Space In General

Dotini
Sequential rotational views. It is said to rate in retrograde.



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Balok's Cube?
Baloks cube.jpg
 
Johnnypenso
Balok's Cube?View attachment 748510
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Okay, NOW we may be getting somewhere! :lol: Balok's Cube was a "corbomite"-coated warning device, IIRC my Star Trek. Ryugu may have roughly analogous properties. Parts of it may glow and may give off radiation, and does intersect Earth's orbit. It is challenging us to explain its crystalline shape and other curious properties - before it's too late! :eek:

Where oh where is Mr Spock when we need him? :confused:

Well, Mr Spock is gone, but the Japanese undoubtedly will shed new light on their mystery rock in short order. :cool:
 
Also: SpaceX is now targeting a launch in September that could be the first to use the landing platform at Vandenberg which is approximately 1200ft from the launch pad.

 
Strong lights currently coming from Mars, from today's edition of space weather.com. The Red Planet is enveloped in a world-wide storm, with green, blue and yellow hues being seen.

MARTIAN GREEN FLASH: Mars is approaching Earth for a 15-year close encounter on July 27th. The Red Planet now outshines every object in the sky except the sun, Moon, and Venus. Mars is doing things only very luminous objects can do--like produce a green flash. Watch this video taken by Peter Rosén of Stockholm, Sweden, on July 12th:


"Mars was shining brightly in the early morning sky," he says. "At an altitude of only 6.5° above the horizon, the turbulence was extreme, sometimes splitting the planet's disc in 2 or 3 slices and displaying a green and blue flash resembling those usually seen on the sun."

That's not all. Mars is also making its own glitter paths. Last night, Alan Dyer photographed this specimen from Driftwood Beach at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta:



A glitter path is a band of light in the water. It is caused by reflections from the troughs and crest of tiny waves. Normally, only the sun and Moon (and sometimes Venus and Jupiter) produce glitter paths. Now Mars is doing it too.

Dyer notes that Mars was "bright yellow"--a hue caused in part by the massive global dust storm in progress there. Think about it: A dust storm on another planet that you can see with your naked eye. Mars is close.

Still two weeks before closest approach, Mars is almost 3 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and 30% brighter than the giant planet Jupiter. In other words, you can't miss it. Look south at midnight and remember, the best is yet to come. [sky map]
 
Dotini
Strong lights currently coming from Mars, from today's edition of space weather.com. The Red Planet is enveloped in a world-wide storm, with green, blue and yellow hues being seen.

MARTIAN GREEN FLASH: Mars is approaching Earth for a 15-year close encounter on July 27th. The Red Planet now outshines every object in the sky except the sun, Moon, and Venus. Mars is doing things only very luminous objects can do--like produce a green flash. Watch this video taken by Peter Rosén of Stockholm, Sweden, on July 12th:


"Mars was shining brightly in the early morning sky," he says. "At an altitude of only 6.5° above the horizon, the turbulence was extreme, sometimes splitting the planet's disc in 2 or 3 slices and displaying a green and blue flash resembling those usually seen on the sun."

That's not all. Mars is also making its own glitter paths. Last night, Alan Dyer photographed this specimen from Driftwood Beach at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta:



A glitter path is a band of light in the water. It is caused by reflections from the troughs and crest of tiny waves. Normally, only the sun and Moon (and sometimes Venus and Jupiter) produce glitter paths. Now Mars is doing it too.

Dyer notes that Mars was "bright yellow"--a hue caused in part by the massive global dust storm in progress there. Think about it: A dust storm on another planet that you can see with your naked eye. Mars is close.

Still two weeks before closest approach, Mars is almost 3 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and 30% brighter than the giant planet Jupiter. In other words, you can't miss it. Look south at midnight and remember, the best is yet to come. [sky map]
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Fascinating. What "midnight" would that be? PDT? GMT UCT?
 
BobK
Fascinating. What "midnight" would that be? PDT? GMT UCT?
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Any :) But ignore daylight savings. Roughly speaking, when your bit of the world is facing as far away from the sun as it can, it's currently facing so you can see Mars looking south. 'Midnight' is actually in your local Solar time, which is a bit tricky to calculate. Local Mean Time is easily calculated from just your longitude though.
 
Cosmic rays entering Earth's atmosphere have increased 18% in less than 4 years. This is due largely to weakening magnetic fields around the Sun and Earth. Potential adverse affects include additional radiation exposure to airline crews and passengers, and even those on the ground to a lesser degree. Potential effects yet to be verified include weather and climate, with increased lightning, clouds (and rain).

from today's edition of spaceweather.com,
ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION UPDATE: As the sunspot cycle declines, we expect cosmic rays to increase. Is this actually happening? The answer is "yes." Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been monitoring cosmic radiation in the atmosphere with frequent high-altitude balloon flights over California. Here are the latest results, current as of July 2018:


Above: X-ray/gamma-ray dose rates in the stratosphere over California. Energy range: 10 keV - 20 MeV

The data show radiation levels intensifying with an approximately 18% increase in monthly averages since March 2015. This comes as sunspot counts have dipped to a ~10-year low in June and July 2018.

Cosmic rays are the subatomic debris of dying stars, accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions. They travel across the galaxy and approach Earth from all directions, peppering our planet 24/7. When cosmic rays crash into Earth's atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles and photons that is most intense at the entrance to the stratosphere. This secondary spray is what we measure.


Above: An artist's rendering of secondary cosmic rays. [more]

Sunspots and cosmic rays have a yin-yang relationship. At the peak of the sunspot cycle, strong solar magnetic fields and solar wind hold many cosmic rays at bay. During solar minimum, however, the sun's magnetic field weakens and the outward pressure of the solar wind decreases. This allows more cosmic rays from deep space to penetrate the inner solar system and our planet's atmosphere.

The increase is widespread. Every place in the USA where we have launched multiple balloons exhibits the same pattern. There are upward trends from coast to coast:



The plot, above, shows more than 150 stratospheric radiation measurements we have made using balloons flown over the continental USA. Because California is our home base, it is more densely sampled than other states. Adding additional points outside California remains a key goal of the monitoring program.

How do cosmic rays affect us? Cosmic rays penetrate commercial airlines, dosing passengers and flight crews so much that pilots are classified as occupational radiation workers by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). According to a recent study from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, flight attendants face an elevated risk of cancer compared to members of the general population. The investigators listed cosmic rays among several risk factors. Weather and climate may also be affected, with some research linking cosmic rays to to the formation of clouds and lightning.

In August-December 2018 we will conduct a new campaign of coordinated balloon launches from the USA (including sites in California, Washington, Kansas, Oregon, and Maine), Chile, and New Zealand to further probe the evolving cosmic ray situation. As solar activity declines we expect to find increasing radiation around the globe. Stay tuned for updates.
 
Another successful launch and landing on Tuesday morning. (Monday night on the west coast) The is the first Block 5 booster to have flown twice, and it will have a quick turnaround for a 3rd launch by the end of the year. Making it the first booster to have flown that many times. A lot of great stuff coming before the end of the year including the first RTLS landing at Vandenberg in California and the in-flight abort test which should be pretty spectacular.

Couple cool photos. First one has Mars visible at the top, and the second shows the launch trail with the landing burn from the first stage on the horizon.

Merah Putih by Official SpaceX Photos, on Flickr
Merah Putih by Official SpaceX Photos, on Flickr
 
TexRex
Related to the above, I caught this this evening.
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I am very enthusiastic and hopeful for the success of this mission. It won't be easy. The Parker Solar Probe has the potential to make new and useful measurements of the Sun. But, once close enough to the Sun, its lifespan may be measured in days rather the years of probes to planets and other missions in the solar system. IMHO, the Sun has mysteries and questions that are extremely important to solve. The Parker probe is part of NASA's "Living with a Star" program to understand "how and why the Sun varies, how the Earth and Solar System respond, and how the variability and response affects humanity in Space and on Earth". Hats off to 91 year old Eugene Parker, the only living scientist for whom NASA has named a mission, and to the scientists and engineers of the mission and program.
https://lws.gsfc.nasa.gov
 
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Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com.

On Aug. 13, 2018, the network reported 214 fireballs.
(135 Perseids, 72 sporadics, 3 , 2 Northern delta Aquariids, 1 Southern delta Aquariid, 1 Piscis Austrinid)





In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies]
 
From today's edition of spaceweather.com

GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY CONTINUES: A moderately-strong G2-classgeomagnetic storm is underway on Aug. 27th as our planet enters a stream of high-speed solar wind. The gaseous material is flowing from a northern hole in the sun's atmosphere. Earth's magnetic field was already reverberating from a strong geomagnetic storm that erupted over the weekend. The addition of this solar wind stream sets the stage for a new round of Arctic auroras tonight. Free: Aurora Alerts.

ELECTRICITY FLOWS THROUGH THE SOIL OF NORWAY: When a geomagnetic storm erupts, most eyes naturally turn to the sky, looking for auroras. But during the surprisingly strong G3-class geomagnetic storm of Aug. 26th, there was action underfoot as well. Probes buried in the ground in Norway detected strong currents of electricity moving through the soil. This chart recording made by Rob Stammes at the Polarlightcenter in Lofoten shows wild swings in current during the storm's peak:



"The currents were remarkably strong," says Stammes, who has been monitoring ground currents outside his Arctic observatory for many years. "During the magnetic storm, voltages surged to 10mv/m or 10v/km. That's about 10 times stronger than normal. These are pretty rare readings without a strong solar flare during solar minimum."

Why does electricity flow through the ground during a geomagnetic storm? It's basic physics. Changing magnetic fields cause currents to flow in wires and other conductors. In most places, soil can conduct electricity due to the presence of dissolved salts and minerals. So when the local magnetic field begins to vibrate, electricity naturally begins to flow. Currents induced by geomagnetic storms can cause voltage fluctuations in power systems and in rare cases complete blackouts.
 
Russia has said that a hole found on the International Space Station, originally believed to be caused by a micrometeorite, was in fact drilled deliberately.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science...ce-station-drilled-deliberately-says-russian/

hole_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqoJMSS42UrjVvCRDJBkUrI0eMKOEZjO1BJIXDI1j8sYE.PNG


It's possible that the hole was drilled on the ground accidentally and has, over time, become unplugged and caused a leak. Another hypothesis is that a 'mentally unstable' or homesick astronaut drilled the hole purposefully.
 
Touring Mars
Russia has said that a hole found on the International Space Station, originally believed to be caused by a micrometeorite, was in fact drilled deliberately.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science...ce-station-drilled-deliberately-says-russian/

hole_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqoJMSS42UrjVvCRDJBkUrI0eMKOEZjO1BJIXDI1j8sYE.PNG


It's possible that the hole was drilled on the ground accidentally and has, over time, become unplugged and caused a leak. Another hypothesis is that a 'mentally unstable' or homesick astronaut drilled the hole purposefully.
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It looks as though there are numerous drill starts and other random tool marks in that area, as if some knucklehead was taking beginning metal shop practice. Who was the contractor for that module?
 
Rational thinking does indeed suggest that it was a manufacturing error that has expanded over time.

However the other prospect doesn't sound too appealing to contemplate... get all the crew round a table and send Poirot up there on the double!
 
From today's edition of spaceweather.com,

EQUINOX CRACKS ARE OPENING IN EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD: The northern autumnal equinox is only 2 weeks away. That means one thing: Cracks are opening in Earth's magnetic field. Researchers have long known that during weeks around equinoxes fissures form in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind can pour through the gaps to fuel bright displays of Northern Lights. It just happened in Yellowknife, Canada:



"On Sept. 5-6, we could see auroras in the sky all night long, with a bright outburst of pink shortly after midnight," says photographer Yuichi Takasaka.

During the display, a weak stream of solar wind was blowing around Earth. At this time of year, that's all it takes. Even a gentle gust can breach our planet's magnetic defenses.

This is called the the "Russell-McPherron effect," named after the researchers who first explained it. The cracks are opened by the solar wind itself. South-pointing magnetic fields inside the solar wind oppose Earth's north-pointing magnetic field. North and South partially cancel one another, opening a crack. This cancellation can happen at any time of year, but it happens with greatest effect around the equinoxes. Indeed, a 75-year study shows that September is one of the most geomagnetically active months of the year–a direct result of "equinox cracks."

Stay tuned for more Arctic lights as autumn approaches.
 

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