space

Solar Eclipse

I was so jealous of the people who grabbed a spot beneath totality; the videos were incredible. I’m definitely visiting my old residence of Colorado Springs in 21 years when the next one comes around!

Here’s a couple of my favorite pictures from the eclipse (though there were so many).

Credit:

Image 1: Joshua Intini (https://twitter.com/Intini_WX/status/1777428414560932136)

Image 2: Erik Kuna (https://twitter.com/SuperclusterHQ/status/1777504797890854927)

Image 3: Peter Forister (https://twitter.com/forecaster25/status/1777434179136819497)

Image 4: NASA (ISS) (https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status/1777822160087818714)

Starship Soars

Welcome to the future of spaceflight, everyone! This week, in its third test flight, Starship made it to space, oribiting the planet for around 40 minutes before heading home. No, it didn’t make it all the way to a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, but that’s what testing is for, and it traveled so much farther, for so much longer, than ever before. I was a little twitchy after the second explosive test, but I’m now very optimistic for the future of this spacecraft and what it means for our journey to the moon, then onward to Mars and throughout the solar system.

Now enjoy these absolutely stunning photos of the flight:

Odysseus

For the first time in 52 years, an American craft has landed on the moon. And for the first time EVER, it's a private, commercial craft. The company is Intuitive Machines, and the craft is Odysseus.

It was a "spicy" landing, in the words of IM's CEO. As the target landing time neared, they realized that its laser rangefinders weren't working properly. So they implemented a workaround to get the required altitude and velocity data, pressing into service an experimental NASA instrument aboard Odysseus called NDL ("Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing)."

The team delayed the planned touchdown by two hours to make the fix, which required them to beam a software patch to Odysseus from mission control in Houston. That is a heroic effort and an incredible achievement by the engineers at IM.

Now, Odysseus IS somewhat...sideways. See the pic for the adorable reenactment IM performed at the press conference yesterday. But slightly off-kilter or not, the craft is very much alive and doing science. It's solar panels are exposed and drawing power, virtually all of its payloads are accessible, and nothing got crushed. IM expects the craft to operate for several days before it loses that precious sunlight needed to power it.

This mission was part of a NASA initiative called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program, or CLPS, in which the space agency is paying private companies to deliver science experiments and other cargo to the lunar surface. (The failed Astrobotic Peregrine mission last month was the first CLPS mission, and there are I think 7 more scheduled over the next 18 months.)

Odysseur landed at the lunar south pole, which is about to be the hottest real estate in space, for one reason: water!

Link to a great article about the mission and the landing: https://www.universetoday.com/165864/odysseus-moon-lander-is-tipped-over-but-still-sending-data/

And a fascinating article out today with a behind-the-scenes look at the people at Intuitive Machines who saved the mission over and over again: https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/it-turns-out-that-odysseus-landed-on-the-moon-without-any-altimetry-data/

Babes in the Woods

Read yet another article this week about new findings on an early-universe galaxy that * shouldn't exist * according to our current scientific understanding, because "something something dark matter something something." At this point, I feel like this is the state of our "understanding" of astrophysics.

We are truly babes in the woods. With blindfolds on, waving around a dime-store metal detector. We know legions more than we ever have in the history of humanity - but imagine what we can know tomorrow.

Is Anyone Out There?

Two reknowned researchers, an astrobiologist and a planetary scientists, have bet a bottle of whiskey (hopefully a good one) over whether we will discover convincing evidence of *technological* life in the universe in the next 15 years: https://mindmatters.ai/2024/01/science-wager-extraterrestrials-will-be-spotted-within-15-years/

Per the two: "Our conclusion is that advanced extraterrestrial intelligent life (ETI) is either (1) extremely rare or non-existent in our galaxy or (2) these civilizations are deliberately hiding from us. No other possibility seems very likely."

I'm not at all sure that no other possibility is very likely. For instance, see Universe Today's excellent series on SEVENTEEN hypotheses of why we haven't yet detected intelligent life in the universe: https://www.universetoday.com/119727/beyond-fermis-paradox-i-a-lunchtime-conversation-enrico-fermi-and-extraterrestrial-intelligence/

Also, I'll readily concede there might not currently be many (any?) other advanced civilizations in the Milky Way, but our galaxy is a minuscule dot in the cosmos....

...which is why FTL will not be enough. We need wormholes!*

*also, I'm almost finished rewatching Farscape, and at this point it's All Wormholes, All The Time.

The Spirals

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a stunning new series of near- and mid-infrared images that depict 19 nearby spiral galaxies in vivid detail.

The achievement provides a level of clarity and detail in the new imagery that offers astronomers unprecedented insights into the structure and dynamics of this group of celestial bodies.

Read much more about these images here: https://thedebrief.org/james-webb-space-telescope-captures-amazing-new-images-of-19-distant-spiral-galaxies/. And download high res versions of your favorite galaxies from the mosaic on Webb’s Flikr page.

That'll do, Ingenuity. That'll do.

Who's ready to cry over another anthropomorphized space robot? * raises hand *

Ingenuity's incredible Martian mission has come to an end. It was intended as a technology "proof of concept," with a mission span of 30 days and a max of 5 test flights. Many believed the little helicopter wouldn't fly at all in the thin Martian atmosphere.

Instead, it flew 72 missions in 3 years, traversing over 11 miles and reaching as high as 79 feet in the air. It flew in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, cleaned itself off after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter. Through all that, it wormed its way into our hearts and inspired our imagination.

On January 18th, it sustained rotor damage during landing and lost contact with Perseverance and NASA. Communications were re-established the next day, and imagery revealed damage to one of its blades severe enough to render it unable to take off again.

With such an amazing performance that silenced every doubter, Ingenuity is only the first craft to fly on Mars; it will not be the last.

That'll do, Ingenuity. That'll do.

Learn more here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/after-three-years-on-mars-nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-mission-ends

Ad Astra, Per Aspera

"Shoot for the moon - even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

I haven't posted about this before now, because the ultimate fate of the Peregrine spacecraft wasn't certain until yesterday. But now I can tell the story in full.

The space enthusiasts among you probably know that Peregrine successfully launched early last week, with a planned lunar landing in February. However, a propellant leak once it reached space derailed those plans. The team made a remarkable recovery, and the craft did reach lunar distance (but the moon wasn't there at the moment) and did a lot of science before sweeping back toward earth; it burned up safely in the atmosphere yesterday.

In the image below, top left is the DHL MoonBox, which held the tiny digital record of my short stories, Apogee, Solatium, Venatoris, Re/Genesis, Fractals, Chrysalis and Starlight Express, together with the writings and art of thousands of other creators, thanks to the tireless efforts of Susan Kaye Quinn (Writers on the Moon) and Samuel Peralta (Lunar Codex).

So for a time my stories soared among the stars where they belong, before returning home. And because Sam Peralta never, ever gives up (and understands the power of redundancies!), the Lunar Codex will also be flying on at least four additional lunar missions by Astrobotic and Inuitive Machines in the next year, so those stories will get to the moon soon enough!

Ad Astra, Per Aspera

Io's Close-Up

On December 30, NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter for the better part of a decade, made its closest flyby of Io, the innermost moon in the Jovian system.

The spacecraft came to within 930 miles (1,500 km) of the surface of Io, a dense moon that is the fourth largest in the Solar System. Unlike a lot of moons around Jupiter and Saturn, which have surface ice or subsurface water, Io is a very dry world. It is also extremely geologically active. Io has more than 400 active volcanoes and is therefore an object of great interest to astronomers and planetary scientists.

Read more about the flyby here.

Stunning Amateur Image of the Andromeda Galaxy

What life might be thriving here, one wonders?

The photograph comes from a group that calls itself the Association of Widefield Astrophotographers, and the photo was a 100-hour project by six participants in the United States, Poland, and the United Kingdom. They collected data over several months to produce the image.

According to the organization, "Our goal with this project was to prove that very expensive equipment and dark skies aren’t required to create unique images of faint objects. Since most of us are high schoolers and college students with a passion for astronomy, our summer jobs did not allow us to afford the expensive gear used by most astrophotographers."

Learn more here.

Webb's Incredible View of Cassiopeia A

Isn’t this just an astonishing image? We thought we knew Cassiopeia A, but we were wrong.

“Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) view of Cas A displays a very violent explosion at a resolution previously unreachable at these wavelengths. This high-resolution look unveils intricate details of the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded.” Learn much more about the image and the history of our study of Cas A, go here: https://esawebb.org/news/weic2330/

Starship Stacked For Flight

Starship gets stacked ahead of its second test flight on Saturday!

From SpaceX: “This is another chance to put Starship in a true flight environment, maximizing how much we learn. Rapid iterative development is essential as we work to build a fully reusable launch system capable of carrying satellites, payloads, crew, and cargo to a variety of orbits and Earth, lunar, and Martian landing sites.”

Source Tweet

Jupiter In Ultraviolet

This newly released image from the NASA Hubble Space Telescope shows the planet Jupiter in a color composite of ultraviolet wavelengths. Released in honor of Jupiter reaching opposition, which occurs when the planet and the Sun are in opposite sides of the sky, this view of the gas giant planet includes the iconic, massive storm called the “Great Red Spot.” Though the storm appears red to the human eye, in this ultraviolet image it appears darker because high altitude haze particles absorb light at these wavelengths. The reddish, wavy polar hazes are absorbing slightly less of this light due to differences in either particle size, composition, or altitude. 

For more, go here: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-provides-unique-ultraviolet-view-of-jupiter/

Webb's Stunning Infrared View of the Crab Nebula

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Since the recording of this energetic event in 1054 CE by 11th-century astronomers, the Crab Nebula has continued to draw attention and additional study as scientists seek to understand the conditions, behavior, and after-effects of supernovae through thorough study of the Crab, a relatively nearby example.

Now exquisite, never-before-seen details help unravel the supernova remnant’s puzzling history. For more, go here: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/webb/the-crab-nebula-seen-in-new-light-by-nasas-webb/

Webb's Spectacular View of M51

How incredibly lucky we are to have the Webb telescope in our lives, bringing us incredible images like this one! Damn, I love space.

What is it, besides breathtaking? M51, a nearby spiral galaxy (close enough to spot with binoculars if conditions are right), taken by Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument.

See the article by the always great Phil Plait for all sorts of details on how the image was captured and what it actually shows us: https://badastronomy.substack.com/p/jwsts-view-of-the-magnificently-dusty

Protostar

From Webb’s newest observation:

Herbig-Haro (HH) objects are luminous regions surrounding newborn stars, formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shock waves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. This image of HH 211 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals an outflow from a Class 0 protostar, an infantile analog of our Sun when it was no more than a few tens of thousands of years old and with a mass only 8% of the present-day Sun (it will eventually grow into a star like the Sun).

The image showcases a series of bow shocks to the southeast (lower-left) and northwest (upper-right) as well as the narrow bipolar jet that powers them. Webb reveals this scene in unprecedented detail — roughly 5 to 10 times higher spatial resolution than any previous images of HH 211. The inner jet is seen to “wiggle” with mirror symmetry on either side of the central protostar. This is in agreement with observations on smaller scales and suggests that the protostar may in fact be an unresolved binary star.

Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-webb-snaps-supersonic-outflow-of-young-star