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Webb Reveals Early-Universe Prequel to Huge Galaxy Cluster
Apr 24, 2023
Every giant was once a baby, though you may never have seen them at that stage of their development. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has begun to shed light on formative years in the history of the universe that have thus far been beyond reach: the formation and assembly of galaxies. For the first time, a protocluster of seven galaxies has been confirmed at a distance that astronomers refer to as redshift 7.9, or a mere 650 million years after the big bang. Based on the data collected, astronomers calculated the nascent cluster’s future development, finding that it will likely grow in size and mass to resemble the Coma Cluster, a monster of the modern universe.
“This is a very special, unique site of accelerated galaxy evolution, and Webb gave us the unprecedented ability to measure the velocities of these seven galaxies and confidently confirm that they are bound together in a protocluster,” said Takahiro Morishita of IPAC-California Institute of Technology, the lead author of the study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The precise measurements captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) were key to confirming the galaxies’ collective distance and the high velocities at which they are moving within a halo of dark matter – more than two million miles per hour (about one thousand kilometers per second).
The spectral data allowed astronomers to model and map the future development of the gathering group, all the way to our time in the modern universe. The prediction that the protocluster will eventually resemble the Coma Cluster means that it could eventually be among the densest known galaxy collections, with thousands of members.
“We can see these distant galaxies like small drops of water in different rivers, and we can see that eventually they will all become part of one big, mighty river,” said Benedetta Vulcani of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy, another member of the research team.
Galaxy clusters are the greatest concentrations of mass in the known universe, which can dramatically warp the fabric of spacetime itself. This warping, called gravitational lensing, can have a magnifying effect for objects beyond the cluster, allowing astronomers to look through the cluster like a giant magnifying glass. The research team was able to utilize this effect, looking through Pandora’s Cluster to view the protocluster; even Webb’s powerful instruments need an assist from nature to see so far.
Exploring how large clusters like Pandora and Coma first came together has been difficult, due to the expansion of the universe stretching light beyond visible wavelengths into the infrared, where astronomers lacked high-resolution data before Webb. Webb’s infrared instruments were developed specifically to fill in these gaps at the beginning of the universe’s story.
The seven galaxies confirmed by Webb were first established as candidates for observation using data from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Frontier Fields program. The program dedicated Hubble time to observations using gravitational lensing, to observe very distant galaxies in detail. However, because Hubble cannot detect light beyond near-infrared, there is only so much detail it can see. Webb picked up the investigation, focusing on the galaxies scouted by Hubble and gathering detailed spectroscopic data in addition to imagery.
The research team anticipates that future collaboration between Webb and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a high-resolution, wide-field survey mission, will yield even more results on early galaxy clusters. With 200 times Hubble's infrared field of view in a single shot, Roman will be able to identify more protocluster galaxy candidates, which Webb can follow up to confirm with its spectroscopic instruments. The Roman mission is currently targeted for launch by May 2027.
“It is amazing the science we can now dream of doing, now that we have Webb,” said Tommaso Treu of the University of California, Los Angeles, a member of the protocluster research team. “With this small protocluster of seven galaxies, at this great distance, we had a one hundred percent spectroscopic confirmation rate, demonstrating the future potential for mapping dark matter and filling in the timeline of the universe’s early development.”
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-reveals-early-universe-prequel-to-huge-galaxy-cluster
VP Harris, South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol to Visit NASA Goddard
Apr 24, 2023
Vice President Kamala Harris and Republic of Korea (ROK) President Yoon Suk Yeol will visit NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Tuesday, April 25, to see firsthand the agency’s climate change work. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Goddard Center Director Makenzie Lystrup will join them on their tour.
During the visit, the group will meet with Korean-American scientists and receive a briefing on the importance of space to addressing climate change, including NASA’s recently launched Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) mission and the ROK’s Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) mission that are improving life on Earth by revolutionizing the way scientists observe air quality from space. They also will see integration of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, designed to unravel the secrets of dark energy and dark matter, search for and image exoplanets, and explore many topics in infrared astrophysics.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/vp-harris-south-korea-president-yoon-suk-yeol-to-visit-nasa-goddard
AAAS Announces 3 NASA Winners of Inaugural Mani L. Bhaumik Award
Apr 24, 2023
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has awarded its inaugural Mani L. Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award to standout contributors to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, also known as Webb or JWST. It honors three individuals who supported vast swaths of the Webb community over decades and whose persistence ensured the mission’s success.
The award recognizes former NASA Administrator Charles Frank Bolden Jr.; Dr. John Mather, senior project scientist of Webb since 1995; and Bill Ochs, Webb project manager from 2011 through the telescope’s launch in 2021.
The award selection committee sought to acknowledge not only the winners’ individual contributions, but the teams they inspired, whose collective work has given us all a completely different view of the universe.
The Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award builds upon the Science Breakthrough of the Year, the journal’s choice of the top research advance of the year. In 2022, the successful deployment of Webb, and the first images revealed on July 12, earned Science’s “breakthrough” status. The inaugural award represents three key groups: the scientists, the engineers, and the leaders who advocated for the Webb mission.
Bolden, a retired U.S. Marine Corps major general and a former astronaut who served as administrator of NASA from 2009 to 2017, was passionate about the telescope. With a deep understanding of its potential for scientific discovery he made the telescope’s completion an agency-wide priority.
“This telescope was going to revolutionize our understanding of astrophysics,” said Bolden, whose enthusiasm for Webb came in part from his time as co-pilot crew member of the mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. “What we’d learn from JWST would dwarf what we’d learned from Hubble.”
Mather played a key role in the project from the earliest days. In his work leading the Webb telescope science team beginning in 1995, Mather represented scientific interests to project management and helped see each step forward, no matter how small.
“We set ourselves an incredible challenge,” said Mather. “The telescope represented a very revolutionary idea, and we had to invent many things.” His work included setting up international science contests to find the best talent to invent the right instruments and technologies for the telescope, and to bring the same inventions to life."
Ochs, who served as Webb project manager starting in 2011 – representing both engineering and science teams – confronted challenges in terms of schedule and budget.
“I had to learn this huge, complex mission and figure out a new launch estimate and cost estimate,” said Ochs. He was very focused on the people at the center of the project.
"I am very honored to have been selected as one of the recipients of the Bhaumik Breakthrough of the Year Award by the AAAS,” Ochs said. “Leading the JWST team for almost 12 years was extraordinarily special. The ‘Webb Experience’ not only allowed me to work with some the smartest people I have ever met, but also the best all-around individuals you could ever encounter. It was the best 12 years of my career.”
On May 3, an event at AAAS headquarters in Washington, D.C., will honor Ochs, Mather, and Bolden. Each winner will speak about their time serving the Webb telescope community.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/aaas-announces-3-nasa-winners-of-inaugural-mani-l-bhaumik-award
Sols 3807-3809: We Made It to the Top!
April 24, 2023
It always feels great to reach the top of a mountain, especially when the path was challenging. While the top of Mt. Sharp still looms above Curiosity, the team was very excited to see that in the last drive the rover successfully reached the top of the canyon that it has been climbing for the past few weeks. After the previous drive fell short of the top of the canyon in marker band valley, in the most recent plan Curiosity rose above the challenge of this terrain to reach the plateau above the canyon. And what a view! (See the front hazcam image displayed above.)
The workspace includes several interesting rocks, including the “Floresta” target which will be cleared of dust by the DRT and then observed by APXS, MAHLI, and Mastcam with a multispectral image. APXS and MAHLI will also target “Calama,” which is a rock that appears to have a dark coating on it. A dark toned float rock lies beyond the reach of the arm, so ChemCam will target it (“Ile Portal”) for a LIBS observation and Mastcam will take a corresponding image. A ChemCam RMI mosaic will document the structure and texture of contact between two units in the distance that were mapped from orbital images. Mastcam will also take several stereo observations, including at “Camopi” documenting dark rock textures and their relationship to underlying units, at “Limao” assessing rock textures, and at a location exhibiting interesting patterns in the rocks behind the rover.
The plan also includes coordinated ChemCam passive sky and APXS and SAM atmospheric observations. These measurements from three different instruments will be used together to constrain trace elements that are present in the martian atmosphere.
https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/9388/sols-3807-3809-we-made-it-to-the-top/
NASA Data Helps Track Veterans’ Exposure to Air Pollution
Apr 24, 2023
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are using NASA Earth observations of smoke and other air pollution to study the health impacts on veterans who were deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other areas of Southwest Asia in the years after September 11, 2001. Military personnel who were deployed in these regions are at risk for developing respiratory problems due to exposures to particulate matter, smoke, and fumes from burn pits, dust storms, and other sources.
Working with the VA, NASA-funded researchers created an online resource that compiles NASA satellite data on air pollution around specific military bases. Eric Garshick, a pulmonary physician at VA Boston, said the resource will be used to conduct research to assess associations between medical conditions and exposures encountered during deployment and ultimately help medical researchers identify affected veterans.
“It’s important to our efforts to understand and help address the risk our veterans face not just from combat, but from the conditions in which they served,” Garshick said.
During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some soldiers and support staff endured high concentrations of air pollutants. For example, military units often burned trash in large, open pits. The trash ranged from human and medical waste to plastics, chemicals, and mechanical parts. Most military personnel also faced exposure to fine dust from desert dust storms. NASA Earth science data can help identify such chemical and dust pollution and where it originated.
“It’s a unique opportunity to be able to use NASA Earth observations to study ways we can improve veterans’ health,” said Meredith Franklin of the University of Toronto. Franklin is the principal investigator for the project, which was a collaboration with the VA and with Petros Koutrakis of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The project was funded by NASA’s Earth Applied Sciences Health and Air Quality program area.
A New Tool for Veterans’ Health
Franklin’s team used satellite observations to create an exposure assessment tool called the Source-Differentiated Air Quality System (SDAQS). This web-based tool produces air quality information about each military base in a format that allows researchers at the VA and other institutions to directly access it through visualizations and data downloads.
SDAQS includes data on the air pollutant PM2.5, inhalable particles that are generally 2.5 micrometers or smaller – small enough to move deep into the lungs and respiratory tract. The data come from NASA’s Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm, which was used by the team to derive measurements of average PM2.5 concentrations based on data collected by the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.
The SDAQS exposure assessment tool also integrates data from NASA’s Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), which allows researchers to distinguish the sources of specific pollutants. For example, MISR can estimate concentrations of desert dust and of pollution from burning fuels, such as elemental carbon and sulfates.
The exposure information obtained from NASA satellites will be used in a VA study linking this information with the deployment histories of over 5,000 veterans. Garshick said the goal is to help researchers trace associations between the different pollution exposures and specific health conditions. Such a resource could help doctors identify lung conditions in veterans based on the concentrations and types of pollution where they were deployed.
Looking Ahead for Health
The work is part of a larger federal effort to better identify and track the respiratory health of veterans. In November 2021, the Biden Administration announced a federal effort to better understand, identify, and treat medical conditions suffered by troops deployed to toxic environments. Congress passed a law called the PACT Act, which expands VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances.
Franklin and her team are looking forward to the next satellite resource: data from the upcoming Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) mission. MAIA marks the first time NASA has partnered with epidemiologists and health organizations on a satellite mission. A collaboration with the Italian Space Agency, MAIA is scheduled to launch in 2024.
“It’s very fulfilling to connect NASA data to efforts to support veteran’s health,” Franklin said. “They put their lives on the line for our country, and they deserve every effort to protect their health.”
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-data-helps-track-veterans-exposure-to-air-pollution
>Depleted Uranium has Consequences
NASA InSight Study Provides Clearest Look Ever at Martian Core
Apr 24, 2023
A pair of quakes in 2021 sent seismic waves deep into the Red Planet’s core, giving scientists the best data yet on its size and composition.
While NASA retired its InSight Mars lander in December, the trove of data from its seismometer will be pored over for decades to come. By looking at seismic waves the instrument detected from a pair of temblors in 2021, scientists have been able to deduce that Mars’ liquid iron core is smaller and denser than previously thought.
The findings, which mark the first direct observations ever made of another planet’s core, were detailed in a paper published April 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Occurring on Aug. 25 and Sept. 18, 2021, the two temblors were the first identified by the InSight team to have originated on the opposite side of the planet from the lander – so-called farside quakes. The distance proved crucial: The farther a quake happens from InSight, the deeper into the planet its seismic waves can travel before being detected.
“We needed both luck and skill to find, and then use, these quakes,” said lead author Jessica Irving, an Earth scientist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. “Farside quakes are intrinsically harder to detect because a great deal of energy is lost or diverted away as seismic waves travel through the planet.”
Irving noted that the two quakes occurred after the mission had been operating on the Red Planet for well over a full Martian year (about two Earth years), meaning the Marsquake Service – the scientists who initially scrutinize seismographs – had already honed their skills. It also helped that a meteoroid impact caused one of the two quakes; impacts provide a precise location and more accurate data for a seismologist to work with. (Because Mars has no tectonic plates, most marsquakes are caused by faults, or rock fractures, that form in the planet’s crust due to heat and stress.) The quakes’ size was also a factor in the detections.
“These two farside quakes were among the larger ones heard by InSight,” said Bruce Banerdt, InSight’s principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “If they hadn’t been so big, we couldn’t have detected them.”
One of the challenges in detecting these particular quakes was that they’re in a “shadow zone” – a part of the planet from which seismic waves tend to be refracted away from InSight, making it hard for a quake’s echo to reach the lander unless it is very large. Detecting seismic waves that cross through a shadow zone is exceptionally difficult; it’s all the more impressive that the InSight team did so using just the one seismometer they had on Mars. (In contrast, many seismometers are distributed on Earth.)
“It took a lot of seismological expertise from across the InSight team to tease the signals out from the complex seismograms recorded by the lander,” Irving said.
A previous paper that offered a first glimpse of the planet’s core relied on seismic waves that reflected off its outer boundary, providing less precise data. Detecting seismic waves that actually traveled through the core allows scientists to refine their models of what the core looks like. Based on the findings documented in the new paper, about a fifth of the core is composed of elements such as sulfur, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen.
“Determining the amount of these elements in a planetary core is important for understanding the conditions in our solar system when planets were forming and how these conditions affected the planets that formed,” said one of the paper’s co-authors, Doyeon Kim of ETH Zurich.
That was always the central goal of InSight’s mission: to study the deep interior of Mars and help scientists understand how all rocky worlds form, including Earth and its Moon.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-insight-study-provides-clearest-look-ever-at-martian-core
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2217090120
Donald Trump Jr.
@DonaldJTrumpJr
3h
Another major episode of Triggered, we take a deep dive into the media’s strange coverage of Ray Epps, plus @realannapaulina takes you behind the scenes of her meeting with Donald Trump, and @stevedaines on path for a 2024 victory . Live 6 pm et
Tucker Out at Fox, Media's Strange Ray Epps Coverage, Plus the Path to 2024 Victory | TRIGGERED Ep. 27
Apr 24, 2023, 1:14 PM
https://truthsocial.com/@DonaldJTrumpJr/posts/110255620053471550
https://rumble.com/v2k6ocm-tucker-out-at-fox-medias-strange-ray-epps-coverage-the-path-to-2024-victory.html
This is our 1st detailed look at Mars' most mysterious moon Deimos
Apr, 24 2023
The debate over the moon's origin story is not over yet.
A moon of Mars showed off its pockmarked face in an unprecedented closeup view.
Deimos, one of the small moons of Mars, was imaged by the Hope Mars mission from as close as 60 miles (100 km), the closest look yet. The flashy new imagery was released Monday (April 24) as the community seeks to learn more about this intriguing small world.
"These images and observations represent a significant step forward in our knowledge of Deimos, its atmosphere, composition, origins, and what this means for our understanding of Mars more broadly," the United Arab Emirates Space Agency said in a statement.
For example, the spacecraft's observations of the composition of Deimos suggests the moon came from Mars itself, which is another step forward in resolving a long-standing debate about its origins.
How Deimos (and the other small Martian moon, Phobos) came to be have been mysteries since their discovery in 1877. Numerous spacecraft have imaged Deimos since NASA's Mariner 9 satellite in 1971, but always from afar. From well beyond 60 miles (100 km), it has been hard to determine the moon's composition. Phobos, though imaged from closer-up, has been similarly enigmatic.
Previous studies suggested the moons' compositions could be similar to asteroids (space rocks) or dwarf planets, being made up of carbonaceous chondrites, primitive meteorites are thought to be remnants of the original building blocks of planets. The moons are also potato-shaped and small, much like asteroids, suggesting Mars may have snatched them when they strayed too close to the Red Planet.
But that theory is not a slam-dunk, as (for example) the orbit of Deimos is almost circular and the moon travels in a way that suggests it previously slowed against the atmosphere of Mars. Numerous formation theories have been put forward, such as it originating from Mars, from rubble or even from a collision of small bodies.
The new data from the Emirati mission was obtained from the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer. It suggests that both Phobos and Mars are "more akin to a basaltic Mars, than a D-type asteroid such as the Taggish Lake meteorite that is often used as an analog for the spectral properties of Phobos and Deimos," instrument scientist Christopher Edwards said in the same statement.
The spacecraft, also known as the Emirates Mars Mission, began flying by Deimos in late January during the commissioning phase. High-resolution images were obtained starting in March. The mission is expected to continue flying by Deimos periodically through 2023.
https://www.space.com/mars-moon-deimos-image-origin-story
For a cross dimensional team-up?