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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Mar 14, 2024
Moon Pi and Mountain Shadow
What phase of the Moon is 3.14 radians from the Sun? The Full Moon, of course. Even though the Moon might look full for several days, the Moon is truly at its full phase when it is Pi radians (aka 180 degrees) from the Sun in ecliptic longitude. That's opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. Rising as the Sun set on March 9, 2020, only an hour or so after the moment of its full phase, this orange tinted and slightly flattened Moon still looked full. It was photographed opposite the setting Sun from Teide National Park on the Canary Island of Tenerife. Also opposite the setting Sun, seen from near the Teide volcano peak about 3,500 meters above sea level, is the mountain's rising triangular shadow extending into Earth's dense atmosphere. Below the distant ridge line on the left are the white telescope domes of Teide Observatory. Again Pi radians from the Sun, on March 25 the Full Moon will dim slightly as it glides through Earth's outer shadow in a penumbral lunar eclipse.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
NASA Engineers Make Progress Toward Understanding Voyager 1 Issue
March 13, 2024
Since November 2023, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending a steady radio signal to Earth, but the signal does not contain usable data. The source of the issue appears to be with one of three onboard computers, the flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth by the telemetry modulation unit.
On March 3, the Voyager mission team saw activity from one section of the FDS that differed from the rest of the computer’s unreadable data stream. The new signal was still not in the format used by Voyager 1 when the FDS is working properly, so the team wasn’t initially sure what to make of it. But an engineer with the agency’s Deep Space Network, which operates the radio antennas that communicate with both Voyagers and other spacecraft traveling to the Moon and beyond, was able to decode the new signal and found that it contains a readout of the entire FDS memory.
The FDS memory includes its code, or instructions for what to do, as well as variables, or values used in the code that can change based on commands or the spacecraft’s status. It also contains science or engineering data for downlink. The team will compare this readout to the one that came down before the issue arose and look for discrepancies in the code and the variables to potentially find the source of the ongoing issue.
This new signal resulted from a command sent to Voyager 1 on March 1. Called a “poke” by the team, the command is meant to gently prompt the FDS to try different sequences in its software package in case the issue could be resolved by going around a corrupted section.
Because Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, it takes 22.5 hours for a radio signal to reach the spacecraft and another 22.5 hours for the probe’s response to reach antennas on the ground. So the team received the results of the command on March 3. On March 7, engineers began working to decode the data, and on March 10, they determined that it contains a memory readout.
The team is analyzing the readout. Using that information to devise a potential solution and attempt to put it into action will take time.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2024/03/13/nasa-engineers-make-progress-toward-understanding-voyager-1-issue/
NASA Pi Day Challenge Serves Up a Mathematical Marvel
MAR 07, 2024
Celebrate one of the world’s most famous numbers with a set of math problems involving real space missions, courtesy of the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
March 14 marks the annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi, aka the Greek letter π. Its infinite number of digits is usually rounded to 3.14, hence the date of Pi Day. For some people, the occasion marks an annual excuse to eat pizza or pie (or both), but to truly honor this wondrously useful number, a serving of mathematics is in order, too. NASA is here to help.
Continuing a decade-long tradition, the Education Office at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has cooked up a set of illustrated math problems involving real-life NASA science and engineering.
With the NASA Pi Day Challenge, students can use the mathematical constant to:
determine where the DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) technology demonstration aboard NASA’s Psyche spacecraft should aim a laser message containing a cat video so that it can reach Earth (and set a NASA record in the process)
figure out the change in asteroid Dimorphos’ orbit after NASA intentionally crashed its DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft into its surface
measure how much data will be captured by the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite each time it orbits our planet, monitoring Earth’s land and ice surfaces in unprecedented detail
calculate the distance a small rover must drive to map a portion of the lunar surface as part of NASA’s CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) technology demonstration that’s headed to the Moon
Answers to all four challenge questions will be available on March 15.
https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/stem-engagement-at-nasa/nasa-pi-day-challenge-serves-up-a-mathematical-marvel/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/nasapidaychallenge/
The Marshall Star for March 13, 2024
MAR 13, 2024
CONTENTS
Marshall Celebrates Alabama Space Day in Montgomery
President’s NASA Fiscal Year 2025 Funding Supports US Space, Climate Leadership
Jason Adam Named Deputy Manager of Marshall’s Science and Technology Office
NASA Expanding Lunar Exploration with Upgraded SLS Mega Rocket Design
NASA Continues Artemis Moon Rocket Engine Test Series
Splashdown! NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Finishes Mission, Returns to Earth
Webb, Hubble Telescopes Affirm Universe’s Expansion Rate, Puzzle Persists
NASA Unveils Design for Message Heading to Jupiter’s Moon Europa
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/the-marshall-star-for-march-13-2024/
U.S. lawmakers introduce bill to promote NASA-Taiwan cooperation
03/14/2024 01:32 PM
Washington, March 13 (CNA) A bipartisan group of American lawmakers introduced a bicameral bill Wednesday to authorize cooperation between the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Taiwan's national space agency on civilian projects.
In a press release, Republican Representative French Hill, one of the bill's co-sponsors, said that the Taiwan and America Space Assistance Act of 2024, also known as the "TASA Act," would seek to remove restrictions currently imposed by the U.S. government's "one China" policy.
Passing the TASA Act will "allow NASA and NOAA [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] to cooperate with Taiwan on civilian space activities, including satellite, space exploration, and atmospheric and weather programs," Hill said.
"Allowing our agencies to collaborate with TASA [the Taiwan Space Agency] demonstrates to China the strength of American and Taiwanese cooperation and the United States' commitment to working with our partners in the region," Hill added.
As Taiwan builds up its space agency, American support and partnerships encourage Taiwan to continue investing in its space capabilities, the Republican lawmaker said.
Democratic Representative Yadira Caraveo, meanwhile, said that the "Taiwan Space Agency has demonstrated a clear long-term commitment to space exploration."
The TASA Act has also been sponsored in the U.S. Senate by Republican Eric Schmitt and Democrat Tammy Duckworth.
According to Schmitt, the TASA Act will allow the U.S. to "exchange expertise with Taiwan, share in technological findings in space exploration and satellite operations, and take important steps towards securing international partnerships against the malign influences of China, our chief adversary."
https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202403140006
Annual State of the Bases Address unites Guardians, Airmen, community partners
March 12, 2024
U.S. Space Force Col. David Hanson, Space Base Delta 1 commander, delivered the Delta's annual State of the Bases Address March 8 at Peterson Space Force Base.
Hanson began the address with an introduction to the command's mission, touching upon Peterson SFB, Schriever SFB, Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station and the four other installations worldwide under the Delta's oversight.
Local leaders and community partners were briefed on current affairs and gained insight into the significant relationships between the military and the Pikes Peak community.
"We could not do what we do here without the partnerships exemplified by those in this room," Hanson remarked. "I cannot say thank you enough.”
Next, he highlighted the Space Force organization of SBD 1, where he went through the mission and vision of each Space Delta that SBD 1 supports.
“Space Base Delta 1 reports to the Space Operations Command,” Hanson said. “SpOC has 13 Deltas, of which eight reside on our Front Range installations, which constitutes about two thirds of the entire Space Force’s operational capabilities.”
The Deltas are responsible for space situational awareness and space control missions. They also provide GPS and military satellite communication, as well as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, cyber, and orbital warfare capabilities. In addition to highlighting the seven installations across 11 time zones that SBD 1 oversees, Hanson showed the audience additional installations that SBD 1 supports – over 25 installations around the globe.
“Each of these locations represents a strategic space site that relies on the support provided by Airmen and Guardians right here in Colorado Springs,” Hanson said. Hanson also highlighted the accolades from 2023, including SBD 1 winning the 2023 Commander in Chief’s Annual Award for Installation Excellence and one of its Airmen winning the Outstanding Airman of the Year Award.
SBD 1’s economic impact equals about $4.3 billion annually, supporting over 30,000 local employees. Of this, more than a billion dollars is attributed to more than 16,000 military and civilian employees. The remaining impact stems from contracts, services, materials, construction and an estimated 14,000 indirectly created jobs.
Hanson emphasized the necessity of addressing current challenges while striving for growth and development to meet future adversarial threats and maintain our space superiority.
Among these challenges are facility space, infrastructure resiliency, support for geographically separated units, childcare availability and affordable housing. Hanson stressed the need for proactive collaboration with local authorities to address these issues. Despite these challenges, Hanson reaffirmed the commitment to finding solutions with community partners to ensure the well-being and readiness of service members and their families.
“We must face today’s challenges and continue to grow and build to combat the challenges of our adversaries and the capabilities we need to wage our space freedom tomorrow,” Hanson said.
SBD 1 facilitates and empowers combat-ready space and homeland defense operations by providing critical global support, including communications, power, logistics, contracting and security. Moreover, SBD 1 attends to the welfare of families residing and working on the command's installations through medical, family support and military readiness services.
“Our collective efforts bolster the security of our space domain and ensure the seamless operation of our nation's and our allies' space assets,” Hanson said.
For further information on Space Base Delta 1, visit: www.petersonschriever.spaceforce.mil.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3704712/annual-state-of-the-bases-address-unites-guardians-airmen-community-partners/
A rare nova ignites a 'new star' in the sky this year. Here's how to see it
Mar 12, 2024
A nova outburst visible to the naked eye is expected to decorate the night sky this year, offering a rare skywatching opportunity.
The star system offering us this opportunity is known as T Coronae Borealis (T CrB). It's located some 3,000 light-years away from Earth and consists of a red giant star and a white dwarf that orbit each other. When the white dwarf steals enough stellar material from its red giant companion, it ignites a brief flash of nuclear fusion on its surface, triggering what is known as a nova outburst.
The outburst will be visible in the constellation Corona Borealis, also known as the Northern Crown, which forms a semicircle of stars. The outburst is expected to occur between February and September 2024 and appear as bright as the North Star in our night sky for no longer than a week before fading again, NASA officials said in a statement.
"This could be a once-in-a-lifetime viewing opportunity as the nova outburst only occurs about every 80 years," NASA officials said in the statement.
This recurrent nova, which last exploded in 1946, is just one of five observed within the Milky Way galaxy. To spot the outburst, viewers should point their gaze to Corona Borealis, which lies between the constellations Boötes and Hercules. The outburst will appear as a bright "new" star in the night sky.
Generally, these binary stars have a magnitude of +10, which is far too dim to see with the unaided eye. However, during the outburst, the stellar system will have a magnitude of +2, which is comparable to the brightness of the North Star, Polaris, according to the statement.
"Once its brightness peaks, it should be visible to the unaided eye for several days and just over a week with binoculars before it dims again, possibly for another 80 years," NASA officials said.
The explosive stellar pair consists of a white dwarf — a relatively small, dense stellar remnant — and a larger red giant star in the late stages of stellar evolution, meaning its outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous. The gravitationally-bound stars are close enough that, as the red giant grows unstable from its increasing temperature and pressure, it ejects its outer layers onto the white dwarf. The accumulation of matter heats the white dwarf's dense atmosphere enough to trigger a thermonuclear reaction that produces the nova we see from Earth. This cycle will continue once the nova dims as well, with the white dwarf collecting enough matter to create another outburst.
https://www.space.com/new-star-night-sky-nova-explosion-rare
UFO transparency: Bipartisan push to establish UAP committee
MAR 13, 2024 / 07:21 AM CDT
Is enough being done to find the truth about unidentified anomalous phenomena?
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., doesn’t seem to think so. Now, he’s requesting a House select committee on UAPs.
Burlison sent a letter to House leadership Tuesday calling for a new select subcommittee to focus on UAPs, otherwise known as unidentified flying objects (UFOs). He believes it would provide a significant opportunity for Congress to find long-overdue answers.
Members of Congress have led a bipartisan effort to investigate and declassify government documents containing information regarding such unidentified phenomena following the testimony of UFO whistleblower David Grusch, a former Air Force and intelligence officer, before a House Oversight subcommittee in July 2023.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers formed the House UAP Caucus in the fall to focus on the issue, urging transparency and communication with the public.
Burlison, a member of the caucus, said the proposed select committee would first be focused on questioning the Department of Defense on expenditures he believes are for secret UAP recovery programs.
“We’re all taking this matter very seriously,” Burlison told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on Tuesday. “We took the whistleblower David Grusch and his allegations very seriously … I think we owe it to the American people to shed light on the expenditures being used to investigate these matters.”
The efforts are based on the need for government transparency, Burlison said.
The Pentagon brushed off concerns over spending in a report last week, claiming that all the expenditures questioned were either related to non-UAP projects or defunct ones. The report also reiterated that the government is not aware of any extraterrestrial crafts and that reported sightings have been the “result of misidentification.”
Burlison said he was concerned the Pentagon is not being completely forthright in its denials about UAP programs. He said Defense officials were not truthful to members of Congress in private when sharing classified information.
Burlison said he had not questioned Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on the issue, but already has the support of Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., as well as Reps. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., and Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.
https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-select-committee-request/
https://burlison.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/burlison.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/UAP%20Select%20Subcommittee%2003.12.pdf
Nikola Tesla Thought He'd Picked Up A Signal From Intelligent Aliens
Mar 13, 2024
Nikola Tesla, famed for his work on alternating current, was one hell of an inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. His inventions have been found to work better than expected even 100 years after he noted them down. However, nobody can be right 100 percent of the time, and Nikola Tesla had his fair share of being wrong – often massively so.
For instance, despite his work pioneering alternating current, Tesla didn't believe in electrons. Instead, he thought atoms were the smallest building blocks of the universe, arguing that if they existed they would only do so in a perfect vacuum. He believed in the 19th-century view that the "ether" or "aether" transmitted electrical currents.
There's also the time he believed he had recorded a cosmic ray traveling at 50 times the speed of light – but today we're here to talk about the time he thought he'd picked up radio signals sent by intelligent aliens.
In 1899, Tesla picked up a strange signal on his equipment.
"Even now, at times, I can vividly recall the incident, and see my apparatus as though it were actually before me," Tesla wrote of the incident. "My first observations positively terrified me, as there was present in them something mysterious, not to say supernatural, and I was alone in my laboratory at night."
In short, he heard beeps. Specifically: Beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep.
"The changes I noted were taking place periodically, and with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause then known to me," he continued, writing that he knew of possible sources of electrical disturbances such as those caused by the Sun, but dismissed these as the potential cause.
"It was sometime afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent control. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another."
Tesla endeavored to do more to investigate the signal, and spoke of sending the reply "four", playing a long-distance game of counting with supposed intelligent aliens.
Tesla, of course, had not picked up signals from aliens. Early on, people suggested that the signal must have originated from Earth, as it came in a frequency that the ionosphere would not let through, and Tesla was mocked for this.
However, over a century after Tesla found the signal, one team recreated Tesla's device and believed they found the source may have been of planetary origin, at least.
"It is our opinion that it is entirely within reason to identify Tesla's signals as the detection of intense kilometric (VLF) emissions originating from Jupiter," the team wrote in 2003.
"Considerable work still needs to be done to convince the skeptical," they continued. "However, the bottom line is that when you listen to the kilometric signals from Jupiter with one of Tesla's Colorado Springs receivers you occasionally hear 'Beep… Beep-Beep… Beep-Beep-Beep'! Furthermore, extraterrestrial right circularly polarized kilometric signals penetrate the Earth's ionosphere during the time of sunspot minima. Tesla was at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, with the right equipment to be able to detect these unusual electrical signals of planetary origin. It was the scientific community that was unprepared."
https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-select-committee-request/
>https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-select-committee-request/
wrong sauce
https://www.iflscience.com/nikola-tesla-thought-hed-picked-up-a-signal-from-intelligent-aliens-73345
Ok, some of this is getting VERY difficult to explain!
Mar 11, 2024
Trump tower @10:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gv-PhpGTwQ
https://www.shootonline.com/spw/award-winning-investigative-filmmakers-assemble-team-scientists-and-forensic-experts-announce
Award-Winning Investigative Filmmakers Assemble Team of Scientists and Forensic Experts to Announce New, Previously-Unknown Species of Humanoids
MAR. 13, 2024
In January 2024, two award-winning, Los Angeles-based investigative filmmakers, Serena DC and Michael Mazzola, took a trip together to Mexico City to prove that the “alien mummies” which had been presented by iconic Mexican Investigator Jaime Maussan in Mexico City on September 13, 2023, before the Mexican Congress, were, indeed fakes. Much to their surprise, DC and Mazzola discovered that the bodies Maussan had presented there that day were, in fact, a new species of Humanoid previously unknown to science. As the bodies have three fingers, they have been named Tridactyls.
Serena DC and Michael Mazzola are currently in production on a new documentary film entitled This Is Not A Hoax: The Nazca Alien Autopsies, which will chronicle the saga of the now infamous Peruvian bodies. The film will be distributed in June 2024.
Following Maussan’s presentation on 9/13/23 in Mexico City, Peruvian officials went to great lengths to discredit his “bodies” by conflating them with “other bodies” – dolls, in fact – which had been created by an artist. Then claiming that Maussan presented “dolls” at his event, the Peruvian Ministry of Culture succeeded in generating a massive amount of negative media attention around the world, discrediting both the legitimacy of Maussan’s “bodies” and Mr. Maussan, himself.
At a globally streamed press conference on March 12, at The Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood, CA, Serena DC and Michael Mazzola were joined by Jaime Maussan, along with inventor Adam Michael Curry, Peruvian Journalist Jois Mantilla, Dr. José de Jesús Zalce Benítez, Dr. Roger Zuñiga, Dr. Ricardo Manuel Anicama Pardo, Manuel Natividad Cruz Torres, Dr Juan Jose Rodriguez Lazo, Dr. Edgar Martin Hernandez, Dr. David Ruiz, and Dr. Rafael Arcangel Berrocal Ramos, all of whom collectively refuted the claims of “fake alien bodies.” This unique team presented to the media and to the world that Maussan’s original two bodies, along with an additional five bodies discovered recently in a cave in Peru, have been scientifically verified to be a previously unknown species of Humanoids living on Earth, 1,000 years ago.
During the March 12 press conference, scientists were live streamed from four locations, two in Mexico and two in Peru, demonstrating in real time scientific analyses and live body scans of these never-seen-before bodies. Some of these bodies are believed to contain some ancient technology, for which Metallurgical Expert and Engineer Dr Manuel Torres provided expert testimony.
“This was a once in a lifetime press event, where reporters were the first people on Earth to see these incredible beings and judge for themselves if they were once living creatures or ‘fakes.’ After we presented the mind-blowing forensic evidence behind these creatures, their true origins are now open for discussion,” said DC and Mazzola.
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Regarding the September 2023 revelation of “alien mummies” by Maussan in Mexico City, acclaimed Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson, on February 29, 2024, during an interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl, said, “We have to at least bring out the evidence. They did that in Mexico. That was an important first step – you present the evidence, then you send samples of it to other labs to verify or falsify your claims. That’s how science works.”
“We went down to Mexico to prove that these now infamous ‘alien mummies’ were nothing but a fraud,” DC and Mazzola add. “But we immediately became aware that Peruvian officials and the media were pushing this as a fraud, not Jaime Maussan and not these scientists. Our press conference was presented to address all of the lies and misinformation about this topic that have been reported, around the world, since last September. Our goal is to hopefully set the record straight. These bodies are a significant archeological find – they are either an extinct, unknown species, or the result of various genetic experiments from 1000 years ago, or something else we haven’t even considered yet. But they are not dolls. And how could early humans have performed these genetic experiments 1000 years ago?”
DC and Mazzola continue, “We have teamed up with a group of brilliant scientists, all of whom have been on the same quest as us – to discover the true origins of this new species. At our press conference, our team of decorated scientists and forensics experts unveiled these ancient bodies, some of which stand about 4-feet tall. One of these scientists was Dr Jose Zlace, who pointed out that “these tridactyl bodies correspond to biological and organic beings, with a harmonious and functional anatomical structure. These bodies exist without any traces of alteration or manipulation, and are completely authentic, with DNA results corroborating their authenticity. At the same time, these bodies also demonstrate their differentiation to any known species within Darwin's Taxonomy."
Dr Zlace stated, "We need to protect these bodies from their natural degradation in order to preserve them and further deepen their study and understanding by the world's scientific community. These bodies of three different species are something extraordinary must be treated with the necessary respect and objectivity. Humanity needs to understand that we are facing something here that could completely change our own conception and understanding as human beings.”
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