@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
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michael_w_busch

@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online

Planetary astronomer, studying piles of rock in space. Reader of books. Drinker of tea. He/him. This is a personal account. To bigotry no sanction.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

nyrath, to random
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https://hackaday.com/2024/04/25/the-myth-of-propellantless-space-propulsion-refuses-to-die/

michael_w_busch,
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@nyrath I see that you have found some of the contents of my spam folder.

michael_w_busch, to random
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At the workshop today; Ian Carnelli confirms that the mission is on schedule for launch in October: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/11661626/11661645/Hera_April2024_Schedule_V5.pdf/

It is then five months out to fly by Mars before going on to & to follow up on the deflection demonstration.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Agata Rożek describes current plans for Earth-based lightcurve observations of this year; to give a midpoint between the and the .

She also notes an occultation on 2024 August 13, if anyone near wants to chase it: https://asteroidoccultation.com/2024/2024_08/0813_65803_84320_Map.gif

Addendum:

Further details on Didymos occultation observation opportunities in Australia this year, via Kleomenios Tsiganis - https://lagrange.oca.eu/fr/blog

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

For the contingent:

If anyone on the South Island has >20 cm telescopes that could be driven to a particular stretch of road south of Dunedin; the asteroids and will apparently run in front of a star as seen from there on 2024 May 5 - https://lagrange.oca.eu/fr/blog .

Not much notice; but maybe someone is already planning something?

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Today in bad science reporting:

Research study: "At high concentrations in a lab vial; polyphenols can deactivate SARS-CoV-2."

Popular news article: Pretends that drinking tea helps with COVID.

Me: "Those are not at all the same thing."

And no excuse is needed to drink tea.

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

#subtweet

If proposing a space mission that has to be done in 5 years and must launch in 3-4 years; you may not want to suggest an entirely new spacecraft design.

This is not regarding any particular mission proposal. I've just been listening to a lot of mission plans today.

sundogplanets, (edited ) to random
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Quick poll: off the top of your head, without searching online, do you know what "Kessler Syndrome" is?

michael_w_busch,
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@thomasfuchs A large debris-generating event was avoided two months ago only by the chance of the satellites' orientations: https://www.space.com/nasa-timed-satellite-russian-space-junk-near-miss-february-2024

And per @sundogplanets , if Cosmos 2221 and TIMED had collided; a fair portion of the resulting debris would have extended down into the Starlinks' altitude range.

It is not great.

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Keeps getting more crowded in the sky.

The Cosmos 2221 and TIMED satellites passed within < 10 m of each other on 2024 February 28; avoiding a collision only by the chance of their orientations.

https://www.space.com/nasa-timed-satellite-russian-space-junk-near-miss-february-2024

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Today on the arXiv:

Lauretta et al. 2024, "Asteroid (101955) Bennu in the Laboratory: Properties of the Sample Collected by OSIRIS-REx" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12536

Pretty good rocks.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

https://news.mit.edu/2007/asteroid-tt0926

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@nyrath Ideas developed before we understood what we now understand about how rubble pile asteroids behave.

Also: Clement, H., 1960, "Sun Spot".

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Biology is weird.

Sendker et al. 2024, "Emergence of fractal geometries in the evolution of a metabolic enzyme" - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07287-2

Apparently just an example of random genetic drift.

michael_w_busch, to random
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My timeline reminds me that several scientists I respect appeared on the "Ancient Aliens" show, trying to counter pseudoscience.

It was not very effective.

And that's one reason why I turned down an interview request from the "Ancient Aliens" producers and William Shatner.

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

I'm talking to a journalist in a bit about NASA's new "space sustainability strategy" and this one sentence from the abstract seems to sum it up:

"Given the substantial upfront expenditures required to develop and deploy remediation capabilities and the potential delay in receiving benefits, these motivations do not appear to be sufficient to incentivize immediate action"

I'm going to have to read this more carefully, but did NASA just say they don't care about orbit?!

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/otps-cost-and-benefit-analysis-of-orbital-debris-remediation-final-tagged.pdf?emrc=661fe22b468ed

michael_w_busch,
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@sundogplanets I had read that as a statement of prioritizing preventing creation of new debris and monitoring the debris that now exists over trying to remove debris.

If I have misunderstood, I would like to know.

bruces, to random
@bruces@mastodon.social avatar

*Handy cosmic-engineering tips there, I'll keep those in mind for my next half-billion years

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/a-survival-guide-for-the-end-of-the-solar-system/

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@bruces @nyrath For a way to extend how long Earth remains habitable that requires many orders of magnitude less energy:

Li et al. 2009, "Atmospheric pressure as a natural climate regulator for a terrestrial planet with a biosphere" - https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0809436106

Locking nitrogen in rock decreases the atmospheric pressure; which reduces the greenhouse effect and gives more time before the oceans boil (but reduce the N2 pressure too far and everything catches fire, then the oceans boil).

michael_w_busch,
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@60sRefugee @bruces @nyrath I simply note the very large difference in scale between "change a planet's atmosphere" and "take a star apart".

jdnicoll, to random
@jdnicoll@wandering.shop avatar

“Bad” Books, and the Readers That Love Them

Inexplicably not titled "Why I Own Most of Hal Clement's Novels."

https://reactormag.com/bad-books-and-the-readers-that-love-them/

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@jdnicoll @nyrath My liking Hal Clement's "Still River", about a bunch of planetary science graduate students who make in-retrospect-obvious mistakes, may have something to do with my having once been a planetary science graduate student who made a few in-retrospect-obvious mistakes.

michael_w_busch,
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@jdnicoll @nyrath I once spent six months working on a project that turned out to be impossible because the Earth has an atmosphere.

So one of Clement's alien graduate students forgetting to account for wind actually seemed pretty realistic.

michael_w_busch, to random
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Today in the Planetary Science Journal:

Battle et al. 2024, "Challenges in Identifying Artificial Objects in the Near-Earth Object Population: Spectral Characterization of 2020 SO" - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad3078

When asteroid surveys find a rocket booster from 1966.

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Three years later, this is still true.

QT Michael Busch @michael_w_busch
2021 July 26

It remains way past time for everyone to stop giving Avi Loeb a platform.

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Five years from today, asteroid will make a very close flyby.

There will be many Earth-based observations, including by , and the mission will get a spacecraft out there after the flyby.

For details of current plans: https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/apophis2024/

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

The T-5 workshop is happening this week along with the community meeting: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/hera-meetings/apophis_hera_04_2024

It is a busy week for asteroid science.

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Discussion of the #RAMSESmission proposal from ESA to rendezvous with #Apophis before the 2029 flyby; for which a decision needs to be made soon.

Operations plan notes that orbiting the asteroid would be impossible during the flyby.

(Again, the #OSIRISAPEx mission from NASA will catch up with Apophis only after the flyby; but even then it will mostly formation-fly and make hyperbolic passes rather than orbiting.)

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

Some of the most commonly cited work at the #Apophis T-5 workshop:

Dotson et al. 2023, "Apophis Specific Action Team Report" - https://www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/documents/Apophis_SAT.pdf.

Especially regarding ensuring that any missions to Apophis do not change its trajectory.

No creating an impact hazard.

We have been given strict instructions to not make large piles of rock fall from the sky.

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@sudnadja @nyrath The abstract notes the large number of meteors that were considered to find five candidates; but leaves the multiple-sample correction implied.

Perhaps this part from the conclusions should have been included in the abstract as well:

"Given the large number of events examined, this suggests to us the most likely explanation in these cases is simple measurement error, though we cannot rule out true interstellar origins for these events at the significance levels quoted."

michael_w_busch, to random
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@sudnadja @nyrath Refer to Section 4.8 of Froncisz et al. 2020; where Peter Brown's group cautions about the statistical and systematic errors in meteor radar: "instrumental effects are present among our detected population warranting caution in interpretation of the results".

(even without the systematics; given their sample size, one would expect that a large fraction of their candidate interstellar dust particles were not actually interstellar - as Peter pointed out later).

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