Our Earth in the Universe
Moves along at a fairly fast clip. You may have to play it several times to capture
it all or pause it from time to time to absorb the information.
NASA has been scouring the universe for exoplanets capable of supporting life.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith
Planet GJ 357 d – a mere 31 light years from
Earth, may harbour life.
“This section contains a series of short essays that may answer questions you have about some of the fundamental concepts in astronomy. Although you will find more extensive treatment by using on-line encyclopedias or search engines, browsing these pages will give you a basic introduction to the topics.”
The following images provide no function. You need to click on the image to access
the website with a detailed explanation provided by the
Clear Skies Service of Environment Canada.
The samples below are for
Toronto and Port Dover but there are over 5000 communities available from
across Canada and the US. There are many sub-links to enlighten you about a great many interesting subjects
More people have travelled into outer space than visited the depths of our oceans. Perhaps we have a great deal more to learn about our own planet before we can begin to understand the universe. Deep sea is 300 times larger that Earth's habitable land. We have explored about five percent of Earth’s ocean to date. See NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
For those who keep denying climate change, here is a reality check. These temperatures are the hottest in years and do not include humidex.
Scientists studying historical climate on earth, by overwhelming majority 98.7%
state unequivocally that climate change is not only a fact of life but that the
change is due to human activity. If we ignore reality we may leave a planet
that is uninhabitable within a few generations. The warming oceans are creating
more severe and more frequent severe weather on our planet. It is not only
polar bears that are being wiped out but hundreds of species are vanishing
due to climate change. Entire life sustaining water resources are evaporating.
Many areas producing food are becoming unproductive. Humanity may not
survive this man made catastrophe.
Ironically there are those who investigate a forest fire scene and draw contrary conclusions to the vast majority of experts. Fires may have various causes from spontaneous combustion, lightening or arson. Investigators discover a can of accelerant with several matches at the source of the fire, soil testing reveals the presence of accelerant in the soil and yet some expert concludes the fire was most likely started by lightening. There are those who say, lightening is the probable cause of the fire if the expert says so. The reality is that it is possible but extremely unlikely.
Examination of our climate change over the centuries leave no doubt about the cause
of the sudden change to 2,597 out of 2,600 (2016 wold wide study) climate scientists but some choose to postulate one of the 3 who disagree with the published findings.
It is impossible to convince some of anything regardless of insurmountable evidence.
Heracleion, a very prosperous and a known city had been engulfed underwater 1500 years ago. This grand city had also been mentioned by the Greek writer Herodotus, the 5th-century BC historian. He had told a wonderful tale of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, who had launched a thousand ships, travelled to Heracleion, then a port of ‘great wealth’, with her glamorous Trojan lover, Paris.
Discovery of Heracleion – lost for some 1500 years under the ocean
Personal Fun and Useful Links both have some interesting discoveries worth investigating.
The closest full moon (SuperMoon) of the 21st century will fall on December 6, 2052
This year, December's Full Cold Moon falls on the night of the 22nd, just one night after the longest night of the year.
On that night, the Moon will rise at 5 P.M. local time, and it will set at 8:32 A.M. on the morning of the 23rd, for a total Full Moon viewing time of 15 hours and 32 minutes! That's the longest Full Moon of the entire year!
We haven't seen a Full Moon last that long since December 2010 (when it was in the sky for 15 hours and 54 minutes on the 20th-21st)!
Source
This event isn't so much something to see. Instead, it's something simply to experience, as Earth passes through what's known as perihelion.
As Earth travels around the Sun, it doesn't trace a perfect circle. It actually follows an elliptical path.
This means that, even while we typically use an average distance from the Sun of 1 "astronomical unit" or 1 "AU", equal to 150 million km, at some points of its orbit, Earth is closer to the Sun, and at other points, it is farther away.
Each year, on or around January 3, Earth reaches its closest point to the Sun.
This is called perihelion.
Source
This schematic of Earth's orbit exaggerates the elliptical shape of the orbit, and the relative sizes of Earth, Moon and Sun. Credit: NASA
Sky gazers are in for a treat overnight between Thursday and Friday, when
much of the planet will be able to see the longest partial lunar eclipse
in almost 600 years.
The only hitch is that for much of Canada, the peak of the eclipse will
take place in the middle of the night.
But if the weather co-operates, it might be worth braving the cold night
air for a glimpse of the longest partial lunar eclipse since 1440, when
Henry VI was the King of England and the Inca Empire was expanding.
Eclipse will peak at about 4 a.m. ET, and 97% of the moon will be in Earth's shadow.
Jan Cami, director of the Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory at Western
University in London, Ont., said the event will last a total of 208.4
minutes, which is quite long for a partial eclipse. He said the partial
eclipse on Feb. 18, 1440 lasted 208.8 minutes.
As the moon passes through the Earth's shadow, it will take on a reddish,
coppery hue, cast by the sunlight refracting through our atmosphere.
Article: Jaela Bernstien · CBC News 11/18/2021
As clouds cleared I manged to get a glimpse of the eclipse at 4:30 A.M. Nov. 19th 2021.
The mission plan of Apollo 11 was to land two men on the lunar surface
and return them safely to Earth. The launch took place at Kennedy Space
Center Launch Complex 39A on July 16, 1969, at 08:32 A.M. EST. The
spacecraft carried a crew of three: Mission
Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and
Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
The first manned spacecraft landing on the Moon was at 3:17 P.M.
EST (20:17:40 UTC) on July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 Lunar Module,
the Eagle, landed in Mare Tranquillitatis, located at 0°4'5"N
latitude, 23°42'28"E longitude. The Eagle landed approximately
50 kilometres from the closest highland material and approximately
400 meters west of a sharp-rimmed blocky crater about 180 meters in diameter.
The mission evaluation concluded that all mission tasks were completed satisfactorily.
Updated Feb-28-2019 12:23
Nasa’s last Moon landing by astronauts occurred during Apollo 17 in 1972. Altogether, 12 men have explored the lunar surface.
Photograph: Nasa/AFP/Getty Images
In 2019, then vice-president Mike Pence called for landing astronauts on the moon within five years
“by any means necessary”. As with most things under the Trump administration, the empty words were totally hollow since there was never any funding
allocated for the ambitious project.
NASA had been shooting for a lunar landing in 2028, and pushing it up by four years was considered at the time exceedingly ambitious, if not improbable.
Many things, aside from the lack of funding, contributed to the latest announced delay
of returning man to the Moon no earlier than 2025, not the least of which is the Covid-19 pandemic.
Just another long awaited event I hope to be here to witness.
The new interest in the Moon is largely prompted by using the Moon as a launching
site for future ambitious excursion to the outer limits, not the least of which is
the planned manned mission to Mars.
Updated Nov-10-2021
Three Artemis missions are currently in progress; Artemis 1, an uncrewed
test flight around and beyond the Moon, planning to launch 16 November 2022.
Artemis 2, a crewed flight beyond the Moon which will take humans the
farthest they’ve ever been in space.
And Artemis 3, a mission that will land the first female astronaut
and first astronaut of colour on the Moon to spend a week performing scientific
studies on the lunar surface.
We’re going back to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits,
and inspiration for a new generation of explorers: the Artemis Generation.
While maintaining American leadership in exploration, we will build a global
alliance and explore deep space for the benefit of all.
The Artemis program is a human spaceflight program led by NASA to
explore the Moon, aiming for its first touchdown on the lunar south pole
by 2024. If successful, the Artemis program will perform the first crewed
lunar landing mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final crewed
expedition of the Apollo program.
Stay tuned!
With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person
of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the
lunar surface than ever before. We will build an Artemis Base Camp on
the Moon. We will collaborate with commercial and international partners
and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. We will use what
we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap:
sending the first astronauts to Mars.
Artemis:
(Greek mythology) the virgin goddess of the hunt and the Moon; daughter
of Leto and twin sister of Apollo; identified with Roman Diana.
Updated Aug-18-2022
NASA's massive rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS),
is ready to blast off Monday morning from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Atop the rocket sits Orion, the spacecraft that will eventually take
astronauts to the moon.
This mission – dubbed Artemis I – is a critical test of
several things: how SLS performs; how Orion performs; and how its heat
shield holds up upon re-entry after travelling to the moon and coming
in at extremely high speeds.
The spacecraft is scheduled to travel to the Moon, deploy some small
satellites and then settle into orbit. NASA aims to practice operating
the spacecraft, test the conditions crews will experience on and around
the Moon, and assure everyone that the spacecraft and any occupants can
safely return to Earth.
There are also several tests on board, including radiation experiments on
three mannequins. High doses of space radiation can be lethal to humans.
All of this is to pave way for Artemis II – scheduled for 2024 or 2025
– when four astronauts, including a Canadian, will orbit the moon.
The initial launch of Artemis I had to be scrubbed due to a combination of weather
and more importantly, technical difficulties. No projected time for the
rescheduled launch date has been announce.
Updated Aug-30-2022
The launch of Artemis I has been rescheduled to 14:17 EDT Saturday
September 3, 2022. Splashdown expected Tuesday October 11, 2022.
As usual the schedule is dependant on the weather at the dates and times specified.
Updated Sep-03-2022 06:30
Sadly, but not entirely surprisingly, today's launch was cancelled a mere 3 hours before
liftoff due to technical difficulties. Working out
potential problems, of this huge and entirely new vehicle and system, before
any manned flights, is certainly a good thing. Hope the next attempt to launch
is a success. Stay tuned!
Updated Sep-03-2022 11:20
NASA is targeting Monday, Nov. 14, for the launch of the Artemis I Moon mission
during a 69-minute launch window that opens at 12:07 a.m. EST. The launch
countdown will begin Saturday, Nov. 12, at 12:27 a.m.
Mother Nature is being particularly unkind to NASA's highly anticipated
Artemis 1 moon mission.
The agency had been planning to launch Artemis 1 from Florida's Kennedy
Space Center (KSC) next Monday (Nov. 14). But Tropical Storm Nicole is
bearing down on Florida's Atlantic Coast, so NASA has pushed the planned
liftoff back two days, to Nov. 16.
NASA is now targeting Nov. 16 at 1:04 a.m. to launch the
Artemis 1 test flight from Florida.
Updated Nov-10-2022 15:53
Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky
Updated Nov-07-2022 11:12
Artemis I lifted off successfully Nov-16-2022 after a minor delay.
Artemis I splashed down on schedule Dec-11-2022. Reports of the results will
follow after all the assessments are completed, within a few days!
Congratulations are certainly in order!
Originally scheduled for late 2024, technical issues with the spacecraft
have forced NASA to delay the mission by at least a year.
No earlier than Sept. 2025
Artemis II builds on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I in 2022,
and will demonstrate a broad range of capabilities needed on
deep space missions.
The Artemis II flight test will be NASA’s
first mission with crew aboard the
SLS (Space Launch System)
rocket and Orion spacecraft and will pave the
way to land the first woman on the Moon on Artemis III.
The crew of four astronauts will lift off on the approximately
10-day mission from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy
Space Center in Florida, blazing beyond Earth’s grasp atop the
agency’s mega Moon rocket. Over the course of about two days,
they will check out Orion’s systems and perform a targeting
demonstration test relatively close to Earth before beginning
the trek toward the Moon.
Updated Jan-11-2024 04:56
The eclipse will track across North America on Aug. 21, moving from
west to east. It will be visible as a full solar eclipse in parts of
the U.S., but part of the sun will remain visible in Canada throughout
the day. Victoria is expected to see the most coverage, while Iqaluit
will see the least.
The eclipse will reach its maximum point in the late morning on the
West Coast, between noon and 1 p.m. in the Prairies, around 2:30 p.m.
in Ontario and Quebec and shortly before 4 p.m. on the East Coast (all times local).
For local times and details see the following printable document –
Solar Eclipse 2017
For more Eclipse information and facts see
What Is a Total Solar Eclipse?
Return to Eclipse 2024
We will have a much better (more complete) Solar Eclipse April 8, 2024. The path in 2024 will cross the southern tips of Ontario and Quebec, central New Brunswick, western P.E.I. and central Newfoundland, an official from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada says. Watching the Eclipse on TV was by far the best way to appreciate the event, local weather is eliminated as an issue. I am sure there will be a lot of detail available about the times for totality in your area as we get closer to the Solar Eclipse.
Keep Safe!
1. Never look at the Sun directly without protective eye gear. Even sunglasses cannot protect your eyes from the damage the Sun's rays can do to them.
2. Always keep your back towards the Sun while looking at a pinhole projection.
3. Do not look at the Sun through the pinhole, binoculars or telescope.
The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed
Sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as “eclipse glasses”
(example shown at left) or
handheld solar viewers. Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even
very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the Sun; they transmit
thousands of times too much sunlight.
Click for larger image
Make sure your solar viewer is verified to be compliant with the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard for such products.
Global Event: Total Solar Eclipse
Local Type: Total Solar Eclipse in Port Dover, Ontario
Begins: Monday, April 8, 2024 at 2:02 P.M.
Maximum: Monday, April 8, 2024 at 3:18 P.M. 1.013 Magnitude
Ends: Monday, April 8, 2024 at 4:30 P.M.
Duration: 2 hours, 28 minutes
Totality: 3 minutes, 16 seconds
Never look at the Sun!
During Totality, one may look at the Eclipse without
special protective glasses and take digital photographs without special filters,
according to experts. MAY does NOT mean anyone is encouraging you or anyone
else to look at the Eclipse without protective equipment.
Taking pictures of the Sun without special filters will damage a
digital camera's sensors!
DO NOT take pictures of the Sun with your phone or
digital camera!
Beginning of 2024 Solar Eclipse
Ending of 2024 Eclipse and Full Eclipse
Almost Totality
Sun Flares
Totality
Timelapse progression
The day started out overcast but the cloud cover dissipated by 11 A.M. offering
hope that we will be able to enjoy this magnificent phenomenon of nature.
Some sparse clouds appeared about 1:00 P.M. but by 2:45 P.M. there were large patches
of cloud with equally large clear spaces but by 3 P.M. the clouds left few opportunities
to see the sun. Occasionally the sun was viewable through the clouds. By the time
Totality arrived 3:17 P.M. glimpses of the sun became very rare. Darkness enveloped the
our location with street lights coming on.
I tried my best to take pictures but included the images above from
official media sources. My attempt to capture the Eclipse follows.
As you can see the images are less than spectacular but they are my
images and I tried hard to get the best possible results.
Solar Eclipses are not uncommon, but any location on the planet experiences
solar eclipses infrequently, with total solar eclipses being quite rare.
The next solar eclipse in North America is scheduled for 20 years from now (2044) and
specific locations experiencing total eclipse in 2024 will not see a total eclipse
for some 420 years. Many eclipses are visible only over the vast oceans or continents
thousands of kilometres away. Many generations will never experience a total
eclipse in their entire lifetime.
It's a small surprise that the continent experienced an
"Eclipse Frenzy" when such a complete Totality is such a rare occurrence in any
given location on our planet.
Almost Total Eclipse,
Total Eclipse,
End of Eclipse
NASA Video of 2024 Solar Eclipse from across the continent & the ISS
Total Solar Eclipse Port Dover – More detailed information
Map of 2024 Solar Eclipse – Continental USA and Canada
Eclipse Niagara Falls – Opens in new tab or window
This video may vanish in time
Continental Eclipse Frenzy – Opens in new tab or window
This video may vanish in time
Peering deep into the dusty heart of our Milky Way galaxy using infrared vision, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals a rich tapestry of more than half a million stars. Except for a few blue foreground stars, the stars are part of the Milky Way’s nuclear star cluster, the most massive and densest star cluster in our galaxy.
Who has not looked up at the sky and let their imagination wander and wonder what
lay in the great beyond. I am convinced there is life out there as surely as there is
water in the ocean.
We all learn about the asterism,
The Big Dipper part of Ursa Major and some are familiar with Little
Dipper; while searching for Polaris the
North Star, some think is the brightest object in the northern sky.
Polaris in fact is not the brightest and many use the Big Dipper
as reference when searching for it in the vast dark night sky.
click to view larger image
My gaze often spotted and stopped on the W
in the sky but
never saw any reference to it. After many years of wondering about the mysterious star
formation I accidentally came across a reference to it, while looking up compass usage.
I am sharing the images below so you won't have to wonder if you come across this
prominent image in the sky.
The sky as seen from my vantage point in the northern hemisphere (November 2nd 2015), arrow pointing to
Cassiopeia, my long time mystery in the sky.
NASA's Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets – the single largest finding of planets to date.
“This announcement more than doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler,” said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth."
"Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy. Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars,” said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters. "This knowledge informs the future missions that are needed to take us ever-closer to finding out whether we are alone in the universe."
There are billions of stars in our own galaxy alone and billions upon billions of galaxies in the universe. Each star, like our own sun may have planets capable of
supporting life.
It goes without saying, the more Earth like planets we discover the greater the probability of life elsewhere in the universe.
Your Weight in Our Solar System
Whether you're a professional astronomer or a citizen scientist, discovering just one alien planet (or 'exoplanet') is exciting, but how about 17 of them! Michelle Kunimoto, a PhD student in the University of British Columbia's Physics and Astronomy program, has done just that. Even more amazing, one of these potential alien worlds also has the potential to harbour life!
She made this discovery by filtering the immense amount of data collected
by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope through a special program known
as a 'pipeline'. The hope was that this pipeline would spot the signals
of exoplanets (known as 'transits'), and specifically catch ones that
other automated processes, and even the human eyes of citizen scientists, had missed.
This exoplanet is 1000 light years from Earth, so we will not be sending
probes to explore the planet for life in the near future.
Source: Yahoo News
ISS
– International Space Station Construction Video
An incredible feat of human engineering.
Construction began in the 1990's, first module in space
November 20th 1998 and permanent human occupancy began
November 2nd
2000.
The live feed is currently unavailable (after over 317 million views)
but the program is being re-assessed and is expected to resume in the
not too distant future. Keep checking back.
The NASA Space cam comes to us from the International Space Station as
it careens around the Earth at an average of 17,000 mph, experiencing
sunrises and sunsets about every 45 minutes. Catch stunning views of
vast blue oceans, clouds, and the city lights below during “nights”.
Get an inside look at the global crew of astronauts as they perform
scientific experiments in weightless conditions and communicate with Mission Control.
Current Location of the ISS
What a way to kick off the Paris Air Show! It was 1983, and NASA's space shuttle program was just getting off the ground.
A modified NASA Boeing 747 gave the prototype shuttle 'Enterprise' a piggyback ride across Western Europe, making a stop in Paris and thrilling the crowd with a demonstration flight on opening day.
Space Shuttle Enterprise was in Toronto Ontario, in June 1983 on it's return flight from the Paris Airshow. It had also appeared at Fairford and Stanstead in the UK. Enterprise was not a true space vehicle, it lacked the heat shield and had in fact been built without engines. It was primarily for use in the Approach and Landing Test Program.(ALT Program). Launched from this B.747, it became a rather heavy, fast glider.
The piggybacked shuttle came in for a landing at Pearson International Airport on a June afternoon, after circling Toronto for a publicity run. The event was well publicised and the flight passed by the IBM office where I worked, which was on the glide path for landing at Toronto's Airport. The working shuttles were transported in the same manner from each landing site to the next launch site as well as refurbishing and inspection locations.
The Space Shuttle was the US workhorse responsible for building the ISS. Not only
were huge sections of the ISS carried into space for final assembly but also ferried astronauts to and from Earth to the ISS.
Space Shuttle Discovery Final Liftoff, Last Shuttle flight 4:54 P.M. 2011. With that the
US Shuttle program came to an end, to be replaced by Russian's transporting astronauts to
and from the ISS. Currently
SpaceX is used to resupply the ISS.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., doing business as SpaceX, is a private American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California.
SpaceX launched the Dragon from Kennedy Space Centre on Saturday May 30, 2020 15:22, the first astronaut launch to orbit from the U.S. in nearly a decade. Thousands jammed surrounding beaches, bridges and towns to watch as Elon Musk's company ended a nine-year launch drought for NASA in spectacular fashion. After 19 hours the Dragon docked at 10:16 Sunday May 31, 2020 with the ISS and NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken boarded the International Space Station. The historic flight is notable for being the first private endeavour to transport Astronauts into space, replacing the retired Space Shuttle fleet which conducted all US space travel prior to this event.
I watched the ISS go overhead tonight at 22:39 with the full crew including the new arrivals.
At 5:49 a.m., Friday, April 23, 2021, the pre-dawn sky over Florida's Space Coast lit up as SpaceX's Endeavour Crew Dragon spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 booster rocket. Docking early Saturday morning with the ISS.
with a total of eleven occupants in the ISS and
Heavens Above – Satellite tracking, including ISS and much much more.
Don't forget to change your observation location and other settings to enhance your experience.
Creating an ID and logging in provides customized experience.
ISS Observation – A personal view of the ISS from my home
Sky Chart 09/02/2018
5 planets visible
I have been a huge space, technology buff for many years. The International Space Station is one of mankind's great achievements. I often make the effort to view the ISS (cloud cover permitting) as it passes overhead. This bright little spot, brighter than any star, usually, is home to men and women who risked life and limb to advance human knowledge and to prepare for even greater journeys in the universe. The human spirit is unbridled and the thirst for adventure and knowledge never ends. My admiration and gratitude goes out to these dedicated pioneers laying the foundations of a future yet to come. As I watch the progress of the ISS across the sky I often salute these space pioneers.
I frequently watched the ISS for years but all too often the cloud cover or fog hides the ISS. Some days there are as many as six visible passes at my location, weather permitting. There are
periods when there are no visible passes for over three weeks; I await anxiously the
return of the ISS at times like that.
I should have kept track of my observations but I did not. Finally in late August 2018
I started keeping track of my ISS observations.
I will make an effort to keep my observations up to date.
Table of Observations below.
The following is a typical schedule of the ISS visible passes from my observation point. It is very helpful to know exactly when and where the ISS will be and how bright it will appear.
The image below shows a couple of days worth of data from
heavens-above. There are days when the ISS
is very close and thus appears very bright and days when it is barely bright enough
to view. Many days go by when the ISS is not visible at all due to being in earth's
shadow but occasionally, as in the last few days, when it is prominent as many as four
to six times a day.
The ISS completes an orbit of our planet every 92 minutes.
Logging in allows you to set your location and get specific information for your location. At Brightness (meg) of 3.8, as I viewed the ISS cross the sky this morning, later at 2.9 (meg) again at 2.5 (meg), the ISS rivals the brightest stars in the sky. It is rare to have
two cloud free sightings of this magnitude in a single day, much less to have three such incredible viewings. I feel blessed to have had these incredible experiences today.
Viewing Details May 19th 2019
The ISS travels at 7.66 km/s 27,580 km/h (17,150 mph), when completed it will weigh around 450 tons. The ISS is expected to live (be operational) another 12 years (2030)
(ISS Information).
I wonder what will take the place of this historic human engineering feat.
ISS Observations Port Dover
Sep-01-2018 06:02
Sep-03-2018 05:55
Sep-05-2018 06:45
Sep-15-2018 05:12
Sep-16-2018 05:55
Sep-17-2018 05:06 Over Dover
Nov-14-2018 05:55
Dec-02-2018 18:12
Jan-10-2019 06:55
Feb-28-2019 05:43
Mar-03-2019 04:49
Mar-14-2019 06:06
Apr-06-2019 21:02
Apr-08-2019 20:56
Apr-29-2019 04:46
May-08-2019 05:13
May-15-2019 04:06
May-16-2019 03:16
May-17-2019 23:56
May-18-2019 04:47
May-18-2019 21:29
May-19-2019 03:57
May-19-2019 22:14
May-20-2019 04:43
May-21-2019 00:37
May-26-2019 22:50
Jun-02-2019 21:54
Jul-05-2019 02:46
Jul-05-2019 04:20
Jul-06-2019 03:32
Jul-10-2019 03:26
Jul-12-2019 01:50
Jul-12-2019 05:03
Jul-17-2019 22:30
Jul-18-2019 00:06
Jul-18-2019 23:17
Jul-24-2019 23:12
Jul-25-2019 00:48
Jul-26-2019 23:11
Jul-28-2019 23:09
Jul-31-2019 22:17
Aug-03-2019 21:26
Aug-28-2019 05:48
Aug-30-2019 05:48
Aug-31-2019 05:01
Sep-05-2019 05:47
Sep-11-2019 05:44
Sep-15-2019 05:44
Sep-19-2019 20:48
Sep-21-2019 20:48
Sep-23-2019 20:48
Oct-08-2019 19:58
Oct-26-2019 07:00
Oct-28-2019 07:00
Nov-06-2019 05:12
Nov-10-2019 05:13
Nov-13-2019 06:01
Feb-03-2020 18:47
Feb-22-2020 05:20
Feb-23-2020 06:09
Mar-04-2020 06:17
Mar-09-2020 06:33
Mar-14-2020 05:51
Apr-02-2020 20:30
Apr-25-2020 05:31
Apr-27-2020 05:30
May-05-2020 04:01
May-12-2020 04:54
May-13-2020 04:08
May-16-2020 21:40
May-17-2020 04:10
May-18-2020 21:41
May-19-2020 22:30
May-20-2020 21:43
May-21-2020 22:33
May-31-2020 22:39
Jun-03-2020 21:54
Jun-29-2020 04:20
Jun-30-2020 05:08
Jul-02-2020 03:33
Jul-02-2020 05:10
Jul-05-2020 04:22
Jul-07-2020 04:26
Jul-12-2020 03:42
Jul-13-2020 22:50
Jul-14-2020 03:43
Jul-14-2020 05:21
Jul-15-2020 04:33 Over Dover
Jul-15-2020 22:52
Jul-16-2020 03:43
Jul-17-2020 04:33
Jul-17-2020 22:52
Jul-18-2020 22:05
Jul-24-2020 22:09
Jul-25-2020 22:58
Jul-26-2020 22:10
Jul-28-2020 22:13
Jul-29-2020 23:00
Jul-30-2020 22:12
Aug-04-2020 21:30
Aug-24-2020 05:35
Aug-26-2020 05:35
Aug-30-2020 05:39
Aug-31-2020 04:53
Sep-04-2020 04:56
Sep-06-2020 04:57
Sep-11-2020 05:50
Sep-12-2020 05:05
Sep-18-2020 20:15
Sep-19-2020 21:03
Sep-20-2020 20:16
Sep-23-2020 21:11
Sep-25-2020 21:13
Sep-26-2020 20:26
Oct-25-2020 05:32
Nov-03-2020 05:25
Nov-04-2020 06:13
Nov-07-2020 05:28
Nov-08-2020 06:16
Nov-09-2020 05:29
Nov-20-2020 18:17
Nov-21-2020 17:33
Nov-29-2020 17:40
Feb-26-2021 05:50
Mar-05-2021 05:09
Mar-07-2021 05:11
Mar-10-2021 06:00
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Current Location of ISS
Return to ISS Schedule above.
The International Space Station just got a new lease on life, as the Biden-Harris
Administration extended the orbiting lab's operations until 2030. When that lease is up, the venerable station will be crashed down into a remote region of the South Pacific Ocean known as the spacecraft cemetery.
Point-Nemo
Point Nemo, in the South Pacific Ocean, is considered to be the most remote place on Earth. It lies roughly 4,700 km east of New Zealand, nearly 3,400 km west of southern Chile, and close to 2,700 km north of Antarctica. According to Hrvoje Lukatela, the Croatian-Canadian survey engineer who discovered it, it is also precisely 2,688 kilometres, 220 metres, and 58 centimetres from the closest islands to the south, north and northeast.
"The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA's assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space," Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement.
These private space stations will be built in the years ahead, which can then serve in the same capacity as the ISS.
As these new commercial space stations come online, NASA will seek to become a customer of those ventures to continue the research currently conducted in orbit.
"The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030," McAlister said.
With the plan to now decommission the orbital lab in 2030, the report states that
the splashdown of the ISS in the spacecraft cemetery would be completed by January of 2031. The end of decades of historical research marks the anticipated birth of new privately developed space laboratories.
Updated Feb-09-2022 23:26
Three years ago she led the creation of a new algorithm to produce the first-ever image of a black hole we are seeing today.
The image may seem insignificant but it took a genius to create the algorithm to produce this image. The future looks bright. We keep making strides and improving
technology and our knowledge of the universe.
Seeing the Unseeable – In-depth scientific discussion about black holes.
Inside the ISS
- Still Images (Google) taken from Inside the International Space Station
Live Tour -
Inside the ISS and Shuttle (video)
Inside the ISS –
Sunita Williams of NASA provides a comprehensive live tour
NASA – Main site with many subsections
Here is how the
Hubble is changing our perspective of reality.
Here is what happened. Astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at what appeared to be absolutely nothing, and left it there for 10 days, and subsequently another blank area for 11 days.
They created a 3-D presentation from their amazing and totally unexpected results.
The "incredible" results may change some people's perception of our importance in the universe.
To think there are a hundred billion galaxies, with hundreds of billions of stars in each,
many with planets circling them; similar to our own solar system, makes you realise our
own significance in the vastness of the known universe.
Click to view the brief video
Turn your sound on; there is a narrative.
Hubble Telescope
- Main site with many subsections
Hubble (Google) Images
- Pages of incredible images captured by the Hubble Space
Telescope
Launched Today: May 5, 2018 (4:05 a.m. PT/7:05 a.m. ET)
Landing: November 26, 2018
Landing Site:
Elysium Planitia, Mars
Mission Duration: A little over 1 Mars year (~2 Earth years); 708 Sols (Mars days), or 728 Earth days
InSight, short for Interior Exploration using
Seismic
Investigations,
Geodesy and
Heat
Transport, is a Mars lander designed to give the Red Planet its first thorough checkup since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. It is the first outer space robotic explorer to study in-depth the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core.
Previous missions to Mars have investigated the surface history of the Red Planet by examining features like canyons, volcanoes, rocks and soil. However, signatures of the planet's formation can only be found by sensing and studying its "vital signs" far below the surface.
In comparison to the other terrestrial planets, Mars is neither too big nor too small. This means that it preserves the record of its formation and can give us insight into how the terrestrial planets formed. It is the perfect laboratory from which to study the formation and evolution of rocky planets. Scientists know that Mars has low levels of geological activity. But a lander like InSight can also reveal just how active Mars really is.
InSight is set to touch down on Mars at around noon Pacific (3 P.M. Eastern) on Nov. 26, 2018. The lander will plunge through the thin Martian atmosphere, heat shield first, and use a parachute to slow down. Then, it will fire its retro rockets to slowly descend to the surface of Mars, and land on the smooth plains of Elysium Planitia.
The entry, descent, and landing phase is InSight’s final plunge through the Martian atmosphere. It lasts about six minutes and delivers the lander safely to the surface.
After a safe landing, InSight deploys its instruments in preparation for surface operations. The lander begins its day-to-day science activities about 30 days into the mission.
(updated Oct-27-2018 00:32 ... JIF ... )
All systems are go for landing on Mars on Nov. 26, NASA personnel affiliated with the InSight mission confirmed during a pair of news conferences held today (Nov. 21).
As of that news conference, the spacecraft had travelled about 295 million miles (475 million kilometres) of the 301 million miles (484 million km) that will make up its total journey. But one of the most serious hurdles remains, the entry, descent and landing process, which will begin at about 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) on Monday (Nov. 26).
(updated Nov-21-2018 22:37 ... JIF ... )
Well the big day has arrived. At about 1500 (3:00 P.M.) EST the lander will face a huge hurdle. Very similar to what Mars Curiosity went through, over six years ago, InSight is set to plunge into the Mars atmosphere, travelling at 21,200 km/h, and it has roughly seven minutes to slow itself down to a speed of near zero km/h, to gently touch down on the surface of the Red Planet.
Landing the craft on Mars, hopefully will be a widely viewed event. I will make very effort to be one of the cheerleaders watching this historic event.
(updated Nov-26-2018 07:54 ... JIF ... )
InSight November 26, 2018 11:54 A.M. PT: (1454 EST) TOUCHDOWN! No points, though. Just a new spacecraft on the surface of Mars.
11:55 A.M. PT: All the data relayed from InSight to Earth via MarCO and the MRO indicates that the landing went as expected. Next up, InSight will wait for the dust to settle, hopefully send back some photos of the surface and then begin to unfurl its solar panels. All that will take hours for NASA to confirm.
It will take weeks for InSight to get started on its primary work, and months to years for the mission to get solid science results about the interior of Mars, but that is the kind of mission that we've signed on to with this lander. It's job, now that it has arrived at Mars, is to sit quietly on the surface and just listen to the planet.
Stay tuned for further mission updates as they happen.
(updated Nov-26-2018 18:56 ... JIF ... )
Since February 14, 2019 the daily average temperature has hovered around -83 °F (-63.8°C), with an average daily high of just 6.5 °F (-14 °C). More than just a little nippy, even by Canadian standards.
Updated Feb-28-2019 06:48
NASA has chosen Jezero Crater as the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission after a five-year search, during which details of more than 60 candidate locations on the Red Planet were scrutinized and debated by the mission team and the planetary science community.
The rover mission is scheduled to launch in July 2020 as NASA's next step in exploration of the Red Planet. It will not only seek signs of ancient habitable conditions – and past microbial life – but the rover also will collect rock and soil samples and store them in a cache on the planet's surface. NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are studying future mission concepts to retrieve the samples and return them to Earth, so this landing site sets the stage for the next decade of Mars exploration.
I am sure much more information will be forthcoming as the launch date approaches.
updated February 18 2021
The New York Times By Reuters - Dec. 27, 2019
PASADENA, Calif . — A NASA robotic rover is nearing completion ahead of a journey next year to search for evidence of past life on Mars and lay the groundwork for the space agency's mission to send humans into deep space.
The U.S. space agency on Friday showed off its Mars 2020 rover, whose official name will be chosen early next year. NASA will in February ship the rover to Florida's Kennedy Space Center where its three sections will be fully assembled. A July launch will send the rover to a dry lake bed on Mars that is bigger than the island of Manhattan.
The four-wheeled, car-sized rover will scour the base of Mars' Jezero Crater, an 820-foot-deep (250-meter-deep) crater thought to have been a lake the size of Lake Tahoe, once the craft lands in February 2021. The crater is believed to have an abundance of pristine
sediments some 3.5 billion years old that scientists hope will hold fossils of Martian life.
"The trick, though, is that we're looking for trace levels of chemicals from billions of years ago on Mars," Mars 2020 deputy project manager Matt Wallace told Reuters. The rover will collect up to 30 soil samples to be picked up and returned to Earth by a future spacecraft planned by NASA.
"Once we have a sufficient set, we'll put them down on the ground, and another mission, which we hope to launch in 2026, will come, land on the surface, collect those samples and put them into a rocket, basically," Wallace said. Humans have never before returned sediment samples from Mars.
The findings of the Mars 2020 research will be crucial to future human missions to the red planet, including the ability to make oxygen on the surface of Mars, Wallace said. The Mars 2020 Rover is carrying equipment that can turn carbon dioxide, which is pervasive on Mars, into oxygen for breathing and as a propellant.
Today Thursday July 30, 2020 07:50 EDT the liftoff took place as scheduled and I watched it live on my computer. Sadly these events are not being covered on scheduled
network TV these days. Mars 2020 Perseverance scheduled to land at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. I hope to have images of the successful landing and further
reports of findings of this historic mission.
Mars Perseverance is accompanied by small helicopter
Ingenuity with
the purpose of proving flight is possible in the thin Martian atmosphere.
Jul-30-2020 07:46
Jul-30-2020 07:51
Click for larger image
Perseverance landing site is Jezero Crater on Mars. NASA equipped the spacecraft with an unprecedented record of 25 cameras and two microphones, as well as the helicopter
Ingenuity.
About 3 billion years ago this
crater was filled with water. Water is an essential part of life and therefore it
is hoped there will be evidence of simple life forms in the former water filled lake.
I am watching the NASA live feed from mission control, covering the landing some 2
hours away. Sadly I was unable to find any live coverage on TV so I am watching my
computer screen for the world wide live feed. I am sure eventually there will be
brief videos released of the staggering accomplishment. It's hardly a secret that I
am convinced that we are far from being alone in this universe with trillions of
Galaxies, each with billions upon billions of stars, many with planets circling
them like we go around our own Sun. It would be impossible to have our planet be
the only one to ever be supporting intelligent life. Even our own planetary system
surely has at one time, even if not currently, supported some simple, to more complex
life forms.
Success! Perseverance landed on schedule, on target 2021 February 18th 3:55 P.M. EST. After all the instruments are tested, the primary mission will commence. Congratulations to ALL who contributed to the success of this monumental achievement.
Mars is currently 126 million miles from Earth. Radio signals, travelling at the speed of light, take more than 11 minutes to travel from there to here. That means that when the message announcing the start of the landing sequence reached Earth, the rover had already been on Mars for four minutes.
Looking forward to progress reports from the research being conducted to answer the
question about life on Mars in the distant past.
First Images Sent by Perseverance
After Landing February 18, 2021
Click for full size image
NASA shows the first colour image sent by
NASA shows one of the six wheels on the
the Perseverance Mars rover after its landing
Perseverance rover after it landed on Mars
The vehicle is healthy, according to officials, after landing on a flat, safe surface in Jezero Crater with just one degree of tilt and relatively small rocks nearby. It will be at least a week before the rover starts driving. The clarity of the first images astounded even mission managers.
Perseverance's front right wheel, near rocks full of holes, already has scientists salivating. They're eager to learn whether these rocks are volcanic or sedimentary.
The river delta — awash three billion to four billion years ago — is just over two kilometres away. Scientists consider it the most likely place to find rocks with evidence of past microscopic life.
There are plans to set aside the most promising rock samples for return to Earth in a decade.
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance mission captured thrilling footage of its rover landing in Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021 at 3:55 P.M. EST. The real footage in this video was captured by several cameras that are part of the rover's entry, descent, and landing suite. The views include a camera looking down from the spacecraft's descent stage (a kind of rocket-powered jet pack that helps fly the rover to its landing site), a camera on the rover looking up at the descent stage, a camera on the top of the aeroshell (a capsule protecting the rover) looking up at that parachute, and a camera on the bottom of the rover looking down at the Martian surface. The audio embedded in the video comes from the mission control call-outs during entry, descent, and landing.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Monday 04/19/2021, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT
As one of NASA’s technology demonstration projects, the 19.3-inch-tall (49-centimetres-tall) Ingenuity Mars Helicopter contains no science instruments inside its tissue-box-size fuselage. Instead, the 4-pound (1.8-kg) rotorcraft is intended to demonstrate whether future exploration of the Red Planet could include an aerial perspective.
Ingenuity’s initial flight demonstration was autonomous – piloted by on board guidance, navigation, and control systems running algorithms developed by the team at JPL.
The solar-powered helicopter first became airborne at 3:34 a.m. EDT (12:34 a.m. PDT) – 12:33 Local Mean Solar Time (Mars time) – a time the Ingenuity team determined would have optimal energy and flight conditions. Altimeter data indicate Ingenuity climbed to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds. It then descended, touching back down on the surface of Mars after logging a total of 39.1 seconds of flight.
Thursday, April 22nd 2021, 7:45 P.M. - This new result from the Mars
2020 mission could be how future astronauts generate breathable air on
the Red Planet.
An experiment on the Perseverance rover has, for the first time, produced
oxygen directly from Mars' thin carbon dioxide atmosphere.
Stored within Perseverance's body is an instrument known as the Mars
OXygen In-situ resource utilization Experiment, or MOXIE. The purpose
of this instrument is to draw in air from around the rover, and through
a special process, convert the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air to
oxygen (O2) and carbon monoxide (CO).
On Tuesday, April 20, the mission team switched on MOXIE. After a
two-hour warm-up period, the device began generating pure oxygen
for the first time. This makes MOXIE the very first instrument to
produce oxygen on another world. "This process allows us to convert
abundant Martian materials into usable things: propellant, breathable
air, or, combined with hydrogen, water."
According to NASA, during this first test, MOXIE produced a little
over 5 grams of oxygen. That's apparently enough to provide one person with breathable air for about 10 minutes. This is a demonstration of how future astronauts will "live off the land", using the planet's resources rather than having to bring everything from Earth.
Perseverance Video
Video of ancient Martian river bed
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This video may vanish in time
The Parker Solar Probe will be the first spacecraft to fly into the low solar corona.
It will assess the structure and dynamics of the Sun's coronal plasma and magnetic field,
the energy flow that heats the solar corona and impels the solar wind,
and the mechanisms that accelerate energetic particles.
Roughly every 11 years, the Sun's magnetic poles flip,
north becoming south and vice versa.
This switch coincides with what is known as solar maximum,
characterized by a peak of sunspot, flare, and coronal mass ejection (CME) activity.
As common as this polar flipping is, it came as a total surprise to me.
I encourage everyone to investigate this mission as it progresses
through unprecedented milestones of human achievement
Parker Solar Probe (Wiki) Launched August 12, 2018
Parker Solar Probe NASA Mission Details
SpaceWeather
News and information about the Sun-Earth environment
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was launched April 24, 1990, on the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
For more facts, please see:
Hubble Essentials
Hubble Nuts & Bolts
Hubble achievements
April 25th 2020
It's 30 years ago to the day that the Hubble telescope was launched - and to celebrate its birthday, the veteran observatory has produced another astonishing image of the cosmos.
This one is of a star-forming region close to our Milky Way Galaxy, about 163,000 light-years from Earth.
The larger object is the nebula NGC 2014; its companion is called NGC 2020.
But astronomers have nicknamed the scene the "Cosmic Reef" because it resembles an undersea world.
Hubble has served us well, producing some amazing results; but the thirst for knowledge
is never ending.
After more than 20 years of construction, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is complete and, following in-depth testing, the largest-ever space telescope is expected to launch in 2018. It’s twice the size of Hubble, but half the weight. It should be able to solve some space mysteries. It can map the atmosphere of planets light years away.
Hubble is 13.2 meters (43.5 ft.) long and its maximum diameter is 4.2 meters (14 ft.) It is about the size of a large tractor-trailer truck. By contrast, Webb's sun shield is about 22 meters by 12 meters (69.5 ft x 46.5 ft). It's about half as big as a 737 aircraft. The sun shield is about the size of a tennis court.
Webb will have a 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror, which would give it a significant larger collecting area than the mirrors available on the current generation of space telescopes. Hubble's mirror is a much smaller 2.4 meters in diameter and its corresponding collecting area is 4.5 m2, giving Webb around 7 times more collecting area! Webb will have significantly larger field of view than the NICMOS camera on Hubble (covering more than ~15 times the area) and significantly better spatial resolution than is available with the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.
The Hubble Space Telescope orbits around the Earth at an altitude of ~570 km.
Webb will not actually orbit the Earth - instead it will sit at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million km away! Because Hubble is in Earth orbit, it was able to be launched into space by the space shuttle. Webb will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket and because it won't be in Earth orbit, it is not designed to be serviced by the space shuttle, if it breaks, we can’t fix it.
We are left to wonder what amazing new discoveries and insights, about our cosmos,
Webb will provide to our ever curious and eager to investigate scientific community.
Updated 28 June 2018 Launch date delayed
After completion of an independent review, a new launch date for the James Webb Space Telescope has been announced: 30 March 2021.
The board evaluated a number of factors, from the technical challenges to remaining tasks leading to launch, and has unanimously recommended that development on the project should continue.
Because of the launch delay, the telescope's $8.8 billion price tag could rise, too, NASA officials told reporters today.
"The Webb is an unprecedented endeavour in space science, requiring utmost ingenuity in both the scientific and technical domains. Several new technologies have been developed and mastered to make its distinctive features possible, including the deployable nature of the observatory, which will carry the largest mirror ever flown into space, and the low-temperatures needed to operate its infrared instruments that will peer farther and deeper into our cosmic origins."
(updated Nov-21-2018 22:57 ... JIF ... )
Finally the long delayed launch date is almost here. Fourteen years after the initial
planned launch (2007), the lift off is scheduled for December 18th 2021.
About 28 minutes after liftoff, Webb will detach from its launch vehicle and begin "the most complex sequence of deployments ever attempted in a single space mission,"
according to NASA. I am sure I am but one of millions hoping all goes well
with the deployment and we will see spectacular images in the near future. I suspect
the power of James Webb will provide unimaginable images, for scientists and
enthusiasts alike, to marvel at.
(updated Nov-06-2021 07:17 ... JIF ... )
James Webb Telescope launched Christmas Day December 25, 2021 after what seemed like an
incredible series of years long delays. Webb is about 100 times more powerful than Hubble.
Webb’s 29 days on the edge begin upon liftoff. After 206 seconds of flight, at an altitude of about 75 miles above the atmosphere, the two halves of the rocket fairing that shields the observatory during ascent are separated by a pyrotechnic system with springs that expose the observatory to space. Ground teams expect to receive communication from Webb shortly after separation. Webb will then separate from the launch vehicle nearly 28 minutes after launch, and from this point on the ground team at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore will be in full control, to begin the most complex sequence of deployments ever attempted in a single space mission.
detailed 29 days of manoeuvres
Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn (updated 12/26/2021)
Work for the James Webb Space Telescope is just beginning.
On Saturday (Jan. 8, 2022), the new observatory, the largest space telescope ever built, successfully unfolded its final primary mirror segment to cap what NASA has billed as one of its most complicated deployments in space ever. The Webb mission team is now turning its attention to directing the telescope to its final destination, while getting key parts of the observatory online for its astronomy work.
An elated mission team for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope confirmed that the space observatory is in great shape after a deployment phase that was 100% successful.
Webb is expected to arrive at its "insertion location" by Jan. 23, putting it in place to fire its engines to glide to a "parking spot" called Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2 (L2) about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometres (U.S. kilometres)) away from our planet. If Webb gets to the right zone, it can use a minimum of fuel to stay in place thanks to a near-perfect alignment with the sun, Earth and moon.
But it's not just manoeuvres in space that the control teams will need to execute. Webb still has a lot of complex commissioning operations ahead, and NASA particularly pointed to aligning its mirror and getting its instruments ready as key milestones to watch for in the next few weeks.
As Webb prepares for the engine fire, team members will spend the next 15 days aligning the 18 mirror segments to "essentially perform as one mirror," John Durning, Webb's deputy project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told reporters.
Once aligned, the mirror segments will act as one giant mirror 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across, the largest ever in space.
NASA has estimated that it could take up to 120 days after launch for Webb's mirror alignment work to be complete. The first photos from Webb are not expected until about five months after launch once commissioning ends. -- Tariq Malik
"I should say also, that Webb will start turning on the instruments in the next week or so," Durning added. "And then after we get into L2, as the instruments get cold enough, they [engineers] are going to be starting to turn on all the various instruments."
Credits: Space.com (updated 01/10/2022)
After launch, the James Webb Space Telescope travelled to its orbital destination. Arriving January 25th to its final destination. Webb will perform its science mission while orbiting a location in space, called the second Lagrange point, or L2 for short. L2 is located one million miles from Earth.
As Webb orbits L2, the telescope stays in line with Earth as it travels around the Sun. L2 is a point where the gravitational influences of the Earth and Sun balance the centripetal force of a small object orbiting with them.
The telescope's optics and instruments need to be kept very cold to be able to observe the very faint infrared signals of very distant objects clearly. This location is perfect for Webb's sunshield to block out light and heat from the Sun, Earth, and Moon. Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb's orbit keeps the spacecraft out of the Earth's shadow making L2 a thermally stable location for the observatory to operate at.
Adjusting its mirrors will take some time and the first images are anticipated within
the next six months, sometime this summer. Webb will shed light on the mysteries of
the universe like we have never seen it before. The world eagerly awaits the unprecedented scientific results.
(updated 01/25/2022)
The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground. Much more to come from James Webb for some years.
This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totalling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
(updated 07/12/2022)
DART is a spacecraft designed to impact an asteroid as a test of technology. DART’s target asteroid is NOT a threat to Earth. This asteroid system is a perfect testing ground to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future. While no known asteroid larger than 140 meters in size has a significant chance to hit Earth for the next 100 years, only about 40 percent of those asteroids have been found as of October 2021. DART lifted off at 1:21 A.M. EST 11/24/2021 from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Now underway, the uncrewed, robotic DART spacecraft is speeding towards a fateful rendezvous with a pair of asteroids named Didymos and Dimorphos. When it arrives at its destination in late September of 2022, DART has a singular purpose.
Unlike previous asteroid missions, which were designed to orbit and study the objects, DART is a 'kinetic impactor' test. As it approaches the Didymos system, travelling at around 24,000 kilometres per hour, the spacecraft will use its cameras to autonomously home in on Dimorphos. Once it is locked on target, DART will then intentionally crash itself into the space rock. This early experiment may save our plant from disaster some day.
Updated 11/24/2021
Ssgt. Barry Sadler – Ballad Of The Green Berets –
Lyrics
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Discover the Cosmos - Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. |
The rover Curiosity (about the size of a midsized automobile) should land on Mars in about nine moths, sometime in August 2012 to search for evidence of life, past or present on Mars.
Mars Science Laboratory - The latest news from Mars and much more
Congratulations!
First image after landing of Curiosity!
It will take about a month to check all systems aboard and begin the exploration.
An incredible feat of human engineering! The most sophisticated and complex venture onto another heavenly body in our solar system. Searching for evidence of life in the universe.
Click Play to view animation
(select Full Screen Mode once animation starts -
app. 11 minutes)
Curiosity on Mars Click to view full size image
A view from the "Kimberley" formation on Mars taken by NASA's Curiosity rover October 8th 2015. The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating flow of water toward a basin that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed.
– Earth Jupiter Venus as seen from Mars
Click for larger image
Earth & Moon viewed from Mars
A composite of four sets of images taken on Nov. 20, 2016 (an incredible feat).
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, launched on Friday April 14th 2023 at 1:14 P.M. The spacecraft, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, lifted off flawlessly.
The European Space Agency wants to zoom in on Jupiter's Icy Moons.
The ambitious science mission Juice will begin when it arrives at the Jupiter system in 2031. “We’ll put Ganymede on the map,” says project scientist Olivier Witasse. “We have good reason to believe that underneath the crust of the moon there is a lot of liquid water. That’s a place where life could start, and that’s fascinating.”
Jupiter, the largest planet orbiting the sun, is fascinating unto itself, but its massive moons are the ultimate prize.
Weighing in at six tons, the European spacecraft Juice, from the European Space Agency or ESA, carries 10 advanced scientific instruments to study the moons Callisto, Europa and Ganymede and capture images.
Some of the moons are made from hunks of icy rock that may hide life-harbouring oceans beneath their surfaces.
Information Source
Opportunity is a rover that has been working on Mars since January 2004. Originally intended to last 90 days, the machine crawled more than the distance of a marathon (26.2 miles, or 42.1 kilometres) between its landing day and when the rover was last heard from on Mars, on June 10, 2018. As of that time the odometer on Opportunity read 28.06 miles (45.16 km).
One of Opportunity's greatest scientific findings was confirming the presence of standing water on Mars for long periods. The rover uncovered the presence of hematite, gypsum and other rocks on Mars that tend to form in water on Earth, and also found evidence of ancient hydrothermal systems. Opportunity demonstrated it was possible to operate a rover for more than a decade on another planet, overcoming engineering and driving issues as it continued to perform scientific work.
Opportunity fell silent when a global dust storm swept across Mars in June 2018. The rover requires solar power for operations, and during heavy dust storms there are too many particles in the air to allow sunlight to reach Opportunity's solar panels. As of December 2018, after the dust began to clear, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had initiated recovery operations for Opportunity but received no response. The 90 day mission that lasted 15 years came to an end due to extreme conditions on Mars.
Self Portraits of Curiosity on Mars
Social media users, as they will, created a mythical final transmission from Opportunity Rover:
In reality, the Opportunity Rover's final transmission to NASA from Mars was a bare-bones data dump indicating it was low on power as a storm approached, not the above euphemistic quote. After the dust cleared, all attempts to communicate with Opportunity failed. We may never know if Opportunity was ever able to recharge its batteries and continue functioning.
300,000,000 miles from Earth in the vastness of empty space. Signals take about a half an hour to reach Earth from the lander or from Earth to the lander.
Welcome to a Comet, from Lander on Surface of 4.6 billion year old Comet.
The Philae lander of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission is safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as these first two images from the lander's CIVA camera confirm. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. The view is a two-image mosaic taken on Nov. 12, 2014.
The lander separated from the orbiter at 09:03 UTC (1:03 a.m. PST) for touch down on comet 67P seven hours later.
Rosetta and Philae had been riding through space together for more than 10 years. Philae is the first probe to achieve soft landing on a comet, and Rosetta is the first to rendezvous with a comet and follow it around the sun. The information collected by Philae at one location on the surface will complement that collected by the Rosetta orbiter for the entire comet.
Rosetta is a European Space Agency mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center, Cologne; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Gottingen; French National Space Agency, Paris; and the Italian Space Agency, Rome. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the U.S. participation in the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Rosetta carries three NASA instruments in its 21-instrument payload.
For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:
http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information about Rosetta, visit
http://www.esa.int/rosetta.
I am sure much will be learned from this incredible mission in the coming months or even years.
On Saturday February 14th, 2015 the Rosetta did its first ultra-low fly-by, getting within 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) of the surface of the comet, formally known as Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The images taken show a wide variety of landscapes on the surface of the comet, from rocky ridges to craters to dusty flatlands.
During the close encounter, Rosetta takes photos as well as samples from the lower atmosphere of the comet.
Looks like a typical image from our own planet. Perhaps the rest of the universe is very
similar in composition to our own home in the universe.
Philae shut down on 15 November 2014 at 1:15 CET after being in operation on the comet for about 60 hours.
Renewed Contact
The signals were received at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt at 22:28 CEST on 13 June 2015. More than 300 data packets have been analysed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
"Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available," explains DLR Philae Project Manager
Dr. Stephan Ulamec. "The lander is ready for operations."
The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 at 7:05 A.M. EST, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, in Florida. The Orion spacecraft will orbit Earth twice, reaching an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles above Earth before landing in the Pacific Ocean. No one is aboard Orion for this flight test, but the spacecraft is designed to allow us to journey to destinations never before visited by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. Photo Credit: NASA
NASA marked a major milestone Friday on its journey to Mars as the Orion spacecraft completed its first voyage to space, travelling farther than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has been in more than 40 years.
“Today’s flight test of Orion is a huge step for NASA and a really critical part of our work to pioneer deep space on our Journey to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “The teams did a tremendous job putting Orion through its paces in the real environment it will endure as we push the boundary of human exploration in the coming years.”
Following a perfect launch and more than four hours in Earth's orbit, NASA's Orion spacecraft is seen from an un-piloted aircraft descending under three massive red and white main parachutes and then shortly after its bulls eye splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles southwest of San Diego. During the uncrewed test, Orion travelled twice through the Van Allen belt, where it experienced periods of intense radiation, and reached an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth. The spacecraft hit speeds of 20,000 mph and weathered temperatures approaching 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
Image Credit: NASA
From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore took this photograph of the Great Lakes and central U.S. on Dec. 7, 2014, and posted it to social media. This week on the station, the Expedition 42 crew has been busy with medical science and spacesuit work while preparing for the arrival of SpaceX's Dragon commercial cargo craft, scheduled to launch on Dec. 16 on a two day trip to the station before it is captured by the Canadarm2 and berthed to the Harmony node.
Image Credit: NASA/Barry Wilmore
February 17, 2015
In the past month, a series of snowstorms and Arctic weather fronts have brought bone-chilling temperatures and record-setting snowfall levels to the Northeastern United States. New England has been especially hard-hit, with parts of Massachusetts and Maine recording more than 100 inches of snow this season—90.2 inches falling in Boston in just the past 30 days. As residents continually dig out, they've run out of places to pile the snow, in some places pushing it into the ocean.
Images of Snow Storms
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Three hundred firefighters on the ground and dozens more in the air continue to battle the most destructive wildfire Alberta has experienced in more than a century but, despite their best efforts, officials concede they are no match for the blaze.
The flames have consumed swaths of Fort McMurray and chased away most of the city’s residents – more than 80,000 people – in a panic-stricken last-minute mass evacuation that is already leaving emotional scars.
What began as a small brush fire outside city limits, May 2nd, has grown into a raging inferno, increasing 10 times in size since the evacuation began Tuesday May 3rd. It’s not known how the blaze started.
Thursday, the city’s fire chief and Alberta government officials admitted it was resisting most – but not all – containment efforts; it was becoming too large and too fierce for the 22 water bombers and other heavy equipment deployed to douse the fast-spreading flames. The fire covered about 7,500 hectares on Wednesday; by Thursday noon, it had increased to 85,000 hectares, or 850 square kilometres.
The blaze could double in size today (Saturday), due to changes in wind direction and
speed. Mother nature will have to assist the effort to douse the flames with anticipated
rain sometime early next week. Over 90,000 have been evacuated so far with over 1600
structures destroyed to nothing more than rubble.
Support for the northern Alberta community and surrounding towns, villages and First Nations still under siege has grown in proportion to the blaze. Thousands of individuals, private companies, governments and agencies across Canada are making monetary and material contributions to help evacuees through their hardship.
As cash donations pour into the Canadian Red Cross, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will match every dollar sent to the agency.
The fire is growing by leaps and bounds with no end in sight. Even with cooler
temperatures expected along with some rain, the fire could burn for weeks or even months
with the gusting winds spreading the flames in new directions.
Devastating flooding in Venice. The worst flooding since 1966 and only the sixth in 1200 years approaching the magnitude of the current disaster. The flooding is not only
more severe but occurs more frequently as the climate changes, with 4 of the 6 most severe flooding taking place in the last 20 years.
Climate change is destroying not only
incredibly large number of species but vast areas are being turned into uninhabitable
arid areas or flooded out around the world. The polar ice caps are vanishing, raising global sea levels and destroying the ecology required to support many life forms.
C l i c k f o r l a r g e r i m a g e
A mountain-size space rock will sail past Earth on Monday January 26th, offering stargazers a close look at an interplanetary pinball. Luckily, NASA says there is no risk of collision, but it will be a rare astronomically close encounter that backyard telescope owners can watch.
The large asteroid, called 2004 BL86, measures about a third of a mile (half a kilometre) across. It will make its closest approach to Earth on January 26, coming within only 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometres) from our planet—about three times the distance separating the Earth and the moon. Monday, January 26, 2015 will be the closest asteroid 2004 BL86, that belongs to a group of 551 known near-Earth asteroids, will get to Earth for at least the next 200 years.
Click for larger image
Discovered in 1930,
Pluto was long considered our solar system's ninth planet. But after the discovery of similar intriguing worlds deeper in the distant Kuiper Belt, icy Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet. Findings by NASA's New Horizons in 2015 revealed for the first time how that Pluto is a complex and mysterious world. Information about Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, provide insight into the collision believed to have formed the dwarf planet and moons we see today.
Dwarf planets may provide the best evidence about the origins of our solar system.
This morning, 2015 July 14th the United States became the first country to reach Pluto -- and the first country to explore the entire classical solar system: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
NASA's New Horizons interplanetary probe has been making its way to Pluto since January 19, 2006, and has been providing the world with the sharpest photos ever seen of our Solar System's most prominent "dwarf planet." Today, it made its closest approach to Pluto yet -- about 8,000 miles -- at around 07:49:57 EDT.
Here's the photo they took -- which, despite travelling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), took four and a half hours to reach us here on Earth as it crossed the 3 billion miles between here and Pluto:
That we were able to get so close to Pluto today is a feat whose probability scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson likened to "a hole-in-one on a two-mile golf shot." He's right.
Every once in a while, a photo comes along that has the ability to shift not just how we see our place in the universe, but how we see ourselves -- not just as Americans, but as citizens of Earth.
See more details –
NASA's New Horizons ‘Phones Home’ Safe after Pluto Flyby
Amazing detail reveals no pockmarking of recent impact activity,
rather surprisingly young mountains line the equatorial area.
Click to view
Full-size Image
This graphic presents a view of Pluto and Charon as they would appear if placed slightly above Earth's surface and viewed from a great distance. Recent measurements obtained by New Horizons indicate that Pluto has a diameter of 2370 km, 18.5% that of Earth's, while Charon its moon has a diameter of 1208 km, 9.5% that of Earth's.
Planet 9 – Perhaps Planet 9 will be verified soon
Space Facts About Mercury
The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. After an almost five-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. Confirmation that the burn had completed was received on Earth at 8:53 p.m. PDT (11:53 p.m. EDT) Monday, July 4 2016. “The spacecraft worked perfectly, which is always nice when you’re driving a vehicle with 1.7 billion miles on the odometer,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from JPL. “Jupiter orbit insertion was a big step and the most challenging remaining in our mission plan, but there are others that have to occur before we can give the science team the mission they are looking for.”
Juno's principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. With its suite of nine science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras. The mission also will let us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter also can provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.
The mission will conduct twenty a month intensive examination of everything Jupiter,
terminating in the complete destruction of Juno in order to prevent inadvertently contaminating Jupiter or any of its moons with Earth born life forms.
This is a huge project. You are encouraged to follow all aspects of the mission and
research for yourself what the scientific results produce.
A famous dagger found in the wrapping of Egyptian King Tutankhamun's mummy was made with iron from a meteorite, a study confirms. The Dagger has an iron blade and a gold handle and sheath.
A beautiful sample of a Meteorite. Meteors pound our planet on a regular basis. People get wealthy discovering meteors that landed on earth over the billions of years. Meteor sizes vary from pebble size to giants that changed the complexion of our our evolution.
Mounted Meteorite
This image of the sun was taken on July 15, 2015, with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager onboard NASA's Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory Ahead (STEREO-A) spacecraft, which collects images in several wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye. This image shows the sun in wavelengths of 171 angstroms, typically colourised in blue.
This image of the Sun was taken by NASA Solar Dynamics Observations mission on 15 July 2015, at a wavelength of 304 Angstroms.
The arrival of intense cold similar to the one that raged during the “Little Ice Age”, which froze the world during the 17th century and in the beginning of the 18th century, is expected in the years 2030—2040. These conclusions were presented by Professor V. Zharkova (Northumbria University) during the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno in Wales by the international group of scientists, which also includes Dr Helen Popova of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics and of the Faculty of Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Professor Simon Shepherd of Bradford University and Dr Sergei Zharkov of Hull University.
Ice Age by 2030? – for the complete story
The Sun erupted with two prominence eruptions, one after the other over a four-hour period on Nov. 16, 2012. The action was captured in the 304 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. It seems possible that the disruption to the Sun’s magnetic field might have triggered the second event since they were in relatively close proximity to each other. The expanding particle clouds heading into space do not appear to be Earth-directed.
Click to view full size image
Image Credit: NASA/SDO/Steele Hill
A solar eruption gracefully rose up from the sun on Dec. 31, 2012,
twisting and turning. Magnetic forces drove the flow of plasma,
but without sufficient force to overcome the sun’s gravity much
of the plasma fell back into the sun.
The length of the eruption extends about 160,000 miles (257,495 Km) out from the Sun. With Earth about 7,900 miles (12,713.8 Km) in diameter, this relatively minor eruption is about 20 times the diameter of our planet.
Click to view full size image
See video and relative size of Earth to eruption on 'Solar Ballet on the Sun' feature.
Lunar eclipses are not uncommon however a
Supermoon Lunar Eclipse, happening Sunday night
September 27th 2015 into Monday morning,
is much less frequent. Many of us will not experience this event again.
• In the past century or so, super moon lunar eclipses have occurred five times, in 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982. The next super moon lunar eclipse will take place in 2033
Super Harvest Moon
- September 22nd 2010,
much more at
Wikipedia
The "harvest moon" is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox.
Tonight – September 28, 2015 – if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, watch for the Harvest Moon to rise shortly after sunset.
This year’s Harvest Moon qualifies as a supermoon, too, because the moon turned full at nearly the same time that it reached lunar perigee – the moon’s closest point to Earth for the month (and year).
Interesting Moon Facts – Includes tidal information and more
While discussing phenomenon on our planet Earth, I would be remiss in failing to discuss the amazing Aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere and the Aurora australis observed in the south. For those scientifically inclined a more in depth explanation is most appropriate. The Sun is the source of not only life in our solar system but amazing beauty throughout our view of the universe. It is not a surprise that ancient civilizations worshipped the Sun for all we owe to our proximity to it. Solar activity has long been interpreted by humanity in various ways but the amazing beauty of the Northern Lights is undeniable.
A piece of Canada that broke off about 1.7 billion years ago has been found in Australia.
Throughout Earth's history, the continents drifted together and apart numerous times. They most recently formed the supercontinent Pangea 300 million years ago before breaking up to form today's continents.
That makes it difficult to figure out how previous supercontinents were configured, or even exactly when they formed.
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A kilometre A metric unit of length equal to 1000 metres (or 0.621371 miles) US kilometre & meter
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