Deze vreemde radiocirkels zijn groter dan sterrenstelsels: wetenschappers ontdekken eindelijk wat ze zijn...

Tim Kraaijvanger

In 2019 vonden astronomen mysterieuze radiocirkels met een doorsnede van honderdduizenden lichtjaren. In vergelijking: de Melkweg heeft een doorsnede van ruim 100.000 lichtjaar. Waardoor ontstaan deze cirkels? Eindelijk lijkt het mysterie opgelost.

De radiocirkels worden ook wel ‘odd radio circles’ genoemd, oftwel ORC’s. De grote cirkels zijn op de frequentie van radiostraling zichtbaar en zijn sterk cirkelvormig. Ze zijn niet zichtbaar in het zichtbaar spectrum, infrarood of röntgenstraling. In totaal hebben astronomen vijf van zulke objecten gevonden.

Een team van wetenschappers meldt in een paper in Nature dat de cirkels ontstaan door supernova-explosies. Als sterren aan het einde van hun leven exploderen, dan stoten ze hete gassen uit. Stel, er exploderen meerdere sterren in korte tijd, wat in actieve stervormingsgebieden kan gebeuren, dan krijgt het gas genoeg snelheid om uit het sterrenstelsel te ontsnappen. Dit gas kan een snelheid van 2.000 kilometer per seconde bereiken. Dat is iets minder dan 1% van de lichtsnelheid (300.000 kilometer per seconde).

“Deze sterrenstelsels zijn heel interessant”, vertelt onderzoeksleider Alison Coil. “Als twee sterrenstelsels met elkaar botsen, dan wordt het gas op elkaar gedrukt. Hierdoor ontstaan er in korte tijd veel sterren. Deze massieve sterren sterven ook weer snel, waardoor er snelle galactische winden ontstaan.”

Coil en haar collega’s ontrafelden het mysterie door te kijken naar ORC 4, één van de gevonden radiocirkels. Zij ontdekten dat de sterren in ORC 4 ongeveer zes miljard jaar oud waren en dat er één miljard jaar geleden een periode van actieve stervorming had plaatsgevonden. Onderzoeker Cassandra Lochhaas draaide een aantal computersimulaties om de radiocirkel na te bootsen en ontdekte dat de galactische winden ongeveer 200 miljoen jaar lang actief waren, voor ze stopten.

Computer Simulation of Outflowing Galactic Wind

Er zijn nog niet veel ORC’s gevonden, maar dat komt doordat de omstandigheden perfect moeten zijn. Er moet in korte tijd veel materiaal uitgestoten worden én het gas buiten het sterrenstelsel moet een lage dichtheid hebben, anders stopt de schokgolf. “Deze sterrenstelsels zijn zeldzaam, maar ze bestaan”, concludeert Coil.

Nu astronomen weten waardoor ORC’s ontstaan, is het tijd om een belangrijke vervolgvraag te beantwoorden. Hebben alle grote sterrenstelsels een fase gekend waarin ze een radiocirkel hadden? Zo leren wetenschappers meer over de evolutie van sterrenstelsels.

Bronmateriaal

• "Space Oddity: Uncovering the Origin of the Universe’s Rare Radio Circles" - UC San Diego

• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: Bärbel Koribalski, Dark Energy Survey

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17-01-2025 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Ancient meteor impact may have sparked life on Earth

By WILIAM HUNTER

From floating ghosts to potential UFOs, Ring doorbells have captured a lot of strange events.

Now, one couple's home security camera has recorded something entirely new to science.

For the first time ever, the terrifying sound of a meteorite striking the Earth has been revealed.

The groundbreaking video shows the exact moment a chunk of space rock hit the driveway of a home in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

In July 2024, Laura Kelly and her partner Joe Velaidum had just returned from walking their dogs when they found a mysterious star-shaped mark outside their home.

Checking the recording from their Ring camera, they watched as a rock hurtled out of the sky and exploded into a burst of dust on the ground. 

Thinking fast, the couple managed to gather up about seven grams of suspected space rock and sent it to Dr Chris Herd, head curator of the meteorite collection at the University of Alberta.

Dr Herd says: 'No other meteorite fall has been documented like this, complete with sound.'

Residents of Prince Edward Island, Canada were baffled to find that their Ring doorbell had recorded the stunning moment a meteorite slammed into their driveway 

The shocking video is the first time that the sound of an asteroid hitting Earth has ever been recorded 

When the rock smashed into their home, it was moving so fast that the camera only captured it for a single frame.

However, as soon as Dr Herd looked at the samples, there was no question that this was no ordinary stone.

As luck would have it, Dr Herd already had a trip planned to the area just 10 days after the impact and was able to make a diversion to the site.

There, he found that the meteorite had blasted a 2cm x 2cm hole in the walkway outside the home.

With the help of Joe and Laura, Dr Herd collected 95 grams of asteroid material which is now being held for further study at the University of Alberta.

Dr Herd's analysis shows that the rock, now dubbed the Charlottetown Meteorite after the capital of Prince Edward Island, was made of Chondrite - the most common meteorite material.

Chondrite meteors are leftovers from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago and have lurked almost untouched since then in the distant reaches of space.

This particular rock would have begun its long journey to Canada in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, around 204 million miles (329 million kilometres) from Earth.

In July 2024, Laura Kelly and her partner Joe Velaidum had just returned from walking their dogs when they found a mysterious star-shaped mark outside their home

This was particularly exciting since this is the only recorded meteorite impact in the island's history.

Dr Herd says: 'As the first and only meteorite from the province of Prince Edward Island, the Charlottetown Meteorite sure announced its arrival in a spectacular way.

'It adds a whole new dimension to the natural history of the Island.'

But most excitingly of all, this is the only time the sound of a meteorite impact has ever been recorded.

Dr Herd told CBC News: 'It's not anything we've ever heard before. From a science perspective, it's new.'

The violent crack of the impact which you can hear in the video is a product of the Charlottetown meteorite's incredible speed.

Meteorites typically arrive at the edge of Earth's atmosphere travelling at over 37,000 miles per hour (60,000 kmph) before slowing down.

Dr Herd estimates that the Charlottetown Meteorite was probably moving at around 125 miles per hour (200 kmph) when it hit the ground.

The meteorite is believed to have hit the ground at around 125 miles per hour (200 kmph), producing enough force to gouge a 2cm hole into the walkway 

Although the meteorite wasn't big enough to cause any serious damage to the property, it could have been quite dangerous, had Joe and Laura been nearby.

'The shocking thing for me is that I was standing right there a couple of minutes right before this impact,' says Joe.

'If I'd have seen it, I probably would've been standing right there, so it probably would've ripped me in half.'

Despite being a first for Prince Edward Island, events like this are actually surprisingly common.

Dr Greg Brown, Senior Public Astronomy Officer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, says: 'Meteors fall into the Earth’s atmosphere very often. Millions of minuscule particles of dust and rock burn up in the atmosphere each day, totalling around 15 thousand tonnes of material over the course of a year.

'If those particles are large enough, they can survive their entry to the atmosphere and impact the Earth with recent estimates suggesting around 17,000 impacts occur each year.'

However, most of those are so small that they arrive at the Earth's surface as grains of dust, having burned away their outer layers.

Although impacts with human settlements are rare, scientists estimate that there are around two 'damaging impacts' every year.

Further analysis at the University of Alberta shows that the meteorite (pictured) is made of Chondrite, a material left over from the formation of the Solar System 4.5 billion years ago 

One family from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire found that their windshield had been smashed by an iron-rich meteorite on Boxing Day last year. 

Likewise, in 2019 scientists confirmed the first ever 'damaging impact' in Uruguay after a 712-gram stone broke through the cement ceiling of a home, shattering a TV and bed frame below.

While no one has ever been killed by a direct impact from a meteorite, in 1953 an American woman named Ann Elizabeth Fowler Hodges became the first and only person to ever be hit by a space rock.

According to investigations at the time, a 3.8kg (8.5lbs) rock shot through the roof of her home, hit a radio console and bounced into her side.

The impact left Ms Hodges with severe bruising and the unique claim to be the only person ever directly injured by a meteor impact.

However, given how large the planet is and how little of it is actually inhabited, there is little reason to worry about these kinds of small impacts.

'The vast majority of meteorites are far smaller, limiting the potential damage they could do,' Dr Brown added. 

'What’s more, despite how widespread humanity is, the majority of the surface of the Earth is ocean, desert and other similarly sparsely inhabited places, meaning most impacts aren’t even noticed, let alone pose a threat to life and health.'

WHY DO METEORS MAKE A SOUND?

Meteors are fragments of space rock that enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up as a result of the friction created when they pass through, appearing as bright streaks of light in the sky.

As well as light, this friction also creates sound, with some meteors creating a 'sonic boom' as they break the sound barrier, in a similar way to a fast-moving aircraft.

Since meteors can be over a hundred kilometres in altitude, and their sound waves travel much slower than the light they generate, the sonic boom is often not heard until many minutes after the flash is seen.

The boom will also only be loud enough to hear from Earth if the meteor is particularly large, enters the stratosphere below an altitude of about 30 miles (50 km) and explodes as a bolide, or fireball.

As well as the boom, some stargazers claim to have heard hissing and buzzing sounds at the same time as a meteor is seen. 

This is because meteors also give off very low frequency radio waves, which travel at the speed of light.

These are inaudible, but can cause physical objects on the Earth's surface to vibrate and produce a sound, which our ears may interpret as hissing.

Sometimes, stargazers are able to hear a meteor as it creates a 'sonic boom', in a similar way that a fast-moving aircraft does

(stock image)

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17-01-2025 om 18:38 geschreven door peter  

SpaceX Starship mega-rocket 'destroyed' in 7th test flight trying to bring Elon Musk closer to Mars

By LAUREN ACTON-TAYLOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Space X's seventh Starship test flight was 'destroyed' less than ten minutes after its launch, as Elon Musk continues his quest to reach Mars. 

The uncrewed test flight was Musk's latest attempt to make life on mars a reality after his sixth test flight exploded less than ten minutes into its flight. 

The new-generation ship launched from Texas on Thursday and successfully flew for around eight minutes, with the teams' second breathtaking booster catch, before contact was lost. 

Officials confirmed that the spacecraft was destroyed. 

'Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause,' SpaceX posted on X. 

'With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.'

Debris, with unclear relations to the spacecraft, was captured on camera flying across the Caribbean just minutes after the flight test. 

'Every Starship launch is one more step closer towards Mars,' Musk said before liftoff, as he hopes his ships will be the first to launch humanity into life on Mars. 

SpaceX posted on X that today's test flight featured 'significant upgrades.' 

The new Starship was rolled out taller - now standing at 403 feet - and with about 300 more tons of propellant than the last test flight ship, with added upgrades for 'reliability and performance'

'Every Starship launch is one more step closer towards Mars,' Musk said before liftoff, as he hopes his ships will be the first to launch humanity into life on Mars

Debris, with unclear relations to the spacecraft, was captured on camera flying across the Caribbean just minutes after the flight test

The new Starship was rolled out taller - now standing at 403 feet - and with about 300 more tons of propellant than the last test flight ship, with added upgrades for 'reliability and performance.'

SpaceX announced there would be 'hardware upgrades to the launch and catch tower to increase reliability for booster catch,' including enhancements to sensor protections on the chopsticks damaged during the last launch. 

As well as a redesigned upper-stage propulsion system that can carry 25 percent more propellant, along with slimmer, repositioned forward flaps to reduce exposure to heat during reentry. 

The company also added ten dummy satellites, the same size as SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites, for release in space. They were due to follow the same flight path as the spacecraft, ending up destroyed upon entry.

The post added that the flight 'set out to attempt Starship's first payload deployment test, fly multiple reentry experiments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and launch and return the Super Heavy booster.' 

'Today’s flight test will launch a new generation ship with significant upgrades, attempt Starship’s first payload deployment test, fly multiple reentry experiments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and launch and return the Super Heavy booster.' 

SpaceX's last successful launch happened in October on its fifth flight test. The sixth, which was witnessed by President-elect Donald Trump in November, made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. 

The test flight launched just after 5.30 EST in Texas across the Gulf of Mexico. 

Around six and a half minutes into the flight, Super Heavy returned and was successfully caught by the launch tower for SpaceX's second time

While Stage 1 was successful, contact with the ship was reported to be lost just after the eight-and-a-half-minute mark

'With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability,' SpaceX posted on X

 Just around 3 minutes into the flight, the Super Heavy booster successfully detached and performed a flip maneuver, making its way back to the launchpad. 

Around six and a half minutes into the flight, Super Heavy returned and was successfully caught by the launch tower for SpaceX's second time. 

'Even in this day and age, what we just saw is magic,' Dan Huot observed from close to the launch site after the booster touched down. 'I am shaking right now.'

'The tower has caught the rocket!!' SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X as the spacecraft made the dramatic touchdown.

While Stage 1 was successful, contact with the ship was reported to be lost just after the eight-and-a-half-minute mark. 

Just after the twenty-minute mark, it was confirmed that the ship was lost. 

Hours earlier, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin - launched their newest rocket, New Glenn, in Florida. The rocket reached orbit on its first flight, successfully placing an experimental satellite thousands of miles above Earth. 

However, the booster was destroyed and missed its targeted landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

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17-01-2025 om 18:13 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Inside the daring rescue mission to save two NASA astronauts 

By WILIAM HUNTER

One of NASA's trapped astronauts got a much-needed change of scenery as she stepped outside the space station for the first time in seven months.

Suni Williams and her fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June last year.

The pair had intended to stay for just eight days after arriving in Boeing's Starliner capsule, but engine failures and helium leaks meant they could not safely return.

Yesterday, Williams and NASA astronaut Nick Hague embarked on a six-hour spacewalk to conduct repair work on the outside of the station. 

As Williams enjoyed her first moments outside the ISS, many social media users were shocked to realise she was still stranded in space. 

Outraged space fans flocked to X (formerly Twitter) with one even dubbing Williams a 'captive worker'. 

'They're like indentured servants at this point,' the furious commenter added. 

Williams and Wilmore were originally scheduled to return home in February this year, but further delays mean they will be stuck on the ISS until at least March.

Suni Williams (pictured), one of NASA's stranded astronauts, stepped outside the International Space Station for the first time in seven months 

Williams and Wilmore will likely remain on the station until at least March or April after the failure of the Boeing Starliner (pictured) 

Mission commander Williams and flight engineer Wilmore took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5 for a test flight of Boeing's new Starliner capsule.

The plan was to ride Starliner out of the atmosphere, perform a few test manoeuvres, and dock with the ISS for an eight-day stay before returning to Earth in the same capsule.

However, things almost immediately began to go wrong for the problem-plagued capsule as the craft experienced thruster failures and a helium leak.

In September last year, Starliner was sent back to Earth empty, touching down in New Mexico after slowing its descent with parachutes.

That choice left the Boeing test crew stuck aboard the ISS without their vehicle until someone could be sent to get them.

That means the pair might not get back to Earth until April at the very earliest - 10 months after they left home.

Since their arrival, yesterday's spacewalk was the first time that Williams has been able to escape the cramped confines of the station.

However, on social media, many expressed their shock and disappointment that Williams and Wilmore had not yet been able to return to Earth.

As Williams enjoyed her first moments outside the station, one commenter dubbed her a 'captive worker' due to the fact she is still trapped in space

Another pointed out that Williams was only meant to have a 'week's vacation' and has now spent the second longest time in space of any American

One commenter angrily demanded to know when Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth 

One commenter wrote: 'I appreciate that Suni Williams is just doing sidequests at this point.

'She was meant to be on a week's vacation to the ISS and now she's spent the second longest amount of time in space of an American.'

Another angrily asked: 'When are they going to be back on Earth?'

Meanwhile, other users joked that Williams was 'stepping out to get some fresh air after being unexpectedly cooped up for months.'

'Sometimes you just gotta get outta the house,' one commenter wrote.

Another joked: 'We can understand! Guys get pretty bored holed up inside the station & went out for a garden walk to loosen their limbs a bit!'

Likewise, some commenters suggested that Williams might be taking her resue into her own hands.

One commenter joked:  'Frustrated with NASA, astronauts figure it's easier just to walk home.'

Some commenters joked that Williams was only 'stepping out to get some fresh air' after her seven-month stint inside the ISS

Commenters felt they could relate to the feeling of just needing to get out of the house 

One commenter added that Williams had gone 'out for a garden walk' to stretch her legs 

While another cheekily added: 'If it'd been me I would've stepped outside and said 'F*** it, I'm walking home".'

Despite the social media reaction, the spacewalk had a more serious purpose which was to perform essential repairs outside of the ISS. 

After spending the last few days undergoing rigorous health checks and inspecting their equipment, Williams and Hague donned their suits early Thursday morning.

At 08:00 EST (13:00 GMT), the astronauts switched their suits over to battery power, marking the official start of the spacewalk.

'I'm coming out,' Williams radioed as she emerged from the orbiting lab 260 miles above Turkmenistan in Central Asia.

The astronauts replaced equipment, repaired one of the station's telescopes, and replaced a navigation device on a visiting vehicle.

Williams got a close-up look at the SpaceX capsule that will bring her home this spring, floating just a few feet away from the parked vessel as she struggled with a chore.

However, she managed to safely conduct the repairs without putting any dents in her ride home.

A commenter suggested that Williams was fed up with waiting and decided to make her own way back to Earth 

One commenter joked that they would have decided to walk home after remaining trapped in space for so long 

Suni Williams (left) arrived at the ISS with Butch Williams (centre) in June last year for what was supposed to be an eight-day stay. On Thursday, Williams was joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague (right) for her first excursion from the station since arriving 

This marks Williams' eighth spacewalk and brings her total cumulative time spent in extra-vehicular activity to 56 hours and 40 minutes 

Williams also made important repairs to the 'rate gyro assembly', a key piece of equipment which helps the ISS stay in the same orientation.

At 08:01 EST (19:00 GMT), after six hours of work, NASA announced that the spacewalk was officially over.  

This marks Hague’s fourth time working outside the station and the eighth for Williams, making her one of the most experienced spacewalkers in NASA's history. 

Williams, who has stayed on the ISS before, has already spent 56 hours and 40 minutes in EVA, making her the 11th most experienced spacewalker ever.

If she spends just four more hours outside the station next week, that will make her the most experienced female spacewalker.

The record is currently held by Peggy Whitson who spent 60 hours and 21 minutes in space across 10 different spacewalks.

This is the first time that astronauts have undertaken 'extra-vehicular activity' (EVA) from the ISS since November 2023.

Earlier US EVAs were put on hold after astronauts found water leaking into the airlock from the cooling system in one of the space suits.

Williams and Hague spend six hours outside the station to make repairs and perform maintenance. Pictured: the view from Williams' helmet camera as she repairs a navigation device on a visiting spaceship 

Williams also made repairs to the 'rate gyro assembly', a key piece of equipment which helps the ISS stay in the same orientation (pictured)

Williams (left) will be joined by Butch Wilmore (right) for another spacewalk on January 23 to make repairs and take samples to see if bacteria are growing on the outside of the ISS

NASA says the issue has now been fixed as has already announced a second EVA to take place next Thursday.

On January 23, Williams will be joined by her fellow stranded astronaut Butch Williams on a second spacewalk.

Their goal will be to remove a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station’s truss and prepare a spare elbow joint for the Candarm2 robotic arm which is mounted on the station.

Williams and Wilmore will also use the opportunity to take surface samples from the outside of the Destiny laboratory and the Quest airlock to see if any bacteria or fungi are growing on the ISS.

Last year, NASA found 13 strains of bacteria growing on the station that were not found anywhere on Earth.

Understanding bacteria in the harsh environment of space is key to learning how life might flourish on other planets and to protecting future space colonies against new diseases.

However, while Williams and Wilmore might be enjoying the chance to step outside the station, there is still a long way to go before they can return to Earth.

EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SITS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH

The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000. 

Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts. 

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expended with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems 

Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.

ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.

The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.

So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.

There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station beyond 2025, when it is thought some of the original structure will reach 'end of life'.

Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around then, with Axiom Space, a private firm, planning to send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station at the same time. 

NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, that would also include a base on the surface. 

This image, taken from NASA TV, shows astronaut Suni Williams working on the outside of the International Space Station on Thursday, just feet away from the parked SpaceX spacecraft. 

(NASA TV)

In this photo provided by NASA, astronaut Suni Williams tries on and evaluates her spacesuit aboard the ISS on Jan. 9.

(NASA via The Associated Press)

In this image, made from NASA TV, Williams works outside the International Space Station on Thursday. It marked Williams's eighth spacewalk. 

(NASA TV/The Associated Press)

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17-01-2025 om 17:48 geschreven door peter  

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17-01-2025 om 13:13 geschreven door peter  

Today’s test marked the first use of an upper stage that was upgraded with a redesign of the avionics, the propulsion system and the forward control flaps. Ship 33’s heat shield featured next-generation protective tiles as well as a backup layer of heat-resistant material. SpaceX had removed some of the tiles for this flight as a stress test for the heat shield.

During the webcast, an onscreen graphic suggested that Ship experienced engine problems during its ascent. “We saw engines dropping out on telemetry,” launch commentator Dan Huot said.

In a posting to X, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said preliminary indications were that there was “an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity.”

“Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area,” Musk wrote. “Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month.”

After Ship’s breakup, eyewitnesses posted videos showing a glittering hail of debris falling to Earth. Reuters reported that at least 20 commercial aircraft had to divert to different airports or alter their course to dodge the debris.

In response to an emailed inquiry, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of the anomaly that occurred during today’s flight test and would be assessing the operation. “The FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling,” the agency said via email. “Normal operations have resumed.”

If Ship had made it to space, it would have deployed 10 Starlink simulators that were about the same size and weight as SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites. This was meant to test the procedure that SpaceX plans to use to put scores of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit during a single Starship mission.

At the end of the flight test, Ship would have made a controlled re-entry and splashdown into the Indian Ocean.

Starship is the world’s most powerful launch system, with the booster’s 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines providing liftoff thrust of 16.7 million pounds. That’s more than twice the thrust of the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket, and almost twice the thrust of NASA’s Space Launch System, which was first launched in 2022 for the uncrewed Artemis I moon mission.

When fully stacked, Starship stands 403 feet (123 meters) tall. The system is meant to be fully reusable. Flight tests began in 2023, and SpaceX has made gradual progress. The first successful catch of the Super Heavy booster thrilled observers last October — and like that catch, today’s catch drew cheers from SpaceX employees watching the launch.

This year, SpaceX aims to demonstrate full reuse of Super Heavy and Ship, and promises to fly “increasingly ambitious missions.” The Starship system would be used for large-scale satellite deployments — and eventually for missions beyond Earth orbit. A customized version of Starship is slated to serve as a crewed lunar landing system for NASA’s Artemis III mission, which is currently scheduled for no earlier than mid-2027.

Musk envisions sending Starships on missions to Mars, perhaps starting in 2026. “These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars,” he said last September in a posting to X.

“If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years,” Musk said. “Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years.”

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17-01-2025 om 12:06 geschreven door peter  

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16-01-2025 om 22:31 geschreven door peter  

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16-01-2025 om 22:14 geschreven door peter  

Posted by Evan Gough

The Gaia Mission’s Science Operations are Over

The ESA has announced that Gaia’s primary mission is coming to an end. The spacecraft’s fuel is running low, and the sky-scanning phase of its mission is over. The ground-breaking mission has taken more than three trillion observations of two billion objects, mostly stars.

The ESA launched Gaia in December 2013. It’s an astrometry mission that measures the positions, motions, and distances of stars with extreme accuracy. It created the largest and most accurate 3D map of space ever, including about one billion objects, mostly stars but also quasars, comets, asteroids, and planets.

Gaia’s mission lasted twice as long as expected, and its data has changed astronomy. It serves as the foundation for many new discoveries and insights into the Milky Way. Astronomy and astrophysics would be far behind where they are now if it weren’t for Gaia. Regular Universe Today readers have encountered its data frequently.

“Today marks the end of science observations and we are celebrating this incredible mission that has exceeded all our expectations, lasting for almost twice its originally foreseen lifetime,” says ESA Director of Science Carole Mundell. “The treasure trove of data collected by Gaia has given us unique insights into the origin and evolution of our Milky Way galaxy, and has also transformed astrophysics and Solar System science in ways that we are yet to fully appreciate. Gaia built on unique European excellence in astrometry and will leave a long-lasting legacy for future generations.”

Gaia hasn’t always had it easy at its position at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. In April 2024, a tiny micrometeorite smaller than a grain of sand struck, puncturing a tiny hole in the satellite’s protective cover. The hole allowed a tiny bit of sunlight into the spacecraft, disrupting its sensors. In May 2024, a solar storm struck, and it suffered an electronics malfunction that led to an inordinately high number of false detections. In both cases, Gaia recovered and continued normal operations.

Gaia has three instruments that allow it to be so accurate. Its astrometric instrument (ASTRO) determines the positions of stars in the sky. By measuring the same stars multiple times over different years, Gaia can measure a star’s position and proper motion.

Gaia’s radial velocity spectrometer (RVS) measures the Doppler shift of a star’s absorption lines. This reveals the star’s velocity along Gaia’s line of sight.

The photometric instrument (BP/RP) provides colour information on stars, allowing astronomers to measure critical stellar characteristics like mass, chemical composition, and temperature.

These instruments have worked together to create the largest and most accurate map of the Milky Way ever.

Among its other achievements, Gaia has captured pinpoint precision orbits of more than 150,000 asteroids, accurate enough to uncover possible moons. It also discovered a new type of black hole revealed only through its gravitational influence on nearby stars.

Though its science operations are at an end, it still has data to deliver.

“After 11 years in space and surviving micrometeorite impacts and solar storms along the way, Gaia has finished collecting science data. Now all eyes turn towards the preparation of the next data releases,” says Gaia Project Scientist Johannes Sahlmann.

“This is the Gaia release the community has been waiting for, and it’s exciting to think this only covers half of the collected data.”

Antonella Vallenari, Deputy Chair of DPAC, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Padua, Italy.

Gaia’s Data Release 4 (DR4) is expected in 2026. The volume and quality of data have increased with each DR. DR 4 should contain 500 terabytes of data covering the mission’s first 5.5 years, corresponding to the length of the mission’s originally foreseen duration.

“This is the Gaia release the community has been waiting for, and it’s exciting to think this only covers half of the collected data,” says Antonella Vallenari, Deputy Chair of DPAC based at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Astronomical Observatory of Padua, Italy. “Even though the mission has now stopped collecting data, it will be business as usual for us for many years to come as we make these incredible datasets ready for use.”

The data release will feature more binary stars and exoplanets, among other things.

Gaia’s final data release, DR5, is a few years away. “Over the next months we will continue to downlink every last drop of data from Gaia, and at the same time the processing teams will ramp up their preparations for the fifth and final major data release at the end of this decade, covering the full 10.5 years of mission data,” says Rocio Guerra, Gaia Science Operations Team Leader based at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid in Spain.

Though the fuel that allows it to point itself with such accuracy is almost gone, Gaia won’t meet its demise just yet. It still has enough fuel for about 15 days of operations. Instead of using its final 15 days to take more astrometric measurements, it’s going to do some technology testing.

“The Gaia spacecraft has been constructed using a wide range of technologies which have been combined to create a unique machine that operates in a very stable environment,” the ESA explains. “The spacecraft’s stability is essential for the science observations. These technology tests would have disrupted the spacecraft for an extended period and, therefore, could not be performed during the normal science observation campaign.”

These tests will teach engineers more about Gaia’s instruments and will allow engineers to study their behaviour and the behaviour of the spacecraft as a whole. The goal is to improve the calibrations for future Gaia data releases. They will also inform the design of the next mission.

“Some of the Gaia technologies have already been re-used, for example the mirror-drive electronics and cold-gas thrusters on EUCLID,” the ESA writes. Other future missions like LISA will require extreme accuracy, and the results of these tests can help them achieve that.

Once its testing is complete, Gaia will be placed in a heliocentric orbit far away from Earth’s influence. At the end of March 2025, it will be passivated to avoid any potential harm or disruption to other spacecraft.

Though the mission will end, Gaia’s data will be used for decades. So, in that sense, it will live on.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

16-01-2025 om 22:01 geschreven door peter  

First, Sgr A* is relatively weak in the mid-infrared range compared to other ranges, so it doesn’t stand out as much against the background noise of the universe. Second, much of the mid-infrared emissions get obscured by the dust cloud surrounding the SMBH at the galaxy’s center, blocking it from detectors at Earth 28,000 light years away. Third, there were technological limitations to infrared sensors themselves. There were ground-based telescopes that could have detected the signal, but the Earth’s atmosphere blocked even more of it.

That required scientists to wait for the long-delayed James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). When it finally launched in late 2021, it was only a matter of time before they would get observational time to watch Sgr A* and hopefully observe a flare with the most powerful infrared detector ever launched into orbit. 

JWST did indeed get observational time with Sgr A* and saw a flare, representing the first-ever recording of a flare in the mid-infrared range. But the research team didn’t stop there – they were also watching with several other telescopes for confirmation of the JWST signal.

They didn’t find any in the X-ray range with Chandra, though that was probably because the flare wasn’t strong enough to emit a significant amount of X-rays. But they did see a signal from the Sub-Millimeter Array (SMA) in Hawai’i, which detected radio waves following along about 10 minutes behind the detected mid-infrared signal.

That confirmation was necessary because it allowed the experimentalists to provide even more insight about the same flare to the theoreticians. Their job is then to confirm the models and simulations of what causes the flares in the first place. The current theory is that they occur when magnetic field lines in the SMBH’s accretion disk join up and emit massive amounts of radiation in a process known as synchrotron emission. In synchrotron emission, a bunch of charged particles – typically electrons – get pushed down the magnetic field lines like they were part of a massive particle accelerator.

The data from JWST fits nicely into that theory. However, there appear to be additional unanswered questions about whether that feature was specific to Sgr A* or whether it could be observed for other SMBHs such as M87*. For now, that remains to be seen, though given the interest in this particular black hole in this specific wavelength, while this might have been the first study published on the topic, it probably won’t be the last.

Learn More:

• CfA – Scientists Make First-Ever Detection of Mid-IR Flares in Sgr A*
• von Fellenberg et al – First mid-infrared detection and modeling of a flare from Sgr A*
  
• UT – Echoes of Flares from the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
  
• UT – A Black Hole Emitted a Flare Away From us, but its Intense Gravity Redirected the Blast Back in our Direction

Lead Image:

• This artist’s conception of the mid-IR flare in Sgr A* captures the variability, or changing intensity, of the flare as the black hole’s magnetic field lines approach each other. The byproduct of this magnetic reconnection is synchrotron emission. The emission seen in the flare intensifies as energized electrons travel along the SMBH’s magnetic field lines at close to the speed of light. The labels mark how the flare’s spectral index changes from the beginning to the end of the flare.
  Credit: CfA/Mel Weiss

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

16-01-2025 om 21:44 geschreven door peter  

From what astronomers have learned about black holes, these gravitational behemoths are surrounded by infalling matter (gas, dust, and even light) that form swirling, bright disks. This material and energy is accelerated to near the speed of light, causing it to release heat and radiation (mostly in the ultraviolet) as it slowly accretes onto the black hole’s “face.” These UV rays interact with a cloud of electrically charged plasma (the corona) surrounding the black hole, which boosts the rays’ into the X-ray wavelength.

Since 2011, NASA’s XMM-Newton has been observing 1ES 1927+654, a galaxy located 236 million light-years away in the constellation Draco with a black hole of 1.4 million Solar masses Suns at its center. In 2018, the X-ray corona mysteriously disappeared, followed by a radio outburst and a rise in its X-ray output—what is known as Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO). UMBC associate professor Eileen Meyer, a co-author of this latest study, also recently released a paper describing these radio outbursts.

“In 2018, the black hole began changing its properties right before our eyes, with a major optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray outburst,” she said in a NASA press release. “Many teams have been keeping a close eye on it ever since.” Meyer presented her team’s findings at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), which took place from January 12th to 16th, 2025, in National Harbor, Maryland. By 2021, the corona reappeared, and the black hole seemed to return to its normal state for about a year.

However, from February to May 2024, radio data revealed what appeared to be jets of ionized gas extending for about half a light-year from either side of the SMBH. “The launch of a black hole jet has never been observed before in real time,” Meyer noted. “We think the outflow began earlier, when the X-rays increased prior to the radio flare, and the jet was screened from our view by hot gas until it broke out early last year.” A related paper about the jet co-authored by Meyer and Masterson was also presented at the 245th AAS.

In addition, observations gathered in April 2023 showed a months-long increase in low-energy X-rays, which indicated a strong and unexpected radio flare was underway. Intense observations were mounted in response by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and other facilities, including XMM-Newton. Thanks to the XMM-Newton observations, Masterson found that the black hole exhibited extremely rapid X-ray variations of 10% between July 2022 and March 2024. These oscillations are typically very hard to detect around SMBHs, suggesting that a massive object was rapidly orbiting the SMBH and slowly being consumed.

“One way to produce these oscillations is with an object orbiting within the black hole’s accretion disk. In this scenario, each rise and fall of the X-rays represents one orbital cycle,” Masterson said. Additional calculations also showed that the object is probably a white dwarf of about 0.1 solar masses orbiting at a velocity of about 333 million km/h (207 million mph). Ordinarily, astronomers would expect the orbital period to shorten, producing gravitational waves (GWs) that drain the object’s orbital energy and bring it closer to the black hole’s outer boundary (the event horizon).

However, the same observations conducted between 2022 and 2024 showed the fluctuation period dropped from 18 minutes to 7, and the velocity increased to half the speed of light (540 million km/h; 360 million mph). Then, something truly odd and unexpected followed: the oscillations stabilized. As Masterson explained:

“We were shocked by this at first. But we realized that as the object moved closer to the black hole, its strong gravitational pull could begin to strip matter from the companion. This mass loss could offset the energy removed by gravitational waves, halting the companion’s inward motion.”

This theory is consistent with what astronomers have observed with white dwarf binaries spiraling toward each other and destined to merge. As they got closer to each other, instead of remaining intact, one would begin to pull matter off the other, which slowed down the approach of the two objects. While this could be the case here, there is no established theory for explaining what Masterson, Meyer, and their colleagues observed. However, their model makes a key prediction that could be tested when the ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) launches in the 2030s.

“We predict that if there is a white dwarf in orbit around this supermassive black hole, LISA should see it,” says Megan. The preprint of Masterson and her team’s paper recently appeared online and will be published in Nature on February 15th, 2025.

Further Reading: 

• ESA, 
• NASA, 
• arXiv, 
• AJL

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

16-01-2025 om 21:30 geschreven door peter  

Astronauts haven’t gone further into space than the ISS for decades. But if Artemis lives up to its promise, they’re about to leave Earth and its protective environment behind. Artemis will land astronauts on the Moon, which could be an intermediate step to an eventual landing on Mars. What hazards does radiation pose, and how can astronauts be protected?

A new research editorial in the Journal of Medical Physics examines the issue. It is titled “System of radiological protection: Towards a consistent framework on Earth and in space.” The lead author is Werner Rühm from the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, München (Neuherberg), Germany. The same issue of the Journal of Medical Physics contains several other articles about radiation exposure. Together, they’re part of a research effort by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) to update and harmonize radiation exposure guidelines.

The term ‘radiation’ is descriptive enough that most of us recognize the potential threat. However, when it comes to variable space environments and human physiology, the word holds a lot more detail. The authors use the term ‘mixed radiation field’ to describe the radiation environment astronauts must endure.

“The mixed-radiation field outside and within a space vehicle is of particular complexity involving not only low-linear energy transfer (LET) radiation such as gamma radiation, electrons, and positrons but also high-LET radiation such as neutrons and heavy ions,” the authors write. The components of the field contain a wide span of particles with different energy levels. “The quantitative and even qualitative risks of exposure to the combined impact of a complex radiation environment, microgravity, and other stressors remain unclear,” they explain.

One problem in preparing for exposure to these mixed radiation fields is the different approaches taken by different countries and space agencies.

According to lead author Rühm, this disharmony is caused by “the complex and dynamic radiation environments and an incomplete understanding of their biological consequences. Because of this, space agencies follow somewhat different concepts to quantify radiation doses and their resulting health effects.”

This paper and its companions are part of an effort to unify our understanding of radiation and its hazards and to harmonize the various approaches to dealing with them. The goal is to develop a “consistent radiological protection framework.” To do that, the authors explain that several questions need answers:

• Which radiation-induced health effects should be considered?
• What dose quantities are the best for the radiological protection of astronauts?
• Which metrics should be used to quantify radiation-related health risks?
• How do we address sex and age differences in radiation risk?
• What kind of protection criteria should be applied?
• How do we decide on the tolerability of radiation-induced risks, given that astronauts are exposed to many other occupation-related risks?
• How do we deal with the fact that increased health risks due to radiation exposure may persist after an astronaut’s career ends?
• How do we communicate radiation risk and make a comparison with other health hazards in a meaningful way?
• How do we harmonize national radiological protection guidelines, given that different subpopulations might have different levels of risk tolerance?

This list of questions vividly illustrates the complexity of the radiation exposure problem. Answering them will help harmonize the approach to radiation on space missions.

Rühm and his colleagues want to support space agencies as they harmonize and coordinate their guidelines for astronauts’ exposure to radiation. The goal is to develop an approach consistent with the thorough guidelines followed here on Earth.

The difference between how males and females respond to radiation illustrates one of the problems in developing radiation exposure guidelines. In past decades, much medical research was based on males and the results were applied to females as well. According to Rühm, the same thing has happened with radiation.

“It is worth mentioning that on Earth, the System developed by ICRP does not include any systematic differentiation between recommendations on limits for males and females,” the authors write. This is in spite of the fact that it is “well known that there are individual differences in radiation sensitivity between males and females.” The difference is largely because reproductive tissue is more susceptible to radiation than other tissue, and women have more of it.

NASA has developed a different approach to radiation exposure because of this. “This standard is based on a REID (Risk of Exposure-Induced Death) of 3% calculated for cancer mortality in the most vulnerable group of astronauts––35-year-old females,” the authors write. Scientists understand that females are more vulnerable to radiation than males and that younger females are more sensitive than older females. It’s worth noting that astronauts are unlikely to be under the age of 35.

The difference between the sexes isn’t the only thing that needs to be addressed when it comes to astronauts’ exposure to radiation. Different sub-populations might have different risk factors; there are lifestyle-related risks, different mission architectures hold different risks, and many other factors come into play. Harmonizing an approach with all of these different factors is a daunting task.

Difficult or not—and there’s nothing easy about space travel—a harmonized and coordinated approach to understanding the radiation risk is the logical next step. Artemis itself is a collaboration between different nations and agencies, and it’s only fair to the astronauts themselves that they have the same protections and considerations when it comes to radiation exposure.

Rühm and his colleagues hope that their work will help lead to a harmonized approach to assessing the radiation hazards faced by astronauts in mixed radiation fields. We owe it to the people willing to put their lives on the line and serve as astronauts.

“Adventurous people have always tried to widen their horizon, this is part of our very nature as humans,” Rühm says. “Our work contributes to and supports one of the most exciting and challenging human endeavors ever undertaken.”

RELATED VIDEOS

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14-01-2025 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

It’s not unusual for space probes to complete gravitational flyby manoeuvres en route to their destination. It’s a bit more unusual when the flyby is at the destination planet. ESA’s BepiColombo spacecraft is manoeuvring around Mercury into its final orbit. With each flyby it gets closer and closer and closer until its finally captured by Mercury’s gravity in 2026. During the latest flyby, stunning images of the nearest planet to the Sun were captured from just a few hundred km. Checkout the best and most stunning images of Mercury yet. 

Mercury, the smallest planet in the Solar System and closest to the Sun is a rocky world. It’s surface somewhat resembles the Moon, desolate and heavily cratered. The lack of an atmosphere and the proximity to the Sun means daytime temperatures can reach a whopping 472°C but they plummet to -200°C at night. Mercury’s orbit is highly elliptical taking just 88 Earth days to complete one full orbit around the Sun. From Earth Mercury is never far from the Sun in the sky and so is very difficult to observe in the bright twilight sky. 

To date, only two spacecraft have visited Mercury; Mariner 10 and Messenger. There is now another on the way, BepiColombo. It was launched on 20 October 2018 where it began its journey to the innermost planet. Led by ESA, this joint mission with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA.) is made up of two orbiters; ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. On arrival, the two orbiters will manoeuvre into their dedicated polar orbits, beginning their operations in early 2027. 

During a press briefing on 9 January 2025, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher revealed the first images from the spacecraft’s monitoring cameras (M-CAMs) and the results did not disappoint. 

In this first image, BepiColombo passed over Mercury’s terminator, the line between the day and night hemispheres, allowing M-CAM 1 to peer into the permanently shadowed craters of the north pole. The craters Prokofiev, Kandinsky, Tolkien and Gordimer can be seen with their permanently dark floors. Despite Mercury’s proximity to the Sun, the floors of the craters are some of the coldest places in the Sun. In these dark, shadowy places there is even evidence of frozen water!

The second image captures the volcanic plane known as Borealis Planitia. The large smooth plains on Mercury, rather like those on the Moon, formed billions of years ago. In the case of Mercury, it’s thought the plains formed 3.7 billion years ago when volcanic eruptions flooded the surface with molten lava. Any craters that were in the area, such as Henri and Lismer got filled with lava and as the planet cooled, wrinkles formed in the plains much like the wrinkling of an apple skin

Many of the smaller craters in this region have been wiped out by the lava but the rim of Mendelssohn crater is still visible along with Caloris Basin, a large impact crater with a diameter of 1,500 km. 

The final image was taken by M-CAM 2 and shows more evidence of volcanic activity and impact events. There is a bright region toward the upper limb and this is known as Nathair Facula. It’s the result of the largest volcanic explosion on Mercury with a central vent 40km across. Evidence has been found for at least 3 major eruptions that have deposited lava over 150km away. In stark contrast, to the left is the much younger Fonteyn Crater, just 300 million years old! 

Source : 

• Top three images from BepiColombo’s sixth Mercury flyby

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

14-01-2025 om 21:02 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious 'ghost island' is spotted by a NASA satellite - before vanishing entirely

• READ MORE: Inside Indonesian island where hobbit-like humans could roam

By SHIVALI BEST FOR MAILONLINE 

The idea of a 'ghost' island might sound like a concept from the latest episode of Scooby Doo. 

But it has become a reality in the Caspian Sea. 

NASA satellites spotted a mysterious island - before watching it vanish entirely.

The landmass emerged off the coast of Azerbaijan after a mud volcano erupted in early 2023. 

But by the end of 2024, it had nearly eroded away. 

According to NASA Earth Observatory, the island retreated from view 'like an apparition.'

'Powerful eruptions of the Kumani Bank mud volcano have produced similar transient islands several times since its first recorded eruption in 1861,' it explained. 

'Also known as Chigil-Deniz, the feature is located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) off the eastern coast of Azerbaijan.'

NASA's Landsat 8 and 9 satellites captured images of the island on November 18 2022 (left), February 14 2023 (centre), and December 25 2024 (right)

NASA's Landsat 8 and 9 satellites captured images of the island on November 18 2022, February 14 2023, and December 25 2024. 

In November, the crest of the volcano remained below the sea surface. 

But by the Feburary image, the island had appeared, and a sediment plume driftd away from it. 

According to Mark Tingay, a geologist at the University of Adelaide, additional satellite observations suggest the island between January 30 and February 4 and measured approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet) across. 

However, by the end of 2024, the island had disappeared, with a 'greatly diminished' portion of the Kumani Bank left visible above the water. 

The volcano's previous eight recorded eruptions occurred in bursts lasting less than two days, and produced islands of different sizes and longevities. 

'A May 1861 event resulted in an island just 87 meters (285 feet) across and 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) above the water,' NASA said. 

'This one eroded away by early 1862. 

In November, the crest of the volcano remained below the sea surface. But by Feburary (pictured), the island had appeared, and a sediment plume driftd away from it

An artist's impression of NASA's Landsat 8 satellite, which snapped the photos of the 'ghost' island

'The strongest eruption, in 1950, produced an island 700 meters (2,300 feet) across and 6 meters (20 feet) high.'

Mr Tingay describes mud volcanoes as 'weird and wonderful features', but admits that they're 'largely understudied and little understood'. 

Most mud volcanoes are found in areas with active tectonics - with Azerbaijan unusual for its high concentration. 

'Geologists have tallied more than 300 in eastern Azerbaijan and offshore in the Caspian Sea, with most of those occurring on land,' NASA said. 

'The region falls within a convergence zone where the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates are colliding.'

Worryingly, mud volcanoes have the potential to be hazardous thanks to their ability to expel large amounts of materials - and even flames - over a short period of time. 

'It is uncertain if the 2023 Kumani Bank eruption was fiery, but past eruptions of this and other nearby mud volcanoes have sent towers of flame hundreds of meters into the air,' NASA added. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

13-01-2025 om 23:02 geschreven door peter  

Neptunus is blauw en Uranus is lichtgroen. Tenminste dat dachten we altijd. Maar nieuw onderzoek wijst uit dat de twee ijsreuzen eigenlijk bijna dezelfde kleur hebben: ze zijn allebei een beetje bleekgroen.

Neptunus wordt meestal afgebeeld als diep azuurblauw, terwijl Uranus een soort heel  lichtgroene kleur heeft op plaatjes. Oxford-onderzoekers tonen nu echter aan dat beide planeten min of meer dezelfde groenblauwe kleur hebben. Dit is niet helemaal nieuw. Astronomen weten al heel lang dat de meeste afbeeldingen van de twee planeten niet hun echte kleuren tonen. Het misverstand is ontstaan door de nabewerking van de foto’s, die NASA’s Voyager 2 maakte in de jaren tachtig van de vorige eeuw. Vooral Neptunus werd te blauw afgebeeld. Ook werd er te veel contrast toegevoegd aan de foto’s om de wolken, ringen en winden duidelijker zichtbaar te maken.

“De bekende Voyager 2-beelden van Uranus zijn gepubliceerd in een kleur die dichtbij de echte kleur komt, maar die van Neptunus zijn bewerkt en versterkt en daardoor kunstmatig te blauw gemaakt”, legt professor Patrick Irwin van Oxford uit. “Hoewel deze kunstmatige kleur bij de meeste planeetwetenschappers destijds bekend was en de beelden werden gepubliceerd met een onderschrift waarin dat werd uitgelegd, is dat kleurverschil in de loop der tijd vergeten.”

Dus hebben de onderzoekers geprobeerd de werkelijke kleur te reconstrueren met behulp van data van de Hubble en de Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) van ESO’s Very Large Telesecope. Bij beide instrumenten is iedere pixel een continu spectrum van kleuren. Daarmee konden de werkelijke kleuren van Uranus en Neptunus worden bepaald. Uiteindelijk bleken ze vrijwel dezelfde kleur te hebben, al blijft Neptunus iets blauwer.

Nog een mysterie opgelost
Maar de studie lost nóg een interessante kwestie op, namelijk waarom de kleuren van Uranus een beetje veranderen tijdens zijn 84 jaar durende rondje rond de zon. Metingen tonen aan dat Uranus een tikje groener lijkt tijdens de zomer- en winterzonnewende, als een van de polen van de planeet richting de zon wijst. Tijdens de equinox – als de zon recht boven de evenaar staat – heeft hij een iets blauwere tint.

Een bekende verklaring daarvoor is dat Uranus op een heel ongebruikelijke manier om zijn as draait. Tijdens zijn baan rond de zon ligt de planeet bijna op zijn kant, wat betekent dat tijdens de zonnewendes de noord- of de zuidpool bijna rechtstreeks richting de zon en de Aarde wijst. Het maakt dat elke verandering van de reflectie van het poolgebied direct grote invloed heeft op de algehele helderheid van Uranus, bezien vanaf onze planeet.

See Uranus' seasonal changes in color! 168-year animated time-lapse

Methaanijsdeeltjes
Wat echter nog niet goed duidelijk was, is hoe of waarom deze reflectie verandert. Daarom hebben de onderzoekers een model ontwikkeld dat de spectra van de poolgebieden van Uranus vergelijkt met de regio rond de evenaar. En daaruit bleek iets bijzonders: de poolregio’s reflecteren groene en rode golflengtes meer dan blauwe, deels omdat methaan dat rood absorbeert, maar half zoveel voorkomt bij de polen als bij de evenaar.

Dit was echter niet genoeg om de kleurverandering volledig te verklaren, dus voegden de onderzoekers een steeds dikker worden ijslaag toe aan de polen, die eerder is waargenomen in de zomer, als de polen door de zon verlicht worden wanneer de planeet van de equinox naar de zonnewende beweegt. De laag bestaat vermoedelijk uit methaanijsdeeltjes.

In de simulaties bleken de ijsdeeltjes de reflectie van groene en rode golflengtes te vergroten bij de polen. Dat verklaart waarom Uranus groener is tijdens de zonnewende. “Het komt doordat er in de poolregio’s een afname is van methaan, maar ook door een toegenomen dikte van heldere methaanijsdeeltjes”, aldus Irwin.

Tijd voor een nieuwe missie
Het is bijzonder dat een mysterie dat al zo lang bestaat, nu is opgelost. “De misvatting over de kleur van Neptunus en de ongebruikelijke kleurveranderingen van Uranus hebben ons decennialang voor raadselen gesteld, maar door deze grote studie zijn beide vraagstukken opgelost”, vertelt onderzoeker Heidi Hammel, van de Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), die beide planeten al tientallen jaren onderzoekt.

De ijsreuzen Uranus en Neptunus blijven een aanlokkelijke bestemming voor toekomstige missies, die kunnen voortbouwen op de Voyager-reizen uit de jaren tachtig. Van de bizarre seizoenen tot de grote hoeveelheid ringen en manen, er valt nog genoeg te ontdekken. Maar makkelijk is dat niet. Zelfs ruimtesondes die heel lang meegaan, kunnen maar een glimp waarnemen van een jaar op Uranus.

Bronmateriaal

• "Modelling the seasonal cycle of Uranus’s colour and magnitude, and comparison with Neptune" - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

{https://scientias.nl/ }

12-01-2025 om 23:38 geschreven door peter  

In this new gravity map of Mars, the red circles show prominent volcanoes and the black circles show impact craters with a diameter larger than a few 100 km. A gravity high signal is located in the volcanic Tharsis Region (the red area in the center right of the image), which is surrounded by a ring of negative gravity anomaly (shown in blue).

Credit: Root et al.

Mysterious Structures Discovered Hidden Under The Surface of Mars

The new map and analysis include data from multiple missions, including NASA's InSIGHT (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission. They also use data from tiny deviations in satellites as they orbit Mars.

The paper "The global gravity field of Mars reveals an active interior" will be published in an upcoming edition of JGR: Planets. The lead author is Bart Root of the Delft University of Technology. Some of the results go against an important concept in geology.

Geologists work with a concept called flexural isostasy. It describes how a planet's outer rigid layer responds to large-scale loading and unloading. The layer is called the lithosphere and consists of the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle.

When something heavy loads the lithosphere, it responds by sinking. On Earth, Greenland is a good example of this, where the massive ice sheet puts downward pressure on it. As its ice sheets melt due to global warming, Greenland will rise.

The researchers found an underground mass around 1750 kilometres across and at a depth of 1100 kilometres. They suspect that it's a mantle plume rising under Tharsis Montes and strong enough to counteract the downward pressure from all the mass.

"This suggests that a plume head is currently flowing upward towards the lithosphere to generate active volcanism in the geological future," the authors write in their paper.

There's debate about how volcanically active Mars is. Although there are no active volcanic features on the planet, research shows that the Tharsis region has resurfaced in the near geological past within the last few tens of millions of years.

If there is a mantle plume under Tharsis Montes, could it eventually reach the surface? That's purely speculative, and more research is needed to confirm these findings.

The researchers also found other gravitational anomalies. They found mysterious, dense structures under Mars' northern polar plains. They're buried under a thick, smooth sediment layer that was likely deposited on an ancient seabed.

The anomalies are approximately 300–400 kg/m³ denser than their surroundings. Earth's Moon has gravitational anomalies that are associated with giant impact basins. Scientists think that the impactors that created the basins were denser than the Moon, and their mass has become part of the Moon.

These maps show the gravitational anomalies at the surface of the Moon. Some of the gravity anomalies are clearly associated with large impact basins. On Mars, the anomalies have no corresponding surface features.

Image Credit: By Mark A. Wieczorek –

Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1381260

Impact basins on Mars also show gravity anomalies. However, the anomalies in Mars' northern hemisphere show no traces of them on the surface.

This image from the research shows the gravitational structures in Mars’ northern polar region on a topographical map. There’s no correlation between the deep structures and the surface.

Image Credit: Root et al.

"These dense structures could be volcanic in origin or could be compacted material due to ancient impacts. There are around 20 features of varying sizes that we have identified dotted around the area surrounding the north polar cap—one of which resembles the shape of a dog," said Dr. Root.

"There seems to be no trace of them at the surface. However, through gravity data, we have a tantalizing glimpse into the older history of the northern hemisphere of Mars."

The only way to understand these mysterious structures and Mars' gravity in general is with more data. Root and his colleagues are proponents of a mission that could gather the needed data.

It's called the Martian Quantum Gravity (MaQuls) mission. MaQuls would be based on the same technology used in the GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) and GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) missions, which mapped the Moon's and Earth's gravity, respectively. MaQuls would feature two satellites trailing each other and connected by an optical link.

A grainy yet illustrative image of how the MaQuls mission would work. MaQuls would investigate the gravitational field of Mars and study static and dynamic processes on and under the surface. MaQuls would measure Mars’s gravitational field with the highest precision yet.

Image Credit: Worner et al. 2023.

"Observations with MaQuIs would enable us to better explore the subsurface of Mars. This would help us to find out more about these mysterious hidden features and study ongoing mantle convection, as well as understand dynamic surface processes like atmospheric seasonal changes and the detection of ground water reservoirs," said Dr. Lisa Wörner of DLR, who presented on the MaQuIs mission at EPSC2024 this week.

• This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

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12-01-2025 om 22:59 geschreven door peter  

NASA's troubled Mars sample-return mission has scientists seeing red

Related: 

• NASA's Mars Sample Return in jeopardy after US Senate questions budget

MSR’s complex architecture is a key driver of such high costs and troubling delays. The official plan calls for a NASA-built lander to voyage to Mars while housing a small sample-return rocket, as well as a robotic arm provided by the European Space Agency (ESA). The lander would touch down near the Perseverance rover that’s already been busily dropping tubes of carefully curated samples from its explorations around Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient river delta. Those specimens would be picked up and stuffed into the rocket by Perseverance — or perhaps instead retrieved by a couple of newly minted flying drones akin to the Ingenuity helicopter that the rover already let loose on Mars.

The sample-packed rocket would launch into orbit around Mars to rendezvous with an ESA-supplied spacecraft for subsequent transport to Earth. Encased in a protective capsule, the samples would at last reach our planet by plummeting from space to the Utah Test and Training Range, where they’d be recovered and whisked to a specialized facility for processing and further study.

Replanning and ramping back

Nationwide, more than 1,300 people have been working on MSR, but that number is dropping. After the IRB report’s release, NASA hit the pause button on the project: the space agency announced that several of its research centers were “ramping back” associated work. A hiring freeze is now in effect at the space agency’s MSR-managing Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and last week the lab laid off 100 of its contractors. The slowdown comes as NASA faces a constricted budget in fiscal year 2024 because of a debt ceiling spending cap deal in Congress. The House of Representatives’ proposed budget allots nearly $1 billion to the project in 2024 per NASA’s request, while the Senate’s budget offers only $300 million — and explicitly threatens MSR with cancellation if the program’s costs can’t be reined in.

In response, NASA has set up a Mars Sample Return Independent Review Board Response Team (MIRT), led by Sandra Connelly, the space agency’s deputy associate administrator for science. Connelly is expected to provide an update about MIRT’s process and progress in an upcoming "town hall" meeting. Meanwhile the agency has delayed its plans to confirm the official mission cost and schedule pending MIRT’s conclusions, which are expected in March 2024.

"The team will make a recommendation by the second quarter of fiscal year 2024 regarding a path forward for Mars Sample Return within a balanced overall science program," said NASA’s Dewayne Washington, a senior communications manager for MSR, in a statement to Scientific American. "The agency will delay its plans to confirm the official mission cost and schedule until after the completion of this review."

ESA, for its part, maintains that it is "steadfastly progressing towards fulfilling all of its commitments" for a launch as early as 2028, according to a statement provided to Scientific American. ESA is working closely with NASA on replanning MSR, the statement explained. "On the ESA side, the outcome of the ESA/NASA studies will be formulated as options and the way forward will then be decided together with [ESA] Member States," it said.

Related: 

• The big reveal: What's ahead in returning samples from Mars?

A question of priorities

MSR’s perceived scientific value is the rationale for NASA and ESA traversing the delicate geopolitical tightrope of the project’s replanning, says Victoria Hamilton, a planetary geologist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. Hamilton also chairs the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), a committee that is advising NASA on its Red Planet plans and participated in the IRB that issued last September’s damning report.

Multiple planetary science decadal surveys produced by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have anointed MSR as the highest scientific priority for all of NASA’s robotic exploration efforts, she notes. The last such decadal survey, however, issued in 2022, gauged MSR’s nominal cost as $5.3 billion and cautioned that overruns on the project could "undermine the long-term programmatic balance of [NASA’s] planetary portfolio."

Achieving that balance is essential, Hamilton says, because Mars isn’t the only alluring destination vying for more attention and federal dollars. The very same decadal survey that reinforced MSR’s preeminence also set several other high-priority objectives, such as robotic NASA missions to Uranus, Venus and the mysterious Saturnian moons Enceladus and Titan. Left unchecked, cost and schedule overruns for MSR could easily cascade throughout the space agency’s planetary science division to disrupt these other projects — not to mention any NASA efforts to send humans to Mars.

"In addition to the scientific benefits, MSR will feed forward into human exploration plans," Hamilton says. "And I honestly don’t understand how we can talk about sending humans to Mars to do science if a pathfinding mission like MSR is deemed too ambitious or too costly."

Others, conversely, struggle to understand how MSR in its current form benefits the broader planetary science community—and how the official plan for its execution came so far before being formally called out for its excesses. One well-versed space agency official, who asked for anonymity, bluntly calls the plan a “dumpster fire.”

"Within the planetary science community, you have the Mars faction [that supports MSR]. But the outer planets community doesn’t care about MSR," the official says. "The Venus exploration advocates don’t care about this, nor does the moon community. Then there’s perhaps half of the Mars community that feels [that for MSR’s estimated cost], you can imagine a lot of Mars rovers going across the surface and see a whole fleet of Mars orbiters that also need to be replaced."

Fran Bagenal, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s (CU Boulder’s) Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and a veteran of multiple NASA interplanetary missions, is skeptical that MSR’s skyrocketing price tag will prove worthwhile despite its historic astrobiological potential. Most of the material in and around Jezero Crater is more than 3.7 billion years old, she notes—and scientists still vigorously debate any hints of life in rocks of similar vintage right here on our own far-better-studied Earth. 

"So what will we learn by spending many billions on returning [such] samples from Mars?" she asks. "It’s easy to say, 'It has to be new and interesting, whatever we find.' But we must be responsible to the taxpayer and ask if it is worth the cost." Investing instead in developing better methods for robotic, in situ studies on Mars, she argues, could be a more affordable option that also yields new approaches for other destinations, such as Venus and Jupiter’s icy, oceanic moon Europa.

The A-ha! moment

According to Scott Hubbard, former director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, who served as the agency’s inaugural Mars exploration program director from 2000 to 2001, there’s an easy explanation for MSR’s programmatic miscalculations. Historically, he says, NASA has shown a strong tendency to err on the low side of mission costs to get a project approved; the aha! moment comes later. "NASA counts on this a great deal, whether consciously or unconsciously," he says — especially for ambitious initiatives such as MSR. Add to this "the 'evolutionary' process of how [MSR’s planning] was dragged out over decades," and you end up with the current state of affairs.

Bruce Jakosky, a scientist at CU Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and former lead investigator of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter, which is presently at Mars, has spent decades researching the Red Planet’s climate, atmosphere and potential habitability. The scientific value of returning Mars samples cached by NASA’s Perseverance rover for studies back here on Earth cannot be overstated, he maintains. "There are analyses that we can carry out here that are just not possible using even the best-equipped rover on the surface," Jakosky says.

Mars Sample Return is important for another reason, Jakosky adds. "It’s a demonstration of the ability to do a round trip to Mars and will be incredibly valuable as a risk-reduction effort in preparing for human missions to Mars," he says. "Given that advance work is already going on related to planning the architecture of human Mars missions, this seems like a necessary step along the way."

Salvaging MSR, Hubbard says, may require making the project an "all-of-NASA initiative" to take advantage of the agency’s human exploration plans (and budgets). This could allow for new mission profiles that reduce complexity — if not cost. NASA’s new Space Launch System [SLS] megarocket, he notes, is meant for lofting crews and hefty payloads into Earth orbit for voyages to the moon — but its huge size could conceivably house all of MSR’s planned elements, which are currently intended for two separate rockets. With SLS, he says, "you could probably launch the whole thing in one fell swoop." (An SLS launch, however, costs more than $2 billion— about 40% of the entire baseline MSR budget, leaving aside the multibillion-dollar overruns projected by the IRB.)

Related: 

• Mars: Everything you need to know about the Red Planet

The China factor

For James Head, a planetary scientist at Brown University, it has not been a question of one mission to return samples from Mars but rather of many. "There are so many different fundamental scientific problems to address, and so many different places to go to address them, that multiple Mars sample return missions are essential," he says.

The possibility of multiple sample-return sorties isn’t a pipe dream: China is planning one of its own — a mission called Tianwen-3 that is planned to launch in 2028 and would seek to deliver Mars rocks to Earth as early as mid-2031. Last April Head co-convened a session on that country’s Mars sample endeavor in Hefei, China.

"They are clearly moving ahead on this mission," he says, noting the large number of Chinese university students and mission personnel from institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that have proposed Tianwen-3 landing sites. "The project is moving forward well, and we are working on the landing site location," says Yang "Steve" Liu, a planetary scientist at the National Space Science Center in Beijing. Sample collection by the Tianwen-3 lander, Liu says, would mirror that of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission, which, sans rover, drilled and scooped moon rocks that were rocketed back to Earth in December 2020.

One touchdown locale under review is the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a giant impact basin in the midlatitudes of Mars’s northern hemisphere that China’s Zhurong rover already scouted in 2021 and 2022. (NASA’s Viking 2 lander also touched down in Utopia Planitia in 1976.) "It seems clear to me that a significant part of the geological history of Mars will be included in samples returned from this area," Head says.

In the event that China’s Mars samples are the first — or only — to arrive back on Earth, finding a way for U.S. researchers to share in those data would be ideal, Head says. Federal law presently limits NASA’s collaborations with China, but the space agency’s recent approval of efforts by NASA-funded investigators to participate in studies of Chang’e-5’s lunar samples is a very positive sign, he says. "We all hope that NASA will be able to extend this in the future to the upcoming Chang’e-6 farside lunar samples and to any future Chinese Mars returned samples."

Of course the most ideal scenario of all, envisioned by Head and his fellow Mars-focused peers, would be for NASA to ensure that its homegrown MSR project comes to fruition. The choice to move forward, he says, represents a "momentous decision point" for the space agency — and the nation.

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11-01-2025 om 21:16 geschreven door peter  

It turns out that the Standard Model is able to account for less than 5% of all the matter and energy in the cosmos. Another 25% or so is Dark Matter, an unknown kind of matter that is for all intents and purposes invisible. The rest is known as Dark Energy, a mysterious entity that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate.

One of the first things astronomers noticed when they first discovered dark matter and dark energy was their apparent similarity. Why in the world are the two dark components of our universe roughly the same strength? I know, 25% and 70% don’t sound very similar, but when it comes to astronomy – and especially cosmology – they’re basically the exact same number.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence that they have about the same strength, and we’re overthinking it.

Or maybe it’s something else. Clever physicists have proposed connections within the “dark sector” of the universe, where dark matter and dark energy talk to each other. This would allow them to follow each other’s evolution, ensuring that they have roughly equal contributions to the energy budget of the universe for long periods of time.

To make them talk to each other, you need a force. But this force can’t be any of the known ones, otherwise dark matter and/or dark energy must also interact with normal matter, and we would have seen more directly evidence of them already.

So it has to be a new force, a fifth force of nature, completely different from electromagnetism, gravity, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear.  While ideas like this remain only in the realm of hypothesis, some of the ideas already have names.

One name is quintessence, the fifth essence of the universe. Another is dark photons, a particle that travels the cosmos like a photon but is, as its name suggests, dark.

To test these ideas we have to turn to the cosmos for answers. If a fifth force exists, it must be very subtle. Stronger manifestations of the fifth force have already been ruled out by observations of galaxy clusters, the expansion of the universe, and even the behaviors of neutron stars. So we have our work cut out for us – it will take a truly massive amount of data to tease out some signal that differs from expectations.

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{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

11-01-2025 om 15:20 geschreven door peter  

Scheduled for launch in 2027, the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope is slowly being readied for operation. This week, NASA announced that they have started to joined the mission’s telescope, instrument carrier and instruments onto the spacecraft. Having completed the construction, they will now move to the testing phase where the instrument will be subjected to more tests. These will include exposure to electromagnetic radiation expected during launch along with vibration and thermal changes too. If it passes these tests, the new space telescope will be on the home straight. 

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is often referred to as the Roman Space Telescope. It’s been developed by NASA and was named after former chief astronomer Nance Grace Telescope. It has a mirror 2.4m in diameter so is similar in size to the Hubble Space Telescope but has a wider field of view. On board are instruments that enable it to explore exoplanets and the large scale structure of the universe. It will also investigate the nature of dark energy and try to understand more about the accelerated expansion of the universe through the study of gravitational lenses. 

It’s fitting that the telescope has been named after Roman who was a leading American astronomer and astrophysicist. She was instrumental in the development of the Hubble Space Telescope so has often been called the ‘Mother of Hubble.’ She was born on 16 May 1925 and became one of the first female executives of NASA, including a role as Chief of Astronomy. 

In a recent press release, NASA confirmed that a team of technicians have successfully integrated the telescope with instrument carrier, known as the Instrument Payload Assembly. Two instruments have been installed, the Coronagraph Instrument which will be used to block starlight to reveal and study exoplanets, the Optical Telescope Assembly  and the Wide Field Instrument. The Wide Field Instrument is made up of 18 detectors that will give the telescope images with a field 100 times larger than Hubble’s but with the same resolution. I really can’t wait to see the images it produces. The whole assemble is now safely connected to the spacecraft that will take the observatory into its orbit. 

Mark Clampin, acting Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate said “With this incredible milestone, Roman remains on track for launch and we’re a big step closer to unveiling the comos as never before.”

Launch is a little way off but before then, the instrumentation will under its next testing phase. There has been a significant amount of testing so far but this next test phase is designed to to ensure the individual components operate when integrated. By subjecting it to simulated launch conditions, the tests will check that the vibrations will not cause problems, that the communications equipment won’t create electromagnetic interference and to check, across a range of conditions, that the optics and instrumentation can cope with the predicted thermal variations. 

On completion of these tests, which are expected to last a few months, the aperture cover will be added to the outer barrel assembly with the solar panels soon after. Once this has been completed, the structure will be added to the spacecraft during autumn. To date though, all is going well with the testing and all is on track for launch no later than May 2027.

Source : 

• NASA Joins Telescope,
• Instruments to Roman Spacecraft

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{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

11-01-2025 om 15:06 geschreven door peter  

By SONYA GUGLIARA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The American astronauts who have been stranded in space for seven months have hinted at the toll their unexpected mission is taking. 

Butch Wilmore, 62, and Sunita Williams, 59, were heard telling NASA bigwigs 'eventually, we want to go home' during a video call on Wednesday.

The pair first landed at the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5 and they have been stuck there ever since.

Their visit was only supposed to be eight days long. But due to safety concerns, NASA decided to send the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they arrived on back to Earth without anyone inside.  

In August 2024, it was decided that the left-behind astronauts would return home on a SpaceX aircraft in 2025. 

On Wednesday, Wilmore and Williams joined fellow astronauts Nick Hague, 49, and Don Pettit, 69, at the ISS to share more details about their lives in space.

The astronauts participated in a video call with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. 

Williams shared how she and Wilmore have been feeling about their shocking circumstances and adapting to their extended space stay. 

'Yeah, eventually we want to go home, because we left our families a little while ago, but we have a lot to do while we’re up here,' she revealed.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, Don Pettit and Suni Williams (from left to right) spoke about their experiences in space on Wednesday 

Butch Wilmore, 62, and Suni Williams, 59, have been stuck at the ISS since June when their spacecraft had to leave without them 

'We’ve got to get all that stuff done before we go home.'

They are expected to return home in early April alongside the rest of Crew-9, which is the ninth crew rotation of the ongoing Expedition 72. 

Williams has become the commander of Expedition 72. Wilmore, Pettit and Hague are flight engineers, according to NASA. 

Wilmore and Williams did not seem worried about their conditions and debunked rumored safety concerns about a lack of clothes or resources.

When the pair first came to space in June, they were short on clothes because the Starliner needed more room for cargo, so some personal items had to be sacrificed. 

Wilmore said: 'It was well known that when we came up here we swapped out a couple of components that we needed on the space station for some of our clothes. 

'So we wore [the same] clothes for a while, but that doesn’t bother us, because, you know, clothes fit loosely up here. 

The Boeing Starliner that Wilmore and Williams arrived to the ISS was sent back without the crew due to safety concerns 

Williams has become the commander of Expedition 72. Wilmore is a flight engineer for the mission

'It’s not like on Earth where you sweat and it gets bad. I mean, they fit loosely, so you can wear things, honestly, for weeks at a time, and it doesn’t bother you at all.'

The astronauts have since been resupplied with clothes brought by Crew-9 in September.

Wilmore and Williams joined Crew-9 when Hague, the crew's commander, and mission specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov arrived. They cannot leave until Crew-10 arrives in late March.  

While reiterating that the astronauts are not in harm's way, Melroy cheekily said: 'So what you’re telling us is you’re not channeling ‘Cast Away,’ and you don’t have a volleyball with a handprint on it that you call Wilson.'

Williams replied: 'No, we’ve got a whole team up here, so we’re not worried about that. And there’s a lot to do as well with the team on the ground.

Williams said they are not 'cast away' in space, but the pair would like to get back to their families as soon as they can 

'It’s just a great team, and, no, it doesn’t feel like we’re cast away.

'We had tons of science experiments with SpaceX 31 [a cargo resupply mission]. We’ve got space walks coming up. It was really busy when we were waiting for Nick to get up here. 

'And it’s just been a joy to be working up here, particularly with our counterparts on the other end of the space station.' 

Williams and Hague are set to go on a spacewalk later this month. A week after that, Wilson and Wilmore may go out for one as well. 

According to NASA, the goal of Expedition 72 is to 'explore a variety of space phenomena to benefit humans on and off the Earth including pharmaceutical manufacturing, advanced life support systems, genetic sequencing in microgravity, and more.' 

DailyMail.com has reached out to NASA for comment.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

10-01-2025 om 21:07 geschreven door peter