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Russia's 'Secret' Military Facilities Hit in Massive Overnight Drone Raids
Jan 10, 2025 at 7:57 AM EST
Ukraine's latest drone raid has hit targets across Russia that Kyiv says were the locations of covert military facilities.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for comment.
Facilities contributing to Russia's military efforts have long been key targets of Ukrainian drone and missile attacks.
Following the relaxation of restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weaponry, the attacks have extended in range, and Kyiv has targeted facilities such as drone manufacturing plants that contribute to aerial assaults on Ukraine.
The latest large-scale attack has hit at least three industrial facilities.
If, as Ukraine claims, these sites operate as covert support hubs for the Russian military, the attack could have substantial consequences for Moscow's war effort.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday that during an overnight attack, it intercepted and destroyed a total of 40 Ukrainian drones over Rostov, Kursk, Voronezh, Bryansk, Krasnodar, Belgorod and the Sea of Azov.
Andriy Kovalenko, the chief of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council's Center for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram that the attack targeted "camouflaged military facilities."
Independent news channel Astra reported that the drone raid caused fires to break out at an industrial zone in the town of Gatchina in the Leningrad region, which houses several factories.
State-owned outlet Tass reported that one fire had engulfed an acetone production facility.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry later reported that the fire had been extinguished. Astra, citing local authorities, said explosions caused the toxic chemical to spill out of the factory but that no casualties had been reported.
Rostov Governor Yury Slyusar said on Telegram that a fire had erupted at an unspecified industrial facility spanning 2,000 square meters as a result of a "massive enemy air attack."
It was later extinguished, he added. Astra reported that a motor transport company, located near the site of the fire, could have been Ukraine's target.
A fire also broke out in Chaltyr, located in the Rostov region, as a result of the attack.
The target of the strike was the Chaltyr Brick Plant, according to @NOELreports, a pro-Ukrainian account on X, formerly Twitter, which cited Ukrainian officials.
Andriy Kovalenko, the chief of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council's Center for Countering Disinformation, wrote on Telegram: "Russia passes off military plants as ordinary ones, trying to hide their real production. But everything is known."
Yury Slyusar, the governor of the Rostov Oblast, wrote on Telegram: "Air defense forces and assets are repelling a massive enemy air attack in the Rostov region. At the moment, 16 UAVs have been destroyed and suppressed by electronic warfare."
According to local authorities, the fires caused by the attack have been distinguished. Slyusar said early on Friday that no casualties had been recorded as a result of Ukraine's drone raid, but that information was still being collected.
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-drone-raid-russian-secret-military-facilities-2012984
Russian Mercenary Caught With Drone On U.S.-Mexico Border
Jan 10, 2025 at 6:45 AM EST
U.S. Border Patrol apprehended a former mercenary on Saturday after he unlawfully crossed the Rio Grande near Roma in Texas.
According to Border Report, Timur Praliev, who previously served with Russia's notorious Wagner Group, crossed the Rio Grande on foot, carrying two passports, $4,000 and a drone.
Newsweek has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for further comment via email outside of normal office hours.
Trump has pledged to carry out the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history.
Praliev was a member of the Wagner Group, which has been a critical component in Russia's war against Ukraine, providing weapons and soldiers to the front, many of whom are former convicts pardoned in exchange for fighting in Ukraine.
The U.S. Treasury Department classifies the Wagner Group, which was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a criminal organization.
When questioned by agents, Praliev claimed to be "a citizen and national of Kazakhstan," according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
Praliev was discovered with a Russian passport, a Kazakh passport, $4,000, and 60,000 pesos.
Border Patrol agents discovered a drone inside his backpack.
It remains unclear at this stage what Praliev specifically did for the Wagner Group or why he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border carrying a drone.
The Congressional Research Service reported that Wagner "has played a key role in Russia's war in Ukraine and operates in multiple countries, particularly across Africa."
Border Patrol charged Praliev with illegally entering the U.S., a federal misdemeanor, to which he pleaded guilty.
Praliev appeared before a judge at the federal courthouse in McAllen, Texas, on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutor McColgan requested a 15-day sentence, expressing concern for community safety upon the defendant's release because of his ties to a group linked to political violence.
U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker questioned whether Praliev's connection to the Wagner Group warranted the length of his sentence for illegally crossing the border.
He also stated that, instead of being released, Praliev would remain in federal custody following the completion of his sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda McColgan said on Tuesday morning: "The defendant was also in possession of a drone in his backpack when he crossed into the United States and he admitted, when interviewed, to being a member of the Wagner Group."
U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker, addressing Praliev said: "They just did a pit stop here to lay a record. So that if there's a second conviction for illegal entry, they can seek stronger punishment.
"I think the government is concerned of why you're here to begin with. I don't know, necessarily, why you're here to begin with.
"The point is, I don't think the punishment of time served versus 15 days is going to necessarily alter your decision of what you do in the future."
The Treasury Department said in a press release published in January 2023: "Wagner Group personnel have engaged in an ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity, including mass executions, rape, child abductions, and other brutalities."
Praliev was sentenced to time served after pleading guilty to illegal entry. The judge ordered him to remain in custody post-sentence because of concerns over his ties to the Wagner Group.
U.S. authorities are still investigating his motives and connections to the group.
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-mercenary-wagner-drone-us-mexico-border-illegal-immigration-2012941
Vladimir Putin's 'unjammable' horror drone causing 'huge problems' for Ukraine
UPDATED: 15:04, Fri, Jan 10, 2025
Vladimir Putin’s troops have been unleashing a terrifying “unjammable drone” using fibre optic cables to cause a “huge problem” for Ukrainian forces, soldiers have warned.
Dozens of drones are still raining down on Ukraine each day as Putin’s bloody war rages on, with almost 20 civilians killed in a single night earlier this week.
Ukraine’s air defences have still been able to shoot down many of the more conventional drones unleashed by Russia, such as the Iranian-made Shaheed weapons behind much of this week’s damage.
But another alarming weapon is being deployed by Russian forces to storm past Ukrainian defences, threatening to cause further havoc down below.
Russian soldiers have reportedly been tying fibre optic cables to drones’ undercarriages. The other cable end is attached to a pilot remotely controlling the device towards targets.
While this may sound like an old-school, low-budget tactic compared to some high-tech machinery used in modern warfare, it is reportedly proving difficult to counter.
Justin Crump, the chief executive of the strategic intelligence company Sibylline, told The Telegraph: “Russia developed fibre optic drones to counter the problems of effective electronic warfare.
“People think of a drone at the end of a tether pulling off a big spool of wire, but the cable is so lightweight that the drone carries it and lays it behind it, meaning it doesn’t get snagged or caught or provide resistance to travel.”
A Ukrainian drone pilot told Radio Free Europe: "There is only a small box where the fibre-optic cable from the drone itself is placed, and it's very easy to miss this because it's the size of a pack of cigarettes.
Another soldier told the outlet: "This is a very dangerous weapon. “It's like a brick with a propeller flying at you, and there is little you can do about it.“
Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Agency of Ukraine's Defense Ministry, has previously said the weapons are causing "a huge problem for us".
But Ukraine is also causing damage with its own flurry of attacks.
On Friday, a suspected Ukrainian drone strike' devastated a chemical plant in Putin’s home city of St Petersburg, leaving a "pillar of fire".
Huge repeated explosions were heard at the facility in Gatchina - which makes acetone that can be used for military explosives and rocket fuel.
Drone attacks also hit Russia’s Rostov and Krasnodar regions.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1998700/vladimir-putin-unjammable-drone-ukraine
Quebec plane fighting L.A. fires grounded after being struck by drone
Jan 10, 2025 4:35 AM PST
A Quebec water bomber fighting the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles has been grounded after it collided with a drone flying in restricted airspace, officials said.
The collision left the CL-415 plane with a "sizable hole in its wing," said Christopher Thomas, a spokesperson with the California state firefighting agency, Cal Fire.
"Fortunately, they landed the plane without incident," Thomas said in an interview Friday.
The incident downed all aircraft fighting the fire for nearly half an hour on Thursday while officials made sure the skies were clear, he said.
"We all know how fast a fire can travel in half an hour. So this is a seriously dangerous situation because now that fire is able to go a little more unchecked," he said.
"This makes me very angry. It is extremely irresponsible and people could have been killed."
The Los Angeles Fire Department released photos of the plane, including one showing the damage. It said the plane was struck by "a civilian drone."
The Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation, and noted in a statement that it had not authorized anyone unaffiliated with firefighting operations to fly drones in the area.
"It's a federal crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, to interfere with firefighting efforts on public lands," the FAA said in a statement.
"Additionally, the FAA can impose a civil penalty of up to $75,000 against any drone pilot who interferes with wildfire suppression."
Two CL-415 planes from Quebec, operated by the firefighting agency SOPFEU, have been involved in fighting the fires since Tuesday.
The planes, sometimes called a "super scoopers," are uniquely equipped to help, Thomas said, with the ability to scoop up 6,000 litres from the ocean or a lake and be "right back up on the fire."
Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel said Friday the province would send two additional water bombers to help get the fires under control.
The Canadian-made CL-415 firefighting planes are sent to California each fall as part of an annual contract that has been in place since 1994.
The contract normally begins in September and lasts for between 90 and 180 days.
The fires in the Los Angeles area have killed at least 10 people, according to local officials, and wiped out whole neighbourhoods.
The fires have burned more than 10,000 homes and other structures since Tuesday, when they first began popping up around a densely populated, expanse north of downtown Los Angeles.
Despite the drone restrictions, videos of the fires have surfaced on social media this week that appear to have been taken from drones.
Thomas stressed the potential danger of flying a drone in the restricted airspace. "It's a very, very serious thing," he said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-sopfeu-plane-grounded-1.7427777
https://x.com/LACoFDPIO/status/1877600213445074979
Chinese tourist nabbed for filming Jeju Int'l Airport with a drone
Updated : 2025-01-10 11:49
A Chinese tourist has been apprehended for illegally filming Jeju International Airport on the southern Jeju Island, classified as a top-level national security facility, with a drone, police said Friday.
The Jeju Provincial Police Agency said it was investigating the Chinese national, whose identity was withheld, on charges of violating the Aviation Safety Act.
The suspect is accused of flying an unauthorized drone about 2 kilometers from the Jeju airport's runway on the afternoon of Dec. 31, 2024, and filming the airport.
The police, together with the National Intelligence Service and the airport authorities, are reportedly questioning the Chinese national about suspicions related to terrorism or espionage.
Drone flight is banned within a 9.3-kilometer radius of Jeju International Airport for national security purposes.
In a separate incident last year, an object suspected to be a drone was spotted over the Jeju airport, leading to the suspension of flights and causing inconvenience to airport users. (Yonhap)
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2025/01/113_390120.html
Drones spotted at nuclear power plant in southern Minnesota
Updated: Jan 9, 2025 / 05:08 PM CST
Police in southern Minnesota saw two drones flying around a nuclear plant Wednesday but were unable to identify the pilot.
Shortly after 6:30 p.m., local dispatch received a call about “four to five” drones flying around the Prairie Island Nuclear Plant in Welch, Minnesota, according to a news release from the Red Wing Police Department.
When officers arrived, they spotted two drones flying around the nuclear plant and Lock and Dam #3.
The officers continued to monitor the drones until they left the area, the release said.
Police were unable to locate the drone pilot or pilots.
“There is no active threat to the public and the incident is not currently under active investigation by the Red Wing Police Department,” the release said.
Drones are prohibited from flying over nuclear power plants and other “sensitive facilities,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Prairie Island is one of two nuclear power plants in Minnesota. It’s located along the Mississippi River near the Wisconsin border.
https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/midwest/drones-nuclear-plant-minnesota/
https://www.red-wing.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=833
USSF Honor Guard supports its first state funeral
Jan. 8, 2025
Joint Ceremonial Honor Guard members representing each military service are participating in the state funeral events honoring former President Jimmy Carter.
The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard Honor Guards have all participated in state funerals previously.
However, this is the first state funeral for the newest U.S. military service – the Space Force.
Carter, the 39th president of the United States, died Dec. 29, 2024. His state funeral began Jan. 4, in Georgia, and continues in Washington, D.C., through Jan. 9.
While some Honor Guard members were in Atlanta supporting the funeral events there, other members were in the nation’s capital, rehearsing for the local events.
The U.S. Space Force celebrated its fifth anniversary in December, and standing up its Honor Guard was an important part of creating its heritage.
The first Guardians graduated from nine-week technical training with the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard in August 2024, and the Space Force Honor Guard currently has 43 Guardians assigned.
Though the U.S. Space Force Honor Guard has some new recruits, some of the team transferred over from the Air Force, bringing years of knowledge and experience to share with the newer members.
Although the unit is new, the Guardians are as well-trained as their counterparts from other services.
They’ve been involved in other high-profile events like the Super Bowl, and funerals for late First Lady Rosalynn Carter, and Senator Dianne Feinstein.
The Honor Guards from each service train together year-round, to ensure readiness and the Defense Department holds several state funeral training events each year to ensure its ready to respond at any time.
“While the state funeral seems like a quick turnaround, the reality is that all Joint Forces execute year-round training together with a validation exercise to show that our forces are ready for any state funeral that comes,” said Senior Master Sgt. Matthew Massoth, U.S. Space Force Honor Guard senior enlisted leader.
“We constantly rotate people in to ensure wide-spread knowledge and practice the task during daily operations too.”
Though the Honor Guard members were preparing for the presidential inauguration scheduled for Jan. 20, they quickly pivoted to include state funeral events.
“The [U.S. Space Force Honor Guard] is about 17 months old and we are faced with two of the largest ceremonies possible, a state funeral and presidential inauguration, all within a 20-day window,” Massoth said.
“This is an amazing opportunity to represent all Guardians to the American public and world as we perform two historic events.”
A snowstorm hit Washington the day before Carter’s funeral procession was scheduled to arrive in the city. However, the Honor Guard didn’t let snowy, icy weather conditions stop them. Massoth said physical fitness, nutrition, and proper rest are stressed throughout the year to ensure service members are able to perform their duties in a variety of weather conditions.
They train constantly in heat and cold weather and teach members to layer clothing properly.
Although most of the city was still shut down Jan. 7, the state funeral continued without missing a beat.
A state funeral is a national tribute held for current or former presidents, or other officials as directed by the president.
Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, on behalf of the Department of Defense, is supporting the funeral.
Members of the public were invited to pay their respects during public viewings in Atlanta and Washington, during the funeral procession or along motorcade routes.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4024606/ussf-honor-guard-supports-its-first-state-funeral/
U.S. military satellites achieve first cross-vendor laser communications link
January 9, 2025
U.S. military satellites manufactured by York Space Systems and SpaceX successfully demonstrated cross-vendor laser communications link in low Earth orbit, marking a milestone for the Pentagon’s next-generation satellite network.
The satellites are part of the U.S. Space Force’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a network designed to enhance military communications and missile tracking capabilities.
The demonstration involved satellites from PWSA’s Tranche 0, an initial phase comprising 27 satellites operating at approximately 1,000 km altitude.
The program represents a shift from the military’s traditional reliance on fewer, larger satellites to a more distributed network of smaller spacecraft.
Denver-based York Space Systems announced Jan. 9 that one of its Tranche 0 Transport satellites transmitted data to a Tranche 0 Tracking satellite developed by SpaceX using laser communications terminals.
The satellites utilized terminals supplied by Tesat-Spacecom. SpaceX uses internally developed terminals for its commercial satellites.
“This demonstration realizes another important step in the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) achieving its vision of an extensible and proliferated constellation built by multiple vendors to a common interface standard,” York CEO Dirk Wallinger said in a statement.
Neither the company nor SDA released any technical details of the demonstration.
SDA, which oversees the program, mandated a standardized Optical Communication Terminal protocol to ensure seamless data exchange between satellites from different manufacturers.
Laser communications offer faster and more secure data transmission compared to traditional radio frequency methods.
Bigger constellation coming
The successful test comes as the Pentagon prepares to expand the network significantly. Tranche 1, scheduled to begin launching this year, will add approximately 150 satellites to the constellation.
SDA says a proliferated constellation makes military space assets more resilient to potential threats by distributing capabilities across a large network.
The Tranche 0 program awarded contracts to multiple vendors including York Space Systems, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris Technologies, to maintain competitive diversity in the industrial base.
https://spacenews.com/u-s-military-satellites-achieve-first-cross-vendor-laser-communications-link/
NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory back online after 2024 data center flood
January 10, 2025
More than a month after a flooded data center at Stanford University knocked out data processing operations for two NASA sun-studying spacecraft, solar scientists are starting to regain access to information and images beamed to Earth by the instruments.
"We have begun processing most near-real-time [Solar Dynamics Observatory] data products," JSOC team members at Stanford — short for Joint Science Operations Center — which is spearheading repairs, said in a Jan. 7 update.
A restored database server is "functioning adequately" with back-up servers ready for use, the statement reads.
"These data are being processed from the time of the flooding incident going forward."
That incident occurred on Nov. 26, when a 4-inch-wide (10-centimeter-wide) pipe burst and sprayed water from floor to ceiling inside a Stanford University building, severely damaging roughly 20% of the computer systems in the lab that process and distribute data from SDO, as well as from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft.
Archives from two of SDO's three science instruments — the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and the Atmospheric Imaging Array (AIA), which study the sun in different wavelengths of light — became inaccessible, requiring scientists to rely on alternate sources for research.
SDO has been studying how solar activity affects life on Earth since 2010, and the IRIS probe since June 2013.
"Restoration of the database servers that manage the storage of the billions of files in the JSOC repository is our first and foremost challenge — this is our highest priority," the team said at the time of the flood.
By Dec. 20, the first stage of the processing pipeline for incoming data could be restarted, albeit with a significantly reduced capacity.
Deliveries of ordered replacements to other damaged data servers remained uncertain during the winter break, but "are expected to arrive soon," according to the JSOC statement.
Those arrivals would help the team assess what can be recovered from damaged disk drives and restore online datasets. "Until then, we will not be able to provide access to the archived SDO data."
Meanwhile, the spacecraft themselves continued to operate normally in Earth orbit during the outage, so "no science data has been lost," the statement reads.
https://www.space.com/the-universe/sun/nasa-solar-dynamics-observatory-back-online-after-2024-data-center-flood
https://x.com/SolarHam/status/1877111691583934900
https://www.space.com/the-universe/jupiter/an-amateur-astronomer-used-an-old-technique-to-study-jupiter-and-found-something-strange
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024EA003562
An amateur astronomer used an old technique to study Jupiter — and found something strange
January 9, 2025
Scientists and amateur astronomers have teamed up to upend a long-held assumption that Jupiter's iconic swirling clouds are made of frozen ammonia — a pretty foundational revelation about the gas giant we thought we knew well.
Using commercially available telescopes and spectral filters, an amateur astronomer named Steve Hill collected data to map the abundance of ammonia in Jupiter's atmosphere, but Hill ultimately found something that contradicted previous models of the gas giant's atmospheric composition to begin with.
"I was intrigued!" Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford told Space.com. "At first, I was dubious that Steve's method could produce such detailed ammonia maps." But as the analysis unfolded, doubt gave way to excitement — it was clear that Hill was onto something.
Jupiter's atmosphere is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, with small amounts of ammonia, methane, water vapor and other gases. These latter components condense at different levels to form clouds, which reflect sunlight to create the planet's striking appearance.
Because ammonia is known to be present in Jupiter's atmosphere and is predicted to condense (or form clouds) at the lowest pressure of all the known gases, scientists widely assumed that the planet's main observable upper clouds were made of ammonia ice.
"Astronomers will always assume a simple model unless there is overwhelming evidence that this simple model is flawed," Irwin said.
"Since we can see ammonia gas in Jupiter's atmosphere […], it was just assumed that its main observable clouds were most likely composed of ammonia ice."
Irwin first connected with Hill in 2023 through a mutual contact at the British Astronomical Society after Hill had presented his intriguing observations.
"[Steve] was interested in collaborating with a professional astronomer to analyze and validate his approach," said Irwin.
"[He applied] a technique first used in the 70s and 80s using visible absorption bands of ammonia and methane at red wavelengths. Although well known, this technique had not been used much since."
The technique is called band-depth analysis and is used to estimate the concentration of a specific gas based on how much light is absorbed at wavelengths specific to that gas — in this case methane and ammonia.
Hill used the absorption bands of methane (619 nm) and ammonia (647 nm), both well-known features in Jupiter's visible spectrum, to calculate the abundance of these gases above Jupiter’s cloud tops.
Methane's absorption at 619 nm serves as a reliable reference point because methane's abundance is well known and its absorption can be used to determine pressure levels.
By comparing this to ammonia's absorption at 647 nm, Hill was able to calculate and map the distribution of ammonia across Jupiter’s clouds with surprisingly high accuracy.
"We know methane to be well mixed in the atmosphere and we have a good estimate of its abundance," elaborated Irwin.
"We can thus use the difference in reflection between [images] observed in these two absorption bands to determine both the cloud top pressure and the relative abundance of ammonia."
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What the team found was that the reflected light was coming from cloud layers where atmospheric pressure would be too high and temperatures too warm for ammonia to condense.
"[The observations] show very clearly that the main layer of reflection […] is much deeper than the expected condensation level of ammonia at 0.7 bar, actually occurring much deeper at 2-3 bar," said Irwin.
The only thing to do was conclude that ammonia ice could not be the main constituent of Jupiter's clouds.
Instead, modelling predicts the clouds are most likely composed of ammonium hydrosulfide and possibly smog produced by photochemical reactions in the atmosphere, as the coloration of the clouds is not consistent with pure ices.
"However, we don't know it's this composition for sure," added Irwin. "It has also been suggested that the clouds could be an exotic combination of water and ammonia."
What it does show, he continued, is there is a lot of complex photochemistry going on in Jupiter's atmosphere. "It seems that in most regions, ammonia is photolyzed and destroyed faster than it can be uplifted," Irwin said.
"So pure ammonia ice clouds are rather rare and limited to small regions of very rapid and vigorous convection."
Hill's observations and theory were validated with Irwin's help through a comparison with more advanced techniques, analyzing data from the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Very Large Array (VLA) and NASA's Juno Mission.
This is significant because it not only confirms these exciting findings but also makes observations of Jupiter — and other similar planets, like Saturn — more accessible and easier to conduct.
"Where ammonia is and is not provides a powerful tracer of weather processes on Jupiter, making it important for understanding the planet and others like it," wrote Hill in his original paper published last year in the journal Earth and Space Science.
Though an exciting breakthrough, the scientists acknowledge there are still limitations that need to be ironed out. For one, the current results are dependent on an assumed "vertical" profile of ammonia, which scientists often assume is constant.
"In reality, it's much more likely to be varying with height below the ammonia condensation level, but this is not easy to constrain with our observations," said Irwin.
"We need to intercompare more closely the VLT/MUSE, Juno, and VLA results. One solution should fit all observations, but we’ll need to iterate a bit on this to figure out what the vertical profile of ammonia is at different locations in Jupiter’s atmosphere."
The astronomers have also applied their technique to observations of Saturn, similarly finding that reflection from the main cloud layer occurs deeper than previously expected — also well below the level that ammonia would condense into clouds.
"This suggests similar photochemical processes are also operating in Saturn’s atmosphere," added Irwin. "We also determine the deep abundance of ammonia and find it to be consistent with recent James Webb Space Telescope observations."
This work highlights how contributions from both professional and amateur astronomers push the boundaries of our understanding. Even seemingly "simple" observations can provide valuable insights and expand our knowledge of the cosmos.
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>>22325248 PB
Patrick Space Force Base update: Gates reopen
January 10, 2025 12:30pm EST
An entrance gate to Patrick Space Force Base has since reopened following a hours-long investigation into a suspicious vehicle, according to officials.
Patrick Space Force has not said what the apparent threat was, but Brevard County Sheriff's Office said it had to do with a suspicious vehicle.
It is unclear if anyone was detained or arrested following the incident.
https://www.fox35orlando.com/video/1574700
https://x.com/BrevardSheriff/status/1877426221459308820
‘Crashed’ satellite and pink inflatables: New artwork turning heads in Boston
January 9, 2025
A surprising sight in Boston is turning heads — but it’s no accident, it’s art.
Folks in Boston’s Downtown Crossing Found themselves quite surprised Thursday when they saw it.
The artwork, named “Alouette,” is a replica of a Canadian satellite from 1962 designed to look like it crashed onto a car.
“You’re walking down the street and the next thing you see, this kind of robot on a car,” said one passer-by. “I thought the car was crushed, but in Boston anything can happen.”
It’s the latest addition to ‘Winteractive,’ Downtown Boston’s outdoor winter art exhibition hosted by the Downtown Boston Alliance.
A number of displays are popping up throughout the city, including large, pink inflatables called “Mister Pink.” They’ve been spotted on buildings all over downtown Boston.
As for the satellite, Canadian artist Brandon Vickerd is the man who made it.
“It’s partially like a throwback to the age of space exploration when technology held this great promise of like a modernist future where everything was going to be better but in a lot of ways it exists like a modern Icarus,” said Vickerd.
“Like that idea of hubris and flying too close to the sun and then falling back to earth but it’s also a bit of a joke right?”
Vickerd hasn’t seen the piece here in Boston yet, but when he heard about people’s reactions, he says that’s really the point.
“I always really enjoy it because it ends up being like a pointed conversation between people who might not otherwise talk to each other,” Vickerd said.
https://whdh.com/news/crashed-satellite-and-pink-inflatables-new-artwork-turning-heads-in-boston/
Light, flexible and radiation-resistant: Organic solar cells for space
January 10, 2025
Radiation testing suggests that solar cells made from carbon-based, or organic, materials could outperform conventional silicon and gallium arsenide for generating electricity in the final frontier, a study from the University of Michigan suggests.
While previous research focused on how well organic solar cells converted light to electricity following radiation exposure, the new investigation also dug into what happens at the molecular level to cause drops in performance.
"Silicon semiconductors aren't stable in space because of proton irradiation coming from the sun," said Yongxi Li, first author of the study published in Joule and a U-M associate research scientist in electrical and computer engineering at the time of the research.
"We tested organic photovoltaics with protons because they are considered the most damaging particles in space for electronic materials."
Space missions often land on gallium arsenide for its high efficiency and resistance to damage from protons, but it's expensive and, like silicon, is relatively heavy and inflexible.
In contrast, organic solar cells can be flexible and are much lighter. This study is among those exploring the reliability of organics, as space missions tend to use highly trusted materials.
Organic solar cells made with small molecules didn't seem to have any trouble with protons—they showed no damage after three years worth of radiation.
In contrast, those made with polymers—more complex molecules with branching structures—lost half of their efficiency.
"We found that protons cleave some of the side chains, and that leaves an electron trap that degrades solar cell performance," said Stephen Forrest, the Peter A. Franken Distinguished University Professor of Engineering at U-M, and lead corresponding author of the study.
These traps grab onto electrons freed by light hitting the cell, preventing them from flowing to the electrodes that harvest the electricity.
"You can heal this by thermal annealing, or heating the solar cell. But we might find ways to fill the traps with other atoms, eliminating this problem," Forrest said.
It's plausible that sun-facing solar cells could essentially self-heal at temperatures of 100°C (212°F)—this warmth is enough to repair the bonds in the lab.
But questions remain: for instance, will that repair still take place in the vacuum of space? Is the healing reliable enough for long missions?
It may be more straightforward to design the material so that the performance-killing electron traps never appear.
Li intends to explore both avenues further as an incoming associate professor of advanced materials and manufacturing at Nanjing University in China.
The devices were built in part at the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility, exposed to a proton beam at the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory, and studied at the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization.
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-01-flexible-resistant-solar-cells-space.html
https://www.cell.com/joule/abstract/S2542-4351(24)00514-2
'The Majoran' — a bizarre particle that's its own opposite — could explain the biggest mysteries of the universe, scientists claim
10 January 2025
A hidden family of "ghost particles" may be responsible for all the dark matter in the universe — and the reason that there is any matter at all, a recent preprint study suggests.
One of the most puzzling questions in modern cosmology is why the universe is filled with matter in the first place.
The problem is that almost all fundamental particle reactions produce exact numbers of matter and antimatter particles, which then go on to annihilate each other in flashes of energy.
But the universe has an abundance of matter and very little antimatter. So why didn't everything just disappear in the early universe?
The problem is known as baryogenesis, and the leading hypothesis is that some unknown process led to an imbalance of matter over antimatter in the first moments of the Big Bang. But what could that process have been?
New research suggests that the answer may lie in ghostly little particles known as neutrinos. The research was published Dec. 18 on the preprint server arXiv and has not yet been peer-reviewed.
There are three varieties of neutrinos, and they all have bizarre properties. For one, they have just a tiny bit of mass, far smaller than even the mass of electrons.
They are also all "left-handed," which means their internal spins orient in only one direction as they travel, unlike all other particles that can orient in both directions.
This has led to speculation that there may be more neutrino varieties out there that we haven't detected yet — the right-handed counterparts to the known neutrinos.
That's because interactions between the left- and right-handed varieties of neutrinos could cause them to have mass.
In their recent paper, the researchers proposed a model in which there are two right-handed neutrino species that have very high masses.
The model showed that in the earliest moments of the universe, the left- and right-handed neutrinos were in perfect balance.
But as the cosmos expanded and cooled, that balance broke, leading to a breaking of symmetries that caused the left-handed neutrinos to acquire their mass and the right-handed neutrinos to disappear from view.
But the researchers' model found that this cataclysmic shift also had other consequences. For one, because neutrinos interact with other particles, their broken symmetry triggered a chain reaction that threw off the delicate balance between matter and antimatter.
Second, the right-handed neutrinos mixed together to create an altogether new particle, dubbed the Majoran.
The Majoran is a hypothetical particle that is its own anti-particle, and the researchers' calculations showed that this particle would have been made in abundance in the chaos of the early universe.
The Majoran would then survive as a relic of those ancient times, making up the bulk of the mass of every galaxy but remaining invisible and elusive.
In other words, it would be a candidate for dark matter, the mysterious hidden substance that fills the cosmos. It's an audacious proposal, but a comprehensive one.
According to the researchers, a single mechanism could explain the strange properties of neutrinos, the baryogenesis that led to the dominance of matter in the universe, and the appearance of mysterious dark matter.
To date, there has been no experimental evidence for the existence of any right-handed neutrinos, let alone something even more exotic like the Majoran.
But the researchers predict that if the Majoran exists, it could be within the detectability range of a number of neutrino experiments, like Super-Kamiokande and Borexino — two underground neutrino detectors based in Japan and Italy, respectively.
Only time will tell if one of these experiments will find a new signal that lines up with this hypothesis — but if that happens, we may be on the path to solving a number of cosmological mysteries.
https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmology/the-majoran-a-bizarre-particle-thats-its-own-opposite-could-explain-the-biggest-mysteries-of-the-universe-scientists-claim
https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14121
Linux Foundation bands together Chromium browser makers in a “neutral space”
Jan 9, 2025 9:15 AM |
Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers sounds like a very niche local meetup, one with hats and T-shirts that barely fit the name.
But it's really a "neutral space" for funding and support, corralling together some big names with a stake in the future of Chrome's open source roots, Chromium.
The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit started in 2000 that has grown to support a broader range of open source projects, spurred the initiative.
In a press release, the Foundation states that the project will allow "industry leaders, academia, developers, and the broader open source community" to work on Chromium, with "much-needed funding and development support for open development of projects."
A few names you don't often see together are already on board: Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Opera.
Krystian Kolondra, executive vice president of browsers at Opera, stated in a release that "as one of the major browsers contributing to the Chromium project,"
Opera would "look forward to collaborating with members of the project to foster this growth and keep building innovative and compelling products for all users."
How will this work? Kind of how Chromium has been working already.
The group will have an open governance model, according to the Foundation, based on other Foundation initiatives based on "transparency, inclusivity, and community-driven development."
The Linux Foundation's structure supports Kubernetes, Node.js, RISC-V, ONAP, and, of course, Linux, in such a manner.
A Technical Advisory Committee will ensure the work done in the group "meets the needs of the wider Chromium community."
Otherwise, the Chromium projects will keep to their existing governance structures.
Not quite outside Google, but maybe getting there
Chromium is named for the base metal that allows the application of chrome plating, and it's a good fit.
Google's Chrome is a freeware release with deeper ties to Google's ecosystem, while Chromium, released at the same time as Chrome in 2008, is open source.
Google has slowly loosened its de facto control of the project, particularly since 2020, allowing outside developers into its leadership, softening its stance on non-Google-derived features and opening up its "Goma" development scheme for Chromium, as detailed by CNET in 2020.
Stephen Shankland's report from 2020 notes a number of people suggesting that Chromium as a whole could be moved out of Google entirely and into an independent foundation, such as the Linux Foundation.
That's not what is happening now, but it's another step toward larger organization outside of the web's dominant browser and advertising provider (though Google is still one of the supporters).
As a result of offering up a viable version of Chrome, many firms have jumped in. Nearly 30 browsers are listed on Wikipedia's Chromium page, including Microsoft's Edge, Vivaldi, and Brave.
Electron desktop apps, the Chromium Embedded Framework, and a likely uncountable number of embedded browsers make Chromium even more widespread.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/google-meta-microsoft-and-opera-agree-on-something-supporting-chromium/