Category Astronomy/Space

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover autonomously selects some targets for the laser and telescopic camera of its ChemCam instrument. For example, on-board software analyzed the Navcam image at left, chose the target indicated with a yellow dot, and pointed ChemCam for laser shots and the image at right. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGNantes/CNRS/IAS

Autonomous software improves efficiency. New software is enabling ChemCam, the laser spectrometer on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, to select rock targets autonomously – the first time autonomous target selection is available for an instrument of this kind on any robotic planetary mission. ChemCam (chemistry and camera) instrument aboard Curiosity “zaps” rocks on Mars and analyzes their chemical make-up...

Plots of velocity perturbations (arrows) and h v (contours) for steady-state hydrodynamic systems in full spherical geometry for l = m = 1 in the rapidly rotating limit. All quantities are computed in terms of an arbitrary velocity normalization (v0). Bright and dark colors correspond to positive and negative height perturbations, respectively. (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

Normally computers speed up calculations. But with his new pen-and-paper formula Kevin Heng of the University of Bern, Switzerland, gets his results thousands of times faster than using conventional computer codes. The astrophysicist calculates the abundances of molecules (known as atmospheric chemistry) in exoplanetary atmospheres...

Grooves and gashes associated with the Imbrium Basin on the moon have long been puzzling. New research shows how some of these features were formed and uses them to estimate the size of the Imbrium impactor. The study suggests it was big enough to be considered a protoplanet. Credit: NASA/Northeast Planetary Data Center/Brown University

The asteroid that slammed into the moon 3.8 billion years ago creating the Imbrium Basin may have had a diameter of at least 150 miles, according to a new estimate. The work helps explain puzzling geological features on the moon’s near side, and has implications for understanding the evolution of the early solar system. This new size estimate suggests the impactor was 2X larger in diameter and 10X more massive than previous estimates.

Previous estimates, Sc...

This artist’s illustration shows two Earth-sized planets, TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c, passing in front of their parent red dwarf star, which is much smaller and cooler than our sun. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope looked for signs of atmospheres around these planets. Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/J. de Wit (MIT)

Using Hubble, astronomers have conducted the first search for atmospheres around temperate, Earth-sized planets beyond our solar system and found indications that increase the chances of habitability on 2 exoplanets. Specifically, they discovered that TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c, ~40 light-years away, are unlikely to have puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres usually found on gaseous worlds.

“The lack of a smothering hydrogen-helium envelope increases the chances for habitability on these ...