There’s a lot more junk floating around Earth than there used to be - by Tom Jones & David Crowther 5/17/24
"...Those stats may pickup in the coming years though, as the ESA tracks the ever-growing number of man-made objects that clutter the space around Earth. At the end of last year, a staggering 36,500 space debris objects over 10 cm in length were orbiting the Earth — perhaps little shock to anyone familiar with the Kessler Syndrome, a concerning theory that the more space junk there is, the more collisions there will be, causing a self-perpetuating chain reaction that could result in Earth’s orbit becoming essentially unusable..."
The summer 2024 NASA's Astrophoto Challenge is now open! This summer's target: Cassiopeia A.
Make your own images with real NASA data using a simple, online tool. Then, submit your image. Standout entries are featured on the website and get comments from expert judges.
🌠 SpaceX satellites threaten to hide asteroids that pose danger to humanity | Technology | EL PAÍS English
"It’s difficult to say exactly how many asteroids will be lost… but preliminary results suggest that for every five near-Earth asteroids we discover, we lose one solely due to constellation interference. That’s if no mitigation measures are taken”
Could recent information about dark energy fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe? It's possible. Here's a deep dive into what dark energy is and how new results on the expansion history of the universe may change everything we thought we knew.
TONIGHT, May 22, 2024, at 7 pm (PDT), Dr. Robert Pappalardo (NASA Jet
Propulsion Lab) will give a free, illustrated, non-technical lecture entitled:
“Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean World"
The contract #Boeing got for a new spaceship was fixed-price, and worth much more than SpaceX got for the same job. Boeing has for decades gotten fat off of cost-plus contracts, meaning they could bloat the project until shareholders were fat & happy & DOD just kept paying them.
One fixed-price contract & they turn into helpless marshmallows.
#PPOD: Mimas drifts along in its orbit against the azure backdrop of Saturn's northern latitudes in this true-color view. The long, dark lines on the atmosphere are shadows cast by the planet's rings. At the bottom, craters on icy Mimas (398 kilometers) give the moon a dimpled appearance. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/CICLOPS
Another ~13m drive, -2m in elevation change for #Perseverance, along the easternmost path I mentioned yesterday. Maybe those ripples aren't that difficult to cross after all.