A Satellite Deployed a Drag Sail and Removed Itself from Orbit Five Years Early

The SBUDNIC satellite with its drag sail made from Kapton polyimide film, designed and built by students at Brown reentered Earth's atmosphere five years ahead of schedule. Image courtesy of Marco Cross.
The SBUDNIC satellite with its drag sail made from Kapton polyimide film, designed and built by students at Brown reentered Earth's atmosphere five years ahead of schedule. Image courtesy of Marco Cross.

In an age of increasing “stuff” orbiting Earth one big concern is what happens if one satellite hits another. The result could be an explosion, or a chain reaction of collisions, or the closure of an orbit. That would be catastrophic. However, a small satellite called SBUDNIC just sent itself back to Earth earlier than expected. It’s goal: to demonstrate a low-cost way to take care of space debris.

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Is the Solar Wind Coming From These Tiny Jets on the Sun?

The Solar Orbiter mission is studying the Sun in great detail. It is helping scientists track down the source of the solar wind. Courtesy: ESA.
The Solar Orbiter mission is studying the Sun in great detail. It is helping scientists track down the source of the solar wind. Courtesy: ESA.

Ever since the first direct observations of the solar wind in 1959, astronomers have worked to figure out what powers this plasma flow. Now, scientists using the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft think they have an answer: tiny little outbursts called “picoflares” They flash out from the corona at 100 kilometers per second.

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NASA’s New Horizons Mission Still Threatened

Artist view of the New Horizons spacecraft against a sea of stars. Credit: Serge Brunier/Marc Postman/Dan Durda
Artist view of the New Horizons spacecraft against a sea of stars. Credit: Serge Brunier/Marc Postman/Dan Durda

The New Horizons spacecraft that studied Pluto and Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth continues its pioneering exploration of the Kuiper Belt. However, that might soon end if NASA doesn’t change course. The New Horizons science team has been told by NASA that the mission as they know it is slated to end September 30, 2024.

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Hackers are Attacking Observatories

Hackers broke into the computers at Gemini North Telescope around August 1, 2023. The cybersecurity incident has shut down some telescopes and operations at several of NOIRLab's observatories. Image composite by C.C. Petersen.
Hackers broke into the computers at Gemini North Telescope around August 1, 2023. The cybersecurity incident has shut down some telescopes and operations at several of NOIRLab's observatories. Image composite by C.C. Petersen.

Why would anybody want to hack an observatory? That’s the question facing IT professionals at NOIRLab after somebody tried to crack the computer systems at Gemini North in Hawai’i. The cyber break-in and ongoing investigation by NOIRLab and National Science Foundation experts affected observations and operations in Hawai’i and Chile.

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Is This How You Get Magnetars?

An artist's impression of the star HD 4 5166, which is on its way to becoming a magnetar. Courtesy ESO.
An artist's impression of the star HD 4 5166, which is on its way to becoming a magnetar. Courtesy ESO.

Imagine a living star with a magnetic field at least 100,000 times stronger than Earth’s field. That’s the strange stellar object HD 45166. Its field is an incredible 43,000 Gauss. That makes it a new type of object: a massive magnetic helium star. In a million years, it’s going to get even stranger when it collapses and becomes a type of neutron star called a “magnetar”.

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No Surprise, July 2023 Was the Hottest Month on Record Since 1880

This map shows global temperature anomalies for July 2023 according to the GISTEMP analysis by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Temperature anomalies reflect how July 2023 compared to the average July temperature from 1951-1980. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies
This map shows global temperature anomalies for July 2023 according to the GISTEMP analysis by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Temperature anomalies reflect how July 2023 compared to the average July temperature from 1951-1980. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies

In case you missed it, the weather’s been hot. From warmer-than-usual temperatures in northern climes to melting ice sheets in the polar regions, July 2023 was a record-breaking month. That’s not just some random perception. NASA has been keeping records and the agency confirms what most of us have observed for ourselves. It was a warm one.

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We’ve Never Seen Antarctic Sea Ice This Low

A map showing the expected amount of sea ice accumulation around Antarctica (yellow line) and the reality, which is much less. Courtesy NSIDC.
A map showing the expected amount of sea ice accumulation around Antarctica (yellow line) and the reality, which is much less. Courtesy NSIDC.

While many people are living through a sweltering summer, it’s the depths of winter in Antarctica. Usually, this means there’s a lot of sea ice around the continent. Yet, this year, it’s the lowest it’s ever been. What’s happening?

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Astronomers Scan 11,680 Nearby Stars for Signals from Advanced Civilizations

The Green Bank Telescope is the world’s largest, fully-steerable telescope. The GBT’s dish is 100-meters by 110-meters in size, covering 2.3 acres of space.A team from UCLA used it to search for possible extraterrestrial signals from advanced civilizations "out there." Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
The Green Bank Telescope is the world’s largest, fully-steerable telescope. A team from UCLA used it to search for possible extraterrestrial signals from advanced civilizations "out there." Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF

The hunt for alien life and its radio signals from beyond our Solar System is still coming up dry. But, it’s not for lack of looking for possible advanced civilizations.

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Researchers Match Up 12 Meteorites with the Near-Earth Asteroids They Came From

NASA's "Eyes on Asteroids" site maps the known Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and shows the population of these objects. Some are parent bodies of meteorites found on Earth. Courtesy NASA.
NASA's "Eyes on Asteroids" site maps the known Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and shows the population of these objects. Some are parent bodies of meteorites found on Earth. Courtesy NASA.

Every day meteoroids blast through our planet’s atmosphere to hit the ground as meteorites. A team of researchers in Italy traced twelve of them to progenitor asteroids that orbit in near-Earth space.

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JWST Turns its Gaze on the Farthest Known Star: Earendel

The massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08, which is gravitational lensing the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the Universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc, and within that galaxy, the most distant star ever detected. The star is , nicknamed Earendel. NASA, ESA, CSA, D. Coe (AURA/STScI for ESA), Z. Levay
The massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08, which is gravitational lensing the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the Universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc, and within that galaxy, the most distant star ever detected. The star is , nicknamed Earendel. NASA, ESA, CSA, D. Coe (AURA/STScI for ESA), Z. Levay

In March 2022, astronomers announced the discovery of the farthest known star via an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. They named it Earendel, after the old English name for “morning star”. Now, JWST’s Near-infrared Camera (NIRCam) and its NIRSpec spectrometer have taken a look at the same star and revealed more details about it.

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