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Every second in the Universe, more than 3,000 new stars form as clouds of dust and gas undergo gravitational collapse. Afterward, the remaining dust and gas settle into a swirling disk that feeds the star’s growth and eventually accretes to form planets – otherwise known as a protoplanetary disk. While this model, known as the Nebular Hypothesis, is the most widely accepted theory, the exact processes that give rise to stars and planetary systems are not yet fully understood. Shedding light on these processes is one of the many objectives of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

In a recent study, an international team of astronomers led by University of Arizona researchers and supported by scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy (MPIA) used the JWST’s advanced infrared optics to examine protoplanetary disks around new stars. These observations provided the most detailed insights into the gas flows that sculpt and shape protoplanetary disks over time. They also confirm what scientists have theorized for a long time and offer clues about what our Solar System looked like roughly 4.6 billion years ago.

The research was led by Ilaria Pascucci, a Professor of astrophysics and planetary science from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at The University of Arizona. She was joined by researchers from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the Observatoire de Paris, the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy, and multiple universities. The paper that describes their findings recently appeared in Nature Astronomy.

Artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk made of gas and dust. Credit: LMU/Thomas Zankl, crushed eyes media

In order for young stars to grow, they must draw in gas from the protoplanetary disk surrounding them. For that to happen, the gas must lose angular momentum (inertia); otherwise, it would consistently orbit the star and never accrete onto it. However, the mechanism that allows this to happen has remained the subject of debate among astronomers. In recent years, magnetically driven disk winds have emerged as a possible mechanism. Primarily powered by magnetic fields, these “winds” funnel streams of gas away from the planet-forming disk into space at dozens of kilometers per second.

This causes it to lose angular momentum, allowing the leftover gas to fall inward toward the star. For their study, the researchers selected four protoplanetary disk systems that appear edge-on when viewed from Earth. Using Webb’s Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), the team could trace various wind layers by tuning the instrument to detect distinct atoms and molecules in certain transition states. The team also obtained spatially resolved spectral information across the entire field of view using the spectrograph’s Integral Field Unit (IFU).

This allowed the team to trace the disk winds in unprecedented detail and revealed an intricate, three-dimensional layered structure: a central jet nested inside a cone-shaped envelope of winds at increasing distances. The team also noted a pronounced central hole inside the cones in all four protoplanetary disks. According to Pascucci, one of the most important processes at work is how the star accretes matter from its surrounding disk:

“How a star accretes mass has a big influence on how the surrounding disk evolves over time, including the way planets form later on. The specific ways in which this happens have not been understood, but we think that winds driven by magnetic fields across most of the disk surface could play a very important role.”

However, other processes are also responsible for shaping protoplanetary disks. These include “X-wind,” where the star’s magnetic field pushes material outward at the inner edge of the disk. There are also “thermal winds,” which blow at much slower velocities and are caused by intense starlight eroding its outer edge. The high sensitivity and resolution of the JWST were ideally suited to distinguish between the magnetic field-driven wind, the X-wind, and the thermal wind. These observations revealed a nested structure of the various wind components that had never been seen before.

Observed gas jet and wind structure of the HH 30 protostar, with offsets given in astronomical units (au), the mean distance between the Sun and Earth. Credit and ©: I. Pascucci et al./MPIA

A crucial distinction between the magnetically driven and the X-winds is how they are located farther out and cover broader regions. These winds cover regions that correspond to the inner rocky planets of our solar system, roughly between Earth and Mars. They also extend farther above the disk than thermal winds, reaching hundreds of times the distance between Earth and the Sun. While astronomers previously found observational evidence of these winds based on interferometric observations at radio wavelengths, they could not image the full disk in detail to determine the winds’ morphology.

In contrast, the new JWST observations revealed a nested structure and morphology that matched what astronomers anticipated for magnetically driven disk wind. Looking ahead, Pascucci’s and her team hope to expand these observations to more protoplanetary disks to see how common the observed disk wind structures are and how they evolve.

“Our observations strongly suggest that we have obtained the first detailed images of the winds that can remove angular momentum and solve the longstanding problem of how stars and planetary systems form,” she said. “We believe they could be common, but with four objects, it’s a bit difficult to say. We want to get a larger sample with JWST and then also see if we can detect changes in these winds as stars assemble and planets form.”

Further Reading: MPIA, Nature Astronomy

The post The JWST Reveals New Things About How Planetary Systems Form appeared first on Universe Today.

China have a roadmap to sent astronauts to the Moon in 2030 and when they do, they are going with a very definite nod to the Chinese origins to the rocket! Their officials have unveiled the new look Chinese space suit with all the mod cons but with a design that is somewhat reminiscent of Chinese armour. There will some fabulous features like the close and long distance field of view visor, a chest control panel and a protective material to shield against the harmful lunar environment. 

Think of space exploration and it won’t be long before images of astronauts in space suits appears in your mind. The puffy looking outfits are of crucial importance to human space flight for they are the life-support system, enabling an astronaut to stay alive in space! Providing protection against extreme temperatures, the suit is also able to maintain a constant pressure around the astronaut to protect from the vacuum of space. 

Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti – Image : NASA

They provide oxygen for breathing, a coolant system, toiletry provision and a helmet with a special sun visor to protect their eyes. It’s fair to say, without a spacesuit, space exploration wouldn’t be possible, at least outside the confines of a spaceship. 

Just recently, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) revealed their space suit to be used in the first China Moon landing. It was displayed at the third Spacesuit Technology Forum in the southwest Chongqing Municipality and was adorned with red stripes. The stripes on the arms are a nod to the famous ‘flying apsaras’ (the flying celestial beings that accompany Buddhas!) while the stripes on the legs represent rocket flames during launch!

A video has been released  that shows the space suits being put through their paces by astronauts Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping. It shows the duo wearing the space suits and performing a range of different movements from walking, bending, kneeling on one knee and squatting. All of which seems to have been performed with ease. 

The two made Chinese history when Zhia became the first Chinese astronaut to conduct a spacewalk and Wang became the first woman who entered the Chinese space station. 

Tiangong Chinese space station Image Credit: China Manned Space Agency.

The new suit began development in 2020 with the aim to produce a lightweight suit for lunar exploration that was compact and reliable. To enable the success, a number of technological breakthroughs was achieved. The first and second generations of the Feitian spacesuits which preceded this new design have enabled 17 astronauts to complete 17 extravehicular activities (activities outside the space craft) helping construct and maintain the Tiangong Space Station. 

With all going to plan, the Chinese lunar mission plan is to land an explorer on the Moon’s surface by 2030. With the launch (pardon the pun) of the new Moon-landing spacesuit, CSMA mark a new era in their shot for the Moon. 

Source : China unveils moon-landing spacesuit for the first time

The post China Unveils its Lunar Spacesuit appeared first on Universe Today.

A mathematical proof shows that some quantum states can resist nature’s tendency to disorder – but only under very specific conditions

Mining the Moon to extract its resources is a critical step on humanity’s path into the solar system. One of the most common resources on the Moon is considered relatively valuable here on Earth – titanium. At $10,000 a ton, it is one of the more valuable metals used in various industries, such as aerospace and nanotechnology. So, could we utilize titanium from the Moon to supply Earth’s economy with more of this valuable material? That question is the focus of a paper from researchers at Uppsala University in Finland.

It should come as no surprise that titanium, the universe’s ninth most common element, is abundant on the Moon. Most of the Moon’s titanium is contained in a mineral called ilmenite, which is also available on the Earth for only about $390 per metric ton. Ilmenite makes up as much as 20% of the volume of some rocks in the Sea of Tranquility, where the Apollo astronauts landed and collected samples.

To ensure they accurately represented the amount of potential titanium available at this location on the Moon, the authors, Renaud Merle, Mikael Höök, Valentin Troll, and Alexander Giegling, examined two different concentrations of ilmenite—3% for the general regolith in the area and 15% for the basaltic rocks the Apollo astronauts sampled. They then compared the potential output of a mine in this region to the Tellnes mine in their native Norway, one of the world’s most productive.

Fraser interview Dr. Phil Metzger – one of the foremost experts on mining the lunar surface.

Tellnes sits on top of one of the richest deposits of titanium in the world, with an estimated 575 million metric tons available for mining. While it is dwarfed in size by the scale of the Sea of Tranquility, its high concentration of 18% of TiO2 (titanium dioxide – the most commonly found form of the material) means it arguably has a high lifetime output and a baseline for comparing the output of a lunar mine. Importantly, it regularly produces 750 kilotons of ilmenite annually, representing about 5% of worldwide titanium production.

Operating the mine requires a large excavator and six large dump trucks. Overall, the excavator and dump trucks manufactured by Caterpillar represent almost 2,500 tons of material to be shipped to the Moon. The authors estimate that would require more than 40 launches of a Saturn V—about equivalent to how many it has taken to build the ISS fully.

Once the equipment is on the Moon, it must still be powered. Large diesel engines that currently power these mammoth machines aren’t really an option on the Moon. On Earth, the total power required to operate all seven machines is about 11 MW, which the authors think could be met by a combination of solar energy and nuclear power. However, they don’t mention how a large enough battery would affect their weight calculations.

Isaac Arthurs discusses the benefits of mining the Moon.
Credit – Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur YouTube Channel

So, how effective would such a mining operation be if everything was in place, powered up, and running? There are several ways to measure effectiveness, but first, let’s look at the total amount of titanium produced. The authors’ calculations put the expected mined rate at about 500 kt per year—about 2/3rds the amount of Tellnes’ output—but it should be noted that it will take up to 20 years to scale up to this level.

A lot can change in 20 years in terms of technology and material usage more generally, so ultimately, this paper doesn’t make a convincing case for why it would be beneficial to mine titanium as an economical solution, especially since mines on Earth could quickly scale up their production to meet increased Earth-bound demand.

However, the mining process does have an added advantage—breaking apart ilmenite to release the titanium also releases oxygen, which is necessary for everything from rocket fuel to breathable air. So, instead of going after the titanium specifically, early lunar mining efforts might focus on the oxygen contained in the ilmenite and produce titanium—ostensibly the more valuable of the two materials back on Earth—as a side effect.

A closeup of a titanium lattice ball made using a 3-D printer. According to the European Space Agency, the hollow spheres have a “complex external geometry” that cannot be made with the usual manufacturing processes.
Credit: ESA

However, as the authors point out in the paper, it is doubtful that any such project would be undertaken in the next ten years. Until then, technologies will continue to develop until someday, someone will mine the first bit of titanium off the Moon. It just remains to be seen where this valuable material will be most useful once that happens.

Learn More:
Merle et al. – Assessing the plausibility of mining lunar titanium
UT – Researchers Developed a Test Bed For Separating Valuable Material on the Moon
UT – Finally, an Explanation for the Moon’s Radically Different Hemispheres
UT – The Moon Might Be More Metal-Rich Than We Thought

Lead Image:
A lunar mining facility harvests oxygen from the resource-rich volcanic soil of the eastern Mare Serenitatis.
Credit: NASA/Pat Rawlings

The post How Accessible is Titanium On The Moon? appeared first on Universe Today.

NASA's Curiosity rover, currently exploring Gale crater on Mars, is providing new details about how the ancient Martian climate went from potentially suitable for life -- with evidence for widespread liquid water on the surface -- to a surface that is inhospitable to terrestrial life as we know it.

Two more people in the US have tested positive for a bird flu virus called H5N1, highlighting the need for expanded influenza surveillance to prevent a potential pandemic

The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is on its way to do follow-up observations of Dimorphos, two years after an earlier probe knocked the mini-asteroid into a different orbital path around a bigger space rock.

Scientists say the close-up observations that Hera is due to make millions of miles from Earth, starting in 2026, will help them defend our planet from future threats posed by killer asteroids.

“Hera’s ability to closely study its asteroid target will be just what is needed for operational planetary defense,” Richard Moissl, who heads ESA’s Planetary Defense Office, said today in a news release. “You can imagine a scenario where a reconnaissance mission is dispatched rapidly, to assess if any follow-up deflection action is needed.”

The car-sized probe lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:52 a.m. ET (14:52 UTC) today, just as Hurricane Milton was approaching from the Gulf of Mexico. The day before the launch, forecasters put the chances of acceptable weather at just 15 percent. Nevertheless, SpaceX persisted.

Due to the mission’s requirements, the first-stage booster couldn’t be recovered this time, as has become the norm for Falcon 9 missions. This was the booster’s 23rd and final mission. A little more than an hour after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage put Hera on its interplanetary trajectory.

During the spacecraft’s two-year cruise to Dimorphos, it’s due to execute a series of course-changing maneuvers, including a swing past Mars that will provide an opportunity for observations of Deimos, one of the Red Planet’s moons.

View from Falcon 9's second stage during the Hera mission pic.twitter.com/a4Qrgg6Pp6

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 7, 2024

Hera is returning to the scene of a cosmic crash in 2022 between Dimorphos — which is about 530 feet across, or the size of the Great Pyramid in Egypt — and NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART.

DART was intentionally sent to a collision with Dimorphos to gauge the impact’s effect on the asteroid’s orbit around a larger asteroid known as Didymos. After the crash, scientists determined that Dimorphos’ orbital period had been shortened by 33 minutes, which represented a reduction of roughly 5%. They also identified a plume of debris that extended thousands of miles into space.

Hera is designed to conduct a more detailed “crash scene investigation,” providing data about Dimorphos’ shape and composition as well as the characteristics of the crater left behind by the smash-up.

The spacecraft will deploy two nanosatellites to aid in the investigation: One of the CubeSats, known as Milani, will survey the makeup of Dimorphos and the dust that surrounds it. Meanwhile, the Juventas mini-satellite will perform the first-ever subsurface radar probe of an asteroid. In the later phases of its six-month survey, Hera will test out an experimental self-driving mode as it navigates around Didymos and Dimorphos autonomously.

Data about the aftereffects of DART’s crash will be factored into the plans for deflecting the orbital paths of asteroids, if those paths are ever found to pose a substantial threat of a collision with Earth. Such strategies might require taking action years in advance of an encounter.

“By the end of Hera’s mission, the Didymos pair should become the best-studied asteroids in history, helping to secure Earth from the threat of incoming asteroids,” said Hera mission scientist Michael Kueppers.

What is ESA's #HeraMission? We currently know of more than 35 000 asteroids that come close enough to Earth for us to keep an eye on. Hera is part of the international effort to answer the question: could we do anything if we spotted one on a collision course? pic.twitter.com/MwgQmv7bZK

— ESA's Hera mission (@ESA_Hera) October 7, 2024

The post Hera Probe Heads Off to See Aftermath of DART’s Asteroid Impact appeared first on Universe Today.

SMU have created SmartCADD. This open-source virtual tool combines artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics and Computer Assisted Drug Design (CADD) techniques to speed up the screening of chemical compounds, significantly reducing drug discovery timelines.

SMU have created SmartCADD. This open-source virtual tool combines artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics and Computer Assisted Drug Design (CADD) techniques to speed up the screening of chemical compounds, significantly reducing drug discovery timelines.

Two Americans, Gary Ruvkun of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, and Victor Ambrose of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, have split this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs), single-stranded bits of RNA that do not code for proteins but act to regulate other genes.  The Nobel organization’s press release explains the significance of the discovery, but you can read the whole thing, which is much longer than this:

This year’s Nobel Prize honors two scientists for their discovery of a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated.

The information stored within our chromosomes can be likened to an instruction manual for all cells in our body. Every cell contains the same chromosomes, so every cell contains exactly the same set of genes and exactly the same set of instructions. Yet, different cell types, such as muscle and nerve cells, have very distinct characteristics. How do these differences arise? The answer lies in gene regulation, which allows each cell to select only the relevant instructions. This ensures that only the correct set of genes is active in each cell type.

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were interested in how different cell types develop. They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation. Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. It is now known that the human genome codes for over one thousand microRNAs. Their surprising discovery revealed an entirely new dimension to gene regulation. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.

And here’s how it started: as so often, with a seemingly minor observation that blew up big time, leading to generalizations about control of gene expression in all organisms—even viruses (but not bacteria).

In the late 1980s, Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were postdoctoral fellows in the laboratory of Robert Horvitz, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002, alongside Sydney Brenner and John Sulston. In Horvitz’s laboratory, they studied a relatively unassuming 1 mm long roundworm, C. elegans. Despite its small size, C. elegans possesses many specialized cell types such as nerve and muscle cells also found in larger, more complex animals, making it a useful model for investigating how tissues develop and mature in multicellular organisms. Ambros and Ruvkun were interested in genes that control the timing of activation of different genetic programs, ensuring that various cell types develop at the right time. They studied two mutant strains of worms, lin-4 and lin-14, that displayed defects in the timing of activation of genetic programs during development. The laureates wanted to identify the mutated genes and understand their function. Ambros had previously shown that the lin-4 gene appeared to be a negative regulator of the lin-14 gene. However, how the lin-14 activity was blocked was unknown. Ambros and Ruvkun were intrigued by these mutants and their potential relationship and set out to resolve these mysteries.

After his postdoctoral research, Victor Ambros analyzed the lin-4 mutant in his newly established laboratory at Harvard University. Methodical mapping allowed the cloning of the gene and led to an unexpected finding. The lin-4 gene produced an unusually short RNA molecule that lacked a code for protein production. These surprising results suggested that this small RNA from lin-4 was responsible for inhibiting lin-14. How might this work?

Here’s the announcement, which I always find exciting:

AND THE TWO CONTESTS:

1.) Guess who will win the other two Nobel Prizes in science: Physics and Chemistry.  One guess per discipline, and the first person who guesses both winners gets one of my trade books, autographed per their choice (including cat drawings).

2.) Alternatively you can choose the other contest: Guess who will win these two prizes: Literature and Peace.  Same rules as above, and same prize.

You can guess in only one of these two competitions.

In previous years, people have failed miserably in these contests, but someday someone will win. . . .

While the 20th century saw rapid rises in average life expectancy at birth, more recent years have seen a slowdown, suggesting we may be reaching the limit of human lifespan

A pair of ctenophores, or comb jellies, can fuse their bodies together, merging their digestive and nervous systems, without any issues with immune rejection

Daniele Oriti’s pursuit of a theory of quantum gravity has led him to the startling conclusion that the laws of nature don’t exist independently of us – a perspective shift that could yield fresh breakthroughs

Some environmental phenols are known to have cardiac toxicities. Now, a new study is revealing their adverse impact on the heart's electrical properties.

Planet-forming disks, maelstroms of gas and dust swirling around young stars, are nurseries that give rise to planetary systems, including our solar system. Astronomers have discovered new details of gas flows that sculpt those disks and shape them over time.

New experimental results suggest that sprinkling boron into a tokamak could shield the wall of the fusion vessel and prevent atoms from the wall from getting into the plasma. A new computer modeling framework shows the boron powder may only need to be sprinkled from one location.

New experimental results suggest that sprinkling boron into a tokamak could shield the wall of the fusion vessel and prevent atoms from the wall from getting into the plasma. A new computer modeling framework shows the boron powder may only need to be sprinkled from one location.

Researchers conducted innovative simulations of spinning black holes grounded in general relativity, which clarified that the ultraluminous accretion disk (i.e., gaseous spiral surrounding a black hole) exhibits a precessional motion driven by the black hole's spin. This finding underscores the potential of this spin to be the primary driver of the periodic fluctuations in luminosity observed within these ultraluminous accretion disks.

Researchers have developed a novel method using facet-selective, ultrafine cocatalysts to efficiently split water to create hydrogen -- a clean source of fuel.

Researchers have created a high-performance polymer that can be chemically recycled without compromising its heat and chemical resistance. The revolutionary design includes a directing group that allows links in the polymer to be broken easily with a catalyst and the original polymer to be reformed in few steps. The directing group could be included in many polymers, potentially providing a new generation of high-performance plastics that can be recycled indefinitely.