Notices by AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)

Is this a joke?
Or an exercise in self humiliation?

#UsPol
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Caption this 💬

#UsPol #AmyBarrett
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ICE whistleblower Ryan Schwank:

"For the last 5 months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program, cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 584 hour program, classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention and the limits of officers’ authority.

ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution, and they were attempting to cloak it in secrecy by demanding that I lie about it.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5751455-ice-officer-training-whistleblower/
#UsPol
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AOC provides thoughtful answers to user questions on Bluesky!
👍
https://bsky.app/profile/aoc.bsky.social/post/3mfhmlwphek22
#UsPol
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Did you know that asteroid 23238 Ocasio-Cortez is named after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who won second place in the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for her microbiology project?
😎
https://www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-asteroid-2018-6
https://www.spacereference.org/asteroid/23238-ocasio-cortez-2000-wu111
#UsPol
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Here is a hi-res image of the Artmeis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, as the Crawler-transporter 2 rolls it out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC, Saturday morning.

Compare with the image in post #12, which looks a bit more aesthetically pleasing.

Full res image at https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/55046581023/in/album-72177720331471551/
More images at https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/albums/72177720331471551/with/55044924877
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Good Night, Artemis II.
🏹 🌙
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/albums/72177720331471551/with/55046879173/
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The countdown for the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal began today at 8:13 p.m. EST, or L-48 hours, 40 minutes before the opening of a simulated launch window at 9 pm. Mon, Feb. 2. The test is expected to go until ~1 a.m. Feb. 3.

Tests include loading cryogenic liquid propellant into the SLS rocket’s tanks, conducting a launch countdown, demonstrating the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and draining the tanks to practice scrub procedures.

Details at
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/01/31/countdown-begins-for-artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal/
25/n

The Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal has been moved to Monday Feb 2, due to the cold weather in Florida.

With this change, the first potential opportunity to launch is no earlier than Sunday, Feb. 8.

"During the current cold weather, engineers have kept Orion powered and have configured its heaters for the colder temperatures. Purges, used to maintain proper environmental conditions for elements of the spacecraft and rocket, are also configured for the weather."

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/01/30/nasa-updates-artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal-launch-opportunities/
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Nice comprehensive article about the NASA/ESA/CSA Artemis II mission around the moon at TIME Magazine.

https://time.com/7346146/artemis-ii-launch-nasa-astronauts-moon-mission/
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The moon beckons!
🌓
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ulalaunch/
#Artemis
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NASA is now targeting March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for Artemis II. Launch windows are available Mar 6-11.

Artemis II astronauts will be released from quarantine, which they entered in Houston on Jan. 21. Crew will enter quarantine again about two weeks before the next launch opportunity.

News conference today at 1 p.m. EST.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/03/nasa-conducts-artemis-ii-fuel-test-eyes-march-for-launch-opportunity/
27/n

The Artemis II wet dress rehearsal countdown was terminated at the T-5:15 minute mark due to a liquid hydrogen leak at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical.

The leak was observed earlier in the day; engineers paused to troubleshoot, resumed flow, and finished fueling two hours late; in spite of the leak, most of the steps of the wet dress rehearsal were completed.

Not clear how this will affect the mission and its schedule.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/03/artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal-test-terminated-at-t-515/
26/n

"The Artemis II wet dress rehearsal ended today at 10:16 p.m., concluding as planned at T-29 seconds in the countdown.

NASA will hold a media briefing about the test at 11 a.m., Friday, Feb. 20."

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/19/live-artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal-coverage/
30/n

All is well at the NASA Artemis II wet dress-rehearsal as the team counts down to T-0, minutes from now.

"NASA teams have now officially entered the final ten minutes of today’s Artemis II wet dress rehearsal countdown known as terminal count after Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s Artemis launch director, gave the “go” to proceed toward the simulated T-0 time of 8:42 p.m."
🤞
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/19/live-artemis-ii-wet-dress-rehearsal-coverage/
29/n

Wet Dress Rehearsal #2 for Artemis II now scheduled for Thursday Feb. 19.

The simulated launch time is 8:30 p.m., Feb. 19. The ~50-hour countdown will begin at 6:40 p.m. EST on Feb. 17.

Artemis II crew will not participate in the test.

The rocket stack has remained at the launch pad since Jan 17, as NASA personnel have diagnosed and replaced the offending filter in ground support equipment that was suspected of reducing the flow of liquid hydrogen.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/16/nasa-eyes-next-wet-dress-rehearsal-for-artemis-ii/
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@astro_jcm
Few weeks ago, a friend posted this pic on our WhatsApp group. Most of them have PhDs. Even after I pointed out that the image is fake, the reasons why it is fake and how to find out the actual locations of the planets in the night sky, they remained unconvinced.

There is an element of human psychology here where people simply like and share sensational stuff, science and logical thinking be damned.

Politicians and their enablers know how to exploit these tendencies, now with AI.

Pluto, the (dwarf) planet was discovered OTD on Feb 18, 1930 by 24-year old astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, after a year of systematic search for the object first suggested by Percival Lowell in 1902.

Discovery was made using a Blink Comparator, purchased and modified by Lowell in 1911.

The Blink Comparator allows rapid switching between two similar images, allowing the human eye to detect movement of objects. Today, software does that.

https://lowell.edu/discover/history-of-pluto/
https://www.sightsize.com/the-blink-comparator/
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Happy Birthday to Douglas Hofstadter (born 15 February 1945), cognitive and computer scientist, author of "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" and "I Am a Strange Loop".

From GEB, Hofstadter's law - "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law."

From IAASL - “In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference.”

How many of you were influenced by GEB?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hofstadter
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Here is an artist's visualization of a failed supernova like M31-2014-DS1M31-2014-DS1 in the Andromeda Galaxy.

"It shows a thick shell of gas and dust (red) that has been expelled from a star’s outer layers as its core collapsed into a black hole. In the inner regions, a hot, dense ball of gas (white) is depicted falling inward and feeding the newly formed black hole.""

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C__gykDUUk
Credit: Keith Miller, Caltech/IPAC – SELab
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