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Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called, “road2,” has an accompanying note that says this: “A resurrection from 2006, when the boys first got in their car.”  As far as I can understand this one, Mo never saw an uncovered women before he passed his test, and so his ogling endangers both of the Divine Duo.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sciencesalon/mss448_Michael_Shermer_2024_07_17.mp3 Download MP3

Why do people believe the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was a conspiracy?

The assassination attempt on President Donald Trump on July 13 has already spawned a bevy of conspiracy theories. The blood on his ear was that of a theatrical gel pack, which you can supposedly see in his hand as he touches his ear. Trump’s defiant response was staged, as evidenced by the fact that the Secret Service let him back up after tackling him to the ground. The Secret Service let it happen on purpose (LIHOP in conspiracy circles) by waiting for the assassin to take his shot before returning fire. The ladder for the shooter to get on the roof was planted by covert operatives. This was yet another hit ordered by Vladimir Putin. The Chinese want to make sure Trump doesn’t return to the Presidency so they can take Taiwan. The shooter was part of Antifa. Never-Trumper Republicans were behind it. It was a false flag operation.

It is early still, and there is much we do not know about Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, but the odds are long that he was a lone actor and not part of a conspiracy. The 20-year old was, in fact, described by acquaintances as a “loner” in high school who was bullied and had “a few friends” but “didn’t have a whole friend group.” He was a registered Republican but donated $15 to the Democratic Progressive Turnout Project in 2021. He had possession of his father’s legally-purchased AR-15 style rifle, and had in his car dozens of rounds of ammunition and bomb-making materials. Most revealingly, Crooks was allegedly rejected by his high school riflery club for being “comically bad” with a gun. Does this sound like the profile of a hitman that a crack team of conspirators would contract with to assassinate a former president?

To be sure, there are a number legitimate questions surrounding the Trump assassination attempt that do not involve conspiracies:

1. Why did the cop who confronted the shooter on the roof not have his gun at the ready so he could engage him instead of standing down?
2. The shooter appears to have accessed the rooftop via a large ladder, but how did that ladder get there in the first place?
3. The building on which Crooks was perched was, in fact, a staging area for local police, so how did they miss the would-be assassin climbing onto the roof?
4. Since the Secret Service sharpshooter killed the assassin within seconds of shots fired, why did he not take the shot first?
5. Why did the Secret Service allow Trump to jump back up to pump his fist and mouth “fight fight fight” to the crowd when they should have whisked him away to his bullet-proof SUV?
6. Why did the police not take seriously all the bystanders who saw the gunman on the roof and alerted them about it.

These “BlueAnon” conspiracy theories, so named for their doppleganger echo of QAnon conspiracism, are as predictable as they are irrational. The day before the assassination attempt, in fact, I was in attendance as a speaker at the annual Freedom Fest conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, along with Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who famously believes that the CIA assassinated his uncle John F. Kennedy and his father Robert F. Kennedy. The CIA has done some questionable things in foreign countries in the name of national interests there, but murdering their own president and possible future president? Why do otherwise rational people believe such seemingly irrational things?

In my book, Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, I attempt to answer this question by outlining a number of cognitive and emotional factors at work, including:

Event magnitude. The larger the event the more conspiracism surrounds it, as people invest more time and energy into everything that happened surrounding the event in search of some deeper cause. The assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK, and terrorist attacks like 9/11, are so large in scope and interest that they draw our attention to examine every detail so scrupulously that everything becomes pregnant with meaning.

Proportionality bias. Large events need large causes. The Holocaust was one of the worst genocides in history and it was caused by one of the worst political regimes in history. There’s a proportionality balance there. The assassination of President Lincoln by a cabal of southern supporters in hopes of reigniting the South’s “war of independence” feels balanced. That JFK, MLK, and RFK were assassinated by lone gunmen, or that Princess Diana’s death in a car crash was the result of drunk driving and her not wearing a seatbelt, or that 9/11 was orchestrated by 19 guys with box cutters, doesn’t feel proportional, so we turn to deeper conspiratorial causes.

Anomaly hunting. Large events lead people to look for anything unusual, especially if it is unexplainable, then glomming on to that anomaly as “evidence” of a conspiracy. How did that ladder get there for the Trump shooter to climb up on the roof? Why didn’t that police officer stop the shooter when he confronted him? Why didn’t the Secret Service take out the shooter before he shot at Trump? Why was Trump allowed to jump back up to make a fist pump after being shot?

Personal incredulity. If I can’t think of an explanation for anomaly X besides a conspiracy, then that proves there is a conspiracy.

Hindsight Bias. The tendency to reconstruct the past to fit with present knowledge. Once an event has occurred, we look back and reconstruct how it happened, why it had to happen that way and not some other way, and why we should have seen it coming all along.

Patternicity and agenticity. The tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise, and to infuse those patterns with intentional agents, leads to conspiratorial cognition.

Uncertainty bias. In the early days of a major event much is unknown, and that leads people to fill in the blanks with whatever comes to mind.

Teleological thinking. The belief that everything happens for a reason and nothing of importance happens by chance.

With all of these factors at work, it was inevitable that within minutes of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump conspiricism would flood social media. While it is not completely irrational to believe in some conspiracy theories—given that conspiracies do happen and it is often better to be safe than sorry—it is very likely that the attempt to kill President Trump was not part of some nefarious cabal and instead was the act of an unhinged lone actor. Keep in mind that in U.S. history four presidents have been assassinated while in office—Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy—only one of which was the result of a conspiracy (Lincoln). And another five presidents survived assassination attempts—Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan—all of which were by lone assassins. As was the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968, after a campaign rally at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Kennedy was murdered by a Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan, who testified in his trial that he killed Kennedy “with 20 years of malice aforethought.”

Thus, it is rational to apply the Conspiracism Principle first: Never attribute to malice what can be explained by randomness or incompetence.

Well, this is about it, folks. This feature, which has been going daily for over a decade, is about to go extinct. It is sad because in general contributions and commenting (especially on science posts) seem to be waning, and an unread website is a dying website.

Fortunately, reader Damon Williford from Texas sent a photo contribution a few minutes ago!  His captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Attached are a few photos of butterflies taken in May at a local park in Bay City, Texas.

Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius):

A pair of mating Clouded Skippers:

Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) feeding on nectar from lantana (Lantana spp.):

Tropical Checkered-skipper (Burnsius oileus):

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia):

All photos were taken with a Canon EOS R7 and Canon f/5.6-8 IS USM. I used iNaturalist to identify the insects.

Was COVID cooked up in a lab? Do “they” have a cure for cancer and are hiding it from the public? Do pharmaceutical companies make up diseases to market otherwise failed drugs? Did insurance companies scheme with infectious disease professional organizations to suppress treatments for chronic Lyme disease? Did the supplement industry lobby congress to weaken regulations of their own products? OK, […]

The post Conspiracy Medicine first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Exploring exoplanet atmospheres in more detail was one task that planetary scientists anticipated during the long wait while the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was in development. Now, their patience is finally paying off. News about discoveries of exoplanet atmosphere using data from JWST seems to be coming from one research group or another almost every week, and this week is no exception. A paper published in Nature by authors from a few dozen institutions describes the atmospheric differences between the “morning” and “evening” sides of a tidally locked planet for the first time.

First, let’s clarify what the “morning” and “evening” sides mean. Tidally locked planets don’t spin, so one hemisphere constantly faces the planet’s star. As such, there is always a part of the planet where it appears to be “morning,” with the star barely peaking over the horizon. Alternatively, there’s a part of the planet where it seems to be “evening,” where the star is again just barely peaking over the horizon, but it would appear to be setting. 

Typically, on Earth, we would think of the morning side as the star peaking over the eastern side, whereas the evening side would see the star setting into the western sky. However, exoplanets sometimes rotate in the opposite direction from planets in our solar system, so that mental model doesn’t always work for them.

The JWST light curve for WASP-34b, clearly showing the dip in the star’s brightness as the planet passes in front of it.
Credit – NASA / ESA / CSA / R. Crawford (STScI)

It’s also important not to confuse the “morning” and “evening” sides with the “day” and “night” sides of the planet. On the day side, the full force of the star affects the planet, but on the night side, the star is never seen at all. The temperature differences on such a planet are massive, and cause much more extreme weather than anything we have experience with in our solar system.

That is the case for WASP-39b, one of the most studied exoplanets. It is a “hot Jupiter” and is roughly 1.3 times the size of the largest planet in our solar system, though it only masses in at about the same size as Saturn. It’s 700 light years away and is tidally locked to its star.

Exoplanet hunters have intently studied this exoplanet since its discovery in 2011. It was the target of JWST’s first exoplanet research when it began science operations. Since then, they’ve made several interesting discoveries, and the Nature paper describes a new one—that the “morning” side of WASP-39b is a few hundred degrees cooler than its “evening” side.

Fraser talks exoplanet atmosphere with expert Dr. Joanna Barstow.

This temperature discrepancy is likely due to atmospheric conditions on the planet itself. The paper’s authors believe there is an extremely strong wind on the planet that runs from day to night at thousands of miles an hour. The wind rotates from the day side through the evening side to the night side, then through the morning side back to the day side.

So, essentially, the morning side receives “air” that has been cooled while traveling through the planet’s night side. However, that air is still a blistering 600 C (1,150 F). The temperature on the evening side, though, is hotter at 800 C (1,450 F), much hotter than any conditions found on any planet in our solar system.

Detecting such a temperature difference on an exoplanet hundred of light years away is an impressive technical feat, and the study’s lead author, Néstor Espinoza, credits JWST’s capabilities for enabling it. The telescope watched the planet both while it was traversing in front of its star, but also while it was next to it and emitting its own, admittedly much fainter, light. 

JWST found methane in a different exoplanet atmosphere, as Fraser describes in this video.

They were differentiating between the starlight filtered through the atmosphere of the planet and when there was no filtered starlight coming through allowed the researchers to make temperature estimates. JWST is so sensitive they were also able to split the data into semi-circles to differentiate the” “morning” side from the “evening” side. They also noticed that the “evening” side was slightly puffier, indicating that it was hotter than its counterpart.

The authors plan to use WASP-39b as a basis for studying future exoplanet atmospheres, and there are plenty more in JWST’s dataset to look at. In addition, another round of data collection, Webb Cycle 2 General Observers Program 3969, will also focus on the atmospheres of other hot Jupiters. Finally, planetary scientists won’t have to wait for their treasure trove of data anymore.

Learn More:
NASA – NASA’s Webb Investigates Eternal Sunrises, Sunsets on Distant World
Espinoza et al. – Inhomogeneous terminators on the exoplanet WASP-39 b
UT – Sulphur Makes A Surprise Appearance in this Exoplanet’s Atmosphere
UT – The Atmosphere of an Exoplanet Reveals Secrets About Its Surface

Lead Image:
Artists concept of WASP-39b.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, R. Crawford (STScI)

The post Webb Measures the Weather on a Tidally Locked Exoplanet appeared first on Universe Today.

Next time you’re visiting the seaside or a large lake, or even sipping a frosty glass of water, think about where it all originated. There are many pathways that water could have taken to the infant Earth: via comets, “wet asteroids”, and outgassing from early volcanism. Aster Taylor, a University of Michigan graduate student has another idea: dark comets. They’re something of a cross between asteroids and comets and could have played a role in water delivery to our planet.

Dark comets are small Solar System bodies. They have short rotational periods thanks to non-gravitational pushes by sublimation that creates jets. These mysterious objects probably make up more than half of all near-Earth objects.

Dark Comets and Asteroids

Planetary scientists consider dark comets as a population of active asteroids. Yet, they aren’t in the same category as regular asteroids and comets. They’re on near-Earth orbits, so when one passes close to the Sun, it doesn’t grow a coma. That lack of a coma is why they’re called “dark comets.” Yet, their sublimation jets appear to be a response to radiation from the Sun. They’re likely rich in water ice so that raises an interesting question. Could these also have been a source of water for Earth in the distant past?

“We don’t know if these dark comets delivered water to Earth,” said Taylor. “But we can say that there is still debate over how exactly the Earth’s water got here,” Taylor said. “The work we’ve done has shown that this is another pathway to get ice from somewhere in the rest of the Solar System to the Earth’s environment.”

Water Delivery From Small Bodies

The story of how Earth got its water is still unfolding. One theory says infant Earth formed with molecular precursors to water. Another one says that water-laden asteroids and comets brought water to Earth during or just after formation. That’s interesting because most asteroids exist near the so-called “ice line”—a region well beyond Earth where liquids freeze. Something propelled them to the inner solar system. When they got close to the Sun, their ice sublimated. That’s actually what happens with a comet, too. So, maybe both comets and planetesimals were water-bearers during Earth’s formation. Volcanic activity could have released their trapped water as vapor.

An artist’s rendering of the early Moon and Earth, which sustained many asteroid impacts. Many of those asteroids and possibly dark comets contributed their water to the infant Earth. As it cooled, the water outgassed as vapor. Credit: Simone Marchi (SwRI)/SSERVI/NASA

How about the wet asteroids, though? Where did they come from? We know that comets formed out in the cooler reaches of the protosolar nebula. Somehow they make their way (through gravitational perturbations and dynamical action) to the inner solar system. There, they have collided with Earth (just like Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 encountered Jupiter in 1994).

That leaves the water ice-rich asteroids or “dark comets”. Most water-rich asteroids or “dark comets” exist in the Asteroid Belt. However, plenty of them orbit in the inner solar system, too. Those near-Earth objects probably made their way sunward due to gravitational interactions with Jupiter or other worlds. Those with some amount of water ice trapped on or below their surfaces could have been a delivery mechanism for water to early Earth.

An artist’s concept of a rocky planet and a rain of comets and other objects pummeling its surface. These, along with dark comets, could have delivered water to early Earth. Courtesy NASA/JPL. Searching for Water-rich Dark Comets

The same would be true of the dark comets, according to Taylor. “We think these objects came from the inner and/or outer main Asteroid Belt, and the implication of that is that this is another mechanism for getting some ice into the inner solar system,” he said. “There may be more ice in the inner main belt than we thought. There may be more objects like this out there. This could be a significant fraction of the nearest population. We don’t really know, but we have many more questions because of these findings.”

To test their ideas about dark comets, Taylor and fellow team members created dynamical models that looked at different populations of these objects and modeled possible paths they could have taken to get to Earth. Many of these objects in the model ended up where today’s dark comets exist—on orbits that bring them into the inner solar system. Their model showed the team that many of these objects ended up where dark comets are today and that the main Asteroid Belt is their source.

One Object Implicates Many

The team’s work also suggests that one large object may come from the Jupiter-family comets, with orbits that take them close to Jupiter. It’s called 2003 RM, and follows an elliptical orbit that brings it close to Earth, then out to Jupiter and back past Earth. Its orbit is pretty typical of a Jupiter family comet that was knocked inward from its orbit.

Taylor’s team studies focused on seven dark comets. The result of their work suggests that between 0.5% and 60% of all near-Earth objects could be dark comets that aren’t accelerated by gravitational interactions. Instead, these objects experience non-gravitational accelerations—that is, they are moved along by the “jet action” of ice as it sublimates. The researchers suggest that these dark comets likely came from the asteroid belt but that they moved due to those nongravitational accelerations. They also think that other asteroids in the Belt also contain ice.

More About Dark Comets

The population of dark comets includes small, fast-rotating objects, especially when compared to larger asteroids. Comets are known to rotate fairly fast because they start to lose their ice to sublimation as they near the Sun. As we saw when the Rosetta spacecraft studied Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a comet nucleus sprouts little jets as part of the sublimation process. Those jets have the effect of pushing the comet nucleus along. It also accelerates it, giving the object that non-gravitational acceleration mentioned above. Sublimation can also cause the object to spin quite fast. If it rotates quickly enough, the object (comet nucleus or rubble pile asteroid) breaks apart.

Image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft on Jan. 31, 2015. There’s a jet of material streaming from the comet as it’s warmed by the Sun. It’s not a dark comet, but still experiences sublimation. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0)

“These pieces will also have ice on them, so they will also spin out faster and faster until they break into more pieces,” Taylor said. “You can just keep doing this as you get smaller and smaller and smaller. What we suggest is that the way you get these small, fast rotating objects is you take a few bigger objects and break them into pieces.”

As these dark objects lose their ice, they get even smaller and rotate more rapidly. Taylor’s team thinks that while the larger dark comet, 2003 RM, was likely a larger object that got kicked out of the outer main belt of the Asteroid Belt, the six other objects they studied likely came from the inner main belt. They probably were part of a larger object that got knocked inward and broke apart. Further study of this and similar dark comets should help determine what contribution these objects played in the delivery of Earth’s water.

For More Information

The Origins of Dark Comets
The Dynamical Origins of the Dark Comets and a Proposed Evolutionary Track

The post More Than Half of Near Earth Objects Could Be “Dark Comets” appeared first on Universe Today.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has accomplished some spectacular feats since it began operations in 2021. Thanks to its sensitivity in the near- and mid-infrared wavelengths, it can take detailed images of cooler objects and reveal things that would otherwise go unnoticed. This includes the iconic image Webb took of Jupiter in August 2022, which showed the planet’s atmospheric features (including its polar aurorae and Great Red Spot) in a new light. Using Webb, a team of European astronomers recently observed the region above the Great Red Spot and discovered previously unseen features.

The team was led by Dr. Henrik Melin, an STFC JWST Fellow and Planetary Scientist from the University of Leicester. He was joined by researchers from the University of Reading, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the Center for Space Physics at Boston University, the Observatoire de Paris, the SETI Institute, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and multiple universities. The paper that describes their observations recently appeared in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The team conducted integral field spectroscopy (IFS) of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot using Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in July 2022. This process involves dissecting an astronomical image into multiple spatial components and dispersing them with a spectrograph to provide spatially resolved information. Their observations were made as part of an Early Release Science program titled “ERS Observations of the Jovian System as a Demonstration of JWST’s Capabilities for Solar System Science.”

Interestingly, the discovery was completely unexpected, as the team attempted to study Jupiter’s upper atmosphere in more detail. Compared to Jupiter’s bright aurorae, the glow from the planet’s ionosphere is weak, making it difficult for ground-based telescopes to conduct detailed observations of this region. Scientists have been especially interested in studying Jupiter’s ionosphere since it is where Jupiter’s atmosphere and magnetic field begin to interact. It is within this layer that Jupiter’s polar aurorae can be seen, which are fueled by material ejected by Io’s many active volcanoes.

Closer to the equator, the structure of the planet’s upper atmosphere is influenced by incoming sunlight. Because Jupiter receives only 4% as much sunlight as Earth, astronomers expected this region of the atmosphere to be homogenous. However, the team was surprised that this region contained intricate wave patterns, including dark arcs, bright spots, and other structures. As Dr. Melin explained in an ESA press release:

“We thought this region, perhaps naively, would be really boring. It is in fact just as interesting as the northern lights, if not more so. Jupiter never ceases to surprise. One way in which you can change this structure is by gravity waves – similar to waves crashing on a beach, creating ripples in the sand. These waves are generated deep in the turbulent lower atmosphere, all around the Great Red Spot, and they can travel up in altitude, changing the structure and emissions of the upper atmosphere.”

Since sunlight drives the light emitted from the planet’s ionosphere, the team suspects that another mechanism is responsible for altering the shape and structure of this region. In the future, the team hopes to conduct follow-up observations of these wave patterns to investigate how they move within Jupiter’s upper atmosphere and how they change over time. These findings could also inform the ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), which will reach Jupiter and begin conducting detailed observations in 2031.

Further Reading: ESA

The post New Images From Webb Reveal Jupiter's Complex Atmosphere appeared first on Universe Today.

CRISPR-Cas systems, defense systems in bacteria, have become a plentiful source of technologies for molecular diagnostics. Researchers have now expanded this extensive toolbox further. Their novel method, called PUMA, enables the detection of RNA with Cas12 nucleases, which naturally target DNA. PUMA promises a wide range of applications and high accuracy.

Pulsars are the remnants of the explosion of massive stars at the end of their lives. The event is known as a supernova and as they rapidly spin they sweep a high energy beam across the cosmos much like a lighthouse. The alignment of some pulsar beams mean they sweep across Earth predictably and with precise regularity. They can be, and often are used as timing gauges but a team of astronomers have found subtle timing changes in some pulsars hinting at unseen mass between pulsars and telescopes—possibly dark matter entities.

The discovery in 1967 of pulsars has revolutionised our understanding of stellar evolution. The are formed during the collapse of supermassive stars at the end of their life. As the fusion in the core ceases, the inrushing stellar material crashing down onto the core compresses it to incredible density. The material that once made up the star is, through this process compressed into a sphere just a few tens of kilometres across. Pulsars are closely related to neutron stars which are formed though the same process and it is believed, the only difference is that one has a highly energetic beam that flashes across the Earth and one doesn’t. 

Visualization of a fast-rotating pulsar. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

A team studying pulsars has recently detected hints of potential dark matter objects through changes in pulsar timing events as they rotate. Professor John LoSecco from the University of Notre Dame, presented at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull and emphasised the precision of pulsar-based timekeeping. “Science has advanced with precise time measurement methods,” he noted, comparing Earth’s atomic clocks with pulsars in space. While gravitational effects on light have been understood for over a century, their applications in uncovering hidden masses remain largely unexplored until now.

Professor LoSecco and the team noted tiny deviations in the pulsar timing, suggesting that radio waves may be getting redirected around an unseen mass located somewhere between the pulsar and the telescope. LoSecco theorised that the masses could potentially be dark matter! 

By examining the delays and analysing the radio pulse arrivals (which were typically accurate to within a nanosecond) they explored the pathway of radio signals within the latest Parkes Pulsar Timing Array survey. Other telescopes involved in this initiative were the Effelsberg, Nançay, Westerbork, Green Bank, Arecibo, Parkes, and the Lovell telescope in Cheshire. Using this and Parkes data, the pulse arrival times were analysed.

The Arecibo Radio Telescope Credit: UCF

The results showed that the pulses occur regularly every three weeks across three observational bands. However, when dark matter causes delays in arrival times, these delays display distinct shapes proportional to the mass of the dark matter. Regions with dark matter slow down the passage of light and effect the pulsar timings. The Sun for example, could produce a delay of about 10 microseconds however the timing differences 10,000 times smaller.  A detailed examination of precise data from 65 ‘millisecond pulsars’ has identified approximately twelve instances suggestive of interactions with dark matter.

Source : How astronomers are using pulsars to observe evidence of dark matter

The post Pulsars are the Ideal Probes for Dark Matter appeared first on Universe Today.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has done it again. A team of astronomers have used it to map the weather on a pair of brown dwarf stars. Infrared light was analysed from the pair and its variation over time was measured. The team were able to generate a 3D picture of the weather and discovered gasses in the atmosphere like water vapour, methane and carbon dioxide. Swirling clouds of hot sand were also found with temperatures reaching as high as 950 C!

Weather on worlds beyond our solar system, is likely to be diverse and extreme. Some, like hot Jupiters (worlds that orbit close to their star and have high temperatures) or even brown dwarfs (failed stars) have temperatures high enough to vaporise metals with winds moving at thousands of kilometres per hour. Others, tidally locked planets, show strong contrasts between their hot, sunlit side and cold, dark side, creating intense atmospheric circulation. Advanced telescopes like JWST and space missions are revealing these weather systems, improving our understanding of planetary science. 

This artist’s concept shows what the hot gas-giant exoplanet WASP-43 b could look like. Image Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

The team studied brown dwarfs, that are part of a binary system known as WISE 1049AB, the brightest and closest of their type to Earth. Brown dwarfs are celestial objects that bridge the gap between the largest planets and the smallest stars, typically ranging from 13 to 80 times the mass of Jupiter. They lack sufficient mass for sustained hydrogen fusion in the core but emit infrared radiation due to residual heat and fusion of deuterium and lithium. The WISE 1049AB system is about six light years away. 

The astronomers observed the light output and how it changed over time to develop a picture of cloudy regions as they rotated into and out of view. This was then visualised as light curves – plots showing how the brightness of each object varies over time. Using this information allowed them to create 3D image of the weather on the objects covering a span of five to seven hours, one day on the brown dwarfs. Not only did they capture and plot light curves but to understand the chemical composition of the atmosphere they explored the different wavelengths of light that were being emitted.

The 3D weather information could help develop a better understanding of brown dwarfs and how they can provide insight into the missing link between planets and stars. The latest study takes previous research work which focussed largely on snapshots of the atmosphere on just one side and expands upon them. Trying to improve the model of atmospheric changes is challenging though because brown dwarfs rotate quickly and the weather can change swiftly. 

Artist impression of the James Webb Space Telescope

Using JWST to observe regions of the the infrared spectrum which are not accessible from Earth helps to develop new areas for study including the evolutionary process of brown dwarfs. This study, which was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society will enable more detailed studies of brown dwarfs and the mechanisms that drive them. 

The team is excited about the results. Not just having helped understand more about brown dwarfs but also to help develop techniques and technologies that might help build a clearer picture of the weather on exoplanets in years to come. 

Source : Scorching storms on distant worlds revealed in new detail

The post Webb Maps the Weather on the Closest Brown Dwarfs to Earth appeared first on Universe Today.

Astronauts sometimes struggle to consume enough nutritious food on the ISS because it tastes bland. But astronaut food is of high quality and designed to be palatable and to meet nutrition needs. What’s the problem?

NASA has two facilities devoted to astronaut food: the Space Food Systems Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Space Food Research Facility, also in Texas. Both facilities support the production and development of astronaut food— including menus, packaging, and hardware—for all of NASA’s space programs. There’s even an Advanced Food Research Team looking ahead to future space missions that will travel beyond the ISS and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).

Astronauts have a variety of foods available to them. Foods range from freeze-dried or dehydrated foods like scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes to “canned” type foods like ravioli and meatloaf to irradiated foods like smoked turkey. They even have unprepared foods like nuts and granola bars.

But despite these dedicated efforts to provide a variety of quality foods with enjoyable tastes, astronauts regularly report that their food tastes bland in space.

Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University are using Virtual Reality to research the cause of this problem. They’ve published a study in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology that presents their results. Its title is “Smell Perception in Virtual Spacecraft? A Ground-Based Approach to Sensory Data Collection.” The lead researcher is Julia Low from the School of Science at RMIT.

“The incredible thing with this VR study is that it really does go a very long way to simulating the experience of being on the space station.”

Gail Iles, study co-author, RMIT

Scientists—and the rest of us—know that the senses of smell and taste are linked. They’re both based on chemistry. Taste buds on our tongues sense the five basic flavours: umami, sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The olfactory sensors in our noses sense thousands of odours. Our brains combine all of these signals, and people who’ve lost their sense of smell report that food tastes bland.

Have astronauts lost their sense of smell? Are their senses of smell and taste altered somehow aboard the ISS?

“Contextual factors shape the overall food consumption experience,” the authors write in their paper. “Extreme consumption contexts like outer space present logistical, ethical and financial challenges for food sensory evaluation. Yet, these evaluations are necessary as the sensory aspects of palatability and variety enhance psychological and behavioural outcomes in space,” they write. Behavioural outcomes are particularly important in space for obvious reasons, and NASA and other space agencies are keenly interested in positive outcomes.

In this study, the researchers looked at three powerful food aromas: almond extract, vanilla extract, and lemon essential oils. They tested how 54 adults perceived these distinct aromas under normal Earth conditions and under VR-simulated International Space Station conditions.

This image shows the simulated ‘space laboratory’ utilized during the Virtual Reality experimental block for odour evaluation. A virtual sample appeared when subjects interacted with the red button on the box labelled ‘RMIT University’ (mimicking a sensory tasting booth hatch concept). Image Credit: Low et al. 2024

The results showed that two of the aromas, vanilla and almond, were perceived more intensely in the simulated ISS environment. The lemon scent was unchanged. The researchers found a sweet chemical in common in vanilla and almond called benzaldehyde. They think this chemical could be involved in the change in perceptions, alongside an individual’s sensitivity to the particular aroma.

Interestingly, a person’s mindset and emotions also play a role in their perception of the aromas.

“A greater sense of loneliness and isolation may also play a role, and there are implications from this study around how isolated people smell and taste food,” Low said.

Scientists have examined these issues before, not only in space but in confined, isolated Antarctic research stations. They’ve found that people in these environments can experience a significant change in their sense of smell. “These findings may hint at the potential impact of such environments on olfactory function,” they write.

This image shows the embedded questionnaire within the Virtual Reality context that appears after a subject interacts with a virtual sample. Image Credit: Low et al. 2024.

The low-gravity environment also affects astronauts. “Space travellers have noted a shift in taste perception, indicating that food is less flavourful/tasteful in space,” the authors write. “This change is initially linked to microgravity-induced fluid shifts, potentially affecting olfactory abilities.”

On Earth, the planet’s powerful gravity draws body fluids downward. In a microgravity environment in space, more fluids can collect in the head. When fluids collect in the nasal passages, it can hinder an astronaut’s senses of smell and taste. When combined with the stress of isolation and confinement, and with the conditions inside the spacecraft, like humidity and the presence of airborne compounds, the result can be bland food.

These fluid effects dissipate after a few weeks on board the ISS. Yet astronauts still report not enjoying their food. “Astronauts are still not enjoying their food even after fluid shift effects have gone, suggesting that there’s something more to this,” Low said.

“One of the long-term aims of the research is to make better-tailored foods for astronauts, as well as other people who are in isolated environments, to increase their nutritional intake closer to 100%,” lead researcher Julia Low said. This could extend to elders in nursing homes and could lead to more personalized food aromas to make nutritious food more palatable. (And if you’re of a dystopian frame of mind, could be used to make Soylent Green more tasty.)

“What we’re going to see in the future with the Artemis missions are much longer missions, years in length, particularly when we go to Mars, so we really need to understand the problems with diet and food and how crew interact with their food,” said Gail Iles. Iles is one of the study’s co-authors, an Associate Professor at RMIT, and a former astronaut trainer. “The incredible thing with this VR study is that it really does go a very long way to simulating the experience of being on the space station. And it really does change how you smell things and how you taste things.”

Food chemistry expert and Associate Professor Jayani Chandrapala is another of the study’s co-authors. Chandrapala emphasized the role that benzaldehyde, the common chemical compound in vanilla and almond, played in the results.

“In our study, we believe that it’s this sweet aroma that gives that highly intensive aroma within the VR setting,” said Chandrapala from the School of Science.

By combining taste and aroma perception, emotional settings, and VR, this study tackles one of the seldom-discussed aspects of future space travel beyond LEO. Discussions about long-term missions to Mars often focus on protecting astronauts from hazards like radiation, loss of bone density, and muscle atrophy. But nutrition is also foundational to mission success. A successful journey to Mars and back depends on getting as many details right as possible.

But these results extend to people in isolated settings here on Earth, too.

“The results of this study could help personalize people’s diets in socially isolated situations, including in nursing homes, and improve their nutritional intake,” Low said.

“These findings present opportunities for innovation in ground-based space sensory research and personalized eating experiences, refining immersive tools for future studies,” the authors write in their conclusion. “Such methods may expand beyond space applications, benefitting populations experiencing isolation and/or confined conditions, such as the elderly living alone, military personnel and individuals with limited mobility.”

The post Astronauts Struggle To Eat Their Space Food and Scientists Want to Know Why appeared first on Universe Today.

The hidden semiconductor abilities of diamonds could help power grids and electric vehicles manage far greater amounts of electricity more efficiently

Researchers have developed a new technique that pairs artificial intelligence and X-ray science.

Researchers have developed a new technique that pairs artificial intelligence and X-ray science.

The crew of NASA’s first Mars habitat simulation, CHAPEA 1, exited their Earth-based environment after 378 days on July 6 at 5 p.m. EDT. Greeted by friends, family, mission team members and project directors, the crew of four expressed gratitude and optimism about their time in isolation and the data collected, which will contribute to the future goal of putting boots on Mars.

The egress event at the Johnson Space Center was initiated by Deputy Director Steve Koerner, who expressed sincere gratitude to the team and their families and highlighted the crucial data gathered over the course of the project. The four crew members included Mission Commander Kelly Haston, Flight Engineer Ross Brockwell, Medical Officer Nathan Jones, and Science Officer Anca Selariu. NASA astronaut and Deputy Director of Flight Operations Kjell Lindgren ceremonially opened the habitat door, officially bringing the team out of isolation.

Koerner remarked on the mission’s significance: “Mars is our goal. As global interests and capabilities in space continue to expand, America is poised to lead.” The mission, primarily focused on nutrition-based science but included cross-disciplinary experiments that simulated various aspects of life on Mars. “They’ve been separated from their families, placed on a carefully prescribed meal plan, and undergone a lot of observation. By growing and harvesting their own vegetables, dealing with communication delays and conducting simulated Mars walks, this team has helped us obtain crucial information as we prepare to return to the moon and on to Mars,” Koerner added.

Principal Investigator Grace Douglas reiterated her thanks on behalf of NASA to the team and their families for their incredible sacrifice. “This project has enabled the collection of thousands of data points, yielding a unique and valuable integrated dataset in a Mars-realistic simulation. These data will provide unprecedented insight into how engineers, scientists, and astronauts can work together to achieve mission objectives while maintaining health and performance for the success of future human missions to Mars.”

Douglas also thanked the science, engineering, and mission control teams who worked tirelessly to support the crew and ensure data integrity for mission success. The development of this analogue mission was a unique challenge for the engineering teams. Director of Engineering Julie Kramer White noted, “From working with the teams to outfit the habitat, whether it was Mars walks, robotic operations, or habitat maintenance—planned and unplanned—the analogues are crucial in understanding what it’s going to take and if our architectures will work when plans meet reality.”

One of the key reasons for conducting missions like CHAPEA 1 is their ability to gather critical data in a controlled, safe environment. By simulating Mars-like conditions on Earth, researchers can test the limits of human endurance, develop effective countermeasures for potential health risks, and fine-tune the technological systems necessary for long-term space missions. This controlled setting allows for rigorous experimentation and monitoring without the immediate dangers posed by actual space travel. The information obtained from these simulations is invaluable; it helps identify potential issues and solutions before committing resources to more dangerous and expensive missions beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

This approach not only enhances the safety and well-being of future astronauts but also ensures that every step taken towards Mars is based on robust scientific evidence and meticulous planning. As Douglas pointed out, the data collected from CHAPEA 1 will provide unprecedented insights into maintaining health and performance, which are crucial for the success of future human missions to Mars. By testing scenarios and gathering data on Earth, NASA can mitigate risks, improve mission outcomes, and ultimately, make human exploration of Mars a safer and more achievable goal.

Mission Commander Kelly Haston expressed pride and gratitude for the experience, noting the support from her crew, friends, family, and partner. Flight Engineer Ross Brockwell highlighted the importance of sustainable living principles learned during the mission. Medical Officer Nathan Jones shared his appreciation for the opportunity and the crew’s camaraderie and Science Officer Anca Selariu emphasized the mission’s role in uniting and inspiring humanity.

NASA also conducts isolation research across multiple projects, such as the Human Exploration Research Analog, expeditions to Antarctica, and other simulation environments, in addition to human spaceflight missions aboard the International Space Station. These efforts aim to achieve specific and essential research objectives that will guide future human expeditions to the Moon and Mars. The CHAPEA simulated missions stand out because they examine the effects of prolonged isolation and confinement, incorporating Mars-like communication delays with Earth – up to 44 minutes roundtrip – and resource constraints pertinent to Mars, including a more restricted food system compared to what can be supported on the space station and in other simulation environments.

The completion of CHAPEA 1 is a significant milestone as NASA prepares for future Mars missions. Stay tuned for CHAPEA Mission 2 next year and CHAPEA Mission 3 in 2027, as the journey to Mars continues.

Learn more about CHAPEA: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/chapea/

The post Volunteers Complete a Simulated Year on Mars appeared first on Universe Today.

Researchers used machine learning to generate highly detailed maps of over 100 million individual trees from 24 sites across the U.S. These maps provide information about individual tree species and conditions, which can greatly aid conservation efforts and other ecological projects.

Tantalizing evidence of potential dark matter objects has been detected with the help of the Universe's 'timekeepers'. These pulsars -- neutron stars which rotate and emit lighthouse-like beams of radio waves that rapidly sweep through space -- were used to identify mysterious hidden masses. Pulsars earned their nickname because they send out electromagnetic radiation at very regular intervals, ranging from milliseconds to seconds, making them extremely accurate timekeepers.

A new technique estimates the reliability of a self-supervised foundation model, like those that power ChatGPT, without the need to know what task that model will be deployed on later.

A new technique estimates the reliability of a self-supervised foundation model, like those that power ChatGPT, without the need to know what task that model will be deployed on later.

Astronomers have uncovered what appear to be 21 neutron stars in orbit around stars like our Sun. The discovery is surprising because it is not clear how a star that exploded winds up next to a star like our Sun.