Two of my favorite and most-used apps allow me to be anywhere and point toward the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*, around 26,000 light years away.
I do this any time I want to feel part of a larger and a little less solipsistic universe.
I love that Galactic Compass now has an option to show the ecliptic. Sky Guide always had it. I am usually checking them both when I do this little exercise.
YES, I WAVE AND SAY HELLO!!!
Also, "Sagittarius Ay Star" will be my walkway name, I think.
Astrobiologists continue to find the best biosignatures to use when searching for life in other worlds. One proposal is to search for plants that use the green pigment chlorophyll as we have on Earth. A new paper suggests that bacteria with purple pigments could thrive under a wider range of conditions than their green cousins. Current and next-generation telescopes should be looking for the emissions of purple lifeforms.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/04/search-alien-life-purple-may-be-new-green
Purple bacteria is one of the primary contenders for life that could dominate a variety of Earth-like planets orbiting different stars, and would produce a distinctive "light fingerprint," Cornell scientists report.
When NASA's Dawn mission explored asteroid Ceres, it found permanently shadowed ice-filled craters similar to the Moon or Mercury. While the ice deposits on the Moon were built up over millions of years, Ceres is less stable, oscillating on its axis every 24,000 years or so. After simulating thousands of years of oscillations, researchers realized that some ice-filled craters would have been in shadow for just 6,000 years or less, giving them less time to accumulate ice.
https://www.psi.edu/blog/history-of-ceress-young-cold-traps/
Engineers at JPL today monitored a final transmission from the disabled Mars helicopter Ingenuity.
Mars rover Perseverance is ready to move on west for exploration of the Jezero crater rim.
Ingenuity will no longer be able to communicate with earth, but newly loaded software will allow it to make and store measurements every day, to be retrieved by a future robotic or human mission. Ingenuity’s memory could potentially hold about 20 years’ worth of daily data.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-team-says-goodbye-for-now
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I'm so excited about this upcoming space mission.
NASA has just confirmed that the Dragonfly octocopter will launch in July, 2028. When it arrives, it will spend at least two years flying over the organic-rich sands of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/News-and-Resources/news/20231128.php #space #science #nasa #life #tech
Mars Helicopter Ingenuity was just a 30-day tech. demo. mission to test powered, controlled flight on another world, with 5 test flights.
Almost 3 years later, Ingenuity completed 72 flights and would have trudged on if not for the rotor damage on Jan 18.
The map below shows the trailblazing helicopter's adventurous path thru Jezero Crater over the past 3 years.
Ingenuity's legacy will live on in the design of future such aircraft.
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/where-is-the-rover/
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Flight-Log
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Erin
Ari "Second Breakfast" Jackson
Fraser Cain
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Low Quality Facts
AkaSci 🛰️
Corey S Powell
