Multiple Choice 1: How long will it take Voyager 2 to reach the Oort Cloud?
A. About 4 years
B. About 110 years
C. About 300 years
D. About 450 years
Multiple Choice 2: How long will it take Voyager 2 to cross the Oort Cloud?
A. About 50 years
B. About 250 years
C. About 1,500 years
D. About 300,000 years
Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the “Astronomy Question Answer Sheet” page.
Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.
—CNBC: “SpaceX Rival Launches Rocket in Historic First, Says Industry is ‘Desperate’ For More”
German rocket maker Isar Aerospace successfully reached orbit for the first time over the weekend, marking a milestone for Europe’s commercial space industry as the company looks to ramp up launches to meet what it says is booming demand. The Munich-based company’s Spectrum rocket reached orbit on Saturday and successfully deployed its payloads in low Earth orbit, an achievement that came on only its second test flight. Chief Commercial Officer Stella Guillen told CNBC on Monday that the company was now focused on scaling production, saying the space industry was “desperate” for additional launch capacity and that Isar had a pipeline worth more than 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion).
—Royal Astronomical Society: “‘Fingerprints’ Inside the Sun Could Reveal If It Once Swallowed a Planet“
It is thought the Sun may have engulfed a super-Earth-sized planet early in its history. Now a new study has gone a step further by suggesting that such an event may have left behind detectable clues inside our star which could still be visible today. This idea of a measurable signature or ‘fingerprints’ in the present-day solar interior was explored by research published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Professor Mutlu Yildiz, of Ege University in Turkey, said: “Our new study suggests that a planet several times more massive than Earth may have fallen into the young Sun and left a lasting chemical imprint deep inside it.
—Physics World: “Moon’s Water Reserves Insufficient to Sustain a Lunar City, Astronomers Find“
Some countries and even wealthy individuals are setting their sights on the Moon with ambitious plans to create a lunar colony. That would require a lot of resources launched from Earth, but how much water and power would be required to keep a lunar city going?…Even assuming one billion tonnes of water on the Moon, if nothing was recycled then a city of a million would last only a few years while a population of 100 000 would run for 20 years before running dry. Even when recycling the water with an efficiency of 98% – as performed on the International Space Station – a city of a million would only have enough water for around a century.
Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.
Here are a few recent podcast episodes you may want to check out.
First, I recommend the Star Talk episode “Rogue Planets & Exomoons with David Kipping.” This episode brings together two great promoters of astronomy who discuss a variety of topics, including not only planets without solar systems and the moons of exoplanets, but also the habitable zone of galaxies, civilizational monuments, and the idea that the inhabitants of a super-Earth may be trapped on the surface of their planet. It is a worthwhile tour of the galaxy.
Next, Planetary Radio had a fun episode celebrating the 60th anniversary of Star Trek. It is titled “Star Trek at 60: What do we value the most?” and it includes an interview with Robert Picardo, who you know from two Star Trek series as the Emergency Medical Hologram, yet he is also on the Board of Directors at The Planetary Society and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He discusses his more than 30 years with the Star Trek family, and discusses how Star Trek fans have a unique connection to the founding of The Planetary Society.
One more Planetary Radio podcast episode may be of interest as well. Last month in a Book Club Edition episode titled “Becoming Martian by Scott Solomon,” we heard from the author of Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds. Here is the quick summary from the book jacket:
We are on the cusp of a golden age of space travel in which, for the first time, it will be possible for large numbers of people to venture into space. Some intend to stay. But what happens—and will happen—to us in the extreme conditions of space? What should space tourists expect to happen to them during a journey to an orbiting space station, the Moon, or Mars? What would happen to children born on another planet? Would they evolve into a new species? In Becoming Martian, Scott Solomon explores the many ways in which humanity’s migration into space will change our bodies and our minds.
If you have a few minutes to listen in, you will not be disappointed.
“At the moment, we are finalizing our agreement with NASA, but it is looking like they are not able to provide the radar…So that is why we are going full steam ahead with the European solution.”
–Statement by Anne Grete Straume-Lindner, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) project scientist for the Venus mission called Envision, regarding expected cuts in NASA support for the planned Venus mapping mission. Proposed NASA cuts may also impact other ESA missions, including the New Athena observatory, which would take over for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (also continually on the chopping block) and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) observatory designed to study gravitational waves.
The image above shows the Jodrell Bank Lovell Radio Telescope located in England. The Brits plan to shut this telescope down in 2028 as part of budget cuts.
First commissioned in 1957, parts of the telescope came from the World War 1 decommissioned battleships HMS Revenge and HMS Royal Sovereign. In 2019, the telescope was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
The BBC noted that the Jodrell Bank Lovell Radio Telescope was the only facility in the Western World able to track Sputnik in 1957. Among many other accomplishments, it was also instrumental in confirming the existence of pulsars as well as proving Einstein’s theory of relativity.
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