NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

July 10, 2024

A Sagittarius Triplet

These three bright nebulae are often featured on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded starfields of the central Milky Way. In fact, 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the large nebula above center, and colorful M20 below and left in the frame. The third emission region includes NGC 6559, right of M8 and separated from the larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant. Over a hundred light-years across the expansive M8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. M20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the dominant red color of the emission nebulae. But for striking contrast, blue hues in the Trifid are due to dust reflected starlight. The broad interstellar skyscape spans almost 4 degrees or 8 full moons on the sky.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

NASA Marshall Researchers Battle Biofilm in Space

10 JUL 2024 11:42 PM AEST

A small group of scientists on the biofilm mitigation team at NASA’s Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama, study solutions to combat fast-growing colonies of bacteria or fungi, known as biofilm, for future space missions.

Biofilm occurs when a cluster of bacteria or fungi generates a slimy matrix of “extracellular polymeric substances” to protect itself from adverse environmental factors.

Biofilm can be found nearly anywhere, from the gray-green scum floating on stagnant pond water to the pinkish ring of residue in a dirty bathtub.

For medical, food production, and wastewater processing industries, biofilm is often a costly issue. But offworld, biofilm proves to be even more resilient.

“Bacteria shrug off many of the challenges humans deal with in space, including microgravity, pressure changes, ultraviolet light, nutrient levels, even radiation,” said Yo-Ann Velez-Justiniano, a microbiologist and environmental control systems engineer at Marshall.

“Biofilm is icky, sticky – and hard to kill,” said Liezel Koellner, a chemical engineer and NASA Pathways intern from North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Koellner used sophisticated epifluorescence microscopy, 3D visualizations of 2D images captured at different focal planes, to fine-tune the team’s studies.

Keenly aware of the potential hurdles biofilm could pose in future Artemis-era spacecraft and lunar habitats, NASA tasked engineers and chemists at Marshall to study mitigation techniques.

Marshall built and maintains the International Space Station’s ECLSS (Environment Control and Life Support System) and is developing next-generation air and water reclamation and recycling technologies, including the system’s wastewater tank assembly.

“The wastewater tank is ‘upstream’ from most of our built-in water purification methods. Because it’s a wastewater feed tank, bacteria and fungus grow well there, generating enough biofilm to clog flow paths and pipes along the route,” said Eric Beitle, ECLSS test engineer at Marshall.

To date, the solution has been to pull and replace old hardware once parts become choked with biofilm. But engineers want to avoid the need for such tactics.

“Even with the ability to 3D-print spare parts on the Moon or Mars, it makes sense to find strategies that prevent biofilm buildup in the first place,” said Velez-Justiniano.

The team took the first step in June 2023 by publishing the complete genome sequence of several strains of bacteria isolated from the space station’s water reclamation system, all of which cultivate biofilm formation.

They next designed a test stand simulating conditions in the wastewater tank about 250 miles overhead, which permits simultaneous study of multiple mitigation options.

The rig housed eight Centers for Disease Control and Prevention biofilm reactors – cylindrical devices roughly the size of a runner’s water bottle – each 1/60th the size of the actual tank.

Each bioreactor holds up to 21 unique test samples on slides, bathed continuously in a flow of real or ersatz wastewater, timed and measured by the automated system, and closely monitored by the team.

Because of the compact bioreactor size, the test stand required 2.1 gallons of ersatz flow per week, continuously trickling 0.1 milliliters per minute into each of the eight bioreactors.

“Essentially, we built a collection of tiny systems that all had to permit minute changes to temperature and pressure, maintain a sterile environment, provide autoclave functionality, and run in harmony for weeks at a time with minimal human intervention,” said Beitle.

“One phase of the test series ran nonstop for 65 days, and another lasted 77 days. It was a unique challenge from an engineering perspective.”

Different surface mitigation strategies, upstream counteragents, antimicrobial coatings, and temperature levels were introduced in each bioreactor.

One promising test involved duckweed, a plant already recognized as a natural water purification system and for its ability to capture toxins and control wastewater odor.

By devouring nutrients upstream of the bioreactor, the duckweed denied the bacteria what it needs to thrive, reducing biofilm growth by up to 99.9%.

Over the course of the three-month testing period, teams removed samples from each bioreactor at regular intervals and prepared for study under a microscope to make a detailed count of the biofilm colony-forming units on each plate.

“Bacteria and fungi are smart,” said Velez-Justiniano. “They adapt. We recognize that it is going to take a mix of effective biofilm mitigation methods to overcome this challenge.”

https://www.miragenews.com/nasa-marshall-researchers-battle-biofilm-in-1272761/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590207522000363

NASA discovers incredible planet that's like a 'super-Earth' and can 'harbour life'

UPDATED: 11:33, Wed, Jul 10, 2024

NASA scientists think they have identified a planet that could be the "best bet" for finding alien life beyond Earth.

As human beings, we have always been fascinated by the question of whether or not we are alone or whether there is extraterrestrial life out there somewhere.

Now a stunning new study could finally start to provide answers to the question that has tormented humankind for centuries.

An international team of scientists used observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to analyse the atmosphere of an exoplanet called LHS 1140 b.

Initially discovered in 2017, the planet is six times the mass of the Earth and orbits an M-type star, taking 24.7 days to do so.

The researchers found that the nearby planet could have an ocean of liquid water and even a nitrogen-rich atmosphere - just like Earth.

Lead author Charles Cadieux, from Université de Montréal, said: "Of all currently known temperate exoplanets, LHS 1140 b could well be our best bet to one day indirectly confirm liquid water on the surface of an alien world beyond our solar system.

"This would be a major milestone in the search for potentially habitable exoplanets.”

One feature that has puzzled scientists in the past is the fact that the exoplanet is significantly less massive than an object of its size should be.

Scientists concluded that either LHS 1140 b was a "mini-Neptune" made mostly of swirling gas or it was a "Mega-Earth" covered in liquid or frozen water.

To solve the puzzle, researchers combined data from the JWST and other space telescopes like Hubble and Spitzer to make the first "spectroscopic" analysis of LHS 1140 b.

Their analysis suggests that LHS 1140 b is much more likely to be a "water world" or "snowball" with a rocky core rather than a gassy mini-Neptune.

Even more promising, the initial analysis indicates that the exoplanet might even have a thick atmosphere just like the one here on Earth.

The planet provides a unique opportunity to study a world that could support life, given its position in its star's habitable zone and the likelihood of its having an atmosphere that can retain heat and support a stable climate.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1921282/nasa-exoplanet-study-space-life

House introduces NASA reauthorization act

July 10, 2024

A bipartisan NASA act would formally authorize several ongoing programs while directing the agency to provide reports on topics ranging from Space Launch System usage to servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The leadership of the House Science Committee released its NASA Reauthorization Act of 2024 July 9, one day before the full committee will formally mark up the bill and send it to the full House.

The bill would formally authorize $25.225 billion in funding for NASA in fiscal year 2025, a figure between the administration’s request of $25.384 billion and the $25.179 billion included in a bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee July 9.

The key purpose of the bill, though, is to address a wide range of NASA programs and policies.

“It provides comprehensive support for significant advancements in human space exploration, prioritizing our ambitious missions to the moon, Mars and beyond,” said Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), chair of the full committee, in a statement. “The bill also tackles near-term priorities, including the significant operations of the International Space Station and the continuous development of scientific research and innovative technology.”

Lucas is introducing the bill with the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), along with the chair and ranking member of the space subcommittee, Reps.

Brian Babin (R-Texas) and Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.), which will likely smooth its passage. That is in contrast to a commercial space policy bill that the committee approved in November along party lines.

That bill has yet to be taken up by the full House.

The NASA bill would formally authorize several NASA activities the agency is already pursuing.

They include development of new spacesuits for the International Space Station and Artemis missions, an ISS deorbit vehicle, the Commercial Low Earth Orbit destinations program to support work on commercial space stations and the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

The bill also includes provisions requesting a wide range of reports from NASA or other agencies, like the Government Accountability Office, on these and other programs.

Some examples of those reports are:

An assessment of non-NASA demand for the SLS;

Studies of Human Landing System development and any “alternative approaches” should current efforts suffer cost and schedule challenges;

A GAO review of NASA’s plans for “uninterrupted capability for human space flight and operations” in low Earth orbit in the transition from the ISS to commercial stations;

A GAO report examining whether current cost caps on NASA science missions are appropriate and how NASA has handled missions that exceeded those caps;

A report from NASA on the studies it has done in the last five years on reboosting or servicing the Hubble Space Telescope; and

A joint NASA and NOAA study on commercial procurement of space weather data.

Besides the reports, the bill signals its support for the Chandra X-ray Observatory amid concerns by astronomers that NASA proposals to reduce its budget could jeopardize its operations.

It directs NASA to “take no action to reduce or otherwise preclude continuation of the science operations of the Chandra X-Ray Telescope prior to the completion and consideration of the next triennial review of mission extensions for the Astrophysics division.”

That is a reference to the senior review of extended missions in astrophysics, the most recent of which NASA conducted in 2022.

The bill directs NASA to reconsider GeoCarb, an Earth science mission that the agency canceled in 2022 after cost overruns and difficulty finding a commercial geostationary orbit satellite that could host the instrument.

Under the bill, NASA would reevaluate the completed GeoCarb instrument and look for potential launch opportunities as part of a broader strategy for greenhouse gas monitoring.

https://spacenews.com/house-introduces-nasa-reauthorization-act/

https://republicans-science.house.gov/_cache/files/9/9/99fc2490-ec55-440c-928b-932cef37e868/178B14311C08199120573246129910F7.lucas-038-xml.pdf