James Webb telescope's MIRI instrument goes super-cold The Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space telescope is now at its super-low operating temperature. A key difference, though, is that Webb will be tuned to see the Universe at longer wavelengths, in the infrared. This means it must be protected from all heat sources, including its own hardware, which would otherwise glow in that same portion of the light spectrum it wants to detect. To this end, Webb deployed a giant sunshield shortly after it was launched on 25 December. This tennis court-sized membrane put all the important parts of the telescope in the shade.
Great info, cheers. I dabble in IR photography, but purely for leirsure. Not particularly good at it so far, but it's interesting.
(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.
So in a way it is great that you can fire the space ship to a certain speed and the space ship does not slow down unless you use the rockets as brakes. You just keep on going.
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."
"Stars experience quakes like we have on Earth that are so powerful the 'tsunami-like' movements cause them to change shape, scientists have discovered. These 'starquakes' – known as non-radial oscillations – were detected in thousands of stars by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, led by scientists at Cambrdige University. The unexpected discovery was revealed in the observatory's latest 'treasure trove' of data — which includes new and improved details for almost two billion stars in our galaxy. When put together, this forms a 'DNA map' – a multi-dimensional map of asteroids, planets, stars and galaxies – and provides the largest ever catalogue of information on stars in the Milky Way. It includes chemical compositions, stellar temperatures, colours, masses, ages, and the speed at which stars move towards or away from us (radial velocity). One of the most surprising discoveries to emerge from the new data was that Gaia was able to detect starquakes – tiny motions on the surface of a star – that change the shapes of stars, something the observatory was not originally built for. Previously, Gaia had found radial oscillations that cause stars to swell and shrink periodically, while keeping their spherical shape. But Gaia has now also spotted other vibrations that astronomers described as being 'more like large-scale tsunamis'. These non-radial oscillations change the global shape of a star and are therefore harder to detect. 'Starquakes teach us a lot about stars, notably their internal workings. Gaia is opening a goldmine for "asteroseismology" of massive stars,' said Conny Aerts of KU Leuven in Belgium, who is a member of the Gaia collaboration." www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10911277/European-Space-Agencys-Gaia-mission-detects-unexpected-starquakes.html
And Christ! At the moment I cannot sleep because it never is that dark for the birds to sleep. Things vary in the Galaxy.. kph
"A meteorite that hit Earth more than 200 years ago could fundamentally change our understanding of how Mars was formed. Most of what we know about the Red Planet's interior comes from three space rocks that landed on our planet after being blasted off Mars by impacts. They include the Chassingy meteorite, which came down in north-eastern France in 1815, and two others known as Shergotty and Nakhla. New analysis of Chassingy suggests that the interior chemical make-up of Mars largely came from meteorite collisions, rather than from a giant cloud of gas called the solar nebula as previously thought. It contradicts current thinking about how rocky planets like the Earth and Mars acquire volatile elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and noble gases as they form. Mars is of special interest because it formed relatively quickly — solidifying in about 4 million years after the birth of the Solar System, while the Earth took 50 to 100 million years to form." www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10927381/Meteorite-landed-Earth-200-years-ago-upends-previous-theories-Mars-formed.html
International Space Station captured travelling in front of Sun International Space Station captured travelling in front of Sun The space station is travelling at about 17,000 mph (27,300km) "There's a very narrow band where you, the space station and Sun are all in a straight line and it's about three miles wide," he said. Mr Cooper said his very high speed video camera was shooting at 80 frames a second, compared to a normal camera speed of 25 frames.
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." Space.com: NASA, Space Exploration and Astronomy News