#NASA feb 12 2018

[its-arson-time]

lagoon nebula

[sstudiess]

I decided to torture myself and read my old journals. This is what I found and here is the wrapped:

Iconic/cringefail quotes from my old journals:

Dec 2015

"There are some things man can't change and on that list the top spot is reserved for the never ending chatter of kids."

April 2016

"i want to be a wanderer who travels in search of Justin Bieber songs and Hollywood movies"

Sept 2016

"Now I will tell you the biggest tragedy of my life. I've decided to not get into the 'gf and bf' stuff before I join NASA so I'm in a kind of dilemma."

Jan 2017

"My love life is as bad as ever but I'm looking forward to this year because according to the horoscope, my love life is gonna be amazing!"

"Now, I think that the whole school is going to know that I and xxxxx are gonna have a secret rendezvous!"

"She said that I would've aroused doubt in her mind by saying that cause nobody says I hate you to someone in private!"

March 2017

"...And the fact that life has nothing romantic to offer me, makes me more into these books! Reading people's stories when my own love story is at mortal peril!"

"What she gets after giving her best shot is almost equal to what I get after doing almost nothing at all!"

Jan 2018

"Speaking of fictional boyfriends, I'm totally over xxxx now."

Feb 2018

"I am not the chosen one nor I'm half-angel but I do have a shitty life"

"If i were in America, people would make fun of me still, but not in this way"

"I am too creative to handle my thoughts for sure."

"I know this world is big and full of possibilities but just for once, i want this world to be small for me, i want just one possibility."

"I said my love life was a square but then she said it was a triangle. I didn't agree, so we ended up calling it an 'angle', or rather, a traingle with no base."

March 2018

"I am scared for the future, for everything that is gonna come after this one year. All i have right now is a mantra 'padh le beta, 12 hai' "

"We need to find a rebound crush for me."

May 2018

"I've been binge watching thirteen reasons why. I am on the 6th ep of season 2. I kinda like that show. It was soo depressing, it helped me forget my depression"

August 2020

"I have never been this lonely, but i have never been this happy either. I needed this more than i can ever admit"

"I know I'm capable of being loved, of loving again, so I will root for that hope."

"Being a popular author is a dream only a few people get to live. Rest others are forced to live a life of oblivion, their books and creations tucked into darkness." 

Oct 2020

"It seems as if I have forced myself to stay within these walls"

Jan 2021

"Why do I hold my thoughts like Atlas holding up the weight of the entire world? I do not feel like I'm crumbling from the weight but there's this haze of heavy thoughts upon me that I cannot seem to lift."

"I have been building this world of thoughts and words. These thoughts in the form of books, movies, songs, they belong to someone else. All they do for me is dampen the intensity of the ones that actually belong to me."

"It's waiting, the spirit in me, she will burst me open with exhilaration when she thinks the time is right. She is fickle, she needs beauty, she needs a constant change of scenery."

"This will be your fall, you are Icarus, dying to touch the sky so much, you are dying to die. No no, you do not want to die. You are just agitated, angry, your defiance is performative. You're just bored out of your wits." 

"I should not want it, I am aware, but due to reasons completely irrational, i will be forgoing my last two braincells in favour of the straited muscles (the heart)."

"I JUST FOUND OUT LADY ADA LOVELACE WAS THE DAUGHTER OF THE ICONIC LORD BYRON. Hence for reasons completely irrational, i will be passing away."

"Hope is a dangerous game to play with yourself."

"My love for him is an ocean with unfathomable depths. He is a swimming pool. If he jumps, he will drown in my intensity. If i jump, I will hit my head. We both will die. Death is romantic, say the poets of old. Well, not this one, this death will be humiliating."

"We are academics, we explore the world through books, always living on the sidelines, we do not participate. We live in the past. We love art, yet we fail to make any. We love the world, we want to change it but we never try. We will never be heard except one day, sorting through dusty books, another lover will find us in pages, but we will never be able to create any real change. We deal with the mind, sometimes the heart, with the art we create. We cannot touch the tangible, our realm is the intangible and that is where we come alive. The problem however, is that we will never be remembered. John Keats was right when he said his name was written in water. Isn't everyone else's too? Ours specifically, is written on the waves. We do not create an effect, we are only felt. But I believe there are some who change the world like a Tsunami does. Shakespeare, remember? What did he do for the world? Nothing. He just wrote plays."

"I believe in love as the driving force that makes this ugly and unbearable world tolerable and meaningful." 

"You cannot nullify love just like you cannot nullify the existence of God." 

Feb 2021

"Valentine's day is a capitalist holiday. Even if it wasn't, there is no reason for celebrating it." 

"I am going for the crazy poet/scholar look these days so it hurts when i have to cut or comb my hair."

"We carry our home in our hearts. I do too, because if I didn't, I'd be homeless." 

April 2021

The Generation Z are a faithless and purposeless generation. We believe in equality, we have opinions- a lot of them but we don't have ideologies to follow or governments to overthrow. We have a fire in us that burns bright, but with no purpose, it seems to me that we're getting wasted." 

"I got a cousin baby brother! I'll admit, I did not like him much in the beginning, he looked like a shriveled potato but after they washed him up, I saw in the pictures that he looks like me!"

"Realism, pessimism, optimism- they're all words. We're all three and neither."

"Majority of the content in my journal includes me pining over a guy I dated for a month."

May 2021

"It's like looking at your scars years later, you see a fair patch of skin, it doesn't hurt, it doesn't make you feel the past pain, but it fills you with a sense of awe and wonder at your body, at its strength and its resilience." 

"I have learned the unbearable art of silencing the voice in my head. It is boring without it." 

July 2021 

"I didn't get any gifts and I was barred from buying more books" (on 20th b'day)

Jan 2022

" I have 99 problems and 110 of them would be solved if I lived alone in a small cottage on top of a hill."

"When it comes to the Romantics, I think I'm like John Keats. The sad but joyful/optimistic bastard that coughed blood and died. In all seriousness, I don't think I'm any more special or unique than this particular sad twink. It's a bummer really, because I actually aspire to be like Lord Byron. The bisexual disaster, obnoxiously charming and smart asshole that you want to punch in the face but then are too enamored by. Byron, the accidental hero, the adventurer and the rebel. That's who I want to be….. but Byron is Byron, I am not him. I am not mentally ill enough to pull off that sort of charisma." 

"I can exist and others too and we all can be the main characters. Existence isn't a competition. Not everything is." 

"I have always been single in my entire life of 21 years except for a month. I have been happy in my entire life of 21 years except for a month." 

"I made up things, I wanted a story. I look for a story everywhere- that's what we do." 

[spacenutspod]

Assistant Administrator for NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs, Dwight Deneal, poses for portrait, Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Monday Dwight Deneal will serve as the new assistant administrator for the Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, effective immediately. In this role, Deneal provides executive leadership, policy direction, and management for programs that help ensure all small businesses are given a fair chance to work with NASA. He succeeds Glenn Delgado, who retired from the agency in December 2023. “Dwight brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs,” said Nelson. “Small businesses play a critical role in propelling our country forward with new technologies and scientific discoveries to maintain American leadership in space and benefit all humanity. I am confident his leadership will help NASA continue to promote and integrate America’s small businesses into every aspect of our missions.” Prior to his NASA appointment, Deneal served as the director for the Defense Logistics Agency’s Office of Small Business Programs, supervising all small business programs and contracting activities that equated to more than $45 billion of annual contract spending and $18 billion in small business spending. He also was responsible for maintaining strategic partnerships that attract small businesses into the defense supply chain, helping grow the national defense industrial base. Deneal also previously served as the director for the Small Business and Industry Liaison Programs at the U.S. Coast Guard, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In this capacity, he led all small business and socio-economic related guidelines, policies, regulations and was the authority for planning and carrying out acquisition activities in support of small business programs. From 2013 to 2017, Deneal served as a team lead small business specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services. His experience also includes supporting the Department of Education and U.S Department of Navy as a contract specialist. In addition to his NASA role, Deneal also serves as the vice chairman of the Federal Interagency Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Directors Council. This organization of federal small business program officials that meets regularly to exchange and discuss information on small business methods, issues, and strategies. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Deneal graduated from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, where he earned a bachelor’s in Business Management. He also is a graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Executive Education program. Deneal was the recipient of the 2018 U.S. Department of Homeland Security Chief Procurement Officer Excellence in Industry Engagement Award. He is married and has two children. Learn more about NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs at: https://www.nasa.gov/osbp -end- Faith McKie / Abbey DonaldsonHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1600faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov / abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Feb 12, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related TermsOrganizationsOffice of Small Business Programs (OSBP)

[spaceexp]

18 in 2018: Space Station Science Scrapbook

ISS - International Space Station logo. Feb. 13, 2019 During 2018, crew members of Expeditions 54-58 supported more than 100 new U.S. science investigations aboard the International Space Station. Research sponsored by the U.S. National Laboratory in this unique orbiting laboratory advances future missions to the Moon and Mars and improves life on Earth. In February, astronauts set a new record-setting week of research that surpassed 100 hours. Here's a look back at just some of the science highlights from this year. 1.

Targeted cancer therapies explored

NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor conducted research operations for the AngieX Cancer Therapy study inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG). This research examines whether endothelial cells cultured in microgravity can serve as a valid model to test a safer, more effective treatment that targets tumor cells and blood vessels. 2.

The ups and downs of spaceflight

Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) strapped in for the GRASP investigation. It uses virtual reality to examine how the central nervous system integrates information from the brain and body to coordinate hand movements within the visual environment. The absence of traditional “up” and “down” in microgravity requires the brain to adapt during spaceflight, and researchers want to better understand whether and how gravity acts as a reference when a person reaches out to grasp an object. This investigation also may shed light on the physiology of eye-hand coordination and more effective treatments for loss of vestibular function or balance on Earth. 3. 

Station cameras capture storm below

Cameras on the outside of the space station captured the impressive breadth of Hurricane Florence on Sept. 12 as it churned across the Atlantic, heading west-northwest and packing winds of 130 miles an hour. Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina at 7:15 a.m. EDT September 14, as a Category 1 storm. The space station offers a unique vantage for observing Earth using both hands-on and automated equipment. 4. 

Microbes identified on space station

After swabbing designated surfaces of the space station to collect microbe samples, NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold used the Miniature Polymerase Chain Reaction (miniPCR) to extract RNA from the samples, and sequenced the RNA with the Biomolecule Sequencer for the BEST investigation. In addition to demonstrating for the first time that it is possible to sequence RNA isolated directly from an organism in space, BEST tested the use of sequencing to identify microbial organisms on the space station. The investigation also helps scientists better understand how humans, plants and microbes adapt to life in space. 5. 

Space gardeners work to enable self-sufficiency on future flights

The space station’s Veggie Facility, tended here by NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, had growth in two of its units for the first time during the VEG-03 plant growth investigation. Veg-03 cultivated Extra Dwarf Pak Choi, Red Russian Kale, Wasabi mustard, and Red Lettuce and harvested on-orbit samples for testing back on Earth. On future long-duration space missions, crew members need to grow their own food, and understanding how plants respond to microgravity is an important step toward that goal. 6. 

Free-flying robots test automated strategies

JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai conducted a test run of the SPHERES Tether Slosh experiment in the Kibo Japanese Experiment Pressurized Module (JEM). In space, liquid in spacecraft can slosh around in unpredictable ways and complicate space maneuvers. This investigation used fluid dynamics equipment and robotic capabilities aboard the space station to test automated strategies for steering spacecraft containing passive fluid cargo. 7. 

Satellite uses camera to track orbital debris

The NanoRacks Remove Debris Satellite, the largest satellite deployed from the Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL), floats free from the space station. Collisions with space debris or “space junk” can have serious consequences. Research has shown that removing the largest debris significantly reduces the chance of such collisions. Remove Debris tested technologies to use a 3D camera to map the location and speed of debris and a net to capture and de-orbit simulated debris. 8.

Investigation studies the gut in space

For the Rodent Research-7 (RR-7) experiment, NASA astronaut Drew Feustel took measurements from mice inside the MSG using the Mass Measurement Device, which can quickly measure the mass of objects in the range of 1 to 100 grams in microgravity. RR-7 examines how the space environment affects the community of microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract of mice, known as the gut microbiota. It also looks at microgravity’s effects on physiological systems known to be affected by the microbiota, including the gastrointestinal, immune, metabolic, circadian, and sleep systems. 9. 

Hot science tests may improve fuels for use in space and on Earth

Arnold prepped the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), which supports ongoing microgravity combustion research operations, including Cool Flames, FLEX, FLEX-2 and FLEX-2J. Understanding how fuels burn in microgravity supports development of more efficient fuel for interplanetary missions, reducing cost and weight and improving safety. This knowledge also could lead to improved fuels for vehicles and aircraft on Earth, including efficient, environmentally friendly mixtures of chemicals that burn well and produce less soot. 10. 

NICER studies pulsars as future navigation tool

This image, taken by the ground-controlled External High Definition Camera 1 (EHDC1), shows the Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) payload attached outside the space station. Neutron stars, remnants of supernovas, are the densest objects in the universe and contain exotic states of matter impossible to replicate in any lab. They are known as pulsars because they appear to pulse like lighthouse beacons. NICER studies the extraordinary physics of these stars, providing new insights into their nature and behavior and paving the way for future spacecraft navigation anywhere in the solar system using pulsars as natural beacons. 11. 

Crew member sleeping habits tested

The sensor taped to Kanai’s forehead collects data for the Circadian Rhythms investigation, which looks at how an individual’s synchronized daily rhythms, or “biological clock,” changes during the non-24-hour cycle of light and dark that crew members experience in space. The investigation also addresses how other conditions experienced in spaceflight affect the biological clock in an effort to improve crew performance and health on future exploration missions. 12. 

Investigation studies effects of reduced mobility

Auñón-Chancellor prepared air sample collection hardware for the MARROW experiment. This research looks at the effect of microgravity on bone marrow. The potential negative effect of microgravity on bone marrow and the blood cells that are produced in it has implications for future space travel. On Earth, these effects are similar to those found in people who spend prolonged time in bed, have reduced mobility, or who are aging. A better understanding of the relationship between fat cells and blood-producing cells in the bone marrow also could help improve the health of people on Earth. 13.

Kibo laboratory enables science crossing multiple disciplines

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Kibo laboratory module photographed as the space station orbited over the southern Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand. Visible are its pressurized module and exposed facility, logistics module, remote manipulator system, and inter-orbit communication system unit. Among the multiple investigations these facilities support is Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI), which conducted a systemic survey of the entire sky for galactic transient phenomena. Its discoveries include new black hole candidates, more than 20 binary X-ray pulsar outbursts, X-ray flares from 12 stars, and the first observation of the instant that a massive black hole swallowed a star. Since its activation, half of all new black hole candidates have been discovered by MAXI. The investigation released a catalog for high Galactic-latitude sky sources and revealed the existence of a hypernova remnant estimated to be 3 million years old, perhaps the first in our galaxy. 14. 

Self-assembling particles tested in fluid medium

Gerst conducted operations for the ACE-T-7 experiment. ACE-T-7 involves the design and assembly of complex three-dimensional structures, known as self-assembled colloidal structures, from small particles suspended within a fluid medium. Microgravity provides insight into the relationship between particle shape and interactions with other particles on this assembly. These fundamental condensed matter concepts are vital to the design of advanced optical materials and active devices. 15.

New methods for growing plants in space

Arabidopsis plants grow in the Plant Habitat-01 experiment growth chamber behind Russian cosmonaut and flight engineer Sergey Prokopev. PH-01 compares differences in genetics, metabolism, photosynthesis, and gravity sensing between plants grown in space and on Earth, and could provide key insights on major changes that occur in plants exposed to microgravity. Understanding how plants respond will help crews on future missions grow plants for food and to generate oxygen. 16.

Improved solidification techniques for life on other planets

Scientists have conducted a number of studies of the potential to make and use concrete on extraterrestrial bodies, such as Mars or the Moon, but understanding how cement solidifies in microgravity is essential to such use. Auñón-Chancellor and fellow NASA astronaut Anne McClain inserted samples into a centrifuge for the MVP-05 investigation, which examines the microstructure of concrete solidified on the space station. This information could also improve processing for the use of concrete on Earth. 17. 

Students, teachers and families connect to space station using ham radio

An important part of the space station’s mission is engaging with and inspiring students through educational activities. NASA astronaut Joe Acaba conducted a ham radio session, one of hundreds that have been held as part of the ARISS project. Students selected for the program learn about the space station, radio waves, and other topics and then schedule a ham radio call to ask questions directly to a crew member orbiting 250 miles above them. Hundreds of other students, teachers and families listen in from classrooms or auditoriums. 18.

California wildfires captured by station cameras

An image taken from the space station in August shows wildfires to the north of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California’s Mendocino National Forest. Images from Crew Earth Observations have contributed to scientific research on urban vegetation, coral reefs, algal blooms, night-time remote sensing, impervious surfaces detection, and breaking Antarctic ice shelves. Scientists have also used them to inventory river sediments and capture sprites, or Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), triggered by large lightning storms. Anyone can use these publicly available images for educational, entertainment, or scientific purposes. Related links: U.S. National Laboratory: https://www.issnationallab.org/ AngieX: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7502 Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=341 GRASP: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2038 Observing Earth: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/benefits/observation.html Biomolecule Sequencer: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1917 BEST: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7687 VEG-03: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1159 SPHERES Tether Slos: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7381 Remove Debris: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7350 Rodent Research-7 (RR-7): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7425 Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=317 Cool Flames: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1688 FLEX: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=655 FLEX-2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=470 FLEX-2J: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1077 Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1705 Circadian Rhythms: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=869 MARROW: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1673 MAX: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=593 ACE-T-7: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1708 Self-assembled colloidal structures: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/investigation-seeks-to-create-self-assembling-materials Plant Habitat-01: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2032 MVP-05: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7874 ARISS: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=337 Crew Earth Observations: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=84 Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images, Text, Credits: NASA/Michael Johnson/JSC/International Space Station Program Science Office/Melissa Gaskill. Best regards, Orbiter.ch Full article

[starwalkapp]

NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this image of two staggering storms on Jupiter on Dec. 21, 2018.⠀ ⠀ NASA's Juno spacecraft made another pass over Jupiter's surface late last month, and the data is back — including this stunning view of two enormous storms swirling across the gas giant.⠀ ⠀ Accompanying the famous Great Red Spot storm in this image is a second storm nicknamed Oval BA. Unlike its larger russet companion, Oval BA formed under scientists' eyes, when three smaller storms collided in 2000.⠀ ⠀ The visible-light camera on board Juno, called JunoCam, has been able to watch Oval BA change over the course of the mission, with the storm becoming paler since a previous visit nearly a year ago, according to a statement from the Southwest Research Institute, which manages the mission.⠀ ⠀ The image consists of three separate photographs combined and digitally enhanced by volunteer imaging experts here on Earth. JunoCam captured the images when it was between 23,800 miles and 34,500 miles (38,300 and 55,500 kilometers) above Jupiter's clouds. The three photographs were taken during a 10-minute period on Dec. 21, during the spacecraft's 16th close science flyby of Jupiter.⠀ ⠀ Last month's flyby marks the halfway point of Juno's mission, which was carefully designed to cover the entire surface of the gas giant in 32 flybys. The spacecraft will remain at work until July 2021 to complete those orbits. Its next close approach will come on Feb. 12.⠀ ⠀ Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran⠀ Text Credit: Meghan Bartels for space.com via Instagram http://bit.ly/2Ms2MvN

[the-telescope-times]

Juno’s Latest Flyby of Jupiter Captures Two Massive Storms 

01.17.19 Juno’s Latest Flyby of Jupiter Captures Two Massive Storms (top image) This image of Jupiter’s turbulent southern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed its most recent close flyby of the gas giant planet on Dec. 21, 2018.

This new perspective captures the notable Great Red Spot, as well as a massive storm called Oval BA. The storm reached its current size when three smaller spots collided and merged in the year 2000. The Great Red Spot, which is about twice as wide as Oval BA, may have formed from the same process centuries ago.

Juno captured Oval BA in another image (lower image) earlier on in the mission on Feb. 7, 2018. The turbulent regions around, and even the shape of, the storm have significantly changed since then. Oval BA further transformed in recent months, changing color from reddish to a more uniform white.

Juno took the three images used to produce this color-enhanced view on Dec. 21, between 9:32 a.m. PST (12:32 p.m. EST) and 9:42 a.m. PST (12:42 p.m. EST). At the time the images were taken, the spacecraft was between approximately 23,800 miles (38,300 kilometers) to 34,500 miles (55,500 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops above southern latitudes spanning 49.15 to 59.59 degrees.

Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran created this image using data from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager.

JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and to process into image products at:  http://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam

More information about Juno is at: http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu

[sciencenewsforstudents]

If Mars conceals a lake beneath its south polar ice cap, the planet must also have a hidden chamber of magma to keep the water liquid, a new analysis suggests.

Signs of a 20-kilometer-wide lake, buried beneath about a kilometer and a half of ice near Mars’ south pole, were first reported in 2018 by a team led by planetary scientist Roberto Orosei (SN: 8/18/18, p. 6). The discovery kicked off a debate over what it would take to keep the lake liquid in such a frigid environment.

Planetary scientists Michael Sori and Ali Bramson considered various scenarios, including dust mixed in the ice cap to improve its insulating abilities and episodes of past volcanism on the Red Planet. The only way to create enough heat to explain the lake is if a subsurface pool of magma under the ice also exists, the duo reports in the Feb. 12 Geophysical Research Letters.

“We tried to do our due diligence and think of all sorts of alternative factors that could raise the temperature,” Sori says. “The magma stuff was the only one that did it. None of the other factors really even came close.”

The possible lake — the first report of so much liquid water existing on Mars today — appeared as a bright reflection to the radar of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter. The Martian environment, though, is too cold for water to remain liquid on its own. Orosei, of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Bologna, Italy, and his colleagues had suggested that salts dissolved in the water could keep its melting point low, allowing the lake to exist as a briny sludge.

Conditions beneath the ice are still too cold — an average of –68° Celsius — to explain the lake’s existence just with salts, argue Sori and Bramson, both of the University of Arizona in Tucson. But their calculations show that if around 300,000 years ago, a volcano released magma into a chamber at least five kilometers wide and buried about 10 kilometers beneath where the lake appears to be, that pool could generate enough heat to still be melting salty ice today. Without salt, the magma chamber would have to be larger or closer to the surface, the researchers say.

If the magma chamber is real, it would mean that Mars has been geologically active much more recently than planetary scientists think (SN: 3/4/17, p. 12). Previous studies suggested that the most recent geologic activity near Mars’ south pole was millions of years ago, at least.

The chamber’s existence could also be a blow to the purported lake’s habitability: If the lake is only a few hundred thousand years old, that doesn’t give life much time to have gotten started.

Sori and Bramson remain neutral on whether their findings make the lake more or less likely to exist. “Honestly, we’re not sure,” Bramson says. The researchers suggest that future searches look for either the magma chamber or the lake. So far, other radar searches using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have not spotted the lake (SN: 12/22/18, p. 29).

The jury is out among other researchers too. The new research doesn’t rule out the role of salts in melting ice, says planetary scientist Bethany Ehlmann of Caltech who was not involved in either study. But “this paper is a nice contribution that explores an alternative hypothesis,” she says.

Orosei stands by his team’s observations. Theoretical arguments showing how difficult it is for liquid water to be present beneath the ice, he says, do not prove the water is not there. “I think that we are just entering a long and exhausting debate,” he says.

[udayangasrilanka]

Elon Musk Makes sense of Why SpaceX's Falcon Weighty Center Supporter Crashed

SpaceX President Elon Musk took to Twitter Monday (Feb. 12) to share a few new subtleties on last week's Bird of prey Weighty experimental drill, including why the monstrous rocket's center supporter crashed. SpaceX is likewise constructing another robot transport for rocket arrivals adrift, he added.

At the point when SpaceX's Bird of prey Weighty launched last Tuesday (Feb. 6) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center Cushion 39A in Florida, the rocket's three first-stage promoters were supposed to get back to Earth and land similar as the organization's Bird of prey 9 rocket stages. The Hawk Weighty's two side promoters landed effectively (and at the same time) on twin cushions at the close by Cape Canaveral Aviation based armed forces Station, however the middle center failed spectacularly.

That center sponsor, which was supposed to land seaward on SpaceX's robot transport "Obviously I Actually Love You," crashed when two of three motors didn't fire during a last arrival consume, Musk told journalists after the send off. The supporter missed the arrival transport by around 328 feet (100 meters) and hit the water at 300 mph (484 km/h), harming engines on the close by droneship, Musk has said.

On Monday, we took in a touch more in Musk's Twitter posts. The two motors didn't fire since they ran out of start liquid, Musk said.

"Insufficient start liquid to light the external two motors after a few three motor relights," Musk composed. "Fix is really self-evident."

That recommends a fix could include just adding more start liquid, however Musk didn't intricate.

Musk shared one tempting goody about future Bird of prey Weighty supporter arrivals: SpaceX is building a third robot transport for seaward rocket arrivals.

Its name? "A Setback of Gravitas."

The boat gives off an impression of being named to pay tribute to the imaginary spaceship "Encountering A Critical Gravitas Setback" in the sci-fi books "Shift focus over to Windward" and "Matter" by the late writer Iain M. Banks. SpaceX's other two robot ships — "Obviously I Actually Love You" and "Just Read The Guidelines" — are likewise named for ships referenced in Banks' Way of life books.

"A Setback of Gravitas" is under development now and will join "Obviously I Actually Love You" in Florida to help seaward arrivals of Bird of prey Weighty side supporters, Musk composed. "Just Read The Guidelines" is utilized for Hawk 9 arrivals after dispatches from SpaceX's cushion at California's Vandenberg Flying corps Base.

SpaceX has additionally constructed one more boat with monster metal arms to get the defensive payload fairings (or nose cone parts) on its rockets before they fall into the ocean. You can see an image of it here. Musk has said in the past that SpaceX's fairings cost about $5 million, so getting them for reuse could be a critical reserve funds.

"It resembles a monster catcher's glove, in boat structure," Musk told columnists after the Bird of prey Weighty send off. SpaceX could attempt to catch a falling Hawk rocket fairing at some point this year, he added.

Meanwhile, SpaceX actually has a full record of Hawk 9 and Bird of prey Weighty send-offs on tap in 2018. The organization's next send off is booked for Saturday (Feb. 17) from Vandenberg Flying corps Base. It will utilize a Bird of prey 9 rocket to send off the Paz Earth checking satellite into space for Spain.

Something like two more Bird of prey Weighty missions are on the agenda during the current year, alongside the many Hawk 9 missions for satellite clients and NASA, which utilizes SpaceX's Mythical serpent freight boats to convey supplies to the Global Space Station.

SpaceX is likewise constructing a run rendition of Winged serpent to fly space explorers for NASA. The principal experimental drill of that boat on a Hawk 9 rocket is likewise expected in 2018.

[andromeda1023]

This star-filled image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in near-infrared wavelengths of light, reveals a very different view of the Lagoon Nebula compared to its visible-light portrait. Making infrared observations of the cosmos allows astronomers to penetrate vast clouds of gas and dust to uncover hidden gems. Hubble’s view offers a sneak peek at the dramatic vistas NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will provide.

The most obvious difference between Hubble’s infrared and visible photos of this region is the abundance of stars that fill the infrared field of view. Most of them are more distant, background stars located behind the nebula itself. However, some of these pinpricks of light are young stars within the Lagoon Nebula. The brilliant star near the center of the frame, known as Herschel 36, is about 200,000 times brighter than our Sun.

This hefty star is 32 times more massive and eight times hotter than our Sun. Its powerful ultraviolet radiation and fierce stellar winds are carving away the surrounding nebula, removing the raw materials that smaller stars need to form. Dark smudges known as Bok globules mark the thickest parts of the nebula, where dust protects still-forming stars and their planets. While Hubble cannot penetrate these dusty clumps, Webb will be able to see through them.

Webb will probe young stars still in the process of forming. It also will examine the disks of dust and gas surrounding those stars, known as protoplanetary disks, in order to determine how far the planet formation process has proceeded. Webb will determine whether the inner regions of those disks have been cleared out, the dust either swept up by protoplanets or swept away by stellar winds.

Webb could take a stellar census of the Lagoon Nebula to determine not only how many massive stars it contains, but also how many Sun-like stars and how many failed stars known as brown dwarfs. This would enable astronomers to get the big picture of the stellar population across the entire range of masses, particularly at the low end.

The image shows a region of the nebula measuring about 4 light-years across. The observations were taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 between Feb. 12 and Feb. 18, 2018.

https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2018/21/4151-Image.html

M8 (Infrared-light View) by NASA Hubble

[fumpkins]

Perseverance rover collects 2nd Mars sample (photos)

NASA’s Perseverance rover has now socked away two Red Planet samples.

Perseverance collected a drilled-out core of a Martian rock dubbed “Rochette” and sealed the sample in its designated titanium tube, mission team members announced via Twitter on Wednesday (Sept. 8).

The success came just four days after the car-sized rover collected its first-ever Martian sample, which was also cored from Rochette. 

Related: Where to find the latest Mars photos from NASA’s Perseverance rover

The second sample that NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover collected from the rock “Rochette” is seen in this photo, which the robot snapped on Sept. 8, 2021.  (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

Perseverance landed inside the Red Planet’s 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater on Feb. 18. The six-wheeled robot’s chief tasks are hunting for signs of ancient Mars life and collecting and caching dozens of samples, which will be brought to Earth by a joint NASA-European Space Agency campaign a decade or so from now. 

Early in its mission, the rover also supported and documented the first few flights of NASA’s technology-demonstrating Ingenuity helicopter, which traveled to Mars on Perseverance’s belly. Ingenuity is now embarked on an extended mission, scouting out areas of potential interest to the rover.

Once Perseverance’s samples arrive here, scientists in labs around the world will study them for evidence of life and clues about Mars’ climate and geological history, NASA officials have said.

Perseverance first tried to collect a sample on Aug. 5 but was stymied by an unexpectedly soft target rock, which crumbled to bits beneath the rover’s percussive drill. Rochette is made of much sturdier stuff, as the two latest drilling efforts have shown.

NASA will hold a news conference at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) on Friday (Sept. 10) to discuss the recent sampling efforts and what the Perseverance team has learned about Rochette to date, among other topics. You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency.

The briefing participants will be:

Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters in Washington

Jessica Samuels, Perseverance surface mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California

Matt Robinson, Perseverance strategic sampling operations team chief, JPL

Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance deputy project scientist, JPL

Yulia Goreva, Perseverance return sample investigation scientist, JPL

Meenakshi Wadhwa, Mars sample return principal scientist, JPL and Arizona State University

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

New post published on: https://livescience.tech/2021/09/11/perseverance-rover-collects-2nd-mars-sample-photos/

[wigmund]

From NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day; April 12, 2018:

Shipping Responds to Arctic Ice Decline

In late March 2018, scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA reported that Arctic sea ice had reached its annual maximum extent. Once again, the ice cover was well below average. The four smallest maxima in the satellite record have all occurred in the past four years, continuing a decades-long trend of shrinking ice in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding waterways.

The annual maximum and minimum ice extents for the Arctic region have become steadily smaller over the past 40 years, and the percentage of thick, multi-year ice has been shrinking considerably. This thinning and retreating ice has opened the Arctic Ocean to new opportunities, but also serious environmental concerns. Shipping traffic fits into both categories.

The map above shows the average concentration of Arctic sea ice on March 17, 2018, when it reached the annual maximum. All white-shaded areas had an ice concentration of at least 15 percent (the minimum at which satellites give a reliable measurement), and span a total area that scientists refer to as the “ice extent.” Ice cover peaked at 14.48 million square kilometers (5.59 million square miles), the second lowest maximum on record and 1.16 million square kilometers (448,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average. The animated line plot below shows Arctic sea ice extent in every March since 1979.

The effects of declining sea ice have rippled throughout the Arctic region and the world. Plants, animals, plankton, and people are being forced to adapt to warmer summers and winters and to more open water. Atmospheric and ocean-circulation patterns are also changing, moving the jet streams and stirring up unusual weather in the high- and mid-latitudes.

The disappearing ice is also changing the shipping industry. In August 2017, a newly designed tanker with a hardened hull became the first merchant ship to sail across the Arctic Ocean without the aid of an icebreaker. The Christophe de Margerietraveled from Norway to South Korea in 19 days, nearly a week faster than the traditional trip through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.

It took just six months to top that feat. In February 2018, a tanker carrying liquid natural gas (the Eduard Toll) cruised through mid-winter ice cover from South Korea to Sabetta terminal (northern Russia) to France.

This map shows unique ship visits to Arctic waters between September 1, 2009, and December 31, 2016. The map was created through a collaboration led by Paul Arthur Berkman, director of the science diplomacy center at Tufts University, and Greg Fiske, a geospatial analyst at the Woods Hole Research Center. The team mapped and analyzed more than 120 million data points compiled by SpaceQuest, a company that designs microsatellites that can monitor the track Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals from ships.

Berkman, Fiske, and colleagues have found that the mean center of shipping activity moved 300 kilometers north and east—closer to the North Pole—over the 7-year span. They were particularly surprised to find more small ships, such as fishing boats, wading farther into Arctic waters. The team also plotted the AIS ship tracks against sea ice data from NSIDC and found that ships are encountering ice more often and doing so farther north each year.

Russia, China, Canada, the United States, and Iceland are leading a flotilla of nations preparing for more shipping activity in the Arctic. The Northwest Passage through Canada and the Northern Sea Route, or Northeast Passage, north of Russia and Siberia are both valued because they could significantly shorten ship transit times between Asia, Europe, and North America. But scientists and environmental advocates have serious concerns about pollution, oil spills, and disturbances to marine life, among other possible impacts. Then there is the danger to the lives of sailors plying icy waters with poor navigation charts.

Berkman is the coordinator and lead investigator of Pan-Arctic Options, an interdisciplinary, international effort to “synthesize natural and social science research, leverage future scenario planning activities, and create geospatial maps, building common interests with practical governance options (without advocacy) that will promote sustainable development of the Arctic.” The group of researchers and policy specialists provides objective information that can guide the placement of infrastructure and the management of activities such as search and rescue and pollution response.

Whether open Arctic water is a boon for shipping, it remains bad news for the Arctic environment as we have known it. “Arctic sea ice cover continues to be in a decreasing trend, and this is connected to the ongoing warming of the Arctic,” said Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It’s a two-way street: the warming means less ice is going to form, and more ice is going to melt. But also, because there is less ice, less of the Sun’s radiation is reflected off of Earth, and this contributes to the warming.”

References and Related Reading

Berkman, P.A., et al. (2017) The Arctic Science Agreement Propels Science Diplomacy. Science 358, 596–598.

CNN Money (2017, September 11) Tankers becomes first to cross Arctic without icebreaker. Accessed April 10, 2018.

Global Risks Insights (2018, February 8) The drawbacks of Arctic shipping. Accessed April 10, 2018.

The Guardian (2018, February 13) Shipping first as commercial tankers crosses Arctic sea route in winter. Accessed April 10, 2018.

Gard Insight (2015, August 28) New mandatory regulations for vessels operating in polar waters.) Accessed April 10, 2018.

NASA (2018, March 23) Arctic Wintertime Sea Ice Extent is Among Lowest on Record. Accessed April 10, 2018.

NASA Earth Observatory (2016, September 16) Sea Ice. Accessed April 10, 2018.

NASA Earth Observatory (2017) World of Change: Arctic Sea Ice. Accessed April 10, 2018.

National Snow and Ice Data Center (2018, March 23) Arctic sea ice maximum at second lowest in the satellite record. Accessed April 10, 2018.

Yale Environment 360 (2016, November 17) Shipping Plans Grow as Arctic Ice Fades. Accessed April 10, 2018.

NASA Earth Observatory images (sea ice concentration and extent) by Joshua Stevens, using data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Ship traffic map provided by Greg Fiske, Woods Hole Research Center. Funding for the ship traffic analyses is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF-OPP 1263819 and NSF-ICER 1660449). Story by Mike Carlowicz. Instrument(s): DMSP - SSM/I; DMSP - SSMIS; Nimbus 7; In situ Measurement

[miguelescagedo1]

State of NASA (NHQ201802120003) por NASA HQ PHOTO Por Flickr: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Director Todd May introduces acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot during a State of NASA event Monday, Feb. 12, 2018 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

[spaceexp]

Opportunity's Parting Shot Was a Beautiful Panorama

NASA - Mars Exploration Rover B (MER-B) patch. March 12, 2019 Over 29 days last spring, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity documented this 360-degree panorama from multiple images taken at what would become its final resting spot in Perseverance Valley. Located on the inner slope of the western rim of Endurance Crater, Perseverance Valley is a system of shallow troughs descending eastward about the length of two football fields from the crest of Endeavor's rim to its floor.

Image above: This image is a cropped version of the last 360-degree panorama taken by the Opportunity rover's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) from May 13 through June 10, 2018. The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU. "This final panorama embodies what made our Opportunity rover such a remarkable mission of exploration and discovery," said Opportunity project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "To the right of center you can see the rim of Endeavor Crater rising in the distance. Just to the left of that, rover tracks begin their descent from over the horizon and weave their way down to geologic features that our scientists wanted to examine up close. And to the far right and left are the bottom of Perseverance Valley and the floor of Endeavour crater, pristine and unexplored, waiting for visits from future explorers."

Image above: This image is an edited version of the last 360-degree panorama taken by the Opportunity rover's Pancam from May 13 through June 10, 2018. The version of the scene is presented in approximate true color. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU. The trailblazing mission ended after nearly 15 years of exploring the surface of Mars, but its legacy will live on. Opportunity's scientific discoveries contributed to our unprecedented understanding of the planet's geology and environment, laying the groundwork for future robotic and human missions to the Red Planet. The panorama is composed of 354 individual images provided by the rover's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) from May 13 through June 10, or sols (Martian days) 5,084 through 5,111. This view combines images taken through three different Pancam filters. The filters admit light centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet).

Image above: This image is a cropped version of the last 360-degree panorama taken by the Opportunity rover's Pancam from May 13 through June 10, 2018. The panorama appears in 3D when seen through blue-red glasses with the red lens on the left. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU. A few frames (bottom left) remain black and white, as the solar-powered rover did not have the time to record those locations using the green and violet filters before a severe Mars-wide dust storm swept in on June 2018.

Image above: Taken on June 10, 2018 (the 5,111th Martian day, or sol, of the mission) this “noisy,” incomplete image was the last data NASA's Opportunity rover sent back from Mars. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU. The gallery includes the last images Opportunity obtained during its mission (black-and-white thumbnail images from the Pancam that were used to determine how opaque the sky was on its last day) and also the last piece of data the rover transmitted (a "noisy," incomplete full-frame image of a darkened sky).

Image above: These two thumbnail images, with the ghostly dot of a faint Sun near the middle of each, are the last images NASA's Opportunity rover took on Mars. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU. After eight months of effort and sending more than a thousand commands in an attempt to restore contact with the rover, NASA declared Opportunity's mission complete on Feb. 13, 2019. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, managed the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.  For more information about Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/. For more information about the agency's Mars Exploration program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mars Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/Dwayne Brown/JoAnna Wendel/JPL/DC Agle. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[sgtscholar]

Happy birthday to Rear Admiral, Astronaut, Naval Aviator, and Test Pilot, Alan Shepard—the first American to enter space. On 12 April 1961, the USSR sent the first person to space, Yuri Gagarin, for a single orbit. At this time, NASA was still using Redstone rockets, which couldn't send the massive payload of a manned-capsule into orbit. But the NASA had to act. The Redstone could at least get a person into space for a suborbital hop (a quick rise and fall). For the moment, this would have to do. On 5 May 1961 (less than a month after Gagarin’s flight), Alan Shepard was launched into a suborbital trajectory, becoming the first American and second person to enter space. The USA’s first manned-orbit would have to wait about several months until the more powerful Atlas rockets were ready. On 20 Feb 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, and third American in space (and the fifth person in space). Due to medical reasons, Shepard was grounded from space flight for a few years. But in 70’s, Shepard was back in space as the commander of the Apollo 14 mission, with fellow astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa. They were the famous “rookie crew,” who only had a few minutes of spaceflight altogether. On 6 Feb 1971, Shepard famously became the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon during a brief break between mission assignments during their 33-hour mission on the lunar surface. Space.com has a pretty decent collection of articles about each of these events. Here are the sources and additional material from that site: “FAQ: Alan Shepard's Historic Flight as First American in Space.” Mike Wall. May 04, 2011. “1st American in Orbit: How John Glenn (And NASA) Made History (Infographic).” Karl Tate. December 08, 2016. “Yuri Gagarin: First Man in Space.” Nola Taylor Redd. October 12, 2018. “Apollo 14: 'Rookie' Crew and a Famous Golf Ball.” Elizabeth Howell. September 26, 2012 Carpe Datum and Semper Sci! [Sgt Scholar Actual] #astronaut #NASA #space #moon #moonlanding #apollo #spaceflight #science #engineering #STEM #goodquotes #veteran #navy #usnavy https://www.instagram.com/p/CHvKd6hjeKK/?igshid=1d6nsxbb1j7rd

[kathleenseiber]

Asteroid approaching, but don’t panic

By Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland

Social media around the world lit up over the weekend, discussing the possibility that an asteroid (known as 2018 VP₁) could crash into Earth on November 2.

It seemed only fitting. What better way to round off a year that has seen catastrophic floods, explosions, fires, and storms – and, of course, a global pandemic?

But you can rest easy. The asteroid does not pose a threat to life on Earth. Most likely, it will sail harmlessly past our planet. At worst, it will burn up harmlessly in our atmosphere and create a firework show for some lucky Earthlings.

So, what’s the story?

Our story begins a couple of years ago, on November 3, 2018. That night, the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory in Southern California discovered a faint new “near-Earth asteroid” – an object whose orbit can approach, or cross, that of our planet.

The near-Earth asteroid Eros, which is thousands of times larger than 2018 VP₁. NASA / JPL

At the time of its discovery, 2018 VP₁ was roughly 450,000 kilometres from Earth – a little farther than the average distance between Earth and the Moon (around 384,000km).

The asteroid was very faint, and hard to spot against the background stars. Astronomers were only able to watch it for 13 days, before it was too far from Earth to see.

Based on that short series of observations, it became clear the asteroid is a kind of near-Earth object called an “Apollo asteroid”.

Apollo asteroids spend most of their time beyond Earth’s orbit, but swing inward across our planet’s orbit at the innermost part of their journey around the Sun. 2018 VP₁ takes two years to go around the Sun, swinging just inside Earth’s orbit every time it reaches “perihelion” (its closest approach to our star).

The orbit of asteroid 2018 VP₁ intersects Earth’s orbit once every two years. NASA / JPL

Because 2018 VP₁’s orbit takes almost exactly two years, in 2020 (two years after discovery), it will once again pass close to Earth.

But how close will it come? Well, that’s the million-dollar question.

Anything from a collision to a very distant miss …

To work out an object’s exact path through the Solar system, and to predict where it will be in the future (or where it was in the past), astronomers need to gather observations.

We need at least three data points to estimate an object’s orbit – but that will only give us a very rough guess. The more observations we can get, and the longer the time period they span, the better we can tie down the orbit.

And that’s why the future of 2018 VP₁ is uncertain. It was observed 21 times over 13 days, which allows its orbit to be calculated fairly precisely. We know it takes 2 years (plus or minus 0.001314 years) to go around the Sun. In other words, our uncertainty in the asteroid’s orbital period is about 12 hours either way.

That’s actually pretty good, given how few observations were made – but it means we can’t be certain exactly where the asteroid will be on November 2 this year.

However, we can work out the volume of space within which we can be confident that the asteroid will lie at a given time. Imagine a huge bubble in space, perhaps 4 million km across at its largest. We can be very confident the asteroid will be somewhere in the bubble – but that’s about it.

What does that mean for Earth? Well, it turns out the closest approach between the two this year will be somewhere between a direct hit and an enormous miss – with the asteroid coming no closer than 3.7 million km!

We can also work out the likelihood the asteroid will hit Earth during this close approach. The odds are 0.41%, or roughly 1 in 240. In other words, by far the most likely outcome on November 2 is the asteroid will sail straight past us.

But what if it did hit us?

As the great Terry Pratchett once wrote, “Million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten”. But have you ever heard someone say “It’s a 240-to-1 chance, but it might just work?”

So should we be worried?

Well, the answer here goes back to how hard it was to spot 2018 VP₁ in the first place. Based on how faint it was, astronomers estimate it’s only about 2 metres across. Objects that size hit Earth all the time.

Bigger asteroids do more damage, as we were spectacularly reminded back in February 2013, when an asteroid around 20 metres across exploded in the atmosphere above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.

A collection of footage of the Chelyabinsk airburst, and its aftermath, on 15 Feb 2013.

The Chelyabinsk airburst was spectacular, and the shockwave damaged buildings and injured more than 1,500 people. But that was an object ten times the diameter of 2018 VP₁ – which means it was probably at least 1,000 times heavier, and could penetrate far further into the atmosphere before meeting its fiery end.

2018 VP₁ is so small it poses no threat. It would almost certainly burn up harmlessly in our atmosphere before it reached the ground. Most likely, it would detonate in an “airburst”, tens of kilometres above the ground – leaving only tiny fragments to drift down to the surface.

If 2018 VP₁ is particularly robust (a chunk of a metal asteroid, rather than a stony or icy one), it could make it to the ground – but even then, it is way too small to cause significant damage.

Having said that, the fireball as the asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere would be spectacular. If we were really lucky, it might be captured on camera by the Global Fireball network (led by Curtin University).

A bright fireball, imaged by the Perenjori station of the Australian Desert Fireball Network. By observing fireballs like this from multiple locations, researchers can track down any fragments that make it down to the ground. Wikipedia/Formanlv

With images of the fireball from several cameras, researchers could work out where any debris might fall and head out to recover it. A freshly fallen meteorite is a pristine fragment from which we can learn a great deal about the Solar system’s history.

The bottom line

It’s no wonder in a year like this that 2018 VP₁ has generated some excitement and media buzz.

But, most likely, November 3 will come around and nothing will have happened. 2018 VP₁ will have passed by, likely unseen, back to the depths of space.

Even if Earth is in the crosshairs, though, there’s nothing to worry about. At worst, someone, somewhere on the globe, will see a spectacular fireball – and people in the US might just get to see some spectacular pre-election fireworks.

Or to put it another way: “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine”.

Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Asteroid approaching, but don’t panic published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

[sheet-music-for-teachers-school]

Structural basis of Dscam1 homodimerization: Insights into context constraint for protein recognition - Science Advances - #constraint #constraint #recognition #aePiot

Structural basis of Dscam1 homodimerization: Insights into context constraint for protein recognition - Science Advances

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Military family gets signed copy of new malpractice law after filing wrongful death claim - FOX 46 Charlotte

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High school bowling: North Ridgeville's Dylan Mishak has good day, finishes 13th at state - Chronicle Telegram

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Panama papers: Putin aide’s wife ‘cashed in from British Virgin Islands’ - Express.co.uk

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FC Pune City vs Chennaiyin FC: as it happened - Jeje takes Chennai to the ISL playoffs - International Business Times, India Edition

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Fancy running your own livery yard? Here’s one with 36 stables, two arenas and 38 acres - Horse & Hound

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Cassini Timeline: NASA Mission to Saturn Ahead of Grand Finale Death Dive - Newsweek

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