Space News and Discussions

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caltrek
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Maybe we should start a thread entitled "Space Inc." to discuss the behavior of space oriented businesses back here on earth.

Threatened With Prosecution, SpaceX Defends Its Activities in South Texas
Erik de la Garza
June 26, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/threaten ... uth-texas/

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — A Texas district attorney’s threat to prosecute SpaceX over unauthorized road and beach closures and the overzealous actions of its private security guards has the Elon Musk-owned company defending its activities in the remote South Texas beach town of Boca Chica, where it launches rockets into outer space from a site it refers to as “Starbase.”

The complicated relationship between SpaceX and Cameron County, where Musk announced he would donate $30 million to schools and downtown revitalization, has been on full display in recent days after District Attorney Luis Saenz issued a warning letter following a complaint from environmental group Save RGV.

Spurred by multiple concerns from the non-profit group, the letter from the county’s top prosecutor to SpaceX outlined how the company could be in violation of at least two state laws: obstructing a highway or other passageway, a Class B misdemeanor, and impersonating a public servant, which is punishable by a third-degree felony in the Lone Star State.

The brouhaha took flight when staff from the district attorney’s office went to investigate the environmental group’s complaint when, according to the prosecutor’s office, a SpaceX security guard “immediately approached, stopped, and detained” them before exchanging words and ordering that they return to the highway.

If that conduct were to happen again, the district attorney warned, not only could the individual security guard be subject to prosecution, but the company could open itself up to criminal liability as well.
Image
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon 2 spacecraft lifts off on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for a re-supply mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Florida, June 3, 2021.
(AP Photo/John Raoux)
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NOAA to replace GOES17 satellite ahead of schedule
June 25, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced plans June 25 to move its geostationary weather satellite scheduled to launch in December into an operational role “as soon as possible.”

NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-T, will replace the GOES-17 satellite in the GOES West position because of problems with the satellite’s main instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), according to a NOAA news release.

Within months of launching the GOES-17 satellite in 2018, NOAA discovered a blockage in ABI’s loop heat pipe that restricted the flow of coolant and caused the instrument to overheat. Engineers were able to mitigate the problems, but the resulting fixes decreased the satellite’s lifespan.
https://spacenews.com/goes-t-to-become-goes-west/
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Lack of water rules out life on Venus: study

Scientists determined no life on Earth could cope with the miniscule amount of water in Venus's atmosphere.

A study measuring water concentration in Venus's atmosphere concluded Monday that life as we know it is not possible among the sulphuric acid droplets that make up the planet's famously cloudy skies.

The search for life on our nearest neighbor has so far proved fruitless, although a 2020 paper rekindled hopes for Venus when it claimed to have detected phosphine gas—known to be produced by bacteria on Earth—in the planet's clouds.

The authors have since called their own findings into question.

But the claim inspired scientists led by Queen's University Belfast to test the theory from a different angle: whether there is enough water in Venus's atmosphere to make life possible.
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-lack-life-venus.html
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weatheriscool wrote: Mon Jun 28, 2021 6:33 pm Lack of water rules out life on Venus: study

[...]

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-lack-life-venus.html

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Rare black hole and neutron star collisions sighted twice in 10 days

41 minutes ago

Scientists have detected two collisions between a neutron star and a black hole in the space of 10 days.

Researchers predicted that such collisions would occur, but did not know how often.

The observations could mean that some ideas of how stars and galaxies form may need to be revised.

Prof Vivien Raymond, from Cardiff University, told BBC News that the surprising results were fantastic.

"We have to go back to the drawing board and rewrite our theories," he said effusively.

"We have learned a bit of a lesson again. When we assume something we tend to be proved wrong after a while. So we have to keep our minds open and see what the Universe is telling us."

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57639520


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caltrek
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I used to say that while one might b e able to communicate with animals about emotions, that one could never hold a conversation with them about astronomy. Looks like I might have to re-think that example.

Animals Can Navigate by Starlight.
by Brian Resnick
June 28, 2021

https://www.vox.com/22538268/animal-nav ... xperiments

Introduction:
(Vox) “No, no, no, no, Brian. No, no, no, no.”

I had asked Stephen Emlen, a Cornell emeritus professor of neurobiology and behavior, what seemed to me an obvious question: When he brought birds into planetariums in the 1960s and 70s, did they ever, um, make a mess in there?

“No poops in the planetarium,” Emlen assures me.

I had called Emlen to talk not about poops, but a series of experiments that have captured my imagination. He brought migratory birds into a planetarium at night and turned the stars on and off, as though erasing them from the universe of a bird’s brain.

Through these experiments, Emlen pieced together what was then a mystery: how birds know which way is which, even flying in the dark of night without the sun for guidance.
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caltrek
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NASA Releases Pictures of the International Space Station Transiting the Sun

June 28, 2021

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/57634574

Introduction:
(BBC) (NASA has)...released an image of the International Space Station (ISS) crossing the sun.

The rare image shows the ISS transiting the sun - transiting is when one object crosses in front of another in space.

Nasa captured the ISS as a silhouette at different points and merged the images together. The ISS looks like a really small object compared to the huge sun.

At the time the photo was taken astronauts were out on a spacewalk.

The ISS was captured as it moved from right to left across the sun while orbiting 400km above Earth.
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NASA/Joel Kowsky
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caltrek
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Rare black hole and neutron star collisions sighted twice in 10 days

More on that:
For the First Time, Astrophysicists Detect a Black Hole Swallowing a Neutron Star
by Wilson Wong
June 29, 2021

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... uxbndlbing

Introduction:
(NBC) Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, a black hole swallowed a neutron star. Then, 10 days later, another black hole ate up another star. The two separate events triggered ripples through time and space that eventually hit Earth.

Those ripples, first detected in January 2020, offered researchers two distinct looks at the never-before-measured cosmic collisions, according to research published Tuesday in the academic publication The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"This is the first detection of a merger between a black hole and neutron star," said Chase Kimball, a Northwestern University graduate student and one of the study's co-authors. "Basically, the black hole eats the neutron star and becomes fatter."

Astrophysicists have previously observed two black holes colliding with two neutron stars in separate events, but never the two paired together.

"We long thought they exist, but this is the first direct confirmation that will help fine-tune future astrophysical models about the binary star systems in our universe and how they interact with each other," Kimball said.
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caltrek
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Does Outer Space End – or Go On Forever?

https://theconversation.com/does-outer- ... ver-162333
(The Conversation) Q: What is beyond outer space? – Siah, age 11, Fremont, California
Conclusion:
(A:) Some scientists think it’s possible the universe might eventually wrap back around on itself – so if you could just keep going out, you would someday come back around to where you started, from the other direction.

One way to think about this is to picture a globe, and imagine that you are a creature that can move only on the surface. If you start walking any direction, east for example, and just keep going, eventually you would come back to where you began. If this were the case for the universe, it would mean it is not infinitely big – although it would still be bigger than you can imagine.

In either case, you could never get to the end of the universe or space. Scientists now consider it unlikely the universe has an end – a region where the galaxies stop or where there would be a barrier of some kind marking the end of space.

But nobody knows for sure. How to answer this question will need to be figured out by a future scientist.
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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