TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
December 12, 2024
Phaethon's Brood
Based on its well-measured orbit, 3200 Phaethon (sounds like FAY-eh-thon) is recognized as the source of the meteoroid stream responsible for the annual Geminid meteor shower. Even though most meteor shower parents are comets, 3200 Phaethon is a known and closely tracked near-Earth asteroid with a 1.4 year orbital period. Rocky and sun-baked, its perihelion or closest approach to the Sun is well within the orbit of innermost planet Mercury. In this telescopic field of view, the asteroid's rapid motion against faint background stars of the heroic constellation Perseus left a short trail during the two minute total exposure time. The (faint) parallel streaks of its meteoric children flashed much more quickly across the scene. The family portrait was recorded near the Geminid meteor shower's very active peak on 2017 December 13. That was just three days before 3200 Phaethon's historic close approach to planet Earth. This year, the night of December 13 should again see the peak of the Geminid meteor shower, but faint meteors will be washed out by the bright light of the nearly full moon.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Artemis Accords Reach 50 Signatories as NASA Welcomes Panama, Austria
Dec 11, 2024
Panama and Austria signed the Artemis Accords Wednesday during separate signing ceremonies at NASA Headquarters in Washington, becoming the 49th and 50th nations to commit to the responsible exploration of space for all humanity.
“NASA welcomes Panama and Austria to the Artemis Accords community and celebrates 50 countries united by shared principles for the safe and responsible exploration of space,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.
“More than ever before, NASA is opening space to more nations and more people for the benefit of all. Together we are building long-term and peaceful deep space exploration for the Artemis Generation.”
In just a few years, the original group of eight country signatories including the United States has multiplied, with 17 countries signings in 2024.
More than a number, the Artemis Accords represent a robust community, from every region of the world, unified by the same goal: to ensure safe and responsible civil space exploration.
Through the Artemis Accords, the United States and other signatories are progressing toward continued safe and sustainable exploration of space with concrete outcomes.
They committed to a method of operation and set of recommendations on non-interference, interoperability, release of scientific data, long-term sustainability guidelines, and registration to advance the implementation of the Artemis Accords.
Potential focus areas for the next year include further advancing sustainability, including debris management for both lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon.
Austria Joins Artemis Accords
Petra Schneebauer, ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United States, signed the accords on behalf of Austria, becoming the 50th country signatory.
“Austria is proud to sign the Artemis Accords, an important step in fostering international cooperation for the civil exploration of the Moon and expanding humanity’s presence in the cosmos,” said Schneebauer.
“By signing the Accords, we reaffirm our commitment to the peaceful, responsible, and cooperative use of space while emphasizing our support for strong multilateral partnerships and scientific progress.
This cooperation will open new prospects for Austrian businesses, scientists, and research institutions to engage in pioneering space initiatives.”
Jennifer Littlejohn, acting assistant secretary, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of State, also participated in Austria’s signing event.
Panama Joins Artemis Accords
Earlier Wednesday, Nelson hosted Panama for a signing ceremony. José Miguel Alemán Healy, ambassador of the Republic of Panama to the United States, signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of Panama.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Tony Fernandes for U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs also participated in the event.
“Today, Panama takes its place among many other nations looking not just to our own horizons, but to the horizons beyond our planet – exploring, learning, and contributing to humanity’s collective knowledge,” said Alemán.
”This moment represents far more than a diplomatic signature. It is a bold commitment to peaceful exploration, scientific discovery, and international collaboration.”
In 2020, the United States, led by NASA with the U.S. Department of State, and seven other initial signatory nations established the Artemis Accords, identifying a 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 accords are a voluntary commitment to engage in safe, transparent, responsible behavior in space, and any nation that wants to commit to those values is welcome to sign.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/artemis-accords-reach-50-signatories-as-nasa-welcomes-panama-austria/
NASA-DOD Study: Saltwater to Widely Taint Coastal Groundwater by 2100
Dec 11, 2024
Seawater will infiltrate underground freshwater supplies in about three of every four coastal areas around the world by the year 2100, according to a recent study led by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
In addition to making water in some coastal aquifers undrinkable and unusable for irrigation, these changes can harm ecosystems and corrode infrastructure.
Called saltwater intrusion, the phenomenon happens below coastlines, where two masses of water naturally hold each other at bay.
Rainfall on land replenishes, or recharges, fresh water in coastal aquifers (underground rock and soil that hold water), which tends to flow below ground toward the ocean.
Meanwhile, seawater, backed by the pressure of the ocean, tends to push inland.
Although there’s some mixing in the transition zone where the two meet, the balance of opposing forces typically keeps the water fresh on one side and salty on the other.
Now, two impacts of climate change are tipping the scales in favor of salt water. Spurred by planetary warming, sea level rise is causing coastlines to migrate inland and increasing the force pushing salt water landward.
At the same time, slower groundwater recharge — due to less rainfall and warmer weather patterns — is weakening the force moving the underground fresh water in some areas.
Worldwide Intrusion
The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters in November, evaluated more than 60,000 coastal watersheds (land area that channels and drains all the rainfall and snowmelt from a region into a common outlet) around the world, mapping how diminished groundwater recharge and sea level rise will each contribute to saltwater intrusion while estimating what their net effect will be.
Considering the two factors separately, the study’s authors found that by 2100 rising sea levels alone will tend to drive saltwater inland in 82% of coastal watersheds studied.
The transition zone in those places would move a relatively modest distance: no more than 656 feet (200 meters) from current positions.
Vulnerable areas include low-lying regions such as Southeast Asia, the coast around the Gulf of Mexico, and much of the United States’ Eastern Seaboard.
Meanwhile, slower recharge on its own will tend to cause saltwater intrusion in 45% of the coastal watersheds studied.
In these areas, the transition zone would move farther inland than it will from sea level rise — as much as three-quarters of a mile (about 1,200 meters) in some places.
The regions to be most affected include the Arabian Peninsula, Western Australia, and Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
In about 42% of coastal watersheds, groundwater recharge will increase, tending to push the transition zone toward the ocean and in some areas overcoming the effect of saltwater intrusion by sea level rise.
All told, due to the combined effects of changes in sea level and groundwater recharge, saltwater intrusion will occur by century’s end in 77% of the coastal watersheds evaluated, according to the study.
Generally, lower rates of groundwater recharge are going to drive how far saltwater intrudes inland, while sea level rise will determine how widespread it is around the world.
“Depending on where you are and which one dominates, your management implications might change,” said Kyra Adams, a groundwater scientist at JPL and the paper’s lead author.
For example, if low recharge is the main reason intrusion is happening in one area, officials there might address it by protecting groundwater resources, she said.
On the other hand, if the greater concern is that sea level rise will oversaturate an aquifer, officials might divert groundwater.
Global Consistency
Co-funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the study is part of an effort to evaluate how sea level rise will affect the department’s coastal facilities and other infrastructure.
It used information on watersheds collected in HydroSHEDS, a database managed by the World Wildlife Fund that uses elevation observations from the NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.
To estimate saltwater intrusion distances by 2100, the researchers used a model accounting for groundwater recharge, water table rise, fresh- and saltwater densities, and coastal migration from sea level rise, among other variables.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/space-shuttle/srtm/nasa-dod-study-saltwater-to-widely-taint-coastal-groundwater-by-2100/
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL110359
NASA Study: Crops, Forests Responding to Changing Rainfall Patterns
Dec 11, 2024
A new NASA-led study has found that how rain falls in a given year is nearly as important to the world’s vegetation as how much.
Reporting Dec. 11 in Nature, the researchers showed that even in years with similar rainfall totals, plants fared differently when that water came in fewer, bigger bursts.
In years with less frequent but more concentrated rainfall, plants in drier environments like the U.S. Southwest were more likely to thrive.
In humid ecosystems like the Central American rainforest, vegetation tended to fare worse, possibly because it could not tolerate the longer dry spells.
Scientists have previously estimated that almost half of the world’s vegetation is driven primarily by how much rain falls in a year.
Less well understood is the role of day-to-day variability, said lead author Andrew Feldman, a hydrologist and ecosystem scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Shifting precipitation patterns are producing stronger rainstorms — with longer dry spells in between — compared to a century ago.
“You can think of it like this: if you have a house plant, what happens if you give it a full pitcher of water on Sunday versus a third of a pitcher on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?” said Feldman.
Scale that to the size of the U.S. Corn Belt or a rainforest and the answer could have implications for crop yields and ultimately how much carbon dioxide plants remove from the atmosphere.
Blooms in Desert
The team, including researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and multiple universities, analyzed two decades of field and satellite observations, spanning millions of square miles.
Their study area encompassed diverse landscapes from Siberia to the southern tip of Patagonia. They found that plants across 42% of Earth’s vegetated land surface were sensitive to daily rainfall variability.
Of those, a little over half fared better — often showing increased growth — in years with fewer but more intense wet days. These include croplands as well as drier landscapes like grasslands and deserts.
In contrast, broadleaf (e.g., oak, maple, and beech) forests and rainforests in lower and middle latitudes tended to fare worse under those conditions.
The effect was especially pronounced in Indo-Pacific rainforests, including in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Statistically, daily rainfall variability was nearly as important as annual rainfall totals in driving growth worldwide.
Red Light, Green Light
The new study relied primarily on a suite of NASA missions and datasets, including the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) algorithm, which provides rain and snowfall rates for most of the planet every 30 minutes using a network of international satellites.
To gauge plant response day to day, the researchers calculated how green an area appeared in satellite imagery. “Greenness”, also known asthe Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, is commonly used to estimate vegetation density and health.
They also tracked a faint reddish light that plants emit during photosynthesis, when a plant absorbs sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into food, its chlorophyll “leaks” unused photons.
This faint light is called solar-induced fluorescence, and it’s a telltale sign of flourishing vegetation.
Not visible bythe naked eye, plant fluorescence can be detected by instruments aboard satellites such as NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2). Launched in 2014, OCO-2 has observed the U.S. Midwest fluorescing strongly during the growing season.
Feldman said the findings highlight the vital role that plants play in moving carbon around Earth — a process called the carbon cycle. Vegetation, including crops, forests, and grasslands, forms a vast carbon “sink,” absorbing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
“A finer understanding of how plants thrive or decline day to day, storm by storm, could help us better understand their role in that critical cycle,” Feldman said.
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/water-on-earth/nasa-study-crops-forests-responding-to-changing-rainfall-patterns/
NASA Performs First Aircraft Accident Investigation on Another World
Dec 11, 2024
Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and AeroVironment are completing a detailed assessment of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s final flight on Jan. 18, 2024, which will be published in the next few weeks as a NASA technical report.
Designed as a technology demonstration to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, Ingenuity was the first aircraft on another world.
It operated for almost three years, performed 72 flights, and flew more than 30 times farther than planned while accumulating over two hours of flight time.
The investigation concludes that the inability of Ingenuity’s navigation system to provide accurate data during the flight likely caused a chain of events that ended the mission.
The report’s findings are expected to benefit future Mars helicopters, as well as other aircraft destined to operate on other worlds.
Final Ascent
Flight 72 was planned as a brief vertical hop to assess Ingenuity’s flight systems and photograph the area. Data from the flight shows Ingenuity climbing to 40 feet (12 meters), hovering, and capturing images.
It initiated its descent at 19 seconds, and by 32 seconds the helicopter was back on the surface and had halted communications.
The following day, the mission reestablished communications, and images that came down six days after the flight revealed Ingenuity had sustained severe damage to its rotor blades.
What Happened
“When running an accident investigation from 100 million miles away, you don’t have any black boxes or eyewitnesses,” said Ingenuity’s first pilot, Håvard Grip of JPL.
“While multiple scenarios are viable with the available data, we have one we believe is most likely: Lack of surface texture gave the navigation system too little information to work with.”
The helicopter’s vision navigation system was designed to track visual features on the surface using a downward-looking camera over well-textured (pebbly) but flat terrain.
This limited tracking capability was more than sufficient for carrying out Ingenuity’s first five flights, but by Flight 72 the helicopter was in a region of Jezero Crater filled with steep, relatively featureless sand ripples.
One of the navigation system’s main requirements was to provide velocity estimates that would enable the helicopter to land within a small envelope of vertical and horizontal velocities.
Data sent down during Flight 72 shows that, around 20 seconds after takeoff, the navigation system couldn’t find enough surface features to track.
Photographs taken after the flight indicate the navigation errors created high horizontal velocities at touchdown. In the most likely scenario, the hard impact on the sand ripple’s slope caused Ingenuity to pitch and roll.
The rapid attitude change resulted in loads on the fast-rotating rotor blades beyond their design limits, snapping all four of them off at their weakest point — about a third of the way from the tip.
The damaged blades caused excessive vibration in the rotor system, ripping the remainder of one blade from its root and generating an excessive power demand that resulted in loss of communications.
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Down but Not Out
Although Flight 72 permanently grounded Ingenuity, the helicopter still beams weather and avionics test data to the Perseverance rover about once a week.
The weather information could benefit future explorers of the Red Planet. The avionics data is already proving useful to engineers working on future designs of aircraft and other vehicles for the Red Planet.
“Because Ingenuity was designed to be affordable while demanding huge amounts of computer power, we became the first mission to fly commercial off-the-shelf cellphone processors in deep space,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s project manager.
“We’re now approaching four years of continuous operations, suggesting that not everything needs to be bigger, heavier, and radiation-hardened to work in the harsh Martian environment.”
Inspired by Ingenuity’s longevity, NASA engineers have been testing smaller, lighter avionics that could be used in vehicle designs for the Mars Sample Return campaign.
The data is also helping engineers as they research what a future Mars helicopter could look like — and do.
During a Wednesday, Dec. 11, briefing at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in Washington, Tzanetos shared details on the Mars Chopper rotorcraft, a concept that he and other Ingenuity alumni are researching.
As designed, Chopper is approximately 20 times heavier than Ingenuity, could fly several pounds of science equipment, and autonomously explore remote Martian locations while traveling up to 2 miles (3 kilometers) in a day. (Ingenuity’s longest flight was 2,310 feet, or 704 meters.)
“Ingenuity has given us the confidence and data to envision the future of flight at Mars,” said Tzanetos.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance/ingenuity-helicopter/nasa-performs-first-aircraft-accident-investigation-on-another-world/
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https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/found-first-actively-forming-galaxy-as-lightweight-as-young-milky-way/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08293-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk-1ee1rstM
Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way
Dec 11, 2024
For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected and “weighed” a galaxy that not only existed around 600 million years after the big bang, but is also similar to what our Milky Way galaxy’s mass might have been at the same stage of development.
Other galaxies Webb has detected at this time period are significantly more massive.
Nicknamed the Firefly Sparkle, this galaxy is gleaming with star clusters — 10 in all — each of which researchers examined in great detail.
Image A: Firefly Sparkle Galaxy and Companions in Galaxy Cluster MACS J1423
“I didn’t think it would be possible to resolve a galaxy that existed so early in the universe into so many distinct components, let alone find that its mass is similar to our own galaxy’s when it was in the process of forming,” said Lamiya Mowla, co-lead author of the paper and an assistant professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
“There is so much going on inside this tiny galaxy, including so many different phases of star formation.”
Webb was able to image the galaxy in crisp detail for two reasons. One is a benefit of the cosmos: A massive foreground galaxy cluster radically enhanced the distant galaxy’s appearance through a natural effect known as gravitational lensing.
And when combined with the telescope’s specialization in high-resolution infrared light, Webb delivered unprecedented new data about the galaxy’s contents.
Image B: Galaxy Cluster MACS J1423
“Without the benefit of this gravitational lens, we would not be able to resolve this galaxy,” said Kartheik Iyer, co-lead author and NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University in New York.
“We knew to expect it based on current physics, but it’s surprising that we actually saw it.”
Mowla, who spotted the galaxy in Webb’s image, was drawn to its gleaming star clusters, because objects that sparkle typically indicate they are extremely clumpy and complicated.
Since the galaxy looks like a “sparkle” or swarm of lightning bugs on a warm summer night, they named it the Firefly Sparkle galaxy.
Reconstructing the Galaxy’s Appearance
The research team modeled what the galaxy might have looked like if it weren’t stretched and discovered that it resembled an elongated raindrop. Suspended within it are two star clusters toward the top and eight toward the bottom.
“Our reconstruction shows that clumps of actively forming stars are surrounded by diffuse light from other unresolved stars,” said Iyer. “This galaxy is literally in the process of assembling.”
Webb’s data shows the Firefly Sparkle galaxy is on the smaller side, falling into the category of a low-mass galaxy. Billions of years will pass before it builds its full heft and a distinct shape.
“Most of the other galaxies Webb has shown us aren’t magnified or stretched, and we are not able to see their ‘building blocks’ separately. With Firefly Sparkle, we are witnessing a galaxy being assembled brick by brick,” Mowla said.
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Stretched Out and Shining, Ready for Close Analysis
Since the galaxy is warped into a long arc, the researchers easily picked out 10 distinct star clusters, which are emitting the bulk of the galaxy’s light. They are represented here in shades of pink, purple, and blue.
Those colors in Webb’s images and its supporting spectra confirmed that star formation didn’t happen all at once in this galaxy, but was staggered in time.
“This galaxy has a diverse population of star clusters, and it is remarkable that we can see them separately at such an early age of the universe,” said Chris Willott from the National Research Council of Canada’s Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, a co-author and the observation program’s principal investigator.
“Each clump of stars is undergoing a different phase of formation or evolution.” The galaxy’s projected shape shows that its stars haven’t settled into a central bulge or a thin, flattened disk, another piece of evidence that the galaxy is still forming.
Image C: Illustration of the Firefly Sparkle Galaxy in the Early Universe
‘Glowing’ Companions
Researchers can’t predict how this disorganized galaxy will build up and take shape over billions of years, but there are two galaxies that the team confirmed are “hanging out” within a tight perimeter and may influence how it builds mass over billions of years.
Firefly Sparkle is only 6,500 light-years away from its first companion, and its second companion is separated by 42,000 light-years.
For context, the fully formed Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across — all three would fit inside it. Not only are its companions very close, the researchers also think that they are orbiting one another.
Each time one galaxy passes another, gas condenses and cools, allowing new stars to form in clumps, adding to the galaxies’ masses.
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ISRO successfully tests CE20 cryogenic engine, a breakthrough in space technology
Dec 12, 2024 07:52 PM IST
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday said that the CE20 cryogenic engine flew through in a critical sea level test, a significant breakthrough in propulsion technology and future of the country's space missions.
The test was done on November 29 at the ISRO Propulsion Complex in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.
According to ISRO, the test showed the engine’s restart capabilities, a crucial step on the road of manned missions by India’s Space Agency.
“The CE20 cryogenic engine, developed indigenously by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, has been qualified to operate at a thrust level of 19 tonnes and has successfully powered six LVM3 missions to date,” ISRO stated, according to PTI.
The space agency has been working on the engine in view of its Gaganyaan mission, India’s first manned spaceflight.
It has been upgraded to produce a thrust level of 20 tonnes. Apart from that, it is capable of producing an enhanced thrust of 22 tonnes for the C32 stage in the future.
It will also improve the payload capabilities of the LVM3 launch vehicle.
Standout features of the test
A multi-element igniter was tested during the process. The igniter is integral to enabling engine restart capability.
Restarting a cryogenic engine poses unique challenges, particularly in terms of vacuum ignition without nozzle closure.
ISRO confirmed that previous ground tests had already demonstrated vacuum ignition successfully.
The sea-level test introduced an innovative ‘Nozzle Protection System’ to address challenges such as flow separation inside the nozzle, which could otherwise lead to severe vibrations, thermal issues, and potential damage.
This system has enabled a cost-effective and less complex testing procedure compared to the High-Altitude Test (HAT) facility traditionally used for such evaluations.
According to ISRO, the new system has mitigated all the complexities related to the test. It paved the way for more efficient test results.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/isro-successfully-tests-ce20-cryogenic-engine-a-breakthrough-in-space-technology-101734011824512.html
Orion Space Solutions kicks off work leveraging artificial intelligence to conduct advanced data processing for NOAA
Dec 12, 2024
Orion Space Solutions (Orion), a wholly owned subsidiary of Arcfield, announced today that it has been awarded new work from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to support its Advanced Access Methods for Earth Observations Digital Twin program (EO-DT).
Work on the two-year program kicked off this month in Silver Spring, Maryland.
NOAA's Advanced Access Methods for EO-DT program was created to improve the management and dissemination of critical data observed using digital twins of Earth by leveraging the principles of open science, FAIR data and interoperability to serve its diverse user base.
Specifically, the Orion team will evaluate how NOAA can leverage natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLM) to streamline and accelerate access to the terabytes of data the agency collects from diverse satellite sources.
As one of the awardees of the NOAA EO-DT Joint Ventures Program Broad Agency Announcement, Orion used advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies to build a dynamic digital twin platform to process, analyze and visualize Earth observations.
By running high-performance computing models in the cloud, the Orion platform connects space, atmosphere, land and sea observations into a single location, allowing the user to model and understand current, future and hypothetical scenarios.
"At Orion, we take pride in our ability to apply scientific rigor and innovation to uncover new capabilities in mission-critical areas for our customers," said Chad Fish, president and general manager of Orion.
"We have already proven how AI can be leveraged for enhanced space domain awareness and Earth observation, and we are excited to extend that work to satellite mission planning."
Building on the success of the EO-DT program, Orion will utilize NLP and LLM for advanced data processing, focusing specifically on the intersections of satellite digital twins, space weather and space domain awareness.
An emphasis will be placed on leveraging prior Orion research to maintain credibility and information integrity when using these tools.
"Data is only as valuable as the insights that are gleaned from it," said Kevin Kelly, chief executive officer at Arcfield.
"We are thrilled to expand on our successes from the EO-DT program and to demonstrate how we can transform observations into actionable insight that can be applied to real-world problems."
About Orion Space Solutions, an Arcfield Company
Orion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arcfield, was born from the vision to apply fundamental space physics knowledge to real-world problems.
A leader in the small satellite industry, Orion leverages scientific and engineering expertise to develop unique solutions to address complex space-based challenges to turn science into data and data into knowledge.
https://www.easternprogress.com/orion-space-solutions-kicks-off-work-leveraging-artificial-intelligence-to-conduct-advanced-data-processing-for/article_09e1372d-e197-503e-bffa-72cdbdfd242c.html
orion.arcfield.com
Lets try that again
Orion Space Solutions kicks off work leveraging artificial intelligence to conduct advanced data processing for NOAA
Dec 12, 2024
Orion Space Solutions (Orion), a wholly owned subsidiary of Arcfield, announced today that it has been awarded new work from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to support its Advanced Access Methods for Earth Observations Digital Twin program (EO-DT).
Work on the two-year program kicked off this month in Silver Spring, Maryland.
NOAA's Advanced Access Methods for EO-DT program was created to improve the management and dissemination of critical data observed using digital twins of Earth by leveraging the principles of open science, FAIR data and interoperability to serve its diverse user base.
Specifically, the Orion team will evaluate how NOAA can leverage natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLM) to streamline and accelerate access to the terabytes of data the agency collects from diverse satellite sources.
As one of the awardees of the NOAA EO-DT Joint Ventures Program Broad Agency Announcement, Orion used advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies to build a dynamic digital twin platform to process, analyze and visualize Earth observations.
By running high-performance computing models in the cloud, the Orion platform connects space, atmosphere, land and sea observations into a single location, allowing the user to model and understand current, future and hypothetical scenarios.
"At Orion, we take pride in our ability to apply scientific rigor and innovation to uncover new capabilities in mission-critical areas for our customers," said Chad Fish, president and general manager of Orion.
"We have already proven how AI can be leveraged for enhanced space domain awareness and Earth observation, and we are excited to extend that work to satellite mission planning."
Building on the success of the EO-DT program, Orion will utilize NLP and LLM for advanced data processing, focusing specifically on the intersections of satellite digital twins, space weather and space domain awareness.
An emphasis will be placed on leveraging prior Orion research to maintain credibility and information integrity when using these tools.
"Data is only as valuable as the insights that are gleaned from it," said Kevin Kelly, chief executive officer at Arcfield.
"We are thrilled to expand on our successes from the EO-DT program and to demonstrate how we can transform observations into actionable insight that can be applied to real-world problems."
About Orion Space Solutions, an Arcfield Company
Orion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arcfield, was born from the vision to apply fundamental space physics knowledge to real-world problems.
A leader in the small satellite industry, Orion leverages scientific and engineering expertise to develop unique solutions to address complex space-based challenges to turn science into data and data into knowledge.
https://www.easternprogress.com/orion-space-solutions-kicks-off-work-leveraging-artificial-intelligence-to-conduct-advanced-data-processing-for/article_09e1372d-e197-503e-bffa-72cdbdfd242c.html
orion.arcfield.com
National Space Day celebrated in Croatia
12 December 2024, 12:53
To mark National Space Day, the Italian Embassy in Zagreb and the Consulate General in Rijeka organised events with the participation of Prof. Paolo Romano and Prof. Javier Alonso from the National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf) and the Astrophysical Observatory of Catania.
In Zagreb, they held a presentation at the Croatian capital's Astronomical Observatory on the existence of life forms in planets outside the solar system, also highlighting the contribution of Italian technology and industry in this sector.
In addition to the director of the Observatory and the head of the Planetarium of the 'Nikola Tesla' Technical Museum, the Italian ambassador Paolo Trichilo also took the floor.
He recalled the establishment of the National Space Day in 2021 by the Italian government, with the aim of celebrating the launch in 1964 of Italy's first artificial satellite (San Marco 1) and raising awareness of the importance of Italy's role in the space sector.
He then emphasised Italy's ongoing commitment, as evidenced most recently by our country's candidacy to host the Einstein Telescope, and hoped that the initiative in Zagreb would foster the strengthening of scientific cooperation between Italy and Croatia.
In Rijeka, Prof. Romano and Prof. Alonso participated in a conference addressed to students of Italian-language higher education institutions in Rijeka and other locations.
Finally, Prof. Romano participated in the very popular programme 'Dobro jutro Hrvatska' (Buongiorno Croazia) on national TV to illustrate the National Space Day and Italian research in the sector.
https://www.ansa.it/english/news/news_from_embassies/2024/12/12/national-space-day-celebrated-in-croatia_42ae73a2-3282-45fa-b2f4-d61c29b0b045.html
American MQ-9 Drone Shot Down in Syria—by US Ally
Dec. 11, 2024
A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper was mistakenly shot down in northern Syria on Dec. 9 by the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, U.S. officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The Kurdish-led SDF is the United States’ principal partner in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, and the downing of the American MQ-9 appears to have been a case of mistaken identity.
The group has been battling the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army for control in northern Syria, where Turkish drones have been operating against the SDF.
“The incident was a result of friendly fire from partner forces conducting operations in the region who misidentified the unmanned aircraft as a threat,” a U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The drone was operating on a mission as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the campaign against the Islamic State group, the defense official said.
The downing of the U.S. MQ-9 was first reported by CNN. Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed the downing of the drone, but did not say who was responsible for the incident.
“There’s been no change to our partnership with the SDF when it comes to ensuring the defeat of ISIS,” Singh said Dec. 11.
Images that appeared on social media on Dec. 9 show what appeared to be the largely intact wreckage of an MQ-9 in northern Syria. It was later intentionally destroyed, according to the defense official.
“U.S. forces have recovered appropriate aircraft components and destroyed the remaining portions of the aircraft,” the official said.
“U.S. Air Forces Central is actively assessing the actions that led to the incident and will adjust tactics, techniques, and procedures to safeguard U.S., coalition, and partner forces and their associated assets.”
The SDF released a video of the downing of what it identified as a Turkish drone on Dec. 10. It is unclear whether that incident was related to the downing of the MQ-9.
The fighting in Syria is complex, with many different parties. The U.S. and Turkey are NATO allies, but Turkey has long regarded the SDF as an adversary, even as the U.S. and SDF have worked together.
In October 2023, a U.S. F-16 downed a Turkish drone when it tried to target SDF forces near U.S. troops.
The U.S. has urged Turkey and the militias it supports to avoid conflict with the SDF in recent days in the wake of the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria on Dec. 8.
The SDF and Turkish-backed rebels agreed to a U.S.-mediated ceasefire on Dec. 9 in Manbij, which called for the SDF to pull out of the northern border city, where there had been heavy fighting.
The SDF is trying to stop the Turkish-backed rebels from advancing further and aims to prevent the capture of the primarily Kurdish city of Kobane.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) boss Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla visited Syria and met with SDF leaders and U.S. service members on Dec. 10.
The U.S. has some 900 troops in Syria as part of the mission to defeat the remnants of the Islamic State attempting to make a comeback.
That same day, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. called his Turkish counterpart to emphasize U.S. concerns.
That call followed a call from U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III earlier in the week to his Turkish counterpart.
On the diplomatic front, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is heading to Turkey on Dec. 13 in a bid to prevent further escalation of violence in Syria.
The U.S. military conducted a punishing series of airstrikes against the Islamic State group on Dec. 8 with U.S. Air Force B-52s, F-15Es, and A-10s in an attempt to stop the group from exploiting the current instability in the country.
“We’re taking capability off the map for them. Our initial assessment is that they were successful and that we did kill a number of ISIS operatives in the desert,” Singh said of the airstrikes.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/american-mq-9-drone-shot-down-in-syria-by-us-ally
/https://x.com/BabakTaghvaee1/status/1866248065163600203
https://x.com/farhad_shami/status/1866484536965787808
ORCs in space! Astronomers find another vast odd radio circle in 'completely unexpected discovery'
December 11, 2024
Astronomers have discovered another mysterious and massive circle of radio light in space. The strange and vast circle of light is an example of an ORC (Odd Radio Circle), the origins of which are currently unknown.
ORCS, first discovered in 2019, are so vast they can be 10 times the width of the Milky Way, thus encompassing entire galaxies.
The newly found ORC, designated ORC J0219–0505, was discovered in data from the MIGHTEE survey conducted by the MeerKAT radio telescope located in the Meerkat National Park in the Northern Cape of South Africa.
The 371,600 light-year-wide ORC seems to be associated with the elliptical galaxy WISEA J021912.43–050501.8. It has features that seem to set it apart from other ORCs, including the fact that it appears fainter and that details of its structure reveal it leans to one side.
"Odd Radio Circles: Circles of radio emission found around distant galaxies that we still don't understand," lead researcher and Western Sydney University astronomer Ray Norris told Space.com.
"It's a completely unexpected discovery, not predicted by the physics we already know, and therefore revealing a gap in our knowledge.
"So we hope these will tell us something new about how galaxies form and interact."
As mentioned above, ORC J0219–0505 seems to differ from other previously discovered ORCs, which has at least answered one question about this strange astronomical phenomenon.
"All the ORCS we had previously discovered were very similar. We weren't sure whether this was because all ORCS really are similar or whether it was a selection bias in our detection methods," Norris said. "This new ORC tells us it was indeed a selection effect."
The astronomer added that the faintness of this ORC is consistent with ORCS coming in a range of sizes and brightnesses. He compares this to the variations seen in radio galaxies, which have giant radio emission regions that extend well beyond their visible structure.
ORC birth controversy
Unsurprisingly, for a mysterious newly discovered astronomical phenomenon, scientists have a few different ideas of how ORCs are formed.
Norris explained that one thing that is almost certain is the fact that the radio emission behind ORCs is the emission of so-called "synchrotron radiation."
This arises from electrons that have been accelerated to high energies and high speeds by a shock wave. The debate around ORCs concerns the source of these powerful shockwaves.
"There are two main schools of thought as to what causes this," Norris explained. "One is that the circles of ORCs are caused by spheres of shocked gas surrounding a galaxy."
The astronomer said that in this case, the ring we see representing an ORC is actually just the cross-section of an expanding sphere caused by a shock wave.
This shock wave could be the result of a cosmic collision, either two galaxies colliding and merging or even two supermassive black holes merging.
Alternatively, Norris said that the rings could be caused by a plane shock wave from another source crossing a dead radio lobe from a supermassive black hole.
These lobes emerge from each side of feeding supermassive black holes and spread out to incredible distances.
In this case, Norris said that as the plane shock wave intersects the roughly spherical outer edge of the remnant lobe, it creates a ring of accelerated electrons that generate synchrotron radiation.
The fact that ORC J0219–0505 differs from previously discovered ORCs could hint at which of these creation models is the accurate one.
"The offset between the center of the ring and the host galaxy isn’t easy to explain in the merging supermassive black hole model," Norris explained.
"That was my favorite model, so I’m not very happy about this!" Norris pointed out that the discovery of ORC J0219–0505 shows there is "still a fair way to go" before scientists understand ORCs.
The astronomer said that in addition to investigating WISEA J021912.43–050501.8, this ORC's galactic home, further with a large optical telescope, the team will also hunt for more ORCs as they attempt to solve this cosmic curiosity.
https://www.space.com/orcs-MeerKAT-odd-radio-circle-MIGHTEE
https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.17311