NASA TV: Stay Tuned In

Posted on by onespaceman2000

If you cannot find anything worthwhile on regular television, don’t forget that NASA continues to broadcast key events on its own television station, including this week’s meeting on UFOs, now called “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAPs.

Here is the latest schedule for NASA TV:

Tuesday, May 30
9 a.m. – Coverage of hatch closure for the Axiom Mission 2 crew aboard the International Space Station. Hatch closure scheduled for approx. 9:10 a.m. 
10:45 a.m. – Coverage of the the Axiom Mission 2 crew undocking from the International Space Station. Undocking scheduled for 11:05 a.m.
12:30 p.m. – ISS Expedition 69 in-flight educational event with the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM, and NASA flight engineers Frank Rubio and Steve Bowen
2 p.m. — Media teleconference on the science bound for the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s 28th commercial resupply services mission

Wednesday, May 31
10:30 a.m. – Coverage of the public meeting of the independent study team on categorizing and evaluating data of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)
3 p.m. – Unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) post-meeting media teleconference

Thursday, June 1
12 p.m. – News conference for upcoming spacewalks to install new International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSAs)
7 p.m. — NASA and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón unveil her poem for Europa

Saturn is Winning the Moon Contest

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Saturn’s Death Star-like moon Tethys. (NASA)

So Saturn now has 145 moons due to the discovery of 62 new moons, which is 50 more than the next closest competitor, Jupiter, with 95 moons. You can thank the University of British Columbia (UBC) for the new moon count.

The new discoveries come from a process used by UBC astronomers called ‘shift and stack’:

Shifting a set of sequential images at the rate that the moon is moving across the sky results in enhancement of the moon’s signal when all the data is combined, allowing moons that were too faint to be seen in individual images to become visible in the stacked image. The team used data taken using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii between 2019 and 2021. By shifting and stacking many sequential images taken during three hour spans, they were able to detect moons orbiting Saturn down to about 2.5 kilometres in diameter.

So, as you can read, some of these moons are pretty small. As of today, NASA was still showing 124 moons around Saturn, and another site, theplanets.org, is showing only 62 moons total around the planet. It appear the space agency and others will need to update their pages to show the new mini-moons.

For some reason I doubt the counting is over, just like identified dwarf planets, that seem to range from 5 to 19 at the moment, depending on the source.

The Juice Mission has Started

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The successful launch of the ESA’s Juice mission from Kourou, French Guiana on April 14, 2023. (ESA/M. Pédoussaut and ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG/JM Guillon)

Earlier today, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice)  mission successfully launched from French Guiana. It is the start of a long trip to the Jovian planet and its moons. The spacecraft will not reach Jupiter until July 2031. You can watch of video of the launch here. ESA has numerous other videos on the mission here.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher stated:

ESA, with its international partners, is on its way to Jupiter…Juice’s spectacular launch carries with it the vision and ambition of those who conceived the mission decades ago, the skill and passion of everyone who has built this incredible machine, the drive of our flight operations team, and the curiosity of the global science community. Together, we will keep pushing the boundaries of science and exploration in order to answer humankind’s biggest questions.

It is another great step forward in the exploration of our home solar system as we scan the skies for other more distant systems.

Image (Credit): Juice mission patch. (ESA)

Space Stories: Volcanoes on Venus, Exoplanet Radio Signals, and Bright Baby Jupiter

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Map of volcanoes located on Venus. (Washington University in St. Louis)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Washington University in St. Louis: “Scientists Share ‘Comprehensive’ Map of Volcanoes on Venus — all 85,000 of Them“

Byrne and Hahn’s new study includes detailed analyses of where volcanoes are, where and how they’re clustered, and how their spatial distributions compare with geophysical properties of the planet such as crustal thickness. Taken together, this work provides the most comprehensive understanding of Venus’ volcanic properties — and perhaps of any world’s volcanism so far. That’s because, although we know a great deal about the volcanoes on Earth that are on land, there are still likely a great many yet to be discovered under the oceans. Lacking oceans of its own, Venus’ entire surface can be viewed with Magellan radar imagery.

—CNN: “Repeating Radio Signal Leads Astronomers to an Earth-Size Exoplanet“

Astronomers have detected a repeating radio signal from an exoplanet and the star that it orbits, both located 12 light-years away from Earth. The signal suggests that the Earth-size planet may have a magnetic field and perhaps even an atmosphere…Scientists noticed strong radio waves coming from the star YZ Ceti and the rocky exoplanet that orbits it, called YZ Ceti b, during observations using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array of telescopes in New Mexico. The researchers believe the radio signal was created by interactions between the planet’s magnetic field and the star.

—ScienceNews: “Baby Jupiter Glowed so Brightly it Might have Desiccated its Moon“

A young, ultrabright Jupiter may have desiccated its now hellish moon Io. The planet’s bygone brilliance could have also vaporized water on Europa and Ganymede, planetary scientist Carver Bierson reported March 17 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. If true, the findings could help researchers narrow the search for icy exomoons by eliminating unlikely orbits. Jupiter is among the brightest specks in our night sky. But past studies have indicated that during its infancy, Jupiter was far more luminous. “About 10 thousand times more luminous,” said Bierson, of Arizona State University in Tempe.

Space Mission: ESA’s Juice Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch ESA’s Juice mission. (ESA)

On April 13th, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission from French Guiana. The purpose of the mission is to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter as well as three of its moons (and their oceans) – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. The spacecraft will eventually go into orbit around Ganymede, which will be the first orbit of a moon in our solar system other than Earth’s Moon.

The key milestones for the mission are listed below and shown in greater detail within the graphic as well:

–February 2023: Juice arrives in French Guiana

–April 13, 2023: Launch on Ariane-5 rocket

–July 2031: Arrival at Jupiter

-July 2031 – November 2034: 35 icy moon flybys

–December 2034: Arrival at Ganymede

Image (Credit): Juice mission milestones. (ESA JUICE Launch Kit)

In addition to ESA/European scientific instruments and equipment, the spacecraft will also carry items from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Israel Space Agency.

The delayed arrival at Jupiter relates to the need for multiple flybys cover this great distance. In The Financial Times, Justin Byrne, head of science for lead contractor Airbus, stated, “Ariane-5 is a very powerful rocket but it can only give us about half the energy we need to get to Jupiter…We get the rest by doing planetary fly-bys, each one giving us a gravitational assist through a slingshot manoeuvre.”

The ESA put together a useful Launch Kit that answers any question you may have about the Juice mission, as well as related missions.