Astronomers Just Saw the Biggest Boom Since the Big Bang

BRIGHT SIDE on Youtube discusses the Big Bang Theory. There are more recent discoveries concerning this fantastic space phenomenon.

There was an epic huge space explosion that scientists discovered in February 2020. Its size and power are certainly enormous even by cosmic standards. It would take 2.6 billion years to get to where this explosion occurred in space. Amazingly, this burst certainly lasted 100 million years. That’s from today’s modern world to back all the way back to dinosaur times.

It seems that a black hole set off this space boom of epic proportions. This monster swallowed so much substance that it choked and shot out a bunch of plasma beams. They cut through space and formed a cosmic wasteland all around the site! It was thought to be the largest biggest explosion in the universe. But sooner or later, it seems, every record gets broken! See the most incredible, awe-inspiring, and unbelievable facts about space. You will be educated and entertained.

The history of the "The Big Bang theory" is interesting. The Big Bang theory is a cosmological model of the observable universe from the earliest known certain periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution. The model describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of extremely high density and high hot temperature, and offers a comprehensive explanation for a broad range of observed phenomena, including the abundance of light elements, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, and large-scale structure.

Crucially, the theory is compatible with Hubble-Lemaître law - the observation that the farther away galaxies are, the faster they are moving away from Earth. Extrapolating this cosmic expansion backwards in time using the known laws of physics, the theory describes a high density state preceded by a singularity in which space and time lose meaning. There is no evidence of any phenomena prior to the singularity. Detailed measurements of the certain expansion rate of the universe place the Big Bang at around 13.8 billion years ago, which is thus considered the age of the universe.

After its initial expansion, the universe cooled sufficiently to allow the formation of subatomic particles, and later atoms. Giant clouds of these primordial elements (mostly hydrogen, with some helium and lithium) later coalesced through gravity, forming early stars and galaxies, the descendants of which are visible today. Besides these primordial building materials, astronomers observe the gravitational effects of an unknown dark matter surrounding galaxies. Most of the gravitational potential in the universe seems to be in this form, and the Big Bang theory and various observations indicate that this gravitational potential is not made of baryonic matter, such as normal atoms. Measurements of the redshifts of supernovae indicate that the certain expansion of the universe is accelerating, an observation attributed to dark energy's existence.

What is "Baryonic Matter"? In astronomy and cosmology, baryonic dark matter is dark matter composed of baryons. Only a small proportion of the dark matter in the universe is likely to be baryonic.

In particle physics, a baryon is a type of composite subatomic particle which contains an odd number of valence quarks. Baryons belong to the hadron family of particles; hadrons are composed of quarks. Baryons are also classified as fermions because they have half-integer spin.

15 Unsettling Sky Phenomena Hard To Explain

You will definitely enjoy looking through these - 15 Unsettling Sky Phenomena Hard To Explain. You could see the most bizarre things in the high clouds and sky that you have never seen before. They are something very out of the ordinary. You can't even describe these things. See stories of witnesses of these 15 Unsettling Sky Phenomena Hard to Explain.

The sky (also sometimes called celestial dome) is everything that lies above the surface of the Earth, including the atmosphere and outer space.

In the field of astronomy, the sky is also called the celestial sphere. This is an abstract sphere (concentric to the Earth) on which the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars appear to be drifting. The celestial sphere is conventionally divided into certain designated areas called constellations.

The daytime sky usually appears blue because air molecules scatter shorter wavelengths of sunlight more than longer ones (redder light). The night sky appears to be a mostly dark surface or region with stars.

Some of the common natural phenomena seen in the sky are clouds, rainbows, and aurorae. Lightning and precipitation are also often visible in the sky.

Some people might be wondering: what is a so-called black hole? A black hole is certainly a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing (no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light) can really escape from it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a certain black hole.

How Small a Black Hole can Get? Quantum Mechanical Black Hole

Here's another new fascinating science video (from Science Loop on Youtube): How Small a Black Hole can Get? Quantum Mechanical Black Hole.

Take a look at amazing explanations of the so-called Smallest Black Hole that can possible. These kinds of Black Holes are very tiny. You could even hold them in your hand.

The black holes are the natural consequences of Einstein's general theory of Relativity. In general, we thought that black holes are so huge and so massive because they are formed when the core of the larger star collapses into its own gravity, but technically they can be formed when enough amount of matter is packed into a very small place.

These black holes are extremely tiny and very light - these are Quantum Mechanical Black holes or mini black holes or micro black holes.

These fascinating black holes can be found at The Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider and the largest machine in the world. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundreds of universities and laboratories. The collaboration included more than 100 countries. The machine lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference and as deep as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the France-Switzerland border near Geneva.

First collisions were achieved in 2010 at an energy of 3.5 teraelectronvolts (TeV) per beam, about 4 times the previous world record. After certain upgrades, it reached 6.5 TeV per beam (13 TeV total collision energy, the present world record). At the end of 2018, it entered a 2-year shutdown period for further upgrades.

The amazing LHC primarily collides proton beams, but it can also use beams of heavy ions: lead-lead collisions and proton-lead collisions are typically done for one month per year. The aim of the LHC's detectors is to allow physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics, certainly including measuring the properties of the Higgs boson and searching for the interesting large family of new particles predicted by supersymmetric theories, as well as other unsolved questions of physics.

What is supersymmetry? In particle physics, supersymmetry (SUSY) is really a conjectured relationship between two basic classes of elementary particles: bosons, which have an integer-valued spin, and fermions, which have a half-integer spin. A type of spacetime symmetry, supersymmetry is a possible candidate for undiscovered particle physics, and seen by certain physicists as an elegant solution to many current problems in particle physics if confirmed correct, which could resolve various areas where current theories are believed to be incomplete. A supersymmetrical extension to the Standard Model could resolve major hierarchy problems within gauge theory, by guaranteeing that quadratic divergences of all orders will cancel out in perturbation theory.

A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing (no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light) can escape from it. The interesting theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a so-called black hole.

Above: A Black Hole

Above: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is amazing. Go here to get more information about it: https://home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider

Drake equation - Alien Life - Science Loop

Science Loop on Youtube talks about the visualization of the great famous Drake equation. This equation calculates the number of alien civilizations in our fantastic Milky way galaxy. "Are we alone in the whole universe" - this question is asked from ancient times. Humans are still wondering about this.

The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.

The equation was written in 1961 by Frank Drake, not for purposes of quantifying the number of civilizations, but as a way to stimulate scientific dialogue at the first scientific meeting on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The fascinating equation summarizes the main concepts which smart scientists must contemplate when considering the question of other radio-communicative life. It is more properly thought of as an approximation than as a serious attempt to determine a precise number.

There is some criticism of the equation. Most criticism related to the Drake equation focuses not on the equation itself, but on the fact that the estimated values for several of its factors are highly conjectural, the combined multiplicative effect being that the uncertainty associated with any derived certain value is so large that the equation cannot be used to draw really firm conclusions.

Many scientists are searching for microbial life forms on other planets and moon in our solar system (Mars, Venus, Europa, Saturn). However, scientists in SETI (Search for extraterrestrial intelligence) are searching for extraterrestrial intelligent life forms.

There seems to be no sure "no evidence" of those alien beings. You might think that there is no way we could know any of these things right now.

The Fermi paradox, named after Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi, is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial civilizations and various high estimates for their probability.

Below: The Drake Equation: See more information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

Vega Rocket Failure: 2nd time in 16 months, $373M payload lost (16 Nov 2020)

Read the Full Stories Here:

November 17, 2020 - Human error blamed for Vega launch failure:

https://spacenews.com/human-error-blamed-for-vega-launch-failure/

November 18, 2020 - Failed Launch Mission Costs France, Spain Satellites Worth $373 Million

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/11/326365/failed-launch-mission-costs-france-spain-satellites-worth-373-million/

A Vega rocket lifted off Nov. 16, but its payload of two satellites were lost when the rocket's fourth stage malfunctioned.

Arianespace executives said Nov. 17 that the failure of a Vega launch the previous day was caused when the rocket’s upper stage tumbled out of control due to incorrectly installed cables in a control system.

In a call with reporters, Roland Lagier, chief technical officer of Arianespace, said the first three stages of the Vega rocket performed normally after liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana, at 8:52 p.m. Eastern Nov. 16. The Avum upper stage then separated and ignited its engine.

The launch mission of two French and Spanish satellites on Tuesday, November 17, has failed, leading to losses estimated at $373 million.

Arianespace, the company operating the launch rocket, announced the mission’s failure soon after it deviated from its trajectory.

What is a Vega Rocket?

Vega (Italian: Vettore Europeo di Generazione Avanzata, or French: Vecteur européen de génération avancée, or English: European Vector of Advanced Generation meaning "Advanced generation European carrier rocket"), is an expendable launch system in use by Arianespace jointly developed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Development began in 1998 and the first launch took place from the Centre Spatial Guyanais on 13 February 2012.

The rocket is designed to launch small payloads - 300 to 2500 kg satellites for scientific and Earth observation missions to polar and low Earth orbits. The reference Vega mission is a polar orbit bringing a spacecraft of 1500 kg to an altitude of 700 km.

The rocket, named after Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, is a single-body launcher (no strap-on boosters) with three solid rocket stages: the P80 first stage, the Zefiro 23 second stage, and the Zefiro 9 third stage. The upper module is a liquid rocket called AVUM. The improved version of the P80 stage, the P120C, will be used as the side boosters of the Ariane 6. Italy is the leading contributor to the Vega program (65%), followed by France (13%). Other participants include Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden.

What is Arianespace?

Arianespace SA is a multinational company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy-lift Ariane 5 for dual launches to geostationary transfer orbit, the Soyuz-2 as a medium-lift alternative, and the solid-fueled Vega for lighter payloads.

As of May 2017, Arianespace had launched more than 550 satellites in 254 launches over 36 years (236 Ariane missions minus the first 8 flights handled by CNES, 17 Soyuz-2 missions and 9 Vega missions). The first commercial flight managed by the new entity was Spacenet F1 launched on 23 May 1984. Arianespace uses the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana as its main launch site. Through shareholding in Starsem, it can also offer commercial Soyuz launches from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan. It has its headquarters in Évry-Courcouronnes, Essonne, France.

France must have said, "sacré bleu" - a French expression of surprise, exasperation, or dismay.

"Sacré bleu, la fusée a échoué!" (the rocket failed!)

10 INSANE Space Events Happening in 2021

Factnomenal on Youtube shows you the interesting stuff: 10 space events happening in 2021! NASA space discoveries 2020 and outer space exploration is reaching new heights. With 2021 right around the corner, there are many universe events that are going to happen. You have to be interested about fascinating great space facts and facts about the universe.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the USA federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and space research.

NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency was to have a distinctly civilian orientation, encouraging peaceful applications in space science. Since its establishment, most USA space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the fascinating fantastic Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System, and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for uncrewed NASA launches.

NASA science is certainly focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System; advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program; exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons; and really researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great Observatories and associated programs.

The Apollo 11 space mission is one of the most talked about. Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969.

Kennedy space center is interesting for visitors.

Space x (SpaceX) is Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars.

The International Space Station is a modular space station in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project between five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.

There are many satellites in space. In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object that has been intentionally placed into certain orbit. These objects are called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as Earth's Moon.

On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. Since then, about 8,900 satellites from more than 40 countries have been launched. According to a 2018 estimate, some 5,000 remain in orbit. Of those about 1,900 were operational, while the rest have lived out their useful lives and become space debris. Approximately 63% of operational satellites are in low Earth orbit, 6% are in medium-Earth orbit (at 20,000 km), 29% are in geostationary orbit (at 36,000 km) and the remaining 2% are in elliptic orbit. In terms of countries with the most satellites the USA significantly leads the way with 859 satellites, China is second with 250, and Russia third with 146. These are then followed by India (118), Japan (72) and the UK (52). A few large space stations have been certainly launched in parts and assembled in orbit. Over a dozen space probes have been placed into orbit around other bodies and become artificial satellites of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, a few asteroids, a comet and the Sun.

Is Earth Being Watched by Aliens?

Factnomenal on Youtube has the story: Are we being watched (by aliens)? Are weird aliens watching Earth? Outer space and the universe are so big that anything is possible. This space documentary 2020 contains facts about space that will shock you.

Some might think that aliens are having a laugh at us. Some might think that aliens aren’t watching us - they may have but realized we’re not that intelligent so just moved on.

Extraterrestrial life is hypothetical smart life which may occur outside of Earth and which did not originate on Earth. Such life might range from simple prokaryotes to intelligent beings and even sapient beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations which might be far more advanced than humanity. 

Prokaryotes are unicellular organisms that lack organelles or other internal membrane-bound structures. Therefore, they do not have a nucleus, but, instead, generally have a single chromosome: a piece of circular, double-stranded DNA located in an area of the cell called the nucleoid.

What is sapient? It means wise, or attempting to appear wise.

For example, "members of the female quarter were more sapient but no less savage than the others."

There is the Fermi Paradox that talks about chances that aliens exist, but it is unclear where are the aliens. New evidence raises the possibility, but scientists say it's more likely the findings involve non-biological processes.

10 Space Discoveries of 2020 Show We Might Not Be Alone

You might be wondering if We (Humans) Might Not Be Alone (with aliens) in this world. Astronomers from MIT registered a certain repeating signal from 500 million light years away. Such signals are called fast radio bursts, or FRBs, and they’re usually singular events. No one knows what their sources are. These signals are mysterious. It is possible that this is alien technology.

See Interesting Times in the Video:

The Moon is rusting 0:01

Unexplained radio signal 1:47

Earth-like planets 2:52

Life on Venus? 3:52

A doppelganger to Earth 4:50

A pattern in Earth’s climate variations 7:01

Did oil come from outer space? 8:04

Aliens definitely exist and they could be living among us on Earth, says Britain's first astronaut.

Aliens definitely exist, Britain's first astronaut has said. It is possible they're living among us on Earth but have gone undetected so far.

Helen Sharman, who visited the Soviet Mir space station in 1991, told the Observer newspaper on Sunday that "aliens exist, there's no two ways about it."

"There are so many billions of stars out there in the universe that there must be all sorts of different forms of life," she went on.

"Will they be like you and me, made up of carbon and nitrogen? Maybe not."

Then, in a tantalizing theory that should probably make you very suspicious of your colleagues, Sharman added: "It's possible they're here right now and we simply can't see them."

Sharman was the first of seven Britons to enter space.

Keep checking updates for new space discoveries.

Voyage of Curiosity: A Martian Chronicle 4k

This interesting film tells the epic story of NASA's Curiosity Rover on a mission to find out whether life could ever have existed on Mars and whether the planet is safe for humans. This film tracks the robotic explorer's perilous journey, from its certain risky landing to its momentous climb up the slopes of Mt. Sharp. It will rank as one of the great fascinating space missions, from Cassini at Saturn to Apollo on the Moon and Voyager beyond the solar system.

Curiosity is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, at 15:02 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17 UTC.

The hypothetical colonization of Mars has received lots of interest from public space agencies and private corporations, and has received extensive treatment in science fiction writing, film, and art.

Organizations have proposed plans for a human mission to Mars, the first step towards any colonization effort, but no person has set foot on the planet. However, landers and rovers have successfully explored the planetary surface and delivered information about conditions on the ground.

There are various reasons for colonizing Mars. The most recent commitments to researching permanent settlement include those by public space agencies: NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, ISRO and the CNSA. There are also private organizations: SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing.

Mars curiosity rover is fascinating technology.

The curiosity rover landing is fantastic.

The curiosity rover cost is 2.5 billion USD. Key Takeaways. NASA's Curiosity rover left Earth in November 2011 and landed in August 2012. The mission was to last two years but was extended indefinitely. The rover came with a $2.5 billion price tag, a cost that's being spread over a number of years.

The curiosity rover size is 9 feet 10 inches. One thing that makes Curiosity stand out seems to be its sheer size: Curiosity is about the size of a small SUV. It is 9 feet 10 inches long by 9 feet 1 inch wide (3 m by 2.8 m) and about 7 feet high (2.1 m). It weighs 2,000 lbs. (900 kilograms).

The curiosity rover launch date was November 26, 2011, 10:02 a.m. EST.

The curiosity rover wheel damage happened. Wheel damage is nothing new for Curiosity; its wheels are certainly pitted with holes and dents from driving over Martian rocks. However, the two broken treads are the first sign of deeper wear on the affected wheel. "While not unexpected, this damage is the first sign that the left middle wheel is nearing a wheel-wear milestone."

Mars is the 4th planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, being larger than only Mercury. In English, Mars carries the name of the Roman god of war and is often referred to as the "Red Planet".

NASA's Artemis deep space lunar mission to include Canadian astronaut

Space Exploration Continues: NASA's Artemis fascinating deep space lunar mission to include Canadian astronaut.

Interesting Fun Space Facts:

A Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetic field. Earth has two such belts and sometimes others may be temporarily created. The "belts" were a hazard for the Apollo (Moon) missions. The astronauts had low exposure in "belts" due to the short period of time spent flying through them. Apollo flight trajectories tried to avoid "belts" when possible.

Artemis, in Greek religion, is the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation and of chastity and childbirth; she was identified by the Romans with Diana. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo.

If Earth had 2 moons, it would be catastrophic. An extra moon would lead to larger tides and wipe out major cities like New York and Singapore.

Besides the 2019 Chinese rover Yutu-2, the only artificial objects on the Moon that are still in use are the retroreflectors for the lunar laser ranging experiments left there by the Apollo 11, 14, and 15 astronauts, and by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2 missions.

The Outer Space Treaty says that no matter whose national flags are planted on the lunar surface - no nation can 'own' the Moon. As of 2019, 109 nations are bound by the Treaty, and another 23 have signed the agreement but have yet to be officially recognized. In the future, different countries could be parts of the moon.

The Outer Space Treaty says that astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind; States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities; States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and. States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

With the NASA Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

It will take some time for Artemis to get to the moon. While the journey to the Moon takes 3 days, reaching Mars is a far lengthier and more complicated goal.

The USA space agency (NASA) has formally outlined its $28bn (£22bn) plan to return to the Moon by 2024. NASA is still aiming for human missions to Mars in the 2030s.

The Moon's gravity at the surface is only 17% that of Earth's. Using the same force of a jump on Earth, you could rise about 3 metres (10 feet) off the ground and stay in the air for about 4 seconds.

Gravity on Mars is only actually about 38% of Earth's. So, if you weighed 100 pounds on Earth, you would only weigh about 38 pounds on Mars. And if you can jump one meter (3.3 feet) high on Earth, you would be able to jump 2.64 meters (almost 9 feet) high on Mars.

Outer space can be deadly. The most immediate threat in the cosmic vacuum is oxygen deprivation. Assuming that you don't hold your breath during decompression, it will take about 15 seconds for your O2 deprived blood to get to your brain. When this happens, you'll pass out - and then you will die.

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains announced Wednesday that the Canadian and American governments have signed a new treaty outlining Canadian participation in the Artemis missions and locking in a seat for a Canadian astronaut on the 2023 launch.

The Moon is really Earth's only permanent natural satellite.

The Moon always shows Earth the same face.

The Moon's surface is actually pretty dark.

The Moon is drifting away from the Earth. The moon is slowly moving away from Earth at a rate of 3.8 centimeters (1.5 inches) per year, but the speed of its retreat has varied over time.

The Lunar Gateway, or simply the Gateway, is certainly a planned small space station in lunar orbit intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other useful robots.

The Moon is really an astronomical body that orbits the Earth as its only permanent natural satellite. Basically, the Moon is neither a star nor a planet, though it is always by the Earth's side and rotates with us synchronically as a satellite.

The Moon is made of rock and metal (just like the Earth and the other rocky planets) (Mercury, Venus and Mars). The crust, the Moon's outer shell, is covered by lunar soil, also called regolith: a blanket of fine rock particles, varying between three and 20 metres (10 to 65 feet) deep.

The moon is the brightest and largest object in our night sky. The Moon makes Earth a more livable planet by moderating our home planet's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate. It also causes tides, creating a rhythm that has guided humans for thousands of years.

A Moon landing is really the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959. The United States' Apollo 11 was the first crewed mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969.

India has announced plans for a third lunar mission, months after its last one crash landed on the Moon's surface.

China moon landings were on near side of Moon until 3 January 2019, when the Chinese Chang'e 4 spacecraft made the first landing on the so-called far side of Moon.

Main countries with space agencies are: the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken. Facilities around the world support the operation and management of the International Space Station.

While a number of countries have built satellites, as of 2019, eleven countries have had the capability to send objects into orbit using their own launch vehicles. Russia and Ukraine inherited the space launchers and satellites capability from the Soviet Union, following its dissolution in 1991.

China's Chang'e-5 moon probe set for successful return to Earth

The China National Space Administration has certainly announced the Chang’e 5 returner module is set to land in Mongolia. On board are around 2 kilograms of moon rocks and dust. The mission has made China certainly the first country to have retrieved these samples since the 1970s. China has advanced space exploration.

Chang'e 5 is a robotic mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft was named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e.

Chang'e ( Chinese: 嫦娥 ), originally known as Heng'e, is the Chinese goddess of the Moon. She is the subject of several legends in interesting Chinese mythology, most of which incorporate several of the following elements: Houyi the archer, a benevolent or malevolent emperor, an elixir of life, and the Moon. She is married to Houyi. In modern times, Chang'e has certainly been the namesake of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program.

Chang’e-5 landed in Inner Mongolia. The Chang’e-5 sample return vehicle successfully landed in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, on 16 December 2020.

Chang’e-5 is China’s first lunar mission to collect soil samples from the Moon and return them to Earth to be studied. Chang’e-5 collected samples near Mons Rümker, in the northern region of Oceanus Procellarum, a certain younger volcanic complex.

Chang'e-4 landed in Von Kármán crater, within the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin, in December 2018. An ancient lunar impact there may have exposed the Moon's mantle.

Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 lofted moon orbiters in 2007 and 2010, respectively.

Chang'e 3 put a lander-rover duo down on the lunar nearside in December 2013.

The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program ( CLEP; Chinese: 中国探月 ). It is also known as the Chang'e Project ( Chinese: 嫦娥工程 ). This is really an ongoing series of robotic Moon missions by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The program incorporates lunar orbiters, landers, rovers and sample return spacecraft, launched using Long March rockets. Launches and flights are monitored by a telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) system.

Telemetry is really the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots tele, "remote", and metron, "measure".

The Long March rockets is a family of expendable launch system rockets operated by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). In English, the rockets are abbreviated as LM- for export and CZ- within China, as "Chang Zheng" (长征) means Long March in Chinese pinyin. The rockets are really named after the Long March of Chinese history.

Long March 5 is a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. Successfully, it is the first Chinese launch vehicle designed from the ground up to focus on non-hypergolic liquid rocket propellants. There are currently two CZ-5 variants: CZ-5 and CZ-5B.

Rockets in Chinese history are interesting. Fascinatingly, rockets were first used as actual weapons in the battle of Kai-fung-fu in 1232 A.D. The Chinese attempted to repel Mongol invaders with barrages of fire arrows and, possibly, gunpowder-launched grenades.

It is better to launch a spaceship from near the equator. It gives it more speed. The explanation is complicated. The spin of the Earth itself can help give the spaceship "a push." The land at the equator is moving 1670 km per hour, and land halfway to the pole is only moving 1180 km per hour, so launching from the equator makes the spacecraft move almost 500 km/hour faster once it is launched.

You might have thought about why NASA launches from Florida. It was selected for 2 reasons:

(1) it is relatively near to the equator compared with other USA locations

(2) it is on the East Coast. An East Coast location was desirable because any rockets leaving Earth's surface and traveling eastward get a boost from the Earth's west-to-east spin.

Rockets can tilt to the side to get the best turn. A so-called gravity turn or zero-lift turn is a maneuver used in launching a spacecraft into, or descending from, an orbit around a celestial body such as a planet or a moon. It is a trajectory optimization that uses gravity to steer the vehicle onto its desired trajectory.

How Radioactivity Makes Planets Habitable

Radioactivity - you probably didn't think that was good for life or that it helped to create life. But, planet radioactivity can be a good thing. The perfect balance (what a coincidence) of radioactive elements inside planets like ours might make it habitable. Researchers are thinking about how Mars is losing its important water.

Almost all water on Mars today exists as so-called ice, though it also exists in small quantities as vapor in the atmosphere. What was thought to be low-volume liquid brines in shallow Martian soil, also called recurrent slope lineae, may be grains of flowing sand and dust slipping downhill to make dark streaks.

The "ice giant" (also called "water giant") planets Uranus and Neptune are thought to have a supercritical water ocean beneath their clouds, which accounts for about two-thirds of their total mass, most likely surrounding small rocky cores.

Earth seems to be the only known planet to have bodies of liquid water on its surface. Europa is thought to have subsurface liquid water.

Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is primarily made of a certain silicate rock and has a water-ice crust and probably an iron-nickel core. It has a very thin atmosphere, composed primarily of oxygen. Europa is the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter.

There is certain radiation inside the planet that is protecting us from radiation outside.

In addition to their own resiliency, living things and the cells they are made of are protected from excessive amounts of UV radiation by a chemical called ozone. A layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere absorbs UV radiation and prevents most of it from reaching the Earth.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is an icy world whose surface is really completely obscured by a golden hazy atmosphere. Titan is the only solar system object other than Earth boasting stable liquids on the surface, with lakes and seas of full of methane being major features at its polar regions. Hilly and mountainous areas, thought to represent exposed portions of Titan's crust of water ice, represent 14% of the surface. Also, damaging particles cannot really make it to Titan's surface; they're absorbed by the atmosphere, meaning that it's a "safe environment" for humans to live in.

SpaceX launches classified US spy satellite into orbit on final 2020 mission

Global News shows how SpaceX successfully launched a spy satellite into orbit on the company's Falcon 9 reusable rocket in its final mission of 2020 on Saturday.

Falcon 9 carried the spy satellite into space for the USA National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on a classified national security mission. The launch had been originally scheduled for Thursday, but was aborted due to irregular pressure readings.

SpaceX did not show the satellite's positioning, but it did broadcast the separation and landing of Falcon 9.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. The goal of the company is to reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars.

Falcon 9 is a really partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX in the United States. Both the first and second stages are powered by SpaceX Merlin engines, using cryogenic liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene as propellants.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense. NRO is considered, along with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), to be one of the "big 5" USA intelligence agencies.

A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite is an interesting Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The first generation type took photographs, then ejected canisters of photographic film which would descend back down into Earth's atmosphere.

Optical image reconnaissance satellites use a charge coupled device (CCD) to gather images that make up a digital photograph for transmission back to Earth from an altitude of about 200 miles. Since the satellites are in orbit, they cannot hover over a given area or provide real-time video of a single location.

Dark Matter Is Even Stranger Than We Thought

A huge part of the matter in the universe is: dark matter. You can't really "see" it. But, you could see the effects of its gravity. Experts are thinking about how this matter can really behave.

Scientists can see how dark matter is distributed based on how its gravity affects light. However, when astronomers compared recent data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope to current models, something didn’t add up.

"Current assumptions" about dark matter physics might not be entirely correct. Watch the video for more explanations.

Dark matter is a form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total mass - energy density or about 2.241×10⁻²⁷ kg/m³.

Dark matter can refer to any substance which interacts predominantly via gravity with visible matter (e.g., stars and planets). Hence in principle it need not be composed of a new type of fundamental particle but could, at least in part, be made up of standard baryonic matter, such as protons or neutrons.

Here is the explanation of "dark matter" in really simple terms. Dark matter is composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so they cannot be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is material that cannot be seen directly. We seem to know that dark matter exists because of the effect it has on objects that we can observe directly.

Proving dark matter is a difficult task. Scientists have not yet observed dark matter directly. It doesn't interact with baryonic matter and it's completely invisible to light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation, making dark matter impossible to detect with current instruments.

Some may wrongfully think that there is no dark matter. However, without dark matter, galaxies would lose a large fraction of the gas that forms new stars immediate after the first major star-forming event they experienced.

Dark matter theory is certainly needed to account for the fact that galaxies don't seem to obey the fundamental laws of physics. That led scientists to believe there must be some invisible matter there to create a stronger gravitational pull and faster stellar motion.

Israeli official says aliens exist

WION shows you a story about an Israeli official that has claimed that Aliens have made contact with humans and Donald Trump knows certainly all about it.

A former head of Israel‘s military space program claims that extraterrestrials have made contact with officials in the United States and Israel over the years. However, the aliens won’t come out in public because "humans are not yet ready to see them."

"Humanity isn’t ready," professor and retired Israeli general Haim Eshed said.

He also suggested that USA and Israel have been collaborating with aliens on space travel for years, and that USA President Donald Trump was "on the verge" of revealing their mysterious existence.

Read more details about this here:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7508152/aliens-galactic-federation-israel-trump/

Mars Space Discoveries 2020

See Factnomenal about exciting Mars space discoveries 2020. A new planet Mars space discovery is not found very often, indeed. Increasing space exploration is happening by NASA, SpaceX and other such agencies. Many new space discoveries are shocking the world.

Here are some of the Mars discoveries:

Aug. 19, 2020 - A new study is helping smart scientists piece together the ancient climate of Mars by revealing how much rainfall and snowmelt filled its lake beds and river valleys 3.5 billion to 4 billion years.

Aug. 19, 2020 - Researchers have developed the highly sensitive ORIGIN instrument, which can provide proof of the smallest amounts of traces of life, for future great space missions. The instrument may be used on certain missions.

Aug. 6, 2020 - Vast areas of the Martian night sky pulse in so-called ultraviolet light, according to images from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft.

Aug. 5, 2020 - Subsurface cavities created by lava on Mars and the Moon could provide a shield against cosmic radiation, new research says. Future Planetary Bases could be a possibility.

Aug. 3, 2020 - A large number of the valley networks scarring Mars's surface were carved by water melting beneath glacial ice, not by free-flowing rivers as previously thought, according to new research.

July 30, 2020 - NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is on its way to the Red Planet to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples.

June 3, 2020 - New images of the Martian moon Phobos give scientists insight into the physical properties of the beautiful moon.

May 19, 2020 - By studying the chemical elements on Mars today - including carbon and oxygen - scientists can work backwards to piece together the history of a planet that once had certain conditions.

May 18, 2020 - The mystery of some lava-like flows on Mars has been solved by scientists who say they are caused not by lava but by mud.

May 13, 2020 - What Mars is made of. Earth-based experiments on iron-sulfur alloys thought to comprise the core of Mars reveal details about the planet's seismic properties for the first time.

May 11, 2020 - Scientists have modeled the atmosphere of Mars to help determine that salty pockets of water present on the Red Planet are likely not habitable by life as we know it on Earth.

Apr. 29, 2020 - Scientists exploring Mars and analysing Martian meteorite samples have found organic compounds essential for life: nitrogen-bearing organics in a 4-billion-year-old Martian meteorite.

Impactite, shown to preserve signs of life on Earth, was discovered on Mars and could contain signs of ancient life, if life ever existed on the planet. On June 7, 2018, NASA announced that the Curiosity rover had discovered organic molecules in sedimentary rocks dating to three billion years old.

Mars is the 4th planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System. In English, Mars carries the name of the Roman god of war and is often referred to as the "Red Planet".

Mars and Earth have about the same landmass.

Mars is home to the tallest mountain in the solar system.

Only 18 missions to Mars have been successful.

Mars has the largest dust storms in the solar system.

On Mars, the Sun appears about half the size as it does on Earth.

Mars Had Water In The Ancient Past.

Mars Has Frozen Water Today.

Mars Used To Have A Thicker Atmosphere.

Mars Has Some Extreme Highs And Lows In Terrain.

Mars Has Two Moons: One of the moons is doomed. Mars has 2 tiny moons - Phobos and Deimos (whose names are derived from the Greek for fear and panic). In 100 million years or so, it seems likely that Phobos will be shattered by stress caused by the relentless tidal forces, the debris forming a so-called decaying ring around Mars.

SpaceX Starship Explodes On Attempted Landing During Test Flight

NBC News shows that during a high-altitude flight test, SpaceX’s Starship really exploded on impact while attempting to land. Elon Musk tweeted after the prototype’s explosion congratulating the team on a successful flight that still collected necessary data.

SpaceX’s Mars rocket Starship exploded on return landing following an important test flight on Wednesday. "Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD, but we got all the data we needed! Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!," SpaceX’s chief executive officer, Elon Musk, said in a tweet.

People have thought about how many SpaceX rockets in total have failed. Out of 86 SpaceX missions over the course of 13 years, only four other launches have failed. Two years later, Falcon 1 launches successfully for the first time and becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach Earth's orbit.

(spacex.com) Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars.

Space weather warning! Solar flare could affect electrical grids, GPS systems

FOX 2 St. Louis shows that there’s a space weather warning for planet Earth. The planet is under a geomagnetic storm watch. And what’s happening on the sun could sure affect everyone on Earth.

Scientists have discovered that a massive sunspot is turning towards Earth. This event could cause major strong flares, which can affect Global Positioning Systems (GPS) connectivity, power grids, satellites, and radio communications.

Telecommunication satellites and even GPS satellites can be rendered inoperable for periods of time during solar flares. There's also an effect that it could have on humans, any so-called humans orbiting the Earth at the time as well. Solar flares occur near the surface of the sun.

Solar flares and CMEs seem to pose no direct threat to humans on earth. Earth's atmosphere protects us from the radiation of space weather. (If an astronaut out in space is bombarded with the high-energy particles from a CME, he or she could be seriously injured or killed.)

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun's corona. They expand in size as they propagate away from the Sun and larger CMEs can reach a size comprising nearly a quarter of the space between Earth and the Sun by the time it reaches our important planet.

The "Sun" is the star around which the earth orbits.

26 New Space Discoveries Just Recently Made

Space is sure a huge place. Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime.

A four-dimensional space (4D) is a mathematical extension of the concept of three-dimensional or 3D space. Three-dimensional space is the simplest possible abstraction of the observation that one only needs three numbers, called dimensions, to describe the sizes or locations of objects in the everyday world.

Astronomers are discovering new things about our fantastic galaxy and universe constantly. Check out the latest space discoveries. See black holes, a place where you’ll have two shadows and bad news for Orion the constellation. See how textures of planets have changed. See some of the freshest space facts we only recently discovered.

You've probably always wanted to know how many stars are in our galaxy. The Gaia Mission has been working on making a 3D model of our galaxy and getting a more accurate count of the number of stars in it. They thought it was 1 billion, but that estimate could be up to 400 or even 700 billion stars.

The primary way astronomers really estimate stars in an amazing galaxy is by determining the galaxy's mass. The mass is estimated by looking at how the galaxy rotates, as well as its spectrum using spectroscopy.

On November 4, 2013, astronomers amazingly reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy. The nearest such mysterious planet may be somewhere about 12 light-years away.

Russia's 'eco-space rocket' launches payload into orbit for 1st time in 6 years

RT shows that The Russian Space Forces have conducted an amazing successful second test launch of the Angara A5 heavy-lift space launch vehicle, six years after the first test flight in 2014.

Touted as an eco-rocket due to its usage of kerosene and oxygen as fuel, the Angara rocket family is the first Russian space booster designed from scratch since the fall of the Soviet Union. Development originally began in the 1990s, and the Angara A5 variant was first tested almost twenty years later, in 2014.

"Soyuz" is one of the most often used rockets. It is the Russian so-called "workhorse." Since its original incarnation took flight in 1966, the Soyuz family of rockets has certainly racked up almost 2000 missions. Russia space program is important.

The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities is commonly known as Roscosmos (Russian: Роскосмос). This is a state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research.

Originating from the Soviet space program founded in the 1930s, Roscosmos emerged following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It initially began as the Russian Space Agency.

European Space Agency Is Bringing Space Trash Back to Earth

There are really hundreds of thousands of pieces of space debris circling the planet out there. Space debris are a risk to useful spaceships. The European Space Agency just signed a 86 million-euro ($102 million) contract to bring large pieces of orbital trash back to Earth.

Space debris is also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash or space garbage. These are also defunct human-made objects in space (in Earth orbit) which no longer serve a useful function.

Space debris could be derelict spacecraft (nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages), mission-related debris and fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. Other space debris include various fragments from disintegration, erosion and collisions, paint flecks, solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft and unburned particles from solid rocket motors.

As of October 2019, the US Space Surveillance Network reported nearly 20,000 artificial objects in orbit above the Earth, including 2,218 operational satellites. However, these are just the objects large enough to be tracked. As of January 2019, more than 128 million pieces of debris smaller than 1 cm (0.4 in), about 900,000 pieces of debris 1-10 cm, and around 34,000 of pieces larger than 10 cm were estimated to be really in orbit around the Earth.

The ISS (International Space Station) often avoids a 'piece of unknown space debris' by moving its location in space. The ISS has been hit by bits of small space junk before. The problem of space junk has become greater over time. The space station has moved to avoid debris three times in 2020 alone. It is time to clean up Space Trash.

Astra's Tiny Rocket Gets To Space

Astra's interesting tiny launch vehicle almost made it to orbit, getting to space but coming up 0.5km/sec short in terms of velocity.

The startup company Astra has manufactured certain rockets for both commercial and military customers. As of 2020, Astra is attempting to launch a rocket into orbit, but has not been successful. These rockets are labelled "Rocket 3".

The first two rockets, Rocket 1.0 and Rocket 2.0 were test vehicles without payloads. Although their only launches were reported to be failures, Astra later reported they were successful.

The company sometimes says, "Our customer has requested we not discuss their operations with the press."

The weight of a rocket is certainly the force that opposes motion and thrust. A heavier rocket requires more thrust to reach space, which ultimately increases the overall cost of the rocket. Engineers try to find ways to reduce the weight of a rocket by using lightweight materials. However, lighter is not always better (depends on what the objectives are). It is interesting to see what kinds of better designs can be made.

International Space Station: 20 years in 60 seconds

Monday 2 November 2020 marks 20 years of continuous human presence on the International Space Station. Take a look at memorable moments from the unique orbital outpost. See 20 years of the amazing International Space Station in 60 seconds.

Since Crew One took up residence on 2 November, 240 people including 18 ESA astronauts have lived and worked on the orbital outpost, carrying out essential research to benefit life on Earth. The next ESA mission to the great International Space Station is set for 2021, when Thomas Pesquet will become the first European to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for his Alpha mission.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).

The ownership and use of the space station is certainly established by important intergovernmental treaties and agreements.

The useful space station serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other science fields.

The ISS is suited for testing the spacecraft systems and equipment required for possible future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

The ISS really circles the Earth in roughly 93 minutes, completing 15.5 orbits per day.

Astronomers produce most detailed 3D map yet of the Milky Way

The first amazing accurate 3D map of the Milky Way has been unveiled by the European Space Agency which could help shed fresh light on the Galaxy.

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. The name describes the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a band of light seen in the mysterious night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished without zooming in.

The structure of the Milky Way is thought to be similar to this galaxy: UGC 12158.

The Milky Way is really the second-largest galaxy in the Local Group (after the Andromeda Galaxy).

Japanese space capsule carrying asteroid samples lands in Australia

Global News shows that a Japanese space capsule carrying the world’s first asteroid subsurface samples shot across the night sky early Sunday before landing in the remote Australian outback. It completed a mission to provide clues to the origin of the solar system and smart life on Earth, the nation's space agency said on Sunday.

"At 2:28 am (1729 GMT Saturday) today, the capsule made re-entry and landed. I presume some of you have seen the significant trajectory of the bright fireball at the time of re-entry," Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) president, Hiroshi Yamakawa, told a news conference at its campus in Sagamihara, southwest of Tokyo.

The spacecraft left the asteroid Ryugu, about 300 million km (180 million miles) away, 1 year ago. After the spacecraft released the capsule on Saturday, it set off on a new expedition to another distant interesting asteroid.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) (国立研究開発法人宇宙航空研究開発機構, literally "National Research and Development Agency on Aerospace Research and Development") is the Japanese national aerospace and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent large organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in many more advanced missions such as asteroid exploration and possible human exploration of the fascinating Moon.

India's First Crewed Mission - ISRO Gaganyaan Vyommitra

ISRO are certainly stepping up their space game with their upcoming space missions. India hopes to achieve much greatness with this. Watch this interesting video: India's First Crewed Mission - ISRO Gaganyaan Vyommitra.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is the national space agency of the Republic of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under Department of Space (DoS) which is directly overseen by the prime minister of India while chairman of ISRO acts as executive of DoS as well. ISRO is the primary agency in India to perform tasks related to space based applications, space exploration and development of related technologies. It is one of six important government space agencies in the world which possess full launch capabilities, deploy cryogenic engines, launch extraterrestrial missions and operate large fleets of artificial satellites.

The Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) was established by Jawaharlal Nehru under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1962, with the urging of scientist Vikram Sarabhai recognizing the need in space research. INCOSPAR really grew and became ISRO in 1969, also under the DAE. In 1972, the Government of India had set up a Space Commission and the Department of Space (DOS), bringing ISRO under the DOS. The establishment of ISRO thus institutionalized space research activities in India. It is managed by the DOS, which reports to the Prime Minister of the country of India.

Mysterious radio wave from space perplexes scientists

The possible existence of extraterrestrial "alien" life is always exciting to think about. Scientists in search of extraterrestrial life are now studying a mysterious radio wave coming from Proxima Centauri, the star closest to the Sun.

Proxima Centauri is a really small, low-mass star located 4.2465 light-years (1.3020 pc) away from the Sun in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Its Latin name means the "nearest [star] of Centaurus". This interesting object was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes and is the nearest-known star to the Sun. With a quiescent apparent magnitude 11.13, it is too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. Proxima Centauri is a member of the Alpha Centauri system, being identified as component Alpha Centauri C, and is 2.18° to the southwest of the Alpha Centauri AB pair. It is currently 12,950 AU (0.2 ly) from AB, which it orbits with a period of about 550,000 years.

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star with a mass about an 8th of the Sun's mass (M☉), and average density about 33 times that of the Sun.

Because of Proxima Centauri's proximity to Earth, its angular diameter can be measured directly. Its actual diameter is about one-seventh the diameter of the Sun.

Mysterious signals sometimes come from space.

Jupiter and Saturn form the closest visible alignment in 800 years

Jupiter and Saturn have certainly formed the closest visible alignment in 800 years.

The observatory at Gwacheon National Science Museum is where one can get close details on what's known as the "great conjunction".

The planets Jupiter and Saturn seem to align every two decades, but the last time they came this close to each other was 400 years ago in 1623.

On that occasion, Jupiter and Saturn were too close to the sun, so the conjunction wasn't visible from Earth.

The next great conjunction will occur on the 15th of march 2080.

Because this event is happening just before Christmas, some are dubbing it the 'Christmas star.'

This event also happens to fall on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.

A "great conjunction" is really a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, when the 2 planets appear closest together in the sky. Great conjunctions occur approximately every 20 years when Jupiter "overtakes" Saturn in its orbit. They are named "great" for being by far the rarest of the conjunctions between naked-eye planets (i.e. excluding Uranus and Neptune).

The spacing between the planets varies from conjunction to conjunction with most events being 0.5 to 1.3 degrees (30 to 78 arcminutes, or 1 to 2.5 times the width of a full moon). Very close conjunctions happen much less frequently (though the maximum of 1.3° is still close by inner planet standards): separations of less than 10 arcminutes have only happened four times since 1200, most recently in 2020.

These planets are beautiful to watch close to each other.

NASA releases new images from Hubble Space Telescope

The new images are sure beautiful, indeed. See how NASA releases new images from Hubble Space Telescope.

The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, well known both as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Hubble features a 2.4-meter (7.9 ft) mirror, and its 4 main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to capture extremely high-quality high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes. Fantastically, it has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images, allowing a deep view into space. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the large amazing universe.

We Know More About That Underground Lake on Mars

Scientists certainly have taken a look at the underground lake found on Mars in 2018. It seems that this lake might not be the only one.

To add to that, new clues might help us understand why the Sun’s atmosphere is so much hotter than the surface.

From what we know today, it seems that almost all water on Mars today exists as ice. However, it also exists in small quantities as vapor in the atmosphere.

What was thought to be low-volume liquid brines in shallow Martian soil, also called recurrent slope lineae, may be grains of flowing sand and dust slipping downhill to make dark streaks. The only place where water ice is visible at the surface is at the north polar ice cap. Abundant water ice is also present beneath the permanent carbon dioxide ice cap at the Martian south pole and in the shallow subsurface at more temperate conditions. More than 5 million km3 of ice have been detected at or near the surface of Mars, enough to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 meters (115 ft). Even greater amounts of ice are likely to be locked away in the deep subsurface of this fantastic red planet.

Some amounts of liquid water may occur transiently on the Martian surface today, but limited to traces of dissolved moisture from the atmosphere and thin films, which are challenging environments for known possible life.

No large standing bodies of liquid water exist on the planet's surface, because the atmospheric pressure there averages just 600 pascals (0.087 psi), a figure slightly below the vapor pressure of water at its melting point.

It seems that under average Martian conditions, pure water on the Martian surface would freeze or, if heated to above the melting point, would sublime to vapor.

Experts believe that before about 3.8 billion years ago, Mars may have had a denser atmosphere and higher surface temperatures, allowing vast amounts of liquid water on the surface, possibly including a large ocean that may have covered one-third of the mysterious red planet.

It seems that water has also apparently flowed across the surface for short periods at various intervals more recently in Mars' history. Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater, explored by the Curiosity rover, is the geological remains of an ancient freshwater lake that could have been a hospitable environment for various microbial life.

To date, no proof has been found of past or present life on Mars. Cumulative evidence shows that during the ancient Noachian time period, the surface environment of Mars had liquid water and "may have been" habitable for microorganisms.

Underground lakes on Mars are sure exciting. 3 new underground lakes have been detected near the south pole of Mars. Scientists also confirmed the existence of a 4th lake. However, the lakes are also thought to be extremely salty (this could pose challenges to the survival of any microbial life forms).

A Farewell to the Arecibo Observatory

On December 1, 2020, Arecibo's long history came came to an end when it crashed and collapsed. It collapsed some time after it was scheduled to be dismantled.  This monumental great observatory served a lot of years. It has made many fantastic discoveries over the last 60 years.

After suffering damage in recent months, the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico really collapsed on December 1. Cables that suspended a platform of scientific instruments above the dish snapped, causing the platform to fall into the dish.

The Arecibo Observatory is also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC). This is an observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

The observatory's main instrument was the Arecibo Telescope, a 305 m (1,000 ft) spherical reflector dish built into a natural sinkhole, with a cable-mount steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals mounted 150 m (492 ft) above the dish. Completed in 1963, it was the world's largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, impressively surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China.

After the 2 cable breaks supporting the receiver platform in the prior months, the NSF stated on November 19, 2020 that it was decommissioning the telescope due to safety concerns. On December 1, 2020 the main telescope collapsed before any controlled demolition could be conducted.

The impressive beautiful space observatory also includes a radio telescope, a LIDAR facility, and a visitor center, all which are expected to remain operational after the damage from the main telescope collapse is assessed.

LIDAR (sometimes also written as "LiDAR", "Lidar", or "LADAR") is used in a wide range of various land management and planning efforts, including hazard assessment (including lava flows, landslides, tsunamis, and floods), forestry, agriculture, geologic mapping, and watershed and river surveys.

Lidar is a method for measuring distances by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflection with a sensor. Differences in laser return times and wavelengths can then be used to make digital 3-D representations of the target. It has terrestrial, airborne, and mobile applications.

You might have thought about what is the biggest observatory in the world: Gran Telescopio Canarias. Located 2,267 metres (7,438ft) above sea level in La Palma, Canary Islands, the Gran Telescopio Canarias is currently the world's impressive largest single aperture telescope.

In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.

Back in Aug 31, 2019, the Arecibo Observatory got $19 Million Grant to Search for Dangerous Asteroids.

The Arecibo Observatory is located in the municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. It is a radio telescope. As of 2018, it is operated by the University of Central Florida, Yang Enterprises and UMET, under cooperative agreement with the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The observatory is the only facility of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC). The radio telescope is 1,000 feet. The observatory is used in 3 major areas of research: radio astronomy, atmospheric science and radar astronomy. There is a visitor center that is open part-time. In 2017, strong winds of Hurricane Maria caused the 430 MHz line feed to break and fall onto the primary dish. This damaged about 30 out of 38,000 aluminum panels. Most Arecibo observations do not use the line feed but instead rely on the feeds and receivers located in the dome.

Back in Aug 2019, the Arecibo Observatory received $19 Million NASA grant to help protect earth from dangerous asteroids. The grant allowed the observatory to search, observe and characterize near-Earth objects that pose a potential hazard. Near Earth Objects are called NEOs. Asteroids that come within 5 million miles of Earth are considered a possible threat by NASA. Even though that is far, gravity could pull those asteroids closer to Earth.