Revealed: oldest star clusters in the universe

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

 

IMAGE: THOUSANDS OF GALAXIES FLOOD THIS NEAR-INFRARED, HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGE OF GALAXY CLUSTER SMACS 0723 view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI

A team of Canadian astronomers, including experts from the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts & Science, have used the James Webb Telescope (JWST) to identify the most distant globular clusters ever discovered – dense groups of millions of stars that may be relics containing the first and oldest stars in the universe.

The early analysis of Webb’s First Deep Field image, which depicts some of the universe’s earliest galaxies, was published Sept. 29 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“JWST was built to find the first stars and the first galaxies and to help us understand the origins of complexity in the universe, such as the chemical elements and the building blocks of life,” says Lamiya Mowla, a post-doctoral researcher at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics and co-lead author of the study, which was carried out by the CAnadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS) team.

“This discovery in Webb’s First Deep Field is already providing a detailed look at the earliest phase of star formation, confirming the incredible power of JWST.”

In the finely detailed Webb’s First Deep Field image, the researchers zeroed in on what they’ve dubbed “the Sparkler galaxy,” which is nine billion light years away. This galaxy got its name for the compact objects appearing as small yellow-red dots surrounding it, referred to by the researchers as “sparkles.” The team posited that these sparkles could either be young clusters actively forming stars – born three billion years after the Big Bang at the peak of star formation – or old globular clusters. Globular clusters are ancient collections of stars from a galaxy’s infancy and contain clues about its earliest phases of formation and growth.

From their initial analysis of 12 of these compact objects, the researchers determined that five of them are not only globular clusters but among the oldest ones known.

“Looking at the first images from JWST and discovering old globular clusters around distant galaxies was an incredible moment – one that wasn’t possible with previous Hubble Space Telescope imaging,” says Kartheik G. Iyer, a post-doctoral researcher at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics and co-lead author of the study.

“Since we could observe the sparkles across a range of wavelengths, we could model them and better understand their physical properties – like how old they are and how many stars they contain. We hope the knowledge that globular clusters can be observed at from such great distances with JWST will spur further science and searches for similar objects.”

The Milky Way galaxy is known to have about 150 globular clusters, but how and when exactly these dense clumps of stars formed is not well understood. Astronomers know that globular clusters can be extremely old, but it is incredibly challenging to measure their ages. Using very distant globular clusters to age-date the first stars in distant galaxies has not been done before and is only possible with JWST.

“These newly identified clusters were formed close to the first time it was even possible to form stars,” says Mowla. “Because the Sparkler galaxy is much farther away than our own Milky Way, it is easier to determine the ages of its globular clusters. We are observing the Sparkler as it was nine billion years ago, when the universe was only four-and-a-half billion years old, looking at something that happened a long time ago. Think of it as guessing a person's age based on their appearance – it’s easy to tell the difference between a five- and 10-year-old, but hard to tell the difference between a 50- and 55-year-old.”

Until now, astronomers could not see the surrounding compact objects of the Sparkler galaxy with the Hubble Space Telescope. This changed with JWST's increased resolution and sensitivity, unveiling the tiny dots surrounding the galaxy for the first time in Webb’s First Deep Field image. The Sparkler galaxy is special because it is magnified by a factor of 100 due to an effect called gravitational lensing – where the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster in the foreground distorts what is behind it, much like a giant magnifying glass. Moreover, gravitational lensing produces three separate images of the Sparkler, allowing astronomers to study the galaxy in greater detail.

“Our study of the Sparkler highlights the tremendous power in combining the unique capabilities of JWST with the natural magnification afforded by gravitational lensing,” says CANUCS team lead Chris Willott from the National Research Council’s Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre. “The team is excited about more discoveries to come when JWST turns its eye on the CANUCS galaxy clusters next month.”

The researchers combined new data from JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) with Hubble Scape Telescope archival data. NIRCam detects faint objects using longer and redder wavelengths to observe past what is visible to the human eye and even the Hubble Space Telescope. Both magnifications due to the lensing by the galaxy cluster and the high resolution of JWST are what made observing compact objects possible.

The Canadian-made Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument on the JWST provided independent confirmation that the objects are old globular clusters because the researchers did not observe oxygen emission lines – emissions with measurable spectra given off by young clusters that are actively forming stars. NIRISS also helped unravel the geometry of the triply lensed images of the Sparkler.

“JWST’s made-in-Canada NIRISS instrument was vital in helping us understand how the three images of the Sparkler and its globular clusters are connected,” says Marcin Sawicki, a professor at Saint. Mary's University who is Canada Research Chair in Astronomy and co-author of the study. “Seeing several of the Sparkler’s globular clusters imaged three times made it clear that they are orbiting around the Sparkler galaxy rather than being simply in front of it by chance.”

JWST will observe the CANUCS fields starting in October 2022, leveraging its data to examine five massive clusters of galaxies, around which the researchers expect to find more such systems. Future studies will also model the galaxy cluster to understand the lensing effect and execute more robust analyses to explain the star formation histories.

Collaborating institutions include York University and institutions in the United States and Europe. The research was supported by the Canadian Space Agency and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

CAPTION

The researchers studied the Sparkler galaxy located in Webb’s First Deep Field and used JWST to determine that five of the sparkling objects around it are globular clusters.

CREDIT

Image via Canadian Space Agency with images from NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Mowla, Iyer et al. 2022.

CAPTION

From left: Kartheik Iyer, Vince Estrada-Carpenter, Guillaume Desperez, Lamiya Mowla, Marcin Sawicki, Victoria Strait, Gabe Brammer and Kate Gould (on laptop screen), Ghassan Sarrouh, Chris Willott, Bob Abraham, Gael Noirot, Yoshi Asada, Nick Martis

CREDIT

Photo courtesy of Lamiya Mowla and Kartheik Iyer

CAPTION

Gravitational lensing is used by astronomers to study very distant and very faint galaxies.

CREDIT

Image courtesy of NASA, ESA & L. Calçada

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JOURNAL

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI

10.3847/2041-8213/ac90ca 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The Sparkler: Evolved High-redshift Globular Cluster Candidates Captured by JWST

Ancient DNA analysis sheds light on the early peopling of South America

Study provides most complete genetic evidence to date of complex migration routes in Ancient Central and South America

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE FIRST SOUTHERN NORTH AMERICAN GROUPS ENTERED SOUTH AMERICA AND SPREAD THROUGH THE PACIFIC COAST SETTLING THE ANDES (YELLOW ARROW). AT LEAST ONE POPULATION SPLIT OCCURRED SOON AFTER, BRANCHING THE FIRST GROUPS THAT SETTLED THE ATLANTIC COAST (GREEN ARROW) FROM THE GROUPS THAT GAVE RISE TO THE ANCIENT POPULATIONS OF SOUTHERN CONE. NEW MIGRATIONS MAY HAVE THEN EMERGED ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST, WITH A POSSIBLE ORIGIN AROUND LAGOA SANTA, HEADING NORTH TOWARD NORTHEAST BRAZIL AND PANAMA, AND SOUTH TO URUGUAY. EVENTUALLY, URUGUAY AND PANAMA WERE LINKED BY A SOUTH-TO-NORTH MIGRATION ROUTE CLOSER TO THE ATLANTIC COAST (PURPLE DOUBLE-HEADED ARROW). view more 

CREDIT: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

The Americas were the last continent to be inhabited by humans. An increasing body of archaeological and genomic evidence has hinted to a complex settlement process. This is especially true for South America, where unexpected ancestral signals have raised perplexing scenarios for the early migrations into different regions of the continent.

Many unanswered questions still persist, such as whether the first humans migrated south along the Pacific coast or by some other route. While there is archaeological evidence for a north-to-south migration during the initial peopling of the Americas by ancient Indigenous peoples, where these ancient humans went after they arrived has remained elusive.  

Using DNA from two ancient human individuals unearthed in two different archaeological sites in northeast Brazil – Pedra do Tubarão and Alcobaça – and powerful algorithms and genomic analyses, Florida Atlantic University researchers in collaboration with Emory University have unraveled the deep demographic history of South America at the regional level with some unexpected and surprising results.

Not only do researchers provide new genetic evidence supporting existing archaeological data of the north-to-south migration toward South America, they also have discovered migrations in the opposite direction along the Atlantic coast – for the first time. The work provides the most complete genetic evidence to date for complex ancient Central and South American migration routes.

Among the key findings, researchers also have discovered evidence of Neanderthal ancestry within the genomes of ancient individuals from South America. Neanderthals are an extinct population of archaic humans that ranged across Eurasia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. 

Results of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. (Biological Sciences), suggest that human movements closer to the Atlantic coast eventually linked ancient Uruguay and Panama in a south-to-north migration route – 5,277 kilometers (3,270 miles) apart. This novel migration pattern is estimated to have occurred approximately 1,000 years ago based on the ages of the ancient individuals.

Findings show a distinct relationship among ancient genomes from northeast Brazil, Lagoa Santa (southeast Brazil), Uruguay and Panama. This new model reveals that the settlement of the Atlantic coast occurred only after the peopling of most of the Pacific coast and Andes.

“Our study provides key genomic evidence for ancient migration events at the regional scale along South America’s Atlantic coast,” said Michael DeGiorgio, Ph.D., co-corresponding author who specializes in human, evolutionary, and computational genomics and is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science within FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. “These regional events likely derived from migratory waves involving the initial Indigenous peoples of South America near the Pacific coast.”

Researchers also found strong Australasian (Australia and Papua New Guinea) genetic signals in an ancient genome from Panama.

“There is an entire Pacific Ocean between Australasia and the Americas, and we still don’t know how these ancestral genomic signals appeared in Central and South America without leaving traces in North America,” said Andre Luiz Campelo dos Santos, Ph.D., first author, an archaeologist and a postdoctoral fellow in FAU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

To further add to the existing complexity, researchers also detected greater Denisovan than Neanderthal ancestry in ancient Uruguay and Panama individuals. Denisovans are a group of extinct humans first identified from DNA sequences from the tip of finger bone discovered around 2008.

“It’s phenomenal that Denisovan ancestry made it all the way to South America,” says John Lindo, Ph.D., a co-corresponding author of the article who specializes in ancient DNA analysis and is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Emory University. “The admixture must have occurred a long time before, perhaps 40,000 years ago. The fact that the Denisovan lineage persisted and its genetic signal made it into an ancient individual from Uruguay that is only 1,500 years old suggests that it was a large admixture event between a population of humans and Denisovans.”

Previously at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, dos Santos and colleagues uncovered the remains of the two ancient humans from northeast Brazil, which date back to at least 1,000 years before present, and sent them to Lindo for DNA extraction and subsequent genomic sequencing and analyses. Raw data were then sent to FAU for computational analysis of the whole genome sequences from northeast Brazil.

Researchers compared the two newly sequenced ancient whole genomes from northeast Brazil with present-day worldwide genomes and other ancient whole genomes from the Americas. As of the publication date of the article, Lindo says that only a dozen or so ancient whole genomes from South America have been sequenced and published, in contrast to hundreds from Europe. 

Apart from the occurrence of mass burials in the sites that yielded the samples from northeast Brazil, Uruguay, southeast Brazil and Panama, there is no other evidence in the archaeological record that indicate shared cultural features among them. Importantly, the analyzed ancient individuals from southeast Brazil are about 9,000 years older than those from northeast Brazil, Uruguay and Panama, enough time for expected and noticeable cultural divergence. Moreover, northeast Brazil, Uruguay and Panama, though more similar in age, are located thousands of kilometers apart from each other.

“This groundbreaking research involved many different fields from archaeology to biological sciences to genomics and data science,” said Stella Batalama, Ph.D., dean, FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science. “Our scientists at Florida Atlantic University in collaboration with Emory University have helped to shed light on an important piece of the Americas puzzle, which could not have been solved without powerful genomic and computational tools and analysis.”

Study co-authors are Amanda Owings, Ph.D., Emory University; Henry Socrates Lavalle Sullasi, Ph.D., Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil; and Omer Gokcumen, Ph.D., State University New York at Buffalo. 

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia de Pernambuco. 

- FAU -

CAPTION

The figure depicts the deep ancestries of the ancient individuals of the Americas and archaic ancestry in ancient South America and Panama. The pie chart radius reflects the proportion of shared archaic ancestry in the individual.

CREDIT

Florida Atlantic University

CAPTION

Researchers used teeth from ancient samples collected in archeological sites in northeast Brazil. Teeth are especially important in ancient DNA analysis because of the excellent preservation of biomaterials within the tooth.

CREDIT

Laboratório de Arqueologia Biológica e Forense, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

CAPTION

The Alcobaça archaeological site, in which the skeletal remains of Brazil-12 (northeast Brazil) were unearthed.

CREDIT

Henry Lavalle, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and Ana Nascimento, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco

About FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science:

The FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science is internationally recognized for cutting edge research and education in the areas of computer science and artificial intelligence (AI), computer engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, civil, environmental and geomatics engineering, mechanical engineering, and ocean engineering. Research conducted by the faculty and their teams expose students to technology innovations that push the current state-of-the art of the disciplines. The College research efforts are supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Education (DOEd), the State of Florida, and industry. The FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science offers degrees with a modern twist that bear specializations in areas of national priority such as AI, cybersecurity, internet-of-things, transportation and supply chain management, and data science. New degree programs include Master of Science in AI (first in Florida), Master of Science and Bachelor in Data Science and Analytics, and the new Professional Master of Science and Ph.D. in computer science for working professionals. For more information about the College, please visit eng.fau.edu. 

 

About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

 

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Genomic evidence for ancient human migration routes along South America's Atlantic coast

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Nov-2022

Protected areas buffer climate change for biodiversity

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS

 

IMAGE: SHENNONGJIA NATIONAL NATURE RESERVE PROTECTS THE LARGEST PRIMARY FORESTS REMAINING IN CENTRAL CHINA AND PROVIDES HABITAT FOR MANY RARE ANIMAL SPECIES, INCLUDING THE GOLDEN SNUB-NOSED MONKEY. view more 

CREDIT: JIANG YONG

Climate change is emerging as a top threat to biodiversity according to the latest Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Plant and animal species face greater risks of thermal stress as climate change pushes temperatures beyond their thermal tolerance.

A new study, published in Science Advances on Nov. 2, shows that terrestrial protected areas not only provide habitat, but also offer a thermal buffer against climate change, thus serving as climate change refugia for biodiversity.

This study was led by scientists from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues from China's Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre Europe (UNEP-WCMC Europe) and the Forest & Nature Lab at Ghent University in Belgium.

The study reveals that, as compared to nonprotected areas that are often disturbed or converted to other land uses, protected areas of natural and seminatural vegetation effectively cool the land surface temperature. In particular, they cool the local daily maximum temperature in the tropics, and reduce diurnal and seasonal temperature ranges in boreal and temperate regions. Vegetation in protected areas has a higher amount of foliage in the canopy than in nonprotected areas even of the same vegetation type, which modulates local temperatures through physiological and biophysical processes.

"The cooling effect of protected areas on daily and seasonal maximum temperatures is particularly important because it can protect species in the wild from episodes of extreme heat," said Dr. JIA Gensuo, corresponding author of the study. "Under a warming climate, as heatwaves are becoming more frequent and more intense, protected areas create thermal refugia."

According to Dr. Pieter De Frenne, who has been working on microclimatic buffering of macroclimate warming in forests and is one of the authors, biodiversity responses to climate change are largely determined by microclimate, i.e., the local set of atmospheric conditions near the ground, which is modulated by habitats and landscape features at the local scale. "Protected areas provide shaded habitats that can moderate biotic responses to macroclimate warming," he explained.

Nature conservation is increasingly recognized as a nature-based solution contributing to global climate targets by preventing carbon emission from land-use change and by enhancing carbon removal from the atmosphere. This study shows that the effectiveness of nature protection in stabilizing local climates cannot be ignored. Protected forests effectively slow the rate of warming, with a warming rate in protected boreal forests up to 20% lower than in the surroundings.

"The slowed rate of warming is particularly important for species in the boreal regions because the northern high latitudes have warmed faster than the rest of the world," said lead author Dr. XU Xiyan. "Protected areas provide a home for threatened species, and the home is air-conditioned naturally!"

"Protected areas have long played a key role in the conservation of nature. However, climate change can affect the ability of protected areas to achieve their conservation objectives. The demonstration that protected areas can significantly contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation highlights the need to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises simultaneously," said Dr. Elise Belle, who has worked for UNEP-WCMC for almost a decade and is a coauthor of this study.

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abo0119 

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Nov-2022

Researchers analyze why certain snail species survived the end-Triassic mass extinction as over half of other gastropod species were wiped out

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLO

 

IMAGE: THE HETEROBRACHIA WAS LITTLE AFFECTED BY THE END-TRIASSIC MASS EXTINCTION, POSSIBLY BECAUSE OF A FLEXIBLE MODE OF FEEDING OF THE LARVAE, AN ADAPTATION TO RELATIVELY WARM TEMPERATURES, AND A FLEXIBLE ATTACHMENT OF THE MANTLE THAT ALLOWED FOR COVERING THE SHELL. view more 

CREDIT: MARIEL FERRARI, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276329

Article Title: Gastropods underwent a major taxonomic turnover during the end-Triassic marine mass extinction event

Author Countries: Argentina, Switzerland

Funding: This research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), grant IZSEZ0_193022/1 to MH. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0276329 

ARTICLE TITLE

Gastropods underwent a major taxonomic turnover during the end-Triassic marine mass extinction event

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Nov-2022

Clear window coating could cool buildings without using energy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: THIS WINDOW FILM (HELD IN FINGERS AT TOP LEFT) KEEPS ROOMS BRIGHT AND COOL BY ALLOWING VISIBLE LIGHT TO PASS IN WHILE REFLECTING INVISIBLE INFRARED AND ULTRAVIOLET SUNLIGHT AND RADIATING HEAT INTO OUTER SPACE. view more 

CREDIT: ADAPTED FROM ACS ENERGY LETTERS 2022, DOI: 10.1021/ACSENERGYLETT.2C01969

As climate change intensifies summer heat, demand is growing for technologies to cool buildings. Now, researchers report in ACS Energy Letters that they have used advanced computing technology and artificial intelligence to design a transparent window coating that could lower the temperature inside buildings, without expending a single watt of energy.

Studies have estimated that cooling accounts for about 15% of global energy consumption. That demand could be lowered with a window coating that could block the sun’s ultraviolet and near-infrared light — the parts of the solar spectrum that typically pass through glass to heat an enclosed room. Energy use could be reduced even further if the coating radiates heat from the window’s surface at a wavelength that passes through the atmosphere into outer space. However, it’s difficult to design materials that can meet these criteria simultaneously and can also transmit visible light, meaning they don’t interfere with the view. Eungkyu Lee, Tengfei Luo and colleagues set out to design a “transparent radiative cooler” (TRC) that could do just that.

The team constructed computer models of TRCs consisting of alternating thin layers of common materials like silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide or titanium dioxide on a glass base, topped with a film of polydimethylsiloxane. They optimized the type, order and combination of layers using an iterative approach guided by machine learning and quantum computing, which stores data using subatomic particles. This computing method carries out optimization faster and better than conventional computers because it can efficiently test all possible combinations in a fraction of a second. This produced a coating design that, when fabricated, beat the performance of conventionally designed TRCs in addition to one of the best commercial heat-reduction glasses on the market.

In hot, dry cities, the researchers say, the optimized TRC could potentially reduce cooling energy consumption by 31% compared with conventional windows. They note their findings could be applied to other applications, since TRCs could also be used on car and truck windows. In addition, the group’s quantum computing-enabled optimization technique could be used to design other types of composite materials.

The authors acknowledge support from the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Notre Dame Center for Research Computing.

The paper’s abstract will be available on Nov. 2 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsenergylett.2c01969

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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JOURNAL

ACS Energy Letters

DOI

10.1021/acsenergylett.2c01969 

ARTICLE TITLE

High-Performance Transparent Radiative Cooler Designed by Quantum Computing

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Nov-2022

This simple material could scrub carbon dioxide from power plant smokestacks

An easily synthesized chemical filter could stop the greenhouse gas from reaching the atmosphere.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST)

 

IMAGE: EXHAUST FROM COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS, AT LEFT, CONTAIN LARGE QUANTITIES OF THE GREENHOUSE GAS CARBON DIOXIDE (PURPLE TRIPARTITE MOLECULES). ALUMINUM FORMATE, A METAL-ORGANIC FRAMEWORK WHOSE STRUCTURE IS HIGHLIGHTED AT RIGHT, CAN SELECTIVELY CAPTURE CARBON DIOXIDE FROM DRIED FLUE GAS CONDITIONS, POTENTIALLY AT A FRACTION OF THE COST OF USING OTHER CARBON FILTRATION MATERIALS. view more 

CREDIT: B. HAYES / NIST

How can we remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from fossil-fuel power plant exhaust before it ever reaches the atmosphere? New findings suggest a promising answer lies in a simple, economical and potentially reusable material analyzed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists from several institutions have determined why this material works as well as it does.  

The team’s object of study is aluminum formate, one of a class of substances called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). As a group, MOFs have exhibited great potential for filtering and separating organic materials — often the various hydrocarbons in fossil fuels — from one another. Some MOFs have shown promise at refining natural gas or separating the octane components of gasoline; others might contribute to reducing the cost of plastics manufacturing or cheaply converting one substance to another. Their capacity to perform such separations comes from their inherently porous nature. 

Aluminum formate, which the scientists refer to as ALF, has a talent for separating carbon dioxide (CO2) from the other gases that commonly fly out of the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants. It also lacks the shortcomings that other proposed carbon filtration materials have, said NIST’s Hayden Evans, one of the lead authors of the team’s research paper, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.  

“What makes this work exciting is that ALF performs really well relative to other high-performing CO2 adsorbents, but it rivals designer compounds in its simplicity, overall stability and ease of preparation,” said Evans, a chemist at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). “It is made of two substances found easily and abundantly, so creating enough ALF to use widely should be possible at very low cost.” 

The research team includes scientists from the National University of Singapore; Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research; the University of Delaware; and the University of California, Santa Barbara.  

Coal-fired power plants account for roughly 30% of global CO2 emissions. Even as the world embraces other energy sources such as solar and wind power that do not generate greenhouse gases, finding a way to reduce the carbon output of existing plants could help mitigate their effects while they remain in operation.  

Scrubbing the CO2 from flue gas before it reaches the atmosphere in the first place is a logical approach, but it has proved challenging to create an effective scrubber. The mixture of gases that flows up the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants is typically fairly hot, humid and corrosive — characteristics that have made it difficult to find an economical material that can do the job efficiently. Some other MOFs work well but are made of expensive materials; others are less costly in and of themselves but perform adequately only in dry conditions, requiring a “drying step” that reduces the gas humidity but raises the overall cost of the scrubbing process.  

“Put it all together, you need some kind of wonder material,” Evans said. “Here, we’ve managed to tick every box except stability in very humid conditions. However, using ALF would be inexpensive enough that a drying step becomes a viable option.”  

ALF is made from aluminum hydroxide and formic acid, two chemicals that are abundant and readily available on the market. It would cost less than a dollar per kilogram, Evans said, which is up to 100 times less expensive than other materials with similar performance. Low cost is important because carbon capture at a single plant could require up to tens of thousands of tons of filtration material. The amount needed for the entire world would be enormous.   

On a microscopic scale, ALF resembles a three-dimensional wire cage with innumerable small holes. These holes are just large enough to allow CO2 molecules to enter and get trapped, but just small enough to exclude the slightly larger nitrogen molecules that make up the majority of flue gas. Neutron diffraction work at the NCNR showed the team how the individual cages in the material collect and fill with CO2, revealing that the gas molecules fit inside certain cages within ALF like a hand in a glove, Evans said. 

Despite its potential, ALF is not ready for immediate use. Engineers would need to design a procedure to create ALF at large scales. A coal-fired plant would also need a compatible process to reduce the humidity of the flue gas before scrubbing it. Evans said that a great deal is already understood about how to address these issues, and that they would not make the cost of using ALF prohibitive.  

What to do with the CO2 afterward is also a major question, he said, though this is a problem for all carbon-capture materials. There are research efforts underway to convert it to formic acid — which is not only a naturally occurring organic material but also one of the two constituents of ALF. The idea here is that ALF could become part of a cyclic process where ALF removes CO2 from the exhaust streams, and that captured CO2 is used to create more formic acid. This formic acid would then be used to make more ALF, further reducing the overall impact and cost of the material cycle. 

“There is a great deal of research going on nowadays into the problem of what to do with all the captured CO2,” Evans said. “It seems possible that we could eventually use solar energy to split hydrogen from water, and then combine that hydrogen with the CO2 to make more formic acid. Combined with ALF, that’s a solution that would help the planet.”  

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Aluminium Formate, Al(HCOO)3: an Earth-Abundant, Scalable and Highly-Selective Material for CO2 Capture

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Nov-2022

Temperatures in Europe have risen by twice the global average over past 30 years

The World Meteorological Organisation says Europe presents a "live picture of a warming world".

 by Jack Peat
2022-11-02 


Temperatures have risen by more than twice the global average in Europe over the past 30 years, UN experts on weather and climate have said.

A report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said temperatures had warmed significantly since 1991, rising at an average of about 0.5C a decade, making it the fastest warming continent.

The report focuses on 2021 when Europe was hit by devastating floods, storms and other weather and climate events, which claimed lives, directly affected more than half a million people and caused 50 billion dollars of damage.


With 2022 seeing more climate damage from heatwaves, drought and wildfire, the WMO warned Europe was a “live picture of a warming world” that shows that even well-prepared societies are not safe from extreme weather events.

The State of the Climate in Europe report for 2021, produced jointly with the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, also reveals that Alpine glaciers lost 30m (nearly 100 ft) in ice thickness from 1997-2021.

Greenland’s ice sheet is melting, contributing to accelerating sea level rise – and in summer 2021 saw a melt event and rainfall for the first time ever at its highest point – Summit station.


There were also droughts and high temperatures which fuelled significant wildfires, particularly in Turkey, Italy and Greece, and summer heatwaves saw temperatures reach 48.8C near Syracuse in Sicily, in August – a provisional record.

The report shows that some European countries are having success in cutting the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming, with EU climate pollution falling 31 per cent between 1990 and 2020, and a target for 2030 of 55 per cent cuts.

But recent reports from other UN bodies have shown how far off track the world is to limiting temperature rises to well below 2C or 1.5C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, as countries agreed under the Paris Agreement in 2015.

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WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said: “Europe presents a live picture of a warming world and reminds us that even well-prepared societies are not safe from impacts of extreme weather events.

“This year, like 2021, large parts of Europe have been affected by extensive heatwaves and drought, fuelling wildfires. In 2021, exceptional floods caused death and devastation.”

He added: “On the mitigation side, the good pace in reducing greenhouse gases emissions in the region should continue and ambition should be further increased.

“Europe can play a key role towards achieving a carbon neutral society by the middle of the century to meet the Paris Agreement.”

Europe temperatures rise more than twice global average - UN

Wednesday, 2 Nov 2022 

The report cautioned that temperatures would likely continue to rise across Europe at a rate exceeding global mean temperature changes

Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past three decades, showing the fastest rise of any continent on earth, the United Nations has said.

The European region has on average seen temperatures rise 0.5C each decade since 1991, the UN's World Meteorological Organization and the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service found in a joint report.

As a result, Alpine glaciers lost 100ft in ice thickness between 1997 and 2021, while the Greenland ice sheet is swiftly melting and contributing to accelerating sea level rise.

Last year, Greenland experienced melting and the first-ever recorded rainfall at its highest point.

The report also cautioned that regardless of future levels of global warming, temperatures would likely continue to rise across Europe at a rate exceeding global mean temperature changes.

"Europe presents a live picture of a warming world and reminds us that even well-prepared societies are not safe from impacts of extreme weather events," WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.


Greenland experienced melting and the first-ever recorded rainfall at its highest point

WMO splits the world into six regions, with the European region covering 50 countries and including half of the swiftly warming Arctic, which is not a continent in its own right.

Within Antarctica - which is a continent but falls outside the six WMO-defined regions - only the West Antarctic Peninsula part is seeing rapid warming.

In Ireland, mean temperatures were above their long-term average all across the country throughout last month.

Deviations ranged from a rise of 1.2C above the average at Malin Head in Co Donegal, to 2.2C at Dunsany in Co Meath and Casement Aerodrome in Dublin.

The highest temperature in Ireland last month was recorded at Shannon Airport on 3 October, reaching 19.5C.

Four of Met Éireann's weather stations had their warmest October since 1995, another four had their warmest October since 2001, while five stations had their warmest October on record.

'Vulnerable'

The new report, released ahead of the UN's 27th conference on climate set to open in Egypt on Sunday, examined the situation in Europe up to and including 2021.

It found that last year, high-impact weather and climate events - mainly floods and storms - led to hundreds of deaths, directly affected more than half a million people and caused economic damage across Europe exceeding $50 billion.
Last year, high-impact weather and climate events led to hundreds of deaths

At the same time, the report highlighted some positives, including the success of many European countries in slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

Across the EU, such emissions decreased by nearly a third between 1990 and 2020, and the bloc has set a net 55% reduction target for 2030.

Europe is also one of the most advanced regions when it comes to cross-border cooperation towards climate change adaptation, the report said.

It also hailed Europe's world-leading deployment of early warning systems, providing protection for about 75% of the population, and said its heat-health action plans had saved many lives.

"European society is vulnerable to climate variability and change," said Carlo Buontempo, head of Copernicus's European Centre of Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

"But Europe is also at the forefront of the international effort to mitigate climate change and to develop innovative solutions to adapt to the new climate Europeans will have to live with."

Health concerns

Yet, the continent is facing formidable challenges.

"This year, like 2021, large parts of Europe have been affected by extensive heatwaves and drought, fuelling wildfires," Mr Taalas said, also decrying "death and devastation" from last year's "exceptional floods".
'Large parts of Europe have been affected by extensive heatwaves and drought, fuelling wildfire'

And going forward, the report cautioned that regardless of the greenhouse gas emissions scenario, "the frequency and intensity of hot extremes... are projected to keep increasing."

This is concerning, the report warned, given that the deadliest extreme climate events in Europe are heatwaves, especially in the west and south of the continent.

"The combination of climate change, urbanisation and population ageing in the region creates, and will further exacerbate, vulnerability to heat," the report said.

The shifting climate is also spurring other health concerns.

It has already begun altering the production and distribution of pollens and spores, which appear to be leading to increases in various allergies.

While more than 24% of adults living in the European region suffer from such allergies, including severe asthma, the proportion among children is 30-40% and rising, it said.

The warming climate is also causing more vector-borne diseases, with ticks moving into new areas bringing Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.

Asian tiger mosquitos are also moving further north, carrying the risk of Zika, dengue and chikungunya, the report said.


Accreditation: AFP