Up At The Ranch And Beyond

[Star Tsar]

John Michael Godier

Interstellar Objects On The Moon?

Published 23rd October 2019

An exploration of whether the moon might act as a collector for interstellar objects and material.

Papers:

"Searching the Moon for Extrasolar Material and the Building Blocks of Extraterrestrial Life", Lingham and Loeb, 2019.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.05427

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gmB7E6ydFQw

Related musical interlude

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ndxAZfJxfy8

[Star Tsar]

Fraser Cain

Q&A 104: Should We Reconsider The Definition Of A Moon? And More...

Streamed & Published 24th October 2019

In this week's questions show, I explain why it's probably not time to reconsider the definition of a moon, if we could make artificial gravity with a chunk of a neutron star, and why a supermassive black hole isn't the anchor for an entire galaxy.

00:47 Should we reconsider the definition of a moon?
03:35 Could we make artificial gravity with mass?
05:48 Why didn't the Big Bang collapse back into black hole?
07:47 Why can't a black hole be the anchor of the galaxy?
10:45 How far and how small can we see?
13:37 What is left after a black hole evaporates?
15:00 Could you have a star made out of something else?
16:32 Could a planet orbit a binary star?
18:29 Could aliens Planet 9?
19:24 If aliens are advanced, we're no threat
21:35 How can aliens not exist?
22:30 Why don't they put a microscope in a rover?

Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week, and answer them here.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fkFsZbYg0XE

[Star Tsar]

Science@NASA

NASA ScienceCasts: Exploring The Presence Of Water On The Moon

Published 24th October 2019

The presence of water on the Moon opens up many exciting possibilities for future exploration and just as many questions about that water’s origins.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xVC6PeUr_T8

[Star Tsar]

The Mars Society

The 22nd Annual International Mars Society Convention

Published 24th October 2019

Dr. Robert Zubrin - The Case For Space

Dr. Robert Zubrin is the Founder and President of the Mars Society. He's the author of The Case for Space which is available in bookstores now.

From the 22nd Annual International Mars Society Convention, held at the University of Southern California from October 17-20, 2019.

The four-day International Mars Society Convention brings together leading scientists, engineers, aerospace industry representatives, government policymakers and journalists to talk about the latest scientific discoveries, technological advances and political-economic developments that could help pave the way for a human mission to the planet Mars.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hh-BGHJQXZI

Debate on NASA's Proposed Gateway

Debate on NASA's proposed Lunar Orbital Gateway space station and the possible approaches to America's return to the Moon.

Dr. Robert Zubrin – President, The Mars Society
Greg Autry - Director, SoCal Commercial Spaceflight Center

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7OzIV3gh4pc

Tom Hoffman - Mars InSight Mission Update

Tom Hoffman - InSight Project Manager, NASA/JPL updates us on the latest on NASA's Mars InSight mission.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q1yJPFRuv74

Ashwin Vasavada - MSL (Curiosity) Rover Update

Ashwin Vasavada - MSL Project Scientist, Planetary Geosciences, JPL updates us on the Mars Curiosity rovers.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LKirkAe8u7g

Darlene Lim - Mars Analog Research

Darlene talks about designing and developing mission elements in support of human scientific exploration of Mars

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=P2LY0SQRx4I

Dr. Luther Beegle - Search For Water & Life

Dr Beegle on exploring Mars' underground & the search for water & life.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yAcaHjqvHJQ

Dr. Shannon Rupert - MDRS

Dr Rupert on analogue missions & Mars Desert Research Station.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0qB4QBGTC7M

[Star Tsar]

Space Weather Woman Tamitha Skov



Space Weather News | A Solar Storm Returns & A Polar Filament Erupts

Published 24th October 2019

Our long wait is finally over this week as the fast solar wind from a large coronal hole is finally arriving as I make this forecast public! We have hit active conditions already and guaranteed more is on the way. Aurora is beginning to build now in Scotland and over the UK with promises of more to come! aurora photographers at both high-latitudes and mid-latitudes should ready their cameras as this could be the biggest show we will see for easily a month or more. GPS users should also take note of this storm as it will affect GPS reception anywhere near aurora, especially on Earth's nightside and near the dawn and dusk terminators. Amateur radio operators might get a small boost to radio propagation on Earth's dayside from the solar storm, but at nighttime, expect sporadic propagation across most bands until after the solar storm passes, which will be through the weekend. Learn the details of this solar storm hitting now, when and where to see aurora, and what else our Sun has in store!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uLMkCLt5clE

[Star Tsar]

Pecos Hank

The Greatest Storms On Earth

Published 24th October 2019

This video is 10 years in the making of the best tornado footage, lightning strikes, supercells and most beautiful storms that Hank has ever documented. Not only is Mother Nature’s fury amplified with these explosive storms, So is her beauty.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uH9A-7Y3lL0

[Star Tsar]

Gianluca Masi

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (162082) 1998 HL1 | 23rd October 2019

Published 24th October 2019

Brought to you by Virtual Telescope Project - www.virtualtelescope.eu

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SK8AyL4Lt4Y

[Star Tsar]

Asteroid Station

Asteroid (2019 UC) Is Set To Pass Earth On October 29, 2019, Travelling 20,000 Miles Per Hour

Published 24th October 2019

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=DPuxcbTF1BE

[Star Tsar]

The Union Newspaper Of Grass Valley, CA

Meteor Over Nevada City

Recorded 19th & Published 24th October 2019

Video submitted by Dave Hershberger: Coming home from Nevada City Saturday night, we saw a bright green meteor in the sky at 9:02 PM. Our dash camera recorded it. It was traveling east to west. That's opposite from the direction of equatorial-orbit satellites which travel west to east so as to use the earth's rotational velocity at launch. So I don't think it was space junk. It was bright green in color (indicating copper content) but in the video it looks mostly white. This meteor was probably part of the Orionids.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FPKBTUV5caY

[Star Tsar]

Phys.org

Beyond Jupiter, Researchers Discover A 'Cradle Of Comets'

Published 24th October 2019



Comets are known to have a temper. As they swoop in from the outer edges of our solar system, these icy bodies begin spewing gas and dust as they venture closer to the sun. Their luminous outbursts can result in spectacular sights that grace the night sky for days, weeks or even months.

But comets aren't born that way, and their pathway from their original formation location toward the inner solar system has been debated for a long time. Comets are of great interest to planetary scientists because they are likely to be the most pristine remnants of material left over from the birth of our solar system.

Research paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...41-8213/ab3fb3

Read all about it here: https://phys.org/news/2019-10-jupite...le-comets.html

[Star Tsar]

Chandra X-Ray Observatory

A Collision Between Four Galaxy Clusters In Abell 1758

Published 24th October 2019

Astronomers have observed an impending crash of enormous proportions.

This system, called Abell 1758, contains four separate galaxy clusters — all headed for each other.

Galaxy clusters, made up of thousands of galaxies embedded in hot gas and huge amounts of unseen dark matter, are the largest objects in the Universe.

In Abell 1758, scientists previously found two pairs of galaxy clusters, each merging with each other, being drawn together by gravity.

Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, astronomers have learned much about Abell 1758 including the relative speed of two of the clusters.

When these four galaxy clusters eventually merge in several billion years, they will form one of the most massive objects in the Universe.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xvR7QHRjvCg

When two pairs of galaxy clusters collide, the final result is not four separate objects, but one giant galaxy cluster. Astronomers using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other telescopes have put together a detailed map of a rare collision between four galaxy clusters.

This mega-structure is being assembled in the system called Abell 1758 located about 3 billion light years from Earth. Eventually all four clusters — each with a mass of at least several hundred trillion times that of the Sun — will merge to form one of the most massive objects in the Universe.

Galaxy clusters are the largest structures held together by gravity. They consist of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies embedded in hot gas, and contain an even larger amount of unseen dark matter that gravitationally dominates the cluster. Sometimes two galaxy clusters collide, as in the case of the Bullet Cluster, and occasionally more than two will collide in the same timeframe.

The Chandra data revealed for the first time a shock wave — similar to the sonic boom from a supersonic aircraft — in hot gas in the northern pair's collision. From this shock wave, researchers of the new study estimated one pair of clusters are moving relative to each other, at a speed between two and three million miles per hour.

Chandra also provides information about how elements heavier than helium in the clusters' hot gas get mixed up and redistributed after galaxy clusters collide and merge. Because this process depends on how far a merger has progressed, Abell 1758 offers a valuable case study, since the two pairs of clusters are at different stages of merging. The new Abell 1758 result shows the further along a merger is, the farther away from the centers of the clusters these important heavy elements are found.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YQYlmrpCIxk

[Star Tsar]

Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics

Sara Ellison | University of Victoria | Galaxy Mergers In The Nearby Universe

Published 24th October 2019

Astronomy’s current model of galaxy evolution is built on a foundation of hierarchical growth, in which small galaxies merge together to form larger ones. In addition to the simple accrual of mass, this merging process is predicted to fundamentally change the galaxies’ properties, such as dramatic morphological transformations, the triggering of bursts of star formation and high rates of accretion onto the central supermassive black hole. In this talk I will explain the physical processes behind these predictions, and present the observations that we are performing in order to test the theory, as well as results from new simulations. Although many of the predictions are indeed borne out by experiment, there have been some surprising conflicts as well, that demand revisions to our models of how mergers shape galaxy evolution.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=wxwOzVcw_DE

[Star Tsar]

NASA Astrobiology

Ask An Astrobiologist : Dr. Laurie Barge

Published 24th October 2019

Once a month, SAGANet (www.saganet.org) and the NASA Astrobiology Program host a program called "Ask an Astrobiologist", where the public is invited to interact with a high-profile astrobiologist, who replies to twitter, facebook, and chat questions live on video.

Each session lasts about an hour. This month is Dr. Laurie Barge turn.

Hosted by Dr. Sanjoy Som (Blue Marble Space Institute of Science)
Featured Guest: Dr. Laurie Barge (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=UTILC0vHux8

[Star Tsar]

Anton Petrov

We Studied Rocks Of Ancient Planets Discovering Dead Earths

Published 24th October 2019

Anton talks about a new interesting way of analyzing actual rocks from exoplanets and the discovery that suggests there are lots of Earth like planets out there.

Related paper: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6463/356

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hE2QasA588c

[Star Tsar]

John Michael Godier's Event Horizon

Prof. Abel Mendez | Better Than Earth: Superhabitable Exoplanets

Published 24th October 2019

Professor Abel Mendez is a planetary astrobiologist and Director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. His research focuses on the habitability of Earth, the Solar System, and extrasolar planets. Prof. Méndez is a NASA MIRS Fellow with physics and astrophysics research experience at Fermilab, NASA Goddard, NASA Ames, and the Arecibo Observatory.

Where is the best place in the universe to look for life?
With the discovery of water in the atmosphere of the exoplanet k218b we are closing to answering if is there life on other planets? As well, is there life in our solar system? Could there be life on the moons of Jupiter, Europa and Enceladus.Or have we already found life in meteorites like the Allan hills 84001? And with the discovery of interstellar objects like oumuamua and comet 2I/Borisov, do they carry life through panspermia through the interstellar medium?

Was Water Vapor Discovered on an Earth Like Exoplanet? With Dr. Angelos Tsiaras
https://youtu.be/2-cyPQHGsp8

The Geology of the Planets of the Solar System with Emily Lakdawalla
https://youtu.be/sKkK_ci9ZsQ

Prof. Abel Mendez Links:
http://phl.upr.edu/about/abel_mendez
http://phl.upr.edu/
https://twitter.com/ProfAbelMendez

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FrreX86-1_0

[Star Tsar]

MJ Banias

The Weird Desk | UFOs & The US Army

Streamed & Published 24th October 2019

To the Stars Academy just signed a deal with the US Army. From active camoflauge to quantum communication, the agreement allows TTSA to use government labs and staff, and in exchange, the government gets to see the results. Let’s dig into this. Welcome to the Weird Desk, all the news that is too strange to print.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=v3qWEqQNPcY

[Star Tsar]

MegalithomaniaUK



Jim Vieira | Fish Gods, The Seven Headed Serpent & The Law Of One

Published 24th October 2019

Author Jim Vieira takes us on a journey through the ancient mysteries and the otherworld in this exclusive highly informative presentation.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YLwhO9uh_Xo

[Star Tsar]

EarthSky.org

How Small Is The Smallest Habitable Exoplanet?

Published 25th October 2019



Where can we expect to find life beyond Earth? A new study has redefined the lower limit in mass for habitable exoworlds. It suggests that low-mass waterworlds might exist and might be a place to look.

Read all about it here: https://earthsky.org/space/small-roc...l-be-habitable

[Star Tsar]

Seeker

Falling Atoms Are Helping NASA Measure Earth’s Gravity

Published 25th October 2019



The Earth’s gravitational pull isn’t uniform, as it varies from one place to another. So, scientists developed a new instrument to deliver the most accurate measurements yet.

Since 2000, scientists have used satellites to map the Earth’s gravitational field. But now they’ve developed a new instrument that uses quantum phenomena to deliver the most accurate measurements yet.

The Earth’s gravitational pull varies from one place to another, and it can change over time. Gravity is directly related to mass and the Earth's mass is constantly shifting. Many factors contribute to the change in the Earth’s gravity but what is the biggest thing contributing to a change in Earth’s gravity?

Water! Water covers most of the Earth and is constantly shifting around. Melting glaciers, water trapped underground, all these events redistribute the mass of water.

So measuring the minute changes in the gravitational field is a way to track what Earth’s water is doing, and how the water cycle is being affected by climate change.

Previous NASA missions like GRACE and its successor GRACE-Follow On used twin satellites to map the field. The principle was one satellite would follow the other, and as they passed through fluctuations in the gravitational field, they would get closer or farther apart. Measuring the change in distance would tell scientists how the gravity over that part of the world differed.

But with the goal of even more accuracy, NASA teamed up with the company AOSense, Inc. to try an entirely different approach. The new prototype sensor uses roughly 100 million cesium atoms sealed in a vacuum near absolute zero.

Read More:
Matter in Motion: Earth's Changing Gravity
https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sen...anging-gravity
"'The Earth's gravity field changes from one month to the next mostly due to the mass of water moving around on the surface,' said Watkins. 'Because water in all its forms has mass and weight, we can actually weigh the ocean moving around.'"

Scientists Watch Atoms Fall to See Earth's Changing Structure
https://www.wired.com/story/scientis...ing-structure/
"The quantum sensor, which NASA has developed with Bay Area-based company AOSense, relies on some 100 million cesium atoms. The device launches the atoms inside a cylindrical column and times how quickly they fall. As dictated by quantum mechanics, the atoms behave both like particles and waves."

GRACE-FO Mission
https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/overview/
"GRACE-FO, which launched May 22, 2018, will continue the work of tracking Earth's water movement to monitor changes in underground water storage, the amount of water in large lakes and rivers, soil moisture, ice sheets and glaciers, and sea level caused by the addition of water to the ocean."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MN_CKohpey4

[Star Tsar]

Suspicious Observers | Space News | 25th October 2019 | Magnetic Storm, Fire, Flood, Mergers & Structure

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lnXUvRGBa54