NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

October 1, 2024

Porphyrion: The Longest Known Black Hole Jets

How far can black hole jets extend? A new record was found just recently with the discovery of a 23-million light-year long jet pair from a black hole active billions of years ago. Dubbed Porphyrion for a mythological Greek giant, the impressive jets were created by a type of black hole that does not usually create long jets – one that is busy creating radiation from infalling gas. The featured animated video depicts what it might look like to circle around this powerful black hole system. Porphyrion is shown as a fast stream of energetic particles, and the bright areas are where these particles are impacting surrounding gas. The discovery was made using data from the Keck and Mayall (DESI) optical observatories as well as LOFAR and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. The existence of these jets demonstrates that black holes can affect not only their home galaxies but far out into the surrounding universe.

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

>>21688331

NASA’s Instruments Capture Sharpest Image of Earth’s Radiation Belt

Oct 01, 2024

From Aug. 19-20, ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission made history with a daring lunar-Earth flyby and double gravity assist maneuver, a spaceflight first.

As the spacecraft zipped past our Moon and home planet, Juice’s instruments came online for a dry run of what they’ll do when they reach Jupiter.

During that time, two of NASA’s onboard instruments added another first to the list: capturing the sharpest-ever image of Earth’s radiation belts – swaths of charged particles trapped in Earth's magnetic shield, or magnetosphere.

The Jovian Energetic Neutrals and Ions (JENI) instrument, built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, on behalf of NASA, took the image as Juice soared away from Earth.

What it captured is invisible to the human eye. Unlike traditional cameras that rely on light, JENI uses special sensors to capture energetic neutral atoms emitted by charged particles interacting with the extended atmospheric hydrogen gas surrounding Earth.

The JENI instrument is the newest generation of this type of camera, building on the success of a similar instrument on NASA’s Cassini mission that revealed the magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter.

“As soon as we saw the crisp, new images, high fives went around the room,” said Matina Gkioulidou, deputy lead of JENI at APL.

“It was clear we had captured the vast ring of hot plasma encircling Earth in unprecedented detail, an achievement that has sparked excitement for what is to come at Jupiter.”

On Aug. 19, JENI and its companion particle instrument Jovian Energetic Electrons (JoEE) made the most of their brief 30-minute encounter with the Moon.

As Juice zoomed just 465 miles (750 kilometers) above the lunar surface, the instruments gathered data on the space environment’s interaction with our nearest celestial companion.

It’s an interaction scientists expect to see magnified at Jupiter’s moons, as the gas giant’s radiation-rich magnetosphere barrels over them.

On Aug. 20, Juice hurled into Earth’s magnetosphere, passing some 37,000 miles (60,000 km) above the Pacific Ocean, where the instruments got their first taste of the harsh environment that awaits at Jupiter.

Racing through the magnetotail, JoEE and JENI encountered the dense, lower-energy plasma characteristic of this region before plunging into the heart of the radiation belts.

There, the instruments measured the million-degree plasma encircling Earth to investigate the secrets of plasma heating that are known to fuel dramatic phenomena in planetary magnetospheres.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a better flyby,” said Pontus Brandt, principal investigator of JoEE and JENI at APL.

“The richness of the data from our deep-dive through the magnetosphere is astounding. JENI’s image of the entire system we just flew through was the cherry on top.

It’s a powerful combination we will exploit in the Jovian system.”

Now after using the Moon’s and Earth’s gravity, Juice's trajectory has been successfully adjusted for a future encounter with Venus in August 2025.

That Venus flyby will serve as a gravitational slingshot, propelling Juice back toward Earth and priming it for two additional flybys in September 2026 and January 2029.

Only then will the spacecraft, now boosted into high gear, make its grand arrival at Jupiter in July 2031.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/juice/nasas-instruments-capture-sharpest-image-of-earths-radiation-belt/

Scientists discover planet orbiting closest single star to our Sun

1 October 2024

Located just six light-years away, Barnard’s star is the second-closest stellar system — after Alpha Centauri’s three-star group — and the closest individual star to us.

Owing to its proximity, it is a primary target in the search for Earth-like exoplanets.

Despite a promising detection back in 2018, no planet orbiting Barnard's star had been confirmed until now.

The discovery of this new exoplanet — announced in a paper published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics — is the result of observations made over the last five years with ESO’s VLT, located at Paranal Observatory in Chile.

“Even if it took a long time, we were always confident that we could find something,” says Jonay González Hernández, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain, and lead author of the paper.

The team were looking for signals from possible exoplanets within the habitable or temperate zone of Barnard’s star — the range where liquid water can exist on the planet’s surface.

Red dwarfs like Barnard’s star are often targeted by astronomers since low-mass rocky planets are easier to detect there than around larger Sun-like stars. [1]

Barnard b [2], as the newly discovered exoplanet is called, is twenty times closer to Barnard’s star than Mercury is to the Sun. It orbits its star in 3.15 Earth days and has a surface temperature around 125 °C.

“Barnard b is one of the lowest-mass exoplanets known and one of the few known with a mass less than that of Earth. But the planet is too close to the host star, closer than the habitable zone,” explains González Hernández.

“Even if the star is about 2500 degrees cooler than our Sun, it is too hot there to maintain liquid water on the surface.”

For their observations, the team used ESPRESSO, a highly precise instrument designed to measure the wobble of a star caused by the gravitational pull of one or more orbiting planets.

The results obtained from these observations were confirmed by data from other instruments also specialised in exoplanet hunting: HARPS at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, HARPS-N and CARMENES.

The new data do not, however, support the existence of the exoplanet reported in 2018.

In addition to the confirmed planet, the international team also found hints of three more exoplanet candidates orbiting the same star. These candidates, however, will require additional observations with ESPRESSO to be confirmed.

“We now need to continue observing this star to confirm the other candidate signals,” says Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, a researcher also at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and co-author of the study.

“But the discovery of this planet, along with other previous discoveries such as Proxima b and d, shows that our cosmic backyard is full of low-mass planets.”

ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction, is set to transform the field of exoplanet research.

The ELT’s ANDES instrument will allow researchers to detect more of these small, rocky planets in the temperate zone around nearby stars, beyond the reach of current telescopes, and enable them to study the composition of their atmospheres.

Notes

[1] Astronomers target cool stars, like red dwarfs, because their temperate zone is much closer to the star than that of hotter stars, like the Sun.

This means that the planets orbiting within their temperate zone have shorter orbital periods, allowing astronomers to monitor them over several days or weeks, rather than years.

In addition, red dwarfs are much less massive than the Sun, so they are more easily disturbed by the gravitational pull of the planets around them and thus they wobble more strongly.

[2] It’s common practice in science to name exoplanets by the name of their host star with a lowercase letter added to it, ‘b’ indicating the first known planet, ’c’ the next one, and so on.

The name Barnard b was therefore also given to a previously suspected planet candidate around Barnard's star, which scientists were unable to confirm.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2414/

NASA Seeks Innovators for Lunar Waste Competition

Sep 30, 2024

A new NASA competition, the LunaRecycle Challenge, is open and offering $3 million in prizes for innovations in recycling material waste on deep space missions.

As NASA continues efforts toward long-duration human space travel, including building a sustained human presence on the Moon through its Artemis missions, the agency needs novel solutions for processing inorganic waste streams like food packaging, discarded clothing, and science experiment materials.

While previous efforts focused on the reduction of trash mass and volume, this challenge will prioritize technologies for recycling waste into usable products needed for off-planet science and exploration activities.

NASA’s LunaRecycle Challenge will incentivize the design and development of energy-efficient, low-mass, and low-impact recycling solutions that address physical waste streams and improve the sustainability of longer-duration lunar missions.

Through the power of open innovation, which draws on the public’s ingenuity and creativity to find solutions, NASA can restructure the agency’s approach to waste management, support the future of space travel, and revolutionize waste treatments on Earth, leading to greater sustainability on our home planet and beyond.

“Operating sustainably is an important consideration for NASA as we make discoveries and conduct research both away from home and on Earth,” said Amy Kaminski, program executive for NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program.

“With this challenge, we are seeking the public’s innovative approaches to waste management on the Moon and aim to take lessons learned back to Earth for the benefit of all.”

NASA’s LunaRecycle Challenge will offer two competition tracks: a Prototype Build track and a Digital Twin track.

The Prototype Build Track focuses on designing and developing hardware components and systems for recycling one or more solid waste streams on the lunar surface.

The Digital Twin Track focuses on designing a virtual replica of a complete system for recycling solid waste streams on the lunar surface and manufacturing end products.

Offering a Digital Twin track further lowers the barrier of entry for global solvers to participate in NASA Centennial Challenges and contribute to agency missions and initiatives.

Teams will have the opportunity to compete in either or both competition tracks, each of which will carry its own share of the prize purse.

The LunaRecycle Challenge also will address some of the aerospace community’s top technical challenges.

In July 2024, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate released a ranked list of 187 technology areas requiring further development to meet future exploration, science, and other mission needs.

The results integrated inputs from NASA mission directorates and centers, industry organizations, government agencies, academia, and other interested individuals to help guide NASA’s space technology development and investments.

This list and subsequent updates will help inform future Centennial Challenges.

The three technological needs that LunaRecycle will address include logistics tracking, clothing, and trash management for habitation; in-space and on-surface manufacturing of parts and products; and in-space and on-surface manufacturing from recycled and reused materials.

“I am pleased that NASA’s LunaRecycle Challenge will contribute to solutions pertaining to technological needs within advanced manufacturing and habitats,” said Kim Krome, acting program manager for agency’s Centennial Challenges, and challenge manager of LunaRecycle.

“We are very excited to see what solutions our global competitors generate, and we are eager for this challenge to serve as a positive catalyst for bringing the agency, and humanity, closer to exploring worlds beyond our own.”

NASA has contracted The University of Alabama to be the allied partner for the duration of the challenge.

The university, based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will coordinate with former Centennial Challenge winner AI Spacefactory to facilitate the challenge and manage its competitors.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-seeks-innovators-for-lunar-waste-competition/

Grant Stinchfield: The Collection of Incriminating Diddy Videos in One Episode… Must See!

September 30, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0oze6SB3gM

NASA Continues Advancing STEM for Students Through New Partnership

Sep 30, 2024

During an event at NASA Headquarters in Washington Monday, the agency and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation signed a Space Act Agreement to collaborate and expand STEM opportunities for Latino K-12 and university students and reduce barriers to agency activities and opportunities.

The signing is the latest in a series of efforts by NASA to expand access to STEM education for underrepresented communities across the nation.

“Through this agreement, NASA and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation are not just formalizing a partnership; we are igniting a commitment to innovation that will shape the future of our endeavors,” said Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.

“This initiative will help build a diverse future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce, showcasing our commitment to making America’s space agency accessible to all.”

As part of the agreement, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation will incorporate NASA STEM education resources, content, and themes into its Latinos on the Fast Track (LOFT) program, which aims to connect, inspire, and empower young Latino professionals and college students on their career journey.

In turn, NASA will provide access to aerospace STEM education professionals to support technical reviews for the development of new curriculum materials and facilitate information sharing with NASA experts and mentors who will lead presentations and workshops to expose students to STEM careers.

“The Hispanic Heritage Foundation is thrilled to partner with NASA to expand STEM opportunities and expose Latinos to career pathways in aerospace and space travel,” said Antonio Tijerino, president and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.

“This innovative partnership with NASA will allow us to expand our mission even beyond our planet!”

While initial efforts will be led by NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, the umbrella agreement also allows for further collaboration and partnership in the future.

Specifically, the agency and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation will look to support certain areas of NASA’s Equity Action Plan.

NASA works to explore the secrets of the universe and solve the world’s most complex problems, which requires creating space for all people to participate in and learn from its work in space.

Providing access to opportunities where young minds can be curious and see themselves potentially at NASA and beyond is how the agency will continue to inspire the next generation of STEM innovators.

https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-continues-advancing-stem-for-students-through-new-partnership/

NASA’s JPL Secures NOAA Contract to Study RF Band Corruption

September 30, 2024

The National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service said Friday the contract that NOAA awarded on Sept. 10, aims to investigate the disruptions of RF bands used by Earth observation satellites.

JPL is responsible for detecting, identifying and characterizing harmful emissions interfering with a passive band.

It is expected to provide possible measures to mitigate or reduce the impact of these issues.

The center will assess the risks, processes and modifications necessary to implement enhanced passive remote sensing globally.

It will also develop methods and evaluate resources needed for the mitigation strategies.

Increasing RF emissions from congested band sources, including private satellites and advanced wireless services, can corrupt data from Earth’s satellites that are vital for weather forecasting.

The contract, a Joint Venture Partnerships broad agency announcement, is intended for research purposes.

There are no current plans for an RFI detection or mitigation satellite mission.

The Office of Systems Architecture and Engineering’s Joint Venture Partnerships program, operated by NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, is managing the contract.

https://executivegov.com/2024/09/nasa-jpl-noaa-contract-study-rf-band-corruption/