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Category: space

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has set a new pair of records after it survived its 10th close encounter with the Sun. On November 21, 2021 at 4:25 am EST (08:25 GMT), the robotic deep-space explorer came within 5.3 million miles (8.5 million km) of the Sun’s surface and reached a speed of 363,660 mph (586,864 km/h), making it both the closest satellite to survive such a near pass of the Sun and the fastest-ever artificial object.

The Parker Solar Probe was launched on August 12, 2018 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket, and this latest solar flyby between November 16 and 26 marks the halfway point in the spacecraft’s seven-year mission to study the Sun at such close quarters that it will eventually fly through the Sun’s corona.

Having easily beaten the record holder, the Helios-2 spacecraft and its maximum speed of 157,078 mph (252,792 km/h), Parker is now in a league of its own. Its latest speed record beats its own previous record, as will be the case for the future record speeds the probe is expected to reach in later flybys.

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The holidays still happen in space, they just look a little bit different. But the sentiments are the same.

“I’m going to do whatever I can to show how thankful I am for my crewmates,” said NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei in a NASA video shared from the International Space Station Monday. “It’s wonderful having all of these folks up here. We haven’t been up here together that long, but wow it sure has been wonderful already.”

The space station will host seven crew members throughout the holiday season.

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F4F is launching Blue Marble Night as a new spacer holiday, commemorating the Blue Marble photo taken by Apollo 17 on 7 December, 1972.
Want to help?

We are setting up a celebration of the limitless inspiration of space. One that recognizes the fragility of our world while simultaneously infusing a sense of hope and awe. We will have the Overview Effect and our future in space as the main focuses. :
Here is what you can do:

1. Recruit celebrities and regular people to record 30–60 second testimonials about the Overview Effect or their connection to space.

2. Recruit thought leaders willing to give 10–15 minute talks about the majesty of space, the Overview Effect, our future in space, Apollo 17 etc.

(In both vids, close out the vid with the toast “Happy Blue Marble Night and next year on the moon.” Encourage people to wear blue or to toast with blue drinks.

3. Make art centred on the Blue Marble photo, the Overview Effect or our future in space and post it to your social media accounts and tag @f4fspace and include the hashtag #BlueMarbleNight.

As a bonus:

4. also include the hashtag #Frankismywingman to enter for a chance to win a free signed copy of the Overview Effect by Frank White. (https://amzn.to/2YaAIqz)

We would love to include as many space orgs and individual spacers in this first annual BMN as possible and would love to get some eyeballs on those orgs in exchange for supporting us with videos and boosting our signal. BMN will be held on Saturday the 4th of December as an all-day virtual event. If anyone wants to help with this let me know also if you can pass the word on this to all orgs and people you think want to celebrate with us that is stellar If anyone needs more information have them reach out to [email protected] with the subject: BMN.

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Nearly the same size as Blackpool Tower and twice as large as Big Ben, astronomers estimate that if the asteroid were to hit the Earth, the impact would produce the equivalent energy to 77 megatons of TNT.

This is 1.5 times as powerful as the Tsar Bomba, the biggest nuclear weapon ever tested.

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Hello from the other side. In this episode find out how quanta can can move through solid objects.

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Where are you right now? Until you interact with another particle you could be any number of places within a wave of probabilities. This is only one way that quantum mechanics challenges our perception of reality. Matt dives into these counter-intuitive ideas and explains the bizarre phenomenon known as quantum tunneling in this episode of Space Time.

Written and hosted by Matt O’Dowd.

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The AI algorithm is more efficient in distinguishing false positives from the real stuff than human experts.

A new artificial intelligence algorithm has discovered over 300 previously unknown exoplanets in data gathered by a now-defunct exoplanet-hunting telescope.

The Kepler Space Telescope, NASA’s first dedicated exoplanet hunter, has observed hundreds of thousands of stars in the search for potentially habitable worlds outside our solar system. The calatog of potential planets it had compiled continues generating new discoveries even after the telescope’s demise. Human experts analyze the data for signs of exoplanets. But a new algorithm called ExoMiner can now mimic that procedure and scour the catalog faster and more efficiently.

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A group of researchers has outlined a surprisingly simple method for recreating the conditions near a neutron star, a breakthrough that could lead to new unimagined scientific discoveries revolving around the mysterious role of antimatter, a report from New Atlas explains.

The team of physicists designed a device, detailed in a paper in the journal Communications Physics, that fires two lasers at each other. The result is that the energy from the two lasers is simultaneously converted into matter, in the form of electrons, as well as antimatter, in the form of positrons.

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Blazing along at space-record speeds that would get it from Earth to the Moon in under an hour, NASA

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It’s vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.”

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