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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
December 10, 2024
The Great Meteor Storm of 1833
It was a night of 100,000 meteors. The Great Meteor Storm of 1833 was perhaps the most impressive meteor event in recent history. Best visible over eastern North America during the pre-dawn hours of November 13, many people including a young Abraham Lincoln were woken up to see the sky erupt in streaks and flashes. Hundreds of thousands of meteors blazed across the sky, seemingly pouring out of the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The featured image is a digitization of a wood engraving which itself was based on a painting from a first-person account. We know today that the Great Meteor Storm of 1833 was caused by the Earth moving through a dense part of the dust trail expelled from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Earth moves through this dust stream every November during the Leonid meteor shower. Later this week you might get a slight taste of the intensity of that 1833 meteor storm by witnessing the annual Geminid meteor shower.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
3D Printable Bioreactor for Deep Space Food Production
Dec 10, 2024
NASA’s Synthetic Biology Project is turning to the 3D printing experts in the GrabCAD community for ideas and or designs that could lead to the ability to reuse and recycle small scale bioreactors to reduce the mass and volume requirements for deep space missions.
Ideally, designs that could be printed using a 3D printer, using recyclable plastics, or a design using cleanable and reusable materials can be created.
Award: $7,000 in total prizes
Open Date: December 2, 2024
Close Date: February 24, 2025
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/prizes-challenges-crowdsourcing-program/3d-printable-bioreactor-for-deep-space-food-production/
https://grabcad.com/challenges/3d-printable-bioreactor-for-deep-space-food-production
Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Traffic Management Beyond Visual Line of Sight (UTM BVLOS)
Dec 09, 2024
NASA’s Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Traffic Management Beyond Visual Line of Sight (UTM BVLOS) subproject aims to support the growing demand for drone flights across the globe.
Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, offer an increasing number of services, from package delivery to critical public safety operations, like search and rescue missions.
However, without special waivers, these flights are currently limited to visual line of sight – or only as far as the pilot can see – which is roughly no farther than one mile from the operator.
As the FAA works to authorize flights beyond this point, NASA is working with industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operationalize an uncrewed traffic management system for these operations.
NASA’s UTM Legacy
NASA’s Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Traffic Management, or UTM, was first developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley in 2013, and enables drones to safely and efficiently integrate into air traffic that is already flying in low-altitude airspace.
UTM is based on digital sharing of each user’s planned flight details, ensuring each user has the same situational awareness of the airspace.
NASA performed a series of drone flight demonstrations using UTM concepts in rural areas and densely populated cities under the agency’s previous UTM project.
And commercial drone companies have since utilized NASA’s UTM concepts and delivery operations in limited areas.
UTM Today
NASA research is a driving force in making routine drone deliveries a reality. The agency is supporting a series of commercial drone package deliveries beyond visual line of sight, some of which kicked off in August 2024 in Dallas, Texas.
Commercial operators are using NASA’s UTM-based capabilities during these flights to share data and planned flight routes with other operators in the airspace, detect and avoid hazards, and maintain situational awareness.
All of these capabilities allow operators to safely execute their operations in a shared airspace below 400 feet and away from crewed aircraft.
These drone operations in Dallas are a collaboration between NASA, the FAA, industry drone operators, public safety operators, and others.
These initial flights will help validate UTM capabilities through successful flight operation evaluations and inform the FAA’s rulemaking for safely expanding drone operations beyond visual line of sight.
The agency will continue to work with industry and government partners on more complex drone operations in communities across the country.
NASA is also working with partners to leverage UTM for other emerging operations, including remotely piloted air cargo delivery and air taxi flights.
UTM infrastructure could also support high-altitude operations for expanded scientific research, improved disaster response, and more.
https://www.nasa.gov/general/uncrewed-aircraft-systems-traffic-management-beyond-visual-line-of-sight-utm-bvlos/
NASA’s Bill Nelson takes Electra flight
10th December 2024
Nelson is the first US government agency head to fly on a next-generation advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson flew aboard Electra's hybrid-electric EL2 Goldfinch Ultra Short prototype aircraft, experiencing firsthand the aircraft's unique ability to take off and land in soccer field-sized spaces to make sustainable point-to-point travel a reality.
The 24-minute flight on Electra's two-seat fixed-wing aircraft showcased its Ultra Short capabilities, completing a series of take-offs and landings with just 150ft of ground roll made possible by Electra's proprietary blown-lift technology.
The flight demonstrated both hybrid-electric and quiet battery-only operations, with an acoustic signature of just 55dB at 500ft – the equivalent of a normal conversation.
Electra chief test pilot Cody Allee piloted the air-craft during the flight, departing from Electra's headquarters at Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia.
The EL2 Goldfinch serves as a testbed for Electra's distributed electric propulsion system and blown-lift technology, which are being scaled up for the company's nine-passenger EL9 Ultra Short aircraft.
With more than 2,100 orders already placed for the EL9, Electra is leading the charge to bring sustainable air travel closer to where we live, work and play.
Electra was also recently selected to develop aircraft concepts and technologies for next-generation commercial airliners under NASA's Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability (AACES) 2050 initiative.
“Flying aboard this new technology is an inspiring example of how innovation and determination can redefine what's possible in aviation,” said Nelson. “Advancements in hybrid-electric flight are a critical part of the aviation industry's transformation toward cleaner, quieter, and more accessible air transportation.”
Electra CEO Marc Allen welcomed the opportunity to showcase the EL2's capabilities to NASA. “This flight underscores Electra's commitment to deliver sustainable air travel to communities everywhere,” he said.
“We're honoured to have Bill Nelson experience the groundbreaking performance of our prototype aircraft firsthand, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with NASA to advance the future of aviation.”
https://www.airportsinternational.com/article/nasas-bill-nelson-takes-electra-flight
NASA Researchers Discover More Dark Comets
Dec 09, 2024
These celestial objects look like asteroids but act like comets now come in two flavors.
The first dark comet — a celestial object that looks like an asteroid but moves through space like a comet — was reported less than two years ago.
Soon after, another six were found. In a new paper, researchers announce the discovery of seven more, doubling the number of known dark comets, and find that they fall into two distinct populations: larger ones that reside in the outer solar system and smaller ones in the inner solar system, with various other traits that set them apart.
The findings were published on Monday, Dec. 9, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists got their first inkling that dark comets exist when they noted in a March 2016 study that the trajectory of “asteroid” 2003 RM had moved ever so slightly from its expected orbit.
That deviation couldn’t be explained by the typical accelerations of asteroids, like the small acceleration known as the Yarkovsky effect.
“When you see that kind of perturbation on a celestial object, it usually means it’s a comet, with volatile material outgassing from its surface giving it a little thrust,” said study coauthor Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“But try as we might, we couldn’t find any signs of a comet’s tail. It looked like any other asteroid — just a pinpoint of light.
So, for a short while, we had this one weird celestial object that we couldn’t fully figure out.”
Weird Celestial Objects
Farnocchia and the astronomical community didn’t have to wait long for another piece of the puzzle.
The next year, in 2017, a NASA-sponsored telescope discovered history’s first documented celestial object that originated outside our solar system.
Not only did 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) appear as a single point of light, like an asteroid, its trajectory changed as if it were outgassing volatile material from its surface, like a comet.
“‘Oumuamua was surprising in several ways,” said Farnocchia. “The fact that the first object we discovered from interstellar space exhibited similar behaviors to 2003 RM made 2003 RM even more intriguing.”
By 2023, researchers had identified seven solar system objects that looked like asteroids but acted like comets.
That was enough for the astronomical community to bestow upon them their own celestial object category: “dark comets.” Now, with the finding of seven more of these objects, researchers could start on a new set of questions.
“We had a big enough number of dark comets that we could begin asking if there was anything that would differentiate them,” said Darryl Seligman, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Physics at Michigan State University, East Lansing, and lead author of the new paper.
“By analyzing the reflectivity,” or albedo, “and the orbits, we found that our solar system contains two different types of dark comets.”
Two Kinds of Dark Comets
The study’s authors found that one kind, which they call outer dark comets, have similar characteristics to Jupiter-family comets: They have highly eccentric (or elliptical) orbits and are on the larger side (hundreds of meters or more across).
The second group, inner dark comets, reside in the inner solar system (which includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), travel in nearly circular orbits, and are on the smaller side (tens of meters or less).
Like so many astronomical discoveries, Seligman and Farnocchia’s research not only expands on our knowledge of dark comets, but it also raises several additional questions: Where did dark comets originate?
What causes their anomalous acceleration? Could they contain ice?
“Dark comets are a new potential source for having delivered the materials to Earth that were necessary for the development of life,” said Seligman.
“The more we can learn about them, the better we can understand their role in our planet’s origin.”
https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/nasa-researchers-discover-more-dark-comets/
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/topics/asteroids/
NASA Invites Media to Panama, Austria Artemis Accords Signings
Dec 09, 2024
On Wednesday, Dec. 11, Panama and Austria will sign the Artemis Accords at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Following the signing ceremonies, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will hold an in-person media availability to highlight progress on the accords, including reaching 50 signatories.
Events will start at the following times:
11 a.m. – Nelson hosts José Miguel Alemán Healy, ambassador of the Republic of Panama to the United States, and officials of the U.S. Department of State for Panama’s signing ceremony.
2 p.m. – Nelson hosts Petra Schneebauer, ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United States, and State Department officials for Austria’s signing ceremony.
2:30 p.m. – Artemis Accords media availability with Nelson.
All events are in-person only. Media interested in attending the events must RSVP no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 10 to: hq-media@mail.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
The United States, led by NASA with the U.S. Department of State, and seven other initial signatory nations established the Artemis Accords in 2020, identifying a set of principles promoting the beneficial use of space for humanity. As of today, 48 nations will have signed the Artemis Accords, including 39 under the Biden-Harris Administration and 15 in 2024 alone.
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 ceremonies will take place at the agency’s James E. Webb Auditorium in the West Lobby at NASA Headquarters in the Mary W. Jackson building, 300 E St. SW in Washington.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-panama-austria-artemis-accords-signings/
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords/
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-celebrates-decade-of-tracking-outer-planets/
NASA’s Hubble Celebrates Decade of Tracking Outer Planets
Dec 09, 2024
Encountering Neptune in 1989, NASA's Voyager mission completed humankind's first close-up exploration of the four giant outer planets of our solar system.
Collectively, since their launch in 1977, the twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft discovered that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were far more complex than scientists had imagined. There was a lot more to be learned.
A NASA Hubble Space Telescope observation program called OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) obtains long-term baseline observations of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in order to understand their atmospheric dynamics and evolution.
"The Voyagers don't tell you the full story," said Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who conducted giant planet observations with OPAL.
Hubble's image sharpness is comparable to the Voyager views as they approached the outer planets, and Hubble spans wavelengths from ultraviolet to near-infrared light.
Hubble is the only telescope that can provide high spatial resolution and image stability for global studies of cloud coloration, activity, and atmospheric motion on a consistent time basis to help constrain the underlying mechanics of weather and climate systems.
All four of the outer planets have deep atmospheres and no solid surfaces. Their churning atmospheres have their own unique weather systems, some with colorful bands of multicolored clouds, and with mysterious, large storms that pop up or linger for many years.
Each outer planet also has seasons lasting many years. (The James Webb Space Telescope's infrared capabilities will be used to probe deep into atmospheres of the outer planets to complement the OPAL observations.)
Following the complex behavior is akin to understanding Earth's dynamic weather as followed over many years, as well as the Sun's influence on the solar system's weather.
The four distant worlds also serve as proxies for understanding the weather and climate on similar planets orbiting other stars.
Planetary scientists realized that any one year of data from Hubble, while interesting in its own right, doesn't tell the full story of the outer planets. Hubble's OPAL program has routinely observed the planets once a year when they are closest to the Earth.
"Because OPAL now spans 10 years and counting, our database of planetary observations is ever growing. That longevity allows for serendipitous discoveries, but also for tracking long-term atmospheric changes as the planets orbit the Sun.
The scientific value of these data is underscored by the more than 60 publications to date that include OPAL data," said Simon.
This payoff continues to be a huge archive of data that has led to a string of remarkable discoveries to share with planetary astronomers around the world. "OPAL also interfaces with other ground- and space-based planetary programs.
Many papers from other observatories and space missions pull in Hubble data from OPAL for context," said Simon.
The team's decade of discovery under Hubble's OPAL program is being presented at the December meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS:
JUPITER
Jupiter's bands of clouds present an ever-changing kaleidoscope of shapes and colors. There is always stormy weather on Jupiter: cyclones, anticyclones, wind shear, and the largest storm in the solar system, the Great Red Spot (GRS).
Jupiter is covered with largely ammonia ice-crystal clouds on top of an atmosphere that's tens of thousands of miles deep.
Hubble's sharp images track clouds and measure the winds, storms, and vortices, in addition to monitoring the size, shape, and behavior of the GRS. Hubble follows as the GRS continues shrinking in size and its winds are speeding up.
OPAL data recently measured how often mysterious dark ovals — visible only at ultraviolet wavelengths — appeared in the "polar hoods" of stratospheric haze. Unlike Earth, Jupiter is only inclined three degrees on its axis (Earth is 23.5 degrees).
Seasonal changes might not be expected, except that Jupiter's distance from the Sun varies by about 5% over its 12-year-long orbit, and so OPAL closely monitors the atmosphere for seasonal effects.
Another Hubble advantage is that ground-based observatories can't continuously view Jupiter for two Jupiter rotations, because that adds up to 20 hours.
During that time, an observatory on the ground would have gone into daytime and Jupiter would no longer be visible until the next evening.
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SATURN
Saturn takes more than 29 years to orbit the Sun, and so OPAL has followed it for approximately one quarter of a Saturnian year (picking up in 2018, after the end of the Cassini mission).
Because Saturn is tilted 26.7 degrees, it goes through more profound seasonal changes than Jupiter. Saturnian seasons last approximately seven years.
This also means Hubble can view the spectacular ring system from an oblique angle of almost 30 degrees to seeing the rings tilted edge-on. Edge-on, the rings nearly vanish because they are relatively paper-thin. This will happen again in 2025.
OPAL has followed changes in colors of Saturn's atmosphere. The varying color was first detected by the Cassini orbiter, but Hubble provides a longer baseline.
Hubble revealed slight changes from year-to-year in color, possibly caused by cloud height and winds. The observed changes are subtle because OPAL has covered only a fraction of a Saturnian year.
Major changes happen when Saturn progresses into the next season.
Saturn's mysteriously dark ring spokes, which slice across the ring plane, are transient features that rotate along with the rings. Their ghostly appearance only persists for two or three rotations around Saturn.
During active periods, freshly formed spokes continuously add to the pattern. They were first seen in 1981 by Voyager 2. Cassini also saw the spokes during its 13-year-long mission, which ended in 2017.
Hubble shows that the frequency of spoke apparitions is seasonally driven, first appearing in OPAL data in 2021. Long-term monitoring shows that both the number and contrast of the spokes vary with Saturn's seasons.
URANUS
Uranus is tilted on its side so that its spin axis almost lies in the plane of the planet's orbit. This results in the planet going through radical seasonal changes along it 84-year-long trek around the Sun.
The consequence of the planet's tilt means part of one hemisphere is completely without sunlight, for stretches of time lasting up to 42 years. OPAL has followed the northern pole now tipping toward the Sun.
With OPAL, Hubble first imaged Uranus after the spring equinox, when the Sun was last shining directly over the planet's equator.
Hubble resolved multiple storms with methane ice-crystal clouds appearing at mid-northern latitudes as summer approaches the north pole.
Uranus' north pole now has a thickened photochemical haze with several little storms near the edge of the boundary.
Hubble has been tracking the size of the north polar cap and it continues to get brighter year after year.
As northern summer solstice approaches in 2028, the cap may grow brighter still, and will be aimed directly toward Earth, allowing good views of the rings and north pole.
The ring system will then appear face-on. Understanding how Uranus changes over time will help in mission planning for NASA's proposed Uranus Orbiter and Probe.
NEPTUNE
When Voyager 2 flew by Neptune in 1989, astronomers were mystified by a great dark spot the size of the Atlantic Ocean looming in the atmosphere.
Was it long-lived like Jupiter's Great Red Spot? The question remained unanswered until Hubble was able to show in 1994 that such dark storms were transitory, cropping up and then disappearing over a duration of two to six years each.
During the OPAL program, Hubble saw the end of one dark spot and the full life cycle of a second one — both of them migrating toward the equator before dissipating. The OPAL program ensures that astronomers won't miss another one.
Hubble observations uncovered a link between Neptune's shifting cloud abundance and the 11-year solar cycle.
The connection between Neptune and solar activity is surprising to planetary scientists because Neptune is our solar system's farthest major planet. It receives only about 1/1000th as much sunlight as Earth receives.
Yet Neptune's global cloudy weather seems to be influenced by solar activity. Do the planet's seasons also play a role?
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