TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Dec 21, 2023
Three Galaxies and a Comet
Distant galaxies abound in this one degree wide field of view toward the southern constellation Grus (The Crane). But the three spiral galaxies at the lower right are quite striking. In fact, all three galaxies are grouped about 70 million light years away and sometimes known as the Grus Triplet. They share the pretty telescopic frame, recorded on December 13, with the comet designated C/2020 V2 ZTF. Now outbound from the inner Solar System and swinging below the ecliptic plane in a hyperbolic orbit, the comet was about 29 light-minutes from our fair planet in this image. And though comet ZTF was brighter when it was closest to the Sun last May and closest to Earth in September of 2023, it still shines in telescopes pointed toward southern night skies, remaining almost as bright as the Grus Triplet galaxies.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
NASA Leadership Participates in Vice President-Chaired National Space Council Meeting
DEC 20, 2023
Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted the importance of international partnerships and the societal benefits of space exploration, including NASA’s Earth science missions and the agency’s efforts to build a responsible, sustainable human presence in space during the Biden-Harris Administration’s third National Space Council meeting Wednesday, held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington.
“For generations, our nation has led the world in the exploration and use of space,” said Harris. “In the coming years, one of the primary ways we will continue to extend that leadership is by strengthening our international partnerships, combining our resources, scientific capacity, and technical skill with that of our allies and partners around the world, all in furtherance of our collective vision.”
During the meeting, NASA announced it will deepen its partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by advancing data collection for enhanced air quality monitoring in South America and Africa. Under this effort, NASA and the Italian Space Agency will partner to build and launch the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) mission, which is expected to launch in 2025 to enable improved measurements of airborne particulate matter in large metropolitan areas. The mission marks the first time NASA has partnered with epidemiologists and health organizations on a satellite mission to study human health and improve lives.
“NASA is excited to partner with the Italian Space Agency on the MAIA mission while simultaneously strengthening our support for USAID,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Airborne particles pollute some of the world’s most populous cities and have been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as adverse reproductive and birth outcomes. Results from this mission will allow us to better understand the health impacts of pollution in geographically diverse global communities, including our Southern Hemisphere.”
The Vice President also underscored the importance of international partnerships enabling long-duration stays on the Moon and future human missions to Mars.
“In consultation with international and industry partners, NASA has built a cohesive and robust Moon to Mars strategy to enable a responsible, sustainable presence throughout the solar system. Our future depends on partnerships,” said Melroy. “Together, we will strategically advance science, boost our national posture, and inspire a new generation to want to explore the cosmos.”
NASA has welcomed significant development progress and investments by international partners for its Artemis program. The European Space Agency provides the European Service Module, the Orion spacecraft’s powerhouse. Additionally, Canada, Japan, and Europe are contributing to Gateway, a human-tended space station in lunar orbit. Europe and Japan are building the International Habitation Module, Europe is providing the European System Providing Refueling, Infrastructure and Telecommunications (ESPRIT) module, Japan will provide cargo resupply with an upgrade of its H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-X), and Canada is developing Canadarm3, a robotic arm to perform science utilization and maintenance. With these significant contributions, the United States intends to land an international astronaut on the lunar surface by the end of the decade.
In coordination with the U.S. Department of State, the agency has also welcomed 33 signatories to the Artemis Accords since it was established in 2020, ten in the past year alone. The Artemis Accords establish practical principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations, including those participating in NASA’s Artemis program. The Accords signatories are holding focused discussions on how best to implement the Artemis Accords principles, including transparency and deconfliction at the Moon.
NASA also highlighted the April 2023 release of the initial Moon to Mars architecture, comprised of the elements needed for long-term, human-led scientific discovery in deep space. NASA recently hosted its second Architecture Concept Review in November and anticipates releasing the outcomes of the annual cycle early in 2024. NASA noted that it is seeking international partnerships for an array of elements identified in the architecture and is in conversation with international space agencies to identify future partnership opportunities.
A full recording of the National Space Council meeting is available online at:
https://images.nasa.gov/details/V.P.%20Kamala%20Harris%20Chairs%20National%20Space%20Council%20Meeting%20in%20Washington
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-leadership-participates-in-vice-president-chaired-national-space-council-meeting/
The Marshall Star for December 20, 2023
Crew-6 Connects with Marshall Team Members During Visit
Take 5 with Jason Adam
Pamela Bourque Named Chief Counsel at Marshall
Thomas Percy Named Systems Engineering and Integration Manager for Human Landing System Program
Mission Success is in Our Hands: Chelsi Cassilly
I am Artemis: Bruce Askins
NASA’s Tech Demo Streams First Video from Deep Space via Laser
NASA Geologist Paves Way for Building on the Moon
Sprightly Stars Illuminate ‘Christmas Tree Cluster’
NASA’s 3D-printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Test a Success
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/the-marshall-star-for-december-20-2023/
What Does the Space Force Do? 4 Years After Its Birth, Glimpses of the Service's Mission Emerge
Dec 21, 2023
Staring at the computer screen in an office complex not too far from Schriever and Peterson Space Force Bases, a Guardian had a rapidly diminishing timer with only eight minutes left to carefully type in the complex computer code needed to hack an enemy satellite.
The low-Earth orbit satellite, which was traveling at roughly 18,000 miles an hour, was reportedly gathering intelligence about U.S. military assets across the Midwest, Southeast, Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Seaboard on four passes – leaving only a small contact window in which the Guardians could work to stop the enemy from collecting photos and reconnaissance.
Their plan was to slowly redirect the satellite's camera away from its intended targets by a few degrees each pass, a subtle averted gaze so as not to arouse suspicion. But if the enemy noticed any small changes, the Guardians' cover could be blown. One young specialist came up with the idea to send the operator false data, so the enemy would think it was business as usual. Then, once their mission was complete, they'd hack into the logs and erase them, hiding all traces they were even there.
A single mistype could shut down the whole operation or, worse, blow their cover. After the eight minutes, a quiet settled into the laboratory as the contact window closed and connection with the enemy's satellite was lost. It would be another hour before another pass and a chance to inflict further damage on the enemy. In the downtime, the Guardians grabbed snacks, checked their text messages and, at one point, talked about comic book collections.
The November exercise a simulation put on at the nonprofit Stephenson Stellar Corporation's headquarters in Colorado Springs was targeting the "People's Republic of Atlantica," a "small but potent threat" that has "assumed a partnership with a great Power Competitor." The imagined scenario offered a rare glimpse into the very real approaches that Space Force Guardians could use to hack, defend, operate and control an enemy's satellite, strategies the service remains tight-lipped about as it tries to preserve a competitive edge.
On Dec. 20, the Space Force is celebrating four years as a service. The smallest military branch, with around 8,600 service members, it's shrouded in more secrecy than many of the others, leading to a seemingly perpetual question from the public: "What does the Space Force do?"
Americans can see F-35s on an Air Force base's runway. They can see Army soldiers driving Humvees and watch Navy aircraft carriers ship off to sea.
But you can't see outer space and, due to the highly classified nature of the Space Force's operations, broadcasting what it does is often not possible, especially when many Guardians work from sensitive compartmented information facilities, also known as SCIFs, on carefully guarded military installations. Those SCIFs come with special rules about access to cell phones, among other protections meant to keep information from leaking out.
"I don't talk about work, and my wife doesn't really know what I do," said one enlisted Guardian, who didn't want to be named because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. "It helps when you work in a SCIF; you have to leave work at the door."
But the Space Force's mission statement "secure our Nation's interests in, from, and to space" is a tall order for a small force and encompasses more than just monitoring satellites, keeping an eye out for space debris, or launching the occasional rocket into the atmosphere.
It ranges from operating the global positioning system that helps billions navigate worldwide, detecting missiles being fired across the globe at a moment's notice, and protecting satellites and their networks from being attacked.
At first, the service debuted as a punch line for late-night talk shows, only exacerbated by its Star Trek-ian uniform unveiling, and faced an unclear future following President Donald Trump's one term in office. Trump had been an early proponent of the service, pushing ahead with its creation despite skepticism from lawmakers.
Since then, the service branch has outlived a Netflix comedy show of the same name, seen a historic increase in funding in 2024's annual defense policy bill, and set up commands in the Pacific, Middle East and South Korea.
cont.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/12/20/what-does-space-force-do-4-years-after-its-birth-glimpses-of-services-mission-emerge.html
NGC 2264: Sprightly Stars Illuminate 'Christmas Tree Cluster'
December 19, 2023
This new image of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights. NGC 2264 is, in fact, a cluster of young stars — with ages between about one and five million years old — in our Milky Way about 2,500 light-years away from Earth. The stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the Sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth the mass of the Sun to others containing about seven solar masses.
This new composite image enhances the resemblance to a Christmas tree through choices of color and rotation. The blue and white lights (which blink in the animated version of this image) are young stars that give off X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Optical data from the National Science Foundation-supported WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak shows a nebula of gas in the cluster in green, corresponding to the “pine needles” of the tree. Finally infrared data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey shows foreground and background stars in white. This image has been rotated clockwise by 160 degrees from the astronomer’s standard of North pointing upward, so that it appears like the top of the tree is toward the top of the image.
Young stars, like those in NGC 2264, are volatile and produce strong flares in X-rays and other types of variations seen at different wavelengths of light. The coordinated, blinking variations shown in this animation, however, are artificial, to emphasize the locations of the stars seen in X-rays and highlight the similarity of this object to a Christmas tree. In reality the variations of the stars are not synchronized.
The variations observed by Chandra and other telescopes are caused by several different processes. Some of these are related to activity involving magnetic fields, including flares like those undergone by the Sun — but much more powerful — and hot spots and dark regions on the surfaces of the stars that go in and out of view as the stars rotate. There can also be changes in the thickness of gas obscuring the stars, and changes in the amount of material still falling onto the stars from disks of surrounding gas.
https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2023/ngc2264/
Mass Shooting at School in Prague; “Several Dead, Dozens Wounded”: Police
Dec. 21, 2023 9:45 am
Czech police reported a mass shooting at Charles University near Jan Palach Square in Prague on Thursday has left several dead and dozens wounded. The shooter has been “eliminated” according to police.
Video and photo posted online shows panicked students fleeing for their lives:
Sporadic gunfire can be heard in this video, uncertain if by police or the shooter.
Translated reports by Czech police:
“We are currently responding to a reported shooting at a school in Náměstí Jan Palach. At the moment, all components of the IZS are going to the place. We will provide more information as soon as possible. #policiepha”…”At the moment, there is a police intervention on the spot, the entire Náměstí Jan Palach and the surrounding area is completely closed.”…”Based on initial information, we can confirm that there are dead and injured people at the scene.”…We urge citizens not to stay in the immediate vicinity and not to leave the house. The police intervention is still ongoing.”
“The shooter has been eliminated !!! The entire building is currently being evacuated and there are several dead and dozens of injured.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/mass-shooting-school-prague-several-dead-dozens-wounded/