Dominique Luchart's Blog, page 559

July 23, 2021

The first four ‘Star Trek’ films are getting remastered to warp back into stores in 4K UHD, ,

The first four “Star Trek” movies are getting an ultra-high-definition makeover to be released in 4K as a box set in September, just in time for Star Trek day on Sept. 8, and are available for pre-orders now.

Currently available for $90.99 at Amazon.com (it arrives on Sept. 7 in the U.S. and is normally $107.99), the new “Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection” represents the very best of “Star Trek” on the big screen. Frankly, these Kirk-era movies have never been bettered.

Gasp in awe as we learn the origins of the living machine known as V’ger in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” Feel your spine tingle as Admiral Kirk must engage a forgotten foe in a deadly game of chess in the Mutara Nebula in “Star Trek II.” Sob uncontrollably as we watch Kirk learn of his son’s murder at the hands of renegade Klingons in “Star Trek III.” And finally, enjoy the inevitable antics as the exiled command crew of the USS Enterprise travel back in time in “Star Trek IV,” a movie that contains a poignant and powerful message, beautifully portrayed, about us — humans, right now — and how we must change our relationship to nature.

Related: The best Star Trek gifts and deals for 2021


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Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection $90.99 at Amazon.com
Bask in the first four “Star Trek” films in glorious 4K in this new box set coming on Sept. 7, 2021 along with hours of special features and a look back the franchise’s original cast.View Deal

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The 4K Blu-ray and standard 1080p Blu-ray collections, together with the new outer case cover artwork. (Image credit: Paramount+)

These four movies truly represent the very best of “Star Trek,” be it on television or in the movie theaters.

The new four-film set will come with “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (Theatrical Edition), “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (Theatrical and Director’s Editions), “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” been painstakingly digitally upgraded to UHD remastered transfers. They will feature both improved picture quality with Dolby Vision and HDR-10 mastering, along with an isolated score track for “The Motion Picture.” (This appears to be the only new bonus feature in the collection.)

According to StarTrek.com, “[The] collection includes four Ultra HD discs, as well as four remastered Blu-ray discs with hours of previously released bonus content … along with access to digital copies of the theatrical version of each film.”

This comes right after the announcement that “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” — the Director’s Edition — will also be remastered and upgraded for a 4K UHD release in a project that is separate to the four-movie UHD release.

According to the official announcement on StarTrek.com, “The restoration will be undertaken by producer David C. Fein, restoration supervisor Mike Matessino, and visual effects supervisor Daren R. Dochterman, all of whom worked previously with director Robert Wise. The film will be prepared for presentation in 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) and a new Dolby Atmos soundtrack. The restoration is expected to take 6-8 months and will launch with an exclusive window on Paramount+.”

See more

In other “Trek” news, Anson Mount, who plays Captain Pike in “Discovery” and the forthcoming “Strange New Worlds” live action spin-off tweeted recently that the last episode of Season 1 had just begun shooting. Hopefully we won’t have too long to wait until that hits our screens. Also, “Season 1”..?! That means there will be more, right?!

A new teaser has dropped for season two of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” ahead of next month’s debut on Aug. 12.

See more

Finally, the “Star Trek” panel was held today (July 23) for SDCC Comic-Con@Home and included the inaugural panel for “Star Trek: Prodigy” plus season tpw of “Star Trek: Lower Decks.” You can watch that full panel here.

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Published on July 23, 2021 14:59

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to icy Jupiter moon, ,

NASA’s highly anticipated mission to Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa now has a rocket ride.

The $4.25 billion Europa Clipper spacecraft will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, NASA officials announced Friday (July 23). The total value of the contract is about $178 million, they added.

If all goes according to plan, Clipper will lift off in October 2024 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and arrive in orbit around Jupiter in April 2030. The probe will then study Europa in depth during nearly 50 close flybys of the moon over the course of about four Earth years, mission team members have said.

Video: SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch NASA’s Europa Clipper to Jupiter
Related:
Photos of Europa, mysterious icy moon of Jupiter

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NASA has picked SpaceX’s heavy-lift Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Europa harbors a huge ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell and is regarded as one of the solar system’s best bets to host alien life. Clipper will, among many other tasks, characterize the ocean and ice shell and hunt for good, safe places to land a life-hunting Europa surface craft, which Congress has directed NASA to develop. (The lander mission remains a concept for now, however; it does not have funding and is not on NASA’s books yet.)

Today’s announcement ends a lengthy launch limbo for the Europa Clipper mission. Congress originally instructed NASA to launch both Clipper and the future lander on the Space Launch System (SLS), the giant rocket that the agency is building to launch people and probes to deep-space destinations.

But the development of SLS has been plagued by delays and cost overruns over the years. The megarocket still hasn’t flown, and its first few missions are already devoted to NASA’s Artemis program of lunar exploration, which aims to land people on the moon as early as 2024 and establish a sustainable human presence there by the end of the decade.

Photos: 10 extraordinary ocean worlds in our solar system

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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket taking off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 6, 2018. (Image credit: SpaceX)

It has therefore been unclear when an SLS would become available for Europa Clipper. Some wiggle room for the mission opened up last summer, when the U.S. House of Representatives said in its proposed 2021 budget that NASA was to launch Clipper by 2025 and the future lander by 2027, and to use SLS for both “if available.”

The wording greenlit the possibility of a commercial alternative to SLS, and the Clipper team started planning for both contingencies — a double duty that negatively affected the mission’s maturation, team members have said.

Then, this past January, the Europa Clipper team finally got the clarity it wanted, in the form of a memo from NASA’s Planetary Missions Program Office. It told mission team members to stop planning for a possible SLS launch because Clipper would ride to space on a commercial rocket.

And now we know which rocket that will be. (NASA’s announcement today didn’t state which launchers Falcon Heavy bested for the Clipper contract.)

Clipper’s ride to Europa will be more circuitous with a Falcon Heavy launch than it would have been aboard SLS, which NASA touts as the most powerful rocket ever developed. SLS would have sent Clipper on a direct-to-Jupiter trajectory, arriving at the giant planet less than three years after liftoff.

The use of a commercial rocket will require Clipper to perform speed-boosting flybys of Mars and Earth in February 2025 and December 2026, respectively, mission project scientist Bob Pappalardo of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California said earlier this year.

Falcon Heavy has flown three times to date, most recently in June 2019, when it launched a mission for the U.S. Space Test Program.

Mike Wall is the author of “ Out There ” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Published on July 23, 2021 14:33

How to watch Boeing launch its 2nd Starliner test flight for NASA on July 30, ,

Boeing is set to launch its Starliner spacecraft on a crucial uncrewed flight to the International Space Station next week. Here’s how you can watch the weeklong Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) mission live.

The main show is the launch itself, which will stream on NASA Television, the NASA app, the agency’s website and here at Space.com. The liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled for 2:53 p.m. EDT (1853 GMT) next Friday (July 30) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. You’ll be able to watch the launch and mission activities here and on Space.com’s homepage, as well as on NASA TV.

If all goes to plan, Starliner will take about 31 minutes to reach its preliminary orbit and then will target a docking the next day with the International Space Station. Starliner tried this meetup once before, on the OFT-1 mission in December 2019, but suffered a series of technical issues that left the capsule stranded in the wrong orbit for a rendezvous.

Photo tour: Inside Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spaceship hangar

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Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft was secured atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on July 17, 2021. (Image credit: United Launch Alliance)

The OFT-2 docking is scheduled for 3:06 p.m. EDT (1906 GMT) on Saturday (July 31) and will also livestream on NASA’s channels and the Space.com website. Starliner will bring 400 lbs. (181 kilogram) of NASA cargo and crew supplies to the orbiting complex and return to Earth with more than 550 lbs. (250 kg) of cargo, the agency said in a statement.

The date of Starliner’s departure from the space station has not yet been scheduled, but the OFT-2 mission is expected to last about a week. See below for a detailed timeline of media events in the leadup to the mission and its first few days.

“OFT-2 will demonstrate the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner spacecraft and Atlas V rocket from launch to docking to a return to Earth in the desert of the western United States,” NASA said in the same statement. “The uncrewed mission will provide valuable data toward NASA certifying Boeing’s crew transportation system for regular flights with astronauts to and from the space station.”

Boeing is one of two commercial crew providers for the International Space Station, along with SpaceX, which has been using its Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket for operational activities since 2020. SpaceX and Boeing received NASA contracts in 2014 valued at a combined $6.8 billion to encourage the development of crewed spaceships meant to replace the space shuttle, which retired in 2011. Boeing is expected to start sending astronauts to space in 2022, provided all goes well with OFT-2.

After the shuttle retired, NASA relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft as the sole astronaut taxi for nine years, between 2011 and 2020. The agency continues to procure seats on Soyuz to fill ISS requirements in Starliner’s absence. The agency pledged it will continue to trade seats with the Russians — putting Americans on the Soyuz and Russians on American vehicles – but this arrangement may be delayed until at least 2022.

In the meantime, here is the full coverage of live NASA prelaunch and launch activities for OFT-2. All times are approximate and may change due to technical or weather considerations.

Tuesday, July 27

TBD – Prelaunch news conference on NASA Television, roughly one hour after the launch readiness review is complete. Scheduled participants are:

Steve Stich, NASA manager of the commercial crew program;Joel Montalbano, NASA manager of the International Space Station program;Jennifer Buchli, NASA deputy chief scientist of the International Space Station program;John Vollmer, Boeing commercial crew program vice president and program manager;Gary Wentz, ULA’s vice president of government and commercial programs;Will Ulrich, U.S. Space Force launch weather office for 45th Weather Squadron.Thursday, July 29

10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) – NASA administrator briefing with the following scheduled participants:

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson;NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy;Janet Petro, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center;Chris Ferguson, Boeing’s director of Starliner mission operations and integration/crew systems;Barry “Butch” Wilmore, NASA astronaut on Starliner’s first crewed mission (Crew Flight Test)Michael “Mike” Fincke, NASA astronaut on Crew Flight Test;Nicole Mann, NASA astronaut on Crew Flight Test;Jennifer Buchli, NASA deputy chief scientist of the International Space Station program.Friday, July 30

2 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) – NASA TV launch coverage begins.

2:53 p.m. EDT (1653 GMT) (approximately) – Starliner OFT-2 lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

3:24 p.m. EDT (1724 GMT) (approximately) – Starliner OFT-2 reaches its preliminary orbit.

4 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) (approximately) – Postlaunch news conference on NASA TV with representatives from NASA, Boeing and ULA. Participants have yet to be announced.

Saturday, July 31

12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) – NASA TV rendezvous and docking coverage begins.

3:06 p.m. EDT (1906 GMT) (approximately) – Livestreamed docking of Starliner at the International Space Station.

Sunday, Aug. 1

9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT) – NASA TV hatch opening and welcoming remarks coverage begins.

9:35 a.m. EDT (1335 GMT) (approximately) – Hatch opening and welcoming remarks.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Published on July 23, 2021 14:27

NASA beams into Comic-Con@Home this weekend to talk space travel and more, ,

NASA is beaming into the world of comics, movies and science fiction to talk space exploration, driving and Mars and the origins of life itself during the virtual Comic-Con@Home 2021 this weekend.

The NASA/sci-fi crossover begins today (July 23) and runs through Saturday in three different panels with space themes. They’re all free to join, but may be late at night, depending on your time zone, so you’ll want to plan accordingly. They’re also available to stream later via YouTube, courtesy of Comic-Con@Home. Here’s what and when to watch, including a few others that might catch your interest, and they’re official Comic-Con@Home descriptions.

Friday, July 23

Space Teams: Solving Real NASA Problems with Virtual Simulations and Competitions
Time:
6 p.m. EDT (3 p.m. PDT/2200 GMT)

“Ed-Tech has grown to a place where students can have access to the same tools that professionals use and in the case of space are given the opportunity to solve real problems related to missions to our Moon, Mars, and beyond. Join Mark Murphy (producer of Future Tech Live!) in discussion with Dr. Greg Chamitoff (former NASA astronaut and Director of Texas A&M’s Aero Space Technology, Research & Operations (ASTRO), Jackie Carpenter (founder, One Giant Leap Australia), and Timothy J. Urban (director, Texas Space Grant Consortium) as they introduce the platform and its possibilities to you, from piloting to terra-forming to creating habitats and spacecraft.”

Exploring our Origins with NASA
Time:
8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT/0000 GMT)

Anthony Rapp (actor, Star Trek: Discovery) joins Dr. John Mather (astrophysicist), Dr. Ann Nguyen (planetary scientist), Dr. Laura Kerber (planetary scientist), and Dr. Allegra LeGrande (physical research scientist) to discuss how NASA’s research and missions help us understand how our universe, our solar system, and our Earth came to be.”

Beyond Star Trek: Menagerie and The Expanse: Space Law Sci-Fi vs. Sci-Fact
Time:
9 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. PDT/0100 GMT)

“Host “Dr. Trek” Larry Nemecek (The Trek Files) takes a look at modern space law and issues, U.N. treaty-making, and how it all stacks up against the portrayal we get in our various future-space franchises–thanks to a panel of law-practicing or law-adjacent space industry pros and onetime NASA leaders who all wear their geek space epic on their sleeve: Mike Gold (executive VP, Civil Space, Redwire Space), Jessica Noble (general counsel, Nanoracks LLC), Daniel Porras (director of strategic partnerships & communications, Secure World Foundation), and Theresa Hitchens (air and space reporter, BreakingDefense)–with “recovering attorney” Melinda Snodgrass (writer of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s classic “The Measure of a Man,” Data’s “human” rights trial) aboard to boot. These modern-day Samuel T. Cogleys and Jake Siskos are keen to share what they, and we all, must do to get today’s space law issues on the public’s radar–before they become a problem . . . sooner than you think!”

Saturday, July 24

No Tow Trucks Beyond Mars
Time:
9 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. PDT/0100 GMT)

“David Rosing (NASA JPL Mars Sample Return system engineer), Shonte J. Tucker (JPL thermal engineer), Kobie Boykins (JPL Mechatronics Engineer), and Rhonda M. Morgan (NASA JPL Instrument Engineer) discuss how we go boldly where there’s no one around to fix it. Hear stories from the trenches of the heartbreaks, close calls, and adventures of real-life landing (and flying!) on Mars and our round-table discussion of what Netflix got right in their movie Stowaway.”

Sunday, July 25

The Science of Star Wars
Time:
6 p.m. EDT (3 p.m. PDT/2200 GMT)

Real-life science is everywhere in the galaxy far, far away. Astronomer Lisa Will, Ph.D., astrobiologist Angela Zoumplis, and geologist and paleontologist Jim Lehane, Ph.D. answer questions like, What do tauntauns eat? How would Death Star debris affect the worlds below? Why does the surface of Crait taste salty? Concept designer Jake Lunt Davies (Star Wars episodes 7-9, Rogue One, and Solo) shares the directions the creative team was given when designing creatures, aliens, and droids as well as some of his amazing artwork. Hear how science influences Star Wars and how the fantasy epic continues to inspire scientists. The panel is produced by Andrea Decker of The Fleet Science Center in San Diego and moderated by the hosts of the podcast Star Warsologies, Melissa Miller and James Floyd, both freelance writers for Star Wars Insider magazine.”

Star Trek panel on demand

In case you missed it, Paramount+ held a panel for its upcoming new shows on Friday that featured new trailers for season two of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” and the for the launch of “Star Trek: Prodigy” later this fall. You can catch that panel on demand here.

Paramount+: Peak Animation with the Star Trek Universe, The Harper House, and Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out The News

“Paramount+ and CBS Studios present the cast and executive producers of the new Paramount+ Original adult animated comedy series, The Harper House for a discussion and exclusive first look at the series with the debut of the official trailer. Panelists include Rhea Seehorn, Jason Lee, and Ryan Flynn with additional special appearances from VyVy Nguyen, Lance Krall, Gary Anthony Williams, Nyima Funk, and Gabourey Sidibe plus creator/executive producer Brad Neely alongside executive producer Katie Krentz and supervising director Brian Sheesley.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.

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Published on July 23, 2021 14:15

NSO’s Pegasus spyware: here’s what we know, Mitchell Clark

Throughout the past week, we’ve seen story after story about a company called NSO Group, and a piece of spyware called Pegasus. Some of the stories have been shocking, with allegations that fully updated smartphones can be hacked with a single text message, and reports that two women close to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi were among those targeted by a government agency using the spy tool.

A coalition of news outlets, including The Washington Post, Le Monde, and The Guardian is behind the reporting, and they’re calling it the Pegasus Project. The project was led by Forbidden Stories, an organization of journalists that works on stories after the original reporters have been silenced in some way. Amnesty International ran detailed forensics on 67 smartphones to look for evidence that they were targeted by Pegasus spyware — and 37 of those phones tested positive. But many crucial details still aren’t clear.

Here’s what we know about the NSO Group and Pegasus so far.

Pegasus is spyware developed by a private contractor for use by government agencies. The program infects a target’s phone and sends back data, including photos, messages, and audio / video recordings. Pegasus’ developer, an Israeli company called NSO Group, says that the software can’t be traced back to the government using it — a crucial feature for clandestine operations.

In short, NSO Group makes products that let governments spy on citizens. The company describes the role of its products on its website as helping “government intelligence and law-enforcement agencies use technology to meet the challenges of encryption” during terrorism and criminal investigations. But as you might imagine, civil liberties groups aren’t happy about the spyware-for-hire business, and restricting the business to government clients does little to quiet their concerns.

The company told The Washington Post that it works only with government agencies, and that it will cut off an agency’s access to Pegasus if it finds evidence of abuse. In its transparency report released at the end of June, the company claimed it has done that before. Still, an Amnesty International statement raised concerns that the company is providing spyware to oppressive governments, where government agencies can’t be trusted to do right by their citizens.

The Forbidden Stories organization, which helped lead the Pegasus Project’s efforts, has a write-up of the company’s exploits and controversies over the past decade, some of which have inspired lawsuits from journalists and activists arguing that NSO’s software has been used improperly. The Washington Post also has an interview that covers the company’s own story about how it was founded and how it got started in the surveillance industry.

We don’t know for sure. However, much of the reporting centers around a list containing 50,000 phone numbers, the purpose of which is unclear. The Pegasus Project analyzed the numbers on the list and linked over 1,000 of them to their owners. When it did so, it found people who should’ve been off-limits to governmental spying (based on the standards NSO says it holds its clients to): hundreds of politicians and government workers — including three presidents, 10 prime ministers, and a king — plus 189 journalists, and 85 human rights activists.

At this point, that’s clear as mud. NSO says the list has nothing to do with its business, and claims it’s from a simple database of cellular numbers that’s a feature of the global cellular network. A statement from an Amnesty International spokesperson, posted to Twitter by cybersecurity journalist Kim Zetter, says that the list indicates numbers that were marked as “of interest” to NSO’s various clients. The Washington Post says that the list is from 2016.


Amnesty says the Israeli media mis-reported a statement it gave them in Hebrew about the list of 50,000 phone numbers. See here: https://t.co/rhksVHineG


But I obtained the full Hebrew statement they gave reporters, and the Israeli media quoted it correctly. pic.twitter.com/9JNmwC3QW4

— Kim Zetter (@KimZetter)

July 22, 2021


The Washington Post says the list doesn’t contain information about who added numbers to it, or whether people linked to the numbers were under surveillance. Was the list curated by a shadowy government agency trying to get on the good side of other governments? Was it maintained by a Slack group of Pegasus users? Was it simply a list of numbers? It’s an essential question that remains frustratingly unclear.

It seems to. The Washington Post reports that some of the phones analyzed were targeted shortly after they were added to the list. In some cases, only a few seconds separate timestamps that indicate when the phone number was added to the list and incidents of Pegasus attacks on the phones.

According to The Guardian, Amnesty ran its analysis on 67 phones connected to the numbers. It found that 37 of the phones had been at least targeted by Pegasus, and that 23 of those phones had been successfully hacked. The Washington Post details how Pegasus was used to hack a phone belonging to the wife of an imprisoned activist.

A Washington Post report details some of the highest-ranking officials with numbers on the list. According to an analysis done by the Post and other Pegasus Project members, the current presidents of France, Iraq, and South Africa were included, along with the current prime ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, and Morocco, seven former prime ministers, and the king of Morocco.

A separate report from the Post claims that the Moroccan king was not the only royalty whose number appeared on the list — a princess from Dubai was also added, along with some of her friends, as she was trying to gain political asylum. Her attempt failed when she was allegedly kidnapped by armed commandos who boarded the yacht she was using to escape.

Also on the list were two women close to Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was murdered in 2018.

It doesn’t seem so (though we’ll deal with some nuances in a moment), but people close to him were. The Washington Post has reported that one of those hacked phones belonged to Khashoggi’s fiance, and that there’s reportedly evidence that his wife’s phone was targeted as well. NSO’s CEO has strongly denied that Khashoggi’s wife was a target.

As to whether NSO targeted Khashoggi himself, that’s a question without a definite answer. NSO strongly denies that it was involved — it did so in 2019, and again recently, with The Washington Post citing a statement from the company that its technology “was not associated in any way with the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi.” According to the Post, Khashoggi’s phone is in the custody of Turkish authorities who are carrying out an investigation of the journalist’s homicide.

According to The Washington Post, the spyware can steal private data from a phone, sending a target’s messages, passwords, contacts, photos, and more to whoever initiated the surveillance. It can reportedly even turn on the phone’s cameras or microphones to create covert recordings. A document from NSO describes the software’s capabilities in more detail.

Recent versions of it have reportedly been able to do this without having to get the user to do anything — a link is sent to their phone, without a notification, and Pegasus starts collecting information. In other cases, Pegasus has reportedly relied on users to click phishing links that then deliver the Pegasus payload.

Both The Guardian and The Washington Post have articles explaining how even modern phones with the latest software updates can be exploited. (Amnesty has shown that even some of the most recent versions of iOS are vulnerable to methods used by NSO.) The summary is that no software is perfect. Where there’s complicated software, like iMessage or WhatsApp, there will be bugs, and some of those bugs will give hackers access to way more than many would think is possible. And, with millions of dollars at stake, hackers and security researchers are very motivated to find those bugs, even if they’ll only be usable for a short amount of time.

In a statement to The Guardian, Apple didn’t deny NSO’s capability to exploit iPhones, instead saying that attacks like Pegasus are “highly sophisticated, cost millions of dollars to develop, often have a short shelf life, and are used to target specific individuals,” thereby not affecting most Apple customers. Apple did say that it continues “to work tirelessly to defend all our customers, and we are constantly adding new protections for their devices and data.”

Still, as The Washington Post points out, the fact that the iPhone could be so thoroughly compromised by a reportedly invisible message is unfortunate for a company that prides itself on security and privacy, one that put up “what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone” billboards. Security researchers who spoke to the Post mainly lay the blame on iMessage and its preview software — despite the protections that Apple has reportedly implemented recently to try to secure iMessage.

No. A lot of the reporting focuses on iPhones, but that’s only because they’ve proven easier to analyze for signs of a Pegasus infection than Android phones have. Pegasus can, however, infect both, according to an NSO informational document. Both Apple and Google have commented on the situation, with Apple condemning attacks against journalists and activists, and Google saying that it warns users of attempted infiltrations, even those backed by governments.

The spyware has been in the news for years, often in connection with incidents similar to what’s currently being reported. In 2017, reports surfaced that the software had been used in attacks against Mexican reporters and activists. In 2019, WhatsApp sued NSO Group, alleging that the software developer was involved in the hacking of around 1,400 devices using an exploit found in WhatsApp’s code. Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and other tech companies signaled support for WhatsApp’s suit. (As of April 2021, the case was ongoing, according to a report from Politico.)

In 2020, it was reported that NSO was being investigated by the FBI, in connection with the 2018 hack of Jeff Bezos’ cellphone. At the time, NSO denied knowledge of the FBI’s probe, according to Reuters, and the FBI recently declined to comment about the matter to The Washington Post.

We don’t know at the moment, but it’s likely not just one government agency or country. The Washington Post points to a list of 10 countries where many of the phone numbers on the list seem to be from, and says that those countries have been reported to have worked with NSO in the past. But the fact that many of the basic facts about the list remain disputed means there’s really not enough information to draw solid conclusions.

In 2016, The New York Times reported that NSO Group charged $500,000 to set a client up with the Pegasus system, and then charged an additional fee to actually infiltrate people’s phones. At the time, the costs were reportedly $650,000 to hack 10 iPhone or Android users, or $500,000 to infiltrate five BlackBerry users. Clients could then pay more to target additional users, saving as they spy with bulk discounts: $800,000 for an additional 100 phones, $500,000 for an extra 50 phones, and so on. NSO would also reportedly charge 17 percent of what the clients had paid over the course of a year as an annual maintenance fee. According to Forbidden Stories, NSO’s contract with Saudi Arabia alone is worth up to $55 million.

In an interview with Calcalist, NSO Group’s CEO and co-founder Shalev Hulio broadly denied the allegations, claiming that the list of numbers had nothing to do with Pegasus or NSO. He argued that a list of phone numbers targeted by Pegasus (which NSO says it doesn’t keep, as it has “no insight” into what investigations are being carried out by its clients) would be much shorter — he told Calcalist that NSO’s 45 clients average about 100 Pegasus targets per year.

Hulio also claims that NSO has investigated its clients’ use of the software, and hasn’t found evidence that they targeted any of the phone numbers NSO had been given, including the one linked to Khashoggi’s wife. He also says that it’s NSO policy to cut off clients’ access to Pegasus if it discovers that they are using the system outside of its intended use.

Hulio told The Washington Post that the reports were “concerning,” and that the company would investigate. He told Calcalist that NSO had been running checks with present and past clients for the past week.

Great question. Hulio tries to answer it in his interview with Calcalist, mentioning an ability to analyze a client’s systems, but doesn’t really provide enough detail to be reassuring.

Again, great question.

According to NSO, it builds Pegasus solely for use in counterterrorism and law enforcement work. The company reportedly only sells the software to specific government agencies that have been approved by the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

NSO seems to see its software as a necessary, if unpleasant, part of modern surveillance, with its CEO telling The Washington Post that “somebody has to do the dirty work” and that Pegasus is “used to handle literally the worst this planet has to offer.”

Absolutely. The Economic Times has a good rundown of some of the higher-profile companies working in the space, along with an explanation of how the pattern of Israeli cyberintelligence agents leaving military service and founding startups leads to Israel being the home of many of these companies.

Despite Amnesty’s report that versions of iOS from July are vulnerable to Pegasus, keeping your phone up to date will ensure that your phone is susceptible to fewer exploits, as updates are continually patched out by phone manufacturers. There’s also the standard set of security best practices: using strong, unique passwords (preferably with a password manager), turning on encryption, not clicking on links from strangers, etc.

Of course, Pegasus has been shown to bypass most of these security measures — a leaked copy of NSO informational material brags that installation “cannot be prevented by the target” — but they will help protect you from less sophisticated hackers.

Amnesty International has actually released a tool that can be used for analysis, and you can read our guide on how to use it here.

Assuming you’re not a journalist working on sensitive stories, a world leader, or in some position that could threaten governmental powers, the odds are that someone hasn’t paid thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to target you with Pegasus. That said, it’s obviously concerning that these types of attacks are possible, and that they could potentially fall into the hands of hackers looking to target a much broader range of people.

As with all security-related measures, it’s important to be realistic about the threats that you’re facing, and what you should do about them. For most people who aren’t likely to be targeted by an actor on the level of a nation-state (which hopefully includes you), the bigger threat to privacy comes from data brokers, which operate legally and at a larger scale. On the flip side, if you actually are being targeted by governments, with all the resources at their disposal, there’s probably not a whole lot you can do to keep your digital data private.

NSO has claimed many times that the software is technically incapable of targeting phones with US +1 phone numbers. This, of course, doesn’t protect Americans who are using international phone numbers, but it’s also something that’s hard for the company to actually prove. According to The Washington Post, the investigation didn’t find evidence that any American numbers had been hacked, but they only checked 67 phones.

The rest of the countries using the +1 code at the start of their phone numbers, such as Canada, Jamaica, and others, are largely unmentioned in the new wave of NSO reporting, though Canada was mentioned in a 2018 report.

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Published on July 23, 2021 14:11

NASA’s Europa Clipper will fly on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, Mary Beth Griggs

NASA’s Europa Clipper will start its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket built by SpaceX. NASA will pay SpaceX $178 million to launch the vehicle in October 2024.

The Europa Clipper got the green light from NASA in 2015. It will fly by the moon 45 times, providing researchers with a tantalizing look at the icy world, believed to have an ocean lurking under its icy crust. The Clipper is equipped with instruments that will help scientists figure out if the moon could support life.

For years, the Clipper was legally obligated to launch on NASA’s long-delayed Space Launch System (SLS). But with the SLS perpetually delayed and over budget, NASA has urged Congress to consider allowing the Europa Clipper to fly commercial. Switching to another vehicle could save up to $1 billion, NASA’s inspector general said in 2019.

NASA got permission to consider commercial alternatives to the SLS in the 2021 budget, and started officially looking for a commercial alternative soon after.

The SLS has powerful allies in Congress, who have kept the costly program alive for years, even as it blew past budgets and deadlines. The first flight of the SLS was originally supposed to happen in 2017. That mission — launching an uncrewed trip around the Moon — has since been pushed to November 2021, and keeping to that new schedule remains “highly unlikely” according to NASA’s Office of Inspector General, a watchdog agency.

SpaceX first launched its Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018, and started flying satellites in 2019. Earlier this year, NASA selected the rocket as the ride to space for two parts of a planned space station orbiting the Moon.

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Published on July 23, 2021 13:22

Fly a drone? The FAA’s new TRUST test is easy — and mandatory, Sean Hollister

Photo by Ryan Loughlin

If you’ve flown a drone for fun in the USA anytime in the past month, chances are you were breaking the law.

That’s because on June 22nd, the FAA finally released a mandatory knowledge test every recreational pilot legally needs to complete. It’s called TRUST, short for The Recreational Unmanned Aircraft Systems Safety Test, and trust is the operative word since the FAA isn’t planning to start issuing $1,000+ fines right away. Authorities aren’t likely to stop you in the street. But they could. Legally, you now need to carry a test completion certificate to fly a drone for fun.

The good news: The test is free, incredibly easy, teaches you the rules as you go, can be taken as many times as you want, and I’d be surprised if it takes you over 10 minutes to get a perfect score.

After chatting with the FAA last week, here’s a brief FAQ we whipped up about the test, and most every other basic burning question about how to legally fly drones in the US.

If and only if you’re flying solely for fun, the federal government has a fairly small list of rules as of today:

Register your drone if it weighs more than 0.55 pounds (249g) and label your drone if so.Take the new mandatory test, and carry a copy of your completion certificate.Never let your drone out of your sight, unless you’ve got a buddy right next to you watching it the whole time.Never fly over 400 feet above ground level.Never fly in controlled airspace (typically near airports, but check the B4UFLY app) without using the FAA’s electronic systems to get authorization first.Proactively stay away from any aircraft with an actual pilot; emergency response, law enforcement, etc.Follow the safety guidelines of either the FAA or a “community-based organization.”

What about flying at night, or over people, or into fireworks? Didn’t I hear those were all illegal?

You might have, and there may be local laws you’ll still need to follow. For example, many stadiums, parks (and all US national parks) have a ban on drones, and some places (like the state of Tennessee) don’t let you fly through fireworks, either. California doesn’t let you fly over another person’s property to snap photos of them, to ward off paparazzi. Here are a couple handy collections of drone laws by state. Most orgs also frown on flying under the influence, near power lines, or other dangerous behavior, and you’ll want to stay far away from protected wildlife.

But flying at night, or over people? Those aren’t necessarily against federal law if you’re flying for fun — only if you’re making money with your drone under the FAA’s Part 107 instead. And even Part 107 pilots have been able to do those things since April 2021, as long as they follow certain additional rules.

How do I never let a drone out of my sight if I’m flying it through my smartphone screen? Or an FPV headset?

Yeah, I’ve had a pretty hard time with this myself. But it’s also something the FAA’s been pretty clear about for years — it expects you, or a “visual observer” right next to you, to be able to see the drone with your naked eye at all times. It’s known as the visual line of sight rule, or VLOS for short.

It makes sense, because it’s still the best way to avoid mid-air collisions right now. Your FPV camera can only face forward, but your drone can move in any direction. And while pricey drones with ADS-B sensors can provide early warnings about manned aircraft, automatic sense-and-avoid is rare. Even self-flying drones like Skydio, with cameras pointed every which way, aren’t generally programmed to dodge other aircraft.

An FPV headset by DJI.Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Does that mean I’m breaking the law if I set a self-flying drone to “follow me” mode?

Technically, yes. The FAA says unless you’re looking backwards the whole time or have a visual observer following you, too, you’re not maintaining visual line of sight, and you don’t know if there are other aircraft your drone might hit (or that might hit your drone).

Let’s talk about the test. Why do I have to immediately take a mandatory test I’ve never heard of before?

It came as a surprise to me too! Technically, it was supposed to be here long ago. When Congress reauthorized the FAA’s authority in 2018, it carved out a new chunk of law to make it easier for people to fly drones for fun — as long as they passed an “aeronautical knowledge and safety test” that the agency had 180 days to deliver.

It’s been a lot longer than 180 days, but the test is here now, and the FAA is encouraging every single drone pilot to take it as soon as possible — and carry proof of completion with you. Unless you’ve got a fancier remote pilot certificate like Part 107, anyhow.

What, is the FAA going to fine me if I don’t carry a card?

It absolutely could, even if it’s not terribly likely. The FAA says it’s not like they’re out there writing tickets, and the goal is education. If you aren’t familiar with the law and don’t have a certificate to show, the plan is to explain it to you first. Oh, and you can just save a photo of the card in your phone; a digital copy is good enough.

But if you’re openly flaunting the law and refuse to take the test, the agency can fine you up to a maximum of $1,548 per violation, possibly including Part 107 violations that you wouldn’t normally worry about when flying for fun. That’s because you’re not actually covered under the recreational exception if you don’t complete the test, the FAA tells us.

Just take the test. It’s so ridiculously easy to comply, you should just get it over with now.

How easy are we talking?

Here’s a sample question. You tell me:

True or false: checking your drone after each flight is a good idea because it is a time when damage can be identified.

A sample TRUST question.

The entire test took me around eight minutes to complete, including the time it took to snap a few screenshots. There’s no need to study, either: the test itself shows you the material, then quizzes you immediately after to see if you were paying attention.

Also… I’m not sure you can fail? Each quiz points out which answers you got wrong and why, and you can just take it again.

I see. So… where can I take the TRUST test?

The FAA keeps an updated list of partner websites right here, and you can pick whichever you like best.

Does the FAA keep a log of who’s taken the test?

Not at all, they say. Your certificate doesn’t expire, either, because the FAA doesn’t keep track of anything beyond a unique number generated at the time you take the test. “Neither the test administrator, nor the FAA, will maintain personally identifiable information about the recreational flyer so it is not possible to re-print or re-issue your original certificate.”

If Congress mandated this test in 2018, have I been breaking the law by flying drones before now?

You couldn’t take a test that didn’t exist. Until now, the FAA says, it was good enough to register your drone and follow either the FAA’s published safety guidelines or those of an established aeronautical organization.

I need to register my drone?

Yes — unless it weighs less than 0.55 pounds (249g), like a lot of toy-grade drones and lightweight prosumer craft like the Hubsan Zino Mini Pro and DJI’s Mini 2, which we recently called our favorite drone under $500. If it weighs more, you need to register them and label them with your registration number. FAA pro tip: recreational fliers can re-use the same registration number for every drone they own.

Doesn’t the recreational exception under 49 US ? 44809 state you need to register your drone, period, regardless of how much it weighs?

Well, aren’t you well-read! But no, the FAA isn’t suddenly forcing your Mavic Mini into a federal database — I asked, and the agency told me straight-up you still don’t need to register drones under 0.55 pounds. (Legal eagles can follow ? 44809 to ? 441 and then to 14 CFR 48.15 subpart (b), which says that registration isn’t required if you’re flying a sub-0.55 lbs drone under ? 44809 anyways.)

Can I flash my test completion certificate to anyone complaining about my drone?

I guess you could try? The FAA and law enforcement can ask you to show proof of completion, but it’s not a license. If authorities or even local custodians tell you to leave because your drone is bugging people, maybe don’t give the flying community a bad name by insisting you have rights.

I’m vaguely near an airport. Can I still fly my drone?

It really depends on the airport, but if you’re not in the immediate flight path(s) or very close to the facilities, there’s a decent chance you can apply for an automatic airspace authorization just by tapping your info into a smartphone app that supports LAANC, like Aloft or AirMap. (You’ll find more at that LAANC link.)

Feels bad.

I’m not particularly close to an airport, but that LAANC app is telling me I can’t fly higher than 0 feet in my own backyard. WTF?

Ever heard the idea that the FAA has jurisdiction all the way down to the tip of a blade of grass? In your case, it might actually be true, and you won’t be able to legally fly even if you’ve got tall trees surrounding your house. It’s not that your drone would necessarily be dangerous below the treeline, but that there might not be enough of a safe buffer if your drone takes off in a direction you didn’t intend for it to go, the FAA explains.

It’s about risk mitigation, giving everyone time to alter course to avoid a collision. Or at least that’s the idea.

B4UFLY says there’s a TFR. What’s that?

That’s a Temporary Flight Restriction, and you’ll want to obey. You don’t want to be the one whose drone got shot down for threatening a government official or interfering with an emergency operation.

Are drone laws really this simple now: take a 10-minute test, check an app, stay under 400 feet, never look away, don’t do anything stupid?

For now, if you’re flying for fun. But just you wait until 2023, when many existing drones will need to be retrofitted to broadcast your location, your drone’s location, registration number, altitude, and speed — or else only fly in designated safe areas. The Remote ID rule is currently scheduled to take full force in September 2023.

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Published on July 23, 2021 04:30

On This Day in Space! July 23, 1999: Chandra X-Ray Observatory deployed by STS-93, ,

On July 22, 1972, a Soviet spacecraft landed on Venus!

The Soviet space probe Venera 8 was the second spacecraft to successfully execute a soft landing on the planet’s surface. Venera 8 spent 117 days traveling to Venus and only survived for 50 minutes before the planet’s harsh atmosphere got the best of its hardware. But it did manage to accomplish plenty of science before dying in Venus.

During its descent, it collected and transmitted data about Venus’s thick and toxic atmosphere. This data helped scientists learn that Venus’s clouds hover at a very high altitude, and that the atmosphere is actually a lot clearer close to the surface.

Catch up on our entire “On This Day In Space” series on YouTube with this playlist.


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Still not enough space? Don’t forget to check out our Space Image of the Day, and on the weekends our Best Space Photos and Top Space News Stories of the week.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

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Published on July 23, 2021 04:23

Marsquakes reveal Red Planet has surprisingly large core, thin crust, ,

Quakes on Mars have unveiled its interior to an unprecedented degree, revealing surprising details about the Red Planet’s crust, mantle and core.

Measurements taken by NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander have uncovered details, including a crustal layer that varies dramatically from previous understanding, a mantle less dense than the surface and a core that is larger and less dense than previously estimated, new results reveal. These findings will impact our understanding not only of the Red Planet today, but also how it and other rocky worlds formed and evolved in our solar system, scientists said.

Seismology on Earth is a relatively young science, with the first measurements of the mantle made in 1889 when scientists in Germany recorded an earthquake that originated in Japan. Apollo astronauts placed four stations on the moon that could only capture the main seismic waves. The Viking landers of the 1970s attempted to measure Martian quakes, but interference from the wind meant that no definite signals were recovered.

Mars InSight in photos: NASA’s mission to probe core of the Red Planet

So, while scientists have gained significant insights into Earth’s interior and a peek into the moon, other rocky worlds have remained a mystery. Scientists have instead relied on Mars meteorites, surface exploration, and gravity and magnetic field observations from orbiters to tentatively characterize the Martian interior.

“That’s comparable to having a locked box and trying to determine what’s inside by just having some general information from the outside,” Brigitte Knapmeyer-Endrun, a researcher at the University of Cologne in Germany, told Space.com by email. Knapmeyer-Endrun is first author on one of three InSight studies published today (July 22) in the journal Science.

In contrast, InSight’s seismic measurements are comparable to X-raying the box to take a more complete view.

Thick or thin crust

For decades, landers and orbiters have probed the Martian crust, sifting through the surface material in an effort to establish what the planet is made of and just how thick or thin its outer layer might be. Theorists have used those measurements, along with analyses of Mars meteorites, to create both thick- and thin-crust models of the planet. Some models estimate the crust to be as thick as 68 miles (110 kilometers), significantly thicker thanEarth’s crust, which ranges between 3 and 44 miles (5 and 70 km) thick.

Now, InSight has used seismic waves to measure the crust directly beneath its landing site, determine that at least two but possibly three layers hide beneath the surface, and calculate an average crustal thickness across the entire planet.

When an earthquake — or marsquake — occurs, seismic waves echo through the planet. Primary, or P-, waves lead off, traveling quickly through the layers. P-waves are compressional waves similar to sound waves traveling through the air. They are followed by secondary, or S-, waves, shear waves whose vibration is perpendicular to the wave’s direction, like the string of a guitar.

Measuring the amount of time between P- and S-waves can allow researchers to determine how far away the quake occurred, as the arrival time increases farther from the origin. The waves also travel at different speeds through different substances, further shifting the arrival times. Finally, waves can also be trapped and reflected by layers, providing additional information about the interior of a planet.

“What is for certain is that beneath InSight, we have at least two layers in the crust,” Knapmeyer-Edrun said. The top layer is about 6 miles (10 km) thick. Waves traveling through the crust alone travel much more slowly than anticipated based on observations of the surface, InSight’s observations have shown.

The top “layer is probably fractured up by repeated meteorite impacts over the eons since the formation of the crust, and could also be chemically altered,” Knapmeyer-Endrun said.

The second layer extends to a depth of roughly 12 miles (20 km) and is likely a more pristine layer than the first, shielded from impacts and surface alteration.

The next layer down is more uncertain. Knapmeyer-Endrun said that it’s possible there is a third crustal layer, extending to a depth of approximately 24 miles (39 km) and made up of a different material than the top two. Or the interior could transition into the mantle at this point.

“It requires more studies to really pinpoint what the individual layers exactly are,” she said.

Using InSight’s marsquake data and planet-wide gravitational measurements, the researchers determined that the average thickness of the Martian crust lies between 14 and 45 miles (24 and 72 km).

The new results are generally compatible with both thick- and thin-crust models of Mars. But Knapmeyer-Endrun said it was the support of a crust just 12 miles (20 km) thick potentially lying beneath the lander that was most surprising. Such a thickness “would be thinner than previous predictions and is hard to reconcile with some of the previous models,” she said.

That number isn’t definite, however, as a thicker 24-mile (39 km) crust would also explain the results. InSight will continue to study marsquakes until the end of its extended mission in 2022, potentially doubling the number of shakeups observed.

“With more marsquakes and different types of analysis, we still hope to distinguish between these two scenarios during the extended mission,” Knapmeyer-Endrun said.

Related: What is Mars made of?

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The two largest quakes detected by NASA’s InSight lander appear to have originated in a region known as Cerberus Fosse, where signs of tectonic activity such as landslides have been previously detected. This image was captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)Molten mantle

In addition to probing the outer shell of the Red Planet, InSight has used lower-frequency waves to measure the upper mantle layer. The second Science study relied on low-frequency waves, which make up only a small part of the quakes measured by the spacecraft. Most of the seismic waves measured by InSight have a high frequency and are likely related to events occurring close to the lander. Low-frequency events travel farther, allowing researchers to probe deeper into the planet.

“The further away you are, the deeper the waves will travel, and that’s where low-frequency events come in,” Amir Khan said by email. Khan is a researcher at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and lead author of the second paper.

The new results reveal that the mantle extends 248 to 373 miles (400 to 600 km) down, more than twice as deep as Earth’s mantle. That could come in part because Mars has only a single continental plate compared to the seven mobile plates found on Earth. While chemically similar to Earth’s upper mantle, the Martian mantle contains more iron than a comparable slice of our planet.

Using data from studies of the mantle, Khan and colleagues modeled how Mars cooled and separated into layers in the past. Knapmeyer-Endrun and her team independently performed a similar study using data taken from the crust. Both teams found that creating the layers seen today required the crust to be 13 to 21 times more enriched in radioactive heat-producing elements (HPEs) than the mantle, higher than previous estimates made by measuring the surface materials with NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) orbiter.

“[MGS] only measured the radioactive content of the surface, but now we’ve found that the crust as a whole is enriched relative to these earlier estimates, meaning that what we see on the surface is not the same deeper in the crust,” Khan said.

The dust that builds planets contains traces of radioactive elements. Heat from formation and the decay of these elements leads to melting, with the HPEs disproportionately rising to the top and getting deposited in the newborn crust. It’s expected, then, that the crust will hold more HPEs than the mantle beneath.

But a thinner crust would require a larger enrichment of HPEs, with what Knapmeyer-Endrun calls “potentially interesting consequences for the understanding of the differentiation of Mars.”

The implications will continue to evolve as theorists struggle to reconcile the new data with their understanding of planet formation and evolution.

Our solar system: A photo tour of the planets

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NASA’s InSight lander snapped this image of the area in front of it on July 20, 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)Bigger core

While the first two new studies focused on seismic waves that traveled directly through the layers, a third study examined those that bounced off Mars’ central core. S-waves are unable to travel through liquids and gas and so bounce off of the liquid core, reflecting to the surface. By measuring these reflected waves, researchers determined that the core starts nearly halfway to the center of the planet, at a depth of about 969 miles (1560 km), a number at the large end of previous estimates.

A larger core suggests one that is less dense than previously thought. The new measurements of core density are lighter than iron, a finding that requires an infusion of lighter elements such as sulfur, carbon, hydrogen or oxygen.

“If [these light elements] are in the core in large quantities, we might need to revisit our models of how the planet formed to allow them to end up in the core and not in the mantle, or, in the case of hydrogen, leaving the planet to the atmosphere early on,” said the lead author of the third study, Simon Stahler, who’s also based at ETH Zurich.

So far, all of the quakes detected by InSight are below magnitude 4, small enough that on Earth humans would only notice the shaking if they were close to the source. These smaller quakes are bent when they enter the core, “similar to how light is bent when it goes through the surface of a lake,” Stahler said. That means quakes from Mars’ Tharsis region, thought to have the highest seismic activity on the planet, have remained undetected.

But if InSight can detect and correctly identify a quake of magnitude 4 or higher in the active Tharsis mountains, it might be able to detect waves that travel successfully through the core, allowing researchers to better narrow down the light elements tucked away inside.

Since the core is larger than previously thought, the mantle must be thinner, suggesting that Mars lacks the dense insulating layer of the mineral bridgmanite that Earth possesses. The absence of this layer would allow the core to cool more rapidly, affecting the planet’s magnetic field.

Scientists know that the Red Planet once had a magnetic field, one that helped it hold onto its early atmosphere. As the core cooled, the field weakened and Mars lost not only the vast majority of its atmosphere but also the liquid water that once flowed across its surface.

“Dynamos require fluid motions in the metallic core to generate magnetic fields,” said Sabine Stanely, an expert in the Martian dynamo at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland who was not part of the new research. “How the Martian dynamo was driven is still an open question.”

One mechanism for driving the motion of the core is the rapid movement of heat from the core through the mantle. The lack of insulation from bridgmanite could help make this possible.

Another possibility is compositional convection. When a core has light elements, they can rise through the molten core, their motion generating a magnetic field. As iron solidifies, it will sink to the center of the core, also potentially creating a dynamo that can drive a magnetic field.

Khan said he was most surprised by the presence of a low core density. The presence of lighter elements suggested that Mars may have accreted very early and on a rapid timescale. The planet may also have collected material from the outer solar system, where light elements were more plentiful.

“These observations have fueled speculation that Mars might represent a stranded planetary embryo that depicts the chemical characteristics of the solar nebula [the gas and dust that birthed the sun and planets] at the location of the orbit of Mars,” Khan said.

Understanding how to get the light elements into the core is “not straightforward,” he said, with hydrogen a particular problem.

“We’re working on this problem and might need some type of out-of-the-box thinking,” Khan said.

10 of 1,000

InSight landed on Mars in November 2018 and began recording marsquakes in February 2019. In that time, it has detected more than a thousand distinct seismic events. So why has it taken more than two years to understand the planet’s interior?

Part of the problem is sorting the results from the noise. According to Knapmeyer-Endrun, more than half the recorded events are super-high frequency, suggesting that they are caused not by quakes but by temperature swings. These tremors are too shallow to provide information on the layers. Another fraction of the quakes are high-frequency events that cannot be used to study the layers. They aren’t junk — Knapmeyer-Endrun said they can be used to study shallow structure — but they aren’t helpful when it comes to understanding the deeper layers of Mars.

“Less than 5% of all the seismic events reported belong to the low-frequency family and generate waves propagating through the mantle, so they can interact with the boundary between the mantle and crust below InSight and tell us something about the depth of this interface,” Knapmeyer-Endrun said. And not all of those are of high enough quality to allow researchers to glean their location, a requirement for the new research.

“This is similar to the situation on Earth, where there are about 100,000 quakes with a magnitude 3.0 or higher recorded somewhere on Earth every year, but only the largest 1% or so would be used for global studies of the interior of the planet,” she said.

Out of the more than 1,000 quakes recorded on Mars, the trio of new studies focused on only 10 different quakes.

Additionally, the Martian winter brought higher wind, which drowned out attempts to measure quakes. According to Knapmeyer-Endrun, InSight recorded very little seismic activity for more than 200 days, leading the team to worry that they might not be able to see any more quakes before the lander ran out of power. Attempts to clean the spacecraft’s solar panels improved the situation somewhat, and Insight is back to collecting seismic data.

The final reason for the long delay is the novelty of the tasks the researchers were performing.

“Because it was a rather limited data set and we are the first to attempt this on Mars, we also took more time to look at the data again and again to be extra sure of our interpretations and conclusions,” Knapmeyer-Endrun said.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Published on July 23, 2021 04:14

See July’s Full Buck Moon of 2021 rise tonight, ,

July’s full moon will soar high in the sky tonight and help you find the way to the planets Saturn and Jupiter.

While the official time of the July full moon is 10:37 p.m. EDT Friday, July 23 (0237 GMT Saturday, July 24), the moon will appear full through Sunday, NASA said in a skywatching roundup. So don’t worry if you get clouded out on the night the moon is at its maximum illumination.

This month, you can use the full moon to point your way to Saturn and Jupiter, NASA said in the skywatching roundup. On Friday, the planet Saturn (bright in the July night sky) will be about eight degrees above the moon during morning twilight, in the southwest. For comparison, if you stretch your arm to its maximum and clench your hand into a fist, your fist is roughly 10 degrees across.

Related: How to Observe the Moon with a Telescope

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A setting Moon and elk at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming in March 2015. (Image credit: U.S. National Park Service/Neal Herbert )


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You can find your way to Saturn by using your fist and looking for a bright object; planets tend not to flicker as much as stars. If you have a small telescope, you might be able to glimpse its rings.

If you’re clouded out or otherwise miss the opportunity to see Saturn, the planet is still nearby the moon on Saturday night, roughly 7 degrees above during morning twilight. Then on Sunday night and Monday morning, the planet Jupiter will be about four to six degrees to the upper left of the moon, depending on when you look. Small telescopes may see the moons of Jupiter, depending on the equipment and local weather and darkness conditions.

Full moons happen when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun. Full moons are not an ideal time to observe the lunar surface in detail due to the lack of shadows, and the moon also washes out the sky and makes it difficult to see faint objects.

Related: The Moon: 10 Surprising Facts

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On Saturday, July 24, the moon will shine between Saturn and Jupiter in the evening sky. (Image credit: Starry Night)

That said, the full moon is pretty and perfectly safe to look at with the unaided eye, and occasionally you’ll get a special treat during full moon season. While the sun’s light usually reflects off the surface of the moon during the full phase, although occasionally the positions of the moon and Earth align in such a way so that the moon passes through our planet’s shadow.

This shadow-passing phenomenon is called a lunar eclipse, during which the moon turns red due to the stretched-out reddened light filtering through the edges of our planet’s atmosphere and falling on the moon’s surface. The next full lunar eclipse is in May 2022 and will be visible from North America.

The name “Buck Moon” arises from a traditional name from the Algonquin tribes, according to a NASA July 2021 moon guide, in what is now the northeastern United States, eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. That said, the moon may not be called the same name by all Algonquin peoples or by all Indigenous cultures; for example, another name attributed to the Algonquin for the July moon is the Thunder Moon. Rao names a few other Indigenous July moon names in his column.

Here is the cultural significance of July’s full moon in select international areas, according to NASA:

Europeans (traditional) called this the Hay Moon due to the haymaking season, and sometimes the Mead Moon. Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains may call July’s moon the Guru Full Moon (Guru Purnima), “celebrated as a time for clearing the mind and honoring the guru or spiritual master,” NASA said. Theravada Buddhists may call July’s moon the Asalha Puha (also known as Dharma Day or Esala Poya – a festival celebrating Buddha’s first sermon, NASA said). July’s moon also marks the beginning of a three-month annual Buddhist retreat called Vassa. July’s full moon falls in the middle of the sixth month of the Chinese calendar (during Heyue, or Lotus Month) and Av in the Hebrew calendar, corresponding with the Israeli “holiday of love” Tu B’Av. In the Islamic calendar, the full moon is near the middle of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Islamic year. Dhu al-Hijjah is the month of the Hajj (the Festival of the Sacrifice). Muslims celebrated Eid-Al-Adha between July 20 and this full moon; Eid-Al-Adha honors Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son to God, as told in the Bible and the Qu’ran.

Editor’s Note: If you capture an amazing night sky photo and want to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, please send images and comments to spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

The post See July’s Full Buck Moon of 2021 rise tonight, , appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.

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Published on July 23, 2021 04:00