Other Than Mars Thread

Quote: GenoDRPh

What made you think scientists understand or explain everything?

Quote: odiousgambit

All the reporters and journalists who told me that. This began in the 70s when they had me believing we would run out of oil in no time, and 'follow the science or you are an idiot' talk. I went for that hook, line, and sinker. Admittedly these same folk didn't do so well with the global warming stuff but I'm older and wiser

Quote: GenoDRPh

So this thing isn't a comet. Big deal. Doesn't mean it isn't natural. Wake me when the aliens send us a dinner invitation.

Quote:

ASTRONOMERS are running out of time to decide whether to prevent asteroid 2024 YR4 from hitting the moon in 2032. A small observing window with the James Webb Space Telescope will open in February, and could see the chance of an impact rise to more than 30 per cent.

2024 YR4 was discovered at the end of last year and was quickly assigned the highest probability of hitting Earth of all known asteroids. At its most perilous, it had a 1-in-32 chance of hitting Earth in 2032. Further observations reduced the probability of an Earth impact to effectively zero, but there remains a 4 per cent chance of the asteroid slamming into the moon, which could put thousands of critical satellites around the planet at risk from lunar shrapnel.

The asteroid has now flown out of view of Earth’s telescopes, meaning astronomers thought there was no chance of learning more about its trajectory until it returns to view in 2028.
But now it seems the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will have a brief glimpse at 2024 YR4 in February 2026, which will represent the last good chance to decide on a deflection mission, says Andrew Rivkin at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “By 2028, it would be cutting things very, very close, and so getting it in early 2026 instead gives some extra time,” says Rivkin.

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To find out if moss could survive in space, researchers from Japan’s Hokkaido University first simulated the conditions in a lab on Earth. Three structures from the spreading earthmoss (Physcomitrium patens) were tested - juvenile moss, stem cells and spore-containing structures called sporophytes. 

Sporophytes were the hardiest. Encased spores were a thousand times more tolerant to UV radiation than stem cells. They were also able to survive and germinate after being exposed to -196oC for over a week, as well as after living in 55oC heat for a month.

After that, it was time for blast off. In early 2022, hundreds of sporophytes were loaded onto the Cygnus NG-17 supply spacecraft and then transferred to an exterior platform on the ISS. They stayed there, orbiting the Earth approximately once every 90 minutes, for 283 days, before hitching a lift back to terra firma on SpaceX CRS-16. 

“We expected almost zero survival,” says lead author Tomomichi Fujita, “but the result was the opposite: most of the spores survived. We were genuinely astonished.” 

Of the 80% of spores that survived, 89% were subsequently able to germinate. In addition, mathematical modelling suggested that the spores could have survived for up to 15 years in space.