Space Stories: Aliens Using Black Holes, Fire Approaches JPL, and New Approaches for the Mars Sample

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Credit: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Universe Today: “Scientists Propose New Method to Detect Alien Civilizations via Black Holes“

A new paper looks at another way we might be able to detect advanced civilizations, and at its center is the need for energy. The more advanced a civilization becomes, the greater their need for energy and one of the most efficient ways, according to current theories, is to harness the energy from an actively feeding black hole. The paper suggests a civilization feeding matter into a black hole could harvest energy from it; more excitingly perhaps, the process could be detectable within 17,000 light years.

—LA Times: “Firefighters Battle to Protect NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mt. Wilson“

Officials said they are making progress in protecting two key institutions from the Eaton fire. Don Fregulia, an operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which has joined in the Eaton fire response, said that efforts to protect Mt. Wilson had proved successful and he expected that to remain the case. “We’re actively engaged there, and so far, no loss to any values at risk at Mt. Wilson,” Fregulia said. “We’re feeling good about what we have to do up there tonight to keep that site secure.” He said the fire had also spread close to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but he said that’s a priority and crews were “making good progress there as well.”

—NASA: “NASA to Explore Two Landing Options for Returning Samples from Mars“

To maximize chances of successfully bringing the first Martian rock and sediment samples to Earth for the benefit of humanity, NASA announced Tuesday a new approach to its Mars Sample Return Program. The agency will simultaneously pursue two landing architectures, or strategic plans, during formulation, encouraging competition and innovation, as well as cost and schedule savings. NASA plans to later select a single path forward for the program, which aims to better understand the mysteries of the universe, and to help determine whether the Red Planet ever hosted life. NASA is expected to confirm the program – and its design – in the second half of 2026.

Pic of the Week: Grand Design Spiral Galaxy NGC 5643

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Image (Credit): Spiral galaxy NGC 5643, which is located roughly 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, D. Thilker, D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble))

This week’s image comes from the NASA/European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope. It shows colorful spiral galaxy NGC 5643, which is located roughly 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus.

Here is more on the spiral galaxy from the ESA Hubble site:

NGC 5643 is what’s known as a grand design spiral, referring to how the galaxy’s two large, winding spiral arms are clear to see. The spiral arms are defined by bright blue stars, lacy reddish-brown dust clouds and pink star-forming regions. As fascinating as the galaxy appears at visible wavelengths, some of NGC 5643’s most interesting features are invisible to the human eye. Ultraviolet and X-ray images and spectra of NGC 5643 show that the galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus: an especially bright galactic core powered by a feasting supermassive black hole. When a supermassive black hole ensnares gas from its surroundings, the gas collects in a disc that heats up to hundreds of thousands of degrees. The superheated gas shines brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum, but especially at X-ray wavelengths.

NGC 5643’s active galactic nucleus isn’t the brightest source of X-rays in the galaxy, though. Researchers using ESA’s XMM-Newton discovered an even brighter X-ray-emitting object, called NGC 5643 X-1, on the galaxy’s outskirts. What could be a more powerful source of X-rays than a supermassive black hole? Surprisingly, the answer appears to be a much smaller black hole!

While the exact identity of NGC 5643 X-1 is not yet known, evidence points to a black hole that is about 30 times more massive than the Sun. Locked in an orbital dance with a companion star, the black hole ensnares gas from its stellar companion, creating a superheated disc that outshines the galactic centre.

Space Stories: Venus Without Oceans, Evidence of Black Holes on Earth, and Organic Material on Ceres

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Image (Credit): The planet Venus. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Astronomy.com: “Venus May Never Have Had Oceans“

The story of the inner early Solar System goes something like this: Billions of years ago, there were three rocky worlds with oceans of liquid water. Perhaps all three could have been primed for life. But as Mars lost its atmosphere and Venus’ atmosphere experienced a runaway greenhouse effect, only Earth could support life by the end. But a trio of researchers at the University of Cambridge, U.K., have a different view — that all those billions of years ago, Venus was already too hot to support oceans. There was water vapor (we still see evidence of this today), but it never had the chance to condense into oceans. Instead, Venus was a steam world, one that could reach surface temperatures as high as 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit (727 degrees Celsius). By most metrics, this means the surface of Venus was already a hellish, inhospitable world — and it never got much better.

—University at Buffalo: “Evidence of Primordial Black Holes may be Hiding in Planets, or Even Everyday Objects Here on Earth“

Imagine the formation of a black hole and you’ll probably envision a massive star running out of fuel and collapsing in on itself. Yet the chaotic conditions of the early universe may have also allowed many small black holes to form long before the first stars. These primordial black holes have been theorized for decades and could even be ever-elusive dark matter, the invisible matter that accounts for 85% of the universe’s total mass. Still, no primordial black hole has ever been observed. New research co-led by the University at Buffalo proposes thinking both big and small to confirm their existence, suggesting that their signatures could range from very large — hollow planetoids in space — to minute — microscopic tunnels in everyday materials found on Earth, like rocks, metal and glass.

—Astronomy.com: “New Evidence of Organic Material Identified on Ceres, the Inner Solar System’s Most Water-rich Object After Earth“

Six years ago, NASA’s Dawn mission communicated with Earth for the last time, ending its exploration of Ceres and Vesta, the two largest bodies in the asteroid belt. Since then, Ceres —a water-rich dwarf planet showing signs of geological activity— has been at the center of intense debates about its origin and evolution. Now, a study led by IAA-CSIC, using Dawn data and an innovative methodology, has identified eleven new regions suggesting the existence of an internal reservoir of organic materials in the dwarf planet. The results, published in The Planetary Science Journal, provide critical insights into the potential nature of this celestial body.

Space Stories: Potential Life on Uranus, a Sick ISS Astronaut, and a Feasting Black Hole

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Image (Credit): Uranus captured the James Webb Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This Webb image also shows 9 of the planet’s 27 moons. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

—BBC: “New Study on Moons of Uranus Raises Chance of Life“

The Voyager 2 observations had suggested that its two largest moons — Titania and Oberon — often orbit outside the magnetosphere. However, the new study indicates they tend to stay inside the protective bubble, making it easier for scientists to magnetically detect potential subsurface oceans. “Both are thought to be prime candidates for hosting liquid water oceans in the Uranian system due to their large size relative to the other major moons,” Jet Propulsion Laboratory planetary scientist and study co-author Corey Cochrane said.

—Scotsman: “Nasa Astronauts Tight-lipped on Who was Ill After Long Space Station Mission“

Three Nasa astronauts whose prolonged space station mission ended with a trip to hospital last month have declined to say which one of them was sick. Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps publicly discussed their spaceflight for the first time since returning from the International Space Station on October 25.

—NOIRLab: “NSF NOIRLab Astronomers Discover the Fastest-Feeding Black Hole in the Early Universe“

Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the Universe’s evolution. It’s difficult to understand how these black holes were able to grow so big so rapidly. But with the discovery of a low-mass supermassive black hole feasting on material at an extreme rate, seen just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, astronomers now have valuable new insights into the mechanisms of rapidly growing black holes in the early Universe.

Space Stories: Mars MAVEN Hits 10 Years, a Martian Algorithm Helps Earth, and Enormous Black Hole Jets

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Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the MAVEN spacecraft above Mars. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—NASA: “Celebrating 10 Years at Mars with NASA’s MAVEN Mission“

A decade ago, on Sept. 21, 2014, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft entered orbit around Mars, beginning its ongoing exploration of the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere. The mission has produced a wealth of data about how Mars’ atmosphere responds to the Sun and solar wind, and how these interactions can explain the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space. Today, MAVEN continues to make exciting new discoveries about the Red Planet that increase our understanding of how atmospheric evolution affected Mars’ climate and the previous presence of liquid water on its surface, potentially determining its prior habitability.

—Georgia Tech: “Award-Winning Algorithm Used on Mars Rover Helps Scientists on Earth See Data in a New Way“

A new algorithm tested on NASA’s Perseverance Rover on Mars may lead to better forecasting of hurricanes, wildfires, and other extreme weather events that impact millions globally. Georgia Tech Ph.D. student Austin P. Wright is first author of a paper that introduces Nested Fusion. The new algorithm improves scientists’ ability to search for past signs of life on the Martian surface. This innovation supports NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. In addition, scientists from other fields working with large, overlapping datasets can use Nested Fusion’s methods for their studies. Wright presented Nested Fusion at the 2024 International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD 2024) where it was a runner-up for the best paper award. KDD is widely considered the most prestigious conference for knowledge discovery and data mining research.

—Times of India: “23 Million Light-Years-Wide Black Hole Jets Discovered“

Astronomers have made a breathtaking revelation: The most massive discovered black hole jets, extending on to incredibly 23 million light-years. To look at it through that lens, that’s approximately the length of 140 Milky Way galaxies positioned in a straight line. The immense jets, named ‘Porphyrion’ after a  Greek giant, emerge from a supermassive black hole at the center of a faraway galaxy that was in existence when the universe was only 6.3 billion years old – – close to half its existing age of 13.8 billion years.