This weekend’s stories include Should We Really Be Messing with Asteroid Orbits? to Our Search for Habitable Planets Just Got a Lot Narrower to Did the Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Reveal Hints of Dark Matter? You can read more.
Do We Really Need to Be Messing With Asteroid Orbits Caleb SCharf is asked for Nautilus. One small error or manipulation could cause cosmic interference to result in disaster. “The technology to prevent asteroids from hitting Earth could also be used to cause asteroids to hit Earth.”
The Search for Habitable Planets just got a lot more narrow.Extreme Tech reports on a new study. ” After analyzing a nearby exoplanet, the team has concluded it is unlikely that the most common type of star in the Milky Way is capable of supporting life as we know it.”
Extraterrestrial life: Hidden megastructures and radio waves could indicate extraterrestrial life–Could we describe and search for proof of technology originating from outside of Earth? The Conversation asks.
You want to know if aliens really exist? According to an astrobiologist, ask a taxi driver.–Taxi drivers are connected to the hive mind of humanity. According to Fast Company, this gives them amazing insight into the mysteries of life and the universe. Charles Cockell, a professor of Astrobiology from the University of Edinburgh. Five key insights from his book Taxi from another Planet: Conversations With Drivers About Life in the Universe, he shares with us.
China’s space station is almost complete — how will scientists use it?--China’s space station Tiangong is almost complete. The launch of the third and last module into low Earth orbit is planned for Monday. This station is only the second orbital laboratory and will host over 1,000 scientific experiments during its 10-year lifespan. Nature reports that these experiments include studies on the effects of microgravity upon living tissue and fire behavior.
Requiem for a Telescope--The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico was tuned to radio stations for six decades until its demise last year. It is not being rebuilt and the astronomers are grieving. “Dan Werthimer, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, who had used the telescope throughout his career to search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations, lamented the decision to not rebuild. ‘Arecibo was my favorite telescope in the universe,’ he said.”
Space Explosion with the Brightest Light Ever Reveals Possible Hints at Dark Matter–A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT—“brightest of all time”—appears to have produced a high-energy particle that shouldn’t exist. For some, dark matter provides the explanation, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for Nautilus. “There were so many photons per second that they couldn’t keep up,” said Andrew Levan, an astrophysicist at Radboud University in the Netherlands.
NASA’s InSight Lander Detects Stunning Meteoroid Impact on Mars.The JPL reports. “The agency’s lander felt the ground shake during the impact while cameras aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the yawning new crater from space.”
Astronomers have developed equations that accurately describe the Universe’s reflectionsScience Alert reports that they appear in the warped light surrounding a black hole.
The Fine Line between Life and Not Life –-If the brain can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality, what can? Patrick House reported for Nautilus. “In the 1974 film Dark Star, an artificial intelligence is taught a few basics of René Descartes’s cogito, ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) arguments and, after realizing that its purpose is simply to explode, the AI proceeds to ignore all further human commands and blows up itself, the ship, and the crew.”
Astronomers can use this spiral galaxy from the constellation Draco to help them measure the universe–Two objects in this galaxy serve to build a “Cosmic Distance Ladder,” scientists say, reports Space.com.
Humans communicating with aliens would be ‘like ants trying to talk to people’–Experts from a new BBC film are convinced our species would be mentally inferior, reports The Telegraph.
There may be 4 Quintillion alien artifacts buzzing around in our Solar System.Avi Loeb reports on Daily Beast. “How many other ‘Oumuamuas could there be in and around the solar system? In a new study that appeared online on Sept. 22 and hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, Loeb and his coauthor Carson Ezell. What they calculated isn’t the population of alien craft. It’s the population of possible alien craft or other possible artificial objects. Parts of ET rockets left over. We are unable to explain the fragments of alien technology left over.
The Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff curated this article
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