Space Thread

spaminator

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Green comet about to be visible from Toronto for first time in 50,000 years
You might need binoculars and stay clear of city lights to see it

Author of the article:postmedia News
Published Jan 29, 2023 • 3 minute read
This handout picture obtained from the NASA website on January 6, 2022 shows the Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) that was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility this year in early March. - A newly discovered comet is currently shooting through our Solar System for the first time in 50,000 years and could be visible to the naked eye as it whizzes past Earth and the Sun in the coming weeks, astronomers have said. Having travelled from the icy reaches at the edge of our Solar System, it will get the closest to the Sun on January 12 and pass nearest to Earth on February 1.
This handout picture obtained from the NASA website on January 6, 2022 shows the Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) that was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility this year in early March. - A newly discovered comet is currently shooting through our Solar System for the first time in 50,000 years and could be visible to the naked eye as it whizzes past Earth and the Sun in the coming weeks, astronomers have said. Having travelled from the icy reaches at the edge of our Solar System, it will get the closest to the Sun on January 12 and pass nearest to Earth on February 1. PHOTO BY DAN BARTLETT/NASA /AFP via Getty Images
It’s been a long time since Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) whizzed by earth. A looooooooong time.


In fact, the upcoming visit by the comet on either Feb. 1 or 2 (observers aren’t yet sure which day will be the best day to see it in terms of brightness and clearness) will happen 50,000 years after the last time it could be seen from earth.


“It will be going past the constellation Corona Borealis just before sunrise here in Toronto with Feb. 1st being the best day to view it,” York University Assistant Professor Elaina Hyde, director of the Allan I. Carswell Observatory in the Faculty of Science, said in a release.

“The Allan I. Carswell Observatory plans to target this interesting object with our one-metre telescope.”

Viewers in Toronto might need binoculars or a small telescope to see it. It’s also best to avoid the bright city lights as much as possible.


“It will also depend on light pollution in your area and whether we have clear or cloudy skies,” said York Assistant Professor Sarah Rugheimer, the Allan I. Carswell Chair for the Public Understanding of Astronomy.

York’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory hosts a Monday night York University Radio Show and online public viewing, from 9 to 10 p.m. in addition to a Wednesday night online live teletube, starting at 7:30 p.m. Weather permitting, this may be one of the best ways to observe the comet, they said.

The comet was discovered in California last year by astronomers.

ALL ABOUT COMETS

– Comets are large bodies made of dust and ice. They orbit the sun in elliptical paths, accelerating as they approach perihelion (an object’s nearest pass to the sun), and slow somewhat as they recede to the far outer reaches of the solar system.


Every comet has its own period, or the time it takes to complete an orbit and begin a new one. Short-period comets may pass by the sun once every 200 years or less. Said comets don’t travel very far out in the solar system (usually only to the Kuiper belt, or a region just beyond Neptune), and begin their return trips more swiftly.

– The frozen core of a comet, known as a nucleus, is usually less than 10 miles wide. That’s about the size of a small city, or the volume of a single extremely large mountain.

Comets heat up as they approach the sun. That causes some of the ice to ablate into gas. As gas escapes the comet, it can carry dust with it. The combination gas/dust patch swallows the comet’s nucleus in a cloud known as a “coma,” then streams away in the form of a gently arcing tail.


– Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by two astronomers on March 2, 2022. They were using the Zwicky Transient Facility, made up of an ultrasensitive camera attached to the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California’s Palomar Mountain Range.

At that point, it was orders of magnitude too dim to be seen with the naked eye (or even with regular telescopes). By November, it had brightened to the point of almost being visible to the highest-quality binoculars from dark areas. It was found to have a period of roughly 50,000 years.

– The comet is green because it is believed that C2, or diatomic carbon (picture two carbon atoms bonded together), is present in the head of the comet. When excited by incoming solar radiation, it emits photons (packets of light) at wavelengths we see to be green.

– By the middle of February, the comet will disappear from our skies the same way it appeared – with little fanfare. The comet was estimated to have a period of 50,000 years based on its trajectory. However, there are simulations that indicate it could “escape” the solar system and essentially outrun the sun’s gravitational forces, which might mean it will never return – or at least won’t make an appearance for millions of years.

— With files from the Washington Post
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petros

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They won't see a damn thing in Toronto. We had to leave the city and drive 30 minutes to a valley to avoid light pollution to see the damn thing with binoculars.
 
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spaminator

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Video shows mysterious whirlpool spiral flying over Hawaii night sky
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Kelly Kasulis Cho, The Washington Post
Published Jan 31, 2023 • 1 minute read
A mysterious whirlpool-like object spotted over Hawaii.
A mysterious whirlpool-like object spotted over Hawaii. PHOTO BY WASHINGTON POST /Washington Post
A Japanese telescope spotted a glowing, whirlpool-like formation spinning through the night sky above a volcano in Hawaii earlier this month, shortly after SpaceX launched a navigation satellite into orbit.



“The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera captured a mysterious flying spiral,” tweeted the Subaru Telescope, which is mounted in Hawaii, from its English account on Jan. 20. “The spiral seems to be related to the SpaceX company’s launch of a new satellite.”


Flying over the dormant Mauna Kea volcano on Jan. 18, the formation first appeared as a small, soaring white object before emitting an arc-like wave and slowly spanning out into a spiral. The spiral then faded into a ring-like shape, ending a stunning visual transformation that was caught on video.

At about 7:24 a.m. that day, SpaceX launched a global-positioning satellite into medium orbit using a Falcon 9 rocket that took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.


Footage of the satellite launch shows the rocket blasting into a blue-and-orange morning sky, marking one of the company’s first missions of 2023.

Similar spirals have previously been reported after other SpaceX launches. In June, one was photographed hovering above Queenstown, New Zealand, on the same day a Falcon 9 was launched into the air from the same Florida location.

Similarly, a glowing swirl was photographed by the Subaru Telescope above Hawaii in April after a Falcon 9 rocket launched a satellite into orbit.

Some space-focused online communities have speculated that spiral shapes spotted after rocket launches are caused by the expulsion of leftover fuel.

The Subaru Telescope, which sits atop Mauna Kea, is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, a research institute. Last week, the telescope also spotted long, flickering beams of green light in the sky, which are thought to have come from a remote-sensing laser from another satellite.

SpaceX and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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spaminator

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SpaceX ignites giant Starship rocket in crucial pad test
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Feb 09, 2023 • 1 minute read
In this image from video made available by SpaceX, a Starship first-stage Super Heavy booster performs an engine-firing test at the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.
In this image from video made available by SpaceX, a Starship first-stage Super Heavy booster performs an engine-firing test at the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. PHOTO BY SPACEX /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SpaceX is a big step closer to sending its giant Starship spacecraft into orbit, completing an engine-firing test at the launch pad on Thursday.

Thirty-one of the 33 first-stage booster engines ignited simultaneously for about 10 seconds in south Texas. The team turned off one engine before sending the firing command and another engine shut down — “but still enough engines to reach orbit!” tweeted SpaceX’s Elon Musk.


Musk estimates Starship’s first orbital test flight could occur as soon as March, if the test analyses and remaining preparations go well.

The booster remained anchored to the pad as planned during the test. There were no signs of major damage to the launch tower.

NASA is counting on Starship to ferry astronauts to the surface of the moon in a few years, linking up with its Orion capsule in lunar orbit. Further down the road, Musk wants to use the mammoth Starships to send crowds to Mars.

Only the first-stage Super Heavy booster, standing 230 feet (69 metres) tall, was used for Thursday’s test. The futuristic second stage — the part that will actually land on the moon and Mars — was in the hangar being prepped for flight.

Altogether, Starship towers 394 feet (120 metres), making it the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. It’s capable of generating 17 million pounds of liftoff thrust, almost double that of NASA’s moon rocket that sent an empty capsule to the moon and back late last year.

SpaceX fired up to 14 Starship engines last fall and completed a fueling test at the pad last month.

Flocks of birds scattered as Starship’s engines came alive and sent thick dark plumes of smoke across the Starship launch complex, dubbed Starbase. It’s located at the southernmost tip of Texas near the village of Boca Chica, close to the Mexican border.

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.

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spaminator

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Space telescope uncovers massive galaxies near cosmic dawn
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Feb 22, 2023 • 2 minute read
This image provided by NASA and the European Space Agency shows images of six candidate massive galaxies, seen 500-800 million years after the Big Bang. One of the sources (bottom left) could contain as many stars as our present-day Milky Way, but is 30 times more compact
This image provided by NASA and the European Space Agency shows images of six candidate massive galaxies, seen 500-800 million years after the Big Bang. One of the sources (bottom left) could contain as many stars as our present-day Milky Way, but is 30 times more compact PHOTO BY NASA /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have discovered what appear to be massive galaxies dating back to within 600 million years of the Big Bang, suggesting the early universe may have had a stellar fast-track that produced these “monsters.”


While the new James Webb Space Telescope has spotted even older galaxies, dating to within a mere 300 million years of the beginning of the universe, it’s the size and maturity of these six apparent mega-galaxies that stun scientists. They reported their findings Wednesday.


Lead researcher Ivo Labbe of Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology and his team expected to find little baby galaxies this close to the dawn of the universe — not these whoppers.

“While most galaxies in this era are still small and only gradually growing larger over time,” he said in an email, “there are a few monsters that fast-track to maturity. Why this is the case or how this would work is unknown.”

Each of the six objects looks to weigh billions of times more than our sun. In one of them, the total weight of all its stars may be as much as 100 billion times greater than our sun, according to the scientists, who published their findings in the journal Nature.


Labbe said he and his team didn’t think the results were real at first — that there couldn’t be galaxies as mature as our own Milky Way so early in time — and they still need to be confirmed. The objects appeared so big and bright that some members of the team thought they had made a mistake.

“We were mind-blown, kind of incredulous,” Labbe said.

The Pennsylvania State University’s Joel Leja, who took part in the study, calls them “universe breakers.”

“The revelation that massive galaxy formation began extremely early in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was settled science,” Leja said in a statement. “It turns out we found something so unexpected it actually creates problems for science. It calls the whole picture of early galaxy formation into question.”


These galaxy observations were among the first data set that came from the $10 billion Webb telescope, launched just over a year ago. NASA and the European Space Agency’s Webb is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, coming up on the 33rd anniversary of its launch.

Unlike Hubble, the bigger and more powerful Webb can peer through clouds of dust with its infrared vision and discover galaxies previously unseen. Scientists hope to eventually observe the first stars and galaxies formed following the creation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago.

The researchers still are awaiting official confirmation through sensitive spectroscopy, careful to call these candidate massive galaxies for now. Leja said it’s possible that a few of the objects might not be galaxies, but obscured supermassive black holes.

While some may prove to be smaller, “odds are good at least some of them will turn out to be” galactic giants, Labbe said. “The next year will tell us.”

One early lesson from Webb is “to let go of your expectations and be ready to be surprised,” he 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.
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spaminator

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Canadian rover helping in search for frozen water on dark side of moon
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Ritika Dubey
Published Mar 04, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
The country's first-ever moon rover, seen in an undated handout image, is set to put Canada at the forefront of space exploration, helping in the global search for frozen ice on the celestial body.
The country's first-ever moon rover, seen in an undated handout image, is set to put Canada at the forefront of space exploration, helping in the global search for frozen ice on the celestial body. PHOTO BY HO /The Canadian Press
EDMONTON — The Canadian lunar rover could soon help reveal the moon’s dark side.

Article content
The country’s first moon rover is set to put the Canadian Space Agency at the forefront of space exploration, helping in the global search for frozen water on the celestial body.


Tidally locked to the Earth, the moon doesn’t spin on its axis but only orbits the planet, leaving the far side permanently dark, cold and unexplored.

“That has always piqued everybody’s imagination: What is on the other side of the moon?” said Gordon Osinski, the principal investigator for the Canadian Lunar Rover Mission.

Osinski’s Canadian team, along with international partners, is preparing to send a 30-kilogram rover to the south polar region of the moonin search of preserved frozen water, possibly a few meters below the surface and mixed into the soil.


The discovery of ice could be a stepping-stone to further explorations of the solar system, including missions staffed by humans, said Chris Herd, a scientific investigator on the mission and University of Alberta planetary geologist.

Herd, who has previously worked on the Mars rover mission, said frozen water “can be extracted and used as a resource for the astronauts to survive.” He said the ice could also be split into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, reducing the cost of bringing those supplies from Earth.

“It reduces the costs of sending humans to the moon (and) that’s the ultimate goal,” he said.

Osinski said there’s been renewed interest in moon exploration over the last five years, with more emphasis on sending astronauts back there.

The robot rover would play an integral part in realizing that dream, he added.

Christian Sallaberger, CEO of Canadensys Aerospace Corporation, said commercial expansion of the space industry is also playing a big role in reviving interest in revisiting the moon.

In November, Ottawa picked Canadensys to build the lunar rover and help with the scientific instruments meant to be shipped to the moon.

“The costs of the missions have come down, relatively speaking, to what they were in the past,” Sallaberger said. “In the ’60s, everything was government funded.”

The Ontario space company has been working in partnership with six Canadian universities and several international partners from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Canadensys would be building a robust rover that could handle extreme temperature swings — shifting from -200 C at night to more than 100 C during the day. It would also be able to tackle high radiation and jagged lunar surfaces while continuing to send data throughout the months it spends on the moon.

Working on solar power, the rover would go to sleep every 14 days and then work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until the next cycle.

Scientists will not only be looking for solid water, but would be investigating the composition of the moon’s rocky surface, characterizing the radiation environment and taking high-resolution images, Sallaberger said.

“(It’s) the preparation for future human missions that this rover would be doing,” he said.

While Canada won’t be the first country to make a landing on the far side of the moon, it could be the first to explore the south pole of Earth’s natural satellite, believed to hold ice water in the permanently shadowed craters.

China became the first country to send its rover, Yutu-2, to the far side of the moon in 2019.

Osinski said there could be other countries launching their rovers to the far side of the moon before Canada’s goes.

But he said it’s still “incredibly exciting.”

“I almost have to keep pinching myself at times,” he said. “It’s everything I’ve been working towards for the last couple of decades.”

Now, he hopes to see the launch of the rover in three years, mounted on top of a rocket — most likely to take off from NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“Then, a few weeks later, it would land on the surface of the moon. I can’t think of anything more exciting.”
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IdRatherBeSkiing

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I do hope the realize that the moon does not have a constant dark side. They have long days and nights (14-15 earth day each) but each part of the moon does get sunlight. Water equally likely (which is not very) on any side of the moon.
 

Tecumsehsbones

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I do hope the realize that the moon does not have a constant dark side. They have long days and nights (14-15 earth day each) but each part of the moon does get sunlight. Water equally likely (which is not very) on any side of the moon.
Generally true, but I think you meant the amount of water, not the likelihood, is "not very." There is no question there'll be cometary water anyplace the sun never reaches (primarily polar valleys). The key question is if it'll be usable amounts.
 

spaminator

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Steven Spielberg shares startling UFO theory: 'What if it's us, 500,000 years in the future?'

'I don’t believe we’re alone in the universe. I think it’s mathematically impossible,' Academy Award-winning filmmaker says

Author of the article:Mark Daniell
Published Mar 05, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read

After an uptick in UFO sightings, E.T. director Steven Spielberg has been left thinking one thing: we aren’t alone in the universe.


“I’ve never seen a UFO,” Spielberg said during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last week. But the Academy Award-winning filmmaker said he believes people who claim to have seen things that they can’t explain. He also thinks the U.S. government is shielding the public from knowing the full story about UFO sightings.


“I think what has been coming up recently is fascinating. And I think the secrecy that is shrouding all of these sightings and the lack of transparency until the Freedom of Information Act compels certain materials to be released publicly … I think there is something going on that just needs extraordinary due diligence,” he told Colbert.


Spielberg also said he was skeptical that we are the only planet capable of sustaining life.

“I don’t believe we’re alone in the universe. I think it’s mathematically impossible that we are the only intelligent species in the cosmos,” he maintained. “I think that’s totally impossible. At the same time, it also seems impossible that anybody would visit us from 400 million lightyears from here — except in the movies — unless it figures out some way of jumping the shark, so to speak, and getting here through wormholes.”

Last month, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. has now collected 510 reports of unidentified flying objects.

In 2021, investigators probed 144 sightings of aircraft or other devices apparently flying at mysterious speeds or trajectories with many of the reports coming from U.S. navy and air force pilots.


All but one of the instances remain unexplained, the report said.

Spielberg brought up an intriguing possibility that the sightings could be time-travellers from the far-off future.

“What if they’re not from an advanced civilization 300-million lightyears from here? What if it’s us, 500,000 years into the future coming back to document the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century because they’re anthropologists? And they know something we don’t quite know yet that has occurred, and they’re trying to track the last hundred years of our history.”

Colbert joked that the hopeful part of Spielberg’s theory is that humanity survives that long.

“Yes, we survive,” Spielberg replied. “Or a certain percentage of us survives that allows these other generations to flourish.”

But if there are aliens, Spielberg is betting that they are more like the lovable E.T. from his beloved 1982 classic film.

“I believe if any extraterrestrial civilization has journeyed all the way here, it’s because of curiosity and science, not because of aggression … The fact that they’ve been this patient with us and haven’t turned Earth into a burned out cinder is extraordinary. You have to applaud them for their patience.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com
 
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Taxslave2

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I have long thought we are a bad science experiment by more advanced beings. Whether it is still ongoing or abandoned, I'm not sure.If it is being controlled, they sure want to make us work hard for advancement.
 

spaminator

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Asteroid could collide with Earth in 2046
Author of the article:Liz Braun
Published Mar 09, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read

Got any plans for Valentine’s Day — 23 years from now?


According to NASA, February 14, 2046 is the day a huge asteroid could smash into our planet, with both Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. as possible impact areas.


The Daily Mail reports that this is an asteroid large enough to destroy entire cities and is approximately the size of the leaning tower of Pisa.

There is a one chance in 560 that impact will happen, and if it does, it will be around 4.45 p.m.Eastern Time on February 14th.

Initially, scientists gave the asteroid only a one in 1,200 chance of striking Earth, but the odds keep getting better that it will.

The 165-foot space item, named 2023 DW, was confirmed last month. It is unknown where it would fall on Earth, but predicted impact zones cover the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and across the U.S. — with Los Angeles, Hawaii and Washington D.C. all listed as possibilities.


Impact from the 2023 DW would be comparable to the Tunguska 12-megaton event that struck a Siberian forest 114 years ago and destroyed 80 million trees.

Had it struck a city, that city would have been decimated.

2023 DW is currently at the top of NASA’s Risk List with a 1 on the Torino scale, which means there is no cause for public concern at this time.

“A routine discovery in which a pass near the Earth is predicted that poses no unusual level of danger,” is the description on the Torino scale.

But orbit analysts will continue to update predictions.

A level of 10 indicates certain collisions, but, “Such events occur on average once per 100,000 years, or less often,” NASA states.

Although there is no cause for public concern at this time, it’s good to know that NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) launch last year successfully bumped a target off its orbit.

A moonlet called Dimorphos circling its parent asteroid, Didymos, was pushed off its orbit by DART; the mission was a success.

“This serves as a proof-of-concept for the kinetic impactor technique of planetary defense.

“DART needed to demonstrate that an asteroid could be targeted during a high-speed encounter and that the target’s orbit could be changed,” said scientists in astronomy and planetary science at Northern Arizona University, team leads on the mission.
 

spaminator

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3D-printed rocket remains grounded after aborting back-to-back attempts
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Mar 11, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read
This image from video made available by Relativity Space shows the company's Terran 1 rocket on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Saturday, March 11, 2023, after a countdown hold.
This image from video made available by Relativity Space shows the company's Terran 1 rocket on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Saturday, March 11, 2023, after a countdown hold. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A rocket made almost completely of 3D-printed parts came within a half-second of blasting off Saturday on its debut flight, but remained grounded after back-to-back launch aborts.


The engines ignited, but abruptly shut down, leaving Relativity Space’s rocket, named Terran, standing on its pad.


Launch controllers reset the countdown clocks and aimed for the last possible moment of the three-hour window at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. But once again, on-board flight computers halted the countdown, this time with 45 seconds remaining.

Relativity Space blamed the afternoon’s first problem on automation software and the second on low fuel pressure.

In this handout photo from Relativity Space obtained on March 10, 2023, the Terran 1 rocket can be seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 16 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
In this handout photo from Relativity Space obtained on March 10, 2023, the Terran 1 rocket can be seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 16 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. PHOTO BY HANDOUT /AFP via Getty Images
The first launch attempt, on Wednesday, was aborted at the one-minute mark because of a bad valve.

There was no immediate word on when the company might try again.

At 110 feet (33 metres), the rocket is relatively small. Relativity Space said 85% of the rocket, including its engines, came out of its huge 3D printers at company headquarters in Long Beach, California.

Given this is a test flight, all that is aboard the rocket is the company’s first 3D metal print. The company aims to put the souvenir, along with the second stage, into a low, short-lived orbit.
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spaminator

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Four astronauts fly SpaceX back home, end 5-month mission
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Mar 11, 2023 • 1 minute read

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four space station astronauts returned to Earth late Saturday after a quick SpaceX flight home.


Their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast near Tampa.


The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew spent five months at the International Space Station, arriving last October. Besides dodging space junk, the astronauts had to deal with a pair of leaking Russian capsules docked to the orbiting outpost and the urgent delivery of a replacement craft for the station’s other crew members.

Led by NASA’s Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman to fly in space, the astronauts checked out of the station early Saturday morning. Less than 19 hours later, their Dragon capsule was bobbing in the sea as they awaited pickup.

Earlier in the week, high wind and waves in the splashdown zones kept them at the station a few extra days. Their replacements arrived more than a week ago.


“That was one heck of a ride,” Mann radioed moments after splashdown. “We’re happy to be home.”

Mann, a member of Northern California’s Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, said she couldn’t wait to feel the wind on her face, smell fresh grass and enjoy some delicious Earth food.

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata craved sushi, while Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina yearned to drink hot tea “from real cup, not from plastic bag.”

NASA astronaut Josh Cassada’s to-do list included getting a rescue dog for his family. “Please don’t tell our two cats,” he joked before departing the space station.

Remaining behind at the space station are three Americans, three Russians and one from the United Arab Emirates.

Wakata, Japan’s spaceflight champion, now has logged more than 500 days in space over five missions dating back to NASA’s shuttle era.
 

spaminator

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NASA Webb telescope captures star on cusp of death
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Marcia Dunn
Published Mar 14, 2023 • 1 minute read
This image provided by NASA shows the star Wolf-Rayet 124, centre, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022.
This image provided by NASA shows the star Wolf-Rayet 124, centre, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022. PHOTO BY NASA /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Webb Space Telescope has captured the rare and fleeting phase of a star on the cusp of death.


NASA released the picture Tuesday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.


The observation was among the first made by Webb following its launch in late 2021. Its infrared eyes observed all the gas and dust flung into space by a huge, hot star 15,000 light-years away. A light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles.

Shimmering in purple like a cherry blossom, the cast-off material once comprised the star’s outer layer. The Hubble Space Telescope snapped a shot of the same transitioning star a few decades ago, but it appeared more like a fireball without the delicate details.

Such a transformation occurs only with some stars and normally is the last step before they explode, going supernova, according to scientists.

“We’ve never seen it like that before. It’s really exciting,” said Macarena Garcia Marin, a European Space Agency scientist who is part of the project.

This star in the constellation Sagittarius, officially known as WR 124, is 30 times as massive as our sun and already has shed enough material to account for 10 suns, according to NASA.
space-nasa-webb-telescope[1].jpg
 
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spaminator

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It's possible alien motherships have already visited: Pentagon officials
Author of the article:Liz Braun
Published Mar 16, 2023 • 2 minute read

Pentagon officials theorize that aliens could be visiting our solar system and releasing small probes, comparing the idea to the missions conducted by NASA when it studies other planets.


According to Fox News, it’s all in a draft research paper written by Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and Dr. Abraham Loeb, chairman of Harvard University’s astronomy department.


The AARO investigates unidentified aerial phenomenon.

WDTN in Ohio reports that Loeb says there’s a possibility humans aren’t the only civilization in the universe. Loeb’s work explores the possibility that extraterrestrial civilizations exist and he has published several books on the subject.

The AARO was established last year and is tasked with tracking objects in the sky or underwater; in 2005, congress had asked NASA to keep track of all objects near the earth that are larger than 140 meters, which, according to the report, is why we have Pan-STARRS telescopes.


In their report, the two men says it is possible alien ships have already visited our solar system.

In fact, Loeb thinks the first interstellar object spotted passing through our solar system in 2017 could have been an extraterrestrial mothership.

That year, an unusual interstellar object was detected. It was named Oumuamua, which means Scout in the Hawaiian language.

The object was cigar-shaped and moved away from the sun without showing a comet tail. This led scientists to believe it was artificial.

Loeb said that object didn’t have the characteristics found in meteors or other known space objects.

If it was a mothership, he says it could have released smaller ships, or probes, to study our solar system.


Loeb doesn’t believe there was life on this so-called mothership but said he believes Artificial Intelligence (AI) could have been operating it.

(Six months earlier, an object of similar shape and speed, described as, “a meter-sized interstellar meteor, IM2,” crashed on earth.)

As the report notes, “An artificial interstellar object could potentially be a parent craft that releases many small probes during its close passage to Earth, an operational construct not too dissimilar from NASA missions.

“These ‘dandelion seeds’ could be separated from the parent craft,” the report said, “by the tidal gravitational force of the Sun or by a maneuvering capability.”

The tiny probes would then reach other planets (and earth) for investigation purposes, after the parent craft, “passes by within a fraction of the Earth-Sun separation — just like ‘Oumuamua’ did,” the authors wrote.

Survey telescopes would not necessarily capture the “spray” of mini probes, so astronomers would not be notice the phenomena.

The comparison to NASA missions suggests that the public is being prepared for more detailed alien investigation reports in the near future.
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Mysterious streaks of light seen in sky over California
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jennifer McDermott
Published Mar 18, 2023 • 1 minute read
This image from video provided by Jaime Hernandez shows streaks of light travelling across the sky over the Sacramento, Calif., area on Friday night, March 17, 2023.
This image from video provided by Jaime Hernandez shows streaks of light travelling across the sky over the Sacramento, Calif., area on Friday night, March 17, 2023. PHOTO BY JAIME HERNANDEZ / SCREENGRAB /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mysterious streaks of light were seen in the sky in the Sacramento area Friday night, shocking St. Patrick’s Day revelers who then posted videos on social media of the surprising sight.


Jaime Hernandez was at the King Cong Brewing Company in Sacramento for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration when some among the group noticed the lights. Hernandez quickly began filming. It was over in about 40 seconds, he said Saturday.


“Mainly, we were in shock, but amazed that we got to witness it,” Hernandez said in an email. “None of us had ever seen anything like it.”



The brewery owner posted Hernandez’s video to Instagram, asking if anyone could solve the mystery.

Jonathan McDowell says he can. McDowell is an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. McDowell said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press that he’s 99.9% confident the streaks of light were from burning space debris.

McDowell said that a Japanese communications package that relayed information from the International Space Station to a communications satellite and then back to Earth became obsolete in 2017 when the satellite was retired. The equipment, weighing 310 kilograms (683 pounds), was jettisoned from the space station in 2020 because it was taking up valuable space and would burn up completely upon reentry, McDowell added.

The flaming bits of wreckage created a “spectacular light show in the sky,” McDowell said. He estimated the debris was about 40 miles high, going thousands of miles per hour.

The U.S. Space Force confirmed the re-entry path over California for the Inter-Orbit Communication System, and the timing is consistent with what people saw in the sky, he added. The Space Force could not immediately be reached Saturday with questions.

— McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
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