NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

October 11, 2024

Ring of Fire over Easter Island

The second solar eclipse of 2024 began in the Pacific. On October 2nd the Moon's shadow swept from west to east, with an annular eclipse visible along a narrow antumbral shadow path tracking mostly over ocean, making its only major landfall near the southern tip of South America, and then ending in the southern Atlantic. The dramatic total annular eclipse phase is known to some as a ring of fire. Also tracking across islands in the southern Pacific, the Moon's antumbral shadow grazed Easter Island allowing denizens to follow all phases of the annular eclipse. Framed by palm tree leaves this clear island view is a stack of two images, one taken with and one taken without a solar filter near the moment of the maximum annular phase. The New Moon's silhouette appears just off center, though still engulfed by the bright disk of the active Sun.

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

Sail Along with NASA’s Solar Sail Tech Demo in Real-Time Simulation

Oct 10, 2024

NASA invites the public to virtually sail along with the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System's space journey using NASA’s “Eyes on the Solar System” visualization tool, a digital model of the solar system.

This simulation shows the real-time positions of the planets, moons, and spacecraft – including NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System.

Solar sails use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, angling toward or away from the Sun so that photons bounce off the reflective sail to push a spacecraft.

This eliminates the need for heavy propulsion systems and could enable longer duration and lower cost missions.

The results from this technology demonstration – including the test of the sail’s composite boom system – will advance future space exploration to expand our understanding of our Sun and solar system.

The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, which launched in April 2024, and deployed its reflective sail in August, is currently orbiting approximately 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) above Earth and is frequently visible in the night sky to observers in the Northern Hemisphere.

Fans of the spacecraft can look for the sail in the night sky using a new feature in the NASA mobile app.

Visibility may be intermittent, and the spacecraft could appear at variable levels of brightness as it moves in orbit.

For more mission updates, follow NASA’s Small Satellite Missions blog.

NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, manages the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System project and designed and built the onboard camera diagnostic system.

NASA Langley designed and built the deployable composite booms and solar sail system.

NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology (SST) program office based at NASA Ames and led by the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), funds and manages the mission.

NASA STMD’s Game Changing Development program funded the development of the deployable composite boom technology.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/sail-along-with-nasas-solar-sail-tech-demo-in-real-time-simulation/

First Greenhouse Gas Plumes Detected With NASA-Designed Instrument

Oct 10, 2024

Using data from an instrument designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the nonprofit Carbon Mapper has released the first methane and carbon dioxide detections from the Tanager-1 satellite.

The detections highlight methane plumes in Pakistan and Texas, as well as a carbon dioxide plume in South Africa.

The data contributes to Carbon Mapper’s goal to identify and measure greenhouse gas point-source emissions on a global scale and make that information accessible and actionable.

Enabled by Carbon Mapper and built by Planet Labs PBC, Tanager-1 launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Aug. 16 and has been collecting data to verify that its imaging spectrometer, which is based on technology developed at NASA JPL, is functioning properly.

Both Planet Labs PBC and JPL are members of the philanthropically funded Carbon Mapper Coalition.

“The first greenhouse gas images from Tanager-1 are exciting and are a compelling sign of things to come,” said James Graf, director for Earth Science and Technology at JPL.

“The satellite plays a crucial role in detecting and measuring methane and carbon dioxide emissions. The mission is a giant step forward in addressing greenhouse gas emissions.”

The data used to produce the Pakistan image was collected over the city of Karachi on Sept. 19 and shows a roughly 2.5-mile-long (4-kilometer-long) methane plume emanating from a landfill.

Carbon Mapper’s preliminary estimate of the source emissions rate is more than 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of methane released per hour.

The image collected that same day over Kendal, South Africa, displays a nearly 2-mile-long (3-kilometer-long) carbon dioxide plume coming from a coal-fired power plant.

Carbon Mapper’s preliminary estimate of the source emissions rate is roughly 1.3 million pounds (600,000 kilograms) of carbon dioxide per hour.

The Texas image, collected on Sept. 24, reveals a methane plume to the south of the city of Midland, in the Permian Basin, one of the largest oilfields in the world.

Carbon Mapper’s preliminary estimate of the source emissions rate is nearly 900 pounds (400 kilograms) of methane per hour.

In the 1980s, JPL helped pioneer the development of imaging spectrometers with AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer), and in 2022, NASA installed the imaging spectrometer EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation), developed at JPL, aboard the International Space Station.

A descendant of those instruments, the imaging spectrometer aboard Tanager-1 can measure hundreds of wavelengths of light reflected from Earth’s surface.

Each chemical compound on the ground and in the atmosphere reflects and absorbs different combinations of wavelengths, which give it a “spectral fingerprint” that researchers can identify.

Using this approach, Tanager-1 will help researchers detect and measure emissions down to the facility level.

Once in full operation, the spacecraft will scan about 116,000 square miles (300,000 square kilometers) of Earth’s surface per day.

Methane and carbon dioxide measurements collected by Tanager-1 will be publicly available on the Carbon Mapper data portal.

https://www.nasa.gov/earth/first-greenhouse-gas-plumes-detected-with-nasa-designed-instrument/

https://data.carbonmapper.org/#1.31/30.8/50.5

NASA partner says alien announcement to come 'within weeks' as he claims 'we've found it'

UPDATED: 19:48, Thu, Oct 10, 2024

British academic Professor Simon Holland, who has extensive experience in collaborating with NASA on projects such as tracking Earth-threatening asteroids, is convinced he's onto groundbreaking revelations.

Speaking to The Mirror, Holland revealed: "We have found a non-human extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy, and people don't know about it."

According to the professor, insiders from Mark Zuckerberg's Breakthrough Listen project have tipped him off that there could be news breaking within a month potentially timed with the US election buzz, suggesting concrete evidence of alien life forms.

He suggests researchers associated with the Oxford-based endeavour may already hold compelling proof of alien signals intercepted by the Parkes telescope in Australia.

"They found the evidence of a non-human technological signature a few years ago, using the Parkes telescope in Australia," claimed Holland, underlining that the study financed by tech moguls Zuckerberg and Yuri Milneris in an urgent chase for additional data to substantiate their unprecedented findings.

Simon warns that they are in danger of being outpaced to the finish line.

He revealed: "This is breaking news, as of yesterday, but the Chinese might be pipping them to the post, with their, FAST [Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope] programme.

It's the largest telescope in the world since Arecibo."

The coordinates of the target object, known as BLC-1, are allegedly known to the Chinese and both teams are vying to be the first to make the highly prestigious announcement.

Five potential technosignature candidates were identified from a re-examination of SETI's "Seti at Home" screensaver programme, which used the combined resources of the world's PCs to sift through the vast amounts of data generated by radio telescopes. BLC-1, Simon says, is considered the most promising by far.

Regardless of what the source of BLC-1's signals turns out to be, Simon emphasises, it's unlike any known natural phenomenon.

"It's a single point source," he says, and it's not just noise.

"The signal, instead of being the giant buzz of everything in the universe that we hear through all radio telescopes, was a narrow electromagnetic spectrum."

Astronomers have been thrilled by potential "alien" transmissions before when pulsars were first discovered they were catalogued as "LGM' or "little green men" objects. And the 1977 "Wow!

"Signal has never been definitively identified. But, Simon believes, this time it could be the real thing."

The scientists, understandably, are proceeding with extreme caution before making such a monumental announcement.

However, Simon anticipates that it could be made by either the Breakthrough Listen team in Oxford or the Chinese team within the next month or so.

"It would it would be wonderful if it coincided with the first woman in the White House," he jests.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1960323/nasa-alien-announcement-space

Nasa reveals mesmerising footage of Northern Lights from ISS amid ‘severe’ geomagnetic storm warning

Updated: 0:42, 11 Oct 2024

A NASA astronaut has revealed a stunning timelapse of the Northern Lights taken from the ISS.

And the footage comes just ahead of another geomagnetic storm which is expected to leave spellbinding views once again.

A fast coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the Sun on Tuesday and is likely to arrive at Earth today, according to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

As a result, aurora borealis - commonly known as Northern Lights - are expected across parts of the UK and US.

The Met Office told The Sun that the spectacle is "likely" to be visible from the UK.

"There is a chance of visible auroras over parts of the UK on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday morning," said Met Office spokesman Stephen Dixon.

"While the exact arrival time of the coronal mass ejection is open to some uncertainty, there are likely aurora sightings in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with a chance of some sightings in the north of England and slightly further south with long-exposure photography.

"Residual influence from the coronal mass ejection means aurora sightings remain possible on Saturday night, though this will be more confined to Scotland, where some rain and cloud could obscure viewing potential for some."

There have been several mesmerising displays visible from both sides of the Atlantic already this year.

But flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

Last night, NOAA classified today's geomagnetic storm as G4 (severe).

Dr Steph Yardley, from Northumbria University, said we could see displays as good as May's Northern Lights show - but we will only know this for certain when it is about to impact Earth.

"The Sun is being particularly active again leading to a rare and severe G4 geomagnetic storm watch being issued," he said.

"Apart from spectacular displays of the aurora, these eruptive events can cause a whole range of disruption to our technological systems and hence our everyday lives.

"Examples include, but are not limited to, blackouts of high frequency radio communications and navigation issues across wide areas caused by solar flares, ground induced currents that affect the power grids caused by geomagnetic storms, and a radiation risk for astronauts, passengers and crew in aircraft flying at high altitudes close to the poles due to energetic particles.

"We know that the Starlink satellites reported more outages occurring at the same time of the X-class flare this morning."

Dr Steph Yardley also warned that the possible disruption could cause issues for Hurricane Milton relief efforts.

Millions across Florida have been left without power after winds of up to 120mph swept through towns leaving a trail of destruction.

"We saw a very similar situation to this in 2017 when three hurricanes hit the Caribbean region and solar flares disrupted radio communications," he continued.

"This shows that the impact of space weather at Earth can not only be far reaching but that extreme space weather and weather events do not play well together."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/30998027/northern-lights-geomagnetic-storm-visible-uk-us/