How can we build a habitat on an ice-covered planet? The Swiss Space Center (SSC) has entered a partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) to prepare ESA_Lab@CH and is inviting students in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe to share their ideas through a dedicated website.

Credit: istockphoto

How can we build a habitat on an ice-covered planet? The Swiss Space Center (SSC) has entered a partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) to prepare ESA_Lab@CH and is inviting students in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe to share their ideas through a dedicated website.

Can students, looking at the world from a fresh perspective, come up with innovative solutions? The Swiss Space Center (SSC) thinks so. The SSC, based at EPFL, has just launched the "My idea for space" website, which invites students from all universities in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe to share their ideas. This new platform, in addition to attracting all kinds of ideas regarding space technologies, is the home of a major pilot project, in preparation of ESA_Lab@CH.

The project, whose theme is how to create a human habitat in ice, is related to the European Space Agency (ESA) "ESA_Lab@" initiative. That initiative consists of educational activities that aim to foster closer contact and interaction between the space industry and universities. The aim of these activities is to encourage R&D and the discovery of innovative solutions. This first project will serve, in some ways, as a proof of concept.

Credit: istockphoto

"The space industry has entered a new era," says Tobias Bandi, the SSC engineer in charge of the project. "In the past, only a few of the world's major powers had space-related activities, but the industry is now seeing the arrival of new participants such as private-sector companies, developing countries, academic institutions, industries and private individuals. So it needs to take a more open approach. There are 40,000 people working in the space industry but more than a million students gaining technical qualifications each year in Europe, so initiatives like this could potentially make a huge contribution."

The Moon Village

Participants in the project are being asked to devise all solutions required for humans to live, long-term, far from Earth in a habitat carved from ice. "Many planets are either partly or fully covered by an ice cap," says Bandi. "So the project's theme is highly relevant to future space exploration. Ice also has a number of advantages, since it provides plenty of water and can protect people from radiation and meteorites."

The project will consider all aspects of human life and our day-to-day requirements – such as excavation, architecture, energy systems, sanitation infrastructure, waste management, water treatment and the production and preservation of food – and how they interact. In this, the project is taking a page from the ESA's Moon Village concept, which aims to solve problems by encouraging people from different disciplines to share their skills and ideas. An example of the type of solution the project is seeking is the design of a pyrolysis reactor that converts organic material (human and other waste) into a form of carbon that can be used either to generate energy or fertilize plants.

Credit: istockphoto

Ideas that are also useful for life on Earth

For this project – and for subsequent ones if successful – the idea is to bring together around 30 participants from four to eight different countries. They will form small local groups, each of which will deal with a different aspect while working towards the common goal. Their work will last for one or two years, in line with standard academic timeframes. For participants, the project is an opportunity to work in a team, enhance their technological skills and gain experience in the space industry. For universities, it is a way for them to raise their profile, enhance their students' education and build new networks and collaborations.

Bandi also notes that the competitive element of the project could well produce ideas that are useful for life on Earth. It is also entirely possible that ideas that turn out to be impractical in space can be usefully applied in a different area, as is often the case with scientific discoveries. "In Europe, we have huge amounts of skills, knowledge and motivation that could benefit the space industry, and vice-versa. With this project, we want to open doors between these various communities."

For more information on the pilot project in preparation of ESA_Lab@CH and to join the discussion, visit https://www.myideafor.space/.

Author: Sarah Perrin | Source: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne [March 14, 2018]

Asteroids and comets appear to be a much more important supplier of organic molecules on Mars than expected. Until now, astronomers assumed that the organics on Mars mainly came from dust particles from space. Now, computer simulations by an international team of researchers led by Dutch astronomers indicate that one third of the material comes from asteroids and comets. The findings have been accepted for publication in the scientific journal Icarus.

Cartoon of the planet Mars that is showered with organics. According to calculations, 33% of the organic material on Mars comes from asteroids and comets. Only 67% comes from interplanetary dust [Credit: Anastasia Kruchevska]

In 2015, the Mars rover Curiosity discovered remnants of organic molecules on Mars. Scientists wondered how these organic molecules had ended up on Mars. The prevailing theory was that the molecules were tied to interplanetary dust particles. Those particles are everywhere. For example, around our earth we see the dust particles when they enter our atmosphere and cause "shooting stars."

An international team of researchers from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, the University of Groningen, Utrecht University and the University of California Santa Barbara, suspected that the theory of the dust particles could not be the whole story. The scientists assumed that some of the organic molecules might be delivered by asteroids and comets. To investigate this, they built a computer model of our solar system including hundreds of thousands of asteroids and comets. Then they used Peregrine, the supercomputer of the University of Groningen, to run the computer model for a few weeks.

The calculations show that 192 tons of carbon per year end up on Mars. That is comparable to 8 truckloads. Approximately 129 tons (67 percent) of carbon come from interplanetary dust particles. But asteroids also deliver another 50 tons per year (26 percent) and comets provide about 13 tons (7 percent) of the organic material.

The research has consequences for future and current Mars missions. Mars rovers, according to the astronomers, should look closely at the impact craters of asteroids. In those places, a lot of organic material could be found.

Furthermore, the research also has implications for the chance of life on exoplanets. The Groningen Ph.D. student Kateryna Frantseva, who led the research, explains: "Near other stars, there are also exo-asteroids and exocomets that can shower the surfaces of exoplanets with carbon. If, on top of that, there is water, then you have the required ingredients for life."

Now, the researchers focus on the planet Mercury, where water has been found. They want to estimate how much water on Mercury can be delivered by asteroids and comets. After that they want to extend their research to planetary systems around other stars.

Source: Netherlands Research School for Astronomy [March 14, 2018]

Astronomers have discovered that all galaxies rotate once every billion years, no matter how big they are.

This Hubble image reveals the gigantic Pinwheel galaxy, one of the best known examples of "grand design spirals", and its supergiant star-forming regions in unprecedented detail. The image is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy ever released from Hubble [Credit: ESA/NASA]

The Earth spinning around on its axis once gives us the length of a day, and a complete orbit of the Earth around the Sun gives us a year.

"It's not Swiss watch precision," said Professor Gerhardt Meurer from the UWA node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

"But regardless of whether a galaxy is very big or very small, if you could sit on the extreme edge of its disk as it spins, it would take you about a billion years to go all the way round."

Professor Meurer said that by using simple maths, you can show all galaxies of the same size have the same average interior density.

"Discovering such regularity in galaxies really helps us to better understand the mechanics that make them tick-you won't find a dense galaxy rotating quickly, while another with the same size but lower density is rotating more slowly," he said.

Professor Meurer and his team also found evidence of older stars existing out to the edge of galaxies.

"Based on existing models, we expected to find a thin population of young stars at the very edge of the galactic disks we studied," he said.

"But instead of finding just gas and newly formed stars at the edges of their disks, we also found a significant population of older stars along with the thin smattering of young stars and interstellar gas."

"This is an important result because knowing where a galaxy ends means we astronomers can limit our observations and not waste time, effort and computer processing power on studying data from beyond that point," said Professor Meurer.

"So because of this work, we now know that galaxies rotate once every billion years, with a sharp edge that's populated with a mixture of interstellar gas, with both old and young stars."

Professor Meurer said that the next generation of radio telescopes, like the soon-to-be-built Square Kilometre Array (SKA), will generate enormous amounts of data, and knowing where the edge of a galaxy lies will reduce the processing power needed to search through the data.

"When the SKA comes online in the next decade, we'll need as much help as we can get to characterise the billions of galaxies these telescopes will soon make available to us."

The findings are published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Source: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research [March 13, 2018]

Astronomers have put NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on an Indiana Jones-type quest to uncover an ancient "relic galaxy" in our own cosmic backyard.

Upper right: This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy NGC 1277. The galaxy is unique in that it is considered a relic of what galaxies were like in the early universe. The galaxy is composed exclusively of aging stars that were born 10 billion years ago. But unlike other galaxies in the local universe, it has not undergone any further star  formation. Astronomers nickname such galaxies as "red and dead," because the stars are aging and there aren't any successive generations of younger stars. The telltale sign of the galaxy's "arrested development" lies in the  ancient globular clusters that swarm around it. The reddish clusters are the strongest evidence that the galaxy  went out of the star-making business long ago. Otherwise, there would be a lot of blue globular star clusters, which are largely absent. The lack of blue clusters suggests that NGC 1277 never grew further by gobbling up surrounding galaxies. Background image: The galaxy lives near the center of the Perseus cluster of over 1,000 galaxies, located 240 million light-years away from Earth. NGC 1277 is moving so fast through the cluster, at 2 million miles per hour, that it cannot merge with other galaxies to collect stars or pull in gas to fuel  star formation. In addition, near the galaxy cluster center, intergalactic gas is so hot it cannot cool to condense  and form stars [Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Beasley (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias), and P. Kehusmaa]

The very rare and odd assemblage of stars has remained essentially unchanged for the past 10 billion years. This wayward stellar island provides valuable new insights into the origin and evolution of galaxies billions of years ago.

The galaxy, NGC 1277, started its life with a bang long ago, ferociously churning out stars 1,000 times faster than seen in our own Milky Way today. But it abruptly went quiescent as the baby boomer stars aged and grew ever redder.

Though Hubble has seen such "red and dead" galaxies in the early universe, one has never been conclusively found nearby. Where the early galaxies are so distant, they are just red dots in Hubble deep-sky images. NGC 1277 offers a unique opportunity to see one up close and personal. "We can explore such original galaxies in full detail and probe the conditions of the early universe," said Ignacio Trujillo, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias at the University of La Laguna, Spain.

The researchers learned that the relic galaxy has twice as many stars as our Milky Way, but physically it is as small as one quarter the size of our galaxy. Essentially, NGC 1277 is in a state of "arrested development." Perhaps like all galaxies it started out as a compact object but failed to accrete more material to grow in size to form a magnificent pinwheel-shaped galaxy.

Approximately one in 1,000 massive galaxies is expected to be a relic (or oddball) galaxy, like NGC 1277, researchers say. They were not surprised to find it, but simply consider that it was in the right place at the right time to evolve -- or rather not evolve -- the way it did.

The telltale sign of the galaxy's state lies in the ancient globular clusters of stars that swarm around it. Massive galaxies tend to have both metal-poor (appearing blue) and metal-rich (appearing red) globular clusters. The red clusters are believed to form as the galaxy forms, while the blue clusters are later brought in as smaller satellites are swallowed by the central galaxy. However, NGC 1277 is almost entirely lacking in blue globular clusters. "I've been studying globular clusters in galaxies for a long time, and this is the first time I've ever seen this," said Michael Beasley, also of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.

The red clusters are the strongest evidence that the galaxy went out of the star- making business long ago. However, the lack of blue clusters suggests that NGC 1277 never grew further by gobbling up surrounding galaxies.

By contrast, our Milky Way contains approximately 180 blue and red globular clusters. This is due partly to the fact that our Milky Way continues cannibalizing galaxies that swing too close by in our Local Group of a few dozen small galaxies.

It's a markedly different environment for NGC 1277. The galaxy lives near the center of the Perseus cluster of over 1,000 galaxies, located 240 million light-years away. But NGC 1277 is moving so fast through the cluster, at 2 million miles per hour, that it cannot merge with other galaxies to collect stars or pull in gas to fuel star formation. In addition, near the galaxy cluster center, intergalactic gas is so hot it cannot cool to condense and form stars.

The team started looking for "arrested development" galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and found 50 candidate massive compact galaxies. Using a similar technique, but out of a different sample, NGC 1277 was identified as unique in that it has a central black hole that is much more massive than it should be for a galaxy of that size. This reinforces the scenario that the supermassive black hole and dense hub of the galaxy grew simultaneously, but the galaxy's stellar population stopped growing and expanding because it was starved of outside material.

"I didn't believe the ancient galaxy hypothesis initially, but finally I was surprised because it's not that common to find what you predict in astronomy," Beasley added. "Typically, the universe always comes up with more surprises that you can think about."

The team has 10 other candidate galaxies to look at with varying degrees of "arrested development."

The upcoming NASA James Webb Space Telescope (scheduled for launch in 2019) will allow astronomers to measure the motions of the globular clusters in NGC 1277. This will provide the first opportunity to measure how much dark matter the primordial galaxy contains.

The findings are being published in the science journal Nature.

Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center [March 12, 2018]

Scientists report the existence of 15 new planets -- including one 'super-Earth' that could harbor liquid water -- orbiting small, cool stars near our solar system. These stars, known as red dwarfs, are of enormous interest for studies of planetary formation and evolution.

Credit: Tokyo Institute of Technology

A research team led by Teruyuki Hirano of Tokyo Institute of Technology's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences has validated 15 exoplanets orbiting red dwarf systems.

One of the brightest red dwarfs, K2-155 that is around 200 light years away from Earth, has three transiting super-Earths, which are slightly bigger than our own planet. Of those three super-Earths, the outermost planet, K2-155d, with a radius 1.6 times that of Earth, could be within the host star's habitable zone.

The findings, published in the form of two papers in The Astronomical Journal, are based on data from NASA Kepler spacecraft's second mission, K2, and follow-up observations using ground-based telescopes, including the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) in Spain.

The researchers found that K2-155d could potentially have liquid water on its surface based on three-dimensional global climate simulations. Hirano expresses both excitement and restraint, as he says: "In our simulations, the atmosphere and the composition of the planet were assumed to be Earth-like, and there's no guarantee that this is the case."

Histogram of planet radius for the validated and well-characterized transiting planets around red dwarfs: The number counts for mid-to-late red dwarfs (those with a surface temperature of under 3,500 K) are shown  above those for early red dwarfs (those with a surface temperature of around 3,500-4,000 K). The results show a "radius gap", or a dip in the number of stars with a radius between 1.5-2.0 times that of Earth [Credit: Astronomical Journal]

A more precise estimate of the radius and temperature of the K2-155 star would be needed to conclude definitively whether K2-155d is habitable. Achieving such precision would require further studies, for example, using interferometric techniques.

A key outcome from the current studies was that planets orbiting red dwarfs may have remarkably similar characteristics to planets orbiting solar-type stars.

"It's important to note that the number of planets around red dwarfs is much smaller than the number around solar-type stars," says Hirano. "Red dwarf systems, especially coolest red dwarfs, are just beginning to be investigated, so they are very exciting targets for future exoplanet research."

For example, while the so-called radius gap of planets around solar-type stars has been reported previously, this is the first time that researchers have shown a similar gap in planets around red dwarfs. "This is a unique finding, and many theoretical astronomers are now investigating what causes this gap," says Hirano.

Surface temperatures were plotted as a function of insolation flux (the amount of incoming stellar radiation) estimated at 1.67±0.38. When the insolation exceeds 1.5, a so-called runaway greenhouse effect occurs, signaling a cut-off point for life-friendly temperatures. If the insolation is under 1.5, the surface temperature is more likely to be moderate [Credit: Astronomical Journal]

He adds that the most likely explanation for the lack of large planets in the proximity of host stars is photoevaporation, which can strip away the envelope of the planetary atmosphere.

The researchers also investigated the relationship between planet radius and metallicity of the host star. "Large planets are only discovered around metal-rich stars," Hirano says, "and what we found was consistent with our predictions. The few planets with a radius about three times that of Earth were found orbiting the most metal-rich red dwarfs."

The studies were conducted as part of the KESPRINT collaboration, a group formed by the merger of KEST (Kepler Exoplanet Science Team) and ESPRINT (Equipo de Seguimiento de Planetas Rocosos Intepretando sus Transitos) in 2016.

With the planned launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in April 2018, Hirano is hopeful that even more planets will be discovered. "TESS is expected to find many candidate planets around bright stars closer to Earth," he says. "This will greatly facilitate follow-up observations, including investigation of planetary atmospheres and determining the precise orbit of the planets."

Source: Tokyo Institute of Technology [March 12, 2018]

Flows of molten metal can generate magnetic fields. This so-called dynamo effect creates cosmic magnetic fields, like those found on planets, moons and even asteroids. Over the coming years, a globally unique experiment, in which a steel drum containing several tons of liquid sodium rotates around two axes, is intended to demonstrate this effect. It will be carried out in the new DRESDYN facility at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), an independent German research laboratory. A recently published study in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters confirms the experiment's chances of success.

A precession driven flow is supposed to power magnetic field self-excitation in a planned liquid metal dynamo experiment at HZDR [Credit: HZDR]

Similarly to how a bicycle dynamo converts motion into electricity, moving conductive fluids can generate magnetic fields. The so-called magnetic Reynolds number (the product of the fluid's flow velocity, expansion and conductivity) primarily determines whether a magnetic field is actually generated.

During a spectacular experiment, scientists in Frank Stefani's team at the HZDR's Institute of Fluid Dynamics aim to achieve the critical value required for the occurrence of the dynamo effect. For this purpose, a two-meter diameter steel cylinder containing eight tons of liquid sodium will rotate around one axis up to ten times per second and once per second around another, which is tilted with respect to the first. The technical term for this movement, which is often compared to a tilted spinning top, is precession.

"Our experiment at the new DRESDYN facility is intended to demonstrate that precession, as a natural driver of flow, is sufficient to create a magnetic field," says André Giesecke, lead author of the study. In his simulations and during accompanying water experiments - the mock-up was six times smaller than the large dynamo - scientists examined the structure of precession-driven flow.

"To our surprise, we observed a symmetrical double role structure in a specific range of the precession rate, which should provide a dynamo effect at a magnetic Reynolds number of 430," says the physicist.

Unresolved: the role of precession in the geodynamo

The center of the Earth consists of a solid core surrounded by a layer of molten iron. "The molten metal induces an electric current, which in turn generates a magnetic field," explains Giesecke. The common belief is that buoyancy-driven convection, together with Earth's rotation, is responsible for this geodynamo. However, the role played by precession in the formation of Earth's magnetic field is still completely unclear.

The Earth's rotational axis is tilted by 23.5 degrees from its orbital plane. The rotational axis changes position over a period of approximately 26,000 years. This precessing motion through space is thought to be one of the possible sources of energy for the geodynamo. Millions of years ago, the Moon also had a powerful magnetic field, as indicated by rock samples from the Apollo missions. According to experts, precession could have been the main cause of this.

The liquid sodium experiments at HZDR are expected to start in 2020. Unlike earlier geodynamo laboratory experiments, there will be no propeller inside the steel drum, as was used in the first successful dynamo experiment in Riga, Latvia in 1999, in which HZDR scientists were heavily involved. This and other experiments in Karlsruhe, Germany and Cadarache, France provided ground-breaking research for a better understanding of the geodynamo.

"In principle, we can define three different parameters for the experiments at DRESDYN: rotation, precession and the angle between the two axes," says Giesecke. On the one hand, he and his colleagues expect to get answers to the fundamental question of whether precession actually produces a magnetic field in a conductive fluid. On the other hand, they are interested in finding out which flow components are responsible for the creation of the magnetic field, and the point at which saturation occurs.

Double role in the Container

"In simulations, we discovered that stationary inertia waves occur in a wide parameter range. Within a certain range, however, we have now noticed a characteristic double role structure that proves to be extremely efficient for the dynamo effect. In principle, we are already aware of such a velocity structure thanks to the French dynamo experiment, in which it was artificially produced by two propellers, while in our precession experiment it should emerge naturally."

The HZDR researchers used special ultrasound technology to measure the flow structure. "We were very surprised at how well the data from the experiment matches the results of the simulation. We therefore have an extremely robust prediction for the major DRESDYN experiment. For example, we know at which rotational rates the dynamo effect occurs and which magnetic field structures we can expect," says Giesecke.

The scientific community involved with dynamos is eagerly awaiting the results of the planned experiment, which will operate at the limits of technical feasibility in many respects. "We also expect detailed insights into the general dynamics of liquid metal flows under the influence of magnetic fields. This will allow us to draw conclusions about flows in the industrial sector," according to Giesecke.

And last but not least, the magnetic flow tomography developed at the HZDR as part of its dynamo research is of interest to many areas of steel casting and crystal growing. The work has been partially funded by the Helmholtz Alliance "Liquid Metal Technologies" (LIMTECH).

Source: Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf [March 12, 2018]

“It boggles the mind that over 90% of the galaxies in the universe have yet to be studied. Who knows what interesting properties we will find when we observe these galaxies with the next generation of telescopes,”

When I was a kid I was wondering, kind of, what’s the meaning of life, like, why are we here, what’s it all about? I came to the conclusion that what really matters is trying to understand the right questions to ask, and, the more that we can increase the scope and scale of human consciousness, the better we are able to ask these questions. . . .

Some of those things are in the long term, having long term sustainable transport and sustainable energy generation, and to be a space-bearing civilization, and for humanity to be out there among the stars, and be a multi-planetary species. I think being a multi-planet species and being out there among the stars is important for the long term survival of humanity. . . . It creates a sense of adventure, and it makes people excited about the future.

“Intelligent beings from other star systems have been and are visiting our planet Earth. They are variously referred to as Visitors, Others, Star People, ETs, etc. . . . They are visiting Earth NOW; this is not a matter of conjecture or wistful thinking.”

– Theodor C. Loder III, Phd, Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire (source)

A great quote from Carl Sagan comes to mind:

One the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

“There are objects in our atmosphere which are technically miles in advance of anything we can deploy, that we have no means of stopping them coming here … [and] that there is a serious possibility that we are being visited and have been visited for many years by people from outer space, from other civilizations. That it behooves us, in case some of these people in the future or now should turn hostile, to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation and not the subject of ‘rubishing’ by tabloid newspapers.”

– Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, Former Chief of Defence Staff, 5 Star Admiral of the Royal Navy, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee (source)

“An extraterrestrial influence is investigating our planet. Something is monitoring the planet and they are monitoring it very cautiously.”

– Former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), 2008 presidential candidate

“There is another way, whether it’s wormholes or warping space, there’s got to be a way to generate energy so that you can pull it out of the vacuum, and the fact that they’re here shows us that they found a way.” (source)

“The Earth is about four and a half billion years go, that’s 45 hundred million years old. What if there's another planet that is almost exactly like us, almost exactly 45 hundred and 1 million years old. They’re a million years ahead of us, and on a galactic scale they’re almost our twin brothers. We’ll have solved all these problems.”

– Jack Kasher (source)

“About 10 billion miles away from the Earth and all of the sudden it started sending data in the language we did not understand. It could be called as an alien language."

Someone or something had altered Voyager 2’s communication system.

"Checking the systems with another data link that they had, Voyager 2 team could tell that nothing else is wrong on the spacecraft. It’s only the communication system."

Water is crucial for life, but how do you make water? Cooking up some H2O takes more than mixing hydrogen and oxygen. It requires the special conditions found deep within frigid molecular clouds, where dust shields against destructive ultraviolet light and aids chemical reactions. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will peer into these cosmic reservoirs to gain new insights into the origin and evolution of water and other key building blocks for habitable planets.

Blue light from a newborn star lights up the reflection nebula IC 2631. This nebula is part of the Chamaeleon star-forming region, which Webb will study to learn more about the formation of water and other cosmic ices [Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)]

A molecular cloud is an interstellar cloud of dust, gas, and a variety of molecules ranging from molecular hydrogen (H2) to complex, carbon-containing organics. Molecular clouds hold most of the water in the universe, and serve as nurseries for newborn stars and their planets.

Within these clouds, on the surfaces of tiny dust grains, hydrogen atoms link with oxygen to form water. Carbon joins with hydrogen to make methane. Nitrogen bonds with hydrogen to create ammonia. All of these molecules stick to the surface of dust specks, accumulating icy layers over millions of years. The result is a vast collection of "snowflakes" that are swept up by infant planets, delivering materials needed for life as we know it. "If we can understand the chemical complexity of these ices in the molecular cloud, and how they evolve during the formation of a star and its planets, then we can assess whether the building blocks of life should exist in every star system," said Melissa McClure of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, the principal investigator on a research project to investigate cosmic ices.

In order to understand these processes, one of Webb's Director's Discretionary Early Release Science projects will examine a nearby star-forming region to determine which ices are present where. "We plan to use a variety of Webb's instrument modes and capabilities, not only to investigate this one region, but also to learn how best to study cosmic ices with Webb," said Klaus Pontoppidan of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), an investigator on McClure's project. This project will take advantage of Webb's high-resolution spectrographs to get the most sensitive and precise observations at wavelengths that specifically measure ices. Webb's spectrographs, NIRSpec and MIRI, will provide up to five times better precision that any previous space telescope at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths.

In this animation we fly into a protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star. Within the disk, tiny dust grains  accumulate layers of ice over thousands of years. These cosmic snowflakes are swept up by forming planets, delivering key ingredients for life [Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt]

Infant stars and comet cradles

The team, led by McClure and co-principal investigators Adwin Boogert (University of Hawaii) and Harold Linnartz (Universiteit Leiden), plans to target the Chamaeleon Complex, a star-forming region visible in the southern sky. It's located about 500 light-years from Earth and contains several hundred protostars, the oldest of which are about 1 million years old. "This region has a bit of everything we're looking for," said Pontoppidan.

The team will use Webb's sensitive infrared detectors to observe stars behind the molecular cloud. As light from those faint, background stars passes through the cloud, ices in the cloud will absorb some of the light. By observing many background stars spread across the sky, astronomers can map ices within the cloud's entire expanse and locate where different ices form. They will also target individual protostars within the cloud itself to learn how ultraviolet light from these nascent stars promotes the creation of more complex molecules.

Astronomers also will examine the birthplaces of planets, rotating disks of gas and dust known as protoplanetary disks that surround newly formed stars. They will be able to measure the amounts and relative abundances of ices as close as 5 billion miles from the infant star, which is about the orbital distance of Pluto in our solar system.

"Comets have been described as dusty snowballs. At least some of the water in Earth's oceans likely was delivered by the impacts of comets early in our solar system's history. We'll be looking at the places where comets form around other stars," explained Pontoppidan.

This simulated spectrum from the Webb telescope illustrates the kinds of molecules that may be detected in star-forming regions like the Eagle Nebula (background) [Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team, and M. McClure (Universiteit van Amsterdam) and A. Boogert (University of Hawaii)]

Laboratory experiments

In order to understand Webb's observations, scientists will need to conduct experiments on Earth. Webb's spectrographs will spread incoming infrared light into a rainbow spectrum. Different molecules absorb light at certain wavelengths, or colors, resulting in dark spectral lines. Laboratories can measure a variety of substances to create a database of molecular "fingerprints." When astronomers see those fingerprints in a spectrum from Webb, they can then identify the molecule or family of molecules that created the absorption lines.

"Laboratory studies will help address two key questions. The first is what molecules are present. But just as important, we'll look at how the ices got there. How did they form? What we find with Webb will help inform our models and allow us to understand the mechanisms for ice formation at very low temperatures," explained Karin Öberg of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, an investigator on the project.

"It will take years to fully mine the data that comes out of Webb," Öberg added.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world's premier infrared space observatory of the next decade. Webb will help humanity solve the mysteries of 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 project led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Author: Christine Pulliam | Source: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center [March 09, 2018]

A merger between galaxies can trigger can intense radiation from bursts star formation and from the accretion of gas onto the two supermassive black holes at their centers. Astronomers have observed a strong statistical correlation between the masses of these black holes and other properties of the galaxies like their velocity structure or luminosity, and have concluded that there must be a connection.

A Hubble image of the merging galaxies NGC 6240. Like other luminous mergers, this one hosts a rapid flow of molecular gas. Astronomers have now imaged the carbon monoxide gas in the central regions and found it forms jet-like outflows driven by activity around the black holes [Credit: NASA/HST]

Feedback of some kind seems most likely to explain these correlations, and astronomers have been working to identify its source and nature. One prominent suggestion for feedback is an outflow of molecular gas; once turned on, it would deplete the galaxy of the raw material needed for making new stars and from further enhancing the black hole's mass. Evidence for molecular outflows has been reported in far infrared lines of molecules, but these spectral results lack the convincing spatial information needed to associate the activity with the nuclei themselves.

CfA astronomer Junko Ueda is a member of a team of fifteen astronomers who used the ALMA submillimeter telescope facility, with its superb spatial imaging capabilities, to study the outflow in the luminous galaxy NGC6240, known to be a luminous merger in its late stages. Its double nuclei, separated by a modest two thousand light-years, has already been seen at wavelengths from the X-ray to the radio. The astronomers used one of the spectral lines from the abundant molecule carbon monoxide to probe the inner region of the galaxy. The line also revealed the presence of gas motions of up to two thousand kilometers per second, consistent with a powerful wind driving a massive flow of material out of the galaxy.

The new images were able to identify for the first time several regions of outflow activity located only a few thousand light-years from the black holes and aligned as though they were driven by processes associated with the nuclear black holes. Moreover, these regions are spatially coincident with other indicators of general activity like shocked gas and X-rays. The new results are one of the first demonstrations that the widely seen molecular outflow activity does originate from black hole feedback mechanisms.

The study is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.

Source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics [March 09, 2018]

Galaxies are not static islands of stars—they are dynamic and ever-changing, constantly on the move through the darkness of the Universe. Sometimes, as seen in this spectacular Hubble image of Arp 256, galaxies can collide in a crash of cosmic proportions.

Arp 256 is a stunning system of two spiral galaxies, about 350 million light-years away, in an early stage of merging. The image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, displays two galaxies with strongly distorted shapes and an astonishing number of blue knots of star formation that look like exploding fireworks. The star formation was triggered by the close interaction between the two galaxies [Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA]

350 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus (the Sea Monster), a pair of barred spiral galaxies have just begun a magnificent merger. This image suspends them in a single moment, freezing the chaotic spray of gas, dust and stars kicked up by the gravitational forces pulling the two galaxies together.

Though their nuclei are still separated by a large distance, the shapes of the galaxies in Arp 256 are impressively distorted. The galaxy in the upper part of the image contains very pronounced tidal tails—long, extended ribbons of gas, dust and stars.

The galaxies are ablaze with dazzling regions of star formation: the bright blue fireworks are stellar nurseries, churning out hot infant stars. These vigorous bursts of new life are triggered by the massive gravitational interactions, which stir up interstellar gas and dust out of which stars are born.


Arp 256 was first catalogued by Halton Arp in 1966, as one of 338 galaxies presented in the aptly-named Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. The goal of the catalogue was to image examples of the weird and wonderful structures found among nearby galaxies, to provide snapshots of different stages of galactic evolution. These peculiar galaxies are like a natural experiment played out on a cosmic scale and by cataloguing them, astronomers can better understand the physical processes that warp spiral and elliptical galaxies into new shapes.

Many galaxies in this catalogue are dwarf galaxies with indistinct structures, or active galaxies generating powerful jets—but a large number of the galaxies are interacting, such as Messier 51, the Antennae Galaxies, and Arp 256. Such interactions often form streamer-like tidal tails as seen in Arp 256, as well as bridges of gas, dust and stars between the galaxies.

Long ago, when our expanding Universe was much smaller, interactions and mergers were more common; in fact, they are thought to drive galactic evolution to this day. The galaxies in the Arp 256 system will continue their gravitational dance over the next millions of years, at first flirtatious, and then intimate, before finally morphing into a single galaxy.

This spectacular image was taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is a new version of an image already released in 2008 that was part a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken for Hubble's 18th anniversary.

Source: ESA/Hubble Information Centre [March 08, 2018]

Data collected by NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter indicate that the atmospheric winds of the gas-giant planet run deep into its atmosphere and last longer than similar atmospheric processes found here on Earth. The findings will improve understanding of Jupiter's interior structure, core mass and, eventually, its origin.

This composite image, derived from data collected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter, shows the central cyclone at the planet's north pole and the eight cyclones  that encircle it [Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM]

Other Juno science results released today include that the massive cyclones that surround Jupiter's north and south poles are enduring atmospheric features and unlike anything else encountered in our solar system. The findings are part of a four-article collection on Juno science results being published in the March 8 edition of the journal Nature [see below].

"These astonishing science results are yet another example of Jupiter's curve balls, and a testimony to the value of exploring the unknown from a new perspective with next-generation instruments.Juno's unique orbit and evolutionary high-precision radio science and infrared technologies enabled these paradigm-shifting discoveries," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. "Juno is only about one third the way through its primary mission, and already we are seeing the beginnings of a new Jupiter."

The depth to which the roots of Jupiter's famous zones and belts extend has been a mystery for decades. Gravity measurements collected by Juno during its close flybys of the planet have now provided an answer.

"Juno's measurement of Jupiter's gravity field indicates a north-south asymmetry, similar to the asymmetry observed in its zones and belts," said Luciano Iess, Juno co-investigator from Sapienza University of Rome, and lead author on a Nature paper on Jupiter's gravity field.

On a gas planet, such an asymmetry can only come from flows deep within the planet; and on Jupiter, the visible eastward and westward jet streams are likewise asymmetric north and south. The deeper the jets, the more mass they contain, leading to a stronger signal expressed in the gravity field. Thus, the magnitude of the asymmetry in gravity determines how deep the jet streams extend.

"Galileo viewed the stripes on Jupiter more than 400 years ago," said Yohai Kaspi, Juno co-investigator from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel,and lead author of a Nature paper on Jupiter's deep weather layer. "Until now, we only had a superficial understanding of them and have been able to relate these stripes to cloud features along Jupiter's jets. Now, following the Juno gravity measurements, we know how deep the jets extend and what their structure is beneath the visible clouds. It's like going from a 2-D picture to a 3-D version in high definition."

Five massive storms form a pentagon around a storm at the center of Jupiter's south pole-the first look we've ever gotten at the gas giant's poles, and a scientific mystery [Credit: NASA/SWRI/JPL/ASI/INAF/IAPS]

The result was a surprise for the Juno science team because it indicated that the weather layer of Jupiter was more massive, extending much deeper than previously expected. The Jovian weather layer, from its very top to a depth of 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers), contains about one percent of Jupiter's mass (about 3 Earth masses).

"By contrast, Earth's atmosphere is less than one millionth of the total mass of Earth," said Kaspi "The fact that Jupiter has such a massive region rotating in separate east-west bands is definitely a surprise."

The finding is important for understanding the nature and possible mechanisms driving these strong jet streams. In addition, the gravity signature of the jets is entangled with the gravity signal of Jupiter's core.

Another Juno result released today suggests that beneath the weather layer, the planet rotates nearly as a rigid body."This is really an amazing result, and future measurements by Juno will help us understand how the transition works between the weather layer and the rigid body below," said Tristan Guillot, a Juno co-investigator from the Universite Cote d'Azur, Nice, France, and lead author of the paper on Jupiter's deep interior. "Juno's discovery has implications for other worlds in our solar system and beyond. Our results imply that the outer differentially-rotating region should be at least three times deeper in Saturn and shallower in massive giant planets and brown dwarf stars."

A truly striking result released in the Nature papers is the beautiful new imagery of Jupiter's poles captured by Juno's Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument. Imaging in the infrared part of the spectrum, JIRAM captures images of light emerging from deep inside Jupiter equally well, night or day. JIRAM probes the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below Jupiter's cloud tops.


"Prior to Juno we did not know what the weather was like near Jupiter's poles. Now, we have been able to observe the polar weather up-close every two months," said Alberto Adriani, Juno co-investigator from the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome, and lead author of the paper. "Each one of the northern cyclones is almost as wide as the distance between Naples, Italy and New York City -- and the southern ones are even larger than that. They have very violent winds, reaching, in some cases, speeds as great as 220 mph (350 kph). Finally, and perhaps most remarkably, they are very close together and enduring. There is nothing else like it that we know of in the solar system."

Jupiter's poles are a stark contrast to the more familiar orange and white belts and zones encircling the planet at lower latitudes. Its north pole is dominated by a central cyclone surrounded by eight circumpolar cyclones with diameters ranging from 2,500 to 2,900 miles (4,000 to 4,600 kilometers) across. Jupiter's south pole also contains a central cyclone, but it is surrounded by five cyclones with diameters ranging from 3,500 to 4,300 miles (5,600 to 7,000 kilometers) in diameter. Almost all the polar cyclones, at both poles, are so densely packed that their spiral arms come in contact with adjacent cyclones. However, as tightly spaced as the cyclones are, they have remained distinct, with individual morphologies over the seven months of observations detailed in the paper.

"The question is, why do they not merge?" said Adriani. "We know with Cassini data that Saturn has a single cyclonic vortex at each pole. We are beginning to realize that not all gas giants are created equal."

To date, Juno has completed 10 science passes over Jupiter and logged almost 122 million miles (200 million kilometers), since entering Jupiter's orbit on July 4, 2016. Juno's 11th science pass will be on April 1.

Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet's cloud tops -- as close as about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers). During these flybys, Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, weather layer and magnetosphere.

Abstracts of the March 8 Juno papers can be found online:

The measurement of Jupiter's asymmetric gravity field: http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25776

Jupiter's atmospheric jet-streams extending thousands of kilometers deep: http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25793

A suppression of differential rotation in Jupiter's deep interior: http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25775

Clusters of Cyclones Encircling Jupiter's Poles: http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25491

Source: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory [March 07, 2018]