“...all the past is but a beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of dawn.”

— H.G. Wells
1902

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First-Ever Magnetic Map of Milky Way’s Black Hole Reveals a Mystery

Scientific American.com - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 12:00pm

Polarized light from Sagittarius A*, our galaxy’s supermassive black hole, shows swirling magnetic fields that may hint at the presence of an unseen jet

Categories: Astronomy

How mastering the art of being alone can boost your mental health

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 12:00pm
We are finally getting to grips with why solitude is so important. Here's how to use your alone time to get the biggest boost to your health and relationships
Categories: Astronomy

Integral spots giant explosions feeding neutron star jets 

ESO Top News - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 12:00pm

ESA’s gamma-ray space telescope Integral has played a decisive role in capturing jets of matter being expelled into space at one-third the speed of light. The material and energy were liberated when huge explosions occurred on the surface of a neutron star. This world-first observation proved to be 'a perfect experiment' for exploring astrophysical jets of all descriptions.

Categories: Astronomy

How mastering the art of being alone can boost your mental health

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 12:00pm
We are finally getting to grips with why solitude is so important. Here's how to use your alone time to get the biggest boost to your health and relationships
Categories: Astronomy

Climate change and polar ice melting could be impacting the length of Earth's day

Space.com - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 12:00pm
Humanity's activities and climate change are impacting the polar ice sheets, causing excessive melting, and this is slowing Earth's rotation, challenging official timekeeping standards.
Categories: Astronomy

NASA’s Europa Clipper Survives and Thrives in ‘Outer Space’ on Earth

NASA - Breaking News - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:59am

5 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Europa Clipper is seen in the 25-Foot Space Simulator at JPL in February, before the start of thermal vacuum testing. A battery of tests ensures that the NASA spacecraft can withstand the extreme hot, cold, and airless environment of space. NASA/JPL-Caltech

A gantlet of tests prepared the spacecraft for its challenging trip to the Jupiter system, where it will explore the icy moon Europa and its subsurface ocean.

In less than six months, NASA is set to launch Europa Clipper on a 1.6-billion-mile (2.6-billion-kilometer) voyage to Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa. From the wild vibrations of the rocket ride to the intense heat and cold of space to the punishing radiation of Jupiter, it will be a journey of extremes. The spacecraft was recently put through a series of hard-core tests at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to ensure it’s up to the challenge.

Called environmental testing, the battery of trials simulates the environment that the spacecraft will face, subjecting it to shaking, chilling, airlessness, electromagnetic fields, and more.

NASA’s Europa Clipper is seen being lifted into the Space Simulator at JPL in February. Thermal vacuum testing, which lasted 16 days, ensures that the spacecraft will withstand the harsh conditions of space. NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Europa Clipper is visible in the clean room of High Bay 1 within JPL’s Spacecraft Assembly Facility in January. The tent around the spacecraft was erected to support electromagnetic testing, which was part of a regimen of environmental tests. NASA/JPL-Caltech

“These were the last big tests to find any flaws,” said JPL’s Jordan Evans, the mission’s project manager. “Our engineers executed a well-designed and challenging set of tests that put the system through its paces. What we found is that the spacecraft can handle the environments that it will see during and after launch. The system performed very well and operates as expected.”

The Gantlet

The most recent environmental test for Europa Clipper was also one of the most elaborate, requiring 16 days to complete. The spacecraft is the largest NASA has ever built for a planetary mission and one of the largest ever to squeeze into JPL’s historic 85-foot-tall, 25-foot-wide (26-meter-by-8-meter) thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC). Known as the 25-foot Space Simulator, the chamber creates a near-perfect vacuum inside to mimic the airless environment of space.

At the same time, engineers subjected the hardware to the high temperatures it will experience on the side of Europa Clipper that faces the Sun while the spacecraft is close to Earth. Beams from powerful lamps at the base of the Space Simulator bounced off a massive mirror at its top to mimic the heat the spacecraft will endure.

To simulate the journey away from the Sun, the lamps were dimmed and liquid nitrogen filled tubes in the chamber walls to chill them to temperatures replicating space. The team then gauged whether the spacecraft could warm itself, monitoring it with about 500 temperature sensors, each of which had been attached by hand.

Watch as engineers and technicians move NASA’s Europa Clipper into the thermal vacuum chamber at JPL in February 2024.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

TVAC marked the culmination of environmental testing, which included a regimen of tests to ensure the electrical and magnetic components that make up the spacecraft don’t interfere with one another.

The orbiter also underwent vibration, shock, and acoustics testing. During vibration testing, the spacecraft was shaken repeatedly – up and down and side to side – the same way it will be jostled aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket during liftoff. Shock testing involved pyrotechnics to mimic the explosive jolt the spacecraft will get when it separates from the rocket to fly its mission. Finally, acoustic testing ensured that Europa Clipper can withstand the noise of launch, when the rumbling of the rocket is so loud it can damage the spacecraft if it’s not sturdy enough.

“There still is work to be done, but we’re on track for an on-time launch,” Evans said. “And the fact that this testing was so successful is a huge positive and helps us rest more easily.”

Looking to Launch

Later this spring, the spacecraft will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There, teams of engineers and technicians will carry out final preparations with eyes on the clock. Europa Clipper’s launch period opens Oct. 10.

After liftoff, the spacecraft will zip toward Mars, and in late February 2025, it will be close enough to use the Red Planet’s gravitational force for added momentum. From there, the solar-powered spacecraft will swing back toward Earth to get another slingshot boost – from our own planet’s gravitational field – in December 2026.

Then it’s on to the outer solar system, where Europa Clipper is set to arrive at Jupiter in 2030. The spacecraft will orbit the gas giant while it flies by Europa 49 times, dipping as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) from the moon’s surface to gather data with its powerful suite of science instruments. The information gathered will tell scientists more about the moon’s watery interior.

More About the Mission

Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

Find more information about Europa here:

europa.nasa.gov

News Media Contacts

Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-6215
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Charles Blue
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-802-5345
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / charles.e.blue@nasa.gov

2024-032

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Sending “Water” to Europa

NASA - Breaking News - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:57am
NASA/JPL-Caltech

This image from March 8, 2024, shows waveforms of the word “water” in 103 languages etched onto a triangular metal plate. The plate will be attached to the Europa Clipper spacecraft, set to fly to one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, after it launches in October 2024.

The waveforms radiate out from a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for “water.” The other side of the plate is engraved with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten poem “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa” and will be affixed with a silicon microchip stenciled with more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public through NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign.

Read more about this plate and its connection to Voyager’s Golden Record.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Categories: NASA

Sending “Water” to Europa

NASA Image of the Day - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:57am
NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a special message when it launches in October 2024 and heads toward Jupiter's moon Europa. The moon shows strong evidence of an ocean under its icy crust, with more than twice the amount of water of all of Earth's oceans combined. A triangular metal plate, seen here, will honor that connection to Earth. The plate is made of tantalum metal and is about 7 by 11 inches (18 by 28 centimeters). It is engraved on both sides and seals an opening in the electronics vault, which houses the spacecraft's sensitive electronics. The art on this side of the plate features waveforms that are visual representations of the sound waves formed by the word "water" in 103 languages. The waveforms radiate out from a symbol representing the American Sign Language sign for "water."
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

NASA Data Shows How Drought Changes Wildfire Recovery in the West

NASA - Breaking News - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:49am

4 min read

NASA Data Shows How Drought Changes Wildfire Recovery in the West California’s 2017 Thomas Fire (shown) was included in a new analysis of more than 1,500 wildland fires teasing out how drought and fire combine to affect western U.S. lands.USDA Forest Service/ Stuart Palley

A new study using NASA satellite data reveals how drought affects the recovery of western ecosystems from fire, a result that could provide meaningful information for conservation efforts.

The West has been witnessing a trend of increasing number and intensity of wildland fires. Historically a natural part of the region’s ecology, fires have been exacerbated by climate change—including more frequent and intense droughts—and past efforts to suppress fires, which can lead to the accumulation of combustible material like fallen branches and leaves. But quantifying how fire and drought jointly affect ecosystems has proven difficult.

In the new study, researchers analyzed over 1,500 fires from 2014 to 2020 across the West, and also gathered data on drought conditions dating back to 1984. They found that droughts make it harder for grasslands and shrublands, such as those in Nevada and Utah, to recover after fires—even the less severe blazes. Forests, if not burned too badly, rebound better than grasslands and shrublands because some forest roots can tap into water deeper in the ground. The team reported its findings in the February 2024 issue of Nature Ecology & Environment.

“Many of the West’s grasslands experience low-severity fires,” said Shahryar Ahmad, lead author of the study and a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This study shows that even those blazes can trigger a slow recovery in these ecosystems if accompanied by a preceding drought.”

If ecosystems don’t have enough time to bounce back before another drought or fire, that could lead to permanent changes in the types of plants growing there. That, in turn, can increase the risk of soil erosion and landslides, and alter the usual patterns of water running off into streams and lakes.

“Once a fire is contained, that’s when the remediation efforts happen,” said Everett Hinkley, the national remote sensing program manager for the U.S. Forest Service, who wasn’t involved in the new research. “Understanding how a particular ecosystem and land cover type is going to respond after the fire informs what actions you need to take to restore the landscape.”

Without such restoration, changes in land cover can cascade to potentially affect agriculture, tourism, and other community livelihoods. To track the recovery of the different ecosystems, the researchers examined changes in evapotranspiration (ET)—the transfer of water to the atmosphere through evaporation from soil and open water and transpiration from plants—before and after the fires. Monitoring evapotranspiration helped the team identify whether different ecosystems, such as forests and grasslands, completely recovered after a fire, or if the recovery was delayed or disrupted.

That evapotranspiration data came from OpenET, a tool that calculates evapotranspiration at the scale of a quarter-acre across the western United States. It does so using models that harness publicly available data from the Landsat program, a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, along with other NASA and NOAA satellites.

“This study highlights the dominant control of drought on altering resilience of vegetation to fires in the West,” said Erin Urquhart, the water resources program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With ongoing climate change, it is imperative that land managers, policymakers, and communities work together, informed by such research, to adapt to these changes, mitigating risks and ensuring the sustainable use of water and other natural resources.”

The research also showed that forests, grasslands, and shrublands all struggle to recover from droughts that occur close in time with high-severity fires, which are becoming more common in the West. That can lead to potentially lasting changes not only in the plant communities but also in local and regional water dynamics.

Severe fires damage plants to such an extent that evapotranspiration is greatly reduced in the following years, the researchers found. So instead of evaporating into the atmosphere, more water sinks into the ground as recharge or becomes runoff.

Using a subset of nearly 800 fires from 2016 to 2018, the researchers calculated that across all the ecoregions in the study, an average of about 528 billion gallons (two cubic kilometers) of water was diverted as runoff or recharge during the first year after a fire. That’s equivalent to North Dakota’s annual water demand, or one quarter of Shasta Lake, California’s largest humanmade lake.

When more water becomes runoff, it means less could be available for ecosystem recovery or agriculture. As Earth’s climate continues to warm, understanding these shifts is crucial for developing strategies to manage water resources more effectively and ensure water security for future generations.

By: Emily DeMarco, NASA Earth Science Division

Share Details Last Updated Mar 27, 2024 EditorEmily DeMarcoContactEmily DeMarcoemily.p.demarco@nasa.gov Related Terms Explore More 5 min read Early Adopters of NASA’s PACE Data to Study Air Quality, Ocean Health Article 2 days ago 4 min read NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement Mission: 10 years, 10 stories Article 4 weeks ago 5 min read OpenET Study Helps Water Managers and Farmers Put NASA Data to Work Article 2 months ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics

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'Constellation' season 1 episode 8 review: This isn't the conclusion you're looking for

Space.com - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:30am
The final season 1 episode of "Constellation" lacks satisfying answers and instead doubles down on shock value without clear goals.
Categories: Astronomy

Baltimore Bridge Collapse Wreaks Havoc on Coal, Car Supply Chains

Scientific American.com - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:30am

The sudden destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge at the Port of Baltimore has implications for some of the largest U.S. energy industries

Categories: Astronomy

Cosmic gold rush! Astronomers find 49 new galaxies in just 3 hours

Space.com - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:00am
Using the MeerKat radio telescope, astronomers discovered a "gold rush" of galaxies in just three hours, including three joined by their gas content.
Categories: Astronomy

Implantable battery is charged up by the body's oxygen supply

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:00am
Many medical implants run on batteries that need to be recharged, but what if you could do so just by breathing?
Categories: Astronomy

Implantable battery is charged up by the body's oxygen supply

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:00am
Many medical implants run on batteries that need to be recharged, but what if you could do so just by breathing?
Categories: Astronomy

Eclipse 2024: When is it and where can I see it?

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:00am
North America will have a total solar eclipse on 8 April – here is where, when and how to view it safely
Categories: Astronomy

Eclipse 2024: When is it and where can I see it?

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:00am
North America will have a total solar eclipse on 8 April – here is where, when and how to view it safely
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Why Do Colors Change during a Solar Eclipse?

Scientific American.com - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 11:00am

When the moon fully eclipses the sun, it’s not just the sky that changes. Your eyes do, too

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What Will We See in the Sky During Totality?

Sky & Telescope Magazine - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 10:58am

Most of our time will be focused on Sun during the minutes of totality on April 8th, but consider tearing yourself away for a few seconds to put it all in context.

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Categories: Astronomy

I toured NASA's Mission Control ahead of Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut flight. Here's what it was like (exclusive)

Space.com - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 10:00am
Reporters toured NASA's Johnson Space Center last week, getting a look at the rooms from which the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner will be controlled. And we got to watch a SpaceX launch, too.
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ESA, NASA Solar Observatory Discovers Its 5,000th Comet

NASA - Breaking News - Wed, 03/27/2024 - 10:00am

4 min read

ESA, NASA Solar Observatory Discovers Its 5,000th Comet

On March 25, 2024, a citizen scientist in the Czech Republic spotted a comet in an image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which has now been confirmed to be the 5,000th comet discovered using SOHO data. SOHO has achieved this milestone over 28 years in space, even though it was never designed to be a comet hunter.

The 5,000th comet discovered with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft is noted by a small white box in the upper left portion of this image. A zoomed-in inset shows the comet as a faint dot between the white vertical lines. The image was taken on March 25, 2024, by SOHO’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO), which uses a disk to block the bright Sun and reveal faint features around it.NASA/ESA/SOHO

The comet is a small body made of ice and rock that takes only a few years to orbit the Sun. It belongs to the “Marsden group” of comets. This group is thought to be related to comet 96P/Machholz (which SOHO observes when Machholz passes near the Sun every 5.3 years) and is named for the late scientist Brian Marsden who first recognized the group using SOHO observations. Only about 75 of the 5,000 comets discovered with SOHO belong to the Marsden group.

A joint mission of ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA, SOHO launched in December 1995 to study the Sun and the dynamics in its outer atmosphere, called the corona. A science instrument on SOHO, called the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO), uses an artificial disk to block the blinding light of the Sun so scientists can study the corona and environment immediately around the Sun.

This also allows SOHO to do something many other spacecraft cannot – see comets flying close to the Sun, known as “sungrazing” comets or “sungrazers.” Many of these comets only brighten when they’re too close to the Sun for other observatories to see and would otherwise go undetected, lost in the bright glare of our star. While scientists expected SOHO to serendipitously find some comets during its mission, the spacecraft’s ability to spot them has made it the most prolific comet-finder in history – discovering more than half of the comets known today.

In fact, soon after SOHO launched, people around the world began spotting so many comets in its images that mission scientists needed a way to keep track of them all. In the early 2000s, they launched the NASA-funded Sungrazer Project that allows anyone to report comets they find in SOHO images.

This animation shows the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory’s 5,000th comet (circled) moving across the field relative to background stars. The images in this sequence were taken with the spacecraft’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument.NASA/ESA/SOHO

SOHO’s 5,000th comet was found by Hanjie Tan, a Sungrazer Project participant who is originally from Guangzhou, China, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in astronomy in Prague, Czech Republic. Tan has been participating in the Sungrazer Project since he was 13 years old and is one of the project’s youngest comet discoverers.

“Since 2009, I’ve discovered over 200 comets,” Tan said. “I got into the Sungrazer Project because I love looking for comets. It’s really exciting to be the first to see comets get bright near the Sun after they’ve been traveling through space for thousands of years.”

Most of the 5,000 comets discovered using SOHO have been found with the help of an international cadre of volunteer comet hunters – many with no formal scientific training – participating in the Sungrazer Project.

“Prior to the launch of the SOHO mission and the Sungrazer Project, there were only a couple dozen sungrazing comets on record – that’s all we knew existed,” said Karl Battams, a space scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., and the principal investigator for the Sungrazer Project. “The fact that we’ve finally reached this milestone – 5,000 comets – is just unbelievable to me.”

SOHO’s 5,000th comet was discovered with the help of volunteers participating in the NASA-funded Sungrazer Project.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The vast number of comets discovered using SOHO has allowed scientists to learn more about sungrazing comets and groups of comets that orbit the Sun. Comets discovered by the Sungrazer Project have also helped scientists learn more about the Sun, by watching the comets plunge through our star’s atmosphere like small solar probes.

“The statistics of 5,000 comets, and looking at their orbits and trajectories through space, is a super unique dataset – it’s really valuable science,” Battams said. “It’s a testament to the countless hours the project participants have put into this. We absolutely would never had reached this milestone if it wasn’t for what the project volunteers have done.”

The Sungrazer Project is one of many opportunities that anyone can get involved with to help make discoveries with NASA during the Heliophysics Big Year, which extends through the end of 2024. Learn more about SOHO, the Sungrazer Project, and other NASA science projects you can participate in:

by Vanessa Thomas
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Categories: NASA