The Space Stuff thread

Astronomers have spotted a cosmic blast that dwarfs all others.

A gargantuan explosion tore through the heart of a distant galaxy cluster, releasing about five times more energy than the previous record holder, a new study reports.

"In some ways, this blast is similar to how the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 ripped off the top of the mountain," study lead author Simona Giacintucci, of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "A key difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster's hot gas."
The explosion occurred in the Ophiuchus cluster, which lies about 390 million light-years from Earth. Giacintucci and her colleagues think the source was a supermassive black hole in one of the cluster's constituent galaxies — specifically, jets of radiation and material spewing from the light-gobbling monster, which are powered by inflowing gas and dust.

Boom! Scientists spot the biggest known explosion in the universe

And:

An asteroid with a massive diameter of between 1.8km - 4.1km is set to fly past Earth on April 29. According to the available data, this is going to be the biggest asteroid which will come near Earth this year. To give an idea, the least expected diameter of this space rock is 1.8km which is more than twice the height of the tallest structure in the world, Burj Khalifa (0.83 km). However, NASA has assured that this is not a matter of worry as the asteroid won't hit Earth. On its closest approach, the space rock will be 6.3 million km away from Earth.

Asteroid Bigger Than Burj Khalifa to Fly By Earth on April 29

Burj Khalifa

On Friday, March 6 at 11:50 p.m. EST, SpaceX launched its twentieth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-20) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Dragon separated from Falcon 9’s second stage about nine minutes after liftoff and will attach to the space station on Monday, March 9.

The Dragon spacecraft supporting the CRS-20 mission previously supported the CRS-10 mission in February 2017 and the CRS-16 mission in December 2018, and the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission previously flew on the CRS-19 mission in December 2019. Following stage separation, SpaceX recovered Falcon 9’s first stage on Landing Zone-1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, marking the company's 50th landing of an orbital class rocket booster.

Source

ISS Capture
International Space Station crew members will use the station’s 57.7-foot(17.6-meter) robotic arm to capture Dragon and attach it to the orbiting laboratory on Monday, March 9.

Return Flight
Dragon will return with more than 4,000 pounds of cargo after an approximately four-week stay at the space station. About five hours after Dragon leaves the space station, it will conduct its deorbit burn, which lasts up to 10 minutes. It takes about 30 minutes for Dragon to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.

CRS-20 Mission Press Kit This opens as a .pdf in my browser if yours doesn't you may have to save it first to read it.

• For now the return flight is scheduled for April 2nd 9th: CRS-20 Dragon unberthing, splashdown (TBD) Thursday, April 2 9, 2020 00:00 23:59 (see update on date below) - Orbital-Velocity/ Schedules

Fridays launch; Chatter until 13:30 of YT timer >launch at 19:56 >landing of Falcon 9 from 27:45 down at 28:15

Editor's Note: Updated March 7, 2020 to correct that Jessica Meir will grapple Dragon, backed up by Andrew Morgan.

A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station after launching at 11:50 p.m. EST Friday. Dragon will deliver more than 4,300 pounds of NASA cargo and science investigations, including a new science facility scheduled to be installed to the outside of the station during a spacewalk this spring.

The spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and is scheduled to arrive at the orbital outpost on Monday, March 9. Coverage of the spacecraft’s approach and arrival at the space station will begin at 5:30 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Dragon will join three other spacecraft currently at the station. When it arrives, NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir will grapple Dragon, backed up by NASA’s Andrew Morgan. Coverage of robotic installation to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module will begin at 8:30 a.m.

Dragon is scheduled to remain at the space station until April 9, when the spacecraft will return to Earth with research and cargo.

This delivery, SpaceX’s 20th cargo flight to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract, will support dozens of new and existing investigations. NASA’s research and development work aboard the space station contributes to the agency’s deep space exploration plans, including future Moon and Mars missions.

Source

I left the Orbital Velocity link in for future reference but it isn't updated yet NASA plans an April 9th return of Dragon. See bold in above quote.

In case you may want to watch activity on the ISS during the scheduled times above on Monday:



Watch for time of Dragon's unberthing and splashdown, currently for April 9th.

Yea Rich there weren't many good video choices to pick from. Nice picture, you are pretty close!

Here's a clean version from Space.com Blastoff! US Space Force's 1st launch is the AEHF-6 satellite 6 min | Space.com there is a 4' video that follows the video, it explains the Atlas V rocket. - The separate Space.com link is the main article.

Here's the raw video from one of the space geeks. Coming out of a hold the GO - NO GO polling starts at 1:44:20 of the 2:32:08 video. Launch countdown starts at 1:51:05

You're welcome Rich.
I suspect the effect of the engine noise rumbling over your location was caused by wind direction and just taking a shot in the dark I used the local NWS records in Melbourne to see how the winds were running.

From this snip the winds were East @ 7mph, I always had a hard time remembering this, but that would mean the winds were onshore? and pushing the sound waves back and dispersing onto land. Humidity/dewpoint would also factor into carring sound waves and they were rising at the time.


For those unfamiliar with how the NWS keeps these records, they've always taken readings usually 5' before the hour and they use a 24hour clock so, for the 4:18pm liftoff on Thursday the 26th the nearest time would be 15:53, 16:00 would be 4pm. The 3day list is also progressive, as readings are added the older ones disappear like definition updates for windows defender.

Thanks for illuminating my shot in the dark.

In these precarious times stay safe and think before you act, I have a nephew his wife and 4kids near Lakeland in Polk Co. and so far their okay...