Kamis, 30 Juni 2022

James Webb Space Telescope's powers will be revealed in just weeks and scientists can't wait - Space.com

BALTIMORE — The James Webb Space Telescope's first images are coming soon and scientists can't wait for us to see them.

On Wednesday (June 29), NASA held a media day at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore in advance of the release of the first science-quality images from the James Webb Space Telescope, which will occur during a live event on July 12. NASA scientists and administrators gave updates on the telescope, discussed Webb's planned science during its first year in operation and hinted at the contents of some of Webb's first official images.

"In a real sense, we're sort of the first users of the observatory and using it for what it's built for," Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at STScI, said during the news conference. "We recognize that we're standing on the shoulders of all the scientists and engineers who've worked hard for the past six months to make this possible." 

Live updates: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope mission
RelatedHow the James Webb Space Telescope works in pictures

Although NASA has already released a few images taken while aligning Webb, the images released on July 12 will be from a fully operational observatory, in full color, and they will show what each of the instruments on the telescope can contribute to science. 

These first images will include a deep-field image peering farther into the past than ever before, scientists said during the briefing. NASA will also release Webb's first spectroscopic data — precise data on the type of light that Webb detects that will allow scientists to learn more about the ingredients of distant cosmic objects. This data will include Webb's first spectrum of an exoplanet, scientists said. While the images will be visually spectacular, the new information they reveal using Webb's infrared-observing powers will distinguish them from images taken by other telescopes. 

"The real difference is the new scientific information and then really opening up the longer wavelengths, infrared wavelengths in a way that we've really never seen before," Jonathon Gardner, deputy senior project scientist for Webb, said during the news conference.

Each of the four instruments on Webb, including its main camera, two near-infrared spectrographs and a mid-infrared camera and spectrograph, will contribute to notable research in its first year of operation. They will collect data at nearly every scale and timescale, from our solar system today to the birth of our universe. Though scientists can detect radiation from near the beginning of our universe, no telescope has ever been able to detect light from some of the universe's first stars and galaxies. Webb will be the first such observatory. 

Related stories:

"The initial goal for this mission was to see the first stars and galaxies," Eric Smith, Webb program scientist at NASA, said during the news conference. "Not the first light of the universe, but to watch the universe turn the lights on for the first time."

Although Webb is already a remarkable feat, its first images represent the start of hopefully decades of science. Webb scientists said they have confirmed that the telescope has enough fuel to carry out science for the next 20 years. Data collected during these years could redefine how we understand our universe.

"This is really only the beginning," Pontoppidan said. "We're only scratching the surface."

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.  

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiRmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNwYWNlLmNvbS9qYW1lcy13ZWJiLXNwYWNlLXRlbGVzY29wZS1zY2llbnRpc3RzLWdlYXJpbmctdXDSAQA?oc=5

2022-06-30 10:00:02Z
1478465385

2022-06-30 | NDAQ:RKLB | Press Release | Rocket Lab USA Inc. - Stockhouse

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

  1. 2022-06-30 | NDAQ:RKLB | Press Release | Rocket Lab USA Inc.  Stockhouse
  2. NASA hopes New Zealand launch will pave way for moon landing  Cranbrook Townsman
  3. NASA launches tiny CAPSTONE to blaze a unique new 'trail' around the Moon  msnNOW
  4. NASA Kicks Off Artemis Lunar Program with CAPSTONE Launch  ExtremeTech
  5. NASA Launches Nanosatellite in Landmark Mission to Return to Moon  ScienceAlert
  6. View Full coverage on Google News

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMigQFodHRwczovL3N0b2NraG91c2UuY29tL25ld3MvcHJlc3MtcmVsZWFzZXMvMjAyMi8wNi8zMC9yb2NrZXQtbGFiLXN1Y2Nlc3NmdWxseS1yYWlzZXMtb3JiaXQtYS1mb3VydGgtdGltZS1mb3ItbmFzYS1zLWNhcHN0b25lLW1vb27SAQA?oc=5

2022-06-30 07:27:43Z
1482777447

Rabu, 29 Juni 2022

NASA launches nanosatellite in preparation for lunar 'Gateway' station - Yahoo News Canada

The rocket carrying the CAPSTONE satellite lifts off (NASA)

The rocket carrying the CAPSTONE satellite lifts off (NASA)

NASA launched a tiny CubeSat this week to test and orbit which will soon be used by Gateway, a lunar space station.

It’s all part of the space agency’s plan to put a woman on the moon by 2025.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, mission launched from New Zealand on Tuesday.

Jim Reuter, associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate says, "CAPSTONE is an example of how working with commercial partners is key for NASA's ambitious plans to explore the Moon and beyond.

"We're thrilled with a successful start to the mission and looking forward to what CAPSTONE will do once it arrives at the Moon."

Read more: Astronomers find closest black hole to Earth

CAPSTONE is currently in low-Earth orbit, and it will take the spacecraft about four months to reach its targeted lunar orbit.

CAPSTONE is attached to Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon, an interplanetary third stage that will send CAPSTONE on its way to deep space.

Over the next six days, Photon’s engine will periodically ignite to accelerate it beyond low-Earth orbit, where Photon will release the CubeSat on a trajectory to the Moon.

CAPSTONE will then use its own propulsion and the Sun’s gravity to navigate the rest of the way to the Moon.

The gravity-driven track will dramatically reduce the amount of fuel the CubeSat needs to get to the Moon.

Read more: There might once have been life on the moon

Bradley Cheetham, principal investigator for CAPSTONE and chief executive officer of Advanced Space, "Our team is now preparing for separation and initial acquisition for the spacecraft in six days.

“We have already learned a tremendous amount getting to this point, and we are passionate about the importance of returning humans to the Moon, this time to stay!"

At the Moon, CAPSTONE will enter an elongated orbit called a near rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO.

Once in the NRHO, CAPSTONE will fly within 1,000 miles of the Moon’s North Pole on its near pass and 43,500 miles from the South Pole at its farthest.

It will repeat the cycle every six and a half days and maintain this orbit for at least six months to study dynamics.

“CAPSTONE is a pathfinder in many ways, and it will demonstrate several technology capabilities during its mission timeframe while navigating a never-before-flown orbit around the Moon,” said Elwood Agasid, project manager for CAPSTONE at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. “CAPSTONE is laying a foundation for Artemis, Gateway, and commercial support for future lunar operations.”

NASA estimates the cost of the whole Artemis mission at $28 billion.

It would be the first time people have walked on the moon since the last Apollo moon mission in 1972.

Just 12 people have walked on the moon - all men.

NASA flew six manned missions to the surface of the moon, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in July 1969, up to Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt in December 1972.

The mission will use NASA’s powerful new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the Orion spacecraft.

Watch: NASA launch paves way for moon orbit station

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vY2EubmV3cy55YWhvby5jb20vbmFzYS1sYXVuY2hlcy1uYW5vc2F0ZWxsaXRlLWluLXByZXBhcmF0aW9uLWZvci1sdW5hci1nYXRld2F5LXN0YXRpb24tMTM0NDQ2MzQ2Lmh0bWzSAXVodHRwczovL2NhLm5ld3MueWFob28uY29tL2FtcGh0bWwvbmFzYS1sYXVuY2hlcy1uYW5vc2F0ZWxsaXRlLWluLXByZXBhcmF0aW9uLWZvci1sdW5hci1nYXRld2F5LXN0YXRpb24tMTM0NDQ2MzQ2Lmh0bWw?oc=5

2022-06-29 13:44:46Z
1482777447

Facial Recognition—Now for Seals - Hakai Magazine

Article body copy

Have you ever looked at a seal and thought, Is that the same seal I saw yesterday? Well, there could soon be an app for that based on new seal facial recognition technology. Known as SealNet, this seal face-finding system was developed by a team of undergraduate students from Colgate University in New York.

Taking inspiration from other technology adapted for recognizing primates and bears, Krista Ingram, a biologist at Colgate University, led the students in developing software that uses deep learning and a convolutional neural network to tell one seal face from another. SealNet is tailored to identify the harbor seal, a species with a penchant for posing on coasts in haulouts.

The team had to train their software to identify seal faces. “I give it a photograph, it finds the face, [and] clips it to a standard size,” says Ingram. But then she and her students would manually identify the nose, the mouth, and the center of the eyes.

For the project, team members snapped more than 2,000 pictures of seals around Casco Bay, Maine, during a two-year period. They tested the software using 406 different seals and found that SealNet could correctly identify the seals’ faces 85 percent of the time. The team has since expanded its database to include around 1,500 seal faces. As the number of seals logged in the database goes up, so too should the accuracy of the identification, Ingram says.

The developers of SealNet trained a neural network to tell harbor seals apart using photos of 406 different seals. Photo courtesy of Birenbaum et al.

As with all tech, however, SealNet is not infallible. The software saw seal faces in other body parts, vegetation, and even rocks. In one case, Ingram and her students did a double take at the uncanny resemblance between a rock and a seal face. “[The rock] did look like a seal face,” Ingram says. “The darker parts were about the same distance as the eyes … so you can understand why the software found a face.” Consequently, she says it’s always best to manually check that seal faces identified by the software belong to a real seal.

Like a weary seal hauling itself onto a beach for an involuntary photo shoot, the question of why this is all necessary raises itself. Ingram believes SealNet could be a useful, noninvasive tool for researchers.

Of the world’s pinnipeds—a group that includes seals, walruses, and sea lions—harbor seals are considered the most widely dispersed. Yet knowledge gaps do exist. Other techniques to track seals, such as tagging and aerial monitoring, have their limitations and can be highly invasive or expensive.

Ingram points to site fidelity as an aspect of seal behavior that SealNet could shed more light on. The team’s trials indicated that some harbor seals return to the same haulout sites year after year. Other seals, however, such as two animals the team nicknamed Clove and Petal, appeared at two different sites together. Increasing scientists’ understanding of how seals move around could strengthen arguments for protecting specific areas, says Anders Galatius, an ecologist at Aarhus University in Denmark who was not involved in the project.

Galatius, who is responsible for monitoring Denmark’s seal populations, says the software “shows a lot of promise.” If the identification rates are improved, it could be paired with another photo identification method that identifies seals by distinctive markings on their pelage, he says.

In the future, after further testing, Ingram hopes to develop an app based on SealNet. The app, she says, could possibly allow citizen scientists to contribute to logging seal faces. The program could also be adapted for other pinnipeds and possibly even for cetaceans.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiQGh0dHBzOi8vaGFrYWltYWdhemluZS5jb20vbmV3cy9mYWNpYWwtcmVjb2duaXRpb24tbm93LWZvci1zZWFscy_SAQA?oc=5

2022-06-29 07:01:44Z
CBMiQGh0dHBzOi8vaGFrYWltYWdhemluZS5jb20vbmV3cy9mYWNpYWwtcmVjb2duaXRpb24tbm93LWZvci1zZWFscy_SAQA

Selasa, 28 Juni 2022

Rocket Lab launches NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite on its scouting mission for a lunar space station - Yahoo Movies Canada

NASA's CAPSTONE mission, which will chart a new orbit around the Moon which will hopefully be used for a future crewed lunar space station, is underway after a successful launch on Tuesday morning. Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle delivered the CAPSTONE satellite, which is roughly the size of a large microwave oven, to Earth orbit for step one of its lunar journey.

The Electron rocket took off from Rocket Lab's launch facility in New Zealand at 5:55 AM ET, marking Rocket Lab's 27th flight for its launch vehicle, and its first ever with the Moon as an intended destination. The satellite will remain in low-Earth orbit for around six days, attached to a custom designed Photon upper stage created by Rocket Lab for this mission, after which Photon will ignite its engines a final time to leave Earth's orbit on a path towards deep space, subsequently releasing CAPSTONE to continue on for arrival at the Moon roughly three months from now.

The goal of the CAPSTONE mission is to use the small satellite to test out a new orbit around the Moon — an elliptical path that will provide a stable enough orbit to maintain a permanent base of operations for excursions to the lunar surface in Gateway, NASA's planned Moon space station, but also offer a good launch point for deeper space exploration at its furthest point. The lunar Gateway is a key ingredient for NASA's Artemis program, which will return human astronauts to the surface of the Moon.

This is Rocket Lab's first deep space mission, but it won't be its last — the company is aiming to deliver two orbital spacecraft to Mars as well for a science mission also on behalf of NASA.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiTGh0dHBzOi8vY2EubW92aWVzLnlhaG9vLmNvbS9yb2NrZXQtbGFiLWxhdW5jaGVzLW5hc2EtY2Fwc3RvbmUtMTAzODUzODQ0Lmh0bWzSAVRodHRwczovL2NhLm1vdmllcy55YWhvby5jb20vYW1waHRtbC9yb2NrZXQtbGFiLWxhdW5jaGVzLW5hc2EtY2Fwc3RvbmUtMTAzODUzODQ0Lmh0bWw?oc=5

2022-06-28 10:38:53Z
1482777447

NASA takes a step towards putting humans back to the Moon with CAPSTONE launch - Yahoo Movies Canada

Rocket Lab has successfully launched NASA's 55-pound CAPSTONE cubesat that will eventually orbit the Moon if all goes to plan. It's a small but important step in NASA's Artemis mission that aims to send humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972.

The launch proceeded nominally according to NASA's broadcast, reaching low-Earth orbit at about 'T' plus 10 minutes. An Electron launch is much like any other, except that it's the first rocket to be electrically powered by batteries rather than a gas turbine. As such, there's a phase called "battery ejection" which happens near the end of the launch cycle.

Rocket Lab used an Electron rocket with a special addition called the Lunar Photon upper stage with enough power to send it into deep space. It's one of the smallest rockets to attempt to launch a payload to lunar orbit, the company said. It launched from Rocket Lab's site on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula, and is "the highest mass and the highest performance Electron has ever had to fly by quite some margin," the company told TechCrunch earlier.

CAPSTONE will orbit Earth for nine days to build up enough speed for a trans lunar injection (TLI) that will allow it to eventually orbit the Moon. The primary objective is to verify a type of highly elliptical lunar orbit called "near rectilinear halo" that's planned for the Gateway space station. Gateway will eventually be delivered to lunar orbit by SpaceX with a science lab and living quarters for astronauts, along with ports for future spacecraft.

Rocket Lab was supposed to launch CAPSTONE yesterday but delayed it until today "to perform final system checks," NASA tweeted. Regardless of the launch date, it's scheduled to arrive at the moon on November 13th. To see a replay of the livecast, check here.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMieWh0dHBzOi8vY2EubW92aWVzLnlhaG9vLmNvbS9uYXNhLXRha2VzLWZpcnN0LXN0ZXAtYmFjay10by10aGUtbW9vbi13aXRoLXJvY2tldC1sYWItY2Fwc3RvbmUtY3ViZXNhdC1sYXVuY2gtMTAxMjQzNTUyLmh0bWzSAQA?oc=5

2022-06-28 10:12:43Z
1482777447

Watch Rocket Lab launch NASA’s CAPSTONE mission to the moon live - TechCrunch

After repeated delays, the microwaved oven-sized CubeSat known as CAPSTONE may finally start its long journey to the moon. With this launch, NASA aims to begin the first chapter of its ambitious Artemis program, and lay the groundwork for what would be a first in human history: an orbiting crewed platform around the moon.

Before the crewed platform, which the agency is calling “Gateway,” can launch, NASA is first testing a unique, highly elliptical orbit around the moon. That’s where CAPSTONE, or Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, comes in. The CubeSat will travel along that exact orbit (called a near-rectilinear halo orbit) for six months, gathering important data for NASA scientists.

To get there, CAPSTONE will launch aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the company’s site on New Zealand’s remote Māhia Peninsula. It’s “the highest mass and the highest performance Electron has ever had to fly by quite some margin,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told TechCrunch earlier this week.

Rocket Lab developed a variant of its Photon spacecraft called “Lunar Photon” specifically for this mission. That spacecraft will conduct a series of maneuvers to get CubeSat on the right trajectory to the moon.

CAPSTONE is also the result of major contributions from other industry players. Notably, Advanced Space developed, owns and is operating CAPS; Tyvak International built the CubeSat platform; Stellar Exploration provided the spacecraft’s propulsion system; and Tethers Unlimited provided the radio comms system.

The space agency was originally targeting Monday for the launch but had to push it by one day to “allow Rocket Lab to perform final systems checks,” NASA said in a blog post. If the mission is delayed yet again, there’s no reason to fret: Rocket Lab has launch opportunities every single day through July 27, and the design of CAPSTONE’s trajectory means it’ll arrive at the moon by November 13 regardless of when in the launch window it departs from Earth.

NASA’s YouTube channel is showing a live launch webcast starting from 5:00 AM EST, with the launch targeted for 5:55 AM EST.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiYmh0dHBzOi8vdGVjaGNydW5jaC5jb20vMjAyMi8wNi8yNy93YXRjaC1yb2NrZXQtbGFiLWxhdW5jaC1uYXNhcy1jYXBzdG9uZS1taXNzaW9uLXRvLXRoZS1tb29uLWxpdmUv0gEA?oc=5

2022-06-28 06:00:45Z
1482777447

Senin, 27 Juni 2022

NASA’s CAPSTONE Launch to Moon Delayed – Spacecraft Will Be First To Fly Unique Lunar Orbit - SciTechDaily

Rocket Lab’s Electron Rocket

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket sits on the pad at the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand for wet dress rehearsal ahead of the CAPSTONE launch. Credit: Rocket Lab

NASA, Rocket Lab, and Advanced Space are standing down from the June 27 launch attempt for the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon to allow Rocket Lab to perform final systems checks. The mission was slated to launch on Monday, June 27, aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.

Teams are evaluating weather and other factors to determine the date of the next launch attempt. The next launch opportunity within the current period is on June 28. CAPSTONE’s trajectory design means that the spacecraft will arrive at its lunar orbit on November 13 regardless of launch date within the current period, which offers launch opportunities every day through July 27.

NASA C.APSTONE Mission

Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus will deliver CAPSTONE into a trajectory toward the Moon. Credit: Illustration by NASA/Daniel Rutter

CAPSTONE, which stands for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, will be the first spacecraft to fly a specific unique lunar orbit ahead of future missions with crew.

The destination for this microwave oven-size CubeSat is a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). That same orbit is planned for Gateway, a multipurpose outpost for long-term lunar missions as part of the agency’s Artemis program.

Installing Solar Panels Onto CAPSTONE Spacecraft

Team members install solar panels onto the CAPSTONE spacecraft – short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment – at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc., in Irvine, California. Credit: NASA/Dominic Hart

Six days after launch, the Photon upper stage will release CAPSTONE into space for the first portion of the spacecraft’s solo flight. After a four-month journey to the Moon, CAPSTONE will test the dynamics of the NRHO for at least six months, helping reduce risk for future spacecraft. CAPSTONE will also demonstrate innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation technology and one-way ranging capabilities that could help future spacecraft fly near the Moon with reduced need for communication with Earth.

CAPSTONE is commercially owned and operated by Advanced Space in Westminster, Colorado, on behalf of NASA. It represents an innovative collaboration between NASA and industry to provide rapid results and feedback to inform future exploration and science missions. Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a Terran Orbital Corporation, of Irvine, California, built the spacecraft. The mission also includes contributions from Stellar Exploration Inc., Space Dynamics Lab, Tethers Unlimited Inc., and Orion Space Systems.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMicmh0dHBzOi8vc2NpdGVjaGRhaWx5LmNvbS9uYXNhcy1jYXBzdG9uZS1sYXVuY2gtdG8tbW9vbi1kZWxheWVkLXNwYWNlY3JhZnQtd2lsbC1iZS1maXJzdC10by1mbHktdW5pcXVlLWx1bmFyLW9yYml0L9IBdmh0dHBzOi8vc2NpdGVjaGRhaWx5LmNvbS9uYXNhcy1jYXBzdG9uZS1sYXVuY2gtdG8tbW9vbi1kZWxheWVkLXNwYWNlY3JhZnQtd2lsbC1iZS1maXJzdC10by1mbHktdW5pcXVlLWx1bmFyLW9yYml0L2FtcC8?oc=5

2022-06-27 08:41:02Z
1482777447

Minggu, 26 Juni 2022

See the moon shine near Mercury before dawn on Monday as it concludes its planet tour - Space.com

Look to the east-northeastern horizon before dawn on Monday (June 27) to see the moon wrap up its monthly tour of the morning plants with Mercury. 

"The silver sliver of the old moon's crescent will shine several finger widths to the upper left (or 3.5 degrees to the celestial north) of the bright dot of Mercury," writes Chris Vaughan, amateur astronomer with SkySafari Software who oversees Space.com's Night Sky calendar.

The pair will be close enough to share the view of a pair of binoculars (represented by the green circle in the image). But Vaughan warns observers to turn optics away from the eastern horizon before the sun rises. 

Related: The brightest planets in June's night sky: How to see them (and when)

The moon may be rather tricky to spot at first glance as it will be a very thin crescent, only 3% illuminated, according to Space.com's skywatching columnist Joe Rao

If you're after an extra skywatching challenge, look out for Aldebaran. The orange first-magnitude star will be shining about 7 degrees to the left of Mercury according to Rao. 

Monday morning is also your last good chance to catch a glimpse of the moon joining in with the rare planetary alignment that has been present this month. Throughout June left to right Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have lined up in their orbital order from left to right in the southeastern sky. 

Hoping to capture a good photo of the moon and mercury? Our guide on how to photograph the moon has some helpful tips. If you're looking for a camera, here's our overview of the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography. As always, our guides for the best telescopes and best binoculars can help you prepare for the next great skywatching event.

Editor's note: If you take a photograph of the moon near Mercury, let us know! You can send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiMmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNwYWNlLmNvbS9tb29uLW1lZXRzLW1lcmN1cnktanVuZS0yMDIy0gEA?oc=5

2022-06-26 10:38:59Z
1480649022

Sabtu, 25 Juni 2022

Artemis 1 moon mission could launch as soon as late August - Space.com

NASA officials have declared the Artemis 1 moon rocket's most recent "wet dress rehearsal" a success and are hopeful the mission can get off the ground as soon as late August.

The Artemis 1 stack — a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket topped by an Orion capsule — is scheduled to roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on July 1, where the massive vehicle will undergo repairs and preparations for its coming launch. 

Artemis 1, the first launch for the SLS, will send an uncrewed Orion on a roughly month-long mission around the moon. The mission has experienced several delays, and most recently the rocket's certification to fly has been held up by incomplete fueling tests — a key part of the wet dress rehearsal, a three-day series of trials designed to gauge a new vehicle's readiness for flight. 

Related: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos 

The Artemis 1 stack first rolled from the VAB to KSC's Pad 39B in mid-March, to prep for a wet dress rehearsal that began on April 1. But three separate attempts to fill the SLS with cryogenic propellants during that effort failed, sending the stack back to the VAB for repairs on April 25. The most recent wet dress try, which wrapped up on Monday (June 20), didn't go perfectly, but NASA has deemed it good enough to proceed with preparations for launch.

Operators were able to fully fuel SLS for the first time, bringing the launch simulation much further along than any of the attempts in April. A leak from the core stage's engine cooling system "umbilical" line was detected during Monday's fueling test, but mission managers determined that the deviation didn't pose a safety risk and continued with the simulation's terminal count. That ended up being the right decision, Artemis 1 team members said.  

Mission operators were able to run a "mask" for the leak in the ground launch sequencer software, which permitted computers in mission control to acknowledge the malfunction without flagging it as a reason to halt the countdown, according to Phil Weber, senior technical integration manager at KSC. Weber joined other agency officials on a press call Friday (June 24) to discuss the plans for Artemis 1 now that the wet dress is in the rear view mirror.

The software mask allowed the count to continue through to the handoff from the mission control computers to the automated launch sequencer (ALS) aboard the SLS at T-33 seconds, which ultimately terminated the count at T-29 seconds. 

"[ALS] was really the prize for us for the day," Weber said during Friday's call. "We expected … it was going to break us out [of the countdown] because the ALS looks for that same measurement, and we don't have the capability to mask it onboard." 

It was unclear immediately following the recent wet dress if another one would be required, but mission team members later put that question to rest.

"At this point, we've determined that we have successfully completed the evaluations and required work we intended to complete for the dress rehearsal," Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for Common Exploration Systems at NASA headquarters, said on Friday's call. He added that NASA teams now have the "go ahead to proceed" with preparations for Artemis 1's launch.

Before it can be rolled back to the VAB, however, the stack will undergo further maintenance at Pad 39B, including repairs to the quick-disconnect component on the aft SLS umbilical, which was responsible for Monday's hydrogen leak. 

There's also one more test technicians need to perform at the pad. Hot-firing the hydraulic power units (HBUs), part of the SLS' solid rocket boosters, was originally part of the wet dress countdown but was omitted when the countdown was aborted. Those tests will be completed by Saturday (June 25), according to Lanham. Following the hot-fire tests, operators will then spend the weekend offloading the HBUs' hydrazine fuel.

Once back in the VAB, NASA officials estimate it'll take six to eight weeks of work to get Artemis 1 ready to roll back to Pad 39B for an actual liftoff. Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager at KSC, outlined some of the planned maintenance on Friday's call. 

Related: NASA's Artemis program of lunar exploration

Related stories:

Among other tasks, technicians will perform standard vehicle inspections, hydrogen leak repairs, "late-stow" for the payloads flying on Orion, and software loads to the SLS core stage and upper stage. They will also install flight batteries.

"Ultimately, we want to get to our flight termination system testing," Lanham said. "Once that's complete, we'll be able to perform our final inspections in all the volumes of the vehicle and do our closeouts."

After that work is complete, the Artemis 1 stack will roll out from the VAB once again, making the eight to 11-hour crawl back to Pad 39B on July 1. Whitmeyer said on Friday that the late-August launch window for Artemis 1, which opens on Aug. 23 and lasts for one week, is "still on the table."

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).  

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNwYWNlLmNvbS9hcnRlbWlzLTEtbW9vbi1taXNzaW9uLWxhdGUtYXVndXN0LWxhdW5jaNIBAA?oc=5

2022-06-25 10:00:12Z
1470325919

Jumat, 24 Juni 2022

Five planets line up in rare planetary conjunction - BBC

A conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon in 2019Empics

Five major planets in our solar system are lined up in a row for a rare planetary conjunction visible with the naked eye.

In a clear sky, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be seen shining before dawn.

It's a special opportunity to see Mercury, which is usually obscured from view by the Sun's bright light.

The conjunction was brightest on Friday morning but will remain visible until Monday from most parts of the world.

The last time this conjunction happened was 2004 and it won't be seen again until 2040.

The planets appear "like a string of pearls spread out from close to the horizon", explains space scientist and chief stargazer at the Society for Popular Astronomy Prof Lucie Green.

It is also a special event because the planets appear in the order they are positioned from the sun.

That isn't always the case for planetary conjunctions because of our perspective from Earth looking into the solar system, Prof Green says.

On Friday a crescent Moon also joined the line-up, appearing between Venus and Mars.

Planetary conjunction

The northern hemisphere, including the UK, can get the best views between 45 and 90 minutes before sunrise. Look eastwards and very close to the horizon, ideally from a high spot like a hill. Large buildings or trees will obscure the view. You'll need to rise early, because as soon as the sun comes up it will wash out the sky, obscuring the planets.

But they can be seen with the naked eye - Prof Green advises sky-gazers not to use equipment like binoculars or telescopes because of the risk of looking directly into the Sun.

Start by looking for the planet furthest away, which is Saturn. Then count back through the planets until you find Venus, which is usually very bright.

The final planet in the line-up should then be Mercury. Prof Green says it took her many years to see it because it's a hard planet to spot. "It is very satisfying if you can see this faint twinkling planet," she says.

Observers in the tropics and the southern hemisphere should get better views because the planets will rise higher in the pre-dawn sky, but an early start will still be needed.

Banner saying 'Get in touch'

Did you take a photograph of the conjunction? Will you be trying to over the weekend? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your pictures.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiNWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy9zY2llbmNlLWVudmlyb25tZW50LTYxOTEwOTc30gE5aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvbS9uZXdzL3NjaWVuY2UtZW52aXJvbm1lbnQtNjE5MTA5NzcuYW1w?oc=5

2022-06-24 10:00:50Z
1471090051

This month in orbit: May's space science - ESA Science & Technology

Science & Exploration

24/06/2022 174 views 6 likes

Vital research into health, climate, materials and more continues with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and colleagues aboard the Space Station this month. Get up to date with what was on their schedule with May’s space science summary.

On 6 May 2022, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer made his return to Earth, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico and marking the end of his Cosmic Kiss mission, although post-flight debriefings and science data collection continue.

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s Minerva mission continues on the International Space Station. And this month she has been working with colleagues from around the world to conduct yet more fascinating science to benefit us here on Earth. Here’s a round-up of some of this month’s highlights.

Understanding the body

Investigating the ways in which microgravity affects the health of our astronauts is a very important part of research aboard the Space Station. Not only does it allow us to safely continue a sustained human presence in space, but it also gives unique insights into health conditions – and potential treatments – back on Earth.

This month, Samantha and her colleague Kjell Lindgren of NASA both conducted measurements for the Acoustic Diagnostics experiment. This study aims to look at the impact of noise aboard the Space Station and microgravity on hearing. Using specialised equipment, researchers are able to see how otoacoustic emissions (tiny sounds from inside the ear) may change over time in noisy environments.

Astronaut hearing test | Cosmic Kiss

The team also collected data for the ongoing Muscle Tone in Space experiment, Myotones. Astronauts train on gym equipment designed for space for at least one and a half hours a day to keep their muscles in great shape, even without gravity. The Myotones investigation looks at the biochemical properties of muscle during spaceflight, and could lead to new rehabilitation techniques, both for astronauts and the rest of us down here on Earth.

Keeping an eye on Earth

Despite some minor technical issues, data collection for the Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) continued throughout the month. ASIM studies severe thunderstorms and helps us understand the role they play in Earth’s atmosphere and climate. In the future, it may even help us understand more about how our atmosphere protects us from radiation, as well as make climate models more accurate.

Vegetation fighting land degradation in Mongolia

This month Samantha also took Cupola photos of several certificates for ESA’s own Climate Detectives. This youth project aims to stimulate curiosity about issues facing our climate in the next generation of scientists, and empower them to find solutions. She also captured photos of one such solution over China’s Kubuqi Desert on 6 June. More than 50% of the desert is now covered in vegetation following restoration efforts.

Building for the future

The Fluid Science Laboratory on the Space Station gets upgraded

The team aboard the Station also ran several experiments investigating the properties of materials in microgravity this month. Firstly, the FSL Soft Matter Dynamics PASTA experiment, which looks at the behaviour of emulsions in microgravity. Emulsions are used in a wide variety of industries on Earth, including food, cosmetics and even medicines. Understanding how they form and their dynamics will allow us to develop better, greener and healthier emulsion-based products and processes.

And it’s not just food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals that benefitted from space research this month. In May and June, astronauts also turned their attention to two studies focusing on alloys. Electro-Magnetic Levitator (EML) and Transparent Alloys experiments look at microstructure and formation of metallic alloy samples. Gathering these measurements helps us understand just what gives alloys their strength, flexibility and longevity.

Preparing to go further

The team on the International Space Station continue to build our capability to explore beyond our own planet. On 1 June, that took the form of Samantha controlling Justin, an Earth-based robot, from Earth orbit. This Surface Avatar experiment will help researchers understand how astronauts may be able to interact with robots on planets’ surfaces in future missions, and design protocols to make the process as easy as possible.

Surface Avatar

On 20 May, Samantha installed sample holders for the Matiss-3 experiment, which explores the antimicrobial properties of hydrophobic (or water repelling) surfaces in space. Because being in space lowers astronaut immune response, keeping their environment sanitary is incredibly important; this study will give us an idea of which materials can best keep pathogens at bay. It’s possible that in the future, the findings of this study may help us to create spacecrafts that are easier to keep clean, freeing up more astronaut time for vital research.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmVzYS5pbnQvU2NpZW5jZV9FeHBsb3JhdGlvbi9IdW1hbl9hbmRfUm9ib3RpY19FeHBsb3JhdGlvbi9UaGlzX21vbnRoX2luX29yYml0X01heV9zX3NwYWNlX3NjaWVuY2XSAQA?oc=5

2022-06-24 07:10:37Z
1474510098

Kamis, 23 Juni 2022

Wringing wet cloth in space: Astronaut demonstrates water's fascinating property - NewsBytes

Technology

Wringing wet cloth in space: Astronaut demonstrates water's fascinating property

Written by Dwaipayan Roy

Jun 23, 2022, 10:59 am 2 min read

Wringing wet cloth in space: Astronaut demonstrates water's fascinating property

A video showing astronaut Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, wringing a wet cloth in space has become popular on the internet. The video is originally from 2013, and it has gone viral after being recirculated on social media. The clip shows Hadfield wringing a wet towel. However, the water forms a tube around it instead of falling down. Here's why.

Why does this story matter?

  • In absence of gravity in space, all things appear weightless and it is fascinating to see how things behave differently than while on Earth.
  • Simple demonstrations in space also show how far humanity has come in understanding scientific concepts, something which is not possible on the ground.
  • And of course, science can be fun if explained in an interesting manner.

A brief history of the experiment

The wet towel experiment conducted by Hadfield in 2013, was designed by high school students from Nova Scotia. They won a national science contest conducted by the Canadian Space Agency. The astronaut claimed that the water from the towel stuck to his hand and had a gel-like texture. Meanwhile, the 'soaking wet' cloth stayed 'floating like a dog's chew toy.'

Why does water behave differently in space?

The answer is surface tension-the property that allows a liquid to resist an external force because of the cohesive nature of its molecules. And in the absence of gravity, the water's molecules stick together, creating a kind of liquid gel. Hence, when Hadfield squeezed the water out of the cloth, surface tension kept it sticking to the cloth or his hands.

Information

Lack of gravity in space also affects astronauts psychologically

The feeling of weightlessness in space also affects astronauts after they return to Earth. After coming back here, many of them drop things on the ground for some days as they forget that they are no longer in free fall.

Share this timeline

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiV2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5ld3NieXRlc2FwcC5jb20vbmV3cy9zY2llbmNlL3dldC1jbG90aC13cnVuZy1pbi1zcGFjZS1pbi12aXJhbC12aWRlby9zdG9yedIBAA?oc=5

2022-06-23 05:29:26Z
1477306035

Rabu, 22 Juni 2022

NASA successfully fuels rocket in upcoming Moon mission despite leak - Euronews

NASA’s mission to return man to the Moon has taken a big step forward, following a successful fuelling of its giant rocket and a countdown test.

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket test has been beset by delays, with technical and problems thwarting proposed tests in April this year, and financial problems pushing the ambitious project’s timeline back.

On Monday, the US space agency went ahead with the first fuelling of the rocket, despite another technical hitch - an external fuel line leak.

It was the fourth attempt at the crucial test - known as a wet dress rehearsal - which is the last major milestone before its launch debut.

Despite the fuel leak, NASA managers decided to go ahead with the countdown test at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson saying they wanted to see “how the team performed, how the hardware performed, and they both performed very well”.

Nearly 1 million gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen were loaded into the 98-metre rocket.

Blackwell-Thompson said it was too early to say what NASA's next step might be.

Man on the Moon by 2025

NASA’s Artemis programme is aiming to put humans back on the surface of the Moon by 2025.

The first uncrewed launch of the SLS is hoped to be later this year, before a scheduled space flight to orbit around the Moon with astronauts on board the Orion capsule in 2024.

The current timeline has the goal of landing astronauts from Orion in 2025.

The longer term goal of Artemis is to establish a permanent, sustainable presence on the lunar surface, which could then be used to prepare for missions to Mars and beyond.

Astronauts last walked on the Moon in 1972 during NASA’s Apollo programme. Artemis is Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMifWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmV1cm9uZXdzLmNvbS9uZXh0LzIwMjIvMDYvMjIvbmFzYS1zdWNjZXNzZnVsbHktZnVlbHMtcm9ja2V0LWluLXRlc3QtZm9yLXVwY29taW5nLW1pc3Npb24tdG8tdGhlLW1vb24tZGVzcGl0ZS1sZWFr0gEA?oc=5

2022-06-22 11:23:57Z
1470325919

Selasa, 21 Juni 2022

This Bizarre Terrain on Mars is Caused by Water Ice and Carbon Dioxide - Universe Today

From orbit, this landscape on Mars looks like a lacy honeycomb or a spider web. But the unusual polygon-shaped features aren’t created by Martian bees or spiders; they are actually formed from a ongoing process of seasonal change from created from water ice and carbon dioxide.

Polygonal dunes on Mars, as seen by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL/UArizona

The HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen a lot of polygon shapes in the years since 2006 when it went into orbit of Mars. The science team from HiRISE say that both water and carbon dioxide in the solid form of dry ice play a major role in sculpting Mars’ surface at high latitudes. Water ice frozen in the soil splits the ground into the polygon shapes. Then, dry ice sublimating from just under the surface when the ground warms in the spring creates even more erosion, creating channels around the boundaries of the polygons.

The polygons form over many years as the near-surface ice contracts and expands seasonally.

Spring fans and polygons on Mars, as seen by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona.

But this polygon-covered region shows even more springtime activity, evidenced by the blue fan-shaped features. Scientists say the layer of translucent dry ice coating the surface develops vents that allow gas to escape.

“The gas carries along fine particles of material from the surface further eroding the channels,” the team wrote on the HiRISE website. “The particles drop to the surface in dark fan-shaped deposits. Sometimes the dark particles sink into the dry ice, leaving bright marks where the fans were originally deposited. Often the vent closes, then opens again, so we see two or more fans originating from the same spot but oriented in different directions as the wind changes.”

Detailed image of large-scale crater floor polygons, caused by desiccation process, with smaller polygons caused by thermal contraction inside. The central polygon is 160 metres in diameter, smaller ones range 10 to 15 metres in width and the cracks are 5-10 metres across. Credit: NASA/JPL

Scientists study polygonally-patterned ground on Mars because these features help them understand the recent and past distribution of ices in the shallow subsurface, as well as provide clues about climate conditions.

And Mars isn’t the only place with polygons. Polygons can be found in Earth’s arctic and Antarctic regions, and the 2015 flyby by the New Horizons spacecraft revealed polygons on Pluto as well.

In the center left of Pluto’s vast heart-shaped feature – informally named “Tombaugh Regio” – lies a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains and has been informally named Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), after Earth’s first artificial satellite. The surface appears to be divided into polygon-shaped segments that are ringed by narrow troughs. Features that appear to be groups of mounds and fields of small pits are also visible. This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). Features as small as one-half mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. The blocky appearance of some features is due to compression of the image. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnVuaXZlcnNldG9kYXkuY29tLzE1NjM4MS90aGlzLWJpemFycmUtdGVycmFpbi1vbi1tYXJzLWlzLWNhdXNlZC1ieS13YXRlci1pY2UtYW5kLWNhcmJvbi1kaW94aWRlL9IBAA?oc=5

2022-06-21 15:32:45Z
CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnVuaXZlcnNldG9kYXkuY29tLzE1NjM4MS90aGlzLWJpemFycmUtdGVycmFpbi1vbi1tYXJzLWlzLWNhdXNlZC1ieS13YXRlci1pY2UtYW5kLWNhcmJvbi1kaW94aWRlL9IBAA

Plans well underway for 30th anniversary of Rotary Dream Home Lottery - EverythingGP

By Jeff Henson

DREAM HOME LOTTERY

Jun 21, 2022 | 9:59 AM

The Rotary Club of Grande Prairie has selected the builder and location of the grand prize for the 2023 Dream Home Lottery.

For the second time in the lottery’s 30-year history, Unique Home Concepts has been selected to design and build the home, which will once again be located in Taylor Estates.

Work on the home is already well underway, with windows having already been installed and work now underway on the interior.

Kelly Newbury of Unique Home Concepts says the home will see natural stone and wood touches merge with striking dark features and glass accents, to create a sophisticated, timeless and unique space.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiamh0dHBzOi8vZXZlcnl0aGluZ2dwLmNvbS8yMDIyLzA2LzIxL3BsYW5zLXdlbGwtdW5kZXJ3YXktZm9yLTMwdGgtYW5uaXZlcnNhcnktb2Ytcm90YXJ5LWRyZWFtLWhvbWUtbG90dGVyeS_SAQA?oc=5

2022-06-21 16:12:01Z
CBMiamh0dHBzOi8vZXZlcnl0aGluZ2dwLmNvbS8yMDIyLzA2LzIxL3BsYW5zLXdlbGwtdW5kZXJ3YXktZm9yLTMwdGgtYW5uaXZlcnNhcnktb2Ytcm90YXJ5LWRyZWFtLWhvbWUtbG90dGVyeS_SAQA

And Then the Sea Glowed a Magnificent Milky Green - Hakai Magazine

Article body copy

The sky was moonless and overcast, leaving no stars to steer by. Alone at the helm in the middle of the Arabian Sea, somewhere between Oman and India, I could see nothing in the ink-black night save for our ship’s dimly lit compass rolling on its gimbal mount as we heaved and swayed through three-meter seas. But half an hour into my shift, the sails above me began to glow, as if the moon had risen. But there was no moon, nor any stars or other ships. The light, it seemed, was coming from below and growing in intensity. Soon the entire ocean was glow-stick green, but muted, as if the light were shining through a sea of milk.

It was August 2010, and I’d been sailing for over two months by then, volunteering with the NGO the Biosphere Foundation to deliver the Mir, a 35-meter ketch they’d recently acquired in Malta, back to their home port in Singapore. During the voyage, I’d grown accustomed to the usual “sea sparkle” caused by dinoflagellates that ignite when the water is agitated, causing ribbons of light to twist off the Mir’s bow. But this was not that. This was the whole of the ocean, as far as I could see, glowing a uniform, opaque green. Despite the compass still wheeling in its mount, the light in the water created an optical illusion, making the sea appear perfectly calm, as if we were gliding through phosphorescent skies rather than roiling seas.

I woke the rest of the crew, and for over four hours we remained engulfed in this sea of green light, wonderstruck, with no idea what it was we were witnessing. Finally, a razor-sharp line appeared ahead of us where the lambent sea ended and blackness began. Crossing it, we left behind that numinous phantom world and re-entered a familiar one, though we could still see the gauzy green glow to our stern for another hour before it disappeared. It wasn’t until we arrived at port 10 days later that we would learn the name for the eerie phenomenon that had surrounded us: a milky sea.

the crew of the Mir pose on deck

In August 2010, author Sam Keck Scott and his crewmates were sailing in the Arabian Sea when they became some of the few people to witness a milky sea. Photo courtesy of Biosphere Foundation


For centuries, sailors have been describing milky seas, rare occurrences where enormous expanses of the ocean light up uniformly at night, at times stretching for tens of thousands of square kilometers, or more. W. E. Kingman, captain of the clipper Shooting Star, had this to say upon witnessing one in 1854: “The scene was one of awful grandeur; the sea having turned to phosphorus, and the heavens being hung in blackness, and the stars going out, seemed to indicate that all nature was preparing for that last grand conflagration which we are taught to believe is to annihilate this material world.”

A milky sea even made an appearance in Moby-Dick, where Melville describes a mariner sailing through a “shrouded phantom of the whitened waters” that were as “horrible to him as a real ghost.”

Neither our small crew, nor Melville or Kingman, knew what caused the seas to glow. In 2010, our crew had the benefit of living in a world far better charted by science than it had been in the 1800s, which may explain why Kingman and Melville’s mariner responded with god-struck terror, while we gawked in wonder, knowing that no matter how otherworldly this phenomenon may appear, it was clearly of this world.

Bioluminescence—the emission of light by a living organism—is common on our planet, and nowhere more so than in the oceans. Bioluminescent fish, tunicates, dinoflagellates, crustaceans, mollusks, jellyfish, and bacteria glow and flash across our seas at night. But milky seas, despite being so vast, are anything but common, and are thought to be caused by one of the smallest organisms in the ocean.

Every observation of a milky sea throughout history has been a chance encounter, as mine was, and only once did a vessel with any scientific research capabilities happen upon one, when the USS Wilkes steamed through a milky sea for three consecutive nights off the island of Socotra, Yemen, in 1985. Onboard the Wilkes was the late marine biologist David Lapota, who was working for the navy at the time studying bioluminescence. Lapota and his team of researchers sampled the water and discovered a profusion of the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio harveyia common, well-dispersed species known to luminesceattached to bits of algae, leading them to hypothesize that legions of this bacterium and potentially other bioluminescent bacterial species as well, are the cause of milky seas. This research, conducted nearly 40 years ago, remains the only time a milky sea was ever studied in the field.

bioluminescent glow in a flask

There are no existing photos of a milky sea in nature, but this sample of bioluminescing bacteria demonstrates the uniform glow of the phenomenon on a small scale. Photo courtesy of Steve Miller

Assuming scientists are correct that milky seas are caused by bacteria, a question remains: why? Unlike many organisms that evolved bioluminescence as a means to escape predation, bioluminescent bacteria want to be eaten—the inside of a fish’s gut provides a more reliable home than floating freely in the open ocean. But a lone bacterium is likely too small to get the attention of a fish on its own, so for their microscopic bioluminescence to express on a macroscale, they require strength in numbers. To work together, each bacterium releases a chemical signal to sense if other bacteria are nearby, and only once they’ve recognized a sufficient numberscientists hypothesize that it takes a population of somewhere between 10 and 100 million bacteria per milliliter of waterwill they begin to luminesce. This is a process called quorum sensing, and it may explain why milky seas form.

In areas of upwelling, such as the northwest Indian Ocean, where an abundance of nutrient-rich, decaying organic material—such as bits of decomposed crabs or even specks of long-dead whales—is pushed up to the surface from the depths, bacteria will find plenty to colonize. When these rich waters become isolated due to currents, or when distinct masses of water with differing salinities or temperatures meet and form physical fronts, they can prevent mixing, which in turn can result in a sort of concentrated stew—what scientists have dubbed “the natural flask hypothesis.” In this scenario, through quorum sensing, these bacteria set off a chemical glow that can become the largest display of bioluminescence on the planet.

This idea of a natural flask may help to explain why, when our boat first sailed into a milky sea, the light was diluted and nearly imperceptible, but when we exited it hours later, we crossed a distinct boundary. On one side of that particular event, the glowing and non-glowing waters were mixing, while on the other side, due to some sort of oceanic front, a wall-like barrier was being maintained between the specialized—and little understood—conditions that allow milky seas to form and those conditions that do not. This is but one of many things scientists hope to better understand by further studying milky seas in the field, which, thanks to a new generation of satellite technology, may soon be possible.

Steve Miller, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, has been part of a small group of scientists leading the effort to demystify milky seas for nearly 20 years, searching for them from the unlikeliest of places: Fort Collins, Colorado. He’s the first person to discover a milky sea from his office chair.

Miller contacted me shortly after I wrote a blog post about our experience sailing through a milky sea, excitedly informing me that our ship’s crew are among the few known people alive today to have ever witnessed one. Our brief correspondence left me feeling like a minor celebrity.

Miller first became interested in milky seas in 2004 while attending an American Meteorological Society conference. There, Miller and his colleagues considered whether it might be possible to observe any type of marine bioluminescence from space. It was assumed that any small-scale bioluminescence, such as sea sparkle, produces far too weak a light signal to be seen from so far away. But Miller, intrigued by the idea of studying the sea from space, did some research when he returned home and was struck to discover dozens of surprisingly consistent accounts of so-called milky seas given by mariners throughout the centuries. An atmospheric scientist by training, Miller wondered if he could use historical satellite data to locate one of these events. It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for: a detailed account of a milky sea seen by the crew of the SS Lima off the coast of Somalia on January 25, 1995. The account listed the exact coordinates and time when the boat had entered the luminous event. Using the heading and speed from the ship’s log, Miller was able to extrapolate the position of the Lima at the time the crew claimed to have exited the glowing waters six hours later. He plotted the points, the date, and the times on the image, and zoomed in on the grainy black-and-white photo. “It was all black,” he tells me.

Undeterred, Miller decided to scale the image down some more, searching through the noise of a photograph taken from over 800 kilometers away. Suddenly, a small structure appeared in the center of his computer screen that he at first mistook for a fingerprint smudge, but when he moved the image around, the smudge moved along with it. He zoomed in some more and a comma shape appeared in the waters off the Horn of Africa. When he once again overlaid the ship’s coordinates, they lined right up with the comma’s boundaries. “That’s when we realized we had something,” he says. The shape, larger than the state of Connecticut, was over 15,000 square kilometers of glowing bacteria.

“I’ve been hooked on that ever since,” says Miller, “because I realized I’d just seen a ghost.” Milky seas were more a part of novels and folklore than of scientific knowledge, he explains, but here they had the first-ever space-borne confirmation of a milky sea.

Since that initial discovery, a new generation of satellite technology has greatly improved Miller’s hunt for milky seas. Two satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership and the Joint Polar Satellite System—were launched in 2011 and 2017, respectively. These modern satellites, though not intended to search for milky seas, are equipped with specialized day/night band instruments that, at their extreme low end of sensitivity, can pick up something as dim as bioluminescence from space. Miller and his team have been combing through the imagery provided by these satellites ever since, having greatest success in the two areas of the globe where historical ship sightings of milky seas have been most prevalent: the northwest Indian Ocean, where 70 percent of all milky seas have been reported, and the waters surrounding Java, where 17 percent of sightings have occurred. In the past decade, Miller and his team have successfully identified a dozen milky seas via satellite imagery, the most significant of which was a 2019 event off the coast of Java spanning over 100,000 square kilometers—roughly the size of Iceland—which glowed continuously for at least 45 nights.

satellite images of milky seas off Java

Steve Miller, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, and his colleagues have identified the location of several milky seas by using satellite images acquired with the use of specialized day/night band instruments that can perceive bioluminescence from space. Photo courtesy of Steve Miller

Now that Miller and his team have confirmed that milky seas can last for weeks at a time, it opens up the possibility of deploying a research vessel to study one while it’s still glowing. Only then do they hope to be able to answer some of the many questions scientists still have about milky seas, including one of Miller’s favorites: how deep does the bioluminescence go down in the water column? Is it merely a surface slick of bacteria, as some scientists posit, or is it meters thick, or more? Considering scientists believe it takes upward of 100 million bacteria per cubic centimeter of water to begin glowing, the answer to this question could change the estimated number of bacteria involved in a milky sea by billions of trillions, or possibly even trillions of trillions.

When I first learned of Miller’s breakthrough research, part of me felt protective of the mystique of milky seas. Why must we humans insist on explaining everything? But as I learned more about what scientists believe might cause milky seas—about upwelling and natural flasks; about quorum sensing and the intentional, communal light made by trillions of bacteria—I realized that finding answers doesn’t necessarily correlate with diluting the wonder of such an event. If anything, it makes it that much more incredible.

Without understanding the world around us, we are all Captain Kingman, terrified by the sight of something we don’t recognize. Instead, we can be in awe of reality itself, knowing that whenever one question is answered, we’ve simply learned enough to ask a thousand more.

Adblock test (Why?)


https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiVWh0dHBzOi8vaGFrYWltYWdhemluZS5jb20vZmVhdHVyZXMvYW5kLXRoZW4tdGhlLXNlYS1nbG93ZWQtYS1tYWduaWZpY2VudC1taWxreS1ncmVlbi_SAQA?oc=5

2022-06-21 07:07:10Z
CBMiVWh0dHBzOi8vaGFrYWltYWdhemluZS5jb20vZmVhdHVyZXMvYW5kLXRoZW4tdGhlLXNlYS1nbG93ZWQtYS1tYWduaWZpY2VudC1taWxreS1ncmVlbi_SAQA