NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

April 14, 2025

The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT

What's happening at the center of our galaxy? It's hard to tell with optical telescopes since visible light is blocked by intervening interstellar dust. In other bands of light, though, such as radio, the galactic center can be imaged and shows itself to be quite an interesting and active place. The featured picture shows an image of our Milky Way's center by the MeerKAT array of 64 radio dishes in South Africa. Spanning four times the angular size of the Moon (2 degrees), the image is impressively vast, deep, and detailed. Many known sources are shown in clear detail, including many with a prefix of Sgr, since the galactic center is in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. In our galaxy's center lies Sgr A, found here in the image center, which houses the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole. Other sources in the image are not as well understood, including the Arc, just to the left of Sgr A, and numerous filamentary threads. The inset image shows a small patch recently imaged in infrared light with the James Webb Space Telescope to investigate the effects of magnetic fields on star formation.

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

New Shepard Mission NS-31 Webcast

April 14, 2025

Blue Origin's 11th human flight, NS-31, will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas on Monday, April 14.

The crew includes: Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez. The webcast, hosted by Charissa Thompson, Kristin Fisher, and Ariane Cornell, will start at T-90 minutes.

https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ns-31

https://www.space.com/news/live/blue-origin-mission-updates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ7XHwMMSas

>>22909892

Just launched

NASA Announces Call for New Computing Approaches to Earth Science

Apr 14, 2025

In an open challenge, NASA is seeking innovative business models that propose new approaches to solving complex Earth science problems using unconventional computing methods and is holding an informational webinar on Monday, April 28.

The agency’s Beyond the Algorithm Challenge, sponsored by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office, asks for proposals to more rapidly and accurately understand our home planet using transformative computing methods such as quantum computing, quantum machine learning, neuromorphic computing, in-memory computing, or other approaches.

The Beyond the Algorithm Challenge kicked off in March and consists of three phases.

Participant submissions, which are due on July 25, will be evaluated based on creativity, technical feasibility, impact, business model evaluation, and presentation.

Up to 10 finalists will be invited to present their ideas to a panel of judges at a live pitch event, and winners will a monetary prize.

For details about the challenge, interested participants can sign up for the informational webinar on Monday, April 28, here.

Using the vantage point of space, NASA’s observations of Earth increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future.

The capabilities of NASA’s Earth Science Division include developing new technology, delivering actionable science, and providing environmental information to meet the increased demand for more sophisticated, more accurate, more trustworthy, and more actionable environmental information for decision-makers and policymakers.

For example, rapid flood analysis is one area that may benefit from computing advancements.

Flood hazards affect personal safety and land use, directly affecting individual livelihoods, community property, and infrastructure development and resilience.

Advanced flood analysis capability enables contributions to protect and serve impacted communities, making a tangible difference in areas such as disaster preparedness, recovery, and resilience.

Advancements in computing capabilities show promise in overcoming processing power, efficiency, and performance limitations of conventional computing methods in addressing Earth science challenges like rapid flood analysis.

Quantum computers offer a fundamentally different paradigm of computation and can solve certain classes of problems exponentially faster than their classical counterparts.

Likewise, quantum machine learning offers the potential to reduce required training data or produce more accurate models.

The emerging field of neuromorphic, or brain-inspired, computing holds significant promise for algorithm development optimized for high-speed, low power. 

And in-memory computing saves time and energy for data-heavy processes like artificial intelligence training.

Blue Clarity is hosting the Beyond the Algorithm Challenge on behalf of NASA. The NASA Tournament Lab, part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, manages the challenge.

The program supports global public competitions and crowdsourcing as tools to advance NASA research and development and other mission needs.

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/prizes-challenges-crowdsourcing-program/center-of-excellence-for-collaborative-innovation-coeci/coeci-news/nasa-announces-call-for-new-computing-approaches-to-earth-science/

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__EpErwcSRsm8z3StlHHqkw#/registration

UNI students go deep underground seeking answers to mysteries of deep space

Apr 14, 2025

Researchers from the University of Northern Iowa are exploring some of the nation’s deepest caves to learn about life in extreme environments, and their findings could ultimately help NASA in its search for life on other planets.

UNI chemistry and biochemistry professor Joshua Sebree says he’s led undergraduate students on 50 to 60 fact-finding missions far underground, both in Iowa and several surrounding states.

“We go out to Coldwater Cave, which is the longest cave in Iowa at over 17 miles,” Sebree says, “and we visit there once a month for various research projects.”

While it would be difficult for people to live in those subterranean environments for long, Sebree says other creatures can thrive in caves, but they can be quite elusive.

“We’re always on the hunt for an extreme fish, the fish that can survive in caves, but then we’re also looking for different chemical fossils that have been preserved in the rock over time,” Sebree says.

“We’re looking at how the glow-in-the-dark properties of these rocks can tell us about the different waters that made the caves eons ago and so we can get a picture of how the cave has evolved over time.”

The team of UNI cavers uses ultraviolet or “black” light to examine mineral formations in the caves, which will appear under ordinary light about like you’d expect, mostly shades of brown.

“It changes to another color. In some cases, it can be vibrant pink, it can be fluorescent green, it can be a soft blue,” Sebree says.

“All of those different colors that come back out of those crystals are telling you about what are the parts of the crystal that have a little something extra beyond just the calcium carbonate.”

He says the glowing patterns can offer new insight into how water — and potential life — once interacted deep underground and could indicate how life might exist in places like Jupiter’s moon Europa.

The caves, he says, can be absolutely stunning.

Sebree says, “You can enter some of these cavern spaces, flip on your black light, and you’re just surrounded by a technicolor whirlwind of all of these different bright crystals all around you.”

UNI’s research is being supported by NASA and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium.

https://www.radioiowa.com/2025/04/14/uni-students-go-deep-underground-seeking-answers-to-mysteries-of-deep-space/

‘God Of Chaos’ Asteroid: It’s Exactly Four Years Until The Rarest Space Event Of Our Lives

Apr 13, 2025,06:00am EDT

Key Facts

• Asteroid 99942 Apophis (named for the serpent god of chaos in ancient Egypt) is a 1,100-foot (340-meter) wide space rock that will get to within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of our planet.

• If Apophis did strike Earth, it could spread devastation across a radius of hundreds of miles, according to Space.com, killing millions of people if it struck a highly populated metropolitan area.

• At a gathering of scientists this week in Tokyo, Japan, plans were unveiled during the Apophis T-4 Years Workshop for radar observations before, during and after the approach, with one abstract describing the close encounter as a chance - for a “once-per-thousand-year natural science opportunity.”

• According to NASA, when Apophis was discovered in 2004, scientists calculated that it might strike Earth in 2029, 2036 or 2068. Its orbit has since been refined a few times, and, as it stands, we’re safe — for now.

• However, it’s possible that the gravitational effect on Apophis of Earth on April 29, 2029, could cause it to alter its trajectory slightly and be a danger in the future. So could a chance encounter with another asteroid in deep space.

• For now, its future trajectory is unknowable, but scientists are certain of one thing — we should use its close pass in 2029 to study it closely. After all, in 2060 or 2068, it could one day live up to its “God of Chaos” moniker.

Precisely four years from today — on Friday, April 13, 2029 — an asteroid as wide as the Empire State Building is wide will come closer to Earth than orbiting geosynchronous satellites in a very rare event.

Apophis will not impact Earth, but could its remarkably close pass store up trouble for the future? If so, the close pass is a chance to gather data critical for humanity’s future.

Asteroid 99942 Apophis (named for the serpent god of chaos in ancient Egypt) is a 1,100-foot (340-meter) wide space rock that will get to within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of our planet.

“On April 13, 2029, all of Earth will be watching,” reads an abstract from Richard Binzel, professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and inventor of the Torino Scale that categorizes the impact hazard of near-Earth objects.

“Apophis will be visible to the naked eye speeding across the evening sky for an estimated two billion people spanning western Europe and western Africa."

Could Nasa Deflect An Asteroid?

It already has. In October 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART — the world’s first full-scale planetary defense mission — saw a 500kg spacecraft smash into binary asteroid 65803 Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos at 15,000 miles per hour.

It successfully changed its orbit slightly, proving that one day, it might be possible to nudge a dangerous asteroid onto a safe trajectory. DART’s inspiration? Apophis.

Missions To Apophis

The European Space Agency’s Rapid Apophis Mission for SEcurity and Safety (RAMSES) mission will likely launch in spring 2028 and reach Apophis in February 2029, just prior to its close encounter with Earth.

That will give scientists data on how Apophis interacts with Earth's gravity — “a rare natural experiment that may not occur again for thousands of years,” according to another abstract — and how it physically changes after the close encounter.

NASA's OSIRIS–Apophis Explorer (APEX) mission will rendezvous with Apophis just after it's closely passed Earth in 2029 and orbit it until November 2030 to see how its trajectory changes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2025/04/13/god-of-chaos-asteroid-its-four-years-until-the-rarest-space-event-of-our-lives/

>>22910054

Shut it down!

April's Full Pink Moon captivates skywatchers worldwide with dazzling 'micromoon' show

April 14, 2025

April's full moon lit up skies around the world this weekend, delighting skywatchers with a dramatic show.

Known as the Pink Moon, or the Paschal Moon, this month’s full moon was the smallest full moon of 2025.

This is because it reached peak illumination at apogee, the farthest point in its orbit from Earth, earning its title of a "micromoon".

Though the difference in size can be hard to spot with the naked eye, the moon’s striking glow created a stunning backdrop for photographers and moon lovers alike.

Despite its name, the Pink Moon isn’t actually pink — it’s named after the moss pink, one of spring’s first wildflowers to bloom.

As seen in the photos below, April’s full Pink Moon did not disappoint.

Photographer Robbie Pesiwarissa (Robbiesydney Photography) captured the beauty of the Pink Moon from a park in Sydney, Australia.

"The tranquil ambiance of Archibald Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park Sydney, coupled with the majestic presence of Saint Mary's Cathedral, created a perfect backdrop for capturing the beauty of the micromoon," Pesiwarissa told Space.com in an email.

"The blend of nature, architecture, and celestial wonder made it a moment to remember, a serene pause in the bustling life of Sydney"

Photographer Lorenzo Di Cola captured this delicate shot of the Pink Moon rising behind Rocca Calascio castle and Santa Maria della Pietà church, municipality of Calascio, Italy.

cont.

https://www.space.com/stargazing/aprils-full-pink-moon-captivates-skywatchers-worldwide-with-dazzling-micromoon-show-photos

>>22910051