Dr. Mason and her colleagues thought they might take a different approach. They got some observational time on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a telescope in geosynchronous orbit explicitly designed to observe the coronal layer. They used SDO’s extreme ultraviolet wavelength observational capabilities to observe coronal loops in regions that eventually formed a flare versus those that didn’t.

They observed areas that produced around 50 flares and found that the amount of variability in extreme ultraviolet light the coronal loops in those areas put off was much higher than in the areas that didn’t produce a flare. Essentially, the coronal loops acted like “flashing warning lights” in a certain kind of light spectrum, according to a press release from NASA’s Goddard Institute, some of whose scientists contributed to the paper. 

The discovery was critical because the flashing appeared to take place consistently a few hours before a flare was formed. In technical terms, they accurately predicted the onset of a flare about 2-6 hours beforehand, about 60-80% of the time. That might not seem like great odds and even lesser warning, but some warning is better than none. When given the decision between frying half of the Earth’s electrical grid in a few hours and taking preventive measures, I think policymakers would at least appreciate the opportunity to have a choice.

There are some other nuances in the data, such as stronger flares appear to be predicted by earlier peaking flickering, however more work still needs to be done. Ultimately, this research aims to develop a system of automatically warning the appropriate authorities if there is a potentially hazardous solar event coming our way, but without so many false positives that they feel the system is crying wolf.

That automated system is still a little way off, but this research is a step in the right direction. SDO was initially launched in 2010 and has long outlived its original 5-year mission plan. However, there are plenty of instruments constantly watching the Sun, and undoubtedly, there will be more soon. Maybe they will someday contribute to finalizing a system that will one day save civilization from an avoidable catastrophe.

Learn More:

• NASA – NASA Solar Observatory Sees Coronal Loops Flicker Before Big Flares
  
• Kniezewski et al – 131 and 304 Å Emission Variability Increases Hours Prior to Solar Flare Onset
• UT – New Research Indicates the Sun may be More Prone to Flares Than we Thought
  
• UT – High-Resolution Images of the Sun Show How Flares Impact the Solar Atmosphere

Lead Image:

• NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of coronal loops above an active region on the Sun in mid-January 2012. The image was taken in the 171 angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.
• Credit – NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

23-01-2025 om 20:25 geschreven door peter  

Is that really a floating spoon on Mars or just a strange rock? 

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

As one of Earth's closest neighbors in space, Mars has long captivated humans with the prospect of alien life located just a short rocket trip away. No such life has been found. But now, as NASA and other space agencies have begun to explore the skies and surface of the Red Planet using robotic technology, images of strange features and formations continue to inflame skywatchers' hopes, fears and curiosities.

Here are some of our favorite objects on Mars that look like they don't belong on a dead and dusty planet. Many of these are a result of pareidolia — the tendency for humans to seek familiar patterns and shapes in inanimate objects. However, some of them may even lead scientists to the long-sought evidence of past Martian life.

1. An open "travel book"

Perhaps weary from hunting for evidence of ancient water, NASA's Curiosity rover took a short break in April 2023 to leaf through the pages of an old Martian hardback lying in the dust of Gediz Vallis. While the strange object may look like a book with a single page frozen mid-turn, it is in fact just a rock — and a small one at that. The charming little book-rock measures just 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) wide, according to NASA. Hey, at least it's travel-size!

Related:

• 'Spiders on Mars' fully awakened on Earth for 1st time — and scientists are shrieking with joy

2. A "teddy bear's face"

In an image shared in January 2023 by the University of Arizona (UA), what appears to be the face of an enormous Martian teddy bear — complete with two beady eyes, a button nose and an upturned mouth — grins at the camera of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. According to UA, the cuddly-wuddly formation is likely just a broken-up hill in the center of an ancient crater. But as far as we're concerned, it's the cutest pile of rubble in the known universe.

3. Frozen "mineral flowers"

Branching outward like a tiny coral, this delicate mineral flower is about the closest thing to greenery one can find on the Red Planet today. Mineral deposits like these are common sights across Mars and result from ancient water mixing with ancient rock. Still, it's rare to see a deposit that's so perfectly flower-like, NASA researchers said. You'll notice two slightly less impressive, circular rocks of the same type to the right of the coral. Curiosity spotted this floral feature in February 2022.

4. A mysterious "doorway"

Is this perfectly hewn "doorway" into a Martian cliffside evidence of intelligent alien life on the Red Planet — or perhaps signs of a secret society of human astronauts camped out in clandestine Mars bunkers? Sadly (for conspiracy theorists), the truth is far simpler: It's just an eroded rock formation caught at the perfect angle. The image was captured by NASA's Curiosity rover in 2022.

5. Fossilized "animal tracks"

(credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Did alien creatures once skitter across the surface of Mars, leaving fossilized tracks embedded in the rocks? One researcher made this controversial claim in 2018, pointing to images of stick-like structures, each about the size of a grain of rice, crisscrossing a Martian rock. NASA researchers quickly debunked the claims, noting that similar features are plentiful on Earth in areas where salts become concentrated in water, such as evaporating lakes. Their presence on Mars is yet more evidence of past rivers and lakes on the Red Planet, but they offer no proof that living creatures ever adorned its surface.

6. A bushel of "blueberries"

Blueberries are not a significant source of iron when consumed on Earth — but these geological "blueberries" discovered by NASA's Opportunity rover on Mars in 2004 are built differently. The iron-rich spheres, polished smooth by plentiful amounts of water billions of years ago, are some of the earliest evidence scientists have of Mars once being an incredibly wet world. Whether they also taste good on cheesecake is a question for future generations to grapple with.

7. Thousands of black "spiders on Mars"

Every spring, thousands of squiggly black "spiders" emerge from their hibernation near the Martian south pole. No, they are not real spiders — they are not alive at all, of course. The seasonal phenomenon is a result of buried carbon dioxide ice sublimating, or turning to gas, as the weather warms. The newly released gas bursts through layers of surface ice, carrying with it dark dust that splatters across the ground in craggy patterns. To be visible from space, as these formations are, the "spiders" must be fairly big — each one measuring 150 to 3,300 feet (45 meters to 1 kilometer) across, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). Please, nobody tell Ziggy Stardust the bad news.

8. Ruins of an "Inca City"

Near the Martian south pole are curious structures that look like the ruins of a vast and ancient city. Dubbed the "Inca City" for its resemblance to actual ruins discovered in South America, the bizarre rock formation may be made of elevated sand dunes that turned to stone over time, according to ESA. However, its exact origins remain a mystery. The labyrinthine formation appears to curve, forming part of a giant circle 53 miles (86 km) in diameter, leading scientists to suspect it may be part of a much larger impact crater from a meteor strike ages ago.

9. An ancient smiley face

Did someone spray-paint a grinning face onto the Martian surface? Not quite, despite what it looks like in this infrared image snapped by ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Visible only under certain conditions, the face seen here is actually the remnants of an ancient lake, outlined by chloride salt deposits and dotted with two meteor crater eyes. While no Martian graffiti artists are going to pop up from the lake to claim their work, the face-like structure could contain evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet. As Mars' once-plentiful lakes dried up, the remaining water sources likely became very salty, possibly offering a haven for microbial life.

10. An extremely out-of-place rock

One of these things is not like the other. Standing out like a sore Martian thumb inside dusty Jezero Crater, this unusually white rock is the first of its kind ever seen on the Red Planet. Dubbed "Atoko Point" after a similarly light-colored feature of the Grand Canyon, the speckled rock is likely made of the minerals pyroxene and feldspar, according to an analysis by NASA's Perseverance rover. How did such a white rock find itself in such dark-hued company? It likely tumbled down from the crater rim or was transported to the crater floor from elsewhere on Mars back when rivers raged across the region.

11. A stony "Star Trek" symbol

Looks like someone from Starfleet left their communicator badge on the Red Planet — or so it would appear from the familiar shape of this rock spotted by the Curiosity rover. The rock's delta shape is just a coincidence, according to NASA. It is one of thousands located on Mount Sharp, which Curiosity has been exploring for years in its search to uncover clues about Mars' past and whether it ever held the conditions for life.

12. A "tile floor"

While scaling the slopes of Mount Sharp in 2021, NASA's Curiosity rover found remnants of what looks like a tile floor from a Martian bathroom. Dozens of interlocked polygons cracked through the dirt; most contain five or six sides and date to between 3.8 billion and 3.6 billion years ago. These jagged polygons are mud cracks, which have repeatedly dried out and moistened again over the course of untold years. They likely date to a time when the water level in the surrounding Gale Crater rose and fell repeatedly, causing the polygonal cracks in the ground to appear and disappear over time before a final dry spell left them as they are today.

13. Perfectly circular sand dunes

Mars is covered in dunes of all shapes and sizes, but few of them are as perfectly circular as the group spotted above by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2022. Snapped while flying over Mars' northern hemisphere, the image shows a bubbling patchwork of dark and strangely round dunes, slanting southward in the direction where the Martian wind likely blew them. Scientists are still not certain why these particular dunes are so circular or why they appear to be slowly migrating away from Mars' equator at a rate of roughly 3.3 feet (1 m) per Martian year (687 days on Earth).

14. A "shark fin" and a "crab claw"

While trawling through Jezero Crater, NASA's Perseverance rover caught sight of a few fishy-looking rocks. The two odd boulders — one jutting upward like a shark fin, and the other crimped like a crab claw — surprised researchers. However, there isn't much mystery to them. They are just rocks, sculpted by the wind over billions of years and left in the Martian dust for pattern-seeking human minds to find.

15. A "floating spoon"

In 2015, NASA's Curiosity rover spotted what appeared to be a wooden spoon, floating in midair with a shadow on the ground beneath it. It was, of course, an optical illusion; the spoon is simply a rock, shaped by the wind over eons, also known as a ventifact. The handle of the spoony rock juts out from a larger formation, allowing the spoon's rounded tip to hover over the ground below, casting a distinct shadow beneath it.

16. An eerie "face"

One of the earliest Martian rock formations to capture the public's interest was this infamous "face" spotted b{{ y NASA's Viking 1 satellite in 1976. While circling the planet looking for a landing site for its robotic companion, Viking 2, the satellite spotted a mound of rocks, partially obscured in shadow, distinctly resembling a human face. Follow-up observations with later spacecraft showed that the face was visible only from certain angles and under certain light conditions, proving that the Martian mound's humanlike appearance was just a trick of light and shadow.

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

22-01-2025 om 21:23 geschreven door peter  

22-01-2025 om 21:21 geschreven door peter  

(NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona_

On August 18, the MRO captured a series of unusual, ridged lines that appeared to be carved into the Martian landscape, as can be seen in the image below.

However, these aren’t evidence of remnants from roadways built by ancient Martians; the curious-looking lines are a natural formation, produced by the subtle movement of ice on the planet’s surface.

Generally, ice deposits located on the surface of Mars accumulate in the greatest abundance around the planet’s polar caps. However, in the past these odd-looking ridged patterns have been found in other regions on the surface of the Red Planet as well, revealing the presence of ice on the planet’s surface in various other regions.

The ridges form as ice naturally flows downhill, moving soil and stony deposits from their positions along the Martian landscape as it goes. However, it isn’t a fast process; this gradual movement of ice that shifts the Martian soil as it flows can take several thousands of years, processes that imagery collected by the MRO can help to shed light on, as well as reveal their history.

With its ongoing studies, the MRO continues to scour the surface of Mars from its position in orbit in search of water, as well as mineral formations and evidence of water beneath the planet’s surface. The MRO also monitors daily weather patterns on the Red Planet and collects information about where minerals and water may have existed on the planet in the past.

Such information could be useful for future crewed space missions to Mars, and may also provide astrobiologists with crucial information that may help in the search for evidence of life—past or present—on the planet.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

22-01-2025 om 01:05 geschreven door peter  

Hubble’s Photomosaic of Andromeda Galaxy Unveils Hundreds of Millions of Stars

A century ago, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble first established that this so-called ‘spiral nebula’ was approximately 2.5 million light years away from our Milky Way Galaxy. Now, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has accomplished the most comprehensive survey of the Andromeda galaxy. It took more than 10 years to collect data for this colorful portrait, which captures the glow of 200 million stars, and was created from more than 600 snapshots.

This the largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble observations. It is a panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, located 2.5 million light-years away.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / B. Williams, University of Washington.

The Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31), which is located 2.5 million light-years away, is the Milky Way’s nearest large galactic neighbor.

Hubble’s sharp imaging capabilities can resolve more than 200 million stars in the galaxy, detecting only stars brighter than our Sun. They look like grains of sand across the beach. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Andromeda’s total population is estimated to be one trillion stars, with many less massive stars falling below Hubble’s sensitivity limit.

“Photographing Andromeda was a herculean task because the galaxy is a much bigger target on the sky than the galaxies Hubble routinely observes, which are often billions of light-years away,” said University of Washington astronomer Zhuo Chen and colleagues.

“The full mosaic was carried out under two Hubble observing programs. In total it required over 1,000 Hubble orbits, spanning more than a decade.”

“This panorama started with the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program about a decade ago.”

The Andromeda galaxy is seen almost edge-on, tilted by 77 degrees relative to Earth’s view; interesting regions include: (a) clusters of bright blue stars embedded within the galaxy, background galaxies seen much farther away, and photo-bombing by a couple bright foreground stars that are actually inside our Milky Way; (b) NGC 206 is the most conspicuous star cloud in Andromeda; (c) a young cluster of blue newborn stars; (d) the satellite galaxy M32, that may be the residual core of a galaxy that once collided with the Andromeda galaxy; (e) dark dust lanes across myriad stars.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / B. Williams, University of Washington.

“Images were obtained at near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to photograph the northern half of Andromeda.”

“This program was followed up by the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Southern Treasury (PHAST), which added images of approximately 100 million stars in the southern half of Andromeda.”

“This region is structurally unique and more sensitive to the galaxy’s merger history than the northern disk mapped by the PHAT survey.”

“The combined programs collectively cover the entire disk of Andromeda, which is seen almost edge-on — tilted by 77 degrees relative to Earth’s view.”

“The galaxy is so large that the mosaic is assembled from approximately 600 separate fields of view.”

• The results are described in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal.
• Zhuo Chen et al. 2025. PHAST. The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Southern Treasury. I. Ultraviolet and Optical Photometry of over 90 Million Stars in M31. ApJ 979, 35; doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad7e2b

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

20-01-2025 om 20:58 geschreven door peter  

Previously unknown to science, the environment may seem uninhabited at first glance. However, this alien world high above Argentina is home to a thriving population of complex microbial colonies known as stromatolites, which produce large mounds of rock as they grow over time, non unlike the formation of coral reefs in Earth’s oceans.

According to University of Colorado Boulder geologist Brian Hynek, who was involved in the discovery, the thriving microbial community in one of Earth’s most remote regions could offer scientists an unprecedented glimpse at how life in the distant past—specifically a period in Earth’s deep history called the early Archaean—might have allowed early organisms to spring into existence at a time when there was virtually no oxygen in our planet’s atmosphere.

“We have recently discovered what we believe to be a here-to-undescribed ecosystem on planet Earth hosted in laminated organo-sedimentary rock mounds known as stromatolites,” writes Hynek, a professor in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and Department of Geological Sciences at UC Boulder, along with Mariá E. Farías, a microbiologist and co-founder of PUNABIO SA Environmental Consulting who also participated in the discovery.

“At the Argentinian saline lagoons we have explored, we have identified novel mineral assemblages and active microbial communities using metabolisms akin to the earliest examples preserved in the rock record,” they add.

According to Hynek and Farías, conditions similar to those observed at Argentina’s Puna de Atacama’s salt plains are likely to be very similar to those that existed on early Earth “and also possibly Mars”, which they say offer almost perfect modern proxies of “the oldest agreed upon macrofossils on our planet.”

Hynek said the lagoon is “unlike anything I’ve ever seen or, really, like anything any scientist has ever seen.”

Hynek and Farías hope to return to the lagoon in the near future to resume their studies of this unprecedented “alien” environment.

Hynek adds that it is “amazing that you can still find undocumented things like that on our planet,” adding that if life ever existed on nearby planets like Mars and managed to reach stages where fossil production could occur, “it would have been like this.”

“Understanding these modern communities on Earth could inform us about what we should look for as we search for similar features in the Martian rocks,” Hynek said in a news release.

Right now, the remarkable lagoon environment Hynek and Farías have discovered remains intact, although time is of the essence as far as future studies go: the area has recently been leased by a company specializing in lithium mining, whose plans to drill in portions of the lagoon could alter it irreversibly.

“This entire, unique ecosystem could be gone in a matter of years,” Hynek said, adding that while they hope to protect portions of the environment, this may be impossible, in which case efforts must focus on documenting the area as it currently exists “before it’s gone or disturbed forever.”

Hynek and Farías recently presented their findings at the 2023 meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, with additional information about their discovery available online courtesy of UC Boulder.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

19-01-2025 om 22:19 geschreven door peter  

China's record-breaking Gravity-1 rocket aces amazing debut launch from ship at sea (video)

19-01-2025 om 18:36 geschreven door peter  

25 biggest space conspiracy theories: Debunked - PART I

Astronaut James Irwin salutes in front of the landing module of the Apollo 15 on the moon in 1971. 

(Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The internet is absolutely full of myths and urban legends about space and just about everything else, so readers must be a skeptical these days.

From claims of aliens crashing on Earth and UFOs being hidden on military bases, to Mars being abnormally large and the moon turning green, space tends to attract some outlandish or at least highly unproven claims that should be vetted carefully.

Here are some of the biggest space myths and conspiracy theories that just won't go away.

1. The Apollo moon landings were fake

Twelve NASA astronauts walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972, but in the decades since Apollo 11 astronauts first set foot on the moon, many theories have been put forward claiming that the whole Apollo program was staged. However, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has since released photos of the landing sites as they appear on the lunar surface many years later.

25 biggest space conspiracy theories: Debunked - PART II

9. Saturn's hexagon is alien technology

Saturn's hexagon was first spotted when NASA's Voyager spacecraft flew by the giant, ringed planet in 1980. The bizarre, six-sided structure on the round planet's north pole caused quite the stir, because straight lines and polygons are not so common in nature.

Immediately after the Voyager returned its first images of Saturn's strange feature, even stranger theories arose to explain it, including that it was somehow related to alien technology, or perhaps even was a gateway to hell. The hexagon is not artificial, but rather a weird-looking hurricane at Saturn's pole.

NASA has done several flybys of this region with the Cassini spacecraft, studying the haze particles and other features of the storm, to try to learn more about its unusual properties.

10. Mars is as big as the moon

Originating in 2003, the infamous Mars hoax asserts that Mars was closer to Earth than it had been in the 60,000 years prior, and that the planet will appear as large as the full moon. What started out as a misconstrued email turned into a recurring rumor that gets reshared every August and, naturally, has spread to social media as it became more popular.

Although Mars is indeed relatively close to Earth in a cosmic sense, it will never be as large as the full moon. It will appear as a red dot in the sky, just as the ancient astronomers saw it. If you'd like to see Mars magnified, take out a telescope or look at one of NASA's spectacular Mars pictures.

11. The moon will turn green

In spring 2016, there was a rumor that the moon would turn green because several planets had aligned and caused an eerie glow, according to EarthSky. This was supposed to happen on April 20 and again on May 29 for the first time since 1596, the rumor alleged.

The moon never actually turned green, although it can appear red during a lunar eclipse, when the moon passes through Earth's shadow. In the same way sunsets often appear red, sunlight is scattered as it passes through Earth's atmosphere, casting a reddish shadow on the moon's surface.

Skywatching columnist Joe Rao debunked this green-moon myth. He pointed out that a full moon actually took place on April 22, 2016, and speculated that the April 20 date of the "green moon" might have to do with "National Weed Day," popularly known as 4/20. Considering that the last green moon supposedly happened 420 years ago as well, this doesn't appear to be a coincidence.

12. Earth will go dark for two weeks

In July 2015, a website called "NewsWatch33" wrote an article claiming that Earth would have 15 days of complete darkness that year. The website, which is actually a fake news site, was borrowing from an older version of the tale that has been circulating for years, according to debunking website Snopes.

As we all know, Earth did not actually experience that much darkness that year. (The article claimed that the alleged darkness was partly due to a Jupiter-Venus conjunction, which actually took place more than 500 million miles apart.) Darkness occurs when the Earth rotates, causing the sun to "set" on the local horizon. Brief periods of darkness can also happen when the sun is totally obscured during total solar eclipses, which occur rarely in any particular spot on Earth. But even during an eclipse, Earth is never completely in the dark.

13. Zero-gravity day will make you weightless

If you ever wanted to leap into the sky and soar like Superman, this hoax is for you. In late 2014 and early 2015, a widely shared story claimed that on Jan. 4, 2015, everyone on Earth would experience weightlessness due to a rare alignment of the planets. A doctored image of a purported tweet from NASA's Twitter account that went around on social media fooled a lot of people into believing the hoax.

But, of course, nobody floated off the surface of Earth that day. Earth's gravity is too strong for people to become weightless. The only way to experience weightlessness without going to space is to ride aboard a plane that performs parabolas, with some including a few seconds of weightlessness. This is sometimes nicknamed the Vomit Comet.

Back in 2004, an expedition of Russian researchers working in Siberia claimed to have discovered "an extraterrestrial device" close to where the mysterious Tunguska explosion occurred. Scientists still aren't sure exactly what it was that blew up in the sky over Siberia that day in 1908, but the leading theory is that it was a large meteorite or an asteroid, according to Live Science.

The Tunguska incident flattened hundreds of square miles of forest, and signs of the destruction were visible even decades afterward. At the time, news reports claimed that evidence of aliens was found at the site, but this claim was never substantiated. "The Russian team stupidly stated long before they went to Siberia that the main intention of their expedition was to find the remnants of an alien spaceship," Benny Peiser, a researcher at Liverpool John Moores University in the U.K., told Space.com. "And bingo! A week later, that's what they claim to have found."

15. UFO was caught "refueling" at the sun

NASA has a fleet of sun-gazing spacecraft that keep an eye on space weather, especially during solar eruptions. In 2012, telescopic images appeared to show something in the shadows. On YouTube, some viewers said this could be a UFO that was refueling by using the solar plasma.

However, NASA pointed out that the feature is actually something called a "prominence," which has cooler and denser plasma than the outer atmosphere of the sun, or the corona. Scientists are still trying to figure out how solar prominences develop, but they're pretty sure it has nothing to do with aliens.

16. There is a ______ on Mars!

With NASA's Opportunity and Curiosity rovers regularly taking pictures of the Martian surface, viewers have the chance to check out what they're doing in almost real time. NASA puts the raw images online for the public to see. But over the years, some weird shapes have cropped up. In 2008, for example, the Opportunity rover appeared to photograph a female figure. Other photos have shown things shaped like animals, spoons or other items.

You can imagine that, with all of the rocks available on Mars, some of them would happen to look like familiar objects. In fact, the human brain tends to perceive meaningful images in random patterns — a phenomenon known as pareidolia.

When evaluating the claims, consider that the Martian environment is extremely harsh to life as we know it; the surface is baked with radiation, the "air" is mostly carbon dioxide and there's not much atmospheric pressure.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

18-01-2025 om 22:49 geschreven door peter  

25 biggest space conspiracy theories: Debunked - PART III

Some space conspiracy theories just won't go away.

17. I just saw a bright UFO!

It's a familiar trope for police stations and astronomy writers. From time to time, somebody will call (or write) in to say they just saw a UFO in the sky. While UFO is the term used for any flying object that an observer cannot identify, many people claim that they are alien spaceships. They spotted a bright light around sunset, or saw a light moving around in an unfamiliar way.

While every situation is different, one common explanation for "UFOs" is actually another extraterrestrial object: Venus. Venus can be extremely bright when it's at its closest, because it's relatively near Earth. The planet is also extremely reflective because the sun's light bounces off the clouds. So before calling to say you've spotted a UFO, check your sky charts!

18. NASA can travel faster than light

If you've seen the "Star Trek" clips that show the Enterprise spaceship warping into another sector, you might have wondered how fast NASA is making progress on being able to move at the speed of light. The EmDrive has created years of speculation, with some breathlessly saying NASA must be on the verge of breaking the famed barrier.

In reality, NASA is downplaying the reports. The engine in question is a prototype that is producing some interesting results, such as appearing to create thrust when there was no reason for this to happen – and thereby violating Newton's Third Law of Motion. That said, NASA has not yet verified the results from these tests, and the engine has not been widely discussed in peer-reviewed research.

19. We've launched balloons into space!

With the advent of high-resolution, miniature cameras, several people have decided to strap these cameras on to high-altitude balloons and take pictures from up high. They've caught glimpses of blackness and, at times, taken interesting tiny passengers along (such as 1000 Lego minifigures). So they must be in space, right?

There's no way a helium balloon can get into space, according to the California Institute of Technology, and simple physics explains why. When a balloon rises into the sky, the air inside will expand in response to the dropping atmospheric pressure and eventually pop. Even Felix Baumgartner's stunning high-altitude balloon jump in 2012 was not actually from space, but from the stratosphere, which extends to roughly 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

At that altitude the air is thin enough to see the blackness of space, but thick enough to support special high-altitude balloons. The boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space is about twice as high as the upper limits of the stratosphere.

20. There are canals on Mars

Author Percival Lowell became one of space's first popularizers when he wrote many books for the general public back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In these books and other writings, he said there were canals on Mars built by an intelligent civilization, perhaps to move water into desert-stricken areas. He claimed to have seen the canals in his own telescope, and produced several sketches that are still available on the internet today.

There are no artificial canals on Mars. Several spacecraft have flown by the planet or orbited it, and not one has caught signs of aliens from orbit. What they have seen, however, are smaller channels that were created by nature – likely from water, ice or other processes that cause erosion.

21. A star is flinging comets at Earth

A long-standing theory known as Nemesis supposes that there is some sort of "death star" on the outer edge of the solar system, whose orbital motions perturb comets in an icy region of objects known as the Oort Cloud. According to the myth, the star's gravity throws these comets toward the inner solar system, and these comets collide with Earth and cause mass extinctions once every 27 million years.

However, a 2011 study concluded that this idea is unlikely, because the comet strikes in recorded history haven't happened with any regularity. The pattern that was recorded in the hoax is actually a statistical artifact, or the result of researchers trying to find patterns in nature where they do not exist, the study's authors found.

22. There's life on Venus

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union sent several uncrewed missions to study Venus. Ten of these Venera probes landed on the surface of Venus and were able to transmit data and images for a few minutes before succumbing to the planet's extreme atmosphere. In 2012, the Russian news service RIA Novosti reported that Leonid Ksanfomaliti, a scientist who worked on the Venera missions, suggested that the photographs showed living objects moving around on the planet's surface. (RIA Novosti ceased operations in 2013.)

These alleged life-forms on Venus are just an example of "letting your mind see patterns in low-resolution data that simply aren't real," Jonathon Hill, a research technician who processes images taken during NASA's Mars missions, explained to Space.com's sister site, LiveScience, in 2012.

According to NASA, the objects that appeared to be moving were actually camera-lens covers that automatically popped off of the cameras after landing LiveScience reports. These half-circle objects were seen in images from Venera-13 and Venera-14, two identical spacecraft that landed about 590 miles (950 km) apart. Both had two identical cameras — one in the front and one in the back — so it makes sense that the covers would appear in different places. Another photograph that Ksanfomaliti said was a scorpion is actually a blur in the image.

23. An asteroid is about to crash into Earth

This recurring rumor claims that a threatening "doomsday" asteroid is about to slam into our planet. An example from 2015 had an asteroid purported to hit Earth in late September, when it would supposedly wreak devastation from its impact point near Puerto Rico. NASA quickly dismissed the reports — which turned out, as usual, to be false. But that's not to say that asteroids will never hit our planet.

NASA and a network of monitoring telescopes across the world are cataloging all known asteroids wider than 459 feet (140 meters) across in line with a 2005 congressional mandate. (Smaller asteroids, if found, are also cataloged.) Of the space rocks discovered so far, NASA has not found a single asteroid that has a high probability of hitting Earth in the foreseeable future.

24. Aliens landed in Roswell, New Mexico

On a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico, so the story goes, an alien spacecraft crashed in 1947. While the accounts of exactly what happen vary, the legend claims that a disc or some sort of spacecraft was found on a ranch, and that the government quickly covered up the evidence.

While rumors of aliens circulated, some people speculated that the crash was just a plain old weather balloon that might not have been recognized by the local community. The U.S. military acknowledged the "spacecraft" was actually a weather balloon sent aloft as part of Project Mogul, which involved flying microphones on high-altitude balloons to listen for sound waves generated by possible Soviet Union nuclear tests.

25. Climate change isn't real

Earth is on an abnormal warming trend. Arctic ice is melting, the sea level is rising and temperatures are going to extremes in many locations around the world. Why is this happening? Anti-climate-change conspirators have many explanations: solar activity, radiation, the Earth's (and sun's) movements around the Milky Way, among other theories.

While there are many components of climate change, the fact that humans have contributed to it is indisputable, according to NASA. Temperature graphs show that the climate has not warmed this much, this quickly in all of Earth's history (as seen in geological records), and that the increase correlates with increased industrialization.

Additional resources

• For more myths about space, you can read this article by How It Works magazine. Additionally, you can watch this video by BBC Earth Lab.

Bibliography

• "National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Unamended)". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. https://history.nasa.gov/spaceact.html
• "Modern myths of Mars". Proc. SPIE 6309, Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology IX, 63090C (14 September 2006). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.676304

{ https://www.space.com/  }

18-01-2025 om 22:46 geschreven door peter  

Deze vreemde radiocirkels zijn groter dan sterrenstelsels: wetenschappers ontdekken eindelijk wat ze zijn...

Tim Kraaijvanger

In 2019 vonden astronomen mysterieuze radiocirkels met een doorsnede van honderdduizenden lichtjaren. In vergelijking: de Melkweg heeft een doorsnede van ruim 100.000 lichtjaar. Waardoor ontstaan deze cirkels? Eindelijk lijkt het mysterie opgelost.

De radiocirkels worden ook wel ‘odd radio circles’ genoemd, oftwel ORC’s. De grote cirkels zijn op de frequentie van radiostraling zichtbaar en zijn sterk cirkelvormig. Ze zijn niet zichtbaar in het zichtbaar spectrum, infrarood of röntgenstraling. In totaal hebben astronomen vijf van zulke objecten gevonden.

Een team van wetenschappers meldt in een paper in Nature dat de cirkels ontstaan door supernova-explosies. Als sterren aan het einde van hun leven exploderen, dan stoten ze hete gassen uit. Stel, er exploderen meerdere sterren in korte tijd, wat in actieve stervormingsgebieden kan gebeuren, dan krijgt het gas genoeg snelheid om uit het sterrenstelsel te ontsnappen. Dit gas kan een snelheid van 2.000 kilometer per seconde bereiken. Dat is iets minder dan 1% van de lichtsnelheid (300.000 kilometer per seconde).

“Deze sterrenstelsels zijn heel interessant”, vertelt onderzoeksleider Alison Coil. “Als twee sterrenstelsels met elkaar botsen, dan wordt het gas op elkaar gedrukt. Hierdoor ontstaan er in korte tijd veel sterren. Deze massieve sterren sterven ook weer snel, waardoor er snelle galactische winden ontstaan.”

Coil en haar collega’s ontrafelden het mysterie door te kijken naar ORC 4, één van de gevonden radiocirkels. Zij ontdekten dat de sterren in ORC 4 ongeveer zes miljard jaar oud waren en dat er één miljard jaar geleden een periode van actieve stervorming had plaatsgevonden. Onderzoeker Cassandra Lochhaas draaide een aantal computersimulaties om de radiocirkel na te bootsen en ontdekte dat de galactische winden ongeveer 200 miljoen jaar lang actief waren, voor ze stopten.

Computer Simulation of Outflowing Galactic Wind

Er zijn nog niet veel ORC’s gevonden, maar dat komt doordat de omstandigheden perfect moeten zijn. Er moet in korte tijd veel materiaal uitgestoten worden én het gas buiten het sterrenstelsel moet een lage dichtheid hebben, anders stopt de schokgolf. “Deze sterrenstelsels zijn zeldzaam, maar ze bestaan”, concludeert Coil.

Nu astronomen weten waardoor ORC’s ontstaan, is het tijd om een belangrijke vervolgvraag te beantwoorden. Hebben alle grote sterrenstelsels een fase gekend waarin ze een radiocirkel hadden? Zo leren wetenschappers meer over de evolutie van sterrenstelsels.

Bronmateriaal

• "Space Oddity: Uncovering the Origin of the Universe’s Rare Radio Circles" - UC San Diego

• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: Bärbel Koribalski, Dark Energy Survey

GERELATEERDE VIDEO'S

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

17-01-2025 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Ancient meteor impact may have sparked life on Earth

By WILIAM HUNTER

From floating ghosts to potential UFOs, Ring doorbells have captured a lot of strange events.

Now, one couple's home security camera has recorded something entirely new to science.

For the first time ever, the terrifying sound of a meteorite striking the Earth has been revealed.

The groundbreaking video shows the exact moment a chunk of space rock hit the driveway of a home in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

In July 2024, Laura Kelly and her partner Joe Velaidum had just returned from walking their dogs when they found a mysterious star-shaped mark outside their home.

Checking the recording from their Ring camera, they watched as a rock hurtled out of the sky and exploded into a burst of dust on the ground. 

Thinking fast, the couple managed to gather up about seven grams of suspected space rock and sent it to Dr Chris Herd, head curator of the meteorite collection at the University of Alberta.

Dr Herd says: 'No other meteorite fall has been documented like this, complete with sound.'

Residents of Prince Edward Island, Canada were baffled to find that their Ring doorbell had recorded the stunning moment a meteorite slammed into their driveway 

The shocking video is the first time that the sound of an asteroid hitting Earth has ever been recorded 

When the rock smashed into their home, it was moving so fast that the camera only captured it for a single frame.

However, as soon as Dr Herd looked at the samples, there was no question that this was no ordinary stone.

As luck would have it, Dr Herd already had a trip planned to the area just 10 days after the impact and was able to make a diversion to the site.

There, he found that the meteorite had blasted a 2cm x 2cm hole in the walkway outside the home.

With the help of Joe and Laura, Dr Herd collected 95 grams of asteroid material which is now being held for further study at the University of Alberta.

Dr Herd's analysis shows that the rock, now dubbed the Charlottetown Meteorite after the capital of Prince Edward Island, was made of Chondrite - the most common meteorite material.

Chondrite meteors are leftovers from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago and have lurked almost untouched since then in the distant reaches of space.

This particular rock would have begun its long journey to Canada in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, around 204 million miles (329 million kilometres) from Earth.

In July 2024, Laura Kelly and her partner Joe Velaidum had just returned from walking their dogs when they found a mysterious star-shaped mark outside their home

This was particularly exciting since this is the only recorded meteorite impact in the island's history.

Dr Herd says: 'As the first and only meteorite from the province of Prince Edward Island, the Charlottetown Meteorite sure announced its arrival in a spectacular way.

'It adds a whole new dimension to the natural history of the Island.'

But most excitingly of all, this is the only time the sound of a meteorite impact has ever been recorded.

Dr Herd told CBC News: 'It's not anything we've ever heard before. From a science perspective, it's new.'

The violent crack of the impact which you can hear in the video is a product of the Charlottetown meteorite's incredible speed.

Meteorites typically arrive at the edge of Earth's atmosphere travelling at over 37,000 miles per hour (60,000 kmph) before slowing down.

Dr Herd estimates that the Charlottetown Meteorite was probably moving at around 125 miles per hour (200 kmph) when it hit the ground.

The meteorite is believed to have hit the ground at around 125 miles per hour (200 kmph), producing enough force to gouge a 2cm hole into the walkway 

Although the meteorite wasn't big enough to cause any serious damage to the property, it could have been quite dangerous, had Joe and Laura been nearby.

'The shocking thing for me is that I was standing right there a couple of minutes right before this impact,' says Joe.

'If I'd have seen it, I probably would've been standing right there, so it probably would've ripped me in half.'

Despite being a first for Prince Edward Island, events like this are actually surprisingly common.

Dr Greg Brown, Senior Public Astronomy Officer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, says: 'Meteors fall into the Earth’s atmosphere very often. Millions of minuscule particles of dust and rock burn up in the atmosphere each day, totalling around 15 thousand tonnes of material over the course of a year.

'If those particles are large enough, they can survive their entry to the atmosphere and impact the Earth with recent estimates suggesting around 17,000 impacts occur each year.'

However, most of those are so small that they arrive at the Earth's surface as grains of dust, having burned away their outer layers.

Although impacts with human settlements are rare, scientists estimate that there are around two 'damaging impacts' every year.

Further analysis at the University of Alberta shows that the meteorite (pictured) is made of Chondrite, a material left over from the formation of the Solar System 4.5 billion years ago 

One family from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire found that their windshield had been smashed by an iron-rich meteorite on Boxing Day last year. 

Likewise, in 2019 scientists confirmed the first ever 'damaging impact' in Uruguay after a 712-gram stone broke through the cement ceiling of a home, shattering a TV and bed frame below.

While no one has ever been killed by a direct impact from a meteorite, in 1953 an American woman named Ann Elizabeth Fowler Hodges became the first and only person to ever be hit by a space rock.

According to investigations at the time, a 3.8kg (8.5lbs) rock shot through the roof of her home, hit a radio console and bounced into her side.

The impact left Ms Hodges with severe bruising and the unique claim to be the only person ever directly injured by a meteor impact.

However, given how large the planet is and how little of it is actually inhabited, there is little reason to worry about these kinds of small impacts.

'The vast majority of meteorites are far smaller, limiting the potential damage they could do,' Dr Brown added. 

'What’s more, despite how widespread humanity is, the majority of the surface of the Earth is ocean, desert and other similarly sparsely inhabited places, meaning most impacts aren’t even noticed, let alone pose a threat to life and health.'

WHY DO METEORS MAKE A SOUND?

Meteors are fragments of space rock that enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up as a result of the friction created when they pass through, appearing as bright streaks of light in the sky.

As well as light, this friction also creates sound, with some meteors creating a 'sonic boom' as they break the sound barrier, in a similar way to a fast-moving aircraft.

Since meteors can be over a hundred kilometres in altitude, and their sound waves travel much slower than the light they generate, the sonic boom is often not heard until many minutes after the flash is seen.

The boom will also only be loud enough to hear from Earth if the meteor is particularly large, enters the stratosphere below an altitude of about 30 miles (50 km) and explodes as a bolide, or fireball.

As well as the boom, some stargazers claim to have heard hissing and buzzing sounds at the same time as a meteor is seen. 

This is because meteors also give off very low frequency radio waves, which travel at the speed of light.

These are inaudible, but can cause physical objects on the Earth's surface to vibrate and produce a sound, which our ears may interpret as hissing.

Sometimes, stargazers are able to hear a meteor as it creates a 'sonic boom', in a similar way that a fast-moving aircraft does

(stock image)

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

17-01-2025 om 18:38 geschreven door peter  

SpaceX Starship mega-rocket 'destroyed' in 7th test flight trying to bring Elon Musk closer to Mars

By LAUREN ACTON-TAYLOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Space X's seventh Starship test flight was 'destroyed' less than ten minutes after its launch, as Elon Musk continues his quest to reach Mars. 

The uncrewed test flight was Musk's latest attempt to make life on mars a reality after his sixth test flight exploded less than ten minutes into its flight. 

The new-generation ship launched from Texas on Thursday and successfully flew for around eight minutes, with the teams' second breathtaking booster catch, before contact was lost. 

Officials confirmed that the spacecraft was destroyed. 

'Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause,' SpaceX posted on X. 

'With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.'

Debris, with unclear relations to the spacecraft, was captured on camera flying across the Caribbean just minutes after the flight test. 

'Every Starship launch is one more step closer towards Mars,' Musk said before liftoff, as he hopes his ships will be the first to launch humanity into life on Mars. 

SpaceX posted on X that today's test flight featured 'significant upgrades.' 

The new Starship was rolled out taller - now standing at 403 feet - and with about 300 more tons of propellant than the last test flight ship, with added upgrades for 'reliability and performance'

'Every Starship launch is one more step closer towards Mars,' Musk said before liftoff, as he hopes his ships will be the first to launch humanity into life on Mars

Debris, with unclear relations to the spacecraft, was captured on camera flying across the Caribbean just minutes after the flight test

The new Starship was rolled out taller - now standing at 403 feet - and with about 300 more tons of propellant than the last test flight ship, with added upgrades for 'reliability and performance.'

SpaceX announced there would be 'hardware upgrades to the launch and catch tower to increase reliability for booster catch,' including enhancements to sensor protections on the chopsticks damaged during the last launch. 

As well as a redesigned upper-stage propulsion system that can carry 25 percent more propellant, along with slimmer, repositioned forward flaps to reduce exposure to heat during reentry. 

The company also added ten dummy satellites, the same size as SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites, for release in space. They were due to follow the same flight path as the spacecraft, ending up destroyed upon entry.

The post added that the flight 'set out to attempt Starship's first payload deployment test, fly multiple reentry experiments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and launch and return the Super Heavy booster.' 

'Today’s flight test will launch a new generation ship with significant upgrades, attempt Starship’s first payload deployment test, fly multiple reentry experiments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and launch and return the Super Heavy booster.' 

SpaceX's last successful launch happened in October on its fifth flight test. The sixth, which was witnessed by President-elect Donald Trump in November, made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. 

The test flight launched just after 5.30 EST in Texas across the Gulf of Mexico. 

Around six and a half minutes into the flight, Super Heavy returned and was successfully caught by the launch tower for SpaceX's second time

While Stage 1 was successful, contact with the ship was reported to be lost just after the eight-and-a-half-minute mark

'With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability,' SpaceX posted on X

 Just around 3 minutes into the flight, the Super Heavy booster successfully detached and performed a flip maneuver, making its way back to the launchpad. 

Around six and a half minutes into the flight, Super Heavy returned and was successfully caught by the launch tower for SpaceX's second time. 

'Even in this day and age, what we just saw is magic,' Dan Huot observed from close to the launch site after the booster touched down. 'I am shaking right now.'

'The tower has caught the rocket!!' SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X as the spacecraft made the dramatic touchdown.

While Stage 1 was successful, contact with the ship was reported to be lost just after the eight-and-a-half-minute mark. 

Just after the twenty-minute mark, it was confirmed that the ship was lost. 

Hours earlier, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin - launched their newest rocket, New Glenn, in Florida. The rocket reached orbit on its first flight, successfully placing an experimental satellite thousands of miles above Earth. 

However, the booster was destroyed and missed its targeted landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

17-01-2025 om 18:13 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Inside the daring rescue mission to save two NASA astronauts 

By WILIAM HUNTER

One of NASA's trapped astronauts got a much-needed change of scenery as she stepped outside the space station for the first time in seven months.

Suni Williams and her fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June last year.

The pair had intended to stay for just eight days after arriving in Boeing's Starliner capsule, but engine failures and helium leaks meant they could not safely return.

Yesterday, Williams and NASA astronaut Nick Hague embarked on a six-hour spacewalk to conduct repair work on the outside of the station. 

As Williams enjoyed her first moments outside the ISS, many social media users were shocked to realise she was still stranded in space. 

Outraged space fans flocked to X (formerly Twitter) with one even dubbing Williams a 'captive worker'. 

'They're like indentured servants at this point,' the furious commenter added. 

Williams and Wilmore were originally scheduled to return home in February this year, but further delays mean they will be stuck on the ISS until at least March.

Suni Williams (pictured), one of NASA's stranded astronauts, stepped outside the International Space Station for the first time in seven months 

Williams and Wilmore will likely remain on the station until at least March or April after the failure of the Boeing Starliner (pictured) 

Mission commander Williams and flight engineer Wilmore took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5 for a test flight of Boeing's new Starliner capsule.

The plan was to ride Starliner out of the atmosphere, perform a few test manoeuvres, and dock with the ISS for an eight-day stay before returning to Earth in the same capsule.

However, things almost immediately began to go wrong for the problem-plagued capsule as the craft experienced thruster failures and a helium leak.

In September last year, Starliner was sent back to Earth empty, touching down in New Mexico after slowing its descent with parachutes.

That choice left the Boeing test crew stuck aboard the ISS without their vehicle until someone could be sent to get them.

That means the pair might not get back to Earth until April at the very earliest - 10 months after they left home.

Since their arrival, yesterday's spacewalk was the first time that Williams has been able to escape the cramped confines of the station.

However, on social media, many expressed their shock and disappointment that Williams and Wilmore had not yet been able to return to Earth.

As Williams enjoyed her first moments outside the station, one commenter dubbed her a 'captive worker' due to the fact she is still trapped in space

Another pointed out that Williams was only meant to have a 'week's vacation' and has now spent the second longest time in space of any American

One commenter angrily demanded to know when Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth 

One commenter wrote: 'I appreciate that Suni Williams is just doing sidequests at this point.

'She was meant to be on a week's vacation to the ISS and now she's spent the second longest amount of time in space of an American.'

Another angrily asked: 'When are they going to be back on Earth?'

Meanwhile, other users joked that Williams was 'stepping out to get some fresh air after being unexpectedly cooped up for months.'

'Sometimes you just gotta get outta the house,' one commenter wrote.

Another joked: 'We can understand! Guys get pretty bored holed up inside the station & went out for a garden walk to loosen their limbs a bit!'

Likewise, some commenters suggested that Williams might be taking her resue into her own hands.

One commenter joked:  'Frustrated with NASA, astronauts figure it's easier just to walk home.'

Some commenters joked that Williams was only 'stepping out to get some fresh air' after her seven-month stint inside the ISS

Commenters felt they could relate to the feeling of just needing to get out of the house 

One commenter added that Williams had gone 'out for a garden walk' to stretch her legs 

While another cheekily added: 'If it'd been me I would've stepped outside and said 'F*** it, I'm walking home".'

Despite the social media reaction, the spacewalk had a more serious purpose which was to perform essential repairs outside of the ISS. 

After spending the last few days undergoing rigorous health checks and inspecting their equipment, Williams and Hague donned their suits early Thursday morning.

At 08:00 EST (13:00 GMT), the astronauts switched their suits over to battery power, marking the official start of the spacewalk.

'I'm coming out,' Williams radioed as she emerged from the orbiting lab 260 miles above Turkmenistan in Central Asia.

The astronauts replaced equipment, repaired one of the station's telescopes, and replaced a navigation device on a visiting vehicle.

Williams got a close-up look at the SpaceX capsule that will bring her home this spring, floating just a few feet away from the parked vessel as she struggled with a chore.

However, she managed to safely conduct the repairs without putting any dents in her ride home.

A commenter suggested that Williams was fed up with waiting and decided to make her own way back to Earth 

One commenter joked that they would have decided to walk home after remaining trapped in space for so long 

Suni Williams (left) arrived at the ISS with Butch Williams (centre) in June last year for what was supposed to be an eight-day stay. On Thursday, Williams was joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague (right) for her first excursion from the station since arriving 

This marks Williams' eighth spacewalk and brings her total cumulative time spent in extra-vehicular activity to 56 hours and 40 minutes 

Williams also made important repairs to the 'rate gyro assembly', a key piece of equipment which helps the ISS stay in the same orientation.

At 08:01 EST (19:00 GMT), after six hours of work, NASA announced that the spacewalk was officially over.  

This marks Hague’s fourth time working outside the station and the eighth for Williams, making her one of the most experienced spacewalkers in NASA's history. 

Williams, who has stayed on the ISS before, has already spent 56 hours and 40 minutes in EVA, making her the 11th most experienced spacewalker ever.

If she spends just four more hours outside the station next week, that will make her the most experienced female spacewalker.

The record is currently held by Peggy Whitson who spent 60 hours and 21 minutes in space across 10 different spacewalks.

This is the first time that astronauts have undertaken 'extra-vehicular activity' (EVA) from the ISS since November 2023.

Earlier US EVAs were put on hold after astronauts found water leaking into the airlock from the cooling system in one of the space suits.

Williams and Hague spend six hours outside the station to make repairs and perform maintenance. Pictured: the view from Williams' helmet camera as she repairs a navigation device on a visiting spaceship 

Williams also made repairs to the 'rate gyro assembly', a key piece of equipment which helps the ISS stay in the same orientation (pictured)

Williams (left) will be joined by Butch Wilmore (right) for another spacewalk on January 23 to make repairs and take samples to see if bacteria are growing on the outside of the ISS

NASA says the issue has now been fixed as has already announced a second EVA to take place next Thursday.

On January 23, Williams will be joined by her fellow stranded astronaut Butch Williams on a second spacewalk.

Their goal will be to remove a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station’s truss and prepare a spare elbow joint for the Candarm2 robotic arm which is mounted on the station.

Williams and Wilmore will also use the opportunity to take surface samples from the outside of the Destiny laboratory and the Quest airlock to see if any bacteria or fungi are growing on the ISS.

Last year, NASA found 13 strains of bacteria growing on the station that were not found anywhere on Earth.

Understanding bacteria in the harsh environment of space is key to learning how life might flourish on other planets and to protecting future space colonies against new diseases.

However, while Williams and Wilmore might be enjoying the chance to step outside the station, there is still a long way to go before they can return to Earth.

EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SITS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH

The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000. 

Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts. 

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expended with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems 

Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.

ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.

The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.

So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.

There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station beyond 2025, when it is thought some of the original structure will reach 'end of life'.

Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around then, with Axiom Space, a private firm, planning to send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station at the same time. 

NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, that would also include a base on the surface. 

This image, taken from NASA TV, shows astronaut Suni Williams working on the outside of the International Space Station on Thursday, just feet away from the parked SpaceX spacecraft. 

(NASA TV)

In this photo provided by NASA, astronaut Suni Williams tries on and evaluates her spacesuit aboard the ISS on Jan. 9.

(NASA via The Associated Press)

In this image, made from NASA TV, Williams works outside the International Space Station on Thursday. It marked Williams's eighth spacewalk. 

(NASA TV/The Associated Press)

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

17-01-2025 om 17:48 geschreven door peter  

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

17-01-2025 om 13:13 geschreven door peter  

Today’s test marked the first use of an upper stage that was upgraded with a redesign of the avionics, the propulsion system and the forward control flaps. Ship 33’s heat shield featured next-generation protective tiles as well as a backup layer of heat-resistant material. SpaceX had removed some of the tiles for this flight as a stress test for the heat shield.

During the webcast, an onscreen graphic suggested that Ship experienced engine problems during its ascent. “We saw engines dropping out on telemetry,” launch commentator Dan Huot said.

In a posting to X, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said preliminary indications were that there was “an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity.”

“Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area,” Musk wrote. “Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month.”

After Ship’s breakup, eyewitnesses posted videos showing a glittering hail of debris falling to Earth. Reuters reported that at least 20 commercial aircraft had to divert to different airports or alter their course to dodge the debris.

In response to an emailed inquiry, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of the anomaly that occurred during today’s flight test and would be assessing the operation. “The FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling,” the agency said via email. “Normal operations have resumed.”

If Ship had made it to space, it would have deployed 10 Starlink simulators that were about the same size and weight as SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites. This was meant to test the procedure that SpaceX plans to use to put scores of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit during a single Starship mission.

At the end of the flight test, Ship would have made a controlled re-entry and splashdown into the Indian Ocean.

Starship is the world’s most powerful launch system, with the booster’s 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines providing liftoff thrust of 16.7 million pounds. That’s more than twice the thrust of the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket, and almost twice the thrust of NASA’s Space Launch System, which was first launched in 2022 for the uncrewed Artemis I moon mission.

When fully stacked, Starship stands 403 feet (123 meters) tall. The system is meant to be fully reusable. Flight tests began in 2023, and SpaceX has made gradual progress. The first successful catch of the Super Heavy booster thrilled observers last October — and like that catch, today’s catch drew cheers from SpaceX employees watching the launch.

This year, SpaceX aims to demonstrate full reuse of Super Heavy and Ship, and promises to fly “increasingly ambitious missions.” The Starship system would be used for large-scale satellite deployments — and eventually for missions beyond Earth orbit. A customized version of Starship is slated to serve as a crewed lunar landing system for NASA’s Artemis III mission, which is currently scheduled for no earlier than mid-2027.

Musk envisions sending Starships on missions to Mars, perhaps starting in 2026. “These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars,” he said last September in a posting to X.

“If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years,” Musk said. “Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years.”

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

17-01-2025 om 12:06 geschreven door peter  

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

16-01-2025 om 22:31 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

16-01-2025 om 22:14 geschreven door peter  

Posted by Evan Gough

The Gaia Mission’s Science Operations are Over

The ESA has announced that Gaia’s primary mission is coming to an end. The spacecraft’s fuel is running low, and the sky-scanning phase of its mission is over. The ground-breaking mission has taken more than three trillion observations of two billion objects, mostly stars.

The ESA launched Gaia in December 2013. It’s an astrometry mission that measures the positions, motions, and distances of stars with extreme accuracy. It created the largest and most accurate 3D map of space ever, including about one billion objects, mostly stars but also quasars, comets, asteroids, and planets.

Gaia’s mission lasted twice as long as expected, and its data has changed astronomy. It serves as the foundation for many new discoveries and insights into the Milky Way. Astronomy and astrophysics would be far behind where they are now if it weren’t for Gaia. Regular Universe Today readers have encountered its data frequently.

“Today marks the end of science observations and we are celebrating this incredible mission that has exceeded all our expectations, lasting for almost twice its originally foreseen lifetime,” says ESA Director of Science Carole Mundell. “The treasure trove of data collected by Gaia has given us unique insights into the origin and evolution of our Milky Way galaxy, and has also transformed astrophysics and Solar System science in ways that we are yet to fully appreciate. Gaia built on unique European excellence in astrometry and will leave a long-lasting legacy for future generations.”

Gaia hasn’t always had it easy at its position at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. In April 2024, a tiny micrometeorite smaller than a grain of sand struck, puncturing a tiny hole in the satellite’s protective cover. The hole allowed a tiny bit of sunlight into the spacecraft, disrupting its sensors. In May 2024, a solar storm struck, and it suffered an electronics malfunction that led to an inordinately high number of false detections. In both cases, Gaia recovered and continued normal operations.

Gaia has three instruments that allow it to be so accurate. Its astrometric instrument (ASTRO) determines the positions of stars in the sky. By measuring the same stars multiple times over different years, Gaia can measure a star’s position and proper motion.

Gaia’s radial velocity spectrometer (RVS) measures the Doppler shift of a star’s absorption lines. This reveals the star’s velocity along Gaia’s line of sight.

The photometric instrument (BP/RP) provides colour information on stars, allowing astronomers to measure critical stellar characteristics like mass, chemical composition, and temperature.

These instruments have worked together to create the largest and most accurate map of the Milky Way ever.

Among its other achievements, Gaia has captured pinpoint precision orbits of more than 150,000 asteroids, accurate enough to uncover possible moons. It also discovered a new type of black hole revealed only through its gravitational influence on nearby stars.

Though its science operations are at an end, it still has data to deliver.

“After 11 years in space and surviving micrometeorite impacts and solar storms along the way, Gaia has finished collecting science data. Now all eyes turn towards the preparation of the next data releases,” says Gaia Project Scientist Johannes Sahlmann.

“This is the Gaia release the community has been waiting for, and it’s exciting to think this only covers half of the collected data.”

Antonella Vallenari, Deputy Chair of DPAC, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Padua, Italy.

Gaia’s Data Release 4 (DR4) is expected in 2026. The volume and quality of data have increased with each DR. DR 4 should contain 500 terabytes of data covering the mission’s first 5.5 years, corresponding to the length of the mission’s originally foreseen duration.

“This is the Gaia release the community has been waiting for, and it’s exciting to think this only covers half of the collected data,” says Antonella Vallenari, Deputy Chair of DPAC based at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Astronomical Observatory of Padua, Italy. “Even though the mission has now stopped collecting data, it will be business as usual for us for many years to come as we make these incredible datasets ready for use.”

The data release will feature more binary stars and exoplanets, among other things.

Gaia’s final data release, DR5, is a few years away. “Over the next months we will continue to downlink every last drop of data from Gaia, and at the same time the processing teams will ramp up their preparations for the fifth and final major data release at the end of this decade, covering the full 10.5 years of mission data,” says Rocio Guerra, Gaia Science Operations Team Leader based at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid in Spain.

Though the fuel that allows it to point itself with such accuracy is almost gone, Gaia won’t meet its demise just yet. It still has enough fuel for about 15 days of operations. Instead of using its final 15 days to take more astrometric measurements, it’s going to do some technology testing.

“The Gaia spacecraft has been constructed using a wide range of technologies which have been combined to create a unique machine that operates in a very stable environment,” the ESA explains. “The spacecraft’s stability is essential for the science observations. These technology tests would have disrupted the spacecraft for an extended period and, therefore, could not be performed during the normal science observation campaign.”

These tests will teach engineers more about Gaia’s instruments and will allow engineers to study their behaviour and the behaviour of the spacecraft as a whole. The goal is to improve the calibrations for future Gaia data releases. They will also inform the design of the next mission.

“Some of the Gaia technologies have already been re-used, for example the mirror-drive electronics and cold-gas thrusters on EUCLID,” the ESA writes. Other future missions like LISA will require extreme accuracy, and the results of these tests can help them achieve that.

Once its testing is complete, Gaia will be placed in a heliocentric orbit far away from Earth’s influence. At the end of March 2025, it will be passivated to avoid any potential harm or disruption to other spacecraft.

Though the mission will end, Gaia’s data will be used for decades. So, in that sense, it will live on.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

16-01-2025 om 22:01 geschreven door peter  

First, Sgr A* is relatively weak in the mid-infrared range compared to other ranges, so it doesn’t stand out as much against the background noise of the universe. Second, much of the mid-infrared emissions get obscured by the dust cloud surrounding the SMBH at the galaxy’s center, blocking it from detectors at Earth 28,000 light years away. Third, there were technological limitations to infrared sensors themselves. There were ground-based telescopes that could have detected the signal, but the Earth’s atmosphere blocked even more of it.

That required scientists to wait for the long-delayed James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). When it finally launched in late 2021, it was only a matter of time before they would get observational time to watch Sgr A* and hopefully observe a flare with the most powerful infrared detector ever launched into orbit. 

JWST did indeed get observational time with Sgr A* and saw a flare, representing the first-ever recording of a flare in the mid-infrared range. But the research team didn’t stop there – they were also watching with several other telescopes for confirmation of the JWST signal.

They didn’t find any in the X-ray range with Chandra, though that was probably because the flare wasn’t strong enough to emit a significant amount of X-rays. But they did see a signal from the Sub-Millimeter Array (SMA) in Hawai’i, which detected radio waves following along about 10 minutes behind the detected mid-infrared signal.

That confirmation was necessary because it allowed the experimentalists to provide even more insight about the same flare to the theoreticians. Their job is then to confirm the models and simulations of what causes the flares in the first place. The current theory is that they occur when magnetic field lines in the SMBH’s accretion disk join up and emit massive amounts of radiation in a process known as synchrotron emission. In synchrotron emission, a bunch of charged particles – typically electrons – get pushed down the magnetic field lines like they were part of a massive particle accelerator.

The data from JWST fits nicely into that theory. However, there appear to be additional unanswered questions about whether that feature was specific to Sgr A* or whether it could be observed for other SMBHs such as M87*. For now, that remains to be seen, though given the interest in this particular black hole in this specific wavelength, while this might have been the first study published on the topic, it probably won’t be the last.

Learn More:

• CfA – Scientists Make First-Ever Detection of Mid-IR Flares in Sgr A*
• von Fellenberg et al – First mid-infrared detection and modeling of a flare from Sgr A*
  
• UT – Echoes of Flares from the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
  
• UT – A Black Hole Emitted a Flare Away From us, but its Intense Gravity Redirected the Blast Back in our Direction

Lead Image:

• This artist’s conception of the mid-IR flare in Sgr A* captures the variability, or changing intensity, of the flare as the black hole’s magnetic field lines approach each other. The byproduct of this magnetic reconnection is synchrotron emission. The emission seen in the flare intensifies as energized electrons travel along the SMBH’s magnetic field lines at close to the speed of light. The labels mark how the flare’s spectral index changes from the beginning to the end of the flare.
  Credit: CfA/Mel Weiss

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

16-01-2025 om 21:44 geschreven door peter