Latest news with #NASA-backed
News18
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Shah Rukh Khan's Interstellar Moment Is Here, Thanks To Shubhanshu Shukla's Playlist
The song, composed by A.R. Rahman and penned by Javed Akhtar, played in Shubhanshu Shukla's ears as he piloted the NASA-backed Axiom 4 mission. When Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla blasted off into space, his launch playlist featured a track that resonated far beyond the cockpit: 'Yun Hi Chala Chal" from Shah Rukh Khan's 2004 film 'Swades'. The song, composed by A.R. Rahman and penned by Javed Akhtar, played in Shubhanshu Shukla's ears as he piloted the NASA-backed Axiom 4 mission aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft- marking the first time in 41 years that an Indian traveled to space since Rakesh Sharma's mission in 1984. In Swades, Shah Rukh Khan plays a NASA scientist who returns to India in search of belonging. For Shubhanshu Shukla, the connection felt personal as the film's quiet anthem of forward motion mirrored his own path from Indian Air Force pilot to astronaut, now carrying the tricolour into orbit. 'This is not just the start of my journey to the ISS, but also of India's human spaceflight," Shubhanshu Shukla said in a message from space, adding, 'Let us embark on this journey together." What Were Other Astronauts Listening To? The other astronauts aboard the Axiom 4 mission also brought personal soundtracks to the launch. Mission commander Peggy Whitson, a veteran American astronaut, chose 'Thunder" by Imagine Dragons. Polish astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski went with 'Supermoce", a high-energy collaboration by Igo, Mrozu and Vito Bambino. Hungary's Tibor Kapu picked 'Búvóhely" by Quimby, a moody, atmospheric track. Axiom 4 Mission After multiple delays, the Axiom 4 mission finally launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All four astronauts- representing India, Hungary, and Poland- lifted off aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, marking a significant moment for international spaceflight. Shubhanshu Shukla addressed the nation moments after reaching orbit saying, 'Namaskar, my dear countrymen; we have reached space after 41 years. It was a great ride. We are orbiting Earth at a speed of 7.5 km per second. I have the Indian tricolour on my shoulders. It tells me I am with you all." First Published: June 25, 2025, 16:04 IST
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
1.5TB of Webb Telescope Data Made Available for Public Use
Open science just got a stellar upgrade. On Thursday, NASA-backed COSMOS-Web made 1.5 terabytes of the James Webb Space Telescope's observational data available online, free of charge. It's the biggest trove of raw deep-space data ever opened to the public at a given time. COSMOS-Web, the Webb telescope's continuation of Hubble's 590-orbit Cosmic Evolution Survey, involves more than 200 researchers from a dozen countries. The project aims to expand astronomers' understanding of the Reionization Era (the billion years immediately following the Big Bang), track the evolution of massive galaxies in the universe's first two billion years, and unravel dark matter's entanglement with visible matter within galaxies. Between Webb's 2021 launch and June 2025, COSMOS-Web has conducted over 250 hours of observations across 150 visits. The result is a vast raw data catalog containing "photometry, structural measurements, redshifts, and physical parameters for nearly 800,000 galaxies," per the COSMOS-Web team. Accompanying the catalog are mosaics from Webb's NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid Infrared Instrument), which together mapped a total of 0.74 square degrees of sky—roughly the area of four full moons. COSMOS-Web NIRCam mosaic (upper left) with zoom-ins to the region surrounding the COSMOS-Web Ring (upper right). Credit: COSMOS-Web Though the data in COSMOS2025 was made available as soon as it was obtained, "only those with specialized technical knowledge and supercomputer access are able to process them into a form useful for scientific analyses," the team said. In contrast, the catalog consists of what was left after COSMOS-Web sifted out artifacts, subtracted background noise, reduced duplicate data, and improved the astrometry. This doesn't just make the data more accessible to research institutions and citizen scientists; it also sets a foundation for calibrating future surveys and observatories. "In today's climate, open, accessible science is more important than ever," COSMOS-Web's statement reads. "Anyone in the world can now access the same catalogs and images used by the COSMOS collaboration…This collective spirit has been remarkably successful in continuously reinvigorating the team over the past twenty years."
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Webb Telescope Drops Detailed, Interactive Map of Its Cosmic Corner
To the humble humans on the ground, the duties of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope can sometimes feel a little…otherworldly. Sure, the observatory drops some life-altering images of the cosmos now and then, but otherwise, the raw data it gathers isn't exactly accessible to the average person—even once it's literally made available to everyone via the internet. But Webb's latest gift helps put some of its work into perspective. Accompanying last week's 1.5TB trove of public Webb data is a new, interactive map of the telescope's slice of the universe, which it's spent hundreds of hours examining with its state-of-the-art scientific instruments. Published by COSMOS-Web, an international, NASA-backed astronomical survey, the map contains almost 800,000 galaxies and an untold number of stars. When you first open the map in your web browser, it doesn't look like much: The product of Webb's painstaking observations is squeezed into a small, tilted square of space. But zoom in, and the universe begins to unfold. It's nearly impossible to choose which shimmering galaxy to home in on first. What the COSMOS-Web interactive map looks like before you start to zoom in. Credit: COSMOS-Web/Adrianna Nine The map extends through roughly 98% of all cosmic time, or 13.5 billion of the universe's 13.8 billion years. That (and its mind-boggling quantity of galaxies) means Webb's map dwarfs Hubble's Ultra Deep Field, which stunned the world with nearly 10,000 imaged galaxies back in 2006. "Our goal was to construct this deep field of space on a physical scale that far exceeded anything that had been done before," said physicist and COSMOS co-lead Caitlin Casey. "If you had a printout of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field on a standard piece of paper, our image would be slightly larger than a 13-foot by 13-foot-wide mural, at the same depth. So it's really strikingly large." Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team Though Webb's map offers astronomers a wealth of information with which to answer age-old questions about the universe, it also poses its own questions. The current cosmological model doesn't accommodate Webb's proof that the universe produced "a billion solar masses of stars" in "only about 400 million years," Casey explained in a statement for the University of California, Santa Barbara. Now it's up to researchers to figure out how so much light spread throughout the cosmos so early—and potentially tweak their understanding of the universe along the way. That's one reason why COSMOS-Web made both the map and Webb's observational data available to the public. "A big part of this project is the democratization of science and making tools and data from the best telescopes accessible to the broader community," Casey said. "Because the best science is really done when everyone thinks about the same data set differently. It's not just for one group of people to figure out the mysteries."
Economic Times
05-06-2025
- Science
- Economic Times
Space's ‘Bermuda Triangle' growing as mysterious force under Earth's outer core may cripple International Space Station, NASA perplexed
TIL Creatives NASA and other space agencies are monitoring the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), where Earth's magnetic field is weaker. This allows high-energy particles to reach closer to the surface, affecting satellites and puzzling scientists. Researchers at NASA and other space agencies have been closely tracking a growing disturbance in Earth's magnetic field, known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). This phenomenon, which affects a vast region stretching over South America and the South Atlantic Ocean, has been intensifying in recent years. Earth's magnetic field is significantly weaker in the South Atlantic region, which allows high-energy particles to penetrate closer to the planet's surface. This disruption is affecting satellites and space missions and has puzzled scientists worldwide. Also Read: Bigger than 5,000 Suns; here's why this massive near-earth space cloud remained hidden till now?The South Atlantic Anomaly refers to a specific area often regarded as the 'Bermuda triangle of space,' where Earth's magnetic field is significantly weaker than elsewhere. The magnetic field is like an invisible shield that protects the planet from harmful solar radiation and charged particles from space. In the SAA region, this shield thins out, allowing high-energy particles to get much closer to the Earth's surface than usual. This doesn't directly threaten people on the ground, but it creates serious challenges for spacecraft, satellites, and astronauts passing through the area. The cause of the anomaly lies deep beneath the Earth's surface. Scientists believe it's linked to complex activity in the planet's outer core. This core is made up of molten iron and nickel, and as these materials move, they generate the Earth's magnetic field, a process known as the geodynamo. But this system isn't perfectly balanced. One contributing factor to the SAA is that the magnetic axis (the imaginary line connecting the Earth's magnetic north and south) is tilted compared to the planet's spin axis. This natural tilt weakens the field in certain places. Also Read: Nuclear war or asteroid strike will not end life on Earth; NASA-backed study reveals the real villain Another major influence is a huge, mysterious structure located about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) below the African continent, known as the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province (LLSVP). This dense mass of rock interferes with the flow of molten materials in the core and is believed to be a major reason why the magnetic field weakens in the South Atlantic region. One of the most immediate concerns with the SAA is how it affects satellites and space instruments. When satellites travel through this weakened magnetic field, they are exposed to more cosmic radiation than usual. This can cause what's known as single-event upsets (SEUs), which are temporary glitches in electronic systems caused by a hit from a high-energy particle. In more serious cases, entire systems can shut down or suffer permanent damage. Many space agencies have programmed their satellites to turn off or switch to safe mode when passing through the SAA to minimize risk. Even the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits close to the edge of the anomaly, has to take special precautions when flying through the area, as it is now under a major threat. NASA has said that the anomaly is one of the primary reasons for malfunctions in low-Earth orbiting worries scientists even more is that the anomaly isn't stable. It has been gradually moving westward and slightly expanding. In recent years, researchers observed that it is splitting into two distinct regions, each with its center of lowest magnetic strength. This development has made it harder to predict and manage the risks associated with satellite travel through the area. NASA and other space agencies are closely monitoring the situation. Tools like the European Space Agency's Swarm satellites are being used to track changes in the Earth's magnetic field and model what might happen in the future. Also Read: Sun will die in 5 billion years but life could survive on Jupiter's moon Europa; here's how While scientists don't believe the anomaly signals a complete magnetic pole reversal — something that has happened in Earth's past- they acknowledge that the magnetic field is weakening at a slow but noticeable is no immediate danger for people on the ground, as the atmosphere provides additional protection against radiation. However, the South Atlantic Anomaly indicates that the Earth's magnetic field is dynamic and still not fully understood. It poses a growing challenge for technology in space and serves as a reminder of the powerful forces at work beneath our feet. As NASA puts it, keeping a close eye on this anomaly is essential not just for science but for the safety of everything we send into space.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Could A New Big Wave Come from Underwater Mountains?
Cortes Bank, the famed and elusive wave 100 miles off the coast of California, is an anomaly. The massive peaks that have seen XXL records and near-death experiences result from a seamount — an underwater mountain with a summit below the surface. Now, scientists in a NASA-backed project say they've found up to nearly 56,000 previously unmapped underwater mountains in the planet's oceans. Mapping the ocean floor for numerous economic and environmental repercussions. Ships need to know if there are any hazards in their way. Cable-laying and mining operations have to know what's going on down there, too. Scientists are also interested in what kind of geological formations and marine ecosystems exist in the depths. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography project, a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales, used radar altimetry during a full year of satellite observations. The SWOT satellite covered about 90% of the planet every 21 days, and the seafloor map it created was published in Science in December 2024. 'The SWOT satellite was a huge jump in our ability to map the seafloor,' David Sandwell, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, told NASA. How big of a jump was this research? The satellite measured small 'bumps' on the ocean's surface caused by the subtle gravitational pull of the large seamounts below, and researchers used that data to predict the location of the underwater masses. According to their pencils, the number of mapped seamounts skyrocketed from 44,000 to nearly 100,000. That's an estimated 56,000 previously hidden peaks, uncovered just like is the next Cortes Bank still out there? Could another mountain range intercept swells and cause a titanic wave to break on the ocean's surface? Unfortunately, it's too soon to tell. This data is preliminary, and the SWOT team is still calculating the depths of each feature the satellite pinpointed. This is part of an international effort to map the entire ocean bottom by 2030. Previous research could only detect seamounts over 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) in height. The SWOT team can find features half that height. For reference, the Cortes range rises an estimated 4,000 feet from the ocean floor, and its tallest point (Bishop Rock) comes alarmingly close to the surface. It's also in a prime position to cop the brunt of massive long-period Pacific Ocean power. It's entirely possible the newly mapped seamounts don't come close enough to the surface to cause swells to break. While the scientists crunch the numbers, best keep your eyes peeled.
