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Heavy, black smoke, flames seen near Cheyenne, Lamb in Las Vegas
Published: May. 1, 2023 at 3:37 PM PDT| Updated: 23 minutes ago
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Heavy, black smoke and flames are present at a business in the Las Vegas Valley.
The smoke was spotted near Cheyenne Avenue and Lamb Boulevard in the northeast valley. Wind was carrying the smoke as well.
A representative with Clark County Fire Department said the fire appears to be at a junkyard with “lots of cardboard.” According to a source, there were cardboards and pallets that caught fire in the area. Sources said there is possible exposure to propane tanks in the area, causing some concern on scene.
CCFD said a second alarm has been called to assist with traffic control in the area.
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2023/05/01/heavy-black-smoke-flames-seen-near-cheyenne-lamb/
Spiffy shovels
chekt
The "Eye of the Sahara" in the African nation of Mauritania
May 1, 2023
(April 26, 2023) — The Richat Structure, also known as the "Eye of the Sahara," an eroded geological dome in the nation of Mauritania, is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 259 miles above the African continent.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-eye-of-the-sahara-in-the-african-nation-of-mauritania-0
Astronaut Kjell Lindgren
May 1, 2023
"I think that getting to be a crewmember on the International Space Station, and getting to serve there over the course of two long-duration stays, we really feel like we are bridge-builders.
"We are actively building the bridge to the Moon and then on to Mars. We, and the science that we do and the operations we conduct, are bringing together these discrete building blocks and putting them on a bridge to prepare us for these long-duration missions. Especially when we go to Mars, I mean, we’re talking about [missions longer than] two years. We’re doing that science, we’re doing those space operations, but we’re serving as human subjects, too. We’ve learned a lot over the past two decades and we continue to learn a lot about what is required to keep our crewmembers healthy, so that not only do they enjoy success in orbit, but we can get them home safely when they return. Being a part of that dream of someday going to Mars and directly contributing to that is very gratifying.
"…I want to encourage all the folks that support the human spaceflight missions — we are all laying building blocks for that journey to the Moon and then to Mars. We [as astronauts] certainly get to be the eyes and hands on the space station in low Earth orbit, and that’s a tremendous privilege, but our contributions are in line with all of the other folks here on Earth that are figuring out propulsion, figuring out logistics, and all the things we need to do to pull off Artemis successfully."
— Kjell Lindgren, Astronaut, NASA's Johnson Space Center
https://www.nasa.gov/faces-of-nasa/kjell-lindgren/
Hubble Observes an In-between Galaxy
May 1, 2023
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the lenticular galaxy NGC 3489. Lenticular galaxies aren’t quite spiral galaxies or elliptical galaxies. They lie somewhere in between, exhibiting traits of both. Lenticular galaxies have a central bulge of tightly packed stars and a thin, circular disk of stars, gas, and dust, like spiral galaxies, but they lack arms. And like elliptical galaxies, lenticular galaxies have older stellar populations and little ongoing star formation.
NGC 3489 has an active galactic nucleus, or AGN. The AGN sits at the center of the galaxy, is extremely bright, and emits radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum as the black hole devours material that gets too close to it.
This lenticular galaxy is a Seyfert galaxy, which is a class of AGN that is dimmer than other types of AGNs. They generally don’t outshine the rest of the galaxy, so the galaxy surrounding the black hole is clearly visible. Other types of AGNs emit so much radiation that it is almost impossible to observe the host galaxy.
NGC 3489 is about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-observes-an-in-between-galaxy
See Mercury's giant, comet-like tail in stunning new image as it passes close to the sun
Apr 30 2023
Mercury has been spotted cosplaying as a comet recently when the sun's neighboring planet reached its nearest point to our star, exposing its massive, streaking tail in the night sky. One astrophotographer captured a truly epic shot of the charade.
Comets are orbiting chunks of frozen rocks, gases and dust that are almost always seen with distinctive twin tails trailing behind them — one made of gas that leaks from their interiors and another created by dust from their surfaces. These two tails are blown away from the comet in the same direction by charged particles from the sun known as solar wind.
Mercury, the solar system's smallest planet, has a comet-like tail made predominantly of sodium ions, which are scattered from the planet's surface by solar wind and micro-meteor impacts. Researchers have known about Mercury's tail since 2001 and have since discovered that it grows and shrinks based on the planet's proximity to the sun. At its peak, the tail stretches to around 14.9 million miles (24 million kilometers) long, according to Spaceweather.com(opens in new tab), which is around 62 times greater than the distance between Earth and the moon. The tail stretches this huge distance because Mercury has a very weak atmosphere and is close to the sun, which makes it easy for the solar wind to rip up the planet's surface.
For unknown reasons, Mercury's tail is most visible from Earth exactly 16 days after perihelion, or the point at which the planet is closest to the sun, according to Spaceweather.com. Mercury reached perihelion on April 1, meaning its tail appeared brightest on April 17. But on April 12, astrophotographer Sebastian Voltmer(opens in new tab) captured a stunning image(opens in new tab) of the planet's tail from a spot near Spicheren, a commune in northeastern France.
To a casual observer, Mercury's tail is very hard to see, which is why it went undiscovered until the 21st century. But Voltmer was able to photograph the giant plume thanks to a specialized filter that highlights yellow wavelengths of light, which are given off by the excited sodium particles in the tail.
"Without such a filter, Mercury's tail is almost invisible to the naked eye," Voltmer told Spaceweather.com.
Mercury is not the only celestial body in the solar system with a surprisingly comet-like tail. The moon also has a tail that is only visible once a month as Earth passes through it and wears it like a scarf(opens in new tab). Like Mercury, the moon's tail is also predominantly made of millions of sodium atoms.
https://www.space.com/mercury-giant-comet-tail-amateur-photo