The public are excited by the images, but astronomers are as excited by the spectra, like this one. I want to talk about why
Jonathan McDowell
82.6K posts
Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589
Astronomer commenting on space launches. Orbital Police. All plots CC-BY. gofundme.com/f/fund-jonatha…
- WOOHOO! For some time DSS 65 has been sending TO Chan-3 but in the last 5 min it started showing TWO WAY comms, indicating that CHANDRAYAAN 3 is ALIVE on the surface of the Moon. NOW I am ready to say: CONGRATULATIONS INDIA, CONGRATULATIONS ISRO!
- ISRO reports that Chandrayaan-3 has landed on the Moon
- Glad the Apollo 13 movie is getting reruns lately. This scene is even more moving today: right, Tom Hanks playing Jim Lovell; left, cameo appearance by actual Jim Lovell (1928 Mar 25 - 2025 Aug 7).
- One more thing on the Hubble/JWST image comparison: Hubble image was a 10 day exposure (not kidding). JWST was 12 hours.
- A reminder that 24 humans have so far travelled to deep space and entered the gravitational sphere of the Moon; 10 remain alive today.
- The Falcon 9 second stage from the Mar 4 Starlink launch failed to make a deorbit burn and is now reentering after 22 days in orbit. Its reentry was observed from the Seattle area at about 0400 UTC Mar 26.
- An ocean reentry was always statistically the most likely. It appears China won its gamble (unless we get news of debris in the Maldives). But it was still reckless
- Since it came up today: here is the current position of the Falcon Heavy 001 second stage, with Elon Musk's Tesla bolted to its nose, together with the current positions of Earth and Mars.
- Thanks to NOAA's Kenneth Howard for pointing me to this NOAA weather radar data showing a debris cloud exactly over my estimated Starship reentry point!
- Technically, this *is* the wreckage of a flying saucer that crashed on Mars that belongs to aliens.It looks like a flying saucer that crashed on Mars. But it doesn’t belong to aliens. nyti.ms/3KBgt8l
- Replying to @planet45891) There's oxygen in that there galaxy! 2) Oxygen atoms behave the same billions of years ago and billions of light years away as they do here and now - a profound proof of the unity of physics
- China now reporting weibo.com/2196038737/KeD… that the rocket reentered at 0224 UTC at 72.47E 2.65N which is right over the Maldives. If correct will be interesting to see if we get reports from there
