Latest news with #SpaceShuttleDiscovery
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Smithsonian Goes to War With Trump Over His Attempt to Fire Staff
The Smithsonian has fired back at Donald Trump and declared itself a 'nonpartisan institution' after the president attempted to meddle in the operations of the prestigious research and museum complex. In a statement, the Smithsonian asserted its independence in a thinly veiled rebuttal of Trump's recent claim that he had fired Kim Sajet, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery. 'All personnel decisions are made by and subject to the direction of the Secretary, with oversight by the Board. Lonnie G. Bunch, the Secretary, has the support of the Board of Regents in his authority and management of the Smithsonian,' the statement said. 'Since its inception, the Smithsonian has set out to be a nonpartisan institution. As the nation's museum, the Smithsonian must be a welcoming place of knowledge and discovery for all Americans.' The Smithsonian, established by Congress in 1846, is not part of the executive branch and has operated as an independent entity for nearly 180 years. Among its treasured exhibits are the Space Shuttle Discovery and the original 'Star-Spangled Banner.' It is governed by a Board of Regents, with Bunch overseeing day-to-day management of its vast network of museums and the National Zoo. On May 30, Trump declared that he had fired Sajet, accusing her of being a 'partisan person and a strong supporter of DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion], which is totally inappropriate for her position.' Whether Trump has any legal authority to fire someone from an independent cultural institution is questionable. Sajet and the National Portrait Gallery have so far ignored the president's order, with Sajet continuing her work as usual, The Washington Post reported. The Board of Regents has also directed Bunch to 'articulate specific expectations' to museum directors and staff regarding content displayed in Smithsonian museums, allowing time to ensure all exhibits remain 'unbiased.' 'The Board of Regents will continue its vigilant, independent oversight of the Smithsonian and its museums to protect their rigorous scholarship and expertise, nonpartisanship, and accuracy, and ensure that the Smithsonian is welcoming to all Americans,' the statement added. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast. Before targeting Sajet, Trump signed an executive order in March directing the Smithsonian to stop presenting U.S. history as 'inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.' Trump's attempt to assert control over the Smithsonian is the latest example of the president trying to impose his will on, and extend MAGA influence over, Washington's cultural institutions. The Trump administration has already overhauled the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with Trump installing himself as chairman and replacing waves of board members and other top roles. In February, Trump vowed on Truth Social that there would be 'NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA' at the Kennedy Center. Since Trump's takeover, the Kennedy Center has seen plummeting ticket sales and a wave of artist boycotts.
Scientific American
30-05-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
Why Do We Launch Space Telescopes?
On April 24, 1990, NASA and the European Space Agency launched an astronomical revolution. When the Space Shuttle Discovery roared into the sky on that day, it carried the Hubble Space Telescope in its payload bay, and the astronauts aboard deployed it into low-Earth orbit soon thereafter. Hubble is not the largest telescope ever built—in fact, with a 2.4-meter mirror, it's actually considered by astronomers to be small—but it has a huge advantage over its earthbound siblings: it's above essentially all of our planet's atmosphere. That lofty perch makes Hubble's views sharper and deeper—and even broader, by allowing the telescope to gather types of light invisible to human eyes and otherwise blocked by Earth's air. And, after 35 years in orbit, Hubble is still delivering incredible science and cosmic vistas of breathtaking beauty. Launching telescopes into space takes much more effort and money than building them on the ground, though. Space telescopes also tend to be smaller than ground-based ones; they have to fit into the payload housing of a rocket, limiting their size. That restriction can be minimized by designing an observatory to launch in a folded-up form that then unfurls in space, as with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) —but this approach almost inevitably piles on more risk, complexity and cost. Given those considerable obstacles, one might ask whether space telescopes are ever really worth the hassle. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The short answer is: Yes, of course! For astronomical observations, getting above Earth's atmosphere brings three very basic but extremely powerful advantages. The first is that the sky is much darker in space. We tend to think of our atmosphere as being transparent, at least when it's cloudless. But unwanted light still suffuses Earth's air, even on the clearest night at the planet's darkest spot. Light pollution—unneeded illumination cast up into the sky instead of down to the ground—accounts for some of this, but the air also contains sunlight-energized molecules that slowly release this energy as a feeble trickle of visible light. This 'airglow' is dim but, even at night, outshines very faint celestial objects, limiting what ground-based telescopes can see. It's a problem of contrast, like trying to hear a whisper in a crowded restaurant. The quieter the background noise level, the better you can hear faint sounds. It's the same with the sky: a darker sky allows fainter objects to be seen. The second advantage to observing from space is that this escapes the inherent unsteadiness of our air. Turbulence in the atmosphere is the reason stars twinkle. That's anathema to astronomers; the twinkling of a star smears out its light during an observation, blurring small structures together and limiting a ground-based telescope's effective resolution (that is, how well it can distinguish between two closely spaced objects). This also makes faint objects even dimmer and harder to detect because their light isn't concentrated into a single spot and is instead diffused. Above the atmosphere, the stars and nebulas and galaxies appear crisp and unwavering, allowing us to capture far greater detail. The third reason to slip the surly bonds of Earth is that our air is extremely good at shielding us from many wavelengths of light our eyes cannot see. Ultraviolet light has wavelengths shorter than visible light (the kind our eyes detect), and while some of it reaches Earth's surface from space—enough from the sun, at least, to cause sunburns—a lot of it is instead absorbed by the air. In fact, light with a wavelength shorter than about 0.3 micron is absorbed completely. (That's a bit shorter than that of violet light, the shortest we can see, at about 0.38 micron.) So any sufficiently shortwave light—not just ultraviolet, but also even more cell-damaging x-rays and gamma rays—is sopped up by molecules in the air. That's good for human health but not great for observations of astronomical phenomena that emit light in these regimes. This happens with longer wavelengths, too. Carbon dioxide and water are excellent absorbers of infrared light, preventing astronomers on the ground from seeing most of those emissions from cosmic objects, too. As we've learned with JWST, observations in infrared can show us much about the universe that would otherwise lie beyond our own limited visual range. As just one example, the light from extremely distant galaxies is redshifted by the cosmic expansion into infrared wavelengths, where JWST excels. In fact, space telescopes that can see in different wavelengths have been crucial for discovering all sorts of surprising celestial objects and events. X-rays were critical in finding the first black holes, whose accretion disks generate high-energy light as the matter within them falls inward. Gamma-ray bursts, immensely powerful explosions, were initially detected via space-based observations. Brown dwarfs (which are essentially failed stars) emit very little visible light but are bright enough in the infrared that we now count them by the thousands in our catalogs. Observing in these other kinds of light is critical for unveiling important details about the underlying astrophysics of these and other phenomena. It's only by combining observations across the electromagnetic spectrum that we can truly understand how the universe works. Still, launching telescopes into space is a lot of trouble and expense. Official work on Hubble started in the 1970s, but delays kept it on the ground for decades. It also cost a lot of money: roughly $19.5 billion total between 1977 and 2021, in today's dollars. (Operational costs have been about $100 million per year in recent years, but Hubble is facing budget cuts.) JWST was $10 billion before it even launched, and running it adds about $170 million annually to the project's total price tag. Compare that with the European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope, or ELT, a 39-meter behemoth currently under construction that has an estimated budget of under $2 billion. Building on the ground is simpler, requires less testing and is more fault-tolerant, allowing much more bang for the buck. The capabilities of ground-based versus space-based telescopes are different, however. In general, big earthbound telescopes can collect a lot of light and see faint structures, but except for the ELT, they don't have the resolution of their space-based counterparts and can't see light outside the transparency window of our planet's air. Also, not every observation needs to be done from space; many can be done just fine from the ground, freeing up time on the more expensive and tightly scheduled space telescopes. Pitting these two kinds of facilities against each other—why have one when we can have the other?—is the wrong way to think about this. They don't compete; they complement. Together they provide a much clearer view of the cosmos than either can give by itself. Astronomy needs both.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Hubble celebrates 35 years with new images from our solar system and beyond
Thirty-five years after its launch into space, the Hubble Space Telescope is still wowing us with its views of the universe, and the cosmic mysteries it is helping unlock. On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off from Kennedy Space Center, carrying the new Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit. Now, 35 years later, NASA and the European Space Agency are celebrating the mission's milestone 35th anniversary by releasing amazing new images. "Hubble opened a new window to the universe when it launched 35 years ago. Its stunning imagery inspired people across the globe, and the data behind those images revealed surprises about everything from early galaxies to planets in our own solar system," Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, said in a press release. "The fact that it is still operating today is a testament to the value of our flagship observatories, and provides critical lessons for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which we plan to be serviceable in the spirit of Hubble," Domagal-Goldman added. Hubble has provided us with incredible imagery of planets, moons, and other objects in our own solar system. It has also given us insights into planets around other stars as well, by allowing astronomers to observe exoplanets as they form, capture starlight filtering through an alien world's atmosphere, and even detect the signatures of water vapour and organic chemicals on planets in their star's 'habitable zone'. Until the James Webb Space Telescope turned on in 2022, it had also given us our deepest and most spectacular looks into the cosmos. DON'T MISS: Here are the latest images from the telescope, to celebrate this anniversary. A fresh look at a neighbouring world In late December 2024, as Mars was just over 91 million kilometres away and approaching its January opposition — its closest approach to Earth in a couple of years — Hubble turned towards it to grab two views, revealing the major features of the Red Planet. Two Hubble images of Mars, taken on December 28 and December 29, 2024, show the planet over 17 hours apart. With Mars' 24 hour and 37 minute day, these images do not capture the full globe of the planet, but do reveal its major features to us. (NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)) "In the left image, the bright orange Tharsis plateau is visible with its chain of dormant volcanoes. The largest volcano, Olympus Mons, pokes above the clouds at the 10 o'clock position near the northwest limb. At an elevation of 70,000 feet, it is 2.5 times the height of Mt. Everest above sea level. Valles Marineris, Mars' 2,500-mile-long canyon system, is a dark, linear, horizontal feature near center left," NASA said. "In the right image, high-altitude evening clouds can be seen along the planet's eastern limb. The 1,400-mile-wide Hellas basin, an ancient asteroid impact feature, appears far to the south. Most of the hemisphere is dominated by the classical 'shark fin' feature, Syrtis Major." Moth-like remnant of dead stars Planetary nebula NGC 2899, imaged on January 8, 2025. (NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)) "This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas. This is propelled by radiation and stellar winds from a nearly 40,000-degree-Fahrenheit white dwarf at the center," NASA explained. "In fact, there may be two companion stars that are interacting and sculpting the nebula, which is pinched in the middle by a fragmented ring or torus — looking like a half-eaten donut. It has a forest of gaseous 'pillars' that point back to the source of radiation and stellar winds. The colors are from glowing hydrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies approximately 4,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Vela." RELATED: A dark, dusty stellar nursery A small region of the Rosette Nebula, just four light years across compared to the full 100 ly span of this feature, captured by Hubble on December 27, 2024. (NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)) "Dark clouds of hydrogen gas laced with dust are silhouetted across the image. The clouds are being eroded and shaped by the seething radiation from the cluster of larger stars in the center of the nebula (NGC 2440)," NASA stated in the image release. "An embedded star seen at the tip of a dark cloud in the upper right portion of the image is launching jets of plasma that are crashing into the cold cloud around it. The resulting shock wave is causing a red glow. The colors come from the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen." Exquisite flocculence Flocculent barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335, located in the constellation Virgo. (NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)) "NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk. There is a striking lack of well-defined spiral arms that are commonly found among galaxies, including our Milky Way," says NASA. "A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy. The bar channels gas inwards toward the galactic center, fueling star formation. Such bars are dynamic in galaxies and may come and go over two-billion-year intervals. They appear in about 30 percent of observed galaxies, including our Milky Way." MORE FROM SPACE: Stellar sculptors Star cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud features gas and dust being sculpted into beautiful form by stellar winds. (ESA/Hubble and NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)) "This new image showcases the dazzling young star cluster NGC 346. Although both the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble have released images of NGC 346 previously, this image includes new data and is the first to combine Hubble observations made at infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths into an intricately detailed view of this vibrant star-forming factory," the European Space Agency said. "The inhabitants of this cluster are stellar sculptors, carving out a bubble within the nebula. NGC 346's hot, massive stars produce intense radiation and fierce stellar winds that pummel the billowing gas of their birthplace, dispersing the surrounding nebula. The nebula, named N66, is the brightest example of an H II (pronounced 'H-two') region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. H II regions are set aglow by ultraviolet light from hot, young stars like those in NGC 346. The presence of this nebula indicates the young age of the star cluster, as an H II region shines only as long as the stars that power it — a mere few million years for the massive stars pictured here." Although the younger and more powerful James Webb Space Telescope is providing us with its own views of the universe, even after 35 years, Hubble still fills an important role in our observations of the cosmos. Whereas Webb views space in the infrared — wavelengths of light too long for our eyes to pick up — Hubble collects light from ultraviolet through the visible part of the spectrum and into the near infrared. Therefore, Hubble gives us a look at the depths of space that is much closer to how our own eyes would see it. Click here to view the video
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Happy 35th, Hubble: 10 of the Telescope's Coolest Achievements
On April 24, 1990, NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope into low Earth orbit. Since then, the telescope—a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency—has racked up so many groundbreaking scientific achievements and stunning space images that it's hard to remember them all. In honor of Hubble's 35th birthday, we're looking back on some of its most exciting milestones. Hubble had been in space for less than two years when its Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph detected traces of boron in a not-too-distant star. At an estimated age of 14.5 billion years, the star was (and still is) believed to have been one of the oldest stars ever identified, meaning Hubble had already gathered clues about the chemistry of the early universe. (Note: NASA's write-up from 1992 contains some minor miscalculations regarding the age and distance of the star, called HD 140283; these figures were thought to have been true at the time, but have since been corrected.) Black holes might seem mysterious today, but they were even more elusive just a few decades ago, when scientists weren't sure whether gravitationally collapsed objects actually sat at the heart of active galaxies. In 1994, Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 captured an image of an object at the center of M87, a giant elliptical galaxy 50 million light-years away. Though the object was as heavy as 3 billion Suns, it was squeezed into a space no larger than our solar system, supporting Albert Einstein's then 80-year-old general theory of relativity. Hubble's image of the black hole at the center of M87. Credit: Holland Ford, Space Telescope Science Institute/Johns Hopkins University; Richard Harms, Applied Research Corp.; Zlatan Tsvetanov, Arthur Davidsen, and Gerard Kriss at Johns Hopkins; Ralph Bohlin and George Hartig at Space Telescope Science Institute; Linda Dressel and Ajay K. Kochhar at Applied Research Corp. in Landover, Md.; and Bruce Margon from the University of Washington in Seattle.; NASA In 2008, Hubble took a big step toward someday identifying signs of life on an exoplanet. The telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) had wrapped up extensive observations of HD189733b, a Jupiter-sized planet 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. Those observations revealed definitive proof of methane and water vapor in the exoplanet's atmosphere. Though HD189733b is considered far too hot to contain life—its atmosphere is an estimated 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit—the discovery of organic molecules in its atmosphere demonstrated the telescope's ability to find signs of potential habitability on planets outside our solar system. For more than a decade, this picture has been the one to pop into the public's mind when we think of Jupiter. Hubble snapped it in 2014, when NASA wanted an update on the Great Red Spot's gradual shrinkage. The storm feature had indeed become smaller than ever, measuring just 10,250 miles across, compared with the 14,500-mile diameter captured by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 just 35 years prior. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), Though Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 first identified the subsurface ocean on Jupiter's Europa, Hubble called dibs on the moon's cryovolcanoes. In 2016, NASA announced that Hubble had imaged plumes of water erupting from Europa's surface. Because Europa's ocean would be difficult to sample directly, these plumes offered the tantalizing possibility of analyzing the moon's water without touching down on the surface. Sure enough, Europa Clipper, which NASA finally launched in October 2024, will spy on the cryovolcanoes as it zips around the icy body. Not one to waste time, Hubble quickly made another moon-related discovery by helping the Kepler Space Telescope find the first-ever signs of an exoplanet moon. While Kepler had the first inkling that a so-called "exomoon" might be present around Kepler 1625b, a super-Jupiter roughly 8,200 light-years away, Hubble's closer examination found additional signs of the exomoon's existence. Kepler 1625b i still hasn't been confirmed, but if it does exist, it's likely the size of Neptune. Artist's illustration of Kepler 1625b i orbiting Kepler 1625b. Credit: NASA, ESA, and L. Hustak (STScI) After decades of wondering whether black holes could go solo, scientists finally found direct evidence of one that had. Combined with ground telescope observations, Hubble's observations of a black hole 5,150 light-years away revealed that the object had no stellar companion with which to interact. Because interactions with starlight make black holes easier to identify, "rogue" black holes had long gone undetected, but this one offered proof that isolated stellar-mass black holes did exist. Between 2009 and 2020, Hubble captured a series of images of the Butterfly Nebula, whose clouds of dust and gas form near-symmetrical "wings." By investigating how those observations morphed over time, researchers at the University of Washington found that the Butterfly Nebula's central white dwarf was releasing multiple jets of ultra-hot stellar material, gradually sculpting the nebula's edges. Though Hubble's observations didn't solve the mystery of how the nebula's characteristic shape formed in the first place, they offered an intimate look at how a nebula's clouds can evolve over a relatively short period of time. A Hubble image of the Butterfly Nebula from 2020, just three years before the telescope's investigation of its central white dwarf. Credit: NASA, ESA, Joel Kastner (RIT) The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest major galaxy to our own Milky Way, making it an obvious point of interest for astronomers. In January, scientists released a whopping 2.5-gigapixel image of the spiral galaxy—the product of a decade-long project aimed at depicting Andromeda in unprecedented detail. This incredible feat will undoubtedly aid in research related to the galaxy for years to come. It's a magical thing to view the birthplace of thousands of stars, and Hubble's image of NGC 346 doesn't disappoint. Earlier this month, the ESA published a captivating depiction of the Small Magellanic Cloud's stellar nursery, where at least 2,500 newborn stars shone brightly between threads of gas and dust. NASA likened the baby stars to cosmic sculptors, "carving out a bubble" within their nebula. A colorized Hubble snapshot of NGC 346. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Nota, P. Massey, E. Sabbi, C. Murray, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)
Forbes
16-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Oxford Researchers Add New Wrinkle To Mystery Of Earth's Water
A view of Earth from the Space Shuttle Discovery shows late afternoon sun on the Andes Mountains, ... More with glare and heavy cloud illumination. One of the more counterintuitive explanations for how Earth came to be what it is today may have just been overturned. The popular theory has been that the source of our planet's abundant water is asteroids bombarding our world billions of years ago, but new research finds Earth may have formed with all it needed for the formation of water molecules. A research team from the University of Oxford analyzed a rare type of meteorite that is known to have a composition analogous to prehistoric earth over 4 billion years ago. That composition includes an amount of intrinsic hydrogen greater than what scientists previously expected was present on Earth during its formation. Hydrogen, as the 'H' in H2O, is obviously a key component in the creation of water. The leading assumption has been that Earth was not initially rich enough in hydrogen to support the formation of water. The theory goes that the hydrogen required for water to become so abundant here had to instead be 'delivered' by the frequent bombardment of hydrogen-toting asteroids during Earth's first 100 million years or so. This was a period when the inner solar system was much more crowded with cosmic debris and such collisions were relatively nonstop. But the composition of LAR 12252, a meteorite found originally in Antarctica, points to plenty of native hydrogen being present on Earth, even without so much violent 'help' from overzealous ancient asteroid visitors. The meteorite used in the study - LAR12252 - when it was discovered in Antarctica. 'This research provides vital evidence to support the theory that water on Earth is native - that it is a natural outcome of what our planet is made of,' said Oxford student Tom Barrett, who led the study, in a statement. The study has been published in the journal Icarus. The case that Earth came ready-made with its own water production means isn't quite a slam dunk. Other researchers have analyzed similar meteorites and come to the conclusion that they are indeed evidence of an extra-terrestrial water delivery vehicle. A resulting subject of debate is whether such meteorites actually brought all the hydrogen with them, or did they actually pick it up when they smashed into a hydrogen-rich early Earth? So the debate will likely continue, but the new study from Barrett and colleagues provides more evidence that Earth likely would have wound up wet no matter what, even if it may have been helped along by asteroids. Other theories of Earthly water origins abound too. They include everything from a volcanic source to earth outgassing water molecules as it cooled shortly after its formation.
