AstroTalk Episode May 24, 2018

Course Corrections for Insight. Black Holes Around Sgr A*.

2:01pm - 3:02pm

The Insight Spacecraft has to deal with as many 6 course corrections on its way to Mars. NASA has to keep Insight free from contaminants, so this affected the way Insight was launched. The course corrections are therefore necessary to get Insight in the right place at the right time, when it eventually gets to Mars in later October. Scientists are discovering the bounty of solar mass black holes that are thought to exist around our galaxy's central, supermassive black hole, Sgr A* The Chandra X-Ray observatory is doing the necessary snooping, to locate these black holes. NASA's NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS, is also discovering fascinating things about the magnetic happenings in Earth's magnetosphere. Magnetic reconnection, a complicated process which takes place in Earth's magnetosphere, has an affect on space weather, and therefore the weather on Earth. MMS is finding out interesting things about magnetic reconnection in near-Earth space.