cassiespacetronaut-blog

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The Daily Planet(s) #4

Clash of the Titans. (Photo Credit: NASA)

Andromeda. The closest galaxy to the Milky Way at roughly 2.5 million light years away is a marvel to the eyes; but this beauty is more than just that - it’s on a collision course with our galaxy!

If you can be patient enough to wait just 4 billion years, you will witness this - and you will have a decent chance of survival, too! Experts say that the chances of the Earth being swept away roughly 3 times our current position from the galactic core are 50%, while our chances of being ejected from the new galaxy entirely are only 12%!

They estimate that regardless of these events that there would be no adverse effects to the Earth, or if there were - it would be extremely unlikely. Besides, all human life would either be elsewhere in the galaxy (or universe) or completely eradicated from the planet.

The collision has been nicknamed Milkdromeda, but I prefer to call the event the “Clash of the Titans”. 

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The Daily Planet(s) #3

Martian Rings (Photo Credit: TTFTCUTS)

The most well known ringed-planet in our solar system is undoubtedly Saturn; but Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings of their own. This makes up for all of the gas giants our system - but none of the terrestrial planets have them; BUT if you would like to wait just around 20 million years, you might witness the start of just that!

The two oddly shaped moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos) are admittedly not very large, being 23 kilometers and 12 kilometers in diameter respectively. Phobos (orbiting the red planet at just under 9400 kilometers away) has been slowly spiraling toward Mars for the last four-and-a-half billion years at a rate of 1.8 centimeters each and every year.

Soon, the moon will reach the roche limit - wherein the pull of Mars’ gravity becomes stronger than the gravity holding the Phobos together entirely - thus, it will eventually become destroyed and form a beautiful ring out of the chunks and dust it will leave behind.

That’s quite lucky! Because if Phobos were a denser, harder rock, it would be far more difficult to pull it apart - causing it to descend into the atmosphere and plunge itself into Mars.

These new Martian rings are estimated to last up to around 100 million years!

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The Daily Planet(s) #2

The Bootes Void.

In 1981, Robert Kirshner discovered this humongous void near the Bootes constellation. It spans nearly 330 million light years in diameter (0.27% of the diameter of the observable universe.

A shocking discovery indeed, as only 60 galaxies have been discovered within the void - out of the 2,000 that should have normally been found upon its discovery.

Astronomer Greg Aldering states that if our Milky Way galaxy was at the center of the Bootes Void - “... we wouldn’t have known that there were other Galaxies until the 1960′s.”

There is no apparent reason or explanation for the existence of the Bootes Void, but there are some of course who believe it is proof or at least substantial evidence of an advanced extra-terrestrial civilization.

[cassiespacetronaut-blog]

Daily Planet(s) #1

Project Breakthrough Starshot (photo credit: M.Weiss)

The closest star to our solar system is Proxima Centauri - located in the Centaurus constellation. The furthest man-made object - Voyager 1, is currently 140 AU’s away from our sun (A.U = Astronomical Unit; distance between Earth and the Sun) and screaming through space at a speed of 17 kilometers per second. Proxima Centauri? 4.24 light years away. Even at these speeds, it would take Voyager roughly 73, 000 years to reach it. Researchers including the late Stephen Hawking had put forth the idea of Project Breakthrough Starshot - which calls for a minimum of 1000 centimeter(s) wide spacecraft being carried through space with a sail (measuring 4 meters x 4 meters).

The spacecrafts would be deployed in space, and through a ground-based array of high-powered lasers would be accelerated to 20% the speed of light (215,850,569 kilometers per hour). This would allow each of these crafts to reach Proxima Centauri in around 20 years - however, this project isn’t slated to begin for nearly the same amount of time, hopefully putting the arrival date in the late 2050′s. Interestingly enough, an earth-like planet (which astronomers believe may harbour life) is orbiting Proxima Centauri - creatively named Proxima Centauri b, and these same project members are hoping to do a fly-by of the planet on the way to the star.

This project isn’t without fault, however. The concept calls for 1000 probes for a reason, as any microscopic spec of space-debris could annihilate any of these probes. On top of that, the estimated cost for the project is stated to be around $10 billion - but considering the costs of the International Space Station being around $150 billion, it seems like a price worth paying.