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coreyspowell

@coreyspowell@mastodon.social

Writer, editor, magazine maker, podcaster, procrastinator.

Former editor of Discover and American Scientist magazines. Co-host of #ScienceRules podcast. Invisible Universe on Substack: https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/

Co-founder of OpenMind magazine.

#science #nature #space #scicomm

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coreyspowell, to science
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Uh oh. The ambitious European-Japanese BepiColombo mission to Mercury has experienced a worrisome "glitch" in its thrusters.

Engineers are scrambling for a fix so the spacecraft can enter orbit around Mercury late next year, as planned.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/europe-is-uncertain-whether-its-ambitious-mercury-probe-can-reach-the-planet/

coreyspowell,
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BepiColombo got some enticing previews of Mercury during its 2021 flyby of the planet.

These images come from the spacecraft's little monitoring camera. The real ones (assuming the spacecraft pulls through) will be far more spectacular.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo/BepiColombo_s_first_views_of_Mercury

coreyspowell, to space
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After years of searching, astronomers have finally detected an atmosphere on a rocky planet around another star.

But what a strange planet it is! 55 Cancri e seems to be blanketed in carbon dioxide gas bubbling out of a global ocean of lava. Like an image out of Dante's Inferno.

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-102

coreyspowell,
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One of the great frustrations in the search for life in the universe: It's much easier to study extreme, hellish planets (huge, hot, etc) than to study the moderate worlds where life could plausibly exist.

coreyspowell, to science
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Aurora colors come from atoms that are trying to shed some of their energy.

In very thin air, oxygen survives in a delicate, high-energy state that emits green light. In denser air, atomic collisions knock oxygen to a lower-energy state that emits red. Nitrogen is a robust emitter that glows bright in even lower, denser layers of the atmosphere.

Beautiful science.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/aurora-tutorial

coreyspowell, to space
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So many beautiful aurora photos going around right now. Wonder where those amazing colors come from? Here's a helpful breakdown.

When you split up the light of a typical aurora, it looks like this.

Many colors from just nitrogen & oxygen!

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/aurora-tutorial

coreyspowell,
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Colors of an aurora depend not only on which element is emitting light, but also on where it is.

Oxygen at high altitudes glows red; at lower altitudes it glows green. Purple nitrogen is lower still.

Atoms are complicated creatures!

coreyspowell,
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@richard The only credit I've been able to find is the name at the bottom of the graphic. I included the full version (not the widely shared crop) for that reason.

coreyspowell,
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@ewout Please read the previous item in this thread. The linked story addresses all those questions.

coreyspowell, to space
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Another day, another cosmic mystery:

Recently, astronomers discovered that the sky is dotted with huge structures called ORCs (odd radio circles).

Now they can see that these circles glow in x-rays, too. But it's still not clear how ORCs form or what makes them shine so intensely.

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/xmm-newton/x-ray-satellite-xmm-newton-sees-space-clover-in-a-new-light/

coreyspowell, to space
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NASA has launched a next-generation solar sail. It will unfurl a lightweight, 80-square-meter reflective sail from a tiny cubesat body.

Then will run experiments using the pressure of sunlight to steer and maneuver through space.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/smallsatellites/2024/04/30/ahoy-nasas-solar-sail-mission-successfully-phones-home/

Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center test deployment of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System’s solar sail. The unfurled solar sail is approximately 30 feet (about 9 meters) on a side. Since solar radiation pressure is small, the solar sail must be large to efficiently generate thrust. NASA

coreyspowell,
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NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is currently in its commissioning phase. Then it will stretch its wings and start sailing on sunshine.

Sailing on sunshine!

https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-next-generation-solar-sail-boom-technology-ready-for-launch/

NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System seeks to advance future space travel and expand our understanding of our Sun and Solar System. Credits: NASA’s Ames Research Center

coreyspowell, to space
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We're about to get our first taste of the far side of the Moon.

This morning, China's Chang'e-6 spacecraft set off to collect samples of the lunar farside & bring them back to Earth. The complex mission includes a drill, a scoop, and a mini rover.

https://spacenews.com/china-launches-change-6-mission-to-collect-first-samples-from-the-moons-far-side/

Chang'e-6 spacecraft ready for launch in its cleanroom. The stacked components include the lander, ascent vehicle, and rover. Credit: CNSA

coreyspowell, to science
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Well that's cool! These are the shadows of the 2017 and 2024 North American solar eclipses, observed by the GOES weather satellites & superimposed on each other.

The images show the Moon's shadow at 10-minute intervals.

https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/archives/58552

The size of the Moon’s shadow on the Earth during the total solar eclipses were very different between 2017 and 2024. These images use ABI band 3 (0.86 um), since the land background tends to be bright (due to reflection off vegetation), hence giving more contrast with the dark shadow.

coreyspowell,
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Here you can see the Moon's shadow sweeping across the Earth on April 8, captured by the GOES-16 weather satellite.

Instead of storm chasing, the satellite took a break and did some eclipse chasing.

https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/archives/58552

GOES-16 ABI Band 3 enhanced to highlight the eclipse shadow. These are 1-minute Mesoscale sectors over the 5-minute CONUS sectors, tracking the shadow every minute as it moves across North America. (Animation from M. Gunshor, UW/CIMSS).

coreyspowell,
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@spmatich I don't know, but I'm sure the CIMSS team could tell you more. Maybe start with Tim Schmit:

https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~tims/

coreyspowell, to space
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NASA's JWST observatory captured an extraordinary, zoomed-in look at the iconic Horsehead Nebula.

In the new image, you can see the boundary where a dust cloud is being blasted away by radiation from newborn stars. And just above, JWST reveals an entire cosmos of distant galaxies hidden behind the top of the horse's "mane"!

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-119

This image showcases three views of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. The first image (left), released in November 2023, features the Horsehead Nebula as seen in visible light by ESA’s Euclid telescope, which has contributions from NASA. The second image (middle) shows a view of the Horsehead Nebula in near-infrared light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which was featured as the telescope’s 23rd anniversary image in 2013. This image reveals a beautiful, delicate structure that is normally obscured by dust. The third image (right) features a new view of the Horsehead Nebula from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument.

coreyspowell, to space
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Our galaxy seems to be full of "rogue" planets wandering alone between the stars.

A new observation from NASA's TESS space telescope hints that these dark worlds might hugely outnumber the normal (?) planets, like Earth, that bask in the warmth and light of a sun.

https://astrobiology.com/2024/04/searching-for-free-floating-planets-with-tess-i-discovery-of-a-first-terrestrial-mass-candidate.html

coreyspowell,
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NASA's upcoming Roman Space Telescope will revolutionize the search for Earth-size rogue planets.

After it launches in 2027, Roman could find hundreds of them -- seen only from their gravity, not their light.

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/roman-space-telescope/new-study-reveals-nasas-roman-could-find-400-earth-mass-rogue-planets/

This animation illustrates the concept of gravitational microlensing with a rogue planet — a planet that does not orbit a star. When the rogue planet appears to pass nearly in front of a background source star, the light rays of the source star bend due to the warped space-time around it. This slightly changes the star’s apparent position on the sky, and can even produce multiple copies of it. Such changes signal the planet’s presence to astronomers. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

coreyspowell, to space
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China's Tiandu-2 spacecraft captured this ethereal new infrared image of the Moon.

See that other little world floating in the background? That's Earth.

https://spacenews.com/chinas-queqiao-2-relay-satellite-ready-to-support-lunar-far-side-sample-mission/

coreyspowell,
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Tiandu-2 is part of a lunar communications network being set up to support China's upcoming Chang’e-6 lander. It will attempt to collect the first samples from the lunar farside, launching as soon as next month.

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/change-6-landing-site

coreyspowell, to space
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Jupiter's moon Io is the most hellish spot in the solar system -- a place of nonstop, sulfur-laced volcanic eruptions.

This new NASA visualization shows a strangely calm-looking lake of magma on Io. The video is directly based on imagery from the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter.

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/juno/nasas-juno-gives-aerial-views-of-mountain-lava-lake-on-io/

This animation is an artist’s concept of Loki Patera, a lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io, made using data from the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. With multiple islands in its interior, Loki is a depression filled with magma and rimmed with molten lava. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

coreyspowell, to science
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Powerful eruption occurring now at Ruang volcano in Indonesia's North Sulawesi Province. Hundreds evacuated so far.

Photos show the lava flow, huge ash cloud, and volcanic lightning.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-evacuated-after-indonesias-ruang-volcano-erupts-2024-04-17/

At least 800 people in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province have been evacuated after multiple eruptions of the area's Ruang volcano, which for days has spewed lava and ash clouds into the sky, the country's volcanology agency said on Wednesday.

coreyspowell, to space
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I'm so excited about this upcoming space mission.

NASA has just confirmed that the Dragonfly octocopter will launch in July, 2028. When it arrives, it will spend at least two years flying over the organic-rich sands of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/News-and-Resources/news/20231128.php

The Dragonfly rotorcraft lander, shown here in an artist's rendering of the mission concept, will land on Saturn's moon Titan and then make multiple flights to explore diverse locations as it characterizes the habitability of the ocean world's environment. Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

coreyspowell, to space
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Can you handle one more eclipse photo? Because this one is quite amazing. It shows the April 8 solar eclipse...as seen from the Moon!

Taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, gazing back at the Moon's shadow as it swept across the Earth.

https://www.lroc.asu.edu/images/1368

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