TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
January 14, 2025
North Star: Polaris and Surrounding Dust
Why is Polaris called the North Star? First, Polaris is the nearest bright star toward the north spin axis of the Earth. Therefore, as the Earth turns, stars appear to revolve around Polaris, but Polaris itself always stays in the same northerly direction – making it the North Star. Since no bright star is near the south spin axis of the Earth, there is currently no bright South Star. Thousands of years ago, Earth's spin axis pointed in a slightly different direction so that Vega was the North Star. Although Polaris is not the brightest star on the sky, it is easily located because it is nearly aligned with two stars in the cup of the Big Dipper. Polaris is near the center of the five-degree wide featured image, a digital composite of hundreds of exposures that brings out faint gas and dust of the Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN) all over the frame. The surface of Cepheid Polaris slowly pulsates, causing the famous star to change its brightness by a few percent over the course of a few days.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Former NASA Official, Astronaut Bob Cabana Receives Top Civilian Award
Jan 13, 2025
Robert Cabana, who served as a NASA associate administrator, astronaut, and a colonel in the United States Marine Corps, received the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, recognizing his exceptional achievements and public service to the nation.
The award, signed by President Biden, is the highest honor the federal government can grant to a federal civilian employee.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy presented Cabana with the award during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington on Jan. 10.
Cabana most recently served as NASA’s associate administrator, which is the agency’s highest ranking civil servant, from 2021 until he retired from the agency at the end of 2023.
“A true public servant, Bob has spent his entire career in service to his country. I can think of no one more deserving of this rare honor than Bob,” said Nelson.
“From his time as a naval aviator to his role as associate administrator of NASA, Bob has dedicated his life to improving his country. I join with President Biden in thanking Bob for his dedication and commitment.”
The award recognized Cabana for his roles as a Marine aviator, test pilot, astronaut and becoming the first American to enter the International Space Station.
He was further recognized for continuing to push for the bounds of the possible, launching the James Webb Space Telescope, the Artemis I mission and the Orion spacecraft which will send humans back to the Moon for the first time in decades.
As a NASA astronaut, Cabana flew in space four times, including twice as commander. His final space shuttle flight in 1998 was the first International Space Station assembly mission.
Cabana also was the director of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for more than a decade.
There he led its transition from retirement of the space shuttle to a multi-user spaceport once again launching NASA astronauts to low Earth orbit, and for the first time, doing so with commercial partners.
As NASA associate administrator, Cabana led the agency’s 10 center directors, as well as the mission directorate associate administrators at NASA Headquarters.
He was the agency’s chief operating officer for more than 18,000 employees and oversaw an annual budget of more than $25 billion.
Cabana was selected as an astronaut candidate in June 1985 and completed training in July 1986. He logged 38 days in space during four shuttle missions.
Cabana was a pilot aboard space shuttle Discovery on both the STS-41 mission in October 1990 that deployed the Ulysses spacecraft and the STS-53 mission in December 1992.
He was the mission commander aboard space shuttle Columbia for the STS-65 mission in July 1994 that conducted experiments as part of the second International Microgravity Laboratory mission.
He commanded space shuttle Endeavour for the STS-88 mission in December 1998.
Cabana was appointed a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service in 2000 and served in numerous senior management positions at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, ultimately becoming deputy director.
He was named director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi in October 2007 and a year later was selected as NASA Kennedy director.
Born in Minneapolis, Cabana graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
He became a naval aviator and graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1981. In his career, Cabana logged over 7,000 hours in more than 50 different kinds of aircraft.
He retired as a colonel from the U.S. Marine Corps in September 2000.
In addition to receiving the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Service, Cabana’s accomplishments have been recognized with induction into the Astronaut Hall of Fame and being named an Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
He has received numerous personal awards and decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award.
He also is a recipient of the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement’s National Space Trophy.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/former-nasa-official-astronaut-bob-cabana-receives-top-civilian-award/
https://www.nasa.gov/people/former-nasa-associate-administrator-robert-d-cabana/
https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/newly-selected-citizen-science-proposals-a-peek-at-whats-next/
Newly Selected Citizen Science Proposals: A Peek at What’s Next
Jan 13, 2025
Last year, the NASA citizen science community saw a prize from the White House and two prizes from professional societies: one from the Division of Planetary Sciences and one from the American Astronomical Society.
Our teams published two papers in the prestigious journal, Nature, one on a planetary crash and one about a distant world that seems to have auroras. 2024 was a year of 5000 comets, two solar eclipses and plenty of broken records.
But we’re not stopping to rest on our laurels. In 2024, NASA selected 25 new citizen science proposals for funding that will lead to new projects and new results to look forward to in 2025 and beyond.
Here’s a roundup of those selections and the principal investigators (PIs) of each team—a sneak peek at what’s coming next in NASA citizen science!
Note that these investigations are research grants–some of them will result in new opportunities for the public, others will use results from earlier citizen science projects or develop new tools.
Citizen Science Seed Funding Program (CSSFP)
The CSSFP aims to support scientists and other experts to develop citizen science projects and to expand the pool of scientists who use citizen science techniques in their science investigations.
Four divisions of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate are participating in the CSSFP: the Astrophysics Division, the Biological and Physical Sciences Division, the Heliophysics Division, and the Planetary Science Division.
Nine new investigations were recently selected through this program:
Astrophysics Division
SuPerPiG Observing Grid, PI Rachel Huchmala, Boise State University. Use a small telescope to monitor exoplanets to improve our knowledge of their orbits.
Understanding the Nature of Clumpy Galaxies with Clump-Scout 2: a New Citizen-Science Project to Characterize Star-Forming Clumps in Nearby Galaxies. PI Claudia Scarlata, University of Minnesota. Label clumps of distant galaxies to help us understand Hubble Space Telescope data.
'Backyard Worlds: Binaries' – Discovering Benchmark Brown Dwarfs Through Citizen Science. PI Aaron Meisner, NSF's NOIRLab. Search for planet-like objects called brown dwarfs that orbit nearby stars.
Mobile Toolkits to Enable Transient Follow-up Observations by Amateur Astronomers. PI Michael Coughlin, University of Minnesota. Use your own telescope to observe supernovae, kilonovae and other massive explosions.
Planetary Science Division
A Citizen Scientist Approach to High Resolution Geologic Mapping of Intracrater Impact Melt Deposits as an input to Numerical Models, PI Kirby Runyon, Planetary Science Institute. Help map lunar craters so we can better understand how meteor impacts sculpt the moon’s surface.
Identifying Active Asteroids in Public Datasets, PI Chad Trujillo, Northern Arizona University, Search for icy, comet-like bodies hiding in the asteroid belt using new data from the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope.
Heliophysics Division
Enabling Magnetopause Observations With Informal Researchers (EMPOWR). PI Mo Wenil, Johns Hopkins University. Investigate plasma layers high above the Earth using data from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission and the Zooniverse platform.
High-resolution Ionospheric Imaging using Dual-Frequency Smartphones. PI Josh Semeter, Boston University. Study the upper atmosphere using cell phone signals.
Large Scale Structures Originating from the Sun (LASSOS) multi-point catalog: A citizen project connecting operations to research. PI Cecelia Mac Cormack, Catholic University of America. Help build a catalog of structures on the Sun.
Comet Identification and Image Annotation Modernization for the Sungrazer Citizen Science Project. PI Oliver Gerland. Search for comets in data from ESA and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission using new web tools.
1/2
Heliophysics Citizen Science Investigations (HCSI)
The HCSI program supports medium-scale citizen science projects in the Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Six investigations were recently selected through this program:
Investigation of green afterglow observed above sprite and gigantic jet tops based on Spritacular project database, PI Burcu Kosar. Photograph electric phenomena above storm clouds to help us understand a newly discovered green glow and learn about atmospheric chemistry.
Machine Learning competition for Solar Wind prediction in preparation of solar maximum. PI Enrico Camporeale, University of Colorado, Boulder. Take part in a competition to predict the speed of the solar wind using machine learning.
A HamSCI investigation of the bottomside ionosphere during the 2023 annular and 2024 total solar eclipses. PI Gareth Perry, New Jersey Institute of Technology. Use Ham Radio data to investigate the effects of solar eclipses on the ionosphere.
Dynamic footprint in mid-latitude mesospheric clouds. PI Chihiko Cullens, University of Colorado, Boulder. Collect and analyze data on noctilucent clouds, rare high-altitude clouds that shine at night.
Monitoring Solar Activity During Solar Cycle 25 with the GAVRT Solar Patrol Science and Education Program. PI Marin Anderson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Track solar activity during the period leading up to and including solar maximum.
What is the total energy input to the heliosphere from solar jets? PI Nour Rawafi, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Identify solar jets in images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory
Citizen Science for Earth Systems Program (CSESP)
CSESP opportunities focus on developing and implementing projects that harness contributions from members of the general public to advance our understanding of Earth as a system.
Proposals for the 2024 request were required to demonstrate a clear link between citizen science and NASA observation systems to advance the agency’s Earth science mission. Nine projects received funding.
Engaging Citizen Scientists for Inclusive Earth Systems Monitoring, PI Duan Biggs, Northern Arizona University. Measure trees in tropical regions south of the equator with the GLOBE Observer App to improve models of vegetation structure and biomass models from NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) mission.
Integrating Remote Sensing and Citizen Science to Support Conservation of Woodland Vernal Pools, PI Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Michigan Technological University. Map and monitor shallow, seasonal wetlands in Michigan, Wisconsin and New York to better understand these key habitats of amphibians and other invertebrates.
Citizen-Enabled Measurement of PM2.5 and Black Carbon: Addressing Local Inequities and Validating PM Composition from MAIA, Albert Presto/Carnegie Mellon University. Deploy sensors to measure sources of fine airborne particle pollution filling gaps in data from NASA’s Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) mission.
Expanding Citizen Science Hail Observations for Validation of NASA Satellite Algorithms and Understanding of Hail Melt, PI Russ Schumacher, Colorado State University. Measure the sizes and shapes of hailstones, starting in the southeastern United States, using photographs and special pads to help us understand microwave satellite data.
X-Snow: A Citizen-Science Proposal for Snow in the New York Area, PI, Marco Tedesco, Columbia University. Measure snow in the Catskill and Adirondacks regions of New York to help improve NASA’s models of snow depth and water content.
Coupling Citizen Science and Remote Sensing Observations to Assess the Impacts of Icebergs on Coastal Arctic Ecosystems, PI, Maria Vernet, University of California, San Diego. Measure phytoplankton samples in polar regions to understand how icebergs and their meltwater affect phytoplankton concentration and biodiversity.
Forecasting Mosquito-Borne Disease Risk in a Changing Climate: Integrating GLOBE Citizen Science and NASA Earth System Modeling, PI Di Yang, University of Florida, Gainesville. Using data on mosquitoes from the GLOBE Observer App to predict future changes in mosquito-borne disease risk.
Ozone Measurements from General Aviation: Supporting TEMPO Satellite Validation and Addressing Air Quality Issues in California's San Joaquin Valley with Citizen Science, PI Emma Yates, NASA Ames Research Center. Deploy air-quality sensors around Bakersfield, California and compare the data to measurements from NASA's Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution instrument (TEMPO).
Under the Canopy: Capturing the Role of Understory Phenology on Animal Communities Using Citizen Science, PI Benjamin Zuckerberg, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Measure snow depth, temperature, and sound in forest understories to improve satellite-based models of vegetation and snow cover for better modeling of wildlife communities.
2/2
Webb Watches Carbon-Rich Dust Shells Form, Expand in Star System
Jan 13, 2025
Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon, which is essential for life, become widely distributed across the universe.
Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy in greater detail: Wolf-Rayet 140, a system of two massive stars that follow a tight, elongated orbit.
As they swing past one another (within the central white dot in the Webb images), the stellar winds from each star slam together, the material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms.
Webb’s latest observations show 17 dust shells shining in mid-infrared light that are expanding at regular intervals into the surrounding space.
Image A: Compare Observations of Wolf-Rayet 140 (MIRI Images)
“The telescope not only confirmed that these dust shells are real, its data also showed that the dust shells are moving outward at consistent velocities, revealing visible changes over incredibly short periods of time,” said Emma Lieb, the lead author of the new paper and a doctoral student at the University of Denver in Colorado.
Every shell is racing away from the stars at more than 1,600 miles per second (2,600 kilometers per second), almost 1% the speed of light.
“We are used to thinking about events in space taking place slowly, over millions or billions of years,” added Jennifer Hoffman, a co-author and a professor at the University of Denver.
“In this system, the observatory is showing that the dust shells are expanding from one year to the next.”
Like clockwork, the stars’ winds generate dust for several months every eight years, as the pair make their closest approach during a wide, elongated orbit.
Webb also shows how dust formation varies — look for the darker region at top left in both images.
Video A: Fade Between 2022 and 2023 Observations of Wolf-Rayet 140
Video B: Stars’ Orbits in Wolf-Rayet 140
The telescope’s mid-infrared images detected shells that have persisted for more than 130 years. (Older shells have dissipated enough that they are now too dim to detect.)
The researchers speculate that the stars will ultimately generate tens of thousands of dust shells over hundreds of thousands of years.
“Mid-infrared observations are absolutely crucial for this analysis, since the dust in this system is fairly cool.
Near-infrared and visible light would only show the shells that are closest to the star,” explained Ryan Lau, a co-author and astronomer at NSF NOIRLab in Tuscon, Arizona, who led the initial research about this system.
“With these incredible new details, the telescope is also allowing us to study exactly when the stars are forming dust — almost to the day.”
The dust’s distribution isn’t uniform. Though this isn’t obvious at first glance, zooming in on the shells in Webb’s images reveals that some of the dust has “piled up,” forming amorphous, delicate clouds that are as large as our entire solar system.
Many other individual dust particles float freely. Every speck is as small as one-hundredth the width of a human hair. Clumpy or not, all of the dust moves at the same speed and is carbon rich.
The Future of This System
What will happen to these stars over millions or billions of years, after they are finished “spraying” their surroundings with dust?
The Wolf-Rayet star in this system is 10 times more massive than the Sun and nearing the end of its life.
In its final “act,” this star will either explode as a supernova — possibly blasting away some or all of the dust shells — or collapse into a black hole, which would leave the dust shells intact.
Though no one can predict with any certainty what will happen, researchers are rooting for the black hole scenario.
“A major question in astronomy is, where does all the dust in the universe come from?” Lau said. “If carbon-rich dust like this survives, it could help us begin to answer that question.”
“We know carbon is necessary for the formation of rocky planets and solar systems like ours,” Hoffman added.
“It’s exciting to get a glimpse into how binary star systems not only create carbon-rich dust, but also propel it into our galactic neighborhood.”
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-watches-carbon-rich-dust-shells-form-expand-in-star-system/
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ad9aa9
Crew Gears Up for Spacewalk, Conducts Research and Training
January 13, 2025
Two NASA astronauts are gearing up this week for the first spacewalk of the year at the International Space Station.
The Expedition 72 crew members also started the week working on botany, combustion, and human research and practicing departing the orbital outpost.
Flight Engineer Nick Hague and Commander Suni Williams are scheduled to set their spacesuit batteries to internal power at approximately 8 a.m. EST on Thursday to officially begin their science and maintenance spacewalk.
They will exit the Quest airlock into the vacuum of space and spend about six-and-a-half hours servicing astrophysics gear including the NICER X-ray telescope and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
The pair on Monday organized and configured spacewalking tools inside Quest as NASA Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore charged and installed the lithium-ion batteries that will power their spacesuits.
NASA+ begins its spacewalk coverage at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Hague and Williams also spent the first half of their day focusing on research to improve spacecraft safety and sustain crews on long term missions.
Hague opened up the Combustion Integrated Rack and swapped samples of materials to observe how they burn in weightlessness. Understanding how flames spread in space may improve fire safety on crew missions.
Williams installed new hardware and supplied water to the Advanced Plant Habitat for a space botany study exploring how different water levels affect plant growth to provide food for crews on long-term space missions.
Wilmore had earlier started his shift collecting potable water samples for analysis then inspecting emergency gear such as fire extinguishers and breathing masks.
NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit joined cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner and conducted emergency training in the unlikely event the trio would have to evacuate the orbital outpost inside the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship and return to Earth.
Ovchinin and Vagner later attached sensors to themselves and measured how microgravity affects blood flow through the tiniest vessels in the human circulatory system for a Roscosmos human research investigation.
Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov worked on life support maintenance throughout the orbital outpost’s Roscosmos segment on Monday.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2025/01/13/crew-gears-up-for-spacewalk-conducts-research-and-training/
Hubble Reveals Surprising Spiral Shape of Galaxy Hosting Young Jet
Jan 13, 2025
The night sky has always played a crucial role in navigation, from early ocean crossings to modern GPS. Besides stars, the United States Navy uses quasars as beacons.
Quasars are distant galaxies with supermassive black holes, surrounded by brilliantly hot disks of swirling gas that can blast off jets of material.
Following up on the groundbreaking 2020 discovery of newborn jets in a number of quasars, aspiring naval officer Olivia Achenbach of the United States Naval Academy has used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to reveal surprising properties of one of them, quasar J0742+2704.
"The biggest surprise was seeing the distinct spiral shape in the Hubble Space Telescope images.
At first I was worried I had made an error," said Achenbach, who made the discovery during the course of a four-week internship.
“We typically see quasars as older galaxies that have grown very massive, along with their central black holes, after going through messy mergers and have come out with an elliptical shape,” said astronomer Kristina Nyland of the Naval Research Laboratory, Achenbach’s adviser on the research.
"It's extremely rare and exciting to find a quasar-hosting galaxy with spiral arms and a black hole that is more than 400 million times the mass of the Sun — which is pretty big — plus young jets that weren't detectable 20 years ago," Nyland said.
The unusual quasar takes its place amid an active debate in the astronomy community over what triggers quasar jets, which can be significant in the evolution of galaxies, as the jets can suppress star formation.
Some astronomers suspect that quasar jets are triggered by major galaxy mergers, as the material from two or more galaxies mashes together, and heated gas is funneled toward merged black holes.
Spiral galaxy quasars like J0742+2704, however, suggest that there may be other pathways for jet formation.
While J0742+2704 has maintained its spiral shape, the Hubble image does show intriguing signs of its potential interaction with other galaxies. One of its arms shows distortion, possibly a tidal tail.
"Clearly there is something interesting going on. While the quasar has not experienced a major disruptive merger, it may be interacting with another galaxy, which is gravitationally tugging at its spiral arm," said Nyland.
Another galaxy that appears nearby in the Hubble image (though its location still needs to be spectroscopically confirmed) has a ring structure.
This rare shape can occur after a galaxy interaction in which a smaller galaxy punches through the center of a spiral galaxy.
"The ring galaxy near the quasar host galaxy could be an intriguing clue as to what is happening in this system. We may be witnessing the aftermath of the interaction that triggered this young quasar jet," said Nyland.
Both Achenbach and Nyland emphasize that this intriguing discovery is really a new starting point, and there will be additional multi-wavelength analysis of J0742+2704 with data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. It's also a case for keeping our eyes on the skies, said Achenbach.
"If we looked at this galaxy 20 years, or maybe even a decade ago, we would have seen a fairly average quasar and never known it would eventually be home to newborn jets," said Achenbach.
"It goes to show that if you keep searching, you can find something remarkable that you never expected, and it can send you in a whole new direction of discovery."
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-reveals-surprising-spiral-shape-of-galaxy-hosting-young-jet/
https://www.nasa.gov/universe/how-many-black-holes-are-hiding-nasa-study-homes-in-on-answer/
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad8236
https://www.nustar.caltech.edu/
How Many Black Holes Are Hiding? NASA Study Homes in on Answer
Jan 13, 2025
An effort to find some of the biggest, most active black holes in the universe provides a better estimate for the ratio of hidden to unhidden behemoths.
Multiple NASA telescopes recently helped scientists search the sky for supermassive black holes — those up to billions of times heavier than the Sun.
The new survey is unique because it was as likely to find massive black holes that are hidden behind thick clouds of gas and dust as those that are not.
Astronomers think that every large galaxy in the universe has a supermassive black hole at its center. But testing this hypothesis is difficult because researchers can’t hope to count the billions or even trillions of supermassive black holes thought to exist in the universe.
Instead they have to extrapolate from smaller samples to learn about the larger population. So accurately measuring the ratio of hidden supermassive black holes in a given sample helps scientists better estimate the total number of supermassive black holes in the universe.
The new study published in the Astrophysical Journal found that about 35% of supermassive black holes are heavily obscured, meaning the surrounding clouds of gas and dust are so thick they block even low-energy X-ray light.
Comparable searches have previously found less than 15% of supermassive black holes are so obscured. Scientists think the true split should be closer to 50/50 based on models of how galaxies grow.
If observations continue to indicate significantly less than half of supermassive black holes are hidden, scientists will need to adjust some key ideas they have about these objects and the role they play in shaping galaxies.
Hidden Treasure
Although black holes are inherently dark — not even light can escape their gravity — they can also be some of the brightest objects in the universe:
When gas gets pulled into orbit around a supermassive black hole, like water circling a drain, the extreme gravity creates such intense friction and heat that the gas reaches hundreds of thousands of degrees and radiates so brightly it can outshine all the stars in the surrounding galaxy.
The clouds of gas and dust that surround and replenish the bright central disk may roughly take the shape of a torus, or doughnut.
If the doughnut hole is facing toward Earth, the bright central disk within it is visible; if the doughnut is seen edge-on, the disk is obscured.
Most telescopes can rather easily identify face-on supermassive black holes, though not edge-on ones.
But there’s an exception to this that the authors of the new paper took advantage of:
The torus absorbs light from the central source and reemits lower-energy light in the infrared range (wavelengths slightly longer than what human eyes can detect).
Essentially, the doughnuts glow in infrared.
These wavelengths of light were detected by NASA’s Infrared Astronomical Satellite, or IRAS, which operated for 10 months in 1983 and was managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
A survey telescope that imaged the entire sky, IRAS was able to see the infrared emissions from the clouds surrounding supermassive black holes.
Most importantly, it could spot edge-on and face-on black holes equally well.
IRAS caught hundreds of initial targets. Some of them turned out to be not heavily obscured black holes but galaxies with high rates of star formation that emit a similar infrared glow.
So the authors of the new study used ground-based, visible-light telescopes to identify those galaxies and separate them from the hidden black holes.
1/2
To confirm edge-on, heavily obscured black holes, the researchers relied on NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), an X-ray observatory also managed by JPL. X-rays are radiated by some of the hottest material around the black hole.
Lower-energy X-rays are absorbed by the surrounding clouds of gas and dust, while the higher-energy X-rays observed by NuSTAR can penetrate and scatter off the clouds.
Detecting these X-rays can take hours of observation, so scientists working with NuSTAR first need a telescope like IRAS to tell them where to look.
“It amazes me how useful IRAS and NuSTAR were for this project, especially despite IRAS being operational over 40 years ago,” said study lead Peter Boorman, an astrophysicist at Caltech in Pasadena, California.
“I think it shows the legacy value of telescope archives and the benefit of using multiple instruments and wavelengths of light together.”
Numerical Advantage
Determining the number of hidden black holes compared to nonhidden ones can help scientists understand how these black holes get so big.
If they grow by consuming material, then a significant number of black holes should be surrounded by thick clouds and potentially obscured. Boorman and his coauthors say their study supports this hypothesis.
In addition, black holes influence the galaxies they live in, mostly by impacting how galaxies grow.
This happens because black holes surrounded by massive clouds of gas and dust can consume vast — but not infinite — amounts of material.
If too much falls toward a black hole at once, the black hole starts coughing up the excess and firing it back out into the galaxy.
That can disperse gas clouds within the galaxy where stars are forming, slowing the rate of star formation there.
“If we didn’t have black holes, galaxies would be much larger,” said Poshak Gandhi, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and a coauthor on the new study.
“So if we didn’t have a supermassive black hole in our Milky Way galaxy, there might be many more stars in the sky.
That’s just one example of how black holes can influence a galaxy’s evolution.”
2/2
https://science.nasa.gov/universe/black-holes/supermassive-black-holes/astronomers-catch-unprecedented-features-at-brink-of-active-black-hole/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.01581
Astronomers Catch Unprecedented Features at Brink of Active Black Hole
Jan 13, 2025
The source is 1ES 1927+654, a galaxy located about 270 million light-years away in the constellation Draco. It harbors a central black hole with a mass equivalent to about 1.4 million Suns.
“In 2018, the black hole began changing its properties right before our eyes, with a major optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray outburst,” said Eileen Meyer, an associate professor at UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County).
“Many teams have been keeping a close eye on it ever since.”
She presented her team’s findings at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland.
A paper led by Meyer describing the radio results was published Jan. 13 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
After the outburst, the black hole appeared to return to a quiet state, with a lull in activity for nearly a year.
But by April 2023, a team led by Sibasish Laha at UMBC and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, had noted a steady, months-long increase in low-energy X-rays in measurements by NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) telescope on the International Space Station.
This monitoring program, which also includes observations from NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) and ESA’s (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton mission, continues.
The increase in X-rays triggered the UMBC team to make new radio observations, which indicated a strong and highly unusual radio flare was underway.
The scientists then began intensive observations using the NRAO’s (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) VLBA (Very Long Baseline Array) and other facilities.
The VLBA, a network of radio telescopes spread across the U.S., combines signals from individual dishes to create what amounts to a powerful, high-resolution radio camera.
This allows the VLBA to detect features less than a light-year across at 1ES 1927+654’s distance.
Radio data from February, April, and May 2024 reveals what appear to be jets of ionized gas, or plasma, extending from either side of the black hole, with a total size of about half a light-year.
Astronomers have long puzzled over why only a fraction of monster black holes produce powerful plasma jets, and these observations may provide critical clues.
“The launch of a black hole jet has never been observed before in real time,” Meyer noted.
“We think the outflow began earlier, when the X-rays increased prior to the radio flare, and the jet was screened from our view by hot gas until it broke out early last year.”
A paper exploring that possibility, led by Laha, is under review at The Astrophysical Journal.
Both Meyer and Megan Masterson, a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge who also presented at the meeting, are co-authors.
1/2
Using XMM-Newton observations, Masterson found that the black hole exhibited extremely rapid X-ray variations between July 2022 and March 2024.
During this period, the X-ray brightness repeatedly rose and fell by 10% every few minutes.
Such changes, called millihertz quasiperiodic oscillations, are difficult to detect around supermassive black holes and have been observed in only a handful of systems to date.
“One way to produce these oscillations is with an object orbiting within the black hole’s accretion disk. In this scenario, each rise and fall of the X-rays represents one orbital cycle,” Masterson said.
If the fluctuations were caused by an orbiting mass, then the period would shorten as the object fell ever closer to the black hole’s event horizon, the point of no return.
Orbiting masses generate ripples in space-time called gravitational waves. These waves drain away orbital energy, bringing the object closer to the black hole, increasing its speed, and shortening its orbital period.
Over two years, the fluctuation period dropped from 18 minutes to just 7 — the first-ever measurement of its kind around a supermassive black hole.
If this represented an orbiting object, it was now moving at half the speed of light. Then something unexpected happened — the fluctuation period stabilized.
“We were shocked by this at first,” Masterson explained. “But we realized that as the object moved closer to the black hole, its strong gravitational pull could begin to strip matter from the companion.
This mass loss could offset the energy removed by gravitational waves, halting the companion’s inward motion.”
So what could this companion be? A small black hole would plunge straight in, and a normal star would quickly be torn apart by the tidal forces near the monster black hole.
But the team found that a low-mass white dwarf — a stellar remnant about as large as Earth — could remain intact close to the black hole’s event horizon while shedding some of its matter.
A paper led by Masterson summarizing these results will appear in the Feb. 13 edition of the journal Nature.
This model makes a key prediction, Masterson notes.
If the black hole does have a white dwarf companion, the gravitational waves it produces will be detectable by LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), an ESA mission in partnership with NASA that is expected to launch in the next decade.
2/2
Ghost Riders in the Sky: Firefly's Blue Ghost mission to the moon set to launch from KSC
Updated 7:06 p.m. ET Jan. 13, 2025
Ghost Riders in the Sky is what Firefly Aerospace and NASA are calling a mission set to launch to the moon this week, delivering 10 science and technology instruments onto the lunar surface.
Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander is set to launch no earlier than 1:11 a.m. Wednesday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The lander will be launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A.
"2025 is definitely going to be an exciting year for lunar science," said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters during a late December NASA press briefing.
"NASA is contracting with American companies to take NASA scientific experiments, engineering tests and technology demonstrations from the Earth to the Moon, land them on the Moon, and then send our science data back to Earth," said Kearns.
This is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
Simply put, NASA is working with private space companies to deliver science and technology payloads to the moon. Odysseus lunar lander, built by Intuitive Machines, was also part of that effort.
Odysseus launched last February, making it to the moon before tipping over on the lunar surface. Last January, Astrobotic's Peregrine robotic lander malfunctioned in space, never reached the lunar surface, and burned up in Earth's atmosphere.
It will take 45 days for Firefly's Blue Ghost on its cruise to the moon. According to Firefly, this will allow for health checks and the beginning of science work.
It will reach the moon in early March, landing at a location known as Mare Crisium, which is a 300 mile-wide crater. According to Ryan Watkins, program scientist with Exploration Science Strategy and Integration Office at NASA headquarters, this mission "will allow NASA payloads to gather critical data about the moon's regolith, the geophysical characteristics, and interactions of solar wind and earth magnetic fields."
The science payloads will run for an entire lunar daytime, which is 14 days on Earth. This is the amount of time in the moon's orbit around Earth when sunlight is continuously reaching the lunar surface.
By contrast, a lunar night is when the moon falls in the Earth's shadow. Lunar nighttime lasts for around 14 days as well. A full lunar day is approximately 28 days.
During the lunar sunset, the Blue Ghost lander will capture an image of the sunset, providing a look at how the lunar regolith is impacted by the Sun's influence at dusk.
The Firefly Blue Ghost lander is a bit bigger than the average car, measuring 6.6 feet-tall and 11.5 feet-wide.
Firefly's website describes the Blue Ghost lander as "designed to stick the landing with shock absorbing feet, a low center of mass, and a wide footprint."
It will be carrying 10 payloads as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services, which include science and technology from different NASA centers, aerospace companies such as Blue Origin and Aegis Aerospace, universities, and research centers. These include:
Stereo CAmera for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) - NASA Langley Research Center
Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) - Italian Space Agency (ASI) and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) - NASA Kennedy Space Center
Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) - Boston University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Johns Hopkins University
Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) - Southwest Research Institute
Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) - Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin)
Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) - Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin)
Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) - Aegis Aerospace
Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR) - University of Maryland
Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) - Montana State University
Blue Ghost will not be the only payload atop this Falcon 9 rocket. Sharing the ride to the moon will be HAKUTO-R Mission 2 for Japanese aerospace company, ispace.
The mission is the company's lightweight lander known as RESILIENCE, which also aims to land on the moon, deploy a micro rover named TENACIOUS, and collect regolith samples. It is the company's second attempt after a failed effort in 2022.
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/spacex/2025/01/13/exciting-year-for-lunar-science-as-firefly-spacex-nasa-blue-ghost-to-launch-from-florida-moon/77518528007/
https://www.nasa.gov/general/fireflys-blue-ghost-mission-1/
https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMdYV3_rlP8
Newt Gingrich & Bob Walker: The Right Stuff: In Support of Jared Isaacman’s Nomination to Lead NASA
13 Jan 2025
Perhaps no entity within the federal government captures the ambition and imagination of the American spirit more than NASA.
From putting a man on the moon to navigating the terrain of Mars, some of our nation’s most iconic moments over the past 75 years have occurred thanks to achievements in space.
But America’s continued leadership in the stars is far from guaranteed as our adversaries look to weaponize outer space, with China careening towards a base on the moon and Russia using space as a highway for supersonic cruise missiles.
Given the golden age of American innovation that President Trump intends to build, NASA needs a leader with the vision and experience necessary to think beyond old models and drive the agency to new heights. That leader is Jared Isaacman.
Through his work as a pilot, entrepreneur, and commercial astronaut, Isaacman has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to aeronautical and space excellence.
He is an inspirational leader who is immensely qualified to guide our nation’s space policy at this critical junction in our nation’s history.
Moreover, his nomination by President Trump to lead NASA represents a unique opportunity to combine the ingenuity of the private sector with the might of the federal government.
Today, our biggest breakthroughs in space flight are increasingly coming from the commercial market, which has accelerated innovation, reduced costs, and fostered competition to the benefit of American taxpayers.
This is not something to begrudge. Rather, it is a natural evolution of our technological capabilities slowly but surely growing beyond the walls of government following America’s victory in the Space Race.
President Trump understands this as well as anyone, and his nomination of Isaacman to lead NASA continues a welcome trend of recruiting accomplished outsiders to shake up the status quo in Washington.
When we served together in Congress, we shared a common passion for advancing and improving our nation’s space policy while advocating for a more forward-leaning, ambitious, and risk-taking approach.
But the simple fact is that the pace of groundbreaking discoveries has greatly slowed under the weight of bloated bureaucracy.
America has struggled to manage outdated infrastructure and has difficulty convincing the innovators of tomorrow to lend their talents to the service of our nation today.
Simply put, America’s next big endeavors–from establishing a moon base and going to Mars to mining critical minerals from asteroids and manufacturing in weightless environments–will require continued private sector innovation and investment.
But the ultimate promise of our future in space can only be achieved through a true partnership with a revitalized and rejuvenated NASA.
Fortunately, President Trump has tapped the exact kind of leader and pioneer that the agency needs at this time in Jared Isaacman.
His nomination offers a once-in-a-generation chance to break the bureaucratic morass that has too often stymied true progress and usher in a new era of American greatness that will improve the lives of our citizens and make our nation proud once again.
Take it from us: it’s time for NASA to take the next giant leap, and Jared Isaacman has the right stuff to lead the way.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/13/exclusive-new-gingrich-bob-walker-the-right-stuff-in-support-of-jared-isaacmans-nomination-to-lead-nasa/
NASA reveals exactly what needs to happen if someone dies in space
07:00, 14 Jan 2025
With human missions into space becoming more common and adventurous than ever, the chances of an astronaut fatality increases.
This could be caused by a slew of events, from vehicle malfunctions and fire depressurisation to insufficient access to food and water due to contamination or spoilage.
Popular Science reports that we've lost 18 people in space, including 14 NASA astronauts.
These fatalities have resulted in the entire crew being killed, meaning no 'rescue mission' has ever had to be deployed.
However, with aims to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s, planning for such a tragic event is essential.
If a singular death were to occur during a mission - here's exactly what would happen.
Last year, NASA published a technical brief on mortality on human spaceflights, stressing how 'comprehensive plans' must be in place to protect the crew and mission objectives, determine the cause of death, and handling of the remains with 'dignity, honour, and respect'.
"One of the most immediate and main concerns would be how to ensure the safety of the remaining crew members," the report reads.
"The health of the surviving crew must be maintained within the habitable environment as after death, the body begins to decompose and becomes a biohazard.
In the closed atmosphere of a space vehicle, the natural byproducts of decomposition and/or potential pathogens released during the decomposition process could contaminate the enclosed vehicle environment."
The document therefore recommends all crew members receive 'adequate' training in the handling of the remains, as well as considerations or storing human remains for long periods of time.
"In the aftermath of a fatality event, there are also time-based limitations on when certain handling procedures can be performed due to natural processes occurring with the remains," the report adds.
"Additionally, ambient environmental conditions in spaceflight missions are different than on Earth with respect to temperature, humidity, oxygen, and pressure levels, all playing a role in decomposition of the remains."
According to Republic World, any astronaut that dies during a spacewalk would be stored in the coldest area of the International Space Station (ISS) until the body can be returned to Earth.
If death occurs on the moon, the remains will be able to be sent back to Earth 'relatively quickly' - but for long-duration missions, such as flying to Mars, the body 'might be preserved using specialised body bags or chambers until it can be returned'.
"While jettisoning a body into space seems practical, it conflicts with international space debris agreements and raises ethical questions," the publication states.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/nasa-reveals-exactly-what-needs-34471360
https://www.republicworld.com/science/nasa-explains-what-happens-to-astronaut-s-body-if-they-die-in-space#google_vignette
https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2025/01/prioritizing-space-commerce-within-commerce-department
Prioritizing Space Commerce Within the Commerce Department
January 14, 2025
Today, the Department of Commerce Office of Space Commerce published a report on the department’s space commerce accomplishments under the Biden-Harris Administration.
A message from Don Graves, Deputy Secretary of Commerce
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Commerce has taken many concrete actions to promote the growth and competitiveness of the U.S. commercial space sector.
The Department’s strategic objective to “advance U.S. leadership in the global commercial space industry” makes the lives of American citizens easier every day.
Critical space services – from communications and navigation to precision agriculture and disaster preparedness–support 347,000 private-sector jobs that accounted for $131.8 billion (0.5 percent) of our GDP in 2022.
Throughout the Administration, we have grown commercial partnerships and trade, broadened the workforce, increased industry participation, and protected U.S. satellite interests.
All the while, the Department continued to operate its own space systems to observe and predict critical weather phenomena.
The best is ahead for this vibrant American industry, and the Department of Commerce will continue to contribute to its growth and success.
Prioritized Space Commerce Within the Department
To focus the Department on space, Deputy Secretary Don Graves established a Commercial Space Coordinating Committee that regularly engaged the bureau heads in space discussions.
The Department consolidated and uplifted offices that advocate for and enable the space industry.
The Office of Space Commerce (OSC) moved into the front office of NOAA, raising its profile within the Department to better support the Under Secretary and Office of the Secretary.
The Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs office that authorizes U.S. imaging satellites merged into OSC.
NOAA also established an independent Advisory Committee on Excellence in Space (ACES) providing expert views from industry stakeholders on policy, regulatory, and operational issues.
Streamlined Space Regulations
The Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) provided significant regulatory relief to the U.S. space industry, particularly when exporting spacecraft and related items to U.S. allies and partners by streamlining relevant export controls.
BIS worked with the State Department to release draft rules that promise even further streamlining for space exporters in 2025.
Meanwhile, NOAA implemented streamlined procedures for its licensing of commercial remote sensing satellites, reducing approval timelines to an average of 21 days.
NOAA began developing an online portal to further improve license processing.
NOAA eliminated dozens of conditions from its licenses that had previously restricted U.S. remote sensing firms from operating at their full capability.
Each regulatory move improved U.S. industry’s ability to compete for global business.
In an effort to provide regulatory certainty for future space commerce, the Department participated in the development of the Administration’s U.S. Novel Space Activities Authorization and Supervision Framework and related legislation.
Established a Modern Space Traffic Safety System
The Department made major strides to address problems of space safety and sustainability as Earth’s orbits become increasingly congested with traffic and hazardous debris.
In September 2024, NOAA’s Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) entered service for an initial set of users representing about 1,000 operational satellites.
TraCSS is a modern, cloud-based IT system providing safety notifications of potential in-space collisions to satellite operators.
To reach this point, the Department spent years collaborating with the Department of Defense (DoD), which has provided such notifications since the 2000s but is migrating this responsibility to DOC.
NOAA’s OSC conducted a series of pilots and pathfinder projects with commercial space situational awareness (SSA) companies to inform the development of TraCSS, which is designed to leverage commercial data, software, and services.
In support of the emerging partnership between TraCSS and the private sector, OSC contracted with commercial firms to establish the cloud infrastructure for TraCSS, develop the software backbone, and provide a public website and interface.
OSC regularly engaged with stakeholders through multiple RFIs, public listening sessions, and CEO roundtables to receive feedback and ensure TraCSS meets user needs.
1/3
Initiated Global Dialogue on Space Traffic Coordination
The Department promoted international coordination to minimize the risk of conflicting space traffic safety information.
In April 2024, OSC released its vision for Global Space Situational Awareness Coordination of a global, coordinated system of SSA providers, with a series of national or regional hubs providing SSA information and services to spacecraft operators.
To take initial steps toward international SSA coordination, the OSC conducted a joint analysis with the European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) program to compare the SSA services provided by TraCSS and EU SST, respectively, and published the results at the 2024 Advanced Maui Optical Surveillance (AMOS) Conference.
Encouraged International Space Business Partnerships & Trade
The Department organized and led international commercial space dialogues with multiple nations to promote business partnerships and strengthen diplomatic ties.
The list of nations engaged includes Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea, and Singapore, as well as nations from the African Union.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) promoted U.S. aerospace trade interests as the industry faced mounting competition from abroad.
During 2021-2024, ITA’s Advocacy Center managed dozens of active space-related cases and supported contract wins with a total value of billions of dollars, supporting tens of thousands of U.S. jobs.
ITA organized panels at its annual SelectUSA Investment Summit to encourage foreign investment in the U.S. space industry.
Measured the U.S. Space Economy
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) published a series of annual statistics quantifying the U.S. space economy in terms of contributions to GPD, employment, and other key measures.
These data publications provided a definitive baseline and trends to inform decision makers in government and industry. BEA held a workshop in 2024 to receive stakeholder feedback for improving its statistical model.
To provide actionable insights into the health of the U.S. space supply chain, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) conducted a civil space industrial base assessment, collecting data from over 1,700 U.S. space companies and suppliers.
To analyze trends in commercial space innovation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) conducted a review of space-related patents.
Supported Space-Related Intellectual Property
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) supported commercial space innovation through stakeholder initiatives aimed at reducing barriers to the intellectual property landscape.
These included a working group on accelerating commercial space innovation, IP seminars at the 2023 Paris Airshow, and an international dialogue focused on the intersection of IP and the expanding commercial space sector.
The dialogue provided in-depth discussion of the convergence of IP and space law, as well as challenges and opportunities for commercial space startups and small/medium-sized enterprises.
Advanced Cybersecurity for Space Systems
To enhance the resiliency of U.S. commercial space systems, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued guidelines applying the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to commercial satellite operations, satellite ground segments, hybrid satellite networks, and positioning, navigation, and timing systems.
NIST also worked with other agencies to advance zero-trust architecture implementation.
NIST and NOAA/OSC co-hosted a series of symposia to increase the space community’s awareness of cyber risks and solutions.
Promoted Technical Standards for Space Development
NIST and NOAA/OSC actively participated in working groups of international standards bodies to develop and promulgate technical standards for space activities.
These include standards for space traffic coordination, which inform the data standards for OSC’s TraCSS.
In 2024, NIST hosted/co-hosted a series of international space standards workshops in Washington that brought together experts in space communications and navigation to develop a multi-national approach to interoperability, including on and around the Moon.
2/3
Promoted Satellite Spectrum Access and Connectivity
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) promoted and enabled space-based connectivity in the United States and globally.
At the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference of the International Telecommunications Union, NTIA helped advance the global standing of the U.S. satellite and space industries by securing favorable outcomes on spectrum access, orbital access, and space sustainability.
NTIA also paved the way for growth in the commercial space sector by successfully coordinating more than 1,000 FCC applications for satellites, earth stations, launches, and other space uses, thereby allowing both federal and commercial missions to thrive.
Operated Environmental Satellites to Protect the Public and Monitor Earth
As the number and intensity of severe weather events reached record highs, NOAA’s satellites collected environmental observations that helped forecasters make predictions that saved lives and property.
The satellite data was vital to tracking hurricanes and other severe storms, droughts, fires, volcanic eruptions, floods, and space weather.
NOAA launched two next-generation GOES-R Series satellites and the NOAA-21 polar-orbiting satellite, greatly improving the precision of its monitoring and forecasts to protect not only the public, but also ecosystems such as coral reefs.
NOAA achieved significant milestones in its design and acquisition of future satellite capabilities, including the GeoXO system, QuickSounder project, Space Weather Next L5 and L1 Series projects, and Space Weather Follow-On mission.
NOAA also developed new AI tools to detect fires from satellite data, helping reduce response times for fire managers.
Fostered Diversity and Opportunity in the Space Industry
The Department engaged in a number of initiatives intended to broaden participation in the space industry workforce and supplier base in order to sustain the rapid growth of the U.S. space economy.
The Department collaborated with multiple organizations focused on increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the space community.
Deputy Secretary Don Graves hosted a Women’s History Month event celebrating women in space commerce, participated in a Black Space Week event highlighting African American contributions to space, and hosted a joint summit of the Patti Grace Smith and Brooke Owens Fellowship programs that advance DEI in the space industry.
At the AIAA ASCEND 2024 conference, NOAA/OSC cosponsored the Diverse Dozen event programming, which highlighted underrepresented voices to promote DEI in the space community.
The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) partnered with NASA to connect minority business enterprises to NASA acquisition and development opportunities, boosting equitable participation in the space economy.
Leveraged Commercial Space Capabilities for Weather Observation
NOAA made various commercial satellite data buys that improved its weather forecasts while supporting the development of commercial markets.
In 2021-2024, NOAA placed seven data orders for radio occultation satellite data to enhance forecasting accuracy and effectiveness.
NOAA also bought commercial satellite data to evaluate its ability to meet other requirements, including for space weather, ocean surface winds, and microwave sounding.
3/3
A NASA astronaut may have just taken the best photo from space—eve
Jan 14, 2025 7:46 AM
People who appreciate good astrophotography will no doubt be familiar with the work of Don Pettit, a veteran NASA astronaut who is closing in on having lived 500 days of his life in space.
Pettit is now in the midst of his third stint on the International Space Station, and the decade he had to prepare for his current stay in orbit was put to good use.
Accordingly, he is well stocked on cameras, lenses, and plans to make the most of six months in space to observe the planets and heavens from an incredible vantage point.
Ars has previously written admiringly of Pettit's work, but his latest image deserves additional mention.
When I first saw it, I was dazzled by its beauty. But when I looked further into the image, there were just so many amazing details to be found.
In this image, one can see the core of the Milky Way galaxy, zodiacal light (sunlight diffused by interplanetary dust), streaks of SpaceX Starlink satellites, individual stars, an edge-on view of the atmosphere that appears in burnt umber due to hydroxide emissions, a near-sunrise just over the horizon, and nighttime cities appearing as streaks.
Pettit said he took the image from the port-side window of Crew Dragon Freedom, which brought two astronauts to the International Space Station last year and will bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth next spring.
Putting all of this together, I think Pettit's streaky image may be the best picture ever taken from the International Space Station. Disagree?
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/a-nasa-astronaut-may-have-just-taken-the-best-photo-from-space-ever/
https://x.com/astro_pettit/status/1878900589238923290
Yes, Elon Musk will have office space in the White House complex
Tuesday 14 January 2025 16:02 GMT
Elon Musk will have office space in the White House complex as he begins work on the Department of Government Efficiency, which is hoping to cut government spending, according to The New York Times.
The office space set aside for Musk is in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is located right next to the White House.
This would mean that Musk is likely to continue to have prominent access to President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office once again.
The billionaire has reportedly had discussions with the transition team about what level of access he will have to the West Wing in the new administration, but that remains unclear, two individuals briefed on the issue toldThe Times.
Those who are allowed to move freely in the West Wing usually need a specific pass to do so.
Musk donated hundreds of millions to aid Trump during the election campaign, and has often been seen with the president-elect since his victory.
He has been part of transition meetings and taken part in at least one foreign call. He has also shared his thoughts on staff and cabinet nominees.
While the Department of Government Efficiency is called a department, it’s not an official department authorized by Congress.
Members of DOGE are currently working in the Washington D.C. offices of Musk’s company SpaceX.
What remains unclear is the size of Musk’s team and what his status will be as he works for the administration.
A number of transition officials have suggested that Musk become a “special government employee,” which means that he would have fewer restrictions on personal financial disclosures compared to regular members of staff.
If he becomes a “special government employee,” Musk is likely to not take a salary.
But there may be legal ramifications depending on how the incoming administration defines Musk’s position and the role of DOGE.
Every government employee, including those under the special government employee definition, is covered by a criminal conflict of interest law prohibiting them from taking part in issues where they or their family members have a financial interest.
Since some of Musk’s companies have federal government contracts, that would seemingly prohibit DOGE from working on connected issues if Musk’s adopts a status as a government employee.
Musk and his staff would have to file financial disclosure forms if they become government employees but if they don’t take government salaries, the Trump administration could keep them from becoming public.
Another law that could affect the work of DOGE is the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which governs boards, panels, councils, and other kinds of committees that work with entities from outside the government to give advice to the administration.
If Musk chooses not to seek special government employee status for himself or his staff and others giving their input, the law would appear to apply, according to The Times.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-white-house-donald-trump-b2679378.html