Space Stories: The Fate of Juno, the End of a NASA Probe, and “Extragalactic Archeology”

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Jupiter’s North Pole at minimum emission angle as captured by the Juno spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Thomas Thomopoulos)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Ars Technica: “A Mission NASA Might Kill is Still Returning Fascinating Science from Jupiter“

Jupiter’s colossal storms generate lightning flashes at least 100 times more powerful than those on Earth, according to scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The findings were published March 20 in the journal AGU Advances. Researchers used data recorded by Juno in 2021 and 2022, after NASA granted an extension to the spacecraft’s operations upon completing a five-year science campaign at Jupiter. Juno remains in good health, but NASA officials have not said if they will approve another extension for the mission. The issue is money.

—Astronomy.com: “NASA’s Van Allen Probe A Burns Up Over the Pacific after 14 Years in Space“

NASA’s Van Allen Probe A re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday, March 11, at 6:37 a.m. EDT, marking the final chapter for a spacecraft that reshaped scientists’ understanding of the radiation environment around our planet. The U.S. Space Force confirmed the spacecraft came down over the eastern Pacific Ocean. NASA said most of the 1,300-pound (600 kilograms) probe burned up during reentry, though some pieces may have reached the surface. Its twin, Probe B, remains in orbit and is not expected to re-enter before 2030. The twin probes launched together on Aug. 30, 2012, on what was supposed to be a two-year mission. They operated for nearly seven years instead, circling Earth inside the Van Allen radiation belts — zones of high-energy charged particles held in place by the planet’s magnetic field. 

—Carnegie Science: ““Extragalactic Archeology” Reveals Nearby Galaxy’s Evolution“

A team of astronomers, including Carnegie Science’s Jeff Rich and other former Carnegie Observatories astronomers, have for the first time traced the history of a galaxy outside our own Milky way by studying chemical fingerprints in deep space, a new approach they are calling “extragalactic archeology.” Their findings are published in Nature Astronomy. “This is the first time that a chemical archaeology method has been used with such fine detail outside our own galaxy,” said lead author Lisa Kewley of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian.

Russia Resupplying the International Space Station

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Image (Credit): The Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress 94 mission just prior to launch. (Roscosmos)

The Russians successfully launched a cargo shipment of food, fuel, and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier today. The Roscosmos Progress 94 spacecraft left the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket.

Not everything was perfect, but there is no need to worry. An antenna issue may compromise the unmanned attaching to the ISS on Tuesday morning, but manual controls are available. The Russians are more than able to perform this tasks.

The Progress 94 spacecraft was originally slated for a December 2025 launch, but it had to be delayed due to earlier rocket damage at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. With repairs completed, things appear to be back to normal at the site.

You can watch the entire launch via the NASA site on YouTube.

Another Take on NASA’s Ability to Maneuver an Asteroid

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Random House

While everyone is pretty excited about NASA’s ability to nudge a distant asteroid via its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, there is more than one way to look at this event. While many see this as a new tool to protect the Earth from approaching peril, Carl Sagan saw this it more as a double-edged sword.

In his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Dr. Sagan wrote:

Can we humans be trusted with civilization-threatening technologies? If the chance is almost one in a thousand that much of the human population will be killed by an impact in the next century, isn’t it more likely that asteroid deflection technology will get into the wrong hands in another century—some misanthropic sociopath like a Hitler or a Stalin eager to kill everybody, a megalomaniac lusting after “greatness” and “glory,” a victim of ethnic violence bent on revenge, someone in the grip of unusually severe testosterone poisoning, some religious fanatic hastening the Day of Judgment, or just technicians incompetent or insufficiently vigilant in handling the controls and safeguards? Such people exist. The risks seem far worse than the benefits, the cure worse than the disease.

You might also remember the stealth asteroids directed at Earth by terrorists in the fifth season of the television series The Expanse. Yes, it is science fiction, but so wasn’t the idea of landing humans on the Moon until it was a fact.

As we watch the Middle East burn again, it is not hard to imagine a battle involving sociopaths, ethnic violence victims, leaders with severe testosterone poisoning, religious fanatics, or even incompetent individuals without guardrails making more of a mess of the Earth and its surroundings.

It’s just a thought.

Happy Spring Equinox!

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Gernot from Pixabay

A Light Exists in Spring

by Emily Dickenson

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period –
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament

Source: https://allpoetry.com/poem/13630827-A-Light-exists-in-Spring-by-Emily-Dickinson

Posted in Sun

Pic of the Week: Exposed Cranium Nebula

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Side-by-side view of the Cranium nebula using two instruments on the JWST. You can see more stars and galaxies shining through with the NIRCam’s view, but you get a nice cosmic dust glows with the MIRI’s mid-infrared. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI))

This week’s images come from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Each image shows a different view of the Cranium nebula depending on the JWST instrument being used. It is also called the “Exposed Cranium” Nebula because it looks like a brain in a see-through skull.

Here is a little more from NASA on what you are seeing above:

The nebula appears to have distinct regions that capture different phases of its evolution — an outer shell of gas that was blown off first and consists mostly of hydrogen, and an inner cloud with more structure that contains a mix of different gases. Both Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) show a distinctive dark lane running vertically through the middle of the nebula that defines its brain-like look of left and right hemispheres. Webb’s resolution shows that this lane could be related to an outburst or outflow from the central star, which typically occurs as twin jets burst out in opposite directions. Evidence for this is particularly notable at the top of the nebula in Webb’s MIRI image, where it looks like the inner gas is being ejected outward.