TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Dec 8, 2023
Vega and Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
On December 4, periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks shared this telescopic field of view with Vega, alpha star of the northern constellation Lyra. Fifth brightest star in planet Earth's night, Vega is some 25 light-years distant while the much fainter comet was about 21 light-minutes away. In recent months, outbursts have caused dramatic increases in brightness for Pons-Brooks though. Nicknamed the Devil Comet for its hornlike appearance, fans of interstellar spaceflight have also suggested the distorted shape of this comet's large coma looks like the Millenium Falcon. A Halley-type comet, 12P/Pons-Brooks last visited the inner Solar System in 1954. Its next perihelion passage or closest approach to the Sun will be April 21, 2024. That's just two weeks after the April 8 total solar eclipse path crosses North America. But, highly inclined to the Solar System's ecliptic plane, the orbit of periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will never cross the orbit of planet Earth.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
Holy mackerel!
SpaceX Starlink Mission
On Friday, December 8 at 12:03 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 launched 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
This was the 13th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, SWOT, Transporter-8, Transporter-9, and now seven Starlink missions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-7-8
More Nations Meet to Address Space Security
Dec. 7, 2023
The annual event, held this week, brought together DOD political and military space leadership from the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and also welcomed three new members of CSpO: Italy, Japan and Norway. The 10 members of CSpO discussed opportunities to further advance both operational cooperation and information sharing for the space domain.
Established in 2014, the initiative is a multinational partnership. Its stated mission is to generate and improve cooperation, coordination and interoperability to sustain freedom of action in space, optimize resources, enhance mission assurance and resilience, and deter conflict.
Defense leaders discussed the emerging security challenges and explored ways to cooperate to prevent conflict in space.  
The nations' representatives emphasized the need to continue to promote a rules-based international order and responsible behavior in space, while collaboratively addressing challenges to the safety and security of space-related operations.
Participants from the U.S. included Dr. John Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy; Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations; and Army Gen. James Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command.
"Cooperation with our allies and partners is essential to promoting responsible space operations and protecting our interests in the domain. Expanding this cooperation in the space domain is one of my top priorities, and I was extremely proud to have Italy, Japan and Norway participate at the principals' board for the first time. Through CSpO, we will collectively work to reinforce the safety, security, stability and long-term sustainability of space," Plumb said. 
"The CSpO Initiative is an important forum for improving coordination and integration while striving toward combined space operations. We appreciate the opportunity to meet with our allies and find avenues to optimize resources and build resilience," Dickinson said.  
"The U.S. Space Force is committed to deterring conflict and reinforcing the security of the space domain," said Saltzman. "Our partnerships are strengthened through CSpO, and this coalition of like-minded nations enhances our ability to address the complex challenges we collectively face."
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3610656/more-nations-meet-to-address-space-security/
Lawmakers unveil 2024 defense authorization bill with space priorities
December 7, 2023
WASHINGTON — The Senate and House Armed Services Committees unveiled a final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) conference agreement late Dec. 6 that includes several space policy and spending decisions impacting the military space and commercial space sectors.
The 2024 NDAA authorizes a defense budget of $886 billion after weeks of negotiations between House and Senate leaders. The final negotiated version of the bill now goes back to the full House and Senate for final passage before going to the President.
Space policy provisions
The final NDAA punted on the thorny issue of establishing a separate Space National Guard, deferring that politically contentious decision to further study. It does direct a review on potentially transferring existing Air National Guard space units into the U.S. Space Force in the near future.
Seeking to address growing threats in the space domain from China and Russia, the legislation also directs new intelligence sharing requirements between the Pentagon and commercial satellite industry. The Secretary of Defense would be required to establish guidelines for providing critical threat information to companies operating satellites in orbit.
The Space Force is also ordered to deliver a plan on integrating commercial space tracking data into day-to-day space domain awareness operations. This reflects a growing push in Congress to leverage the emerging commercial space startups tracking objects and detecting threats in orbit.
In terms of organizational changes, the 2024 NDAA temporarily blocks any spending to establish U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado Springs pending a new investigation into the former Trump Administration’s last-minute decision to relocate the command to Huntsville, Alabama, and President Biden’s subsequent reversal of that decision.
This provision was inserted by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), who has vowed to keep up the fight over the location of Space Command.
Language on commercial use of launch ranges
The legislation permits the Space Force to essentially establish a “port authority” arrangement at launch ranges to improve infrastructure for commercial launch companies. Similar to seaports investing in piers and shipping channels for maritime businesses, launch providers could cover costs for expanded capability at military test ranges in exchange for rapid access.
These provisions have been advocated by the Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45, which operates the Eastern Range, including the world’s busiest spaceports at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The language in the NDAA would allow the military range operator to sign agreements with commercial space launch providers to upgrade the infrastructure at the range and allow companies to reimburse the government for certain costs.
Space Force leaders have argued that under current funding mechanisms, federal ranges support commercial launches only when not being used for government activities, even as commercial launches dominate the use of the ranges.
https://spacenews.com/lawmakers-unveil-2024-defense-authorization-bill-with-space-priorities/
Brand New Volcanic Island Seen Growing From Space
Dec 07, 2023 at 11:45 AM EST
A whole new island pushed to the ocean surface off the coast of Japan has been growing since its birth.
The tiny island—named Niijima, or "new island" in Japanese, popped up just off the southern shores of Iwo Jima in late October, and can be seen in NASA images to have gained in size in the weeks since.
A new image of the island was snapped by the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on November 27, showing that the volcanic activity beneath the Earth's crust is still bubbling away.
The island was initially spotted from space by the NASA/U.S. Geological Survey satellite Landsat-9 on November 3, in the wake of an undersea volcano that started erupting at the end of October. The island is situated about a mile off the coast of Iwo Jima, which itself is about 750 miles south of Tokyo.
As the undersea volcano erupted, hot magma and rock were flung up onto the seafloor, building up into the new island, which burst forth from the waves surrounded by floating rocks of porous volcanic pumice.
"On October 30, 2023, from around 12:20-12:35, an underwater eruption off the coast of Iwo Jima was observed from a Mainichi Shimbun aircraft," reads a translated statement from The University of Tokyo.
"Immediately north of the eruption site, a new island with a diameter of approximately 100m was formed, consisting mainly of rock blocks, but no clear crater topography was observed on the surface," it says, before going on to observe that the island's concentric structure, floating pumice and discolored seawater indicate a magma eruption.
"Based on the observation of the formation of Niijima and the spread of pumice, it was estimated that the eruption had begun recently, but according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the eruption appears to have started on October 21, 2023," the statement says.
Since its birth, the island has been seen to have carried on growing, as visible in the newer image from Sentinel-2. It also continues to show signs of volcanic activity, with the Japanese Coast Guard sharing footage to X, formerly Twitter, of the island being coated with explosions of steam and smoke as the volcano erupted once more.
The island's fate will depend on the type of rock it's made up of, and how active the volcano will continue to be. If it's made of hardened lava, it may stick around, while if it's composed of lighter, more crumbly rock, it could soon wash away into the sea.
It's unclear how long the volcano that formed the island will continue its active period for, as it's very difficult for volcanologists to accurately predict eruptions.
"A volcanologist, or volcanology team in an observatory can forecast the relative likelihood of eruptions, but this is dependent on a deep knowledge of the volcano and a knowledge of how past events have escalated or been triggered," Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, told Newsweek.
"In many cases suddenly erupting volcanoes may not have many past events with observational data, so that most forecasts are very imprecise," he said. "These methods are improving all the time, with application of machine learning etcetera, however, even with these advanced mathematical tools, we still need a long record of many events to 'train' such models. Most times, volcanologists use the information from seismicity, gas and temperature release—and especially changes in these from normal situations."
For now, however, Niijima is sticking around, and growing larger. It marks one of the newest formations of the notorious "Ring of Fire," an arc of underwater volcanoes stretching around the Pacific from the tip of South America, past North America, Japan, and all the way to New Zealand.
https://www.newsweek.com/new-island-volcano-japan-satellite-images-1850469
Runaway Space Station Tomato Rediscovered After 8 Months On The Lam
Dec 7, 2023,01:41pm EST
There’s no need to send Sherlock Holmes into orbit. A lost space tomato has been found.
This is the oddball story of a small tomato grown during an experiment on the International Space Station. The wayward tomato had been in the possession of NASA’s Frank Rubio, who returned to Earth in September after spending over a year in space and setting the record for longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut.
Rubio lost the red robin tomato in the wilds of the ISS after it was harvested from the Veg-05 experiment in March 2023. That’s a hazard of living in a place where everything floats and you need storage containers and hook-and-loop fasteners to hold items in place.
NASA has described tomatoes as “flowering vegetables.” Not all veggies grown on the ISS are meant for eating. Many are sent back to Earth for scientific analysis. It seems some other crew members teasingly accused Rubio of snacking on the missing tomato.
Rubio fielded a question about whether or not he ate the tomato during an Earth-to-space call in September. He denied eating it. “It just perplexes me. I spent so many hours looking for that thing,” Rubio said. “I’m sure the desiccated tomato will show up at some point and vindicate me.”
Rubio can consider himself vindicated. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli addressed the missing-’mater caper during a space station livestream this week commemorating 25 years of ISS operations. “We can exonerate him. We found the tomato,” said Moghbeli with a laugh. The astronauts didn’t elaborate on the condition of the tomato. It’s likely pretty chewy after eight months in hiding.
Rubio worked on the tomato-producing Veg-05 space botany study during his extended stay on the ISS. It’s part of NASA’s big plans for vegetables in space. “The main purpose of the botany investigation is to create a continuous fresh food production system to sustain astronauts traveling far beyond low-Earth orbit and decrease reliance on visiting cargo missions,” said NASA in an ISS update in early 2023.
Fresh veggies are a major treat for astronauts, but growing plants in space is challenging. The Veg-05 experiment ran into its share of problems early on when the germinating seeds weathered an unexpected drop in humidity at a critical moment in their growth cycle. That stressed the plants and led to the experiment producing only a dozen ripe tomatoes. “The low sample size and additional concerns about potential fungal contamination meant the astronauts were not able to taste the tomatoes,” NASA said in a status update in April after the harvest. It’s just as well Rubio didn’t actually eat the tomato.
The experiment still gave researchers plenty of data to work with. “We can learn about what happens when plants are really water stressed. And that’s a pretty common thing in spaceflight,” said principal investigator Gioia Massa.
The errant tomato isn’t the first ISS item to take off on a solo adventure. Spacewalking astronauts lost a tool bag outside the station in November. Unlike the tomato, the tool bag will never be recovered. It shows that despite having high-tech systems and highly trained mission specialists, it’s still possible for things to get lost in space.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/amandakooser/2023/12/07/runaway-space-station-tomato-rediscovered-after-8-months-on-the-lam/?sh=7ffaf5591c18
CDC: Salmonella Cases From Cantaloupes Have Doubled
Friday, 08 December 2023 07:59 AM EST
A salmonella outbreak tied to tainted cantaloupes keeps expanding, with cases doubling since the last tally, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.
"Since the last update [on] November 30, 2023, an additional 113 people infected with this outbreak strain of salmonella have been reported from four additional states, resulting in a total case count of 230 people from 38 states," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
"An additional death has also been reported from Oregon," bringing the total death toll from the outbreak to three, the agency added.
Canada has also been hit by salmonella cases tied to the same cantaloupes; 129 cases have been reported there, including 44 hospitalizations and five deaths, Canadian health officials have reported.
While salmonella can make anyone sick, illnesses have been particularly severe in this outbreak, the CDC noted. The old and very young appear to be especially at risk.
"Illnesses are severe with more than half hospitalized, and people in long-term care facilities and childcare centers have gotten sick," the agency noted.
Twenty-four people thought to have fallen ill in the outbreak were residing at nursing homes, and 23 young children who'd been sickened were attending childcare facilities, according to CDC's update.
The main piece of advice from the CDC: Although two brands of cantaloupes — Malichita and Rudy — are known to be linked to the outbreak, do not eat any cantaloupe if you do not know the brand being sold or served.
Given the number of cases observed among the elderly and children, the "CDC [also] advises facilities that care for people who are at higher risk for severe illness to not serve cantaloupes that may be contaminated," the agency said. "This includes recalled cantaloupes and cantaloupe that was supplied pre-cut if the brand of whole cantaloupes used are not known."
The outbreak was first reported on Nov. 14. The CDC has stressed that the true number of illnesses is likely far higher, because many people recover without medical care and are not tested for salmonella.
Consumers should continue to stay away from whole cantaloupes sold under the brands Malichita or Rudy.
The CDC also said the recall now includes pre-cut cantaloupe sold at major grocery stores Kroger, Trader Joe's and Sprouts Farmers Market.
Consumers should also refrain from buying pre-cut cantaloupe sold at Aldi, Cut Fruit Express, Kwik Trip, Freshness Guaranteed, RaceTrac, TGD Cuts, Vinyard and Bix Produce, the agency added.
The CDC has advised people to either throw away recalled fruit or return it to the store for a refund. Afterwards, wash anything that has touched the recalled fruit.
Salmonella causes diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps in most cases, with symptoms setting in anywhere from six hours to six days after eating contaminated food, the CDC said.
https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/salmonella-cantaloupe-tainted/2023/12/08/id/1145226/