SPACE/COSMOS
SwRI-led study provides insight into oscillations in solar flares
New SwRI-led paper links solar flare QPPs to oscillatory magnetic reconnection
image:
New SwRI-led research connects circular flare ribbons, as observed with by Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope during the M4.7-class solar flare on May 3, 2023, with energy released by repeated bursts of magnetic reconnection and quasi-periodic pulsations. The red and blue colors represent plasma flowing downward and upward, respectively. Downward flows pulsed in time across the entire ribbon suggest that magnetic field lines breaking and reforming release tremendous amounts of energy that drive the entire flare.
view moreCredit: Southwest Research Institute
SAN ANTONIO — December 9, 2025 — A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) links quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) in solar flares to dynamic oscillations in magnetic reconnection, a phenomenon that can drive space weather and affect technology on Earth. This research could help refine traditional solar flare models and provide new insights into the mechanisms driving them.
Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic field lines in plasma break and reconnect, releasing immense energy into the surrounding atmosphere that can result in space weather. Solar flares are intense, transient bursts of energy on the Sun’s surface and are the most common and spectacular examples of solar weather. QPPs, oscillating signals emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum, are often associated with solar flares. However, their origins and the functions driving them have eluded explanation.
“Solar flares are the largest eruptive phenomena in our solar system, but the mechanisms behind quasi-periodic pulsations have remained a mystery,” said Dr. William Ashfield IV, postdoctoral researcher in SwRI’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division. He is lead author of a Nature Astronomy paper describing new findings about these phenomena. “While QPPs appear in around 50% of large solar flares, they are still poorly understood. We wanted to get a better sense of why they occur and figure out how they fit into the energy release process.”
To better understand the nature of QPPs, the researchers used high-resolution observations from the Swedish Solar Telescope in the Canary Islands and precise spectroscopic data from NASA’s IRIS telescope in Sun-synchronous orbit. The researchers observed a moderate-strength solar flare and conducted a pixel-by-pixel spectroscopic analysis to capture QPP evidence successfully.
“The complementary observations from ground-based and space-based telescopes allowed us to rule out competing theories and narrow down potential driving mechanisms behind QPPs,” Ashfield said. “Our findings suggest that repeated magnetic reconnection may be what leads directly to the QPPs observed in this solar flare.”
According to Ashfield, the study highlights the need to incorporate oscillatory behavior into magnetic reconnection theories, providing constraints to guide future research.
“Understanding QPPs isn’t just about understanding the solar flares themselves,” Ashfield said. “Our research lays a foundation for future studies to use larger datasets and advanced simulations to deepen our understanding of space weather events and other astrophysical phenomena associated with magnetic reconnection.”
The paper, “Spectroscopic observations of solar flare pulsations driven by oscillatory magnetic reconnection,” was published in the November 2025 issue of Nature Astronomy. Read it at DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02706-4.
For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/markets/earth-space/space-research-technology/space-science/heliophysics.
Journal
Nature Astronomy
Method of Research
Imaging analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Spectroscopic observations of solar flare pulsations driven by oscillatory magnetic reconnectio
Astronomers find first direct evidence of “Monster Stars” from the cosmic dawn
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of international researchers have discovered chemical fingerprints of gigantic primordial stars that were among the first to form after the Big Bang
For two decades, astronomers have puzzled over how supermassive black holes – some of the brightest objects in the universe – could exist less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Normal stars simply couldn't create such massive black holes quickly enough.
Now, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team has found the first compelling evidence that solves this cosmic mystery: “monster stars” weighing between 1,000 and 10,000 times the mass of our Sun existed in the early universe.
The breakthrough came from examining chemical signatures in a galaxy called GS 3073. A study led by the University of Portsmouth in England and the Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Harvard and Smithsonian in the US discovered an extreme imbalance of nitrogen to oxygen that cannot be explained by any known type of star.
In 2022, researchers published work in Nature predicting that supermassive stars naturally formed in rare, turbulent streams of cold gas in the early universe, explaining how quasars (extraordinarily bright black holes) could exist less than a billion years after the Big Bang.
“Our latest discovery helps solve a 20-year cosmic mystery,” said Dr Daniel Whalen from the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation. “With GS 3073, we have the first observational evidence that these monster stars existed.
“These cosmic giants would have burned brilliantly for a brief time before collapsing into massive black holes, leaving behind the chemical signatures we can detect billions of years later. A bit like dinosaurs on Earth - they were enormous and primitive. And they had short lives, living for just a quarter of a million years - a cosmic blink of an eye.”
The key to the discovery was measuring the ratio of nitrogen to oxygen in GS 3073. The galaxy contains a nitrogen-to-oxygen ratio of 0.46 - far higher than can be explained by any known type of star or stellar explosion.
Devesh Nandal from the CfA’s Institute for Theory and Computation explained: “Chemical abundances act like a cosmic fingerprint, and the pattern in GS3073 is unlike anything ordinary stars can produce. Its extreme nitrogen matches only one kind of source we know of - primordial stars thousands of times more massive than our sun. This tells us the first generation of stars included truly supermassive objects that helped shape the early galaxies and may have seeded today’s supermassive black holes.”
The researchers modelled how stars between 1,000 and 10,000 solar masses would evolve and what elements they would produce. They found a specific mechanism that creates massive amounts of nitrogen:
These enormous stars burn helium in their cores, producing carbon.
The carbon leaks into a surrounding shell where hydrogen is burning.
The carbon combines with hydrogen to create nitrogen through the carbon/nitrogen/oxygen (CNO) cycle.
Convection currents distribute the nitrogen throughout the star.
Eventually, this nitrogen-rich material is shed into space, enriching the surrounding gas.
The process continues for millions of years during the star's helium-burning phase, creating the nitrogen excess observed in GS 3073.
The models, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, also predict what happens when these monster stars die. They don't explode, instead, they collapse directly into massive black holes weighing thousands of solar masses.
Interestingly, GS 3073 contains an actively feeding black hole at its centre - potentially the very remnant of one of these supermassive first stars. If confirmed, this would solve two mysteries at once - where the nitrogen came from and how the black hole formed.
The study also found that this nitrogen signature only appears in a specific mass range. Stars smaller than 1,000 solar masses or larger than 10,000 solar masses don't produce the right chemical pattern for the signature, suggesting a "sweet spot" for this type of enrichment.
These findings open a new window into the universe's first few hundred million years - a period astronomers call the "cosmic Dark Ages" when the first stars ignited and began transforming the simple chemistry of the early universe into the rich variety of elements we see today.
The researchers predict that JWST will find more galaxies with similar nitrogen excesses as it continues surveying the early universe. Each new discovery would strengthen the case for these ultra-massive first stars.
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Article Title
1000–10,000 M⊙ Primordial Stars Created the Nitrogen Excess in GS 3073 at z = 5.55
New report outlines science priorities for human Mars exploration
The report, commissioned by NASA and steered by scientists at Penn State, is intended to guide government and industry decision-makers and the scientific community
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As humanity prepares to take its first steps on Mars, a comprehensive report released today (Dec. 9) from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and steered by scientists at Penn State lays out a detailed science strategy to guide the initial human missions to the red planet.
The report, commissioned by NASA, identifies the highest priority scientific objectives for the missions as well as proposes four distinct mission campaigns designed to maximize the scientific return of the first three human landings on Mars. The report is intended to guide government and industry decision-makers, the scientific community and the general public.
Researchers at Penn State served on the report’s steering committee as well as contributed across multiple panels, influencing the report’s scientific priorities in atmospheric science, astrobiology, biological and physical sciences and human health.
“Penn State expertise helped shape the nation’s highest priority science objectives and recommendations for human exploration of Mars,” said Andrew Read, Penn State’s senior vice president for research. “This is a thrilling moment for us as scientists. We are setting the guideposts that will transform our knowledge of Mars and, on a deeper level, our place in the cosmos. It underscores Penn State’s research excellence and the caliber of our faculty, whose vision and expertise are influencing the future of space exploration.”
The 240-page report provides a science-driven roadmap for human Mars exploration, balancing scientific goals with existing NASA mission plans and technological capacity. It is essentially a scientific playbook for the first crewed missions to Mars, describing the “what” and “why” that will guide human exploration of the red planet, explained James Pawelczyk, associate professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn State and member of the report’s steering committee. Pawelczyk’s research focuses on neural control of circulation and human physiology in spaceflight.
“This report is considering exploration in a very different way than we have conducted human spaceflight before,” said Pawelczyk, who flew aboard the NASA STS-90 Space Shuttle mission as a payload specialist and has logged over 381 hours in space. “We are considering the science of Mars itself, its geology, but there will also be the science of being on Mars. Mars is this novel environment that people will live in — and maybe the most profound part of it is you'll look up and somewhere among the star field will be a tiny, little bluish dot and that will be Earth. This will be the farthest and the most isolated that humans have ever been.”
The comprehensive report is an evolution of NASA’s Moon to Mars Objectives — a framework that uses lunar mission to develop and test what’s needed for human exploration beyond Earth — building on the science objectives in the current framework as well as identifying goals that may be missing. A separate report will determine the high priority science objectives for the in-space phases of the crewed missions to Mars.
"Getting humans to Mars and back is a doable goal for the next 20 years,” said James Kasting, an emeritus Atherton Professor of Geosciences at Penn State, who served on the report’s steering committee and whose expertise includes atmospheric evolution and planetary atmospheres. “We have to agree about how careful we should be about planetary protection, though, both forward and backwards. I'm for making reasonable assumptions about how best to do so, assumptions that allow us to push forward."
The report details the most crucial objectives across all relevant branches of science and prioritizes the objectives into campaigns to be undertaken on the surface of Mars during the first three landings. To meet its objectives, each campaign has a roadmap that outlines equipment and other capacity requirements; landing site criteria such as areas with accessible ice or reachable caves; and key samples and measurements that must be made before human arrival on Mars, while crews are on Mars or when back on Earth. The report also considers critical parameters, such as the size of the crew or duration of time spent on the surface of Mars, and how that might impact how the campaigns are prioritized.
The top-priority objectives identified in the report are:
- Determine if, in the exploration zone, evidence can be found for any of the following: habitability, indigenous extant or extinct life, and/or indigenous prebiotic chemistry
- Characterize past and present water and CO2 cycles and reservoirs within the exploration zone to understand their evolution
- Characterize and map the geologic record and potential niche habitats within the exploration zone to reveal Mars’s evolution and to provide geologic context to other investigations, including the study of bolide impacts, volcanic and intrusive igneous activity, the sedimentary record, landforms and volatiles, including liquids and ices
- Determine the longitudinal impact of the integrated Martian environment on crew physiological, cognitive and emotional health, including team dynamics and confirm effectiveness of countermeasures
- Determine what controls the onset and evolution of major dust storms, which dominate present-day atmospheric variability
- Characterize the Martian environment for in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and determine the applications associated with the ISRU processing, ultimately for the full range of materials supporting permanent habitation but with an early focus on water and propellants
- Determine whether the integrated Martian environment affects reproduction or the functional genome across multiple generations in at least one model plant species and one model animal species
- Determine throughout the mission whether microbial population dynamics and species distribution in biological systems and habitable volumes are stable and are not detrimental to astronaut health and performance
- Characterize the effects of Martian dust on human physiology and hardware lifetime
- Determine the longitudinal impact of the integrated Martian environment on plant and animal physiology and development across multiple generations where possible as part of an integrated ecosystem of plants, microbes and animals
- Characterize the primary and secondary radiation at key locations in the crew habitat and astrobiological sampling sites to contextualize sample collection and improve models of future mission risk
“This has been a dream and an honor to conduct this report for the nation,” said Pawelczyk, who explained that the team reached out to hundreds of subject matter experts to collect information for the report. “If we’re successful, humans will have set foot on another planetary body, on another planet, for the first time. And the message we’re sending with this report is that science comes with us.”
Other researchers affiliated with Penn State contributed to the report. Laura Rodriguez, staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute who earned her doctorate at Penn State, served as member of the Panel on Astrobiology. Bruce Link, chief science officer for Amentum, earned his doctorate at Penn State and served as a member of the Biological and Physical Sciences and Human Factors panel. Katherine Freeman, Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences at Penn State, served as a reviewer, providing an independent review of the report draft, evaluating quality and scientific rigor.
Method of Research
Meta-analysis
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars
Article Publication Date
9-Dec-2025
K-DRIFT pathfinder: A compact telescope for observing faint galactic structures
Researchers have developed an off-axis freeform three-mirror telescope designed to reveal extremely faint, low-surface-brightness structures surrounding galaxies
image:
Image of the Galaxy NGC 5907 captured by the K-DRIFT Pathfinder. The yellow region marks an area 1.5 times brighter than the background noise level, while the red arrow points to a faint low-surface-brightness structure—remnant of a past gravitational interaction between galaxies.
view moreCredit: Lee, et al.
According to modern cosmology, most galaxies are surrounded by faint, extended halos of light called LSB structures. These subtle features are remnants of past galactic events—such as collisions, mergers, and tidal interactions—and hold important clues to galactic evolution.
However, LSB features are extremely faint, often dimmer than the night sky itself, making them difficult to capture. Traditional telescopes face challenges such as stray light, sky brightness gradients, and light scattering, which blur faint details. Deep LSB imaging therefore requires an optical design that provides a wide, unobscured field of view, fast light collection, and minimal stray light, combined with specialized observing and calibration techniques.
To overcome these challenges, a new study published in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems introduced a linear-astigmatism-free three-mirror system (LAF-TMS), known as the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) Deep Rolling Imaging Fast Telescope (K-DRIFT). “Unlike traditional on-axis optical designs, off-axis unobscured designs reduce light loss, stray light, and the effect of the extended wings of the point spread function. The K-DRIFT design also eliminates linear astigmatism, a major issue in typical off-axis systems, and minimizes higher-order aberrations with its three freeform mirrors,” said author Gayoung Lee of KASI.
The optical design of K-DRIFT pathfinder features a 300-millimeter aperture confocal off-axis system with three freeform mirrors. Specifically, a freeform elliptical convex secondary mirror, termed M2, shares its focal point with both a freeform elliptical concave primary mirror M1 and a freeform elliptical concave tertiary mirror, M3. This setup effectively reduces stray light and scattering, producing sharper images. The tilt angles of the three mirrors eliminate linear astigmatism, and the use of three freeform mirrors minimizes higher order aberrations. The telescope uses a CMOS camera for detection.
The mirrors were made from Zerodur, a glass-ceramic material resistant to thermal deformation, and mounted on an aluminum housing with invar flexures that reduce mechanical stress. This setup minimizes mirror surface distortion and light scattering. The mirrors were aligned and integrated step-by-step using a coordinate-measuring machine. To further reduce stray light, a secondary baffle was placed in front of the detector.
For performance evaluation, the K-DRIFT pathfinder was installed at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO) for on-sky testing from June 2021 to April 2022. The telescope maintained consistent imaging performance across seasonal temperature changes but initially did not meet the required resolution target—measured as the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the point spread function (PSF).
Through a series of optical simulations, the researchers identified three main error sources: mirror fabrication errors, opto-mechanical mirror mounting errors, and optical misalignment errors. Based on this analysis, the researchers addressed the errors by replacing mirror M2 and refining the alignment process during the final assembly of the housing. As a result, K-DRIFT’s performance significantly improved, with PSF FWHM decreasing from 3.8 pixels to 1.8 pixels.
“The K-DRIFT pathfinder proves that compact, freeform mirror designs can achieve the precision needed to study the faintest structures in the universe like LSB structures. In future, this project will help trace the hidden history of how galaxies formed and evolved,” Lee said.
Overall, the K-DRIFT pathfinder marks a significant step forward in deep LSB imaging, paving the way for uncovering the faintest structures in the universe.
For details, see the Gold Open Access article by Lee et al., “Assessment of the on-sky performance of an off-axis freeform three-mirror telescope,” J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst. 11(4) 048002 2025, doi: 10.1117/1.JATIS.11.4.048002
Journal
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes Instruments and Systems
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Assessment of the on-sky performance of an off-axis freeform three-mirror telescope
NRL’s satellite operations service is ready for the Space Force enterprise
image:
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Computer Engineer and TREx Product Owner Brian Cassidy (left), and Lt. Col. Brian Kester (right) from Space Systems Command (SSC) complete the transfer of the Transmit/Receive Enterprise (TREx) service from NRL to SSC in El Segundo, California, August 7, 2025. TREx was developed at NRL and will now support the broader U.S. Space Force enterprise. (U.S. Navy photo)
view moreCredit: U.S. Navy Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Spacecraft Engineering Department recently developed the Transmit/Receive Enterprise (TREx) service with sponsorship from the Space Development Agency, Space Rapid Capabilities Office, and Space Systems Command to provide software development and mission operations for sponsoring organizations across the space community.
The TREx service provides secure access to various government and commercial antenna networks, which dramatically increases the amount of time satellites can be in contact with ground stations. This enables the satellite missions to operate more effectively by downlinking more data from space, and to recover faster if the satellite experiences an anomaly.
“Every satellite operations team we work with wishes they had more contact time with their space vehicles. We knew there were underutilized government and commercial antennas available, but we needed to build a service to broker access in a secure way for DoW missions.” said Keith Akins, NRL aerospace engineer and government technical lead on TREx “We have already seen a huge impact to satellite missions operating at NRL, and now missions across the USSF can onboard to the service.”
In 2022, TREx was the first cloud-native information system to receive an Authority to Operate (ATO) from the U.S. Space Force. Since then, TREx has been serving dozens of satellites on orbit with 24/7 “lights out” automated operations and has brokered over 90,000 antenna reservations and 700,000 minutes of satellite contacts from antennas all over the globe. The TREx design enables satellite missions to quickly and easily access new ground stations as they are added to the service.
The U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s (SSC) new Space Domain Awareness and Battle Management System Delta 85 (SYD 85) drives enterprise integration and modernization of tactical level Command, Control, and Communications (C3) capabilities to transform satellite operations and create a resilient C3 enterprise for the warfighter. SYD 85 and NRL have partnered for over a year coordinating a smooth transition of TREx from being managed at NRL to the acquisition office of the Space Force.
“This is exactly the type of lab-to-operations success we strive for,” said Col. Patrick Little, SYD 85 Space Access & Networked Services System Program Director. “The TREx system brings enhanced flexibility and efficiency to our antenna services, directly supporting our mission to deliver integrated, resilient capabilities to the field.”
The NRL TREx project included participation from a variety of industry partners, including Space/Ground System Solutions (SGSS), Artic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) Federal, Sphinx Defense, Systems Security Engineering Group (SS3G), RBC Signals, Amazon Web Services, ViaSat, and Swedish Space Corp.
“We are fortunate at NRL to be able to use our own satellites and antennas at the Blossom Point Tracking Facility to test and mature TREx,” said Brian Cassidy, NRL computer engineer and TREx product owner. “We started with a napkin sketch and recruited a one-of-a-kind team to deliver a production service supporting daily satellite operations. It’s a win for the DOW space community to transition TREx from a research lab directly into operations.”
As of August 2025, NRL has transitioned TREx to SYD 85, where TREx will onboard additional satellite missions and serve the broader U.S. Space Force enterprise as part of the Joint Antenna Marketplace (JAM). JAM is a secure, cloud-based marketplace that connects satellite operations centers with commercial and government antennas worldwide.
The NRL Spacecraft Engineering Division designs, builds, and operates pioneering and innovative spacecraft and space systems. The division functions as a prototype laboratory for new and operationally relevant space-based capabilities. From cradle to grave, the division provides expertise in mission design, systems design and engineering, and hardware expertise for every aspect of a space system.
The division has a history of transitioning advanced technologies into operations and industry, applying expertise in systems integration, design and verification, dynamics and control systems, electronics and software, and mission operations to develop advanced space technologies.
About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.
For more information, contact NRL Corporate Communications at (202) 480-3746 or nrlpao@us.navy.mil. Please reference package number at top of press release.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory recently developed the Transmit/Receive Enterprise (TREx) service with sponsorship from the Space Development Agency, Space Rapid Capabilities Office, and Space Systems Command. The TREx service provides secure access to various government and commercial antenna networks, which dramatically increases the amount of time satellites can be in contact with ground stations. This enables the satellite missions to operate more effectively by downlinking more data from space, and to recover faster if the satellite experiences an anomaly. (Provided by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)
Credit
Provided by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
No comments:
Post a Comment