Science

NASA to shut Voyager probes' instruments gradually as they continue drifting in space – Republic World

Published

1 week ago

June 19, 2022

Harry Miller

Made to last just five years, the two Voyager spacecraft are still pushing through the vacuum of space, representing humanity beyond the influence of the Sun. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977, just 15 days apart, with an aim to explore the gas giants in our solar system – Jupiter and Saturn. Much to NASA’s surprise, the space probes went on to reveal new secrets of even Uranus and Neptune and became the first man-made objects to reach interstellar space.

The interstellar space is the cold region beyond the heliosphere, the hot plasma bubble at our solar system’s edge. While Voyager 1 made its historic entry into interstellar space in August 2012, its twin Voyager 2 crossed the heliosphere in November 2018.

Having been exposed to such harsh conditions for over four decades, the effects are now being felt, which is prompting NASA to consider shutting down the spacecraft. Recently, NASA physicist Ralph McNutt told Scientific American that scientists will continue powering down the two probes.

(Illustration of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2’s position; Image: NASA)

What keeps the Voyagers going?

Both the Voyagers are equipped with a power source called radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). This propulsion system uses plutonium to convert the heat produced from their natural radioactive decay into electricity to power the spacecraft instruments, computers, radio and other systems.

Each of the space probes is equipped with instruments such as television cameras, infrared and ultraviolet sensors, magnetometers, plasma detectors, and cosmic-ray and charged-particle sensors. However, after 44 years, Voyager 1 has just four functional instruments whereas Voyager 2 has only five.

NASA to switch instruments one by one

It has been a few decades since NASA switched off the camera on the probes to save energy for other necessary operations. Moving on, the engineers will switch off the rest of the instruments one by one until the Voyagers lose communication and drift off into the nothingness of space.

Currently 23.3 billion kilometres from Earth, it takes 20 light hours and 33 minutes to establish contact with Voyager 1 whereas it takes a little under 18 light hours to contact Voyager 2 which is approximately 19.5 billion kilometres away.

A report by Scientific American suggested that scientists have estimated that the plutonium powering the probes could run out as soon as 2025 or maybe in the 2030s at the most. Most recently, NASA revealed that Voyager 1’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS), which helps the spacecraft maintain its orientation suffered a mystery glitch.

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NASA discovers double crater on the moon – CTV News

Published

3 hours ago

June 28, 2022

Harry Miller

The moon has a new double crater after a rocket body collided with its surface on March 4.

New images shared by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the moon since 2009, have revealed the location of the unusual crater.

The impact created two craters that overlap, an eastern crater measuring 59 feet (18 metres) across and a western crater spanning 52.5 feet (16 metres). Together, they create a depression that is roughly 91.8 feet (28 metres) wide in the longest dimension.

Although astronomers expected the impact after discovering that the rocket part was on track to collide with the moon, the double crater it created was a surprise.

Typically, spent rockets have the most mass at the motor end because the rest of the rocket is largely just an empty fuel tank. But the double crater suggests that this object had large masses at both ends when it hit the moon.

The exact origin of the rocket body, a piece of space junk that had been careening around for years, is unclear, so the double crater could help astronomers determine what it was.

The moon lacks a protective atmosphere, so it’s littered with craters created when objects like asteroids regularly slam into the surface.

This was the first time a piece of space junk unintentionally hit the lunar surface that experts know of. But craters have resulted from spacecraft being deliberately crashed into the moon.

For example, four large moon craters attributed to the Apollo 13, 14, 15 and 17 missions are all much larger than each of the overlapping craters created during the March 4 impact. However, the maximum width of the new double crater is similar to the Apollo craters.

UNCLEAR ORIGIN

Bill Gray, an independent researcher focused on orbital dynamics and the developer of astronomical software, was first to spot the trajectory of the rocket booster.

Gray had initially identified it as the SpaceX Falcon rocket stage that launched the US Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, in 2015 but later said he’d gotten that wrong and it was likely from a 2014 Chinese lunar mission — an assessment NASA agreed with.

However, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the booster was from its Chang’e-5 moon mission, saying that the rocket in question burned up on reentry to Earth’s atmosphere.

No agencies systematically track space debris so far away from Earth, and the confusion over the origin of the rocket stage has underscored the need for official agencies to monitor deep-space junk more closely, rather than relying on the limited resources of private individuals and academics.

However, experts say that the bigger challenge is the space debris in low-Earth orbit, an area where it can collide with functioning satellites, create more junk and threaten human life on crewed spacecraft.

There are at least 26,000 pieces of space junk orbiting Earth that are the size of a softball or larger and could destroy a satellite on impact; over 500,000 objects the size of a marble — big enough to cause damage to spacecraft or satellites; and over 100 million pieces the size of a grain of salt, tiny debris that could nonetheless puncture a spacesuit, according to a NASA report issued last year.

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7 Amazing Dark Sky National Parks – AARP

Published

4 hours ago

June 28, 2022

Harry Miller

James Ronan/Getty Images/Steve Burns

Great Basin, Arches, and Voyageurs National Park

Can’t afford to join a commercial space mission offered by Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson? Consider the next best thing: seeing a starry, starry night in a sea of darkness, unimpeded by artificial light, at one of the International Dark Sky Parks in the U.S. It’s a rare treat, since light pollution prevents nearly 80 percent of Americans from seeing the Milky Way from their homes.

The International Dark-Sky Association (IDSA) has certified 14 of the nation’s 63 national parks as dark sky destinations. So visitors can take full advantage of such visibility, many of them offer specialized after-dark programs, from astronomy festivals and ranger-led full-moon walks to star parties and astrophotography workshops. If you prefer to stargaze on your own at a park, the National Park Service recommends bringing a pair of 7-by-50 binoculars, a red flashlight, which enhances night vision, and a star chart, which shows the arrangement of stars in the sky.

Here are seven of the IDSA-certified parks where you can appreciate how the heavens looked from the Earth before the dawn of electric light.

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PHOTO BY: Getty Images

Arches National Park (Utah)

If there’s one state stargazers should be sure not to miss, it’s Utah, which boasts the country’s greatest number of certified dark sky national parks, with five: Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion. Arches stands out with more than 2,000 signature sandstone arches that form dramatic backdrops for the celestial show overhead. For the best viewing spots, avoid the lights of Moab to the south and head north to the Balanced Rock picnic area, the Garden of Eden viewpoint, Panorama Point and the Windows section. Under the right conditions, you might even see Saturn’s rings with standard binoculars. Ranger-led stargazing programs, during which rangers introduce visitors to the wonders of the night sky followed by stargazing and telescope viewing, take place in spring and fall around the new moon at Panorama Point or the park’s visitor center. These events rotate between Arches and nearby Canyonlands.
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PHOTO BY: Deb Snelson/Getty Images

Big Bend National Park (Texas)

Thanks to its remote desert location and low humidity, this sprawling park in southwestern Texas has the least light pollution of any other national park in the continental U.S. No wonder, as the song says, “The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas.” You can attend one of Big Bend’s star parties, when amateur astronomers gather to observe the night sky together; take a guided moonlight walk; or use your binoculars on your own to enjoy an evening of meteor showers, constellation spotting or Milky Way viewing. On a clear night, countless stars will dazzle you, including from the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away.
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PHOTO BY: Kotomi Ito/Getty Images

Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)

Marry the world’s largest collection of hoodoos (irregular columns of rocks) with one of the country’s darkest night skies and you have pure magic. At Bryce you can watch the Milky Way slash a silvery arc across the sky while thousands of stars illumine the park’s otherworldly rock formations. Stargazing is serious business here. Park rangers and volunteer astronomers operate about 100 astronomy programs per year. They include constellation tours, when rangers with lasers point out constellations visible in the night sky, and one- to two-mile-long full moon hikes, when the interplay of shadows and moonlight lend the hoodoos an eerie glow. For an overdose of celestial majesty, plan your trip around the four-day Annual Astronomy Festival in late June and participate in a collective astronomy art project, which entails creating watercolor paintings of planets in our solar system and an astronomical art “masterpiece” to unveil on the last day of the festival.
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PHOTO BY: Jon Hicks/Getty Images

Death Valley National Park (California)

America’s driest national park — a sprawling 3.4-million-acre desert — makes an ideal setting for admiring the stars and, if you’re lucky, for spotting meteors. Death Valley nights are so dark that the International Dark-Sky Association classifies them at the highest (Gold Tier) level, meaning that light pollution is so low that you see “views close to what could be seen before the rise of cities.” Many heavenly bodies viewed from Death Valley aren’t visible with the naked eye anywhere else in the world. For an introduction to the cosmos, join a ranger program during the cooler winter to learn about topics including space science, planetary science, space exploration, light pollution and the lore surrounding our night skies. Or visit during the annual Dark Sky Festival each spring, which includes special ranger programs; guest speakers from organizations such as NASA; and the Exploration Fair, where scientists from NASA, Caltech, the SETI Institute and other groups offer demonstrations to engage visitors. If you’re on your own, head to Badwater Basin, Harmony Borax Works, Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes or Zabriskie Point, favorite spots for astrophotographers looking to capture their night images.
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PHOTO BY: Carlos Fernandez/Getty Images

Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)

Yes, the iconic Grand Canyon, one of the World’s Seven Natural Wonders, is clearly the main attraction at this park. But stick around after dark and you’ll be rewarded with stellar views of another kind. See the Milky Way cast your shadow on the Earth on a moonless night. Or thrill to a tableau of star clouds, nebulae, meteor showers and even planets like Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Key stargazing spots on the South Rim include Desert View Watchtower, a mecca for snapping award-worthy images of the watchtower with a Milky Way backdrop; Mather Point; and Moran and Lipan points, both right off of Desert View Drive. On the canyon’s less-visited North Rim, you can have the stars all to yourself at Bright Angel Point.

In mid-June, visitors can join a free star party on the South Rim with the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association and on the North Rim with the Saguaro Astronomy Club of Phoenix, to enjoy astronomy talks, constellation tours and telescope viewings. Night sky photography workshops and constellation talks take place throughout the year.
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PHOTO BY: James Ronan/EyeEm/Getty Images

Great Basin National Park (Nevada)

What makes Great Basin such a stargazing superstar? It has the ideal conditions, with high elevation and low humidity. It offers rare deep-space viewing from the Great Basin Observatory, the first research-grade observatory built in a U.S. national park. And as one of the least visited parks — it had only 120,248 visitors in 2020 — you can admire the night skies with hardly anyone else around.

On clear, moonless nights, head to such popular viewing spots as the Baker Archaeological Site and Mather Overlook to be awed by countless stars and planets (note that stars twinkle but planets don’t), meteor showers, man-made satellites, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way. From May through September, astronomy programs offer ranger talks and full moon hikes, telescope viewing at the astronomy amphitheater and solar telescope viewing from the Lehman Caves Visitor Center. On select summer evenings, hop aboard the Great Basin Star Train in the nearby town of Ely, guided by Great Basin National Park’s Dark Rangers. Along the way, you can disembark and use high-powered telescopes to see distant planets and deep-space objects. Finally, come for the annual Astronomy Festival, Sept. 22-24, to enjoy guest speakers, photo workshops, telescope viewings and tours of the Great Basin Observatory.
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PHOTO BY: Steve Burns/Getty Images

Voyageurs National Park (Minnesota)

Stars aren’t the only things that shine at this remote water-based park near the Canadian border. When conditions are right, the aurora borealis lights up the night sky with its shimmering streaks of blue, green, purple and red. While these rare light phenomena can’t be forecast, winter’s longer nights increase the chances of seeing them. While watching for the northern lights, keep a lookout for the Milky Way, satellites, shooting stars and other celestial objects. Voyageurs often hosts a three-day star party in August, with special ranger programs, Perseid meteor shower viewing, constellation tours and solar system walks.

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Award-winning travel writer Veronica Stoddart is the former travel editor of USA Today. She has written for dozens of travel publications and websites.

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A Mystery Rocket Left A Crater On The Moon – Forbes

Published

14 hours ago

June 27, 2022

Harry Miller

While we think of the moon as a static place, sometimes an event happens that reminds us that things can change quickly.

On March 4, a human-made object (a rocket stage) slammed into the moon and left behind a double crater, as seen by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission.

Officials announced June 23 that they spotted a double crater associated with the event. But what’s really interesting is there’s no consensus about what kind of rocket caused it.

China has denied claims that the rocket was part of a Long March 3 rocket that launched the country’s Chang’e-5 T1 mission in October 2014, although the orbit appeared to match. Previous speculation suggested it might be from a SpaceX rocket launching the DISCOVR mission, but newer analysis has mostly discredited that.

Here’s what the March 4 rocket crash site looked like from a wider field of view.

NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

On a broader scale, the value of LRO observations like this is showing how the moon can change even over a small span of time. The spacecraft has been in orbit there since 2009 and has spotted numerous new craters since its arrival.

It’s also a great spacecraft scout, having hunted down the Apollo landing sites from orbit and also having tracked down a few craters from other missions that slammed into the moon since the dawn of space exploration.

It may be that humans return to the moon for a closer-up look in the coming decade, as NASA is developing an Artemis program to send people to the surface no earlier than 2025.

LRO will also be a valuable scout for that set of missions, as the spacecraft’s maps will be used to develop plans for lunar bases or to help scout safe landing sites for astronauts.

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