Tag: explosions
The most extreme space explosions and crashes of 2022
Space explosions aren’t the end. They’re often the beginning.
The explosions of massive stars, for example, spread essential elements around the universe. That includes iron, which helps our cells carry blood, and the oxygen we breathe. The violent blasts themselves manufacture heavier elements. You are made of stars, too. And when stars explode, they can form colossal regions of gas and dust, called nebulae, where bounties of new stars can form in the roiling clouds.
In 2022, astronomers detected a number of violent explosions and crashes in space — including one intentionally created by humans. Below are the particularly momentous events, in our solar system and beyond.
A massive, exploding star
Credit: NASA / ESA / M. Kornmesser
On Oct. 9, astronomers observed an extraordinarily colossal boom. NASA’s Swift Observatory, which is specifically designed to spot the most powerful known explosions in the universe today — called gamma-ray bursts — detected an extremely strong such burst. Something wildly potent must produce these jets of energy that travel through space, and scientists say they’re caused by the collapse and explosion of enormous stars, events called supernovae.
For a star to go supernova, it must be quite massive — at least eight times the size of the sun. But for a supernova to produce the strongest type of gamma-ray burst, the star must be some 30 to 40 times the size of the sun. This new powerful detection, so rare that we’ll likely only observe something of this magnitude around once a decade, came from such a mighty star.
“It’s a very unique event,” Yvette Cendes, an astronomer and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Mashable.
Importantly, you need not worry. This terrific explosion happened in a galaxy 2 billion light-years away. At such a distance, its energy, which has been traveling and spreading through space for eons, poses no danger to us. But we can easily, with satellites, detect it.
“It’s the equivalent of getting front row seats at a fireworks show,” Cendes explained.
You can read the full story on Mashable.
Huge, mysterious blast detected in deep space
Credit: X-ray: NASA / CXC / Northwestern Univ. / A. Hajela et al. // Illustration: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss
Scientists recently observed a giant blast some 130 million light-years from Earth. Previously, they detected a colossal collision here from a well-known merger between two neutron stars — collapsed stars that are perhaps the densest objects in the universe. But that dramatic event, which produced a potent stream of energy, began to fade. Around three and a half years later, something else, something new, has created another curious blast or release of energy.
“There’s something else happening now,” Edo Berger, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, and one of the scientists who detected this new cosmic event, told Mashable.
The burst of energy, picked up by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (which detects emissions from extremely hot places in the universe), was intense. Astronomers liken it to the sonic boom made when a speeding plane breaks the sound barrier.
In new research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers propose two possible scenarios that might explain the event, neither of which has ever been observed before, explained Aprajita Hajela, an astronomer who led the research. Hajela is a PhD student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University.
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A “kilonova glow”: A what? In the explanation currently considered likeliest, when two neutron stars (bodies so incredibly dense that a teaspoon of neutron star weighs around a whopping 1 billion tons) collided, they created an extremely bright blast, called a kilonova. Kilonovas may be of great importance to the universe, and our lives: Astronomers suspect important elements and metals are forged in these blasts, like gold and platinum. “It is one of the proposed predominant sites for the heavier elements in the universe,” explained Hajela.
But after this immense kilonova explosion, astronomers propose that debris expanded out into space, generating a shock wave, or blast. The blast heated up anything around like gases or stardust. This is the kilonova glow or afterglow we can detect from millions of light-years away.
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Black hole: Another possibility is the dramatic neutron star merger created a black hole — an “object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it,” explains NASA — and now matter from the collision is falling into the black hole. When debris falls in, it releases bounties of energy as it spirals around the powerful, dark object. This could be the source of this newly detected energy from distant space.
You can read the full story on Mashable.
Amazed scientists watched a giant star explode for the first time
Credit: NASA / CXC / RIKEN And GSFC / T. Sato Et Al. / Optical: DSS
Until recently, astronomers had never directly witnessed the explosion of a massive, aging star. But in 2020, astronomers atop a mountain in Maui used a powerful telescope to detect an unusually active red supergiant, much more distant than Betelgeuse (at some 120 million light-years away). They watched it closely for 130 days, giving themselves an invaluable view of the grand finale. The resulting stellar explosion is called “supernova 2020tlf.”
“We actually saw the star violently erupt,” Wynn Jacobson-Galán, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley who led the research, told Mashable. “It’s been something we wanted to find.”
The research was published this year in The Astrophysical Journal.
The explosion of this star happened well beyond our Milky Way in the galaxy NGC 5731, so there’s no “close-up” footage. (Any stars well beyond our galaxy usually appear as dots seen through our telescopes.) But the astronomers, sensing the explosion was imminent, employed specialized imaging equipment at the W.M. Keck Observatory, atop the lofty Mauna Kea in Hawai’i, to observe the climatic “powerful flash” and intense release of energy.
The blast was conspicuous, even in a distant galaxy filled with luminous stars. “It takes just one supernova to outshine all the other stars in the galaxy,” explained Jacobson-Galán.
You can read the full story on Mashable.
Boom! NASA slammed into an asteroid and filmed the crash
Credit: NASA / JHUAPL
NASA’s mission to move an asteroid was a great success.
Called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, the endeavor was humanity’s first-ever attempt to purposefully nudge a cosmic object. The rocky target, Dimorphos, is not a threat to Earth, but the mission was an experiment to see how civilization could alter the path of a menacing asteroid, should one ever be on a collision course with our planet.
The aim wasn’t to destroy Dimorphos, which at time of impact was some 6.8 million miles from Earth. Rather, the intention was to just smack the stadium-sized asteroid with a spacecraft the size of a vending machine. Scientists slightly nudged the asteroid, ultimately demonstrating proof of the ability to alter an asteroid’s trajectory.
The impact, which blasted some 2 million tons of rock into space, created a tail tens of thousands of miles long. Critically, the impact significantly slowed Dimorphos’ orbit around its parent asteroid, Didymos, proving that the experiment worked.
“What we can learn from the DART mission is all part of […] NASA’s overarching work to understand asteroids and other small bodies in our Solar System,” Tom Statler, the program scientist for DART at NASA, said in a statement. “Impacting the asteroid was just the start. Now we use the observations to study what these bodies are made of and how they were formed – as well as how to defend our planet should there ever be an asteroid headed our way.”
You can read the full story on Mashable.
A rocket slammed into the moon. NASA got a picture.
Credit: NASA / Goddard / Arizona State University
The moon has a strange, new crater. But this one’s not natural.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which began mapping the moon in 2009, spotted the impact site of a recent rocket crash on the far side of the moon, which occurred in early March. The space agency published imagery of the explosive impact in June which actually resulted in a double crater: a 19.5-yard crater overlapping with a 17.5-yard crater.
Astronomers expected a wayward rocket booster to slam into the moon, making it the first known time that space debris unintentionally impacted our natural satellite. What NASA didn’t expect, however, was a double crater.
“The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end,” NASA wrote in a description of the image. “Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may indicate its identity.”
You can read the full story on Mashable.
A colossal meteorite struck Mars. Then NASA made an even bigger discovery.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has zipped around the red desert planet for a decade and a half, snapped a stunning Martian image this year: It’s of a new crater nearly 500 feet across and some 70 feet deep.
“It’s unprecedented to find a fresh impact of this size,” Ingrid Daubar of Brown University, who leads NASA InSight’s Impact Science Working Group, said in a statement. “It’s an exciting moment in geologic history, and we got to witness it.”
NASA’s geologic sleuth InSight lander, which detects Marsquakes, picked up the event in late 2021. Then, the 2022 image revealed valuable resources hidden in the Martian subsurface. As Mashable’s Elisha Sauers reported:
But what’s thrilled scientists perhaps as much as or more than the recorded seismic activity is what the meteor uncovered when it slammed into Mars — huge, boulder-size chunks of ice blasted out of the crater. Up until now, underground ice hadn’t been found in this region, the warmest part of the planet.
“This is really an exciting result,” said Lori Glaze, NASA’s director of planetary science, during a news conference. “We know, of course, that there’s water ice near the poles on Mars. But in planning for future human exploration of Mars, we’d want to land the astronauts as near to the equator as possible, and having access to ice at these lower latitudes, that ice can be converted into water, oxygen, or hydrogen. That could be really useful.”
You can read the full story on Mashable.
Stayed tuned for more momentous space explosions next year. And the year after. And, well, you get the idea.
Amazon Took All US Solar Rooftops Offline Last Year After Flurry of Fires, Electrical Explosions
The documents, which have never been made public, indicate that between April 2020 and June 2021, Amazon experienced “critical fire or arc flash events” in at least six of its 47 North American sites with solar installations, effecting 12.7% of such facilities. Arc flashes are a kind of electrical explosion. “The rate of dangerous incidents is unacceptable, and above industry averages,” an Amazon employee wrote in one of the internal reports. […] By June of last year, all of Amazon’s U.S. operations with solar had to be taken offline temporarily, internal documents show. The company had to ensure its systems were designed, installed and maintained properly before “re-energizing” any of them.
Amazon spokesperson Erika Howard told CNBC in a statement that the incidents involved systems run by partners, and that the company responded by voluntarily turning off its solar-powered roofs. “Out of an abundance of caution, following a small number of isolated incidents with onsite solar systems owned and operated by third parties, Amazon proactively powered off our onsite solar installations in North America, and took immediate steps to re-inspect each installation by a leading solar technical expert firm,” the statement said. […] “As inspections are completed, our onsite solar systems are being powered back on,” Howard said. “Amazon also built a team of dedicated solar experts overseeing the construction, operations, and maintenance of our systems in-house to ensure the safety of our systems.” “An Amazon employee estimated, in the documents circulated internally, that each incident cost the company an average of $2.7 million,” adds the report. “The Amazon employee also said the company would lose $940,000 per month, or $20,000 for each of the 47 decommissioned North American sites, as long as the solar remained offline. There could be additional costs for Amazon depending on contracts with clean energy partners for renewable energy credits, the documents show.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
M6 fire: Huge blaze engulfs motorway amid reports of ‘multiple explosions’ heard
War in Ukraine Brings Explosions at Europe’s Largest Nuclear Plant
“Then, on Friday, explosions rang out at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex, the biggest of its kind in Europe, reigniting fears of a potential disaster.”
Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling the plant, which was taken over by Russian forces in early March, along with the town of Enerhodar, where the complex is located. CNN was unable to verify claims of damage at the plant, which occupies a large site. Much of the recent Russian fire in the area has originated from near the plant and it is unclear if parts of the nuclear facility were hit accidentally…. The Russian defense ministry added that the generating capacity of one unit at the plant had been reduced, and power supply to another cut….
When fierce fighting first broke out near the facility in the early days of the war, it sparked fears of a nuclear incident and prompted condemnations from the international community. Russian troops forced its managers to work “at gunpoint” after seizing the plant on March 5, according to Ukrainian nuclear officials. A week later, the Kremlin sent officials and technicians from Russia’s state nuclear agency to help conduct repairs and manage the facility. Ukrainian and Russian staff have been working alongside each other since, and communication with the outside world has been intermittent.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power operator, Energoatom, said Friday that Russian shelling had hit in and around the nuclear complex and damaged a water intake facility, cutting power and water to much of Enerhodar. “Three hits were recorded directly at the site of the station,” the Ukrainian agency said, claiming that one was “near one of the power units where the nuclear reactor is located….”
Energoatom said on Saturday that the plant was operational and Ukrainian staff at the station continued to work to ensure radiation safety. Ukrainian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident.
Tuesday the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that the plant “is completely out of control,” adding “Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated…. What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.” But CNN adds that “Other officials have been more measured, pointing to the fact that recent nuclear energy facilities are designed to withstand terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
“Several Western and Ukrainian officials believe that Russia is now using the giant nuclear facility as a fortress to protect their troops and stage attacks, because they assume Kyiv will not retaliate and risk a crisis.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.