Showing all posts about science
IC 1101 is the largest galaxy identified, so far, in the universe
14 August 2026
Located one-point-one-five billion light years from Earth, the behemoth galaxy, at one-point-seven-million light in years in length, somewhat dwarfs our home, the Milky Way, which measures in at a mere one-hundred-thousand light years across.
Using kiloparsecs as a metric, the size difference between IC 1101 and the Milk Way, the comparison comes into sharp focus, at five-hundred-and-twenty kiloparsecs versus thirty to fifty, respectively.
For reference, a kiloparsec equates to one-thousand paresecs. A paresec is three-point-two-six light years, not quite the distance from the Sun and Alpha Centauri, the closest star to Earth.
IC 1101 however is minute beside Alcyoneus, a galaxy sixteen million light years in size. Alcyoneus however is a radio galaxy, a body somewhat different to the likes of IC 1101 and the Milk Way.
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There is no escaping the solar system, not at speed anyway
12 August 2026
The Voyager 1 space probe is almost one light-day away from Earth. But the craft has been on its trajectory since being launched in 1977.
Deep space flights carrying people will need to move at far greater speed if they are to, for example, reach Alpha Centaur, the star system closest to the Sun, in a reasonable amount of time.
But travel at high speed, even relatively high speed, such as twenty-percent the speed of light, poses another set of problems. Minute particles litter the interstellar voids, and could severely damage a vessel, should a collision occur.
An object the size of playing marble would strike a ship with bullet-like impact given the speed involved. Vessels could be fitted with shielding of some sort, but the sheer volume of particle strikes would eventually destroy any protective cladding.
Unless a way can be found to overcome this problem, or the laws of physics can (somehow) be bent, humanity may well not be able to venture too far from the solar system.
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astronomy, physics, science, space exploration
Catastrophic disasters hit Earth every twenty-seven-million years
11 August 2026
We’re talking about things like mass extinctions and major geological events.
Scientists are not exactly sure why momentous upheavals seem to occur at approximately the same intervals, but they have theories. These range from Earth’s position in space over time, relative to our galaxy’s mid-plane, to the (extremely slow) process of heat transfer within the planet’s mantle.
The question though, where are we in the current twenty-seven-million year cycle, at present?
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When is an exomoon not an exomoon? When it orbits a failed star, not a planet
29 July 2026
Astronomers may have discovered the first moon, or satellite, outside the solar system, about seventy-three light years from Earth.
Plenty of exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, have been found, but this might be the first time a moon accompanying one of these bodies has been located.
But there’s a problem. The apparent exoplanet in question is a brown dwarf. These unusual Jupiter size objects often referred to as failed stars. But they are neither planet nor star.
That’s not all though. The brown dwarf hosting the would-be exomoon, is it self orbiting another star. The situation has scientists puzzled. From what I can understand, the moon of the brown dwarf has some substance. It is of a decent size. It is a real moon.
Quite unlike, for instance, the multitude of pebble-size excuses of “moons” orbiting Saturn.
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Could a super-Earth called Hestia be better than planet Earth?
30 May 2026
You won’t find Hestia, a super-Earth planet, on any of the charts, for this is a body imagined by Kurzgesagt. But Hestia, on paper at least, is a super-Earth in more ways than one.
No polar regions are present, ditto continents, though there are a multitude of medium size island land masses. The planet also sports shallow oceans, and an atmosphere far denser than Earth.
Combined, these conditions make Hestia an ideal spawning ground for all manner of complex lifeforms, including, possibly, intelligent life.
This would-be super-Earth also orbits in the habitable zone of an orange-dwarf star. The Sun meanwhile is a yellow-dwarf. Proxima Centauri, the next nearest star to Earth, is a red-dwarf.
Orange-dwarfs represent — at face value at least — a happy balance between the two. They are usually highly stable, and boast long lifespans, up to seventy-billon years, compared to about ten billion for stars such as the Sun.
A planet particularly conducive to life, hosted by a stable, long-lived star, increases the likelihood of intelligent life coming into being. Red dwarfs also have long lives, upwards of one trillion years, but that doesn’t always make them the ideal host for potentially life bearing planets.
Hestia also comes with four moons. Imagine a night sky adorned by not one, but four moons? What more could anyone want in a planet?
While such a place might make for an ideal life-friendly environment, it probably wouldn’t be suitable for humans. The surface gravity of a super-Earth can be up to three time that experienced on Earth. We might be able to adapt that sort of force, but it would be heavy going.
Multiple moons might also pose problems, depending on their proximity. If they are too close, the host planet may see more boisterous ocean tides, and increased seismic and volcanic activity.
Then there’s the matter of Hestia’s thirty-six hour day, something that might take some getting used to. But, if we’re trying to find life elsewhere in the universe, planets like Hestia, orbiting in the habitable zones of orange-dwarf stars, are what we should looking out for.
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astronomy, exoplanets, science
British study finds individuals mostly responsible for ill health in later life
30 May 2026
Amelia Hill, writing for The Guardian:
Individuals bear at least 80% of the responsibility for their ill health in old age, according to a report aimed at challenging the belief that physical decline is either inevitable or primarily the responsibility of the state.
This finding is from the Oxford Longevity Project, conducted in the United Kingdom.
Eighty-percent sounds high to me, considering people are not always in control of the circumstances they might find themselves in.
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The Vanishing Wild, a book by Justine E. Hausheer
23 May 2026
The Vanishing Wild, written by Queensland based science writer and photographer Justine E. Hausheer, was published recently. It was the introduction to the book’s subject that caught my eye:
Australia is a country celebrated for its wildlife, yet native species are in crisis. In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation.
That is not an impressive achievement. What on earth are going here in Australia?
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Australia, books, environment, nature, science
Dust busters will be needed to keep Moon bases free of dust
20 April 2026
From the European Space Agency (ESA) blog:
The “lunar hay fever”, as NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt described it during the Apollo 17 mission created symptoms in all 12 people who have stepped on the Moon. From sneezing to nasal congestion, in some cases it took days for the reactions to fade. Inside the spacecraft, the dust smelt like burnt gunpowder.
What a headache insignificant specks of dust will pose for the planners of future lunar bases. Airlocks will need to be designed so they keep Moon dust well away from the inhabitants of a base.
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astronomy, science, space exploration
Artemis II returns safely to Earth despite heat shield concerns
13 April 2026
Splashdown occurred at about ten o’clock in the morning in my part of the world. I had been dreading the fiery re-entry phase of the flight, after a number of commentators expressed doubts as to the integrity of the return vehicle’s heat shield. Thankfully all was well in the end.
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astronomy, science, space exploration
Say nothing to Houston: decades old bug found in Apollo guidance system code
9 April 2026
JUXT, a software consultancy based in the United Kingdom, report discovering a bug in the code of the Apollo Guidance Computer, nearly fifty-four years after the last Apollo Moon flight:
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) is one of the most scrutinised codebases in history. Thousands of developers have read it. Academics have published papers on its reliability. Emulators run it instruction by instruction. We found a bug in it that had been missed for fifty-seven years: a resource lock in the gyro control code that leaks on an error path, silently disabling the guidance platform’s ability to realign.
The guidance systems were installed in both the command module, and lunar module (the vessel that landed on the Moon), of the Apollo craft.
Thankfully, the bug didn’t manifest itself during the Apollo missions. There’s enough happening during a flight to the Moon without wanting to worry about patches for software bugs.
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