NASA’s Spitzer space telescope: Silica (sand) in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.

In 2007 NASA’s Spitzer space telescope found the infrared signature of silica (sand) in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. 

The light from this exploding star first reached Earth in the 1600s.

The cyan dot just off center is all that remains of the star that exploded. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ O.Krause (Steward Observatory)

It's a bit like learning the secrets of the family that lived in your house in the 1800s by examining dust particles they left behind in cracks in the floorboards.

By looking at specks of dust carried to earth in meteorites, scientists are able to study stars that winked out of existence long before our solar system formed.

This technique for studying the stars – sometimes called astronomy in the lab—gives scientists information that cannot be obtained by the traditional techniques of astronomy, such as telescope observations or computer modeling.

Now scientists working at Washington University in St. Louis with support from the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, have discovered two tiny grains of silica (SiO2; the most common constituent of sand) in primitive meteorites.

This discovery is surprising because silica is not one of the minerals expected to condense in stellar atmospheres—in fact, it has been called 'a mythical condensate.'

Five silica grains were found earlier, but, because of their isotopic compositions, they are thought to originate from AGB stars, red giants that puff up to enormous sizes at the end of their lives and are stripped of most of their mass by powerful stellar winds.

These two grains are thought to have come instead from a core-collapse supernova, a massive star that exploded at the end of its life.

Because the grains, which were found in meteorites from two different bodies of origin, have spookily similar isotopic compositions, the scientists speculate in the May 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, that they may have come from a single supernova, perhaps even the one whose explosion is thought to have triggered the formation of the solar system.

A summary of the paper will also appear in the Editors' Choice compilation in the May 3 issue of Science magazine.

More information: 
AJL paper: iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/768/1/L17/

ESA Plan Multi Dome Lunar Base Using 3D Printing

Multi-dome lunar base being constructed, based on the 3D printing concept. 

Once assembled, the inflated domes are covered with a layer of 3D-printed lunar regolith by robots to help protect the occupants against space radiation and micrometeoroids.

Setting up a lunar base could be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to build it from local materials. Industrial partners including renowned architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to test the feasibility of 3D printing using lunar soil.

"Terrestrial 3D printing technology has produced entire structures," said Laurent Pambaguian, heading the project for ESA.

"Our industrial team investigated if it could similarly be employed to build a lunar habitat."

Architects Foster + Partners devised a weight-bearing 'catenary' dome design with a cellular structured wall to shield against micrometeoroids and space radiation, incorporating a pressurised inflatable to shelter astronauts.

A 2,205-pound (1,000 kilograms - Metric Ton) piece of what part of the home could look like.

A hollow closed-cell structure - reminiscent of bird bones - provides a good combination of strength and weight.

The base's design was guided in turn by the properties of 3D-printed lunar soil, with a 1.5 tonne building block produced as a demonstration.

"3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth," added Scott Hovland of ESA's human spaceflight team.

"The new possibilities this work opens up can then be considered by international space agencies as part of the current development of a common exploration strategy."

"As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials," remarked Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group.

"Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic."

The UK's Monolite supplied the D-Shape printer, with a mobile printing array of nozzles on a 6 m frame to spray a binding solution onto a sand-like building material.

ESO UK Astronomers Discover Sandstorms in Space

Astronomers have discovered sandstorms in space, according to a report published in the Nature journal.

Astronomers from the University of Sydney and the University of Manchester have discovered sandstorms in space while observing three red giant stars.

They have used one of the powerful telescopes in European Southern Observatory in Northern Chile to observe the stars.

The study revealed that super strong sand storms were responsible for removing massive amounts of dust grains around the red stars and the existence of dust grains of nearly a millionth of a metre across, big enough to be pushed out by dying stars' light, according to BBC report.

"The winds that stream from the upper atmosphere of the red giant stars are responsible for removing massive amounts of matter," said Barnaby Norris, researcher at the University of Sydney, in a statement.

According to the astronomers, star grains themselves are transparent like powdered glass, but so incredibly fine so as to appear like smoke.

These grains contain majority of the chemical elements critical to the formation of earth-like planets and life come from the winds driven from dying red giant stars.

They claim that Earth and everybody living on it are probably made of the stardust.

The ultimate fate of the star itself can hinge upon the efficiency of the wind. The mass removed by the wind can bring a somewhat heavier star below the critical threshold required to fuel a cataclysmic supernova explosion, defusing the bomb and allowing it to fade away as a white dwarf star.

Researchers claim that this new discovery will give more information about the red giant stars death and it will give us more information on how these old, dying stars manage to drive such powerful winds.

"The grains that we have discovered here will come as a real shock to the accepted wisdom in the field. They are both much larger and much closer to the stellar surface than anyone expected," said Norris.

"Hopefully our findings will help to illuminate a key step in the grand cycle as matter is expelled from stars into the galaxy only to seed new generations of stellar and planetary birth," he concluded.

Nasa Mars Reconaissance Orbiter: Sand Pit Funnel, outlet of Lava Tube

Sunlight casts a crescent shadow on the floor of an underground cavern in a recently released picture of a Martian "skylight."

This round opening likely leads to a lava tube, which is created when lava solidifies on the surface but keeps flowing underground. Eventually the lava drains away, leaving an empty cave.

Snapped by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the picture revealed that the skylight is 115 feet (35 meters) across.

The shadow helped scientists calculate that the cave floor is about 65 feet (20 meters) below the surface.

Red Sand Storm Blacks out Sydney Australia

Above - the smiling gates of Luna Park

Below - Sydney Opera House almost disappears into the red dust cloud. A disaster for locals but a photographer's dream come true!

The Red Dust Storm as seen by passengers on aircraft approaching Sydney!