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When Does Summer Start?
How does astronomical summer differ from meteorological summer? And how is climate change affecting how long summer lasts?
NASA Invites Media to ‘NASA in the Park’ June 22
1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Downtown Huntsville Inc.
Media are invited to attend a celebration of space and the Rocket City during NASA in the Park on Saturday, June 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT at Big Spring Park East in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA and partners will pack the park with exhibits, music, food vendors, and hands-on activities for all ages. This event is free and open to the public.
Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and local leaders will kick off the program of activities at 10:15 a.m. at the central stage on the south side of the park.
Pelfrey and other NASA team members will be available to speak with reporters between 10:30 and 11 a.m. near the stage.
Reporters interested in interviews should contact Molly Porter, molly.a.porter@nasa.gov or 256-424-5158.
For more information about Marshall, visit:
Molly Porter
Marshall Space Flight Center
256-424-5158
molly.a.porter@nasa.gov
In early May, widespread flooding and landslides occurred in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande…
Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsMissions
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Augmented Reality Speeds Spacecraft Construction at NASA Goddard
- Augmented reality tools have helped technicians improve accuracy and save time on fit checks for the Roman Space Telescope being assembled at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
- In one instance, manipulating a digital model of Roman’s propulsion system into the real telescope structure revealed the planned design would not fit around existing wiring. The finding helped avoid a need to rebuild any components.
- The R&D team at Goddard working on this AR project suggests broader adoption in the future could potentially save weeks of construction time and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Technicians armed with advanced measuring equipment, augmented reality headsets, and QR codes virtually checked the fit of some Roman Space Telescope structures before building or moving them through facilities at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“We’ve been able to place sensors, mounting interfaces, and other spacecraft hardware in 3D space faster and more accurately than previous techniques,” said NASA Goddard engineer Ron Glenn. “That could be a huge benefit to any program’s cost and schedule.”
Projecting digital models onto the real world allows the technicians to align parts and look for potential interference among them. The AR heads-up display also enables precise positioning of flight hardware for assembly with accuracy down to thousandths of an inch.
Engineers wearing augmented reality headsets test the placement of a scaffolding design before it is built to ensure accurate fit in the largest clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.NASA
Using NASA’s Internal Research and Development program, Glenn said his team keeps finding new ways to improve how NASA builds spacecraft with AR technology in a project aiding Roman’s construction at NASA Goddard.
Glenn said the team has achieved far more than they originally sought to prove. “The original project goal was to develop enhanced assembly solutions utilizing AR and find out if we could eliminate costly fabrication time,” he said. “We found the team could do so much more.”
For instance, engineers using a robotic arm for precision measuring and 3D laser scanning mapped Roman’s complex wiring harness and the volume within the spacecraft structure.
“Manipulating the virtual model of Roman’s propulsion assembly into that frame, we found places where it interfered with the existing wiring harness, team engineer Eric Brune said. “Adjusting the propulsion assembly before building it allowed the mission to avoid costly and time-consuming delays.”
Roman’s propulsion system was successfully integrated earlier this year.
The Roman Space Telescope is a NASA mission designed to explore dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.Equipped with a powerful telescope and advanced instruments, it aims to unravel mysteries of the universe and expand our understanding of cosmic phenomena. Roman is scheduled to launch by May 2027.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio
Considering the time it takes to design, build, move, redesign, and rebuild, Brune added, their work saved many workdays by multiple engineers and technicians.
“We have identified many additional benefits to these combinations of technologies,” team engineer Aaron Sanford said. “Partners at other locations can collaborate directly through the technicians’ point of view. Using QR codes for metadata storage and document transfer adds another layer of efficiency, enabling quick access to relevant information right at your fingertips. Developing AR techniques for reverse engineering and advanced structures opens many possibilities such as training and documentation.”
The technologies allow 3D designs of parts and assemblies to be shared or virtually handed off from remote locations. They also enable dry runs of moving and installing structures as well as help capture precise measurements after parts are built to compare to their designs.
Adding a precision laser tracker to the mix can also eliminate the need to create elaborate physical templates to ensure components are accurately mounted in precise positions and orientations, Sanford said. Even details such as whether a technician can physically extend an arm inside a structure to turn a bolt or manipulate a part can be worked out in augmented reality before construction.
During construction, an engineer wearing a headset can reference vital information, like the torque specifications for individual bolts, using a hand gesture. In fact, the engineer could achieve this without having to pause and find the information on another device or in paper documents.
In the future, the team hopes to help integrate various components, conduct inspections, and document final construction. Sanford said, “it’s a cultural shift. It takes time to adopt these new tools.”
“It will help us rapidly produce spacecraft and instruments, saving weeks and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Glenn said. “That allows us to return resources to the agency to develop new missions.”
This project is part of NASA’s Center Innovation Fund portfolio for fiscal year 2024 at Goddard. The Center Innovation Fund, within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, stimulates and encourages creativity and innovation at NASA centers while addressing the technology needs of NASA and the nation.
To learn more, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/center-innovation-fund/
By Karl B. Hille
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Why Scientists Are Intrigued by Air in NASA’s Mars Sample Tubes
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Perseverance rover viewed these dust devils swirling across the surface of Mars on July 20, 2021. Scientists want to study the air trapped in samples being collected in metal tubes by Perseverance. Those air samples could help them better understand the Martian atmosphere.NASA/JPL-Caltech
Tucked away with each rock and soil sample collected by the agency’s Perseverance rover is a potential boon for atmospheric scientists.
Atmospheric scientists get a little more excited with every rock core NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover seals in its titanium sample tubes, which are being gathered for eventual delivery to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. Twenty-four have been taken so far.
Most of those samples consist of rock cores or regolith (broken rock and dust) that might reveal important information about the history of the planet and whether microbial life was present billions of years ago. But some scientists are just as thrilled at the prospect of studying the “headspace,” or air in the extra room around the rocky material, in the tubes.
This image shows a rock core about the size of a piece of chalk in a sample tube housed within the drill of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Once the rover seals the tube, air will be trapped in the extra space in the tube — seen here in the small gap (called “headspace”) above the rock. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS A sealed tube containing a sample of the Martian surface collected by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is seen here, after being deposited with other tubes in a “sample depot.” Other filled sample tubes are stored within the rover.NASA/JPL-CaltechThey want to learn more about the Martian atmosphere, which is composed mostly of carbon dioxide but could also include trace amounts of other gases that may have been around since the planet’s formation.
“The air samples from Mars would tell us not just about the current climate and atmosphere, but how it’s changed over time,” said Brandi Carrier, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It will help us understand how climates different from our own evolve.”
The Value of HeadspaceAmong the samples that could be brought to Earth is one tube filled solely with gas deposited on the Martian surface as part of a sample depot. But far more of the gas in the rover’s collection is within the headspace of rock samples. These are unique because the gas will be interacting with rocky material inside the tubes for years before the samples can be opened and analyzed in laboratories on Earth. What scientists glean from them will lend insight into how much water vapor hovers near the Martian surface, one factor that determines why ice forms where it does on the planet and how Mars’ water cycle has evolved over time.
Scientists also want a better understanding of trace gases in the air at Mars. Most scientifically tantalizing would be the detection of noble gases (such as neon, argon, and xenon), which are so nonreactive that they may have been around, unchanged in the atmosphere, since forming billions of years ago. If captured, those gases could reveal whether Mars started with an atmosphere. (Ancient Mars had a much thicker atmosphere than it does today, but scientists aren’t sure whether it was always there or whether it developed later). There are also big questions about how the planet’s ancient atmosphere compared with early Earth’s.
The headspace would additionally provide a chance to assess the size and toxicity of dust particles — information that will help future astronauts on Mars.
“The gas samples have a lot to offer Mars scientists,” said Justin Simon, a geochemist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, who is part of a group of over a dozen international experts that helps decide which samples the rover should collect. “Even scientists who don’t study Mars would be interested because it will shed light on how planets form and evolve.”
Apollo’s Air SamplesIn 2021, a group of planetary researchers, including scientists from NASA, studied the air brought back from the Moon in a steel container by Apollo 17 astronauts some 50 years earlier.
“People think of the Moon as airless, but it has a very tenuous atmosphere that interacts with the lunar surface rocks over time,” said Simon, who studies a variety of planetary samples at Johnson. “That includes noble gases leaking out of the Moon’s interior and collecting at the lunar surface.”
The way Simon’s team extracted the gas for study is similar to what could be done with Perseverance’s air samples. First, they put the previously unopened container into an airtight enclosure. Then they pierced the steel with a needle to extract the gas into a cold trap — essentially a U-shaped pipe that extends into a liquid, like nitrogen, with a low freezing point. By changing the temperature of the liquid, scientists captured some of the gases with lower freezing points at the bottom of the cold trap.
“There’s maybe 25 labs in the world that manipulate gas in this way,” Simon said. Besides being used to study the origin of planetary materials, this approach can be applied to gases from hot springs and those emitted from the walls of active volcanoes, he added.
Of course, those sources provide much more gas than Perseverance has in its sample tubes. But if a single tube doesn’t carry enough gas for a particular experiment, Mars scientists could combine gases from multiple tubes to get a larger aggregate sample — one more way the headspace offers a bonus opportunity for science.
More About the MissionA key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover is also characterizing the planet’s geology and past climate, which paves the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Perseverance:
News Media ContactsAndrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Charles Blue
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-285-1600 / 202-802-5345
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / charles.e.blue@nasa.gov
2024-087
Share Details Last Updated Jun 20, 2024 Related Terms Explore More 5 min read Stephanie Duchesne: Leading with Integrity and Openness for CLDP Article 22 hours ago 3 min read Johnson Celebrates LGBTQI+ Pride Month: Meet Maya FarrHenderson Article 4 days ago 3 min read Johnson Celebrates LGBTQI+ Pride Month: Meet Michael Chandler Article 7 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsMissions
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Did the Solar System Once Collide with an Interstellar Cloud?
Astronomers have proposed a rather uncomfortable past for our solar system and our planet — as well as an alternative explanation for a radioactive anomaly on Earth.
The post Did the Solar System Once Collide with an Interstellar Cloud? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Climate Action Is a Labor Issue for This Teachers Union’s Leaders
The president of the Chicago Teachers Union explains how climate change became a pillar of the union’s contract demands
NASA CubeSats Loaded for Launch
Eight CubeSats that are part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative have been integrated into Firefly Aerospace’s deployment hardware and are ready to be encapsulated into the payload fairing of Firefly’s Alpha rocket. The launch, named “Noise of Summer,” will lift off early this summer from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
University students from several schools, along with some technicians from NASA, brought their small satellites to Firefly for integration with the rocket. The satellites are designed to perform a range of scientific experiments and technical demonstrations including high-speed communications, cosmic ray detection, climate monitoring, and new de-orbiting techniques.
The CubeSats on the ELaNa 43 (Educational Launch of a Nanosatellite) manifest are:
- CatSat – University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- KUbe-Sat-1 – University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
- MESAT1 – University of Maine, Orono, Maine
- R5-S4 – NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
- R5-S2-2.0 – NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston
- SOC-i – University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
- TechEdSat-11 – NASA’s Ames Research Center, California’s Silicon Valley
- Serenity – Teachers in Space
Students are heavily involved in all aspects of their mission from developing, assembling, and testing payloads to working with NASA and the launch vehicle integration teams. The CubeSats are held to rigorous standards like that of the primary spacecraft.
Firefly Aerospace is one of three companies selected under NASA’s Launch Services Program Venture-Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 (VCLS Demo 2) contract awarded in December 2020. These VCLS Demo 2 missions can tolerate a higher level of risk and help create opportunities for new launch vehicles, helping grow the launch vehicle market while increasing access to space for small spacecraft and science missions.
Giant Batteries Deliver Renewable Energy When It’s Needed
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) In developing its flow battery, ESS drew from groundbreaking research and development conducted by the space agency more than 40 years ago. Pictured here, a 200-watt demonstration unit of the flow battery NASA built in the 1970s and 1980s.Credit: NASA
Solar power is abundant – when the Sun is shining. Wind power is steady – when the wind is blowing. However, creating a steady electricity supply from intermittent power sources is a challenge. NASA was focused on this problem more than 45 years ago when the agency designed a new type of liquid battery during the energy price shocks of the 1970s. While engineers continued over the following decades to develop flow batteries, as they’re now called, the technology has drawn even more attention in recent years, with the urgency of climate change powering a larger-scale transition to renewables like solar and wind.
It’s fair to say that flow batteries today owe something to the major push the technology received in the 1970s when a NASA team of chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineers developed an iron-chromium flow battery at Lewis Research Center – now Glenn Research Center – in Cleveland.
The NASA system involved two tanks of liquid electrolyte solutions, one infused with iron chloride and the other with chromium chloride. These electrolytes were pumped through the battery cell, triggering a chemical reaction through a membrane that separated the two solutions inside the battery. During charge, electrical energy was converted to chemical energy and stored in the electrolyte liquid. To discharge the energy, the process was reversed.
ESS flow batteries enable a steady supply of electricity from intermittent energy sources, such as wind and solar. They store up to 12 hours of energy and discharge it when needed. They can be built in shipping containers, like the one being installed in the picture here, or larger installations can be housed in a building.Credit: ESS Inc.
Wilsonville, Oregon-based ESS Inc. built on NASA’s early work as the company developed its own flow batteries using only iron, salt, and water. When the ESS team began developing its battery in 2011, the company founders wanted to use iron as NASA had. They found they could pair iron with a simple salt solution, which was cheaper to obtain and easier to work with than the chromium mixture NASA had used.
ESS flow batteries are designed for power grids that are increasingly powered by intermittent wind and solar generation. The company’s systems store up to 12 hours of energy and are used to provide backup power to critical community facilities.
Read More Share Details Last Updated Jun 20, 2024 Related Terms Explore More 15 min read 55 Years Ago: One Month Until the Moon Landing Article 14 hours ago 4 min read NASA Engineer Honored as Girl Scouts ‘Woman of Distinction’ Article 20 hours ago 4 min read NASA Preserves Its Past at Kennedy While Building Future of Space Article 23 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsGlenn Research Center
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Slingshotting Around the Sun Would Make a Spacecraft the Faster Ever
NASA is very interested in developing a propulsion method to allow spacecraft to go faster. We’ve reported several times on different ideas to support that goal, and most of the more successful have utilized the Sun’s gravity well, typically by slingshotting around it, as is commonly done with Jupiter currently. But, there are still significant hurdles when doing so, not the least of which is the energy radiating from the Sun simply vaporizing anything that gets close enough to utilize a gravity assist. That’s the problem a project supported by NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) and run by Jason Benkoski, now of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is trying to solve.
The project was awarded a NIAC Phase I grant in 2022, focused on combining two separate systems – a heat shield and a thermal propellant system. According to the project’s final report, combining those two technologies could allow a spacecraft to perform what is known as an Oberth maneuver around the Sun. In this orbital mechanics trick, a spacecraft uses the Sun’s gravity well to slingshot itself at high speeds in the direction it aims. It’s similar to the Sundiver technology discussed in other articles.
So, what makes this project unique? One thing is the heat shield – Dr. Benkoski and his team developed a material that is capable of withstanding up to 2700 K. While that is still not anywhere near the temperature of the Sun’s surface, which can reach up to 5800 K, its enough to get pretty close, and thereby unlock a spacecraft’s ability to use an Oberth maneuver in the first place.
Image of the test set-up for the thermal shield.Credit – Benkoski et al.
Samples of the material with these thermal properties have already been produced. However, further research is needed to understand whether they’re cut out for space flight. And a heat shield alone isn’t enough to perform the maneuver – a spacecraft also must have a propulsion system that can withstand those temperatures.
A solar thermal propulsion system could potentially do so. These systems use the Sun’s energy to pressurize their own propellant and then expel those propellants out to gain thrust, which is a necessary component of an Oberth maneuver. There are several different types of fuels that could work for such a system, and a large chunk of the research in the Phase I project looked at the different costs/benefits of each.
Hydrogen is one of the more common fuels considered for a solar thermal propulsion system. Though it is lightweight, it requires a bulky cryogenic system to store the hydrogen because it is heated to the point of being used as thrust. In the end, its trade-offs made it the least effective of the propellants considered during the project.
Graphic depicting the development path for the solar thermal propulsion system.Credit – Benkoski et al.
Lithium hydride was the surprise winner for the fuel that allows for the fastest escape velocity. Calculations show it could result in a velocity of over 12 AU / yr. However, there are constraints with the fuel’s storage and handling.
Dr. Benkoski settled on a more mundane fuel as the overall winner of the modeling he did – methane. While it generally results in a slower final velocity than lithium hydride, its final speed is still respectable at over 10 AU / yr. It also eliminates many storage hassles of other propellants, such as the cryogenics required to store hydrogen.
There are some drawbacks, though – the calculated maximum speed is only about 1.7 times faster than what could already be done with a gravitational assist from Jupiter, which wouldn’t require all the fancy thermal shielding. There are other downsides to that, though, such as the direction the spacecraft can travel in being limited by where Jupiter is in relation to other objects of interest. Orbiting the Sun, on the other hand, it is possible to reach pretty much anywhere in the solar system and beyond with the right controlled burn.
As Dr. Benkoski notes in the final report, he made plenty of assumptions when doing his modeling calculations, including that the system would only be able to use already-developed technologies rather than speculative ones that could dramatically impact the results. For now, it doesn’t seem NASA has selected this project to move on to Phase II, and it’s unclear what future work is planned for further development. If nothing else, it is a step toward understanding what would be necessary to truly send spacecraft past the Sun and into deep space at a speed much faster than anything else has gone before. Given NASA’s continual attention to this topic, undoubtedly, someday, one of the missions will succeed in doing so.
Learn More:
Benkoski et al – Combined Heat Shield and Solar Thermal Propulsion System for an Oberth Maneuver
UT – Tiny Spacecraft Using Solar Sails Open Up a Solar System of Opportunity
UT – Want the Fastest Solar Sail? Drop it Into the Sun First
UT – A Mission to Reach the Solar Gravitational Lens in 30 Years
Lead Image:
Graphic of a solar thermal propulsion system undergoing a Oberth maneuver around the Sun.
Credit – Jason Benkoski
The post Slingshotting Around the Sun Would Make a Spacecraft the Faster Ever appeared first on Universe Today.
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NASA Engineer Honored as Girl Scouts ‘Woman of Distinction’
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Danielle Koch, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, was honored by the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio as a 2024 Woman of Distinction. She accepted the award during a ceremony on May 16. Credit: Girl Scouts of North East Ohio/Andrew Jordan
You’d think a NASA aerospace engineer who spends her days inside a giant dome researching how to make plane engines quieter and spacecraft systems more efficient would have a pretty booked schedule. Still, advocacy and mentoring, especially for women and girls in STEM, is something Danielle Koch always tries to say yes to.
For decades, Koch has tutored students, volunteered as a mentor for engineering challenges, and engaged Pre-K through Ph.D. classes with stories from her career at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Koch also works to recruit women and others from underrepresented groups to the field and find ways to remove barriers to their advancement.
For her efforts, Koch was recently recognized by the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio as a 2024 Woman of Distinction. The award, presented to Koch during a ceremony on May 16, celebrates women whose leadership contributes to the community, providing girls with positive role models. Koch says that diverse people and programs have similarly shaped her own career path.
“None of this is anything I’ve done myself; there are huge groups of people who are making change and making things better for all of us,” Koch said. “Every story I tell about me being a woman at NASA is really a story about them.”
Danielle Koch (right) is an aerospace engineer in the Acoustics Branch at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, where she works to make flight quieter and spacecraft systems more efficient.Credit: NASA/Jef Janis
A Pittsburgh native and graduate of Case Western Reserve University, Koch began her career as a test engineer at NASA Glenn in 1990 as the only woman in her work group. While there were women around her, Koch says she did not see many senior-level female engineers or scientists “working ahead of her.” With determination and the “rock-solid” support of colleagues, family, and friends, Koch forged ahead, becoming a research aerospace engineer in NASA Glenn’s Acoustics Branch in 1998.
“She’s somebody that goes above and beyond almost all of the time, while using her knowledge and career to bring others up to her level,” said John Lucero, Koch’s supervisor and the chief of the Acoustics Branch at NASA Glenn.
Koch realized the landscape around her was evolving in 2016 when she sat down in one of NASA Glenn’s biggest conference rooms for the center’s annual Women Ignite workshop. It was the first time she’d seen the space entirely filled with women.
“It was striking,” Koch said. “Learning from each other and being visible to each other, it’s so huge.”
Koch points to insights gleaned from these workshops — which are focused on networking, skill-building, and empowerment — as propelling her forward, along with the center’s Women in STEM Leadership Development Program, launched to help the women of NASA Glenn connect and grow as leaders.
NASA Glenn Research Center aerospace engineer Danielle Koch gives a tour of the Aero-Acoustic Propulsion Laboratory to a group of students in 2017.Credit: NASA/Marvin Smith
Koch also spotlights the value of the Women at Glenn employee resource group, which organizes events and panels, shares job and volunteer opportunities, and provides a platform for addressing issues in the workplace.
“The employee resource group offers a great sense of community for women at the center,” said Women at Glenn co-chair and aerospace engineer Christine Pastor-Barsi. “When you feel like you’re unique, it’s good to know that there are others out there like you, even if you don’t always see them in the room.”
Koch says she’ll continue working as a mentor in the community and advocating for the diverse range of people who choose to take the leap into the STEM fields.
“It’s difficult to be the only one that’s visibly different in a room; it changes the way you communicate, the way you’re perceived,” Koch said. “It’s really important to reach out to people who are different from us and invite them to consider engineering as a career. We all benefit when we work with someone who’s different from ourselves.”
Get Involved + More Resources
- Learn about the Girls in STEM program at NASA Glenn, designed to inspire middle school students’ interest in STEM fields. The event features women working in STEM fields at NASA Glenn, an engaging STEM activity, and tours of NASA Glenn facilities.
- Continue celebrating International Women in Engineering Day with more inspiring stories of Women at NASA.
- Explore content from NASA’s observance of Women’s History Month.
- Discover how to engage with NASA experts.
NASA’s Chandra Peers Into Densest and Weirdest Stars
The supernova remnant 3C 58 contains a spinning neutron star, known as PSR J0205+6449, at its center. Astronomers studied this neutron star and others like it to probe the nature of matter inside these very dense objects. A new study, made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton, reveals that the interiors of neutron stars may contain a type of ultra-dense matter not found anywhere else in the Universe.
In this image of 3C 58, low-energy X-rays are colored red, medium-energy X-rays are green, and the high-energy band of X-rays is shown in blue. The X-ray data have been combined with an optical image in yellow from the Digitized Sky Survey. The Chandra data show that the rapidly rotating neutron star (also known as a “pulsar”) at the center is surrounded by a torus of X-ray emission and a jet that extends for several light-years. The optical data shows stars in the field.
The team in this new study analyzed previously released data from neutron stars to determine the so-called equation of state. This refers to the basic properties of the neutron stars including the pressures and temperatures in different parts of their interiors.
The authors used machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to compare the data to different equations of state. Their results imply that a significant fraction of the equations of state — the ones that do not include the capability for rapid cooling at higher masses — can be ruled out.
The researchers capitalized on some neutron stars in the study being located in supernova remnants, including 3C 58. Since astronomers have age estimates of the supernova remnants, they also have the ages of the neutron stars that were created during the explosions that created both the remnants and the neutron stars. The astronomers found that the neutron star in 3C 58 and two others were much cooler than the rest of the neutron stars in the study.
The team thinks that part of the explanation for the rapid cooling is that these neutron stars are more massive than most of the rest. Because more massive neutron stars have more particles, special processes that cause neutron stars to cool more rapidly might be triggered.
One possibility for what is inside these neutron stars is a type of radioactive decay near their centers where neutrinos — low mass particles that easily travel through matter — carry away much of the energy and heat, causing rapid cooling.
Another possibility is that there are types of exotic matter found in the centers of these more rapidly cooling neutron stars.
The Nature Astronomy paper describing these results is available here. The authors of the paper are Alessio Marino (Institute of Space Sciences (ICE) in Barcelona, Spain), Clara Dehman (ICE), Konstantinos Kovlakas (ICE), Nanda Rea (ICE), J. A. Pons (University of Alicante in Spain), and Daniele Viganò (ICE).
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/
Visual DescriptionThis is an image of the leftovers from an exploded star called 3C 58, shown in X-ray and optical light. At the center of the remnant is a rapidly spinning neutron star, called a pulsar, that presents itself as a bright white object that’s somewhat elongated in shape.
Loops and swirls of material, in shades of blue and purple, extend outward from the neutron star in many directions, resembling the shape of an octopus and its arms.
Surrounding the octopus-like structure is a cloud of material in shades of red that is wider horizontally than it is vertically. A ribbon of purple material extends to the left edge of the red cloud, curling upward at its conclusion. Another purple ribbon extends to the right edge of the red cloud, though it is less defined than the one on the other side. Stars of many shapes and sizes dot the entire image.
News Media ContactMegan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
Next Generation NASA Technologies Tested in Flight
Teams of NASA researchers put their next-generation technologies to the microgravity test in a series of parabolic flights that aim to advance innovations supporting the agency’s space exploration goals.
These parabolic flights provide a gateway to weightlessness, allowing research teams to interact with their hardware in reduced gravity conditions for intervals of approximately 22 seconds. The flights, which ran from February to April, took place aboard Zero Gravity Corporation’s G-FORCE ONE aircraft and helped to advance several promising space technologies.
Under the Fundamental Regolith Properties, Handling, and Water Capture (FLEET) project, researchers tested an ultrasonic blade technology in a regolith simulant at lunar and Martian gravities. On Earth, vibratory tools reduce the forces between the tool and the soil, which also lowers the reaction forces experienced by the system. Such reductions indicate the potential for mass savings for tool systems used in space.
This flight test aims to establish the magnitude of force reduction achieved by an ultrasonic tool on the Moon and Mars. Regolith interaction, including excavation, will be important to NASA’s resources to support long-duration lunar and Martian missions.
This experiment represents the success of an international effort three years in the making between NASA and Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.Erin Rezich
Project Principal Investigator
“This experiment represents the success of an international effort three years in the making between NASA and Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. It was a NASA bucket list item for me to conduct a parabolic flight experiment, and it was even more special to do it for my doctoral thesis work. I’m very proud of my team and everyone’s effort to make this a reality,” said Erin Rezich, project principal investigator at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
The FLEET project also has a separate payload planned for a future flight test on a suborbital rocket. The Vibratory Lunar Regolith Conveyor will demonstrate a granular material (regolith) transport system to study the vertical transport of lunar regolith simulants (soil) in a vacuum under a reduced gravity environment.
These two FLEET payloads increase the understanding of excavation behavior and how the excavated soil will be transported in a reduced gravity environment.
QuynhGiao Nguyen takes experiment notes while Pierre-Lucas Aubin-Fournier and George Butt oversee experiment operations during a soil reset period between parabolas.Zero-G 3D Printed Technologies Take on Microgravity
Under the agency’s On-Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project, researchers tested 3D printing technologies to ease the use of electronics and tools aboard the International Space Station.
Flying its first microgravity environment test, the ODME Advanced Toolplate team evaluated a new set of substantially smaller 3D printed tools that provide more capabilities and reduce tool changeouts. The toolplate offers eight swappable toolheads so that new technologies can be integrated after it is sent up to the space station. The 3D printer component enables in-space manufacturing of electronics and sensors for structural and crew-monitoring systems and multi-material 3D printing of metals.
“The development of these critical 3D printing technologies for microelectronics and semiconductors will advance the technology readiness of these processes and reduce the risk for planned future orbital demonstrations on the International Space Station.curtis hill
ODME Project Principal Investigator
Left to Right: Pengyu Zhang, Rayne Wolfe, and Jacob Kocemba (University of Wisconsin at Madison) control the Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ink jet printer testing manufacturing processes that are relevant to semiconductors for the NASA On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project.Zero-G
NASA researchers tested another 3D printing technology developed under the agency’s ODME project for manufacturing flexible electronics in space. The Space Enabled Advanced Devices and Semiconductors team is developing electrohydrodynamic inkjet printer technology for semiconductor device manufacturing aboard the space station. The printer will allow for printing electronics and semiconductors with a single development cartridge, which could be updated in the future for various materials systems.
(Left to right) Paul Deffenbaugh (Sciperio), Cadré Francis (NASA MSFC), Christopher Roberts (NASA MSFC), Connor Whitley (Sciperio), and Tanner Corby (Redwire Space Technologies) operate the On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) Advanced Toolplate printer in zero gravity to demonstrate the potential capability of electronics manufacturing in space.Zero-G The On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) Advanced Toolplate printer mills a Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printed plastic substrate surface smooth in preparation for the further printing of electronic traces. Conducting this study in zero gravity allowed for analysis of Foreign Object Debris (FOD) capture created during milling.Zero-G Left to Right: Rayne Wolfe and Jacob Kocemba (University of Wisconsin at Madison) control the Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ink jet printer testing manufacturing processes that are relevant to semiconductors for the NASA On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project.Zero-G Left to Right: Pengyu Zhang, Rayne Wolfe, and Jacob Kocemba (University of Wisconsin at Madison) control the Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ink jet printer testing manufacturing processes that are relevant to semiconductors for the NASA On Demand Manufacturing of Electronics (ODME) project.Zero-GNASA’s Flight Opportunities program supported testing various technologies in a series of parabolic flights earlier this year. These technologies are managed under NASA’s Game Changing Development program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate. Space Enabled Advanced Devices and Semiconductors technology collaborators included Intel Corp., Tokyo Electron America, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Arizona State University, and Iowa State University. The Space Operations Mission Directorate’s In-Space Production Applications also supports this technology. Advanced Toolplate Technology collaborated with Redwire and Sciperio. The Ultrasonic Blade technology is a partnership with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, through an International Space Act Agreement.
For more information about the Game Changing Development program, visit: nasa.gov/stmd-game-changing-development/
For more information about the Flight Opportunities program, visit: nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/
Testing In-Space Manufacturing Techs and More in Flight Facebook logo @NASATechnology @NASA_Technology Share Details Last Updated Jun 20, 2024 EditorIvry Artis Related Terms Explore More 3 min read NSTGRO 2024 Article 7 days ago 3 min read NASA’s RASC-AL Competition Selects 2024 Winners Article 7 days ago 4 min read California Teams Win $1.5 Million in NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge Article 7 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAGame Changing Development
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