Lightning Sprite, Seen at night

yes i do! (been meaning to sign onto the masterlist, just been super busy)

Rogue Seeker started out as a Starscream-centric concept five years ago. In which they got so fed up with the abuse and bullshit from both sides that Starscream threw their lot in with humanity, sold off cybertronian tech, got therapy and helped fire off humanity into a transhumanist age.

Dusted off the old concept a month ago and started working on it again.

//spoilers

Endangered Species arc opens with Starscream waking up on an old NEST military base, realizing Cybertronians are on the Endangered Species Act, Meanwhile Soundwave and zir creations have to deal with post-war trauma and  coming of age far from home. Plus there’s there’s Skywarp and the other Vosian survivors of the Cybertronian civil war settling on Jupiter and its moons. Starscream and Soundwave slowly integrate into post-war life with the other survivors of the colony ship, Aegis.

The au is flightframe-focused with an emphasis on how gender, kin networks and “reproduction” look like in a xenomech society without  direct human parallels.  And unlike the Autobots, the Decepticcon and Neutral survivors aren’t looking to assimilate into human cultural boxes.

here’s my tag for it: https://quill18fandom.tumblr.com/tagged/rogue-seeker-canon

and I have the prequel chapter for the Endangered Species arc here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26275558/chapters/63965755#workskin

And a rp/ask blog for Skywarp here: https://voidwingsprime.tumblr.com/ (most fic info there is 5 years outdated and I need to fix it up)

Skywarp ex-vents at the question.  Sha digits fly on the keyboard. It’s rare for shi not to answer with a video, but this question gets under shi plating. It’s of a more personal nature after all and humans are fickle things who don’t abide by kinframe loyalty.

[[

In human terms, how the frag am I supposed to answer that? The answer isn’t simple. I suppose....co-parents? In-laws? We are off the same codeline and kinframes and there isn’t many of us left after the War.

Starscream sparked many of zir creations and as Screamer’s trine member, I’m obligated to help out. Besides, Soundwave needs me around to build zir creation’s sub-adult upgrades. That mech emerged out of zir gestation pod and raised in the gladiator pits of Kaon, instead of a proper Voidwing flock, and as such that leaves me to pass on our codeline’s culture to our...creations

Ze knows nothing of how to be a proper juni*. Being stolen as a pod will do that to a mech. Soundwave can deny it all ze wants as to my status to them. By building their frames, that gives me as much right to claim creator status.

Someone has to make sure everything works properly after all. And Thundercracker’s still putting Laserbeak back together mentally after too many vorns stuck in deployer-sparkling status.

Feh.

I suppose teacher also describes my relationship. Without Megatron holding zir back, I’m now free to teach zir proper flock duties. Much to zir distaste. ]]

Transformers

Invader Zim (NO ZA////DR)

Don’t Starve

Ducktales

After seven years of studying the radiation around Earth, the Van Allen Probes spacecraft have retired.

Originally slated for a two-year mission, these two spacecraft studied Earth’s radiation belts — giant, donut-shaped clouds of particles surrounding Earth — for nearly seven years. The mission team used the last of their propellant this year to place the spacecraft into a lower orbit that will eventually decay, allowing the Van Allen Probes to re-enter and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

Earth’s radiation belts exist because energized charged particles from the Sun and other sources in space become trapped in our planet’s huge magnetic field, creating vast regions around Earth that teem with radiation. This is one of the harshest environments in space — and the Van Allen Probes survived more than three times longer than planned orbiting through this intense region.

The shape, size and intensity of the radiation belts change, meaning that satellites — like those used for telecommunications and GPS — can be bombarded with a sudden influx of radiation. The Van Allen Probes shed new light on what invisible forces drive these changes — like waves of charged particles and electromagnetic fields driven by the Sun, called space weather. 

Here are a few scientific highlights from the Van Allen Probes — from the early days of the mission to earlier this year:

The Van Allen belts were first discovered in 1958, and for decades, scientists thought there were only two concentric belts. But, days after the Van Allen Probes launched, scientists discovered that during times of intense solar activity, a third belt can form.

The belts are composed of charged particles and electromagnetic fields and can be energized by different types of plasma waves. One type, called electrostatic double layers, appear as short blips of enhanced electric field. During one observing period, Probe B saw 7,000 such blips repeatedly pass over the spacecraft in a single minute!

During big space weather storms, which are ultimately caused by activity on the Sun, ions — electrically charged atoms or molecules — can be pushed deep into Earth’s magnetosphere. These particles carry electromagnetic currents that circle around the planet and can dramatically distort Earth’s magnetic field.

Across space, fluctuating electric and magnetic fields can create what are known as plasma waves. These waves intensify during space weather storms and can accelerate particles to incredible speeds. The Van Allen Probes found that one type of plasma wave known as hiss can contribute greatly to the loss of electrons from the belts.

The Van Allen belts are composed of electrons and ions with a range of energies. In 2015, research from the Van Allen Probes found that, unlike the outer belt, there were no electrons with energies greater than a million electron volts in the inner belt.

Plasma waves known as whistler chorus waves are also common in our near-Earth environment. These waves can travel parallel or at an angle to the local magnetic field. The Van Allen Probes demonstrated the two types of waves cannot be present simultaneously, resulting in greater radiation belt particle scattering in certain areas.

Very low frequency chorus waves, another variety of plasma waves, can pump up the energy of electrons to millions of electronvolts. During storm conditions, the Van Allen Probes found these waves can hugely increase the energy of particles in the belts in just a few hours.  

Scientists often use computer simulation models to understand the physics behind certain phenomena. A model simulating particles in the Van Allen belts helped scientists understand how particles can be lost, replenished and trapped by Earth’s magnetic field.

The Van Allen Probes observed several cases of extremely energetic ions speeding toward Earth. Research found that these ions’ acceleration was connected to their electric charge and not to their mass.

The Sun emits faster and slower gusts of charged particles called the solar wind. Since the Sun rotates, these gusts — the fast wind — reach Earth periodically. Changes in these gusts cause the extent of the region of cold ionized gas around Earth — the plasmasphere — to shrink. Data from the Van Allen Probes showed that such changes in the plasmasphere fluctuated at the same rate as the solar rotation — every 27 days.

Though the mission has ended, scientists will use data from the Van Allen Probes for years to come. See the latest Van Allen Probes science at nasa.gov/vanallen.

(TAGS VIA SKELETEEN-OFFICIAL)

In other words, while people have been busy gawking about Mars being our next livable habitat, NASA has been ignoring research that shows long term effects of things like global warming and climate change for decades,.

WHEN it was first measured in the 1800s, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was an enormous four times bigger than the Earth.

Then, when the space probe Voyager 2 hurtled past in 1979, it was seen to be a little more than twice the size of our planet.

Now under the prying eye of NASA’s Juno probe, it’s barely 30 per cent bigger than us.

“Nothing lasts forever,” Juno mission planetary scientist Glenn Orton told Business Insider.

The famous black hole photo is a radio photo, showing the energized accretion disk right where it falls into the black hole’s event horizon and we can’t see it anymore. The bigger photo is an x-ray photo of the whole area in the center of that galaxy. What it shows really nicely is the 1,000 light year long beam of x-rays coming out if the black hole as it spins. It’s so cool!

The Surface of the Sun, taken yesterday (15 feb), in amazing detail by Belgian photographer Dominique Dierick by belgiangeneral

Today, we’re expressing gratitude for the opportunity to rove on Mars (#ThanksOppy) as we mark the completion of a successful mission that exceeded our expectations.  

Our Opportunity Rover’s last communication with Earth was received on June 10, 2018, as a planet-wide dust storm blanketed the solar-powered rover’s location on the western rim of Perseverance Valley, eventually blocking out so much sunlight that the rover could no longer charge its batteries. Although the skies over Perseverance cleared, the rover did not respond to a final communication attempt on Feb. 12, 2019.

As the rover’s mission comes to an end, here are a few things to know about its opportunity to explore the Red Planet.

90 days turned into 15 years!

Opportunity launched on July 7, 2003 and landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004 for a planned mission of 90 Martian days, which is equivalent to 92.4 Earth days. While we did not expect the golf-cart-sized rover to survive through a Martian winter, Opportunity defied all odds as a 90-day mission turned into 15 years!

The Opportunity caught its own silhouette in this late-afternoon image taken in March 2014 by the rover’s rear hazard avoidance camera. This camera is mounted low on the rover and has a wide-angle lens.

Opportunity Set  Out-Of-This-World Records

Opportunity’s achievements, including confirmation water once flowed on Mars. Opportunity was, by far, the longest-lasting lander on Mars. Besides endurance, the six-wheeled rover set a roaming record of 28 miles.

This chart illustrates comparisons among the distances driven by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of Earth’s moon and Mars. Opportunity holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers) of driving on Mars.

It’s Just Like Having a Geologist on Mars

Opportunity was created to be the mechanical equivalent of a geologist walking from place to place on the Red Planet. Its mast-mounted cameras are 5 feet high and provided 360-degree two-eyed, human-like views of the terrain. The robotic arm moved like a human arm with an elbow and wrist, and can place instruments directly up against rock and soil targets of interest. The mechanical “hand” of the arm holds a microscopic camera that served the same purpose as a geologist’s handheld magnifying lens.

There’s Lots to See on Mars

After an airbag-protected landing craft settled onto the Red Planet’s surface and opened, Opportunity rolled out to take panoramic images. These images gave scientists the information they need to select promising geological targets that tell part of the story of water in Mars’ past. Since landing in 2004, Opportunity has captured more than 200,000 images. Take a look in this photo gallery.

From its perch high on a ridge, the Opportunity rover recorded this image on March 31, 2016 of a Martian dust devil twisting through the valley below. The view looks back at the rover’s tracks leading up the north-facing slope of “Knudsen Ridge,” which forms part of the southern edge of “Marathon Valley

There Was Once Water on Mars?!

Among the mission’s scientific goals was to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils for clues to past water activity on Mars. In its time on the Red Planet, Opportunity discovered small spheres of the mineral hematite, which typically forms in water. In addition to these spheres that a scientist nicknamed “blueberries,” the rover also found signs of liquid water flowing across the surface in the past: brightly colored veins of the mineral gypsum in rocks, for instance, which indicated water flowing through underground fractures.

The small spheres on the Martian surface in this close-up image are near Fram Crater, visited by the Opportunity rover in April 2004.

For more about Opportunity’s adventures and discoveries, see: https://go.nasa.gov/ThanksOppy.

POUR ONE OUT FOR COMRADE OPPORTUNITY 

Did you know that our planet is surrounded by giant, donut-shaped clouds of radiation?

Here’s what you need to know.

1. The radiation belts are a side effect of Earth’s magnetic field

The Van Allen radiation belts exist because fast-moving charged particles get trapped inside Earth’s natural magnetic field, forming two concentric donut-shaped clouds of radiation. Other planets with global magnetic fields, like Jupiter, also have radiation belts.

2. The radiation belts were one of our first Space Age discoveries

Earth’s radiation belts were first identified in 1958 by Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite. The inner belt, composed predominantly of protons, and the outer belt, mostly electrons, would come to be named the Van Allen Belts, after James Van Allen, the scientist who led the charge designing the instruments and studying the radiation data from Explorer 1.

3. The Van Allen Probes have spent six years exploring the radiation belts

In 2012, we launched the twin Van Allen Probes to study the radiation belts. Over the past six years, these spacecraft have orbited in and out of the belts, providing brand-new data about how the radiation belts shift and change in response to solar activity and other factors.

4. Surprise! Sometimes there are three radiation belts

Shortly after launch, the Van Allen Probes detected a previously-unknown third radiation belt, created by a bout of strong solar activity. All the extra energy directed towards Earth meant that some particles trapped in our planet’s magnetic field were swept out into the usually relatively empty region between the two Van Allen Belts, creating an additional radiation belt.

5. Swan song for the Van Allen Probes

Originally designed for a two-year mission, the Van Allen Probes have spent more than six years collecting data in the harsh radiation environment of the Van Allen Belts. In spring 2019, we’re changing their orbit to bring the perigee — the part of the orbit where the spacecraft are closest to Earth — about 190 miles lower. This ensures that the spacecraft will eventually burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, instead of orbiting forever and becoming space junk.

Because the Van Allen Probes have proven to be so hardy, they’ll continue collecting data throughout the final months of the mission until they run out of fuel. As they skim through the outer reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, scientists and engineers will also learn more about how atmospheric oxygen can degrade satellite measurements — information that can help build better satellites in the future.

SU-35 speed-sketch/study, but with a twist of course!

     Falcon 9 serial number 1021 has been to space twice. During her first flight on April 8, 2016, she launched over three tons of cargo to the International Space Station during the CRS-8 mission. 8 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff, the entire aerospace community collectively held their breath as she became the first rocket to successfully land at sea on a ship. This was arguably the greatest milestone in rocketry since the development of the Space Shuttle, the world’s first reusable launch vehicle. You can read my article about 1021′s first flight by clicking here, or watch my video about it by clicking here.

snake