One of the world’s most powerful instruments reveals interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it heads towards perihelion.

We’re getting better views of interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS, as it makes its speedy passage through the inner solar system. This week, astronomers at the Gemini North observatory located on Mauna Kea in Hawai’i turned the facility’s enormous 8.1-meter telescope on the object, with amazing results.

You can definitely see the dusty coma forming around the comet’s nucleus in the images as it approaches the inner solar system. The multi-colored hues of the images are thanks to Gemini’s Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-N) which will probe 3I/ATLAS across infrared and visible wavelengths.

Comet 3I/ATLAS crossing the dense galactic plane. The colors are due to the separate filters used on the GMOS-N spectrograph instrument.

Credit: NOIRLab/AURA/Gemini North/IfA University of Hawaii.

“3I/ATLAS is currently passing in front of the very dense star fields near the galactic center in Sagittarius,” astronomer Karen Meech (University of Hawai’i Institute for Astronomy) told Universe Today. This makes it very challenging to find windows of time where we can get a good observation of the interstellar object that is not contaminated by passing over stars.”

The resulting combined image of 3I/ATLAS, revealing the teardrop shaped coma, characteristic of a comet.

Credit: NOIRLab/AURA/Gemini North/IfA University of Hawaii.

As is always the case in modern astronomy, observing time comes at a premium. “Gemini is a ‘queue scheduled’ telescope, meaning observers prepare the observing sequence and the staff at the telescope execute the observations based on priority, best match to observing conditions etc,” says Meech. “For a high priority observation, this ensures you get the data. Using telescopes in the classical mode where an astronomer is assigned a night might mean you lose the night because of bad weather or instrument problems. The Gemini staff were fantastic and really went above and beyond what is expected in order to ensure these observations were successful.”

Star trails over the Gemini North Observatory.

Credit: International Gemini Observatory.

3I/ATLAS also seems to be a very red object, reminiscent of KBOs such as 486958 Arrokoth, one of the only KBOs seen up close during New Horizons’ 2019 flyby.

This effort will help answer the main question currently on astronomer’s minds: how big is 3I/ATLAS? Current size estimates for the nucleus span a range from just under a kilometer to over 20 kilometers across—definitely larger than the other two known interstellar objects: 1I/’Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov.

“All small bodies rotate, so we interleaved images in the blue filter in between all the other filters so that we could get accurate colors of the object,” says Meech. “The brightness we see through the filter depends on how reflective the surface is at that wavelength, and the area of the surface reflecting sunlight. If it is rotating and you don’t have the same filter repeated in between each observation, then you can’t tell what is a change because of the color area. These images showed that 3I/ATLAS is ‘red’—meaning it reflects red light more strongly than blue light. This is what we usually see for comets in our solar system. The ‘red’ color is due to organic compounds on the surface for solar system comets.”

Currently just under 4 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun, 3I/ATLAS will pass perihelion 1.356 AU from the Sun on October 29th. Closest Earth passage is set for December 19th, at 1.8 AU distant. Mars actually gets the best seat in the solar system, on the 0.2 AU pass on October 3rd. We recently wrote about observing prospects for amateur astronomers leading up to and after perihelion here.

Where is interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS headed—and how close will it come to Earth? ☄️Using the latest data from @NASAJPL, we mapped the path of this rare visitor with Ansys STK as it speeds through our solar system.Watch the full trajectory in the model below. 🌌 pic.twitter.com/p64YChCZdL— Ansys (@ANSYS) July 11, 2025

Discovered by the Deep Random Survey in Chile as part of the worldwide ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) on the night of July 1st 2025, 3I/ATLAS has already displayed a ‘personality’ of its own. The comet skims our ecliptic like a stone skipping water, and seems to be the first ever denizen of the thick galactic disk seen up close.

This source means that 3I/ATLAS may be a very old object indeed, perhaps pre-dating our own solar system by billions of years.

“At the moment, with what we know about 3I/ATLAS it is not an unusual comet,” astronomer “Rosemary Dorsey (University of Helsinki) told Universe Today. “3I is larger than an average comet, but it is not usually large—one of the largest comets, C/2014 UN271, has been measured with a diameter of ~100 kilometers! It is also common for comets to have very low activity at the current distance of 3I, as the activity of most comets is due to water ice sublimating near 3-4 AU from the Sun. We are still waiting to see how 3I will react when it reaches this distance to better put it into context with our solar system comets.”

More observations of Comet 3I/ATLAS are in store using both ground- and space-assets, in what promises to be a frenzied next few months of activity.

“We will be getting more images to see how the comet is brightening, and see if there is any color change,” says Meech. “Another colleague at IfA (Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy) will be triggering his program to get a good spectrum—to complement the spectrum we got at Gemini South, to confirm some features we saw, and to see if there are changes as the comet becomes more active.”

Next on deck is the Hubble Space Telescope, which has scheduled time to image 3I/ATLAS on July 21st. It’s highly likely that JWST and Vera Rubin will also get their turn as well.

Astronomer Bryce Bolin also captured the comet from Apache Point, New Mexico in an effort to pin down the colors and spectrum of the nucleus.

The +17th magnitude comet is currently tricky to pick out as it crosses the star rich fields of Ophiuchus, but that’s about to change. This weekend, 3I/ATLAS threads its way between the globular clusters NGC 6356 and Messier 9, making for a fine photographic opportunity.

Expect more great shots of Comet 3I/ATLAS to come!

RELATED VIDEOS

Exploding stars come in different types, and these different types of supernovae show astronomers different things about the cosmos. There's a scientific appetite to find more of them and boost our knowledge about these exotic events. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope should be able to feed that appetite.

The Roman is due to launch in about two years, and will make its way to its station at the Sun-Earth L2 orbit. After commissioning, it'll begin operations. One of its three primary surveys is the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey. In that survey, the powerful space telescope will image the same section of sky beyond the Milky Way every five days for two years. The team behind the Roman will stitch these scenes together into one comprehensive movie, a sort of cosmic cinema.

These movies will reveal the presence of Type 1a supernovae. These occur in binary star systems where one star is a white dwarf. White dwarfs have immense gravitational force because they're extremely dense objects. They draw material away from their companion stars, which could be anything from another white dwarf to a giant star. That material builds up on the white dwarf's surface, and when it reaches a critical mass, it triggers a runaway reaction and a supernova explosion.

Type 1a are different from what we can call standard supernovae. Those are core-collapse supernovae, where a massive star collapses into a neutron star or a black hole, or is completely destroyed and leaves behind only a diffuse nebula.

Since Type 1a supernovae explode at a fixed mass, their peak luminosity is known. For that reason, they serve as standard candles, tools astronomers use to accurately gauge the distance to their home galaxies. These accurate distances allow cosmologists to trace the expansion of the Universe.

The Roman's High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey is a critical part of its mission and is aimed at finding Type 1a supernovae and other transients. According to new research and simulations, it should find about 27,000 of them, a shocking number that's about ten times greater than the current number of known Type 1a SN. This comprehensive data set should help cosmologists in their quest to map the expansion of the Universe, a critical part of understanding dark energy.

“Evidence is mounting that dark energy has changed over time, and Roman will help us understand that change by exploring cosmic history in ways other telescopes can’t.” - Dr. Ben Rose - Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Baylor University

The 27,000 number comes from new research published in The Astrophysical Journal titled "The Hourglass Simulation: A Catalog for the Roman High-latitude Time-domain Core Community Survey." The lead author is Dr. Ben Rose, an assistant Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Baylor University.

The Roman will find these explosions by observing light from distant galaxies and looking back in time. The Roman will push that time boundary and allow astronomers to see Type 1a SN further back than ever. Most of the T1a SN observed so far exploded in the last 8 billion years. The Roman's High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey (HLTDS) will uncover thousands that exploded longer than 10 billion years ago, and dozens that exploded even earlier than that. These standard candles will fill a missing gap and are critical evidence of the Universe's expansion in its early age.

This graphic outlines the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's High-Latitude Time Domain Survey. The survey’s main component will cover over 18 square degrees — a region of sky as large as 90 full moons — and will detect supernovae that occurred up to about 8 billion years ago. Smaller areas within the survey can look even further back in time, potentially back to when the universe was around a billion years old. The survey will be split between the northern and southern hemispheres, located in regions of the sky that will be continuously visible to Roman. The bulk of the survey will consist of 30-hour observations every five days for two years in the middle of Roman’s five-year primary mission.

Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

“Filling these data gaps could also fill in gaps in our understanding of dark energy,” lead author Rose said in a press release. “Evidence is mounting that dark energy has changed over time, and Roman will help us understand that change by exploring cosmic history in ways other telescopes can’t.”

This figure compares the Roman's expected haul of Type 1a SN with the Dark Energy Survey's cosmological sample of the same. "DES has over 1500 SNe in its cosmological sample with very few at z > 1. However, we expect Roman to have nearly 19,000 SN Ia, with the majority above z > 1," the authors write.

Image Credit: Rose et al. 2025. TApJ

Every supernova is essentially a flash in the cosmos, and dissecting the light from the flash reveals what type of event released it. Core collapse SN and T1a SN aren't easy to distinguish at such great distances, but the light changes over time, and can be split apart with spectroscopy to learn more about it. The Roman carries two instruments, and one of them, the Wide-Field Instrument (WFI), allows the telescope to do large-scale spectroscopic surveys.

“By seeing the way an object’s light changes over time and splitting it into spectra — individual colors with patterns that reveal information about the object that emitted the light—we can distinguish between all the different types of flashes Roman will see,” said Rebekah Hounsell, study co-author and assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The Hourglass Simulation "uses the most up-to-date spectral energy distribution models and rate measurements for 10 extragalactic time-domain sources," the authors explain in their research. "We simulate these models through the design reference Roman Space Telescope survey."

"In total, Hourglass has over 64,000 transient objects, 11,000,000 photometric observations, and 500,000 spectra," the authors write. Hourglass showed that the Roman can expect to find "approximately 21,000 Type Ia supernovae, 40,000 core-collapse supernovae, around 70 superluminous supernovae, ∼35 tidal disruption events, three kilonovae, and possibly pair-instability supernovae."

This impressive data set will drive the study and understanding not only of dark energy, but of many other transient events too. As of 2024, for example, astronomers knew of only about 260 superluminous supernovae (SLSNe). These explosions can be 10p times as luminous as other SN. Only massive stars greater than 40 solar masses are expected to explode as SLSNe, yet astrophysicists aren't certain what causes them. Finding an additional 70 could provide answers to some outstanding questions.

This artist's illustration shows the explosion of SN 2006gy, a superluminous supernova about 238 million light-years away.

Image Credit:

By Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss -

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/sn2006gy/more.html#sn2006gy_xray,

Public Domain,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2080784

The Hourglass Simulation is designed to prepare the science community for the Roman's deluge of data. With its tens of thousands of transients, millions of photometric observations, and hundreds of thousands of spectra, Hourglass will serve as a training tool. "Additionally, Hourglass is a useful data set to train machine learning classification algorithms."

"With the dataset we’ve created, scientists can train machine-learning algorithms to distinguish between different types of objects and sift through Roman’s downpour of data to find them,” Hounsell added in the press release. “While searching for type Ia supernovae, Roman is going to collect a lot of cosmic ‘bycatch’—other phenomena that aren’t useful to some scientists, but will be invaluable to others.”

Among those other phenomena are Tidal Disruption Events (TDE), which occur when a black hole consumes a star. Astronomers know of about 100 of them, and they can reveal the presence of black holes that are otherwise dormant and undetectable. If the Roman can find an additional 35, that will undoubtedly help them answer some of their questions. Not only are their outstanding questions about black holes' masses and spina, but there are also questions about how stars behave in the dense regions near galactic centers.

Kilonovae are another type of cosmic explosion and occur when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole collide. Though they're fainter than SN, Kilonovae release gravitational waves and also produce substantial amounts of heavy elements like gold, platinum, and uranium. There's only one confirmed kilonova explosion, and there are many outstanding questions about them. Astrophysicists want to understand the composition of these elements in their ejecta, and how often they occur and if there are multiple types. If the Roman can find three more, that's a massive increase in the dataset scientists have to work with.

This artist's illustration shows two neutron stars merging, releasing gravitational waves and exploding as a kilonova. There's only one confirmed kilonova, so if the Roman can find three more, that's a massive jump in data.

Image Credit: By University of Warwick/Mark Garlick, CC BY 4.0

Pair-instability supernovae are another exotic type of stellar explosion that scientists want to know more about. Only extremely massive stars between about 130 to 250 solar masses can explode as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe), and they don't leave neutron stars or black holes behind. The progenitor stars is completely destroyed, and only an expanding nebula of gas and dust, including heavy elements synthesized in the explosion, is left behind. Astrophysicists want to know the exact stellar mass of their progenitors and what role metallicity plays.

As it stands now, astrophysicists have only a small handful of candidate PISNe, and if the Roman can find ten of them like the simulation suggests, researchers will have a lot more data to work with.

“I think Roman will make the first confirmed detection of a pair-instability supernova,” Rose said. “They’re incredibly far away and very rare, so you need a telescope that can survey a lot of the sky at a deep exposure level in near-infrared light, and that’s Roman.”

As NASA's next flagship astrophysics mission, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will make an enormous contribution to our understanding of different types of cosmic explosions. By stitching together its observations into movies that show how different cosmic explosions take place, it will advance our scientific knowledge considerably.

“Whether you want to explore dark energy, dying stars, galactic powerhouses, or probably even entirely new things we’ve never seen before, this survey will be a gold mine,” said Rose.

Each time a new telescope mission is launched, it's after years or even decades of preliminary work, including figuring out what questions need to be asked and what instruments are needed to find the answers. Simulations like the Hourglass simulation are becoming more common, as the astronomy community anticipates and prepares for new data from upcoming missions.

But each mission also produces surprises, and though they're unpredictable, scientists often mention how excited they are to find surprising new things.

“Roman’s going to find a whole bunch of weird and wonderful things out in space, including some we haven’t even thought of yet,” Hounsell said. “We’re definitely expecting the unexpected.”

An illustration the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch in 2027, if it can survive budget cuts.

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/SVS

Sadly, the current US administration has taken aim at NASA's budget and announced that the Roman's funding will be cut. Since the current administration has gained a reputation for confusing announcements that are sometimes later rescinded, the mission's future is unclear.

If it is approved and launched, its precious dataset will be a feast for astrophysicists around the world and will help drive a deeper understanding of Nature and some of its most extreme objects and events.

Despite the powerful telescopes that modern astronomers have to work with, the distant reaches of the Solar System are still mysterious. Not much sunlight pierces these regions, and there are strong hints that undiscovered objects lurk there. The objects that astronomers have discovered in these dim reaches are primordial, and their orbits suggest the presence of more undiscovered objects. Piecing it all together is a challenge.

While some objects announce themselves with fiery explosions or streaks of light across the sky, distant Solar System objects don't attract much attention. They reveal themselves in tiny hints; a nearly imperceptible tug on another object, a nearly-invisible and short-lived glimmer of light. Yet these objects have something important to tell us about how our Solar System formed and evolved.

Astronomers have detected hints of a ninth planet in the Solar System's distant reaches. This hypothetical and elusive Planet Nine is held up to explain the puzzling orbital groupings of a family of distant objects called Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO).

Astronomers working with Japan's Subaru Telescope in Hawaii found evidence of a new distant object in the Solar System. It's a Trans-Neptunian Object, meaning it orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, the outermost planet. But it's also a member of an important and puzzling sub-class of objects: Sednoids. It's name is 2023 KQ14, but its nickname is Ammonite, after the fossilized cephalopod.

Sednoids follow more extreme orbits than TNOs. Their orbits are extremely elongated, with high eccentricity, distant perihelia, and large semi-major axes. They're named after the dwarf planet Sedna, and the new discovery is only the fourth Sednoid ever detected.

A new paper in Nature Astronomy presented the discovery. It's titled "Discovery and dynamics of a Sedna-like object with a perihelion of 66 au." The lead author is Ying-Tung Chen from the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei, Taiwan.

"Understanding the orbital evolution and physical properties of these unique, distant objects is crucial for comprehending the full history of the Solar System." - Dr. Fumi Yoshida, co-author.

Ammonite was first detected with the Subaru Telescope during observation efforts in March, May, and August 2023. Those observations alone weren't sufficient to confirm the dim object's existence, and follow-up observations in July 2024 with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, as well as a search through archived data from other observatories, provided confirmation. Overall, the researchers tracked Ammonite's orbit for 19 years.

Ammonite was found as part of the FOSSIL (Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy) observing program. It uses the Subaru Telescope's powerful HyperSuprimeCam to measure the populations and sub-populations of the objects that populate the outer Solar System. The FOSSIL team used computer numerical simulations to determine that Ammonite has followed a stable orbit for at least 4.5 billion years, dating all the way back to the Solar System's earliest times. Ammonite's orbit is currently different from the other Sednoids, but the simulations show that there orbits were all similar about 4.2 billion years ago.

There's an odd gap in distant Solar System objects when it comes to their perihelion distances and Ammonite sits in that gap. "The orbit of Ammonite does not align with those of the other Sedna-like objects and fills the previously unexplained ‘q-gap’ in the observed distribution of distant Solar System objects," the authors explain in their paper.

This figure is divided into two panels divided by a vertical black line, and shows the orbital data for outer Solar System objects. The left side shows the semi-major axis versus perihelion distribution, with the red vertical dashed line representing the approximate region where galactic tides and passing stars can perturb the orbits of TNOs. The horizontal black lines show the upper boundary of chaotic diffusion and gravitational scattering by Neptune. The named objects all have large perihelia, and it clearly shows hos Ammonite is different from the others. It's in the region that currently lacks any other detections. The right side shows how Ammonite falls outside the proposed clustering of objects with large perihelia.

Image Credit: Chen et al. 2025. NatAstr. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02595-7

Dr. Yukun Huang of the NAOJ is a co-author of the paper who conducted simulations of Ammonite's orbit. "The fact that 2023 KQ14’s current orbit does not align with those of the other three sednoids lowers the likelihood of the Planet Nine hypothesis," Huang said in a press release. "It is possible that a planet once existed in the Solar System but was later ejected, causing the unusual orbits we see today."

Neptune is the only known massive object near the outer Solar System that could have shaped the orbits of the TNOs and Sednoids. But according to study co-author Dr. Fumi Yoshida, Ammonite is beyond its reach.

“2023 KQ14 was found in a region far away where Neptune’s gravity has little influence. The presence of objects with elongated orbits and large perihelion distances in this area implies that something extraordinary occurred during the ancient era when 2023 KQ14 formed," Yoshida said. "Understanding the orbital evolution and physical properties of these unique, distant objects is crucial for comprehending the full history of the Solar System. At present, the Subaru Telescope is among the few telescopes on Earth capable of making such discoveries. I would be happy if the FOSSIL team could make many more discoveries like this one and help draw a complete picture of the history of the Solar System.”

Ammonite's orbit is now different from the other Sednoids, and that fact needs an explanation. It's evidence that there's more complexity and diversity among distant Solar System objects. Astronomers have long wondered if our Solar System hosts a 'Planet Nine' that has shepherded the orbits of these distant objects. If there is, then Ammonite's discovery places more constraints on its orbit, and where it may be hiding. It effectively reduces the number of hiding spots for this hypothetical planet.

An artist's illustration of the mysterious, elusive, hypothesized Planet Nine.

Image Credit: NASA

"Sedna-like objects with large semi-major axes (a > 200 au) and large perihelia (q > 60 au) appear to evolve in stable orbits that have remained largely unchanged and not altered by the gravity of Neptune since the formation of the Solar System," the researchers explain in their paper. "No viable transfer mechanisms to raise their perihelia exist with the current configuration of planets. Their stability suggests that an external gravitational influence beyond those of the currently known Solar System planets is required to form their orbits."

This figure shows the orbits of the four Sednoids, with Neptune's orbit around the Sun shown for comparison. "Ammonite’s longitude of perihelion is in the opposite direction of the other Sedna-like objects," the authors explain. "Its high perihelion suggests the potential for long-term orbital stability," and it's valuable for testing the hypothesized clustering of Sednoids and the hypothetical Planet Nine.

Image Credit: Chen et al. 2025. NatAstr. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02595-7

Astronomers have proposed many sources for this external gravitational influence, including interactions with a rogue planet or star, ancient stellar interactions from when the Sun was still in its natal cluster, and the capture of objects from other lower-mass stars in the Solar System's early times. But the explanation that gets the most attention is interactions with a hypothetical planet, Planet Nine.

While this study neither confirms nor disputes the existence of Planet Nine, it does place further constraints on its orbit. In fact, each time another Sednoid is discovered, it constrains Planet Nine. Astronomers now know of four of them, but they don't know how many may still be hiding out there, potentially shepherded by the elusive, hypothetical, Planet Nine.

If Planet Nine exists, it has a huge area to hide in. Some astronomers who have studied its potential existence think it could be the fifth largest planet in the Solar System. It would be so far away that it would be extremely dim. However, we may be on the cusp of detecting it, if it exists.

The Vera Rubin Observatory recently saw first light and will begin its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The LSST will find transient events and objects in the Solar System like no other telescope before it. It's purpose-built to find hard to detect objects, and not even an elusive object like Planet Nine may be able to hide from it.

As humanity sets its sights on long duration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, keeping astronauts healthy will be as critical as building rockets or habitats. In the harsh environment of space, the human body faces challenges that Earth never prepared us for including isolation, microgravity, and radiation that disrupt the immune system, increasing the risk of infection, chronic inflammation, and disease. Interestingly, new research on HIV is revealing lessons that could help future explorers live sustainably, regenerate resources in closed-loop systems, and even produce custom medicine far from Earth.

Long duration space missions to the Moon and Mars will require some special planning for astronaut health and resource production.

(Credit : NASA)

At the heart of this research is the inflammasome, a tiny but powerful protein inside our immune cells. Acting like a security alarm, the inflammasome senses trouble, such as viral particles, stress, or cell damage, and triggers inflammation by releasing molecules like interleukin-1β and interleukin-18. This rapid response is vital for fighting infections, but it comes with a risk: if the inflammasome remains switched on too long, it drives constant inflammation that weakens the body instead of protecting it.

In HIV infection, scientists have discovered that inflammasomes play a double role. Early on, they help contain the virus by boosting immune defences. But over time, especially if left unchecked, they contribute to harmful chronic inflammation that damages healthy cells, accelerates aging, and causes other diseases, even in patients who take effective antiviral treatments. This insight is important for space travel, where the same risk of unchecked inflammation could quietly undermine an astronaut’s health during long missions.

Learning how to balance inflammasome activity could help crews stay healthier in space, with far-reaching benefits. If inflammation can be regulated properly, astronauts may recover faster from injuries and resist infection more effectively, reducing their dependence on supplies from Earth. This supports the vision of closed-loop habitats where food, water, and medical resources are regenerated on board. Keeping inflammation under control also matters for protecting tissues from cosmic radiation, which damages DNA and stresses cells, pushing inflammasomes into overdrive. If we can dampen this reaction safely, we can help the body repair itself more efficiently.

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa pedals on the upgraded CEVIS system to maintain health and fitness during space missions.

(Credit : NASA)

Perhaps most promising is the idea that lessons from HIV research could enable astronauts to produce custom medicine as needed. By understanding how to switch inflammasome pathways on or off at the right time, future missions might use onboard bioreactors or 3D bioprinters to make personalised treatments, rather than carrying an entire pharmacy into space. This very concept has been explored in a paper just published by a team of researchers led by Silvano Onofri.

In the decades ahead, managing the body’s internal fire may prove just as vital as any life-support system. By unlocking what HIV teaches us about inflammation, we may give future explorers the tools they need to live, adapt, and thrive far beyond Earth.

Source : 

• Synthetic biology for space exploration

RELATED VIDEOS

Since Galileo first observed them through his telescope in the early 1600s, sunspots have fascinated scientists. These dark patches on the Sun's surface can persist for days or even months, but until now, researchers couldn't fully explain why they remained stable for such extended periods.

A study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics has finally solved this centuries-old puzzle. An international team of scientists, led by researchers from Germany's Institute of Solar Physics, developed a revolutionary new method for analyzing sunspot stability that reveals the delicate balance keeping these solar features intact.

A group of sunspots, labeled as Active Region 1520 rotated into view over the left side of the sun on July 7, 2012.

(Credit : NASA/Goddard Space Flight Centre)

Sunspots are regions where the Sun's magnetic field is strong, comparable to the magnetic field in a hospital MRI machine, but covering an area larger than Earth itself. These magnetic field concentrations appear as dark spots because they're cooler than the surrounding solar surface but in reality, a sunspot at the distance of the Sun but isolated from the rest of the disc would shine brighter than the full Moon!

The number of sunspots follows an 11 year cycle, reaching peak activity when solar storms are most likely to occur. During these periods, unstable magnetic configurations near sunspots can trigger explosive events called coronal mass ejections and solar flares. These space weather events can disrupt satellite communications and, in extreme cases, cause power grid failures on Earth.

When observed in white-light coronagraph imagery, CMEs sometimes resemble a light bulb, possessing a bright bulb-like outer shell surrounding a dark void and compact inner structure.

(Credit : NASA)

It’s long been suspected that sunspots remain stable because of an equilibrium between gas pressure and magnetic forces. However, proving this balance has been challenging due to atmospheric disturbances that interfere with ground based observations of the Sun's magnetic field.

The research team made a crucial breakthrough by improving a technique originally developed at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Their enhanced method removes the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere from observations made with the German GREGOR solar telescope.

Using this refined technique, the researchers analysed polarised light emitted by the Sun to measure magnetic forces within sunspots with unprecedented precision. Their measurements now achieve satellite quality results from ground based telescopes at a fraction of the cost.

The analysis revealed that magnetic forces inside sunspots are perfectly balanced by pressure forces, maintaining strict equilibrium. This delicate balance explains why sunspots can survive for such extended periods on the Sun's turbulent surface.

This discovery has significant practical applications. By understanding the precise mechanisms that keep sunspots stable, scientists may be able to predict when these solar features become unstable and more likely to produce dangerous space weather events.

Better prediction of solar storms could help protect satellites, power grids, and astronauts from harmful radiation. As our society becomes increasingly dependent on satellite technology and electronic infrastructure, this research provides crucial insights for safeguarding modern life against solar threats. It also represents a major step forward in solar physics, combining advanced ground based observations with sophisticated analysis techniques to solve one of astronomy's oldest mysteries.

Source : 

• A new method for analyzing the stability of sunspots