The longest lunar eclipse of this century will take place next week, but we’re already gearing up for observations — and you can check out details about the event in the next few lines now. In addition, we will receive a “little visit” from an asteroid that will pass close to Earth shortly. The week also featured discoveries about the core of our galaxy and new mergers of black holes and neutron stars. The bad news is the postponement of the Artemis program, which will take astronauts back to the moon.
Check out these and other most important space news of the week below:
The next partial lunar eclipse will take place on November 19 and will be the longest in the century — it will be 3:28:23 in length, according to the NASA. If we also consider the penumbral eclipse, which is when the Moon enters a “weaker” shadow cast by the Earth, before entering the umbra, it will be 6 hours and 2 minutes.
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This eclipse will be so long that we in South America will not be able to see the entire event, because day will dawn before the Moon leaves Earth’s shadow. Weather conditions in the country can also interfere a little with the visibility of the eclipse, but if you can’t see it in your region, you can still follow broadcasts online.
The asteroid 2004 UE, discovered in 2004, is passing relatively close to Earth. In fact, using the analogy of a “visit”, it’s more of a wave outside the gate, as it doesn’t get close enough to pose any danger. The space rock has an estimated diameter of 160 meters and is approaching our planet this Saturday (13), at a distance equivalent to more than 30 times that between the Earth and the Moon.
Although it is a long way off, the 2004 UE has entered the list of potentially dangerous objects because, in the future, it could come even closer. The question is when this might happen, and there is no predicted impact for this (or any other of the 2,000 potentially dangerous asteroids) for the next 100 years.
The above prediction is also valid for the asteroid (163899) 2003 SD220, which will also pass relatively close to Earth in December. Space rock will pass at almost 14 times the average distance between Earth and the Moon. It is 800 meters in diameter and the astronomers have already captured a photo of it.
The Sun is 4.6 billion years old and estimates are that it is still halfway through its lifetime. But there are some doubts as to what will happen to him when it’s his time to become a red giant. It is possible to get an idea by looking at similar stars that are already in these last breaths. A new Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 2438, a spherical planetary nebula formed by large clouds of gas ejected by a “dying” star.
The stage that NGC 2438 is at should take no more than 10,000 years (a blink of an eye on the astronomical scale) and is the result of a process similar to what awaits our star: the hydrogen used for nuclear fusion runs out, the nucleus will begin to cool and contract, affecting the delicate balance of pressure and gravity, and eventually a kind of shield will envelop structure. A great deal of energy will then be released, expanding the Sun’s outermost layers, followed by eruptions, and ultimately all that’s left is just a white dwarf.
Cosmic rays, atomic nuclei that have had their electrons ripped out and flow through space at almost the speed of light, cannot reach the Milky Way’s nucleus—but they should. This is because, apparently, there is a kind of “barrier” that prevents these particles from reaching the galactic nucleus, and no one yet knows how to explain how this occurs.
It is true that there is a very high density cloud in this region, but it is not dense enough to block particles. The energy contained in these electron-free nuclei produces light at wavelengths that can pass through the dust, so scientists have concluded that something more mysterious is at work. What will it be? We don `t know yet.
We were treated to the strongest auroras of the entire mission, over north America and Canada. Amazing spikes higher than our orbit????, and we flew right above the centre of the ring, rapid waves and pulses all over. #MissionAlpha https://t.co/5rdb08ljhx pic.twitter.com/0liCkGvRCh
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) November 6, 2021
The solar flares of the last few weeks were intense and created fabulous auroras, which impressed even the astronauts who were on the International Space Station (ISS). One of them photographed the phenomenon from there, from Earth’s orbit, and said that the dawn lights even surpassed the altitude of the ISS.
Coronal mass ejections have become a little more intense since late October, shooting bubbles of plasma into space. The most intense CMEs occurred on November 1st and 2nd, from a sunspot called AR2887, both “cannibalized” by a third CME at the end of Tuesday (2). There was no risk to our planet or the orbiting electronics.
The gravitational wave observatories LIGO, Ligo and KAGRA announced the latest set of detected events, which brought together an incredible 35 collisions between the densest objects in the universe: black holes and neutron stars. Most important of these data is that gravitational waves have revealed some objects that may be intermediate-mass black holes, a rare class long sought after by astronomers.
This black hole would be about 87 times the mass of the Sun and merged with a smaller companion, 61 solar masses. The result was a colossus of 141 solar masses, a size above those considered to be stellar mass. Another fusion produced a black hole 104 times the mass of the Sun, which is also in the predicted range for intermediates.
The news isn’t exactly a surprise at this point, but NASA has officially postponed the Artemis program. According to information from NASA officials, the lunar landing will need to be postponed by at least a year and will not take place until 2025. The space agency was already “running against the clock” and setbacks hindered the plans.
One of the main “culprits” was the lawsuit brought by Blue Origin against NASA. Other political and technical obstacles also affected the schedule, but the US presidential transition team admitted that the timeframe proposed by former President Donald Trump was not very realistic.
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