Space Stories: New Canadian Radio Telescope, Our Empty Corner of the Universe, and Fortunate Collisions with Earth

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Image (Credit): The Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector. (National Research Council of Canada)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—McGill University: “CHORD Will Be a Huge Leap Forward for Canadian Radio Astronomy“

Construction is underway of CHORD, the most ambitious radio telescope project ever built on Canadian soil. Short for the Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector, CHORD will give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to explore some of the most exciting and mysterious questions in astrophysics and cosmology, from Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and dark energy to the measurements of fundamental particles, and beyond.

—BBC Sky at Night Magazine: “Earth Could Be Sitting in the Centre of a Giant Cosmic Void, According to Astronomers“

It’s human to feel alarmed by the sheer emptiness of space. Now, astronomers from the University of Portsmouth in the UK suggest this unsettling vastness may be worse than we thought. They reckon Earth, our entire Solar System and even our entire Milky Way sits inside a mysterious giant hole. This void, they believe, may cause the cosmos to expand more quickly in our local environment than in other parts of the Universe.

—University of Bern: “No Collision, No Life: Earth Probably Needed Supplies from Space“

After the formation of the Solar System, it took a maximum of three million years for the chemical composition of the Earth’s precursor to be completed. This is shown by a new study by the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern. At this time, however, there were hardly any elements necessary for life such as water or carbon compounds on the young planet. Only a later planetary collision probably brought water to Earth, paving the way for life.

A Day in Astronomy: The Discovery of Phobos

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Image (Credit): Mar’s moon Phobos. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona)

On this day in 1877, American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the Martian moon Phobos while at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. He had discovered Mar’s other moon Deimos six days earlier.

Oddly enough, the idea of two moons orbiting Mars was first proposed in 1726 by Jonathan Swift in his tale Gulliver’s Travels. In the book, astronomers on the flying island of Laputia were noted to have

… discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve around Mars, whereof the innermost is distant from the center of the primary exactly three of his diameters, and the outermost five: the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half.

All Professor Hall had to do was confirm the work of the Laputian astronomers.

Space Stories: Gas Giant Exoplanet Found Orbiting Alpha Centauri A, New Jesuit Heads Vatican Observatory, and Crew-10 Mission Astronauts Return from ISS

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Image (Credit): Alpha Centauri. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Astronomy.com: “Webb Telescope Discovers Potential New World in Neighboring Star System“

A team of astronomers has found evidence of a candidate gas giant planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, a Sun-like star in the closest stellar system to our own. Initial observations hinting at the planet’s existence were made in August 2024 using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The Alpha Centauri system is located just 4 light-years from Earth. The findings, detailed in two papers accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could represent a major milestone. As Charles Beichman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory noted in a JWST news release, “With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own.”

—News Nation: “Pope Leo Appoints New Head Astronomer to Run the Vatican Observatory“

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a new head astronomer to run the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest scientific observatories in the world. Rev. Richard D’Souza, 47, will succeed Guy Consolmagno, an American physicist who was known as the “pope’s astronomer” for ten years. Both men are members of the Jesuit Order.

—ISS National Laboratory: “NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 Returns Safely After Completing Dozens of ISS National Lab-Sponsored Investigations“

After nearly six months onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the four astronauts of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission have safely returned to Earth. This weekend’s splashdown off the coast of California concludes a long-duration science expedition that supported dozens of investigations sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov played a vital role in advancing science in space, contributing to biomedical research, physical and materials sciences, technology demonstrations, and student-led experiments. Their work helped push the boundaries of discovery in low Earth orbit (LEO) The orbit around the Earth that extends up to an altitude of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from Earth’s surface. The ISS’s orbit is in LEO, at an altitude of approximately 250 miles. to benefit life on Earth and support a sustainable and robust space economy.

Space Stories: 25 Years of Humans on the ISS, Life in Outer Space, and Astronomical Interference

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Image (Credit): NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins space-walking outside the International Space Station (ISS) on December 24, 2013. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—NASA: “Celebrating 25 Years of Continuous Human Presence Aboard the International Space Station “

NASA and its partners have supported humans continuously living and working in space since November 2000. A truly global endeavor, the International Space Station has been visited by more than 280 people from 23 countries and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The unique microgravity laboratory has hosted more than 4,000 experiments from more than 5,000 researchers in more than 110 countries. The space station also is facilitating the growth of a commercial market in low Earth orbit for research, technology development, and crew and cargo transportation.

—Max Planck Institute: “The Evolution of Life May Have Its Origins in Outer Space“

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers led by Abubakar Fadul from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has discovered complex organic molecules – including the first tentative detection of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile – in the protoplanetary disc of the outbursting protostar V883 Orionis. These compounds are considered precursors to the building blocks of life. Comparing different cosmic environments reveals that the abundance and complexity of such molecules increase from star-forming regions to fully evolved planetary systems. This suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and widespread.

—Curtin University: “Interference to Astronomy the Unintended Consequence of Faster Internet“

Curtin University researchers have undertaken the world’s biggest survey of low frequency satellite radio emissions, finding Starlink satellites are significantly interfering with radio astronomy observations, potentially impacting discovery and research. Unintended signals from satellites – leaked from onboard electronics – can drown out the faint radio waves astronomers use to study the universe.

Space Stories: Watching a Newborn Planet, Investigating a Cosmic Fossil, and TRACERS to Study Magnetic Fields

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Yol Gezer from Pixabay.

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—European Southern Observatory: “Astronomers Witness Newborn Planet Sculpting the Dust Around It“

Astronomers may have caught a still-forming planet in action, carving out an intricate pattern in the gas and dust that surrounds its young host star. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they observed a planetary disc with prominent spiral arms, finding clear signs of a planet nestled in its inner regions. This is the first time astronomers have detected a planet candidate embedded inside a disc spiral. “We will never witness the formation of Earth, but here, around a young star 440 light-years away, we may be watching a planet come into existence in real time,” says Francesco Maio, a doctoral researcher at the University of Florence, Italy, and lead author of this study, published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

—Space.com: “Astronomers Discover a Cosmic ‘Fossil’ at the Edge of Our Solar System. Is this Bad News for ‘Planet 9’?“

Astronomers have discovered a massive new solar system body located beyond the orbit of Pluto. The weird elongated orbit of the object suggests that if “Planet Nine” exists, it is much further from the sun than thought, or it has been ejected from our planetary system altogether. The strange orbit of the object, designated 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed “Ammonite,” classifies it as a “sednoid.” Sednoids are bodies beyond the orbit of the ice giant Neptune, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), characterized by a highly eccentric (non-circular) orbit and a distant closest approach to the sun or “perihelion.”

—Southwest Research Institute: “TRACERS Mission Prepares for Launch“

NASA’s Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission, a collaborative effort led by the University of Iowa (UI) with substantial contributions from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), has entered its final integration phase. NASA is set to launch TRACERS’ two satellites into low Earth orbit on July 22, 2025, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The TRACERS mission will explore the dynamic interactions between the Sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields.