TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
February 13, 2025
Reflections on VdB 31
Riding high in the constellation of Auriga, beautiful, blue VdB 31 is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog of reflection nebulae. It shares this well-composed celestial still life with dark, obscuring clouds B26, B27, and B28, recorded in Edward E. Barnard's 1919 catalog of dark markings in the sky. All are these nebulae are interstellar dust clouds. Barnard's dark nebulae block the light from background stars. For VdB 31 the dust preferentially reflects bluish starlight from embedded, hot, variable star AB Aurigae. Exploring the environs of AB Aurigae with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the several million year young star is itself surrounded by a flattened dusty disk with evidence for the ongoing formation of a planetary system. AB Aurigae is about 470 light-years away. At that distance this cosmic canvas would span about eight light-years.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Heart Health
Feb 13, 2025
Science in Space: February 2025
February was first proclaimed as American Heart Month in 1964. Since then, its 28 (or 29) days have served as an opportunity to encourage people to focus on their cardiovascular health.
The International Space Station serves as a platform for a variety of ongoing research on human health, including how different body systems adapt to weightlessness.
This research includes assessing cardiovascular health in astronauts during and after spaceflight and other studies using models of the cardiovascular system, such as tissue cultures.
The goal of this work is to help promote heart health for humans in space and everyone on Earth. For this Heart Month, here is a look at some of this spaceflight research
Building a better heart model
Microgravity exposure is known to cause changes in cardiovascular function. Engineered Heart Tissues assessed these changes using 3D cultured cardiac tissues that model the behavior of actual heart tissues better than traditional cell cultures.
When exposed to weightlessness, these “heart-on-a-chip” cells behaved in a manner similar to aging on Earth.
This finding suggests that these engineered tissues can be used to investigate the effects of space radiation and long-duration spaceflight on cardiac function.
Engineered tissues also could support development of measures to help protect crew members during a mission to Mars.
Advanced 3D culture methodology may inform development of strategies to prevent and treat cardiac diseases on Earth as well.
Private astronaut heart health
For decades, human research in space has focused on professional and government-agency astronauts, but commercial spaceflight opportunities now allow more people to participate in microgravity research.
Cardioprotection Ax-1 analyzed cardiovascular and general health in private astronauts on the 17-day Axiom-1 mission.
The study found that 14 health biomarkers related to cardiac, liver, and kidney health remained within normal ranges during the mission, suggesting that spaceflight did not significantly affect the health of the astronaut subjects.
This study paves the way for monitoring and studying the effects of spaceflight on private astronauts and developing health management plans for commercial space providers.
Better measurements for better health
Vascular Echo, an investigation from CSA (Canadian Space Agency), examined blood vessels and the heart using a variety of tools, including ultrasound.
A published study suggests that 3D imaging technology might better measure cardiac and vascular anatomy than the 2D system routinely used on the space station.
The research team also developed a probe for the ultrasound device that better directs the beam, making it possible for someone who is not an expert in sonography to take precise measurements.
This technology could help astronauts monitor heart health and treat cardiovascular issues on a long-duration mission to the Moon or Mars.
The technology also could help patients on Earth who live in remote locations, where an ultrasound operator may not always be available.
Long-term heart health in space
As part of exploring ways to keep astronauts healthy on missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA is conducting a suite of space station studies called CIPHER that looks at the effects of spaceflight lasting up to a year.
One CIPHER study, Vascular Calcium, examines whether calcium lost from bone during spaceflight might deposit in the arteries, increasing vessel stiffness and contributing to increased risk of future cardiovascular disease.
Astronaut volunteers provide blood and urine samples and undergo ultrasound and high-resolution scans of their bones and arteries for this investigation.
Another CIPHER study, Coronary Responses, uses advanced imaging tests to measure heart and artery response to spaceflight.
These studies will help scientists determine whether spaceflight accelerates narrowing and stiffening of the arteries, known as atherosclerosis, or increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, a rapid and irregular heartbeat seen in middle-aged adults.
This work also could help identify potential biomarkers and early warning indicators of cardiovascular disease.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/heart-health/
Webb Maps Full Picture of How Phoenix Galaxy Cluster Forms Stars
Feb 13, 2025
Discovery proves decades-old theory of galaxy feeding cycle.
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have finally solved the mystery of how a massive galaxy cluster is forming stars at such a high rate.
The confirmation from Webb builds on more than a decade of studies using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, as well as several ground-based observatories.
The Phoenix cluster, a grouping of galaxies bound together by gravity 5.8 billion light-years from Earth, has been a target of interest for astronomers due to a few unique properties.
In particular, ones that are surprising: a suspected extreme cooling of gas and a furious star formation rate despite a roughly 10 billion solar mass supermassive black hole at its core.
In other observed galaxy clusters, the central supermassive black hole powers energetic particles and radiation that prevents gas from cooling enough to form stars.
Researchers have been studying gas flows within this cluster to try to understand how it is driving such extreme star formation.
“We can compare our previous studies of the Phoenix cluster, which found differing cooling rates at different temperatures, to a ski slope,” said Michael McDonald of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, principal investigator of the program.
“The Phoenix cluster has the largest reservoir of hot, cooling gas of any galaxy cluster — analogous to having the busiest chair lift, bringing the most skiers to the top of the mountain.
However, not all of those skiers were making it down the mountain, meaning not all the gas was cooling to low temperatures.
If you had a ski slope where there were significantly more people getting off the ski lift at the top than were arriving at the bottom, that would be a problem!”
To date, in the Phoenix cluster, the numbers weren’t adding up, and researchers were missing a piece of the process.
Webb has now found those proverbial skiers at the middle of the mountain, in that it has tracked and mapped the missing cooling gas that will ultimately feed star formation.
Most importantly, this intermediary warm gas was found within cavities tracing the very hot gas, a searing 18 million degrees Fahrenheit, and the already cooled gas around 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The team studied the cluster’s core in more detail than ever before with the Medium-Resolution Spectrometer on Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
This tool allows researchers to take two-dimenstional spectroscopic data from a region of the sky, during one set of observations.
“Previous studies only measured gas at the extreme cold and hot ends of the temperature distribution throughout the center of the cluster,” added McDonald.
“We were limited — it was not possible to detect the ‘warm’ gas that we were looking for. With Webb, we could do this for the first time.”
A Quirk of Nature
Webb’s capability to detect this specific temperature of cooling gas, around 540,000 degrees Fahrenheit, is in part due to its instrumental capabilities.
However, the researchers are getting a little help from nature, as well. This oddity involves two very different ionized atoms, neon and oxygen, created in similar environments.
At these temperatures, the emission from oxygen is 100 times brighter but is only visible in ultraviolet.
Even though the neon is much fainter, it glows in the infrared, which allowed the researchers to take advantage of Webb’s advanced instruments.
“In the mid-infrared wavelengths detected by Webb, the neon VI signature was absolutely booming,” explained Michael Reefe, also of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lead author on the paper published in Nature.
“Even though this emission is usually more difficult to detect, Webb’s sensitivity in the mid-infrared cuts through all of the noise.”
The team now hopes to employ this technique to study more typical galaxy clusters.
While the Phoenix cluster is unique in many ways, this proof of concept is an important step towards learning about how other galaxy clusters form stars.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-maps-full-picture-of-how-phoenix-galaxy-cluster-forms-stars/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.08619
>All eyes on the Moon
NASA’s Polar Ice Experiment Paves Way for Future Moon Missions
Feb 12, 2025
NASA’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) is preparing to explore the Moon’s subsurface and analyze where lunar resources may reside.
The experiment’s two key instruments will demonstrate our ability to extract and analyze lunar soil to better understand the lunar environment and subsurface resources, paving the way for sustainable human exploration under the agency’s Artemis campaign for the benefit of all.
Its two instruments will work in tandem:
The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrains (TRIDENT) will drill into the Moon’s surface to collect samples, while the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO) will analyze these samples to determine the gas composition released across the sampling depth.
The PRIME-1 technology will provide valuable data to help us better understand the Moon’s surface and how to work with and on it.
“The ability to drill and analyze samples at the same time allows us to gather insights that will shape the future of lunar resource utilization,” said Jackie Quinn, PRIME-1 project manager at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“Human exploration of the Moon and deep space will depend on making good use of local resources to produce life-sustaining supplies necessary to live and work on another planetary body.”
The PRIME-1 experiment is one of the NASA payloads aboard the next lunar delivery through NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative, set to launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center no earlier than Wednesday, Feb. 26, on Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander and explore the lunar soil in Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau near the Moon’s South Pole.
Developed by Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company, TRIDENT is a rotary percussive drill designed to excavate lunar regolith and subsurface material up to 3.3 feet (1 meter) deep.
The drill will extract samples, each about 4 inches (10 cm) in length, allowing scientists to analyze how trapped and frozen gases are distributed at different depths below the surface.
The TRIDENT drill is equipped with carbide cutting teeth to penetrate even the toughest lunar materials.
Unlike previous lunar drills used by astronauts during the Apollo missions, TRIDENT will be controlled from Earth.
The drill may provide key information about subsurface soil temperatures as well as gain key insight into the mechanical properties of the lunar South Pole soil.
Learning more about regolith temperatures and properties will greatly improve our understanding of the environments where lunar resources may be stable, revealing what resources may be available for future Moon missions.
A commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer, MSOLO, developed by INFICON and made suitable for spaceflight at Kennedy, will analyze any gas released from the TRIDENT drilled samples, looking for the potential presence of water ice and other gases trapped beneath the surface.
These measurements will help scientists understand the Moon’s potential for resource utilization.
Under the CLPS model, NASA is investing in commercial delivery services to the Moon to enable industry growth and support long-term lunar exploration.
As a primary customer for CLPS deliveries, NASA is one of many customers on future flights. PRIME-1 was funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Game Changing Development program.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/nasas-polar-ice-experiment-paves-way-for-future-moon-missions/
https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-lunar-payload-services/
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/nasa-will-start-drilling-on-the-moon-as-soon-as-next-month-246974.html
A Rainbow-colored “Feather” in the Martian Sky
Feb 12, 2025
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this feather-shaped iridescent cloud just after sunset on Jan. 27, 2023.
Studying the colors in iridescent clouds tells scientists something about particle size within the clouds and how they grow over time.
These clouds were captured as part of a seasonal imaging campaign to study noctilucent, or “night-shining” clouds.
A new campaign in January 2025 led to Curiosity capturing this video of red- and green-tinged clouds drifting through the Martian sky.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/a-rainbow-colored-feather-in-the-martian-sky/
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-science-laboratory/nasas-curiosity-rover-captures-colorful-clouds-drifting-over-mars/
NASA’s Advancements in Space Continue Generating Products on Earth
Feb 12, 2025
The latest edition of NASA’s Spinoff publication, which highlights the successful transfer of agency technology to the commercial sector, is now available online.
For nearly 25 years, NASA has supported crew working in low Earth orbit to learn about the space environment and perform research to advance deep space exploration.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have learned a wealth of lessons and tried out a host of new technologies.
This work leads to ongoing innovations benefiting people on Earth that are featured in NASA’s annual publication.
“The work we do in space has resulted in navigational technologies, lifesaving medical advancements, and enhanced software systems that continue to benefit our lives on Earth,” said Clayton Turner, associate administrator, Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“Technologies developed today don’t just make life on our home planet easier – they pave the way to a sustained presence on the Moon and future missions to Mars.”
The Spinoff 2025 publication features more than 40 commercial infusions of NASA technologies including:
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A platform enabling commercial industry to perform science on the space station, including the growth of higher-quality human heart tissue, knee cartilage, and pharmaceutical crystals that can be grown on Earth to develop new medical treatments.
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An electrostatic sprayer technology to water plants without the help of gravity and now used in sanitation, agriculture, and food safety.
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“Antigravity” treadmills helping people with a variety of conditions run or walk for exercise, stemming from efforts to improve astronauts’ fitness in the weightlessness of space.
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Nutritional supplements originally intended to keep astronauts fit and mitigate the health hazards of a long stay in space.
As NASA continues advancing technology and research in low Earth orbit to establish a sustained presence at the Moon, upcoming lunar missions are already spinning off technologies on Earth.
For example, Spinoff 2025 features a company that invented technology for 3D printing buildings on the Moon that is now using it to print large structures on Earth.
Another group of researchers studying how to grow lunar buildings from fungus is now selling specially grown mushrooms and plans to build homes on Earth using the same concept.
Spinoffs produce innovative technologies with commercial applications for the benefit of all.
Other highlights of Spinoff 2025 include quality control on assembly lines inspired by artificial intelligence developed to help rovers navigate Mars, innovations in origami based on math for lasers and optical computing, and companies that will help lead the way to hydrogen-based energy building on NASA’s foundation of using liquid hydrogen for rocket fuel.
“I’ve learned it’s almost impossible to predict where space technology will find an application in the commercial market,” said Dan Lockney, Technology Transfer program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“One thing I can say for sure, though, is NASA’s technology will continue to spin off, because it’s our goal to advance our missions and bolster the American economy.”
This publication also features 20 technologies available for licensing with the potential for commercialization. Check out the “Spinoffs of Tomorrow” section to learn more.
Spinoff is part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and its Technology Transfer program.
Tech Transfer is charged with finding broad, innovative applications for NASA-developed technology through partnerships and licensing agreements, ensuring agency investments benefit the nation and the world.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-advancements-in-space-continue-generating-products-on-earth/
https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Other%20Spinoff%20Resources
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2025/02/12/nasas-webb-reveals-the-ancient-surfaces-of-trans-neptunian-objects/
https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/phase2-public/2418.pdf
NASA’s Webb Reveals the Ancient Surfaces of Trans-Neptunian Objects
February 12, 2025
Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are icy bodies ranging in size from Pluto and Eris (dwarf planets with diameters of about 1,500 miles) down to tens of miles (Arrokoth) and even smaller.
TNOs are on orbits comparable in size, or even much larger than, that of Neptune. The existence of TNOs was postulated by Kenneth Edgeworth, and later by Gerard Kuiper, in the 1950s;
the region of space occupied by TNOs is usually referred to as the Kuiper Belt, and TNOs themselves, sometimes referred to as Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs).
The orbits of TNOs are extremely diverse but fall into groupings that reflect the outward migration of Uranus and Neptune early in the history of the formation of the solar system.
As such, TNOs hold the keys to understanding that early history. However, it took NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and its unparalleled ability to study the materials on the surfaces of TNOs to fully begin to grasp what they can tell us about our origins.
Here Bryan Holler and John Stansberry from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore describe how Webb is expanding our knowledge of these objects.
Pluto was the first TNO discovered, in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.
It wasn’t until 1992 that the second TNO (1992 QB1, now named Albion) was discovered, by Dave Jewitt at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Jane Luu at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now over 5,000 TNOs have been identified.
The orbits of TNOs reveal an “architecture” that records the history of how the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune evolved early in solar system history.
Computer models indicate that as Uranus and Neptune migrated outward into the primordial disk of TNOs, they ejected many objects and shepherded the remaining TNOs onto the orbits we see today.
These present-day orbits are classified based on their orbital distances, eccentricity (ellipticity of the orbit), and inclination (tilt with respect to the plane that the planets orbit in).
Of particular interest are objects on dynamically “cold” classical orbits, with very low inclination and eccentricity. The computer models indicate that these cold-classical objects still occupy their primordial orbits, and so represent an undisturbed remnant of the original protoplanetary disk.
These TNOs truly represent the pristine building blocks of the planets, and one of them, Arrokoth, was visited and studied up-close by the New Horizons spacecraft in January 2019.
Of the TNOs whose orbits were perturbed during giant-planet migration, it is difficult to trace them back to where they formed.
Yet it is only by studying the composition of individual TNOs that we can hope to map out the composition of the primordial outer disk.
TNOs are on very distant orbits from the Sun, and are very cold, below minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (about minus 170 degrees Celsius), so their surfaces could provide information about the original composition of planetesimals within the disk.
Webb is the first observatory able to provide detailed compositional information about typical TNOs (with diameters less than about 500 miles, or 800 kilometers) because of its large primary mirror and highly sensitive instruments.
In particular, the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) has for the first time revealed TNO compositions in exquisite detail.
Webb’s NIRSpec divides light at wavelengths between about 1 and 5 microns into hundreds or thousands of individual colors.
The relative brightness of those colors as a function of wavelength is a spectrum. Different materials exhibit different spectra that help identify the composition of the object observed.
Because the TNOs formed in the cold, outer portions of the protoplanetary disk, it has long been expected that they would have surfaces dominated by ices of molecules that are gases or liquids at Earth’s surface, e.g. water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), and methane (CH4), among others.
Further, radiation from the Sun and outside the solar system alters the chemistry, creating new, more complex hydrocarbon (organic) molecules such as methanol (CH3OH), acetylene (C2H2), and ethane (C2H6). Webb data has confirmed this, but in unexpected ways, and in unprecedented detail.
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Within the first two years of science operations, Webb has taken high-quality spectra of over 75 TNOs and provided the first comprehensive look at what they are made of, including nearly 60 objects from the Large Cycle 1 program called “DiSCo-TNOs” (program ID #2418, PI: Noemí Pinilla-Alonso).
The major result from the large dataset from the DiSCo-TNOs program is the identification of three spectral classes, which is the first evidence for distinct surface compositions, that was completely unexpected based on earlier studies.
These classifications are named based on the spectral shape in the 2.5–4 micron region, with the deepest band centered at 3.0 microns generated by molecules that contain an oxygen-hydrogen bond, such as water.
Bowl-type spectra are dominated by the absorption features of water ice, with some carbon dioxide ice, and indications of silicate-rich dust. Double-dip spectra have absorption features due to complex organic molecules, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide ices.
Cliff spectra have even more complex organic materials and carbon dioxide than Double-dips, and also include features due to CH3OH.
Double-dip spectra indicate very abundant and pure carbon dioxide ice, as evidenced by the two reflectance peaks (never observed outside of a laboratory) bounding the 4.27 micron band.
The three spectral types are also distinct in their color at the shortest visible wavelengths, with bowls being least red, double-dips intermediate, and cliffs reddest.
The DiSCo-TNOs team hypothesizes in Pinilla-Alonso et al. (2024) that these different spectral types are the result of higher temperatures closer to the Sun, and colder temperatures farther out.
Specifically, the Bowl types formed closer to the Sun and were subject to higher temperatures that essentially baked off the carbon dioxide and methane.
These compounds were more stable on Double-dips and Cliffs, which formed farther out. An important clue leading to that hypothesis is that all of the objects on undisturbed cold-classical orbits are Cliffs.
TNOs on other orbits include objects from all three compositional types, as would be expected due to the dynamical reshuffling as Neptune migrated outward, as described above.
Looking ahead, Webb continues to carry out a robust program of TNO observations each year, with new and exciting programs selected by the community for execution.
Cycle 3 will see imaging and spectroscopy of a handful of TNOs and their satellites, including the first-ever spectral observations of the “extreme” TNOs, with orbits that take them well into interstellar space.
Another program aims to circle back to targets observed in the first year of science operations to get an even more detailed look at the materials that led to the formation of TNOs in the protosolar nebula.
Two other programs focus on imaging and spectroscopy of TNO binary systems to better understand the origins of TNO satellites, either via giant impacts or co-formation via gravitational collapse.
Who knows what new ideas and exciting discoveries the next year will bring?
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>Rainbow-colored “Feather”
https://spacenews.com/doge-to-examine-nasa-payments/
DOGE to examine NASA payments
Updated Feb. 13 7:30 a.m.
NASA’s acting administrator says the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) organization will be examining payments at the agency but that safeguards are in place to prevent any conflicts of interest involving Elon Musk.
In comments to reporters after a speech at the Commercial Space Conference here Feb. 12, Acting Administrator Janet Petro said NASA has been focused on carrying out the various executive orders issued by the Trump administration since taking office Jan. 20.
“We are really executing the executive orders. That is what are heads are down and in on doing,” she said.
Staff at NASA Headquarters and the field centers “are really trying to wrap our heads around all the executive orders as they’re flying at us.”
Those orders have included the creation of DOGE, built upon the earlier U.S. Digital Service and spearheaded by Elon Musk with the stated goal of rooting out wasteful spending in the federal government.
The implementation of DOGE has generated significant controversy amid reports that personnel affiliated with DOGE sought access to critical payment systems and classified information at various agencies without proper clearances.
There were reports that personnel affiliated with DOGE were at NASA this week. Petro did not confirm that but said that the organization planned to examine payments there.
“We are going to have DOGE come. They’re going to look, similarly to what they’ve done at other agencies, at our payments and what money has gone out,” she said, but did not specify what DOGE would be looking for in those payments.
Musk’s role at DOGE, where he has been identified by the White House as a “special government employee,” has sparked worries about conflicts of interest given the work that SpaceX does for NASA.
Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), ranking members of the House Science Committee and its space subcommittee, sent a letter to Petro Feb. 6 raising their concerns about any access Musk might have to payments or other proprietary data at NASA.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee’s commerce, justice and science subcommittee, which funds NASA, highlighted similar fears in a Feb. 11 letter to Petro.
“I strongly urge you to revoke any access to NASA headquarters for Mr. Musk and his staff,” she wrote.
“At the very least, I demand that your agency set clear and public ground rules so that you do not expose internal, deliberative, or proprietary information.”
Petro said safeguards were in place.
“We have very strict conflict-of-interest policies, so any employee or any person who is coming in we will check out their conflicts of interest and make sure they don’t have any conflicts of interest with any of the companies that we work with,” she said.
Those conflicts of interest would be examined by NASA’s legal office, she added.
NASA’s workforce, like those of other agencies, also received the so-called “Fork in the Road” buyout memo from the Office of Personnel Management.
The memo offered to pay employees through the end of the fiscal year of they agreed to resign by last week. That buyout was paused by a federal court, but a federal judge Feb. 12 agreed to allow the buyout to continue.
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Petro said she did not know how many NASA employees accepted the buyout beyond “hundreds.”
The White House has said 65,000 employees across the federal government signed up.
Artemis uncertainties
NASA’s handling of executive orders comes at the same time there is uncertainty in the space industry around the future of the Artemis lunar exploration campaign.
Boeing, the prime contractor for the Space Launch System, said Feb. 7 it was preparing to lay off hundreds of employees working on SLS, citing “revisions to the Artemis program” even though neither NASA nor the White House have announced any changes yet.
Petro said that, contrary to some reports, she had not been lobbying the White House to at least maintain the Artemis 2 and 3 missions as currently planned.
“I am an interim person,” she said. “We are executing on our programs of record, which does include Artemis 2 and 3 and beyond. So, we are executing on that program as it exists today.”
“When the new administrator gets confirmed, I am sure that he will talk with the White House and get the new direction, if there is a change in direction,” she said. “That is not my role right now.”
President Trump formally announced Jan. 20 he had nominated Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator after declaring his intent to do so in December. That nomination has yet to be taken up by the Senate Commerce Committee.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said after a speech at the conference earlier in the day that the committee has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for Isaacman.
“We’re still waiting for the paperwork to be completed,” he said. “The confirmation can’t move forward until the paperwork has been submitted and completed.”
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NASA Issues Update on Chance of Asteroid Hitting Earth
Updated Feb 13, 2025 at 7:25 AM EST
The odds of the 2024 YR4 asteroid hitting the Earth have increased from 1 percent to 2.3 percent, but experts say this was expected and are not worried about it.
What Is Asteroid 2024 YR4?
The asteroid was first detected on December 27, 2024, and is between 130 to 300 feet wide, NASA's risk list of near-Earth objects shows.
It is currently the most dangerous space object near Earth, according to NASA, and its impact on the planet would have the same power as a nuclear bomb.
If the asteroid does hit the planet, it is predicted that the impact will happen on December 22, 2032, at around 2:00 p.m. UTC.
What Is The Latest Probability YR4 Could Hit Earth?
In an update issued on February 7, NASA said the probability of 2024 YR4 hitting the Earth had gone from around 1.2 percent (one-in-83) to 2.3 percent (one-in-43).
While the odds of an impact have almost doubled, there is still a "97.7 percent chance of a miss from this asteroid," said asteroid hunter David Rankin, who first "pre-covered" 2024 YR4 in data from the Catalina Sky Survey before its official discovery, meaning he identified the asteroid in archival images taken before its official discovery by astronomers.
He told Space.com that this rise in collision probability was expected and he believes the probability will decrease again soon, when more is known about 2024 YR4's orbit.
"We still expect that to start falling at some point. People should absolutely not worry about this yet," he said.
NASA researchers wrote on its website: "As more observations of the asteroid's orbit are obtained, its impact probability will become better known.
It is possible that 2024 YR4 will be ruled out as an impact hazard, as has happened with many other objects that have previously appeared on the NASA JPL asteroid risk list. It is also possible its impact probability will continue to rise."
What Is A 'Near-Earth Object'?
"Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighborhood," NASA's Center for Near Earth Objects says.
It adds: "Because of the ongoing search efforts to find nearly all the large NEOs, objects will occasionally be found to be on very close Earth approaching trajectories.
Great care must then be taken to verify any Earth collision predictions that are made. Given the extremely unlikely nature of such a collision, almost all of these predictions will turn out to be false alarms."
https://www.newsweek.com/2024-yr4-asteroid-odds-hitting-earth-2030426
Bezos' Blue Origin to layoff about 10% across its space, launch business
Feb 13, 2025
The CEO of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announced in an all-hands call on Thursday company-wide layoffs of "about 10 percent" of its employees, a sweeping readjustment as it aims to cut costs and ramp up rocket launches.
The layoffs affect roughly 1,400 of the company's nearly 14,000 employees - mostly concentrated in Florida, Texas and Washington - and comes as Blue Origin starts production of its giant New Glenn rocket, which had its first long-awaited debut launch last month.
"There's no easy way to communicate this," CEO Dave Limp told employees in the meeting, which was scheduled the night prior and lasted about 10 minutes.
"There's no question that we've had a lot of successes over the last few months."
"But that being said, when you look at the foundation of the company and what we need to get to over the next three to five years, we just came to the painful conclusion that we aren't set up for the kind of success that we really wanted to have," Limp said.
Limp said the decision would help Blue Origin scale New Glenn manufacturing and increase the rocket's launch cadence, two goals crucial to competing with Elon Musk's SpaceX and its dominant Falcon 9.
To do that, the company needs a culture that is "quick, nimble, decisive, and very focused on our customers," said Limp, who was plucked by Bezos from Amazon's customer-focused devices unit in late 2023 to lead Blue Origin.
Limp has been tasked with streamlining Blue Origin's many business units - from space stations to lunar landers for NASA - and pushing for greater focus on New Glenn, giving the company a fresh sense of urgency after years of development paralysis, multiple employees say.
But some employees believe morale and the company's culture has suffered amid Limp's push for speed, two employees said, adding some staff are seeking jobs elsewhere regardless of who survives Thursday's layoffs.
https://www.msn.com/en-ae/money/companies/bezos-blue-origin-to-layoff-about-10-across-its-space-launch-business/ar-AA1yZwwE
Vandenberg Space Force Base to Conduct Unarmed Minuteman III Missile Test
February 13, 2025, 7:33 am
A demonstration of the United States’ nuclear readiness with an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile is set for operational test launch.
The Air Force Global Strike Command has scheduled this to occur between 11:01 p.m. on February 18 and 5:01 a.m. on February 19, 2025, launched from north Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The purpose of the ICBM test launch program is to demonstrate the readiness of U.S. nuclear forces and provide confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent, according to Air Force Global Strike Command.
The missile test, which had been planned years in advance, is a routine procedure to validate the reliability and precision of the United States’ nuclear arsenal.
The operational test will measure various attributes including the weapon system’s effectiveness, readiness, and accuracy to ensure that all components perform as designed.
U.S. officials emphasize that the test is not a reaction to any current world events but is part of a regular maintenance and evaluation cycle aimed at guaranteeing the nuclear forces’ state of readiness.
In line with international protocols, the United States has sent pre-launch notifications in adhering to the Hague Code of Conduct.
This is done in the spirit of transparency and to reassure other nations of the test’s non-aggressive nature.
Furthermore, the Russian government has been duly notified ahead of the test, as per mutual treaty obligations, ensuring no misunderstanding or miscalculation regarding the test launch.
https://www.edhat.com/news/vandenberg-space-force-base-to-conduct-unarmed-minuteman-iii-missile-test/
https://sentientmedia.org/factory-farm-pollution-space/
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c11922
Factory Farm Pollution Can Be Seen From Space, Scientists Say
Wed February 12th, 2025
A new study uses satellite data to document environmental inequities in North Carolina.
Air pollution linked to industrial hog farms in eastern North Carolina can be seen from space, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Virginia.
The findings confirm concerns from communities in Duplin and Sampson counties in North Carolina over air quality, and challenge the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s claims that there is limited exposure to ammonia from these farms.
Sally Pusede, an atmospheric chemist and lead author of the study, used satellite data spanning from 2008 to 2023 to analyze the levels of ammonia in the atmosphere and mapped it onto U.S. Census data.
Pusede and her team found higher levels of toxic pollutants in areas with dense concentrations of Black, Hispanic and Indigenous residents. Ammonia concentrations were 27 percent higher for Black communities, 35 percent higher for Hispanic communities and 49 percent higher for Indigenous communities compared to non-Hispanic white communities.
“Using the satellite data, what we’re able to do is show that, yes, we see those air quality impacts, and yes, they are unequally distributed,” Pusede tells Sentient.
Ammonia Spreads Further Than Believed
Pusede and her team also found that the disparities were amplified by warmer temperatures and wind conditions.
Counties home to the Coharie, Lumbee and Waccamaw Siouan Indian tribes were exposed to higher levels of ammonia on calm days, when the wind can’t disperse the pollutant away.
On hot days, Black and Hispanic communities were exposed to more ammonia. “This tells us a little bit about what’s controlling the emission of ammonia,” says Pusede.
North Carolina is home to roughly 2,000 industrial pork operations, classified as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) because of their scale. CAFOs house between 2,500 and 10,000 hogs.
That’s several million hogs at any given time producing massive amounts of waste. And when that waste breaks down, it releases a host of irritants and chemicals into the air.
Ammonia is one of the main pollutants emitted, along with hydrogen sulfide, methane and airborne particulate matter — all of which have the potential to cause headaches, nausea and burning eyes.
Ammonia is generated when the nitrogen in animal waste breaks down, leaving a pungent, irritating odor. The chemical is also volatile, so when temperatures are warmer, more of it re-volatizes, or re-evaporates, into the atmosphere.
Ammonia is emitted directly from swine CAFOs themselves, explains Pusede, but also in the area nearby crop farms where manure is sprayed as part of a practice called manure irrigation.
Pork mega-farms generate a lot of animal waste — just one CAFO can produce 1.6 million metric tons of manure annually, more than the sewage produced by all the residents of Philadelphia — and the farms store it in lagoons until it’s ready to be sprayed.
While better storage options are available, they’re more costly, and have not been readily implemented.
“The other thing that’ll happen is ammonia will be emitted, and then it’ll travel downwind, and it’ll deposit back down to the surface,” explains Pusede.
“It’ll stay there, and then the next day, when the temperatures warm up again, it can be re-evaporated into the atmosphere.”
Ammonia also forms particles — ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate — that can re-volatize into ammonia at high enough temperatures.
“When it’s warm, you’ll get ammonia re-released to the atmosphere off of all kinds of surfaces, whether they’re the ground surface or the particle surface,” she says.
This re-evaporation process causes air quality impacts further downwind from the swine facilities, contradicting the idea — touted by the pork industry — that the air quality impacts from CAFOs are hyper-local.
“You don’t have to be living right next door in order to have the air pollution impacts affect you,” says Pusede.
Validating Community Concerns
The research “echoes and validates concerns and observations that communities in eastern North Carolina have [had] for decades,” Chris Lamont Brown, the Director of Research and Education at the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, tells Sentient.
The impact of industrialized swine facilities in the area are seen in an array of health issues, they add.
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People living near CAFOs in Eastern North Carolina report strong odors, respiratory issues and frequent headaches, among a host of other ailments. The region is home to 95 percent of the state’s swine CAFOs, and is predominantly Black, Hispanic and Indigenous.
“There’s a large body of literature that has found Black, Latino and Native American communities are disproportionately exposed to and harmed by industrial animal operations in North Carolina,” says Arbor Quist, a professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University who was not involved in this research. This study, she says, adds to that literature and “highlights the exposure piece.”
These findings are especially meaningful given the lack of adequate air monitoring of CAFOs. Livestock operations are exempt from reporting their emissions, leaving residents in the dark about what exactly is in the air they breathe, and with limited options to fight back.
Jill Johnston, a professor of population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California, argues that the study leverages satellite data in a novel way. Bad odors are a frequent complaint of residents living near swine CAFOs, but they’re challenging to measure systematically, she says.
This makes it hard to hold companies accountable for their emissions. “This [study] helps fill some of that gap, and also recognizes the importance of studying some of these other air toxins, especially the malodorous ones.”
North Carolina Is Failing to Hold CAFOs Accountable
The study results also suggest that North Carolina’s attempts at addressing air pollution in the state are not working.
In 2018, the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network and other environmental groups reached a settlement with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) over the disproportionate impact of swine CAFOs on Black, Hispanic and Indigenous communities.
As part of that settlement, the DEQ was tasked with completing the Duplin County Air Monitoring Study and revising its permitting process.
The Duplin County Air Monitoring Study was conducted between October 2018 and 2019 and found that there were no significant air quality issues in the county, putting an end to further air monitoring.
Yet ammonia levels have remained consistent since 2008 in the region, according to Pusede’s study. “We don’t see any evidence that ammonia or air pollution impacts are improving,” she emphasizes.
One possible reason for the air monitoring’s study’s findings, says Pusede, is that the monitors were placed too far away from the facilities. Still, her findings also show that ammonia can travel downwind.
“How, then, are they measuring zero?” The detection limit of the instrumentation they used is 100 parts per billion, she explains. “That’s pretty high. So instead of reporting zero, they should have been reporting some number between zero and 100.”
Using Science to Hold Industry Accountable
Pusede hopes her findings can help hold regulators accountable. “We can see this pollution from space,” she says. “No one can say, ‘Oh, it’s not making an impact.’”
This kind of scientific research can play a critical role in validating community observations, says Lamont Brown. Polluting industries work hard to avoid accountability, they argue.
In 2018, the state also passed a set of amendments to limit nuisance lawsuits against farms. Notably, only people living within a half-mile of a CAFO can make a nuisance claim.
“For studies like this to really counteract the narrative that CAFO industries have been putting out is really important,” Brown says.
“People always need help in shifting the power back to communities and away from these companies and institutions that have incredible power to destroy lives and land in North Carolina.”
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Lets just move it indoors, or something