https://mastodon.social/@markmccaughrean/112802224871780716 markmccaughrean@mastodon.social - Long before #Rosetta & 67P/C-G, there was Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 & its devastating 1994 encounter with Jupiter.

I was privileged to be part of the team that made & released the very first images of Fragment A impacting at ~20:15 UTC on 16 July, 30 years ago last night, as seen from Calar Alto in Spain.

The brightness of the impact plume was a huge surprise & the following week saw intense astronomical, media, & public engagement.

#Astronomy #Astrodon #SpaceScience #PlanetaryProtection

Mark McCaughrean (@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social)

Attached: 1 image Long before #Rosetta & 67P/C-G, there was Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 & its devastating 1994 encounter with Jupiter. I was privileged to be part of the team that made & released the very first images of Fragment A impacting at...

Uranus and Neptune may have thick methane ice layer, perhaps 10% of their mass.

https://www.livescience.com/space/planets/uranus-and-neptune-arent-made-of-what-we-thought-new-study-hints

#Space #Science #SpaceScience

Uranus and Neptune aren't made of what we thought, new study hints

A study suggests the ice giants Uranus and Neptune aren't quite as watery as previously thought. They may also contain huge amounts of frozen methane, potentially solving the puzzle of how they formed.

Heard of Avi Loeb's "alien" spherules? Yeah, not so much.

The humiliating truth behind Harvard astronomer’s “alien” spherules

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/truth-harvard-astronomer-alien-spherules/

#Space #SpaceScience #Science

The humiliating truth behind Harvard astronomer's "alien" spherules

Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb claimed to track down and find alien spherules on the ocean bottom. The sober truth is an utter embarrassment.

Interstellar Space Isn't Trying Hard Enough to Kill Us

Scientists calculate whether it's just plain impossible to survive interstellar
journeys, as a solution to the Fermi Paradox (spoilers - it isn't).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdP_UDSsuro

The amount of shielding the ISM eats away during a 4.3 light year
journey is on the order of maybe a mm to cm or so. This is much
smaller than the roughly 1m thick water shielding you'd want all
around, for long term GCR shielding, anyway. (That GCR shielding
assumes no medical advances with respect to cancer, and also that
you aren't willing to accept some increased cancer risk.)

So basically, if you care about long term cancer risk shielding, the best
shape for your crew habitat is roughly spherical, rather than the long thin
shape often assumed to minimize frontal area while plowing through
the interstellar medium.

#Space #SpaceExploration #SpaceTechnology #SpaceScience

Astro Pi Mk II, the New Raspberry Pi Hardware Headed to the Space Station

#interest #raspberrypi #science #space #astropi #citizenscience #computervision #esa #internationalspacestation #iss #machinelearning #sensehat #spacescience #hackaday
posted by pod_feeder_v2

Astro Pi Mk II, The New Raspberry Pi Hardware Headed To The Space Station

Back in 2015, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Tim Peake brought a pair of specially equipped Raspberry Pi computers, nicknamed Izzy and Ed, onto the International Space Station and invited st…