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In the U.S. in the early 1960s the distributor of a thalidomide drug was impatient to get it on the market. But FDA medical examiner Frances Oldham Kelsey wanted more information to prove its safety

The James Webb Space Telescope has imaged a collision between two galaxies that appears to have created a beaming smile in space.

The BepiColombo probe's flybys of Mercury have revealed just how sharply and rapidly the planet's local environment changes in response to the solar wind.

China's Chang'e 4 rover Yutu 2 has been working on the far side of the moon for nearly six years. It was designed to operate for just three lunar days, or about three Earth months.

African giant pouched rats proved adept at detecting four commonly trafficked products derived from endangered species including rhino horn and elephant ivory

African giant pouched rats proved adept at detecting four commonly trafficked products derived from endangered species including rhino horn and elephant ivory

Some researchers dream of solving all mysteries with a common method—but a mathematical paradox may keep such solutions out of reach

Math’s “best-choice problem” could help humans become better decision-makers, at everything from choosing the best job candidate to finding a romantic partner

Just a month after its launch, ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite has already delivered its first images, notably capturing Storm Boris, which has been wreaking havoc across central Europe. 

In online forums the term “cuck” has become synonymous with “sucker” and “loser.” But this use distorts its history and meaning, creating a baseless moral panic that harms both women and science

Satellite tracker and photographer Felix Schöfbänker has captured a variety of secret spacecraft on camera, revealing "things that either were not known, or only were speculated before."

We are finally untangling the ancient history of the cactus family, revealing some surprising forces that shaped these plants – ­­­­­­and prompting concern for their future

We are finally untangling the ancient history of the cactus family, revealing some surprising forces that shaped these plants – ­­­­­­and prompting concern for their future

Exoplanets in binary star systems usually orbit both stars, but astronomers have now spotted three planets orbiting one or the other star in a pair

Exoplanets in binary star systems usually orbit both stars, but astronomers have now spotted three planets orbiting one or the other star in a pair

Aurora Australis and the International Space Station

Young Star Cluster NGC 1333

Dwarf planet Ceres is the largest planetary body in the Asteroid Belt. For a long time, scientists thought it was born in the outer solar system and then migrated to its present position. Some evidence for that origin lies in extensive surface deposits of ammonium-rich materials on the Cerean surface.

Some of those bright, white and whitish-yellow deposits are found in impact craters on Ceres. Researchers suspect they are the remnants of a brine that seeped to the surface from a liquid layer between the mantle and crust. When impacts whacked the planet, they altered its surface. They also dug up and splattered material from the brine layer. Images and observational data from NASA’s Dawn mission of an impact region called Consus Crater also show bright yellowish-white deposits. Now, thanks to a deeper analysis of Dawn data, their presence could point to Ceres’s origin in the Asteroid Belt.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft captured this approximately true-color image of Ceres in 2015 as it approached the dwarf planet. Dawn showed that some polar craters on Ceres hold ancient ice, but new research suggests the ice is much younger. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / Justin Cowart Peeping Inside Ceres

Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet and its rocky component is very similar to that of carbonaceous chondrite asteroids. At least a quarter of its mass is water ice. The surface is pretty complex, consisting of carbon-rich rocks and something called ammoniated phyllosilicates. Those are minerals that include such familiar substances as talc and mica. There’s also evidence of water ice in various surface regions.

This dwarf planet is an active world, with most of its activity driven by cryovolcanism. The surface has been gardened by impacts. The thick outer crust lies over a salt-rich liquid (that brine layer) and a muddy mantle. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that the concentration of ammonium is greater in deeper layers of the crust. The few places on the surface of Ceres where those obvious yellowish-bright patches show up are in and near Consus Crater and also within other deep craters.

Planetary scientists have long wondered about exactly where Ceres formed. If it formed in the outer Solar system, then it must have migrated into position billions of years ago. If it formed in place, then that raises the question of how it could have become enriched with the icy ammonium-rich materials.

A cutaway showing the surface and interior of dwarf planet Ceres. Thick outer crust (ice, salts, hydrated minerals) Salt-rich liquid (brine), and rock “Mantle” (hydrated rock). Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Clues to Ceres’s Birthplace

Why the differing suggestions about where Ceres formed? Let’s look more deeply at those ammonium-rich deposits for an answer. They tend to form in very cold environments. That’s why people assumed that Ceres formed in the outer Solar System. That’s where frozen ammonium ice is most stable. In warmer environments (such as closer to the Sun), it evaporates. So, it makes sense to think that Ceres formed our where it was colder and then somehow migrated to the Asteroid Belt.

However, if the ice was part of a rocky planetesimal, the location might not matter so much. Inside the rock, the ice would be insulated from solar heating. Such world-forming materials exist closer to the Sun, and certainly out at the location of the Asteroid Belt. So, if they coalesced to form Ceres in situ, their encased ices would have contributed to the subsurface brine layer that today feeds the cryovolcanism. Impacts punching through the surface would release the brine, as well.

Connecting the Dots

A team led by Andres Nathues and Ranjan Sarkar (both Dawn mission scientists), zeroed in on materials sprayed across the surface in the area of Consus Crater. It lies in Ceres’s southern hemisphere and stretches across 64 kilometers (~39 miles). The crater walls are about 4.5 kilometers (~3 miles) high and parts of them are eroded. There’s a smaller crater inside on the eastern half of Consus. Its edges appear to be “painted” with speckles of bright yellowish material, which is also spattered out nearby.

Further analysis of the Dawn data ties the ammonium on the surface with the salty brine from Ceres’ interior. Cryovolcanic activity on this world brings the ammonium-rich brine up toward the Cerean surface. Once there, it seeps into the crust, according to Andreas Nathues, former lead investigator for the Dawn mission. “The minerals in Ceres’ crust possibly absorbed the ammonium over many billions of years like a kind of sponge,” said Nathues.

Nathues and others argue that the dwarf planet’s origin does not necessarily have to be in the outer Solar System simply based on the presence of those ammonium-rich deposits. As mentioned above, they could have been part of the planetesimals in the Asteroid Belt that coalesced to build Ceres. Once it formed, Ceres experienced impacts and cryovolcanism and those actions produced the surface deposits we see today.

Evidence from the Craters

Consus Crater itself was “dug out” between 400 and 500 million years ago by a huge impact. That event exposed material from the deep, particularly the ammonium-rich layers below Consus Crater. A later impact about 280 million years ago created the smaller crater inside. The yellowish-bright speckles to the east of the smaller crater are material ejected by the second event. If those materials always existed inside Ceres, then that supports the idea this dwarf planet formed where it is now, rather than out at the edge of the Solar System. That’s where the impacts become important, since that action exposed deeper layers, according to Dawn researcher Ranjan Sarkar.

“At 450 million years, Consus Crater is not particularly old by geological standards, but it is one of the oldest surviving structures on Ceres,” Sarkar said. “Due to its deep excavation, it gives us access to processes that took place in the interior of Ceres over many billions of years, and is thus a kind of window into the dwarf planet’s past.”

For More Information

Dwarf Planet Ceres: Origin in the Asteroid Belt?
Consus Crater on Ceres: Ammonium-enriched Brines Exchange with Phylosilicates?

The post Actually, Ceres Might Have Formed in the Asteroid Belt After All appeared first on Universe Today.

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, has had a profound impact on the way we do business. There is scarcely any industry that has not been affected by the adoption of this technology, and that includes spaceflight. Companies like SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Relativity Space have all turned to 3D printing to manufacture engines, components, and entire rockets. NASA has also 3D-printed an aluminum thrust chamber for a rocket engine and an aluminum rocket nozzle, while the ESA fashioned a 3D-printed steel floor prototype for a future Lunar Habitat.

Similarly, the ESA and NASA have been experimenting with 3D printing in space, known as in-space manufacturing (ISM). Recently, the ESA achieved a major milestone when their Metal 3D Printer aboard the International Space Station (ISS) produced the first metal part ever created in space. This technology is poised to revolutionize operations in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) by ensuring that replacement parts can be manufactured in situ rather than relying on resupply missions. This process will reduce operational costs and enable long-duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond!

The Metal 3D Printer is a technology demonstrator built by an industrial team led by Airbus Defence and Space (SAS) in partnership with the ESA’s Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration. It was launched to the ISS in late January and installed in the European Drawer Rack aboard the ESA’s Columbus Laboratory Module by European astronaut Andreas Mogensen. The printer became operational by the following June, and the first 3D metal shape was produced by August. With the first metal component built, the ESA plans to create three more as part of the experiment.

These four samples will then be sent to Earth for quality analysis and testing. Two will be sent to the ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, a third to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and the fourth to the ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, where it will be integrated into the LUNA facility—a lunar analog environment designed for astronaut training. The availability of ISM will significantly reduce the challenges of resupplying spacecraft as they travel to the Moon, Mars, and other locations in deep space.

For long-duration missions on the lunar surface, the ability to print machine parts and ship them directly from LEO will reduce the number of launches needed to sustain operations there. As for Mars, the ability to manufacture replacement parts, repair equipment, and construct specific tools on demand will ensure a measure of autonomy for mission crews and reduce their reliance on resupply missions sent from Earth. This is especially important given the limited launch windows to Mars (every 26 months) and the time it takes to make a one-way transit (6 to 9 months).

NASA is also pursuing an ISM project aboard the ISS with the help of its commercial partners through the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), with additional support provided by the physics-based modeling group at NASA’s Ames Research Center. These efforts began in 2014 when NASA launched the first 3D printer (manufactured by Made In Space, Inc.) to the ISS. This technology demonstrator used the fused filament fabrication (FFF) process to create objects out of plastic and proved that 3D printing could work in a microgravity environment.

This was followed by the creation of the Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF), which can print using a variety of materials. These devices allowed for the creation of the first 3D-printed tools in space, including a plastic wrench, a rachet wrench, and more. In 2019, NASA added the ReFabricator experiment to the ISS, which was developed by Tethers Unlimited to create 3D-printed parts using recycled plastic materials. However, the ESA’s technology demonstrator is the first to successfully print a metal component in microgravity conditions.

Artist’s impression of Artemis astronauts conducting science operations on the Moon. Credit: NASA

The experiments will not stop there. In 2021, NASA sent another 3D printer to the ISS, the Redwire Regolith Print (RRP), designed to fashion construction materials out of lunar regolith. They are also investigating how Moon rover wheels can be 3D-printed on the lunar surface and how Martian rocks and minerals could be used to manufacture whatever future missions will need in situ. In collaboration with the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and Youngstown State University (YSU), NASA is also considering how batteries could be 3D printed using lunar or Martian resources.

The potential applications for this technology are almost limitless and are integral to all plans for human expansion beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Further Reading: ESA

The post Metal Part 3D Printed in Space for the First Time appeared first on Universe Today.