Tag Archives: Space & Astronomy

New research places the sun’s magnetic field close to the surface, upending decades of theories

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New research indicates the sun’s magnetic field originates close to the surface and not deep within the star, according to findings published in the journal Nature. This upends decades of prevailing scientific thought that placed the field more than 130,000 miles below the surface of the sun. It also brings us closer to understanding the nature of the sun’s magnetic field, which has been on scientist’s minds since Galileo.

The study, led by Northwestern University and a team of international researchers, suggests that the magnetic field actually generates 20,000 miles below the surface. This was discovered after the team ran a series of complex calculations on a NASA supercomputer. It’s worth noting that these are just initial findings and more research is required to confirm the data.

The sun’s magnetic field fluctuates in a cycle that lasts 11 years. During the strongest part of this cycle, powerful winds and sunspots form at the solar equator, along with plumes of material that cause the aurora borealis here on Earth. Previous theories that place the magnetic field deeper within the sun have had a difficult time connecting these various solar phenomena. Scientists hope that, given further study, they’ll be able to use this theory to not only explain the creation of solar events, but more accurately predict when they will occur.

This could lead to more than just earlier predictions of the next aurora borealis event. The sun’s intense magnetic energy is also the source of solar flares and eruptions of plasma called coronal mass ejections. When these ejections travel toward Earth, all kinds of bad things happen. This famously occurred back in 1859, when a giant geomagnetic storm created the largest solar storm in recorded history.

This is called the Carrington Event, attributed to British astronomer Richard Christopher Carrington. The solar flare, which was actually a magnetic explosion on the sun’s surface, briefly outshone the sun and caused colored lights to erupt all over the planet, similar to the aurora borealis. It also supercharged telegraph cables, shocking operators, and set telegraph paper on fire. It was pretty nasty.

Now, this was 1859, before the modern use of electricity and before computers and all related technologies. If something like the Carrington Event were to occur today, we’d have it much worse. The emitted X-rays and ultraviolet light would interfere with electronics, radio and satellite signals. The event would cause a solar radiation storm, which would be deadly to astronauts not fully equipped with protective gear.

It would also lead a coronal mass ejection to bump up against Earth’s magnetic field, which would shut down power grids, cell phone satellites, modern cars and even airplanes. The resulting global power outages could last for months. Last month’s smallish (relatively speaking) storm messed with electronics and that was no Carrington-sized event. Even worse? We are absolutely due for this to happen. It’s basically a ticking time bomb.

So these findings could, in theory, be used to prepare new early warning methods for large-scale solar flares hitting Earth. Someday, we might have solar flare warnings alongside hurricane warnings and the like. The research has already demonstrated some interesting links between sunspots and the sun’s magnetic activity.

“We still don’t understand the sun well enough to make accurate predictions” of solar weather, lead study author Geoffrey Vasil of the University of Edinburgh told The Hill. These new findings “will be an important step toward finally resolving” this mysterious process, added co-author Daniel Lecoanet of Northwestern University.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/new-research-places-the-suns-magnetic-field-close-to-the-surface-upending-decades-of-theories-182059055.html?src=rss

Starliner’s first crew mission will now launch on June 1… maybe

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The first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule still hasn’t launched more than two weeks after its originally scheduled liftoff date, and there's going to be at least another week of waiting and uncertainty before it does. NASA announced last night that the Starliner team is now targeting a June 1 launch as engineers continue to assess the vehicle in the wake of discovering a helium leak from the propulsion system earlier this month. If the June 1 attempt is scrubbed, it'll have other chances to fly on June 2, June 5 and June 6.

It was at first looking like the mission would be postponed indefinitely after NASA called off the May 25 launch attempt on Tuesday night and didn't set a new date. At that time, NASA said it would “share more details once we have a clearer path forward,” per SpaceNews. In a blog post published Wednesday night, NASA said the leak remains stable, but the teams are still working “to assess Starliner performance and redundancy.” It's also planning to evaluate the propulsion system again “to understand potential helium system impacts on some Starliner return scenarios” and conduct another readiness review of the craft.  

The first launch attempt at the beginning of the month was scrubbed due to the discovery of a faulty oxygen relief valve on the ULA Atlas V rocket carrying Starliner. Engineers replaced the valve and Starliner was slated to fly later that week, but that attempt was postponed, too. On May 14, NASA revealed that engineers were working to resolve a helium leak from the spacecraft’s propulsion system. In an update a few days later, NASA said the leak was “stable and would not pose a risk at that level during the flight.” A new targeted launch date was set at that time and ultimately rescheduled.

Delays have defined Starliner’s development up until this point, but since two astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — will be on board for this mission, the stakes are especially high; now isn't the time to start cutting corners. “There has been a great deal of exceptional analysis and testing over the last two weeks by the joint NASA, Boeing and ULA teams” to address the issues that have popped up, Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said on Wednesday.

“It has been important that we take our time to understand all the complexities of each issue including the redundant capabilities of the Starliner propulsion system and any implications to our Interim Human Rating Certification,” Stich said. “We will launch Butch and Suni on this test mission after the entire community has reviewed the teams’ progress and flight rationale at the upcoming Delta Agency Flight Test Readiness Review.”

Update, May 23 2024, 10:08AM ET: This story has been updated to reflect new launch opportunities announced by NASA on Wednesday night, and to include additional information relating to the review process ahead of the flight.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/starliners-first-crew-mission-gets-pushed-back-yet-again-this-time-with-no-new-launch-date-163020007.html?src=rss

Blue Origin successfully sends tourists to the edge of space again after a long hiatus

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Blue Origin is back in the space tourism game. Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company successfully flew six paying customers to the edge of space and back this morning, breaking its nearly two-year-long hiatus from crewed missions. This was Blue Origin’s seventh trip with humans on board. The mission — a quick jaunt to cross the Kármán line, or the boundary of space, about 62 miles above Earth — lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas shortly after 10:30AM ET.

The six people inside the New Shepard crew capsule included 90-year-old Ed Dwight, a former Air Force Captain who was the first Black astronaut candidate when he was picked for the training program in 1961. He went through training but ultimately wasn’t selected for NASA’s Astronaut Corps, and never made it to space until now. Also on board were Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller and Gopi Thotakura. They were briefly able to unbuckle their seatbelts and experience zero gravity.

Blue Origin's crew capsule is seen descending to Earth with two parachutes deployed

The crew safely landed back on the ground about 10 minutes after launch. One of the capsule's three parachutes didn't properly deploy on the return trip, but this didn't pose any problems for its touchdown thanks to the redundancies in the system that account for exactly that type of situation. 

This was also the 25th mission for a New Shepard rocket. It last flew a crew in August 2022, but suffered a structural failure in its engine nozzle the following month during the launch of a payload mission and didn't fly again at all until December 2023. It returned to flight then with another payload mission, making today's launch its first with human passengers in almost two years. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/blue-origin-successfully-sends-tourists-to-the-edge-of-space-again-after-a-long-hiatus-144745261.html?src=rss

Blue Origin successfully sends tourists to the edge of space again after a long hiatus

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Blue Origin is back in the space tourism game. Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company successfully flew six paying customers to the edge of space and back this morning, breaking its nearly two-year-long hiatus from crewed missions. This was Blue Origin’s seventh trip with humans on board. The mission — a quick jaunt to cross the Kármán line, or the boundary of space, about 62 miles above Earth — lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas shortly after 10:30AM ET.

The six people inside the New Shepard crew capsule included 90-year-old Ed Dwight, a former Air Force Captain who was the first Black astronaut candidate when he was picked for the training program in 1961. He went through training but ultimately wasn’t selected for NASA’s Astronaut Corps, and never made it to space until now. Also on board were Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller and Gopi Thotakura. They were briefly able to unbuckle their seatbelts and experience zero gravity.

Blue Origin's crew capsule is seen descending to Earth with two parachutes deployed

The crew safely landed back on the ground about 10 minutes after launch. One of the capsule's three parachutes didn't properly deploy on the return trip, but this didn't pose any problems for its touchdown thanks to the redundancies in the system that account for exactly that type of situation. 

This was also the 25th mission for a New Shepard rocket. It last flew a crew in August 2022, but suffered a structural failure in its engine nozzle the following month during the launch of a payload mission and didn't fly again at all until December 2023. It returned to flight then with another payload mission, making today's launch its first with human passengers in almost two years. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/blue-origin-successfully-sends-tourists-to-the-edge-of-space-again-after-a-long-hiatus-144745261.html?src=rss

‘Extreme’ geomagnetic storm may bless us with more aurora displays tonight and tomorrow

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The strongest geomagnetic storm in 20 years made the colorful northern lights, or aurora borealis, visible Friday night across the US, even in areas that are normally too far south to see them. And the show may not be over. Tonight may offer another chance to catch the aurora if you have clear skies, according to the NOAA, and Sunday could bring yet more displays reaching as far as Alabama.

The NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said on Saturday that the sun has continued to produce powerful solar flares. That’s on top of previously observed coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or explosions of magnetized plasma, that won’t reach Earth until tomorrow. The agency has been monitoring a particularly active sunspot cluster since Wednesday, and confirmed yesterday that it had observed G5 conditions — the level designated “extreme” — which haven’t been seen since October 2003. In a press release on Friday, Clinton Wallace, Director, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said the current storm is “an unusual and potentially historic event.”

Geomagnetic storms happen when outbursts from the sun interact with Earth’s magnetosphere. While it all has kind of a scary ring to it, people on the ground don’t really have anything to worry about. As NASA explained on X, “Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere” to physically affect us. These storms can mess with our technology, though, and have been known to disrupt communications, GPS, satellite operations and even the power grid.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/extreme-geomagnetic-storm-may-bless-us-with-more-aurora-displays-tonight-and-tomorrow-192033210.html?src=rss

How to watch NASA’s first Boeing Starliner crewed flight launch today (scrubbed)

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Watch along today as NASA's Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test finally — most likely — blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA should start streaming its coverage at 6:30PM ET on its YouTube channel, with the official launch set for 10:34PM ET. The spacecraft will carry two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

We say "most likely" because the road to this day has not been a smooth one. It was a decade ago that NASA first chose Boeing and Space X to construct spacecraft that would fly from the United States to the ISS. Boeing received a $4.2 billion contract, while NASA gave SpaceX $2.6 billion. Yet, the latter had its first successful crewed flight in 2020 and has replicated it about a dozen times since.

Boeing's Starliner failed to reach orbit during its first uncrewed orbital test flight in 2019 due to too much fuel burning. A follow-up flight was scheduled for August 2021 but was scrapped due to a valve issue, with Boeing finally reaching the ISS in spring 2022 with an uncrewed vessel. Two plans for crewed flights came and went, amongst faults in aspects such as the parachute system. Last August, Boeing announced it should have these issues straightened out by March 2024.

It's now two months later than that initial goal and Boeing, Williams and Wilmore seem prepared for take off. "We are ready, the spacecraft's ready and the teams are ready," Wilmore told the press. NASA associate administrator Jim Free added: "The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is an absolutely critical milestone. The lives of our crewmembers Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are at stake — we don't take that lightly at all."

Update, May 06, 2024, 11:50 PM ET: Boeing has scrubbed the supposed first Starliner Crew Flight Test two hours after it was originally scheduled to launch. The launch control teams detected an "anomalous behavior by the pressure regulation valve in the liquid oxygen tank of the Centaur upper stage of the ULA Atlas V launch vehicle." Astronauts were already onboard and had to exit the vehicle. The company has yet to announce a new launch schedule. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-nasas-first-boeing-starliner-crewed-flight-launch-today-130046785.html?src=rss

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft may finally take its first crewed flight next week

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Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule, which has been plagued by years of setbacks and cost overruns amounting to roughly $1.5 billion, is about to take its first flight with humans on board. Boeing was chosen 10 years ago alongside SpaceX to develop a spacecraft that could ferry astronauts from US soil to the International Space Station (ISS), thus allowing NASA to end its reliance on Russia for crewed flights. The companies were each awarded a fixed-price contract under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program: $4.2 billion to Boeing for its CST-100 (Starliner) and $2.6 billion for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.

Their initial deadline of 2017 proved to be a bit too ambitious. SpaceX managed its first crewed flight in 2020 — and about a dozen since — while Boeing has struggled to get its Starliner capsule off the ground. But as soon as May 6, it’ll finally have a crewed flight under its belt.

Starliner is now at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex-41 attached to the ULA Atlas V rocket that’ll send it on its way to the ISS. Liftoff is planned for 10:34PM ET on Monday, May 6. The capsule will be carrying two NASA astronauts: Butch Wilmore, the mission’s commander, and Suni Williams, who will serve as pilot.

Boeing Starliner in space during uncrewed flight test
NASA

Not only is it Starliner’s first crewed flight, but this test is only its third flight ever. The spacecraft (without anyone aboard) successfully demonstrated its ability to reach, dock and undock from the ISS in spring 2022 when it conducted its second Orbital Flight Test. On its previous attempt, in 2019, Starliner failed to make it all the way to the ISS thanks to a software issue that resulted in it burning too much fuel (one of a few problems Boeing missed after it opted at the time not to do end-to-end testing).

It’s suffered numerous other problems, too, in the years since Boeing bagged the NASA contract, causing the company to slip far behind SpaceX. There was a toxic fuel leak during a 2018 test. Then corrosion caused valves in the propulsion system to stick, waylaying Boeing’s plans for a 2021 launch, as Ars Technica reported earlier this year. Problems with the spacecraft’s parachute deployment system derailed plans for a launch last summer, and the team had to remove around a mile of flammable tape.

Boeing has also had its fair share of troubles beyond Starliner during this time, facing increased scrutiny into the safety of its airplanes — particularly the 737 Max line — after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, on top of other less serious incidents. Most recently, a panel blew off a 737 Max 9 mid-flight in January, forcing it to make an emergency landing.

The May 6 flight marks a major step toward Starliner’s certification as a crew transport system that NASA can actually put into its rotation for trips to the ISS. That will give the space agency the redundancy it’s looking for; with both Crew Dragon and Starliner in operation, it’ll always have a backup option in case something happens to one of them. Both NASA and Boeing have been adamant that the capsule has been put through an exhaustive review process and is ready to support astronauts. NASA wrapped up its Crew Flight Test Readiness Review of Starliner on April 25.

“The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is an absolutely critical milestone,” NASA associate administrator Jim Free said during a briefing on the completion of the review. “The lives of our crewmembers Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are at stake — we don’t take that lightly at all.” The latest review is “the culmination of a detailed review season that has really thoroughly established that we are really ready to go on this flight,” said NASA chief flight director Emily Nelson.

NASA astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
NASA/Frank Michaux

It’s expected to take about 24 hours for Starliner to reach the ISS after it lifts off, and as this is a test flight, its onboard crew will have a lengthy task list of systems and equipment checks to complete across every phase of the journey. While Starliner can operate autonomously, the crew will test its manual controls and make sure it’s in good shape for manual abort scenarios. After Starliner docks to the space station, the astronauts will spend about a week there working with the current crew, Expedition 71.

Then, they’ll undock from the orbiting lab and head home — and put Starliner through the test of reentry and landing. A few potential landing sites in the southwest US have been picked out, including the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Wilmore and Williams have been training for Starliner’s first flight for years. “They know the vehicle inside and out, and they’ve been part of the test environment that’s developed the Starliner capability,” said Steve Stich, manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. All involved in last Thursday’s briefing acknowledged that they may encounter some unexpected challenges, and that there’s much to be learned from this first crewed flight. “It’s a good reminder for all of us that the team has practiced, run sims, run models, but there’s nothing like flying in the space environment,” said Free.

The NASA and Boeing officials also expressed their confidence that the craft itself and the teams handling its journey are well-prepared for the job. The astronauts echoed these sentiments upon arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t ready,” Wilmore said, addressing questions from the press. “We are ready, the spacecraft’s ready, and the teams are ready.”

If Starliner for whatever reason can’t launch on the 6th, it’ll have backup opportunities on May 7, 10 and 11. After the Crew Flight Test is complete and the astronauts are back home, NASA will get to work certifying the spacecraft for future missions bringing crews to and from the ISS. It’s currently targeting 2025 for Starliner to begin duty.

“I don’t want to get too far ahead because we still need to fly a successful mission,” said Free ahead of Starliner’s launch, “but when we do, and when we certify Starliner, the United States will have two unique human space transportations that provide critical redundancies for ISS access.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/boeings-starliner-spacecraft-may-finally-take-its-first-crewed-flight-next-week-140056150.html?src=rss

ESA’s Gaia mission discovers the biggest stellar black hole in our galaxy yet

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In addition to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way also serves as home to smaller stellar black holes that form when a massive star collapses. Scientists believe there are 100 million stellar black holes in our galaxy alone, but most of them have yet to be discovered. The ones that had already been found are, on average, around 10 times the size of our sun, with the biggest one reaching 21 solar masses. Thanks to the information collected by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, though, scientists have discovered a stellar black hole that's 33 times the size of our sun, making it the biggest one of its kind we've ever seen in our galaxy so far. It's also relatively close to our planet at around 1,926 light-years away. 

Gaia BH3, as it's now called, was first noticed by a team of ESA scientists poring over data from the mission to look for anything unusual. An old giant star from the nearby Aquila constellation caught their attention with its wobbling, leading to the discovery that it was orbiting a massive black hole. BH3 was hard to find despite being so close — it's now the second closest known black hole to our planet — because it doesn't have celestial bodies close enough that could feed it matter and make it light up in X-ray telescopes. Before its discovery, we'd only found black holes of comparable size in distant galaxies. 

The ESA team used data from ground-based telescopes like the European Southern Observatory to confirm the size of the newly discovered celestial body. They also published a paper with preliminary findings before they release a more detailed one in 2025, so that their peers could start studying Gaia BH3. For now, what they know is that the star orbiting it has very few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, and since stellar pairs tend to have similar compositions, the star that collapsed to form BH3 could've been the same. 

Scientists have long believed that it's the metal-poor stars that can create high-mass black holes after they collapse, because they lose less mass in their lifetimes. In other words, they'd theoretically still have a lot of materials left by the time of their death to form a massive black hole. This was apparently the first evidence we've found that links metal-poor stars with massive stellar black holes, and it's also proof that older giant stars developed differently than the newer ones we see in our galaxy. 

We'll most likely see more detailed studies about binary systems and stellar black holes that use data from BH3 and its companion star in the future. The ESA believes that BH3's discovery is just the beginning, and it's going to be the focus of more investigations as we seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/esas-gaia-mission-discovers-the-biggest-stellar-black-hole-in-our-galaxy-yet-085753239.html?src=rss

ESA’s Gaia mission discovers the biggest stellar black hole in our galaxy yet

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In addition to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way also serves as home to smaller stellar black holes that form when a massive star collapses. Scientists believe there are 100 million stellar black holes in our galaxy alone, but most of them have yet to be discovered. The ones that had already been found are, on average, around 10 times the size of our sun, with the biggest one reaching 21 solar masses. Thanks to the information collected by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, though, scientists have discovered a stellar black hole that's 33 times the size of our sun, making it the biggest one of its kind we've ever seen in our galaxy so far. It's also relatively close to our planet at around 1,926 light-years away. 

Gaia BH3, as it's now called, was first noticed by a team of ESA scientists poring over data from the mission to look for anything unusual. An old giant star from the nearby Aquila constellation caught their attention with its wobbling, leading to the discovery that it was orbiting a massive black hole. BH3 was hard to find despite being so close — it's now the second closest known black hole to our planet — because it doesn't have celestial bodies close enough that could feed it matter and make it light up in X-ray telescopes. Before its discovery, we'd only found black holes of comparable size in distant galaxies. 

The ESA team used data from ground-based telescopes like the European Southern Observatory to confirm the size of the newly discovered celestial body. They also published a paper with preliminary findings before they release a more detailed one in 2025, so that their peers could start studying Gaia BH3. For now, what they know is that the star orbiting it has very few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, and since stellar pairs tend to have similar compositions, the star that collapsed to form BH3 could've been the same. 

Scientists have long believed that it's the metal-poor stars that can create high-mass black holes after they collapse, because they lose less mass in their lifetimes. In other words, they'd theoretically still have a lot of materials left by the time of their death to form a massive black hole. This was apparently the first evidence we've found that links metal-poor stars with massive stellar black holes, and it's also proof that older giant stars developed differently than the newer ones we see in our galaxy. 

We'll most likely see more detailed studies about binary systems and stellar black holes that use data from BH3 and its companion star in the future. The ESA believes that BH3's discovery is just the beginning, and it's going to be the focus of more investigations as we seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/esas-gaia-mission-discovers-the-biggest-stellar-black-hole-in-our-galaxy-yet-085753239.html?src=rss

NASA confirms its space trash pierced Florida man’s roof

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On March 8, a piece of space debris plunged through a roof in Naples, FL, ripped through two floors and (fortunately) missed the son of homeowner Alejandro Otero. On Tuesday, NASA confirmed the results of its analysis of the incident. As suspected, it’s a piece of equipment dumped from the International Space Station (ISS) three years ago.

NASA’s investigation of the object at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral confirmed it was a piece of the EP-9 support equipment used to mount batteries onto a cargo pallet, which the ISS’ robotic arm dropped on March 11, 2021. The haul, made up of discarded nickel-hydrogen batteries, was expected to orbit Earth between two to four years (it split the difference, lasting almost exactly three) “before burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere,” as NASA predicted at the time. Not quite.

The roof-piercing debris was described as a stanchion from NASA flight support equipment used to mount the batteries onto the cargo pallet. Made of the metal alloy Inconel, the object weighs 1.6 lbs and measures 4 inches tall and 1.6 inches in diameter.

Otero told Fort Meyers CBS affiliate WINK-TV that he was on vacation when his son told him that an object had pierced their roof. “I was shaking,” he said. “I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage. I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”

NASA says it will investigate the equipment dump’s jettison and re-entry to try to figure out why the object slammed into Otero’s home instead of disintegrating into flames. “NASA specialists use engineering models to estimate how objects heat up and break apart during atmospheric re-entry,” the space agency explained in a news release. “These models require detailed input parameters and are regularly updated when debris is found to have survived atmospheric re-entry to the ground.”

Most space junk moves extremely fast, reaching up to 18,000 mph, according to NASA. It explains, “Due to the rate of speed and volume of debris in LEO, current and future space-based services, explorations, and operations pose a safety risk to people and property in space and on Earth.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-confirms-its-space-trash-pierced-florida-mans-roof-204056957.html?src=rss