Upgraded Coronavirus Booster Shots Will Be Available in the U.S. Sometime Next Month...

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FDA Authorizes Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines for Use as a Booster Dose (Press Release)

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorizations (EUAs) of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to authorize bivalent formulations of the vaccines for use as a single booster dose at least two months following primary or booster vaccination. The bivalent vaccines, which we will also refer to as “updated boosters,” contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of SARS-CoV-2 virus, one of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the other one in common between the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.

The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 18 years of age and older. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 12 years of age and older.

The monovalent COVID-19 vaccines that are authorized or approved by the FDA and have been administered to millions of people in the United States since December 2020 contain a component from the original strain of SARS-CoV-2.

What you need to know:

- The authorized bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, or updated boosters, include an mRNA component of the original strain to provide an immune response that is broadly protective against COVID-19 and an mRNA component in common between the omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5 lineages to provide better protection against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant.

- The BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant are currently causing most cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and are predicted to circulate this fall and winter. In June, the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted overwhelmingly to include an omicron component in COVID-19 booster vaccines.

- For each bivalent COVID-19 vaccine, the FDA based its decision on the totality of available evidence, including extensive safety and effectiveness data for each of the monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, safety and immunogenicity data obtained from a clinical study of a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine that contained mRNA from omicron variant BA.1 lineage that is similar to each of the vaccines being authorized, and nonclinical data obtained using a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine that contained mRNA of the original strain and mRNA in common between the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant.

- Based on the data supporting each of these authorizations, the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are expected to provide increased protection against the currently circulating omicron variant. Individuals who receive a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine may experience side effects commonly reported by individuals who receive authorized or approved monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

- With today’s authorization, the monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are not authorized as booster doses for individuals 12 years of age and older.

- The agency will work quickly to evaluate future data and submissions to support authorization of bivalent COVID-19 boosters for additional age groups as we receive them.

Who is eligible to receive a single booster dose and when:

- Individuals 18 years of age and older are eligible for a single booster dose of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent if it has been at least two months since they have completed primary vaccination or have received the most recent booster dose with any authorized or approved monovalent COVID-19 vaccine.

- Individuals 12 years of age and older are eligible for a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent if it has been at least two months since they have completed primary vaccination or have received the most recent booster dose with any authorized or approved monovalent COVID-19 vaccine.

“The COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters, continue to save countless lives and prevent the most serious outcomes (hospitalization and death) of COVID-19,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. “As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants.”

The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent contain mRNA from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The mRNA in these vaccines is a specific piece of genetic material that instructs cells in the body to make the distinctive “spike” protein of the original virus strain and the omicron variant lineages BA.4 and BA.5. The spike proteins of BA.4 and BA.5 are identical.

“The FDA has been planning for the possibility that the composition of the COVID-19 vaccines would need to be modified to address circulating variants. We sought input from our outside experts on the inclusion of an omicron component in COVID-19 boosters to provide better protection against COVID-19. We have worked closely with the vaccine manufacturers to ensure the development of these updated boosters was done safely and efficiently.

"The FDA has extensive experience with strain changes for annual influenza vaccines. We are confident in the evidence supporting these authorizations,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “The public can be assured that a great deal of care has been taken by the FDA to ensure that these bivalent COVID-19 vaccines meet our rigorous safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality standards for emergency use authorization.”

For each of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines authorized today, the FDA evaluated immunogenicity and safety data from a clinical study of a booster dose of a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine that contained a component of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and a component of omicron lineage BA.1. The FDA considers such data as relevant and supportive of vaccines containing a component of the omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5 lineages. Furthermore, data pertaining to the safety and effectiveness of the current mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which have been administered to millions of people, including during the omicron waves of COVID-19, contributed to the agency’s evaluation.

Data Supporting the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent Authorization

To evaluate the effectiveness of a single booster dose of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent for individuals 18 years of age and older, the FDA analyzed immune response data among approximately 600 individuals 18 years of age and older who had previously received a 2-dose primary series and one booster dose of monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. These participants received a second booster dose of either the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine or Moderna’s investigational bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (original and omicron BA.1) at least 3 months after the first booster dose. After 28 days, the immune response against BA.1 of the participants who received the bivalent vaccine was better than the immune response of those who had received the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine.

The safety of a single booster dose of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent for individuals 18 years of age and older is supported by safety data from a clinical study which evaluated a booster dose of Moderna’s investigational bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (original and omicron BA.1), safety data from clinical trials which evaluated primary and booster vaccination with the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, and postmarketing safety data with the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine.

The safety data accrued with the bivalent vaccine (original and omicron BA.1) and with the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine are relevant to the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent because these vaccines are manufactured using the same process.

The clinical study that evaluated the safety of a booster dose of the bivalent vaccine (original and omicron BA.1) included approximately 800 participants 18 years of age and older who had previously received a two-dose primary series and one booster dose of the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, and then at least 3 months later, received a second booster dose with either the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine or Moderna’s investigational bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (original and omicron BA.1).

Among the study participants who received the bivalent vaccine, the most commonly-reported side effects included pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, chills, swelling of the lymph nodes in the same arm of the injection, nausea/vomiting and fever.

Data Supporting the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent Authorization

To evaluate the effectiveness of a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent for individuals 12 years of age and older, the FDA analyzed immune response data among approximately 600 adults greater than 55 years of age who had previously received a 2-dose primary series and one booster dose with the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. These participants received a second booster dose of either the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine or Pfizer-BioNTech’s investigational bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (original and omicron BA.1) 4.7 to 13.1 months after the first booster dose. After one month, the immune response against BA.1 of the participants who received the bivalent vaccine was better than the immune response of those who had received the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

The safety of a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent for individuals 12 years of age and older is based on safety data from a clinical study which evaluated a booster dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s investigational bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (original and omicron BA.1), safety data from clinical trials which evaluated primary and booster vaccination with the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and postmarketing safety data with the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

The safety data accrued with the bivalent vaccine (original and omicron BA.1) and with the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine are relevant to Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent because these vaccines are manufactured using the same process.

The clinical study that evaluated the safety of a booster dose of the bivalent vaccine (original and omicron BA.1) included approximately 600 participants greater than 55 years of age who had previously received a 2-dose primary series, one booster dose of the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and then 4.7 to 13.1 months later, received a second booster dose of either the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine or Pfizer-BioNTech’s investigational bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (original and omicron BA.1). Among the study participants who received the bivalent vaccine, the most commonly-reported side effects included pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever.

The fact sheets for both bivalent COVID-19 vaccines for recipients and caregivers and for healthcare providers include information about the potential side effects, as well as the risks of myocarditis and pericarditis.

With today’s authorization, the FDA has also revised the EUA of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to remove the use of the monovalent Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for booster administration for individuals 18 years of age and older and 12 years of age and older, respectively. These monovalent vaccines continue to be authorized for use for administration of a primary series for individuals 6 months of age and older as described in the letters of authorization. At this time, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine remains authorized for administration of a single booster dose for individuals 5 through 11 years of age at least five months after completing a primary series of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

The amendments to the EUAs were issued to Moderna TX Inc. and Pfizer Inc.

Source: FDA.Gov

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Lookin' Ahead to My First L.A. Lakers Game Since 2016!

Earlier today, I bought tix from StubHub.com for the Los Angeles Lakers-Memphis Grizzlies game that will be held at Crypto.com Arena (a.k.a. The Crypt) next March!

As mentioned in this earlier Blog entry, the jersey-retirement ceremony for Pau Gasol will be held during the Lakers-Grizzlies game on March 7, 2023. I'll be sitting in The Crypt's nosebleed section that night, but it's all good. I paid $172 (this includes the online fee) for my ticket; by comparison, a nosebleed seat only cost $50 at STAPLES Center during the Shaquille O'Neal/Kobe Bryant days 20 years ago!

The last time I went to a Lakers game was on January 28, 2016...when Kobe took on Pau Gasol and the Chicago Bulls at STAPLES Center before Bryant's retirement from the NBA a few months later. (The Bulls won that game, 114-91.)

What will also make the game next March so memorable is that this is the first LeBron-era Lakers game I'll be watching in person! Here's hoping he, Anthony Davis and um, Russell Westbrook give the Lake Show a 'W' that night. Carry on.

Photo of the Day: Hubble's Successor Captures a Snapshot of M74...

ESA / Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt

Webb Inspects the Heart of the Phantom Galaxy (News Release)

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows the heart of M74, otherwise known as the Phantom Galaxy. Webb’s sharp vision has revealed delicate filaments of gas and dust in the grandiose spiral arms which wind outwards from the centre of this image. A lack of gas in the nuclear region also provides an unobscured view of the nuclear star cluster at the galaxy's centre. M74 is a particular class of spiral galaxy known as a ‘grand design spiral’, meaning that its spiral arms are prominent and well-defined, unlike the patchy and ragged structure seen in some spiral galaxies.

The Phantom Galaxy is around 32 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces, and lies almost face-on to Earth. This, coupled with its well-defined spiral arms, makes it a favourite target for astronomers studying the origin and structure of galactic spirals.

Webb gazed into M74 with its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) in order to learn more about the earliest phases of star formation in the local Universe. These observations are part of a larger effort to chart 19 nearby star-forming galaxies in the infrared by the international PHANGS collaboration. Those galaxies have already been observed using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories. The addition of crystal-clear Webb observations at longer wavelengths will allow astronomers to pinpoint star-forming regions in the galaxies, accurately measure the masses and ages of star clusters, and gain insights into the nature of the small grains of dust drifting in interstellar space.

Hubble observations of M74 have revealed particularly bright areas of star formation known as HII regions. Hubble’s sharp vision at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths complements Webb’s unparalleled sensitivity at infrared wavelengths, as do observations from ground-based radio telescopes such as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, ALMA. By combining data from telescopes operating across the electromagnetic spectrum, scientists can gain greater insight into astronomical objects than by using a single observatory — even one as powerful as Webb!

MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally-funded European Institutes (the MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.

Source: European Space Agency

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.@NASAHubble’s observations of M74 revealed bright areas of star formation in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. Webb’s infrared vision is helping to pinpoint these regions, accurately measure the masses and ages of star clusters, and gain insight into interstellar dust. pic.twitter.com/LfuQumg08m

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) August 30, 2022

Flying at Light Speed for 156 Months Now...

Thirteen Light-Years... That’s how far the Hello From Earth message has traveled since being transmitted from a giant NASA antenna in Australia to the exoplanet Gliese 581d in the summer of 2009. As of 7 PM California time tonight (12 PM Sydney time on Sunday, August 28), the radio signal containing 25,878 goodwill text messages—including one by me—will have ventured across approximately 76 trillion miles (123 trillion kilometers) of deep space...which, as stated at the very start of this Blog entry, equals a distance of thirteen light-years. The signal, despite traveling 186,000 miles per second (or 671 million miles per hour, or um, 1 billion kilometers per hour), will still take about 7 years to reach the Gliese 581 star system. Carry on!

Hubble's Successor Detects CO2 on An Alien World Beyond Our Solar System...

NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Olmsted (STScI)

NASA’s Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Exoplanet Atmosphere (News Release)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. This observation of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet. The finding, accepted for publication in Nature, offers evidence that in the future Webb may be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets.

WASP-39 b is a hot gas giant with a mass roughly one-quarter that of Jupiter (about the same as Saturn) and a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter. Its extreme puffiness is related in part to its high temperature (about 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit or 900 degrees Celsius). Unlike the cooler, more compact gas giants in our solar system, WASP-39 b orbits very close to its star – only about one-eighth the distance between the Sun and Mercury – completing one circuit in just over four Earth-days. The planet’s discovery, reported in 2011, was made based on ground-based detections of the subtle, periodic dimming of light from its host star as the planet transits, or passes in front of the star.

Previous observations from other telescopes, including NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, revealed the presence of water vapor, sodium, and potassium in the planet’s atmosphere. Webb’s unmatched infrared sensitivity has now confirmed the presence of carbon dioxide on this planet as well.

Filtered Starlight

Transiting planets like WASP-39 b, whose orbits we observe edge-on rather than from above, can provide researchers with ideal opportunities to probe planetary atmospheres.

During a transit, some of the starlight is eclipsed by the planet completely (causing the overall dimming) and some is transmitted through the planet’s atmosphere.

Because different gases absorb different combinations of colors, researchers can analyze small differences in brightness of the transmitted light across a spectrum of wavelengths to determine exactly what an atmosphere is made of. With its combination of inflated atmosphere and frequent transits, WASP-39 b is an ideal target for transmission spectroscopy.

First Clear Detection of Carbon Dioxide

The research team used Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) for its observations of WASP-39 b. In the resulting spectrum of the exoplanet’s atmosphere, a small hill between 4.1 and 4.6 microns presents the first clear, detailed evidence for carbon dioxide ever detected in a planet outside the solar system.

"As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me,” said Zafar Rustamkulov, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and member of the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science team, which undertook this investigation. “It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences.”

No observatory has ever measured such subtle differences in brightness of so many individual colors across the 3 to 5.5-micron range in an exoplanet transmission spectrum before. Access to this part of the spectrum is crucial for measuring abundances of gases like water and methane, as well as carbon dioxide, which are thought to exist in many different types of exoplanets.

“Detecting such a clear signal of carbon dioxide on WASP-39 b bodes well for the detection of atmospheres on smaller, terrestrial-sized planets,” said Natalie Batalha of the University of California at Santa Cruz, who leads the team.

Understanding the composition of a planet’s atmosphere is important because it tells us something about the origin of the planet and how it evolved. “Carbon dioxide molecules are sensitive tracers of the story of planet formation,” said Mike Line of Arizona State University, another member of this research team. “By measuring this carbon dioxide feature, we can determine how much solid versus how much gaseous material was used to form this gas giant planet. In the coming decade, JWST will make this measurement for a variety of planets, providing insight into the details of how planets form and the uniqueness of our own solar system.”

Early Release Science

This NIRSpec prism observation of WASP-39 b is just one part of a larger investigation that includes observations of the planet using multiple Webb instruments, as well as observations of two other transiting planets. The investigation, which is part of the Early Release Science program, was designed to provide the exoplanet research community with robust Webb data as soon as possible.

“The goal is to analyze the Early Release Science observations quickly and develop open-source tools for the science community to use,” explained Vivien Parmentier, a co-investigator from Oxford University. “This enables contributions from all over the world and ensures that the best possible science will come out of the coming decades of observations.”

Natasha Batalha, co-author on the paper from NASA's Ames Research Center, adds that “NASA's open science guiding principles are centered in our Early Release Science work, supporting an inclusive, transparent, and collaborative scientific process."

Source: NASA.Gov

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Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, and L. Hustak (STScI); Science: The JWST Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Team

Astrobotic's Moon Rover Has Been Chosen by NASA for Further Development...

Astrobotic

CubeRover Funded for Survive the Lunar Night Mission (Press Release)

Astrobotic has been selected by NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Sequential Phase II program to develop, test, and fly lunar night survival and communication technologies onboard its CubeRover platform. The effort will culminate in a commercial flight to the Moon for CubeRover on an upcoming Astrobotic lander mission, where it will demonstrate the platform’s ability to survive the harsh environment of lunar night and utilize satellite relays to traverse long distances.

Surviving the lunar night is no small feat. Temperatures can easily drop to – 200⁰C, which would typically disable thermally-sensitive components like batteries and electronics and end a rover mission after just one lunar day of operation. To help address this challenge, Astrobotic has also been subcontracted by Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) on a separate NASA Sequential SBIR for $1.8 million to develop, integrate, and demonstrate lunar night thermal systems aboard lunar rovers and landers.

"This mission has the potential to usher in a new era of robust lunar robotics where instruments and payloads can survive months to even years on the Moon’s surface," says Mike Provenzano, Astrobotic’s Director of Lunar Surface Systems. "CubeRover will survive longer and drive farther than any lunar rover in its class with this flight, taking Astrobotic a major step forward in opening the Moon to sustained long-term robotic operations. In fact, we even have 1 kilogram of payload space still available on this mission for a payload team looking to take advantage of this capability."

To make full use of lunar night survivability and robust operations, rovers also need to be capable of driving long distances away from their host landers. This poses a significant communication challenge, where a rover’s host lander may be over the horizon and unable to share a communication relay between Earth and the rover. To address this challenge, this mission will also demonstrate CubeRover’s use of satellite communication relays, which will significantly extend its range.

"Some rovers are planned to rely on network protocols like Long Term Evolution, or LTE, (similar to how your cellphone transmits data) to transmit over long distances. However, these systems suffer from reduced line of sight visibility to their host lander and consequently cannot truly drive that far," says Cedric Corpa de Fuente, Lunar Surface Systems Lead Avionics Engineer. "We’ve known of this challenge since we started building rovers and it has been a major hurdle to overcome. Following this demonstration, our CubeRover product line’s range of surface operations via satellite communications will be greatly extended."

This announcement comes on the heels of CubeRover’s recently completed Critical Design Review with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Tipping Point program. The team will now move to complete CubeRover’s flight qualification campaign—a major step towards preparing for future missions. Astrobotic’s Lunar Surface Systems can be contacted at rovers@astrobotic.com.

Source: Astrobotic

Hubble's Successor Takes More Snapshots of Our Solar System's Largest World...

NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt

Webb’s Jupiter Images Showcase Auroras, Hazes (News Release)

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, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program. Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” she said.

The two images come from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images.

In the standalone view of Jupiter, created from a composite of several images from Webb, auroras extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud.

The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow Earth, appears white in these views, as do other clouds, because they are reflecting a lot of sunlight.

“The brightness here indicates high altitude – so the Great Red Spot has high-altitude hazes, as does the equatorial region,” said Heidi Hammel, Webb interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations and vice president for science at AURA. “The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms.” By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover.

In a wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photobombing” this Jovian view.

“This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system,” Fouchet said. Researchers have already begun analyzing Webb data to get new science results about our solar system’s largest planet.

Data from telescopes like Webb doesn’t arrive on Earth neatly packaged. Instead, it contains information about the brightness of the light on Webb’s detectors. This information arrives at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Webb’s mission and science operations center, as raw data. STScI processes the data into calibrated files for scientific analysis and delivers it to the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes for dissemination. Scientists then translate that information into images like these during the course of their research (here’s a podcast about that). While a team at STScI formally processes Webb images for official release, non-professional astronomers known as citizen scientists often dive into the public data archive to retrieve and process images, too.

Judy Schmidt of Modesto California, a longtime image processor in the citizen science community, processed these new views of Jupiter. For the image that includes the tiny satellites, she collaborated with Ricardo Hueso, a co-investigator on these observations, who studies planetary atmospheres at the University of the Basque Country in Spain.

Schmidt has no formal educational background in astronomy. But 10 years ago, an ESA contest sparked her insatiable passion for image processing. The “Hubble’s Hidden Treasures” competition invited the public to find new gems in Hubble data. Out of nearly 3,000 submissions, Schmidt took home third place for an image of a newborn star.

Since the ESA contest, she has been working on Hubble and other telescope data as a hobby. “Something about it just stuck with me, and I can’t stop,” she said. “I could spend hours and hours every day.”

Her love of astronomy images led her to process images of nebulae, globular clusters, stellar nurseries, and more spectacular cosmic objects. Her guiding philosophy is: “I try to get it to look natural, even if it’s not anything close to what your eye can see.” These images have caught the attention of professional scientists, including Hammel, who previously collaborated with Schmidt on refining Hubble images of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9’s Jupiter impact.

Jupiter is actually harder to work with than more distant cosmic wonders, Schmidt says, because of how fast it rotates. Combining a stack of images into one view can be challenging when Jupiter’s distinctive features have rotated during the time that the images were taken and are no longer aligned. Sometimes she has to digitally make adjustments to stack the images in a way that makes sense.

Webb will deliver observations about every phase of cosmic history, but if Schmidt had to pick one thing to be excited about, it would be more Webb views of star-forming regions. In particular, she is fascinated by young stars that produce powerful jets in small nebula patches called Herbig–Haro objects. “I’m really looking forward to seeing these weird and wonderful baby stars blowing holes into nebulas,” she said.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt


NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt

Photos of the Day: My Latest Snapshots at the California Science Center Near DTLA...

Almost two weeks ago, on August 9, I drove to the California Science Center near downtown Los Angeles to pay this great museum another visit! The last time I was here was back in July of 2019—to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.

My main reason for this month's visit was to check out the construction progress on the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center...space shuttle Endeavour's permanent home once it opens in 2025. You can check out images that I took of the construction site here.

I shot photos of other cool attractions at the Science Center...such as the replica of Cassini (which is on loan from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory around 20 miles away) and a full-scale model of the Pioneer spacecraft above, the retired F/A-18 Hornet below, and my latest pictures of Endeavour, her external fuel tank ET-94 and a Space Shuttle Main Engine at the Samuel Oschin Pavilion.

The Pavilion will permanently close in late 2023 to prepare Endeavour and ET-94 for their move to the construction site of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. They will be placed in their vertical launch configuration (along with the twin solid rocket boosters that are currently in storage at California's Mojave Air and Space Port) before assembly resumes on the Air and Space Center, and the new building permanently enshrouds the shuttle stack!

I plan on going back to the California Science Center sometime next year to capture more photos of the Air and Space Center's construction progress. Carry on!

On This Day in 1977: Voyager 2 Begins Its Decades-Long Journey to Interstellar Space...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Voyager, NASA’s Longest-Lived Mission, Logs 45 Years in Space (News Release - August 17)

Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.

NASA’s twin Voyager probes have become, in some ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones, and they transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection.

Yet the Voyagers remain on the cutting edge of space exploration. Managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, they are the only probes to ever explore interstellar space – the galactic ocean that our Sun and its planets travel through.

The Sun and the planets reside in the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun’s magnetic field and the outward flow of solar wind (charged particles from the Sun). Researchers – some of them younger than the two distant spacecraft – are combining Voyager’s observations with data from newer missions to get a more complete picture of our Sun and how the heliosphere interacts with interstellar space.

“The heliophysics mission fleet provides invaluable insights into our Sun, from understanding the corona or the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, to examining the Sun’s impacts throughout the solar system, including here on Earth, in our atmosphere, and on into interstellar space,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Over the last 45 years, the Voyager missions have been integral in providing this knowledge and have helped change our understanding of the Sun and its influence in ways no other spacecraft can.”

The Voyagers are also ambassadors, each carrying a golden record containing images of life on Earth, diagrams of basic scientific principles, and audio that includes sounds from nature, greetings in multiple languages, and music. The gold-coated records serve as a cosmic “message in a bottle” for anyone who might encounter the space probes. At the rate gold decays in space and is eroded by cosmic radiation, the records will last more than a billion years.

Beyond Expectations

Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, quickly followed by Voyager 1 on September 5. Both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first. Together, the probes unveiled much about the solar system’s two largest planets and their moons. Voyager 2 also became the first and only spacecraft to fly close to Uranus (in 1986) and Neptune (in 1989), offering humanity remarkable views of – and insights into – these distant worlds.

While Voyager 2 was conducting these flybys, Voyager 1 headed toward the boundary of the heliosphere. Upon exiting it in 2012, Voyager 1 discovered that the heliosphere blocks 70% of cosmic rays, or energetic particles created by exploding stars. Voyager 2, after completing its planetary explorations, continued to the heliosphere boundary, exiting in 2018. The twin spacecraft’s combined data from this region has challenged previous theories about the exact shape of the heliosphere.

“Today, as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager’s deputy project scientist at JPL. “This is the first time we’ve been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with the particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between the stars, upending some of the theories about this region, and providing key information for future missions.”

The Long Journey

Over the years, the Voyager team has grown accustomed to surmounting challenges that come with operating such mature spacecraft, sometimes calling upon retired colleagues for their expertise or digging through documents written decades ago.

Each Voyager is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing plutonium, which gives off heat that is converted to electricity. As the plutonium decays, the heat output decreases and the Voyagers lose electricity. To compensate, the team turned off all nonessential systems and some once considered essential, including heaters that protect the still-operating instruments from the frigid temperatures of space. All five of the instruments that have had their heaters turned off since 2019 are still working, despite being well below the lowest temperatures they were ever tested at.

Recently, Voyager 1 began experiencing an issue that caused status information about one of its onboard systems to become garbled. Despite this, the system and spacecraft otherwise continue to operate normally, suggesting the problem is with the production of the status data, not the system itself. The probe is still sending back science observations while the engineering team tries to fix the problem or find a way to work around it.

“The Voyagers have continued to make amazing discoveries, inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at JPL. “We don’t know how long the mission will continue, but we can be sure that the spacecraft will provide even more scientific surprises as they travel farther away from the Earth.”

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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NASA / JPL - Caltech


NASA / MSFC

Two Major Announcements Have Been Made by the L.A. Lakers Today!

Adam Pantozzi / NBA E

Several hours ago, it was revealed that the Los Angeles Lakers will sign 4-time NBA champion LeBron James to a 2-year, $97.1 million contract extension...with a player option for the 2024-25 NBA season. With this new deal, LeBron is now the highest-earning player in NBA history—with $532 million in career-guaranteed money.

2-time NBA champion and Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant comes in second at $499 million.

And in other Lakers news, 2-time NBA champion Pau Gasol (who officially ended his professional basketball career in late 2021) will get his jersey retired at Crypto.com Arena next year! The jersey-raising ceremony will occur on March 7, 2023...when the Lake Show takes on the Memphis Grizzlies, Gasol's previous team before he joined Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and company in Los Angeles back in early 2008.

Lakers tickets will go on sale on August 30th... I'm definitely gonna try to buy a ticket for that game and see Gasol's jersey get placed right next to those of Kobe up on the Crypto.com rafters! That is all.

A Champion, legend, and forever part of the Lakers Family.

3/7/23 - We raise Pau Gasol's jersey into the rafters pic.twitter.com/F9snGrHO9o

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 17, 2022

Lakers will officially retire Pau Gasol’s jersey on March 7 💜💛

“I don’t win those championships without Pau. When he retires, he will have his number in the rafters next to mine” -Kobe

pic.twitter.com/unwJh6aIii

— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) August 17, 2022

Astrobotic's Moon Lander Successfully Conducts a Communications Test with NASA Relay Stations...

Astrobotic / Keystone Space Collaborative

NASA’s Deep Space Network Ground Testing with Peregrine a Success (Press Release)

Pittsburgh, PA – Last month, the Deep Space Network (DSN) from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) successfully completed an end-to-end communications test with Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. These tests demonstrated compatibility with space-to-ground communications that will occur during Peregrine’s mission to the Moon.

After the Peregrine spacecraft separates from United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket, Peregrine will be utilizing DSN’s 34-meter dishes at Canberra, Australia; Madrid, Spain; and Goldstone, California. These dishes are the same suite used to communicate with the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as historic missions such as New Horizons, Solar Parker Probe, InSight, Juno, and MAVEN.

”Our team has completed a major test with the DSN global network and Astrobotic’s communication systems including flight avionics, ground support software, and mission ops infrastructure. We successfully passed commands, received telemetry, and determined ranging performance. The sense of accomplishment was palpable when the screens of our Mission Control center were illuminated by real telemetry coming from our spacecraft,” said Eduardo Lugo, Astrobotic Lead RF Engineer.

Testing with Peregrine and DSN was conducted over two weeks, culminating in confirmation that Peregrine can successfully transmit data and receive commands through DSN and to Astrobotic’s Mission Control Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“This success marks a major program milestone for Peregrine mission as well as for Astrobotic as a company. Confirming the technical capabilities of our team and our custom-built avionics and communications systems in a sophisticated, system-level spacecraft test was a tremendous success. Seeing the entire team overcome test challenges felt close to flying the actual mission. This is a great accomplishment for our historic trip to the Moon,” says Ander Solorzano, Astrobotic’s Lead Systems Engineer and one of the Flight Directors for Peregrine Mission One.

Peregrine’s progress continues as its Space Robotics team also successfully integrated the OPAL Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) compute hardware and associated camera to Peregrine’s flight decks. TRN is designed to enable precise and safe landings on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The system will be leveraged again on Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One. In addition to TRN, all twenty-four of Peregrine’s payloads have also been integrated with its flight decks.

The Peregrine spacecraft continues its final assembly at Astrobotic’s headquarters and is currently on schedule for final environmental testing before delivery to the launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Source: Astrobotic

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Astrobotic

I Hope JPL's Open House Will Return ASAP So That I Can See the Europa Clipper in Person at the Spacecraft Assembly Facility!

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA's Europa Clipper Spacecraft Kicks Assembly Into High Gear (News Release)

The spacecraft will occupy the main production facility of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as it prepares for its 2024 launch to Jupiter’s moon Europa.

The core of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft has taken center stage in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Standing 10 feet (3 meters) high and 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide, the craft’s main body will for the next two years be the focus of attention in the facility’s ultra-hygienic High Bay 1 as engineers and technicians assemble the spacecraft for its launch to Jupiter’s moon Europa in October 2024.

Scientists believe the ice-enveloped moon harbors a vast internal ocean that may have conditions suitable for supporting life. During nearly 50 flybys of Europa, the spacecraft’s suite of science instruments will gather data on the moon’s atmosphere, surface, and interior – information that scientists will use to gauge the depth and salinity of the ocean, the thickness of the ice crust, and potential plumes that may be venting subsurface water into space.

Several of Europa Clipper’s science instruments already have been completed and will be installed on the spacecraft at JPL. Most recently, the plasma-detection instrument, called the Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding, and the Europa Imaging System wide-angle camera arrived from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Maryland. The thermal-emission imaging instrument, called E-THEMIS, and the ultraviolet spectrograph, Europa-UVS, have already been installed on the spacecraft’s nadir deck, which will support many of the instrument sensors by stabilizing them to ensure they are oriented correctly.

Fabricated at JPL, this key piece of hardware will soon move into the Spacecraft Assembly Facility’s High Bay 1, the same cleanroom where historic missions such as Galileo, Cassini, and all of NASA’s Mars rovers were built.

Also moving soon to High Bay 1 will be the aluminum electronics vault, which will be bolted to the main body of the spacecraft, protecting the electronics inside from Jupiter’s intense radiation. The electronics enable Europa Clipper’s computer to communicate with the spacecraft’s antennae, science instruments, and the subsystems that will keep them alive.

Bright copper cabling snaking around the orbiter’s aluminum core contains thousands of wires and connectors handcrafted at APL. If placed end to end, the cabling would stretch almost 2,100 feet (640 meters) – enough to wrap around a U.S. football field twice.

Inside the core are Europa Clipper’s two propulsion tanks. The fuel and oxidizer they’ll hold will flow to an array of 24 engines, where they will create a controlled chemical reaction to produce thrust in deep space.

By the end of 2022, most of the flight hardware and the remainder of the science instruments are expected to be complete. Then, the next steps will be a wide variety of tests as the spacecraft moves toward its 2024 launch period. After traveling for nearly six years and over 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers), it will achieve orbit around Jupiter in 2030.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Yup, The Orange Dotard Is Still in the News... This Time for ESPIONAGE

So over an hour ago, it was revealed that the search warrant presented by the FBI as it raided Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida last Monday was for three possible crimes...including obstruction of justice (which Trump got impeached for back in 2019) and—a violation of the Espionage Act.

Let me say that again: A violation of the Espionage Act.

Don't forget that the last time ordinary American citizens were caught providing secrets to a foreign adversary, they were convicted and executed for their crimes. And of course, I'm talking about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg...and how they were punished by electrocution in 1953 for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union.

The difference this time around is that a former U.S. PRESIDENT is accused of betraying our country. At the very least, the theft of classified government information brings about a penalty of 20 years in prison per document. But what's the maximum penalty for this act of treason? Especially when someone who was once the most powerful man in the world is the culprit?

We'll see. As the January 6 hearings have shown several weeks ago, Donald Trump has been a clear and present danger to America ever since he announced his second presidential campaign back in June of 2015.

And now Trump is actually making it public that he'll run for president again in the 2024 elections. For folks who are real patriots and truly support the great democracy (it's generally MAGA folks who keep calling the U.S. a "constitutional republic") that is the United States of America, this scenario simply can't be allowed to happen.

The only place that Trump now belongs in is inside a jail cell (or at worst, inside the same type of room where the Rosenbergs met their fate) and not the Oval Office once more. Carry on.

First president to be investigated for violating the Espionage Act? https://t.co/s0Zc9tQ7uT

— George Conway🌻 (@gtconway3d) August 12, 2022

NYT: Search warrant for Mar-a-Lago identifies three federal crimes that DOJ is looking at as part of its investigation: violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 12, 2022

NBC News: The search warrant related to possible violations of:

18 USC 2071 — Concealment, removal or mutilation
18 USC 793 — Gathering, transmitting or losing defence information
18 USC 1519 — Destruction, alteration or falsification of records in Federal investigations

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 12, 2022

Donald Trump may have been caught by the FBI engaging in espionage. A former U.S. president. ENGAGING IN ESPIONAGE.

Let that sink in.

— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) August 11, 2022

Every single talker in my former world of right wing media is scrambling right now to try to define & defend espionage. I know how it works. To keep their gigs, they need to somehow justify the act of committing espionage against the United States.

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) August 12, 2022

Wednesday: "The FBI planted evidence"

Thursday: "Sure there were classified documents taken, but Trump could declassify them anytime"

Friday: "BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, MILLIONS OF DOCUMENTS, MAYBE NUCLEAR?" pic.twitter.com/LQawmgTsze

— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) August 12, 2022

BREAKING: While Trump says he declassified the documents seized by the FBI, two laws referenced in the search warrant (Sections 1519 and 2071 of Title 18 of the US Code) make concealing documents a crime EVEN IF they were unclassified.

He's F*CKED.

— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) August 12, 2022

guys I'm starting to think the republicans are in a bit of trouble over this espionage and treason stuff

— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) August 12, 2022

The Latest Update on NASA's Next Jupiter-bound Orbiter...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Europa Clipper High-Gain Antenna Undergoes Precision Testing at NASA Langley (News Release - August 4)

A piece of space hardware set to make the long journey to begin orbiting around a water world in the outer Solar System recently finished its second round of testing this year at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

The High-Gain Antenna (HGA) for NASA’s Europa Clipper, which will conduct nearly 50 flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, was at Langley’s Experimental Test Range (ETR) in March and April and then again in June and July so researchers could assess its ability to precisely beam data from the spacecraft back to Earth. Between those visits to Langley, the HGA went to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for vibration and thermal vacuum testing to check its ability to withstand both the shaking of launch and the temperature extremes of space, respectively.

The approximately 10-foot-diameter HGA will beam back information from Europa Clipper’s nine instruments, which will gather data on Europa’s atmosphere, surface and interior. Scientists have strong evidence that Europa is home to a vast and deep subsurface ocean of water that could potentially support life. In fact, there could be more liquid water on Europa than on Earth — yet it is smaller than our Moon.

“We are in the ETR at NASA Langley to measure the performance of the HGA, determining the power and shape of the transmission beam as well as its precise pointing to help know where to point the antenna back to Earth,” said Matt Bray, the designer and lead engineer for the HGA at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

The HGA operates on NASA deep space X-band radio frequencies of 7.2 and 8.4 (GHz), and Ka-band at 32 (GHz). Thirty-two GHz is many times higher than the frequency of most cell phones. That higher frequency will give Europa Clipper plenty of bandwidth to send data back at high rates. That data will take approximately 45 minutes to reach Earth from orbit around Jupiter.

The ETR is an indoor electromagnetic test facility that allows researchers to characterize transmitters, receivers, antennas and other electromagnetic components and subsystems in a controlled environment. Though there are other facilities around the country that can accommodate similar testing, the ETR’s size, accessibility and availability made it a perfect location for the HGA. A prototype HGA underwent testing at the ETR in 2019.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with APL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch in October 2024.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / David C. Bowman

Japan's Successful Asteroid Explorer Has a New Name...

JAXA

Hayabusa2 Extended Mission Nickname and Logo (News Release)

After delivering the capsule containing a sample from asteroid Ryugu to Earth on December 6, 2020, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft began a new adventure. This additional journey is called the “Hayabusa2 Extended Mission”. As this new mission begins, the original “Hayabusa2 Project” has drawn to a close. With the work for the first mission now complete, the Hayabusa2 Project was dissolved at the end of June 2022, and will be taken over by the Extended Mission. On this occasion, we would like to announce the nickname and logo design for the Hayabusa2 Extended Mission.

The nickname of the Extended Mission is Hayabusa2♯, read “Hayabusa2 Sharp”. The character “♯” is a musical symbol that means “raise the note by a semitone”, and for this mission, it is also the acronym for “Small Hazardous Asteroid Reconnaissance Probe”. This name indicates that the Hayabusa2 Extended Mission is set to investigate small but potentially dangerous asteroids that may collide with the Earth in the future. The English meaning of the word “sharp” also highlights the extremely challenging nature of this mission, which is also reflected in the musical meaning of “raise the note by a semitone”, suggestive of raising of the rank of the mission.

As the character “♯” is a musical symbol, it can be difficult to enter in practice when typing. The symbol can therefore be substituted for the “#” symbol (number sign / pound / hash) that is on computer keyboards or phones. There is no problem with the notation “Hayabusa2♯” (musical symbol) or “Hayabusa2#”.

The next step is the logo design for the Hayabusa2 Extended Mission, which looks like this:


JAXA

The logo depicts the spacecraft departing Earth and heading on a journey to explore two asteroids, 2001 CC₂₁ and 1998 KY₂₆. In addition to spacecraft operations, the Hayabusa2 Extended Mission will conduct three activities: “joint scientific analysis of samples from Hayabusa2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx”, “ready curation facilities to accept the OSIRIS-REx sample”, and “widely disseminate Hayabusa2 science results to the international community”. The four trajectories on the logo show how these activities interact as they proceed. The background shows the sharp character in the form of a star, with the four sharp star shapes also indicating the spacecraft operations with the three activities.

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

Photos of the Day: A Visit to Christmas Con in Pasadena, CA!

Earlier today, I drove to the Pasadena Convention Center to attend Christmas Con...which is an entertainment expo where scores of actors and actresses who regularly appear in holiday films (aired mostly on the Hallmark Channel) gather to meet, sign autographs and take pictures with the fans.

As shown below, I went to this event specifically for photo ops with Danica McKellar (still best known as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, and also had roles in other TV shows like The Big Bang Theory) and Lacey Chabert (who appeared in such movies as 1998's Lost in Space and 2004's Mean Girls, as well as the FOX TV series Party of Five).

Lacey Chabert was originally the only celebrity who I wanted to meet at Christmas Con. This expo was supposed to occur back in July of 2020 (I ordered my tix for Lacey's photo op session in February of that year), but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In these photos, that Christmas tree between me and these two beautiful actresses served as a safety barrier. Danica is set to shoot another film soon, so that tree obviously provided a subtle but jolly way of social distancing from her fans. Ditto with Lacey.

So will I go to Christmas Con 2023, you ask? Probably. There are a few other lovely actresses who I would like to meet next year that I couldn't afford to get pictures with today, so I might attend this event again! Also, Pasadena (assuming the California venue for this expo won't change in 2023) is a great city. The parking sucks in most areas of Pasadena, but it's a great city!

Hope y'all are having a nice weekend.

On This Day in 2012: America's First Nuclear-Powered 6-Wheeled Robotic Vehicle Safely Landed on the Red Planet...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

10 Years Since Landing, NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Still Has Drive (News Release)

Despite signs of wear, the intrepid spacecraft is about to start an exciting new chapter of its mission as it climbs a Martian mountain.

Ten years ago today, a jetpack lowered NASA’s Curiosity rover onto the Red Planet, beginning the SUV-size explorer’s pursuit of evidence that, billions of years ago, Mars had the conditions needed to support microscopic life.

Since then, Curiosity has driven nearly 18 miles (29 kilometers) and ascended 2,050 feet (625 meters) as it explores Gale Crater and the foothills of Mount Sharp within it. The rover has analyzed 41 rock and soil samples, relying on a suite of science instruments to learn what they reveal about Earth’s rocky sibling. And it’s pushed a team of engineers to devise ways to minimize wear and tear and keep the rover rolling: In fact, Curiosity’s mission was recently extended for another three years, allowing it to continue among NASA’s fleet of important astrobiological missions.

A Bounty of Science

It’s been a busy decade. Curiosity has studied the Red Planet’s skies, capturing images of shining clouds and drifting moons. The rover’s radiation sensor lets scientists measure the amount of high-energy radiation future astronauts would be exposed to on the Martian surface, helping NASA figure out how to keep them safe.

But most important, Curiosity has determined that liquid water as well as the chemical building blocks and nutrients needed for supporting life were present for at least tens of millions of years in Gale Crater. The crater once held a lake, the size of which waxed and waned over time. Each layer higher up on Mount Sharp serves as a record of a more recent era of Mars’ environment.

Now, the intrepid rover is driving through a canyon that marks the transition to a new region, one thought to have formed as water was drying out, leaving behind salty minerals called sulfates.

“We’re seeing evidence of dramatic changes in the ancient Martian climate,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The question now is whether the habitable conditions that Curiosity has found up to now persisted through these changes. Did they disappear, never to return, or did they come and go over millions of years?”

Curiosity has made striking progress up the mountain. Back in 2015, the team captured a “postcard” image of distant buttes. A mere speck within that image is a Curiosity-size boulder nicknamed “Ilha Novo Destino” – and, nearly seven years later, the rover trundled by it last month on the way to the sulfate-bearing region.

The team plans to spend the next few years exploring the sulfate-rich area. Within it, they have targets in mind like the Gediz Vallis channel, which may have formed during a flood late in Mount Sharp’s history, and large cemented fractures that show the effects of groundwater higher up the mountain.

How to Keep a Rover on a Roll

What’s Curiosity’s secret to maintaining an active lifestyle at the ripe old age of 10? A team of hundreds of dedicated engineers, of course, working both in person at JPL and remotely from home.

They catalog each and every crack in the wheels, test every line of computer code before it’s beamed into space, and drill into endless rock samples in JPL’s Mars Yard, ensuring Curiosity can safely do the same.

“As soon as you land on Mars, everything you do is based on the fact that there’s no one around to repair it for 100 million miles,” said Andy Mishkin, Curiosity’s acting project manager at JPL. “It’s all about making intelligent use of what’s already on your rover.”

Curiosity’s robotic drilling process, for example, has been reinvented multiple times since landing. At one point, the drill was offline for more than a year as engineers redesigned its use to be more like a handheld drill. More recently, a set of braking mechanisms that allow the robotic arm to move or stay in place stopped working. Although the arm has been operating as usual since engineers engaged a set of spares, the team has also learned to drill more gently to preserve the new brakes.

To minimize damage to the wheels, engineers keep an eye out for treacherous spots like the knife-edged “gator-back” terrain they recently discovered, and they developed a traction-control algorithm to help as well.

The team has taken a similar approach to managing the rover’s slowly-diminishing power. Curiosity relies on a long-lived nuclear-powered battery rather than solar panels to keep on rolling. As the plutonium pellets in the battery decay, they generate heat that the rover converts into power. Because of the pellets’ gradual decay, the rover can’t do quite as much in a day as it did during its first year.

Mishkin said the team is continuing to budget how much energy the rover uses each day, and has figured out which activities can be done in parallel to optimize the energy available to the rover. “Curiosity is definitely doing more multitasking where it’s safe to do so,” Mishkin added.

Through careful planning and engineering hacks, the team has every expectation the plucky rover still has years of exploring ahead of it.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Photos of the Day: A Pair of Cool Collectibles Honoring NASA's Last Two Mars Rovers...

To commemorate tomorrow's 10-year anniversary of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover successfully landing on the Red Planet, I wanted to share these images of the two Hot Wheels collectibles I bought to honor Curiosity and its twin rover Perseverance.

Mattel—the maker of the Hot Wheels brand—released the Curiosity toy around the time of landing a decade ago. I bought it on eBay in late 2012 for the reasonable price of $6.99 (including shipping and handling), heh.

The Perseverance toy arrived in the mail on July 21...and I ordered that one through Amazon. Both rovers are still in their packaging, of course!