TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Mar 21, 2024
The Leo Trio
This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (left), M66 (bottom right), and M65 (top). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky in a frame that covers over half a million light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
Soyuz MS-25 Launch Scrubbed
March 21, 2024
The March 21 launch of the crewed Soyuz-25 spacecraft to the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus was scrubbed. The next available launch opportunity is Saturday, March 23. More information on the viability of that date is forthcoming, pending details on what caused today’s launch abort.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2024/03/21/soyuz-ms-25-launch-scrubbed/
NRO Mission Launches from NASA Wallops on Electron Rocket 
MAR 21, 2024
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility supported the successful launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket at 3:25 a.m. EDT, Thursday, March 21, from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. 
The rocket carried three collaborative research missions for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The mission, dubbed NROL-123, was the first NRO mission to fly on a Rocket Lab rocket launched from the United States.
“We are proud to support our commercial and government launch partners with world-class launch range, safety and support services,” said David L. Pierce, Wallops Flight Facility director. “It was a picture perfect launch following a smooth countdown.”
This was the third Electron launch from Wallops and the fourth launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex-2 in Virginia. 
The next launch from Wallops is scheduled April 8, 2024, during the solar eclipse. The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) mission will launch three sounding rockets before, during, and after peak eclipse time to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects the Earth’s upper atmosphere. 
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility provides agile, low-cost flight and launch range services to meet government and commercial sector needs for accessing flight regimes worldwide from the Earth’s surface to the Moon and beyond. Wallops’ flight assets – ranging from research aircraft, unmanned aerial systems, and high-altitude balloons to suborbital and orbital rockets – provide a dynamic range of flight capabilities. In addition, operational launch range and airfield assets at the facility enable science, aerospace, defense, and industry sectors.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/wallops/nro-mission-launches-from-nasa-wallops-on-electron-rocket/
NASA’s Hubble Finds that Aging Brown Dwarfs Grow Lonely
MAR 21, 2024
It takes two to tango, but in the case of brown dwarfs that were once paired as binary systems, that relationship doesn't last for very long, according to a recent survey from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Brown dwarfs are interstellar objects larger than Jupiter but smaller than the lowest-mass stars. They are born like stars – out of a cloud of gas and dust that collapses – but do not have enough mass to sustain the fusion of hydrogen like a normal star.
Astronomers using Hubble confirm that companions are extremely rare around the lowest-mass and coldest brown dwarfs. Hubble can detect binaries as close to each other as a 300-million-mile separation – the approximate separation between our Sun and the asteroid belt. But they didn't find any binary pairs in a sample of brown dwarfs in the solar neighborhood. This implies that a binary pair of dwarfs is so weakly linked by gravity that they drift apart over a few hundred million years due to the pull of bypassing stars.
"Our survey confirms that widely separated companions are extremely rare among the lowest-mass and coldest isolated brown dwarfs, even though binary brown dwarfs are observed at younger ages. This suggests that such systems do not survive over time," said lead author Clémence Fontanive of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Université de Montréal, Canada.
In a similar survey Fontanive conducted a couple of years ago, Hubble looked at extremely young brown dwarfs and some had binary companions, confirming that star-forming mechanisms do produce binary pairs among low-mass brown dwarfs. The lack of binary companions for older brown dwarfs suggests that some may have started out as binaries, but parted ways over time.
The new Hubble findings, published in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, further support the theory that brown dwarfs are born the same way as stars, through the gravitational collapse of a cloud of molecular hydrogen. The difference being that they do not have enough mass to sustain nuclear fusion of hydrogen for generating energy, whereas stars do. More than half of the stars in our galaxy have a companion star that resulted from these formation processes, with more massive stars more commonly found in binary systems. "The motivation for the study was really to see how low in mass the trends seen among multiple stars systems hold up," said Fontanive.
"Our Hubble survey offers direct evidence that these binaries that we observe when they're young are unlikely to survive to old ages, they're likely going to get disrupted. When they're young, they're part of a molecular cloud, and then as they age the cloud disperses. As that happens, things start moving around and stars pass by each other. Because brown dwarfs are so light, the gravitational hold tying wide binary pairs is very weak, and bypassing stars can easily tear these binaries apart," said Fontanive.
The team selected a sample of brown dwarfs previously identified by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer. It sampled some of the coldest and lowest-mass old brown dwarfs in the solar neighborhood. These old brown dwarfs are so cool (a few hundred degrees warmer than Jupiter in most cases) that their atmospheres contain water vapor that condensed out.
To find the coolest companions, the team used two different near-infrared filters, one in which cold brown dwarfs are bright, and another covering specific wavelengths where they appear very faint due to water absorption in their atmospheres.
"This is the best observational evidence to date that brown dwarf pairs drift apart over time," said Fontanive. "We could not have done this kind of survey and confirmed earlier models without Hubble's sharp vision and sensitivity."
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-finds-that-aging-brown-dwarfs-grow-lonely/
NASA, SpaceX 30th Commercial Resupply Mission Overview
New research and technology demonstrations for NASA are set to launch aboard the agency’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft will deliver more than 6,000 pounds of scientific research, supplies, and hardware to the orbiting laboratory.
Launch is scheduled for at 4:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 21, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This is the 10th SpaceX launch under the Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS) contract, as the first 20 launches were under the original resupply services contract.
Arrival and Departure
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will arrive at the space station and dock autonomously to the zenith port of the station’s Harmony module at approximately 7:30 a.m. Saturday, March 23. Live coverage of the rendezvous and docking will begin at 5:30 a.m. NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Mike Barratt will monitor the arrival of the spacecraft, which will stay docked to the orbiting laboratory for about one month before splashing down and returning critical science and hardware to teams on Earth.
Research Highlights
Plants off the Planet
Plants can be used in regenerative life support systems, to provide food, and to contribute to the well-being of astronauts on future deep space exploration missions. The Photosynthesis in Space Advanced Plant Experiment examines how microgravity affects the mechanisms by which two types of grasses, known as C3 and C4, capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“Plants respond to stressful conditions based on their genetic makeup and the environment,” said Pubudu Handakumbura, principal investigator with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “We aim to uncover the molecular changes involved in plants exposed to spaceflight stressors and develop an understanding of the mechanisms of photosynthesis in space.” Results could clarify plant responses to stressful environments and inform the design of bio-regenerative support systems on future missions, as well as systems for plant growth on Earth.
Sensing the Sea
The ocean significantly affects the global climate. A technique called Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry, which receives satellite signals reflected from the surface of Earth, shows promise as a way to monitor ocean phenomena and improve climate models. Killick-1: A Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry CubeSat for Measuring Sea Ice Thickness and Extent (Nanoracks KILLICK-1) tests using this technique to measure sea ice. The project supports development of space and science capabilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, by providing hands-on experience with space systems and Earth observation. More than 100 undergraduate and graduate engineering students participated in the project.
“The most exciting aspect of this project is that students have the opportunity to launch a mission into space,” said Desmond Power, a co-investigator with C-CORE of Canada. “It is also exciting to build a tiny satellite that does different things, including contributing to our knowledge of climate change.”
Reflectometry technology is low-cost, light, and energy efficient. Its potential applications on Earth include providing data for weather and climate models and improving the understanding of ocean phenomena such as surface winds and storm surge.
Automated Autonomous Assistance
The Multi-resolution Scanner (MRS) payload for Astrobee tests technology to automate 3D sensing, mapping, and situational awareness systems.
“Our MRS on an Astrobee free-flying robot will create 3D maps inside the space station,” said Marc Elmouttie, project lead with Australia’s national science agency, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, which developed the technology with Boeing. “The scanner integrates technologies developed by our mining and robotics teams. By combining data from multiple sensors, we compensate for weaknesses in any one system. This provides very high-resolution 3D data and more accurate trajectory data to help us understand how the robot moves around in space.”
“The technology could be used to autonomously operate spacecraft with minimal or no human occupancy where robots must sense the environment and precisely maneuver, including the lunar Gateway space station,” said Principal Investigator Connie Miller of Boeing. “Other uses could be to inspect and maintain spacecraft and for autonomous vehicle operations on other celestial bodies. Results also support improvements in robotic technologies for harsh and dangerous environments on Earth.”
https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/commercial-resupply/nasa-spacex-30th-commercial-resupply-mission-overview/
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WILL TRANSMIT 4K VIDEO STREAM
Mar 21, 2024
A UK start-up will be hitching a ride on the International Space Station to beam 4K videos back down to Earth. The cameras from SEN will be attached to the front of the space station to capture high-definition footage of our planet from space.
The company already has a camera attached to a satellite. CEO Charles Black told BBC News he hopes to be able to film from other locations, including the Moon, in future.
“We want to put cameras in lunar orbit, on the lunar surface and on lunar rovers, filming astronauts as humans return to the Moon,” he said, “We want to tell that story.”
The cameras will be delivered to the ISS as part of the next restocking mission, which will also supply food, clothing and science experiments.
One camera will be positioned looking straight ahead at the horizon. This will capture sunrises and sunsets, as well as the northern and southern lights.
A second camera will point straight down onto Earth. The range this camera will be able to capture is from 60 metres up to 240km across (150 miles). A third camera will capture footage of the docking station and will record the comings and goings of space capsules.
The video captured by these cameras will be live streamed in 4K definition, moving between the three cameras, giving a mixture of close-up and wide-angle views. The data will be sent via the European Space Agency’s relay system bouncing the signals to Earth via a satellite situated above the space station.
Of course, astronauts have been capturing images and videos of Earth from the ISS for some time now, with many astronauts showing off their photography skills.
Black believes that video streams from space will be useful for both news channels and TV and film crews working on documentaries, for example.
“Video from space is important and will be big business… because real-time video has story-telling power and can deliver insights about what’s happening directly to people, in the same way Google does,” he said.
https://www.diyphotography.net/international-space-station-will-transmit-4k-video-stream/
There might be something called 'super diamonds' in space, a supercomputer says
Mar 20, 2024
Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring material on Earth, but a supercomputer just modeled stuff that’s even harder. Called a “super-diamond,” the theoretical material could exist beyond our planet — and maybe, one day, be created here on Earth.
Like normal diamonds, super-diamonds are made from carbon atoms. This specific phase of carbon, composed of eight atoms, should be stable at ambient conditions. In other words, it could exist in an Earth laboratory.
The specific phase, called BC8, is a high-pressure phase typically found in silicon and germanium. And as the new model suggests, carbon can also exist in this particular phase.
Frontier — the fastest and first exascale supercomputer — modeled the evolution of billions of carbon atoms put under immense pressures. The supercomputer predicted that BC8 carbon is 30% more resistant to compression than plain ol’ diamonds. The team’s research describing the super-hard stuff was recently published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
“Despite numerous efforts to synthesize this elusive carbon crystalline phase, including previous National Ignition Facility (NIF) campaigns, it has yet to be observed,” said study co-author Marius Millot, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in a laboratory release. “But we believe it may exist in carbon-rich exoplanets.”
It’s not the first potential evidence of ultra-hard materials existing in the depths of space. In 2022, a team of researchers found evidence that lonsdaleite — a rare form of diamond — can exist in meteorite fragments that fall to Earth.
Space-based observatories like the Webb Space Telescope are revealing carbon-rich exoplanets like never before. Beyond Webb, NASA has plans for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a next-generation space telescope that could be operational by the early 2040s.
But scientists — reasonably — aren’t waiting to get a better look at such distant worlds, especially since super-diamonds would only form in extremely high-pressure environments; that is to say, at the cores of these exoplanets.
“The extreme conditions prevailing within these carbon-rich exoplanets may give rise to structural forms of carbon such as diamond and BC8,” said Ivan Oleynik, a physicist at the University of South Florida and senior author of the paper, in the same release. “Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the properties of the BC8 carbon phase becomes critical for the development of accurate interior models of these exoplanets.”
It may be possible to grow such super-diamonds in the lab environment. Eventually. However, to achieve this, the team must first explore what’s possible through LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), the same facility that achieved net energy gain in a fusion reaction in 2022, and again last year.
That research will be done through NIF’s Discovery Science program. So when it comes to lab-grown super-diamonds, my advice is to not hold your breath. But things could be heating up in materials science.
https://qz.com/super-diamonds-supercomputer-space-carbon-1851351402