SPACE/COSMOS
New Horizons observations lead to first Lyman-alpha map from the galaxy V
SwRI-led NASA spacecraft’s scans offer surprising view of galactic surroundings
Southwest Research Institute
image:
The SwRI-led NASA New Horizons mission’s extensive observations of Lyman-alpha emissions have resulted in the first-ever map from the galaxy in Lyman-alpha light. This SwRI-developed Alice spectrograph map (in ecliptic coordinates, centered on the direction opposite the Sun) depicts the relatively uniform brightness of the Lyman-alpha background surrounding our heliosphere. The black dots represent approximately 90,000 known UV-bright stars in our galaxy. The north and south galactic poles are indicated (NGP & SGP, respectively), along with the flow direction of the interstellar medium through the solar system (both upstream and downstream).
view moreCredit: Southwest Research Institute
SAN ANTONIO — April 28, 2025 —The NASA New Horizons spacecraft’s extensive observations of Lyman-alpha emissions have resulted in the first-ever map from the galaxy at this important ultraviolet wavelength, providing a new look at the galactic region surrounding our solar system. The findings are described in a new study authored by the SwRI-led New Horizons team.
“Understanding the Lyman-alpha background helps shed light on nearby galactic structures and processes,” said SwRI’s Dr. Randy Gladstone, the study’s lead investigator and first author of the publication. “This research suggests that hot interstellar gas bubbles like the one our solar system is embedded within may actually be regions of enhanced hydrogen gas emissions at a wavelength called Lyman alpha.
Lyman-alpha is a specific wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted and scattered by hydrogen atoms. It is especially useful to astronomers studying distant stars, galaxies and the interstellar medium, as it can help detect the composition, temperature and movement of these distant objects.
During its initial journey to Pluto, New Horizons collected baseline data about Lyman-alpha emissions using the Alice instrument, an SwRI-developed ultraviolet spectrograph. A spectrograph is a tool astronomers use to split light into its various colors. Alice specializes in the far-ultraviolet wavelength band.
After the spacecraft’s primary objectives at Pluto were completed, scientists used Alice to make broader and more frequent surveys of Lyman-alpha emissions as New Horizons traveled farther from the Sun. These surveys included an extensive set of scans in 2023 that mapped roughly 83% of the sky.
To isolate emissions from the galaxy, the New Horizons team modeled scattered solar Lyman-alpha emissions and subtracted them from the spectrograph’s data. The results indicate a roughly uniform background Lyman alpha sky brightness 10 times stronger than expected from previous estimates.
“These results point to the emission and scattering of Lyman-alpha photons by hydrogen atoms in the shell of a hot bubble, known to surround our solar system and nearby stars, that was formed by nearby supernova events a few million years ago,” Gladstone said.
The study also found no evidence that a hydrogen wall, thought to surround the Sun’s heliosphere, substantially contributes to the observed Lyman alpha signal. Scientists had theorized that a wall of interstellar hydrogen atoms would accumulate as they encountered the edge of our heliosphere, the vast region of space dominated by the solar wind as it interacts with the interstellar medium. However, the New Horizons data saw nothing to indicate the wall is an important source of Lyman-alpha emissions.
“These are really landmark observations, in giving the first clear view of the sky surrounding the solar system at these wavelengths, both revealing new characteristics of that sky and refuting older ideas that the Alice New Horizons data just doesn’t support,” said co-author and New Horizons Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern. “This Lyman-alpha map also provides a solid foundation for future investigations to learn even more.”
The newly published research paper detailing the observations and their interpretation, “The Lyman-alpha Sky as Observed by New Horizons at 57 AU,” by R.G. Gladstone and coauthors appears in The Astronomical Journal and can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/adc000.
For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/markets/earth-space/space-research-technology/space-science/planetary-science.
Journal
The Astronomical Journal
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
The Lyα Sky as Observed by New Horizons at 57 au
Article Publication Date
28-Apr-2025
New research shatters long-held beliefs about asteroid Vesta
Michigan State University
Why this matters:
- New findings change how Vesta is defined as not quite an asteroid or a planet.
- This research challenges previous notions about how asteroids and planets are formed.
- Knowing what Earth was like when it was first formed helps inform future Earth science research.
EAST LANSING, Mich. – For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in our solar system’s asteroid belt, wasn’t just an asteroid. They concluded that Vesta has a crust, mantle and core – fundamental properties of a planet.
Astronomers studied it for clues to how early planets grew, and what Earth might have looked like in its infancy.
Now, Michigan State University has contributed to research that flips this notion on its head.
A team led by the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab or JPL published a paper in Nature Astronomy revealing Vesta's interior structure is more uniform than previously thought. These findings startled researchers who, until then, assumed Vesta was a protoplanet that never grew to a full planet.
“The lack of a core was very surprising,” said MSU Earth and Environmental Sciences Assistant Professor Seth Jacobson, a co-author on the paper. “It’s a really different way of thinking about Vesta.”
What is Vesta’s true identity? The research team has two hypotheses that need further exploration.
The first possibility is Vesta went through incomplete differentiation, meaning it started the melting process needed to give the asteroid distinct layers, like a core, mantle and crust, but never finished. The second is a theory Jacobson floated at an astronomy conference years ago -- Vesta is a broken chunk off a growing planet in our solar system.
At the conference, Jacobson wanted other researchers to consider the possibility that some meteorites could be debris from collisions that took place during the planet formation era. He included Vesta in his suggestion but hadn’t considered it a real possibility.
“This idea went from a somewhat silly suggestion to a hypothesis that we’re now taking seriously due to this re-analysis of NASA Dawn mission data,” Jacobson said.
More than an asteroid
Most asteroids are made of a very ancient chondritic material, appearing like a cosmic sedimentary gravel. In contrast, Vesta’s surface is covered in volcanic basaltic rocks. Those rocks indicated to scientists that Vesta went through a melting process called planetary differentiation, where the metal sinks to the center and forms a core.
NASA launched the Dawn spacecraft in 2007 to study Vesta and Ceres, the two largest objects in the asteroid belt. The goal was to better understand how planets were formed.
Dawn spent months from 2011 to 2012 orbiting Vesta, measuring its gravity field and taking high-resolution images to create a very detailed map of its surface. After performing similar tasks at Ceres, the mission finished in 2018, and scientists published findings from the data.
Jacobson said the more that researchers used the data, the better they got at processing it. They found ways to more accurately calibrate measurements that yield an improved picture of Vesta’s makeup. That’s why Ryan Park, a JPL senior research scientist and principal engineer, and his team decided to reprocess Vesta’s measurements.
"For years, conflicting gravity data from Dawn’s observations of Vesta created puzzles,” Park said. “After nearly a decade of refining our calibration and processing techniques, we achieved remarkable alignment between Dawn’s Deep Space Network radiometric data and onboard imaging data. We were thrilled to confirm the data’s strength in revealing Vesta’s deep interior. Our findings show Vesta’s history is far more complex than previously believed, shaped by unique processes like interrupted planetary differentation and late-stage collisions.”
Planetary scientists can estimate the size of a celestial body’s core by measuring what’s called the moment of inertia. It’s a concept from physics that describes how difficult it is to change the rotation of an object around an axis. Jacobson compared this concept to a figure skater spinning on ice. They change their speed by pulling their arms in to speed up and moving them outward to slow down. Their moment of inertia is changed by the changing position of their arms.
Similarly, an object in space with a larger core is like a ballerina with their arms pulled in. Celestial bodies with a dense core move differently than one with no core at all. Armed with this knowledge, the research team measured the rotation and gravity field of Vesta. The results showed Vesta didn’t behave like an object with a core, challenging prior ideas about how it formed.
Two hypotheses
Neither hypothesis has been explored enough to rule either out, but both have problems that require more research to explain. While incomplete differentiation is possible, it doesn’t line up with the meteorites researchers have collected over time.
“We’re really confident these meteorites came from Vesta,” Jacobson said. “And these don’t show obvious evidence of incomplete differentiation.”
The alternative explanation is based on the idea that as the terrestrial planets formed, large collisions occurred, mostly growing the planets but also generating impact debris. The ejected materials from those collisions would include rocks resulting from melting, and, like Vesta, they wouldn’t have a core.
Jacobson’s lab was already exploring the consequences of giant impacts during the planet formation era. He’s working with one of his graduate students, Emily Elizondo, on the idea that some asteroids in the asteroid belt are pieces ejected from the growing planets.
This idea is still far from proven. More models need to be created and fine-tuned to prove that Vesta is an ancient chunk of a forming planet. Scientists can adjust how they study Vesta meteorites to dive deeper into either hypothesis, Jacobson said. They could also do further studies with the new approaches to the Dawn mission data.
This paper is only the beginning of a new direction of study, Jacobson said. It could forever change how scientists look at differentiated worlds.
“No longer is the Vesta meteorite collection a sample of a body in space that failed to make it as a planet,” Jacobson said. “These could be pieces of an ancient planet before it grew to full completion. We just don’t know which planet that is yet.”
By Bethany Mauger
###
Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 170 years. One of the world’s leading public research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 400 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
For generations, Spartans have been changing the world through research. Federal funding helps power many of the discoveries that improve lives and keep America at the forefront of innovation and competitiveness. From lifesaving cancer treatments to solutions that advance technology, agriculture, energy and more, MSU researchers work every day to shape a better future for the people of Michigan and beyond. Learn more about MSU’s research impact powered by partnership with the federal government.
For MSU news on the web, go to MSUToday or x.com/MSUnews.
Journal
Nature Astronomy
Article Title
A small core in Vesta inferred from Dawn’s observations
Article Publication Date
28-Apr-2025
A vast molecular cloud, long invisible, is discovered near solar system
The detection of the celestial body by a Rutgers-led team could redefine understanding of interstellar medium
Rutgers University
video:
Scientists have discovered a potentially star-forming cloud and called it "Eos." It is one of the largest single structures in the sky and among the closest to the sun and Earth ever to be detected.
Credit: Thomas Müller (HdA/MPIA) and Thavisha Dharmawardena (NYU)
An international team of scientists led by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick astrophysicist has discovered a potentially star-forming cloud that is one of the largest single structures in the sky and among the closest to the sun and Earth ever to be detected.
The vast ball of hydrogen, long invisible to scientists, was revealed by looking for its main constituent – molecular hydrogen. The finding marks the first time a molecular cloud has been detected with light emitted in the far-ultraviolet realm of the electromagnetic spectrum and opens the way to further explorations using the approach.
The scientists have named the molecular hydrogen cloud “Eos,” after the Greek goddess of mythology who is the personification of dawn. Their discovery is outlined in a study published in Nature Astronomy.
“This opens up new possibilities for studying the molecular universe,” said Blakesley Burkhart, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences who led the team and is an author on the study. Burkhart is also a research scientist at the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute in New York.
Molecular clouds are composed of gas and dust – with the most common molecule being hydrogen, the fundamental building block of stars and planets and essential for life. They also contain other molecules such as carbon monoxide. Molecular clouds are often detected using conventional methods such as radio and infrared observations that easily pick up the chemical signature for carbon monoxide.
For this work, the scientists employed a different approach.
“This is the first-ever molecular cloud discovered by looking for far ultraviolet emission of molecular hydrogen directly,” Burkhart said. “The data showed glowing hydrogen molecules detected via fluorescence in the far ultraviolet. This cloud is literally glowing in the dark.”
Eos poses no danger to Earth and the solar system. Because of its proximity, the gas cloud presents a unique opportunity to study the properties of a structure within the interstellar medium, scientists said.
The interstellar medium, made of gas and dust that fills the space between stars within a galaxy, serves as raw material for new star formation.
“When we look through our telescopes, we catch whole solar systems in the act of forming, but we don’t know in detail how that happens,” Burkhart said. “Our discovery of Eos is exciting because we can now directly measure how molecular clouds are forming and dissociating, and how a galaxy begins to transform interstellar gas and dust into stars and planets.”
The crescent-shaped gas cloud is located about 300 light years away from Earth. It sits on the edge of the Local Bubble, a large gas-filled cavity in space that encompasses the solar system. Scientists estimate that Eos is vast in projection on the sky, measuring about 40 moons across the sky, with a mass about 3,400 times that of the sun. The team used models to show it is expected to evaporate in 6 million years.
“The use of the far ultraviolet fluorescence emission technique could rewrite our understanding of the interstellar medium, uncovering hidden clouds across the galaxy and even out to the furthest detectable limits of cosmic dawn,” said Thavisha Dharmawardena, a NASA Hubble Fellow at New York University and a shared first author of the study.
Eos was revealed to the team in data collected by a far-ultraviolet spectrograph called FIMS-SPEAR (an acronym for fluorescent imaging spectrograph) that operated as an instrument on the Korean satellite STSAT-1. A far-ultraviolet spectrograph breaks down far-ultraviolet light emitted by a material into its component wavelengths, just as a prism does with visible light, creating a spectrum that scientists can analyze.
The data had just been released publicly in 2023 when Burkhart came across it.
“It was kind of like just waiting to be explored,” she said.
The findings highlight the importance of innovative observational techniques in advancing the understanding of the cosmos, Burkhart said. She noted that Eos is dominated by molecular hydrogen gas but is mostly “CO-dark,” meaning it doesn’t contain much of the material and doesn’t emit the characteristic signature detected by conventional approaches. That explains how Eos eluded being identified for so long, researchers said.
“The story of the cosmos is a story of the rearrangement of atoms over billions of years,” Burkhart said. “The hydrogen that is currently in the Eos cloud existed at the time of the Big Bang and eventually fell onto our galaxy and coalesced nearby the sun. So, it’s been a long journey of 13.6 billion years for these hydrogen atoms.”
The discovery presented itself as something of a surprise.
“When I was in graduate school, we were told that you can’t easily directly observe molecular hydrogen,” said Dharmawardena of NYU. “It’s kind of wild that we can see this cloud in data that we didn’t think we would see.”
Eos also is named after a proposed NASA space mission that Burkhart and other members of the team are supporting. The mission aims to broaden the approach of detecting molecular hydrogen to greater swaths of the Galaxy, investigating the origins of stars by studying the evolution of molecular clouds.
The team is scouring data for molecular hydrogen clouds near and far. A study published as a preprint on arXiv by Burkhart and others using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reports tentatively finding the most distant molecular gas yet.
“Using JWST, we may have found the very furthest hydrogen molecules from the sun,” Burkhart said. “So, we have found both some of the closest and farthest using far-ultraviolet emission.”
Other members of the scientific team included researchers from: Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; Queen Mary University of London and University College London, both of London; University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, University of Science and Technology, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, all of Daejeon, South Korea; Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany; University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.; University of California, Berkeley; Université Paris Cité, Gif-sur-Yvette, France; Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Columbia University, New York; and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.
Rutgers University
Journal
Nature Astronomy
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
'A nearby dark molecular cloud in the Local Bubble revealed via H2 fluorescence'
Article Publication Date
28-Apr-2025
The Sun never sets in space — and Japan has found a way to harness this unlimited energy.
The energy beamed from space won’t be enough to run more than a coffee maker—but if all goes to plan, Japan will soon make history by transmitting solar power wirelessly from orbit to Earth.
This year, a 400-pound satellite will launch into low Earth orbit and attempt something that once seemed confined to science fiction. Using solar panels and microwave transmission, the satellite will send about one kilowatt of power—roughly enough to run a dishwasher for an hour—down to a ground antenna
“It will be a small satellite, about 180 kilograms [400 pounds], that will transmit about 1 kilowatt of power from an altitude of 400 kilometers,” Koichi Ijichi, one of the researchers and an advisor at Japan Space Systems (JSS), told Space.com.
The project, called OHISAMA—Japanese for “sun”—is part of a growing international push to harness solar power from space as a means to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and help curb climate change.
A step towards unlimited wireless solar power
The idea of collecting solar power in space and beaming it to Earth was first floated in 1968 by Peter Glaser, a scientist working on the Apollo program. At the time, it seemed outlandish. The costs were too high. The required structures, too massive. The engineering challenges, too daunting.
But things have changed. Advances in robotics, wireless transmission, and orbital logistics—particularly the promise of SpaceX’s Starship rocket—are starting to make the once-impossible look feasible.
The JSS satellite will be equipped with a 22-square-foot (2 square meters) solar panel. This photovoltaic panel will collect sunlight and charge an onboard battery. The crucial part is how this stored energy will be sent back down to us.
In the case of a regular solar panel, the collected energy is turned into electricity and is transmitted via wires. However, supplying solar energy from space to Earth through wires is not feasible. So the satellite will convert the electricity into microwaves and send it wirelessly in the form of an energy beam to a specially designed receiving antenna on the ground.
Moreover, since the satellite will be traveling at an incredible speed of about 17,400 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour, the typical speed of satellites in low Earth orbit), the receiving antenna on Earth will need to be quite large, potentially stretching across several kilometers.
However, for now, such large antennas are not required because the satellite will currently serve as proof of concept. Thirteen receivers spread over a 600-square-meter area in Suwa (a city in Japan) will capture microwaves sent from its energy panels and convert them into electricity.
If this demonstration is successful, the Japanese agencies will launch bigger satellites capable of transmitting much more solar energy.
Not the first attempt at space-based solar power
Japan isn’t alone in exploring the potential of space-based solar power. The United States has also been actively researching this area. For instance, in May 2020, the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) conducted a significant experiment called the Photovoltaic Radiofrequency Antenna Module (PRAM).
This experiment resulted in the launch of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which, for the first time, successfully demonstrated the key technology of converting sunlight into microwave energy in space and wirelessly transmitting it back to Earth.
Then, in March 2023, researchers at Caltech launched a space-based prototype called MAPLE (Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment). It offers a lightweight and low-cost approach to supply solar energy from space to a desired location on Earth.
Not everyone is convinced the dream can become reality. In January, NASA released a report casting doubt on the feasibility of space-based solar power.
The agency estimated that such systems could cost as much as 61 cents per kilowatt-hour. That’s over ten times more expensive than the cheapest Earth-based solar or wind energy, which can cost as little as 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.
And yet, the momentum is building.
Whether the mission will successfully achieve this goal remains to be seen. JSS and its partners haven’t yet announced an exact launch date, but in their latest statements, they confirmed the mission is scheduled for sometime after April 2025.
Rupendra Brahambhatt
Rupendra Brahambhatt is an experienced journalist and filmmaker covering culture, science, and entertainment news for the past five years. With a background in Zoology and Communication, he has been actively working with some of the most innovative media agencies in different parts of the globe.
New study debunks a single planet-formation scenario
News Release 25-Apr-2025
Ohio State University
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Using the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), an international team of researchers has discovered that super-Earth exoplanets are more common across the universe than previously thought, according to a new study.
By studying light anomalies made by the newly found planet’s host star and combining their results with a larger sample from a KMTNet microlensing survey, the team found that super-Earths can exist as far from their host star as our gas giants are from the sun, said Andrew Gould, co-author of the study and professor emeritus of astronomy at The Ohio State University.
“Scientists knew there were more small planets than big planets, but in this study, we were able to show that within this overall pattern, there are excesses and deficits,” he said. “It’s very interesting.”
While it can be relatively easy to locate worlds that orbit close to their star, planets with wider paths can be difficult to detect. Still, researchers further estimated that for every three stars, there should be at least one super-Earth present with a Jupiter-like orbital period, suggesting these massive worlds are extremely prevalent across the universe, said Gould, whose early theoretical research helped develop the field of planetary microlensing.
The findings in this study were made via microlensing, an observational effect that occurs when the presence of mass warps the fabric of space-time to a detectable degree. When a foreground object, such as a star or planet, passes between an observer and a more distant star, light is curved from the source, causing an apparent increase in the object’s brightness that can last anywhere from a few hours to several months.
Astronomers can use these fluctuations, or bumps, in brightness to help locate alien worlds unlike our own. In this case, microlensing signals were used to locate OGLE-2016-BLG-0007, a super-Earth with a mass ratio roughly double that of Earth’s and an orbit wider than Saturn’s.
These observations allowed the team to divide exoplanets into two groups, one that consists of super-Earths and Neptune-like planets and the other comprising gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn. This discovery opens new doors for planetary system science: Having a better understanding of exoplanet distribution can reveal new insights about the processes by which they form and evolve.
The study, led by researchers in China, Korea and at Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, was recently published in the journal Science.
To explain their results, researchers also compared their findings to predictions made from theoretical simulations of planet formation. Their results showed that while exoplanets can be separated into groups by mass and makeup, the mechanisms that may produce them can vary.
“The dominant theory of gas-giant formation is through runaway gas accretion, but other people have said that it could be both accretion and gravitational instability,” said Gould. “We’re saying we can’t distinguish between those two yet.”
Doing so will likely require greater swaths of long-term data from specialized systems such as KMTNet and other microlensing instruments like it, said Richard Pogge, another co-author of the study and a professor of astronomy at Ohio State.
“Finding a microlensing star event is hard. Finding a microlensing star with a planet is hard-squared,” he said. “We have to look at hundreds of millions of stars to find even a hundred of these things.”
These alignments are so rare that only 237 out of the more than 5,000 exoplanets ever discovered have been identified using the microlensing method. Now, with the help of three powerful custom-built telescopes located in South Africa, Chile and Australia, the KMTNet system routinely allows scientists to scour the cosmos for these amazing events, said Pogge.
Most notably, it was scientists in Ohio State’s Imaging Sciences Laboratory who designed and built the Korean Microlensing Telescope Network Cameras (KMTCam) that the system relies on to identify exoplanets. And as technology continues to evolve, having dedicated, global collaborations like this one will turn visions of scientific theory into real discoveries, said Pogge.
“We’re like paleontologists reconstructing not only the history of the universe we live in but the processes that govern it,” he said. “So helping to bring both of those pieces together into one picture has been enormously satisfying.”
Other members of Ohio State’s ISL team include Bruce Atwood, Tom O’Brien, Mark Johnson, Mark Derwent, Chris Colarosa, Jerry Mason, Daniel Pappalardo and Skip Shaller. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, Tsinghua University, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the China Manned Space Project, Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange and the National Research Foundation of Korea.
Contact: Andrew Gould, Gould.34@osu.edu
Written by: Tatyana Woodall, Woodall.52@osu.ed
10.1126/science.adn6088
Article Title
Microlensing events indicate that super-Earth exoplanets are common in Jupiter-like orbits
Article Publication Date
24-Apr-2025
SETI Institute and Maldives Space Research Organisation team up for astronomy science and education
Combining cutting-edge scientific research with the rich cultural heritage of Maldivian celestial navigation
SETI Institute
image:
Stargazing in the Maldives
view moreCredit: SETI Institute
April 24, 2025, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute and the Maldives Space Research Organisation (MSRO) will collaborate on astronomy research, space science education and public outreach. This initiative, established through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), provides a framework for projects that combine cutting-edge scientific research with the rich cultural heritage of Maldivian celestial navigation.
The collaboration began during the 2024 Space for Island Nations Conference (SIN2024), where the SETI Institute first learned about MSRO’s efforts to engage students and the public in astronomy. MSRO recently acquired a Unistellar telescope to provide students and tourists with hands-on experience in astronomy. Additionally, they published a cultural star map highlighting significant constellations and patterns based on ancestral Maldivian navigation traditions.
“We saw the incredible work MSRO was doing at SIN2024, inspiring this exciting collaboration,” said Dr. Franck Marchis, Director of Citizen Science at the SETI Institute and Chief Science Officer at Unistellar. “The Maldives, with its unique location and cultural connection to the stars, is an ideal place to develop new astronomy initiatives. We look forward to working with MSRO to bring science and traditional Maldivian wisdom together."
The two organizations will work together on research projects, policy guidance and resource sharing. The SETI Institute will support MSRO’s efforts to develop astronomy education in the Maldives, providing technical expertise and facilitating training programs for Maldivian scientists, educators and policymakers. The collaboration will also enhance citizen science projects and engage the public through interactive outreach programs.
“This collaboration marks a new era for the Maldives in space science,” said Madin Maseeh, President of MSRO. “The stars have always guided our ancestors across the ocean, and now, through this partnership, we are bringing astronomy back to our communities. By engaging with the global scientific community and incorporating our rich cultural heritage, we aim to inspire the next generation of Maldivian space scientists and explorers.”
MSRO is already conducting astronomy programs in various parts of the Maldives, with students and tourists using the Unistellar telescope to connect to the Maldivian sky and history in a new way. In this video, Aishath Mohamed Rasheed, Heritage and Culture Researcher at MSRO, discusses the importance of astronomy in Maldivian culture.
The MOU will be in effect for five years, with opportunities for renewal and expansion. This collaboration will bring global expertise to the Maldives while promoting public engagement with space science.
Stargazing with the eVscope on the beach
Credit
SETI Institute
About the SETI Institute
Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity’s quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and share that knowledge with the world. Our research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages data analytics, machine learning, and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia, and government agencies, including NASA and the National Science Foundation.
About Maldives Space Research Organisation (MSRO)
MSRO was founded in the Maldives in 2022, with a vision to help Maldives become a spacefaring nation making significant contributions to the exploration and use of space. It is now the official space organisation of Maldives through authorisation from Ministry of Defence.
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