In six new rogue worlds, Webb Telescope finds more star birth clues
image:
New image from the James Webb Space Telescope spectroscopic survey of NGC1333.
view moreCredit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana
The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted six likely rogue worlds—objects with planetlike masses but untethered from any star’s gravity—including the lightest ever identified with a dusty disk around it.
The elusive objects offer new evidence that the same cosmic processes that give birth to stars may also play a common role in making objects only slightly bigger than Jupiter.
“We are probing the very limits of the star forming process,” said lead author Adam Langeveld, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University. “If you have an object that looks like a young Jupiter, is it possible that it could have become a star under the right conditions? This is important context for understanding both star and planet formation.”
The findings come from Webb’s deepest survey of the young nebula NGC1333, a star-forming cluster about a thousand light-years away in the Perseus constellation. A new image from the survey released today by the European Space Agency shows NGC1333 glowing with dramatic displays of interstellar dust and clouds. A paper detailing the survey’s findings has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.
Webb’s data suggest the discovered worlds are gas giants 5-10 times more massive than Jupiter. That means they are among the lowest-mass objects ever found to have grown from a process that would generally produce stars and brown dwarfs, objects straddling the boundary between stars and planets that never ignite hydrogen fusion and fade over time.
“We used Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity at infrared wavelengths to search for the faintest members of a young star cluster, seeking to address a fundamental question in astronomy: How light an object can form like a star?” said Johns Hopkins Provost Ray Jayawardhana, an astrophysicist and senior author of the study. “It turns out the smallest free-floating objects that form like stars overlap in mass with giant exoplanets circling nearby stars.”
The telescope’s observations revealed no objects lower than five Jupiter masses despite possessing sufficient sensitivity to detect such bodies. That’s a strong indication that any stellar objects lighter than this threshold are more likely to form the way planets do, the authors concluded.
“Our observations confirm that nature produces planetary mass objects in at least two different ways—from the contraction of a cloud of gas and dust, the way stars form, and in disks of gas and dust around young stars, as Jupiter in our own solar system did,” Jayawardhana said.
The most intriguing of the starless objects is also the lightest, having an estimated mass of five Jupiters (about 1,600 Earths). The presence of a dusty disk means the object almost certainly formed like a star, as space dust generally spins around a central object in the early stages of star formation, said Langeveld, a postdoctoral researcher in Jayawardhana’s group.
Disks are also a prerequisite for the formation of planets, suggesting the observations may also have important implications for potential “mini” planets.
“Those tiny objects with masses comparable to giant planets may themselves be able to form their own planets,” said co-author Aleks Scholz, an astrophysicist at the University of St Andrews. “This might be a nursery of a miniature planetary system, on a scale much smaller than our solar system.”
Using the NIRISS instrument on Webb, the astronomers measured the infrared light profile (or spectrum) of every object in the observed portion of the star cluster and reanalyzed 19 known brown dwarfs. They also discovered a new brown dwarf with a planetary-mass companion, a rare finding that challenges theories of how binary systems form.
“It’s likely that such a pair formed the way binary star systems do, from a cloud fragmenting as it contracted,” Jayawardhana said. “The diversity of systems that nature has produced is remarkable and pushes us to refine our models of star and planet formation.”
Rogue worlds may originate from collapsing molecular clouds that lack the mass for the nuclear fusion that powers stars. They can also form when gas and dust in disks around stars coalesce into planetlike orbs that are eventually ejected from their star systems, probably because of gravitational interactions with other bodies.
These free-floating objects blur classifications of celestial bodies because their masses overlap with gas giants and brown dwarfs. Even though such objects are considered rare in the Milky Way galaxy, the new Webb data show they account for about 10% of celestial bodies in the targeted star cluster.
In the coming months, the team will study more of the faint objects’ atmospheres and compare them to heavier brown dwarfs and gas giant planets. They have also been awarded time on the Webb telescope to study similar objects with dusty disks to explore the possibility of forming mini planetary systems resembling Jupiter’s and Saturn’s numerous moons.
Other authors are Koraljka Mužić and Daniel Capela of Universidade de Lisboa; Loïc Albert, René Doyon, and David Lafrèniere of Université de Montréal; Laura Flagg of Johns Hopkins; Matthew de Furio of University of Texas at Austin; Doug Johnstone of Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre; and Michael Meyer of University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
The Deep Spectroscopic Survey for Young Brown Dwarfs and Free-Floating Planets used the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency.
The authors acknowledge support from the UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the National Research Council of Canada.
NGC1333_b
New wide field view mosaic from the James Webb Space Telescope spectroscopic survey of NGC1333 with three of the newly discovered free-floating planetary-mass objects indicated by green markers.
Credit
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana
Journal
The Astronomical Journal
Article Title
The JWST/NIRISS Deep Spectroscopic Survey for Young Brown Dwarfs and Free-Floating Planets
Event horizon telescope makes highest-resolution black hole detections from Earth
image:
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has made the first very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) detections at 345 GHz from the surface of Earth. The new experiment used two small subarrays of the EHT—made up of ALMA and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) in Chile, the IRAM 30-meter telescope in Spain, the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France, the Submillimeter Array (SMA) on Mauna Kea in Hawaiʻi, and the Greenland Telescope—to make measurements with resolution as fine as 19 microarcseconds.
view moreCredit: CfA/SAO, Mel Weiss
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has conducted test observations achieving the highest resolution ever obtained from the surface of the Earth, by detecting light from the centers of distant galaxies at a frequency of around 345 GHz.
When combined with existing images of supermassive black holes at the hearts of M87 and Sgr A at the lower frequency of 230 GHz, these new results will not only make black hole photographs 50% crisper but also produce multi-color views of the region immediately outside the boundary of these cosmic beasts.
The new detections, led by scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) that includes the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), were published today in The Astronomical Journal.
“With the EHT, we saw the first images of black holes by detecting radio waves at 230 GHz, but the bright ring we saw, formed by light bending in the black hole’s gravity still looked blurry because we were at the absolute limits of how sharp we could make the images,” said paper co-lead Alexander Raymond, previously a postdoctoral scholar at the CfA, and now at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL). “At 345 GHz, our images will be sharper and more detailed, which in turn will likely reveal new properties, both those that were previously predicted and maybe some that weren’t.”
The EHT creates a virtual Earth-sized telescope by linking together multiple radio dishes across the globe, using a technique called very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI). To get higher-resolution images, astronomers have two options: increase the distance between radio dishes or observe at a higher frequency. Since the EHT was already the size of our planet, increasing the resolution of ground-based observations required expanding its frequency range, and that’s what the EHT Collaboration has now done.
”To understand why this is a breakthrough, consider the burst of extra detail you get when going from black and white photos to color,” said paper co-lead Sheperd “Shep” Doeleman, an astrophysicist at the CfA and SAO, and Founding Director of the EHT. “This new ‘color vision’ allows us to tease apart the effects of Einstein’s gravity from the hot gas and magnetic fields that feed the black holes and launch powerful jets that stream over galactic distances.”
A prism splits white light into a rainbow of colors because different wavelengths of light travel at different speeds through glass. But gravity bends all light similarly, so Einstein predicts that the size of the rings seen by the EHT should be similar at both 230 GHz and 345 GHz, while the hot gas swirling around the black holes will look different at these two frequencies.
This is the first time the VLBI technique has been successfully used at a frequency of 345 GHz. While the ability to observe the night sky with single telescopes at 345 GHz existed before, using the VLBI technique at this frequency has long presented challenges that took time and technological advances to overcome. Water vapor in the atmosphere absorbs waves at 345 GHz much more than at 230 GHz weakening the signals from black holes at the higher frequency. The key was to improve the sensitivity of the EHT, which the researchers did by increasing the bandwidth of the instrumentation and waiting for good weather at all sites.
The new experiment used two small subarrays of the EHT—made up of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) in Chile, the IRAM 30-meter telescope in Spain, the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France, the Submillimeter Array (SMA) on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi, and the Greenland Telescope—to make measurements with resolution as fine as 19 microarcseconds.
“The most powerful observing locations on Earth exist at high altitudes, where atmospheric transparency and stability is optimal but weather can be more dramatic,” said Nimesh Patel, an astrophysicist at the CfA and SAO, and a project engineer at SMA, adding that at the SMA, the new observations required braving icy roads at Maunakea to open the array in the stable weather after a snow storm with minutes to spare. “Now, with high-bandwidth systems that process and capture wider swaths of the radio spectrum, we are starting to overcome basic problems in sensitivity, like weather. The time is right, as the new detections prove, to advance to 345 GHz.”
This achievement also provides another stepping stone on the path to creating high-fidelity movies of the event horizon environment surrounding black holes, which will rely on upgrades to the existing global array. The planned next-generation EHT (ngEHT) project will add new antennas to the EHT in optimized geographical locations and enhance existing stations by upgrading them all to work at multiple frequencies between 100 GHz and 345 GHz at the same time. As a result of these and other upgrades, the global array is expected to increase the amount of sharp, clear data EHT has for imaging by a factor of 10, enabling scientists to not only produce more detailed and sensitive images but also movies starring these violent cosmic beasts.
“The EHT's successful observation at 345 GHz is a major scientific milestone,” said Lisa Kewley, Director of CfA and SAO. “By pushing the limits of resolution, we’re achieving the unprecedented clarity in the imaging of black holes we promised early on, and setting new and higher standards for the capability of ground-based astrophysical research.”
Simulation of M87* at 230 GHz and 345 GHz
Side-by-side simulated images of M87* show the improvement in clarity and resolution from 230 GHz to 345 GHz. These improvements are allowing scientists to measure the size and shape of black holes more precisely.
Credit
EHT, D. Pesce, A. Chael
Multi-frequency Composite Simulated Image of M87*
This composite simulated image shows how M87* is seen by the Event Horizon Telescope at 86 GHz (red), 230 GHz (green), and 345 GHz (blue). The higher the frequency, the sharper the image becomes, revealing structure, size, and shape that was previously less discernible.
Credit
EHT, D. Pesce, A. Chael
Multi-frequency simulated images of M87*
On left, this composite simulated image shows how M87* is seen by the Event Horizon Telescope at 86 GHz (red), 230 GHz (green), and 345 GHz (blue). On right, 345 GHz is seen in dark blue, a more compact and sharper view of the supermassive black holes, followed by 230 GHz in green, and 86 GHz in red. The higher the frequency, the sharper the image becomes, revealing structure, size, and shape that was previously less discernible.
Credit
EHT, D. Pesce, A. Chael
Resource
“First Very Long Baseline Interferometry Detections at 870 μm,” A.W. Raymond, S. Doeleman, et al (2024), The Astronomical Journal, DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad5bdb
About the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, which includes the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, is a collaboration between Harvard and the Smithsonian designed to ask—and ultimately answer—humanity's greatest unresolved questions about the nature of the universe. The Center for Astrophysics is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with research facilities across the U.S. and around the world.
About the Submillimeter Array (SMA)
The Submillimeter Array is a joint project of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics. We acknowledge the significance that Maunakea, where the SMA is located, has for the indigenous Hawaiian people.
About the Greenland Telescope
The Greenland Telescope is a joint project of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academica Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
About EHT
The EHT Collaboration involves more than 400 researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, with around 270 participating in this paper. The international collaboration aims to capture the most detailed black hole images ever obtained by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. Supported by considerable international efforts, the EHT links existing telescopes using novel techniques—creating a fundamentally new instrument with the highest angular resolving power that has yet been achieved.
The EHT consortium consists of 13 stakeholder institutes; the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the University of Arizona, the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian including the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the University of Chicago, the East Asian Observatory, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique, Large Millimeter Telescope, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, MIT Haystack Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Radboud University.
Journal
The Astronomical Journal
Article Title
First Very Long Baseline Interferometry Detections at 870 μm
Article Publication Date
27-Aug-2024
HKU geologists discover hidden magmatism at the chang'e-6 lunar landing site, shedding light on solving fundamental scientific questions relating early evolution of the moon
The University of Hong Kong
image:
Figure 1. Chang’e-6 landing site locates to the southern Apollo basin in the northeast of the South Pole-Aitken basin, lunar farside.
view moreCredit: Y. Qian
Lunar igneous activities including intrusive and extrusive magmatism, and their products contain significant information about the lunar interior and its thermal state. Their distribution is asymmetrical on the nearside and farside, reflecting the global lunar dichotomy. In addition to previously returned lunar samples all from nearside (Apollo, Luna, and Chang’e-5), samples from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on the farside have long been thought to hold the key to rebalancing the asymmetrical understandings of the Moon and disclosing the lunar dichotomy conundrum.
Earlier this year, the Chang’e-6 mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, successfully launched on May 3, landed on the lunar surface on June 2, and returned to the Earth on June 25 carrying a total of 1935.3g of lunar soils. It is the world’s first lunar farside sample-return mission, which landed in the south of the Apollo basin within the SPA basin on the farside. These precious samples would open a window to solve the long-standing question of lunar dichotomy, even reshape human’s knowledge of our closest neighbour. However, compared with the well-known mare volcanism surrounding the Chang’e-6 landing site, the intrusive magmatic activities have a much more obscure presence and origin, impeding future sample analyses when they are available for application.
In a recent research paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Dr Yuqi QIAN, Professor Joseph MICHALSKI and Professor Guochun ZHAO from the Department of Earth Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and their domestic and international collaborators have comprehensively studied the intrusive magmatism of the Chang’e-6 landing site and its surroundings based on remote sensing data. The study revealed their extensive distributions and obscure nature with significant implications for the petrogenesis of lunar plutonic rocks and the Chang’e-6 mission, which will facilitate scientists’ further study of lunar farside.
Key Findings
The study has found that intrusive magmatism is widespread in the SPA basin. They occur in various forms including sills beneath floor-modified craters, linear and ring dikes shown by gravity data, and Mg-suite intrusions with characteristic spectral absorptions. These observations agree with the intermediate-thick crust of SPA where intrusion is favored. Landing in the SPA basin, Chang’e-6 likely collected plutonic rocks, excavated and transported by adjacent impact craters to the sampling site, that could be examined by the ongoing sample studies. They have discovered two heavily degraded floor-fractured craters (see Apollo X and Apollo Q craters in Figure 1), inspiring to identify more similar features on the Moon. All indicate that intrusive magmatism is abundant in the Chang’e-6 sampling region.
This study has traced potential plutonic materials in the Chang’e-6 samples and found that Mg-suite materials highly likely exist, primarily from the western peak ring of the Apollo basin delivered by Chaffee S crater. These Mg-rich materials contain crucial information on the origin of mysterious KREEP-poor Mg-suite rocks. Samples from both the intrusive and extrusive magmatism from the never sampled farside, especially the mysterious Mg-suite, will shed further light on solving the lunar dichotomy conundrum and a series of fundamental scientific questions relating to secondary crust building and early evolution of the Moon.
Professor Xianhua LI, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), and a leader of China’s lunar sample studies from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (CAS), said: ‘The results of this research set a significant geological framework to study plutonic rocks in the Chang’e-6 samples, especially Mg-suite rocks.’ Professor Li emphasised: ‘Their petrogenesis and timing are unclear, and this research would dramatically help to understand their origin mechanism.’
‘This research is an excellent example of HKU’s deep involvement in the China's Lunar Exploration Program,’ said Professor Guochun ZHAO, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Science and Chair Professor of Earth Sciences (HKU). ‘Lunar and space exploration programs are an important component of China's goal to become a scientific and technological power, and HKU’s proactive involvement in these programs will bring additional resources for Hong Kong to become an international centre for science and innovation,’ he continued.
HKU is the first university in Hong Kong that possesses lunar samples obtained by the Chang’e-5 mission. Building on the foundation of this work, the geologists from HKU will also pursue opportunities to study Chang’e-6 samples in the future and be more deeply involved in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program.
About Dr Yuqi QIAN
Dr Qian is a planetary geologist from the Department of Earth Sciences and Laboratory for Space Research at HKU. Dr Qian collaborates with domestic and international colleagues to study the geology of terrestrial planets in the Solar System. Dr Qian’s research mainly focuses on lunar geology and explorations based on orbital and rover data and returned lunar samples, especially those of China. Dr Qian has started participating in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program since 2016 and involved in Chang-5 and Chang’e-6 missions. He has published more than 35 papers with over 800 citations including those in top-tier journals that significantly help to study China’s lunar samples. Dr Qian is the 1st scientist in HK who successfully applied for lunar samples obtained by the nation and conducted research on them.
For more information about Dr Qian, please visit: https://yuqiqian.com.
About Professor Joseph MICHALSKI
Professor Michalski’s research focuses on uncovering discoveries about the volcanology, geochemistry, tectonics, and mineralogy of Mars, by utilising a range of remote sensing data, including infrared, visible, magnetic, gravity, and laser data from satellites orbiting Mars and rovers on its surface. He has established the Planetary Spectroscopy and Mineralogy Laboratory. This cutting-edge facility offers laboratory support for past, current, and future missions to Mars, the Moon, and asteroids in China and beyond. Professor Michalski is the 1st non-Chinese awardee of the Tencent Xplorer Prize and also a RGC Research Fellow. He serves as the deputy director of Laboratory for Space Research at HKU.
For more information about Professor Michalski, please visit: https://joeplanets.com
About Professor Guochun ZHAO
Professor Zhao is a highly esteemed geologist with international recognition, specialising in Precambrian Geology, metamorphic petrology, and tectonics. His contributions to the field, including over 450 scientific papers with more than 69,000 citations, earn him prestigious accolades. He was elected as an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019, a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries in 2021, and a member of Hong Kong Academy of Sciences in 2023. In the 2024 Best Scientists Rankings (Research.com), Professor Zhao stands 8th in the world and 1st in China in Earth Sciences. Professor Zhao is the director of NWU-HKU Joint Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences.
The journal paper can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad698f
For media enquiries, please contact Ms Casey To, Assistant Manager (Communications) (Tel: 3917 4948; Email: caseyto@hku.hk) / Ms Cindy Chan, Assistant Director of Communications of HKU Faculty of Science (Email: cindycst@hku.hk).
Image download and caption: https://www.scifac.hku.hk/press
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Extensive Intrusive Magmatism in the Lunar Farside Apollo and South Pole–Aitken Basins, Chang'e-6 Landing Site
Dark matter could have helped make supermassive black holes in the early universe
Radiation from dark matter may have kept hydrogen gas
hot enough to condense into black holes
Key takeaways
- Supermassive black holes typically take billions of years to form. But the James Webb Space Telescope is finding them not that long after the Big Bang — before they should have had time to form.
- UCLA astrophysicists have discovered that if dark matter decays, the photons it emits keep the hydrogen gas hot enough for gravity to gather it into giant clouds and eventually condense it into a supermassive black hole.
- In addition to explaining the existence of very early supermassive black holes, the finding lends support for the existence of a kind of dark matter capable of decaying into particles such as photons.
It takes a long time for supermassive black holes, like the one at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, to form. Typically, the birth of a black hole requires a giant star with the mass of at least 50 of our suns to burn out – a process that can take a billion years – and its core to collapse in on itself.
Even so, at only about 10 solar masses, the resulting black hole is a far cry from the 4 million-solar-masses black hole, Sagittarius A*, found in our Milky Way galaxy, or the billion-solar-mass supermassive black holes found in other galaxies. Such gigantic black holes can form from smaller black holes by accretion of gas and stars, and by mergers with other black holes, which take billions of years.
Why, then, is the James Webb Space Telescope discovering supermassive black holes near the beginning of time itself, eons before they should have been able to form? UCLA astrophysicists have an answer as mysterious as the black holes themselves: Dark matter kept hydrogen from cooling long enough for gravity to condense it into clouds big and dense enough to turn into black holes instead of stars. The finding is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
“How surprising it has been to find a supermassive black hole with a billion solar mass when the universe itself is only half a billion years old,” said senior author Alexander Kusenko, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA. “It’s like finding a modern car among dinosaur bones and wondering who built that car in the prehistoric times.”
Some astrophysicists have posited that a large cloud of gas could collapse to make a supermassive black hole directly, bypassing the long history of stellar burning, accretion and mergers. But there’s a catch: Gravity will, indeed, pull a large cloud of gas together, but not into one large cloud. Instead, it gathers sections of the gas into little halos that float near each other but don’t form a black hole.
The reason is because the gas cloud cools too quickly. As long as the gas is hot, its pressure can counter gravity. However, if the gas cools, pressure decreases, and gravity can prevail in many small regions, which collapse into dense objects before gravity has a chance to pull the entire cloud into a single black hole.
“How quickly the gas cools has a lot to do with the amount of molecular hydrogen,” said first author and doctoral student Yifan Lu. “Hydrogen atoms bonded together in a molecule dissipate energy when they encounter a loose hydrogen atom. The hydrogen molecules become cooling agents as they absorb thermal energy and radiate it away. Hydrogen clouds in the early universe had too much molecular hydrogen, and the gas cooled quickly and formed small halos instead of large clouds.”
Lu and postdoctoral researcher Zachary Picker wrote code to calculate all possible processes of this scenario and discovered that additional radiation can heat the gas and dissociate the hydrogen molecules, altering how the gas cools.
“If you add radiation in a certain energy range, it destroys molecular hydrogen and creates conditions that prevent fragmentation of large clouds,” Lu said.
But where does the radiation come from?
Only a very tiny portion of matter in the universe is the kind that makes up our bodies, our planet, the stars and everything else we can observe. The vast majority of matter, detected by its gravitational effects on stellar objects and by the bending of light rays from distant sources, is made of some new particles, which scientists have not yet identified.
The forms and properties of dark matter are therefore a mystery that remains to be solved. While we don’t know what dark matter is, particle theorists have long speculated that it could contain unstable particles which can decay into photons, the particles of light. Including such dark matter in the simulations provided the radiation needed for the gas to remain in a large cloud while it is collapsing into a black hole.
Dark matter could be made of particles that slowly decay, or it could be made of more than one particle species: some stable and some that decay at early times. In either case, the product of decay could be radiation in the form of photons, which break up molecular hydrogen and prevent hydrogen clouds from cooling too quickly. Even very mild decay of dark matter yielded enough radiation to prevent cooling, forming large clouds and, eventually, supermassive black holes.
“This could be the solution to why supermassive black holes are found very early on,” Picker said. “If you’re optimistic, you could also read this as positive evidence for one kind of dark matter. If these supermassive black holes formed by the collapse of a gas cloud, maybe the additional radiation required would have to come from the unknown physics of the dark sector.”
Journal
Physical Review Letters
EHT scientists make highest-resolution observations yet from the surface of Earth
image:
This artist’s impression shows the locations of multiple radio observatories across the planet, which participated in a pilot experiment conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration that obtained the highest-resolution observations from the ground. The test observations detected light from distant galaxies at a wavelength of 0.87 mm and were made with some of the observatories (in red) that are part of the EHT, a virtual Earth-sized telescope. One of these distant, point-like galaxies is represented on the top right, sending out radio signals all the way to Earth.
While non-ideal weather conditions hampered the observations at some of the sites, the team was able to observe multiple galaxies using multiple stations. Robust detections were made using different pairs of telescopes, indicated as glowing dots: the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) in the Atacama Desert in Chile, ALMA and the IRAM 30-meter telescope in Spain, and ALMA and the Submillimeter Array in Hawaiʻi.
The EHT Collaboration is famous for connecting telescopes around the world, using a technique called very long baseline interferometry, to obtain images of supermassive black holes. Previous EHT observations were made at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. By observing a distant active galaxy at a lower wavelength, researchers were able to capture even higher resolution images without forming a bigger virtual telescope.
view more
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has conducted test observations, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and other facilities, that achieved the highest resolution ever obtained from the surface of Earth [1]. They managed this feat by detecting light from distant galaxies at a frequency of around 345 GHz, equivalent to a wavelength of 0.87 mm. The Collaboration estimates that in future they will be able to make black hole images that are 50% more detailed than was possible before, bringing the region immediately outside the boundary of nearby supermassive black holes into sharper focus. They will also be able to image more black holes than they have done so far. The new detections, part of a pilot experiment, were published today in The Astronomical Journal.
The EHT Collaboration released images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy, in 2019, and of Sgr A*, the black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, in 2022. These images were obtained by linking together multiple radio observatories across the planet, using a technique called very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), to form a single ‘Earth-sized’ virtual telescope.
To get higher-resolution images, astronomers typically rely on bigger telescopes — or a larger separation between observatories working as part of an interferometer. But since the EHT was already the size of Earth, increasing the resolution of their ground-based observations called for a different approach. Another way to increase the resolution of a telescope is to observe light of a shorter wavelength — and that’s what the EHT Collaboration has now done.
“With the EHT, we saw the first images of black holes using the 1.3-mm wavelength observations, but the bright ring we saw, formed by light bending in the black hole’s gravity, still looked blurry because we were at the absolute limits of how sharp we could make the images,” said the study's co-lead Alexander Raymond, previously a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), and now at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in the United States. “At 0.87 mm, our images will be sharper and more detailed, which in turn will likely reveal new properties, both those that were previously predicted and maybe some that weren’t.”
To show that they could make detections at 0.87 mm, the Collaboration conducted test observations of distant, bright galaxies at this wavelength [2]. Rather than using the full EHT array, they employed two smaller subarrays, both of which included ALMA and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner in ALMA and co-hosts and co-operates APEX. Other facilities used include the IRAM 30-meter telescope in Spain and the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France, as well as the Greenland Telescope and the Submillimeter Array in Hawaiʻi.
In this pilot experiment, the Collaboration achieved observations with detail as fine as 19 microarcseconds, meaning they observed at the highest-ever resolution from the surface of Earth. They have not been able to obtain images yet, though: while they made robust detections of light from several distant galaxies, not enough antennas were used to be able to accurately reconstruct an image from the data.
This technical test has opened up a new window to study black holes. With the full array, the EHT could see details as small as 13 microarcseconds, equivalent to seeing a bottle cap on the Moon from Earth. This means that, at 0.87 mm, they will be able to get images with a resolution about 50% higher than that of previously released M87* and SgrA* 1.3-mm images. In addition, there’s potential to observe more distant, smaller and fainter black holes than the two the Collaboration has imaged thus far.
EHT Founding Director Sheperd “Shep” Doeleman, an astrophysicist at the CfA and study co-lead, says: “Looking at changes in the surrounding gas at different wavelengths will help us solve the mystery of how black holes attract and accrete matter, and how they can launch powerful jets that stream over galactic distances.”
This is the first time that the VLBI technique has been successfully used at the 0.87 mm wavelength. While the ability to observe the night sky at 0.87 mm existed before the new detections, using the VLBI technique at this wavelength has always presented challenges that took time and technological advances to overcome. For example, water vapour in the atmosphere absorbs waves at 0.87 mm much more than it does at 1.3 mm, making it more difficult for radio telescopes to receive signals from black holes at the shorter wavelength. Combined with increasingly pronounced atmospheric turbulence and noise buildup at shorter wavelengths, and an inability to control global weather conditions during atmospherically sensitive observations, progress to shorter wavelengths for VLBI — especially those that cross the barrier into the submillimetre regime — has been slow. But with these new detections, that’s all changed.
"These VLBI signal detections at 0.87 mm are groundbreaking since they open a new observing window for the study of supermassive black holes", states Thomas Krichbaum, a co-author of the study from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, an institution that operates the APEX telescope together with ESO. He adds: "In the future, the combination of the IRAM telescopes in Spain (IRAM-30m) and France (NOEMA) with ALMA and APEX will enable imaging of even smaller and fainter emission than has been possible thus far at two wavelengths, 1.3 mm and 0.87 mm, simultaneously."
Notes
[1] There have been astronomical observations with higher resolution, but these were obtained by combining signals from telescopes on the ground with a telescope in space: https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/pressreleases/2022/2. The new observations released today are the highest-resolution ones ever obtained using only ground-based telescopes.
[2] To test their observations, the EHT Collaboration pointed the antennas to very distant ‘active’ galaxies, which are powered by supermassive black holes at their cores and are very bright. These types of sources help to calibrate the observations before pointing the EHT to fainter sources, like nearby black holes.
More information
This EHT Collaboration research was presented in a paper by A. W. Raymond et al. published today in The Astronomical Journal (doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad5bdb).
The EHT Collaboration involves more than 400 researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, with around 270 participating in this paper. The international collaboration aims to capture the most detailed black hole images ever obtained by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. Supported by considerable international efforts, the EHT links existing telescopes using novel techniques — creating a fundamentally new instrument with the highest angular resolving power that has yet been achieved.
The EHT consortium consists of 13 stakeholder institutes; the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the University of Arizona, the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, the University of Chicago, the East Asian Observatory, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique, Large Millimeter Telescope, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, MIT Haystack Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Radboud University.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.
The Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) is a 12-metre-diameter telescope, operating at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths — between infrared light and radio waves. ESO operates APEX at one of the highest observatory sites on Earth, at an elevation of 5100 metres, high on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama region. APEX is a project of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), hosted and operated by ESO on behalf of the MPIfR.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.
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Heriot-Watt University breaks ground on new £2.5M Optical Ground Station
Facility enables space innovation, space environmentalism and cybersecurity
Business Announcementimage:
Graham McPhail, Professor Gillian Murray, Dr Ross Donaldson and Professor Gerald Buller attend the breaking ground ceremony for the new optical ground station at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland
view moreCredit: Credit Ben Glasgow/Heriot-Watt University
Work has started on a new Quantum Communications Hub Optical Ground Station (HOGS), a state-of-the-art telescope which is being built on Heriot-Watt University’s Research Park.
The new facility will demonstrate and test satellite quantum secure communications, maintaining and growing the UK’s strength in the field of quantum technologies. It is scheduled to be fully operational by late Autumn [2024].
As well as helping to tackle future cyberattacks by researching methods to send secure transmissions via satellites, it will unlock new research on space environmentalism alongside innovative R&D activities for future laser communication networks. These provide high bandwidth communications services like 6G and beyond.
The facility will feature a plethora of cameras, sensors, and other photonic technologies enabling HOGS to expand how it can be used for both UK-based and international researchers and industry contacts. HOGS will also be directly connected to a new University campus optical fibre network, being developed alongside HOGS, allowing innovative teams to demonstrate deployment of optical, quantum, and hybrid communication networks.
The new capabilities will support space environmentalism by finding debris, accurately tracking satellites and developing new techniques to find objects that haven't been seen before and improving the identification of what the object is. The telescope may also open opportunities for teams to explore new de-orbiting techniques for small space-debris using lasers.
The facility is being built as part of the Quantum Communications Hub project, funded through the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme and is part of a collaborative effort which also involves the Universities of Bristol, Strathclyde, and York. Space engineering expertise is provided by the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s RAL Space Facility.
Other UK researchers with relevant interests in experimental satellite quantum communications will be invited to work onsite using the modern telescope to track satellite paths with high precision. Heriot-Watt students, from undergraduate to PhD, will benefit from the new capabilities while local school children will be hosted onsite to build their knowledge and understanding of satellite communications and astronomy.
Dr Ross Donaldson from Heriot-Watt University is leading the project. He said: “We want to show that UK scientists have the capabilities to deliver satellite quantum-based communications and have the expertise to do all the required operations. Creating secure global connectivity is the goal and we look forward to demonstrating our abilities once the Optical Ground Station is up and running.
“This new facility will provide UK and international teams with the opportunity to trial new techniques and technologies for innovative R&D as well as space environmentalism. Our high latitude location offers us the chance to track space junk and debris in polar orbits for long periods of time, which may allow us to identify smaller objects.”
Professor Tim Spiller, director of the Quantum Communications Hub, said: “Satellites will form an essential part of future worldwide quantum communications, and in-orbit demonstrator missions are essential in proving the UK’s capabilities as a leader in secure quantum communications. The ground-based receiver is clearly a key element of any mission, and we look forward to the Hub Optical Ground Station becoming operational at Heriot-Watt University.”
Heriot-Watt University has world leading expertise in quantum communications and associated technologies behind it. The new HOGS facility represents a major step towards creating a ‘space cluster’ on the institution’s Edinburgh campus.
Professor Gill Murray, deputy principal of business and enterprise at Heriot-Watt University welcomed the work beginning on site. She said: “Heriot-Watt University is at the forefront of creating and supporting new growth sectors through our research, innovation and pipeline of talented students. Our new Optical Ground Station will create a dynamic new environment where innovation is encouraged. We have seen an explosion in growth within the space technology sector and higher education has a key role to play to capitalise on this growth.
“By actively engaging with businesses that operate in the space sector, we can push the boundaries of what is possible. Our researchers and students bring fresh perspectives, diverse skill sets, and a passion for discovery. Through forging partnerships with industry partners, business leaders and government, we can fully maximise resources like the new Optical Ground Station to channel academic energy into practical solutions, driving advancements that benefit both higher education and broader society.”
Graham McPhail, head of property strategy at Heriot-Watt University, said: “Having the Optical Ground Station on the university’s campus further elevates Heriot-Watt’s space and quantum potential beyond those offered by other research parks. As the largest and most prominent of Scotland’s science-based parks, with more than 1,000 staff working across 28 organisations, companies occupying Heriot-Watt Research Park can make full use of the amenities available on the campus in a location that offers unrivalled access to Scotland’s capital city and the central belt. Every day the campus is filled with our talented students, researchers and existing industry partners including Celestia UK, renowned for its expertise in antenna systems for satellite tracking.
“We are also supporting the university’s wider sustainability goals, ensuring we use existing campus infrastructure and minimise transport costs wherever possible. Operating from the campus means students that are studying our new Aerospace Engineering degree and aligned qualifications can benefit from access, helping the University to produce workplace-ready graduates who are able to meet the requirements of this emerging sector.”
Last month, Heriot-Watt announced it will lead a groundbreaking new quantum research hub that aims to develop technologies to progress an ultra-secure quantum internet of the future. The Integrated Quantum Networks (IQN) Hub is one of five new quantum technology hubs announced by the UK government as part of a £160 million investment to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of these revolutionary technologies. The IQN Hub will build on the work of the current Quantum Communications Hub, including space, to create new use cases for HOGS in the future.
Anyone wishing to learn more about Heriot-Watt’s strategy for Scotland’s next Space Tech Cluster or about opportunities to collaborate with the Optical Ground Station should contact mediaenquiries@hw.ac.uk.
ENDS
For more information, please contact: Annie Pugh, 07939 153 649, a.pugh@hw.ac.uk
Images:
Breaking ground shots and lab shots can be found here https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/47o4uxbhmruk24g3v5whm/AJAf51n5dC1cpvBPkjUiZa0/high%20Res?dl=0&rlkey=ss2lkpodjedwp3eq6nkkk5djg&subfolder_nav_tracking=1
About Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University is a global research-led university based in the UK, with five campuses in Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia.
Around 27,000 students from 154 countries are currently studying with us. We have 159,000 alumni in 190 countries.
We are specialists in business, engineering, design and the physical, social, sports, environmental and life sciences subjects which make a real impact on the world and society.
Heriot-Watt was founded in Edinburgh in 1821 as the world’s first mechanics institute. In 1966, it became a university by Royal Charter. The university is named after 18th century Scottish engineer and inventor James Watt and 16th century Scottish philanthropist and goldsmith George Heriot.
86.8% of Heriot-Watt's research is classed as world-leading and internationally excellent in the Research Excellence Framework 2021 – the UK’s system for assessing the excellence of research in UK higher education providers.
The university runs 113 undergraduate programmes and 170 postgraduate programmes across six academic schools and Edinburgh Business School.
Our six academic schools are:
- Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society
- Engineering and Physical Sciences
- Mathematical and Computer Sciences
- Social Sciences
- Textiles and Design
- Global College
Edinburgh Business School is one of the world's largest providers of postgraduate business education, with 49,000 alumni across 158 countries.
Website: https://www.hw.ac.uk/
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SpaceX is set to launch its Polaris Dawn mission, featuring an all-civilian crew aiming for the first private citizen spacewalk, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a window starting Wednesday at 3:38 am local time. An earlier launch was postponed due to a helium leak.
Issued on: 28/08/2024 -
SpaceX is poised for another attempt at launching a daring orbital expedition featuring an all-civilian crew that is aiming to carry out the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens.
The Polaris Dawn mission, organized by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is now set to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a four-hour window beginning on Wednesday at 3:38 am local time (0738 GMT), with backup opportunities available Thursday if required.
Weather conditions appeared 85 percent favorable, according to a US Space Force forecast.
An earlier launch attempt on Tuesday was scrapped due to a helium leak on a line connecting the tower to the rocket.
Riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket, the SpaceX Dragon capsule is set to reach a peak altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) -- higher than any crewed mission in more than half a century, since the Apollo era.
Mission commander Isaacman will guide his four-member team through the mission's centerpiece: the first-ever spacewalk carried out by non-professional astronauts, equipped with sleek, newly developed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits.
Rounding out the team are mission pilot Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel; mission specialist Sarah Gillis, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX; and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, also a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX.
The quartet underwent more than two years of training in preparation for the landmark mission, logging hundreds of hours on simulators as well as skydiving, centrifuge training, scuba diving, and summiting an Ecuadorian volcano.
Polaris Dawn is set to be the first of three missions under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman, the founder of tech company Shift4 Payments, and SpaceX.
Isaacman declined to reveal his total investment in the project, though reports suggest he paid around $200 million for the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission in September 2021, the first all-civilian orbital mission.
Polaris Dawn will reach its highest altitude on its first day, venturing briefly into the Van Allen radiation belt, a region teeming with high-energy charged particles that can pose health risks to humans over extended periods.
On day three, the crew will don their state-of-the-art EVA spacesuits -- outfitted with heads-up displays, helmet cameras, and advanced joint mobility systems -- and take turns to venture outside their spacecraft in twos.
Each will spend 15 to 20 minutes in space, 435 miles above Earth's surface.
Also on their to-do list are testing laser-based satellite communication between the spacecraft and Starlink, SpaceX's more than 6,000-strong constellation of internet satellites, in a bid to boost space communication speeds, and conducting nearly 40 scientific experiments.
These include tests with contact lenses embedded with microelectronics to continuously monitor changes in eye pressure and shape.
After six days in space, the mission will conclude with a splashdown off the coast of Florida.
(AFP)
A private venture aims to break a record for the highest orbit and do a spacewalk in the hazardous Van Allen Belts. Launch now planned for August 28.
In the early hours of August 27, 2024, the Polaris Dawn mission was delayed due to an apparent helium leak in ground equipment at the launch site, Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A new launch date was set for Wednesday, August 28, at the original time of 3:38 a.m. US Eastern Time [9:38 a.m. Central European Summer Time /CEST].
If it succeeds, Polaris Dawn will be the first non-government mission to perform a spacewalk. But not only that — it'll do that about 700 kilometers (435 miles) above Earth. The highest ever.
To compare: the International Space Station (ISS) orbits Earth at about 400 kilometers, where the radiation is less intense.
It will also orbit Earth through regions of a highly-charged belt of radiation. There are two of these "Van Allen Belts", an inner and an outer one.
Astronauts tend to avoid the hazardous Van Allen Belts, but they will have to travel through them if humans want to fly to Mars and survive. This privately-funded mission could be a first step toward that goal.
The four astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission will test new spacesuits, designed by Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, to see how well they protect them against the Van Allen Belt radiation.
SpaceX is also providing the spacecraft — a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule for the crew — to reach an altitude beyond the current record of 1,373 kilometers, set by NASA's Gemini 11 mission in 1966.
Who is the Polaris Dawn crew?
Scott Poteet, Mission Pilot
Sarah Gillis, Mission Specialist
Anna Menon, Mission Specialist and Medical Officer
Polaris Dawn, the first of a three-part program, is Isaacman's idea.
Isaacman is a billionaire entrepreneur, who made his money in digital payments and military defense. He previously financed and flew on SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission, the first civilian mission to orbit Earth.
Why are the Van Allen Belts dangerous for humans?
The Van Allen Belts consist of charged particles locked in place by Earth's magnetosphere, which includes its magnetic field.
Earth's magnetosphere traps high-energy radiation particles and protects our planet from solar storms and other threats to daily life from space.
While the outer belt holds high-energy particles from the sun, the inner belt is formed by cosmic rays that interact with Earth's atmosphere.
They were discovered by American physicist James Van Allen in 1958.
The Van Allen Belts range from about 680 kilometers above Earth's surface to what some estimates suggest is about 40,000 kilometers from the surface of the planet. And there's a gap between the first and second belt.
The inner "proton" zone is centered at about 3,000 kilometers from Earth's surface and the outer "electron" zone is centered about 15-20,000 kilometers from Earth's surface.
The Polaris Dawn spacewalk will expose the crew to higher levels of radiation than on the ISS. They hope to collect data on the effects of that radiation as a key scientific experiment.
In 2025, NASA plans to send astronauts beyond the Van Allen Belts to land on the south pole of the moon, and eventually on to Mars. Any data provided by Polaris Dawn will feed into those future missions.
Planned health research on Polaris Dawn
Polaris intends to use data from the mission to create research Biobanks to study the effects of space travel on human biology.
It will investigate the effects of space travel on eyesight and brain structure — a major health risk in space, known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS).
The team also hopes to contribute to studies into decompression sickness (DCS), another health risk during spaceflight. DCS occurs when nitrogen gas bubbles (or gas emboli) damage human tissue.
First test of laser communications in space
The crew will test laser communications provided by SpaceX's Starlink satellite network. Starlink is large satellite constellation, eventually consisting of about 12,000 satellites for communication on Earth and in space. It was used early in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Polaris hopes its communications tests will provide "valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond."
What's planned for future Polaris missions?
Isaacman has committed to three missions in collaboration with SpaceX. This first mission is scheduled to last five days.
The second mission will, they say, "expand the boundaries of future human spaceflight missions, in-space communications, and scientific research."
And the third mission will be the first crewed test of SpaceX's reusable Starship spacecraft.
As with any space mission, the Polaris Dawn launch on August 26, 2024, may be delayed due to extreme weather conditions or technical issues.
Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany
This article was originally published August 23, 2024, and updated with new launch times August 26 and 27, 2024.
Sources:
Polaris Dawn: About the mission https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/
What are the Van Allen Belts and why do they matter? (NASA) https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/stories/van-allen-belts/
Matthew Ward Agius Journalist with a background reporting on history, science, health, climate and environment.
COSPAR to sign Memorandum of Understanding with Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation
International Science Council Committee on Space Research
Shared vision
The MoU was agreed after a visit to APSCO headquarters in Beijing, China, in July 2024. COSPAR President Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund and COSPAR General Counsel Mr. Niklas Hedman met with Ms. Aisha Jagirani, the APSCO Director General of External Relations and Legal Affairs Department, who represented APSCO Secretary-General. This partnership is rooted in the organizations’ mutual dedication to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and their active roles as observers in the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). Both COSPAR and APSCO share a vision of fostering cooperation in space science and facilitating dialogue among global space stakeholders.
Fruitful Discussions and Collaborative Initiatives
During their meeting, the COSPAR and APSCO delegations engaged in productive discussions on shared interests and goals, such as capacity building, education, and the use of small satellites for space science. Ms. Jagirani provided an in-depth presentation on APSCO’s mission and activities, while Mr. Xu Yansong, Director General of APSCO’s Education and Training Department, highlighted APSCO’s educational projects and initiatives aimed at supporting APSCO Member States’ capacity building efforts.
Prof. Ehrenfreund introduced COSPAR’s broad spectrum of activities and emphasized the organization’s pivotal role in fostering international collaboration in space research. Mr. Hedman elaborated on COSPAR’s historical contributions, particularly in Planetary Protection, and outlined the work of COSPAR’s various panels, including those focused on education, capacity building, and planetary protection.
The meeting concluded with both parties agreeing to jointly organize international events on interdisciplinary space topics, collaborate on education and training initiatives, particularly the “Train the Trainers” program, and enhance capacity building and small satellite development. Additionally, they plan to explore cooperation in planetary protection, ionospheric research, space debris monitoring and mitigation, with COSPAR also engaging with the APSCO Space Law Alliance.
In expressing the shared enthusiasm for this partnership, Prof. Ehrenfreund commented, “We look forward to embarking on this new journey of cooperation with APSCO. By combining our strengths, aligned goals and shared vision, we will progress space science and technology advancements for the greater good.”
Ms. Aisha Jagirani echoed this sentiment, stating, “This collaboration marks a significant stride towards our common objectives of advancing space science and fostering cross-border collaboration. The future opportunities arising from this partnership are truly exciting.”
The Memorandum of Understanding will be signed in the coming months and a second meeting will take place in the autumn to move forward with the plans for cooperation. COSPAR will be present at the APSCO/UOS/AUASS International Symposium, 5-7 November 2024, Sharjah, UAE.
Issued by COSPAR Communications, Ms Leigh FERGUS
leigh.fergus@cosparhq.cnes.fr https://cosparhq.cnes.fr/
Note to Editors
COSPAR, the largest international scientific society dedicated to promoting global cooperation in space research, was established in 1958. It serves as a neutral platform for scientific dialogue among scientists from around the world. Today, COSPAR comprises 46 national scientific institutions and 13 international scientific unions, with 13,000 space scientists actively participating in its activities, including attending assemblies, contributing to panels and roadmaps, and publishing in its journals.
COSPAR’s core mission is to facilitate dialogue and encourage international collaboration among space stakeholders across the globe. It operates through scientific commissions, panels and task groups that encompass all disciplines of space science, from Earth and atmospheric sciences to planetary science, astrophysics, solar and space plasma physics, and life and microgravity sciences.
A recent focus has been on strengthening ties between science and industry. This was achieved by forming the Committee on Industry Relations, which includes 18 leading aerospace companies worldwide. The Committee advises COSPAR on integrating industry capabilities into its activities, ensuring mutual benefits for both science and industry.
LinkedIn: Committee on Space Research - COSPAR
Facebook: Committee on Space Research
X: @CosparHQ
YouTube: COSPAR
Mastodon: @COSPAR@astrodon.social
Instagram: cosparhq
About APSCO The Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) was established on 16 December 2008, as a not-for-profit, international, inter-governmental organization with full international legal status, having the ‘Convention of APSCO’ registered with the United Nations. APSCO currently has 14 Member States, including eight Full Member: Bangladesh, China, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Türkiye, one Signatory Member: Indonesia (ratification in process), one Associate Member: Egypt (ratification in process) and Four Observers: Mexico, Inter-Islamic network on Space Science and Technology (ISNET), Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Science (AUASS) and Venezuela. China is the host country for APSCO, and the Headquarters of APSO is located in Beijing, China.
APSCO provides a platform for cooperative activities and capacity building in Member States in the field of space science, technology, and its applications. APSCO also contributes to building capacity in the field of space law and policy and has been biennially organizing international symposiums since 2009 as part of its knowledge exchange platform. These events provide a unique knowledge-sharing opportunity for the executives at the national space agencies and space authorities in the Member States of APSCO.
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