The sky is not the limit | An image of the black hole Sgr A * door on Mars e +!

It was a very busy week for the astronomical community. In addition to the first image of the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy, which is called Sagittarius A *, a strange formation on the surface of Mars has aroused the interest of many people. The researchers also found that they could grow plants in the soil on the Moon.

Check out this and other space news of the week.

The first image of our supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*

Released on Thursday (12) in association with Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) The first real image of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*, for “intimate”), which lives in the center of the Milky Way. This is the second time that the EHT has been able to image black holes. The image is the result of observations made in 2017, with thousands of “images” taken from various radio telescopes scattered around the Earth.

Using the image, scientists were able to draw new conclusions about Sgr A* and verify that it matches the predictions of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The Arch A* has already been studied and monitored by scientists For decades, we’ve known that it has an approximate mass of 4.31 million solar masses and that it is practically dormant.

To get the image, it was necessary to create a file Network of radio telescopes in observatories From different parts of the world together they make up a “virtual” telescope roughly the size of the Earth. In addition, it took five years of work by more than 300 researchers from 80 institutions around the world.

Not everything is as it seems, but some things seem to be too much for us to ignore. This is the case of the new image recorded by Curiosity, which shows a rectangular formation in a rock that closely resembles a type of door or entrance made by intelligent beings. Of course, this caught the attention of many people, especially those who hope to find intelligent life on another planet.

Scientists still aren’t sure what this “notch” in the rock is, but there are some possible explanations. Most likely it’s a shear fracture caused by some kind of earthquake (or “quake”) on the planet, who knows. And you, what do you think?

A new research paper suggests that Dyson balls, hypothetical giant structures that can be built around stars to extract energy, could exist around white dwarfs (the remnants of low-mass stars like the Sun after they “die”).

The study author said that these structures should cause noticeable changes in the optical signature of this remnant, and perhaps this can be detected by our telescopes. The study author estimates that less than 3% of the habitable exoplanets that can be detected by our instruments, orbiting stars that will become white dwarfs, could have civilizations capable of building Dyson spheres.

A photo from 50 years ago, considered the best image of a bird’s body ever taken, was scanned with modern equipment and the result is surprising. The original record, recorded in 1971, shows a metallic object “clicked” when Sergio Luisa was flying about 3 km over the territory of Costa Rica, on a mission in the service of the National Geographic Institute.

Using the original film, kept at the US National Archives and Records Administration, Esteban Carranza arranged for a lab in Kansas to digitize the image using a high-resolution scanner. The sharpness is incredible and reveals the details of the metallic body, like a kind of texture that was not noticeable before. It is not yet known if it was something “extraterrestrial” or some technology found here on Earth.

In one experiment, scientists were able to grow plants in samples of lunar soil brought back by Apollo 17 50 years ago. This is a major step toward plans for an extended stay for astronauts on the Moon. The new study shows that the lunar regolith, found across the surface of the moon, can become fruitful.

Therefore, of course, you need to create greenhouses and enrich the regolith with some nutrients and water. After two days, all seeds in the experiment had germinated. The problem is that the plants have been stressed, struggling to stay healthy. Despite this, the results show that the study may be on the right track.

A meteorite from Mars discovered in Antarctica in 2003 could provide an answer we’ve long sought: Did Mars have the right conditions for life? The object belongs to the class of palms, which may contain information about ancient hydrothermal systems on Mars. If the meteorite contained information from a Martian hot spring, it may have come from a possible cradle of life.

This object became interesting to investigate because scientists noticed that the minerals found there reacted after coming into contact with water, approximately 630 million years ago. However, analyzes indicate that this water did not reach the meteorite through a hydrothermal system, but from the ice that was inside. This ice may have melted during impact. In other words, the area from which the meteorite came does not appear to have been habitable.

Scientists found a small fragment preserved in a piece of amber at Hell Creek Formation, an archaeological site located in North Dakota, USA. The area contains traces of the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs, and the fragments inside the amber could be pieces of that asteroid.

The discovery has not been analyzed by other scientists yet, but if the part is confirmed as part of a space rock, it is possible that there will be clues to the origin of the asteroid.

NASA scientists are considering sending “naked” images into space, in an attempt to potentially communicate with extraterrestrials. It is not a sexual message, but representations of human anatomy.

The idea is to inform our ultimate cosmic neighbors about some details about our species, such as average height, body parts, and the population of our planet at the time of transmission. Well, this is all still a suggestion, and there is no guarantee that the plan will be implemented. However, it is always good to bring up the debate: should we give too much detail about ourselves to potential intelligent species that we don’t know yet?

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