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Canadian Space Agency astronaut Josh Kutryk says Boeing Starliner is "important strategically" for America's space program.

A new study calls for "geoconservation" principles applied to space, so that astronauts exploring Mars and other cosmic bodies don't compromise future scientific work.

A surprise discovery has revealed that female stink bugs have a small indent on their hind legs that they use for cultivating fungi before spreading it on their eggs

A surprise discovery has revealed that female stink bugs have a small indent on their hind legs that they use for cultivating fungi before spreading it on their eggs

Teams at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, are currently engaged in intensive preparations for the critical ‘Launch and Early Orbit’ phase of the agency's EarthCARE satellite.

Multiple space agencies are looking to send crewed missions to the Moon’s southern polar region in this decade and the next. Moreover, they intend to create the infrastructure that will allow for a sustained human presence, exploration, and economic development. This requires that the local geography, resources, and potential hazards be scouted in advance and navigation strategies that do not rely on a Global Positioning System (GPS) developed. On Sunday, April 21st, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released the first complete high-definition geologic atlas of the Moon.

This 1:2.5 million scale geological set of maps provides basic geographical data for future lunar research and exploration. According to the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the volume includes data on 12,341 craters, 81 impact basins, 17 types of lithologies, 14 types of structures, and other geological information about the lunar surface. This data will be foundational to China’s efforts in selecting a site for their International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) and could also prove useful for NASA planners as they select a location for the Artemis Base Camp.

Credit: CAS via Xinhua handout

Ouyang Ziyuan and Liu Jianzhong, a research professor and senior researcher from the Institute of Geochemistry of the CAS (respectively), oversaw these efforts. Since 2012, they have led a team of over 100 scientists and cartographers from relevant research institutions. The team spent more than a decade compiling scientific exploration data obtained by the many orbiters, landers, and rovers that are part of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (Chang’e), and other research about the origin and evolution of the Moon.

According to the CAS, the atlas includes an “upgraded lunar geological time scale” for “objectively” depicting the geological evolution of the Moon, including the lunar tectonics and volcanic activity that once took place. As a result, the volume could not only be significant in terms of lunar exploration and site selection. Still, it could also improve our understanding of the formation and evolution of Earth and the other terrestrial planets of the Solar System – Mercury, Venus, and Mars. As Jianzhong indicated in a CAS press release,

“The world has witnessed significant progress in the field of lunar exploration and scientific research over the past decades, which have greatly improved our understanding of the moon. However, the lunar geologic maps published during the Apollo era have not been changed for about half a century and are still being used for lunar geological research. With the improvements of lunar geologic studies, those old maps can no longer meet the needs of future scientific research and lunar exploration.”

Credit: CAS via Xinhua handout

Jianzhong also claims that the atlas could help inform future sample collection on the Moon. This includes the Chang’e-6 mission (consisting of an orbiter and lander), which launched this past Friday (May 3rd). The orbiter element will reach the Moon in a few weeks, and the lander element is expected to touch down the far side of the Moon by early June. By 2026, it will be joined by the Chang’e-7 mission, consisting of an orbiter, lander, rover, and a mini-hopping probe. While Chang’e-6 will obtain lunar soil and rock samples, Chang’e-7 will investigate resources and obtain samples of water ice and volatiles.

According to Gregory Michael, a senior scientist from the Free University of Berlin, the release of this atlas represents the culmination of decades of work, and not just by Chinese scientists:

“This map, in particular, is the first on a global scale to utilize all of the post-Apollo era data. It builds on the achievements of the international community over the last decades, as well as on China’s own highly successful Chang’e program. It will be a starting point for every new question of lunar geology and become a primary resource for researchers studying lunar processes of all kinds.”

Aside from updating data on lunar features and geology, the new maps reportedly double the resolution of the Apollo-era maps. These maps were compiled by the US Geological Survey in the 1960s and 70s using data from the Apollo missions. Among them was a global map at the scale of 1:5,000,000, though other regional maps and those that showed the terrain near the Apollo landing sites were of higher resolution. Geological and geographical information on the Moon has advanced considerably since then, requiring updated maps that reflect the objective of returning to the Moon with the intent to stay.

Credit: CAS via Xinhua handout

In addition to the Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe, the CAS also released a book called Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon. This document includes 30 sector diagrams that collectively form a visualization of the entire lunar surface. Both are available in Chinese and English, have been integrated into a digital platform called Digital Moon, and will eventually become available to the international research community.

Further Reading: CAS

The post China Creates a High-Resolution Atlas of the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

Three bright objects satisfied seasoned stargazers of the western sky just after sunset earlier this month.

The first Hispanic woman to launch into space is now the second female astronaut to be awarded the United States' highest honor. Ellen Ochoa was bestowed with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

For National Astronaut Day 2024, we have an exclusive interview with Uniphi Good's Annie Balliro on why she founded the holiday honoring America's spaceflyers.

Two NASA astronauts waited several extra years for their ride aboard Boeing Starliner, but the wait was not fully unexpected, the former test pilots recently shared with reporters.

Thanks to XMM-Newton, astronomers may know the powerful event that gave rise to the Cloverleaf odd radio circle.

The autonomous trucking industry says its self-driving vehicles can cut carbon emissions by reducing fuel use, though some groups have raised safety questions

The path of annularity on Oct. 2, 2024, passes through the Pacific Ocean and South America. View detailed maps of where the eclipse will be visible here.

Last November, NASA’s Lucy mission conducted a flyby of the asteroid Dinkinish, one of the Main Belt asteroids it will investigate as it makes its way to Jupiter. In the process, the spacecraft spotted a small moonlet orbiting the larger asteroid, now named Selam (aka. “Lucy’s baby”). The moonlet’s name, an Ethiopian name that means “peace,” pays homage to the ancient human remains dubbed “Lucy” (or Dinkinish) that were unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974. Using novel statistical calculations based on how the two bodies orbit each other, a Cornell-led research team estimates that the moonlet is only 2-3 million years old.

The research was led by Colby Merrill, a graduate student from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. He was joined by Alexia Kubas, a researcher from the Department of Astronomy at Cornell; Alex J. Meyer, a Ph.D. student at the UC Boulder College of Engineering & Applied Science; and Sabina D. Raducan, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bern. Their paper, “Age of (152830) Dinkinesh-Selam Constrained by Secular Tidal-BYORP Theory,” recently appeared on April 19th in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Merrill was also part of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which collided with the moonlet Dimorphos on September 26th, 2022. As part of the Lucy mission, Merrill was surprised to discover that Dinkinesh was also a binary asteroid when the spacecraft flew past it on November 1st, 2023. They were also fascinated to learn that the small moonlet was a “contact binary,” consisting of two lobes that are piles of rubble that became stuck together long ago.

Artist’s Rendering of NASA’s Lucy mission, which will study asteroids within the Main Belt and Jupiter’s Trojan population. Credit: Southwest Research Institute

While astronomers have observed contact binaries before – a good example is the KBO Arrokoth that the New Horizons spacecraft flew past on January 1st, 2019 – this is the first time one has been observed orbiting a larger asteroid. Along with Kubas, the two began modeling the system as part of their studies at Cornell to determine the age of the moonlet. Their results agreed with one performed by the Lucy mission based on an analysis of surface craters, the more traditional method for estimating the age of asteroids. As Merrill said in a recent Cornell Chronicle release:

“Finding the ages of asteroids is important to understanding them, and this one is remarkably young when compared to the age of the Solar System, meaning it formed somewhat recently. Obtaining the age of this one body can help us to understand the population as a whole.”

Binary asteroids are a subject of fascination to astronomers because of the complex dynamics that go into creating them. On the one hand, there are the gravitational forces working on them that cause them to bulge and lose energy. At the same time, binary systems will also experience what is known as the Binary Yarkovsky–O’Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack (BYORP) effect, where exposure to solar radiation alters the rotation rate of the bodies. Eventually, these forces will balance out and reach a state of equilibrium for the system.

For their study, Merril and his team assumed that Selam formed from material ejected from Dinkinesh before the BYORP effect slowed its rotation down. They also assumed that the system had since reached a state of equilibrium and that the density of both objects was comparable. They then integrated asteroid data obtained by the Lucy mission to calculate how long it would take Selam to reach its current state. After performing about 1 million calculations with varying parameters, they obtained a median age estimate of 3 million years old, with 2 million being the most likely result.

Artist’s impression of the DART mission impacting the moonlet Dimorphos. Credit: ESA

This new method complements the previous age estimates of the Lucy mission and has several advantages. As their paper indicates, this method can yield age estimates based on asteroid dynamics alone and does not require close-up images taken by spacecraft. It could also be more accurate where asteroid surfaces experienced recent changes and can be applied to the moonlets of other known binary systems, which account for 15% of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). This includes Didymos and Dimorphos, which are even younger.

The researchers hope to apply their new method to this and other binary systems where the dynamics are well-characterized, even without close flybys. Said Kubas:

“Used in tandem with crater counting, this method could help better constrain a system’s age. If we use two methods and they agree with each other, we can be more confident that we’re getting a meaningful age that describes the current state of the system.”

Further Reading: Cornell Chronicle

The post Dinkinesh's Moonlet is Only 2-3 Million Years Old appeared first on Universe Today.

Starliner is at last at its Florida launch pad for its historic 1st mission with astronauts. The Boeing spacecraft made a brief journey there May 4 to coincide with Star Wars Day.

It’s that time again! Time for another model that will finally solve the mystery of dark matter. Or not, but it’s worth a shot. Until we directly detect dark matter particles, or until some model conclusively removes dark matter from our astrophysical toolkit the best we can do is continue looking for solutions. This new work takes a look at that old theoretical chestnut, primordial black holes, but it has a few interesting twists.

Primordial black holes are hypothetical objects formed during the earliest moments of the Universe. According to the models they formed from micro-fluctuations in matter density and spacetime to become sandgrain-sized mountain-massed black holes. Although we’ve never detected primordial black holes, they have all the necessary properties of dark matter, such as not emitting light and the ability to cluster around galaxies. If they exist, they could explain most of dark matter.

The downside is that most primordial black hole candidates have been ruled out by observation. For example, to account for dark matter there would have to be so many of these gravitational pipsqueaks that they would often pass in front of a star from our vantage point. This would create a microlensing flare we should regularly observe. Several sky surveys have looked for such an event to no avail, so PBH dark matter is not a popular idea these days.

This new work takes a slightly different approach. Rather than looking at typical primordial black holes, it considers ultralight black holes. These are on the small end of possible masses and are so tiny that Hawking radiation would come into play. The rate of Hawking decay is inversely proportional to the size of a black hole, so these ultralight black holes should radiate to their end of life on a short cosmic timescale. Since we don’t have a full model of quantum gravity, we don’t know what would happen to ultralight black holes at the end, which is where this paper comes in.

Observational limits for primordial black holes. Credit: S. Profumo

As the author notes, basically there are three possible outcomes. The first is that the black hole radiates away completely. The black hole would end as a brief flash of high-energy particles. The second is that some mechanism prevents complete evaporation and the black hole reaches some kind of equilibrium state. The third option is similar to the second, but in this case, the equilibrium state causes the event horizon to disappear, leaving an exposed dense mass known as a naked singularity. The author also notes that for the latter two outcomes, the objects might have a net electric charge.

For the evaporating case, the biggest unknown would be the timescale of evaporation. If PBHs are initially tiny they would evaporate quickly and add to the reheating effect of the early cosmos. If they evaporate slowly, we should be able to see their deaths as a flash of gamma rays. Neither of these effects has been observed, but it is possible that detectors such as Fermi’s Large Area Telescope might catch one in the act.

For the latter two options, the author argues that equilibrium would be reached around the Planck scale. The remnants would be proton sized but with much higher masses. Unfortunately, if these remnants are electrically neutral they would be impossible to detect. They wouldn’t decay into other particles, nor would they be large enough to detect directly. This would match observation, but isn’t a satisfying result. The model is essentially unprovable. If the particles do have a charge, then we might detect their presence in the next generation of neutrino detectors.

The main thing about this work is that primordial black holes aren’t entirely ruled out by current observations. Until we have better data, this model joins the theoretical pile of many other possibilities.

Reference: Profumo, S. “Ultralight Primordial Black Holes.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.00546 (2024).

The post The Universe Could Be Filled With Ultralight Black Holes That Can't Die appeared first on Universe Today.

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All aboard this lightspeed tour of the history of the Jedi Order, the peacekeepers of the galaxy.

A preview of the new Disney+ animated anthology "Star Wars: Tales of the Empire."

For the first time ever, May the 4th coincides with Free Comic Book Day. So in perfect synchronicity, Marvel is offering up "Free Comic Book Day 2024: Star Wars #1."