Space In General

SpaceX has determined the cause of the Crew Dragon explosion in April.

https://www.spacex.com/news/2019/07...Otq7jx_IENgZPazpH5rTD26cVJslEoL3mR0NA4mQONj2k

Initial data reviews indicated that the anomaly occurred approximately 100 milliseconds prior to ignition of Crew Dragon’s eight SuperDraco thrusters and during pressurization of the vehicle’s propulsion systems. Evidence shows that a leaking component allowed liquid oxidizer – nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) – to enter high-pressure helium tubes during ground processing. A slug of this NTO was driven through a helium check valve at high speed during rapid initialization of the launch escape system, resulting in structural failure within the check valve. The failure of the titanium component in a high-pressure NTO environment was sufficient to cause ignition of the check valve and led to an explosion.
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As this week marks 50 years since Apollo 11 made history by landing on the Moon, NASA released this website which allows you to follow the mission from takeoff to splashdown in real-time, or start from T-minus one minute to launch:

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/

2 years in the making, it draws from the audio, video and photographic archives to create an accurate timeline of the 9-day mission in its entirety.
 
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Very interesting information from government on dangerous radiation in space:

COSMIC RAY UPDATE--NEW RESULTS FROM THE MOON: Note to astronauts: 2019 is not a good year to fly into deep space. In fact, it's shaping up to be one of the worst of the Space Age. One of the deepest Solar Minima of the past century is underway now. As the sun's magnetic field weakens, cosmic rays from deep space are flooding into the solar system, posing potential health risks to space travelers.

NASA is monitoring the situation with a radiation sensor in lunar orbit. The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) has been circling the Moon on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft since 2009. Researchers have just published a paper in the journal Space Weatherdescribing CRaTER's latest findings.


Above: An artist's concept of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

"The overall decrease in solar activity in this period has led to an increased flux of energetic particles, to levels that are approaching those observed during the previous solar minimum in 2009/2010, which was the deepest minimum of the Space Age," write the authors, led by Cary Zeitlin of NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center. "The data have implications for human exploration of deep space."

This always happens during Solar Minimum. As solar activity goes down, cosmic rays go up. The last two Solar Minima have been unusually deep, leading to high cosmic ray fluxes in 2008-2010 and again in 2018-2019. These are the worst years since humans first left Earth in the 1960s.

The latest data from CRaTER show cosmic ray fluxes almost doubling since 2015:


Above: Since 2015, the flux of cosmic rays at the Moon has nearly doubled. Another plot shows the complete CRaTER record starting in 2010.

"It's a bit counterintuitive," says one of the authors, Nathan Schwadron, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire. "Solar Minimum may actually be more dangerous than Solar Maximum."

In their paper, Zeitlin, Schwadron and co-authors describe an interesting experiment by NASA that highlights the relative peril of solar flares vs. cosmic rays. In 2011, NASA launched the Curiosity rover to Mars. Inside its spacecraft, the rover was protected by about as much shielding (20 gm/cm^2) as a human astronaut would have. A radiation sensor tucked inside kept track of Curiosity's exposure.

The results were surprising. During the 9-month journey to Mars, radiation from solar flares (including the strongest flare of the previous solar cycle) accounted for only about 5% of Curiosity's total dose. The remaining 95% came from cosmic rays.

As 2019 unfolds, Solar Minimum is still deepening. Cosmic rays haven't quite broken the Space Age record set in 2009-2010, but they're getting close, only percentage points from the highest values CRaTER has ever recorded.

"No one can predict what will happen next," says Schwadron. "However, the situation speaks for itself. We have to be prepared for strong cosmic rays."

A longer and sharable version of this story may be found here.
 
Surprised there isnt more posting on this thread to celebrate the anniversary of man's greatest achievemt.

I'll just pop this here.

 
NASA’s newest planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), has discovered three new worlds – one slightly larger than Earth and two of a type not found in our solar system – orbiting a nearby star. The planets straddle an observed gap in the sizes of known planets and promise to be among the most curious targets for future studies.

TESS Object of Interest (TOI) 270 is a faint, cool star more commonly identified by its catalog name: UCAC4 191-004642. The M-type dwarf star is about 40% smaller than the Sun in both size and mass, and it has a surface temperature about one-third cooler than the Sun’s. The planetary system lies about 73 light-years away in the southern constellation of Pictor.

The innermost planet, TOI 270 b, is likely a rocky world about 25% larger than Earth. It orbits the star every 3.4 days at a distance about 13 times closer than Mercury orbits the Sun. Based on statistical studies of known exoplanets of similar size, it's estimated that TOI 270 b has a mass around 1.9 times greater than Earth’s. Due to its proximity to the star, the planet's temperature is around 490 degrees Fahrenheit (254 degrees Celsius).

The other two planets, TOI 270 c and d, are, respectively, 2.4 and 2.1 times larger than Earth and orbit the star every 5.7 and 11.4 days. Although only about half its size, both may be similar to Neptune in our solar system, with compositions dominated by gases rather than rock, and they likely weigh around 7 and 5 times Earth’s mass, respectively.

All of the planets are expected to be tidally locked to the star, which means they only rotate once every orbit and keep the same side facing the star at all times, just as the Moon does in its orbit around Earth.

toi270rotatingplanets.gif

toi_270_v_jupiter_system.jpg



Meanwhile, the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a super hot planet shaped like an American football.

Observations reveal that magnesium and iron gas is streaming from the world outside our solar system known as WASP-121b. It's the first time that so-called "heavy metals" – elements heavier than hydrogen and helium – have been spotted escaping from a hot Jupiter: a large, gaseous exoplanet very close to its star. Normally, hot Jupiter-sized planets are still cool enough inside to condense heavier elements such as magnesium and iron into clouds. But because WASP-121b is orbiting so dangerously close to its star, its upper atmosphere reaches a blazing 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit (or just over 2,535 degrees Celsius), about 10 times greater than that of any known planetary atmosphere. The WASP-121 system resides about 900 light-years from Earth.

The artist rendition below depicts WASP-121b losing its "heavy metal" atmosphere:

stsci-h-p1919a-f-3840x2160.png


Ultraviolet light from the host star – which is brighter and hotter than the Sun – heats the upper atmosphere and helps lead to its escape. In addition, the escaping magnesium and iron gas make the atmosphere more opaque in the ultraviolet, which could be contributing to the heating of the upper atmosphere. The planet is so close to its star that it is on the cusp of being ripped apart by the star's gravity – the close proximity means that the planet is football shaped due to gravitational tidal forces.
 
Rocket Lab just announced that they will persue reusability for their rockets in the form of scooping them out of the air with a helicopter.

 
https://www.express.co.uk/news/scie...ross-the-universe-galaxy-multiverse-dark-flow

i have to admit this a bit exciting .the fact that a multiverse is becoming more of a reality as time goes on is so mind warping that im just over come with joy .

Now why would i be so happy about this if it is a fact ? well simply it could mean there is a infinite amount of universes and that would mean anything that could be possible is possible .

there could be another earth with us all on it , but with a different history and different outcomes for everyone and everything .

i also believe it would discount any notion of a god having a hand because a god would not be needed. nature would have created everything and anything we could dream of .


interesting time to be alive .
 
From today's edition of spaceweather.com:

160 YEARS AGO, A GEOMAGNETIC MEGA-STORM: Picture this: A billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) slams into Earth's magnetic field. Campers in the Rocky Mountains wake up in the middle of the night, thinking that the glow they see is sunrise. No, it's the Northern Lights. People in Cuba read their morning paper by the red illumination of aurora borealis. Earth is peppered by particles so energetic, they alter the chemistry of polar ice.

Hard to believe? It really happened--exactly 160 years ago. This map shows where auroras were sighted in the early hours of Sept. 2, 1859:



As the day unfolded, the gathering storm electrified telegraph lines, shocking technicians and setting their telegraph papers on fire. The "Victorian Internet" was knocked offline. Magnetometers around the world recorded strong disturbances in the planetary magnetic field for more than a week.

The cause of all this was an extraordinary solar flare witnessed the day before by British astronomer Richard Carrington. His sighting on Sept. 1, 1859, marked the discovery of solar flares and foreshadowed a new field of study: space weather. According to a NASA-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences, if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause a trillion dollars in damage to society's high-tech infrastructure and require years for complete recovery. http://spaceweathergallery.com/
 
Dotini
From today's edition of spaceweather.com:

160 YEARS AGO, A GEOMAGNETIC MEGA-STORM: Picture this: A billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) slams into Earth's magnetic field. Campers in the Rocky Mountains wake up in the middle of the night, thinking that the glow they see is sunrise. No, it's the Northern Lights. People in Cuba read their morning paper by the red illumination of aurora borealis. Earth is peppered by particles so energetic, they alter the chemistry of polar ice.

Hard to believe? It really happened--exactly 160 years ago. This map shows where auroras were sighted in the early hours of Sept. 2, 1859:



As the day unfolded, the gathering storm electrified telegraph lines, shocking technicians and setting their telegraph papers on fire. The "Victorian Internet" was knocked offline. Magnetometers around the world recorded strong disturbances in the planetary magnetic field for more than a week.

The cause of all this was an extraordinary solar flare witnessed the day before by British astronomer Richard Carrington. His sighting on Sept. 1, 1859, marked the discovery of solar flares and foreshadowed a new field of study: space weather. According to a NASA-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences, if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause a trillion dollars in damage to society's high-tech infrastructure and require years for complete recovery.
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Fascinating story, it reminded me of this classic Simpsons skit:



"Aurora Borealis!? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your kitchen?"
 
THE RETURN OF STEVE: Sky watchers are still sorting out all the things they saw during last weekend's "Labor Day" geomagnetic storm. Upon further review, not every light in the sky was the aurora borealis. There was also STEVE:



"STEVE put on a good show," reports Lauri Kangas, who photographed the luminous purple ribbon cutting across the sky over Fort Frances, Ontario. "The display lasted for more than 90 minutes."

STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) looks like an aurora, but it is not. The phenomenon is caused by hot (3000°C) ribbons of gas flowing through Earth's magnetosphere at speeds exceeding 6 km/s (13,000 mph). These ribbons appear during some geomagnetic storms, revealing themselves by their soft purple glow.

Earlier this year, researchers led by Toshi Nishimura of Boston University published an important paper about STEVE. Using data from NASA's THEMIS spacecraft, they located STEVE's power source: Magnetic explosions called 'substorms' more than 22,000 km above Earth's surface hurl streams of hot plasma toward Earth. When the material reaches an altitude ~250 km above Earth's surface, it begins to emit a mauve light.

There's more. THEMIS data showed that the same explosions can spray energetic electrons toward Earth. These electrons move even deeper into the atmosphere, all the way down to 100 km, where they ignite a form of green auroras called "the picket fence." Indeed, many sky watchers saw the picket fence beneath STEVE over Labor Day weekend:

picketfence_strip.jpg


"The green pickets underneath STEVE were quite distinct," says Bruce Smith who took this picture from Thorhild, Alberta.

Nishimura's study showed that STEVE and the green pickets are inextricably connected. "They are two different manifestations of a single magnetic explosion high above Earth," explains Nishimura. "The picket fence is an aurora. STEVE is not. Nevertheless, they are linked."

The colors of the display are only partially understood. Picket fences are green because of oxygen, which emits green photons when it is pummeled by energetic electrons. The purple color of STEVE ... is still a mystery. "We are looking at this more closely in a follow-up study," says Nishimura. "We suspect that nitrogen is involved, but we are not yet certain."

Ready for more? Good news. The season for STEVE is now. Studies show that STEVE tends to occur more frequently during spring and fall than summer and winter. The onset of northern autumn, only weeks away, seems to lure the arc out of summer hiding. Stay tuned. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
 
They're getting closer to stacking everything together for the presentation on Saturday. This has become my new favorite thing:



24/7 close up live stream of the activities. Mk1 Starship should be standing tall sometime on Thursday.

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Sorry for triple post but here is the link to the live stream for the Starship presentation later today. 5:00pm PDT, 8:00pm EDT. Edit: 6:00pm PDT / 9:00pm EDT

 
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From today's edition of Spaceweather.com:

MAGNETIC VIBRATIONS: What happens when a stream of solar wind traveling 1.5 million mph hits Earth's magnetic field? The magnetic field vibrates. In Preston, UK, Stuart Green has been monitoring this weekend's solar wind event using a magnetometer in his backyard:



"Earth's magnetic field has definitely been vibrating in response to a stream of fast flowing solar wind racing from a large coronal hole," says Green.

Indeed, the wild swings on his plot are the textbook definition of a geomagnetic storm--in this case, category G1. They are the magnetic manifestation of auroras dancing at the same time around Arctic Circle.

"The sensor is buried in my garden about 0.5 meters below the surface in an East/West orientation," he explains. "This allows very sensitive (sub nanotesla) measurements of magnetic declination during geomagnetic storms. The plot shows the change in magnetic flux density in nanotesla occurring between readings every few minutes."
 

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