Notices by AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org), page 15

Free at last!

The container ship M/V DALI, which caused the collapse of the Key Bridge near Baltimore, has been refloated and has been towed to a local marine terminal 2.5 miles away.

It's interesting that the containers on the vessel were not offloaded prior to the move.

👏
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDSasHBRLGk
#MVDali #Baltimore
3/n

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announces full restoration of Baltimore's Fort McHenry Federal Channel after removal of 50,000 tons of bridge wreckage.

At its highest point, the Unified Command led the response efforts among about 56 federal, state, and local agencies, represented by 1,587 individual responders.
+ 500 specialists from around the world operated a fleet of 18 barges, 22 tugboats, 13 floating cranes, 10 excavators, and 4 survey boats.

https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/Article/3802402/us-army-corps-of-engineers-announces-full-restoration-of-baltimores-fort-mchenr/
#Baltimore
4/n

Happy 126th Birthday to M. C. Escher, born on June 17, 1898, in Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands.

Like other famous artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec and Rubens, Escher was left-handed. Escher was forced to become ‘double-handed’, which was beneficial for his artform.
https://www.escherinhetpaleis.nl/escher-today/left-handedness/?lang=en
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.54237.html
1/n

Update on Voyager 1 -
Voyager 1 is now returning data for the remaining 2 instruments - the cosmic ray subsystem and the low energy charged particle instrument.
Remaining tasks include resynchronizing the timekeeping software in the 3 onboard computers and maintenance on the digital tape recorder, which is used for storing data from the plasma wave instrument.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-program/voyager-1/voyager-1-returning-science-data-from-all-four-instruments/
34/n
#voyager

Here is some info on the various instruments on the two Voyager spacecraft and their current status.

Note that several instruments have been permanently turned off either because of failures or to save power (power level from the RTGs has dropped over 50% since start-of-mission, over 46 years ago).

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
#Voyager1
33/n

Obituary from Caltech for Edward C. Stone, Caltech's David Morrisroe Professor of Physics, Emeritus.

Project scientist for the Voyager missions. Held the role for 50 years until 2022.
Director of JPL - 1991 to 2001.
Principal investigator on 9 NASA spacecraft missions and coinvestigator on 5 more.
Established W. M. Keck Observatory, Space Radiation Lab, LIGO, and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

Truly a multi-faceted giant in the field.

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/edward-stone-1936-2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_C._Stone
1/n

34 hours of evolution of the boiling surface of the Sun as seen in images taken by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory SDO. Sunspot region 3664, which produced the brilliant light show on earth, is rotating away, while other regions are rotating in.

Also, shown is a synoptic map of the Sun identifying sunspot regions.

Note that the Sun has a synodic rotation period of 26.24 days at the equator, almost 38 days at the poles.

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-synoptic-map
30/n

As sunspot region 3664 rotates away (it lobbed a parting flare at X3.4 at 08:37 UTC), other sunspot regions are rotating into view.

A new sunspot region rotating in from the other side emitted an X2.9 flare today at 14:38 UTC. It will not affect earth much but SWPC will be keeping an eye on such sunspots and flares as they rotate further and line up in the direction of earth.

Note that the Sun has a synodic rotation period of 26.24 days at the equator.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
32/n

Sunspot region 3664 goes away with a bang!

As the super-active sunspot region 3664 rotated away to the backside of the Sun, it lobbed 3 more X-Class flares today.

X1.7 - 02:09 UTC
X1.2 - 12:55 UTC
X8.7 - 16:51 UTC, the strongest one of this cycle.

An X8 flare is 8 times more powerful than an X1 and so on.

In modern times, the largest solar flare occurred on 4 Nov 2003 at X45.

The 1859 Carrington Event was estimated at X50.

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
31/n

It's now 27 days since Sunspot region 3664 lobbed the CMEs that produced the great aurora show on May 10.

In 27 days, the Sunspot has undergone one full rotation and region 3664, now renamed as 3697, is back in a similar position as May 10. Although the sunspot region is still quite active - it generated an M6.1 flare today, but no CME - it seems to have thankfully lost some of its punch. No major CMEs have been launched during this round.

https://www.spaceweather.gov/
https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/
33/n

Fresh volcanic eruptions north of Grindavîk, Iceland.

- Started at 1 pm local (UTC)
- Fissure location is similar to Dec 19 and Mar 16 eruptions
- Strong M4.1 earthquake in the area around 11 am
- Magma likely in contact with groundwater causing explosions and dark plumes of smoke
- Grindavík, the Blue Lagoon and the power plant in Svartsengi evacuated
- This eruption is the most powerful in the current system so far.

News: https://www.ruv.is/english/2024-05-29-eruption-on-reykjanes-peninsula-413853
https://www.facebook.com/Almannavarnir
#Iceland
1/n

See https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/112109292657040065 for coverage and more info on the March 16 eruption near Grindavîk, Iceland.

Other info sources:
https://en.vedur.is/about-imo/news/volcanic-unrest-grindavik
https://www.ruv.is/english/2024-05-29-eruption-on-reykjanes-peninsula-413853

#Iceland #Grindavik
2/n

The scene near Grindavîk after sunset with glowing lava fountains and shimmering rivers of lava lacing the eerie landscape.

The camera is on a hilltop at Hagafell north of Grindavîk, facing south. See the map in post #1 for the location of Hagafell.

Source: Webcam at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIs83vmfZCk
#Iceland #Grindavîk
4/n

One of the fast-moving lava flows from today's eruption seems to be following the westward path similar that of the eruption on Jan 14. It has crossed the main NS road just north of Grindavîk and is getting close to one of the towers of the U.S. Navy Radio Transmitter Facility.

The camera is on a hilltop at Þorbjörn, north of Grindavîk, facing south. See map in post #1 for the location of Þorbjörn.

Source: Webcam at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqudj0x0POA
Map: https://www.google.com/maps/@63.8500958,-22.4499861,4442m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
#Iceland #Grindavîk
3/n

No luck communicating with the JAXA SLIM lunar lander this time around, as the Sun sets at the landing site.

They turned the power off overnight and are hoping that "the whole system will be reset and restarted" when it tries to wake up 24 days from now.

Note that the primary mission ended in January. SLIM has lasted this long even though it was not designed to survive lunar nights.

#JAXA #SLIM
7/n

JAXA posted this new image of the lunar landscape around the SLIM lander taken by its multiband spectroscopic camera (MBC). It is similar to images posted in January.

2/n

It's alive :mastodance:

The JAXA SLIM lander, lying in its awkward stance on the lunar surface, responded last night to a command sent by JAXA. Against all hope, it appears that it survived the cold lunar night.

The batteries were expected to get charged around this time, shortly after lunar midday, since the solar panels are facing southwest instead of up.

Apparently, the temperature of the comm equipment was too high, so comms was quickly terminated. Stay tuned!

1/n

Rise and shine! The JAXA SLIM lander woke up again, exactly 28 days after its previous wake-up time. It survived a second brutal lunar night.

The sun is high and hot, so the SLIM team quickly shut down its comms after taking the picture below of the now familiar lunar landscape.

That's one feisty lander, that took a licking but keeps on ticking!
👏
3/n

Here is a graph showing the elevation angle of the Sun at the SLIM landing site. The lander's batteries have gotten recharged halfway into the lunar afternoon, because the upside-down lander's solar panels are facing southwest, instead of up, while the Sun moves east to west along the northern side (SLIM is located south of the equator).

See the long thread at https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/111777585745262427 for the exciting adventure of the SLIM lander on its first lunar day on the moon.

4/n

The JAXA SLIM lunar lander was expected to wake up again around May 24, hopefully having survived a 4th brutal lunar night. After all, against all odds, it had survived the first 3 nights.

But it has not responded in two attempts made so far. Perhaps, its electronics finally succumbed to the lunar elements? The #SLIM team will try again tomorrow.

Note that the solar panels get sunlight well after lunar noon due to their unfortunate orientation with the lander in the upside down position.
🤞
6/n