Dante Lauretta

"Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, has waited nearly 20 years to get his hands on pristine specimens from an asteroid, which he says is a key to unlocking answers to mysteries about the origin of life on Earth. On Tuesday, he got his first look at dust grains returned by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission."https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/09/scientists-get-first-glimpse-of-samples-returned-from-asteroid/

371 Days in Space

"After spending an American record-breaking 371 days in space, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio safely landed on Earth with his crewmates Wednesday."

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/record-setting-nasa-astronaut-crewmates-return-from-space-mission

Cosmic History

Did you know?

"This early era of cosmic history remains out of reach for observers. So to investigate it, theorists perform sophisticated computer simulations, which help tease out what happened as pristine clouds of hydrogen and helium gas gravitationally collapsed. According to calculations these clouds fragmented into multiple clumps that formed stars with masses up to 500 Suns. These early beacons lived fast and died young shining with millions of times of energy of our Sun but lasting only a few million years. They died in studendous supernova explosions and their cores collapsed into black holes with 100 to 200 solar masses."

Astronomy Magazine March 2021 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" pp. 19-20

High Res CMB

Did you know?

"High-resolution measurements of CMB show that the universe at this time was extremely--but not perfectly--uniform. Subtle irregularities in the density of matter eventually enabled gravity to do its thing. Starting around 200 million years after the Big Bang, regions with slightly greater concentrations of dark matter and gas started collapsing into the first stars and protogalaxies."

Astronomy Magazine March 2021 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" p. 19

Universe Existance

Did you know?

"Critically, in the first few minutes of the universe's existance, the prevailing temperatures and pressures enabled subatomic particles to coelece into hydrogen and helium nuclei, with only the barest tracest of heavier elements. When the universe cooled further, 380,000 years later, electrons continued with the hydrogen and helium nuclei, forming neutral atoms and releasing the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB)."

Astronomy Magazine March 2021 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" p. 19

Cold Dark Matter

Did you know?

"Lamda-Cold Dark Matter (ACDM for short) the universe originated 13.8 billion years ago in the Big Bang. The early universe was initially a nearly featureless cauldron of subatomic particles and dark matter (which outweighs familiar atomic matter by nearly 6 to 1), with material almost evenly distributed and thus unable to clump together into intesting structures."

Astronomy Magazine March 2021 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" p. 19

High Redshift Quasars

Did you know?

"The relative dearth of high-redshift quasars means the conditions that form them are uncommon--i.e., a highly unusual set of conditions can do the trick, creating "seeds" that grow quickly into quasars. As University of Texas at Austin astrophysist Volkar Bromm says, "We only need very few seeds to explain the observed billion-solor-mass quasars at high redshift."

Astronomy Magazine March  2021 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" p. 19

7 Earth Sized Planets

"About 40 light years away, a system of seven Earth-sized planets orbit a star that is much cooler and smaller than our sun— the exoplanetary system called TRAPPIST-1." 

https://www.popsci.com/science/jwst-trappist-atmosphere-spectroscopy/

Next Gold Rush

"As excited observers gear up for the possible return of asteroid chips in the next few days, attention turns again to the prospect of going to the Moon and other planetary bodies in search of natural resources."

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/space-mining-is-closer-than-you-think/

Dr. Carl Seubert

"While space researchers around the world are scrambling to track the growing number of satellites above us, Dr Carl Seubert wants satellites to track themselves."

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/smartsat-satellites-space-cloud-ai/

Saucer Shaped Capsule

"A small saucer-shape capsule carrying a half-pound of rocks and dust collected from an asteroid called Bennu — leftovers from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago — is expected to slam into Earth's atmosphere at a blistering 27,650 mph on Sunday."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-asteroid-samples-bennu-land-on-earth-sunday/

Cosmic Pantry

"Scientists have looked through the cosmic pantry to write what has been described as a “cookbook” with hundreds of chemical “recipes” which have the potential to give rise to life."

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrobiology/life-recipe-chemical/

Crushing Atmosphere

"With its crushing atmospheric pressure, clouds of sulfuric acid, and searing surface temperature, Venus is an especially challenging place to study."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/venus-on-earth-nasas-veritas-science-team-studies-volcanic-iceland

Northern Lights

"Experts are predicting northern lights to be visible from U.S. states as far south as Colorado and Missouri on Tuesday."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2023/09/17/northern-lights-possible-in-the-us-early-on-tuesday-as-solar-storm-erupts-in-earth-strike-zone/

Outer Space Release

"For the first time, fossilized remains of ancient human relatives have gone to the edge of outer space — and scientists are not happy about it."

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/i-am-horrified-archaeologists-are-fuming-over-ancient-human-relative-remains-sent-to-edge-of-space

Spaceforce Mission

"U.S. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman on Sept. 6 unveiled a new mission statement for the service — in an effort to more clearly communicate what the Space Force does and why it was created."

https://spacenews.com/space-force-rewrites-mission-statement/

SpaceX Rocket

"On Tuesday September 6, SpaceX stacked its Starship rocket on top of a Super Heavy booster in South Texas, beginning final preparations for a second launch attempt of the massive vehicle."

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/09/starship-is-stacked-and-ready-to-make-its-second-launch-attempt/

James Webb Telescope

"NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has spotted an early yet tantalizing piece of evidence that an exoplanet some 120 light years away could be covered in a massive ocean — that's possibly harboring life."

https://futurism.com/the-byte/james-webb-possible-signs-life-distant-planet

UFO

"NASA said Thursday that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites as well as a shift in how unidentified flying objects are perceived."

https://apnews.com/article/nasa-ufos-inidentified-flying-objects-8b477a5ed6a42f99bb13a4518368ce9a

Quasar

Did you know?

"If quasars were common beyond redshift 7.5, then astronomers would have found several more by now. But their spatial density --the numbers of quasars in a given volume of space--appears to be very low, only about one quasar per cubic gigaparsec, where a gigaparsec is 3.26 billion light years. "You have to survey huge areas of the sky to find these objects just because they are intrinsically so rare in the universe."

Astronomy Magazine April  2022 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" pp. 18-19

Mexico's ET

"Mexico's Congress heard testimony from experts who study extraterrestrials on Tuesday."

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1199251336/mexico-alien-corpses-congress

Imaging Spectrometer

"A state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer, which will measure the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide from space, moved closer to launch this month after being delivered to a clean room at Planet Labs PBC (Planet) in San Francisco."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-built-greenhouse-gas-detector-moves-closer-to-launch?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=carbonmapper20230914

Quasar J1007+2115

"The quasar J1007+2115 lies at a redshift of 7.515. Its black hole engine weighs a whooping 1.5 solar masses at a time when the universe was barely 700 million years old."

Astronomy Magazine April 2022 "How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" p. 18

Black Hole Growth

Did you know?

"Gathering all this mass in under 690 million years is an enormous challenge of supermassive black hole growth, the findings shows that a process obviously existed in the early universe to make this monster."

Banadas

Astronomy Magazine April  2022

"How to Grow a Giant Black Hole" by Robert Naeye p. 18

LRO

"NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has successfully located and photographed the landing site of a spacecraft recently sent to the moon by India’s space program."

https://thedebrief.org/look-what-nasas-lunar-reconnaissance-orbiter-just-spotted-on-the-surface-of-the-moon/

Moon Gazing

"This week is perfect for moon-gazing. Most people assume that the best time to watch our satellite is when it’s full, but it’s actually far more pleasing sight—in my view—when it’s a delicate crescent."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2023/09/10/see-the-moon-set-up-a-ring-of-fire-eclipse-the-night-sky-this-week/

SKA-LOW

"Scientists who are building the world’s biggest telescope in the heart of the West Australian desert, are grappling with the horns of a dilemma. The site of the SKA-low has to be as technologically quiet as possible. But one of the biggest potential noise generators is the technology itself."

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/ska-low-silent-electronics-smart-box/

Mars

"The first experiment to produce oxygen on another planet has come to an end on Mars after exceeding NASA’s initial goals and demonstrating capabilities that could help future astronauts explore the red planet."

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/world/nasa-mars-moxie-perseverance-scn/index.html

Moon Sniper

"The lander, dubbed the "moon sniper", is expected to attempt a Moon landing in February if all goes well."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66737048?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Freeze Ray

"A team of scientists led by University of Virginia professor Patrick Hopkins is developing a plasma "freeze ray" that will be less interesting to super villains than to engineers looking for ways to cool electronics in the vacuum of space."

https://newatlas.com/science/plasma-pulses-promise-real-life-freeze-ray/

Intelligence Community

"A former intelligence official turned whistleblower has given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says possess retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin."

https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/

Differences between asteroids, comets, meteors, and meteorites

"What are the differences between asteroids, comets, meteors, and meteorites?"

https://www.almanac.com/meteoroids-meteors-and-meteorites-whats-difference

Pulsars

"Pulsars are the lighthouses of the universe."

https://www.universetoday.com/163021/a-bizarre-pulsar-switches-between-two-brightness-modes-astronomers-finally-figured-out-why/#more-163021

Dark Energy Camera

"The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4m telescope, located at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, will provide the optical imaging for targeting for 2/3 of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) footprint, covering both the North Galactic Cap region at Dec ≤ 32° and the South Galactic Cap region at Dec ≤ 34°. Due to the combination of large field of view and high sensitivity from 400-1000 nm, DECam is an efficient option for obtaining photometry in the g�, r�, and z� bands."

https://www.legacysurvey.org/decamls/

Mars

"Mars is rotating more quickly than it used to, according to data that NASA’s InSight lander collected on the red planet."

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/08/14/world/mars-rotation-insight-nasa-scn/index.html

Psyche

"NASA's Psyche spacecraft is running a year behind schedule before the beginning of its journey to explore a metal asteroid, but mission managers said Friday the probe is essentially ready for launch in less than two months." https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/everything-is-coming-together-for-launch-of-nasas-mission-to-a-metal-asteroid/

8 Ursae Minoris b

"The exoplanet 8 Ursae Minoris b should not exist." https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/planet-that-should-have-been-swallowed-by-its-star-somehow-still-orbits/

Euclid Space Telescope

"Europe's Euclid space telescope is scheduled to blast off Saturday on the first-ever mission aiming to shed light on two of the universe's greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter." https://phys.org/news/2023-06-europe-space-telescope-universe-dark.html

Avi Loeb

"After spending years studying the night skies for signs of extraterrestrial life, Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb believes he has found proof of their existence at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alien-spacecraft-harvard-avi-loeb-pacific-b2366806.html

Gravitational Waves

"Gravitational waves are back, and they’re bigger than ever." https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02167-7

Chandrayaan 3

"India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander and rover are quickly checking all the boxes of planned tasks for the mission." https://www.universetoday.com/163005/so-much-to-do-so-little-time-chandrayaan-3-makes-the-most-of-its-time-at-the-moons-south-pole/

Gravitational Wave

"Current gravitational wave observatories have two significant limitations. The first is that they can only observe powerful gravitational bursts such as the mergers of black holes and neutron stars." https://www.universetoday.com/162925/pulsars-detected-the-background-gravitational-hum-of-the-universe-now-can-they-detect-single-mergers/

Rocket Lab

"Private space company, Rocket Lab, launched its 40th Electron mission on their lauded Electron rocket, dubbed “We Love The Nightlife”, on August 24th at 11:45am New Zealand Standard Time (August 23rd at 7:45pm EST), which also marks the 7th launch of 2023, all successful." https://www.universetoday.com/162928/40th-rocket-lab-mission-we-love-the-nightlife-launches-from-new-zealand-with-reused-engine/

Quasars

"For decades the most distant objects we could see were quasars." https://www.universetoday.com/162930/the-early-universe-should-be-awash-in-active-galaxies-but-jwst-isnt-finding-them/

Chandrayaan 3

"The Chandrayaan-3 rover currently charting the Moon’s south pole has identified elements indicating the region’s unique composition. " https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/exploration/chandrayaan-detects-moon-elements-including-sulphur-chromium/?utm_source=Cosmos+-+Master+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=dd88606ac5-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3f5c04479a-dd88606ac5-181027409&mc_cid=dd88606ac5&mc_eid=3e3d9f7a52

NASA Lunar Trailblazer

"NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer is nearing completion now that its second and final cutting-edge science instrument has been added to the small spacecraft."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-lunar-trailblazer-gets-final-payload-for-moon-water-hunt

Dart Mission

https://www.earth.com/news/dart-mission-released-boulders-with-the-explosive-capacity-of-an-atomic-bomb/

Chandrayaan

"India's Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft is setting up for a final descent to the surface of the Moon on Wednesday, four days after Russia's Luna 25 lander cratered following a botched engine 

burn."https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/after-russias-failure-india-is-next-in-line-to-attempt-a-moon-landing/

Mercury Retrograde

"Mercury enters retrograde motion starting on August 23, 2023!"

https://www.almanac.com/content/mercury-retrograde-dates?trk_msg=F87RM3D62QDKH0V8MIVMELVD34&trk_contact=7P4DL6LCTF9MHOCNU0TVI0O1AK&trk_module=new&trk_sid=LL0PNUF79N75FPO9FG9DH4EGKK&trk_link=EIGQ6AA3AV6K76BM1JAIU5EGV0&lctg=&utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Mercury+Retrograde+Dates+for+2023+(read+more)&utm_campaign=Companion+Newsletter&utm_content=Daily

FAA investigation of Space X

"The Federal Aviation Administration is now reviewing a mishap investigation report submitted by SpaceX regarding the company's April test flight of its giant Starship rocket, a spokesperson for the regulatory agency said Tuesday."

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/let-the-review-begin-spacex-takes-another-step-toward-launching-starship-again/

NASA plans to retrieve samples

"While the ongoing quest to detect life on Mars continues, NASA's plan to retrieve samples from the planet is set to conclude in the early next decade."

https://www.jpost.com/omg/article-756389