Space Stories: OSIRIS-APEX Survives Sun Flyby, Nearby Exoplanet May Be Habitable, and More Rogue Planets Rolling About

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Here are some recent stories of interest.

—NASA: “NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX Unscathed After Searing Pass of Sun“

Mission engineers were confident NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification – Apophis Explorer) spacecraft could weather its closest ever pass of the Sun on Jan. 2, 2024. Their models had predicted that, despite traveling 25 million miles closer to the heat of the Sun than it was originally designed to, OSIRIS-APEX and its components would remain safe. The mission team confirmed that the spacecraft indeed had come out of the experience unscathed after downloading stored telemetry data in mid-March. The team also tested OSIRIS-APEX’s instruments in early April, once the spacecraft was far enough from the Sun to return to normal operations. 

—USA Today: “NASA Discovers Potentially Habitable Exoplanet 40 Light Years from Earth“

NASA announced the discovery of a planet 40 light years from Earth that orbits every 12.8 days and is possibly even habitable. Gliese 12 b is a “super Earth exoplanet” that is nearly the same size as Earth or slightly smaller, according to a NASA news release. Exoplanets are planets outside of our solar system, NASA’s website says. “We’ve found the nearest, transiting, temperate, Earth-size world located to date,” Masayuki Kuzuhara, a project assistant professor at the Astrobiology Center in Tokyo, said in a statement. “Although we don’t yet know whether it possesses an atmosphere, we’ve been thinking of it as an exo-Venus, with similar size and energy received from its star as our planetary neighbor in the solar system.”

—Phys.org: “Starless and Forever Alone: More ‘Rogue’ Planets Discovered“

The Euclid space telescope has discovered seven more rogue planets, shining a light on the dark and lonely worlds floating freely through the universe untethered to any star. Without being bound to a star, as the Earth is to the sun, there are no days or years on these planets, which languish in perpetual night. Yet scientists believe there is a chance they could be able to host life—and estimate there may be trillions dotted throughout the Milky Way.

Space Stories: Spaceplane Planned for ISS, AI Assists Astronomy, and Water Older Than the Sun

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Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Dream Chaser DC-100 spaceplane. (Sierra Space)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—New Atlas: “World’s First Commercial Spaceplane in Final Stages Before Debut ISS Flight“

The world’s first winged commercial spaceplane has arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, its final destination before its first mission to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year. Following rigorous testing at Ohio’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility, the Dream Chaser DC-100 spaceplane named Tenacity got the green light to commence final pre-launch preparations, such as finishing its thermal protection system and payload integration, before it hitches a ride on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket to deliver 7,800 pounds (3,540 kg) of food, water and science experiments to the ISS.

—MIT Technology Review: “Astronomers are Enlisting AI to Prepare for a Data Downpour“

In deserts across Australia and South Africa, astronomers are planting forests of metallic detectors that will together scour the cosmos for radio signals. When it boots up in five years or so, the Square Kilometer Array Observatory will look for new information about the universe’s first stars and the different stages of galactic evolution.  But after syncing hundreds of thousands of dishes and antennas, astronomers will quickly face a new challenge: combing through some 300 petabytes of cosmological data a year—enough to fill a million laptops…In preparation for the information deluge, astronomers are turning to AI for assistance, optimizing algorithms to pick out patterns in large and notoriously finicky data sets. Some are now working to establish institutes dedicated to marrying the fields of computer science and astronomy—and grappling with the terms of the new partnership.

—BBC Sky at Night: “Earth’s Water is Even Older Than the Sun, Having Formed Billions of Years Ago, Say Astronomers“

How old is Earth’s water? Could it be older even than the planet itself? A team of astronomers say they’ve found the “missing link” that shows how water is delivered from gaseous star-forming regions in space to planets like Earth. The research suggests that Earth’s water is even older than the Sun. The news comes as a result of studies of a dusty planet-forming disc surrounding a star 1,300 lightyears from Earth

Don’t Miss the Northern Lights

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Image (Credit): Northern Lights in Vancouver, British Columbia on May 11. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

Tonight you can still capture the Northern Lights here in the U.S. After an 11-year absence. The solar event will have the greatest show in the Ohio River Valley through the Midwest and into the Pacific Northwest (see CNN map below). Amazingly, the show was seen as far south as Florida yesterday evening.

The good news is that the solar burst has not been causing damage to the power grid and satellites. Sweden and South Africa were not so lucky in 2003.

Credit: CNN Weather/University of Alaska
Posted in Sun

Pic of the Week: The Total Solar Eclipse

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Image (Credit): Chicagoans watch the April 8, 2024 eclipse. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

The image of the week relates to the Total Solar Eclipse that captured the nation’s attention. Goofy glasses like the ones shown in The Chicago Tribune (above) and Wired magazine (below) were worn across the country to watch this rare event.

Image (Credit): Eclipse watchers in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Telescopes Caught the Eclipse From Across the Country

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Image (Credit): TheTotal Solar Eclipse as seen in Houlton, Maine. (David Bowman of NASA Langley Research Center)

If you missed the Total Solar Eclipse or just want to see what it looked like in other parts of the country, NASA and other observatories have you covered. Check out the NASA video, “2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA (Telescope Feed),” showing the eclipse from Texas to Maine.