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Earlier this year, NASA selected a rather interesting proposal for Phase I development as part of their NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. It’s known as Swarming Proxima Centauri, a collaborative effort between Space Initiatives Inc. and the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is) led by Space Initiative’s chief scientist, Marshall Eubanks. The concept was recently selected for Phase I development as part of this year’s NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.

Similar to other proposals involving gram-scale spacecraft and lightsails, the “swarming” concept involves accelerating tiny spacecraft with a laser array to up to 20% the speed of light. This past week, on the last day of the 2024 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium, Eubanks and his colleagues presented an animation illustrating what this mission will look like. The video and their presentation provide tantalizing clues as to what scientists expect to find in the closest star system to our own. This includes Proxima b, the rocky planet that orbits within its parent star’s circumsolar habitable zone (CHZ).

As we addressed in previous articles, the Swarming Proxima Centauri concept has evolved significantly over the past few years. The concept emerged in 2017 as a proposal by the i4is named Project Lyra, which aimed to send tiny spacecraft to catch up with the interstellar object (ISO) ‘Oumuamua. However, it has since evolved into a collaborative effort between the i4is and Space Initiatives Inc., a Florida-based aviation and aerospace component manufacturer dedicated to developing gram-based “femtospacecraft” – i.e., even tinier than nanospacecraft!

Not long ago, Eubanks and his colleagues produced research papers addressing some big questions about interstellar exploration, including communications and what we might learn from a flyby of Proxima b. During the 2024 NIAC Symposium, which took place from September 10th to 12th in Pasadena, California, Eubanks and his colleagues had the opportunity to present their latest findings. As the video illustrates, the swarm they envision will consist of a thousand “picospacecraft” (between nano and femto), which they’ve named “Coracles” (a small, rounded, lightweight boat).

The probes are solid, armored on one side, and covered with optical annuli (reflective material) on the other. They measure about two centimeters thick (0.8 inches) and four meters (about 13 feet) in diameter and weigh no more than a few grams each. According to their NIAC proposal, these will be accelerated by a ~100 gigawatt (GW) laser array that will be available by mid-century. The probes are also equipped with side-mounted lasers to facilitate communications between them and mission controllers back on Earth.

As Eubanks indicated during the presentation, there are actually a thousand probes in the animation and an artistically accurate depiction of the Proxima Centauri system. The red dwarf is shown prominently as the probes approach the Proxima b, while Alpha Centauri AB is visible in the far background. Once the probes pass by the planet, we also get an accurate depiction of many scientists they expect to find:

“This is real-time. This is more or less what you would see expect for a redshift, a blushift, and then a redshift. And we had the artists do the planet as an ‘eyeball planet,’ where you have a central warm spot surrounded by a cold zone because we think this planet’s probably rotationally locked.”

Team member Robert Kennedy III posing in front of an 88% size mock-up of the Coracle sail. Credit: 2024 NIAC/i4is/Interstellar Initiatives Inc.

As Eubanks further explained, their collaboration has already produced prototypes of their Coracle spacecraft. One was recently showcased at the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, while another is currently in Pasadena. While providing a run-down on the design of the individual spacecraft, Eubanks emphasized the importance of coherence and how the swarm’s configuration will facilitate communications and cohesion:

“Operational coherence is essential to making this mission work. By operational coherence, we mean that the whole set of probes acts as a unit. Now I notice that doesn’t mean photonic phase coherence – we won’t be able to do that. But if we have good enough clocks and we have range measurement by lasers, we can determine where we are to a few centimeters. We can determine what the relative clocks are to more or less the same level. And [they] can then act as one thing.

“And the crucial part of that is we can do that with a lot of things, like taking pictures of the planet and so on. But the crucial part of that is what we call the wall of light. The wall of light is when all the probes send one coherent set of photons back to Earth so they can be received altogether. We think we can get one kilobit per second data rate back, and we can, therefore, send something like four gigabytes a year back to Earth. And that’s enough to get good data and really understand the system.”

While the Swarming Proxima Centauri concept did not receive Phase II or III funding from the NIAC this year, it remains a project worthy of study and further development. Like Breakthrough Starshot and other lightsail proposals, it showcases what interstellar missions will look like in the coming decades. In that respect, ideas like this also indicate that we are at a point in our history where exploring the nearest star systems is no longer considered a far-off idea that requires serious technological innovations to happen first.

Further Reading: 2024 NIAC Symposium

The post New Video Shows How Tiny Spacecraft Will “Swarm” Proxima Centauri appeared first on Universe Today.

If you have good wildlife photos, comparable in quality to those I’ve put up on this site, I’d be most grateful if you’d send them in.  We’re running quite low (I have two in the tank, with one going up tomorrow), and I’d hate to make this feature a very sporadic one.

Thank you!

News Items: Embryo Models, Carbon Fiber Battery, Zeta Class Supercomputer, UFOs as a Societal Problem; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Residential Solar; Science or Fiction

It appears that seven universities now have adopted a version of the University of Chicago’s Kalven Principle mandating institutional neutrality (“IN”): the dictum that no political or ideological statements should come from a university save statements about issues endangering the mission of the university. (Faculty are, of course, always free to speak on their own, but not as representatives of an “official view”.) Now it looks as if we can add two more schools to the total: UCLA and the University of Wisconsin system.

This is still far fewer than the 110 schools that have adopted a version of Chicago’s “Free Expression” principle, but I think the tide is turning: colleges are realizing that it’s not to their benefit to weigh in on debatable issues of the day. At any rate, two years ago the University of Chicago was the only school in North America with an institutional neutrality policy.

FIRE needs to start keeping a list of the IN schools, which include these:

The University of Chicago
Simon Fraser University (in Canada: see also here for a discussion of the problems with their statement)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Vanderbilt University
Columbia University,
Stanford University
The University of Pennsylvania; and the two new ones mentioned here:
UCLA
The University of Wisconsin (whole system)

Now some of the IN policies adopted by these schools have problems, but they’re aiming in the right direction: buttressing free speech by ruling out “official” statements from that could inhibit people in the University from speaking their minds,

Click below to see the story of how UCLA’s Chancellor has accepted a principle of institutional neutrality confected by a University committee:

A short excerpt that gives a link to UCLA’s recommendations:

On Sept. 12, UCLA announced that Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt has accepted a recommendation from a working group that the university should not weigh in on political matters.

The working group, headed by UCLA School of Law Dean Michael Waterstone,  submitted a recommendation — accepted in full by Interim Chancellor Hunt — that moving forward, “UCLA’s chancellor, executive vice chancellor and provost, vice chancellors, vice provosts and deans should not make public statements on societal, public and political matters, unless those matters directly affect the university’s ability to support a research and educational environment where free expression thrives.” Such institutional statements, the recommendation explained, “can imply a false sense of unanimity about a given topic, stifle the free exchange of ideas, and risk making parts of our diverse community feel silenced or unheard. A focus on these kinds of statements can also divert university leaders’ attention away from their core responsibilities and pursuit of institutional goals.”

The working group’s report elaborated that “whether — and if so, how — a contentious issue relates to this essential mission of the university will itself be disputed at times; as with any general rule, this one would require university officials to exercise judgment in good faith, subject to critique by community members,” adding that in borderline cases, “the presumption should be for not issuing a statement.”

A pretty big problem here: the policy should apply more widely—to departments, center, units, or any moiety of the university, including libraries, museums, and so on. It is because the issue of department statements was unclear that in 2020 our late President Bob Zimmer clarified that Kalven applied to all University departments and units.

I found the University of Wisconsin news in, of all place, the Times of Israel, but below that you can find the official UW statement, provided by Greg Mayer, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside. The new policy came into being after a cowardly UW chancellor, Mark Mone, made an invidious deal with protestors. Click to read:

An extract:

University of Wisconsin leaders must limit their public statements to matters that affect school operations and maintain neutral viewpoints under a new policy that system administrators released Friday.

UW system spokesperson Mark Pitsch said in an email to The Associated Press that the policy will take effect immediately and doesn’t need the approval of the board of regents. Asked what drove the policy’s creation, Pitsch pointed to language in the policy that states the restrictions are necessary in order to uphold academic freedom and an environment where ideas can compete freely.

The move comes after UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone struck a deal in May to end pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel campus protests. The university agreed to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and discuss cutting ties with Israeli companies.

The deal drew intense criticism from Jewish groups. UW system President Jay Rothman also took Mone to task over the deal, posting on X that campuses need to remain viewpoint-neutral and make sure actions on campus have consequences.

Rothman is also trying to stay on good terms with Republicans who control the Legislature in the hopes of securing an $855 million boost for the system in the next state budget. . . .

It is often fear of Republican legislatures that brings these policies into being (and, indeed, Chancellore Mone is an invertebrate), but I don’t care where institutional neutrality comes from so long as it’s put into place with proper wording (yes, it should apply to all “units” of a university) and restrictions (yes, statements are permitted on rare occasions).

The official Wisconsin policy is here, with this extract:

Institutional statements issued by university leaders should be limited to matters that directly affect the operations and core mission of the university, and should maintain viewpoint neutrality in any reference to any matter of political or social controversy.

Institutional statements may include communications on the impact of proposed or enacted regulations, legislation, or court decisions that materially affect the operations and core mission of the university. Such institutional statements may also express a position of support or opposition only when authorized by the president or chancellor.

. . .Where there is reasonable disagreement about whether an event or issue directly affects the operations or core mission of the university, university leaders are encouraged to forgo an institutional statement.

What’s good about this is that it is supposed to apply to every UW “unit,” which they define as as “a school, college, department, division, center, institute, program, or other institutional entity”. That is, as far as I know, the most detailed and specific list of university constituents that must adhere to institutional neutrality.

President Maud Mandel at Williams College, who appears reluctant to commit her entire College to institutional neutrality, at least asserted that she was going to stop making statements on politics and ideology, and pinpoints the reason why she changed her mind and adopted IN:

NEW: Williams College President Maud Mandel has developed principles committing her to institutional neutrality.

“I do not believe it is right, or even possible, for me to speak on behalf of the thousands of people who together constitute Williams.” pic.twitter.com/TZFMR8kOo3

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) September 12, 2024

Here’s the Williams statement; click to enlarge:

Unfortunately, the Williams policy appears to apply only to President Mandel herself. For reasons known best to her it doesn’t appear to apply to any other units of the university. But it doesn’t nearly go far enough.  It’s time for Williams to step up and extend Mandel’s personal principle to the entire school.

Finally, Vanderbilt, which now is really the #1 free speech school in America as far as I’m concerned (its Chancellor Daniel Diermeier used to be our provost), has updated its policies on demonstration and free expression, and appears to construct a whole program to educate students in free speech and to give them an opportunity to engage in controversial but civil discourse. Click below to read Vanderbilt’s announcement. It links to a lot of different programs and initiatives, so click around on the site to see what this school has done to foster free expression.

Here are some changes, clearly put into place to prevent disruptive demonstrations that impede Vanderbilt’s mission:

Relevant revisions include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• The public may not participate in or be invited to participate in campus demonstrations and protests, and the university may request identification from those participating in demonstrations and protests to determine if they are members of the campus community. 
• Demonstrations and protests may not occur at times that would require individuals to sleep or gather overnight given safety, logistical and maintenance concerns. 
• Installations, defined as “temporary displays, art pieces, symbolic structures or other physical objects,” require reservations and may only be displayed between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. or sundown, whichever is earlier, for no more than three consecutive days. 
• Camping, sleeping, preparing to sleep or any other gathering overnight outdoors on campus is prohibited due to safety, logistic and maintenance concerns and to ensure access to university spaces for other groups wishing to make reservations.

All members of the Vanderbilt community are encouraged to review the full Student Handbook in advance of the start of the academic year.

Even Chicago doesn’t follow all these strictures (especially the first and third), and our school hasn’t made its policies nearly as explicit as those given above.  Nevertheless, the move towards forestalling disruptions of university life is spreading, though just at the time that pro-Palestinian demonstrators have vowed to be even more disruptive than they were over the last academic year.

Something tells me that we’re not going to see this kind of disruption at Vanderbilt. . . .

h/t Mayaan, Greg Mayer

Kevin Richardson (born 1974) is known as “The Lion Whisperer” because he develops a personal relationship with the semi-feral lions at his Welgedacht Private Game Reserve near Pretoria. (His YouTube channel is here.)  He’s been criticized for not really contributing to lion conservation, but I find myself mesmerized by the plethora of videos showing his interactions with lions, many whom he has known since birth. Here he makes the rounds of several groups, giving some of the lions eggs and even catnip, as well as scritches and brushing.

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If you have a cat, chances are that it’s followed you to the bathroom and watched you when you were seated on the throne.  Some people even find this embarrassing, though I’ve never understood why. Do they think their cat is a voyeur, or is judging their behavior?

At any rate, the question remains about why they do it.  This short article in Yahoo argues that SCIENCE has the answer.  But before giving an answer, SCIENCE should have answered this question, which it didn’t: do cats follow you to the bathroom more often than they follow you to other rooms?  That would take only a simple test, but they didn’t do it.

Let’s accept for the moment that cats do indeed preferentially follow people to the bathroom to watch them excrete.  Here are some suggestions from SCIENCE:

Excerpts:

If you’re not a cat owner, it’s hard to explain the situation, but here’s the gist: You go to the bathroom, and your cat rushes in next to you. It then proceeds to watch you pee, like a fluffy little gargoyle. [JAC: Of course it’s not just peeing!] It then proceeds to watch you pee, like a fluffy little gargoyle. If you try to lock the kitty out, it wails and scratches the door like a maniac. It’s a phenomenon science has produced little to no explanation for.

“I have two cats, and if I don’t keep the door open when I use the bathroom one will yowl like her entire heart is broken,” cat owner Phoebe Seiders tells Inverse. “The other I can only assume tries to free me because she, like, flings herself against the door as high up as she can jump. When I do keep the door open they like to come in and jump in the tub (as long as it’s dry).”

It turns out that, of course SCIENCE doesn’t even have answers that might be correct, but it does have some suggestions:

There are tons of stories like Phoebe’s, but no concrete evidence to explain them. According to cat researcher Mikel Delgado, a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, scientists don’t have answers but certainly some ideas.

“There might be various reasons cats like to join people in the bathroom,” she tells Inverse. “Their litter box might be in there, so it could be a room that smells very familiar. Cats also probably know that when we are on the toilet, we are a captive audience — nowadays we are so busy and distracted that many cats are probably looking for an opportunity to have our undivided attention!”

Cats also might enjoy the “cool, smooth surfaces of sinks and tiles,” or even water, Delgado adds. This can make for some seriously priceless photo ops.

. . . Since cats in the wild are pretty solitary creatures, wildlife biologist Imogene Cancellare says domestic cats’ bathroom obsessions are pretty obscure.

“Lap sitting is really popular in the loo — I assume this is characteristic opportunist behavior to find the warmest spot in the house and exploit the attention of their human servants,” Cancellare tells Inverse. “I think they want to be the center of the universe and have learned that humans don’t do much when sitting in the small room with the strange water chair.”

I like the “captive audience” theory, for cats can surely associate a bathroom with a human trapped in place.  About the lap stuff, well. . . .

And then SCIENCE, after proffering a few lame theories, punts in favor of extolling moggies:

We may never fully understand why cats do the things they do. But we do know they make our lives complete, in mildly terrifying, infinitely inexplicable ways.

Photo of Nozka the cat by davynin, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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Here’s a 10-minute video showing “hero cats” protecting people from danger or confronting dangers in the wild, including cobras, bears, and coyotes!. That standoff with dogs are amazing.  Did you know that cats were this courageous? No worries: no cats appear to have been harmed.

The last bit of the video also highlights cats’ athletic abilities.

h/t: Merilee, Ginger K.

Maybe this isn't a drill.

The post We Want Them Infected Doctors Sanewashed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Will He Reward Them With Appointments at the CDC, FDA, and NIH? first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

A team of scientists presented a new gravity map of Mars at the Europlanet Science Congress 2024. The map shows the presence of dense, large-scale structures under Mars’ long-gone ocean and that mantle processes are affecting Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the Solar System.

The new map and analysis include data from multiple missions, including NASA’s InSIGHT (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission. They also use data from tiny deviations in satellites as they orbit Mars. The paper “The global gravity field of Mars reveals an active interior” will be published in an upcoming edition of JGR: Planets. The lead author is Bart Root of the Delft University of Technology. Some of the results go against an important concept in geology.

Geologists work with a concept called flexural isostasy. It describes how a planet’s outer rigid layer responds to large-scale loading and unloading. The layer is called the lithosphere and consists of the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle. When something heavy loads the lithosphere, it responds by sinking. On Earth, Greenland is a good example of this, where the massive ice sheet puts downward pressure on it. As its ice sheets melt due to global warming, Greenland will rise.

This downward bending often causes an uplift in surrounding areas, though the effect is slight. The more massive the load is, the more pronounced the downward bending, although it also depends on the lithosphere’s strength and elasticity. Flexural isostasy is a critical idea for understanding glacial rebound, mountain formation, and sedimentary basin formation.

The authors of the new paper say scientists need to rethink how flexural isostasy works on Mars. This is because of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the Solar System, and the entire volcanic region called Tharsis Rise, or Tharsis Montes. Tharsis Montes is a vast volcanic region that holds three other enormous shield volcanoes: Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Ascraeus Mons.

This colourized image of the surface of Mars was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The line of three volcanoes is the Tharsis Montes, with Olympus Mons to the northwest. Valles Marineris is to the east. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ Arizona State University

Flexural isostasy states that this massive region should force the planet’s surface downward. But the reverse is true. Tharsis Montes is much more elevated than the rest of Mars’ surface. NASA’s InSIGHT lander also told scientists a lot about Mars’ gravity, and together, it’s forcing researchers to reconsider how this all works on Mars.

“This means we need to rethink how we understand the support for the big volcano and its surroundings,” the authors write. “The gravity signal of its surface fits well with a model that considers the planet as a thin shell.”

The research shows that active processes in the Martian mantle are boosting Tharsis Montes upward. “There seems to be a big mass (something light) deep in Mars’ layer, possibly rising from the mantle,” the authors write. “It shows that Mars might still have active movements happening inside it, making new volcanic things on the surface.”

The researchers found an underground mass around 1750 kilometres across and at a depth of 1100 kilometres. They suspect that it’s a mantle plume rising under Tharsis Montes and strong enough to counteract the downward pressure from all the mass. “This suggests that a plume head is currently flowing upward towards the lithosphere to generate active volcanism in the geological future,” the authors write in their paper.

There’s debate about how volcanically active Mars is. Although there are no active volcanic features on the planet, research shows that the Tharsis region has resurfaced in the near geological past within the last few tens of millions of years. If there is a mantle plume under Tharsis Montes, could it eventually reach the surface? That’s purely speculative, and more research is needed to confirm these findings.

The researchers also found other gravitational anomalies. They found mysterious, dense structures under Mars’ northern polar plains. They’re buried under a thick, smooth sediment layer that was likely deposited on an ancient seabed.

This map from the study highlights the dense gravitational structures in the northern hemisphere. The regions marked with black lines are high-mass anomalies that do not show any correlation with geology and topography. These hidden subsurface structures are covered by sediments from an old ocean, and their origin is still a mystery. Credit: Root et al.

The anomalies are approximately 300–400 kg/m3 denser than their surroundings. Earth’s Moon has gravitational anomalies that are associated with giant impact basins. Scientists think that the impactors that created the basins were denser than the Moon, and their mass has become part of the Moon.

These maps show the gravitational anomalies at the surface of the Moon. Some of the gravity anomalies are clearly associated with large impact basins. On Mars, the anomalies have no corresponding surface features. Image Credit: By Mark A. Wieczorek – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1381260

Impact basins on Mars also show gravity anomalies. However, the anomalies in Mars’ northern hemisphere show no traces of them on the surface.

This image from the research shows the gravitational structures in Mars’ northern polar region on a topographical map. There’s no correlation between the deep structures and the surface. Image Credit: Root et al.

“These dense structures could be volcanic in origin or could be compacted material due to ancient impacts. There are around 20 features of varying sizes that we have identified dotted around the area surrounding the north polar cap—one of which resembles the shape of a dog,” said Dr. Root. “There seems to be no trace of them at the surface. However, through gravity data, we have a tantalizing glimpse into the older history of the northern hemisphere of Mars.”

The only way to understand these mysterious structures and Mars’ gravity in general is with more data. Root and his colleagues are proponents of a mission that could gather the needed data.

It’s called the Martian Quantum Gravity (MaQuls) mission. MaQuls would be based on the same technology used in the GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) and GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) missions, which mapped the Moon’s and Earth’s gravity, respectively. MaQuls would feature two satellites trailing each other and connected by an optical link.

A grainy yet illustrative image of how the MaQuls mission would work. MaQuls would investigate the gravitational field of Mars and study static and dynamic processes on and under the surface. MaQuls would measure Mars’s gravitational field with the highest precision yet. Image Credit: Worner et al. 2023.

“Observations with MaQuIs would enable us to better explore the subsurface of Mars. This would help us to find out more about these mysterious hidden features and study ongoing mantle convection, as well as understand dynamic surface processes like atmospheric seasonal changes and the detection of ground water reservoirs,” said Dr. Lisa Wörner of DLR, who presented on the MaQuIs mission at EPSC2024 this week.

The post A Gravity Map of Mars Uncovers Subsurface Mysteries appeared first on Universe Today.

Physicists propose that a mysterious force known as early dark energy could solve two of the biggest puzzles in cosmology and fill in some major gaps in our understanding of how the early universe evolved.

The success of the all-civilian spacewalk on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission shows that private space flight is starting to catch up with government space agencies

In 2003, strange features on Mars’s surface got scientists’ “spidey senses” tingling when they saw them. That’s when unusual “anareiform terrain” landforms appeared in images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They’ve returned each year, spreading across the southern hemisphere surface.

At first, nobody knew what caused these weird wrinkly spider-like formations. Now, NASA researchers have duplicated them in the lab to explain their existence. No doubt about it, though, these Mars spiders look weird. Some of them stretch across a kilometer and generally appear in clusters.

Since discovering them in 2003 via images from orbiters, scientists have marveled at these Mars spiders sprawled across the southern hemisphere of Mars. No one is entirely sure how these geologic features are created but lab simulations may provide clues. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Since carbon dioxide is common on Mars, scientists figured it had something to do with creating these weird formations. They used the “Kieffer model” to delve into the history of Mars spiders. That model explains how carbon dioxide ice slabs under the surface trap gas as it sublimates (turns to gas), usually during southern hemisphere spring.

Sunlight heats the surface and shines through transparent slabs of carbon dioxide. Those ice layers build up each winter. The soil beneath the ice absorbs heat from the Sun and causes the ice closest to it to sublimate. Gas pressure builds up, which cracks the ice and allows gas to escape. As it seeps upward, the gas takes with it a stream of dark dust and sand from the soil that lands on the surface of the ice. Those deposits take the form of spidery landforms.

Confirming Mars Spiders

To see if that process is what’s creating Mars spiders, NASA JPL scientists, led by Lauren McKeown, decided to simulate Mars conditions in their lab. “The spiders are strange, beautiful geologic features in their own right,” said McKeown. “These experiments will help tune our models for how they form.”

The DUSTIE chamber at JPL. This is where scientists simulated the surface conditions under which Mars spiders form. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Not that it’s easy to replicate Mars on Earth, even in strict laboratory conditions. For Mc Keown and her team, the hardest part was re-creating conditions found on the Martian polar surface. That region experiences extremely low air pressure. Seasonal changes bring the air and surface temperatures down to a chilly -301 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 185 degrees Celsius). To make it work, the team used a liquid-nitrogen-cooled test chamber at JPL—the Dirty Under-vacuum Simulation Testbed for Icy Environments, or DUSTIE.

“I love DUSTIE. It’s historic,” Mc Keown said, noting that the wine barrel-size chamber was used to test a prototype of a rasping tool designed for NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander. For their experiment, the team chilled Martian soil simulant in a container dipped into a nitrogen bath. Then they put the whole thing into DUSTIE and replaced Earth-normal pressure with Mars air pressure. Carbon dioxide gas flowed in and condensed to ice. The next step was to put a heater inside to simulate Martian conditions in early spring. The team did this several times before the experiment created simulated “spiders” similar to those on Mars.

Mars spider-like formations in soil simulant created during experiments at NASA/JPL in the DUSTIE chamber. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. The Next Steps

That simulation created plumes of carbon dioxide gas escaping from the soil simulant. It’s close to what happens on Mars, but not quite. So, the next step is to do the same experiment and use a simulated Sun to heat the surface materials. If that produces the same results, then the team has a good chance of proving this is what happens on Mars.

However, Mars being what it is—there are still a lot of questions about why the spiders only form in the southern hemisphere at spring. Since subsurface carbon dioxide ice isn’t limited to that region of the planet, why don’t spiders form in other places? One possibility is that these aren’t recent features. They could be left over from a more active time in the planet’s past. Maybe the climate was very different when they formed. Or something catastrophic happened to enable the formation and growth of spiders in the southern hemisphere.

The study at JPL is a good step forward in understanding the Martian terrain. It confirms several formation processes described by the Kieffer model. Of course, it would be really cool to visit those spiders someday. For now, however, lab work is as close as it gets to explaining them. Future rovers and landers could be used to study those landforms up close and personal. However, there aren’t any planned in the near future, and no other spacecraft has landed in the spider-rich southern hemisphere region. For now, scientists will continue testing the lab to understand the conditions that make these strange-looking features.

For More Information

NASA Scientists Re-Create Mars ‘Spiders’ in a Lab for the First Time
A Lab-scale Investigation of the Mars Kieffer Model

The post Scientists Recreate Mars Spiders in the Lab appeared first on Universe Today.

We’ve officially entered a new era of private spaceflight. Yesterday, the crew of Polaris Dawn, a privately funded mission managed by SpaceX, officially performed the first private extra-vehicular activity, commonly known as a spacewalk. The spacewalk was a success, along with the rest of the mission so far. But it’s attracted detractors as well as supporters. Let’s take a look at the mission objectives and why some pundits are opposed to it.

There are two main “firsts” for the Polaris Dawn flight, which is the first in a series of private space missions that could include a third mission that would make the first crewed use of SpaceX’s massive Starship launcher. The most talked-about “first” of the mission was a spacewalk that mission commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis took part in yesterday morning. They utilized SpaceX’s newly designed, more mobile EVA suits, which marks a clear departure from the previous bulky suit iterations.

Another first is that this crew is the farthest any private space passengers have ever been from Earth. In fact, they are farther away from Earth than anyone since to Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s. Their list of things to do so far away from home includes monitoring 36 scientific experiments ranging from monitoring bone health to how to control motion sickness during spaceflight.

Full video of the Polaris Dawn spacewalk.
Credit – VideosfromSpace YouTube Channel

But the mission has attracted its share of detractors too. Some of the most well-reasoned include experts quoted in Al-Jazeera that SpaceX might be violating a clause in the Outer Space Treaty that requires governments to be responsible for the health and safety of their missions in space, even if the mission is run by a non-governmental agency. NASA has very clearly not contracted for the safety of the mission once it is in space. However it gave permission for the rocket launch that got them there, especially since it launched from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center.

Space policy experts argue that, since this is an entirely privately funded mission, it is in itself a violation of the Outer Space Treaty. They might be right, but an alternative interpretation is that the treaty, which was signed in early 1967, might be out of date for the more modern world of private spaceflight.

A less well-reasoned line of argument against the missions is the complaint that billionaires, which include the mission commander among their number, are simply blowing the Earth’s resources on their own pet projects. This line of reasoning is supported by the fact that the missions is supported by Doritos, who supplied a specially designed chip that wouldn’t get cheese dust everywhere inside the Dragon capsule the astronauts are using.

Fraser discusses the EVA suit used in the Polaris Dawn mission.

But it is also off-set by the fact the mission is donating much of its income (admittedly some of which is derived from merchandise sales) to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, to help kids fight cancer. Whether or not you agree with the motivations behind the mission, it doesn’t seem that anyone will get upset about trying to help kids with cancer.

And noone can take away the mission’s achievements so far. Of particular note is that the two female crew members – Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon – are now officially the women that have been the farthest away from the Earth ever. With the launch and spacewalk a success, the final real test of the mission will be its return. Given that Dragon has successfully returned to Earth dozens of times at this point, there’s a good chance that part will be successful too. And then humanity will have the opportunity to hope for, or complain about, the Polaris’ next step in private space flight.

Learn More:
Polaris Program – Polaris Dawn Successfully Launches to Earth’s Orbit and Begins Five-Day Mission 
UT – See a First-Person View of the First Private Spacewalk
UT – Civilian Astronauts are Going to try Spacewalking From a Crew Dragon Capsule
UT – NASA and SpaceX Will Study Low-Cost Plan to Give Hubble a Boost

Lead Image:
Shot of the curvature of the Earth from the Polaris Dawn mission.
Credit – Polaris Program

The post Polaris Dawn is Away, Sending Another Crew Into Orbit to Perform the First Private Spacewalk appeared first on Universe Today.

The Milky Way’s outer reaches are coming into view thanks to the JWST. Astronomers pointed the powerful space telescope to a region over 58,000 light-years away called the Extreme Outer Galaxy (EOG). They found star clusters exhibiting extremely high rates of star formation.

The Milky Way’s EOG is defined as the part of the galaxy with a galactocentric radius of 18 kpc. That translates to almost 59,000 light-years, and for comparison, our Solar System is about 26,000 light-years from the galactic centre.

A team of astronomers used the JWST’s powerful NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to examine star formation in two specific regions of the EOG. They’re molecular clouds named Digel Cloud 1 and Digel Cloud 2. They’re named after the astronomer Seth Digel, who discovered them in 1994.

The environment in the EOG is different than our Solar System’s neighbourhood; their metallicity and gas density are significantly lower. Metallicity and gas density play huge roles in how Solar Systems evolve and how planets form. The JWST is giving astronomers an opportunity to examine star formation in the EOG at the same level of detail they can closer to home.

The JWST’s supreme observing power allowed the researchers to examine the regions, and they found nebular structures, extremely young protostars, and outflow jets. Their findings are in research published in the Astronomical Journal titled “Overview Results of JWST Observations of Star-forming Clusters in the Extreme Outer Galaxy.” The lead author is Natsuko Izumi of Gifu University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

“What was fascinating and astounding to me from the Webb data is that there are multiple jets shooting out in all different directions from this cluster of stars.”

Mike Ressler, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

“In the past, we knew about these star forming regions but were not able to delve into their properties,” said Izumi. “The Webb data builds upon what we have incrementally gathered over the years from prior observations with different telescopes and observatories. We can get very powerful and impressive images of these clouds with Webb. In the case of Digel Cloud 2, I did not expect to see such active star formation and spectacular jets.”

Astronomers have previously observed the region with the Subaru 8.2 meter telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. In 2008, some of the same astronomers used the Subaru to observe star formation in the clusters in Digel Cloud 2S. In that research, the authors said that star-forming clusters were likely triggered by the same supernova.

This is an image of Digel Cloud2-S captured with the Subaru Telescope. If there was ever any doubt about what an improvement the JWST is over previous telescopes, this image puts it to rest. Image Credit: Yasui et al. 2008.

But the Webb’s NIR is from 10 to 80 times more sensitive than the Subaru. “Accordingly, the mass detection limit reaches to about 0.01–0.05 solar masses, which is about 10 times better than the previous observations,” the researchers explain in their paper.

This is Digel Cloud 2S, where a bright cluster of young stars has formed. The white arrows show extended jets emitted from some of the stars. To the upper right of the cluster is another, smaller sub-cluster. Astronomers suspected it was there in previous observations, and now the JWST has confirmed it. The red structures are gaseous, nebulous structures being carved and shaped by the powerful radiation coming from the young stars. The JWST captured invisible near- and mid-infrared wavelengths that have been translated into visible light. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Ressler (NASA-JPL)

“We know from studying other nearby star-forming regions that as stars form during their early life phase, they start emitting jets of material at their poles,” said Mike Ressler, the study’s second author. Ressler is from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is the principal investigator of the observing program. “What was fascinating and astounding to me from the Webb data is that there are multiple jets shooting out in all different directions from this cluster of stars. It’s a little bit like a firecracker, where you see things shooting this way and that.”

This image from the research gives the overall context of the Digel Clouds in galactic coordinates. Star formation in Cloud 2N was likely triggered by a nearby huge supernova remnant, according to the authors. Izumi et al. 2024.

The astronomers observed nebular structures both in and around all the main clusters. “Notably, distinct nebular structures are identified within Cloud 2N and 2S,” they write. In Cloud 2N, the nebular structures are cliff-like and pillar-like and are similar to the ones found in star-forming regions closer to home, like in the JWST’s well-known ‘Cosmic Cliffs‘ and ‘Pillars of Creation‘ images.

These images of the nebular structures in Cloud 2N show the JWST’s power to resolve detail compared to the Spitzer IR telescope. The features in the structures are similar to ones found in star-forming regions closer to home. Image Credit: Izumi et al. 2024.

These features are likely caused by intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by the nearby B-type star, MR 1, near Cloud 2N’s main structure.

This image from the research shows HI (neutral atomic hydrogen) near Digel Cloud 2. The MR1 star is labelled in the image. Its powerful UV radiation is likely responsible for carving some of the nebular cliffs and pillars. Image Credit: Izumi et al. 2024.

This research provides an overview of the JWST’s observing effort in the EOG and the Digel Clouds. The authors say it’s just a starting point, and there’s lots more to discover. They want to determine the relative abundance of stars of different masses in the EOG and understand how the different environments shape that abundance.

“I’m interested in continuing to study how star formation is occurring in these regions. By combining data from different observatories and telescopes, we can examine each stage in the evolution process,” said Izumi. “We also plan to investigate circumstellar disks within the Extreme Outer Galaxy. We still don’t know why their lifetimes are shorter than in star-forming regions much closer to us. And of course, I’d like to understand the kinematics of the jets we detected in Cloud 2S.”

The post The Outer Reaches of the Milky Way are Full of Stars, and the JWST is Observing Them appeared first on Universe Today.

The outer Solar System has been a treasure trove of discoveries in recent decades. Using ground-based telescopes, astronomers have identified eight large bodies since 2002 – Quouar, Sedna, Orcus, Haumea, Salacia, Eris, Makemake, and Gonggang. These discoveries led to the “Great Planet Debate” and the designation “dwarf planet,” an issue that remains contentious today. On December 21st, 2018, the New Horizons mission made history when it became the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) named Arrokoth – the Powhatan/Algonquin word for “sky.”

Since 2006, the Subaru Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii has been observing the outer Solar System to search for other KBOs the New Horizons mission could study someday. In that time, these observations have led to the discovery of 263 KBOs within the traditionally accepted boundaries of the Kuiper Belt. However, in a recent study, an international team of astronomers identified 11 new KBOs beyond the edge of what was thought to be the outer boundary of the Kuiper Belt. This discovery has profound implications for our understanding of the structure and evolution of the Solar System.

The research team was led by Wesley C. Fraser, a Plaskett Fellow and a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Victoria (UVic) and the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre. He was joined by colleagues from UVic, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), NOIRLab, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and many other institutes and universities. The paper that describes their findings recently appeared in the Planetary Science Journal.

Since its last flyby of the KBO Arrokoth, the New Horizons mission has been exploring objects in the Kuiper Belt as well as performing heliospheric and astrophysical observations. Courtesy: Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/Roman Tkachenko

In recent years, mounting evidence has been provided that objects exist beyond the edge of the Kuiper Belt. However, this study is the first to provide clear evidence of a large number of objects in a relatively small search area that cannot be attributed to false positives. Moreover, these KBOs appear to represent a new class of objects that orbit in a ring separated from the known Kuiper Belt by a gap where very few objects exist. This type of structure has been observed around many young planetary systems observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) array.

This suggests that the Solar System has more in common with extrasolar systems than previously thought, which could have implications for astrobiology—the search for extraterrestrial life in the Universe. Dr. Fraser, who is also a co-investigator on the New Horizons mission science team, explained in a NOAJ press release:

“Our Solar System’s Kuiper Belt long appeared to be very small in comparison with many other planetary systems, but our results suggest that idea might just have arisen due to an observational bias. So maybe, if this result is confirmed, our Kuiper Belt isn’t all that small and unusual after all compared to those around other stars.”

As any astrobiologist knows, the search for life is a major challenge because of our limited perspective. To date, we know of only one planet where life emerged and evolved (i.e., Earth), making it difficult to understand what conditions life can arise from. As such, scientists are eager to identify what sets our Solar System apart from others to constrain the prerequisites for life. Discovering that the Kuiper Belt may be larger than previously thought eliminates the idea that larger belts are an impediment to the emergence of life in extrasolar systems (possibly because they constitute a larger population of potential comets).

Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI and NASA/JPL-Caltech

“If this is confirmed, it would be a major discovery,” said study co-author Dr. Fumi Yoshida of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health and the Planetary Exploration Research Center. “The primordial solar nebula was much larger than previously thought, and this may have implications for studying the planet formation process in our Solar System.”

“This is a groundbreaking discovery revealing something unexpected, new, and exciting in the distant reaches of the Solar System; this discovery probably would not have been possible without the world-class capabilities of Subaru Telescope,” added New Horizons mission Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern.

These results indicate that more discoveries await beyond the traditionally recognized edge of the Kuiper Belt, which was thought to be a cold, empty end of space. They also entice astronomers to conduct follow-up studies to confirm these results and identify additional families of objects. Last but certainly not least, they offer a tantalizing clue as to what objects the New Horizons mission may be able to study someday.

Further Reading: NAOJ, Planetary Science Journal

The post More Bodies Discovered in the Outer Solar System appeared first on Universe Today.

When a patient needs a new heart valve, the current mechanical and tissue replacements each have strengths and weaknesses. Now, a team of researchers believe they have found a way to harness the strengths of both technologies in a way that could be life-changing -- and life-saving -- for many.

Spike-in normalization helps molecular biologists ensure the accuracy of their results, but the technique is easily misused. New study suggests new guidelines for use of this valuable technique.

Existing global energy projections underestimate the impact of climate change on urban heating and cooling systems by roughly 50% by 2099 if greenhouse gas emissions remain high, researchers report. This disparity could profoundly affect critical sustainable energy planning for the future.

A nationwide analysis of community-level floodplain development found that over two-million acres of floodplain were developed over the past two decades across the United States, with roughly half of all new floodplain housing built in Florida.

The common practice of building dams to prevent flooding can actually contribute to more intense coastal flood events, according to a new study. By analyzing data and measurements from Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, dating back more than a century, researchers determined that coastal dams don't necessarily mitigate flooding. Dams can either increase or decrease flood risks, depending on the duration of a surge event and friction from the flow of water.

Greg Lukianoff is, as most of you know, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He’s also a lawyer and co-author, with Jon Haidt, of the excellent book  The Coddling of the American Mind.  Yesterday in Quillette, Lukianoff wrote a piece that many of us may find useful, outlining how to give comebacks to flimsy arguments against free speech.  The advice is especially useful now that both extreme Left and extreme Right are finding reasons to curtail speech, the former through demonizing certain opinions that go against Righthink and the latter through banning or censoring books.  I think the article below is free, so have a look.

I’m just going to put the arguments down, and if you’re savvy you should be able to give comebacks to most of these.  Nobody will get them all, I think, so go back and read the piece. I’ve indented Lukianoff’s arguments below, but have left out the ripostes. For some reason I can’t see the graphics that Lukianoff has embedded in the article.

I’ll note first that anyone using the phrase “freeze peach” when referring to free speech is simply mocking this important concept. On to the objecftions (Lukianoff thanks some people at the end for helping him out.)

Assertion 1: Free speech was created under the false notion that words and violence are distinct, but we now know that certain speech is more akin to violence.

Assertion 2: Free speech rests on the faulty notion that words are harmless.

Assertion 3: Free speech is the tool of the powerful, not the powerless.

Assertion 4: The right to free speech means the government can’t arrest you for what you say; it still leaves other people free to kick you out.

Assertion 5: But you can’t shout fire! in a crowded theatre. (I have to do some self-aggrandizing here by quoting part of his answer):

This old canard, afavourite reference of censorship apologists, needs to be retired. It’s repeatedly and inappropriately used to justify speech limitations. People have been using this cliché as if it had some legal meaning, while First Amendment lawyers point out that it is, as Alan Dershowitz puts it, “a caricature of logical argumentation.” Ken White penned a brilliant and thorough takedown of this misconception. While his piece is no longer available online, you can find a thorough discussion of the arguments by Jerry Coyne here. Please read it before proclaiming that your least favourite language is analogous to “shouting fire in a crowded theatre.”

Assertion 6: The arguments for freedom of speech are outdated.

Assertion 7: Hate speech laws are important for reducing intolerance, even if there may be some examples of abuse.

Assertion 8: Free speech is nothing but a conservative talking point.

Assertion 9: Restrictions on free speech are OK if they are made in the name of civility. (Note that this argument doesn’t hold for this website; as I explain in the Roolz, if your comment is uncivil or insulting to another reader, I don’t have to publish it. On a website like this, I do not have to put up every comment that comes in, though I try to use a light hand when moderating. But First-Amendment-style free speech doesn’t apply to websites, discussion groups, and the like.)

Assertion 10: You need speech restrictions to preserve cultural diversity. 

Assertion 11: Free speech is an outdated idea; it’s time for new thinking.  (Note that this is the same argument made in #6 above).

Assertion 12: I believe in free speech, but not for blasphemy. 

Of these, the one I think it’s most useful to understand is the rebuttal to #7: the claim that “hate speech” doesn’t count as free speech. To answer this properly you’ll have to know what exceptions to First Amendment-style free speech have been carved out of that Amendment by the courts (false advertising, defamation, etc). Indeed, in countries like Germany and Britain, “hate speech” is a violation of the law, but Lukianoff notes that, at least crudely, “hate speech” laws don’t seem to go along with a strong reduction in bigotry, nor would you expect them to.

In his conclusion, Lukianoff once underlines the need for free speech. And speaking personally, I’d recommend that everyone who hasn’t read Mill’s “On Liberty” do so now (it’s free here on the Internet).

Lukianoff:

Free speech is valuable, first and foremost, because, without it, there is no way to know the world as it actually is. Understanding human perceptions, even incorrect ones, is always of scientific or scholarly value, and, in a democracy, it is essential to know what people really believe. This is my “pure informational theory of freedom of speech.” To think that, without openness, we can know what people really believe is not only hubris, but magical thinking. The process of coming to know the world as it is is much more arduous than we usually appreciate. It starts with this: recognise that you are probably wrong about any number of things, exercise genuine curiosity about everything (including each other), and always remember that it is better to know the world as it really is—and that the process of finding that out never ends.

Feeding bees edible bits of hydrogel increases their odds of surviving pesticide exposure by 30 per cent