Posted by Maggie on July 17, 2022 in From the editors

Nice try, NASA.

If you, like me, look to space-watching in order to escape the manmade insanity down here on Earth, you’ll be disappointed at the latest news in Hawaii. Even space is getting political…

There are several observatories high up above the clouds on the desolate mountains of the island of Hawaii. Very little else is built around these structures not only to avoid intrusion of light pollution but to preserve the terrain from alteration or violate the pristine environment of the mountain. However, this has less to do with the environment than it does the indigenous people of Hawaiian heritage and other activist trying to reclaim lands, especially the mountains…

Robert Zimmerman cuts through the activist glee crap. Note: TMT is the highly anticipated new Thirty Meter Telescope that was planned to be built. As Zimmerman points out, the goal is not just to reclaim control over the area but to remove the remote eye-on-the-sky structure(s)…

New Hawaiian law takes control of Mauna Kea away from astronomers…

• This is a power play by some activist protesters for money and power. The new law gives them that.
• The Democratic Party that controls Hawaii utterly supports the protesters, and was working behind the scenes to aid them. The new law proves that.
• TMT will never be built. This new law makes that prediction almost certain.
• The real goal of the protesters will be the eventual shut down of all astronomy on Mauna Kea. This new law is the first step in that process.

Forget about TMT. It is dead, as are any new telescopes or upgrades on Mauna Kea. Sometime around 2028, when this new authority takes over, we shall begin to see demands for the removal of telescopes.

Alexandra Witze: Hawaii law could break years-long astronomy impasse: A group including Native Hawaiians will now manage the mountain Maunakea, where Indigenous rights and astronomy have collided.

Good strong competition is always best for advancement, results, and cost…

Sandra Erwin: Office of Space Commerce to start developing architecture for traffic management: Chirag Parikh, executive secretary of the National Space Council, said he expects the Office of Space Commerce to start developing an architecture for space traffic management, an initiative that has been bogged down by studies and lack of funding…

Glenn H. Reynolds: NASA’s private sector turn shows government can get more for taxpayers’ buck

“Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age” is the memoir of Lori Garver, former deputy NASA administrator under President Barack Obama and a major figure in promoting the development of commercial launch companies. (The other such figure is her counterpart in the Trump administration, Dr. Scott Pace, who pursued a very similar policy agenda).

Garver (and Pace) set out to change the role of government. Instead of the Apollo model of big government programs micromanaged by NASA and implemented by big corporations joined at the hip to the agency, the goal was to duplicate what the government did for aviation in the 1920s and 1930s: provide incentives and get out of the way…

The truth was, NASA was happier working on a “space program” that didn’t actually go anywhere than with the idea of having to compete in a commercial market. Happily, the government shifted much of its procurement to a more commercial model: It told contractors what it wanted and paid them to deliver it, with payment largely contingent on results. It’s worked so well that NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is now decrying the traditional “cost-plus” arrangements that encourage contractors to spend more and more money as they deliver less and less…

Ed Browne: Webb Telescope Took a Snapshot of Jupiter, NASA Report Shows

Hey @NASASolarSystem, ready for your close-up? As part of Webb’s prep for science, we tested how the telescope tracks solar system objects like Jupiter. Webb worked better than expected, and even caught Jupiter’s moon Europa: https://t.co/zNHc724h9X pic.twitter.com/tW9AT5ah6T

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) July 14, 2022

Luke Gentile: SEE IT: NASA releases ‘absolutely astonishing’ Webb Space Telescope image of Jupiter

Kathryn Olvera: The Pillars of Creation: What One Space Photo Tells Us About The Creation Of The Universe

The Pillars of Creation are just as mighty as they look. According to an article published in Jekko, the whole entity is five light-years wide, and the pillar on the left side of the image alone is over four light-years long. To put it in perspective, this means that our solar system doesn’t even take up one of the small pieces that appear jutting out from the top of a pillar, also known to astronomers as “elephant trunks.”

For some reference, The Pillars of Creation are about 6,500 light-years away. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles away from Earth. So, multiply the figures given in the above blockquote by that number for an idea of the length and breadth of this star factory. We wouldn’t want to be any closer to that celestial chaos.

DM: Mysterious object BILLIONS of light-years away from Earth is releasing strong bursts of energy in a pattern similar to a beating heart

• Fast radio bursts (FRB) are intense radio waves that typically last for a few milliseconds
•  Astronomers recently detected one billions of light-years away from Earth
• This FRB persists for up to three seconds – about 1,000 times longer than the average
• It also repeats every 0.2 seconds in a clear periodic pattern, similar to a beating heart

Jeff Parsons: Nasa spots bizarre, tangled object on Mars and offers no explanation: There’s no shortage of strange sights on Mars, it seems.

Stars Insider: The most breathtaking nebulae in the universe

UFOs:

Jeff Parsons: Group of 3 ‘metal sphere’ UFOs spotted making turns over London

Have aliens come to visit to London during the midst of a simmering heatwave?

If so, they’ve chosen to do so in three small metal UFOs that were snapped above the capital earlier this week and shared on social media.

According to the blog UFO Sightings Footage, these three metallic orbs were recorded making turns over west London on Tuesday, July 12…

‘UFO Orbs are everywhere in the world at the moment, it’s likely that we’re all seeing surveillance drones just like the one’s we’ve sent out to survey the deepest parts of space called Voyager 1 and 2.’

There appears to be very little evidence anywhere else on the web to corroborate this claim, so we’re taking it with a larger-than-average pinch of salt.

However, a video allegedly captured three days earlier appears to show similar shapes moving in the sky above Hemel Hempstead, north of London…

Luke Gentile: WATCH: Humanoid ‘aliens’ wash up on Australian beaches, baffling local residents

~~Many thanks to Maggie and The Universal Spectator for reprint permission.