Pic of the Week: The Ongoing Perseverance Rover Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this mosaic of a hill nicknamed “Pinestand.”
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)

This week’s image comes from NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance as it explores the to Jezero Crater. The photo was posted last month. It has been a little while since we directly our attention at the Red Planet.

The image shows what may be the result of a fast-moving river some time in the past. In the NASA write-up accompanying the photo above, we read:

“Pinestand” is an isolated hill bearing sedimentary layers that curve skyward, some as high as 66 feet (20 meters). Scientists think these tall layers may also have been formed by a powerful river, although they’re exploring other explanations, as well.

“These layers are anomalously tall for rivers on Earth,” [postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California Libby] Ives said. “But at the same time, the most common way to create these kinds of landforms would be a river.”

Space Quote: The Great Filter at Work?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: CHATGPT-GUIDE.SE

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

-Statement by artificial intelligence (AI) experts and public figures in a “Statement on AI Risk” from the Center for AI Safety. This followed an earlier open letter back in March from other AI leaders that called “on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” This could indicate we may be witnessing the “Great Filter” at work, which was one answer to Fermi’s paradox highlighting the lack detectable extraterrestrial life.

Space Stories: Habitable Zone Planets, Satellite Interference, and Extraterrestrial Communication

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Milky Way Galaxy. (NASA JPL)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—ScienceDaily: “One-third of Galaxy’s Most Common Planets Could be in Habitable Zone“

In a new analysis based on the latest telescope data, University of Florida astronomers have discovered that two-thirds of the planets around these ubiquitous small stars could be roasted by these tidal extremes, sterilizing them. But that leaves one-third of the planets — hundreds of millions across the galaxy — that could be in a goldilocks orbit close enough, and gentle enough, to hold onto liquid water and possibly harbor life.

—Space Telescope Science Institute: “Astronomers are Reducing Satellite Interference in Hubble Images“

When the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, there were about 470 artificial satellites orbiting Earth. By 2000, that number doubled. But by 2023, the rising number has grown almost exponentially to nearly 8,000 satellites. For Hubble this means that satellites photobomb about 10% of its exposures on celestial targets…Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland have developed tools for cleaning up this clutter. Hubble observations consist of more than just one exposure. And so, artifacts can be identified and subtracted between exposures because they are not in the same place on a detector.

—BGR: “Aliens Might be Trying to Contact Us from Within the Milky Way, Study Claims“

A new study seems to think alien signals could be emitting from the heart of the Milky Way, attempting to make contact with humankind. The study focuses on the use of data from a groundbreaking mission known as the Breakthrough Listen Investigation for Periodic Spectral Signals (BLIPSS), which looks for repeating patterns that could be key to unlocking connections with extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy.

Podcast: A Conversation with William Shatner

Posted on by onespaceman2000

WTF Podcast host Marc Maron interviewed William Shatner recently. Overall, it was a fun conversation with Mr. Shatner discussing his early acting career, his family, his flight into space on Blue Origin, his various ongoing projects, and more.

In terms of projects, Mr. Shatner mentioned a variety of interests, including horse shows, television series, and even designing his own watch (shown below). Yes, the man is still busy in his 90s.

I recommend you check it out (the interview starts at about the 11 minute mark).

Note: One of the television series discussed is Fox’s new series Stars on Mars, which premieres today.

Image (Credit): New watch design created by William Shatner and Ilan Muallem Srulovicz. (Egard Watch Co.)

A Poem for Europa

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The icy moon Europa. (NASA)

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon was asked by NASA to write a poem for the upcoming Europa Clipper mission. Her new poem, “In Praise of Mystery: a Poem for Europa,” premiered late last week in Washington, DC.

Here is the poem from the Library of Congress (and you can also hear it in the poet’s voice):

Arching under the night sky inky
with black expansiveness, we point
to the planets we know, we

pin quick wishes on stars. From earth,
we read the sky as if it is an unerring book
of the universe, expert and evident.

Still, there are mysteries below our sky:
the whale song, the songbird singing
its call in the bough of a wind-shaken tree.

We are creatures of constant awe,
curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom,
at grief and pleasure, sun and shadow.

And it is not darkness that unites us,
not the cold distance of space, but
the offering of water, each drop of rain,

each rivulet, each pulse, each vein.
O second moon, we, too, are made
of water, of vast and beckoning seas.

We, too, are made of wonders, of great
and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds,
of a need to call out through the dark.

Amazingly, this poem will be engraved on the exterior of the spacecraft.

NASA has done a great job stimulating scientists, but this is a great stimulus for budding poets as well.