Voyager 1 and 2 still alive!!!! 38,000 mph!

[amazinblue82]

Iconic Ring Nebula, Webb vs. Hubble. 2,200 LY from Earth (that pretty close, you can see it with binoculars), a red giant in its death throes.

sources: Webb Reveals Intricate Details in the Remains of a Dying Star – James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble image of the Ring Nebula (Messier 57)

Webb on the left, Hubble on the right.

 

[amazinblue82]

To me, Webb's been a little quiet past few weeks ... something on supernovae was neat, but "wonky".

Something new (old topic) today. Part of the purpose we parked it out there.

Looking for "specific" types of exoplanets, in the "Goldilocks zone distance from its sun so that, IF it had a atmosphere, and IF it had water, then temperature could allow for that water to exist ON the surface as a liquid.

"K2-18 b" is 120 LY away from here, almost nine times size of Earth, and some indications it COULD have water on the surface.

A few more "ifs" have to be satisfied, but sum it up, any chance to see IF life like we know it here (certainly not H. Sapiens like us -- contact with sentient beings may NEVER occur, either cuz there are none, or their technology is no better than ours, etc., ) could some other place way out here in the vastness.

You can nerd out at link. Artist's conception shown -- though last year Jimbo took a pic of a different exoplanet (below the line below)

Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18 b

---

---

BELOW

For comparison, Jimbo DID take ITS first pic of an exoplanet last year. Magnificent achievement, but this is best resolution we could get.

The planet "(HIP 65426 b") is the orange "blob" in top photo .. same but different colors in lower photos. The "star" is put there to mask the "patch" where the REAL star ("HIP 65426)" is .. that was "blocked" for the image.

We have the issue that exoplanets are FAR away, very small relative to their stars, and very DIM. Best we can get is a few pixels.

“The Webb Space Telescope Snaps Its First Photo of an Exoplanet,” by Jonathan O’Callaghan, WIRED.com | News | Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics | The University of Chicago

 

[SPF Required]

9x the size of earth. If that place does have bipeds like us, I would imagine they would have to be huge to stave off the effects of the extra gravity.

Would 9x the size essentially be the same as ‘9Gs’ on the surface?

 

[amazinblue82]

9x the size of earth. If that place does have bipeds like us, I would imagine they would have to be huge to stave off the effects of the extra gravity.

Would 9x the size essentially be the same as ‘9Gs’ on the surface?

I used to know this formula, but yes, generally, you will weigh more on a more massive planet, and less on a less massive one, than Earth.

My recollection, though, is its not directly proportional, and you need to have the exact mass one planet vs. another.

"Mass" is same no matter where we are. "Weight" depends on gravity, in the specific circumstance, acting on a given mass.

Stated another way, ON a given planet, yes, mass and weight ARE directly proportional.

But .. we start comparing one planet to another, we FIRST have to do a gravity calculation on each (a 9x mass "gas" planet may NOT HAVE 9x the gravity of a "rock" planet due to density/unit of mass of gas vs. rock) , THEN do a weight calculation and compare the results. Likely WONT be directly proportional.

Planets in order of mass

Here's a calculator .. enter your weight on earth, and you can compare to the planets. Here's the nerd version detailing the calculation & related considerations:
How Do We Weigh Planets? | NASA

Examples:

. If you weigh 200 lbs on Earth, you'd weigh 500 lbs on Jupiter. Jupiter, however, is like 300 times more massive than Earth, WAY bigger in circumference. But .. its mostly gas (you really can't even stand on it .. no solid surface), while Earth is a big, dense arse ROCK. its WAY more dense but WAY less massive than Jupiter .

. Earth is 80 times more massive than the Moon, but your 200 lbs here would be 33 lbs there.

. Uranus different yet again. 14 times more massive than Earth, but your 200 lbs here would be 177 lbs there. Again, Uranus is a big ball of gas, so like Jupiter, it also does NOT have a solid surface to stand on.

. For sh**ts & giggles, say you could stand on a neutron star, it might be only 10 (yes, "ten") miles across vs. Earth at 8,000 miles across, but your 200 lbs here would be 28 TRILLION lbs there. Might need your "walker" to get around .


So, directional, generally, but not exactly proportional. Depends on specific, gravimetrics of wherever you are.

weight calculator

 

[amazinblue82]

Interesting from Webb. 1,000 LY from Earth.

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-141, HH 211: Laser-Sharp Jet Splits Water

A protostar (a baby star, in very early stage, AFTER gravity IN the dust cloud collapsed to form it) shooting off "jets (their solar wind)" of material that is illuminating the rest of the gas left in the cloud.

There also might be enough material around for a planetary "disk" out of which planets might form. Alll that could take hundreds of millions of years - we wont see it.

The protostar(s) are not yet anywhere near the brightness (if it ultimately has enough mass to start fusion .. it doesn't yet which is why its NOT shining) of more mature stars.

They think, given the shape of the "jet", there may be TWO protostars doing what we are seeing. That fits the general observation that a lot of stars in the Universe are binary. If our Sun has a partner, we haven't found it yet tho.

You can nerd out at the link. Again you can see below the magnificent Hubble's take on this same protostar system.

 

[amazinblue82]

Long story, literally and figuratively.

Headlines screaming today: "Asteroid size of Eiffel Tower Might Hit Earth .. on September 24, 2182". Ok, gotcha to click.

You go on to read about the OSIRIS-REx, launched 2016 to fly out and sample (yes, land on, dig in, and take off with some dirt) the asteroid Bennu.

Bennu

OSIRIS-Rex (artist's conception) out at Bennu

Why that one?

Bennu is a earth orbit-crosssing rock, (an asteroid) going around the Sun like the Earth, therefore possible, NON-zero chance to collide with us someday.

Plus, at approximately (we think) some age as Earth (4.5 billion years old), its virgin material to see what the original version of Earth is made of (i.e., the same dust cloud that made Earth ALSO made this asteroid.)

You can read/nerd out about it all NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return to Earth: Live updates, Osiris-Rex: Asteroid Bennu's journey back to our origins', google.com/search, https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/osiris-rex-first-views-asteroid-bennu/

This Sunday (in two days), the part of OSIRIS-REx carrying the sample from Bennu, is "throwing" (actually a fascinating techical and mathematical achievement) a small capsule back to Earth that will land in Utah.

Pic imediately below is from Washington Post article, showing an example of what's landing this Sunday from OSIRIS-REx.

A lot to chew on. if you're just catching up with this story.

A few points:

Will Bennu hit Earth in 159 years? If a couple HIGHLY UNLIKELY gravity-related things happen, odds are 1 in 2,700. Don't fall for the hype in any event.

If it did collide with us, would it kill the planet? No, its nowhere big enough. It could wipe out a huge city .. the force would be like 24 nuclear bombs. That's bad -- but it won't be like the one that killed the dinosaurs, and almost everything else here 66 million years ago.

So, we bring the Bennu dirt (9 ounces) back here and drop it in Utah, open it up, are we talking Andromeda Strain (classic 1971 movie on every sci-fi fans must see/repeat list)?. HIGHLY UNLIKELY, but not zero. I ain't losing sleep over it. We might learn something cool.

---

---

15 minutes, we';ll see if it touches down in Utah

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/24/1201386042/watch-live-nasa-sends-an-asteroid-sample-back-to-earth

"After traveling billions (nearly 4) of miles for seven years to touch an asteroid and bring a sample home, NASA's Osiris-REx mission has finally sent its precious contents hurtling toward Earth's atmosphere.

The spacecraft successfully released a sample canister holding about a cupful asteroid rock on as it passed within 63,000 miles of the planet's surface, officials announced Sunday morning.

The main part of OSIRIS0-Rex kept going and it on its way to visit another nearly asteroid called Apophis,

In the canister should be roughly a coffee mug's worth of rock and other material collected from the asteroid Bennu, which at the time was more than 200 million miles away.

That single serving of space rock will mark the biggest haul of extraterrestrial material brought back by any nation on Earth since the Apollo astronauts carried pieces of the moon home, and the culmination of NASA's first attempt to bring samples of an asteroid back to Earth."

---

TOUCHDOWN. 10:52 am EDT, three minutes early.

Seven years, a billion miles round-trip. The blackened thing, standing on its nose, is the capsule with the Bennu asteroid ample.

OSISRIS-REx "threw it" at the Earth, early this morming, came in at 27,000 MPH and 82 miles up, heat shield (hopefully) protected it from atmospheric friction, parachutes then slowed capsule down to 10 (ten) MPH, and there it sits.

Again, if you wanna nerd out, the orbital mechanics/mathematics, was all calculated EIGHT years ago .. to do all that flying/gravitational stuff, and then bring it back home, and only miss that future date/time of return by 3 minutes.

Extraordinary achievement really. Bennu is moving, we are moving, Earth is spinning, whole solar system is orbiting a black hole at the Milky Way center. WooHoo.

First time we (humans), have done this with an asteroid. In concept same as bringing stuff back from moon, but THIS is much different stuff.. Same age is Earty/Moon system but more "virgin" that either Earth or Moon.

With basic mathematics worked out by Isaac Newton 400 years ago.

 

[amazinblue82]

Webb doin' it's thing. Carbon in the ocean of another place in the solar system.

---

I have had a running bet with fellow nerds in my circle for 30 years now. First place we find life -- likely simple, single cell stuff -- was gonna be on a Jupiter moon. Europa, in particular. I feel a "win" .. a grande latte (used to be a Dunkin Donuts coffe) coming my way.

So it looks like the carbon ORIGINATES in the suspected ocean. Thats interesting and kinda big deal if really the case. And life as we know it IS carbon-based.

The arrows are lining up, pointed to Europa. No LGM's, but "life" nonetheless - hopefully. We're going soon, not to find "Hal" gone mad and warning us NOT to, but to do some real science.

NASA's Europa Clipper

---

Anyway, here's Webb's latest finding.

NASA’s Webb Finds Carbon Source on Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa

 

[Turboomni]

Nasa news

 

[3175375]

Putting the pieces together…

First RS-25 engine installed on Artemis II Moon rocket

 

[amazinblue82]

NCG 346, a star-forming region in infrared with Webb, then Hubble in visible light. Webb's findings suggest there IS more dust, capable of more stars able to produce HEAVY metals (stuff we are make of) when they supernova.

Translation .. Webb is finding, among the places we've been looking at for 60 years, MORE of the ingredients that MUST have been in the dust disk, and wound up in the planetary materials, that formed our Solar system.

Still hasn't found "life" yet, but its many years from EOM ..if any life, BTW, is out there (check out an oldie but a goodie" the Fermi Paradox - basically "Where are all the Aliens?)

Excerpt

"The latest example, showcased here in a new image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), is NGC 346 – the brightest and largest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud.

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, visible to the unaided eye in the southern constellation Tucana.

This small companion galaxy is more primeval than the Milky Way in that it possesses fewer heavy elements, which are forged in stars through nuclear fusion and supernova explosions, compared to our own galaxy."

sources: NASA’s Webb Captures an Ethereal View of NGC 346 - NASA, NGC 346

Webb

Hubble

 

[amazinblue82]

I missed this one.

Lot going on here. Three pics of the same thing. NGC_6822, the largest NON-satellite galaxy of the Milky way local group.

excerpt:

"NGC 6822 (also known as Barnard's Galaxy, IC 4895, or Caldwell 57) is a barred irregular galaxy approximately 1.6 million light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

Part of the Local Group of galaxies, it was discovered by E. E. Barnard in 1884, with a six-inch refractor telescope. It is the closest non-satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, but lies just outside its virial radius. It is similar in structure and composition to the Small Magellanic Cloud."

It is about 7,000 light-years in diameter.

---

Three images of NCG 6822.

Each one is about the same size .. the very center of each pic IS the galaxy, white-ish from the ground telescope, pinkish for Hubble, just red wisps of gas from Webb.

First, Webb showing off in infrared and magnificent clarity. Every dot is a star, some closer in, some further away, old ones, new ones, or some are even gigantic, distant galaxies themselves.

So, In a little, bitty patch of sky (just a few arc seconds across), its like that in EVERY DIRECTION we look.

Webb is looking AT, and THROUGH, NGC_6822 cuz infrared cuts THOUGH the dust.

source: ttps://esawebb.org/images/potm2309a/

---

Hubble view, below, of NCG 6822: source https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2001/39/1126-Image.html

---

same galaxy, below, from one of the best ground-based telescopes based in Chile. It might have better eyesight than Hubble, but you need a really CLEAR night (good weather) to get a shot this clear/ from the ground.

source: NGC 6822 - Wikipedia

 

[Turboomni]

Parker Solar probe broke it's own speed record and will again.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe smashes record for fastest man-made object

NASA's Parker Solar Probe smashes record for fastest man-made object​

News
By Brandon Specktor, Tia Ghose
published 4 days ago
NASA's Parker Solar Probe has reached a record-breaking speed as it gets a gravitational assist from Venus to fall closer to the sun's scorching surface.

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Comments (0)

An artist's illustration of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the sun. (Image credit: NASA)


The NASA Parker Solar Probe has become the fastest human-made object ever recorded — again.

On Sept. 27, the probe reached a blistering 394,736 mph/ (635,266 km/h) as it swooped close to the sun's surface, thanks to a little gravity assistance from a close flyby of Venus on Aug. 21. . With this blistering approach to the sun, the probe smashed its own previous speed record of 364,660 mph (586,863 kmh), set in Nov. 2021. At the same time, the probe set a new distance record, swooping within just 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) of the solar surface — closer than any spacecraft has ever orbited before, according to NASA.
The Venus flybys are a crucial element of the probe's attempt to study the sun's scorching surface. As the probe zooms by Venus, the planet absorbs some of Parker’s orbital energy, allowing it to get closer to the sun. The probe has one more flyby planned; its closest approach to the sun in late 2024 is predicted to be just 3.83 million miles (6.16 million km) from the surface. The probe will likely reach even greater speeds on its final trip around the sun, firmly solidifying its reputation as the fastest human-made object ever.


RELATED STORIES
— Watch: NASA spacecraft flies through a violent solar explosion for 1st time ever — and survives unscathed
— 1st mission to 'touch' the sun discovers a mysterious source of solar wind
— Astronomers spot violent afterglow of 2 massive planets that collided in a distant star system
The Parker Solar Space Probe, launched in Aug. 2018, is on a seven-year mission to understand the sun's corona, or the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere. Understanding how heat moves through the corona, how plasma and magnetic fields change on the sun's surface, and how that powers phenomena such as solar wind will help scientists better predict space weather, according to NASA.

CLOSE









0 of 5 minutes, 35 secondsVolume 0%





















PLAY SOUND

 

[Turboomni]

Some Voyager news, I can't believe that after all these years in an almost perfect vacuum that both Voyager 1 and 2 still has fuel for thrusters. No leaks!!!!!




NASA’s Voyager Team Focuses on Software Patch, Thrusters - NASA

​ NASA’s Voyager Team Focuses on Software Patch, Thrusters - NASA​ The efforts should help extend the lifetimes of the agency’s interstellar explorers.

 

[PeugFra]

Keeping my fingers crossed for Saturday, Oct. 28, to learn if the patch does what it is supposed to do.

Beween the cutting-edge technology of Webb and the Seventies technology of the Voyagers, I can relate more easily to the latter.

 

[amazinblue82]

More NASA stuff. This time Juno probe out at Jupiter. Last week, NASA released pics Juno took of Jupiter's moon Io.

Jupiter has 92 (ninety two) moons orbiting it, Io is its THIRD largest moon, and FOURTH largest moon in the Solar system (its slightly bigger than our Moon).

What's Io's distinction however? It's the most volcanically active space body it our Solar system. It's basically getting "squeezed", like a stress ball, by the gravity of Jupiter and its fellow moons. That causes it to heat up, and that heat makes volcanoes and lava flows on it surface.

There was/is a thought that IF we screw up THIS planet, the only other places we could reach IN our lifetimes are some of these moons. NONE of them are habitable, including our OWN moon. Guess we better not screw this one up.

sources: Jupiter's volcanic moon Io looks stunning in new Juno probe photos, Catalog Page for PIA01971

Voyager 1 took this pic in 1999 .. upper left, a volcanic eruption plume (from Io in silhouette against blackness of space) on Io. Surprised the heck outta everybody.

 

[amazinblue82]

btw, for sh*ts & giggles.

Could we put 7 billion people on the Moon? Meaning would they fit?

Ignoring the obvious technical fact that we CANT do it, look at size of US "as if" it were on OUR moon.

source: U.S. overlaid on the Moon for a sense of scale

Moon's land mass is like 15 (fifteen) million sq. miles. US land mass is like 4 (four) million sq. miles. the Earth's land mass (EX-cluding oceans) is 57 (fifty seven) million sq. miles.

We'd be packed in their pretty tight to say the least

 

[polara71]

We're already too tight.

That looks like a file photo from a Jersey beach.

 

[amazinblue82]

Just catching up with the kids on Mars.

These images fascinate me .. I am old enough to remember childhood images that said it would look like this, by the time I got to the ripe old age I am now. They got the "cell phone camera" right -- not much else.

Bugs Bunny was funnier.

---

---

source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/12/us/gallery/mars-best-photos/index.html, NASA Perseverance Mars Rover to Acquire First Sample – NASA Mars Exploration

3 billion years ago, Mars had oceans.

Looked a lot like Earth does now .. except no "little green men". Lost its magnetic field for some reason, solar wind then blew away virtually ALL its atmosphere, and its oceans evaporated into space.

We ain't gonna be livin' here either, but maybe in a decade we'll send some folks up there to check it out.

 

[amazinblue82]

10/25/23 = Webb sees earliest evidence of the cosmic webb.

source: NASA’s Webb Identifies the Earliest Strands of the Cosmic Web - NASA

'This deep galaxy field from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows an arrangement of 10 distant galaxies marked by eight white circles in a diagonal, thread-like line. (Two of the circles contain more than one galaxy.)

This 3 million light-year-long filament is anchored by a very distant and luminous quasar – a galaxy with an active, supermassive black hole at its core.

The quasar, called J0305-3150, appears in the middle of the cluster of three circles on the right side of the image. Its brightness outshines its host galaxy.

The 10 marked galaxies existed just 830 million years after the big bang.

The team believes the filament will eventually evolve into a massive cluster of galaxies.'

---

---

To much to go into but you can nerd out at the links.

The theory is the universe, and the galaxies (trillions of them, unimaginable size) is constructed along "filaments".

Of course, this "pic" is only a representation of 50 billion LY across (50,000,000,000 times 6,000,000,000,000 miles). Anyway, these filaments are thought to look like this:

source: James Webb telescope detects the earliest strand in the 'cosmic web' ever seen

Our galaxy, if this were a real picture, would be a fraction of one pixel - practically speaking invisible except under a microscope.

This theory has a lotta speculation but some real science though - gravity, black holes, etc., - again at the links above. The best way to test a theory is to find "evidence" of it. That's what Jimbo Webb is doing.

1,000 years (40 generations of our descendants) from now, THEY"LL still be talking about what this machine did IN THE TIME WE were alive and watching happen.

 

[amazinblue82]

Webb at it again. The guy continues to amaze.

In March this year, it captured a kilonova. A very rare event when certain kinds of stars collide and emit a long duration gamma ray burst (GRB). You can dig in/nerd out at the links.

Webb, by observing what theory predicts, is showing STRONG evidence that we have the theory right. The scientific method at work.

Here's what Webb saw. 8.3 million LY from us (so we see it as it was over 8 million years ago) and measured tellurium in the leftovers of the kilonova, with a description UNDER the pic, and details at the link.

source: NASA’s Webb Makes First Detection of Heavy Element From Star Merger - NASA

"This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument highlights Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) 230307A and its associated kilonova, as well as its former home galaxy, among their local environment of other galaxies and foreground stars.

The GRB likely was powered by the merger of two neutron stars.

The neutron stars were kicked out of their home galaxy and traveled the distance of about 120,000 light-years, approximately the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy, before finally merging several hundred million years later."

---

---

What' the big deal here?

The theory is that the "heavy" elements (naturally-occuring elements with atomic numbers up to 92 - uranium has that atomic number and therefore the heaviest naturally occuring elemem6s) need the heat/pressure conditions found inside stars from nuclear fusion (i.e., the reason stars "shine").

Actually, what started out as dust clouds of hydrogen and helium in the early Universe, elements with atomic numbers of 1 and 2 respectively, gets fused into heavier elements like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, silicone, etc., through nuclear reactions in stars.

Stars massive enough to go "novae" (our sun is NOT such a star), blow up, and then spew all the material of which they are composed into space. In turn, these elements wind up in space dust "clouds" that, under gravity, come together and forms new stars and sometimes planetary systems around those stars.

Then, they (e.g., iron atoms in the dust) winds up in a planet's crust and then in our case winds up in our blood. Uranium in our planet winds up in our nuclear power plants, aircraft carriers, and submarines. And so on.

Its a cliché, but humans, and everything else around us practically, are made of "stardust".

Iron (atomic number 26) atoms in our blood, some of them anyway, could be BILLIONS of years old. Belched outta some exploding star(s), from somewhere in the Universe, untold millennia ago.

I feel pretty good even though pieces of me likely are several billion years old.

---

---

Anyway, Webb pic above is a kilonova GRB.

A couple neutron stars merged creating the long-lived GRB. Webb studied the remains of the GRB and found "tellurium".

Yup, same stuff, right here on Earth AND trillions of miles away (and 8.3 million years ago) in deep space, too

Again, we have had these theories - where did the stuff we, and everything else, are made of come from? For a long time.

NOT "why" we exist, but "where" did the carbon, in the ground and in our bodies, come from, for example?

"Why" do we exist? That may NOT be a "scientific" question, that we can answer with "science" that is, at all.