Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Wind Turbines On Mars?
DISCOVERIES
Red Storms
It’s complicated sending humans to Mars.
Apart from oxygen supply, food issues and solar radiation, crewed missions also need to figure out how to power their equipment.
Astronomers have suggested using solar energy to power human missions. Unfortunately, sunlight is hard to come by in the planet’s polar regions and elsewhere.
Now, a new study suggests that wind turbines could be the solution to ensure safe exploration and a longer stay on the planet, New Scientist reported.
Researchers explained that Martian winds have around 99 percent less force compared to those on Earth because of the red planet’s thin atmosphere.
For their study, a research team collected detailed information about Mars and used the data to create a global climate model to simulate the different wind speeds across the planet.
The team also calculated how much power Earth-made wind turbines could generate and compared these figures with the estimated energy requirements for sustaining six people on Mars for a mission lasting 500 Martian days.
The researchers discovered that wind energy might not only supplement solar energy – particularly at night and during strong dust storms that block out sunlight – but also completely replace it in some regions.
Still, the authors noted that their findings derive from a theoretical standpoint and more research is needed to determine the practicalities of building wind turbines on Mars.
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Friday, January 6, 2023
Slow Burn-A Star Devours A Planet
DISCOVERIES
Slow Burn
Astronomers are about to witness how a planet is going to be devoured by its star – and it’ll take millions of years, according to Science News.
In 2009, scientists launched the Kepler space telescope to find exoplanets by watching them cross in front of their stars. The first detected planet was initially dismissed as a false alarm, but a research team confirmed its existence in 2019.
Since then, the same team has been monitoring the exoplanet, which they named Kepler 1658b. The planet is roughly the same size as Jupiter, is incredibly hot, and orbits its star once every three days.
But a new study found that Kepler 1658b is getting closer to its star earlier than expected.
“You can see the interval between the transits is shrinking, really slowly but really consistently, at a rate of 131 milliseconds per year,” said co-author Shreyas Vissapragada.
Vissapragada explained that the planet has around two to three million years to live. To put it in perspective, if the planet’s lifetime was more than 100 human years, it would only have a little more than a month left to live before ending in a fiery death.
“For something that’s been around for 2 to 3 billion years, that’s pretty short,” he added.
Even so, Vissapragada noted that studying the planet’s demise will allow scientists to better understand the life cycle of similar planets.