Cosmic Teacup

Author: Kate Green

  • Early dark energy could resolve cosmology’s two biggest puzzles

    Early dark energy could resolve cosmology’s two biggest puzzles

    by Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    September 13, 2024

    A new study by MIT physicists proposes that a mysterious force known as early dark energy could solve two of the biggest puzzles in cosmology and fill in some major gaps in our understanding of how the early universe evolved.

    One puzzle in question is the “Hubble tension,” which refers to a mismatch in measurements of how fast the universe is expanding. The other involves observations of numerous early, bright galaxies that existed at a time when the early universe should have been much less populated.

    Now, the MIT team has found that both puzzles could be resolved if the early universe had one extra, fleeting ingredient: early dark energy. Dark energy is an unknown form of energy that physicists suspect is driving the expansion of the universe today.

    Early dark energy is a similar, hypothetical phenomenon that may have made only a brief appearance, influencing the expansion of the universe in its first moments before disappearing entirely.

    Some physicists have suspected that early dark energy could be the key to solving the Hubble tension, as the mysterious force could accelerate the early expansion of the universe by an amount that would resolve the measurement mismatch.

    The MIT researchers have now found that early dark energy could also explain the baffling number of bright galaxies that astronomers have observed in the early universe. In their new study, reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the team modeled the formation of galaxies in the universe’s first few hundred million years.

    When they incorporated a dark energy component only in that earliest sliver of time, they found the number of galaxies that arose from the primordial environment bloomed to fit astronomers’ observations.

    “You have these two looming open-ended puzzles,” says study co-author Rohan Naidu, a postdoc in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “We find that, in fact, early dark energy is a very elegant and sparse solution to two of the most pressing problems in cosmology.”

    The study’s co-authors include lead author and Kavli postdoc Xuejian (Jacob) Shen, and MIT professor of physics Mark Vogelsberger, along with Michael Boylan-Kolchin at the University of Texas at Austin, and Sandro Tacchella at the University of Cambridge.

     

    Big city lights

    Based on standard cosmological and galaxy formation models, the universe should have taken its time spinning up the first galaxies. It would have taken billions of years for primordial gas to coalesce into galaxies as large and bright as the Milky Way.

    But in 2023, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) made a startling observation. With an ability to peer farther back in time than any observatory to date, the telescope uncovered a surprising number of bright galaxies as large as the modern Milky Way within the first 500 million years, when the universe was just 3% of its current age.

    “The bright galaxies that JWST saw would be like seeing a clustering of lights around big cities, whereas theory predicts something like the light around more rural settings like Yellowstone National Park,” Shen says. “And we don’t expect that clustering of light so early on.”

    For physicists, the observations imply that there is either something fundamentally wrong with the physics underlying the models or a missing ingredient in the early universe that scientists have not accounted for. The MIT team explored the possibility of the latter, and whether the missing ingredient might be early dark energy.

    Physicists have proposed that early dark energy is a sort of antigravitational force that is turned on only at very early times. This force would counteract gravity’s inward pull and accelerate the early expansion of the universe in a way that would resolve the mismatch in measurements. Early dark energy, therefore, is considered the most likely solution to the Hubble tension.

    Galaxy skeleton

    The MIT team explored whether early dark energy could also be the key to explaining the unexpected population of large, bright galaxies detected by JWST. In their new study, the physicists considered how early dark energy might affect the early structure of the universe that gave rise to the first galaxies. They focused on the formation of dark matter halos—regions of space where gravity happens to be stronger, and where matter begins to accumulate.

    “We believe that dark matter halos are the invisible skeleton of the universe,” Shen explains. “Dark matter structures form first, and then galaxies form within these structures. So, we expect the number of bright galaxies should be proportional to the number of big dark matter halos.”

    The team developed an empirical framework for early galaxy formation, which predicts the number, luminosity, and size of galaxies that should form in the early universe, given some measures of “cosmological parameters.” Cosmological parameters are the basic ingredients, or mathematical terms, that describe the evolution of the universe.

    Physicists have determined that there are at least six main cosmological parameters, one of which is the Hubble constant—a term that describes the universe’s rate of expansion. Other parameters describe density fluctuations in the primordial soup, immediately after the Big Bang, from which dark matter halos eventually form.

    The MIT team reasoned that if early dark energy affects the universe’s early expansion rate in a way that resolves the Hubble tension, then it could affect the balance of the other cosmological parameters, in a way that might increase the number of bright galaxies that appear at early times.

    To test their theory, they incorporated a model of early dark energy (the same one that happens to resolve the Hubble tension) into an empirical galaxy formation framework to see how the earliest dark matter structures evolve and give rise to the first galaxies.

    “What we show is, the skeletal structure of the early universe is altered in a subtle way where the amplitude of fluctuations goes up, and you get bigger halos, and brighter galaxies that are in place at earlier times, more so than in our more vanilla models,” Naidu says. “It means things were more abundant, and more clustered in the early universe.”

    “A priori, I would not have expected the abundance of JWST’s early bright galaxies to have anything to do with early dark energy, but their observation that EDE pushes cosmological parameters in a direction that boosts the early-galaxy abundance is interesting,” says Marc Kamionkowski, professor of theoretical physics at Johns Hopkins University, who was not involved with the study.

    “I think more work will need to be done to establish a link between early galaxies and EDE, but regardless of how things turn out, it’s a clever—and hopefully ultimately fruitful—thing to try.”

    “We demonstrated the potential of early dark energy as a unified solution to the two major issues faced by cosmology. This might be evidence for its existence if the observational findings of JWST get further consolidated,” Vogelsberger concludes.

    “In the future, we can incorporate this into large cosmological simulations to see what detailed predictions we get.”

    Image:

    Early dark energy could have triggered the formation of numerous bright galaxies, very early in the universe, a new study finds. The mysterious unknown force could have caused early seeds of galaxies (depicted at left) to sprout many more bright galaxies (at right) than theory predicts. Credit: Josh Borrow/Thesan Team

     

     

    Journal:

    Xuejian Shen et al, Early Galaxies and Early Dark Energy: A Unified Solution to the Hubble Tension and Puzzles of Massive Bright Galaxies revealed by JWST, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stae1932.

     

  • Deep imaging techniques reveal that galaxies are much much bigger than previously thought

    Deep imaging techniques reveal that galaxies are much much bigger than previously thought

    by ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D)

    September 06, 2024

    If this galaxy is typical, then the study, published today in Nature Astronomy, indicates that our galaxy is already interacting with its closest neighbour, Andromeda.

    Where does a galaxy end and deep space begin? It seems like a simple question until you look more closely at the gas that surrounds galaxies, known as the circumgalactic medium.

    The halo of gas surrounding the stellar disk accounts for about 70% of the mass of the galaxy—excluding dark matter—but until now it has remained something of a mystery. In the past, we have only been able to observe the gas by measuring the light from a background object, such as a quasar, that is absorbed by the gas.

    That limits the picture of the cloud to a pencil-like beam.

    A new study, however, has observed the circumgalactic medium of a star-bursting galaxy 270 million light years away, using new deep imaging techniques that were able to detect the cloud of gas glowing outside of the galaxy 100,000 light years into space, as far as they were able to look.

    To envisage the vastness of that cloud of gas, consider that the galaxy’s starlight—what we would typically view as the disk—extends just 7,800 light years from its centre.

    The current study observed the physical connection of hydrogen and oxygen from the centre of the galaxy far into space and showed that the physical conditions of the gas changed.

    “We found it everywhere we looked, which was really exciting and kind of surprising,” says Associate Professor Nikole M. Nielsen, lead author of the paper, and a researcher with Swinburne University, and ASTRO 3D and an Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma.

    Other authors of the paper came from Swinburne, the University of Texas at Austin, the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, the University of California, San Diego, and Durham University.

    “We’re now seeing where the galaxy’s influence stops, the transition where it becomes part of more of what’s surrounding the galaxy, and, eventually, where it joins the wider cosmic web and other galaxies. These are all usually fuzzy boundaries,” says Dr. Nielsen.

    “But in this case, we seem to have found a fairly clear boundary in this galaxy between its interstellar medium and its circumgalactic medium.”

    The study observed stars ionizing gas with their photons within the galaxy.

    “In the CGM, the gas is being heated by something other than typical conditions inside galaxies. This likely includes heating from the diffuse emissions from the collective galaxies in the universe and possibly some contribution is due to shocks,” says Dr. Nielsen.

    “It’s this interesting change that is important and provides some answers to the question of where a galaxy ends,” she says.

    The discovery has been made possible thanks to the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) on the 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii, which contains an integral field spectrograph and is one of the most sensitive instruments of its kind in operation.

    “These one-of-a-kind observations require the very dark sky that is only available at the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea,” said one of the paper’s authors, Swinburne’s Associate Professor Deanne Fisher.

    ASTRO 3D scientists gained access to KCWI through Swinburne University.

    “Swinburne’s Partnership with the W. M. Keck Observatory has allowed our team to really push the boundaries of what is possible,” says another author, Associate Professor Glenn Kacprzak. “KCWI has really changed the game on how we can now measure and quantify the diffuse gas around galaxies.”

    Thanks to the instrument, rather than making a single observation providing a single spectrum of the gas in the galaxy, scientists can now obtain thousands of spectra simultaneously with one image from KCWI.

    “It is the very first time that we have been able to take a photograph of this halo of matter around a galaxy,” says Professor Emma Ryan-Weber, the Director of ASTRO 3D.

    The study adds another piece to the puzzle that is one of the big questions in astronomy and galaxy evolution—how do galaxies evolve? How do they get their gas? How do they process that gas? Where does that gas go.

    “The circumgalactic medium plays a huge role in that cycling of that gas,” says Dr. Nielsen. “So, being able to understand what the CGM looks like around galaxies of different types—ones that are star-forming, those that are no longer star-forming, and those that are transitioning between the two—we can observe differences in this gas, which might drive the differences within the galaxies themselves, and changes in this reservoir may actually be driving the changes in the galaxy itself.”

    The study speaks directly to the ASTRO 3D’s mission. “It helps us understand how galaxies build mass over time,” says Professor Ryan-Weber.

    The findings could also hold implications for how different galaxies interact and how they might impact each other.

    “It’s highly likely that the CGMs of our own Milky Way and Andromeda are already overlapping and interacting,” says Dr. Nielsen.

    Journal:

    An emission map of the disk–circumgalactic medium transition in starburst IRAS 08339+6517, Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02365-x

     

    Image:

    Visualization of the gas shroud of starburst galaxy IRAS 08339+6517. Credit: Cristy Roberts ANU/ASTRO 3D

    Image:

    Lead author, Nikki Nielsen with colleagues Glenn Kacprzak and Stephanie Pointon in front of the Keck mirror. Credit: Provided

  • NASA’s Next-Gen Spacesuits: Where Fashion Meets Space!!

    NASA’s Next-Gen Spacesuits: Where Fashion Meets Space!!

    by Kate Green

    The collaboration between Axiom Space and Prada has unveiled the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit, designed for NASA’s Artemis III mission. This next-gen spacesuit combines creativity with engineering, reflecting how partnerships between diverse industries can drive innovation in space exploration.

    Prada contributed its expertise in high-performance materials and advanced sewing techniques to enhance the suit’s outer-layer design, while Axiom Space integrated its technology for flexibility, safety, and functionality. The AxEMU suit is built to withstand the extreme environment of the lunar surface, including elevated temperatures and lunar dust, and it is scalable for use in low-Earth orbit. Notably, the suit’s design supports a wide range of astronaut sizes, from the first to the 99th percentile.

    The AxEMU is built on NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) design, offering increased mobility, performance, and safety, with specialized features like regenerable CO2 scrubbing and cooling systems. The suit will allow astronauts to perform spacewalks for up to eight hours in the harsh lunar environment, including the permanently shadowed regions of the Moon’s south pole.

    Axiom Space and Prada’s collaboration marks a significant step forward in the commercialization of space, blending industry expertise to pioneer innovative solutions for space exploration. The spacesuit is set to undergo further testing, with critical design reviews expected in 2025.

    AXEMU DEVELOPMENT

    The AxEMU (Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit) is a next-generation spacesuit developed by Axiom Space, advancing NASA’s xEMU (Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit) design. It enhances flexibility, safety, and performance, crucial for the challenges of the lunar south pole, particularly during the Artemis III mission. The suit is designed to accommodate a broad range of astronaut body types (from the first to the 99th percentile) and endure the Moon’s extreme environments. It can operate in the coldest, permanently shadowed lunar regions for at least two hours and support eight-hour spacewalks.

    Key features of the AxEMU:

    • Multiple redundant systems and an onboard diagnostic system to ensure safety.

    • A regenerable CO2 scrubbing system and advanced cooling technology to remove excess heat.

    • Enhanced coatings on the helmet and visor for better visibility (in collaboration with Oakley).

    • Custom gloves designed in-house with advancements for comfort and usability.

    • A life support system, pressure garments, and avionics integrated into the architecture.

    The AxEMU’s modular design allows it to be scalable and adaptable for various missions, whether on the lunar surface or in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Over the past two years, Axiom Space has iteratively improved the suit, conducting extensive testing, including underwater simulations at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) and reduced gravity simulations at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre.

    Recently, the suit completed a pressurized simulation test with NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom Space, the first since the Apollo era. As the AxEMU approaches the final development stages, it will undergo further crewed tests at the NBL and integrated tests with Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle prototypes before the critical design review phase in 2025.

    Returning to the Lunar Surface

    The Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit represents a major leap forward for lunar exploration, providing astronauts with cutting-edge equipment to access, live, and work on the Moon. This next-generation spacesuit, developed by Axiom Space, offers enhanced flexibility and protection tailored to the Artemis III mission and beyond. It builds on NASA’s xEMU design, incorporating innovative technologies to improve mobility, safety, and the ability to perform scientific tasks.

    Key advancements of the AxEMU spacesuit:

    • Increased flexibility: Allows astronauts to move more naturally, improving their ability to explore the lunar surface.

    • Greater protection: Designed to withstand the Moon’s harsh conditions, including extreme temperatures, lunar dust, and the challenges of working in low-gravity environments.

    • Specialized tools: Equipped with tools to aid in exploration, enabling astronauts to conduct more extensive scientific research on the lunar surface.

    The suit’s modular and flexible design enables astronauts to cover more ground, access new regions, and expand the scope of scientific opportunities, particularly in the lunar south pole. This development marks a significant milestone for U.S. space leadership, supporting NASA’s vision of long-term lunar exploration and setting the stage for future missions that extend human presence deeper into the solar system.

    Axiom Space’s work on the AxEMU also highlights the evolving commercial role in space exploration, providing NASA with advanced, commercially developed human systems that help pave the way for the Artemis program’s future missions and beyond.

    A spacesuit for everyone

    The Axiom Space AxEMU spacesuit is a breakthrough in both design and functionality, tailored to meet the diverse needs of astronauts, space agencies, and commercial ventures. Its adjustable and versatile sizing accommodates a broad spectrum of body types, providing a customized fit that enhances both comfort and performance for astronauts during critical missions.

    Key Features:

    • Adjustable design: The AxEMU’s ability to fit a wide range of body types, from the first to 99th percentile, ensures that astronauts of varying sizes can operate effectively in space. This inclusivity sets a new standard for space missions.

    • Improved comfort: The suit is engineered to increase comfort, which is essential for long-duration spacewalks and other extravehicular activities, allowing astronauts to work efficiently without being hindered by their gear.

    Designed for Versatility:

    The AxEMU is a cost-effective multipurpose spacesuit, making it adaptable to various mission types, whether on the lunar surface or in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Its agile design meets the stringent demands of different environments with minimal modifications, offering:

    • Dust resistance: The suit is designed to withstand the challenges of the lunar surface, particularly the abrasive lunar dust.

    • Critical interfaces: Key features ensure safe and effective extravehicular activities (EVAs) in microgravity, making the AxEMU suitable for use in various space exploration contexts.

    By providing a spacesuit that is adaptable for multiple missions, the AxEMU advances space exploration capabilities while being efficient and cost-effective. This flexibility ensures that astronauts are equipped to perform tasks safely and effectively across a range of space environments.

    Designed for Every Mission

    The AxEMU is designed as a cost-effective, multipurpose spacesuit, engineered to adapt to a wide variety of missions with minimal modifications. This versatile design ensures that astronauts can safely and efficiently perform tasks in various challenging environments, from the dusty lunar surface to microgravity conditions in low-Earth orbit (LEO).

    Key Advantages:

    • Safety and agility: The AxEMU offers improved safety through advanced technology and increased agility, enabling astronauts to navigate complex terrains and perform tasks with ease.

    • Environmental resilience: It is built to endure the harsh, dusty conditions of the lunar surface, ensuring that astronauts can continue their operations without being impeded by lunar dust.

    • Critical interfaces: Designed to maintain crucial systems and connections, the suit supports safe and effective extravehicular activities (EVAs), allowing astronauts to operate seamlessly in microgravity environments.

    By incorporating innovative features that enhance mobility and reliability, the AxEMU provides an adaptable solution for a wide range of exploration needs, making it a versatile asset for current and future space missions.

    Safety

    The AxEMU spacesuit prioritizes safety and reliability by incorporating advancements based on lessons from legacy spacesuits, while integrating new technologies to ensure astronaut protection during missions. Its design centres around mitigating risks and eliminating single-point failures through the use of redundant components.

    Key Safety Features:

    • Redundant systems: The AxEMU’s architecture includes multiple layers of redundancy, meaning that if one system fails, backup components will take over to ensure continuous functionality, especially during critical operations like returning to the spacecraft.

    • Enhanced reliability: The suit incorporates state-of-the-art technology, such as advanced life support systems and materials that provide additional protection, ensuring astronauts can operate confidently in challenging environments.

    The architecture built around the astronaut ensures that every aspect of the suit is optimized to keep them safe, allowing for seamless operation even in the event of equipment malfunction. By focusing on redundancy and reliability, the AxEMU sets a new standard for safety in space exploration.

    Better Mobility

    The AxEMU spacesuit is designed to deliver superior mobility and agility, essential for astronauts operating in extreme environments. Recognizing that spacesuits must support astronauts in performing complex tasks, the AxEMU integrates a combination of soft and hard joints to significantly improve the range of motion.

    Key Mobility Enhancements:

    • Innovative joint design: The combination of flexible soft joints and durable hard joints allows for a greater range of motion, enabling astronauts to walk, bend, and manoeuvre on the Moon’s surface with ease. This ensures they can conduct precise geological and scientific tasks with minimal effort.

    • Optimized for exploration: The suit is tailored to allow astronauts to move more fluidly while walking or working, enhancing their ability to navigate the challenging lunar terrain.

    • Ease of movement in microgravity: The increased agility not only benefits lunar surface missions but also improves astronauts’ ability to move around and translate while working in microgravity environments, such as space stations.

    By enhancing comfort and mobility, the AxEMU ensures that astronauts can perform their tasks more efficiently, reducing fatigue and enabling them to stay focused on exploration and scientific research. This advancement in design allows for safer, more productive extravehicular activities, crucial for the success of future space missions.

    Built Together

    The AxEMU spacesuit is a product of a truly collaborative effort, bringing together experts from diverse fields and industries. Each hardware component, fabric panel, and integrated system within the suit represents the combined knowledge and skills of individuals from various backgrounds—ranging from sewers and technicians to engineers, medical personnel, and more.

    This multidisciplinary approach ensures that every aspect of the suit is crafted with precision, reliability, and innovation, leveraging the best practices from each sector. By combining engineering expertise with innovative materials and production techniques, the AxEMU is not just a spacesuit, but a testament to the power of cross-industry collaboration.

    The development process has brought together people with a shared vision of advancing human exploration, creating a spacesuit designed to make history by enabling astronauts to safely walk on the Moon once again. This teamwork exemplifies the idea that groundbreaking achievements are built through the collective efforts of many, pushing the boundaries of space exploration.

    Built to last Generations

    The AxEMU spacesuit is designed with an agile, future-proof architecture, ensuring it meets the evolving needs of individual, commercial, and government space exploration customers. This adaptable design allows the suit to be tailored to a broad range of mission requirements, making it a versatile tool for various objectives in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and beyond.

    Key Features of Longevity:

    • Agile architecture: The suit’s core design is flexible and scalable, enabling it to accommodate a wide range of mission profiles and environmental conditions with minimal modifications.

    • On-orbit maintenance: The AxEMU can be maintained and repaired while in orbit, reducing the need for frequent resupply or costly replacements. This capability significantly lowers operational costs and extends the lifespan of the suit during long-duration missions.

    • Cost-efficiency: The long-lasting design of the AxEMU ensures that space agencies and commercial operators can rely on the suit for multiple missions, enhancing cost-effectiveness by minimizing the time and resources needed for upkeep.

    By focusing on durability and adaptability, the AxEMU is built to serve multiple generations of space exploration, supporting the future of low-Earth orbit operations, lunar missions, and even deeper space endeavours. This innovation ensures that the suit remains a vital tool in the continued expansion of human presence in space.

    Image: Shown here is the current white cover layer of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit prototype as it is tested in the Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) system at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The person wearing it tests its use with different lunar geology tools.

    Image: The AxEMU spacesuit includes custom gloves made in-house featuring several advancements over the gloves currently in use.

    Image: The Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) spacesuit includes a helmet with visor, lights, and HD camera.

    Image: The AxEMU suit will enable astronauts to perform a spacewalk for at least eight hours and it accommodates a wide range of crewmembers, including males and females from the first to 99th percentile (anthropomorphic sizing).

    Image: The single AxEMU architecture is evolvable, scalable and adaptable for missions on the lunar surface and in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The AxEMU has significant advancements in safety, mobility, sizing, and performance.

  • Cloudspotting on Mars Project

    Cloudspotting on Mars Project

    by Zooniverse

    October 30, 2024

    Get ready to explore the skies of Mars: we’re thrilled to launch Cloudspotting on Mars: Shapes!

    In this fun new project, you’ll help us identify and map different types of Martian clouds using data from NASA’s MAVEN mission. Dive into the Red Planet’s atmosphere, spot icy clouds, and help scientists unlock the mysteries of Martian weather patterns!

    The MAVEN spacecraft has been snapping stunning images for years, and we need your help to sort through them. Your discoveries will be part of a cool cloud library that will help scientists better understand Mars’ ever-changing atmosphere.

    Join the adventure and start cloudspotting today—visit: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/matteocrismani/cloudspotting-on-mars-shapes

    Has this new NASA citizen science project sparked your interest? Consider subscribing to our NASA-Zooniverse email list to receive updates and news regarding broader NASA citizen science projects and efforts.

    If interested, please follow these instructions to sign up:

    1. Log in to your Zooniverse account.

    2. Visit https://www.zooniverse.org/settings/email

    3. Click the checkbox under “Zooniverse partner email preferences” to sign up for periodic email updates from NASA.

  • NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission Astronaut remains Hospitalised

    NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission Astronaut remains Hospitalised

    by Kate Green

    October 25, 2024

    NASA recently announced that an Astronaut from the Crew-8 mission, who returned from completing a 235-day mission on October 25, is currently hospitalized following a routine medical check.

    The mission, which included NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenki, had an uneventful re-entry and splashdown off Florida’s coast.

    After safely splashing down on Earth as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission Friday, a NASA astronaut experienced a medical issue. NASA stated that after initial evaluations were performed aboard the recovery ship, further medical assessments were undertaken as a precautionary measure.

    According to a statement from NASA, “”additional evaluation of the crew members was requested out of an abundance of caution.”

    NASA did not elaborate further.

    The latest update from NASA states that “three crew members have since been released, while one NASA astronaut remains under observation at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola as a precautionary measure.”

    The Agency continued to say that they “are grateful to Ascension Sacred Heart for its support during this time, and we are proud of our team for its quick action to ensure the safety of our crew members.”

    NASA has not specified the medical condition to respect the Astronaut’s privacy but has assured the public that they are in stable condition.

    NASA will provide additional information as it becomes available.

    Image: The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after splashdown off the coast of Florida on October 25, 2024.

  • Increasing Space Debris – Are there solutions?

    Increasing Space Debris – Are there solutions?

    by Kate Green

    October 19, 2024

    The Disney-Pixar movie WALL-E (2008) offers an interesting, if not entirely realistic, portrayal of Earth’s future, including a representation of space debris. While the film primarily focuses on environmental degradation, its depiction of space junk hints at real-world issues related to space debris and human neglect of sustainability.

    The real life growing issue of space debris, or space junk, is a significant challenge for the future of space exploration and satellite operations. As more nations and companies launch satellites and missions into Earth’s orbit, the risk of collisions and disruptions increases.

    Why is Space Debris a Problem?

    Space debris includes defunct satellites, spent rocket stages, fragments from collisions, and other non-functional objects in Earth’s orbit. These range from large objects to tiny paint flecks, but even small debris traveling at high velocities (up to 28,000 km/h) can cause severe damage.

    As of October 2024, over 36,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 cm are tracked, but millions of smaller, untracked particles also pose dangers. Collisions between debris and operational spacecraft could lead to a Kessler syndrome, where the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) reaches a point that leads to cascading collisions, rendering orbits unusable for satellites or space missions, trapping humanity on Earth much like in WALL-E.

    Space debris threatens active satellites, the International Space Station (ISS), and future space missions. It also endangers human spaceflight and critical infrastructure like communication and weather satellites.

    Proposed Solutions to the Space Debris Problem

    Active Debris Removal (ADR)

    ADR involves removing large debris objects before they cause collisions. Several concepts are being developed:

    • Space tugs: Satellites equipped with robotic arms or nets could capture and deorbit large debris.

    • Harpoons and nets: Special satellites can harpoon or net debris, dragging it into Earth’s atmosphere to burn up.

    • Lasers: Ground-based or satellite-based lasers could “nudge” debris by altering its orbit slightly, causing it to deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere over time.

    A real life example is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ClearSpace-1 mission, planned for 2026, which aims to capture and de-orbit a large piece of space debris (a rocket component) using a robotic arm.

    Debris Mitigation

    The reduction in the creation of new debris is crucial with mitigation strategies including:

    • End-of-life protocols: Satellites should be designed to either deorbit themselves or move to a graveyard orbit at the end of their operational life. This is already a regulatory requirement for some missions.

    • Design improvements: Satellites and rockets should minimize the shedding of parts during launch and operations, and be made of materials that degrade more quickly in orbit.

    An example of this is the UN’s Outer Space Treaty and Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC)  which recommends guidelines for minimizing debris, though enforcement is challenging.

    International Cooperation and Policy

    • International treaties: Coordinated international policies and agreements will be necessary to enforce space debris regulations, ensuring that all countries follow best practices for debris mitigation and removal.

    • Debris-tracking networks: Nations must work together to enhance global tracking systems. This includes sharing data about debris objects and possible collisions.

    Organizations like the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) work to foster international dialogue on space sustainability – but again, not all countries and private / commercial companies are willing to participate.

    Space Traffic Management (STM)

    Just as air traffic control manages airplanes, STM aims to manage and monitor objects in space. By tracking large debris, space agencies can prevent collisions and ensure the safety of space missions. However, as the number of objects in orbit grows, this task becomes more challenging, emphasizing the need for active debris removal and better space traffic management.

    • Real-time tracking: Enhanced debris tracking and collision-avoidance systems could help prevent potential collisions between satellites and debris.

    • Autonomous systems: AI-powered systems onboard satellites could automatically adjust orbits when on a collision course with debris.

    • Tracking Objects Larger than 10 cm: Pieces of debris larger than 10 cm are considered large enough to be tracked with ground-based radar and optical telescopes. Space agencies such as NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) keep continuous track of these objects. Private organizations like the U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN) and LeoLabs also track debris and offer collision avoidance services for satellite operators.

    • Catalogued Objects: There are currently over 36,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 cm orbiting Earth that are being tracked. These include defunct satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments from collisions or disintegration events.

    • Avoidance Manoeuvres: When larger pieces of tracked debris come close to active satellites or the International Space Station (ISS), operators are alerted and sometimes perform avoidance manoeuvres to prevent collisions.

    • Objects Between 1 and 10 cm: Although objects between 1 and 10 cm are harder to track, they are still dangerous. These are often detected using radar, but their precise orbits may not always be catalogued. The number of objects in this size range is estimated to be much higher, in the hundreds of thousands.

    • Smaller Debris: Even smaller debris (under 1 cm) poses risks, especially to spacecraft and Astronauts, though these are too small to track individually. Shielding techniques are used to protect spacecraft from these tiny, high-velocity objects.

    Recycling and Repurposing in Space

    • In-orbit recycling: A future possibility could involve missions that collect debris and repurpose materials in space for manufacturing. This would help clear orbits and provide resources for constructing spacecraft or stations without launching materials from Earth.

    • On-orbit servicing: Some companies are developing satellites that can extend the life of other satellites by refueling or repairing them, preventing them from becoming debris.

    Another private company example is that of Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) that successfully extended the life of a communications satellite, showcasing the potential of on-orbit servicing.

    The Path Forward

    While Disney’s WALL-E is an animated science fiction film, its portrayal of space debris serves as a cautionary tale. It highlights the importance of addressing real-world environmental and space sustainability issues before they spiral out of control. It reflects a growing awareness of the need for responsible space exploration, better debris management, and sustainable living on Earth.

    Innovative solutions are being developed with the challenge being implementing these solutions globally and at scale. Active removal efforts combined with strong mitigation policies, technological advances, and international cooperation offer the most promising paths to maintaining a sustainable space environment for future generations.

  • NASA / Boeing Starliner Saga Continues

    NASA / Boeing Starliner Saga Continues

    by Kate Green

    October 19, 2024

    NASA’s Starliner spacecraft, developed by Boeing, has faced several delays and technical issues, pushing its next crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to no earlier than 2025.

    Here’s an overview of the situation and its impact on upcoming missions:

    Key Points:

    1. Starliner’s Crewed Mission Delayed:

      • Starliner’s next potential crewed mission to the ISS will occur no sooner than 2025. NASA is currently reviewing Boeing’s path to system certification following issues on the spacecraft’s first crewed test flight earlier this year.

      • The launch of the Crew Flight Test (CFT) on June 5, 2023, experienced propulsion problems during docking. While astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams reached the ISS safely, five out of 28 thrusters had issues, leading to repeated mission extensions.

    2. Troubleshooting and Delays:

      • Even after extensive ground and space testing, the propulsion issues weren’t fully resolved, prompting NASA to bring Starliner back autonomously on September 6, 2023.

      • Williams and Wilmore, originally expected to return on Starliner, will now return to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in February 2025 as part of the Crew-9 mission. Crew Dragon’s flexibility allowed for the mission to carry two astronauts instead of the usual four, making space for the Starliner crew.

    3. Certification Uncertainty:

      • NASA and Boeing are still working on determining if Starliner’s CFT mission was successful enough to meet certification requirements for future operational missions like Starliner-1.

      • If necessary, Starliner may require additional test flights with astronauts before being cleared for full operational use.

    4. Starliner’s Propulsion Issues:

      • The propulsion system issues seen in 2024 are not new. Starliner also faced similar problems during its two uncrewed test flights in 2019 and 2022, which NASA and Boeing believed were resolved before sending astronauts onboard.

    5. Upcoming Spaceflight Plans:

      • While Starliner is delayed, NASA’s partnership with SpaceX continues smoothly. SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission is scheduled to launch in February 2025, with a crew that includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and Kirill Peskov (Roscosmos).

      • Crew-11 will follow no earlier than July 2025, though the crew for that mission has yet to be announced.

      • NASA astronauts Scott Tingle, Mike Fincke, and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk are still assigned to Starliner-1, which was expected to fly in 2025. However, their status could change if Starliner requires additional test flights.

    Conclusion:

    Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft continues to face delays and challenges due to propulsion issues that have persisted over multiple flights. NASA is working with Boeing to determine if Starliner can be certified for regular crewed missions to the ISS.

    In the meantime, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon remains the primary vehicle for transporting astronauts to and from the space station, ensuring continuous operations on the ISS while Starliner’s future is assessed.

    Image:

    Boeing’s Starliner Crew Flight Test capsule landing on September 6, 2024. (Image credit: NASA TV)

  • Observational study supports century-old theory that challenges the Big Bang

    Observational study supports century-old theory that challenges the Big Bang

    by Grant Guggisberg, Kansas State University

    September 11, 2024

    A Kansas State University engineer recently published results from an observational study in support of a century-old theory that directly challenges the validity of the Big Bang theory.

    Lior Shamir, associate professor of computer science, used imaging from a trio of telescopes and more than 30,000 galaxies to measure the redshift of galaxies based on their distance from Earth. Redshift is the change in the frequency of light waves that a galaxy emits, which astronomers use to gauge a galaxy’s speed.

    Shamir’s findings lend support to the century-old “tired light” theory instead of the Big Bang. The findings are published in the journal Particles.

    “In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble and George Lemaitre discovered that the more distant the galaxy is, the faster it moves away from Earth,” Shamir said. “That discovery led to the Big Bang theory, suggesting that the universe started to expand around 13.8 billion years ago. At around the same time, preeminent astronomer Fritz Zwicky proposed that galaxies that were more distant from Earth did not really move faster.”

    Zwicky’s contention was that the redshift observed from Earth is not because the galaxies move but because the light photons lose their energy as they travel through space. The longer the light travels, the more energy it loses, leading to the illusion that galaxies that are more distant from Earth also move faster.

    “The tired light theory was largely neglected, as astronomers adopted the Big Bang theory as the consensus model of the universe,” Shamir said. “But the confidence of some astronomers in the Big Bang theory started to weaken when the powerful James Webb Space Telescope saw first light.

    “The JWST provided deep images of the very early universe, but instead of showing an infant early universe as astronomers expected, it showed large and mature galaxies. If the Big Bang happened as scientists initially believed, these galaxies are older than the universe itself.”

    While new imaging casts doubt on the Big Bang, Shamir’s study used the constant rotational velocity of the Earth around the center of the Milky Way to examine the redshift of galaxies at the Milky Way’s galactic poles that move in different velocities relative to Earth and to test how the change in the redshift responds to the change in velocity.

    “The results showed that galaxies that rotate in the opposite direction relative to the Milky Way have lower redshift compared to galaxies that rotate in the same direction relative to the Milky Way,” Shamir said. “That difference reflects the motion of the Earth as it rotates with the Milky Way. But the results also showed that the difference in the redshift increased when the galaxies were more distant from Earth.

    “Because the rotational velocity of the Earth relative to the galaxies is constant, the reason for the difference can be the distance of the galaxies from Earth. That shows that the redshift of galaxies changes with the distance, which is what Zwicky predicted in his Tired Light theory.”

    Image:

    Northeastern University researchers have shown that our visible universe and invisible dark matter likely co-evolved from the time of the Big Bang. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

    Journal:

    Lior Shamir, An Empirical Consistent Redshift Bias: A Possible Direct Observation of Zwicky’s TL Theory, Particles (2024). DOI: 10.3390/particles7030041

  • SpaceX targeting November 18 for next Starship megarocket launch

    SpaceX targeting November 18 for next Starship megarocket launch

    by Mike Wall

    November 07, 2024

     

    SpaceX’s Starship megarocket will fly for the sixth time ever less than two weeks from now, if all goes according to plan.

    Elon Musk’s company announced November 06 that it’s targeting November 18 for the next Starship test flight, which will lift off from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas.

    The 30-minute launch window will open at 5 p.m. EST (2100 GMT; 4 p.m. local Texas time), SpaceX wrote in an update on X. The company will stream the launch live, beginning about 30 minutes before liftoff.

     

     

    The 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. The stainless-steel vehicle consists of two fully reusable elements: a huge booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 m) upper stage known as Starship, or simply Ship. Both of these stages are powered by SpaceX’s next-gen Raptor engine — 33 for Super Heavy and six for Ship.

    A fully stacked Starship has launched five times to date, in April and November of 2023 and March, June and October of this year. The vehicle has performed better on each successive flight, and the most recent one, which took place on October 13, featured a landmark moment in spaceflight history: Super Heavy came back for a controlled landing beside its launch tower, which caught the booster with its “chopstick” arms.

    Flight 6 will feature another booster catch, if all goes according to plan.

    “The next Starship flight test aims to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online,” SpaceX wrote in today’s update.

    “Objectives include the booster once again returning to the launch site for catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and manoeuvring changes for ship re-entry and descent over the Indian Ocean,” the company added.

     

     

    The Flight 6 Starship features some improvements over its predecessors, according to the update.

    “Hardware upgrades for this flight add additional redundancy to booster propulsion systems, increase structural strength at key areas, and shorten the timeline to offload propellants from the booster following a successful catch,” SpaceX wrote. “Mission designers also updated software controls and commit criteria for the booster’s launch and return.”

    Eventually, SpaceX wants to land both Super Heavy and Ship directly on the launch mount, to speed up the inspection, refurbishment and reflight process. The company believes that Starship’s combination of power and efficiency will revolutionize spaceflight, helping humanity colonize Mars and achieve a variety of other bold exploration feats.

    Image:

    SpaceX’s Starship Flight 5 Super Heavy booster approaches its launch tower for the first-ever landing and capture at the pad after launching on a suborbital test flight from Starbase in South Texas on Oct. 13, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)

    Image:

    SpaceX rendering on Starship Flight 6

  • Re-analysis of Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole shows elongated structure

    Re-analysis of Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole shows elongated structure

    by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

    October 25, 2024

    A research team led by Assistant Professor Makoto Miyoshi of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has independently re-analysed observation data of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy obtained and published by the international joint observation project Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). They found that the structure is slightly elongated in the east-west direction.

    This research, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, takes a new look at the publicly available EHT data and demonstrates the scientific process in which the certainty of the answer increases as different researchers continue to examine and discuss a theory.

    The Milky Way galaxy, in which we live, contains more than 100 billion sun-like stars. There are countless such large galaxies in the universe, most of which are thought to have supermassive black holes at their centres with masses millions to billions of times that of the sun. The Milky Way galaxy also has a supermassive black hole at its centre, called Sagittarius A* (A star).

    The black hole swallows everything, including light, making it impossible to see the supermassive black hole itself, but analysis of stars circling the black hole at high speed indicates that Sagittarius A* has a mass approximately 4 million times that of the sun. By closely observing its surroundings, we can obtain clues to the nature of the invisible black hole.

    The EHT observed Sagittarius A* in 2017 with a network of eight ground-based radio telescopes using a technique known as radio interferometry to combine the results from the various telescopes. The results of these observations were published in 2022, including an image of a bright ring structure surrounding a central dark region, indicating the presence of a black hole.

    In contrast to typical photography, data from observations linking several widely separated radio telescopes contain many gaps in the completeness, so special algorithms are used to construct an image from the data. In this research, the team applied widely used traditional methods to EHT data, as opposed to the EHT’s own original analysis method.

    Miyoshi explains, “Our image is slightly elongated in the east-west direction, and the eastern half is brighter than the western half. We think this appearance means the accretion disk surrounding the black hole is rotating.”

    The EHT’s observational data and analysis methods are freely available, and many researchers have validated the results of EHT analysis. This research is also part of these regular verification activities.

    Radio interferometry connecting telescopes across the globe is a developing technology, and research on data analysis and image processing is ongoing, incorporating knowledge from statistics and other related disciplines.

    The structures presented in this research differ from the results of the EHT team, but both are plausible structures derived from the data using the respective methods. The EHT plays an important role in black hole research by soliciting independent verification and providing open data for verification.

    It is hoped that a more reliable picture of Sagittarius A* will emerge from active discussion by researchers based on improved analysis methods and data from follow-up observations conducted since 2018.

    Journal:

    Makoto Miyoshi et al, An independent hybrid imaging of Sgr A* from the data in EHT 2017 observations, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024).

    DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stae1158

    Image:

    Final image of Sgr A* obtained from our imaging process. Credit: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stae1158