Friday, February 21, 2020

Coronavirus name, animal-research data and a Solar System snowman

The Kuiper belt object Arrokoth, imaged by NASA's New Horizons mission. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Roman Tkachenko

The distant Solar System object known as Arrokoth resembles a reddish snowman, data from NASA reveal.

It is probably typical of the Kuiper belt objects in similar orbits, says David Jewitt, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles. But it would take another spacecraft visit to find out conclusively, he says. "We'll never know for sure until we look."

Date: 2020-02-19
Twitter: @nature
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One Step Closer to the Edge of the Solar System
Publisher: Space Daily
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Dynamics of Planetary Systems Within Star Clusters: Aspects of the Solar System's Early Evolution

Geometrical setup of the problem. The origin of the astro-centric coordinate system corresponds to the location of the reference star of mass M?. In calculations where the cluster's mean field is considered, the z = 0 plane is taken to coincide with the orbit of the reference star within the cluster, thus defining the inclination i and argument of pericenter ω.

Most planetary systems -- including our own -- are born within stellar clusters, where interactions with neighboring stars can help shape the system architecture.

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Four Possible NASA Missions to Explore the Secrets of the Solar System

The proposed Trident mission would explore Neptune’s moon Triton, seen here in a global color mosaic with an artist’s concept of an ionosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA has selected four Discovery Program investigations to develop concept studies for new missions. Although they’re not official missions yet and some ultimately may not be chosen to move forward, the selections focus on compelling targets and science that are not covered by NASA’s active missions or recent selections. Final selections will be made next year.

Publisher: SciTechDaily
Date: 2020-02-16T15:38:08-08:00
Author: Mike O
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Discoveries at solar system’s distant frontier shed light on how planets form –

The appearance led scientists to hypothesize that the two lobes likely formed near one another soon after the birth of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, then merged together at a relatively slow relative velocity. Modeling of data gathered by New Horizons during last year’s New Year’s Day flyby has confirmed the low-speed merger hypothesis.

Named Arrokoth, the dual-lobe world measures about 22 miles (36 kilometers) long, 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide, and around 6 miles (10 kilometers) thick. Scientists have compared its shape to a partially flattened snowman.

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Comcast Completes Solar System Installation For Washington, D.C. Facility | DCW50

New Rooftop Solar System Among the Largest in the District, Latest Initiative in Ongoing Series of Sustainability Efforts for Comcast's Beltway Region

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – (February 20, 2020) – Comcast today announced the completion of a 760-panel rooftop solar installation at its multi-purpose facility at 900 Michigan Ave NE, Washington, D.C. The system will reduce approximately 272 metric tons of CO2   in the regional electricity grid   — as much as 385 megawatt-hours of energy annually, or the equivalent of 37 homes' worth of electricity.

Publisher: DCW50
Date: 2020-02-20T20:28:41 00:00
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New Isotope Analysis Just Changed The Very Timeline of How Earth Was Born

In the very early days of the Solar System, baby Earth took a much shorter time to form than we previously thought. According to a new analysis of the iron isotopes found in meteorites, most of Earth took just 5 million years to come together - several times shorter than current models suggest.

This revision is a significant contribution to our current understanding of planetary formation, suggesting that the mechanisms may be more varied than we think, even between planets of the same type, located in the same neighbourhood - rocky planets, such as Mars and Earth.

Publisher: ScienceAlert
Author: Michelle Starr
Twitter: @ScienceAlert
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This Is How Voyager 1 Took A Portrait Of The Solar System

A trail of 39 grayscale shots  – with zoomed-in color insets of each planet, assembled from another 21 color-filtered photos – traces the layout of the solar system (or at least the zigzag strip of it that contained visible planets) from Voyager 1's lofty vantage 32⁰ above the plane of most of the planets' orbits.

* * *

Each of the color photos of the planets actually had to be assembled from three photographs, which Voyager's narrow-angle camera snapped in rapid succession: one photo each with three different color filters in violet, green, and blue. Voyager 1 started its panorama at the outer edge of the solar system and worked its way inward, taking the grayscale background photos with its wide-angle camera and photographing each planet in color with the narrow-angle camera as it came to them.

Publisher: Forbes
Date: 2020-02-14
Author: Kiona N Smith
Twitter: @forbes
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