Monday, December 31, 2018
Friday, December 28, 2018
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
President Trump Makes Secret Visit to Iraq - second stop in Germany
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump flew into Iraq under cover of darkness on 25 December 2018,Christmas Night.The President had been taken to task in the media for not visiting the troops over the holidays.
Air Force One landed at a darkened Al-Asad Air Base west of the Iraqi capital,Baghdad.During his three-hour visit,the President thanked the US troops and their senior leaders for their service,success and sacrifice.He wished tham a Merry Christmas,posed for selfies and signed autographs for the broadly smiling Soldiers gathered in a dining hall.*
National Security Advisor John Bolton accompanied the Trumps.From Iraq,the presidential entourage flew on to Ramstein Air Base,Germany to visit US forces there.It was the President's first ever trip to a war zone.*
Islamic State militants persist in western Iraq by hiding in caves and tunnels of the desert region,and also range across the Iraqi border into Eastern Syria.President Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the US had intended all along to withdraw its 2,000 troops from Syria once all of the IS military bases there had been taken out.The withdrawal from Syria will be measured,rather than hasty.In any event,he had no intention of withdrawing US forces from Iraq,and they were capable of responding if IS staged a resurgence in Syria.
There have reportedly been plans to station US Special Operations Forces in Iraq who could mount raids into Syria as needed.Additionally,President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has promised to hunt down any IS remnants in Syria,Mr.Trump said.
Air Force One landed at a darkened Al-Asad Air Base west of the Iraqi capital,Baghdad.During his three-hour visit,the President thanked the US troops and their senior leaders for their service,success and sacrifice.He wished tham a Merry Christmas,posed for selfies and signed autographs for the broadly smiling Soldiers gathered in a dining hall.*
National Security Advisor John Bolton accompanied the Trumps.From Iraq,the presidential entourage flew on to Ramstein Air Base,Germany to visit US forces there.It was the President's first ever trip to a war zone.*
Islamic State militants persist in western Iraq by hiding in caves and tunnels of the desert region,and also range across the Iraqi border into Eastern Syria.President Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the US had intended all along to withdraw its 2,000 troops from Syria once all of the IS military bases there had been taken out.The withdrawal from Syria will be measured,rather than hasty.In any event,he had no intention of withdrawing US forces from Iraq,and they were capable of responding if IS staged a resurgence in Syria.
There have reportedly been plans to station US Special Operations Forces in Iraq who could mount raids into Syria as needed.Additionally,President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has promised to hunt down any IS remnants in Syria,Mr.Trump said.
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Monday, December 24, 2018
Friday, December 21, 2018
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Monday, December 17, 2018
Rocket Lab Accomplishes First Launch for NASA
On 16 December 2018,NASA contractor Rocket Lab successfully launched and deployed into orbit a payload of CubeSats for the agency.The launch was from New Zealand on the company's Electron rocket.This shows how,with yet another competitor in the launch business, the spaceflight industry is experiencing massive growth, technically and geographically.
The launch took place at Rocket Lab's Launch Complex One on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula.It was the first time CubeSats have launched for NASA on a dedicated rocket for small payloads,as opposed to a ride-sharing arrangement.
The CubeSats of ELaNa XIX will explore such topics as high energy particle measurement in Earth's radiation belt; navigation plans for exo-planet implementation;and radiation shielding.
The launch took place at Rocket Lab's Launch Complex One on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula.It was the first time CubeSats have launched for NASA on a dedicated rocket for small payloads,as opposed to a ride-sharing arrangement.
The CubeSats of ELaNa XIX will explore such topics as high energy particle measurement in Earth's radiation belt; navigation plans for exo-planet implementation;and radiation shielding.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Monday, December 10, 2018
Heliophysics Careers:NASA Announces Voyager 2 Has Entered Interstellar Space - plus the successors to the Voyager Insterstellar Mission (IBEX and the future probe,IMAP)
If you would like to consider a career in heliophysics or just increase your knowledge of the solar system and its immediate environment,the local interstellar medium,you need to catch up with the stunning developments of recent years.So this blog will try to get you up to speed.Indeed,a major breaking news item crossed the desk today:Voyager 2 has left the heliosphere,the region of strong solar influence,and entered the interstellar medium,the influence of the other stars in the Milky Way.This is six years after its twin,Voyager 1,left the heliosphere in 2012.
Comparing data from Voyager's instruments,it has been ascertained that the spacecraft crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere,the heliopause,on 5 November 2018.The heliopause is where the tenuous,hot solar wind meets the cold,dense interstellar medium,NASA said.Voyager 1,although it was launched 16 days later than Voyager 2,crossed the heliopause in 2012 because of its different trajectory than Voyager 2.Yet one of Voyager 1's instruments gave out in 1980,long before it neared the edge of the heliosphere.That means that Voyager 2,which has the same instrument,but in working order,can provide a unique data set on the nature of the gateway to interstellar space and the local interstellar medium.This working instrument is the Plasma Science Experiment (PLE),so that Voyager 1 made the same passage with one eye shut,so to speak;while Voyager 2 is traveling with eyes wide open.This is causing excitement on the Voyager team.
In any event,on 5 November,the PLE detected a sharp drop off in the speed of solar wind particles,and there has been no solar wind flow in Voyager 2's environment since then,and hence the scientists' conclusion that Voyager 2 has left the heliosphere.
Voyager 2's other working instruments are:
1.the cosmic ray subsystem;
2.the lower charged particle instrument;and
3.the magnetometer,all of which are recording data consistent with Voyager 2's having left the heliosphere. *
According to Voyager project scientist Ed Stone:
There is still a lot to learn about the region of interstellar space immediately beyond the heliopause.*
Adds Nicola Fox,director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA headquarters:
To have the Voyagers sending back information about the edge of the Sun's influence gives us an unprecedented glimpse of truly uncharted territory.*
The new successor mission to Voyager's Interstellar Mission is IMAP,the Insterstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe,scheduled for a 2024 launch.It will investigate the heliospheric Ribbon and other phenomena with a suite of 10 instruments.Resaerchers from institutions in Poland,Switzerland and Germany will be collaborating on the mission with the US team.
In the past decade, a successor to the Voyager Interstellar Mission,NASA's IBEX spacecraft,and Voyager 1 itself,have revolutionised heliophysics with their discoveries:
1.There is no bow shock wave near the edge of the heliosphere,which was postulated for so long;
2.There is a previously unknown Ribbon in the heliosphere that is two to three times brighter than anything in the sky.It is composed of energetic neutral atoms,or ENAs,the origin of which is unknown;
3.The heliosphere has the shape of a flattened globe with four tails;not the shape of a comet with a long tail!*
At MIT,heliophysics is classified as a branch of astrophysics.
Comparing data from Voyager's instruments,it has been ascertained that the spacecraft crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere,the heliopause,on 5 November 2018.The heliopause is where the tenuous,hot solar wind meets the cold,dense interstellar medium,NASA said.Voyager 1,although it was launched 16 days later than Voyager 2,crossed the heliopause in 2012 because of its different trajectory than Voyager 2.Yet one of Voyager 1's instruments gave out in 1980,long before it neared the edge of the heliosphere.That means that Voyager 2,which has the same instrument,but in working order,can provide a unique data set on the nature of the gateway to interstellar space and the local interstellar medium.This working instrument is the Plasma Science Experiment (PLE),so that Voyager 1 made the same passage with one eye shut,so to speak;while Voyager 2 is traveling with eyes wide open.This is causing excitement on the Voyager team.
In any event,on 5 November,the PLE detected a sharp drop off in the speed of solar wind particles,and there has been no solar wind flow in Voyager 2's environment since then,and hence the scientists' conclusion that Voyager 2 has left the heliosphere.
Voyager 2's other working instruments are:
1.the cosmic ray subsystem;
2.the lower charged particle instrument;and
3.the magnetometer,all of which are recording data consistent with Voyager 2's having left the heliosphere. *
According to Voyager project scientist Ed Stone:
There is still a lot to learn about the region of interstellar space immediately beyond the heliopause.*
Adds Nicola Fox,director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA headquarters:
To have the Voyagers sending back information about the edge of the Sun's influence gives us an unprecedented glimpse of truly uncharted territory.*
The new successor mission to Voyager's Interstellar Mission is IMAP,the Insterstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe,scheduled for a 2024 launch.It will investigate the heliospheric Ribbon and other phenomena with a suite of 10 instruments.Resaerchers from institutions in Poland,Switzerland and Germany will be collaborating on the mission with the US team.
In the past decade, a successor to the Voyager Interstellar Mission,NASA's IBEX spacecraft,and Voyager 1 itself,have revolutionised heliophysics with their discoveries:
1.There is no bow shock wave near the edge of the heliosphere,which was postulated for so long;
2.There is a previously unknown Ribbon in the heliosphere that is two to three times brighter than anything in the sky.It is composed of energetic neutral atoms,or ENAs,the origin of which is unknown;
3.The heliosphere has the shape of a flattened globe with four tails;not the shape of a comet with a long tail!*
At MIT,heliophysics is classified as a branch of astrophysics.
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Friday, December 7, 2018
InSight photo taken 7 December 2018 - Sol 10: Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC)
Sol 10: Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC): The InSight lander will study the interior of Mars and listen for Marsquakes.
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
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