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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

The post A New Mission Watches Meteoroids Hit the Far Side of the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

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

Several start-ups are preparing to launch new foods made without plants, animals or soil, claiming that their products have a lower environmental impact

Skeptoid answers another round of feedback emails sent in by listeners.

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

The post Even Stars Can Get the Hiccups appeared first on Universe Today.

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

The post Hotter White Dwarfs Get Puffier appeared first on Universe Today.

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

The post NASA to Probe the Secrets of the Lunar Regolith appeared first on Universe Today.

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

The post NOIRLab Launches Collection of Hi-Res Images of 88 IAU-recognized Constellations appeared first on Universe Today.

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.

The post Saturn’s Rings Might Be Really Old After All appeared first on Universe Today.

A team has reported a Raman microscopy technique that produced images up to eight times brighter than those achieved with conventional Raman techniques. Imaging of frozen biological samples reduced the noise introduced by the motion of material over long acquisition times. The technique is expected to broaden understanding in many areas of the biological sciences by allowing high-quality images and chemical information to be captured without the need for staining.

A team has reported a Raman microscopy technique that produced images up to eight times brighter than those achieved with conventional Raman techniques. Imaging of frozen biological samples reduced the noise introduced by the motion of material over long acquisition times. The technique is expected to broaden understanding in many areas of the biological sciences by allowing high-quality images and chemical information to be captured without the need for staining.

In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry, engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet (UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines. This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a lowered cost maskless photolithography through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry, engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet (UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines. This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a lowered cost maskless photolithography through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

Engineers have developed a new signal analysis technology that enhances radar range resolution and is applicable to various radar systems.

A research team achieves 63% energy storage efficiency and 5.17% overall efficiency by combining a supercapacitor with a solar cell.