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NASA’s Webb Peers into the Extreme Outer Galaxy
Sep 12, 2024
Astronomers have directed NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy.
Scientists call this region the Extreme Outer Galaxy due to its location more than 58,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center. (For comparison, Earth is approximately 26,000 light-years from the center.)
A team of scientists used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to image select regions within two molecular clouds known as Digel Clouds 1 and 2.
With its high degree of sensitivity and sharp resolution, the Webb data resolved these areas, which are hosts to star clusters undergoing bursts of star formation, in unprecedented detail. Details of this data include components of the clusters such as very young (Class 0) protostars, outflows and jets, and distinctive nebular structures.
These Webb observations, which came from telescope time allocated to Mike Ressler of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, are enabling scientists to study star formation in the outer Milky Way in the same depth of detail as observations of star formation in our own solar neighborhood.
“In the past, we knew about these star forming regions but were not able to delve into their properties,” said Natsuko Izumi of Gifu University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, lead author of the study.
“The Webb data builds upon what we have incrementally gathered over the years from prior observations with different telescopes and observatories.
We can get very powerful and impressive images of these clouds with Webb. In the case of Digel Cloud 2, I did not expect to see such active star formation and spectacular jets.”
Image A: Extreme Outer Galaxy (NIRCam and MIRI)
Stars in the Making
Although the Digel Clouds are within our galaxy, they are relatively poor in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
This composition makes them similar to dwarf galaxies and our own Milky Way in its early history.
Therefore, the team took the opportunity to use Webb to capture the activity occurring in four clusters of young stars within Digel Clouds 1 and 2: 1A, 1B, 2N, and 2S.
For Cloud 2S, Webb captured the main cluster containing young, newly formed stars.
This dense area is quite active as several stars are emitting extended jets of material along their poles.
Additionally, while scientists previously suspected a sub-cluster might be present within the cloud, Webb’s imaging capabilities confirmed its existence for the first time.
“We know from studying other nearby star-forming regions that as stars form during their early life phase, they start emitting jets of material at their poles,” said Ressler, second author of the study and principal investigator of the observing program.
“What was fascinating and astounding to me from the Webb data is that there are multiple jets shooting out in all different directions from this cluster of stars.
It’s a little bit like a firecracker, where you see things shooting this way and that.”
The Saga of Stars
The Webb imagery skims the surface of the Extreme Outer Galaxy and the Digel Clouds, and is just a starting point for the team.
They intend to revisit this outpost in the Milky Way to find answers to a variety of current mysteries, including the relative abundance of stars of various masses within Extreme Outer Galaxy star clusters.
This measurement can help astronomers understand how a particular environment can influence different types of stars during their formation.
“I’m interested in continuing to study how star formation is occurring in these regions. By combining data from different observatories and telescopes, we can examine each stage in the evolution process,” said Izumi.
“We also plan to investigate circumstellar disks within the Extreme Outer Galaxy. We still don’t know why their lifetimes are shorter than in star-forming regions much closer to us.
And of course, I’d like to understand the kinematics of the jets we detected in Cloud 2S.”
Though the story of star formation is complex and some chapters are still shrouded in mystery, Webb is gathering clues and helping astronomers unravel this intricate tale.
These findings have been published in the Astronomical Journal.
The observations were taken as part of Guaranteed Time Observation program 1237.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-peers-into-the-extreme-outer-galaxy/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024AJ….168…68I/abstract
Stranded Astronauts Plan to Vote From Space
Friday, 13 September 2024 09:47 PM EDT
Two American astronauts stranded in space said Friday they plan to vote in the presidential election from space.
Astronaut Butch Wilmore told reporters during a call, "I sent down my request for a ballot today."
He said, "It’s a very important role that we play as citizen including those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that."
His colleague, Sunita Williams, said "It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens and looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool."
The astronauts will make their choices via an interactive PDF that is password protected to ensure secrecy. Election officials in Texas are working with NASA to make it happen.
A spokesperson for the Harris County clerk told NBC this week, "Before sending the astronauts their ballot, it is transferred to a fillable document so that they can make their selections, save it, and send it back. A test ballot with a unique password is always sent first.
Once they vote on their live ballot, it is returned, printed, and processed with other ballots."
The first American astronaut to vote from space was David Wolf in 1997, who was aboard Russia’s Mir space station at the time.
Astronaut Kate Rubins voted from the International Space Station in 2020.
The two astronauts have been stuck at the ISS since June, when the Boeing Starliner that brought them there suffered serious problems midflight.
They won’t be able to return to Earth until February, when they plan to return in a SpaceX capsule.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/astronaut-voting-space/2024/09/13/id/1180314/
UTA to lead NASA wildfire grant
Thursday, Sep 12, 2024
A University of Texas at Arlington professor was awarded a major NASA grant to develop a new-generation tool that will allow states, counties and cities to predict how much damage wildfires will cause to freshwater supplies.
Adnan Rajib, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, is the principal investigator of this three-year, $824,020 grant.
He will lead a multi-disciplinary team composed of computer scientists, satellite technology experts and water managers from Purdue University, the U.S. Geological Survey and several government and non-government agencies across the western U.S.
“This is a project that will make an impact nationwide,” Dr. Rajib stated. “Wildfires and other climate-charged disasters are becoming more destructive and more frequent. No community should be thinking that it’s not going to happen to them.”
As Rajib, who is also the director of UTA’s H2I Lab, explained, “wildfires dramatically alter the natural flow of water and contaminate freshwater sources with debris from burned areas.
In severely affected regions, it can take years for water sources to recover. There is no easy way to predict such cascading hazards of wildfires, meaning communities are in the dark when protecting freshwater resources.”
To create their tool, Rajib and his team will use NASA satellite information to collect data from wildfires that have occurred and analyze it with the help of geospatial technology and artificial intelligence.
This information will then be used in a computer simulation model to predict the altered stream flow and water quality.
Lan Zhao, a senior research scientist at Purdue University’s Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, serves as co-investigator and lead software architect on the project.
“Satellite data on fire and water are complex and challenging to interpret,” Zhao said. “Students, researchers and practitioners in fire-affected communities often do not have the expertise to overcome this barrier.
We aim to develop a powerful tool that simplifies this process, making it easier to utilize satellite data in managing and mitigating fire hazards.”
Melanie Vanderhoof, a research geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey and a member of Rajib’s team, noted that "wildfires can make it difficult to maintain clean water supplies, especially in communities with limited resources for regular monitoring.
Our project will help bridge this gap by providing essential data to those who need it most."
Brian Chaffin, executive director of the Clark Fork Coalition, a science-based watershed nonprofit in Missoula, Montana, will support the team by organizing training workshops for water utility and other water quality agency personnel in the western U.S.
“Strong community involvement will ensure that the project’s outcomes are practical and immediately beneficial for day-to-day decision-making,” Chaffin emphasized.
The NASA grant comes to UTA just after the February 2024 Texas Panhandle wildfire devastated over 1 million acres of land, becoming the largest wildfire in Texas history and the second-largest in U.S. history.
Wildfires cause the country to lose between $400 and $900 billion each year in economic costs and damages, a figure expected to rise as such events become more frequent and severe.
Melanie Sattler, professor and chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at UTA, views this project as a prime example of how the department is at the forefront of using data science and geospatial technology to tackle emerging environmental challenges.
“Rajib’s work can become our compass in navigating the changing environment," she said.
Erin Urquhart, water resources program manager at NASA headquarters, noted that “this project advances NASA’s Earth Science to Action initiative by addressing environmental threats like droughts, floods and wildfires.
We’re making NASA’s wildfire impact data accessible and actionable, empowering water managers to respond to post-fire hazards, prioritize interventions and plan for future climate challenges.”
“I am pioneering what I call humanitarian technology to help underserved communities better protect themselves,” Rajib said. “I’m excited to work alongside NASA, my partners and local communities to make a meaningful difference.”
https://www.uta.edu/news/news-releases/2024/09/12/uta-to-lead-nasa-wildfire-grant
The new space race: Sen. Mark Kelly on China's bold ambitions, America's policy & Russian threat
September 14, 2024
On this episode of the GZERO World podcast, Ian Bremmer takes a close look at the evolving US-China space race and its implications for global security, competition, and international collaboration.
He is joined by Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot and NASA astronaut who offers firsthand insights into the future of US space policy.
Kelly also sheds light on China's ambitious space goals, including lunar missions and partnerships with Russia, raising concerns about the militarization of space.
He emphasizes the need for the US to counter these developments and maintain space as a peaceful domain.
Kelly discusses the eventual decommissioning of the International Space Station and highlights the importance of collaboration with allies like Europe, Canada, and Japan.
The episode also covers the growing role of private companies like SpaceX, which are not only shaping space exploration but also playing crucial roles in geopolitical conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, through initiatives like Starlink.
https://www.gzeromedia.com/gzero-world-podcast/the-new-space-race-sen-mark-kelly-on-china-s-bold-ambitions-america-s-policy-russian-threat
United Airlines bumps GEO operators off fleet for Starlink Wi-Fi
September 13, 2024
United Airlines is replacing multiple geostationary operators with Starlink in SpaceX’s largest aviation Wi-Fi deal, shaking up the last satellite broadband market where the low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation had yet to gain significant traction.
The U.S. carrier announced plans Sept. 13 to start equipping the more than 1,000 planes in its international fleet with Starlink connectivity next year, following tests slated for early 2025.
Nicole Carriere, a spokesperson for United, declined to comment on rollout timing and details by aircraft type but said the company will transition from current Wi-Fi partners Viasat, Panasonic, Thales and Intelsat in “a multi-year process.”
United, which has more routes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans than any other airline, plans to offer passengers high-speed, low-latency Starlink Wi-Fi for free.
“Everything you can do on the ground, you’ll soon be able to do onboard a United plane at 35,000 feet, just about anywhere in the world,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement.
According to United, supported Starlink services would include live streaming, gaming and the ability to connect multiple devices at once under one user.
The announcement surprised analysts, including William Blair’s Louie DiPalma, who said Viasat’s inflight connectivity service has been considered the gold standard in the industry.
“We expected that Starlink would win the Panasonic Avionics (wide bodies) and IntelSat (regional) equipped aircraft, but not the 536 ViaSat-equipped planes (336 of which are indirectly served through Thales Aerospace),” he wrote.
According to DiPalma, Viasat currently dominates commercial inflight connectivity with 3,750 commercial aircraft in service and another 1,460 in backlog.
Essentially all new planes for United, American Airlines, Southwest, and JetBlue come pre-installed with Viasat Wi-Fi, DiPalma added, and the geostationary operator is still set to be the market share leader five years from now because of the time it takes to retrofit and certify planes.
“ViaSat’s aviation revenue will likely also continue to grow,” he said.
“However, Starlink is positioned to have the highest aviation market share over the next decade as this landmark deal will likely lead to other wins.”
DiPalma told SpaceNews via email that a portion of Viasat’s 1,460 aircraft backlog may be reduced following the Starlink deal.
“In our estimation, sometime in 2025, there will likely be a point in which the ViaSat pre-installs stop, and Starlink will be added to new delivery planes,” he said.
Viasat said it does not expect any material changes to its financial outlook based on United’s Starlink announcement.
“Based on our understanding we believe our current contracted aircraft and contracted backlog will remain in service through the remaining years of our contract with United Airlines,” Viasat spokesperson Scott Goryl said via email, referring other questions about contracts to United.
“In-flight connectivity is a large, attractive growth market,” Goryl added.
“For these reasons, it has always been competitive and given the ever-increasing demand for connectivity, there is room for multiple players.”
Assuming each United aircraft currently connected with Viasat generates $120,000 in revenue every year for the satellite operator, DiPalma said this amounts to around $64 million in annual sales for the company, or roughly 1% of total revenues.
He said it would also likely take three years to roll out the Starlink service on all United aircraft.
Starlink’s United partnership follows Wi-Fi agreements with smaller airlines and regional jet service providers including Hawaiian Airlines (being sold to Hawaiian Airlines), airBaltic, Qatar Airways, Zipair, JSX, Flexjet and Aero.
Small U.S.-based regional jet service providers JSX, Flexjet, and Aero have said Starlink services have already launched on their planes.
However, Hawaiian Airlines, the first major airline to announce a deal with Starlink, and airBaltic of Latvia have pushed out plans to offer the services from this year to 2024.
Details around plans by Qatar Airways and Japan’s Zipair to deploy Starlink connectivity are also scarce.
Competition between OneWeb and Starlink could soon come to a head after Alaska Airlines announced plans Dec. 3 to buy Hawaiian Airlines.
https://spacenews.com/united-airlines-bumps-geo-operators-off-fleet-for-starlink-wi-fi/
Jane's Addiction punched a Foo Fighter?
Nevermind, got Dave Grohl and Navarro mixed up for half a second
Telesat secures $1.9 billion government funding for Lightspeed
September 13, 2024
Telesat has secured government funds covering more than half the $3.5 billion cost of its proposed low Earth orbit (LEO) Lightspeed broadband constellation, the Canadian geostationary operator announced Sept. 13.
The combined 2.54 billion Canadian dollars ($1.9 billion) of funding from the governments of Canada and Quebec comprise a mixture of loans and warrants that can be exchanged for stakes in Lightspeed, a constellation of 198 satellites slated to begin launches in mid-2026.
The bulk of the funding, 2.14 billion Canadian dollars worth, comes from the federal government, which is getting warrants for 10% of Lightspeed in a deal valuing the constellation at $3 billion.
The government of Quebec is providing a 400 million Canadian dollar loan under similar terms, detailed earlier this year, and is getting warrants for 1.87% of Lightspeed.
Another 400 million Canadian dollars of funding for the constellation is coming from a vendor that Ottawa-based Telesat declined to disclose.
Telesat plans to use its own equity to cover the remaining cost for what CEO Dan Goldberg said is the largest space program in Canada’s history.
Canada-based MDA is preparing to start producing the 750-kilogram satellites in the coming months.
Commercial Lightspeed services from LEO are due in 2027, joining competitors Starlink, OneWeb and likely Amazon as the internet giant prepares to kick off Project Kuiper’s launch campaign this year.
Finalizing government funding for Lightspeed follows years of negotiations and delays for a project that was initially planned to be much larger, more expensive and built by Europe’s Thales Alenia Space before pandemic-related disruption.
Telesat said it has increased its Canadian workforce by about a third in the past 12 months as it expects to spend as much as 1.4 billion Canadian dollars on the project this year.
“This is good news for our economy,” Quebec Premier François Legault said in a statement, “not only are we consolidating 650 existing jobs, but we are creating nearly 1000 paying jobs in a cutting-edge sector.”
MDA expansion
Separately, MDA announced Sept. 13 that construction has started on a 17,000-square-meter expansion to its satellite production facility in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, which would double the site’s manufacturing capacity.
The manufacturer said the expansion is needed to deliver up to two software-defined Aurora satellites daily for Lightspeed and other constellation companies.
Telesat is the anchor customer for Aurora, which uses a digital payload that can be reprogrammed in orbit.
MDA is also doing early work for an undisclosed party seeking to use Aurora for a mystery non-geostationary orbit constellation.
https://spacenews.com/telesat-secures-1-9-billion-government-funding-for-lightspeed/
Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster adds to UFO speculation
09/13/24 10:00 AM ET
Former National Security Advisor and retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster became the latest official to make eyebrow-raising comments about UFOs, now formally rebranded as “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAP.
Asked about UAP during a Sept. 6 appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” McMaster stated that “there are phenomena that have been witnessed by multiple people that are just inexplicable by any kind of science available to us.”
McMaster’s intriguing comments come at a critical moment in a growing national discussion about UAP.
The Senate is poised to take up the bipartisan Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act, arguably the most extraordinary legislation ever introduced in Congress.
Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), the Disclosure Act alleges that a decades-long government “legacy program” has secretly retrieved and is attempting to reverse-engineer UAP of “unknown” and “non-human” origin.
Not only is “non-human intelligence” formally defined, but the attention-grabbing term appears two dozen times throughout the 64-page legislation.
Astoundingly, the Disclosure Act would also require the federal government to take possession of “any and all” recovered UAP and “biological evidence of non-human intelligence” transferred to private defense contractors.
With multiple seemingly credible sources corroborating the existence of such secret programs, it is imperative that Congress pass the legislation without delay.
The introduction of the Disclosure Act, along with fascinating public comments like those from McMaster, marks a seismic shift in the official tone on the UFO phenomenon.
For over six decades, the U.S. government implemented a formal policy of “debunking,” “ridiculing” and dismissing even the most credible UAP incidents, frequently with demonstrably absurd and unscientific explanations.
But the December 2017 publication of a bombshell New York Times article fundamentally transformed the discourse on this long-stigmatized topic.
Asked in 2020 about seemingly inexplicable, years-long U.S. Navy encounters with UAP, former CIA Director John Brennan made a jaw-dropping statement, suggesting that “a different form of life” might be behind the perplexing incidents.
Over a decade after they were first formally reported, naval aviators’ daily observations of UAP exhibiting amazing flight characteristics off the East Coast remain officially unexplained.
John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence under former President Trump, injected fascinating context into recent military encounters with the UFO phenomenon.
In a 2021 interview, Ratcliffe stated that UAP “have been picked up by satellite imagery [and] frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are hard to replicate, that we don’t have the technology for.”
U.S. intelligence analysts, Ratcliffe continued, have “high confidence” that foreign adversaries such as China or Russia were not behind one of the most extraordinary, best-documented UAP incidents.
Alarmingly, Ratcliffe stated that UAP exhibit “technologies that we don’t have and, frankly, that we are not capable of defending against.”
In late 2021, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson suggested directly that recent military encounters with UAP could have extraterrestrial explanations.
Similarly, the prospect of a sitting high-level national security official openly discussing otherworldly origins for UAP was long unthinkable.
But current Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines raised eyebrows in 2021 when she pointedly did not rule out “extraterrestrial” origins for UAP.
Former presidents Clinton, Obama and Trump generated headlines when asked about the phenomenon in recent years.
Echoing McMaster, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley said last August that some reported UAP incidents are “really kind of weird and unexplainable.”
Such notable comments from top-level officials align with publicly available data.
Sophisticated mathematical analyses of the most recognizable UAP footage and best-documented incidents, for example, corroborate fighter pilot and radar operator accounts of craft exhibiting highly advanced technology.
Moreover, several other perplexing UAP videos, in tandem with supporting context and data, stubbornly resist prosaic explanations.
Perhaps most alarmingly, mysterious objects exhibiting seemingly astonishing technology conducted a series of brazen incursions around sensitive U.S. military assets — including nuclear missile silos — in recent years.
In light of these remarkable developments, Congress must get to the bottom of the decades-long UFO mystery and pass the UAP Disclosure Act.
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4877154-former-national-security-advisor-h-r-mcmaster-adds-to-ufo-speculation/
Robert F Kennedy Jr
End the War Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ijDYETyIts
The Obesity Myth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffLVYlg714M
We Will Transform Our Food System
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY3kz1J-yhc
Bummer, those didnt turn out too well
Do over
Robert F Kennedy Jr
End the War Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ijDYETyIts
The Obesity Myth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffLVYlg714M
We Will Transform Our Food System
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY3kz1J-yhc