Anonymous ID: 8c1188 May 23, 2023, 8:24 p.m. No.18893899   🗄️.is đź”—kun

New Images Released by NSF’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope

May 19, 2023

 

Preview of early data from the Inouye Solar Telescope obtained during its Cycle 1 observing window showcases sunspots and quiet-Sun regions

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope released eight new images of the Sun, previewing the exciting science underway at the world’s most powerful ground-based solar telescope. The images feature a variety of sunspots and quiet regions of the Sun obtained by the Visible-Broadband Imager (VBI), one of the telescope’s first-generation instruments.

 

The Inouye Solar Telescope’s unique ability to capture data in unprecedented detail will help solar scientists better understand the Sun’s magnetic field and drivers behind solar storms.

 

The sunspots pictured are dark and cool regions on the Sun’s “surface”, known as the photosphere, where strong magnetic fields persist. Sunspots vary in size, but many are often the size of Earth, if not larger. Complex sunspots or groups of sunspots can be the source of explosive events like flares and coronal mass ejections that generate solar storms. These energetic and eruptive phenomena influence the outermost atmospheric layer of the Sun, the heliosphere, with the potential to impact Earth and our critical infrastructure.

 

In the quiet regions of the Sun, the images show convection cells in the photosphere displaying a bright pattern of hot, upward-flowing plasma (granules) surrounded by darker lanes of cooler, down-flowing solar plasma. In the atmospheric layer above the photosphere, called the chromosphere, we see dark, elongated fibrils originating from locations of small-scale magnetic field accumulations.

 

The recently inaugurated telescope is in its Operations Commissioning Phase (OCP), a learning and transitioning period during which the observatory is slowly brought up to its full operational capabilities.

 

The international science community was invited to participate in this phase through an Operations Commissioning Phase Proposal Call. In response to these calls, investigators submitted science proposals requesting telescope time for a specific and detailed science goal. In order to optimize for science return, while balancing the available observing time and the technical needs in this very early operational phase, the proposals were subsequently peer-reviewed by a proposal review committee and telescope time was granted by a Telescope Allocation Committee. The selected proposals were executed in 2022 during the Cycle 1 operations window.

 

The newly released images make up a small fraction of the data obtained from the first Cycle. The Inouye Solar Telescope’s Data Center continues to calibrate and deliver data to the scientists and public.

 

As the Inouye Solar Telescope continues to explore the Sun, we expect more new and exciting results from the scientific community – including spectacular views of our solar system’s most influential celestial body.

 

https://nso.edu/press-release/new-images-released-by-nsfs-inouye-solar-telescope/

Anonymous ID: 8c1188 May 23, 2023, 8:30 p.m. No.18893919   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>4251 >>4531

Impact Site of the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander

May 23, 2023

 

The HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander was launched on 11 December 2022, hoping to become the first privately-funded spacecraft to land and operate on the lunar surface. After a several-month journey to the Moon, the spacecraft started a controlled descent to the surface to land near Atlas crater. Moments before the touchdown on 25 April at 12:40 p.m. EDT, communication with the lander ceased. The ispace team announced the following day that an anomaly occurred, and the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander did not safely touch down on the surface.

 

On 26 April 2023, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft acquired ten images around the landing site with the Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs). The images covered a region roughly 40 km by 45 km. Using a NAC image acquired before the landing attempt, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) science team began searching for the lander.

 

From the temporal image pair, the LROC team identified an unusual surface change near the nominal landing site. The image shows at least four prominent pieces of debris and several small changes (47.581°N, 44.094°E). The central feature in the image above shows several bright pixels in the upper left and serval dark pixels in the lower right. This is the opposite of nearby boulders, suggesting this could be a small crater or different parts of the lander body. This site will be analyzed more over the coming months as LROC has the opportunity to reimage the site under various lighting and viewing geometries.

 

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1302

Anonymous ID: 8c1188 May 23, 2023, 8:38 p.m. No.18893950   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>3958 >>3960 >>3969 >>4009

NASA Scientists Make First Observation of a Polar Cyclone on Uranus

May 23, 2023

 

For the first time, NASA scientists have strong evidence of a polar cyclone on Uranus. By examining radio waves emitted from the ice giant, they detected the phenomenon at the planet’s north pole. The findings confirm a broad truth about all planets with substantial atmospheres in our solar system: Whether the planets are composed mainly of rock or gas, their atmospheres show signs of a swirling vortex at the poles.

 

Scientists have long known that Uranus’ south pole has a swirling feature. NASA’s Voyager 2 imaging of methane cloud tops there showed winds at the polar center spinning faster than over the rest of the pole. Voyager’s infrared measurements observed no temperature changes, but the new findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, do.

 

Using huge radio antenna dishes of the Very Large Array in New Mexico, they peered below the ice giant’s clouds, determining that the circulating air at the north pole seems to be warmer and drier – the hallmarks of a strong cyclone. Collected in 2015, 2021, and 2022, the observations went deeper into Uranus’ atmosphere than any before.

 

“These observations tell us a lot more about the story of Uranus. It’s a much more dynamic world than you might think,” said lead author Alex Akins of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It isn’t just a plain blue ball of gas. There’s a lot happening under the hood.”

 

Uranus is showing off more these days, thanks to the planet’s position in orbit. It’s a long haul around the solar system for this outer planet, taking 84 years to complete a full lap, and for the last few decades the poles weren’t pointed toward Earth. Since about 2015, scientists have had a better view and have been able to look deeper into the polar atmosphere.

 

Ingredients for a Cyclone

 

The cyclone on Uranus, compactly shaped with warm and dry air at its core, is much like those spotted by NASA’s Cassini at Saturn. With the new findings, cyclones (which rotate in the same direction their planet rotates) or anti-cyclones (which rotate in the opposite direction) have now been identified at the poles on every planet in our solar system except for Mercury, which has no substantial atmosphere.

 

But unlike hurricanes on Earth, cyclones on Uranus and Saturn aren’t formed over water (neither planet is known to have liquid water), and they don’t drift; they’re locked at the poles. Researchers will be watching closely to see how this newly discovered Uranus cyclone evolves in the coming years.

 

“Does the warm core we observed represent the same high-speed circulation seen by Voyager?” Akins asked. “Or are there stacked cyclones in Uranus’ atmosphere? The fact that we’re still finding out such simple things about how Uranus’ atmosphere works really gets me excited to find out more about this mysterious planet.”

 

The National Academies’ 2023 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey prioritized exploring Uranus. In preparation for such a mission, planetary scientists are focused on bolstering their knowledge about the mysterious ice giant’s system.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-scientists-make-first-observation-of-a-polar-cyclone-on-uranus

Anonymous ID: 8c1188 May 23, 2023, 10:15 p.m. No.18894329   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>4399

SpaceX ARABSAT BADR-8 Mission

 

SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, May 24 for Falcon 9’s launch of the ARABSAT BADR-8 mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is targeted for 1:22 a.m. ET (05:22 UTC).

 

The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched GPS III Space Vehicle 04, GPS III Space Vehicle 05, Inspiration4, Ax-1, Nilesat 301, OneWeb Launch 17, and seven Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q-0eD5s-sk

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=ARABSAT-BADR-8

Anonymous ID: 8c1188 May 23, 2023, 10:24 p.m. No.18894358   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>4531

Claims backlog at VA will double to 400k as workers face increased risk of burnout: report

May 23, 2023

 

The Department of Veterans Affairs warned that the backlog to process claims could double over the next year, reaching "potentially up to 400,000."

 

VA Undersecretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs said the agency has seen a spike in disability claims in large part as a result of the PACT Act, a law signed last year that aims to improve care for veterans who have been exposed to toxic material, according to a Military.com report Monday.

 

The influx of claims could lead the VA backlog, which is defined as claims older than 125 days, to double over the next year, Jacobs said, forcing the agency to balance quickly processing those claims while attempting to avoid burning out its workforce.

 

More than 560,000 new disability compensation claims have been filed since the new legislation passed last year, while the VA has increased its workforce by about 15% to help tackle the new claims.

 

Jacobs said Monday the VA has seen a 30% increase in claims overall since the legislation passed and that the department is continuing its outreach to eligible veterans while hoping to reduce the backlog from possibly 400,000 to around 100,000 by 2025.

 

"That's all dependent on a variety of factors … on how many veterans file claims … the complexity and the number of conditions within each of those claims … our continued hiring success and a variety of other factors, to include our adoption of technology," Jacobs told reporters, according to Military.com.

 

Jacobs noted that the VA is currently processing claims faster than expected, delivering 1.7 million decisions in fiscal year 2022, a 12% increase over the previous fiscal year. So far in fiscal year 2023, the department is processing claims 15% faster than 2022, according to Jacobs.

 

"We've produced more decisions than any other time in our history," Jacobs said.

 

However, the department is also trying to be mindful of burning out its workforce, recently announcing a plan to pause its mandatory overtime policy instituted in 2017 this July and August to accommodate vacations, with Jacobs reasoning the VA needs to "take care of employees so that they can take care of veterans."

 

Meanwhile, Jacobs anticipated improved efficiency after the VA expanded an automated processing system to 16 regional offices that will streamline easier claims decisions.

 

"As we work to verify, validate and graduate our automated decision support, we do anticipate some efficiency gains there as well, so collectively, we don't have to hire up as quickly as we have and … can also move away from reliance on mandatory overtime," Jacobs said.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/claims-backlog-va-will-double-400k-as-workers-face-increased-risk-burnout-report