Astronomy

Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old fossilized hominin, may have been much less hairy than we imagine—a perhaps shocking revelation for our modern sense of nakedness

A new James Webb Space Telescope image shows perfectly aligned protostellar outflows in the Serpens Nebula, supporting a long-running theory of stellar formation.

Melting glaciers are creating a green energy windfall in Iceland—but for how long?

Companies attract venture funding for redesigned psychedelic drugs

On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne reached the final frontier for the first time, notching a huge milestone for private spaceflight and paving the way for space tourism.

What happens if a star gets too close to a black hole?

This colorized and digitally sharpened image of the Sun is composed of

Boeing's Starliner capsule will remain docked with the ISS until at least July 2, in part to give mission team members more time to assess helium leaks and thruster issues.

Mars holds a very special place in our hearts. Chiefly because of all the other planets in the Solar System Mars is probably the place we are going to find some tantalising clues or maybe even evidence of prehistoric life. NASA Perseverance Rover has been trundling around the Jezero Crater looking for evidence that it was once hospitable to life. To that end it has not only been collecting rock samples but air samples too and scientists can’t wait to get their hands on them. 

The Mars Perseverance Rover is part of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. It launched on 30 July 2020 and landed in the Jezero Crater successfully on 18 February 2021. The site was picked because it’s a dried up river bed and if there is any evidence of ancient primitive life on Mars, it is a likely location. Perseverance is equipped with a host of instruments including a drone named Ingenuity to survey the planet. 

Mars Perseverence rover sent back this image of its parking spot during Mars Solar Conjunction. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

One exciting element of the mission is the collection of rock samples as part of the Mars Sample Return Campaign. Twenty four core samples have been collected to date and deposited on the surface ready for collection by a future mission. It’s not just rock samples that have been collected though. Known as ‘headspace’ there is air in the space around the rock samples and it is this that has got scientists excited. 

Not only do the rocks hold secrets about Mars but the atmosphere does too. It’s an atmosphere rich in Carbon Dioxide but is expected to have trace amounts of other gasses  too. Information about the current climate can be gained from the trapped gasses but it’s also possible to learn about the evolution of the atmosphere through analysis of the rocks. There is one particularly important tube that has been filled entirely with gas from the atmosphere. 

Image of the Martian atmosphere and surface obtained by the Viking 1 orbiter in June 1976. (Credit: NASA/Viking 1)

With the sample sat on the surface of Mars potentially for many years, the gas trapped will interact with the rock in the sample tube. It will only be when the tubes are opened up when they arrive back here on the Earth that the interaction will cease. It’s hoped to understand more about the levels of water vapour near the Martian surface. 

It isn’t just the water vapour that is of interest but the levels of trace gas too are of interest. Through analysing the gas samples we can tell if there are gasses like neon, argon and xenon which are non reactive gasses. Because these gasses do not react then there presence in the tube samples may suggest that Mars stated with an atmosphere. We know that it had a much thicker atmosphere in the past but we don’t know whether it has always been there or whether it developed later.  

There are many benefits that will come from analysing the samples even, the prevalence of dust that will help future human exploration. As Justin Simon from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston said “The gas samples have a lot to offer Mars scientists, even those who don’t study Mars would be interested because it will shed light on how the planet forms and evolves.”

Source : Why Scientists Are Intrigued by Air in NASA’s Mars Sample Tubes

The post It’s Not Just Rocks, Scientists Want Samples Mars’s Atmosphere appeared first on Universe Today.

A spinning magnetic wind blows from supermassive black holes, paving the way for more matter to fall into them, scientists say.

Some scientists believe they may be able to find buried liquid water on the Red Planet by studying seismic and magnetic readings to reconstruct the aftermath of marsquakes.

The Gaia space telescope has spotted the dim companions of eight bright stars, suggesting we can expect new glimpses of distant planets.

The long-term economic effects of tropical cyclones far outweigh the direct damages from high winds and flooding, with local incomes declining for years after the storm hits

The long-term economic effects of tropical cyclones far outweigh the direct damages from high winds and flooding, with local incomes declining for years after the storm hits

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch NOAA's GOES-U weather satellite on June 25. Here's how to watch live.

The Earth-sized storm on Jupiter known as the red spot was thought by many to have been first observed in 1665, but it turns out that may have been an entirely different enormous storm, with today's storm dating back only to 1831

The Earth-sized storm on Jupiter known as the red spot was thought by many to have been first observed in 1665, but it turns out that may have been an entirely different enormous storm, with today's storm dating back only to 1831

The Crab Nebula has always fascinated me, albeit amazed me that it doesn’t look anything like a crab! It’s the result of a star that exploded at the end of its life back in 1054 CE, leaving behind what is known as a supernova remnant. Back then the explosion would have been visible to the naked eye, even in daytime. It was thought that the supernova that led to the cloud was from a less evolved star with a core made from oxygen, neon and magnesium. Recent studies by the James Webb Space Telescope reveals that it may actually be the core collapse of an iron rich star. 

The Crab Nebula can be found in the constellation Taurus measuring 11 light years across. Deep inside the cloud, which expands at a rate of 1,500 kilometres per second, lies a rapidly rotating neutron star known as a pulsar. It emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation that sweeps across space much like a lighthouse sweeping out across the ocean. It has been the subject of many studies to learn about the dynamics of stellar evolution. 

Previous studies have attempted to understand the total kinetic energy of the original explosion based upon the velocity of the expanding cloud. The data suggested that the supernova was relatively low energy so the progenitor star was likely to be in the range of 8 to 10 times the mass of the Sun. If it had been more massive it would have experienced a more violent supernova which would be revealed in higher velocity of the expanding gas cloud. But there was a problem. 

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 observations of the Crab Nebula, particularly the high rotational speed of the pulsar, seemed to conflict with current supernova theory. In the model for lower mass stars like that which was the progenitor star of the Crab Nebula, the oxygen in the core ignites as the core collapses. This process does not have sufficient energy to generate such a fast rotating pulsar. 

A team of astronomers have addressed this curiosity using MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) onboard the James Webb Space Telescope to collect data from the Crab Nebula. The team was led by Tea Temim from the Princeton University in New Jersey. They report that the gas composition of the cloud suggests the star may have been more evolved with some iron in the core which could have led to a higher energy supernova than previously thought.

Artist impression of the James Webb Space Telescope

With Webb’s sensitive infrared instruments, the iron and nickel emission lines can be seen with more clarity than ever before. Studying the bright lines in the spectrum of the nebula has allowed a much more reliable estimate of the iron and nickel ratio to be deduced. They found it was a higher percentage compared to the Sun which was expected for a more energetic supernova. 

The results are promising but the readings were taken from two small regions of the nebula so to rule out variations across the entire 11 light years further readings are needed. If the data from Webb is representative from the entire nebula then it’s possible one of the mysteries of the nebula may finally be solved.

Source  : Investigating the Origins of the Crab Nebula With NASA’s Webb

The post Something’s Always Been Off About the Crab Nebula. Webb Has Revealed Why! appeared first on Universe Today.

Lynn Conway, a trans woman and advocate for LGBTQ rights, was underappreciated and often underrecognized for her work in chip design

The rotation of Earth's inner core began to slow down more than a decade ago, altering the length of our days by fractions of a second.