Space, the final frontier
- futurism.com There's an Extremely Stupid Reason NASA Scientists Can't Study China's Amazing New Moon Rocks
The US enacted a law in 2011 that forbids NASA from cooperating with China, which means it may not be able to study the latest Moon rocks.
- apnews.com China calls on scientists of all nations to study lunar samples, but notes obstacle with the US
China’s space officials said Thursday they welcomed scientists from across the world to apply to study the lunar rock samples the Chang’e 6 probe brought back to Earth in a historic mission, but noted there were limits to that cooperation, specifically with the U.S.
- futurism.com Chinese Lander Instrument Detects Negative Ions on Far Side of Moon
An ESA scientific instrument dropped off by China's lunar lander detected negative ions on the far side of the Moon.
- apnews.com China's spacecraft carrying rocks from the far side of the moon leaves the lunar surface
China says a spacecraft carrying rock and soil samples from the far side of the moon has lifted off from the lunar surface to start its journey back to Earth.
- theconversation.com Archeoastronomy uses the rare times and places of previous total solar eclipses to help us measure history
Mentions of total solar eclipses in ancient history help researchers pinpoint precise dates of notable events.
-
NASA's FY2025 budget request means tough times ahead for Chandra and Hubble
www.theregister.com NASA's FY2025 budget ask: Tough times for Chandra, HubbleBut Artemis is still OK, so that's alright then
- arstechnica.com Former NASA administrator hates Artemis, wants to party like it’s 2008
"In my judgment, the Artemis Program is excessively complex."
- www.bbc.com Huge ring of galaxies challenges thinking on cosmos
Scientists discover a huge, ring-shaped structure in space which questions our ideas of the universe.
In before "halo is real, morty"
- science.nasa.gov Deformable Mirrors in Space: Key Technology to Directly Image Earth Twins - NASA Science
Finding and studying Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars is critical to understand whether we are alone in the universe. To study such planets and assess if they can sustain life, it is necessary to directly image them. However, these planets are difficult to observe, since light from the host ...
- www.technologyreview.com Inside NASA’s bid to make spacecraft as small as possible
When it comes to exploring the solar system, we must grapple with the hard limits of physics.
- www.nasa.gov NASA’s Deep Space Optical Comm Demo Sends, Receives First Data - NASA
DSOC, an experiment that could transform how spacecraft communicate, has achieved ‘first light,’ sending data via laser to and from far beyond the Moon for
- www.vice.com Something Mysterious Appears to Be Suppressing the Universe's Growth, Scientists Say
The unexplained cause of the slowed growth of the cosmic web that connects galaxies could hint at new physics.
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/3486028
> Paper
-
Space Junk Is Invisibly Polluting Earth, And We Only Just Found Out. "Metal vapor in the stratosphere is only predicted to increase."
www.sciencealert.com Space Junk Is Invisibly Polluting Earth, And We Only Just Found OutEven the space junk designed with disposal in mind is a polluting presence around Earth, a new study has found. Those chunks of rocket and space station and dead satellites that burn up on atmospheric reentry leave miniscule traces of metal lingering...
- www.bbc.com US issues first ever fine for space junk to Dish Network
Dish Network will have to pay $150,000 for failing to move an old satellite far enough away from the Earth.
- science.nasa.gov Discovery Alert: The Planet that Shouldn't Be There - NASA Science
A large, gaseous planet orbits a red giant star that should have destroyed it. It's 530 light-years from Earth.
-
What's next for OSIRIS-REx? | What tests will NASA do on the asteroid sample?
A great video from science communicator Dr Becky about the recent asteroid sample we brought back to earth and the science they'll be doing on it.
Anybody else here donate their CPU time to the Asteroids@home project on [email protected] ? I love getting to see that my computer has discovered a new asteroid or computed the spin for one. There are so many undetected asteroids out there.
- www.nasa.gov NASA’s Webb Finds Carbon Source on Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa
Astronomers using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified carbon dioxide in a specific region on the icy surface of Jupiters moon Europa.
- apnews.com NASA astronaut Frank Rubio breaks US record for longest spaceflight
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio now holds the record for the longest U.S. spaceflight. Rubio surpassed the U.S. record of 355 days on Monday at the International Space Station.
- www.space.com NASA's Ingenuity helicopter breaks altitude record on 59th Mars flight
The little chopper rose 66 feet (20 meters) above the red dirt during its Sept. 16 sortie.
- www.space.com Rocket Lab suffers anomaly during launch, Earth-observation satellite lost
The Sept. 19 launch, Rocket Lab's ninth of the year, did not go well.
-
Parker Solar Probe’s Wide Field Imagery for Solar Probe (WISPR) camera observes as the spacecraft passes through a massive coronal mass ejection on Sept. 5, 2022. Article in comments.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2023/09/15/parker-observes-powerful-coronal-mass-ejection-vacuum-up-interplanetary-dust/
- hackaday.com Blame It On The Sockets: Forensic Analysis Of The Arecibo Collapse
Nearly three years after the rapid unplanned disassembly of the Arecibo radio telescope, we finally have a culprit in the collapse: bad sockets. In case you somehow missed it, back in 2020 we start…
- www.space.com Watch SpaceX launch 13 satellites for the US Space Force today
Liftoff is scheduled for 11:25 a.m. EDT (1525 GMT) on Thursday (Aug. 31).
- www.usatoday.com Metallic spheres found on Pacific floor are interstellar in origin, Harvard professor finds
Avi Loeb's team's findings may not say whether the metallic spheres are artificial or natural in origin, but they are unmatched in our solar system.
-
Saturn on August 26 - Shot using Amateur gear
Appologies if this isn't the right community, but there isn't really an r/astrophotography equivalent on Lemmy yet
Managed to get a good look at Saturn this past weekend, It's not in an ideal position for viewing yet, but it was good enough to snag this picture
Taken with a ZWO ASI224MC on an 8 inch Dobsonian telescope with a 2x barlow. The effective magnification was around 265x and no tracking was used, so the frames were captured over a dozen or so recording sessions back to back where I'd position the telescope, let Saturn track across the sensor window.
Each recording session only lasted about 15s before Saturn would leave the sensor frame. The final image was processed from around 1,000 frames using AutoStakkert, then finished in GIMP.
For those unfamiliar, the process used to generate this one picture out of the 1,000 or so frames i originally had is called "stacking". It essentially combines the best aspects of each frame to pull as much detail as possible from the whole collection, giving a final image which is significantly more detailed than any one of the original frames
You can make out some cloud bands and even the Cassini Division (that's the gap between the outer-most ring and the inner ring sections). To give a sense of scale, our moon would comfortably fit within that gap with a 1000km to spare!
Hopefully later in the season when Saturn is at opposition I can grab an even higher quality version!
- www.universetoday.com Hackers are Attacking Observatories
On August 1, 2023, hackers broke into Gemini North telescope computers. The incident has shutdown observatory operations there and in Chile.
- phys.org Japan's 'Moon Sniper' mission looks to match Indian success
Hot on the heels of India's historic lunar landing, Japan's space program is hoping to rebound from a string of setbacks next week with the launch of its own mission: "Moon Sniper".
- arstechnica.com India becomes the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon
Chandrayaan 3 landed closer to the Moon's south pole than any previous mission.
- www.livescience.com India lands on moon! Chandrayaan-3 becomes world's 1st spacecraft to land near lunar south pole
India landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft near the moon's south pole today (Aug. 23), making history for the nation and for lunar exploration in general.
- phys.org Russia's Luna-25 probe crashes on the Moon
The Luna-25 probe, Russia's first Moon mission in almost 50 years, has crashed on the Moon after an incident during pre-landing manoeuvres, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.
.
- www.sciencealert.com Fierce Megastorms on Saturn Scar The Sky For Centuries
Jupiter may be the stormiest place in the Solar System, but Saturn's no slouch either.
Jupiter may be the stormiest place in the Solar System, but Saturn's no slouch either. A new study has found that the ringed giant also has persistent megastorms that can last a century and leave deep atmospheric scars that last much longer.
An analysis of radio waves emitted by Saturn conducted by a team of astronomers led by Cheng Li of the University of Michigan has revealed long-lasting signatures of giant storms, including equatorial storms that took place hundreds of years ago.
This is a fascinating insight into the dynamics of Saturn, and can help us figure out the cause of the strange megastorms that rage every few decades...
-
This (theoretical) fusion rocket would get hotter than the Sun and go 500,000 MPH
hothardware.com Wild Fusion Rocket In Development Gets Hotter Than The Sun And Screams At 500K MPHFaster space travel has been the holy grail of space agencies for decades and a UK-based aerospace company says it might have a viable solution in the form of nuclear fusion.
A UK company plans to test a fusion-powered rocket capable of reaching speeds of up to 500,000mph, though they admit that the fact that nobody has gotten a self-sustaining fusion reaction to work yet is a bit of a stumbling block.
-
Wild Plan Emerges To Turn An Asteroid Into A Space Station Crawling With Spider Robots
If you've ever sat around wondering "why can't we just hollow out an asteroid, make it spin, and then live on it?" know that you're not alone. In fact, a research team from the University of Rochester did a semi-serious study of the matter and put together a comprehensive plan about how one might go about doing such a thing. It doesn't require any exotic tech (though it's a bit beyond what we're currently capable of), and would "only" cost on the order of $34 billion according to the team.
- www.scientificamerican.com Earendel, the Most Distant Known Star, Reveals Its Secrets to JWST
A new view of a record-shattering distant star shows it to be twice as hot as our sun, and likely accompanied by a stellar companion
- interestingengineering.com SETI advance hopes to parse alien radio from Earthly static
A new technique for filtering out Earth's radio interference might be the biggest step in the search for extraterrestrial life in decades.
Gets me excited about another projects like SETI@Home coming along. The BOINC platform (which SETI@Home used to distribute work) is alive and well. You can contribute your spare computational power to finding pulsars, curing cancer, and more. [email protected]
