Space News & Blog Articles

Calculating the distance to far-away objects, such as galaxy clusters and quasars, is difficult. But it is also critical to our understanding of how the universe evolves. Luckily, humanity has a trusty workhorse that has been collecting data for such calculations for decades—Hubble. It is by far the best telescope suited to the job, as described by a recent NASA press release about a distance measurement to a supernova in a nearby galaxy.

The NGC 3810 galaxy is a spectacular example of a spiral galaxy in the Virgo Supercluster, which had a Type Ia Supernova happen late in 2022. Hubble began observing it in 2023, and some of that data was used to create an absolutely stunning image of the galaxy, as seen in the header image.

Calculations showed that the galaxy is about 50 million light-years away and around 60,000 light-years across. But how did Hubble arrive at those numbers? It used the unique physics around Type Ia supernovae.

Type Ia supernovae happen when a white dwarf explodes, but importantly, the absolute magnitude of each explosion happens with little variation. Each Type Ia supernova is expected to produce about 5 billion times brighter light than the Sun. And since there is hardly any variation in that brightness level, astronomers can use the brightness we observe on Earth to calculate the distance the light traveled to reach us.

That seems simple enough, but there is one confounding factor—intergalactic dust. While on their own, these sparse particles of matter in the intergalactic voice might not seem like much, when taken as a whole, they can significantly dim the light from a far-away supernova.

If history has taught us one thing, it is that science fiction often gives way to science fact. Consider the Star Trek communicator and the rise of flip phones in the late 1990s and early 2000s, or how 2001: A Space Odyssey predicted orbiting space stations and reusable space planes – like the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle. And who can forget Jules Verne’s classic, From the Earth to the Moon, and how it anticipated that humans would one day walk on the Moon? Almost a century later, this dream would be realized with the Apollo Program.

The latest comes from Cornell University, where a team of researchers has developed a novel in-suit urine collection and filtration system inspired by the suits the Fremen wore in Frank Herbert’s Dune. Once integrated into NASA’s standard spacesuit—the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU)—this system has the potential to provide astronauts with additional water while reducing the risk of hygiene-related medical events. In short, the stillsuit technology has the potential to enable longer-duration missions on the surface of the Moon, Mars, and orbit.

The research team was led by student researchers Sofia Etlin, Luca Bielski, and Julianna Rose, specialists in space medicine, ornithology, and plant science at Cornell University. They were joined by multiple colleagues from the Department of Biology and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Cornell University. Their paper that described their system appeared on July 11th in Frontiers in Space Technologies. As they indicate in their study, astronauts have been conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs) aboard the ISS using the same spacesuits as their Apollo predecessors.

The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU). Credit: NASA

These suits include a disposable diaper, the Maximum Absorbency Garment (MAG), which collects urine and feces during EVAs lasting up to 8 hours. According to a report by the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO), astronauts are expected to have seven urination and two defecation events daily, but the frequency varies during spacewalks. Based on the 37 EVAs conducted aboard the ISS between 2021 and 2023, NASA recorded an average spacewalk duration of 6 hours and 26 minutes, while the longest lasted 8 hours and 56 minutes.