coreyspowell

coreyspowell, 2 days ago to science

A mind-blower for a Friday evening:

This deceptively simple-looking graph is a spectrum of gravitational waves ringing through the Milky Way.

The waves may be caused by a chorus of supermassive black holes colliding all across the universe. Whoa!

https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.16227 #science #space #physics #astronomy

coreyspowell, 3 days ago to science

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/ #science #space #astronomy #tech

coreyspowell, 3 days ago to space

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 #space #science #nasa #astronomy

coreyspowell, 8 days ago to space

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 #aurora #space #science #nature

coreyspowell, 8 days ago to science

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 #aurora #science #space #nature

coreyspowell, 11 days ago to space

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/ #space #science #NASA #travel

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, 16 days ago to space

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/ #space #science #tech #china

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

coreyspowell, 18 days ago to science

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 #science #space #weather #nature

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, 24 days ago to space

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 #space #science #astronomy #astrodon

coreyspowell, 27 days ago to space

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/ #space #science #moon #china

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to space

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/ #space #science #astronomy #nasa

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, 1 month ago to science

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/ #volcano #science #nature

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, 1 month ago to space

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 #space #science #nasa #life #tech

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, 1 month ago to space

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 #space #science #NASA #eclipse

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to science

Two space questions I hear a lot:

• Is Betelgeuse about to explode?
• When we see things happening "now" in deep space, didn't they really happen a long time ago?

I decided to answer them both together (and threw in a bonus discussion about false precision).

https://quanta.quora.com/Betelgeuse-is-642-5-light-years-away-the-light-we-see-from-it-is-642-5-years-old-How-do-Scientists-know-it-is-going-to-6?ch=10&oid=1477743753967765&share=6c715101&srid=u5Hxq&target_type=answer #science #space #astronomy #education

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to space

The astronauts aboard the ISS were amazed by the April 8 solar eclipse, just like the rest of us, and went crazy snapping photos from orbit.

They got some amazing views of the Moon's shadow sweeping across southern Canada & Maine, seen from 420 km (261 miles) above: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/with/53645140833 #space #eclipse #space #astronomy

The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.
The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to space

We can now DIRECTLY OBSERVE planets being born!

Each of the arrow-marked blobs is a likely planet-in-the-making around the infant star FU Orionis (great name), located 1,350 light years away in the constellation Orion.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.05797 #space #science #astronomy #astrodon

coreyspowell, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to space

Today's dose of cosmic beauty: Comet Pons-Brooks, photographed from southern Spain by Fritz Helmut Hemmerich.

The eerie green glow is from diatomic carbon. The ripples show the flow of the solar wind.

https://www.facebook.com/fritzhelmut.hemmerich/ #space #science #astronomy #nature

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to nature

Even with all the eclipse photos circulating right now, this one made my eyes pop. Great shot of jet contrails breaking up the edge of the eclipsed Sun. Quick calculation: The Sun is about 30,000,000 times wider than the jet.

(Photo by Bobby Goddin, Bloomington, IN) #eclipse #nature #science #photography

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to science

Johannes de Sacrobosco ("John of Hollywood") published detailed geometric descriptions of a solar eclipse in the year 1230. People in the "dark ages" were not so dumb!

I dig through 5000 years of eclipse investigations in my latest Invisible Universe column:

https://invisibleuniverse.substack.com/p/how-we-learned-to-love-the-invisible #science #nature #history #eclipse

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to space

Eclipse news from 3,246 years ago:

The earliest well-established observation a solar eclipse was recorded on March 5, 1222 BCE. It was inscribed in a clay tablet from Ugarit, a city in modern-day Syria.

https://theconversation.com/archeoastronomy-uses-the-rare-times-and-places-of-previous-total-solar-eclipses-to-help-us-measure-history-222709 #space #science #astronomy #eclipse

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to science

Amazing research out today:

The DESI survey has created the largest-ever 3D map of the structure of the universe.

It has also found intriguing (though tentative) evidence that cosmic "dark energy" is not what we thought -- a hint of new, unknown physics.

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2024/04/04/desi-first-results-make-most-precise-measurement-of-expanding-universe/ #science #astronomy #space #tech

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to science

The first-ever view of a solar eclipse from the surface of the Moon. That's the Earth eclipsing the Sun!

Images captured by NASA's Surveyor 3 lunar lander on April 24, 1967.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140407.html #science #astronomy #space #nasa

The robotic Surveyor 3 mission took thousands of wide angle television images of the Earth in 1967, a few of which captured the Earth moving in front of the Sun. Several of these images have been retrieved from the NASA archives and compiled into this time-lapse video. Although the images are grainy, the Earth's atmosphere clearly refracted sunlight around it and showed a beading effect when some paths were blocked by clouds.

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to space

Only three humans have ever witnessed an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth. It happened while the Apollo 12 crew was returning home from the Moon, on November 21, 1969.

Fortunately, the astronauts filmed the moment so you can share in the experience.

https://archive.org/details/Apollo1216mmOnboardFilm [at the 4:50 mark] #space #science #nasa #eclipse

Footage of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft. Aboard Apollo 12 were astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander; Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot; and Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot. While astronauts Conrad and Bean descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Intrepid" to explore the Ocean of Storms region of the moon, astronaut Gordon remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Yankee Clipper" in lunar orbit. Source: NASA/Johnson Space Center

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to space

NASA has just announced three major lunar science experiments for the Artemis III mission, which will send the first astronauts to the Moon since 1972.

One of the experiments, LEAF, will study how plans sprout and grow on the Moon. A little lunar garden!

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-selects-first-lunar-instruments-for-artemis-astronaut-deployment/ #space #science #nasa #moon #tech