Despite being well into its twenties the Hubble Space Telescope is still taking some pretty impressive photos. This time the Hubble Telescope reminded us all that Uranus is a lot more than a featureless ball of frozen turquoise gas. Composite photos from the Voyager 2 mission and photos taken by the Hubble telescope demonstrate that an Aurora dances across Uranus’ upper atmosphere.
Aurora’s are caused by streams of charged particles, like electrons, that come come from a variety of origins; such as solar winds, the planetary ionosphere, and moon volcanism. These particles become snared in powerful magnetic fields where they are then channeled into the upper atmosphere. Here they interact with gas particles like Oxygen or Nitrogen to produce stunning light shows, much like the Aurora Borealis here on earth.
Photo of the Aurora Borialis – The telegraph
The Aurora’s on Jupiter and Saturn are well studied but auroras on Uranus have proven to be a little more enigmatic. In 2011, the Hubble Space Telescope became the first Earth based telescope to catch a glimpse of the Aurora’s playing across Neptune’s surface. In 2011 and 2014 astronomers decided to take a closer look using the ultra-violet capabilities of the Space Telescope imaging Spectro-graph (STIS) installed on the Hubble.
Ever since Voyager 2 beamed home spectacular images of the planets in the 1980s, planet-lovers have been hooked on extra-terrestrial aurorae. Aurorae are caused by streams of charged particles like electrons, that come from various origins such as solar winds, the planetary ionosphere, and moon volcanism. They become caught in powerful magnetic fields and are channelled into the upper atmosphere, where their interactions with gas particles, such as oxygen or nitrogen, set off spectacular bursts of light. The alien aurorae on Jupiter and Saturn are well-studied, but not much is known about the aurorae of the giant ice planet Uranus. In 2011, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope became the first Earth-based telescope to snap an image of the aurorae on Uranus. In 2012 and 2014 astronomers took a second look at the aurorae using the ultraviolet capabilities of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) installed on Hubble. They tracked the interplanetary shocks caused by two powerful bursts of solar wind travelling from the Sun to Uranus, then used Hubble to capture their effect on Uranus’ aurorae — and found themselves observing the most intense aurorae ever seen on the planet. By watching the aurorae over time, they collected the first direct evidence that these powerful shimmering regions rotate with the planet. They also re-discovered Uranus’ long-lost magnetic poles, which were lost shortly after their discovery by Voyager 2 in 1986 due to uncertainties in measurements and the featureless planet surface. This is a composite image of Uranus by Voyager 2 and two different observations made by Hubble — one for the ring and one for the aurorae.
Composite photograph of Uranus, demonstrating the rings and aurora on the surface – NASA
They used the STIS to track two bursts of solar wind from the sun to Uranus, they then tracked the effects of those winds have upon the Auroras on Uranus. The results were stunning. The solar winds prompted the most intense Aurora’s ever seen on the planet. The impressive light show allowed scientists to gather direct evidence that these Aurora’s rotate with the planet. Scientists even managed to rediscover the location of Uranus’ long-lost magnetic poles, which had been lost almost immediately have their discovery by Voyager 2 in 1986.
The photographs also give us a pretty good shot of the rings that encircle Neptune’s equator, just like those of Saturn. Astronomers theorize that the planet was knocked off balance during a collision with an Earth sized planet at some point in its history, resulting in the rings appearing to circle the poles.
If nothing else, the images serve to demonstrate the eerie beauty of the third largest planet in our solar system.
If there are extraterrestrial civilizations within a reasonable distance capable of detecting our unintentional transmissions, there exists a possibility, albeit small, that among the initial signals they intercept, they could receive the commencement of the 1936 Olympic Games. Therefore, in the unlikely event that they do receive these signals, we might come across a speech by Adolf Hitler during our first encounter with an alien species.
“Naturally, this was not the initial transmission,” clarified Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at SETI, during an interview with RealClearScience. “However, it was emitted at a sufficiently high frequency to penetrate the ionosphere.”
In the movie Contact, this ultimately became the initial communication that mankind received from an extraterrestrial society. The entities promptly returned the signal to Earth, unaware of the profound consequences that transmitting broadcasts of Adolf Hitler from outer space would have on the targeted species they were endeavoring to establish communication with. It is similar to greeting a random person and then unintentionally reciting a chapter from Mein Kampf.
Fortunately, it is highly likely that we won’t encounter this issue because extraterrestrial civilizations shouldn’t be able to distinguish the signal strengths.
“The power consumption would have been minimal, and the antenna used would not have had a specific direction,” Shostak elaborated. “The notion that extraterrestrial beings might intercept it is highly improbable.”
However, it is possible that we may receive significantly more alarming initial communications, as individuals have been deliberating on X (Twitter) and Reddit.
What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space? pic.twitter.com/HKEzb7JBnI
— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) April 21, 2024
It appears that people are primarily focused on receiving warnings from extraterrestrial civilizations right now, possibly as a result of a recent unnamed television series.
What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space?
byu/silly_vasily inAskReddit
"Be quite they will hear you!"
— Adam Taylor (@ATaylorFPGA) April 21, 2024
According to certain proposed resolutions to the Fermi Paradox, which ask why we haven’t detected any signs of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, the explanation is that these civilizations are intentionally concealing their presence due to the apprehension of their own annihilation.
Another concern is the possibility of receiving an unclear message that extraterrestrial beings will provide us with limited information, apart from the fact that they are en route.
What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space? pic.twitter.com/HKEzb7JBnI
— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) April 21, 2024
What would be the scariest message humanity could receive from outer space?
byu/silly_vasily inAskReddit
One theory, called the Zoo Hypothesis, is related to this topic. The theory posits that extraterrestrial beings possess knowledge of our existence but deliberately confine us within a designated “zoo” to allow for our evolutionary and societal development. This parallels humanity’s practice of preserving certain areas as nature reserves and refraining from engaging with uncontacted tribes. Based on this hypothesis, it is possible that we may receive contact once we have reached a satisfactory level of technological and societal development and potentially be accepted into a community of other galaxies.
Although there is a prevailing apprehension that initiating communication with an extraterrestrial civilization will probably elicit fear due to humanity’s historical tendency to fear the unfamiliar, there is a potentially more alarming notion.
Orbex, a small launch company based in the UK, got more money from backers, including Scotland’s national bank. The company is now getting ready for its first orbital launch, but the date for that mission has not yet been set.
With its start in 2015, Orbex is one of only a few companies in Europe racing to make the next generation of launch vehicles. The retirement of the Ariane 5 and big delays to the Ariane 6 and Vega C rockets have left a huge gap that these companies are trying to fill. Without these vehicles, there is almost no native launch capacity coming out of Europe.
But Orbex also has a chance because of his absence. The company is working on what is sometimes called a “microlauncher.” It is a two-stage vehicle called Prime that is only 19 meters tall and can take up to 180 kilograms of payload. Rocket Lab’s Electron is the most similar. It’s only a meter shorter, but it can take up to 300 kilograms.
The fact that Orbex is small is not a problem for the company. In fact, Orbex CEO Philip Chambers told TechCrunch via email that the company is seeing “positive market conditions” for its product.
“There is a pent-up demand for sovereign launch capabilities,” he said. “We are seeing an exponential growth of satellites being launched into LEO, and demand for launch is far exceeding supply. At the moment, it’s not possible to launch a single kilogram from Europe.” “We will let European customers choose how to launch their own payloads and let them launch European payloads from European soil.”
Prime will take off from a new spaceport being built with money from the UK’s national space agency in Sutherland, which is in northern Scotland. The end goal is to use a patented recovery technique that the company calls REFLIGHT. This is an interstage device that sits between the rocket stages. When the booster comes off, four “petals” will unfold and, along with a parachute, create enough drag for a soft landing in the ocean.
It’s possible that a bigger car will be made in the future, but Chambers made it clear that Prime was the company’s top goal. He did say, though, that many of the rocket’s main technologies could be used with bigger packages.
Considering the laws of physics, it would be logical for Orbex to explore the option of using larger vehicles in order to compete on cost per kg.
The company is starting its Series D round with £16.7 million ($20.7 million) in new funding, including investments from Octopus Ventures, BGF, Heartcore, EIFO, and other contributors. Following the closure of a £40.4 million ($50 million) Series C in October 2022, Orbex has secured additional capital. Although a spokesperson has confirmed that the new funding will assist Orbex in accelerating the development of Prime, ensuring its readiness and scalability for the launch period, the specific launch window has not been announced yet.
Astronomy
The Ingenuity team at NASA has received their last communication, however, the Mars helicopter is still operational
The NASA Ingenuity team said goodbye to the helicopter robot and got one last message before splitting up. But ingenuity isn’t really dead yet; it will still be collecting data on Mars.
It’s a great little robot, and in April 2021, it was the first to fly powered and controlled on a planet other than Earth. That’s not easy to do because conditions on Mars are so different.
“The Red Planet has a much lower gravity—one-third that of Earth’s—and an extremely thin atmosphere with only 1% of Earth’s pressure at the surface,” NASA said in a press release after Ingenuity’s first flight. “This means there are relatively few air molecules with which Ingenuity’s two 4-foot-wide (1.2-meter-wide) rotor blades can interact to achieve flight.”
It was planned for the helicopter, which was really just a prototype, to make five flights over 30 days on Mars. Instead, it made 72 flights over 1,000 days. NASA started to use it to get a bird’s-eye view of Mars and find interesting places for Perseverance to go back and look at more closely.
On the 72nd flight, unfortunately, Ingenuity had to make an emergency landing and lost touch with Perseverance. When they got in touch again, pictures from the helicopter showed that a rotor was badly damaged, so Ingenuity would not be able to fly again.
Even though the helicopter can’t fly anymore, it can still gather information and send it to Perseverance. Perseverance then sends the information to Earth through NASA’s Deep Space Network. Before the Ingenuity team broke up, they got one last message from Ingenuity and ate cake to celebrate.
“I’m sorry, Dylan Thomas, but Ingenuity will not be going gently into that good Martian night,” said Josh Anderson, lead of the Ingenuity team at JPL. “It’s hard to believe that she still has something to give after more than 1,000 days on Mars’ surface, 72 flights, and one rough landing.” Because of how hard this amazing team worked, not only did Ingenuity do better than we thought it would, but it may also teach us new things in the years to come.
After stopping in “Valinor Hills” to rest, the robot’s job will be to gather data while it’s still, hopefully learning useful things about the planet’s environment before future missions with people.
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