TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
September 8, 2024
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy. Even at some two and a half million light-years distant, this immense spiral galaxy spanning over 200,000 light years is visible, although as a faint, nebulous cloud in the constellation Andromeda. A bright yellow nucleus, dark winding dust lanes, and expansive spiral arms dotted with blue star clusters and red nebulae, are recorded in this stunning telescopic image which combines data from orbiting Hubble with ground-based images from Subaru and Mayall. In only about 5 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy may be even easier to see as it will likely span the entire night sky just before it merges with, or passes right by, our Milky Way Galaxy.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
'Take the Chair, Make an Impact' This Star Trek Day
September 8, 2024
In celebration of Star Trek Day, the franchise announces "Take the Chair, Make an Impact," a global campaign encouraging fans to embrace the optimistic vision of a brighter future and to give back to the inclusive community of fans that Star Trek has fostered over the years.
The Star Trek franchise is making a donation to Code.org, DoSomething.org, and Outright International, while also encouraging fans to take on the mission of giving back with this worldwide social activation.
On Sept. 8, 1966, Star Trek debuted for the first time on television and creator Gene Roddenberry introduced audiences to a world that championed diversity, inclusion, acceptance and hope.
Fifty-eight years later, Star Trek commemorates this important day and the franchise's enduring legacy with the fifth annual Star Trek Day celebration, providing fans with a memorable way to enjoy and celebrate all things Star Trek.
This year, Star Trek has partnered with three worldwide nonprofits that embody the values of the franchise, including Code.org, giving every K-12 student the opportunity to learn computer science; DoSomething.org, fueling young people to change the world; and Outright International, advocating for LGBTIQ inclusion and equality globally.
The "Take the Chair" campaign invites fans to see themselves in the iconic U.S.S. Enterprise captain's chair and ask themselves, "What would I do if I were setting the course to the future?"
Fans will be able to engage through a digital experience available to fans worldwide on StarTrek.com.
Throughout the month of September, 25% of U.S. product sales from select items on the official Star Trek Shop will benefit these three nonprofits.
Fans will be able to celebrate Star Trek Day at various pop-up events:
Taste of Chicago, Chicago, Ill., which will feature the U.S.S. Enterprise captain's chair, will run Sept. 6-8 from 11am - 7pm
ALEXA Mall, Berlin, Germany, featuring a modern architectural interpretation of the captain's chair crafted from sustainable materials, will run on Sept. 8 from 1pm - 6pm
Richmond Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, featuring a modern architectural interpretation of the captain's chair crafted from sustainable materials, will run on Sept. 8 from 11am - 7pm
At all activations, fans are invited to "Take the Chair," capture a photo, obtain a personalized mission and receive a limited edition enamel pin.
In honor of Star Trek Day, the premiere episodes of the following series and Short Treks will be available to watch for free in a special sampling occurring Sept. 7-13 on Paramount+ partner platforms (Amazon, Apple, Roku), Paramount+'s Official YouTube page, Pluto TV and on the Paramount+ free content hub (US only), episodes listed here:
Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Cage"
Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint, Part I & II"
Star Trek: Voyager, "Caretaker, Part I & II"
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "The Emissary, Part I & II"
Star Trek: Enterprise, "Broken Bow Part I & II"
Star Trek: The Animated Series, "Beyond the Farthest Star"
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Strange New Worlds"
Star Trek: Lower Decks, "Second Contact"
Star Trek: Discovery, "The Vulcan Hello"
Star Trek: Picard, "Remembrance"
Star Trek: Short Treks – "The Girl Who Made the Stars," "The Trouble with Edward," "Ask Not," "Runaway," and "Ephraim and Dot"
https://www.startrek.com/news/take-the-chair-make-an-impact-2024-star-trek-day
European Space Agency Shares Pic Of 'Smiley Face' Spotted On Mars
September 08, 2024 4:06 pm IST
A 'smiley face '-shaped salt deposit on Mars has sparked intrigue among scientists, who believe it may conceal clues to the Red Planet's most enduring secret: the remnants of its last surviving life forms.
Billions of years ago, Mars was teeming with vast lakes and rivers that vanished during a catastrophic global freeze.
Now, researchers propose that this salt deposit, shaped like an emoticon, could be harbouring hardy microbes.
The European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a Martian satellite on a quest to uncover signs of life on the Red Planet, has captured stunning images of the chloride salt deposits on Mars' arid surface.
By studying these salt deposits, scientists can uncover clues about the planet's past climate, geology, and potential habitability.
''Why so serious? Once a world of rivers, lakes, and possibly oceans, Mars now reveals its secrets through chloride salt deposits found by our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.
These deposits, remnants of ancient water bodies, could indicate habitable zones from billions of years ago.
The discovery of nearly a thousand potential sites offers new insights into Mars' climate and potential for past life.
Explore the Martian landscape in this carousel,'' the post by ESA was captioned.
''A cold era began when Mars lost its magnetic field and could no longer hold its atmosphere, leading to water evaporating, freezing, or becoming trapped within the surface.
As the water disappeared over time, it left mineral fingerprints on the surface. Very salty waters could have become a haven for life, a beacon for habitable places on Mars.
High concentrations of salt allow water to remain liquid at temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius," Valentin Bickel, a planetary scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland who led the recent research published in the journal Scientific Data, said.
https://www.ndtv.com/science/european-space-agency-shares-pic-of-smiley-face-spotted-on-mars-6518177
SpaceX will start launching Starships to Mars in 2026, Elon Musk says
September 8, 2024
SpaceX's Starship megarocket will start flying Mars missions just two years from now, if all goes according to plan.
"These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars.
If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X on Saturday evening (Sept. 7), in a post that announced the bold new target timelines. (Earth and Mars align properly for interplanetary missions once every 26 months.)
"Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years," Musk added in the same post.
"Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet."
The stainless-steel Starship consists of two elements: a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship.
A stacked Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built.
It stands about 400 feet (122 meters) tall and generates 16.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — nearly twice that of the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket for NASA's Artemis moon program.
SLS is expendable, but Starship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.
Indeed, SpaceX plans to land Super Heavy back on the launch mount after each liftoff, enabling quick inspection, refurbishment and relaunch.
SpaceX believes that Starship's combination of brawn and efficiency will finally bring Mars settlement — a long-held dream of Musk's — within humanity's grasp.
Starship isn't fully up and running yet. It has flown four test missions to date — in April and November of 2023 and March and June of this year.
The giant vehicle has performed better on each successive flight, notching all of its major objectives on the most recent mission.
SpaceX is currently gearing up for Starship's fifth flight, which could take place quite soon; the company has already performed test-fires with the Super Heavy and the Starship that will fly the mission.
Flight five will feature some new and dramatic action — the first attempt to land Super Heavy back on the launch mount, an operation that will involve the use of the launch tower's "chopstick" arms.
As Musk often says about Starship flights, excitement is guaranteed.
https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-mars-launches-2026-elon-musk
Offspring's Noodles had UFO encounter
06 September 2024
Offspring's Noodles has claimed to have seen a UFO.
The 61-year-old guitarist - whose real name is Kevin John Wasserman - wasn't freaked out when he saw a mysterious light move around the sky before disappearing because he thought the encounter was "cool".
Noodles was interviewed by singer and paranormal expert Brocarde at the Metal Hammer Awards in Berlin, when she asked if he believed in ghosts.
The 'Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)' hitmaker told her he wants to but hasn't seen anything to convince him of their existence, but he did have a paranormal experience out in Russia.
He told Brocarde: "I saw a UFO once in St Petersburg, Russia that was pretty cool, I can’t explain it, it was just a light moving, in ways that light shouldn’t move.
It was a pinpoint of light, moving in a way that it shouldn’t move, not a straight line, and then it flared out and disappeared!”
The spooky singer - who recently connected with the ghost of Lemmy at Wacken Open Air festival - asked if the encounter had given Noodles a desire to go into space and land on Mars in the hope of seeing more alien life.
He said: “I like to go up into space, maybe not as far as Mars. I’d prefer to go to the bottom of the ocean in a submarine.”
The musician insisted he isn't scared of the idea of being lost in space or trapped underwater as his biggest fear is simply "being bored".
https://www.contactmusic.com/the-offspring/news/offspring-s-noodles-had-ufo-encounter_6386209
The Curiosity Rover Photographed A UFO On Mars
September 8, 2024
Twelve seconds afterward, the object no longer remains in the images; therefore, it cannot be the Ingenuity helicopter since the latter was 3,700 kilometers away.
According to the NASA web page description, the right Navcam took the photo onboard the Curiosity rover on Sol 3613, which translates into mission day 3613, October 5, 2022.
In the picture, it is some dark object in the sky, placed on the slope of a hill rising out of the Gediz Valley near the edge of Mount Sharp.
The object, however, is missing in the second picture taken with the same camera.
If indeed present, the object in the sky shows distinct and diffuse features indicative of flight or movement.
Several theories have lately popped up on the internet without any formal explanation from the space agency.
Could this be an alien spaceship? Is it an insect or avian native to Mars?
Might it be dust moved by strong Martian winds? Or is it something technical like dead pixels or a camera malfunction?
https://medium.com/@ForbiddenMystery/the-curiosity-rover-photographed-a-ufo-on-mars-298524ecfc47
https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1126107/
Beetlejuice 2 Confirms A Wild Rumor About Aliens - And It Changes Everything
SEPT. 7, 2024 11:40 AM EST
Contains spoilers for "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice"
The ghost with the most is back, and he's up to more supernatural shenanigans. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" marks another bonkers trip into the afterlife, but this one gives a little more detail on characters and the haunts they inhabit. In addition to finally revealing how Beetlejuice died, there's also some extra info involving the sandworms and their world that Tim Burton introduced us to in 1988.
In the latter half of the sequel, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) and her daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), are thrown into the "Dune"-like domain, and in no time at all, Astrid is able to deduce that they're actually kind of back in the land of the living — it's just that this particular stretch of land happens to be located somewhere else in our solar system.
In the original film, Beetlejuice refers to what appears as a limbo-like area as "Saturn," never really confirming if it's just a name or, in fact, the planet. Well, in the second film, after scanning the sandy terrain that looks like it's made up of Delia Deetz's (Catherine O'Hara) art, Lydia spots a giant moon on the horizon. Without hesitation, she quickly identifies it as Titan, the biggest of the 146 moons that orbit Saturn.
While it might seem like another random note added to this wacky return to one of Burton's most beloved movies, it's a small detail that has been part of the history of "Beetlejuice" since his name was first uttered three times 36 years ago — and a nod to an early alteration to the film's original script.
Given just how kooky the world of "Beetlejuice" might be, you have to wonder if Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren weren't throwing creative curveballs into the original film as they went along.
We do know that tweaks and changes were made to the script for Tim Burton's now iconic movie, and one of them involved finding the right home for the sandworms.
Initially, the land of limbo was, in fact, the moon known as Titan, and not the planet it circles, until rewrites were made.
It's a nice little nod, then, for Lydia to point out the spot that played a part in Beetlejuice's world, even if it was ultimately changed.
Of course, now that the sequel confirms the sandworm realm is, in fact, a very real planet, what does that mean when it comes to Saturn and lost spirits?
Is this Arrakis-looking atmosphere full of ghosts that never found a place to move on to, or is anyone that ends up there unable to settle long enough without getting eaten by the striped creatures?
Given the brief but important appearance of the snake-like beasties in the big "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" ending, perhaps these details will be addressed in a potential threequel. Here's hoping we get to see our heroes trying to walk without rhythm in an effort not to attract the worm in "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice."
https://www.looper.com/1659013/beetlejuice-2-confirms-sandworms-are-aliens/