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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
October 16, 2024
Colorful Aurora over New Zealand
Sometimes the night sky is full of surprises. Take the sky over Lindis Pass, South Island, New Zealand one-night last week. Instead of a typically calm night sky filled with constant stars, a busy and dynamic night sky appeared. Suddenly visible were pervasive red aurora, green picket-fence aurora, a red SAR arc, a STEVE, a meteor, and the Moon. These outshone the center of our Milky Way Galaxy and both of its two satellite galaxies: the LMC and SMC. All of these were captured together on 28 exposures in five minutes, from which this panorama was composed. Auroras lit up many skies last week, as a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun unleashed a burst of particles toward our Earth that created colorful skies over latitudes usually too far from the Earth's poles to see them. More generally, night skies this month have other surprises, showing not only auroras – but comets.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.axiomspace.com/release/prada-axiom-suit
Axiom Space, Prada Unveil Spacesuit Design for Moon Return
16 October 2024
At the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, Axiom Space and Prada revealed for the first time today the flight design of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit that will be used for NASA’s Artemis III mission.
The outer-layer design and materials work was jointly developed starting when the two industry leaders came together, blending creativity and engineering to enhance the next-generation spacesuit design.
“Our elite teams have redefined spacesuit development, establishing new pathways to innovative solutions and applying a state-of-the-art design approach for the AxEMU,” said Matt Ondler, Axiom Space President.
“We have broken the mold. The Axiom Space-Prada partnership has set a new foundational model for cross-industry collaboration, further expanding what’s possible in commercial space.”
During development, Axiom Space used a dark cover layer for display purposes only to conceal the suit’s proprietary technology.
However, the spacesuit worn on the lunar surface will be made from a white material that reflects heat and protects astronauts from extreme high temperatures and lunar dust.
Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility said, “Going beyond our limits is one of the company’s values that perfectly reflects the spirit of the Prada brand and my parents’ vision.
I’m very proud of the result we’re showing today, which is just the first step in a long-term collaboration with Axiom Space.
We’ve shared our expertise on high-performance materials, features, and sewing techniques, and we learned a lot.
I’m sure we’ll continue to explore new challenges, broaden our horizons, and build new scenarios together.”
Prada’s in-depth knowledge and experience on materials and production processes supported innovative work in addition to the spacesuit cover layer.
Prada’s design and product development team worked alongside Axiom Space engineers on customized material recommendations and features that would both protect astronauts against the unique challenges of the lunar environment and visually inspire future space exploration.
Prada’s expertise enabled advanced technologies and innovative sewing methods to bridge the gap between highly engineered functionality and an aesthetically appealing white outer layer, providing astronauts with an increased level of comfort while improving the materials’ performance.
The AxEMU program epitomizes how the commercial space industry is enabling non-traditional partnerships to enhance space exploration capabilities.
Since being awarded its first Artemis task order in 2022, valued at $228 million, Axiom Space has capitalized on the public-private agreement with NASA, seeking out renowned experts in diverse industries to aid in developing and designing this next-generation spacesuit.
“We are pioneering a new era in space exploration where partnerships are imperative to the commercialization of space,” said Russell Ralston, Executive Vice President of Extravehicular Activity, Axiom Space.
“Partnerships build a strong, cohesive team, enabling industry experts to provide cutting-edge technology, specialized products and services to drive innovation.
For the first time, we are leveraging expertise in other industries to craft a better solution for space.”
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AxEMU Development
Advancing NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) spacesuit design, the AxEMU provides increased flexibility, performance, and safety, as well as specialized tools to aid in exploring the lunar south pole.
The suit accommodates a wide range of crewmembers, including males and females from the first to 99th percentile (anthropomorphic sizing).
It will withstand extreme temperatures at the lunar south pole and endure the coldest temperatures in the permanently shadowed regions for at least two hours. Astronauts will be able to perform spacewalks for at least eight hours.
The AxEMU incorporates multiple redundant systems and an onboard diagnostic system to ensure safety for crewmembers.
The suit also uses a regenerable carbon dioxide scrubbing system and a robust cooling technology to remove heat from the system.
It includes advanced coatings on the helmet and visor to enhance the astronauts’ view of their surroundings, as well as custom gloves made in-house featuring several advancements over the gloves used today.
The spacesuit architecture includes life support systems, pressure garments, avionics and other innovative systems to meet exploration needs and expand scientific opportunities.
Axiom Space developed the AxEMU using a single, foundational architecture. The architecture is evolvable, scalable and adaptable for missions on the lunar surface and in low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Axiom Space has iteratively improved this next-gen spacesuit over the past two years to support the Artemis III mission.
The AxEMU has undergone extensive testing and simulations with a wide range of astronauts and engineers at state-of-the-art Axiom Space, SpaceX and NASA facilities.
Testing was conducted underwater to simulate the lunar environment with an unoccupied spacesuit at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) and reduced gravity simulations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
The AxEMU suit is nearing the final development stage. It completed a successful pressurized simulation with Artemis III partners – NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom Space – marking the first test of its kind since the Apollo era.
It will continue to undergo testing including crewed underwater tests at the NBL facility, integrated tests with the Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle prototypes, and will enter the critical design review phase in 2025.
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A Colorful Aurora Paints the Night Sky
October 16, 2024
As we move into the peak of solar cycle 25, activity on the Sun has been ratcheting up.
One sign of that appeared in Earth’s atmosphere in the form of an impressive display of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, which was visible to observers on the ground beyond the Arctic Circle and deep into the midlatitudes in October 2024.
Millions of skywatchers were treated to the green, pink, and red lights of the aurora overnight on October 10-11. At 1:55 a.m.
Eastern Time (05:55 Universal Time) on October 11, the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-20 satellite acquired this image of the aurora.
The VIIRS day-night band detects nighttime light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as city lights, reflected moonlight, and auroras.
In this view, the northern lights appear as ribbons of white crossing parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the U.S., and several provinces in Canada.
But auroras are dynamic, and different coverage and patterns of light would have been visible at other times of the night.
While these satellite data are shown in grayscale, viewers on the ground saw colors from green (the most common) to purple to red. Atmospheric compounds found at different altitudes influence an aurora’s color.
An astronaut on the International Space Station captured the photograph below of green hues of the aurora dancing across the planet’s surface, with a layer of deep red light above.
The light show was the visible manifestation of a severe geomagnetic storm—a disturbance of the upper atmosphere caused by the interaction of pressure waves and electromagnetic energy from the Sun interacting with Earth’s magnetic field, or magnetosphere.
In this case, the storm was caused by energized material emitted from the Sun, also known as a coronal mass ejection, that occurred in tandem with an intense solar flare on October 8, 2024.
Whereas solar flares reach the planet in a matter of minutes and interfere with radio communications, coronal mass ejections may take several days to travel to Earth.
Coronal mass ejections contain large amounts of plasma from the Sun’s corona and carry with them an embedded magnetic field.
Interactions between these expulsions from the Sun and the upper atmosphere of Earth produce the colorful auroral displays. According to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the storm ranked 4 out of 5 in severity.
The aurora was visible from many areas worldwide, including latitudes where sightings of auroras are uncommon.
Auroras occur high in the atmosphere, so observers on the ground can potentially witness them from far away—well beyond the areas covered by the band of light in the satellite image at the top of this page.
Photographs of the aurora were shared from Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona, and Texas. The National Weather Service in Lubbock, Texas, shared photos of the aurora in shades of pink and green.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153463/a-colorful-aurora-paints-the-night-sky
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/spooky-on-the-space-station/
Spooky on the Space Station
Oct 15, 2024
Science in Space: October 2024
Cultures around the world celebrate Halloween on Oct 31. In many places, in addition to people wearing costumes and eating candy, this day is associated with spooky decorating using fake blood, skeletons, flies, and spiders, some of them glow-in-the-dark.
Crew members on the International Space Station have been known to indulge in a bit of dressing up and candy consumption to mark the day, and the research they conduct year-round occasionally involves these iconic Halloween themes. No tricks, just treats.
A current investigation, Megakaryocytes Flying-One or MeF1, investigates how components of real blood known as megakaryocytes and platelets develop and function during spaceflight.
Megakaryocytes are large cells found in bone marrow and platelets are pieces of these cells.
Both play important roles in blood clotting and immune response. Results could improve understanding of changes in inflammation, immune responses, and clot formation in spaceflight and on the ground.
Creepy crawlies
Fake spiders and flies are popular Halloween decorations (and fodder for fun pranks). Several investigations on the space station have used real ones.
Fruit Fly Lab-02 used fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster, to examine the cellular and genetic mechanisms that affect heart health during spaceflight.
The flies experienced several effects on cardiac function, including changes in muscle fibers, that could be a fundamental response of heart muscles to microgravity.
MVP Fly-01 looked at how spaceflight affects immune function and resulting changes to the nervous system of the same type of flies, along with the value of artificial gravity as a countermeasure.
Researchers found that artificial gravity provided some protection to physical changes to the central nervous system from spaceflight.
Spiders, Fruit Flies and Directional Plant Growth (CSI-05) compared the weaving characteristics of golden orb-web spiders on the space station and the ground.
Under natural conditions, the spiders build asymmetric webs with the hub near the upper edge, where they wait for prey.
In microgravity, most but not all webs were quite symmetric, although webs built when the lights were on were more asymmetric and the spiders waited facing away from the lights. This could mean that in the absence of gravity, the spiders orient to the direction of light.
Bad to the bones
Everyone needs healthy bones and skeletons, and not just on Halloween. But spaceflight and aging on Earth can cause loss of bone mass.
Space station research has looked at the mechanisms behind this loss as well as countermeasures such as exercise and nutrition.
Bisphosphonates as a Countermeasure to Bone Loss examined whether a medication that blocks the breakdown of bone, in conjunction with the routine in-flight exercise program, protected crew members from bone mineral density loss during spaceflight.
The research found that it did reduce loss, which in turn reduced the occurrence of kidney stones in crew members.
Assessment of the Effect of Space Flight on Bone (TBone) studied how spaceflight affects bone quality using a high-resolution bone scan technique. Researchers found incomplete recovery of bone strength and density in the tibia (a bone in the lower leg), comparable to a decade or more of terrestrial age-related bone loss. The work also highlighted the relationship between length of a mission and bone loss and suggested that pre-flight markers could identify crew members at greatest risk.
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In a merging of blood and bones, CSA’s Marrow looked at whether microgravity has a negative effect on bone marrow and the blood cells it produces.
Decreased production of red blood cells can lead to a condition called space anemia.
Findings related to the expression of genes involved in red blood cell formation and those related to bone marrow adipose or fat tissue, which stores energy and plays a role in immune function, could contribute to development of countermeasures.
Marrow results also suggested that the destruction of red blood cells (known as hemolysis) is a primary effect of spaceflight and contributes to anemia. Bad news for vampires.
It glows in the dark
Fluorescence – a cool effect at a ghoulish party – also is a common tool in scientific research, enabling researchers to see physical and genetic changes.
The space station has special microscopes for observing glow-in-the-dark samples.
For Medaka Osteoclast 2, an investigation from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), researchers genetically modified translucent Medaka fish with fluorescent proteins to help them observe cellular and genetic changes the fish experience during spaceflight.
One analysis revealed a decrease in the mineral density of bones in the throat and provided insights into the mechanisms behind these changes.
Biorock, an investigation from ESA (European Space Agency), examined how microgravity affects the interaction between rocks and microbes and found little effect on microbial growth.
This result suggests that microbial-supported bioproduction and life support systems can perform in reduced gravity such as that on Mars, which would be a perfect place for an epic Halloween celebration.
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NASA, NOAA: Sun Reaches Maximum Phase in 11-Year Solar Cycle
Oct 15, 2024
In a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday, representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the international Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period, which could continue for the next year.
The solar cycle is a natural cycle the Sun goes through as it transitions between low and high magnetic activity.
Roughly every 11 years, at the height of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip — on Earth, that’d be like the North and South poles swapping places every decade — and the Sun transitions from being calm to an active and stormy state.
NASA and NOAA track sunspots to determine and predict the progress of the solar cycle — and ultimately, solar activity. Sunspots are cooler regions on the Sun caused by a concentration of magnetic field lines.
Sunspots are the visible component of active regions, areas of intense and complex magnetic fields on the Sun that are the source of solar eruptions.
“During solar maximum, the number of sunspots, and therefore, the amount of solar activity, increases,” said Jamie Favors, director, Space Weather Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“This increase in activity provides an exciting opportunity to learn about our closest star — but also causes real effects at Earth and throughout our solar system.”
Solar activity strongly influences conditions in space known as space weather. This can affect satellites and astronauts in space, as well as communications and navigation systems — such as radio and GPS — and power grids on Earth.
When the Sun is most active, space weather events become more frequent. Solar activity has led to increased aurora visibility and impacts on satellites and infrastructure in recent months.
During May 2024, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest geomagnetic storm at Earth in two decades — and possibly among the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years.
“This announcement doesn’t mean that this is the peak of solar activity we’ll see this solar cycle,” said Elsayed Talaat, director of space weather operations at NOAA.
“While the Sun has reached the solar maximum period, the month that solar activity peaks on the Sun will not be identified for months or years.”
Scientists will not be able to determine the exact peak of this solar maximum period for many months because it’s only identifiable after they’ve tracked a consistent decline in solar activity after that peak.
However, scientists have identified that the last two years on the Sun have been part of this active phase of the solar cycle, due to the consistently high number of sunspots during this period.
Scientists anticipate that the maximum phase will last another year or so before the Sun enters the declining phase, which leads back to solar minimum.
Since 1989, the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel — an international panel of experts sponsored by NASA and NOAA — has worked together to make their prediction for the next solar cycle.
Solar cycles have been tracked by astronomers since Galileo first observed sunspots in the 1600s. Each solar cycle is different — some cycles peak for larger and shorter amounts of time, and others have smaller peaks that last longer.
“Solar Cycle 25 sunspot activity has slightly exceeded expectations,” said Lisa Upton, co-chair of the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel and lead scientist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
“However, despite seeing a few large storms, they aren’t larger than what we might expect during the maximum phase of the cycle.”
The most powerful flare of the solar cycle so far was an X9.0 on Oct. 3 (X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength).
NOAA anticipates additional solar and geomagnetic storms during the current solar maximum period, leading to opportunities to spot auroras over the next several months, as well as potential technology impacts.
Additionally, though less frequent, scientists often see fairly significant storms during the declining phase of the solar cycle.
NASA and NOAA are preparing for the future of space weather research and prediction.
In December 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission will make its closest-ever approach to the Sun, beating its own record of closest human-made object to the Sun.
This will be the first of three planned approaches for Parker at this distance, helping researchers to understand space weather right at the source.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasa-noaa-sun-reaches-maximum-phase-in-11-year-solar-cycle/