January 2, 2023
Lots and lots and lots of space stories occurred in 2022.
From DART to Landsat, Sagittarius A* black hole to CAPSTONE, the Korean Pathfinder to SpaceX, and to the ISS, Moon, and Mars, here’s a summary of major space exploration projects last year.
Looking forward to 2023 and beyond!
December 21, 2022
It was “definitely luck” that the dust devil appeared when it did, said the study’s lead author, who estimates there was just a 1-in-200 chance of capturing the audio.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/mars-rover-captures-first-sound-dust-devil-red-planet-rcna61642
Perseverance has been on Mars for almost two years now, and already recorded wind on Mars for the first time in February 2021.
This dust devil was recorded in late September 2021 (wonder why only now it’s being revealed?). The dust devil was “average size,” which is described as about 400 feet / 122 meters tall and 80 feet / 24 meters wide, traveling at 16 feet / 5 meters per second (≈ 11 mph / 18 mph).
UPDATE. NBC incorrectly reported in the above linked article that the dust devil was recorded by Perseverance. It was actually recorded by InSight, which has just fallen silent after four years of operation. Sigh. I should get science news directly from the source and not from unreliable “news” sites.
https://jirafeau.isae-supaero.fr/f.php?h=2JWSkdJR&p=1
There are a lot of dust devils on Mars. A whole lot. Any settlement would have to be extremely prepared to deal with dust all the time, everywhere. If it ever got into equipment that regulated, say, breathable air inside habitats…
December 20, 2022
In 2020, the UAE’s space agency launched its first Mars mission, less than a decade after it was created. How did they manage it?
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221206-how-the-uae-got-a-spacecraft-to-mars-on-the-first-try
This is a great story about how true international cooperation rather than competition can result in scientific progress.
Thanks to their efforts, despite nearly being derailed thanks to the pandemic, we will soon have a complete picture of an entire year of Mars weather.
Not bad for a country whose space agency is so small “you could probably lose it in the car park of Nasa’s giant Johnson Space Centre in Houston.”
(Of course, the project’s findings may mean I have to rewrite some of my novel in progress, but why not? All in the name of science fiction…)
December 17, 2022
I’ve been testing ChatGPT over the last couple of days. (If you don’t know what this chatbot is, here’s a good NYT article about ChatGPT and others currently in development.)
The avowed purpose of ChatGPT is to create an AI that can create believable dialogues. It does this by scouring the web for data it uses to respond to simple prompts.
By “simple,” I mean sometimes “horribly complicated,” of course. And sometimes a little ridiculous.
As has been pointed out, chatbots only generate texts based on what they have been fed, i.e., “garbage in / garbage out.” So if you push the programs hard enough, they will generate racist, sexist, homophobic etc awful stuff — because unfortunately that kind of sick and twisted garbage is still out there, somewhere online in a troll’s paradise.
So far, I have asked the program to:
OK, and the verdict is:
Continue Reading
November 26, 2022
There is a reason why Japan’s newest “micro” satellite spectacularly failed to do, well, anything.
The Japan version of NASA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, called “JAXA” for some reason rather than “JAEA” — maybe the founder was a fan of X-Japan?) is riddled with incompetency and sycophancy.
Much like the rest of Japan’s government, one of the most corrupt of the world’s industrialized countries thanks to its strict “senpai-kohai” hierarchy where those at the top do no work and those at the bottom have no choice but to do what those at the top say – even if it’s illegal or immoral.
Continue Reading
November 9, 2022
Only 1600 light years away!
And it’s a binary system. Very odd.
It’s also “dormant.” Even stranger.
Ten times the size of our Sun, as far away from its companion star as the Earth is from the Sun.
Announced just in time for Halloween…
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/05/science/astronomy-black-hole.html
September 18, 2022
I should be posting another chapter from Bringer of Light, but I don’t feel like writing that right now, what with a humongoid typhoon slowing churning its way here.
So here’s an article about what Chinese scientists found in Moon dirt.
Also H3. Yay. Let’s make fusion reactors and walk on the Moon together…
August 23, 2022
“We’ve never seen Jupiter like this. It’s all quite incredible,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, of the University of California, Berkeley, who helped lead the observations.
“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” she added in a statement.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/james-webb-space-telescope-shows-jupiters-auroras-tiny-moons
The above is supposed to be in “quote” format, but WP really messed up this feature when they switched to so-called “block” mode (which I can’t stand).
Anyway, the image is fairly spectacular, from the new James Webb Space Telescope which is positioned 1 million miles away from Earth (i.e., in the second LaGrange point, or L2).
July 12, 2022
…but it is worth USD $10 billion…
PS. Let’s look for the aliens, already…
https://apnews.com/article/james-webb-telescope-first-photos-32c7cad1f6b277f871990d029bedba72
June 30, 2022
Today is “International Asteroid Day”!
Who knew?
Asteroids hold large amounts of valuable minerals and metals. That is what International Asteroid Day is raising awareness about on 30 June.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-61985813
Writing Fanfiction in the worlds of Tolkien and Beyond!
Learning more about our place in the universe...
Best Tech Gadgets Advise
Marvel Comics Reviews, Previews and News
Writing blogs is miracle I am a writer blogger and my site mission is to give information on maximum information to audiences
Reflections of an inquiring retiree ...
Simple ideas to make every room feel stylish and welcoming
Rock & Metal Reviews That Hit Hard
Short stories | Reflections | Poetry
M Thomas Apple Author Page 