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Doctors Must Help Patients Avoid Deadly Heat Fueled by Climate Change, CDC Urges
New CDC guidance encourages clinicians to start conversations with patients about dangerous heat
'Extreme' solar storms cook up sweet Mother's Day auroras for Moms everywhere
The stormy sun erupts with its biggest solar flare yet from a massive sunspot — and it's still crackling (video)
Supermassive Black Holes Got Started From Massive Cosmic Seeds
Supermassive black holes are central to the dynamics and evolution of galaxies. They play a role in galactic formation, stellar production, and possibly even the clustering of dark matter. Almost every galaxy has a supermassive black hole, which can make up a small fraction of a galaxy’s mass in nearby galaxies. While we know a great deal about these gravitational monsters, one question that has lingered is just how supermassive black holes gained mass so quickly.
Most of what we know about early black holes comes from quasars. These occur when supermassive black holes are in an extremely active phase, consuming prodigious amounts of matter and emitting intense light that can be seen across the Universe. Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and other observatories have observed quasars as far back as 13 billion years ago, meaning that they were already large and active just a few hundred million years after the big bang. But these brilliant beacons also pose an observational challenge. Early quasars are so bright they vastly outshine their host galaxy, making it difficult to observe the environments of early quasars. But a new study in The Astrophysical Journal has used a spectral trick to see these distant galactic hosts.
The team gathered JWST data on six distant quasars known to be about 13 billion light-years away. Since the quasars were observed at a range of wavelengths, the team then compared the light to model quasars and was able to categorize which wavelengths likely came from the compact source of the quasar, and which from the more diffuse galaxy surrounding it. By filtering out the quasar light, they obtained the first images of the distant galaxies that are home to these ancient quasars.
Since the brightness of each light source is related to its mass, the team could compare the mass of a quasar to the mass of its host galaxy. The result was surprising. In these early galaxies, the mass of the supermassive black hole is about 10% of that of the galaxy. This is much larger than the mass ratio seen in local galaxies, where supermassive black holes can comprise just a tenth of a percent of a galaxy’s mass. This likely means that early supermassive black holes grew extremely quickly, and could have even been the seeds of their galaxies. The observations go against the idea that early galaxies formed first and that their black holes formed later.
Astronomers still don’t know just how supermassive black holes formed so quickly in the early Universe, but it’s now clear that they did. In answering one question about the evolution of supermassive black holes, the team has raised several other questions.
Reference: Yue, Minghao, et al. “EIGER. V. Characterizing the Host Galaxies of Luminous Quasars at z ? 6.” The Astrophysical Journal 966.2 (2024): 176.
The post Supermassive Black Holes Got Started From Massive Cosmic Seeds appeared first on Universe Today.
Houston, we have an encore: ISS virtual reality experience 'The Infinite' returns
Total solar eclipse 2027: A complete guide to the 'eclipse of the century'
How Climate Disasters Could Destabilize Major Banks
Both climate-driven disasters and the clean energy transition pose risks for the world’s largest financial institutions
This Week In Space podcast: Episode 110 —Voyager 1's Brush with Silence
DARPA's autonomous 'Manta Ray' drone can glide through ocean depths undetected
'World's purest silicon' could lead to 1st million-qubit quantum computing chips
Jaw-dropping northern lights from massive solar flares amaze skywatchers around the world. 'We have a very rare event on our hands.' (photos)
AI Therapy Bots Have Risks and Benefits and More Risks
Therapy chatbots are increasingly popular and may benefit some people, but it's dangerous to trust AI during a mental health crisis
NASA's Chandra spacecraft spots supermassive black hole erupting in the Milky Way's heart
If You’ve Never Seen An Aurora Before, This Might Be Your Chance!
Tonight and the rest of the weekend could be your best chance ever to see the aurora.
The Sun has been extremely active lately as it heads towards solar maximum. A giant Earth-facing sunspot group named AR3664 has been visible, and according to Spaceweather.com, the first of an unbelievable SIX coronal mass ejections were hurled our way from that active region, and is now hitting our planet’s magnetic field.
Solar experts predict that people in the US as far south as Alabama and Northern California could be treated to seeing the northern lights during this weekend. For those of you in northern Europe, you could also be in for some aurora excitement. Check the Space Weather Prediction Center’s 30-minute Aurora Forecast for the latest information.
If the weather conditions are right in your area, you might hit the aurora jackpot. See a map with predictions, below.
A map from the Space Weather Prediction Center shows the aurora forecast for the U.S. on May 11, 2024. Credit: Space Weather Prediction Center“If you happen to be in an area where it’s dark and cloud free and relatively unpolluted by light, you may get to see a fairly impressive aurora display, and that’s really the gift from space weather, is the aurora,” said Rob Steenburgh, from NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), during a briefing on Friday.
A map from the Space Weather Prediction Center shows the aurora forecast for the northern hemisphere on May 10, 2024. Credit: Space Weather Prediction CenterAccording to SWPC, the impact from the geomagnetic storm reached Earth-based magnetometers on May 10th at 1645 UT. More CMEs are following close behind and their arrival could extend the storm into the weekend.
While these solar storms could provide stunning views of auroras, there is also the potential for disruption to communications systems, power grids and satellite operations.
The Sun is super active right now! ?? ? ?
The video below shows a series of flares that erupted over the past seven days… not counting another X-class flare that happened this morning! pic.twitter.com/O5jwUBmMDT
As we reported earlier this week, the Sun released three X-class solar flares — the strongest class of flares — in short succession. Solar flares are explosions on the Sun that release powerful bursts of energy and radiation coming from the magnetic energy associated with the sunspots. The more sunspots, the greater potential for flares.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these images of the solar flares — as seen in the bright flashes in the upper right — on May 5 and May 6, 2024. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in teal. Credit: NASA/SDOThe sunspot group AR3664 is so large, it is visible to the naked eye — but you MUST be wearing special eye-wear (got any of your eclipse glasses left from April 8?) or use special solar filters for telescopes or binoculars. AR3664 is enormous, about 10 times the size of Earth.
How to see the Northern LightsThe aurora is an incredible sight. Your best shot to see it is to be in a dark area.
“Get away from city lights into a dark, rural surrounding and look north,” said the National Weather Service in St. Louis, Missouri on X (Twitter). “Aside from some clouds associated with a passing front, much of the time looks mostly clear.”
Check the weather forecast in your region for cloud cover. But if you don’t have any luck tonight, check again Saturday or Sunday night. With multiple CMEs, the storm was expected to last through the weekend.
Good luck!
The post If You’ve Never Seen An Aurora Before, This Might Be Your Chance! appeared first on Universe Today.
How Do People Get Parasitic Brain Worms like the One RFK, Jr., Had?
Experts explain how certain worms can infect the brain and why they are an important global public health problem
Watch monster flare-spewing sunspot grow to be 15 times wider than Earth (video)
Lighting Up the Moon’s Permanently Shadowed Craters
The Moon’s polar regions are home to permanently shadowed craters. In those craters is ancient ice, and establishing a presence on the Moon means those water ice deposits are a valuable resource. Astronauts will likely use solar energy to work in these craters and harvest water, but the Sun never shines there.
What’s the solution? According to one team of researchers, a solar collector perched on the crater’s rim.
There’s abundant solar energy on the Moon. But not all the time and not everywhere. At the bottom of the deepest craters closest to the poles, there’s no Sun.
Researchers from the Texas A&M Department of Aerospace Engineering are anticipating future missions to the Moon’s permanently shadowed craters to harvest water resources. They’re working with NASA’s Langley Research Centre on reflectors that can be mounted on a crater rim. When paired with a receiver somewhere inside the crater, solar power can be delivered where it’s needed.
Dr. Darren Hartl is an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University. He’s leading a team of researchers working on solar reflectors. “If you perch a reflector on the rim of a crater, and you have a collector at the center of the crater that receives light from the sun, you are able to harness the solar energy,” said Hartl. “So, in a way, you’re bending light from the sun down into the crater.”
Though they’re still in the early stages of their research, computer models show that a parabolic reflector transmits the optimal amount of light to crater bottoms. Parabola designs are common in different types of things like telescopes, microphones, and car headlights. There are also solar parabolic reflectors at work here on Earth.
This is the Eurodish, a parabolic solar collector. The collector is mounted to the dish itself, but on the Moon, the collector would be in the crater where power is needed. Image Credit: Schlaich Bergermann und Partner and released into the Public Domain at http://wire0.ises.org/wire/independents/imagelibrary.nsfParabolic dishes are common on Earth. Here, we can make them any size we want and build them wherever we need to. But the whole endeavour is different on the Moon. Every pound we launch into space is expensive. Their goal is a reflector small enough to be transported to the Moon and large enough to harness enough energy.
The researchers are working with self-morphing material that was developed by Hartl and other engineers at Texas A&M. Self-morphing materials are based on natural materials that turn matter into complex surfaces. They can change shape in response to their environments. These include muscles, tendons, and plant tissue.
“During space missions, astronauts may need to deploy a large parabolic reflector from a relatively small and light landing system. That’s where we come in,” said Hartl. “We are looking at using shape memory materials that will change the shape of the reflector in response to system temperature changes.”
Dr. Hartl specializes in advanced multifunction materials. At Texas A&M, his team focuses on projects ranging from “… self-folding origami-based structures to self-regulating morphing radiators for spacecraft to advanced actuators for avian-inspired aircraft,” according to his bio. He also has over a decade of experience working with self-morphing structures and Shape Memory Alloys (SMA.)
One of the difficulties of operating on the Moon is the wild temperature swings between night and day. At the equator, the temperature can reach 121 Celsius (250 F), far hotter than anywhere on Earth. But at night, the temperature drops precipitously to -133 C (-208 F.) The permanent shadows in the Moon’s deep polar craters foster temperatures as low as -250 C (-415 F.)
Hartl has experience developing materials for these pronounced swings in temperature. He leads the Multifunctional Materials and Aerospace Structures Optimization (M2AESTRO) Lab at Texas A&M. “Our proposed solutions incorporate shape-shifting metals that adjust their own heat rejection based on how hot or cold they are, so it solves the problem for us,” Hartl said in 2019.
This video explains some of what they’re working on at M2AESTRO, though it’s a few years old.
The Moon is the next frontier for human habitation. Astronauts will live and work there, and water is a vital resource. Not just for drinking, but it can also be split into oxygen for respiration and hydrogen for fuel. Scientists aren’t certain how much water ice there is, but there’s enough to be useful.
Extracting and managing that resource will be critical for the success of Artemis and other lunar exploration efforts. Doing it effectively will require advanced solutions designed specifically for the lunar environment. Self-morphing materials could play an important role.
The post Lighting Up the Moon’s Permanently Shadowed Craters appeared first on Universe Today.
Cracking! Some binary black holes may roll around each other in egg-shaped orbits
NASA Invites Media to Expedition 70 Crew Visit at Marshall
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Four Expedition 70 crew members pose for a fun portrait inside their crew quarters aboard the International Space Station’s Harmony module. Clockwise from bottom are, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli; ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen; JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa; and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.NASA
NASA will host four astronauts at 10 a.m. CDT Tuesday, May 14, for a media opportunity at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa served as part of Expedition 70 and will discuss their recent mission to the International Space Station.
Media are invited to attend this event and participate in a news conference to speak with the astronauts about their experiments aboard the microgravity laboratory and other mission highlights.
Media interested in participating must confirm their attendance by 12 p.m., on Monday, May 13, with Joel Wallace in Marshall’s Office of Communications at joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov or 256-786-0117.
Media must report by 9 a.m., Tuesday, May 14 to the Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Control Center Gate 9 parking lot, located at the Interstate 565 interchange at Research Park Boulevard. The event will take place in the NASA Marshall Activities Building 4316. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate, so please allow extra time. All members of media and drivers will need photo identification. Drivers will need proof of insurance, if requested.
The Expedition 70 mission to the space station began Sept. 27, 2023, and ended April 5. During their mission, the Expedition 70 crew marked the 25th anniversary of space station operations in December 2023.
As part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7, Moghbeli, Mogensen, and Furukawa traveled 84,434,094 miles during their mission, spent 197 days aboard the space station, and completed 3,184 orbits around Earth. The Crew-7 mission was the first spaceflight for Moghbeli. Mogensen has logged 209 days in space over his two flights, and Furukawa has logged 366 days in space over his two flights.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli uses DNA analysis to identify bacteria extracted from water samples collected aboard the International Space Station. Known as BioMole, the study is demonstrating the ability to monitor the spacecraft’s microbial environment without sending samples back to Earth for analysis.NASA
Throughout their mission, the Crew-7 members contributed to a host of science and maintenance activities and technology demonstrations. Moghbeli conducted one spacewalk, joined by O’Hara, replacing one of the 12 trundle bearing assemblies on the port solar alpha rotary joint, which allows the arrays to track the Sun and generate electricity to power the station. Crew-7 returned to Earth in March.
O’Hara completed 204 days in space, 3,264 orbits of the Earth, and 86.5 million miles during her first spaceflight. She witnessed the arrival of eight visiting spacecraft and the departure of seven visiting spacecraft, including both crewed and cargo missions. O’Hara also completed one spacewalk totaling six hours, 42 minutes.
While aboard the orbiting lab, O’Hara conducted dozens of science and technology activities to benefit future exploration in space and life back on Earth. O’Hara is among the first astronauts to participate in the Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research Program, an investigation that studies the psychological and physiological changes humans experience during spaceflight. Collecting data from astronauts on missions of different durations supports the development of ways to protect crew health on long-duration missions to the Moon and future missions to Mars. O’Hara returned to Earth in April aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz spacecraft.
The International Space Station remains the springboard to NASA’s next leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and, eventually, Mars. The agency’s Huntsville Operations Support Center, or HOSC, at Marshall provides engineering and mission operations support for the space station, Commercial Crew Program, and other missions. Within the HOSC, the commercial crew support team provides engineering and safety and mission assurance expertise for launch vehicles, spacecraft propulsion, and integrated vehicle performance. The HOSC’s Payload Operations Integration Center, which operates, plans, and coordinates science experiments aboard the space station 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, supported Expedition 70, managing communications between the International Space Station crew and researchers worldwide.
For more information on the Expedition 70 crew, visit:
Expedition 70Joel Wallace
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-786-0117
joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov
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