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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
March 21, 2025
The Leo Trio
This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (bottom left), M66 (middle right), and M65 (top center). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky. Captured with a telescope from Sawda Natheel, Qatar, planet Earth, the frame covers over half a million light-years at the Leo Trio's estimated 30 million light-year distance.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Sols 4484-4485: Remote Sensing on a Monday
Mar 20, 2025
Earth planning date: Monday, March 17, 2025
Last week I was in Houston, Texas, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
The mid-March weather in Houston is often more like mid-summer weather here in Toronto, so it has been a bit of a shock coming home to temperatures that are hovering around freezing rather than being in the upper 20s (degrees Celsius, or the low to mid 80s for those of you still using Fahrenheit).
Still, Toronto is positively balmy compared to Gale Crater, where temperatures usually range between minus 80°C and minus 20°C (or minus 110°F to minus 5°F) during this part of the year.
These cold temperatures and their associated higher demands on the rover’s available power for heating are continuing to motivate many of the decisions that we make during planning.
We received the double good news this morning that the weekend's drive completed successfully, including the mid-drive imaging of the other side of “Humber Park” that Michelle mentioned in Friday's blog, and that our estimates of the weekend plan's power consumption ended up being a little conservative.
So we started planning exactly where we wanted to be, and with more power to play around with than we had expected. Yay!
The weekend's drive left us parked in front of some rocks with excellent layering and interesting ripples that we really wanted to get a closer look at with MAHLI.
(See the cover image for a look at these rocks as seen by Navcam.) Sadly, we also ended up parked in such a way that presented a slip hazard if the arm was unstowed.
As much as we would have loved to get close-up images of these rocks, we love keeping Curiosity's arm safe even more, so we had to settle for a remote sensing-only plan instead.
Both the geology and mineralogy (GEO) and the environmental science (ENV) teams took full advantage of the extra power gifted to us today to create a plan packed full of remote sensing observations.
Because we're driving on the first sol of this two-sol plan, any “targeted” observations, i.e. those where we know exactly where we want to point the rover's cameras, must take place before the drive.
The first sol is thus packed full of Mastcam and ChemCam observations, starting with a 14x3 Mastcam mosaic of the area in front of us that's outside of today's workspace.
Individual targets then get some Mastcam love with mosaics of various ripple and layering features at “Verdugo Peak,” “Silver Moccasin Trail,” and “Jones Peak.”
Mastcam and ChemCam also team up on a LIBS target, “Trancas Canyon,” and some more long-distance mosaics of Gould Mesa, a feature about 100 meters away from us (about 328 feet) that we'll be driving to the south of as we continue to head toward the “boxwork” structures.
After a drive, there often aren't many activities scheduled other than the imaging of our new location that we'll need for the next planning day.
However, in this plan ENV decided to take advantage of the fact that Navcam observations can take place at the same time that the rover is talking to one of the spacecraft that orbit Mars.
This is a useful trick when power is tight as it allows us to do more science without adding additional awake time (since the rover needs to be awake anyway to communicate with the orbiters).
Today, it's being used to get some extra cloud observations right before sunset, a time that we don't often get to observe.
These observations include a zenith movie that looks straight up over the rover and a “phase function sky survey,” which takes a series of nine movies that form a dome around the rover to examine the properties of the clouds’ ice crystals.
The second sol of this plan is much more relaxed, as post-drive sols often are because we don't know exactly where we'll be after a drive.
Today, we've just got our usual ChemCam AEGIS activity, followed by a pair of Navcam cloud and cloud shadow movies to measure the altitude of clouds over Gale.
As always, we've also got our usual set of REMS, RAD, and DAN activities throughout this plan.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4484-4485-remote-sensing-on-a-monday/
Muscle, Bone, and Blood Studies on Station Promoting Space and Earth Health
March 20, 2025
The Expedition 72 crew with its four newest members is returning to science operations following a busy period of crew swap activities.
Human research was Thursday’s main focus as the International Space Station residents studied how living in space affects bones, muscles, and brain blood flow.
Astronauts are living in space for months at a time and scientists have been continuously studying how their bodies adapt to weightlessness.
Results are especially important as NASA and its international partners plan long-duration crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond that are less dependent on Earth.
NASA Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers processed her blood samples for analysis to understand and treat space-caused bone loss as well as bone conditions on Earth such as osteoporosis.
Veteran NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit worked out on the advanced resistive exercise device for an investigation exploring how exercising during spaceflight impacts the muscles and bones.
A new experiment on the orbital outpost, Drain Brain 2.0, is investigating how blood flows from a crew member’s brain toward the heart in microgravity.
Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) attached sensors and electrodes to his neck and chest for the human research study.
The experiment measures blood volume changes in the neck to assess the risk of cardiovascular conditions during spaceflight.
Results may improve health screening in space for astronauts and benefit patients with heart problems on Earth.
NASA Flight Engineer Anne McClain who is on her second space station mission joined Pettit during the first part of the day configuring the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft for docked operations.
At the end of her shift on Thursday she joined Ayers, Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and reviewed emergency hardware location and usage procedures.
Pettit and station Commander Alexey Ovchinin assisted the new crewmates who are still in their first week aboard the orbiting lab.
Ovchinin also participated in space biology research on Thursday with fellow Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner.
The duo, who have been aboard the station with Pettit since Sept. 11, 2024, collected blood pressure measurements for an investigation exploring blood circulation in microgravity.
Peskov inspected video recording equipment before continuing his familiarization with life on orbit.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/03/20/muscle-bone-and-blood-studies-on-station-promoting-space-and-earth-health/
https://www.nasa.gov/general/how-nasas-autonomy-choreography-will-impact-advanced-technologies/
How NASA’s “Autonomy Choreography” Will Impact Advanced Technologies
Mar 20, 2025
Imagine your car is in conversation with other traffic and road signals as you travel.
Those conversations help your car anticipate actions you can’t see: the sudden slowing of a truck as it begins to turn ahead of you, or an obscured traffic signal turning red.
Meanwhile, this system has plotted a course that will drive you toward a station to recharge or refuel, while a conversation with a weather service prepares your windshield wipers and brakes for the rain ahead.
This trip requires a lot of communication among systems from companies, government agencies, and organizations.
How might these different entities – each with their own proprietary technology – share data safely in real time to make your trip safe, efficient, and enjoyable?
Technologists at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley created a framework called Data & Reasoning Fabric (DRF), a set of software infrastructure, tools, protocols, governance, and policies that allow safe, secure data sharing and logical prediction-making across different operators and machines.
Originally developed with a focus on providing autonomous aviation drones with decision-making capabilities, DRF is now being explored for other applications.
This means that one day, DRF-informed technology could allow your car to receive traffic data safely and securely from nearby stoplights and share data with other vehicles on the road.
In this scenario, DRF is the choreographer of a complex dance of moving objects, ensuring each moves seamlessly in relation to one another towards a shared goal.
The system is designed to create an integrated environment, combining data from systems that would otherwise be unable to interact with each other.
“DRF is built to be used behind the scenes,” said David Alfano, chief of the Intelligent Systems Division at Ames.
“Companies are developing autonomous technology, but their systems aren’t designed to work with technology from competitors.
The DRF technology bridges that gap, organizing these systems to work together in harmony.”
Traffic enhancements are just one use case for this innovative system. The technology could enhance how we use autonomy to support human needs on Earth, in the air, and even on the Moon.
Supporting Complex Logistics
To illustrate the technology’s impact, the DRF team worked with the city of Phoenix on an aviation solution to improve transportation of critical medical supplies from urban areas out to rural communities with limited access to these resources.
An autonomous system identified where supplies were needed and directed a drone to pick up and transport supplies quickly and safely.
“All the pieces need to come together, which takes a lot of effort.
The DRF technology provides a framework where suppliers, medical centers, and drone operators can work together efficiently,” said Moustafa Abdelbaky, senior computer scientist at Ames.
“The goal isn’t to remove human involvement, but help humans achieve more.”
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The DRF technology is part of a larger effort at Ames to develop concepts that enable autonomous operations while integrating them into the public and commercial sector to create safer, efficient environments.
“At NASA, we’re always learning something. There’s a silver lining when one project ends, you can identify a new lesson learned, a new application, or a new economic opportunity to continue and scale that work,” said Supreet Kaur, lead systems engineer at Ames.
“And because we leverage all of the knowledge we’ve gained through these experiments, we are able to make future research more robust.”
Choreographed Autonomy
Industries like modern mining involve a variety of autonomous and advanced vehicles and machinery, but these systems face the challenge of communicating sufficiently to operate in the same area.
The DRF technology’s “choreography” might help them work together, improving efficiency.
Researchers met with a commercial mining company to learn what issues they struggle with when using autonomous equipment to identify where DRF might provide future solutions.
“If an autonomous drill is developed by one company, but the haul trucks are developed by another, those two machines are dancing to two different sets of music.
Right now, they need to be kept apart manually for safety,” said Johnathan Stock, chief scientist for innovation at the Ames Intelligent Systems Division.
“The DRF technology can harmonize their autonomous work so these mining companies can use autonomy across the board to create a safer, more effective enterprise.”
Further testing of DRF on equipment like those used in mines could be done at the NASA Ames Roverscape, a surface that includes obstacles such as slopes and rocks, where DRF’s choreography could be put to the test.
Stock also envisions DRF improving operations on the Moon. Autonomous vehicles could transport materials, drill, and excavate, while launch vehicles come and go.
These operations will likely include systems from different companies or industries and could be choreographed by DRF.
As autonomous systems and technologies increase across markets, on Earth, in orbit, and on the Moon, DRF researchers are ready to step on the dance floor to make sure everything runs smoothly.
“When everyone’s dancing to the same tune, things run seamlessly, and more is possible.
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NASA astronauts grow 'taller' in bizarre side effect after months in space
Updated 11:26 ET, MAR 20 2025
Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned to Earth after nine months stranded on the International Space Station.
Being up there for so long has caused weird side effects to the NASA astronauts' bodies, easily seen in before-and-after pictures showing the impact of months in Space.
Their capsule landed in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday. The duo only expected to stay aboard the ISS for a few weeks after landing there last June, but malfunctions with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that was meant to pick them up left them stranded.
Now that they are finally back, they will likely face several side effects from being in zero gravity for so long. After touching down, the NASA astronauts were immediately taken to a medical facility for evaluations, and they will likely undergo a lengthy recovery process.
There are a few odd side effects from being in space including being temporarily taller and leaner when one returns to Earth, Weill Cornell Medicine professor Dr. Christopher Mason told Fox News.
"We saw gene expression change, which is how genes are regulated in their body, and usually telomeres get a little bit longer in space from almost every mission we've looked at, so we'd expect some of these changes," he said.
Telomeres are "region[s] of repetitive DNA sequences at the end of a chromosome," according to the National Human Genome Research Institute. While they may be taller now, their bodies will eventually go back to normal.
"All of it is, at least on some measures… all transient. Most of it is a response to space flight, and usually in a few weeks they're mostly back to normal. It's the first few days that are the most really dynamic when they get back to Earth," he said.
Astronauts commonly experience decreased muscle mass from limited movement in space shuttles, bones lose density, there's increased mineral content in their systems, and neurological changes like disorientation take place, along with space motion sickness and a loss of sense of direction.
Other health risks of being in space include swelling in the back of the eye, decreases in blood volume, orthostatic tolerance, and lessened aerobic capacity while also experiencing increased arrhythmias, according to the Baylor College of Medicine.
Some of these health changes are what NASA studies when it sends astronauts to Earth, looking for ways to mitigate physical breakdowns.
Former NASA astronaut Jose M. Hernandez once spent 14 days in space. He said Williams and Wilmore will need a lot of physical therapy after their trip.
He said: "I remember my first two words when I came down was, ‘Gravity sucks,’ because your body starts adapting, and you've got to recalibrate your vestibular balance system… It's going to take a couple of months before they feel kind of normal back here on Earth."
Wilmore and Williams completed 4,576 orbits around Earth and accumulated a staggering 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) before their splashdown.
https://www.themirror.com/news/science/nasa-astronauts-space-side-effects-1041878
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/nasa-uses-advanced-radar-to-track-groundwater-in-california/
NASA Uses Advanced Radar to Track Groundwater in California
Mar 20, 2025
Where California’s towering Sierra Nevada surrender to the sprawling San Joaquin Valley, a high-stakes detective story is unfolding.
The culprit isn’t a person but a process: the mysterious journey of snowmelt as it travels underground to replenish depleted groundwater reserves.
The investigator is a NASA jet equipped with radar technology so sensitive it can detect ground movements thinner than a nickel.
The work could unlock solutions to one of the American West’s most pressing water challenges — preventing groundwater supplies from running dry.
“NASA’s technology has the potential to give us unprecedented precision in measuring where snowmelt is recharging groundwater,” said Erin Urquhart, program manager for NASA’s Earth Action Water Resources program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“This information is vital for farmers, water managers, and policymakers trying to make the best possible decisions to protect water supplies for agriculture and communities.”
Tracking Water Beneath the Surface
In late February, a NASA aircraft equipped with Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) conducted the first of six flights planned for this year, passing over a roughly 25-mile stretch of the Tulare Basin in the San Joaquin Valley, where foothills meet farmland.
It’s a zone experts think holds a key to maintaining water supplies for one of America’s most productive agricultural regions.
Much of the San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater comes from the melting of Sierra Nevada snow.
“For generations, we’ve been managing water in California without truly knowing where that meltwater seeps underground and replenishes groundwater,” said Stanford University geophysicist and professor Rosemary Knight, who is leading the research.
The process is largely invisible — moisture filtering through rock and sediment, and vanishing beneath orchards and fields. But as the liquid moves downhill, it follows a pattern.
Water flows into rivers and streams, some of it eventually seeping underground at the valley’s edge or as the waterways spread into the valley.
As the water moves through the ground, it can create slight pressure that in turn pushes the surface upward. The movement is imperceptible to the human eye, but NASA’s advanced radar technology can detect it.
“Synthetic aperture radar doesn’t directly see water,” explained Yunling Lou, who leads the UAVSAR program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“We’re measuring changes in surface elevation — smaller than a centimeter — that tell us where the water is.” These surface bulges create what Knight calls an “InSAR recharge signature.”
By tracking how these surface bulges migrate from the mountains into the valley, the team hopes to pinpoint where groundwater replenishment occurs and, ultimately, quantify the amount of water naturally recharging the system.
Previous research using satellite-based InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) has shown that land in the San Joaquin Valley uplifts and subsides with the seasons, as the groundwater is replenished by Sierra snowmelt.
But the satellite radar couldn’t uniquely identify the recharge paths.
Knight’s team combined the satellite data with images of underground sediments, acquired using an airborne electromagnetic system, and was able to map the major hidden subsurface water pathways responsible for aquifer recharge.
NASA’s airborne UAVSAR system will provide even more detailed data, potentially allowing researchers to have a clearer view of where and how fast water is soaking back into the ground and recharging the depleted aquifers.
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Supporting Farmers and Communities
California’s Central Valley produces over a third of America’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts.
The southern portion of this agricultural powerhouse is the San Joaquin Valley, where most farming operations rely heavily on groundwater, especially during drought years.
Water managers have occasionally been forced to impose restrictions on groundwater pumping as aquifer levels drop. Some farmers now drill increasingly deeper wells, driving up costs and depleting reserves.
“Knowing where recharge is happening is vital for smart water management,” said Aaron Fukuda, general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, a water management agency in Tulare County that oversees irrigation and groundwater recharge projects.
“In dry years, when we get limited opportunities, we can direct flood releases to areas that recharge efficiently, avoiding places where water would just evaporate or take too long to soak in,” Fukuda said.
“In wetter years, like 2023, it’s even more crucial — we need to move water into the ground as quickly as possible to prevent flooding and maximize the amount absorbed.”
NASA’s Expanding Role in Water Monitoring
NASA’s ongoing work to monitor and manage Earth’s water combines a range of cutting-edge technologies that complement one another, each contributing unique insights into the challenges of groundwater management.
The upcoming NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission, a joint project between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set to launch in coming months, will provide global-scale radar data to track land and ice surface changes — including signatures of groundwater movement — every 12 days.
In parallel, the GRACE satellites — operated by the German Aerospace Center, German Research Centre for Geosciences, and NASA — have transformed global groundwater monitoring by detecting tiny variations in Earth’s gravity, offering a broad view of monthly water storage changes across large regions.
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and Follow-On (GRACE and GRACE-FO) missions have helped expose major declines in aquifers, including in California’s Central Valley.
But their coarser resolution calls for complementary tools that can, for example, pinpoint recharge hotspots with greater precision.
Together, these technologies form a powerful suite of tools that bridge the gap between regional-scale monitoring and localized water management.
NASA’s Western Water Applications Office (WWAO) also plays a key role in ensuring that this wealth of data is accessible to water managers and others, offering platforms like the Visualization of In-situ and Remotely-Sensed Groundwater Observation (VIRGO) dashboard to facilitate informed decision-making.
“Airborne campaigns like this one in the San Joaquin test how our technology can deliver tangible benefits to American communities,” said Stephanie Granger, WWAO’s director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“We partner with local water managers to evaluate tools that have the potential to strengthen water supplies across the Western United States.”
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>>22798118 pb
>WATERGATE
Fun fact, the "ufo lawyer" was part of that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Sheehan_(attorney)