Copernical Team
Breaking in a new planet
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The harder you hit something - a ball, a walnut, a geode - the more likely it is to break open. Or, if not break open, at least lose a little bit of its structural integrity, the way baseball players pummel new gloves to make them softer and more flexible. Cracks, massive or tiny, form and bear a silent, permanent witness to the impact.
Studying how those impacts affect planetary bodies, a NASA scientists study how to remove planetary photobombers
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Imagine you go to a theme park with your family and you ask a park employee to take a group photo. A celebrity walks by in the background and waves at the camera, stealing the focus of the photo. Surprisingly, this concept of "photobombing" is relevant to astronomers looking for habitable planets, too.
When scientists point a telescope at an exoplanet, the light the telescope receives coul Surprising details leap out in Webb Telescope Jupiter images
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The latest images of Jupiter from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are stunners. Captured on July 27, the infrared images - artificially colored to make specific features stand out - show fine filigree along the edges of the colored bands and around the Great Red Spot and also provide an unprecedented view of the auroras over the north and south poles.
One wide-field image presents a Perseverance Soon Heads to 'Enchanted Lake'
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After an extended stay at "Wildcat Ridge," the Perseverance team is preparing to head southwest to another sedimentary outcrop on the Jezero Crater delta called Enchanted Lake. This site has enchanted our science team since we first visited it back April.
The drive to "Enchanted Lake" is expected to begin in the next few days with arrival in early September.
Before beginning the driv Webb's Jupiter images showcase auroras, hazes
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With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb's Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter's inner life.
"We hadn't really expected it to be this good, to be honest," said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, Leanspace and Valispace team up to demonstrate the power of Digital Continuity in space mission management
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Numerous software tools are typically required throughout a space mission; from the mission conceptualization and satellite design, to testing the hardware, to running operations. Still today, this technology stack consists of independent systems that don't talk to each other, requiring manual movement of data, limiting automation and forcing engineering teams to work with different data sets. NASA rocket launch will test science package for future missions
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NASA will test new science equipment for future missions with a sounding rocket launch August 22 from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics Demonstration mission, or SpEED Demon, will fly new instrumentation along with heritage instruments that have flown on other sounding rocket missions, but not together. The SpEED Demon instruments will be further improved based on results from this launch and will subsequently fly on a science mission targeted for summer 2024 from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and possibly many other sounding rocket opportunities.
SpEED Demon will launch on a 40-foot tall Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket between 9 p.m. EDT Aug. 22 and 1 a.m. Aug. 23. The backup launch dates are Aug. 23 through Aug. 27.
The NASA Wallops Visitor Center will open to the public at 8 p.m.
NASA targets 13 landing sites on moon's south pole for human landing
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NASA juggled light and dark to come up with 13 potential landing sites for the future Artemis III mission that will return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.
Key to the choices was being able to find locations that could support the duo of astronauts for 6 1/2 days on the surface with enough sunlight to provide power and thermal protection, but also give access to the dark regions of craters and mountainous terrain near the moon's south pole that could potentially hold water ice.
Finding water ice, which could be broken down into its component oxygen and hydrogen compounds to provide life-sustaining air and potential fuel, has been the driving force behind the initial Artemis missions.
The uncrewed Artemis I rocket is at the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center awaiting a potential launch as soon as Aug. 29. Artemis II is slated to fly with astronauts in 2024, but only orbit the moon. The Artemis III flight is slated for 2025, and two of its four astronauts, including the first woman, will take a version of SpaceX's Starship to the lunar surface.
Jupiter showcases aurorae, hazes (NIRCam widefield view)
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Jupiter showcases aurorae, hazes (NIRCam widefield view) 
