NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

March 10, 2025

NGC 1499: The California Nebula

Could Queen Calafia's mythical island exist in space? Perhaps not, but by chance the outline of this molecular space cloud echoes the outline of the state of California, USA. Our Sun has its home within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, only about 1,000 light-years from the California Nebula. Also known as NGC 1499, the classic emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. On the featured image, the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons, stripped away (ionized) by energetic starlight. The star most likely providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas is the bright, hot, bluish Xi Persei just to the right of the nebula. A regular target for astrophotographers, the California Nebula can be spotted with a wide-field telescope under a dark sky toward the constellation of Perseus, not far from the Pleiades.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

NASA, SpaceX Set New Date for Two Science Missions

March 10, 2025 11:10 p.m. EDT

NASA and SpaceX set a new launch date of no earlier than Monday, March 10 for the launch of the agency’s SPHEREx and PUNCH missions on a Falcon 9 rocket.

With the change to Daylight Saving Time, the launch is now targeted for 11:10 p.m. EDT (8:10 p.m. PDT) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The SPHEREx and PUNCH live launch broadcast will begin at 10:15 p.m., March 10, and stream live NASA+.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spherex/2025/03/09/nasa-spacex-set-new-date-for-two-science-missions/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkTcmQJdGKg

This month's 'blood moon' eclipse mirrors one Christopher Columbus used to scare indigenous people with in 1504

March 10, 2025

In 1504, Christopher Columbus, on his fourth trans-Atlantic voyage, was stranded on the shores of Jamaica, with his ships crawling with marine worms and his crew hungry.

The Indigenous Arawak people, who had initially welcomed the Europeans, had grown weary of their demands.

But Columbus had a trick up his sleeve: According to The Guardian, he consulted his astronomical tables and saw that a total lunar eclipse was imminent on March 1, 1504.

Summoning the island's leaders, he warned them that his god would blot out the moon in anger if they did not help him by providing supplies.

Fear gripped the Arawak people when the blood-red eclipse darkened the sky, and they rushed to appease Columbus with food and aid.

The 1504 total lunar eclipse

"The 1504 eclipse is well-documented as having been used by Columbus, who knew of the eclipse prediction, to convince the native tribes in Jamaica to aid his crew," Patrick Hartigan, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University in Houston, wrote in a recent paper published by the American Astronomical Society.

It's a great story, but what does it have to do with the total lunar eclipse on March 13-14? Remarkably, the eclipses are 521 years apart, which means the moon takes an almost identical path through Earth's shadow and occurs against the same background stars.

How lunar eclipses are predicted

This striking similarity is no coincidence. All eclipses come in families called Saros. A near-identical eclipse occurs every 223 "lunations" — orbits of the moon around Earth.

According to NASA, that's once every 6,585.3 days — or 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours.

The total lunar eclipse on March 13-14, 2025, is part of a pattern Saros 123 cycle, which has been producing total lunar eclipses every 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours since July 16, 1628, and will do so until April 4, 2061.

Multicentury eclipse cycles

Saros, which literally means "the repetition," is how eclipses are predicted many centuries ahead. However, there are other cycles at play.

One is the Hypersaros, a multigenerational cycle that lasts 521 years. That's equivalent to 25 Saros cycles, and it has an observable effect.

Eclipses separated by a Hypersaros have similar depths, appear very close to the same location in the sky, and occur at nearly the same time of year, according to Hartigan.

On March 13-14, skywatchers will have the same view of the "blood moon" total lunar eclipse as Columbus and the Arawak people had on Feb. 29, 1504, a celestial déjà vu that echoes across more than five centuries.

https://www.space.com/march-2025-eclipse-echoes-columbus-eclipse-1504

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/adb30d

https://spacenews.com/america-needs-a-strong-nasa/

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27519/nasa-at-a-crossroads-maintaining-workforce-infrastructure-and-technology-preeminence

America needs a strong NASA

March 10, 2025

As United States government agencies go, NASA is unique. It remains the only entity in the world to have landed humans on the moon.

It sent robotic probes to every planet, advancing our understanding of the solar system. It flew a helicopter on Mars, the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet.

It flew the Parker Solar Probe closer to study the sun than any previous spacecraft.

NASA’s achievements are technical and scientific marvels.

Beyond these achievements — or perhaps because of them — NASA has long been voted the best place to work in the federal government and it is regularly ranked by Americans as one of the most trustworthy of federal agencies.

Globally, NASA is one of the most recognized and beloved brands. It is, in short, a special part of the American identity.

We are at a time, however, where NASA’s role in that identity is being challenged. The organization is undergoing significant transformation through its evolving partnership with the private sector.

When I started in 2008, NASA still owned and flew the space shuttle, SpaceX had yet to launch anything to orbit and there were few programs where NASA was leveraging privately-owned capabilities.

Today, NASA relies on privately-owned vehicles to take astronauts to the International Space Station, and privately-owned landers to return astronauts to the moon, marking a shift that’s been decades in the making.

I’m excited for the expanded future this shift enables; however, we now need to ask, what is NASA’s role going forward? NASA needs to lead, not just fund, the future of space exploration and development.

Without NASA leading the way and designing, developing and operating core elements of our presence in space, the nation and the public lose leverage in the future.

While services from privately-owned capabilities are a great enabler, the enduring aspect of our effort requires it be done by America, not just by Americans.

We are about to embark on a critical phase in the development of U.S. space exploration capabilities. If we get it right, we stand to realize long-held dreams for ourselves and all of humanity.

If we get it wrong, we may imperil America’s standing in the world and erode one of the most inspiring and enduring elements of American identity.

NASA represents the epitome of the American dream: the public expression of a nation that aims for the moon and doesn’t stop until it gets there.

The consequences of our decisions regarding NASA’s priorities and funding are significant given the increased importance of space to the global economy and national security.

For example, a permanent crewed outpost on the lunar surface, owned and operated by NASA, would enable America to serve as the international organizer at the Moon.

This would provide America leverage in shaping the space domain for decades to come when the space domain is more important than ever.

However, if America is to lead in this way, government funding is the only near-term solution since significant commercial markets for lunar activities are currently non-existent.

A NASA outpost on the lunar surface would provide an enduring source of demand for commercial transportation and other services as lunar activities develop.

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>>22735318

In addition to a NASA lunar outpost, we should embrace the type of leap-frog exploration endeavors where no other nation can compete.

This is where NASA’s true strength lies. During the first Trump administration, NASA developed The Great American Space Odyssey, a nuclear propulsion-enabled crewed mission to Mars that included a Venus flyby.

As the president suggested in his second inaugural address, we should continue striving for this level of interplanetary ambition.

A first human mission to Mars beckons as the next great space achievement and America has a clear technical lead.

While the technical and economic complexity of such an endeavor means that we should prepare for a campaign that will stretch over many years, the effort could begin by testing and leveraging human-class Mars lander capabilities, including from the private sector.

A recent National Academies report assessed, however, that our national appetite for NASA programs is greater than our willingness to pay for them.

Regardless of which programs proceed, NASA needs not only to be given the responsibility for bold endeavors of national importance, but also the resources to maintain its unique culture of technical and scientific excellence.

Unless we are willing to cede the future to other nations, NASA must have the resources to continue to support both government and private sector expertise and capabilities.

NASA has embraced the goal of encouraging a lunar economy but, in truth, NASA provides almost all funding for this ‘economy’ — and the opportunity for lunar resources to genuinely contribute economically lies, at best, decades into the future.

The real prize today, just as it was in the 1960s, is international leadership and global regard, with the consequences this time being potentially even more far-reaching.

The competition this time will also likely play out over a longer period of time, necessitating a strategy that can muster the efforts and resources of multiple partners and international allies and which can survive multiple administrations and multiple Congresses. NASA will need to lead this effort for America, and gain the support of people and countries all over the world, if we are to succeed and endure.

For all the legitimate excitement around private space capabilities, NASA remains a shining American beacon to the world. A beacon of hope, optimism, excellence and integrity.

I know this because I am an American solely because of NASA. I emigrated to the U.S. for the express purpose of serving the greatest space agency on the planet and had the honor and privilege to do so for nearly 20 years.

Focusing NASA’s responsibilities on designing, developing, and operating a permanent lunar research station, for American and international partner astronauts, and preparing for a first human mission to Mars, including the relevant precursor missions, would provide clear direction and enable expanded horizons across generations.

If we want to ensure America continues to stand for a hopeful future of liberty and endless possibilities, we need to also ensure NASA remains strong and ambitious on the endless frontier.

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Cygnus issue causes changes in ISS cargo missions

March 10, 2025

Potential damage to a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft has led NASA to revise the manifest of an upcoming cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station.

NASA said late March 5 that it was “assessing potential mission impacts” to the next Cygnus mission, scheduled for June, after workers found damage to the shipping container for the spacecraft’s pressurized cargo module when it was transported to the launch site in Florida.

“Mission teams will inspect the module during the coming days to assess whether there is any damage and any associated impacts to schedule,” NASA said at the time.

At a March 7 briefing about the upcoming Crew-10 mission to the station, NASA officials said it was too soon yet to know if the issue would delay the launch of the mission, designated NG-22 and currently scheduled for June.

“I expect that we’ll have to have some follow-on discussions and assessments to determine if there is spacecraft damage or any impacts to the overall mission schedule,” said Dana Weigel, NASA ISS program manager, at the briefing.

“The shipping container for our Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) for the NG-22 resupply mission was damaged during a commercial shipping accident as it went to the launch site,” Northrop Grumman spokesperson Dan Leone told SpaceNews.

“We are inspecting the PCM to assess its condition and will ensure NASA is aware of any impact to the mission that is currently scheduled for launch in June.”

The NG-22 mission was originally scheduled to launch in February, she said, but was delayed by an avionics issue with the spacecraft that neither NASA nor Northrop Grumman had widely publicized.

The potential for additional delays in NG-22 led NASA to revise the cargo manifest for the next Dragon cargo spacecraft to the ISS, SpX-32 and scheduled for late April. NASA said it will remove some of the science experiments that were to go on the mission and instead fly food and other consumables.

“The real challenge was in just the large movement of our cargo missions,” Weigel said, adding that if NASA had known earlier of the delays in NG-22 it would have added more consumables to cargo missions launching last fall.

NASA did not disclose how many research payloads would be removed from the next SpaceX cargo mission to be replaced by food.

The previous cargo Dragon mission, SpX-31 in November, carried 961 kilograms of crew supplies and 917 kilograms of science investigations.

SpX-30 in March 2024 carried 545 kilograms of crew supplies and 1,135 kilograms of science investigations.

Another change is a shortened handover between the new Crew-10 mission and departing Crew-9 mission at the station.

Crew-10 is scheduled to launch March 12 and arrive at the station early March 13. NASA is planning to have Crew-9 undock from the station as soon as March 16, shorter than the typical handover of five or more days between missions.

Weigel said the shortened handover was designed to conserve consumables during that time when there are 11 people on the station.

“What that really does for us is it just opens up more undock opportunities, so we have a chance to find a good weather opportunity for undock to minimize how long we have additional crew on board.”

https://spacenews.com/cygnus-issue-causes-changes-in-iss-cargo-missions/

Mysteries of the Deep: An independent researcher's effort to uncover Lake Tahoe's unknowns

Updated March 5, 2025 / 10:42 PM PST

LAKE TAHOE — One independent researcher is working to uncover the secrets hidden at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. Instead of a submarine, he's using a custom-built rover.

The mysteries of the deep stem from a garage 50 miles away in Pollock Pines. NATS – "The big thing behind this camera is that we can upgrade it in the future."

Chase Petley wears a lot of hats — engineer, explorer and visionary, to name a few. Today, he's focused on one mission: preparing this rover for its first dive.

The goal is to find out what's at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. "You can't wait for someone to give you the answers to the questions," he said.

About 15 years ago, when those questions had no answers, he set out to find them. Why? He did it out of pure curiosity. What began as a simple hobby soon became a passion.

From dropping a wooden box with a camera inside to now building this rover, Petley's come a long way since asking that first question.

Now he has pictures and videos from the bottom of the lake with new discoveries.

"We were told there wasn't going to be much life at the bottom of Lake Tahoe, but it's hard to actually go down there and get a camera shot without something alive in the video — shrimp, fish, large fish," he said.

Lake Tahoe is about 1,600 feet, but Petley said that a massive crevasse between two fault lines suggests the lake could be much deeper.

Also, there's a mystery behind a giant rock that is in the middle of the lake – and is about 400 feet high – but is too deep for anyone to know about.

Petley said the discoveries below are endless, but his journey wouldn't get widespread support without exposure.

"My part in this whole journey is the media, so I'm documenting everything he does," said documentary filmmaker Michael Cheeseman of Erwin Street Entertainment.

Cheeseman is far from his Los Angeles studio but this story is worth the trip. Once he heard about Petley's story, he wanted to help share it.

"As soon as we started filming, we were like now we can really start seeing what he's doing and evolve that story," Cheeseman said.

Now they are a team, one building the rover and the other making sure the world sees what it finds.

Their Instagram page, Mysteries of the Deep, has reeled in more than 55,000 followers. It's clear they're not the only ones interested.

"You can't wait for someone else to give you the answers to the questions so hopefully we can inspire that in other people," Petley said.

That is a sentiment he said is equally important as the discoveries they find.

"I think it's important that we get people out there exploring and showing us the little bit of our planet that hasn't been explored yet," he said.

Petley expects to have the rover complete soon, with their first drop into Lake Tahoe sometime in May.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/lake-tahoe-mysteries-of-the-deep/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPFfoaQZEU0

>>22735385

I raised the volume on the second video.

Anybody know wtf that is?

>>22735496

I didn't know Nessie had cousins.

Wild stuff.

>>22735540

Is Vrillon tapping in again?