Universe Today

April 11, 2023April 11, 2023 by Matt Williams

A New Membrane Could Lead to Space Telescopes with Flexible Mirrors!

Membrane mirrors made using the new technique are flexible enough to be rolled up. This could be helpful for storing the mirrors inside of a launch vehicle. © Sebastian Rabien, MPE

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the most powerful and sophisticated observatory ever built. It is also the most expensive, owing to the complexity of its design and the rigorous testing this entailed. To ensure the telescope could fit into its payload fairing, NASA engineers designed the JWST to fold up (origami-style) and unfold once it reached space. It is little wonder why astronomers and astrophysicists hope to develop flexible, lightweight materials that can maintain the perfect shape and be folded up to fit compactly inside a launch vehicle.

This has the potential to reduce the size and mass of space telescopes and the complexity of their designs, thus reducing launch costs. During the COVID pandemic, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) developed a new method for producing and shaping high-quality parabolic membrane mirrors. So far, the MPE team has fabricated prototypes up to 30 cm (12 inches) in diameter that are much thinner and more flexible than conventional mirrors. In the long term, this method could drastically reduce the cost of manufacturing and deploying space telescopes.

April 11, 2023April 11, 2023 by Andy Tomaswick

Tiny Spacecraft Using Solar Sails Open Up a Solar System of Opportunity

Some parts of the solar system are exceptionally hard to reach. Despite the interesting scientific data we could collect from that location, we’ve never managed to send a probe to one of the poles of the Sun. Nor have we been able to send many spacecraft to exciting places in the Oort cloud of other parts of the outer solar system. Voyager 1, which currently holds the record for being the farthest craft away from Earth, took over 40 years to reach the point where it is now. Even if it did pass by something interesting on its way, its antiquated scientific equipment would be less useful than more modern technology.

April 11, 2023April 11, 2023 by Matt Williams

Perseverance is Turning Into That Friend That's Always Picking Up Rocks

This image shows the rock core from “Berea” inside inside the drill of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

On Thursday, March 30th, NASA’s Perseverance rover drilled and stored the first rock core sample of its newest science campaign. This is the sixteenth sample the rover has taken as part of the ambitious Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, a collaborative effort between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to retrieve Perseverance’s samples and bring them back to Earth. Once they arrive (expected to happen by 2033), scientists will analyze them using state-of-the-art machinery too heavy and cumbersome to send to Mars as part of a robotic mission.

April 11, 2023April 7, 2023 by Paul M. Sutter

The First Radiation Map of the Skies Over Africa

Inside this geometric structure is a demolished uranium mill and its radioactive tailings. Buried in 1992 by the Department of Energy, this mill near Grants, N.M. is one of about 20 uranium mill tailings sites in the U.S. that were remediated as part of the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action project (UMTRA). Credit: U.S. Department of Energy

Astronomers have developed a way to cheaply and easily measure the radiation exposure experienced by airline crews over Africa.

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

It’s Time for Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A to Get the JWST Treatment

Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is a supernova remnant. It has been observed many times. This new image uses data from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to reveal Cas A in a new light. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, D. D. Milisavljevic (Purdue), T. Temim (Princeton), I. De Looze (Ghent University). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Ready for another stunning image from JWST? How about a peek inside a supernova remnant? Not just any stellar debris, but a highly detailed view of the leftovers from the explosion that created Cassiopeia A. The latest image is giving astronomers an up-close and personal look at what happened to a supermassive star some 11,000 light-years away from us. It may also help answer questions about the existence of cosmic dust, particularly in the early Universe.

April 10, 2023April 7, 2023 by Paul M. Sutter

When Clouds Collide, Destruction and Creation Go Hand-in-Hand

New stars seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in the Orion Nebula. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Bally; Acknowledgment: M. H. Özsaraç.

All stars are born from the collapse of clouds of dust and gas. But triggering star formation is a tricky process, because these gas clouds can just hang out doing nothing for billions of years. A pair of researchers have found a precise recipe for getting gas clouds to trigger star formation. It involves a lot of collision.

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023 by Andy Tomaswick

Astronomers Find 1,179 Previously Unknown Star Clusters in Our Corner of the Milky Way

Some of the most exciting things that happen in a telescope’s lifetime are its data releases. Gaia, which has been operating since 2013, recently released its third major dataset, and astronomers that weren’t intimately involved in the operation and planning for the project have had some time to pull over. Their studies are starting to pop up in journals everywhere. For example, a new one from a research team, mainly from Guangzhou University, catalogs over 1100 new star clusters, significantly increasing the overall total of these critical components in the structure of the Milky Way.

April 9, 2023April 7, 2023 by Paul M. Sutter

Astronomers Find Out What Happens to Rocky Planets That Wander too Close to Their Stars

This artist's illustration shows the fiery exoplanet WASP-76b. Previous study shows the planet rains iron it's so hot. Now astronomers have detected barium in its atmosphere. Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

The massive Kepler survey found a treasure trove of exoplanets. But in all that wealth they found three anomalies: what appeared to be rings of dust surrounding stars where planets should be. They were rocky planets in the process of being obliterated. And a team of astronomers that found a way to use these gory sites to understand some of the most mysterious and hard to detect planets in the universe.

April 8, 2023April 7, 2023 by Paul M. Sutter

Forget the Habitable Zone – We Need to Find the Computational Zone

This artist’s impression shows the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The double star Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image between the planet and Proxima itself. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Astronomers are currently searching for signs of life in the “habitable zones” of nearby stars, which is defined as the band around a star where liquid water can potentially exist. But a recent paper argues that we need to take a more nuanced and careful approach, based not on the potential for life, but the potential for computation.

April 8, 2023April 8, 2023 by Matt Williams

Will the Starship be Ready for an April Launch?

The SN24 and BN7 fully stacked on the launch test pad at SpaceX's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. Credit: NASA

It’s been a long road, but it looks as though SpaceX may finally be ready for an orbital flight test with the Starship and Super Heavy. After months of waiting, static fire tests, stacking, and restacking, Elon Musk announced on March 16th that SpaceX could be ready to go with the SN24 and BN7 prototypes in “a few weeks,” pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Musk announced via Twitter, saying, “launch timing depends on FAA license approval. Assuming that takes a few weeks, first launch attempt will be near end of third week of April, aka…”