October 2021 – Page 8 – NeRDs Moonbase

An alien planet lost its atmosphere to a giant impact

October 20, 2021 NeRD

Astronomers may have for the first time detected evidence that a distant planet had its atmosphere partially blown away by a giant impact, a new study finds. Scientists think newborn planetary systems generally experience titanic growing pains as infant planets-in-the-making, known as protoplanets, slam together and fuse to form progressively larger planets. “Our own solar system shows abundant evidence of giant impacts,” study lead author Tajana Schneiderman, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Space.com. For example, previous research suggested the Earth and moon are the products of…

NASA Requests Information for American Crew Transportation to Space Station

October 20, 2021 NeRD

NASA released a request for information from American industry capable of providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective human space transportation services to and from the International Space Station to ensure a continuous human presence aboard the microgravity laboratory.

La NASA desafía a estudiantes a diseñar robots para excavar en la Luna

October 20, 2021 NeRD

La NASA busca jóvenes ingenieros para ayudar a diseñar un concepto de robot para una misión de excavación en la Luna.

NASA Selects Gamma-Ray Mission to Explore Positron Sources, Supernovae

October 20, 2021 NeRD

The COSI mission will study the recent history of star birth, star death, and the formation of chemical elements in the Milky Way. The post NASA Selects Gamma-Ray Mission to Explore Positron Sources, Supernovae appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

NASA Shares Webb Telescope Media Briefing Schedule, Resources

October 20, 2021 NeRD

NASA will hold a series of virtual media briefings and events leading up to the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the premier space science observatory of the next decade.

NASA Challenges Students to Design Moon-Digging Robots

October 20, 2021 NeRD

NASA seeks young engineers to help design a new robot concept for an excavation mission on the Moon.

NASA Announces Winners of Deep Space Food Challenge

October 20, 2021 NeRD

Variety, nutrition, and taste are some considerations when developing food for astronauts.

Behold an Aurora Over the Southern Skies

October 20, 2021 NeRD

A vivid aurora streams over the Earth as the International Space Station orbited 274 miles above the southern Indian Ocean.

Senate directs NASA to choose another company to build a lunar lander: report

October 19, 2021 NeRD

The United States Senate’s largest committee wants NASA to choose a second company to build its new moon lander. In April of this year, NASA announced that SpaceX alone had won the contract to build the agency’s next moon lander for its Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon’s surface by 2024 and create a sustainable human presence on our nearby satellite. This came as a surprise as many expected the agency to choose two of the three companies vying for the contract to keep them competitive…

The Orionid meteor shower peaks this week, but don’t expect to see many ‘shooting stars’

October 19, 2021 NeRD

Orionid meteors streak through the starry sky over Big Bend National Park in Texas, in this composite of four shots taken by astrophotographer Sergio Garcia Rill in October 2017. (Image credit: Sergio Garcia Rill) Ask anyone to name a comet and there’s a 90% certainty that the comet that is chosen will be Halley’s. This most famous of comets, Halley’s comet travels around the sun in an elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the orbit of Neptune and as close to the sun as inside the orbit of Venus; a…