A new satellite could help scientists unravel some of Earth's mysteries. Here's how.
Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY
Mon, January 29, 2024
Imagine coloring a picture with 200 crayons instead of eight.
That’s the difference in light and color that a new satellite bound for orbit will bring to the study of microscopic particles in our atmosphere and waterways, said Jeremy Werdell, a project scientist with the National Aeronautic and Space Administration.
The satellite – called the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud and Ocean Ecosystem, or PACE – will provide critical new information to help better understand the role such particles play in the exchange of carbon dioxide and energy in the atmosphere and ocean, and in our changing climate, scientists said.
By returning high resolution images of light wavelengths, its equipment will provide a first-of-its-kind look at the role of phytoplankton in oceans, lakes and rivers and how aerosols absorb and scatter the sun’s energy, the scientists said.
More than a decade in the making, the satellite will relay this information in a broader array of colors than ever before, allowing scientists to identify individual species of plankton and kinds of particles.
As the expected launch date – Feb. 6 – approaches, excitement is building not only among the project’s scientists and developers, but also among scientists who look forward to using the new information in their research. The satellite will launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
A NASA depiction of how ocean color, clouds and aerosols information will be collected by its PACE satellite. In-water and airborne instruments will be employed to validate and calibrate the data, using the sun, moon and ocean buoys as references.
Unraveling mysteries
Information collected by the three instruments aboard could be crucial to unraveling some of Earth’s most complex climate mysteries, at a critical point when the planet is undergoing “transformative change,” said Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator.
“We are undeniably in the midst of a climate crisis,” Melroy said. “Shifts in the global Earth system, including climate change, are accelerating and the impacts are growing in both frequency and intensity.”
One of the key factors in the changing climate is the role of carbon and heat energy in the ocean.
Scientists hope to learn more about where carbon in the ocean is going, and if it’s being permanently removed from the atmosphere, and PACE will answer those questions on a daily global scale, the scientists said. It will also measure aerosols and help address questions about the life and precipitation intensity of clouds.
With a total mission budget of $964 million, the three instruments on board include an optical spectrometer designed and built by NASA and two other polarimeters, one from the University of Maryland and one from a consortium of organizations in the Netherlands.
Technicians work to process NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) observatory in a bay at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023.
Advancing ocean science
“For those of us who study microscopic life in the ocean, it is incredibly exciting that NASA’s PACE mission is going to launch in a few weeks,” said Heidi Sosik, a senior scientist in biology, whose research interest focus on phytoplankton ecology and factors that influence light in marine environments.
The array will give scientists “a whole new way to detect patterns of change in phytoplankton,” she said. The data it collects will help scientists understand changes in marine systems, manage fisheries, protect threatened species and ensure human food supplies are free from toxins. NASA said the data will be open and available to all scientists.
The spectrometer's ability to measure light across portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, at finer resolution than previous sensors, represents “a major advancement" in monitoring ocean ecosystems in the open ocean, said Tom Bell, an assistant scientist in applied ocean physics and engineering at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Just like plants convert carbon dioxide, phytoplankton uses photosynthetic pigments in its cells to collect light.
PACE will help scientists see the different colors and identify phytoplankton species and differentiate them from other dissolved materials in the water. That’s important because each phytoplankton community may play different roles in ecosystems and food chains.
The equipment also may allow Woods Hole researchers to examine the relationship between coastal runoff and the blooms of sargassum that have been choking coastlines in the Caribbean and Southeastern U.S. for years, said Bell, who uses satellite imagery to study coastal waters and their ecosystems.
The polarimeters will examine the composition, movement and interaction of particles of sea salt, smoke, pollutants and dust, a group collectively called aerosols, by measuring light properties.
The information is expected to help scientists make better climate predictions, by revealing how aerosols in the atmosphere interact with greenhouse gases and reflect sunlight back to space, said Otto Hasekamp, an atmospheric scientist with the Netherlands Institute for Space Research.
The instruments also will look at air and water quality after disasters, including hurricanes and wildfires, and help scientists understand the cascading impacts, said Karen St. Germaine, earth science division director for NASA. “It’s going to greatly advance and add to our understanding of ocean biology and the relationship between ocean life and our atmosphere."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASA hopes PACE satellite will help unravel climate change mysteries
Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY
Mon, January 29, 2024
Imagine coloring a picture with 200 crayons instead of eight.
That’s the difference in light and color that a new satellite bound for orbit will bring to the study of microscopic particles in our atmosphere and waterways, said Jeremy Werdell, a project scientist with the National Aeronautic and Space Administration.
The satellite – called the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud and Ocean Ecosystem, or PACE – will provide critical new information to help better understand the role such particles play in the exchange of carbon dioxide and energy in the atmosphere and ocean, and in our changing climate, scientists said.
By returning high resolution images of light wavelengths, its equipment will provide a first-of-its-kind look at the role of phytoplankton in oceans, lakes and rivers and how aerosols absorb and scatter the sun’s energy, the scientists said.
More than a decade in the making, the satellite will relay this information in a broader array of colors than ever before, allowing scientists to identify individual species of plankton and kinds of particles.
As the expected launch date – Feb. 6 – approaches, excitement is building not only among the project’s scientists and developers, but also among scientists who look forward to using the new information in their research. The satellite will launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
A NASA depiction of how ocean color, clouds and aerosols information will be collected by its PACE satellite. In-water and airborne instruments will be employed to validate and calibrate the data, using the sun, moon and ocean buoys as references.
Unraveling mysteries
Information collected by the three instruments aboard could be crucial to unraveling some of Earth’s most complex climate mysteries, at a critical point when the planet is undergoing “transformative change,” said Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator.
“We are undeniably in the midst of a climate crisis,” Melroy said. “Shifts in the global Earth system, including climate change, are accelerating and the impacts are growing in both frequency and intensity.”
One of the key factors in the changing climate is the role of carbon and heat energy in the ocean.
Scientists hope to learn more about where carbon in the ocean is going, and if it’s being permanently removed from the atmosphere, and PACE will answer those questions on a daily global scale, the scientists said. It will also measure aerosols and help address questions about the life and precipitation intensity of clouds.
With a total mission budget of $964 million, the three instruments on board include an optical spectrometer designed and built by NASA and two other polarimeters, one from the University of Maryland and one from a consortium of organizations in the Netherlands.
Technicians work to process NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) observatory in a bay at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023.
Advancing ocean science
“For those of us who study microscopic life in the ocean, it is incredibly exciting that NASA’s PACE mission is going to launch in a few weeks,” said Heidi Sosik, a senior scientist in biology, whose research interest focus on phytoplankton ecology and factors that influence light in marine environments.
The array will give scientists “a whole new way to detect patterns of change in phytoplankton,” she said. The data it collects will help scientists understand changes in marine systems, manage fisheries, protect threatened species and ensure human food supplies are free from toxins. NASA said the data will be open and available to all scientists.
The spectrometer's ability to measure light across portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, at finer resolution than previous sensors, represents “a major advancement" in monitoring ocean ecosystems in the open ocean, said Tom Bell, an assistant scientist in applied ocean physics and engineering at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Just like plants convert carbon dioxide, phytoplankton uses photosynthetic pigments in its cells to collect light.
PACE will help scientists see the different colors and identify phytoplankton species and differentiate them from other dissolved materials in the water. That’s important because each phytoplankton community may play different roles in ecosystems and food chains.
The equipment also may allow Woods Hole researchers to examine the relationship between coastal runoff and the blooms of sargassum that have been choking coastlines in the Caribbean and Southeastern U.S. for years, said Bell, who uses satellite imagery to study coastal waters and their ecosystems.
The polarimeters will examine the composition, movement and interaction of particles of sea salt, smoke, pollutants and dust, a group collectively called aerosols, by measuring light properties.
The information is expected to help scientists make better climate predictions, by revealing how aerosols in the atmosphere interact with greenhouse gases and reflect sunlight back to space, said Otto Hasekamp, an atmospheric scientist with the Netherlands Institute for Space Research.
The instruments also will look at air and water quality after disasters, including hurricanes and wildfires, and help scientists understand the cascading impacts, said Karen St. Germaine, earth science division director for NASA. “It’s going to greatly advance and add to our understanding of ocean biology and the relationship between ocean life and our atmosphere."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASA hopes PACE satellite will help unravel climate change mysteries
Europe approves LISA, a next-generation space mission that will discover the faintest ripples in space-time
Ben Turner
Sat, January 27, 2024
An artist's impression of the LISA detector, and the gravitational waves it will search for.
Ben Turner
Sat, January 27, 2024
An artist's impression of the LISA detector, and the gravitational waves it will search for.
The European Space Agency and NASA have greenlit their Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) project — a gigantic space-based gravitational wave detector set to detect the ripples in space-time caused when the huge black holes at the centers of galaxies collide with other massive objects.
The detector will consist of three spacecraft floating 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) apart, forming a triangle of laser light that can detect distortions in space caused by the universe-rattling impacts of neutron stars and black holes.
The interferometer follows the same principles as the existing, ground-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) experiment that first detected gravitational waves in 2015. But LISA's million-fold increase in scale will enable it to detect lower-frequency gravitational waves, revealing cosmic crashes currently inaccessible to LIGO.
Related: 'Tsunami' of gravitational waves sets record for most ever space-time ripples detected
"Using laser beams over distances of several kilometers, ground-based instrumentation can detect gravitational waves coming from events involving star-sized objects — such as supernova explosions or merging of hyper-dense stars and stellar-mass black holes. To expand the frontier of gravitational studies we must go to space," Nora Lützgendorf, LISA lead project scientist, said in a statement. "Thanks to the huge distance traveled by the laser signals on LISA, and the superb stability of its instrumentation, we will probe gravitational waves of lower frequencies than is possible on Earth, uncovering events of a different scale, all the way back to the dawn of time."
Gravitational waves are the shock waves created in space-time when two extremely dense objects — such as neutron stars or black holes — collide.
The LIGO detector spots gravitational waves by picking up the tiny distortions in the fabric of space-time that these waves make as they pass through Earth. The L-shaped detector has two arms with two identical laser beams inside, each 2.48-miles (4 kilometers) long.
When a gravitational wave laps at our cosmic shores, the laser in one arm of the LIGO detector is compressed and the other expands, alerting scientists to the wave's presence. But the tiny scale of this warping (often the size of a few thousandths of a proton or neutron) means that detectors have to be incredibly sensitive — and the longer these detectors are, the more sensitive they become.
LISA's constellation of three spacecraft, whose construction will begin in 2025, will house three Rubik's-cube-sized gold-platinum cubes firing laser beams into each others' telescopes millions of miles away.
As the satellites follow Earth in its orbit around the sun, any miniscule disruptions to the path lengths between them will be registered by LISA and sent back to scientists. Then, researchers will be able to use the precise changes to each beam to triangulate where the gravitational disturbances come from, pointing optical telescopes at them for further investigation.
RELATED STORIES
—To Hunt Gravitational Waves, Scientists Had to Create the Quietest Spot on Earth
—One of the world's largest lasers could be used to detect alien warp drives
—Physicists want to use gravitational waves to 'see' the beginning of time
And because gravitational ripples are generated even before super-heavy astronomical objects touch, LISA will give scientists months of advanced warning before a collision is visible to optical telescopes.
The detector's unprecedented sensitivity will also open a window to some of the faintest ripples originating from events in the epoch of cosmic dawn — the gory aftermath of the Big Bang — and probe some of cosmology's biggest and most pressing questions.
The telescope, made as part of a collaboration between ESA, NASA and international scientists, will be lifted to the heavens on board an Ariane 3 rocket in 2035.
The moon could be perfect for cutting-edge telescopes — but not if we don't protect it
Leonard David
Sat, January 27, 2024
An illustration of a large telescope suspended in side a crater on the moon.
Space scientists are eager to protect the option of doing astronomy from the moon.
There are plans in the works to place astronomical hardware on the lunar landscape such as super-cooled infrared telescopes, a swath of gravitational wave detectors, large Arecibo-like radio telescopes, even peek-a-boo instruments tuned up to seek out evidence for "out there" aliens.
Yes, the future of lunar astronomy beckons. But some scientists say there's an urgent need to protect any moon-based astronomical equipment from interference caused by other planned activities on the moon, ensuring they can carry out their mission of probing the surrounding universe.
To that end, efforts are ongoing to scope out and create policy in conjunction with the United Nations in the hope of fostering international support for such protections.
Related: Gravitational wave detectors on the moon could be more sensitive than those on Earth
Global agreements
This action plan is spearheaded by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The IAU brings together more than 12,000 active professional astronomers from over 100 countries worldwide.
Richard Green is chair of the IAU group specific to looking at the issues of staging astronomy from the moon. He is also an assistant director for government relations at Steward Observatory, run by the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The IAU working group is aiming to collaborate with a number of other non-governmental organizations to protect the option of doing astronomy from the moon, Green tells Space.com.
A number of participants in the IAU working group are spectrum managers from radio observatories, strongly linked to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and ITU's World Radiocommunication Conference, a treaty-level forum to review and revise, if necessary, radio regulations and global agreements regarding use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits.
The working group members want to maximize the range of protected frequencies, "including the very low frequencies needed to study the early universe and auroral emissions from planets," Green says.
Equitable access
The other approach, says Green is for protection of sites on the moon that might be suitable for cooled infrared telescopes or gravitational wave detector arrays.
"We have common cause with those who want to protect historical legacy sites and even those who want dedicated sites for extracting water or minerals," Green says. "We imagine that the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is the venue in which some process can be developed to claim a site for protection and to resolve competing claims."
The IAU Astronomy from the moon working group has space law and policy experts who can provide a strong basis for that approach, Green says.
"Of course, the main goal is to conduct astronomical observations that can be uniquely done from the moon," Green explains. The working group is embracing the expertise of principal investigators of lunar missions or concepts for missions.
Doing so, Green says, can help engage the astronomical community in prioritizing sites of extreme scientific interest and take in issues of conducting science in an environment for which "equitable access" is anchored in the spirit of the United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
an illustration of a large gold dish inside a crater on the moon
Clearly required
A thumbs-up approval of the IAU initiative is Ian Crawford, a professor of planetary science and astrobiology at Birkbeck College, London.
"My own view is that a subset of lunar locations, for example specific polar craters and key far side locations, need to be designated as 'Sites of Special Scientific Importance' and protected as such, Crawford told Space.com.
A possible model, Crawford suggests, might be the Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) as defined in Annex V of the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty.
"In any case, international coordination is clearly required so United Nations involvement appears entirely appropriate," Crawford says.
Private partnerships
NASA is working with several U.S. firms to deliver science and technology to the moon's surface by way of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
Given the uptick in future CLPS-enabled robotic lunar exploration, we are about to the see the first NASA-funded science payloads landed there in over 51 years — since the Apollo 17 human moon landing in December 1972, says Jack Burns, professor emeritus in the department of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
One payload, for which Burns serves as co-investigator, is called the Radio Wave Observations on the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES). If successful, it would be the first radio telescope on the moon and situated at the lunar south pole. ROLSES is to be emplaced there in February via the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar lander's IM-1 mission under the CLPS partnership.
a roughly cube-shaped spacecraft wrapped in gold foil on the moon
This will be followed in two years by the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night, or LuSEE-Night, slated to fly in 2026 aboard the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission-2 lander. This endeavor is also part of the CLPS undertaking and Burns is a science team member of the LUNAR far side experiment.
LuSee-Night is a radio telescope that will look into the never-before seen dark ages of the early universe — a time before the birth of the first stars.
Science fact
RELATED STORIES:
— A big telescope on the moon could peer deeper into the universe than James Webb
— Radio telescope on moon's far side will peer into universe's 'Dark Ages'
— Inflatable moon telescope could peer into universe's Dark Ages
With this potential and promising burgeoning of radio astronomy from the moon, Burns says "it is essential that we now develop international agreements to protect the far side of the moon for radio astronomy as it is the only truly radio-quiet site in the inner solar system."
Burns emphasizes that radio observations from the moon are no longer science fiction but science fact.
"We are entering a new era of science investigations from our nearest neighbor in space," Burns says.
Leonard David
Sat, January 27, 2024
An illustration of a large telescope suspended in side a crater on the moon.
Space scientists are eager to protect the option of doing astronomy from the moon.
There are plans in the works to place astronomical hardware on the lunar landscape such as super-cooled infrared telescopes, a swath of gravitational wave detectors, large Arecibo-like radio telescopes, even peek-a-boo instruments tuned up to seek out evidence for "out there" aliens.
Yes, the future of lunar astronomy beckons. But some scientists say there's an urgent need to protect any moon-based astronomical equipment from interference caused by other planned activities on the moon, ensuring they can carry out their mission of probing the surrounding universe.
To that end, efforts are ongoing to scope out and create policy in conjunction with the United Nations in the hope of fostering international support for such protections.
Related: Gravitational wave detectors on the moon could be more sensitive than those on Earth
Global agreements
This action plan is spearheaded by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The IAU brings together more than 12,000 active professional astronomers from over 100 countries worldwide.
Richard Green is chair of the IAU group specific to looking at the issues of staging astronomy from the moon. He is also an assistant director for government relations at Steward Observatory, run by the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The IAU working group is aiming to collaborate with a number of other non-governmental organizations to protect the option of doing astronomy from the moon, Green tells Space.com.
A number of participants in the IAU working group are spectrum managers from radio observatories, strongly linked to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and ITU's World Radiocommunication Conference, a treaty-level forum to review and revise, if necessary, radio regulations and global agreements regarding use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits.
The working group members want to maximize the range of protected frequencies, "including the very low frequencies needed to study the early universe and auroral emissions from planets," Green says.
Equitable access
The other approach, says Green is for protection of sites on the moon that might be suitable for cooled infrared telescopes or gravitational wave detector arrays.
"We have common cause with those who want to protect historical legacy sites and even those who want dedicated sites for extracting water or minerals," Green says. "We imagine that the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is the venue in which some process can be developed to claim a site for protection and to resolve competing claims."
The IAU Astronomy from the moon working group has space law and policy experts who can provide a strong basis for that approach, Green says.
"Of course, the main goal is to conduct astronomical observations that can be uniquely done from the moon," Green explains. The working group is embracing the expertise of principal investigators of lunar missions or concepts for missions.
Doing so, Green says, can help engage the astronomical community in prioritizing sites of extreme scientific interest and take in issues of conducting science in an environment for which "equitable access" is anchored in the spirit of the United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
an illustration of a large gold dish inside a crater on the moon
Clearly required
A thumbs-up approval of the IAU initiative is Ian Crawford, a professor of planetary science and astrobiology at Birkbeck College, London.
"My own view is that a subset of lunar locations, for example specific polar craters and key far side locations, need to be designated as 'Sites of Special Scientific Importance' and protected as such, Crawford told Space.com.
A possible model, Crawford suggests, might be the Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) as defined in Annex V of the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty.
"In any case, international coordination is clearly required so United Nations involvement appears entirely appropriate," Crawford says.
Private partnerships
NASA is working with several U.S. firms to deliver science and technology to the moon's surface by way of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
Given the uptick in future CLPS-enabled robotic lunar exploration, we are about to the see the first NASA-funded science payloads landed there in over 51 years — since the Apollo 17 human moon landing in December 1972, says Jack Burns, professor emeritus in the department of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
One payload, for which Burns serves as co-investigator, is called the Radio Wave Observations on the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES). If successful, it would be the first radio telescope on the moon and situated at the lunar south pole. ROLSES is to be emplaced there in February via the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar lander's IM-1 mission under the CLPS partnership.
a roughly cube-shaped spacecraft wrapped in gold foil on the moon
This will be followed in two years by the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night, or LuSEE-Night, slated to fly in 2026 aboard the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission-2 lander. This endeavor is also part of the CLPS undertaking and Burns is a science team member of the LUNAR far side experiment.
LuSee-Night is a radio telescope that will look into the never-before seen dark ages of the early universe — a time before the birth of the first stars.
Science fact
RELATED STORIES:
— A big telescope on the moon could peer deeper into the universe than James Webb
— Radio telescope on moon's far side will peer into universe's 'Dark Ages'
— Inflatable moon telescope could peer into universe's Dark Ages
With this potential and promising burgeoning of radio astronomy from the moon, Burns says "it is essential that we now develop international agreements to protect the far side of the moon for radio astronomy as it is the only truly radio-quiet site in the inner solar system."
Burns emphasizes that radio observations from the moon are no longer science fiction but science fact.
"We are entering a new era of science investigations from our nearest neighbor in space," Burns says.
Black holes are rampaging through our universe at more than 2.2 million mph and scientists think they now know why
Maiya Focht
Sat, January 27, 2024
Scientists have created new computer simulations to study what happens during a supernova.
Their models show that sometimes when stars die, they form a black hole that goes screaming into space.
These black holes get kicked into space, moving as fast as 1,000 kilometers per second.
Scientists studying how supernovas explode may have discovered a new process for how certain black holes form.
Turns out, some baby black holes hit the ground running at colossal speeds just moments after they take shape.
Typically, black holes form from the core of a supermassive star after it explodes in a brilliant burst of light, called a supernova. The core accretes, or collects, left-over gas from the star's guts, until it grows to be so dense, that it forms a black hole.
A supernova explosion can be so bright that it outshines an entire galaxy. MARK GARLICK/Getty Images
However, the speed, shape, and size of the initial explosion varies widely depending on the mass and density of the parent star before it explodes.
Moreover, those factors play a key role in what happens to the star's core and how it may form a black hole, according to a new study posted on the preprint server ArXiv.
For example, when a parent star is of relatively low mass and very compact, computer simulations suggest that it will explode symmetrically, forming a near-perfect sphere.
When supermassive stars die and explode, that explosion may be symmetrical or asymmetrical.MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images
But when the star is very massive and less compact, the supernova is more asymmetrical and the explosion typically lasts longer, according to the new study.
"So you're exploding in one direction more than other directions, and in those other directions, it's very possible that you have continued significant accretion," that could lead to a black hole, Adam Burrows, the lead author of the paper and a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, told Business Insider.
Something else happens from supernova explosions. The stellar remnant gets a kick into the universe, and when the explosion is asymmetrical, that kick can be pretty intense, Burrows said.
The kick is exactly what it sounds like. The object — a black hole in this case — is sent flying off into space, sometimes at colossal speeds of up to 1,000 kilometers per second, or about 2.2 million mph.
Asymmetrical explosions can lead to powerful kicks that send black holes shooting into space at over 2 million mph. MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
It's like the recoil from a gun after firing a bullet, Vijay Varma, an assistant professor in of mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider.
So, for a brief while after birth, these black holes may be moving throughout space, sometimes as fast as 1,000 kilometers per second, the paper theorizes. But this movement is probably temporary, and somewhat rare, Burrows said.
"They're not zooming around, and circling, and causing all sorts of damage as they stay inside the galaxy," Burrows said.
Building a universe inside a computer
Burrows and his colleagues used super computers to run their simulations that involved tens of millions of zones.NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh)
The new study includes 20, 3-D simulations of a supernova explosion.
"This is the largest set of long-term (many seconds after bounce) 3D state-of-the-art core-collapse simulations ever created," the researchers reported in the paper.
Previous simulations of this type of scenario have been too short to arrive at conclusions about how stellar cores are then shot out into the universe, Burrows said.
That's because these computer simulations take tens of millions of zones, and each zone contains information about the windspeed, temperature, barometric pressure, and other features of this theoretical environment, like mapping weather.
Think of all the complexities of building a universe inside a computer. Not many academic programs have access to super computers that are able to build these simulations, Burrows said.
Though Varma doesn't study supernova death, he said that theoretical work like this has implications for many other fields of astrophysical research.
Don't worry, these blazing-fast black holes probably won't be interrupting our solar system any time soon.NASA
"All of this theory is very important. And as we connect them to observations, we can try to trace the evolution of the black holes back in time," Varma said.
If the black holes are moving
If you hear blazing-fast black holes and start to panic, don't. Burrows said it is incredibly unlikely that these blackholes would travel into our solar system.
Space is so vast, Varma added, that you'd be better off betting on the lottery than waiting for a black hole to come visit our solar system. "It's astronomically unlikely that anything like that will happen," he said.
In the unlikely scenario that a black hole or a neutron was headed towards us, Burrows said, "then it would be a bad day."
This is what it might look like if a black hole obliterated a planet like Earth.
Maiya Focht
Sat, January 27, 2024
Scientists have created new computer simulations to study what happens during a supernova.
Their models show that sometimes when stars die, they form a black hole that goes screaming into space.
These black holes get kicked into space, moving as fast as 1,000 kilometers per second.
Scientists studying how supernovas explode may have discovered a new process for how certain black holes form.
Turns out, some baby black holes hit the ground running at colossal speeds just moments after they take shape.
Typically, black holes form from the core of a supermassive star after it explodes in a brilliant burst of light, called a supernova. The core accretes, or collects, left-over gas from the star's guts, until it grows to be so dense, that it forms a black hole.
A supernova explosion can be so bright that it outshines an entire galaxy. MARK GARLICK/Getty Images
However, the speed, shape, and size of the initial explosion varies widely depending on the mass and density of the parent star before it explodes.
Moreover, those factors play a key role in what happens to the star's core and how it may form a black hole, according to a new study posted on the preprint server ArXiv.
For example, when a parent star is of relatively low mass and very compact, computer simulations suggest that it will explode symmetrically, forming a near-perfect sphere.
When supermassive stars die and explode, that explosion may be symmetrical or asymmetrical.MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images
But when the star is very massive and less compact, the supernova is more asymmetrical and the explosion typically lasts longer, according to the new study.
"So you're exploding in one direction more than other directions, and in those other directions, it's very possible that you have continued significant accretion," that could lead to a black hole, Adam Burrows, the lead author of the paper and a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, told Business Insider.
Something else happens from supernova explosions. The stellar remnant gets a kick into the universe, and when the explosion is asymmetrical, that kick can be pretty intense, Burrows said.
The kick is exactly what it sounds like. The object — a black hole in this case — is sent flying off into space, sometimes at colossal speeds of up to 1,000 kilometers per second, or about 2.2 million mph.
Asymmetrical explosions can lead to powerful kicks that send black holes shooting into space at over 2 million mph. MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
It's like the recoil from a gun after firing a bullet, Vijay Varma, an assistant professor in of mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider.
So, for a brief while after birth, these black holes may be moving throughout space, sometimes as fast as 1,000 kilometers per second, the paper theorizes. But this movement is probably temporary, and somewhat rare, Burrows said.
"They're not zooming around, and circling, and causing all sorts of damage as they stay inside the galaxy," Burrows said.
Building a universe inside a computer
Burrows and his colleagues used super computers to run their simulations that involved tens of millions of zones.NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh)
The new study includes 20, 3-D simulations of a supernova explosion.
"This is the largest set of long-term (many seconds after bounce) 3D state-of-the-art core-collapse simulations ever created," the researchers reported in the paper.
Previous simulations of this type of scenario have been too short to arrive at conclusions about how stellar cores are then shot out into the universe, Burrows said.
That's because these computer simulations take tens of millions of zones, and each zone contains information about the windspeed, temperature, barometric pressure, and other features of this theoretical environment, like mapping weather.
Think of all the complexities of building a universe inside a computer. Not many academic programs have access to super computers that are able to build these simulations, Burrows said.
Though Varma doesn't study supernova death, he said that theoretical work like this has implications for many other fields of astrophysical research.
Don't worry, these blazing-fast black holes probably won't be interrupting our solar system any time soon.NASA
"All of this theory is very important. And as we connect them to observations, we can try to trace the evolution of the black holes back in time," Varma said.
If the black holes are moving
If you hear blazing-fast black holes and start to panic, don't. Burrows said it is incredibly unlikely that these blackholes would travel into our solar system.
Space is so vast, Varma added, that you'd be better off betting on the lottery than waiting for a black hole to come visit our solar system. "It's astronomically unlikely that anything like that will happen," he said.
In the unlikely scenario that a black hole or a neutron was headed towards us, Burrows said, "then it would be a bad day."
This is what it might look like if a black hole obliterated a planet like Earth.
MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The fact that our planet and the rest of the solar system have survived for the last 4.5 billion years should be reassurance enough that a black hole won't come screaming through our neighborhood anytime soon, if ever.
The study has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal.
The fact that our planet and the rest of the solar system have survived for the last 4.5 billion years should be reassurance enough that a black hole won't come screaming through our neighborhood anytime soon, if ever.
The study has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal.
2024 is a big year for the sun. This Helio year, see a total eclipse, solar storms, and NASA almost landing on our star.
Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Sat, January 27, 2024
The sun develops coronal holes, one of many forms of solar activity that could peak this year.NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
The sun has a big year in 2024, starting with a total solar eclipse across the US.
As the sun builds to maximum activity, watch out for the northern lights too.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft ever, almost landing on it.
The sun was showing off all last year, with dramatic eruptions, sunspots, giant "holes," and even a 14-earths-high tornado of plasma. But 2024 may be our star's biggest year yet.
That's what giddy NASA scientists told reporters at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in December. In true NASA fashion, they're calling it the "heliophysics big year."
One of the main events this year will be a historically cool total solar eclipse crossing the US in April. It's estimated up to 7.4 million people will travel to the path of totality to witness the rare event.
Another exciting event involves NASA's prime solar probe, which is set to skim the sun's surface in December, flying closer than any previous spacecraft.
In a total solar eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun as seen from Earth, darkening the sky.Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters
Meanwhile, the Northern and Southern Lights are sure to have an impressive year, as well.
Already, we've seen beautiful aurora reach as far south as Arizona within the last year. And as stormy activity on the sun, which helps spark aurora worldwide, is set to increase, we could continue to see the Northern Lights illuminate skies across the US at unusually low latitudes.
For viewers in Australia, New Zealand, and South America, the Southern Lights (aurora australis) will surely make spectacular displays too.
Northern Lights, also called aurora borealis, dance in the sky over Tromso, Norway.NTB/Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/Reuters
It will be about 11 years — a full solar cycle — before the aurora is so active again.
"The sun touches everything, and we are challenging you to experience the sun in as many ways as possible," Kelly Korreck, NASA's program manager for the upcoming eclipse, said during the AGU roundtable.
The sun's big year kicks off with a total eclipse
NASA employees use protective glasses to view a partial solar eclipse.NASA/Connie Moore
While the rest of us put on our eclipse glasses or look out for the pink and green ribbons of the aurora, astronomers will be busy at work. This year's solar events are a huge scientific opportunity.
For example, NASA is launching three rockets during the April total solar eclipse, loaded with instruments to study how the sudden darkness changes our upper atmosphere.
A total solar eclipse offers scientists a unique opportunity to observe the corona — the outer layer of the sun's atmosphere. The corona is over 100 times hotter than the sun's surface, but scientists can't explain why and it's one of the biggest mysteries in our solar system. Because the moon blocks the main disc of the sun during an eclipse, only the corona is visible.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe and the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter will also be watching the eclipse from two different vantage points in space, as they orbit close to the sun. That extra data can help scientists get 3D observations of the corona, as well as validate measurements from Earth-based observatories.
That's just one fleeting moment of the sun's big year. Throughout 2024, as solar activity builds, countless observatories and physicists will be watching closely.
The sun will get more and more active
An X-class solar flare erupts off the sun.NASA/SDO
When the sun belches plasma and charged particles into space, they can speed toward Earth, travel down our planet's magnetic field lines toward the poles, and interact with molecules in our atmosphere to make the aurora. They can also bump satellites out of orbit and surge through technologies on the ground, triggering radio blackouts and meddling with GPS.
There's always a steady flow of this "solar wind," but eruptions on the sun can send a powerful flood of solar wind careening toward our planet. That's what scientists call space weather. These storms are happening more and more as the sun climbs toward peak activity.
An animation of the solar wind shows particles from the sun washing over Earth.NASA
People on Earth are safe from these blasts of solar activity, with the exception of rare cases where they might cause power or radio blackouts. But as NASA and other space agencies send humans back to the moon and on to Mars, space weather will become a safety issue for them.
Studying solar eruptions and flares can help scientists forecast space weather better in the future. That could be crucial for long-distance spaceflights.
"If we want to win the race to Mars then we have to have awareness of space weather all over the place," Nour Raouafi, a lead scientist for the Parker Solar Probe, said at the roundtable.
NASA to almost land on the sun at the end of the year
An artist's concept of NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission passing by the sun.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
The "crown jewel" of the sun's big year comes on December 24, though, Raouafi said. That's when the Parker Solar Probe will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft has ever gone, about 3.8 million miles from its surface.
For comparison, Earth is 93 million miles from the sun.
On this close flyby, the probe will face unfathomably extreme heat and radiation, with temperatures as high as 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
Collecting data so close to the source of the solar wind will help scientists understand how it forms. It will also fuel the study of the corona.
"This is a monumental achievement for all of humanity. This is equivalent to the moon landing of '69. Now we are basically almost landing on a star," Raouafi said.
Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Sat, January 27, 2024
The sun develops coronal holes, one of many forms of solar activity that could peak this year.NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
The sun has a big year in 2024, starting with a total solar eclipse across the US.
As the sun builds to maximum activity, watch out for the northern lights too.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft ever, almost landing on it.
The sun was showing off all last year, with dramatic eruptions, sunspots, giant "holes," and even a 14-earths-high tornado of plasma. But 2024 may be our star's biggest year yet.
That's what giddy NASA scientists told reporters at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in December. In true NASA fashion, they're calling it the "heliophysics big year."
One of the main events this year will be a historically cool total solar eclipse crossing the US in April. It's estimated up to 7.4 million people will travel to the path of totality to witness the rare event.
Another exciting event involves NASA's prime solar probe, which is set to skim the sun's surface in December, flying closer than any previous spacecraft.
In a total solar eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun as seen from Earth, darkening the sky.Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters
Meanwhile, the Northern and Southern Lights are sure to have an impressive year, as well.
Already, we've seen beautiful aurora reach as far south as Arizona within the last year. And as stormy activity on the sun, which helps spark aurora worldwide, is set to increase, we could continue to see the Northern Lights illuminate skies across the US at unusually low latitudes.
For viewers in Australia, New Zealand, and South America, the Southern Lights (aurora australis) will surely make spectacular displays too.
Northern Lights, also called aurora borealis, dance in the sky over Tromso, Norway.NTB/Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/Reuters
It will be about 11 years — a full solar cycle — before the aurora is so active again.
"The sun touches everything, and we are challenging you to experience the sun in as many ways as possible," Kelly Korreck, NASA's program manager for the upcoming eclipse, said during the AGU roundtable.
The sun's big year kicks off with a total eclipse
NASA employees use protective glasses to view a partial solar eclipse.NASA/Connie Moore
While the rest of us put on our eclipse glasses or look out for the pink and green ribbons of the aurora, astronomers will be busy at work. This year's solar events are a huge scientific opportunity.
For example, NASA is launching three rockets during the April total solar eclipse, loaded with instruments to study how the sudden darkness changes our upper atmosphere.
A total solar eclipse offers scientists a unique opportunity to observe the corona — the outer layer of the sun's atmosphere. The corona is over 100 times hotter than the sun's surface, but scientists can't explain why and it's one of the biggest mysteries in our solar system. Because the moon blocks the main disc of the sun during an eclipse, only the corona is visible.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe and the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter will also be watching the eclipse from two different vantage points in space, as they orbit close to the sun. That extra data can help scientists get 3D observations of the corona, as well as validate measurements from Earth-based observatories.
That's just one fleeting moment of the sun's big year. Throughout 2024, as solar activity builds, countless observatories and physicists will be watching closely.
The sun will get more and more active
An X-class solar flare erupts off the sun.NASA/SDO
When the sun belches plasma and charged particles into space, they can speed toward Earth, travel down our planet's magnetic field lines toward the poles, and interact with molecules in our atmosphere to make the aurora. They can also bump satellites out of orbit and surge through technologies on the ground, triggering radio blackouts and meddling with GPS.
There's always a steady flow of this "solar wind," but eruptions on the sun can send a powerful flood of solar wind careening toward our planet. That's what scientists call space weather. These storms are happening more and more as the sun climbs toward peak activity.
An animation of the solar wind shows particles from the sun washing over Earth.NASA
People on Earth are safe from these blasts of solar activity, with the exception of rare cases where they might cause power or radio blackouts. But as NASA and other space agencies send humans back to the moon and on to Mars, space weather will become a safety issue for them.
Studying solar eruptions and flares can help scientists forecast space weather better in the future. That could be crucial for long-distance spaceflights.
"If we want to win the race to Mars then we have to have awareness of space weather all over the place," Nour Raouafi, a lead scientist for the Parker Solar Probe, said at the roundtable.
NASA to almost land on the sun at the end of the year
An artist's concept of NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission passing by the sun.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
The "crown jewel" of the sun's big year comes on December 24, though, Raouafi said. That's when the Parker Solar Probe will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft has ever gone, about 3.8 million miles from its surface.
For comparison, Earth is 93 million miles from the sun.
On this close flyby, the probe will face unfathomably extreme heat and radiation, with temperatures as high as 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
Collecting data so close to the source of the solar wind will help scientists understand how it forms. It will also fuel the study of the corona.
"This is a monumental achievement for all of humanity. This is equivalent to the moon landing of '69. Now we are basically almost landing on a star," Raouafi said.
No comments:
Post a Comment