Category: Cosmic Space

Categories
Cosmic Space

Webb Telescope expands the frontier of early galaxies

JWST image highlighting galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0
An infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam instrument reveals the galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 as it existed 290 million years after the big bang. (Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STSci / B. Robertson, UCSC / B. Johnson, CfA / S. Tacchella, Cambridge / P. Cargile, CfA)

Astronomers say infrared readings from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have revealed a new record-holder for the most distant galaxy observed in the universe — a smudge of stars whose light started its journey a mere 290 million years after the big bang.

The galaxy, known as JADES-GS-z14-0, dethroned the previous champion, which scientists detected in 2022. JADES-GS-z14-0 is thought to be about 40 million years older, based on a detailed analysis of spectroscopic data. Because the age of the universe is estimated at 13.8 billion years, the light from the galaxy took more than 13.5 billion years to reach JWST’s detectors.

Scientists also detected another galaxy, designated JADES-GS-z14-1, that was nearly as distant. And there are likely to be even more distant galaxies still waiting to be discovered.

Continue reading “Webb Telescope expands the frontier of early galaxies”
Categories
Cosmic Space

Halo Space reveals design for stratospheric tour capsule

Cutaway view of Halo Space Aurora capsule
A cutaway illustration shows the layout of Halo Space's Aurora capsule, with a toilet in the center. (Frank Stephenson Design)

If and when passengers climb into Halo Space’s capsule for a ballooning trip to the stratosphere, they’ll find cushy seats, fold-down receptacles for food and drinks, floor-to-ceiling windows that provide an astronaut’s-eye view of the curving Earth below — and a snug toilet to get them through the hours-long flight.

The interior design for Halo’s capsule, dubbed “The Aurora,” was unveiled on April 11 in London by Halo Space CEO Carlos Mira and famed automotive designer Frank Stephenson.

“Passengers will spend up to six hours inside our spaceship, and we want every minute to be unforgettable,” Mira said in a news release. “Frank and his team have created a capsule to enhance our flight experience, utilizing unique resources, design and technology.”

Halo Space is aiming to begin commercial service by 2026 with ticket prices starting at $164,000. It’s one of several companies targeting the stratospheric tourism market, a lineup that also includes World View, Space Perspective, Zero 2 Infinity and Zephalto.

Although these stratospheric tours are typically marketed as spaceflights, they wouldn’t go anywhere near as high as the suborbital rocket ships built by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic — 20 to 25 miles for Halo Space, as opposed to 50 miles for Virgin Galactic. On the plus side, the trips would be much less expensive, and arguably less risky.

Continue reading “Halo Space reveals design for stratospheric tour capsule”
Categories
Cosmic Space

Webb Telescope detects activity within dwarf planets

Makemake and Eris
An artist's conception compares the size of 889-mile-wide Makemake and 1,445-mile-wide Eris. (SWRI Illustration)

They may be dwarf planets, but they’re not dead planets.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has provided scientists with evidence of geothermal activity deep within two far-out dwarf planets, Eris and Makemake.

“We see some interesting signs of hot times in cool places,” Christopher Glein, an expert in planetary geochemistry at the Southwest Research Institute, said this week in a news release. Glein is the lead author of a study analyzing the JWST findings that was recently published by the journal Icarus.

Continue reading “Webb Telescope detects activity within dwarf planets”
Categories
Cosmic Space

Probes put planets on parade, from Mars to Uranus

JWST infrared image of Uranus
An infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows Uranus and its rings. (NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Andrea Luck CC BY)

Fresh imagery from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals the rings of Uranus in all their infrared glory.

The newly released view of the seventh rock from the sun is just one of the stunning shots of extraterrestrial scenes recently sent back by interplanetary probes. The past few days have also brought noteworthy images of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter lying dormant on Mars and volcanoes flaring up on a moon of Jupiter.

But wait … there’s more: Research based on readings from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is turning a spotlight on Mimas, a Saturnian moon that looks like the Death Star from the Star Wars movie. Could Mimas’ icy crust conceal a watery ocean? Stay tuned …

Continue reading “Probes put planets on parade, from Mars to Uranus”
Categories
Cosmic Space

Ingenuity helicopter breaks, ending historic Mars mission

Perseverance rover "selfie" with Ingenuity helicopter in the background
A "selfie" captured by NASA's Perseverance rover in 2021 shows the Ingenuity helicopter ion Mars. (NASA / JPL / MSSS)

Nearly three years after the first-ever takeoff from the surface of Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has landed for the last time.

The innovative mini-copter was brought to the Red Planet in 2021 as an experimental piggyback payload tucked beneath the Perseverance rover, and conducted 72 reconnaissance flights that racked up 11 miles of total distance and two hours of total flight time.

Not bad for a 4-pound gadget that was designed to fly only five times during a 30-day primary mission.

In a video tribute released today, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called Ingenuity “the little helicopter that could.”

“It kept saying, ‘I think I can, I think I can,'” Nelson said. “Well, it has now taken its last flight on Mars.”

Continue reading “Ingenuity helicopter breaks, ending historic Mars mission”
Categories
Cosmic Space

NASA reschedules Artemis moon landing for 2026

Artemis 2 looking at Orion moon ship
Artemis 2 crew members check out their Orion spacecraft during testing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA Photo / Kim Shiflett)

NASA has added another year’s delay to its plan for landing astronauts on the moon: The Artemis 2 trip around the moon is now scheduled for 2025, setting the stage for an Artemis 3 mission in 2026 that would see humans step onto lunar surface for the first time in 54 years.

The reasons behind the postponement have to do with safety concerns that arose in the wake of the uncrewed Artemis 1 round-the-moon mission in 2022. That flight was seen as a shakedown cruise for NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft.

When NASA and its industry partners analyzed the results of Artemis 1, they found several issues that required more time to resolve — including higher-than-expected levels of erosion in Orion’s heat shield, deficiencies in the battery and electrical system, and problems with some of the components used in Orion’s life support system.

“Safety is our top priority,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said today in a teleconference. “And to give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges with first-time developments, operations and integration, we’re going to give more time on Artemis 2 and 3.”

Artemis 2 is now due to send three Americans and a Canadian astronaut on a 10-day trip around the moon in an Orion capsule in September 2025 rather than late 2024.

The Artemis 3 mission, which would use Orion as well as a modified SpaceX Starship lander to put a yet-to-be-named crew of astronauts on the moon’s surface near the south pole, is now scheduled for September 2026 rather than late 2025.

Continue reading “NASA reschedules Artemis moon landing for 2026”
Categories
Cosmic Space

SpaceX’s Starship gets farther on its second test flight

Starship liftoff from Texas launch pad
An aerial view via SpaceX's livestream shows the launch of the Starship / Super Heavy test flight. (SpaceX via X / Twitter)

SpaceX’s Starship and its Super Heavy booster blew through the primary objective for their second test flight today, but both rocket stages blew up sooner than the company hoped.

SpaceX took the day as a win — based not only on a successful liftoff from its South Texas launch pad a little after 7 a.m. CT (5 a.m. PT), but also on the successful execution of a hot-stage separation maneuver two and a half minutes after launch.

Continue reading “SpaceX’s Starship gets farther on its second test flight”
Categories
Cosmic Space

The air of an alien world lifts hopes of detecting life

Blue exoplanet and red parent star in space
An artist's conception shows the exoplanet K2-18 b. (NASA / CSA / ESA / STScI / Cambridge U.)

Readings from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope confirm the presence of carbon-based molecules including methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a distant planet known as K2-18 b — which supports previous suggestions that it might be the kind of ocean-covered world capable of harboring marine life.

K2-18 b, which was first detected in 2015 using data from NASA’s now-retired Kepler space telescope, lies in the habitable zone of a star system that’s about 120 light-years away in the constellation Leo. It’s about 8.6 times as massive as Earth, and astronomers regard it as a sub-Neptune — a type of planet that doesn’t exist in our solar system.

Since its initial detection, astrobiologists have been interested in the world’s potential for habitability. They suspected it might be what’s called a Hycean planet — a type of world that’s massive enough to hold onto a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a globe-spanning sea. The evidence has been piling up: In 2019, researchers reported the chemical signature of water vapor and clouds in K2-18 b’s atmosphere.

The fact that JWST detected an abundance of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), along with a shortage of ammonia (NH3), is consistent with the atmospheric modeling for Hycean planets.

Continue reading “The air of an alien world lifts hopes of detecting life”
Categories
Cosmic Space

Scientists say we were caught in a black hole’s bull’s-eye

Illustration: Tidal disruption event sparked by black hole
Artwork depicts a tidal disruption event. (Carl Knox / OzGrav / ARC Centre of Excellence for Grav. Wave Discovery, Swinburne Univ. of Tech.)

Nine months ago, astronomers observed a flash that they said came from a mysterious object that seemed to flare with the brilliance of a quadrillion suns, located 8.5 billion light-years from Earth.

Now they say they’ve figured out what that object was.

In a pair of studies published by Nature and Nature Astronomy, researchers report that the event was probably sparked when a supermassive black hole suddenly consumed a nearby star. The event’s violent energy was released in the form of a relativistic jet of blazing-hot material that headed in Earth’s direction.

The jet didn’t do us any damage. But its bull’s-eye directionality produced a phenomenon called “Doppler boosting,” also known as the headlight effect. That made the jet’s flash look brighter than it would have if the jet went in a different direction.

Scientists say the flash, which was designated AT2022cmc when it was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility in February, is only the fourth known example of a Doppler-boosted tidal disruption event.

Continue reading “Scientists say we were caught in a black hole’s bull’s-eye”
Categories
Cosmic Space

Capstone probe settles into a strange lunar orbit

Illustration: Capstone probe above lunar surface
An artist's conception shows the Capstone probe passing over the moon. (Advanced Space Illustration)

Four and a half months after it was launched, a nanosatellite called Capstone has begun circling the moon — in a peculiar type of orbit where no probe has gone before.

The complex path, known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit, is the same type of trajectory that NASA hopes to use for crewed missions to the moon starting in the mid-2020s. Capstone is an acronym, standing for “Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment.” But it’s also a metaphorical capstone for the Artemis moon program’s mission architecture.

Continue reading “Capstone probe settles into a strange lunar orbit”