>>22037394

TYB

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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

November 22, 2024

The Medusa Nebula

Braided and serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation. The planetary nebula phase represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the sun as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's transforming star is the faint one near the center of the overall bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments clearly extend below and to the left. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Rep. Nancy Mace & Joe Khalil Discuss UFO/UAP Disclosure | NewsNation's Reality Check

Nov 21, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlEe0symETg

>>22037493

Rep. Nancy Mace and Joe Khalil Discuss UAP Whistleblower Protections | NewsNation's Reality Check

Nov 21, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpviHScEI4s

>>22037495

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpviHScEI4s

>>22037492

Appreciate it

NASA selects Aeluma quantum dot photonic circuits

Nov. 22, 2024

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) needed a company to develop quantum dot photonic integrated circuits (PICs) on silicon.

They found their solution from Aeluma, Inc.

in Goleta, Calif. Aeluma, a semiconductor company specializing in advanced technologies for defense, aerospace, and quantum computing, has been awarded a contract by NASA to support next-generation space and aerospace applications, including free-space laser communication, autonomous navigation, and precision sensing.

Under the agreement, Aeluma will work with NASA to create silicon-based photonic circuits incorporating quantum dot technology.

This approach aims to enhance optical performance in demanding environments, addressing the need for precise, energy-efficient solutions in space missions and autonomous systems.

"This NASA contract is a significant milestone for Aeluma and reaffirms the groundbreaking potential of our quantum dot photonic technology," said Dr. Jonathan Klamkin, founder and CEO of Aeluma.

"We believe our collaboration with NASA will drive major advancements in critical aerospace applications and expand application possibilities in AI-driven systems, such as optical interconnects for data centers and high-performance computing."

Beyond aerospace, the quantum dot PICs hold promise for applications in artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and cloud data centers, where fast, energy-efficient optical interconnects are increasingly essential. Aeluma’s silicon photonics platform is designed to meet the demands of next-generation AI workloads and data-heavy systems.

The partnership with NASA highlights Aeluma's focus on developing scalable photonic technologies for widespread use, combining quantum dot innovation with silicon-based platforms to advance capabilities in AI, computing, and aerospace infrastructure.

https://www.militaryaerospace.com/communications/article/55245132/nasa-selects-aeluma-quantum-dot-photonic-circuits

Ring Around Tabby’s Star

Nov 21, 2024

This Oct. 4, 2017, illustration shows a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852, also known as Boyajian’s Star or Tabby’s Star.

The star has experienced unusual dips in brightness over a matter of days, as well as much subtler but longer-term dimming trends.

Scientists proposed several explanations for this unexpected behavior, ranging from Tabby’s Star swallowing a planet to alien “megastructures” harvesting the star’s energy.

However, a study using NASA’s Spitzer and Swift missions as well as the Belgian AstroLAB IRIS observatory suggests that the cause of the dimming over long periods is likely an uneven dust cloud moving around the star.

Learn more about this enigmatic star, named after Tabetha Boyajian, the Yale University postdoc who discovered it with the help of citizen scientists.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/ring-around-tabbys-star/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mysterious-dimming-of-tabbys-star-may-be-caused-by-dust/

NASA keeps an eye on this geyser in California: It’s hiding something shocking underground

11/22/2024

Nestled in Northern California lies a geothermal field, aptly named “The Geysers.” Spanning 45 square miles, it hides a surprising secret beneath its steaming surface.

While this field is best known as the world’s largest producer of geothermal energy, it also conceals a massive body of magma that offers clues about Earth’s inner workings.

Magma: The steam engine driving The Geysers’ output

Located eight miles northeast of Geyserville, The Geysers is unique in its geological structure.

It allows drillers to tap into reservoirs so fractured and heated that they release steam instead of water.

According to NASA, a massive blob of silica-rich magma penetrated the Earth’s crust “beneath the Coast Range” approximately 1.3 million years ago, causing gradual fracturing of surrounding rocks and forming fissures.

As water seeped into these fissures, it gave rise to hot springs, enticing indigenous populations, early colonists, tourists, and, much later, energy companies eager to capitalize on the field’s geothermal potential.

Currently, this steam fuels 18 on-site, turbine-driven power plants that generate up to 835 megawatts of electricity. This is enough to power several counties, as well as cities the size of San Francisco.

Overall, the turbines at The Geysers play a huge role in California’s renewable energy landscape.

It provides 50% of the state’s geothermal power while relying on sustainable management practices, such as injecting treated wastewater in the hot rock to reopen the fractures.

It also serves as a laboratory of sorts where scientists can study the dynamics of magma and the geothermal systems generated by it.

Overcoming challenges to harness The Geysers’ geothermal energy

As one of only two vapor-dominated systems in the world, The Geysers generates an impressive amount of geothermal energy.

In the deeper regions of the field, which lie more than 1.5 miles beneath the surface, temperatures can reach as high as 750 degrees Fahrenheit.

This suggests that the geothermal potential of The Geysers may be significantly larger than what we previously thought.

However, drillers encounter difficulties working on the rugged terrain of this field. High costs associated with drilling, which takes about 60 days per well, along with the wear on drill bits exacerbated by complex rock geology, further complicate the situation.

For example, as teams drill to depths exceeding 9,000 feet, they have to shift from mud to high-pressure air in order to combat fluid losses from steam-filled fractures.

Unfortunately, this particular technique can drastically reduce drill bit longevity, with some bits failing after just 21 feet.

Innovative drilling techniques are being explored to enhance efficiency

To address these challenges, drilling experts are performing ongoing tests aimed at identifying factors limiting drilling performance and enhancing drill bit durability.

The variation in fracture distribution at The Geysers complicates these operations, prompting teams to explore new materials and designs that can ensure sudden rock type changes.

This will ultimately make drilling more efficient and cost-effective in this geothermal hotspot.

One promising method is using a percussive hammer for drilling, which may improve penetration rates while also reducing bit damage.

Although it operates slower than rotary drilling, it helps maintain drill integrity in challenging environments.

For example, a modified off-the-shelf unit, powered by three compressors, effectively drilled the last 40 feet of a borehole in hard, brittle rock without drilling fluid.

Although it operated at a slow 20 feet an hour, the bit’s weight was reduced, ensuring no visible damage after inspection.

Ultimately, The Geysers symbolize the remarkable duality of energy generation and environmental responsibility.

By utilizing geothermal resources responsibly, we can meet energy demands while enhancing our knowledge of Earth’s structure. In turn, this balance fosters a sustainable future.

https://www.riazor.org/news/nasa-geyser-secret-underground-energy/2021/

NASA: Mystery of Life’s Handedness Deepens

Nov 21, 2024

The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a NASA-funded discovery that RNA — a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for life before DNA emerged — can favor making the building blocks of proteins in either the left-hand or the right-hand orientation.

Resolving this mystery could provide clues to the origin of life. The findings appear in research recently published in Nature Communications.

Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes (catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions).

Just as the 26 letters of the alphabet are arranged in limitless combinations to make words, life uses 20 different amino acid building blocks in a huge variety of arrangements to make millions of different proteins.

Some amino acid molecules can be built in two ways, such that mirror-image versions exist, like your hands, and life uses the left-handed variety of these amino acids.

Although life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, the two mirror images are rarely mixed in biology, a characteristic of life called homochirality.

It is a mystery to scientists why life chose the left-handed variety over the right-handed one.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule that holds the instructions for building and running a living organism.

However, DNA is complex and specialized; it “subcontracts” the work of reading the instructions to RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules and building proteins to ribosome molecules.

DNA’s specialization and complexity lead scientists to think that something simpler should have preceded it billions of years ago during the early evolution of life.

A leading candidate for this is RNA, which can both store genetic information and build proteins. The hypothesis that RNA may have preceded DNA is called the “RNA world” hypothesis.

If the RNA world proposition is correct, then perhaps something about RNA caused it to favor building left-handed proteins over right-handed ones.

However, the new work did not support this idea, deepening the mystery of why life went with left-handed proteins.

The experiment tested RNA molecules that act like enzymes to build proteins, called ribozymes.

“The experiment demonstrated that ribozymes can favor either left- or right-handed amino acids, indicating that RNA worlds, in general, would not necessarily have a strong bias for the form of amino acids we observe in biology now,” said Irene Chen, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Samueli School of Engineering, corresponding author of the Nature Communications paper.

In the experiment, the researchers simulated what could have been early-Earth conditions of the RNA world.

They incubated a solution containing ribozymes and amino acid precursors to see the relative percentages of the right-handed and left-handed amino acid, phenylalanine, that it would help produce.

They tested 15 different ribozyme combinations and found that ribozymes can favor either left-handed or right-handed amino acids.

This suggested that RNA did not initially have a predisposed chemical bias for one form of amino acids.

This lack of preference challenges the notion that early life was predisposed to select left-handed-amino acids, which dominate in modern proteins.

“The findings suggest that life’s eventual homochirality might not be a result of chemical determinism but could have emerged through later evolutionary pressures,” said co-author Alberto Vázquez-Salazar, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar and member of Chen’s research group.

Earth’s prebiotic history lies beyond the oldest part of the fossil record, which has been erased by plate tectonics, the slow churning of Earth’s crust.

During that time, the planet was likely bombarded by asteroids, which may have delivered some of life’s building blocks, such as amino acids.

In parallel to chemical experiments, other origin-of-life researchers have been looking at molecular evidence from meteorites and asteroids.

“Understanding the chemical properties of life helps us know what to look for in our search for life across the solar system,” said co-author Jason Dworkin, senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and director of Goddard’s Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory.

Dworkin is the project scientist on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which extracted samples from the asteroid Bennu and delivered them to Earth last year for further study.

https://www.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/astrobiology/nasa-mystery-of-lifes-handedness-deepens/

Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal

Nov 22, 2024

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a spiral galaxy, named UGC 10043. We don’t see the galaxy’s spiral arms because we are seeing it from the side.

Located roughly 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens, UGC 10043 is one of the somewhat rare spiral galaxies that we see edge-on.

This edge-on viewpoint makes the galaxy’s disk appear as a sharp line through space, with its prominent dust lanes forming thick bands of clouds that obscure our view of the galaxy’s glow.

If we could fly above the galaxy, viewing it from the top down, we would see this dust scattered across UGC 10043, possibly outlining its spiral arms.

Despite the dust’s obscuring nature, some active star-forming regions shine out from behind the dark clouds.

We can also see that the galaxy’s center sports a glowing, almost egg-shaped ‘bulge’, rising far above and below the disk.

All spiral galaxies have a bulge similar to this one as part of their structure.

These bulges hold stars that orbit the galactic center on paths above and below the whirling disk; it’s a feature that isn’t normally obvious in pictures of galaxies.

The unusually large size of this bulge compared to the galaxy’s disk is possibly due to UGC 10043 siphoning material from a nearby dwarf galaxy.

This may also be why its disk appears warped, bending up at one end and down at the other.

Like most full-color Hubble images, this image is a composite, made up of several individual snapshots taken by Hubble at different times, each capturing different wavelengths of light.

One notable aspect of this image is that the two sets of data that comprise this image were collected 23 years apart, in 2000 and 2023!

Hubble’s longevity doesn’t just afford us the ability to produce new and better images of old targets; it also provides a long-term archive of data which only becomes more and more useful to astronomers.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-captures-an-edge-on-spiral-with-curve-appeal/

New Shepard Mission NS-28 Webcast

November 22, 2024

Blue Origin's ninth human flight, NS-28, will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas on Friday, November 22.

The launch window opens at 9:30 AM CST / 15:30 UTC. The webcast will start at T-30 minutes.

https://www.blueorigin.com/live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEzVDtbYYKQ

>>22037786

>>22037786

Blue Origin crew, including history's 100th woman to fly to space, lands safely

November 22, 2024

Emily Calandrelli, who adopted her online persona long before she booked a trip with Blue Origin, lifted off on Friday (Nov. 22) as one of the six passengers aboard the company's New Shepard rocket.

The 10-minute suborbital flight — of which about four minutes were spent in space — launched and landed at Blue Origin's West Texas site.

"This is my dream," wrote Calandrelli on social media when it was announced she was going to be on Blue Origin's NS-28 crew.

"I studied aerospace engineering for nearly a decade, then became the first woman in the U.S. with a national science [TV] show.

It became my mission to bring representation to girls in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics]."

"Now, I'll become one the first 100 women in space, showing girls everywhere that they too can reach the stars," she said.

The ninth human spaceflight in Blue Origin's history, NS-28's crew also included Marc and Sharon Hagle, a married couple on their second Blue Origin launch after flying on the NS-20 mission in 2022; Austin Litteral, whose seat was sponsored by the livestream shopping platform Whatnot; J.D. Russell, an entrepreneur and former federal marine, fish and wildlife game warden; and Hank Wolfond, the CEO of a Canadian investment firm and a private pilot.

The six civilian astronauts rode aboard the "RSS First Step," Blue Origin's first of two human-rated New Shepard spacecraft.

Lifting off at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT or 9:30 a.m. local Texas time), the capsule flew past the Kármán line, the internationally accepted border between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.

The gumdrop-shaped spacecraft then descended under parachutes to a "soft" landing, while the New Shepard propulsion module (or booster) that lofted the crew to altitude made an engine-assisted vertical touchdown.

Calandrelli is the 10th woman to fly on a suborbital spaceflight above the Kármán line.

She is the 21st woman to reach space on a suborbital trajectory, including the astronauts who soared higher than the U.S.-recognized altitude of 50 miles (80 km) on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.

Overall, Calandrelli is now among the 94 men and women who have seen Earth from above 50 miles high but who did not enter orbit.

Including all of the people (men and women) who have flown into space on orbital or suborbital launches, she is the 711th space traveler (as tallied by the Association of Space Explorers).

A native of West Virginia, Calandrelli is the first woman and third person to represent her home state in space (after NASA astronauts Jon McBride and Drew Morgan).

"I can't believe that [a] girl from Morgantown, West Virginia, gets to represent the 100th woman in history to fly to space." wrote Calandrelli.

Although the price of her seat remains undisclosed, Calandrelli did say that she paid "just as much as the others" on New Shepard through the support of "20 to 30 organizations, brands and people."

In return, she offered to do sponsored posts on her online channels and deliver speeches.

The first woman to fly into space (and first woman to enter orbit) was Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who launched in 1963.

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg became the 50th woman to leave Earth's atmosphere in 2008.

The first woman to launch on a suborbital flight was Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor, whose first of six SpaceShipTwo missions (to date) was in 2019.

The first woman to fly on New Shepard was Wally Funk, an aviator and member of the so-called "Mercury 13," who underwent the same medical tests as NASA's first astronauts in the early 1960s.

Among the personal items that Calandrelli took with her to space was a montage showing photos of the 99 women who flew before her.

"I wanted to honor how they paved the way for women like me and how they've made it possible for the next generation of girls who want to reach for the stars to actually grab a few," she said.

https://www.space.com/blue-origin-ns28-100th-woman-space

https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-28-mission

https://www.thespacegal.com/

Earth from Space: ‘Angry husband’ eruption

22/11/2024

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from 13 November 2024 shows the Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano eruption on the island of Flores in southern Indonesia.

Zoom in to explore this image at its full 10 m resolution or click on the circles to learn more.

Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki started spewing ash and smoke on 4 November 2024. It has, so far, killed at least ten people and forced authorities to issue large-scale evacuations.

The volcanic ash cloud also caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled. The image clearly depicts the huge plume of ash and smoke spewing from the volcano and drifting westwards.

Laki Laki is one of two adjacent stratovolcanoes on Mount Lewotobi. The volcano summits, which are less than 2 km apart, are known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains.

Laki Laki means man, while its taller and broader spouse to its southeast is called Perempuan, or woman. While Perempuan has been dormant for decades, Laki Laki is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia.

The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the 'Ring of Fire', a continuous string of volcanoes and fault lines circling the Pacific Ocean.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2’s shortwave infrared channels, that detect heat sources, have been used in the processing of this image to display the activity on the volcano. The lava flowing from the crater is highlighted in orange and red.

Satellite data are an excellent means to monitor eruptions. Once an eruption begins, optical and radar instruments can capture the lava flows, mudslides, ground fissures and earthquakes.

Furthermore, atmospheric sensors can identify and measure the gases and aerosols released by the eruption, follow the spread and movement of volcanic plumes, and help to assess the environmental impact and possible hazards to aviation.

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/11/Earth_from_Space_Angry_husband_eruption

Astronaut in Army Reserve awarded wings and space badge for trip to International Space Station

November 21, 2024

Army Reserve Maj. Kate Rubins was already an astronaut when she joined the Army, but was surprised to find that learning some of the basics of soldiering reminded her of trips to space.

“I was quite surprised when I was in my basic officer leadership course learning land navigation and thinking how helpful that would be when I’m an astronaut,” she said.

“We don’t have satellite navigation around the moon. We don’t have magnetic fields or a compass, and so we are going to be using maps and terrain association and land navigation.”

Thursday, Rubins received the Basic Aviation Badge with Astronaut Device and Space Badge at a pinning ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

The Astronaut Device on a flight wings is the rarest badge in the Army, awarded only to soldiers who have completed an operational space mission more than 50 miles above the earth (most airliners and military jets fly about 6 miles high, while the International Space Station is 250 miles up).

The Basic Space Badge is awarded to soldiers who serve at least a year in space-related positions.

Rubin’s “stellar” resume is unique, having first been to space nearly a decade ago as a civilian before joining the Army.

She was a crew member on the International Space Station and flight engineer during Expedition 48/49 in 2016 and again on mission 63/64 in 2020.

During her time at NASA as a civilian astronaut, she worked with Army researchers and was the first to sequence DNA in space, according to the Army.

On her second flight aboard the ISS, Rubins decided she wanted to serve so when she returned earthside, Rubin was commissioned as an Army Reserve officer.

“I had always wanted to serve, and I was getting a little older,” she said. “I was coming up against the age deadline in order to sign up and to commission, and I thought when I got back to the planet, this was one thing that I really wanted to do.”

She also said learning “how to think clearly in a challenging situation” and working in small teams on a mission are applicable to both of her Army and NASA worlds.

Rubins said the astronaut device — which is the rarest badge awarded by the Army — is worn on the basic aircrew badge or the space badge.

Officers are eligible for the device if they are in the Army and have flown in space on a government space mission with NASA.

“I learned about this when I was serving at NASA that this was something that was able to be awarded and so I’m very grateful,” Rubins said.

“The device is nice and it’s a very nice recognition. The opportunity to serve every day is what I’m here for.”

According to an Army release, the award is authorized to personnel who complete at least one operational mission in space which is defined as 50 miles above earth.

The device can be affixed to a soldier’s Army Aviator Badge, Flight Surgeon Badge or Aviation Badge.

In 2020, Lt. Col. Anne McClain was the first and only active duty soldier presented with the astronaut device after her 204-day mission to the ISS as a flight engineer for NASA Expeditions 58/59.

She spent two and a half years preparing as an astronaut for her space mission and six months doing a mission.

“When you come from space and you land back on Earth, there’s actually kind of a period of what do I do now?,” she said, adding that when astronauts return they do physical rehabilitation and go back to working at NASA.

“The idea that I was going from one mission into the next mission was actually incredibly helpful,” she said.

Rubin’s first milestone was getting her doctorate in cancer biology from Stanford University’s medical school. She then went on to work as a microbiologist.

Before commissioning and becoming a NASA astronaut, Rubins worked as a principal investigator at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, leading 14 researchers in studies on viral diseases primarily affecting Central and West Africa, according to a NASA release.

Rubins said she also did molecular biology with Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Dietrich, Maryland studying bio threat agents and diseases like mpox and Ebola.

“I had a lot of experience working on the biologic side trying to come up with defensive countermeasures or vaccines for these viruses of concern,” Rubins said.

She now uses her medical and biology expertise as an officer with the 75th U.S. Army Reserve Innovation Command, focusing on synthetic biology and biodefense.

Rubins said she looks at problems and solutions that are “biologically driven” which means her work involves finding modern techniques, adapting those for military purposes and keeping up on rapid changes in technology.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-reserve-officer-space-badge/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_astronaut_badges

Russia Launches Supply Rocket to International Space Station

November 21, 2024

Russia’s Roscosmos space agency successfully launched a cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, carrying New Year’s gifts alongside essential supplies.

A Soyuz-2 rocket carrying the Progress MS-29 cargo ship lifted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:22 p.m. Moscow time, according to Roscosmos.

The unmanned vessel is set to dock with the ISS at 5:36 p.m. on Saturday after spending two days in orbit.

The spacecraft is delivering nearly 2,500 kilograms of cargo, including more than 1,100 kilograms of food, clothing and scientific equipment.

It also contains 869 kilograms of refueling fuel, 420 liters of drinking water, and 43 kilograms of compressed nitrogen.

Cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin said last week that the Expedition 72 crew on the ISS is eagerly anticipating New Year’s gifts from their families and friends, which are included in the shipment.

After six months attached to the station’s Poisk module, Progress MS-29 will jettison filled with trash and burn up upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

This marks the seventh launch from Baikonur in 2024.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/11/21/russia-launches-supply-rocket-to-international-space-station-a87092