More "Fallout" -- From This Intense, New "Solar Max" Cycle: NEOWISE Will Have To Burn In, Sometime In 2024-25...

The space 'scope did a decade's worth of fine work. But now, without coolant, and without any adequate means to shield itself from the onslaught of the CMEs burping off the Sun in this Solar Max cycle (as we've last mentioned here). . . NASA is planning for a safe de-orbit of the craft, to let it burn up completely, and/or have a few smaller pieces fall into the deep central Pacific Ocean.

The likely time-line is mid to late 2024, or early 2025. . . but the over-riding goal is to not have it fall on any houses(!). . . .

Of course, it won't -- but the NEOWISE team has very limited options to maneuver it, other than by increasing its drag a bit (rotating it out to an odd angle, relative to the direction of travel), and/or by burning its last bit of fuel to speed it up or slow it down.

So. . . it will be a while, but this too -- is a concrete effect of very strong Solar activity -- we have to de-commission space 'scopes/crafts -- with safety as a prime objective:

. . .NASA’s NEOWISE has had a busy decade. Since its reactivated mission began on Dec. 13, 2013, the space telescope has discovered a once-in-a-lifetime comet, observed more than 3,000 near-Earth objects, bolstered international planetary defense strategies, and supported another NASA mission’s rendezvous with a distant asteroid. And that’s just a partial list of accomplishments.

But all good things must come to an end: Solar activity is causing NEOWISE – short for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer – to fall out of orbit. By early 2025, the spacecraft is expected to drop low enough into Earth’s atmosphere that it will become unusable. Eventually, it will reenter our atmosphere, entirely burning up.

About every 11 years, the Sun experiences a cycle of increased activity that peaks during a period called solar maximum. Explosive events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, become more frequent and heat up our planet’s atmosphere, causing it to expand. Atmospheric gases increase drag on satellites orbiting Earth, slowing them down. With the Sun currently approaching its next maximum, NEOWISE will no longer be able to maintain its orbit above our atmosphere. . . .

Now you know -- and I will hit my personal solar max event, by later on Thursday, of this week -- in the Sonoran desert (for about four weeks). . . yup, with whole fam gathering -- can't wait!

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