Space In General

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-9-block-5-boosters-great-condition-competitor-anxiety/

SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell has announced that the company’s upgraded Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket – debuted in May 2018 – is making its way through peak-stress launches, reentries, and landings in “much better shape than anticipated”, ultimately meaning that Falcon 9 booster refurbishment can now take as little as four weeks between flights.
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Here's a puzzle for our astronomers - apparently the sun was eclipsed on the same day by two objects traveling in different directions. Let's say one was the moon. What was the other?

 
Dotini
Here's a puzzle for our astronomers - apparently the sun was eclipsed on the same day by two objects traveling in different directions. Let's say one was the moon. What was the other?
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Also the moon. It didn't change direction, the satellite did, and was further away the second time 💡

There's about six hours between those two events, so with a hilariously crude and not to scale diagram, something like:

SDO_double_eclipse.png
 
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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More found.

http://tass.com/science/1021545
 
Our planet is about to experience one or two solar storms, which ordinarily would be minor, but this time could potentially produce serious problems in Earthly communications and power grids. The new problem is, Earth's magnetic shield is in a weakened condition, and may not be able to repel all but the most severe solar storms. We have been warned that something like this could happen, and may be about to find out how real it is.

...from today's issue of spaceweather.com:

A DOUBLE STREAM OF SOLAR WIND: Two holes in the sun's atmosphere are turning to face Earth, each spewing a stream of solar wind toward our planet. Estimated times of arrival: Oct. 4th and Oct 7th. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this false-color UV picture of the gaseous firehoses on Oct. 1st:

ch_strip.jpg


These are "coronal holes"--places in the sun's atmosphere where magnetic fields open up and allow solar wind to escape. They are dark because the glowing-hot plasma normally contained there is missing, now en route to Earth.

Solar wind spewing from the smaller hole (right) will arrive first, causing polar geomagnetic unrest but probably not a full-fledged geomagnetic storm. Solar wind escaping from the second, larger hole (left) will follow days later bringing a chance of G1-class storms. In both cases, equinox cracks in Earth's magnetic field will permit the solar wind to spark Arctic auroras. Free: Aurora Alerts.
 
SpaceX has a launch on Saturday Sunday (7:22pm PDT) from the Vandenberg AFB in California. I was hoping to be able to go but just can't make the financials work. This launch is significant in that it will be the first attempt to return a booster back to land at Vandenberg.

Hopefully LA doesn't freak out again since the launch time will likely make it look like that one from several months ago that had people talking. :P

Edit: Just slipped to Sunday, same time.
 
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I read about some moon being discovered in some far away solar system and the article said that it was "ten times bigger than the Earth", without specifying in what way. Is it ten times the radius? Ten times the cross section area? Ten times the volume?

It makes quite a big difference depending on how you measure "ten times", so I made this illustration showing the difference between three different definitions of "ten times bigger". The small planet represents the size of the Earth, while the bigger one represents a "ten times bigger".

biggerthanearth.png
 
eran0004
I read about some moon being discovered in some far away solar system and the article said that it was "ten times bigger than the Earth", without specifying in what way. Is it ten times the radius? Ten times the cross section area? Ten times the volume?
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Many times I see articles translate "massive" into physical size, and not how much mass something is comprised of. It might be 10 Earth masses, and if it is, it's unfortunate how common this mistake it made.

I think we might be able to rule out a radii measurement though. 10 Earth radii would be the size of Jupiter, which is about the maximize size for a non star (1 to ~80 Jupiter masses) so I think that would force it into being a binary planet, as Jupiter already pulls it's barycenter with the Sun beyond the Sun's surface if I remember right. Although maybe the definition of moon used in the article is off too.
 
R1600Turbo
Mission: success. Incredible video of the launch taken from Newport Beach, CA. The gas rings made by the RCS thrusters on the first stage are insane to watch.



43415075_1204184273053756_7225735897981911040_o.jpg


Do9BQDWU8AA8TIl.jpg:large
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That is both surreal and beautiful in equal measure. :eek:

The form of those gas rings against the dark sky make the thrusters look like they're on/in water.
 
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Artist's illustration of NASA's huge Space Launch System rocket in flight.
Credit: NASA

NASA's plans to get astronauts to the moon and Mars have slipped once again, by billions and by years.

It'll cost several billion dollars more than originally planned to get NASA's huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket off the ground, and that already-delayed first flight will probably end up being pushed back yet again, a new report by the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds.

NASA is counting on the two-stage SLS to launch astronauts toward deep-space destinations such as the moon and Mars. The giant rocket will also aid planetary exploration, helping robotic spacecraft reach distant targets in much less time than has hitherto been possible, agency officials have said.
https://www.space.com/42092-nasa-sls-rocket-delays-overruns-oig-report.html
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