Gene J. Mikulka

@genejm1017.bsky.social

Founded the Talking Space Podcast in 2009. Immersed in spaceflight since the Apollo days, Space Advocate and lovebird Dad. All Opinions are mine alone and don't reflect the position of the podcast. https://www.talkingspaceonline.com

We've learned so much from it, and continue to do so! There's ~1600 referred papers in the literature about this one event. It taught us that gravitational waves propagated at exactly the speed of light. That some of the heaviest elements, like the gold in your jewellery, come from these events!

Neutron star mergers may create much of the universe's gold

Each one creates a few Earth masses of gold, not to mention other heavy elements

science.org

Mercury's giant iron core makes up almost three-quarters of the planet's mass. In comparison, Earth's core comprises around a third of its mass. It's classified as a rocky planet, but there's an argument for calling Mercury an iron planet. Here's a cross section I made for an upcoming paper:

A drawing of the planet Mercury with an eighth of the body removed. The crust, mantle, and outer liquid and inner solid core are labelled. Credit: Paul Byrne.

What happens if we actually detect a signal from another civilization? SETI Institute Senior Planetary Astronomer Franck Marchis joined That Tech Pod to talk about first contact, AI in astronomy, citizen science, and the future of exploring the cosmos. 🧪 🔭 www.buzzsprout.com/1738696/epis...

What Happens If We Find Aliens Tomorrow? with SkyMapper CEO Dr. Franck Marchis - That Tech Pod

This week on That Tech Pod, we look up. We're joined by Dr. Franck Marchis, CEO and co-founder of SkyMapper, co-founder of Unistellar, Director of Citizen Science at the SETI Institute, and one of…

buzzsprout.com

I'm trying to get excited about a seminar on how to live and work on the lunar surface. All I need to do is to look through my minutes from the 1989 ISDC or a report mapping out 50 yrs in space also published in the 80s. The fundamentals haven't changed. We've been preparing now for 40+ years.

NASASpaceflight.com@nasaspaceflight.com · 19h ago

On Sunday, August 16, at 3:00 p.m. EDT / 19:00 UTC, NASASpaceflight will be 🔴LIVE🔴 for another Astro Live show in collaboration with the Intrepid Museum. www.youtube.com/live/QXzHoQj...

In the end no “funnies” here this time as this LM-12, not surprisingly, lifted another (should be) 9 satellites for the Chinese central government owned SatNet constellation with this SatNet LEO Group 24 successfully launched to LEO at 04:10 UTC:

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There are a couple large coronal holes facing Earth right now! These are currently sending fast solar wind our way. The western edge of the southern-hemisphere coronal hole may start to affect Earth in the next few days with more intense fast wind likely later on.

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🌕 Pakistan’s first lunar rover, Jinnah-1, is set to travel to the Moon’s south pole aboard China’s Chang’e-8 mission in 2029. Conducting scientific research and supporting Pakistan’s growing space programme. Prototype shown with the leading landing site candidate: Leibniz Beta - Mons Mouton plateau.

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Petit oiseau vert, Plumes de vert et de bleu, Son cri perçant dans le ciel, Chant vif et joyeux. Little green bird, Feathers of green and blue, Little green bird, its piercing cry in the sky,a lively and joyful song.