Category: Science & Research

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International Space Station Welcomes Trio of Experiments Focused on Enhancing Life Beyond Earth

Source: NASA

3 min read

NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division is sending three physical sciences and space biology experiments and equipment to the International Space Station aboard Northrop Grumman’s 20th commercial resupply services mission. These experiments aim to pioneer scientific discovery, enable sustainable deep space exploration, and support transformative engineering.

The launch is scheduled to take place no earlier than Tuesday, January 30, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Plants will play a crucial role in space exploration because they provide a source of fresh food for astronauts, revitalize habitat air, and help recycle resources. However, to use plants effectively for space exploration, it is important to understand how they grow under the harsh environments of space.  Many microbes that are intimately associated with plants are known to improve the plant’s ability to tolerate environmental stresses on Earth. These beneficial microbes could also confer similar advantages to plants in space; however, we do not know how exposure to the space environment alters these associations.

Plant-Microbe Interactions in Space (Advanced Plant Experiments in Space; APEX-10) tests whether the beneficial microbe Trichoderma harzianum increases stress resilience and improves seedling growth of tomato plants (Lycopersicum esculentum) when the two are grown together in microgravity on the International Space Station. If so, this knowledge could help increase plant productivity on Earth as well as in space. The principal investigator for APEX-10 is Dr. Simon Gilroy with the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Despite rigorous exercise, astronauts face a major health problem in space travel: significant bone loss. The Role of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Microgravity Induced Bone Loss – Part A (MABL-A) research assesses the effects of microgravity on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), specifically their capacity to secrete bone-forming and bone-dissolving cytokines (small secreted proteins that affect other cells).

MSCs are known to play a role in making and repairing skeletal tissues. Results could provide a better understanding of the basic molecular mechanisms of bone loss caused by spaceflight and normal aging on Earth. The principal investigator for MABL-A is Dr. Abba Zubair with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

Microbes, such as bacteria, cause numerous human diseases on Earth. It is possible that these same microbes could adversely affect the health of astronauts as they embark on future space missions. Therefore, a deeper understanding of how the spaceflight environment influences microbial growth could help develop strategies to counter their harmful effects.

Biological Research in Canisters-25 (BRIC-25) studies how microgravity affects the Accessory Gene Regulator (Agr) quorum-sensing system of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial pathogen that infects almost every human tissue and organ. The Agr quorum-sensing system is a key communication tool used by bacteria to form biofilms, regulate physiology, and affect their ability to cause disease.

By investigating the Agr system on the International Space Station, BRIC-25 researchers hope to uncover new insights into bacterial behavior in space. This knowledge could not only safeguard astronauts’ health, but also improve our understanding of bacterial adaptations on Earth. The principal investigator for BRIC-25 is Dr. Kelly Rice, with the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomena under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth.

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How is the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Different than the 2017 Eclipse?

Source: NASA

5 min read

On April 8, the Moon’s shadow will sweep across the United States, as millions will view a total solar eclipse. For many, preparing for this event brings memories of the magnificent total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017.

In 2017, an estimated 215 million U.S. adults (88% of U.S. adults) viewed the solar eclipse, either directly or electronically. They experienced the Moon pass in front of the Sun, blocking part or all of our closest star’s bright face. The eclipse in 2024 could be even more exciting due to differences in the path, timing, and scientific research.

Wider, More Populated Path

The path of totality – where viewers can see the Moon totally block the Sun, revealing the star’s outer atmosphere, called the corona – is much wider during the upcoming total solar eclipse than it was during the eclipse in 2017. As the Moon orbits Earth, its distance from our planet varies. During the 2017 total solar eclipse, the Moon was a little bit farther away from Earth than it will be during upcoming total solar eclipse, causing the path of that eclipse to be a little skinnier. In 2017, the path ranged from about 62 to 71 miles wide. During the April eclipse, the path over North America will range between 108 and 122 miles wide – meaning at any given moment, this eclipse covers more ground. 

The 2024 eclipse path will also pass over more cities and densely populated areas than the 2017 path did. This will make it easier for more people to see totality. An estimated 31.6 million people live in the path of totality this year, compared to 12 million in 2017. An additional 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path of totality.

You don’t need to live within the path of totality to see the eclipse – in April, 99% of people who reside in the United States will be able to see the partial or total eclipse from where they live. Every contiguous U.S. state, plus parts of Alaska and Hawaii, will experience at least a partial solar eclipse.

Longer Time in Totality

In April, totality will last longer than it did in 2017. Seven years ago, the longest period of totality was experienced near Carbondale, Illinois, at 2 minutes, 42 seconds. 

For the upcoming eclipse, totality will last up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds, in an area about 25 minutes northwest of Torreón, Mexico. As the eclipse enters Texas, totality will last about 4 minutes, 26 seconds at the center of the eclipse’s path. Durations longer than 4 minutes stretch as far north as Economy, Indiana. Even as the eclipse exits the U.S. and enters Canada, the eclipse will last up to 3 minutes, 21 seconds. 

During any total solar eclipse, totality lasts the longest near the center of the path, widthwise, and decreases toward the edge. But those seeking totality shouldn’t worry that they need to be exactly at the center. The time in totality falls off pretty slowly until you get close to the edge.

Heightened Solar Activity

Every 11 years or so, the Sun’s magnetic field flips, causing a cycle of increasing then decreasing solar activity. During solar minimum, there are fewer giant eruptions from the Sun, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. But during solar maximum, the Sun becomes more active.

In 2017, the Sun was nearing solar minimum. Viewers of the total eclipse could see the breathtaking corona – but since the Sun was quiet, streamers flowing into the solar atmosphere were restricted to just the equatorial regions of the star. The Sun is more magnetically symmetrical during solar minimum, causing this simpler appearance. During the 2024 eclipse, the Sun will be in or near solar maximum, when the magnetic field is more like a tangled hairball. Streamers will likely be visible throughout the corona. In addition to that, viewers will have a better chance to see prominences – which appear as bright, pink curls or loops coming off the Sun.

With lucky timing, there could even be a chance to see a coronal mass ejection – a large eruption of solar material – during the eclipse.

Expanded Scientific Research

During the total eclipse in 2024, NASA is funding several research initiatives that build on research done during the 2017 eclipse. The projects, which are led by researchers at different academic institutions, will study the Sun and its influence on Earth with a variety of instruments, including cameras aboard high-altitude research planes, ham radios, and more. In addition to those projects, instruments that were launched during the 2023 annular solar eclipse on three sounding rockets will again be launched during the upcoming total solar eclipse.

Two spacecraft designed to study the Sun’s corona – NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA’s Solar Orbiter – have also launched since the 2017 solar eclipse. These missions will provide insights from the corona itself, while viewers on Earth see it with their own eyes, providing an exciting opportunity to combine and compare viewpoints.

Special thanks to Michael Zeiler for his calculations on the populations in the eclipse path.

The 2017 total solar eclipse viewing analysis was conducted by Professor Jon D. Miller of the University of Michigan. This study was supported by a collaborative agreement between the University of Michigan and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (award NNX16AC66A).

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Station Science 101: Epigenetics Research in Space

Source: NASA

A growing body of research suggests a link between epigenetic mechanisms and a wide variety of illnesses and behaviors, including cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune illnesses, and cognitive dysfunction. Epigenetics also plays a role in the changes humans and other living things experience in space.
This phenomenon has become part of studies in a wide variety of fields, including microgravity research conducted aboard the International Space Station.
So just what is epigenetics? According to a paper from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, it includes any process that alters gene activity without changing the actual DNA sequence and that leads to modifications that can pass to offspring. Essentially, it involves information added to the DNA sequence of four bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T).
The sequence of these bases forms the genetic code for development and functioning – essentially the blueprint for every living thing. Epigenetics changes an organism by changing which genes are expressed – essentially turned on or off – without changing that basic blueprint. In other words, epigenetics results in a change through modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself.
Epigenetic changes can be caused by many outside stimuli, from chemicals to trauma to exercise. And unlike a genetic change or mutation, an epigenetic change can reverse if the stimulus is removed. Many epigenetic changes are positive, or even essential, but some cause serious adverse health and behavioral effects.
Years of analysis have shown that the spaceflight environment changes gene expression in every organism and cell type. Epigenetics could help scientists figure out how that happens and why. Studying epigenetics could reveal the pathway that cells use to adapt and survive in microgravity and reveal ways to control positive changes or prevent negative ones.
The Epigenetics investigation from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) looked at whether the round worm C. elegans experienced epigenetic changes and if those changes transmitted from one generation to another. Researchers did observe epigenetic changes and concluded that the expression of certain genes, including negative regulators of growth and development, is epigenetically fine-tuned to adapt to microgravity.1

JAXA’s Mouse Epigenetics studied altered gene expression patterns in mice and DNA changes in their offspring. The investigation identified genetic alterations that happen after exposure to the microgravity environment of space.
An Italian Space Agency study of the bone loss experienced by astronauts on extended missions is associated with epigenetic alterations. Role of the Endocannabinoid System in Pluripotent Human Stem Cell Reprogramming under Microgravity Conditions (SERISM) evaluated the formation of bone cells in microgravity using human blood-derived stem cells as a model. Researchers reported specific epigenetic changes that occurred in the cells in space.2

One epigenetic process that researchers can detect is methylation, the addition or removal of a methyl group (CH3) into DNA bases, predominantly where cytosine or C bases occur consecutively. The APEX-03-1 and APEX-03-2 experiments examined DNA methylation and gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown from seeds aboard the space station and found widespread changes in patterns of gene expression.3 They also observed epigenetic changes, indicating that they play a role in a plant’s physiological adaptation to spaceflight.4
APEX-04 confirmed this finding. When investigators disrupted the ability of a plant to make those epigenetic changes, that plant struggled more in space.5Plant Habitat-03 then examined whether these epigenetic changes pass to subsequent generations.
In general, this work showed that plants change gene expression patterns when they experience strange environments and use epigenetic processes to mark genes that help prepare the next generation for the same environment. Those markers show which genes are important for the plant to live in space. Researchers can use that information to breed plants better adapted to space and to harsh environments on Earth.

Expect to see more research on epigenetics on orbit now that more tools are available to provide the ability to immediately sequence DNA at the level that reveals epigenetic changes such as methylation. Traditional DNA sequencers do not provide that level of information without prior processing of the sample, but the space station’s MinION can. Scientists can use these tools to get real-time snapshots of changes as they are happening and potentially how they are passed to subsequent generations.
Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Program Science OfficeJohnson Space Center

Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned above.

Citations:
1 Higashitani A, Hashizume T, Takiura M, Higashitani N, Teranishi M, Oshima R, Yano S, Kuriyama K, Higashibata A. Histone deacetylase HDA-4-mediated epigenetic regulation in space-flown C. elegans. npj Microgravity. 2021 September 1; 7(1): 33. DOI: 10.1038/s41526-021-00163-7.PMID: 34471121.
2 Gambacurta A, Merlini G, Ruggiero C, Diedenhofen G, Battista N, Bari M, Balsamo M, Piccirillo S, Valentini G, Mascetti G, Maccarrone M. Human osteogenic differentiation in Space: proteomic and epigenetic clues to better understand osteoporosis. Scientific Reports. 2019 June 6; 9(1): 8343. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-44593-6.PMID: 31171801.
3 Nakashima J, Pattathil S, Avci U, Chin S, Sparks JA, Hahn MG, Gilroy S, Blancaflor EB. Glycome profiling and immunohistochemistry uncover changes in cell walls of Arabidopsis thaliana roots during spaceflight. npj Microgravity. 2023 August 22; 9(1): 1-13. DOI: 10.1038/s41526-023-00312-0.
4 Zhou M, Sng NJ, LeFrois CE, Paul AL, Ferl RJ. Epigenomics in an extraterrestrial environment: Organ-specific alteration of DNA methylation and gene expression elicited by spaceflight in Arabidopsis thaliana. BMC Genomics. 2019 March 12; 20(1): 205. DOI: 10.1186/s12864-019-5554-z.
5 Paul AL, Haveman NJ, Califar B, Ferl RJ. Epigenomic regulators elongator complex subunit 2 and methyltransferase 1 differentially condition the spaceflight response in Arabidopsis. Frontiers in Plant Science. 2021 September 13; 12691790. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.691790.

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NASA’s Webb Depicts Staggering Structure in 19 Nearby Spiral Galaxies

Source: NASA

It’s oh-so-easy to be absolutely mesmerized by these spiral galaxies. Follow their clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to their centers, where there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. Only NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope can deliver highly detailed scenes of nearby galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light – and a set of these images was publicly released today.

These Webb images are part of a large, long-standing project, the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, which is supported by more than 150 astronomers worldwide. Before Webb took these images, PHANGS was already brimming with data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, including observations in ultraviolet, visible, and radio light. Webb’s near- and mid-infrared contributions have provided several new puzzle pieces.

“Webb’s new images are extraordinary,” said Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “They’re mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades. Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle.”

Excitement rapidly spread throughout the team as the Webb images flooded in. “I feel like our team lives in a constant state of being overwhelmed – in a positive way – by the amount of detail in these images,” added Thomas Williams, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured millions of stars in these images, which sparkle in blue tones. Some stars are spread throughout the spiral arms, but others are clumped tightly together in star clusters.

The telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) data highlights glowing dust, showing us where it exists around and between stars. It also spotlights stars that haven’t yet fully formed – they are still encased in the gas and dust that feed their growth, like bright red seeds at the tips of dusty peaks. “These are where we can find the newest, most massive stars in the galaxies,” said Erik Rosolowsky, a professor of physics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

Something else that amazed astronomers? Webb’s images show large, spherical shells in the gas and dust. “These holes may have been created by one or more stars that exploded, carving out giant holes in the interstellar material,” explained Adam Leroy, a professor of astronomy at the Ohio State University in Columbus.

Now, trace the spiral arms to find extended regions of gas that appear red and orange. “These structures tend to follow the same pattern in certain parts of the galaxies,” Rosolowsky added. “We think of these like waves, and their spacing tells us a lot about how a galaxy distributes its gas and dust.” Study of these structures will provide key insights about how galaxies build, maintain, and shut off star formation.

Evidence shows that galaxies grow from inside out – star formation begins at galaxies’ cores and spreads along their arms, spiraling away from the center. The farther a star is from the galaxy’s core, the more likely it is to be younger. In contrast, the areas near the cores that look lit by a blue spotlight are populations of older stars.

What about galaxy cores that are awash in pink-and-red diffraction spikes? “That’s a clear sign that there may be an active supermassive black hole,” said Eva Schinnerer, a staff scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. “Or, the star clusters toward the center are so bright that they have saturated that area of the image.”

There are many avenues of research that scientists can begin to pursue with the combined PHANGS data, but the unprecedented number of stars Webb resolved are a great place to begin. “Stars can live for billions or trillions of years,” Leroy said. “By precisely cataloging all types of stars, we can build a more reliable, holistic view of their life cycles.”

In addition to immediately releasing these images, the PHANGS team has also released the largest catalog to date of roughly 100,000 star clusters. “The amount of analysis that can be done with these images is vastly larger than anything our team could possibly handle,” Rosolowsky emphasized. “We’re excited to support the community so all researchers can contribute.”

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.

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NASA’s Roman to Search for Signs of Dark Matter Clumps

Source: NASA

Some of the finest, smallest details in the universe – the gaps between elongated groups of stars – may soon help astronomers reveal dark matter in greater detail than ever before. After NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches, by May 2027, researchers will use its images to explore what exists between looping tendrils of stars that are pulled from globular clusters. Specifically, they will focus on the tidal streams from globular clusters that orbit our neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Their aim is to pinpoint a greater number of examples of these tidal streams, examine gaps between the stars, and ideally determine concrete properties of dark matter.
Globular cluster streams are like ribbons fluttering in the cosmos, both leading and trailing the globular clusters where they originated along their orbits. Their lengths in our Milky Way galaxy vary wildly. Very short stellar streams are relatively young, while those that completely wrap around a galaxy may be almost as old as the universe. A stream that is fully wrapped around the Andromeda galaxy could be more than 300,000 light-years long but less than 3,000 light-years wide.
With Roman, astronomers will be able to search nearby galaxies for globular cluster stellar streams for the first time. Roman’s Wide Field Instrument has 18 detectors that will produce images 200 times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope’s near-infrared camera – at a slightly greater resolution.
“Roman will be able to take a huge snapshot of the Andromeda galaxy, which simply isn’t possible with any other telescope,” shared Christian Aganze, the lead author of a recent paper about this subject and a postdoc at Stanford University in California. “We also project that Roman will be able to detect stars individually.”
Imagine the results: Roman’s vast, exquisitely detailed images will allow researchers to easily identify many examples of globular cluster streams in Andromeda. To date, astronomers using existing telescopes in space and on the ground have been limited to studying a slightly smaller number of globular cluster streams within our Milky Way.

Is Dark Matter Between the Stars?
Dark matter, which many assume to be a particle, can’t yet be observed directly, because it doesn’t emit, reflect, refract, or absorb light. If we can’t see it, how do we know it’s there? “We see dark matter’s effect on galaxies,” Aganze clarified. “For example, when we model how galaxies rotate, we need extra mass to explain their rotation. Dark matter may provide that missing mass.”
All galaxies, including the Milky Way, are surrounded by a dark matter halo. As astronomers glean more about the nature of dark matter, they may find evidence that a galaxy’s halo may also contain a large number of smaller dark matter sub-halos, which are predicted by models. “These halos are probably roughly spherical, but their density, sizes, and even if they exist isn’t currently known,” explained Tjitske Starkenburg, a co-author and a research assistant professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Roman will redefine their search. “We expect dark matter to interact with globular cluster streams. If these sub-halos are present in other galaxies, we predict that we will see gaps in globular cluster streams that are likely caused by dark matter,” Starkenburg continued. “This will give us new information about dark matter, including which kinds of dark matter halos are present and what their masses are.”
Aganze and Starkenburg estimate that Roman will efficiently deliver the data they need within nearby galaxies – requiring only a total of one hour – and that these observations may be captured by the High Latitude Wide Area Survey.
Starkenburg will also help lay the groundwork for this investigation through her contributions to another project recently selected for funding by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Research and Support Participation Opportunities program. “­This team plans to model how globular clusters form into stellar streams by developing a much more detailed theoretical framework,” she explained. “We’ll go on to predict where globular clusters that form streams originated and whether these streams will be observable with Roman.”
Aganze is also excited about other projects currently or soon coming online. “The European Space Agency’s Euclid mission is already starting to explore the large-scale structure of the universe, which will help us learn more about the role of dark matter,” he said. “And the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon scan the night sky repeatedly with similar goals. The data from these missions will be incredibly useful in constraining our simulations while we prepare for Roman.”
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Melbourne, Florida; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Claire BlomeSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
​​Media Contact:Claire AndreoliNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.301-286-1940
Christine PulliamSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

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Webb Shows Many Early Galaxies Looked Like Pool Noodles, Surfboards

Source: NASA

Researchers analyzing images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found that galaxies in the early universe are often flat and elongated, like surfboards and pool noodles – and are rarely round, like volleyballs or frisbees. “Roughly 50 to 80% of the galaxies we studied appear to be flattened in two dimensions,” explained lead author Viraj Pandya, a NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University in New York. “Galaxies that look like pool noodles or surfboards seem to be very common in the early universe, which is surprising, since they are uncommon nearby.”
The team focused on a vast field of near-infrared images delivered by Webb, known as the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, plucking out galaxies that are estimated to exist when the universe was 600 million to 6 billion years old.

While most distant galaxies look like surfboards and pool noodles, others are shaped like frisbees and volleyballs. The “volleyballs,” or sphere-shaped galaxies, appear the most compact type on the cosmic “ocean” and were also the least frequently identified. The frisbees were found to be as large as the surfboard- and pool noodle-shaped galaxies along the “horizon,” but become more common closer to “shore” in the nearby universe. (Compare them in this illustration.)
Which category would our Milky Way galaxy fall into if we were able to wind the clock back by billions of years? “Our best guess is that it might have appeared more like a surfboard,” said co-author Haowen Zhang, a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona in Tucson. This hypothesis is based partly on new evidence from Webb – theorists have “wound back the clock” to estimate the Milky Way’s mass billions of years ago, which correlates with shape at that time.

These distant galaxies are also far less massive than nearby spirals and ellipticals – they are precursors to more massive galaxies like our own. “In the early universe, galaxies had had far less time to grow,” said Kartheik Iyer, a co-author and NASA Hubble Fellow also at Columbia University. “Identifying additional categories for early galaxies is exciting – there’s a lot more to analyze now. We can now study how galaxies’ shapes relate to how they look and better project how they formed in much more detail.”
Webb’s sensitivity, high-resolution images, and specialization in infrared light allowed the team to make quick work of characterizing many CEERS galaxies, and model their 3D geometries. Pandya also says their work wouldn’t be possible without the extensive research astronomers have done using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
For decades, Hubble has wowed us with images of some of the earliest galaxies, beginning with its first “deep field” in 1995 and continuing with a seminal survey known as Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. Deep sky surveys like these led to far greater statistics, leading astronomers to create robust 3D models of distant galaxies over all of cosmic time. Today, Webb is helping to enhance these efforts, adding a bounty of distant galaxies beyond Hubble’s reach and revealing the early universe in far greater detail than previously possible.
Webb’s images of the early universe have acted like an ocean swell – delivering new waves of evidence. “Hubble has long showed an excess of elongated galaxies,” explained co-author Marc Huertas-Company, a faculty research scientist at the Institute of Astrophysics on the Canary Islands. But researchers still wondered: Would additional detail show up better with sensitivity to infrared light? “Webb confirmed that Hubble didn’t miss any additional features in the galaxies they both observed. Plus, Webb showed us many more distant galaxies with similar shapes, all in great detail.”
There are still gaps in our knowledge – researchers not only need an even larger sample size from Webb to further refine the properties and precise locations of distant galaxies, they will also need to spend ample time tweaking and updating their models to better reflect the precise geometries of distant galaxies. “These are early results,” said co-author Elizabeth McGrath, an associate professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. “We need to delve more deeply into the data to figure out what’s going on, but we’re very excited about these early trends.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro– rob.gutro@nasa.govNASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, , Greenbelt, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.eduSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Galaxy Types
Galaxy Evolution
How Can Webb Study the Early Universe?
Infrared Astronomy
More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/
More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/
Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

What is a galaxy?
Types of galaxies
What is the Webb Telescope?
SpacePlace for Kids

Ciencia de la NASA
NASA en español 
Space Place para niños

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NASA’s Webb Discovers Dusty ‘Cat’s Tail’ in Beta Pictoris System

Source: NASA

Beta Pictoris, a young planetary system located just 63 light-years away, continues to intrigue scientists even after decades of in-depth study. It possesses the first dust disk imaged around another star — a disk of debris produced by collisions between asteroids, comets, and planetesimals. Observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope revealed a second debris disk in this system, inclined with respect to the outer disk, which was seen first. Now, a team of astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image the Beta Pictoris system (Beta Pic) has discovered a new, previously unseen structure.
The team, led by Isabel Rebollido of the Astrobiology Center in Spain, used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to investigate the composition of Beta Pic’s previously detected main and secondary debris disks. The results exceeded their expectations, revealing a sharply inclined branch of dust, shaped like a cat’s tail, that extends from the southwest portion of the secondary debris disk.

“Beta Pictoris is the debris disk that has it all: It has a really bright, close star that we can study very well, and a complex cirumstellar environment with a multi-component disk, exocomets, and two imaged exoplanets,” said Rebollido, lead author of the study. “While there have been previous observations from the ground in this wavelength range, they did not have the sensitivity and the spatial resolution that we now have with Webb, so they didn’t detect this feature.”

Even with Webb or JWST, peering at Beta Pic in the right wavelength range — in this case, the mid-infrared — was crucial to detect the cat’s tail, as it only appeared in the MIRI data. Webb’s mid-infrared data also revealed differences in temperature between Beta Pic’s two disks, which likely is due to differences in composition.
“We didn’t expect Webb to reveal that there are two different types of material around Beta Pic, but MIRI clearly showed us that the material of the secondary disk and cat’s tail is hotter than the main disk,” said Christopher Stark, a co-author of the study at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The dust that forms that disk and tail must be very dark, so we don’t easily see it at visible wavelengths — but in the mid-infrared, it’s glowing.”
To explain the hotter temperature, the team deduced that the dust may be highly porous “organic refractory material,” similar to the matter found on the surfaces of comets and asteroids in our solar system. For example, a preliminary analysis of material sampled from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission found it to be very dark and carbon-rich, much like what MIRI detected at Beta Pic.

However, a major lingering question remains: What could explain the shape of the cat’s tail, a uniquely curved feature unlike what is seen in disks around other stars?
Rebollido and the team modeled various scenarios in an attempt to emulate the cat’s tail and unravel its origins. Though further research and testing is required, the team presents a strong hypothesis that the cat’s tail is the result of a dust production event that occurred a mere one hundred years ago.
“Something happens — like a collision — and a lot of dust is produced,” shared Marshall Perrin, a co-author of the study at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “At first, the dust goes in the same orbital direction as its source, but then it also starts to spread out. The light from the star pushes the smallest, fluffiest dust particles away from the star faster, while the bigger grains do not move as much, creating a long tendril of dust.”
“The cat’s tail feature is highly unusual, and reproducing the curvature with a dynamical model was difficult,” explained Stark. “Our model requires dust that can be pushed out of the system extremely rapidly, which again suggests it’s made of organic refractory material.”

The team’s preferred model explains the sharp angle of the tail away from the disk as a simple optical illusion. Our perspective combined with the curved shape of the tail creates the observed angle of the tail, while in fact, the arc of material is only departing from the disk at a five-degree incline. Taking into consideration the tail’s brightness, the team estimates the amount of dust within the cat’s tail to be equivalent to a large main belt asteroid spread out across 10 billion miles.
A recent dust production event within Beta Pic’s debris disks could also explain a newly-seen asymmetric extension of the inclined inner disk, as shown in the MIRI data and seen only on the side opposite of the tail. Recent collisional dust production could also account for a feature previously spotted by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in 2014: a clump of carbon monoxide (CO) located near the cat’s tail. Since the star’s radiation should break down CO within roughly one hundred years, this still-present concentration of gas could be lingering evidence of the same event.
“Our research suggests that Beta Pic may be even more active and chaotic than we had previously thought,” said Stark. “JWST continues to surprise us, even when looking at the most well-studied objects. We have a completely new window into these planetary systems.”
These results were presented in a press conference at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The observations were taken as part of Guaranteed Time Observation program 1411.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency

Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro– rob.gutro@nasa.govNASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, , Greenbelt, Md.
Abigail Major amajor@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.eduSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

About protoplanetary disks
LIfe and Death of a Planetary System
More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/
More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/
Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

How did our Solar System Form?
What is the Webb Telescope?
SpacePlace for Kids

Ciencia de la NASA
NASA en español 
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NASA’s Webb Finds Signs of Possible Aurorae on Isolated Brown Dwarf

Source: NASA

Infrared emission from methane suggests atmospheric heating by auroral processes.
Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found a brown dwarf (an object more massive than Jupiter but smaller than a star) with infrared emission from methane, likely due to energy in its upper atmosphere. This is an unexpected discovery because the brown dwarf, W1935, is cold and lacks a host star; therefore, there is no obvious source for the upper atmosphere energy. The team speculates that the methane emission may be due to processes generating aurorae.
These findings are being presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.
To help explain the mystery of the infrared emission from methane, the team turned to our solar system. Methane in emission is a common feature in gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. The upper-atmosphere heating that powers this emission is linked to aurorae.

On Earth, aurorae are created when energetic particles blown into space from the Sun are captured by Earth’s magnetic field. They cascade down into our atmosphere along magnetic field lines near Earth’s poles, colliding with gas molecules and creating eerie, dancing curtains of light. Jupiter and Saturn have similar auroral processes that involve interacting with the solar wind, but they also get auroral contributions from nearby active moons like Io (for Jupiter) and Enceladus (for Saturn).
For isolated brown dwarfs like W1935, the absence of a stellar wind to contribute to the auroral process and explain the extra energy in the upper atmosphere required for the methane emission is a mystery. The team surmises that either unaccounted internal processes like the atmospheric phenomena of Jupiter and Saturn, or external interactions with either interstellar plasma or a nearby active moon, may help account for the emission.

The aurorae’s discovery played out like a detective story. A team led by Jackie Faherty, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, was awarded time with the Webb telescope to investigate 12 cold brown dwarfs. Among those were W1935 – an object that was discovered by citizen scientist Dan Caselden, who worked with the Backyard Worlds zooniverse project – and W2220, an object that was discovered using NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer. Webb revealed in exquisite detail that W1935 and W2220 appeared to be near clones of each other in composition. They also shared similar brightness, temperatures, and spectral features of water, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. The striking exception was that W1935 showed emission from methane, as opposed to the anticipated absorption feature that was observed toward W2220. This was seen at a distinct infrared wavelength to which Webb is uniquely sensitive.
“We expected to see methane because methane is all over these brown dwarfs. But instead of absorbing light, we saw just the opposite: The methane was glowing. My first thought was, what the heck? Why is methane emission coming out of this object?” said Faherty.
The team used computer models to infer what might be behind the emission. The modeling work showed that W2220 had an expected distribution of energy throughout the atmosphere, getting cooler with increasing altitude. W1935, on the other hand, had a surprising result. The best model favored a temperature inversion, where the atmosphere got warmer with increasing altitude.  “This temperature inversion is really puzzling,” said Ben Burningham, a co-author from the University of Hertfordshire in England and lead modeler on the work. “We have seen this kind of phenomenon in planets with a nearby star that can heat the stratosphere, but seeing it in an object with no obvious external heat source is wild.”  

For clues, the team looked in our own backyard, to the planets of our solar system. The gas giant planets can serve as proxies for what is seen going on more than 40 light-years away in the atmosphere of W1935.
The team realized that temperature inversions are prominent in planets like Jupiter and Saturn. There is still ongoing work to understand the causes of their stratospheric heating, but leading theories for the solar system involve external heating by aurorae and internal energy transport from deeper in the atmosphere (with the former a leading explanation).

This is not the first time an aurora has been used to explain a brown dwarf observation. Astronomers have detected radio emission coming from several warmer brown dwarfs and invoked aurorae as the most likely explanation. Searches were conducted with ground-based telescopes like the Keck Observatory for infrared signatures from these radio-emitting brown dwarfs to further characterize the phenomenon, but were inconclusive.
W1935 is the first auroral candidate outside the solar system with the signature of methane emission. It’s also the coldest auroral candidate outside our solar system, with an effective temperature of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius), about 600 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than Jupiter.
In our solar system the solar wind is a primary contributor to auroral processes, with active moons like Io and Enceladus playing a role for planets like Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. W1935 lacks a companion star entirely, so a stellar wind cannot contribute to the phenomenon. It is yet to be seen whether an active moon might play a role in the methane emission on W1935. 
“With W1935, we now have a spectacular extension of a solar system phenomenon without any stellar irradiation to help in the explanation.” Faherty noted. “With Webb, we can really ‘open the hood’ on the chemistry and unpack how similar or different the auroral process may be beyond our solar system,” she added.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Want to help discover a new world? Join the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 citizen science project and search the realm beyond Neptune for new brown dwarfs and planets. Or try NASA’s new Burst Chaser citizen science project, which launched Jan. 9.

Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro– rob.gutro@nasa.govNASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, , Greenbelt, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.eduSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Brown Dwarfs
More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/
More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/
Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

What is the Webb Telescope?
SpacePlace for Kids

Ciencia de la NASA
NASA en español 
Space Place para niños

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Scientists and Students Discuss the Future of Space Research at ASGSR Annual Conference

Source: NASA

2 min read

The American Society for Gravitational and Space Research’s (ASGSR) annual meeting brought together over 850 scientists, engineers, educators, and students from around the world to share their latest findings on microgravity research and discuss the future of space exploration. ASGSR stands at the forefront for fostering groundbreaking research and highlighting the cutting-edge science happening now using microgravity, low-gravity, radiation, and other space-based stressors.

The meeting, held in Washington, D.C., November 14-18, 2023, featured a variety of general and technical sessions, student fireside chats, and working sessions exploring the conference’s theme: The Future of Space Exploration: Challenges and Opportunities.

Dr. Lisa Carnell, NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences’ (BPS) Division Director, opened the conference with her keynote presentation on the state of BPS. Carnell shared that if the U.S. wants to maintain science leadership, with the intent to go farther and stay longer in space, we must continue to pioneer transformative science at the frontiers of biology and physical sciences. Carnell encouraged attendees to look ahead for ways to support the technologies and infrastructure that will be needed to carry out this science.

Former astronaut Dr. Bonnie Dunbar echoed Carnell’s remarks as she expressed the need for adequate funding of this scientific and space-based research as a critical path needed for sustainable exploration. Dunbar challenged the group to build upon the pioneering work of BPS to inspire the next generation of space scientists, engineers, and astronauts.

ASGSR hosted over 300 presentations where speakers and participants shared their latest findings and discussed the future of space exploration, a few highlighted topics follow:

The development of new technologies to enable sustainable space exploration
The effects of gravity on biological systems
The need to support the commercial space industry to ensure the continuation of research and success of the commercial space economy
The growing importance of international collaboration in space research
The potential of space exploration to benefit life on Earth
The search for new knowledge about the universe
The use of space-based research to address global challenges such as climate change and food security

Next year’s ASGSR conference will be held in Puerto Rico, December 3-7, 2024.

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NASA’s GUSTO Prepares to Map Space Between the Stars

Source: NASA

6 min read

On a vast ice sheet in Antarctica, scientists and engineers are preparing a NASA experiment called GUSTO to explore the universe on a balloon. GUSTO will launch from the Ross Ice Shelf, near the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station research base, no earlier than Dec. 21.

GUSTO, which stands for Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory, will peer into the space between stars called the interstellar medium. The balloon-borne telescope will help scientists make a 3D map of a large part of the Milky Way in extremely high-frequency radio waves. Examining a 100-square-degree area, GUSTO will explore the many phases of the interstellar medium and the abundances of key chemical elements in the galaxy.

By studying the LMC and comparing it to the Milky Way, we’ll be able to understand how galaxies evolve from the early universe until now.

Chris Walker
GUSTO principal investigator

In particular, GUSTO will scan the interstellar medium for carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen because they are critical for life on Earth. These elements can also help scientists disentangle the complex web of processes that sculpt the interstellar medium.  

While our galaxy brims with billions of stars, including our Sun, that are interesting in their own right, the space between them holds a wealth of clues about how stars and planets are born.

The interstellar medium is where diffuse, cold gas and dust accumulate into gigantic cosmic structures called molecular clouds, which, under the right conditions, can collapse to form new stars. From the swirling disk of material around the young star, planets can form.

GUSTO is unique in its ability to examine the first part of this process, “to understand how these clouds form in the first place,” Chris Walker, principal investigator of GUSTO at the University of Arizona, said. GUSTO is a collaboration between NASA, the University of Arizona, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON); as well as MIT, JPL, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and others.

Eventually, when massive stars die and explode as supernovae, massive shock waves ripple through molecular clouds, which can in turn lead to more stars being born, or simply destroy the clouds. GUSTO can also look at this end stage of the molecular clouds.

GUSTO functions as a cosmic radio, equipped to “listen” for particular cosmic ingredients. That’s because it senses the high-frequency signals that atoms and molecules transmit. The “T” in GUSTO stands for “terahertz” – that’s about a thousand times higher than the frequencies that cellphones operate at.

“We basically have this radio system that we built that we can turn the knob and tune to the frequency of those lines,” Walker said. “And if we hear something, we know it’s them. We know it’s those atoms and molecules.”

As the telescope moves across the sky, scientists will use it to map the intensity and velocities of the signals from particular atoms and molecules at each position. “Then we can go back and connect the dots and create an image that looks like a photograph of what the emission looks like,” Walker said.

Observations like these can’t be done for carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen from Earth-based telescopes because of the water vapor in our atmosphere absorbing the light from the atoms and molecules in question, interfering with measurements. On a balloon about 120,000 feet above the ground, GUSTO will fly above most of that water vapor. “For the type of science we do, it’s as good as being in space,” Walker said.

The GUSTO telescope will also reveal the 3D structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC, a dwarf galaxy near our Milky Way. The LMC resembles some of the galaxies of the early universe that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is exploring. But since the LMC is much closer than the distant early galaxies, scientists can examine it in greater detail with GUSTO.

“By studying the LMC and comparing it to the Milky Way, we’ll be able to understand how galaxies evolve from the early universe until now,” Walker explained.

GUSTO is expected to fly for at least 55 days on a 39 million cubic-foot zero-pressure balloon, a type of balloon that can fly high for long periods of time in the Austral Summer over Antarctica and has the diameter of a football field as it floats.

Antarctica provides an ideal launch location for GUSTO. During the southern hemisphere’s summer, the continent gets constant sunlight, so a scientific balloon can be extra stable there. Plus, the atmospheric zone around the South Pole generates cold rotating air – creating a phenomenon called an anticyclone, which enables balloons to fly in circles without disturbance.

“Missions will fly in circles around the South Pole for days or weeks at a time, which is really valuable to the science community,” said Andrew Hamilton, chief of the NASA Balloon Program Office at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. “The longer they have for observation, the more science they can get. 

GUSTO is the first balloon-borne experiment in NASA’s Explorer program. It has the same scientific reach as the program’s space-borne satellites, such as TESS (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and IXPE (Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer).

“With GUSTO, we’re really trying to trailblaze,” said Kieran Hegarty, Program Manager for GUSTO at APL. “We want to show that balloon investigations do return compelling science.”

A total of twelve mission team members from University of Arizona and APL are on site in Antarctica performing the final checks before GUSTO’s launch.

With seals and penguins nearby, Walker and colleagues are hard at work readying this experiment for its ultimate adventure in the sky. For Walker, GUSTO represents some 30 years of effort, the outgrowth of many experiments from Earth-based telescopes and other balloon efforts.

“We all feel very fortunate and privileged to do a mission like this – to have the opportunity to put together the world’s most advanced terahertz instrument ever created, and then drag it halfway around the world and then launch it,” he said. “It’s a challenge, but we feel honored and humbled to be in the position to do it.”

About the Mission

In March 2017, NASA Astrophysics Division selected the Explorer Mission of Opportunity GUSTO (Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory) to measure emissions from the interstellar medium to help scientists determine the life cycle of interstellar gas by surveying a large region of our Milky Way galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud. The GUSTO mission is led by Principal Investigator Christopher Walker from the University of Arizona in Tucson. The team also includes the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which provided the balloon platform to mount the instrumentation, known as the gondola, and the GUSTO project management. The University of Arizona provided the GUSTO telescope and the focal plane instrument, which incorporates detector technologies from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Arizona State University in Tempe, and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research.

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