Lava Tubes on the Moon Maintain Comfortable Room Temperatures Inside

Searching for a comfortable place to set up a research station on the Moon? Look no further than the interior parts of lunar pits and caves. While lack of air will be an issue, new research indicates these underground sanctuaries have steady temperatures that hover around 17 Celsius, or 63 Fahrenheit, even though the Moon’s surface heats up to about 127 C (260 F) during the day and cool to minus 173 C (minus 280 F) at night.

Lunar pits, or lava tubes were discovered in 2009 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Obiter and Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft. These are deep holes on the moon that could open into vast underground tunnels. They likely could serve as a safe shielding from cosmic rays, solar radiation and micrometeorites for future human lunar explorers. But now we know they could provide thermally stable sites for lunar exploration.

These long, winding lava tubes are like structures we have on Earth. They are created when the top of a stream of molten rock solidifies and the lava inside drains away, leaving a hollow tube of rock. For years before their existence was confirmed, scientists thought there were hints that the Moon had lava tubes based on observations of long, winding depressions carved into the lunar surface by the flow of lava, called sinuous rilles.

Thurston Lava Tube on the Big Island of Hawaii. Credit: P. Mouginis-Mark, LPI

So far, about 200 lunar pits have been found and at least 16 of these are probably collapsed lava tubes, with the potential for ‘livable’ space, said Tyler Horvath, a UCLA doctoral student in planetary science, who led the new research. Two of the most prominent pits have visible overhangs that clearly lead to some sort of cave or void, and there is strong evidence that another’s overhang may also lead to a large cave.

Horvath processed images from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment — a thermal camera and one of six instruments on LRO — to find out if the temperature within the pits diverged from those on the surface. Diviner is designed to measure surface temperatures on the Moon, and Horvath’s team had to focus in on extremely small areas to get their data.

They focused on a pit found in the Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis). This image, below, was taken as the Sun was almost straight overhead, illuminating the region. By comparing this image with previous images that have different lighting, scientists can estimate the depth of the pit. They believe it to be over 100 meters.

This is a spectacular high-Sun view of the Mare Tranquillitatis pit crater, revealing the overhang and deep, dark pit. This image from LRO’s Narrow Angle Camera is 400 meters (1,312 feet) wide, north is up.
Credits: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

The researchers used computer modeling to analyze the thermal properties of the rock and lunar dust and to chart the pit’s temperatures over a period of time. Their research, recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed that temperatures within the permanently shadowed reaches of the pit fluctuate only slightly throughout the lunar day, remaining at around 17 C (63 F). If a cave extends from the bottom of the pit, as images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera suggest, it too would have this relatively comfortable temperature. The researchers think the overhang is responsible for the steady temperature, limiting how hot things get during the day and preventing heat from radiating away at night.

However, if this particular pit was to be used as a habitat or research station, there would likely be a heat problem just inside the pit. The sunbaked part of the pit floor not protected by the overhang hits daytime temperatures close to 150 C (300 F), which is even hotter than the Moon’s surface.

“Because the Tranquillitatis pit is the closest to the lunar equator, the illuminated floor at noon is probably the hottest place on the entire moon,” said Horvath.

Two views of another lunar pit in Mare Ingenii. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.

Since a day on the Moon lasts nearly 15 Earth days, the lunar surface is constantly bombarded by sunlight and is frequently hot enough to boil water. Conversely, the equally long lunar nights (also 15 Earth days long) reach incredibly cold temperatures. Any habitat or base would mean inventing heating and cooling equipment that can operate under these conditions, as well as ways to produce enough energy to power it nonstop. This could prove to be an insurmountable barrier to lunar exploration or habitation.

However, the researchers say that building bases in the shadowed parts of these pits allows scientists to focus on other challenges, like growing food, providing oxygen for astronauts, gathering resources for experiments and expanding the base.

“Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the moon,” said UCLA professor of planetary science David Paige, who leads the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment and participated in the research.

Further reading: Press releases from UCLA and NASA, and the team’s research paper

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A Fast-Moving Star is Colliding With Interstellar gas, Creating a Spectacular bow Shock

Zeta Ophiuchi has had an interesting life. It began as a typical large star about twenty times more massive than the Sun. It spent its days happily orbiting a large companion star until its companion exploded as a supernova about a million years ago. The explosion ejected Zeta Ophiuchi, so now it is speeding away through interstellar space. Of course, the supernova also expelled the outer layers of the companion star, so rather than empty space, our plucky star is speeding through the remnant gas as well. As they say on Facebook, it’s complicated. And that’s great news for astronomers, as a recent study shows.

Zeta Ophiuchi is most famous for beautiful images such as the one above. By plowing through interstellar gas, the star has created heated shock waves that glow in everything from infrared to x-rays. The physics of these shock waves is tremendously complex. It is governed by a set of mathematical equations known as magnetohydrodynamics, which describes the behavior of fluid gases and their surrounding magnetic fields. Modeling these equations is bad enough, but when you have turbulent motion such as shock waves, things get even worse. That’s why Zeta Ophiuchi is so important. Since we have such a great view of its shock wave, we can compare our observations with computer simulations.

In this latest study, the team created computer models simulating the shock wave near Zeta Ophiuchi. They then compared these models to observations in infrared, visible, and x-rays. Their goal is to determine which simulations are the most accurate so that the models can be further refined. Of their three models, two of them predicted that the brightest region of x-ray emissions should be at the edge of the shock wave closest to the star, and this is what we observe. But all three models also predicted that x-ray emissions should be fainter than we observe, so none of the models are fully accurate. But these models are difficult to do well, and this work is a good first start.

A simulated shock wave of Zeta Ophiuchi. Credit: Green, et al

The difference in x-ray brightness is likely due to turbulent motion within the shock wave. The team plans on including some of this turbulent motion in future models. Through multiple iterations, they should be able to create a simulation that closely models this interstellar shock wave.

Magnetohydrodynamics is a central part of many astrophysical processes, ranging from solar flares to the formation of planets, to the powerful black hole engines of quasars. Most of these interactions are hidden by distance or dust, so it’s great that Zeta Ophiuchi can give astronomers a shocking view of this complex physics.

Reference: Green, S., et al. “Thermal emission from bow shocks II: 3D magnetohydrodynamic models of Zeta Ophiuchi.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.06331 (2022).

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Engineers are Testing how VIPER can Handle the Gnarliest Lunar Terrain

NASA’s getting ready to send a VIPER to the Moon. Not the popular sports car but a rugged vehicle that can handle whatever the lunar surface can throw at it. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) was put through its paces recently at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The prototype drove up test slopes and clambered over boulders and craters. It also made its way through a simulated quicksand type of soil in a “sink tank”. It passed with flying colors, and showed engineers how it will handle similar conditions on the Moon.

“We wanted to see if the rover is capable of moving forward in an extreme sinkage environment, and how much slower VIPER might drive or how much additional power the rover would use because of tricky soil conditions,” said Mercedes Herreras-Martinez VIPER risk manager and mission systems engineering technical interchange lead at Ames.

The VIPER engineering test team uses lunar soil simulants and hand-picked rocks to carefully shape the terrain to realistically mimic actual features at the surface of the Moon’s South Pole. Courtesy NASA

VIPER Practices on Earth to Rove the Moon

The point was to test VIPER’s ability to tackle the really gnarly surface conditions it will face. Building the simulated lunar “test track” was a methodical process, following advice from the VIPER science team. The engineering test team carefully selected the soil simulants for the test. They hand-picked rocks and even carefully crafted the shape and size of the craters. The goal: to mimic actual features at the surface of the Moon’s South Pole. Both teams had a wealth of data to draw from as they built VIPER’s obstacle course.

The VIPER engineering team observe the rover prototype’s ability to navigate the fluffy lunar soil simulant in the SLOPE lab at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Courtesy NASA

“Using data and imagery from previous lunar missions, we created various randomized scenes to mimic the surface terrain of the Moon, with craters and rocks of different sizes and shapes scattered over the SLOPE tilt bed,” said Kevin May. He is the rover and mission systems engineering intern at Ames who led the terrain preparation for the test. “With help from the VIPER science team, which generated cut-out templates of crater profiles, we were able to form features out of the terrain and shape more accurate craters than ever before. By recreating realistic Moon-like environments, we can get a much better idea of how VIPER will perform on the surface.”

Looking under VIPER’s Hood

VIPER is basically about the size of a golf cart that will travel up to 20 kilometers at a top speed of 0.72 km/hr. It will carry three spectrometers and a drill for subsurface studies, and get its power from the Sun. It’s expected to last about 100 days or three cycles of lunar day and night.

The hardware bus includes a complex set of controllers called the “Moon Gravitation Representative Unit 3 (MGRU3)”. This is a critical piece of hardware in the rover’s mobility system. It controls the motors that send power to the rover’s four wheels. The tests at Glenn focused on MGRU3’s ability to maneuver through difficult conditions.

“Unlike most car engines, which use a throttle and brake to speed up and slow down all four wheels, VIPER’s motor controllers make the rover wheels turn at the force and rate the drivers want, with extreme precision to allow for better performance,” said Arno Rogg. He is test director and rover systems engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “These tests allowed us to verify the performance of the rover mobility system and know it will work well on the Moon.”

Facing Lunar Conditions and Doing Science

VIPER is engineered to withstand temperature extremes that can swing more than 260 degrees Celsius during the day/night cycle. It will be operated by commands from Earth, which means that operators can “drive” the rover interactively. Since it has to work in dim and dark conditions, VIPER is equipped with a lighting-plus-camera system. Its “headlights” will help the rover as it explores inside dark craters where the Sun never shines.

This lunar all-terrain vehicle will be outfitted with science instruments. They will dig into and analyze surface and subsurface ice deposits at different depths in several regolith (soil) environments. The data VIPER collects will help scientists create maps showing where lunar resources exist. It will also help locate ice deposits on the Moon. Its instruments will reveal if the ice is in crystal form or in molecules chemically bound to other materials. It will also help NASA mission planners determine future landing sites and the location of the Artemis lunar base camp.

VIPER should launch in late 2023 and land at the lunar South Pole in the Nobile region. Here’s a NASA video that talks about the mission and the region that the rover will explore.

For More Information

NASA’s VIPER Prototype Motors Through Moon-like Obstacle Course
VIPER Mission Overview
NASA’s Artemis Rover to Land Near Nobile Region of Moon’s South Pole

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The Heaviest Neutron Star Ever Seen got There by Feasting on its Companion

Life’s not too good if you’re the companion of a black widow. Here on Earth, spiders by that name feast on their smaller significant others after mating. Out in space, some weird objects do the same thing to their closeby neighbors. They’re rapidly spinning neutron stars that slowly destroy their companion stars with powerful outflows of high-energy particles. A team at the University of California Berkeley is studying one of these so-called “black widow pulsars”, called PSR J0952-0607. Thanks to its hefty appetite, it shredded and consumed nearly all of its stellar companion. That eating spree made it the heaviest known neutron star to date.

Meet the Neutron Star that Ate Its Neighbor

Astronomers measured the velocity of a faint star (green circle) that has been stripped of nearly its entire mass by an invisible companion, a neutron star and millisecond pulsar that they determined to be the most massive yet found and perhaps the upper limit for neutron stars. (Image credit: W. M. Keck Observatory, Roger W. Romani, Alex Filippenko)

PSR J0952-0607 is a dense, collapsed star that’s spinning a record 707 times per second. That rotation rate makes it a millisecond pulsar. It’s basically a giant ball of neutrons, compressed very tightly by gravity. That crushes the material inside into a weird quantum state. The mass is 2.35 times the mass of the Sun. That puts it at the upper limit of mass for such exotic objects. The interior is likely to be a soup of neutrons as well as up and down quarks (which make up normal protons and neutrons).

It turns out that the quantum weirdness inside PSR J0952-0607 makes it a prime target for further research. Alex Filippenko, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at UC Berkeley, described the strange appeal, particularly in the neutron star’s interior. “We know roughly how matter behaves at nuclear densities, like in the nucleus of a uranium atom,” he said. “A neutron star is like one giant nucleus, but when you have one-and-a-half solar masses of this stuff, which is about 500,000 Earth masses of nuclei all clinging together, it’s not at all clear how they will behave.”

A spinning neutron star periodically swings its radio (green) and gamma-ray (magenta) beams past Earth in this artist’s concept of a black widow pulsar. The neutron star/pulsar heats the facing side of its stellar partner (right) to temperatures twice as hot as the sun’s surface and slowly evaporates it. (Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)

Studying a Neutron Star Black Widow

Filippenko and collaborator Roger Romani, a professor of physics at Stanford University, along with graduate student Dinesh Kandel, co-authored a paper about this object. They have been studying black widow pulsars like this one. They hope to answer questions about these objects, like, how large can neutron stars/pulsars grow? To find out, the team studied this pulsar using the 10-meter Keck I telescope on Maunakea in Hawai’i. The observations gave a precise measurement of the neutron star’s mass. They also took a spectrum of what’s left of the hot, glowing companion star. It was reduced to the size of a giant planet by the cannibalization action of the massive neutron star.

“By combining this measurement with those of several other black widows, we show that neutron stars must reach at least this mass, 2.35 plus or minus 0.17 solar masses,” said Romani, who is a professor of physics at Stanford and a member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. “In turn, this provides some of the strongest constraints on the property of matter at several times the density seen in atomic nuclei. Indeed, many otherwise popular models of dense-matter physics are excluded by this result.”

Spinning Up and Eating a Companion

Many “ordinary” pulsars spin on their axes about once per second. Some, like PSR J0952-0607, spin faster, up to a thousand times per second. That’s unusual, especially if the normal rotation rate of the star that collapsed to become the neutron star was normal. So, why would a millisecond pulsar spin so rapidly? One idea is that it stripped its companions down to just about nothing.

“The evolutionary pathway is absolutely fascinating. Double exclamation point,” Filippenko said. “As the companion star evolves and starts becoming a red giant, material spills over to the neutron star, and that spins up the neutron star. By spinning up, it now becomes incredibly energized, and a wind of particles starts coming out from the neutron star. That wind then hits the donor star and starts stripping material off, and over time. The donor star’s mass decreases to that of a planet, and if even more time passes, it disappears altogether. So, that’s how lone millisecond pulsars could be formed. They weren’t all alone to begin with — they had to be in a binary pair — but they gradually evaporated away their companions, and now they’re solitary.”

The pulsar PSR J0952-0607 and its faint companion star support this origin story for millisecond pulsars. “These planet-like objects are the dregs of normal stars which have contributed mass and angular momentum, spinning up their pulsar mates to millisecond periods and increasing their mass in the process,” Romani said.

“In a case of cosmic ingratitude, the black widow pulsar, which has devoured a large part of its mate, now heats and evaporates the companion down to planetary masses and perhaps complete annihilation,” said Filippenko.

For More Information

Heaviest neutron star to date is a ‘black widow’ eating its mate
PSR J0952-0607: The Fastest and Heaviest Known Galactic Neutron Star

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Scientists Identify the Source of a Famous Meteorite as One Crater on Mars

If we think untangling Earth’s complex geological history is difficult, think of the challenge involved in doing the same for Mars. At such a great distance, we rely on a few orbiters, a handful of rovers and landers, and our powerful telescopes to gather evidence. But unlike Earth, Mars is, for the most part, geologically inactive. Much of the evidence for Mars’ long history is still visible on the surface.

That helped scientists identify the source of one of our most well-known meteorites.

The NWA 7034 meteorite is about two billion years old and was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011. It’s probably the most well-known and most studied meteorite that we have. NWA 7034, also called Black Beauty, is our only sample of brecciated Martian rock. Brecciated rock is a sedimentary rock made of smaller pieces of rock with angular fragments that are held together with a matrix of fine-grained material. It contains different types of Martian rock cemented together, which makes it unique. All other Martian meteorites contain only one type of rock.

NWA 7034, aka ‘Black Beauty,’ is a unique Martian meteorite because it’s brecciated, meaning it contains multiple types of rock. Image Credit: By NASA – https://ift.tt/2AtDmN8, Public Domain, https://ift.tt/v3AY4jC

A team of researchers say they’ve identified Black Beauty’s origin on the surface of Mars. They presented their findings in a paper titled “Early crustal processes revealed by the ejection site of the oldest martian meteorite,” published in Nature Communications. The lead author is Dr. Anthony Lagain, from Curtin’s Space Science and Technology Centre in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

“For the first time, we know the geological context of the only brecciated Martian sample available on Earth, 10 years before the NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is set to send back samples collected by the Perseverance rover currently exploring the Jezero crater,” Dr. Lagain said.

Ask any geologist, and they’ll say that rocks tell the story of a planet’s history. That’s why we send missions to asteroids to return samples to Earth and why NASA and the ESA are planning a sample return mission to Mars to collect samples gathered by the Perseverance Rover. With sample return missions like those, we know exactly where the samples came from, which tells researchers a lot about the source body. But up until now, scientists haven’t known exactly where Black Beauty originated. The meteorite’s scientific value only increases now that we know what region of the Martian surface it came from.

This artist’s concept shows NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descending toward asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of the asteroid’s surface. When we collect a sample, we know exactly where it comes from. But when nature drops one in our lap, we’re not so fortunate and need clever scientists to figure it out. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

In general, Martian meteorites can tell us about the formation and differentiation of the Martian crust only tens of millions of years after it formed. NWA 7034 contains more diverse Martian rocks than any other meteorite. It holds a variety of igneous, sedimentary, and impact melt clasts, including the most evolved and oldest igneous clasts and zircons. “The diversity of clasts contained in the breccia makes this meteorite one of the martian samples with the most complex history, recording multiple events, from the crystallization of the martian primary crust to the ejection of the rock,” the authors explain.

NWA 7034 contains the oldest Martian igneous material ever found at 4.5 billion years old. Knowing its location tells us about the history of the region it came from. And by extension, it tells us about Mars as a whole, and even about Earth.

“Finding the region where the ‘Black Beauty’ meteorite originates is critical because it contains the oldest Martian fragments ever found, aged at 4.48 billion years old, and it shows similarities between Mars’ very old crust, aged about 4.53 billion years old, and today’s Earth continents. The region we identify as being the source of this unique Martian meteorite sample constitutes a true window into the earliest environment of the planets, including the Earth, which our planet lost because of plate tectonics and erosion.”

What is Black Beauty’s origin story?

It started with the accretion of the planet itself, like every rock on Mars. But Black Beauty has a bit of a tangled history involving multiple impacts and ejecta blankets.

It all started back in Mars’ Noachian Period, which spanned about 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. The Noachian is characterized by its high rate of impacts. One of those ancient impacts created a 25 km impact structure called the Dampier Crater in Mars’ Terra Cimmeria—Sirenum province. Then about 1.5 billion years ago, another impact nearby the Dampier Crater created its own 40 km crater called Khujirt, and the ejecta from the Khujirt impact travelled far enough to cover the Dampier Crater.

Between 5 to 10 million years ago, a third impact followed the Khujirt impact. When that object struck Mars, it excavated a crater about 10 km in diameter named the Karratha Crater, and that impact is the direct source of Black Beauty. It was a hyper-velocity impact, powerful enough to tear Black Beauty from Mars’ gravitational grip and send it into space. The breccia inside Black Beauty comes from the ejecta from the Khujirt impact.

This figure from the study shows Black Beauty’s origin. It started with the Dampier impact around 4 billion years ago. Then came the Khujirt impact about 1.5 billion years ago, which covered Dampier in ejecta. Finally, about 5 to 10 million years ago, an impact created the Karratha crater, which sent Black Beauty into space and eventually onto the Sahara Desert. Image Credit: Lagain et al. 2022.

One of the clues to NWA 7034’s origin is its high concentrations of elemental Thorium and Potassium. This elemental signature was one of four criteria the researchers used to evaluate potential source sites for NWA 7034. Previous studies have shown that the meteorite likely came from Mars’ Noachian Highlands, a heavily cratered region with similar geochemical qualities.

In this new research, the team also looked at three other criteria: high magnetic field density, superposition on a Noachian geological unit, and connection with material from an Early Amazonian impact (Khujirt). They came up with an initial list of 19 candidate craters as Black Beauty’s source.

This figure from the study shows how the researchers arrived at a list of 19 candidate craters. Image Credit: Lagain et al. 2022.

“The four criteria used to locate the crater source of the regolith breccia thus allow nailing down the young crater candidate population to a unique solution,” the authors write in their paper. “The geological context of Karratha matches the chronology, the lithology, and the magnetic and elemental signatures of the NWA 7034 meteorite group.”

The researchers relied on powerful supercomputers and an advanced crater-recognition machine learning algorithm. With these tools, the team was able to work through an extraordinarily large volume of impact crater images. The team thinks that these same tools will help them locate other source craters on Mars, leading to a better understanding of the planet’s geological history.

“We are also adapting the algorithm that was used to pinpoint Black Beauty’s point of ejection from Mars to unlock other secrets from the Moon and Mercury,” said Professor Gretchen Benedix, paper co-author from Curtin’s Space Science and Technology Centre in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences. “This will help to unravel their geological history and answer burning questions that will help future investigations of the Solar System, such as the Artemis program to send humans on the Moon by the end of the decade or the BepiColombo mission, in orbit around Mercury in 2025.”

This study also tells us where further exploration of the Martian surface will pay dividends. It pinpoints an area on Mars’ surface that contains plentiful evidence from the planet’s very early age.

“Our findings demonstrate that the Terra Cimmeria—Sirenum province is a relic of the differentiated primordial martian crust, formed shortly after the accretion of the planet and that it constitutes a unique record of early crustal processes. This province is an ideal landing site for future missions aiming to unravel the first tens of millions of years of the history of Mars and, by extension, of all terrestrial planets, including the Earth.”

More:

• Press Release: Curtin-developed machine learning ‘phones home’ for famous Martian rock
• New Research: Early crustal processes revealed by the ejection site of the oldest martian meteorite
• Universe Today: Meteorite Confirms 2 Billion Years of Volcanic Activity on Mars

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Another Amazing Image from Webb, This Time it’s Galaxy IC 5332

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to both dazzle and amaze with its latest image, this time of Galaxy IC 5332, also known as PGC 71775, which is an intermediate spiral galaxy located approximately 30 million light years away. This comes after JWST released its first images at its full power, which includes the Carina Nebula, Stephan’s Quintet, Southern Ring Nebula, and SMACS 0723, the last of which was the deepest and sharpest image of the distant universe to date.

This most recent image of IC 5332 was processed by expert space image processor, Judy Schmidt, and can be seen on her Flickr page and website. She also shows a combination of IC 5332 in visible and infrared on her Twitter page, as well. Originally from New York City, Schmidt currently lives in Modesto, CA, according to her website.  

Dust lanes of IC5332. (Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Judy Schmidt)

The original idea for JSWT was proposed at the Next Generation Space Telescope Workshop at the Space Telescope Science Institute in 1989 and was officially renamed the James Webb Space Telescope in 2002, with construction officially starting in 2004. Given JWST’s size and complexity, it spent the better part of the next two decades undergoing construction and rigorous tests to ensure everything functioned properly.

JWST finally launched on Christmas Day 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guinea, arriving at the Sun-Earth L₂ Lagrange point in January 2022. Lagrange points are gravitationally stable regions of space where objects can remain almost indefinitely with far less fuel required to keep them there. The Sun-Earth L₂ Lagrange point is located on the opposite of Earth with respect to the Sun, and is farther out than the Moon’s orbit, as well.

Sun-Earth Lagrange Points. (Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team)

JWST was built to be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in April 1990. To put JWST’s power in context, its composite of SMACS 0723 was taken from images at different wavelengths over the course of approximately 12.5 hours, whereas Hubble too weeks to compile the same set of images, albeit with far less jaw-dropping results.

Other images and data released by JWST include exoplanet atmospheric composition and light curve data, and even an infrared image of Jupiter with some of its Galilean Moons.

JWST senior project scientist, John Mather, commented on a NASA blog on July 15 regarding the first images: “It was worth the wait! Our immense golden telescope is seeing where none have seen before, discovering what we never knew before, and we are proud of what we have done. It’s our day to thank the people who made it possible, from the scientific visionaries in 1989 and 1995, to the 20,000 engineers, technicians, computer programmers, and scientists who did the work, and to the representatives of the people in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, who had faith in us and supported us.”

These images and datasets, to include IC 5332, are just the beginning for what JWST will show us in the coming months and years. What secrets of the cosmos will JWST unlock next? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always keep doing science & keep looking up!

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Falling Space Junk has a 10% Chance of Killing Someone in the Next Decade

The statistics of how people die offer a gruesome but informative way to understand both how humans perceive threats and how they react to fear. For example, you are more likely to be crushed by a falling vending machine (~13 people killed per year) than be eaten by a shark (~10 per year). However, there is one currently statistically unlikely cause of death that has a real risk of increasing dramatically in likelihood over the coming decades – falling space debris. According to a new study, there’s a 6-10% chance that someone will die from debris falling from space over the next ten years.

This probably isn’t surprising to anyone involved in the space industry. The debris problem has been growing for decades at this point, as rockets and satellites leave little pieces of themselves floating uncontrolled around Earth. We here at UT report on incidents involving it consistently (such as yesterday), though thankfully, we haven’t had to report any deaths from it so far.

That might prove that we’re just lucky. Some debris has undoubtedly hit unpopulated areas in the near past, and a part of a Long March 5B rocket hit a town in Ivory Coast on the west coast of Africa. Luckily, while there was some building damage, no one was hurt.

UT Q&A session about the return of space junk.

It’s only a matter of time before someone is, though. Space is getting increasingly crowded, with private companies sending up thousands of satellites to provide services like broadband internet and near-real-time surface imaging. But at what cost?

Currently, there is no regulatory requirement on how to dispose of the non-reusable rocket stages that provide the launch capabilities to the myriad companies and nations that want to get to orbit. Some of these components can weigh literal tons and might not entirely break up as they effectively aero brake through the atmosphere.

What’s more – one particular part of the world that is more susceptible to these risks – the “global south.” While most of these nations, which reside below the equator, do not have space-faring capabilities of their own, an unfortunate reality of physics makes them more likely to be affected by it. Rockets’ paths to get themselves into orbit typically put their unrecoverable bits into a position to fall somewhere below the equator.  

Artist’s depiction of space debris.
Credit – iStock

In a new paper published in Nature Astronomy, researchers from the University of British Columbia have pointed out all these disparities and risks. By their calculation, space debris has a 6-10% chance of killing at least one person in the next ten years. Most likely, that person will not be from the nation that created the piece of debris.

That sounds like a recipe for international acrimony, yet no polity has yet come forward to develop a framework for handling the regulation of these potentially hazardous pieces of technology. As the UBC team points out, there are systems and technologies in place that can stop this potential loss of life – we just have to be willing to accept the increased cost.

The most obvious of these would be to require controlled reentry from any rocket fairing. With controlled reentry, the dangerous bits of debris can be landed safely over one of the giant bodies of water that populate our planet. Given SpaceX’s success in landing its own booster stages back on a platform, the technology is obviously there to do this. But rocket companies won’t implement such a scheme unless required to by regulatory bodies.

Lots of methods have been proposed to clean up space junk. Here’s UT’s review of them.

Unfortunately, unless something is done soon to curb the likelihood of this event, someone will eventually die from falling space debris. In a worst-case scenario, hundreds could die from a single piece of debris – if it happens to hit an airplane, for example. Hopefully, governments will take a proactive approach to curb that likelihood well before it gets to that point. This new paper points them on the right path, at least.

Learn More:
UBC – Space rocket junk could have deadly consequences unless governments act
Byers et al. – Unnecessary risks created by uncontrolled rocket reentries

Lead Image:
Juno’s launch using an Atlas V rocket – one of the biggest rockets on record.
Credit – NASA / Bill Ingalls

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