Latest news with #SwRI
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Science
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Space photo of the day for April 30, 2025
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A new study from the NASA New Horizons mission team at the Southwest Research Institute have resulted in a first-of-its-type map from the Milky Way galaxy in an ultraviolet wavelength, revealing details in the region around our solar system. This spectrograph map, generated from data collected by NASA's New Horizons probe, depicts the relatively uniform brightness of the ultraviolet (UV) "Lyman-alpha" background surrounding the sun and its area of influence."Understanding the Lyman-alpha background helps shed light on nearby galactic structures and processes," said Dr. Randy Gladstone with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Colorado. "This research suggests that hot interstellar gas bubbles like the one our solar system is embedded within may actually be regions of enhanced hydrogen gas emissions at a wavelength called Lyman alpha." Lyman-alpha is a specific wavelength of UV light emitted and scattered by hydrogen atoms. It is useful when studying distant stars, galaxies and the interstellar medium, as it can help detect the composition, temperature and movement of these distant this spectrograph map, the black dots represent approximately 90,000 known UV-bright stars in our galaxy. New Horizons, which began as the first mission to flyby Pluto, collected baseline data about Lyman-alpha emissions during its initial journey to the small, icy world. After the spacecraft's primary objectives at Pluto were completed, New Horizons' ultraviolet spectrograph (named "Alice") was used to make more frequent surveys of Lyman-alpha emissions as New Horizons traveled farther from the sun. These observations included an extensive set of scans in 2023 that mapped roughly 83% of the sky. Before this map was released, scientists theorized that a wall of interstellar hydrogen atoms would accumulate as they reached the edge of our heliosphere — the region of our galaxy where the solar wind from our sun reaches and interacts with the interstellar medium. New Horizons data saw nothing to indicate that this "wall" was an important source of Lyman-alpha emissions."These are really landmark observations, in giving the first clear view of the sky surrounding the solar system at these wavelengths, both revealing new characteristics of that sky and refuting older ideas that the Alice New Horizons data just doesn't support," said Dr. Alan Stern. the mission's principal investigator at SwRI. "This Lyman-alpha map also provides a solid foundation for future investigations to learn even more." Read more about New Horizons' mission after leaving Pluto and other recent research based on Lyman-alpha emissions. You can also find the scientific paper describing the SwRI map and its findings in The Astronomical Journal.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA spacecraft zooms by strange asteroid, beams back images
A NASA spacecraft is traveling to the most mysterious asteroids in the solar system. On the way there, it snapped images of the curious, elongated asteroid dubbed "Donaldjohanson." On April 20, the over 50-foot-wide Lucy spacecraft approached as close as some 600 miles from Donaldjohanson, which is aptly named for the discoverer of the famed Lucy hominid fossil, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson. The craft sped by at 30,000 mph, and used a specialized camera to capture a detailed view of the five-mile-wide asteroid. The images show a unique-looking asteroid, with a narrow neck connecting the object's two lobes. SEE ALSO: If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know "These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery," Tom Statler, a NASA planetary scientist and program scientist of the mission, said in a statement. "The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense." New imagery of the asteroid Donaldjohanson captured by NASA's Lucy spacecraft. Credit: NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Johns Hopkins APL / NOIRLab (The asteroid seen in the animation above was observed at a distance of 1,000 to 660 miles away.) The Trojan asteroids — two swarms of diverse asteroids trapped around the gas giant Jupiter (one in front and one behind) — are of profound interest to planetary scientists. These asteroids can't leave Jupiter's potent gravitational influence, so Trojan meteorites likely don't land on Earth, depriving us of samples. Crucially, researchers suspect these icy rocks are captured relics of our solar system's formation some 4 billion years ago. If so, the Trojans are the smaller building blocks of planets. They can help tell us how Earth, and the other planets, came to be. "If we want to understand ourselves, we have to understand these small bodies," Hal Levison, a planetary scientist who leads the unprecedented mission to investigate the Trojans, previously told Mashable. "This is the first reconnaissance of the Trojan swarms," Levison added. This high-speed flyby of Donaldjohanson is the spacecraft's last "dress rehearsal" before it arrives at its first Trojan in August 2027, named Eurybates. To investigate the Trojans, Lucy is equipped with a suite of powerful cameras, including the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager, or L'LORRI, which captured the images above. While it's not unusual for an object in space to be a "contact binary" — meaning two objects that orbited so closely they eventually merged — NASA noted that "the team was surprised by the odd shape of the narrow neck connecting the two lobes, which looks like two nested ice cream cones." Donaldjohanson isn't a primary target of Lucy's mission, but its unusual shape and structure will provide further insight into the origins of such primordial space objects, how they formed, and how our world formed.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
See it: NASA's Lucy spacecraft sends back first close-up images of asteroid Donaldjohanson
NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew about 600 miles above an asteroid named Donaldjohanson on Easter Sunday, sending back the first close-ups of this oblong, potato-like object believed to be about 150 million years old. United Launch Alliance successfully launched Lucy on Oct. 16, 2021, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. After several gravity assists, the spacecraft is now in deep space, testing out its instruments on a few never-before-seen asteroids as it makes its way to the Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter. Could Seashells Help Replace Plastics? California Researchers Think So After its first flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh in November, a main asteroid belt object, Lucy successfully made the second flyby of its mission, visiting Donaldjohanson on Sunday. This second encounter enabled Lucy's team to run a full test of its capabilities before heading on to study the Trojan asteroids. About 24 hours later, NASA and Lucy's team at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, shared the first images of asteroid Donaldjohanson. "Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology," Lucy Principal Investigator Hal Levison, with SwRI, said. "As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our Solar System." The moving image above was pieced together with images taken about every 2 seconds using Lucy's Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager during the flyby. Glowing Aurora Lights On Uranus Help Scientists Determine A Day Is 28 Seconds Longer On Sideways Planet Asteroid Donaldjohanson is named after Donald Johanson, the American paleoanthropologist who uncovered the skeletal remains of Lucy, one of humanity's oldest known ancestors. The skeleton found in Ethiopia in 1974 was named after The Beatles' song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" after a night of celebrating the discovery while listening to the band's songs. Lucy will continue traveling through the main asteroid belt before encountering its first Jupiter Trojan asteroid in August 2027. Associated with Jupiter because the asteroids are on the same orbital path, two groups of Trojan asteroids zoom ahead of Jupiter and trail behind the gas giant. These asteroids are made up of the same materials as the giant planets of our solar system: Jupiter, Saturn and article source: See it: NASA's Lucy spacecraft sends back first close-up images of asteroid Donaldjohanson
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Striking image and video of 'Steeple Mountain' on Jupiter's moon Io are concept art — but authentic pics do exist
In March and April 2025, internet users shared a striking image that they claimed showed "Steeple Mountain," a massive point of interest on Jupiter's moon Io. For example, one X user posted (archived) the image with the caption, "An actual mountain on Jupiter's moon Io." Other users also shared the image with similar captions, including one person who simply added (archived), crediting NASA, "Discovered on Jupiter's moon Io — Steeple Mountain looks like a mountain straight out of a fantasy novel." (@latestinspace/X) As NASA's website (archived) and at least one of the aforementioned X users noted (archived), however, the image and a sweeping video animation (archived) of the same scene were both conceptual artwork based on authentic data about a real feature on Io. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory spokesperson David C. Agle also confirmed by email that the image and video were artist's conceptions created from various data points that specialized equipment gathered as part of the Juno mission. The creator of the artwork sourced genuine, raw images of Steeple Mountain, which appear later in this article. According to NASA, Steeple Mountain — a nickname credited (archived) to the Juno science team — stands (archived) between 3 and 4.3 miles (5 and 7 kilometers), or 15,840 to 22,704 feet, in height. By comparison, Mount Everest stands at an elevation of 29,032 feet (8,849 meters) above sea level. The tallest mountain on Earth — measured not by elevation above sea level but rather from base to peak — is Mauna Kea in Hawaii, standing 33,481 feet (10,205 meters) in height. The creators of the image and animation, which NASA first published in April 2024, sourced the data to create the two pieces of media from a special visible-light camera named JunoCam (archived), which captures (archived) three-color (red, green and blue) and methane-band images. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) created JunoCam for NASA's Juno mission, which launched in August 2011. The mission, focused on studying Jupiter and its moons, reached Jupiter's orbit on July 4, 2016. NASA announced the mission would continue through September 2025, "or until the spacecraft's end of life." On April 19, 2024, a Juno Mission website hosted by Southwest Regional Institute (SwRI) featured an article (archived) about the mountain and also "an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava." The story's author referenced "extremely close flybys" of Jupiter as being "within 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the surface" and also noted Io's many volcanoes and the theory that "Jupiter was likely the first planet to form." A search of SwRI's JunoCam website located an authentic and downloadable set of red, green and blue images — including the raw band images — showing Steeple Mountain. Several creators also shared their slightly enhanced versions of the source images, which rendered the features on Io more clearly. This picture shows a raw image of Steeple Mountain on Io. (Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS) The descriptions of some Juno mission images capturing Jupiter and its moons featured the word "enhanced," communicating to users the full context of the pictures' alterations. "Io's 'Steeple Mountain' (Artist's Concept)." NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 18 Apr. 2024, "Io's 'Steeple Mountain' (Artist's Concept)." YouTube, JPLraw, 17 Apr. 2024, "Juno - Jupiter Missions." NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), "JunoCam Images." NASA Science, "JunoCam : Processing." Mission Juno, "Malin Space Science Systems." Junocam, Juno Jupiter Orbiter, NASA / SwRI / MSSS. "'Io Image.'" Mission Juno, 30 Dec. 2023, NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. "Catalog Page for PIA26294." NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Planetary Data System, 18 Apr. 2024, "NASA's Juno Gives Aerial Views of Mountain, Lava Lake on Io." Mission Juno, 19 Apr. 2024, Saunders, Toby. "What Is the Tallest Mountain in the World? No, It's Not Mount Everest." BBC Science Focus Magazine, 1 July 2023,
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Oxfordshire plays ‘crucial role' in NASA mission heading to Sun this week
Teams in Oxfordshire have played a crucial role in a pioneering NASA mission launching this week. While space weather is usually harmless – producing the beautiful displays of the Northern and Southern Lights – severe solar storms can interfere with aspects of everyday life including GPS systems, power grids, and vital global communications on Earth. Scientists continue to develop our understanding of solar phenomena so we can enhance our resilience to their potential impacts. A new NASA mission featuring UK-built technology is targeted to launch early morning (GMT) on February 28, 2025, (February 27 Pacific time) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA. READ MORE: New Italian restaurant opens in Oxfordshire A constellation of four small satellites in low Earth orbit that will make global, 3D observations of the entire inner heliosphere to learn how the Sun's corona becomes the solar wind. (Image: NASA) This is to explore how the Sun's outer atmosphere (the solar wind) evolves as it expands outwards from the corona into the heliosphere, a vast bubble of charged particles that stretches far beyond Pluto's orbit. Selected by NASA from five proposals in 2019, the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission will use four spacecraft to build 3D maps of the solar wind structure and contribute to efforts to improve space weather forecasting. Led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in the US, the PUNCH consortium brings together world-leading expertise, including from UK-based teams at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Scientists, engineers and technicians at STFC's RAL Space near Didcot, Oxfordshire have been instrumental in the development of the four suitcase-sized PUNCH satellites. READ MORE: Police say teenage boys hurled stones at Didcot house NASA are heading the mission. (Image: PA) As well as contributing to the mission's scientific goals, RAL Space teams have designed, developed, and manufactured the systems for four visible-light cameras that will capture a new perspective of the evolving solar wind. Once the spacecraft are in orbit, the team at RAL Space will also enact their role as the mission's in-flight calibration lead. Maximum science return from the mission relies on the combination of data from its four satellites, so ensuring accurate calibration is paramount. Dr Jackie Davies, UK Science Lead for PUNCH at STFC RAL Space, said: 'The PUNCH design builds on RAL Space's extensive heritage in leading and contributing to, solar and solar wind imaging instruments, including our contributions to NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission. 'We're thrilled to be working alongside SwRI, NASA and the US Naval Research Laboratory on this pioneering project and can't wait to see what new insights our technological and scientific input will reveal in the coming months.' READ MORE: Oxfordshire pub to hold 12-day beer festival with 20 ales 🚨 New flash sale offer! 🚨 Subscribe to the Oxford Mail online for just £5 for five months in this new offer 🗞️ A subscription gives you unlimited access to our website, fewer ads, e-editions of the newspaper and much more 👍 Find out more here 👇 — Oxford Mail (@TheOxfordMail) February 6, 2025 Dr Nick Waltham, Technology Research and Innovation Theme Lead at RAL Space said: 'Developing and testing the PUNCH camera systems has been an exciting endeavour for our team, made even more meaningful by the additional challenges we overcame during the COVID pandemic. 'This achievement is the result of years of dedication – building on a much longer heritage in similar missions – and the whole team should be incredibly proud as we prepare for launch. 'Their work will play a key role in advancing our understanding of this crucial area of space science.'
