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ESA JUICE probe targets dark Jovian moon Kallichore in 2031

The planet Jupiter hosts more than 100 moons with the majority of attention going to the four Galilean moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. This is primarily due to their active geology, including Io being the most volcanically active planetary body in the solar system and Europa having a vast subsurface liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust. However, Jupiter’s smaller and lesser-known moons could provide astronomers key insights into the history of the solar system since they’ve remained largely unchanged, unlike the Galilean moons. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/ula0TcX via IFTTT
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7-stage journey reveals how falling space rocks survive air

At least once in our lives, we’ve all seen a bright streak of light briefly blaze across the sky and have quickly referred to it as an asteroid, meteor, shooting star, comet, or some other whimsical name we’ve heard others use to describe it. For those calling it a meteor, you would be correct, but we’ll touch upon this later. The time it takes for a space rock, bolide being its scientific name, to travel through Earth's atmosphere and crash into the ground literally takes only a few seconds. But what happens to a space rock during this very brief travel time, and how can scientists use this to learn about a specific space rock’s origin and the potential damage it could cause if it explodes in mid-air? from Universe Today https://ift.tt/769a2Nx via IFTTT

Gardening the Moon's Cosmic Archives

When a meteoroid hits the Moon's surface, it does more than just dig up a little dirt. It actually excavates a little bit of cosmic history that recorded a long-ago supernova explosion. Scientists at the University of Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology have come up with a way to decode that history and learn something about such energetic events in the Universe. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/GtCqujH via IFTTT

Roman Rises! Five Things to Know About NASA's New Space Telescope

NASA's newest eye on the sky, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has begun its journey to unravel the secrets of dark matter, dark energy and Earthlike planets — months ahead of schedule. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/dTCyOnL via IFTTT

Ancient Dust Grains Hold Magnetic Clues to the Sun's Birth

Those little dust grains that fall to Earth during meteor showers or end up as part of larger meteorites found on Earth may hold surprising clues to the formation of the Sun. That's because they record the state of the magnetic field in the protostellar nebula from which Earth (and ultimately the planets) formed. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Lc2qCab via IFTTT

NASA Announces Next Steps for Swift Rescue Mission

Due to an ongoing commercial spacecraft attitude control issue, NASA and Katalyst Space announced Wednesday the LINK spacecraft will attempt to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to demonstrate key capabilities for the future of space exploration. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Iq3MDPW via IFTTT

Measuring the Mass of the Universe Isn't As Simple as Astronomers Thought

How do scientists know the mass of the Universe? Measuring it has traditionally relied on knowing how many stars there are in galaxies, as well as clouds of gas and dust, and associated dark matter. Astronomers generally use the mass of the brightest stars to estimate the mass of an entire galaxy. That means the rest of a galaxy's stars and its dark matter are essentially invisible. For decades, astronomers estimated the number of small, unseen stars in clusters and galaxies using a mathematical rule that assumed stars formed in roughly the same mass proportions everywhere in the Universe. That tool is called the initial mass function (IMF). It describes how many stars of each size there are in a given cluster or galaxy. However, there are challenges with the way it's currently applied because of assumptions it contains. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/FsHTj3a via IFTTT