The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
15-06-2024
Trip naar Mars zo gevaarlijk voor de nieren dat Marsreizigers
Trip naar Mars zo gevaarlijk voor de nieren dat Marsreizigers
Slecht nieuws voor mensen die een reisje naar Mars wel zien zitten: het gaat je behalve een hoop geld en inspanning waarschijnlijk ook je nieren kosten. Tot die conclusie komen onderzoekers na experimenten met onder meer muizen.
Die experimenten onthullen namelijk dat langdurige ruimtevluchten de structuur en functie van de nieren veranderen en zelfs tot permanente nierschade kunnen leiden. Dat is te lezen in het blad Nature Communications.
Gezondheidsrisico’s Dat (langdurige) ruimtemissies niet zonder gezondheidsrisico’s zijn, is al veel langer bekend. Zo heeft onderzoek onder astronauten die bijvoorbeeld in het internationale ruimtestation (ISS) hebben vertoefd, al uitgewezen dat zij onder meer te maken kunnen krijgen met een verlies aan botmassa, verminderd of wazig zicht en de ontwikkeling van nierstenen.
Kosmische straling Veel van deze problemen lijken hun oorsprong te vinden in blootstelling aan kosmische straling: hoogenergetische straling afkomstig uit de ruimte. Hier op aarde beschermt het aardmagnetisch veld ons tegen die straling. Maar het internationale ruimtestation – waar veel astronauten vandaag de dag naartoe gaan en dat zich in een lage baan om de aarde bevindt – wordt slechts deels door het aardmagnetisch veld beschermd. En daardoor worden astronauten in het ISS aan veel meer kosmische straling blootgesteld, met alle gevolgen van dien.
Het roept vanzelfsprekend de vraag op wat er gebeurt als we mensen straks dieper de ruimte in sturen, naar plaatsen ver voorbij de beschermende werking van het aardmagnetisch veld, zoals Mars. Het antwoord op die vraag moeten onderzoekers ons schuldig blijven. Er zijn tot op heden slechts 24 mensen geweest die geheel zonder de bescherming van het aardmagnetisch veld aan kosmische straling zijn blootgesteld. En dat zijn de mensen die naar de maan zijn gereisd. Hun ruimtemissies duurden echter maar kort; zes tot twaalf dagen. En dus weten we niet goed wat er met bijvoorbeeld de nieren en andere organen gebeurt als mensen veel langer – zoals tijdens een minimaal 1,5 jaar durende trip naar Mars – aan kosmische straling worden blootgesteld. “We weten dat astronauten tijdens relatief korte ruimtemissies te maken kregen met een toename aan gezondheidsproblemen,” vertelt onderzoeker Keith Siew. “Wat we niet weten, is waarom die problemen ontstaan. Ook weten we niet wat er gebeurt als astronauten langer in de ruimte zijn, zoals tijdens voorgestelde missies naar Mars.”
Nieuw onderzoek Om daar wat meer duidelijkheid over te krijgen, hebben wetenschappers nu een nieuw onderzoek opgezet, waarin ze specifiek keken welke impact langdurige, verre ruimtemissies op de nieren hebben. De onderzoekers bestudeerden hiertoe de gegevens van mensen en muizen die aan meer dan 40 ruimtemissies hadden deelgenomen – waarvan de meeste naar het ISS hadden gevoerd. Ook bestudeerden ze ratten en muizen die een gesimuleerde ruimtemissie hadden meegemaakt. In zeven van deze simulaties waren de knaagdieren blootgesteld aan doses kosmische straling die vergelijkbaar zijn met de dosis die mensen voor hun kiezen krijgen tijdens een 1,5 of 2,5 jaar durende missie naar Mars.
Nierbuisjes Het onderzoek onthult dat zowel de menselijke als dierlijk nieren door de omstandigheden in de ruimte veranderen. Zo zagen de onderzoekers bijvoorbeeld dat nierbuisjes die verantwoordelijk zijn voor het handhaven van de calcium- en zoutbalans (zie kader) na minder dan een maand in de ruimte al tekenen van krimp vertonen.
Nieren zijn heel belangrijk; ze helpen het lichaam om stoffen die het nodig heeft, vast te houden en afvalstoffen kwijt te raken. Hoe gaat dat precies in zijn werk? In de nieren wordt het bloed eerst gefilterd, waarbij bepaalde stoffen al uit het bloed worden gehaald. Het gefilterde bloed gaat vervolgens door naar de nierbuisjes. Die geven water, zout en alle andere stoffen die het lichaam nodig heeft weer af aan het bloed. Het restant – bestaande uit afvalstoffen, maar ook het teveel aan bijvoorbeeld vocht en zout – vormt urine. En die urine wordt vervolgens getransporteerd naar de blaas.
Dat de nierbuisjes van ruimtereizigers krimpen, komt volgens de onderzoekers voornamelijk door het gebrek aan zwaartekracht dat in de ruimte wordt ervaren en dus niet zozeer door blootstelling aan kosmische straling. Tegelijkertijd kunnen ze op dit moment niet uitsluiten dat de kosmische straling de door een gebrek aan zwaartekracht ingegeven veranderingen in de nieren verergert of versnelt. Vervolgonderzoek moet daar meer duidelijkheid over geven.
Nierstenen Het huidige onderzoek lijkt wel wat meer inzicht te geven in waarom astronauten soms nierstenen ontwikkelen. Eerder werd dat voornamelijk in verband gebracht met een verlies aan botmassa. Daardoor zou zich meer calcium ophopen in de urine, waardoor de kans op nierstenen toeneemt. Maar het nieuwe onderzoek suggereert nu dat door ruimtemissies ingegeven veranderingen in de nieren ook een belangrijke rol spelen in de totstandkoming van ‘buitenaardse’ nierstenen.
Permanente schade Maar nierstenen zijn misschien nog niet eens de grootste tegenvaller die toekomstige Marsastronauten te verwerken krijgen. Want experimenten met muizen onthullen tevens dat een 2,5 jaar durende blootstelling aan kosmische straling kan resulteren in permanente schade aan de nieren en ervoor kan zorgen dat de nieren zelfs niet langer functioneren.
Dialyse Nu lijkt 2,5 jaar in de ruimte misschien een beetje lang. Maar als je bedenkt dat de reis naar Mars in het gunstigste geval al 9 maanden duurt – en de terugreis dus ook – en je op Mars ook nog even rond wilt kijken en wat onderzoek wilt doen, ben je toch al gauw 2,5 jaar onderweg. En het lijkt erop dat je dan toch heel anders thuiskomt dan je vertrokken bent, zo waarschuwt Siew. “Als we geen manieren vinden om de nieren te beschermen, zou ik zeggen dat als een astronaut Mars haalt, deze op de terugweg waarschijnlijk aan de dialyse moet. We weten dat de nieren pas laat tekenen van stralingsschade vertonen. Dus tegen de tijd dat die schade tot uiting komt, kan het al te laat zijn om nierfalen te voorkomen en dat kan wel eens catastrofaal zijn voor de succeskansen van ruimtemissies.”
Het is weinig opbeurend en doet misschien zelfs bijna vermoeden dat Mars dan toch te hoog gegrepen is voor ons aardbewoners. Maar die conclusie willen de onderzoekers niet trekken. Sterker nog: ze hopen juist dat hun studie de kans op een succesvolle bemande Marsmissie kan vergroten. Want de kans op succes wordt nu eenmaal groter als we op voorhand alle hindernissen in kaart brengen en zoveel mogelijk uit de weg ruimen. “Onze studie laat zien dat als je een ruimtemissie plant, de nieren er echt toe doen,” vertelt onderzoeker Stephen Walsh. De uitdaging is nu om manieren te vinden om de nieren van Marsreizigers te beschermen. “Mogelijk kunnen we technologische of farmaceutische oplossingen vinden om langdurige ruimtereizen toch mogelijk te maken.” En als dat lukt, kunnen ook mensen die bij voorkeur of noodgedwongen op aarde blijven, daar baat bij hebben. “Medicijnen ontwikkeld voor astronauten kunnen ook nuttig zijn voor gebruik op aarde,” legt Walsh uit. “Bijvoorbeeld doordat ze de nieren van kankerpatiënten beter bestand maken tegen een hogere dosis bestraling.”
An international team of planetary scientists has recently discovered patches of water frost atop the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars. These volcanoes are not only the tallest on Mars but in the entire solar system.
This is the first time frost has been observed near Mars’ equator, challenging existing views of the planet’s climate.
Remnants of an ancient climate cycle
“We thought it was improbable for frost to form around Mars’ equator, as the mix of sunshine and thin atmosphere keeps temperatures during the day relatively high at both the surface and mountaintop — unlike what we see on Earth, where you might expect to see frosty peaks,” said lead author Adomas Valantinas, a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University who led the work as a PhD student at the University of Bern.
“What we’re seeing may be a remnant of an ancient climate cycle on modern Mars, where you had precipitation and maybe even snowfall on these volcanoes in the past.”
The study revealed that this frost is present only for a few hours after sunrise before evaporating in the sunlight. It is incredibly thin, likely about one-hundredth of a millimeter thick, roughly the width of a human hair.
Water frost on Tharsis volcanoes
Despite its thinness, the frost covers a significant area. Researchers estimate that at least 150,000 tons of water cycles between the surface and atmosphere daily during the cold seasons, equivalent to about 60 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Water frost found on Mars’ volcano Olympus Mons. Credit: ESA/NASA
The Tharsis region, where the frost was found, contains numerous towering volcanoes, some of which are one to two times the height of Earth’s Mount Everest. Olympus Mons, for example, is as wide as France.
The frost is located in the calderas of these volcanoes, large hollows at their summits formed during past eruptions. The team suggests that air circulation above these mountains creates a unique microclimate allowing the frost to form.
Significance of frost on Mars
Modeling the formation of these frosts could help scientists uncover more of Mars’ secrets, including the distribution and movement of water and the planet’s complex atmospheric dynamics.
This is crucial for future exploration and the search for potential signs of life.
Perspective view of water frost on Mars’ Olympus Mons. Credit: ESA/NASA
The frost was detected using high-resolution color images from the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter.
The findings were validated with observations from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery spectrometer on the Trace Gas Orbiter.
Tracing the signatures of frost on Mars
The researchers analyzed over 30,000 images to initially find and then confirm the frost. Valantinas filtered the images based on their location, time of day, and season to isolate spectral signatures indicative of water frost and identify where it formed on Mars’ surface.
“This notion of a second genesis, of life beyond Earth, has always fascinated me,” said Valantinas, who began analyzing the images in 2018.
As he transitions to his role at Brown, Valantinas plans to continue exploring Martian mysteries, pivoting towards astrobiology.
Working with Brown planetary scientist Jack Mustard, he aims to characterize ancient hydrothermal environments that could have supported microbial life.
Samples from these environments might be returned to Earth by the NASA-led Mars Sample Return mission.
a, Global view of Mars with white box marking the location of Olympus Mons. b, HRSC wide-angle image of Olympus Mons acquired in the early morning (LST = 7:20, Ls = 346.7°, latitude = 18.2° N, longitude = −133.2° E). The black dashed line indicates the orbit of the TGO corresponding to the images in d and e. The white box highlights the close up in c. c, Zoomed-in view of the Olympus Mons caldera. The white and blue dashed rectangles show the footprints of the CaSSIS and NOMAD-LNO observations, respectively. d, High-resolution (4.5 m pixel–1) CaSSIS colour image of frost on the caldera floor and northern rim of Olympus Mons (LST = 7:11, Ls = 344.1°). Frost is absent on the well-lit steep slopes. The blue rectangle marks the footprint of the one NOMAD-LNO observation that falls within the frost-covered area. e, NOMAD-LNO channel observation of the Olympus Mons caldera. The ice index values (Methods) indicate the presence of frost over the caldera floor (>µ + 3σ). The coloured areas on the plot indicate the confidence intervals. HRSC image ID: hn889_0000 (b,c). CaSSIS colour image ID: MY36_022332_162_0_NPB (d). NOMAD-LNO observation ID: 20221125_082524 (e). Credit: b, ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; d, ESA/TGO/CaSSIS under a Creative Commons license CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
Signs of life on Mars
Signs of life on Mars have been a subject of intense scientific investigation. Researchers have been particularly interested in the presence of water, as it’s a crucial ingredient for life.
Liquid water
Mars rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance have found evidence of ancient riverbeds, lake beds, and mineral deposits that typically form in water, suggesting that Mars once had liquid water on its surface.
Organic molecules
Additionally, organic molecules, which are the building blocks of life, have been detected in Martian soil samples.
Methane
Methane detection has also piqued interest because on Earth, methane is predominantly produced by biological processes. However, methane can also be generated by geological processes, so its presence alone does not confirm life.
The seasonal fluctuations of methane observed by the Curiosity rover suggest that the gas may be produced and destroyed through unknown processes.
Future missions
Despite these promising signs, no definitive evidence of current or past life on Mars has been found yet. Future missions aim to bring back samples to Earth for detailed analysis, which may provide clearer answers.
For centuries, scientists have grappled with the fundamental forces that govern our universe, chief among them being gravity, and more recently, dark matter.
Gravity is the invisible force that attracts objects with mass towards each other, playing a crucial role in shaping the cosmos, from the formation of galaxies to the orbits of planets.
However, as our understanding of the universe has expanded, so too have the mysteries surrounding it.
Dark matter dilemma
One of the most perplexing of these mysteries is the concept of dark matter, a hypothetical form of matter that is believed to make up a significant portion of the universe's total mass.
Unlike ordinary matter, which we can see and interact with directly, dark matter does not emit, absorb, or reflect light, making it invisible to telescopes and other detecting instruments.
Dark matter's existence, first suggested by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1932, is inferred solely from the gravitational effects it exerts on visible matter, such as the rotation curves of galaxies and the motion of galaxies within clusters. This leads scientists to question the very nature of gravity itself.
These observations suggest that there is far more matter present in the universe than can be accounted for by visible matter alone.
Related video: New Theory Posits Gravity Can Exist Without Mass (Amaze Lab)
Despite decades of research, the exact nature of dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries in modern physics, with scientists exploring various theories, such as weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and axions, to explain its properties and behavior.
Ever-present force of gravity
Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, alongside electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. It is the force that attracts objects with mass towards each other, and it plays a crucial role in shaping the universe at all scales.
At the Earth's surface, gravity pulls objects towards the center of the planet, giving them weight and keeping them grounded.
On a larger scale, gravity governs the orbits of planets around the sun, the motion of stars within galaxies, and the formation and evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters.
According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravity arises from the curvature of space-time caused by the presence of mass and energy. The more massive an object is, the greater its gravitational influence on other objects.
Despite its ubiquity and importance, gravity remains one of the least understood forces in physics, with ongoing research seeking to reconcile it with the principles of quantum mechanics and to explain phenomena such as dark matter and dark energy.
Seeing gravity and dark matter in a new light
Taking a fresh perspective, a recent study by Dr. Richard Lieu at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) hopes to solve the puzzle by adding a new twist to this age-old problem.
Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Lieu's paper demonstrates, for the first time, how gravity can exist without mass.
This radical and thought-provoking research provides an alternative theory that could potentially mitigate the need for dark matter.
"My own inspiration came from my pursuit for another solution to the gravitational field equations of general relativity," says Lieu, a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at UAH.
"This initiative is in turn driven by my frustration with the status quo, namely the notion of dark matter's existence despite the lack of any direct evidence for a whole century."
Topological defects may hold the key
Lieu contends that the "excess" gravity necessary to bind a galaxy or cluster together could be due to concentric sets of shell-like topological defects in structures commonly found throughout the cosmos.
These defects were most likely created during the early universe when a cosmological phase transition occurred, a physical process where the overall state of matter changes together across the entire universe.
"It is unclear presently what precise form of phase transition in the universe could give rise to topological defects of this sort," Lieu says.
"Topological effects are very compact regions of space with a very high density of matter, usually in the form of linear structures known as cosmic strings, although 2D structures such as spherical shells are also possible."
Massless gravity effect resembles dark matter
The shells proposed in Lieu's paper consist of a thin inner layer of positive mass and a thin outer layer of negative mass.
While the total mass of both layers is exactly zero, a star lying on this shell experiences a large gravitational force pulling it towards the center of the shell.
As gravitational force fundamentally involves the warping of space-time itself, it enables all objects to interact with each other, whether they have mass or not.
Massless photons, for example, have been confirmed to experience gravitational effects from astronomical objects.
"Gravitational bending of light by a set of concentric singular shells comprising a galaxy or cluster is due to a ray of light being deflected slightly inwards -- that is, towards the center of the large-scale structure, or the set of shells -- as it passes through one shell," Lieu notes.
He explains that as light traverses through multiple shells, the cumulative effect results in a measurable deflection that closely resembles the gravitational influence typically attributed to the presence of a significant amount of dark matter, akin to the observed velocities of stellar orbits within galaxies.
Role of massless shells in galaxy formation
The deflection of light and stellar orbital velocities are the only means by which one gauges the strength of the gravitational field in a large-scale structure, be it a galaxy or a cluster of galaxies.
Lieu's paper contends that the shells it posits are massless, suggesting that there may be no need to perpetuate the seemingly endless search for dark matter.
Questions for future research will likely focus on how a galaxy or cluster is formed by the alignment of these shells, as well as how the evolution of the structures takes place.
"Of course, the availability of a second solution, even if it is highly suggestive, is not by itself sufficient to discredit the dark matter hypothesis -- it could be an interesting mathematical exercise at best," Lieu concludes.
Lieu emphasizes that his research does not aim to address the issue of structure formation in the universe, and acknowledges that there are still open questions regarding the initial state of the shells and how to definitively confirm or refute their existence through targeted observations.
Despite these limitations, Lieu asserts that his work represents the first demonstration of the possibility of gravity existing without mass.
Dark matter vs. Massless gravity: Let the games begin
In summary, Dr. Richard Lieu's fascinating research challenges the century-old notion of dark matter and offers a revolutionary perspective on the nature of gravity.
By demonstrating how gravity can exist without mass through the concept of massless shells, Lieu's work opens up new avenues for understanding the universe and its fundamental forces.
While further investigation is necessary to confirm or refute the existence of these massless shells, this study represents a significant leap forward in our comprehension of the cosmos.
As the scientific community continues to explore the implications of Lieu's findings, we may be on the cusp of a new era in astrophysics, one that reshapes our understanding of the mysterious force that binds galaxies and clusters together.
NASA Returns Voyager 1 Spacecraft to Normal Science Operations
NASA Returns Voyager 1 Spacecraft to Normal Science Operations
Voyager 1is conducting science operations for the first time following a technical issue that arose in November 2023.
Voyager 1 launched from Florida’s NASA Kennedy Space Center on September 5, 1977, 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. This artist concept depicts one of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though the mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally.
They partially resolved the issue in April, 2024 when they prompted Voyager 1 to begin returning engineering data, which includes information about the health and status of the spacecraft.
On May 19, they executed the second step of that repair process and beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data.
Two of the four science instruments returned to their normal operating modes immediately.
Two other instruments required some additional work, but now, all four are returning usable science data.
The four instruments study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles.
This infographic highlights NASA’s Voyager mission’s major milestones, including visiting the four outer planets and exiting the heliosphere, or the protective bubble of magnetic fields and particles created by the Sun.
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
The twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.
Launched in 1977, both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first.
Together, they unveiled much about the Solar System’s two largest planets and their moons.
Voyager 1 is more than 24 billion km (15 billion miles) from Earth, and Voyager 2 is more than 20 billion km (12 billion miles) from the planet.
The probes will mark 47 years of operations later this year.
“Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft to directly sample interstellar space, which is the region outside the heliosphere — the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun,” the NASA engineers said.
“While Voyager 1 is back to conducting science, additional minor work is needed to clean up the effects of the issue.”
“Among other tasks, we will resynchronize timekeeping software in the spacecraft’s three onboard computers so they can execute commands at the right time.”
“We will also perform maintenance on the digital tape recorder, which records some data for the plasma wave instrument that is sent to Earth twice per year.”
A radio telescope on its way to the Moon captured a “selfie” of our planet’s radio waves, updating a vintage 1990s science experiment by Carl Sagan.
The ROLSES instrument rode to the Moon aboard Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander in February 2024, which arrived in a crater near the lunar South Pole in February. Along the way, the team measured the spectrum of radio waves rippling out into space from Earth. It’s not possible yet to decipher all that radio traffic, but it provides an electronic fingerprint of a civilization busily chattering over the airwaves — and leaking that chatter out into space. University of Colorado physicist Jack Burns and his colleagues hope to compare Earth’s radio fingerprint to their observations of other worlds from a telescope they plan to build on the far side of the Moon.
One of the antennas on the ROLSES instrument deployed partway to the Moon, so Burns and his colleagues decided they might as well take some measurements of Earth — and it’s a good thing they did, because they only got about 20 minutes’ worth of data once ROLSES landed on the Moon.
INTUITIVE MACHINES AND JACK BURNS
EVERYTHING GETS A REBOOT THESE DAYS
Along the way to the Moon, ROLSES repeated a famous Carl Sagan experiment from 1993: It captured the spectrum of radio waves pouring from our planet out into space. What they measured was an electronic fingerprint of all the wavelengths of radio broadcasts that passing aliens could see if they, too, pointed a radio spectrometer at Earth. They hope the data will give them a more detailed idea of what to look for in radio data from planets around nearby stars.
In 1993, Carl Sagan used the Galileo spacecraft — then on its way to Jupiter — to measure Earth’s atmospheric composition and radio signature.
“The presence of narrow-band, pulsed, amplitude-modulated radio transmission seems uniquely attributable to intelligence,” wrote Sagan in his 1993 paper in the journal Nature. “These observations constitute a control experiment for the search for extraterrestrial life by modern interplanetary spacecraft.” In other words, Sagan hoped that an alien’s-eye view of Earth from Galileo could help astronomers interpret what they saw in observations of planets orbiting other stars. If we could see what the signs of life on Earth looked like from a distance, then we might recognize them if we ever saw them on a distant world.
Astronomical instruments have come a long way since 1993, both literally and figuratively. With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers are finally able to measure how light filters through the atmospheres of planets like the TRAPPIST-1 worlds as they pass in front of their stars. And the radio spectrometer on ROLSES could measure Earth’s radio output in much more detail than the Galileo spacecraft’s instruments could.
“We can re-do the Sagan experiment from 1993 with a much improved radio spectrum,” says Burns in a presentation at the 244th American Astronomical Society conference on Monday.
In case you ever wondered what Earth’s radio signature looks like from space, this is it.
JACK BURNS ET AL.
MAKING THE MOST OF AN AWKWARD SITUATION
ROLSES was meant to spend about 8 days gathering data about how much radio energy from Earth, and the Sun, reaches the southern pole of the Moon. But Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus Lander had a difficult landing in Malapert A crater, and it came to rest with one broken leg, leaning on a nearby slope at about a 30-degree angle. That left the lander’s high-gain antenna pointed at the lunar surface, instead of back toward Earth.
“We were supposed to have 8 days worth of data. We ended up with an hour and a half to 2 hours worth of data,” says Burns.
ROLSES spent only about 20 minutes doing radio astronomy from the surface of the Moon — still a major first and (Burns and others hope) a precursor to full-scale radio observatories on the far side of the Moon. Because the observation time was so short, the data is more noise than signal. The rest, about an hour and a half of much clearer data, was collected on the way to the Moon, when ROLSES wasn’t supposed to have been up and running at all, which underscores how much of spaceflight still relies on being able to improvise quickly.
This artist’s illustration shows LuSEE-Night, ROLSES’s future successor on the Moon.
FIREFLY AEROSPACE
WHAT’S NEXT?
Burns and his colleagues have ambitious plans for their hour and a half of data from ROLSES.
“As a control experiment, what we're looking forward to is comparing this Earth spectrum to ones of nearby exoplanets that we hope to observe with our FARSIDE array of radio telescopes,” says Burns. FARSIDE would be an array of 128 radio antennas arranged over about 6 square miles of the Moon and connected to a base station. It’s received some design funding from NASA so far.
The FARSIDE antennas will listen for faint signals from the Cosmic Dark Ages, but Burns also wants to use them to scan about 2,000 nearby star systems for signs of intelligent, radio-using life — and compare those signals with the ones Galileo and ROLSES measured coming from Earth.
Burns and his colleagues are also working with Texas-based Lunar Resources, INc. to design a 5-square-mile array of radio antennas sprawling across a lunar plain. Picture something like an old-fashioned television antenna; now picture roughly 100,000 of them, lined up end-to-end in a series of zig-zags. Combined, those antennas will act as one giant radio receiver.
Picture something like an old-fashioned television antenna; now picture roughly 100,000 of them, lined up end-to-end in a series of zig-zags.
The concept competing with Farview is basically a lunar version of the now-defunct Arecibo Observatory (RIP) called the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope, a semicircle of wire mesh about a third of a mile wide, lining the bottom of a 1.9-mile-wide crater on the Moon. Both projects have received some funding from NASA for development and design, but neither is fully funded for actually building or launch.
Before either of those ambitious projects actually break lunar ground, two more small radio telescopes will launch to the Moon in 2026. One is a second, upgraded version of ROLSES. The second is LuSEE-Night, which, if everything goes to schedule, will land on the far side of the Moon in January 2026 and deploy a pair of spring-loaded, 20-foot-long radio antennas. The little telescope will test whether the far side of the Moon is really as good a vantage point for radio astronomy as everyone hopes. It will also give us our first, albeit low-resolution, glimpse of the galaxy at the low radio frequencies we can't see from Earth.
The Inner and Outer Milky Way Aren’t the Same Thickness, and that’s Surprising
At first glance, the universe and night sky seem largely unchanging. The reality is very different, even now, a gas cloud is charging toward the Milky Way Galaxy and is expected to crash into us in 27 million years. A team of astronomers hoping to locate the exact position of the expected impact site have been unsuccessful but have accidentally measured the thickness of the Milky Way! Analysing radio data, they have been able to deduce the thickness of the inner and outer regions and discovered a dramatic difference between the two.
The team of astronomers from the US National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory were attempting to study the Smith Cloud. This high velocity cloud of hydrogen gas is located in the constellation Aquila at a distance of somewhere between 36,000 and 45,000 light years. Previous studies from the Green Bank Observatory have shown the cloud contains at least 1 million times the mass of the Sun and measures 9,800 light years long by 3,300 light years wide.
A false-color image of the Smith Cloud made with data from the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). New analysis indicates that it is wrapped in a dark matter halo. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
The plan was simple enough, to observe the spot where the cloud is currently interacting with the Milky Way. The observation is tricky enough though as the cloud is on the far side of the Milky Way and there is a lot of stuff in the way! The team, led by Toney Minter used the 20m Green Bank Telescope to search for dust and emissions from hydroxyl molecules (composed of a hydrogen and oxygen molecule.) What the team expected to see was a difference in composition in the region of the Milky Way interacted with the cloud which, should have very little dust and hydroxyl molecules. Clouds in the Milky Way tend to have both so a difference should be detectable.
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. Credit: Jay Young.
Minter was candidly open about the study joking ‘I knew there was a low probability that I’d find what I was looking for—and I didn’t,. But this is all part of the scientific process. You learn from what you DO and DON’T find.’
Disappointingly the team did not detect any differences in composition but what they did find was equally as interesting. The study revealed information about the Milky Way itself and the structure of its inner regions. Minter and his team had to look through the Milky Way’s inner regions for their study and what they were able to determine was the thickness of the layer of molecules in the inner Galaxy. The information enabled them to deduce the scale height of the clouds of molecular gas in the inner Milky Way. The results showed that the layer of molecules in the inner region measured 330 light years thick while those in the outer parts measured twice as much, around 660 light years.
The discovery still leaves questions unanswered. The observation certainly shows the difference in thickness between the inner and outer regions but it doesn’t give any clue as to what is driving the difference. Further observations are now required to follow up on this discovery to try and model the underlying process. Of course one other question remains unanswered and that is the nature and mechanics of the Smith Cloud and how it will impact our own Galaxy. Far from being disappointed though, Minter stated ‘That’s why astronomy is exciting, our knowledge is always evolving’
Many space fans have been following the successful launch of the Boeing Starliner, another commercial organisation aiming to make space more accessible. It successfully reached the International Space Station, delivering Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams into orbit but it wasn’t without a hitch. Three of its thrusters experienced problems and there were ‘five small leaks on the service module.’ The crew and ground teams are working through safety checks of power and habitability. To ensure a safe return of the astronauts NASA has extended the mission by four days to 18th June.
Boeing Starliner is a reusable (partly) spacecraft designed to transport crews to low Earth orbit. NASA is the lead customer so, once certification has been achieved, will be used to deliver astronauts regularly to the ISS. It consists of a crew capsule that can be used ten times and an expendable service module. Measuring 4.6 metres in diameter it is slightly larger than the Apollo Command module that was a part of the historic Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins mission to the Moon.
The Apollo 10 command/service module nicknamed “Charlie Brown” orbiting the Moon as seen from the lunar module. Credit: NASA
The Boeing Starliner launch marked its first crewed trip into orbit, with the objective of data collection for certification by NASA for regular crewed missions to ISS. The tests are numerous and include; running the spacecraft in minimal power mode (for when docked to ISS), checking suitability to support crew on its own in the event of an emergency, performing habitability studies for a four person crew and a multitude of other system checks. The module has been docked to ISS since 6th June.
Teething problems for any new module are always expected but when the word ‘leak’ pops up it is most definitely a cause for concern. In the case of Starliner, five small leaks have been detected in the service module helium manifolds. When Starliner launched, the ground team already knew there was one leak in the propulsion system but now, four more have been detected! The flight engineers initially suspected a flaw in a manifold seal or possibly even faulty installation but now, with the four additional leaks they’re trying to understand if there is a common problem.
The leaks are not the only problem that has been experienced. As Starliner approached ISS, it relied upon precise pulses from the 28 reaction control thrusters. During this critical phase of the docking process, five of them failed. More accurately, the spacecraft control software deduced they were not working and deselected them. The first docking window was missed as a result but the crew were able to test and restart four of the five engines allowing them to safely dock. Engineers are still looking into the thruster problem but are confidence it will allow the safe return of the astronauts.
International Space Station. Credit: NASA
As for the helium leak, flight engineers have examined the leak rate and confirmed that Starliner has sufficient margin to support a return trip to Earth. With Starliner docked to the ISS the manifolds are all closed preventing any helium loss until the return trip which takes just seven hours. Even with the manifolds open and the rate of leak there is sufficient helium to support 70 hours of flight time.
Ground support teams are continuing to work through the problems and the return plan. They will explore tolerances and possible operational mitigations for the remainder of the mission. As the team depart from the ISS, no earlier than 18th June they will slowly adjust orbit away from the Space Station. A deorbit burn will be completed before entering the atmosphere and landing in south-western United States.
During the May 20 solar storm, so much energy from the storm struck the surface that black-and-white images from Curiosity’s navigation cameras danced with “snow” — white streaks and specks caused by charged particles hitting the cameras. Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Planet Earth is in for some amazing geomagnetic storms in the next year or so. That’s because it’s in a period of peak activity called “solar maximum” (solar max, for short). But, what happens at other planets, especially Mars, during this time? Mars mission scientists got a sneak peek at the effect of a major solar storm thanks to one hitting the Red Planet on May 20th, 2024.
During that event, the Curiosity Mars rover’s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) measured a very sharp increase in radiation during the solar storm. At the same time, the navigation camera captured views of a wind gust stirring up surface dust. The radiation count was the highest the instrument has seen since the rover landed on Mars. In space, the Mars Odyssey orbiter’s star camera also experienced a shower of solar particles. The bombardment knocked the camera out for a short time. During its recovery time, the spacecraft continued collecting data. That included information about the x-rays, gamma rays, and other charged particles streaming from the Sun.
NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft also collected data about the bombardment from the May 20th event. “This was the largest solar energetic particle event that MAVEN has ever seen,” said MAVEN Space Weather Lead, Christina Lee of the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory. “There have been several solar events in past weeks, so we were seeing wave after wave of particles hitting Mars.”
The purple color in this video shows auroras on Mars’ nightside. The ultraviolet instrument aboard NASA’s MAVEN orbiter detected them between May 14 and 20, 2024. The brighter the purple, the more auroras that were present. Credit: NASA/University of Colorado/LASP
What Protects Planets from the Solar Storm?
There’s not much we as a species can do to protect our planet from a solar storm. However, we’re lucky—we have a strong magnetic field to ward off the worst solar outbursts. Mars is not so lucky. It doesn’t have as much of a magnetic field to ward off the deadly radiation. Space weather experts estimated that if someone had been standing on the Martian surface during that storm, they would have been irradiated with the equivalent of 30 chest X-rays in just a short time.
That storm, and others have sparked auroras on Mars (as well as on Earth). A storm earlier in May sparked off major auroral displays on Earth on May 10-11, but otherwise didn’t severely damage any vital systems. Solar storms, however, do offer a good chance for scientists to track the Sun’s outbursts as they rampage across the Solar System. The data they get gives more insight into solar activity. However, the data from the Mars missions also provides a chilling look at just what kind of risky environment Mars is for future explorers.
Sheltering from the Solar Storm on Mars
Here on Earth, if we have plenty of notice of a solar outburst, people can get ready for the inevitable damage a solar storm can cause. For example, satellite operators can prepare their assets to protect them. NASA can advise astronauts in space to take shelter and other precautions. Ground-based power and telecommunications operators have plans in place to protect their systems from the tremendously strong ground currents that get stirred up by solar storms.
But, what if you’re on your way to Mars when a storm hits? Or, you’re actually ON Mars? Those questions occupy a lot of study time at NASA and other space agencies. People in space, whether orbiting Earth or en route to the Moon or Mars can take shelter inside their craft. In those cases, they have to depend on hardened shelters to keep them safe. But, on Mars, things are different. There’s no strong magnetic field to ward off the strong particles from the Sun. Inhabitants will have to take shelter, according to Don Hassler of Southwest Research Institute’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division.
“Cliffsides or lava tubes would provide additional shielding for an astronaut from such an event. In Mars orbit or deep space, the dose rate would be significantly more,” Hassler said.“I wouldn’t be surprised if this active region on the Sun continues to erupt, meaning even more solar storms at both Earth and Mars over the coming weeks.”
What Happened on May 20th?
The storm that Curiosity recorded began with an X12-class solar flare. That’s one of the strongest solar flares recorded and, if it had been aimed at Earth, could have caused some major damage. As it turns out, Mars was in the pathway of that flare and a subsequent coronal mass ejection. It launched a cloud of charged particles through space. When the outburst from the flare and the CME arrived at Mars, it triggered auroral displays on the Martian night side. At the same time, the outbursts showered the surface with charged particles. If someone had been on Mars and working outside a shelter, they would have been dosed with the equivalent of 30 chest X-rays. That’s not a deadly exposure, but over time if someone experienced many such events, the damage to their body would add up.
Luckily, the storm did no damage to Curiosity or any of the spacecraft at Mars. But, that won’t always be the case, and mission planners can use the data from this storm and others to figure out how best to protect future explorers.
A NASA video about how a solar storm affected Mars.
Rain will probably never fall on Mars’ giant volcano, Olympus Mons (our condolences to the MMC). But a glittering swath of frost covers the Martian mountaintop on chilly mornings, according to new research, suggesting that the planet has an active, if sparse, water cycle.
A team of scientists recently discovered frozen water in an unlikely place on Mars: 13.5 miles above the surface, nestled near the peak of our Solar System’s largest mountain, Olympus Mons (which is also a volcano, though its last eruption was 25 million years ago.) For a few hours each morning during the colder Martian seasons, huge patches of frost settle in the ancient calderas of Mars’s Tharsis Mountain range, which includesOlympus Mons. The recent study is the first time scientists have seen frost anywhere near the planet’s equator, and it could suggest new places to look for water and potential signs of life on Mars.
The frost is visible in blue in this image of Olympus Mons.
ESA/DLR/FU BERLIN
FROST-CAPPED MOUNTAIN PEAKS IN THE MARTIAN TROPICS
Valentinas and his colleagues spent five years poring over data from an instrument called CaSSIS (Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System) aboard the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter. In 2018, the scientists thought they had glimpsed frost in the high calderas of Olympus Mons and some of the other dormant volcanoes of Tharsis, and more data from the Mars Express Orbiter confirmed what they had seen. The team spent the next five years studying more than 30,000 images of the region, captured at different times of day and in different seasons, to piece together a record of how the frost came and went.
It turns out that during Mars’s colder months, a super-thin layer of frost forms at the peaks of the towering mountains and in their calderas — the collapsed craters formed by cataclysmic volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. The icy layer is only about as thick as a human hair, and it lasts just a few hours before it evaporates under the heat of the Martian Sun. However, it covers such a wide swath of ground that even that thin, short-lived frost layer contains about 150,000 tons of water, enough to fill 6 Olympic swimming pools. And in the mostly-dry environs of modern Mars, that’s a lot of water.
“We thought it was improbable for frost to form around Mars’s equator, as the mix of sunshine and thin atmosphere keeps temperatures during the day relatively high, at both the surface and the mountaintops — unlike what we see on Earth, where you might expect to see frosty peaks,” says Valentinas in a recent statement.
Valentinas and his colleagues suggest that there’s something about air circulation around the tops of the mountains and through the calderas that creates a microclimate that’s cool enough and humid enough to allow frost to form on cold mornings. Building computer simulations of how the frost forms and evaporates could help scientists understand Mars’s water cycle, such as it is, in more detail.
Rijm ontdekt op de hoogste vulkanen van Mars: "Altijd gedacht dat zoiets onmogelijk was"
Rijm ontdekt op de hoogste vulkanen van Mars: "Altijd gedacht dat zoiets onmogelijk was"
Artikel door Wim De Maeseneer
In de winter wordt wel eens gewaarschuwd voor rijm- en ijsplekken op de weg. Rijm is de witte laag die je soms op je gazon ziet als het in de winter vriest. Het zijn de fijne waterdruppels uit de lucht die condenseren op het gras of op de weg en dan bevriezen. Voor het eerst is er bewijs dat er zich ook rijm op Mars kan vormen.
Op de kilometers hoge toppen van enkele vulkanen is een dun laagje rijm ontdekt, dat tijdens het koude seizoen elke dag verschijnt rond zonsopgang en enkele uren later weer verdampt in het zonlicht. Dat blijkt uit waarnemingen van 2 Europese satellieten rond Mars: de ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) en de Mars Express.
Nochtans werd altijd gedacht dat er op die plek, dicht bij de evenaar van Mars, onmogelijk water kon bevriezen. "Tot nog toe dachten we dat de temperaturen aan de evenaar te hoog zouden zijn, zowel op het oppervlak als op de bergtoppen, door het zonlicht en de dunne atmosfeer", zegt onderzoeker Adomas Valantinas die de studie heeft geleid. "Er moeten dus ongewone processen meespelen waardoor er zich toch rijm kan vormen."
Belgische bijdrage
Wat die ongewone processen dan wel zouden kunnen zijn, dat onderzochten wetenschappers van de Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België. "Onze modellen van de luchtcirculatie op Mars hebben aangetoond dat vochtige lucht inderdaad kan condenseren tot rijm van water op de bodem van caldera's (de grote krater aan de top van een uitgedoofde vulkaan, red.), gedurende de nacht en vroege ochtend. Vergelijkbaar met wat kan worden waargenomen op aarde", klinkt het in een persbericht.
"In die caldera's zou de temperatuur toch iets kouder kunnen zijn. Net koud genoeg om toch rijm te kunnen vormen", vult Karolien Lefever van het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimte-Aeronomie (BIRA) aan. Het is mede dankzij het NOMAD-instrument van het BIRA, aan boord van de ExoMars-satelliet, dat de rijm kon worden ontdekt.
Credit: Adomas Valantinas
Deze vroege ochtendopname van Olympus Mons (LST = 7:20 uur, Ls = 346,7°, lat = 18,2°N, lon = -133,2°E) is gemaakt door de Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX-HRSC). Deze foto toont voor het eerst de aanwezigheid van rijm van water op de top van de vulkaan, de hoogste vulkaan op Mars en in het hele zonnestelsel.
Mars is miljoenen jaren lang geteisterd door grote vulkaanuitbarstingen en dat is op het oppervlak nog altijd goed te zien. De vulkanen waar het over gaat, bevinden zich in het Tharsisgebied, een enorm vulkanisch plateau op de evenaar van Mars. Hier liggen de grootste vulkanen van ons zonnestelsel.
Olympus Mons torent 25 kilometer boven het oppervlak uit en is de grootste bekende vulkaan. Hij is meer dan 600 kilometer breed. Er liggen nog verschillende andere vulkanen van 10 kilometer hoog en meer. Ter vergelijking: de hoogste vulkaan ter wereld, de Ojos del Salado in Chili, is net geen 7 kilometer hoog.
"Hoewel het om een heel dun laagje gaat, ongeveer de dikte van een menselijk haar, bedekt het een enorm groot gebied. Alles samen komt het overeen met zo'n 150.000 ton water, dat elke dag tussen de atmosfeer en het oppervlak wordt uitgewisseld."
"Deze ontdekking is een nieuw, klein puzzelstukje in het beter begrijpen van de watercyclus op Mars", zegt Lefever. "Waterijswolken en waterdamp werden eerder al gedetecteerd op Mars. En we weten dat die wolken een heel belangrijke rol spelen in de watercyclus, omdat ze water van de polen naar de droge gebieden aan de evenaar brengen."
"Als we ooit mensen naar Mars willen sturen, dan zal die kennis over de watercyclus zeker van pas komen. Want het zal belangrijk zijn voor astronauten om zelf drinkwater te maken, om water te maken om zich te wassen en om planten te laten groeien, bijvoorbeeld. "
The Milky Way’s Last Merger Event Was More Recent Than Thought
The Milky Way is only as massive as it is because of collisions and mergers with other galaxies. This is a messy process, and we see the same thing happening with other galaxies throughout the Universe. Currently, we see the Milky Way nibbling at its two satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Their fate is likely sealed, and they’ll be absorbed into our galaxy.
Researchers thought the last major merger occurred in the Milky Way’s distant past, between 8 and 11 billion years ago. But new research amplifies the idea that it was much more recent: less than 3 billion years ago.
This new insight into our galactic history comes from the ESA’s Gaia mission. Launched in 2013, Gaia is busily mapping 1 billion astronomical objects, mostly stars. It measures them repeatedly, establishing accurate measurements of their positions and motions.
A new paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society presents the findings. It’s titled “The Debris of the ‘Last Major Merger’ is Dynamically Young.” The lead author is Thomas Donlon, a post-doctoral researcher in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Donlon has been studying mergers in the Milky Way for several years and has published other work on the matter.
Each time another galaxy collides and merges with the Milky Way, it leaves wrinkles. ‘Wrinkles’ obviously isn’t a scientific term. It’s an umbrella term for several types of morphologies, including phase space folds, caustics, chevrons, and shells. These wrinkles move through different groups of stars within the Milky Way, affecting how the stars move through space. By measuring the positions and velocities of these stars with great precision, Gaia can detect the wrinkles, the imprint of the last major merger.
“We get wrinklier as we age, but our work reveals that the opposite is true for the Milky Way. It’s a sort of cosmic Benjamin Button, getting less wrinkly over time,” said lead author Donlon in a press release. “By looking at how these wrinkles dissipate over time, we can trace when the Milky Way experienced its last big crash—and it turns out this happened billions of years later than we thought.”
The effort to understand the Milky Way’s (MW) last major merger involves different pieces of evidence. One of the pieces of evidence, along with wrinkles, is an Fe/H-rich region where stars follow a highly eccentric orbit. A star’s Fe/H ratio is a chemical fingerprint, and when astronomers find a group of stars with the same fingerprint and the same orbits, it’s evidence of a common origin. This group of stars is sometimes called ‘the Splash.’ The stars in the Splash may have originated in a Fe/H-rich progenitor. They have odd orbits that stand out from their surroundings. Astronomers think they were heated and their orbits altered as a by-product of the merger.
There are two competing explanations for all of the merger evidence.
One says that a progenitor dwarf galaxy named Gaia Sausage/Enceladus (GSE) collided with the MW proto-disk between 8 and 11 billion years ago. The other explanation is that an event called the Virgo Radial Merger (VRM) is responsible for the stars in the inner halo. That collision occurred much more recently, less than 3 billion years ago.
This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 2808. It might be the old core of the Gaia Sausage. Image Credit: By NASA, ESA, A. Sarajedini (University of Florida) and G. Piotto (University of Padua (Padova)) http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/2007/18/image/a/ (direct link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2371715
“These two scenarios make different predictions about observable structure in local phase space because the morphology of debris depends on how long it has had to phase mix,” the authors explain in their paper.
The wrinkles in the MW were first identified in Gaia data in 2018 and presented in this paper. “We have observed shapes with different morphologies, such as a spiral similar to a snail’s shell. The existence of these substructures has been observed for the first time thanks to the unprecedented precision of the data brought by Gaia satellite, from the European Space Agency (ESA)”, said Teresa Antoja, the study’s first author, in 2018.
This AI-generated image illustrates the MW’s ‘wrinkles’ from the last major merger event. Image Credit: University of Barcelona.
But Gaia has released more data since 2018, and it supports the more recent merger scenario, the Virgo Radial Merger. That data shows that the wrinkles are much more prevalent than the earlier data and the studies based on it suggest.
“For the wrinkles of stars to be as clear as they appear in Gaia data, they must have joined us less than 3 billion years ago—at least 5 billion years later than was previously thought,” said co-author Heidi Jo Newberg, from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. If the wrinkles were much older and conformed to the GSE merger scenario, they’d be more difficult to discern.
“New wrinkles of stars form each time the stars swing back and forth through the center of the Milky Way. If they’d joined us 8 billion years ago, there would be so many wrinkles right next to each other that we would no longer see them as separate features,” Newberg said.
This doesn’t mean there’s no evidence for the more ancient GSE merger. Some of the stars that hint at the ancient merger may be from the more recent VRM merger, and some may still be associated with the GSE merger. It’s challenging to figure out, and simulations play a large role. The researchers in previous work and in this work ran multiple simulations to see how they matched the evidence. “Our goal is to determine the time that has passed since the progenitor of the local phase-space folds collided with the MW disc,” the authors write in their paper.
“We can see how the shapes and number of wrinkles change over time using these simulated mergers. This lets us pinpoint the exact time when the simulation best matches what we see in real Gaia data of the Milky Way today—a method we used in this new study too,” said Thomas.
“By doing this, we found that the wrinkles were likely caused by a dwarf galaxy colliding with the Milky Way around 2.7 billion years ago. We named this event the Virgo Radial Merger.” Those results and the name come from a previous study from 2019.
As Gaia delivers more data with each release, astronomers are getting a better look at the evidence of mergers. It’s becoming clear that the MW has a complex history.
The VRM likely involved more than one entity. It could have brought a whole group of dwarf galaxies and star clusters into the MW at around the same time. As astronomers research the MW’s merger history in greater detail, they hope to determine which of these objects are from the more recent VRM and which are from the ancient GSE.
“The Milky Way’s history is constantly being rewritten at the moment, in no small part thanks to new data from Gaia,” adds Thomas. “Our picture of the Milky Way’s past has changed dramatically from even a decade ago, and I think our understanding of these mergers will continue to change rapidly.”
“This finding improves what we know of the many complicated events that shaped the Milky Way, helping us better understand how galaxies are formed and shaped—our home galaxy in particular,” said Timo Prusti, Project Scientist for Gaia at ESA.
Landing on Pluto May Only Be A Hop Skip and Jump Away
There are plenty of crazy ideas for missions in the space exploration community. Some are just better funded than others. One of the early pathways to funding the crazy ideas is NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts. In 2017 and again in 2021, it funded a mission study of what most space enthusiasts would consider only a modestly ambitious goal but what those outside the community might consider outlandish—landing on Pluto.
Two major questions stand out in the mission design: How would a probe arriving at Pluto slow down, and what kind of lander would be useful on Pluto itself? The answer to the first is one that is becoming increasingly common on planetary exploration missions: aerobraking.
Pluto has an atmosphere, albeit sparse, as confirmed by the New Horizons mission that whizzed past in 2015. One advantage of the minor planet’s relatively weak gravity is that its low-density atmosphere is almost eight times larger than Earth’s, providing a much bigger target for a fast incoming aerobraking craft to aim for.
Fraser discusses future missions to Pluto.
Much of the NIAC Phase I project was focused on the details of that aerobraking system, called the Enveloping Aerodynamic Decelerator (EAD). Combined with a lander, that system makes up the “Entrycraft” that the mission is designed around. Ostensibly, it could alternatively contain an orbiter, and there are plenty of other missions discussing how to insert an orbiter around Pluto. Hence, the main thrust of this paper is to focus on a lander.
After aerobraking and slowing down to a few tens of meters a second, from 14 km/s during its interplanetary cruise phase, the mission would drop its lander payload, then rest on the surface, only to rise again under its own power. The answer to the second question of what kind of lander would be useful on Pluto is – a hopper.
Hoppers have become increasingly popular as an exploration tool everywhere, from the Moon to asteroids. Some apparent advantages would include visiting a wide array of interesting scientific sites and not having to navigate tricky land-based obstacles. Ingenuity, the helicopter that accompanied Perseverance paved the way for the idea, but in other words, the atmosphere isn’t dense enough to support a helicopter. So why not use the current favorite method of almost all spacecraft – rockets?
Fraser discusses the results from New Horizons.
A hopper would fire its onboard thrusters to reach the area on Pluto’s surface and then land elsewhere. It could then do some science at its new locale before taking off and doing so again somewhere else. The NIAC Phase I Final Report describes five main scientific objectives of the mission, including understanding the surface geomorphology and running some in-situ chemical analysis. A hopper structure would enable those goals much better than a traditional rover at a relatively low weight cost since Pluto’s gravity is so weak.
Other objectives of the report include mathematical calculations of the trajectory, including the aerobraking itself and the stress and strain it would have on the materials used in the system. The authors, who primarily work for Global Aerospace Corporation and ILC Dover, two private companies, also updated the atmospheric models of Pluto with new New Horizons data, which they then fed into the aerobraking model they used. Designing the lander/hopper, integrating all the scientific and navigation components, and estimating their weights were also part of Phase I.
The original launch window for the mission was planned as 2029 back in 2018, though now, despite receiving a Phase II NIAC grant in 2021, that launch window seems wildly optimistic. Since the mission would require a gravity assist from Jupiter, the next potential launch window would be 2042, with a lander finally reaching the surface of Pluto in the 2050s. That later launch window is likely the only feasible one for the mission, so we might have to wait almost 30 years to see if it will come to fruition. Sometimes crazy ideas take patience – we’ll see if the mission team has enough of that to push it onto the surface of one of the most interesting minor planets in the solar system.
Newly published research from scientists at Cornell University is casting doubt on previous findings hinting at the presence of a large lake of liquid water underneath Mars’ polar ice caps. Instead, the researchers say their models were able to produce the same signals detected by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter back in 2018 in a simpler and likelier way that doesn’t require the presence of liquid water.
Previous studies have found overwhelming evidence for large amounts of water billions of years in Mars’ past, increasing the possibility that life may have had a chance to evolve on the red planet. However, the presence of liquid lakes on or underneath Mars would greatly increase the chances that life currently resides on the red planet. If confirmed, these latest findings, which say the readings were caused by ice reflections, would represent a dramatic setback to those hopes, potentially restricting any living Martian organisms to the planet’s watery ancient past.
“I can’t say it’s impossible that there’s liquid water down there,” said Daniel Lalich, research associate at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science and an author on the study outlining the team’s findings, “but we’re showing that there are much simpler ways to get the same observation without having to stretch that far, using mechanisms and materials that we already know exist there.”
In fact, Lalich is so confident in his team’s findings that he says random chance could “create the same observed signal in the radar.”
EVIDENCE FOR LIQUID WATER UNDERNEATH MARS’ POLAR ICE CAPS
Ever since NASA and the European Space Agency began sending various probes, rovers, and satellites to Mars, they have found a steadily increasing body of evidence that the red planet was once home to large amounts of liquid water. Some research even showed that a massive ocean may have existed on Mars’ surface around three billion years ago, even though the temperature at the surface was well below freezing, thanks to constant water circulation and periodic coastal rainfall. An examination of rocks collected by the Perseverance Rover also found that water in Jezero Crater may have persisted for much longer than previously thought, increasing the opportunity for life to form.
Then suddenly, in 2018, researchers using the ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft reported the discovery of a large lake of liquid water underneath Mar’s polar ice caps in the Planum Australe region. The researchers were so confident in their findings that they went so far as to say that the 20km wide lake “is probably kept from freezing by dissolved salts and the pressure of the ice above.”
Now, both of those studies have been called into question, with the new models suggesting that the reflections that seemed to indicate the presence of this massive lake were likely just illusions created by layers of ice.
RANDOMLY GENERATED LAYERING SCENARIOS REPLICATE READINGS WITHOUT NEED FOR WATER
In the media release announcing the new findings, Lalich notes that he had developed earlier models that could account for the presence of reflections underneath the Martian ice caps. However, he says that those models, which relied on assumptions about layers of frozen carbon dioxide hiding beneath the ice caps, “likely were incorrect.”
Hoping to refine his approach, Lalich says he decided to use much more sophisticated modeling techniques, which helped in “closing the gaps” in his radar interference hypothesis. This included modeling thousands of randomly generated layering scenarios based specifically on the atmospheric and material conditions present only at the Martian poles. Throughout these different scenarios, Lalich and his team periodically adjusted the spacing and composition of the various ice layers, like those already known to exist beneath the surface of Mars, while monitoring how this would affect readings captured by a satellite like the Mars Express.
Just like his previous models, Lalich said that those slight adjustments started to produce “bright subsurface signals consistent with observations” found by all of the three frequencies analyzed by the Mars Express orbiter’s MARSIS radar instrument during the 2018 discovery. In effect, his data showed that when the RADAR waves bounced off of ice layers that were too close together for the MARSIS instrument to tell them apart, the instrument most likely combined them together, resulting in amplified peaks and troughs in the signal that matched those made by liquid water.
“This is the first time we have a hypothesis that explains the entire population of observations below the ice cap without having to introduce anything unique or odd,” Lalich said. “This result where we get bright reflections scattered all over the place is exactly what you would expect from thin-layer interference in the radar.”
While this research doesn’t permanently shut the door on the idea of liquid water underneath Mars’ polar ice caps, the researchers behind the finding do seem to agree that the scientific community tends to prefer the simplest explanation whenever possible, as opposed to the one that is more exciting.
“The idea that there would be liquid water even somewhat near the surface would have been really exciting,” Lalich said. “I just don’t think it’s there.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.
The pit crater possibly opens into a larger cave that could provide a sheltered environment for both astronauts and hypothetical Martian life.
The alluring pit crater on Arsia Mons, imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/UArizona)
A mysterious pit on the flank of an ancientvolcano on Mars has generated excitement recently because of what it could reveal beneath the surface of the Red Planet. Here's what that means.
First things first, the pit, which is only a few meters across, was actually imaged on Aug. 15, 2022 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was about 159 miles (256 kilometers) above the Martian surface at the time. This hole in the ground is also not alone. It's one of many seen on the flanks of a trio of large volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars. This particular pit is found on a lava flow on the extinct volcano Arsia Mons, and appears to be a vertical shaft. That raises a question: Is it just a narrow pit, or does it lead to a much larger and remarkable cavern? Or, could it perhaps be a really deep lava tube formed underground long ago when the volcano was still active?
There are several reasons why pits and caves on Mars are of interest. For one, they could provide shelter for astronauts in the future; because Mars has a thin atmosphere and lacks a global magnetic field, it cannot ward off radiation from space the way that Earth does. Consequently, radiation exposure on the Martian surface averages between 40 and 50 times greater than on Earth.
The other enticing aspect of these pits is they might not just provide shelter for human astronauts; they could hold astrobiological interest in the sense that they could have been sheltered abodes for Martian life in the past — perhaps even today, if microbial life indeed exists there.
The presence of these so-called holes on the flanks of volcanoes is a big clue that they are probably connected to volcanic activity on Mars. Channels of lava can flow away from a volcano underground; when the volcano grows extinct, the channel empties. That leaves behind a long, underground tube. We see such tubes not only on Mars, but also on the moon and on Earth.
Another pit crater on Arsia Mons, again imaged by the HiRISE instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/UArizona)
Sometimes, if the crust is thin enough, the ceiling of these tubes collapses. If a collapse happens along the tube's entire length, it forms a feature called a rille, which is a long trench commonly found on the moon and sometimes in other areas of Mars. If the tube's ceiling just collapses in small areas, however, we get pits like those imaged on Arsia Mons. Planetary scientists have also seen pit chains on the flanks of Martian volcanoes, which are linear stretches of multiple pits seemingly following the length of a lava tube.
Pit chains in a region of Mars called Tractus Catena, which is on the south-western flank of Alba Mons, an old volcano. This image was taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum))
How deep these pits descend is a mystery, however, and it remains uncertain whether the pits open into a large cavern or whether they are contained to a small, cylindrical depression. Some Martian pits have been imaged when the sun is high enough in the sky to illuminate what appears to be the sides of the pit wall, which implies they are shafts that go straight down into the flank of the volcano. This would seem to suggest these pits are unlikely to open into larger caves or tubes. If so, this would make them similar to pit craters found on the volcanic mountains of Hawaii, which also don't open up to anything larger and which are produced by the collapse of material deeper underground, which causes material above to sink.
However, pits on the moon have been shown to have boulder-strewn floors that appear as though they could lead to a larger subterranean volume.
A pit crater on the moon, imaged by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Boulders can be seen on the floor of the pit, and it gives the impression of opening into a wider chasm. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
Pits can also be formed through tectonic stresses that fracture a world's surface, and these may be less likely to lead to a larger cavern. And finally, one other — possibly less likely — explanation is that these pits open up into where underground rivers once flowed billions of years ago.
We can see a similar phenomenon on Earth, in the form of a geological feature called a karst, which forms when limestone bedrock dissolves and weakens, creating pits and sinkholes that open up into areas of groundwater. If that is the case on Mars, then, if the Red Planet ever once had life, those organisms may have sheltered in karsts. Indeed, running water down the flank of an active volcano would have been warm, providing the perfect protected environment for life to flourish and stay safe.
Still, this is all speculation for now. We'll only have some concrete answers after future missions actually explore some of these pits. Though a rover that drives to the edge of a pit would be unable to descend, an airborne mission along the same lines as NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which operated on Mars for three years before it became grounded in January 2024 after damaging one of its rotor blades, would have the ability to hover over and descend into a pit to see what is down there.
If these pits do open up into caves, they may become a preferred landing site for future crewed missions to Mars that will require astronauts to build a sheltered basecamp away from the world's unrelenting radiation.
Starship’s fourth test flight launched at 8:50 am Eastern Time today, and both SpaceX and NASA are declaring the flight, which included splashdown of the Super Heavy first stage, plus re-entry and splashdown for Starship itself, a success.
Flights of the world’s largest rocket are starting to seem almost routine this spring, but SpaceX is under tremendous pressure to have Starship ready to fly the Artemis 3 crew to the Moon — and land there — by late 2026. Starship’s test flights are also part of the key to making sure potential future missions to the Moon and Mars don’t run out of gas on the way. As SpaceX put it in a tweet shortly before launch, “The payload for these flights is data.”
The SpaceX Starship launches on its fourth flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on June 6, 2024. The Starship is vital to NASA's plans for landing astronauts on the Moon later this decade, and to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's hopes of eventually colonizing Mars. (Photo by Chandan KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
AN EXTREMELY COOL ENGINEERING CHALLENGE
The largest rocket ever flown, Super Heavy uses a combination of liquid oxygen and methane to get off the ground. Despite the exhaust blasting out the back end of the rocket at several thousand degrees Fahrenheit, the propellant in Super Heavy’s tanks has to be kept at a chilly -300 degrees Fahrenheit; any warmer, and it will boil away into gas, useless for fueling those 33 Raptor engines. SpaceX is one of several contractors — including Eta Space, Lockheed Martin, and United Launch Alliance — whose flights will gather data for NASA’s study of how to manage propellants like these on long flights.
On its third test flight (also known as the first one in which Starship made it to orbit), engineers moved propellant from the header tanks to the main tanks while the ship was coasting in orbit. That's going to be an important step for the Artemis III and IV missions to get the spacecraft out of Low Earth Orbit and on their way to the Moon. Engineers are also using these test flights to study how all those bouncing blobs of rocket fuel affect Starship’s stability in orbit.
Rockets have used super-cold, or cryogenic, liquid propellants, for decades. The Apollo missions traveled to the Moon on a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, both cryogenic (after using liquid kerosene and liquid oxygen to get to space). They work well, but they can be tricky, especially in space, where the temperature can swing from bitter cold to boiling hot in a matter of hours — and the way liquid floats around in microgravity means it’s difficult to transfer fuel from a storage tank to a thruster, or even measure how much is left in the tank.
And if NASA wants to realize its ambitions on the Moon, and eventually Mars, the agency and its contractors will need to store and transfer more cryogenic propellant, for longer flights, than ever before.
“Storing and transferring cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this scale before,” said Jeremy Kenny, project manager, NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio at Marshall, in a March 2024 statement.
That’s where SpaceX comes in, along with a few of its competitors. Starship is working on a particular piece of the problem, called slosh. Once Starship’s main engines cut off, there’s no acceleration forcing the propellant to sit neatly at one end of its tank, where it’s easy to measure. Instead, you get a bunch of little blobs of super-cold fluid bouncing around in the tank. If there’s not enough pressure to keep the propellant all together, then the engine may end up pulling in a bunch of gas, rather than propellant, which means it won’t fire.
One way Starship deals with this problem is by using header tanks: a pair of smaller propellant tanks that can keep the propellant under enough pressure that it doesn't have room to slosh. The header tanks provide the initial sip of propellant the engines need to restart in orbit. Once the engines restart, their thrust will push the liquid in the main tanks back into the right position to flow to the engines and keep them firing.
It should not be surprising that Venus is dry. It is famous for its hellish conditions, with dense sulphurous clouds, rains of acid, atmospheric pressures comparable to a 900 meter deep lake, and a surface temperature high enough to melt lead. But it’s lack of water is not just a lack of rain and oceans: there’s no ice or water vapour either. Like Earth, Venus is found within our Solar System’s goldilocks zone, so it would have had plenty of water when it was first formed. So where did all of Venus’s water go?
Venus is an extremely dry planet, although it wasn’t always like this. At some point in its history, a run-away greenhouse effect began, ending with its current extreme state. Most models agree that this process would have driven off most of its original water, but that there should still be some remaining. And yet, observations show us that there is practically no water at all. Planetary scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder believe that they have found an explanation: a molecule called HCO+ high in Venus’s atmosphere may be responsible. Unfortunately, they may have to wait for future missions to Venus before they can confirm it.
Until the middle of the 20th century, Venus was thought of as Earth’s twin. Both planets are approximately the same size and mass, and they’re both within the sun’s habitable zone – the region where temperatures can exist that are warm enough to melt ice, but not so hot that water boils into steam. It was long assumed that, beneath its shining white cloud cover, Venus must have a similar climate to Earth. Science fiction authors even wrote stories about visitors to Venus exploring verdant jungles and meeting exotic civilizations. But the truth is much harsher: Venus is an extreme place, with sulphuric acid rains, crushing atmospheric pressure, and a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead. But it wasn’t always like that.
The general assumption among astronomers and planetary scientists is that both Earth and Venus started life with similar amounts of water. But something happened to release enormous quantities of carbon dioxide into its atmosphere, leading to an extreme runaway greenhouse effect. The high temperatures melted off any ice, and boiled away any liquid water, filling the atmosphere with water vapour. Much of this hot vapour would eventually blow off into space, drying out the planet, but some should remain. The puzzle is that the usual models predict a great deal more remaining water vapour than what is actually there. So, what happened?
According to a study, led by Dr Eryn Cangi and Dr Mike Chafin, both of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the answer may be a molecule named HCO+. In their earlier work studying the atmosphere of Mars, they discovered a process by which this molecule can remove water from planetary atmospheres. In their new paper, they suggest that the same process could be at work on Venus. The only catch is that this molecule has never been detected in the Venusian atmosphere.
Unfortunately, there is little evidence to confirm this theory. HCO+ has never been detected in the atmosphere of Venus. However, Cangi and Chafin point out that this is because nobody has ever looked for it, and none of the missions sent to Venus so far were equipped with instruments that could detect it. They are optimistic for future missions, however.
Illustration of NASA’s DAVINCI probe falling to the surface of Venus. (Credit: NASA GSFC visualization by CI Labs Michael Lentz and others)
“One of the surprising conclusions of this work is that HCO+ should actually be among the most abundant ions in the Venus atmosphere,” says Chaffin. “There haven’t been many missions to Venus,” adds Cangi. “But newly planned missions will leverage decades of collective experience and a flourishing interest in Venus to explore the extremes of planetary atmospheres, evolution and habitability.”
The planetary science community has gotten increasingly interested in Venus, and a number of future missions are planned to study it in more detail. NASA’s planned Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission is one example. DAVINCI will drop a probe down to the surface, which will study the atmosphere at different altitudes as it falls. Unfortunately for Cangi and Chafin, it is not designed specifically to look for HCO+, but it may reveal other clues to either confirm or disprove their theory. But they remain optimistic that additional missions will be sent in future that will carry the necessary instruments that they can use to test their work.
For more information, visit CU Boulder’s announcement at
The South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side is one of the largest and oldest impact features in the Solar System. It’s easily seen in the elevation data. The low center is dark blue and purple. Mountains on its edge, remnants of outer rings, are red and yellow.
Image credit: NASA / GSFC / University of Arizona.
The solar wind is a constant flow of radiation and particles from the Sun. Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield.
In contrast, the Moon has no magnetic field and a very tenuous atmosphere, called the exosphere.
When the solar wind hits the Moon, the surface reacts, kicking up secondary particles.
These particles may be positively or negatively charged or have no charge at all.
While the positively charged particles have been measured from orbit before, measuring negative particles was a challenge.
Negative ions are short-lived and cannot make it to orbit. This is why ESA scientists needed to operate their instrument close to the lunar surface.
“This was ESA’s first activity on the surface of the Moon, a world-first scientifically, and a first lunar cooperation with China,” said Neil Melville, ESA’s technical officer for the NILS experiment.
“We have collected an amount and quality of data far beyond our expectations.”
“These observations on the Moon will help us better understand the surface environment and act as a pathfinder to explore negative ion populations in other airless bodies in the Solar System, from planets to asteroids and other moons,” said Dr. Martin Wieser, NILS principal investigator.
Chang’e-6 landed successfully in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon known on June 1, 2024.
NILS started to collect science data 280 min after landing. The first data collection period lasted for 23 min, until the instrument reverted to low voltage. A few more rounds of data collection followed between communications blackouts and reboots.
“We were alternating between short bursts of full-power and long cooling-off periods because the instrument was heating up,” Melville said.
“The fact that it stayed within its thermal design limits and managed to recover under extremely hot conditions is a testament to the quality of the work done by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics.”
Astronauts are Practicing Lunar Operations in New Space Suits
Astronauts were fully suited while conducting mission-like maneuvers in the full-scale build of the Starship human landing system’s airlock which will be located inside Starship under the crew cabin. Credit: SpaceX
Astronauts are Practicing Lunar Operations in New Space Suits
Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. While the challenges remain the same, the equipment has evolved, including the rocket, spacecraft, human landing system (HLS), and space suits. In preparation for Artemis III(planned for September 2026), NASA recently conducted a test where astronauts donned the new space suits developed by Axiom Spaceand practiced interacting with the hardware that will take them to the Moon.
These new suits, the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), were developed specifically for the Artemis III mission. The day-long test took place on April 30th at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, where astronaut Doug “Wheels” Wheelock and Axiom Space astronaut Peggy Whitson interacted with a full-scale model of the SpaceX Starship Human Landing System (HLS). This was the first time astronauts trained in pressurized spacesuits and conducted mock operations with the HLS hardware.
The test provided valuable feedback on theStarship HLSand the AxEMU spacesuits for NASA and its commercial partners. It also gave astronauts a chance to gauge the suits’ range of motion and to get a feel for the interior of the Starship HLSand its mechanical systems. Said Logan Kennedy, lead for surface activities in NASA’s HLS Program, in a NASA press statement:
The Artemis III spacesuit prototype, the AxEMU. Though this prototype uses a dark gray cover material, the final version will likely be all-white when worn by NASA astronauts on the Moon’s surface. Credit: Axiom Space
“Overall, I was pleased with the astronauts’ operation of the control panel and with their ability to perform the difficult tasks they will have to do before stepping onto the Moon. The test also confirmed that the amount of space available in the airlock, on the deck, and in the elevator, are sufficient for the work our astronauts plan to do.”
The test consisted of Wheelock and Whitson practicing putting on and taking off the spacesuits – which included the suit’s Portable Life Support System (PLSS) – in the Starship HLS‘ full-scale airlock. Since the Artemis III astronauts will need to put the suits on with minimal assistance, this test allowed NASA to test how easily the suits are to get in and out of. The suits were then pressurized and powered up, and Wheelock and Whitson began interacting with the mobility aids (handrails and straps) and control panel in the airlock.
They then walked from the airlock deck to the HLS elevator, which will take the Artemis III astronauts and their equipment to the lunar surface to conduct extravehicular activity (EVA). Though the tasks were routine, they validated the spacesuit design and brought NASA one step closer to achieving its goals through the Artemis Program. As Amit Kshatriya (NASA’s Moon to Mars program manager) expressed:
“With Artemis, NASA is going to the Moon in a whole new way, with international partners and industry partners like Axiom Space and SpaceX. These partners are contributing their expertise and providing integral parts of the deep space architecture that they develop with NASA’s insight and oversight. Integrated tests like this one, with key programs and partners working together, are crucial to ensure systems operate smoothly and are safe and effective for astronauts before they take the next steps on the Moon.”
Wheelock and Whitson tested the agility of the spacesuits by conducting movements and tasks similar to those necessary during lunar surface exploration on Artemis missions. Credit: SpaceX
Putting the spacesuits through rigorous testing is necessary since the Artemis III mission will include EVAs in space and on the lunar surface. The four-person crew will launch aboard an Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) while the Starship HLS launches separately and refuels in orbit. The Orion spacecraft will rendezvous and dock with the HLS in lunar orbit; two astronauts will transfer aboard and then take the HLS to and from the lunar surface. The AxEMU suits are designed to provide greater flexibility and accommodate a wider range of astronauts.
This is in keeping with NASA’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in its astronaut corps. Despite delays, things are undeniably coming together for Artemis III!
A Mission to Uranus Could Also be a Gravitational Wave Detector
Despite being extraordinarily difficult to detect for the first time, gravitational waves can be found using plenty of different techniques. The now-famous first detection at LIGO in 2015 was just one of the various ways scientists had been looking. A new paper from researchers from Europe and the US proposes how scientists might be able to detect some more by tracking the exact position of the upcoming Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP).
Initially suggested by NASA’s Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, UOP will be the first mission to Uranus since Voyager visited the system in 1986. When it finally arrives in 2044, after a 2031 launch date, it will be almost 60 years since humanity last had an up-close look at the Uranian system.
But 13 years in transit sure is a long time. Part of that time will be spent getting a gravitational boost from Jupiter, but most will be spent coasting between planetary bodies. And that much time spent in between planets is what the paper’s authors want to utilize to do non-Uranian science.
Fraser has long been a proponent of returning to Uranus, as he explains here.
Gravitational waves can disrupt the fabric of space-time, causing discernible distortions, especially over long distances. If the instruments in question are sensitive enough, the massive distance between UOP and the Earth would be a viable way to detect them.
This isn’t the first time using the distance between a spacecraft and Earth has been considered for detecting gravitational waves. Pioneer 11, Cassini, and a triangulation of Galileo, Ulysses, and Mars Orbiter all had entertained suggestions of being utilized for gravitational wave detection while on their journey to their final destinations. However, the equipment they were designed with was not sensitive enough to pick up the minute fluctuations required for an actual detection.
UOP will have the added advantages of decades of improved equipment, especially communications and timing electronics, which are critical to any gravitational wave detection. It also benefits that we’ve already officially detected a gravitational wave, so we know at least what to look for.
Long distance communication is hard, as Fraser explains in this video, but it’s also key to capturing data on gravitational waves.
The underlying mechanism is simple enough – consistently track the exact established position of UOP during its 13-year cruise to Uranus and cross-reference any anomalies in its position against what could be expected from known causes. These include the gravitational pull of some of the planets, or even asteroids, and solar radiation pressure on the spacecraft itself. As the authors note, some or even all of these could impact the spacecraft’s exact position; for the calculations to work effectively to find gravitational waves, better accounting for what, if any, impact they have must be completed.
But there is another potentially scientifically interesting cause of slight positional drift for the UOP: ultra-light dark matter. In theory, UOP could be used to test or even directly detect a form of dark matter known as ultra-light dark matter if it happens to exist in the solar system. Theorists have numerous models showing how it would work if it did exist. UOP could also use the same sort of exact positional calculation to contribute to that scientific research.
Best of all, UOP can do all this with literally no change to its primary functional mission – exploring the Uranian system. All that would have to be changed about the mission would be to update Earth with consistent positional data about once every 10 seconds for the duration of the 13-year trip to UOP’s final destination. Suppose there’s a chance that those more frequent check-ins with home could help detect gravitational waves or potentially dark matter. In that case, it seems well worth the consideration of the UOP mission planners – but it remains to be seen whether it will be included or not. The paper’s authors have made a persuasive argument about why it should be.
The Ukrainian military recorded the flight of a disk-shaped UFO hovering over the front line.
This is reported by the Daily Mail and publishes the video.
The UFO was spotted by soldiers of the 406th brigade using a Mavic drone. Their drone was more than 150 meters above sea level.
“What can they shoot at us with? Holy shit,” ‘What the hell is that?’, ‘UFO whatever,’ military officials are discussing behind the scenes whether to attack the object.
It is reported that the unknown object could be the size of a large ship and is more than 50 kilometers away.
Ukrainian soldiers film disc shaped UFO hovering over war zone
(Picture: Ukraine Freedom News/frontier_conflict)
The thermal imager showed that the UFO was warmer than its surroundings, but the technology produced a red error message that prevented us from understanding more about the object.
It is noted that this flying object bore a striking resemblance to a thin cylindrical object spotted over Iraq in May 2022 by the infrared “thermal” camera of the US Air Force’s Reaper drone.
Experts believe this could also be a case of the mirage phenomenon known as “Fata Morgana.”
This mirage occurs when a top layer of warm air and a bottom layer of cold air create an “atmospheric channel” that refracts or bends light, creating reflections in the air.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
