For the other Astronuts out there

It's getting there !

 

(CNN)For the first time, astronomers have captured an image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

It's the first direct observation confirming the presence of the black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, as the beating heart of the Milky Way.

Black holes don't emit light, but the image shows the shadow of the black hole surrounded by a bright ring, which is light bent by the gravity of the black hole. Astronomers said the black hole is 4 million times more massive than our sun.
1st image of supermassive black hole at the center of Milky Way galaxy revealed

 

Just think, nearly half the world will be able to see this at the same time !



The total lunar eclipse will be visible from portions of the Americas, Antarctica, Europe, Africa and the east Pacific. Meanwhile, a penumbral eclipse, where the outer part of Earth's shadow blankets the moon, will be visible in New Zealand, eastern Europe and the Middle East.
This will be the first of two lunar eclipses in 2022. The next one will take place on Nov. 8, 2022 and will be visible at least partially from Asia, Australia, North America, parts of northern and eastern Europe, the Arctic and most of South America, according to TimeandDate.com.

What time is the Super Flower Blood Moon lunar eclipse?

 

This is mind boggling to me. I'd go so far as to say: It's out of this World ! (okay - Solar System ?)

Mystery issue experienced on NASA's Voyager 1 probe from 1977


(CNN)The Voyager 1 probe is still exploring interstellar space 45 years after launching, but it has encountered an issue that mystifies the spacecraft's team on Earth.

Voyager 1 continues to operate well, despite its advanced age and 14.5 billion-mile distance (23.3 billion kilometers) from Earth. And it can receive and execute commands sent from NASA, as well as gather and send back science data.

But the readouts from the attitude articulation and control system, which control the spacecraft's orientation in space, don't match up with what Voyager is actually doing. The attitude articulation and control system, or AACS, ensures that the probe's high-gain antenna remains pointed at Earth so Voyager can send data back to NASA.
Due to Voyager's interstellar location, it takes light 20 hours and 33 minutes to travel one way, so the call and response of one message between NASA and Voyager takes two days.

So far, the Voyager team believes the AACS is still working, but the instrument's data readouts seem random or impossible. The system issue hasn't triggered anything to put the spacecraft into "safe mode" so far. That's when only essential operations occur so engineers can diagnose an issue that would put the spacecraft at risk.
And Voyager's signal is as strong as ever, meaning the antenna is still pointed to Earth. The team is trying to determine if this incorrect data is coming directly from this instrument or if another system is causing it.

"Until the nature of the issue is better understood, the team cannot anticipate whether this might affect how long the spacecraft can collect and transmit science data," according to a NASA release.

"A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission," said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement.

"The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated. We're also in interstellar space -- a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before. So there are some big challenges for the engineering team. But I think if there's a way to solve this issue with the AACS, our team will find it."
If the team doesn't determine the source of the issue, they may just adapt to it, Dodd said. Or if they can find it, the issue may be solved by making a software change or relying on a redundant hardware system.

Voyager has already relied on backup systems to last as long as it has. In 2017, the probe fired thrusters that were used during its initial planetary encounters during the 1970s -- and they still worked after remaining unused for 37 years.

The aging probes produce very little power per year, so subsystems and heaters have been turned off over the years so that critical systems and science instruments can keep operating.

Voyager 2, a twin spacecraft, continues to operate well in interstellar space 12.1 billion miles (19.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. By comparison, Neptune, the farthest planet from Earth, is, at most, only 2.9 billion miles away. Both probes were launched in 1977 and have far exceeded their original purpose to fly by planets.

Now, they have become the only two spacecraft to gather data from interstellar space and provide insights about the heliosphere, or the bubble created by the sun that extends beyond the planets in our solar system.

 

If this actually happens I'll be setting my alarm clock.

LOOK UP: The Most Intense Meteor Shower Of Our Lifetime Is Expected To Light Up The Night Sky This Month

According to Earth Sky, the Tau Herculids meteor shower circles the sun every 5.4 years. So, if May 31 isn't our time, it may be this July or August. Tau Herculids, according to Earth Sky, is a comet that astronomers and scientists are keeping a careful eye on.
According to Universe Today, Tau Herculid, discovered in 1930, should blast into our atmosphere about 1 a.m. on May 31.
When comets travel close to the Sun, they lay down debris streams of dust shed during their inner solar system passage. If a planet happens to be in the way (such as the Earth) a meteor shower occurs, witnessed as silent flitting streaks through the sky."

According to Universe Today, this unique meteor shower from such an obscure comet would consist of a thousand streams blazing across the sky in few seconds, but might continue up to an hour.
Welcome to the wonderful world of meteor shower predictions and prognostications where earth is due to cross a couple key streams and believe me if this happens, a meteor outburst approaching a thousand meteors per hour is an unforgettable sight."

 

Well it was cloudy skies for us -as usual ! Next time.

 

Get ready to rewrite physics ;

BALTIMORE — The James Webb Space Telescope's first images are coming soon and scientists can't wait for us to see them.

On Wednesday (June 29), NASA held a media day at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore in advance of the release of the first science-quality images from the James Webb Space Telescope, which will occur during a live event on July 12. NASA scientists and administrators gave updates on the telescope, discussed Webb's planned science during its first year in operation and hinted at the contents of some of Webb's first official images.

news conference. "We recognize that we're standing on the shoulders of all the scientists and engineers who've worked hard for the past six months to make this possible."

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