TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Oct 2, 2023
Sprite Lightning in High Definition
Sometimes lightning occurs out near space. One such lightning type is red sprite lightning, which has only been photographed and studied on Earth over the past 25 years. The origins of all types of lightning remain topics for research, and scientists are still trying to figure out why red sprite lightning occurs at all. Research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. Featured here is an extraordinarily high-resolution image of a group of red sprites. This image is a single frame lasting only 1/25th of a second from a video taken above Castelnaud Castle in Dordogne, France, about three weeks ago. The sprites quickly vanished – no sprites were visible even on the very next video frame.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
hmmm
The Economist to launch Space Economy Summit on Oct. 11-12
Oct 2, 2023
"Space is everyone's business."
As access to space continues to expand and humanity prepares to return to the moon to establish a sustainable off-world presence, private companies are laying the groundwork for a new economy in space.
To help highlight the new opportunities that a space-based economy will provide, The Economist is launching its first-ever Space Economy Summit. The event will be held Oct. 11-12 in Los Angeles, California and can be attended both in person or virtually.
Some of the topics that will be discussed at the summit include spaceflight sustainability and space debris mitigation, on-orbit manufacturing, Earth observation and long-term space commercialization and exploration. "While space has always captured imagination, its commercial, social, and environmental potential is now more tangible than ever," a press statement points out. "As the space industry continues to advance, the Space Economy Summit will highlight the vast opportunities it is enabling across sectors."
Over 100 speakers from the space sector and beyond will share their ideas for a new off-world economy in over 60 sessions at the summit. Speakers include: Peter Beck, President and CEO of Rocket Lab; Dr Laurie Leshin, Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Sir Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom; Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw of United States Space Command; and Dylan Taylor, Chairman and CEO of Voyager Space.
The summit is meant to help leaders in the commercial and governmental space sectors alike share ideas that can move the burgeoning new off-world economy forward.
"Today, space is everyone's business. The rapid expansion of the industry presents immense opportunities to collaborate across all sectors" said Helen Ponsford, Head of Trade, Technology, Industry Events Programming at The Economist, in a press statement. "We are excited that the Space Economy Summit will facilitate pivotal conversations about realizing the full potential of new space. Speakers and attendees alike will leave with actionable ideas to help accelerate innovation in the space economy."
https://www.space.com/the-economist-space-economy-summit-october-2023
Discovery of ‘Jumbos’ may herald new astronomical category
Oct 2, 2023
Dozens of planet-sized objects have been discovered in the Orion Nebula via observations that could herald the existence of a new astronomical category.
The free-floating entities, which have been named Jupiter-mass binary objects, or Jumbos, appear in spectacular images taken by the James Webb space telescope. The objects are too small to be stars, but also defy the conventional definition of a planet because they are not in orbit around a parent star.
The discovery also appears to confound existing theories of star and planetary formation, which suggest it should not be possible to form Jupiter-sized objects through the process that gives rise to stars inside the clouds of dust and gas found in a nebula.
Prof Mark McCaughrean, a senior adviser for science and exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA), said the observations were inspired after data from ground-based telescopes hinted at the existence of the mysterious class of object.
“We were looking for these very small objects and we find them. We find them down as small as one Jupiter mass, even half a Jupiter mass, floating freely, not attached to a star,” he said. “Physics says you can’t even make objects that small. We wanted to see, can we break physics? And I think we have, which is good.”
The large, hot, gassy objects appear to be planet-like in their composition, with analysis revealing steam and methane in their atmospheres, but they are not technically planets. The team settled on the name Jupiter-mass binary objects because, out of the hundreds of planet-like objects identified, dozens came in pairs.
“Most of us don’t have time to get wrapped up in this debate about what is a planet and what isn’t a planet,” McCaughrean said. “It’s like my cat is a chihuahua-mass pet. But it’s not a chihuahua, it’s a cat.”
The Jumbos are about 1m years old – babies in astronomical terms – and have infernal surface temperatures of roughly 1,000C. Without a host star, though, they will rapidly cool and will briefly feature temperatures in the range of habitability before becoming incredibly cold. However, as gas giants, their surfaces would not harbour liquid water, even during their brief temperate window, meaning they are not likely to be strong contenders for hosting alien life.
The observations focus on the Orion Nebula, which can be seen with the naked eye as the fuzzy middle “star” in the “sword” of the Orion constellation. At 1,344 light years away, it is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth and in the latest images it appears as a celestial masterpiece, with roiling clouds of dust and gas, explosions and star beams.
Stars form when the dust and gas clouds in a nebula cool, progressively fragment and eventually collapse under their own gravity. The smallest stars are about 80 Jupiter masses, below which the core is not dense enough to fuse hydrogen, but smaller objects can coalesce through the same process, including dimly glowing brown dwarfs – sometimes called failed stars – and, below about 13 Jupiter masses, planetary-mass objects. But theoretical predications suggest that the lower boundary for an object forming through a star-like gravitational collapse is about three to seven Jupiter masses.
Smaller free-ranging objects have occasionally been sighted, but it was unclear whether they had formed in situ or had been ejected from a planetary disc around another star. The latest observations are more challenging to explain because, out of the hundreds of roughly Jupiter-sized objects found, dozens are in binary pairs. “How can you throw two things out [of a star’s orbit] in a chaotic interaction and get them to stick back together again?” asked McCaughrean.
The findings are published as a preprint, but are yet to be peer reviewed.
Prof Matthew Bate, the head of astrophysics at the University of Exeter, who was not involved in the research, said: “I don’t know how to explain the large numbers of objects they’ve seen. It seems we’re missing something in all of the theories we’ve got so far. It seems that there’s a mechanism that’s forming these [objects] that we haven’t thought of yet.”
“It’s pretty rare that this kind of discovery is made,” Bates added. “In the last decade, a lot of us thought we understood star formation pretty well. So this is really a very, very surprising result and we’re going to learn a lot from it.”
Prof Anthony Whitworth, an astrophysicist at Cardiff University, described the observations as “an amazing result”. The binary objects could have formed within a disc and then been kicked out as a pair, he speculated. “This would require interactions with other stars in the dense Orion star field,” said Whitworth. “All possible, in principle. Lots to ponder!”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/02/jumbos-jupiter-mass-binary-objects-discovery-orion-nebula-new-astronomical-category
Statement from Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on the passage of a continuing resolution
Oct 2, 2023
I welcome congressional action tonight to avert an unnecessary and destructive government shutdown that would have had a profound impact on the lives our troops and civilians who work and sacrifice to defend this country every day. But I also urge Congress to live up to America's commitment to provide urgently-needed assistance to the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend their own country against the forces of tyranny. America must live up to its word and continue to lead.
Finally, I urge Congress to get back to regular order on appropriations. We need on-time appropriations in order to advance our National Defense strategy and position our military to meet the complex challenges of this century. I will continue to work with members of Congress to do what is necessary to defend this nation, our values and our interests.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3544532/statement-from-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-on-the-passage-of-a-cont/
NASA publishes never-before-seen photos of ‘ravioli’ moon orbiting Saturn
Published Oct. 1, 2023, 6:15 a.m. ET
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) dropped never-before-seen photos of one of Saturn’s moons while comparing them to well-known food dishes.
“Ravioli, pierogi, empanada… What do you see? No wrong answers,” NASA posted on its Instagram account Monday, accompanied by pictures of Pan, the innermost of Saturn’s moons.
The photos, which were taken from the Cassini spacecraft, show the unique moon in a new level of detail.
According to the space agency, the ridge around the equator of Pan has similar characteristics to Atlas, another moon that orbits Saturn. That ridge gives Pan its unique “dumpling” shape, according to NASA.
Pan orbits Saturn from inside a gap in one of the planet’s rings, the post explained, making an orbit around the planet every 13.8 hours at an altitude of 83,000 miles.
The two images show how the Cassini spacecraft’s perspective of Pan changed as it passed within 15,300 miles of the moon, the craft’s closest ever encounter with Pan.
Pan was originally discovered by M.R. Showalter “using images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft nine years earlier,” according to a page about the moon on NASA’s website.
According to Space.com, Saturn has 145 moons that are currently recognized by the International Astronomical Union.
That number rose significantly in May this year as 62 new moons were discovered by a team of scientists led by Edward Ashton.
While most of Saturn’s moons were originally named for Greco-Roman Titans, the discovery of many new moons forced scientists to start using names from other mythologies such as Gallic, Inuit and Norse stories, according to NASA.
“Pan, a satyr (a creature resembling a man with the hind legs and hooves of a goat), is a Greek god of nature and the forest,” NASA explains on its website.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/01/nasa-publishes-never-before-seen-photos-of-ravioli-moon-orbiting-saturn/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CxoWBD_pFhM/
Clean 'em out!
phil