http://www.rhci-online.net/radiogram/radiogram.htm

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RSID: <<2023-06-08T23:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


 

Welcome to program 308 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

  1:46 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:58 MFSK32: SpaceX's Starlink Wins Contract for Ukraine
  5:52 MFSK64: Why was brightest cosmic explosion exceptional?*
10:44 MFSK64: This week's images*
28:37 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)


 

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From Reuters via Voice of America:


SpaceX's Starlink Wins Pentagon Contract for Satellite Services
for Ukraine

June 1, 2023

Washington —

SpaceX's Starlink, the satellite communications service started
by billionaire Elon Musk, now has a Defense Department contract
to buy those satellite services for Ukraine, the Pentagon said
Thursday.

"We continue to work with a range of global partners to ensure
Ukraine has the resilient satellite and communication
capabilities they need. Satellite communications constitute a
vital layer in Ukraine's overall communications network and the
department contracts with Starlink for services of this type,"
the Pentagon said in a statement.

Starlink has been used by Ukrainian troops for a variety of
efforts, including battlefield communications.

SpaceX, through private donations and under a separate contract
with a U.S. foreign aid agency, has been providing Ukrainians and
the country's military with Starlink internet service, a
fast-growing network of more than 4,000 satellites in low Earth
orbit, since the beginning of the war in 2022.

The Pentagon contract is a boon for SpaceX after Musk, the
company's CEO, said in October it could not afford to
indefinitely fund Starlink in Ukraine, an effort he said cost $20
million a month to maintain.

Russia has tried to cut off and jam internet services in Ukraine,
including attempts to block Starlink in the region, though SpaceX
has countered those attacks by hardening the service's software.

The Pentagon did not disclose the terms of the contract, which
Bloomberg reported earlier on Thursday, "for operational security
reasons and due to the critical nature of these systems."

https://www.voanews.com/a/spacex-starlink-wins-pentagon-contract-for-satellite-services-for-ukraine/7118968.html
 

Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...


 

RSID: <<2023-06-08T23:36Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


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From Phys.org:

What made the brightest cosmic explosion of all time so
exceptional?

by University of Bath
June 7, 2023

Few cosmic explosions have attracted as much attention from space
scientists as the one recorded on October 22 last year and aptly
named the Brightest of All Time (BOAT). The event, produced by
the collapse of a highly massive star and the subsequent birth of
a black hole, was witnessed as an immensely bright flash of gamma
rays followed by a slow-fading afterglow of light across
frequencies.

Since picking up the BOAT signal simultaneously on their giant
telescopes, astrophysicists the world over have been scrambling
to account for the brightness of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) and
the curiously slow fade of its afterglow.

Now an international team that includes Dr. Hendrik Van Eerten
from the Department of Physics at the University of Bath in the
U.K. has formulated an explanation: the initial burst (known as
GRB 221009A) was angled directly at Earth and it also dragged
along an unusually large amount of stellar material in its wake.

The team's findings are published June 7 in the journal Science
Advances. Dr. Brendan O'Connor, a newly graduated doctoral
student at the University of Maryland and George Washington
University in Washington, DC, is the study's lead author.

Dr. Van Eerten, who co-led the theoretical analysis of the
afterglow, said, "Other researchers working on this puzzle have
also come to the conclusion that the jet was pointed directly at
us—much like a garden hose angled to spray straight at you—and
this definitely goes some way to explain why it was seen so
brightly."

But what remained a puzzle was that the edges of the jet could
not be seen at all.

"The slow fade of the afterglow is not characteristic of a narrow
jet of gas, and knowing this made us suspect there was an
additional reason for the intensity of the explosion, and our
mathematical models have borne this out.

"Our work clearly shows that the GRB had a unique structure, with
observations gradually revealing a narrow jet embedded within a
wider gas outflow where an isolated jet would normally be
expected."

So what made this GRB wider than normal? The researchers have a
theory. As Dr. Van Eerten explained, "GRB jets need to go through
the collapsing star in which they are formed, and what we think
made the difference in this case was the amount of mixing that
happened between the stellar material and the jet, such that
shock-heated gas kept appearing in our line of sight all the way
up to the point that any characteristic jet signature would have
been lost in the overall emission from the afterglow."

He added, "Our model helps not just to understand the BOAT, but
also previous brightness record holders that had astronomers
mystified about their lack of jet signature. These GRBs, like
other GRBs, must be directed straight towards us when they
happen, as it would be unphysical for that much energy to be
expelled in all directions at once.

"An exceptional class of events appears to exist that are both
extreme and manage to mask the directed nature of their gas flow.
Future study into the magnetic fields that launch the jet and
into the massive stars that host them should help reveal why
these GRBs are so rare."

Dr. O'Connor said, "The exceptionally long GRB 221009A is the
brightest GRB ever recorded and its afterglow is smashing all
records at all wavelengths. Because this burst is so bright and
also nearby (cosmically speaking: it occurred at the minor
distance of 2.4 billion light years from Earth), we think this is
a once-in-a-thousand-year opportunity to address some of the most
fundamental questions regarding these explosions, from the
formation of black holes to tests of dark matter models."

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-brightest-cosmic-explosion-exceptional.html

 

Image: The rings around the burst, seen here in colorized data
from NASA's Swift observatory, formed when X-rays scattered off
hidden dust in our Milky Way galaxy ...

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This week's images ...



The Brazilian Navy tall ship Cisne Branco is on display this
weekend at the Museu Do Amanhã in Rio de Janeiro.
https://t.ly/Q6jw ...

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A bird silhouetted by reddish-colored sunlight filtering through
smoky haze and cloud cover above Natick, Massachusetts, June 6.
https://t.ly/P2mL ...

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Wine shop lanterns in Hangzhou, China. https://t.ly/D5mX2 ...

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A flamingo tongue snail in Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands.
https://t.ly/D5mX2 ...

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The Strawberry Moon, here in Flockton, West Yorkshire, marked the
start of meteorological summer. https://t.ly/pLSg ...

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A hazy sunset in Philadelphia, June 7. https://t.ly/qYQt ...

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A full moon over Gulf State Park, Alabama. https://t.ly/1FAk ...

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Sunset at Fontainebleau State Park, Louisiana, June 7.
https://t.ly/xq4O ...

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Flowers in the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden.
https://t.ly/5Ri3_ ...

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Our painting of the week is "Breathe In" (2021) by Erin Elizabeth
Ross (Canadian). https://tinyurl.com/mrjyu33e ...

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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...

 

RSID: <<2023-06-08T23:59Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

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