TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
July 11, 2023
Sunspots on an Active Sun
Why is our Sun so active now? No one is sure. An increase in surface activity was expected because our Sun is approaching solar maximum in 2025. However, last month our Sun sprouted more sunspots than in any month during the entire previous 11-year solar cycle and even dating back to 2002. The featured picture is a composite of images taken every day from January to June by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory. Showing a high abundance of sunspots, large individual spots can be tracked across the Sun's disk, left to right, over about two weeks. As a solar cycle continues, sunspots typically appear closer to the equator. Sunspots are just one way that our Sun displays surface activity another is flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that expel particles out into the Solar System. Since these particles can affect astronauts and electronics, tracking surface disturbances is of more than aesthetic value. Conversely, solar activity can have very high aesthetic value – in the Earth's atmosphere when they trigger aurora.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
See giant Earth take over space at Durham Cathedral
July 10, 2023
Following on from its huge Moon exhibit in 2021, Durham Cathedral is now hosting another stunning sculpture with universal appeal. Gaia is the name of the giant Earth which was revealed this Monday; suspended inside the cathedral nave where it will be on view to visitors until September.
The internally-lit globe, which has a seven-metre diameter, is a touring artwork by artist Luke Jerram who also created The Museum of the Moon which previously hung on show in the space. Just as that globe featured detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface, Gaia shows the real Earth, with each centimetre of the scale model capturing 18km of our planet's surface.
Throughout its display at the cathedral it will slowly turn, creating the illusion of floating in three dimensions in mid-air and lighting up the building's world-renowned architecture. Its aim is to inspire people to feel protective of the planet; do what they can to care for it and help combat climate change.
Following its July 10 launch, Gaia will be on show at the cathedral until September 10 and adding to the atmosphere during its run will be a specially-created surround-sound composition by Bafta-winning composer Dan Jones. Durham Cathedral also will be hosting a programme of Earth-theme events to accompany it, including sustainable dinners held under the Earth, with Chester-le-Street-based community café Refuse, as well as yoga classes and silent discos. Among the highlights will be Gaia Lates, a series of late-night openings offering visitors the chance to see the installation after-hours. For the full programme see here.
The Museum of the Moon and Gaia exhibits also have been on display at Life Science Centre in Newcastle, which now has a Gaia permanently on show - one of only five permanent exhibits of Jerram's artwork in the world.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/gallery/see-giant-earth-take-over-27270963
New Horizons’ Infrared View
Jul 10, 2023
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, just before closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red, and infrared images taken by the spacecraft's Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC); the colors are processed to best highlight the variation of surface properties across Charon.
New Horizons conducted a six-month-long reconnaissance flyby study of Pluto and its moons in summer 2015, helping us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system, then venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt – a relic of solar system formation. The spacecraft is now more than 5 billion miles from Earth and uses machine-learning AI software to make searches beyond the Kuiper Belt much faster and more productive.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/new-horizons-infrared-view
New 3D Visualization Highlights 5,000 Galaxies Revealed by Webb
Jul 10, 2023
This video, a scientific visualization of the galaxies captured as a part of the CEERS (Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science) Survey, showcases a large undertaking by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. It flies by thousands of galaxies, starting with those nearby and ending with less-developed galaxies in the very distant universe, including one never seen before Webb.
The area highlighted in this visualization is a small part of the Extended Groth Strip, a region between the Ursa Major and Boötes constellations originally observed by the Hubble Space Telescope between 2004 and 2005. While this vast region contains about 100,000 galaxies, the visualization focuses on approximately 5,000 – with the nearest and more complex galaxies, shown in the beginning, located within a few billion light-years of Earth. As the visualization proceeds, showing galaxies farther away from Earth, we see different stages of the universe’s history and evolution.
The visualization’s farthest galaxy, known as Maisie’s Galaxy, is a target of great interest to astronomers. It formed about 390 million years after the big bang, or about 13.4 billion years ago. It’s not only one of the first bright, extremely distant galaxies found by Webb, but it’s also an example of an early galaxy that only Webb could see. This is because Webb’s instruments can capture the light from these early galaxies, which has been shifted to infrared wavelengths by the expansion of the universe.
“This observatory just opens up this entire period of time for us to study,” said Rebecca Larson of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, one of the survey’s investigators. “We couldn’t study galaxies like Maisie’s before because we couldn’t see them. Now, not only are we able to find them in our images, we’re able to find out what they’re made of and if they differ from the galaxies that we see close by.”
Steven Finkelstein of the University of Texas at Austin, principal investigator of the CEERS program, continued, “This observation exceeded our expectations. The sheer number of galaxies that we’re finding in the early universe is at the upper end of all predictions.” The observatory’s ability to conduct surveys like these provides a demonstration of Webb’s instruments for astronomers to reference for future observations.
This visualization not only shows just how far Webb can observe, but also how much it builds off the accomplishments of Hubble. In many cases, Hubble’s observations, along with Webb’s data from the CEERS Survey, enabled researchers to determine which galaxies were truly far away – the early-universe galaxies of interest – and which were nearby, but so dusty that their visible light was obscured.
With these observations, the next goal for researchers is to learn about the formation of stars in these early galaxies.
“We’re used to thinking of galaxies as smoothly growing,” Finkelstein remarked. “But maybe these stars are forming like firecrackers. Are these galaxies forming more stars than expected? Are the stars they’re making more massive than we expect? These data have given us the information to ask these questions. Now, we need more data to get those answers.”
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/new-3d-visualization-highlights-5000-galaxies-revealed-by-webb
First CHAPEA Crew Begins 378-Day Mission
Jul 10, 2023
The inaugural CHAPEA, or Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, mission began Sunday, June 25, when the four-person volunteer crew entered its new home at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to begin a 378-day Mars surface simulation.
This is the first of three planned missions. NASA will use research gained from CHAPEA to determine how to best support crew health and performance while living on Mars during a long-duration exploration mission.
During the CHAPEA simulations, crew members will carry out different types of mission activities, including simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, personal hygiene, exercise, and crop growth. To be as Mars-realistic as feasible, the crew also will face environmental stressors such as resource limitations, isolation, and equipment failure.
NASA is leading a return to the Moon for long-term science and exploration. Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. Lessons learned on and around the Moon and activities like CHAPEA on the ground will prepare NASA for the next giant leap: sending astronauts to Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/first-chapea-crew-begins-378-day-mission