Mornin!
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
August 24, 2025
The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula
At the core of the Crab Nebula lies a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second. Known as the Crab Pulsar, it is the bright spot in the center of the gaseous swirl at the nebula's core. About twelve light-years across, the spectacular picture frames the glowing gas, cavities and swirling filaments near the Crab Nebula's center. The featured picture combines visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope in purple, X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue, and infrared light from the Spitzer Space Telescope in red. Like a cosmic dynamo, the Crab pulsar powers the emission from the nebula, driving a shock wave through surrounding material and accelerating the spiraling electrons. With more mass than the Sun and the density of an atomic nucleus,the spinning pulsar is the collapsed core of a massive star that exploded. The outer parts of the Crab Nebula are the expanding remnants of the star's component gases. The supernova explosion was witnessed on planet Earth in the year 1054.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
SpaceX Dragon Lifts Off to Resupply Station Crew
August 24, 2025
At 2:45 a.m. EDT, over 5,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo launched to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for the company’s 33rd commercial resupply services mission for NASA.
The spacecraft lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will separate from the rocket’s second stage, open its nosecone, and begin a carefully choreographed series of maneuvers to reach the space station.
Dragon will arrive at the orbiting outpost at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 25, and dock autonomously to the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/08/24/spacex-dragon-lifts-off-to-resupply-station-crew/
https://www.spacex.com/launches/crs33
Longest canyon in the solar system reveals new secrets
August 24, 2025
Mars has a huge network of canyons that stretches about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) across its equator.
This canyon system, called Valles Marineris, is the largest in the solar system, dwarfing Earth's largest canyon, which covers 460 miles (750 km) under Greenland's ice sheet.
(Condolences to the Grand Canyon and its mere 277-mile length.)
First imaged by NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1972, Valles Marineris has been captured by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter many times in its 19 years in orbit.
However, this geological wonder still holds many secrets.
This latest photo, taken May 24 and published last week, is of the eastern side of Candor Chasma, one of the largest canyons within Valles Marineris.
What it reveals could change how planetary geologists think about Mars' ancient environment.
Using its ability to see detail down to the size of a kitchen table, HiRISE produced an image that shows layered deposits of sediment several meters thick, scientists at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, which developed and operates the camera, said in a description of the image.
Crucially, these layers of sediment must date to after the canyon itself formed, because they appear to have been eroded, warped and bent by tectonic movements.
Mars doesn't have plate tectonics like Earth does. Instead, its crust is like one giant plate, according to NASA. But faults and fractures still form in the Martian crust as it cools.
Unlike Earth's Grand Canyon, which was carved by a river, Valles Marineris — including Candor Chasma — is thought to have formed by volcanic activity, with landslides, floods and erosion later sculpting it into its present form.
In 2021, the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed that the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a collaboration between ESA and the Russian space agency, had found water beneath the surface in Candor Chasma.
It's thought that up to 40% of the near-surface material in Valles Marineris could be water.
That would make it akin to Earth's permafrost regions in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia, where water ice permanently persists under dry soil because of the constant low temperatures.
With its steep walls and chaotic landscapes, Candor Chasma would be challenging for a Mars rover to explore.
However, the German Space Agency's Valles Marineris Exploration project would study the possibility of sending a swarm of autonomous rovers, crawlers and uncrewed aerial vehicles to this treacherous terrain.
https://www.livescience.com/space/longest-canyon-in-the-solar-system-reveals-new-secrets-space-photo-of-the-week
https://www.uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_088251_1725
"Think Hanuman Ji Was 1st Space Traveller"==
Aug 24, 2025 16:35 pm IST
It is a fact universally acknowledged that the first person to travel to space was American astronaut Neil Armstrong.
However, former Union Minister Anurag Thakur appears to suggest to a group of young students that it was Lord Hanuman.
Mr Thakur was speaking to students on the occasion of National Space Day at a PM Shri School - which aims to nurture students in a way that they become engaged, productive, and contributing citizens for building an equitable, inclusive, and plural society as envisaged by the National Education Policy 2020 - at Una in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday.
Here's how the interaction between the BJP MP and the students went:
Anurag Thakur: Antriksh main yatra karne wala pehla kaun tha? (Who was the first space traveller?)
Students (speaking in chorus): Neil Armstrong
Anurag Thakur: Mujhe toh lagta hai Hanuman ji the (I think it was Hanumanji).
A smile played across the five-time parliamentarian's face, who then launched into an explanation, backing his theory.
"Because we still see ourselves as we are now. As long as we do not know our thousands of years' old tradition, knowledge, culture, we will remain the same as the British have shown us.
So, I would like to request the Principal and all of you to think out of the textbooks and take a look at our nation, our traditions, our knowledge.
If you look at it from that direction, you will find a lot of things to see," said the 50-year-old MP from Himachal's Hamirpur.
The first Indian to travel to space was Rakesh Sharma some forty years ago. Earlier this year, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the second Indian astronaut to travel to space.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday unveiled the model of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) in Delhi.
The ISRO aims to launch the first module of the project by 2028, and the full station is expected to become operational by 2035.
The BAS is set to be a significant platform for indigenous research, including microgravity studies and testing technologies for long-duration human space missions.
India's journey to establish its own orbital laboratory marks a major leap in its space program and reinforces its position as a global leader in space exploration.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/think-hanuman-ji-was-1st-space-traveller-bjp-mp-anurag-thakur-to-students-9149982
SpaceX Tenth Starship Test
August 24, 2025 16:30 - 17:30 PT
The tenth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Sunday, August 24. The launch window will open at 6:30 p.m. CT.
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the X TV app.
As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to check in here and stay tuned to our X account for updates.
After completing the investigations into the loss of Starship on its ninth flight test and the Ship 36 static fire anomaly, hardware and operational changes have been made to increase reliability.
You can read the full technical summary of the investigations here.
The upcoming flight will continue to expand the operating envelope on the Super Heavy booster, with multiple landing burn tests planned.
It will also target similar objectives as previous missions, including Starship’s first payload deployment and multiple reentry experiments geared towards returning the upper stage to the launch site for catch.
The booster on this flight test is attempting several flight experiments to gather real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios.
The Super Heavy booster will attempt these experiments while on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America and will not return to the launch site for catch.
Following stage separation, the booster will flip in a controlled direction before initiating its boostback burn.
This maneuver was demonstrated for the first time on Flight 9 and requires less propellant to be held in reserve, enabling the use of more propellant during ascent to enable additional payload mass to orbit.
The primary test objectives for the booster will be focused on its landing burn and will use unique engine configurations.
One of the three center engines used for the final phase of landing will be intentionally disabled to gather data on the ability for a backup engine from the middle ring to complete a landing burn.
The booster will then transition to only two center engines for the end of the landing burn, entering a full hover while still above the ocean surface, followed by shutdown and drop into the Gulf of America.
The Starship upper stage will again target multiple in-space objectives, including the deployment of eight Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites.
The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to demise upon entry. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
The flight test includes several experiments focused on enabling Starship’s upper stage to return to the launch site.
A significant number of tiles have been removed from Starship to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle during reentry.
Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, will test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry.
On the sides of the vehicle, functional catch fittings are installed and will test the fittings’ thermal and structural performance, along with a section of the tile line receiving a smoothed and tapered edge to address hot spots observed during reentry on Starship’s sixth flight test.
Starship’s reentry profile is designed to intentionally stress the structural limits of the upper stage’s rear flaps while at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure.
Flight tests continue to provide valuable learnings to inform the design of the next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles.
With production ramping up inside Starfactory at Starbase alongside new launch and test infrastructure actively being built in Texas and Florida, Starship is poised to continue iterating towards a rapidly and fully reusable launch system.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-10
https://www.space.com/news/live/spacex-starship-missions-updates
Bright Meteor, Solar Alert, California Quake Trigger | S0 News
Aug.24.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXcMvy19t-U