We're just that much closer to Pluto this week and we're finally getting details about the dwarf planet unlike anything we've seen before.
But that's not all; this week we also learned how astronauts use the toilet in space, discovered more about what planets we could potentially live on other than Earth, found more methane on Mars and came up with some new ideas about dark matter.
It seems space exploration is now trendier than ever and there are a lot of exciting things happening every week, with this week being no exception.
New Horizons gets its first look at Pluto's smallest moons.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is so close to Pluto now that we just got our first images of its smallest and most faint moons: Kerberos and Styx. This means that New Horizons is now within sight of not just Pluto, but also all five of its moons. But that's not all, because New Horizons could uncover even more moons around Pluto.
"New Horizons is now on the threshold of discovery," says New Horizons team member John Spencer. "If the spacecraft observes any additional moons as we get closer to Pluto, they will be worlds that no one has seen before."
We didn't even know that Kerberos and Styx existed until a few years ago, when the Hubble Space Telescope observed them. Now, though, we could find new moons, rings and objects in and around Pluto. Pretty much at this point, everything New Horizons sees will be something we've never seen before.
That's what we call making history.
Video explains how astronauts poop in space.
It's probably something we've all wondered, but exactly how do astronauts go to the bathroom in space? The lack of gravity must make things tricky, so how does that work? Fortunately, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti explains the process for us in this video.
What planets could we live on other than Earth?
So it's happening: we're actually starting to have discussions about going to Mars (with NASA putting plans in place) and potentially inhabiting other planets. But which planets would suit human habitation?
Universe Today's Fraser Cain looks at the planets in our solar system and determines that some are more habitable than others. Our best bet so far is Europa, regardless of Arthur C. Clarke's warning that we should never go there in 2001: A Space Odyssey. But we're humans, we always do what we're told not to, right?
Is Mars emitting methane or not?
For some reason, we keep finding evidence of methane on Mars. We detected it nearly 50 years ago with the Mariner 7 mission, and scientists hoped that the Curiosity rover, currently on Mars' surface, could find an explanation. However, when Curiosity sniffed Mars' air for traces of methane, at first, it didn't find any. It sniffed six times between 2012 and 2013, and nada. And then suddenly, several months later, Curiosity sniffed again and there it was, a sudden burst of methane, and it was still there a few months later.
But where is that methane coming from: Is it coming from the red planet and does that mean that there are microbes present below Mars' surface emitting it (which would mean Mars hosts life) or is it coming from Curiosity itself? So far, that's the argument scientists are now facing within their community. Because of this controversy, NASA waited a year to announce the results of its most recent methane test.
Scientists hope to have an answer once and for all with more measurements from Curiosity later this year, around the same time that it detected the methane bursts last year.
Scientists change mind about what dark matter is.
It's already hard to define something we haven't yet seen evidence of but know is there, so coming up with a solid definition for dark matter has always been tricky for scientists. It makes up a great deal of the Universe, but what is it? A team of scientists got together recently and did simulations of what happens when two clusters of galaxies collide. Those simulations challenge previous theories that dark matter consists of heavy particles, especially since our experiments, such as those done by the Large Hadron Particle Collider, haven't found evidence of such particles.
So if dark matter isn't heavy particles, what is it? Well, scientists haven't figured that out yet, but more simulations might provide insight into what it is that we're looking for. Maybe if we have a better idea, we'll be better prepared to actually find it.
[Photo Credit: NASA]
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