Pic of the Week: Blue Ring Around the Crater

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Martian crater. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

This week’s image may appear to be a mining pit in Arizona, but in fact it is a crater in Mar’s southern hemisphere. The blue dust near the top of the crater’s rim is frozen carbon dioxide. The image was taken from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.

Here is more information about the image from NASA:

Every winter, a layer of carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) forms on the surface of Mars. At its greatest extent in mid-winter, this frost reaches from the poles down to the middle latitudes, until it is too warm and sunny to persist. In most places this is around 50 degrees latitude, similar to the latitude of southern Canada on Earth.

However, small patches of dry ice are found closer to the equator on pole-facing slopes, which are colder because they receive less sunlight. This image was taken in the middle of winter in Mars’ Southern Hemisphere, and shows a crater near 37 degrees south latitude. The south-facing slope has patchy bright frost, blue in enhanced color. This frost occurs in and around the many gullies on the slope, and in other images, has caused flows in the gullies.

A Red Smudge That’s 35 Billion Light-Years Away

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Galaxy CEERS-93316. (NASA)

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Scottish astronomers at the University of Edinburgh believe they have spotted a galaxy that is about 35 billion light-years away, showing us the galaxy as it would have appeared 235 million years after the Big Bang. This would make it the most distant galaxy ever captured by astronomers.

The BBC News story noted that the Edinburgh astronomers obtained their information from a wide-field survey of the sky that JWST is currently conducting called the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey.

The galaxy reported by the University team is CEERS-93316. We should expect more such findings from this Survey as astronomers dig into the data.

Space Stories: Stargazing Apps, Ringless Jupiter, and Detecting Exoplanets

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Image (Credit): This enhanced color view of Jupiter’s south pole was created by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset using data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gabriel Fiset)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Mashable.com: “The Best Astronomy Apps for Stargazing This Summer“

Thanks to these astronomy apps, you can use your phone to see which stars and constellations are above you in real time, day or night. Whether you’re planning on stargazing, are curious about which constellations are in your location, or simply want to flex on your family and friends around the campfire, the following apps can show you what you’re seeing in the sky.

—Technology.org: “Why Jupiter Doesn’t Have Rings Like Saturn“

To understand the reason Jupiter currently looks the way it does, Kane and his graduate student Zhexing Li ran a dynamic computer simulation accounting for the orbits of Jupiter’s four main moons, as well as the orbit of the planet itself, and information about the time it takes for rings to form. Their results are detailed here, soon to be published in the Planetary Science journal.

—ScienceDaily.com: “A New Method to Detect Exoplanets“

In recent years, a large number of exoplanets have been found around single ‘normal’ stars. New research shows that there may be exceptions to this trend. Researchers suggest a new way of detecting dim bodies, including planets, orbiting exotic binary stars known as Cataclysmic Variables (CVs).

More JWST Priorities

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): This diagram shows Lucy’s orbital path in green after her October 2021 launch to visit the Trojan asteroids. (Southwest Research Institute)

Last week I noted some of the mission priorities in the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first year. Those priorities were listed under “Exoplanets and Disks.” I thought I would highlight a few more, this time from the “Solar System Astronomy” list. Here are five more priorities:

  • Pluto’s Climate System with JWST;
  • The Moons of Uranus: A NIRSpec Investigation of Their Origins, Organic Constituents, and Possible Ocean World Activity;
  • A Pure Parallel Survey of Water in the Asteroid Belt;
  • DiSCo-TNOs: Discovering the Composition of the Trans-Neptunian Objects, Icy Embryos for Planet Formation; and
  • JWST Observations of Lucy Mission Targets.

Each of these priorities come with an explanation of the mission. For example, here is a little more about NASA’s Lucy mission from the JWST proposal:

The Lucy spacecraft – to be launched at approximately the same time as JWST – will perform the first ever in situ exploration of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Trojans are the largest population of solar system bodies currently unvisited by spacecraft, and revealing their composition and formation history is the key to untangling disparate hypothesis for the early dynamical evolution of the entire solar system.

Understanding these enigmatic bodies requires not just the high spatial resolution imagery and spectroscopy that will be afforded by Lucy, but also the superb near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy of which JWST is uniquely capable. The high signal-to-noise, high spectral resolution, and extended wavelength coverage beyond the capabilities of Lucy will allow JWST to sensitively probe the organic, carbonate, and silicate components of the surfaces of the Trojans. Meanwhile, the Lucy spectra and images will place these observations into their geological and historical context, greatly extending the scientific utility of both the JWST observations and the Lucy visit. Together these observations will paint a rich picture of this population, allowing us to trace connections with other bodies studied remotely and in situ across the solar system.

Lucy was launched last October and is expected to encounter its first Trojan asteroid until August 2027. You can find the full mission timeline here.

Profile: China’s Xuntian Space Telescope

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Image: Artist’s impression of the Xuntian Survey Space Telescope.

Next year China plans to launch the Xuntian (Chinese for “survey to heavens”) Survey Space Telescope that will orbit near China’s space station. Like the Hubble Space Telescope, it will be easier to service from this location. Unlike the Hubble, it will have a greater field of view – about 300-350 times greater. This field of view will allow the telescope to observe about 40 percent of the sky within its 10 year lifespan. If it last 30+ years like the Hubble, it will capture even more of the sky.

In terms of the space telescope’s planned mission, a Chinese news story stated:

It will observe well over one billion galaxies and measure their positions, shapes and brightness which may help explain how those galaxies evolve…

The telescope will also be able to help determine the upper limit of neutrino mass and shed light on the mysterious dark matter and dark energy. They’re believed to account for the majority of mass-energy content of the universe.

The versatile telescope can undertake many more intriguing studies such as drawing galactic dust map of the Milky Way, observing how super-massive blackholes are gobbling up surrounding materials, exploring exoplanets and discovering new peculiar celestial bodies.

The Xuntian should be launched later next year and be fully operational in 2024.

As long as scientists around the world can share in these observations, this type of space race benefits everyone. The more eyes on the sky, the better.