A team of astronomers recently announced their discovery of two additional moons orbiting Jupiter.

Scientists have been finding out and revealing quite a lot of news about Jupiter recently. Besides finding a way of confirming its being the oldest planet in our solar systems, a team of researchers spotted two additional moons in the gas giant’s planetary system.

Two Additional Moons Are Raising Jupiter’s Satellites Number

These two ‘new’ satellites were detected by Scott Sheppard from the Carnegie Institution for Science and his colleagues. They discovered S/2016 J 1 on March 8, 2016, and then S/2017 J 1 on March 26, 2017. Then, they presented them to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and its Minor Planet Electronic Circulars. This announced their official status earlier this month, on June 2 and June 5 respectively.

“We were continuing our survey looking for very distant objects in the outer solar system, which includes looking for Planet X, and Jupiter just happened to be in the area we were looking in 2016 and 2017,” stated Sheppard.

After spotting them, the researchers decided to ‘take a detour’, and take a closer look at the moonlets.

Presently, scientists do not know very much about these additional two moons. Observations seem to indicate that both S/2016 J 1 and S/2017 J 1 are very small satellites. They also appear to be only around one or two kilometers across.

Observations of S/2016 J 1 indicate that this completes a full orbit around Jupiter in around 1.65 years. S/2017 J 1 is vehiculated to take some 2.01 years in doing the same. This moonlet is estimated to be, on average, some 23,500,000 kilometers away from Jupiter.

Although S/2016 J 1 was discovered one year earlier, its orbit presented many uncertainties. But observations with the Subaru reflector on Mauna Kea helped solved these questions later on.

There is little to no further information on Jupiter’s moons number 68 and 69. Further research might help bring more data on these latest detected natural satellites.
Image Source: Wikimedia

NASA will be making a ‘big announcement’ about its upcoming Solar Probe Plus mission targeting the sun.

Extending its eye of exploration inward, NASA is ready to make a big announcement on May 31 regarding its new mission to explore the sun. The recently designed Solar Probe Plus will be launched in the summer of 2018 to examine the heart of our solar system. It will come closer to the star than any spacecraft launched before, approaching to within four million miles. That is well inside Mercury’s orbital distance, and it will be a part of space never before explored by humanity.

The Solar Probe Plus, Closer To the Sun Than Ever Before

Researchers studied the potential effects of an asteroid strike and its consequences on Earth.

A new study from University of Southampton researchers put together the potential scenarios for an asteroid strike and how it would affect the planet Earth. They then proceeded to rank those situations in terms of human loss. The picture their information painted was not a pretty one.

University Study Ranks Asteroid Strike Calamities Based On 50,000 Simulations

“The likelihood of an asteroid impact is really low, but the consequences can be unimaginable.” This is according to the study lead, Clemens M. Rumpf.

NASA announced earlier this week that Peggy Whitson will be spending three more months in space.

NASA announced earlier this week that Peggy Whitson, the famed female astronaut, has decided to extend her time in space. By doing so, she will be breaking yet another record and also bringing her contribution to Expedition 52 by rounding the mission complement.

Peggy Whitson Already Holds Several Space Records, And She Will Be Adding Even More

Presently, Peggy Whitson is the only female aboard the International Space Station or ISS. She has been there ever since November 17^th, and her stay was close to coming to an end. Whitson already has over 370 days up in space under her belt.

Following her additional three months stay, she will be breaking yet another record. The astronaut will be surpassing Jeff Williams’s United States milestone of 534 cumulative days spent up in space. Whitson will also be the first woman to command the ISS twice. She was first in charge of the station back in 2008. Just recently, she also became the female astronaut to complete the most spacewalks.

Following the 3 months extension, Whitson will only return to Earth in September 2017. Her additional stay in space came as an effect of Russia’s decision to temporarily reduce its crew by 2. As such, the female astronaut will be rounding up the station’s 6-crew complement. This will help increase the general amount of time for the astronauts. During such periods, they will be able to carry out more experiments.

Whitson herself expressed her excitement at being offered the chance to extend her stay aboard the station. She stated as follows:

“Living and working aboard the space station is where I feel like I make the greatest contribution, […].”

Whitson also stated that she is trying to get the most out of her every stay up in space as she loves being there. These additional three months are reportedly just what she ‘would wish for.’

Image Source: Wikimedia

Scientists found a rocky planet orbiting two stars, similar to Tatooine.

Considering the incredible expanse of the Universe it isn’t that hard to believe that it may contain even particular system described in works of science-fiction such as the Star Wars universe’s Tatooine planet which orbits around two stars.

Scientists have recently found evidence of a rocky planet formation formed from shattered asteroids which are currently orbiting a pair of stars. This suggests that among the many possibilities of an infinite Universe, even scenarios described in fiction may very well be possible.

However, the most important aspect of the discovery is that it suggests that rocky planet formations may very well be capable of surviving the death of their own stars, according to the study’s researchers. Despite the fact that our planet only orbits one star, there many other star system home to two or more stars, orbiting each other. In fact, scientists have even discovered system with up to seven stars.

Planets like Star Wars’ Tatooine, which orbit two stars, are known as circumbinary planets. The first discovery of such a planet happened in 2011. The planet has been named Kepler-16b and it is gas giant located around 200 light-years away from Earth.

Until now, all the circumbinary planets that were discovered were found to be gas giants, and astronomers became skeptical that they would ever find a rocky planet which orbits two stars, similar to Tatooine, where Luke Skywalker lived at the start of the series.

According to Jay Farihi, the lead author of the study, and an astrophysicist at the University College London, circumbinary rocky planets seem to be incredibly rare due to the fact that the gravity of two stars would impede the various parts of dust and rock to stick together and form a planet, as they push and pull from different directions.

The scientists discovered the first circumbinary rocky planet in a star system known as SDSS 1557, which is located around 1,000 light-years away from Earth. It was first thought to only include a white dwarf, but a closer analysis revealed the existence of another star, a brown dwarf equal in mass to around 65 Jupiters.

What do you think about the discovery? Are you excited about the discovery of a planet similar to Tatooine?

Image credit: Mark Garlick, UCL, University of Warwick and University of Sheffield

Neanderthal DNA still affects the traits of modern humans.

When scientists analyzed our entire genetic history, they found remnants of Neanderthal DNA. Now, a new study reveals that those genes still affects modern people in regards to their appearance and health. While Neanderthals are believed to have died out more than 40,000 years ago, it seems that they still make their presence felt today.

Remnants of Neanderthal DNA can still be found in our genes due to the fact that our ancestors had mated with the less-evolved species, and thus passed their genes further down to the next generations. Now, researchers from the United States have shed some light on how their genes still affect modern people.

According to Joshua Akey, a co-author of the study and a geneticist at the University of Washington stated that the ancient DNA influence several traits of modern humans such as height and the chance of suffering from diseases like schizophrenia and lupus. The impact of the Neanderthal DNA is still considerable despite the fact that the last human-Neanderthal mating like occurred more than 50,000 years ago.

Previous studies have shown that the Neanderthal genetic variants are linked to vulnerabilities to several conditions. However, the mechanisms which caused those effects still eludes scientists. Therefore, the team of researchers started to collect data from the Genotype-Tissues Expression Project, which analyzed people who carry both the modern and the Neanderthal version of a gene.

Using this data, the scientists were able to create a clearer picture and better understand how the Neanderthal genes affect the traits of modern humans, in a quite pervasive and important way. For example, the Neanderthal version of the gene known as ADAMTSL3 is tied to both schizophrenia and height. The study found that, overall, causal mutation and the way in which genes are turned on or off in humans today, have been inherited from Neanderthals.

The study, published in the journal Cell, emphasizes the fact that the interbreeding with the Neanderthals still remains a source of worry for modern humans as it leads to a greater genomic complexity. The researchers also want to examine how other hominid species like the Denisovans contribute to our genetic makeup.

What do you think about the study’s findings?

Image source: Flickr