Ten Solstice Facts That Everyone Should Know

Unusual Signal Suggests Neutron Star Destroyed by Black Hole

What created this unusual explosion? Three weeks ago, gravitational wave detectors in the USA and Europe – the LIGO and Virgo detectors – detected a burst of gravitational radiation that had the oscillating pattern expected when a black hole destroys a neutron star. One object in event S190814sv was best fit with a mass greater than five times the mass of the Sun – making it a good candidate for a black hole, while the other object appeared to have a mass less than three times the mass of the Sun – making it a good candidate for a neutron star. No similar event had been detected with gravitational waves before. Unfortunately, no light was seen from this explosion, light that might have been triggered by the disrupting neutron star. It is theoretically possible that the lower mass object was also a black hole, even though no clear example of a black hole with such a low mass is known. The featured video was created to illustrate a previously suspected black hole - neutron star collision detected in light in 2005, specifically gamma-rays from the burst GRB 050724. The animated video starts with a foreground neutron star orbiting a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk. The black hole’s gravity then shreds the neutron star, creating a jet as debris falls into the black hole. S190814sv will continue to be researched, with clues about the nature of the objects involved possibly coming from future detections of similar systems. Illustration Video Credit: NASA, Dana Berry (Skyworks Digital)

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this cat is so cute

The Summer Solstice Has Arrived!

This year’s summer solstice for the northern hemisphere arrives at 11:54 a.m. EDT, meaning today is the longest day of the year! The number of daylight hours varies by latitude, so our headquarters in Washington, D.C. will see 14 hours, 53 minutes, and 51 seconds of daylight. A lot can happen in that time! Let’s find out more.

If you’re spending the day outside, you might be in the path of our Earth Science Satellite Fleet (ESSF)! The fleet, made up of over a dozen Earth observation satellites, will pass over the continental United States about 37 times during today’s daylight hours. 

These missions collect data on atmospheric chemistry and composition, cloud cover, ocean levels, climate, ecosystem dynamics, precipitation, and glacial movement, among other things. They aim to do everything from predicting extreme weather to helping informing the public and decision makers with the environment through GPS and imaging. Today, their sensors will send back over 200 gigabytes (GB) of data back to the ground by sunset. 

As the sun sets today, the International Space Station (ISS) will be completing its 10th orbit since sunrise. In that time, a little more than 1 terabyte-worth of data will be downlinked to Earth.

That number encompasses data from ground communications, payloads, experiments, and control and navigation signals for the station. Approximately 330 GB of that TB is video, including live broadcasts and downlinks with news outlets. But as recently-returned astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor likes to point out, there’s still room for fun. The astronauts aboard the ISS can request YouTube videos or movies for what she likes to call “family movie night.”

Astronauts aboard the station also send back images—LOTS of them. Last year, astronauts sent back an average of 66,912 images per month! During today’s long hours of daylight, we expect the crew to send back about 656 images. But with Expedition 59 astronauts David Saint-Jacques (CSA), Anne McClain (NASA), and Oleg Kononenko (RKA) hard at work preparing to return to Earth on Monday, that number might be a little less. 

Say you’re feeling left out after seeing the family dinners and want to join the crew. Would you have enough daylight to travel to the ISS and back on the longest day of the year? Yes, but only if you’re speedy enough, and plan your launch just right. With the current fastest launch-to-docking time of about six hours, you could complete two-and-a-half flights to the ISS today between sunrise and sunset.

When returning from orbit, it’s a longer ordeal. After the Expedition 59 trio arrives on Earth Monday night, they’ll have to travel from Kazakhstan to Houston to begin their post-flight activities. Their journey should take about 18 hours and 30 minutes, just a few hours longer than the hours of daylight we’ll see today.

Happy solstice! Make sure to tune in with us on Monday night for live coverage of the return of Expedition 59. Until then, enjoy the longest day of the year!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com. 

Puppies Make Me Happy

Will we one day explore the worlds of our solar system? How long will this take?

We have a diversity of worlds in our solar system. Majestic places…

Imagine being able to visit Mars and its hostile climate. Imagine being able to visit the moons of Jupiter, observe Io: the volcanic moon, Europa, the frozen moon and Ganymede a moon larger than Mercury itself and that has its own magnetic field. Imagine visiting the moons of Saturn and maybe passing close to your rings… Imagine orbiting or floating through Titan’s atmosphere and closely watching its lakes and seas of methane and liquid ethane. Imagine getting to know the geysers of Enceladus, the valleys of Tethys, and the craters of Mimas… Imagine being able to see the moons of Uranus and have a view of Verona Rupes, the largest cliff of the solar system, located in Miranda. Imagine being able to be in Triton and to be able to observe the cold and azualdo Neptune in the sky…

Google Classroom FINALLY lets you add a “Materials” section under “Classwork”

Literally two days ago they added the ability to add a new kind of post under a Classwork topic. “Materials” (instead of Assignment or Question) 

This is your workaround for losing the “About” page. Set up a topic called “About” or “Resources”, then add a “Materials” post under that topic. Boom, done!

ALSO, if you created a Google Classroom before the update, and only have the Stream and People pages, you can now manually add a Classwork page by clicking the grey question mark in the bottom left corner, then selecting “Add Classwork page”.

Try it out, today! 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Google for Education Certified Trainer, 

-WCT

10 Things: CubeSats — Going Farther

Now that the MarCOs — a pair of briefcase-sized interplanetary CubeSats — seem to have reached their limit far beyond Mars, we’re looking forward to an expanding era of small, versatile and powerful space-based science machines.

Here are ten ways we’re pushing the limits of miniaturized technology to see  just how far it can take us.

1. MarCO: The Farthest (So Far)

MarCO, short for Mars Cube One, was the first interplanetary mission to use a class of mini-spacecraft called CubeSats.

The MarCOs — nicknamed EVE and WALL-E, after characters from a Pixar film — served as communications relays during InSight’s November 2018 Mars landing, beaming back data at each stage of its descent to the Martian surface in near-real time, along with InSight’s first image.

WALL-E sent back stunning images of Mars as well, while EVE performed some simple radio science.

All of this was achieved with experimental technology that cost a fraction of what most space missions do: $18.5 million provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which built the CubeSats.

WALL-E was last heard from on Dec. 29; EVE, on Jan. 4. Based on trajectory calculations, WALL-E is currently more than 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) past Mars; EVE is farther, almost 2 million miles (3.2 million kilometers) past Mars.

MarCO-B took these images as it approached Mars in November 2018. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

2. What Are CubeSats?

CubeSats were pioneered by California Polytechnic State University in 1999 and quickly became popular tools for students seeking to learn all aspects of spacecraft design and development.

Today, they are opening up space research to public and private entities like never before. With off-the-shelf parts and a compact size that allows them to hitch a ride with other missions — they can, for example, be ejected from the International Space Station, up to six at a time — CubeSats have slashed the cost of satellite development, opening up doors to test new instruments as well as to create constellations of satellites working together.

CubeSats can be flown in swarms, capturing simultaneous, multipoint measurements with identical instruments across a large area. Sampling entire physical systems in this way would drive forward our ability to understand the space environment around us, in the same way multiple weather sensors help us understand global weather systems.

Ready to get started? Check out NASA’s CubeSats 101 Guide.

Engineer Joel Steinkraus uses sunlight to test the solar arrays on one of the Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

3. Measuring Up

The size and cost of spacecraft vary depending on the application; some are the size of a pint of ice cream while others, like the Hubble Space Telescope, are as big as a school bus.

Small spacecraft (SmallSats) generally have a mass less than 400 pounds (180 kilograms) and are about the size of a large kitchen fridge.

CubeSats are a class of nanosatellites that use a standard size and form factor.  The standard CubeSat size uses a “one unit” or “1U” measuring 10x10x10 centimeters (or about 4x4x4 inches) and is extendable to larger sizes: 1.5, 2, 3, 6, and even 12U.

The Sojourner rover (seen here on Mars in 1997) is an example of small technology that pioneered bigger things. Generations of larger rovers are being built on its success.

4. A Legacy of Small Pathfinders

Not unlike a CubeSat, NASA’s first spacecraft — Explorer 1 — was a small, rudimentary machine. It launched in 1958 and made the first discovery in outer space, the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth. It was the birth of the U.S. space program.

In 1997, a mini-rover named Sojourner rolled onto Mars, a trial run for more advanced rovers such as NASA’s Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity.

Innovation often begins with pathfinder technology, said Jakob Van Zyl, director of the Solar System Exploration Directorate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Once engineers prove something can be done, science missions follow.

5. Testing in Space

NASA is continually developing new technologies — technologies that are smaller than ever before, components that could improve our measurements, on-board data processing systems that streamline data retrievals, or new methods for gathering observations. Each new technology is thoroughly tested in a lab, sometimes on aircraft, or even at remote sites across the world. But the space environment is different than Earth. To know how something is going to operate in space, testing in space is the best option.

Sending something unproven to orbit has traditionally been a risky endeavor, but CubeSats have helped to change that. The diminutive satellites typically take less than two years to build. CubeSats are often a secondary payload on many rocket launches, greatly reducing cost. These hitchhikers can be deployed from a rocket or sent to the International Space Station and deployed from orbit.

Because of their quick development time and easy access to space, CubeSats have become the perfect platform for demonstrating how a new technological advancement will perform in orbit.

RainCube is a mini weather satellite, no bigger than a shoebox, that will measure storms. It’s part of several new NASA experiments to track storms from space with many small satellites, instead of individual, large ones. Credit: UCAR

6. At Work in Earth Orbit

A few recent examples from our home world:

RainCube, a satellite no bigger than a suitcase, is a prototype for a possible fleet of similar CubeSats  that could one day help monitor severe storms, lead to improving the accuracy of weather forecasts and track climate change over time.

IceCube tested instruments for their ability to make space-based measurements of the small, frozen crystals that make up ice clouds. Like other clouds, ice clouds affect Earth’s energy budget by either reflecting or absorbing the Sun’s energy and by affecting the emission of heat from Earth into space. Thus, ice clouds are key variables in weather and climate models.

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 1 for the NASA ELaNa19 mission. Credit: Trevor Mahlmann/Rocket Lab

7. First Dedicated CubeSat Launch

A series of new CubeSats is now in space, conducting a variety of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations following a Dec. 17, 2018 launch from New Zealand — the first time CubeSats have launched for NASA on a rocket designed specifically for small payloads.

This mission included 10 Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa)-19 payloads, selected by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative:

CubeSat Compact Radiation Belt Explorer (CeREs) — High energy particle measurement in Earth’s radiation belt

Simulation-to-Flight 1 (STF-1) — Software condensing to support CubeSat implementations

Advanced Electrical Bus (ALBus) — Advances in solar arrays and high capacity batteries

CubeSat Handling Of Multisystem Precision Time Transfer (CHOMPTT) — Navigation plans for exo-planetary implementation

CubeSail — Deployment and control of a solar sail blade

NMTSat — Magnetic field, high altitude plasma density

Rsat — Manipulation of robotic arms

Ionospheric Scintillation Explorer (ISX) — Plasma fluctuations in the upper atmosphere

Shields-1 — Radiation shielding

DaVinci — High School to Grade School STEM education

8. The Little CubeSat That Could

CubeSat technology is still in its infancy, with mission success rates hovering near 50 percent. So, a team of scientists and engineers set out on a quest. Their goal? To build a more resilient CubeSat — one that could handle the inevitable mishaps that bedevil any spacecraft, without going kaput.

They wanted a little CubeSat that could.

They got to work in 2014 and, after three years of development, Dellingr was ready to take flight.

Read the Full Story: Dellingr: The Little CubeSat That Could

Artist’s concept of Lunar Flashlight. Credit: NASA

9. Going Farther

There are a handful of proposed NASA missions could take CubeSat technology farther:

CUVE would travel to Venus to investigate a longstanding mystery about the planet’s atmosphere using ultraviolet-sensitive instruments and a novel, carbon-nanotube light-gathering mirror.

Lunar Flashlight would use a laser to search for water ice in permanently shadowed craters on the south pole of Earth’s Moon.

Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, a SmallSat, would use a solar sail to propel it to do science on asteroids that pass close to Earth.

All three spacecraft would hitch rides to space with other missions, a key advantage of these compact science machines.

Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor installs the NanoRacks Cubesat Deployer-14 (NRCSD-14) on the Multipurpose Experiment Platform inside the Japanese Kibo laboratory module. The NRCSD-14 was then placed in the Kibo airlock and moved outside of the space station to deploy a variety of CubeSats into Earth orbit. Credit: NASA

10. And We’re Just Getting Started

Even if they’re never revived, the team considers MarCO a spectacular success.

A number of the critical spare parts for each MarCO will be used in other CubeSat missions. That includes their experimental radios, antennas and propulsion systems. Several of these systems were provided by commercial vendors, making it easier for other CubeSats to use them as well.

More small spacecraft are on the way. NASA is set to launch a variety of new CubeSats in coming years.

“There’s big potential in these small packages,” said John Baker, the MarCO program manager at JPL. “CubeSats — part of a larger group of spacecraft called SmallSats — are a new platform for space exploration affordable to more than just government agencies.”

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

How Big is Our Galaxy, the Milky Way?

When we talk about the enormity of the cosmos, it’s easy to toss out big numbers – but far harder to wrap our minds around just how large, how far and how numerous celestial bodies like exoplanets – planets beyond our solar system – really are.

So. How big is our Milky Way Galaxy?

We use light-time to measure the vast distances of space.

It’s the distance that light travels in a specific period of time. Also: LIGHT IS FAST, nothing travels faster than light.

How far can light travel in one second? 186,000 miles. It might look even faster in metric: 300,000 kilometers in one second. See? FAST.

How far can light travel in one minute? 11,160,000 miles. We’re moving now! Light could go around the Earth a bit more than 448 times in one minute.

Speaking of Earth, how long does it take light from the Sun to reach our planet? 8.3 minutes. (It takes 43.2 minutes for sunlight to reach Jupiter, about 484 million miles away.) Light is fast, but the distances are VAST.

In an hour, light can travel 671 million miles. We’re still light-years from the nearest exoplanet, by the way. Proxima Centauri b is 4.2 light-years away. So… how far is a light-year? 5.8 TRILLION MILES.

A trip at light speed to the very edge of our solar system – the farthest reaches of the Oort Cloud, a collection of dormant comets way, WAY out there – would take about 1.87 years.

Our galaxy contains 100 to 400 billion stars and is about 100,000 light-years across!

One of the most distant exoplanets known to us in the Milky Way is Kepler-443b. Traveling at light speed, it would take 3,000 years to get there. Or 28 billion years, going 60 mph. So, you know, far.

SPACE IS BIG.

Read more here: go.nasa.gov/2FTyhgH

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He faced all this for you, for you to be loved, blessed, glorified, exalted, satisfied, accepted, freed and resurrected.