Sometimes combining technologies is the way to go. That seems to be the case for utilizing lunar regolith for the raw materials needed to support a base anyway. According to a new paper published in Joule by a team of Chinese scientists combined the powers of light and heat is the most effective way to get hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon monoxide out of the lunar soil - and to prove it they tested their system on some actual lunar regolith samples returned by Chang’E-5.
A team of scientists led by the NSF's Green Bank Observatory (NSF GBO) recently identified an incredibly rare object known as a Long Period Radio Transient (LPT), designated CHIME J1634+44. These objects are similar to Rotating Radio Transients (RRTs), which are sources of short radio pulses believed to be caused by pulsating neutron stars (pulsars). The difference with LPTs is that they have extremely long rotation periods, often lasting between minutes and hours. However, CHIME J1634+44 is the only LPT observed to date that is spinning up, as indicated by its decreasing spin period and unusual polarization.
Stars of all ages and masses emit electromagnetic energy in different ways, and these emissions attract the attention of astronomers. Each of these emissions is a clue to how stars form, evolve, and even die. Young stars are known for their high luminosity and their high level of activity. They have strong stellar winds and powerful magnetic fields.
One of the world’s most powerful instruments reveals interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it heads towards perihelion.
Our understanding of the Universe begins with the Big Bang, a moment in time where the Universe began expanding into what we see around us now. Big Bang nucleosynthesis describes how only the lightest elements were created originally: hydrogen, helium, and a tiny bit of lithium. For elements heavier than those, which astrophysicists call metals, a generation of stars had to live and die.
Multiple space agencies plan to return astronauts to the Moon by the end of this decade. Along with commercial and international partners, these efforts aim to create infrastructure that will ensure a "sustained program of lunar exploration and development." This includes NASA's Artemis Program, China's International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), and the ESA's Moon Village, all of which consist of creating lunar habitats around the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Providing power for these bases is a significant challenge given the cycle of lunar day and night, which lasts for two weeks at a time.
Despite the powerful telescopes that modern astronomers have to work with, the distant reaches of the Solar System are still mysterious. Not much sunlight pierces these regions, and there are strong hints that undiscovered objects lurk there. The objects that astronomers have discovered in these dim reaches are primordial, and their orbits suggest the presence of more undiscovered objects. Piecing it all together is a challenge.
There are plenty of engineering challenges facing space exploration missions, most of which are specific to their missions objectives. However, there are some that are more universal, especially regarding electronics. A new paper primarily written by a group of American students temporarily studying at Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieria in Madrid, attempts to lay out plans to tackle several of those challenges for a variety of mission architectures.
The hunt for potentially habitable rocky planets in our galaxy has been the holy grail of exoplanet studies for decades. While the discovery of over 5,900 exoplanets in over 4.400 planetary systems has been a remarkable achievement, only a small fraction (217) have been confirmed as terrestrial - aka. rocky or "Earth-like." Furthermore, obtaining accurate information on a rocky exoplanet's atmosphere is very difficult, since potentially habitable rocky planets are much smaller and tend to orbit closer to their stars.
In 2016, scientists with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made history with the first-ever detection of Gravitational Waves (GWs). These events, originally predicted by Einstein's Theory of Relativity, are caused by the merger of dense objects like neutron stars and black holes. Since then, the LIGO team partnered with the Virgo Gravitational Wave Interferometer (Virgo) in Italy and the Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan to form the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration.
Stars are born in clusters, and the early days in these clusters are messy. Stars move chaotically and haven't settled into regular routines. Inevitably, some stars are kicked out of their birth clusters through all of the gravitational interactions.
Stars and planets are naturally associated with one another. While some planets have gone rogue and are drifting through space, the vast majority are in solar systems, where they're gravitationally bound and orbit their stars in predictable ways. But some planets stray too close to their stars, with dire consequences. These exoplanets have something to teach us about the exoplanet population.
Exploding stars come in different types, and these different types of supernovae show astronomers different things about the cosmos. There's a scientific appetite to find more of them and boost our knowledge about these exotic events. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope should be able to feed that appetite.
Searching for habitable exoplanets will require decades of work, new technologies, and new ideas. A lot of that effort seems to coalescing around the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a proposed mission expected to launch in the early 2040s that would be capable of directly imaging potentially habitable worlds, and, importantly, detecting features about them that could prove whether or not they host life as we know it. A new paper by exobiology specialists in Europe and the US, led by Svetlana Berdyugina of ISROL in Locarno, Switzerland, details an observational plan with HWO that could definitely prove that life exists on another planet - if they’re able to find one where it does anyway.
The search for habitable exoplanets is a key priority and sits at the pinnacle of exoplanet science. The science community stated that clearly in the 2020 Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020). That survey identified the search for habitable worlds as a priority in their Pathways to Habitable Worlds report.
Astronomers have detected a massive, Ultra-Hot Jupiter that's getting dangerously close to its star. It's more massive than Jupiter and orbits its star more quickly than Mercury orbits the Sun. There are only three possible outcomes, and none of them are good for the planet.
Very massive stars (VMSs)have had a massive impact on the formation of our universe. However, there aren’t very many of them, with only around 20 known specimens in the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud. Even observing those is difficult for the current generation of telescopes, which is where an unexpected technological champion might play a role. According to a new paper by Fabrice Martins of CNRS and a group of European and American researchers, the upcoming Habitable World Observatory (HWO) might be our most useful tool when it comes to finding these elusive giants.
As humanity sets its sights on long duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, keeping astronauts healthy will be as critical as building rockets or habitats. In the harsh environment of space, the human body faces challenges that Earth never prepared us for including isolation, microgravity, and radiation that disrupt the immune system, increasing the risk of infection, chronic inflammation, and disease. Interestingly, new research on HIV is revealing lessons that could help future explorers live sustainably, regenerate resources in closed-loop systems, and even produce custom medicine far from Earth.
Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO) are some of our Solar System's lesser-known objects. They number in the thousands, and they get their name from their orbits. These dwarf planets that orbit the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune does. Pluto is the group's most well-known member, having been demoted from planet to TNO in recent years.
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