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"Interstellar space"
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The complete Psychotechnic League
World War III has ravaged the globe. Once great nations have been brought to their knees. Now, a new science offers hope for the future: Psychodynamics, the ability to influence government and popular opinion. Led by the Psychotechnic Institute, humanity denounces its violent ways, once and for all. While peace reigns on Earth, humankind ventures out into the Solar System--and to the stars beyond. But soon the cycle of war and destruction begins anew. Publisher.
Book
Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group
Cell membranes are a key element of life because they keep the genetic material and metabolic machinery together. All present cell membranes are made of phospholipids, yet the nature of the first membranes and the origin of phospholipids are still under debate. We report here the presence of ethanolamine in space, NH₂CH₂CH₂OH, which forms the hydrophilic head of the simplest and second-most-abundant phospholipid in membranes. The molecular column density of ethanolamine in interstellar space is N = (1.51 ± 0.07) × 1013 cm−2, implying a molecular abundance with respect to H₂ of (0.9 − 1.4) × 10−10. Previous studies reported its presence in meteoritic material, but they suggested that it is synthesized in the meteorite itself by decomposition of amino acids. However, we find that the proportion of the molecule with respect to water in the interstellar medium is similar to the one found in the meteorite (10−6). These results indicate that ethanolamine forms efficiently in space and, if delivered onto early Earth, could have contributed to the assembling and early evolution of primitive membranes.
Journal Article
The 100 year starship
So far, our travels into outer space have been limited to the planets and moons surrounding the sun in our own solar system. What would we find if we made it all the way to another star's solar system? Today's astronomers are planning a mission to explore further reaches of space than humans have ever reached. Readers will discover how these bold scientists are working to build faster spaceships and overcome the obstacles that make it difficult for humans to survive in outer space.
Book
The Heliosphere's Interstellar Interaction: No Bow Shock
As the Sun moves through the local interstellar medium, its supersonic, ionized solar wind carves out a cavity called the heliosphere. Recent observations from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft show that the relative motion of the Sun with respect to the interstellar medium is slower and in a somewhat different direction than previously thought. Here, we provide combined consensus values for this velocity vector and show that they have important implications for the global interstellar interaction. In particular, the velocity is almost certainly slower than the fast magnetosonic speed, with no bow shock forming ahead of the heliosphere, as was widely expected in the past.
Journal Article
Interstellar travel
\"Interstellar Travel: Purpose and Motivations is a comprehensive, technical look at the necessary considerations for interstellar travel addressed by leading experts in the field, from scientists studying possible destinations (exoplanets) and the vast distances between, to those concerned with building institutions and capabilities in society that could sustain such endeavors. In addition to the technical, medical, and anthropological aspects of deep space travel, the ethics and morality of spreading Earth-based life to other worlds is also examined. In the first book of a three-book compilation, Interstellar Travel: Purpose and Motivations offers in-depth, up-to-date and realistic technical and scientific considerations in the pursuit of interstellar travel and is an integral reference for scientists, engineers, researchers and academics working on, or interested in, space development and space technologies. With a renewed interest in space exploration and development evidenced by the rise of the commercial space sector and various governments now planning to send humans back to the moon and to Mars, so also is interest in taking the next steps beyond the Solar System and to the ultimate destination--planets circling other stars.\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
The Comet Interceptor Mission
Here we describe the novel, multi-point Comet Interceptor mission. It is dedicated to the exploration of a little-processed long-period comet, possibly entering the inner Solar System for the first time, or to encounter an interstellar object originating at another star. The objectives of the mission are to address the following questions: What are the surface composition, shape, morphology, and structure of the target object? What is the composition of the gas and dust in the coma, its connection to the nucleus, and the nature of its interaction with the solar wind? The mission was proposed to the European Space Agency in 2018, and formally adopted by the agency in June 2022, for launch in 2029 together with the Ariel mission. Comet Interceptor will take advantage of the opportunity presented by ESA’s F-Class call for fast, flexible, low-cost missions to which it was proposed. The call required a launch to a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point. The mission can take advantage of this placement to wait for the discovery of a suitable comet reachable with its minimum
Δ
V capability of
600
ms
−
1
. Comet Interceptor will be unique in encountering and studying, at a nominal closest approach distance of 1000 km, a comet that represents a near-pristine sample of material from the formation of the Solar System. It will also add a capability that no previous cometary mission has had, which is to deploy two sub-probes – B1, provided by the Japanese space agency, JAXA, and B2 – that will follow different trajectories through the coma. While the main probe passes at a nominal 1000 km distance, probes B1 and B2 will follow different chords through the coma at distances of 850 km and 400 km, respectively. The result will be unique, simultaneous, spatially resolved information of the 3-dimensional properties of the target comet and its interaction with the space environment. We present the mission’s science background leading to these objectives, as well as an overview of the scientific instruments, mission design, and schedule.
Journal Article
Deep space propulsion : a roadmap to interstellar flight
This text reviews the many reasons for exploring our stellar neighbours using robotic probes, and closely examines new technologies for constructing space probes that can traverse the enormous distances between the stars.
Book
Astrophysical detection of the helium hydride ion HeH
During the dawn of chemistry
1
,
2
, when the temperature of the young Universe had fallen below some 4,000 kelvin, the ions of the light elements produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis recombined in reverse order of their ionization potential. With their higher ionization potentials, the helium ions He
2+
and He
+
were the first to combine with free electrons, forming the first neutral atoms; the recombination of hydrogen followed. In this metal-free and low-density environment, neutral helium atoms formed the Universe’s first molecular bond in the helium hydride ion HeH
+
through radiative association with protons. As recombination progressed, the destruction of HeH
+
created a path to the formation of molecular hydrogen. Despite its unquestioned importance in the evolution of the early Universe, the HeH
+
ion has so far eluded unequivocal detection in interstellar space. In the laboratory the ion was discovered
3
as long ago as 1925, but only in the late 1970s was the possibility that HeH
+
might exist in local astrophysical plasmas discussed
4
–
7
. In particular, the conditions in planetary nebulae were shown to be suitable for producing potentially detectable column densities of HeH
+
. Here we report observations, based on advances in terahertz spectroscopy
8
,
9
and a high-altitude observatory
10
, of the rotational ground-state transition of HeH
+
at a wavelength of 149.1 micrometres in the planetary nebula NGC 7027. This confirmation of the existence of HeH
+
in nearby interstellar space constrains our understanding of the chemical networks that control the formation of this molecular ion, in particular the rates of radiative association and dissociative recombination.
Studies of the planetary nebula NGC 7027, using an upgraded spectrometer onboard a high-altitude observatory, have identified the rotational ground-state transition of the helium hydride ion—the first molecule to form after the Big Bang and an essential precursor to molecular hydrogen.
Journal Article
Children of time
\"The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age--a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?\" -- (Source of summary not specified)
Book
Laboratory infrared spectra and fragmentation chemistry of sulfur allotropes
Sulfur is one of six life-essential elements, but its path from interstellar clouds to planets and their atmospheres is not well known. Astronomical observations in dense clouds have so far been able to trace only 1 percent of cosmic sulfur, in the form of gas phase molecules and volatile ices, with the missing sulfur expected to be locked in a currently unidentified form. The high sulfur abundances inferred in icy and rocky solar system bodies indicate that an efficient pathway must exist from volatile atomic sulfur in the diffuse interstellar medium to some form of refractory sulfur. One hypothesis is the formation of sulfur allotropes, particularly of the stable S
8
. However, experimental information about sulfur allotropes under astrochemically relevant conditions, needed to constrain their abundance, is lacking. Here, we report the laboratory far-infrared spectra of sulfur allotropes and examine their fragmentation pathways. The spectra, including that of cold, isolated S
8
with three bands at 53.5, 41.3 and 21.1 µm, form a benchmark for computational modelling, which show a near-perfect match with the experiments. The experimental fragmentation pathways of sulfur allotropes, key information for astrochemical formation/destruction models, evidence a facile fragmentation of S
8
. These findings suggest the presence of sulfur allotropes distributions in interstellar space or in the atmosphere of planets, dependent on the environmental conditions.
Sulfur allotropes are proposed to be an important sulfur reservoir in molecular clouds, but spectroscopic data to test this hypothesis are limited. Here the authors measure laboratory far-infrared spectra of cold isolated S
8
molecules, which show a near-perfect match with calculations, and examine their fragmentation pathways.
Journal Article