Thinking about our community I often ask myself, what will it need in the future?  The answer I give myself more and more often is: normal people with strong empathy. This leads me to ask myself, how can we develop a community of such people?  We need scholarships for young people with great human and artistic sensitivity, usually the most gifted. A scholarship from the community of Asgardia to enable these children to learn the most basic and the finest arts. In a reality like the one we are going to build, we need all-round training, don't you think?

In our endless search to understand the Universe and our place within it, precious little blips in data can hint at entire new worlds. Dips in the light levels of a star can betray the presence of orbiting planets - and now astronomers have taken the first steps towards using peeps of radio emission to reveal new exoplanetary mysteries. In our endless search to understand the Universe and our place within it, precious little blips in data can hint at entire new worlds. Dips in the light levels of a star can betray the presence of orbiting planets - and now astronomers have taken the first steps towards using peeps of radio emission to reveal new exoplanetary mysteries. A few years ago, the team developed the BOREALIS pipeline program to do just that. They tested it on Jupiter and then calculated what Jupiter's radio emissions would look like if it were much farther away. There have already been some tentative detections of new planets using these radio emissions, including early this year when astronomers linked radio wave activity to interactions between star GJ 1151's magnetic field and a potential Earth-sized planet. But these have all yet to be confirmed by follow-up radio observations.So Turner's team decided to test the technique they developed, using Netherland's Low Frequency Array Radiotelescope (LOFAR) to look at three systems with known exoplanets: 55 Cancri, Upsilon Andromedae, and Tau Boötis. Only the Tau Boötis system, 51 light years away, exhibited the peeps in radio data that fit the researchers' predictions from their tests with Jupiter. It came in the form of 14-21 MHz bursty emissions and is within roughly three standard deviations of certainty (3.2 sigma). In 1996, a hot-Jupiter exoplanet was discovered on a 3.3128-day orbit around the scorching young F-type star and the smaller red dwarf that make up the Tau Boötis binary system. "We make the case for an emission by the planet itself," said Turner. "From the strength and polarisation of the radio signal and the planet's magnetic field, it is compatible with theoretical predictions." If their measurements are correct, they suggest the planet's surface magnetic field strength ranges from around 5 to 11 gauss (Jupiter ranges from 4 to 13 gauss, for comparison, and measurements of its magnetic field have revealed the planet has a core of metallic hydrogen). The observed magnetic field emission strength also fits previous predictions. "The magnetic field of Earth-like exoplanets may contribute to their possible habitability," Turner explained, "by shielding their own atmospheres from solar wind and cosmic rays, and protecting the planet from atmospheric loss." The signal they detected is weak and still needs to be verified by other low-frequency telescopes before researchers can confirm the true origin of the detected radio emissions. "We cannot rule out stellar flares as the source of the emissions," the researchers cautioned, but emissions from the planet remain a possibility. If other telescopes like LOFAR-LBA and NenuFAR can corroborate these findings, such radio emission detections from exoplanets will open up an exciting new field of research, providing us with a potential way to peer further into distant, alien worlds.

It is an event that happens to attend infrequently: the explosion of a supernova. The explosion of a star . It happened in the spiral galaxy NGC 2525, 70 million light years from us. The event was followed by the Hubble Space Telescope regularly photographing the position of the star the footage is a time lapse of the photos taken between 2018 and July 2019.. it is a type Ia supernova, the death of a star a white dwarf that, in the fury of subtracting material to a astro to his companion within a binary system reaches a "point of no return" beyond this critical threshold, which for this type of stars we know to be 1.44 solar masses, the core becomes so hot, triggering a series of reactions, thermonuclear that lead in a short time a violent explosion.The one tracked by Hubble These supernovae, which come to be 5 billion times more shining of the Sun, are a point of reference for astronomers, observing their apparent magnitude (i.e. brightness, from a certain point of observation on the Earth), they can calculate their distance and that of the galaxies in which they are located.

It is a very rare atmospheric event and this time it appeared in Italy in the night. What makes it even rarer is the complete presence of the typical rainbow chromatic arc that we see after a thunderstorm. When these nocturnal phenomena occur, normally, they give rise to a whitish arc more or less marked. In this case, however, special local and atmospheric conditions have given the rainbow to develop fully.

Astronauts starring in upcoming lunar missions could be exposed to 2.6 times the amount of radiation experienced on the International Space Station, and 200 times higher than what we normally receive on Earth. An experiment aboard the Chinese Lander Chang'e 4, located in the Von Kármán crater on The Hidden Face of the Moon, recorded the first precise measurements of the radiation reaching the lunar surface, such as those conveyed by solar activity and cosmic rays. The results, published in Science Advances, are very interesting, unique in their kind and important for planning future human missions on our natural satellite. A major risk. Already the astronauts of the Apollo program had measured the radiation collected in the missions with special dosimeters, but the count also included those to which they had been exposed during the trip. The other studies on this subject had so far been based on estimates and models. The experiment of the Lunar Lander Neutrons and Dosimetry on Chang'e-4, instead, has kept track for the first time of the radiation coming in every hour on the lunar surface: according to the estimates of the team of China and Germany that follows the instrument, in the course of a day, the astronauts on the Moon would receive the 1.3 millisieverts of radiation, a quantity higher than that which an average american would experience in a year. The radiation would be 5 to 10 times higher than those taken on an air trip from New York to Frankfurt. In the first 38 days and 12 hours of work on lunar soil, the maximum annual threshold recommended for those working in contact with radiation, which is 50 milliSievert, would be exceeded. How much radiation? The dose of radiation received in an hour in various parts of the solar system. Mars: 29 µSv/H (microsievert per hour) Moon: 57 µSv/H Space Station: 22 µSv / h Ground: 0.05 µSv / h No surprise. The Chang'e-4 dosimeter is located in a protective case that has an effect not very different from what space suits would have on the body of astronauts. The amount of radiation received is therefore quite consistent with what we would be exposed to operating on lunar soil. However, even if the estimates seem very high for the earth's parameters, will fall in the altitude of maximum tolerable NASA: the u.s. space agency may not esporrre its astronauts to radiation to increase by more than 3% the risk of developing cancer (the main side effect of exposure to particles highly energetic, able to penetrate the body and damage the DNA). RUN FOR COVER The good news is that a properly shielded lunar base would be able to protect crews from this threat. According to the researchers, buildings covered by at least 50 cm of regolite (the rocky material that forms the lunar soil) would be suitable for the purpose, but it will also be necessary to provide an even safer bunker, isolated by 10 meters of water to shelter from the occasional solar storms, which cause radiation to grow suddenly and exponentially. This super-protected refuge will have to be reached by astronauts in half an hour, the maximum time in advance with which it is possible to predict such cosmic events. In fact, as one could imagine going to the moon will not be simple and the stay on the lunar soil will once again be limited in time, at least until safety measures are engineered to allow time of stay, in safe conditions, comparable to those experienced on the International Space Station. For a more complete analysis you can consult the report published on Science advances. The goal is still far away, but we are on our way.

The use of GPS networks has also been extended to geological research to track even the slightest movements of the tectonic platforms on which we develop human activities.With these technologies that we can define also acquired by the average man both in function and performance, we can investigate both in the present and in the future of the volcanic areas that are scattered throughout the planet. The use of GPS is essential to verify, for example, the deformations of volcanic cones signal monitor of the ascent of the magma from the mantle.This is how recently an existing volcanic area in Central Europe that was believed to be extinct has attracted the attention of geologists and volcanologists. The area concerned is the Eifel, a plateau in West Germany on the border with Belgium and Luxembourg, between the cities of Aachen, Trier and Koblenz. It is a region known for its traces of ancient volcanism, as revealed for example by the lakes in a circular known as maar: ancient calderas become lakes, the largest of which, the Laacher See is the result of an explosion that occurred 13,000 years ago - In the area it was already known that esiseva a "plume" of magma from the mantle, it was Not known, however, if the magma was still active or not by Connecting the points of the surface are detected repeatedly from the GPS network around the area in question, it seems clear that something is moving under the heart of north-western Europe.The data show that the land area of the region is moving upwards and outwards over a large area centered on the Eifel, which includes Luxembourg, eastern Belgium and the southernmost province of the Netherlands, Limburg. It has been stated that the movements can be linked to the ascent of the plume of lava and this we would also explain the speed at which this movement takes place. Eifel is therefore still a potential active volcanic system: in that area of Europe there could be not only an increase in volcanic risk, but also a long-term seismic risk. A monitoring network of the affected area along the lines of what is done in Italy to monitor Vesuvius appears to be the technical solution useful to have always updated news of the evolution of the phenomenon.

If you watched 2001: Space Odyssey, you need to remember that scene where astronauts run on a giant wheel to practice and receive the daily dose of gravity. This wheel acts as a centrifuge, which simulates the force of gravity . Without gravity, the bones lose strength, the muscles become rickets, and the heart loses its conditioning. When astronauts return from long missions from the International Space Station, they are warned not to move after landing; they are loaded and then go through several weeks of reconditioning to gravity. This means that even if we had the spacecraft ready to travel for years and years in space, astronauts could not bear to spend all this time without gravity. Gravity chambers are critical for long space travel. But so far we have not been able to create any room that does not cause dizziness and nausea in its users. The problem with the wheels generating forces on the bodies is that all this movement creates a paired cross-vision, a hassle in the inner ear that makes you feel like you're somersaulting, and this causes nausea. Slow ignition To try to solve this problem, aerospace engineer Torin Clark conducted a rather funny experiment: he and his team put several volunteers to run on one of these centrifugal machines. The difference between this study and all the previous ones is that they started with rotations very slowly and progressed at different speeds, depending on the adaptation of each person. The advance has been customized. Each participant started with only one spin per minute and increased the speed only when he stopped feeling sick. Gradual acceleration did not happen quickly: they were acclimatized in 10 different sessions. This personalized advancement brought positive results for all participants. At the end of the tenth session, everyone rotated comfortably without feeling sick with an average of 17 revolutions per minute. This number is much higher than that obtained in any previous experiment. The results were published in the June issue of the Journal of Vestibular Research . The research was conducted at the University of Colorado in Boulder (USA). This shows that artificial gravity can be an optimistic option for the future of space travel. “As far as we know, virtually anyone can adapt to this stimulus,” says the researcher. 50 sessions In a similar study, the researchers increased the number of training sessions to 50 and concluded that people also adapt to multiple rotations per minute. Now they want to know how long the benefits of training last after the interruption of Sessions, and how much gravity an astronaut needs to fight the loss of bones and muscles.

Since the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was in lunar orbit in 2009, NASA scientists have been bombarding it with laser beams: their target is a reflector the size of a notebook placed on the surface of the probe, about 385,000 km from Earth. Finally, after almost 10 years of outgoing signals, this sort of mirror on the lunar orbiter has deigned to return a return signal, an important result that could help us evaluate the efficiency of some experiments on the moon since the end of the Apollo program. The bounce signal was picked up in 2018, but the research was only published now on Earth, Planets and Space. Adrift. It is the first time that a photon beam is successfully reflected by a lunar orbiter. On our satellite are already five reflective panels, positioned by the astronauts of the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972 and brought to the moon by Soviet robotic rovers Lunochod 1 and 2, in 1970 and 1973. By sending a laser beam in the direction of the Moon and measuring the time taken by the photons to go back it is possible, note the speed of light, to measure with millimeter precision the distance Earth-Moon. This is how it turned out that our satellite moves away from the Earth at a speed of 3.8 cm per year, as a result of the gravitational attraction and the relative motions of the two bodies . The weight of years (and powders). Lunar reflectors also allow to monitor how the Moon moves as it rotates: it is in this way that it is understood that it has a fluid core, and if in the future it is found that inside that core there is also solid material, this could explain how the Moon fed its ancient, and now extinct, magnetic field. In short, having accurate measurements would allow to investigate the history and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, if it were not that with time, the reflectors on the moon are become less and less "reactive" - perhaps due to the presence of dust regolith on their surface, raised by the impacts of micrometeorites. The amount of light returned from the five experiments is now one-tenth of what we would expect to receive. And this is where LRO comes into play: by comparing the photons sent back by the probe reflector with those obtained by the lunar reflectors, we will be able to understand whether these have been damaged by dust. Get around the obstacle. Attempts to reach the LRO reflector with a laser beam of visible green light have long been in vain, mainly due to the interference effects exerted by the Earth's atmosphere. So the scientists collaborated with the Côte d'azur University in France, firing at the probe an infrared laser light, much more efficient in penetrating through the gaseous layers of the Earth's shell. It worked: on September 4, 2018, the laser station in Grasse, France, recorded the first return infrared light pulse from the lunar probe. Between 2018 and 2019 the team captured about 200 return photons, out of tens of thousands of pulses launched to the satellite: it seems little (it is) but it could be enough to answer, over time, the question about the accumulation of dust on lunar experiments.

In 1604 the light of a white dwarf exploded in a supernova reached the Earth: the phenomenon, quite normal for that type of object, occurs when a small and very dense star exceeds the so-called critical mass, tearing material from a companion star that revolves around it. . In that specific case, the explosion, coming from a distance of only 20,000 light years from the Earth and presumably occurred around 18,000 BC, was also visible to the naked eye for several months: the event was documented by various astronomers of the time, including which also Kepler - and from him the supernova took its name. The animation at the top of the page consists of a series of images taken by the Chandra telescope instruments over a period of 15 years, then processed in false colors. After more than four centuries, a group of astronomers wanted to analyze what remains of that explosion. The result surprised everyone: 400 years after the first supernova glow, the explosion is still booming. One might think that it is obvious, as space is empty and nothing should slow down the ejected material, but in reality it is the material which, interacting with itself (residual cohesive forces), slows down its run with the passage of time. The astronomers focused their research on 15 nodes of matter (agglomerates) in the huge amount of material ejected from the supernova. By analyzing them by X-rays thanks to the instruments of the Chandra Orbital Telescope (NASA), the researchers were able to establish that one of these agglomerations, faster than others, is moving outwards at 37 million kilometers per hour. Never before has there been material ejected from a supernova with such a speed, and scientists still cannot say whether this was caused by an extremely powerful explosion or by an unusual environment around the supernova. The research, published in the Astrophysical Journal, reveals that the average speed of the knots is 16 million kilometers per hour and that the shock wave expands to 24 million kilometers per hour; the study also established that the escape direction is asymmetrical, which can only mean that the explosion was not homogeneous. All of this suggests that Kepler's supernova was one of the most violent in evidence and that we will likely continue to see the expansion of the material continue for centuries, if not millennia.