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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Oct 26, 2023
Orionids in Taurus
History's first known periodic comet, Comet Halley (1P/Halley), returns to the inner Solar System every 76 years or so. The famous comet made its last appearance to the naked-eye in 1986. But dusty debris from Comet Halley can be seen raining through planet Earth's skies twice a year during two annual meteor showers, the Eta Aquarids in May and the Orionids in October. In fact, an unhurried series of exposures captured these two bright meteors, vaporizing bits of Halley dust, during the early morning hours of October 23 against a starry background along the Taurus molecular cloud. Impacting the atmosphere at about 66 kilometers per second their greenish streaks point back to the shower's radiant just north of Orion's bright star Betelgeuse off the lower left side of the frame. The familiar Pleiades star cluster anchors the dusty celestial scene at the right.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
Record Number of Sea Turtles Hatch at NASA Spaceport
OCT 25, 2023
Humans aren’t the only living creatures using NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as their launchpad to the future. This year, a record number of sea turtle hatchlings got their start in nests built on the undisturbed beaches of the Florida spaceport.
Biologists counted 13,935 sea turtle nests along Kennedy’s shoreline during the 2023 nesting season, 639 more nests than 2022 and the most found on center in a single year since record-keeping began in 1984. All of those sea turtle nests belong to species identified by the U.S. National Park Service as endangered or threatened, including the green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta).
“All our effort to protect Kennedy’s habitat is bearing fruit,” said NASA Environmental Protection Specialist Jeff Collins. “Kennedy’s use of turtle-friendly lighting and having a properly maintained dune helps to keep our beach dark and that really makes a difference to sea turtle nesting success.”
NASA partners to preserve the turtles and other fauna and flora at the spaceport with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore, which share a boundary with Kennedy. Working together, biologists found more than 8,800 nests at Kennedy this year were made by greens, with loggerheads creating almost 5,100.
“Kennedy’s sea turtle nests usually make up around 10% of the number Florida Fish and Wildlife reports in any given year,” said United States Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Michael Legare. “Brevard, the Florida county where Kennedy is located, is particularly important to the future of loggerheads. That county and five others nearby – Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, and Broward – usually report around 80% of all loggerhead nests yearly in the Sunshine State.”
Florida normally sees between 40,000 to 84,000 sea turtle nests built annually, according to state Fish and Wildlife data.
From the beginning of March through the end of October, the sand on Kennedy’s beaches is marked with the tracks of adult sea turtles as they emerge from the sea and make their way to where they lay their eggs. If all goes well, much smaller sand tracks follow months later when the hatchlings leave their nests and head to the sea, assuming they have the proper guidance to get there.
“Giving the sea turtles, especially the hatchlings, nothing but the moon and stars to shine their path to the ocean is one big way humans can help them,” Collins said. “Any other light can disorient them enough to where they’ll never find the ocean, making them easy prey while leading them away from the food and water they need to survive.”
That is why closing window blinds or removing artificial beach lights are also important for shoreline buildings. “If the lights have to stay, then it’s essential that the bulbs be dimmed or replaced with amber or low wave-length lighting. Such simple things can make the difference between life and death for the turtles,” Legare said.
This year’s count includes 26 leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) nests and one Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) nest, one of the world’s most endangered sea turtle species. There were no hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) nests discovered this season at Kennedy. Like the Kemp’s ridley, the endangered hawksbill has been documented at Kennedy in the past, but both species are a rare sight on the spaceport’s beaches.
The leatherback, the largest of the sea turtle species that regularly nests at Kennedy, is normally among the first to lay their eggs in March. If any Kemp’s ridley or hawksbills come on shore to build their nests, that usually starts a month or so after the leatherbacks. Greens and loggerheads, the more common sea turtle species at Kennedy, often start nesting in late spring and continue through the summer months into fall.
The number of eggs in each nest and how many of them hatch successfully aren’t tracked by state biologists, but on average, greens lay around 110 per nest, with loggerheads (100) and leatherbacks (80) close behind. Hawksbills lay around 160 eggs per nest on average, while Kemp’s ridley average around 100 per nest.
It generally takes around two months for the sea turtle babies to emerge from their nest once the eggs are inside, but that can vary depending on the species. Sand temperature also plays a big role in determining the sex of the new turtles. Cooler temperatures produce more males and warmer temperatures bring more females.
Florida Fish and Wildlife data shows about one of every 1,000 baby turtles makes it to adulthood.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/record-number-of-sea-turtles-hatch-at-nasa-spaceport/
Just in Time for Halloween, NASA’s Juno Mission Spots Eerie “Face” on Jupiter
OCT 25, 2023
On Sept. 7, 2023, during its 54th close flyby of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno mission captured this view of an area in the giant planet’s far northern regions called Jet N7. The image shows turbulent clouds and storms along Jupiter’s terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the planet. The low angle of sunlight highlights the complex topography of features in this region, which scientists have studied to better understand the processes playing out in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
As often occurs in views from Juno, Jupiter’s clouds in this picture lend themselves to pareidolia, the effect that causes observers to perceive faces or other patterns in largely random patterns.
Citizen scientist Vladimir Tarasov made this image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument. At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 4,800 miles (about 7,700 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 69 degrees north.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/just-in-time-for-halloween-nasas-juno-mission-spots-eerie-face-on-jupiter/
Hurricane Otis hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a ferocious category 5 storm on October 25, 2023, breaking regional records for the strength and speed of its intensification. Storm surge, flooding, and mudslides, as well as damage to infrastructure and an airport, have been reported in the state of Guerrero.
Prior to landfall, the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensor on the NOAA-20 satellite captured this false-color image of the storm at about 08:30 Universal Time (2:30 a.m. in Acapulco) on October 24, 2023.
When the image was acquired, Otis was still a tropical storm with sustained winds of 100 kilometers (65 miles) per hour, and was located about 335 kilometers (210 miles) south-southeast of Acapulco. The image shows infrared brightness temperature data, which is useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures (white and blue) from warmer surfaces below (yellow). The coolest temperatures are associated with areas of tall clouds. Note, however, that the storm at this time did not yet have an eye.
Otis remained a tropical storm until the afternoon of October 24. Then, in a matter of hours, it rapidly intensified into a major hurricane. By 06:25 Universal Time (12:25 a.m. in Acapulco) on October 25, Otis made landfall near the beach resort town with sustained winds of 270 kilometers (165 miles) per hour. According to news reports, Otis was the strongest hurricane on record to hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast, and the fastest-strengthening storm on record in the northeast Pacific.
Scott Braun, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and project scientist for the TROPICS mission, said that Otis had “all the right ingredients” for rapid intensification. Those include elements such as warm sea surface temperatures, a deep layer of warm ocean water, lots of moisture, and relatively low vertical wind shear. “Conditions were present for rapid intensification, but it is hard to say at this time why the rate and magnitude of intensification were so great,” Braun said.
Forecast discussions from the National Hurricane Center pointed to some of these conditions and noted that statistical models showed a good probability for rapid intensification. “A key challenge for any forecaster is predicting the timing and magnitude of rapid intensification,” Braun said. “It’s extremely difficult to do.”
Data collected by TROPICS—short for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats—will help weather researchers learn more about the environmental factors contributing the structure and intensity of storms similar to Otis. Such information could prove useful for NOAA, the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center, and international agencies responsible for developing hurricane, typhoon, and cyclone forecasts.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151989/hurricane-otis
China launches new 3-astronaut crew to Tiangong space station
Oct 25, 2023
A Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert today (Oct. 25) at 11:14 p.m. EDT (0314 GMT or 11:14 a.m. Beijing Time on Oct. 26), carrying the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft and its three-person crew into orbit.
The spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle as planned 10 minutes into the flight, the China National Space Administration announced, declaring the launch "a complete success."
Aboard are mission commander Tang Hongbo, 48, a veteran of Shenzhou 12 — the first crewed mission to the then under-construction Tiangong — and crewmates and former fighter pilots Tang Shengjie, 34, and Jiang Xinlin, 35.
Together, the trio are the youngest crew to visit Tiangong. They are expected to rendezvous and dock with Tiangong around 6.5 hours after launch and begin a six-month-long stay in orbit.
"The space station is another home for us on the journey from Earth to the vast universe," Tang said at a pre-launch press conference earlier today. "In order to return to space, in the past two years, I have raced against time to complete physical and mental recovery while carrying out studies and training."
Waiting aboard Tiangong are Shenzhou 16 astronauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao. The trio will hand over control of the orbital outpost and prepare for their return to Earth, scheduled for Oct. 31. Jing, Zhu and Gui have been aboard since late May.
The Shenzhou 17 astronauts will conduct science experiments, maintain the space station and carry out science outreach and other activities during their mission.
The crew are also slated to perform the first extravehicular experimental maintenance spacewalk outside of Tiangong. China started constructing the modular space station in April 2021 and, according to officials, it has already taken a few hits.
"Currently, space debris is increasing, so the impacts of small space objects on long-duration operational spacecraft are inevitable," Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA, said during the pre-launch press conference.
"Previous inspection revealed that the space station's solar panels had also been hit several times by tiny objects in space, suffering minor damage, of course which was taken into account during our design."
China completed its three-module Tiangong in late 2022. The country aims to keep the orbital outpost permanently occupied for at least a decade.
The station is currently about 20% as massive as the International Space Station, according to Chinese space officials. China's human spaceflight agency is developing a multipurpose extension module to add to Tiangong, changing it from a "T" shape to that of an "X." The extension module would then allow further modules to be added to the station.
The Long March 2F that launched the Shenzhou 17 mission had been in a state of near readiness at Jiuquan since the launch of Shenzhou 16, so it could be prepared for liftoff as a lifeboat at short notice in the event of an emergency.
Shenzhou 17 is the sixth crewed mission to Tiangong and China's 12th astronaut flight overall. Supplies for the mission were delivered aboard the Tianzhou 6 cargo mission in May this year. New supplies will be sent aboard Tianzhou 7 in the first half of 2024.
Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut in space in 2003 aboard Shenzhou 5, which made the country only the third to achieve independent human spaceflight capabilities after the former Soviet Union, now Russia, and the United States.
https://www.space.com/china-launches-shenzhou-17-crew-tiangong