PRATIQUE/POURQUOI - Pourquoi y a t-il la syllabe ''di'' dans les jours de la semaine ?

On peut remarquer que chaque jour de la semaine possède la syllabe di ajoutée à la racine du jour. Les jours font référence à une planète de notre système solaire, soit : Lundi pour la Lune, Mardi pour Mars, mercredi pour Mercure, jeudi pour Jupiter, vendredi pour Vénus, samedi pour Saturne et dimanche qui est le jour du Seigneur ou dans d'autres termes : Dies Dominicus.

Dies veut dire jour en latin donc cela veut dire jour de la Lune pour Lundi, jour de Mars pour Mardi, etc.

ASTRONOMY - Pink and the Perigee Moon

 2021 April 30

Pink and the Perigee Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Alice Ross

Explanation: On April 25 a nearly full moon rose just before sunset. Welcomed in a clear blue sky and framed by cherry blossoms, its familiar face was captured in this snapshot from Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland. Known to some as a Pink Moon, April's full lunar phase occurred with the moon near perigee. That's the closest point in its not-quite-circular orbit around planet Earth, making this Pink Moon one of the closest and brightest full moons of the year. If you missed it, don't worry. Your next chance to see a full perigee moon will be on May 26. Known to some as a Flower Moon, May's full moon will actually be closer to you than April's by about 98 miles (158 kilometers), or about 0.04% the distance from the Earth to the Moon at perigee.

AERONAUTIQUE - L'avion automatique

Le principe d'assistance à l'atterrissage est le quotidien des avions de ligne, mais ceux-ci sont guidés par des balises et signaux provenant de l'aéroport, c'est ce qu'on appelle le système d'atterrissage aux instruments (ILS). Toutefois, s'ils sont assistés, les pilotes ne lâchent pas les commandes de vol. Mais tous les aéroports ne sont pas équipés de ces systèmes et encore moins les aérodromes. Et justement, c'est pour les avions de tourisme que ce système mis au point par les chercheurs a été conçu.

L'idée est de rendre plus sûr l'approche et l'atterrissage et surtout dans des conditions météorologiques compliquées pour le pilote du dimanche. Un fort vent de travers nécessite, par exemple, beaucoup d'expérience pour être géré sans souci. Le laboratoire ne s'est pas inspiré des avions de ligne, le module de pilotage autonome baptisé Fly-by-Wire est à la fois géré par GPS et un mix de caméras infrarouges et haute définition pour évaluer la position de l'appareil par rapport à la piste, même avec une visibilité dégradée. Avec les données recueillies, l'avion adapte sa descente en finale pour mener son atterrissage tout seul, arrondi et décélération compris.

Futura Sciences

ASTRONOMY - Apollo 17: The Crescent Earth

 2021 April 29

Apollo 17: The Crescent Earth
Image Credit: Apollo 17, NASA; Restoration - Toby Ord

Explanation: Our fair planet sports a curved, sunlit crescent against the black backdrop of space in this stunning photograph. From the unfamiliar perspective, the Earth is small and, like a telescopic image of a distant planet, the entire horizon is completely within the field of view. Enjoyed by crews on board the International Space Station, only much closer views of the planet are possible from low Earth orbit. Orbiting the planet once every 90 minutes, a spectacle of clouds, oceans, and continents scrolls beneath them with the partial arc of the planet's edge in the distance. But this digitally restored image presents a view so far only achieved by 24 humans, Apollo astronauts who traveled to the Moon and back again between 1968 and 1972. The original photograph, AS17-152-23420, was taken by the homeward bound crew of Apollo 17, on December 17, 1972. For now it's the last picture of Earth from this planetary perspective taken by human hands.

PRATIQUE/POURQUOI - Pourquoi n'utilise-t-on pas les volcans comme incinérateurs d'ordures ?

Nous le savons, le traitement de nos ordures est un sujet qui pose quelques problèmes dans notre société. Il n'est pas facile de savoir ce qu'il faut en faire, sans porter atteinte à notre planète. Mais si nous employions nos ressources naturelles pour traiter ces déchets ? Plus précisément, pourquoi ne pas utiliser les volcans comme incinérateurs d'ordures ? Une pensée qui peut faire sens, mais qui pose cependant quelques problèmes.

L'idée est intéressante, et fut évoquée à de nombreuses reprises. Après tout, pourquoi ne pas utiliser les volcans pour traiter nos déchets ? Ce concept ne date pas d'aujourd'hui, mais au final, la réalisation est complexe, voire impossible, et ce, pour plusieurs raisons. Tout d'abord, et malgré ce que l'on pense, cela est difficilement réalisable car la lave n'est pas assez chaude pour détruire tous les déchets. En effet, sa température est généralement comprise entre 750 et 1300 degrés. Cela peut sembler élevé mais c'est, au final, trop faible pour certains matériaux. Les déchets nucléaires en particulier ne pourraient être détruits.

De plus, il faut également penser à l'impact écologique. En effet, ce n'est pas parce que l'incinérateur serait naturel, qu'il n'y aurait pas de conséquences. Au contraire, des gaz toxiques seraient même produits. Cela proviendrait des combustions incomplètes, mais également des déchets brûlés eux-mêmes. Cela n'est donc pas envisageable. La seule solution serait de poser plusieurs filtres sur le volcan, ce qui semble assez peu réalisable.

Il faut aussi prendre en compte que tous les volcans ne correspondent pas à cette activité. Il faut qu'ils soient dotés d'un lac de lave, dans un cratère à ciel ouvert. Dans le cas contraire, les déchets resteraient bloqués dans la cheminée du volcan, ce qui poserait problème. De plus, il doit être actif, bien entendu. Ceux correspondant à cette description ne sont que cinq dans le monde, et sont souvent éloignés de tout (pour des raisons évidentes). Il faut imaginer qu'il faudrait construire des infrastructures pour pouvoir s'y rendre et pratiquer cette incinération. Un manque de praticité donc. Si l'on ajoute cela aux autres problèmes évoqués auparavant, on comprend pourquoi les volcans ne sont pas utilisés comme incinérateur d'ordures.

Les spécialistes pensent également que cela pourrait modifier le comportement du volcan. Il serait donc bien plus sensible. Il faudrait faire face à des rejets de fumées, de poussières ou même à des éruptions imprévues. Et ce dernier point est également un frein à cette idée : les éruptions. Cet élément en rebute plus d'un, à cause du danger-même de l'outil.

Ce concept ne date pas d'aujourd'hui, mais au final, la réalisation est complexe, voire impossible. Voilà pourquoi les volcans ne sont pas utilisés comme incinérateur d'ordures. 

(Source : Ademe et EPA).

ASTRONOMY - North Star: Polaris and Surrounding Dust

 2021 April 28

North Star: Polaris and Surrounding Dust
Image Credit & Copyright: Bray Falls

Explanation: Why is Polaris called the North Star? First, Polaris is the nearest bright star toward the north spin axis of the Earth. Therefore, as the Earth turns, stars appear to revolve around Polaris, but Polaris itself always stays in the same northerly direction -- making it the North Star. Since no bright star is near the south spin axis of the Earth, there is currently no South Star. Thousands of years ago, Earth's spin axis pointed in a slightly different direction so that Vega was the North Star. Although Polaris is not the brightest star on the sky, it is easily located because it is nearly aligned with two stars in the cup of the Big Dipper. Polaris is near the center of the eight-degree wide featured image, an image that has been digitally manipulated to suppress surrounding dim stars but accentuate the faint gas and dust of the Intergalactic Flux Nebula (IFN). The surface of Cepheid Polaris slowly pulsates, causing the star to change its brightness by a few percent over the course of a few days.

ASTRONOMY - Animation: Black Hole Destroys Star

 2021 April 27

Animation: Black Hole Destroys Star
Video Illustration Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab

Explanation: What happens if a star gets too close to a black hole? The black hole can rip it apart -- but how? It's not the high gravitational attraction itself that's the problem -- it's the difference in gravitational pull across the star that creates the destruction. In the featured animated video illustrating this disintegration, you first see a star approaching the black hole. Increasing in orbital speed, the star's outer atmosphere is ripped away during closest approach. Much of the star's atmosphere disperses into deep space, but some continues to orbit the black hole and forms an accretion disk. The animation then takes you into the accretion disk while looking toward the black hole. Including the strange visual effects of gravitational lensing, you can even see the far side of the disk. Finally, you look along one of the jets being expelled along the spin axis. Theoretical models indicate that these jets not only expel energetic gas, but create energetic neutrinos -- one of which may have been seen recently on Earth.

PRATIQUE/POURQUOI - Pourquoi l'électricité peut-elle tuer ?

Une décharge électrique peut tuer de trois façons: brûlure, asphyxie et arrêt cardiaque. Bien que notre corps produise lui-même naturellement de l'électricité pour commander ses fonctions vitales, une trop forte intensité de courant perturbe le système. Dès 20 milliampères les muscles se contractent, risquant ainsi à bloquer la respiration: c'est l'asphyxie. Entre 100 et 300 milliampères le coeur s'emballe, de petites contractions rapides apparaissent: c'est la fibrillation, aux effets souvent irréversibles et quelquefois fatals. Soumis à des courants plus forts, le coeur ne fibrille pas mais la résistance électrique du corps s'opposant à la circulation électrique échauffe les tissus et brûle les organes.

MINERAUX - La marcassite, une cousine de la pyrite

La marcassite est un minéral composé de disulfure de fer (FeS₂). Elle fut longtemps confondue avec la pyrite jusqu'à ce que le minéralogiste français René Just Haüy la distingue en 1814. Couleur : jaune de bronze pâle. © Leon Hupperichs, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0

 

ASTRONOMY - Threads of NGC 1947

 2021 April 26

Threads of NGC 1947
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario; Acknowledgment: L. Shatz

Explanation: Found in far southern skies, deep within the boundaries of the constellation Dorado, NGC 1947 is some 40 million light-years away. In silhouette against starlight, obscuring lanes of cosmic dust thread across the peculiar galaxy's bright central regions. Unlike the rotation of stars, gas, and dust tracing the arms of spiral galaxies, the motions of dust and gas don't follow the motions of stars in NGC 1947 though. Their more complicated disconnected motion suggest this galaxy's visible threads of dust and gas may have come from a donor galaxy, accreted by NGC 1947 during the last 3 billion years or so of the peculiar galaxy's evolution. With spiky foreground Milky Way stars and even more distant background galaxies scattered through the frame, this sharp Hubble image spans about 25,000 light-years near the center of NGC 1947.

ASTRONOMY - Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula

 2021 April 25

Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula
Image Credit: R. Sahai (JPL) et al., Hubble Heritage Team, ESA, NASA

Explanation: Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round? Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the light-year long length of the structure, and the magnetism of the star featured here at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that orbits close in to the bright star. A competing hypothesis holds that the central star's own spin and magnetic field are channeling the gas. Since the central star appears to be so similar to our own Sun, astronomers hope that increased understanding of the history of this giant space ant can provide useful insight into the likely future of our own Sun and Earth.

ASTRONOMY - Flying Over the Earth at Night II

 2021 April 23

Flying Over the Earth at Night II
Video Credit: NASA, Gateway to Astronaut Photography, ISS Expedition 53; Music: The Low Seas (The 126ers)

Explanation: Recorded during 2017, timelapse sequences from the International Space Station are compiled in this serene video of planet Earth at Night. Fans of low Earth orbit can start by enjoying the view as green and red aurora borealis slather up the sky. The night scene tracks from northwest to southeast across North America, toward the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida coast. A second sequence follows European city lights, crosses the Mediterranean Sea, and passes over a bright Nile river in northern Africa. Seen from the orbital outpost, erratic flashes of lightning appear in thunder storms below and stars rise above the planet's curved horizon through a faint atmospheric airglow. Of course, from home you can always check out the vital signs of Planet Earth Now.

ASTRONOMY - Planet Earth at Twilight

 2021 April 22

Planet Earth at Twilight
Image Credit: ISS Expedition 2 Crew, Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, NASA

Explanation: No sudden, sharp boundary marks the passage of day into night in this gorgeous view of ocean and clouds over our fair planet Earth. Instead, the shadow line or terminator is diffuse and shows the gradual transition to darkness we experience as twilight. With the Sun illuminating the scene from the right, the cloud tops reflect gently reddened sunlight filtered through the dusty troposphere, the lowest layer of the planet's nurturing atmosphere. A clear high altitude layer, visible along the dayside's upper edge, scatters blue sunlight and fades into the blackness of space. This picture was taken in June of 2001 from the International Space Station orbiting at an altitude of 211 nautical miles. But you can check out the vital signs of Planet Earth Now.

ASTRONOMY - Centaurus A's Warped Magnetic Fields

 2021 April 21

Centaurus A's Warped Magnetic Fields
Image Credit: Optical: European Southern Observatory (ESO) Wide Field Imager; Submillimeter: Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy/ESO/Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX)/A.Weiss et al; X-ray and Infrared: NASA/Chandra/R. Kraft; JPL-Caltech/J. Keene; Text: Joan Schmelz (USRA)

Explanation: When galaxies collide -- what happens to their magnetic fields? To help find out, NASA pointed SOFIA, its flying 747, at galactic neighbor Centaurus A to observe the emission of polarized dust -- which traces magnetic fields. Cen A's unusual shape results from the clash of two galaxies with jets powered by gas accreting onto a central supermassive black hole. In the resulting featured image, SOFIA-derived magnetic streamlines are superposed on ESO (visible: white), APEX (submillimeter: orange), Chandra (X-rays: blue), and Spitzer (infrared: red) images. The magnetic fields were found to be parallel to the dust lanes on the outskirts of the galaxy but distorted near the center. Gravitational forces near the black hole accelerate ions and enhance the magnetic field. In sum, the collision not only combined the galaxies’ masses -- but amplified their magnetic fields. These results provide new insights into how magnetic fields evolved in the early universe when mergers were more common.

ASTRONOMY - Ingenuity: First Flight over Mars

 2021 April 20

Ingenuity: First Flight over Mars
Video Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU, MSSS

Explanation: What's the best way to explore Mars? Perhaps there is no single best way, but a newly demonstrated method shows tremendous promise: flight. Powered flight has the promise to search vast regions and scout out particularly interesting areas for more detailed investigation. Yesterday, for the first time, powered flight was demonstrated on Mars by a small helicopter named Ingenuity. In the featured video, Ingenuity is first imaged by the Perseverance rover sitting quietly on the Martian surface. After a few seconds, Ingenuity's long rotors begin to spin, and a few seconds after that -- history is made as Ingenuity actually takes off, hovers for a few seconds, and then lands safely. More tests of Ingenuity's unprecedented ability are planned over the next few months. Flight may help humanity better explore not only Mars, but Saturn's moon Titan over the next few decades.

MINERAUX - Le sélénite, une pierre de lune

 

Considéré comme une variété de gypse, le sélénite permet de voir « l'éclat de la Lune ». Son nom provient d'ailleurs de selentis, qui signifie « pierre de Lune » en grec. La région de Bologne, en Italie, est connue pour en contenir beaucoup. Elle fut d'ailleurs utilisée pour construire les premières fortifications de la ville, aujourd'hui disparues.

Couleur : incolore à rougeâtre.

© mockbird, Flickr, CC by-sa 2.0

ASTRONOMY - The Galactic Center in Infrared

 2021 April 19

The Galactic Center in Infrared
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Spitzer Space Telescope, Susan Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) et al.; Reprocessing: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: What does the center of our galaxy look like? In visible light, the Milky Way's center is hidden by clouds of obscuring dust and gas. But in this stunning vista, the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared cameras, penetrate much of the dust revealing the stars of the crowded galactic center region. A mosaic of many smaller snapshots, the detailed, false-color image shows older, cool stars in bluish hues. Red and brown glowing dust clouds are associated with young, hot stars in stellar nurseries. The very center of the Milky Way has recently been found capable of forming newborn stars. The galactic center lies some 26,700 light-years away, toward the constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this picture spans about 900 light-years.

OCEANS -Inimaginable profondeur

"La profondeur des océans"

ASTRONOMY - Rainbow Airglow over the Azores

 2021 April 18

Rainbow Airglow over the Azores
Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN); Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow? Airglow. Now air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see. A disturbance however -- like an approaching storm -- may cause noticeable rippling in the Earth's atmosphere. These gravity waves are oscillations in air analogous to those created when a rock is thrown in calm water. The long-duration exposure nearly along the vertical walls of airglow likely made the undulating structure particularly visible. OK, but where do the colors originate? The deep red glow likely originates from OH molecules about 87-kilometers high, excited by ultraviolet light from the Sun. The orange and green airglow is likely caused by sodium and oxygen atoms slightly higher up. The featured image was captured during a climb up Mount Pico in the Azores of Portugal. Ground lights originate from the island of Faial in the Atlantic Ocean. A spectacular sky is visible through this banded airglow, with the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy running up the image center, and M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, visible near the top left.

ASTRONOMY - Inside the Flame Nebula

2021 April 17

Inside the Flame Nebula
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, IPAC Infrared Science Archive - Processing: Amal Biju

Explanation: The Flame Nebula is a stand out in optical images of the dusty, crowded star forming regions toward Orion's belt and the easternmost belt star Alnitak, a mere 1,400 light-years away. Alnitak is the bright star at the right edge of this infrared image from the Spitzer Space Telescope. About 15 light-years across, the infrared view takes you inside the nebula's glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds though. It reveals many stars of the recently formed, embedded cluster NGC 2024 concentrated near the center. The stars of NGC 2024 range in age from 200,000 years to 1.5 million years young. In fact, data indicate that the youngest stars are concentrated near the middle of the Flame Nebula cluster. That's the opposite of the simplest models of star formation for a stellar nursery that predict star formation begins in the denser center of a molecular cloud core. The result requires a more complex model for star formation inside the Flame Nebula. ...........................

MINERAUX - Le béryl, un cristal d’eau de mer

Le béryl (Be₃Al₂Si₆O₁₈) est un minéral du groupe des silicates. Son nom vient du grec beryllos, qui signifie « cristal de la couleur de l'eau de mer ». Il en existe plusieurs variétés utilisées en joaillerie, comme l'aigue-marine et l'émeraude. Couleurs : variées. © Rob Lavinsky, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0

 

ASTRONOMY - The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole

 2021 April 15

The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

Explanation: Bright elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87) is home to the supermassive black hole captured by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope in the first ever image of a black hole. Giant of the Virgo galaxy cluster about 55 million light-years away, M87 is the large galaxy rendered in blue hues in this infrared image from the Spitzer Space telescope. Though M87 appears mostly featureless and cloud-like, the Spitzer image does record details of relativistic jets blasting from the galaxy's central region. Shown in the inset at top right, the jets themselves span thousands of light-years. The brighter jet seen on the right is approaching and close to our line of sight. Opposite, the shock created by the otherwise unseen receding jet lights up a fainter arc of material. Inset at bottom right, the historic black hole image is shown in context, at the center of giant galaxy and relativistic jets. Completely unresolved in the Spitzer image, the supermassive black hole surrounded by infalling material is the source of enormous energy driving the relativistic jets from the center of active galaxy M87.

ASTRONOMY - The Pencil Nebula Supernova Shock Wave

 2021 April 14

The Pencil Nebula Supernova Shock Wave
Image Credit & Copyright: Greg Turgeon & Utkarsh Mishra

Explanation: This supernova shock wave plows through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometers per hour. Near the middle and moving up in this sharply detailed color composite, thin, bright, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a cosmic sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge-on. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its elongated appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula. The Pencil Nebula is about 5 light-years long and 800 light-years away, but represents only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter, the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometers per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar material. In the featured narrow-band, wide field image, red and blue colors track, primarily, the characteristic glows of ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively.

ASTRONOMY - Zodiacal Night

2021 April 13

Zodiacal Night
Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-Francois Graffand

Explanation: An intense band of zodiacal light is captured in this serene mountain and night skyscape from April 7. The panoramic view was recorded after three hours of hiking from a vantage looking west after sunset across the Pyrenees in southern France. At 2838 meters altitude, Mont Valier is the tallest peak near center. In the sky above, the familiar stars of Orion and the northern winter Milky Way are approaching the rugged western horizon. At the shoulder of Orion, Betelgeuse is one of three bright yellowish celestial beacons. It forms a triangle with fellow red giant star Aldebaran located below Betelgeuse and to the right, and the red planet Mars. Mars shines just under the band of the Milky Way, still immersed in the bright zodiacal light.

ASTRONOMY - Alnitak and the Flame Nebula

 2021 April 12

Alnitak and the Flame Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Team ARO

Explanation: What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark dust lanes, appears, on the left, like a billowing fire. But fire, the rapid acquisition of oxygen, is not what makes this Flame glow. Rather the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion visible on the far left, shines energetic light into the Flame that knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine. The featured picture of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) was taken across three visible color bands with detail added by a long duration exposure taken in light emitted only by hydrogen. The Flame Nebula is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a star-forming region that includes the famous Horsehead Nebula.

ASTRONOMY - Messier 106

 2021 April 9

Messier 106
Image Credit: NASA, Hubble Legacy Archive, Kitt Peak National Observatory;
Amateur Data & Processing Copyright: Robert Gendler

Explanation: Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes, highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy's spiral arms. It also shows off remarkable reddish jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.

ASTRONOMY - 3D Ingenuity

 2021 April 8

3D Ingenuity
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, ASU

Explanation: The multicolor, stereo imaging Mastcam-Z on the Perseverance rover zoomed in to captured this 3D close-up (get out your red/blue glasses) of the Mars Ingenuity helicopter on mission sol 45, April 5. That's only a few sols before the technology demonstrating Ingenuity will attempt to fly in the thin martian atmosphere, making the first powered flight on another planet. The historic test flight is planned for no earlier than Sunday, April 11. Casting its shadow on the martian surface, Ingenuity is standing alone on four landing legs next to the rover's wheel tracks. The experimental helicopter's solar panel, charging batteries that keep it warm through the cold martian nights and power its flight, sits above its two 1.2 meter (4 foot) long counter-rotating blades.

ASTRONOMY - Veil Nebula: Wisps of an Exploded Star

 2021 April 5

Veil Nebula: Wisps of an Exploded Star
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Levay

Explanation: Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star. About 7,000 years ago that star exploded in a supernova leaving the Veil Nebula. At the time, the expanding cloud was likely as bright as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks to people living at the dawn of recorded history. Today, the resulting supernova remnant, also known as the Cygnus Loop, has faded and is now visible only through a small telescope directed toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). The remaining Veil Nebula is physically huge, however, and even though it lies about 1,400 light-years distant, it covers over five times the size of the full Moon. The featured picture is a Hubble Space Telescope mosaic of six images together covering a span of only about two light years, a small part of the expansive supernova remnant. In images of the complete Veil Nebula, even studious readers might not be able to identify the featured filaments.

ASTRONOMY - Ingenuity on Sol 39

 2021 April 3

Ingenuity on Sol 39
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

Explanation: The Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, all four landing legs down, was captured here on sol 39 (March 30) slung beneath the belly of the Perseverance rover. The near ground level view is a mosaic of images from the WATSON camera on the rover's SHERLOC robotic arm. Near the center of the frame the experimental helicopter is suspended just a few centimeters above the martian surface. Tracks from Perseverance extend beyond the rover's wheels with the rim of Jezero crater visible about 2 kilometers in the distance. Ingenuity has a weight of 1.8 kilograms or 4 pounds on Earth. That corresponds to a weight of 0.68 kilograms or 1.5 pounds on Mars. With rotor blades spanning 1.2 meters it will attempt to make the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet in the thin martian atmosphere, 1 percent as dense as Earth's, no earlier than April 11.

AERONAUTIQUE - Atterrissage d'urgence

"Atterrissage d'urgence"

aeronewstv.com

ASTRONOMY - NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble

 2021 April 2

NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble
Image Credit & Copyright: Acquisition - Eric Benson, Processing - Dietmar Hager

Explanation: Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait, though. Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. Remarkably, this deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past.

ASTRONOMY - Rocket Launch as Seen from the Space Station

 2021 April 1 

Rocket Launch as Seen from the Space Station
Video Credit: ISAA, NASA, Expedition 57 Crew (ISS);
Processing: Riccardo Rossi (ISAA, AstronautiCAST); Music: Inspiring Adventure Cinematic Background by Maryna

Explanation: Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising to Earth orbit as seen from the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket was launched in November 2018 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a Progress MS-10 (also 71P) module to bring needed supplies to the ISS. Highlights in the 90-second video (condensing about 15-minutes) include city lights and clouds visible on the Earth on the lower left, blue and gold bands of atmospheric airglow running diagonally across the center, and distant stars on the upper right that set behind the Earth. A lower stage can be seen falling back to Earth as the robotic supply ship fires its thrusters and begins to close on the ISS, a space laboratory that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. Astronauts who live aboard the Earth-orbiting ISS conduct, among more practical duties, numerous science experiments that expand human knowledge and enable future commercial industry in low Earth orbit.