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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Inner Complexity of Saturn Moon, Enceladus, revealed

    January 24, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artistic representation of Enceladus's core with plumes coming from the bottom of the planet
    Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech Using new geochemical models, SwRI scientists found that CO2 in Enceladus’ ocean may be controlled by chemical reactions at the seafloor. Integrating this finding with previous discoveries of H2 and silica suggests geochemically diverse environments in the rocky core. This diversity has the potential to create energy sources that could support life.

    Enceladus’ subsurface ocean composition hints at habitable conditions. A Southwest Research Institute team developed a new geochemical model that reveals that carbon dioxide (CO2) from within Enceladus, an ocean-harboring moon of Saturn, may be controlled by chemical reactions at its seafloor...

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    The Salt of the Comet

    January 22, 2020, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Astronomy/Space

    A plume of dust from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, seen by the OSIRIS Wide Angle Camera on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft on 3 July 2016. The shadow of the plume is cast across the basin, which is in the Imhotep region. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

    More than 30 years ago, the European comet mission Giotto flew past Halley’s comet. The Bernese ion mass spectrometer IMS, led by Prof. em. Hans Balsiger, was on board. A key finding from the measurements taken by this instrument was that there appeared to be a lack of nitrogen in Halley’s coma – the nebulous covering of comets which forms when a comet passes close to the sun...

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    ESA opens Oxygen Plant, making Air Out of Moondust

    January 22, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Oxygen and metal from lunar regolith
    Oxygen and metal from lunar regolith

    ESA’s technical heart has begun to produce oxygen out of simulated moondust. A prototype oxygen plant has been set up in the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory of the European Space Research and Technology Centre, ESTEC, based in Noordwijk in the Netherlands.

    “Having our own facility allows us to focus on oxygen production, measuring it with a mass spectrometer as it is extracted from the regolith simulant,” comments Beth Lomax of the University of Glasgow, whose Ph.D. work is being supported through ESA’s Networking and Partnering Initiative, harnessing advanced academic research for space applications.

    “Being able to acquire oxygen from resources found on the Moon would obviously be hugely useful for future lunar settlers, both...

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    XMM-Newton discovers Scorching Gas in Milky Way’s Halo

    January 19, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Milky Way halo – artist’s impression

    ESA’s XMM-Newton has discovered that gas lurking within the Milky Way’s halo reaches far hotter temperatures than previously thought and has a different chemical make-up than predicted, challenging our understanding of our galactic home.

    A halo is a vast region of gas, stars and invisible dark matter surrounding a galaxy. It is a key component of a galaxy, connecting it to wider intergalactic space, and is thus thought to play an important role in galactic evolution.

    Until now, a galaxy’s halo was thought to contain hot gas at a single temperature, with the exact temperature of this gas dependent on the mass of the galaxy.

    However, a new study using ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory now shows that the Milky Way’s halo contains no...

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