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As the most volcanic object in the Solar System, Jupiter’s moon Io attracts a lot of attention. NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrived at the Jovian system in July 2016, and in recent months, it’s been paying closer attention to Io.

Though Io’s internal workings have been mostly inscrutable, images and data from Juno are starting to provide a fuller picture of the strange moon’s volcanic inner life.

Io’s extreme volcanic activity stems from tidal heating caused by massive Jupiter and its powerful gravity. Some of the moon’s volcanoes spew out plumes of sulphur and sulphur dioxide as high as 500 km (300 miles) above its surface. Sulphur is also ever-present in its lava flows, which colour the moon’s surface in various shades of yellow, red, white, green, and black. Some of the lava flows extend up to 500 km (300 miles) along its surface. These features entice scientists to study the moon more thoroughly.

One of Juno’s instruments is an imager and spectrometer that operates in the infrared. It’s called JIRAM (Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper.) It was designed to, obviously, map Jupiter’s aurorae. But as Juno’s orbits have brought it progressively closer to Io, JIRAM is delivering high-quality images and data from the volcanic moon.

“The observations show fascinating new information on Io’s volcanic processes.”

Scott Bolton, Principal Investigator for Juno, SwRI

In new research in Nature Communications Earth and Environment, a team of scientists present some new insights into the moon and its vigorous volcanic activity. The title is “Hot rings on Io observed by Juno/JIRAM.” The lead author is Alessandro Mura from the National Institute of Astrophysics—Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome, Italy. Italy provided the JIRAM instrument for the Juno mission.

“We are just starting to wade into the JIRAM results from the close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator for Juno at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “The observations show fascinating new information on Io’s volcanic processes. Combining these new results with Juno’s longer-term campaign to monitor and map the volcanoes on Io’s never-before-seen north and south poles, JIRAM is turning out to be one of the most valuable tools to learn how this tortured world works.”

Io has many of what planetary scientists call ‘paterae.’ Paterae are irregular craters or complex craters with scalloped edges. They’re usually broad and shallow, and scientists have wondered if they hold lava lakes. Older observations of Io from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft were inconclusive, but new images from Juno and JIRAM have much higher resolution.

In 2023, Juno came to within 13,000 km (8,100 miles) of Io’s surface, allowing JIRAM to capture greater detail. These images show more detail for a greater number of paterae, and the features the images reveal suggest that many of the craters have active lava lakes. “This new Juno/JIRAM data suggests that hot rings around paterae are a common phenomenon, and that they are indicative of active lava lakes,” the authors write in their paper.

This graphic shows the infrared radiance of Chors Patera, a lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io. The white ring is the hottest part of the patera, between 232 and 732 Celsius, where lava from the moon’s interior is exposed. The red/green inside the ring is likely a thick crust of molten material that’s -43 Celsius. Outside the patera, the temperature is about -143 Celsius. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM/MSSS

“The high spatial resolution of JIRAM’s infrared images, combined with the favorable position of Juno during the flybys, revealed that the whole surface of Io is covered by lava lakes contained in caldera-like features,” said Alessandro Mura, the paper’s lead author. “In the region of Io’s surface in which we have the most complete data, we estimate about 3% of it is covered by one of these molten lava lakes.”

Outstanding questions remain about the nature of Io’s volcanic activity and what happens underground. These new images help provide answers.

The lava lakes have only a thin ring of exposed lava. There are no lava flows beyond the rim or inside the rim, which indicates a balance between the magma that erupted into the lake and the magma that flowed back underground.

This figure from the research shows infrared radiance maps for six different paterae on Io. Each one has a lava ring inside the patera’s rim. Image Credit: Mura et al. 2024.

“We now have an idea of what is the most frequent type of volcanism on Io: enormous lakes of lava where magma goes up and down,” said Mura. “The lava crust is forced to break against the walls of the lake, forming the typical lava ring seen in Hawaiian lava lakes. The walls are likely hundreds of meters high, which explains why magma is generally not observed spilling out of the paterae and moving across the moon’s surface.”

The researchers proposed two different geologic models to explain the lava lakes in Io’s paterae: one they call a “central upwelling model” and the other a “piston motion” model.

The central upwelling model explains that the insulating crust “spreads radially via convection processes in the lake and then sinks at the edges, exposing lava,” the authors explain in their research. Basically, heat rises in the patera’s center, pushes outward radially, and hot lava founders at the edge and is exposed.

The problem with that model is the uniformity of the magma crust. JIRAM’s images show uniform heat across the magma crust, meaning it would have to be the same thickness. How could it maintain the same thickness while radiating horizontally?

The piston motion is slightly different. In that model, “a simple up-and-down ‘piston-type’ movement of the entire lake surface may cause disruption of the lava lake crust against the patera walls to reveal hotter material,” the authors explain. There’s no radiating horizontal motion like the central upwelling; rather, the entire lake moves up and down.

That model has problems, too. “For the piston-type lake model, the consistency between individual patera as well as the uniform brightness around the lake perimeter also poses geological challenges,” the authors explain. For all of the ten patera in the study to have hot rings of exposed lava, the vertical motion must be ongoing at all sites. At some sites, JIRAM should’ve detected changes in the depths of the patera. “No such depth changes at a specific patera have been reported,” the authors note, while also writing that the images may lack the temporal and spatial resolution to detect depth changes.

This figure from the research shows the two models the researchers are proposing. On the left in A and B is the central upwelling model. On the right in C and D is the piston motion model. Image Credit: Mura et al. 2024.

Activity at the rim where the lava is hottest may hold the eventual answer. “The observation of activity at the borders of the lake raises the question of whether some type of thermal or mechanical erosion between the lake surface and the patera walls might be taking place,” the authors write. Paterae might grow larger over time, but only by as much as a few hundred meters each year. No changes have been noted between visits by Voyager, Galileo, and Juno. It’s still possible, but the data is inconclusive.

The Juno spacecraft may still be able to provide deeper answers to Io’s volcanic activity. It’s already completed closer flybys of Io, and that data will be available in the future.

“Once the last Juno data are acquired, examining visible images of inactive patera for signs of former lava lake activity would be instructive,” the authors write in their conclusion.

The post Volcanic Plumes Rise Above Lava Lakes on Io in this Juno Image appeared first on Universe Today.

4 Min Read NASA Announces Winners of Inaugural Human Lander Challenge

NASA’s 2024 Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) Forum brought 12 university teams from across the United States to Huntsville, Alabama, near the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, to showcase their innovative concepts for addressing the complex issue of managing lunar dust. The 12 finalists, selected in March 2024, presented their final presentations to a panel of NASA and industry experts from NASA’s Human Landing Systems Program at the HuLC Forum in Huntsville June 25-27.

NASA’s lunar exploration campaign Artemis is working to send the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut to the Moon and establish long-term lunar science and exploration capabilities. Dust mitigation during landing is one of the key challenges NASA and its Artemis partners will have to address in exploring the lunar South Pole region and establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon. Participants in the 2024 Human Lander Challenge developed proposed systems-level solutions that could be potentially implemented within the next 3-5 years to manage or prevent clouds of dust – called lunar plume surface interaction – that form as a spacecraft touches down on the Moon.

NASA announced the University of Michigan team, with their project titled, “ARC-LIGHT: Algorithm for Robust Characterization of Lunar Surface Imaging for Ground Hazards and Trajectory” as the selected overall winner and recipient of a $10,000 award June 27.

12 university teams gathered in Huntsville, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, June 25-27 to participate in the final round of NASA’s 2024 Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) Forum.NASA/Ken Hall

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign took second place and a $5,000 award with their project, “HINDER: Holistic Integration of Navigational Dynamics for Erosion Reduction,” followed by University of Colorado Boulder for their project, “Lunar Surface Assessment Tool (LSAT): A Simulation of Lunar Dust Dynamics for Risk Analysis,” and a $3,000 award.

“Managing and reducing the threat of lunar dust is a formidable challenge to NASA and we are committed to real solutions for our long long-term presence on the Moon’s surface,” said Don Krupp, associate program manager for the HLS Program at Marshall. “A key part of NASA’s mission is to build the next generation of explorers and expand our partnerships across commercial industry and the academic community to advance HLS technologies, concepts, and approaches. The Human Lander Challenge is a great example of our unique partnership with the academic community as they help provide innovative and real solutions to the unique risks and challenges of returning to the Moon.”

Two teams received the excellence in systems engineering award:

• Texas A&M University, “Synthetic Orbital Landing Area for Crater Elimination (SOLACE)
• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, “Plume Additive for Reducing Surface Ejecta and Cratering (PARSEC)

NASA selected the University of Michigan as the overall winner of NASA’s 2024 Human Lander Challenge (HuLC) Forum June 27. NASA/Ken Hall

“The caliber of solutions presented by the finalist teams to address the challenges of lunar-plume surface interaction is truly commendable,” said Esther Lee, HuLC judging panel chair and aerospace engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “Witnessing the development of these concepts is an exciting glimpse into the promising future of aerospace leadership. It’s inspiring to see so many brilliant minds coming together to solve the challenges of lunar landings and exploration. We may all come from different educational backgrounds, but our shared passion for space unites us.”

Student and faculty advisor participants had the opportunity to network and interact with NASA and industry subject matter experts who are actively working on NASA’s Human Landing System capabilities giving participants a unique insight to careers and operations that further the Agency’s mission of human space exploration.

NASA’s Human Lander Challenge is sponsored by Human Landing System Program and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace. 

For more information about NASA Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, please visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration-systems-development-mission-directorate/

News Media Contact

Corinne Beckinger 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 
256.544.0034  
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov 

With lunar exploration ramping up, NASA has been tasked with defining a time zone for the moon. New calculations show that time is ever so slightly faster on the lunar surface, which can affect navigation

NASA/JPL-Caltech

This labyrinth – with a silhouette of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes at its center – is used as a calibration target for the cameras and laser that are part of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), one of the instruments aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. The image was captured by the Autofocus and Context Imager on SHERLOC on May 11, 2024, as the rover team sought to confirm it had successfully addressed an issue with a stuck lens cover.

The Perseverance rover searches for signs of ancient microbial life, to advance NASA’s quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. The rover is collecting core samples of Martian rock and soil (broken rock and soil), for potential pickup by a future mission that would bring them to Earth for detailed study.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

4 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Bronco Space team assembles its Bronco Ember technology, which uses a short-wave infrared camera with AI to improve early wildfire detection.Credit: Bronco Space

NASA’s public competitions can catalyze big changes – not just for the agency but also for participants. Bronco Space, the CubeSat laboratory at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, matured more than just space technology as a result of winning funds from NASA’s TechLeap Prize competition. It grew from its roots in a broom closet to a newly built lab on campus, expanding its capacity to mature space technologies long into the future.

The TechLeap Prize seeks to rapidly identify and develop space technologies through a series of challenges that each address a specific technology need for NASA and the nation. In addition to a cash prize, winners receive access to a suborbital or orbital flight opportunity on a commercial flight platform. Bronco Space won $500,000 in the inaugural TechLeap Prize, Autonomous Observation Challenge, launched in 2021. The challenge sought small spacecraft technologies that could autonomously detect, locate, track, and collect data on transient events on Earth and beyond. The team, made up of both undergraduate and graduate students, developed and launched a wildfire detection system called Bronco Ember, which used a short-wave infrared camera with AI (artificial intelligence) to improve early wildfire detection.

Zachary Gaines was an undergraduate student when he participated in the first challenge through TechLeap with Bronco Space. He has since graduated and now supervises the lab at Cal Poly Pomona. Gaines notes how the prize gave the team flexibility to invest in their lab and expand the university’s technology development and maturation capabilities.

“Because TechLeap gave us prize money rather than a grant, we had the freedom to invest those funds,” said Gaines. “If we want to make a real-world impact, which we always want to do, we needed a real lab with equipment. Thanks to TechLeap, we now have space in an innovation village right outside of campus.”

In 2022, Gaines was also involved in Bronco Space’s second time participating in TechLeap as part of the first Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge. The competition sought sensing systems to detect surface hazards from at least 250 meters high and process the data in real-time to generate a terrain map suitable for a spacecraft to land safely in the dark. As one of three winners eligible to receive up to $650,000 each, Bronco Space developed a system using a light projector to create an initial geometry map for landing. The system then uses LIDAR (light detection and ranging) along with advances in computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and computing to generate a map that reconstructs lunar terrain.

A demo of the 3D digital “twin” app created by PRISM Intelligence for NASA’s Entrepreneurs Challenge.Credit: Bronco Space

From the experience with TechLeap, Gaines and other team members formed the small business Pegasus Intelligence and Space, now PRISM Intelligence, and participated in another challenge – NASA’s Entrepreneurs Challenge. This competition seeks the development and commercialization of lunar payloads and climate science through an entrepreneurial and venture lens to advance the Agency’s science exploration goals. The company’s technology, also called PRISM, is a 3D digital map of the world that uses AI to make the “twin” world searchable. The challenge encouraged Gaines and the PRISM team to bridge the gap between available data and consumer end-users. PRISM was a Round 2 winner of the challenge, receiving a share of the $1 million prize as well as exposure to external funders and investors.

Gaines traces the success of PRISM back to his first TechLeap experience: “The company wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t done TechLeap. It helped me understand how to develop technologies for industry.”

The company and the university continue to secure NASA support. In December 2023, Cal Poly Pomona was selected to receive a two-year funded cooperative agreement through NASA’s University SmallSat Technology Partnership.

“When people invest in your ideas and continue to support them, they help you get smarter and increase your understanding of people’s needs,” said Gaines. “Building technologies with the goal of a real-world impact is really motivating.”

Members of Bronco Space developed a sensing system that generates a map for precise spacecraft landing as part of NASA’s second TechLeap competition.Credit: Bronco Space

Two major US healthcare organisations have offered contradictory advice about the use of weight loss drugs in adolescents with obesity, underscoring just how little we know about the effects of these medications

Technological innovations make headlines every day, and NASA’s In Space Production Applications (InSPA) Portfolio of awards are driving these innovations into the future. InSPA awards help U.S. companies demonstrate in-space manufacturing of their products and move them to market, propelling U.S. industry toward the development of a sustainable, scalable, and profitable non-NASA demand for services and products manufactured in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit for use on Earth.

Latest News: A Meta-Analysis of Semiconductor Materials Fabricated in Microgravity (June 26, 2024) ISSRDC Announces “Steps to Space” Session to Educate Future Researchers (June 27, 2024) Innovation in Focus: Technology Development (June 13, 2024) Optical Fiber Production – Science in Space: March 2024 (March 25, 2024) ISS National Lab Releases In Space Production Applications Funding Opportunity (March 6, 2024) NASA Aims to Boost In Space Production Applications (May 15, 2023) White Paper: The Benefits of Semiconductor Manufacturing in Low-Earth Orbit for Terrestrial Use (November 9, 2023) Station InSPA: The Next Industrial Revolution? (September 1, 2022) Keep Exploring Discover More Topics

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2 min read

NASA@ My Library and Partners Engage Millions in Eclipse Training and Preparation

The Space Science Institute, with funding from the NASA Science Mission Directorate and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, provided unprecedented training, support, and supplies to 15,000 libraries in the U.S. and territories in support of public engagement during the 2023 and 2024 eclipses.

From September 2022 to September 2024, these efforts included:

• Co-development efforts with 3 NASA@ My Library Partner Libraries in the “Square of Awesome” (where both the total and annular eclipse crossed) led to the distribution of 50 NASA@ My Library Solar Science Kits to libraries with a high percentage of Spanish speaking patrons.
• Over 6 million solar viewers distributed to approximately 15,000 public libraries (with some school libraries included), distributed to every US state and territory.
• Over 2,000 in-person workshop attendees at 78 in-person solar science workshops in almost every state and territory
• Final workshops scheduled for Hawaii (4 islands) and American Samoa
• A total of 217 Solar Eclipse Activities for Libraries (SEAL) Solar Science Kits distributed to State Libraries
• Over 49,062 programs held at public libraries reaching more than 2.8 million patrons

One public library staff member had this to say: “People who haven’t been into the library for 20+ years came in to get glasses, and we had a lot of new library cards generated in late March. Our door counts were over pre-pandemic for the first time since 2019. Thank you for making this possible!”

The NASA@ My Library project is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE30A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn

Students celebrate the partial solar eclipse in April in Los Angeles, with glasses and programs provided by the Los Angeles Public Library System. LA Unified School District Share

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1 Min Read An Eclipse Megamovie Megastar

Nasmus Nazir’s High Dynamic Range image, created with processed photographs of the Sun’s corona taken during the total solare eclipse on April 8th, 2024.

Nazmus “Naz” Nasir is a software engineer by day, and an astrophotographer by night….and sometimes by day as well! This April, Naz participated in NASA’s Eclipse Megamovie 2024 project, photographing the total solar eclipse. He posted online a spectacular video composed of stabilized and aligned photographs of the sun taken during totality. The video includes links to tutorials Naz created to teach viewers the techniques he used.

“I have had an interest in astronomy since childhood,” Naz says on his website, Naztronomy. “Until recently, I was unable to pursue my dreams of being an astronomer. But now, I have my own telescope which allows me to view the heavens like never before.”

We hope you’ll share your eclipse photographs and videos like Naz has done. Eclipse Megamovie will be accepting photographs from the April 8th solar eclipse again in June, so if you have a photograph of the eclipse, please send it in! Your photographs will help us investigate the secret lives of solar jets and plasma plumes.

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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) View of the Nova-C landing area near Malapert A in the South Pole region of the Moon. North is to the right. Taken by LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) NAC (Narrow Angle Camera).NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

NASA has released two white papers associated with the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture efforts. The papers, one on lunar mobility drivers and needs, and one on lunar surface cargo, detail NASA’s latest thinking on specific areas of its lunar exploration strategy.

While NASA has established a yearly cadence of releasing new documents associated with its Moon to Mars architecture, the agency occasionally releases mid-cycle findings to share essential information in areas of interest for its stakeholders.

“Lunar Mobility Drivers and Needs” discusses the need to move cargo and assets on the lunar surface, from landing sites to areas of use, and some of the factors that will significantly impact mobility systems.

“Lunar Surface Cargo” analyses some of the current projected needs and identifies current capability gaps for the transportation of cargo to the lunar surface.

The Moon to Mars architecture approach incorporates feedback from U.S. industry, academia, international partners, and the NASA workforce. The agency typically releases a series of technical documents at the end of its annual analysis cycle, including an update of the Architecture Definition Document and white papers that elaborate on frequently raised topics.

Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all.

You can find all of NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture documents at:

https://www.nasa.gov/moontomarsarchitecture

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The summer of 2023 was Earth’s hottest since global records began in 1880, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

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