Universe Today

China’s Chang’e 7 lunar lander mission will feature a flag fluttering in the vacuum of space.

A CNSA flag flying on the Moon. Credit: CGTN News screenshot.

It’s one of the most often asked questions I get, while showing off the Moon to the public. “Can you see the flag the astronauts left there?” This then leads to a discussion on how far the Moon is, versus the difficulty of seeing a 1.5 by 0.9 meter flag at such a distance. My ‘scope is good, but not that good.

During the U.S. Apollo program, six crewed missions landed on the Moon starting with Apollo 11 in 1969, leaving a like number of flags. Now, China recently announced that one more flag will join the collection in late 2026, when Chang’e 7 heads to the Moon.

Flying a Flag on the Moon

The curious report comes out of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) via the China Media Group. The free standing flag will actually be designed to ‘flap’ on the airless surface of the Moon. The idea was proposed by elementary school students out of Changsha in China’s Hunan Province. The flag will have closed-loop wires embedded in the fabric, and ‘flap’ using magnetic currents and electromagnetic interactions to create a waving motion.

Coming soon: A ‘flapping flag’ on the Moon…

“This initiative is intended to enhance young students’ understanding of China’s space program and inspire their interest in pursuing space exploration in the future,” says Zhang Tianzhu (DSEL/Institute of Technology) in a recent press release.

A Race to the (Lunar) Pole

Chang’e 7 is designed to carry out some serious science as well. The mission is destined to land near the edge of Shackleton Crater in the Moon’s south polar region. The permanently shadowed floor of the crater is of special interest, as it is suspected to contain water ice. The mission will also carry six instruments from six nations, including a small rover and an observatory built and operated by the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) based out of Hawai’i.

Shackleton crater was one of the candidate landing sites for NASA’s now canceled VIPER rover.

Potential landing sites of interest clustered around the lunar south pole region. Credit: NASA/LRO

While the merits of having a flag flap in space may be limited, it should be an interesting bit of public outreach for the CNSA. Curiously, some of the screen captures show a CNSA logo (not a Chinese national flag) free-standing on a tall pole, meaning a bit of effort and planning will have to be taken to plant it in the lunar soil.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and the U.S. Flag on the Moon during Apollo 11. Credit: NASA China in Space 2025

This year and next are busy ones for China’s space agency. The agency plans on launching its first ever asteroid and comet sample return mission Tianwen-2 this May, headed to asteroid Kamo’ oalewa (itself thought to be a fragment of the Moon) then onward to Comet 311P/PanSTARRS. Then, China has plans to launch its own space telescope Xuntian in early 2026. This telescope will station-keep with the crewed Tiangong space station for access for upgrade and maintenance.

The U.S. Flag mounted on the New Horizons mission. Credit: NASA/JPL

Putting flags in space and on the Moon isn’t a new thing. Generally, engineers mount the flags on the spacecraft itself. The U.S. flag placed on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is headed out of the solar system. This symbol may well outlive the U.S. and humanity itself. U.S. flags planted by Apollo astronauts on the Moon have most likely been bleached white by intense ultraviolet solar radiation, though images by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in low lunar orbit confirm that at least as few are still standing.

Still standing: the Apollo 17 landing site, including the flag. Credit: NASA/LRO

But the award for the very first flag (or at least symbol) on the lunar surface goes to Luna 2, the first mission to hit the Moon in 1959 which carried a pennant of the now defunct Soviet Union:

A replica of the sphere onboard Luna 2, which impacted the Moon. Credit: Patrick Pelletier/Wikimedia Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

It will be a curious moment (and most likely, an internet meme) to see a flag ‘flap’ next year on the surface of the Moon.

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Predicting space weather is more complex than predicting traditional weather here on Earth. One of the most unpredictable kinds of space weather is solar flares, which explode out from the surface of the Sun and can potentially damage sensitive equipment like electrical grids and the ISS. The Carrington Event, one of the most violent solar storms in history, literally caused telegraph lines to catch fire when it occurred in 1859 – a similar storm would be much more devastating today. Due to their potentially destructive potential, scientists have long looked for ways to predict when a storm will happen, and now a team led by Emily Mason of Predictive Sciences, Inc. in San Diego thinks they might have found a way to do just that.

Solar flares typically occur in highly magnetic areas of the Sun. However, they aren’t the only events that occur in those regions—another, less potentially hazardous event is a coronal loop. These look like giant arches of particles that start from and connect back to the Sun’s outer layer, also called its corona. 

Scientists have long thought there might be some sort of tie between coronal loops and the solar flares that emerge from the same region. However, the lifespan for coronal loops ranges from seconds to weeks, and scientists have yet to find a valid link between that metric, or any other, and the occurrence of a solar flare in the same region.

Fraser discusses the danger of solar storms.

Dr. Mason and her colleagues thought they might take a different approach. They got some observational time on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a telescope in geosynchronous orbit explicitly designed to observe the coronal layer. They used SDO’s extreme ultraviolet wavelength observational capabilities to observe coronal loops in regions that eventually formed a flare versus those that didn’t.

They observed areas that produced around 50 flares and found that the amount of variability in extreme ultraviolet light the coronal loops in those areas put off was much higher than in the areas that didn’t produce a flare. Essentially, the coronal loops acted like “flashing warning lights” in a certain kind of light spectrum, according to a press release from NASA’s Goddard Institute, some of whose scientists contributed to the paper. 

The discovery was critical because the flashing appeared to take place consistently a few hours before a flare was formed. In technical terms, they accurately predicted the onset of a flare about 2-6 hours beforehand, about 60-80% of the time. That might not seem like great odds and even lesser warning, but some warning is better than none. When given the decision between frying half of the Earth’s electrical grid in a few hours and taking preventive measures, I think policymakers would at least appreciate the opportunity to have a choice.

Fraser talks about how bad the Carrington Event was, even almost 200 years ago.

There are some other nuances in the data, such as stronger flares appear to be predicted by earlier peaking flickering, however more work still needs to be done. Ultimately, this research aims to develop a system of automatically warning the appropriate authorities if there is a potentially hazardous solar event coming our way, but without so many false positives that they feel the system is crying wolf.

That automated system is still a little way off, but this research is a step in the right direction. SDO was initially launched in 2010 and has long outlived its original 5-year mission plan. However, there are plenty of instruments constantly watching the Sun, and undoubtedly, there will be more soon. Maybe they will someday contribute to finalizing a system that will one day save civilization from an avoidable catastrophe.

Learn More:
NASA – NASA Solar Observatory Sees Coronal Loops Flicker Before Big Flares
Kniezewski et al – 131 and 304 Å Emission Variability Increases Hours Prior to Solar Flare Onset
UT – New Research Indicates the Sun may be More Prone to Flares Than we Thought
UT – High-Resolution Images of the Sun Show How Flares Impact the Solar Atmosphere

Lead Image:
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of coronal loops above an active region on the Sun in mid-January 2012. The image was taken in the 171 angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.
Credit – NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory

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Exoplanets come in a variety of forms and one particular type, the Hot Jupiters have recently captured the attention of astronomers. They are usually found orbiting extremely close to their host star, completing an orbit in a few days or even hours. It has been thought that they migrated further out from the star, bullying other planets out of their way. Sometimes hurling them into the star or throwing them out of the system entirely. A new study however, suggests their evolution is not quite so violent since a Hot Jupiter has been found in a system with a Super-Earth and an icy giant. 

Hot Jupiters are a class of exoplanet that not surprisingly resemble our own planetary neighbour Jupiter. They are gas giants but that’s where the similarity ends; they have a high temperature and orbit their star at close distance. It can take just a few days to complete an orbit that’s compared to Jupiter’s orbit of 12 years! The intense levels of radiation and heating from their host star can cause temperatures in upper layers to reach over 1,000°C and the planet to swell to greater than expected size. 

This full-disc image of Jupiter was taken on 21 April 2014 with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

Current theories of planetary formation describe inner planets as composed of more dense material since lighter elements are driven to outer reaches of the system. The outer planets by contrast are made from these lighter elements. The presence of gas planets like Hot Jupiters so close to a star are in direct conflict with this model. Instead it has been thought that they form further out from the star and then migrate inwards as the system evolves. Recent studies have revealed that, until now, Hot Jupiters seem to be the only planet in orbit around their host star. This observation suggests the migration process is likely to lead to an ejection or accretion of any planet closer to the star. 

This artist’s impression shows a Jupiter-like exoplanet that is on its way to becoming a hot Jupiter — a large, Jupiter-like exoplanet that orbits very close to its star. Courtesy: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva

That was until now! A team of astronomers led by the Astronomy Department of the UNIGE Faculty of Science in partnership with UNIBE and UZH and other organisations have suggested another model. They announced the discovery of a multiple planetary system that includes a Hot Jupiter, a Super-Earth on an inner orbit and another gas giant on an outer orbit, much like conventional gas giants. The discovery suggests there must be an alternative migration model that enables the preservation of the system. 

Using photometric measurements of WASP-132 over 400 light years away, the data reveals that WASP-132b was 0.41 Jupiter masses and an orbital period of just 7.1 days. Measurements from the HARPS spectrograph at the La Silla observatory in 2022 revealed the Super-Earth has a mass 6 times that of the Earth. The analysis of the system is still ongoing as the measurements are fine tuned. The Gaia satellite is now measuring the tiny variations in the position of the star to hone in on the planetary masses and orbits. 

Artist’s impression of the Gaia spacecraft detecting artificial signals from a distant star system. In this synchronization scheme, the star system’s inhabitants send the signal shortly after witnessing a supernova, which is also seen by telescopes on Earth. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar / Breakthrough Listen)

What this all tells us is that the current migrations models that enable the gas giants to be orbiting where they are may not be complete. Instead it suggests a more “cool” migration path and less violent journey through the protoplanetary disc for the Hot Jupiter. Quite what the refinement to the model is, still needs to be understood but further measurements of the system will help and the search for similar systems is underway. 

Source : Not all Hot Jupiters orbit solo

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Back in the 60’s and 70’s it was all about the Moon. The Apollo program took human beings to the Moon for the first time and now over 50 years later things are really hotting up again. The latest mission to head toward our celestial neighbour is a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching Blue Ghost Mission 1 and the HAKUTO-R lander. The Blue Ghost is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) and it carries a total of 10 NASA payloads, the other is a private Japanese enterprise to explore the Moon. The launch went well and both landers will arrive shortly. 

The exploration of the Moon has been a key part of space research offering key insight into the origins of the Moon and the Solar System itself. With the possibility of future human bases on the Moon the interest in lunar exploration has started to gain momentum. Of particular note is NASA’s Artemis program and other international missions like those from China and India are making great progress. They not only intend to learn more about the Moon and its physical properties but also hope to serve as stepping stones for future exploration. 

Global map of the Moon, as seen from the Clementine mission, showing the lunar near- and farside. If we’re going back to the Moon, we’ll need a Lunar GPS. Credit: NASA.

Yet another chapter has opened in the book of lunar exploration with a launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket. This reusable two-stage launch vehicle was designed and developed by SpaceX to reduce the cost of a launch. It’s first flight was back in 2010 and since then has enjoyed success with around 200 successful launches to its name. One of its two charges this time was the Commercial Lunar Payload.

Carrying the a payload from Firefly Aerospace, the Commercial Lunar Payload set off on its journey from launch complex 39A ahead of its landing on 2 March 2025. As wonderfully articulated by NASA’s Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy ‘The mission embodies the bold spirit of NASA’s Artemis campaign – a campaign driven by scientific exploration and discovery.’

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft onboard from Launch Complex 39A, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The IXPE spacecraft is the first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, such as black holes and neutron stars. Launch occurred at 1 a.m. EST. Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky

It’s destination is near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium. On arrival at lunar the surface, it will test and demonstrate drilling capability, collection technology of the lunar regolith, the use of GPS, radiation tolerant computing and lunar dust protection methods. The mission will help to set the stage for a later human visit to the Moon, possibly even to develop a permanent lunar base. 

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

There will be a total of ten payloads on as part of the CLPS; Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity, Lunar PlanetVac, Next Generation Lunar Retroflector, Regolith Adherence Characterisation, Radiation Tolerant Computer, Electrodynamic Dust Shield, Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager, Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder, Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment and Stereo Camera for Lunar Plume Surface Studies. 

Being launched alongside Blue Ghost but following its own trajectory to the Moon is the Japanese built HAKUTO-R M2 Resilience lander. Unlike Blue Ghost, HAKUTO-R will take a low energy trajectory to the Moon arriving in about four months time in Mare Frigoris. On arrival, it will deploy a lunar rover called Tenacious which will collect small samples of lunar regolith. Under a contract which was awarded by NASA back in 2020, the regolith will be sold back to NASA for $5,000 USD. 

Source : Liftoff! NASA Sends Science, Tech to Moon on Firefly, SpaceX Flight

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NASA’s Curiosity Rover has been exploring Mars since 2012 and, more recently has found evidence of ice-free ancient ponds and lakes on the surface. The rover found small undulations like those seen in sandy lake-beds on Earth. They would have been created by wind-driven water moving back and forth across the surface. The inescapable conclusion is that the water would have been open to the elements instead of being covered by ice. The discovery suggests the ripples formed 3.7 billion years ago. 

Mars it the fourth planet in our Solar System and the second smallest of all the major planets. It’s known for its strong red colour which is caused by iron oxide in the surface material. Classed as a terrestrial planet, Mars is similar in many ways to Earth with valleys, volcanoes and even evidence of dried up river beds. The similarities end there though with polar caps made mostly of carbon dioxide ice, an unbreathable atmosphere and a surface that is cold and dry. It’s always held a special fascination for us due largely to vague hints through the centuries of alien intelligent but more recently that it may have once been habitable. 

A full-disk view of Mars, courtesy of VMC. Credit: ESA

Once such rover that has been exploring the Martian landscape is the Curiosity Rover that was sent by NASA in 2011. It arrived at Mars in August 2012 and has been exploring the region around Gale Crater ever since. The main objective of Curiosity is to investigate the climate and geology and to assess if it could support primative life in the past. To achieve that end, it’s equipped with an array of instruments from drills to collect soil samples, cameras and instruments to analyse atmospheric samples. 

New simulations are helping inform the Curiosity rover’s ongoing sampling campaign. Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A paper recently published in the journal Science Advances by Caltech’s John Grotzinger, Harold Brown Professor of Geology and Michael Lamb, Professor of Geology shared their findings. They found two sets of what seem to be ancient wave ripples on the surface of Mars now thought to be dried up bodes of water with the ripples preserved in rock. The ripples are tiny undulations and are often seen in beaches and lake-beds on Earth as wind-driven water flows across the shallows. The team are particularly excited that this means the water was not frozen and was once open to the elements as liquid. 

The ripples discovered by Curiosity in Gale Crater are the strongest evidence to date that there have been bodies of liquid water in the history of the red planet. Analysis of the rocks and ripples suggest they formed 3.7 billion years ago. It’s thought that the atmosphere and climate of Mars must have been far warmer than it is today and more dense. Dense enough to support liquid water in open air.

NASA’s Curiosity rover continues to search for signs that Mars’ Gale Crater conditions could support microbial life. Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

The team were able to create computer models from the ripples they found to attempt to discover the size of lake. The size of the ripples and separation helps to determine how much water was present. The ripple height of 6mm and 4 to 5 cm separation tells us that the lake was shallow, possibly even less than 2 metres deep. One of the sets of ripples known as the Prow outcrop was found in an area that was once wind blown dunes. The other set was found nearby in the sulcate-rich Amapari Marker Band of rocks. The two regions come from slightly different times telling us that the warm dense atmosphere occurred at multiple times or at least for a long period of time. 

The discovery has been a massive help to Mars paleoclimate studies that have tried to map the changing conditions on Mars. NASA’s Opportunity rover was the first mission to discover ripples on the surface but the nature of the bodies of water was uncertain. This latest discovery has given a fascinating insight into the early conditions on Mars, with perhaps, bodies of liquid dotted across the landscape. Further investigation is needed to see how commonplace the ripples are. 

Source : Signatures of Ice-Free Ancient Ponds and Lakes Found on Mars

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Gas is the stuff of star formation, and most galaxies have enough gas in their budget to form some stars. However, the picture is a little different for dwarf galaxies. They lack the mass required to hold onto their gas when more massive neighbouring galaxies are siphoning it off.

New research shows that even isolated dwarf galaxies with no overbearing galactic neighbours struggle to form stars. What’s going on?

The research is centred on ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies. These tiny galaxies are the faintest galaxies in the Universe and contain only a few hundred stars, up to about one thousand. UFDs also contain ample amounts of dark matter. They’re different from globular clusters because globulars contain tens of thousands up to millions of stars and have very little dark matter, maybe none at all.

Because they’re so faint, astronomers struggle to locate them. The ones that have been found are close to the Milky Way. However, that makes them difficult to study because their massive neighbour dominates them. The Milky Way’s gravity and hot corona can siphon the UFDs’ gas away, making it challenging to understand their natural evolution.

Astronomers working with the DECam and the Gemini South Telescope have successfully located three UFDs well beyond the Milky Way’s gravitational influence. Although they weren’t easy to find, astronomers have made significant discoveries about UFDs from them.

The results are in new research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It’s titled “Three Quenched, Faint Dwarf Galaxies in the Direction of NGC 300: New Probes of Reionization and Internal Feedback.” The lead author is David Sand, an astronomer from the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona.

Sand found the three UFDs during a painstaking manual search. The UFDs are so faint that algorithmic searches couldn’t detect them.

“It was during the pandemic,” recalled Sand. “I was watching TV and scrolling through the DESI Legacy Survey viewer, focusing on areas of sky that I knew hadn’t been searched before. It took a few hours of casual searching, and then boom! They just popped out.”

The three UFDs are in the direction of the spiral galaxy NGC 300 and the Sculptor constellation. They’re called Sculptor A, Sculptor B, and Sculptor C.

Sculptor A is about 1.35 Mpc away and is likely at the edge of the Local Group, similar to Tucana B. It’s not a direct satellite of NGC 300.

Sculptor B is about 2.48 Mpc away and is likely behind NGC 300.

Sculptor C is about 2.04 Mpc away and is a satellite of NGC 300.

All three UFDs share some characteristics. They contain mostly old, metal-poor stars, are quenched and do not form any new stars, contain no neutral atomic hydrogen (H i), and emit no UV. “None of the three dwarfs are detected in H i line emission in the H i Parkes All Sky Survey, suggesting that they are not gas rich,” Sand and his co-researchers explain in their paper.

The lack of H I and UV both indicate that the galaxies are quenched and star formation has ceased. “Any younger blue stellar population either has few stars associated with it or is below our detection limit,” the authors write.

The discovery of the Sculptor galaxies, as they’re called, supports theories that say UFDs are dead galaxies that ceased star formation a long time ago in the early Universe. So, finding these faint quenched galaxies is entirely expected.

The jarring thing about their discovery is that they’re isolated. They’re not in proximity to any other larger galaxies that could’ve stripped away their gas and quenched their star formation. “The three dwarf galaxies in this work are among the faintest quenched dwarfs discovered outside the Local Group,” the authors write.

“Many of the recently discovered faint dwarf galaxies beyond the Local Group show distinct signs of recent star formation, although a growing subset also appears to be quenched, with little to no recent star formation,” the authors explain. “The mix of stellar populations of faint dwarf galaxies in the “field” is a critical ingredient for understanding the role of reionization, stellar feedback, and ram pressure from the cosmic web in driving the evolution of the smallest galaxies.”

Finding these three UFDs is significant because of their isolation. Only one of them, Sculptor C, is clearly associated with the nearby NGC 300. Sculptors A and B are isolated. Studying them is an opportunity to learn more about how star formation is affected by internal feedback mechanisms in low-mass galaxies. It’s also an opportunity to learn more about ram-pressure stripping, which is when gas is removed from a galaxy through interactions with the surrounding medium and even cosmic reionization.

During cosmic reionization, also known as the Epoch of Reionization, light from the first stars and galaxies reionized the neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium. The high-energy UV photons from the stars and galaxies could’ve effectively boiled away the gas in dwarf galaxies, ending their star formation.

An alternative explanation for UFDs losing their gas is supernova explosions. If some of the first stars in UFDs exploded, they could have expelled the gas and ended star formation. Ram-pressure stripping could also have been responsible.

Astronomers still need to learn more about reionization and if it’s responsible, and the Sculptor galaxies can help them.

“We don’t know how strong or uniform this reionization effect is,” explained Sand. “It could be that reionization is patchy, not occurring everywhere all at once. We’ve found three of these galaxies, but that isn’t enough. It would be nice if we had hundreds of them. If we knew what fraction was affected by reionization, that would tell us something about the early Universe that is very difficult to probe otherwise.”

“The Epoch of Reionization potentially connects the current day structure of all galaxies with the earliest formation of structure on a cosmological scale,” said Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory. “The DESI Legacy Surveys and detailed follow-up observations by Gemini allow scientists to perform forensic archeology to understand the nature of the Universe and how it evolved to its current state.”

Ultimately, astronomers need to find more of these isolated UFDs to constrain their findings.

“Many more faint and ultrafaint dwarf galaxies are predicted at the edges of the Local Group and in nearby, low-density environments, but initial efforts to find them have not always been successful,” the authors write in their conclusion. That only emphasizes the importance of this discovery.

“Several upcoming programs such as Euclid, the Roman Space Telescope, and the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time are sure to find many more examples in the years ahead, which will provide demographic properties across environments,” the authors conclude.

Sand presented these results at the recent 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Find them at the 32:00 mark of this video.

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The ISS’s orbit is slowly decaying. While it might seem a permanent fixture in the sky, the orbiting space laboratory is only about 400 km above the planet. There might not be a lot of atmosphere at that altitude. However, there is still some, and interacting with that is gradually slowing the orbital speed of the station, decreasing its orbit, and, eventually, pulling it back to Earth. That is, if we didn’t do anything to stop it. Over the 25-year lifespan of the station, hundreds of tons of hydrazine rocket fuel have been carried to it to enable rocket-propelled orbital maneuvers to keep its orbit from decaying. But what if there was a better way – one that was self-powered, inexpensive, and didn’t require constant refueling?

A new paper from Giovanni Anese, a PhD student at the University of Padua, and his team focuses on such a concept. It uses a new idea called a Bare Photovoltaic Tether (BPT), which is based on an older idea of an electrodynamic tether (EDT) but has some advantages due to the addition of solar panels along its length.

The basic idea behind a BPT, and EDTs more generally, is to extend a conductive boom out into a magnetic field and use the natural magnetic forces in the environment to provide a propulsive force. Essentially, it deploys a giant conductive rod into a magnetic field and uses the force on an electric field created in that rod to transfer force to where the rod is connected. It’s like the wind picking up an umbrella if the umbrella were a massive conductive rod and the wind were the planet’s natural magnetic field.

Fraser interviews Rob Hoyt from Tethers Unlimited, one of the companies offering commercial EDTs for satellites.

Electrodynamic tethers are not a new concept. They were initially introduced in 1968 by Giuseppe Colombo and Mario Grossi at Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics. Several demonstration missions have already taken flight, such as the TSS-1R that launched on the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1996 and successfully deployed a 10-km long tether from the shuttle. Another experiment called the Plasma Motor Generator took place on the Russian space station Mir in 1999, which, instead of using an electromotive force to prove orbital stationkeeping, generated power directly from the tether itself.

Engineers have long considered using an EDT to perform stationkeeping duties on the ISS. However, a technical quirk made it impractical. To get the right sort of forces, the tether would need to be pointed “downward” toward the Earth or “upward” away from the planet.

No matter the direction in which the tether is pointed, it will still require power to operate. Without its magnetic field, caused by the electrical current running through it, it would act as a further drag rather than a boost. Therefore, a traditional EDT must be tied to a power system. However, if an EDT is deployed upward on the ISS, this power system would inhibit the approach corridors of capsules attempting to dock with the station. 

MiTEE is a concept mission from the University of Michigan utilizing Electrodynamic tethers.

This necessitates a downward-facing EDT so it can be connected to the ISS’s power system. While that does work, according to a prior paper published by the authors, it is less than ideal as downward-facing tethers are typically used in de-orbiting maneuvers rather than orbit-boosting ones. 

Enter the BPT. The main difference between it and a traditional EDT is that its surface is at least partially covered in solar panels. If there are enough of them, these solar panels can completely power the system, allowing an upward-facing BPT to operate without being tied into the ISS’s power grid and keeping the approach lanes clear for arriving spacecraft. 

Mr. Anese and his team studied different options in terms of length and solar panel coverage, disregarding the tether’s weight, as the difference in weight between the tether and the ISS itself was several orders of magnitude. They found that they could counteract the relatively small force that causes a 2km/month orbital drop from the ISS by utilizing a 15 km long tether around 97% covered in solar panels, at least on one side.

Fraser discusses orbital station-keeping for the ISS with Michael Rodruck

A 15 km tether might sound absurdly long, and admittedly, if pointing back to the Earth, it would cover a relatively large percentage of the total distance back to the ground. However, it is well within the realm of technological feasibility, especially given that Atlantis deployed that 10 km tether almost 30 years ago.

To prove their point, the authors turned to a software package called FLEXSIM, which allowed them to simulate the orbital dynamics of an ISS attached to different lengths of BPT. The tethers they chose were only 2.5cm wide, and the solar panels were only 4.23% efficient, though that is likely affected by the fact they had to be small and flexible. With that length of solar panels, the system could provide 8.3 kW of power for the whole tether, enough to boost the ISS’s orbital path.

There are some nuances about the effects of solar activity on the forces contributing to the orbital boost, but overall, the system, at least in theory, does seem to work. However, much discussion around the ISS lately has been about its end of life, which could come as early as 2031. So, while there are still a few good years left in the station, it likely won’t benefit as much from the BPT system as it would have a few decades ago. That being said, there will likely be a replacement in orbit someday, and it could benefit from such a system from the outset, which could save hundreds of tons of fuel in orbit over its lifetime.

Learn More:
Anese et al – Bare Photovoltaic Tether characteristics for ISS reboost
UT – Satellites Equipped With a Tether Would be Able to De-Orbit Themselves at the end of Their Life
UT – A New Satellite Is Going to Try to Maintain Low Earth Orbit Without Any Propellant
UT – SpaceX Reveals the Beefed-Up Dragon That Will De-Orbit the ISS

Lead Image:
Force diagram of the BPT tether system on the ISS.
Credit – Anese et al.

The post A Tether Covered in Solar Panels Could Boost the ISS’s Orbit appeared first on Universe Today.

What came first, galaxies or planets? The answer has always been galaxies, but new research is changing that idea.

Could habitable planets really have formed before there were galaxies?

In the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, there were no heavy elements. There was only hydrogen, which comprised about 75% of the mass, and helium, which comprised the remaining 25%. (There were probably also trace amounts of lithium, even beryllium.) There was nothing heavier, meaning there was nothing for rocky planets to form from. After a few hundred million years, the first stars and galaxies formed.

As successive generations of stars lived and died, they forged heavier elements and spread them out into the Universe. Only after that could rocky planets form, and by extension, habitable planets. That’s been axiomatic in astronomy.

However, new research that’s yet to be published suggests that habitable worlds could’ve formed in the early stages of the Cosmic Dawn, prior to galaxies forming. Its title is “Habitable Worlds Formed at Cosmic Dawn,” and it’s available at the pre-press site arxiv.org. The lead author is Daniel Whalen from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth in the UK.

The research hinges on primordial supernovae, the first stars in the Universe to explode. These massive stars lived fast and died young in cataclysmic explosions. They peaked at about redshift 20 when population III stars, which were extremely massive, exploded as pair-instability supernovae. Simulations show that these stars formed in dark matter haloes where the temperature allowed large amounts of molecular hydrogen to gather.

According to Whalen and his co-researchers, when these stars exploded, low-mass stars formed in the aftermath. Planetesimals formed around those stars, leading to the formation of potentially habitable, rocky worlds. This all happened before the first galaxies formed. These results are based on simulations the research team performed with Enzo.

It starts with a star forming with about 200 solar masses. It lives for only about 2.6 million years before it explodes as a PI supernova. The explosion enriches the supernova bubble to high metallicity. In the aftermath, hydrostatic instabilities cause a dense core to form about 3 million years later, with 35 solar masses.

“All known prerequisites for planet formation in this core are fulfilled: dust growth, dust enhancement in a dead zone, the onset of the streaming instability, and conversion of dust to planetesimals,” the authors explain.

This figure from the research shows a PI supernova exploding (a) and a dense core forming (b) about 3 million years later containing 35 solar masses. Image Credit: Whalen et al. 2025.

Here’s where this study differs from previous ones. Since the PI supernova explodes and creates high-metallicity gas, the gas cools more quickly. That allows the next star to form sooner, and hence, planetesimals and planets.

Eventually, a protostar with 0.3 solar masses formed. Then planetesimals formed between 0.46 and 1.66 AU from their star. Life needs water, and the researchers’ simulations also showed that the young solar system contained an amount of water similar to our own Solar System.

This figure from the research shows the protoplanetary disk. Gas, dust and planetesimal distributions are shown 39 kyr after the formation of the protostar in (a) – (c), respectively, where b and c show the central 4 AU of the disk. The green dashed circles indicate where water can exist in liquid form. Image Credit: Whalen et al. 2025.

Planetesimals formed in the circumstellar disk around the low-mass star, and over time, they combined to form planets. Since the original primordial supernovae created elements like carbon, oxygen, and iron, all of the necessary ingredients were likely present to form rocky planets, even life.

The remarkable part is that this could’ve happened before the first galaxies formed. If true, it would change our understanding of the Universe and of life. However, this is just one simulation. How could observations support it?

“These planets could be detected as extinct worlds around ancient, metal-poor stars in the Galaxy in future exoplanet surveys,” Whelan and his fellow researchers write in their paper.

According to the authors, if conditions were just right, rocky planets could have formed even earlier than their simulations show. If that’s true, then it changes the entire course of events in the evolution of the Universe.

However, this is only a single study. And it hinges on primordial supernovae. Did they even exist? There’s at least some evidence that they did.

Clearly, attempting to observe primordial supernovae is extremely difficult. They occurred so long ago that they’re extraordinarily distant and faint. It’s likely impossible with current technology.

Also, there is much uncertainty about the Population III stars that were the progenitors of primordial supernovae. Their exact masses, lifetimes, and explosion mechanisms are uncertain. Astronomers don’t have a clear understanding of the early Universe’s extreme conditions. It’s still evolving, as is our understanding of supernovae. Combined, that’s a lot of uncertainty.

An artist’s illustration of some of the Universe’s first stars. Called Population 3 stars, they formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Image Credit: By NASA/WMAP Science Team – https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/fuse_fossil_galaxies.html (image link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1582286

Still, all of these challenges don’t mean that primordial supernovae didn’t exist. So astronomers can’t rule them out, nor can they rule out very early habitable planets.

As things stand, there’s no way to prove or disprove this research. However, it does open another line of thinking and new possibilities.

The post Habitable Worlds Could Have Formed Before the First Galaxies appeared first on Universe Today.

The Andromeda galaxy is our closest galactic neighbour, barring dwarf galaxies that are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way. When conditions are right, we can see it with the naked eye, though it appears as a grey smudge. It’s the furthest object in the Universe that we can see without telescopic help.

The Hubble Space Telescope has created a massive 2.5-gigapixel panorama of Andromeda. It took 10 years and more than 1,000 orbits to capture all of the images.

We’re stuck inside the Milky Way and will never escape it. (Yes, there’s a tiny possibility we will in some far-off future.) The ESA’s powerful Gaia telescope has given us our best look at our own galaxy from inside it, but even it has its limitations.

That’s one of the reasons that observing Andromeda, also known as M31, is important. Like the Milky Way, M31 is also a barred spiral. By observing M31 in detail, we can learn more about our own galaxy. M31 is like a proxy for the Milky Way, and astronomers’ chief tool for studying our galactic proxy is the Hubble.

“With Hubble we can get into enormous detail about what’s happening on a holistic scale across the entire disk of the galaxy. You can’t do that with any other large galaxy,” said principal investigator Ben Williams of the University of Washington.

The image is a mosaic comprising at least 2.5 billion pixels. It resolves about 200 million individual stars, all of them hotter than our Sun. That’s only a small fraction of the galaxy’s stellar population, as dim stars like red dwarfs aren’t detected. The image contains bright blue star clusters, background galaxies, foreground stars, satellite galaxies, and dust lanes.

This is the largest photomosaic ever made by the Hubble Space Telescope. Andromeda is seen almost edge-on, tilted by 77 degrees relative to Earth’s view. The galaxy is so large that the mosaic is assembled from approximately 600 separate fields of view taken over 10 years of Hubble observing. The Andromeda galaxy is shown at the top of the visual. It is a spiral galaxy that spreads across the image. It is tilted nearly edge-on to our line of sight so that it appears very oval. The borders of the galaxy are jagged because the image is a mosaic of smaller, square images against a black background. The outer edges of the galaxy are blue, while the inner two-thirds are yellowish with a bright, central core. Five callout squares highlight interesting features of the galaxy. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, B. Williams (U. of Washington)

This vast image is the result of two observing programs: the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Southern Treasury (PHAST) and the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT). PHAT and PHAST have made a large contribution to galactic science. PHAT started acquiring the images for this mosaic about a decade ago, and now we have this new image thanks to both efforts.

New research in the Astrophysical Journal presents the latest results from PHAST, including the new image. It’s titled “PHAST. The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Southern Treasury. I. Ultraviolet and
Optical Photometry of over 90 Million Stars in M31.” the lead author is Zhuo Chen from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Andromeda is not only our nearest neighbour but also the nearest spiral to us and the largest galaxy in the Local Group. Those facts aren’t just answers to trivia questions. They explain why astronomers can study the galaxy in detail, including assessing its stellar population, without some of the problems they face observing other galaxies.

“M31 studies circumvent complications from line-of-sight reddening, uncertain distances, and background/foreground confusion,” the researchers write in their paper. “Furthermore, such studies can be put into the context of the surrounding local environment, such as the ISM structure, the star formation rate (SFR), and the metallicity of the stars and gas, and even larger environment as mapped by
the Pan-Andromeda Archeological Survey.”

“Thus, M31 provides a unique and interesting comparison to the detailed information we have for our
Milky Way,” the authors explain.

This is a zoom-in of the full-resolution version of the image. You can download the full image and explore it for yourself here. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, B. Williams (U. of Washington)

One of the main takeaways from this massive observing effort is that the southern disk, which hadn’t been studied as intently as the northern disk, is fundamentally different from its counterpart. The southern disk appears to be more disturbed, indicating that it shows the effects of M31’s merger history more than the northern disk. The presence of M32, an early-type dwarf galaxy, hints at some of that merger history.

This image from the research shows the locations of the 13 “bricks” in PHAST (grey) and the 23 bricks from PHAT (blue.) Each of the new PHAST bricks consists of 15 HST pointings, each of which includes observations in two HST cameras: the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3. M32 is marked with an arrow in Brick 28. Image Credit: Chen et al. 2025.

Astronomers think that M32 could be what’s left of a galaxy that merged with Andromeda. Its properties are difficult to explain with our galaxy formation models. It could be the remnant core of a much more massive galaxy that was absorbed by Andromeda about two or three billion years ago.

“Andromeda’s a train wreck. It looks like it has been through some kind of event that caused it to form a lot of stars and then just shut down,” said study co-author Daniel Weisz at the University of California, Berkeley. “This was probably due to a collision with another galaxy in the neighborhood.”

One strong piece of evidence for that merger is the Giant Southern Stream. It’s a tidal debris stream made up of stars in Andromeda’s halo that could be a remnant from the ancient merger. The metallicity of its stars is generally lower than the stars in Andromeda’s bulge and disk.

This figure from older research shows Andromeda’s Giant Southern Stream and its proximity to M32. Image Credit: The Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PandAS).

The only way to understand Andromeda’s history is by surveying its stars. Thanks to PHAT and PHAST, astronomers now know 200 million individual stars. The observations are limited to stars brighter than the Sun, but the images are still scientifically rich. Together, they hint at a galaxy in transition.

“Andromeda looks like a transitional type of galaxy that’s between a star-forming spiral and a sort of elliptical galaxy dominated by aging red stars,” said Weisz. “We can tell it’s got this big central bulge of older stars and a star-forming disk that’s not as active as you might expect given the galaxy’s mass.”

“This detailed look at the resolved stars will help us to piece together the galaxy’s past merger and interaction history,” added PHAST’s Principal Investigator Ben Williams.

This figure from the research shows how the stellar density varies between regions in Andromeda. The zoom-in panels highlight the rich detail available at full HST resolution. Image Credit: Chen et al. 2025.

PHAST, together with PHAT, is a rich resource for astronomers studying Andromeda and, by extension, barred spirals everywhere, including our own Milky Way. However, before long, astronomers will get even better looks at Andromeda.

If all goes well, NASA will launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the near future. It’s an infrared telescope with a wide field of view, though it has the same size mirror. In a single exposure, the Roman can capture the equivalent of 100 high-resolution Hubble images, maybe more. It will help astronomers study the Giant Southern Stream in detail, along with other things, and will provide critical clues to Andromeda’s history.

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There’s a Universe full of black holes out there, spinning merrily away—some fast, others more slowly. A recent survey of supermassive black holes reveals that their spin rates reveal something about their formation history.

If you want to describe a supermassive black hole’s characteristics, there are two important numbers to use. One is its mass and the other is its spin rate. Some black hole spin rates are thought to be very close to the speed of light. According to Logan Fries, a PhD student at the University of Connecticut, those numbers are tough to get. “The problem is that mass is hard to measure, and spin is even harder,” he said. Yet, having accurate numbers is important if we want to understand black hole evolution.

Fries and his colleagues in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s Reverberation Mapping Project took on a tough job. They measured the spin rates of black holes over cosmic history. “We have studied the giant black holes found at the centers of galaxies, from today to as far back as seven billion years ago,” said Fries, a primary author of a paper about this work. The mapping project also made detailed observations of the associated accretion disks. Those are the areas nearest the black hole where matter accumulates and heats up as it spirals in. Measuring that region is important since knowing the black hole’s mass and its accretion disk’s structure provides data that allows them to measure the spin rate. Astronomers typically estimate the spin rate by observing how matter behaves as it falls into the black hole.

The typical morphology of supermassive black holes. This artist’s impression depicts one surrounded by an accretion disc. Credit: ESO, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser/N. Bartmann Black Holes and their Archaeology

The results of the SDSS Survey of mass measurements of hundreds of black holes were a surprise, according to Fries. That’s because the spin rates reveal something about the black holes’ formation history. “Unexpectedly, we found that they were spinning too fast to have been formed by galaxy mergers alone,” he said. “They must have formed in large part from material falling in, growing the black hole smoothly and speeding up its rotation.”

Fries described his work at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society. “I have read research papers that examine black hole spin, theoretically, from the lens of like black hole mergers, and I was curious if spin could be observationally measured,” said Fries. He pointed out that the history of black hole growth requires more precise measurements than have been available. And, they’re not easy, according to Fries’s thesis advisor, Physics professor Jonathan Trump. “The challenge lies in separating the spin of the black hole from the spin of the accretion disk surrounding it,” said Trump. “The key is to look at the innermost region, where gas is falling into the black hole’s event horizon. A spinning black hole drags that innermost material along for the ride, which leads to an observable difference when we look at the details in our measurements.”

Examples of black holes and accretion disks with various spin configurations: retrograde (black hole rotates in the opposite direction as the accretion disk), zero spin (does not rotate), and prograde (black hole rotates in the same direction as the accretion disk) from top to bottom, respectively. Examples of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for each spin configuration are shown to the right of each cartoon with a vertical line drawn at the peak of the SED. The differences in the peak of the SEDs and how bright they are for different spin configurations demonstrate how astronomers measure black hole spin by fitting these models to observational data. (Contributed image using NASA illustrations)

Digging into the mass and spin of a black hole requires spectral measurements. Those made by the SDSS contain subtle shifts in the spectra toward shorter wavelengths of light. That shift is a major clue to the black hole’s rotation rate. “I call this approach ‘black hole archaeology,'” said Fries “because we’re trying to understand how the mass of a black hole has grown over time. By looking at the spin of the black hole, you’re essentially looking at its fossil record.”

What The Black Holes Tell Us

So, what does that fossil record tell us? First of all, it challenges the prevailing wisdom that black holes are always created in galaxy collisions. In other words, when galaxies merged, so did their central black holes. Each galaxy brings a rotation rate and orientation to the merger. The rotations could just as easily cancel each other out as they are to add together. If that is true, then the astronomers should have seen a wide range of spins. Some black holes should have a lot of spin, others… not so much.

The big surprise is that many black holes appear to spin very quickly. Even more amazing, the most distant ones seem to be spinning faster than the ones nearest to us (i.e. the “nearby” Universe). It’s as if they spin faster in the early Universe, and more slowly in more recent epochs. “We find that about 10 billion years ago, black holes acquired their mass primarily through eating things,” Fries explained.

The early fast spin rate implies that most supermassive black holes (like the one in our own Milky Way Galaxy) built up over time by taking in gas and dust in a very smooth and controlled manner. In other words, the more they eat (in the way of stars and gas), the faster their spin rate. It also turns out that merger growth actually slows the spin of supermassive black holes. That could explain why those we measure today have a mix of spin rates, rather than the more uniform rates of earlier epochs.

Future Directions

The idea of black holes forming smoothly over time provides a new direction for black hole research. Observations by JWST will help give more targets to study. Surveys such as the SDSS Reverberation Mapping project will follow up with more precise measurements of the huge supermassive black holes JWST continually finds as it studies the Universe.

For More Information

Spinning Black Holes Reveal How They Grew
‘Black Hole Archaeology’: Understanding How Black Holes Gained Their Mass

Black Hole Archaeology: Mapping the Growth History of Black Holes Across Cosmic Time (PDF of AAS presentation)

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Supernovae are one of the most useful events in all of astronomy. Scientists can directly measure their power, their spin, and their eventual fallout, whether that’s turning into a black hole or a neutron star in some cases or just a much smaller stellar remnant. One of these events happened around 350 years ago (or around 11,000 years ago from the star’s perspective) in the constellation Cassiopeia. The James Webb Space Telescope recently caught a glimpse of the aftereffects of the explosion, and it happened to shed light (literally) on a familiar area of study – interstellar gas.

The supernova in Cassiopeia ejected a massive amount of X-rays and ultraviolet light into the area surrounding the now-dead star. That energy is now hitting a clump of gas gathered in the interstellar medium about 350 light years from the star. An effect called a “light echo” is created in the process.

A light echo can be thought of as a giant photographer’s bulb. A bright flash (i.e., the energy from the supernova) travels in an ever-extending sphere outwards, gradually illuminating everything in its path, then moving on and leaving the objects it just passed back in darkness. As the material is illuminated, telescopes back on Earth can see this otherwise invisible matter existing in the interstellar medium.

Evolution of the lit-up gas and dust cloud over the course of months.
Credit – STScI YouTube Channel

The Cassiopeia A explosion caused dozens of light echoes, but one in particular caught the attention of astronomers. From our perspective, gas and dust located past the now-dead star have been gradually lit up as the flash from the supernova passes through it, creating a spectacular image.

Spitzer, one of NASA’s great observatories that ended its observations in 2020, examined this same clump of gas and dust back in 2008. Its image was fascinating but not as complete as the one by its successor, JWST.

The image from JWST, admittedly falsely colored since humans can’t see infrared light, is spectacular, both aesthetically and scientifically. It shows a series of “sheets” that are remarkably small for an interstellar structure, measuring only about 400 AU across. They seem to be influenced by interstellar magnetic fields, as video of still images shows them twisting and writhing around.

Image from Spitzer of the dust cloud taken in 2008.
Credit – NASA / JPL-Caltech / Y. Kim (U of Arizona / U of Chicago)

Another feature of the image is described as “knots in wood grain” in a press release from the Webb telescope researchers. It also twists and moves over months as if dragged by some invisible force.

Light echoes can also be seen in the visible light range. However, infrared wavelengths, which are better thought of as the heat emitted from this gas and dust as the light echo passes through it, are more capable of showing the 3D structure as the wavelengths themselves aren’t blocked by the dust as visible light would be.

Consistently taking images over the course of months also provides another advantage. As Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute puts it, “We have three slices taken at three different times,” comparing the layered result as equivalent to a CT scan commonly used in medicine.

Context for the area of the image in the Cassiopeia
Credit – NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI

While the first picture from these studies might be fantastic, there is plenty of science left to do on these clouds of matter. Future work will continue to watch as the supernova flash-bulb illuminates and darkens different parts of the collected material. Some of that might even be destroyed, as the high-power supernovae that are strong enough to cause infrared light echoes could potentially vaporize some of the matter it hits.

JWST will continue to monitor the evolving situation, but a helping hand is coming. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, due to launch in 2027, will help scan the sky for evidence of other infrared light echoes. JWST will then follow up with closer observations using its powerful infrared instruments. If we’re lucky, we’ll see plenty more astonishing pictures soon, like the ones released last week.

Learn More:
Webb Space Telescope – NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Layers of Interstellar Dust, Gas
UT – A Fast-Moving Star is Colliding With Interstellar gas, Creating a Spectacular bow Shock
UT – Local Interstellar Gas Mapped in 3-D
UT – A Black Hole Has Cleared Out Its Neighbourhood

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The exoplanet census continues to grow. Currently, 5,819 exoplanets have been confirmed in 4,346 star systems, while thousands more await confirmation. The vast majority of these planets were detected in the past twenty years, owing to missions like the Kepler Space Telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the venerable Hubble, the Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits (CoRoT) mission, and more. Thousands more are expected as the James Webb Space Telescope continues its mission and is joined by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST).

In the meantime, astronomers will soon have another advanced observatory to help search for potentially habitable exoplanets. It’s called Pandora, a small satellite that was selected in 2021 as part of NASA’s call for Pioneer mission concepts. This observatory is designed to study planets detected by other missions by studying these planets’ atmospheres of exoplanets and the activity of their host stars with long-duration multiwavelength observations. The mission is one step closer to launch with the completion of the spacecraft bus, which provides the structure, power, and other systems.

Funded by NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers, Pandora is a joint effort between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The mission will study planets detected by other observatories that rely on Transit Photometry (aka. the Transit Method), where astronomers monitor stars for periodic dips in brightness that indicate the presence of orbiting planets. Pandora will then monitor these planets for future transits and obtain spectra from their atmospheres – a process known as Transit Spectroscopy.

Using this method, scientists can determine the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres and search for indications of biological activity (aka. “biosignatures”). During its year-long primary mission, the SmallSat will study 20 stars and their 39 exoplanets in visible and infrared light. The mission team anticipates Pandora will observe at least 20 exoplanets 10 times for 24 hours, during which transits will occur, and the satellite will obtain spectra from the exoplanets’ atmospheres.

In particular, Pandora will be looking to determine the presence of hazes, clouds, and water. The data it obtains will establish a firm foundation for interpreting measurements by Webb and future missions to search for habitable worlds. Daniel Apai, a co-investigator of the mission, is a professor of astronomy and planetary sciences at the U of A Steward Observatory and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, who leads the mission’s Exoplanets Science Working Group. As he said in a U of A News release:

“Although smaller and less sensitive than Webb, Pandora will be able to stare longer at the host stars of extrasolar planets, allowing for deeper study. Better understanding of the stars will help Pandora and its ‘big brother,’ the James Webb Space Telescope, disentangle signals from stars and their planets.” 

The concept for the telescope emerged to address a specific problem with Transit Spectroscopy. During transits, telescopes capture far more than just the passing through the planet’s atmosphere. They also capture light from the star itself. In addition, stellar surfaces are not uniform and have hotter, brighter regions (faculae) and cooler, darker regions (stellar spots) that change in size and position as the star rotates. This produces “mixed signals” that make it difficult to distinguish between light passing through the planet’s atmosphere and light from the star – which can mimic the signal produced by water.

Pandora will disentangle these signals by simultaneously monitoring the host star’s brightness in visible and infrared light. These observations will provide constraints on the variations in the star’s light, which can used to separate the star’s spectrum from the exoplanet’s. With the completion of the spacecraft bus, Pandora is one step closer to launch thanks to the completion of the spacecraft bus, which provides the structure, power, and other systems vital to the mission.

The completion of the bus was announced on January 16th during a press briefing at the 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in National Harbor, Maryland. “This is a huge milestone for us and keeps us on track for a launch in the fall,” said Elisa Quintana, Pandora’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “The bus holds our instruments and handles navigation, data acquisition, and communication with Earth — it’s the brains of the spacecraft.” Said Ben Hord, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow who discussed the mission at the 245 AAS:

“We see the presence of water as a critical aspect of habitability because water is essential to life as we know it. The problem with confirming its presence in exoplanet atmospheres is that variations in light from the host star can mask or mimic the signal of water. Separating these sources is where Pandora will shine.”

“Pandora’s near-infrared detector is actually a spare developed for the Webb telescope, which right now is the observatory most sensitive to exoplanet atmospheres. In turn, our observations will improve Webb’s ability to separate the star’s signals from those of the planet’s atmosphere, enabling Webb to make more precise atmospheric measurements.”

Unlike Webb and other flagship missions, Pandora can conduct continuous observations for extended periods because the demand for observation time will be low by comparison. Therefore, the Pandora satellite will fill a crucial gap between exoplanet discovery provided by flagship missions and exoplanet characterization. The mission is also a boon for the University of Arizona since Pandora’s science working group is led from there, and Pandora will be the first mission to have its operations center at the U of A Space Institute.

Further Reading: U of A News

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On Thursday, January 16th, at 02:03 AM EST, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket took off on its maiden flight from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was a momentous event for the company, as the two-stage heavy-lift rocket has been in development for many years, features a partially reusable design, and is vital to Bezos’ plan of “building a road to space.” While the company failed to retrieve the first-stage booster during the flight test, the rocket made it to orbit and successfully deployed its payload -the Blue Ring Pathfinder – to orbit (which has since begun gathering data).

According to the most recent statement by Blue Origin, the second stage reached its final orbit following two successful burns of its two BE-3U engines. The successful launch of NG-1 means that Blue Origin can now launch payloads to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), a huge milestone for the commercial space company. “I’m incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,” said Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp in a company statement. “We knew landing our booster, So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance, on the first try was an ambitious goal. We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring. Thank you to all of Team Blue for this incredible milestone.”  

The rocket is named in honor of NASA astronaut John Glenn, a member of the Mercury 7 and the first American astronaut to orbit Earth as part of the Liberty Bell 7 mission on July 21st, 1961. This is in keeping with Blue Origin’s history of naming their launch vehicles after famous astronauts, such as the New Shepard rocket. This single-stage suborbital launch vehicle is named in honor of Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to go to space as part of the Freedom 7 mission on May 5th, 1961.

Unlike the New Shepard, a fully reusable vehicle used primarily for space tourism and technology demonstrations and experiments, the New Glenn has a reusable first stage designed to land at sea on a barge named Jacklyn, or Landing Platform Vessel 1 (LPV1). While the second stage is not currently reusable, Blue Origin has been working on a reusable second stage (through Project Jarvis) since 2021. While development began on the New Glenn in 2013, the rocket has been stuck in “development hell” since 2016, shortly after it was first announced.

As a result, Blue Origin began lagging behind its main competitor (SpaceX) and missed out on several billion dollars worth of contracts. This included the company’s failure to secure a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) procurement contract and the U.S. Space Force’s termination of their launch technology partnership in late 2020. In 2021, the ongoing delay led to Jeff Bezos announcing that he would step down as CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to take the helm at Blue Origin. By February 2024, the first fully-developed New Glenn rocket was unveiled at Launch Complex 36.

This mission not only validated the launch vehicle that is vital to the company’s future plans in space. It also served as the first of several demonstrations required to be certified for use by the National Security Space Launch program. “The success of the NG-1 mission marks a new chapter for launch operations at the Eastern Range, redefining commercial-military collaboration to maintain SLD 45’s position as the world’s premier gateway to space,” wrote Airman 1st Class Collin Wesson of the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Launch Delta 45 (SLD 45) Public Affairs, shortly after the launch.

These plans include the launch of Amazon’s proposed constellation of internet satellites (Project Kuiper) and the creation of the Orbital Reef – a proposed commercial space station under development by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. They have also secured a contract with NASA to launch the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, two satellites that will study how solar wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic environment and drives atmospheric escape. NASA has also contracted with Blue Origin to provide payload and crewed launch services for the Artemis Program.

Artist’s concept of the Blue Moon Mk. II lander. Credit: Blue Origin

This includes the cargo lander Blue Moon Mark 1 and the Mark 2 that will transport the Artemis V astronauts to the lunar surface. This flight and those that will follow place Blue Origin among other commercial space companies poised to break up the near-monopoly SpaceX has enjoyed for over a decade. Said Jarrett Jones, the Senior VP for Blue Origin’s New Glenn:

“Today marks a new era for Blue Origin and for commercial space. We’re focused on ramping our launch cadence and manufacturing rates. My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Blue Origin for the tremendous amount of work in making today’s success possible, and to our customers and the space community for their continuous support. We felt that immensely today.” 

Further Reading: Blue Origin

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Six or seven billion years ago, most stars formed in super star clusters. That type of star formation has largely died out now. Astronomers know of two of these SSCs in the modern Milky Way and one in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and all three of them are millions of years old.

New JWST observations have found another SSC forming in the LMC, and it’s only 100,000 years old. What can astronomers learn from it?

SSCs are responsible for a lot of star formation, but billions of years have passed since their heyday. Finding a young one in a galaxy so close to us is a boon for astronomers. It gives them an opportunity to wind back the clock and see how SSCs are born.

New research published in The Astrophysical Journal presents the new findings. It’s titled “JWST Mid-infrared Spectroscopy Resolves Gas, Dust, and Ice in Young Stellar Objects in the Large Magellanic Cloud.” The lead author is Omnarayani (Isha) Nayak from the Space Telescope Science Institute and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

At about 160,000 light-years away, the LMC is close in terms of galactic neighbours. It’s also face-on from our vantage point, making it easier to study. The N79 region in the LMC is a massive star-forming nebula about 1600 light-years across. The JWST used its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and found 97 new young stellar objects (YSOs) in N79, where the newly discovered super star cluster, H72.97-69.39, is located.

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows N79, a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized and is captured here by Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). N79 is a massive star-forming complex spanning roughly 1630 light-years in the generally unexplored southwest region of the LMC. At the longer wavelengths of light captured by MIRI, Webb’s view of N79 showcases the region’s glowing gas and dust. Star-forming regions such as this are of interest to astronomers because their chemical composition is similar to that of the gigantic star-forming regions observed when the Universe was only a few billion years old, and star formation was at its peak. Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Meixner CC BY 4.0 INT

Stellar metallicity increases over time as generations of stars are born and die. The LMC’s metallic abundance is only half that of our Solar System, meaning the conditions in the new SSC are similar to when stars formed billions of years ago in the early Universe. This is another of those situations in astronomy where studying a particular object or region is akin to looking into the past.

“Studying YSOs in the LMC gives astronomers a front-row seat to witness the birth of stars in a nearby galaxy. For the first time, we can observe individual low-mass protostars similar to the Sun forming in small clusters—outside of our own Milky Way Galaxy,” said Isha Nayak, lead author of this research. “We can see with unprecedented detail extragalactic star formation in an environment similar to how some of the first stars formed in the universe.”

The YSOs near the SSC H72.97-69.39 (hereafter referred to as H72) are segregated by mass. The most massive YSOs are concentrated near H72, while the less massive are on the outskirts of N79. The JWST revealed that what astronomers used to think were single massive young stars are actually clusters of YSOs. These observations confirm for the first time that what appear to be individual YSOs are often small clusters of protostars.

A composite image created using JWST NIRCam and ALMA data. Light from stars is shown in yellow, while blue and purple represent the dust and gas fueling star formation. Image Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/S.Dagnello

This finding brings attention to the complex processes of early star formation. “The formation of massive stars plays a vital role in influencing the chemistry and structure of the interstellar medium (ISM),” the authors write in their published research. “Star formation takes place in clusters, with massive stars dominating the luminosity.”

One of the five young stars is over 500,000 times more luminous than the Sun. As revealed by the JWST Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), it’s surrounded by more than 1,550 young stars.

This Spitzer image from the new research shows the N79 region in the LMC. N79 consists of three giant molecular clouds. Spitzer data showed that each of the red circles is a massive young stellar object of at least eight solar masses. However, the JWST has revealed that three of them, with the exception of the one in N79W, aren’t individual YSOs; they’re clusters. Together, they could make up a very young super star cluster. Image Credit: Nayak et al. 2025.

Previous Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations hinted at what might contribute to the formation of SSCs. ALMA showed that colliding filaments of molecular gas at least one parsec long are in the region. These filaments could be behind H72’s formation.

This figure from previous research shows ALMA observations of the region near the super star cluster H72. Each one shows carbon monoxide in a different velocity channel. The white “x” shows the location of H72. “Scrolling through the channels it is clear there is a filament in the northeast to southwest direction and a distinct filament in the northwest to southeast direction,” the authors explain. Image Credit: Nayak et al. 2019.

This work highlights JWST’s power to resolve complex star formation locations in other galaxies. Not only did the JWST show us that what appeared to be individual YSOs are actually groups of stars, but it allowed the researchers to determine their mass accretion rates and chemical properties. The JWST’s new data gives astronomers new insights into complex chemistry, including the presence of organic molecules, dust, and ice in star-forming regions.

The post Astronomers are Watching a Newly Forming Super Star Cluster appeared first on Universe Today.

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) at the heart of the Milky Way holds a lot of gas. It contains about 60 million solar masses of molecular gas in complexes of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), structures where stars usually form. Because of the presence of Sag. A*, the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole (SMBH), the CMZ is an extreme environment. The gas in the CMZ is ten times more dense, turbulent, and heated than gas elsewhere in the galaxy.

How do star-forming GMCs behave in such an extreme environment?

Researchers have found a novel way to study two of the GMCs in the CMZ. The clouds are named “Sticks” and “Stones” and astronomers have used decades of X-ray observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to probe the 3D structures of the pair of clouds.

University of Connecticut Physics Researcher Danya Alboslani and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Samantha Brunker are both with the Milky Way Laboratory at the University of Connecticut. They’ve produced two manuscripts presenting their new X-ray tomography method and their results. Brunker is the lead author of “3D MC I: X-ray Tomography Begins to Unravel the 3-D Structure of a Molecular Cloud in our Galaxy’s Center,” and Alboslani is the lead author of “3D MC II: X ray echoes reveal a clumpy molecular cloud in the CMZ.” Brunker and Alboslani are also co-authors on each paper. Alboslani also presented her results at the recent 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

When gas from elsewhere in the galaxy reaches Sgr A*, it forms an accretion ring around the SMBH. As the gas heats up, it releases X-rays. These X-ray emission are only intermittent, and in the past, some of these episodes have been very intense. The X-ray travel outward in all directions, and while we didn’t have the capability to observe them, they interacted with GMCs near the CMZ. The clouds first absorbed them the re-emitted them in a phenomenon called fluorescence.

“The cloud absorbs the X-rays that are coming from Sgr A* then re-emits X-rays in all directions. Some of these X-rays are coming towards us, and there is this very specific energy level, the 6.4 electron volt neutral iron line, that has been found to correlate with the dense parts of molecular gas,” says Alboslani. “If you imagine a black hole in the center producing these X-rays which radiate outwards and eventually interact with a molecular cloud in the CMZ, over time, it will highlight different parts of the cloud, so what we’re seeing is a scan of the cloud.”

The Central Molecular Zone; the Heart of the Milky Way. Image Credit: Henshaw / MPIA

The center of the galaxy is choked with dust that obscures our view of the region. Visible light is blocked, but the powerful X-rays emitted by Sgr A* during accretion events are visible.

Typically, astronomers only see two dimensions of objects in space. According to Battersby, their new X-Ray tomography method allows them to measure the GMCs’ third dimension. Battersby explains that while we typically only see two spatial dimensions of objects in space, the X-ray tomography method allows us to measure the third dimension of the cloud. It’s because we see the X-rays illuminate individual slices of the cloud over time. “We can use the time delay between illuminations to calculate the third spatial dimension because X-rays travel at the speed of light,” Battersby explains.

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has been observing these X-rays for two decades, and as it observes them it sees different “slices” of the clouds, just like medical tomography. The slices are then built up into a 3D image. These are the first 3D maps of star-forming clouds in such an extreme environment.

This figure from Brunker’s paper on the “Sticks” cloud illustrates how the X-ray tomography works. Each coloured line represents a different “slice” of the cloud from a specific year. Image Credit: Brunker et al. 2025.

The X-ray tomography method has one weakness. The X-ray observations aren’t continuous, so there are gaps. There are also some structures visible in submillimeter wavelengths that aren’t seen in X-rays. To get around that, the pair of researchers used data from the ALMA and the Herschel Space Observatory to compare the structures seen in the X-ray echoes to those seen in other wavelengths. The structures that are missing in X-rays but visible in submillimeter wavelengths can also be used to constrain the duratio of X-ray flares that illuminated the clouds.

“We can estimate the sizes of the molecular structures that we do not see in the X-ray,“ says Brunker, “and from there we can place constraints on the duration of the X-ray flare by modeling what we would be able to observe for a range of flare lengths. The model that reproduced observations with similar sized ‘missing structures’ indicated that the X-ray flare couldn’t have been much longer than 4-5 months.”

This figure from Brunker’s paper shows ALMA observations, which show the presence of H2CO (formaldehyde) combined with Chandra’s X-ray observations. Blue is X-rays and pink is ALMA data. Purple is where they overlap. Each panel is from a different year. Image Credit: Brunker et al. 2025.

“The overall morphological agreement, and in particular, the association of the densest regions in both X-ray and molecular line data is striking and is the first time it has been shown on such a small scale,” says Brunker.

Detecting a third dimension of the clouds in this extreme environment could open new avenues of discovery.

“While we learn a lot about molecular clouds from data collected in 2D, the added third dimension allows for a more detailed understanding of the physics of how new stars are born,” says Battersby. “Additionally, these observations place key constraints on the global geometry of our Galaxy’s Center as well as the past flaring activity of Sgr A*, central open questions in modern astrophysics.”

When it comes to how new stars from, there are many unanswered questions. While we know turbulence in GMCs can inhibit star formation, the exact mechanism is unkown. Astronomers are also uncertain how environmental factors affect star formation. There are many others and some of them can be answered by watching how GMCs behave in extreme environments.

There are also many questions regarding Sgr A*’s X-ray flaring. Astronomers aren’t certain how factors like magnetic reconnection events near the black hole and hot spots in the accretion flow affect X-ray flaring. They also aren’t certain why X-ray flaring occurs in random intervals. That’s just a sample of unanswered questions that could be addressed by studying GMCs in the galactic centre.

If all large galaxies contain SMBHs, which seems increasingly likely, then all large galaxies have CMZs that are extreme environments. The CMZs and the SMBHs are the heart of galaxies, and astrophysicists are keen to understand the processes that play out there, and if stars are able to form there.

“We can study processes in the Milky Way’s Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) and use our findings to learn about other extreme environments. While many distant galaxies have similar environments, they are too far away to study in detail. By learning more about our own Galaxy, we also learn about these distant galaxies that cannot be resolved with today’s telescopes,” says Alboslani.

Alboslani presents her results in this video from AAS 245. Her presentation begins at the 32:40 mark.

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DwarfLab’s new Dwarf 3 smartscope packs a powerful punch in a small unit.

Dwarf Lab’s Dwarf 3 smartscope.

In the past decade, amateur astronomy has witnessed nothing short of a revolution, as smartscopes have come to the fore. In half a century of skywatching, we’ve used just about every iteration of GoTo system available, starting with the now almost prehistoric ‘push-and-point’ AstroMaster units of the 90s. Strange to think, these were the hot new thing for telescopes in the 90s… though you still often had to perform a visual spiral search to actually find the target.

We recently had a chance to put Dwarf Lab’s new Dwarf 3 smartscope through its paces, and were impressed with what we’ve seen thus far. The small telescope even has personality: my wife said it actually looked like Johnny 5 from the 80s movie Short Circuit on start up (!)

We’ve also had the chance to use Unistellar and Vaonis units in the past, and were curious to see how the tiny Dwarf 3 would compare.

Smartscope Revolution

The specifications for the small unit are impressive:

The Dwarf 3 has two ‘eyes’: a 35mm (telephoto) and a 3.4mm wide-angle lens. The focal lengths for the two are 150mm (telephoto) and 6.7mm for the wide-angle (an effective equivalent of 737mm/45mm for the two).

The optics feature Sony IMX 678 Stravis 2 sensors, a CMOS chip with an effective 8.4x megapixel array, an upgrade from the IMX 415 used in the Dwarf 2.

Modern GoTo systems really put me out of a job…and that’s probably a good thing. I learned how to find things the ‘old way’ by starhopping and peering at a star chart under a red light. Dwarf 3 and other smartscopes use a method known as ‘plate-solving,’ looking at sections of the sky on startup and comparing them to a database versus the GPS position. The Dwarf Lab app features a digital planetarium view, to give even a novice user a common sense feel for the sky.

Dwarf 3 was spot on with pointing, and even maps out local obstructions on startup as no-go zones. Startup was quick, and the app is intuitive to use.

Using Dwarf 3 The Andromeda galaxy and satellite galaxies, as seen in the Dwarf Lab app.

You can use the planetarium sky feature with its grid overlay to manually aim the telescope at a given point in Right Ascension and Declination, handy for, say, if a new bright comet appears in the sky. Newer comets such as G3 ATLAS were in the updated database.

I’d rate the compactness of the unit and ease of use and portability for travel as a big plus. The unit only weighs 1.3 kilograms (2.8 pounds), and attaches to a standard camera tripod. Though the unit needs a stable, level site to operate, it never protested, balked or failed to deliver even when moderate vibrations were present.

Visible (VIS), Astro, and Dual band filters are built in to the optics, and the unit comes with a magnetic snap in place solar filter.

Solar viewing with the Dwarf Labs app.

The battery life for the telescope is advertised as 4-6 hours, and the unit has a generous 10000 mAh built-in battery. The Dwarf 3 also has an internal storage capacity of 128Gb (gigabytes). I used the telescope in sub-freezing January temperatures for about an hour during the Mars occultation, without a problem.

The unit will also output and support JPEG, PNG, TIFF and FITS files, though of course, larger FITS files will also take up more storage room.

The scope hooks to your phone via wifi/bluetooth, and even features an NFC ‘smart-touch’ connection capability. Though you need a wireless connection to control the telescope from your tablet or phone, the unit will work in the field as a standalone unit. That is, without a network connection.

Putting the Dwarf 3 Through Its Paces

On startup and initialization the scope gives two views: one wide and one telephoto, about 2.93x 1.65 degrees across. The Pleiades filled up the view nicely. The wide view works great as a finderscope for manually slewing to targets. The manual slew rate is variable as well.

The Pleiades (M45) with the Dwarf 3 telescope; the system easily captured some of the dusty reflection nebulae surrounding the young stars.

The telescope can be used in both terrestrial and astronomical applications. I could even envision the unit installed in a mini-‘bird house’ style observatory on a balcony or rooftop, allowing the user to sit inside and remotely observe the sky. These days, it’s rare that a new piece of tech inspires out-of-the-box thinking as to what might be possible, but the Dwarf 3 does just that.

Of course, with such a wide view, the Dwarf 3 really shines in deep-sky astrophotography. This is true even from brightly lit downtown areas, a real plus.

The Orion Nebula… imaged with the Dwarf 3 under the bright downtown lights of Bristol, Tennessee.

A sunglasses-looking filter magnetically snaps in place over both lenses for solar viewing. Like a standard rich-field refractor, the Dwarf 3 also delivers decent lunar views, but planets will appear as small dots.

Using a camera control app with Real Time Streaming Protocol capability will allow users to live stream the Dwarf 3 and record and broadcast live views. This would be handy for streaming eclipses or occultations live.

Dwarf 3: Deep-Sky Downtown Astronomy

What we like: The Dwarf 3 is very portable, and packs a lot in a small package. As I get older, I take a dim view of lugging gear outside, cobbling things together and contorting to view and tend to troubleshooting things in the dark, all for maybe an hour’s use. The Dwarf 3 is light and easy to deploy, allowing me to spend more precious time actually observing. Smartscopes also work great at public star parties, as I can simply narrate the wonders of what we’re seeing, while the GoTo system does all of the grunt work.

The Moon occults the Pleiades (a composite of two images).

What we don’t like: You have to remember to download the images before shutting down the unit… this a tiny step to remember for sure, in an otherwise outstanding product.

How does Dwarf 3 stack up against other smart telescopes out there? Well, the biggest difference is the price: at $499, it’s a fraction of the cost of most competitors out there. Increasingly, the argument that ‘yeah, but you could buy a (insert the name of a telescope/camera) for that price’ doesn’t hold up. Of course, it’s hard to beat the physics of optics in terms of resolution with smaller units. Increasingly, smaller units get around this by simply staring at faint light sources for longer, and letting deep sky images stack and build up.

Bottom line: The Dwarf 3 is definitely worth the price, either as a quick travel-scope for the seasoned observer, or a beginner scope to show users the wonders of the cosmos.

The post Review: Dwarf Lab’s New Dwarf 3 Smartscope appeared first on Universe Today.

The wildfires raging around Los Angeles have made plenty of headlines lately, though they are slowly starting to get under control. NASA was a part of that effort, tracking the fire’s evolution via the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-3 (AVIRIS-3) as they raged through southern California. As they were doing so, they likely realized that these fires posed an extreme risk to one vital part of NASA itself – the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

JPL is one of NASA’s most prolific centers, nestled in the hills around Pasadena, California. Employees there are responsible for missions as wide-ranging as Psyche, which will soon visit the “Queen of the asteroid belt,” and Ingenuity, the helicopter that performed the first-ever powered flight on another planet.

Despite having their eyes set on the heavens, JPL’s engineers, technicians, and administrators still have to deal with earthly matters occasionally. It receives around $2.4 billion annually in funding from NASA, representing around 10% of the agency’s budget. However, over the past years, the center has laid off almost 1,000 employees out of the approximately 6,000 that work there. Those layoffs were mainly due to budgetary constraints and difficulties with some missions they were planning, such as the struggling Mars Sample Return mission.

New report on the efforts to save JPL.
Credit – KCAL News YouTube Channel

But the LA fires, particularly one that started in nearby Eaton Canyon, brought home a much more immediate concern—a threat to the center’s physical survival. The Eaton Canyon fire, which started on the morning of January 7th in the nearby town of Altadena, expanded to over 10,000 in little more than a day.

As firefighters scrambled to contain the blaze, it began to burn developed areas, such as the northern side of Altadena itself. On January 11th, NASA sent a B200 aircraft over the area with AVIRIS-3 to capture an image of the first, which you can see in the headline of this article. If you look closely, on the left-hand side of the image, you can see three letters—JPL.

Using a very unscientific measuring technique based on the kilometer scaling provided in the picture, it looks like the first got within one single km of one of the world’s foremost propulsion research labs. Admittedly, there seemed to be a physical barrier labeled as the “Hahamongna watershed” between JPL and the fire, but given the drought that the LA region has been suffering through lately, it is dubious how effective that barrier might have been.

Wildfires cause very personal tragedies, as discussed in this story about JPL employees.
Credit – KCAL News YouTube Channel

Luckily, as of this reporting, the Eaton fire has largely been contained and is no longer expanding. So it seems that JPL has been spared, at least in this round of southern California’s seemingly never-ending cycle of fires. However, almost 5,000 structures were destroyed in nearby towns – some of them undoubtedly belonging to JPL employees. 

While the center itself might have been spared, its employees will undoubtedly be dealing with the fallout of these fires for some time to come. NASA has started a Disaster Response Coordination System, where the agency uses its Earth-monitoring know-how to support other agencies dealing with disasters on the ground. This time, though, some of its best engineers and support staff might have to deal with their own personal tragedies before being able to help the agency that employs them.

Learn More:
NASA – Eaton Fire Leaves California Landscape Charred
UT – NASA’s JPL Lays Off Another 325 People
UT – NASA’s JPL Lays Off Hundreds of Workers
UT – NASA is Keeping an Eye on InSight from Space

Lead Image:
Map of the fires showing it proximity to JPL and downtown Pasadena.
Credit – NASA

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Dark matter may have to go on a diet, according to new research.

By now we have a vast abundance of evidence for the existence of dark matter. That’s because cosmological observations just aren’t adding up. All our measures of luminous matter fall far short of the total gravitational effects we see in galaxies, clusters, and the universe as a while.

Dark matter far outweighs the regular matter in the cosmos, but we still don’t know the identity of this mysterious particle. Because of that, it could have a wide variety of masses, anything from a billionth of the mass of the lightest known particles to mass ranges far, far heavier.

Most searches for dark matter have focused on masses roughly in the range of the heavier known particles, because several extensions to known physics predict particles like that. But those searches have thus far come up short, making physicists wonder if the dark matter might be much lighter than expected…or much heavier.

But heavier dark matter runs into some serious issues, according to a new paper appearing on the preprint server arXiv.

The problem is that we expect to dark matter to at least sometimes, rarely, interact with normal matter. In the extremely early universe, dark matter and regular matter talked to each other much more often. But as the cosmos expanded and cooled, the interactions broke down, freezing out dark matter and leaving it behind as a relic background.

Almost all models of dark matter predict that it talks to normal matter through some interaction involving the Higgs boson, the famous particle finally detected by the Large Hadron Collider in 2012. The Higgs boson is responsible for the mass of many particles.

But interactions in physics are two-way streets. Many particles acquire their mass through their interaction with the Higgs, and in turn the mass of the Higgs is modified by its interaction with the other particles. But those particles are so light that the back-reaction isn’t very strong, so usually we don’t have to worry about it.

But if the dark matter is much heavier, somewhere around ten times the mass of the heaviest known particles, then its own interactions will cause the Higgs to balloon up in mass, making it far heavier than measurements suggest.

There are possibilities to get around this restriction. The dark matter might not interact with regular particles at all, or through some exotic mechanism that doesn’t involve the Higgs. But those models are few are far between, and require a lot of fine-tuning and extra steps.

This means that the dark matter, whatever it is, might just be an ultra-light particle, rather than an ultra-heavy one.

The post Dark Matter Can’t Be Too Heavy appeared first on Universe Today.

According to new research, the earliest seeds of structures may have been laid down by gravitational waves sloshing around in the infant universe.

Cosmologists strongly suspect that the extremely early universe underwent a period of exceptionally rapid expansion. Known as inflation, this event expanded the universe by a factor of at least 10^60 in less than a second. Powering this event was a new ingredient in the cosmos known as the inflaton, a strange quantum field that ramped up, drove inflation, and then faded away.

Inflation didn’t just make the universe big. It also laid down the seeds of the first structures. It did so by taking the quantum foam, the subatomic fluctuations in spacetime itself, and expanding that along with everything else. Slowly over time those fluctuations grew, and hundreds of millions of years later they became the first stars and galaxies, ultimately leading to the largest structure in the universe, the cosmic web.

But mysteries remain. We do not know the identity of the inflaton, or what powered it, or why it turned off when it did. And we have no conclusive evidence that inflation actually happened.

So researchers are always looking for alternatives, especially ones that don’t invoke some new and mysterious ingredient. In a recent paper, a team of astrophysicists describe a model where inflation happens, leading to the large-scale structure of the universe, all without an inflaton.

The model described by the researchers is set in the backdrop of an expanding universe that is accelerating in its expansion, just like the modern-day universe is. In that expanding universe, the quantum foam releases gravitational waves. Those ripples in space spread outwards, colliding with each other and amplifying themselves.

Gravitational waves usually can’t create structures on their own, but the researchers found that in certain special cases the gravitational waves can amplify each other in just the right way. When that happens, the imprints they make in space are nearly the same at a wide variety of length scales.

This is precisely what cosmologists observe in the cosmic microwave background, the leftover light from the early universe. This radiation contains a faint impression of the echoes of inflation, and it shows that whatever set the seeds of structure, it had to have that kind of pattern.

There are slight differences between the kinds of structures generated in this inflation-without-inflaton scenario and traditional inflation. In this first paper, the researchers did not yet calculate how strong those differences are, but an important next step is to explore the observational consequences of this model and see if it’s worth investigating further.

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Researchers have discovered how to make a new kind of metamaterial reconfigure itself without tangling itself up in knots, opening up the possibility of a broad array of space applications.

Metamaterials are a hot topic in engineering. These are materials inspired from biological systems. Many living structures start from simple, repeatable patterns that then grow into large, complex structures. The resulting structures can then have properties that the small subcomponents don’t. For example, individual bone cells or coral polyp skeletons aren’t very strong, but when they work together they can support huge animals or gigantic underwater colonies.

One promising kind of metamaterial is known as a Totimorphic lattice. This lattice starts from a triangular shaped structure. On one side is a fixed beam with a ball joint in the center. An arm attaches to that ball joint, and the other end of the arm is attached to the ends of the fixed beam with two springs. Many of these shapes attached together can morph into a wide variety of shapes and structures, all with very minimal input, giving the Totimorphic lattice incredible flexibility.

In a recent paper, scientists with the European Space Agency’s Advanced Concepts Team found a way to reconfigure Totimorphic lattices without having them tangle up on themselves. They discovered this using a series of computer simulations, creating an optimization problem for the algorithm to solve. With the algorithm in hand, they could then take any configuration of the lattice and change it to another in an optimal, efficient way.

The researchers showed off their technique with two examples. The first was a simple habitat structure that could change its shape and stiffness, which could allow future astronauts to deploy the same kind of metamaterial to build a variety of structures, and reconfigure them as mission needs changed.

The second example was a flexible space telescope that could change its focal length by adapting the curvature of its lens. This would enable a single launch, with a single vehicle, to serve a variety of observing needs.

As of right now, this is all hypothetical. Totimorphic lattices don’t exist in practice, only as curious mathematical objects. But this research is crucial for advancing humanity into space. The cost and difficulty of launching materials into space mean that we need flexible, adaptable structures that are cheap to launch and easy to deploy.

This research is yet another example of how we can draw inspiration from nature, in this case investigating the surprising properties of metamaterials, to bring ourselves into a future in space.

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