Ethics and space exploration

As humans start to venture back in to space with the view of returning to the Moon in 2024, then eventually moving on to Mars and beyond.

This paper [1] written Frank Tavars (from NASAs Ames Research Centre,) et al, raises some very interesting ideas on how we should about space exploration, but don't repeat our colonial mistakes we made on Earth.

Link [2] is the same link but using the paper code and the citation guide is below that.

Hopefully discussion and lead to some really useful feed back for NASA so as a human race we can move forward and explore space responsibly.

1 Ethical Exploration and the Role of Planetary Protection in Disrupting Colonial Practices

2 https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.08344

arXiv:2010.08344 [astro-ph.IM]
(or arXiv:2010.08344v2 [astro-ph.IM] for this version) 

I have also set up a Qoto Discourse Thread to discuss further.

Thanks to Derek Caelin for posting a link to this to both Mastodon and Twitter.

Also included a link to the Mumbai university astrobiology course as there is discussion on * Space Policy and Planetary Protection* which may be interesting.

REFERENCES AND LINKS

• NASA Ames Research Centre
• Qoto Discourse Thread
• Qoto Mastodon
  • Qoto Invite Link
• Mumbai University Astrobiology Course

TAGS

#Space,#NASA,#AMES,#Exploration,#Ethics#Moon,#Mars

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February STSCI lecture review

This months lecture Milky Way vs Andromeda: When galaxies collide. was really interesting, and covered material about how galaxies are formed, looking for life and what may happen when in 7 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy merges with our own, home galaxy.

The lecture also talked about how galaxies were first discovered and how, only in the last 100 years have we really started to learn a lot more about them. Why the two will merge is linked to the expansion of the universe.

Earth, of course, won't exist by then. The sun, being 4 billion years old, will have expanded to a red giant. As the duration of a 'main sequence star' is about 10 billion years (cite OU Open Learn The Sun)

So the lecture also included about how we could find earth 2.0, the fact that this. may not be easy given the time it will take to reach even the nearest start.

Proxima Centauri (4.2ly) and the planet around that isn't very hospitable.

Personal comment to add to this

I would guess it also raises the question if it will take 10's of 1000s of years to reach will it be the same or have developed to be more life friendly, then on the other side of that a planet that is life friendly now, may like the Earth not be so friendly i 1000's of years time.

Looking forward to the next lecture in March.

REFERENCES

• Space Telescope Science Institute
• Lecture Link

TAGS

#YearOfTheFediverse,#galaxies,#space,#Telescope,#stsci,#Science,Physics,#Astronomy

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

The Milky Way vs. Andromeda: When Galaxies Collide

Space Telescope Science Institute Public lectures The Milky Way vs. Andromeda: When Galaxies Collide Tue 2nd Feb 2021

Link

#space,#telescope,#astronomy,#lecture,#public,#online,#talk, #science

SpaceX Launch

Less than 1 hour till the next Falcon 9 Launch. (15:00 UK time)

• Details

• Thanks to Mastodon News Bot for posting

REFERENCES

• SpaceX
• NASA

TAGS

#YearOfTheFediverse,#Space,#Launch,#KSC,#Falcon9,#NASA

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License)

The Darkest Secrets of the Universe

Space Telescope Science Institute Public lectures The Darkest Secrets of the Universe Tue 19 Jan 2021

• Link

#space,#telescope,#astronomy,#lecture,#public,#online,#talk, #science

Active galaxies Review

So following on from the post on December 1st this is a quick review of the active galaxies lecture from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

This lecture, presented by Dr Mitchell Revalski, is really interesting, looking at how supermassive black holes, despite their small size compared to the galaxy they reside in.

Energy from these can push away surrounding gas, and heat this up which reduces star formation as gas needs to cool to form stars.

so scales are pretty huge:

First lets look at what a light year is

Citation : spaceplace.nasa.gov

For most space objects, we use light-years to describe their distance. A light-year is the distance light travels in one Earth year. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion km). That is a 6 with 12 zeros behind it! 

1 pc = 1 parsec = 3.26 light years

Supermassive black hole < 1pc

Bulge = 1 = 3 kpc (kilo parsec)

disk 30 kpc

circumgalactic area 50kpc

So even though these black holes are very small, they have a big influence on what surrounds them.

We know this is happening thanks to the research that led to the 2020 Nobel prize.

Well worth watching and the link is above.

Next lecture 19th Jan – The Darkest Secrets of the Universe Speaker: Raja Guhathakurta (UC Santa Cruz)

#astronomy,#science,#space,#telescope,#scsci,#talk, #solarsystem,#galaxy,#blackhole,#supermassive,#stars, #gravity,#light,#matter,#atoms,#emissions,#aabsorption, #spectrum,#gamma,#xray,#visible,#invisible,#parsec, #lightyear,#distance,#galactic,#bulge,#spacetelescope, #groundtelescope,#astronomers,#education,#public

Astrobiology course 5

So moving on in from the previous post the next lecture in the Astrobiology course is on Space Missions in the Search for Life

#astrobiology,#course,#amity,#university,#theopenuniversity,#space,#science,#astronomy,#biology,#biochemistry,#missions,#nasa,#esa,#lecture,#talk,#presentation,

Active Galaxies

Shaping Galaxies with Supermassive Black Hole Winds

Tuesday 1st December

So following on from Septembers lecture, the Space telescope science institute present their next lecture.

With details here

You can find more upcoming (monthly) lectures below.

http://www.stsci.edu/public-lectures

#video,#astronomy,#space,#science,#stsci

Astronify

Hearing The Light: How Sonification Deepens our Understanding of the Cosmos and Makes Astronomy More Accessible

Tuesday 10th November

Location: Online Attendance Only Time: 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM

So following on from Septembers lecture, the Space telescope science institute present their next lecture.

You can find more upcoming (monthly) lectures below.

http://www.stsci.edu/public-lectures

Link to last months video lecture and a review of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope lecture

#video,#astronomy,#space,#science,#stsci

Enigmatic fast radio burst pinned on magnetised dead star

This is an interesting development, astronomers have found something they have been spending years searching for. Not sure where these stars appear on the The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54815687

The paper for this can be found on Physics World. Reported on IOPScience on 4th November 2020.

Currently discussing on a OU Science forum.

#bbc,#news,#science,#fsb,#space,#astronomy,#physics,#astrophysics.