Category - Science

NASA’s spacecraft, Cassini,  has revealed even more intricate details on the rings around Saturn.  The craft’s mission ended two years ago but NASA is still collating data on the planet.  This latest revelations shows new temperatures, colors and textures within the planet’s complex ring system.

In Science magazine, a new paper shows how the rings interact with the particles around them, leading scientists to conclude that the rings are part of the processes that directly impact upon our solar system.

Cassini was able to identify fine details such as patterns and texture which varied in appearance and structure.  Cassini’s close-up images have shown that there are 3 distinct textures present in the rings – clumpy, streaky and smooth areas – that happen with sharp boundaries and are not necessarily connected to any specific characteristics already identified within the rings.

It has also provided maps showing changes in chemistry, temperature and color that exist across Saturn’s rings.  The data was collected initially between December 2016 and April 2017, names by NASA as the Ring Grazing Orbits (December 2016 to April 2017) and between April to September 2017, the Grand Finale of the mission.

Clues about the ring’s origins

Cassini’s observations have allowed NASA scientists to conclude that the outer edge of the ring systems were likely to have been hit at the same time leading to the similarly generated streaks that can be seen in the F ring.  It is likely, therefore, that the rings was not shaped by comets or other space debris at random, but instead by the materials that circle the planet.

The otter mystery found by Cassini was discovered as a result of the  visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) detecting weak water-ice bands.  Scientists were surprised to see this in the A ring’s vicinity.  The reflective nature of this water could indicate the presence of less contaminated ice and water bands.

Spectral imaging has also given a great insight into the composition of the rings.  As well as water which was already known, scientists have discovered that there was no ammonia or methane ice.  However, no organic compounds were seen.

The science team have been excited to establish new information about what was going on in the rings but as each question is answered more arise, making the Cassini project one to watch in the months and years to come.

You know when you go to a party, and someone whips out some helium balloons? It’s all very funny. Watching someone turn into a cartoon character for a few sentences will always produce a few laughs.

Sadly, we might be seeing a slow-down in such party tricks; the world has a present helium shortage. And it could be putting more than just party balloons at risk: it could have an impact on everything from our ability to explore the stars to how we handle healthcare worldwide.

This is the third major shortage of helium in the last 15 years, and it does have a bit of an impact on the industry as a whole. Many might not think it matters much but trust us – it does. It really does. Helium is used in all manner of industries, from healthcare and technology to being used in some forms of space exploration.

This super-light element is used as a semiconductor in various fields. That is now at risk.

Helium is generated underneath the earth; the product of radioactive decaying of uranium and thorium. It’s then drilled out from the surface using massive drilling techniques. However, it’s becoming more and more challenging to get enough helium out from the earth. It’s having an impact on everything from research into gas chromatography to issues with healthcare needs.

While healthcare is often the industry that gets prioritized over everything else (rightly so), it’s becoming a common issue. To have a shortage once every five years almost is a big change in the way we used to deal with a substance that, at once, was almost in complete abundance.

Finding new sources of helium

The next challenge, then, is going to be finding newer sources of helium. With the cost of helium going up so much due to demand, the sooner we can find a higher volume of supply the better.

Indeed, some companies out in Canada are working on a form of production that would make it easier for us to find the supply we need. Indeed, companies like North American Helium currently have six major wells completed and have over one million acres worth of helium imports.

However, the time it takes to create a well from conception to a fully operating helium plant is many years. As such, it’s not quite quick enough to deal with the immediate shortages that we are facing at the moment. Canada, though, has a slightly different form of helium: it appears to be formed by underground nitrogen reservoirs.

Getting this out of the ground is much easier and it would have a much small environmental impact when pulling it out. As such, a lot of effort and concentration is going into helping this particular kind of development become the norm.

Given that this is quite unique to Canada, though, it’s still not going to help with the global shortages we are facing – not everyone can use the same easier solutions for extraction.

The demand for helium is real, and something has to be done to try and keep up with demand.

Every now and then, we get a crazy story from the worlds leading astronomers. What’s going on in our own world is hard enough to understand, so information from outside of this planet can seem quite confusing.

However, we often love to hear about things like the discovery of a new planet, or the moon of a planet. One recent finding was that of the Hippocamp moon that was discovered in 2013. This moon, though, was first thought to be a new moon. Now, scientists believe it might actually be a chip-off from a larger moon, known as Proteus.

This was likely caused by a ‘cosmic explosion’ (sounds cool, right?) many years ago.

It was a puzzling discovery in 2013, and in 2019 it’s still confusing the prominent people looking into it. Speaking about this was SETI Institute expert Mark Showalter, who said: “The first thing we realized was that you wouldn’t expect to find such a tiny moon right next to Neptune’s biggest inner moon,

“In the distant past, given the slow migration outward of the larger moon, Proteus was once where Hippocamp is now.”

That’s quite an interesting view. With the orbit of the two moons being around 7,500 miles apart, they are breaking a lot of conventions that we know about space. Normally, it would be expected that Proteus would have swallowed up the smaller moon – that has not happened.

The major deciding point that builds the chipping theory, though, comes from as far back as a photo taken in 1989. Then, the Voyager 2 found a large impact crater on Proteus.

This is, as far as we know, the first evidence that points to this kind of thing being possible in the first place. It’s quite the finding. Alongside Showalter was Imke de Pater of UC Berkeley and Jack Lissauer of NASA’s Ames Research Centre.

Speaking about this finding, Lissauer said: “Based on estimates of comet populations, we know that other moons in the outer solar system have been hit by comets, smashed apart, and re-accreted multiple times. This pair of satellites provides a dramatic illustration that moons are sometimes broken apart by comets.”

Hippocamp itself is actually the product of many years of violent change in space. It was created by the mass tear-up of what took place when the Triton moon was ‘captured’ by Neptune from the Kuiper Belt. This should have been powerful enough to cause major damage to the entire moon system around Neptune.

De Peter summed it up well when he said: “This discovery is yet another example of the violent collisional history and continuous evolution of our solar system,”

For space fans and people who love to see changes take place in real-time, this is a very exciting and satisfying discovery. Quite what it means, we’re yet to find out: we just know that this further shows how unpredictable the worlds beyond our own are.