Feed aggregator
NASA Welcomes Switzerland as Newest Artemis Accords Signatory
Switzerland became the 37th country to sign the Artemis Accords at NASA Headquarters in Washington on Monday, April 15, affirming Switzerland’s commitment to the sustainable and beneficial use of space for all humankind.
“Today, we marked a giant leap forward in the partnership between the United States and Switzerland,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “As we welcome you into the Artemis Accords family, we expand our commitment to explore the unknown openly and peacefully. Discovery strengthens goodwill on Earth, and we are excited to expand our countries’ shared values and principles to the cosmos.”
At approximately 11:30 a.m., Guy Parmelin, Swiss Federal Councillor and Minister for Economic Affairs, Education & Research, signed the Accords on behalf of Switzerland. Other participants in the ceremony included:
- Valda Vikmanis-Keller, acting deputy assistant secretary, Department of State
- Martina Hirayama, state secretary, Head of the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation
- Jacques Pitteloud, Swiss Ambassador to the U.S.
- ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Marco Sieber, Swiss national
- Renato Krpoun, Head of Swiss Space Office
- Professor Peter Wurz, Director Space and Planetary Sciences, University of Bern
“Switzerland has a long-standing partnership with NASA on human space exploration as well as space and Earth sciences,” said Parmelin. “With the signature of the Artemis Accords we renew our commitment to jointly explore the heavens above us.”
The Artemis Accords, established by NASA and the U.S. Department of State in 2020, reinforce the 1968 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies otherwise known as the Outer Space Treaty. They also emphasize a commitment on behalf of the U.S. to the Registration Convention, the Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, and other standards that NASA and its partners support.
Many more countries are anticipated to join the Artemis Accords in the months and years to come, as NASA continues to facilitate a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space with its international partners.
For more information on the Artemis Accords, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords
-end-
Lauren Low
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
lauren.e.low@nasa.gov
NASA Struggles to Find Way Forward for Mars Sample Return
NASA's Perseverance mission has been collecting samples for later retrieval and return to Earth. Now, it's unclear how we'll get those samples home.
The post NASA Struggles to Find Way Forward for Mars Sample Return appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
You Can't Know the True Size of an Exoplanet Without Knowing its Star's Magnetic Field
In 2011, astronomers with the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) consortium detected a gas giant orbiting very close to a Sun-like (G-type) star about 700 light-years away. This planet is known as WASP-39b (aka. “Bocaprins”), one of many “hot Jupiters” discovered in recent decades that orbits its star at a distance of less than 5% the distance between the Earth and the Sun (0.05 AU). In 2022, shortly after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) it became the first exoplanet to have carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide detected in its atmosphere.
Alas, researchers have not constrained all of WASP-39b’s crucial details (particularly its size) based on the planet’s light curves, as observed by Webb. which is holding up more precise data analyses. In a new study led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), an international team has shown a way to overcome this obstacle. They argue that considering a parent star’s magnetic field, the true size of an exoplanet in orbit can be determined. These findings are likely to significantly impact the rapidly expanding field of exoplanet study and characterization.
The study was led by Dr. Nadiia M. Kostogryz and her fellow researchers from the MPS. They were joined by astronomers and astrophysicists from the Center for Astronomy (Heidelberg University), the Astrophysics Group at Keele University, the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). The paper describing their research, “Magnetic origin of the discrepancy between stellar limb-darkening models and observations,” was recently published in Nature Astronomy.
The “hot Jupiter” exoplanet WASP-69b orbits its star so closely that its atmosphere is being blown into space. Credit: Adam Makarenko/W. M. Keck ObservatoryA light curve is the measurement of a star’s brightness over longer periods. Using the Transit Method (Transit Photometry), astronomers monitor stars for periodic dips in brightness, which can result from an exoplanet passing (transiting) in front of their face relative to the observer. In addition to being the most widely used method for detecting exoplanets, precise observations of light curves allow astronomers to estimate the size and orbital period of the exoplanets.
These curves can also reveal information about the composition of the planet’s atmosphere based on light passing through its atmosphere as it makes a transit – a technique known as “transit spectroscopy.” Unfortunately, estimates on planet size suffer from an observational issue known as “limb darkening.” Dr. Kostogryz explained in an MPS press statement:
“The problems arising when interpreting the data from WASP-39b are well known from many other exoplanets – regardless [of] whether they are observed with Kepler, TESS, James Webb, or the future PLATO spacecraft. As with other stars orbited by exoplanets, the observed light curve of WASP-39 is flatter than previous models can explain.”
The edge of the stellar disk (or “limb”) plays a decisive role in interpreting a star’s light curve. Since the limb corresponds to the star’s outer (and cooler) layers, it appears darker to the observer than the inner area. However, the star does not actually shine less brightly further out. This “limb darkening” affects the shape of the exoplanet signal in the light curve, as the dimming determines how steeply the curve falls during a planetary transit and then rises again. Historically, astronomers have not been able to reproduce observational data using conventional stellar models accurately.
In every case, the decrease in the star’s brightness was less abrupt than model calculations predicted. Clearly, something was missing from the models that prevented astronomers from reproducing exoplanet transit signals. As Dr. Kostogryz and her team discovered, the missing piece is stellar magnetic fields, which are generated by the motion of conductive plasma inside a star. The team first noticed this when examining selected light curves obtained by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope between 2009 and 2018.
An illustration of Earth’s magnetic field. Credit: ESA/ATG medialabThe researchers also proved that the discrepancy between observational data and model calculations disappears if the star’s magnetic field is included in the computations. To this end, the team turned to selected data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, which captured the light of thousands and thousands of stars from 2009 to 2018. To this end, they modeled the atmosphere of typical Kepler stars in the presence of a magnetic field and then simulated observational data based on these calculations. When they compared their results to real data, they found it accurately reproduced Kepler’s observations.
They also found that the strength of the magnetic field can have a profound effect, where limb darkening is more pronounced in stars with weak magnetic fields and less in stars with strong ones. Lastly, they extended their simulations to emission spectra data obtained by the JWST and found that the magnetic field of the parent star influences limb darkening differently at different wavelengths. These findings will help inform future exoplanet studies, leading to more precise estimates of the planets’ characteristics. Said Dr. Alexander Shapiro, coauthor of the current study and head of an ERC-funded research group at the MPS:
“In the past decades and years, the way to move forward in exoplanet research was to improve the hardware, the space telescopes designed to search for and characterize new worlds. The James Webb Space Telescope has pushed this development to new limits. The next step is now to improve and refine the models to interpret this excellent data.”
The researchers now plan to extend their analyses to stars different from the Sun, which could lead to refined estimates of exoplanet mass for rocky planets (similar to Earth). In addition, their findings indicate that the light curves of stars could be used to constrain the strength of stellar magnetic fields, another characteristic that is challenging to measure.
Further Reading: MPS, Nature Astronomy
The post You Can't Know the True Size of an Exoplanet Without Knowing its Star's Magnetic Field appeared first on Universe Today.
These 3 stars are losing weight fast — thanks to stellar winds way stronger than the sun's
Space-based solar power may be one step closer to reality, thanks to this key test (video)
Parkinson's disease progression slowed by antibody infusions
Parkinson's disease progression slowed by antibody infusions
NASA Sets Path to Return Mars Samples, Seeks Innovative Designs
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson shared on Monday the agency’s path forward on the Mars Sample Return program, including seeking innovative designs to return valuable samples from Mars to Earth. Such samples will not only help us understand the formation and evolution of our solar system but can be used to prepare for future human explorers and to aid in NASA’s search for signs of ancient life.
Over the last quarter century, NASA has engaged in a systematic effort to determine the early history of Mars and how it can help us understand the formation and evolution of habitable worlds, including Earth. As part of that effort, Mars Sample Return has been a long-term goal of international planetary exploration for the past two decades. NASA’s Perseverance rover has been collecting samples for later collection and return to Earth since it landed on Mars in 2021.
“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken. The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away,” said Nelson. “Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet – which has never been done before – and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.”
The agency also has released NASA’s response to a Mars Sample Return Independent Review Board report from September 2023. This includes: an updated mission design with reduced complexity; improved resiliency; risk posture; stronger accountability and coordination; and an overall budget likely in the $8 billion to $11 billion range. Given the Fiscal Year 2025 budget and anticipated budget constraints, as well as the need to maintain a balanced science portfolio, the current mission design will return samples in 2040.
To achieve the ambitious goal of returning the key samples to Earth earlier and at a lower cost, the agency is asking the NASA community to work together to develop a revised plan that leverages innovation and proven technology. Additionally, NASA soon will solicit architecture proposals from industry that could return samples in the 2030s, and lowers cost, risk, and mission complexity.
“NASA does visionary science – and returning diverse, scientifically-relevant samples from Mars is a key priority,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “To organize a mission at this level of complexity, we employ decades of lessons on how to run a large mission, including incorporating the input we get from conducting independent reviews. Our next steps will position us to bring this transformational mission forward and deliver revolutionary science from Mars – providing critical new insights into the origins and evolution of Mars, our solar system, and life on Earth.”
For more information about NASA’s research at Mars, visit:
-end-
Dewayne Washington / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
dewayne.a.washington@nasa.gov / karen.fox@nasa.gov
Deadly upwellings of cold water pose threat to migratory sharks
Deadly upwellings of cold water pose threat to migratory sharks
Do black holes hide the secrets of their ancestors?
We live in a cosmic void so empty that it breaks the laws of cosmology
We live in a cosmic void so empty that it breaks the laws of cosmology
NASA’s LRO Observes 2024 Solar Eclipse Shadow
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)As the Moon blotted out the Sun to viewers across the United States during the April 8 solar eclipse, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured an image from some 223,000 miles away of the highly anticipated celestial event.
This spectacular image showing the Moon’s shadow on Earth’s surface was acquired during a 20-second period starting at 2:59 p.m. EDT (18:59:19 UTC) on April 8, 2024, by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. When LRO acquired this image, the shadow of the Moon was centered near Cape Girardeau, Mo.NASA/Goddard/Arizona State UniversityThere are three cameras that comprise the LRO camera (LROC) suite: two Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC) and one Wide Angle Camera. The Earth’s image with the shadow in it was acquired by one of the two Narrow Angle Cameras.
The LROC Narrow Angle Cameras are line scanner cameras: they only have one line of pixels, and images are built up line-by-line by the spacecraft’s motion as it orbits the Moon.
Acquiring an image of Earth requires the spacecraft to rapidly rotate to build up the image.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) image of the eclipse shadow over Mexico and the southern U.S. was captured starting at 2:59 p.m. EDT (18:59:19 UTC) on April 8, 2024.NASA/Goddard/Arizona State UniversityLRO is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon. NASA is returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities.
By Mark Robinson, Arizona State University, Tempe, and edited by Nancy Neal Jones, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
More on this story from Arizona State University’s LRO Camera websiteMedia Contact:
Nancy Neal Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
COVID, Flu and RSV Vaccines Are Lifesavers. Why Aren’t More Older Adults Getting Them?
We need to do more to ensure older adults—including those living in long-term care facilities—are up to date on recommended vaccines
'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 3 'Jinaal' is a slow but steady affair
An ICU Nurse Explains the Vital Role of Family Caregivers in Loved Ones' Health
Family caregivers provide critical support and familiarity to patients, but can also experience burnout
NASA Selects New Crew for Next Simulated Mars Journey
NASA has selected a new crew of four volunteers to participate in a simulated mission to Mars within a habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Jason Lee, Stephanie Navarro, Shareef Al Romaithi, and Piyumi Wijesekara will step into the agency’s Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, on Friday, May 10. Once inside, the team will live and work like astronauts for 45 days. The crew will exit the facility on June 24 after they “return” to Earth. Jose Baca and Brandon Kent are this mission’s alternate crew members.
HERA enables scientists to study how crew members adapt to isolation, confinement, and remote conditions before NASA sends astronauts on deep space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Crew members will carry out scientific research and operational tasks throughout their simulated mission to the Red Planet, including a “walk” on Mars’s surface using virtual reality. They will also experience increasing communication delays lasting up to five minutes each way with Mission Control Center as they “near” Mars.
This crew is the second group of volunteers to participate in a simulated Mars mission in HERA this year. The most recent crew completed its HERA mission on March 18. Two other missions will follow this year, with the final HERA crew slated to wrap up on Dec. 20.
In a first for HERA, one crew member, Shareef Al Romaithi, hails from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and will participate in the mission through a partnership between NASA and the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC).
As with the previous HERA mission this year, NASA’s Human Research Program is conducting 18 human health studies during the mission. The experiments will evaluate the physiological, behavioral, and psychological responses of crew members in an environment similar to what astronauts will face on a trip to Mars. Seven of these studies are collaborations with the MBRSC and the European Space Agency (ESA). Insights gleaned from the studies will allow researchers to develop and test strategies aimed at helping astronauts overcome obstacles on long missions deep into space.
The primary crew of the upcoming mission is:
Primary CrewJason Lee
Jason Lee is an associate professor-in-residence at the University of Connecticut’s School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering. He teaches thermal fluids, manufacturing, and sports engineering courses. He also serves as his university’s mechanical engineering undergraduate director and its NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium campus director.
Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and master’s and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His graduate research focused on manufacturing processes involving heat transfer and the characterization of heat shielding materials. He completed a postdoctoral degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying high-strength nanofibers.
Lee lives in Boston. In his spare time, he enjoys running, martial arts, chess, and indoor rock climbing. He also likes to watch movies and plays, try new cuisines, spend time with friends, and visit his nephew and nieces.
Stephanie Navarro
Stephanie Navarro is a space operations officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. She has more than a decade of prior enlisted service in the Air National Guard and was deployed in support of Operation Freedom Sentinel to help provide secure communication capabilities in the Middle East. She began her civilian career as an information technology specialist for the U.S. Army, providing systems engineering for data-center modernization efforts in Hawaii. Navarro currently works at Northrop Grumman as a senior systems engineer, specializing in satellite communication programs.
Navarro earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. While pursuing her undergraduate studies, she served the constituents of Florida as a congressional intern for both the U.S. House and Senate. She recently completed a model-based systems engineering certificate program from Caltech and is working toward a master’s degree in cybersecurity from the University of Maryland Global Campus.
Born and raised by Ecuadorian parents in Miami, Navarro has strong ties to her cultural heritage. She enjoys spending time with her family, traveling the world, studying for her pilot’s license, and immersing herself in various culinary experiences. During her spare time, she is either working out, at the beach, or in the air flying a Cessna 172. She lives in Orlando, Florida.
Shareef Al Romaithi
Shareef Al Romaithi is a pilot with more than 16 years of experience in the airline industry, including more than 9,000 flight hours on multiple Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Currently, he commands Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft as a captain, underscoring his expertise and leadership in aviation.
Al Romaithi received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and three master’s degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, focusing on aerospace and aviation management, safety systems, and space operations, respectively. He went on to earn a doctorate degree in aviation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2014, specializing in safety systems and human factors. These degrees were based at the university’s Dayton Beach campus, except for the master’s focusing on space operations, which was from the university’s worldwide campus. He is the world’s youngest and eighth graduate to attain a doctorate degree in aviation.
Al Romaithi currently lives in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He joins HERA through a partnership between NASA and MBRSC. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, reading, and traveling.
Piyumi Wijesekara
Piyumi Wijesekara is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Radiation Biophysics Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Her research focuses on developing tissue models to investigate the effects of spaceflight stressors, including ionizing radiation and lunar dust on the human respiratory system.
Wijesekara earned her bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and her master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn. Her doctoral research focused on stem cell and organ engineering, with an emphasis on engineering lung models that mimic human lung physiology, to study respiratory diseases.
Wijesekara currently lives in San Francisco. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, running along the San Francisco Bay, reading, hiking, volunteering at the food pantry, and attending concerts and musicals.
Alternate CrewJose Baca
Jose Baca is an assistant professor in the department of engineering at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. His research interests involve designing modular systems, enhancing the capabilities of uncrewed autonomous vehicles, and coordinating multi-robot teams through complex environments.
Baca received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Instituto Tecnologico de Matamoros in Mexico. He then earned a master’s degree in mechatronics from the University of Applied Science of Aachen, Germany, and a doctorate degree in automation and robotics from the Universidad Politecnica in Madrid, Spain.
Baca went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher in the computer science department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. There, he became involved in a research project funded by NASA that sought to develop a reconfigurable robotic system capable of transforming itself to overcome obstacles and explore unknown scenarios. Through this work, he also began undertaking projects aimed at supporting astronauts during long-duration space missions.
In his free time, Baca promotes science, technology, engineering, and math activities for students in elementary school through college, with a particular focus on engineering and robotics. He lives in Corpus Christi, Texas and enjoys exercising, exploring new places, experiencing new cultures and cuisines, and spending time with family.
Brandon Kent
Brandon Kent is a medical director in the pharmaceutical industry, supporting ongoing global efforts to develop new therapies across cancer types.
Kent holds bachelor’s degrees in both biochemistry and biology from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He earned his doctorate in biomedicine from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, where his work primarily focused on how genetic factors regulate early embryonic development and cancer development.
Following graduate school, Kent moved into scientific and medical communications consulting in oncology, with a primary focus on clinical trial data disclosures, scientific exchange, and medical education initiatives.
Kent and his wife have two daughters. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his daughters, flying private aircraft, hiking, staying physically fit, and reading. He lives in Kinnelon, New Jersey.
____
NASA’s Human Research Program
NASA’s Human Research Program, or HRP, pursues the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, and the International Space Station, HRP scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives HRP’s quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as space travel expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Explore More 5 min read NASA Shares Medical Expertise with New Space Station Partners Article 7 days ago 6 min read From NASA’s First Astronaut Class to Artemis II: The Importance of Military Jet Pilot Experience Article 7 days ago 14 min read Commercial Space Frequently Asked Questions Article 1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASALiving in Space
Artemis
Human Research Program
Space Station Research and Technology
How Parents Can Heal Rifts with Their Adult Children
Repairing a broken parent-adult child relationship is possible if both sides approach it earnestly and honestly