Image (Credit): View of Jupiter’s moon Io. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)
Last week, NASA released this video showing the Juno spacecraft’s view of Jupiter and its moon Io as it flew by on May 16, 2023. The clip includes music by Vangelis. It is short but stunning video.
Juno was launched back in 2011 and first started orbiting Jupiter in 2016. Sent to study Jupiter, the current flyby is part of the spacecraft’s extended mission.
Juno’s closest approach to Io will occur today, so you can expect more images shortly.
If you want to read more about Io and the mission, visit this NASA site.
Image (Credit): Hibernation pods for space travel as shown in the movie Aliens. (20th Century Fox)
Earlier this week we learned about worms taken from Siberian permafrost that have been revived after being frozen for 46,000 years. In the Scientific American, the co-author of the study with these finding, cell biologist Teymuras Kurzchalia, stated, “The radiocarbon dating is absolutely precise, and we now know that they really survived 46,000 years.”
So what does this mean for life that is somewhat more complex than a worm? Given that the findings are still being challenged, maybe nothing. Yet, if true, it may say something about life on this planet, life on other planets, and human life spans should we want to travel to distant locations. While such hibernation is a staple of science fiction, it seems to be a bit closer to reality with this study out there.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and others are already looking into human hibernation for space travel. In one ESA press article from 2019 regarding hibernation for travel to Mars, we read how one study concluded the following:
Not only does hibernation have positive psychological effects, it also allows for a complete mission and system re-design, optimised for human hibernation, which could minimise both mass and cost.
I think the “cost” point may be the key decider on this distant travel matter. Besides, how long can you play “I see a red star” before you go mad?
“In 2019, the UAPTF director tasked me to identify all Special Access Programs & Controlled Access Programs (SAPs/CAPs) we needed to satisfy our congressionally mandated mission.
At the time, due to my extensive executive-level intelligence support duties, I was cleared to literally all relevant compartments and in a position of extreme trust in both my military and civilian capacities.
I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access to those additional read-on’s.
I made the decision based on the data I collected, to report this information to my superiors and multiple Inspectors General, and in effect become a whistleblower.”
–Prepared statement by David Grusch, Former National Reconnaissance Officer Representative on DOD’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Task Force, for a hearing before the House Oversight Committee held earlier this week. The hearing was titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency.” The hearing is part of a series of such hearings calling for greater transparency by the federal government regarding UAP issues.
Image (Credit): July 15, 2023 fire in the Canary Islands. (NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview)
This week’s image is from NASA’s Earth Observatory showing the recent fires in the Canary Islands. The image below provides great detail regarding what you are seeing.
In the early hours of July 15, 2023, a wildfire broke out on La Palma, the most northwesterly of the Canary Islands….The bright areas near islands south of La Palma resemble smoke, but they are actually the result of an optical phenomenon caused by sunglint.
The fire burned through pine forests west of a large caldera on the northern part of the island. At least 20 buildings were destroyed and 4,000 people evacuated their homes, according to Reuters. On July 16, authorities reported that the fire had charred at least 4,650 hectares (18 square miles)…
Fires on La Palma are common in summer due to the island’s dry climate. One analysis of tree rings suggests that intense fires burn the island’s forests roughly every 7 years on average, with less intense fires burning every 2-4 years.
Image (Credit): Greater details showing the July 15, 2023 fire in the Canary Islands. (NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview)
Image (Credit): Assistant Professor of Astronomy David Kipping sharing his story of rejection. By the way, the image behind him is the exomoon Pandora from the movie Avatar. (Cool Worlds Lab)
A few months back, Assistant Professor of Astronomy David Kipping shared a short video regarding his organization’s failure to secure James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) time to search for exomoons that he knows are there. His organization, Cool Worlds Lab, has done some amazing work studying and publicizing issues related to astronomy. You should visit his site for some challenging topics.
What is unique about his video is that it was recorded only one hour after he learned that his organization would not be able to use JWST for his exomoon search and he wanted to share what rejection felt like “in real time.” He goes on to say that such rejection is part of science, as brutal as it may feel at the moment, noting that for every seven JWST proposals, only one will be approved.
Fortunately, we have scientists out there with very thick skin sharing new ideas and proposals. And Dr. Kipping will not be giving up on his exomoon push anytime soon. That is good news for all of us.
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