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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
October 24, 2024
NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
A mere seven hundred light years from Earth toward the constellation Aquarius, a star is dying. The once sun-like star's last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula. Also known as NGC 7293, the cosmic Helix is a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. Combining narrow band data from emission lines of hydrogen atoms in red and oxygen atoms in blue-green hues, this deep image shows tantalizing details of the Helix, including its bright inner region about 3 light-years across. The white dot at the Helix's center is this Planetary Nebula's hot, dying central star. A simple looking nebula at first glance, the Helix is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Dragon Undocks from Station, Crew-8 Heads Toward Earth
October 23, 2024
At 5:05 p.m. EDT, NASA astronauts Matt Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin undocked from the forward-facing port of International Space Station’s Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
NASA’s return coverage continues with real-time, audio only commentary, and full coverage will resume at the start of the splashdown broadcast.
The audio feed will remain available, including astronaut conversations with mission control, in addition to a live video feed from the orbiting laboratory.
NASA’s coverage will resume at 2:15 a.m. Friday, Oct. 25, on NASA+ and the agency’s website until Dragon splashes down at approximately 3:29 a.m. off the coast of Florida, and Crew-8 members are safely recovered.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2024/10/23/dragon-undocks-from-station-crew-8-heads-toward-earth/
Artemis II Astronauts Put Orion’s Side Hatch to the Test
Oct 23, 2024
Artemis II NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen recently traveled to Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, where they practiced opening and closing an Orion crew module side hatch model to help demonstrate its reliability and durability during their 10-day mission around the Moon.
During normal mission operations, the crew will not operate the hatches – the ground systems team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will assist the crew into Orion at the launch pad, then close the hatch behind them prior to liftoff.
After splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, recovery teams will open the side hatch and help crew to exit.
Back-up crew members Andre Douglas of NASA and Jenni Gibbons of CSA also trained on hatch operations, which help ensure the crew can safely enter and exit the spacecraft in the event of an emergency.
The side hatch is normally opened using a manual gearbox system, but in an emergency, the hatch has release mechanisms containing small pyrotechnic (explosive) devices that release the latch pins on the hatch instantaneously, allowing the hatch to open quickly.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-astronauts-put-orions-side-hatch-to-the-test/
NASA Welcomes Republic of Cyprus as 46th Artemis Accords Signatory
Oct 23, 2024
NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free welcomed the Republic of Cyprus as the latest nation to commit to the responsible use of space for humanity on Wednesday, marking 46 signatories to date.
“We applaud Cyprus’ commitment to the Artemis Accords, which will enhance the country’s engagement with NASA and the international community,” said Free, who participated virtually.
“By joining 45 other country signatories in this effort, Cyprus will help play a role in implementing the accords and exploration that is open, responsible, transparent, and peaceful for the benefit of all.”
Nicodemos Damianou, Cyprus’ deputy minister of research, innovation, and digital policy, signed the Artemis Accords during a ceremony in Nicosia, Cyprus. James O’Brian, assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs for the U.S. Department of State, also attended the event.
“Today marks a significant milestone for Cyprus as we officially sign the Artemis Accords,” said Damianou.
“As we embark on this exciting journey, we reaffirm our commitment to a safe and responsible space exploration, as well as our strong belief in the importance of international cooperation in ensuring space is utilized to the benefit of all humanity.
Cyprus, an European Union member state, is capitalizing on its geostrategic location between three continents, and aspires to play an integral role in the international space community.”
The signing with Cyprus comes on the heels of an Artemis Accords meeting in Milan earlier this month with dozens of signatory countries, including the United States.
In 2020, NASA, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State and seven other initial signatory nations, established the Artemis Accords, which identified an early set of principles promoting the beneficial use of space for humanity.
The Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.
The commitments of the Artemis Accords and efforts by the signatories to advance implementation of these principles support the safe and sustainable exploration of space.
More countries are expected to sign in the coming days and weeks ahead.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-welcomes-republic-of-cyprus-as-46th-artemis-accords-signatory/
Europa Trek: NASA Offers a New Guided Tour of Jupiter’s Ocean Moon
Oct 23, 2024
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is on its way to explore a moon of Jupiter that researchers believe may be one of the best places in the Solar System to search for life beyond Earth.
While the spacecraft makes its more-than-five year journey to Europa, scientists, students, teachers, and the public can tour and explore the landforms of Europa with newly-released enhancements to NASA’s Europa Trek web portal.
One of the largest of Jupiter’s nearly 100 recognized moons, Europa is covered with a global ice cap.
But beneath that crust of ice, researchers have found an ocean of liquid water, estimated to have about twice the volume of all of Earth’s oceans combined.
This vast amount of liquid water is of particular interest to astrobiologists, scientists studying the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the Universe.
Though Europa’s ocean remains hidden beneath its global crust of ice, we can get important clues about its nature by studying the remarkable landforms of Europa’s icy surface.
To accompany the launch of Europa Clipper, NASA’s Solar System Treks Project released exciting new enhancements to its online Europa Trek portal on September 30, 2024.
The new additions to Europa Trek allow users to interactively fly over and explore high-resolution imagery of Europa’s surface from the Voyager, Galileo, and Juno missions.
Users can also take a new guided tour of Europa’s amazing landforms, with commentary developed by a collaboration between NASA’s Astrobiology Science Communication Guild and NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute.
The tour and its commentary introduce virtual explorers to the geology and possible biological significance of the diverse features of Europa’s surface.
"This is really fun. It's cool how you can zoom into the high resolution data. I'll spread the word about using this!" - Bob Pappalardo, Europa Clipper Project Scientist
The new tour and capabilities of Europa Trek were featured at the Europa Clipper public launch program at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center on October 6,2024, in advance of the October 14 launch of the mission.
As part of the public program conducted by NASA’s Planetary Mission Program Office, the Europa Trek exhibit allowed hundreds of visitors to try their hands at flying over Europa and visualizing its exotic terrain.
NASA’s Solar System Treks is an infrastructure project within NASA’s Science Activation Team.
Their online portals are used for mission planning, planetary science research, and Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) education. NASA’s Astrobiology Science Communication Guild is an international, community-based network of astrobiologists who engage in science communication with diverse audiences and learners.
Watch for future collaborations between Solar System Treks and the Astrobiology Science Communication Guild at more locations across the Solar System!
https://science.nasa.gov/learning-resources/science-activation/europa-trek-nasa-offers-a-new-guided-tour-of-jupiters-ocean-moon/
https://trek.nasa.gov/europa/
2025 NASA Science Calendar
October 23, 2024
Welcome to the 2025 NASA Science Calendar! Download our latest calendar and wallpaper backgrounds for your desktop or mobile device, and discover the fascinating science behind the images featured each month.
cont.
https://science.nasa.gov/multimedia/2025-nasa-science-planning-guide/
NASA Wallops to Support October Sounding Rocket Launch
Oct 22, 2024
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is scheduled to support the launch of a suborbital sounding rocket for the U.S. Department of Defense during a launch window that runs 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT each day from Wednesday, Oct. 23 to Friday, Oct. 25.
No real-time launch status updates will be available. The launch will not be livestreamed nor will launch status updates be provided during the countdown.
The Wallops Visitor Center will be closed to the public.
The rocket launch is expected to be visible from the Chesapeake Bay region.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/wallops/nasa-wallops-to-support-october-sounding-rocket-launch/
'City killer' asteroid is one of FOUR 'potentially hazardous' space rocks set to skim past Earth today, NASA warns
Updated: 05:41 EDT, 24 October 2024
If one 'city killer' asteroid skimming past Earth seems like enough of a worry, NASA's latest warning might be quite distressing.
Today, four 'potentially hazardous' space rocks will careen by Earth within less than 12 hours of each other.
This includes two aeroplane-sized space rocks which were only spotted earlier this month.
The biggest of them all, asteroid 2002 NV16, measures 580ft (177m) across and packs enough destructive force to level a city or trigger a worldwide catastrophe.
Although it won't be visible to the naked eye, scientists will be watching carefully as this massive rock passes overhead at 16:51 BST this afternoon.
Thankfully, experts say that we have absolutely no reason to worry about this quartet of space rocks.
Finn Burridge, astronomer a the Royal Observatory Greenwich, told MailOnline: 'Scientists can calculate the orbits of Near Earth Objects to a high precision when they get bright enough to spot and so we know for certain that none of the objects passing Earth today could collide with the planet.'
Mr Burridge says: 'Today is unusual in that we have 7 asteroids all making a close approach within a small timescale, but there is almost always an asteroid wandering somewhere near the Earth.'
However, only four of those asteroids are considered by NASA to be 'potentially hazardous'.
The first of those asteroids to reach Earth is 2015 HM1, which already whizzed by at 05:36 BST this morning.
At that time, the rock reached a minimum distance of 3.4 million miles (5.5 million km) from Earth.
This is also the smallest of the set, measuring only 100ft (30m) across - about the length of two cargo trucks.
That was shortly followed by the asteroid 2024 TP17 which reached its closest point to Earth at 09:20 BST.
At 170ft (52m) across, 2024 TP17 is the second largest of the asteroids passing Earth today.
While that might not sound too big, it would rank among some of the most dangerous asteroids that have ever hit Earth.
In 1908, during the 'Tunguska Event', an asteroid 30ft smaller than 2024 TP17 exploded with the force of a nuclear bomb over Russia and flattened over 830 square miles of trees.
Thankfully, there is no risk of a similar disaster today as the asteroid safely passed by at a distance of 2.9 million miles (4.7 million km).
The last two asteroids to arrive, 2002 NV16 and 2024 TR6, are due to reach our planet within just four minutes of each other.
The first of the pair, 2002 NV16, is also the largest and measures 580ft (177m) across, making it taller than the Statue of Liberty or Blackpool Tower.
While this isn't big enough to wipe out life on Earth, it does class as a 'city killer' - meaning it has the potential to devastate a large populated area.
Mr Burridge says: 'Near 200m is a large asteroid, and a direct hit on a city from an asteroid this large would be very bad news.
'However, it would have to impact the Earth near a large population centre to be dangerous. If it fell into the Pacific Ocean or Sarah desert, we may be okay.'
Although this asteroid will be the closest of the four passing today, it will still safely pass 2.8 million miles (4.7 million km) from Earth at 16:47 BST.
Then, just four minutes later at 16:51 BST, the 150ft (46m) wide asteroid 2024 TR6 will pass Earth at a distance of 3.5 million miles (5.6 million km).
Although none of these asteroids are close enough to pose a serious threat to Earth they are all considered 'potentially hazardous' because they are less than 30 million miles (48 million km) from Earth.
NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and a network of amateur astronomers all keep a careful eye on space for any objects that could pose a threat to Earth.
Anything that seems like it could be dangerous is flagged for closer monitoring so that scientists can make better predictions about its orbit.
What makes this set of asteroids somewhat more worrying is that two, 2024 TR6 and 2024 TP17, were only spotted in October.
This is not entirely unusual since most asteroids are typically spotted as they reach their closest point to Earth but it does make them more risky.
ESA has begun testing systems to deflect dangerous asteroids out of Earth's path such as the DART mission which slammed a satellite into the side of a space rock.
However, these rely on having months or even years of prior warning to carefully nudge an object into a safe orbit.
Only last month, scientists caught off guard as a 3t (1m) previously-undetected asteroid burned up in the skies over the Philippines.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13995851/city-killer-asteroid-space-rocks-earth-nasa.html
First young brown dwarfs found outside the Milky Way?
23/10/2024
An international team of astronomers has used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect the first brown dwarf candidates outside the Milky Way in the star cluster NGC 602.
Picture the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, roughly 200 000 light-years from Earth: here lies the young star cluster NGC 602.
The local environment of this cluster is similar to the environment of the early Universe, with low abundances of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
The existence of dark clouds of dense dust and the fact that the cluster is rich in ionised gas also suggest that star formation is taking place.
Together with its associated HII [1] region N90, which contains clouds of ionised atomic hydrogen, this cluster provides a valuable opportunity to examine how stars can form under dramatically different conditions from those in the solar neighbourhood.
An international team of astronomers, including Peter Zeidler, Elena Sabbi, Elena Manjavacas and Antonella Nota, used Webb to observe NGC 602 and uncover candidates for the first young brown dwarfs outside our Milky Way.
“Only thanks to the incredible sensitivity and resolution in the right wavelength range we are able to detect these objects at such great distances,” shared lead author Peter Zeidler of AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency.
“This has never been possible before and also will remain impossible with telescopes on the ground for the foreseeable future.”
Brown dwarfs are the more massive cousins of giant gas planets (typically ranging from roughly 13 to 75 Jupiter masses, and sometimes lower).
They are free-floating, meaning that they are not gravitationally bound to a star as exoplanets are.
However, some of them share characteristics with exoplanets, like their atmospheric composition and storm patterns.
“Until now, we’ve known of about 3000 brown dwarfs, but they all live inside our own galaxy,” added team member Elena Manjavacas of AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency.
“This discovery highlights the power of using both Hubble and Webb to study young stellar clusters,” explained team member Antonella Nota, executive director of the International Space Science Institute in Switzerland and the previous Webb Project Scientist for ESA.
“Hubble showed that NGC602 harbors very young low mass stars, but only with Webb we can finally see the extent and the significance of the substellar mass formation in this cluster.
Hubble and Webb are an amazingly powerful telescope duo!”
“Brown dwarfs seem to form in the same way as stars, they just don’t capture enough mass to become a fully fledged star. Our results fit well with this theory,” remarked Peter.
The team’s data include a new image from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) of NGC 602.
In this image, the cluster stars, the young stellar objects, and the surrounding gas and dust ridges are visible.
It also shows a large number of background galaxies and other stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. These observations were made in April 2023.
“These are the first giant exoplanet analogues outside the Milky Way,” added Elena. “We need to be ready for ground-breaking discoveries in these new objects!”
These observations were made as part of the JWST GO programme #2662 (PI: P. Zeidler).
The results have been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Notes
[1] Some of the most beautiful extended objects that we can see are known as HII regions, also called diffuse or emission nebulae.
They contain mostly ionised hydrogen and are found throughout the interstellar medium in the Milky Way and in other galaxies.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/First_young_brown_dwarfs_found_outside_the_Milky_Way
https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/program-information?id=2662
Samsonite Suitcase Survives Fall From Space
9:05 AM ET, Thu October 24, 2024
We all know that luggage companies go out of their way to prove their suitcases are durable, travel-proof and able to last for years.
Yet Samsonite just went into outer space to prove it.
The Samsonite Proxis, which is the brand’s lightest, most durable suitcase, is designed with a Roxkin outer shell that is said to be able to bounce back into shape from bumps and dents incurred through travel.
The company took the Proxis to new heights, taking the orange-colored suitcase up 130,000 feet, which is three times higher than the cruising height of a commercial airplane.
It reached temperatures of -85°F, too, before falling back down to Earth with a parachute to slow its descent.
It fell safely, without even a dent, on a mountainside near Las Vegas, Nevada.
According to Travel+Leisure, the out-of-this-world test was completed with the help of Sent Into Space, a marketing space agency that sends objects into space, including Astronaut Barbie during Barbie’s 60th birthday celebration.
“The ambition from Samsonite was the most intriguing part of this; they were really throwing down the gauntlet,” Dr. Chris Rose, Sent Into Space’s Head of Projects and Business Development, told T+L. “Within a matter of seconds, I knew this project was going to be a remarkable one.
This wasn't just about sending a case into space. This was about executing the world's most extreme drop test.”
https://www.travelpulse.com/news/entertainment/watch-samsonite-suitcase-survives-fall-from-space
Did she ever run into Donald Marshall?