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Looking at prospects for eclipse day and totality.

Have you picked out your site to observe the eclipse on April 8th? Next Monday, the shadow of the Moon crosses Mexico, the contiguous United States from Texas to Maine, and the Canadian Maritimes for the last time for this generation. And while over 30 million people live in the path of totality, millions more live within an easy day drive of the path. I’m expecting that many folks will decide to make a three-day weekend of it, and eclipse travel traffic will really pick up this coming Saturday, April 6th.

We’ve written previously on observing and safety in our big guide to the April 8th total solar eclipse, and the science campaigns underway to meet the eclipse.

So, what can we expect on the big day? While eclipses and celestial mechanics are a definite, not all eclipses are the same, as key variables both cosmic and terrestrial play a role in the experience.

Watching the Weather

Of course, the major question mark that everyone is watching is weather and cloud cover. As the day nears, weather models begin to merge and agree. While climate models typically favor clear skies in early April for the southwest portion of the track and clouds to the northeast, predictions now actually show a reverse trend for the afternoon of the 8th. This means clear skies for New England, and clouds (and perhaps, even afternoon storm and tornado warnings) to the south towards Texas. Keep in mind, a Nor’easter is also inbound for New England late this week… we actually opted to head to northern Maine early for this very reason. Good sites to check include Pivotal Weather, and NOAA’s cloud cover forecast. On eclipse day, we’re watching the GOES-East live view page on North America to see what’s actually occurring.

Cloud cover prospects of April 8th, versus the eclipse path. Credit: Pivotal Weather.

It’s always tough to know if the Sun will be obscured by a cloud for the scant few minutes of totality days prior. Remember: you don’t need a pristine clear sky for a solar eclipse… just a good view of the Sun and Moon. April over North America can be a fickle month.

Sometimes, seeing the eclipsed Sun through thick fast-moving clouds can provide a memorable view. This was the case for us in 2017 when we caught the eclipse from PARI, North Carolina in the Smoky Mountains.

Solar Activity

We’re now headed towards the peak of Solar Cycle No. 25, so expect the Sun to be active, come eclipse day. Sunspots rotating into view now will also be visible during the partial phases of the eclipse leading up to totality. The Sun is uncharacteristically quiet this week, but we do have a few sunspots rotating into view to add a photogenic look to the Sun.

Sunspot activity rotating into view as of April 3rd. NASA/ESA/SOHO The Corona’s Appearance

Did you know: long-time eclipse chasers can actually identify which eclipse a given photo is from… just from the appearance of the corona. Predictive Science Incorporated actually runs a forecast for the appearance of the corona come eclipse day, and it looks like we’re in for a memorable one:

The latest prediction for the appearance of the solar corona on eclipse day. Credit: Predictive Science Inc.

Catching the International Space Station transiting the partially eclipsed Sun can be a memorable observation. ISS Transit Finder is a good site to predict transits of the station for a given location.

A transit of the ISS captured during the 2015 partial solar eclipse. Credit: Thierry Legault. Last Minute Plans

Mobility is key, come eclipse day. Plan your eclipse expedition like a heist, complete with a plan to go mobile and an escape route. Tales of totality are replete with stories of eclipse chasers driving down back roads and even taking off running on foot to stay ahead of incoming clouds.

Skywatching During Totality

Though totality is fleeting, do take about half a minute to stargaze. Jupiter and Venus will be visible, along with several +1st magnitude stars. Comet 12P Pons-Brooks is also at +4.5 magnitude in the constellation Aries, 25 degrees from the Sun. A well-placed outburst from this tempestuous comet could always vault it into binocular or even naked eye visibility.

Skywatching during totality. Credit: Stellarium. Animal Activity During Totality

Finally, keep an eye (and ear) out for any anomalous phenomena during totality. Temperatures may drop, roosters may crow, and nocturnal creatures may briefly emerge, fooled by the false twilight. In 2017, we faced a sudden onslaught of mosquitoes as midday darkness descended.

If you have the means, do make sure you’re in the path of totality come eclipse day. This one has a special significance for us, as it’s the only total solar eclipse that passes over our hometown of Mapleton, Maine in our lifetimes.

Good luck, safe travels to totality, and clear skies!

The post Inside a Week to Totality: Weather Prospects, Solar Activity and More appeared first on Universe Today.

The edge of the Solar System is defined by the heliosphere and its heliopause. The heliopause marks the region where the interstellar medium stops the outgoing solar wind. But only two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, have ever travelled to the heliopause. As a result, scientists are uncertain about the heliopause’s extent and its other properties.

Some scientists are keen to learn more about this region and are developing a mission concept to explore it.

The heliosphere plays a critical role in the Solar System. The Sun’s heliosphere is a shield against incoming galactic cosmic radiation, like that from powerful supernovae. The heliopause marks the extent of the heliosphere’s protective power. Beyond it, galactic cosmic radiation is unimpeded.

“We want to know how the heliosphere protects astronauts and life in general from harmful galactic radiation, but that is difficult to do when we still don’t even know the shape of our shield.”

Marc Kornbleuth, Boston University

There’s no overall understanding of the shape and extent of the heliosphere and heliopause. A new study wants to address that by designing a probe that would travel beyond this region to find the necessary answers.

The study is “Complementary Interstellar Detections from the Heliotail,” published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences. The lead author is Sarah Spitzer, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan.

“Without such a mission, we are like goldfish trying to understand the fishbowl from the inside,” said Spitzer.

The heliopause protects everything inside it from galactic cosmic radiation, including our astronauts who leave the Earth’s protective magnetosphere. “We want to know how the heliosphere protects astronauts and life in general from harmful galactic radiation, but that is difficult to do when we still don’t even know the shape of our shield,” said Marc Kornbleuth, a research scientist at Boston University and co-author of the study.

According to simulations, this image shows three models of what the heliosphere could look like. Left: a comet-like shape. Middle: The Croissant model. Right: A different, more streamlined comet-like shape. Image Credits are listed in the image.

The heliosphere’s shape comes from the interaction between the Sun’s solar wind and the local interstellar medium (LISM.) The LISM is made of plasma, dust, and neutral particles. Two clouds in the LISM dominate our region of space: the Local Interstellar Cloud and the G-Cloud, home of the Alpha Centauri system. Two other clouds, the AQL Cloud and the Blue Cloud, are nearby. The clouds are regions where the LISM is denser.

The problem scientists face is that we can’t learn much more about the heliosphere’s shape and its relation to the LISM and its clouds without getting outside the heliosphere. While Voyager 1 and 2 have wildly exceeded the most feverish expectations by lasting this long and leaving the heliosphere, they’re near the end. Their instruments don’t function as they used to, and even then, those spacecraft were built in the 1970s. It goes without saying that technology has advanced since then.

What we need is a purpose-built spacecraft that can leave the heliosphere when and where we want it to. Of course, that’s an extremely long journey, and it would fulfill other scientific objectives along the way. But unlike the Voyager probes, which were sent to study the planets and only reached the LISM through sheer stubbornness, this probe would primarily be designed to explore the heliopause.

This illustration shows the position of NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes outside of the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun that extends well past the orbit of Pluto. Voyager 1 exited the heliosphere in August 2012. Voyager 2 exited at a different location in November 2018. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“A future interstellar probe mission will be our first opportunity to really see our heliosphere, our home, from the outside, and to better understand its place in the local interstellar medium,” said lead author Spitzer.

The idea has been around for a while. In 2021, scientists developed a mission concept for such a probe. They called it the Interstellar Probe and said it would embark on a 50-year-long journey into the LISM. They said it would “… provide the first real vantage point of our life-bearing system from the outside.” It could launch in 2036 and travel at a peak speed of 7 AU per year. That’s about one billion km per year.

The cover page from the 2021 proposal for a mission to leave the heliosphere. Image Credit: Interstellar Probe/JHUAPL

The exit point is a critical difference between the 2021 proposal and this one. The 2021 proposal stated that the probe should “Capture a side view of the heliopause to characterize shape, preferably near 45° off of the heliopause nose direction at (7°N, 252°E) in Earth ecliptic coordinates.”

The authors of this new paper say that the Interstellar Probe team got the exit point wrong. “However, this report assumes that a probe trajectory near 45 degrees off the nose of the heliotail, or the front of the Sun’s directional motion, is optimal,” they write. Spitzer and her colleagues examined the issue and came to a different conclusion. They investigated six different trajectories for a probe, from noseward to tailward. They concluded that a side view is best.

“If you want to find out how far back your house extends, walking out the front door and taking a picture from the front sidewalk is likely not your best option. The best way is to go out the side door so you can see how long it is from front to back,” said co-author Kornbleuth. This vantage point will give the best scientific results and view of the heliosphere’s shape.

“Understanding the shape of the heliosphere requires an understanding of the heliotail, as the shape is highly dependent upon the heliotail and its LISM interactions,” the authors write in their paper. “The Interstellar Probe mission is an ideal opportunity for measurement either along a trajectory passing through the heliotail, via the flank…”

There’s another compelling reason to follow this trajectory. Researchers think that plasma from the LISM might enter the heliosphere through its tail because of magnetic reconnection. If that’s true, the probe could sample the LISM twice: once inside the heliosphere and once outside of it.

The team also proposed that two probes be sent beyond the heliosphere. One would have a noseward trajectory, and the other would have a heliotailward trajectory. That would “… yield a more complete picture of the shape of the heliosphere and to help us better understand its interactions with the LISM,” they explain in their paper.

Recent research suggests that the Solar System is on a path that will take it out of the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC.) It may already be in contact with four different clouds with different properties. Image Credit: Interstellar Probe/JHUAPL

“This analysis took a lot of persistence. It started small and grew into a great resource for the community,” said study co-author Susan Lepri.

The team behind the proposal says the Interstellar Probe will be a 50-year mission travelling 400 astronomical units. It could potentially travel much further, up to 1,000 astronomical units. According to the researchers, this would give us an unprecedented view of the heliosphere and the LISM.

The post Want to Leave the Solar System? Here’s a Route to Take appeared first on Universe Today.

Like a pilgrim seeking wisdom, NASA’s MSL Curiosity has been working its way up Mt. Sharp, the dominant central feature in Gale Crater. Now, almost 12 years into its mission, the capable rover has reached an interesting feature that could tell them more about Mars and its watery history. It’s called the Gediz Vallis channel.

Gediz Vallis channel appears to have been carved by ancient water. But if that’s the case, it happened billions of years ago. The channel has since filled with rock.

Mt. Sharp’s upper regions are beyond Curiosity’s reach. It’s simply too difficult for the rover to get there. But Nature is playing nice with MSL Curiosity. Rocks have come tumbling down from the mountain, creating a ridge and filling up a channel. Those rocks are within reach, and they could hold clues to Mars’ watery past.

Mars’ ancient history, especially as it concerns surface liquid water, is a gigantic puzzle with lots of pieces. We know there are hydrated minerals on Mars that date back millions of years. We know there are sulphates, which are minerals left behind when water evaporates. We have orbiter images clearly showing river channels and deltas.

Gediz Vallis is a tiny part of Mars, but it could make an important contribution to our understanding of this once warm and wet world.

This image from 2019 shows a proposed route for MSL Curiosity. The rover is about to expire Gediz Vallis Channel. Image Credit: By NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Univ. of Arizona/JHUAPL/MSSS/USGS Astrogeology Science Center – https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA23179_fig1.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78981590

Understanding Gediz Vallis and what it could tell us begins with Mt. Sharp. Mt. Sharp was built up over long periods of geological time by the deposit of sediments into layers. Over time, some of this material was eroded away, presenting us with what we see today. The Gediz Vallis channel formed after all that had happened.

Because the channel has steep walls, scientists say water had to carve it. Wind erosion is ruled out because it creates shallow, wide walls. Sometime after it formed, it was filled with rocky debris. That debris probably came from high up Mt. Sharp, beyond Curiosity’s reach. The rock will give the rover a look at the upper reaches of the mountain that it would otherwise never obtain.

This image shows the debris piles in the Gediz Vallis channel, as seen by MSL Curiosity. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Berkeley

Ashwin Vasavada is the Project scientist for NASA’s Curiosity rover at JPL. “If the channel or the debris pile were formed by liquid water, that’s really interesting,” he said in a press release. “It would mean that fairly late in the story of Mount Sharp – after a long dry period – water came back, and in a big way.”

This agrees with other evidence Curiosity found. Instead of disappearing once and for all, water seems to have come and gone in phases, confounding our attempts to understand Mars’ history.

Gediz Vallis Ridge is the hill-like slope at right in this MSL Curiosity image captured on August 19th, 2023. It took the rover three attempts over three years before it could reach the ridge. It spent 11 days at the ridge and is now working its way to Gediz Vallis Channel. The formation has scientists intrigued because of what it might tell them about the history of water on the Red Planet. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A year ago, the rover ascended the Gediz Vallis ridge, a sprawling debris pile that appears to grow out of the end of the channel, to get a closer look. Since the debris looks like it flows out of the channel, it indicates that both are results of the same geological process.

Even though MSL Curiosity is an engineering marvel, the rover will still need months to study the Gediz Vallis Channel. What it uncovers over the following months could give scientists a lot more detail about the history of Mars’ water.

Recently published research based partly on Curiosity’s data also shows that Mars had episodes of water and that it didn’t all disappear at once. That research showed that the bulk of Mt. Sharp was formed by waterborne sediments and that after that happened, another layer made of windborne sediments formed on top of it. But images of the windborne layer show that the sedimentary rock is deformed by the later presence of water.

This digital elevation model (DEM) provides some context for Curiosity’s journey. Image Credit: Hughes et al. 2022

How Gediz Vallis fits into Mars’ story is unclear. But getting a closer look will start to untangle the planet’s complex history. Was the channel carved by water? If Curiosity can confirm that, then it’s more evidence that Mars had surface water more recently than though. Did water carry the boulders and debris that filled it, or did dry avalanches?

Curiosity needs months to explore the region. Once researchers have had time to digest and interpret the rover’s data, we’ll get more answers.

The post Curiosity has Reached an Ancient Debris Channel That Could Have Been Formed by Water appeared first on Universe Today.

There’s a population of planets that drifts through space untethered to any stars. They’re called rogue planets or free-floating planets (FFPs.) Some FFPs form as loners, never having enjoyed the company of a star. But most are ejected from solar systems somehow, and there are different ways that can happen.

One researcher set out to try to understand the FFP population and how they came to be.

FFPs are also called isolated planetary-mass objects (iPMOs) in scientific literature, but regardless of what name’s being used, they’re the same thing. These planets wander through interstellar space on their own, divorced from any relationship with stars or other planets.

FFPs are mysterious because they’re extremely difficult to detect. But astronomers are getting better at it and are getting better tools for the task. In 2021, astronomers made a determined effort to detect them in Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus and detected 70 of them, possibly many more.

This image shows the locations of 115 potential rogue planets, highlighted with red circles, recently discovered in 2021 by a team of astronomers in a region of the sky occupied by Upper Scorpius and Ophiucus. The exact number of rogue planets found by the team is between 70 and 170, depending on the age assumed for the study region. This image was created assuming an intermediate age, resulting in a number of planet candidates in between the two extremes of the study. Image Credit: ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)

In broad terms there are two ways FFPs can form. They can form like most planets do, in protoplanetary disks around young stars. These planets form by accretion of dust and gas. Or they can form like stars do by collapsing in a cloud of gas and dust unrelated to a star.

For planets that form around stars and are eventually kicked out, there are different ejection mechanisms. They can be ejected by interactions with their stars in a binary star system, they can be ejected by a stellar flyby, or they can be ejected by planet-planet scattering.

In an effort to understand the FFP population better, one researcher examined ejected FFPs. He simulated rogue planets that result from planet-planet interactions and those that come from binary star systems, where interactions with their binary stars eject them. Could there be a way to tell them apart and better understand how these objects come to be?

A new paper titled “On the properties of free-floating planets originating in circumbinary planetary systems” tackled the problem. The author is Gavin Coleman from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London. The paper will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In his paper, Coleman points out that researchers have explored how FFPs form, but there’s more to do. “Numerous works have explored mechanisms to form such objects but have not yet provided predictions on their distributions that could differentiate between formation mechanisms,” he writes.

Coleman focuses on ejected stars rather than stars that formed as rogues. He avoids rogue planets that are a result of interactions with other planets because planet-planet scattering is not as significant as other types of ejections. “It is worth noting that planet-planet scattering around single stars cannot explain the large number of FFPs seen in observations,” Coleman explains.

This artist’s impression shows an example of a rogue planet with the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex visible in the background. Rogue planets have masses comparable to those of the planets in our Solar System but do not orbit a star, instead roaming freely on their own. Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/S. Guisard

Coleman singles out binary star systems and their circumbinary planets in his work. Previous research shows that planets are naturally ejected from circumbinary systems. In his research, Coleman simulated binary star systems and how planets ejected from these systems behave. “We find significant differences between planets ejected through planet-planet interactions and those by the binary stars,” he writes.

Coleman based his simulations on a binary star system named TOI 1338. TOI 1338 has a known circumbinary planet called BEBOP-1. Using a known binary system with a confirmed circumbinary planet provides a solid basis for his simulations. It also allowed him to compare his results with other simulations based on BEBOP-1.

The simulation varied several parameters: the initial disc mass, the binary separation, the strength of the external environment, and the turbulence level in the disc. Those parameters strongly govern the planets that form. Other parameters used only a single value: the combined stellar mass, mass ratio and binary eccentricity. The combined stellar mass of TOI 1338 is about 1.3 solar masses, in line with the average in binary systems of about 1.5 solar masses.

Each simulation ran for 10 million years, long enough for the solar system to take shape.

Coleman found that circumbinary systems produce FFPs efficiently. In the simulations, each binary system ejects an average of between two to seven planets with greater than one Earth mass. For giant planets greater than 100 Earth masses, the number of ejected planets drops to 0.6 planets ejected per system.

This figure from the paper shows the masses of ejected planets. The blue line represents all planets, the red line represents planets with less than one Earth mass, and the yellow line represents huge planets with greater than 100 Earth masses. Image Credit: Coleman 2024.

The simulations also showed that most planets are ejected from their circumbinary disks between 0.4 to 4 million years after the beginning of the simulation. At this age, the circumbinary disk hasn’t been dissipated and blown away.

This figure shows the ejection time for planets of different masses. Most planets that become FFPs are ejected within the first one million years. Image Credit: Coleman 2024.

The most important result might concern the velocity dispersions of FFPs. “As the planets are ejected from the systems, they retain significant excess velocities, between 8–16 km?1. This is much larger than observed velocity dispersions of stars in local star-forming regions,” Coleman explains. So this means that the velocity dispersions of FFPs can be used to tell ejected ones from ones that formed as loners.

The velocity dispersions provide another window into the FFP population. Coleman’s simulations show that the velocity dispersion of FFPs ejected through interactions with binary stars is about three times larger than the dispersion from planets ejected by planet-planet scattering.

This figure shows the excess velocity of the ejected FPP population in the simulations. The colour-coded bar on the right shows the amount of excess velocity. The x-axis shows the pericentre distance because it “gives an approximate location for the final interaction that led to the ejection of the planet,” according to the author. Image Credit: Coleman 2024.

Coleman also found that the level of turbulence in the disk affects planet ejection. The weaker the turbulence is, the more planets are ejected. Turbulence also affects the mass of ejected planets: weaker turbulence ejects less massive planets, where about 96% of ejected planets are less than 100 Earth masses.

This figure from the research shows how the number of ejected planets depends on turbulence in the system. Lower turbulence (blue) ejects more planets than intermediate (red) or strong (yellow) turbulence. The x-axis shows the number of planets ejected per system, and the y-axis shows the cumulative distribution function. Image Credit: Coleman, 2024.

Taken together, the simulations provide a way to observe the FFP population and to determine their origins. “Differences in the distributions of FFP masses, their frequencies, and excess velocities can all indicate whether single stars or circumbinary systems are the fundamental birthplace of FFPs,” Coleman writes in his conclusion.

But the author also acknowledges the drawbacks in his simulations and clarifies what the sims don’t tell us.

“However, whilst this work contains numerous simulations and explores a broad parameter space, it does not constitute a full population of forming circumbinary systems,” Coleman writes in his conclusion. According to Coleman, it’s not feasible with current technology to derive a full population of these systems.

“Should such a population be performed in future work, then comparisons between that population and observed populations would give even more valuable insight into the formation of these intriguing objects,” he explains.

There’s still a lot astronomers don’t know about binary systems and how they form and eject planets. For one thing, models of planet formation are constantly being revised and updated with new information.

We also don’t have a strong idea of how many FFPs there are. Some researchers think there could be trillions of them. The upcoming Nancy Grace Roman space telescope will use gravitational lensing to take a census of exoplanets, including a sample of FFPs with masses as small as Mars’.

In future work, Coleman intends to determine if there are chemical composition differences between FFPs. That would constrain the types of stars they form around and where in their protoplanetary disks they formed. That would require spectroscopic studies of FFPs.

But for now, at least, Coleman has developed an incrementally better way to understand FFPs. Using this data, astronomers can begin to discern where individual FFPs came from and to better understand the population at large.

The post Where Are All These Rogue Planets Coming From? appeared first on Universe Today.

Universe Today has conducted some incredible examinations regarding a plethora of scientific fields, including impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, cosmochemistry, meteorites, and radio astronomy, and how these disciplines can help scientists and the public gain greater insight into searching for life beyond Earth. Here, we will discuss the immersive field of extremophiles with Dr. Ivan Paulino-Lima, who is a Senior Research Investigator at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science and the Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer for Infinite Elements Inc., including why scientists study extremophiles, the benefits and challenges, finding life beyond Earth, and proposed routes for upcoming students. So, why is it so important to study extremophiles?

“The study of extremophiles represents the edge of the human knowledge in terms of the environmental limits where life forms can live, withstand, or preserve their integrity and living potential,” Dr. Paulino-Lima tells Universe Today. “For example, the exploration of the hot springs at Yellowstone led to the discovery of the Taq DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus, which was subsequently used to develop the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Just like the thermophiles, represented by organisms that thrive in hot temperatures, a growing diversity of microorganisms and ecosystems have been found in cold temperatures, extremes of pH, pressure, salinity, radiation, desiccation, and toxic substances.”

The study of extremophiles can be summed up as “life in extreme environments”, or environments that are inhospitable for most of life on Earth, including humans, plants, and animals. Extremophiles have been found to not only survive, but thrive, in the unlikeliest of environments on Earth, including hydrothermal vents, alkaline lakes, acid mine drainage, cosmic rays, sunlight, Mariana Trench, dry environments such as the McMurdo Dry Valley and Atacama Desert, gold mines, and even underneath ice shelves in Antarctica.

Along with the environments noted by Dr. Paulino-Lima, other types of extremophiles include those that can survive without oxygen, high amounts of carbon dioxide, dissolved heavy metals, and sulfur. Therefore, with their wide array of locations, what are some of the benefits and challenges of studying extremophiles?

“The study of extremophiles is often challenging because of their very nature that defies our traditional concepts,” Dr. Paulino-Lima tells Universe Today. “Some anaerobic microorganisms are extremely sensitive to oxygen and require anaerobic chambers and special techniques for their cultivation and routine maintenance. In terms of benefits, some types of extremophiles are very resistant to desiccation and can be preserved in a dry state for many years. Similarly, thermophiles can be preserved at room temperature for a long time since their normal metabolic activity happens at a much higher temperature.”

Finding life in such extreme environments on Earth has helped change the conversation regarding where scientists might find life beyond Earth, including Venus, Mars, Europa, Titan, Enceladus, and even exoplanets. Of these worlds, Europa and Enceladus have gained a lot of attention over the last few decades due to the existence of internal liquid water oceans within these small moons. It is currently hypothesized that hydrothermal vents could exist at the bottoms of these oceans, potentially providing nutrients for life, just like here on Earth. Currently, the NASA Europa Clipper mission is scheduled to be launched to Europa this October and arrive at Jupiter in 2030, with the goal of ascertaining the habitability potential for Europa and its internal ocean. Therefore, what can extremophiles teach us about finding life beyond Earth?

“The study of extremophiles allows us to establish empirical and theoretical limits to life on Earth, Dr. Paulino-Lima tells Universe Today. “With these limits, we can narrow down the search for life beyond Earth and constrain the habitats that Earth-like life could currently inhabit or could have inhabited at some point in the past. During our search for extraterrestrial life, it is very possible that we will come across even more exotic possibilities, known collectively as ‘alternative biochemistries’. For example, a different type of metabolism for carbon-based life has been proposed for Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. However, these possibilities remain theoretical or speculative, and have yet to be demonstrated in a laboratory. The search for life beyond Earth is necessarily guided by established knowledge, but with an open mind. Extremophiles represent the state of the art in terms of our established knowledge for the limits of Earth-like life.”

Aside from their astrobiological implications, extremophiles also present opportunities for use in a myriad of industries, including biotechnology, medical science, food processing, and clothing. For biotechnology, extremophiles that live in extreme heat, cold, salinity, and methane can be used for copying DNA, biofuel production, and biomining. For medical science, extremophiles that live in extreme dryness, radiation, acid, and vacuum can be used for DNA transfer, which is a crucial practice in repairing DNA damage resulting from a myriad of reasons. Therefore, with their myriad of astrobiological and industrial applications, what are some of the most exciting aspects about extremophiles that Dr. Paulino-Lima has studied during his career?

“One of the most exciting aspects of extremophiles that I have studied in my career is the fact that they can withstand the ultimate frontier of tolerance – outer space,” Dr. Paulino-Lima tells Universe Today. “This includes vacuum, extremes of temperature, blasts of radiation coming from the solar wind, cosmic rays, supernovas, all of that combined, and for an extended period. To me it is impossible to be aware of these facts and not to ask whether we are alone in the universe. The detection of a single spore anywhere in the solar system that excludes an Earth origin, or the detection of biosignatures from exoplanets, or even elaborate radio signals with sophisticated patterns coming from other solar systems, will take us to a new era of self-awareness and exploration, which will have a profound impact on the culture and future of our society.”

One of the most well-known extremophiles are tardigrades, also known as water bears, which are known for their extreme resilience in almost any environment, including outer space. These microscopic creatures can suspend their metabolism when under extreme environmental stressors, only to later reanimate without detrimental health effects. They have been observed to survive under any type of conditions, including starvation, freezing, boiling, extreme heat, and vacuum.

Image of a tardigrade, which is a microscopic species and one of the most well-known extremophiles, having been observed to survive some of the most extreme environments, including outer space. (Credit: Katexic Publications, unaltered, CC2.0)

Along with the myriad of extremophile types and the locations where they are found, studying extremophiles are equally accomplished by a myriad of scientific disciplines, including microbiologists and astrobiologists, who conduct field studies and collect samples to be examined and analyzed back in homebase laboratories. Through this, scientists learn the complex processes that enable extremophiles to survive in such harsh environments, all the way down to the organisms’ genetic material. Along with laboratory experiments and tests, scientists who study extremophiles collaborate with other disciplines, including organic geochemistry, biochemistry, geology, and stratigraphy, just to name a few. Therefore, what advice does Dr. Paulino-Lima have for upcoming students who wish to pursue studying extremophiles?

“Our society is based on all kinds of information,” Dr. Paulino-Lima tells Universe Today. “The trick is to select what can be turned into knowledge, what can lead to a path. Be wise to separate knowledge from mere information. Attend conferences, organize meetings, organize your time, and make connections. The best opportunities may be the ones you are not thinking of or have never imagined. My career would never be the same without all the answers and feedback that turned into the stepstones of my professional development. I would never have known if I had not asked. I will be forever grateful to everyone who played a role and helped shape my trajectory.”

As noted, the study of extremophiles comes from collaboration with other researchers and scientific disciplines. For example, Dr. Paulino-Lima and a member of his PhD committee, Dr. Lynn Rothschild (who was previously one of his primary publication references), have worked together on a myriad of projects at NASA Ames Research Center, including a satellite with biological experiments and a database designed to conduct a method to remotely identify extraterrestrial life. Additionally, he has worked with Dr. Jesica Urbina, who is currently the CEO at Infinite Elements Inc., on an innovative research project, as well.

The study of extremophiles is a multidisciplinary and collaborative effort, encompassing field work and laboratory experiments in hopes of further identifying where and how we can find life, both on Earth and beyond. It is through these efforts that scientists work to answer some of the most difficult questions throughout human history, including how did we get here and are we alone? As the study of extremophiles continues to grow and evolve with new methods and discoveries, the number of individuals involved in this incredible and unique field of study will undoubtedly grow and evolve along with it.

“Many people may feel discouraged to pursue a career in biological sciences because they feel unattracted by the tedious routine of laboratory experiments,” Dr. Paulino-Lima tells Universe Today. “I imagine this is especially true for the study of extremophiles. However, this is only one aspect of the scientific method. A large part comes from reading and staying up to date with the newest developments in a particular field. In a time where all biological information is digitized, the development of coding skills is fundamental for everyone who wants to study extremophiles from a bioinformatics perspective. For those who have an entrepreneur spirit, this is a vast area filled with exciting opportunities. Let your knowledge guide your imagination towards a better and more sustainable future.”

How will extremophiles help us better understand our place in the universe in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The post Extremophiles: Why study them? What can they teach us about finding life beyond Earth? appeared first on Universe Today.

Neutron stars, the remains of massive stars that have imploded and gone supernova at the end of their life, can still create massive flares. These incredible bursts of energy release X-rays that propagate through space. It is a complex process to simulate but astronomers have turned to a supercomputer to help. Modelling the twisting magnetic fields, the interaction with gas and dust, the surface of flaring neutron stars has been revealed in incredible 3D.

Throughout a stars life, the inward force of gravity is balanced by the outward pushing thermonuclear force. Stars like our Sun will experience the thermonuclear force overcoming the force of gravity. The force of gravity wins over the thermonuclear force in more massive stars as the star’s core collapses, leading to a rebound and supernova explosion. The result is a super dense core where the space between the protons and neutrons are eradicated during collapse. The result, is a great big neutron a few kilometres across.

A composite image of the remnant of supernova 1181. A spherical bright nebula sits in the middle surrounded by a field of white dotted stars. Within the nebula several rays point out like fireworks from a central star. G. Ferrand and J. English (U. of Manitoba), NASA/Chandra/WISE, ESA/XMM, MDM/R.Fessen (Dartmouth College), Pan-STARRS

It is quite possible for neutrons stars to have a companion star and, as the stars orbit, the neutron star strips material off its companion. The material will build up on the neutron star, become compressed under the force of gravity which leads to a thermonuclear explosion and a release of X-rays. Understanding this X-ray release and how it spreads across the neutron star’s surface can tell us a lot about the neutron star and its composition. 

A team of astrophysicists from the State University of New York and the University of California have been attempting to simulate the X-ray bursts in 2D and 3D models. One of the challenges in achieving this is the immense amount of computing power required to achieve the task. To overcome this, the team used the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Summit super computer to analyse and compare models. 

The Summit supercomputer is well suited to the task. Combining high-performance CPU and an accelerated graphics processing unit the team were able to run the simulations. By delegating the task of running the simulations to the graphics processing unit the central processing unit was freed up to compare the models. The researchers were able to restrict the size of the source so that they could calculate the neutron star radius. Typically a neutron star has a mass of up to 2 times the mass of the Sun even though they are usually up to 12km across. Studying the flares means the mass and radius of a neutron star can be deduced due to the way matter behaves under extreme conditions. 

The generated models in 3D were informed from previous 2D models. Using models under different star surface temperature and rotation rate, the flames propagation was explored. the 2D study showed that different physical conditions led to a different rate of flame spread. The 3D simulations looked at the evolution of a flare across the surface of a neutron star with a surface temperature several million times more than the Sun and a rotation rate of 1,000 hertz or 1,000 revolution per second. In these simulations the flame does not remain circular and the resultant ash was used to learn how quickly the burning progressed. 

The results revealed that the 2D model burning was slightly faster than the 3D model but both were similar. If more complex interactions are required such as turbulence then the 3D model will be required. Exciting times are ahead for the time as they continue to strive to be able to model the whole flame spread across the entire star. 

Source : Scientists use Summit supercomputer to explore exotic stellar phenomena

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You might remember the SLIM lunar lander that managed to land upside-down! The probe from the Japanese Space Agency has survived its second night on the Moon and returns a new photograph. Despite the solar panels pointing away from the Sun during the day it was still able to capture the image and transmit to Earth. All that while surviving the harsh -130C lunar night. 

The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) sent SLIM (the Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon) back in January but the lightweight spacecraft landed completely wrong. Despite the wonky landing, SLIM touching down in one piece made Japan the fifth nation to land on the surface without crashing. The biggest problem for the mission was the solar panels pointing the wrong way. To the surprise of JAXA though they were able to announce the probe awoke for a second night. 

The lander’s purpose was to research and test the pinpoint landing technology for future lunar missions. The hope is that it will pave the way for future missions to land where we want them to rather than where it is safest and easy to land. This will have benefits for landing on the Moon and on other astronomical bodies. 

The black and white image sent back revealed the rocky surface and a lunar crater. It was released on the SLIM official social media platform with the accompanying text ‘Since the Sun was still high in the sky and the equipment was still hot, we recorded images of the usual scenery with the navigational camera, among other activities for a short period of time.’

The post came shortly after an American unscrewed lander known as Odysseus had failed to wake. The craft became the first American spacecraft to land on the lunar surface since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. It also became the first privately funded probe to land safely on the Moon’s surface. In a similar landing to SLIM, Odysseus (which came in at just over 4 metres tall) also managed to topple over onto its side following an approach that was too fast. The manufacturers of the Odysseus spacecraft, Intuitive Machines based in Houston, had hoped that it might awake just like SLIM but sadly this does not seem to have occurred. 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises from its Florida launch pad to send Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus moon lander spaceward. (NASA via YouTube)

Aside from testing the precision landing technology, SLIM also aims to study part of the Moon’s mantle which it is thought was accessible at the landing site. After its landing, it switched off to save power but the incoming sunlight managed to switch it back on again to enable a couple of days to scientific observations. Given that the probe was not designed to survive the lunar nights, it was a fabulous surprise and bonus for the team.

Source : Japan moon probe survives second lunar night

The post Against all Odds. Japan’s SLIM Lander Survived a Second Lunar Night Upside Down appeared first on Universe Today.

Universe Today has investigated the significance of studying impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, cosmochemistry, and meteorites, and how these scientific fields contribute to researchers and the public gain greater insight into our place in the universe and finding life beyond Earth. Here, will discuss the field of radio astronomy with Dr. Wael Farah, who is a research scientist at the SETI Institute, about how radio astronomy teaches us about the myriad of celestial objects that populate our universe, along with the benefits and challenges, finding life beyond Earth, and how upcoming students can pursue studying radio astronomy. But what is radio astronomy and why is it so important to study?

“Radio astronomy is a branch of astrophysics dedicated to studying the universe at radio wavelengths, which represent the lowest energy form of the electromagnetic spectrum,” Dr. Farah tells Universe Today. “Originating in the late 1930s, radio astronomy transformed astronomers’ perceptions of the cosmos. Before the serendipitous discovery of radio emissions from the Milky Way, scientists believed that radio emissions from space, attributed to stars and other hot bodies, could only be produced by the “black body” law (or Planck’s law), which accurately predicted that radio emissions should be very weak and undetectable from Earth. However, the discovery of an entirely new emission process, synchrotron radiation, provided an unprecedented lens to view the cosmos through. This opened up a whole new world of discoveries.”

As its name implies, radio astronomy uses radio telescopes to listen to the sounds of the universe, and while radio astronomy is often interpreted as just listening for aliens (which is one branch), most of radio astronomy consists of listening to radio waves from other celestial sources, some of which are millions of light-years from Earth, including gas giant planets, gas clouds, pulsars, the birth and death of stars, galaxy formation and evolution, and the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.

The size of radio telescopes range between small, homemade antennas to massive dishes that collect radio waves from space and use computers to boost (also known as “amplify”) the radio signals, followed by using computer programs to translate the signal into easy-to-understand data. Astronomers then use this data to conduct studies on the aforementioned celestial objects, thus increasing our understanding of the universe. But even with all the science being accomplished and the required technology, what are some of the benefits and challenges of study radio astronomy?

“Radio astronomy is an inherently interdisciplinary field, intersecting science, engineering, and computing, which presents both benefits and challenges,” Dr. Farah tells Universe Today. “Speaking of challenges, there’s no shortage of them! Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) poses a significant challenge for radio astronomers. Almost every communication device, from radios and cell phones to satellites and WiFi routers, operates within the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. These devices interfere with radio telescopes and can cause substantial damage to equipment and data. We’re constantly endeavoring to modify our hardware and software to adapt to, or even mitigate, this increasingly detrimental environment.”

Radio astronomy is often described as “observing the invisible universe”, and one example is studying magnetic fields around planets, stars, and even galaxies. This is accomplished through measuring what’s known as synchrotron radiation, which are radio waves created by magnetic fields, and have been identified around black holes, allowing researchers to learn more about the black hole’s behavior and characteristics, including how they digest stars. Within our own solar system, radio astronomy can be used to study the magnetic fields comets, the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, and even our Sun. This is because radio telescopes “see” the universe differently than optical telescopes, or visible light. Other examples include quasars, which look like normal stars but can emit powerful radio bursts that radio astronomers collect to learn more about them, including their formation and evolution. But with all these fascinating celestial objects to study, what are some of the most exciting aspects of radio astronomy that Dr. Farah has studied during his career?

Artist’s illustration of a red dwarf star’s magnetic field. (Credit: Dana Berry; (NRAO/AUI/NSF))

“One of my research interests is the study of Fast Radio Bursts (or FRBs in short),” Dr. Farah tells Universe Today. “FRBs are brief but incredibly intense bursts of radio waves, seemingly originating from sources halfway across the universe. Despite their enigmatic nature, our leading theories suggest that FRBs may be linked to highly magnetized neutron stars known as magnetars. FRBs hold the imprint of the medium they travel through, offering a unique window into the universe. I am also interested in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (or SETI). Radio astronomy is a promising avenue for discovering life beyond our planet, seeking to address one of humanity’s most profound and enduring questions: ‘are we alone in the universe?’.”

Dr. Farah has frequently spoken about the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in northern California, whose mission is to continue SETI research and provides researchers the opportunity to search the heavens for radio signals from other intelligent civilizations seven days a week. The ATA was heavily-funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, for which the array is named after, and began operations in 2007.

One of the most famous radio telescopes in the world was the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which boasted a massive dish that measured 305-meters (1000-feet) in diameter, and contributed to radio astronomy, radar astronomy, and the Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) during its service between 1963 and 2020. Unfortunately, Arecibo encountered funding lapses in the early 2000s as NASA put an emphasis on newer radio telescopes, and the disk sustained damage during Hurricane Maria in 2017. In December 2020, support cables that hoisted the instrument platform snapped, causing the platform to crash into the dish. After that, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced plans to not rebuild the site, but instead have an educational facility put at the location.

The Arecibo Observatory was featured in the film Contact, which Jodie Foster was using to listen for signals from extraterrestrials. While only featured in the beginning of the film, it nonetheless underscored the importance of Arecibo’s role in conducting vital scientific research to help us better understand our place in the universe. The radio observatory that served as the location for Jodie Foster identifying the radio signal from Vega occurred at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, New Mexico, which is currently operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) with funding from the NSF and is actively being used for SETI research. Therefore, what can radio astronomy teach us about finding life beyond Earth?

Image of radio telescopes at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, located in Socorro, New Mexico. (Credit: National Radio Astronomy Observatory)

“Technosignatures, which are indicators of non-anthropogenic technology, serve as one proxy for detecting intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations,” Dr. Farah tells Universe Today. “As an emerging civilization ourselves, humans have utilized radio waves for various purposes like communication services, radar, and sensing. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that an extraterrestrial civilization would also develop and utilize radio technology, and perhaps even broadcast their existence across the galaxy. Unlike other forms of light that could carry the evidence of life beyond our solar system, radio waves can propagate unobscured by interstellar gas and dust, making them easily detectable across vast distances.”

There are currently more than 100 operational radio telescopes around the world and on all seven continents, with a few space-based radio telescopes, as well. These include the aforementioned VLA but also includes the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China, which surpassed Arecibo as the world’s largest filled-aperture radio telescope, which conducts studies on pulsars, interstellar molecules, and SETI research. Given the myriad of science and celestial objects that radio astronomy studies, success requires constant collaboration from scientists across the globe and equally from a myriad of backgrounds, including astronomy, physics, astrophysics, chemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, geology, and geophysics. Therefore, what advice does Dr. Farah offer upcoming students who wish to pursue studying radio astronomy?

“Radio astronomy is deeply rooted in physics, mathematics, and computer science,” Dr. Farah tells Universe Today. “Having a solid understanding of these subjects, as they form the basis of many concepts in radio astronomy, can be extremely helpful when studying the field. I would also encourage upcoming students to try and gain research experience by seeking out opportunities to participate in research projects, internships, or summer projects. Radio observatories often offer positions like telescope operators that can be equally fulfilling and rewarding. Reaching out to potential mentors for projects that one might find intriguing is also very crucial; sometimes a short but concise email that shows passion and interest can go a long way! Radio astronomy is a fascinating field, you can never go wrong!”

As technology continues to help advance our knowledge of the universe, radio astronomy will be at the forefront of gaining that knowledge, and possibly even be responsible for receiving a radio signal from an extraterrestrial civilization from somewhere in the cosmos. This incredible field has allowed thousands of scientists from all over the world to gain new insights about black holes, galaxies, quasars, and even about our Sun and the planets with our solar system. Given the more than 100 active radio telescopes across all seven continents, the future is bright for radio astronomy and the cutting-edge science it can achieve.

“Despite being a relatively young field, radio astronomy has already made significant contributions to astronomy and science, greatly advancing our understanding of the universe,” Dr. Farah tells Universe Today. “This impact has been recognized at the highest levels. The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 1974 for pioneering techniques in radio astrophysics and the discovery of pulsars. In 1978, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background and evidence supporting the Big Bang theory. Additionally, in 1993, another Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the discovery of binary pulsar systems, which enabled novel methods for studying gravitation. As major discoveries continue to unfold, I anticipate the possibility of another few Nobel Prizes in the coming years. This underscores the scientific richness of the field.”

How will radio astronomy help us better understand our place in the universe in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The post Radio Astronomy: Why study it? What can it teach us about finding life beyond Earth? appeared first on Universe Today.

Studying exoplanets is made more difficult by the light from the host star. Coronagraphs are devices that block out the star light and both JWST and Nancy Grace Roman Telescope are equipped with them. Current coronagraphs are not quite capable of seeing other Earths but work is underway to push the limits of technology and even science for a new, more advanced device. A new paper explores the quantum techniques that may one day allow us to make such observations. 

Coronagraphs are devices that attach to telescopes and were originally designed to study the corona of the Sun. The corona is the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere but is usually hidden from view from the bright light emitted from the photosphere (the visible layer). The device has also been modified to hide the light from stars to study faint objects in their vicinity. These stellar coronagraphs are often employed to hunt for extrasolar planets and the disks out of which they form. 

The 5,000th comet discovered with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft is noted by a small white box in the upper left portion of this image. A zoomed-in inset shows the comet as a faint dot between the white vertical lines. The image was taken on March 25, 2024, by SOHO’s Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO), which uses a disk to block the bright Sun and reveal faint features around it. Credit: NASA/ESA/SOHO

There are a number of techniques to identify extrasolar planets but direct imaging is one of the chief ways to learn about their nature. The challenge, which is met by the stellar coronagraph, is the brightness of the star and the relative faintness of the planet and proximity to the star. Coronagraphs can increase the ratio between noise (in this instance the light from the star) and the signal from the exoplanet by optically removing the light from the star. In a paper from authors Nico Deshler, Sebastian Haffert and Amit Ashok from the University of Arizona they explore whether coronagraphs are the best method for hunting exoplanets. 

Studying exoplanets is important to help us to learn about planetary formation, atmospheric sciences and even perhaps, the origins of life. The team approached their analysis of coronagraphic techniques by considering first the detection step and then the localisation task in exoplanets research. They first undertook a hypothesis test to see if it was likely an exoplanet existed. If the prediction played out and an exoplanet was found to exist then the team attempted to estimate its position. Turning to quantum limits for telescopic resolution, they used quantum mechanics to produced a limit of the position of the exoplanet. 

The team then compared classical direct imaging coronagraphs to the quantum predictions above. It should be noted that this research was focussing on the capability of  present coronagraphs to detect Earth-like exoplanets using quantum theory. The research concludes that the complete rejection of a telescopes optical mode is key to achieving the best possible detection techniques. Host star and planet separations that are so close as to be below the diffraction limit of the telescopes are thought to be abundant across the universe. It is therefore necessary that quantum-optimal coronagraphs are developed and it is encouraging that this research finds they will yield some impressive results. 

Source : Achieving Quantum Limits of Exoplanet Detection and Localization

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Can binary black holes, two black holes orbiting each other, influence their respective behaviors? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as a team of more than two dozen international researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) investigated how a smaller black hole orbiting a supermassive black hole could alter the outbursts of the energy being emitted by the latter, essentially giving it “hiccups”. This study holds the potential to help astronomers better understand the behavior of binary black holes while producing new methods in finding more binary black holes throughout the cosmos.

“We thought we knew a lot about black holes, but this is telling us there are a lot more things they can do,” said Dr. Dheeraj “DJ” Pasham, who is a research scientist in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and lead author of the study. “We think there will be many more systems like this, and we just need to take more data to find them.”

For the study, the researchers used a half dozen scientific instruments to obtain radio, ultraviolet, optical, and x-ray data on ASASSN-20qc, which is located approximately 260 megaparsecs (848,000,000 light-years) from Earth and was previously identified as a tidal disruption event (TDE) when first discovered in December 2020. The TDE responsible for astronomers first discovering ASASSN-20qc was caused by a star coming too close to the supermassive black hole and being slowly consumed over a four-month period. However, Dr. Pasham later looked over the data and found dips in energy output from the supermassive black hole occurring every 8.5 days throughout this four-month period.

Combining this data with computer models, the researchers confirmed the 8.5-day bursts of energy being emitted by supermassive black hole, which they hypothesize is caused by the smaller black orbiting around the larger one, with its own gravity influencing the gas and energy within the supermassive black hole’s disk. The researchers compare this phenomenon to an exoplanet transiting its parent star, resulting in a brief dip in starlight. These findings indicate that the disks of gas around black holes are far more chaotic than longstanding hypotheses have claimed.

“This is a different beast,” said Dr. Pasham. “It doesn’t fit anything that we know about these systems. We’re seeing evidence of objects going in and through the disk, at different angles, which challenges the traditional picture of a simple gaseous disk around black holes. We think there is a huge population of these systems out there.”

The supermassive black hole examined in this study exists at the center of its respective galaxy similar to other supermassive black holes found through the cosmos, with Sagittarius A* being the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. However, finding another black hole orbiting the one examined in this study could help astronomers better understand the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes throughout the universe, with the study noting this research could lead to new methods in identifying binary black hole candidates, as well.

The reason astronomers are interested in learning more about binary black holes is the potential for them to teach us about gravitational waves, which were first proposed in the late 19th and early 20th century and gained traction in their existence and relevance through Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, as these gravitational waves have been hypothesized to create ripple in the fabric of spacetime. These gravitational waves are produced from the merging of binary black holes, with astronomers first detecting a black hole merger by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and corresponding results published in Physical Review Letters in 2016.

What new discoveries will astronomers make about binary black holes in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The post A Supermassive Black Hole with a Case of the Hiccups appeared first on Universe Today.

Universe Today has explored the importance of studying impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, and cosmochemistry, and how this myriad of intricately linked scientific disciplines can assist us in better understanding our place in the cosmos and searching for life beyond Earth. Here, we will discuss the incredible research field of meteorites and how they help researchers better understand the history of both our solar system and the cosmos, including the benefits and challenges, finding life beyond Earth, and potential routes for upcoming students who wish to pursue studying meteorites. So, why is it so important to study meteorites?

Dr. Alex Ruzicka, who is a Professor in the Department of Geology at Portland State University, tells Universe Today, “They provide our best information about how the solar system formed and evolved. This includes planet formation. We also obtain information on astrophysics (stellar processes) through studies of pre-solar grains.”

There is often confusion regarding the differences between an asteroid, meteor, and meteorite, so it’s important to explain their respective differences to help better understand why scientists study meteorites and how they study them. An asteroid is a physical, orbiting planetary body that is primarily comprised of rock, but can sometimes be comprised of additional water ice, with most asteroids orbiting in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter and the remaining orbiting as Trojan Asteroids in the orbit of Jupiter or in the Kuiper Belt with Pluto. A meteor is the visual phenomena that an asteroid produces as it burns up in a planet’s atmosphere, often seen as varying colors from the minerals within the asteroid when heated up. The pieces of the asteroid that survive the fiery entry and hit the ground are called meteorites, which scientists’ study to try and learn about the larger asteroid body it came from, and where that asteroid could have come from, as well. But what are some of the benefits and challenges of studying meteorites?

Dr. Ruzicka tells Universe Today, “Benefits: scientific knowledge, information on potential resources (e.g., metals, water) for humans to utilize, information on how to link meteorites and asteroids, which can provide information on space collision hazards for Earth. Challenges: compared to Earth rocks, we lack field evidence for their source bodies and parent bodies (how they relate to other rocks), we have to factor in the element of time that is longer for space rocks than for Earth rocks, and sometimes we are dealing with formation environments completely unlikely what we have on Earth. So, the challenges are big and many.”

According to NASA, more than 50,000 meteorites have been retrieved from all over the world, ranging from the deserts of Africa to the snowy plains of Antarctica. In terms of their origins, it is estimated that 99.8 percent of these meteorites have come from asteroids, with 0.1 percent coming from the Moon and 0.1 percent coming from Mars. The reason why we’ve found meteorites from the Moon and Mars is due to pieces of these planetary bodies being catapulted off their surfaces (or sub-surfaces) after experiencing large impacts of their own, and these pieces then travel through the Solar System for thousands, if not millions, of years before being caught in Earth’s gravity and the rest is history. Therefore, with meteorites originating from multiple locations throughout the Solar System, what can meteorites teach us about finding life beyond Earth?

Morgan Nunn Martinez, who was a PhD student at UC San Diego, and Dr. Alex Meshik seen photographing and measuring a meteorite specimen in Antarctica’s Miller Range during the 2013-2014 Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program field season. (Credit: NASA/JSC/ANSMET)

“That the ingredients for making life formed in space and were delivered to Earth,” Dr. Ruzicka tells Universe Today. “We know organic molecules formed in gas clouds, were incorporated in our solar system, and processed in asteroidal and cometary bodies under higher temperatures in the presence of water. These were then delivered to Earth which wouldn’t have been very hospitable in early times due to sterilizing impacts. We also know that there must have been a lot of planetary rock swapping early when impact rates were high. Life itself may have been transplanted to Earth from Mars.”

As it turns out, one of the most fascinating meteorites ever recovered did come from Mars, which was identified as ALH84001, as it was found in Allan Hills of Antarctica on December 27, 1984, during the 1984-85 field season where researchers from all over the world gather in Antarctica to search for meteorites using snowmobiles. Despite being collected in 1984, it wasn’t until 1996 that a team of scientists discovered what initially appeared to be evidence of microscopic bacteria fossils within the 1.93-kilogram (4.25-pound) meteorite.

ALH84001, which is one of the most famous meteorites ever recovered, helped catapult the field of astrobiology to new heights when scientists uncovered what initially appeared to be microscopic bacteria fossils within this meteorite, though those findings remain inconclusive to this day. (Credit: NASA)

This immediately made headlines across the globe, resulting in countless non-scientific claims that these microfossils were clear evidence of life on Mars. However, both the researchers of the initial study and the scientific community were quick to point out the unlikelihood that these features resulted from life based on other observations made about ALH84001. For example, while ALH84001 is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old, which is when Mars is hypothesized to have possessed liquid water on its surface, radiometric dating techniques revealed that ALH84001 was catapulted off Mars approximately 17 million years ago and landed on Earth approximately 13,000 years ago.

Microscopic image of ALH84001, which initially made headlines for potentially possessing microscopic bacteria fossils, though these finding remain inconclusive to this day. (Credit: NASA)

To this day, there has been no clear evidence that ALH84001 ever contained traces of life. Despite this, ALH84001 has nonetheless helped launch the field of astrobiology into new heights, with present-day scientists claiming this one meteorite was the reason they pursued their career path to find life beyond Earth. But what have been the most exciting aspects about meteorites that Dr. Ruzicka has studied throughout his career?

Dr. Ruzicka tells Universe Today, “A lot is interesting, what’s most exciting? That’s hard to say. I get satisfaction from taking clues left by the rocks to figure out or constrain the processes that formed them. I am engaged in a meteoritic version of CSI, we can call it MSI (for meteoritic scene investigation).”

Like many scientific fields, this “meteoritic version of CSI” requires individuals from a myriad of backgrounds and disciplines, including geology, physics, geochemistry, cosmochemistry, mineralogy, and artificial intelligence, just to name a few, with the aforementioned radiometric dating frequently used to estimate the ages of meteorites by measuring the radioactive isotopes within the sample. It is through this constant collaboration and innovation that scientists continue to unlock the secrets of meteorites with the goal of understanding their origins and compositions, along with how our Solar System, and life on Earth (and possibly elsewhere), came to be. Therefore, what advice can Dr. Ruzicka offer upcoming students who wish to pursue studying meteorites?

Dr. Ruzicka tells Universe Today, “Work hard and pursue your dreams. Find a rigorous program of study because it will come in handy.”

While meteorites are space rocks that crash land on Earth after traveling through the heavens for millions, and possibly billions, of years, these incredible geologic specimens are slowly helping scientists’ piece together the origins of the Solar System and beyond, and even how life might have come to be on our small, blue world, and possibly elsewhere. With a myriad of tools and instruments at their disposal, scientists from all over the world will continue to study meteorites in hopes of answering the universe’s toughest questions.

Dr. Ruzicka concludes by telling Universe Today, “Rocks from space are the best kinds of rocks to study. Way more cool than most rocks on Earth because they are in some ways more puzzling.”

How will meteorites help us better understand our place in the cosmos in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The post Meteorites: Why study them? What can they teach us about finding life beyond Earth? appeared first on Universe Today.

On March 20th, China’s Queqiao-2 (“Magpie Bridge-2”) satellite launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Site LC-2 on the island of Hainan (in southern China) atop a Long March-8 Y3 carrier rocket. This mission is the second in a series of communications relay and radio astronomy satellites designed to support the fourth phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (Chang’e). On March 24th, after 119 hours in transit, the satellite reached the Moon and began a perilune braking maneuver at a distance of 440 km (~270 mi) from the lunar surface.

The maneuver lasted 19 minutes, after which the satellite entered lunar orbit, where it will soon relay communications from missions on the far side of the Moon around the South Pole region. This includes the Chang’e-4 lander and rover and will extend to the Chang’e-6 sample-return mission, which is scheduled to launch in May. It will also assist Chang’e-7 and -8 (scheduled for 2026 and 2028, respectively), consisting of an orbiter, rover, and lander mission, and a platform that will test technologies necessary for the construction of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

A perilune braking maneuver is vital to establishing a lunar orbit and consists of a thruster firing as the spacecraft approaches the Moon. This reduces the spacecraft’s relative velocity to less than the lunar escape velocity (2.38 km/s; 1.74 mps) so that it can be captured by the Moon’s gravity. Two experimental satellites that will test navigation and communication technology (Tiandu-1 and -2), which accompanied the Queqiao-2 satellite to the Moon, also performed a perilune braking maneuver and entered lunar orbit on Monday.

These two satellites will remain in formation in an elliptical lunar orbit and will conduct communication and navigation tests, including laser ranging with the Moon and microwave ranging between satellites. According to the CNSA, Queqiao-2 will enter a 24-hour elliptical orbit around the Moon at a distance of 200 km (125 mi) at its closest point (perigee) and 100,000 km (62,000 mi) at its farthest point (apogee). Mission controllers will further alter Queqiao-2’s orbit and inclination to bring it into a “200 by 16,000-km, highly-elliptical ‘frozen’ orbit.”

Within this highly stable orbit, Queqiao-2 will have a direct line of sight with ground stations on Earth and the far side of the Moon and will conduct communication tests with Chang’e-4 and Chang’e-6 using its 4.2-m (13.8-ft) parabolic antenna. The mission could also support other countries in their lunar exploration efforts, many of whom are also interested in scouting the Moon’s far side and southern polar region. The satellite also carries scientific instruments, including extreme ultraviolet cameras, array-neutral atom imagers, and lunar orbit Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) test subsystems.

According to state-owned media company CCTV, the CNSA chose the Queqiao-2 satellite’s present orbit for a multitude of reasons:

“Experts told me that this is an ideal location on the Moon to observe the separation of the Queqiao-2 star arrow, and it also has a deep connection with China’s lunar exploration project. This is the Moon’s rich maria region… Fifteen years ago, on March 1, 2009, it was here that the Chang’e-1 probe of China’s lunar exploration project completed a controlled collision with the Moon… The location of the Sea of Abundance on the moon is also very eye-catching. The next time the moon is full, you look up at the moon and find this dark black patch in the southeast of the moon. This is the Sea of Abundance!”

Visualization of the ILRS from the CNSA Guide to Partnership (June 2021). Credit: CNSA

The satellite will support China’s upcoming Chang’e-6 mission, China’s second attempt to return lunar samples to Earth. Mission controllers will adjust its orbit into a 12-hour period to support the Chang’e-7 and -8 missions. These missions aim to map the terrain and scout resources (particularly water ice) around the South Pole-Aitken Basin. These missions will ultimately support the creation of the ILRS, a joint project between CNSA and Roscomos to create a lunar base that will enable research and development on the Moon.

This program is intended to rival NASA’s Artemis Program, which will send astronauts on a circumlunar flight next year – the Artemis II mission. The program will culminate in 2026 with the first crewed mission to the lunar surface (Artemis III) in over 50 years. NASA also plans to deploy the core elements of the Lunar Gateway next year, an orbital habitat that will facilitate the deployment of the Artemis Base Camp. Along with its international and commercial partners, these elements will support the creation of “a sustained program of lunar exploration and development.”

Further Reading: CGTN

The post China's Relay Satellite is in Lunar Orbit appeared first on Universe Today.

Some stars are so massive and so energetic that they’re a million times brighter than the Sun. This type of star dominated the early Universe, playing a key role in its development and evolution. The first of its kind are all gone now, but the modern Universe still forms stars of this type.

These hot, blue stars emit powerful ultraviolet energy that the Hubble can detect from its perch in Low-Earth Orbit.

In December 2023, astronomers completed a three-year survey of these hot stars. It’s one of the Hubble’s largest and most ambitious surveys. It’s called ULLYSES (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards), and in it, astronomers gathered detailed information on almost 500 stars.

UV emissions from hot young stars provide a window into some of the processes inside these stars. UV can’t be observed from Earth because the ozone layer blocks it. That’s one of the reasons the Hubble was built. From its perch, it can gather high-resolution UV images. That’s the impetus for ULLYSES.

The survey doesn’t contain images of all the stars. Instead, the Hubble gathered spectra from 220 stars and combined them with Hubble archival data on 275 additional stars. Powerful ground-based telescopes also made a contribution, though not in UV. The result is a very rich dataset consisting of detailed spectra from both hot, bright, massive stars and from cool, dim, low-mass stars.

“I believe the ULLYSES project will be transformative, impacting overall astrophysics – from exoplanets to the effects of massive stars on galaxy evolution, to understanding the earliest stages of the evolving universe,” said Julia Roman-Duval, Implementation Team Lead for ULLYSES at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland. “Aside from the specific goals of the program, the stellar data can also be used in fields of astrophysics in ways we can’t yet imagine.”

The ULYSSES spectra collected by Hubble can reveal the presence of chemical elements in the stars. Image Credit: Hubble/ STScI/ULYSSES

Spectra can tell astronomers more than just the metallicity of the stars. They can also reveal the powerful stellar winds coming from the hot blue stars.

Massive blue stars have powerful winds that shape their surroundings. The Hubble spectra can tell which way the winds travel and how fast they travel. The star represented by the teal line has slower winds than the star shown by the purple line. Image Credit: Hubble/ STScI/ULYSSES

Spectra also reveal the metallicity of stars. Stars with lower metallicity are typically older than stars with higher metallicity. A critical part of stellar metallicity concerns the iron content. Astronomers use iron content and its ratio with hydrogen to date stars in relation to our own Sun’s iron and hydrogen ratio.

These spectra show the iron content for two stars. In this image, the star represented by the purple line has less iron, indicating that it’s older than the other star. Iron content affects a star’s lifetime and the strength of its winds. Image Credit: Hubble/ STScI/ULYSSES

In ULYSSES, Hubble targeted hot blue stars in nearby galaxies with low metallicity, the type that would’ve existed in the early Universe. At that point in the Universe’s life, they would’ve contained nothing heavier than hydrogen and helium. This type of galaxy was common in the very early universe. Only once these hot young stars died and spread the elements they created inside themselves would the heavier elements needed for rocky planets, water, and even life be available. “ULLYSES observations are a stepping stone to understanding those first stars and their winds in the Universe and how they impact the evolution of their young host galaxy,” said Roman-Duval.

ULLYSES also observed stellar counterparts to the massive, hot stars: cool, red, low-mass, and dim stars. While the more massive stars form quickly, burn bright, and die soon, these ones are the opposite. They take longer to form, are dimmer, and last much longer. But they still emit winds and energy that shape their surroundings. They’re called T-Tauri stars, stars so young they’re still growing.

As part of the three-year ULYSSES survey, the Hubble also observed cool, dim, low-mass stars like the one in this artist’s illustration, which are still growing by accreting material from their disks. Image Credit: Robert O’Connell (UVA), SOC-WFC3, ESO

Despite their lower masses, these stars emit powerful radiation. During their formation, they’re known to unleash powerful blasts of both UV and X-ray radiation.

There are outstanding questions about T-Tauri stars and how they behave. Some of their processes are obscured. But the Hubble spectra from ULYSSES can provide some answers. They can reveal how much energy T-Tauri stars release as they grow and how powerful their winds are. Their powerful winds can alter their protoplanetary disks, blowing material away and making it unavailable for planet formation. In some cases, the powerful energy from these stars could eliminate the habitability of any planets forming around them.

The ULYSSES data is not meant to answer any specific question. Rather, it’s a massive database of detailed spectra that researchers can query to serve future research. The overarching goal is to provide an in-depth database of spectra from young stars that are in the first 10 million years of their lives.

“More fully understanding the formation and lives of young stars has connections to many other areas in astronomy, including galaxy formation and evolution, the mechanics and mass loss of supernovas, how stars’ environments impact planet formation, and how their emissions may play a role in the makeup of the interstellar medium, the gas and dust between stars in a galaxy,” the ULYSSES website explains. 

ULYSSES is an observing program designed by the research community for the research community. By extension, it also serves those of us who like to follow along as researchers discover new things about the Universe.

“ULLYSES was originally conceived as an observing program utilizing Hubble’s sensitive spectrographs. However, the program was tremendously enhanced by community-led coordinated and ancillary observations with other ground- and space-based observatories,” said Roman-Duval. “Such broad coverage allows astronomers to investigate the lives of stars in unprecedented detail and paint a more comprehensive picture of the properties of these stars and how they impact their environment.”

The post The Hubble Aims Its Powerful Ultraviolet Eye at Super-Hot Stars appeared first on Universe Today.

A recent study presented at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) discusses the Mars Astrobiology, Resource, and Science Explorers (MARSE) mission concept and its Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD), which offers a broader and cheaper method regarding the search for—past or present—life on the Red Planet, specifically by using four rovers at four different landing sites across Mars’ surface instead of just one-for-one. This concept comes as NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers continue to tirelessly explore the surface of Mars at Gale Crater and Jezero Crater, respectively.

Here, Universe Today discusses the MARSE mission concept with the study’s sole author, Alex Longo, who is a MS student in the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, regarding the motivation behind MARSE, how the landing sites were chosen, significant implications, current work being conducted, and next steps for MARSE becoming an actual mission. Longo draws on his ten-plus years of experience finding landing sites on Mars, along with having several publications under his belt, including an assortment of scientific abstracts, papers, and a Kindle book. So, what was the motivation behind the MARSE mission concept?

“The overarching goal of the MARSE concept study was to reduce the cost of access to the surface of Mars,” Longo tells Universe Today. “Flagship-class rovers, such as Curiosity and Perseverance, are extremely capable vehicles. The caveat is that, since they cost over a billion dollars apiece, we can only visit one or two sites on Mars every decade. Like Earth, Mars is an astoundingly diverse planet. Using satellites in orbit, we have mapped a variety of ancient environments which may have been habitable in the distant past. However, the resolution of orbital imagery and spectra are limited, and they sometimes fail to predict what a field geologist (or, in the case of Mars, a rover controlled by geologists) will discover on the ground. Even on Earth, finding early biosignatures is difficult, and even with comparatively little weathering and erosion, I would not be surprised if the same is true on Mars. MARSE was intended to present one possible solution which would allow planetary scientists to explore more sites on Mars within a realistic budget.”

The car-sized Curiosity rover landed in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012, with its mission website displaying that Curiosity has traveled a total of 31.27 kilometers (19.43 miles) as of January 27, 2024, having far surpassed its primary mission timeline of one Martian year, or 687 Earth days. Gale Crater was chosen as the landing site due to a multitude of evidence that it once held liquid water at some point in Mars’ ancient past, as scientists estimate that Gale Crater was formed from an impact between approximately 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago. During its time in Gale Crater, Curiosity has used its suite of scientific instruments to identify evidence of past liquid water within Gale Crater and evidence that Mars once contained the building blocks for life, including carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur.

A selfie of NASA’s Curiosity rover taken on Oct. 11, 2019, or the 2,553rd Martian day, or sol, of its long and successful mission. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems)

The car-sized Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, with its mission website displaying that Perseverance has traveled a total of 25.113 kilometers (15.604 miles) as of March 28, 2024. While Perseverance and Curiosity have similar designs, the main upgrade has been the delivery of the Ingenuity helicopter to Mars, which became the first robotic explorer to achieve a powered flight on another world and accomplished dozens of flights before being permanently grounded after damaging one of its rotor blades on what would be its final landing in January 2024. Like Gale Crater for Curiosity, Jezero Crater was chosen as the landing site for Perseverance due to strong evidence that it once held a massive body of liquid water, which is made evident from the enormous fan-delta deposit that was the likely entry point for the liquid water billions of years ago. During its time in Jezero Crater, Perseverance has used its suite of scientific instruments to identify ancient volcanic rocks, sediments from an ancient lakebed, converted carbon dioxide (the primary atmospheric constituent of Mars) to oxygen, and even used its powerful microphones to record the sounds of Mars. Given the incredible science conducted by Curiosity and Perseverance, what are the most significant implications for the MARSE mission?

A selfie of NASA’s Perseverance rover taken in January 2023 displaying the rover with several sample tubes it has collected and dropped on the Martian surface to be picked up and returned to Earth by the Mars Sample Return mission, scheduled for the 2030s. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems)

“The most significant ramification of this trade study is that it should be possible to build a small rover capable of characterizing an unexplored site on Mars,” Longo tells Universe Today. “There have been several proposals for cheap Mars landers, such as SHIELD. MARSE demonstrates that it may be possible to deliver useful scientific payloads with these landers. Each MARSE rover weighs just 15 kilograms and is about the size of a microwave oven. If we can determine how to land similar rovers on Mars, that would help proliferate and democratize Mars exploration. We are already seeing a similar paradigm shift in lunar exploration thanks to the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.”

Artist rendition of one of the four MARSE mission rovers that will each be deployed to explore separate landing sites on Mars. (Credit: Longo (2024))

While Curiosity and Perseverance have successfully explored their respective landing sites in great detail, the cost of each mission was in the billions of dollars (Curiosity: ~$2.5 billion, Perseverance: ~$2.7 billion). Therefore, the cost alone only allows for one rover per mission, and their landings occurred almost seven years apart. As noted, one of the objectives of the MARSE mission concept is to land four rovers at four separate landing sites, which are Columbia Hills, Milankovi? Crater, Mawrth Vallis, and Terra Sirenium, with Coumbia Hills being the landing site for the Spirit rover during its mission from 2004 to 2010, and the others having never been explored by landers or rovers. But how were the landing sites chosen and are other landing sites being considered?

Longo tells Universe Today, “The four landing sites are not an exclusive list. We just wanted to illustrate the range of investigations which can be conducted with this approach. All four of the listed sites have been highlighted in peer-reviewed papers and prior landing site studies, so we know that they have high scientific potential.”

Image of Columbia Hills on Mars, which is one of the potential landing sites for a MARSE rover. The white circle denotes the approximate 80-kilometer (50-mile) landing ellipse that SHIELD will use to land. (Credit: Longo (2024))

Longo continues by telling Universe Today that SHIELD will be designed to “land at any flat site on Mars below the datum (0 km of elevation on Mars; the equivalent of sea level on Earth), so you could readily swap one or more of them out for locations of your choice”, with Longo noting that one of his personal favorite landing sites would be inside Valles Marineris, which is the largest and deepest canyon in the solar system. Longo discusses the years-long research by Dr. Steven Ruff at Arizona State University, who conducted analog studies comparing hot spring deposits at Columbia Hills on Mars to similar features at the El Tatio hot spring in Chile, concluding that microbial communities could thrive at these locations.

A breakdown of the Mars Astrobiology, Resource, and Science Explorers (MARSE) mission profile and its Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD) system, which could revolutionize how we search for life on Mars by using four rovers at four different landing sites. (Credit: Longo (2024))

As noted, Curiosity and Perseverance landed on Mars almost nine years apart, 2012 and 2021, respectively, but their respective missions had been in the works almost an entire decade earlier. Both rovers are part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, with the Curiosity rover mission having been approved in 2003 and the Perseverance rover mission having been announced in 2012. Once approved, it takes NASA years to design and build each rover, ensuring every aspect of their systems is functioning at their fullest potential before being delivered and loaded onto the launch vehicle. This includes tests designed to analyze the rovers’ endurance, exposure to harsh environments, and longevity, and many others. Therefore, if a MARSE mission were to get the green light, it could still be almost a decade of designs, builds, and tests before their microwave-sized rovers touch the surface of Mars. So, what are the next steps in terms of MARSE being approved for an actual mission?

“Regrettably, the future of MARSE and SHIELD is uncertain,” Longo tells Universe Today. “This concept was developed with the support of the SHIELD team at JPL, led by Lou Giersch and Nathan Barba. They were doing phenomenal, cutting-edge work, and I was grateful for the opportunity to work with them. Unfortunately, JPL was forced to implement massive budget cuts and layoffs last month due to uncertainty over the future of the Mars Sample Return mission, which accounts for the majority of the center’s budget. Because JPL’s future priorities are in flux, we have placed the development of the MARSE concept on hold.”

While uncertainty looms for the MARSE mission, it’s important to note that space exploration missions often take decades to go from a simple concept to real hardware, and then several more years until it’s launched. This is noted by the Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions, as it took almost a decade from the time each was approved until they landed on Mars. Moreover, it is not uncommon for mission proposals to take several attempts before they’re approved, as NASA has very stringent criteria for approving missions, including cost, timelines, science objectives, and long-term implications for science. Despite the outlook, this has not deterred Longo from continuing his work for the MARSE mission concept.

“Developing a mission concept is a rewarding experience, and it was a privilege to work on this concept with the SHIELD team,” Longo tells Universe Today. “Even if it happens a decade from now, I hope that someone will eventually implement a low-cost, multi-rover Mars geology and astrobiology mission. Following the completion of Mars Sample Return, the next logical steps in Mars exploration are to explore more of the planet, to develop a better understanding of its history, and to learn what Mars can teach us about our own planet’s past. If we want to have a thriving space program, we need to be creative and embrace bold ideas, and I love working with the scientists and engineers who are doing just that.”

Will the MARSE mission get to explore the Red Planet in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The post Search for Life on Mars Could Level-Up with MARSE Mission Concept appeared first on Universe Today.

The Milky Way has many satellite galaxies, most notably the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. They’re both visible to the naked eye from the southern hemisphere. Now astronomers have discovered another satellite that’s the smallest and dimmest one ever detected. It may also be one of the most dark matter-dominated galaxies ever found.

The galaxy is called Ursa Major III / UNIONS 1 (UMa3/U1), and it contains very few stars. In fact, its luminosity is so low that it’s gone undetected until new, even though it’s in our neighbourhood.

The discovery is in a new paper titled “Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1: the darkest galaxy ever discovered?” The paper has been published in The Astrophysical Journal, and the lead author is Simon Smith. Smith is an astronomy graduate student at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada.

“UMa3/U1 is located in the Ursa Major (Great Bear) constellation, home of the Big Dipper. It is in our cosmic backyard, relatively speaking, at about 30,000 light-years from the Sun,” said Smith. “UMa3/U1 had escaped detection until now due to its extremely low luminosity.”

There are only about 60 stars in UMa3/U1, which barely qualifies it as a galaxy. There are star clusters with more members than that. In fact, the tiny galaxy is more in line with an open cluster in terms of number of stars.

“There are so few stars in UMa3/U1 that one might reasonably question whether it’s just a chance grouping of similar stars.”

Marla Geha, professor of astronomy and physics at Yale University

The tiny galaxy contains stars that are more than 10 billion years old and is only 10 light-years across, small for a galaxy. Its mass is also low for a galaxy. It contains just 16 times the mass of the Sun and is 15 times less massive than the faintest suspected dwarf galaxy. Those are small numbers more similar to a globular cluster, but it still might be a galaxy because of the presence of dark matter.

While stellar associations like globular clusters are more massive than this dwarf galaxy, they’re not galaxies. Astronomers think that globulars are dominated by baryonic (normal) matter processes. Ultra-faint galaxies (UFG) like this one have masses many orders of magnitude greater than their stars can account for. “Therefore, in the framework of ?CDM (Lambda Cold Dark Matter) cosmology, dwarf galaxies are thought to lie at the center of their own dark matter halos,” the research states. Astrophysicists think the dark matter haloes account for all that mass, something that globulars and other star clusters lack.

The tiny galaxy was first spotted as part of the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) at Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS,) both in Hawaii. Once detected, the researchers studied it in more detail with Keck Observatory’s Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS). Those observations confirmed that the stars are gravitationally bound, meaning they had to be either in a cluster or a tiny galaxy.

The CFHT is at Hawaii’s Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii, and Pan-STARRS is at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii. Both are key parts of UNIONS, the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey. Image Credit: UNIONS

The galaxy’s small number of stars would make anyone question whether it can be rightly called a galaxy. Even the researchers had their doubts.

“There are so few stars in UMa3/U1 that one might reasonably question whether it’s just a chance grouping of similar stars. Keck was critical in showing this is not the case,” says co-author Marla Geha, professor of astronomy and physics at Yale University. “Our DEIMOS measurements clearly show all the stars are moving through space at very similar velocities and appear to share similar chemistries.”

This figure from the research shows the motion (L) and velocity (R) of the dwarf galaxy’s member stars. In the left panel, the great region marks the motion of stars in the Milky Way and shows how the member stars (blue) are clustered together differently. In the panel on the right, the member stars are clustered together by velocity, and the empty circles are other non-member stars. Image Credit: Smith et al. 2024

Astronomers have struggled to understand dwarf galaxies and their dark matter. For one thing, the diagnostics astronomers use, like the stellar mass-metallicity relation, leads to arguments that they’re more like star clusters than galaxies. Also, their observed properties place them at the mid-point between clusters and dwarf galaxies.

Uncertainty abounds when it comes to UMa3/U1. Somehow, this association of stars has remained intact for a long time. With such low stellar mass, the grouping should’ve been torn apart by now, its members diluted into the larger Milky Way population. The fact that it’s still together is an intriguing indication that dark matter is involved.

“The object is so puny that its long-term survival is very surprising.”

Will Cerny, co-author, Yale University

“Excitingly, a tentative spread in velocities among the stars in the system may support the conclusion that UMa3/U1 is a dark matter-dominated galaxy – a tantalizing possibility we hope to scrutinize with more Keck observations,” said Yale University graduate student Will Cerny, the second author of the study.

“The object is so puny that its long-term survival is very surprising. One might have expected the harsh tidal forces from the Milky Way’s disk to have ripped the system apart by now, leaving no observable remnant,” says Cerny. “The fact that the system appears intact leads to two equally interesting possibilities. Either UMa3/U1 is a tiny galaxy stabilized by large amounts of dark matter, or it’s a star cluster we’ve observed at a very special time before its imminent demise.”

If astrophysicists can confirm that the galaxy has dark matter, that would be a big deal. It would be more evidence in support of the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model, the leading theory for dark matter and the Big Bang. CDM predicts that as the Milky Way formed, its gravity attracted large numbers of dwarf galaxies, much more than found so far. If this is one of them, and if the others are as difficult to detect as UMa3/U1, it supports the CDM.

But for the researchers behind the discovery, there’s more to it than just dark matter. They’ve found something unusual that’s difficult to detect. Are there more of them out there?

The ESA’s Gaia mission has found many dwarf galaxies and globular clusters in the Milky Way’s halo. This image from the mission’s second data release shows 75 globular clusters (blue) and 12 nearby dwarf galaxies (red). However, deeper observations are needed to understand the nature of the dwarf galaxies. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; Map and orbits: CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO LICENCE CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO or ESA Standard Licence

“Whether future observations confirm or reject that this system contains a large amount of dark matter, we’re very excited by the possibility that this object could be the tip of the iceberg – that it could be the first example of a new class of extremely faint stellar systems that have eluded detection until now,” says Cerny.

As for its origins, there are really only two options. It either formed in situ or was accreted by the Milky Way. Astronomers use metallicity and orbit to determine a dwarf galaxy’s origins, but in this case, neither measurement showed clearly that it formed in situ.

Only further observations will constrain its origins, but as it stands, the authors are leaning toward accretion. “We favour a scenario where UMa3/U1 was accreted onto the Milky Way halo,” they write in their conclusion. That scenario also supports the Lambda CDM model.

Its fate is similarly unclear. So far, it hasn’t been torn apart, which signals the presence of dark matter. But if it doesn’t have dark matter, it may be on the verge of being destroyed. We’ll have to wait and see.

For now, the object has an uncertain past and an uncertain future. But whatever it ends up being classified as, it’s something new, and that means it’s a challenge.

“This discovery may challenge our understanding of galaxy formation and perhaps even the definition of a ‘galaxy,'” says Smith.

The post The Milky Way’s Smallest, Faintest Satellite Galaxy Found appeared first on Universe Today.

We’ve reported on a technology called pulsed plasma rockets (PPRs) here at UT a few times. Several research groups have worked on variations of them. They are so popular partly because of their extremely high specific impulse and thrust levels, and they seemingly solve the trade-off between those two all-important variables in space exploration propulsion systems. Essentially, they are an extremely efficient propulsion methodology that, if scaled up, would allow payloads to reach other planets in weeks rather than months or years. However, some inherent dangers still need to be worked out, and overcoming some of those dangers was the purpose of a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) project back in 2020. 

Originally granted to Howe Industries, a design shop that has received several NIAC grants (including two in 2020 itself), the purpose of this project was to model the design of a fully functional PPR in modeling software to see if the necessary materials and power systems are available for a rocket that can provide 100 kN of thrust and over 5,000 seconds of specific impulse. 

In essence, a PPR takes a fuel pellet made out of some form of fissionable material (in this case, uranium), and zaps it into a plasma, then emits the plasma out the back for a forceful thrust. Rockets with this design can carry much less fuel than standard chemical rockets, but their design must be significantly larger due to the heating constraints put on the system by creating the plasma in the first place.

SciShow discusses a scaled down version of the PPR proposed in the paper.
Credit – SciShow Space

Those heating constraints were one of the Phase I NIAC study’s main focal points in 2020. In particular, this study focused on analyzing the barrel the fuel pellet is released into to see if it could withstand the extreme temperatures created by handling a plasmatized uranium pellet.

To do this modeling, the team at Howe Industries used a modeling software called MCNP6 to check where particles went in the system and thereby calculate how much heat would be collected on other parts of the system where it wasn’t desired. MCNP6 uses a Monte Carlo simulation methodology, which calculates where neutrons will be created from the fission reaction that makes the plasma and where those neutrons will impact the rest of the spacecraft.

Those plasmas would have to be created about once every second, according to the calculations done by Howe Industries, and each pulse must reach an energy level of around 1 keV – much smaller than industrial-level nuclear fission reactors but a relatively high number for a spacecraft propulsion system. That energy is turned into heat, and while some of the heat is effectively used to eject the plasmatized uranium out as a thrust propellant, the rest is absorbed by other parts of the system. 

Troy Howe, one of the paper’s authors, discusses his research into the PPR.
Credit – Interstellar Research Group YouTube Channel

The barrel was a part of that system that is particularly important in these thermal calculations. The modeled barrel was made out of low-enriched uranium but of a different type than the projectile, allowing the energy to heat the projectile and not the barrel itself. However, a small part of the barrel would be made of highly enriched uranium, allowing for rapid plasma propagation in an otherwise relatively stable system.

That’s not to say that none of the heat generated by the fission reaction would end up in the barrel. Still, by the author’s calculations as part of their final report, an active cooling system should be enough to lower the temperature to a point where at least the barrel itself wouldn’t melt. Other parts of the system, such as the nozzle and a rotating drum that helps handle the fuel pellet, will be modeled in future work.

Additional future work would include building benchtop prototypes of these systems to test them out, though the prospect of working with highly enriched uranium as part of this process seems daunting. However, NIAC hasn’t yet funded a Phase II study of the PPR system, so for now, it is resigned to a nicely modeled project and another step forward in an idea that has plenty of history. Maybe someday, it will find its time to shine.

Learn More:
Howe et al. – Pulsed plasma rocket- developing a dynamic fission process for high specific impulse and high thrust propulsion
UT – Magnetic Fusion Plasma Engines Could Carry us Across the Solar System and Into Interstellar Space
UT – Plasma Thruster Could Dramatically Cut Down Flight Times to the Outer Solar System
UT – Plasma Rocket Could Help Pick Up Space Trash

Lead Image:
Model of the PPR design proposed in the paper.
Credit – Howe et al.

The post Thermal Modeling of a Pulsed Plasma Rocket Shows It Should Be Possible To Create One appeared first on Universe Today.

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence has been ongoing for decades at this point. Despite that, we have yet to find any rock-hard evidence of a signal from an alien civilization. When asked about this, experts point out just how little of the overall signal space we’ve analyzed. A signal could be coming from anywhere in the sky, at any frequency, and might not be continuous. Constraining the “search space” could help us find a signal faster, but what could we use to constrain it? It’s hard to think like an alien intelligence, let alone to mimic them.

One of the most famous examples of the reverse of search is the Arecibo message, wherein humanity tried to announce, “We are here,” using scientific and mathematical standards like numbers and the atomic number of some elements (hydrogen and carbon, for example). Even so, it was still sent as a binary signal using a type of frequency modulation at a single point in time back in 1975. The likelihood that any civilization in the Messier 13 globular cluster, its intended target, will be able to both receive and interpret it is negligible. But it would help if they had a key to interpret it. But how can we convey a key to unlock the message without the key itself being interpretable only with the same key?

Naoki Seto of Kyoto University’s Department of Physics has spent a lot of time thinking about that question, and he came to a similar conclusion about the usefulness of scientific constants. In the past, he produced papers that suggested the time of a future binary star merger or a past supernova explosion to help narrow down a patch of sky to look at. However, with a new paper released on March 21st, he suggested a new idea – the orbital period of an exceptionally bright star around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole.

Fraser discusses the most hyped finding of SETI so far – the WOW! signal.

The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, known as Sgr A*, would be well known to any alien civilization advanced enough to send communication signals to announce their presence. It also, conveniently, has several super-bright stars that orbit it on regular periods. Dr. Seto selected one of those stars, known simply as S2.

S2 is a B-type star, is skewed toward the blue end of the stellar spectrum, and weighs in at about 15 times the mass of our own Sun. But most importantly, it is very, very bright and orbits Sgr A* with an orbital period of almost exactly 16 years. 

Those features are important because of their prominence but also because of the ease of calculations for something called the Schelling point. A Schelling point is derived from game theory – specifically, how two people can communicate about how to communicate without actually communicating. For example, someone wants to meet up with their partner but doesn’t want to tell them when or where they want to meet up. The other person is also interested in meeting up but equally interested in not communicating when or where. 

Fraser askes – are we ready to find aliens?

A Schelling point is thinking through reasonable touch points culturally to try to determine a place to meet without expressly saying it. In one example, knowing that we’re both Americans, if we were to pick one distinct time of year to meet up, and knowing that the other person is thinking the same thing, they might settle on something well known, such as midnight on New Year’s Eve. As for a place to meet, why not New York, the country’s largest city, and maybe Grand Central Station, the most common meeting place in that great city? That would be a Schelling point for two Americans, and the same inductive reasoning can be applied to communications with alien life forms.

S2 and its orbital period are something we would have in common with any alien life that develops in this galaxy – they would be able to see it from wherever they are. Dr. Seto thinks that using detailed characteristics of this one particular star, astronomers could start to search specific patches of sky for signals that use its orbital period as a basis for communication.

This is admittedly an arbitrary selection of a touch point for the Schelling point, but the general idea holds. The most likely way we can narrow down the absurd number of search parameters plaguing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is to try to think like an alien and come up with some shared common experience that we can use as a basis to try to communicate without prior communication. It’s a tricky problem, and one that has lasted for decades, but, as with all things in science, the more people that get to thinking about them, the more likely they are to be solved.

Learn More:
Naoki Seto – A Proposal for Enhancing Technosignature Search toward the Galactic Center
UT – What is the Arecibo Message?
UT – What are the Best Ways to Search for Technosignatures?
UT – The 2nd Annual Penn State SETI Symposium and the Search for Technosignatures!

Lead Image:
Image of the galactic center. For the interferometric GRAVITY observations the star IRS 16C was used as a reference star, the actual target was the star S2. The position of the centre, which harbours the (invisible) black hole known as Sgr A*,with 4 million solar masses, is marked by the orange cross.
Credit – ESO / MPE / Gillessen et al.

The post Civilizations Could Time Their Communications Based on the Movement of a Single Star appeared first on Universe Today.

Rosalind Franklin, the ESA’s Mars rover, is scheduled to launch no sooner than 2028. Its destination is Oxia Planum, a wide clay-bearing plain to the east of Chryse Planitia. Oxia Planum contains terrains that date back to Mars’ Noachian Period, when there may have been abundant surface water, a key factor in the rover’s mission.

Rosalind Franklin’s primary mission mirrors that of NASA’s Perseverance rover: to search for fossil evidence of life. To do that, both rovers are equipped with a suite of powerful instruments. They both have sampling drills, but Franklin’s drill wins the tale of the tape. It can penetrate to a depth of two meters, compared to Perseverance’s which can only drill a few inches deep.

In order for the Franklin to be successful, it needs to land in a place where its drilling capability can be put to good use. That’s why the ESA chose Oxia Planum. Not only is it flat, which makes for a safer landing, but it contains hydrated minerals. In fact, it’s one of the largest exposed sections of clay-bearing minerals on Mars, and that’s where the fossilized evidence of life it seeks may be found.

A team of European scientists has created the most detailed geological map of Oxia Planum ever. It took four years to complete and leans heavily on data from orbiters. The detailed map shows 15 units with characteristic geological features that can help decide how the rover explores the area. The map will also help the rover interpret its surroundings and collect evidence of primitive life.

“This map is exciting because it is a guide that shows us where to find the answers.”

Peter Fawdon, co-lead author, Open University

Oxia Planum preserves a record of the forces that shaped the region and that shaped Mars. It’s a transitional region between Chryse Planitia, which contains lower elevation plains from the Amazonian/Hesperian, and Arabia Terra, the heavily cratered Noachian-aged region.

The sediments at Oxia Planum are nearly four billion years old. This will be the oldest site ever visited by a rover.

The new map has its roots in the COVID lockdowns. During that time, the Rosalind Franklin science team trained 80 volunteers to help them map Oxia Planum. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter supplied the data.

The result is a map that shows Oxia Planum’s geology in high detail. It shows types of bedrock and features like ridges and craters. It also shows crater ejecta and windborne dust. The map will not only help the rover navigate through difficult terrain; it’ll inform the choices of where to drill for samples.

This isn’t the first geological map of the Martian surface. But as this comparison shows, the new map (left) is much more detailed than previous ones (right.) The map on the right is a global geological map that labels the entire landing region as lNh, or late Noachian highlands. Image Credit: L: Fawdon et al. 2024. R: Tanaka et al. 2014.

“The map represents our current understanding of bedrock units and their relationships prior to Rosalind Franklin’s exploration of this location,” the map creators write in the paper presenting the map.

“The objectives of this map are (i) to identify where the most astrobiologically relevant rocks are likely to be found, (ii) to show where hypotheses about their geological context (within Oxia Planum and in the wider geological history of Mars) can be tested, (iii) to inform both the long-term (hundreds of metres to ~1 km) and the short-term (tens of metres) activity planning for rover exploration, and (iv) to allow the samples analyzed by the rover to be interpreted within their regional geological context,” the authors explain.

You can download the map and explore it here.

This is the new geological map of Oxia Planum, along with explanatory text. Image Credit: Fawdon et al. 2024.

“The wider region was extensively modified during the late Noachian and Hesperian periods, as shown by evidence of fluvial and paleo-lake activity, possible shoreline formation, volcanism, and aqueous alteration,” the authors write. The Hesperian is when Mars lost its water and transitioned from a warm, wet environment to a dry, cold environment. Understanding how that happened is a primary goal in Mars science.

The map contains a location and context section that orients viewers. The image on the left shows Rosalind Franklin’s landing site, and the image on the right shows the geological context. Image Credit: Fawdon et al. 2024.

The map shows mound materials, different types of bedrock, features like Mensas and crater materials of different ages.

This zoom-in of the map shows Sicilla Mensa, a flat-topped feature with cliff-like edges. oDm stands for overlying dark material. The image also shows craters and the extent of their ejecta, shown in yellow. It’s labelled rCm for recent crater material. Image Credit: Fawdon et al. 2024.

This is the highest-resolution map of the region ever made. With a scale of 1:25,000, each centimetre on the map equals 250 meters on Mars. Since Rosalind Franklin will travel an average of 25 to 50 meters each day, a day’s journey is one or two millimetres on the map.

The making of the map has already provided some benefits to the Rosalind Franklin mission. “The mapping exercise has provided the wider <ExoMars> rover team with a sound knowledge of the landing site and has also helped us to develop new geological hypotheses for the region,” the authors write.

Oxia planum is rich in clays, also called hydrated minerals. Because clays are formed in water-rich environments, it makes these sites excellent locations to study for clues as to whether life once began on Mars. Image Credit: ESA/Mars Express (OMEGA and HRSC) and NASA/Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (CRISM). LICENCE: ESA Standard Licence

The map is more than just a driving guide. It’s essentially a summary of our hypotheses about Mars. When the rover begins its mission, its initial exploration and drilling will test some of these existing hypotheses for Martian geology and history. Those results will inform the rover team, leading to better decisions about where to drill and explore. That will “… improve the chances of the mission meeting its search for life goals,” the authors explain.

“This map is exciting because it is a guide that shows us where to find the answers. It serves as a visual hypothesis of what we currently know about the different rocks in the landing site. The instruments on Rosalind Franklin will allow us to test our knowledge on the spot when the time comes,” explained Peter Fawdon, one of the lead authors from the Open University.

The post The ESA’s Mars Rover Gets a New Map appeared first on Universe Today.

Catching a supernova in action is tricky business. There is no way to predict them, and they don’t occur very often. Within the Milky Way they only occur about once a century, and the last one was observed in 1604.

Of course, supernovae occur in other galaxies too, but you still have to get lucky to catch them as they explode.

But that’s what happened last year, according to a new paper released in Nature this week. Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, observing a nearby galaxy named Messier 101 (colloquially known as the Pinwheel Galaxy), recognized that something special was happening. He had just observed a new supernova. It was dubbed SN 2023ixf.

The initial phase of a supernova is measured in hours, so astronomers had to act fast. Within five hours, Itagaki had reported the sighting to an international astronomical reporting database called the Transient Name Server. Less than an hour after that, professional astronomers were already rushing to turn their telescopes to look at the new explosion.

The discovery took place on May 19, a Friday night, and it was a scramble to get everything in place across multiple time zones.

“It’s very rare, as a scientist, that you have to act so swiftly,” says Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute. “Most scientific projects don’t happen in the middle of the night, but the opportunity arose, and we had no choice but to respond accordingly.”

Messier 101 (the Pinwheel Galaxy), 21 million lightyears away, where supernova SN 2023ixf was discovered. ESA/NASA.

Gal-Yam’s PhD student and lead author of the paper, Erez Zimmerman, was part of the team who stayed up all night collecting data, and sharing information with the Hubble Space Telescope operators in time to make high-quality observations. Speed was of the essence.

“That’s what makes this particular supernova different,” says Zimmerman. “We were able – for the very first time – to closely follow a supernova while its light was emerging from the circumstellar material in which the exploding star was embedded.”

The team had already applied for time on Hubble, intending to observe existing supernovae remnants in UV light. They got lucky in being able to observe a brand-new one instead. And even luckier that Hubble had just recently observed the same area, meaning that they not only captured the supernova in action, but also captured the star and its conditions in the days immediately before the explosion. These before-and-after observations are incredibly valuable in understanding the final days of a star’s life.

“Stars behave very erratically in their senior years,” says Gal-Yam. “They become unstable and we usually cannot be sure which complex processes occur within them because we always start the forensic process after the fact, when much of the data has already been lost.”

Data from SN 2023ixf was also collected in X-ray from NASA’s Swift spacecraft, and spectra were obtained from the ground-based Keck Observatory in Hawai’i. Together, all these observations helped piece together the evolution of the explosion as it changed over time.

The remnants of Kepler’s supernova, which exploded within our galaxy in 1604. Composite image using data from Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer space telescopes. NASA/ESA/JHU/R.Sankrit & W.Blair.

Another PhD student on the team, Ido Irani, says that the explosion probably formed a black hole, replacing the aged red giant that once sat in its place.

“Calculations of the circumstellar material emitted in the explosion, as well as this material’s density and mass before and after the supernova, create a discrepancy, which makes it very likely that the missing mass ended up in a black hole that was formed in the aftermath of the explosion – something that’s usually very hard to determine,” he says.

Follow-up observations are expected to provide even more details about the event, and help astronomers understand more precisely how supernovae occur and interact with their environment.

Learn More:

“A Hundred Million Suns.” Keck Observatory.

The post Astronomers Catch a Supernova Explode Almost in Realtime appeared first on Universe Today.

It’s a well known fact that black holes absorb anything that falls into them. Often before material ‘vanishes’ inside it forms into an accretion disk around them. Like the progenitor stars, the black holes have powerful magnetic fields and these can generate jets that blast away from the black hole. A similar process occurs in neutron stars that are orbiting other stars and recent observations holes have shown that some material in the jets travel at speeds 35-40% the speed of light. 

The European Space Agency launched the International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral) in October 2002. Its purpose to observe gamma ray events across the universe with energies up to 8 MeV (meagaelectron volts). Not only can it image gamma ray events, it can also provide spectroscopic analysis. Of all the gamma ray instruments in space, Integral is the most sensitive. It was using Integral that astronomers detected the high velocity jets. 

Artist’s illustration of Integral. Image credit: ESA

One of the chief methods used to identify the velocity of jets is to track matter moving along their length. This might sound easy but the distances to them are so extreme that observing their movement is difficult. A team of astronomers led by Thomas Russell from the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy conjured up a cunning idea that neutron stars might help! 

Neutron stars are the result of the collapse of a massive star – effectively they are a whacking great neutron often around the size of Earth – and when a neutron star orbits another star, it can strip material off the companion. Most of the material accretes on the neutron star surface and wen it reaches a critical mass, a nuclear explosion occurs in an event known as a type-I x-ray burst. Some material however escapes this event by being ejected out of jets along the star’s rotational axis. 

Russell and his team concluded that the matter would be accelerated by the energy from the neutron star surface and it may be possible to measure the disturbance. The short lived impulse of extra material shot along the beam may make it easier to track. To date, there are 125 neutron stars that behave like this. If sufficient neutron stars with jets can be observed hen it may help us to understand the primary launching mechanism and whether magnetic fields from the star or material are key.

Two neutron stars (4U 1728-34 and 4U 1636-536) have been shown to exhibit x-ray burst events but only ’34 could be observed in radio wavelengths. x-ray events were observed on ‘536 but they only emitted radio waves. Supporting observations were needed from radio telescopes around the world. The bursts usually occur every few hours but it is difficult to predict. The Australian Telescope Compact Array chocked up 30 hours of observing in April 2021 and captured 14 x-ray bursts. The team were surprised to see that the nuclear explosion did not destroy the location where the jet launched but instead, saw strong input. The jets are well established phenomenon capable of withstanding such events. 

The new technique has shown that neutron star jets can be observed in this way so further observations are required to further explore the fascinating phenomena. 

Source : Integral spots giant explosions feeding neutron star jets?

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