[Spacetalk] Rover Naming Contest is Open! https://www.nasa.gov/index.html; https://spaceflightnow.com

[Gabe Gabrielle]

Hi all,

 Back in the US from Australia, supposed to be leaving for Brazil today but hurricane has the airport closed, not sure when it will reopen…still fighting cold and sore throat but doing great and hoping I can get past this as still so much international travel ahead…we have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, believe in ourselves, and let those we care about most know…hugs & smiles…:-) :-)  love ya, Gabe
 Sign up for and invite everyone you know to go to Mars… https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass <https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass>    

this is super cool, watch the rover being assemble at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnuLxzocuhY <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnuLxzocuhY> 
> 
> Name NASA’s Next Mars Rover! NASA’s Mars 2020 rover needs a name!  Any K-12 student in U.S. public, private, and home schools has a chance to name the next Mars rover bound for the Red Planet in July 2020.  
>  To enter the contest, students submit their rover name and a short essay (max 150 words) to explain the reasons why their chosen name is the best.  The contest closes Nov. 1, 2019.  For contest entry and details, visit the Name the Rover site. <http://futureengineers.org/nametherover>
>  Interested adults, especially with STEM experience can sign up to be a judge on this page. <https://www.futureengineers.org/registration/judge/nametherover>
>  Not in the U.S.? In January 2020, people all over the world will have an opportunity to vote on the nine finalist names.  <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/name-the-rover/#Public-Poll>
>  Help us spread the word by downloading and printing an eye-catching flyer for teachers or students! <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/name-the-rover/toolkit/#Toolkit>
>  Read more about the Mars 2020 mission <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/>.
>  


India's Chandrayaan-2 Moon Orbiter Releases Vikram Lunar Lander
https://www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-2-moon-orbiter-lander-separation.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190902-sdc 


On Sept. 2, the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-2 moon orbiter successfully released its Vikram lander in lunar orbit as seen in this illustrated depiction. (Image: © India Space Research Organisation)
The two halves of India's moon mission <https://www.space.com/40136-chandrayaan-2.html> have parted ways in preparation for the tensest moment of the entire endeavor. Today (Sept. 2), the Chandrayaan-2 mission split into two separate spacecraft: an orbiter that will circle the moon's poles for about a year and a lander that will, later this week, attempt India's first touchdown on the moon <https://www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-2-scouts-the-moon-new-photos.html>. "All the systems of Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter and Lander are healthy," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials said in a statement <https://www.isro.gov.in/chandrayaan2-latest-updates>.  The separation occurred around 3:45 a.m. EDT (745 GMT). So far, both spacecraft are faring well in their separate orbits, ISRO officials added. Related: India's Chandrayaan-2 Mission to the Moon in Photos <https://www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-2-moon-mission-in-photos.html>

We May Finally Know Where Vicious 'Black Widow' Pulsars Come From 
These little "redback" and "black widow" stars have intensely magnetic poles, which could help explain how they eat their twins.


An illustration shows a pulsar in a binary system.(Image: © ESA)
Vicious, fast-blinking "black widow <https://www.livescience.com/39919-black-widow-spiders.html>" and "redback" pulsars dot the night sky. These violent stars blast their smaller stellar partners to bits as they whip them around in tight binary orbits, cannibalizing the smaller partners in the process. And, in a new paper, scientists have revealed the origin story behind these hungry stars. It's no coincidence that astronomers named these systems — places in space where a tiny, heavy, fast-spinning neutron star <https://www.livescience.com/65259-black-hole-photobomb.html> is energizing itself by ripping apart a small binary partner — after deadly spiders. Both redback and black widow females eat the male alive after sex. (In stars, as in spiders, black widows hook up with smaller partners.) Redback and black widows are subcategories of "millisecond pulsars <https://www.livescience.com/62436-neutron-star-pulsar-width-quantum.html>," neutron stars that spin so fast that they flash Earth every few fractions of a millisecond. But, until now, no one could explain how these nasty stars formed. Neutron stars <https://www.livescience.com/62309-galactic-positioning-system-nasa.html> are the ultradense remnants of collapsed stars. No wider than a small city, they nevertheless outweigh our sun. Scientists have had to invent all-new physics to explain how matter behaves inside of them. (But unlike black holes, they aren't quite dense enough to form singularities.) Scientists call them pulsars, because they often appear to telescopes as regularly pulsing light sources <https://www.livescience.com/62335-mushroom-cloud-neutron-stars.html>. Most spin far faster than normal stars, and their regular rotations can act like clocks ticking away in space. Related: 7 Surprising Things About the Universe <http://www.space.com/13172-7-surprising-universe-facts.html>


Stephen Hawking Was Right: Black Holes Can Evaporate, Weird New Study Shows
 <https://www.livescience.com/65683-sonic-black-hole-spews-hawking-radiation.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>
 <https://www.livescience.com/65683-sonic-black-hole-spews-hawking-radiation.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>Stephen Hawking Was Right: Black Holes Can Evaporate, Weird New Study Shows
 <https://www.livescience.com/65683-sonic-black-hole-spews-hawking-radiation.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>
 <https://www.livescience.com/65683-sonic-black-hole-spews-hawking-radiation.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>
 <https://www.livescience.com/65683-sonic-black-hole-spews-hawking-radiation.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>
Using supersonic gas and sound waves, researchers have shown that one of Stephen Hawking's theories about black holes was right all along. <https://www.livescience.com/65683-sonic-black-hole-spews-hawking-radiation.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>
 <https://www.livescience.com/65424-neutron-star-black-hole-collide.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>1st Evidence of a Black Hole Devouring a Neutron Star Sends Ripples Through Space-Time <https://www.livescience.com/65424-neutron-star-black-hole-collide.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>
A wrinkle in space-time might be the first evidence of a very unique cosmic collision. <https://www.livescience.com/65424-neutron-star-black-hole-collide.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>
Livescience <https://www.livescience.com/65424-neutron-star-black-hole-collide.html?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic>


Did a Black Hole Swallow a Neutron Star 900 Million Years Ago? 
Possibly, but it's too soon to say for sure.

An artist's visualization of a black hole swallowing a neutron star.(Image: © Carl Knox/OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence)
Scientists may have observed <https://www.space.com/25088-gravitational-waves.html> something that has never been seen before: a black hole swallowing a neutron star. 

About 900 million years ago, a catastrophic cosmic event sparked a ripple in space-time that passed through Earth last week <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/08/astronomers-probably-just-saw-black-hole-swallow-neutron-star/> (Aug. 14). Scientists observed the event at both the advanced LIGO <https://www.space.com/ligo-observes-black-hole-merger-after-one-week.html> (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and Virgo, LIGO's Italian counterpart. After further investigation and initial speculations, scientists think that this ripple could have been caused by the merger of a black hole and a neutron star. 

Currently, scientists can only confirm that the signal detected by LIGO and Virgo is a gravitational-wave candidate, LIGO team member Christopher Berry, a physicist at Northwestern University, told Space.com. But, while Berry is hesitant to label the binary, known as S190814bv, because scientists have yet to confirm what objects may have merged and their exact sizes, "from our initial estimates, it looks like this could potentially be a neutron star-black hole binary," he said. 

Related:  With Gravitational-Wave Detectors, Cosmic Mysteries Will Be Solved <https://www.space.com/gravitational-waves-future-discoveries.html>