How digital artists bring the universe to a screen
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For more on "Spark: the Universe in Us, watch the video (top). At right, Technical Director Matt Blackwell demonstrates one of the show's visual effects. Dave Boitano/Photo
Nov. 9, 2023
Each day, hundreds of visitors walk into the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences. Sitting in the world’s largest all-digital planetarium, they learn about astronomy and science by watching elaborately projected shows containing eye-popping visual recreations of the universe.
What they don’t know is that these high-tech presentations are created by a talented team of digital artists working just a few floors below them.
A spartan suite of rooms in the planetarium complex is home to the academy’s science visualization team, whose task is to illustrate scientific concepts using state-of-the-art computers, with data provided by scientists, and images captured from nature.
Since the new planetarium opened, the team has brought to life nine productions, covering everything from astronomy to earthquakes and life on coral reefs.
Their latest offering is “Spark: the Universe in Us” which opened to the public on Nov. 10.
It’s an intricate look at how the elements that make up the Earth and all of its inhabitants were created from explosions of dying stars millions of light years away.
A complex story to say the least, made all the more interesting by the amount of detailed work needed to bring it to the screen. From the initial conceptualization to the finished product took two years and the talents of a half dozen staff, including animators, visual effects artists and audio engineers.
Production is overseen by producer Cheryl Vanderbilt who admits to getting plenty of exercise walking between the academy’s upper floors to the basement studios. Morrison Senior Director Ryan Wyatt directed and wrote the script which is narrated by Star Wars actor Diego Luna.
Recreating the universe within the planetarium dome is a daunting task, and this show required more than 60 terabytes of data. Viewers will see recreations of more than 49 million stars, (up from 128,000 in the last locally-produced show) the collapse of a supernova and the evolution of the Milky Way galaxy.
As with all academy-produced shows, “Spark’ is rich not only in visual aesthetics, but in scientific research. The visualization team worked with researchers from four universities, and much of the content is derived from actual astronomic simulations scientists have developed to test their theories. Translating that raw information into sequences that are accurate and visually appealing is an exacting task, said the team’s technical director, Matthew Blackwell.
“When a scientist visualizes something like this, they are generally trying to get something else out of it,” he said. “Their goal is not to necessarily put out something that is necessarily visually appealing or comprehensible.”
Wyatt agrees.
“We have to be judicious in our choice of what simulations to highlight and that will stand the test of time,” he said. “It’s an interesting iteration with the researchers to come up with the right balance.”
Once sequences are completed, the final product is shown to the scientists who are free to use the visuals as they see fit. Obtaining the research data is not a problem, according to Wyatt.
“Researchers are very eager to share their results,” he said. “This is our ninth show. We have a track record of creating quality content so people trust us.”
Morrison’s unique dome structure promotes the use of sequences with lots of visual movement. To show water flowing down a mountain, the computer camera remains stationary while the viewer is lifted up to the top as if flying through the air.
“Movement is something we work on a lot,” said digital artist Eric Kremrey, “it is much more compelling. It keeps things alive. It’s subtle but it makes for a better overall product.”
The visualization team is unique among science museums. While some contract out production of planetarium shows, no other museum in the nation has a dedicated in-house staff.
That’s partly a reflection of the San Francisco Bay Area’s evolution as a computer tech center and the rise of special effects teams used by movie studios.
Blackwell is an alumnus of George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic special effects company and worked on some Star Wars films. Artists from Pixar and Dreamworks studios are occasionally brought in to work on specific projects, Vanderbilt said.
While they may not be working on the latest movie blockbuster, the visualization team like what they are doing now, Blackwell said.
“We all enjoyed those jobs but it’s a tough business and it can be a fairly punishing schedule,” he said. “I think we all enjoy doing what we loved about that job here, but with a mission that is more gratifying and a schedule that is a bit more forgiving.”
Apparently so. The visualization team has the lowest turnover rate of any department at the academy, Vanderbilt says with pride.
What they don’t know is that these high-tech presentations are created by a talented team of digital artists working just a few floors below them.
A spartan suite of rooms in the planetarium complex is home to the academy’s science visualization team, whose task is to illustrate scientific concepts using state-of-the-art computers, with data provided by scientists, and images captured from nature.
Since the new planetarium opened, the team has brought to life nine productions, covering everything from astronomy to earthquakes and life on coral reefs.
Their latest offering is “Spark: the Universe in Us” which opened to the public on Nov. 10.
It’s an intricate look at how the elements that make up the Earth and all of its inhabitants were created from explosions of dying stars millions of light years away.
A complex story to say the least, made all the more interesting by the amount of detailed work needed to bring it to the screen. From the initial conceptualization to the finished product took two years and the talents of a half dozen staff, including animators, visual effects artists and audio engineers.
Production is overseen by producer Cheryl Vanderbilt who admits to getting plenty of exercise walking between the academy’s upper floors to the basement studios. Morrison Senior Director Ryan Wyatt directed and wrote the script which is narrated by Star Wars actor Diego Luna.
Recreating the universe within the planetarium dome is a daunting task, and this show required more than 60 terabytes of data. Viewers will see recreations of more than 49 million stars, (up from 128,000 in the last locally-produced show) the collapse of a supernova and the evolution of the Milky Way galaxy.
As with all academy-produced shows, “Spark’ is rich not only in visual aesthetics, but in scientific research. The visualization team worked with researchers from four universities, and much of the content is derived from actual astronomic simulations scientists have developed to test their theories. Translating that raw information into sequences that are accurate and visually appealing is an exacting task, said the team’s technical director, Matthew Blackwell.
“When a scientist visualizes something like this, they are generally trying to get something else out of it,” he said. “Their goal is not to necessarily put out something that is necessarily visually appealing or comprehensible.”
Wyatt agrees.
“We have to be judicious in our choice of what simulations to highlight and that will stand the test of time,” he said. “It’s an interesting iteration with the researchers to come up with the right balance.”
Once sequences are completed, the final product is shown to the scientists who are free to use the visuals as they see fit. Obtaining the research data is not a problem, according to Wyatt.
“Researchers are very eager to share their results,” he said. “This is our ninth show. We have a track record of creating quality content so people trust us.”
Morrison’s unique dome structure promotes the use of sequences with lots of visual movement. To show water flowing down a mountain, the computer camera remains stationary while the viewer is lifted up to the top as if flying through the air.
“Movement is something we work on a lot,” said digital artist Eric Kremrey, “it is much more compelling. It keeps things alive. It’s subtle but it makes for a better overall product.”
The visualization team is unique among science museums. While some contract out production of planetarium shows, no other museum in the nation has a dedicated in-house staff.
That’s partly a reflection of the San Francisco Bay Area’s evolution as a computer tech center and the rise of special effects teams used by movie studios.
Blackwell is an alumnus of George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic special effects company and worked on some Star Wars films. Artists from Pixar and Dreamworks studios are occasionally brought in to work on specific projects, Vanderbilt said.
While they may not be working on the latest movie blockbuster, the visualization team like what they are doing now, Blackwell said.
“We all enjoyed those jobs but it’s a tough business and it can be a fairly punishing schedule,” he said. “I think we all enjoy doing what we loved about that job here, but with a mission that is more gratifying and a schedule that is a bit more forgiving.”
Apparently so. The visualization team has the lowest turnover rate of any department at the academy, Vanderbilt says with pride.
Rare "Green Comet" appears
February 1, 2023
A celestial object that last visited Earth during the Stone Age, is appearing in the night skies this week.
The so called “Green Comet” with its colorful green tail, came to within 26 million miles of our planet Wednesday morning. Close enough to be seen at night but not so close that it would hit anything.
It’s moving fast. By midnight, the comet was 27 million miles from us, enroute to a rendezvous of sorts with the Sun.
Designated Comet C/2022E3 (ZTF), the icy visitor was first discovered last March by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego. It originated in the Oort cloud, a field of frozen objects found well beyond our solar system.
Through the millennia, it has travelled an unimaginable distance through the universe, following an enormous gravitational orbit that will take it past the Sun and back towards its distant birthplace.
By calculating its orbit, astronomers can tell that the comet has been on the move since well before recorded time.
“It’s not 100 percent but the last time it came into our solar system was 52,000 years ago, “ said Gerald Mc Keegan, adjunct astronomer with the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.
Comets are essentially wandering giant balls of ice, left over from the formation of the solar system. They include two bright streaks or tails that are visible to viewers when the object gets close to the Sun.
One is made of organic gasses, which, depending upon the chemical makeup, can in appear in hues of green, blue and other colors. The second contains particles of icy rocks, pebbles and grains of sand which follow the orbit of the comet, McKeegan said.
The comet will be most visible Wednesday and Thursday nights, but will dim throughout the month and be gone by March, according to McKeegan.
It’s found between the North Star Polaris and the bowl of the Big Dipper constellation. Viewers will need binoculars or a small telescope to see the comet, which will appear as a green smudge with a bright spot near the center.
To see it without binoculars, you would have to be in a very dark area, with few surrounding lights McKeegan said. And don’t assume it will be a dramatic sight. Chabot astronomers set up a telescope earlier this week and could barely see it, he said.
“I’ve been hearing reports that it was the comet of the century but I don’t know where they are getting that,” he said, adding that last year’s comet Neowise was visible without a telescope.
Telescope viewing will be free to the public Friday and Saturday nights from 7:30-10:30 p.m. at the Chabot observatory at 10000 Skyline Blvd in Oakland weather permitting.
A live feed is also available on the Yahoo website.
Visit www.yahoo.com/now/green-comet-2023-live-best-155411358.html
A celestial object that last visited Earth during the Stone Age, is appearing in the night skies this week.
The so called “Green Comet” with its colorful green tail, came to within 26 million miles of our planet Wednesday morning. Close enough to be seen at night but not so close that it would hit anything.
It’s moving fast. By midnight, the comet was 27 million miles from us, enroute to a rendezvous of sorts with the Sun.
Designated Comet C/2022E3 (ZTF), the icy visitor was first discovered last March by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego. It originated in the Oort cloud, a field of frozen objects found well beyond our solar system.
Through the millennia, it has travelled an unimaginable distance through the universe, following an enormous gravitational orbit that will take it past the Sun and back towards its distant birthplace.
By calculating its orbit, astronomers can tell that the comet has been on the move since well before recorded time.
“It’s not 100 percent but the last time it came into our solar system was 52,000 years ago, “ said Gerald Mc Keegan, adjunct astronomer with the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.
Comets are essentially wandering giant balls of ice, left over from the formation of the solar system. They include two bright streaks or tails that are visible to viewers when the object gets close to the Sun.
One is made of organic gasses, which, depending upon the chemical makeup, can in appear in hues of green, blue and other colors. The second contains particles of icy rocks, pebbles and grains of sand which follow the orbit of the comet, McKeegan said.
The comet will be most visible Wednesday and Thursday nights, but will dim throughout the month and be gone by March, according to McKeegan.
It’s found between the North Star Polaris and the bowl of the Big Dipper constellation. Viewers will need binoculars or a small telescope to see the comet, which will appear as a green smudge with a bright spot near the center.
To see it without binoculars, you would have to be in a very dark area, with few surrounding lights McKeegan said. And don’t assume it will be a dramatic sight. Chabot astronomers set up a telescope earlier this week and could barely see it, he said.
“I’ve been hearing reports that it was the comet of the century but I don’t know where they are getting that,” he said, adding that last year’s comet Neowise was visible without a telescope.
Telescope viewing will be free to the public Friday and Saturday nights from 7:30-10:30 p.m. at the Chabot observatory at 10000 Skyline Blvd in Oakland weather permitting.
A live feed is also available on the Yahoo website.
Visit www.yahoo.com/now/green-comet-2023-live-best-155411358.html
DART successful: space rock's orbit altered
Oct. 11, 2022
NASA PHOTO
This photo, taken from the Hubble Space Telescope, shows debris blasted from the asteroid Dimorphos 11 days after it was hit by NASA's DART spacecraft. Scientists said the experiment was successful because the asteroid's orbit was altered. Such a maneuver could prevent destruction from a large Earth bound asteroid in the future.
This photo, taken from the Hubble Space Telescope, shows debris blasted from the asteroid Dimorphos 11 days after it was hit by NASA's DART spacecraft. Scientists said the experiment was successful because the asteroid's orbit was altered. Such a maneuver could prevent destruction from a large Earth bound asteroid in the future.
There is nothing more satisfying to a group of scientists than taking part in a successful experiment. And NASA researchers Tuesday were beyond pleased that the DART mission accomplished its goals.
“We conducted humanity’s first planetary defense test,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson, “And we showed that NASA is serious as a defender of this planet.”
On Sept. 26 (see below) DART-which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test- slammed into the space rock Dimorphos which orbits a larger asteroid, Didymos.
The experiment tested the theory that the collision would cause the smaller rock to change its orbit. Such a maneuver could one day save our planet if a large asteroid was on a collision course with Earth.
At a national press conference, Nelson and others confirmed that the now- destroyed spacecraft changed the space rock’s orbit; shortening its trip around the larger asteroid by 32 minutes. A 10-minute change would have been considered a breakthrough, but the half hour difference had scientists ecstatic.
“We are here because for the first time, EVER, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary body,” said Dr. Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.
In the two weeks following the celestial crash, astronomers, using ground-based and orbiting telescopes, carefully observed Dimorphos to see the debris patterns caused by the spacecraft and look for changes.
By measuring the light coming from the smaller rock as it passed through the shadow of its larger asteroid, scientists concluded the experiment was a success.
In coming days and months, researchers will continue to monitor the smaller rock which poses no threat to Earth but has provided NASA with plenty to study.
“It’s exciting that we’ve taken the first step to develop and now to successfully demonstrate asteroid deflection, even though there is still a lot of work to do,” said DART coordination leader Nancy Chabot.
Despite the successful demonstration, there are still a number of unknowns in the process of knocking aside Earth-bound asteroids. The object must be seen well in advance to allow for a timely spacecraft launch and interception. DART took 10 months to reach its target after being launched in November 2021.
And some asteroids can avoid detection before they strike, like the object that exploded in the air over Chelybinsk, Russia (see below).
But Tuesday was a day for celebration, and Nelson expressed his pride in the space agency’s team and the DART results.
“NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,” he beamed.
“We conducted humanity’s first planetary defense test,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson, “And we showed that NASA is serious as a defender of this planet.”
On Sept. 26 (see below) DART-which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test- slammed into the space rock Dimorphos which orbits a larger asteroid, Didymos.
The experiment tested the theory that the collision would cause the smaller rock to change its orbit. Such a maneuver could one day save our planet if a large asteroid was on a collision course with Earth.
At a national press conference, Nelson and others confirmed that the now- destroyed spacecraft changed the space rock’s orbit; shortening its trip around the larger asteroid by 32 minutes. A 10-minute change would have been considered a breakthrough, but the half hour difference had scientists ecstatic.
“We are here because for the first time, EVER, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary body,” said Dr. Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.
In the two weeks following the celestial crash, astronomers, using ground-based and orbiting telescopes, carefully observed Dimorphos to see the debris patterns caused by the spacecraft and look for changes.
By measuring the light coming from the smaller rock as it passed through the shadow of its larger asteroid, scientists concluded the experiment was a success.
In coming days and months, researchers will continue to monitor the smaller rock which poses no threat to Earth but has provided NASA with plenty to study.
“It’s exciting that we’ve taken the first step to develop and now to successfully demonstrate asteroid deflection, even though there is still a lot of work to do,” said DART coordination leader Nancy Chabot.
Despite the successful demonstration, there are still a number of unknowns in the process of knocking aside Earth-bound asteroids. The object must be seen well in advance to allow for a timely spacecraft launch and interception. DART took 10 months to reach its target after being launched in November 2021.
And some asteroids can avoid detection before they strike, like the object that exploded in the air over Chelybinsk, Russia (see below).
But Tuesday was a day for celebration, and Nelson expressed his pride in the space agency’s team and the DART results.
“NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,” he beamed.
DART hits its space target
Sept. 26, 2022
NASA photo
A crew of NASA engineers celebrated the end of another successful mission Monday afternoon. As always, they cheered, hugged and talked about all the work that went into the project.
But this accomplishment was different. Instead of sending a probe into space to gather data, the DART mission is designed to test a theory that could someday save the entire human race.
One hundred forty million miles into the cosmos, a spacecraft equipped with a camera took a close up photo of a rocky asteroid and then slammed into it at 140,000 miles per hour.
In the coming days and weeks, astronomers will observe the asteroid to see if the collision knocked the object out of its orbit. Then the mission would be considered truly successful.
DART stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. Changing the trajectory of an large asteroid could divert it from a deadly collision course with Earth should the need arise, scientists hope.
In November 2021, NASA launched DART and aimed it at a two asteroids: Didymos, roughly 2,500 feet in diameter and Dimorphos, a 530 foot moonlet that orbits it. The probe was flown into Dimorphos; any changes in its orbital path will be considered very significant. Neither asteroid poses a threat to this planet, even after the course correction.
Asteroids are chunks of rock or metal that formed during collisions when the solar system was born millions of years ago.
Most orbit in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. But gravity causes some to break away, often coming within a few thousand miles of Earth. Others have hit the planet after being broken up on entering the atmosphere. Researchers call them Near Earth Objects or NEOs.
The potential for damage from an NEO depends on its size. Dozens of very small objects hit our atmosphere every day, causing nothing more than a visible light.
But 65 billion years ago, an asteroid, three to six miles in size, landed in the Gulf of Mexico, causing worldwide devastation and the death of the dinosaurs. The explosive force exceeded 10 times the destructive power of all the world’s nuclear arsenals combined.
In February 2013, a 65-foot meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia. Wide spread damage was limited due to the community’s sparse population, but many people were injured by broken glass caused by the ensuing shockwave.
To protect the human race, NASA formed the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which was key in creating the DART mission. Using an infrared space probe named NEOWISE, scientists identify and track asteroids including those that can be dangerous. Ninety percent of potential planet-killing asteroids have been discovered so far, said Amy Mainzer, a University of Arizona professor and NEOWISE chief investigator.
Based on current data, no asteroid larger than 450 feet wide-large enough to cause widespread regional damage- is estimated to hit our planet during the next 100 years. But less than half of the estimated NEOs measuring that size have been identified and the Chelyabinsk explosion was unexpected.
Obviously, time is of the essence in preparing to defend against a celestial disaster. A lead of several years could be enough to launch a DART-like missile. But with only a few days warning, humans would have to rely on civil defense protection. NASA has been working on such a plan with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The catastrophic prehistoric blast may have killed the dinosaurs, but gave way to the development of mammals and eventually humans.
Earth will survive but it takes a long time to heal, according to Mainzer.
“The planet may recover in five to 10 million years but we won’t be around to see it,” she said.
In the meantime, the human race can breathe a little easier, said Elena Adams DART system engineer.
“As far as we can tell, our first planetary defense test was successful. I think earthlings should sleep better. I know I will,” she said.
But this accomplishment was different. Instead of sending a probe into space to gather data, the DART mission is designed to test a theory that could someday save the entire human race.
One hundred forty million miles into the cosmos, a spacecraft equipped with a camera took a close up photo of a rocky asteroid and then slammed into it at 140,000 miles per hour.
In the coming days and weeks, astronomers will observe the asteroid to see if the collision knocked the object out of its orbit. Then the mission would be considered truly successful.
DART stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. Changing the trajectory of an large asteroid could divert it from a deadly collision course with Earth should the need arise, scientists hope.
In November 2021, NASA launched DART and aimed it at a two asteroids: Didymos, roughly 2,500 feet in diameter and Dimorphos, a 530 foot moonlet that orbits it. The probe was flown into Dimorphos; any changes in its orbital path will be considered very significant. Neither asteroid poses a threat to this planet, even after the course correction.
Asteroids are chunks of rock or metal that formed during collisions when the solar system was born millions of years ago.
Most orbit in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. But gravity causes some to break away, often coming within a few thousand miles of Earth. Others have hit the planet after being broken up on entering the atmosphere. Researchers call them Near Earth Objects or NEOs.
The potential for damage from an NEO depends on its size. Dozens of very small objects hit our atmosphere every day, causing nothing more than a visible light.
But 65 billion years ago, an asteroid, three to six miles in size, landed in the Gulf of Mexico, causing worldwide devastation and the death of the dinosaurs. The explosive force exceeded 10 times the destructive power of all the world’s nuclear arsenals combined.
In February 2013, a 65-foot meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia. Wide spread damage was limited due to the community’s sparse population, but many people were injured by broken glass caused by the ensuing shockwave.
To protect the human race, NASA formed the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which was key in creating the DART mission. Using an infrared space probe named NEOWISE, scientists identify and track asteroids including those that can be dangerous. Ninety percent of potential planet-killing asteroids have been discovered so far, said Amy Mainzer, a University of Arizona professor and NEOWISE chief investigator.
Based on current data, no asteroid larger than 450 feet wide-large enough to cause widespread regional damage- is estimated to hit our planet during the next 100 years. But less than half of the estimated NEOs measuring that size have been identified and the Chelyabinsk explosion was unexpected.
Obviously, time is of the essence in preparing to defend against a celestial disaster. A lead of several years could be enough to launch a DART-like missile. But with only a few days warning, humans would have to rely on civil defense protection. NASA has been working on such a plan with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The catastrophic prehistoric blast may have killed the dinosaurs, but gave way to the development of mammals and eventually humans.
Earth will survive but it takes a long time to heal, according to Mainzer.
“The planet may recover in five to 10 million years but we won’t be around to see it,” she said.
In the meantime, the human race can breathe a little easier, said Elena Adams DART system engineer.
“As far as we can tell, our first planetary defense test was successful. I think earthlings should sleep better. I know I will,” she said.
A photo, (below) taken from the DART spacecraft, shows the target asteroid before impact. Scientists will monitor the object to see if it has changed its orbit.
Webb telescope shows deep space
Thousands of galaxies appear here in a photo of distant star cluster SMCAS. This slice of the universe covers a patch of space approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
Below, a landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. Photos courtesy of NASA
The James Webb Space Telescope made its official debut Tuesday to rave reviews from scientists and astronomers worldwide.
Release of the first images taken by the state-of-the-art astronomical instrument had all the anticipated buildup of an Apple product unveiling.
NASA Scientists who worked on the project were sworn to secrecy to prevent leaks, but President Joe Biden scooped everyone by putting out a photo on Monday.
NASA, known for its ability to promote space missions and technology, pulled out all the stops. The agency’s streaming channel featured gleeful show hosts interviewing researchers, and a global hook up with audiences in India, Europe, Canada and the United States.
But NASA has every reason to be proud. The Webb telescope is a game changer, allowing astronomers to see further into the cosmos than ever before to unlock secrets of the universe.
Launched into space at the end of 2021, the telescope sits one million miles from Earth. Its onboard infrared sensors allow astronomers to see the most distant stars and galaxies because the expansion of the universe has changed their light from the electromagnetic spectrum to infrared.
Distances throughout the universe are measured by the length of time needed for light from a heavenly body to reach Earth at a speed of 186,000 miles per second.
Deep space objects can be light years away, meaning that it took years for the light to reach us. The stars and galaxies in photo SMACS 0723 are 4 billion light years from Earth, so viewing them is literally looking into the past.
The Webb telescope has the ability to view objects a staggering 13 billion light years away, and its likely scientists can peer back into the time of the Big Bang, the massive explosion that formed the universe 100 million years before the first stars appeared.
Scientists will get a better look at the births and deaths of stars, and the interaction of galaxies. The Webb has the capacity to see through objects that are not visible through a standard telescope because its infrared radiation can penetrate surrounding dust formations.
By studying small “exoplanets “that surround stars, astronomers can determine if a world’s atmosphere contains a “bio signature” a clue that life exists there. It’s a tempting idea though something of a long shot.
“I think we will be able to find planets that we think are interesting-good possibilities for life,” University of Arizona astronomer Megan Mansfield told the New York Times, “But we won’t necessarily be able to just identify life immediately.”
Tuesday’s release amounted to a vote of confidence in the JWST project, which had experienced a series of cost over runs and other problems which delayed launch and deployment. The project cost around $10 billion and the device will remain active for up to 20 years barring any unexpected problems.
Astrophysicist Thomas Green served on the Webb Infrared Science Team at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.
The project had its challenges, he said, and extensive testing of the telescope’s systems was necessary for a craft that would be a million miles away.
“Everything was frightening,” he said. ‘’ There were about 340 things that, if they failed, could seriously impact the mission. The first two weeks we were on the edge of our chairs, but when we got the first images, we knew everything was going to be o.k.”
“In the beginning people did not understand how big and hard it (the project) was but it all paid off,” he said.
“We planned for plan A if everything went well, for plan B if it didn’t, and for plan C if it was really, really bad. But It was plan A all the way through.”
The sheer beauty of the photos brought tears to the eyes of NASA astrophysicist Jane Rigby, a key figure in the telescope mission.
“The first focused images that we took when they were razor sharp…that for me was when I had the very emotional reaction of ‘oh my goodness it works and it works better than we thought,” she said.
“I went ahead and cried because what the engineers have done to develop this thing. It’s amazing.”
Release of the first images taken by the state-of-the-art astronomical instrument had all the anticipated buildup of an Apple product unveiling.
NASA Scientists who worked on the project were sworn to secrecy to prevent leaks, but President Joe Biden scooped everyone by putting out a photo on Monday.
NASA, known for its ability to promote space missions and technology, pulled out all the stops. The agency’s streaming channel featured gleeful show hosts interviewing researchers, and a global hook up with audiences in India, Europe, Canada and the United States.
But NASA has every reason to be proud. The Webb telescope is a game changer, allowing astronomers to see further into the cosmos than ever before to unlock secrets of the universe.
Launched into space at the end of 2021, the telescope sits one million miles from Earth. Its onboard infrared sensors allow astronomers to see the most distant stars and galaxies because the expansion of the universe has changed their light from the electromagnetic spectrum to infrared.
Distances throughout the universe are measured by the length of time needed for light from a heavenly body to reach Earth at a speed of 186,000 miles per second.
Deep space objects can be light years away, meaning that it took years for the light to reach us. The stars and galaxies in photo SMACS 0723 are 4 billion light years from Earth, so viewing them is literally looking into the past.
The Webb telescope has the ability to view objects a staggering 13 billion light years away, and its likely scientists can peer back into the time of the Big Bang, the massive explosion that formed the universe 100 million years before the first stars appeared.
Scientists will get a better look at the births and deaths of stars, and the interaction of galaxies. The Webb has the capacity to see through objects that are not visible through a standard telescope because its infrared radiation can penetrate surrounding dust formations.
By studying small “exoplanets “that surround stars, astronomers can determine if a world’s atmosphere contains a “bio signature” a clue that life exists there. It’s a tempting idea though something of a long shot.
“I think we will be able to find planets that we think are interesting-good possibilities for life,” University of Arizona astronomer Megan Mansfield told the New York Times, “But we won’t necessarily be able to just identify life immediately.”
Tuesday’s release amounted to a vote of confidence in the JWST project, which had experienced a series of cost over runs and other problems which delayed launch and deployment. The project cost around $10 billion and the device will remain active for up to 20 years barring any unexpected problems.
Astrophysicist Thomas Green served on the Webb Infrared Science Team at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.
The project had its challenges, he said, and extensive testing of the telescope’s systems was necessary for a craft that would be a million miles away.
“Everything was frightening,” he said. ‘’ There were about 340 things that, if they failed, could seriously impact the mission. The first two weeks we were on the edge of our chairs, but when we got the first images, we knew everything was going to be o.k.”
“In the beginning people did not understand how big and hard it (the project) was but it all paid off,” he said.
“We planned for plan A if everything went well, for plan B if it didn’t, and for plan C if it was really, really bad. But It was plan A all the way through.”
The sheer beauty of the photos brought tears to the eyes of NASA astrophysicist Jane Rigby, a key figure in the telescope mission.
“The first focused images that we took when they were razor sharp…that for me was when I had the very emotional reaction of ‘oh my goodness it works and it works better than we thought,” she said.
“I went ahead and cried because what the engineers have done to develop this thing. It’s amazing.”
Black hole comes to life in photo
At the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lies something amazing. And unseen in detail until now—a black hole.
On Thursday, radio astronomers released a photo of the object, which is thousands of light years away from earth and so large that it is four million times greater than the Sun.
Black holes are so gravitationally dense that even light cannot escape them. The orange ring on the outside- called an event horizon-is caused by radiation.
The photo was created by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, the same scientific team that released a shot of a more distant black hole, M87, in 2019.
“Today, right this moment we have direct evidence that this object is a black hole, “said Astrophysicist Sara Issaoun of the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the science journal Nature.
Katie Bouman, a computational imaging researcher at the California Institute of Technology, agreed that the image was historic.
“We’ve been working on this for so long, every once in a while you have to pinch yourself and remember that this is the black hole at the center of our universe.”
Prior to release of the photos, scientists were only able to predict the presence of black holes through indirect observations and Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
To get the photo, collaboration scientists connected eight telescopes worldwide and began collecting data during five nights in April 2017. The data was so massive-4,000 terrabytes- that it could not be shared on the internet and had to be carried by airplanes on hard disks.
The newest photo is of Sagittarius A, which resides at the center of the Milky Way. The previous image was designated M87 for the galaxy in which is exists.
On Thursday, radio astronomers released a photo of the object, which is thousands of light years away from earth and so large that it is four million times greater than the Sun.
Black holes are so gravitationally dense that even light cannot escape them. The orange ring on the outside- called an event horizon-is caused by radiation.
The photo was created by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, the same scientific team that released a shot of a more distant black hole, M87, in 2019.
“Today, right this moment we have direct evidence that this object is a black hole, “said Astrophysicist Sara Issaoun of the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the science journal Nature.
Katie Bouman, a computational imaging researcher at the California Institute of Technology, agreed that the image was historic.
“We’ve been working on this for so long, every once in a while you have to pinch yourself and remember that this is the black hole at the center of our universe.”
Prior to release of the photos, scientists were only able to predict the presence of black holes through indirect observations and Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
To get the photo, collaboration scientists connected eight telescopes worldwide and began collecting data during five nights in April 2017. The data was so massive-4,000 terrabytes- that it could not be shared on the internet and had to be carried by airplanes on hard disks.
The newest photo is of Sagittarius A, which resides at the center of the Milky Way. The previous image was designated M87 for the galaxy in which is exists.
Living Worlds: an engrossing look at the search for planetary life
When astronomers gaze through telescopes, they are seeking more than a night -time view of a distant star or planet.
They look to answer a question that has puzzled humans for as long as they have been able to look into the heavens. “Are we alone in the universe?” Does life exist on other planets?”
The Morrison Planetarium’s newest show “Living Worlds” doesn’t answer that question definitively, but it does examine all of the possibilities in an imaginative and engrossing presentation that’s more akin an experience than an illustrated science lecture. It opened at the California Academy of Sciences Friday, Nov. 5.
It’s the latest offering from the planetarium’s science visualization department headed by Morrison Senior Director and Science Visualization visionary Ryan Wyatt.
The planetarium is the largest all digital domed screen of its kind and Wyatt’s team of a dozen high-tech storytellers have, in the past, taken audiences under the soil to see insect life, across living coral reefs and into the Chilean mountains to see how astronomy teams monitor the heavens.
But this project is by far the most compelling show yet, which gets its point across though sometime dizzying visual effects and a script that draws on current cutting edge astronomical research undertaken by NASA and other major science organizations.
To produce such a project, Wyatt his team involve some of the most distinguished scientists in the field including astronomers Jill Tarter and Nathalie Cabrol of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Some of the planetary probes shown in Distant Worlds are still on the JPL drawing board, but the team was able to bring them to life with a little imagination and the latest in computer imaging programs.
NASA officials were especially impressed with a sequence involving a snake-like robot that someday may burrow into underground water on one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus.
“The collaboration was really rewarding,” said Jeron Lapre, senior technical director of the visualization studio, “We got to collaborate on the color scheme of the robot. They said when it gets approved, they might adopt that color scheme.”
“To think that a spacecraft would be going to the outer reaches of our solar system with our color scheme. How cool is that?” he said.
Special effects are fun but “Living Worlds” takes a serious look at the natural forces that helped bring about life on Earth and how those systems may be at work on planets and moons in our solar system.
Along with space-based telescopes, scientists can call on a variety of technologies that measure the chemical spectrum present in extraterrestrial atmospheres and compare that to those found on Earth. The show does a good job of presenting the possibility that such findings could indicate traces of life without becoming preachy or too technical.
Earth’s current crisis is also a part of the “Distant Worlds” story and the show ends with an optimistic view of a green Bay Area where humanity has created a biodiverse future.
It’s now an exciting time for astronomy, as new planets are being discovered in parts of the universe that were not viewable before, said David Grinspoon, senior scientist with the Planetary Science Institute.
“We are discovering the massive realm of other exoplanets that provide so many places where things like life may be unfolding,” he said, adding “It’s not an esoteric quest. It’s very much about understanding the history and limits of life on earth and trying to apply that elsewhere.”
After seeing the show, some viewers may conclude that life does exist elsewhere in the cosmos and will certainly know more about how scientists look for it.
Shannon Bennett, the academy’s chief of science is convinced.
“I know we are not alone,” she said. “We feel alone because we isolated in space and time but there’s life out there.”
Living Worlds is shown daily in Morrison Planetarium. Admission to the planetarium is free with paid entry to the museum. Tickets are distributed outside the dome the day of the performance.
For more information visit: calacademy.org/exhibits/morrison-planetarium
They look to answer a question that has puzzled humans for as long as they have been able to look into the heavens. “Are we alone in the universe?” Does life exist on other planets?”
The Morrison Planetarium’s newest show “Living Worlds” doesn’t answer that question definitively, but it does examine all of the possibilities in an imaginative and engrossing presentation that’s more akin an experience than an illustrated science lecture. It opened at the California Academy of Sciences Friday, Nov. 5.
It’s the latest offering from the planetarium’s science visualization department headed by Morrison Senior Director and Science Visualization visionary Ryan Wyatt.
The planetarium is the largest all digital domed screen of its kind and Wyatt’s team of a dozen high-tech storytellers have, in the past, taken audiences under the soil to see insect life, across living coral reefs and into the Chilean mountains to see how astronomy teams monitor the heavens.
But this project is by far the most compelling show yet, which gets its point across though sometime dizzying visual effects and a script that draws on current cutting edge astronomical research undertaken by NASA and other major science organizations.
To produce such a project, Wyatt his team involve some of the most distinguished scientists in the field including astronomers Jill Tarter and Nathalie Cabrol of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Some of the planetary probes shown in Distant Worlds are still on the JPL drawing board, but the team was able to bring them to life with a little imagination and the latest in computer imaging programs.
NASA officials were especially impressed with a sequence involving a snake-like robot that someday may burrow into underground water on one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus.
“The collaboration was really rewarding,” said Jeron Lapre, senior technical director of the visualization studio, “We got to collaborate on the color scheme of the robot. They said when it gets approved, they might adopt that color scheme.”
“To think that a spacecraft would be going to the outer reaches of our solar system with our color scheme. How cool is that?” he said.
Special effects are fun but “Living Worlds” takes a serious look at the natural forces that helped bring about life on Earth and how those systems may be at work on planets and moons in our solar system.
Along with space-based telescopes, scientists can call on a variety of technologies that measure the chemical spectrum present in extraterrestrial atmospheres and compare that to those found on Earth. The show does a good job of presenting the possibility that such findings could indicate traces of life without becoming preachy or too technical.
Earth’s current crisis is also a part of the “Distant Worlds” story and the show ends with an optimistic view of a green Bay Area where humanity has created a biodiverse future.
It’s now an exciting time for astronomy, as new planets are being discovered in parts of the universe that were not viewable before, said David Grinspoon, senior scientist with the Planetary Science Institute.
“We are discovering the massive realm of other exoplanets that provide so many places where things like life may be unfolding,” he said, adding “It’s not an esoteric quest. It’s very much about understanding the history and limits of life on earth and trying to apply that elsewhere.”
After seeing the show, some viewers may conclude that life does exist elsewhere in the cosmos and will certainly know more about how scientists look for it.
Shannon Bennett, the academy’s chief of science is convinced.
“I know we are not alone,” she said. “We feel alone because we isolated in space and time but there’s life out there.”
Living Worlds is shown daily in Morrison Planetarium. Admission to the planetarium is free with paid entry to the museum. Tickets are distributed outside the dome the day of the performance.
For more information visit: calacademy.org/exhibits/morrison-planetarium
Costly lunar space suits behind schedule
Caption: NASA space suit designer, Amy Ross, far left, and Agency Director Jim Bridenstine, second from left, applaud two NASA employees modeling space suits for the Artemis program. The white suit is designed to be worn on the Moon's surface while the orange suit will be worn by astronauts during space flight.. Photo courtesy NASA.
Mankind’s return to the Moon will take longer than anticipated, in part, because the astronauts don’t have a thing to wear.
On the lunar surface, that is.
Development of two space suits needed to plant another American flag in the lunar dust has taken longer than expected and the suits won’t be ready until 2025 at the earliest, according to a report by the NASA Inspector General’s office, reported in the Washington Post.
The space agency’s Artemis program had projected a lunar landing a year earlier. Artemis is just the first phase of a long-term program to land humans on Mars.
Not only are the two suits behind schedule, but they are the most expensive astronaut garments ever, costing in excess of $1 billion for the pair. And you thought you had high clothing bills.
Artemis is the first program to build new lunar suits since Apollo program astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin thrilled live television audiences by strolling around the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility in 1969.
NASA describes the suits as small capsules designed to shield the wearers from the vacuum of space and the harsh conditions they will encounter on the darker portions of the Moon.
These new suits feature a more flexible torso that will allow astronauts to actually walk and kneel more easily. They are a far cry from the stiff outfits worn by Apollo crews which required them to hop around the surface.
Though NASA is in charge of designing and building the suits, at least 27 separate private contractors are supplying the parts. Numerous glitches have occurred during design and testing, leading the inspector general to conclude that “a lunar landing in late 2024 as NASA currently plans is not feasible.”
And the new suits will fit a variety of body sizes. That’s important because the first person to step on the moon this time will be a woman and critics have said NASA has traditionally designed suits just for men.
In fact, an ill-fitting suit was indirectly responsible for cancellation of the first all-women’s spacewalk outside the International Space Station in 2019. No alteration services were available at the time.
Mankind’s return to the Moon will take longer than anticipated, in part, because the astronauts don’t have a thing to wear.
On the lunar surface, that is.
Development of two space suits needed to plant another American flag in the lunar dust has taken longer than expected and the suits won’t be ready until 2025 at the earliest, according to a report by the NASA Inspector General’s office, reported in the Washington Post.
The space agency’s Artemis program had projected a lunar landing a year earlier. Artemis is just the first phase of a long-term program to land humans on Mars.
Not only are the two suits behind schedule, but they are the most expensive astronaut garments ever, costing in excess of $1 billion for the pair. And you thought you had high clothing bills.
Artemis is the first program to build new lunar suits since Apollo program astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin thrilled live television audiences by strolling around the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility in 1969.
NASA describes the suits as small capsules designed to shield the wearers from the vacuum of space and the harsh conditions they will encounter on the darker portions of the Moon.
These new suits feature a more flexible torso that will allow astronauts to actually walk and kneel more easily. They are a far cry from the stiff outfits worn by Apollo crews which required them to hop around the surface.
Though NASA is in charge of designing and building the suits, at least 27 separate private contractors are supplying the parts. Numerous glitches have occurred during design and testing, leading the inspector general to conclude that “a lunar landing in late 2024 as NASA currently plans is not feasible.”
And the new suits will fit a variety of body sizes. That’s important because the first person to step on the moon this time will be a woman and critics have said NASA has traditionally designed suits just for men.
In fact, an ill-fitting suit was indirectly responsible for cancellation of the first all-women’s spacewalk outside the International Space Station in 2019. No alteration services were available at the time.
Earth helicopter makes historic flight on the Red Planet
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More than a century since the Wright Brothers took to the skies, another American built flyer has gone where no machine has gone before-Mars.
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory were celebrating Monday, April 19 as images of the Ingenuity helicopter hovering over the Red Planet reached Earth. The copter is the little brother of the Perseverance probe- the most advanced robotic explorer ever sent to the Martian surface- which landed on Mars Feb 18. The helicopter was attached to the belly of Perseverance but managed to get more than 200 feet away for its first experimental flight. At 3:34 a.m. eastern time or 12:33 Local Mean Solar Time (how Martians track time) the copter rose 10 fee into the air, hovered for 30 seconds before making a soft landing. Perseverance cameras captured the whole event and NASA released a video which was not available to JPL scientists in real time due to the distance between Earth and Mars. Engineers could not fly the copter with a joystick either, but Ingenuity was controlled by an autonomous program featuring algorithms that handled guidance, navigation and control systems. NASA officials were happy, to say the least. “Ingenuity is the latest in a long and storied tradition of NASA projects achieving a space exploration goal that was once thought impossible,” said Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk in a press release. “We don’t know where Ingenuity will lead us, but today’s results indicate the sky-at least on Mars-may not be the limit.” The helicopter has since conducted two more flights going higher and staying aloft longer. To honor the Wright Brothers, a piece of the Wright Flyer-the world’s first powered airplane- was placed inside the copter. NASA administrators also named the rocky spot of Martian soil which served as Ingenuity’s landing pad Wright Brothers Field. NASA has plans to eventually send humans to the Red Planet and this mini flight was designed to test if an aircraft could fly in Mars’ very thin atmosphere. |
Video courtesy of NASA/JPL
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NASA probe looks for signs of ancient Martian life
Photo/video NASA/JPL
There’s nothing like a landing on a distant planet to make NASA engineers jump for joy.
And they did, Thursday, Feb. 18, breaking into applause as the Perseverance rover touched down flawlessly on the surface of Mars.
“NASA works, this is what NASA does, “exclaimed one observer in the control center of the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The landing was the culmination of a seven month, 300 million mile journey for the remote-controlled vehicle, which will spend almost two years trying to answer one of humanity’s most burning questions: did life ever exist on the Red Planet?
The United States has landed probes on the planet before, but NASA and its elaborate public information division went all out to promote this mission as a game changer.
A video hook up in the JPL command center broadcast the event live on television and online, complete with an animated mockup of the spacecraft descending through the Martian atmosphere.
The camera focused on engineer Swati Mohan as she rhythmically called out the distance to the planet’s surface every few seconds. The tension was reminiscent of the breathless moments before NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in July, 1969.
And finally the announcement was made: “Touchdown confirmed. Perseverance is safely on the planet Mars,’’ she said.
The anticipation of this latest robotic Martian mission is fueled by humankind’s fascination with the Red Planet and the possibility that life as we know it may have once existed on the fourth rock from the sun.
One billion years ago, Mars was hotter and wetter than it is today. The surface shows evidence that water was present, forming rivers and lakes that have since dried up. Today the planet is a cold, lifeless husk where temperatures plunge well below zero and the thin atmosphere teems with unbreathable carbon dioxide.
But, given that the planet once contained the building blocks of ancient life---water carbon and energy--scientists are eager to find out if fossilized life forms could be present in Mars’ soil.
Perseverance has landed in the Jezero Crater, which once was filled with water and adjacent to a river delta, the perfect place for life to have existed. The elaborate probe, which is as big as a sports utility vehicle, will extract soil, analyze it with a package of high tech instruments and transmit the data to earth.
It will also leave samples on the surface which will be picked up by another rover years later and, once the technology is perfected, a spacecraft will fly it back to earth for close-up analysis. Later this spring, engineers will also test the onboard “Ingenuity ”robotic helicopter to see if it can navigate the Martian atmosphere and act as a kind of scout during future manned missions.
The Martin surface is littered with present and former spacecraft which have made their contribution to America’s exploration of the planet.
In 1976, NASA sent Viking 1 and Viking 2 probes which transmitted photos for six years and conducted biological experiments but with inconclusive results. In later years, the rovers Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity transited the Martian surface sending back 100,000 photos before being damaged in dust storms.
Two other NASA spacecraft are now active on the surface. “InSight” is studying the planet’s interior and has already discovered that Mars is often wracked by earthquakes. “Curiosity,” launched in 2012, is located in the Gale crater, analyzing rocks from an ancient lakebed.
It’s unknown if life ever grew on Mars, but if NASA officials are to be believed, we will someday. Plans call for a manned mission in the next decade and tech titan Elon Musk has said that humanity must be a “multiplanetary species” to survive. He envisions more than a million people living on the planet by the end of the century.
And they did, Thursday, Feb. 18, breaking into applause as the Perseverance rover touched down flawlessly on the surface of Mars.
“NASA works, this is what NASA does, “exclaimed one observer in the control center of the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The landing was the culmination of a seven month, 300 million mile journey for the remote-controlled vehicle, which will spend almost two years trying to answer one of humanity’s most burning questions: did life ever exist on the Red Planet?
The United States has landed probes on the planet before, but NASA and its elaborate public information division went all out to promote this mission as a game changer.
A video hook up in the JPL command center broadcast the event live on television and online, complete with an animated mockup of the spacecraft descending through the Martian atmosphere.
The camera focused on engineer Swati Mohan as she rhythmically called out the distance to the planet’s surface every few seconds. The tension was reminiscent of the breathless moments before NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in July, 1969.
And finally the announcement was made: “Touchdown confirmed. Perseverance is safely on the planet Mars,’’ she said.
The anticipation of this latest robotic Martian mission is fueled by humankind’s fascination with the Red Planet and the possibility that life as we know it may have once existed on the fourth rock from the sun.
One billion years ago, Mars was hotter and wetter than it is today. The surface shows evidence that water was present, forming rivers and lakes that have since dried up. Today the planet is a cold, lifeless husk where temperatures plunge well below zero and the thin atmosphere teems with unbreathable carbon dioxide.
But, given that the planet once contained the building blocks of ancient life---water carbon and energy--scientists are eager to find out if fossilized life forms could be present in Mars’ soil.
Perseverance has landed in the Jezero Crater, which once was filled with water and adjacent to a river delta, the perfect place for life to have existed. The elaborate probe, which is as big as a sports utility vehicle, will extract soil, analyze it with a package of high tech instruments and transmit the data to earth.
It will also leave samples on the surface which will be picked up by another rover years later and, once the technology is perfected, a spacecraft will fly it back to earth for close-up analysis. Later this spring, engineers will also test the onboard “Ingenuity ”robotic helicopter to see if it can navigate the Martian atmosphere and act as a kind of scout during future manned missions.
The Martin surface is littered with present and former spacecraft which have made their contribution to America’s exploration of the planet.
In 1976, NASA sent Viking 1 and Viking 2 probes which transmitted photos for six years and conducted biological experiments but with inconclusive results. In later years, the rovers Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity transited the Martian surface sending back 100,000 photos before being damaged in dust storms.
Two other NASA spacecraft are now active on the surface. “InSight” is studying the planet’s interior and has already discovered that Mars is often wracked by earthquakes. “Curiosity,” launched in 2012, is located in the Gale crater, analyzing rocks from an ancient lakebed.
It’s unknown if life ever grew on Mars, but if NASA officials are to be believed, we will someday. Plans call for a manned mission in the next decade and tech titan Elon Musk has said that humanity must be a “multiplanetary species” to survive. He envisions more than a million people living on the planet by the end of the century.
Watch the touchdown
America returns to space from its own soil
SpaceX Capsule Dragon
May 20,2020
It was a day to celebrate the success of American technology and private enterprise. And who doesn’t like that.
The SpaceX two man crew in their Dragon space capsule, roared off the launch pad at 3:22 p.m. May 30, enroute to the International Space Station where it would dock and deposit astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley after a 19-hour flight.
A lot was riding on the success of the mission. Saturday’s launch was the first blast off of a space craft from American soil since NASA’s Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.
The flight was also a huge financial gamble for entrepreneur Elon Musk who wanted to prove that a privately-built rocket could provide the resources NASA needs to undertake two more audacious missions: returning humans to the Moon within this decade and landing astronauts on Mars sometime in the future.
I must admit to having kept my fingers crossed as the rocket roared upward. Like so many others, I remember seeing the Space Shuttle Challenger ascend skyward perfectly in 1986 only to watch it explore in a ball of flame seconds later, killing all the astronauts aboard.
Since the end of the shuttle era, NASA has relied on the Russian-built Soyuz system to shuttle its astronauts to the station. Over the years, the U.S. has paid the Russians a total of $80 million per seat for the flights. It is hoped that flying privately built American spacecraft will save the taxpayers a lot of money and encourage tech innovation on the process.
Sure enough, the rocket booster that pushed the capsule into the upper atmosphere was recovered after it landed on a drone platform in the ocean. SpaceX plans to reuse it in future flights.
Musk was ecstatic after the launch and well he should be. SPACE X was chosen over for this mission over rival aerospace firm Boeing because a freight version of the Dragon capsule has been successfully ferrying supplies to the space station. Boeing hopes to carry astronauts to the ISS in the company's Starliner capsule. But an uncrewed flight failed last year when the capsule became stranded in the wrong orbit and returned safely after circling the Earth for two days
Space X has also suffered from technical setbacks. A much larger rocket capable of carrying humans to Mars exploded on a SPACE X launch pad the day before, forcing engineers back to the drawing board.
NASA, which has an extensive public relations division, was happy too. The launch was available live on the Internet, with multiple cameras showing the capsule and its crew at every stage of the flight.
It was the most viewed Internet event ever, NASA communications administrator Bettina Inclan told a press conference.
“We’re still collecting the data but some of our metrics are saying that peak viewership for the joint NASA Space x Launch across all of our platforms was at least 10.3 million concurrent viewers-the most watched event we have ever tracked.”
However, that number represents only online viewers. The biggest audience for a space mission ever was the 600 million viewers who watched former Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren land on the moon with Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, according to Space.com.
Whether the good feeling engendered by the mission will encourage the American public in the long run is anyone’s guess.
The launch took place during the coronavirus pandemic which has killed more than 100,000 Americans and caused an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
The recent killing of an African American man by Minneapolis Police has caused nationwide demonstrations along with nighttime violence and looting.
Space program supporters insist that reaching for the stars in times of turmoil is nothing new. The Apollo program took place during the 1960’s when American was torn by civil rights conflicts and the nation’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The moon landing provided a break from the grim daily news and improved public morale, they insist.
The SpaceX two man crew in their Dragon space capsule, roared off the launch pad at 3:22 p.m. May 30, enroute to the International Space Station where it would dock and deposit astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley after a 19-hour flight.
A lot was riding on the success of the mission. Saturday’s launch was the first blast off of a space craft from American soil since NASA’s Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.
The flight was also a huge financial gamble for entrepreneur Elon Musk who wanted to prove that a privately-built rocket could provide the resources NASA needs to undertake two more audacious missions: returning humans to the Moon within this decade and landing astronauts on Mars sometime in the future.
I must admit to having kept my fingers crossed as the rocket roared upward. Like so many others, I remember seeing the Space Shuttle Challenger ascend skyward perfectly in 1986 only to watch it explore in a ball of flame seconds later, killing all the astronauts aboard.
Since the end of the shuttle era, NASA has relied on the Russian-built Soyuz system to shuttle its astronauts to the station. Over the years, the U.S. has paid the Russians a total of $80 million per seat for the flights. It is hoped that flying privately built American spacecraft will save the taxpayers a lot of money and encourage tech innovation on the process.
Sure enough, the rocket booster that pushed the capsule into the upper atmosphere was recovered after it landed on a drone platform in the ocean. SpaceX plans to reuse it in future flights.
Musk was ecstatic after the launch and well he should be. SPACE X was chosen over for this mission over rival aerospace firm Boeing because a freight version of the Dragon capsule has been successfully ferrying supplies to the space station. Boeing hopes to carry astronauts to the ISS in the company's Starliner capsule. But an uncrewed flight failed last year when the capsule became stranded in the wrong orbit and returned safely after circling the Earth for two days
Space X has also suffered from technical setbacks. A much larger rocket capable of carrying humans to Mars exploded on a SPACE X launch pad the day before, forcing engineers back to the drawing board.
NASA, which has an extensive public relations division, was happy too. The launch was available live on the Internet, with multiple cameras showing the capsule and its crew at every stage of the flight.
It was the most viewed Internet event ever, NASA communications administrator Bettina Inclan told a press conference.
“We’re still collecting the data but some of our metrics are saying that peak viewership for the joint NASA Space x Launch across all of our platforms was at least 10.3 million concurrent viewers-the most watched event we have ever tracked.”
However, that number represents only online viewers. The biggest audience for a space mission ever was the 600 million viewers who watched former Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren land on the moon with Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, according to Space.com.
Whether the good feeling engendered by the mission will encourage the American public in the long run is anyone’s guess.
The launch took place during the coronavirus pandemic which has killed more than 100,000 Americans and caused an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
The recent killing of an African American man by Minneapolis Police has caused nationwide demonstrations along with nighttime violence and looting.
Space program supporters insist that reaching for the stars in times of turmoil is nothing new. The Apollo program took place during the 1960’s when American was torn by civil rights conflicts and the nation’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The moon landing provided a break from the grim daily news and improved public morale, they insist.
Online planetarium show reveals South American observatories
Image driving up a dark, mountainous road to a place like no other.
It’s heaven for stargazers, where you can look up and see large portions of the Milky Way Galaxy with the naked eye.
For the world’s astronomers, it’s the gateway to the cosmos. Each night, teams of scientists take advantage of the ideal conditions to peer out into the universe with the latest high-tech visual and radio telescopes.
The story of this extraordinary system and the people who operate it is being told in “Big Astronomy, People, Places, Discoveries,” now being shown online by the California Academy of Sciences.
Financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, “Big Astronomy” was created by the academy’s science visualization team headed by Ryan Wyatt, director of the Morrison Planetarium. Because the planetarium is closed due to pandemic restrictions, the show is being distributed on You Tube along with live interviews and other related events
Wyatt’s team travelled to Chile twice during 2019 to film at a series of high- altitude observatories run by the NSF and connected to research institutions in the United States.
Chile is the ideal spot for astronomy due to winds out of the Antarctic which create clear, cloudless skies in the surrounding mountains. The Atacama Desert, the world’s driest, is also ideal for radio astronomy and is home to the ALMA array which has been key to many astronomical discoveries.
Special emphasis was placed on the people who operate the system. To provide an accurate picture, the team conducted numerous interviews with everyone from astronomers to an employee who drives an enormous vehicle that moves radio telescopes.
“All the great discoveries that are made every day need a host of people,” Wyatt said. “There are a lot of careers involved. We wanted to tell the story of these people in Chile where that happens.”
Crew member Mike Schmitt was impressed by the relationships among the Chilean employees.
“I didn’t expect the community that was there.” he said. “It was like a family.”
Creating the show was a new challenge for the team which creates most its images with computer-generated graphics. Using the latest in SONY camera technology, the team shot live action of people and places along with time-lapse photography to illustrate astronomic phenomena. Wyatt said. Future shows will probably involve more photography, he said.
“We wanted to have more footage from the real world,” he said. “We wanted to climb that learning curve.”
Not that it was always easy. It rained when the team visited the world’s driest desert, and team members were limited by how long they could stay at the sites due to limits imposed by the system and the dangers of high-altitude exposure.
The Atacama site is at 16,000 feet and some crew members briefly suffered altitude sickness. Observatory employees have their blood pressure and heart rate checked regularly to avoid physical problems, Wyatt said.
Driving down the mountain roads could be challenging as well. An earthquake measuring more than 6.0 on the Richter scale hit after a day of filming at one mountain observatory, forcing the crew to get out of the vehicle and move large boulders that had fallen on the road.
“We realized there had been an earthquake and we had to get them out of the way,” Wyatt said.
“We thought there could be an aftershock so we kept going a dozen times before we got to an intersection. “
“Big Astronomy” is streamed on the show’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqsTqcIskZ8,. The video was created in 2021 when the planetarium was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but is open now
Related videos are also on the channel and more information about other activities can be found on the group’s website bigastronomy.org.
It’s heaven for stargazers, where you can look up and see large portions of the Milky Way Galaxy with the naked eye.
For the world’s astronomers, it’s the gateway to the cosmos. Each night, teams of scientists take advantage of the ideal conditions to peer out into the universe with the latest high-tech visual and radio telescopes.
The story of this extraordinary system and the people who operate it is being told in “Big Astronomy, People, Places, Discoveries,” now being shown online by the California Academy of Sciences.
Financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, “Big Astronomy” was created by the academy’s science visualization team headed by Ryan Wyatt, director of the Morrison Planetarium. Because the planetarium is closed due to pandemic restrictions, the show is being distributed on You Tube along with live interviews and other related events
Wyatt’s team travelled to Chile twice during 2019 to film at a series of high- altitude observatories run by the NSF and connected to research institutions in the United States.
Chile is the ideal spot for astronomy due to winds out of the Antarctic which create clear, cloudless skies in the surrounding mountains. The Atacama Desert, the world’s driest, is also ideal for radio astronomy and is home to the ALMA array which has been key to many astronomical discoveries.
Special emphasis was placed on the people who operate the system. To provide an accurate picture, the team conducted numerous interviews with everyone from astronomers to an employee who drives an enormous vehicle that moves radio telescopes.
“All the great discoveries that are made every day need a host of people,” Wyatt said. “There are a lot of careers involved. We wanted to tell the story of these people in Chile where that happens.”
Crew member Mike Schmitt was impressed by the relationships among the Chilean employees.
“I didn’t expect the community that was there.” he said. “It was like a family.”
Creating the show was a new challenge for the team which creates most its images with computer-generated graphics. Using the latest in SONY camera technology, the team shot live action of people and places along with time-lapse photography to illustrate astronomic phenomena. Wyatt said. Future shows will probably involve more photography, he said.
“We wanted to have more footage from the real world,” he said. “We wanted to climb that learning curve.”
Not that it was always easy. It rained when the team visited the world’s driest desert, and team members were limited by how long they could stay at the sites due to limits imposed by the system and the dangers of high-altitude exposure.
The Atacama site is at 16,000 feet and some crew members briefly suffered altitude sickness. Observatory employees have their blood pressure and heart rate checked regularly to avoid physical problems, Wyatt said.
Driving down the mountain roads could be challenging as well. An earthquake measuring more than 6.0 on the Richter scale hit after a day of filming at one mountain observatory, forcing the crew to get out of the vehicle and move large boulders that had fallen on the road.
“We realized there had been an earthquake and we had to get them out of the way,” Wyatt said.
“We thought there could be an aftershock so we kept going a dozen times before we got to an intersection. “
“Big Astronomy” is streamed on the show’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqsTqcIskZ8,. The video was created in 2021 when the planetarium was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but is open now
Related videos are also on the channel and more information about other activities can be found on the group’s website bigastronomy.org.