Super Space Masterpost!

So today is, apparently, a big day for space!
Heck, this week has had trending space stories going ALL WEEK!

But today there are 3 trending space news stories that I am going to touch on because
DANG
They are so darn cool!




The first bit of news is this: 

The Fermi Paradox suggests that we should have made contact with an extraterrestrial civilization by now.

"But, Alexis, we haven't." You say?
I know...
I know...

You're disappointed.
I'm disappointed.
The scientists are disappointed.
So they took to the math and the science to see where it was wrong.
They slaved and toiled over hot keyboards, pencils, paper, and books and finally..

Evan Solomonides and Yervant Terzian figured it out..
They combined the Fermi Paradox with the Mediocrity Principle.
When they combine these two, it shows that we shouldn’t expect to hear from aliens for another 1,500 years.

"1,500 years?!" you say?
"I'll be gone!" you continue?

I know. So will I. It is sad.

Even our children's children's children will be gone before we make contact.
By then no one will even be able to watch all of the (Possibly) offensive alien contact movies we've made.

“It’s possible to hear any time at all, but it becomes likely we will have heard around 1,500 years from now. Until then, it is possible that we appear to be alone—even if we are not. But if we stop listening or looking, we may miss the signals. So we should keep looking.” Stated Solomonides.
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Our next bit of space news makes sure that, if aliens were to merrily jaunt their way down here, they'd know we're really cool and kind of scary.

"Why would they think that?" you ask?
(Oh, I love your ever inquisitive mind!)

WELL...
They'd be met with fire...
in space...
Space fire...



NASA is launching The Spacecraft Fire Experiment, also known as Saffire.

It is a series of experiments that will be launched on three different flights beginning in March.

Space fire, Saffire...
To-may-to, to-mah-to...


They will be testing 2 things:
Will fire continue to spread upward or will microgravity limit it
What materials will burn and how fast
Curious how they'll be running these fire experiments in space?

Watch the video!

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In our next (and last) cool piece of space news:

LIGO has detected another black hole crash!

Two black holes have collided and we HEARD IT!
Much like the kids listening at the window for the inevitable tire squeal and crash bang after removing a stop sign, we've been quietly listening and waiting for another black hole crash!

This has proved the biggest discovery in history this year!
Gravitational waves (ripples in space-time) are REAL!
Holy butts, right?!?

Gabriela González, a physicist at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, and chair of the 1000-member LIGO Scientific Collaboration, has done well in hiding her excitement by saying,“It’s very reassuring.You need another one to be completely convinced and this is it.” 

She continued to say that, "Physicists determined that one of the black holes was spinning frenetically, at roughly 20% of the maximum spin rate allowed by general relativity. And because the new event includes many more cycles, it tests predictions of general relativity somewhat more stringently than the first event."
The more crashes we hear, the more we will be able to learn!

I just hope they have good insurance!

Source: Gizmodo, Cornell University, NASA, Science Magazine

Tatooine Tatoo-out

Think back to Tatooine...
That's right, the planet we met our space-hero, Luke Skywalker, on!

See those double suns?
Guess what!
There's a planet just like this in the constellation Cygnus!

Currently this planet is named Kepler-1647b, but I think they misnamed the poor thing.
It is quite OBVIOUSLY Tatooine.

We know that this planet is 3700 light-years away from us and is approximately 4.4 billion years old.
That is just about the same age as our planet!
They should be besties.

They may be roughly the same age but Kepler-1647b is HUGE! 

It has a mass and radius similar to Jupiter!

This makes it  the largest transiting circumbinary planet ever found!!
(That means the largest planet ever found that orbits two stars. You're welcome.)

Planets like these are sometimes referred to as "Tatooine planets"... So I guess the name faux pas is forgivable this time.

This planet takes a whopping 1,107 days to orbit it's two stars!
That's more than 3 years!!

I am one year old on Kepler-1647b

Life, however is HIGHLY unlikely on a gas giant such as Kepler-1647b.
(Although it could be possible for us to live on any large moons it may have.)

I, for one, look forward to learning more about Kepler-1647b and any other Tatooine planets they may find!
Perhaps one day, we'll have a Tatooine planet that we can visit.

Source: NASA

 

SpaceX: In Orbit Around Our Hearts

This morning SpaceX continued to uphold their reputation as a dependable military cargo transport!


SpaceX successfully launched two Boeing satellites early this morning!!

The Falcon 9 burst into our atmosphere with gusto, leaving behind a marshmallow-like cloud of white smoke and dust.

As it soared triumphantly through our skies, it went into the supersonic phase at 18km traveled!
You could literally see the sonic waves as it passed through the supersonic phase!
It was so cool!

Not actual footage from this flight... but similar.

After a successful Main Engine Cut Off (MECO) Stage 2 broke away from Stage 1 successfully and pressed on into the black vacuum of space as the second stage engine kicked on.

It was on it's way to parking orbit!

Upon reentry, the Falcon 9 Stage 1 was meant to land on a drone ship/barge named "Of Course I Still Love You".
The ship began to shake and the feed cut out and froze a bit due to the intense vibrations.
Unfortunately, although the feed was interrupted, we were told that they had lost Stage 1 in the landing.




Stage 2 made it successfully into geostationary orbit and launched both satellites without issue!

While there was no visual feed for the first satellite launch, the second one was shown and met with thunderous applause.

If you want to watch the whole thing (very cool) you can do so below!




Source: SpaceX Youtube

Do YOU want to be the next Martian?

SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk has said that they may send people to Mars following the 2018 unmanned mission!

Feels like home already....sort of.

He announced that SpaceX would start sending people to Mars around 2024 and, since it takes a few months to get there, begin a 26 month cycle that will eventually colonize Mars!!

 He also was not shy about his prediction that most cars will not have drivers in 3 years. 

3 YEARS, GUYS! 

He says the main issue is not lack of proper technology but safety regulators!

Way to have our backs, Mr. Musk!

He has said, “I consider autonomous driving to be basically a solved problem. There’s really only one area where it’s a little dodgy, and that’s where you’re at 30 to 40 miles per hour.” He continued to say that, "We’re less than two years away from complete autonomy. Regulators however will take at least another year; they’ll want to see billions of miles of data.”

While I'm not super excited for self-driving cars (because driving is fun!), I am interested to see what the future for SpaceX and Mars holds!

Source: Bloomberg

What are you most looking forward to hearing about? Let us know in the comments!