The Latest Update on the 'Bulls-Eye Planet'...

NASA / JPL

Mining Old Data From NASA’s Voyager 2 Solves Several Uranus Mysteries (News Release)

NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained oddities. A recent data dive has offered answers.

When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first — and, so far, only — close glimpse of this strange, sideways-rotating outer planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons and rings, baffling new mysteries confronted scientists. The energized particles around the planet defied their understanding of how magnetic fields work to trap particle radiation, and Uranus earned a reputation as an outlier in our Solar System.

Now, new research analyzing the data collected during that flyby 38 years ago has found that the source of that particular mystery is a cosmic coincidence: It turns out that in the days just before Voyager 2’s flyby, the planet had been affected by an unusual kind of space weather that squashed the planet’s magnetic field, dramatically compressing Uranus’ magnetosphere.

“If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, it would have observed a completely different magnetosphere at Uranus,” said Jamie Jasinski of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the new work published in Nature Astronomy. “The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that only occur about 4% of the time.”

Magnetospheres serve as protective bubbles around planets (including Earth) with magnetic cores and magnetic fields, shielding them from jets of ionized gas — or plasma — that stream out from the Sun in the solar wind. Learning more about how magnetospheres work is important for understanding our own planet, as well as those in seldom-visited corners of our Solar System and beyond.

That’s why scientists were eager to study Uranus’ magnetosphere, and what they saw in the Voyager 2 data in 1986 flummoxed them. Inside the planet’s magnetosphere were electron radiation belts with an intensity second only to Jupiter’s notoriously brutal radiation belts. But there was apparently no source of energized particles to feed those active belts; in fact, the rest of Uranus’ magnetosphere was almost devoid of plasma.

The missing plasma also puzzled scientists because they knew that the five major Uranian moons in the magnetic bubble should have produced water ions, as icy moons around other outer planets do. They concluded that the moons must be inert with no ongoing activity.

Solving the Mystery

So why was no plasma observed, and what was happening to beef up the radiation belts? The new data analysis points to the solar wind. When plasma from the Sun pounded and compressed the magnetosphere, it likely drove plasma out of the system.

The solar wind event would have also briefly intensified the dynamics of the magnetosphere, which would have fed the belts by injecting electrons into them.

The findings could be good news for those five major moons of Uranus: Some of them might be geologically active after all. With an explanation for the temporarily missing plasma, researchers say it’s plausible that the moons may have actually been spewing ions into the surrounding bubble all along.

Planetary scientists are focusing on bolstering their knowledge about the mysterious Uranus system, which the National Academies’ 2023 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey prioritized as a target for a future NASA mission.

JPL’s Linda Spilker was among the Voyager 2 mission scientists glued to the images and other data that flowed in during the Uranus flyby in 1986. She remembers the anticipation and excitement of the event, which changed how scientists thought about the Uranian system.

“The flyby was packed with surprises, and we were searching for an explanation of its unusual behavior. The magnetosphere Voyager 2 measured was only a snapshot in time,” said Spilker, who has returned to the iconic mission to lead its science team as project scientist. “This new work explains some of the apparent contradictions, and it will change our view of Uranus once again.”

Voyager 2, now in interstellar space, is almost 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) from Earth.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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NASA / JPL - Caltech

The Latest Update on SOLAR PROBE PLUS...

NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben

NASA’s Sun-Bound Parker Solar Probe Swings Through Final Venus Flyby (News Release)

Gravity-Assist Maneuver Sets Up Record Close Approach to Our Star

On November 6, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its seventh and final Venus gravity-assist maneuver, passing within 240 miles (about 387 kilometers) of Venus’ surface. The flyby adjusted Parker’s trajectory into the final orbital configuration of its primary mission, bringing the spacecraft to within an unprecedented 3.8 million miles of the solar surface on December 24, 2024.

Monitoring the maneuver through NASA’s Deep Space Network, the mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland — where Parker Solar Probe was designed and built — confirmed that Parker was operating normally as it reached closest approach to Venus at 1:43 p.m. EST, flew precisely through its planned “aim point” and then began its swing in toward the Sun.

“We’re reaching the crescendo of Parker’s incredible voyage through the inner Solar System,” said Yanping Guo, Parker Solar Probe mission design and navigation manager in APL’s Space Exploration Sector. “More than six years after launch, this incredible spacecraft continues to exceed all expectations, and we can’t wait to see what Parker uncovers on its closest approaches to the Sun.”

Parker is now on course to reach the final objective of a historic mission conceived over 65 years ago: flying within 3.8 million miles (around 6.1 million kilometers) of the surface of the Sun. No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will be returning data from uncharted territory. As Parker passes through the Sun’s atmosphere, it will cut through plumes of plasma still connected to the Sun.

It will be close enough to pass inside a solar eruption, like a surfer diving under a crashing ocean wave.

“This is the vision generations of scientists have dreamed of realizing since 1958,” said Nour Rawafi, the Parker Solar Probe project scientist at APL.

During its Christmas Eve closest approach, or perihelion, mission control will be out of contact with the spacecraft, although Parker will transmit beacon tones on December 21 and December 27 to confirm its health. The spacecraft will remain in this orbit for the remainder of its primary mission, completing two more perihelia at about the same distance and speed — a record 430,000 miles (692,018 kilometers) per hour — in March and June 2025. After that, the team will decide whether to keep the spacecraft in that orbit or reposition it.

New Science

Early mission plans didn’t include any planetary science at Venus. But that changed shortly after launch in 2018, and Parker’s better-than-expected performance allowed the team to adjust its observational programs.

One reason why Parker’s Venus flybys have become boons for new science is a chance discovery from the spacecraft’s Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, called WISPR. The instrument peers out from Parker and away from the Sun to see fine details in the solar wind. But on July 11, 2020, during Parker’s third Venus flyby, scientists turned WISPR toward Venus in hopes of tracking changes in the planet’s thick cloud cover. The images revealed a surprise: WISPR, which captures visible and near infrared light, seemed to see the Venusian surface.

“The WISPR cameras can see through the clouds to the surface of Venus, which glows in the near-infrared because it’s so hot,” said APL planetary scientist Noam Izenberg.

Venus, sizzling at approximately 869° Fahrenheit (about 465° Celsius), was radiating through the clouds.

The WISPR images from the 2020 flyby, as well as the next flyby in 2021, revealed Venus’ surface in a new light. But they also raised puzzling questions, and scientists devised the final flyby to help answer them.

The Venus images correlate well with data from the Magellan spacecraft, showing dark and light patterns that line up with surface regions that Magellan captured when it mapped Venus’ surface using radar from 1990 to 1994. Yet some parts of the WISPR images appear brighter than expected, hinting at extra information captured by WISPR.

Is WISPR picking up on chemical differences on the surface, where the ground is made of different material? Perhaps it’s seeing variations in age, where more recent lava flows added a fresh coat to the Venusian surface.

“Because it flies over a number of similar and different landforms compared to the previous Venus flybys, the November 6 flyby will give us more context to evaluate whether WISPR can help us distinguish physical or even chemical properties of Venus’ surface,” Izenberg said.

Rawafi said that imaging was just part of the flyby’s science agenda. Shaped under Rawafi’s direction for more than a year, the comprehensive plan also included a look at the different components of Venus’ exosphere and their interactions with the Sun. The Parker team expects to begin receiving the first bits of that data later this month, he added, with plans to present some of its findings at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting the week of December 9 to 13.

“The science data we’ve gathered over these seven Venus flybys is a real tribute to Parker’s versatility, and have enabled new avenues for research on Venus,” Rawafi said. “The seventh Venus flyby, however, was especially unique, in that spacecraft flew through the planet’s nightside and plunged deep into its atmosphere. We’re anticipating some exciting surprises when the data comes down.”

Source: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

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NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Naval Research Laboratory / Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher

America's Newest X-Plane Moves a Step Closer to Becoming Airborne Early Next Year...

NASA / Carla Thomas

X-59 Fires Up its Engine for First Time on its Way to Takeoff (News Release - November 6)

NASA’s QueSST mission marked a major milestone with the start of tests on the engine that will power the quiet supersonic X-59 experimental aircraft.

These engine-run tests, which began on October 30, allow the X-59 team to verify that the aircraft’s systems are working together while powered by its own engine. In previous tests, the X-59 used external sources for power. The engine-run tests set the stage for the next phase of the experimental aircraft’s progress towards flight.

The X-59 team is conducting the engine-run tests in phases. In this first phase, the engine rotated at a relatively low speed without ignition to check for leaks and ensure all systems are communicating properly. The team then fueled the aircraft and began testing the engine at low power, with the goal of verifying that it and other aircraft systems operate without anomalies or leaks while on engine power.

“The first phase of the engine tests was really a warmup to make sure that everything looked good prior to running the engine,” said Jay Brandon, NASA’s X-59 chief engineer. “Then we moved to the actual first engine start. That took the engine out of the preservation mode that it had been in since installation on the aircraft. It was the first check to see that it was operating properly and that all the systems it impacted – hydraulics, electrical system, environmental control systems, etc. – seemed to be working.”

The X-59 will generate a quieter thump rather than a loud boom while flying faster than the speed of sound. The aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA’s QueSST mission, which will gather data on how people perceive these thumps, providing regulators with information that could help lift current bans on commercial supersonic flight over land.

The engine, a modified F414-GE-100, packs 22,000 pounds of thrust, which will enable the X-59 to achieve the desired cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 miles per hour) at an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet. It sits in a nontraditional spot – atop the aircraft — to aid in making the X-59 quieter.

Engine runs are part of a series of integrated ground tests needed to ensure safe flight and successful achievement of mission goals. Because of the challenges involved with reaching this critical phase of testing, the X-59’s first flight is now expected in early 2025. The team will continue progressing through critical ground tests and address any technical issues discovered with this one-of-a-kind, experimental aircraft.

The X-59 team will have a more specific first flight date as these tests are successfully completed.

The testing is taking place at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. During later phases, the team will test the aircraft at high power with rapid throttle changes, followed by simulating the conditions of an actual flight.

“The success of these runs will be the start of the culmination of the last eight years of my career,” said Paul Dees, NASA’s deputy propulsion lead for the X-59. “This isn’t the end of the excitement but a small steppingstone to the beginning. It’s like the first note of a symphony, where years of teamwork behind the scenes are now being put to the test to prove our efforts have been effective, and the notes will continue to play a harmonious song to flight.”

After the engine runs, the X-59 team will move to aluminum bird testing, where data will be fed to the aircraft under both normal and failure conditions. The team will then proceed with a series of taxi tests, where the aircraft will be put in motion on the ground. These tests will be followed by final preparations for first flight.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Carla Thomas

ELECTION 2024: A Major Setback for the American Experiment...

So about three hours ago, Vice President Kamala Harris gave her concession speech at Howard University in Washington, D.C.—after losing to Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election yesterday. As of right now, the electoral count stands at 295-226 (see below), in favor of the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist. 270 points were needed to clinch the victory.

So where do we go from here? Who is to blame for this stunning defeat?

- President Joe Biden for bombing his CNN debate with Trump last June?
- Biden for refusing to end his re-election bid before this year's primaries...in which case Harris or any other Democratic candidate would've had more time presenting their case for running as president to the American people?
- Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for urging Biden to drop out of the race following the June debate?

Or...

- The majority of Americans who voted against their own interests because they couldn't accept having a woman, a non-white woman at that, in the Oval Office?

Lots of soul-searching to do for the Democrats in regards to yesterday's heartbreaking loss. But there will be even more soul-searching to do, by the American public itself, after Trump is inaugurated next January.

Assuming that the fear over PROJECT 2025 is justified (most signs indicate that it is), all of the voters who think they won today will eventually realize that they didn't. It's a matter of when.

My SoCal Sports Wall of Fame, Updated!

Even though the Los Angeles Times was one day late in publishing coverage for Game 5 of the World Series in its newspaper, that didn't stop me from adhering to a tradition started in mid-2000 (when Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant won their first NBA title with the Lakers) and displaying today's Dodgers-celebrating printed edition on my wall at home!

Yesterday, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to buy the L.A. Times paper...with all but one store that I drove to (a donut shop in West Covina, versus 7-Elevens for the other visits I made around the cities of Diamond Bar and Pomona here in Los Angeles County) running out of Thursday's edition. To make things hilarious for those jerks who apparently bought multiple copies of the paper so that there wouldn't be any left for other customers to purchase yesterday, the L.A. Times had Game 5 coverage only on its website. Everyone had to wait till this morning to buy the commemorative paper celebrating Los Angeles' second Major League Baseball championship in five years.

I woke up at 5 AM today to ensure that would be a lot more papers left at that donut shop before I made my purchase. There were six in stock, and I bought two. (There were two papers remaining on the shelf yesterday.)

So while the Dodgers' 2024 championship coverage now graces my bedroom wall instead of the 2020 title, one wonders when I'll replace the newspapers celebrating the Lakers' 2020 NBA Finals victory and the Rams' 2022 Super Bowl win at home. The way that the Lakers and Rams are currently playing (the Lakers lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers—who are currently undefeated—two days ago, while the Rams are 3-4 in the NFC West right now), probably not anytime soon!

Go Dodger Blue.

L.A. Is the King of the Baseball World Once Again!

Major League Baseball

Happy Halloween, everyone! Last night, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees, 7-6, in Game 5 of the World Series...winning their second championship in five years!

The latest Major League Baseball title is the 8th in Dodgers franchise history, and comes after Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and company emerged victorious from a series that was the 12th matchup with the Yankees since 1941. Before this year's Fall Classic, Los Angeles and New York last clashed in 1981—with the late and great Fernando Valenzuela helping the Dodgers to win the championship that October.

As for the World Series' Most Valuable Player trophy, Freddie Freeman won the award...after he immediately became a legend hitting that walk-off grand slam to seal a Game 1 victory against the Yanks on October 25th.

It's so awesome for the City of Angels to become the City of Champions once more! Hopefully, Shohei will come close to winning the additional nine titles that he wanted after clinching his first with the Dodgers last night; Mookie Betts will tie Yankees legend Derek Jeter with two more World Series rings (Betts now has three—two with the Dodgers and one with the Boston Red Sox), and Yankees left fielder and power hitter Juan Soto (who's now a free agent) will sign with Los Angeles in the offseason.

Okay, I'm not holding my breath on that last one with Soto. Go Dodger Blue!


Major League Baseball


Major League Baseball


Major League Baseball

The Latest Update on America's Next Great Observatory...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope (News Release - October 28)

The instrument will demonstrate advanced hardware for studying Earth-size planets with the right conditions for life.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully completed integration of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a piece of infrastructure that will hold the mission’s instruments, which will be integrated onto the larger spacecraft at a later date. The Roman Coronagraph is a technology demonstration that scientists will use to take an important step in the search for habitable worlds and, eventually, life beyond Earth.

This integration took place at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the space telescope is located and in development. This milestone follows the coronagraph’s arrival at the center earlier this year from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the instrument was developed, built and tested.

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument is a technology demonstration that will launch aboard the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission. Roman will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope and explore scientific mysteries surrounding dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics. Roman is expected to launch no later than May of 2027.

The mission’s coronagraph is designed to make direct observations of exoplanets, or planets outside of our Solar System, by using a complex suite of masks and active mirrors to obscure the glare of the planets’ host stars, making the planets visible. Being a technology demonstration means that the coronagraph’s goal is to test this technology in space and showcase its capabilities. The Roman Coronagraph is poised to act as a technological stepping stone, enabling future technologies on missions like NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, which would be the first telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on exoplanets.

“In order to get from where we are to where we want to be, we need the Roman Coronagraph to demonstrate this technology,” said Rob Zellem, Roman Space Telescope deputy project scientist for communications at NASA Goddard. “We’ll be applying those lessons learned to the next generation of NASA flagship missions that will be explicitly designed to look for Earth-like planets.”

A Major Mission Milestone

The coronagraph was successfully integrated into Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a large grid-like structure that sits between the space telescope’s primary mirror and spacecraft bus, which will deliver the telescope to orbit and enable the telescope’s functionality upon arrival in space. Assembly of the mission’s spacecraft bus was completed in September.

The Instrument Carrier will hold both the coronagraph and Roman’s Wide Field Instrument, the mission’s primary science instrument, which is set to be integrated later this year along with the Roman telescope itself. “You can think of [the Instrument Carrier] as the skeleton of the observatory, what everything interfaces to,” said Brandon Creager, lead mechanical engineer for the Roman Coronagraph at JPL.

The integration process began months ago with mission teams from across NASA coming together to plan the maneuver. Additionally, after its arrival at NASA Goddard, mission teams ran tests to prepare the coronagraph to be joined to the spacecraft bus.

During the integration itself, the coronagraph, which is roughly the size and shape of a baby grand piano (measuring about 5.5 feet, or 1.7 meters across), was mounted onto the Instrument Carrier using what’s called the Horizontal Integration Tool.

First, a specialized adapter developed at JPL was attached to the instrument, and then the Horizontal Integration Tool was attached to the adapter. The tool acts as a moveable counterweight, so the instrument was suspended from the tool as it was carefully moved into its final position in the Instrument Carrier. Then, the attached Horizontal Integration Tool and adapter were removed from the coronagraph.

The Horizontal Integration Tool has previously been used for integrations on NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope.

As part of the integration process, engineers also ensured that blanketing layers were in place to insulate the coronagraph within its place in the Instrument Carrier. The coronagraph is designed to operate at room temperature, so insulation is critical to keep the instrument at the right temperature in the cold vacuum of space. This insulation will also provide an additional boundary to block stray light that could otherwise obscure observations.

Following this successful integration, engineers will perform different checks and tests to ensure that everything is connected properly and correctly aligned before moving forward to integrate the Wide Field Instrument and the telescope itself. Successful alignment of the Roman Coronagraph’s optics is critical to the instrument’s success in orbit.

This latest mission milestone is the culmination of an enduring collaboration between a number of Roman partners, but especially between NASA Goddard and JPL.

“It’s really rewarding to watch these teams come together and build up the Roman observatory. That’s the result of a lot of teams, long hours, hard work, sweat and tears,” said Liz Daly, the integrated payload assembly integration and test lead for Roman at Goddard.

“Support and trust were shared across both teams... We were all just one team,” said Gasia Bedrosian, the integration and test lead for the Roman Coronagraph at JPL. Following the integration, “we celebrated our success together,” she added.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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NASA / Sydney Rohde

A Gorgeous View from Jezero Crater on Mars...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / ASU / MSSS

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Looks Back While Climbing Slippery Slope (News Release)

On its way up the side of Jezero Crater, the agency’s latest Red Planet off-roader peers all the way back to its landing site and scopes the path ahead.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is negotiating a steeply sloping route up Jezero Crater’s western wall with the aim of cresting the rim in early December. During the climb, the rover snapped not only a sweeping view of Jezero Crater’s interior, but also imagery of the tracks that it left after some wheel slippage along the way.

Stitched together from 44 frames acquired on September 27, the 1,282nd Martian day of Perseverance’s mission, the image mosaic features many landmarks and Martian firsts that have made the rover’s 3½-year exploration of Jezero so memorable, including the rover’s landing site, the spot where it first found sedimentary rocks, the location of the first sample depot on another planet, and the final airfield for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The rover captured the view near a location that the team calls “Faraway Rock,” at about the halfway point in its climb up the crater wall.

“The image not only shows our past and present, but also shows the biggest challenge to getting where we want to be in the future,” said Perseverance’s deputy project manager, Rick Welch of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “If you look at the right side of the mosaic, you begin to get an idea what we’re dealing with. Mars didn’t want to make it easy for anyone to get to the top of this ridge.”

Visible on the right side of the mosaic is a slope of about 20 degrees. While Perseverance has climbed 20-degree inclines before (both NASA’s Curiosity and Opportunity rovers had crested hills at least 10 degrees steeper), this is the first time it’s traveled that steep a grade on such a slippery surface.

Soft, Fluffy

During much of the climb, the rover has been driving over loosely-packed dust and sand with a thin, brittle crust. On several days, Perseverance covered only about 50% of the distance that it would have on a less slippery surface, and on one occasion, it covered just 20% of the planned route.

“Mars rovers have driven over steeper terrain, and they’ve driven over more slippery terrain, but this is the first time one had to handle both — and on this scale,” said JPL’s Camden Miller, who was a rover planner, or “driver,” for Curiosity and now serves the same role on the Perseverance mission. “For every two steps forward Perseverance takes, we were taking at least one step back. The rover planners saw this was trending toward a long, hard slog, so we got together to think up some options.”

On October 3, they sent commands for Perseverance to test strategies to reduce slippage. First, they had it drive backward up the slope (testing on Earth has shown that under certain conditions the rover’s “rocker-bogie” suspension system maintains better traction during backward driving). Then they tried cross-slope driving (switchbacking) and driving closer to the northern edge of “Summerland Trail,” the name that the mission has given to the rover’s route up the crater rim.

Data from those efforts showed that while all three approaches enhanced traction, sticking close to the slope’s northern edge proved the most beneficial. The rover planners believe the presence of larger rocks closer to the surface made the difference.

“That’s the plan right now, but we may have to change things up the road,” said Miller. “No Mars rover mission has tried to climb up a mountain this big this fast. The science team wants to get to the top of the crater rim as soon as possible because of the scientific opportunities up there. It’s up to us rover planners to figure out a way to get them there.”

Tube Status

In a few weeks, Perseverance is expected to crest the crater rim at a location that the science team calls “Lookout Hill.” From there, it will drive about another quarter-mile (450 meters) to “Witch Hazel Hill.” Orbital data shows that Witch Hazel Hill contains light-toned, layered bedrock.

The team is looking forward to comparing this new site to “Bright Angel,” the area where Perseverance recently discovered and sampled the “Cheyava Falls” rock.

The rover landed on Mars carrying 43 tubes for collecting samples from the Martian surface. So far, Perseverance has sealed and cached 24 samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and dust), plus one atmospheric sample and three witness tubes. Early in the mission’s development, NASA set the requirement for the rover to be capable of caching at least 31 samples of rock, regolith and witness tubes over the course of Perseverance’s mission at Jezero.

The project added 12 tubes, bringing the total to 43. The extras were included in anticipation of the challenging conditions found at Mars that could result in some tubes not functioning as designed.

NASA decided to retire two of the spare empty tubes because accessing them would pose a risk to the rover’s small internal robotic sample-handling arm needed for the task: A wire harness connected to the arm could catch on a fastener on the rover’s frame when reaching for the two empty sample tubes.

With those spares now retired, Perseverance currently has 11 empty tubes for sampling rock and two empty witness tubes.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Photos of the Day: Capturing Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Images for the Third and Final Time...

Richard T. Par

Yesterday, I drove back to Diamond Bar's Summitridge Park in California to take one final group of photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS).

I originally went to Summitridge Park for a third attempt last Friday, October 18, but showed up a bit later than I should have (around 7:30 PM, PDT) since I ate dinner at home beforehand. The marine layer coming in from the Pacific Ocean (43 miles away) was already obscuring much of the sky across Los Angeles County from my vantage point at Summitridge...making it more difficult for me to spot the increasingly-faint comet.

I arrived at the park a few minutes before 7 PM, PDT last night (sunset was at 6:11 PM, PDT), and as shown with the images that I've included with this post, Tsuchinshan–ATLAS is becoming less and less visible as it moves away from Earth. The comet, once it disappears from view at the end of this month, won't return to our inner Solar System for another 80,000 years.

Here are the settings on my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera for yesterday's cosmic photoshoot:

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 400 to 800
F-stop: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 2.5 seconds
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

Hope you guys were able to spot Tsuchinshan–ATLAS over the past few weeks as well! Happy Sunday.


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par

Photos of the Day: Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS Pictures That I Took Last Night...

Richard T. Par

As promised in my Blog entry last Saturday, I went back to Diamond Bar's Summitridge Park in California yesterday to take more photos of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)!

Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS was a bit higher in the sky on October 14, and was more visible than on October 12 since the celestial body was no longer caught in the glare of the Sun as it set below the horizon.

Here are the settings on my Nikon D3300 DSLR camera for last night's cosmic photoshoot:

Lens: 70-300mm Nikon telephoto lens
ISO: 400 to 800
F-stop: f/4.5
Shutter speed: 4 seconds
Live View mode on my LCD screen used instead of the viewfinder

Will I head back out one last time to see this comet before it disappears from our skies for the next 80,000 years? We'll see.

I already took care of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) with my two trips to Summitridge Park. Happy Tuesday!


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par


Richard T. Par