NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

April 15, 2024

The Cigar Galaxy from Hubble and Webb

Something strange happened to this galaxy, but what? Known as the Cigar Galaxy and cataloged as M82, red glowing gas and dust are being cast out from the center. Although this starburst galaxy was surely stirred up by a recent pass near its neighbor, large spiral galaxy M81, this doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas and dust. Evidence indicates that this material is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic superwind. In the featured images, a Hubble Space Telescope image in visible light is shown on the left, while a James Webb Space Telescope image of the central region in infrared light is shown on the right. Detailed inspection of the new Webb image shows, unexpectedly, that this red-glowing dust is associated with hot plasma. Research into the nature of this strange nearby galaxy will surely continue.

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

This little robot can hop in zero-gravity to explore asteroids

April 14, 2024

A three-legged robot named SpaceHopper could help combat the challenges of exploring low-gravity environments, such as those found on asteroids or moons.

The SpaceHopper program was first launched two and a half years ago as a student research project at ETH Zurich university in Switzerland. And recently, researchers tested the hopping robot in a simulated zero-gravity environment during a European Space Agency parabolic flight, according to a statement from the university.

The robot consists of a triangular body with an articulated leg at each corner. Each of these three legs has a knee and a hip joint, allowing the robot to push off from a surface, kick to propel itself through space and control its landing within a designated area. SpaceHopper is designed specifically to explore relatively small celestial bodies such as asteroids and moons, where there is little to no gravity.

"[Asteroids] are thought to contain valuable mineral resources that could be of use to humankind in the future," researchers said in the statement. "The exploration of these bodies could also give us insights into our universe's formation."

However, exploring these types of celestial bodies can be challenging. In an environment with almost no gravity, there is basically no traction between a spacecraft's wheels and the surface it drives across; there is barely any atmosphere for a spacecraft to fly through, if there is one at all. That's why SpaceHopper instead performs brief hops to move upwards and sideways.

The recent parabolic flight allowed the researchers to simulate the low-gravity conditions in which SpaceHopper may one day be deployed. A video taken during the flight shows SpaceHopper kicking each of its three legs in coordinated movements to stay lifted during periods of zero gravity, which occurred about 30 times per flight, for about 20-25 seconds each.

https://www.space.com/spacehopper-robot-explore-asteroids-zero-gravity

China launches commercial SuperView-3 remote sensing sat

April 15, 2024

HELSINKI — China continued construction of a commercial constellation of remote sensing satellites early Monday with the launch of the SuperView-3 (01) satellite.

A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:12 a.m. Eastern, April 15 (0412 UTC). The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) confirmed launch success shortly after, revealing the payload to be SuperView-3 (01).

CASC described SuperView-3 (01) (also known as Gaojing-3 (01)) as China’s first commercial optical remote sensing satellite with an ultra-large width of more than 130 kilometers. The satellite is designed to provide 0.5-meter resolution and 9-band combined image data products.

The satellite will provide commercial remote sensing data services to support digital agriculture, urban modeling, and live 3D mapping, among other applications. Land surveying and disaster prevention and mitigation, and maritime monitoring purposes are also noted.

The SuperView, or Gaojing, satellites are part of a planned commercial remote sensing constellation. CASC, in its “blue book,” which outlines China’s space plans for 2024, stated it will continue work on a “four-dimensional new generation commercial remote sensing satellite system.”

This SuperView system, according to earlier statements, is to comprise at least 28 satellites. These include high-resolution optical payloads, wide-width optical payloads, high-resolution radar payloads and other diversified types of commercial remote sensing satellites.

It will also support the integration and value-added services of the Beidou GNSS system, and integrate satellite applications into emerging fields to support key regional economic development.

The first pairs of SuperView-1 satellites were launched in 2016 and 2018 respectively. A pair of SuperView-2 satellites were launched in 2022. All SuperView satellites have been sent into sun-synchronous orbits. The satellite operator is China Siwei Surveying and Mapping Technology Co., Ltd, a CASC subsidiary.

The commercial aspect is part of China’s broader strategy to enter and compete in the global market for satellite imagery.

China also has a commercial Earth observation firm in the shape of Changguang Satellite Technology (CGST). The Changchun-based remote sensing constellation operator is a well-backed spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ CIOMP.

CGST has more than 100 Jilin-1 series satellites in orbit, including optical and video satellites, with panchromatic resolution of around 0.70 meters. In 2022 it expanded its plans to launch 300 satellites by 2025. This move followed the high-profile role of U.S. commercial satellite constellations in the Ukraine conflict.

The launch was China’s 16th orbital mission of 2024. The country is planning to launch around 100 times during the year, with CASC responsible for around 70 of these. Commercial actors are planning close to 30 launches.

Major launches in the coming weeks include the Shenzhou-18 crewed mission to the Tiangong space station early April 25. The Chang’e-6 lunar far side sample return mission is set to launch in early May.

https://spacenews.com/china-launches-commercial-superview-3-remote-sensing-sat/

Will Smith crashes Coachella with a surprise ‘Men in Black’ performance with J. Balvin

April 15, 2024, 9:37 a.m. ET

He’s back in ‘Black.’

Will Smith arrived at Coachella for a surprise performance dressed in a suit in sunglasses — like his famous “Men in Black” character, Jay — as aliens danced around him.

The Oscar-winning actor, 55, made his showstopping appearance during J Balvin’s Sunday night set at the Indio, California, music festival.

“J Balvin randomly brought out Will Smith at Coachella, look how happy he was,” one fan said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Will Smith still got it. He wowed the crowd as he surprisingly performed men in black with J Balvin,” another fan said.

“Balvin really brought out the fresh prince??” another astonished onlooker marveled.

During his surprise musical performance, Smith sang his 1997 hit “Men in Black” from the movie, as green aliens danced in the background and a giant alien face decorated the stage behind him.

Smith also did dance moves from the original music video.

Balvin’s set had an extraterrestrial theme. Smith made his surprise appearance towards the end of his set, dressed in his iconic “Men in Black” look.

Keeping with the “Men in Black” theme, Smith ended his performance by taking out a memory-erasing neuralyzer and disappearing as suddenly as he had appeared.

Smith starred in all three movies about the agents who monitor alien activity, and use memory-erasing devices on anyone who witnesses it. He played Agent J, a fast-talking former NYPD detective who gets recruited by the older and more seasoned Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones).

The original “Men in Black” song played over the first movie’s credits, and it was from Smith’s debut solo album “Big Willie Style.”

Smith took home a Grammy for it in 1998.

“Y’all will never make me hate this man. i’m sorry,” another viewer commented – perhaps referring to the controversy around Smith after he slapped Chris Rock on live TV at the 2022 Oscars, resulting in Smith getting a 10-year ban from the Oscars.

“Will Smith will never not be a legend no matter happens in his personal life. Look at the stage presence and crowd reaction to someone who stopped performing years ago… insane,” another fan commented.

The fan was referring to Smith’s rocky relationship with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, 52, who revealed in 2023 that the couple has secretly been separated for seven years. Pinkett Smith, and their son, Jaden Smith, were both in the audience to watch the performance.

“The way you can actually hear Will Smith rap and it’s not 90% backing track like most of the Coachella clips I’ve seen,” another fan remarked about his performance.

“Old school rappers were built different.”

Smith was at Coachella to promote the fourth “Bad Boys” movie, premiering June 7. He previously joined Jaden, 25, on stage at Coachella in 2019 to perform “Icon.”

https://nypost.com/2024/04/15/entertainment/will-smith-crashes-coachella-2024-for-men-in-black-set-with-j-balvin/

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4588030-the-shocking-history-of-ufos-and-nuclear-weapons/

The shocking history of UFOs and nuclear weapons

04/15/24 7:00 AM ET

UFOs are no laughing matter on Capitol Hill. Beyond alleging the existence of surreptitious government programs to retrieve and reverse-engineer exotic craft of “non-human” origin, Congress mandated that the Department of Defense document and report any UFO incidents “associated with military nuclear assets, including strategic nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered ships.”

Lawmakers are right to focus on the nexus between UFOs and nuclear technology. Many of the best-known and most credible unexplained sightings occurred in alarming proximity to our most sensitive nuclear assets and facilities.

In 2004 and 2015, for example, U.S. Navy fighter jets flying off nuclear-powered aircraft carriers recorded the three UFO videos that catalyzed significant public and congressional interest in the phenomena.

But interactions between UFOs and ultra-sensitive U.S. nuclear assets date back nearly eight decades. New Mexico, ground zero for America’s nuclear weapons development programs, is the site of a remarkable number of baffling, unsolved UFO incidents.

In late 1948, for example, dozens of pilots, defense personnel and scientists associated with the famed Los Alamos and Sandia nuclear weapons programs began seeing mysterious “green fireballs” in the sky. Such objects were frequently observed flying on a perfectly horizontal trajectory, often moving directly toward nearby aircraft. In 1949, two major Los Alamos conferences on the incidents, which drew the likes of famed nuclear weapons physicist Edward Teller, failed to identify the source of the phenomena.

Lincoln LaPaz, then one of the world’s leading authorities on meteorites, observed the “fireballs” personally and, in partnership with the Air Force, conducted a thorough study of the mysterious phenomena. As Time and Life magazines reported contemporaneously, LaPaz “blasted” the notion that the objects were meteorites, bolides or other naturally occurring phenomena.

The bizarre incidents, along with their apparent connection to nuclear weapons research, remain unexplained.

Nearly a decade after the first “green fireball” sightings, an extraordinary UFO incident was reported at Kirtland Air Force Base, a key nuclear weapons testing and storage facility in New Mexico.

On Nov. 4, 1957, two control tower operators with more than 20 years of combined experience said they watched from a remarkably close range as an elongated wingless and engineless object descended slowly over the runway and hovered over the base’s nuclear weapons storage area. The craft then shot off at a remarkable speed. Radar confirmed the presence of the unknown object, which was ultimately lost from scopes as it shadowed a departing cargo plane at an uncomfortably close distance of half a mile.

A few years later, on April 24, 1964, Socorro, New Mexico, police officer Lonnie Zamora reported observing a similarly strange, elongated UFO, this time on the ground. Upon seeing Zamora’s approaching cruiser, he said, two small human-looking beings beside the UFO entered the craft, which then rapidly departed. Amid a national media frenzy, authorities mounted a sweeping investigation of the incident.

Army and Air Force officers, FBI agents and meteorite expert LaPaz all vouched for Zamora’s credibility and reliability. Moreover, a passing motorist corroborated his account, stating that he had briefly observed the craft, along with Zamora’s vehicle. A fellow Socorro police officer, arriving moments after the UFO would have departed, discovered a visibly shaken Zamora as well as smoldering vegetation where the craft would have been standing.

Importantly, this extraordinary encounter took place in the vicinity of the Trinity Site, where the first nuclear weapon was detonated in July 1945.

While credible observers reported countless other confounding UFO incidents in the vicinity of key New Mexico nuclear facilities, the UFO connection to nukes is not limited to the American Southwest.

One of the most perplexing reported UFO incidents, involving a multitude of simultaneous radar and visual observations, occurred in the skies over two of the largest nuclear weapons storage facilities outside of the U.S.

During the Cold War, British air bases RAF Lakenheath and Bentwaters hosted U.S. forces and nuclear weapons.

Over several hours on the night of Aug. 13, 1956, radar stations at Lakenheath and Bentwaters tracked multiple unidentified objects conducting extraordinary maneuvers, often at astounding speeds, in the skies above these two key nuclear-equipped bases.

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The bizarre radar tracks were corroborated visually by witnesses on the ground and via radar and visually by pilots in at least two aircraft. Perhaps most remarkably — and disturbingly — radar operators watched in shock as the mysterious object outmaneuvered and subsequently chased the first of two British fighter jets scrambled to intercept it.

Twenty-four years later, it happened again. In a series of startling incidents in December 1980, the deputy base commander of RAF Bentwaters and several Air Force personnel reported observing mysterious objects at close range in a forested area just south of the base. According to the deputy commander, the UFOs were also observed via radar.

In an affidavit, the commander, who initially intended to debunk UFO rumors swirling around the base, stated that at least one of the mysterious objects projected “beams of light” around the nuclear weapons storage area at RAF Bentwaters. Audio recorded during the incident seems to corroborate such observations. According to the commander, other UFOs “moved in sharp angular patterns as though they were doing a grid search.”

In 1979, just one year before the events in eastern England, the New York Times and the Washington Post had reported on a series of alarming incidents at key nuclear weapons facilities in the United States.

The Post, citing then-recently released Defense Department documents, reported that “a string of the nation’s supersensitive nuclear missile launch sites and bomber bases were visited by unidentified, low-flying and elusive objects” in the fall of 1975. The incidents involved “unknown entities and brightly lighted, fast-moving vehicles that hovered over nuclear weapons storage areas and evaded all pursuit efforts.”

“Numerous daily updates,” the Times reported, “kept the Joint Chiefs of Staff informed of these incursions.”

The unnerving events have notable parallels to allegations by former Air Force missile officers, that UFOs had rendered nuclear weapons inoperable at Minot Air Force Base in 1966 and Malmstrom Air Force Base in 1967.

Astronomer J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force’s long-time scientific consultant on UFOs, described how an unknown object high above Minot’s nuclear silos interfered with a missile command station’s communications equipment in August 1966. A local Minot, N.D., newspaper reported the extraordinary incident shortly after Hynek talked about it.

Hynek also described how a Border Patrol officer observed a metallic, disk-shaped object at remarkably close range just days before and not far from the Minot incident.

According to the officer, the silvery disk “was on its edge floating down [the] side of [a] hill wobbling from side to side about 10 feet from the ground.” The craft then “flattened out” and hovered briefly, exposing a “dome on top,” before tilting “back on edge” and disappearing “rapidly into the clouds.”

This incident was reported in the middle of a large field of Minot nuclear missile silos, the closest being only a mile and a half away. And the Border Patrol officer also reported that his radio stopped working as the metallic disk moved closer to him.

Hynek interviewed the officer and was left “personally satisfied that he is above reproach.” Moreover, according to government records, the officer “was not seeking publicity” and “stated that if his sighting was publicized he would deny any knowledge of the occurrence.”

In recent years, a weeks-long series of bizarre “drone” incidents observed by dozens of individuals in rural Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming left federal and state officials stumped. Notably, some of the strange sightings were “clustered in an area that has quite a few [nuclear missile] sites.”

The nearby Air Force base denied any involvement in the perplexing incursions. Following an exhaustive, multi-agency investigation, the Federal Aviation Administration concluded “with high confidence” that the odd incidents were “not covert military activities,” which only deepens the mystery.

In one instance, a Nebraska deputy sheriff reported “observing 30 to 50 [objects] flying independently of each other with a larger ‘mothership’ hovering for hours.”

At the same time, multiple reports described the objects as flying “in a grid pattern,” seemingly reminiscent of the “grid search” movements observed during the 1980 UFO incidents over the Bentwaters air base in England.

Some witnesses and media outlets undoubtedly observed planes and hobbyist drones during the 2019-20 incidents. But one of the objects passed just 200 feet above a Kansas Highway Patrol officer, who said that the brightly lit craft “made absolutely no sound at all, even though the wind was calm.”

Another witness, a retired meteorologist, also reported there was no sound as one of the objects “hovered over a [nuclear] missile command station within sight of his farm.”

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