Some galaxies in the early universe were absolute powerhouses, churning out stars at rates that would dwarf the Milky Way's modest stellar production. These "monster galaxies," buried deep in dust between 10 and 12 billion years ago, are thought to be the ancestors of today's giant elliptical galaxies. But what drove them to grow so violently has remained frustratingly unclear.
A team of predominantly Canadian researchers are using massive galaxy clusters and the JWST to study low-mass galaxies from 13.5 billion years ago all the way up to 5 billion years ago. The clusters are used as gravitational lenses to expand the JWST's reach. It's called CANUCS, the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey.
Back in 2005 (over 20 years ago!), Fraser wrote an article about the dangers of electrostatic discharge to astronauts on the Moon and Mars. Anyone that lives in the cold regions of our own planet, with its exceedingly dry interiors for half the year, knows the unpleasantness that goes along with getting shocked when you touch a metal surface. In space, that problem gets much worse, and could potentially prove fatal to astronauts or electromechanical systems if not dealt with properly. A new paper from Bill Farrell of the Space Science Institute and Mike Zimmerman of Johns Hopkins University, which was published in Advances in Space Research, goes over how that specific problem of “tribocharging” affects the operation of lunar rovers.
We all know people that seem to defy aging and appear much younger than they actually are. This same phenomenon happens in astronomy, too. Some stars just don't seem to age the same way other stars do.
We know what will happen to the Sun and our Solar System because we can look outward into the galaxy and examine older Sun-like stars in their evolutionary end states. Nothing lasts forever, including a star's hydrogen. Eventually, stars deplete their hydrogen fuel and leave the main sequence behind. Stars with masses similar to the Sun will first swell and turn red, then shed their outer layers. That's what we see when we gaze at older Sun-like stars.
If humans are ever going to expand into space itself, it will have to be for a reason. Optimists think that reason is simply due to our love of exploration itself. But in history, it is more often a profit motive that has led humans to seek out new lands. So, it stands to reason that, in order for us to truly begin space colonization, we will have to have a business-related reason to do so. A new paper from the lab of Srivatsan Raman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and recently published in PLOS Biology, describes one potential such business case - genetically modifying bacteriophages to attack antibiotic resistant bacteria.
For a long time, scientists assumed that Earth's water was delivered by asteroids and comets billions of years ago. This coincided with the Late Heavy Bombardment (ca. 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago), a period when planets and bodies in the Solar System experienced a much higher rate of impacts. According to this theory, the planets of the inner Solar System were unable to retain volatile elements such as water due to their proximity to the Sun. However, recent findings from the analysis of lunar rocks and regolith returned by the Apollo missions have cast doubt on this assumption.
The Hubble Mission Team has been feeding us a steady stream of images from the space telescope that are focused on star formation. The latest image is of Lupus 3, a star-forming region about 500 light-years away. Lupus 3 features bright young stars that have emerged from their gaseous cocoons, and those that are still growing inside of theirs.
We now have direct images of two supermassive black holes: M87* and Sag A*. The fact that we can capture such images is remarkable, but they might be the only black holes we can observe. That is, unless we take radio astronomy to a whole new level.
ALMA is the most powerful radiotelescope in the world, and among its many scientific endeavours is the study of protoplanetary disks around young stars. The process of planet formation is a major theme in astronomy, and with its ability to reposition its 66 radio antennae, ALMA can zoom in on dusty protoplanetary disks and spy the early indications of exoplanet formation.
Material science plays an absolutely critical role in space exploration. So when a new type of self-healing composite is announced, it’s worth a look–especially when the press release specifically calls out its ability to repair microtears associated with micrometeoroid impacts on satellites. It sounds like just such a composite material was recently invented at North Carolina State University - and it’s even already been spun out into a start-up company.
How can scientists estimate the pH level of Enceladus’ subsurface ocean without landing on its surface? This is what a recently submitted study hopes to address as a team of scientists from Japan investigated new methods for sampling the plumes of Enceladus and provide more accurate measurements of its pH levels. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the subsurface ocean conditions on Enceladus and whether it’s suitable for life as we know it.
Baby pictures are some of a family's most cherished artifacts. The same thing can be said of the Hubble Space Telescope and the infant stars it immortalizes in its scientific portraits. But while we know how babies are conceived and how they form in great detail, the same can't be said for star formation.
When the new WEAVE spectrograph began science operations on the 4.2 meter William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in 2023, astronomers looked forward to its first five years. During this time, the telescope will be working on eight new simultaneous surveys of the sky. Before it could begin this work, the instrument went through a science verification phase. This important step demonstrates the instrument's capabilities and allows operators to refine its operations.
The US’s federally funded space program has been struggling of late. With the recent cancellation of the Mars Sample Return mission, and mass layoffs / resignations taking place at NASA, the general sense of a lack of morale at the agency is palpable, even from a distance. Jared Isaacman, the billionaire software entrepreneur and rocket enthusiast who was recently confirmed as NASA administrator during his second confirmation hearing, hopes to change that, and one of his priorities is pushing the Artemis missions for a permanent human presence on the Moon. However, at least one big technical hurdle remains before being able to do so - how to power a base during the two week long lunar night. A recent press release describes how NASA, and another branch of the federal government (the Department of Energy - DoE) hope to solve that problem - with a lunar-ready nuclear fission reactor.
We recently discussed the different types of worlds that the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is expected to find that might have noticeable biosignatures. However, no matter how good the instrumentation on board the observatory is, the data it collects will be useless if scientists don’t know how to interpret it. A paper explaining what data they need to collect before analyzing HWO data was authored by Niki Parenteau, a research biologist at NASA, and her co-authors, which is now available in pre-print on arXiv.
Supermassive Black Holes (SMBH), which reside at the center of many galaxies (ranging from dwarf to massive), are a true force of nature. Over time, dust and gas from their surroundings fall toward them, forming an accretion disk just outside the event horizon that is accelerated to near the speed of light (aka relativistic speed). This releases a tremendous amount of energy, temporarily making the core region outshine all the stars in the disk - what is known as an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). Over time, this matter slowly accretes onto the black hole's face, also resulting in radiation across the spectrum.
The exact moment when life began on Earth may be forever hidden from us. But scientific research can explore the events leading up to that moment. Researchers have mad a lot of progress in finding the building blocks of life and in understanding how they formed.
Ever since humans learned that there are countless stars in the Universe with their own planetary systems, we have wondered if intelligent life exists beyond Earth. For more than 60 years, scientists have engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), but all these attempts have yielded no definitive results. This has led scientists to question their methods and the possible indications of technological activity (aka. technosignatures) they should be looking for. In addition, they have come to consider expanding the search to include different forms of communication.
There are many reasons why Earth is habitable. One of them is that it's in a delicately balanced radiation struggle with the Sun and the larger cosmos. The Sun emits a powerful solar wind that would strip away the planet's atmosphere, except it's deflected by Earth's protective shield, the magnetosphere. Cosmic rays, dangerous high-energy particles that can damage living tissue, stream in from elsewhere in the cosmos, and they're likewise deflected by the magnetosphere.
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