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Science initially struggled to match the pace of the pandemic, leaving people unclear of the best ways to stay safe from the virus, but now we know so much more – which could be essential when the next pandemic hits

In the first two years of the covid-19 pandemic, numerous New Scientist covers were dedicated to the global emergency caused by the virus. Together, they tell a story of resilience and scientific achievement

Everyday household products are made almost entirely from newly extracted fossilised carbon. But 'defossilisation' is an exciting alternative, finds Graham Lawton

From Doctor Who and Severance to Apple Cider Vinegar, there are plenty of great sci-fi and science-inflected TV shows coming up this year, says Bethan Ackerley

It is tempting to lock memories of the height of covid-19 away but looking back is vital for preparing properly for the next pandemic

Christopher Hitchens, whom many of us admire despite occasional differences of opinion, died at only 62 on December 14, 2011.  Lawrence Krauss organized an event with four of Hitchens’s friends, all reminiscing about the Great Lion of Rhetoric. The panel was filmed in London on December 13, 2024—just 19 days ago—and I’ve put the video below.

The intro to the original audio on Krauss’s site Critical Mass:

A year ago, John Richards the head of the Atheist UK approached me about the idea of celebrating Christopher Hitchens with a Hitchmas event, near Christmas, and on or about the anniversary of Christopher’s death, on Dec 15, 2011. I realized that to do it right would require time and organization, and the proper panelists. I was thrilled that Christopher’s friends and mine, Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, and Douglas Murray agreed to be part of the event, and that the HowTo Academy, which organizes wonderful events in London, several of which I had done before, agreed to coordinate the logistics with The Origins Project Foundation. A year later, the sold-out event happened, and we decided in advance to record it appropriately, with 5 cameras, and to have Gus and Luke Holwerda, who directed and filmed The Unbelievers, and with whom I began The Origins Podcast, edit the final product.

The YouTube notes:

Join us for Hitchmas, a special event celebrating the life, legacy, and ideas of the legendary Christopher Hitchens. Recorded at the Royal Geographical Society in London, this thought-provoking evening features a stellar panel of friends and intellectuals: Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry, and Douglas Murray. Together, they share personal reminiscences, engage in lively discussion, and tackle modern issues with the wit and courage that Christopher Hitchens epitomized.

The evening opens with tributes from each panelist, exploring Hitchens’ enduring impact as a writer, orator, and fearless defender of reason. From heartfelt anecdotes to reflections on his literary heroes like George Orwell and P.G. Wodehouse, the panel paints a vivid picture of Hitchens’ intellect, humor, and humanity. The conversation transitions into a dynamic roundtable addressing contemporary cultural and political challenges, including religion, free speech, and the rise of “woke fundamentalism.” Audience questions add another layer, sparking debates about morality, truth, and the timeless relevance of Hitchens’ insights.

This unique celebration of Hitch’s life blends humor, deep thought, and passion, culminating in a poignant reflection on friendship, courage, and the pursuit of truth. Whether you’re a longtime admirer of Christopher Hitchens or discovering his work for the first time, this event offers a powerful tribute to a remarkable man who continues to inspire millions.

Just click here to see the video, or click on the screenshot below (YouTube won’t let me directly embed the video).

Richard and Lawrence read their pieces, which are both lively, but Murray and Fry speak of Hitch extemporaneously, or at least without notes.  I won’t summarize the reminiscences as you need to hear them yourself.

The four in memoriam pieces end at 35:16 and it’s on to discussion, with Lawrence asking each person to react to a statement by Hitchens. Fry waxes eloquent on the question we all have: “What would Hitchens would say about wokeness?” Douglas Murray, a defender of Israel, is asked to respond to some quotes from Hitchens attacking Zionism.

At 1 hour 4 minutes in, the panel answers questions submitted on social media.

In the end, this is one of the few discussion videos I’d recommend watching in toto. 

I met Hitchens only once, on November 6, 2009, at a meeting in Puebla, Mexico.  My bus was heading back to Mexico City, but when I saw him grabbing a ciggie outside the venue, complete with poppy and what I”m told is a pro-Kurd lapel pin, I leapt off the bus to introduce myself.  I never do stuff like that, but this was Hitchens!  He remembered me from something I’d written, but the bus was leaving and our discourse was very brief. Here’s a photo I took from the bus:

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.

I am doing non-website writing today, and not much is going on in the world, but I do have some heavier pieces to discuss in the next few days. But why not start off the year with a song—or two?

The Bob Marley hit “One Love” was called “One Love/People Get Ready” when issued in 1977, combining the Marley title with that of the famous Curtis Mayfield song. But there is little Mayfield in the Marley song—just enough to force Marley give it a composite title according to copyright law.  Both songs, however, are masterpieces, and both are religious.

Wikipedia gives the backstory for Marley’s double title.

The famous version of “One Love” that appears on their album Exodus was recorded in 1977 for Island Records under the title of “One Love/People Get Ready”. This version credits Curtis Mayfield (as Island Records wanted to avoid copyright problems), and it gives co-authorship credits to both Marley and Mayfield as it contains an interpolation of the Impressions‘ song “People Get Ready“, written by Mayfield. As the main artist, Marley and his group were credited as Bob Marley and the Wailers. It was not released as a single until 16 April 1984, to promote the forthcoming greatest hits album Legend. However, the single became one of his biggest hits and has been included on many of Marley and the Wailers subsequent compilation albums. The original recording of the song does not credit Mayfield’s song and is simply titled “One Love”; this is because copyright law was not enforced for Jamaican recordings at this time. The original song was published in the key of B♭ major, but it has since been transposed so it is in the key of C major.

Here is the famous version of the Marley song, recorded on June 3, 1977. It is a work of genius, marred for me only by the toy-piano-like introduction, which even sounds a bit off key. When I listen to Marley, I always remember that he died at only 36, of metastatic skin cancer that he could have prevented by having his big toe amputated. (He refused.) It’s sad but futile to think about what musical paths he would have traversed had he just allowed the doctors to sever his toe.

I forgot that Greg posted this song two years ago, so go back and see his comments  But you should definitely listen to it.

Below: The Marley lyrics.  When I read the above, I played the Mayfield song back in my mind and tried to remember which bits of Marley could have been lifted from “People Get Ready”. I remembered one line (the third bolded line below), but when I listened to “People Get Ready” after several Mayfield-less years, I discovered four bits of “One Love” that Marley took from “People Get Ready”. They are all in bold, and you can hear the Mayfield song below. They don’t constitute word-for-word plagiarism except for the third bolded line—the one I rememberd:

[Chorus]
One love, one heart
Let’s get together and feel alright
Hear the children cryin’ (One love)
Hear the children cryin’ (One heart)
Sayin’, “Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright”
Sayin’, “Let’s get together and feel alright, woah-woah-woah-woah” [Verse 1]
Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One love)
There is one question I’d really love to ask (One heart)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinners
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs? [Chorus]
One love (What about the one heart?), one heart (What about the—)
Let’s get together and feel alright (As it was in the beginning)
One love (So shall it be in the end), one heart (Alright)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright
Let’s get together and feel alright, one more thing [Verse 2]
Let’s get together to fight this Holy Armagiddyon (One love)
So when the Man comes, there will be no, no doom (One song)
Have pity on those whose chances grows thinner
There ain’t no hiding place from the Father of Creation, singing [Chorus]
One love (What about the one heart?), one heart (What about the—)
Let’s get together and feel alright (I’m pleadin’ to mankind)
One love (Oh, Lord), one heart (Woah)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright
Let’s get together and feel alright
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright
Let’s get together and feel alright

. . . and Mayfield’s song, (he wrote it), released in 1965—the same year Marley recorded the first version of “One Love”. It’s a beautiful song although a kind of religious hymn. From Wikipedia:

In 2021, Rolling Stone named “People Get Ready” the 122nd greatest song of all time. The song was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. “People Get Ready” was named as one of the Top 10 Best Songs of All Time by Mojo music magazine, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2015, the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its “cultural, historic, or artistic significance”. Martin Luther King Jr. named the song the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement and often used the song to get people marching or to calm and comfort them.

Some kinds of optimism get us into trouble, but others help us prosper. Luckily, a few tricks can help you become the right kind of positive thinker and reap the rewards

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.

It’s a new year, this is my 29,848th post since I began in 2009, and we have a new contributor to the photo series: Amy Perry from Indiana. Her photos below, though, are from California.  Amy’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge her photos by clicking on them.  I have added the Wikipedia links.

I took a hike in the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve Extension in the Del Mar neighborhood in San Diego. All the photos except for the three with asterisks were taken there. It is a hilly shrubland with views of the Pacific. All quotations are from the book California Plants: A Guide to Our Iconic Flora, by Matt Ritter. These plants are all in the shrublands section. I didn’t want to use descriptions from Wikipedia because readers could read them for themselves there. I wanted to provide info not easily accessible.

“The Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana) is the rarest species of pine in North America. There are about 3,000 wild individuals growing along the coast of northern San Diego, almost entirely in Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve…. This species can be distinguished from other pines by its twisted canopy of long gray green needles that are in bundles of five. The name commemorates John Torrey, a 19th century botanist and physician, and an original member of the National Academy of Sciences.”:

Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana). Note how gangly and sprawly and chaotic-looking this tree is. Many desert plants are like that:

*Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana) in the beach parking lot. “Trees along the immediate coast grow slowly, battered by ocean, winds and salt spray and sculpted into unusual shapes.” This tree had had part of it cut off, but the remaining part still has a very unusual shape:

The flower of the California brittlebush (Encelia californica) reminds me of black-eyed Susans in the Midwest. It is one of the very few plants still blooming in the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve Extension. It is a “non-hairy species that occurs in coastal areas,“ in contrast to plain ole brittlebush, a desert plant that has hairy leaves. The genus name “honors Christoph Entzelt, a 16th century German clergyman and natural historian.”:

California brittlebush (Encelia californica). “The desert variety can produce resin when the stems are scraped, and the dried resin can be burned for incense. In fact, the Spanish common name for this plant is incienso.” It’s unclear whether the coastal variety produces resin. If I had known about the desert variety, I would have scraped the stem of one outside the reserve to find out:

Laurel sumac (Malosma laurina) has “leaves that are folded upward along the mid vein, like a taco, with slightly wavy edges. Malosma means strong odor, for the smell of the cut leaves.” I did not tear a leaf and it’s probably a good thing since I was in a nature reserve. If I had read this botanical guide before I took my hike, I probably would have broken the law and torn the leaf, because I haven’t seen any laurel sumacs off the preserve:

Laurel sumac (Malosma laurina). The shape of the blossoms reminds me of those of the staghorn sumac in Indiana:

California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) is the most widespread species of this genus in the state according to Matt Ritter. “These evergreen leaves usually have margins rolled under, hiding a woolly underside. Eriogona means woolly knees in Greek, referring to the hairy nodes of the first species named in this genus.”:

California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum). “No part of the plant is especially edible, but the flowers are an important food source for butterflies and honeybees.”:

White sage (Salvia apiana). I hope the photo shows the softness of the leaves. “The name salvia is derived from the Latin word, Salvus, meaning safe or well, referring to the medicinal value of members of this genus:

White sage (Salvia apiana). “Most sages in California are drought-deciduous shrubs, commonly found in chaparral and coastal scrub.”:

*Ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis). “Opportunistic feeders” is what the Cornell Lab of Ornithology calls this bird in the book All about birds: California. Usually I see all manner of shorebirds at the Torrey Pines State Beach, North Beach. But one day I didn’t see any birds at all, and another day all I saw were the ubiquitous ring-billed gulls and, further inland behind some mud flats, some killdeer:

*Marbled effect of waves at Torrey Pines State Beach, North Beach, with a strand of seaweed for size comparison. Each white line is a tiny ledge about 1/8 inch high. I checked because I was curious whether the white was just a differently-colored sand or really a ledge, and the lines were indeed raised ledges.

Foxes and cats weren’t just caught for their pelts, hint cut marks and burns on bones found at a site in Israel

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.

A team develops an innovative injectable hydrogel for bone regeneration, addressing the limitations of traditional bone grafts and adhesion methods.

Scientific research explores the potential of DNNs in transforming fragrance design. By analyzing the sensing data of 180 essential oils, the DNN was trained using the odor descriptor data from 94 essential oils to generate fragrance profiles, validated through sensory evaluations to align with human olfactory perceptions. The study underscores the technological ability to streamline fragrance creation, reduce costs, and foster innovation, opening up exciting possibilities for personalized and scalable scent development.

When reading a book, we tend to blink over less familiar words, which suggests it may have a cognitive role

The surprise discovery that ancient human DNA can survive in sediments and soil is revolutionising the study of Paleolithic minds, behaviours and lifestyles

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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Entire atoms have been put through a classic quantum experiment for the first time and the breakthrough could lead to better detectors for picking up the gravitational waves that ripple across the universe