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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
July 24, 2025
Titan Shadow Transit
Every 15 years or so, Saturn's rings are tilted edge-on to our line of sight. As the bright, beautiful ring system grows narrower and fainter it becomes increasingly difficult to see for denizens of planet Earth. But it does provide the opportunity to watch transits of Saturn's moons and their dark shadows across the ringed gas giant's still bright disk. Of course Saturn's largest moon Titan is the easiest to spot in transit. In this telescopic snapshot from July 18, Titan itself is at the upper left, casting a round dark shadow on Saturn's banded cloudtops above the narrow rings. In fact Titan's transit season is in full swing now with shadow transits every 16 days corresponding to the moon's orbital period. Its final shadow transit will be on October 6, though Titan's pale disk will continue to cross in front of Saturn as seen from telescopes on planet Earth every 16 days through January 25, 2026.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-launches-mission-to-study-earths-magnetic-shield/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/tracers/2025/07/23/nasas-tracers-mission-in-orbit/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/tracers/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/tracers/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4JUEORIHTU
NASA Launches Mission to Study Earth’s Magnetic Shield
Jul 23, 2025
NASA’s newest mission, TRACERS, soon will begin studying how Earth’s magnetic shield protects our planet from the effects of space weather.
Short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, the twin TRACERS spacecraft lifted off at 11:13 a.m. PDT (2:13 p.m. EDT) Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
“NASA is proud to launch TRACERS to demonstrate and expand American preeminence in space science research and technology,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy.
“The TRACERS satellites will move us forward in decoding space weather and further our understanding of the connection between Earth and the Sun.
This mission will yield breakthroughs that will advance our pursuit of the Moon, and subsequently, Mars.”
The twin satellites will fly one behind the other – following as closely as 10 seconds apart over the same location – and will take a record-breaking 3,000 measurements in one year to build a step-by-step picture of how magnetic reconnection changes over time.
Riding along with TRACERS aboard the Falcon 9 were NASA’s Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost), PExT (Polylingual Experimental Terminal), and REAL (Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss) missions – three small satellites to demonstrate new technologies and gather scientific data.
These three missions were successfully deployed, and mission controllers will work to contact them over the coming hours and days.
Ground controllers for the TRACERS mission established communications with the second of the two spacecraft at 3:43 p.m. PDT (6:43 p.m. EDT), about 3 hours after it separated from the rocket.
During the next four weeks, TRACERS will undergo a commissioning period during which mission controllers will check out their instruments and systems.
Once cleared, the twin satellites will begin their 12-month prime mission to study a process called magnetic reconnection, answering key questions about how it shapes the impacts of the Sun and space weather on our daily lives.
“NASA’s heliophysics fleet helps to safeguard humanity’s home in space and understand the influence of our closest star, the Sun,” said Joe Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“By adding TRACERS to that fleet, we will gain a better understanding of those impacts right here at Earth.”
The two TRACERS spacecraft will orbit through an open region in Earth’s magnetic field near the North Pole, called the polar cusp.
Here, TRACERS will investigate explosive magnetic events that happen when the Sun’s magnetic field – carried through space in a stream of solar material called the solar wind – collides with Earth’s magnetic field.
This collision creates a buildup of energy that causes magnetic reconnection, when magnetic field lines snap and explosively realign, flinging away nearby particles at high speeds.
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Flying through the polar cusp allows the TRACERS satellites to study the results of these magnetic explosions, measuring charged particles that race down into Earth’s atmosphere and collide with atmospheric gases – giving scientist the tools to reconstruct exactly how changes in the incoming solar wind affect how, and how quickly, energy and particles are coupled into near-Earth space.
“The successful launch of TRACERS is a tribute to many years of work by an excellent team,” said David Miles, TRACERS principal investigator at the University of Iowa.
“TRACERS is set to transform our understanding of Earth’s magnetosphere. We’re excited to explore the dynamic processes driving space weather.”
Small Satellites Along for Ride
Athena EPIC is a pathfinder mission that will demonstrate NASA’s use of an innovative and configurable commercial SmallSat architecture to improve flexibility of payload designs, reduce launch schedule, and reduce overall costs in future missions, as well as the benefits of working collaboratively with federal partners.
In addition to this demonstration for NASA, once the Athena EPIC satellite completes its two-week commissioning period, the mission will spend the next 12 months taking measurements of outgoing longwave radiation from Earth.
The PExT demonstration will test interoperability between commercial and government communication networks for the first time by demonstrating a wideband polylingual terminal in low Earth orbit.
This terminal will use software-defined radios to jump between government and commercial networks, similar to cell phones roaming between providers on Earth.
These terminals could allow future missions to switch seamlessly between networks and access new commercial services throughout its lifecycle in space.
The REAL mission is a CubeSat that will investigate how energetic electrons are scattered out of the Van Allen radiation belts and into Earth’s atmosphere.
Shaped like concentric rings high above Earth’s equator, the Van Allen belts are composed of a mix of high-energy electrons and protons that are trapped in place by Earth’s magnetic field.
Studying electrons and their interactions, REAL aims to improve our understanding of these energetic particles that can damage spacecraft and imperil astronauts who pass through them.
The TRACERS mission is led by David Miles at the University of Iowa with support from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program Office at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the mission for the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley, all lead instruments on TRACERS.
The Athena EPIC mission is led by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and is a partnership between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Space Force, and NovaWurks.
Athena EPIC’s launch is supported by launch integrator SEOPS. The PExT demonstration is managed by NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program in partnership with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, with launch support by York Space Systems.
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https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-chandra-spot-rare-type-of-black-hole-eating-a-star/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tdzj2jlKBk
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adbbee
NASA’s Hubble, Chandra Spot Rare Type of Black Hole Eating a Star
Jul 24, 2025
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes.
Called NGC 6099 HLX-1, this bright X-ray source seems to reside in a compact star cluster in a giant elliptical galaxy.
Just a few years after its 1990 launch, Hubble discovered that galaxies throughout the universe can contain supermassive black holes at their centers weighing millions or billions of times the mass of our Sun.
In addition, galaxies also contain as many as millions of small black holes weighing less than 100 times the mass of the Sun. These form when massive stars reach the end of their lives.
Far more elusive are intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), weighing between a few hundred to a few 100,000 times the mass of our Sun.
This not-too-big, not-too-small category of black holes is often invisible to us because IMBHs don’t gobble as much gas and stars as the supermassive ones, which would emit powerful radiation.
They have to be caught in the act of foraging in order to be found. When they occasionally devour a hapless bypassing star — in what astronomers call a tidal disruption event— they pour out a gusher of radiation.
The newest probable IMBH, caught snacking in telescope data, is located on the galaxy NGC 6099’s outskirts at approximately 40,000 light-years from the galaxy’s center, as described in a new study in the Astrophysical Journal.
The galaxy is located about 450 million light-years away in the constellation Hercules.
Astronomers first saw an unusual source of X-rays in an image taken by Chandra in 2009. They then followed its evolution with ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory.
“X-ray sources with such extreme luminosity are rare outside galaxy nuclei and can serve as a key probe for identifying elusive IMBHs.
They represent a crucial missing link in black hole evolution between stellar mass and supermassive black holes,” said lead author Yi-Chi Chang of the National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
X-ray emission coming from NGC 6099 HLX-1 has a temperature of 3 million degrees, consistent with a tidal disruption event. Hubble found evidence for a small cluster of stars around the black hole.
This cluster would give the black hole a lot to feast on, because the stars are so closely crammed together that they are just a few light-months apart (about 500 billion miles).
The suspected IMBH reached maximum brightness in 2012 and then continued declining to 2023. The optical and X-ray observations over the period do not overlap, so this complicates the interpretation.
The black hole may have ripped apart a captured star, creating a plasma disk that displays variability, or it may have formed a disk that flickers as gas plummets toward the black hole.
“If the IMBH is eating a star, how long does it take to swallow the star’s gas? In 2009, HLX-1 was fairly bright. Then in 2012, it was about 100 times brighter.
And then it went down again,” said study co-author Roberto Soria of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).
“So now we need to wait and see if it’s flaring multiple times, or there was a beginning, there was peak, and now it’s just going to go down all the way until it disappears.”
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The IMBH is on the outskirts of the host galaxy, NGC 6099, about 40,000 light-years from the galaxy’s center.
There is presumably a supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s core, which is currently quiescent and not devouring a star.
Black Hole Building Blocks
The team emphasizes that doing a survey of IMBHs can reveal how the larger supermassive black holes form in the first place. There are two alternative theories.
One is that IMBHs are the seeds for building up even larger black holes by coalescing together, since big galaxies grow by taking in smaller galaxies.
The black hole in the middle of a galaxy grows as well during these mergers. Hubble observations uncovered a proportional relationship: the more massive the galaxy, the bigger the black hole.
The emerging picture with this new discovery is that galaxies could have “satellite IMBHs” that orbit in a galaxy’s halo but don’t always fall to the center.
Another theory is that the gas clouds in the middle of dark-matter halos in the early universe don’t make stars first, but just collapse directly into a supermassive black hole.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s discovery of very distant black holes being disproportionately more massive relative to their host galaxy tends to support this idea.
However, there could be an observational bias toward the detection of extremely massive black holes in the distant universe, because those of smaller size are too faint to be seen.
In reality, there could be more variety out there in how our dynamic universe constructs black holes.
Supermassive black holes collapsing inside dark-matter halos might simply grow in a different way from those living in dwarf galaxies where black-hole accretion might be the favored growth mechanism.
"So if we are lucky, we’re going to find more free-floating black holes suddenly becoming X-ray bright because of a tidal disruption event.
If we can do a statistical study, this will tell us how many of these IMBHs there are, how often they disrupt a star, how bigger galaxies have grown by assembling smaller galaxies.” said Soria.
The challenge is that Chandra and XMM-Newton only look at a small fraction of the sky, so they don’t often find new tidal disruption events, in which black holes are consuming stars.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, an all-sky survey telescope from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, could detect these events in optical light as far as hundreds of millions of light-years away.
Follow-up observations with Hubble and Webb can reveal the star cluster around the black hole.
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Station Preps for Crew Swap and Continues Space Health Studies
July 23, 2025
The Expedition 73 crew is preparing to split up in early August while another crew on the ground is beginning final preparations for a launch to the International Space Station next week.
Meanwhile, the orbital residents continue their human research activities, space exercise studies, and lab maintenance duties on Wednesday.
NASA Flight Engineer Anne McClain kicked off her shift packing personal items and cargo inside the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft she will ride back to Earth with Nichole Ayers of NASA, Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos.
The four crewmates representing NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission have been gathering crew provisions for a couple of weeks for loading aboard Dragon preparing to end a space research mission that began on March 14.
They will gather at 10:40 a.m. EDT on Friday for a news conference and discuss their upcoming departure live on YouTube.
Waiting on Earth to replace Crew-10 is NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission with Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, both from NASA, and Mission Specialists Kimiya Yui of JAXA and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos.
The Commercial Crew quartet is due to depart NASA’s Johnson Space Center on Saturday and arrive at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to begin their countdown to a launch inside Dragon atop the Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than 12:09 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 31.
NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim, on Wednesday, practiced on a computer the procedures he will use while monitoring Dragon’s rendezvous and approach with Crew-11 onboard.
Dragon will automatically dock to the Harmony module’s space-facing port about a day-and-a-half after launch, the crew will enter the orbital outpost, and begin a seven-month research mission in low Earth orbit.
After her packing job, McClain focused on human research measuring her blood pressure, attaching electrodes to herself, and swapping out a sensor-packed headband and vest to comfortably measure her health data.
Ayers continued packing items for return home, relocated genetic research gear, and serviced hardware that measures the vibrations caused by crew activities and orbital maneuvers that affect experiments on the station.
Station Commander Onishi began his shift on Wednesday activating and calibrating specialized video hardware that would track his movements later as he worked out on the advanced resistive exercise device (ARED).
The data collected from the ARED Kinematics study helps researchers understand how exercising in microgravity affects the human body, protect muscles and bones from exercise loads on the equipment, and adjust workout plans for individual crew members to maintain maximum fitness.
Peskov continued testing the experimental lower body negative pressure suit that may help crews adjust quicker to the return to Earth’s gravity.
Flight Engineer Alexey Zubritskiy assisted Peskov as he tried on the suit that pulls fluids from the upper body potentially counteracting space-caused head and eye pressure.
Zubritskiy later joined veteran cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryzhikov and set up biomedical hardware they will use to monitor how microgravity affects the digestion process after eating their breakfast on Thursday.
Earlier, Ryzhikov set up hardware to image in Earth multiple wavelengths then serviced a pair of oxygen generators in the Zvezda and Nauka modules.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/07/23/station-preps-for-crew-swap-and-continues-space-health-studies/
NASA Tests Mixed Reality Pilot Simulation in Vertical Motion Simulator
Jul 23, 2025
Commercial companies and government agencies are increasingly pursuing a more immersive and affordable alternative to conventional displays currently used in flight simulators.
A NASA research project is working on ways to make this technology available for use faster.
Mixed reality systems where users interact with physical simulators while wearing virtual reality headsets offer a promising path forward for pilot training.
But currently, only limited standards exist for allowing their use, as regulators have little to no data on how these systems perform.
To address this, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley invited a dozen pilots to participate in a study to test how a mixed-reality flight simulation would perform in the world’s largest flight simulator.
“For the first time, we’re collecting real data on how this type of mixed reality simulation performs in the highest-fidelity vertical motion simulator,” said Peter Zaal, a principal systems architect at Ames.
“The more we understand about how these systems affect pilot performance, the closer we are to providing a safer, cost-effective training tool to the aviation community that could benefit everyone from commercial airlines to future air taxi operators.”
Mixed reality blends physical and digital worlds, allowing users to see physical items while viewing a desired simulated environment.
Flight simulators employing this technology through headset or a similar setup could offer pilots training for operating next-generation aircraft at a reduced cost and within a smaller footprint compared to more traditional flight simulators.
This is because pilots could rely more heavily on the visuals provided through the headset instead of large embedded visual displays in a physical motion simulator.
During the testing – which ran May 23-30 – pilots donned a headset through which they could see the physical displays and control sticks inside the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) cab along with a virtual cockpit overlay of an electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle through the head-mounted display.
When the pilots looked toward their windscreens, they saw a virtual view of San Francisco and the surrounding area.
Pilots performed three typical flight maneuvers under four sets of motion conditions.
Afterward, they were asked to provide feedback on their level of motion sickness while using the head-mounted display and how well the simulator replicated the same movements the aircraft would make during a real flight.
An initial analysis of the study shows pilots reported lower ratings of motion sickness than NASA researchers expected. Many shared that the mixed-reality setup inside the VMS felt more realistic and fluid than previous simulator setups they had tested.
As part of the test, Ames hosted members of the Federal Aviation Administration Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, which studies factors that influence human performance in aerospace.
Pilots from the National Test Pilot School attended a portion of the testing and, independent from the study, evaluated the head-mounted display’s “usable cue environment,” or representation of the visual cues pilots rely on to control an aircraft.
NASA will make the test results available to the public and the aviation community early next year.
This first-of-its-kind testing – funded by an Ames Innovation Fair Grant and managed by the center’s Aviation Systems Division – paves the way for potential use of this technology in the VMS for future aviation and space missions.
https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/nasa-tests-mixed-reality-sim-in-vertical-motion-simulator/
NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim, Axiom Mission 4 Commander Peggy Whitson Conduct Research in Space
Jul 23, 2025
In this photo from June 28, 2025, Expedition 73 flight engineer Jonny Kim and former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space Peggy Whitson work together inside the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory module setting up hardware for cancer research.
The hardware is used to culture patient-derived cancer cells, model their growth in microgravity, and test a state-of-the-art fluorescence microscope.
Results of this study may lead to earlier cancer detection methods, development of advanced cancer treatments, and promote future stem cell research in space.
Whitson returned to Earth on July 15, 2025, with fellow Axiom Mission 4 crew members ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) astronaut Tibor Kapu of Hungary. They completed about two and a half weeks in space.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-astronaut-jonny-kim-axiom-mission-4-commander-peggy-whitson-conduct-research-in-space/
Radio JOVE Volunteers Tune In to the Sun’s Low Notes
Jul 23, 2025
As the Sun approaches the most active part of its eleven-year magnetic cycle this summer, NASA volunteers have been watching it closely.
Now they’ve spotted a new trend in solar behavior that will have you reaching for your suntan lotion. It’s all about something called a “Type II” solar radio burst:
“Type II solar radio bursts are not commonly detected in the frequency range between 15 to 30 megahertz,” said Prof. Chuck Higgins, Co-founder of Radio JOVE. “Recently, we’re seeing many of them in that range.”
Let’s unpack that. Our Sun often sprays powerful blasts of radio waves into space. Heliophysicists classify these radio bursts into five different types depending on how the frequency of the radio waves drifts over time.
“Type II” solar radio bursts seem to come from solar flares and enormous squirts of hot plasma called coronal mass ejections.
Now, Thomas Freeman, an undergraduate student at Middle Tennessee State University, and other volunteers working on NASA’s Radio JOVE project have observed something interesting about these Type II bursts: they are now showing up at lower frequencies—somewhere in between FM and AM radio.
What does it mean? It means our star is full of surprises! These Radio JOVE observations of the Sun’s radio emissions during solar maximum can be used to extend our knowledge of solar emissions to lower frequencies and, therefore, to distances farther from the Sun.
Radio JOVE is a NASA partner citizen science project in which participants assemble and operate radio astronomy telescopes to gather and contribute data to support scientific studies.
Radio JOVE collaborated with SunRISE Ground Radio Lab, organized teams of high school students to observe the Sun, and recently published a paper on these Type II solar radio bursts. Learn more and get involved!
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/radio-jove-volunteers-tune-in-to-the-suns-low-notes/
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024EA004114
https://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/joinin.php
CME Coming to Earth, Solar Storms Trigger Tornados | Suspicious 0bservers News
July.24.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvKqGnHQ_1Q
https://www.spaceweather.gov/communities/space-weather-enthusiasts-dashboard
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental
Asteroid Alert: NASA Tracks Airplane-Sized Space Rock As It Approaches Earth
Jul 23, 2025 23:10 pm IST
An asteroid, named 2025 OW, is scheduled to pass Earth next week. It is estimated to be about 210 feet across, roughly the size of a large airplane.
The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth on July 28, travelling at a speed of approximately 46,908 miles per hour. It will pass our planet at a distance of around 393,000 miles.
According to NASA, the asteroid poses no threat to Earth. Ian J O'Neill, who is the media relations specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told ABC News, "This is very routine."
"If there was a threat, you would hear from us. We would always put out alerts on our planetary defense blog." "We know exactly where it's going to be. We'll probably know where it's going to be for the next 100 years," O'Neill added.
Another expert, Davide Farnocchia, an asteroid expert at NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), told the outlet: "Close approaches happen all the time, it's just part of the fabric of the solar system."
Will this asteroid be visible?
Farnocchia explained that it won't be visible with binoculars. He, however, mentioned that another exciting event will come in 2029 when asteroid Apophis will approach Earth.
"Apophis will come within 38,000 kilometers of Earth in April 2029, closer than our geostationary satellites," Farnocchia said.
NASA is also tracking another aeroplane-sized asteroid, 2025 OX, which will fly past Earth on July 26 at a distance of 2,810,000 miles.
Asteroids larger than 150 meters in diameter and coming within 7.4 million kilometres of Earth are considered potentially hazardous.
Since 2025 OW is larger than the size threshold but will pass at a safe distance, it's worth monitoring.
Other asteroids passing by Earth recently included 2025 MM, an airplane-sized asteroid, that passed by Earth on July 1. It measured around 120 feet wide and travelled at 23,874 miles per hour.
Another asteroid named 2025 KX8, a 120-foot space rock, also flew by Earth on June 4, passing at a distance of approximately 1.99 million kilometres.
An asteroid, 2025 MG1, about 130 feet wide, zoomed safely past Earth on July 12 at a distance of over 3 million kilometres.
https://www.ndtv.com/science/asteroid-alert-nasa-tracks-airplane-sized-space-rock-as-it-approaches-earth-8935637
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch/next-five-approaches/
Red flag warning in place for Shasta Cascade until Thursday night By CA Weather Bot
Updated July 24, 2025 4:41 AM
On Thursday at 2:29 a.m. an updated red flag warning was released by the NWS Medford OR valid between 1 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The warning is for Western Klamath National Forest, Central Siskiyou County Including Shasta Valley, Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Siskiyou County, Siskiyou County from the Cascade Mountains East and South to Mt Shasta and Modoc County Except for the Surprise Valley.
This warning is in effect until 11 p.m.
What is the significance of a red flag warning? A red flag warning means that extreme fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly, according to the NWS.
Warm temperatures, very low humidities, and stronger winds are expected to combine to produce an increased risk of fire spreading rapidly.
What should you do under a red flag warning? A red flag warning demands vigilance and immediate readiness to respond to potential fires.
The NWS provides these vital guidelines to minimize fire hazards and ensure your safety:
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Bolster burn barrel safety: If burning is permitted in your area, ensure that all burn barrels have a weighted metal cover, complete with holes no larger than 3/4 of an inch.
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Mindful disposal of smoking materials: Never discard lit cigarette butts outside, and avoid tossing cigarettes or matches from a moving vehicle. These seemingly small actions can lead to dry grass ignition, potentially sparking a wildfire.
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Prudent fire extinguishing practices: To safeguard against accidental fires, diligently extinguish all outdoor fires. Drown them with an ample amount of water and stir to confirm that everything is cold to the touch.
Submerge charcoal in water until it's thoroughly cooled. Never dispose of live charcoal on the ground. 4. Never leave fires unattended:
Avoid leaving any fire unattended. Even sparks or embers carried by the wind can ignite nearby leaves or grass, triggering a fire that spreads rapidly.
Understanding the gravity of a red flag warning and adhering to these precautions is pivotal in mitigating the risk of wildfires during these perilous conditions.
Prioritize safety, stay well-informed, and act responsibly to safeguard lives and property. Source: The National Weather Service
https://www.modbee.com/news/weather-news/article311269170.html
Sidus Space Unveils LunarLizzie™: A Next-Generation 800kg-Class Lunar Platform Designed with Proven Edge AI for Near Real-Time Intelligence
July 24, 2025
Sidus Space (NASDAQ: SIDU), (the Company or “Sidus”), an innovative space and defense technology company, today announced LunarLizzie™, its newest and most advanced satellite platform engineered for lunar and cislunar missions.
This powerful spacecraft is expected to support payloads up to 800kg, integrate LiDAR, hyperspectral imaging, AI powered autonomous navigation, encryption, and multi-sensor data fusion to provide near real-time lunar terrain intelligence and environmental awareness.
LunarLizzie™ is designed with the expectation to meet the growing demands of space agencies, commercial providers, and national security customers preparing for long-term lunar exploration and infrastructure deployment.
Autonomous Lunar Intelligence, Onboard
The LunarLizzie™ design features multiple sensors combined with FeatherEdge™ 248Vi, Sidus’ proprietary onboard computer and part of the Fortis™ VPX product line, which is expected to enable near real-time edge processing without relying on Earth-based ground stations.
Core capabilities are planned to include:
Unprecedented system redundancy through LizzieSat™ 248Vi Fortis™ VPX architecture
In-flight reprogrammable rad-hard FPGA for flexible, mission-adaptive processing
Multi-mission, multi-sensor support with integrated AI
Radiation-hardened design and MIL-spec temperature operation for extended reliability
Orbital LiDAR and hyperspectral imaging for terrain and material analysis
Autonomous edge computing for near real-time insight delivery
AI optimized, secure communications pipeline for continuous live telemetry from lunar-based sensorsto Earth mission control
Near real-time detection of terrain shifts, dust activity, and surface hazards
Adaptive tasking request handling from robotic and crewed missions
Built for Lunar. Backed by Earth™.
As part of Sidus’ vertically integrated space infrastructure ecosystem, LunarLizzie™ is expected to be designed, built, and operated entirely in-house, from engineering to launch integration and mission execution.
The platform will be supported by Sidus’ state-of-the-art Mission Control Center in Merritt Island, Florida which will provide secure, 24/7 oversight and global data operations.
“LunarLizzie™ isn’t just another satellite – it’s designed for the unique challenges and complexities of lunar exploration,” said Carol Craig, Founder and CEO of Sidus Space.
“With autonomous operations, near real-time sensing, and scalable payload support, we’re planning on delivering what tomorrow’s missions demand. This is Space Access Reimagined™.”
https://sidusspace.com/2025/07/24/sidus-space-unveils-lunarlizzie-a-next-generation-800kg-class-lunar-platform-designed-with-proven-edge-ai-for-near-real-time-intelligence/
>LunarLizzie