It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, October 12, 2024
SPACE/COSMOS
NASA is launching a major mission to look for habitable spots on Jupiter’s moon Europa
On October 10, NASA is launching a hotly anticipated new mission to Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, Europa.
Called Europa Clipper, the spacecraft will conduct a detailed study of the moon, looking for potential places where Europa might host alien life.
It’s the largest planetary exploration spacecraft NASA has ever made: as wide as a basketball court when its solar sails are unfolded. It has a mass of about 6,000 kilograms – the weight of a large African elephant.
But why are we sending a hulking spacecraft all the way to Europa?
Looking for life away from Earth
The search for life in places other than Earth usually focuses on our neighbour Mars, a planet that’s technically in the “habitable zone” of our Solar System. But Mars is not an attractive place to live, due to its lack of atmosphere and high levels of radiation. However, it’s close to Earth, making it relatively easy to send missions to explore it.
But there are other places in the Solar System that could support life – some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Why? They have liquid water.
Here on Earth, water is the solvent of life: water dissolves salts and sugars, and facilitates the chemical reactions needed for life on Earth to proceed. It’s possible life forms exist elsewhere that rely on liquid methane or carbon dioxide or something else, but life as we know it uses water.
Saturn’s moons, Titan and Enceladus, are stretched and compressed by gravity as they go around their host planet. This movement results in vast underground oceans with a surface of solid ice, with plumes of water vapour exploding 9,600 kilometres from the surface.
It is strongly suspected that Europa is the same. While we know a lot about Europa from more than four centuries of observation, we have not confirmed it has an under-ice liquid ocean like Titan and Enceladus.
But all clues point to yes. Europa has a smooth surface despite being hit by many meteors, suggesting the surface is young, recently replaced. Ice volcanoes raining down water over the surface would make sense.
It also has a magnetic field, suggesting that like Earth, Europa has a liquid layer inside (on Earth, this liquid is molten rock).
This artist’s concept (not to scale) shows what Europa’s insides might look like: an outer shell of ice, perhaps with plumes venting out; a deep layer of liquid water; and a rocky interior, potentially with hydrothermal vents on the seafloor. NASA/JPL-Caltech
What will Europa Clipper do?
At the surface, Europa is bombarded by high levels of space radiation, concentrated by Jupiter. But deeper down, the thick ice sheet could be protecting life in the liquid subsurface ocean.
This means it would be difficult for us to find concrete evidence for life without drilling down deep. But where to look? Through flybys of the icy moon, Europa Clipper will be looking at areas where life could be dwelling under the icy shell.
To achieve this, Europa Clipper has nine scientific instruments. These include a wide-angle camera to study geologic activity and a thermal imaging system to measure surface texture and detect warmer regions on the surface.
There’s also a spectrometer for looking at the chemical composition of the gases and surface of Europa, and for any explosive plumes of water from the surface. The mission also has tools for mapping the moon’s surface.
Other instruments will measure the depth and salt levels of the moon’s ocean and the thickness of its ice shell, and also how Europa flexes within the strong gravitational pull of Jupiter.
Excitingly, a mass spectrometer will analyse the gases of the moon’s faint atmosphere and potential plumes of water. By examining the material ejected from the plumes, we can understand what is hidden within the under-ice oceans of Europa.
A dust analyser will also look at matter that has been ejected from Europa’s surface by tiny meteorites or released from the plumes.
Unfortunately, we will have to wait a while for any discoveries. Europa Clipper will take more than five years to reach Jupiter. And the mission is only equipped to look for the potential of life, not life itself. If we see evidence that might point towards life, we will need future missions to return and explore Europa in depth.
So we must be patient. But this is an exciting opportunity for humanity to get one step closer to find life beyond our own home planet.
Space business is evolving fast – a new book provides much-needed insight
Space Business: Emerging Theory and Practice examines the space business, its business models, actors, ecosystems and networks, and opens up new perspectives and research opportunities for the future of the industry.
University of Vaasa
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Many University of Vaasa researchers were involved in writing the book. In this photo: Doctoral students Khaled Abed Alghani, Professor Marko Kohtamäki, Professor Heidi Kuusniemi, University Lecturer Minna-Maarit Jaskari, Professor Arto Ojala, and Post-doctoral Researcher Hafiz Haq.
Space Business: Emerging Theory and Practice, a new book edited by Professor Arto Ojala, Professor of International Business at the University of Vaasa, Finland, and Professor William W. Baber, University of Kyoto, examines the space business, its business models, actors, ecosystems and networks, and opens up new perspectives and research opportunities for the future of the industry.
– Space business is a relatively new field, both from a research and a business perspective. The sector is changing rapidly and new space companies are emerging all the time. The book is important now because there is still little research in the field and some of the existing knowledge is already outdated, says Professor Arto Ojala.
The book Space Business focuses in particular on the space boom, the so-called New Space phenomenon, where private companies have entered the space business alongside government actors. This development has created new business opportunities such as the commercialisation of satellite data, satellite imagery and remote sensing services.
Ojala predicts that the space business will continue to grow strongly in the future.
– The number of companies operating in the sector will increase as there is a great need for new innovations. Regulatory and technological standardisation will also have a significant impact on the sector. At the same time, business opportunities will expand as new products and services are introduced to the market, says Ojala.
"I hope the book will stimulate more research"
The book is aimed at an academic audience, researchers and students, but also at entrepreneurs and companies operating in the space sector.
– I hope that this book will inspire further research in the space industry and increase interest in its potential. It is a broad subject. Space business is an ecosystem with many players. This ecosystem can be examined and studied from many angles, says Ojala.
The book is divided into three sections on the space business ecosystem, business models and future prospects. The book includes chapters on commercial aspects of navigation satellites, value chains of business models, regulation of ground stations, business use of space data and the development of space tourism. The Kvarken Space Center has been included in the book as a case study.
– It is great that such a book on the growth and future of the space economy has been written and published, as there has not been one before. I am particularly pleased that so many researchers from the University of Vaasa and Kvarken Space Center have contributed to the book, even though we have only been involved in the new space economy research for five years, says Professor Heidi Kuusniemi, Director of the University of Vaasa Digital Economy Research Platform and Kvarken Space Center.
In addition to Professor Ojala and Professor Kuusniemi, the University of Vaasa researchers involved in writing the book include Professor Marko Kohtamäki, university lecturer Minna-Maarit Jaskari, post-doctoral researcher Hafiz Haq, project researcher Sofia Hassinen, doctoral students Khaled Abed Alghani, Mikko Punnala and Jari Ratilainen, who is also project manager at the Vaasa University of Applied Sciences.
The book is published by Palgrave Macmillan and will be published as open science, which means it will be widely available. Researchers, students, practitioners, experts and anyone interested in the subject can read the book free of charge as an open access publication.
Crew biologist Anushree Srivastava collecting lichens near the Mars Desert Research Station while wearing a simulated spacesuit, an important part of analog space missions at this research site.
Once you know where to look for them, lichens are everywhere! These composite organisms – fungal and photosynthetic partners joined into a greater whole, can survive on a vast array of surfaces, from rocks and trees to bare ground and buildings. They are known from every continent, and almost certainly every land mass on planet Earth; some species have even survived exposure to the exterior of the International Space Station. This hardy nature has long interested researchers studying what life could survive on Mars, and the astrobiologists studying life on Earth as an analog of our planetary neighbour. In the deserts surrounding two Mars analog stations in North America, lichens comprise such an important part of the local ecosystems that they inspired a biodiversity assessment with a unique twist: this collections-based inventory took place during a simulated mission to Mars!
The Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA (on Ute and Paiute Territory), and the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in Nunavut, Canada (in Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit Homeland) are simulated Martian habitats operated by The Mars Society, where crews participate in dress rehearsals for crewed Martian exploration. While learning what it would take to live and work on our planetary neighbour, these “Martians” frequently study the deserts at both sites, often exploring techniques for documenting microbial life and their biosignatures as a prelude to deploying these tools and methods off world. These studies are enhanced by a comprehensive understanding of the ecosystems being studied, even if they are full of Earthbound life. During the Mars 160 – a set of twin missions to both Utah and Nunavut in 2016 and 2017 – our team undertook a floristic survey of the lichen biodiversity present at each site.
During simulated extra-vehicular activities, Mars 160 mission specialists wearing simulated spacesuits scouted out various habitats at both stations, seeking out lichen species growing in various microhabitats. Collecting over 150 specimens, these samples were “returned to Earth”, and identified at the National Herbarium of Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Through morphological examination, investigations of internal anatomy and chemistry, and DNA barcoding, “Mission Support” identified 35 lichen species from the Mars Desert Research Station, and 13 species from the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station.
These species, along with photographs and a synopsis of their identifying characteristics, are summarized in a new paper out now in the open-access journal Check List. This new annotated checklist should prove useful to future crews working at both analog research stations, while also helping Earthly lichenologists better understand the distribution of these fascinating organisms, including new records of rarely reported or newly described species from some of Earth’s most interesting, and otherworldly habitats.
Research article:
Sokoloff PC, Srivastava A, McMullin RT, Clarke J, Knightly P, Stepanova A, Mangeot A, Laroche C-M, Beattie A, Rupert S (2024) An annotated checklist of the lichen biodiversity at two Mars analog sites: The Mars Desert Research Station (Utah, USA) and The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (Nunavut, Canada) recorded during the Mars 160 Mission. Check List 20(5): 1096-1126. https://doi.org/10.15560/20.5.1096
The Mars Desert Research Station is nestled in amongst the red sandstone hills of southeast Utah, USA, in a geological analog to Mars.
Rich lichen communities are abundant in the deserts surrounding the Mars Desert Research Station, with visible crusts being one part of a vibrant ecosystem.
The Bright Cobblestone Lichen (Acarospora socialis) fluoresces bright yellow under ultraviolet light on rocky outcrops near the Mars Desert Research Station. This fluorescence is one of many key characteristics useful in identifying lichen species.
An ascospore from a Northern Polyblastia Lichen (Polyblastia hyperborea) collected near the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in Nunavut, Canada. Spore morphology is another important character for lichen identification.
An annotated checklist of the lichen biodiversity at two Mars analog sites: The Mars Desert Research Station (Utah, USA) and The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (Nunavut, Canada) recorded during the Mars 160 Mission
Article Publication Date
8-Oct-2024
The european project ‘ZEUS’ seeks to collect in-space solar energy in an efficient, long-lasting way
It has been granted almost €4 million for the development of a new photovoltaic technology over the next 4 years
University of Malaga
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Specifically, ‘ZEUS’ will focus on advancing the development of nanowire solar cells, a highly innovative, radiation-resistant photovoltaic technology capable of absorbing solar energy in space, where the environment is highly aggressive.
The University of Malaga, through the Materials and Surfaces Laboratory, participates in an international consortium that has received one of the eight grants ‘Horizon EIC Pathfinder Challenges - In-space solar energy harvesting for innovative space applications’ that have been awarded this year at European level, with the aim of achieving significant advances in the fields of in-space solar energy collection and transmission and the new concepts of propulsion that will be used by the energy obtained.
Coordinated by the University of Lund (Sweden), the ‘ZEUS’ -Zero-loss energy harvesting using nanowire solar cells in space- project has been granted almost €4 million (€3,998,622.50) for its development over the next four years. The other participants that, together with the UMA, make up this project are the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE (Germany), the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Technological Institute of Packaging, Transport and Logistics.
An innovative, radiation-resistant photovoltaic technology
Specifically, ‘ZEUS’ will focus on advancing the development of nanowire solar cells, a highly innovative, radiation-resistant photovoltaic technology capable of absorbing solar energy in space, where the environment is highly aggressive.
Nanowires are needle-shaped structures with a diameter of 200 nanometers –that is, a thousand times thinner than human hair–, explains Enrique Barrigón, Professor of the Department of Applied Physics I, the researcher who will lead this project at the UMA. Their nanometric scale and careful geometric distribution make them behave as “hollow” devices from the point of view of radiation damage, which significantly increases their resistance to radiation, while effectively collecting nearly one hundred percent of the possible incoming light, due to the improved optical absorption that occurs in these cells.
“Covering approximately 10 percent of a surface with active material is all that is needed to absorb as much light as a thin layer covering the entire surface of the same material would do,” says the UMA researcher.
Greater efficiency
In this respect, Enrique Barrigón explains that while current space-tested nanowire solar cells offer around 15% efficiency, ZEUS aims to significantly enhance this efficiency by employing triple junction nanowire cells with a carefully selected set of III-V semiconductor materials, potentially reaching 47% theoretical efficiency.
Likewise, this project will investigate the transfer of these solar cells onto lightweight, flexible substrates, which would enable the creation of large deployable photovoltaic panels.
Environmental sustainability
Additionally, the project underscores its commitment to sustainability by focusing on two key aspects: decarbonization and the efficient use of critical raw materials. “ZEUS aims to demonstrate not only the commercial potential of the technology, but also the environmental benefits by means of a life cycle assessment of nanowire solar cells, particularly for space energy generation”, says Professor Enrique Barrigón. Thus, increasing the electrical power of communications satellites is one of its possible applications, among others.
The main tasks of the University of Malaga in this international research will be the advanced characterization of these solar cells and the execution of the necessary tests to evaluate their resistance in the space environment.
The other participants that, together with the UMA, make up this project are the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE (Germany), the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Technological Institute of Packaging, Transport and Logistics.
Enrique Barrigón, Professor of the Department of Applied Physics I, the researcher who will lead this project at the UMA
The Horizon EIC Pathfinder Challenges program awards grants to projects that explore new technological areas, especially ‘deep-tech’–based on a scientific discovery or a significant engineering innovation– which may become radically innovative technologies in the future, capable of creating new market opportunities. The overall goal is to feed the innovation market with revolutionary technologies and get them to the proof-of-concept stage.
So far, within the current Horizon Europe framework, the University of Malaga has another project of this same program. This is ‘BioRobot-MiniHeart’, whose principal researcher is Juan Antonio Guadix, from the Department of Animal Biology. In the previous H2020 program, another proposal from the UMA was also recognized: ‘SONICOM’ -Transforming auditory-based social interaction and communication in AR/VR-, by Professor Arcadio Reyes, Department of Electronic Technology.
This project has been funded through the European Union Research and Innovation Program, Horizon Europe, with Grant Agreement 101161465.
"Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.”
Researchers find clues to the mysterious heating of the sun’s atmosphere
Experimental findings about plasma wave reflection could answer questions about high temperatures
An image showing two coronal holes, depicted as relatively dark regions. Coronal holes are lower density and temperature regions of the sun’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona.
There is a profound mystery in our sun. While the sun’s surface temperature measures around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its outer atmosphere, known as the solar corona, measures more like 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, about 200 times hotter. This increase in temperature away from the sun is perplexing and has been an unsolved mystery since 1939, when the high temperature of the corona was first identified. In the ensuing decades, scientists have tried to determine the mechanism that could cause this unexpected heating, but so far, they have not succeeded.
Now, a team led by Sayak Bose, a researcher at the U.S.Department of Energy’s (DOE)Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has made a significant advancement in understanding the underlying heating mechanism. Their recent findings show that reflected plasma waves could drive the heating of coronal holes, which are low-density regions of the solar corona with open magnetic field lines extending into interplanetary space. These findings represent major progress toward solving one of the most mysterious quandaries about our closest star.
Collaborators included scientists from Princeton University; the University of California-Los Angeles; and Columbia University. The research was funded by the DOE under contracts DE-AC0209CH11466, and DE-SC0021261, as well as the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant number 2209471. The experiment was performed at the Basic Plasma Science Facility, which is a collaborative user facility that is part of the DOE Office of Science Fusion Energy Sciences program and is funded by DOE contract DE-FC02-07ER54918 and the NSF under contract NSF-PHY 1036140.
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PPPL is mastering the art of using plasma — the fourth state of matter — to solve some of the world's toughest science and technology challenges. Nestled on Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, New Jersey, our research ignites innovation in a range of applications, including fusion energy, nanoscale fabrication, quantum materials and devices, and sustainability science. The University manages the Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. Feel the heat at https://energy.gov/science and http://www.pppl.gov.
‘Inside-out’ galaxy growth observed in the early universe
University of Cambridge
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Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the ‘inside-out’ growth of a galaxy in the early universe, only 700 million years after the Big Bang.
Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the ‘inside-out’ growth of a galaxy in the early universe, only 700 million years after the Big Bang.
This galaxy is one hundred times smaller than the Milky Way, but is surprisingly mature for so early in the universe. Like a large city, this galaxy has a dense collection of stars at its core but becomes less dense in the galactic ‘suburbs’. And like a large city, this galaxy is starting to sprawl, with star formation accelerating in the outskirts.
This is the earliest-ever detection of inside-out galactic growth. Until Webb, it had not been possible to study galaxy growth so early in the universe’s history. Although the images obtained with Webb represent a snapshot in time, the researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, say that studying similar galaxies could help us understand how they transform from clouds of gas into the complex structures we observe today. The results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.
“The question of how galaxies evolve over cosmic time is an important one in astrophysics,” said co-lead author Dr Sandro Tacchella from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “We’ve had lots of excellent data for the last ten million years and for galaxies in our corner of the universe, but now with Webb, we can get observational data from billions of years back in time, probing the first billion years of cosmic history, which opens up all kinds of new questions.”
The galaxies we observe today grow via two main mechanisms: either they pull in, or accrete, gas to form new stars, or they grow by merging with smaller galaxies. Whether different mechanisms were at work in the early universe is an open question which astronomers are hoping to address with Webb.
“You expect galaxies to start small as gas clouds collapse under their own gravity, forming very dense cores of stars and possibly black holes,” said Tacchella. “As the galaxy grows and star formation increases, it’s sort of like a spinning figure skater: as the skater pulls in their arms, they gather momentum, and they spin faster and faster. Galaxies are somewhat similar, with gas accreting later from larger and larger distances spinning the galaxy up, which is why they often form spiral or disc shapes.”
This galaxy, observed as part of the JADES (JWST Advanced Extragalactic Survey) collaboration, is actively forming stars in the early universe. It has a highly dense core, which despite its relatively young age, is of a similar density to present-day massive elliptical galaxies, which have 1000 times more stars. Most of the star formation is happening further away from the core, with a star-forming ‘clump’ even further out.
The star formation activity is strongly rising toward the outskirts, as the star formation spreads out and the galaxy grows in size. This type of growth had been predicted with theoretical models, but with Webb, it is now possible to observe it.
“One of the many reasons that Webb is so transformational to us as astronomers is that we’re now able to observe what had previously been predicted through modelling,” said co-author William Baker, a PhD student at the Cavendish. “It’s like being able to check your homework.”
Using Webb, the researchers extracted information from the light emitted by the galaxy at different wavelengths, which they then used to estimate the number of younger stars versus older stars, which is converted into an estimate of the stellar mass and star formation rate.
Because the galaxy is so compact, the individual images of the galaxy were ‘forward modelled’ to take into account instrumental effects. By using stellar population modelling that includes prescriptions for gas emission and dust absorption, the researchers found older stars in the core, while the surrounding disc component is undergoing very active star formation. This galaxy doubles its stellar mass in the outskirts roughly every 10 million years, which is very rapid: the Milky Way galaxy doubles its mass only every 10 billion years.
The density of the galactic core, as well as the high star formation rate, suggest that this young galaxy is rich with the gas it needs to form new stars, which may reflect different conditions in the early universe.
“Of course, this is only one galaxy, so we need to know what other galaxies at the time were doing,” said Tacchella. “Were all galaxies like this one? We’re now analysing similar data from other galaxies. By looking at different galaxies across cosmic time, we may be able to reconstruct the growth cycle and demonstrate how galaxies grow to their eventual size today.”
The galaxy NGC 1549, seen 700 million years after the Big Bang.
A core in a star-forming disc as evidence of inside-out growth in the early Universe
Article Publication Date
11-Oct-2024
SwRI-led instrument aboard Jupiter-bound spacecraft nails in-flight test
The Ultraviolet Spectrograph demonstrated its accuracy and reliability
Southwest Research Institute
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The UVS instrument recorded spatial information produced by hydrogen atoms radiating from the Earth. In the background a number of individual stars are identified along with the Pleiades star cluster. Juice-UVS plans to similarly observe hydrogen atoms radiating from Ganymede and Jupiter’s other icy moons.
SAN ANTONIO — October 9, 2024 —As European Space Agency (ESA)’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft hurtled past the Moon and Earth in mid-August to provide its first gravity assist maneuver to the Jovian system, the Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) instrument imaged the UV emissions radiating from the Earth and Moon.
It was a successful test of one of three science instrument projects comprising NASA’s contribution to ESA’s Juice mission. The UVS data collected were then analyzed and found to be consistent with expectations for the Moon and the Earth. This confirmation that the instrument works within specifications was not able to be fully achieved during pre-launch testing in a laboratory setting.
“This high-fidelity test confirmed what the instrument is supposed to do. We can now be confident that the data we will get from Jupiter’s moons will be just as accurate,” said SwRI’s Steven Persyn, Juice-UVS project manager (PM).
Weighing just over 40 pounds and drawing only 7.5 watts of power, UVS is smaller than a microwave oven, yet this powerful instrument will determine the relative concentrations of various elements and molecules in the atmospheres of Jupiter’s moons once in the Jovian system.
Aboard Juice, UVS will get close-up views of the Galilean moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, all thought to host liquid water beneath their icy surfaces. UVS will record ultraviolet light emitted, transmitted and reflected by these bodies, revealing the composition of their surfaces and tenuous atmospheres and how they interact with Jupiter and its giant magnetosphere. Additional scientific goals include observations of Jupiter itself as well as the gases from its volcanic moon Io that spread throughout the Jovian magnetosphere.
The Juice spacecraft is now on its way to Venus, where it will complete a gravity assist maneuver before heading back to Earth for another gravity assist to attain the momentum needed for its journey to the Jovian system.
The mission’s science goals focus on Jupiter and its system, making multiple flybys of the planet’s large, ocean-bearing satellites with a particular emphasis on investigating Ganymede as a potentially habitable planetary body. Being the only moon in the solar system known to have an internal magnetic field, Ganymede has auroral ovals like the northern and southern lights on Earth. The UV emissions from Earth’s atmosphere observed during the recent gravity assists provide an especially good test of the plans for Juice-UVS to observe Ganymede’s UV aurora and other atmospheric features. It will also study the system as an archetype for gas giants in our solar system and beyond.
UVS is one of 10 science instruments and 11 investigations on the Juice spacecraft. As it begins an approximately 4.1-billion-mile (6.6-billion-kilometer), eight-year journey to the Jupiter system, the spacecraft has been busy deploying and activating its antennas, booms, sensors and instruments to check out and commission all its important subsystems. SwRI’s UVS instrument is the latest to succeed in this task.
A similar instrument, Europa-UVS, will travel aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper, which will take a more direct route to arrive at the Jupiter system 15 months before Juice and focus on studying the potential habitability of Europa.
“Our UVS instrument will complement the work that will be done by Europa-UVS allowing us to learn even more at the same time,” said SwRI’s Dr. Kurt Retherford, principal investigator (PI) of Europa-UVS and deputy PI for Juice-UVS. “Having both teams working with the UVS instruments based here at SwRI will make that coordination all the more efficient.”
The Juice spacecraft and science instruments were built by teams from 15 European countries, Japan and the United States. SwRI’s UVS instrument team includes additional scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder, the SETI institute, the University of Leicester (U.K.), Imperial College London (U.K.), the University of Liège (Belgium), the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) and the Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (France). The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center oversees the UVS contribution to ESA through the agency’s Solar System Exploration Program. The Juice spacecraft was developed by Airbus Defence and Space.
Leicester spinout company Perpetual Atomics to transform power generation in space
Space Park Leicester and the University of Leicester to launch new space nuclear power systems, space science and exploration spin-out company at International Astronautical Congress (IAC) – Perpetual Atomics Ltd
Credit: University of Leicester/Space Park Leicester
Transformative technology that harnesses the power of nuclear material for space missions is set to enable a whole range of new space missions as Space Park Leicester launches Perpetual Atomics, a bold new start-up to commercialise its research.
The University of Leicester is excited to announce the launch of a new spin-out company, Perpetual Atomics, which is set to revolutionise the application of nuclear technology in space.
Perpetual Atomics is a space nuclear power systems, space science and exploration business that will commercialise the know-how and expertise in space nuclear power developed over more than 20 years at the University of Leicester.
Perpetual Atomics, will aim to bring innovative solutions to power challenges in space missions, ensuring sustainability and reliability in some of the harshest environments known to humanity.
Perpetual Atomics will be announced to visitors of International Astronautical Congress 2024 on the UK Space Agency stand, MS-B05, on Tuesday 15 October.
Professor Richard Ambrosi, Executive Director of Space Park Leicester, said: “Since Space Park Leicester last attended the International Astronautical Congress we’ve seen some exciting developments in space nuclear power, and we are delighted to be able to share more on those at 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Milan this October.
“We are entering a new chapter in our journey, one that will see us harness the potential of nuclear technology to power deep space exploration and to pioneer new frontiers and are ready to bring others with us on that journey. The use of nuclear power in space is not just a concept for the future—it’s happening now.”
Building on the success of attendance in Paris in 2022, a team of leading experts from the University of Leicester’s space nuclear division will be present in Milan, showcasing cutting-edge advancements and discussing the future of nuclear power in space exploration.
The technology at the heart of the new venture has the potential to enable longer, more ambitious missions beyond Earth’s orbit in some of the harshest environments of deep space. Perpetual Atomics aims to establish a new global market leader in mature radioisotope power solutions based on research from the University of Leicester.
Perpetual Atomics’ mission builds on two decades work in developing radioisotope power systems by the Space Nuclear Power group at the University of Leicester. These power systems use the heat generated from the decay of radioisotopes, and can be used to provide heat to spacecraft, or converted to electricity to power key subsystems. Their Radioisotope Heater Units (RHUs) and Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator or RTG (also sometimes referred to as a 'space battery') use americium fuel, which can provide stable power outputs to spacecraft for many decades.
Based at Space Park Leicester, the University of Leicester’s £100 million science and innovation park, where a space nuclear power community is being developed, the team are the main developer of radioisotope thermoelectric generators in Europe. The technology development has been funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) European Devices Using Radioisotope Energy (ENDURE) program, as well as the UK Space Agency.
The Perpetual Atomics team is looking forward to working with a number of national and international partners to expand the use of radioisotope power technologies in space.
The investment in Perpetual Atomics has been made by Reef Global, the impact investment division within Reef Origin. Piers Slater, Reef Global Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Perpetual Atomics commented: “We are very excited that our first investment in the space sector is in Perpetual Atomics a business aligned with Reef Global’s goal to deliver a sustainable earth and space economy. We thank both University of Leicester and the co-founders for giving us the opportunity to invest in and support the commercialisation and scale up of Perpetual Atomics an innovative and exciting business led by a talented team with the shared ambitions of building a pioneering global space company from the UK.”
Professor Sarah Davies, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Leicester said: “Perpetual Atomics is an exemplar of the type of business that Space Park Leicester was established to create: originating from world-leading research that has been nurtured at the University of Leicester for many years, and enabled by the dedicated, highly skilled and innovative community at our flagship Space Park Leicester. The spin-out launch will seize an opportunity that is already pushing new frontiers for the space industry globally, and we are excited to see it do the same for humanity’s exploration beyond our world. It also further cements Leicester’s place as the UK’s Space City, building on our city’s long heritage in space and its contribution to the region’s economy.”
Julie Black, Director of Missions and Capabilities at the UK Space Agency, said: "The University of Leicester has long been at the forefront of world leading research into innovative space technologies. This addition of an exciting new start-up to Space Park Leicester continues this tradition of innovation and highlights the skilled workforce in the region.
"The cutting-edge technology that the team at Perpetual Atomics are developing could not only harness nuclear power to sustain exploration of space for longer periods of time but allow us to venture further into space than ever before, enabling more science and bringing more benefits back to Earth.”
William Wells, Deputy Director Research and Enterprise at the University of Leicester, said: “At the University of Leicester we are committed to seeing our globally leading research deliver real world impact, Perpetual Atomics will transform power solutions for space and will form part of a growing community of innovative energy businesses at Space Park. In addition it becomes a further business at Space Park spun out of research at Leicester.”
Professor Sarah Davies, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Science and Engineering, and Professor Richard Ambrosi, Executive Director of Space Park Leicester.
Shock Test (IMAGE)
University of Leicester
Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator being subjected to extreme shock levels to test its resilience for the harsh environment of a launch or planetary surface landing.
Lunar rover powered by an Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator.
Credit
University of Leicester/Space Park Leicester
NASA’s Hubble, New Horizons team up for a simultaneous look at Uranus
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
image:
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (left) and NASA's New Horizon's spacecraft (right) image the planet Uranus.
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Samantha Hasler (MIT), Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), New Horizons Planetary Science Theme Team; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. The results inform future plans to study like types of planets around other stars.
Astronomers used Uranus as a proxy for similar planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets, comparing high-resolution images from Hubble to the more-distant view from New Horizons. This combined perspective will help scientists learn more about what to expect while imaging planets around other stars with future telescopes.
"While we expected Uranus to appear differently in each filter of the observations, we found that Uranus was actually dimmer than predicted in the New Horizons data taken from a different viewpoint," said lead author Samantha Hasler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and New Horizons science team collaborator.
Direct imaging of exoplanets is a key technique for learning about their potential habitability, and offers new clues to the origin and formation of our own solar system. Astronomers use both direct imaging and spectroscopy to collect light from the observed planet and compare its brightness at different wavelengths. However, imaging exoplanets is a notoriously difficult process because they're so far away. Their images are mere pinpoints and so are not as detailed as the close-up views that we have of worlds orbiting our Sun. Researchers can also only directly image exoplanets at "partial phases," when only a portion of the planet is illuminated by their star as seen from Earth.
Uranus was an ideal target as a test for understanding future distant observations of exoplanets by other telescopes for a few reasons. First, many known exoplanets are also gas giants similar in nature. Also, at the time of the observations, New Horizons was on the far side of Uranus, 6.5 billion miles away, allowing its twilight crescent to be studied—something that cannot be done from Earth. At that distance, the New Horizons view of the planet was just several pixels in its color camera, called the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera.
On the other hand, Hubble, with its high resolution, and in its low-Earth orbit 1.7 billion miles away from Uranus, was able to see atmospheric features such as clouds and storms on the day side of the gaseous world.
"Uranus appears as just a small dot on the New Horizons observations, similar to the dots seen of directly-imaged exoplanets from observatories like Webb or ground-based observatories," added Hasler. "Hubble provides context for what the atmosphere is doing when it was observed with New Horizons."
The gas giant planets in our solar system have dynamic and variable atmospheres with changing cloud cover. How common is this among exoplanets? By knowing the details of what the clouds on Uranus looked like from Hubble, researchers are able to verify what is interpreted from the New Horizons data. In the case of Uranus, both Hubble and New Horizons saw that the brightness did not vary as the planet rotated, which indicates that the cloud features were not changing with the planet’s rotation.
However, the importance of the detection by New Horizons has to do with how the planet reflects light at a different phase than what Hubble, or other observatories on or near Earth, can see. New Horizons showed that exoplanets may be dimmer than predicted at partial and high phase angles, and that the atmosphere reflects light differently at partial phase.
NASA has two major upcoming observatories in the works to advance studies of exoplanet atmospheres and potential habitability.
“These landmark New Horizons studies of Uranus from a vantage point unobservable by any other means add to the mission’s treasure trove of new scientific knowledge, and have, like many other datasets obtained in the mission, yielded surprising new insights into the worlds of our solar system,” added New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute.
NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by 2027, will use a coronagraph to block out a star’s light to directly see gas giant exoplanets. NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory, in an early planning phase, will be the first telescope designed specifically to search for atmospheric biosignatures on Earth-sized, rocky planets orbiting other stars.
“Studying how known benchmarks like Uranus appear in distant imaging can help us have more robust expectations when preparing for these future missions,” concluded Hasler. “And that will be critical to our success.”
Launched in January 2006, New Horizons made the historic flyby of Pluto and its moons in July 2015, before giving humankind its first close-up look at one of these planetary building block and Kuiper Belt object, Arrokoth, in January 2019. New Horizons is now in its second extended mission, studying distant Kuiper Belt objects, characterizing the outer heliosphere of the Sun, and making important astrophysical observations from its unmatched vantage point in distant regions of the solar system.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio and Boulder, Colorado, directs the mission via Principal Investigator Alan Stern and leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of NASA's New Frontiers program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Lightning strikes kick off a game of electron pinball in space
University of Colorado at Boulder
When lightning strikes, the electrons come pouring down.
In a new study, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder led by an undergraduate student have discovered a new link between weather on Earth and weather in space. The group used satellite data to show that lightning storms on our planet can knock especially high-energy, or “extra-hot,” electrons out of the inner radiation belt—a region of space filled with charged particles that surrounds Earth like an inner tube.
The team’s results could help satellites and even astronauts avoid dangerous radiation in space. This is one kind of downpour you don’t want to get caught in, said lead author and undergraduate Max Feinland.
“These particles are the scary ones or what some people call ‘killer electrons,’” said Feinland, who received his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering sciences at CU Boulder in spring 2024. “They can penetrate metal on satellites, hit circuit boards and can be carcinogenic if they hit a person in space.”
The findings cast an eye toward the radiation belts, which are generated by Earth’s magnetic field. Lauren Blum, a co-author of the paper and assistant professor in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder, explained that two of these regions encircle our planet: While they move a lot over time, the inner belt tends to begin more than 600 miles above the surface. The outer belt starts roughly around 12,000 miles from Earth. These pool floaties in space trap charged particles streaming toward our planet from the sun, forming a sort of barrier between Earth’s atmosphere and the rest of the solar system.
But they’re not exactly airtight. Scientists, for example, have long known that high-energy electrons can fall toward Earth from the outer radiation belt. Blum and her colleagues, however, are the first to spot a similar rain coming from the inner belt.
Earth and space, in other words, may not be as separate as they look.
“Space weather is really driven both from above and below,” Blum said.
Bolt from the blue
It’s a testament to the power of lightning.
When a lightning bolt flashes in the sky on Earth, that burst of energy may also send radio waves spiraling deep into space. If those waves smack into electrons in the radiation belts, they can jostle them free—a bit like shaking your umbrella to knock the water off. In some cases, such “lightning-induced electron precipitation” can even influence the chemistry of Earth’s atmosphere.
To date, researchers had only collected direct measurements of lower energy, or “colder,” electrons falling from the inner radiation belt.
“Typically, the inner belt is thought to be kind of boring,” Blum said. “It’s stable. It’s always there.”
Her team’s new discovery came about almost by accident. Feinland was analyzing data from NASA’s now-decommissioned Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) satellite when he saw something odd: clumps of what seemed to be high-energy electrons moving through the inner belt.
“I showed Lauren some of my events, and she said, ‘That’s not where these are supposed to be,’” Feinland said. “Some literature suggests that there aren’t any high-energy electrons in the inner belt at all.”
The team decided to dig deeper.
In all, Feinland counted 45 surges of high-energy electrons in the inner belt from 1996 to 2006. He compared those events to records of lightning strikes in North America. Sure enough, some of the spikes in electrons seemed to happen less than a second after lightning strikes on the ground.
Electron pinball
Here’s what the team thinks is happening: Following a lightning strike, radio waves from Earth kick off a kind of manic pinball game in space. They knock into electrons in the inner belt, which then begin to bounce between Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres—going back and forth in just 0.2 seconds.
And each time the electrons bounce, some of them fall out of the belt and into our atmosphere.
“You have a big blob of electrons that bounces, and then returns and bounces again,” Blum said. “You’ll see this initial signal, and it will decay away.”
Blum isn’t sure how often such events happen. They may occur mostly during periods of high solar activity when the sun spits out a lot of high-energy electrons, stocking the inner belt with these particles.
The researchers want to understand these events better so that they can predict when they may be likely to occur, potentially helping to keep people and electronics in orbit safe.
Feinland, for his part, is grateful for the chance to study these magnificent storms.
“I didn't even realize how much I liked research until I got to do this project,” he said.
Other co-authors of the new study included Robert Marshall, associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU Boulder, Longzhi Gan of Boston University, Mykhaylo Shumko of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Mark Looper of The Aerospace Corporation.
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