Space Thread

[spaminator]

Webb telescope detects what looks like a giant question mark in space
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Joel Achenbach
Published Sep 05, 2024 • 3 minute read

The "Question Mark Pair" are a dusty red galaxy and a white spiral galaxy beside it. A third galaxy forms the punctuation mark's dot.
The "Question Mark Pair" are a dusty red galaxy and a white spiral galaxy beside it. A third galaxy forms the punctuation mark's dot. Photo by Space Telescope Science Institute /Washington Post
Astronomers have a lot of questions about the universe, and the universe, in turn, seems to have a question for astronomers. Or at least it has a question mark.


The “Question Mark Pair” is what astronomers have been calling the galaxies they’ve observed in deep space with the James Webb Space Telescope. It is really just an optical illusion. The intriguing image released Wednesday is the latest reminder that, when you study the universe with the Webb, funny things are everywhere.

The looping arc of the question mark is created by a pair of galaxies that, through the space-bending process of gravitational lensing, appears to be in multiple places simultaneously. One of the two galaxies — red and dusty — is the star of the show, because it pops up in five spots in the image.

Stretched, distorted and smeared by the torque of gravity, the red galaxy forms the top of the question mark. Just off to the side is a white spiral galaxy.


A third galaxy, by chance in the right spot as seen from the Webb’s position, forms the dot of the question mark.

Gravitational lensing is a handy tool for interrogation of the universe. It’s very much like using a magnifying glass, except what’s curved is not a piece of glass but space itself. According to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, space and time (“spacetime”) are curved in the presence of massive structures, such as a cluster of galaxies. The new image is a compelling demonstration that the theory Einstein produced in 1915 accurately describes the fabric of the universe.

In this case, the lensing is caused by a galaxy cluster named MACS-J0417.5. According to the new report, this type of lensing is rare, and known among scientists as a “hyperbolic umbilic.”


The two galaxies are 7 billion light-years away and are so close together they are interacting, according to a news release from the Space Telescope Science Institute. Neither galaxy appears to have been distorted by the gravity of the other, and so astronomers believe they are seeing that interaction as it is just starting. Or, to be exact, as it was just starting 7 billion years ago.


This particular cluster of galaxies and the gravitational lensing produced by it had been studied before with the Hubble Space Telescope. But the Webb, a $10 billion observatory launched in 2021 and currently orbiting the sun about a million miles from Earth, has the ability to see deeper into the infrared portion of the spectrum than the Hubble.


The Hubble had seen the white spiral galaxy in the Question Mark Pair. But lurking next to it, undetected by the Hubble, was the second, dusty red galaxy.

A spiral galaxy is essentially a disk, like a Frisbee or a fried egg. Its appearance in our telescopes therefore depends on its orientation. The white spiral galaxy shows its broad, beautiful face, and looks like a pinwheel. The second, red galaxy shows only its edge, and is shaped more like a noodle.

The Hubble could not capture the second galaxy because dust blocks light more intensely from the view facing its edge. The Webb, however, can observe in wavelengths that penetrate dust.

“Wow, that’s amazing that dusty red galaxy pops out with [Webb] when it was totally invisible in our Hubble images!” Dan Coe, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute who is not part of the new research, said in an email. “That big clumpy galaxy appeared to be all alone with Hubble, but then [Webb] reveals another galaxy right on top of it.”


Everyone on the team was stunned when the Webb data was processed and turned into colour images, said astronomer Vicente Estrada-Carpenter, lead author of a scientific paper on the galaxy pair from researchers at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“We instantly all saw the question mark,” he said. “It’s just a beautiful image.”

In an email, Heidi Hammel, vice president for science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, said of the new research, “So much of the distant universe is mysterious to us, and it is fun when the cosmos itself teases us with a cosmic question mark.”

Webb telescope detects what looks like a giant question mark in space

Astronomers have a lot of questions about the universe, and the universe, in turn, seems to have a question for astronomers.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Tiny glass beads suggest the moon had active volcanoes when dinosaurs roamed Earth
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adithi Ramakrishnan
Published Sep 05, 2024 • 2 minute read

NEW YORK — Volcanoes were still erupting on the moon when dinosaurs roamed Earth, new research suggests.


The evidence: three tiny glass beads plucked from the surface of the moon and brought to Earth in 2020 by a Chinese spacecraft. Their chemical makeup indicates that there were active lunar volcanoes until about 120 million years ago, much more recent than scientists thought.

An earlier analysis of the rock samples from the Chang’e 5 mission had suggested volcanoes petered out 2 billion years ago. Previous estimates stretched back to 4 billion years ago.

The research was published Thursday in the journal Science.

“It was a little bit unexpected,” said Julie Stopar, a senior staff scientist with the Lunar and Planetary Institute who was not involved with the research.

Images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2014 had also suggested more recent volcanic activity. The glass beads are the first physical evidence, Stopar said, although more research is needed to confirm their origin.


The Chang’e 5 samples were the first moon rocks brought to Earth since those collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts and by Soviet Union spacecraft in the 1970s. In June, China returned samples from the far side of the moon.

The research may help us understand how long small planets and moons — including our own — can stay volcanically active, study co-author He Yuyang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an email.

Researchers studied around 3,000 lunar glass beads smaller than a pinhead and found three with signs they came from a volcano. Glass beads can form on the moon when molten droplets cool after a volcanic eruption or meteorite impact.

Existing time lines suggest the moon had already cooled off past the point of volcanic activity by the time frame suggested by the new research, Stopar noted.

“It should inspire lots of other studies to try to understand how this could happen,” she said.

— The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Tiny glass beads suggest the moon had active volcanoes when dinosaurs roamed Earth

Volcanoes were still erupting on the moon when dinosaurs roamed Earth, new research suggests.

torontosun.com

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

If they find patchouli, that'll prove the Moon had craft shoppes when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

 

[spaminator]

Two astronauts left behind in space as Boeing’s troubled capsule returns to Earth empty
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Sep 07, 2024 • 4 minute read

Boeing’s first astronaut mission ended Friday night with an empty capsule landing and two test pilots still in space, left behind until next year because NASA judged their return too risky.


Six hours after departing the International Space Station, Starliner parachuted into New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range, descending on autopilot through the desert darkness.

It was an uneventful close to a drama that began with the June launch of Boeing’s long-delayed crew debut and quickly escalated into a dragged-out cliffhanger of a mission stricken by thruster failures and helium leaks. For months, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ return was in question as engineers struggled to understand the capsule’s problems.

Boeing insisted after extensive testing that Starliner was safe to bring the two home, but NASA disagreed and booked a flight with SpaceX instead. Their SpaceX ride won’t launch until the end of this month, which means they’ll be up there until February — more than eight months after blasting off on what should have been a quick trip.


Wilmore and Williams should have flown Starliner back to Earth by mid-June, a week after launching in it. But their ride to the space station was marred by the cascade of thruster trouble and helium loss, and NASA ultimately decided it was too risky to return them on Starliner.

So with fresh software updates, the fully automated capsule left with their empty seats and blue spacesuits along with some old station equipment.

“She’s on her way home,” Williams radioed as the white and blue-trimmed capsule undocked from the space station 260 miles (420 kilometers) over China and disappeared into the black void.

Williams stayed up late to see how everything turned out. “A good landing, pretty awesome,” said Boeing’s Mission Control.


Cameras on the space station and a pair of NASA planes caught the capsule as a white streak coming in for the touchdown, which drew cheer.

There were some snags during reentry, including more thruster issues, but Starliner made a “bull’s-eye landing,” said NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.


Even with the safe return, “I think we made the right decision not to have Butch and Suni on board,” Stich said at a news conference early Saturday. “All of us feel happy about the successful landing. But then there’s a piece of us, all of us, that we wish it would have been the way we had planned it.”

Boeing did not participate in the Houston news briefing. But two of the company’s top space and defense officials, Ted Colbert and Kay Sears, told employees in a note that they backed NASA’s ruling.


“While this may not have been how we originally envisioned the test flight concluding, we support NASA’s decision for Starliner and are proud of how our team and spacecraft performed,” the executives wrote.

Starliner’s crew demo capped a journey filled with delays and setbacks. After the space shuttles retired more than a decade ago, NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX for orbital taxi service. Boeing ran into so many problems on its first test flight with no one aboard in 2019 that it had to repeat it. The 2022 do-over uncovered even more flaws and the repair bill topped $1 billion.

SpaceX’s crew ferry flight later this month will be its 10th for NASA since 2020. The Dragon capsule will launch on the half-year expedition with only two astronauts since two seats are reserved for Wilmore and Williams for the return leg.


As veteran astronauts and retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams anticipated hurdles on the test flight. They’ve kept busy in space, helping with repairs and experiments. The two are now full-time station crew members along with the seven others on board.

Even before the pair launched on June 5 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Starliner’s propulsion system was leaking helium. The leak was small and thought to be isolated, but four more cropped up after liftoff. Then five thrusters failed. Although four of the thrusters were recovered, it gave NASA pause as to whether more malfunctions might hamper the capsule’s descent from orbit.

Boeing conducted numerous thruster tests in space and on the ground over the summer, and was convinced its spacecraft could safely bring the astronauts back. But NASA could not get comfortable with the thruster situation and went with SpaceX.


Flight controllers conducted more test firings of the capsule’s thrusters following undocking; one failed to ignite. Engineers suspect the more the thrusters are fired, the hotter they become, causing protective seals to swell and obstruct the flow of propellant. They won’t be able to examine any of the parts; the section holding the thrusters was ditched just before reentry.

Starliner will be transported in a couple weeks back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where the analyses will unfold.

NASA officials stressed that the space agency remains committed to having two competing U.S. companies transporting astronauts. The goal is for SpaceX and Boeing to take turns launching crews — one a year per company — until the space station is abandoned in 2030 right before its fiery reentry. That doesn’t give Boeing much time to catch up, but the company intends to push forward with Starliner, according to NASA.

Stich said post-landing it’s too early to know when the next Starliner flight with astronauts might occur.

“It will take a little time to determine the path forward,” he said.

Two astronauts left behind in space as Boeing’s troubled capsule returns to Earth empty

Boeing's first astronaut mission ended Friday night with an empty capsule landing and two test pilots still in space

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

DND paid $32K for 'intersectional feminist' report on space exploration
The report calls for feminist, anti-racist approaches to space exploration

Author of the article:Bryan Passifiume
Published Sep 12, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read

Set your phasers to “offended.”


Newly-unearthed documents reveal the Department of National Defence (DND) paid $32,250 for a report examining space exploration through an intersectional and feminist lens, concluding that existing approaches to space are rife with “patterns of entrenched gender, racial and geopolitical dominance,” exclusions fortified by “discussions in technospeak,” and encourages practices considered “racist,” “exploitative” and “environmentally destructive.”

The report, entitled Hidden Harms: Human (In)security in Outer Space, was produced by Project Ploughshares — a Canadian “peace research institute” associated with the Canadian Council of Churches.

The report is based consultations and workshops conducted in July and was funded by DND’s Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security (MINDS) program.


“Space systems represent an unevenly distributed continuum of human benefits and harms that are shaped by gender, race, socioeconomic status, geographic location and other differentiating qualities,” reads a takeaway from the report.



Self-professed science fiction and space nerd Kris Sims, Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation — which uncovered the report via an access-to-information request — questioned the report’s value.

“This is why people stargaze and write science fiction, to get away from this crap,” she said. “To have it all just boiled down to ‘-isms’ and calling everything sexist — it’s just sad.”


The report champions excluding “gendered,” “colonial” or “militarized” language in space — ostensibly rendering common science fiction plot devices such as space exploration and human settlements on other worlds — as unacceptably problematic.

The report also claims contemporary space programs “invisiblize” women via “manned” language, which the authors claim force women to “imagine themselves within masculine constructs.”

Sims finds that ridiculous, considering the important role women have played in human spaceflight.

“Some of our pioneering astronauts have been women. Our former Governor-General was a woman astronaut,” she said. “To see taxpayers’ money wasted on something this sad is annoying.”


The report’s opposition to “colonial bias” paints unfavourable associations for science fiction franchises like Star Trek — which for generations referred to space as “The Final Frontier,” and whose lore is based heavily on settlement of star systems across the galaxy.

“These approaches normalize violence and exploitation by using colonial-biased terms like ‘exploration’ and ‘conquest’, referring to space as a frontier and terra nullius, and depicting outer space as a hostile and desolate environment that is unpeopled/inhuman and controlled so that it can provide an extractable resource,” notes the report, despite the vacuum of space indeed being a “hostile and desolate” environment unsuited to all known forms of terrestrial life.

This isn’t the first time Project Ploughshares have benefitted from DND funding.

The report’s grant application lists four other reports dating back to 2019 that received $155,875 in funding from DND’s MINDS program.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

Project Ploughshares

ploughshares.ca

DND paid $32K for 'intersectional feminist' report on space exploration

Newly-unearthed documents reveal DND paid $32,250 for a report examining space exploration through an intersectional and feminist lens.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Catch a partial lunar eclipse during September’s supermoon
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adithi Ramakrishnan
Published Sep 14, 2024 • 1 minute read

NEW YORK (AP) — Get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon, all rolled into one.


The spectacle will be visible in clear skies across North America and South America Tuesday night and in Africa and Europe Wednesday morning.

A partial lunar eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the sun and moon, casting a shadow that darkens a sliver of the moon and appears to take a bite out of it.

Since the moon will inch closer to Earth than usual, it’ll appear a bit larger in the sky. The supermoon is one of three remaining this year.

“A little bit of the sun’s light is being blocked so the moon will be slightly dimmer,” said Valerie Rapson, an astronomer at the State University of New York at Oneonta.

The Earth, moon and sun line up to produce a solar or lunar eclipse anywhere from four to seven times a year, according to NASA. This lunar eclipse is the second and final of the year after a slight darkening in March.


In April, a total solar eclipse plunged select cities into darkness across North America.

No special eye protection is needed to view a lunar eclipse. Viewers can stare at the moon with the naked eye or opt for binoculars and telescopes to get a closer look.

To spot the moon’s subtle shrinkage over time, hang outside for a few hours or take multiple peeks over the course of the evening, said KaChun Yu, curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

“From one minute to the next, you might not see much happening,” said Yu.

For a more striking lunar sight, skywatchers can set their calendars for March 13. The moon will be totally eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow and will be painted red by stray bits of sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere.

Catch a partial lunar eclipse during September’s supermoon

Get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon, all rolled into one.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

'Smiley face' crater on Mars could hold signs of life, scientists say
Author of the articleostmedia News
Published Sep 15, 2024 • 2 minute read

The European Space Agency captured this photo of a smiley-face-shaped salt deposit on Mars.
The European Space Agency captured this photo of a smiley-face-shaped salt deposit on Mars. Photo by SCREEN GRAB /ESA
The fourth planet from the sun appears to be having fun.


Astronomers have discovered a smiley face-shaped structure on Mars and researchers believe that it might indicate signs of past life on the Red Planet.

The grinning formation is made up of a pair of crater eyes as well as rings of ancient salt deposits.

The deposits are the remains of a long-ago dried-up ancient body of water, which left behind the emoji-life remnant that is only visible when viewed with an infrared camera.

The European Space Agency (ESA) captured the photo.

“These deposits, remnants of ancient water bodies, could indicate habitable zones from billions of years ago,” the ESA said, per the U.K. Daily Mail.


Scientists aren’t sure how big the smiley face is, but it is one of 965 other salt deposits recently catalogued on Mars’ surface that range from 1,000 to 10,000 feet in size.

Salt deposits are accumulations of salt or chloride found on a planetary surface. On Mars, they’re remnants of ancient bodies of water that dried up when the planet underwent a climatic shift eons ago.

The ESA said before the last puddles of Mars’ liquid water disappeared, they may have been a “haven” for microbial life.

The puddles would have been extremely salty and the remains of microbes that once lived in them might still be preserved to this day, hiding in deposits such as this smiley face.

The ESA captured the image using their ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a measuring device in use since 2016.


Salt deposits on Mars’ surface are typically invisible.

The photo was published as part of a study in the journal Scientific Data.


The research team used images taken by the orbiter to create the most robust catalog of Mars’ chloride salt deposits to date, about 1,000 of them painting a picture of ancient Mars much different than the desert planet as it’s known today.

“In the distant past, water formed magnificent landforms such as riverbeds, channels, and deltas on the Red Planet,” said planetary scientist and study lead author Valentin Bickel in an ESA statement.

Studies suggest that sometime between two billion and three billion years ago, severe climate change caused these bodies of water to dry up.

Studying Mars’ ancient water bodies could reveal clues about ancient microbial life that once lived in the planet’s liquid water, the study said.

“The new data has important implications for our understanding of the distribution of water on early Mars, as well as its past climate and habitability,” Bickel said.

While there isn’t conclusive evidence pointing to past or present life on Mars, the study adds to a growing body of research in the search for microbes on the Red Planet.

Scientists find 'smiley face' on Mars - it could hold signs of life

Astronomers have discovered a smiley-face-shaped structure on Mars -and it could be more than just a planetary quirk. It may be harboring signs of past life on the Red Planet.

dailymail.co.uk

'Smiley face' crater on Mars could hold signs of life, scientists say

Astronomers have discovered a smiley face-shaped structure on Mars.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Scientists detect longest pair of jets streaming from a supermassive black hole
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adithi Ramakrishnan
Published Sep 18, 2024 • 1 minute read

This undated image provided by Caltech, taken by Europe's LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) radio telescope, shows the longest known pair of black hole jets, as reported Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in the journal Nature.
This undated image provided by Caltech, taken by Europe's LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) radio telescope, shows the longest known pair of black hole jets, as reported Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in the journal Nature. Photo by Martijn Oei /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have discovered the longest pair of jets streaming from a black hole in a distant galaxy.


The jets shooting hot plasma are the largest ever spotted — about as long as 140 Milky Way galaxies lined up end-to-end.

“This one has managed to reach a size that’s so big,” said Eileen Meyer, who studies black holes at University of Maryland, Baltimore County and who was not involved in the study.

The discovery, made using images from a European radio telescope, was reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Black holes eat most space debris that falls their way. Sometimes, heated-up plasma makes a narrow escape by spewing out in thin, high-energy jets.

The jets can break apart soon after their creation, jostled by space turbulence or starved in the absence of new matter. But jets from supermassive black holes can become supersized.

The latest combined jets from a faraway supermassive black hole are around 23 million light-years long. That’s about 7 million light-years longer than the previous recordholder. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.

Study co-author Martijn Oei said researchers weren’t expecting to find long black hole jets so early in the universe’s history. The jets date back to when the universe was less than half its current age.

Studying the jets could reveal whether they had an influence on how the early universe came to be, said Oei with the California Institute of Technology.

Scientists detect longest pair of jets streaming from a supermassive black hole

The jets shooting hot plasma are the largest ever spotted -- about as long as 140 Milky Way galaxies lined up end-to-end.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Earth will have a temporary ’mini moon’ for two months
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Christina Larson
Published Sep 27, 2024 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 1 minute read

WASHINGTON — Earth’s moon will soon have some company — a “mini moon.”


The mini moon is actually an asteroid about the size of a school bus at 33 feet (10 meters). When it whizzes by Earth on Sunday, it will be temporarily trapped by our planet’s gravity and orbit the globe — but only for about two months.

The space rock — 2024 PT5 — was first spotted in August by astronomers at Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa.

These short-lived mini moons are likely more common than we realize, said Richard Binzel, an astronomer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last known one was detected in 2020.

“This happens with some frequency, but we rarely see them because they’re very small and very hard to detect,” he said. “Only recently has our survey capability reached the point of spotting them routinely.”


The discovery by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos was published by the American Astronomical Society.

This one won’t be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes, but it “can be observed with relatively large, research-grade telescopes,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said in an email.

Binzel, who was not involved in the research, said it’s not clear whether the space rock originated as an asteroid or as “a chunk of the moon that got blasted out.”

The mini moon will circle the globe for almost 57 days but won’t complete a full orbit. On Nov. 25, it will part ways with the Earth and continue its solo trajectory through the cosmos. It’s expected to pass by again in 2055.

Earth will have a temporary ’mini moon’ for two months

Earth's moon will soon have some company -- a "mini moon."

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

SpaceX launches rescue mission for 2 NASA astronauts stuck in space until next year
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Sep 28, 2024 • Last updated 19 hours ago • 3 minute read

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched a rescue mission for the two stuck astronauts at the International Space Station on Saturday, sending up a downsized crew to bring them home but not until next year.


The capsule rocketed into orbit to fetch the test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft returned to Earth empty earlier this month because of safety concerns. The switch in rides left it to NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov to retrieve Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Because NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won’t return until late February. Officials said there wasn’t a way to bring them back earlier on SpaceX without interrupting other scheduled missions.

By the time they return, the pair will have logged more than eight months in space. They expected to be gone just a week when they signed up for Boeing’s first astronaut flight that launched in June.


NASA ultimately decided that Boeing’s Starliner was too risky after a cascade of thruster troubles and helium leaks marred its trip to the orbiting complex. The space agency cut two astronauts from this SpaceX launch to make room on the Dragon capsule’s return leg for Wilmore and Williams.

Wilmore and Williams watched the liftoff via a live link sent to the space station, prompting a cheer of “Go Dragon!” from Williams, NASA deputy program manager Dina Contella said.

Williams has been promoted to commander of the space station, which will soon be back to its normal population of seven. Once Hague and Gorbunov arrive on Sunday, four astronauts living there since March can leave in their own SpaceX capsule. Their homecoming was delayed a month by Starliner’s turmoil.


Hague noted before the flight that change is the one constant in human spaceflight.


“There’s always something that is changing. Maybe this time it’s been a little more visible to the public,” he said.

Hague was thrust into the commander’s job for the rescue mission based on his experience and handling of a launch emergency six years ago. The Russian rocket failed shortly after liftoff, and the capsule carrying him and a cosmonaut catapulted off the top to safety.

Rookie NASA astronaut Zena Cardman and veteran space flier Stephanie Wilson were pulled from this flight after NASA opted to go with SpaceX to bring the stuck astronauts home. Promised a future space mission, both were at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, taking part in the launch livestream. Gorbunov remained on the flight under an exchange agreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency.


“Every crewed launch that I have ever watched has really brought me a lot of emotion. This one today was especially unique,” a teary-eyed Cardman said following the early afternoon liftoff. “It was hard not to watch that rocket lift off without thinking, ‘That’s my rocket and that’s my crew.’ ”

Moments before liftoff, Hague paid tribute to his two colleagues left behind: “Unbreakable. We did it together.” Once in orbit, he called it a ”sweet ride” and thanked everyone who made it possible.

Earlier, Hague acknowledged the challenges of launching with half a crew and returning with two astronauts trained on another spacecraft.

“We’ve got a dynamic challenge ahead of us,” Hague said after arriving from Houston last weekend. “We know each other and we’re professionals and we step up and do what’s asked of us.”


SpaceX has long been the leader in NASA’s commercial crew program, established as the space shuttles were retiring more than a decade ago. SpaceX beat Boeing in delivering astronauts to the space station in 2020, and it is now up to 10 crew flights for NASA.

Boeing has struggled with a variety of issues over the years, repeating a Starliner test flight with no one on board after the first one veered off course. The Starliner that left Wilmore and Williams in space landed without any issues in the New Mexico desert on Sept. 6, and has since returned to Kennedy Space Center. A week ago, Boeing’s defense and space chief was replaced.

Delayed by Hurricane Helene pounding Florida, the latest SpaceX liftoff marked the first for astronauts from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX took over the old Titan rocket pad nearly two decades ago and used it for satellite and station cargo launches, while flying crews from Kennedy’s former Apollo and shuttle pad next door. The company wanted more flexibility as more Falcon rockets soared.

SpaceX launches rescue mission for 2 NASA astronauts stuck in space until next year

SpaceX launched a rescue mission for the two stuck astronauts at the International Space Station on Saturday

torontosun.com

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

See, if they were AAA members, there'd be a guy named Bob by with his towtruck in half an hour!

Stupid astronauts!

 

[spaminator]

October’s ’ring of fire’ solar eclipse will dazzle parts of South America and the Pacific
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adithi Ramakrishnan
Published Sep 29, 2024 • 2 minute read
An annular solar eclipse – known as a "ring of fire" – will be visible Wednesday, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, over Easter Island and southern slices of Chile and Argentina.
NEW YORK (AP) — A “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun is coming. But only a lucky few will be in the path.


The annular solar eclipse will be visible Wednesday over Easter Island and the tips of Argentina and Chile.

Here’s how to safely watch the final solar spectacle of the year.

What is an annular solar eclipse?
Solar eclipses happen when the sun, moon and Earth line up just so. The moon casts a shadow that can partially or totally block the sun’s light.

During an annular eclipse, the moon obscures all but a ring-shaped sliver of the sun. That’s because the moon is at a point in its orbit that’s farther from Earth.

“The moon is just not quite big enough to cover the sun,” said Carolyn Sumners at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

This eclipse will occur mostly over water in the Pacific. Rapa Nui, known as Easter Island, is in the path along with parts of Argentina and Chile.


A partial solar eclipse, when the sun appears as a crescent, can be seen from several locations including Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Hawaii.

Solar eclipses happen about two to five times a year. April’s total eclipse of the sun dazzled skywatchers in parts of Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

How do I safely look at a solar eclipse?
Looking directly at the sun can cause eye damage, even when most of it is covered.

The annular eclipse is safe to spot wearing solar eclipse glasses, which block out ultraviolet light from the sun and nearly all visible light. Sunglasses or binoculars won’t cut it.

Glasses should say they comply with ISO 12312-2 standards, though fake suppliers can also list this on their products.

If you don’t have eclipse glasses, you can still enjoy the spectacle indirectly. Make a pinhole projector using household materials or hold up a colander and look down to see an image of the eclipse projected below.

Peering at the ground under a shady tree can also reveal crescent shadows as the sunlight filters through branches and leaves.

What’s coming next?
Two partial solar eclipses will grace the skies next year in March and September.

The next total solar eclipse won’t arrive until 2026 and will pass over the northern fringes of Greenland, Iceland and Spain.

October’s ’ring of fire’ solar eclipse will dazzle parts of South America and the Pacific

A "ring of fire" eclipse of the sun is coming. But only a lucky few will be in the path.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Stuck NASA astronauts welcome SpaceX capsule that’ll bring them home next year
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Sep 29, 2024 • 2 minute read

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday’s arrival of a SpaceX capsule.


SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometres) above Botswana.

NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX following concerns over the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA decided the thruster failures and helium leaks that cropped up after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the test pilots’ return. So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.

The Dragon carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain at the space station until February, turning what should have been a weeklong trip for Wilmore and Williams into a mission lasting more than eight months.


Two NASA astronauts were pulled from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.

NASA likes to replace its station crews every six months or so. SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also hired Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but flawed software and other Starliner issues led to years of delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with post-flight reviews of data set to begin this week.

“We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,”‘ NASA’s associate administrator Jim Free said at a pre-launch briefing.

The arrival of two fresh astronauts means the four who have been up there since March can now return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in just over a week. Their stay was extended a month because of the Starliner turmoil.

Although Saturday’s liftoff went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage ended up outside its targeted impact zone in the Pacific because of a bad engine firing. The company has halted all Falcon launches until it figures out what went wrong.

Stuck NASA astronauts welcome SpaceX capsule that’ll bring them home next year

The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometres) above Botswana.

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NASA switches off instrument on Voyager 2 spacecraft to save power
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Adithi Ramakrishnan
Published Oct 02, 2024 • 1 minute read

NEW YORK — To save power, NASA has switched off another scientific instrument on its long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft.


The space agency said Tuesday that Voyager 2’s plasma science instrument — designed to measure the flow of charged atoms — was powered down in late September so the spacecraft can keep exploring for as long as possible, expected into the 2030s.

NASA turned off a suite of instruments on Voyager 2 and its twin Voyager 1 after they explored the gas giant planets in the 1980s. Both are currently in interstellar space, or the space between stars. The plasma instrument on Voyager 1 stopped working long ago and was finally shut down in 2007.

Four remaining instruments on Voyager 2 will continue collecting information about magnetic fields and particles. Its goal is to study the swaths of space beyond the sun’s protective bubble.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune. It’s currently more than 12 billion miles (19.31 billion kilometers) from Earth. Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles (24.14 billion kilometers) from Earth.

NASA switches off instrument on Voyager 2 spacecraft to save power

To save power, NASA has switched off another scientific instrument on its long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft.

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[Blackleaf]

Professor Brian Cox is back.

The former keyboard player of Nineties pop group D:Ream is now one of the great scientists of our age and the Manchester University physicist is back with his latest TV series: "Solar System".

Here's a snippet of the first episode which was shown on BBC One on Sunday night...

 

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And here's Professor Brian Cox performing on keyboards with D:Ream in 1993

 

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In an engineering feat, mechanical SpaceX arms catch Starship rocket booster back at the launch pad
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Oct 13, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 3 minute read

This image provided by SpaceX shows SpaceX's mega Starship rocket upon its return during a test flight, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, over Boca Chica, Texas. (SpaceX via AP)
This image provided by SpaceX shows SpaceX's mega Starship rocket upon its return during a test flight, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, over Boca Chica, Texas. (SpaceX via AP) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SpaceX pulled off the boldest test flight yet of its enormous Starship rocket on Sunday, catching the returning booster back at the launch pad with mechanical arms.


A jubilant Elon Musk called it “science fiction without the fiction part.”

Towering almost 400 feet (121 meters), the empty Starship blasted off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. It arced over the Gulf of Mexico like the four Starships before it that ended up being destroyed, either soon after liftoff or while ditching into the sea. The previous one in June had been the most successful until Sunday’s demo, completing its flight without exploding.

This time, Musk, SpaceX’s CEO and founder, upped the challenge for the rocket that he plans to use to send people back to the moon and on to Mars.

At the flight director’s command, the first-stage booster flew back to the launch pad where it had blasted off seven minutes earlier. The launch tower’s monstrous metal arms, dubbed chopsticks, caught the descending 232-foot (71-meter) stainless steel booster and gripped it tightly, dangling it well above the ground.


“The tower has caught the rocket!!” Musk announced via X. “Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today.”

Company employees screamed in joy, jumping and pumping their fists into the air. NASA joined in the celebration, with Administrator Bill Nelson sending congratulations.

Continued Starship testing will prepare the nation for landing astronauts at the moon’s south pole, Nelson noted. NASA’s new Artemis program is the follow-up to Apollo, which put 12 men on the moon more than a half-century ago.

“Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books,” SpaceX engineering manager Kate Tice said from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

“Even in this day and age, what we just saw is magic,” added company spokesman Dan Huot from near the launch and landing site. “I am shaking right now.”


It was up to the flight director to decide, in real time with a manual control, whether to attempt the landing. SpaceX said both the booster and launch tower had to be in good, stable condition. Otherwise, it was going to end up in the gulf like the previous ones. Everything was judged to be ready for the catch.

Once free of the booster, the empty retro-looking spacecraft on top continued around the world. An hour later, it made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean, adding to the day’s achievement. Cameras on a nearby buoy showed flames shooting up from the water as the booster impacted precisely at the targeted spot and sank, as planned.

“What a day,” Huot said. “Let’s get ready for the next one.”

The June flight came up short at the end after pieces came off. SpaceX upgraded the software and reworked the heat shield, improving the thermal tiles.


SpaceX has been recovering the first-stage boosters of its smaller Falcon 9 rockets for nine years, after delivering satellites and crews to orbit from Florida or California. But they land on floating ocean platforms or on concrete slabs several miles from their launch pads — not on them.

Recycling Falcon boosters has sped up the launch rate and saved SpaceX millions. Musk intends to do the same for Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built with 33 methane-fuel engines on the booster alone.

Musk said the captured Starship booster looked to be in good shape, with just a little warping of some of the outer engines from all the heat and aerodynamic forces. That can be fixed easily, he noted.

NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX intends to use Starship to send people and supplies to the moon and, eventually Mars.

In an engineering feat, mechanical SpaceX arms catch Starship rocket booster back at the launch pad

"The tower has caught the rocket!!" Musk said via X.

torontosun.com

 

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NASA spacecraft rockets toward Jupiter’s moon Europa in search of the right conditions for life
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Oct 14, 2024 • 2 minute read

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with a NASA spacecraft bound for Jupiter lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Monday, Oct. 14, 2024 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with a NASA spacecraft bound for Jupiter lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Monday, Oct. 14, 2024 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Photo by John Raoux /AP Photo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA spacecraft rocketed away Monday on a quest to explore Jupiter’s tantalizing moon Europa and reveal whether its vast hidden ocean might hold the keys to life.


It will take Europa Clipper 5 1/2 years to reach Jupiter, where it will slip into orbit around the giant gas planet and sneak close to Europa during dozens of radiation-drenched flybys.

Scientists are almost certain a deep, global ocean exists beneath Europa’s icy crust. And where there is water, there could be life, making the moon one of the most promising places out there to hunt for it.

Europa Clipper won’t look for life; it has no life detectors. Instead, the spacecraft will zero in on the ingredients necessary to sustain life, searching for organic compounds and other clues as it peers beneath the ice for suitable conditions.

SpaceX started Clipper on its 3 billion-kilometre journey, launching the spacecraft on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. An hour later, the spacecraft separated from the upper stage, floated off and called home.


“Please say goodbye to Clipper on its way to Europa,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s flight director Pranay Mishra announced from Southern California.

“The science on this is really captivating,” NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free told The Associated Press back at the launch site. Scientists are still learning about the depths of our own ocean, “and here we are looking that far out.”

The $5.2 billion mission almost got derailed by transistors.

NASA didn’t learn until spring that Clipper’s transistors might be more vulnerable to Jupiter’s intense radiation field than anticipated. Clipper will endure the equivalent of several million chest X-rays during each of the 49 Europa flybys. The space agency spent months reviewing everything before concluding in September that the mission could proceed as planned.


Hurricane Milton added to the anxiety, delaying the launch by several days.

“What a great day. We’re so excited,” JPL Director Laurie Leshin said after liftoff.

About the size of a basketball court with its solar wings unfurled, Clipper will swing past Mars and then Earth on its way to Jupiter for gravity assists. The nearly 13,000-pound (5,700-kilogram) probe should reach the solar system’s biggest planet in 2030.

Clipper will circle Jupiter every 21 days. One of those days will bring it close to Europa, among 95 known moons at Jupiter and close to our own moon in size.

The spacecraft will skim as low as 25 kilometres above Europa — much closer than the few previous visitors. Onboard radar will attempt to penetrate the moon’s ice sheet, believed to be 15 kilometres to 24 kilometres or more thick. The ocean below could be 120 kilometres or more deep.


The spacecraft holds nine instruments, with its sensitive electronics stored in a vault with dense zinc and aluminum walls for protection against radiation. Exploration will last until 2034.

“Ocean worlds like Europa are not only unique because they might be habitable, but they might be habitable today,” NASA’s Gina DiBraccio said on the eve of launch.

If conditions are found to be favourable for life at Europa, then that opens up the possibility of life at other ocean worlds in our solar system and beyond, according to scientists. With an underground ocean and geysers, Saturn’s moon Enceladus is another top candidate.

NASA spacecraft rockets toward Jupiter’s moon Europa in search of the right conditions for life

A NASA spacecraft rocketed away Monday on a quest to explore Jupiter's moon Europa and reveal whether its might hold the keys to life.

torontosun.com

 

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Moonlight may hamper views of the Orionid meteor shower, debris of Halley’s comet
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Christina Larson
Published Oct 17, 2024 • 2 minute read

WASHINGTON — The Orionids — one of two annual meteor showers from Halley’s comet — peak early Monday. A bright waning moon may make them difficult to spot.


The Orionid meteor shower can be unpredictable. It shines like a fireworks display in some years, but is fairly slow in other years.

This highly variable shower may result in anywhere from 20 to 60 visible meteors per hour under ideal viewing conditions, said NASA’s Bill Cooke.

This year’s peak activity happens on a night when a waning moon is 83% full. The shower lasts through November 22.

Here’s what to know about the Orionids and other meteor showers.

What is a meteor shower?
Multiple meteor showers occur annually and you don’t need special equipment to see them.

Most meteor showers originate from the debris of comets. The source of the Orionids is Halley’s comet.

When rocks from space enter Earth’s atmosphere, the resistance from the air makes them very hot. This causes the air to glow around them and briefly leaves a fiery tail behind them — the end of a “shooting star.”


The glowing pockets of air around fast-moving space rocks, ranging from the size of a dust particle to a boulder, may be visible in the night sky.

“Halley’s comet does not leave the same numbers of particles behind each year,” making it hard to predict what kind of show viewers will see, said Cooke.

How to view a meteor shower
Meteor showers are usually most visible between midnight and predawn hours.

It’s easier to see shooting stars under dark skies, away from city lights. Meteor showers also appear brightest on cloudless nights when the moon wanes smallest.

And your eyes will better adapted to seeing meteors if you aren’t checking your phone. “It ruins your night vision,” said Cooke.

When is the next meteor shower?
October has been an active time for celestial sightings including the latest supermoon and the comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas.

The meteor society keeps an updated list of upcoming large meteor showers, including the peak viewing days and moonlight conditions.

The next big one is the Southern Taurid meteor shower, which peaks in early November.

Moonlight may hamper views of the Orionid meteor shower, debris of Halley’s comet

The Orionids -- one of two annual meteor showers from Halley's comet -- peak early Monday.

torontosun.com

 

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When to catch the last supermoon of 2024
In 2025, expect three supermoons beginning in October

Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Nov 11, 2024 • 1 minute read

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Better catch this week’s supermoon. It will be a while until the next one.


This will be the year’s fourth and final supermoon, looking bigger and brighter than usual as it comes within about 225,000 miles (361,867 kilometers) of Earth on Thursday. It won’t reach its full lunar phase until Friday.

The supermoon rises after the peak of the Taurid meteor shower and before the Leonids are most active.

Last month’s supermoon was 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) closer, making it the year’s closest. The series started in August.

In 2025, expect three supermoons beginning in October.

What makes a moon so super?
More a popular term than a scientific one, a supermoon occurs when a full lunar phase syncs up with an especially close swing around Earth. This usually happens only three or four times a year and consecutively, given the moon’s constantly shifting, oval-shaped orbit.


A supermoon obviously isn’t bigger, but it can appear that way, although scientists say the difference can be barely perceptible.

How do supermoons compare?
This year features a quartet of supermoons.

The one in August was 224,917 miles (361,970 kilometers) away. September’s was 222,131 miles (357,486 kilometers) away. A partial lunar eclipse also unfolded that night, visible in much of the Americas, Africa and Europe as Earth’s shadow fell on the moon, resembling a small bite.

October’s supermoon was the year’s closest at 222,055 miles (357,364 kilometers) from Earth. This month’s supermoon will make its closest approach on Thursday with the full lunar phase the next day.

What’s in it for me?
Scientists point out that only the keenest observers can discern the subtle differences. It’s easier to detect the change in brightness — a supermoon can be 30% brighter than average.

With the U.S. and other countries ramping up lunar exploration with landers and eventually astronauts, the moon beckons brighter than ever.

When to catch the last supermoon of 2024

The supermoon rises after the peak of the Taurid meteor shower and before the Leonids are most active.

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