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The Moon is shrinking, causing landslides and instability in Lunar south pole

New paper identifies potential landing sites for Artemis mission that are particularly vulnerable to quakes and landslides.
Moonquakes
© NASA/ LRO/ LROC/ASU/ Smithsonian InstitutionThe epicenter of one of the strongest moonquakes ever recorded by the Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment could not be accurately determined. Researchers tracked multiple possible locations using a relocation algorithm specifically adapted for the sparse seismic networks near the Pole. Blue boxes show locations of proposed Artemis III landing regions, while the small red marks represent scarps.
Earth's moon shrank more than 150 feet in circumference as its core gradually cooled over the last few hundred million years. In much the same way a grape wrinkles when it shrinks down to a raisin, the moon also develops creases as it shrinks. But unlike the flexible skin on a grape, the moon's surface is brittle, causing faults to form where sections of crust push against one another.

A team of scientists discovered evidence that this continuing shrinkage of the moon led to notable surface warping in its south polar region — including areas that NASA proposed for crewed Artemis III landings. Because fault formation caused by the moon's shrinking is often accompanied by seismic activity like moonquakes, locations near or within such fault zones could pose dangers to future human exploration efforts.

In a new paper published in the Planetary Science Journal, the team linked a group of faults located in the moon's south polar region to one of the most powerful moonquakes recorded by Apollo seismometers over 50 years ago. Using models to simulate the stability of surface slopes in the region, the team found that some areas were particularly vulnerable to landslides from seismic shaking.

"Our modeling suggests that shallow moonquakes capable of producing strong ground shaking in the south polar region are possible from slip events on existing faults or the formation of new thrust faults," said the study's lead author Thomas R. Watters, a senior scientist emeritus in the National Air and Space Museum's Center for Earth and Planetary Studies. "The global distribution of young thrust faults, their potential to be active and the potential to form new thrust faults from ongoing global contraction should be considered when planning the location and stability of permanent outposts on the moon."

Christmas Tree

Scientists invent dirt-fuelled power source that 'lasts forever', based on 113 year-old tech

soil battery
© Bill Yen/Northwestern UniversityThe fuel cells' 3D printed cap sits above the ground, and keeps debris out of the device while enabling air flow.
Scientists have developed a new type of fuel cell that can provide endless power through electricity harvested from dirt.

A team from Northwestern University in the US say the book-sized unit could be used to power sensors used in farming, as well as remote devices in the Internet of Things (IoT).

The technology works by generating electricity from naturally-occurring bacteria within the soil, offering a sustainable and renewable alternative to toxic and flammable batteries.

Comment: This might not revolutionise where we source our energy in the short term, but it might take us one step further in understanding the workings of nature, and how we can work with and harness that to our advantage: Tomato plants send electrical signals to each other through fungi


Nuke

Chinese company unveils revolutionary nuclear battery with 50-year lifespan

BB100 Battery
© BetavoltBV100 is poised to shape the future of energy consumption.
Recently, a Chinese company claimed to have developed a new battery that could generate power for 50 years.

Released by Beijing Betavolt New Energy Technology Co Ltd, the nuclear battery utilizes nickel-63, a kind of nuclear isotope, decay technology and diamond semiconductors to miniaturize, modularize and reduce the cost of atomic energy batteries, Science and Technology Daily reported.

The company's first product, the BV100 battery, has a power of 100 microwatts, a voltage of three volts and a size of 15×15×5 cubic millimeters, which is smaller than a coin.

Telescope

Discovery of second ultra-large structure in distant space further challenges our understanding of the universe

rings structures discovered astronomy universe
© StellariumAn artistic impression of what the Big Ring (shown in blue) and Giant Arc (shown in red) would look like in the sky.
The discovery of a second ultra-large structure in the remote universe has further challenged some of the basic assumptions about cosmology.

The Big Ring in the Sky is 9.2 billion light-years from Earth. It has a diameter of about 1.3 billion light-years, and a circumference of about 4 billion light-years. If we could step outside and see it directly, the diameter of the Big Ring would need about 15 full moons to cover it.

It is the second ultra-large structure discovered by University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) Ph.D. student Alexia Lopez who, two years ago, also discovered the Giant Arc in the Sky. Remarkably, the Big Ring and the Giant Arc, which is 3.3 billion light-years across, are in the same cosmological neighborhood — they are seen at the same distance, at the same cosmic time, and are only 12 degrees apart in the sky.

Hammer

Scientists aim to drill into a volcano's magma chamber to unleash powerful energy

Geldingadalir volcano iceland
© Thomas O'Neill/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesEruption of the Icelandic volcano Geldingadalir, photographed from Fagradalsfjall on August 9, 2021.
The project, which would be a scientific first if successful, would see boreholes drilled about 1.3 miles down through the earth's crust at a volcano known as 'Krafla'.

Scientists in Iceland have come up with an ambitious plan to drill into a volcano's magma chamber to source an abundant amount of clean, super-hot geothermal energy.

The project, which would be a scientific first if successful, would see boreholes drilled about 1.3 miles down through the earth's crust at a volcano known as Krafla, located in the northeast of Iceland.

Comment: It remains to be seen if this method of energy production could hold the promise so many failed 'green energy' methods held before falling flat on their faces. On paper, it sounds perfect. But we don't really know what potential catastrophes lay ahead by drilling into volcanoes.

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Telescope

Have we just discovered aliens?

Jedna od prvih slika svemirskog teleskopa James Webb
It's one of the greatest puzzles of the universe, and one that has vexed humanity ever since we first gazed at the stars and thought of other worlds. Is our Earth the sole place that harbours life, or might it be found elsewhere, among the trillions of planets, star systems and galaxies? As Arthur C. Clarke put it: 'Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.'

The revelation that we might be seriously close to an answer is, therefore, momentous and surprising; even more surprising is that the revelation occurred on Jools Holland's New Year's Eve 2023 'Musical Hootenanny', in between performances by Rod Stewart, the Sugababes, Joss Stone, and the Mary Wallopers.

As is his wont, whenever the music subsided Jools Holland skittered boyishly between his BBC TV guests, asking them for comments on the year just gone, and the year to come. One of these guests was Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, honorary research assistant at University College London's world-famous Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Sitting next to Dr Aderin-Pocock, Holland asked the noted astronomer for her expectations of 2024, and she replied, candidly and baldly: 'I think we're going to discover alien life.' Slightly startled, Holland asked for some clarity - e.g. are we going to meet them on planet earth - to which she further said: 'Alien life is definitely out there'. Note: not here, there.

If this was just a one off, we might dismiss it. Perhaps the BBC was unusually generous with the English fizz in the green room. But Aderin-Pocock is not the only person ending 2023 with startling predictions of alien life discovery. In a YouTube video broadcast a few days ago, popular UK astrophysicist Becky Smethurst added some detail to all this, by saying: 'I think we are going to get a paper that has strong evidence for a biosignature on an exoplanet very, very soon. Let's just say it's on my bingo card for 2024'.

Likewise, in a CNBC interview broadcast the first week of 2024, UK astronaut Tim Peake was asked to speculate on extra-terrestrial life, and he said 'Potentially, the James Webb telescope may have already found [alien life]... it's just that they don't want to release or confirm those results until they can be entirely sure, but we found a planet that seems to be giving off strong signals of biological life.'

Fire

Video of electric blue flame erupting from a volcano goes viral

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A stunning video of electric-blue flames erupting from a volcano in Indonesia has surprised social media users. The phenomenon is unique, according to photographer Olivier Grunewald, who has been capturing the eruptions from Kawah Ijen volcano. Speaking to National Geographic, he said that the dazzling, blue glow is actually the light from the combustion of sulphuric gases.

The video was captured a few years ago, and has gone viral on social media again. The footage was part of a documentary that Mr Grunewald released with Geneva's Society for Volcanology.

The mesmerising video shows streams of striking blue flames rapidly coming out from the volcano.


Oil Well

If fossil fuels come from fossils, why have scientists found them on one of Saturn's moons?

Saturn's moon, Titan.
© Universe TodaySaturn's moon, Titan.
They didn't tell us, the term "fossil fuels" might be wrong too

Dr Willie Soon unleashes on the failures of climate change and modern science for 40 minutes with Tucker Carlson (see below). As an opening he explained how one of Saturn's moons has more liquid fuel than than all the oil and gas deposits of Earth, which rather pokes a hole in the idea that fossil fuels are only ever made from fossils.

Essentially a frozen, lifeless moon with no dinosaurs, forests or peat bogs, somehow has lakes of methane. Not only does Titan have liquid seas of hydrocarbon fuel — but we've known this for years. In fact even in 2005 a NASA scientist quietly admitted that Titan had methane that wasn't made from fossils. But where was NASA in the 18 years since?

Soon explains that Titan proves that abiotic oil and gas formation is true. In 2009 an experiment showed that when methane is put under great pressure like the kind we find 50-100 miles underground, it can form more complex hydrocarbons. (Kolesnikov). Several papers in the last dozen years find more exotic kinds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons all over the place, like in Titan's atmosphere and even forming in deep cold interstellar space. (Zhao, Parker, Freissinet) They also found benzene on Mars.

On his CERES sites, Willie Soon explains that in practical terms, we don't know how much of the oil and gas on earth is made without fossils (in an abiogenic process). It could be forming 50 to 100 miles down, but we're only drilling 6 to 8 miles deep. I seems we have little idea. Even if abiotic oil exists on Earth, it may form too slowly to be useful. Though there have been these odd claims out there for years that some oil fields are refilling.

What we do know, says Jo, is that they're not trying to understand this, and they're not trying to tell us the whole truth either. We've taught two generations of children that there is one simple narrative, and if you questioned it you were an idiot. Isn't it time a civilization dependent on these fuels had an honest discussion about where they came from?

There's a lot more in the interview about his experience at Harvard, and climate science and the sun.

Telescope

'Diamond rain' detected on icy planets offers clues into magnetic field mysteries

diamond rain ice planets
© European XFEL"Diamond rain" could provide clues into the origin of the complex magnetic fields of Neptune and Uranus.
An international team of researchers led by researchers from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory gained new insights into the formation of diamonds on icy planets such as Neptune and Uranus. Scientists believe that, following their formation, these diamonds would slowly sink deeper into the planetary interior in response to gravitational forces, resulting in a 'rain' of precious stones from higher layers.

The results, published today in Nature Astronomy, suggest that this "diamond rain" forms at even lower pressures and temperatures than previously thought and provide clues into the origin of the complex magnetic fields of Neptune and Uranus.

"'Diamond rain' on icy planets presents us with an intriguing puzzle to solve," said SLAC scientist Mungo Frost, who led the research. "It provides an internal source of heating and transports carbon deeper into the planet, which could have a significant impact on their properties and composition. It might kick off movements within the conductive ices found on these planets, influencing the generation of their magnetic fields."

Cassiopaea

Astronomers solve mystery of 'Green Monster' in Cassiopeia A

'We've never had this kind of look at an exploded star before.'
supernova remnant Cassiopeia A
© X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Milisavljevic et al., NASA/JPL/CalTech; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt and K. ArcandThis image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A combines data from NASA's Chandra, James Webb, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.
The bizarre, grinch-like wisp of green light dubbed the Green Monster, first seen last year snaking through the glowing remnants of an exploded star, belongs to a blast wave bordering the debris field, a new study reveals.

Last April, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) photographed the unusual "wall of emission" in front of Cassiopeia A (or Cas A), an expanding shell of hot gas roughly 11,000 light-years from Earth whose light first reached us 340 years ago. For the past year, astronomers have been trying to explain its origin and presence in the well-studied supernova remnant.

The new image, unveiled on Monday (Jan. 8) at the American Astronomical Society conference being held in New Orleans and online, combines the observing powers of Webb, as well as NASA's Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, to feature Cas A in unprecedented detail. The ball of light, which stretches for 10 light-years, appears infused with red clouds, revealing dust likely warmed as it resides within gas that was heated up to millions of degrees. White, green and orange light streaks sprinkled throughout offer a cosmically messy, breathtaking new view of the stellar debris.