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Strange bursts of radio waves called FRBs have long been mysterious, and one of the most famous sources of these flashes may have an unexpected planet

Strange bursts of radio waves called FRBs have long been mysterious, and one of the most famous sources of these flashes may have an unexpected planet

Boeing's Starliner is finally ready to fly astronauts, after several years of delay. The capsule's designers put the extra time to good use, NASA and Boeing representatives say.

Stay tuned for a new era of Science Quickly.

This week in the moonless dark, the Summer Triangle appears over the eastern treetops star by star. Leo walks down toward the west. And the Sombrero Galaxy positions itself ideally on the south meridian for your telescope.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 3 – 12 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Plants are often celebrated for the parts that are easy to see – flower, leaves, fruit – but scientists are uncovering the secrets of their more mysterious underground networks

Plants are often celebrated for the parts that are easy to see – flower, leaves, fruit – but scientists are uncovering the secrets of their more mysterious underground networks

Image: This image may resemble the surface of Mars, but it was actually captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, revealing the stunning terrain of northwest Namibia.

ESA is committed to almost halve its greenhouse gas emissions linked to energy consumption by 2025 compared to 2019 levels. But how can ESA keep accelerating the use of space for the sustainable development of society while reducing its emissions?

The air and dust in climbing centres contain high levels of rubber particles from the soles of climbing shoes, some of which contain toxic additives

The air and dust in climbing centres contain high levels of rubber particles from the soles of climbing shoes, some of which contain toxic additives

A few weeks ago, a team of engineers carefully extracted ESA's EarthCARE satellite from its protective transport container, initiating a meticulous process of inspection, testing and preparation for its liftoff later this month from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Amidst an extensive checklist of tasks, was a rigorous effort to guarantee that the satellite is in pristine condition, underscoring the thorough attention to detail essential to making the satellite ready for launch.

Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. Whether launching new satellites to look back and study Earth, peer out to deep space or test important new technologies in orbit, Ariane 6’s first flight will showcase the versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy-lift launcher. Read on for all about EXOpod Nova, then see who else is flying first.

Climate change could be fueling bumblebee population loss by making hives too hot to handle

Climate change could be fueling bumblebee population loss by making hives too hot to handle

3 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Economic Benefits Study:

• 2015 Economic Benefits Study
• 2010 Economic Benefits Study
• 2010 Economic Benefits Study – Appendices

Development Plans:

• NASA Ames Development Plan – Dec 2002
• Environmental Issues and Management Plan
• US Fish and Wildlife Service Information Consultations on Proposed Development of NASA Ames Research Center
• Record of Decision

NASA Research Park Environmental Reports:

• Building 19 Lead, Asbestos, Mold Report – Feb 2002
• Lead Impacted Soil Summary – Jul 2002
• Lead Impacted Soil Sampling – Jan 2003

Environmental Management Division Public Documents:

• Historic Shenandoah District Development Plan
• Human Health Risk Assessment
• Mitigation Implementation and Monitoring Plan
• Transportation Demand and Management Plan

Environmental Impact Statement:

• NASA Research Park Environmental Impact Statement
• EIS Appendix A
• EIS Appendix B
• EIS Appendix C
• EIS Appendix D
• EIS Appendix E
• EIS Appendix F
• EIS Appendix G

RFP Housing Asbestos & Lead Based Paint Documents:

• Building 82 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 82 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 111 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 111 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 146 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 146 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 148 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 148 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 149 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 149 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 150 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 150 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 151 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 151 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 153 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 153 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 154 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 154 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 155 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 155 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 156 Asbestos Survey Report 2002
• Building 156 Asbestos Survey Report 2001
• Building 156 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 343 Bathroom Asbestos Survey Report 2010
• Building 343 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 459 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 459 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 512 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 512 Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 512C Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 512C Lead Based Paint Survey Report
• Building 534 Asbestos Survey Report
• Building 534 Lead Based Paint Survey Report

FP Housing Misc Due Diligence Documents:

• Environmental Baseline Survey NASA Research Park Parcel 1
• Amendment 91-4A to Administrative Order
• Administrative Order for Remedial Design and Remedial Action
• Closure Letter for Underground Storage Tank 57
• Uniform Case Closure Letter, Former Underground Storage Tank 58
• Consent Decree, United States of America v. Intel Corporation and Raytheon Company
• NASA Moffett Federal Facility Agreement under CERCLA Section 120 between the EPA Region IX, the State of California, and NASA, d
• Amendment to the Federal Facility Agreement NAS Moffett Field under CERCLA Section 120 between the EPA, Navy, and the State of C
• Federal Facility Agreement
• Record of Decision, MEW Study Area June 1989
• Record of Decision Amendment for the Vapor Intrusion Pathway, Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman (MEW) Superfund Study Area, Mountain Vie
• Ames Procedural Requirements 8500.1 (Ames Environmental Procedural Requirements)
• Ames Procedural Requirements 8715.1, Chapter 20 (Fire Protection)
• Comprehensive Land Use Plan – Santa Clara County
• Housing Area Demolition List
• NASA Procedural Requirements 1600.1A (NASA Security Program Procedural Requirements)
• NASA Housing RFP Q&A issued 12-12-2017
• NASA Procedural Requirements 8820.2G (Facility Project Requirements)
• Tour Request Form
• Ames Procedural Requirements 8822.1 (NASA Research Park Design Review Program)
• RFP Housing Pre-Submission Tour Form
• Ames Policy Directive 8829.1 (Construction Permits)
• Environmental Baseline Survey Parcels 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, Harding ESE, October 3, 2001
• Ames Procedural Requirements 8829.1 (Construction Permit Process)
• Environmental Resources Document
• NASA Ames Design Review Program Requirements & Procedures
• Environmental Baseline Survey NASA Research Park Parcel 5

Miscellaneous Documents:

• Moffett Field Main Gate Construction Phase 3

A beautiful nebula in the southern hemisphere with a binary star at it’s center seems to break our standard models of stellar evolution. But new data from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) suggests that there may once have been three stars, and that one was destroyed in a catastrophic collision.

About 3800 light years away, in the Southern constellation of Norma, you can find an object called the Dragon’s Egg Nebula (catalogue number NGC 6164). In the heart of this nebula lies a double star known as HD 148937. The pair are bright enough to be seen through binoculars and small telescopes but are far enough away that they only appear as a single star. Both of the stars that make up the pair are hot young blue giants, but the nebula surrounding them is quite unusual, which is why astronomers have been studying them for a long time.

Dr Abigail Frost is an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, and she has been paying attention to this system for the past nine years.

“When doing background reading, I was struck by how special this system seemed,” she says. “A nebula surrounding two massive stars is a rarity, and it really made us feel like something cool had to have happened in this system. When looking at the data, the coolness only increased.”

Frost, like other astronomers before her, have noticed many strange features about the nebula. Most obviously, hot young stars like these aren’t usually found in nebulae, as their intense radiation tends to disperse surrounding dust and gas quite efficiently. But beyond that, the nebula itself has an unusual composition. If this nebula were the remains of the gas cloud that birthed these stars, it would be composed almost entirely of molecular hydrogen. But instead, it contains heavier elements like oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Old stars create these elements by fusing Helium, and they eject them in their final stages of life. But that cannot be the source of this nebula, as the stars are still young.

The stars themselves have their own mysteries. The larger of the two has a strong magnetic field. Magnetic fields in stars like our Sun are formed when the thick central shell of super-heated plasma circulates. Much of the heat from the Sun’s core is transferred to the surface by convection: hot plasma near the core bubbles up towards the surface, where it cools and then sinks back down. Plasma is electrically charged, and all that charge moving generates a magnetic field, in what scientists call a dynamo effect.

But truly massive stars, like those in HD 148937, are so big that heat can simply radiate out from the core. There is such a large distance from the core to the surface that the temperature gradient is very gradual. There is nowhere inside the star with a high enough temperature differential to start convection, so there is no flow of material to generate a magnetic field. Nevertheless, the star has a magnetic field, which leads to the next oddity: magnetic stars experience a braking effect, causing their spin to gradually slow. So, this star, with its strong magnetic field which it should not have, spins rapidly, which the magnetic field should have prevented.

Fighting Dragons of Ara (NGC 6188 and 6164) © Michael Sidonio

But that’s not all! The primary star is at least 1.5 million years younger than its companion. According to Dr Frost, this shouldn’t be possible: “After a detailed analysis, we could determine that the more massive star appears much younger than its companion, which doesn’t make any sense since they should have formed at the same time”

If this system of stars and nebula doesn’t match what our models of stellar evolution tell us to expect, then how do we explain all these anomalies?

“We think this system had at least three stars originally; two of them had to be close together at one point in the orbit whilst another star was much more distant,” explains Hugues Sana, a professor at KU Leuven in Belgium and the principal investigator of the observations. “The two inner stars merged in a violent manner, creating a magnetic star and throwing out some material, which created the nebula. The more distant star formed a new orbit with the newly merged, now-magnetic star, creating the binary we see today at the centre of the nebula.”

In other words, the system was originally a triple star, not a double. Triple systems tend to be quite unstable, and usually end up ejecting one of their members. But sometimes the third star will smash dramatically into one of its companions instead. Nobody has ever seen a stellar collision, but computer modelling predicts a number of things, which we see in NGC 6164. A star is, essentially, a vast and massive cloud of gas, so big and heavy that its central regions are compressed to an enormous temperature and pressure. So, when two stars collide, these masses of gas merge chaotically. The different layers mix, dredging nuclear ash (like helium, nitrogen, carbon and oxygen) from the core to the surface. A lot of the gas, including the heavier elements, is ejected to create a vast new nebula. What’s left will collapse back inwards, settling down into a new star, with a rapid spin to match. And finally, the turbulence of the collision generates and sustains a powerful magnetic field.

This sequence of events has long been predicted by astronomers trying to model stellar mergers, and the nine years of work by Dr Frost could well provide the evidence to confirm that they are right. The metal-rich gas of NGC 6164, the youthful appearance of the primary star, it’s rapid spin and strong magnetic field all seem to confirm that this was indeed once a three body system that ended with a collision between two stars.

Read the original press release at https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2407/

The post Two Stars in a Binary System are Very Different. It's Because There Used to be Three appeared first on Universe Today.

The history of astronomy and observatories is full of stories about astronomers going higher and higher to get better views of the Universe. On Earth, the best locations are at places such as the Atacama Desert in Chile. So, that’s where the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory just opened its high-altitude eye on the sky, atop Cerro Chajnantor.

This unique new observatory, which was just commissioned on April 30th, sits at 5,640 meters (3.5 miles) above sea level, making it the highest observatory in the world—with a Guinness World Record recognition to prove it. The idea is to use this position in one of the driest areas of the world to get a closer look at planet-forming regions, evolving galaxies, and the earliest accessible epochs of cosmic history.

“Thanks to the height and arid environment, TAO will be the only ground-based telescope in the world capable of clearly viewing mid-infrared wavelengths. This area of the spectrum is extremely good for studying the environments around stars, including planet-forming regions,” said Professor Takashi Miyata, director of the Atacama Observatory of the Institute of Astronomy and manager of the observatory’s construction.

Building an observatory at such a high altitude may give astronomers a great view, but it’s also is a difficult place to work. For that reason, the University cooperated closely with locals to build the observatory safely. It will be operated remotely as much as possible, to avoid risking human life in what can be very adverse conditions.

At 5,640 meters, the summit of Cerro Chajnantor, where Tokyo Atacama Observatory is located, allows the telescope to be above most of the moisture that would otherwise limit its infrared sensitivity. ©2024 TAO project CC-BY-ND Why a Mid-infrared Observatory?

Objects and events in the Universe give off light across the electromagnetic spectrum. On Earth, we can detect much of that light, but not all of it. For example, Earth’s atmosphere absorbs many infrared wavelengths. So, the higher a telescope is placed, the more infrared it can “see”. Going to space (as astronomers have done with JWST, for example) is great, and a lot gets accomplished there. But astronomers can do quite a lot of very good astronomy at high altitudes, where conditions are dry and the atmosphere is thinner.

Mid-infrared is a particularly interesting “regime” of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is where we can start to “see” objects such as asteroids and planets. They re-radiate heat from their stars in the mid-infrared range. The same thing happens with dust around stars. It gets warmed and re-radiates in the mid-infrared. Disks of material around newborn stars—called protoplanetary disks—give off infrared radiation. Since these disks are where new planets form, infrared views give more detail about their evolution.

Mid-infrared studies of distant galaxies offer insight into their formation histories, as well as their star-formation rates. In addition, that range of wavelengths opens up a window into the activities and existence of active galactic nuclei. And, there’s a lot more that mid-infrared observations of the Universe can tell astronomers.

TAO Specs

According to Professor Yuzuru Yoshii, the TAO project lead and principal investigator, the new observatory should provide unique insights at each wavelength it studies. “I’m seeking to elucidate mysteries of the Universe, such as dark energy and primordial first stars,” said Yoshii. “For this, you need to view the sky in a way that only TAO makes possible.”

A schematic of the Tokyo Atacama Observatory telescope. Courtesy TAO project.

The heart of TAO is a 6.5-meter mirror that will feed incoming light into specialized instruments. The Simultaneous-color Wide-field Infrared Multi-object Spectrograph (SWIMS) can observe a large area of the sky and simultaneously observe two wavelengths of light. The other is the Mid-Infrared Multi-field Imager for gaZing at the UnKnown Universe (MIMIZUKU). It peers into the dustier regions of the Universe. Both will allow astronomers to efficiently collect information on a diverse range of galaxies and other structures in the Universe.

“Analysis of the SWIMS observation data will provide insight into the formation of these including the evolution of the supermassive black holes at their centers,” said Assistant Professor Masahiro Konishi. “New telescopes and instruments naturally help advance astronomy. I hope the next generation of astronomers use TAO and other ground-based, and space-based, telescopes, to make unexpected discoveries that challenge our current understanding and explain the unexplained.”

For More Information

The TAO Project
World’s Highest Observatory Explores the Universe

The post The Highest Observatory in the World Comes Online appeared first on Universe Today.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft serendipitously found a small moonlet orbiting the mission's asteroid target Dinkinesh. Scientists named it Selam, and have now learned that Selam is a cosmic toddler.

The JWST keeps one-upping itself. In the telescope’s latest act of outdoing itself, it examined a distant exoplanet to map its weather. The forecast?

An unending, blistering inferno driven by ceaseless supersonic winds.

WASP-43b is a hot Jupiter orbiting a main sequence star about 261 light-years away. It has a slightly larger radius than Jupiter and is about twice as massive. It orbits its star in under 20 hours and is only 1.3 million miles away from it. That means it is tidally locked to the star, with one side facing all the radiation and the other permanently dark.

This is not unusual for exoplanet gas giants. They’re often tight to their stars and don’t rotate.

WASP-43b’s discovery was announced in 2011. Since then, astronomers have studied it extensively. In 2019, researchers captured its spectrum and reported water in its clouds. Conversely, no methane, carbon dioxide, or carbon monoxide were detected. Further research showed that mineral particles dominate its clouds. The Hubble Space Telescope was largely responsible for these results; other telescopes like the Spitzer also contributed.

Scientists knew that when the JWST was launched, it would eventually turn its eye toward WASP-43b. “Having a short orbital period and being tidally locked makes WASP-43b an ideal candidate for JWST observations,” explained the authors of a 2020 paper. “Phase curve observations of an entire orbit will enable the mapping of the atmospheric structure across the planet, with different wavelengths of observation allowing different atmospheric depths to be seen.” Their paper anticipated what the JWST might find and how its observations might be understood.

Now, we’re in the future, and the JWST has taken a look at WASP-43b and captured more detailed observations than ever. The space telescope’s powerful infrared capabilities measured the heat on both sides of the planet and allowed the mapping of the planet’s atmospheric structure, just as the authors of the 2020 paper stated.

“The fact that we can map temperature in this way is a real testament to Webb’s sensitivity and stability.”

Michael Roman, University of Leicester.

A new paper in Nature Astronomy presents the results. It’s titled “Nightside Clouds and Disequilibrium Chemistry on the Hot Jupiter WASP-43b.” The lead author is Taylor Bell, a researcher from the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute.

“With Hubble, we could clearly see that there is water vapour on the dayside. Both Hubble and Spitzer suggested there might be clouds on the nightside,” explained lead author Bell. “But we needed more precise measurements from Webb to really begin mapping the temperature, cloud cover, winds, and more detailed atmospheric composition all the way around the planet.”

Despite its power, the JWST can’t directly see WASP-43b. Instead, it utilizes phase curve spectroscopy. Phase curve spectroscopy measures the light from the planet and the star over time, sensing small changes in the light from both as the planet orbits the star. Since the JWST senses infrared light, which is emitted depending on an object’s heat, the telescope’s varying brightness data expresses the planet’s temperature.

Phase curve spectroscopy allows the JWST to sense the change in brightness as a planet orbits its star. This diagram shows the change in a planet’s phase (the amount of the lit side facing the telescope) as it orbits its star. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Dani Player (STScI), Andi James (STScI), Greg Bacon (STScI)

The JWST’s MIRI spectrometer captured WASP-43b’s phase curve. The planet is hottest when it’s on the opposite side of the star and its lit-up side faces the telescope. The telescope sees the cooler dark side when the planet is on this side of the star and transiting in front of it.

This graph shows more than 8,000 measurements of mid-infrared light captured over a single 24-hour observation using the JWST’s low-resolution spectroscopy mode on its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). By subtracting the amount of light the star contributes, astronomers can calculate the amount coming from the visible side of the planet as it orbits. The telescope’s extreme sensitivity made this possible. Webb detected differences in brightness as small as 0.004% (40 parts per million). Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

“By observing over an entire orbit, we were able to calculate the temperature of different sides of the planet as they rotate into view,” explained Bell. “From that, we could construct a rough map of temperature across the planet.”

To put the data into perspective, the researchers compared WASP-43b’s phase curve to General Circulation Model (GCM) simulations. The JWST phase curve data more closely matched a cloudy GCM than a cloudless GCM.

“The cloudy models are able to suppress the nightside emission and better match the data,” the authors explain in their paper.

This figure from the research shows the JWST’s phase curve data for WASP-43b (black dots) and what cloudless and cloudy GCM simulations predict. The data more closely matches a cloudy atmosphere. Image Credit: Bell et al. 2024.

The researchers used the detailed infrared data to construct a temperature map of the exoplanet. The dayside has an average temperature of about 1,250 Celsius (2,300 F), which is almost hot enough to forge iron. But the nightside likely has a thick layer of high-altitude clouds that trap some of the heat. Those clouds make the nightside appear cooler than it is. It’s much cooler at about 600 degrees Celsius (1,100 degrees Fahrenheit) but still hot enough to melt aluminum.

“The fact that we can map temperature in this way is a real testament to Webb’s sensitivity and stability,” said Michael Roman, a co-author from the University of Leicester in the U.K.

This set of maps shows the temperature of the visible side of the hot gas-giant exoplanet WASP-43 b as the planet orbits its star. Image Credits: Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI). Science:
Taylor Bell (BAERI), Joanna Barstow (The Open University), Michael Roman (University of Leicester)

The researchers also mapped a hot spot in WASP-43b’s atmosphere, and it helped them gauge the exoplanet’s ferocious winds. The hot spot is east of the point receiving the most starlight. That means that powerful winds are moving the heated gas.

The JWST’s spectrum also allowed the researchers to measure the presence of water vapour (H2O) and methane (CH4.) “Webb has given us an opportunity to figure out exactly which molecules we’re seeing and put some limits on the abundances,” said Joanna Barstow, a co-author from the Open University in the U.K.

Webb found water vapour on the dayside and the nightside, indicating cloud thickness and elevation. However, the telescope detected an absence of methane (CH4), which is unusual. The extreme heat on the dayside means carbon is in carbon monoxide (CO) form. But the cooler nightside should contain stable methane. Why isn’t it there? Powerful winds are responsible.

“The fact that we don’t see methane tells us that WASP-43b must have wind speeds reaching something like 5,000 miles per hour,” explained Barstow. “If winds move gas around from the dayside to the nightside and back again fast enough, there isn’t enough time for the expected chemical reactions to produce detectable amounts of methane on the nightside.”

via GIPHY

Previous observations with the Hubble, Spitzer, and others revealed some aspects of WASP-43b’s atmosphere. But the JWST has taken it a step further. By determining the extremely high wind velocity on the exoplanet, scientists now believe the atmosphere is the same all around the planet.

“Taken together, our results highlight the unique capabilities of JWST/MIRI for exoplanet atmosphere characterization,” the authors write in their paper. They point out that there are still some discrepancies between the phase curve, the GCM simulations, and the chemical equilibrium in the atmosphere.

According to the researchers, more JWST exoplanet observations can help resolve them. “These remaining discrepancies underscore the importance of further exploring the effects of clouds and disequilibrium chemistry in numerical models as JWST continues to place unprecedented observational constraints on smaller and cooler planets,” they conclude.

The post Is the JWST Now an Interplanetary Meteorologist? appeared first on Universe Today.