Space In General

[CodeRedR51]

SpaceX in-flight abort test is 90% GO for Saturday morning at 8:00am EST / 1:00pm UTC. This is one you do not want to miss.

Official live stream will be here:
https://www.spacex.com/webcast

Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut) will be on site and live streaming. Highly recommended.

 

[Dotini]

From today's edition of spaceweather.com:

A MAGNETIC EXPLOSION ON EARTH'S DOORSTEP: Yes, there are explosions in Earth’s magnetic field. They happen all the time. Gusts of solar wind press against Earth’s magnetosphere, squeezing lines of magnetic force together. The lines criss-cross and reconnect, literally exploding and propelling high energy particles toward Earth. Auroras are the afterglow of this process.

On Dec. 20, 2015, such an explosion occurred closer to Earth than anyone had seen before. It has taken researchers 4 years to fully wrap their minds around what happened, and the results were published just this week in the Jan. 13, 2020, edition of Nature Physics.


Above: Auroras sparked by a near-Earth magnetic explosion on Dec. 20, 2015: more.

Lead author Vassilis Angelopoulos of UCLA explains: "Usually, these explosions happen at least 100,000 miles from Earth, far downstream in our planet’s magnetic tail. On Dec. 20, 2015, however, we observed a reconnection event only 30,000 miles away–more than 3 times closer than normal."

It was a case of good luck and perfect timing. NASA's swarm of three THEMIS spacecraft were passing through the area, and they were able to pinpoint the explosion’s location "right on the doorstep" of the geosynchronous satellite belt. This showed reconnection events may pose a previously overlooked threat to Earth-orbiting satellites. The nearby blast caused a strong G2-classgeomagnetic storm and intense auroras around the Arctic Circle.


Above: "X" marks the spot of the Dec. 20, 2015, near-Earth magnetic explosion: more.

Angelopoulos estimated the energy involved. "The explosion and subsequent storm delivered as much as ~88 PetaJoules (88 x 1015 Joules) of energy to the near-Earth environment. That’s more than 10 times the energy of the largest US nuclear bomb and about 20 times the energy of a magnitude 7 earthquake."

Before this event, many researchers felt that reconnection at such proximity was impossible. Earth’s nearby magnetic field was too stable for such explosions … or so the thinking went.

"Now we know better," Angelopoulos says"“The THEMIS multipoint observations are iron-clad. It really happened, and this is going to make a big impact on future studies of geomagnetic storms."

 

[CodeRedR51]

Booster 1046.4 is vertical for tomorrow's test and it's final flight.

 

[Touring Mars]

So Betelguese has dimmed considerably in recent weeks, do we think it might be about to blow?

Or did it explode in 1378??

 

[Dotini]

Or did it explode in 1378??

"There are strange things done in the midnight sun..."
Beetle-juice may one of those stars that simply fade out and disappear. Or it could be blocked by dust in the way. Possibly it could go supernova. But recently it has been seen that some stars undergo a recurrent nova on a period of just a few years, and do not completely explode but lose their outer shell.

 

[CodeRedR51]

 

[CodeRedR51]

 

[CodeRedR51]

So far today, despite some minor cloud cover, we are GO for launch. Current target time is 10:30am EST. Streams below.

https://www.spacex.com/webcast

Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut) will be on site and live streaming. Highly recommended.


Edit: Mission success.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Last post until SpaceX releases an official video.

 

[TVR27]

Voyager 2 Illuminates Boundary of Interstellar Space

 

[Dotini]

Voyager 2 Illuminates Boundary of Interstellar Space

Fascinating finding mentioned in the article:

Magnetic Field Mystery

An observation by Voyager 2's magnetic field instrument confirms a surprising result from Voyager 1: The magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere. With Voyager 1, scientists had only one sample of these magnetic fields and couldn't say for sure whether the apparent alignment was characteristic of the entire exterior region or just a coincidence. Voyager 2's magnetometer observations confirm the Voyager 1 finding and indicate that the two fields align, according to Stone.

It would be a good speculation that ALL stars in the galaxy are connected and aligned in the same magnetic field - perhaps all stars in the entire universe.

 

[TVR27]

Voyager 2 Engineers Working to Restore Normal Operations


Engineers for NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft are working to return the mission to normal operating conditions after one of the spacecraft's autonomous fault protection routines was triggered. Multiple fault protection routines were programmed into both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in order to allow the spacecraft to automatically take actions to protect themselves if potentially harmful circumstances arise. At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, engineers are still communicating with the spacecraft and receiving telemetry.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Successful Starlink launch this morning. And they caught a fairing!

 

[CodeRedR51]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcr...huA99SYryTA7fJz6weogiZY-pKSsKIhLwAaUY4SrZR2Gk

Seems Boeing has some work to do in the software department, here and elsewhere. I feel like they should be forced to do another test flight to prove they can get it right, and on their own dime. They are definitely not earning the extra money they are being paid over SpaceX.

Edit:

 

[Dotini]

From today's edition of spaceweather.com,

THE CONTINUING MYSTERY OF BETELGEUSE: For months, astronomers have been keeping a wary eye on Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion's shoulder. What's attracting their attention? All of a sudden, Betelgeuse isn't bright anymore. Its visible luminosity has "fallen off a cliff"--a sign that the star could be on the verge of going supernova.

"The most recent measurements put the visual magnitude of Betelgeuse at about +1.66, the dimmest its been in our 25 years of photometry," says Edward Guinan of Villanova University.

Above: The horizontal axis is Heliocentric Julian Date (HJD). For reference, Jan. 30, 2020, the date of the most recent measurement, has an HJD of 2458879.

Betelgeuse is a highly evolved red supergiant--the type of star that could collapse and explode at any moment. Indeed, the dimming of Betelgeuse could be explained if the star has suddenly contracted to about 92% of its previous radius. But that's not the only possibility. Betelgeuse might be dimmed by a giant starspot--or maybe it is shrouded by an outburst of stardust from its own cool outer layers--or something else entirely. No one knows.

Answers might be forthcoming on Feb. 21st. Astronomers have long known that Betelgeuse is a variable star. It pulsates with many periods, as shown in this Fourier analysis of Betelgeuse's light curve:

Above: A period analysis of 23 years (1995-2018) of Betelgeuse photometry. Credit: Peranso.

"This shows a dominant (probable pulsation) period of P = 430 days," note Guinan and colleague Richard Wasatonic in a recent Astronomical Telegram. Given this result, "the minimum brightness is expected on 21 (+/-7d) February 2020."

If Betelegeuse starts to bounce back on Feb. 21st, this whole episode might just be a deeper-than-average pulsation, and perhaps the supernova watch can be called off. However, notes Guinan, "even if the 430-day period is still working, this would indicate a minimum brightness near 0.9 mag--much brighter than the current value near 1.6 mag. So something very unusual is going on."

Stay tuned for updates as Feb. 21st approaches.

 

[CodeRedR51]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/11/spacex-hires-former-nasa-official-william-gerstenmaier.html

 

[Exorcet]

Whatever is going on with Betelgeuse, it doesn't seem like we'll get to see it explode all that soon in human terms. It may still have about 100,000 years left, though there is uncertainty in that number. There isn't a lot of carbon on the surface of the star, which points to it having been a red supergiant for only a short amount of time.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.3143v1.pdf

 

[Dotini]

From today's edition of spaceweather.com

COSMIC RAYS ARE PEAKING: Once again, cosmic rays percolating through Earth's atmosphere are within a percentage point of the Space Age maximum. This is a symptom of Solar Minimum. When the sun's magnetic field weakens, it allows deep space radiation to enter the solar system. The current Solar Minimum is very deep, and consequently cosmic rays fluxes are very high. You can track the numbers right here on Spaceweather.com.

POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUD ALERT: Arctic sky watchers should be alert for Type II polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) this week--possibly on Feb 19th or 20th. PSCs form in the Arctic stratosphere when the temperature drops to a staggeringly low -85 C (188 K). NASA's MERRA-2 climate model suggests that such temperatures could occur in the days ahead. Note the yellow-circled forecast:




Widely regarded as the most beautiful clouds on Earth, PSCs are newsworthy because normally the stratosphere has no clouds at all. The stratosphere is arid and almost always transparent. Coaxing widely-spaced water molecules together to make icy stratospheric clouds requires extremely low temperatures. PSCs are far more rare than auroras.

The last time the temperature dropped so low, on Jan 22-23, 2020, a spectacular outbreak of PSCs blanketed northern Scandinavia. Jordan Herbst photographed the clouds from Abisko, Sweden:

 

[CodeRedR51]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcr...huA99SYryTA7fJz6weogiZY-pKSsKIhLwAaUY4SrZR2Gk

Seems Boeing has some work to do in the software department, here and elsewhere. I feel like they should be forced to do another test flight to prove they can get it right, and on their own dime. They are definitely not earning the extra money they are being paid over SpaceX.

Edit:

Hmm, Boeing's hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper...

 

[baldgye]

From today's edition of spaceweather.com,

THE CONTINUING MYSTERY OF BETELGEUSE: For months, astronomers have been keeping a wary eye on Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion's shoulder. What's attracting their attention? All of a sudden, Betelgeuse isn't bright anymore. Its visible luminosity has "fallen off a cliff"--a sign that the star could be on the verge of going supernova.

"The most recent measurements put the visual magnitude of Betelgeuse at about +1.66, the dimmest its been in our 25 years of photometry," says Edward Guinan of Villanova University.

Above: The horizontal axis is Heliocentric Julian Date (HJD). For reference, Jan. 30, 2020, the date of the most recent measurement, has an HJD of 2458879.

Betelgeuse is a highly evolved red supergiant--the type of star that could collapse and explode at any moment. Indeed, the dimming of Betelgeuse could be explained if the star has suddenly contracted to about 92% of its previous radius. But that's not the only possibility. Betelgeuse might be dimmed by a giant starspot--or maybe it is shrouded by an outburst of stardust from its own cool outer layers--or something else entirely. No one knows.

Answers might be forthcoming on Feb. 21st. Astronomers have long known that Betelgeuse is a variable star. It pulsates with many periods, as shown in this Fourier analysis of Betelgeuse's light curve:

Above: A period analysis of 23 years (1995-2018) of Betelgeuse photometry. Credit: Peranso.

"This shows a dominant (probable pulsation) period of P = 430 days," note Guinan and colleague Richard Wasatonic in a recent Astronomical Telegram. Given this result, "the minimum brightness is expected on 21 (+/-7d) February 2020."

If Betelegeuse starts to bounce back on Feb. 21st, this whole episode might just be a deeper-than-average pulsation, and perhaps the supernova watch can be called off. However, notes Guinan, "even if the 430-day period is still working, this would indicate a minimum brightness near 0.9 mag--much brighter than the current value near 1.6 mag. So something very unusual is going on."

Stay tuned for updates as Feb. 21st approaches.

Well, the 21st came and went and Betelgeuse isn’t going to pop anytime soon it seems...
https://www.universetoday.com/145114/betelgeuse-is-brightening-again/

 

[CodeRedR51]

This is a good watch for anyone interested.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Last SpaceX booster landing failure was because the booster detected high winds and diverted to save the drone ship. Good ish.

Also, ISS resupply mission coming up tonight. Booster should land at Landing Zone 1 on dry ground.



Edit:

 

[sirjim73]

Well, the 21st came and went and Betelgeuse isn’t going to pop anytime soon it seems...
https://www.universetoday.com/145114/betelgeuse-is-brightening-again/

That's one time you've said it.

The number of people who think they can get away with posting Betelgeuse three times in one post is quite scary

 

[Dennisch]

That's one time you've said it.

The number of people who think they can get away with posting Betelgeuse three times in one post is quite scary

Beetlejuice.

 

[Rallywagon]

Wait, is it beetlejuice or betelgeuse? What if I mean betelgeuse instead of beetlejuice? Can I use betelgeuse for the other beetlejuice and vis versa? What happens exactly?

 

[Dennisch]

Wait, is it beetlejuice or betelgeuse? What if I mean betelgeuse instead of beetlejuice? Can I use betelgeuse for the other beetlejuice and vis versa? What happens exactly?

Betelgeuse is the big red star in the constellation of Orion. The other one is a nutcase spirit whose name you don't want to say 3 times.

Edit

Dammit.

 

[CodeRedR51]

This was interesting to watch live when it happened.





On to the next. At the rate they are building these things now, it will probably be ready by the end of the month...

 

[CodeRedR51]

Rocket Lab one step closer to booster recovery.

 

[CodeRedR51]

The date has been set for the first launch of American Astronauts from US soil since 2011.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Successful SpaceX Starlink launch today. 4th launch and landing for this particular first stage booster and the Falcon 9 booster has now surpassed the Delta V as the most launched American rocket currently in use.