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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
October 22, 2024
M16: Pillars of Star Creation
These dark pillars may look destructive, but they are creating stars. This pillar-capturing picture of the Eagle Nebula combines visible light exposures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope with infrared images taken with the James Webb Space Telescope to highlight evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars. At each pillar's end, the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
NASA, SpaceX Adjust Crew-8 Undocking Date
Oct 21, 2024
Weather conditions near the multiple splashdown sites off Florida’s coast remain unfavorable for the return of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission from the International Space Station.
Forecasts remain marginal for an undocking on Tuesday, Oct. 22, and Wednesday, Oct. 23.
If weather conditions improve, NASA and SpaceX will target no earlier than 9:05 p.m. EDT, Oct. 22, for undocking from the space station.
Based on the current forecast, conditions are expected to improve as the week progresses.
Mission managers continue to monitor conditions and will meet at 9 a.m., Oct. 22, for the next weather briefing.
We will provide additional updates and information on NASA+ coverage when available.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/crew-8/2024/10/21/nasas-spacex-adjust-crew-8-undocking-date/
On the Road Again…
Oct 21, 2024
In this image from Oct. 3, 2024, NASA’s mobile launcher 1 makes its way back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after undergoing upgrades and tests in preparation for the agency’s Artemis II mission.
Artemis II is the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis.
Artemis II will send four astronauts around the Moon, testing NASA’s foundational human deep space exploration capabilities, the SLS rocket, and Orion spacecraft.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/on-the-road-again/
Say when
NASA Invites Media to Chile Artemis Accords Signing Ceremony
Oct 21, 2024
Chile will sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at 3 p.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 25, at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will host Aisén Etcheverry, Chile’s minister of science, technology, knowledge and innovation, and Juan Gabriel Valdés, ambassador of Chile to the United States, along with other officials from Chile and the U.S. Department of State.
This event is in-person only. U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations interested in attending must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24, to hq-media@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
The signing ceremony will take place at the agency’s Glennan Assembly Room inside NASA Headquarters located at 300 E St. SW Washington.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-chile-artemis-accords-signing-ceremony/
Gateway: Life in a Lunar Module
Oct 22, 2024
Teams at NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and Thales Alenia Space, including astronauts Stan Love and Luca Parmitano, came together in Turin, Italy, this summer for a test run of Gateway, humanity’s first space station to orbit the Moon.
The group conducted what is known as human factors testing inside a mockup of Lunar I-Hab, one of four Gateway modules where astronauts will live, conduct science, and prepare for missions to the Moon’s South Pole region.
The testing is an important step on the path to launch by helping refine the design of spacecraft for comfort and safety.
Lunar I-Hab is provided by ESA and Thales Alenia Space and is slated to launch on Artemis IV.
During that mission, four astronauts will launch inside the Orion spacecraft atop an upgraded version of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and deliver Lunar I-Hab to Gateway in orbit around the Moon.
ESA, CSA (Canadian Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre of the United Arab Emirates are providing major hardware for Gateway, including science experiments, the modules where astronauts will live and work, robotics, and life support systems.
International teams of astronauts will explore the scientific mysteries of deep space with Gateway as part of the Artemis campaign to return to the Moon for scientific discovery and chart a path for the first human missions to Mars and beyond.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/gateway/gateway-life-in-a-lunar-module/
Libre Space Foundation Aims To Improve Satellite Tech
October 22, 2024
There’s no shortage of movies, TV shows, and books that show a dystopian future with corporations run amok in outer space with little or no effective oversight.
Dune, The Expanse, and The Dispossessed spring to mind as predicting different aspects of this idea, but there are plenty of other warnings throughout sci-fi depicting this potential future.
One possible way of preventing this outcome is by ensuring that space is as open-sourced as possible and one group, the Libre Space Foundation (LSF), is working towards this end.
Their latest is a project with Ondsel to develop and model a satellite deploying mechanism using almost entirely open source software.
The LSF had already designed the PICOBUS satellite launcher system that flew to space in 2022 and deployed a number of CubeSats, but the group needed more information about how the system would perform.
They turned to Ondsel to help develop a multi-body dynamics (MBD) solver, managing simulations with mass-spring-damper models.
The satellite launcher includes a large constant-force spring that pushes the CubeSats out of the device once the door is opened, and the model can now simulate their paths in space without gravity.
The team will launch their next set of satellites sometime next year on an RFA-ONE rocket.
The LSF maintains a huge database of their open source space projects, including this one, on their GitLab page.
Although it might seem like small potatoes now, the adoption of open source software and hardware by space-fairing entities can help further the democratization of low Earth orbit.
https://hackaday.com/2024/10/22/libre-space-foundation-aims-to-improve-satellite-tech/
https://gitlab.com/librespacefoundation
Japan's space agency officially approves 2 astronauts after training
October 22, 2024
Japan's space agency said Tuesday that it has officially approved two candidates who underwent domestic training as astronauts, with expectations growing that they may join NASA's mission to the Moon.
Makoto Suwa, 47, a former disaster prevention specialist at the World Bank, and Ayu Yoneda, 29, who served as a surgeon at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, plan to move to the United States to enhance their knowledge and skills in space activities.
At the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Suwa and Yoneda, who were certified as astronauts on Monday, hope to be part of the Artemis Moon exploration program.
The Artemis program aims to send people to the lunar surface in 2026, more than half a century since the last Apollo mission. Japan, a close U.S. ally, is seeking to become the second country after the United States to land an astronaut on the Moon.
Since being selected as candidates by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in February 2023, Suwa and Yoneda have engaged in basic training, including piloting a plane, health management in outer space and electrical engineering.
Suwa and Yoneda became the first astronauts approved by JAXA since 2011, when Kimiya Yui, 54, Takuya Onishi, 48, and Norishige Kanai, 47, were certified.
JAXA now has seven astronauts, two of whom are expected to participate in the Artemis program.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/10/ecddaca7b56d-japans-space-agency-officially-approves-2-astronauts-after-training.html
Earth from space: Bizarre 'pet cloud' reappears above its favorite spot in New Zealand
October 22, 2024
A peculiar "pet cloud" took center stage in a recent satellite photo of New Zealand.
The freaky formation often appears in the same spot thanks to a nearby mountain range — and is sometimes confused with a UFO.
The wispy oblong, known by locals as the "Taieri Pet," is an elongated altocumulus standing lenticular cloud (ASLC) that frequently appears between the towns Middlemarch and Hyde in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island.
Although they can vary slightly in size, the clouds always look very similar and appear in almost the same spot.
The example in this image is around 7 miles (11.5 kilometers) long.
ASLCs form when waves of air pass over a topographic barrier, like a mountain range, forcing water vapor to condense into vertical layers, according to the National Weather Service.
The Taieri Pet forms when moist air passes over the mountainous Rock and Pillar Range (located parallel to the left of the cloud in the photo) and is held in place and further shaped by perpendicular winds blowing from the north, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
"As the cloud forms on the crest of this wave, it remains almost stationary in the sky and is shaped by the strong winds blowing through it," John Law, a meteorologist with New Zealand's MetService, told Earth Observatory.
Lenticular clouds are often shaped like flying saucers and are "believed to be one of the most common explanations for UFO sightings across the world," according to the U.K. Met Office.
When viewed side-on, the Taieri Pet often has multiple well-defined layers on top of one another, like a "huge stack of pancakes" or a "pile of plates," Earth Observatory representatives wrote.
Past photos of the cloud show it can be several hundred feet tall.
The height of lenticular clouds can make them a surprising aviation risk.
Planes can experience severe turbulence when flying through the structures, due to vertical currents that run up and down through the cloud.
The clouds' unusually low temperatures also cause ice to form on planes, according to the U.K. Met Office.
ASLCs can be a sign that atmospheric conditions are about to change and are often followed by increased levels of precipitation, according to Fox Weather.
However, historical weather data suggest this did not happen in this case.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/weather/earth-from-space-bizarre-pet-cloud-reappears-above-its-favorite-spot-in-new-zealand
With real scientific data, artist Martin Vargic has visualized hundreds of alien planets
October 21, 2024
As shocking as it sounds today, prior to the 1990s, scientists couldn't be certain that stars beyond the sun also had planets orbiting them.
Since the discovery of the first extra-solar planet, or "exoplanet," around 30 years ago, over 6,000 of these distant worlds have been revealed, with thousands more detected but not yet confirmed.
The burgeoning exoplanet catalog has delivered a multitude of planets that really emphasize the "alien" in "alien worlds."
With planets so hot they rain iron, planets with savage, glass-filled winds and planets so mishappen by their stars they roll around in their orbits like eggs, it is little wonder that exoplanets have captivated people beyond the hallowed halls of scientific academia, inspiring incredible and breathtaking works of art.
One artist captivated by exoplanets is Martin Vargic, a Slovak artist and the author of the "Curious Cosmical Compendium."
"I have been interested in astronomy since I can remember and was always captivated by the idea of other planets orbiting distant stars unlike anything in the solar system," 26-year-old Vargic told Space.com.
"In 2015, I created the first version of what would eventually become my exoplanet infographics.
After publishing my first book dedicated to maps and map-inspired infographics, I decided to create another visual book, this time focused on the universe, astronomy and space exploration."
The book, which Vargic said took almost three years to complete, featured chapters such as "Scale of the Universe," "Timeline of the Universe" and, of course, an entire section focused on exoplanets.
The artist organized these worlds by temperature, ascending page-by-page from Neptune-like ice worlds to blazing hot gas giants called "hot Jupiters."
This progression led up to "failed star" brown dwarfs, or objects that form like stars, but have masses between the most massive planet we know of and the least massive star in our books.
Brown dwarfs also can't trigger the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in their cores, the process that defines what a "main sequence star" is.
Artwork of exoplanets, such as that created by Vargic, is valuable because, unlike other celestial objects such as stars and nebulas, exoplanets are usually too dim and too distant to be visualized directly.
In fact, it is partially this element of mystery that inspires Vargic.
"We have no way to determine how different exoplanets really look in detail yet, and this makes them a rich space for creativity," he explained.
"The vast majority of existing exoplanets on the graphic have never been portrayed graphically before, existing in the minds of people just as a series of numbers and digits describing their different orbital parameters and size, the graphic adding texture, color and shape as the real objects they are, some of them possibly harboring life."
Another aspect that fires up Vargic creatively is the huge variety and truly alien nature of exoplanets when compared to the relatively mundane and "safe" planets of the solar system.
"The variety and diversity of the few thousand exoplanets we already know of is impressive.
The planets in our solar system, varied as they are, represent only a minuscule part of a large, broad spectrum of planetary scale and temperature," he said.
"Even very similar exoplanets could differ in striking ways.
Different star systems having formed from distant nebulas of dust and gas could have different ratios of elements, and the process of formation and planetary evolution would be different depending on the size, activity, and spectrum of planets and their parent stars, making some planets richer or poorer in some chemical elements with potentially exotic consequences."
The artist added that other differing characteristics, such as rotation speed, would lead to variations in exoplanets' cloud bands, atmospheric currents and equatorial bulges. Vargic has tried to reflect this variety in his work.
"I decided to vary the color tones and the clouds structures of otherwise similar planets to represent this and make the infographic more varied and colorful," he explained.
Of course, with such a wide range of exoplanets out there, it is only natural for exoplanet enthusiasts to have a few favorites. And Vargic is no exception.
cont.
https://www.space.com/exoplanet-art-martin-vargic-interview
https://www.halcyonmaps.com/exoplanet-systems-visualized
Watch Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS light up the night sky in free livestream today
October 21, 2024
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is still visible in the night sky, and you can watch it live today thanks to a free livestream.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is growing dimmer as it speeds away from Earth.
It should be visible through at least Saturday (Oct. 26), but the comet is speeding away from Earth and growing more difficult to see with the naked eye.
The comet is currently high in the west at sunset as seen from the mid-latitudes of North America, but is dim enough that a pair of binoculars or small telescope is likely your best bet at this point.
If you'd like a more up-close view of the comet without the need for optics, astronomer Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project will be livestreaming telescope observations Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS beginning at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday (Oct. 21).
Watch it live here courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project or at the project's YouTube channel.
The comet has been putting on quite a show for astrophotographers this year — even in space!
The comet passed its closest point to Earth on Oct. 12 and is rising higher in the sky despite growing dimmer over the next week before fading from view with the naked eye.
https://www.space.com/hunters-moon-comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-livestream-october-2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGOADv_qS6Q
The Virtual Telescope Project
​​ Because of clouds, after a couple of attempts, this event is regretfully cancelled.
We will try to reschedule it as soon as clear skies will be on the way, STAY TUNED in the next days!