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Dumb space articles here

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:19 am
by YouCanCallMeAl
I want to have somewhere to add stupid space articles that I occasionally bump into, so I'm creating this thread.

Here's something I just read :
https://www.spacedaily.com/m/reports/Ne ... d_999.html
Astronomers rejoiced as NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor slammed into its pyramid-sized, rugby ball-shaped target 11 million kilometres (6.8 million miles) from Earth on Monday night.
Hubble images from 22 minutes, five hours and eight hours after impact show the expanding spray of matter from where DART hit.
The Hera mission, which is scheduled to launch in October 2024 and arrive at the asteroid in 2026, had expected to survey a crater around 10 metres (33 feet) in diameter.

Re: Dumb space articles here

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 2:19 pm
by nickw
Another arm of their expertise:

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cilab/index.html

Go to Greenbelt, Maryland: never mind the Hubble or James Webb 'telescopes out in space'
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images

Re: Dumb space articles here

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 2:23 pm
by nickw

Re: Dumb space articles here

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2023 4:12 am
by YouCanCallMeAl
https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/27/ ... discovery/

Telescope spots molecules 1350 light years away.
Astronomers wielding the James Webb Space Telescope have detected methyl cations – important precursor molecules needed to create proteins and DNA and therefore fundamental to carbon-based life forms.

The molecules were spotted 1,350 light years away in a protoplanetary disk known as d203-506, located in the Orion Nebula.
"CH3+ can react with many molecules and form other more complex species. However, it is an early step in the process which leads to the formation of even more complex molecules which are crucial to life – like proteins and DNA. The methyl molecule also plays a crucial role in genetics: in a process called methylation, it regulates gene expression," he said.

Re: Dumb space articles here

Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 11:16 am
by YouCanCallMeAl
https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/02/ ... l_detected
A signal from Voyager 2 has been detected by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) over a week after communications with the distant probe were lost, the US agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Tuesday.

The disco-era spacecraft was detected by Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex's 70-metre dish, Deep Space Station 43 (DSS43), after a long-shot search.

The five-storey tall dish is the sole facility capable of reaching Voyager 2. It takes over 18 hours for a signal to travel from the probe to the dish, covering a distance of over 19 billion kilometres.
19 billion kilometres, 18 hours for a signal to travel from the probe to the dish - so in an hour, the signal covers roughly a billion kilometres. Its a good trivia question: 'How many kilometers can a radio signal cover in one hour?'

Re: Dumb space articles here

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 6:10 am
by YouCanCallMeAl
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/66448453
But among the image is an object that looks like a giant cosmic question mark.

Scientists say it's not likely to be a message from the universe but rather a more reasonable explanation.


(I would upload the photo, but webp files are not supported.)

Re: Dumb space articles here

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 10:15 am
by napoleon
pop the image in your private telegram messages ,then revisit it save as and it becomes postable

Re: Dumb space articles here

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2024 5:19 pm
by xileffilex
The psilliest NASA story in 2024 - who on earth can believe this pellucid nonsense?
At last! NASA finally frees lid of asteroid Bennu sample capsule after battling stuck fasteners
https://www.space.com/nasa-removes-stuc ... id-samples
Jan 12 204
On Wednesday (Jan. 10), NASA technicians finally removed the stuck fasteners from the sample return capsule of its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — which completed the first asteroid sample return mission in U.S. history when it landed in Utah in September 2023. Tucked in its capsule were rocks and dust collected from the asteroid Bennu. Initially, the team at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas was able to access 70.3 grams (2.48 ounces) of material .....However, the bulk of the asteroid sample material remained trapped inside the capsule when two of the 35 fasteners on TAGSAM could not be removed with existing tools approved for use inside the OSIRIS-REx glovebox, which ensures the asteroid samples are not contaminated during processing. Thankfully, researchers were able to develop new tools that could tackle the stubborn fasteners, according to a statement from NASA. ....
phew!

and it continues showing how cutting-edge [sic] tools prized open the precious cargo from "Bennu" and how the experts spent months analysing the first 70g of material.
The "special can-opener" in action... you can come out now, Bennu.

Image
Just imagine if all those moon landings had been thwarted by stuck bolts and fasters, all those asstronots would have been stranded and perished. What luck.