Astronomy

The Cassini mission’s samples from Saturn’s moon Enceladus have signs of various organic molecules that could be among the ingredients needed for life to get started

The Cassini mission’s samples from Saturn’s moon Enceladus have signs of various organic molecules that could be among the ingredients needed for life to get started

JUICE successfully identified water and the building blocks of life in Earth's atmosphere. In doing so, the probe headed for Jupiter's moons confirmed that its instruments are working properly.

The private Polaris Dawn crew notched another milestone on Thursday (Sept. 12), beaming photos home using SpaceX's Starlink broadband satellites.

Week in images: 09-13 September 2024

Discover our week through the lens

The current generation of gravitational wave detectors could "hear" supernovas over 65 million light-years away, helping scientists determine if a dying star creates a black hole or a neutron star.

The direction of cause and effect was brought into question for quantum objects more than a decade ago, but new calculations may offer a way to restore it

The direction of cause and effect was brought into question for quantum objects more than a decade ago, but new calculations may offer a way to restore it

Polaris Dawn astronaut Sarah Gillis released a new music video from space while playing violin inside the mission's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Japanese company ispace plans to launch Mission 2, its second shot at landing on the moon, this December on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, owes his superstar success to self-satisfied competitors who blew obvious opportunities

Supermoons are popular in the media, but are they really so different from how our extraordinary moon ordinarily appears?

Thanks to advances in weather simulation, forecasts of heatwaves and hurricanes could soon come with information about the extent to which they were fuelled by climate change

Thanks to advances in weather simulation, forecasts of heatwaves and hurricanes could soon come with information about the extent to which they were fuelled by climate change

Boeing Starliner's historic first mission with astronauts did not turn out as planned. Starliner's 2 NASA astronauts will share their experiences from the ISS today (Sept. 13).

NASA flight engineer Matthew Dominick’s astrophotography helps us see our world—from space.

Video: 00:01:25

Watch the closest flyby of a planet ever, as the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft sped past Mercury during its latest encounter on 4 September 2024.

This flyby marked BepiColombo’s closest approach to Mercury yet, and for the first time, the spacecraft had a clear view of Mercury’s south pole.

This timelapse is made up of 128 different images captured by all three of BepiColombo’s monitoring cameras, M-CAM 1, 2 and 3. We see the planet move in and out of the fields of view of M-CAM 2 and 3, before M-CAM 1 sees the planet receding into the distance at the end of the video.

The first few images are taken in the days and weeks before the flyby. Mercury first appears in an image taken at 23:50 CEST (21:50 UTC) on 4 September, at a distance of 191 km. Closest approach was at 23:48 CEST at a distance of 165 km.

The sequence ends around 24 hours later, on 5 September 2024, when BepiColombo was about 243 000 km from Mercury.

During the flyby it was possible to identify various geological features that BepiColombo will study in more detail once in orbit around the planet. Four minutes after closest approach, a large ‘peak ring basin’ called Vivaldi came into view.

This crater was named after the famous Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741). The flyover of Vivaldi crater was the inspiration for using Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ as the soundtrack for this timelapse.

Peak ring basins are mysterious craters created by powerful asteroid or comet impacts, so-called because of the inner ring of peaks on an otherwise flattish floor.

A couple of minutes later, another peak ring basin came into view: newly named Stoddart. The name was recently assigned following a request from the M-CAM team, who realised that this crater would be visible in these images and decided it would be worth naming considering its potential interest for scientists in the future.

BepiColombo’s three monitoring cameras provided 1024 x 1024 pixel snapshots. Their main purpose is to monitor the spacecraft’s various booms and antennas, hence why we see parts of the spacecraft in the foreground. The photos that they capture of Mercury during the flybys are a bonus.

 

The 4 September gravity assist flyby was the fourth at Mercury and the seventh of nine planetary flybys overall. During its eight-year cruise to the smallest and innermost planet of the Solar System, BepiColombo makes one flyby at Earth, two at Venus and six at Mercury, to help steer itself on course for entering orbit around Mercury in 2026.

BepiColombo is an international collaboration between ESA and JAXA.

BepiColombo’s best images yet highlight fourth Mercury flyby

BepiColombo images in ESA’s Planetary Science Archive

Processing notes: The BepiColombo monitoring cameras provide black-and-white, 1024 x 1024 pixel images. These raw images have been processed to remove electronic banding in the cameras. The M-CAM 1 images have been cropped to 995 x 995 pixels

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image captures algal bloom swirls in the north Adriatic Sea, along the coast of Italy.

Ground-based interferometry on Earth has proven to be a successful method for conducting science by combining light from several telescopes into acting like a single large telescope. But how can a ultraviolet (UV)/optical interferometer telescope on the Moon deliver enhanced science, and can the Artemis missions help make this a reality? This is what a recently submitted study to the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2024 conference hopes to address as a team of researchers propose the Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI) that, as its name implies, could potentially be delivered to the lunar surface via NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions. This proposal was recently accepted as a Phase 1 study through NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program and holds the potential to develop revolutionary extremely high-angular resolution way of conducting science on other planetary bodies while contributing to other missions, as well.

Here, Universe Today discusses this incredible research with Dr. Gioia Rau, who is an Astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Program Director at NSF, regarding the motivation behind this study, significant takeaways from this work, next steps should this proceed past Phase 1, long-term goals regarding lunar surface locations, and how AeSI can advance our understanding of exoplanet habitability. Therefore, what was the motivation behind this study?

Dr. Rau tells Universe Today, “The motivation behind this study is to assess whether we can build and operate, in collaboration with the human Artemis Program, a large, sparse aperture observatory (interferometer) on the lunar surface and determine whether it is competitive with a previously developed free-flyer option. The end goal is to enable the study of our Universe at Ultra High Definition at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths with ~200x the angular resolution of HST! Ultraviolet observations are unobtainable from the Earth’s surface due to the overlying atmosphere and even in the visible the Earth’s atmosphere limits the ultimate resolution obtainable with ground-based interferometers.”

For the study, the researchers build off longstanding proposals for putting UV/optical interferometers in space, but due to the lack of infrastructure on the lunar surface, scientists have preferred using satellites and orbiters, which the researchers refer to as “free-flyers”. For AeSI, the researchers propose constructing a lunar interferometer using infrastructure being brought to the Moon via NASA’s Artemis Program with the goal of delivering advanced science regarding exoplanetary systems, including the surfaces of stars, their interiors, magnetic fields, space weather, and exoplanet habitability.

Artist’s rendition of six interferometers on the lunar surface being combined to simulate one, giant interferometers. (Credit: Figure 3/Rua et al. (2024))

To accomplish this, AeSI will be comprised of a 1-kilometer baseline UV/optical imaging interferometer near the lunar south pole, which is the landing region for the Artemis Program, specifically Artemis III. Along with the enhanced science, the team also promotes the project’s scalability, noting it can potentially be as large as 30 or more elements to serve as a single interferometer. Additionally, the team addresses several issues that could arise during this endeavor, including lunar dust, seismic activity, and the use of robotic aides as auxiliary support for construction. Therefore, what are the most significant takeaways from this study?

Dr. Rau tells Universe Today, “The most significant takeaways from this study are that the project is feasible, demonstrating that the visionary idea of our PI, Dr. Kenneth Carpenter (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center), can be realistically developed. The study provides important recommendations for further research and technology development, which will be crucial for advancing the project and addressing any technical challenges and further technology development needed.”

As noted, AeSI has been approved for a Phase 1 study (less than 4% success rate!) through NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, with NIAC having successfully helped advance technology within the aerospace industry since 1998, with its original name being NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts until it was closed in 2007. Only two years later, Congress requested the National Academy of Sciences to review why it was closed, which made recommendations going forward, resulting in the current NIAC program in 2011.

Since then, NIAC has contributed technological advancements in nanosatellites, planetary exploration, exoplanet spectroscopy, astrophysics, cosmology, solar science, human space exploration, and many others. These proposals go through three phases, with each phase enabling increased funding and time for the project. Therefore, given AeSI is a Phase 1 study, what are the next steps if it should be approved for advancement?

Dr. Rau tells Universe Today, “The next steps would involve seeking Phase 2 support from NIAC as well as exploring additional funding and resources. Phase 2 would focus on further developing and refining the initial 9-month study we are doing in Phase 1. We believe our visionary concept has the potential to revolutionize scientific research and provide a significant opportunity for technology demonstration on the lunar surface, therefore we truly hope we will obtain further support by NIAC and/or other supporting sources!”

Regarding long-term goals for AeSI, Dr. Rau tells Universe Today, “There are multiple constraints on locating interferometers on the lunar surface, in particular optical and UV ones! We describe this more in detail in the NIAC Phase 1 study final report, which will be public, and published early next year. Our project is currently planned to start with a stage 1 made of 15 rovers in an elliptical array configuration with a 1 km major axis. The observatory will evolve in later stages to an array of ~30 rovers with an enhanced hub to combine the beams from the larger number of rovers (mirror stations) and will provide extremely high angular resolution of celestial objects such as distant sun-like stars, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), exoplanets, cool evolved stars, and more!”

As noted, along with the enhanced science being conducted on stars, one of the science goals of AeSI will also be to ascertain the habitability of exoplanets, which comes as NASA has confirmed the existence of more than 5,700 exoplanets within our Milky Way Galaxy. Of these, almost 70 are currently designated to be in the ‘habitable zone’ of their parent star, with 29 of them potentially being terrestrial (rocky) worlds and the remaining 41 potentially being “water worlds” or mini-Neptunes. These potentially habitable worlds have been found to orbit within and outside the habitable zone, with some whose orbits take them both inside and outside the habitable zone during one orbit. Therefore, how could AeSI advance our understanding of exoplanet habitability?

Dr. Rau tells Universe Today, “AeSI will provide a deeper insight into the characteristics of the parent stars in distant exoplanetary systems. By analyzing these stars more thoroughly, we can gain a better understanding of the conditions that influence the habitability of their orbiting planets. This includes examining the interactions between planets and their stars, which can significantly impact the potential for life on these exoplanets.”

As NASA prepares to send humans back to the Moon for the first time since 1972 with the Artemis Program, it’s important to note the incredible science that can be accomplished with the infrastructure established by Artemis. Therefore, with ground-based interferometry from the Earth being a long established and successful scientific field having contributed to better understanding radio astronomy, solar physics, nebulas, galaxies, and exoplanets, AeSI provides a unique opportunity to conduct revolutionary science, images of distant stars with the highest angular resolution ever, on other planetary bodies while testing new technologies, as well.

Dr. Rau concludes by telling Universe Today, “AeSI will provide the very first ultra-high angular resolution views of the Universe in the ultraviolet (UV). This is a huge leap for so many aspects of astrophysics, from understanding magnetic activity in stars and its impact on surrounding planets, to detailed studies of exoplanets, space weather, AGN, stellar astrophysics and more! AeSI’s high-angular resolution ultraviolet and optical observations will open new frontiers in astrophysics, offering a richer and more detailed picture of the universe’s most energetic and enigmatic components.”

How will AeSI help enhance UV/optical interferometry in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Additional Links:

SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2024

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