TYB
Happy 3.14 day
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
March 14, 2025
Moon Pi and Mountain Shadow
What phase of the Moon is 3.14 radians from the Sun? The Full Moon, of course. Even though the Moon might look full for several days, the Moon is truly at its full phase when it is Pi radians (aka 180 degrees) from the Sun in ecliptic longitude. That's opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. Rising as the Sun set on March 9, 2020, only an hour or so after the moment of its full phase, this orange tinted and slightly flattened Moon still looked full. It was photographed opposite the setting Sun from Teide National Park on the Canary Island of Tenerife. Also opposite the setting Sun, seen from near the Teide volcano peak about 3,500 meters above sea level, is the mountain's rising triangular shadow extending into Earth's dense atmosphere. Below the distant ridge line on the left are the white telescope domes of Teide Observatory. Today, March 14 2025, the moon is Pi radians from the Sun at exactly 06:55 UTC. That's about three minutes before the midpoint of the March Full Moon's total lunar eclipse.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 Launch
Mar 14, 2025 7:03 p.m. EDT
Watch with us as the four members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission launch to the space station from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Liftoff is targeted for 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 UTC) on Friday, March 14. Wednesday's launch attempt was scrubbed due to a hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm.
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain, commander; and Nichole Ayers, pilot; along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to the orbiting laboratory for a long-duration science mission.
This is the 10th crew rotation mission and the 11th human spaceflight mission for NASA to the space station supported by the Dragon spacecraft since 2020 as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
Following the launch of Crew-10, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will depart the station for a splashdown off the coast of Florida.
https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/nasas-spacex-crew-10-launch/
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=crew-10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf8uN4VGCCs
Navigating a Slanted River
Mar 13, 2025
Perseverance is hard at work on Mars, overcoming obstacles for scientific exploration! Just a few sols after successfully sealing the challenging Green Gardens core, Perseverance roved on to the Broom Point workspace to collect another sample called Main River.
Broom Point is situated a few hundred meters down-slope from where Green Gardens was collected, and the Science Team chose to explore this area because orbiter images show some intriguing, alternating light and dark layers.
Upon reaching the workspace, images captured by Perseverance confirm that these distinct layers are visible on the ground, as well.
Layers are interesting because they record different geological events that occurred in the planet’s past, which may include deposition of sediments, lava flows, or volcanic ash.
By conducting proximity science with rover instruments and collecting a core to return to Earth for future analyses, the team is investigating what this material is composed of and how it was emplaced.
When the team is planning to collect a sample from an outcrop, the first step is to abrade the rock, grinding away the top few millimeters and smoothing out the surface so the SHERLOC and PIXL instruments can move in and conduct their scans.
Although Perseverance has abraded more than 30 rocks across Jezero crater, new rocks still present unique challenges.
While abrading the Slants River target at Broom Point, the rock unexpectedly fractured, resulting in an uneven surface.
SHERLOC and PIXL require just a few millimeters of clearance to safely approach the rock, and while PIXL was able to reach the broken surface, the topography looked a little more dicey for SHERLOC.
The team’s engineers and rover planners took stock of the situation and decided to use WATSON, SHERLOC’s companion camera, to snap some images of the abrasion patch from another angle.
These images built a surface model of the small cracks and crevices, and with this knowledge in hand, the team found a way to safely maneuver the instrument to the same spot that PIXL scanned, and collected a co-located spectroscopy map.
Once this abrasion proximity science was completed, the rover went on to drill and seal the Main River core, an activity that went off without a hitch.
With another core in the bag, Perseverance is off to the next workspace, ready to tackle whatever challenges may lie ahead!
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/navigating-a-slanted-river/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/nasa-researchers-study-coastal-wetlands-champions-of-carbon-capture/
NASA Researchers Study Coastal Wetlands, Champions of Carbon Capture
Mar 13, 2025
Across the street from the Flamingo Visitor’s Center at the foot of Florida’s Everglades National Park, there was once a thriving mangrove population — part of the largest stand of mangroves in the Western Hemisphere.
Now, the skeletal remains of the trees form one of the Everglades’ largest ghost forests.
When Hurricane Irma made landfall in September 2017 as a category 4 storm, violent winds battered the shore and a storm surge swept across the coast, decimating large swaths of mangrove forest.
Seven years later, most of the mangroves here haven’t seen any new growth. “At this point, I doubt they’ll recover,” said David Lagomasino, a professor of coastal studies at East Carolina University.
Lagomasino was in the Everglades conducting fieldwork as part of NASA’s BlueFlux Campaign, a three-year project that aims to study how sub-tropical wetlands influence atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane.
Both gases absorb solar radiation and have a warming effect on Earth’s atmosphere.
The campaign is led by Ben Poulter, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who studies the way human activity and climate change affect the carbon cycle.
As wetland vegetation responds to increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and severe weather, Poulter’s team is trying to determine how much carbon dioxide wetland vegetation removes from the atmosphere and how much methane it produces.
Ultimately this research will help scientists develop models to estimate and monitor greenhouse gas concentrations in coastal areas around the globe.
Although coastal wetlands account for less than 2% of the planet’s land-surface area, they remove a significant amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Florida’s coastal wetlands alone remove an estimated 31.8 million metric tons each year.
A commercial aircraft would have to circle the globe more than 26,000 times to produce the same amount of carbon dioxide.
Coastal wetlands also store carbon in marine sediments, keeping it underground — and out of the atmosphere — for thousands of years.
This carbon storage capacity of oceans and wetlands is so robust that it has its own name: blue carbon.
“We’re worried about losing that stored carbon,” Poulter said. “But blue carbon also offers tremendous opportunities for climate mitigation if conservation and restoration are properly supported by science.”
The one-meter core samples collected by Lagomasino will be used to identify historic rates of blue carbon development in mangrove forests and to evaluate how rates of carbon storage respond to specific environmental pressures, like sea level rise or the increasing frequency of tropical cyclones.
Early findings from space-based flux data confirm that, in addition to acting as a sink of carbon dioxide, tropical wetlands are a significant source of methane — a greenhouse gas that traps heat roughly 80 times more efficiently than carbon dioxide.
In fact, researchers estimate that Florida’s entire wetland expanse produces enough methane to offset the benefits of wetland carbon removal by about 5%.
Everglades peat contains history of captured carbon
During his most recent fieldwork deployment, Lagomasino used a small skiff to taxi from one research site to the next; many parts of the Everglades are virtually unreachable on foot.
At each site, he opened a broad, black case and removed a metallic peat auger, which resembles a giant letter opener. The instrument is designed to extract core samples from soft soils.
Everglades peat — which is composed almost entirely of the carbon-rich, partially decomposed roots, stems, and leaves of mangroves — offers a perfect study subject.
Lagomasino plunged the auger into the soil, using his body weight to push the instrument into the ground.
Once the sample was secured, he freed the tool from the Earth, presenting a half-cylinder of soil. Each sample was sealed and shipped back to the lab — where they are sliced horizontally into flat discs and analyzed for their age and carbon content.
Everglades peat forms quickly. In Florida’s mangrove forests, around 2 to 10 millimeters of soil are added to the forest floor each year, building up over time like sand filling an hourglass.
Much like an ice core, sediment cores offer a window into Earth’s past. The deeper the core, the further into the past one can see.
By looking closely at the contents of the soil, researchers can uncover information about the climate conditions from the time the soil formed.
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In some parts of the Everglades, soil deposits can reach depths of up to 3 meters (10 feet), where one meter might represent close to 100 years of peat accumulation, Lagomasino said.
Deep in the Amazon rainforest, by comparison, a similarly sized, one-meter deposit could take more than 1,000 years to develop.
This is important in the context of restoration efforts: in coastal wetlands, peat losses can be restored up to 10 times faster than they might be in other forest types.
“There are also significant differences in fluxes between healthy mangroves and degraded ones,” said Lola Fatoyinbo, a research scientist in the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
In areas where mangrove forests are suffering, for example, after a major hurricane, “you end up with more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” she said.
As wetland ecology responds to intensifying natural and human pressures, the data product will help researchers precisely monitor the impact of ecological changes on global carbon dioxide and methane levels.
Wetland methane: A naturally occurring but potent greenhouse gas
Methane is naturally produced by microbes that live in wetland soils. But as wetland conditions change, the growth rate of methane-producing microbes can spike, releasing the gas into the atmosphere at prodigious rates.
Since methane is a significantly more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, possessing a warming potential 84 times greater over a 25-year period, methane emissions undermine some of the beneficial services that blue carbon ecosystems provide as natural sinks for atmospheric carbon dioxide.
While Lagomasino studied the soil to understand long-term storage of greenhouse gases, Lola Fatoyinbo, a research scientist in NASA’s Biospheric Sciences Lab, and Peter Raymond, an ecologist at Yale University’s School of the Environment, measured the rate at which these gases are exchanged between wetland vegetation and the atmosphere. This metric is known as gaseous flux.
The scientists measure flux using chambers designed to adhere neatly to points where significant rates of gas exchange occur.
They secure box-like chambers to above-ground roots and branches while domed chambers measure gas escaping from the forest floor.
The concentration of gases trapped in each chamber is measured over time.
In general, as the health of wetland ecology declines, less carbon dioxide is removed, and more methane is released. But the exact nature of the relationship between wetland health and gaseous flux is not well understood.
What does flux look like in ghost forests, for example? And how do more subtle changes in variables like canopy coverage or species distribution influence levels of carbon dioxide sequestration or methane production?
“We’re especially interested in the methane part,” Fatoyinbo said. “It’s the least understood, and there’s a lot more of it than we previously thought.”
Based on data collected during BlueFlux fieldwork, “we’re finding that coastal wetlands remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide and produce substantial amounts of methane,” Poulter said.
“But overall, these ecosystems appear to provide a net climate benefit, removing more greenhouse gases than they produce.” That could change as Florida’s wetlands respond to continued climate disturbances.
The future of South Florida’s ecology
Florida’s wetlands are roughly 5,000 years old. But in just the past century, more than half of the state’s original wetland coverage has been lost as vegetation was cleared and water was drained to accommodate the growing population.
The Everglades system now contains 65% less peat and 77% less stored carbon than it did prior to drainage.
The future of the ecosystem — which is not only an important reservoir for atmospheric carbon, but a source of drinking water for more than 7 million Floridians and a home to flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth — is uncertain.
Scientists who have dedicated their careers to understanding and restoring South Florida’s ecology are hopeful.
“Nature and people can coexist,” said Meenakshi Chabba, an ecologist and resilience scientist at the Everglades Foundation in Florida’s Miami-Dade County. “But we need good science and good management to reach that goal.”
The next step for NASA’s BlueFlux campaign is the development of a satellite-based data product that can help regional stakeholders evaluate in real-time how Florida’s wetlands are responding to restoration efforts designed to protect one of the state’s most precious natural resources — and all those who depend on it.
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NASA Analysis Shows Unexpected Amount of Sea Level Rise in 2024
Mar 13, 2025
Last year’s increase was due to an unusual amount of ocean warming, combined with meltwater from land-based ice such as glaciers.
Global sea level rose faster than expected in 2024, mostly because of ocean water expanding as it warms, or thermal expansion.
According to a NASA-led analysis, last year’s rate of rise was 0.23 inches (0.59 centimeters) per year, compared to the expected rate of 0.17 inches (0.43 centimeters) per year.
“The rise we saw in 2024 was higher than we expected,” said Josh Willis, a sea level researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“Every year is a little bit different, but what’s clear is that the ocean continues to rise, and the rate of rise is getting faster and faster.”
In recent years, about two-thirds of sea level rise was from the addition of water from land into the ocean by melting ice sheets and glaciers.
About a third came from thermal expansion of seawater. But in 2024, those contributions flipped, with two-thirds of sea level rise coming from thermal expansion.
“With 2024 as the warmest year on record, Earth’s expanding oceans are following suit, reaching their highest levels in three decades,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, head of physical oceanography programs and the Integrated Earth System Observatory at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Since the satellite record of ocean height began in 1993, the rate of annual sea level rise has more than doubled.
In total, global sea level has gone up by 4 inches (10 centimeters) since 1993.
This long-term record is made possible by an uninterrupted series of ocean-observing satellites starting with TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992.
The current ocean-observing satellite in that series, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, launched in 2020 and is one of an identical pair of spacecraft that will carry this sea level dataset into its fourth decade.
Its twin, the upcoming Sentinel-6B satellite, will continue to measure sea surface height down to a few centimeters for about 90% of the world’s oceans.
Mixing It Up
There are several ways in which heat makes its way into the ocean, resulting in the thermal expansion of water. Normally, seawater arranges itself into layers determined by water temperature and density.
Warmer water floats on top of and is lighter than cooler water, which is denser. In most places, heat from the surface moves very slowly through these layers down into the deep ocean.
But extremely windy areas of the ocean can agitate the layers enough to result in vertical mixing. Very large currents, like those found in the Southern Ocean, can tilt ocean layers, allowing surface waters to more easily slip down deep.
The massive movement of water during El Niño — in which a large pool of warm water normally located in the western Pacific Ocean sloshes over to the central and eastern Pacific — can also result in vertical movement of heat within the ocean.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/jason-cs-sentinel-6/sentinel-6-michael-freilich/nasa-analysis-shows-unexpected-amount-of-sea-level-rise-in-2024/
https://sealevel.nasa.gov/
NASA Cameras on Blue Ghost Capture First-of-its-Kind Moon Landing Footage
Mar 13, 2025
A team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has captured first-of-its-kind imagery of a lunar lander’s engine plumes interacting with the Moon’s surface, a key piece of data as trips to the Moon increase in the coming years under the agency’s Artemis campaign.
The Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument took the images during the descent and successful soft landing of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander on the Moon’s Mare Crisium region on March 2, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
The compressed, resolution-limited video features a preliminary sequence that NASA researchers stitched together from SCALPSS 1.1’s four short-focal-length cameras, which were capturing photos at 8 frames per second during the descent and landing.
The sequence, using approximate altitude data, begins roughly 91 feet (28 meters) above the surface.
The descent images show evidence that the onset of the interaction between Blue Ghost’s reaction control thruster plumes and the surface begins at roughly 49 feet (15 meters).
As the descent continues, the interaction becomes increasingly complex, with the plumes vigorously kicking up the lunar dust, soil and rocks — collectively known as regolith.
After touchdown, the thrusters shut off and the dust settles. The lander levels a bit and the lunar terrain beneath and immediately around it becomes visible.
“Although the data is still preliminary, the 3000-plus images we captured appear to contain exactly the type of information we were hoping for in order to better understand plume-surface interaction and learn how to accurately model the phenomenon based on the number, size, thrust and configuration of the engines,” said Rob Maddock, SCALPSS project manager.
“The data is vital to reducing risk in the design and operation of future lunar landers as well as surface infrastructure that may be in the vicinity.
We have an absolutely amazing team of scientists and engineers, and I couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of them.”
As trips to the Moon increase and the number of payloads touching down in proximity to one another grows, scientists and engineers need to accurately predict the effects of landings.
Data from SCALPSS will better inform future robotic and crewed Moon landings.
The SCALPSS 1.1 technology includes six cameras in all, four short focal length and two long focal length.
The long-focal-length cameras allowed the instrument to begin taking images at a higher altitude, prior to the onset of the plume-surface interaction, to provide a more accurate before-and-after comparison of the surface.
Using a technique called stereo photogrammetry, the team will later combine the overlapping images – one set from the long-focal-length cameras, another from the short focal length – to create 3D digital elevation maps of the surface.
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-cameras-on-blue-ghost-capture-first-of-its-kind-moon-landing-footage/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emebSgs1f2w
NASA Sending Military Personnel to Space Station
Mar 13, 11:28 AM EDT
The Department of Defense has proudly announced that two active-duty US military officers will be launching on board SpaceX's upcoming Crew-10 mission to return NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Air Force major Nichole Ayers and US Army colonel Anne McClain — both NASA astronauts — will be joining Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on the mission.
"The Department of Defense is proud to have multiple branches, and two active-duty U.S. military officers represented in this mission," enthused defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
The high level attention to the military space travelers highlights a renewed interest in the militarization of space under President Donald Trump's second term.
The US Space Force was signed into law by Trump in late 2019, sparking a lively discussion about a "space arms race."
While it's not enormously unusual to have active-duty military stationed on board the ISS — according to NASA, 212 of the 360 astronauts it has selected since its inception 66 years ago are from the military — the Pentagon's announcement has a different ring to it now that Trump is back in the White House.
Trump signed an executive order earlier this year calling for the development of new space-based defenses. But details remain sparse about the viability or possible schedule of such a system.
Further complicating the mission is the subject of Wilmore and Williams, who were stranded on board the ISS since June due to major technical issues plaguing Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.
Their return was already scheduled months before Trump was even elected last year, but has been turned into a political rallying cry by the president and his number one henchman, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Musk, in particular, appeared to be incensed when confronted with the fact that the Trump administration wasn't suddenly swooping in to rescue Wilmore and Williams.
Last month, Musk got caught up in a heated exchange on his social media platform with several former astronauts over the topic, ending with him calling them names like a bully in a schoolyard.
At the time, a fuming Musk blamed the Biden administration for getting the pair stuck — claims that were immediately refuted by former NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
Trump appears to have little knowledge of the topic. During a baffling Oval Office press conference, he appeared to make a pass at Williams, arguing she had "wild hair, good, solid hair," and suggested she and Wilmore might have fallen in love.
The upcoming mission to return Wilmore and Williams has since been delayed due to ground issues affecting the hydraulics system used to control the clamps supporting the upper portion of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The flight is now scheduled for no earlier than Friday evening.
Meanwhile, the future of Trump's Space Force remains as uncertain as ever. Officials have been calling for a bigger budget for the youngest military arm.
On the contrary, many of the administration's brutal cuts to the government may end up undermining his priorities to militarize outer space, including slashing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, as the Washington Post reports.
The military is already reportedly struggling to keep up with America's adversaries due to a budget crunch, according to a recent report by the think tank Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
"The cost of the effort to reverse the Air Force’s decline and adequately fund the Space Force will require an increase of at least $45 billion annually, combined," the report reads.
"The fixes must start now, or the United States risks losing the next major war."
https://futurism.com/nasa-military-personnel-space-station
NASA, Yale, and Stanford Scientists Consider 'Scientific Exile,' French University Says
Mar 13, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Last week, Aix Marseille University, France’s largest university, invited American scientists who believe their work is at risk of being censored by Donald Trump administration’s anti-science policies to continue their research in France.
Today, the university announced that it is already seeing great interest from scientists at NASA, Yale, Stanford, and other American schools and government agencies, and that it wants to expand the program to other schools and European countries to absorb all the researchers who want to leave the United States.
“We are witnessing a new brain drain,” Éric Berton, Aix Marseille University’s president, said in a press release. “We will do everything in our power to help as many scientists as possible continue their research.
However, we cannot meet all demands on our own. The Ministry of Education and Research is fully supporting and assisting us in this effort, which is intended to expand at both national and European levels.”
Has your research been impacted by the Trump administration? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at emanuel.404. Otherwise, send me an email at emanuel@404media.co.
The press release from the university claims that researchers from Stanford, Yale, NASA, the National Institute of Health, George Washington University, “and about 15 other prestigious institutions," are now considering “scientific exile.”
More than 40 American scientists have expressed interest in the program, it said. Their key research areas are “health (LGBT+ medicine, epidemiology, infectious diseases, inequalities, immunology, etc.), environment and climate change (natural disaster management, greenhouse gases, social impact, artificial intelligence), humanities and social sciences (communication, psychology, history, cultural heritage), astrophysics.”
“The current Executive Orders have led to a termination of one of my research grants. While it was not a lot of money, it was a high profile, large national study,” one researcher who has reached out to Aix Marseille University in order to take advantage of the program told me.
404 Media granted the researcher anonymity because speaking about the program might jeopardize their current position at a leading American university.
“While I have not had to lay off staff as a result of that particular cancellation, I will have to lay off staff if additional projects are terminated. Everything I focus on is now a banned word.”
The program, called “Safe Place for Science,” initially will fund 15 researchers with 15 million Euros.
Aix Marseille University says that it is already working closely with the regional government and France’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry “to facilitate the arrival of these scientists and their families in the region, offering support with employment, housing, school access, transportation, and visas.”
“We are doing what is necessary to provide them with the best living environment.
We are ready to welcome them and will make them true children of the country!” Renaud Muselier, President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, said in a statement in support of the program.
The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in particular have already frozen federal grants and loans for the National Institutes of Health, the US National Science Foundation, fired NASA’s chief scientist, and fired thousands of workers across the federal government, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, critical for weather forecasting for natural disasters.
The language of many of his executive orders is also so broad that researchers at public universities and other research institutions worry they’ll lose funding for their work if they even mention climate, gender, race, or equity, terms that the Trump administration has been trying to wipe off any federal site and program.
“It is surreal that people are so scared and silent, because scientists and administrators are worried about losing ALL of their funding or MOST of their funding if they appeal or speak out against terminated grants,” the researcher at the leading American university told me.
“I have been shocked that many in academic leadership seem to not see how similar these actions are to other totalitarian regimes—which have taught us that we have to push back hard on EVERYTHING that is unethical and inhumane, not just the thing that affects us personally the most.”
https://www.404media.co/nasa-yale-and-stanford-scientists-consider-scientific-exile-french-university-says/
https://www.univ-amu.fr/fr/public/actualites/safe-place-science-aix-marseille-universite-prete-accueillir-les-scientifiques?ref=404media.co
Hubble Sees a Spiral and a Star
Mar 14, 2025
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo.
While the galaxy and the star appear to be close to one another, even overlapping, they’re actually a great distance apart.
The star, marked with four long diffraction spikes, is in our own galaxy. It’s just 7,109 light-years away from Earth. The galaxy, named NGC 4900, lies about 45 million light-years from Earth.
This image combines data from two of Hubble’s instruments: the Advanced Camera for Surveys, installed in 2002 and still in operation today, and the older Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, which was in use from 1993 to 2009.
The data used here were taken more than 20 years apart for two different observing programs — a real testament to Hubble’s long scientific lifetime!
Both programs aimed to understand the demise of massive stars.
In one, researchers studied the sites of past supernovae, aiming to estimate the masses of the stars that exploded and investigate how supernovae interact with their surroundings.
They selected NGC 4900 for the study because it hosted a supernova named SN 1999br.
In the other program, researchers laid the groundwork for studying future supernovae by collecting images of more than 150 nearby galaxies.
When researchers detect a supernova in one of these galaxies, they can refer to these images, examining the star at the location of the supernova.
Identifying a supernova progenitor star in pre-explosion images gives valuable information about how, when, and why supernovae occur.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-sees-a-spiral-and-a-star/
Ashley Moody, Rick Scott push to move NASA HQ to Florida’s Space Coast
March 14, 2025
All systems are go.
Florida’s Senators are putting their muscle behind a Gov. Ron DeSantis priority regarding the future of NASA.
U.S. Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott are introducing the Consolidating Aerospace Programs Efficiently (CAPE) at Canaveral Act to move the headquarters of the space agency on the Space Coast.
“Establishing NASA’s headquarters within the Space Coast will bridge the bureaucracy gap from the top down and bring stakeholders together,” Moody said.
“Florida is the gateway to space and this commonsense proposal would save taxpayers money, encourage collaboration with private space companies, and tap into Florida’s talented workforce to spur further innovation.
As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we must ensure that any new building will be filled with employees — not empty like we have been seeing in Washington the last four years.”
Moody contends that it’s pointless to build a new headquarters in Washington, D.C., for the agency, given that their current digs have had as little as a 15% occupancy rate.
“Moving to Florida will not only save Americans’ tax dollars, it will enhance efficiency and streamline operations in this important industry with proximity to private-sector partners and a top-tier workforce ready to help America reach its space exploration goals,” Scott added.
In addition to the Senators, Space Florida CEO Rob Long said this “solution takes advantage of Florida’s place as the center of America’s aerospace economy while creating a cost-effective solution that would release NASA from the bureaucratic shackles within the Beltway.”
“It is a logical step to fuel innovation. Moving NASA’s leadership closer to where the bulk of the mission happens every day just makes sense,” Long argued.
DeSantis said last month that he wants the proposed build in the nation’s capital stopped, in part, because “nobody shows up to work there anyways.”
He thinks the project will end up “costing a billion” dollars, a spend not needed because “renovations” are already going on at Cape Canaveral.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/726246-moody-scott-nasa/
Watch Rocket Lab launch radar imaging satellite to orbit tonight
March 14, 2025
Rocket Lab will launch a private radar imaging satellite to orbit tonight (March 14), and you can watch the action live
An Electron vehicle carrying a single satellite for the Japan-based Earth-imaging company iQPS is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site today, during a two-hour window that opens at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT and 1 p.m. local New Zealand time on March 15).
Rocket Lab will stream the action live, beginning 30 minutes before launch. Space.com will carry the company's stream if, as expected, it is made available.
Today's mission, which Rocket Lab calls "The Lightning God Reigns," will send the QPS-SAR-9 satellite to a circular orbit 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth.
As its name suggests, QPS-SAR-9 will use synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to study its home planet.
"The spacecraft will join iQPS' growing Earth-imaging constellation that delivers high-resolution monitoring from specific locations every 10 minutes," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description.
"'The Lightning God Reigns' is the first of eight upcoming launches for iQPS across 2025 and 2026 to build out iQPS' constellation, and follows the Company's earlier successful mission for iQPS launched in December 2023," Rocket Lab added.
"The Lightning God Reigns" will be the third mission of 2025 for Electron, a 59-foot-tall (18 meters) rocket designed to give small satellites dedicated rides to space.
Electron's fourth flight of the year will come in quick succession, if all goes to plan: Rocket Lab aims to launch five satellites for France-based "Internet of Things" company Kinéis on Monday (March 17).
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/rocket-lab-lightning-god-reigns-mission-launch
https://www.rocketlabusa.com/missions/next-mission/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-cuTDrVCmQ
Total lunar eclipse March 2025: Best photos of the "Blood Worm Moon"
March 14, 2025
As the Full Worm Moon rose overnight, skywatchers across the Americas turned their eyes — and their cameras — toward the sky.
Over several hours, Earth's shadow slowly crept across the lunar surface, turning our celestial neighbor into a deep, blood-red orb.
This was the first total lunar eclipse since 2022, and photographers — both amateur and professional — were not going to let the rare opportunity to capture the spectacle pass, even if it meant staying awake well into the early morning hours.
If you didn't manage to see the total lunar eclipse or if you just want to relive the show all over again, we've rounded up some of the best "Blood Worm Moon" photos from across North America and beyond.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth, and moon align in such a way that Earth casts its shadow on the moon.
During totality, the moon moves through Earth’s umbra, the darkest part of its shadow, creating the deep red hue of a "Blood Moon."
The March full moon is traditionally known as the "Worm Moon" because this is the time of year when the ground softens and earthworm casts reappear.
For these reasons, this total lunar eclipse in March is sometimes referred to as the "Blood Worm Moon."
cont.
https://www.space.com/total-lunar-eclipse-blood-worm-moon-best-photos
New FCC space chief seeks licensing reform and “intensive” use of spectrum
March 13, 2025
The new head of the Federal Communications Commission’s space division says his focus will be licensing reform and spectrum access.
In a speech at the Satellite 2025 conference March 12, Jay Schwartz, chief of the FCC’s Space Bureau, said he will approach the regulation of satellite communications systems through an economic lens with a goal of ensuring the industry’s growth.
“The way I see it is that the main job of the Space Bureau at the FCC is to facilitate and accelerate all the investments in your industry,” he said.
“If we at the FCC, whether through slow processing, overly burdensome rules, things like that, are creating unnecessary regulatory drag, that drag matters in meaningful ways.”
One topic he was would be an immediate priority for the Space Bureau is its licensing system.
“Our space licensing system is rooted in a mother-may-I regulatory philosophy designed for the last space race,” he argued. “We have chosen paperwork, processes and precaution.”
That results, he claimed, in a system where getting a license can be a “multi-year odyssey” that requires reform.
“The Commission will need to make sure our rules are clear so applicants know where to hit the strike zone,” he said.
“We’ll look to establish envelopes of flexibility within which operators can painlessly adjust.”
That approach would involve more automation, shorter timelines and less bureaucracy. However, he did not offer a timeline for implementing that licensing reform.
The other near-term focus Schwartz identified was freeing up spectrum for “intensive space uses,” which he said would follow a similar approach as what the FCC has done for spectrum for mobile services.
“Yes, we’ll look for new bands, but we’ll also see if existing bands are being used as intensively as possible, and we will also look to clear out restrictive technical rules holding back deployment,” he said.
“It’s imperative that we ask how spectrum for satellite can be more available and also more intensively used.”
The FCC announced Feb. 27 a new public consultation to examine potential new uses of upper C-band satellite spectrum.
That could result in an auction of that spectrum to terrestrial wireless operators, similar to what took place with lower C-band spectrum in 2020, or a mix of space and terrestrial uses of the spectrum.
Schwartz, named chief of the Space Bureau Feb. 4, does not have a space industry background.
He was previously vice president of public policy at Comcast and before that held several other positions at the FCC, including as an adviser to then-chairman Ajit Pai.
However, he has experience with the satellite industry’s services.
He described in his speech that he and his family live on a farm outside Washington that lacked “high-speed, reliable home broadband,” much to the dismay of his children.
“That all did change when we got high-speed satellite broadband,” he said.
“So it’s not an exaggeration to say that I understand from a very personal level how what this industry does and the advances in this industry can be life changing in a very, very real way.”
https://spacenews.com/new-fcc-space-chief-seeks-licensing-reform-and-intensive-use-of-spectrum/
https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/first-metal-3d-printed-part-from-space-returns-for-testing-237244/
First metal 3D printed part from space returns for testing
Mar 14 2025
The first ever metal 3D printed part produced in space has returned to Earth for testing as part of the European Space Agency’s ‘Metal3D’ project focused on manufacturing in microgravity.
Created aboard the International Space Station (ISS) using ESA’s Metal 3D Printer, the sample has landed at the agency’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, where it will undergo testing.
Developed by Airbus and its partners, this 3D printer was installed in the ISS’s Columbus module by ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen last year.
A few months later, in June, it successfully produced its first test print, a curving line shaped like an S. Over the summer, it printed a complete sample, followed by a second in December.
Now, the first of these samples is set for analysis at ESTEC’s Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory, where researchers will compare it with Earth-printed counterparts to better understand how microgravity influences the printing process.
The second sample will be studied at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
The project itself has been years in the making. Airbus Defence & Space and AddUp began developing the Metal 3D Printer under an ESA contract in 2016, with the goal of evaluating 3D printing capabilities in sustained microgravity.
The system was launched to the ISS aboard NASA’s NG-20 mission on January 30, 2024, and operational printing started in mid 2024.
While astronauts have been using polymer 3D printers on the ISS since 2014 to produce plastic parts, introducing metal 3D printing could significantly expand manufacturing capabilities for future missions.
The ability to produce components on demand could reduce reliance on Earth-based resupply missions, which is particularly important for long-duration space travel to the Moon or Mars.
That said, metal 3D printing in space isn’t without its challenges. Unlike traditional systems that can take up significant floor space in industrial settings, the ISS 3D printer had to be scaled down to fit within a unit roughly the size of a washing machine.
Safety was another major consideration, since metal alloys require extreme temperatures to melt, far higher than plastics, the printer was enclosed in a sealed metal box to prevent any hazards.
While plastic 3D printing typically requires temperatures around 200°C, metal alloys used in this process melt at over 1,200°C, necessitating strict thermal control.
The 3D printing process itself also differs from standard Earth-based methods. Rather than using powder-based 3D printing, which could pose containment issues in microgravity, the ISS 3D printer relies on a wire-based approach to minimize risks.
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With the first space-printed metal samples now back on Earth, researchers at ESA and DTU will examine them closely, running mechanical strength and bending tests alongside microstructural analysis.
The goal is to compare these results with identical samples printed under normal gravity conditions to determine the effects of microgravity on the manufacturing process.
According to the team, these findings could provide crucial insights for future space missions, where in-orbit manufacturing might one day become a practical necessity.
As ESA and its partners study the effects of microgravity on metal 3D printing, other developments in space-based manufacturing are also gaining attention.
Recently, researchers at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering developed a 3D printing system designed for use in microgravity, aiming to overcome challenges in manufacturing structures in space.
Led by Dr. Gilles Bailet, the project has received funding from multiple sources and has been tested during ESA’s parabolic flight campaign, where it demonstrated reliable material flow using a granular feedstock instead of traditional filaments.
The technology could support applications such as space-based solar power, communications infrastructure, and pharmaceutical production.
Researchers are also exploring ways to integrate electronics into printed components. Future plans include securing additional funding and conducting an in-space demonstration, with a focus on reducing dependence on Earth-based resupply and addressing concerns about space debris.
Space system manufacturer Redwire successfully bioprinted a human knee meniscus in space using its upgraded BioFabrication Facility (BFF) on the IS).
The bioprinted meniscus was cultured on the ISS for 14 days in Redwire’s Advanced Space Experiment Processor (ADSEP) before returning to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew-6 Mission for further analysis.
Conducted as part of the BFF-Meniscus-2 Investigation with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Center for Biotechnology (4D Bio3), this research aims to advance treatments for meniscal injuries, which are common among U.S. service members.
Redwire’s upgraded BFF offers precise temperature control for bioink printing and features a cell-culturing system to strengthen tissues over time.
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FAA restricts air space over Logan County following alleged threats
Mar. 13, 2025 at 12:09 PM PDT
A Logan County man is facing terroristic threatening charges after authorities say he threatened military helicopters and prompted a federal response.
On Tuesday, March 11, Logan County dispatch received a call from the Fort Campbell Provost Marshall’s Office in reference to Daniel Draper of Adairville, according to a release.
Authorities say Draper called Fort Campbell and said, “If I wanted, I could take out two people in the military helicopter that was flying near my house.”
Logan County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a residence on Nashville Road and spoke with Draper, who they say complained about the helicopters disturbing him, but denied making threats.
At around 11:17 a.m. on Thursday, March 13, dispatch received a call from the Federal Aviation Administration in Nashville stating Draper called a second time and threatened to shoot down aircrafts that flew over his home.
As a result of the second threat, the FAA said they were restricting all air space over Logan County until the situation was resolved. The suspension could affect hundreds of flights, the organization said.
LCSO was again dispatched to Draper’s residence, where he was interviewed and arrested. Deputies say he was charged with two counts of third-degree terroristic threatening and lodged in the Logan County Detention Center.
https://www.wkyt.com/2025/03/13/faa-restricts-air-space-over-logan-county-following-alleged-threats/
CMSSF Leadership Library: March 2025
March 13, 2025
Guardians,
As a young and evolving service, the United States Space Force must harness the power of innovative leadership to propel our success.
Our operations require leaders who can navigate uncertainty, think creatively, and make bold decisions in the face of complex and rapidly emerging situations.
To stay ahead of the curve, it’s essential that we emphasize the importance of leadership development and create an atmosphere that encourages continuous learning, innovation, and progression.
At the heart of this effort is the development of leaders who embody the core values of the Space Force.
We need Guardians who demonstrate strong Character through their actions and decisions, build strong Connections with their teams and stakeholders, show Commitment to our mission and vision, and exhibit Courage as we navigate this contested and competitive domain.
To support this vision, I'm excited to launch the inaugural edition of my Leadership Library, a resource designed to inspire Guardians to develop their leadership skills and stay at the forefront of Spacepower.
This library includes a curated selection of books exploring alternative views on leadership, productivity, the secrets to performance and satisfaction, creating a positive workplace culture, logical thinking and decision-making, and military history.
Additionally, you can find additional insights in episodes of the Perigee Podcast and my quarterly memos, “The B-Line.”
We aspire to create a Space Force characterized by a culture of intellectual curiosity, creative problem-solving, and collaborative leadership.
I encourage you to embark on a journey of continuous learning and commitment to mastery, to seek out new challenges and opportunities, and to never stop trying to be the best version of yourself.
Let's seize this opportunity to shape the future of our service, forge a generation of Guardians who will propel our nation to new heights, and secure our position in the space domain.
Together, we'll build the Space Force we need to secure our nation's interest in, from and to space.
This is the Way!
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4030346/cmssf-leadership-library-march-2025
SpaceX Transporter-13 Mission
March 14, 2025 11:39 p.m. PT
SpaceX is targeting Friday, March 14 for Falcon 9’s launch of the Transporter-13 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The 17-minute launch window opens at 11:39 p.m. PT. If needed, there is a backup opportunity on Saturday, March 15 at the same time.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.
This will be the 13th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission which previously launched Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, and six Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, Falcon 9 will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
There is the possibility that residents of and visitors to Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions.
Transporter-13 is a dedicated smallsat rideshare mission.
There are 74 payloads on this flight, including cubesats, micosats, hosted payloads, a re-entry capsule, and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying 11 of those payloads to be deployed at a later time.
To date, SpaceX has launched more than 1,200 payloads to orbit for 130+ customers across our entire Rideshare program.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=transporter13
British frigate seizes £5.4m Class A drugs in Middle East
March 14, 20255
The Royal Navy has disrupted a major international drug smuggling operation, with HMS Lancaster intercepting and seizing £5.4 million worth of heroin and methamphetamine in the northern Arabian Sea, according to a Royal Navy news update.
This marks the Royal Navy’s first drug bust of 2025, carried out under the Combined Task Force 150, an international initiative to combat illegal maritime activity in the Middle East.
The Portsmouth-based frigate’s crew—comprising Royal Marines, sailors, and drone operators—played a key role in tracking and stopping the smugglers.
As quoted in the Royal Navy news update, the Peregrine remote-controlled drone, which was only introduced to operations in late 2024, was crucial in detecting suspicious activity.
Operators of the Peregrine drone spotted two boats moored side by side during a nighttime operation, prompting the frigate’s Wildcat helicopter to be launched for further investigation.
The aircrew observed packages being transferred from a small fast boat to a traditional dhow, confirming the presence of drug smugglers at work.
“Today’s successful drug bust underscores the vital role that the Royal Navy plays in international maritime security,” said Lieutenant Commander Rachel Rychtanek, a Wildcat pilot on exchange from the US Coast Guard, as quoted in the Royal Navy news update.
As HMS Lancaster rapidly approached the scene, the smugglers attempted to dispose of their illicit cargo, throwing the packages overboard.
However, the frigate’s sea boat crew recovered the discarded drugs, bringing them back on board for testing.
A total of 340kg of heroin and 83kg of methamphetamine were seized, effectively removing a significant quantity of Class A drugs from the black market.
Following the bust, Royal Marines and sailors conducted a thorough search of the dhow, gathering valuable intelligence on smuggling networks in the region.
Commander Sam Stephens, HMS Lancaster’s Commanding Officer, praised the success of the operation and spoke of the vital role of the new Peregrine drones, stating:
“I am extremely proud of my whole team for their professionalism and dedication in achieving this success.
We have removed £5.4m of Class A substances from the black market and disrupted those who threaten our interests,” as quoted in the Royal Navy news update.
HMS Lancaster is deployed as part of Combined Task Force 150, a multinational effort to combat illegal activity in Middle Eastern waters.
The warship, which has been stationed in Bahrain for over two years, continues to play a key role in safeguarding international maritime security.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-frigate-seizes-5-4m-class-a-drugs-in-middle-east/
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news/2025/march/14/20250314-hms-lancaster-hits-illegal-drugs-network
Iran uses drones and cameras to monitor women in public places
Friday 14 March 2025 06:14 EDT
Iran is increasing its use of electronic surveillance and the public to target women refusing to wear the country's mandatory headscarf in public as hard-liners advocate for stricter penalties for those protesting the law, a United Nations report has found.
The report, released on Friday by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, come after it determined last year that the country's theocracy was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to the death of Mahsa Amini.
Her death led to nationwide protests against the country’s mandatory hijab laws and the public disobedience against them that continues even today, despite the threat of violent arrest and imprisonment.
“Two and a half years after the protests began in September 2022, women and girls in Iran continue to face systematic discrimination, in law and in practice, that permeates all aspects of their lives, particularly with respect to the enforcement of the mandatory hijab,” the report said.
“The state is increasingly reliant on state-sponsored vigilantism in an apparent effort to enlist businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance, portraying it as a civic responsibility.”
Iran's mission to the U.N. in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings of the 20-page report.
Drones, surveillance cameras monitor women
In it, U.N. investigators outline how Iran increasingly relies on electronic surveillance.
Among the efforts include Iranian officials deploying “aerial drone surveillance” to monitor women in public places.
At Tehran's Amirkabir University, authorities installed facial recognition software at its entrance gate to also find women not wearing the hijab, it said.
Surveillance cameras on Iran's major roadways also are believed to be involved in searching for uncovered women.
U.N. investigators said they obtained the “Nazer” mobile phone app offered by Iranian police, which allows the public to report on uncovered women in vehicles, including ambulances, buses, metro cars and taxis.
“Users may add the location, date, time and the license plate number of the vehicle in which the alleged mandatory hijab infraction occurred, which then ‘flags’ the vehicle online, alerting the police,” the report said.
“It then triggers a text message (in real-time) to the registered owner of the vehicle, warning them that they had been found in violation of the mandatory hijab laws, and that their vehicles would be impounded for ignoring these warnings.”
Those text messages have led to dangerous situations. In July 2024, police officers shot and paralysed a woman who activists say had received such a message and was fleeing a checkpoint near the Caspian Sea.
Tensions remain after 2022 death of Mahsa Amini
Amini’s death sparked months of protests and a security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and led to the detention of more than 22,000.
After the mass demonstrations, police dialled down enforcement of hijab laws, but it ramped up again in April 2024 under what authorities called the Noor — or “Light” — Plan.
At least 618 women have been arrested under the Noor Plan, the U.N. investigators said, citing a local human rights activist group in Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran executed at least 938 people last year, a threefold increase from 2021, the U.N. said.
While many were convicted of drug charges, the report said the executions “indicate a nexus with the overall repression of dissent in this period.”
As Iran continues its crackdown over the hijab, it also faces an economic crisis over U.S. sanctions due to its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
While U.S. President Donald Trump has called for new negotiations, Iran has yet to respond to a letter he sent to its 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Social unrest, coupled with the economic woes, remain a concern for Iran's theocracy.
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/middle-east/iran-mandatory-hijab-law-united-nations-mahsa-amini-b2715064.html