News Feeds

China’s growing presence in space has been undeniable since the turn of the century. Between sending the first “taikonaut” to space in 2003 (Yang Liwei), launching the first Chinese robotic mission to the Moon (Chang’e-1) in 2007, and the deployment of their Tiangong space station between 2021-2022, China has emerged as a major power in space. Accordingly, they have bold plans for the future, like the proposed expansion of their Tiangong space station and the creation of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) by 2035.

In their desire to become a space power that can rival NASA, China also has its sights on Mars. In addition to crewed missions that will culminate in a “permanent base,” they intend to conduct a sample-return mission in the near future. This will be performed by the Tianwen-3 mission, which is currently scheduled to launch in 2028 and return samples to Earth by 2031. In a recent article, the Tianwen-3 science team outlined their exploration strategy, including the methods used to retrieve the samples, the target locations, and how they’ll be analyzed for biosignatures that could indicate the presence of past life.

Zengqian Hou was the article’s lead author, a geologist with the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS), and the mission team supervisor. His fellow team members included the mission’s chief designer, Liu Jizhong, and colleagues from the DSEL, the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). The article was recently published in the November edition of National Science Review.

This image was taken by a small camera jettisoned from China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft to photograph the spacecraft in orbit above the Martian north pole. Credit: CNSA/PEC

This mission is the third in China’s Tianwen (Chinese for “questions to heaven”) exploration program. The previous mission (Tianwen-1) included an orbiter, a lander, and the Zhurong rover, which reached Mars in February 2021. The successful deployment of this mission made China the third nation (after the Soviet Union and the U.S.) to land on Mars. Highlights of the mission include the mapping of the entire Martian surface by the orbiter and the discovery of hydrated minerals by Zhurong, further confirming that Mars once had liquid water on its surface.

News of this latest mission was first shared by Jizhong at the 2nd International Deep Space Exploration Conference, which took place from September 4th to 7th in Huangshan City, China. However, few details were shared at the time, though a concurrently published paper suggested that the mission could include a helicopter similar to NASA’s Ingenuity. According to the latest from Jizhong, the Tianwen-3 will consist of two launches sometime in 2028 using the Long March 5 (CZ-5) rocket. While one CZ-5 will send the orbiter/return vehicle, the second will send the lander/ascent vehicle. As Liu told the state-owned news agency Xinhua:

“China has retrieved the first-ever samples from the far side of the moon with the Chang’e-6 mission this year. Since Mars is much farther away than the moon, it will take two launches to carry out the Mars sample-return mission due to the limited carrying capacities of our current rockets. Two Long March-5 carrier rockets will be used for the mission.”

Other details include the 86 potential landing sites proposed by the team, which are primarily concentrated in the ancient Chryse Planitia and Utopia Planitia regions. These areas are considered good places to search for potential biosignatures that could be preserved remains of ancient life. This includes features that indicate the presence of past water, including delta fans, lake beds, and the coastline, suggesting the presence of a past ocean in the Northern Lowlands. The team also stated that Tianwen-3 will carry payloads developed with international partners.

A wireless camera took this ‘group photo’ of China’s Tianwen-1 lander and rover on Mars’ surface. Credit: CNSA

They also stressed the necessity for new instruments specifically designed to detect biosignatures. To this end, they have developed a 13-phase mission plan that leverages in-situ and remote-sensing detection technologies. Liu also disclosed that the mission will rely on multi-point surface sampling, fixed-point in-depth drilling, and in-flight vehicle sampling to obtain diverse samples. They also state that China will conduct joint research with scientists worldwide on Mars samples and detection data.

What is clear from this latest news is that China intends to preempt NASA and the ESA’s proposed Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. Due to budget cuts announced earlier this year, this mission is currently stuck in the design phase. Similarly, China has indicated that the Tianwen-4 mission will explore the Jupiter system to learn more about its moons and their evolutionary history. This mission is scheduled to launch in September 2029 and will follow on the heels of NASA’s Europa Clipper and the ESA’s JUpiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE).

This is in keeping with China’s pattern of following in NASA’s footsteps, catching up with them and surpassing them as the leader in space exploration. If they manage to return Martian samples to Earth before either NASA or the ESA, they will have accomplished a task no other space agency has. However, given the scientific value of these samples and the international cooperation that will go into their analysis will be to the benefit of all.

Further Reading: CGTN, Xinhua

The post China Plans to Retrieve Mars Samples by 2031 appeared first on Universe Today.

An innovative algorithm called Spectral Expansion Tree Search helps autonomous robotic systems make optimal choices on the move.

An innovative algorithm called Spectral Expansion Tree Search helps autonomous robotic systems make optimal choices on the move.

With the help of an AI tool, computed tomography (CT) scans taken originally to look for tumors or bleeding or infections, also revealed calcium buildup in arteries, a sign of worsening cardiovascular disease.

Researchers characterize the chemical makeup of 81 common household items. Researchers also evaluated the potential risk to users.

Since the 1960s, scientists who study X-rays, lightning and similar phenomena have observed something curious: In lab experiments replicating these occurrences, electrons accelerated between two electrodes can be of a higher energy than the voltage applied. According to researchers, this defies an assumption in physics that the energy of the electrons should correspond with the voltage applied. Despite the decades-long awareness of this apparent contradiction, researchers couldn't figure out why this was happening. Recently, a team of researchers used mathematical modeling to explain the underlying mechanism at play.

Since the 1960s, scientists who study X-rays, lightning and similar phenomena have observed something curious: In lab experiments replicating these occurrences, electrons accelerated between two electrodes can be of a higher energy than the voltage applied. According to researchers, this defies an assumption in physics that the energy of the electrons should correspond with the voltage applied. Despite the decades-long awareness of this apparent contradiction, researchers couldn't figure out why this was happening. Recently, a team of researchers used mathematical modeling to explain the underlying mechanism at play.

In a unique demonstration of brain implants that incorporate living cells, the devices were able to connect with the brains of live mice

When Oumuamua traversed our Solar System in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so. Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did the same thing. These are the only two confirmed ISOs to visit our Solar System. Many more ISOs must have visited in our Solar System’s long history, and many more will visit in the future. There are obviously more of these objects out there, and the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory is expected to discover many more.

It’s possible that the Sun could capture an ISO or a rogue planet in the same way that some of the planets have captured moons.

It all comes down to phase space.

What would happen to our mature, sedate Solar System if it suddenly gained another member? That would depend on the object’s mass and the eventual orbit that it found itself in. It’s an interesting thought experiment; while Borisov and Oumuamua were smaller objects, a more massive rogue planet joining our Solar System could generate orbital chaos. It could potentially alter the course of life on Earth, though that is highly improbable.

How likely is this scenario? A new research note in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy outlines how our Solar System could capture an ISO. It’s titled “Permanent capture into the solar system,” and the authors are Edward Belbruno from the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Yeshiva University, and James Green, formerly of NASA and now from Space Science Endeavours.

Phase space is a mathematical representation that describes the state of a dynamical system like our Solar System. Phase space uses coordinates that represent both position and momentum. It’s like a multidimensional space that contains all of the possible orbital configurations around the Sun. Phase space captures the state of a dynamical system by tracking both position and momentum characteristics. Our Solar System’s phase space has capture points where an ISO can find itself gravitationally bound to the Sun.

Phase space is complex and is based on Hamiltonian mechanics. Things like orbital eccentricity, semi-major axis, and orbital inclination all feed into it. Phase space is best understood as a multidimensional landscape.

Our Solar System’s phase space includes two types of capture points: weak and permanent.

Weak capture points are regions in space where an object can be temporarily drawn into a semi-stable orbit. These points are often where the outer edges of objects’ gravitational boundaries meet. They’re more like gravitational nudges than an orbital adoption.

Permanent capture points are regions in space where an object can be permanently captured into a stable orbit. An object’s angular momentum and energy are an exact configuration that allows it to maintain an orbit. In planetary systems, these permanent capture points are stable orbital configurations that persist for extremely long periods of time.

Our Solar System’s phase space is extremely complex and involves many moving bodies and their changing coordinates. Subtle changes in phase space coordinates can allow objects to transition between permanent capture states and weak capture states. By the same token, subtle differences in ISOs or rogue planets can lead them into these points.

In their research note, the authors describe the permanent capture of an ISO this way: “The permanent capture of a small body, P, about the Sun, S, from interstellar space occurs when P can never escape back into interstellar space and remains captured within the Solar System for all future time, moving without collision with the Sun.” Purists will note that nothing can be the same for all future time, but the point stands.

Other researchers have delved into this scenario, but this work goes a step further. “In addition to being permanently captured, P is also weakly captured,” they write. It revolves around the notoriously difficult to solve three-body problem. Also unlike previous research, which uses Jupiter as the third body, this work uses the galaxy’s tidal force as the third body, along with the P and S. “This tidal force has an appreciable effect on the structure of the phase space for the velocity range and distance from the Sun we are considering,” they explain in their paper.

The paper focuses on the theoretical nature of phase space and ISO capture. It studies “the dynamical and topological properties of a special type of permanent capture, called permanent weak capture which occurs for infinite time.” An object in permanent weak capture will never escape, but will never reach a consistent stable orbit. It asymptotically approaches the capture set without colliding with the star.

There’s not much debate that rogue planets exist likely in large numbers. Stars form in groups that eventually disperse over a wider area. Since stars host planets, some of these planets will be dispersed through gravitational interactions prior to co-natal stars gaining some separation from one another.

“The final architecture of any solar system will be shaped by planet-planet scattering in addition to the stellar flybys of the adjacent forming star systems since close encounters can pull planets and small bodies out of the system creating what are called rogue planets,” the authors explain.

“When taken together, planet ejection from early planet-planet scattering and stellar encounters and in the subsequent evolution of a multi-planet solar system should be common and supports the evidence for a very large number of rogue planets that are free floating in interstellar space that perhaps exceed the number of stars,” the authors write, noting that that assertion is controversial.

So what does this all add up to?

The researchers developed a capture cross-section for the Solar System’s phase space then calculated how many rogue planets are in our Solar System’s vicinity. In our solar neighbourhood, which extends to a radius of six parsecs around the Sun, there are 131 stars and brown dwarfs. Astronomers know that at least several of them host planets, and all of them may very well host planets we haven’t detected yet.

Every million years, about two of our stellar neighbours come within a few light years of Earth. “However, six stars are expected to closely pass by in the next 50,000 years,” the authors write. The Oort Cloud’s outer boundary is about 1.5 light years away, so some of these stellar encounters could easily dislodge objects from the cloud and send them toward the inner Solar System. This has already happened many times, as the cloud is likely the source of long-period comets.

The familiar Solar System with its 8 planets occupies a tiny space inside a large spherical shell containing trillions of comets – the Oort Cloud. Gravitational perturbations dislodge comets from the cloud, sending some of them into the inner Solar System. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The researchers identified openings in the Solar System’s phase space that could allow some of these objects, or ISOs or rogue planets, to reach permanent weak capture. They’re openings in the Sun’s Hill sphere, a region where the Sun’s gravity is the dominant gravitational force for capturing satellites. These openings are 3.81 light years away from the Sun in the direction of the galactic center or opposite to it.

“Permanent weak capture of interstellar objects into the Solar System is possible through these openings,” the authors state. “They would move chaotically within the Hill’s sphere to permanent capture about the Sun taking an arbitrarily long time by infinitely many cycles.” These objects would never collide with the Sun and could be captured permanently. “A rogue planet could perturb the orbits of the planets that may be possible to detect,” they conclude.

We’re still in the early days of understanding ISOs and rogue planets. We know they’re out there, but we don’t know how many or where they are. The Vera Rubin Observatory might open our eyes to this population of objects. It may even show how they cluster in some regions and avoid others.

According to this work, if they’re close to any of the openings in the Sun’s Hill sphere, we could have a visitor that decides to stay.

The post Here’s How Interstellar Objects and Rogue Planets Can be Trapped in the Solar System appeared first on Universe Today.

An AI method enables the generation of sharp, high-quality 3D shapes that are closer to the quality of the best 2D image models. Previous approaches typically generated blurry or cartoonish 3D shapes.

Earlier research showed that primary care clinicians using AI-ECG tools identified more unknown cases of a weak heart pump, also called low ejection fraction, than without AI. New study findings suggest that this type of screening is also cost-effective in the long term, especially in outpatient settings.

A team of researchers has beaten its own record for the fastest swimming soft robot, drawing inspiration from manta rays to improve their ability to control the robot's movement in the water.

A team of researchers has beaten its own record for the fastest swimming soft robot, drawing inspiration from manta rays to improve their ability to control the robot's movement in the water.

The Universe is a turbulent place. Stars are exploding, neutron stars collide, and supermassive black holes are merging. All of these things and many more create gravitational waves. As a result, the cosmos is filled with a rippling sea of gravitational vibrations. While we have been able to directly detect gravitational waves since 2016, gravitational wave astronomy is still in its infancy. We have only been able to observe the gravitational ripples of colliding stellar black holes. Even then, all we can really detect is the final gravitational chirp created in the last moments of merging.

We can, however, gather indirect evidence of the cosmic background of gravitational waves. Last year, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) released their first observations, which were based on millisecond pulsars.

The idea behind the NANOGrav project is that pulsars emit very regular radio pulses. Millisecond pulsars are just rapidly rotating neutron stars that happen to sweep a beam of radio energy in our direction with each rotation. So, unless a neutron star experiences a rare starquake, the pulsar timing is so consistent we can use it as a cosmic clock. This means any small variation in the timing is due to a change in relative motion. As the cosmic gravitation waves ripple past a pulsar, its observed timing changes slightly. The shift isn’t large enough to observe with an individual pulsar, but it is large enough that a statistical analysis of many pulsars reveals the gravitational waves.

MeerKAT results showing pulsar correlations across the sky. Credit: Miles, et al

In the 2023 results, NANOGrav found evidence of cosmic gravitational waves but didn’t have enough data to pin down the source. But even this was a tremendous result. It took 15 years of observations just to prove the existence of these cosmic waves. Now a new observatory has released a data set, and it’s a game changer.

The MeerKat radio array is a collection of 64 antennas located in South Africa and run by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). This week, SARAO released a series of papers on their results after just four and a half years. Where NANOGrav looked at 67 millisecond pulsars, MeerKAT gathered data on 83. It observed these pulsars with a similar resolution as NANOGrav, but did so in a third of the time. These results again confirm the existence of cosmic gravitational waves, but like the NANOGrav don’t confirm the origin. We still need more data to prove they are generated by binary black holes in the Milky Way. But now that we have two observational teams working on it, that necessary evidence should be found in the relatively near future.

Reference: Agazie, Gabriella, et al. “The NANOGrav 15 yr data set: Evidence for a gravitational-wave background.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 951.1 (2023): L8.

Reference: Miles, Matthew T., et al. “The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: The 4.5-year data release and the noise and stochastic signals of the millisecond pulsar population.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024): stae2572.

Reference: Miles, Matthew T., et al. “The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: The first search for gravitational waves with the MeerKAT radio telescope.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024): stae2571.

Reference: Grunthal, Kathrin, et al. “The MeerKAT pulsar timing array: Maps of the gravitational-wave sky with the 4.5 year data release.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024): stae2573.

The post MeerKAT Confirms the Gravitational Wave Background of the Universe in Record Time appeared first on Universe Today.

The bones of a child who died nearly 13,000 years ago suggest that the people who moved from Asia into North America at this time ate a lot of mammoth

Our television columnist Bethan Ackerley rounds up the year’s best science television, from David Attenborough (who features more than once) to Brian Cox

Research shows how exercise has other advantages in addition to the physical, whether in relation to ADHD or mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, finds Grace Wade

From horror on a North Sea oil rig to the adorable Astro Bots, our video games columnist Jacob Aron had a lot of fun in virtual worlds this year

Mark Catesby's work documents the plants and animals he saw while journeying in North America and the Caribbean

From an Earth that has become a nuclear wasteland to one threatened by extraterrestrials, there was some standout sci-fi TV in 2024. Our columnist Bethan Ackerley reveals her top five shows