Space News & Blog Articles

What is the importance of studying and utilizing lunar polar volatiles during the Artemis program, and specifically for first crewed mission, Artemis III? This is what a recent study presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated using lunar polar volatiles for in situ resource utilization (ISRU) purposes. In geology, volatiles are substances that vaporize at low temperatures, and examples include water, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. In the case of the Moon, key volatiles are water located in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) at the lunar south polar region.

Spacecraft violently shake, rattle, and roll on their way into space aboard a giant explosion. Therefore, they must also be tested to make sure they can withstand those forces before getting to their orbit for deployment. One of NASA’s major observatories recently completed part of its trials, with the core portion of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully completing its shock and vibration testing a few weeks ago.

Scientists are constantly finding new ways to look at things, and that’s especially true for objects that represent an outlier of their specific type. Adjectives like “biggest”, “brightest”, or “fastest spinning” all seem to attract scientific studies - perhaps because they’re an easier sell to funding agencies. No matter the reason, that means we typically get a lot of good science on specific objects that represent their particular class of objects well, and a new paper from Ozcan Caliskan from Istanbul University in Turkey hits that nail on the head when it comes to the most massive known white dwarf star.

Quasars provide some of the most spectacular light shows in the universe. However, they are typically exceedingly rare since they are caused by massive astrophysical forces that don’t happen very often. So it came as quite a surprise when scientists found a group of 11 of them hanging on in the same general area, in what appeared to be equivalent to the galactic countryside. A new paper from Yongming Liang and their co-authors at the University of Tokyo and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan describes this finding, which they dubbed the Cosmic Himalayas, and some of the weird astronomical circumstances that place the discovery in context.

By 2028, NASA intends to land the "first woman and first person of color" on the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission. This will be the first time humans have been to the lunar surface since the Apollo astronauts last walked there in 1972. Along with international and commercial partners, NASA hopes that Artemis will enable a "sustained program of lunar exploration and development," which could include long-term facilities and habitats on the Moon. Given the expense of launching heavy payloads, sending all the equipment and materials needed to the Moon is impractical.

How do you search for a substance that doesn't give off any kind of light, but has a gravitational influence that shapes galaxies? That's the challenge researchers face as they try to find and explain the mysterious substance called dark matter. They're wrestling with an invisible "something" that appears to make up much of all matter in the Universe.