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Satellites can now spot plastic trash on Earth's beaches from space
November 5, 2024
Plastic littered across the world’s beaches can now be detected from space.
Researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia developed a new satellite imaging technique that can spot plastics on beaches by measuring differences in reflected light from the debris compared to the surrounding sand, water or vegetation, according to a statement from the university.
This technique was successfully field-tested by satellites observing a remote stretch of coastline in Australia.
By looking for unique spectral features in plastics, the satellites were able to accurately identify it on the beach from more than 373 miles (600 kilometers) above.
In turn, this satellite technology not only improves the detection of plastic debris, but can also aid cleanup operations to support vulnerable environments, like beaches, the researchers said.
"While the impacts of these ocean plastics on the environment, fishing and tourism are well documented, methods for measuring the exact scale of the issue or targeting cleanup operations, sometimes most needed in remote locations, have been held back by technological limitations," Jenna Guffogg, lead author of the study, said in the statement.
This new research builds on existing satellite technology used to detect plastics floating in the ocean.
The team developed a new spectral index, called the Beached Plastic Debris Index (BPDI), to identify patterns in reflected light collected by satellites as they pass over an area and specifically spot plastics that can easily blend in with sand.
The team placed 14 pieces of various plastic types on a beach in southern Gippsland, Victoria, to test the BPDI using WorldView-3, an Earth-observing satellite operated by Maxar Technologies.
Data collected by the satellite showed that the new index was more successful at differentiating plastics on the beach compared to three other existing satellite technologies, which tended to mis-classify a shadow or water as plastic, according to the statement.
"This is incredibly exciting, as up to now we have not had a tool for detecting plastics in coastal environments from space," Mariela Soto-Berelov, co-author of the study, said in the statement.
"Detection is a key step needed for understanding where plastic debris is accumulating and planning cleanup operations, which aligns with several Sustainable Development Goals, such as Protecting Seas and Oceans."
Next, the team aims to use the BPDI to scan coastlines more broadly and test its ability to detect plastic debris in real-world environments.
This advanced satellite imagery technique is of growing importance as more than 10 million tons of plastic trash enter Earth’s oceans every year, and is estimated to increase to 60 million tons by 2030.
This plastic can endanger wildlife when it is mistaken for food, entangles or traps animals, or further degrades into micro or nano plastics, the researchers said.
"We’re looking to partner with organizations on the next step of this research," Soto-Berelov said in the statement.
"This is a chance to help us protect delicate beaches from plastic waste."
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/tech/satellites-can-now-spot-plastic-trash-on-earths-beaches-from-space-photo
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X24011019?via%3Dihub
Moon waves goodbye to Hera
05/11/2024
As ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence departed its homeworld it looked back to Earth to show the Moon orbiting around it.
In this sequence of images the terrestrial disc gradually shrinks as the spacecraft recedes away from it, and the Moon moving around Earth changes from a half to full Moon.
The images were acquired during the initial checkout of Hera’s Thermal Infrared Imager (TIRI) instrument, provided to the mission by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA.
These thermal images of Earth and Moon thermal images were acquired by TIRI as it looked down obliquely from the north relative to lunar orbit.
The distance between Earth to Hera spacecraft was about 1.4 million km for the first image acquired on 10 October to about 3.8 million km for the last image acquired on 15 October.
Launched on 7 October, Hera is ESA’s first planetary defence mission, on its way to visit the first asteroid to have had its orbit altered by human action.
By gathering close-up data about the Dimorphos asteroid, which was impacted by NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022, Hera will help turn asteroid deflection into a well understood and potentially repeatable technique.
One of a suite of instruments hosted on Hera's Asteroid Deck, TIRI will image Dimorphos in the mid-infrared spectral region to chart the temperature on the asteroid’s surface.
By charting the 'thermal inertia' of surface regions – or how rapidly their temperature changes – physical properties such as roughness, particle size distribution and porosity can be deduced.
TIRI was manufactured for JAXA by Meisei Electric Co. Ltd. Its design is derived from a previous instrument onboard the agency’s Hayabusa2 asteroid mission.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/11/Moon_waves_goodbye_to_Hera
Astronomers spot unusually synchronized star formation in ancient galaxy for 1st time
November 5, 2024
Astronomers have spotted thousands of young stars huddled around the center of an ancient galaxy, all of which formed nearly simultaneously 4 million years ago.
This observation marks the first time such synchronized star formation has been spotted in an old galaxy, and challenges the idea that star formation declines as galaxies age.
The newfound star clusters skirt the heart of NGC 1386, a spiral galaxy swirling roughly 53 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus.
Researchers led by Almudena Prieto of Spain's Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias identified 61 groups of young stars, which trace the 1 kiloparsec-wide blue ring seen in the image above, and found all of them sported similar masses, ages and sizes despite being spatially isolated.
"All of these clusters are distributed like pearls on a ring around the center of the galaxy," Prieto said in a recent news release.
"Surprisingly they are all alike, which gives the idea that they were created at the same time, in a synchronized event."
Observations of the blue ring with the Hubble Space Telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope in Chile show the star clusters are fed by long filaments of gas and dust that ferry precious star-forming material — such as molecular hydrogen — from the galaxy's outer disk all the way to its center.
The researchers did not detect any companion galaxies swirling nearby NGC 1386, suggesting these filaments are likely the only source of star-forming material for the galaxy, according to another news release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which hosts the VLT Survey Telescope at its Paranal Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert.
These findings add to the growing body of recent evidence certain old galaxies are capable of host bursts of star formation, contrary to the majority of historical observations that have shown that the rate of star formation declines as galaxies age, suggesting their supplies of star-forming gas and dust shrinks.
Despite its age, "this galaxy has organized itself to obtain the required supply from its outer zones, within its stellar disk," said Prieto.
"A major event in the disk may have caused the onset of cluster formation simultaneously in the ring," the researchers wrote in a paper published earlier this year in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
That consequential event may have been a density wave that passed through the galaxy disk, which would have triggered the gas in its wake to compress and kickstart star formation.
Prieto and colleagues also detected a second ring around the center, depicted in the above image as golden, that traces roughly 70 identical pockets of gas, suggesting the galaxy is not finished forming stars yet.
The team posits a second burst of similarly synchronized star formation is imminent, possibly in the next 5 million years or so.
"Even if old, NGC 1386 keeps rejuvenating itself," the ESO news release says.
https://www.space.com/the-universe/stars/astronomers-spot-unusually-synchronized-star-formation-in-ancient-galaxy-for-1st-time
https://www.iac.es/en/outreach/news/regions-where-extremely-young-stars-are-forming-have-been-found-very-old-galaxies
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2444a/
https://spacenews.com/restoring-nasas-original-mission/
Restoring NASA’s original mission
Nov 6, 2024
America’s space program stands at a crossroads. As a new administration takes the helm in Washington, we have a rare opportunity to redirect NASA toward its founding purpose: advancing American technological leadership and strengthening our economy through space exploration.
While the agency has achieved remarkable feats, it has drifted from this core mission under leadership increasingly disconnected from the cutting-edge science and engineering that once defined it.
NASA’s Technology Transfer Program offers a compelling blueprint for what the agency could achieve with proper direction. Since its inception, this initiative has transformed space-age innovations into everyday benefits, from memory foam to water filtration systems.
These spinoff technologies have generated billions in economic activity and thousands of jobs. Yet this crucial program receives minimal attention and resources compared to other agency priorities.
NASA’s potential to catalyze private sector innovation represents the future of space exploration—agile, cost-effective, and innovation-driven.
Similarly, NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program demonstrates the agency’s potential to catalyze private sector innovation.
By partnering with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, NASA has fostered a thriving commercial space industry while achieving its mission at a fraction of traditional costs.
These public-private partnerships represent the future of space exploration – agile, cost-effective, and innovation-driven.
Unfortunately, NASA’s current leadership structure remains rooted in the past.
Many senior administrators of NASA’s core directorates (Space Operations, Aeronautics, Exploration Systems Development, Space Technology and Science) have spent decades in bureaucratic roles, far removed from the technical frontiers they’re meant to pioneer.
While their institutional knowledge has value, the agency desperately needs leaders with current expertise in rapidly evolving fields like artificial intelligence, advanced materials, and modern spacecraft design.
The solution isn’t merely younger or more ‘current’ leadership—it’s technically proficient leadership.
This leadership gap has real consequences. Young talent increasingly gravitates toward private space companies, where innovation moves at lightning speed.
NASA’s procurement processes remain mired in outdated regulations and bureaucrats who honestly don’t understand the products and services being offered.
Promising technologies languish in development while competitors abroad forge ahead.
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The solution isn’t merely younger or more “current” leadership – it’s technically proficient leadership. In addition to understanding NASA’s rules and regulations, NASA administrators should be active practitioners in disciplines, capable of evaluating cutting-edge proposals and steering the agency toward truly transformative projects.
Most NASA senior leadership positions should be term appointments, allowing the best and brightest new minds to cycle through government service and then return to private industry or academia.
As the new administration reviews NASA’s direction, it should prioritize three key reforms:
First, dramatically expand NASA’s Technology Transfer Program’s scope and resources. The program’s meager $25 million per year should be increased fourfold – still significantly less than what NASA spends on PR every year.
Rebalancing the failed Space Technology directorate’s portfolio into something useful to American business needs is long overdue.
Productive NASA programs like Technology Transfer can inject immediate value into our fledgling new technology economy, if adequately funded.
Second, build on COTS’ success by creating similar public-private partnerships across all major mission areas, including the science missions.
With a robust American commercial presence in space, science data can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of NASA operating and supporting multi-billion-dollar science missions.
Finally, restructure NASA senior leadership management positions to require recent, hands-on technical expertise in space-related sciences and engineering, ideally with real private sector experience as well.
While there is a need for maintaining institutional knowledge among the top managers, term limits on leadership positions also will assure healthy and continuous new skills and perspectives, driving innovation.
These changes would realign NASA with its original mandate: driving American innovation and economic growth through space exploration.
The space race of the 1960s catalyzed unprecedented technological advancement and economic expansion.
Today’s challenges – from climate change to energy security – demand similar ambition and innovation. The stars have aligned for NASA’s renewal.
With proper leadership and a return to its founding mission of exploration and the growth of U.S. commercial space activities, America’s space program can once again lead humanity’s journey to the final frontier while strengthening our nation’s technological and economic foundations here on Earth.
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