The longest lunar eclipse of this century will happen next week, but we’re already gearing up for observation – and now you can see details about the event in the next few lines. In addition, we will get a “short journey” from an asteroid that will soon pass close to Earth. This week also included 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 occur on November 19 and will be the longest in a century – with a magnitude of 3:28:23. NASA, If we also consider a penumbral eclipse, which occurs when the Moon enters the “weak” 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 will not be able to see the entire event in South America, as it will be the day before the Moon leaves Earth’s shadow. Weather conditions in the country can also slightly interfere with the visibility of the eclipse, but if you can’t see it in your area, you can still follow the broadcast online.
The asteroid 2004 UE, discovered in 2004, is passing relatively close to Earth. In fact, using the analogy of “visit”, it is like a wave out of the gate, as it is not high 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 of more than 30 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
Although it is a long way off, the 2004 UE entered the list of potentially dangerous items because, in the future, it may come even closer. The question is when this might happen, and there is no anticipated impact for it (or any of the 2,000 potentially dangerous asteroids) for the next 100 years.
The above prediction is also valid for asteroid (163899) 2003 SD220, which will also pass relatively close to Earth in December. The space rock will pass through about 14 times the average distance between Earth and the Moon. Its diameter is 800 meters and Astronomers have already captured a picture of it,
The Sun is 4.6 billion years old and is estimated to be still halfway through its lifetime. But there are some doubts as to what will happen to him when it is time to become a red giant. It can be guessed by looking at similar stars who are already in these last breaths. A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 2438, a spherical planetary nebula formed by large clouds of gas ejected by a “dying” star.
The stage NGC 2438 is in should take no more than 10,000 years (in the blink of an eye on the astronomical scale) and is the result of a process that awaits our star: hydrogen used for nuclear fusion When exhausted, the nucleus would begin to cool and shrink, affecting the delicate balance of pressure and gravity, and eventually a kind of shield would envelop the structure. Then after the explosions, expanding the outermost layers of the Sun, a great deal of energy will be released, and in the end all that is left is just a white dwarf.
Cosmic rays, atomic nuclei whose electrons have been ripped off and flow through space at nearly the speed of light, can’t 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 this happens.
It is true that there is a very high density cloud in this region, but it is not dense enough to block the particles. The energy contained in these electron-free nuclei produces light at wavelengths that can pass through 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 from across missions in North America and Canada. Amazing spikes compared to our orbit, and we flew right over the center of the ring, strong waves and pulses. #missionalpha https://t.co/5rdb08ljhx pic.twitter.com/0liCkGvRCh
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) November 6, 2021
The solar flare of the past few weeks was intense and produced spectacular auroras, which also impressed the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). One of them photographed the event from Earth’s orbit from there and said that the light of dawn has even exceeded the height of the ISS.
Coronal mass ejections have become slightly more intense since the shooting of bubbles of plasma into space since late October. The most intense CMEs occurred on November 1 and November 2 from sunspots named AR 2887, both of which were “cannibalized” by the third CME at the end of Tuesday (2). There was no risk to our planet or the orbiting electronics.
Gravitational wave observatories LIGO, LIGO and KAGRA announced the latest set of events discovered, 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 that has long been discovered by astronomers.
This black hole would be about 87 times the mass of the Sun and would merge with a smaller companion, 61 solar masses. The result was a colossus of 141 solar masses, well above the size considered to be stellar masses. Another fusion produced a black hole 104 times the mass of the Sun, which is also in the range estimated for intermediates.
The news isn’t exactly surprising at this point, but NASA has officially postponed the Artemis program. According to information received from NASA officials, the lunar landing will have to be postponed for at least a year and will not happen until 2025. The space agency was already “running against the clock” and setbacks hampered plans.
One of the main “criminals” was the lawsuit brought against NASA by Blue Origin. Other political and technical constraints also affected the program, but the US presidential transition team acknowledged that the deadline proposed by former President Donald Trump was not very realistic.
