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Happy Veteran's Day to anons and patriots everywhere.
Pakistan pollution: NASA images show toxic black smog visible from space, Lahore's AQI above 600
Nov 11, 2024 08:32 PM IST
Thick, black and toxic smog engulfed the skies of Pakistan as unprecedented pollution levels continued to make the lives of citizens difficult.
The smog is now visible from space, satellite imagery from NASA's worldview showed.
The satellite imagery showed a huge cloud of grey smog that blankets Pakistan’s Punjab province.
This comes days after some cities in Pakistan logged record-breaking pollution levels with the Air Quality Index (AQI) crossing the 2000 figure.
Images from the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Multan this weekend show the dark haze engulfing streets and blocking buildings from view.
Pakistan's Punjab province banned most outdoor activities and ordered shops, markets, and malls in some areas to close early from Monday to curb illnesses caused by intense air pollution.
The Pakistan government has ordered the closure of schools and colleges across several provinces until November 17.
This includes areas such as Lahore, which has been ranked by Swiss group IQAir as the world’s most polluted city for air quality.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/pakistan-pollution-nasa-images-show-toxic-black-smog-visible-from-space-lahores-aqi-above-600-101731334378239.html
Star cities: New 3D view of globular clusters illuminates their origins
November 11, 2024
Looking out into the Milky Way, it's possible to see all sorts of strange cosmic structures — tentacle-like spiraling arms of stars in the outer regions of the galaxy, dark clouds of gas and dust that block out whatever sits behind them and jets of radiation shooting out from the supermassive black hole in the center.
You might also notice blobs of densely packed regions of stars — galaxies within galaxies, if you will.
Astronomers know these blobs of stars as globular clusters, and they've been trying to decipher exactly how these stellar neighborhoods come into existence and evolve through time.
Now, an international group of researchers are the first to perform a 3D kinematic analysis of multiple stellar populations from a sample of 16 globular clusters in the Milky Way.
The new research has provided astronomers with the most detailed description of how stars move within globular clusters, and the clusters' overall evolution from their formation to the present day.
Researchers collected data on the motions and velocities of stars within globular clusters using the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia spacecraft, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and other instruments, as part of the Multi Instrument Kinematic Survey (MIKIS), a spectrographic survey designed to explore the internal dynamics of globular clusters.
The combined use of space-based and ground-based telescopes has provided the clearest picture of the velocity and distribution of stars in the targeted globular clusters to date, team members said.
"The results of our study provide the first solid evidence that globular clusters formed through multiple star-formation events and place fundamental constraints on the dynamical path followed by the clusters throughout their evolution," Emanuele Dalessandro, lead author of the new study, explained in a press release.
"These results were made possible by a multi-diagnostic approach and the combination of state-of-the-art observations and dynamic simulations," Dalessandro added.
Globular clusters are of particular interest to astrophysicists, as they can be 12 to 13 billion years old, which means they were some of the first structures that formed in the early universe. (The Big Bang that created the universe occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.)
Clusters are also typical in all galaxies. Astronomers know they contain different populations of stars, old and new, because of the metal content of those stars — the proportion of them made up of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. (Older stars tend to have fewer such "metals.")
"In this work, we analyzed in detail the motion of thousands of stars within each cluster," Alessandro Della Croce, co-author of the study, said in the same release.
"It quickly became clear that stars belonging to different populations have distinct kinematic properties: Stars with anomalous chemical composition tend to rotate faster than the others within the cluster and progressively spread from the central regions to the outer ones," Della Croce added.
Dalessandro thinks that characterizing the behavior of stars within globular clusters could help answer some persistent questions about the formation and evolution of galaxies as a whole.
"Their astrophysical significance is huge," said Dalessandro, "because they not only help us to test cosmological models of the formation of the universe due to their age but also provide natural laboratories for studying the formation, evolution and chemical enrichment of galaxies."
While questions still remain, the new study — which was published last week in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics — shines a bright new light on the behavior of these bustling galactic neighborhoods.
https://www.space.com/the-universe/star-cities-new-3d-view-of-globular-clusters-illuminates-their-origins-photo
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2024/11/aa51054-24/aa51054-24.html
Don't miss the Taurid meteor shower peak with colorful fireballs and shooting stars tonight
November 11, 2024
For the next week or so, if you happen to be outside during the overnight hours and happen to catch a glimpse of a bright and colorful "shooting star" you might very well have just caught sight of a Taurid meteor.
This annual meteor display shows up like clockwork every year between the middle of October and the middle of November, but Nov. 5 through Nov. 12 will be the best time to look for them when they reach a broad maximum.
Roughly 8 to 12 meteors per hour might be seen under dark skies during this period.
Most meteor showers are at their best after midnight, because their radiants (apparent points of origin) are highest in the sky just before dawn.
The Taurid meteor shower is an unusual case where the radiant is highest soon after midnight so the shower can be observed all night.
Their name comes from the way they seem to radiate from the constellation Taurus, the Bull, which sits low in the east a couple of hours after sundown and is almost directly overhead by around 1:30 a.m.
The higher a shower's radiant is in the sky, the more meteors can be seen emanating from it.
The moon was new on Nov. 1, and by Nov. 7, it will stay up until around 9:40 p.m. local time. By the morning of Nov. 12, it will be up until about 2:30 a.m., leaving the rest of the night dark for meteor viewing.
Meteors — popularly referred to as "shooting stars" — are generated when cosmic debris enters and burns up in Earth's atmosphere.
In the case of the Taurids, they are attributed to debris left behind by periodic comet Encke, which last passed through the inner solar system in October 2023 and expected to return in February 2027.
The Taurids are the slowest of any major shower's meteors, encountering the Earth at only about 19 miles (30 km) per second. The Taurid stream is noted for its many brightly colored meteors.
Although the dominant color is yellow, many orange, green, red, and blue meteors have been recorded. Occasionally this shower includes spectacular so-called "Halloween fireballs."
These may grab attention anytime for several weeks, not just on Halloween.
This shower's debris stream contains noticeably larger fragments than those shed by other comets, which is why this rather elderly meteor stream occasionally delivers a few unusually bright meteors known as "fireballs."
The Taurids are actually divided into the Northern Taurids and the Southern Taurids. This is an example of what happens to a meteor stream when it grows old.
The southern component of the Taurid shower peaks in early November, the northern component in mid-November. They overlap, and each runs for many weeks.
During this time their large, diffuse radiants migrate all the way from southeastern Pisces across southern Aries to well east of the Pleiades.
The radiant regions climb the eastern sky during the evening so no post-midnight vigils are required. But if it weren't for the possibility of fireballs, this would be considered a modest shower of minor interest.
According to Margaret Campbell-Brown and Peter Brown, in the 2024 edition of the Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, the Southern Taurids reach maximum on Nov. 5 and the Northern Taurids reach their peak a week later on Nov. 12.
The two radiants lie just south of the Pleiades.
So, during the next week, if you see a bright, yellowish meteor sliding rather lazily away from that famous little smudge of stars, you can feel sure it is a Taurid; a piece of Encke's comet.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/dont-miss-the-taurid-meteor-shower-peak-with-colorful-fireballs-and-shooting-stars-this-week
Spaceplane developer Reaction Engines goes bankrupt
November 10, 2024
Reaction Engines Ltd., a British company that has worked for decades on an air-breathing rocket engine for spaceplanes and other hypersonic vehicles, has filed for bankruptcy.
The company formally entered administration, a process under United Kingdom law to allow for the restructuring or liquidation of companies in financial distress, on Oct. 31 after attempts to raise additional funding fell through.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed as administrators of the company during the process, and under U.K. law has eight weeks to develop a plan to restructure or sell the company, or else liquidate its assets.
As part of the company’s administration process, most of its approximately 200 employees have been laid off. An industry source said that, given the company’s struggles to raise money, the most likely course of action will be liquidation.
The company, founded in 1989, is best known for the Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE), an engine concept proposed by the company intended for use on spaceplanes that would allow them to reach orbit without the need for boosters.
SABRE would use hydrogen and oxygen, taking oxygen from the air through a unique “precooler” design at lower altitudes and speeds and switching to onboard supplies of liquid oxygen as it ascended towards orbit.
The company proposed using SABRE on a spaceplane called Skylon, a single-stage vehicle that could carry 17 tons to low Earth orbit.
Work on Skylon did not advance beyond the conceptual stage, and the company acknowledged that development of Skylon would have cost more than $10 billion.
Reaction Engines continued to work on key technologies for SABRE, securing relatively modest government awards like an $11 million grant from the European Space Agency in 2016.
Large aerospace companies, including BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, invested in the company as it sought other applications for SABRE and its technology, such as for hypersonic vehicles.
The company established an American subsidiary, Reaction Engines Inc., which set up a facility at the Colorado Air and Space Port, an airport east of Denver, for testing elements of SABRE technology like its precooler.
That subsidiary is also included in the administration.
https://spacenews.com/spaceplane-developer-reaction-engines-goes-bankrupt/
Chinese commercial Lijian-1 rocket launches 15 satellites
November 11, 2024
A Chinese commercial rocket sent 15 satellites into orbit late Sunday, including launch service provider CAS Space’s first international payload.
The Lijian-1 (Kinetica-1) solid rocket lifted off at 11:03 p.m. Eastern Nov. 10 (0403 UTC, Nov. 11) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
The CAS Space launch report states the launch occurred within the “Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area.”
The area likely refers to a growing section of Jiuquan spaceport hosting launch areas for companies including CAS Space, Landspace, Space Pioneer and others.
It is one of a number of initiatives to allow China to facilitate new commercial rockets and break a bottleneck in spaceport access.
The 15 satellites launched into near polar orbit are Shiyan-26 A, B and C, Jilin-1 Gaofen 05B, Jilin-1 Pintai 02A 03, Yunyao-1 satellites 31-36, Xiguang-1 satellites 04 and 05, the Omani IRSS-1/OL-1 remote sensing satellite and Tianyan-24.
No information is provided regarding the Shiyan satellites. The name refers to an experimental and often classified series of Chinese satellites.
The pair of Jilin-1 satellites were launched for satellite manufacturer and operator Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., (CGST), which operates the Jilin-1 constellation of high resolution remote sensing satellites.
CGST now has at least 117 satellites in orbit. The Jilin-1 Gaofen 05B satellite serves as a technology demonstrator for the high-resolution Gaofen 05 constellation.
CGST apparently aims to launch 200 such satellites by 2027 to provide daily global coverage.
The company said in 2022 it aims to more than double its planned 138 satellite constellation to 300 satellites.
Jilin-1 Pintai 02A03 is a high-resolution optical remote sensing satellite that can provide users with remote sensing information services such as situation analysis and target monitoring, according to CAS Space.
The Yunyao-1 31-36 are owned by Tianjin Yunyao Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd.
The satellites carry GNSS occultation or long-wave infrared camera payloads to provide meteorological data.
Xiguang-1 04 and 05 were developed by Xi’an Zhongke Xiguang Aerospace Technology Co., or Xiopm Space.
These are China’s first commercial high-resolution methane source detection satellites.
The former carries a methane camera, a chlorophyll camera and a multispectral camera, while the latter carries a hyperspectral camera and a panchromatic camera.
Tianyan-24 is an optical remote sensing satellite developed by Juntian Aerospace, while Oman IRSS-1/OL-1 is described as an intelligent remote sensing optical satellite developed in part by Chinese firms, through the China Great Wall Industry Corp., (CGWIC), an arm of China’s main space contractor CASC.
The international payload is notable in that it demonstrates CAS Space’s ability to negotiate with CGWIC and others to launch commercial payloads from abroad.
CGWIC has typically negotiated the launch of international payloads on CASC’s Long March rockets. CAS Space is aiming to make international contracts part of its business operations, despite the challenges of export regimes and the dominance of SpaceX.
The Lijian-1 has a take-off weight of 135 tons, a total length of 30 meters, a core stage diameter of 2.65 meters, a fairing diameter of 2.65 meters and can carry 1,500 kilogram of payload into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
It uses SP70 solid rocket motors from CASC.
The upcoming Kinetica-2 rocket, currently set for launch in September 2025, will enhance CAS Space’s payload capabilities to reach broader client needs, offering up to 7,800 kilograms to sun-synchronous orbit and 12,000 kg low Earth orbit.
Potential recovery tests for reuse are planned at the end of 2026. It recently secured a role launching a low-cost cargo transportation system to the Tiangong space station, and is aiming to offer suborbital tourist flights by 2027.
The launch was China’s 54th orbital launch of 2024. Upcoming missions include the launch of the Tianzhou-8 cargo resupply mission to Tiangong, expected Nov. 15, and Zhuque-2 launches from Landspace.
https://spacenews.com/chinese-commercial-lijian-1-rocket-launches-15-satellites/
SpaceX Koreasat-6A Mission
SpaceX is targeting Monday, November 11 for launch of the Koreasat-6A mission to geosynchronous transfer orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The four-hour window opens at 12:22 p.m. ET. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available on Tuesday, November 12 with a four-hour window opening at 12:06 p.m. ET.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX.
This will be the 23rd flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, O3B mPOWER, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Marah Putih 2, Galileo L13, and 12 Starlink missions.
After stage separation, the first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=koreasat-6a
Meteor over Dallas? WFAA's weather team says falling objects spotted in the sky were likely space debris
If you saw objects in the sky over Dallas last night, you likely were looking at space debris, not meteors, according to WFAA's weather team.
Several WFAA viewers reported seeing objects falling in the sky over North Texas Saturday night, and videos showing an amazing display of light crossing across the North Texas sky quickly went viral online.
The light show was described as a meteor shower online, but WFAA’s weather team said the moving objects are likely not a meteor shower but probably a piece of space debris breaking up in the earth's atmosphere.
You wouldn't be blamed for assuming the falling debris was part of a meteor shower, though.
Two meteor showers are currently flashing in the night sky across the US, the Southern Taurids reached their zenith last Tuesday morning and the Northern Taurids will reach their peak on Nov. 12, according to the Associated Press.
The showers will likely continue to be visible through December.
However in this case, it's very unlikely that the light show over Dallas was a meteor, WFAA's weather team concluded.
There are close to 6,000 tons of "space junk" in the Earth's orbit, according to NASA.
Most of those materials are moving very fast, about 18,000 miles per hour, almost seven times faster than a bullet, according to NASA.
The volume of space debris in Earth's orbit, and the amount of debris means space junk does "pose a safety risk to people and property in space and on Earth," according to NASA.
However, usually, debris falling from the sky breaks up upon reentry and burns up before it hits the earth, according to an article from NASA.
Approximately 160 large objects, such as satellites, made uncontrolled reentries in 2021, according to ESA’s 2023 Space Environmental Report.
Most debris, if it makes it to the earth, lands in oceans or uninhabited areas, according to NASA.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/weather/meteor-shower-dallas-saturday-night-fort-worth-north-texas/287-92f6cbf5-a54b-4225-8228-563077010c9a
Colorado Rep-elect promises to ‘resist any attempt’ to move Space Command to Alabama
Nov. 10, 2024, 12:18 p.m.
A newly elected member of Congress has promised to “resist any attempt” to move U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville following former president Donald J. Trump’s election.
“Obviously, I believe that if it’s down to military value, (then) Colorado is the place for it to be,” said U.S. Rep.-elect Jeff Crank, R-Colo., in a report by The Denver Post.
Trump supported the Air Force’s decision to move the headquarters from Colorado Springs, its interim location, to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, near the end of his first term in 2021.
But President Joe Biden in 2023 reversed that decision, deciding to retain the headquarters at Colorado.
Members of the Alabama congressional delegation expect Trump to move Space Command headquarters to Huntsville.
But Crank contends that keeping the Command in Colorado Springs is the right thing, arguing that moving it anywhere else would be a “political” decision.
“With Donald Trump, you never know,” he said. “He changes his positions and his stance on issues by the day, and sometimes by the hour.
If he wants to build out the Space Force and Space Command and have it meet the national security moment and our threats, then he will keep it here.”
https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2024/11/colorado-rep-elect-promises-to-resist-any-attempt-to-move-space-command-to-alabama.html
‘We’re gonna learn some things’ about UFOs: Rep. Tim Burchett
11/11/24 8:30 AM ET
It may not be “total disclosure,” but one lawmaker who has advocated for UFO whistleblowers is optimistic that some significant information will come from Wednesday’s House hearing on UFO/UAP.
“I think we’re gonna learn some things. It’s peeling back the layers of an onion,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.
“The best pilots in the world, that are our pilots, are telling us that these things are flying in close proximity to their aircraft,” Burchett told “NewsNation Prime.”
One expert from Great Britain who will be watching the hearing believes that we will learn something, but not everything.
“Disclosure is a process, rather than a single event. So I don’t think we’re going to see on Wednesday a sort of parting of the curtains ‘this is it’ definitive explanation,” said Nick Pope, UFO expert and retired U.K. Defense Ministry official.
Also appearing on “NewsNation Prime,” Pope said he’s especially looking forward to the testimony of former U.S. Navy Admiral Tim Gallaudet, who knows about a part of the UFO/UAP issue that many people have never heard about: underwater phenomena.
“This … is extremely sensitive because some of these things have apparently been tracking our ballistic missile nuclear submarines,” he said.
Burchett agrees, adding that Gallaudet “has very compelling evidence”
Two subcommittees of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee are holding the Nov. 13 hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.”
Many advocates of disclosure have high hopes for the new Trump administration when it comes to releasing files that have been secret for decades.
“He’s dropped heavy hints that he knows something,” said Pope. “He’s been pressured … to release the rest of the JFK files, which he says he’s going to do early in his second term.
Clearly in President Trump’s mind, he links the UFO issue to the JFK issue – perhaps just in terms of public interest and the suggestion that there’s a coverup and a conspiracy,” Pope added.
Burchett is also optimistic that Trump wants to share more of what government agencies have compiled over the decades.
“I hope so. That’s the signals I’ve been given. I’m convinced that that’s what he wants, and that he trusts the American public,” he said. “President Trump will move towards total disclosure.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/4983516-ufo-hearing-wednesday/
'Donald Trump will release all secret alien and UFO files – I'm convinced of it'
Updated12:13, 11 NOV 2024
A close ally of incoming United States President Donald Trump has claimed he has been told that he'll release all secret alien files.
Alien fan Trump is set to return to the most powerful job in the world in January, and he has long hinted that he would fully disclose all details held from the public to do with aliens, UFOs and encounters with extra-terrestrial beings.
And now an ally and US Congressman has claimed that he's had conversations with Trump about it, and he's been told that full disclosure “will happen”.
Speaking to News Nation, Congressman Tim Burchett said: “President Trump will move towards total disclosure, and that's what's going to have to happen.
“We have these government bureaucrats who keep saying they don't exist… the best pilots in the world are telling us these things are flying within close proximity to their aircraft.
In my conversations with the President elect, I'm convinced that's what he wants (full disclosure) and that he trusts the American public.”
The comments come off the back of Trump speaking to Joe Rogan last month about aliens, where he admitted that there was “no reason not to think” that Mars and “all these planets” don't contain life on the.
“Maybe it's life that we don't know, but maybe it's a different kind of life,” he said.
“There is a lot of interest in the people coming from space, you know . . . I have to be honest, I have never been a believer, but I interviewed jet pilots that were solid people, perfect.
I mean, great pilots, great everything. And they said we saw things sir that were very strange, like a round ball.
But it wasn’t a comet or a meteor it was something, and it was going four times faster than an F-22 which is a very fast plane.
“There’s no reason not to (believe).” Trump comes to power again on January 20, with aliens seemingly top of his list…
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/donald-trump-release-secret-alien-34080774