NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Nov 1, 2023

Annular Solar Eclipse over Utah

Part of the Sun disappeared earlier this month, but few people were worried. The missing part, which included the center from some locations, just went behind the Moon in what is known as an annular solar eclipse. Featured here is an eclipse sequence taken as the Moon was overtaking the rising Sun in the sky. The foreground hill is Factory Butte in Utah, USA. The rays flaring out from the Sun are not real they result from camera aperture diffraction and are known as sunstar. The Moon is real, but it is artificially brightened to enhance its outline which helps the viewer better visualize the Moon's changing position during this ring-of-fire eclipse. As stunning as this eclipse sequence is, it was considered just practice by the astrophotographer. The reason? She hopes to use this experience to better photograph the total solar eclipse that will occur over North America on April 8, 2024.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

Salts and Organics Observed on Ganymede’s Surface by NASA’s Juno

OCT 30, 2023

Data collected by NASA’s Juno mission indicates a briny past may be bubbling to the surface on Jupiter’s largest moon.

NASA’s Juno mission has observed mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Data for this discovery was collected by the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer aboard the spacecraft during a close flyby of the icy moon. The findings, which could help scientists better understand the origin of Ganymede and the composition of its deep ocean, were published on Oct. 30 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Larger than the planet Mercury, Ganymede is the biggest of Jupiter’s moons and has long been of great interest to scientists due to the vast internal ocean of water hidden beneath its icy crust. Previous spectroscopic observations by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope as well as the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope hinted at the presence of salts and organics, but the spatial resolution of those observations was too low to make a determination.

On June 7, 2021, Juno flew over Ganymede at a minimum altitude of 650 miles (1,046 kilometers). Shortly after the time of closest approach, the JIRAM instrument acquired infrared images and infrared spectra (essentially the chemical fingerprints of materials, based on how they reflect light) of the moon’s surface. Built by the Italian Space Agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, JIRAM was designed to capture the infrared light (invisible to the naked eye) that emerges from deep inside Jupiter, probing the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below the gas giant’s cloud tops. But the instrument has also been used to offer insights into the terrain of moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (known collectively as the Galilean moons for their discoverer, Galileo).

The JIRAM data of Ganymede obtained during the flyby achieved an unprecedented spatial resolution for infrared spectroscopy – better than 0.62 miles (1 kilometer) per pixel. With it, Juno scientists were able to detect and analyze the unique spectral features of non-water-ice materials, including hydrated sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and possibly aliphatic aldehydes.

“The presence of ammoniated salts suggests that Ganymede may have accumulated materials cold enough to condense ammonia during its formation,” said Federico Tosi, a Juno co-investigator from Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome and lead author of the paper. “The carbonate salts could be remnants of carbon dioxide-rich ices.”

Exploring Other Jovian Worlds

Previous modeling of Ganymede’s magnetic field determined the moon’s equatorial region, up to a latitude of about 40 degrees, is shielded from the energetic electron and heavy ion bombardment created by Jupiter’s hellish magnetic field. The presence of such particle fluxes is well known to negatively impact salts and organics.

During the June 2021 flyby, JIRAM covered a narrow range of latitudes (10 degrees north to 30 degrees north) and a broader range of longitudes (minus 35 degrees east to 40 degrees east) in the Jupiter-facing hemisphere.

“We found the greatest abundance of salts and organics in the dark and bright terrains at latitudes protected by the magnetic field,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “This suggests we are seeing the remnants of a deep ocean brine that reached the surface of this frozen world.”

Ganymede is not the only Jovian world Juno has flown by. The moon Europa, thought to harbor an ocean under its icy crust, also came under Juno’s gaze, first in October 2021 and then in September 2022. Now Io is receiving the flyby treatment. The next close approach to that volcano-festooned world is scheduled for Dec. 30, when the spacecraft will come within 932 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Io’s surface.

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/juno/salts-and-organics-observed-on-ganymedes-surface-by-nasas-juno/

Department of Defense Launches Secure Reporting Mechanism on the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office Website

Oct. 31, 2023

Today, consistent with Section 1673 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, the department launched the second phase of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office’s secure mechanism for authorized reporting of unidentified anomalous phenomena on the aaro.mil website.

This phase of the secure reporting mechanism is for current or former U.S. government employees, service members, or contractors with direct knowledge of alleged U.S. government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945 to contact AARO to voluntarily submit a report. These reports will be used to inform AARO’s congressionally directed Historical Record Report, due to Congress by June 2024, and its investigations into alleged U.S. government UAP programs.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3575027/department-of-defense-launches-secure-reporting-mechanism-on-the-all-domain-ano/

https://www.aaro.mil/AARO-Reporting-Information/

Ex-Air Force UFO Whistleblower Refuses to Cooperate With Pentagon

10/31/23 07:05 PM ET

The former Air Force intelligence officer who claims the U.S. military is covering up evidence of extraterrestrial life has repeatedly refused to cooperate with the Defense Department agency that's investigating UFOs, its director said.

Retired Maj. David Grusch, who delivered bombshell testimony to a House subcommittee in July, "has not come to see us and provide information," Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, told reporters on Tuesday.

Grusch had testified that he was told about a secret program to recover and reverse-engineer crashed alien aircraft and that possible "nonhuman biological material" was found at one site.

"I think we've interviewed most of the people that he may have talked to, but we don't know that," Kirkpatrick said. "And we have extended an invitation at least four or five times now for him to come in over the last eight months or so and it has been declined.”

Kirkpatrick also said the last time he spoke with Grusch was when Kirkpatrick was part of joint staff intelligence "at U.S. Space Command about five years ago and it was not on this topic."

Grusch could not immediately be reached by The Messenger for comment.

Kirkpatrick's remarks came during a news conference in response to a reporter's question about the launch of a new, secure website where current and former government employees, service members and contractors can blow the whistle on official programs or activities related to UFOs.

The website is eventually set to be opened to the general public.

The AARO was created by Congress last year and is using a "rigorous scientific framework and a data-driven approach" to address reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena," the Pentagon's latest official term for UFOs.

“These reports will be used to inform AARO’s congressionally directed historical record report and investigations into alleged U.S. government UAP programs due to Congress in June of 2024," Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick also addressed the claims of reverse-engineering.

"I currently have no evidence of any program having ever existed as a way to do any sort of reverse-engineering of any sort of extraterrestrial UAP," he said. “We do have a requirement by law to bring those whistleblowers or other interviewees in who think that it does exist, and they may have evidence that pertains to that. We do not have any of that evidence right now.”

https://themessenger.com/news/ufo-whistleblower-refuses-cooperate-pentagon

NASA Kennedy Awards Operational, Institutional Support Contract

OCT 31, 2023

NASA has awarded the Kennedy Operational and Institutional Support (KOIS) contract to Chiricahua-Logical Joint Venture of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to provide services at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

KOIS is an Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity, Level of Effort contract that includes a one-month phase-in period beginning Nov. 1, 2023, followed by a 22-month base period and three 1-year option periods. The maximum total award value is not to exceed $20 million.

The scope includes a broad range of operational and institutional support services including internal controls for property, logistics, American Sign Language interpreter, institutional training and development, and export control support.

The contract covers onsite and offsite work at Kennedy, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and other locations authorized by the contracting officer, including other NASA Centers if the need arises.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-kennedy-awards-operational-institutional-support-contract/

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Preparing for its First Asteroid Flyby

OCT 19, 2023

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is preparing for its first close-up look at an asteroid. On Nov. 1, it will fly by asteroid Dinkinesh and test its instruments in preparation for visits in the next decade to multiple Trojan asteroids that circle the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter.

Dinkinesh, less than half a mile, or 1 kilometer, wide, circles the Sun in the main belt of asteroids located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Lucy has been visually tracking Dinkinesh since Sept. 3; it will be the first of 10 asteroids Lucy will visit on its 12-year voyage. To observe so many, Lucy will not stop or orbit the asteroids, instead it will collect data as it speeds past them in what is called a “flyby.”

“This is the first time Lucy will be getting a close look at an object that, up to this point, has only been an unresolved smudge in the best telescopes,” said Hal Levison, Lucy principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute, which is headquartered in San Antonio. “Dinkinesh is about to be revealed to humanity for the first time.”

The primary aim of the Lucy mission, which launched Oct. 16, 2021, is to survey the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, a never-before-explored population of small bodies that orbit the Sun in two “swarms” that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit. However, before Lucy gets to the Trojans, it will fly by another main belt asteroid in 2025 called Donaldjohanson for additional in-flight tests of the spacecraft systems and procedures.

During the Dinkinesh flyby, the team will test its terminal-tracking system that will allow the spacecraft to autonomously pinpoint the location of the asteroid, keeping it within the instruments’ field-of-view throughout the encounter.

As this encounter is intended as a test of Lucy’s systems, scientific observations will be simpler than for the mission’s main targets. The spacecraft and the platform that holds the instruments will move into position two hours before the closest approach to Dinkinesh. Once in place, the spacecraft will begin collecting data with its high-resolution camera (L’LORRI) and its thermal-infrared camera (L’TES). One hour before closest approach, the spacecraft will begin tracking the asteroid with the terminal-tracking system. Only in the last eight minutes will Lucy be able to collect data with MVIC and LEISA, the color imager and infrared spectrometer that comprise the L’Ralph instrument. Lucy’s closest approach is expected to occur at 12:54 p.m. EDT, when the spacecraft will be within 270 miles (430 kilometers) of the asteroid. Lucy will perform continuous imaging and tracking of Dinkinesh for almost another hour. After that time, the spacecraft will reorient itself to resume communications with Earth but will continue to periodically image Dinkinesh with L’LORRI for the next four days.

“We’ll know what the spacecraft should be doing at all times, but Lucy is so far away it takes about 30 minutes for radio signals to travel between the spacecraft and Earth, so we can’t command an asteroid encounter interactively,” said Mark Effertz, Lucy chief engineer at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado. “Instead, we pre-program all the science observations. After the science observations and flyby are complete, Lucy will reorient its high-gain antenna toward Earth, and then it will take nearly 30 minutes for the first signal to make it to Earth.”

After confirming the spacecraft's health, engineers will command Lucy to send science data of the encounter to Earth. This data downlink will take several days.

While the primary goal of the Dinkinesh encounter is an engineering test, mission scientists hope to also use the captured data to glean insights about the link between larger main belt asteroids explored by previous NASA missions and the smaller near-Earth asteroids.

After the Dinkinesh encounter, the Lucy spacecraft will continue in its orbit around the Sun, returning to the Earth’s vicinity for its second gravity assist in December 2024. This push from Earth will send it back to the main asteriod belt for its 2025 Donaldjohanson flyby, and then on to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids in 2027.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/lucy/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-preparing-for-its-first-asteroid-flyby/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzcosX_HIo4

>>19842358

>>19842137

Comer Reveals How Joe Biden Received Laundered China Money

Nov 1, 2023

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today released a video and bank records memorandum revealing how Joe Biden received $40,000 in laundered China money from the account of his brother, James Biden, and his sister-in-law, Sara Biden, in the form of a personal check.

The money trail begins in July 2017 when Hunter Biden demanded payment from his Chinese Communist Party (CCP) linked associate. On July 30, 2017, Hunter Biden sent a message to Raymond Zhao—a CEFC associate—demanding a $10 million dollar capital payment and claimed his father, Joe Biden, was sitting in the room. CEFC is a Chinese energy company linked to the CCP. The Bidens began working with CEFC when Joe Biden was Vice President.

On August 8, 2017, Northern International Capital, a Chinese company affiliated with CEFC, sent $5 million to Hudson West III, a joint venture established by Hunter Biden and CEFC associate Gongwen Dong. That same day, Hudson West III sent $400,000 to Owasco, P.C., an entity owned and controlled by Hunter Biden. On August 14, 2017, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by President Biden’s brother James and sister-in-law Sara Biden. On August 28, 2017, Sara Biden withdrew $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group. Later the same day, she deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal checking account. On September 3, 2017, Sara Biden cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000 for a “loan repayment.”

Below are Chairman Comer’s video remarks:

Remember when Joe Biden told the American people that his son didn’t make money in China?

Well, not only did he lie about his son Hunter making money in China, but it also turns out that $40,000 in laundered China money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account in the form of a personal check.

And the Oversight Committee has it.

Here’s how Joe Biden benefited from his family’s shady deal with CEFC, a Chinese Communist Party linked company.

It all began with a shakedown in the summer of 2017, when Hunter Biden sent a message to his CEFC associate demanding a $10 million capital payment.

As Hunter Biden extorted this associate, Hunter claimed he was sitting with his father and that the Biden network would turn on his associate if he didn’t pony up the money.

The extortion scheme worked.

Days later, $5,000,000 flowed in from a Chinese affiliate of CEFC. Over the following three weeks, Biden family members made a series of complicated financial transactions to hide the source of the China money.

Here’s how that happened:

First, Northern International Capital, a Chinese company associated with CEFC, wired $5,000,000 to Hudson West III, a joint venture established by Hunter Biden and a CEFC associate.

Then, Hudson West III sent $400,000 to an entity owned and controlled by Hunter Biden.

Next, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by Joe Biden’s brother James and sister-in-law Sara Biden.

Sara Biden then withdrew $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group. Later the same day, she deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal checking account.

A few days later, Sara Biden cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000. The memo line of the check said, “loan repayment.”

We previously exposed a $200,000 payment James made to his brother Joe that came from funds provided by a now bankrupt health care company called Americore.

Like the payment to Joe from Americore funds, it’s certainly plausible that this payment where James and Sara used funds from China was indeed a loan repayment to Joe.

But even if this $40,000 check was a loan repayment from James Biden, it still shows how Joe benefited from his family cashing in on his name – with money from China no less.

Without his family peddling his name and his son threatening a CEFC associate with consequences that he said Joe Biden knew about, James wouldn’t have had the money to write the $40,000 check to his brother Joe.

It’s also worth remembering that Biden family efforts to secure millions from this Chinese company began when Joe Biden was still Vice President.

In taking funds sourced to a CCP-linked company that wanted to advance China’s interests, Joe Biden exposed himself to future blackmail and put America’s interests behind his own desire for money.

The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the money and will hold President Biden accountable for his corruption.

https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-reveals-how-joe-biden-received-laundered-china-money/

>>19842439

But what about second breakfast!?