NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Dec 16, 2023

Crescent Enceladus

Peering from the shadows, the Saturn-facing hemisphere of tantalizing inner moon Enceladus poses in this Cassini spacecraft image. North is up in the dramatic scene captured during November 2016 as Cassini's camera was pointed in a nearly sunward direction about 130,000 kilometers from the moon's bright crescent. In fact, the distant world reflects over 90 percent of the sunlight it receives, giving its surface about the same reflectivity as fresh snow. A mere 500 kilometers in diameter, Enceladus is a surprisingly active moon. Data and images collected during Cassini's flybys have revealed water vapor and ice grains spewing from south polar geysers and evidence of an ocean of liquid water hidden beneath the moon's icy crust.

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

World's best space-based thermometer dead 2 months after 1st image release

Dec 15, 2023

The world's most advanced space-based thermometer thrilled scientists when it first came online.

The HOTSAT-1 satellite's first images, released in early October, revealed in unprecedented detail how temperatures change on Earth's surface. The satellite's camera was so sensitive it could even track trains from space from their thermal signatures. But now, only six months after its launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the experimental spacecraft is out of order.

SatVu, HOTSAT-1's maker and operator, announced on Friday, Dec. 15, that the spacecraft suffered an "anomaly, which is expected to impact ongoing operations."

The emailed statement doesn't specify the nature of the anomaly, but the BBC stated in its report that the affected system is HOTSAT-1's precious thermal camera, which stopped working "earlier this week." According to the BBC, SatVu's engineers are still in contact with the spacecraft but don't expect to restore operations.

The London-based SatVu said it is currently working with U.K. small satellite manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, which built HOTSAT-1, to assess the problem.

The company released the first images captured by the 3.3 by 3.3 by 3.3 feet (1 by 1 by 1 meter) spacecraft in early October, delivering on its promise to provide the most detailed look at the distribution of heat on Earth's surface. Capable of resolving details as small as 11 feet (3.5 m), HOTSAT-1's innovative camera allowed scientists to visualize the thermal effects of city parking lots on surrounding buildings or the cooling influence of harbors and maritime ports. The camera also provided insights into the behavior of wildfires and, in one particularly stunning sequence, captured the thermal footprint of a train travelling on a main rail line in Chicago.

One of SatVu's main selling points is to map how heat escapes from buildings, and enable city planners to makes improvements that can lead to better energy efficiency and reduced carbon footprints.

Through a combination of a slow shutter and precise pointing technology, HOTSAT-1 was able to outdo all existing temperature monitoring satellites including those built by world's leading space agencies, such as NASA or the European Space Agency.

HOTSAT-1's premature demise, however, is not the end for SatVu. The satellite was insured, and the company plans to launch a replacement as early as 2025, according to the BBC.

"We have ample financial runway to propel us to the next satellite and beyond," Anthony Baker, SatVu CEO and co-founder, said in the statement. "Our learnings from this mission are unparalleled. We are armed with enough data to develop incredible products that will be integral to shaping our future commercial offering."

SatVu, which has secured a total of 30.5 million British pounds ($37.1 million) in venture capital funding so far, plans to ultimately operate a constellation of eight to 10 temperature-monitoring satellites, which would allow scientists, city planners and other parties to monitor in detail how temperatures on Earth change every day.

https://www.space.com/satellite-satvu-hotsat-dead-after-six-months

USSPACECOM commander declares Full Operational Capability

Dec 15, 2023

Army Gen. James Dickinson, U.S. Space Command commander, declared the nation’s 11th and newest combatant command achieved full operational capability during a headquarters town hall Dec. 15, 2023.

“Since its establishment in 2019, USSPACECOM has been singularly focused on delivering exquisite capability to the joint force to deter conflict, defend our vital interests, and, if necessary, defeat aggression,” Dickinson said. “Thanks to the disciplined initiative of our people and the support of our joint, combined and partnered team, I can confidently say we have reached full operational capability.”

Dickinson made the announcement following an in-depth evaluation of the command’s capabilities, to include the ability to execute its mission on “our worst day, when we are needed the most,” he said.

That criteria included:

Accomplishing the Unified Command Plan mission alongside global campaigning, exercising, and responding to crises.

Having the right numbers of skills across the human capital.

Having the infrastructure needed to support command and control across mission and business functions.

Having the necessary command processes and functions in place.

Being able to set the conditions and requirements for the future fight.

This announcement follows the preliminary declaration of Initial Operational Capability on Aug. 24, 2021.

“As the command has matured, challenges to a safe, secure, stable, and sustainable space domain have significantly increased,” Dickinson said. “Both the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation are fielding counter space capabilities designed to hold U.S., Allied and partner space assets at risk. And North Korea and Iran are in the early stages of developing their space enterprise.”

In addition to being competitive and contested, the domain has become increasingly congested with an increase in commercial activity, and the concern of space debris, which has increased by 76% since 2019 to 44,600 objects.

These unique challenges have motivated and focused the command to prepare to counter threats in, to, and from space. And over the last four years the command’s competence has been refined and validated through real-world events and exercise scenarios.

In 2019, the command rapidly established a 24/7 Joint Operations Center, the focal point for command and control of all friendly and threatening activities in the domain that also facilitates the flow of information needed to accomplish assigned missions. Since that time, the JOC has monitored, tracked, and reported a significant number of space activities, enabling timely notification of critical information for decisions by national leaders. Most notable being Russia’s direct-ascent anti-satellite missile test in November 2021 that generated more than 1,500 pieces of orbital debris and drew global condemnation for the long-lasting threat to the domain.

Additionally, the command completed the very first Secretary of Defense-approved operational plan for space and conducted its first 24/7 joint tier-1 exercise, in partnership with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which served as a major step in validating the headquarters staff as a ready, joint force. The command also spearheaded updates to space warfighting doctrine, Joint Doctrine Publication 3-14, Space Operations, helping to normalize space with other domains, aligning terms across the joint force, and codifying USSPACECOM’s AOR as “astrographic.” The publication also highlights the supporting relationship of USSPACECOM to the other combatant commands through the provision of space capabilities to protect and defend the joint force, and their supported relationship to USSPACECOM through defense of space capabilities in the cyber and terrestrial domains.

Today, in support of current global events, USSPACECOM provides combatant commanders with space capabilities in support of theater operations, including weather monitoring; space control; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; position, navigation and timing; satellite communications; and missile warning.

https://www.spacecom.mil/Newsroom/News/Article-Display/Article/3619320/usspacecom-commander-declares-full-operational-capability/

Researchers Spot Strange Microbial Ecosystems in Argentina Desert

December 13, 2023

Argentina’s Puna de Atacama isn’t exactly known for nourishment. Averaging 14,000 feet above sea level, the desert region is characterized by scarce precipitation and ceaseless sunshine, which give rise to eerily dry conditions. This means the flora and fauna in Puna de Atacama are scanty—so we thought. Researchers have discovered a vast microbial ecosystem nestled within Puna de Atacama’s salt flats, and they believe the organisms that live within them could offer insight into life on seemingly desolate planets.

It all started when scholars spotted a web of unexpected pools on satellite images of Argentina. This prompted researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and PunaBio, an Argentinian bacterial research lab, to seek out the pools in person. They found that getting to the lagoons required miles of hiking through the unforgiving desert, which could help explain why the pools weren’t well-known.

They found that the lagoons stretched across 25 acres of Puna de Atacama’s salty desert. Although the water was crystal clear, the researchers saw “giant mounds of green growth, some 15 feet wide and several feet high,” under the surface. According to early tests, these were stromatolites, microbial ecosystems that produce layers of rock by trapping errant grains of sand, which are glued together by the microbes’ excretions. But these stromatolites featured high quantities of gypsum, which isn’t typically found in modern stromatolites—just stromatolite fossils.

“This lagoon could be one of the best modern examples of the earliest signs of life on Earth,” CU Boulder geologist Brian Hynek said. The stromatolites mimic those formed during Earth’s Archaean Eon 4 billion to 2.5 billion years ago, which often grew to 20 feet tall.

The living parts of Puna de Atacama’s stromatolites consist of cyanobacteria and archaea. While cyanobacteria, a type of photosynthetic microbe, protect the outside, single-celled archaea create a rusty pink interior. How and why the stromatolites formed in such an oppressive environment is tricky to parse. But due to the area’s high salt levels, strong acidity, and severe exposure to solar radiation, the stromatolites could illustrate how life formed on ancient Earth—or even on Mars.

“If life ever evolved on Mars to the level of fossils, it would have been like this,” Hynek said. “Understanding these modern communities on Earth could inform us about what we should look for as we search for similar features in the Martian rocks.”

However, as with many exciting discoveries, there’s a downside: The site now risks decimation thanks to a new lithium-mining agreement. Hynek and his PunaBio colleague, Mariá Farías, are now eagerly searching for ways to protect some of Puna de Atacama's microbial ecosystem before it's destroyed.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/researchers-spot-strange-microbial-ecosystems-in-argentina-desert

>>20083531

LIVE: President Donald J. Trump to Hold a Rally in Durham, New Hampshire - 12/16/23

President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, will hold a rally in Durham, New Hampshire on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. ET. Speakers will give remarks at 1:00 p.m. ET.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuXi35ok62Y