Top Astronomy Stories in 2023

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Chart showing the planned travel of the JUICE spacecraft. (ESA, work performed by ATG under contract to ESA)

I wanted to start out the new year by first remembering all of the great missions from 2023. I also decided to group this work rather than focus on single missions.

Here is what I came up with:

NASA’s Moon Mission: We saw more progress towards the next steps in the Artemis program to put humans on the Moon, including NASA’s announcement of the four astronauts to lead the Artemis II mission, SpaceX’s tests of the Starship rocket, and the design of new spacesuits for the Artemis astronauts.

Other Attempts to Land on the Moon: We saw other nations also reaching for the Moon. While India had great success landing a rover on the lunar South Pole, both Russia and a commercial venture from Japan did not have similar luck. We also saw Japan trying it again late last year.

NASA Asteroid Missions: Asteroids were the big news this year, with Lucy encountering a surprise pair of asteroids, OSIRIS-REx bringing back a sample from the asteroid Bennu, and NASA launching the Psyche mission.

JWST Discoveries: This year we celebrated the anniversary of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which has been better than ever imaged. It is helping to change our understanding of the origin of the universe while poking and prodding at exoplanets to review their secrets.

ESA Missions: The European Space Agency (ESA) has also been very busy in 2023. For instance, the launch of the Euclid mission to study dark matter and dark energy, as well as the JUICE mission to study Jupiter and its moons, will assist with our understanding of the big picture as well as our own neighborhood.

That’s an impressive record, and I look forward to even more great news in 2024.

Happy New Year!

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by macrovector on Freepik

If you have any questions about the reason January 1 is the start to the year, Earthsky has a good explanation of the holiday’s Roman roots. Enjoy yourself, but please do not sacrifice any rams. You will understand after you read the Earthsky piece.

A Second Japanese Moon Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): JAXA’s SLIM lunar lander. (JAXA)

Japan is determined to get onto the moon as soon as possible. An attempt to land on the Moon earlier this year by a private Japanese company ended in failure, but things are looking good so far with the latest mission.

Launched on September 6th, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spacecraft, called the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) and nicknamed the “Moon Sniper” lander, is now in orbit around the Moon. The plan is to place a robotic explorer on the lunar surface by mid-January.

The stated purpose of SLIM is to:

  • Demonstrate the accurate lunar landing techniques embodied in a small explorer; and
  • Accelerate the study of the moon and other planets using the lighter exploration system.

In terms of the upcoming events, JAXA stated the following in a press release:

From now until mid-January 2024, the apolune point will be lowered, and the orbit adjusted to a circular orbit at an altitude of approximately 600km. The perilune point will then lower and preparations for landing will begin. On January 19, the perilune point will be lowered to an altitude of 15km, and the descent towards the Moon will start at around 0:00am (JST) on January 20. Landing on the lunar surface is scheduled for around 0:20am (JST) on January 20.

The race to the Moon continues.

Best wishes to Japan for a successful landing.

Study Findings: Atmospheric Carbon Depletion as a Tracer of Water Oceans and Biomass on Temperate Terrestrial Exoplanets

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Nature Astronomy abstract of the study findings:

The conventional observables to identify a habitable or inhabited environment in exoplanets, such as an ocean glint or abundant atmospheric O2, will be challenging to detect with present or upcoming observatories. Here we suggest a new signature. A low carbon abundance in the atmosphere of a temperate rock`y planet, relative to other planets of the same system, traces the presence of a substantial amount of liquid water, plate tectonics and/or biomass. Here we show that JWST can already perform such a search in some selected systems such as TRAPPIST-1 via the CO2 band at 4.3 μm, which falls in a spectral sweet spot where the overall noise budget and the effect of cloud and/or hazes are optimal. We propose a three-step strategy for transiting exoplanets: detection of an atmosphere around temperate terrestrial planets in about 10 transits for the most favourable systems; assessment of atmospheric carbon depletion in about 40 transits; and measurements of O3 abundance to disentangle between a water- versus biomass-supported carbon depletion in about 100 transits. The concept of carbon depletion as a signature for habitability is also applicable for next-generation direct-imaging telescopes.

Citation: Triaud, A.H.M.J., de Wit, J., Klein, F. et al. Atmospheric carbon depletion as a tracer of water oceans and biomass on temperate terrestrial exoplanets. Nat Astron (2023).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02157-9

Study-related stories:

Pic of the Week: The Space Plane is Back in Orbit

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): SpaceX launch of the X-37B space plane on December 28, 2023. (SpaceX and John Kraus)

This week’s image is a little more than an hour old. It shows the SpaceX Falcon Heavy’s launch of the USSF-52 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida earlier today. The mission involves the Air Force’s top secret X-37B, which will stay in orbit for an undisclosed period of time doing whatever it does up there.