Astronomy, Earth, Moon, Mars & Beyond and Mysteries

[Simone411]

Since there are more than just scientific observations, I decided to start this thread where anyone can post articles about our planet, Earth, including the seven wonders of the world and other mysteries, other planets in our solar system and NASA. So, please feel welcome and free to share what you find in this thread.

Scientists reveal what the looming geomagnetic flip could do to Earth

MSN

Earth’s magnetic field is quietly, steadily changing, and the shift is no longer just an abstract concern for geophysicists. As the protective shield that deflects charged particles from the Sun weakens and drifts, scientists are probing what a future geomagnetic flip could mean for satellites, power grids, navigation and life at the surface. The picture that emerges is less an instant doomsday than a drawn-out stress test of the systems that modern civilization depends on.

Researchers now see signs that the field is evolving in ways that resemble the early stages of past reversals, when north and south magnetic poles swapped places. I find that the most striking message from the data is not that catastrophe is imminent, but that the next few centuries could bring a more restless, uneven magnetic shield, with consequences that will be felt first in orbit and in the high atmosphere before they touch daily life on the ground.

This is a video.

NASA shuts down first alien biosignature investigation over concerning 'outpacing' evidence

MSN

NASA has temporarily stopped its most ambitious search yet for signs of alien life, after two years of picking apart data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Scientists think they have found Noah's Ark in Turkey - dimensions match Genesis

MSN

Ground-penetrating radar has detected what researchers describe as artificial internal structures at Turkey’s Durupınar Formation-the boat-shaped geological feature that’s sparked decades of Noah’s Ark speculation. The findings include a 13-foot central corridor, layered interiors suggesting three decks, and internal voids reaching six meters deep, matching biblical dimensions with unsettling precision.

High-tech Archaeology Meets Ancient Claims

You know that feeling when your phone’s ultrasound app reveals something unexpected behind a wall? That’s essentially what happened here, but with military-grade ground-penetrating radar. Noah’s Ark Scans, working with Turkish universities, found sharp-angled walls and systematic internal chambers where geologists expected solid rock formation.

The technology works like underground X-ray vision, bouncing electromagnetic waves off buried structures to create detailed subsurface maps. These aren’t the fuzzy blobs you’d expect from natural geological processes-the radar detected angular structures and organized patterns that suggest human construction.

 

[Simone411]

A video from MSN. I more than likely won't be around to see Halley's Comet since I was born in 1958 making me a Baby Boomer. I'd be somewhere around 103 years old. However, the Gen X, Y, Z and Alphas will be around to see it.

The Next Arrival: What Halley's Comet Will Reveal When it Returns

MSN

As Halley’s Comet races back toward the Sun, it carries centuries of cosmic memory. Scientists now know it leaves behind dazzling meteor showers and clues about the birth of our solar system. This episode explores what its 2061 return will mean for humanity, how new technology will study its ancient dust, and why this celestial traveler remains one of the most powerful links between our past, our science, and our sense of wonder.

 

[Simone411]

Scientists find 2-million-year-old tunnels spanning two continents built by unknown life form

This is a slideshow:

MSN

Passchier's Personal Quest

For over fifteen years, Professor Passchier pursued this mystery across continents. His persistence transformed a curious anomaly into a published scientific discovery.

Passchier described the significance of the finding candidly: "What is so exciting about our discovery is that we do not know which endolithic microorganism this is. Is it a known form of life or a completely unknown organism?"

His statement encapsulates the mystery—not knowing becomes the discovery itself.

 

[Simone411]

G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for 20 January UTC-Day | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

www.swpc.noaa.gov

G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for 20 January UTC-Day

A G4 (Severe) geomagnetic storm watch is in effect for the 20 January UTC-day due to Earth-arrival of a coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME blasted from the Sun on 18 Jan, in association with an energetic R3 (Strong) solar flare from a sunspot region near center-disk, and is anticipated to arrive at Earth as early as late 19 Jan EST to early 20 Jan. While the G4 Watch is out for the 20 Jan UTC-day, geomagnetic storm levels could range from G1-G3 (Minor-Moderate) upon CME arrival later on 19 Jan EST. CME passage is expected to continue through 20 Jan, but conditions are likely to weaken later in the day. G1 levels remain possible on 21 Jan due to residual CME related effects. Forecasters have a fair measure of confidence in timing and of CME arrival at Earth. Please continue to visit our SWPC webpage for the latest forecasts, information, and updates.

 

[Simone411]

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

GEOMAGNETIC STORM UPDATE: Minor (G1) to strong (G3) geomagnetic storms are underway on Jan. 20th as Earth moves through the wake of a super-fast CME that struck on Jan. 19th. Peak storm levels on Jan. 19th almost reached category G5 (extreme), and there have been several episodes of G4 (severe) since the CME arrived. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.

BIG AURORAS--ESPECIALLY IN EUROPE (UPDATED): Yesterday's CME impact was perfectly timed for Europe. The severe (G4) geomagnetic storm began just after nightfall in the EU, while the New Moon provided dark skies for long-exposure photography. This photo from Brittany, France, sums it up:

 

[Simone411]

Earth's magnetic north just jumped into never-mapping territory

MSN

Earth’s magnetic north has just crossed an invisible threshold in the Arctic, slipping into a region that modern navigation models have never charted in detail. The shift is subtle on a map but profound for systems that depend on a stable magnetic reference, from smartphone compasses to intercontinental flight paths. I see it as a reminder that the planet’s deep interior is restless, and that our digital infrastructure is now tightly coupled to that hidden motion.

From Boothia Peninsula to New Arctic frontier

When explorers first went looking for the magnetic pole, they treated it as a fixed prize, not a moving target. Ever since James Clark Ross identified it on the Boothia Peninsula in the 19th century, the assumption was that it would drift slowly, tracing a loose path around Canada. Historical reconstructions show that for more than 400 years the North Magnetic Pole meandered across the Canadian Arctic, close enough to be treated as a familiar neighbor rather than a runaway point.

That long, gentle wander has given way to something more dramatic. Over the past few decades, scientists tracking the North Magnetic Pole have watched it accelerate away from Canada and toward northern Eurasia, a motion that earlier reporting described as “hurtling” toward Siberia at about 34 miles per year. Now, according to researchers who say Earth’s magnetic north has crossed an invisible “border” in the Arctic, the point has slipped into territory that modern observers have never seen it occupy. That crossing is what turns a long running drift into a genuinely new chapter.

A pole that will not sit still

What makes this moment different is not just that the pole has moved, but how it is moving. Earlier analyses warned that Earth‘s Magnetic North Pole Is on the Move, And It Is Not Normal, with the pace of change outstripping what many navigation systems were built to handle. More recent work indicates that Earth‘s magnetic north pole has resumed its shift toward northern Eurasia while simultaneously slowing its pace of advance, a change in behavior that forced an urgent update to the global model used by airplanes, ships, GPS receivers and cell phones. I read that combination of rapid relocation followed by deceleration as a sign that the underlying forces in the core are rebalancing rather than simply racing in one direction.

Scientists trying to explain this erratic path are looking deep below our feet. One analysis notes that, According to a report published in Nature, the movement could be linked to hydromagnetic waves rising from deep in the planet’s core, where liquid iron and nickel generate the field. Another video explainer underscores that earth’s north magnetic is on the move and that our technology, from aircraft avionics to smartphone apps, is far more sensitive to that motion than most people realize. The result is a pole that not only refuses to sit still, but also changes speed and direction in ways that challenge long standing assumptions.

 

[Simone411]

40 years later, a new look at lessons from the Challenger disaster

MSN

As high school teacher Christa McAuliffe prepared to be strapped into the space shuttle Challenger, Brian Russell, an official at the company that built the craft’s solid rocket boosters, had just participated in a fateful teleconference from his Utah headquarters.

Like every other engineer in the conference room at Morton Thiokol on that day four decades ago, the 31-year-old Russell opposed launching because the bitterly cold temperature at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center threatened the O-rings that sealed the rocket boosters. Their managers initially supported this view, but Russell listened in dismay as they reversed themselves under pressure from NASA officials and senior company officials and signed off on the launch.

The mission ended in catastrophe for the reason that Russell feared — a story I know well as a reporter who covered McAuliffe and witnessed the Challenger’s explosion. But for those involved in this tragedy, the families of the astronauts and those who approved the launch, much about this story is perhaps even more relevant today than it was on Jan. 28, 1986.

The belief that there are still lessons to learn from the disaster is what led Russell last year to take an extraordinary step that, until now, has received no public notice. He visited NASA centers across the country, telling the Challenger story in hopes that similar mistakes will not occur as the space agency prepares to launch four astronauts on Artemis II, which is scheduled to fly by the moon as soon as February.

The lesson of Challenger is not just about the O-rings that failed. For Russell and colleagues who accompanied him on the NASA tour, understanding the human causes behind the Challenger disaster provides still-crucial lessons about managers who fail to heed the warnings of their own experts. Russell made his tour to make sure NASA officials “heard it from us and heard the emotional impact that we felt.”

 

[Simone411]

NASA Puts Moon Mission Crew in Quarantine

Crew begins 2-week health stabilization before historic Artemis 2 mission

www.newser.com

Astronauts aiming for the moon are now living under rules that look a lot like 2020. Futurism reports that the four-person Artemis 2 crew has entered NASA's standard pre-launch isolation program, a roughly two-week "health stabilization" effort designed to keep them from catching anything that could derail the first human trip around the Moon in more than 50 years. They can still see friends and family, but with masks, distancing, and a ban on public places.

The mission, which will send the crew past the Moon's far side and farther from Earth than any humans have ever traveled, is targeting an early February launch, with a key "wet dress rehearsal" set before that while the astronauts remain in quarantine. NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, joined by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, won't land on the moon or even orbit it but it is still the first crewed mission to "lunar realms" since 1972, Space.com reports.

NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule are already at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B, positioned for what the agency calls a major step toward putting people back on the lunar surface with Artemis 3 as early as next year. The five potential launch dates next month are Feb. 6-8 and Feb. 10-11, per Space.com. If those don't work out, NASA is looking at five potential launch dates in March and six in April.

 

[Simone411]

This is a video.

Something weird is happening on Jupiter - and it doesn't behave like a planet anymore | Watch

MSN

The more scientists studied Jupiter, the less it resembled a simple gas giant. Beneath its clouds lies extreme pressure, liquid hydrogen, and a magnetic field unlike anything else in the solar system. Evidence suggests violent events shaped its interior long ago. Looking back, Jupiter was never just a planet — it was a destabilizing force.

 

[Simone411]

This is a slideshow.

Scientists just made a discovery that could change everything

MSN

Scientists conduct research through gradual small advances until they reach a major scientific breakthrough that changes their total understanding. The discovery of Nuclear Fusion represents the most exciting scientific finding in modern times because it produces the same energy as the sun. Scientists dedicated their efforts to achieve this Earth-based phenomenon for 40 years until they reached a breakthrough that produced "Net Energy Gain" which enables worldwide access to continuous clean energy resources.

Nuclear fusion is the process of fusing two atoms together to create energy. Fusion functions as a simulation of what happens in stars while current nuclear plants operate through atom splitting (fission). The recent discovery enables us to produce greater energy from the reaction than the initial energy we used to start it.

Fusion fuel derives its energy from isotopes which exist within regular seawater. The discovery leads to a future world where power supply will remain constant because our population will not exhaust the virtually limitless energy resources available.

 

[Simone411]

I hope and pray this isn't a repeat of what happened with The Challenger 40 years ago. The experts are warning NASA. There was a flaw that was detected in Orion's thermal protection which involved the heat shield. It didn't behave as it was designed to do.

NASA's looming moon launch sparks serious warnings over rocket safety

MSN

NASA is racing toward its first crewed trip around the Moon in more than fifty years, but the countdown is unfolding under an unusual cloud of technical unease. The Artemis II mission will send four astronauts around the Moon and back in the Orion capsule, a 16.5-foot-wide spacecraft whose heat shield has become the focus of pointed criticism from outside experts. As the launch window approaches, the tension between schedule pressure and safety concerns is sharpening into one of the most consequential risk calls of the modern space age.

At the heart of the debate is whether NASA has truly tamed a problem it openly describes as a “known flaw” in Orion’s thermal protection, or whether it is pressing ahead on what one critic likened to driving toward a cliff on a foggy day. The agency insists it has enough data and mitigation in hand to protect the crew, while several engineers and commentators argue that the system has not yet earned that confidence.

The mission that revives a lunar era

NASA plans to launch Artemis II on Feb. 6, sending four astronauts on a loop around the Moon that would mark the first human voyage into deep space in more than half a century. Agency officials describe Artemis II as the bridge between the uncrewed test flight of Orion and a future landing, with Artemis framed as the program that will return humans to the Moon and eventually push on toward Mars. When four astronauts begin that historic trip around the Moon as soon as February 6, they will climb aboard NASA’s Orion capsule perched atop the Space Launch System rocket.

NASA is preparing to launch the Artemis II mission on Feb. 6 from Florida’s Space Coast, and the agency has been actively addressing public questions about safety as crowds plan where and how to watch the liftoff. Guidance on how to view the launch notes that the earliest launch date is set for Feb. 6 and that, if technical issues or weather intervene, updated opportunities will be posted on the space center’s website, a reminder that even in the best of times, a Moon shot is never guaranteed to go on the first try, as What to expect makes clear.

A heat shield that did not behave as designed

The core of the current alarm is Orion’s heat shield, which must survive the brutal plasma of high speed reentry when the crew returns from the Moon. NASA made changes to the way it applied the special Avcoat material to the Orion capsule, shifting from a honeycomb-like structure to a different technique, and that new approach did not perform exactly as predicted during the uncrewed Artemis I flight, according to NASA. The Avcoat layer is meant to erode in a controlled manner as it heats, but engineers instead saw chunks of material come off in a way that raised questions about how the system would behave with people on board, an issue that The Avcoat behavior brought into sharp focus.

NASA disclosed the problem months after Orion returned from its first lunar loop, and outside specialists have since argued that the pattern of erosion suggests the heat shield did not vent and dissipate as expected. Commentators have pointed to the way Orion also experienced unexpected melting and erosion on separation bolts and issues in its power distribution during that uncrewed test flight, arguing that each anomaly adds more uncertainty to a system that has not yet flown with people. In that context, the decision to accept a heat shield that did not behave exactly as modeled has become a lightning rod.

Experts sound the alarm as NASA defends its call

Into this technical thicket has stepped a chorus of outside voices, some of whom have framed the upcoming launch in stark terms. A widely shared analysis warned that there is “something wrong with the Moon rocket” NASA is about to use to Launch With Astronauts Aboard, a phrase that captured the unease around sending a crew on a vehicle whose thermal protection has already surprised engineers, as highlighted in coverage by Experts Warn That. Another piece, by Victor Tangermann, underscored that the concern is not about the rocket’s ability to reach space but about whether the capsule can withstand the extreme conditions during reentry, a distinction that shifts the focus from spectacle at liftoff to survival at splashdown.

Experts warn NASA rocket heat shield could still be a problem, stressing that All of the concerns lie with Orion, the capsule perched on top of the Space Launch System, and that the risk is concentrated in the final minutes when the crew comes home, as detailed by Experts. Social media commentary has amplified that message, with one widely circulated post warning that Astronauts are going to the Moon in a rocket not everyone thinks is safe to fly and noting that On February the Art mission will test that judgment in real time, a sentiment captured in the Astronauts discussion where some experts disagree with NASA’s level of confidence.

 

[Buzz]

Is this thread for earth based sciences too? I hope…

The Large Hadron Collider Is Being Shut Down

It's time to wind down.

www.yahoo.com