Hard Science Fiction by Brandon Q. Morris
Organic matter on Mars – and a seasonal methane cycle Life

Organic matter on Mars – and a seasonal methane cycle

Researchers estimate that every year, 100 to 300 tons of organic matter from space must land on the Mars surface. If one considers that this process has been going on for billions of years, then there must be abundant organic deposits (which, to be clear, were produced from abiotic processes and thus have nothing to do with organic life) to be found on Mars. However, the first probes, which analyzed Mars’s soil with a gas chromatography, Viking-1 and Viking-2, found absolutely no traces of organic materials in the regolith samples that they analyzed. This was a source of astonishment…
Lifting the veil from star-formation areas: more heavyweights than thought Space

Lifting the veil from star-formation areas: more heavyweights than thought

In some areas of space, stars are being formed much faster and much more frequently than in our Milky Way. Astronomers call such areas starburst galaxies. In these areas, the star formation rates are up to 100 times greater than the average in the Milky Way. The high dynamics often produce an extended veil of dust that settles around these galaxies. This makes it harder for astronomers to get a closer look, which would be valuable because, in the early universe, such areas were significantly more common than they are today. With a new technique, researchers under the guidance…
Book now: NASA opens a travel bureau for exoplanets Life

Book now: NASA opens a travel bureau for exoplanets

NASA had a great idea there: At the "Exoplanet Travel Bureau" you can now book – fictious – trips to different exotic destinations in space. You have the choice between Trappist-1d (or 1e, NASA isn’t sure), Kepler-16b, Kepler-186f, and more. The program then beams you to the surface of the planet, where you can look around by clicking your mouse and learn about some of the sights. Of course the views are (for now) only from an artist’s imagination. (more…)
Dwarf planet Pluto – a gigantic comet? Space

Dwarf planet Pluto – a gigantic comet?

Researchers from the Southwest Research Institute in the USA have put forward an exciting theory in the journal Icarus. The scientists have tried to assemble a model for the formation of the dwarf planet Pluto. Here they have looked in particular at the nitrogen-rich Sputnik Planitia basin that is covered by a gigantic glacier made from frozen nitrogen. They combined this data with results from the Rosetta probe that studied the comet 67P. Their findings: the nitrogen content fits well with the theory that Pluto is a conglomeration of approximately one billion (!) comets or other similar Kuiper Belt…
Wrong-way driver comes from a different solar system Space

Wrong-way driver comes from a different solar system

More than a year ago, the asteroid 2015 BZ509 made headlines among astronomers, because it is circling our Sun as a wrong-way driver – its direction of motion is opposite that of all the planets and most other objects. To make this work, this asteroid selected an especially clever orbit, a trisectrix, which is apparently stable over the long term. Even a year ago, the following was being still said: “Nobody knows exactly where 2015 BZ509 comes from. It might be a former comet that, however, is no longer active.” That wasn’t enough for two astronomers. The researchers simulated the…
Star formation detected in the baby universe Space

Star formation detected in the baby universe

At first glance, MACS1149-JD1 is just a small dot of light. On second look, analyses by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) show that it is evidence for very early star formation in the universe. The light from MACS1149-JD1 has taken up to 13.3 billion years to reach us. The galaxy is thus only 550 million years old. (more…)
Ice geysers also on Jupiter’s moon Europa Enceladus

Ice geysers also on Jupiter’s moon Europa

One of the special features of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, magnificently photographed and analyzed by the Cassini probe, are its geysers: close to its south pole, large fountains made from ice crystals burst from the ocean under the crust and leap into space. Like Enceladus, we know that Jupiter’s moon Europa is also an icy moon. Whether there are also geysers on Europa, however, is anything but clear. If there are geysers on Europa, this would be an advantage because then we could find out very simply what is in the ocean believed to be under Europa’s crust. Since Europa…
Project KRUSTY: NASA wants to operate low-power nuclear reactors on the Moon and Mars Space

Project KRUSTY: NASA wants to operate low-power nuclear reactors on the Moon and Mars

In the television show “The Simpsons,” Krusty is the name of a clown who usually treats everyone any way but nice. The US space agency NASA is using this name for its project for making exploration on the moon and other planets easier with the help of nuclear reactors (laymen would say “nuclear power plants”). KRUSTY stands for “Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology” and has already proven reliable and safe in every way in various tests. (more…)