Space Stories: DART Did Its Diversionary Duty, A New Moon Crater, and A New Private Space Telescope

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The collision of DART with Dimorphos, as captured by the Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube. The larger asteroid above is Didymos. (ASI/NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Nautilus: “NASA’s DART Mission Offers Proof of Protection Against Asteroid Impacts“

In November 2021, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) aimed at finding out whether or not we could redirect the trajectory of a near-Earth object simply by crashing into it…The mission was a success, making it the first time a human-made object has altered a celestial body’s path around the sun, but it would take more time to find out the magnitude of the success. Now, two years later, NASA scientists have calculated that DART’s collision with Dimorphos shortened the orbit of both asteroids by around 33 minutes.

—SciTechDaily: “The Moon Was Hit Again: NASA Scientists Discover a Newly Formed Crater“

Researchers working with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera found one such crater by comparing detailed photographs of the same lunar locations taken at different times. By examining images captured before December 2009 and others taken after December 2012, they were able to narrow down when the impact occurred, even though no one actually observed the collision. The crater measures 22 meters in diameter, comparable to a large house. What makes it particularly striking is not its size but its brightness. The collision ejected material tens of meters from the crater rim, creating distinctive rays that spread outward in a sunburst pattern. This bright, fresh material contrasts sharply with the surrounding darker regolith, making the crater stand out like a new freckle on familiar skin.

—Daily Galaxy: “In a First, Private Investors Will Fund a Telescope Bigger Than Hubble for $500 Million“

A new private space observatory, the Lazuli Space Telescope, is on track to surpass Hubble with its larger mirror and cutting-edge technology. Funded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy, the project is already turning heads in the space community…At its core, Lazuli’s three-meter mirror will make it one of the largest space telescopes ever built, capable of observing both optical and infrared light.

Movie: Project Hail Mary

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

The long-awaited second feature film of a book by author Andy Weir is almost here. After enjoying both the book and later movie-version of The Martian back in 2015 (yes, more than a decade ago), we are ready for his next film based on his 2021 book Project Hail Mary. Now you only have to wait until March 20th

Here is the movie trailer as well as the summary from the book cover:

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

Basically, this story is about a lone astronaut that survives his peers on a long journey to save Earth only to encounter a sole-survivor, spider-like creature that can help him save Earth. This story might remind you of a 2024 film called Spaceman with Adam Sandler about a lone cosmonaut who travels far from Earth to meet with a spider-like creature. This creature is the sole survivor of a sickness but still able to find a way for Adam Sandler’s character to save Earth.

I’m not saying you have seen this movie before, but..

If you are interested in the story and science behind it, you might want to listen to an interview with the author on the Planetary Radio podcast.Andy Weir probably goes too far into the science, but it’s a good chance to dig a little deeper into the background of his book.

Surviving on an Ice Planet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Aeon.co

Aeon always has some great articles every month, and one of these is titled “The Snowball Effect.”

The article discusses two periods when glaciers covered the Earth from pole to equator. The last time was 645 million years ago, with the ice remaining for about 10 million years. Even so, life survived and diversified under these conditions on a super-continent called Rodinia.

It may offer some lessons to us when we are looking at our Solar System’s moons as well as distant exoplanets wondering about the presence of life beneath a frozen surface. If the Earth was a snowball for millions of years before life as we know it came to be, it makes sense it would be the case elsewhere.

I recommend you review this article as well as others on Aeon. It is worth your time.

Study Findings: An Adolescent and Near-resonant Planetary System Near the End of Photoevaporation

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Adis Resic from Pixabay

Nature Astronomy abstract of study findings:

Young exoplanets provide vital insights into the early dynamical and atmospheric evolution of planetary systems. Many multi-planet systems younger than 100 Myr exhibit mean-motion resonances, probably established through convergent disk migration. Over time, however, these resonant chains are often disrupted, mirroring the Nice model proposed for the Solar System. Here we present a detailed characterization of the ~200-Myr-old TOI-2076 system, which contains four sub-Neptune planets between 1.4 and 3.5 Earth radii. We demonstrate that its planets are near to but not locked in mean-motion resonances, making the system dynamically fragile. The four planets have comparable core masses but display a monotonic increase in hydrogen and helium (H/He) envelope mass fractions (from stripped to 1%, 5% and 5%) with decreasing stellar insolation. This trend is consistent with atmospheric mass loss due to photoevaporation, which predicts that the envelopes of irradiated planets either erode completely or stabilize at a residual level of ~1% by mass within the first few hundred million years, with more distant, less-irradiated planets retaining most of their primordial envelopes. Additionally, previous detections of metastable helium outflows rule out a pure water-world scenario for the TOI-2076 planets. Our finding provides direct observational evidence that the dynamical and atmospheric reshaping of compact planetary systems begins early and offers an empirical anchor for models of their long-term evolution.

Citation: Wang, MT., Dai, F., Liu, HG. et al. An adolescent and near-resonant planetary system near the end of photoevaporation, Nat Astron (2026).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02795-9

Study-related stories:

Florida Tech – “Assessment of Rare Teenage Planetary System Deepens Understanding of Cosmic Evolution”

Universe Today – “Adolescence Is Tumultuous, Even For Exoplanets”

Daily Galaxy – “Scientists Discover ‘Teenage’ Planetary System, Unlocking Secrets of Cosmic Growth”

Pic of the Week: Martian Highlands

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): (ESA/DLR/FU Berlin)

This week’s image comes from the the European Space Agency (ESA). Captured by ESA’s orbiting Mars Express, you are looking at a portion of the crater-covered Arabia Terra, which is a large plain in Mars’s ancient highlands. You can read more about this Martian region by visiting this site.

Here is the ESA’s description of what you are viewing:

A high‑resolution overhead view of a rocky, desert‑like landscape on Mars. The surface is mostly reddish‑brown with patches of darker blue‑grey tones. Many circular impact craters of different sizes are scattered across the scene, some with raised rims and shadowed interiors. Subtle ridges, eroded valleys, and textured terrain patterns run diagonally through the image, giving a sense of ancient geological activity. The overall impression is of a dry, rugged, and heavily cratered Martian surface.