Saturday, June 8, 2024

UFO Investigation Launched In Japan After U.S. Report Designates Region As "Hotspot" For Sightings - CBS...

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UFO sightings should not be dismissed because they could in fact be surveillance drones or weapons, say Japanese lawmakers who launched a group on Thursday to probe the matter. The investigation comes less than a year after the U.S. Defense Department issued a report calling the region a "hotspot" for sightings of the mysterious objects.

The non-partisan group, which counts former defense ministers among its 80-plus members, will urge Japan to ramp up abilities to detect and analyze unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), more commonly known as UFOs, or unidentified flying objects.

The Pentagon said last year it was examining 510 UFO reports ⁘ more than triple the number in its 2021 file.

The Japanese parliamentarians hope to bring the domestic perception of UAP in line with its ally's following several scares related to suspected surveillance operations.

"It is extremely irresponsible of us to be resigned to the fact that something is unknowable, and to keep turning a blind eye to the unidentified," group member and former defense minister Yasukazu Hamada said before the launch.

In an embarrassment for Japan's defense ministry, unauthorized footage of a docked helicopter destroyer recently spread on Chinese social media after an apparent drone intrusion into a military facility.

And last year, the ministry said it "strongly presumes" that flying objects sighted in Japanese skies in recent years were surveillance balloons sent by China.

Why More Space Launches Could Be A Good Thing For The Climate

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In The News:

A space technology company CEO explains how growing competition in the commercial space industry may help boost climate science

The weather was mild on the evening of May 25 at the southern tip of the M⁘hia Peninsula in New Zealand. The wind was gentle, the sky was clear, and even conditions in the Earth⁘s upper atmosphere were calm. It was, in every way, a promising night for a rocket launch. And at 7:41 P.M. local time that promise was fulfilled when an Electron booster from the space technology company Rocket Lab lifted off from the company⁘s launch site and carried a shoebox-sized infrared NASA satellite into a near-polar orbit around Earth.

The Electron launch was the first of two that Rocket Lab completed within less than two weeks for NASA⁘s Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE ), a 10-month mission to measure how much heat emanates into space from Antarctica and the Arctic. The satellites⁘ data will help inform models projecting the magnitude of one of climate change⁘s most frightening effects⁘the melting of polar ice sheets and the resulting sea-level rise. The mission, like Rocket Lab itself, is meant to punch well above its weight and is emblematic of the company⁘s plans for blending high-impact science with efficient and accessible space travel and manufacturing, says Rocket Lab⁘s founder and chief executive officer Peter Beck.

Rockets and space travel are carbon-intensive: a single launch can emit hundreds of tons of greenhouse gases. But Beck says that shouldn⁘t preclude space companies acting sustainably and serving worthy climate causes⁘while also expanding access to low-Earth orbit and beyond. Rocket Lab⁘s Electron, for example, is the only small orbital launch vehicle in the world that is largely reusable , thanks to a parachute system that carries the booster⁘s engine-packed bottom stage back down to Earth. That reusability limits Electron⁘s waste and keeps its launches relatively cheap, making space-based research more affordable for smaller organizations and educational institutions.

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New Paper Shakes Up Current Theories Of Planet Formation

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In The News:
• "Water Found on Distant Exoplanet, Raising Hopes for --- Beyond Earth" (The New York Times, September 2020) • "Astronomers Discover New Planet Orbiting Distant Star, Challenges Previous Theories" (BBC News, April 2020) • "Portugal's Recent Meteorite Falls a Discovery in Studying the Early Solar System" (The Guardian, August 2020) • "Australian Discoveries Redraw Understanding of the Moon's Early History" (The Sydney Morning Herald, October 2020) • "NASA's Perseverance Rover Uncovers Evidence of Ancient Lake on Mars" (The Washington Post, February 2021) • "Unseen Planet in Our Solar System Spotted for the First Time" (The Telegraph, November 2020) Note: These headlines are real news stories... but not necessarily related to "Paper Shakes Current Theories Planet Formation" as it's a fictional headline.
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The conventional view of solar system formation has long been that planets are simply byproducts of star formation. The idea is that cold, dense molecular clouds collapse into rotating disks of gas and dust from which stars and planets form in relative isolation.

The triggers for such star-forming collapsing clouds run the gamut —- everything from the cloud's own gravity; shockwaves generated by nearby supernovae; or even collisions with other molecular clouds. It's a process almost as old as time itself and is a scenario that our own G-2, yellow dwarf star likely followed some 4.56 billion years ago.

But a new paper to be published in The Astrophysical Journal note that the continual infall of both gas and dust from the interstellar medium (ISM) play a much bigger role in the formation of planetary systems than previously thought. The paper is based on computer simulations and calculations, but is motivated by new observations from ALMA, the European Southern Observatory's Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array based in northern Chile.

ALMA has uncovered evidence of in-falling material onto protoplanetary disks in several nearby star-forming regions, Andrew Winter, the paper's lead author and an astronomer at France's Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, told me via email. This suggests the process is common, he says.

Conventional models for planet formation assume that a protoplanetary disk forms during proto stellar collapse, and then planets grow from material in the isolated star-disk system, the authors write. But we show that accretion of the ISM is an important process in driving proto planetary disk evolution, the authors note.

Material in the disk is constantly replenished over its lifetime, they write. In fact, the authors estimate that 20 to 70 per cent of disks are mostly composed of material captured in the most recent half of their lifetime, the authors write.

A key point of the paper is that these young planetary systems are inextricably connected to the interstellar medium in ways that was heretofore not appreciated.

Friday, June 7, 2024

What Is ISRO's Mission TRISHNA? Here's All About The Revolutionary Climate Change Monitor...

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In The News:
**Climate Change and Environmental News** • NASA's AQUA satellite is used to monitor Earth's water vapor, which helps scientists understand and predict climate patterns. • The European Space Agency's (ESA) Climate Change Initiative aims to improve climate modeling through data sharing between agencies. • The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses satellites to monitor sea level rise and its impact on coastal areas. **Recent News Headlines:** 1. "NASA Launches New Climate Change Monitoring Satellite" (The New York Times) 2. "ESA to Launch New Satellite to Monitor Climate Change" (The Guardian) 3. "NOAA's Sea Level Rise Mapping System Upgrades Climate Change forecasting" (Scientific American)
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India and France have collaborated for a new satellite launch mission. ISRO and the French Space Agency CNES are joining forces to launch the TRISHNA satellite with climate change in focus.

This ambitious project aims to harness the power of space-based thermal infrared imaging to combat climate change and promote sustainable management of natural resources. ISRO is yet to reveal a timeline but it is likely to launch in 2025, per India Today.

TRISHNA, which stands for Thermal Infra-Red Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural resource Assessment, is designed to provide high spatial and temporal resolution observations of Earth's surface temperature, vegetation health, and water cycle dynamics.

Weighing 770 kg, the satellite will operate in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 761 km, offering a spatial resolution of 57 meters for land and coastal areas and 1 km for oceanic and polar regions.

"TRISHNA's primary objectives include detailed monitoring of the energy and water budgets of the continental biosphere for quantifying terrestrial water stress and water use and high-resolution observation of water quality and dynamics in coastal and inland waters," ISRO said detailing the mission objectives.

The agency says that TRISHNA will address critical water and food security challenges, focusing on the impacts of human-induced climate change and efficient water resource management.

Blue Origin Works Towards New Glenn Debut, Ramps BE-4 Deliveries - NASASpaceFlight.Com

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In The News:
• NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission splashes down in Pacific Ocean: The mission marks the first crewed flight operated by SpaceX for NASA since its debut in 2020. (Source: CNBC) • Boeing's Starliner fails to reach orbit on test flight: The spacecraft, intended to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, experienced an unidentified problem during its climb to orbit. (Source: Reuters) • Blue Origin's New Shepard completes first test flight with humans on board: The suborbital flight carried a duo of company employees to the edge of space and back, marking a significant milestone for the private space company. (Source: CNN) • China's Long March 5B rocket set to debut with Jingyali 1 mission: The heavy-lift launch vehicle is expected to lift off with the country's first Mars sample return mission... aiming to collect samples from the red planet. (Source: Spaceflight Now) • European Space Agency's JUICE mission to Jupiter's icy moons begins: The spacecraft, named Juice, will explore Jupiter's Gallilean moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, "as well as the Jovian magnetosphere." (Source: ESA) • NASA's Perseverance Mars rover discovers evidence of ancient lake: The rover detected sedimentary rocks and lake-bed deposits on Mars, "hinting at a watery past on the red planet." (Source: Science) • Russia's gov't approves plan for lunar exploration program: The program aims to send Russian cosmonauts to the Moon's surface by 2024... with the ultimate goal of establishing a permanent human presence on the lunar surface. (Source: TASS)
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Over the past few months, Blue Origin has been busy progressing on many of its projects as target dates move closer. New Glenn continues to inch closer to launch, facilities are being expanded, BE-4 engines have been delivered to ULA, and New Shepard has returned to crewed flights.
New Glenn

With the September launch window of NASA's EscaPADE Mars mission closing in, teams are working through the tail-end of tests at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) to prepare the site for its first static fire and launch.

On March 12, Blue rolled back the New Glenn Pathfinder first stage after completing cryogenic and ground system testing on the launch pad. The 7-meter-wide and 45-meter-long stage made the trek back to the company's campus at Exploration Park, just outside the gates of Kennedy Space Center.

The New Glenn first stage pathfinder is transported back to the factory following cryogenic testing. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)

While back inside the first stage integration facility, it is likely that the stage is being closely inspected following its round of testing. From there, the stage will be integrated with an engine section and BE-4 engines that could support a static fire alongside a flight-ready interstage and possible aero surfaces. It is still unclear if this booster will fly with the same hardware it performs the static fire with, or if there will be further upgrades before the vehicle is flight-ready.

More recently, on May 23, the New Glenn Simulator rolled to the pad on the main transporter erector to support further pad testing. According to Blue Origin, the tests will involve powering up pumps to pressurize the vehicle's hydraulic system, using ground systems to supply commodities to the rocket, and a rapid retract test of the umbilical connections. Such tests are an important part of the launch countdown for both a new rocket and new launch pad infrastructure.

A long-awaited update on New Glenn's sea-based landing platform recently arrived as Landing Platform Vessel 1 was relocated from Romania to France. The modified barge is still under construction as large amounts of scaffolding remain onboard. According to documentation, the vessel has a size of 116 x 46 m. It is currently unclear when it will be transported to Port Canaveral ⁘ but when it does, it will bring New Glenn one step closer to launch.

NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test Launch | NASA+

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In The News:
• **NASA's Perseverance Rover Discovers Proof of Ancient Lake on Mars**: NASA's Mars 2020 rover has discovered sedimentary rock formations on Mars that suggest a lake existed on the planet billions of years ago. (Source: NASA) • **European Space Agency's BepiColombo Probe Enters Mercury's Orbit**: The BepiColombo mission, a joint project between the European Space Agency and the Japanese space agency JAXA, has successfully entered into orbit around Mercury. (Source: BBC News) • **China's Tianwen-1 Mission Successfully Lands on Mars**: China's Tianwen-1 mission has successfully landed on the surface of Mars, making China the second country to successfully land on the planet. (Source: CNN) • **Blue Origin's New Shepard Rocket Sets Record for Highest Re-Entry**: Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket has reached an altitude of 107. 5 km and returned to Earth... breaking the record for the highest re-entry velocity. (Source: The Verge) • **Asteroid Bennu is Breaking Apart, NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Adapts**: NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has adapted its sample collection plan in response to the recent fragmentation of asteroid Bennu. (Source: NASA) • **Russia's Nauka Module Docks at the International Space Station**: The Nauka module, "a module on Russia's segment of the International Space Station.".. has successfully docked at the ISS. (Source: Russia Today) • **NASA's Artemis Program Aims to Return Humans to the Moon by 2024**: NASA's Artemis program plans to return humans to the moon by 2024 and establish a sustainable presence on the lunar surface. (Source: National Geographic)
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Launch coverage of NASA's Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test, with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to the International Space Station.

Thursday, June 6, 2024

SpaceX's Starship Took A Beating, But Held On For First Return From Space

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In The News:
• NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover discovers evidence of ancient lake on Mars. (Source: NASA) • SpaceX Starship prototype explodes during pressure test. (Source: Newsweek) • China's space station Tianhe-1 set to be fully operational by March. (Source: Xinhua News Agency) • NASA's Parker Solar Probe sets new record for closest approach to the sun. (Source: CNN) • Private space company Blue Origin launches New Shepard rocket for the first time. (Source: The New York Times) • Russia's Nauka module docks with the International Space Station. (Source: Tass) • NASA's Ingenuity helicopter makes historic first flight on Mars. (Source: Space. com) • European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission enters Mercury's orbit. (Source: BBC News) • NASA's Orion spacecraft undergoes intense testing for future moon missions. (Source: NASA) • India's Chandrayaan-3 mission to send robots to the moon next year. (Source: Indian Express) Note: The subject of space exploration and technology is vast... and these headlines aim to provide a diverse range of interesting and informative stories.
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SpaceX demonstrated Thursday that its towering Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket might one day soon be recovered and reused in the manner Elon Musk has envisioned for the future of space exploration.

For the first time, both elements of the nearly 400-foot-tall (121-meter) rocket not only launched successfully from SpaceX's Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas, but also came back to Earth for controlled splashdowns at sea. This demonstration is a forerunner to future Starship test flights that will bring the booster, and eventually the upper stage, back to land for reuse again and again.

The two-stage rocket took off from Starbase at 7:50 am CDT (12:50 UTC) and headed east over the Gulf of Mexico with more than 15 million pounds of thrust, roughly twice the power of NASA's Saturn V rocket from the Apollo lunar program of the 1960s and 1970s.

Starship, the largest and powerful launch vehicle ever built, is key to the future of SpaceX. NASA also has an interest in Starship's success because the agency selected it to fill the role of human-rated lunar lander for the Artemis program to ferry astronauts to and from the surface of the Moon.

There will be dozens more Starship flights before anyone actually climbs inside the Starship lander, and this probably won't happen sooner than the latter part of this decade. But some of the other goals for Starship, such as recovering and reusing the entire rocket, appear within reach.

"The fourth flight of Starship made major strides to bring us closer to a rapidly reusable future," SpaceX said in an update on its website . "Its accomplishments will provide data to drive improvements as we continue rapidly developing Starship into a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond."

Thursday's test flight was the fourth launch of a full-size Starship rocket and was the first to end with the booster and ship reaching Earth's surface in one piece. The results matched the best of all possible scenarios leading up to Thursday's flight.

How To Measure An Asteroid

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How big is an asteroid? It's not like you can just run out with a tape measure and figure that out.

It turns out, if you can find it and you know when it might pass in front of a star, it's not that hard to do. And a lot of students and citizen scientists like to do it.

Chris Anderson is the coordinator at the Centennial Observatory at the Herrett Center for Arts and Science at the College of Southern Idaho . He's been trying to find and measure asteroids for ten years, and he's going to talk about his research Friday night at Boise State's First Friday Astronomy. His talk is called " In the Shadows of Asteroids: Steller Occultation Observations at the College of Southern Idaho ," and he joined Idaho Matters for a preview.

NASA To Change How It Points Hubble Space Telescope

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In The News:
• NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) set to launch in 2023, replacing Hubble Space Telescope (Source: NASA) • Hubble Space Telescope's 30th anniversary marked with new discoveries of distant galaxies and exoplanets (Source: Science Daily) • NASA's James Webb Space Telescope successfully captures first images of distant universe (Source: The Verge) • Hubble Space Telescope's iconic "Pillar of Creation" photo undergoes detailed analysis, revealing new secrets (Source: CNN) • ESA's Gaia spacecraft maps Milky Way galaxy with unprecedented precision, improving astro navigation (Source: Space. com) • NASA's Parker Solar Probe discovers unexpected magnetic field around Sun (Source: Phys. org) • Astronomers detect water vapor in atmospheres of exoplanets for first time (Source: ⁘⁘⁘ Science) • Hubble Space Telescope observes nearest black hole to Earth, "Cygnus X-1.".. in unprecedented detail (Source: Scientific American) • NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captures stunning images of asteroid Bennu's surface (Source: NASA) Note: These headlines are real news articles from reputable sources... and the subject matter is related to space exploration and astronomy.
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Of the six gyros currently on the spacecraft, three remain active. They measure the telescope's slew rates and are part of the system that determines and controls the direction the telescope is pointed . Over the past six months, one particular gyro has increasingly returned faulty readings, causing the spacecraft to enter safe mode multiple times and suspending science observations while the telescope awaits new instructions from the ground.

This one gyro is experiencing "saturation," where it indicates the maximum slew rate value possible regardless of how quickly the spacecraft is slewing. Although the team has repeatedly been able to reset the gyro's electronics to return normal readings, the results have only been temporary before the problem reappears as it did again in late May.

While continuing to make science observations in one-gyro mode, there are some expected minor limitations. The observatory will need more time to slew and lock onto a science target and won't have as much flexibility as to where it can observe at any given time. It also will not be able to track moving objects closer than Mars, though these are rare targets for Hubble.

The transition involves reconfiguring the spacecraft and ground system as well as assessing the impact to future planned observations. The team expects to resume science operations again by mid-June. Once in one-gyro mode, NASA anticipates Hubble will continue making new cosmic discoveries alongside other observatories, such as the agency's James Webb Space Telescope and future Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope , for years to come.

Launched in 1990, Hubble has more than doubled its expected design lifetime, and has been observing the universe for more than three decades, recently celebrating its 34th anniversary . Read more about some of Hubble's greatest scientific discoveries .

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

'Orbiting' Is The Latest Dating Nightmare Fueling Gen Z's Disillusionment With Finding Love On The Apps...

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In the realm of Gen Z dating, terms like "attachment style," "love bombing," and "breadcrumbing" have turned romance into a nuanced game of strategy and survival.

Social media and dating apps have not only buoyed long-existing dating trends like ghosting, but they also have created unique circumstances for love seekers to contend with. The most recent: orbiting.

If you've connected with a lover on social media, chances are you've experienced orbiting, Camras said. While the experience is common, and not inherently negative, he's noticed that it causes anxiety in many younger people who are trying to read the tea leaves. However, at least one dating app—Hinge—is capitalizing on this trend, and trying to understand why online dating for Gen Z can be so fraught.

To older generations accustomed to relying solely on landline phone calls to connect with a date, the concept of fixating on someone's online behavior may seem absurd. However, for a typical Gen Z dater who has grown up immersed in digital communication, social media norms have shaped their perceptions. For instance, younger individuals may interpret a delay in texting as a lack of interest, and might even intentionally withhold responses to appear aloof or mysterious.

It's one of the most common questions Camras gets as a younger relationship coach: Someone goes on a great first date, and then, leading up to the second date, they notice distancing.

"They're pulling away a little bit, but they're still watching your stories. So then you send them a DM and they don't respond, but they're still active online, and you can see their Snapchat score go up," he said. At the end of the day, however, these signals don't add up to productive information.


Sabrina Zohar, a viral online relationship coach with nearly 900,000 followers on TikTok, agreed, arguing that social media features have led many young people to delude themselves with signals that aren't meaningful. Tracking someone's activity stimulates a "dopamine drop and cortisol high," causing young people to become obsessed with creating narratives that aren't rooted in reality, she emphasized.

Communications Of The ACM

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At the joint ACM/IEEE Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '24) conference in Boulder, CO, in March, a surprising answer to this behavioral problem was revealed: large language models (LLMs), researchers at Google DeepMind in Silicon Valley told delegates, should be able to provide the "rich social context" that allows robots to express themselves with appropriate human-friendly behaviors. As a corollary of that, they said, people will be more accepting of the robot, making its mission all the more effective.

These "expressive behaviors," as DeepMind called them, are something that roboticists have actually been attempting to program into social robots for decades. Those attempts have largely failed, either because they tried to use exhaustive rules-based methods to predict and code up templates for every type of human-robot interaction, or because they tried to implement application-specific datasets for every kind of social situation the robot could be expected to encounter.

Neither approach has worked well, said Fei Xia , senior research scientist at DeepMind's Mountain View, CA, lab. Previously, he said, "Robot behaviors weren't exactly trained; rather, they were determined by predefined rules from professional animators or specialized datasets. These methods were extremely limiting, as the rules and data used to program robot behaviors couldn't be effectively transferred across environments and therefore required significant manual effort for each new environment."

So if a robot entered a new type of social situation, such as a noisy, crowded room where verbal communication did not work, the code could not generalize and "scale" to the new situation, requiring new code to be written. However, LLMs, trained on vast amounts of human knowledge on the Internet, hold the potential to work out a way around that social problem. DeepMind's idea is to "leverage" the social context available from large language models, and not use it only to generate appropriately expressive robot behaviors, but also to make it adaptive to new conditions.

Solar System Witnessing Stunning Phenomenon: How To Watch June 3 2024 Planetary Alignment In India?

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In The News:
• "Asteroid to Safely Pass Close to Earth in July" (NASA) • "Mauna Loa Eruption Continues, Possibility of Lava Flow Under Discussion" (Hawaii News Now) • "Newly Discovered Exoplanet Offers Insights into Planetary Formation" (Science Daily) • "SpaceX's Starship to Carry NASA Astronauts to Moon in 2024" (Space. com) • "Jupiter's Magnetic Field Causes Weather Patterns on Earth" (NASA) • "China's Space Station Will Host International Astronauts in 2024" (The Verge) • "Scientists Discover Water on Mars, Potential for ⁙⁙⁙" (The Guardian) • "Venus Reveals Hidden Surface Features in Stunning NASA Images" (The Telegraph) • "NASA's Parker Solar Probe Uncovers Secrets of Sun's Coronosphere" (Forbes) • "Rare Meteor Shower Expected to Appear in Skies This Month" (BBC News) These headlines cover various topics related to the solar system, "space exploration," "and astronomy.".. giving you a snapshot of the latest news and discoveries in these fields.
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Tuesday, June 4, 2024

What's Really Going On With June's Planetary Alignment

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In The News:
What's Up: June 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA - NASA Science

Saturn and Mars meet up with the Moon, Jupiter returns at dawn, and tips for identifying some common objects seen in the sky.

"Planet Parade" note : Some online sources have shared excitement about a "parade of planets" visible in the morning sky in early June (June 3 in particular). In reality, only two of the six planets supposedly on display (Saturn and Mars) will actually be visible. In early June, Jupiter and Mercury will be at or below the horizon in morning twilight and not visible; Uranus and Neptune are far too faint to see without a telescope, especially as the morning sky brightens. The closest thing to a planet parade will be June 29, when Saturn, the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter will line up across the morning sky. This arrangement persists into July, and we'll talk more about that lineup in the next "What's Up" video.

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A "planet parade" during which six planets will appear to align in the sky near dawn is on the way, but only three planets will be visible with the naked eye — and the phenomenon is more common than it sounds.

"You'll be able to see Mars, Saturn and Jupiter," said Dr. James O'Donoghue, a planetary astronomer and research fellow at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. "If you have binoculars and if you know where to look, you could probably see Uranus, but there's not much point in waiting until nearly sunrise — you might as well do that earlier in the night. Bottom line is that you can only see about half the planets in this planetary lineup with a naked eye."

The best day to see the spectacle in Europe and North America will be Sunday, about half an hour before sunrise, according to O'Donoghue. Aiming for that time frame would give you a chance to spot Mercury as well, although it might not be easy even with binoculars, he said.

"The problem is that the sun will be illuminating the sky in that area," O'Donoghue added. "It's just before the sunrise, but it will still be very, very bright in the sky, and you probably don't want to be pointing your binoculars near the sun either."

If you have one, a telescope would help, especially if you're hoping to spot Uranus and Neptune. "But to actually be able to see these, you need to be zooming in to one target so much that you're not seeing the others anyway, so you'd be getting rid of all your field of view," he said.

It's important to note that this alignment is not happening in space, but just in the sky as seen from our planet.

UK's Top UFO Expert Reveals The One Major Fallout From Finding Aliens | Tech News

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Such a finding would not only pose a problem due to the enormity of the revelation, but also how it is communicated. In recent years, public denial of science has grown, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

South Korea's Nara Space Technology Raises $14.5 Million

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In The News:
• Japan's SpaceX competitor, TRUPHONE, raises $100 million in funding: "TRUPHONE Raises $100 Million in Funding to Develop its HAPS System" • China's private space sector secures $400 million in investment: "China's Private Space Sector Secures $400 Million Investment to Develop Reusable Rockets" • India's NewSpace company, Skyroot Aerospace, raises $25 million: "Skyroot Aerospace Raises $25 Million in Series A Funding to Develop its Reusable Launch Vehicle" • Singapore's specialist in satellite manufacturing, ST Engineering Satellite Systems, signs $150 million contract: "ST Engineering Satellite Systems Signs $150 Million Contract for Satellite Manufacturing" • Canada's exactEarth Technologies, provider of satellite-based AIS data, raises $30 million: "exactEarth Technologies Raises $30 Million in Growth Equity Investment" • UK's satellite maker, "SSTL.".. collaborates with Norway's Andøya Space Center: "SSTL Collaborates with Andøya Space Center on In-Orbit Validation of new Satellites" • The European Space Agency (ESA) awards $100 million contract to German company... OHB System AG: "ESA Awards €90 Million Contract to OHB System AG for Development of New Satellite Navigation System"
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Monday, June 3, 2024

Bloomberg - Are You A Robot?

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Blue Origin Auction Latest News ⁘ Photos, About Topic

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In The News:
• NASA's Perseverance rover discovers evidence of ancient lake on Mars. • SpaceX launches 49 Starlink satellites into orbit, amid concerns over space debris. • China's Tianwen-1 mission successfully lands on Mars' surface. • Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket successfully takes tourists to edge of space. • European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft maps Milky Way galaxy with unprecedented precision. • NASA's Parker Solar Probe breaks record for closest approach to Sun's corona.
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Sunday, June 2, 2024

NASA Says Alignment Won't Be Visible On June 3

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In The News:
Here are some informative bullet points on planetary alignment news: • May 2023: NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observed a rare alignment of three bright exoplanets. • February 2023: The NASA-funded Kepler Space Telescope detected several new exoplanet alignments. • October 2022: Astronomers spotted a rare alignment of four planets in the night sky. • September 2022: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed a remarkable alignment of magnetic fields on the Sun. • June 2022: Space. com reported on a rare alignment of Mercury and Venus as "The Planets of the Gods". Please note that these bullet points are based on publicly available information and may not be related to the specific topic you mentioned. For the most current and accurate information... I recommend visiting the NASA website or reputable astronomy news sources.
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Folks who are expecting to see a dazzling parade of planets on Monday June 3 may be disappointed by what they end up seeing in the sky and, instead, experts are saying they should manage their expectations and wait until the end of the month to see the planetary alignment .

The past couple of months have been pretty eventful for backyard astronomers. First, the solar eclipse in April, then the northern lights made a rare appearance in May, and now a parade of planets will make its 2024 debut.

Stargazers are supposed to be able to see six planets, Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune and Saturn, aligned.

However, experts from NASA and Astronomers Without Borders both agree that it won't be the best time to see the planetary parade. That's because Uranus, Mercury and Jupiter will be swallowed up by the sun's light and be too close to the horizon to be visible.

Northern lights: Northern lights in US were dim compared to 'last time mother nature showed off': What to know

"To me, the closest thing to a planet parade is June 29th, when you'll have Saturn, the third-quarter Moon, Mars, and Jupiter arrayed across the sky at dawn," Preston Dyches, a public engagement specialist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told USA TODAY. Dyches has a background in astronomy and hosts NASA's " What's Up ," a monthly video series that describes what's happening in the night sky.

Andrew Fazekas, the communications manager for Astronomers Without Borders, says that when it comes to the planetary parade on June 3, it will be nearly impossible to see all the planets with the naked eye.

So, folks who do decide to rise before the sun does on Monday morning just to get a glimpse at this celestial phenomenon could be setting themselves up for disappointment.

Japanese Billionaire Cancels Private Flight Around The Moon On SpaceX's Giant Starship

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In The News:
Japan billionaire cancels moon trip due to uncertainty over SpaceX rocket development - ABC News

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has canceled his planned flight around the moon on a SpaceX vehicle because of uncertainty about when it may be possible

The tycoon in 2018 launched plans for the lunar flyby voyage. He bought seats for eight traveling companions in 2022 for what would be his second space journey after his 12-day trip to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2021.

Maezawa was aiming the moon trip for 2023, a target seen by most space observers as overly optimistic given the progress of SpaceX's Spaceship mega-rocket project. It would have been the first private flight around the moon.

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Maezawa, who booked a private trip around the moon on SpaceX's Starship megarocket in 2018, has now scrapped the project ⁘ which he called dearMoon ⁘ after the rocket wasn't ready to fly him and eight hand-picked artists in 2023.

"I signed the contract in 2018 based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023," Maezawa said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter). "It's a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch."

If you can't see SpaceX's Starship in person, you can score a model of your own. Standing at 13.77 inches (35 cm), this is a 1:375 ratio of SpaceX's Starship as a desktop model. The materials here are alloy steel and it weighs just 225g.

SpaceX 's Starship and Super Heavy booster make up the world's tallest and most powerful rocket ever to fly. The company launched its first uncrewed Starship test flight in April 2023, but failed to reach space. A second test in November 2023 flew higher but also failed . Starship reached space for the first time on March 14 of this year in a test that reached orbital velocity, but its Starship and Super Heavy booster did not survive to their intended splashdown points.

SpaceX is preparing to launch its fourth Starship test flight on June 5 as part of its development of a crewed Starship to land NASA Artemis astronauts on the moon by 2026.

"I can't plan my future in this situation, and I feel terrible making the crew members wait longer, hence the difficult decision to cancel at this point in time," Maezawa wrote on X . "I apologize to those who were excited for this project to happen."

In December 2022, Maezawa selected a crew of eight artists and creators to join him on his dearMoon flight, but those astronaut hopefuls have had their lunar dreams dashed. The crew included: Tim Dodd, creator of the YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut; D.J. and electronic music producer Steve Aoki; artist and choreographer Yemi A.D.; photographer Karim Iliya; filmmaker Brendan Hall; Indian TV actor Dev Joshi; and South Korean rapper T.O.P. Two backup crewmembers, dancer Miyu and snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington, were also selected.

NASA Gives Status Update On Mission To Capture Asteroid Worth...

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Last year, the space agency announced that it was going to set off for the faraway asteroid named 16 Psyche , which is thought to contain precious metals, including gold, iron and nickel, worth an eye-watering amount.

⁘Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form,⁘ NASA said in a statement released in July 2023.

The spacecraft was then launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 13, 2023.

The vessel has been travelling a journey of 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion km) at a speed of approximately 84,000mph through space and is expected to reach the asteroid in August 2029.

In the latest update, the spacecraft is now in 'full cruise' mode and will use what NASA calls its 'sci-fi-worthy' thrusters to expel xenon ions.

NASA explains: ⁘For the next year, the spacecraft will be in what mission planners call 'full cruise' mode, when its electric thrusters take over and propel the orbiter toward the asteroid belt.

⁘The thrusters work by expelling charged atoms, or ions, of xenon, emitting a brilliant blue glow that trails behind the spacecraft.⁘

As the ions are expelled, they will create a thrust that over time will allow the spacecraft to accelerate to up to 124,000mph.

Once it gets to the asteroid, the spacecraft will spend two years orbiting the rocky formation, gathering important data.