entered_bubble_50 t1_j7mavsb wrote on February 7, 2023 at 8:51 PM

Reply to comment by Sdwingnut in The James Webb Space Telescope just found an asteroid by total accident, its smallest object yet by pecika

To be fair, they can't actually resolve it at this distance - it's just a dot.

entered_bubble_50 OP t1_j6u6sy1 wrote on February 1, 2023 at 10:27 PM

Reply to Investigations reveal more evidence that Mimas is a stealth ocean world by entered_bubble_50

We can possibly add this to the list of moons that appear to have sub surface liquid oceans. So far, it seems there are liquid water oceans on present on Titan, Europa, Enceladus and possibly, Callisto, Ganymede, Triton and now Mimas. Crazy!

entered_bubble_50 t1_j6oxz72 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 9:34 PM

Reply to A spaceflight disaster was narrowly avoided in 1972. A series of intense solar flares exploded in August, just months before the launch of Apollo 17. Any astronauts on the moon at that time would have died from radiation. As NASA's new lunar missions progress, the threat of radiation still looms. by EricFromOuterSpace

Fortunately, even the relatively thin wall of the Apollo spacecraft would have attenuated the radiation significantly, since the radiation from solar storms is mostly beta:

> The solar storm of August 1972 is legendary at NASA because it occurred in between two Apollo missions: the crew of Apollo 16 had returned to Earth in April and the crew of Apollo 17 was preparing for a moon landing in December.

> Cucinotta estimates that a moonwalker caught in the August 1972 storm might have absorbed 400 rem. Deadly? "Not necessarily," he says. A quick trip back to Earth for medical care could have saved the hypothetical astronaut's life.

> Surely, though, no astronaut is going to walk around on the moon when there's a giant sunspot threatening to explode. "They're going to stay inside their spaceship (or habitat)," according to Cucinotta. An Apollo command module with its aluminum hull would have attenuated the 1972 storm from 400 rem to less than 35 rem at the astronaut's blood-forming organs. That's the difference between needing a bone marrow transplant, or having a headache.

Courtesy of NASA