From gabe at educatemotivate.com Sat Oct 19 19:40:04 2024 From: gabe at educatemotivate.com (Gabe) Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2024 05:40:04 +0500 Subject: [Spacetalk] https://www.nasa.gov/index.html; http://jpl.nasa.gov; https://spaceflightnow.com Message-ID: <1094D916-BD5B-42BD-B276-9802E8D15B9B@educatemotivate.com> Hi all, It seems every time I write I am saying it has been a while?I know for many of you, like me, times is a blur?I?ve been trying to find time to get a letter off but here it is the middle of October?I?m wondering what happened to the last 3 months or even the last 12?I?m on a plane on my way to Pakistan, Dubai, and India?one year ago I was doing the same thing although Sri Lanka was a stop as well?these trips are challenging?I had to be at the airport in Orlando at 3 in the morning fly to New York, connecting flight to Saudi Arabia (11hours)?.13 hour layover, then 6 hour flight Pakistan?.39 hour travel time with little or no sleep and then full speed for 4 weeks?.then the flight back?the challenge is to enjoy it all, every minute must fun?it is the only way to manage these very long flights?it is all mental and applies to everything we do?again, delayed in completing?arrived safely and, everything considered, a great adventure?but then my computer locked me out and it has taken over 2 days to get it sorted out... The space program is still magical?I try to go to every launch, I volunteer as a Foreign National Escort?helping those who come from around the world to share in the amazement of seeing a launch from 5 kilometers (3 miles). I hope you all followed the Starliner launch, then all the issues with the capsule only to have it return flawlessly, in perfect condition?although the two astronauts stayed on the ISS? Space X continues to WOW the world with amazing technology... innovative ways of bringing down cost and improving efficiency?if you did not see the return of the Starship rocket?.I thought landing the boosters back on land was beyond imagination but to ?catch one" back on the same pad it launched from was simply mind boggling? Wishing you a wonderful day...we have to always remember to do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, be appreciative of the good in our lives, let those we care about most know, make each day special, smile & have fun! hugs, smiles, & love ya, Gabe SpaceX catches giant Starship booster during epic Flight 5 video space X booster catch google.com https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=video+space+X+booster+catch&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f6f56b8f,vid:XGC31lmdS6s,st:0? ? Relive SpaceX's epic Starship launch (and rocket catch) ? Rare illusion gives 'once-in-a-lifetime' comet a seemingly impossible 2nd tail after closest approach to Earth for 80,000 years ? The "once-in-a-lifetime" comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS looks like it has grown a physics-defying second tail after reaching its closest point to Earth for more than 80,000 years, new photos reveal. However, in reality, the extra limb is a visual illusion that occurs thanks to the position of our planet relative to the naked-eye object. C/2023 A3, more commonly known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, is an unusually bright comet that likely originates from the Oort Cloud ? a reservoir of icy objects in the outer reaches of the solar system . It was first discovered in early 2023 barreling between Saturn and Jupiter as it headed toward the inner planets. Follow-up observations revealed that the comet likely orbits the sun once every 80,660 years ? and suggested that it may have been disintegrating , which later turned out to be inaccurate. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has been visible to the naked eye over the last few weeks after slingshotting around the sun in late September. However, it peaked in brightness over the last few days after reaching its closest point to Earth on Saturday (Oct. 12), when it was around 43.9 million miles (70.6 million kilometers) from our planet ? around 180 times farther away from us than the moon . The comet was potentially visible to millions of people across large parts of the globe. On Sunday (Oct. 13), astrophotographer Michael J?ger photographed Tsuchinshan-ATLAS streaking across the night sky near Martinsberg, Austria. In addition to showing the usually bright tail, enhanced versions of the photos revealed the comet had a fainter streak of light, known as an "anti-tail," coming off its body in the opposite direction, according to Spaceweather.com . On Monday (Oct. 14), J?ger captured another even clearer shot of the comet and its additional appendage (see above) and sent it to Live Science. The Milky Way could be part of a much larger 'cosmic neighborhood' than we realized, challenging our understanding of the universe ? The region of the universe we live in may be significantly bigger than we thought. A new study reveals that the intergalactic supercluster holding the Milky Way may be part of an even bigger "basin of attraction" that's up to 10 times larger than the one we currently call home. The universe is full of basins of attraction (BOAs) ? regions within which everything is being pulled inward by the gravity of a massive object. BOAs can stack inside one another like nesting dolls. For example, the moon circles Earth, which in turn orbits the sun along with the rest of the solar system , which is itself spiraling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. But the story doesn't end there . The next layer of the BOA doll is the Local Group, which includes the Milky Way , the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy, along with their smaller satellite galaxies such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. After that, the next layers are the Virgo Cluster, which holds around 2,000 galaxies, and the larger Virgo Supercluster. The final known layer is Lani?kea (meaning "immense heaven" in the Hawaiian language) ? a supercluster first discovered in 2014, which holds around 100,000 galaxies and spans roughly 500 million light-years across. But in the new study, published Sept. 27 in the journal Nature Astronomy , researchers analyzed the relative movements of more than 56,000 galaxies to create a 3D "probabilistic" map of all the BOAs surrounding the Milky Way. This revealed that there is a decent chance our home galaxy is part of an even larger BOA ? the Shapley Concentration ? that has a volume up to 10 times greater than Lani?kea. (Scientists already knew the Shapley Concentration existed but did not previously believe it impacted the Milky Way.) Perseverance rover watches a solar eclipse on Mars Phobos begins crossing the solar disk during the eclipse of Sept. 30, 2024. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU) Even Mars rovers like to chase solar eclipses. On Sept. 30, NASA's Perseverance rover turned its Left Mastcam-Z camera toward the sky and photographed a solar eclipse from Mars , capturing the planet's moon Phobos partially blocking the sun's disk. In the series of photographs, you can distinctly see the shape of Phobos, which resembles a lumpy potato. Phobos, which is the larger of Mars' two tiny moons, isn't spherical like our own moon ? or many moons in our solar system , for that matter ? but rather irregular like an asteroid . When will Boeing Starliner fly astronauts again? ? (NASA) Starliner's next crewed mission to the ISS will happen no sooner than 2025. NASA is still unsure when it will next put astronauts on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which experienced issues during its first crewed test flight this summer. Starliner 's next "potential" crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025 "will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing?s path to system certification is established," NASA officials wrote in a statement on Tuesday (Oct. 15). NASA and Boeing are still reviewing the requirements for Starliner's certification, after propulsion problems arose on the first test flight with astronauts, which launched on June 5, agency officials added. "NASA will provide more information when available," the agency added. The launch of Starliner's first astronaut mission , called Crew Flight Test (CFT), went to plan, but docking with the ISS on June 6 was troublesome. Five out of 28 thrusters in the capsule's reaction control system had issues in the leadup, causing a delay. CFT astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams of NASA ended up arriving safely at the orbiting lab, but their planned 10-day mission was extended repeatedly as engineers troubleshot the issues. US, China need to discuss moon plans, NASA chief says ? (NASA) MILAN ? NASA and China will need to discuss exchanges of data and mission plans as the two sides move to build sustainable presences on the moon, according to the NASA administrator. NASA chief Bill Nelson met with the press at the 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here on Tuesday (Oct. 15), addressing questions related to the agency's Artemis program . Both NASA, with Artemis, and China, with its International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), are working to get astronauts to the moon and to build lunar infrastructure to support repeated and long-term missions. China and NASA are planning landings at the lunar south pole , where permanently shadowed craters are thought to harbor lots of water ice. The precious resource could be used to make rocket fuel or provide life support for astronauts. How did Mars turn into an uninhabitable desert? ? (NASA/MAVEN/The Lunar and Planetary Institute) NASA's Curiosity rover has new insights into how Mars might have changed from a potentially habitable, water-rich planet to an absolutely uninhabitable desert. The search for life on Mars goes ever on. Every day we inch closer to finding out whether or not life on Mars ever existed ? or even could have existed. Most recently, scientists studying data from NASA's Curiosity rover have new insight into how Mars might have changed from a potentially habitable, water-rich planet to an absolutely uninhabitable desert. As Curiosity traverses Gale Crater on Mars, it's performing experiments on rocks. Using its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) instruments, the rover has heated rock samples to analyze the gases produced. In performing this task on carbon-rich minerals, or carbonates, which often serve as climate records, Curiosity revealed an isotopic composition that suggests two possible climatic scenarios in Mars' past. In the first, the carbonates might have been formed via repeated wet-dry cycles, suggesting extreme evaporation. In the second, the carbonates might have been formed in extremely salty, extremely cold water. "These formation mechanisms represent two different climate regimes that may present different habitability scenarios," Jennifer Stern of NASA Goddard, a co-author of a paper on the research, said in a statement. "Wet-dry cycling would indicate alternation between more-habitable and less-habitable environments, while cryogenic temperatures in the mid-latitudes of Mars would indicate a less-habitable environment where most water is locked up in ice and not available for chemistry or biology, and what is there is extremely salty and unpleasant for life." These two scenarios aren't new concepts. Other evidence on Mars, from certain rock formations to the presence of specific minerals, supports both of them. But this particular study marks the first time isotopic evidence from rock samples support them. But there is some bad news that comes along with these results. "Our samples are not consistent with an ancient environment with life (biosphere) on the surface of Mars," said NASA Goddard's David Burtt, the lead author of the paper. "[A]lthough this does not rule out the possibility of an underground biosphere or a surface biosphere that began and ended before these carbonates formed.? ?Hunter's Moon; Comet? ? (Zabed Hasnain Chowdhury/NurPhoto/David McNew/Getty Images) Two rare night sky sights make for an autumn treat -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CmhodHRwczovL2VuY3J5cHRlZC10Ym4wLmdzdGF0aWMuY29tL2ltYWdlcz9xPXRibjpBTmQ5R2NUZVBVUmc4YnRDdGpCb1R1UmJtOXRvRXNJbUY5OWdsU1Z4RUZYN3o2NjlURXFPbXcmcwpoaHR0cHM6Ly9lbmNyeXB0ZWQtdGJuMC5nc3RhdGljLmNvbS9pbWFnZXM_cT10Ym46QU5kOUdjUjlaSnBtOTZMN3UwM2RBSnR4U2hmTHMzYmhjUWVTWmg5MGpIWURhbGNoQ1U3U1pBJnMKaGh0dHBzOi8vZW5jcnlwdGVkLXRibjAuZ3N0YXRpYy5jb20vaW1hZ2VzP3E9dGJuOkFOZDlHY1JjYTY2MmRqWF8ySjlQWkZuRUJDa042cE9pNVFfUW1wNFlSajVkNlRiZWZ5Zm1rZyZzCmhodHRwczovL2VuY3J5cHRlZC10Ym4wLmdzdGF0aWMuY29tL2ltYWdlcz9xPXRibjpBTmQ5R2NTU1dFVlIyTlZoTzBTMGJNazBrYjdQQUJ5T21pelpMQlVUMElTZ0lxZUV3eHB2SXcmcxAEIKwCKKwCMgcjRkZGRkZG.png Type: image/png Size: 172961 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: SpaceX planning 'chopsticks' catch of Starship in early 2025.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 45028 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Relive SpaceX's epic Starship launch (and rocket catch).jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 40579 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Rare illusion gives 'once-in-a-lifetime' comet a seemingly impossible 2nd tail after closest approach to Earth for 80,000 years.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 34431 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: The Milky Way could be part of a much larger 'cosmic neighborhood' than we realized, challenging our understanding of the universe.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 121992 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: When will Boeing Starliner fly astronauts again?.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 71564 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: US, China need to discuss moon plans, NASA chief says.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 63136 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: How did Mars turn into an uninhabitable desert?.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 54662 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Watch Hunter's Moon, comet in free livestream today.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 29719 bytes Desc: not available URL: