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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
July 23, 2024
The Crab Nebula from Visible to X-Ray
What powers the Crab Nebula? A city-sized magnetized neutron star spinning around 30 times a second. Known as the Crab Pulsar, it is the bright spot in the center of the gaseous swirl at the nebula's core. About 10 light-years across, the spectacular picture of the Crab Nebula (M1) frames a swirling central disk and complex filaments of surrounding and expanding glowing gas. The picture combines visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope in red and blue with X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray Observatory shown in white, and diffuse X-ray emission detected by Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) in diffuse purple. The central pulsar powers the Crab Nebula's emission and expansion by slightly slowing its spin rate, which drives out a wind of energetic electrons. The featured image released today, the 25th Anniversary of the launch of NASA's flagship-class X-ray Observatory: Chandra.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
We will win, WE WILL WIN!
NASA Spreads Its LEGS Antennas to Create a Continuous Comms Link with the Moon
23 Jul 2024, 13:47 UTC
The present day's most ambitious space exploration program is undoubtedly Artemis.
Although it is generally regarded as an effort meant to once again place human boots on the Moon, it is actually much more that that: under Artemis we will build our first space station on the orbit of another world, we will perform daring rendez-vous missions in space between spacecraft made by different companies, and we will establish the basis of the first human outposts on Luna.
Later on, Artemis will also spawn missions to Mars.
All of the above would be impossible without some way for Earth to talk to its astronauts and gear.
As it stands, our planet keeps tabs of its exploration vessels using one of two networks of antennas: Deep Space (DSN) and Near Space (NSN).
The DSN is made up of three antenna complexes located in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia.
They are used for communication purposes with most of the human hardware presently in space, but more specifically with the ones really far out, like the Voyager spacecraft.
The NSN, on the other hand, was built to cover distances anywhere from near Earth to 1.2 million miles (1.93 million km) away, meaning it reaches the Moon, but also the Sun-Earth Lagrange points 1 and 2.
L2 is where the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was placed and, together with L1, it is a region of space where the responsibilities of the two communication networks overlap.
The NSN network comprises a series of ground stations spread around the world, but it will soon get a major boost in power thanks to the arrival of something called LEGS.
That's an acronym for Lunar Exploration Ground Sites, which in turn represent a series of 66-foot antenna dishes that will be deployed in key locations around the world.
The first three will be up and running later this decade, and they will be located in New Mexico, South Africa, and Australia. The countries were chosen thanks to the fact they ensure an uninterrupted line of sight with the Moon, because as the satellite sets in one place, it rises in another.
The American continent-based antenna will be located at the NASA White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, while the South African one will be constructed in Matjiesfontein, near Cape Town – a choice that honors South Africa's involvement in the Apollo program with its ground tracking station. The Australian site for LEGS has not been selected yet.
All LEGS will be incorporated into the NSN in a bid to ease the workload on the Deep Space Network, which will be free to handle communications with the spacecraft operating very far away from our world.
For the first Artemis mission, which concluded uncrewed in 2022, NASA used both the DSN and NSS to talk to the Orion spacecraft. The same thing will happen with Artemis II, but from Artemis III onward, the LEGS antennas should kick into gear.
That means the new system will be responsible for coordinating not only the first Moon landing but also the start of operations for the Gateway space station, the deployment of the SpaceX (and later Blue Origin) human landing system, and the adventures of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV).
The way the LEGS antennas are supposed to work is pretty simple. Antennas will pick up radio frequency signals that contain encoded data coming from satellites and spacecraft in lunar orbit, or from some other hardware on the surface.
Once received, the data will be distributed to operators around the world, who will have to decide what to do with the info and what to instruct the Moon hardware to do next.
All the first three antennas of the system will work in dual-band, namely X-band and Ka-band, and that should make them according to NASA "extremely flexible for users." Later LEGS will get an extra, S-band.
This allows for part of the data (including telemetry) to be sent via the X-band, while science data and imagery in high-resolution will be beamed down via Ka-band.
Because it can handle a lot more loads, the Ka-band will also be used to support crewed operations on and around the Moon.
NASA calls the new antennas critical infrastructure for its "vision of supporting a sustained human presence at the Moon," but also a pillar of its Moon to Mars initiative.
There is no word yet on when the other three antennas of the system will be ready, or the locations where they will be built.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/nasa-spreads-its-legs-antennas-to-create-a-continuous-comms-link-with-the-moon-237432.html
NASA warns huge solar flare could knock out communications across the world this week
UPDATED: 07:42, Tue, Jul 23, 2024
The solar flare, which is estimated to be around 20,000 degrees Celsius, has led the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to issue an alert yesterday (July 22).
They warned that this solar activity could cause possible disruptions to Earth's radio systems, including aviation communication and satellite operations.
NOAA stated that weak power grid fluctuations could occur and the Aurora might be visible at high latitudes, such as Canada and Alaska.
In December, a NASA telescope captured the largest solar flare in years, which temporarily disrupted radio communication on Earth.
The sun emitted a massive flare along with a substantial radio burst, causing two hours of radio interference in parts of the US and other sunlit areas of the world.
Scientists at NOAA said it was the biggest flare since 2017, and the radio burst was extensive, affecting even the higher frequencies, reports the Mirror US.
Shawn Dahl of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center announced on Friday that the combination resulted in one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded.
Pilots across the country have reported communication disruptions, according to the Space Weather Forecasting Centre.
Scientists are keeping a close eye on this sunspot region for a potential plasma outburst from the sun, also known as a coronal mass ejection, that could be headed our way.
This could trigger a geomagnetic storm, Dahl explained, which could interfere with high-frequency radio signals at higher latitudes and set off northern lights, or auroras, in the coming days.
Solar flares are massive explosions of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun that can last anywhere from minutes to hours.
The sudden burst of electromagnetic energy travels at the speed of light, so any effect on the sunlit side of Earth's exposed outer atmosphere happens simultaneously with the event being observed.
The increased level of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation results in ionisation in the lower layers of the ionosphere on the sunlit side of Earth.
Solar flares typically occur in active regions, which are areas on the Sun characterised by the presence of strong magnetic fields; these are usually associated with sunspot groups.
As these magnetic fields evolve, they can reach a point of instability and release energy in various forms, including electromagnetic radiation, which we observe as solar flares.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1926650/nasa-warning-solar-flare-radio-disruption
Watch two plumes of 'dark' plasma explode from the sun and send solar storm towards Earth
July 22, 2024
Two loops of "dark" plasma exploded from the sun yesterday (July 21), and a NASA spacecraft caught it on video.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) watched as two loops of cool, dense plasma erupted from the sun's surface, looking eerily similar to a pair of dementors from Harry Potter hovering over the sun.
However, instead of soul-sucking mythical creatures, these blackish loops of plasma are are actually the beginning stages of a coronal mass ejection (CME), which are quite the magnetic mess that can create solar storms that impact Earth.
In the sped-up video, you can see two wispy black plumes of plasma launched from sunspot AR3757 on Sunday along with a M1-class solar flare.
These active sunspot regions can spew electromagnetic energy from the sun's corona at any given moment and as these plumes navigate away from the sun's atmosphere, they collect more and more plasma that eventually consolidate into a CME's most inner makings.
So why does the plasma look so dark compared to its surroundings? As it billows out and away from the sun, it's at a much lower density and temperature compared to the massive molten heart of our solar system, making it appear dark in SDO's imagery.
Once a CME is born, scientists can use images from the SOHO coronagraph to spot the halo, which is its signature, and determine if its propagating toward Earth and could bring our planet any impacts.
With the current forecast by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), this CME is expected to arrive at Earth later in the day on July 24 (Wednesday) and kick up our geomagnetic activity a notch.
https://www.space.com/sun-dark-plasma-solar-storm-july-21-2024
NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for NOAA’s JPSS-4 Mission
JUL 22, 2024
NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) to provide launch services for NOAA’s JPSS-4 mission. The spacecraft is part of the multi-satellite cooperative Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program, a partnership between NASA and NOAA. This mission is the next satellite in the program, which began with the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership.
This is a firm fixed price contract with a value of approximately $112.7 million, which includes launch services and other mission related costs. The JPSS-4 mission currently is targeted to launch in 2027, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The JPSS constellation of satellites collects global multi-spectral radiometry and other specialized meteorologic, oceanographic, and solar-geophysical data via remote sensing of land, sea, and atmospheric properties. These data support NOAA’s mission for continuous observation of Earth’s environment to understand and predict changes in weather, climate, oceans, and coasts to support the nation’s economy and protect lives and property. NASA uses the instruments aboard the JPSS satellites to continue decades of Earth science research for the betterment of humanity. When launched, JPSS-4, will carry the NASA Earth Venture mission Libera, an instrument that will improve our understanding of trends in Earth’s energy imbalance and our changing climate.
NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for managing the launch services. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the JPSS Flight Projects Office, which oversees the acquisition of the JPSS series instruments and spacecraft. A collaborative NOAA and NASA team manages the JPSS Program.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-launch-services-contract-for-noaas-jpss-4-mission/
NASA Rocket Discovers New Energization Process in Upper Atmosphere
JUL 22, 2024
When it comes to discoveries about our upper atmosphere, it pays to know your surroundings.
Using data from the Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics (TRICE-2) rocket launch, NASA scientist Francesca Di Mare and Gregory Howes from the University of Iowa studied waves traveling down Earth’s magnetic field lines into the polar atmosphere.
These waves were known to accelerate electrons, which pick up speed as they “surf” along the electric field of the wave.
But their effect on ions — a more heterogenous group of positively charged particles, which exist alongside electrons — was unknown.
By estimating the ion mixture they were flying through — predominantly protons and singly-charged oxygen ions — the scientists discovered that these waves were accelerating protons as they circle about the Earth’s magnetic field lines as well as electrons as they surf the waves.
The findings reveal a new way our upper atmosphere is energized.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasa-rocket-discovers-new-energization-process-in-upper-atmosphere/
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.045201
Chandra Sees the Peacock’s Galaxy
JUL 22, 2024
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory launch, the Chandra team released this never-seen-before image of NGC 6872, a spiral galaxy in the Pavo (Peacock) constellation, on July 22, 2024.
This image and 24 others, which all include data from Chandra, demonstrate how X-ray astronomy explores all corners of the universe.
NGC 6872 is 522,000 light-years across, making it more than five times the size of the Milky Way galaxy; in 2013, astronomers from the United States, Chile, and Brazil found it to be the largest-known spiral galaxy, based on archival data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer.
This record was surpassed by NGC 262, a galaxy that measures 1.3 million light-years in diameter.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/chandra-sees-the-peacocks-galaxy/
25 Images to Celebrate NASA’s Chandra 25th Anniversary
JUL 22, 2024
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
These images, which all include data from Chandra, demonstrate how X-ray astronomy explores all corners of the universe.
By combining X-rays from Chandra with other space-based observatories and telescopes on the ground, as many of these images do, astronomers can tackle the biggest questions and investigate long-standing mysteries across the cosmos.
On July 23, 1999, the space shuttle Columbia launched into orbit carrying Chandra, which was then the heaviest payload ever carried by the shuttle.
With Commander Eileen Collins at the helm, the astronauts aboard Columbia successfully deployed Chandra into its highly elliptical orbit that takes it nearly one-third of the distance to the Moon.
“For a quarter century, Chandra has made discovery after amazing discovery,” said Pat Slane, director of the Chandra X-ray Center located at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“Astronomers have used Chandra to investigate mysteries that we didn’t even know about when we were building the telescope — including exoplanets and dark energy.”
X-rays are an especially penetrating type of light that reveals extremely hot objects and very energetic physical processes.
Many fascinating regions in space glow strongly in X-rays, such as the debris from exploded stars and material swirling around black holes.
Stars, galaxies, and even planets also give off X-rays that can be studied with Chandra.
“Chandra has been a great success story for humanity and its pursuit of knowledge,” said Andrew Schnell, acting project manager of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Chandra’s incredible accomplishments are made possible by the team’s hard work and dedication.”
The new set of images is a sample of almost 25,000 observations Chandra has taken during its quarter century in space.
In 1976, Riccardo Giacconi and Harvey Tananbaum first proposed to NASA the mission that would one day become Chandra.
Eventually, Chandra was selected to become one of NASA’s “Great Observatories,” along with the Hubble Space Telescope and the now-retired Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope, each looking at different types of light.
In 2002, Giacconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources,” laying the foundation for the development and launch of Chandra.
Today, astronomers continue to use Chandra data in conjunction with other powerful telescopes including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer), and many more.
For example, in the last year, Chandra work with Webb has led to the discovery of evidence for two of the most distant black holes ever seen (reported here and here), and work with IXPE has revealed the “bones” of a ghostly cosmic hand, in studying an X-ray nebula created by a pulsar.
Chandra science has led to over 700 PhDs and has supported a diverse talent pool of more than 3,500 undergraduate and graduate students, about 1,700 postdocs and over 5,000 unique principal investigators throughout the U.S. and worldwide.
Demand for the telescope has consistently been extremely high throughout the entire mission, with only about 20% of the requested observing time able to be approved.
Scientists have written over 10,000 peer-reviewed and accepted papers based on Chandra data, gathering almost half a million citations, making it one of the most productive NASA missions in astrophysics.
“On behalf of the STS-93 crew, we are tremendously proud of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its brilliant team that built and launched this astronomical treasure,” said Eileen Collins, commander of the space shuttle Columbia mission that launched Chandra into space in 1999.
“Chandra’s discoveries have continually astounded and impressed us over the past 25 years.”
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/25-images-to-celebrate-nasas-chandra-25th-anniversary/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Beter
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/astronauts/former-astronauts/eileen-m-collins/eileen-collins-broke-barriers-as-americas-first-female-space-shuttle-commander/
Eileen Collins Broke Barriers as America’s First Female Space Shuttle Commander
Jul 22, 2024
At the end of February 1998, Johnson Space Center Deputy Director James D. Wetherbee called Astronaut Eileen Collins to his office in Building 1.
He told her she had been assigned to command STS-93 and went with her to speak with Center Director George W.S. Abbey who informed her that she would be going to the White House the following week.
Selecting a female commander to fly in space was a monumental decision, something the space agency recognized when they alerted the president of the United States.
First Lady Hillary Clinton wanted to publicly announce the flight to the American people along with her husband President William J. Clinton and NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin.
At that event, on March 5, 1998, the First Lady noted what a change it would be to have a female in the commander’s seat.
Referencing Neil A. Armstrong’s first words on the Moon, Clinton proclaimed, “Collins will take one big step forward for women and one giant leap for humanity.”
Collins, a military test pilot and shuttle astronaut, was about to break one of the last remaining barriers for women at NASA by being assigned a position previously filled by men only.
Clinton went on to reflect on her own experience with the space agency when she explained how in 1962, at the age of 14, she had written to NASA and asked about the qualifications to become an astronaut.
NASA responded that women were not being considered to fly space missions. “Well, times have certainly changed,” she said wryly.
The same year Hillary Clinton inquired about the astronaut corps, a special subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics held hearings on the issue of sexual discrimination in the selection of astronauts.
Astronaut John H. Glenn, who had flown that February in 1962, justified women’s exclusion from the corps.
“I think this gets back to the way our social order is organized really. It is just a fact. The men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes and come back and help design and build and test them.
The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order. It may be undesirable.” Attitudes about women’s place in society, not just at NASA, were stubbornly hard to break.
It would be 16 years before the agency selected its first class of astronauts that included women.
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By 1998, views about women’s roles had changed substantially, as demonstrated by the naming of the first female shuttle commander.
The agency even commissioned a song for the occasion: “Beyond the Sky,” by singer-songwriter Judy Collins.
NASA dedicated the historic mission’s launch to America’s female aviation pioneers from the Ninety-Nines—an international organization of women pilots—to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), women who ferried aircraft for the military during World War II.
Collins also extended an invitation to the women who had participated in Randy Lovelace’s Woman in Space Program, where women went through the same medical and psychological tests as the Mercury 7 astronauts; the press commonly refers to these women as the Mercury 13.
(Commander Collins had thanked both the WASPs and the Mercury 13 for paving the way and inspiring her career in aviation and spaceflight in her White House speech.)
In a group interview with several of the WASPs in Florida, just before launch, Mary Anna “Marty” Martin Wyall explained why they came.
“Eileen Collins was one of those women that has always looked at us as being her mentors, and we just think she’s great. That’s why we want to come see her blast off.”
Betty Skelton Frankman expressed just how proud she was of Collins, and how NASA’s first female commander would be fulfilling her dream to fly in space. “In a way,” she said, “it’s like my dream come true.”
In the ‘60s it was not possible for a woman to fly in space because none met the requirements as laid out by NASA.
But by the end of the twentieth century, women had been in the Astronaut Office for 20 years, and opportunities for women had grown as women were selected as pilot astronauts.
NASA named its second and only other female space shuttle commander, Pamela A. Melroy, to STS-120, and Peggy A. Whitson went on to command the International Space Station.
Melroy and Whitson shook hands in space, when their missions coincided, for another historic first—two women commanding space missions at the same time.
Twenty-five years ago, Eileen Collins’ command broke down barriers in human spaceflight. As the First Lady predicted, her selection led to other opportunities for women astronauts.
More women continue to command spaceflight missions, including Expedition 65 Commander Shannon Walker and Expedition 68 Commander Samantha Cristoforetti.
More importantly, Collins became a role model for young people interested in aviation, engineering, math, science, and technology. Her career demonstrated that there were no limits if you worked hard and pursued your passion.
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