Weekly - Sunita Williams isn't really stranded and more
🟢 Weekly Space News - Quick and Easy.
This week’s post ranks green 🟢 on the Engagement Palette.
ISRO discovers 34 rare colossal energy structures
Last week, scientists at ISRO, analysed a sky survey by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and discovered 34 new Giant Radio Structures (GRS). GRSs are colossal structures found in space that are so big that they even encompass multiple galaxy clusters. They are made of charged particles that travel at extreme speeds at nearly that of light. They originate from supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies. When the black hole starts consuming the matter around it, the particles spin at very high speeds around the black hole, creating a bright accretion disk. Sometimes, some of these particles escape the disk and are channelled away from the black hole, forming a jet. As the jets spread out, they heat up the surrounding matter and eventually, their energy gets spread out over massive distances called lobes. Since the jet is ejected along the blackhole’s axis in both directions, 2 such lobes are formed. Together they are called a GRS. Such structures are relatively rare and scientists have discovered 34 of them.
ISRO selects 2 astronauts to fly to ISS
Last week, ISRO shortlisted 2 Indian astronauts to fly to the ISS onboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on a mission organised by Axiom Space, a NASA-recognised private service provider. The 2 Indian astronauts Prashanth Nair and Shubhanshu Shukla will also be part of India’s first-ever manned mission: Gaganyaan in the future. Meanwhile, they will also get the experience they need for space missions from this flight.
SpaceX’s commercial spacewalk delayed
Last week, SpaceX planned to launch its Polaris Dawn mission, which planned to not only take a civilian tourist to space but also conduct a commercial spacewalk (conducted outside the spacecraft). However, the company later announced that it would be prioritising its Crew 9 mission which will be carrying 4 astronauts to the ISS on 18th August first over this mission. Thus Polaris Dawn has been postponed until mid-August.
Astrosat finds ‘vampire star’
Last week, researchers analysing data from India’s Astrosat observatory in space discovered a relatively rare kind of star called a ‘vampire star’ or to be scientific, a Blue Straggler Star (BSS). It is a special star that sucks up material from its neighbouring star and grows brighter in the process. The star is located in the M67 cluster 2,700 lightyears from Earth.
Sunita Williams’ return to Earth continues to be delayed by spacecraft tests
NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s spacecraft docked at the ISS on June 5th and were supposed to return after an 8-day stay. However, their return was and continues to be delayed by NASA to ensure that the Boeing Starliner spacecraft responsible for bringing the astronauts back, has no malfunctions as it faced multiple ones before launch from Earth. However, the false ‘crisis’ situation created by eager news channels worldwide is a myth. The 2 astronauts are not ‘stranded’ in space. In the case of an emergency, there are still plenty of escape spacecraft and even a backup Starliner for an escape if necessary.
