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Cracking the chicken-and-egg problem of utilizing resources in space has been a difficult challenge for over half a century. Getting enough infrastructure built up is necessary to collect those resources effectively, but doing so is too expensive without using the resources themselves. Trying to crack that problem has been the focus of a variety of space exploration enthusiasts, and one of them, Don Barker, is currently the Gateway HALO Utilization & Visiting Vehicle Integration Lead at ARES Corporation. He published a paper in 2020 that detailed how the space exploration industry could use a modified version of a framework from the oil and gas industry, which he calls the Planetary Resource Management System (PRMS), to calculate where we should focus on settlement efforts.

PRMS is set up as a two-step process: finding resources and then developing the technology to utilize them. Ideally, those technologies would advance to a point where those resource processes would be commercially viable. Let’s look at the process of finding the resource first.

The most basic level of resource finding is a remote sensing picture around 100m or more per pixel. This can be done with a relatively good camera on board an orbiting spacecraft. Next up would be a remote image between 5m and 100m per pixel, combined with geophysical evidence that a resource is available. Importantly, this would be combined with a resource assessment that includes estimations like economic impact and technological availability.

Fraser discusses what ISRU is and why it’s important.

A final step of the PRMS’s “prospecting criteria” is a remote sensing image of less than 5m per pixel resolution, geophysical evidence of a resource’s presence, and proof that it is accessible using current technology. This would again be combined with an assessment of the economic viability of recovery to ensure that the effort would be supported in the long term.

Technology, such as surface miners or extraterrestrial drilling rigs, enables the accessibility of the resources the prospecting projects would find. Three categories of recoverable resources – possible, probable, and proved – go along with the three categories of prospecting listed above. The framework also uses a metric called Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR) to reflect how much of a potential resource deposit could ultimately be mined. 

Calculating the various numbers for a deposit of a given material (such as water ice on the Moon), the framework can be combined with overall mission architecture and human exploration goals to determine the importance of that particular deposit to “mission success.” This is where things get tricky, as “mission success” is primarily defined by whoever pays for that mission.

ISRU would be a critical technology in any crewed Mars mission.

NASA is the largest funder of these types of projects for now, but even they don’t necessarily abide by this framework. Last year, they canceled the one rover project, VIPER, which could have added to our prospecting knowledge of the lunar south pole. Such a lack of foresight frustrated Dr. Barker, who bemoans the lack of structured support for permanently implementing a human presence off the planet rather than scientific outposts similar to McMurdo station in Antarctica. 

For now, that is the best we can hope for in terms of a sustained human presence in space – the main driving force behind Artemis, NASA’s project to get humans back to the Moon, is to set up a scientific outpost rather than start utilizing resources to supply a permanent habitat. However, the agency has done some research on that topic. VIPER would have been a great addition to that research, and the agency claims that other missions will cover its scientific objectives. But suppose it continues to cut funding to programs that could help implement the framework. In that case, a different organization will likely have to take on the mantle of utilizing resources in situ. 

SpaceX seems to be the leader in that area, but it is currently focused, rightfully, on building bigger, better, and cheaper rockets. If and when it is able to more closely focus on its stated goal of making humanity interplanetary, then at least it will have a framework for utilizing the resources needed to do so.

Learn More:
DC Barker – Lunar and off Earth resource drivers, estimations and the development conundrum
UT – What is ISRU, and How Will it Help Human Space Exploration?
UT – NASA Wants to Learn to Live Off the Land on the Moon
UT – Researchers Developed a Test Bed For Separating Valuable Material on the Moon

Lead Image:
ISRU system concept for autonomous construction on Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The post Using an Oil Industry Framework to Map Space Resources appeared first on Universe Today.

Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) are small planetoids that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune and Pluto. Their dark and icy character contains the remnant of the early solar system, and as such, they have the potential to reveal its history. But since they are small, distant, and dim, TNOs are very difficult to study. We know that different groups of TNOs have unique histories based on their surface colors and orbits. A new study has looked at their spectra, and it reveals a rich diversity unseen before now.

The team used observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to capture the spectra of 54 TNOs. They found the planetesimals could be grouped into three categories based on the overall shape of their spectra. Double-dip TNOs have a strong presence of carbon dioxide ice and are the most common of the survey objects. Cliff-type TNOs are reddish and are rich in nitrogen molecules and complex organics. Finally, bowl-type TNOs have dark and dusty surfaces rich in water ice.

The authors argue that these categories formed because of different “ice lines” that existed during the early period of the solar system. That is, beyond a certain distance, temperatures are cold enough for water ice to form. Further out, it becomes cold enough for carbon dioxide ice to form, and so forth. The different categories of TNOs therefore formed at different distances from the Sun, likely before the great migration of the large planets.

This idea is supported by the fact that there is a correlation between the spectral category of TNOs and their orbital types. For example, cold classical TNOs with orbits at the outer edge of the planetary disk are mostly cliff-type TNOs.

The team was also able to connect TNOs to another type of planetoid known as centaurs, which orbit the Sun between Jupiter and Saturn. While the spectra of centaurs differ significantly from those of TNOs, there are enough similar features to identify many centaurs as part of a particular TNO type. The centaur Thereus matches the bowl-type category, for example. On the other hand, some centaurs, such as Okyrhoe don’t fall into any TNO category. This supports the idea that many centaur planetoids were TNOs that migrated inward over time, while others are likely comets that became centaurs after a close approach with Jupiter or Saturn.

In the future, the team would like to gather even more detailed spectra of TNOs. This could tell us the specific histories of each TNO category and how they connect to the early evolution of our solar system.

Reference: Pinilla-Alonso, Noemí, et al. “A JWST/DiSCo-TNOs portrait of the primordial Solar System through its trans-Neptunian objects.” Nature Astronomy (2024): 1-15.

The post The Webb Captures Spectra of Trans-Neptunian Objects, and Reveals a History of Our Solar System appeared first on Universe Today.

Particle physics is not everyone’s cup of tea.  A team of physicists have theorised the existence of a strange type of particle that behaves differently depending on its direction of travel—massless in one direction but possessing mass when moving the other way! This strange, elusive particle, known as a semi-Dirac fermion or “quasiparticle,” has actually been observed in action. To detect it, researchers cooled a semi-metal crystal to near absolute zero, exposed it to a powerful magnetic field and infrared light, and successfully captured the signal of these unusual quasiparticles.

Particle physics is the branch of physics that studies the fundamental make up of matter and the forces that govern their interactions. It focuses on the smallest building blocks of the universe—particles such as quarks, leptons, and bosons—which make up atoms and everything around us. These subatomic particles interact through fundamental forces like electromagnetism, gravity, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. The study of particle physics often involves high-energy experiments, where particles are accelerated to near the speed of light and collided, allowing for observations of their behaviour and properties.

Particle physics experiments address mysteries at subatomic and astronomical levels. (Illustration by Olena Shmahalo for U.S. Particle Physics)

Discoveries in particle physics are not all that common but a team of researchers from the Penn State University have announced their discovery of a new type of particle known as a quasiparticle. Quasiparticles are a quantum of energy in a crystal structure or other lattice structure that has momentum and position and can in some cases be considered a particle. They have named their new quasiparticle the semi-Dirac fermion, until the announcement it had been 16 years since this strange particle had been theorised. 

Often in particle physics, things can go against every thing your common sense tells you. It’s most definitely the case with the semi-Dirac fermion which was discovered in a ZrSiS crystal (Zirconium silicon sulfide.) When it is moving in one direction it seems to have mass but in the other direction it appears massless! This is possible when a particle derives its energy from its motion and in this case its almost pure energy travelling at the speed of light. 

The discovery is in accordance with Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity that says anything travelling at the speed of light cannot have mass. According to lead researcher Yinming Shao ‘In solid materials, the collective behaviour of many particles, also known as quasiparticles, can have different behaviour than the individual particles, which in this case gave rise to particles having mass in only one direction.’ 

Albert Einstein, pictured in 1953. Photograph: Ruth Orkin/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Ruth Orkin/Getty

The team used the hybrid magnet at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida to generate a magnetic field 900,000 times stronger than the Earth’s! They cooled a piece of ZrSiS crystal down to just a few degrees above absolute zero and exposed it to the magnetic field while directing infrared light at it to explore its quantum properties. This enabled them to study how electrons inside the material responded to the light revealing many features that were expected, plus a few more that puzzled the team.

The magnetic field was a crucial element to their experiment which caused the electrons inside the crystal to become quantised into discrete states called Landau Levels that have fixed values. The difference between the levels depends on the mass of the electrons and the strength of the magnetic field. If the magnetic field increases, the energy level of the electrons should increase based on their mass, but they didn’t!

Shao went on to explain their findings ‘Imagine the particle is a tiny train confined to a network of tracks, which are the material’s underlying electronic structure. Now, at certain points the tracks intersect, so our particle train is moving along its fast track, at light speed, but then it hits an intersection and needs to switch to a perpendicular track. Suddenly, it experiences resistance, it has mass. The particles are either all energy or have mass depending on the direction of their movement along the material’s tracks.’

Source : Particle that only has mass when moving in one direction observed for first time

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An incredible image of Mars has been released that captures the relentless activity of dust devils, swirling across the planet’s surface. These Martian whirlwinds form, move across the surface and dissipate before others take their place. The image was taken by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in September 2022 and shows part of the Haldane Crater, where dust devils have left their mark on the landscape. Scientists study the image tracks and the rate at which dust accumulates on Mars, helping them better understand the planet’s atmospheric processes.

Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is often referred to as the “Red Planet” because of its reddish colour, which results from iron oxide in its soil. Its atmosphere is thin and mostly made up of carbon dioxide which contributes to its cold climate with an average temperature of around -60°C. The surface of Mars features plains, volcanoes (like Olympus Mons) and the vast canyon system Valles Marineris. Geological evidence suggests that Mars had liquid water once and a thicker atmosphere suggesting the potential for past life.

Mars from 2020. Credit: Andrew Symes.

The atmosphere of Mars is thin and made up mostly of carbon dioxide (about 95%.) There are traces of nitrogen, argon, and oxygen too. This sparse atmosphere is only about 1% the density of Earth’s and is unable to support human life without significant technological aid. Despite its thinness, the Martian atmosphere is active, and one of its most fascinating phenomena is the occurrence of dust devils. These swirling columns of dust and air are similar to tornadoes on Earth. 

The atmosphere of Mars

Dust devils are created when the surface heats up and causes warm air to rise rapidly, drawing in dust particles into a rotating column. They can range in size from small, harmless whirlwinds to massive, kilometer-wide spirals that can last for hours. Dust devils on Mars are important for scientists because they help to redistribute dust across the planet’s surface, driving its weather patterns and even the Martian climate. 

A Martian dust devil was captured winding its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14, 2012 NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A fascinating phenomenon but a friend and foe to machines on the surface of the red planet; they can both deposit and clear particles of dust from solar panels and other instruments. The swirling nature of these vortex weather events can lift up the fine dust particles, carry them across the Martian surface and over time, they can accumulate on surfaces. When depositing on solar panels, the effect can reduce the efficiency by blocking sunlight, and reduce power output. Their strong winds though can act as cleaners by scrubbing the panels clean. 

An image recently released by NASA JPL shows dust devils tracking across the surface of Mars. Teams of astronomers are studying their fading tracks to calculate the rate of deposition of dust over time. Gaining a better ujnderstanding of this helps to safeguard future space misssions. 

Source : The Art of Dust Devils

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Getting back to the Moon is the primary goal of NASA’s Artemis program, but what do we do once we get there? That is the challenge tackled by a group of students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who wrote a proposal for a lunar infrastructure module they call the Trans-lunar Hub for Exploration, ISRU, and Advancement – or THEIA, after the proposed object that crashed into the Earth that created the Moon as we know it today. Their submission was part of the NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage project, where teams from various academic institutions submitted papers focusing on the theme of Sustained Lunar Evolution for 2024.

To be clear, THEIA is not meant to serve as the central hub of NASA’s lunar exploration activities. The responsibility would still go to the Artemis base the agency has been working on. It is meant to serve as a hub for four main things that the team believes every long-term lunar mission will need: power, communications, transportation, and In-situ resource utilization (ISRU). 

The project’s mission requirements include providing local positioning, communications, and power to an area surrounding the lunar south pole. Various organizations are developing several pieces of infrastructure to do so.

The UIUC team’s presentation at the NASA RASC-AL challenge.
Credit – NASA Vimeo website

First would be the delivery method to get there—like much of the overall Artemis project, THEIA would rely on delivery from a SpaceX Starship. The team calculated the initial launch requirements to get a basic setup up and running to be around 73 tons, well below the threshold of 100 tons the rocket is expected to be able to carry to the lunar surface.

That first set of equipment would include two other vital pieces of infrastructure – some LUNARSABER poles and robots to set them up. We previously did an entire article on the LUNARSABER project from Honeybee Robotics. Still, as a succinct overview, it is an extendable tower with solar panels along its sides to collect energy. Then, it uses a series of transmitters and receivers at its top to broadcast both power and communication signals. They can also bounce signals between two towers, creating a basic mesh network on the lunar surface.

A LUNARSABER is essential for supplying power and communications, but the UIUC team needs robotic help to deploy it. They suggest using several robotic rovers, including a multilimbed one designed on NASA’s Athlete prototype and a more traditional lunar rover based around the current Lunar Terrain Vehicle contract NASA has outstanding, with several companies still vying to provide the final design.

Fraser discusses how NASA plans to sign up the Moon’s infrastructure.

Other essential infrastructure pieces include ground antennas to transmit data and communications back to the Lunar Gateway and habitats that would allow both scientific experiments to operate and, eventually, crew to live. An essential additional part of THEIA’s design philosophy is that there should be space for experiments to operate inside a semi-controlled environment.

That would still be a long time from now, with original missions to launch THEIA not planned until 2035 and crewed missions to follow years later. However, THEIA was initially drawn up by a group of undergraduates, who presented a technical paper in response to the NASA RASC-AL proposal. It was one of many such proposals that resulted in groups from Virginia Polytechnic, the University of Maryland, and South Dakota University winning prizes. We’ll look at some of the other projects submitted by teams shortly, but congratulations to the UIUC team, who made it through the competition as a finalist, for the effort they put into theirs.

Learn More:
Bojinov et al – THEIA
UT – A Tower On The Moon Could Provide Astronauts With Light, Power, and Guidance
UT – NASA has Plans for More Cargo Deliveries to the Moon
UT – NASA Focuses in on Artemis III Landing Sites.

Lead Image:
THEIA Concept of Operations.
Credit – Bonjinov et al

The post A Long-Term Lunar Infrastructure Hub Named After the Object That Created the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

Dark energy is central to our modern understanding of cosmology. In the standard model, dark energy is what drives the expansion of the Universe. In general relativity, it’s described by a cosmological constant, making dark energy part of the structure of space and time. But as we’ve gathered more observational evidence, there are a few problems with our model. For one, the rate of cosmic expansion we observe depends on the observational method we use, known as the Hubble tension problem. For another, while we assume dark energy is uniform throughout the cosmos, there are some hints suggesting that might not be true. Now a new study argues we’ve got the whole thing wrong. Dark energy, the authors argue, doesn’t exist.

Let’s start with what we know. When we look out across the billions of light-years of cosmic space, we see that matter is clumped into galaxies, and those galaxies are groups into clusters so that the Universe has clumps of matter separated by great voids. On a small scale, this means that the distribution of matter is uneven. But as we go to larger scales, say a billion light-years or so, the average distribution of matter evens out. On a large scale, the cosmos is homogeneous and not biased in a particular direction. This means we can broadly describe the Universe as the same everywhere. This is known as the principle of homogeneity. By applying this principle to cosmic expansion, we can model the Universe by the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) metric, where dark energy is a cosmological constant.

Opponents of the standard model argue that the principle can’t be applied to cosmic expansion. Some even argue that the basic principles of general relativity can’t be applied on cosmic scales. In one such model, known as the Timescape model, it’s argued that dark energy would violate the principle of equivalence. Since the principle equates inertial energy and gravitational energy, there is no way to distinguish cosmic expansion as a real effect. Furthermore, since we know that gravitational fields affect the rate of time, the Timescape model argues that the Universe can’t be homogeneous in time. Basically, the model argues that within the gravitational well of a galactic cluster, clocks would run more slowly than they would within the vast empty cosmic voids. Over the billions of years of cosmic history, this difference would build up, creating a variance of time throughout the Universe. It is this time divergence that would give the appearance of cosmic expansion.

Comparison of the Timescape and standard cosmological models. Credit: Seifert, et al

In this latest study, the authors use the Pantheon+ dataset of Type Ia supernovae to see if it better fits the standard cosmological model or the Timescape model. The main difference between the two models is that cosmic expansion must be uniform in the standard model, while in the Timescape model, cosmic expansion can’t be uniform. What the team found was that while the Pantheon+ supports both models, the data is a slightly better fit to the Timescape model. In other words, the best fit of the data suggests that dark energy is an illusion, but the fit is not strong enough to disprove the standard model.

If future observations continue to support the Timescape model, it would revolutionize our understanding of the Universe. But there are reasons to be cautious. To begin with, the Timescape model is only one of many proposed alternatives to the standard model, which this study doesn’t address. The Timescape model also has some internal issues of its own that would need to be resolved to become the new cosmological model. But it is clear now that we can’t ignore the fact that the standard model may be wrong. We are entering an exciting period of astronomy where our knowledge of the Universe will increase significantly in the near future.

Reference: Seifert, Antonia, et al. “Supernovae evidence for foundational change to cosmological models.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 537.1 (2025): L55-L60.

Reference: Wiltshire, David L. “Cosmic clocks, cosmic variance and cosmic averages.” New Journal of Physics 9.10 (2007): 377.

The post New Study of Supernovae Data Suggests That Dark Energy is an Illusion appeared first on Universe Today.

Blue Origin has achieved an important milestone with its New Glenn NG-1 rocket, successfully completing a 24-second hotfire of the rocket’s BE-4 engines in preparation for an expected test flight in the coming days.

This was the first time the entire vehicle, including the first and second stages, were tested as a fully integrated system, alongside the ground systems at the launch pad. It gave the engineers a chance to do a dress rehearsal of all the procedures required for launch, and check how well simulation data matches real-world scenarios.

Blue Origin confirmed in a press release that “all seven engines performed nominally, firing for 24 seconds, including at 100% thrust for 13 seconds.” The pressurization systems for the first and second stages also performed nominally.

Although New Glenn has yet to fly, its BE-4 methane engines have already reached orbit.

Twice in 2024 ULA’s Vulcan rocket – the successor to the Atlas V, which had been ULA’s heavy-lift workhorse for two decades – reached orbit using BE-4 engines provided by Blue Origin.

In both instances the engines performed nominally, even demonstrating that they could compensate for eventualities: When one of Vulcan’s solid rocket boosters had an anomaly on the second flight, the main engines extended their burn by 20 seconds to keep the rocket on a nominal trajectory.

New Glenn, which has been in development since 2013, uses BE-4 engines on its first stage as well. The rocket is expected to have its maiden flight imminently, with liftoff tentatively set for late evening on January 5 (EST).

The first BE-4 engine to be tested, photographed in 2018. Credit: N2e (Wikimedia Commons)

The first stage of the rocket is intended to be reuseable, and Blue Origin has playfully nicknamed the first booster So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance. It will attempt to land aboard a vessel in the Atlantic following launch.

According to Reuters, Blue Origin has received FAA approval for the first flight, and the payload will include equipment related to Blue Ring, a Blue Origin program that will provide maneuverable spacecraft to the US Department of Defence.

Upcoming New Glenn launches are expected to carry payloads for NASA, various telecommunications providers, and will also launch Amazon’s planned Project Kuiper, a mega-constellation competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink.

NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE), a two-pronged Mars mission that was expected to launch in Fall 2024, was postponed to Spring 2025, and will now be carried on New Glenn’s third flight.

The 98-meter tall rocket has a 7-meter diameter and can carry 45,000km to Low Earth Orbit. With the full stack hotfire test complete, the path to New Glenn’s maiden flight is wide open.

“This is a monumental milestone and a glimpse of what’s just around the corner for New Glenn’s first launch,” said Jarrett Jones, Senior Vice President, New Glenn, after the hotfire test. “Today’s success proves that our rigorous approach to testing–combined with our incredible tooling and design engineering–is working as intended.”

The post New Glenn Completes a Hotfire Test. Next… Flight? appeared first on Universe Today.

If the modern age of astronomy could be summarized in a few words, it would probably be “the age of shifting paradigms.” Thanks to next-generation telescopes, instruments, and machine learning, astronomers are conducting deeper investigations into cosmological mysteries, making discoveries, and shattering preconceived notions. This includes how systems of planets form around new stars, which scientists have traditionally explained using the Nebular Hypothesis. This theory states that star systems form from clouds of gas and dust (nebulae) that experience gravitational collapse, creating a new star.

The remaining gas and dust then settle into a protoplanetary disk around the new star, which gradually coalesces to create planets. Naturally, astronomers theorize that the composition of the planets would match that of the disk itself. However, when examining a still-developing exoplanet in a distant star system, a team of astronomers uncovered a mismatch between the gases in the planet’s atmosphere and those within the disk. These findings indicate that the relationship between a protoplanetary disk and the planets they form might be more complicated.

The team was led by Postdoctoral Associate Chih-Chun “Dino” Hsu from the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern University. He and his colleagues were joined by researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The paper that details their findings, “PDS 70b Shows Stellar-like Carbon-to-oxygen Ratio,” recently appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The W.M. Keck Observatory at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Credit: MKO

For their study, the team relied on the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC), a new instrument at the W.M. Keck Observatory, to obtain spectra from PDS 70b. This still-forming exoplanet orbits a young variable star (only ~5 million years old) located about 366 light-years from Earth. It is the only one known to astronomers with protoplanets residing in the cavity of the circumstellar disk from which they formed, making it ideal for studying exoplanet formation and evolution in their natal environment. Jason Wang, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern who advised Hsu, explained in a Northwestern News press release:

“This is a system where we see both planets still forming as well as the materials from which they formed. Previous studies have analyzed this disk of gas to understand its composition. For the first time, we were able to measure the composition of the still-forming planet itself and see how similar the materials are in the planet compared to the materials in the disk.”

Until recently, astronomers were unable to study a protoplanetary disk directly to track the birth of new planets. By the time most exoplanets are observable to telescopes, they have finished forming, and their natal disks have since disappeared. These observations are historic in that this is the first time scientists have compared information from an exoplanet, its natal disk, and its host star. Their work was made possible by new photonics technologies co-developed by Wang for the Keck telescopes.

This technology allowed Hsu and his team to capture the spectra of PDS 70b and the faint features of this young planetary system, despite the presence of a much brighter star. “These new tools make it possible to take really detailed spectra of faint objects next to really bright objects,” said Wang. “Because the challenge here is there’s a really faint planet next to a really bright star. It’s hard to isolate the light of the planet in order to analyze its atmosphere.”

The resulting spectra revealed the presence of carbon monoxide and water in PDS 70b’s atmosphere. This allowed the team to calculate the inferred ratio of atmospheric carbon and oxygen, which they compared to previously reported measurements of gases in the disk. “We initially expected the carbon-to-oxygen ratio in the planet might be similar to the disk,” said Hsu. “But, instead, we found the carbon, relative to oxygen, in the planet was much lower than the ratio in the disk. That was a bit surprising, and it shows that our widely accepted picture of planet formation was too simplified.”

Artist‘s depiction of a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

To explain this discrepancy, the team proposed two possible explanations. These include the possibility that the planet might have formed before its disk became enriched in carbon or that the planet might have grown mostly by absorbing large amounts of solid materials in addition to gases. While the spectra show only gases, the team acknowledges that some of the carbon and oxygen could have accreted from solids trapped in ice and dust. Said Hsu:

“For observational astrophysicists, one widely accepted picture of planet formation was likely too simplified. According to that simplified picture, the ratio of carbon and oxygen gases in a planet’s atmosphere should match the ratio of carbon and oxygen gases in its natal disk — assuming the planet accretes materials through gases in its disk. Instead, we found a planet with a carbon and oxygen ratio that is much lower compared to its disk. Now, we can confirm suspicions that the picture of planet formation was too simplified.”

“If the planet preferentially absorbed ice and dust, then that ice and dust would have evaporated before going into the planet,” added Wang. “So, it might be telling us that we can’t just compare gas versus gas. The solid components might be making a big difference in the carbon-to-oxygen ratio.” To explore these theories further, the team plans to obtain spectra from the other PDS 70c, the other fledging exoplanet in the system. “By studying these two planets together, we can understand the system’s formation history even better,” Hsu said. “But, also, this is just one system. Ideally, we need to identify more of them to better understand how planets form.”

Further Reading: Northwestern Now, The Astrophysical Journal Letters

The post A Young Exoplanet's Atmosphere Doesn't Match its Birthplace appeared first on Universe Today.

This Weekend: Catch the Quadrantids at their annual peak, Earth at perihelion and the Moon blotting out Saturn.

An early Quadrantid meteor from late 2016. Credit: Eliot Herman

Ready for another amazing year of skywatching? The very first weekend of 2025 offers up a flurry of wintertime astronomy events, eluding a swift meteor shower, a January ‘SuperSun,’ and a lunar planetary pair up at dusk.

January’s ‘Quad Watch’

This year, the Quadrantid meteors peak on January 4th with a respectable projected Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of 80. This is versus a 27% illuminated waxing crescent Moon. Said slender Moon won’t hamper observations, making 2025 an ideal year for the ‘Quads’

Prospects in 2025

The short peak arrives at around 15:00-18:00 Universal Time (UT) on January 3rd, which favors the northern Pacific region at dawn. Keep in mind, it is still worth it for North American and European observers to watch on the mornings of January 3rd and the 4th before and after, in the event the peak arrives late.

The Quadrantid radiant, looking to the northeast around 2AM local. credit: Stellarium

The obscure name for the Quadrantids is the remnant of the now defunct constellation Quadrans Muralis (the Mural Quadrant), which was divided up between Draco, Hercules and Boötes (where the present day radiant lies at the shower’s maximum) when the modern constellations were formalized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1928 and published in 1930. I think it’s great, how an obscure piece of astronomical history turns up in skywatching discussions once a year…

Reconstructing the archaic constellation Quadrans Muralis. Credit: Dave Dickinson

The source of the Quadrantids is asteroid 2003 EH1, a rarity among meteor showers. The December Geminids also have a similar strange source, in rock-comet 3200 Phaethon.

It has always been my experience that the ‘Quads,’ while they’re a strong stream, are often elusive, with a swift and brief peak. Maybe, it’s just because it tends to be brutally cold outside in early January, cutting the observing window short.

Quadrantid meteors from 2021. Credit: Filipp Romanov.

Be sure to dress warm, fill up your travel mug with hot tea or cocoa, and keep those backup camera batteries toasty warm on your January Quadrantid meteor quest.

Earth at Perihelion

Meanwhile, our home world reaches perihelion or its closest approach to the Sun on January 4th at 0.98333 AU distant at around 13:00 UT/8:00 AM EST. It may seem ironic that we actually reach our closest point in our orbit in the depth of northern hemisphere winter. Of course, it’s currently summertime in the southern hemisphere.

This is also only true in our current epoch, as eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit, the obliquity of the poles and precession of the equinoxes all change over time in what’s known as Milankovitch cycles. The Sun does indeed appear slightly bigger in January versus aphelion in July (32’ 32” versus 31’28” across in apparent size)…we checked:

The apparent solar diameter as seen at perihelion and aphelion. Credit: Dave Dickinson. A ‘Great European Occultation’

Finally, the Moon occults (passes in front of) Saturn on January 4th at ~17:24 Universal Time (UT). The event favors Europe at dusk, and the Moon is a 25% illuminated, waxing crescent, one of the best times to catch an occultation. This is the first planetary occultation by the Moon for 2025.

The footprint for the January 4th occultation of Saturn by the Moon. Credit: Occult 4.1.2.

This should be a spectacular event, as the planet disappears behind the dark limb of the Moon, and reappears behind the bright sunlit side. 39” wide (including rings), +1st magnitude Saturn will take a leisurely 45 seconds to a minute to fully disappear behind the Moon. The rings, though still barely visible, are headed towards edge on this year on March 23rd. The rest of us get a consolation prize of seeing a close pairing on Saturn and the crescent Moon at dusk worldwide.

The Moon versus Saturn on January 4th. Credit: Stellarium.

The Moon occults Saturn twice in 2025, with the next and final event occurring on February 1st for the remote Canadian Arctic and Alaska. The International Occultation Timing Association lists ingress/egress times for locations along the track for the January 4th event.

The Moon occults Saturn in 2014. Credit: Paul Stewart. …And Something More

Clouded out… or simply live in the wrong hemisphere? Astronomer Gianluca Masi will host no less than three virtual sessions this weekend, covering the Quadrantid meteors, the occultation of Saturn by the Moon, and the Moon’s close pass near Venus on January 3rd, just one week prior to its greatest (dusk) elongation 47 degrees east of the Sun on the 10th:

The Moon versus Venus. Credit: Gianluca Masi/The Virtual Telescope Project.

The Moon joins an enthralling planetary parade this weekend, sliding by Saturn and Venus to the west at dusk. Meanwhile, Jupiter and Mars await their turn to greet the Moon later in January to the east.

Looking westward on the evening of January 4th. Credit: Stellarium.

Wherever you may happen to observe from this weekend, there’s a skywatching event for you. Be sure to embrace the cold as we kick off another year of astronomy and skywatching in 2025.

The post The Quadrantid Meteors and More Ring in 2025 appeared first on Universe Today.

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that Earth is constantly being bombarded by literally tons of space debris daily. The larger bits form what we know as shooting stars, and most burn up in the atmosphere. Still, throughout our planet’s history, giant versions have caused devastation unlike anything else seen on this planet. Tracking these types of objects is typically done from the Earth, but a new mission set out by researchers in Italy has a novel idea – why not try to learn more about potential impactors by watching them hit the far side of the Moon?

The mission, known as the Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer, or LUMIO, is a 12U CubeSat weighing around 22 kg. Its primary payload is the LUMIO-Cam, a visible light camera meant to detect flashes of impacts of the micrometeoroids it is intended to track.

So far, so typical – plenty of asteroid and meteoroid tracking missions are already in space, so why need another one? The most interesting thing about LUMIO is its location – at the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrange point. That puts it exactly opposite the Earth on the far side of the Moon.

One of LUMIO’s creators discusses how the navigation system will work.

This location has advantages and disadvantages – the Moon’s disk is much smaller than the Earth’s, so LUMIO could capture the entire hemisphere and watch for any impacts on the lunar surface. It’s important to note that most of the impacts would indeed be on the surface itself, since the lunar atmosphere is negligible in terms of providing energy for a micrometeoroid to burn up before impact. That is why the Moon is pockmarked with so many craters.

Also, while it’s commonly referred to as the “dark side” of the Moon, the far side is lit up half the time – and fully lit when we down on the planet experience a “new Moon.” But, when it is dark on the lunar surface, it is genuinely dark – there aren’t any lights that could be misconstrued as an asteroid strike. The L2 point has the added advantage of not suffering from “Earthshine” – reflected light from Earth that could diminish the effectiveness of the LUMIO-cam when trying to detect faint light streaks.

Difficulties abound with the placement, though, including a lack of a direct line of communication and the necessity of an automated navigation and control system. Since the Moon is literally between the CubeSat and any ground receiver that could send commands or receive data, it must be bounced off a relay satellite in order to do so.

Fraser discusses what is actually on the far side of the Moon

LUMIO will also capture a large amount of data, not all of which will be useful. Since the flashes it’s looking for are very fast, LUMIO-Cam will capture about 15 frames per second. Then, onboard processing will use an algorithm to sort through the image to see if there are any flashes visible in it. Those interesting images will then be the ones sent back to Earth. 

Estimates put the number of micrometeoroids striking the Moon’s surface at as high as 23,000 times per year for micrometeoroids as small as 30 grams. Even if LUMIO only watches half of that area, it will observe impacts multiple times every day. Each is a little look into the types of debris that still exist in our local part of the solar system and maybe into what asteroids and comets they were initially a part of.

There’s a good chance the LUMIO team will be able to capture that data as well – the mission was accepted as a finalist to ESA’s Lunar CubeSat for Exploration (LUCE) SYSNOVA Competition and is currently planned for launch in 2027. Once it reaches its stable orbit, expect to see some brilliant flashes on the Lunar surface popping up new reports regularly.

Learn More:
ESA – LUMIO – New CubeSat Illuminating Lunar Impacts
Topputo et al. – LUMIO: A CubeSat at Earth-Moon L2
UT – Astronomers are Working to Put a Radio Telescope on the Far Side of the Moon by 2025
UT – Finally, an Explanation for the Moon’s Radically Different Hemispheres

Lead Image:
Depiction of LUMIO’s orbital path to the L2 Earth-Moon point.
Credit – ESA

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Stars come in all manner of sizes and temperatures. Many of the massive ones are nearing the end of their lives and at some point in the next few million years, will detonate as supernova explosions. Observing the early stages of these events is tricky though as we can never be sure when they will go pop! It would be great if we could narrow down the timeframe to help hone our search. One theorised phase is that massive stars can ‘hiccup’ with its core expanding and contracting rapidly. This is known as ‘pulsational pair-instability’ and finally a team of astronomers have actually caught a star having the hiccups!

A supernova marks the end of the life of a massive star. The event is one of the most energetic processes in the universe, releasing immense amounts of energy. There are two  types of supernova, Type I occurs in a binary star system and Type II at the end of a stars life. Stars that are more than 8 times the mass of the Sun run out of nuclear fuel and suddenly the outward pressure generated by fusion ceases. The core collapses under gravity causing a violent explosion that ejects the outer layers of the star. 

The Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory’s 48-inch telescope captured this visible-light image of the Pinwheel galaxy (Messier 101) in June 2023. The location of supernova 2023ixf is circled. The observatory, located on Mount Hopkins in Arizona, is operated by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Hiramatsu et al. 2023/Sebastian Gomez (STScI)

The process is an essential step in the evolution of life since all the heavy elements needed to form life have been synthesised inside massive stars and it is the supernova process that liberates them to spread throughout the universe. What remains is dependent on the mass of the progenitor star and will either be a neutron star or black hole. 

Before the star goes supernova however, there has for some time, been a theorised phase during which, the star undergoes what has been described as the ‘hiccups!’ Until now though, they have just remained a theory. The events are perhaps even more rare than a supernova happening so infrequently and only to exceptionally large stars between 60-150 times the mass of the Sun. 

This new picture from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory shows the remarkable super star cluster Westerlund 1 (eso1034). This exceptionally bright cluster lies about 16 000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Ara (The Altar). It contains hundreds of very massive and brilliant stars, all of which are just a few million years old — babies by stellar standards. But our view of this cluster is hampered by gas and dust that prevents most of the visible light from the cluster’s stars from getting to Earth. Now, astronomers studying images of Westerlund 1 from a new survey of the southern skies [1] have spotted something unexpected in this cluster. Around one of the stars — known as W26, a red supergiant and possibly the biggest star known— they have discovered clouds of glowing hydrogen gas, shown as green features in this new image. Such glowing clouds around massive stars are very rare, and are even rarer around a red supergiant— this is the first ionised nebula discovered around such a star. W26 itself would be too cool to make the gas glow; the astronomers speculate that the source of the ionising radiation may be either hot blue stars elsewhere in the cluster, or possibly a fainter, but much hotter, companion star to W26. W26 will eventually explode as a supernova. The nebula that surrounds it is very similar to the nebula surrounding SN1987A, the remnants of a star that went supernova in 1987 [2]. SN1987A was the closest observed supernova to Earth since 1604, and as such it gave astronomers a chance to explore the properties of these explosions. Studying objects like this new nebula around W26 will help astronomers to understand the mass loss processes around these massive stars, which eventually lead to their explosive demise. Notes [1] This picture forms part of a detailed public survey of a large part of the Milky Way called VPHAS+ that is using the power of the VST to search for new objects such as young stars and planetary nebulae. A spectacular recent picture of the Prawn Nebula was made using observations from the same survey. [2] This nebula is thought to have surrounded SN1987A’s progenitor star since before it went supernova. Links Research paper Photos of the VLT Survey Telescope Other images from the VST

The team published the details of their observations in the Astrophysical Journal where they also describe the process called ‘Pulsational Pair Instability,’ (PPI.) In massive stars, their core develops to a very high temperature which contracts and expand in rapid succession. This might occur in the last few years, or even days, the timescales are still not clear. Each time the stellar core pulsates, a shell of material is ejected causing the star to slowly loose mass. On occasions, the ejected shell of material collides with other shells creating the intense burst of energy that we should be able to see as hiccups. 

The rarity of the event and the relative faintness of the hiccup is what has made them hard to detect, until now! In December 2020, the team detected a supernova (SN2020acct) in a galaxy called NGC2981 and as expected, the light from it faded. Two months later, they detected light from the same region of the galaxy, that’s unusual since it is very unusual for a Type II supernova to repeat itself. 

Further study revealed the supernova the team had thought they had detected was light being produced by slow moving shells of material colliding near the star. It wasn’t a supernova. It turns out, the second burst of radiation was the supernova, the first was one of the first observations of a star suffering with hiccups!

Source : ‘Hiccuping’ stars caught in action in world first

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When our Sun dies, it will turn into a white dwarf. They are a common aspect of stellar evolution and a team of researchers have now turned their attention onto them. They have just completed a survey of 26,000 white dwarfs and confirmed a long-predicted theory that the hotter the star, the puffier it is! This new study will help us to understand white dwarfs and the processes that drive them. 

All stars age. Our Sun is a giant ball of electrically charged gas and, during the majority of its life will be fusing hydrogen to helium in its core. During this process, the fusion will generate an outward pushing force known as thermonuclear pressure which will for the most part, balance the inward pull of gravity. Eventually, the thermonuclear force will overcome the force of gravity and the star will shed its outer layers, leaving behind a dense, hot core. The core is known as a white dwarf and it is this which, despite its small size and incredibly high density, has captivated astronomers. 

The solar surface in visible light composed of data from Solar Orbiter’s instrument PHI from March 22, 2023

One of the more fascinating aspects of white dwarf stars is their relationship between temperature and density. Theory suggests that the hotter a white dwarf star becomes, the less dense and more puffy its outer layers become. The lower density is thought to be driven by an increase in energy pushing outward which comes from an increased core temperature. Typically the core of a white dwarf can reach between 5,000 to 10,000 Kelvin. 

This artist’s impression shows the magnetic white dwarf WD 0816-310. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

The team of astronomers led by Nicole Crumpler from the John Hopkins University published the results of their findings in the Astrophysical Journal. They hope that their work will take us a step closer to being able to exploit white dwarfs as natural stellar laboratories to unravel the mysteries of dark matter! The secret, the team believe, is in the puffy nature of white dwarfs. “If you want to look for dark matter, quantum gravity, or other exotic things, you better understand normal physics,” said Crumpler, “otherwise, something that seems novel might be just a new manifestation of an effect that we already know.”

At its core is the fact that these stellar corpses are composed of material far heavier than normal matter.  A teaspoon of their material weighs around a ton, clearly far more than ordinary matter. With all that mass packed so tightly into the small stellar corpse, the gravitational pull is far higher than here on Earth. 

The study focussed on measuring how these high material densities influence light waves travelling away from the star. The waves will lose energy, stretching the radiation and ‘red-shifting’ it so telescopes can measure it. By averaging the measurements of white dwarf stars and their motions relative to Earth, the team were able to isolate the redshift from the affect of gravity to calculate how high the temperatures are and therefore influence the gas density in outer layers. 

Artist impression of ESA’s Gaia satellite observing the Milky Way (Credit : ESA/ATG medialab; Milky Way: ESA/Gaia/DPAC)

To conclude their study, the team used data from the Solan Digital Sky Survey and the ESA Gaia mission. Together these observation programs have recorded positions of millions of stellar objects. By studying tens of thousands of white dwarfs the team hope that probing the nature of the matter will help to understand more about its nature, about the nature of dark matter and the nature of the structure of the white dwarf stars that pervade our Galaxy. 

Source : Survey of 26,000 dead stars confirms key details of extreme stellar behavior

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Gaze up at the Moon on any night and you will see a barren world displaying all manner of shades of grey. Aside from the obvious craters and lunar maria, the surface of the Moon is covered in the fine, dusty lunar regolith. The Apollo astronauts in the 60’s and 70’s learned that it was electromagnetically charged and was very abrasive posing a problem for mechanical equipment. Now a new payload on the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative will explore the regolith even further. 

The Moon is our only natural satellite. It has a diameter of 3,474 kilometres and is about a quarter the size of the Earth. Orbiting Earth at a distance of 384,400 kilometres, the Moon is our closest neighbour and has inspired artists, authors and scientists alike. From Earth we can only see half of the Moon, the near side due to a phenomenon known as captured or synchronus rotation. The countless craters are the result of meteorite strikes ont eh lunar surface and the darker, larger lunar maria are vast plains of darker solidified lava. As experienced by the Apollo astronauts, the surface is covered in a fine powdery material known as the lunar regolith.

The Moon on August 24, 2023, with the eQuinox 2 telescope by Unistellar. Credit: Nancy Atkinson.

The lunar regolith is the loose, dusty layer of material that covers the solid bedrock of the surface of the Moon. It’s made up of tiny fragments which have been created from the pulverisation of lunar rocks over billions of years by meteoric impacts. It’s mostly composed of minerals like silicates, feldspar and pyroxenes and small quantities of metals too. Whilst it can pose a real challenge to lunar explorers due to its abrasive nature it can also be used to produce oxygen and water and can be a fabulous material for construction of lunar habitats. 

A close-up view of astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with the 70mm lunar surface camera during Apollo 11’s sojourn on the moon. There’ll soon be more boots on the lunar ground, and the astronauts wearing those boots need a way to manage the Moon’s low gravity and its health effects. Image by NASA

Understanding the nature of the lunar regolith is the task of a new science instrument called RAC-1 (Regolith Adherence Characterisation) that will be heading toward the Moon as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. It will be transported to the lunar surface by the Blue Ghost 1 Lunar Lander. CLPS is a program setup by NASA to aid the development of lunar exploration by bringing companies together and taking their payloads to the Moon. It aims to support the Artemis program by providing innovation to space exploration and to help understand more about the lunar environment. 

NASA has selected three commercial Moon landing service providers that will deliver science and technology payloads under Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) as part of the Artemis program. Each commercial lander will carry NASA-provided payloads that will conduct science investigations and demonstrate advanced technologies on the lunar surface, paving the way for NASA astronauts to land on the lunar surface by 2024…The selections are:..• Astrobotic of Pittsburgh has been awarded $79.5 million and has proposed to fly as many as 14 payloads to Lacus Mortis, a large crater on the near side of the Moon, by July 2021…• Intuitive Machines of Houston has been awarded $77 million. The company has proposed to fly as many as five payloads to Oceanus Procellarum, a scientifically intriguing dark spot on the Moon, by July 2021…• Orbit Beyond of Edison, New Jersey, has been awarded $97 million and has proposed to fly as many as four payloads to Mare Imbrium, a lava plain in one of the Moon’s craters, by September 2020. ..All three of the lander models were on display for the announcement of the companies selected to provide the first lunar landers for the Artemis program, on Friday, May 31, 2019, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. ..Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/2Ki2mJo..Credit: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth

RAC-1 will study the lunar regolith on arrival at the lunar surface. It was developed by Aegis Aerospace from Texas, a company that specialises in space systems engineering, technology development and mission support services. The device will explore how the lunar regolith adheres and sticks to certain surfaces to help understand how it can damage and interfere with mechanical and scientific instruments. This will help understand factors such as electrostatic attraction, abrasive and adherence forces. The low gravity of the Moon and lack of atmosphere will have an impact on how the dust behaves to help understand long term exposure to the harsh lunar environment. 

It works by exposing 15 sample materials to the regolith. These include fabrics, paint coatings, optical sensors, solar cells and more. It will measure rates of accumulation during the landing phase and other segments of the mission to learn which materials are best at repelling or shedding collected dust. Future missions like the Artemis program will greatly benefit from these studies. 

Source : NASA Science Payload to Study Sticky Lunar Dust Challenge

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Located in Tuscon, Arizona, the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) is a national facility consisting of four observatories that provide astronomers affiliated with any US institution with access to observing time. As part of its mission to advance astronomy and science education, NOIRLab recently announced the release of the 88 Constellations Project, a collection of free, high-resolution, downloadable images of all IAU-recognized constellations. This project is an educational archive that is free for all and includes the largest open-source all-sky photo of the night sky.

The high-quality images behind this collection were taken by German astrophotographer Eckhard Slawik (whose portfolio can be found here). The images were taken on film, and each panel consists of two separate exposures, with and without a diffuser filter, to emphasize the stars’ colors. The collection is arranged alphabetically, from Andromeda to Vulpecula, and includes information on the historic origins of each constellation, their brightest stars, their stick-figure diagram, how to find them, and prominent deep-sky objects within them.

Photo of the constellation Andromeda with annotations from IAU and Sky & Telescope. Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani

Images of these deep-sky objects, captured by telescopes at NOIRLab’s four participating observatories, are also provided. These include distant galaxies, star clusters, nebulae, black holes, and other notable astronomical objects. The collection also includes educational resources for teachers, like flashcards and audiovisual resources that can be used at the primary and secondary levels. NOIRLab also recommends the 88 Constellations project be used as a resource in planetariums and museums.

The all-sky photo, also the work of Slawik, was created using images taken from the darkest locations around the world. At 40,000 pixels, it is arguably one of the most detailed and beautiful images of the night sky ever made. The full collection can be found on the NOIRLab project webpage.

Further Reading: NOIRLab

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Saturn’s rings are among the most glorious, stunning, and well-studied features in the Solar System. However, their age has been difficult to ascertain. Did they form billions of years ago when the planet and the Solar System were young? Or did they form in the last few hundred millions of years?

The latest new research shows that the iconic rings are, in fact, very old.

We first became aware of Saturn’s opulent rings hundreds of years ago. Galileo was the first to see them, though he couldn’t tell they were rings in his early telescope. Nobody had ever seen anything like them before, obviously, and he thought they were moons. When he observed the planet two years later, the ‘moons’ had disappeared, leaving him confused. Another two years passed, and when he observed Saturn again, they had returned. However, the viewing angle had changed, and what he once thought were moons he concluded were ‘arms’ of some sort.

Top: Galileo’s sketch of Saturn from 1610. Bottom: Galileo’s sketch of Saturn from 1616. Image Credit: Galileo Galilei. ;<)

Decades later, Christian Huygens had a much better telescope and deduced that the features were actually rings. He described them as a “thin, flat ring, nowhere touching the planet, inclined to the ecliptic plane, and surrounding the planet without touching it.”

Fast forward to our modern age of space exploration, and scientists have gotten much better looks at Saturn and its rings. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 opened our eyes to Saturn’s unique rings when they flew past the planet in 1980 and 1981. Those images began to reveal some of the rings’ complexity, including unusual ‘spoke’ shapes. The mystery deepened.

This Voyager 2 image from August 1981 shows the unusual dark, spoke shapes in the rings. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When the Hubble Space Telescope launched, it brought Saturn’s rings to life with its stunning images. It confirmed that the rings aren’t uniform and contain many fainter inner rings and ringlets. It also found that icy particles from the rings rain down on Saturn and help heat its atmosphere.

However, the Cassini spacecraft has revealed the most about Saturn’s rings. It spent 13 years investigating Saturn, its moons, and its rings.

Cassini’s data has transformed our understanding of the gas giant. No longer were scientists restricted to telescope images or fleeting flybys from the Voyager spacecraft. Cassini captured unprecedented close-up views of Saturn and its rings and gathered detailed measurements.

This is the highest-resolution image ever captured of Saturn’s rings. It shows part of the B ring. The different ringlets are part of the B-ring’s irregular structure. Cassini captured this image in July 2017. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Cassini revealed the complex dynamics at play in the rings and intricate details, including kinks and clumps. It showed us how the rings change over time due to Saturn’s gravity and all of its moons and moonlets. One of its biggest discoveries is that the rings are largely composed of water ice.

However, scientists are still uncertain exactly how old the rings are. Different researchers come up with different results. Some say they’re billions of years old, while others say they’re as young as 100 million years old.

New research in Nature Geoscience suggests that the rings cannot be only a few hundred million years old. It’s titled “Pollution resistance of Saturn’s ring particles during micrometeoroid impact.” The lead author is Ryuki Hyodo, a planetary scientist associated with JAXA and several universities and space agencies.

The young estimates for Saturn’s rings’ ages stem from their colouration. They appear to be clean despite their expected bombardment by micrometeoroids. The models that arrived at youthful estimates were based on high accretion rates for micrometeoroids. The logic says that if micrometeoroids bombard the ring particles and accrete efficiently, the rings should be much darker than they appear to be. Hence, they must be young. Estimates based on this arrive at an age of between 100 and 400 million years for Saturn rings.

However, those models are based on highly efficient accretion rates for micrometeoroids onto icy particles in the rings.

In the new research, Hyodo and his fellow researchers simulated the hypervelocity impacts of micrometeoroids striking icy particles. They found that the accretion may not be as efficient as previous research suggested. Instead, the non-icy micrometeorites can be vaporized, expand, and then form charged particles and ions.

These particles then leave the ring system via three main processes. They either collide with Saturn, leave the planet’s gravitational field, or are dragged into Saturn’s atmosphere electromagnetically.

This figure from the research summarizes the simulation results. a) Micrometeoroid impacts on Saturn’s rings occur at impact velocities of ~30 km?s–1. b) The impactor materials are highly shocked (>100?GPa) and form hot expanding vapour (>10,000?K). Only a small fraction of the ring particles (mass comparable to the impactor) is vaporized. c) The impact-generated vapour expands with a high velocity (on average >14?km?s–1), producing atoms/molecules and forming nanoparticles as condensates. The silicate vapour is more prone to condensation than water vapour. d) Atoms or molecules are ionized, nanoparticles are charged in Saturn’s magnetosphere, and impactor materials are removed from the ring plane by direct collision with Saturn, by escape from Saturn’s gravitational field, or by being dragged into Saturn by interaction with the electromagnetic field. Image Credit: Hyodo et al. 2024. Credit: d, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

The critical part of the study and how it differs from previous efforts is in the accretion efficiency of micrometeorites. Previous models used an accretion efficiency of greater than or equal to 10%. However, this study shows that the actual accretion efficiency might be much lower, greater than or equal to only 1%. That means that the rings could be much older and only appear to be clean because micrometeoroids don’t accrete as efficiently as thought and don’t ‘dirty’ the appearance of the rings.

“Thus, we suggest that the apparent youth of Saturn’s rings could be due to pollution resistance rather than indicative of young formation age,” the authors write.

This won’t be the last word on Saturn’s rings and their ages. All models have limitations, and Hyodo and his co-researchers acknowledge some limitations in theirs. Their model doesn’t account for porosity, strength, or the granularity of the ring particles.

Still, the study emphasizes that dynamic forces are at play that need to be considered in the evolution of planetary bodies and that some of our long-held assumptions need to be questioned.

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Exploring asteroids and other small bodies throughout the solar system has gotten increasingly popular, as their small gravity wells make them ideal candidates for resource extraction, enabling the expansion of life into the solar system. However, the technical challenges facing a mission to explore one are fraught – since they’re so small and variable, understanding how to land on one is even more so. A team from the University of Trieste in Italy has proposed a mission idea that could help solve that problem by using an ability most humans have but never think about.

Have you ever closed your eyes and tried to touch your fingers to one another? If you haven’t, try it now, and you’ll likely find that you can easily. It’s possible to do even without guidance from your five normal senses. That is what is known as proprioception – our hidden “sixth” sense. It is that ability to know where objects are in relation to one another – in this case, where your hands are in relation to one another without any other sensory indication.

Taking that basic idea and extrapolating it to a mission to an asteroid, the basic concept of the mission involves a lander with what seems like a dome with a ton of little balls on it, each facing a slightly different direction. Those balls are then ejected from the dome with varying degrees of force and land on various parts of the asteroid or comet.

Fraser discusses why swarms are becoming so central to our idea of space exploration.

They then create what is known in networking as a “mesh” system by connecting through one another and back to the main lander, which has a higher power output and larger communications array. They also contain a series of sensors, such as a camera, a magnetometer, and, importantly, an inertial measurement unit, or IMU.

IMUs are commonly used in cell phones to tell which direction the phone is oriented—that’s why your phone’s screen will flip upside down if you hold it upside down. They can also measure acceleration, which is why many are used in modern rocketry. They’re tiny and not very power-hungry, allowing them to fit into the ball format used for this mission.

Measurements from each of the remote sensors IMUs can be combined with data about the strength of the force that propelled them to their final resting place and fed into an algorithm, which will then help the base station determine the location of each sensor unit. That then allows measurements from the other sensors, such as the magnetometers and cameras, to paint a picture of the body’s external and internal structure – since magnetic fields, surface objects, and even gravity can vary significantly on small celestial bodies.

There are plenty of missions using swarms to explore asteroids – like the MIDEA project, as described here.
Credit – Cosmic Voyages YouTube Channel

As a proof of concept for this mission design, the team ran a simulation of a mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, most widely known for being visited by Rosetta, the ESA mission whose lander, Philae, experienced some of the trouble that is so common on these missions. They found that, depending on the number of projectile sensors, the mission could cover even weird morphologies like 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s two-lobed form. 

No agency has yet taken up the mission, but as electronics and sensors get smaller and more power efficient and more small bodies become potential resource sources, there might be a place for testing these spaced-out sensors. We’ll have to wait and see—just not with proprioception alone.

Learn More:
Cottiga et al. – Proprioceptive swarms for celestial body exploration
UT – Could You Find What A Lunar Crater Is Made Of By Shooting It?
UT – Swarming Satellites Could Autonomously Characterize an Asteroid
UT – Swarms of Orbiting Sensors Could Map An Asteroid’s Surface

Lead Image:
Depiction of the mission’s lander and deployable sensor system.
Credit – Cottiga et al.

The post Covering an Asteroid With Balls Could Characterize Its Interior appeared first on Universe Today.

Ingenuity became the first aircraft to fly on another world in the first half of 2021. It explored the Martian terrain from above proving that powered air flight was a very efficient way to move around alien worlds. Now NASA have released a computer rendering of their next design, the Mars Chopper! 

Ingenuity was a small helicopter, or rather more a drone, that was carried to Mars on board the Perseverance rover mission in 2020. It was designed as a technology demonstration to prove that powered flight was possible in the thin atmosphere of Mars. It made its first flight on 19 April 2021 and hovered just 10 feet above the ground before safely landing again. Since then, Ingenuity has completed 60 flights on Mars helping to survey and scout for areas of interest for further study. 

This view of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was generated using data collected by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover on Aug. 2, 2023, the 871st Martian day, or sol, of the mission, one day before the rotorcraft’s 54th flight. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Operating a drone in the Martian atmosphere offers challenges largely due to the lower density. Compared to Earth, the atmosphere is less than 1% the density of Earth’s atmosphere. This means the blades on any aerial vehicles need to work harder and generate more lift than their Earth-bound counterparts. 

Image of the Martian atmosphere and surface obtained by the Viking 1 orbiter in June 1976. (Credit: NASA/Viking 1)

Density aside, the fine dust on the surface of Mars is often lifted up into the atmosphere which could damage the delicate mechanisms of operating craft. Not only must these types of vehicles be carefully designed to fly in alien atmospheres but they must also be able to protect themselves from local hazards. 

Moving on from the success of the Ingeniuty drone, NASA has released a rendering of its next generation vehicle for aerial flight on Mars, known as the Mars Chopper. Ingenuity was a feasability study and proved aerial flight successful, new craft on the drawing board come with a greater payload capacity to carry scientific instruments such as imaging and analysis kit. This will enable them to undertake the basic tasks like scouting activity to support future exploration but also undertake analysis and terrain mapping work. Ultimately even providing support to the human exploration of Mars.

The image released reveals a drone like vehicle which is about the size of an SUV with six rotors.  Each rotor has six blades which are smaller than those on Ingenuity but collectivity can provide even more lift. The payload capacity of the Chopper in its current design configuration is 5 kilograms a distance of up to 3km. The design is a collaboration between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the Ames Research Center. 

This new model will be a real game changer for the exploration not only of Mars but of any alien worlds with a solid surface and an atmosphere that can support flight. Ingenuity led the way proving the technology and now, with the new concept Mars ‘Choppers on the drawing board, aerial reconnaissance on these new worlds will vastly improve the value of ground based exploration. Remote aerial exploration will also be of invaluable benefit to support human exploration where rovers will be unable to reach. 

Source : NASA’s Mars Chopper Concept (Rendering)

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In August 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) began its long journey to study the Sun’s outer corona. After several gravity-assist maneuvers with Venus, the probe broke Helios 2‘s distance record and became the closest object to the Sun on October 29th, 2018. Since then, the Parker probe’s highly elliptical orbit has allowed it to pass through the Sun’s corona several times (“touch the Sun”). On December 24th, 2024, NASA confirmed that their probe made its closest approach to the Sun, passing just 6 million km (3.8 million mi) above the surface – roughly 0.04 times the distance between the Sun and Earth (0.04 AU).

In addition to breaking its previous distance record, the PSP passed through the solar atmosphere at a velocity of about 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph). This is equivalent to about 0.064% the speed of light, making the Parker Solar Probe the fastest human-made object ever. After the spacecraft made its latest pass, it sent a beacon tone to confirm that it made it through safely and was operating normally – which was received on December 26th. These close passes allow the PSP to conduct science operations that will expand our knowledge of the origin and evolution of solar wind.

Every flyby the probe made with Venus in the past six years brought it closer to the Sun in its elliptical orbit. As of November 6th, 2024, the spacecraft reached an optimal orbit that brings it close enough to study the Sun and the processes that influence space weather but not so close that the Sun’s heat and radiation will damage it. To ensure the spacecraft can withstand temperatures in the corona, the Parker probe relies on a carbon foam shield that can withstand temperatures between 980 and 1425 °C (1,800 and 2,600 degrees °F).

This shield also keeps the spacecraft instruments shaded and at room temperature to ensure they can operate in the solar atmosphere. Said Associate Administrator Nicky Fox, who leads the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a recent NASA press release:

“Flying this close to the Sun is a historic moment in humanity’s first mission to a star. By studying the Sun up close, we can better understand its impacts throughout our solar system, including on the technology we use daily on Earth and in space, as well as learn about the workings of stars across the universe to aid in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”

Nour Rawafi, the project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), is part of the team that designed, built, and operates the spacecraft. “[The] Parker Solar Probe is braving one of the most extreme environments in space and exceeding all expectations,” he said. “This mission is ushering a new golden era of space exploration, bringing us closer than ever to unlocking the Sun’s deepest and most enduring mysteries.”

The Parker Solar Probe was first proposed in a 1958 report by the National Academy of Sciences’ Space Science Board, which recommended “a solar probe to pass inside the orbit of Mercury to study the particles and fields in the vicinity of the Sun.” While the concept was proposed again in the 1970s and 1980s, it would take several more decades for the technology and a cost-effective mission to be realized.

The Parker Solar Probe also made several interesting and unexpected finds during previous close passes. During its first pass into the solar atmosphere in 2021, the spacecraft discovered that the outer boundary of the corona is characterized by spikes and valleys, contrary to expectations. It also discovered the origin of switchbacks (zig-zag structures) in the solar wind within the photosphere. Since then, the spacecraft has spent more time in the corona, closely examining most of the Sun’s critical processes.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on December 24th, 2024. Credits: NASA

The probe’s discoveries are not limited to the Sun either. As noted, one of the PSP’s primary objectives is to study how solar activity influences “space weather,” referring to the interaction of solar wind with the planets of the Solar System. For instance, the probe has captured multiple images of Venus during its many gravity assists, documented the planet’s radio emissions, and the first complete image of Venus’ orbital dust ring. The probe has also been repeatedly blasted by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that swept up dust as they passed through the Solar System.

“We now understand the solar wind and its acceleration away from the Sun,” said Adam Szabo, the Parker Solar Probe mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “This close approach will give us more data to understand how it’s accelerated closer in.”

The probe even offered a new perspective on the comet NEOWISE by capturing images from its unique vantage point. Now that the mission team knows the probe is safe, they are waiting for it to reach a location where it can transmit the data collected from its latest solar pass. “The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been,” said Joe Westlake, the director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It’s an amazing accomplishment.”

The spacecraft’s next solar passes are planned for March 22nd, 2025, and June 19th, 2025.

Further Reading: NASA

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For centuries, comets have captured our imagination. Across history they have been the harbingers of doom, inspired artists and fascinated astronomers. These icy remnants of the formation of the Solar System hold secrets to help us understand the events nearly 5 billion years ago. But before these secrets can be revealed, comets have to be studied and to study them they need to be found. A team of researchers have developed a technique to hunt down comets based upon data from meteor showers and to asses if they pose any threat to us here on Earth!

Comets are objects that orbit the Sun like the planets but their orbits are usually more elliptical. They are composed of dust, gas and water ice and often called ‘dirty snowballs.’ Many comets are part of, or were a part of the Oort Cloud or Kuiper Belt. These distant regions of space house many of the Solar System’s icy bodies. On occasions, interactions between the bodies in the clouds can send chunks in toward the inner Solar System transforming the dormant chunks of rock and ice into the comets we recognise. Driven by heating from the Sun, the ice immediately sublimates into a gas giving rise to a comets familiar fuzzy coma and tail. Contrary to popular belief, the tail of a comet doesn’t stream out behind the comet as it travels through space, instead, it always points away from the Sun pushed in that direction by the Solar Wind. 

Geysers of dust and gas shooting off the comet’s nucleus are called jets. The volatile material they deliver outside the nucleus builds the comet’s coma. Credit: ESA/Rostta/NAVCAM

Comets are categorised as either short period comets or long period with the latter group having an orbit of more than 200 years. Due to their long orbits, scientists fear that one  will be on a collision course with Earth and go completely un-noticed until it is too late.  The risk of this occurrence is of course incredibly small but the impact could be catastrophic to life on Earth. A team of astronomers led by Samantha Hemmelgarn from the Northern Arizona University has published a paper in Planetary Science Journal where they explain their technique for identifying threats from long period comets using  data from meteor showers. 

Leonids meteor shower

“This research gets us closer to defending Earth because it gives us a model to guide searches for these potentially hazardous objects,” Hemmelgarn said. Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the debris left behind by a comet. The team has studied 17 meteor showers that are associated with long period comets and calculated where the parent comet should be in space.

Using the path of the meteor showers, the team can assess the liklihood that a long period comet could pose a threat over its future orbits. In the test cases, the model accurately predicted the comet locations including its direction and speed of travel. This provides the opportunity for astronomers to hone their search around the sky looking for long period comets rather than hope one might be spotted through automated searchers that scour the whole sky. 

The obvious benefit is that early identification of a comet on a collision course with Earth means that there is more time to develop a plan for our defence. There is nothing yet that provides any concern for astronomers but the next impact event of extinction level, may be millions of years away. The team hope that their work and model will help to provide humanity with the earliest warning of potential impacts. 

Source : How to Find a Comet Before it Hits Earth

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In the coming years, NASA and other space agencies will send humans back to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo Era—this time to stay! To maximize line-of-sight communication with Earth, solar visibility, and access to water ice, NASA, the ESA, and China have selected the Lunar South Pole (LSP) as the location for their future lunar bases. This will necessitate the creation of permanent infrastructure on the Moon and require that astronauts have the right equipment and training to deal with conditions around the lunar south pole.

This includes lighting conditions, which present a major challenge for science operations and extravehicular activity (EVA). Around the LSP, day and night last for two weeks at a time, and the Sun never rises more than a few degrees above the horizon. This creates harsh lighting conditions very different from what the Apollo astronauts or any previous mission have experienced. To address this, the NASA Engineering and Safety Council (NESC) has recommended developing a wide variety of physical and virtual techniques that can simulate the visual experiences of Artemis astronauts.

In the past, the design of lighting and functional vision support systems has typically been relegated to the lowest level of program planning. This worked well for the Apollo missions and EVAs in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) since helmet design alone addressed all vision challenges. Things will be different for the Artemis Program since astronauts will not be able to avoid having harsh sunlight in their eyes during much of the time they spend doing EVAs. There is also the challenge of the extensive shadowing around the LSP due to its cratered and uneven nature, not to mention the extended lunar nights.

Artist’s rendering of the Starship HLS on the Moon’s surface. NASA has contracted with SpaceX to provide the lunar landing system. Credit: SpaceX

In addition, astronaut vehicles and habitats will require artificial lighting throughout missions, which means astronauts will have to transition from ambient lighting to harsh sunlight and/or intense darkness and back. Since the human eye has difficulty adapting to these transitions, it will impede an astronaut’s “function vision,” which is required to drive vehicles, perform EVAs safely, operate tools, and manage complex machines. This is especially true when it comes to rovers and the lander elevator used by the Starship HLS – both of which will be used for the Artemis III and IV missions.

As Meagan Chappell, a Knowledge Management Analyst at NASA’s Langley Research Center, indicates, this will require the development of new functional vision support systems. That means helmets, windows, and lighting systems that can work together to allow crews to “see into the darkness while their eyes are light-adapted, in bright light while still dark-adapted, and protects their eyes from injury.” According to the NESC assessment, these challenges have not been addressed, and must be understood before solutions can be implemented.

In particular, they indicated how functional vision and specific tasks for Artemis astronauts were not incorporated into system design requirements. For example, the new spacesuits designed for the Artemis Program – the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) – provide greater flexibility so astronauts can walk more easily on the lunar surface. However, there are currently no features or systems that would allow astronauts to see well enough when transitioning between brilliant sunlight into dark shadow and back again without losing their footing.

The NESC assessment identified several other gaps, prompting them to recommend that methods that enable functional vision become a specific and new requirement for system designers. They also recommended that the design process for lighting, windows, and visors become integrated. Lastly, they recommended that various physical and virtual simulation techniques be developed to address specific requirements. This means virtual reality programs that simulate what it is like to walk around the LSP during lunar day and night, followed by “dress rehearsal” missions in analog environments (or both combined!).

Astronauts operating around the Lunar South Pole. Credit: NASA

As Chappell summarized, the simulations will likely focus on different aspects of the mission elements to gauge the effectiveness of their designs:

“Some would address the blinding effects of sunlight at the LSP (not easily achieved through virtual approaches) to evaluate [the] performance of helmet shields and artificial lighting in the context of the environment and adaptation times. Other simulations would add terrain features to identify the threats in simple (e.g., walking, collection of samples) and complex (e.g., maintenance and operation of equipment) tasks. Since different facilities have different strengths, they also have different weaknesses. These strengths and limitations must be characterized to enable verification of technical solutions and crew training.”

This latest series of recommendations reminds us that NASA is committed to achieving a regular human presence on the Moon by the end of this decade. As that day draws nearer, the need for more in-depth preparation and planning becomes apparent. By the time astronauts are making regular trips to the Moon (according to NASA, once a year after 2028), they will need the best training and equipment we can muster.

Further Reading: NASA

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