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Researchers have discovered the gene variant responsible for a distinctive colour pattern seen in cats in Finland, named salmiak after a variety of liquorice

Energy-saving networks that link smart devices, solar panels and batteries could regulate power demand and help avoid fossil fuel use at peak times

Energy-saving networks that link smart devices, solar panels and batteries could regulate power demand and help avoid fossil fuel use at peak times

Eurasian Jays use something similar to humans’ episodic memory to remember where they stored their food

We need to tell a new story about AI, and fiction has that power, humanities scholars say

A striking new Hubble Telescope photo highlights the intricacies of a distant galaxy glowing with a bright white core surrounded by complex dust structures.

Everything in the universe may be preordained, according to physics

NASA’s Juno spacecraft spies a tiny inner moon of Jupiter, Amalthea.

It’s tiny, but it’s there. By now, we’re all used to seeing amazing photos of Jupiter courtesy of NASA’s Juno mission on a routine basis. Many of these are processed by volunteer ‘citizen scientists,’ and they show the swirling cloud-tops of Jove courtesy of the spacecraft’s JunoCam in stunning detail.

Recently, JunoCam captured something special. Look closely at the side-by-side images of Jupiter from March 7th, 2024, and you’ll see a tiny speck transiting the Great Red Spot in the left lead image, that isn’t in the right. That’s the tiny inner moon Amalthea, just 84 kilometers across. The image was captured during the 59th perijove (close flyby) of the ‘King of the Planets,’ at a range of 265,000 kilometers distant (about two-thirds of the Earth-Moon distance).

Amalthea (arrowed) transits Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt. Amalthea: An Origin Story

The elusive moon was discovered by prolific astronomer and observer E.E. Barnard on the night of September 9th, 1892. Barnard used the 91-centimeter diameter refractor telescope at the Lick observatory to spot the +14th magnitude moon, which never strays more than 30” from Jupiter (less than the apparent diameter of the planet) on its 12 hour orbit. Amalthea holds the distinction of being the last moon discovered via direct visual observation, and the first moon of Jupiter discovered since Galileo first spotted the four major Galilean moons in 1610. Today, Jupiter has 95 known moons, mostly captured asteroids. These were mainly discovered photographically and during spacecraft flybys.

One of Juno’s enormous solar panels, unfurled on Earth. NASA/JPL/SWrI

Like other small moonlets, Amalthea isn’t big enough to pull itself into a true sphere. Instead, like the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, Amalthea is a potato-shaped, captured asteroid.

Amalthea: None More Red

The moon is also the reddest object in the solar system, and no doubt undergoes some serious tidal flexing thanks to the enormous gravitational field of nearby Jove. Amalthea is located 180,000 kilometers from Jove, just a little over 100,000 kilometers outside of Jupiter’s Roche limit radius. Any closer to Jove would tear Amalthea apart. The very innermost moon Metis just skims this limit.

Voyager 1’s color image of Amalthea from 1979. Credit: NASA/JPL

Voyagers 1 and 2 gave us the first blurry views of the moon. NASA’s only other Jupiter orbiter Galileo has provided us with the best images of Amalthea to date, with a flyby 374,000 kilometers distant on November 26, 1999. Those images reveal a misshapen world, not unlike Mars’ moon Deimos. From the surface of Amalthea, Jupiter would provide an amazing sight, spanning nearly half the sky at 42 degrees across.

The Galileo spacecraft’s best view of Amalthea. Credit: NASA/JPL Juno and the Present Status of the Mission

Juno launched from the Cape on August 5th, 2011, and arrived at Jupiter on July 5th, 2016. The mission probes the interior of Jupiter and its magnetic and radiation environment. Juno will answer key questions, including whether the planet has a solid core. Juno is the first solar-powered (as opposed to nuclear/plutonium-fueled) mission to the outer planets, meaning its nominal wide-ranging orbit was meant to avoid radiation damage to the solar panels. Engineers only allowed the spacecraft to venture in past the inner moons of Jupiter during the extended and final phase of the mission. Juno will operate until at least September 2025.

Two more missions are headed to Jupiter; ESA’s JUICE (Jupiter Icy moons Explorer) launched on April 14th 2023, and NASA’s Europa Clipper, set to launch in October 2024.

Jupiter, as seen from the surface of Amalthea. Credit: Stellarium

Watch for more amazing images courtesy of Juno, as the mission enters its final months and days.

The post New Photos Show Jupiter’s Tiny Moon Amalthea appeared first on Universe Today.

Relax and watch two black holes merge.

An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to find evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the Universe.

A virtual assistant for surgeons translates text prompts into commands for a robot, offering a simple way to instruct machines to carry out small tasks in operations

A virtual assistant for surgeons translates text prompts into commands for a robot, offering a simple way to instruct machines to carry out small tasks in operations

For the first time, astronomers have observed the area right at the edge of a black hole where matter stops orbiting and plunges straight in at near light speed

For the first time, astronomers have observed the area right at the edge of a black hole where matter stops orbiting and plunges straight in at near light speed

Despite the vast distance between us and Saturn’s gleaming moon Enceladus, the icy ocean moon is a prime target in our search for life. It vents water vapour and large organic molecules into space through fissures in its icy shell, which is relatively thin compared to other icy ocean moons like Jupiter’s Europa. Though still out of reach, scientific access to its ocean is not as challenging as on Europa, which has a much thicker ice shell.

The presence of large organic molecules isn’t very controversial. But they don’t necessarily signify that something alive lurks in its ancient, unseen ocean. Instead, hydrothermal processes could produce them. The complexity arises because hydrothermal processes are also linked to the emergence of life.

Understanding the abiotic processes that produce these molecules is important not just for Enceladus. It could serve as a baseline for understanding the results of a future mission to the frozen moon and any biosignatures it might detect.

New research in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences examines this issue. It’s titled “Laboratory characterization of hydrothermally processed oligopeptides in ice grains emitted by Enceladus and Europa.” The lead author is Dr. Nozair Khawaja from the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) at the University of Stuttgart.

Scientists postulate the life on Earth got started at hydrothermal events on the ocean floor. These vents provide mineral-rich fluids. At deep ocean vents under extreme pressure, these minerals can react with seawater to produce the building blocks of life.

This image shows a black smoker hydrothermal vent discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in 1979. It’s fueled from deep beneath the surface by magma that superheats the water, and the plume delivers minerals to the sea. Courtesy USGS.

“In research, we also speak of a hydrothermal field,” explains lead author Khawaja. “There is convincing evidence that conditions prevail in such fields that are important for the emergence or maintenance of simple life forms.”

Much of what we know about Enceladus comes from the Cassini mission. Scientists are still working with Cassini’s data even though it ended in 2017. Although much of the data was low resolution, it’s still valuable.

Professor Frank Postberg from the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin is one of the study’s co-authors. “In 2018 and 2019, we encountered various organic molecules, including some that are typically building blocks of biological compounds,” Postberg said. “And that means it is possible that chemical reactions are taking place there that could eventually lead to life.”

There’s a missing link between the hydrothermal vents and the molecules vented into space. Scientists aren’t certain if the vents are responsible for the molecules or in what way. Is life involved?

This image shows the detection of hydrothermally altered biosignatures on Enceladus. Image Credit: SWRI/NASA/JPL

To answer these questions, the researchers simulated an Enceladus hydrothermal vent in their laboratory.

“To this end, we simulated the parameters of a possible hydrothermal field on Enceladus in the laboratory at the FU Berlin,” said lead author Khawaja. “We then investigated what effects these conditions have on a simple chain of amino acids.” Amino acids are the basic building blocks of proteins and the basis of all Earth life. There are hundreds of them, and 22 of them are in all living cells. They’re the precursors to proteins and they show that life on Earth is all connected.

The researchers subjected amino acids to conditions thought to persist at Encledadus’ ocean floor. “Here, we present results from our newly established facility to simulate the processing of ocean material within the temperature range 80–150°C and the pressure range 80–130 bar, representing conditions suggested for the water-rock interface on Enceladus,” they write in their paper. Under those conditions, the chains of amino acids behaved characteristically.

But that’s in a lab. Can we devise a space probe that can detect these types of changes on Enceladus? The changes themselves are obscured, but do they produce byproducts or markers that are emitted into space?

Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) detected the organic molecules in Enceladus’ plumes by watching collisions between rapidly moving particles that shatter molecules and vapourize their contents. Some particles, stripped of their electrons, become positively charged and are attracted to a negative electrode on the instrument. The less massive they are, the faster they reach the electrode.

By combining a large amount of this type of data, the CDA revealed a lot about the original molecules.

But this can’t be replicated in a lab.

“Instead, we employed an alternative measurement method called LILBID for the first time on ice particles containing hydrothermally altered material,” Khawaja explains. LILBID stands for laser-induced liquid beam ion desorption, a different type of mass spectrometry than the CDA performs. Though the method is different, it produces results similar to Cassini’s CDA instrument.

“This delivers very similar mass spectra to the Cassini instrument. We used this to measure an amino acid chain before and after the experiment. In the process, we came across characteristic signals that were caused by the reactions in our simulated hydrothermal field,” Khawaja said.

Specifically, the researchers examined the hydrothermal processing of the triglycine (GGG) peptide. GGG is a tripeptide, the most common one. Scientists often use GGG to study amino acids, peptides, and proteins, analyzing the molecular interactions and physicochemical parameters of all three.

“Differences observed between mass spectra of hydrothermally processed and unprocessed triglycine can be regarded as a spectral fingerprint to identify processed GGG in ice grains from icy moons in the solar system,” the authors wrote in their research.

These two panels from the research compare the mass spectra of hydrothermal unprocessed triglycine (left) to hydrothermally processed triglycine (right.) There are some clear differences between the two. Image Credit: Khawaja et al. 2024.

“This delivers very similar mass spectra to the Cassini instrument. We used this to measure an amino acid chain before and after the experiment. In the process, we came across characteristic signals that were caused by the reactions in our simulated hydrothermal field,” Khawaja said.

The researchers intend to repeat this experiment with other organic molecules under extended geophysical conditions in Enceladus’ ocean. “With this new laboratory setup, we will simulate a range of hydrothermal conditions, from the high pressures and temperatures associated with greater depths into the core, to the milder conditions in the ocean water near the water-rock interface,” the authors write in their paper.

The results will allow them to search through Cassini’s data for similar markers. It can also work for future missions to Enceladus and would be further proof of hydrothermal activity on the frozen ocean moon.

If scientists can confirm hydrothermal vents on Enceladus, the excitement that moon generates will only increase.

The post Linking Organic Molecules to Hydrothermal Vents on Enceladus appeared first on Universe Today.

Astronomers were surprised in 1937 when a star in a binary pair suddenly brightened by 1,000 times. The pair is called FU Orionis (FU Ori), and it’s in the constellation Orion. The sudden and extreme variability of one of the stars has resisted a complete explanation, and since then, FU Orionis has become the name for other stars that exhibit similar powerful variability.

The star in question is called Orionis North, and it’s the central star of the pair. Astronomers see its brightening behaviour in old stars but not in young stars like FU Ori. The young star is only about 2 million years old.

Astronomers working with ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre-submillimetre Array) have discovered the reason behind Fu Ori’s variability. They’ve published their research in the Astrophysical Journal. It’s titled “Discovery of an Accretion Streamer and a Slow Wide-angle Outflow around FU Orionis,” and the lead author is Antonio Hales, deputy manager of the North American ALMA Regional Center and scientist with the NRAO.

Here’s what scientists do know about FU Ori (FUor) stars and their variability. They brighten when they attract gas gravitationally into an accretion disk. Too much mass at once can destabilize the disk, and as material falls into the star, it brightens. But what they didn’t understand was why and how this happened.

“FU Ori has been devouring material for almost 100 years to keep its eruption going. We have finally found an answer to how these young outbursting stars replenish their mass,” explained lead author Hales. “For the first time we have direct observational evidence of the material fueling the eruptions.”

ALMA is the world’s largest radio telescope. It’s an interferometer with 66 separate antennae, which can be moved across the ground to give the observatory a ‘zoom-in’ effect. This powerful observatory has driven a lot of astronomical science.

In this research, ALMA identified a long streamer of carbon monoxide that appears to be falling into FU Ori. The researchers don’t think this streamer has enough material to sustain the star’s current outburst. But it could be the remnant from a past episode. “It is possible that the interaction with a bigger stream of gas in the past caused the system to become unstable and trigger the brightness increase,” explained Hales.

This figure from the research shows 12CO and 13CO emissions as detected by ALMA. The colours denote velocity. The CO streamer of infalling gas is labelled. “The elongated feature has a connection neither to the larger-scale molecular outflow nor to the inner disk rotation and is more similar to accretion streamers recently reported around young stellar objects,” the authors explain. Image Credit: Hales et al. 2024.

The current outburst creates strong stellar winds that interact with a leftover envelope of material from the star’s formation. The wind shocks the envelope, sweeping up carbon monoxide with it. The CO is what ALMA detected.

Artist’s impression of the large-scale view of FU~Ori. The image shows the outflows produced by the interaction between strong stellar winds powered by the outburst and the remnant envelope from which the star formed. The stellar wind drives a strong shock into the envelope, and the CO gas swept up by the shock is what the new ALMA revealed. The inset image is an artist’s impression of the streamer of CO feeding mass into FU Ori. Image Credit: NSF/NRAO/S. Dagnello

ALMA’s ability to operate in different configurations and wavelengths played a role in this work. It allowed the team to detect different types of emissions and to detect the mass flowing into FU Ori. They compared the observations to models of mass flow and accretion streamers. “We compared the shape and speed of the observed structure to that expected from a trail of infalling gas, and the numbers made sense,” said Aashish Gupta, a Ph.D. candidate at European Southern Observatory (ESO). Gupta is a co-author of this work, and he developed the methods used to model the accretion streamer.

This image from the research shows the model results (green line) overlain on ALMA data. The streamer modelling closely matches the data. “The fitting results suggest that the morphology and the velocity profile of the observed streamer emission can be well represented as a trail of infalling gas,” the authors write in their published research. Image Credit: Hales et al. 2024.

The researchers measured the amount of material flowing into FU Ori through the streamer. About 0.07 Jupiter Masses per Myr?1 flow into the young star. Jupiter is about 318 times more massive than Earth. This means that FU Ori’s infall streamer rate is lower than infall around other Class 0 protostars. “This would suggest that the observed streamer will require ?100 Myr to replenish disk masses, which is at least an order of magnitude greater than the typical disk lifetimes,” the authors point out.

The infall streamer and its effect on the star are complex. Not enough material comes in via the streamer to trigger the outbursts. “The streamer needs to be more massive to sustain FU Ori’s outburst accretion rates (by several orders of magnitude). The estimated streamer mass infall rate is not even sufficiently massive to sustain quiescent stellar accretion rates,” the authors explain.

Instead, the infalling material causes disk instability, which in turn delivers enough material to FU Ori to trigger outbursts. “Anisotropic infall, cloudlet capture events, the inhomogeneous delivery of material, and the building up of material around dust traps can all lead to the disk instabilities that could trigger accretion outbursts,” Hales and his co-authors write. They can’t say for sure if this is what’s happening. That would require more modelling, which is outside the scope of this work.

ALMA also spotted another streamer of slow-moving CO. This one is coming from the star rather than falling into it. Hales and his colleagues think this streamer is similar to streamers coming from other young protostellar objects and isn’t related to the brightening. “The ALMA observations reveal the presence of large-scale, wide-angle bipolar outflows for the first time around the class prototype FU Ori,” the researchers write in their paper.

Curiously, astronomers have detected these outflows from other FUor stars but never at FU Ori itself. It’s coming from Fu Ori North, the star that experiences the powerful brightening.

“Prior searches for molecular outflows around FUors, mainly using single-dish telescopes, reported outflowing material from many FUors but failed to detect flows emerging from the FUor class prototype,” the researchers write in their paper. “These nondetections instigated the belief that there were no molecular outflows around the FU Ori system. Our discovery ends the mystery by clearly demonstrating the presence of a molecular outflow from FU Ori itself.”

Understanding young stars is critical because their behaviour governs planet formation. FU Ori’s brightening could have a defining effect on the planets that form around the star.

“By understanding how these peculiar FUor stars are made, we’re confirming what we know about how different stars and planets form,” Hales explained. “We believe that all stars undergo outburst events. These outbursts are important because they affect the chemical composition of the accretion discs around nascent stars and the planets they eventually form.”

For the authors, their research demonstrates how the powerful ALMA observatory makes a unique contribution to astronomical research. “These results demonstrate the value of multiscale interferometric observations to enhance our understanding of the FU Ori outbursting system and provide new insights into the complex interplay of physical mechanisms governing the behaviour of FUor-type and the many other kinds of outbursting stars,” the authors conclude.

The post A Star Became 1,000 Times Brighter, and Now Astronomers Know Why appeared first on Universe Today.

The behemoth sunspot AR3664 has finally rotated out of Earth's view, firing off two more big solar storms on its way out the door. Will it come back?

While the weekend solar event gave us quite the show in the night sky, it also helps scientists learn more about space weather to continue to improve forecasts.

May 15, 2024

MEDIA ADVISORY: J24-010

NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara along with JAXA astronuat Satoshi Furukawa and ESA astronaut Andreas MogensenNASA

Expedition 70 Astronauts to Share Mission in NASA Welcome Home Event

Four astronauts will participate in a welcome home ceremony at Space Center Houston after recently returning from a mission aboard the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, will share highlights from their mission beginning at 5:30 p.m. CDT Thursday, May 16 during a free, public event at NASA Johnson Space Center’s visitor center. The crew will also recognize key contributors to its mission success in an awards ceremony following their presentation.

The astronauts will be available for media interviews immediately before the event. Reporters may request an in-person interview no later than 5 p.m. May 16 by emailing Dana Davis at dana.l.davis@nasa.gov.

Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov launched as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission, lifting off Aug. 26, 2023. The crew spent 199 days in space, completing hundreds of scientific experiments and maintaining the orbiting laboratory. Mogensen served as commander for Expedition 70. Mogensen and Furukawa have logged 209 and 366 days in space respectively over the course of their careers. It was the first spaceflight for Moghbeli and Borisov. Crew-7 returned to Earth on March 12.

O’Hara flew with an international crew, launching aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft on Sept. 15, 2023. The six-month research mission was the first spaceflight of her career, and she logged 204 days in space across Expedition 69 and 70. She conducted one spacewalk alongside Moghbeli, spending 6 hours, 42 minutes, suited up outside of the space station. She saw the arrival of eight visiting vehicles and the departure of seven over the course of her mission. She returned to Earth on April 6.

Members of the Expedition 70 crew participated in the CIPHER (Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research on Varying Mission Durations) investigation. It examines physiological and psychological changes that humans undergo during spaceflight. The crew also tended to tomato plants grown for the Plant Habitat-06 investigation to see how spaceflight affects plant immune function and production. Expedition 70 also saw the release of two small satellites called CubeSats from the space station. Both were created by students in Japan.

Stay current on space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the station Facebook and Instagram accounts and the space station blog.

http://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

Chelsey Ballarte
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
chelsey.n.ballarte@nasa.gov

Dana Davis
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-244-0933
dana.l.davis@nasa.gov

15 Min Read The Marshall Star for May 15, 2024 Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Visits Marshall

Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his wife Christine Grady, and son Luke Grady talk with Nick Benjamin, right, a payload operations director for the International Space Station, at the Payload Operations Integration Center during the vice chairman’s tour of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on May 6. (NASA/Charles Beason)

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Marshall Team Members Honored with Space Flight Awareness Awards

Astronaut Victor Glover, far right, and Bill Hill, second from right, director of safety and mission assurance at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center join Marshall honorees for a photo op at the Space Flight Awareness Honoree Ceremony on May 4 in Orlando, Florida. Honoree awards recognize civil servants and industry partners for outstanding work and dedication to astronaut safety. From left, Cody Goodman, David Starrett, John Ivester, Lisa Hughes, Greg Snell, Megan Vansant, Megan Hines, Karl Nelson, Les Johnson, Shawn Reagan, Hill, and Glover. Marshall honorees also include Maggie Freeman, who was unable to attend the awards event. (NASA)

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NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test Eyes Next Launch Opportunity

NASA, Boeing, and ULA (United Launch Alliance) teams continue working remaining open tasks in preparation for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station. The teams now are targeting a launch date of no earlier than 3:43 p.m. CDT May 21, to complete additional testing.

On May 11, the ULA team successfully replaced a pressure regulation valve on the liquid oxygen tank on the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage. The team also performed re-pressurization and system purges, and tested the new valve, which performed normally.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen as it is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test on May 4 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.NASA/Joel Kowsky

The Atlas V and Starliner remain in the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, still in preflight quarantine, returned to Houston on May 10 to spend extra time with their families as prelaunch operations progress. The duo will fly back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in the coming days.

Wilmore and Williams are the first to launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The astronauts will spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before returning to Earth and making a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the southwestern United States.

After successful completion of the mission, NASA will begin the final process of certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station.

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I Am Artemis: Lauren Fisher

Not many music majors get to be hands-on with building a Moon rocket, but Lauren Fisher has always enjoyed the unusual.

Now a structural materials engineer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Fisher works on a key adapter for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the first crewed missions of NASA’s Artemis campaign.

Lauren Fisher stands in front of the launch vehicle stage adapter for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The hardware will be used for the agency’s Artemis III mission that will land astronauts on the lunar surface. Fisher works with a number of teams across the agency and believes her background in music education has been an asset to her work as an engineer: “Teaching skills help you look at things from a different perspective and helps with understanding how others might approach a situation – all very helpful when I’m working with teams.”NASA/Sam Lott

Manufactured at Marshall by NASA, lead contractor Teledyne Brown Engineering, and the Jacobs Space Exploration Group’s ESSCA contract, the cone-shaped launch vehicle stage adapter partially encloses the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage and connects it to the core stage below and the Orion stage adapter above. The launch vehicle stage adapter also protects avionics and electrical devices from extreme vibration and acoustic conditions during launch and ascent.

Fisher and the thermal protection system team develop and apply the spray-on foam that acts as insulation and protects the adapter and all its systems from the extreme pressures and temperatures it’ll face during flight. The thermal protection system for the component, unlike other parts of the rocket, is applied by hand using a spray gun. When first applied, the insulation is yellow, but after time and exposure to the Sun, it turns orange.

“We’re taking the same stuff someone might use to insulate their attic, except making it for cryogenic atmospheres, and spraying it all over a giant piece of hardware that will help launch us to the Moon,” Fisher said. “With my work for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, I get to play with foam and glue. I like to call it arts and crafts engineering!”

Although engineering runs in her family, Fisher initially graduated from University of Southern Mississippi with a Bachelor of Arts in music performance and an interest in music education. She developed an interest in carbon-based polymers, and decided to go back to school, completing a chemical engineering degree with a polymeric materials track from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Her new degree led to an opportunity to work for the thermal protection system team at Marshall.

When Fisher isn’t in the office, she likes travelling to unusual places and checking items off her self-described “Bizarre Bucket List.” Recently, she went to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to watch the famous groundhog predict an early spring.

Being part of the Artemis Generation is incredibly inspiring for Fisher, who takes pride in her work supporting the first three Artemis missions, including Artemis II, the first crewed mission under Artemis, in 2025.

“I’m literally building the hardware that will send the first woman to deep space,” Fisher says. “Watching our rocket take shape, I’m like ‘you see that thing? I did that; that’s mine. See that one? My team did that one. We did that, and see this?’” She beams with pride. “You can do that, too. Just being a part of the generation that’s changing the workforce and changing the space program — it gives me goosebumps.”

NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.

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NASA Licenses 3D-Printable Superalloy to Benefit US Economy

NASA’s investment in a breakthrough superalloy developed for the extreme temperatures and harsh conditions of air and spaceflight is on the threshold of paying commercial dividends.

The agency is licensing its invention, dubbed “GRX-810,” to four American companies, a practice that benefits the United States economy as a return on investment of taxpayer dollars.

The NASA insignia is 3D printed using the GRX-810 superalloy.NASA/Jordan Salkin

GRX-810 is a 3D-printable high-temperature material that will lead to stronger, more durable airplane and spacecraft parts that can withstand more punishment before reaching their breaking point.

The co-exclusive license agreements will allow the companies to produce and market GRX-810 to airplane and rocket equipment manufacturers as well as the entire supply chain.

The four co-exclusive licensees are:

• Carpenter Technology Corporation of Reading, Pennsylvania
• Elementum 3D, Inc. of Erie, Colorado
• Linde Advanced Material Technologies, Inc. of Indianapolis
• Powder Alloy Corporation of Loveland, Ohio

GRX-810 is one example of many new technologies NASA’s Technology Transfer Program managers review and file for patent protection. The team also works with inventors to find partners interested in commercialization. 

Darren Tinker, left, from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and Tim Smith, from the agency’s Glenn Research Center, inspect the GRX-810 nozzle and injector following hot-fire testing in 2023 at Marshall. NASA/Paul Gradl

“NASA invests tax dollars into research that demonstrates direct benefit to the U.S. and transfers its technologies to industry by licensing its patents,” said Amy Hiltabidel, licensing manager at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

NASA engineers designed GRX-810 for aerospace applications, including liquid rocket engine injectors, combustors, turbines, and hot-section components capable of enduring temperatures over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

“GRX-810 represents a new alloy design space and manufacturing technique that was impossible a few years ago,” said Tim Smith, materials researcher at NASA Glenn.

Hot-fire testing of GRX-810 injector and nozzle components at Marshall Test Stand 115 using liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants. NASA

Smith co-invented the superalloy along with his Glenn colleague Christopher Kantzos using a time-saving computer modeling and laser 3D-printing process that fuses metals together, layer-by-layer. Tiny particles containing oxygen atoms spread throughout the alloy enhance its strength.

Compared to other nickel-base alloys, GRX-810 can endure higher temperatures and stress and can last up to 2,500 times longer. It’s also nearly four times better at flexing before breaking and twice as resistant to oxidation damage.

“Adoption of this alloy will lead to more sustainable aviation and space exploration,” said Dale Hopkins, deputy project manager of NASA’s Transformational Tools and Technologies project. “This is because jet engine and rocket components made from GRX-810 will lower operating costs by lasting longer and improving overall fuel efficiency.”

Research and development teams include those from Glenn, NASA’s Ames Research Center, Ohio State University, and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where the most recent testing included 3D-printed rocket engine parts.

Marshall completed a successful hot-fire test series at Test Stand 115 in 2023. This test series demonstrated GRX-810 injectors and regeneratively cooled nozzles for liquid rocket engines. The center is working to advance additive manufacturing for propulsion applications, but also developing 3D-printing technologies to deploy in space for manufacturing. Marshall has capabilities for the entire design, analysis, manufacturing, hot- fire testing, and certification lifecycle of complex additively manufactured propulsion components and engine systems to enable high performance for NASA, government, and commercial space missions.

NASA develops many technologies to solve the challenges of space exploration, advance the understanding of our home planet, and improve air transportation. Through patent licensing and other mechanisms, NASA has spun off more than 2,000 technologies for companies to develop into products and solutions supporting the American economy.

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Agency’s New Mobile Launcher Stacks Up for Future Artemis Missions 

The foundation is set at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for launching crewed missions aboard the agency’s larger and more powerful SLS (Space Launch System) Block 1B rocket in support of Artemis IV and future missions. On May 9, teams with NASA’s EGS (Exploration Ground Systems) Program and contractor Bechtel National Inc. transferred the primary base structure of the mobile launcher 2 to its permanent mount mechanisms using the spaceport’s beast-mode transporter – the crawler.  

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program and primary contractor Bechtel National Inc. continue moving the base structure of mobile launcher 2 to a permanent mount structure where assembly will be completed at Kennedy Space Center. The 355-foot-tall mobile launcher 2 with a two-story base and a tower will be used to assemble and process the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft in the Vehicle Assembly Building on NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon beginning with Artemis IV.NASA/Madison Tuttle

The mobile launcher serves as the primary interface between the ground launch systems, SLS rocket, and Orion spacecraft that will launch the SLS Block 1B rocket, with its enhanced upper stage, to the Moon, allowing the agency to send astronauts and heavier cargo into lunar orbit than its predecessor, SLS Block 1. With Artemis, NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface and establish long-term exploration for scientific discovery and to prepare for human missions to Mars.  

With NASA’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building in the background, teams with the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems Program and primary contractor, Bechtel National, Inc. continue construction on the base of the platform for the new mobile launcher.NASA/Isaac Watson

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS Program.

Read more about the mobile launcher.

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Chandra Notices the Galactic Center is Venting

Recent images show evidence for an exhaust vent attached to a chimney releasing hot gas from a region around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, as reported in a press release. In the main image of this graphic, X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) have been combined with radio data from the MeerKAT telescope (red).

Previously, astronomers had identified a “chimney” of hot gas near the Galactic Center using X-ray data from Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton. Radio emission detected by MeerKAT shows the effect of magnetic fields enclosing the gas in the chimney.

These images show evidence for an exhaust vent attached to a chimney releasing hot gas from a region around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. In the main image of this graphic, X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) have been combined with radio data from the MeerKAT telescope (red).X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/S.C. Mackey et al.; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

The evidence for the exhaust vent is highlighted in the inset, which includes only Chandra data. Several X-ray ridges showing brighter X-rays appear in white, roughly perpendicular to the plane of the Galaxy. Researchers think these are the walls of a tunnel, shaped like a cylinder, which helps funnel hot gas as it moves upwards along the chimney and away from the Galactic Center.

A labeled version of the image gives the locations of the exhaust vent, the chimney, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy (called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* for short) and the plane of the galaxy.

This newly discovered vent is located near the top of the chimney about 700 light-years from the center of the Galaxy. To emphasize the chimney and exhaust vent features the image has been rotated by 180 degrees from the conventional orientation used by astronomers, so that the chimney is pointed upwards.

The authors of the new study think that the exhaust vent formed when hot gas rising through the chimney struck cooler gas lying in its path. The brightness of the exhaust vent walls in X-rays is caused by shock waves – like sonic booms from supersonic planes – generated by this collision. The left side of the exhaust vent is likely particularly bright in X-rays because the gas flowing upwards is striking the tunnel wall at a more direct angle and with more force than other regions.

A labeled version of the image.X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/S.C. Mackey et al.; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

The researchers determined that the hot gas is most likely coming from a sequence of events involving material falling towards Sgr A*. They think eruptions from the black hole then drove the gas upwards along the chimneys, and out through the exhaust vent.

It is unclear how often material is falling onto Sgr A*. Previous studies have indicated that dramatic X-ray flares take place every few hundred years at or near the location of the central black hole, so those could play important roles in driving the hot gas upwards through the exhaust vent. Astronomers also estimate that the Galactic black hole rips apart and swallows a star every 20,000 years or so. Such events would lead to powerful, explosive releases of energy, much of which would be destined to rise through the chimney vent.

The paper describing these results is published in The Astrophysical Journal and a preprint is available online. The authors of the paper are Scott Mackey (University of Chicago), Mark Morris (University of California, Los Angeles), Gabriele Ponti (Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Merate), Konstantina Anastasopoulou (Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Palermo), and Samaresh Mondal (Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Merate).

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

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Juno Mission Spots Jupiter’s Tiny Moon Amalthea

NASA’s Juno mission captured new views of Jupiter during its 59th close flyby of the giant planet on March 7. They provide a good look at Jupiter’s colorful belts and swirling storms, including the Great Red Spot. Close examination reveals something more: two glimpses of the tiny moon Amalthea.

NASA’s Juno mission captured these views of Jupiter during its 59th close flyby of the giant planet March 7. They provide a good look at Jupiter’s colorful belts and swirling storms, including the Great Red Spot.Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt

With a radius of just 52 miles, Amalthea has a potato-like shape, lacking the mass to pull itself into a sphere. In 2000, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft revealed some surface features, including impact craters, hills, and valleys. Amalthea circles Jupiter inside Io’s orbit, which is the innermost of the planet’s four largest moons, taking 0.498 Earth days to complete one orbit.

Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system, and observations indicate it gives out more heat than it receives from the Sun. This may be because, as it orbits within Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field, electric currents are induced in the moon’s core. Alternatively, the heat could be from tidal stresses caused by Jupiter’s gravity.

At the time that the first of these two images was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 165,000 miles above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 5 degrees north of the equator.

A close examination of the views of Jupiter reveals two glimpses of the tiny moon Amalthea, highlighted in this image.Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt

Citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt made these images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument, applying processing techniques to enhance the clarity of the images.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) funded the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

Learn more about NASA citizen science.

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Hubble Glimpses a Star-Forming Factory

The celestial object showcased in an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the spiral galaxy UGC 9684, which lies around 240 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Boötes. This image shows an impressive example of several classic galactic features, including a clear bar in the galaxy’s center, and a halo surrounding its disk.

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope highlights the spiral galaxy UGC 9684. ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick

The data for this Hubble image came from a study of Type-II supernovae host galaxies. These cataclysmic stellar explosions take place throughout the universe, and are of great interest to astronomers, so automated surveys scan the night sky and attempt to catch sight of them. The supernova which brought UGC 9684 to Hubble’s attention occurred in 2020. It has since faded from view and is not visible in this image, which was taken in 2023.

Remarkably, the 2020 supernova isn’t the only one that astronomers have seen in this galaxy – UGC 9684 has hosted four supernova-like events since 2006, putting it up there with the most active supernova-producing galaxies. It turns out that UGC 9684 is a quite active star-forming galaxy, calculated as producing one solar mass worth of stars every few years. The most massive of these stars are short-lived, a few million years, and end their days as supernova explosions. This high level of star formation makes UGC 9684 a veritable supernova factory, and a galaxy to watch for astronomers hoping to examine these exceptional events.

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