The most interesting events of astronautics and astronomy for the week (03/28/05)

The time has come for a new digest about the most interesting events in the world of astronautics and astronomy. As always, a lot of interesting things happened, and if you missed the previous events - it's time to familiarize yourself with them.

Unfortunately, life on Mars has not yet been discovered, man has never received the signals of other civilizations. But all this does not make space less interesting. So here we go!

Dark matter is still a mystery to scientists

The study of dark matter has been going on for a long time, scientists are always trying to clarify what this matter is. Not so long ago, experts studied images of 72 collisions of galactic clusters, and it turned out that dark matter does not interact not only with ordinary matter, but even with itself.

At the same time, this mysterious substance cannot be observed by conventional means. It interacts neither with electromagnetic radiation, nor with light. As far as one can understand, it has only a gravitational effect on ordinary matter, there are simply no other manifestations of the influence of dark matter.

The study of this issue continues, and now scientists hope that the analysis of collisions of single galaxies will help to create a more or less harmonious theory of what dark matter is.

Curiosity discovered gypsum structures and nitrates on Mars

Now the Curiosity rover continues its journey along the surface of Mars. The rover managed to get out of the difficult situation with a short circuit, and continue to study the rocks of Mars . In the hollow of Artist`s Drive, scientists discovered gypsum structures (most likely gypsum structures, the determination has not yet been carried out), which have a very unusual shape.

In addition, the Mars rover found in the soil of Mars and nitrates, the content of which is 0.1% -1%. Usually, nitrogen is very actively involved in biochemical processes; without it, the formation of the most important organic compounds that are involved in the formation of protein and nucleic acids is impossible. However, so far the question of how nitrogen got into the rocks of Mars remains open.

James Webb telescope will be ready on time

Hubble's heir, the James Webb Space Telescope, will be ready on time , despite the price increase. This was reported in NASA. Thus, a telescope with a total surface area of ​​25 square meters and a solar shield will be launched into space in 2018. In this case, the system will be located at the Lagrange point L2, the Sun-Earth system.

The Chinese are considering the possibility of creating a space power station

The question of placing a solar power plant in the orbit of the Earth, in order to obtain energy on the surface of the planet, can not be called new. This problem was discussed by science fiction writers and popularizers in the middle of the 20th century. Nevertheless, this problem is rather complicated.

But the Chinese are now making calculations on a project to create an orbital power plant that can produce a very significant amount of energy. The Chinese government encourages specialists, so you can expect that all this will not stall just like that, they will try to implement the project.

Nuclear explosions made on Mars?

The theory of Dr. Jonah Brandenburg is extremely extravagant. According to John, nuclear explosions were carried out on Mars, and this theory is not so crazy as it might seem. The fact is that in the content of the Martian atmosphere there is a lot of Xenon-129, while Mars Odyssey Orbiter found thin layers of radioactive substances on the planet's surface: thorium, uranium, and radioactive potassium.

John Brandenburg claims that the billion-megaton equivalent hydrogen explosions occurred in two regions of Mars: Cydonia Mensa and Galaxias Chaos, turning huge regions into glass. At the time of the disaster, according to John, the planet had a climate similar to Earth, the same temperature and atmospheric pressure, with a powerful biosphere and an atmosphere rich in oxygen. The ancient Martians of the Cydonians and Utopians, were destroyed by a nuclear strike of a certain alien race. The reason was the "excessive noisiness" of Martian civilization. Branderbug argues that the same fate can befall the earthlings, so you need to send a manned expedition to Mars as soon as possible and understand this story on the spot.

NASA has announced an interactive site to study the asteroid West

NASA has launched the Vesta Trek web application , which is designed to study the asteroid West. The principle of the application is very similar to the web version of Google Earth - Vesta images covering a certain part of the asteroid can be moved around the screen, scaled and click on marked points to obtain information about the object.

In addition, a spectacular opportunity is available to view the asteroid in 3D mode from all sides. For those completely unfamiliar with the topic, it is proposed to get a quick reference, but it is only in English.

Energy System of the International Space Station

What is the ISS energy infrastructure ? What are the main components of this system? What is the power of a power unit? An interesting article can answer all these questions, which shows the entire background of the ISS energy infrastructure. The description is clear enough even for an uninitiated person.

The ISS receives all its energy from the Sun. Like Earth, the station is located at a distance of approximately 149 million kilometers from the nearest star. At this distance, it is possible to extract more than a kilowatt of energy from each square meter. Energy at the station is collected by solar panels, which use the photoelectric effect to directly generate electricity. The main consumers of electricity at the station are thermal control systems, pumps, air treatment systems, and communications equipment.