trump’s purported goal of brutally slashing the space agency’s science budget nearly in half. As SpaceNews reports, Isaacman called the White House’s proposed budgets not an “optimal outcome” in published responses to questions by bipartisan members of the Senate Commerce Committee this week. The private astronaut claimed that he had “not reviewed or been party to any official discussions” regarding the leaked budget proposal. Earlier this month, Isaacman attended a confirmation hearing in front of Congress. His nomination is expected to face a full Congressional vote on April 30. In his latest answers to questions, Isaacman also vowed to get NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the lunar surface “back on track.” When asked if he had to choose between the Moon or Mars — a destination SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has singled out as the number one priority for human exploration — Isaacman picked the Moon. “Given existing law, I would prioritize the Artemis program,” he said, …

NASA quantum gravity sensor to transform Earth observation

NASA quantum gravity sensor to transform Earth observation

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In a historic first, NASA and its partners are preparing to launch a revolutionary quantum sensor into space – one designed to detect subtle shifts in Earth’s gravity with extraordinary precision. This pioneering technology, known as the Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder (QGGPf), represents a major leap forward in the fields of Earth science, planetary exploration, and quantum physics. By harnessing ultra-cold atoms’ strange but powerful behaviour, the mission, funded by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), will unlock new ways to map underground water, natural resources, and even geological shifts – all from orbit. As the world faces increasing pressure on freshwater supplies and energy reserves, this space-based quantum gravity sensor could become a critical tool for understanding and managing the planet’s hidden forces. Gravity: The invisible force around us Earth’s gravity may feel constant, but in reality, it shifts slightly from place to place and moment to moment. These changes are driven by a variety of geologic processes, such as tectonic activity, groundwater movement, and even melting glaciers. Because gravity increases with mass, mapping …

Nasa and Esa want to bring Martian rocks to Earth. Here’s what will happen to the samples once they get here

Nasa and Esa want to bring Martian rocks to Earth. Here’s what will happen to the samples once they get here

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A mission will deliver rock and soil from Mars to laboratories on Earth in the 2030s. Mars Sample Return (MSR) is led by Nasa with participation from the European Space Agency (Esa). The mission will allow scientists to use the best laboratory instruments on Earth to determine whether Mars hosted microbial life billions of years ago. So what will happen to the samples once they arrive on Earth? Nasa’s Perseverance rover has already been doing the hard work of collecting the samples. The rover has been exploring a Martian location known as Jezero Crater since landing in February 2021. Along the way, it has used its drill to extract cores – cylindrical samples of rock – from Martian rocks, depositing them in sample tubes on the floor of the crater. Present day levels of cosmic radiation at the Martian surface are thought to be too high for life to survive there. However, conditions may have been more hospitable to life billions of years ago, and it is these potential traces of ancient life that Perseverance …

NASA Drops Promise to Land “First Woman, Person of Color” on the Moon

NASA Drops Promise to Land “First Woman, Person of Color” on the Moon

Published by José

NASA may be still committed to landing the first woman and person of color on the Moon sometime in 2027 as part of its Artemis III mission — but you wouldn’t know it by visiting the agency’s landing page for the mission, which no longer includes any mentions of “diversity, equity, or inclusion” (DEI) on president Donald Trump’s orders. First spotted by British science journalist Oliver Morton, NASA’s DEI purge has reached the page for its Artemis mission, which until at least February 28 included references to the agency’s commitment to “land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.” “A giant step back for womankind?” Morton mused. In a statement to The Guardian, a NASA spokesperson said that the change had been made “in keeping with the president’s executive order” — a reference to one of Trump’s many anti-DEI orders issued in the first weeks of his new term. Notably, NASA’s statement did not indicate whether the agency has planned any changes to the Artemis program, which was launched during Trump’s first …

NASA Visualizes the Ocean Currents in Motion: A Mesmerizing View of Earth’s Underwater Highways

NASA Visualizes the Ocean Currents in Motion: A Mesmerizing View of Earth’s Underwater Highways

Published by José

The mes­mer­iz­ing video above lets you visu­al­ize the ocean cur­rents around the world. Using data from space­craft, buoys, and oth­er mea­sure­ments, the visu­al­iza­tion shows the ocean in motion, with the cur­rents cre­at­ing Van Gogh-like swirls around the globe. Accord­ing to NASA, “the ocean has been [his­tor­i­cal­ly] dif­fi­cult to mod­el. Sci­en­tists strug­gled in years past to sim­u­late ocean cur­rents or accu­rate­ly pre­dict fluc­tu­a­tions in tem­per­a­ture, salin­i­ty, and oth­er prop­er­ties. As a result, mod­els of ocean dynam­ics rapid­ly diverged from real­i­ty, which meant they could only pro­vide use­ful infor­ma­tion for brief peri­ods.” This all changed, how­ev­er, when NASA and oth­er part­ners devel­oped ECCO, short for “Esti­mat­ing the Cir­cu­la­tion and Cli­mate of the Ocean.” “By apply­ing the laws of physics to data from mul­ti­ple satel­lites and thou­sands of float­ing sen­sors, NASA sci­en­tists and their col­lab­o­ra­tors built ECCO to be a real­is­tic, detailed, and con­tin­u­ous ocean mod­el that spans decades.” “The project pro­vides mod­els that are the best pos­si­ble recon­struc­tion of the past 30 years of the glob­al ocean. It allows us to under­stand the ocean’s phys­i­cal process­es at …