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Track the April 8 total solar eclipse with SkySafari, now 80% off

SkySafari 7 has a bundle of new features ahead of the next solar eclipse, and a big sale to match. It's all to get ready for the next solar eclipse in the United States on April 8.

This New Map of 1.3 Million Quasars Is A Powerful Tool

Quasars are the brightest objects in the Universe. The most powerful ones are thousands of times more luminous than entire galaxies. They’re the visible part of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of a galaxy. The intense light comes from gas drawn toward the black hole, emitting light across several wavelengths as it heats up.

But quasars are more than just bright ancient objects. They have something important to show us about the dark matter.

Large galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers. Even those only casually familiar with space know that black holes can suck everything in, even light. But as black holes draw nearby gas towards themselves, the gas doesn’t all go into the hole, past the event horizon and into oblivion. Instead, much of the gas forms a rotating accretion disk around the black hole.

SMBHs aren’t always actively drawing material to them, an act known as ‘feeding.’ But when an SMBH is actively feeding, it’s called an active galactic nucleus (AGN.) When the material in the disk rotates, it heats up. As it heats, it emits different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. It can also emit jets.

When astronomers first began to detect this light, they only knew they were seeing objects that emitted radio waves. The name quasar means quasi-stellar radio source. But as time went on astronomers learned more, and the term active galactic nucleus was adopted. The term quasar is still used, but they’re now a sub-class of AGN that are the most luminous AGN.

This infographic helps explain Quaia, the new catalogue of 1.3 million quasars. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Simons Foundation; K. Storey-Fisher et al. 2024
This figure shows five different quasar maps created by scientists using different data and methodologies. The creators of Quaia say that its redshifts are more accurate than the others, along with other properties. Image Credit: K. Storey-Fisher et al. 2024
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Bad news for life on Mars? Red Planet's wet epoch may have been shorter than we thought

Water freely flowed across Mars billions of years ago, suggesting the Red Planet could also once have supported life. But this water may have existed for just a short time.

Webb Finds Hints of a Third Planet at PDS 70

The exoplanet census now stands at 5,599 confirmed discoveries in 4,163 star systems, with another 10,157 candidates awaiting confirmation. So far, the vast majority of these have been detected using indirect methods, including Transit Photometry (74.4%) and Radial Velocity measurements (19.4%). Only nineteen (or 1.2%) were detected via Direct Imaging, a method where light reflected from an exoplanet’s atmosphere or surface is used to detect and characterize it. Thanks to the latest generation of high-contrast and high-angular resolution instruments, this is starting to change.

This includes the James Webb Space Telescope and its sophisticated mirrors and advanced infrared imaging suite. Using data obtained by Webb‘s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), astronomers with the MIRI mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS) survey recently studied a very young variable star (PDS 70) about 370 light-years away with two confirmed protoplanets. After examining the system and its extended debris disk, they found evidence of a third possible protoplanet orbiting the star. These observations could help advance our understanding of planetary systems that are still in the process of formation.

The MINDS survey is an international collaboration consisting of astronomers and physicists from the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, the Space Research Institute at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OAW-IFW), the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), the Institute Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, and multiple universities. The paper that describes their findings will appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. Credit: ESO/A. Müller et al.

PDS 70 has been the subject of interest in recent years due to its young age (5.3 to 5.5 million years) and the surrounding protoplanetary disk. Between 2018 and 2021, two protoplanets planets were confirmed within the gaps of this disk based on direct imaging data acquired by sophisticated ground-based telescopes. This included the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) and GRAVITY instruments on the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).



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Improving a 1960s Plan to Explore the Giant Planets

In the 1960s, NASA engineers developed a series of small lifting-body aircraft that could be dropped into the atmosphere of a giant planet, measuring the environment as they glided down. Although it would be a one-way trip to destruction, the form factor would allow a probe to glide around in different atmospheric layers, gathering data and transmitting it back to a parent satellite. An updated version of the 1960s design is being tested at NASA now, and a drop-test flight from a helicopter is scheduled for this month.

“We are looking to take an idea to flight and show that a lifting body aircraft can fly as a probe at this scale – that it can be stable, that components can be integrated into the probe, and that the aircraft can achieve some amount of lift,” said John Bodylski, the principal investigator at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Bodylski is working to prove that a lifting body aircraft design could meet the requirements for an atmospheric probe that could be used at giant planets, like Uranus or Jupiter.

Robert “Red” Jensen removes a major component from an aircraft mold for assembly of a prototype of an atmospheric probe as Justin Hall watches at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Credit: NASA/Steve Freeman

The idea behind the concept is that a lifting body aircraft relies on its unique blunt shape for lift, rather than wings. Bodylski and his team have designed two lifting body aircraft, both of which are about 70 cm (27 1/2 inches) long, and 60 cm (24 inches) wide. One is almost built and ready for flight.

NASA has a long history of doing flight tests with lifting bodies. From 1963 to 1975, NASA tested several designs to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land a wingless vehicle. These vehicles included the M2-F1, M2-F2, HL-10, X-20, X-24A, and the X-24B. These lifting bodies were designed to validate the concept of flying a wingless vehicle back to Earth from space and landing it like an aircraft. The concept was influential in designing the Space Shuttle.

While the Space Shuttle and other human-carrying lifting body vehicles had inherent issues, even back in the 1960’s planetary scientists realized the concept could be more feasible for smaller uncrewed probes.


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New NASA astronauts 'thrilled' to see 1st Boeing Starliner crew launch in May (exclusive)

A new NASA astronaut class finished training in March, just in time to watch a new spacecraft take flight. Boeing's Starliner is expected to fly its first crew to space in May.

Scientists may finally know why this infamous supernova wears a 'string of pearls'

SN 1987A is ringed by a strange string of hydrogen pearls that have puzzled astronomers for a long time, but researchers may finally have an explanation.

Finally, an Explanation for the “String of Pearls” in Supernova 1987A

Not long after the explosion of Supernova 1987a, astronomers were abuzz with predictions about how it might look in a few years. They suggested a pulsar would show up soon and many said that the expanding gas cloud would encounter earlier material ejected from the star. The collision would light up the region around the event and sparkle like diamonds.

Today, astronomers look at the site of the stellar catastrophe and see an expanding, glowing ring of light. Over the years, its shape has changed to a clumpy-looking string of pearls. What’s happening to affect its appearance? The answer lies in something called the “Crow Instability.” We see this aerodynamical process when vortexes off the wingtips of airplanes interact with the contrails from their engines. The instability breaks up the contrail into a set of vortex “rings”.

University of Michigan graduate student Michael Wadas says this type of instability could explain why Supernova 1987a formed a string of pearls. “The fascinating part about this is that the same mechanism that breaks up airplane wakes could be in play here,” said Wadas, who is now doing post-graduate work at CalTech. If that’s true, it will go a long way toward explaining why those ghostly pearls exist.

The expanding ring-shaped remnant of SN 1987A and its interaction with its surroundings, seen in X-ray and visible light. The star that became SN 1987a expelled concentric rings of material during its red and blue supergiant phases, and the shockwave from the supernova lit them up. Image: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=278848

Light and neutrinos from Supernova 1987a reached Earth on February 23, 1987. The original star, Sanduleak -69 202, lay about 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It exploded as Type II, the first one in modern times to show astronomers the details of a core-collapse supernova. Since then, astronomers watched as a ring of ejected material and a shockwave from the explosion itself spread to space. It slammed into the material shed earlier in the star’s life. It does have a neutron star in the center. Astronomers detected it in 2019 and observed it using X-ray and gamma-ray observatories.


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SpaceX's Starship will go interstellar someday, Elon Musk says

A future, more advanced version of SpaceX's Starship megarocket will travel to other star systems, according to Elon Musk.

Thomas Stafford, NASA astronaut who led Apollo-Soyuz joint mission, dies at 93

Former NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford, who flew to the moon before leading the first international space mission carried out by the United States and Russia, has died at the age of 93.

NASA is Working on Zero-Boil Off Tanks for Space Exploration

No matter what mode of transportation you take for a long trip, at some point, you’ll have to refuel. For cars, this could be a simple trip to a gas station, while planes, trains, and ships have more specialized refueling services at their depots or ports. However, for spacecraft, there is currently no refueling infrastructure whatsoever. And since the fuel spacecraft use must be stored cryogenically, and the tanks the fuel is stored in are constantly subjected to the thermal radiation from the Sun, keeping enough fuel in a tank for a trip to Mars with astronauts is currently infeasible. Luckily, NASA is currently working on it and recently released a detailed look at some of that work on a blog on their website.

The problem definition is very clear – cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen are used as fuel on most spacecraft missions. Once in space, the tanks the fuel is stored in heat up due to the constant solar radiation they’re subjected to. Since there’s no air, there’s no way to radiate out that heat, so eventually, it can get through even the most sophisticated passive thermal insulation system. When it does, the fuel starts to boil, and mission planners typically have chosen to eject the vaporous fuel out into space rather than leaving it as a potential medium to heat the rest of the fuel faster.

This resultant fuel lost to this sublimation can cost as much as half of the cryogenic fuel needed for a 3-year mission to Mars – in just a single year. In short, crewed trips to Mars are impossible using the current fuel storage technology in space. However, there are alternatives, known as Zero Boil-Off (ZBO) or Reduced Boil-Off (RBO) systems. These advanced tanks use a combination of “active” processes to maintain tank pressure and not allow too much loss of fuel during long space flights.

Fraser makes an argument for why refueling is so critical.

An “active” process must be actively controlled and typically requires some sort of power input. In particular, ZBO systems rely on two technology ideas – a jet mixing of the propellant and a droplet injection technology. Let’s take a look at the mixing technology first.

In this example, part of the fuel would be forcibly mixed back into the vapor space in a particular way that would allow it to control the phase changes of the vapor/fuel interface. In essence, it would stop the fuel from sublimating into a vapor in the first place. Similarly, a droplet injection system would use a novel type of spray bar to inject fuel droplets into the vapor area, causing it to condense and remove some of the pressure from the system.

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Mysterious 'unparticles' may be pushing the universe apart, new theoretical study suggests

New theoretical research suggests that a mysterious form of matter called "unparticles" could be the driving force behind the expansion of the universe.

SpaceX to launch 30th cargo mission to the ISS for NASA this week

SpaceX is scheduled to launch its 30th operational cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA on Thursday (March 21).

Why I'm going to Rochester NY to see my 1st-ever total solar eclipse

Here's why I am heading to Rochester, NY, to watch the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Visitors can expect a fun-filled few days at the ROC the Eclipse Festival.

Gaia maps largest ever collection of quasars in space and time

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Astronomers have created the largest yet cosmic 3D map of quasars: bright and active centres of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. This map shows the location of about 1.3 million quasars in space and time, with the furthest shining bright when the Universe was only 1.5 billion years old.

The new map has been made with data from ESA’s Gaia space telescope. While Gaia’s main objective is to map the stars in our own galaxy, in the process of scanning the sky it also spots objects outside the Milky Way, such as quasars and other galaxies.

The graphic representation of the map (bottom right on the infographic) shows us the location of quasars from our vantage point, the centre of the sphere. The regions empty of quasars are where the disc of our galaxy blocks our view.

Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies and can be hundreds of times as bright as an entire galaxy. As the black hole’s gravitational pull spins up nearby gas, the process generates an extremely bright disk, and sometimes jets of light, that telescopes can observe.

The galaxies that quasars live in sit inside massive clouds of invisible dark matter. The distribution of dark matter gives insight into how much dark matter there is in the Universe, and how strong it clusters. Astronomers compare these measurements across cosmic time to test our current model of the Universe's composition and evolution.

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How long would it take to walk around Mars?

In this space mysteries piece we take a look at how long it would take to walk around Mars and what factors would affect journey time.

The James Webb Space Telescope is digging deep into the mysteries of gas planets

Scientists are slowly getting to the bottom of how some of the universe's most mind-bending worlds came to be.

Webb Reveals Secrets of Neptune’s Evolution

A twinset of icy asteroids called Mors-Somnus is giving planetary scientists some clues about the origin and evolution of objects in the Kuiper Belt. JWST studied them during its first cycle of observations and revealed details about their surfaces, which gives hints at their origins. That information may also end up explaining how Neptune got to be the way it is today.

The Mors-Somnus binary is part of a collection of objects beyond Neptune. They’re called, aptly enough, “Trans-Neptunian Objects” or TNOs, for short. About 3,000 are numbered and known, and many more aren’t yet surveyed. They all lie beyond the orbit of Neptune and are divided into various classes. There are the classical Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and scattered disc objects. Within those two classes, there are resonant TNOs—which move in resonance with Neptune and extreme TNOs, which orbit far beyond Neptune (around 30 AU). Then there are objects in orbits similar to Pluto’s, called “plutinos”. Mors-Somnus is also a Plutino.

The orbit of Mors-Somnus with respect to Neptune in the outer Solar System. Courtesy JPL.

Why is there such a varied bunch of objects “out there”? Where did they originate and how have they changed over time? One way to answer those questions is to study the surface properties of Kuiper Belt Objects and, in particular, icy rocks like Mors-Somnus. One way to do that is to take spectra of their surfaces. The data reveals information about the surface compositions of these objects. That, in turn, tells scientists something about the environments in which they formed and those they’ve experienced over time.

Neptune itself likely formed closer to the Sun but then migrated to the outer Solar System (along with Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus). At the same time, a huge dense disk of rocky and icy planetesimals and asteroids populated space out to about 35 AU. As the giant planets migrated to more distant orbits, they preferentially scattered those smaller bodies. These icy asteroids and cometary bodies settled into the Kuiper Belt, scattered disk, and the Oort Cloud. How that activity progressed and where those icy bodies came from in the first place are questions planetary scientists are working to answer.

An artist’s conception of Mors-Somnus, a binary duo comprised of a pair of icy asteroids bound by gravity, is shown. These lie just beyond the orbit of Neptune. JWST was used to analyze their surface compositions for the first time. Image credit: Angela Ramirez, UCF
A model of possible migration paths in the outer solar system due to giant planet migrations. Model: R. Gomes, image by Morbidelli and Levison.
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Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II vs Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM

We're comparing the wide-angle zoom lenses in each brand's 'Holy Trinity' lineup to find out which one is worth your money.

Sleeping subduction zone could awaken and form a new 'Ring of Fire' that swallows the Atlantic Ocean

A modeling study suggests a slumbering subduction zone below the Gibraltar Strait is active and could break into the Atlantic Ocean in 20 million years' time, giving birth to an Atlantic "Ring of Fire."


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