Software offers new way to listen for signals from the stars - Phys.org

An artist's conception of an alien device that generates repetitive signals. Credit: Breakthrough Listen / Danielle Futselaar

The Breakthrough Listen Investigation for Periodic Spectral Signals (BLIPSS), led by Akshay Suresh, Cornell doctoral candidate in astronomy, is pioneering a search for periodic signals emanating from the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The research aims to detect repetitive patterns, a way to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) within our cosmic neighborhood.

The researchers developed software based on a Fast Folding Algorithm (FFA), an efficient search method offering enhanced sensitivity to periodic sequences of narrow pulses. Their paper, "A 4–8 GHz Galactic Center Search for Periodic Technosignatures," was published May 30 in The Astronomical Journal.

Pulsars—rapidly rotating neutron stars that sweep beams of radio energy across the Earth—are natural astrophysical objects that generate periodic signals but humans also use directed periodic transmissions for a variety of applications, including radar. Such signals would be a good way to get someone's attention across interstellar space, standing out from the background of non-periodic signals, as well as using much less energy than a transmitter that is broadcasting continuously.

"BLIPSS is an example of cutting-edge software as a science multiplier for SETI," said Suresh. "Our study introduces to SETI, for the first time, the Fast Folding Algorithm; our open-source software utilizes an FFA to crunch over 1.5 million time series for periodic signals in roughly 30 minutes."

Detection of a target periodic spectral signal using blipss. Left: simulated radio frequency-time data containing 64 spectral channels of width 391 kHz each. A periodic pulsed signal has been inserted into the central channel. Right: radio frequency-period (P) diagram showing the detection of a P₀ = 30 s signal in the central spectral channel. The first harmonic (cross) and the first subharmonic (plus) of the fundamental signal frequency (f₀ = 1/P₀) are also detected at P = 15 s and P = 60 s, respectively. Credit: The Astronomical Journal (2023). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/acccf0

BLIPSS is a collaborative effort between Cornell, the SETI Institute, and Breakthrough Listen. The project significantly enhances the probability of capturing evidence of extraterrestrial technology by focusing on the central region of the Milky Way, known for its dense concentration of stars and potentially habitable exoplanets. The center of the Milky Way would also be an ideal place for aliens to place a beacon to contact large swaths of the Galaxy.

The team tested their algorithm on known pulsars and were able to detect periodic emission as expected. They then turned to a larger dataset of scans of the Galactic Center undertaken using the Breakthrough Listen instrument on the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia. In contrast to pulsars, which emit across a wide swath of radio frequencies, BLIPSS looked for repeating signals in a narrower range of frequencies, covering less than one-tenth of the width of an average FM radio station.

"The combination of these relatively narrow bandwidths with periodic patterns could be indicative of deliberate technological activities of intelligent civilizations," said co-author Steve Croft, Breakthrough Listen project scientist. "Breakthrough Listen captures huge volumes of data, and Akshay's technique provides a new method to help us search that haystack for needles that could provide tantalizing evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life forms."

"Until now, radio SETI has primarily dedicated its efforts to the search for continuous signals," said co-author Vishal Gajjar, a SETI Institute astronomer. "Our study sheds light on the remarkable energy efficiency of a train of pulses as a means of interstellar communication across vast distances. Notably, this study marks the first-ever comprehensive endeavor to conduct in-depth searches for these signals."

More information: Akshay Suresh et al, A 4–8 GHz Galactic Center Search for Periodic Technosignatures, The Astronomical Journal (2023). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/acccf0

Provided by Cornell University

Citation: Software offers new way to listen for signals from the stars (2023, May 30) retrieved 31 May 2023 from https://ift.tt/SRJ5qNg

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Webb telescope detects 6,000-mile-long water vapor plume blasting from Saturn's moon - CBS News

The James Webb Space Telescope has identified an enormous stream of water vapor erupting from the surface of one of Saturn's moons, NASA announced this week. The plume measures at least 6,000 miles long — which is already more than twice the width of the United States — making it the largest of its kind detected on the distant moon Enceladus. 

Described by scientists as an "ocean world" and characterized by NASA as one of the most compelling places to probe for extraterrestrial life, Enceladus is coated in a distinctive, icy outer shell. Beneath it, the moon is essentially a salt water reservoir wrapped around a rocky core. Cracks in the surface of Enceladus, sometimes called "tiger stripes," allow geyser-like jet streams to spew out from under the ice and into space, potentially acting as an important water source for the whole of the Saturnian system.

The massive plume detected most recently by the Webb Telescope is of particular interest to researchers because of both its size and strength. Although Enceladus is among Saturn's largest moons, of which there are at least 124, according to NASA, its 313-mile diameter makes it just about 4% of the Earth's size. The 6,000-mile plume, detected by the telescope as it blasted from the moon's south pole toward Saturn's trademark rings, is roughly 20 times the length of Enceladus itself. 

In this image, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's instruments are revealing details into how one of Saturn's moon's feeds a water supply to the entire system of the ringed planet. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI)

"When I was looking at the data, at first, I was thinking I had to be wrong. It was just so shocking to detect a water plume more than 20 times the size of the moon," said Geronimo Villanueva, a planetary scientist at NASA and a lead author of the Enceladus study, in a statement. "The water plume extends far beyond its release region at the southern pole."

Scientists also determined that water vapor gushes out through the stream at a rate of about 79 gallons per second — fast enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in a couple of hours, NASA said. It may even be powerful enough to feed the rest of the Saturnian water system.

While evaluating the Webb data, scientists noticed that the plume extending from the south pole of Enceladus directly supplies a ring of water that forms a circle around the outer rings of Saturn, along the path of the moon's rapid, 33-hour orbit. 

Villanueva said the moon creates a trail of water like a "halo," according to NASA, and noted that about 70% of the water emitted through the plume ultimately escapes the ring to supply Saturn's water system at large. Astronomers determined that the other 30% stays within the halo.

"As it whips around Saturn, the moon and its jets are basically spitting off water, leaving a halo, almost like a donut, in its wake," said Villanueva. "In the Webb observations, not only was the plume huge, but there was just water absolutely everywhere." 

Scientists will continue to use the Webb telescope to study Enceladus, with the hope that learning more about the moon, and how volcanic plumes like this one may support its surrounding environment, provides greater insight into the salty ocean beneath its surface and whether that setting could support some form of life beyond Earth.

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The Best Space and Astronomy Photos From May - The New York Times

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Webb Maps Surprisingly Large Plume Jetting From Saturn's Moon Enceladus - WebbTelescope.org

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A water vapor plume from Saturn’s moon Enceladus spanning more than 6,000 miles – nearly the distance from Los Angeles, California to Buenos Aires, Argentina – has been detected by researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Not only is this the first time such a water emission has been seen over such an expansive distance, but Webb is also giving scientists a direct look, for the first time, at how this emission feeds the water supply for the entire system of Saturn and its rings.

Enceladus, an ocean world about four percent the size of Earth, just 313 miles across, is one of the most exciting scientific targets in our solar system in the search for life beyond Earth. Sandwiched between the moon’s icy outer crust and its rocky core is a global reservoir of salty water. Geyser-like volcanos spew jets of ice particles, water vapor, and organic chemicals out of crevices in the moon’s surface informally called ‘tiger stripes.’

Previously, observatories have mapped jets hundreds of miles from the moon’s surface, but Webb’s exquisite sensitivity reveals a new story.

“When I was looking at the data, at first, I was thinking I had to be wrong. It was just so shocking to detect a water plume more than 20 times the size of the moon,” said lead author Geronimo Villanueva of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The water plume extends far beyond its release region at the southern pole.”

The length of the plume was not the only characteristic that intrigued researchers. The rate at which the water vapor is gushing out, about 79 gallons per second, is also particularly impressive. At this rate, you could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in just a couple of hours. In comparison, doing so with a garden hose on Earth would take more than 2 weeks.

The Cassini orbiter spent over a decade exploring the Saturnian system, and not only imaged the plumes of Enceladus for the first time but flew directly through them and sampled what they were made of. While Cassini’s position within the Saturnian system provided invaluable insights into this distant moon, Webb’s unique view from the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 one million miles from Earth, along with the remarkable sensitivity of its Integral Field Unit aboard the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) Instrument, is offering new context.

“The orbit of Enceladus around Saturn is relatively quick, just 33 hours. As it whips around Saturn, the moon and its jets are basically spitting off water, leaving a halo, almost like a donut, in its wake,” said Villanueva. “In the Webb observations, not only was the plume huge, but there was just water absolutely everywhere.”

This fuzzy donut of water that appeared ‘everywhere,' described as a torus, is co-located with Saturn’s outermost and widest ring – the dense “E-ring.” 

The Webb observations directly demonstrate how the moon’s water vapor plumes feed the torus. By analyzing the Webb data, astronomers have determined roughly 30 percent of the water stays within this torus, and the other 70 percent escapes to supply the rest of the Saturnian system of water. 

In the coming years, Webb will serve as the primary observation tool for ocean moon Enceladus, and discoveries from Webb will help inform future solar system satellite missions that will look to explore the subsurface ocean’s depth, how thick the ice crust is, and more.

“Right now, Webb provides a unique way to directly measure how water evolves and changes over time across Enceladus' immense plume, and as we see here, we will even make new discoveries and learn more about the composition of the underlying ocean,” added co-author Stefanie Milam at NASA Goddard. “Because of Webb’s wavelength coverage and sensitivity, and what we’ve learned from previous missions, we have an entire new window of opportunity in front of us.”

Webb’s observations of Enceladus were completed under Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) program 1250. The initial goal of this program is to demonstrate the capabilities of Webb in a particular area of science and set the stage for future studies.

“This program was essentially a proof of concept after many years of developing the observatory, and it’s just thrilling that all this science has already come out of quite a short amount of observation time,” said Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Webb interdisciplinary scientist and leader of the GTO program.

The team’s results were recently accepted for publication in Nature Astronomy on May 17, and a pre-print is available here. 

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

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'Evil Eye' Galaxy: The Sinister Glare Can Finally Be Explained - ScienceAlert

It doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to see why M64 is better known as the Evil Eye galaxy. Sitting in the abyssal vacuum of space it seems to cast a sinister glare across the cosmos, a cloud of dust framing its visible periphery like a dark bruise.

The galaxy is even stranger than it looks. Its hydrogen-rich outer disk orbits in the opposite direction to the galaxy's inner disk of stars, hinting at differences in their origins.

Now, astronomers have worked out the outer disk's hydrogen gas came from a smaller, gas-rich satellite dwarf galaxy, one M64 recently cannibalized and wrapped itself in. It's that smaller galaxy's material that is darkening M64's outskirts.

The discovery could be giving us a glimpse into the future of our own Milky Way galaxy. Estimates of the mass and contents of the shredded satellite suggest that it was remarkably similar to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a Milky Way satellite dwarf galaxy that will one day be subsumed into the larger mass.

These findings, led by astronomer Adam Smercina of the University of Washington, have been accepted into The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and are available on preprint server arXiv.

"We find evidence for a spectacular shell feature, and other tidal structures indicative of an ongoing, late-stage radial merger," the researchers write.

"We estimate the stellar mass of the progenitor galaxy to be 500 million solar masses, with a metallicity of [M/H] ≃ −1 – very similar to the mass and metallicity of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

"The mass of M64's counter-rotating outer gas disk is also comparable to the gas mass of the Small Magellanic Cloud, suggesting that the likeliest origin of M64's unique counter-rotating disk was a recent merger with a gas-rich satellite very similar to the Small Magellanic Cloud."

Galaxy mergers are thought to be a very important part of galaxy growth and evolution. These events not only increase the mass of a galaxy, they infuse it with new material and gravitational interactions that increase star formation, keeping the galaxy alive with new generations of stars.

The Milky Way has merged with other galaxies multiple times over its long, 13.6 billion-year history, and we can see other galaxies in the Universe at various stages of the merger process.

Because galactic cannibalism isn't uncommon, it seemed reasonable to think that the odd gas on the fringes of M64 was the result of one of these events.

Previous studies, however, found puzzlingly few signs of a recent galaxy-galaxy interaction, leading to the suggestion that the hydrogen disk had been slurped up just from the space around the galaxy, or from a brief, fly-by encounter with another galaxy named Coma P.

Evidence for either of these scenarios was also lacking, however; so Smercina and his colleagues enlisted the Subaru telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam to study the space around M64, some 1.4 million light-years away, looking for signs of the outer disk's origin in lone stars far from the main disk of the galaxy.

Their observations revealed what they say are clear traces of a galactic merger. They found a galactic halo – a diffuse sphere of dark matter, gas, and stars that encapsulates spiral galaxies, which is thought to form and grow through galaxy mergers.

Map of stars around M64, showing shell features to the southwest and northeast. (Smercina et al, arxiv, 2023)

But they also found evidence of a shell. This is a density of stars that is produced through the gravitational interaction between two merging galaxies. As the galaxies orbit each other, their gravitational interaction creates drag that causes stars to be pushed together, a bit like the peaks of ripples in a pond.

Comparison with simulations showed the distribution of the shell around M64 is consistent with what is known as a "minor" merger; that is, the absorption of a satellite dwarf galaxy by the larger host.

The motion of the gas suggests this satellite had a partially retrograde orbit around M64. And the dusty center and dark smudges of dust are the result of the ongoing merger as material collides with M64's inner disk of gas.

To confirm this scenario, the researchers used data from Hubble to estimate the mass and composition of the absorbed galaxy. They derived a stellar mass of around 500 million solar masses, consistent with the 300 million to a billion solar masses of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

A loose map of M64 halo stars (left) compared to galactic merger simulations (right). (Smercina et al, arXiv, 2023)

The mass of the hydrogen disk around M64 is also around 500 million solar masses, which again, the researchers say, is consistent with the 400 million solar masses worth of gas in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Together, the clues seem to point pretty convincingly at galactic cannibalism, recently enough to have left these traces – within the last billion years.

"The likely origins of the Evil Eye's counter-rotating gas are at last revealed, after decades of curiosity," the researchers write.

"We suggest that its outer gas disk was accreted recently during a 52:1 merger with a Small Magellanic Cloud-mass galaxy and is now colliding with an existing inner gas disk, fueling a burst of star formation at the disk–disk interface and driving the visible dust lanes from which it earns its name. Future observational and theoretical studies will help test this idea."

Meanwhile, M64 can help us understand how stellar halos are formed. Being able to calculate the previous orbital motion of a now-consumed satellite galaxy could help reproduce M64's halo evolution, providing valuable insight into the growth of these mysterious structures.

The team's research has been accepted into The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and is available on arXiv.

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Goldilocks Galore: Hundreds of Millions of Planets in the Milky Way Could Potentially Harbor Life - SciTechDaily

A new study suggests that one-third of the planets orbiting common dwarf stars in the Milky Way could potentially harbor life. Dwarf stars are the most common type of stars in the galaxy and billions of planets orbit them.

University of Florida astronomers find that hundreds of millions of planets orbiting dwarf stars in the Milky Way could potentially harbor life, occupying a ‘Goldilocks’ orbit that allows them to withstand extreme tidal forces and retain liquid water, according to data from NASA’s Kepler and Gaia telescopes.

Our familiar, warm, yellow sun is a relative rarity in the Milky Way. By far the most common stars are considerably smaller and cooler, sporting just half the mass of our sun at most. Billions of planets orbit these common dwarf stars in our galaxy.

To capture enough warmth to be habitable, these planets would need to huddle very close to their small stars, which leaves them susceptible to extreme tidal forces.

In a new analysis based on the latest telescope data, University of Florida astronomers have discovered that two-thirds of the planets around these ubiquitous small stars could be roasted by these tidal extremes, sterilizing them. But that leaves one-third of the planets – hundreds of millions across the galaxy – that could be in a Goldilocks orbit close enough, and gentle enough, to hold onto liquid water and possibly harbor life.

UF astronomy professor Sarah Ballard and doctoral student Sheila Sagear published their findings the week of May 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ballard and Sagear have long studied exoplanets, those worlds that orbit stars other than the sun.

“I think this result is really important for the next decade of exoplanet research, because eyes are shifting toward this population of stars,” Sagear said. “These stars are excellent targets to look for small planets in an orbit where it’s conceivable that water might be liquid and therefore the planet might be habitable.”

Sagear and Ballard measured the eccentricity of a sample of more than 150 planets around these M dwarf stars, which are about the size of Jupiter. The more oval shaped an orbit, the more eccentric it is. If a planet orbits close enough to its star, at about the distance that Mercury orbits the sun, an eccentric orbit can subject it to a process known as tidal heating. As the planet is stretched and deformed by changing gravitational forces on its irregular orbit, friction heats it up. At the extreme end, this could bake the planet, removing all chance for liquid water.

“It’s only for these small stars that the zone of habitability is close enough for these tidal forces to be relevant,” Ballard said.

Data came from NASA’s Kepler telescope, which captures information about exoplanets as they move in front of their host stars. To measure the planets’ orbits, Ballard and Sagear focused especially on how long the planets took to move across the face of the stars. Their study also relied on new data from the Gaia telescope, which measured the distance to billions of stars in the galaxy.

“The distance is really the key piece of information we were missing before that allows us to do this analysis now,” Sagear said.

Sagear and Ballard found that stars with multiple planets were the most likely to have the kind of circular orbits that allow them to retain liquid water. Stars with only one planet were the most likely to see tidal extremes that would sterilize the surface.

Since one-third of the planets in this small sample had gentle enough orbits to potentially host liquid water, that likely means that the Milky Way has hundreds of millions of promising targets to probe for signs of life outside our solar system.

Reference: “The orbital eccentricity distribution of planets orbiting M dwarfs” 29 May 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2217398120

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Mars helicopter went silent for six sols, imperilled Perseverance rover - The Register

NASA has revealed a six-day stretch during which it could not contact its Ingenuity Mars helicopter.

In a lengthy post, chief engineer Travis Brown explained that after the copter's 49th flight, radio contact was lost for six sols – just short of six days and six hours of terrestrial time.

Initially, NASA's Mars boffins weren't unduly concerned. The Perseverance Rover had moved behind a rocky outcrop that created a "communication shadow." Brown wrote that since Sol 685 the helicopter "had unfortunately been drifting in and out of night-time survival mode" which made daily contact with the craft difficult. So a day or two without contact wasn't worrying.

But once Perseverance moved to another location and Ingenuity still could not be found, Brown wrote "the situation began to generate some unease."

"Poor telecom performance was seen as a plausible explanation, but there were reasons to doubt it," he wrote. "In more than 700 sols operating the helicopter on Mars, not once had we ever experienced a total radio blackout. Even in the worst communications environments, we had always seen some indication of activity."

But the signal received on that day, sol 761, was just a simple ACK (acknowledgement). The next day, the copter again acknowledged a command, but did little else.

Mission staff determined that the ridge separating Ingenuity and Perseverance was a challenge for the copter's radio. It didn't help that Perseverance's helicopter base station (HBS) antenna is mounted low on the vehicle's right and is subject to occlusion effects.

While NASA folk figured that out, Perseverance moved towards its next goal – but that created new problems.

"It is extremely important for Ingenuity to stay ahead of Perseverance while moving through the narrow channels of the Jezero delta," Brown wrote, as the rotorcraft's job is to scout ahead for the wheeled rover. And NASA operates a no-fly zone around Perseverance.

With the rover on the move, and the helicopter stopped, it became imperative to get Ingenuity moving.

"Relying on the helicopter's onboard pre-flight checks to ensure vehicle safety and banking on solid communications from the rover's imminent proximity, the team uplinked the flight plan," Brown wrote.

Ingenuity did more than just ACK that upload. It ingested and executed it, resulting in its 50th flight and an altitude record of 18 meters.

"It would be an understatement to say that the helicopter team was relieved to see the successful flight telemetry in the Sol 763 downlink the following morning," Brown wrote.

But he added that anxious days lie ahead.

"It now appears that the dust covering our solar panel will ensure that Ingenuity will likely remain in this transitional power state for some time," he wrote. "This means that, much to the chagrin of her team, we are not yet done playing this high-stakes game of hide and seek with the playful little helicopter."

Ingenuity last flew on April 22, when it made a 188-meter hop at an altitude of 12 meters. The craft was designed to fly just five times, so has already vastly exceeded expectations. ®

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UAE announces groundbreaking mission to asteroid belt, seeking clues to life's origins - ABC News

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The United Arab Emirates unveiled plans Monday to send a spaceship to explore the solar system's main asteroid belt, the latest space project by the oil-rich nation after it launched the successful Hope spacecraft to Mars in 2020.

Dubbed the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt, the project aims to develop a spacecraft in the coming years and then launch it in 2028 to study various asteroids.

“This mission is a follow up and a follow on the Mars mission, where it was the first mission to Mars from the region," said Mohsen Al Awadhi, program director of the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt. "We’re creating the same thing with this mission. That is, the first mission ever to explore these seven asteroids in specific and the first of its kind when it’s looked at from the grand tour aspect.”

The UAE became the first Arab country and the second country ever to successfully enter Mars’ orbit on its first try when its Hope probe reached the red planet in February 2021. The craft's goals include providing the first complete picture of the Martian atmosphere and its layers and helping answer key questions about the planet's climate and composition.

If successful, the newly announced spacecraft will soar at speeds reaching 33,000 kilometers (20,500 miles) per hour on a seven-year journey to explore six asteroids. It will culminate in the deployment of a landing craft onto a seventh, rare “red” asteroid that scientists say may hold insight into the building blocks of life on Earth.

Organic compounds like water are crucial constituents of life and have been found on some asteroids, potentially delivered through collisions with other organic-rich bodies or via the creation of complex organic molecules in space. Investigating the origins of these compounds, along with the possible presence of water on red asteroids, could shed light on the origin of Earth’s water, thereby offering valuable insights into the genesis of life on our planet.

The endeavor is a significant milestone for the burgeoning UAE Space Agency, established in 2014, as it follows up on its success in sending the Amal, or "Hope," probe to Mars. The new journey would span a distance over ten times greater than the Mars mission.

The explorer is named MBR after Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who also serves as the vice president and prime minister of the hereditarily ruled UAE. It will first make its way toward Venus, where the planet’s gravitational pull will slingshot it back past the Earth and then Mars.

The craft will eventually reach the asteroid belt, flying as close as 150 kilometers (93 miles) to the celestial boulders and covering a total distance of 5 billion kilometers (around 3 billion miles).

In October 2034, the craft is expected to make its final thrust to the seventh and last asteroid, named Justitia, before deploying a lander over a year later. Justitia, believed to be one of only two known red asteroids, is thought to potentially have a surface laden with organic substances.

“It’s one of the two reddest objects in the asteroid belt, and scientists don’t really understand why it’s so red," said Hoor AlMaazmi, a space science researcher at the UAE space agency. "There are theories about it being originally from the Kuiper Belt and where there’s much more red objects there. So that’s one thing that we can study because it has the potential for it to be water rich as well.”

The MBR Explorer will deploy a landing craft to study the surface of Justitia that will be fully developed by private UAE start-up companies. It may lay the groundwork for possible future resource extraction from asteroids to eventually support extended human missions in space — and maybe even the UAE’s ambitious goal of building a colony on Mars by 2117.

“We have identified different key areas that we want startups in the private sector to be part of, and we will engage with them through that," said Al Awadhi. "We understand that the knowledge we have in the UAE is you know still being built. We will provide these startups with the knowledge they need.”

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Driving on the Moon: NASA Pursues Next-Generation Lunar Terrain Vehicle - SciTechDaily

Artist’s concept of NASA’s next-generation Lunar Terrain Vehicle on the surface of the Moon. LTV is an unpressurized rover being developed by NASA for astronauts to use to drive on the Moon while wearing their spacesuits. Credit: NASA

NASA seeks industry proposals for a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to enhance astronaut exploration and scientific research during Artemis missions on the Moon’s south polar region. The LTV, functioning as a manned and unmanned rover, must handle the unique lunar environment and provide end-to-end services. It’s set to start crewed operations with Artemis V in 2029. Proposal submissions close on July 10, 2023.

NASA is seeking industry proposals for a next-generation LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) that will allow astronauts to go farther and conduct more science than ever before as they explore the south polar region of the Moon during Artemis missions.

Artemis astronauts will drive to explore and sample more of the lunar surface using the LTV than they could on foot. NASA will contract LTV as a service from industry rather than owning the rover. Contracting services from industry partners allows NASA to leverage commercial innovation and provide the best value to U.S. taxpayers while achieving its human spaceflight scientific and exploration goals.

“We want to leverage industry’s knowledge and innovation, combined with NASA’s history of successfully operating rovers, to make the best possible surface rover for our astronaut crews and scientific researchers,” said Lara Kearney, manager of NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility program at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The LTV will function like a cross between an Apollo-style lunar rover and a Mars-style uncrewed rover. It will support phases driven by astronauts and phases as an uncrewed mobile science exploration platform, similar to NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers. This will enable continued performance of science even when crews are not present on the lunar surface. Artemis astronauts will use the LTV to traverse the lunar surface and transport scientific equipment, extending the distances they can cover on each moonwalk.

NASA astronaut kneeling in front of the new Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) on the surface of the moon. Credit: NASA

Under the Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services request for proposals, NASA has provided requirements for companies interested in developing and demonstrating the LTV, including an approach that encourages companies to produce an innovative rover for use by NASA and other commercial customers for multiple years.

Engineers will be able to operate the LTV remotely to transport cargo and scientific payloads between crewed landing sites, enabling additional science returns, resource prospecting, and lunar exploration. This will expand scientific research opportunities on the Moon during uncrewed operations, allow scientists to investigate future surface mission locations, and inform research goals and objectives for each site.

To handle the unique environment near the lunar South Pole, which includes permanently shadowed regions and extended periods without sunlight, the LTV will need to incorporate several systems to support both crewed and uncrewed operations. Some of the more critical systems include advanced power management, semi-autonomous driving, state-of-the-art communication and navigation systems, and protection from the extreme environment.

As part of the proposals, companies are required to provide end-to-end services, from development and delivery to the lunar surface, to execution of operations. Each rover must be able to carry two suited astronauts, accommodate a robotic arm or mechanism to support science exploration, and survive the extreme temperatures at the lunar South Pole. The company will be asked to successfully demonstrate the LTV in the lunar environment prior to using it in a crewed capacity.

NASA intends to use the LTV for crewed operations beginning with Artemis V in 2029. Prior to crew arrival, the rover will be used for uncrewed and commercial activities once it lands on the lunar surface.

Proposals for the LTV services contract are due July 10, 2023, with the contract award scheduled for November 2023. This request for proposals incorporates feedback from industry through a draft request for proposals and a previous request for information.

Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts – including the first woman and first person of color – to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for crewed missions to Mars. Together, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, Gateway lunar orbital outpost, advanced spacesuits and rovers, and human landing systems are the agency’s foundation for deep space exploration.

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Exploring Quantum Gravity: Physicists Tune In to the Cosmic Ring of Black Holes - SciTechDaily

Caltech-led studies propose new, stringent tests for Einstein’s general theory of relativity, seeking signs of quantum gravity in the ripples of spacetime generated by black hole collisions. One study presents an equation for black hole behavior within quantum gravity theories, building on previous work, while the second suggests a method for applying this equation to data from LIGO, a gravitational wave observatory, to detect potential deviations from general relativity.

New methods will allow for better tests of Einstein’s general theory of relativity using LIGO data.

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity describes how the fabric of space and time, or spacetime, is curved in response to mass. Our sun, for example, warps space around us such that planet Earth rolls around the sun like a marble tossed into a funnel (Earth does not fall into the sun due to the Earth’s sideways momentum).

The theory, which was revolutionary at the time it was proposed in 1915, recast gravity as a curving of spacetime. As fundamental as this theory is to the very nature of space around us, physicists say it might not be the end of the story. Instead, they argue that theories of quantum gravity, which attempt to unify general relativity with quantum physics, hold secrets to how our universe works at the deepest levels.

Dongjun Li and his collaborators’ equation describes how black holes would ring in the beyond-general-relativity regime. Credit: Caltech

One place to search for signatures of quantum gravity is in the mighty collisions between black holes, where gravity is at its most extreme. Black holes are the densest objects in the universe—their gravity is so strong that they squeeze objects falling into them into spaghetti-like noodles. When two black holes collide and merge into one larger body, they roil space-time around them, sending ripples called gravitational waves outward in all directions.

Dongjun Li. Credit: Caltech

The National Science Foundation-funded LIGO, managed by Caltech and MIT, has been routinely detecting gravitational waves generated by black hole mergers since 2015 (its partner observatories, Virgo and KAGRA, joined the hunt in 2017 and 2020, respectively). So far, however, the general theory of relativity has passed test after test with no signs of breaking down.

Now, two new Caltech-led papers, in Physical Review X and Physical Review Letters, describe new methods for putting general relativity to even more stringent tests. By looking more closely at the structures of black holes, and the ripples in space-time they produce, the scientists are seeking signs of small deviations from general relativity that would hint at the presence of quantum gravity.

“When two black holes merge to produce a bigger black hole, the final black hole rings like a bell,” explains Yanbei Chen (PhD ’03), a professor of physics at Caltech and a co-author of both studies. “The quality of the ringing, or its timbre, may be different from the predictions of general relativity if certain theories of quantum gravity are correct. Our methods are designed to look for differences in the quality of this ringdown phase, such as the harmonics and overtones, for example.”

The first paper, co-led by Dongjun Li, a graduate student at Caltech, and Pratik Wagle, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, reports a new single equation to describe how black holes would ring within the framework of certain quantum gravity theories, or in what scientists refer to as the beyond-general-relativity regime.

Sizheng Ma. Credit: Caltech

The work builds upon a ground-breaking equation developed 50 years ago by Saul Teukolsky (PhD ’73), the Robinson Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at Caltech. Teukolsky had developed a complex equation to better understand how the ripples of space-time geometry propagate around black holes. In contrast to numerical relativity methods, in which supercomputers are required to simultaneously solve many differential equations pertaining to general relativity, the Teukolsky equation is much simpler to use and, as Li explains, provides direct physical insight into the problem.

“If one wants to solve all the Einstein equations of a black hole merger to accurately simulate it, they must turn to supercomputers,” Li says. “Numerical relativity methods are incredibly important for accurately simulating black hole mergers, and they provide a crucial foundation for interpreting LIGO data. But it is extremely hard for physicists to draw intuitions directly from the numerical results. The Teukolsky equation gives us an intuitive look at what is going on in the ringdown phase.”

Li and his collaborators were able to take Teukolsky’s equation and adapt it for black holes in the beyond-general-relativity regime for the first time. “Our new equation allows us to model and understand gravitational waves propagating around black holes that are more exotic than Einstein predicted,” he says.

Yanbei Chen . Credit: Caltech

The second paper, published in Physical Review Letters, led by Caltech graduate student Sizheng Ma, describes a new way to apply Li’s equation to actual data acquired by LIGO and its partners in their next observational run. This data analysis approach uses a series of filters to remove features of a black hole’s ringing predicted by general relativity, so that potentially subtle, beyond-general-relativity signatures can be revealed.

“We can look for features described by Dongjun’s equation in the data that LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA will collect,” Ma says. “Dongjun has found a way to translate a large set of complex equations into just one equation, and this is tremendously helpful. This equation is more efficient and easier to use than methods we used before.”

The two studies complement each other well, Li says. “I was initially worried that the signatures my equation predicts would be buried under the multiple overtones and harmonics; fortunately, Sizheng’s filters can remove all these known features, which allows us to just focus on the differences,” he says.

Chen added: “Working together, Li and Ma’s findings can significantly boost our community’s ability to probe gravity.”

References:

“Perturbations of Spinning Black Holes beyond General Relativity: Modified Teukolsky Equation” by Dongjun Li, Pratik Wagle, Yanbei Chen and Nicolás Yunes, 25 May 2023, Physical Review X.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.13.021029

“Black Hole Spectroscopy by Mode Cleaning” by Sizheng Ma, Ling Sun and Yanbei Chen, 4 April 2023, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.141401

The first study, titled “Perturbations of spinning black holes beyond General Relativity: Modified Teukolsky equation,” was funded by the Simons Foundation, the Brinson Foundation, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Other authors include Nicolás Yunes of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The second study, titled “Black Hole Spectroscopy by Mode Cleaning,” was funded by the Brinson Foundation, the Simons Foundation, NSF, and the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). Ling Sun of the Australian National University is also a co-author.

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MBR Explorer: UAE Plans Space Mission to Explore Asteroid Belt - The New York Times

After a successful mission to Mars, the Emirati space agency is planning a tour of the debris field between Mars and Jupiter, with a focus on one of its most intriguing objects.

Building off the success of its Hope spacecraft, which is still circling and studying Mars, the United Arab Emirates announced on Monday plans for an ambitious follow-up mission: a grand tour of the asteroid belt.

“The asteroid belt mission was the right amount of challenge,” said Sarah al-Amiri, chairwoman of the United Arab Emirates Space Agency. “Interesting science relevant to the science community, good opportunities for collaboration.”

The spacecraft, named MBR Explorer after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, is scheduled to launch in 2028. In February 2030, the spacecraft will arrive at Westerwald, a 1.4-mile-wide asteroid, zipping past at 20,000 miles per hour on its way to visit six more objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

“We would get a more detailed look at the surface of the asteroid,” said Hoor al-Mazmi, the science lead for the mission. “And we would understand the interior density and the structure of the asteroid.”

The seventh asteroid, Justitia, is the most intriguing. About 30 miles wide, Justitia is very reddish, an unusual color for an asteroid. Indeed, it looks more like one of the small icy worlds found in the Kuiper belt, circling the sun beyond the orbit of Neptune.

That has led planetary scientists to speculate that Justitia formed in the outer reaches of the solar system and then was scattered inward by the shifting orbits of the giant planets, eventually joining the asteroid belt.

If that is true, a visit to Justitia would provide a close-up study of a Kuiper belt object without the long trip to the solar system’s distant reaches.

The MBR Explorer is scheduled to sidle up within a few hundred feet of Justitia in October 2034 and spend at least seven months studying it with cameras and spectrometers that will be able to identify the asteroid’s composition, including the presence of water. The reddish color is believed to point to carbon-based molecules that are the building blocks for life. The spacecraft will also drop off a small lander to set down on Justitia’s surface.

With a mass of over two tons, the MBR Explorer will be bigger than the Emirates’ Hope spacecraft, which went to Mars. For flybys of the first six asteroids, the spacecraft will be traveling quickly, requiring precise navigation to ensure the instruments are pointed at the asteroid.

“The complexity adds up,” said Mohsen al-Awadhi, the program director of the mission.

And the spacecraft has to launch within a three-week period in March 2028 to be able to make all the planned flybys. If it cannot get off the ground then, the entire mission has to be replanned, probably with new asteroid destinations.

To date, NASA, the European Space Agency, China and JAXA, the Japanese space agency, have sent robotic spacecraft to asteroids.

The United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich country that is a bit smaller in size than the state of Maine, is a newcomer to spaceflight. Two decades ago, it did not have a space program.

Today it is increasingly active in space, part of a push to jump-start a high-tech industry in the country in preparation for a future when petroleum no longer flows as plentifully. That includes sending astronauts to the International Space Station, with one, Sultan al-Neyadi, currently in orbit.

In 2009 the Emirates’ first satellite, DubaiSat-1, reached orbit. It was built in South Korea, but Emirati engineers essentially worked as apprentices at the satellite manufacturer. Nine years later, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai built KhalifaSat, an Earth-observing satellite, without foreign help.

For the Mars mission, its first foray farther into the solar system, the Emirates again recruited foreign help, from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Hope launched in July 2020 and arrived in orbit around Mars seven months later. It continues to study how weather events like dust storms in the lower atmosphere affect the rate at which the thin atmosphere of Mars escapes into space. Recently it captured high-resolution images of Deimos, the smaller of the two Martian moons.

Emirati space officials discussed ideas of where to head next. “We actually looked at the whole solar system in terms of what happens next after the Emirates Mars mission,” Ms. al-Amiri said.

Pete Withnell, who served as project manager for the Emirates’ Mars mission, said the Colorado laboratory would have “an even more intense involvement” in the new asteroid mission.

Some Emiratis who started as aerospace novices building the Hope spacecraft are now among the leaders of the asteroid mission. That includes Mr. al-Awadhi, a former maintenance engineer for the Emirates airline who served as the lead systems engineer on the Mars mission.

Mr. Withnell said that the new spacecraft might be assembled in Colorado again and that other organizations were also involved. The Italian Space Agency is providing one of the spectrometer instruments, and Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego is building the two cameras.

But much more will be manufactured in the Emirates this time. Fifty percent of the money spent on the mission must be spent within the country.

“This is a requirement we did not have” for the Mars mission, Mr. al-Awadhi said, adding, “That’s a big difference.”

“We are looking at developing our local industry,” Ms. al-Amiri said.

The variety of asteroids that MBR Explorer visits will offer useful scientific comparisons for similar asteroids that will be visited on other missions, such as Lucy, a NASA mission that launched in 2021.

“I think it’s a good mission,” Hal Levison, the principal investigator for Lucy, said of the Emirati mission. “It’ll add something unique that NASA is not planning to do.”

Planetary scientists might be able to figure out whether Justitia really is an interloper from the outer solar system. But other bodies thought to be Kuiper belt objects that have been pushed inward are more grayish-reddish. “The interpretation of that is that the exposure of the sun is burning off some of the red stuff as you get closer,” he said.

Thus, Justitia, which is as red as a distant Kuiper belt object, seems too red for where it is.

“It supplies us with a mystery,” Dr. Levison said.

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Breaking the Cosmic Silence: First Detection of Radio Waves From Type Ia Supernova - SciTechDaily

Artist’s rendition of SN 2020eyj, a white dwarf star that went supernova after pulling material from a helium companion star. Credit: Adam Makarenko/W. M. Keck Observatory

An unusual Type Ia supernova has been discovered by Stockholm University astronomers. For the first time, it was detected in radio waves and showed strong helium emissions. The supernova was triggered by a white dwarf star that pulled helium-rich material from a companion star. This novel finding adds to our understanding of Type Ia supernovae, which are pivotal for measuring the universe’s expansion.

A team of astronomers led by Stockholm University has discovered an unusual Type Ia supernova – or thermonuclear supernova – called SN 2020eyj. Not only did they make the first detection of such a supernova in radio waves, follow-up observations from W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island also showed strong emission lines of helium.

This marks the first confirmed Type Ia supernova triggered by a white dwarf star that pulled material from a companion star with an outer layer consisting primarily of helium; normally, in the rare cases where the material stripped from the outer layers of the donor star could be detected in spectra, this was mostly hydrogen.

Type Ia supernovae are important for astronomers since they are used to measure the expansion of the universe. However, the origin of these explosions has remained an open question. While it is established that the explosion is caused by a compact white dwarf star that somehow accretes too much matter from a companion star, the exact process and the nature of the progenitor is not known.

The new discovery of supernova SN 2020eyj is evidence the companion star was a helium star that had lost much of its material just prior to the explosion of the white dwarf.

The study, which includes data from Keck Observatory’s Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS), is published in the May 17th issue of the journal Nature.

Artist impression of the double star system with a compact white dwarf star accreting matter from a helium-rich donor companion, surrounded by dense and dusty circumstellar material. It was the interaction of the exploded star and the material left over from this companion that gave rise to the strong radio signal and the conspicuous helium lines in the optical spectra of SN 2020eyj. Credit: Adam Makarenko/W. M. Keck Observatory

“Once we saw the signatures of strong interaction with the material from the companion, we tried to also detect it in radio emission,” says Erik Kool, a postdoc at Stockholm University’s Department of Astronomy and lead author of the paper. “The detection in radio is the first one of a Type Ia supernova – something astronomers have tried to do for decades.”

Supernova 2020eyj was first spotted by the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory near San Diego where the Oskar Klein Centre at Stockholm University are members.

“The Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma was fundamental for following up this supernova,” says Jesper Sollerman, a professor at Stockholm University’s Department of Astronomy and co-author of the paper. “As were spectra from the large Keck telescope in Hawaiʻi that immediately revealed the very unusual helium-dominated material around the exploded star.”

“This is clearly a very unusual Type Ia supernova, but still related to the ones we use to measure the expansion of the universe,” adds co-author Joel Johansson from the Department of Physics at Stockholm University. “While normal Type Ia supernovae appear to always explode with the same brightness, this supernova tells us that there are many different pathways to a white dwarf star explosion.”

For more on this research, see Radio Signal Reveals Origin of Thermonuclear Supernova Explosion.

Reference: “A radio-detected type Ia supernova with helium-rich circumstellar material” by Erik C. Kool, Joel Johansson, Jesper Sollerman, Javier Moldón, Takashi J. Moriya, Seppo Mattila, Steve Schulze, Laura Chomiuk, Miguel Pérez-Torres, Chelsea Harris, Peter Lundqvist, Matthew Graham, Sheng Yang, Daniel A. Perley, Nora Linn Strotjohann, Christoffer Fremling, Avishay Gal-Yam, Jeremy Lezmy, Kate Maguire, Conor Omand, Mathew Smith, Igor Andreoni, Eric C. Bellm, Joshua S. Bloom, Kishalay De, Steven L. Groom, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Frank J. Masci, Michael S. Medford, Sungmin Park, Josiah Purdum, Thomas M. Reynolds, Reed Riddle, Estelle Robert, Stuart D. Ryder, Yashvi Sharma and Daniel Stern, 17 May 2023, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05916-w

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