Catching A Rocket

Rocket Lab has just joined SpaceX in the club of space companies that can launch an orbital-class rocket booster and bring it back alive.

In a sense, the California-based company one-upped SpaceX by having a helicopter snag the first-stage booster of its Electron rocket with a cable and a hook as it floated past on the end of a parachute, 6,500 feet above the Pacific Ocean.

Read more about it here: https://www.universetoday.com/155706/they-did-it-rocket-lab-uses-copter-to-catch-and-release-a-rocket/

Originally posted on Twitter.

Office Renovations Complete

My new (does 8 months count as new?) office just might be perfect now. Never underestimate the difference new carpet makes, because wow. And matching bookcases.

I've got a bit more shelf space now, so the fiction selection has expanded a little. And I am SO HAPPY to get to properly display my logo art! All the not-sexy stuff is hidden away in the cabinets or behind the bookcases, where it won't trouble me.

As of today, I have zero items on the wishlist of how I might improve it.

....why, no, I'm not procrastinating starting the Chaotica ebook formatting. Why would ask that?

Originally posted on Facebook.

Keep Exploring

NASA has extended the planetary science missions of eight of its spacecraft due to their scientific productivity and potential to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the solar system and beyond.

The missions – Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity rover), InSight lander, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, OSIRIS-REx, and New Horizons – have been selected for continuation

Check that out! Curiosity is such a champ, showing no signs of slowing down on Mars after a decade of exploring the Red Planet. OSIRIS-REx is going to visit * another * asteroid, and New Horizons - can you believe it made its extraordinary visit to Pluto SEVEN years ago - will continue to probe the far outer reaches of our solar system.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-extends-exploration-for-8-planetary-science-missions

Originally posted on Twitter.

Happy 32nd Birthday to Hubble

Happy 32nd Birthday to the best telescope ever! Look at all this amazing activity going on in one tiny little sliver of our universe.

JWST will soon be bringing us even more astonishing images, but Hubble continues to carry the torch in spectacular fashion. Hubble has inspired 3 decades of space lovers, and we will forever be so grateful.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/happy-32nd-birthday-to-hubble

Originally posted on Facebook and Twitter.

Questions I Ask Myself

Questions I ask myself while editing CHAOTICA:

(1) How many times is it appropriate to use the words "chaos" and "chaotic" in a book titled...? *looks up synonyms*

(2) How strong can Miriam's tea get? How many simultaneous Rasu attacks must occur before she's forgoing the water and simply eating the tea bags?

(3) How many f-bombs can Alex realistically drop in her opening argument with Mesme after the events in the Oneiroi Nebula at the end of AOT? Is there a limit?

Originally posted on Facebook.

Good News From Space

NASA is bursting with great news for us this week!

(1) Following the completion of the final critical mirror alignment steps, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope team now expects that Webb’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve. Every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations. The team also found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb’s optical path. The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue.

The image was taken to "prove" alignment had been successfully completed - and, yes, all those smudges are galaxies. Expect the science images to start arriving this summer!

(2) After 21 flights, NASA has extended Ingenuity’s flight operations through September as it continues with scouting efforts for Perseverance. The helicopter that so many insisted would never be able to fly at all, will now fly on Mars for a second year. Go, Ginny! #thelittlehelicopterthatcould

Originally posted on Facebook.

Alcyoneus

Alcyoneus, a radio galaxy 3 billion light years away, now ranks as the biggest galaxy ever discovered - and it stretches for FIVE MEGAPARSECS (16.3 million light years). A single galaxy that's 5 megaparsecs in diameter??? That's as far as it is from the Milky Way to the Asterion Dominion! So that's, you know...big.

I wonder if it's the Rasu's home galaxy? Just speculating.

“The Biggest Galaxy Ever Found Has Just Been Discovered, And It Will Break Your Brain”: https://www.sciencealert.com/at-over-16-million-light-years-across-this-is-the-biggest-galaxy-ever-discovered

Originally posted on Facebook.

Ringshine

“This view, made from images acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on February 17, 2007, shows the effect of "ringshine" on Saturn's night side. Twilight and pre-dawn on Saturn would be pretty bright, thanks to its reflective rings.”

Cassini graced us with a lifetime’s worth of some of the most stunning images imaginable of Saturn and its satellites. Until such time as we can send humans to orbit amidst the rings, let us stare upon them with wonder and joy.

Posted by Jason Major: https://twitter.com/JPMajor/status/1494317365072482307.

Originally posted on Twitter.

CHAOTICA First Draft

And that is a wrap on the CHAOTICA First Draft!

I'll be honest - I don't think I've ever loved a book so much this early in the process as I do this one. I LOVE IT. I am so frigging excited to share it with you all! After a lot more work....

I also don't think I've ever met the word count goal on the first draft.... I've gone ahead and upped the goal to 135K; we'll see how much I blow through that one, too.

Originally posted on Facebook.

Gateways

This is a rather close visualization of how I imagine the Anaden Gateways looking. It's not dead-on - the Gateway rings are smoother (so Eren can run on them, obviously (see the Re/Genesis short story)), the plasma is amber (only the Kats' Mosaic gateway is icy blue), and based on the traversing ships, the Gateways are much larger, but on whole...yeah.

https://www.deviantart.com/redwoodjedi/art/Jump-Gate-905088441

Originally posted on Facebook.

Galactic Core As We've Never Seen It

The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) has released new MeerKAT radio telescope images of the radio emissions at the center of our galaxy, and they are INCREDIBLE! I am once again in awe of our universe. Who wishes they could see radio waves now? Me, that’s who.

The primary image (first below) show nearly 1,000 strands of magnetic filaments, measuring up to 150 light-years in length. "It's unclear what they are, or how they came into existence. What we do know is that they contain cosmic-ray electrons, spinning around in filaments of magnetic fields at close to light-speeds."

"The image captures radio emission from numerous phenomena, including outbursting stars, stellar nurseries, and the chaotic region around the 4 million solar mass supermassive black hole that lurks in the centre of our Galaxy."

About the second image: "The complex, cirrus-like emission from the Galactic centre super bubble dominates this image. This is traversed by the Radio Arc, a complex of many parallel radio filaments. The radio bubble nestles against the diffuse Sagittarius A region in the lower centre of the image. The bright dot near the centre of this region is Sagittarius A*, a 4 million solar mass black hole."

And the third: "In the centre of the image is the supernova remnant G359.1-0.5. To the left is ‘the Mouse’, a runaway pulsar possibly formed and ejected by the supernova event. To the upper right is one of the longest and most famous radio filaments, known as ‘the Snake’."

More about the research here: https://www.sciencealert.com/jaw-dropping-new-image-of... and here: https://www.sarao.ac.za/.../new-meerkat-radio-image.../

Originally posted on Facebook.