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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
Sols 4396-4397: Roving in a Martian Wonderland
- Curiosity rover continues its exploration on Mars, taking in beautiful views of ancient sedimentary rocks and capturing new data each day.
- During a weekend drive, the rover stopped early due to terrain assessment limitations, preventing the use of the rover arm for contact science.
- The two-sol plan includes targeted science, remote sensing, and a drive to assess sedimentary structures and fractures in the Martian wonderland.
- In upcoming plans, the rover will conduct further activities during the December holidays, with the mission team grateful for the insights gained so far.
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Popsci
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Image Credit: Popsci
Researchers propose building homes on Mars with human blood
- Researchers from Iran’s Kharazmi University have proposed using human blood and other bodily fluids in the construction of homes on Mars.
- The researchers experimented with various combinations of Martian regolith and other additives to create strong concrete or bricks for onsite construction on Mars.
- They identified sulfur-based concrete and AstroCrete, a modern form of Roman concrete containing human-sourced ingredients, as potential materials for building on Mars.
- AstroCrete, made from Martian regolith and human serum albumin (HAS) found in blood plasma, could be produced with enough HAS from a single astronaut in about 72 weeks.
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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
2024 in Review: Highlights from NASA in Silicon Valley
- NASA's Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley marks its 85th year with an overview of its work in 2024.
- Ames Arc Jets played a key role in confirming the understanding of the loss of Avcoat material on Orion spacecraft heat shields during the Artemis I test flight, helping to inform future spacecraft heat shield designs.
- The Starling spacecraft swarm completed its mission objectives, demonstrating significant achievements in the capabilities of swarm configurations in low Earth orbit.
- BioNutrients entered its fifth year of developing microorganisms to produce on-demand nutrients for astronauts and demonstrated that the system could produce nutrients after at least five years in space, increasing confidence in supporting future missions.
- The new hyperwall visualization system upgrade provides four times the resolution of the previous system, assisting researchers with better visualizing large datasets produced by NASA instruments.
- NASA Ames contributed to the agency’s artificial intelligence work through research, development, agencywide collaboration, and communications efforts, including introducing a chief artificial intelligence officer.
- NASA Ames helped advance future space exploration through the successful deployment of a composite solar sail and the discovery of how Mars' moons may have formed through a series of supercomputer simulations.
- NASA and collaborative partners continued to develop new technologies to support remote wildland firefighting and improving real-time communication among firefighters using high altitude balloons.
- The Ames Visitor Center was fully reimagined to showcase the work of NASA in Silicon Valley, and Ames worked with the University of California on technical exchange workshops, hosting supercomputing resources and collaborations in space exploration and cancer research.
- NASA also paved the way for newly-approved package delivery drone flights in the Dallas area and saw fuel savings and fewer delays at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport thanks to a NASA-developed tool that identifies efficient, alternative takeoff routes.
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Universe Today
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Image Credit: Universe Today
Zwicky Classifies More Than 10,000 Exploding Stars
- The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) has detected 100,000 supernovae and classified 10,000 of them.
- The ZTF observes in both optical and infrared and was built to detect transients with the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory.
- In 2017, the ZTF began its Bright Transient Survey (BTS), an effort dedicated to the search for supernovae (SNe).
- The effort to catalogue supernovae dates back to 2012 when astronomical databases began officially tracking them.
- Each night, the ZTF detects hundreds of thousands of events ranging from small, simple asteroids in our inner Solar System to powerful gamma-ray bursts in the distant Universe.
- The ZTF uses a pair of telescopes that act as a kind of ‘triage’ facility for supernovae and transients.
- ZTF Detections are also sent to other observatories around the world who can examine transients with other spectroscopic facilities.
- Soon, the ZTF will have a powerful partner in time-domain astronomy. The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) should see its first light in the next few months and then begin its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).
- According to Caltech astronomy professor Mansi Kasliwal, who will lead ZTF in the coming two years, this will be a very important and exciting time in time-domain astronomy.
- Astronomical surveys like the ones performed by ZTF and the VRO provide foundational data that researchers will use for years.
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Discover more
Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
NASA Participates in Microgravity Science Summit
- NASA leadership participated in the Microgravity Science Summit to highlight the benefits of microgravity research.
- The summit focused on building a coalition for the next generation of microgravity research and continuing work on the International Space Station.
- The Biden-Harris Administration released a strategy to support low Earth orbit research and development activities.
- NASA also released its long-term approach to advance microgravity science, technology, and exploration.
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Universe Today
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Image Credit: Universe Today
What is the Zoo Hypothesis?
- The zoo hypothesis suggests that alien civilizations exist and are intentionally hiding from us.
- Physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked, 'Where is everybody?' as a response to the lack of evidence for intelligent extraterrestrial life.
- According to the zoo hypothesis, intelligent alien civilizations hide themselves and their signals to keep us unaware of their existence.
- Once we prove ourselves as a trustworthy species, the hypothesis suggests that we will be welcomed into the larger galactic community.
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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP)
- The Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) aims to ensure safe, sustainable, and efficient aviation operations.
- AOSP focuses on integrating new aviation technologies and ensuring airspace access for new entrants.
- The program champions the success of increasingly autonomous operations and prioritizes safety.
- AOSP projects include emergency response operations, air traffic management, and system-wide safety.
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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
NASA Sets Coverage for Roscosmos Spacewalk 63 Outside Space Station
- NASA will provide live coverage as two Roscosmos cosmonauts conduct a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.
- Expedition 72 crewmates Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner will install an experiment package and remove several experiments for disposal.
- They will also relocate a control panel for the European robotic arm, connected to the Nauka module.
- This will be the 272nd spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
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Hackaday
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Image Credit: Hackaday
Why NASA Only Needs Pi To So Many Decimal Places
- NASA uses pi to fifteen decimal places for the highest precision calculations, such as interplanetary navigation.
- Going into any greater precision is unnecessary as it would result in a negligible error, demonstrated by calculating the circumference of a circle with a radius equal to the distance between Earth and Voyager 1 spacecraft.
- Calculating pi to a much greater precision, such as 10 trillion digits, is possible but lacks practical significance.
- NASA's use of fifteen decimal places is sufficient for their requirements.
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Brighter Side of News
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Image Credit: Brighter Side of News
NASA’s Juno mission solves Io’s 44-year-old volcano mystery
- Io, a Jupiter’s Galilean moon is characterized by intense volcanic activity, driven by unique internal dynamics. Io's volcanic nature was first discovered in 1979, beyond Earth, for the first time, by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft. Recent insights from Juno’s close flybys are helping scientists understand Io’s interior, including its internal dynamics, magma's movement in its interior, and its unique mechanism of volcanic activity. The measurements reveal that each volcano is powered by its own localized chamber of molten rock, suggesting that magma is concentrated in isolated chambers beneath individual volcanoes rather than spread across a global ocean.
- Io dissipates a power output far greater than all of Earth’s geologic activity combined and has an estimated 400 active volcanoes, continually spewing molten rock and gas. Understanding the variability in tidal heating outcomes can help refine models of other celestial bodies such as Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa, and even distant exoplanets. By studying how tidal heating generates magma reservoirs rather than oceans, scientists gain a deeper understanding of planetary formation and geologic processes.
- Juno’s measurements revealed a tidal response inconsistent with the prescence of an ocean that was proposed earlier based on earlier magnetic induction measurements from NASA's Galileo mission. These measurements suggested the presence of a near-surface layer about 50 kilometers thick with more than 20% melt. However, these results have been debated for decades, with some researchers questioning whether such a layer could exist. During its close encounters, Juno detected tidal deformations that align with a model of Io having a partially molten but mostly solid interior.
- Io's tidal response generates immense internal heat, enough to melt portions of its rocky interior, due to varying gravitational forces that stretch and compress the interior caused by the moon's elliptical orbit. The possibility of a global magma ocean had been proposed based on earlier magnetic induction measurements from NASA’s Galileo mission. By showing that tidal forces on Io produce localized magma reservoirs, Juno's findings challenge assumptions about similar processes on other celestial bodies.
- Juno's precision data provides a more comprehensive understanding of Io’s interior, with more profound insights into the mechanics of tidal heating and its implications for planetary evolution. The spacecraft will continue its exploration of Io and its study of Jupiter's system, with its next close approach scheduled for December 27, 2024, when it will pass just 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops.
- Io’s fiery landscape and volcanic eruptions have become a subject of fascination and scientific inquiry. The discoveries on Io may serve as a template for exploring the internal dynamics of other worlds, both within our solar system and beyond, rewriting the narrative of how tidal forces shape celestial bodies.
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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
Life Science, Spacewalk Preps on Station as Dragon Splashes Down
- The Expedition 72 crew continued its life science research and spacewalk preparations on Tuesday as a U.S. resupply spacecraft splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
- NASA Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Nick Hague worked on two different space biology experiments exploring microgravity effects on humans.
- Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore installed new exercise gear, the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device, in the Columbus laboratory module.
- Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner prepared for a spacewalk to remove external science experiments and relocate hardware.
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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
Media Invited to Speak to NASA Ames Experts – Celebrating 85 Years
- NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley is celebrating 85 years of cutting-edge research and development in various fields.
- NASA Ames experts are available for interviews to discuss the center's legacy in space, science, technology, and aeronautics.
- Ames has contributed to NASA's flagship missions from Apollo to Artemis and has made significant advancements in aeronautics industry.
- Ames researchers have developed technologies for advanced air vehicles and are testing a heat shield for the Orion crew capsule for the Artemis missions.
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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
Dragon Returns to Earth, Cargo Mission Ends
- The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft has successfully returned to Earth, marking the end of its mission.
- The spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Florida at 1:39 p.m. EST, after undocking from the International Space Station on January 9, 2023.
- It carried back thousands of pounds of supplies and scientific experiments from the space station's microgravity environment.
- The spacecraft arrived at the space station on November 5 and was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Livescience
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Image Credit: Livescience
Scientists followed a mysterious signal — and found 2 black holes gorging on something like never before
- A pair of supermassive black holes has been found consuming an enormous gas cloud, unlike anything seen before. The discovery, made possible by a peculiar radiation signal, provides insight into the behavior of supermassive black holes and their relationship with the galaxies they inhabit.
- The signal was first detected in March 2021 in a galaxy located approximately 1 billion light-years away, in the northern constellation Cygnus. Scientists suspected the signal might be linked to supernovas or tidal disruption events but a highly unusual oscillation pattern warned this was not that case.
- Observations with a range of wavelengths confirmed that the signal's origin was unfamiliar. The researchers turned to theoretical models to solve the mystery. They hypothesized that the radiation was produced by a pair of supermassive black holes consuming a massive cloud of galactic gas.
- Based on the simulation, the light emitted by the system can be explained by a binary supermassive black hole interacting with a gas cloud roughly equivalent in mass to the Sun. The two black holes are separated by 0.8 milliparsecs, orbit each other roughly every 130 days, have a combined mass of about 40 million solar masses, and are expected to merge in approximately 70,000 years.
- If validated, this discovery could transform how astronomers study supermassive black holes by offering a new method to investigate their evolution and their role in shaping galaxies.
- These massive objects are closely linked to their host galaxies, and learning more about their feeding habits could provide fresh insight into galactic development.
- Finding binary supermassive black holes is a challenging task, but it is expected to be present in many galaxy centers.
- The fact that we cannot resolve the two black holes with the available instrumentation implies that we need to find alternative techniques to detect them through other methods.
- Additional observations of similar systems will be necessary to solidify their conclusions. Future data will help refine models of how supermassive black holes behave when consuming galactic gas.
- New data and simulations using these data are required to confirm the scenario that they are proposing to probe the authors' hypothesis.
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Digitaltrends
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Image Credit: Digitaltrends
NASA telescopes capture a cosmic wreath for the holidays
- NASA has released a new image of a cosmic wreath captured by multiple space telescopes.
- The image shows star cluster NGC 602 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, with X-ray data from Chandra and infrared data from Webb.
- The wreath shape is formed by warm dust, while the red points indicate bright, massive, young stars emitting radiation.
- NASA also shared an image of the 'Christmas Tree Cluster' within our galaxy, showcasing stars of varying sizes and twinkle-like features.
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