TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
January 3, 2025
Eclipse Pair
Eclipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can nearly align. Then the full and new phases of the Moon, separated by just over 14 days, create a lunar and a solar eclipse. But only rarely is the alignment at both new moon and full moon phases during a single eclipse season close enough to produce a pair with both total (or a total and an annular) lunar and solar eclipses. More often, partial eclipses are part of any eclipse season. In fact, the last eclipse season of 2024 produced this fortnight-separated eclipse pair: a partial lunar eclipse on 18 September and an annular solar eclipse on 2 October. The time-lapse composite images were captured from Somerset, UK (left) and Rapa Nui planet Earth. The 2025 eclipse seasons will see a total lunar eclipse on 14 March paired with a partial solar eclipse on 29 March, and a total lunar eclipse on 8 September followed by a partial solar eclipse on 21 September.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
NEOWISE View of Comet Christensen
January 2, 2025
An infrared view from NASA's NEOWISE mission of the Oort cloud comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen). The spacecraft observed this comet on April 20th, 2010 as it traveled through the constellation Sagittarius.
Comet Christensen was nearly 370 million miles (600 million kilometers) from Earth at the time. The image is half of a degree of the sky on each side.
Infrared light with wavelengths of 3.4, 12 and 22 micron channels are mapped to blue, green, and red, respectively. The signal at these wavelengths is dominated primarily by the comet's dust thermal emission, giving it a golden hue.
The WISE spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011 upon completing its goal of surveying the entire sky in infrared light. WISE cataloged three quarters of a billion objects, including asteroids, stars and galaxies.
In August 2013, NASA decided to reinstate the spacecraft on a mission to find and characterize more asteroids.
https://science.nasa.gov/image-detail/amf-pia20118/
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20118
China Dam Slowing Down Earth's Rotation, Says NASA
Friday, January 03, 2025
The Three Gorges Dam in China had a measurable impact on Earth's rotation, says scientists from the US space agency NASA. The dam spans the Yangtze River in Hubei province, China.
It is about 2,335 meters (7,660 feet) long and 185 meters (607 feet) high. The reservoir created by the dam is 600 kilometers (370 miles) long and can hold up to 39.3 cubic kilometers (9.43 cubic miles) of water.
The primary purpose of the dam is to generate electricity. It has an installed capacity of 22,500 megawatts, making it the largest hydroelectric power station in the world.
The massive weight of the water stored in the dam's reservoir has increased Earth's moment of inertia. This means that the distribution of Earth's mass has changed, causing a slight decrease in the speed of Earth's rotation.
As a result, the length of a day has increased by about 0.06 microseconds. While this change is incredibly small and not noticeable in daily life, it is scientifically significant.
If filled, the dam would hold 40 cubic kilometers (10 trillion gallons) of water. That shift of mass would increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top.
It would shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch).
Other Effects
Power Generation: The dam generates a massive amount of electricity, approximately 88.2 billion kWh annually, making it the world's largest hydroelectric power station.
Environmental Impact: The construction and operation of the dam have led to significant environmental changes, including the relocation of over 1.2 million people and the flooding of large.
Future Projects
China is planning to build an even larger dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which could have even more pronounced effects on Earth's rotation and the environment.
It's fascinating how human engineering can have such a profound impact on our planet.
https://www.indianweb2.com/2025/01/china-dam-slowing-down-earths-rotation.html
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-details-earthquake-effects-on-the-earth/
An electrical grid on the moon? Colorado School of Mines students work with NASA to make it possible
January 2, 2025 at 5:35 AM MST
An electrical grid on the moon.
It’s an idea that could eventually power a small lunar colony and help take space travel to a new level.
And research by two Colorado School of Mines graduate students may help make it a reality.
Chris Tolton and Ken Liang built a prototype of that lunar grid and presented it during a recent competition run by NASA.
The prototype worked – and Chris and Ken won a half-million-dollar prize to continue developing their idea.
Their vision ultimately includes mining minerals found on the moon to fuel lunar habitats, rovers, and spacecraft heading to more distant points in the solar system.
Tolton and Liang joined host Erin O’Toole to share more about their work, and how the future of space travel may be just a step closer than we think.
https://www.kunc.org/podcast/inthenoco/2025-01-02/an-electrical-grid-on-the-moon-colorado-school-of-mines-students-work-with-nasa-to-make-it-possible
NASA Scientists Discover “Dark Comets” Come in Two Populations
January 3, 2025
On October 19th, 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System-1 (Pan-STARRS-1) in Hawaii announced the first-ever detection of an interstellar object, named 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua (the Hawaiin word for “scout”).
This object created no shortage of confusion since it appeared as an asteroid but behaved like a comet (based on the way it accelerated out of the Solar System).
Since then, scientists have noticed a lot of other objects that behave the same way, known as “dark comets.”
These objects are defined as “small bodies with no detected coma that have significant nongravitational accelerations explainable by outgassing of volatiles,” much like ‘Oumuamua.
In a recent NASA-supported study, a team of researchers identified seven more of these objects in the Solar System, doubling the number of known dark comets.
Even more important, the researchers were able to discern two distinct populations. They consist of larger objects that reside in the outer Solar System and smaller ones in the inner Solar System.
The study was led by Darryl Z. Seligman, an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow from the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University and Michigan State University.
He was joined by researchers from the European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Their findings were published on December 9th in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Scientists got their hint that dark comets exist in 2016 when they found that the “asteroid” 2003 RM had deviated slightly from its expected orbit.
This behavior could not be explained by the Yarkovsky effect, where asteroids absorb solar energy and re-radiate it into space as heat. Said study co-author Davide Farnocchia of NASA JPL said in a NASA press release:
“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. 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.”
The next piece of the puzzle came in 2017 with the detection of the first interstellar object (‘Oumuamua).
While it appeared as a single point of light to telescopes and had no coma, its trajectory changed as if it were outgassing volatile material from its surface.
“‘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, seven dark comets had been identified, leading the astronomical community to designate them as a distinct category of celestial objects.
With this latest study, the authors identified seven more of these objects in the Solar System and noticed some interesting traits among them.
“We had a big enough number of dark comets that we could begin asking if there was anything that would differentiate them,” said Seligman.
“By analyzing the reflectivity,” or albedo, “and the orbits, we found that our solar system contains two different types of dark comets.”
One group, which the team calls “outer dark comets,” is similar to the “families” of asteroids that orbit Jupiter.
In addition to being larger, measuring hundreds of meters or more across, the first group has highly elliptical orbits.
The second group, “inner dark comets,” are smaller (tens of meters or less) and travel in nearly circular orbits within the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
In addition to expanding astronomer’s knowledge of dark comets, the team’s research raises several additional questions regarding their origin, behavior, and composition.
Of particular interest is whether these objects could contain water ice, which would have implications for our understanding of how water (and possibly life) was distributed throughout the Solar System billions of years ago.
"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.universetoday.com/170268/nasa-scientists-discover-dark-comets-come-in-two-populations/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2406424121
Space Industry’s Top Priorities For the New Congress
January 3, 2025
The 119th Congress kicks off today, and the space industry already has a long to-do list for elected representatives that includes cutting regulations, boosting commercial purchases, and keeping space a key focus of the federal government.
Payload chatted with leaders from three of the industry’s top trade associations about their members’ top priorities for Congress and the new administration that will take office in just 17 days.
Remove the red tape: Not surprisingly, regulatory reform is on everyone’s wishlist.
“Regulation has sort of gotten out of control over the last 10 to 15 years, especially when it comes to launch and reentry, so we’re going to be pushing very aggressively to sort of rightsize that again and stop creating a drag on commercial launch,” said Dave Cavossa, CSF president.
Clay Mowry, CEO of AIAA, echoed the need for fewer regulations and more clarity, including defining who is in charge.
Buy commercial: Industry is also looking for the government to boost its reliance on (and purchase of) commercial tech, another continuation of a top talking point in recent years.
Some specific asks include:
The use of firm fixed price contracts, which require the government to be more transparent and lay out specific requirements with industry, according to Cavossa.
Increased government spending on tech demos, launch, and launch infrastructure that can help both commercial and national security aims in orbit, Mowry said.
Investments in cislunar tech that can make the long-awaited sustainable lunar economy a reality.
Changing the R&D tax requirement to incentivize companies to invest in research and development, according to AIA VP of Space Systems Steve Jordan Tomaszewski.
“When nearly every other developed country in the world, including China, is doing more to incentivize investment in R&D, our tax code now punishes it,” Tomaszewski told Payload.
“There’s already broad bipartisan support to fix this, so we hope that finally happens when Congress addresses tax expirations this year.”
The council in question: While most agree on the need for strong executive leadership on space policy, there’s less consensus on whether the National Space Council is the best vehicle for it—though Cavossa, Mowry, and Tomaszewski all agree they’d like to see it come back.
Mechanisms have existed for decades to facilitate decision-making across various departments, but their success is directly related to whether the president backs them.
A second Trump administration National Space Council could serve as a high-profile government body to represent space in the executive branch—as long as policymaking is directed by trustworthy individuals who can efficiently keep pace with the US space industry’s rapid advances.
“Signing a policy statement is one thing, actually implementing it and carrying it out…is much harder…that’s where there’s a much more spotty track record,” said Brian Weeden, a systems director for the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy.
“I think more important than what you call it are the people staffing it and running it and the degree of political support it’s getting from the White House.”
https://payloadspace.com/space-industrys-top-priorities-for-the-new-congress/
>It was oppenheimer who allegedly spilled the beans on "Alien invasion"
"Relationships with Inhabitants of Celestial Bodies"
Respectfully,
/s/
Dr. J.Robert Oppenheimer
Director of Advanced Studies
Princeton, New Jersey
/s/
Professor Albert Einstein
Princeton, New Jersey
https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11271/
http://www.wolfbane.com/articles/OE.pdf
Iowa Astronaut Peggy Whitson to lead Axiom's mission to the International Space Station
Fri, January 3rd 2025 at 7:17 AM
Iowa native and astronaut Peggy Whitson will command a historic mission this year.
Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission will take a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station. The mission is set to launch launch no earlier than spring 2025.
Whitson will lead an international crew, including pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India and mission specialists Sawosz Uznaski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The crew began training in August at Axiom Space headquarters in Houston.
As part of their preparation, the Ax-4 crew traveled to SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, for suit fittings and pressurization tests.
They also familiarized themselves with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.
The crew is awaiting final approval to fly to the International Space Station from the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel. Ax-4 will be Axiom Space’s fourth commercial mission to the ISS.
Whitson, who has spent more than 665 days in space, previously commanded the International Space Station twice.
https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/iowa-astronaut-peggy-whitson-to-lead-axioms-mission-to-the-international-space-station
Eleanor Roosevelt reminds me of a funny scene, strictly the keks
Space Center Houston to host US premiere of Moonwalkers film
3rd January 2025
Space Center Houston is set to host the US premiere of an immersive production called The Moonwalkers, narrated by actor and writer Tom Hanks.
The Moonwalkers is heading to Space Center Houston in partnership with London’s Lightroom art centre, where the experience made its debut.
The 50-minute film will be screened daily in Space Center Houston’s renovated theatre.
It tells the stories of the Apollo missions and upcoming Artemis programme as the space is transformed with original NASA footage and images from Andy Saunders‘ Apollo Remastered.
The Moonwalkers also features an original score by Anne Nikitin, as well as interviews between Hanks and the astronauts of the Artemis programme.
“I’m delighted to be bringing this project home to the place where the Moonwalkers lived and worked throughout the Apollo program – and where today’s Artemis crews are preparing to follow in their footsteps,” said Hanks.
He said last year: “As a youth, I was deeply affected by the Apollo missions finally taking us to the moon for the first time in human history. I would have gone myself, given the chance.”
New immersive production
The Moonwalkers is co-directed by 59 Productions’ Nick Corrigan and Lysander Ashton. The company is behind Lightroom’s David Hockney show.
“We are thrilled to be the first in the Americas to showcase this epic film at Space Center Houston,” said William Harris, president and CEO of Space Center Houston.
“The Moonwalkers aligns perfectly with our mission to bring people closer to space.
Our guests will be awe-struck by the stunning cinematography as they embark on an immersive, unforgettable journey beyond Earth.”
The critically-acclaimed film first opened at Lightroom in December 2023.
https://blooloop.com/immersive/news/space-center-houston-moonwalkers-experience-tom-hanks/
Atos confirms not being compromised by the ransomware group Space Bears
Paris, France – January 3, 2025
Atos Group today announces that the allegations made by the ransomware group Space Bears of compromising the Atos organization are unfounded.
No infrastructure managed by Atos was breached, no source code accessed, and no Atos IP or Atos proprietary data exposed.
On December 28, 2024, the ransomware group claimed to have compromised an Atos database.
Atos understands that external third-party infrastructure, unconnected to Atos, has been compromised by the group Space Bears.
This infrastructure contained data mentioning the Atos company name, but is not managed nor secured by Atos.
Atos has a global network of more than 6,500 specialized experts and 17 new-generation security operations centers (SOCs) operating 24/7 to ensure the security of the Group and its customers.
https://atos.net/en/2025/press-release_2025_01_03/atos-confirms-not-being-compromised-by-the-ransomware-group-space-bears
NASA's Parker Solar Probe beams home 1st detailed update after record-breaking approach to the sun
January 3, 2025
On New Year's Day, NASA's Parker Solar Probe added to the festive cheer by sending home more good news about its record-breaking closest-ever approach to the sun.
On Wednesday (Jan. 1), mission control at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland began receiving the Parker Solar Probe's first telemetry
— or housekeeping data — that confirms Parker's systems and science instruments are "healthy and operating normally" after its historic rendezvous with the sun, NASA shared in an update on Thursday (Jan. 2).
"All is looking good with the spacecraft systems and instrument operations," Michael Buckley, a spokesperson at JHUAPL, which oversees the Parker Solar Probe mission, told Space.com in an email. "It really is a remarkable spacecraft!"
The latest telemetry transmission also confirms the Parker Solar Probe successfully carried out the commands programmed into its flight computers and that its science instruments were functioning during the flyby, according to the statement.
That means the spacecraft collected valuable data about our star as it swooped to within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun's surface — the closest yet a spacecraft has ever gotten to our star.
"While Parker Solar Probe was closer to the sun than any other human-made object in history, it operated just as it was designed to do, and made observations that no one has been able to make before," Helene Winters, the program manager for the Parker Solar Probe mission at JHUAPL, said in the statement.
The telemetry transmission, which mission control is receiving through NASA's Deep Space Network, continues through Thursday, Buckley said.
The probe should beam home its collected science data later this month, when its most powerful onboard antenna will be in better alignment with Earth to transmit at higher rates.
"The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been," Joe Westlake, the director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a Dec. 27 update. "It's an amazing accomplishment."
On Christmas Eve, the Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the scorching solar atmosphere while traveling at a maximum speed of 430,000 miles per hour (690,000 kilometers per hour) — fast enough to travel from Tokyo to Washington, D.C. within a minute — breaking its own record as the fastest object ever built.
Scientists were out of contact with the probe during the rendezvous, and just before midnight on Dec. 26, they received a simple yet much-anticipated beacon tone indicating the spacecraft survived the encounter and is operating normally.
Thanks to a custom, 4.5-inch-thick (11.4-centimeter-thick) heat shield, the spacecraft could successfully endure temperatures up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius), NASA previously said.
Scientists hope data from Parker will help them decode longstanding mysteries about our sun, such as why its tenuous outer atmosphere, the corona, gets hundreds of times hotter the farther it stretches from the sun's surface.
"The data is so important for the science community because it gives us another vantage point," Kelly Korreck, a heliophysicist at NASA Headquarters who worked on one of the mission's instruments, said in the statement.
"By getting firsthand accounts of what's happening in the solar atmosphere, Parker Solar Probe has revolutionized our understanding of the sun."
The spacecraft is scheduled for two more flybys in 2025 at approximately the same speed and distance from the sun — on March 22 and June 19.
https://www.space.com/the-universe/sun/nasas-parker-solar-probe-beams-home-1st-detailed-update-after-record-breaking-approach-to-the-sun
https://twitter.com/NASASun/status/1874898241734557723
https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=208
probes up the backhole will do that to a person