Exoplanet Crises

"Some exoplanets seem to be losing their atmospheres and shrinking. In a new study using NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers find evidence of a possible cause: The cores of these planets are pushing away their atmospheres from the inside out."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-data-reveals-possible-reason-some-exoplanets-are-shrinking

Ultra Massive Black Hole

Did you know?

"The Ultra massive black holes offers a promising solution to the timing problem for the redshift-7.5 quasars by creating seeds massive enough to quickly grow into quasars in a short time."

Astronomy Magazine March 2021 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" pp. 16-23

James Webb Telescope

"The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula."

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_captures_iconic_Horsehead_Nebula_in_unprecedented_detail?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Rocket Lab

"NASA and Rocket Lab are targeting no earlier than Wednesday, May 22, 2024, for the first of two launches of the agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission to study heat loss to space in Earth’s polar regions."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/launch-date-set-for-nasas-prefire-mission-to-study-polar-energy-loss?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=prefire20240429

WASP 107B

"A team of European astronomers, co-led by researchers from the Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, used recent observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope to study the atmosphere of the nearby exoplanet WASP-107b."

https://phys.org/news/2023-11-jwst-vapor-sulfur-dioxide-sand.html

The Moon

"The moon has long captured our imaginations. It’s embedded deep in mythology around the world, and even became the first calendar for many ancient people. "

https://www.interestingfacts.com/moon-facts/YnBu6lm3LQAHz-mm?liu=f990a22b8f045d09d1eb29acc743f7c5&utm_source=blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2130667792

Leonid Meteor Shower

"Your best entertainment value this weekend is the dazzling Leonid meteor shower."

https://lifehacker.com/science/leonid-showers-viewing

Second SpaceX Flight

"The second test flight for SpaceX’s Starship rocket has now been given the all clear by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)."

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/15/23873201/spacex-starship-faa-approval-super-heavy-launch-test-date

Leonid meteor shower

"Every November, there’s a fantastic event for bringing people together: that’s right, the Leonid meteor shower."

https://gizmodo.com/how-best-witness-leonid-meteor-shower-weekend-1851031284?utm_source=gizmodo_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2023-11-17

Hubble

"The Hubble Space Telescope just ogled an exoplanet passing in front of a star in a triple system, revealing the nearby world’s mass."

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-hubble-telescope-size-of-exoplanet-ltt-1445ac-1851031858

CAS

"The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has released the highest-resolution geological maps of the Moon yet."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01223-0?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Solar System

"Many of us remember those school-room models of our Solar System, with tiny wooden planets rotating at the ends of their wires around a bright-orange painted sun."

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/how-are-solar-systems-born/

Google and NASA partnership

"As part of the long-standing partnership between NASA and Google, NASA worked with Google Arts & Culture and artist Yiyun Kang to create an interactive digital experience around global freshwater resources titled “A Passage of Water.”"

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/googles-a-passage-of-water-brings-nasas-water-data-to-life

2023 Space Missions

"The year 2023 proved to be an important one for space missions, with NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission returning a sample from an asteroid and India's Chandrayaan-3 mission exploring the lunar south pole, and 2024 is shaping up to be another exciting year for space exploration."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/space-missions-launch-2024-artemis-clipper-viper-moon-mars/?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email

Earth's Magnetic Field

"Earth’s magnetic field serves as a protective barrier against cosmic radiation from space. But this shield isn’t always as stable as it appears."

https://interestingengineering.com/space/earths-magnetic-poles-flipped-some-41000-years-ago-heres-how?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Juno

"NASA's Juno spacecraft recently swooped by the most powerful volcano in our solar system, on the most volcanic world known to exist."

https://mashable.com/article/nasa-io-video-volcano?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Io

"There are new, high-quality images of Jupiter's moon, Io, thanks to the nearest flyby of the celestial body by a spacecraft in decades."

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/31/1222345665/take-a-look-at-these-astonishing-new-images-of-jupiters-volcanic-moon-io

Mars Helicopter

"Engineers working on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter assembled for one last time in a control room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Tuesday, April 16, to monitor a transmission from the history-making helicopter."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-team-says-goodbye-for-now?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=Latest20240416-Ingenuity

Meteor Shower

"A week after that stunning total solar eclipse, the Lyrid meteor shower is about to give sky-gazers plenty of reasons to once again look toward the cosmos."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/04/15/lyrid-meteor-shower-2024-peak/73325033007/?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

US Space Agency

"The US space agency says the current mission design can't return the samples before 2040 on the existing funds and the more realistic $11bn (£9bn) needed to make it happen is not sustainable."

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68819153?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

ULA

"The United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched its new Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral on Monday at 2:18AM ET, carrying a US-made Moon lander with NASA science and research payloads onboard."

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/8/24029705/nasa-peregrine-mission-one-moon-lander-vulcan-centaur-rocket-launch

Astrobotic

"Astrobotic, the team behind the Peregrine spacecraft, is urgently working to extract any possible value from its failing mission."

https://gizmodo.com/race-against-time-astrobotic-peregrine-moon-mission-1851151921?utm_source=gizmodo_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2024-01-09

NISAR

"NISAR, the soon-to-launch radar satellite from NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will measure some key Earth vital signs, from the health of wetlands to ground deformation by volcanoes to the dynamics of land and sea ice."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/this-us-indian-satellite-will-monitor-earths-changing-frozen-regions?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=nisar20240110

2024 Space Age

"The year 2024 could be the dawn of a new Space Age, full of landing attempts on the moon and successive rocket launches."

https://mashable.com/article/2024-solar-eclipse-meteor-showers-rocket-launches-more?utm_source=email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=lightspeed&zdee=gAAAAABlMXKb0IDZ-GNdjEnXeY0t1_atRL5n2JMUni0onFr5rXMHMAtj71qQ8edr6XOfkvzeygD3zcUETeWKQhfHCMmJF0PQ3Grb1DT9YTXtnYOjIpHc_VE%3D

Eclipse

"It’s almost time in Pennsylvania for the Monday, April 8 total solar eclipse."

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/across-pa/pa-solar-eclipse-when-look-weather-forecast-totality-path?utm_source=alert-breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert&user_email=64a20f24338333901e4cb7afc40a3cfae56c6770df59fc13cf25a5ce36d78b01&user_email_md5=ecc4eb5a460f31b456c54514153c0893&lctg=65ba9c0c44c464247206b03b#google_vignette

Solar Eclipse

"The solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 will bring some solar system worlds into view."

https://mashable.com/article/solar-eclipse-2024-planets?utm_source=email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=lightspeed&zdee=gAAAAABlMXKb0IDZ-GNdjEnXeY0t1_atRL5n2JMUni0onFr5rXMHMAtj71qQ8edr6XOfkvzeygD3zcUETeWKQhfHCMmJF0PQ3Grb1DT9YTXtnYOjIpHc_VE%3D

Solar Eclipse

"A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting the moon's shadow on Earth."

https://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/what-is-a-solar-eclipse

Robotic Lander

"The first U.S.-based robotic lander in over a half-century lost its shot at the moon just mere hours into flight."

https://mashable.com/article/moon-mission-nasa-astrobotic-failure?utm_source=email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=lightspeed&zdee=gAAAAABlMXKb0IDZ-GNdjEnXeY0t1_atRL5n2JMUni0onFr5rXMHMAtj71qQ8edr6XOfkvzeygD3zcUETeWKQhfHCMmJF0PQ3Grb1DT9YTXtnYOjIpHc_VE%3D

Star Explosion

"Around 3,000 years ago, a star 15 times bigger than our sun exploded. Now, scientists are watching it blast valuable elements into space."

https://mashable.com/article/nasa-star-explosion-xrism?utm_source=email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=lightspeed&zdee=gAAAAABlMXKb0IDZ-GNdjEnXeY0t1_atRL5n2JMUni0onFr5rXMHMAtj71qQ8edr6XOfkvzeygD3zcUETeWKQhfHCMmJF0PQ3Grb1DT9YTXtnYOjIpHc_VE%3D

Lockheed Martin

"NASA and Lockheed Martin formally debuted the agency's X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft Friday. Using this one-of-a-kind experimental airplane, NASA aims to gather data that could revolutionize air travel, paving the way for a new generation of commercial aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound."

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-01-nasa-lockheed-martin-reveal-quiet.html?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter#google_vignette

Spaceborne testbed

"The spaceborne testbed demonstrated the ability to beam power wirelessly in space; it measured the efficiency, durability, and function of a variety of different types of solar cells in space; and gave a real-world trial of the design of a lightweight deployable structure to deliver and hold the aforementioned solar cells and power transmitters."

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/space-solar-power-project-ends-first-in-space-mission-with-successes-and-lessons?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Big Bang Supermassive Cloud

Did you know?

"These black holes plow through the dense gas within their host galaxy, it creates a dynamical friction, or drag, that causes them to rapidly migrate towards the galaxies center. There, they can merge to form a single black hole with 10,000 to 100,000 solar masses. This process progresses extremely quickly taking just 50 to 100 million years. After that, the researchers said in a press release, the central black hole will grow quickly: "In light of this theory, we can state that 800 million years after the Big Bang, supermassive could already populate the cosmos."

Astronomy Magazine March 2021 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" pp. 16-23

Perseverance Mars Rover

"Analysis by instruments aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover indicate that the latest rock core taken by the rover was awash in water for an extended period of time in the distant past, perhaps as part of an ancient Martian beach."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rock-sampled-by-nasas-perseverance-embodies-why-rover-came-to-mars?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=perseverance20240403

Direct Collapse Black Hole

Did you know?

"The conditions that you need are pretty stringent to make direct-collapse black holes. Luckily, these monster black holes are very rare, so you can accommodate what is seen so far, easily, without a problem."

Astronomy Magazine March 2021 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" pp. 16-23

Curiosity Rover

"NASA’s Curiosity rover has begun exploring a new region of Mars, one that could reveal more about when liquid water disappeared once and for all from the Red Planet’s surface. Billions of years ago, Mars was much wetter and probably warmer than it is today."

https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9569/nasas-curiosity-searches-for-new-clues-about-mars-ancient-water/?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter