Tuesday, July 1News That Matters

Tag: nasa

ispace & Firefly Aerospace to Share SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch for Lunar Missions

ispace & Firefly Aerospace to Share SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch for Lunar Missions

Breaking News, Space
Japanese lunar exploration company ispace has confirmed that its second mission to the moon, featuring the Resilience lander, will share a ride with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch is set for a six-day window in mid-January, as announced during an online presentation by ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada on December 17. Details of the Dual Launch Sequence: Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander will deploy first, followed by an upper-stage burn, then ispace’s Resilience lander. Routes: Blue Ghost will orbit Earth for 25 days before performing a translunar injection, reaching the moon in four days and spending 16 days in lunar orbit before attempting a landing. Resilience will follow a low-energy trajectory, taking it over one million kilome...
Moon Could Be Much Older Than Previously Believed: New Study Reveals a 4.51 Billion-Year History

Moon Could Be Much Older Than Previously Believed: New Study Reveals a 4.51 Billion-Year History

Breaking News, Learning & Developments, Space
A groundbreaking study published in Nature suggests the Moon may be over 100 million years older than previously thought, dating its formation to approximately 4.51 billion years ago. This challenges the long-standing estimate of 4.35 billion years and offers fresh insights into the Moon's tumultuous early history. For decades, scientists have theorized that the Moon formed after a Mars-sized object collided with early Earth. However, the new study, led by Francis Nimmo of the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggests that the Moon formed earlier, with a later event known as "re-melting" reshaping its surface. This re-melting occurred as the Moon gradually drifted away from Earth. Earth's gravitational pull generated intense tidal heating, resetting the "clocks" of lunar mineral...
NASA Announces $20,000 Reward for Lunar Rescue System Design

NASA Announces $20,000 Reward for Lunar Rescue System Design

Breaking News, Idea & Innovations, Space
NASA has launched a unique challenge to engage creative minds worldwide in designing a life-saving system for rescuing astronauts stranded on the Moon. With a prize of up to $20,000, the agency is seeking innovative ideas to transport astronauts in spacesuits across the Moon’s treacherous south pole terrain. This initiative, part of NASA’s South Pole Safety Challenge: Lunar Rescue System, comes as preparations intensify for the Artemis mission, slated for launch in September 2026. NASA aims to ensure astronaut safety in extreme lunar conditions, where rocky surfaces, large craters, and steep inclines pose significant challenges. The Challenge Participants must develop a system capable of: Safely transporting an incapacitated astronaut in a spacesuit over a distance of at leas...
Solar Orbiter Captures Most Detailed Images of the Sun Yet

Solar Orbiter Captures Most Detailed Images of the Sun Yet

Breaking News, Learning & Developments, Space
From a staggering distance of 74 million kilometers, the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter has delivered breathtaking new images of the Sun, showcasing unprecedented details of our closest star. Despite the vast distance, the Orbiter's advanced instruments have captured some of the highest-resolution images ever taken, shedding light on the Sun's magnetic and plasma dynamics. Launched in 2020, the Solar Orbiter is on a mission to unravel the Sun's mysteries, from its solar wind to the complex behavior of its magnetic field and dynamic eruptions like solar flares. Among its objectives is producing detailed, high-resolution imagery of the Sun's surface, a feat it accomplishes using cutting-edge instruments: Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI): A German contribution capturing the Sun's ma...
Milky Way Strips Large Magellanic Cloud’s Gas Halo Like a ‘Giant Hairdryer’: Hubble

Milky Way Strips Large Magellanic Cloud’s Gas Halo Like a ‘Giant Hairdryer’: Hubble

Breaking News, Learning & Developments, Space
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a dramatic cosmic event as the Milky Way galaxy interacts with the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy passing through its outer regions. Dubbed a "giant hairdryer" by scientists, the Milky Way’s immense gravitational and environmental forces have stripped much of the LMC’s gaseous halo, leaving behind a compact remnant. Andrew Fox, the principal investigator from the European Space Agency, explained: "The Milky Way is pushing back so forcefully that the ram pressure has stripped off most of the original mass of the LMC's halo. There's only a little bit left, and it's this small, compact leftover that we're seeing now." Science Behind the Stripping The phenomenon, known as ram pressure, occurs as the dense environment of the M...
NASA Unveils Sea Level Data to Support Coastal Communities

NASA Unveils Sea Level Data to Support Coastal Communities

Breaking News, Climate Actions, Idea & Innovations, Tech
NASA has launched a global sea level change platform to help coastal communities prepare for the rising oceans disrupting livelihoods and infrastructure worldwide. Accessible through the Earth Information Center, the platform offers projections of sea level rise until 2150 and flood risks for the next 30 years, integrating data from ice sheets, ocean monitoring, and climate assessments. Developed in collaboration with organizations like the World Bank, U.S. Department of Defense, and the United Nations, the tool aims to guide critical planning and adaptation strategies. "NASA innovates for humanity," said Karen St. Germain, head of NASA’s Earth Science Division. "This data supports communities in addressing natural hazards and planning for resilience." Rising Faster Than Ever NASA...
NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory Aiming to Detect Alien Life on Earth Like Planets by 2050

NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory Aiming to Detect Alien Life on Earth Like Planets by 2050

Breaking News, Idea & Innovations, Space
NASA is gearing up to launch the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a state-of-the-art telescope designed specifically to search for signs of extraterrestrial life on Earth-like planets. Scheduled to launch by 2040, HWO represents a monumental step in the quest to find habitable planets by 2050. Dr. Jessie Christiansen, NASA’s chief scientist for the search for extraterrestrial life, has expressed optimism that HWO will detect signals from planets within the habitable zones of sun-like stars during our lifetime. The primary objective of the observatory is to identify biosignatures, which are indicators of life, such as biogenic gases, aerosols, surface biosignatures, and even technosignatures from advanced civilizations. To date, NASA has pinpointed twenty-five Earth-like planets or...
NASA Highlights Alarming Changes in Oceans Due to Greenhouse Gas Emissions

NASA Highlights Alarming Changes in Oceans Due to Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Breaking News, Climate Actions
Greenhouse gases affect the Earth's water body, as NASA visualizes the ocean. Taking to Instagram, he shared a visualization showing sea level flux based on NASA's Climate Change, Assessment of Ocean Circulation and Climate, Phase II Model (ECCO2). In the paper, the space agency wrote that human emissions are changing the oceans. "Our oceans are changing," the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in a statement. "Covering 70% of the planet's surface, the ocean is an important driver of the Earth's global climate. However, increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are changing the ocean before our eyes. NASA and its partners want to learn more," said NASA further. Also, detailing the visualization, NASA says that the different colors represent the ave...
NASA Sued After Space Junk Projectile Crashes Into Florida Home

NASA Sued After Space Junk Projectile Crashes Into Florida Home

Breaking News, Environment, Space
An American family is seeking over $80,000 in damages from NASA after a piece of space debris crashed through the roof of their Florida home. The incident has spotlighted the growing issue of space junk as spatial traffic increases, potentially setting a precedent for future claims against space agencies. On March 8, Alejandro Otero's home in Naples, Florida, was struck by an object weighing 700 grams, creating a hole in the roof. NASA later confirmed that the debris was part of a cargo pallet of used batteries, released as waste from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021. Contrary to expectations, the pallet did not fully disintegrate during reentry and a section remained intact, impacting the Otero residence. Incident and Legal Action Alejandro Otero's son was home at the ti...
NASA Confirms Disturbing Climate Milestone: 12 Consecutive Months of Record High Temperatures

NASA Confirms Disturbing Climate Milestone: 12 Consecutive Months of Record High Temperatures

Breaking News, Climate Actions
Understanding the current climate crisis isn't just about grasping complex variables it's about confronting stark facts. Here's one that should grab attention: every single month over the past year has set a new global temperature record for that month. NASA's latest data for May 2024 continues a worrying trend of record-breaking temperatures observed since June 2023. April, March, February, and January all saw unprecedented highs, following a similar pattern throughout 2023, from June to December. "This streak is unprecedented in our records and signals a deepening climate crisis," states NASA administrator Bill Nelson. "Communities worldwide, from Arizona to California to Nevada, are experiencing extreme heat at levels never before seen." Clear Alarming Trend The graph depict...