Space News

[Dejan Corovic]

Nice day, NASA just collected 250 grams of samples from asteroid Benu.

Finally we'll be able to know what asteroids are made off:

NASA’s First Asteroid Sample Has Landed, Now Secure in Clean Room - NASA

After years of anticipation and hard work by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) team, a capsule of rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu finally is on Earth. It landed at 8:52 a.m. MDT (10:52 a.m. EDT) on Sunday...

www.nasa.gov

 

[Dejan Corovic]

Here is a brief recap of what was, few years back, mission to asteroid Benu about and how it went:


View: https://youtu.be/EQi-CN8Vn1w

 

[nivek]

New discovery adds weight to possibility of life on Europa​

Scientists have discovered the presence of one of the most crucial ingredients for life on Jupiter's icy moon. When it comes to seeking out signs of extraterrestrial life within our own solar system, no target has proven more tantalizing than Europa - a world thought to be home to a potentially habitable ocean of liquid water hidden deep beneath a thick icy exterior shell. It's by no means a large world - measuring around 2,000 miles across (slightly smaller than the Earth's moon) - but its ocean, if it has one, could be up to 100 miles deep.

Now scientists analyzing data captured by the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed one more reason to get excited about its prospects as a home to alien life - the presence of carbon. The findings suggest that carbon-dioxide ice on Europa's surface has come from the depths of the Jovian moon's subterranean ocean, several miles down beneath the icy crust.

"This is a big deal and I am very excited by it," said study co-author and geochemist Dr Christopher Glein. "We don't know yet if life is actually present in Europa's ocean. But this new finding adds evidence to the case that Europa's ocean would be a good bet for hosting extant life. That environment looks tantalizing from the perspective of astrobiology."

The discovery is particularly important because of where the carbon is likely to have originated. "The discovery of carbon dioxide in salt-rich regions of Europa's ice shell indicates that the CO2 is coming from the ocean below and not from outside sources, such as meteorites and ions bombarding Europa," said NASA's Kevin Hand.

.

 

[nivek]

Here is a brief recap of what was, few years back, mission to asteroid Benu about and how it went:


View: https://youtu.be/EQi-CN8Vn1w

This weekend, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will fly by Earth and drop off a sample of asteroid Bennu for researchers to the study. The return capsule will enter Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday morning, Sept. 24, at 7:42 a.m. PDT. Traveling about 27,650 mph, it will streak across Nevada before parachuting to Earth in the Utah desert.



.

 

[Dejan Corovic]

This weekend, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will fly by Earth and drop off a sample of asteroid Bennu for researchers to the study. The return capsule will enter Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday morning, Sept. 24, at 7:42 a.m. PDT. Traveling about 27,650 mph, it will streak across Nevada before parachuting to Earth in the Utah desert.


.

It was a bulls eye in one.

When one thinks that this satellite came from the a huge distance away and landed at a such a small patch of ground.

 

[nivek]

Mysterious black dust found on asteroid sample that crashed to Earth: Canister holding debris from Bennu is covered in an 'unidentifiable' element​

NASA was forced to halt work on the asteroid samples that crashed to Earth this week after scientists spotted mysterious black dust inside the canister.

The samples were collected from Bennu's surface in 2020 as part of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission and recently touched down in the Utah desert on Sunday.

Scientists cracked open the canister today, finding unidentified elements on the Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) on top of the avionics deck.

NASA said that the dust will undergo a quick-look analysis to determine if it is material from the asteroid Bennu.

'The TAGSAM, which holds the bulk of the sample, will be carefully opened in the coming weeks,' the space agency said.

(More on the link)

.

 

[nivek]

Scientists build artificial intelligence that can detect alien life​

The new AI can determine the likelihood that a sample is biological by 90% - but nobody is quite sure exactly how it works. Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly prevalent in today's world and is showing up in everything from graphics upscaling to bots capable of natural language conversation.

Now scientists have found another use for AI - detecting signs of extraterrestrial life. The new machine-learning algorithm, which has been developed and trained by providing it with data on living cells, fossils and meteorite sample, is capable of determining whether or not a sample is biological with an accuracy of 90%. This means that it can potentially determine whether or not there is life on another planet such as Mars.

Bizarrely, the algorithm is so complex that even its creators don't fully understand how it works.

"These results mean that we may be able to find a lifeform from another planet, another biosphere, even if it is very different from the life we know on Earth," said astrobiologist and study co-lead author Robert Hazen. "And, if we do find signs of life elsewhere, we can tell if life on Earth and other planets derived from a common or different origin."

"Put another way, the method should be able to detect alien biochemistries, as well as Earth life."

"That is a big deal because it's relatively easy to spot the molecular biomarkers of Earth life, but we cannot assume that alien life will use DNA, amino acids, etc. Our method looks for patterns in molecular distributions that arise from life's demand for 'functional' molecules."

.

 

[pigfarmer]

NASA’s Bennu Asteroid Sample Contains Carbon, Water - NASA

NASA’s Bennu Asteroid Sample Contains Carbon, Water​

Abbey A. Donaldson​

Oct 11, 2023

RELEASE23-115

NASA Headquarters​

A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector. Sample material from asteroid Bennu can be seen on the middle right. Scientists have found evidence of both carbon and water in initial analysis of this material. The bulk of the sample is located inside.
Photo: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold

Initial studies of the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu sample collected in space and brought to Earth by NASA show evidence of high-carbon content and water, which together could indicate the building blocks of life on Earth may be found in the rock. NASA made the news Wednesday from its Johnson Space Center in Houston where leadership and scientists showed off the asteroid material for the first time since it landed in September.

This finding was part of a preliminary assessment of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) science team.

“The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Almost everything we do at NASA seeks to answer questions about who we are and where we come from. NASA missions like OSIRIS-REx will improve our understanding of asteroids that could threaten Earth while giving us a glimpse into what lies beyond. The sample has made it back to Earth, but there is still so much science to come – science like we’ve never seen before.”
Although more work is needed to understand the nature of the carbon compounds found, the initial discovery bodes well for future analyses of the asteroid sample. The secrets held within the rocks and dust from the asteroid will be studied for decades to come, offering insights into how our solar system was formed, how the precursor materials to life may have been seeded on Earth, and what precautions need to be taken to avoid asteroid collisions with our home planet.

The goal of the OSIRIS-REx sample collection was 60 grams of asteroid material. Curation experts at NASA Johnson, working in new clean rooms built especially for the mission, have spent 10 days so far carefully disassembling the sample return hardware to obtain a glimpse at the bulk sample within. When the science canister lid was first opened, scientists discovered bonus asteroid material covering the outside of the collector head, canister lid, and base. There was so much extra material it slowed down the careful process of collecting and containing the primary sample.

“Our labs were ready for whatever Bennu had in store for us,” said Vanessa Wyche, director, NASA Johnson. “We’ve had scientists and engineers working side-by-side for years to develop specialized gloveboxes and tools to keep the asteroid material pristine and to curate the samples so researchers now and decades from now can study this precious gift from the cosmos.”
Within the first two weeks, scientists performed “quick-look” analyses of that initial material, collecting images from a scanning electron microscope, infrared measurements, X-ray diffraction, and chemical element analysis. X-ray computed tomography was also used to produce a 3D computer model of one of the particles, highlighting its diverse interior. This early glimpse provided the evidence of abundant carbon and water in the sample.
“As we peer into the ancient secrets preserved within the dust and rocks of asteroid Bennu, we are unlocking a time capsule that offers us profound insights into the origins of our solar system,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, University of Arizona, Tucson. “The bounty of carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of water-bearing clay minerals are just the tip of the cosmic iceberg. These discoveries, made possible through years of dedicated collaboration and cutting-edge science, propel us on a journey to understand not only our celestial neighborhood but also the potential for life’s beginnings. With each revelation from Bennu, we draw closer to unraveling the mysteries of our cosmic heritage.”

For the next two years, the mission’s science team will continue characterizing the samples and conduct the analysis needed to meet the mission’s science goals. NASA will preserve at least 70% of the sample at Johnson for further research by scientists worldwide, including future generations of scientists. As part of OSIRIS-REx’s science program, a cohort of more than 200 scientists around the world will explore the regolith’s properties, including researchers from many U.S. institutions, NASA partners JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and other scientists from around the world. Additional samples will also be loaned later this fall to the Smithsonian Institution, Space Center Houston, and the University of Arizona for public display.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lauretta, the principal investigator, leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft, provided flight operations, and was responsible for capsule recovery. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace were responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Curation for OSIRIS-REx, including processing the sample when it arrived on Earth, is taking place at NASA Johnson.
OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Find more information about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

 

[nivek]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tXhBLg3Wng


.

 

[nivek]

Huge comet three times the size of Mount Everest has violently exploded and is now racing towards Earth, scientists say​

A comet that is three times the size of Mount Everest has exploded in space and is now hurtling towards Earth, astronomers have revealed. It won't actually hit us, but may be visible to the naked eye when it reaches its closest point to our planet on April 21, 2024.

The space rock, which has been named 12P/Pons-Brooks, is what is known as a cryovolcanic – or cold volcano – comet. It has a solid nucleus with an estimated diameter of 18.6 miles (30 km) and is made up of ice, dust and gases that act a bit like carbonation in a fizzy drink bottle. That's because when heated by the sun, pressure inside this cryomagma continues to build until the nitrogen and carbon monoxide explodes and flings out icy debris through large cracks in the nucleus's shell.

It is the second time in four months that this has happened to Pons-Brooks, creating what looks like a gigantic pair of horns when viewed through a telescope. Some have speculated that the horseshoe-like shape also resembles the Millennium Falcon spaceship in Star Wars. The space rock is about the size as the celebrated Halley's comet and was last visible to the naked eye on Earth in 1954.

It is also referred to as a 'Halley-type comet' because its 71-year orbit of the sun puts it in the same class as history's most famous space rock, which takes about 75 years to circle our star, as opposed to thousands of years like most comets.

Although Pons-Brooks will be at its closest to Earth in April 2024, it is predicted to reach magnitude +4 so could be visible to the naked eye in May and June 2024, too.

It will be brightest in the night sky on June 2, 2024. After making its closest approach to us, the space rock will then be flung back to the outer solar system and will not return until 2095.

(More on the link)

.

 

[Dejan Corovic]

Check this out.

There are these most energetic events in the whole universe and they seem to be producing "relativistic sabres", as journalists called them, that can cut a whole star in half within seconds.


View: https://youtu.be/nnwmHy0Th0w

 

[nivek]

Astronomers are scouring the heavens for signs of nearby alien probes​

Physicist Beatriz Villarroel, and colleagues, are searching for signs of extraterrestrial technology close to home. There has been increased interest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) ever since the Pentagon's 2021 report revealed what appears to be anomalous objects in US airspace, dubbed unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). Fast forward to 2023, and Nasa has already formed a panel to investigate the reports and appointed a director for UAP research.

A newly founded Pentagon desk has also released footage of mysterious metallic orbs. What is perhaps most remarkable is that David Grusch, a former intelligence officer, testified under oath before the US Congress, stating that he had interviewed around 40 people involved in secret programmes dealing with crashed UFOs.

I am interested in searching the sky for alien, physical objects which may one day tell us whether we are alone in the galaxy. Consider this: within our own Milky Way galaxy, there are 40 billion Earth-sized, potentially habitable planets.

Human ingenuity has enabled us to engineer and launch probes like Voyager and Pioneer, capable of reaching the closest stars. We've initiated efforts such as the Breakthrough Starshot programme which aims to reach nearby star Alpha Centauri in just a few decades by exploring innovative propulsion methods. Sending a probe may be more economical than sending out radio or laser communication if there is no need to hurry.

If humans can send a probe to another star, why couldn't another civilisation send a probe to our Solar System? Such a probe could make it to the main asteroid belt and lurk on an asteroid.

Or, it could make its way to the Earth, entering our atmosphere. If observed, it would be branded as a "UFO". A civilisation capable of producing and sending probes could dispatch millions of them on exploratory missions throughout our galaxy. Some may argue that such probes could only exist if they adhere to the laws of physics and engineering as we understand them today. However, humanity is a relatively young civilisation, and our knowledge is constantly evolving.

While humans have dreamt of flying for millennia as we gazed at the skies, it has only been 120 years since the Wright brothers achieved the first powered flight. That's about as long ago as Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity. Is it really so difficult to imagine that a civilisation that is hundreds of thousands years older than ours might have learned more about the laws of physics or developed a few more engineering tricks?

If a civilisation were to evolve into artificial intelligence (AI), it might survive for millions of years. This could mean it would casually regard slow to a neighbouring star as nothing more than a leisurely stroll. That said, few astronomers felt impressed by the US Navy videos or government reports. We need significantly better evidence and data than what has been presented so far.

Unveiling UFOs

How can we test whether there are extra terrestrial probes near Earth, and whether they can be tied to the possible UFO phenomenon? There are many options. Analysing materials from potentially crashed UFOs could give irrefutable proof. This would require state-of-the-art techniques to determine if these wrecks exhibit exotic or distinctly different characteristics of manufacture.

Obtaining such exotic samples, if they indeed exist, may prove challenging - they are rumoured to be in the hands of private companies. But newly proposed legislation might offer a solution to that problem in United States by mandating that all artificial materials from any non-human intelligence be surrendered to the US government.

In the projects I lead, we are searching for artificial non-human objects by looking for short light flashes in the night sky. Short flashes typically occur when a flat, highly reflective surface - such as a mirror or glass - reflects sunlight. It could, however, also result from an artificial object emitting its own internal light. Such short light flashes sometimes repeat and follow a straight line as the object tumbles in space during its orbit around the Earth. This is why satellites often appear as repeating light flashes in images.

Historical photographic plates taken before the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 have revealed the presence of nine light sources (transients) that appear and vanish within an hour in a small image, defying astronomical explanations. In some cases, the transient light sources are even aligned, just like when short flashes come from moving objects. The most recent finding of this kind shows three bright stars in an image dated July 19, 1952 (coincidentally, the same time as the famous Washington UFO flyovers). The three stars were never seen again.

Searching for alien probes in the modern night sky presents a serious but necessary challenge. A new research programme, known as ExoProbe, searches for short light flashes from potential alien objects with the help of multiple telescopes.

To verify the authenticity of each flash, it must be observed in at least two different telescopes. Since these telescopes are separated by hundreds of kilometres, any light flash caused by an object within the inner Solar System enables the measurement of parallax - the apparent shift in the position of an object as seen from two different points - and the calculation of the distance to the object.

The ExoProbe project also uses its own methods to filter out light flashes from the millions of space debris fragments and thousands of satellites cluttering the sky. By adding a telescope taking real-time spectra (the wavelength distributions of the light) of the objects in a wide field, you can analyse the transients before they vanish into nothingness.

Finally, increasing the number of telescopes further enhances accuracy in measuring parallax and determining the actual three dimensional location of the object. Ultimately, the goal is to identify any potential alien object and bring it back to Earth for further study.

Some 60 years of searches for extraterrestrial civilisations in the radio frequencies have yielded no candidates whatsoever. We find ourselves at a moment in time when new paths must be explored. That means we can finally focus our attention closer to home. Regardless of the outcome, this journey is certainly an homage to our insatiable curiosity.

.

 

[nivek]

Astronomers perplexed by huge ring of galaxies in deep space​

Scientists in the UK have discovered what appears to be a gargantuan ring-shaped structure far off in space. Measuring a whopping 1.3 billion light-years in diameter, this immense structure - named the Big Ring - is so large that it appears 15 times the size of the Moon when viewed from the Earth's surface (though it is not actually visible with the naked eye).

Identified by Alexia Lopez - a PhD student at the University of Central Lancashire - the ring is unlike anything ever seen before and challenges our current understanding of the universe. In other words - something like this shouldn't actually exist because it violates what is known as the cosmological principle which concerns the distribution of matter throughout the cosmos.

"This is the seventh large structure discovered in the universe that contradicts the idea that the cosmos is smooth on the largest scales," said Dr Robert Massey, deputy director of the Royal Astronomical Society. "If these structures are real, then it's definitely food for thought for cosmologists and the accepted thinking on how the universe has evolved over time."

In addition to the Big Ring, Lopez also discovered a second structure - the Giant Arc - which spans some 3.3 billion light-years of space.

"It's really surreal," she said. "I do have to pinch myself, because I made these discoveries accidentally, they were serendipitous discoveries. Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe. And their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes, and cosmological proximity must surely be telling us something important - but what exactly?"

.

 

[nivek]

Mysterious objects have been observed near the solar system​

Swedish researcher Beatriz Villarroel from Stockholm University, together with an international team of scientists, discovered mysterious objects in astronomical images stored since the 1950s that have never been explained.

It all started with a careful analysis of old astronomical photographs, in which Villarroel discovered something unusual: objects resembling artificial satellites, sparkling brightly in the sky and disappearing too quickly.

She argues that such objects should not have appeared in images until 1957, when the first space shuttle was launched.

Villarroel’s latest research, published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, reveals three mysterious objects photographed in 1952 by the Palomar Observatory. These objects suddenly appeared in photographs and disappeared after 50 minutes, leaving scientists completely bewildered.

The article discusses two versions that explain this phenomenon. According to the first version, these are three independent objects located in the inner part of the solar system or even in Earth orbit.

The three sources are absent in all subsequent exposures of this region during 71 yr, including the POSS blue-sensitive image taken immediately after this exposure.

According to the second version, the brief flash of light was caused by the gravitational lens of a massive object between them and the Earth. But the cause of the flare and the nature of the resulting gravitational lens remain a mystery.

Equally surprising, the date of the shooting (July 19, 1952) is known to many in connection with the sighting of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the skies over Washington, including the White House and the Capitol.

This case attracted the attention of the American press, even worrying US President Harry Truman and the CIA.

Another work by Villarroel describes nine light sources captured in photographs of the starry sky in April 1950. These objects appeared and disappeared within 30 minutes, adding even more mystery to what was happening.

“I think it’s very important to do this kind of [nearby] searching for extraterrestrial objects because the [astronomical] community mostly looks for things very, very far away. I think it’s time to do something new,” says Villarroel, who is now working to establish the ExoProbe project to look for anomalous objects among the vast number of human satellites currently in orbit.

.

 

[pigfarmer]

Japan: Moon lander Slim comes back to life and resumes mission

Japan: Moon lander Slim comes back to life and resumes mission​

29th January 2024, 01:05 EST
Share
By Kelly NgBBC News

Jaxa
Artwork: Jaxa has become the fifth national space agency to land on the Moon
Japan's Moon lander has resumed operations after being shut for a week due to a power supply issue.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said it re-established contact with the lander Sunday night, indicating that the glitch had been fixed.
Its solar cells are working again after a shift in lighting conditions allowed it to catch sunlight, the agency said.
It could not generate power when it landed on 20 January as the solar cells pointed away from the Sun.
With the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) spacecraft, Japan became only the fifth country to achieve a soft touchdown on the Moon after the US, the former Soviet Union, China and India.

The spacecraft ran on battery power for several hours before authorities decided to turn it off to allow for a possible recovery of electricity when the angle of sunlight changed.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Jaxa shared a photograph taken by Slim of a nearby rock that it nicknamed a "toy poodle".
The lander will analyse the composition of rocks in its search for clues about the origin of the moon, Jaxa said.
Slim landed at the edge of an equatorial crater known as Shioli, within 55m (180 ft) of its target in a crater. Jaxa described it as an "unprecedented pinpoint landing".
The landing technology could allow future exploration of hilly Moon poles seen as a potential sources of fuel, water and oxygen, the agency said.
The Slim mission came after several earlier attempts by Japan failed, including one by the start-up iSpace, which saw its lunar lander crash when its onboard computer became confused about its altitude above the Moon.
Jaxa could not immediately say until when Slim will operate on the Moon. It has previously said the lander was not designed to survive a lunar night. A lunar night, which is when the surface of the Moon is not exposed to the Sun, lasts about 14 days.
Statistically, it has proven very hard to land on the Moon. Only about half of all attempts have succeeded.
Prior to Japan, India was the most recent nation to join the elite club of countries that have achieved this. Its Chandrayaan-3's rover touched down near the lunar south pole in August 2023 - an area on the Moon's surface that no human had reached before.
Earlier this month, a US spacecraft launched by a private operator ended its lunar mission in flames over the Pacific. In August last year, Russia's first lunar spacecraft in decades crashed into the Moon after spinning out of control.

 

[nivek]

View: https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1754517459200077933


.

 

[nivek]

Space X Falcon 9 launch in one hour and fifty-four minutes from now, here it is live:

Watch Live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the PACE oceanic and atmospheric mission for NASA

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission. Liftoff from pad 40 at Ca...

www.youtube.com

.

 

[nivek]

Rebooting didn’t help. Voyager 1 continues to send strange binary code​

Researchers say there are still chances to repair the probe, but they are not very high. Problems in the operation of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, the most distant in the history of mankind, continue.

NASA says that the return of the probe to life will be comparable to a miracle, reports Gizmodo.

Problems arose with the flight data system (FDS), which is linked to one of the 46-year-old craft’s three on-board computers. The FDS is responsible for collecting data from Voyager 1’s scientific instruments, as well as information about the overall health of the vehicle.

This system no longer communicates properly with the telemetry modulation unit, which receives the data collected by the FDS system and sends it back to Earth.

And this is just the latest in a series of problems with the aging Voyager 1, which was launched from Earth in 1977, immediately after its twin Voyager 2.

Back in May 2022, the Voyager 1 probe began sending meaningless position determination and control (AACS) data to Earth. Then the head of the mission, Suzanne Dodd, called the glitch as “a normal occurrence at this stage.”

It later turned out that the data was transmitted by a faulty probe computer, so on Earth they were perceived as gibberish. The project engineers managed to solve the problem by sending telemetry through another computer on the device. Three months have passed since the problem arose and its solution, during which time the device covered 161 million km.

Then, in December 2023, Voyager 1 again began sending unintelligible data to Earth . The telemetry modulation unit began sending binary code to Earth, which indicated that a failure had occurred again.

The NASA team suggests that this time too the problem lies in the FDS, where the incorrect data is coming from. Scientists tried to solve the problem by rebooting the FDS, but the plan didn’t work. The device continues to transmit strange messages to Earth.

“If we bring the device back to life, it will be the greatest miracle. We are definitely not going to give up. If there are other methods we can try. But what happened is certainly the most serious breakdown since I became the project manager,” Dodd emphasizes.

Voyager 1 is located at a distance of 24,365,306,285 km from Earth and continues its journey at a speed of 61 thousand km/h.

“We can talk to the spacecraft and it can hear us, but this is a slow process given the incredible distance it is from Earth,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

Each message from Earth takes 22.5 hours to reach the probe, and vice versa.

The Voyager missions are already 50 years old. Even decades ago, devices brilliantly coped with their main tasks, so all subsequent years are a bonus.

When the moment comes and both devices finally fail, they will continue to fly through space, but will no longer be able to collect data.

.

 

[nivek]

Mysterious Disappearance of Three Stars Baffles Astronomers​

In 1952, a group of three stars disappeared in less than an hour: Astronomers still cannot find them

On July 19, 1952, the Palomar Observatory, located in San Diego County (California, USA), took pictures of the night sky as part of a project to detect unusual objects, such as asteroids.

About an hour apart, they photographed the same part of the sky and then compared the resulting images.

At 20.52 pm they photographed an area with very bright stars, including a cluster of three stars located close to each other. They were too bright to be asteroids, so everyone agreed that they were stars and not something else.

Nearly an hour later, at 9:45 pm, astronomers re-photographed the same sky region and were astonished to find that the cluster of three stars had vanished completely, not merely shifted. They appeared to have ceased to exist within that short time frame.

Three stars are clearly visible in the first image but absent in the second.

The sudden disappearance of stars is highly unusual; typically, stars may undergo changes such as explosions or dimming, but they do not vanish without a trace.
In this case, the stars’ potential dimming would have to be on a colossal scale—by a factor of 10,000 or more—to account for their disappearance from the photographs.

This enigma leads to speculation about the catastrophic event, possibly of universal proportions, that could cause such rapid and complete star extinction.

Recently, Enrique Solano’s research team re-examined this incident and made several assumptions.

The first theory proposed was that there were not three stars, but one. And that it temporarily became very bright due to a fast radio burst, and then a stellar-mass black hole passed between it and the Earth, causing the burst to gravitationally disperse briefly into three stars.

The problem with this idea is that such an event is extremely rare. Almost exceptional.

A clearer shot of three stars that disappeared in less than an hour.

Secondly, it was suggested that the cluster in the photo was not actually stars, but were other objects, possibly from the Oort Cloud, that some event had simply caused them to temporarily become very bright.

A more extravagant theory was that the photo was accidentally exposed to radioactive dust.

The fact is that the Palomar Observatory is located relatively close, according to the authors of the theory, from the New Mexico desert, where nuclear weapons tests were actively carried out in the 1950s.

Palomar Observatory

Radioactive dust from the tests may have contaminated the photographic plates, creating bright spots in the first image. In the 1950s, scientists repeatedly noticed spots of radioactive dust on photographic plates, so the theory is quite real.

The truth is that the distance from the desert where the nuclear tests were carried out to the observatory is actually more than 700 miles. In fact, the whole state of Arizona is located between them. Isn’t the distance too long for radioactive dust?

As for ufologists, they have long believed that Californian astronomers accidentally photographed huge alien ships, which soon simply flew away to another place at superluminal speed, which is why they were not in the second picture.

.

 

[Dejan Corovic]

Mysterious Disappearance of Three Stars Baffles Astronomers​

In 1952, a group of three stars disappeared in less than an hour: Astronomers still cannot find them

On July 19, 1952, the Palomar Observatory, located in San Diego County (California, USA), took pictures of the night sky as part of a project to detect unusual objects, such as asteroids.

About an hour apart, they photographed the same part of the sky and then compared the resulting images.

At 20.52 pm they photographed an area with very bright stars, including a cluster of three stars located close to each other. They were too bright to be asteroids, so everyone agreed that they were stars and not something else.

Nearly an hour later, at 9:45 pm, astronomers re-photographed the same sky region and were astonished to find that the cluster of three stars had vanished completely, not merely shifted. They appeared to have ceased to exist within that short time frame.

Three stars are clearly visible in the first image but absent in the second.

The sudden disappearance of stars is highly unusual; typically, stars may undergo changes such as explosions or dimming, but they do not vanish without a trace.
In this case, the stars’ potential dimming would have to be on a colossal scale—by a factor of 10,000 or more—to account for their disappearance from the photographs.

This enigma leads to speculation about the catastrophic event, possibly of universal proportions, that could cause such rapid and complete star extinction.

Recently, Enrique Solano’s research team re-examined this incident and made several assumptions.

The first theory proposed was that there were not three stars, but one. And that it temporarily became very bright due to a fast radio burst, and then a stellar-mass black hole passed between it and the Earth, causing the burst to gravitationally disperse briefly into three stars.

The problem with this idea is that such an event is extremely rare. Almost exceptional.

A clearer shot of three stars that disappeared in less than an hour.

Secondly, it was suggested that the cluster in the photo was not actually stars, but were other objects, possibly from the Oort Cloud, that some event had simply caused them to temporarily become very bright.

A more extravagant theory was that the photo was accidentally exposed to radioactive dust.

The fact is that the Palomar Observatory is located relatively close, according to the authors of the theory, from the New Mexico desert, where nuclear weapons tests were actively carried out in the 1950s.

Palomar Observatory

Radioactive dust from the tests may have contaminated the photographic plates, creating bright spots in the first image. In the 1950s, scientists repeatedly noticed spots of radioactive dust on photographic plates, so the theory is quite real.

The truth is that the distance from the desert where the nuclear tests were carried out to the observatory is actually more than 700 miles. In fact, the whole state of Arizona is located between them. Isn’t the distance too long for radioactive dust?

As for ufologists, they have long believed that Californian astronomers accidentally photographed huge alien ships, which soon simply flew away to another place at superluminal speed, which is why they were not in the second picture.

.

I can compliment that.

Atomic bomb tests actually ruined a whole production batch of Kodak films, and when Kodak found out about atomic tests they sued US government. So, yes, those stars could had easily been created by radioactive dust and even gamma rays coming off the bomb.



Actually, back in a day, people who lived in Los Angeles can see mushroom clouds from Nevada tests and probably hear explosions. This one is dated 1953, Old Frontier Village, L.A.