Weekly Star News | The longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years

/ The longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years

On November 19, we had the longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years. At that time, the moon was bathed in a red glow, which was caused by a phenomenon called "Rayleigh scattering", that is, the shorter blue light waves from the sun are scattered by particles in the Earth's atmosphere, while the longer red light waves can easily pass through these particles. The more dust or clouds in the Earth's atmosphere during the lunar eclipse, the redder the moon will appear.

This is the longest partial lunar eclipse since 1440 (around the time Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press), and the next one that long won't be until 2669. But moon watchers won't have to wait that long, as there will be a much longer total lunar eclipse next November 8.

The partial lunar eclipse as seen from the Roppongi Hills Observation Deck in Tokyo.

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The even better news for those who want to observe a lunar eclipse is that no special equipment is required; as long as the weather is clear, you can see this spectacle with binoculars, a telescope, or your naked eyes.

Source/ https://phys.org/news/2021-11-moon-partial-lunar-eclipse-longest.html

/ Protostar

Stars are born from clouds of gas and dust that collapse under their own gravity. As the cloud collapses, a dense, hot core forms, which gathers dust and gas and then forms an object called a "protostar." A protostar is an early stage in the star formation process. For a star of the Sun's mass, this stage lasts at least about 100,000 years.

This Hubble infrared image captures a protostar named J1672835.29-763111.64 in the reflection nebula IC 2631, part of a galaxy-forming region in the southern constellation of Chamaeleon, a faint constellation deep in the southern sky between the constellations Carina and Octantis.

Pictured is a protostar named J1672835.29-763111.64 in the reflection nebula IC 2631.

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A protostar emits light using the heat released by the contraction of its surrounding cloud and the accumulation of nearby gas and dust. When enough matter is collected and the protostar's core becomes hot enough and dense enough, nuclear fusion begins and the protostar begins to transform into a star. The remaining gas and dust can become planets, asteroids, comets, or exist as dust.

"Protostars are primarily visible in infrared light because they give off large amounts of heat energy, and their visible light is blocked by the surrounding dust. Hubble's advanced infrared capabilities can better resolve protostars and examine their structure, including their accumulated gas, dust and more."

Source/ https://phys.org/news/2021-11-image-hubble-spies-newly-star.html

/ Lunar Cold Trap

After decades of research, scientists have finally confirmed the existence of cold traps on the moon that could hold solid carbon dioxide. This discovery could have major implications for future lunar missions and could affect the feasibility of long-term robotic or human settlements on the moon.

Scientists have predicted for years that CO2 cold traps might exist in permanently shadowed regions at the moon's poles. These areas are colder than the coldest regions of Pluto. Here, CO2 molecules are frozen and remain solid even in the highest temperatures of the lunar summer. After years of predictions, scientists have finally confirmed the existence of CO2 cold traps and mapped their locations. To find the coldest places on the moon's surface, researchers analyzed 11 years of temperature data from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment sensor, an instrument on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A photo of the Moon's South Pole, where the newly confirmed carbon dioxide cold trap is located.

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The study showed that these cold traps are concentrated in several areas around the lunar south pole; the total area of ​​carbon dioxide cold traps is 204 square kilometers, of which the Amundsen crater has the largest total area of ​​cold traps, reaching 82 square kilometers. In these areas, the temperature remains below about minus 213 degrees Celsius.

Future human or robotic explorers could use solid carbon dioxide in cold traps to produce fuel or materials to stay on the moon longer. Carbon dioxide and other potential volatile organic compounds could also help scientists better understand the origin of water and other elements on the moon. The related research has been published in Geophysical Research Letters (2021).

Source/ https://phys.org/news/2021-11-carbon-dioxide-cold-moon.html

/ Mini Astronaut

Project Starlight is a NASA-funded mission to develop technologies that will enable interstellar space exploration. The method is simple - powerful laser beams from Earth accelerate spacecraft to the speed of light and then fly out of the solar system. These spacecraft are tiny, weighing only a few grams each. But they are destined to become the farthest interstellar travelers ever reached by Earth, surpassing in just a few days the distance covered by the Pioneers and Voyagers in decades.

Today, these spacecraft may be able to carry Earth’s first interstellar astronauts, but these astronauts will not be humans, but smaller, hardier creatures that can tolerate the extreme temperatures, accelerations, and radiation that such a voyage would bring, and must have a low metabolic rate to survive for long periods of time without much nutrition.

Astronaut Candidate: Tardigrades.

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So which species are best suited for this task? Here are a few candidates: nematodes, water bears, and bacteria.

Nematodes are organisms that are only a fraction of a millimeter long and can survive in a state of suspended animation by drying or cooling. However, they are relatively vulnerable to radiation damage. Tardigrades are short, fat aquatic creatures with four pairs of legs, similar in size to nematodes. They are more tolerant to radiation damage and microgravity, and when they enter a state of suspended animation, their metabolism drops to 0.01% of normal levels. The radioresistant Deinococcus can withstand 15 times the radiation that can kill humans 3,000 times and cockroaches cannot resist, and survived in the radiation-filled outer space for 3 years (the Guinness World Records lists it as the most tenacious creature in the world).

Scientists are currently designing space capsules that can carry these organisms. In the future, these "mini astronauts" will help us answer questions such as "Can humans travel to other galaxies?"

Source/ https://astronomy.com/news/2021/11/meet-the-candidates-to-be-earths-first-interstellar-astronauts

/ NGC 1850 Black Hole Discovered

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a black hole in a star cluster called NGC 1850. The newly discovered black hole is part of a binary star system and has a mass 11 times that of our sun.

Since black holes cannot be directly observed, proving their existence is challenging. The strongest evidence for the existence of black holes comes from binary star systems, in which a visible star can be seen orbiting a massive but invisible companion star. Therefore, astronomers use binary star systems to discover the existence of black holes by studying the motion of visible objects orbiting the black hole.

NGC 1850.

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NGC 1850 is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 168,000 light-years from Earth. It is an unusual cluster because its stars are distributed similarly to globular clusters, but unlike the globular clusters in the Milky Way, its members are young stars.

According to the research results, the newly discovered binary star consists of a black hole with a mass of about 11.1 times that of the sun and a main sequence turn-off star (MSTO) with a mass of about 4.9 times that of the sun. This is a semi-separated system with a short period of 5.04 days and an orbital inclination of 38 degrees. Researchers believe that once the companion star evolves from the main sequence star, the system may experience Roche lobe superfluidity. The Roche lobe refers to the space surrounding a star, within which matter is constrained by the gravity of the celestial body and orbits in orbit. When the surface of a star expands beyond the Roche lobe, and the matter beyond the Roche lobe falls into the Roche lobe of the companion star through the L1 Lagrange point, this mass transfer during the binary star evolution process is called Roche lobe superfluidity.

Source/ https://phys.org/news/2021-11-astronomers-black-hole-ngc.html

Scientific review/ Gou Lijun Compilation/ Xueqi

Editor/ Huaichen Proofreader/ Nono

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