15 Years Ago Today: New Horizons Flies Past Our Solar System's Largest Jovian World Before Heading Out to Pluto...

It was on February 28, 2007, that NASA's New Horizons spacecraft used Jupiter as a gravity assist on its way to the dwarf planet Pluto—which New Horizons visited on July 14, 2015. This amazing composite image of Jupiter (captured in the infrared on February 28, 2007) and its volcanic moon Io (photographed in visible light on March 1, 2007) was taken by the robotic probe before it spent the next eight years venturing out to Pluto and then the Kuiper Belt region.

It remains to be seen if NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will be able to scope out another Kuiper Belt Object (after Arrokoth, which New Horizons flew past on January 1, 2019) for New Horizons to explore over the coming years...

Happy end of February!


NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Goddard Space Flight Center

Photos of the Day: A New Auditorium Is Complete at My High School Alma Mater...

Just thought I'd share these pictures that I took last Friday of the new Performing Arts Center (PAC) at Bishop Amat Memorial High School...my alma mater. I graduated from Amat in June of 1998.

I love the PAC's architectural design—as it makes me think about the sleek shape of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. The only difference is, the PAC's structure is comprised of well-placed bricks while the Disney Hall is adorned by twisted metal.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the PAC is set to take place this May, I believe, while the very first theatrical show that will be held inside this auditorium is a student rendition of The Little Mermaid. I'm not planning to watch this production (unless I had kids who went to Amat, which I don't)...but I'll definitely head back to see if I can view the interior of this beautiful building next time.

The PAC's front doors were locked when I tried to enter last week. Happy Sunday!

Hubble's Successor Is Beginning to See Clearly Now...

NASA / STScI

Webb Mirror Alignment Continues Successfully (News Release)

Webb continues on its path to becoming a focused observatory. The team has successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases of mirror alignment. With the completion of these phases, called Segment Alignment and Image Stacking, the team will now begin making smaller adjustments to the positions of Webb’s mirrors.

After moving what were 18 scattered dots of starlight into Webb’s signature hexagonal formation, the team refined each mirror segment’s image by making minor adjustments, while also changing the alignment of Webb’s secondary mirror. The completion of this process, known as Segment Alignment, was a key step prior to overlapping the light from all the mirrors so that they can work in unison.

Once Segment Alignment was achieved, the focused dots reflected by each mirror were then stacked on top of each other, delivering photons of light from each segment to the same location on NIRCam’s sensor. During this process, called Image Stacking, the team activated sets of six mirrors at a time and commanded them to repoint their light to overlap, until all dots of starlight overlapped with each other.

“We still have work to do, but we are increasingly pleased with the results we’re seeing,” said Lee Feinberg, optical telescope element manager for Webb at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Years of planning and testing are paying dividends, and the team could not be more excited to see what the next few weeks and months bring.”

Although Image Stacking put all the light from a star in one place on NIRCam’s detector, the mirror segments are still acting as 18 small telescopes rather than one big one. The segments now need to be lined up to each other with an accuracy smaller than the wavelength of the light.

The team is now starting the fourth phase of mirror alignment, known as Coarse Phasing, where NIRCam is used to capture light spectra from 20 separate pairings of mirror segments. This helps the team identify and correct vertical displacement between the mirror segments, or small differences in their heights. This will make the single dot of starlight progressively sharper and more focused in the coming weeks.

Source: NASA.Gov

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#NASAWebb has completed 2 more phases of its 3-month mirror alignment process: First, the team made adjustments to its mirror segments & updated the alignment of its secondary mirror, refining each of the 18 dots of starlight from its 18 mirror segments. #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/2H4EMAo8ck

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) February 25, 2022

Six Joint Strike Fighters Are Stationed in Eastern Europe to Deter Russian Aggression...

U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Ali Stewart

U.S. F-35s Forward Deploy to NATO’s Eastern Flank (Press Release)

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- Six U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 34th Fighter Squadron currently operating out of Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, forward deployed, Feb. 24, to the Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions in support of NATO’s collective defense.

The fifth-generation aircraft, originally from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, will be supporting NATO’s Enhanced Air Policing mission for a period of time from forward operating locations at Estonia’s Amari Air Base, Lithuania’s Siauliai Air Base, and Romania’s Fetesti Air Base.

“We are facing a dynamic environment, and the deployment of F-35s to NATO’s eastern flank enhances our defensive posture and amplifies the Alliance’s interoperability,” said Gen. Jeff Harrigian, U.S. Air Force in Europe – Air Forces Africa commander.

The F-35 provides unprecedented communication capabilities, command and control, and lethality for the combined and joint force. These capabilities afford NATO leaders the flexibility to project power and assert air dominance in highly-contested environments.

USAFE’s ability to support and integrate with NATO’s air policing missions continually hardens the alliance’s solidarity, collective resolve, and ability to adapt to a dynamic warfighting environment.

Source: U.S. Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa

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U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Ali Stewart

Crimea in 2014 and Now This: POTUS Responds to Vladimir Putin's Latest Act as a War Criminal...

Statement by President Biden on Russia’s Unprovoked and Unjustified Attack on Ukraine (Press Release)

The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering. Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable.

I will be monitoring the situation from the White House this evening and will continue to get regular updates from my national security team. Tomorrow, I will meet with my G7 counterparts in the morning and then speak to the American people to announce the further consequences the United States and our Allies and partners will impose on Russia for this needless act of aggression against Ukraine and global peace and security. We will also coordinate with our NATO Allies to ensure a strong, united response that deters any aggression against the Alliance. Tonight, Jill and I are praying for the brave and proud people of Ukraine.

Source: The White House

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If you’re an American, and your not tracking on #Ukraine, now is the time to start. This is just not another foreign policy blip. This is potentially bigger & more deadly than anything we’ve seen since WW2. This could have generational consequences globally. This will impact you.

— Paul Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) February 24, 2022

Watching Putin attack Ukraine, putting people’s lives at risk in furtherance of his own goals, should be a cautionary tale for Americans who think we need our own version of an authoritarian leader in 2024.

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 24, 2022

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️Missile launches from Russia toward Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/GkzohvOx9c

— OSINT UKRAINE (@OSINT_Ukraine) February 24, 2022

#BREAKING: Another video of a cruise missile flying in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/XuT2ZyJnR8

— ELINT News (@ELINTNews) February 24, 2022

Ammo depot hit in Sumy, eastern Ukraine, reports say pic.twitter.com/igfc62AqpZ

— ELINT News (@ELINTNews) February 24, 2022

Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador directly addressed his Russian counterpart at conclusion of U.N. Security Council meeting: “There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, Ambassador.” https://t.co/iqOY0jHTUu pic.twitter.com/sybeINLSJj

— ABC News (@ABC) February 24, 2022

That’s it. Throw every fucking economic sanction under the sun at Russia now. NOW. Shut down every Russian bank, deny Russia any money from the West, turn every Russian oligarch into a fucking pauper, bring Russia’s fucking economy to its knees.

Quit fucking around. Do it NOW.

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) February 24, 2022

California is standing with the people of Ukraine tonight.

Russia is embarking on an unprovoked attack - an armed attempt to overthrow a sitting democracy.

There must be consequences.

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 24, 2022

BREAKING: Air raid sirens wail across Ukraine's capital pic.twitter.com/jclNZ5h7kx

— BNO News (@BNONews) February 24, 2022

image from the Ukrainian President’s office sent to CNN's @mchancecnn following the loud explosions the team heard on the ground in #Kyiv #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/IpJTDdmSCc

— Michael Holmes (@holmescnn) February 24, 2022

BREAKING: Tanks seen rolling into Ukraine from Belarus pic.twitter.com/c3G7JaE5Vv

— BNO News (@BNONews) February 24, 2022

Hubble's Successor Will Study an Extraordinary Exoplanetary System After It Begins Science Operations This Summer...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

Day of Discovery: 7 Earth-Size Planets (News Release)

Five years ago, astronomers revealed a spectacular collection of other worlds: the TRAPPIST-1 system.

Newspapers around the world printed the discovery on their front pages: Astronomers had found that a red dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1 was home to a close-knit family of seven Earth-size planets. NASA announced the system Feb. 22, 2017.

Using telescopes on the ground and in space, scientists revealed one of the most unusual planetary systems yet found beyond our Sun and opened the tantalizing question: Are any of these worlds habitable – a suitable home for life?

Five years later, the planets are still enigmatic. Since the first announcement, subsequent studies have revealed that the TRAPPIST-1 planets are rocky, that they could be almost twice as old as our solar system, and that they are located 41 light-years from Earth.

But a real game-changer will be the recently-launched James Webb Space Telescope. Larger and more powerful than any previous space telescope, Webb will look for signs of atmospheres on the TRAPPIST-1 planets.

“That folks are even able to ask the question about whether a planet around another star is habitable – that just boggles my mind,” said Sean Carey, manager of the Exoplanet Science Institute at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Carey was part of the team that helped discover some of the TRAPPIST-1 planets using data from the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope.

A prime target for Webb is the fourth planet from the star, called TRAPPIST-1e. It’s right smack in the middle of what scientists call the habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks zone. This is the orbital distance from a star where the amount of heating is right to allow liquid water on the surface of a planet.

Though the planets are tightly packed around TRAPPIST-1, the red dwarf star is not only far cooler than our Sun, it is less than 10% its size. (In fact, if the entire system were placed in our own solar system, it would fit within the orbit of our innermost planet, Mercury.)

Searching for Atmospheres

The habitable zone is just a first cut. A potentially habitable planet also would require a suitable atmosphere, and Webb, especially in its early observations, is likely to gain only a partial indication of whether an atmosphere is present.

“What is at stake here is the first atmosphere characterization of a terrestrial Earth-size planet in the habitable zone,” said Michaël Gillon, an astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium and the lead author of the study that revealed the seven sibling planets in 2017.

Measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope added more information about habitability. While Hubble does not have the power to determine whether the planets possess potentially habitable atmospheres, it did find that at least three of the planets – d, e, and f – do not appear to have the puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres of gas giants, such as Neptune, in our solar system. Such planets are thought to be less likely to support life.

That leaves open the possibility of “the atmospheres’ potential to support liquid water on the surface,” said Nikole Lewis, a planetary scientist at Cornell University.

Lewis is part of a science team that will use the Webb telescope, which will view the heavens in infrared light, to hunt for signs of an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1e, the one with the Goldilocks perch in the habitable zone.

“The hope is that we see carbon dioxide, a really strong feature, right at the wavelengths [detectable by] Webb,” she said. “Once we know where there are little things peaking up above the noise, we can go back and do a much higher resolution look in that area.”

The size of the TRAPPIST-1 planets also might help to strengthen the case for habitability, though the research is far from conclusive.

They’re comparable to Earth not just in diameter but mass. Narrowing down the mass of the planets was possible, thanks to their tight bunching around TRAPPIST-1: Packed shoulder to shoulder, they jostle one another, enabling scientists to compute their likely range of mass from those gravitational effects.

“We have gotten some really good information about their size – mass and radius,” said Cornell’s Lewis. “That means we know about their densities.”

The densities suggest the planets might be composed of materials found in terrestrial planets like Earth.

Scientists use computer models of possible planetary atmosphere formation and evolution to try to narrow down their possible composition, and these will be critical for the TRAPPIST-1 planets, Lewis said.

“The great thing about the TRAPPIST system is that it is going to allow us to refine those models either way – whether they will end up being just barren rock or end up being potentially habitable worlds,” she said.

For Gillon, another great thing about the system is the reach of the TRAPPIST-1 system. “I’ve seen TRAPPIST-1 included in some artistic works; I’ve seen it in music, sci-fi novels, comics,” he said. “That’s really something we have enjoyed during these five years. It’s like this system has a life of its own.”

Source: NASA.Gov

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Adriana Manrique Gutierrez, NASA Animator

The Force Is Strong With This Tamagotchi...

So yesterday, I received an R2-D2 version of Bandai's Tamagotchi digital pet that I ordered through Amazon.com on Saturday—and received less than 24 hours later thanks to Amazon Prime's one-day delivery.

Majdolene, my very-lovely and talented actress from my short film The Broken Table, sent me an ad for this cool Star Wars collectible via Instagram over a week ago...and needless to say, I couldn't wait to buy it since. Of course, I still got ways to go in terms of learning how to properly take care of R2-D2, as I might've caused him to explode when I pressed the wrong button to do maintenance on the Astromech droid earlier today! My bad.

Tamagotchis were extremely popular during my last two years in high school (from late 1996 to early '98), but I never bought one till now. Better late than never, I guess!

Being a huge fan of Star Wars for the past 27 years will pique my level of interest like that. Happy Monday (and President's Day to my fellow Yanks)!

The Winter Games Have Come to an End...

Catherine Ivill / Getty Images

Almost two hours ago, I watched NBC's taped broadcast of the Winter Games' closing ceremony in Beijing, China. It was a fun 16 days!

Even though the United States finished in the fourth spot with 8 gold medals, and 25 medals overall, it was a thrill to see Team USA members Chloe Kim (women’s halfpipe snowboarding), Nathan Chen (figure skating), Erin Jackson (speedskating), Alex Hall (freestyle skiing), Kaillie Humphries (bobsled), Ashley Caldwell, Christopher Lillis, Justin Schoenefeld (all three for freestyle skiing), Nick Baumgartner and Lindsey Jacobellis (both for mixed-team snowboard cross; Jacobellis won another medal for women’s snowboard cross) win gold at these Olympic Games.

Looking to the future, I'm totally stoked for the 2026 Milano Cortina Games in Italy. For starters, Olympians will be snowboarding and skiing on actual snow four years from now!

But in the meantime, we have the 2024 Summer Games in Paris to look forward to next. And as a resident of Southern California, I cannot wait for the Summer Games in Los Angeles four years after that!

Clearly, the next six years will be a fun time if you're an Olympic buff like me. Carry on!

Photos of the Day #3: The Rams' Super Bowl LVI Championship Parade and Rally!

After spending almost two hours looking for parking (I spent $25 when I finally found a parking spot), I walked several blocks down to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to attend the Rams' Super Bowl LVI championship parade and rally today!

The parade began at 11 AM, while the rally occurred at the Olympic Plaza near the Coliseum Peristyle at 12 PM...both times in Pacific Standard.

As shown in these photos (the majority of them taken with my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera), it was Rams linebacker Leonard Floyd who held the Vince Lombardi Trophy while the buses slowly strolled down South Figueroa Street next to the Coliseum. Quarterback Matthew Stafford, Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp and defensive tackle Aaron Donald were also spotted on the same bus that Floyd was on.

I didn't spot head coach Sean McVay, linebacker Von Miller or other Rams personnel till they gave their speeches at the rally afterwards. (I was too busy getting as many snapshots of the Lombardi Trophy on the bus as possible.)

It's amazing that I went to all five Lakers parades from 2000 to 2010, both Kings Stanley Cup parades in 2012 and 2014, and now a Super Bowl celebration in the City of Angels!

Here's hoping that the Major League Baseball lockout ends as soon as possible; the Dodgers need to win again and earn the parade they were denied two years ago. And the onus is now on the Chargers to bring another Super Bowl title to Los Angeles as well...

Screw the Clippers. Happy Wednesday!

LINK: Additional photos I took at the Los Angeles Rams' 2022 championship parade and rally

Photo of the Day #2: Gettin' My Championship Gear Ready for the Rams' Parade...

Earlier today, I bought this Los Angeles Rams baseball cap from a local Kohl's department store. This purchase was unplanned—as I went to Kohl's just to walk around and burn off calories from the hamburger combo I bought for lunch at a nearby In-N-Out food joint about half an hour earlier.

Seeing as how I'm not supposed to get my official Super Bowl championship cap (which I ordered online shortly after the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals two days ago) in the mail till March 1, I figured that I'd buy this alternate cap...which celebrates the Rams' National Football Conference championship victory against the San Francisco 49ers last month.

Can't wait to wear this cap at the Rams' parade and rally—which will be held near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum tomorrow! The parade will start near the Shrine Auditorium a few blocks away at 11 AM, and end at the Coliseum shortly before 12 noon.

The championship rally will then begin near Olympic Plaza next to the Coliseum Peristyle at noon and last till 1 PM... All times in Pacific Standard, of course.

Can't wait!