Updated September 26th, 2022 at 21:49 IST
NASA's Artemis 1 delay to meteor crash on Mars; everything big that happened last week
NASA made a major announcement last week about postponing the launch of Artemis 1 to the Moon. Here's other major events that transpired in the last few days.
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In the last few days, the space domain has seen some significant accomplishments with a pinch of disappointment. This past week, we saw an example of global cooperation with the launch of an American astronaut in a Russian rocket and the recent success of the James Webb Space Telescope which spotted rings around Neptune like never before. As we move into a new week, here is a quick recap of everything that happened in the last seven days.
Russia launches NASA astronaut to the ISS
Russia's state-owned space agency, Roscosmos launched NASA astronaut Frank Rubio along with cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin in the MS-22 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The trio was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 21 in a Soyuz rocket as part of the cross-flight agreement between NASA and Roscosmos. The launch was significant as space is currently the only area where the US and Russia are carrying out collaborative activities. All three members of MS-22 will spend six months aboard the ISS.
A new crew is adjusting to life in space as another crew prepares for its departure. Meanwhile, station science (@ISS_Research) continues full speed ahead. https://t.co/43dOlcKiKz
— International Space Station (@Space_Station)
Webb telescope photographs Neptune's rings
Earlier this week, NASA released a picture of Neptune with a clear view of the rings around it. Captured using the Webb telescope, the image also featured Neptune's Moon orbiting the planet. NASA explained that Neptune appears pale in this picture because Webb observed it in infrared. When observed in visible light, Neptune appears in a blue shade due to the presence of methane gas in its atmosphere. The planet's Moons were also spotted, the brightest of which is Triton due to 70% of sunlight being reflected from its atmosphere.
That’s no star. It’s Neptune’s large, unusual moon, Triton! Because Triton is covered in frozen, condensed nitrogen, it reflects 70% of the sunlight that hits it — making it appear very bright to Webb. 6 of Neptune’s other moons (labeled) are also seen here. pic.twitter.com/xJCsE8bn3q
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb)
Insight lander records sound of meteor crash on Mars
NASA's Insight lander on Mars, which the job of screening the planet's interior, picked up signals of meteor crashes that occurred between 2020 and 2021. These signals were converted into sounds which NASA recently released. As explained by the agency, the impact sounds like a bloop "due to a peculiar atmospheric effect heard when bass sounds arrive before high-pitched sounds".
What's that? Oh, just the sound of new craters being made on Mars. Sound up for the latest from the @NASAInSight lander, whose seismometer picked up the signal of a meteoroid hitting the Martian atmosphere, breaking up, and hitting the ground: https://t.co/hyzc5F1BrM pic.twitter.com/cB7UjDerbR
— NASA (@NASA)
NASA's Artemis 1 gets delayed...again
On September 24, NASA announced that it is standing down from the Artemis 1 launch opportunity available on September 27 due to the tropical storm Ian in the Caribbean Sea. The Moon mission was planned for launch during a 70-minute launch window opening at 9:07 pm IST, however, teams are now mulling over rolling back the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from the launch pad. A backup opportunity is available on October 3, given the rocket is not removed from the launch pad for protection from the approaching storm.
Artemis I update: @NASA is foregoing a launch opportunity Tuesday, Sept. 27, and preparing for rollback, while continuing to watch the weather forecast associated with Tropical Storm Ian.
— NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy)
Learn more: https://t.co/A7M6KfWynN pic.twitter.com/Ul12GiPEte
Clearest picture of Jupiter during opposition out
While Jupiter is at its closest in 59 years, Arizona-based astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy posted, what he says is his clearest shot of the gas giant. According to McCarthy, he produced the image by stitching together six lakh individual images he took using his 11-inch telescope. NASA says that Jupiter is currently 591 million kilometres away, the closest it has been since 1963.
After spending all night shooting around 600,000 photos of it, I’m thrilled to show you my sharpest Jupiter shot so far. This was captured using an 11” telescope and a camera I usually use for deep sky work. pic.twitter.com/puCv57wGzn
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy)
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Published September 26th, 2022 at 21:49 IST