AkaSci 🛰️

SatCom Scientist
Writing occasionally about science, space missions, astronomy, planetary science, satellites, Democracy and human rights.
He/Him
#science #space #technology #astronomy #satellites #Democracy

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AkaSci@fosstodon-org.mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2025-05-09 01:21:01

"Peace be with all of you!"
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-05/pope-leo-xvi-peace-be-with-you-first-words.html
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/114/475/235/120/541/454/original/88d4fe6ad3626743.png

2025-05-08 23:45:21

Happy 99th Birthday Sir David Attenborough.
Here is a compilation of statements by 99 nature lovers – including Obama, Margaret Atwood, Sadiq Khan, Hans Zimmer, Jane Goodall, Jane Fonda, Morgan Freeman, Bono, and Michael Palin –on how he has helped us see the world with fresh eyes,
Includes some wonderful pics of David Attenborough over the years.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/may/03/david-attenborough-birthday-99-by-barack-obama-billie-eilish-morgan-freeman
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2025-05-06 19:38:25

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It's Black Hole Week.
Let's marvel at the images and size of these black holes taken by the Event Horizon Telescope over the past few years - Sgr A* the black hole at the center of our galaxy and the super massive black hole (SMBH) in galaxy M87. The images of SMBH TON 618 and the SMBH in the Andromeda galaxy are copies of the image of SMBH M87 but with scale info added by me.
https://eventhorizontelescope.org/
#BlackHoleWeek
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2025-05-02 12:57:41

Puff piece by JD Vance in the WaPo praising Dear Leader.
"Americans are paying less for everyday essentials. Meanwhile, deregulation has handed freedom of choice over home appliances such as showers, lightbulbs and stoves back to American households."
One reader summed it quite aptly -
“This is not an opinion column, it's a minion column.
Minion: submissive follower or underling, often implying someone who is servile and unimportant. See also, JD Vance."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/05/02/jd-vance-trump-hundred-days/
#Politics
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2025-04-29 02:35:39

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NY Times calls it for the Liberals and Mark Carney.
#Politics
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https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/114/418/893/326/589/245/original/b79d3daec5ba1694.png

2025-03-09 17:05:40

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@nprofile…zezf
@nprofile…ayv8
Here is an updated graphic of proposed lunar landers that are part of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and 4 pics of non-CLPS landers (last row) that have successfully landed on the moon.
Landers by Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines are in row 2.
You be the judge of the probability of tipping over for these landers 😀
https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-lunar-payload-services/clps-providers/
#Space
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/114/133/555/731/009/076/original/9c0952902f163b00.png

2025-02-27 14:58:45

"FAA is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract to overhaul a communications system that serves as the backbone of the nation’s air traffic control system and awarding the work to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The move to cancel a major contract in favor of a venture led by Musk — who is leading trump’s disruptive overhaul of the federal govt through the U.S. DOGE Service — would represent a significant test of protections against conflicts of interest in govt projects."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/26/musk-starlink-doge-faa-verizon/
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2025-01-20 01:40:54

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Edgar Allan Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death" is perhaps a good allegory of the billionaire class and the pandemics of today, where "the entitled members of a society more concerned about comfort and capital during a disaster only causes more destruction. In the end, no one gets out alive." And yes, these folks are the first in line for vaccines while publicly railing against them.
https://slate.com/culture/2020/03/edgar-allan-poes-masque-of-the-red-death-is-an-allegory-for-the-age-of-coronavirus.html
https://poemuseum.org/the-masque-of-the-red-death/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death
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2025-01-20 01:16:56

Happy Birthday to Edgar Allan Poe (Jan 19, 1809 – Oct 7, 1849).
Born in Boston, Poe moved to Baltimore at the age of 20, which is the city we associate him and his works with.
The Baltimore football team is named the Ravens, after Poe's famous poem. The Ravens are playing against the Buffalo Bills tonight.
Here is an illustration from Gustave Doré's book "The Raven" depicting the scene for the last stanza of the haunting poem.
https://poestories.com/gallery/the-raven-dore/my-soul-from-out-that-shadow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe
#Poe
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2025-01-19 16:10:36

Cuteness x1000.
Baby crab found during an operation in the Gulf of Mexico in 2024, by NOAA Fisheries. This is a juvenile Neolithodes agassizii, or king crab. It was collected on Aug 6, 2024 from a depth of ~1,060 meters.
v
The Bold Jumping spider Phidippus audax.
Both spiders and crabs are arthropods; they share a common ancestor that lived 100s of millions of years ago. However, they diverged significantly in their evolutionary paths.
Your vote? 🦀 or 🕷️
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2025-01-19 13:30:48

Let's keep reminding people that, in 2020, trump signed an Executive Order that effectively banned the use of TikTok in the U.S.
Now he is for it. What changed?
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/900019185/trump-signs-executive-order-that-will-effectively-ban-use-of-tiktok-in-the-u-s
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/
#TikTok
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2025-01-17 02:04:41

The sweetest post of the day!
"Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole."
👏
#DavidLynch #NASA #BlackHole #EHT
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/841/221/193/013/481/original/4b1c77bfa8bc6f99.png

2025-01-16 23:27:13

Starship 7 puts on a show.
A RUD light show.
🎇
P.S. Booster landing was successful.
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2025-01-16 20:28:41

Treasury chief nominee billionaire Scott Bessent on extending trump's tax cuts:
“This is the single most important economic issue of the day. This is pass-fail. If we do not fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity, and as always, with financial instability that falls on the middle and working class.”
Pay the wealthy or the middle class suffers.
He is also against raising the federal minimum wage.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/scott-bessent-treasury-secretary-nominee-tax-cuts-rich-1235238195/
#Politics
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2025-01-16 00:56:07

ESA's Gaia space observatory made its last observation earlier today and ended the sky-scanning phase of its mission.
Launched in 2013, Gaia is running out of fuel needed for spinning and attitude control.
After a few weeks of technology tests, Gaia will be moved from the Lagrange L2 orbit to a heliocentric one. The spacecraft will be passivated on 27 March 2025.
Over 10 years, Gaia made 3 trillion observations of about 2 billion stars and other objects.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Last_starlight_for_ground-breaking_Gaia
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2025-01-15 00:37:01

Two privately developed lunar lander missions will launch tomorrow Jan 15 1:11 a.m. EST on a Falcon 9 rocket from KSC.
1. U.S. based Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1. Will deliver 10 science payloads to the moon for NASA, 45 days after launch.
2. Japan based iSpace's Hakuto-R Mission 2. Will deploy a mini rover and other science payloads to the lunar surface, 4-5 months after launch. Mission 1 in Apr 2023 ended with a hard landing.
https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/
https://ispace-inc.com/m1
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2025-01-12 19:12:23

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Here is a still from a simulation of C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) by French optical engineer and amateur photographer Nicolas Lefaudeux.
The website shows a multi-day visualization of the comet as it survives perihelion and develops a bright tail that persists for several days thereafter.
Check out the website for the full visualization - https://hdr-astrophotography.com/
Credit: Nicolas Lefaudeux
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2025-01-12 18:53:02

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The best vantage point for observing Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is in space. Which is where astronaut Don Petit took this stunning photograph from, perched with his camera behind a window in the NASA ISS at ~400 km altitude.
☄️ 🚀
#Comet #C2024G3
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2025-01-12 18:43:09

Now that we have everyone excited about the Mars occultation tomorrow, he is another exciting visitor from space putting on a show as we speak.
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is closing in on the Sun for perihelion on Jan 13, 10:17 UTC.
Currently at mag -3.0, it will brighten to mag -3.6.
But it is difficult to observe from the Northern hemisphere. It will be so even after perihelion, assuming it survives this grazing trip around the Sun.
https://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2024G3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2024_G3_(ATLAS)
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2025-01-12 12:34:45

Tomorrow night, Jan 13, the full moon, aka as the Wolf Moon, will rise and soon thereafter pass right in front of Mars, creating what is known as an occultation.
Mars should be visible with the naked eye or better with binoculars or a telescope until it gets close to the Moon's edge.
Here is a map of the night sky as seen from New York, at 21:20 EST, a minute before occultation begins. A few other planets will be visible during the night.
https://stellarium-web.org/
#Astronomy
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2025-01-12 03:02:01

Bluesky seems to be down.
No notification from the team on other social media sites.
So much for a centralized system.
Time to put in a good word for Mastodon and the Fediverse?
https://downdetector.com/status/bluesky/
#Bluesky
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/813/149/221/883/414/original/b9af64ec2ae5d48f.png

2025-01-08 20:50:45

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Some NASA services hosted at JPL are now offline or nonoperational.
E.g. - DSN now and JPL Horizons.
The DSN Goldstone site in Barstow is probably OK.
The update from JPL at https://nasawatch.com/personnel-news/jpl-fire-update/ also stated that "Hundreds of JPLers have been evacuated from their homes & many have lost homes. Special thx to our emergency crews. Pls keep us in your thoughts & stay safe."
🙏
Pic below is from the Altadena area just east of JPL.
Credit: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
#Wildfire #JPL
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2025-01-08 17:37:03

Wildfire map of LA area from NASA FIRMS.
NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) distributes Near Real-Time active fire data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua and Terra satellites, and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard S-NPP, NOAA 20 and NOAA 21.
JPL is closed except for emergency personnel. No fire damage so far but it is very close to the lab.
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#m:advanced;d:today;l:fires_landsat_landsat,fires_modis_aqua,fires_modis_terra,fires_viirs_noaa20,fires_viirs_noaa21,fires_viirs_snpp,countries,earth;@-118.08,33.96,10.53z
https://nasawatch.com/personnel-news/jpl-fire-update/
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2025-01-07 14:51:40

The ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury will make its 6th and final flyby of Mercury on Wed Jan 8, 2025 at 05:59 UTC.
Distance from Mercury's surface will be 295 km, which is much closer than the 37,630 km distance during flyby #5 on Dec 1.
Since flyby 4, BepiColombo is in an orbit similar to that of Mercury. After this flyby, BepiColombo will coast along until Mercury orbit insertion in Nov 2026.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo/BepiColombo_to_swing_by_Mercury_for_the_sixth_time
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2025-01-06 22:58:28

Recipients of the 2024 National Medal of Science.
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/03/president-biden-honors-nations-leading-scientists-technologists-and-innovators/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/01/05/biden-names-25-recipients-of-national-medals-of-science-technology/
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2025-01-04 14:15:33

By Josh Kaplan -
"Outraged by Jan 6, he (the mole) spent two years getting inside the top ranks of militias like the Oath Keepers. He was stunningly successful. He penetrated a new generation of militia leaders, which included doctors, cops & government attorneys.
This is his story."
https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3-oath-keepers-militia-mole
https://bsky.app/profile/josh-kaplan.bsky.social/post/3lew5cqz6os2t
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2025-01-04 13:52:48

This is scary sh*t.
The tech bros are partly behind the move by trump to buy Greenland.
They want to build a new city, a prototype of Terminus, Musk’s name for a city on Mars. They have been peddling the idea to many countries, including Greenland.
Dryden: I’m building an crypto-native country called @praxisnation, with a network of people who’ve founded companies worth >$400B. We are scouting for physical territory to build our first city with $525M of financing.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/15/i-went-to-greenland-to-try-to-buy-it-meet-the-founder-who-wants-to-re-create-mars-on-earth/
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2025-01-04 05:06:31

Democracy is Dying in the Darkness of the Washington Post and the MSM controlled by the tech bros.
They could not handle the satirical Truth in this cartoon by Ann Telnaes; so they killed it.
But Democracy will not die so easily. In an act of courage and defiance, She resigned.
Let's pool our resources and support these brave souls to save Democracy and the world.
Featured in the cartoon - Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bezos.
https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-quitting-the-washington-post
#Politics
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/768/286/222/104/664/original/dca51ee7b1d1e0bb.jpg

2025-01-04 01:55:48

Liz Cheney responds to trump's despicable tirade against her and reminds the nation of who he really is.
#Politics
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2025-01-03 19:29:16

Major winter storm headed for central and eastern U.S. Saturday through Monday.
Mid-Atlantic region will see snow and ice Sunday night through Monday.
Southern regions will get rain.
Be prepared.
https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/2025-01-02-winter-storm-blair-forecast-snow-ice-plains-midwest-mid-atlantic
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/766/051/156/453/903/original/bd64ae9253d73c88.jpg

2025-01-02 04:01:36

"Something interesting has been going on with Tesla Cybertrucks. Tesla has been quietly replacing their battery packs, seemingly a lot of them.
At least since September, Tesla has been swapping out Cybertruck battery packs for new ones when they are brought in for other maintenance issues.
The Tesla service screenshot said “Cybertruck—High Voltage Battery Replacement (Cell Side Dent Induced Core Collapse).”
"
🤔
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/12/29/tesla-is-secretly-recalling-cybertruck-batteries/

2025-01-01 23:35:34

Six years ago, on 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, nicknamed 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 36 km Kuiper Belt object.
pluto.jhuapl.edu/Arrokoth/Arrokoth.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/486958_Arrokoth
Also see https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/111681146380738902
#NewHorizons
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2024-12-31 14:07:52

A colorful fireworks celebration in Sydney where the New Year has already begun.
Image credits:
City of Sydney twitter account
EPA / aap / Bianca de Marchi
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2024-12-29 21:21:16

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On June 20, 1979 , President Carter dedicated the solar-thermal panels on the roof of the White House.
“A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”
Carter presented an ambitious plan to put America on a path to 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2000!
A true visionary.
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/02/the-forgotten-story-of-jimmy-carters-white-house-solar-panels/
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2024-12-29 21:06:58

Oh no.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has passed away.
😢 🙏
https://www.ajc.com/news/former-us-president-jimmy-carter-100-dies/3ODQTR5NHVDTDF2SXOU34MKNZM/
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2024-12-27 03:09:57

For those of us who mighty have missed it since we don't visit twitter anymore, there is a MAGA vs tech bro war going on over there today.
What was Vivek Ramaswamy thinking when he decided to trash "American (MAGA) culture" in this long tweet and stir this hornet's nest?
More at https://www.axios.com/2024/12/26/maga-civil-war-ramaswamy-musk-loomer-cernovich
#Politics
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2024-12-26 15:25:07

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Instructions for manual opening of rear doors of a Tesla Y -
1. Remove the mat from the bottom of the rear door pocket.
2. Press the red tab to remove the access door.
3. Pull the mechanical release cable forward.
What an abomination!
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-AAD769C7-88A3-4695-987E-0E00025F64E0.html
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2024-12-26 15:20:46

Sounds like we need better rules and regulations for manual door releases on modern all-electronic-control automobiles like Tesla to prevent tragic outcomes like this.
Perhaps, this is why Musk wants to eliminate regulations and end crash data from being collected and reported.
https://myelectricsparks.com/four-dead-tesla-doors-fail-open-crash-fire/
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#Tesla

2024-12-25 21:46:54

Let's celebrate the birthday of Rev. John Michell, born OTD in 1724, a pioneering scientist very few of us have heard of.
Among his many discoveries is his idea of stellar "black holes."
Based on Newton’s Corpuscular theory of light, Michell calculated that the escape velocity for a star with more than 500 times the mass of the Sun would exceed the speed of light. Light cannot escape from such a body, which would therefore be invisible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michell
http://www.phys.ufl.edu/courses/phy3221/spring10/michell1784.pdf
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2024-12-24 23:16:16

On this Christmas Eve, let's look again at the question of how Santa can deliver gifts to millions of households in one night.
The answer by leading physicists is quantum physics and the principle of superposition and ‘macroscopic quantum coherence', by which Quanta Claus, his reindeers, his sleigh and the gifts can be in many places all at once.
The equations of the wave function are rather complex but not for Santa.
Ho Ho Ho 🎅 🎄 🎁
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/how-does-santa-deliver-billions-of-gifts-in-one-night-quantum-physics-1.4444650
http://www.markovojinovic.com/professional/pdf/2004-SantaClaus.pdf
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2024-12-24 18:35:17

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@nprofile…fa4k
Fascinating.
The Parker Solar Probe team indicated that the probe detected the Alfvén surface along its trajectory during the 8th flyby on April 28, 2021, at 18.8 solar radii (13 million km) above the solar surface.
Subsequently, at 14.97 solar radii from the Sun’s surface, it reportedly passed through a "pseudostreamer!"
https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=173
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/113705473892667819
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/709/233/414/046/190/original/c0cdafdae8a47f23.png

2024-12-24 16:05:12

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Here is a recreation of that famous moment, thanks to NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, as human eyes saw Earth rise above the moon's barren surface for the first time ever.
Anders: Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There's the Earth comin' up. Wow, is that pretty!
Borman: Hey don't take that, it's not scheduled.
Anders: You got a color film, Jim? Hand me a roll of color, quick, would you?
Lovell: Oh man, that's great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul5E_hOV2ao
https://science.nasa.gov/resource/the-story-behind-apollo-8s-famous-earthrise-photo/
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2024-12-24 15:54:02

"Earthrise" - captured on Dec. 24, 1968 by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders.
Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to orbit the Moon and the first to witness the awe-inspiring sight.
50 years Anders observed - "We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth."
Wilderness photographer Galen Rowell called Earthrise "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."
What are your thoughts?
https://science.nasa.gov/resource/the-story-behind-apollo-8s-famous-earthrise-photo/
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2024-12-24 00:40:46

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will make its 22nd close approach of the Sun tomorrow Dec 24, 2024 at 11:53 UTC. At perihelion, it will be at a record distance of just 6.1 million km from the solar surface, traveling at a record speed of 692,018 km/h, beating its previous record of 7.26 million km and 635,300 km/h during perihelion 21 on Sep 30.
For comparison, the perihelion of planet Mercury is at 45.3 mil km.
https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=205
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Solar_Probe
#Parker #ParkerSolarProbe #NASA
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2024-12-23 00:14:52

Earth's magnetic north pole has shifted towards Siberia, as predicted and shown in the latest 5-year update to the World Magnetic Model (WMM).
The WMM is jointly developed by NOAA and the British Geological Survey (BGS).
"Magnetic north has been moving slowly around Canada since the 1500s but, in the past 20 years, it accelerated towards Siberia, increasing in speed every year until about five years ago, when it suddenly decelerated from 50 to 35 km per year."
https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/airlines-shipping-companies-and-sleigh-drivers-rush-to-update-crucial-navigation-systems-ahead-of-christmas-rush/
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2024-12-22 13:37:06

- reply

@nprofile…yq8e presented this insight on why ordinary people buy cryptocurrencies, and much more back in 2022 at https://archive.ph/RnHQz -
"Times are tough, and a lot of ordinary people who don’t remember 2008 are desperate and see cryptocurrency as their only way out.
Plenty of pain is out there, but the real danger is contagion from cryptocurrency to the wider economy."
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2024-12-22 13:32:58

Young Men Are Pouring Money Into Risky Assets Like Crypto and Meme Stocks.
"Research shows that young men who value traditional masculinity strongly but feel that they themselves are falling short of traditional masculinity, are the most likely to own crypto and meme stocks, both of which are really risky investments."
Also, "... men feeling like they can't reach those traditional milestones, like being the sole breadwinner of a family or owning a house."
https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/your-money-matters/young-men-are-pouring-money-into-risky-assets-like-crypto-and-meme-stocks/641E8099-AD5E-4FC3-93BD-1CF6DE0D94E7 -
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2024-12-22 12:09:06

Nice change in daytime temperatures coming up this week for the eastern half of North America.
The three graphics below show forecast 2m air temperature anomalies (deviations from norm) for North America for December 22, 25 and 29. 🏖️
Cold temperatures are expected to return in January. 🥶
http://www.karstenhaustein.com/climate
https://www.severe-weather.eu/long-range-2/warm-end-of-year-cold-winter-returns-in-january-2025-for-united-states-canada-fa/
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2024-12-22 03:08:21

Very aptly put, David Frum.
👍
https://bsky.app/profile/davidfrum.bsky.social/post/3ldtps2hxps2m
#Politics #Bitcoin
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2024-12-20 21:57:05

Deep gaslighting by elon musk.
He now claims that he is supporting the far-right AfD party in Germany because ... "The AfD policies are identical to those of the US Democratic Party when Obama took office! I don’t think there is a single difference."
Go figure.
musk is after all the head of Twitter, the new Ministry of Truth.
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/687/363/623/352/817/original/7ef9759a90d71275.png

2024-12-20 02:28:53

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Meanwhile over at twitter, president-elect elon musk is flailing, flinging poop and counting clicks from his clueless fan base.
Logic and math don't matter when you are also the head of the Ministry of Truth.
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2024-12-20 02:14:10

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A great dress-down of republicans -
"It’s embarrassing, it’s shameful.
To take this bill and congratulate yourself because it’s shorter in pages but increases the debt by $5 trillion is asinine – and that’s precisely what Republicans are doing.
I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility ... It is absolutely ridiculous.”
By ... check notes - Chip Roy (R-TX).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grHc7fN1vrc
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2024-12-20 00:37:31

House vote on funding the government and avoiding a shutdown, crafted by musk, goes down in flames - 174 yea, 235 nay, far short of the 2/3rd vote needed for passage. 38 republicans voted against it, only 2 democrats voted for it - Castor (FL) and Perez (WA).
What a mess. What next?
Roll Call for Bill Number: H. R. 10515 - https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024516
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2024-12-17 22:22:20

Happy Birthday to Sister Mary Kenneth Keller (Dec 17, 1913 – Jan 10, 1985), the first PhD in computer science in the US.
In 1958, Keller began working at the NSF workshop in the computer science center at Dartmouth College, a male-only institution at the time, where she participated in the implementation of the first DTSS BASIC Kernel for the language, working under John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz.
Pic: Sister Kenneth with the Bi-Tran Six computer at Clarke Univ.
https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2023/01/10076929/1LFQ2k1iy40
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2024-12-17 17:18:21

Happy Birthday to Émilie Du Châtelet (Dec 17, 1706 - Sep 10, 1749), French natural philosopher, mathematician and physicist.
A fierce advocate of women's education, Du Châtelet wrote -
“If I were king, I would redress an abuse which cuts back, as it were, one half of human kind. I would have women participate in all human rights, especially those of the mind.
This new system of education that I propose would in all respects be beneficial to the human species ..."
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Selected_Philosophical_and_Scientific_Wr/TgDSoGgR5YMC?hl=en&gbpv=1
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2024-12-15 16:51:05

As reported at AGU24 last week, Mars rover Perseverance has completed its 2024 campaign by reaching the top of Jezero Crater’s western rim, having ascended 1,640 vertical feet in about 3½ months.
In the campaign for 2025, named the “Northern Rim,” the rover will drive west and south, visiting about 4 sites of geologic interest, take several samples, and drive about 6.4 km.
The map below shows the approx. route.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance/perseverance-rover/nasas-perseverance-rover-reaches-top-of-jezero-crater-rim/#hds-sidebar-nav-1
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/location-map/
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2024-12-15 14:15:35

"2073" - A new film by Asif Kapadia provides a frightening look at a future that may not be that far.
It’s the year 2073, and the worst fears of modern life have been realized. Surveillance drones fill the burnt orange skies and militarized police roam the wrecked streets, while survivors hide away underground, struggling to remember a free and hopeful existence, destroyed by authoritarianism, big tech, inequality and climate change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgyFo0Q5qAc
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/15/asif-kapadia-2073-amy-winehouse-senna-maradona-trump
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2024-12-15 06:29:24

Ex-Gov Larry Hogan now has a new job - spreading CTs about drones, now over MD.
It appears that like most republicans, Hogan has never seen the night sky before or the shiny things called stars, which now look like scary drones to MAGA minds.
As many have pointed out, Hogan was looking at the stars in the most recognizable of constellations - Orion.
Other MAGA minds keep seeing marauding drones in the night sky that are moving ... because they are the lights of actual airplanes.
😜 ⭐
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2024-12-13 21:46:12

About that recent flurry of reports about the dangers of using utensils made of black plastic?
Turns out that the math in the paper that produced the result was off by a factor of 10.
Ref. limit for BDE-209 = 7,000 ng per kg of body weight per day.
Limit for a 60-kg adult = 60 * 7,000 = 42,000 ng per day.
Median intake from kitchenware = 34,700
Median intake = 82% of limit. That is alarming 😬
But 60 * 7,000 = 420,000 not 42,000.
Hence, median intake = 8.2% of limit 😅
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/black-plastic

2024-12-13 14:57:07

The Galilean moon Io is a world tormented by active lava-spewing volcanoes, as it is stretched and squeezed by the gravitational forces of Jupiter, and the moons Europa and Ganymede.
Is there a global shallow ocean of hot magma underneath the surface or are the volcanoes powered by their own chambers of magma?
A new study by the NADA Juno team, presented at AGU24, indicates the latter, as shown in the graphic below.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-mission-uncovers-heart-of-jovian-moons-volcanic-rage/
https://rdcu.be/d3kUh
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2024-12-12 11:43:57

Summary of JPL's investigation of Mars Helicopter Ingenuity’s final flight -
- Lack of features in sandy terrain caused navigation system to under-estimate vehicle speed
- Hard landing on sloping area with high lateral speed
- High rate pitch and roll caused stress on rotors spinning at 1400-2400 rpm
- Rotor blades did not make contact with ground. They snapped at their weakest point due to stress.
- Vibration caused ejection of one blade
- Loss of power and comms.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-performs-first-aircraft-accident-investigation-on-another-world/
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2024-12-11 04:27:16

We suppose the media and their owners have different goals and want the non-wealthy to stay uninformed and to keep supporting fascism and oligarchies.
And our job is to keep spreading the truth, however difficult it may be during the next 4 years.
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/113/632/280/509/387/033/original/ed8dfccbb82726c9.png

2024-12-10 12:03:59

The outer planets and their changing seasons and atmospheres imaged by Hubble over 10 years.
Top left: Uranus's white polar cap rotates into view as the planet approaches northern summer.
Top right: Neptune with the waxing and waning of clouds as the Sun's radiation level changes.
Center: Saturn and the changing tilt of the thin rings as seen from earth.
Bottom: Jupiter, its changing banded cloud structure and the shrinking Great Red Spot.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-celebrates-decade-of-tracking-outer-planets/
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2024-12-07 21:57:17

What are the objects in these images that are periodically sent by Mars rover Perseverance and were also sent yesterday?
You guessed it right, these are calibration targets, used to calibrate SuperCam, a suite of instruments that remotely analyze rocks and soils. The suite includes a telescopic camera, 2 lasers, 4 spectrometers + a microphone.
See next set of posts for more info on the SuperCam Calibration Target (SCCT).
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/
#Mars
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2024-12-05 02:02:36

The launch of ESA’s Proba-3 spacecraft by ISRO will now take place on Thursday.
Proba-3 is a mission to demonstrate high precision formation flying and to study the Sun’s inner corona.
Proba-3 consists of 2 spacecraft - the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC), which will fly together in a 19.7 hour orbit. The OSC's 1.5m disk will eclipse the Sun and enable the CSC to observe the Sun’s corona for up to 6 hours per orbit.
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Proba_Missions
#proba3 #ESA
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2024-12-01 12:15:54

From Thom Hartmann -
"Trump is taking off the mask, after lying to us for over a year about not knowing anything about Project 2025. Trump, who previously kept his distance from Project 2025, is now selecting its key architects for potential cabinet positions and wow, are they doozies.
The 900-page conservative policy blueprint, which has alarmed Democrats, appears to be moving from the sidelines to center stage in Trump's plans for a potential 2nd term."
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/donald-trump-mask/

2024-11-30 23:21:40

In the days following the launch of the Europa Clipper mission on Oct 14, the Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM) was deployed. The ECM consists of 3 fluxgate sensors mounted on an 8.5m coilable boom.
The ECM will measure Europa's magnetic field and help determine the existence of its ocean, its depth and salinity.
The video below shows an animation of the curious unfolding and deployment of the ECM boom.
Let's take a look at coilable booms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG1skqAlUYY
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/nasas-europa-clipper-millions-of-miles-down-instruments-deploying/
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2024-11-30 12:46:49

The ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury will make its 5th flyby of Mercury on Sunday Dec 1, 2024 at 13:23 UTC.
Distance from Mercury's surface will be 37,630 km, which is much farther than the 165 km distance during flyby #4 on Sep 4.
Since the last flyby, BepiColombo is in an orbit similar to that of Mercury. After one more flyby on Jan 8, BepiColombo will coast along until Mercury orbit insertion in Nov 2026.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo
https://bepicolombo.esac.esa.int/itl-viewer/where/
#BepiColombo #ESA
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2024-11-29 12:21:03

A systematic review of 18 randomized clinical trials shows that drinking enough water can help with weight loss and prevent kidney stones. Additional benefits relate to migraines, urinary tract infection, diabetes control, and low blood pressure.
A common public health-related recommendation is 8 cups of water per day.
Let's drink to that! 💧
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2827021
https://hub.jhu.edu/at-work/2021/10/13/why-you-should-drink-a-glass-of-water/
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2024-11-26 22:42:01

Bluesky's solution to the dreaded "quote post" feature - allow user control over whether posts can be used in quote posts or not.
Not bad 🤔
@nprofile…zezf
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2024-11-21 08:05:51

Fresh volcanic eruptions north of Grindavîk, Iceland.
- Started at 11:14 pm local (UTC), Nov 20
- 3 km long fissure location is similar to Mar 16 eruption
- A small earthquake swarm began at around 10:30 pm
- Grindavík and the Blue Lagoon evacuated
- Eruption is significantly smaller than the last eruption on Aug 22
- This is the 7th eruption this year
News: https://www.ruv.is/english/2024-11-20-new-eruption-on-reykjanes-peninsula-428068
https://www.facebook.com/Almannavarnir
#Iceland
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2024-11-19 22:18:20

These nominations for the executive branch are not about running the government, they are about destroying it.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-taps-dr-mehmet-oz-to-lead-medicare-and-medicaid-agency/

2024-11-19 18:47:51

As you may have all heard, a "Bomb Cyclone" is developing and headed for the Northwest.
The powerful low pressure system will bring over the next 3 days -
- damaging winds with gusts up to 70 mph across northern CA and parts of OR and WA
- heavy snowfall and and blizzard conditions in the Washington Cascades.
- a deep and continuous plume of anomalous atmospheric moisture (aka atmospheric river) that will bring heavy rains to CA and northern mountain ranges.
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php?disc=pmdspd
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2024-11-18 13:29:07

Addressing climate change is N times more difficult because of Big Tech's disinformation campaigns.
"The digital information landscape is dangerously polluted, obscuring the truth and delaying the urgent action we need to protect our future. Over and over, Big Tech reframes extreme weather events and ready solutions to the crisis, turning the latter into fodder for opposition to climate action through annually reinforced and recycled arguments and imagery."
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/11/16/climate-mis-and-disinformation-are-shaping-discourse-opposition-to-renewables/
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2024-11-18 03:08:38

Verge Editor-In-Chief Nilay Patel:
"To be as clear as I can be, the 2nd Trump administration with Elon Musk embedded within it represents the most direct and sustained threat to the 1st Amendment and the freedom of the press any of us will ever experience. If you’re a media executive or editorial leader and you haven’t met with your legal team to understand the current landscape of 1st Amendment threats, let alone the ones to come, you’re already behind. Get on it."
https://www.status.news/p/nilay-patel-donald-trump-big-tech-interview
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2024-11-17 01:32:31

- reply

@nprofile…3ymh
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your article on neutrinos titled "Chasing ghost particles."
Bravo!
https://aeon.co/essays/going-deep-underground-to-reveal-the-mysteries-of-the-neutrino

2024-11-15 06:18:41

Vaccines work and have saved 100s of millions of lives.
Here are graphics of the number of cases per 100,000 people for all 50 states and DC over time for Measles, Polio and Smallpox, showing how they rapidly declined after vaccines were introduced.
Shouldn't everyone know this already?
Do we need a vaccine against gullibility and beliefs in CTs?
More at https://graphics.wsj.com/infectious-diseases-and-vaccines/
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2024-11-15 01:57:09

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In the following days, whenever Ruby Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers except for one refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Bridges and that was Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, and for over a year Henry taught her alone, "as if she were teaching a whole class."
https://jtojhumanrights.org.uk/ruby-bridges-barbara-henry/
Credit: AP/Shutterstock
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2024-11-15 01:51:48

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
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2024-11-12 03:14:38

Wouldn't it be great to see the headline "Mastodon adds 700,000 new users in a week?"
What will it take?
https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/11/24293920/bluesky-700000-new-users-week-x-threads
@npub1g8e…qdqf @npub1xzm…eykm

2024-11-11 22:06:35

Happy Birthday Kurt Vonnegut (Nov 11, 1922 – Apr 11, 2007).
Some insightful words from one of the greatest writers and thinkers of our time -
“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous ... No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut
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2024-11-10 02:00:28

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“All over the world there are enormous numbers of smart, even gifted, people who harbor a passion for science. But that passion is unrequited. Surveys suggest that some 95 percent of Americans are “scientifically illiterate.”"
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.
Our job: to change that.
Since the wolves that rule our world work hard to keep the population misinformed and incapable of critical thinking.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/fosrec/Lipps.html
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2024-11-10 00:57:02

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Carl Sagan -
“I have a foreboding of an America when awesome tech powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness..."
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/252618-the-demon-haunted-world
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2024-11-10 00:48:26

Remembering Carl Sagan (Nov 9, 1934 – Dec 20, 1996).
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” -
https://science.nasa.gov/people/carl-sagan/
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2024-11-07 12:24:12

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Here are two excellent diagrams that illustrate Raman scattering.
When light strikes a sample material, most of it is absorbed, transmitted, or reflected. A small amount is scattered in one of 3 ways:
1. Rayleigh - no energy is absorbed, the wavelength remains unchanged.
2. Stokes Raman - some energy is absorbed by molecules, the wavelength of scattered light expands.
3. Anti-Stokes Raman - molecules end up in a lower energy state, the wavelength decreases.
https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/lasers/basic-principles-of-raman-scattering-and-spectroscopy/
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2024-11-07 12:06:56

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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._V._Raman
#Raman
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2024-11-06 23:24:38

Today, around 18:44 UTC, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its final Venus gravity assist maneuver, passing within 376 km of Venus’ surface.
The flyby adjusted Parker’s trajectory to bring the spacecraft to within 6.2 million km of the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024 and on the next 4 perihelions. It will be the closest human made object to the Sun and the fastest (690,000 km/h).
FYI, Mercury is 58 million km away from the Sun on average.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/final-venus-flyby-for-nasas-parker-solar-probe-queues-closest-sun-pass/
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_parker_solar_probe?time=2024-12-24T11:48:00.000+00:00
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2024-11-03 19:33:15

Randall Munroe, who draws the popular and erudite xkcd comic, endorses Kamala Harris, in his own unassuming way without any lengthy explanation.
The comic has also been displayed as the banner image on the main xkcd webpage at https://xkcd.com/
:mastodance:
#XKCD
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2024-10-30 12:03:01

The aging power-challenged Voyager 1 spacecraft suffered another glitch 2 weeks ago – it stopped calling home on its regular channel. Here is the sequence of events that transpired -
Oct 16 – Command sent to turn on a heater
Oct 18 – X-band signal lost; team surmised that the power-overload triggered the fault protection system and Voyager switched to a low-rate low-power X-band mode
Oct 18 – DSN looked for lower-rate X-band signal and found it
(contd)
https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/10/28/after-pause-nasas-voyager-1-communicating-with-mission-team/
#Voyager
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2024-10-30 02:27:09

New song by the fabulous Marsh Family for these trying times.
"Bohemian Trumpsody" - Marsh Family adaptation of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen about trump.
How is this real life? Wish it was fantasy!
Ought to be landslide, not a race to the final week
Look in his eyes, it’s up to you guys, you see
He’s just a playboy, he feels no empathy
Because he’s kinda dumb, kinda slow
Little lie, shitty joke
Every single swing vote really really matters to liberty
Full lyrics at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY_8WzcHqMQ
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2024-10-29 14:03:55

A rare endorsement from The Verge, penned by editor-in-chief Nilay Patel.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for school shootings and measles
"Trump only cares about himself. He generally does not care to solve problems unless it benefits him personally, and the intellectual foundation of the MAGA movement that’s built up around him is the complete denial that collective action problems exist at all."
Please read the full article at https://www.theverge.com/24282022/kamala-harris-endorsement-presidential-election-2024
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2024-10-28 00:21:50

Let's make sure every Latino and every Puerto Rican sees these tweets and video clips, coming from the trump hate-fest at Madison Square Garden.
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2024-10-26 13:20:28

From JWST comes this stunning image of star cluster NGC 602, located at the edge of Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy ~200,000 light-years away.
The star cluster is surrounded by "pillars" and "elephant trunks", regions of new star formation, carved out from gas and dust by radiation from the central stars. Many distant galaxies grace the spacescape.
The image, taken in near infrared wavelengths using NIRCam and MIRI, is ~157 light-years across.
https://esawebb.org/images/weic2425a/
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2024-10-14 23:07:17

Let's do a thread on the Europa Clipper mission, which had a successful launch earlier today.
Both 14m long solar arrays have been unfolded and are operational.
Comms was established quickly after launch using the X-band link at 50 kbps.
The Ka-band high rate link has probably not been activated yet; from Jupiter, it will be able to send data at 500 kbps to a single 34m DSN station. Higher rates are possible using multiple DSN antennas.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/europaclipper/2024/10/14/solar-arrays-on-nasas-europa-clipper-fully-deployed-in-space/
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
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2024-10-13 04:28:16

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@npub17hj…7a0r
Poetic!
I presume the Carnegiea gigantea (saguaro cactus) in the foreground is the same one you photographed and posted earlier in the day.

2024-10-06 03:10:06

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Tropical Storm Milton is swirling in the Gulf of Mexico with winds at 45 mph. But the forecast for wind speeds before landfall in Florida on Wednesday has risen considerably, with some models predicting winds of 184 mph, far above Cat 5.
Please make preparations and stay informed using reliable sources.
https://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/hurricane/HFSA/tcall.php
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
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2024-10-05 16:11:51

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As is the new normal, Climate Change induced high heat content in the Gulf waters will facilitate rapid intensification and higher moisture content over the next few days of Storm INVEST92L (aka Tropical Depression 14, to be named Hurricane Milton).
The map below shows Sea Surface Temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and in the path of the storm.
https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/ocean/
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2024-10-05 16:04:04

Storm INVEST92L (aka Tropical Depression 14, to be named Hurricane Milton) is threatening to become a Cat 4 hurricane and slice thru Florida next week.
Some models indicate even higher wind speeds than the conservative values forecast by NHC.
Biden govt and FEMA will be busy making plans and preparations, republicans will be busy creating disinformation and accusations. We need to try to neutralize their disinformation campaign.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
https://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/hurricane/HFSA/tcall.php
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2024-10-05 02:39:29

The Heritage Foundation wants to know what NASA employees are discussing internally about Elon Musk and trump.
Since Sep 3, the Heritage Foundation has filed at least 192 open records requests with NASA with requests for employee comms that reference either of the two men or Musk companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.
It is part of the Project 2025 objective to help Trump weed out "woke" civil servants and replace them by loyalists, if he is reelected.
Chilling.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/conservative-think-tank-targeting-nasa-employees-communications-about-musk-trump-2024-10-04/
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2024-10-03 18:29:48

The Sun today emitted an X9.0 solar flare in our direction.
This follows the X7.1 flare and CME on Oct 1 from the same active region, which will likely cause enhanced auroras tonight and tomorrow.
This is the strongest flare of the current 11 year solar cycle which is now nearing peak. The flare is stronger than the X8.7 flare on May 14 which provided a grand light show all the way to mid latitudes.
Still waiting for analysis to indicate whether a CME was ejected.
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
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