AkaSci 🛰️
SatCom Scientist
Writing occasionally about science, space missions, astronomy, planetary science, satellites, Democracy and human rights.
He/Him
#science #space #technology #astronomy #satcom #Democracy
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A simulated view of Mars from behind the the NASA Psyche spacecraft at 19:40 UTC, shortly after closest approach.
Note that we will not get real-time images during the flyby as the comms dish antenna will be pointed away from Earth.
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You can get an animated preview of the NASA Psyche spacecraft flyby of Mars today at
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_psyche/events/mars_flyby?rate=600&time=2026-05-15T14:36:05.000+00:00
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Here is some info on the two Multispectral Imager Cameras onboard the NASA Psyche spacecraft.
Focus: Fixed
FOV: 4.6° × 3.4°
Focal ratio: f/2.9
Effective focal length: 148 mm
CCD: 1600 × 1200 px, 11.84 × 8.88 mm, ON Semi (Kodak) KAI-2020M
Memory: 128 MB SDRAM, 8 GB flash buffer
Uncompressed bits/px: 12 bits
Uncompressed raw image size: 2.7 MBytes
Compression: Lossless and JPEG
Camera Head Mass: 1.77 kghttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-025-01169-3
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The Psyche spacecraft Multispectral Imager cameras have been clicking away taking images of Mars as it gets closer.
Raw images using different filters (V, G, B, IR, ...) are posted at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/psyche-raw-images/.
The 1st image is a IR1-G-B composite of images taken yesterday, processed by imaging maestro Simeon Schmauß @stim3on
The 2nd image is a raw image using the Green filter (550 nm), taken on May 14, 2026 at 3:41:21 PM (UTC).
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“Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”
This is how Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader very succinctly captured the the essence of the conservative war against the Voting Rights Act in her 2013 dissent for Shelby County v. Holder.
https://www.naacpldf.org/shelby-county-v-holder-impact/
https://time.com/5890983/ruth-bader-ginsburg-voting-rights/
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Mars as seen by the Psyche spacecraft on May 3 from a distance of 4.8 million km.
"The image was acquired by the multispectral imager instrument’s panchromatic or broadband filter, with an exposure time of just 2 milliseconds.
Even with this short exposure time, the crescent is extremely bright and parts of the image are oversaturated.
The light seen here is sunlight reflected off the surface of Mars and also scattered by dust particles in its atmosphere."
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Video from NASA with details on how NASA’s Psyche mission will use a gravity assist with Mars on May 15, 2026, to slingshot itself and change the plane of its orbit for its rendezvous with the asteroid Psyche in 2029.
Most of the instruments onboard the Psyche spacecraft will be active during the flyby for test and calibration purposes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5k8T8Nas1g
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/True Story Films
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NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will swing by Mars on Friday, May 15, around 19:27 UTC, passing ~4,500 km from the planet’s surface at ~19,848 km/h.
It will steal some energy from Mars and get a gravitational boost to speed up and adjust its trajectory toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, for rendezvous in Aug 2029.
Check out these threads for more info on the mission -
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/111227821265670490
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/111235410515257631
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/114430022259288973
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"Raising the Flag" by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Nick Anderson.
"There’s a particular kind of decision that doesn’t just change the law. It rewrites the story we tell ourselves about the country. The Supreme Court’s latest ruling on the Voting Rights Act is one of those decisions.
The court’s conservative majority didn’t simply narrow a statute. It made a far more sweeping claim: that the conditions that justified the law no longer exist."
https://nickanderson.substack.com/p/raising-the-flag
#UsPol
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Some info on the GoPro HERO4 cameras attached to each of the 4 solar arrays of the Artemis II Orion European Service Module (ESM).
These are a WiFi-based GoPro cameras, modified for use in space.
- 5.8 GHz WiFi
- 4kx3k pixels (12 MP)
- Fixed 18-mm lens
- No LED/LCD display
- Metal caseThe primary purpose of these cameras is to check the health and status of the spacecraft and to aid in problem diagnosis.
Go #Artemis2 #Orion #ESM
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20230003915/downloads/Wi-Fi%20on%20Artemis%201%20-%20FINAL.pdf
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Starlink satellite 34343 experienced an anomaly last Sunday, at 560 km altitude, and broke up into pieces.
LeoLabs imaged the area around the satellite and detected 10's of fragments. They characterize this event as "likely caused by an internal energetic source rather than a collision with space debris or another object. Due to its low altitude, fragments will likely de-orbit within a few weeks."
Now imagine such events with a million+ satellites in orbit.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/in-pieces-spacex-mysteriously-loses-contact-with-starlink-satellite
#RUD
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An unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 94 spacecraft is safely in orbit and headed to the International Space Station following its launch at 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. Baikonur time) on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Looks like repairs have been successfully completed at the launch pad in Baikonur which had suffered severe damage on Nov 27, 2025 during launch of the Soyuz MS-28 crew vehicle to the ISS.
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/115627030281824838
#NASA #Roscosmos
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7 years ago, on New Year's Day, Jan 1, 2019, the NASA New Horizons spacecraft flew by the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft, the contact binary trans-Neptunian object 2014 MU6, now named Arrokoth.
Arrokoth means "sky" in the Powhatan/Algonquin language.
New Horizons also saw evidence for methanol, water ice and organic molecules on the red surface of the 35 km Kuiper Belt object.
https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/486958_Arrokoth
Also see https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/111681146380738902
#NewHorizons
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After landing, the ispace RESILIENCE lander will have about 14 earth days (one lunar day) to complete its mission, before night falls, bringing darkness and brutally cold temperatures.
Similar to other recent robotic landers, RESILIENCE is powered by solar cells and will not have sufficient energy storage to survive the lunar night.
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Gene Kranz, 91, the legendary NASA Flight Director, was bestowed with the AAS Lifetime Achievement Award on May 15, at Space Center Houston. The award is given every 10 years.
Kranz served as NASA's 2nd Chief Flight Director, directing missions of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13.
Kranz is best known for directing the Mission Control team to save the crew of Apollo 13.
https://astronautical.org/awards/lifetime/
https://astronautical.org/awards/lifetime/lifetime-photos/
#NASA #AAS #GeneKranz
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Jonathan McDowell @planet4589 reports that
"The trunk section jettisoned by Dragon Crew 9 prior to deorbit on Mar 18 reentered near Agadir, Morocco at 2241 UTC Mar 24.
No reports yet of debris found.
This is the last Dragon trunk to be intentionally left in orbit for uncontrolled reentry."In subsequent missions, the trunk will be released after the deorbit burn for a controlled entry over the Pacific ocean.
@sundogplanets
https://bsky.app/profile/planet4589.bsky.social/post/3lladotsoik24
#Crew9
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The sweetest post of the day!
"Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole."
👏
#DavidLynch #NASA #BlackHole #EHT -
Here is a fascinating time-lapse video of the full construction, assembly and installation of NASA’s Deep Space Station 53 (DSS-53) at the Deep Space Network’s Madrid complex in Spain.
The video covers the period from November 2018 to March 2020. The antenna became fully operational in late February 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32Np25TRfu8
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTE4redzJAk for a longer video taken from a different angle.
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Construction of the new 34m antenna DSS-23 at NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) site at Goldstone, CA, is progressing well. On Dec 18, the 34-meter-wide 133-ton steel framework for the Deep Space Station 23 (DSS-23) reflector dish was installed on a 20-meter-high alidade – a platform above the antenna's pedestal that will steer the reflector during operations.
The new antenna is expected to be operational in 2026.
https://www.nasa.gov/technology/space-comms/deep-space-network/nasas-new-deep-space-network-antenna-has-its-crowning-moment/
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#NASA #DSN #Space -
Here is a cinematic version of a black hole with our hero plunging in past the event horizon, beyond which even light cannot escape the gargantuan gravity of the black hole.
Nobel laureate Kip Thorne was the scientific consultant and an executive producer for the movie Interstellar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAFDcOsSXm0
#BlackHoleFriday
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It's the day after Thanksgiving. Which means it is #BlackHoleFriday!
Let's start with this stunning visualization from NASA of a supermassive black hole similar to the one at the center of our galaxy.
A flat, swirling cloud of hot, glowing gas called an accretion disk surrounds the black hole. So do glowing structures called photon rings, which form closer to the black hole from light that has orbited it one or more times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chhcwk4-esM
https://science.nasa.gov/universe/black-holes/supermassive-black-holes/new-nasa-black-hole-visualization-takes-viewers-beyond-the-brink/
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64 years ago on this day in 1960, 6-year old Ruby Bridges walked into the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, escorted by 4 federal marshals and made history by becoming the first African-American child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South.
Her courage and poise paved the way for the fight for Civil Rights and Justice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges
#RubyBridges #segregation #integration #CivilRights #USpolitics #USHistory
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Happy Birthday to C. V. Raman.
Raman was born OTD on Nov 7, 1888 in Tiruchirapalli, British India.
Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of Raman scattering.
Raman scattering is the inelastic scattering of photons by matter, where the scattered photons have lower energy (frequency) than the incident ones due to energy absorption by molecules.
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Stephen Jay Gould on the role of women:
“Bless all the women of this world who nurture our heritage while too many man rush off to kill for ideals that might now be deeply and personally held, but will often be viewed as repugnant by later generations.”
Don't you think women will save the world ... again ... in November?
Photo credit: Amazon
#StephenJayGould #Science
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Stephen Jay Gould (Happy Birthday) on science -
“In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.”
“We do not usually surrender the intellectual system of a lifetime for one bit of information that does not fit.”
Photo credit: https://socbib.dk/stephen-jay-gould-1941-2002/
#StephenJayGould #Science
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Cook Political Report updates today, all positive for Democrats -
Electoral College moves:
#NC Lean R --> Toss Up
#MN & #NH Lean D --> Likely DGovernors ratings:
#NCGov Toss Up --> Lean D
#WAGov Lean D --> Likely DNice. Let's keep giving it our all for a Democratic win in November. The future of the world depends on it.
@KamalaHarrisWin
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The Juice spacecraft is now being continuously tracked by Estrack, ESA's global ground station network.
Currently, the ground station at Malargüe, Argentina is tracking Juice. Current distance to Juice = 599,584 km.
http://estracknow.esa.int/#/2024-08;mission=JUIC
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/ESA_Ground_Stations/Estrack_ESA_s_global_ground_station_network
#Juice #Estrack
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The Blue Wave is rising!
Cook Political Report Swing State Project polls (published on Aug 15) show Harris ahead by small margins (except in NV) and Democratic Senate candidates running strong in every presidential battleground, plus a lead for Josh Stein (D) in the #NCGov race.
But it will be a tough road ahead to victory in Nov. Let's keep working to make it a wipe-out in November 🌊 🌊 🌊
@kamalaharrisforpresidentnews
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Weight of the lunar samples brought back by China‘s Chang'e-6 probe = 1935.3 grams. It is slightly less than the 2 kg goal, since Chang'e-6's drill could not penetrate beyond 1 m due to some rocks below the lunar surface.
Chang'e 6 chief designer Hu Hao revealed that the soil is stickier and has clumps compared to Chang’e-5’s sample.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202406/28/WS667e18f8a31095c51c50b526.html
#Change6
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U.S. Space Command confirms the break-up of the defunct Russian satellite Resurs P1 yesterday. It resulted in over 100 pieces of trackable debris.
Even though NASA has not identified the satellite that resulted in the defensive posture at the ISS yesterday, it probably was due to this satellite.
Cause of satellite break-up is not known at this time.
https://www.spacecom.mil/Newsroom/News/Article-Display/Article/3819238/press-release-break-up-of-russian-owned-space-object/
#SpaceDebris #USSPACECOM
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Although the calvings in this area are not thought to be directly linked to climate change, NASA states that "the Brunt Ice Shelf is feeling the same pressures as elsewhere around Antarctica, including low sea ice conditions. When less sea ice is present, ice shelves are more exposed to destabilizing wind and wave action."
In the waters around Antarctica, ice coverage in Feb. 2024 shrank to near-historic lows for the third year in a row.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152848/antarctic-ice-shelf-spawns-iceberg-a-83
#Iceberg #A83 #Antarctic
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Names for icebergs larger than 10 nautical miles (on the longest axis) start with the letter A, B, C or D followed by a sequentially assigned number, e.g., A-83.
The letter is based on the Antarctic quadrant where an iceberg originates, as shown in the graphic below -
A = 0-90W (Bellingshausen/Weddell Sea)
B = 90W-180 (Amundsen/Eastern Ross Sea)
C = 180-90E (Western Ross Sea/Wilkesland)
D = 90E-0 (Amery/Eastern Weddell Sea)https://polarjournal.ch/en/2021/02/18/how-to-name-an-iceberg/
#Iceberg #A83 #Antarctic
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The Halley VIa Research Station operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is located on the Brunt Ice Shelf as shown in the map below. It used to sit on the A-81 iceberg area as seen in the map above and was moved to its current location in 2016 before A-81 broke loose.
BAS notes that this A-83 calving was expected, the ice shelf is stable and they don’t expect a response to this new event.
https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/brunt-ice-shelf-in-antarctica-calves-new-iceberg/
https://www.bas.ac.uk/polar-operations/sites-and-facilities/facility/halley/
#A83 #Halley #Antarctic
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An iceberg named A-83, 380 sq km in size, broke off the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica on May 20.
"This calving event results from a prolonged weakening of the ice at the McDonald Ice Rumples and progressive eastward extension of the so-called ‘Halloween Crack’ into the ice shelf."
In 2021, the Brunt Ice Shelf produced an iceberg called A-74 followed by an even bigger berg, named A-81, in 2023.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/05/Iceberg_A-83_breaks_free
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152848/antarctic-ice-shelf-spawns-iceberg-a-83
#A83 #Antarctica
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Free at last!
The container ship M/V DALI, which caused the collapse of the Key Bridge near Baltimore, has been refloated and has been towed to a local marine terminal 2.5 miles away.
It's interesting that the containers on the vessel were not offloaded prior to the move.
👏
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDSasHBRLGk
#MVDali #Baltimore
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Next on #AstronomyDay is this strange looking lenticular galaxy NGC 4753 by #Hubble.
Those are dust lanes twisting around the galactic nucleus and are likely the result of a merger with a dwarf galaxy about 1.3 billion years ago.
The gas and dust in the galactic disk got twisted by "differential precession" and are seen as the complex shapes seen edge-on from earth.
Most of the unseen mass in the galaxy lies in a slightly flattened, spherical halo of dark matter.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-views-cosmic-dust-lanes/
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Let's celebrate #AstronomyDay with this image taken today by Mars rover Perseverance's SHERLOC Autofocus and Context Imager (ACI).
This is the first such image of a rock sample since Dec 16, 2023, when the dust cover of the camera and laser spectroscopy instrument got stuck. It is still stuck, but in an open position and its auto-focus mechanism is nonoperational.
The camera took a sequence of images from different distances; the middle ones are in focus.
🎉
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/
#Mars
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This composite color view shows Jupiter's moons Io and Amalthea on the same scale.
The images were taken by the NASA Galileo spacecraft in 1997-1998.
#Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system. Its color is caused by volcanic materials escaping from Io.
It radiates more heat than it receives from the Sun, likely due to electric currents induced in the moon’s core by Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field and due to tidal stresses caused by Jupiter’s gravity.
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Dust from Jupiter's 4 inner moons are responsible for the rings of Jupiter, as shown in the graphic below.
Amalthea and its companion Thebe supply the dust which forms the thicker, disk-like "gossamer" ring. Dust is ejected into the rings as a result of impacts by small meteoroids into these small, low-gravity moons.
Amalthea orbits ~109,000 km above Jupiter's surface and has a period of about 12 hours.
https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01627
#Jupiter #Amalthea
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The remarkable equation for π by Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887 - 1920) is an infinite series with some puzzling numbers. The first k terms of the sum generate π whose first ~8*k decimal digits are accurate. These digits do not change with additional terms 🤔
E.g., the 1st term gives π = 3.141592 73001..., which is accurate to 6 decimal places.
Using 2 terms, we get π = 3.141592 653589793 87808..., which is accurate to 15 decimal places.
#PiDay2024 #PiDay
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The Chudnovsky algorithm generates the digits of π faster than the original Ramanujan equation, clocking in at slightly over 14 digits per iteration.
The Chudnovsky algorithm is based on Ramanujan's π formulae. It was published by the Chudnovsky brothers in 1988, 74 years after Ramanujan posted his equations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chudnovsky_algorithm
#Ramanujan
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The graph below shows the number of accurate decimal digits in the calculated value of π using Ramanujan's equation as a function of the number of terms used from the infinite series. The graph is quite linear with a few small bumps; on average, we get about 8 additional digits on each iteration. And these digits do not change in subsequent iterations. What sorcery!
Data generated using Linux bc, and post-processed using bash and awk.
@[email protected]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan
#Ramanujan
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Happy Birthday to Émilie Du Châtelet (Dec 17, 1706 - Sep 10, 1749), French natural philosopher, mathematician and physicist.
Her translation of and commentary on Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, posthumously published in 1756, is still considered the standard French translation.
Check out this thread from last year for some more info on this remarkable lady of science.
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/109529519599022131https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89milie_du_Ch%C3%A2telet
Portrait by Marianne Loir
#Chatelet -
The DESTINY+ (Demonstration and Experiment of Space Technology for INterplanetary voYage with Phaethon fLyby and dUst Science) mission by JAXA will perform a close 500-km flyby of asteroid 3200 Phaethon in 2029 and also sample its dust. Planned launch date is in 2025.
The mission will also be used to demonstrate low cost solar electric propulsion in deep space and innovative light-weight solar array panel technology.
https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/en/missions/spacecraft/developing/destiny_plus.html
#Geminids #Phaethon
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Asteroid 3200 Phaethon gets within 20.9 million km of the Sun. Surface temps reach 750°C causing thermal decomposition of carbonates, Fe-sulfides, and phyllosilicates that release CO2, S2, and H2O gas, resp. The gas release from mineral decomposition likely causes dust ejection.
New observations reveal that Phaethon is now shedding more sodium gas than dust.
These minerals cause colorful meteor streaks. Watch them tonight.https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.08968.pdf
https://cosmos.isas.jaxa.jp/global-space-news-a-surprising-tail-for-phaethon/
#Geminids #Phaethon
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Unlike most other meteor showers that are caused by earth ploughing thru the icy trails of comets, the Geminids are caused by the dusty and gaseous trail left behind by asteroid 3200 Phaethon.
Phaethon has a very eccentric 35-year orbit, getting close to the Sun halfway within Mercury's orbit. Its orbit crosses that of Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury, but is not likely to impact Earth anytime soon.
Diameter: 5.8 km
Rotation period: 3.6 hhttps://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=3200%20Phaethon&view=VOP
#Geminids #Phaethon
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Recorded sightings of Halley’s Comet go back more than 2,000 years. One of the famous recordings is in the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts scenes from the Norman invasion of England in 1066. The tapestry is displayed in a special museum in Bayeux, Normandie (France).
https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/1780/955YearsAgoHalleysCometandtheBattleofHastings
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Bayeux_Tapestry_32-33_comet_Halley_Harold.jpg
#Halley
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@markmccaughrean has a thought-provoking thread on why we should "build a new mission to Halley in the footsteps of ESA’s Giotto, Rosetta, & Comet Interceptor. To rendezvous with it, fly alongside, & return again in 2134."
https://fosstodon.org/@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social/111553172377340948
#Halley
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The graphic below from NASA shows the orientation of OSIRIS-APEX as viewed from the direction of the Sun during the weeks around perihelion.
The back side of the solar array on the right is turned towards the Sun. This array shades and protects critical areas of the spacecraft.
The solar array on the left is facing the Sun (although not directly) and is being used to generate power.Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-apex/
#OSIRISAPEX
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