New studies of a rare type of meteorite show that material from close to the Sun reached the outer solar system even as the planet Jupiter cleared a gap in the disk of dust and gas from which the planets formed. The results, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add to an emerging understanding of how our Solar System formed and how planets form around other stars.
The consensus theory on how planets form is that they accrete from a disk of dust and gas that rotates around a new-formed star. Evidence for the composition of this protoplanetary disk in our own solar system comes from chondrites, a type of meteorite made up of smaller particles, or chondrules, that collected together like a cosmic dust bunny.
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Skywatch: Measuring the solar system like a traffic cop | Outdoors | magicvalley.com
In 1619, Johannes Kepler discovered that a planet's orbital period determines its distance from the sun relative to Earth's. By the mid-1800s, astronomers were triangulating the distances to nearby stars by observing their subtle shifts as viewed from opposite sides of the earth's orbit. But these distances were all in terms of the still poorly known earth-sun distance.
A traffic cop's speed gun shoots a laser pulse at your vehicle and measures (in billionths of a second) its return time. The car's distance is simply the speed of light times half the laser's round trip travel time. A split-second later the car's distance is measured again, and its speed is just the difference between the two distances divided by the time between the distance measurements.
Grains of dust revise Solar System history - Cosmos Magazine
Asteroids that formed far out in the Solar System appear to contain dust grains that themselves condensed from the infant Solar System's protoplanetary disc much closer to the Sun, scientists say.
That means this dust was somehow transported from the inner reaches of the disc to its outer reaches, says Curtis Williams, a geochemist at the University of California, Davis. Once there, it mixed with material that condensed from that part of the disc to form larger objects that eventually became asteroids.
New Columbia Solar completes standout solar system atop MLS stadium | Solar Builder
Audi Field , the home of Major League Soccer club, D.C. United, has partnered with New Columbia Solar , a D.C.-based solar energy company, to complete a 627.8 kW-sized solar system across the stadium's canopies and rooftop. Construction was completed in May of 2020 with the assistance of Commonwealth Power, LLC . This is the 2nd largest solar installation at any Major League Soccer dedicated venue and the 5th largest solar installation ever in Washington, D.C.
The addition of more than 1,700 solar panels to the 20,000-seat stadium will generate over 787,000 kilowatt hours of renewable energy on-site, and nearly 20 million kilowatt hours over its expected 25 years of operation. A system of this size will reduce CO2 emissions by 556 metric tons annually, equating to the amount of electricity required to power 95 homes for an entire year.
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Interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua could actually be a cosmic dust bunny | Space
Ever since it floated through our cosmic neck of the woods, the interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua has intrigued and perplexed scientists. Now, a new theory has emerged that the cigar-shaped space rock might actually be a dust bunny.
Here on Earth, "dust bunnies" are clumps of accumulated dust and debris held together by static electricity that float around under furniture, pushed by passing breezes. But, the scientists behind a new study suggest that 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever spotted in our solar system , could be (basically) a scaled-up dust bunny.
"Far Beyond" --First Organic Molecule on Earth Might Exist Today Elsewhere in the Solar
Home » Evolution » “Far Beyond” –First Organic Molecule on Earth Might Exist Today Elsewhere in the Solar System
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The Cassini image below shows Enceladus backlit by the sun with fountain-like sources of the fine spray of material that towers over the south polar region.
Previous versions of the reactor attempted to mix bubbles of hydrogen gas and CO2 in liquid but no reduction occurred, possibly because the highly volatile hydrogen gas escaped before it had a chance to react. The solution came in discussions between Sojo and Hudson, who shared a lab bench at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Saitama, Japan. The final reactor was built in Hudson’s laboratory in Maine.
Museum programs focus on the solar system | Latitude 65 | newsminer.com
The University of Alaska Museum of the North is studying the solar system during September with online programming.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North is focusing on the solar system at virtual family programs during September.
The museum will host Virtual Early Explorers programs every Friday. New activities, which are designed for ages 5 and younger with an adult, will be posted weekly online at bit.ly/uamnhandson .
NASA sent a map to space to help aliens find Earth. Now it needs an update.
A sparkling mass containing at least half a million stars—and some two dozen pulsars—the globular cluster known as 47 Tucanae is one of roughly 150 ancient stellar clumps orbiting the Milky Way galaxy.
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A half century ago astronomers designed a map that would point to Earth from anywhere in the galaxy. Then they sent it into space, reasoning that any aliens smart enough to intercept a spacecraft could decode the map and uncover its origin. Many movies and TV shows have used variations on this theme as a plot point, but we didn't borrow it from science fiction. It's reality.
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Meteorites show transport of material in early #solarsystem @PNASNews https://t.co/ScrlRcj6Pp physorg_com Tue Sep 08 20:12:19 +0000 2020
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