KREUZADER (Posts tagged space)

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
arxiv.org

Spatially resolved eastward winds and rotation of HD 189733b

We measure wind velocities on opposite sides of the hot Jupiter HD189733b by modeling sodium absorption in high-resolution HARPS transmission spectra. Our model implicitly accounts for the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, which we show can explain the high wind velocities suggested by previous studies. […] These velocities can be understood as a combination of tidally locked planetary rotation and an eastward equatorial jet; closely matching the predictions of atmospheric circulation models. 

astronomy space
news.sciencemag.org

Astronomers spot most distant object in the solar system
image

Astronomers have found the most distant object ever in our solar system, three times farther away than Pluto. The dwarf planet, which has been designated V774104, is between 500 and 1000 kilometers across. It will take another year before scientists pin down its orbit, but it could end up joining an emerging class of extreme solar system objects whose strange orbits point to the hypothetical influence of rogue planets or nearby stars.

astronomy space
nasaspaceflight.com

Road to EM-1: NASA outlines hardware milestones to SLS debut flight
image

Under the current Integrated Mission Milestone Summary, SLS will spend approximately one month at launch pad 39B undergoing a dry rehearsal test followed by a wet dress rehearsal to allow the launch teams to evaluate their countdown operations and validate pad and vehicle performance parameters prior to committing to the EM-1 launch campaign.

Following the wet dress rehearsal in mid- to late-August, the SLS vehicle will be returned to the VAB in late-August for final closeouts and ordnance installation operations.

The performance of final closeout operations and Ordnance installation inside the VAB is a marked difference from Shuttle operations, where those operations took place during the often month-long stay at the pad.

Once closeout and Ordnance installation is complete, SLS will be rolled back out to pad 39B in September for a final, short volley of pad operations before launch on the EM-1 mission – currently slated “by November 2018″.

time to leave low earth orbit again

nasa space rocket sls space launch system
chelatek
skunkbear

Vox’s Joss Fong put together a beautiful video pairing the images from the Voyager Golden Records (learn more about them here) with words from Carl Sagan and music from Blind Willie Johnson. The first image was a simple “calibrating circle” used in this post’s title.

There’s something powerful about this collection of images – this small attempt to sum up human existence. Carl Sagan said:

The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this ‘bottle’ into the cosmic ‘ocean’ says something very hopeful about life on this planet.

If we sent a time capsule to the aliens today, what would you want to include?

chelatek

The math and science images are so fucking good as a series it blows my mind

nasa carl sagan voyager 2 voyager space
esa.int

First detection of molecular oxygen at a comet

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has made the first in situ detection of oxygen molecules outgassing from a comet, a surprising observation that suggests they were incorporated into the comet during its formation.
esa

We weren’t really expecting to detect O2 at the comet – and in such high abundance – because it is so chemically reactive, so it was quite a surprise,” says Kathrin Altwegg of the University of Bern, and principal investigator of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis instrument, ROSINA.

“It’s also unanticipated because there aren’t very many examples of the detection of interstellar O2. And thus, even though it must have been incorporated into the comet during its formation, this is not so easily explained by current Solar System formation models.”

rosetta comet 67p space esa
arstechnica.com

New Horizons returns stunning image of Pluto backlit by the Sun

NASA scientists also say they have found a crater lined with frozen ammonia.
image

In addition to the crescent photo, scientists with the New Horizons mission also released new information about a crater on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, that is rich in ammonia. The scientists, apparently a little too eager about the new Star Wars film, named the crater Organa. During a high-resolution infrared scan they noted high levels of absorption at wavelengths near 2.2 microns, indicating the presence of frozen ammonia. A scan of a similarly sized crater nearby—Skywalker—showed primarily water ice. Both craters are about 5km across.

pluto new horizons space nasa
“Scientists observing asteroid 2015 TB145 with NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, have determined that the celestial object is more than likely a dead comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the...

Scientists observing asteroid 2015 TB145 with NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, have determined that the celestial object is more than likely a dead comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the sun.

The belated comet has also been observed by optical and radar observatories around the world, providing even more data, including our first close-up views of its surface. Asteroid 2015 TB145 will safely fly by our planet at just under 1.3 lunar distances, or about 302,000 miles (486,000 kilometers), on Halloween (Oct. 31) at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT, 17:00 UTC).

The first radar images of the dead comet were generated by the National Science Foundation’s 305-meter (1,000-foot) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The radar images from Arecibo indicate the object is spherical in shape and approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter and completes a rotation about once every five hours.  

(source)

nasa space asteroid comet planetary defense

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was a 1960s Air Force program with the ostensible mission to place military personnel in orbit to conduct scientific experiments to determine the “military usefulness” of placing man into space and the techniques and procedures for doing so if the need ever arose. The actual, classified, mission of the MOL program was to place a manned surveillance satellite into orbit.

(source)

nasa nro u.s. air force united states air force air force space space station
“An animation made from 36 images taken of Saturn’s moon Enceladus on May 10, 2015 by NASA’s Cassini orbiter. The icy moon turns in the image as Cassini flies past, showing the three-dimensional structure of the constantly streaming ice plumes...

An animation made from 36 images taken of Saturn’s moon Enceladus on May 10, 2015 by NASA’s Cassini orbiter. The icy moon turns in the image as Cassini flies past, showing the three-dimensional structure of the constantly streaming ice plumes erupting from the surface. Most of the white spots appearing in the background are camera noise or streaks made by collisions with cosmic rays.

nasa space cassini enceladus