NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

June 17, 2024

Ou4: The Giant Squid Nebula

Squids on Earth aren't this big. This mysterious squid-like cosmic cloud spans nearly three full moons on planet Earth's sky. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the Squid Nebula's bipolar shape is distinguished here by the telltale blue emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. Though apparently surrounded by the reddish hydrogen emission region Sh2-129, the true distance and nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, one investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, the cosmic squid would represent a spectacular outflow of material driven by a triple system of hot, massive stars, cataloged as HR8119, seen near the center of the nebula. If so, this truly giant squid nebula would physically be over 50 light-years across.

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

>>21036351

>>21031887 PB

Rocket Lab steps in to help students hit by space camp company collapse

June 16, 2024, • 01:28pm

Space company Rocket Lab has stepped in with an offer to school students whose dreams of visiting Nasa have been dashed after the company that organised the trips went into liquidation.

It’s estimated about 100 families were affected in this country after Actura New Zealand’s parent company in Australia collapsed.

The company organised study trips for high school students to Nasa and the Great Barrier Reef.

Eva Niehorster, whose daughter was due to travel to Nasa in the US in December, said her family has lost over $10,000.

After hearing the news, Rocket Lab approached the affected families with an offer to show the students around the company’s Auckland facility.

“We felt pretty gutted for the kids,” Rocket Lab spokesperson Morgan Connaughton said.

“We saw the coverage. The idea of kids getting school holiday jobs, or parents saving up $13,000 for something that’s a kid’s dream, and having that ripped away from them, is pretty awful.

“About half a dozen team members sent me the news stories and said, ‘Can we do something for these kids’,” Connaughton said.

So Rocket Lab had approached families involved, and they were keen on the idea.

“It’s not quite the same as Space Camp,” Connaughton acknowledged.

Those taking up the offer would be shown around the main building at Rocket Lab’s Auckland facility.

“We have a mission control where we launch real missions from. We have a big factory, there’s 10 to 15 rockets in there at any given time.”

A date had yet to be set for the visit.

Rocket Lab is about to mark a major milestone in its development, with the 50th launch of its Electron rocket, possibly as early as Wednesday.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350312602/rocket-lab-steps-help-students-hit-space-camp-company-collapse

Satellogic announces new round of layoffs

June 17, 2024

Weeks after cutting 13% of its workforce, imaging company Satellogic announced it is laying off an additional 70 employees and slowing deployment of new satellites.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after markets closed June 14, Satellogic announced it was laying off about 70 employees, roughly 30% of its workforce.

The company did not disclose details about the positions affected or in what locations.

The layoffs come just three weeks after the company announced another round of layoffs that affected 34 employees, of about 13% of its workforce at the time.

The new cuts would bring the company down to about 160 employees, less than half the size of the company at the start of last year.

The company is also slowing the deployment of new “Mark V” imaging satellites that can take imagery at a native resolution of 70 centimeters and also offer onboard processing.

“The Company has recently been successful in deploying and operationalizing its new Mark V satellites.

As a result of this successful deployment, the Company expects to reduce investment into its constellation growth initiatives at this time,” it stated in the SEC filing.

Satellogic has launched seven Mark V satellites to date, most recently on the SpaceX Transporter-10 rideshare mission in March.

The company planned to launch three more on Transporter-11 in July, the company reported in May.

The layoffs and reductions in satellite deployments are intended to conserve the company’s cash.

The reported a net loss of $61 million in 2023 and ended the year with $23.5 million of cash on hand. The company announced in April it raised $30 million from cryptocurrency company Tether Investments Ltd.

The company had blamed the losses on revenues that had grown far more slowly than previously projected.

The company generated $10.1 million in revenue in 2023, but in documents filed with the SEC in November 2021 as part of a deal to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger, projected $132 million in revenue in 2023.

Satellogic had, last September, projected $38 million to $58 million in revenues in 2024, but the company announced in April it was withdrawing that guidance. The SPAC projections from November 2021 had forecast $365 million in revenues in 2024.

“As we continue to evaluate all strategic options going forward, we are redoubling our efforts to put Satellogic on a path towards profitability,” Emiliano Kargieman, chief executive of Satellogic, said in a statement included in the latest SEC filing.

“Now that our Mark V satellites are operational, we are reducing our constellation growth and corresponding capital expenditures, allowing us to make some necessary adjustments, including workforce reductions, to ensure we are operating efficiently and are well-positioned for future success.”

https://spacenews.com/satellogic-announces-new-round-of-layoffs/

Space Detection of Earthly Anomalies: Groundbreaking New Technique Unveils Early Earthquake Signs

JUNE 16, 2024

Research identifies clear electromagnetic anomalies from a variety of satellite data, potentially aiding the development of early warning systems for earthquakes.

According to a new study in De Gruyter’s Journal of Applied Geodesy, earthquakes may betray their impending presence much earlier than previously thought through a variety of anomalies present in the ground, atmosphere, and ionosphere that can be detected using satellites.

Developing early warning systems for earthquakes could be very helpful in preventing death and destruction.

One such proposed technique involves using satellites to monitor a variety of physical and chemical parameters within the ground, atmosphere, and the layer of charged particles that exists above it, called the ionosphere.

Challenges in Detecting Earthquake Precursors

Such anomalies are known as earthquake precursors, and although researchers are aware of them, it has been difficult to definitively identify a pattern of so-called red flags that could indicate an impending earthquake.

This is because of the complexity of precursor interactions and their variability in different earthquakes and geographical regions.

However, with every earthquake that researchers analyze using increasingly sophisticated satellite technology, these patterns are slowly emerging.

Professor Mehdi Akhoondzadeh of the University of Tehran assessed a variety of satellite data from the run-up to and aftermath of two earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023 near the border between Turkey and Syria.

This included data from the Chinese seismo-electromagnetic satellite, CSES-01, and the Swarm satellite mission which consists of three satellites from the European Space Agency.

Observations of Anomalies Before Earthquakes

Strikingly, he observed anomalies in land surface temperature from the earthquake region as early as 12-19 days before the earthquakes and anomalies in atmospheric parameters between 5-10 days before the earthquakes.

These included measurements of water vapor, methane levels, ozone, and carbon monoxide.

When Professor Akhoondzadeh investigated anomalies in the ionosphere, including measurements of parameters such as electron density and electron temperature, he found clear and striking anomalies 1-5 days before the earthquakes.

The times that the anomalies became apparent in the ground, atmosphere, and ionosphere respectively suggest that these signals originated in the ground and eventually became apparent at higher levels in the atmosphere and finally the ionosphere.

Studying these phenomena could pave the way for earthquake early warning systems, but researchers will need to assess other earthquakes in the future to more fully understand these patterns.

“Using CSES-01 satellite data, anomalies in the ionosphere prior to the earthquakes in Turkey on 6 February 2023 have been detected for the first time,” said Professor Akhoondzadeh.

“By studying anomalies associated with multiple earthquake precursors, the uncertainty in detecting real anomalies decreases and this can be effective in creating earthquake warning systems with a low number of false warnings.”

Reference: “Analyses of data from the first Chinese seismo electromagnetic satellite (CSES-01) together with other earthquake precursors associated with the Turkey earthquakes (February 6, 2023)” by Mehdi Akhoondzadeh, 16 May 2024, Journal of Applied Geodesy.

DOI: 10.1515/jag-2024-0024

https://scitechdaily.com/space-detection-of-earthly-anomalies-groundbreaking-new-technique-unveils-early-earthquake-signs/

Symbiotic star Mira HM Sge

11/06/2024

This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the symbiotic star Mira HM Sge. Located 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta, it consists of a red giant and a white dwarf companion.

The stars are too close together to be resolved by Hubble. Material bleeds off the red giant and falls onto the dwarf, making it extremely bright. This system first flared up as a nova in 1975.

The red nebulosity is evidence of the stellar wind. The nebula is about one-quarter light-year across.

Astronomers have used new data from Hubble and the retired NASA SOFIA observatory (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) as well as archival data from other missions to revisit the binary star system.

Between April and September 1975, the binary system HM Sagittae (HM Sge) grew 250 times brighter.

Even more unusual, it did not rapidly fade away as novae commonly do, but has maintained its luminosity for decades.

Recently, observations show that the system has gotten hotter, but paradoxically faded a little.

The 2021 ultraviolet data from Hubble showed a strong emission line of highly ionised magnesium that was not present in earlier published spectra from 1990.

Its presence shows that the estimated temperature of the white dwarf and accretion disk increased from less than 220,000 degrees Celsius in 1989 to greater than 250,000 degrees Celsius now.

The highly ionised magnesium line is one of many seen in the UV spectrum, which analysed together will reveal the energetics of the system, and how it has changed in the last three decades.

With data from NASA's flying telescope SOFIA, which retired in 2022, the team was able to detect the water, gas, and dust flowing in and around the system.

Infrared spectral data shows that the giant star, which produces copious amounts of dust, returned to its normal behaviour within only a couple years of the explosion, but also that it has dimmed in recent years, which is another puzzle to be explained.

With SOFIA astronomers were able to see water moving at around 28 kilometres per second, which they suspect is the speed of the sizzling accretion disk around the white dwarf.

The bridge of gas connecting the giant star to the white dwarf must presently span about 3.2 billion kilometres.

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/06/Symbiotic_star_Mira_HM_Sge

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8M6aG3NRR-/

UFO Researcher Sues Peru Govt Over 'Alien Corpses'; Wants It Shipped To US For Examination

June 17, 2024

The demand to ship "alien corpses" to the US has led to a heated dispute between researchers and the Peruvian government.

The demand was raised by journalist and UFO researcher Jaime Maussan who claims that the newly unearthed specimens could be evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Maussan is urging the Peruvian government to allow shipping the alleged "alien" specimens to advanced labs in the United States for further testing.

Maussan, who gained popularity last year for presenting two alleged alien bodies at a Mexican congressional hearing, asserts that the new mummies contain "30 percent unknown" DNA, citing claims from unnamed scientist colleagues.

Reports say one of the mummies appears to be pregnant, further fueling speculation about their origins.

However, Peruvian archaeologists have countered these claims, suggesting that the mummies may simply be ancient human remains.

According to Daily Mail, Maussan has now initiated a $300 million lawsuit against the Peruvian government, seeking permission to export the samples to the US for "more in-depth analyses."

He claims that negotiations are underway to resolve the dispute and allow the transfer of the specimens.

Latin American historian Christopher Heaney has voiced skepticism about Maussan's claims, suggesting that the newly unearthed mummies are more likely to be human remains looted from archaeological sites.

'Personally, I am not convinced that they are humanoid. I think they're human,' Heaney told Daily Mail.

Earlier in January, forensic examination reportedly revealed that the alleged alien bodies unearthed last year were made from a mix of human and animal bones.

https://in.mashable.com/science/77260/alien-corpses-found-in-peru-sparks-controversy-over-research-to-prove-extraterrestrial-link

The real government conspiracy isn’t about UFOs

June 17, 2024

Three months ago, following last summer’s congressional hearings on UFOs, the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office issued a 63-page report evaluating almost 80 years of evidence. Its conclusion — not altogether surprising, given the name of the office — can be summarized as follows: Not much to see here. Please move on.

(The actual language from the report: “AARO has not discovered any empirical evidence that any sighting of a UAP represented off-world technology or the existence of a classified program that had not been properly reported to Congress.”)

The Senate Intelligence Committee isn’t buying it.

The Intelligence Authorization Act, which it passed this month, among other things calls for review of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office.

The bill would also limit research into what are now called UAPs (for unidentified anomalous phenomena) unless Congress is informed and add whistleblower protections for anyone who might wish to step forward and speak their minds.

Less plausible claims about UAPs have been achieving greater circulation in part because of the efforts of David Grusch, who testified before Congress last year about hidden alien bodies, crashed vehicles and secret conspiracies.

Those claims, which primary witnesses have not corroborated, defy belief, and the ensuing controversy has helped make concerns about UAPs appear silly.

Nonetheless, the truth remains that there are systematic sightings and sensor data of fast-moving entities that the government cannot explain.

You don’t have to think they are space aliens to realize that they are threats to national security. At the very least, the mere fact that some experienced military pilots entertain the more speculative alien-linked hypotheses suggests that the military is not processing information effectively.

Does it make anyone feel better when reports from pilots are dismissed as crazy? UAPs will remain an issue as long as China and Russia (and possibly other nations) remain national security threats, because the U.S. military will always want to identify possible entrants to its airspace.

No report or bureaucratic process can make those concerns go away. And so there is a kind of paralyzed equilibrium, where a very strong force — the desire to know — has met an immoveable object — a lack of knowledge.

In this sense, the frustration of the Senate Intelligence Committee — as expressed by its unanimous 17-0 vote — is understandable.

The Pentagon’s report presents many of the weaker UAP allegations and notes that there is no serious evidence to back them up.

And it simply dismisses some of the stronger UAP puzzles, such as the Nimitz or Gimbal incidents.

It is not until Page 26 that the report concedes: “A small percentage of cases have potentially anomalous characteristics or concerning characteristics. AARO has kept Congress fully and currently informed of its findings. AARO’s research continues on these cases.”

Those sentences should have been on the first page, and then the report should have presented the evidence about those cases. If this were an undergraduate term paper, I would have given it a D+.

The chatter among insiders, some of which surely reaches senators, is that some of the data is very hard to explain. Some people, such as John Brennan, former head of the CIA, have even speculated that the available evidence might imply contact with a non-human civilization.

Agree or disagree, the admission is a marker of our ignorance.

Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/opinion/2024-06-17/real-conspiracy-not-about-ufos-14209874.html