Tag Archives: Space

NASA Releases Webb Telescope’s First Images

14 Wednesday Sep 2022

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

By Carlos Gamino

In mid-July 2022, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released the first images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, a high-powered, space-based telescope that’s about a million miles from Earth right now. The agency launched the telescope in December 2021 from French Guiana, and it’ll hang out in its current position (give or take a few miles) for at least five years. It could – like the Opportunity Mars Rover – outlive expectations, lasting ten years or more, but only if it has enough fuel to maintain its orbit and it’s able to dodge the effects of space’s harsh environment.

How is the Webb Telescope Different From the Hubble Telescope?

The Webb Telescope (just Webb for short) is different from the Hubble. In addition to being technologically superior, it’s a lot farther out in space. The Hubble is in low-Earth orbit, just 375 miles from Earth (that’s about the distance from Milwaukee to Detroit if you drive around Lake Michigan). Because of Webb’s distance from Earth, it’s not serviceable; NASA doesn’t have any plans to send manned missions out there during its planned lifespan.

Webb can see a lot farther than the Hubble Telescope can, too. Right now, it’s looking at what happened in the universe shortly after the Big Bang – and that’s when the first stars and galaxies began to form. That’s why scientists have found the images so riveting; it can take them back to “explore every phase of cosmic history.”

The other – and most significant – difference between Webb and the Hubble is that the Webb Telescope can pick up infrared light. The Hubble Telescope can do that, too, but only to a small extent. That means scientists can observe extremely faint objects that they just couldn’t pick up with the Hubble.

What About Webb’s First Images?

The first images NASA released depict thousands of galaxies across the universe. Some of these galaxies formed around 13.2 billion years ago.

But perhaps what’s most fascinating about the images is that they’re incredibly tiny. The telescope uses gravitational lensing, which occurs when a massive object magnifies or distorts the light of objects behind it. According to NASA, the gravitational field of a huge galaxy cluster can bend light rays from more distant galaxies (just like a camera lens bends light to create a picture). As a result, the Webb images you see come from a picture that’s about as small as a grain of sand held at arm’s length – and they only depict a miniscule fraction of the vastness of space.

What Do You Think About the Webb Telescope’s Images?

Have you checked out the images from the James Webb Space Telescope? What did you think of them – were you impressed, or are you waiting for NASA to do another photo dump? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – so please feel free to share them on my Facebook page or on my Twitter feed.

Carlos Gamino

Go Ahead and Look Up: 3,400-Foot-Wide Asteroid Giving Earth Plenty of Space

02 Wednesday Feb 2022

Posted by in Blog by Attorney Carlos Gamino

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

By Carlos Gamino

If you’ve been scrolling through Netflix recently, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve seen Don’t Look Up. On its face, it looks like a movie about a giant comet hurtling toward Earth (though it’s really about the looming climate crisis).

But in real life, there’s a 3,400-foot-wide asteroid doing a flyby in late January, and though it won’t even be a near-miss (it’ll be about a million miles away), it’s going to be moving fast at about 12 miles per second. The same asteroid, known as 7482, shows up from time to time, but it won’t be this close again for another 200 years or so. On January 17, 1933, the asteroid was about 700,000 miles away.

The asteroid is about three times as tall as the Empire State Building, and although it’s extremely far away, NASA classifies it as “potentially hazardous.” That’s because its orbit crosses ours, making a collision more likely.

So why isn’t NASA worried about Earth being on an eventual collision course with 7482? It’s all about math. There are around 25,000 near-Earth asteroids that would be devastating in the event of a crash.

Related: The billionaire space race

Don’t worry, though: The space agency is working on the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which will collide with a 525-foot-wide space body (a moonlet, to be specific) called Dimorphos at about 15,000 miles per hour in September of this year. DART will give scientists a good idea on whether it’s possible to divert an asteroid that’s on a collision course with Earth in the future.

What Do You Think?

First, I’d love to hear whether you watched Don’t Look Up (and what you thought of it). Then, share your thoughts on 7482 and the 25,000 near-Earth asteroids – are you concerned that one of them will hit Earth sooner or later? Share your thoughts on these deep space questions on my Twitter feed or on my Facebook page to join the conversation!

Attorney Carlos Gamino

The Billionaire Space Race

13 Monday Sep 2021

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

By Attorney Carlos Gamino

Billionaire Richard Branson – the first of a group of mega-rich adventurers who made it to… well, almost-space in a privately owned craft – said on his trip, “If we can do this, imagine what else we can do.” And it’s not just Branson, though he led the charge out of Earth’s atmosphere. Two other billionaires, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, are also planning their own journeys into the great beyond.

But is this more than just billionaires doing billionaire things that most of us can only dream about, or is it something more?

Some experts believe that civilians forging their way into space will have incredible benefits for the rest of us (though there are plenty of naysayers who want to point out the things these guys aren’t doing with their massive stacks of cash). Sure, space flight may not appear very useful – particularly when we’re in the throes of a fresh round of coronavirus infections thanks to the delta variant, huge parts of the American West are on fire and QAnon members are running for school boards and local offices to spread conspiracy theories – but that’s only looking at the short-term.

If you look at the big picture, where would we be if our ancestors never built huge ships to explore beyond their own shores? Where would we be if Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, Andre Citroen and Henry Ford never dove feet-first into the automobile business? Though Branson, Bezos and Musk have smaller ambitions than NASA does, their space flights could have the same results as the Wright Brothers’ earliest box kite flights did: to further public interest and maintain government funding for space travel, which our descendants may actually need to escape if Earth becomes much more inhospitable.

What Do You Think?

Do you think that Branson, Bezos and Musk are doing the right thing by pouring their near-infinite resources into space travel, or do you think they’re wasting time and money? Perhaps more importantly, would you jump at the chance to hitch a ride into space if you could? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so share them on my Facebook page or on Twitter.

Attorney Carlos Gamino

The Constant Hum Beyond Our Solar System

12 Monday Jul 2021

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

By Attorney Carlos Gamino

If you’re like many people, your curiosity was piqued when news broke that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had detected a faint humming sound in interstellar space – but what is it?

NASA’s Discovery of a Distant Humming in Space

Faint but constant vibrations were first detected by the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which has been in space for more than 40 years. It’s currently the most distant human-made object in space, and it’s feeding data to NASA that nobody ever expected to receive; the craft was only supposed to last five years – long enough to study Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn’s rings, and the larger moons of the two planets.

Voyager 1 currently hangs out in a region of space called the heliosphere – a protective bubble that encloses all the planets in our solar system. It’s essentially the only tool we Earthlings have to directly sampling interstellar space.

And nobody knows where the humming is coming from. It was measured through ripples of plasma in the interstellar medium – a mix of gases, radiation and the same particles that make up the space between stars. It’s operating on a narrow frequency bandwidth, and a lot of scientists are excited because it may be able to tell us how our solar system interacts with everything beyond it.

Scientists have distinguished this hum from other things Voyager 1 has detected, and they know for sure that it’s not from the sun. The sun has its own, distinctive signature when it makes ripples in outer space – and this humming isn’t that.

What Do You Think?

Have you been following Voyager 1 and its discoveries? I’d love to hear your theories on what this deep-space hum is coming from, so please share your thoughts on my Twitter feed or Facebook page!

Carlos Gamino

SpaceX Has Sent Its Second Crew of Astronauts to the ISS

14 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

By Carlos Gamino

Elon Musk’s SpaceX program successfully launched four astronauts into space in mid-November, marking the second time the private company has served as a shuttle for NASA. The Falcon rocket took off from Kennedy Space Center with three American astronauts and one Japanese astronaut, each ready to man the International Space Station. The crew is definitely diverse and includes the first Black astronaut on a long-term space station mission, Navy Commander Victor Glover and physicist Shannon Walker.

The capsule the astronauts traveled in, called Resilience, reached orbit in just nine minutes. After the short trip, the astronauts plan to remain aboard the ISS until spring 2021.

Commander Mike Hopkins told the crew, right before liftoff, “By working together through these difficult times, you’ve inspired the nation, the world, and in no small part the name of this incredible vehicle, Resilience.”

The crew, who had been quarantined with their families since October to prevent the spread of coronavirus in space, took several precautions – as did everyone involved in the launch. SpaceX’s founder, Elon Musk, tweeted that he likely had a mild case of coronavirus immediately prior to the launch. NASA’s policy at Kennedy Space Center requires anyone who tests positive to quarantine in isolation until it’s safe for them to return to work.

NASA hopes there will be several crew rotations in partnership with SpaceX in the future.

What Do You Think?

Do you keep up with the ISS and crewmembers aboard it? Have you ever looked for it in the night sky or seen a livestream from it? I’d love to hear what you have to say about the International Space Station, SpaceX or even Elon Musk, so share your thoughts with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Carlos Gamino