In Interstellar , the situation is reversed: The "sun" is cold and space is hot. The black hole itself is an ideal heat sink, the researchers argue, and usable energy can come from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), weak radiation from the big bang that permeates space. At just a few degrees above absolute zero, the CMB is weak, but the extreme gravity of a supermassive black hole would scrunch the radiation into optical wavelengths and funnel it into a narrow beam.
The scientists first published this idea in 2017 . Now, they have firmed up the numbers. In order to receive strong enough CMB light, a planet would need to orbit very close to the black hole's event horizon. Normally an object that close would soon get sucked in. If the black hole is spinning fast, however, close stable orbits are possible .
Not to change the topic here:
A Russian satellite is probably stalking a US spy satellite in orbit - MIT Technology Review
On January 20, something rather strange happened in orbit. A Russian satellite suddenly maneuvered itself so that it was closely shadowing a US spy satellite. The pair are now less than 186 miles (300 kilometers) apart—a short distance when it comes to space. While we don't know for sure what's going on, the Russian satellite's actions strongly suggest it is there to spy on the US one—and there is very little the US can do about it.
Russia's official story is that the satellite, called Kosmos 2542, is part of its program to test out satellite "inspection" technologies so that the country can closely observe its own orbital assets. A parent satellite is supposed to deploy a sub-satellite nearby, and then approach and image it.
Virgin Orbit nearing first launch - SpaceNews.com
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Virgin Orbit says it is weeks away from the first orbital launch of its LauncherOne rocket as the company makes plans to move quickly into operations if that flight is successful.
The company said in a series of tweets Jan. 31 that is in final preparations for its test launch, with the LauncherOne rocket attached to its Boeing 747 aircraft for a final series of tests and dress rehearsals at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. That includes a captive carry flight, where the plane will take off with the rocket attached for the entire flight.
Terminator Tape Can Help to Efficiently De-Orbit Satellites | Digital Trends
To tackle this problem, a company called Tethers Unlimited has demonstrated a cheap and lightweight solution for safely disposing of satellites once they are no longer required. The solution involves a 230-foot-long strip of conductive tape deployed from the satellite which pulls it into a lower orbit, called, delightfully enough, Terminator Tape.
To test out the system, Tethers Unlimited attached a Terminator Tape module to the Prox-1 CubeSat, launched last June. The module weighs just two pounds and is about the size of a notebook, and can be attached to the outside of the satellite. Once Prox-1 was no longer required, the module was activated by an electric signal which can be either pre-set to a certain time or triggered by the satellite itself.
Other things to check out:
Elon Musk's Tesla still orbits the sun, two years after SpaceX launch - CNET
One of the craziest parts of the launch was seeing a dummy astronaut inside the Tesla Roadster floating in space.
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Programmer Ben Pearson's Where is Roadster? website keeps track of the vehicle's likely location. Current estimates for the two-year launch anniversary on Thursday place it beyond the orbit of Mars and far, far away from Earth.
According to Pearson's data, the car has traveled over 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) and is well into its second orbit around the sun.
In Search of Exoplanets With Binary Sunsets | Discover Magazine
Thirty years ago, the only planets we knew of were in our own solar system. Since then, we've discovered thousands orbiting alien suns, but most of these exoplanets are so far away that it's difficult to study them in detail. Though we've learned a lot, one major question remains: How common are planets in star systems with more than one star , like the binary suns that shone on Luke Skywalker's home world in Star Wars ?
Multi-star systems themselves are commonplace; roughly half of sun-sized stars have at least one stellar dance partner circling in orbit with them. But does having a stellar neighbor affect the likelihood of any planets forming around a star? Or would the motions of stars in a multi-star system instead fling a planet away , exiling it to the lonely depths of space?
A Russian satellite seems to be tailing a US spy satellite in Earth orbit - The Verge
A Russian satellite has positioned itself uncomfortably close to an American spy satellite in orbit around Earth, leading space trackers to speculate that the foreign vehicle is doing some spying of its own.
The Russian spacecraft is meant to inspect other satellites, and experts in the space community believe it may now be keeping a watchful eye on the secretive US vehicle. But the motivation behind this in-space stalking is still unknown.
All January, amateur satellite trackers have been keeping tabs on the weird behavior of this Russian probe, known as Kosmos 2542. Launched in November of last year, Kosmos 2542 has been orbiting in the same plane as a satellite operated by the National Reconnaissance Office called USA 245, which has been in space since 2013.
Two Satellites Might Collide in Earth Orbit This Week. Here's Why That's a Problem
There's a lot of stuff up there , whizzing around in low-Earth orbit. Given the thousands of old, defunct satellites that can no longer communicate with Earth, it's surprising how seldom they collide; but just such a collision might happen this week.
According to space debris tracking service LeoLabs , IRAS (a decommissioned space telescope launched in 1983) and GGSE-4 (a science payload aboard a decommissioned and only relatively recently declassified military satellite launched in 1967) are headed for a close encounter.
Happening on Twitter
NASA's TESS mission discovered its 1st Earth-sized, habitable zone planet https://t.co/eT5GBF9QFj https://t.co/6TV3FVNCAu Forbes (from New York, NY) Thu Feb 06 19:41:00 +0000 2020
One step in the search for life is finding planets that could be habitable. To do that, scientists often compare fe… https://t.co/Eqmc1L0l66 NASAViz (from @NASAGoddard) Sat Feb 01 03:32:51 +0000 2020
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