The Space Thread

[dockers_strike]

JWST L2 insertion burn completed. It's now described as being in the L2 halo orbit, whatever that means! I think there were meant to be 3 separate burns but dont know if all 3 completed or needed now.

[dockers_strike]

This is impressive whichever way you look at it.

 

 

[Numero Veinticinco]

21 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

This is impressive whichever way you look at it.

 

 

Absolutely unreal. 

[Bjornebye]

37 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

This is impressive whichever way you look at it.

 

 

Out of this world 

[dockers_strike]

JWST's first 'image' to be released by NASA today. The first image is expected to be 'fuzzy' as the 18 mirrors havent yet been aligned to give a perfect view.

[Numero Veinticinco]

46 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

JWST's first 'image' to be released by NASA today. The first image is expected to be 'fuzzy' as the 18 mirrors havent yet been aligned to give a perfect view.

Fuzzy? What a waste of money. Should have sent an iPhone up on a balloon. 

 

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the James Webb can produce when fully operational though. 

[dockers_strike]

7 minutes ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

Fuzzy? What a waste of money. Should have sent an iPhone up on a balloon. 

 

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the James Webb can produce when fully operational though. 

Ha, they'd have saved a shitload of money as well!

[Numero Veinticinco]

Just now, dockers_strike said:

Ha, they'd have saved a shitload of money as well!

Fairly sure the new iPhones are comparable in cost, TBH. 

 

 

[dockers_strike]

4 hours ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

Fairly sure the new iPhones are comparable in cost, TBH. 

 

 

Fuck, sorry out of juice for today. Will be back!

[Harry's Lad]

Horizon last Thursday was called Hubble: The Wonders of Space Revealed. Really good.

It's still available on BBC iPlayer.

[dockers_strike]

Good job this happened pointing away from us! No idea why the font gets bigger at the end of the article!

A huge eruption from the sun has been caught on camera by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter probe.

It is the largest such eruption ever observed in a single image with the full solar disc in shot, according to ESA.

The burst of radiation erupted from the side of the Sun facing away from Earth and extended millions of miles into space.

Solar eruptions, or prominences, are large structures of tangled magnetic field lines that keep dense concentrations of solar plasma suspended above the Sun's surface, sometimes taking the form of arching loops. 

They are often associated with coronal mass ejections, which if directed towards Earth, can wreak havoc with our technology.

The latest eruption took place on February 15 and was caught on camera by the Solar Orbiter's 'Full Sun Imager' (FSI) of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI). 

FSI is designed to look at the full solar disc even during close passages of the Sun, such as during the upcoming perihelion passage next month. 

At closest approach on March 26, which will see the spacecraft pass within about 0.3 times the Sun-Earth distance, the Sun will fill a much larger portion of the telescope's field of view. 

Right now, there is still a lot of 'viewing margin' around the disc, enabling stunning detail to be captured out to about 2.17 million miles (3.5 million km), equivalent to five times the radius of the Sun.

Other space telescopes such as the ESA and NASA's SOHO satellite often see solar activity like this, but are either closer to the Sun, or further out, which blocks out the glare of the Sun's disc to enable detailed imagery of the corona itself. 

That is why the eruption observed by the Solar Orbiter is the largest ever event of its kind to be captured in a single field of view together with the solar disc.

Scientists said it opens up new possibilities to see how events like these connect to the solar disc for the first time. 

Other space missions were also watching the event, including NASA's Parker Solar Probe. 

Next week, Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe will perform dedicated joint observations during Parker's perihelion passage.

Even spacecraft not dedicated to solar science felt its blast.

BepiColombo, a joint ESA/JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) mission, which is currently in the vicinity of Mercury's orbit, detected a massive increase in the readings for electrons, protons, and heavy ions with its radiation monitor.

ESA said that while this eruption did not send a blast of deadly particles towards Earth, it is an important reminder of the unpredictable nature of the Sun and the importance of understanding and monitoring its behaviour. 

Scientists hope that with better views of events like these, we can better protect our home planet from the Sun's violent outbursts.

The Solar Orbiter launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida in February 2020 is described by ESA as the 'most complex scientific laboratory ever to have been sent to the Sun.'

'Although our life-giving star has been an object of scientific interest for centuries, its behaviour still presents a puzzle for scientists,' ESA explained.

'Solar Orbiter will take images of the Sun from closer than any spacecraft before and for the first time look at its uncharted polar regions. 

'By combining observations from Solar Orbiter’s six remote-sensing instruments and four sets of in situ instruments, scientists hope to find answers to some profound questions: What drives the Sun’s 11-year cycle of rising and subsiding magnetic activity? What heats up the upper layer of its atmosphere, the corona, to millions of degrees Celsius? What drives the generation of the solar wind? What accelerates the solar wind to speeds of hundreds of kilometres per second? And how does it all affect our planet?'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10535265/ESAs-Solar-Orbiter-captures-huge-eruption-Sun.html

[Mike D]

On 09/02/2022 at 19:35, dockers_strike said:

This is impressive whichever way you look at it.

 

 

Impressive but can they land it through the middle of a round house?

 

 

[dockers_strike]

7 minutes ago, Mike D said:

Impressive but can they land it through the middle of a round house?

 

 

Life immitating art, eh?

[johnsusername]

On 09/02/2022 at 19:35, dockers_strike said:

This is impressive whichever way you look at it.

 

 

Pretty impressive, but they want to see me reverse park into a parking space at Speke Retail on a Saturday afternoon, it'll blow their socks off.

[dockers_strike]

1 hour ago, johnsusername said:

Pretty impressive, but they want to see me reverse park into a parking space at Speke Retail on a Saturday afternoon, it'll blow their socks off.

Fuck me, I cant reverse park for toffee and we only have the old girl's Twingo now!

[dockers_strike]

Chance to fly your name to the Moon and back on Artemis 1. Scheduled to launch sometime between May and July 2022(!)

 

Im on. Got my Artemis boarding pass together with the InSight Lander on Mars a few years back.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/#user-information

[dockers_strike]

Love David Kippings vids. Here he discusses the Rare Earth hypothesis and problems with it. Enjoy.

 

 

[Redder Lurtz]

Just on my way home from Harrogate Convention Centre watching Tim Peake doing a 2 hour talk. Highly recommended if you get a chance to see him. Fascinating bloke. 

[Pureblood]

3 hours ago, Redder Lurtz said:

Just on my way home from Harrogate Convention Centre watching Tim Peake doing a 2 hour talk. Highly recommended if you get a chance to see him. Fascinating bloke. 

Is he better value than Brian Cox?

 

Look at the sky, isn't it amaaaaaaazing

 

Look at everything, isn't it amaaaaaaazing 

[Redder Lurtz]

10 hours ago, Pureblood said:

Is he better value than Brian Cox?

 

Look at the sky, isn't it amaaaaaaazing

 

Look at everything, isn't it amaaaaaaazing 

Yeah he was excellent. Comes across as a really nice, down to earth bloke. Really engaging. 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 22/01/2022 at 22:02, Bjornebye said:

Have they found any green men yet? 

Who do you think helped them to build it?

[dockers_strike]

JWST mirrors now aligned and first 'in focus' picture available. Doctor Becky gets a bit hyper!

 

 

[Numero Veinticinco]

[dockers_strike]

It has been a decade in development, and is four years late, but Nasa’s “mega moon” rocket finally made it to the launchpad this week ahead of its first test flight.

 

Nearly 50 years after humans last set foot on the Moon, the Artemis mission will pick up where Apollo left off, delivering the first woman and person of colour to the lunar surface.

 

On Friday, 10,000 people gathered at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida to watch the 322ft-tall rocket and Orion spacecraft arrive at the launch site, perched on top of the same giant tractor used to move Apollo’s Saturn V rocket and the space shuttle.

 

“It’s a huge moment,” said Nasa’s Randy Bresnik, a former astronaut on the International Space Station.

 

While Apollo was named after the Greek god of the Sun, the latest mission references his sister, Artemis, the goddess of the Moon.

The Apollo programme took 11 missions to get to the Moon, but with so much experience to call upon, Artemis will attempt it in just three.

The first stage, Artemis 1, is scheduled to launch in April or May, and will be an unmanned test run. However, it will have three “astronauts” on board, in the form of mannequins that will collect radiation data.

The second stage, Artemis 2, is due for launch in 2024 and will see astronauts return to the Moon’s orbit, similar to Apollo 8.

 

The full touchdown, Artemis 3, will happen in 2025, with astronauts either travelling straight from the spacecraft to the Moon’s surface, or by docking at the Lunar Gateway space station and descending from there.

 

Although slightly smaller than the 363ft Saturn V rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), a super heavy-lift launch vehicle used to send the Orion spacecraft and astronauts to the Moon, has 15 per cent more thrust and will be the world’s most powerful rocket when it launches.

 

The spacecraft has two more weeks of checks ahead of the “wet dress rehearsal” on April 3 when the rocket will be fuelled with 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant.

 

A full launch programme will take place, but will stop 10 seconds before blast off.

 

The SLS will take the Orion spacecraft into low Earth orbit before the spacecraft detaches and travels 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, further than any spaceship carrying humans has ventured.

It will also deploy 10 small satellites to gather information about the deep space environment before the crew module returns to Earth.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/18/four-years-late-decade-making-nasas-mega-moon-rocket-ready-test/

[Anubis]

A fine, clear (if cold) night to view the ISS over Liverpool. It makes a final pass for tonight at 9.24pm travelling due West to East, for anyone interested.