Saturday, August 17, 2024

The Sun Is NOT The Center Of The Solar System

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Headlines:

* *Global Economic Crisis Looms

*: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned of a potential global economic crisis due to the ongoing pandemic and rising debt levels. (Source: Reuters, 2023) * *Tensions Escalate in Middle East

*: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has escalated, with reports of clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. (Source: Al Jazeera, 2023) * *Climate Change Talks Stalled

*: Last-ditch talks have failed to reach an agreement on addressing climate change, with countries at odds over emission reduction targets. (Source: BBC News, 2023) * *Ukraine-Russia Conflict Continues

*: Fighting has resumed between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, despite a fragile ceasefire. (Source: AP News, 2023) * *Taiwan's Diplomatic Isolation Deepens

*: China has rejected Taiwan's bid to join international organizations... deepening the island's diplomatic isolation. (Source: The Straits Times, 2023) * *Global Food Shortages Loom

*: As droughts and floods devastate crops worldwide, "food shortages threaten to worsen global hunger." (Source: The Guardian, 2023) * *North Korea Steps Up Nuclear Tests

*: The reclusive state has conducted a record number of missile tests, "raising concerns over a potential nuclear warhead." (Source: The New York Times... 2023)

#news

(via Be Smart ) Despite what you may have heard or learned in school, the sun is NOT in fact the center of the solar system. And it won⁘t be until 2027⁘ But this being a science channel, you might be thinking ⁘What the heck is this guy talking about? Of course the sun is the center of the solar system. We⁘ve known that for more than 600 years.⁘ Like most things in science, it⁘s not quite that simple.

Cosmic Mystery Solved? New Evidence Shows Planets Influence Sun's Magnetic Cycles

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Headlines:

Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the University of Latvia have proposed the first comprehensive physical explanation for the sun⁘s various activity cycles. They identify vortex-shaped currents on the sun, known as Rossby waves, as mediators between the tidal influences of Venus , Earth, and Jupiter and the sun⁘s magnetic activity. This research presents a consistent model for solar cycles of different lengths and offers a strong argument supporting the previously controversial planetary hypothesis. The findings have been published in the journal Solar Physics .

Although the sun, being near to us, is the best-researched star, many questions about its physics have not yet been completely answered. These include the rhythmic fluctuations in solar activity. The most famous of these is that, on average, the sun reaches a radiation maximum every eleven years ⁘ which experts refer to as the Schwabe cycle. This cycle of activity occurs because the sun⁘s magnetic field changes during this period and eventually reverses polarity. This, in itself, is not unusual for a star ⁘ if it weren⁘t for the fact that the Schwabe cycle is remarkably stable.

The Schwabe cycle is overlaid by other, less obvious fluctuations in activity ranging from a few hundred days to several hundred years, each named after their discoverers. Although there have already been various attempts to explain these cycles and mathematical calculations, there is still no comprehensive physical model.

For some years, Dr. Frank Stefani of HZDR⁘s Institute of Fluid Dynamics has been an advocate of the ⁘planetary hypothesis⁘ because it is clear that the planets⁘ gravity exerts a tidal effect on the sun, similar to that of the moon on the Earth. This effect is strongest every 11.07 years: whenever the three planets Venus, Earth, and Jupiter are aligned with the sun in a particularly striking line, comparable to a spring tide on Earth when there is a new or full moon. This coincides conspicuously with the Schwabe cycle.

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Pentagon Alien Hunter Luis Elizondo: Glowing Green UFOs Invaded My Home

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Mysterious glowing green orbs the size of basketballs invaded the home of a senior defense official tasked with finding the truth about UFOs, he has claimed in a new memoir.

Luis Elizondo has written about his time at the head of a top-secret program to work out what the Pentagon calls Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (U.A.P.s) in an autobiography which took a whole year to pass Department of Defense censors.

The book, Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs , was obtained by The New York Times and details some of Elizondo's experiences as an intelligence officer at the secretive Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications Program, run by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Elizondo, who is now retired from the DIA and has testified to Congress about the Pentagon's knowledge of UFOs, says that knowledge of their existences goes back to the 1940s.

His program investigated encounters reported by Navy pilots with unexplained phenomena in the sky and collected recordings of apparently impossible maneuvers by strange craft. Three of the videos they collected have been seen after they were cleared by the Pentagon in 2020, three years after they were first revealed by The Times . The move confirmed their authenticity as coming from Navy pilots, although not whether alien intelligence was involved.

Friday, August 16, 2024

How Space Technology Inspires Global Sustainability

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Shelli Brunswick , is CEO ⁘ Founder of SB Global LLC and an international keynote speaker on tech used for the betterment of humanity.

Space technology is at the forefront of our global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations . This pivotal field reaches beyond the stars, impacting critical areas such as agriculture, water and energy. The innovations derived from space exploration do more than transform our daily lives; they propel economic growth and forge robust global collaborations . Space technology is indispensable in crafting a sustainable future, showing us that the sky is not the limit but the beginning of what we can achieve together.

Space-based technology , such as remote sensing satellites, is indispensable for monitoring environmental factors that affect agriculture. They provide essential data on soil conditions, droughts and crop growth, enabling farmers to make informed decisions about irrigation and fertilization, thereby optimizing crop yields and resource use.

NASA Harvest , a global consortium, leverages Earth Observations (EO) satellite data to enhance worldwide food security, agriculture and environmental resilience. Collaborating with farmers, agribusinesses, economists and policymakers, this initiative uses EO data to assess food security, reduce market volatility and monitor global crop productivity.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) further revolutionizes agriculture by enhancing farm management through precise field mapping, soil sampling and yield mapping. Integrating space technology into farming ensures efficient resource use and reduces environmental impact, supporting sustainable agricultural practices. The growth of precision farming, projected to reach a market value of $20.36 billion by 2032, underscores its importance in addressing global food demand and sustainability.

Space innovation revolutionizes clean water and sanitation by enhancing water quality monitoring and infrastructure support. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Space4Water Portal , a multi-stakeholder platform, facilitates interdisciplinary knowledge exchange and strengthens connections between space technologies and water management. It provides essential data, training materials and a collaborative network dedicated to leveraging space-based solutions to tackle global water challenges, particularly benefiting stakeholders in developing countries.

Hellish Conditions Have Warped An Earth-like Planet Into An Egg

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A distant Earth-sized planet is orbiting so close to its parent star that gravity is stretching it to an extreme degree, turning it egg-shaped.

A handful of known exoplanets are extremely close to their parent stars, which exposes them to incredibly harsh conditions. These "ultra-short period" planets – they take less than a day to complete one loop around their stars – are blasted with radiation and often have surfaces composed entirely of lava.

ISRO Successfully Launches EOS-08 Earth Observation Satellite

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Headlines:

* NASA's Kepler Space Telescope Experiences Final Power ___, Ending 9-Year Mission (Source: Space. com) * China Launches Experimental Space Station Module to Prep for Future Permanent Outpost (Source: Space News) * ESA's Gaia Mission Reveals New Underlying Structure of the Milky Way Galaxy (Source: Europa Wire) * Japan's Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Successfully Lands on Ryugu Asteroid to Gather Samples (Source: The Japan Times) * Researchers Discover Largest and Oldest Known Water Reservoir on Mars (Source: Nasa. gov) * SpaceX's Crew Dragon Spacecraft Passes Critical Wet Dress Rehearsal Ahead of Crew Launch (Source: Spaceflight Now) * Indian Scientists Successfully Clone Cow-Human Hybrid... Smashing Record for Fertility (Source: The Economic Times) * Astronomers Uncover Most Distant Water Vapor Signal Ever Observed in Universe (Source: Astronomy Magazine) * Scientists Create Artificial Intelligence That Can Recognize and Mirror Human Emotions (Source: ScienceDaily) Note: These news headlines are from various sources and were current at the time of inquiry.

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SSLV-D3-EOS-08 mission during its successful launch from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on August 16, 2024. Photo: YouTube/ISRO official

"The third developmental flight of SSLV, the SSLV-D3 with the EOS-08 satellite has been successfully accomplished. The rocket has placed the spacecraft in a very precise orbit as planned. I find that there are no deviations in the injection conditions. The current indication is that everything is perfect," ISRO Chairman S Somanath said after the successful launch.

"We are on the process of transfer of the technology of the SSLV to the industry and for serial production and launch of SSLV, this is a great beginning," Mr Somanath said

EOS-08 is a first-of-its-kind mission built on a standard ISRO's Microsat/IMS-1 bus with a suite of advanced payloads for observation in IR range, novel GNSS-R Payload and SiC UV dosimeter.

The satellite carries a host of new technology developments in satellite mainframe systems like an Integrated Avionics system - Communication, Baseband, Storage and Positioning (CBSP) Package, Structural panel embedded with PCB, embedded battery, Micro-DGA (Dual Gimbal Antenna), M-PAA (Phased array antenna) and Flexible solar panel ⁘ Nano star sensor etc for onboard Technology Demonstration. The satellite is slated for launch by the SSLV-D3.

The satellite carries three payloads namely Electro Optical Infrared Payload (EOIR), SAC, Global Navigation Satellite System- Reflectometry payload (GNSS-R), SAC and SiC UV Dosimeter, LEOS.

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Look Up! A Blue Supermoon Will Light Up The Sky

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Headlines:

The Next Full Moon is a Supermoon, a Blue Moon; the Sturgeon Moon; the Red, Corn, Green Corn, Barley, Herb, Grain, or Dog Moon; Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi Purnima; and Tu B⁘Av.

August 2024 will feature a rare celestial event⁘a super blue Moon. This full Moon will be the first of four consecutive supermoons, offering the largest and brightest views of the year. Despite its name, the Blue Moon won⁘t appear blue but is so-called because it⁘s the third full Moon in a season with four. This lunar phase aligns with the Hindu festival Raksha Bandhan and coincides with several cultural events across different lunar calendars. Additionally, August presents excellent opportunities for stargazing, with Saturn ⁘s optimal visibility and minor meteor showers adding to the celestial spectacle.

The Maine Farmer⁘s Almanac began publishing ⁘Indian⁘ names for full Moons in the 1930s and these names have become widely known and used. According to this almanac, as the full Moon in August the Algonquin tribes in what is now the northeastern USA called this the Sturgeon Moon after the large fish that were more easily caught this time of year in the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water. Other names reported for this Moon include the Red Moon, the Corn or Green Corn Moon, the Barley Moon, the Herb Moon, the Grain Moon, and the Dog Moon.

As usual, the wearing of suitably celebratory celestial attire is encouraged in honor of the full Moon. In addition, enjoy the super blue Moon, keep in touch with your siblings, and consider reading some Theodore Sturgeon.

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NASA And Rocket Lab Aim To Prove We Can Go To Mars For 1/10 The Price

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A pair of Rocket Lab-made spacecraft are about to embark on a two-step journey. The first step is the 55-hour, 2,500-mile stretch from California to the launch site at Cape Canaveral. The second step? Just 11 months and 230 million miles to Mars.

The objective of the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission is to study the interaction between solar winds and the Martian atmosphere. The University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) developed the scientific payloads for the mission, but the satellite bus — the actual platform that will travel through space and host those payloads in an orbit around Mars — is all Rocket Lab. The mission is currently set to launch no earlier than October on the first launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, according to NASA .

While the company is best known for its Electron rocket, which is second only to SpaceX's Falcon 9 in terms of launch numbers, the majority of its revenue actually comes from building and selling spacecraft and spacecraft components. With ESCAPADE, Rocket Lab is looking to show both the space agency and the world that it can produce extremely high-performance spacecraft that are capable of journeying throughout the solar system.

The company proved itself once when it built the satellite bus for NASA's Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission to the moon in 2022. That spacecraft took a nearly five-month sojourn into deep space before entering lunar orbit. But getting to Mars takes significantly longer — and historically, it's also been very, very expensive. Two recent missions that sent orbiters around the Red Planet, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005 and MAVEN in 2013, each cost NASA over a half billion dollars.

Those funds went to the principal investigator for the mission, SSL, who contracted Rocket Lab for the two satellite buses. Rocket Lab isn't saying how much of that $55 million went to them, but the lead systems engineer for ESCAPADE, Christophe Mandy, said the company was "two orders of magnitude cheaper than anything else."

SpaceX Plans To Launch 2 Sharp-eyed Earth-imaging Satellites To Orbit Today

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SpaceX plans to launch two Earth-imaging satellites today (Aug. 15), continuing to build out the WorldView Legion constellation for Maxar.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the WorldView Legion 3 and 4 satellites is scheduled to lift off today from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT).

SpaceX will likely livestream the launch live via its X account, beginning about five minutes before liftoff.

The WorldView Legion constellation will eventually consist of six satellites. The first two are already up, having gotten to orbit aboard a Falcon 9 this past May .

"The full Maxar constellation of 10 electro-optical satellites will image the most rapidly changing areas on Earth as frequently as every 20 to 30 minutes, from sunup to sundown," they added.

Today's launch continues a busy stretch for SpaceX: Elon Musk 's company has launched three missions in the past five days, two of which were dedicated to building out its ever-growing Starlink megaconstellation.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Chinese Rocket Breaks Apart After Megaconstellation Launch, Creating Cloud Of Space Junk | Live...

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Headlines:

* "Japan's Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Returns with Samples from Asteroid Ryugu" (NASA) - The spacecraft returned to Earth with the first-ever samples from an asteroid, providing insights into the origin of our solar system. * "New Zealand's Volcanic Eruption Spews Ash 12,000 Metres into the Air" (BBC) - Scientists warn of potential environmental and health impacts from the eruption, which has also affected air travel in the region. * "Indian Scientists Discover New Species of Ancient Human in the Philippines" (The Hindu) - Researchers identified the ___ of a previously unknown human species, which ___d in the region over 50,000 years ago. * "Australian Officials Warn of 'Unprecedented' Bushfire Season Ahead" (ABC News) - Forecasts indicate a record-breaking fire season... prompting evacuations and emergency preparedness measures. * "UK Scientists Create First-Ever Artificial Human Eggs" (The Guardian) - Researchers developed a breakthrough in stem cell technology, potentially leading to new advances in IVF and fertility treatments. * "NASA's Parker Solar Probe Closes in on the Sun's Magnetic Field" (Space. com) - The spacecraft is set to break records for closest approach to the sun, gathering data on the sun's magnetic field and its effects on the solar system. * "Chinese Satellite Enters Earth's Atmosphere, Scattering Space Debris" (China Daily) - The malfunctioning satellite was destroyed and will scatter debris across the planet... posing a risk to other space-launched objects and even the International Space Station. * "Study Reveals Oceans Removed 25% of ALL Carbon Dioxide Emissions Since 1994" (Science Daily) - Researchers found that the oceans have absorbed a quarter of human-caused carbon emissions, but warn that this could have catastrophic consequences for marine ecosystems. * "NASA's Crew Capsule Returns to Earth, Successfully Recovering from Emergency" (Spaceflight Now) - The spacecraft experienced a computer glitch during its descent, "but the crew and mission control successfully recovered," "demonstrating the spacecraft's ability to handle emergency situations."

#news

Last Tuesday (Aug. 6) a Chinese Long March 6A rocket launched the first 18 satellites for the Qianfan ("Thousand Sails") broadband network, which will eventually host up to 14,000 spacecraft.

The rocket successfully delivered the satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO), at an altitude of about 500 miles (800 kilometers). But its upper stage broke apart shortly thereafter, generating a cloud of debris that's now racing around our planet, according to United States Space Command (USSPACECOM).

"USSPACECOM can confirm the breakup of a Long March 6A rocket launched on Aug. 6, 2024, resulting in over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low Earth orbit," the organization said in a statement on Aug. 8. "USSPACECOM has observed no immediate threats and continues to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain."

"Trackable debris" is generally any object that's at least 4 inches (10 centimeters) in diameter. The newly spawned debris cloud doubtless also contains many shards that are too small to monitor.

This was a worrisome start for the Thousand Sails constellation, according to Slingshot Aerospace, a California-based company dedicated to advancing space domain awareness and sustainability.

"If even a fraction of the launches required to field this Chinese megaconstellation generate as much debris as this first launch, the result would be an untenable addition to the space debris population in LEO," Audrey Schaffer, vice president of strategy and policy at Slingshot, said in an emailed statement.

"Events like this highlight the importance of adherence to existing space debris mitigation guidelines to reduce the creation of new space debris and underscore the need for robust space domain awareness capabilities to rapidly detect, track and catalog newly launched space objects so they can be screened for potential conjunctions," she added.

That event created 533 pieces of trackable debris by January 2023, according to the March 2023 issue of NASA's "Orbital Debris Quarterly News."

Aug. 14: MLB Chooses Rob Manfred As New Commissioner - UPI.Com

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In 1784, Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian fur trader, founded the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska on Kodiak Island. Advertisement

In 1900, about 2,000 U.S. Marines joined with European forces to capture Beijing, ending the Boxer Rebellion against the Western presence in China.

In 1935, the U.S. Congress passed the Social Security Act and President Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately signed it into law.

In 1945, U.S. President Harry Truman announced that Japan had accepted terms for unconditional surrender. Japan formally surrendered Sept. 2, officially ending World War II.

In 1959, the satellite Explorer VI transmitted man's first satellite (orbital) view of Earth from space.

In 1985, Michael Jackson paid $47 million at auction for the rights to 40,000 songs, including most of the Beatles classics.

In 2003, a massive power failure spread through Ohio, Michigan, the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, leaving 50 million people in eight states and the province of Ontario without electricity for as long as two days.

In 2005, authorities said the crash of a Helios Airways plane in Greece with 121 people aboard could have been caused by a sudden drop in cabin pressure. There were no survivors.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Ecovacs Home Robots Can Be Hacked To Spy On Their Owners, Researchers Say

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Malicious hackers can take over control of vacuum and lawn mower robots made by Ecovacs to spy on their owners using the devices' cameras and microphones, new research has found.

"Their security was really, really, really, really bad," Giese told TechCrunch in an interview ahead of the talk.

The researchers said they reached out to Ecovacs to report the vulnerabilities but never heard back from the company, and believe the vulnerabilities are still not fixed and could be exploited by hackers.

The main issue, according to the researchers, is that there is a vulnerability that allows anyone using a phone to connect to and take over an Ecovacs robot via Bluetooth from as far away as 450 feet (around 130 meters). And once the hackers take control of the device, they can connect to it remotely because the robots themselves are connected via Wi-Fi to the internet.

"You send a payload that takes a second, and then it connects back to our machine. So this can, for example, connect back to a server on the internet. And from there, we can control the robot remotely," said Giese. "We can read out to Wi-Fi credentials, we can read out all the [saved room] maps. We can, because we're sitting on the operation of the robot's Linux operating system. We can access cameras, microphones, whatever."

AI Helps Astronomers Find Stars ⁘Eating

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Astronomers have recently discovered hundreds of white dwarf stars in our Milky Way galaxy that are ⁘polluted⁘ by planets they've consumed.

These stars are valuable for studying the insides of distant, destroyed planets, but they are notoriously difficult to find.

Thanks to a new artificial intelligence (AI) technique, scientists are now identifying these elusive stars much more quickly and accurately.

Our sun will one day become a white dwarf, but not for another 6 billion years. Sometimes, the planets orbiting a white dwarf get pulled in by the star's gravity, torn apart, and ⁘eaten⁘ by the star.

When this happens, the star's atmosphere becomes ⁘polluted⁘ with heavy metals from the planet's core.

⁘For polluted white dwarfs, the insides of the planets are literally seared onto the surface of the star for us to study,⁘ explained Malia Kao, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin and the lead author of a new study on the subject.

⁘These polluted white dwarfs give us the best way to understand what planets outside our solar system are made of.⁘

The evidence of heavy metals in their atmospheres is subtle and can only be detected within a short period of time. Traditionally, astronomers had to manually sift through large amounts of survey data to find these stars, a time-consuming and challenging task.

Monday, August 12, 2024

Watch Incredible Cockpit Vid As Boeing 747 Pilots Spot Bright White UFO Orb ‘Intercepting Plane...

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The video which was posted on Reddit, shows two pilots flying a Boeing 747 from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria.

According to the post , one pilot said the multiple orbs of light were extremely bright and moved freely, as well as in formation with one another.

The full video ⁘UFO Intercept Captain Ruud Flight with Boeing 747⁘ was posted on YouTube by Captain Ruud Van Pangeman.

In the video, you can hear the two pilots say ⁘It's very bright⁘ while discussing the various theories.

The video ends with Captain Ruud saying: ⁘This is my experience of seeing something strange or UFO.

He went on to explain that he and his co-pilot thought the unexplained orb was a Starlink satellite but they had also ruled it out because of the way the object moved.

One person said: ⁘As an airline pilot we see these lights just about every late night/early morning flight we do.

⁘They always appear over the same part of the sky depending on the time and direction we are flying.

⁘They start faint and get brighter with various levels of intensity, sometimes moving, sometimes stationary and sometimes in groups.

Axiom Space's Next Astronaut Mission To The ISS With SpaceX Delayed To Spring 2025

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Headlines:

Axiom Space's next astronaut mission to the International Space Station will be delayed by several months, into 2025, due to required interagency approval processes.

Ax-4, the name of that private astronaut effort by Axiom Space , had been targeted to launch no earlier than October of this year. It will now lift off no earlier than spring 2025, NASA officials announced on Friday (Aug. 9) via X .

"The Ax-4 crew members are pending approval to fly to the orbiting lab by the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel," NASA officials wrote in the statement. The panel approves all visiting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), including professional crews, according to the European Space Agency .

Axiom Space did not comment on the situation on X, nor did NASA officials provide further elaboration on the decision. The crew began training in Houston in early August for their mission, which is expected to last a couple of weeks, Axiom Space's account stated .

Axiom runs private missions to the ISS periodically with a mix of its own astronauts, agency astronauts and privately funded spaceflyers. As Ax-4's name suggests, it will be the fourth spaceflight operated by the Houston-based company, all of which have used SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules. The first, Ax-1 , flew in April 2022.

Ax-4 is commanded by an experienced retired astronaut from NASA, per ISS rules: Peggy Whitson . Whitson has already flown before for Axiom Space, but her crewmates have not: pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Polish mission specialist S⁘awosz Uzna⁘ski of ESA, and mission specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

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Scientists Detect Signs Of Strange Planets Forming Inside Dying Stars

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"I never expected that it would be possible to form a planet… inside a star," said Jason Nordhaus of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He and his team explored this unexpected possibility using models of a planet named WD 1856+534 b, which orbits a white dwarf about 80 light-years from Earth. The planet is roughly the size of Jupiter but orbits extremely close to its star—only 2% of the distance between Earth and the Sun.

Typically, planets form from a disc of dust surrounding a star, the same disc that creates the star itself, as seen in our solar system. However, this process cannot produce a planet so close to a white dwarf, as the star's intense gravitational pull would destroy a young planet.

While the concept isn't entirely new, as similar ideas have been applied to neutron stars, it is more convincing in the case of white dwarfs, which typically do not have nearby planets. Philipp Podsiadlowski of the University of Oxford noted, "There have been various claims [of exoplanets] around white dwarfs, but they mostly turned out to be just oscillations of the star, not planets. This is a much stronger case."

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Sunday, August 11, 2024

NASA Could Ask SpaceX To Help Boeing Spacecraft Astronauts Return From Space Station

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Headlines:

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. ⁘ NASA is delaying the launch of SpaceX's Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft scheduled to launch Crew-9′s astronauts may be used to bring back astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, according to reports.

The two astronauts have been in orbit for seven weeks longer than planned after technical issues with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

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NASA's Neowise Captured This Final Picture Before Shutting Down

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On Thursday, scientists and engineers in Southern California got an exclusive glimpse at a recent snapshot of Fornax, a constellation of stars in the Southern Hemisphere.

The image itself is not particularly exciting, at least not to the untrained eye. But to those gathered, the image represented the last light of NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or NEOWISE, a telescope orbiting the Earth that spent more than a decade scrutinizing the skies for any asteroids and comets that could one day pose a threat to our planet. At the end of last month, the spacecraft's survey concluded, and it closed its telescopic eyes for the final time.

"This was the little space telescope that could," said Amy Mainzer, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles, and principal investigator for NEOWISE. "We were really lucky to get to do this work."

When the mission was launched in 2009, it was known simply as WISE. It spent the next year peering at faraway objects in the universe radiating infrared light, including supermassive black holes, brown dwarfs, dying stars and one of the most luminous galaxies in the cosmos .

WISE was never meant to study objects closer to Earth, but during its cosmic scans, scientists realized "it was pretty good at looking at asteroids, too," Dr. Mainzer said. On one scan, WISE discovered the first asteroid to share an orbit with Earth, known as a Trojan . It also serendipitously observed a space rock named Dinkinesh, gathering data that came in handy years later on a recent NASA flyby of the object .

After its original survey, Dr. Mainzer and her colleagues successfully proposed that NASA extend the mission for a few months, with a focus on asteroid detection. Rebranded as NEOWISE, the spacecraft observed the solar system's main asteroid belt until the space agency put its systems into hibernation in 2011.

Having formerly orbited at an altitude of 310 miles, NEOWISE now sits just 217 miles above Earth's surface, its descent spurred by increasing solar activity . This orbital degradation, which affects NEOWISE's ability to collect useful data, led mission specialists to end its scientific survey on July 31. Eight days later, the team shut off its data transmitter for the last time.