NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

June 9, 2025

Between Scylla and Charybdis: A Double Cosmic Discovery

Can you identify this celestial object? Likely not — because this is a discovery image. Massive stars forge heavy elements in their cores and, after a few million years, end their lives in powerful supernova explosions. These remnants cool relatively quickly and fade, making them difficult to detect. To uncover such faint, previously unknown supernova remnants, a dedicated group of amateur astrophotographers searched through sky surveys for possible supernova remnant candidates. The result: the first-ever image of supernova remnant G115.5+9.1 — named Scylla by its discoverers—glowing faintly in the constellation of the mythological King of Aethiopia: Cepheus. Emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red, and faint emission from oxygen is shown in hues of blue. Surprisingly, another discovery lurked to the upper right: a faint, previously unknown planetary nebula candidate. In keeping with mythological tradition, it was named Charybdis (Sai 2) — a nod to the ancient Greek expression "caught between Scylla and Charybdis" from Homer’s Odyssey.

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

>>23146331

NASA's Parker Solar Probe spots powerful magnetic explosion aimed at the sun's surface

June 8, 2025

While making a death-defying dive through the sun’s atmosphere, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has directly recorded a powerful plasma explosion heading toward our star’s surface in unprecedented detail.

Parker's new measurements found protons with about 1000 times greater energy than expected and a plasma jet shooting toward the sun, not away from it.

Parker was uniquely positioned between the sun and the particles’ source, allowing scientists to easily figure out where they came from.

These findings indicate that the complexity and strength of tangles in the sun’s magnetic field can accelerate charged particles to much greater speeds than expected from the field’s strength alone.

The sunward plasma jet was caused by "magnetic reconnection" in the sun's atmosphere — the explosive process in which magnetic fields fracture and reconnect.

The powerful phenomenon transforms energy stored in the sun's magnetic field into energy that accelerates the solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles that the sun blasts across the solar system.

Understanding magnetic reconnection is critical for making better predictions about space weather, which is driven by the solar wind and other energetic outbursts from our star.

Space weather is a primary suspect for what stripped away Mars' atmosphere, turning it from a habitable planet into an icy desert wasteland.

On Earth, space weather can trigger geomagnetic storms that cause blackouts, damage satellites, interfere with radio and GPS signals, and even put astronauts at risk. On the bright side, it also gives Earth its signature glorious auroras.

The sun's magnetic field is extremely powerful, complex and dynamic.

Space weather predictions require complicated computer simulations based on equations that describe how magnetic fields behave — but the sun is so large and convoluted that these equations will always be approximations.

To improve the models' accuracy, scientists must collect extremely detailed measurements of the sun. This is where the Parker Solar Probe comes in.

The Parker Solar Probe is the first mission to fly into the sun's upper atmosphere, called the corona.

It has been directly measuring magnetic fields and particles in and around the corona in unprecedented detail, providing scientific insight into the heliosphere (the sun's atmosphere, which encompasses the entire solar system in a massive, elongated bubble).

"These findings indicate that magnetic reconnection … is an important source of energetic particles in the near-Sun solar wind," lead study author Mihir Desai, director of the Southwest Research Institute's Department of Space Research, said in a statement.

"Everywhere there are magnetic fields there will be magnetic reconnection. But the Sun's magnetic fields are much stronger near the star, so there's a lot more stored energy to be released."

Understanding the workings of magnetic reconnection events could help scientists better predict harmful space weather, the researchers said.

"Reports from the American Meteorological Society indicated that the powerful solar events in May 2024 wreaked havoc with farmers when extreme geomagnetic storms disrupted the precise GPS-guided navigation systems used to plant, fertilize and harvest rows of seeds, causing an estimated loss of up to $500 million in earning potential," Desai said.

"Parker's access to this new data is critical, particularly as we remain in the midst of a very active solar cycle."

The latest measurements of magnetic reconnection, reported in a paper published May 29 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, are one of many new discoveries Parker has made.

In 2023, over 700 peer-reviewed scientific papers were published using data collected in the probe's first four years of operation, and there are still many more discoveries to be made.

The spacecraft completed its second ultra-close flyby of the sun on March 22, zooming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun's surface — matching its own record from December 2024.

https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/nasas-parker-solar-probe-spots-powerful-magnetic-explosion-aimed-at-the-suns-surface

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1086067

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ada697

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP8n2N_yFVc (The Latest Geomagnetic Jerk (Core Pulse) | S0 News Jun.9.2025)

Core components for NASA's Roman Space Telescope pass major shake test

June 9, 2025

The core portion of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully completed vibration testing, ensuring it will withstand the extreme shaking experienced during launch.

Passing this key milestone brings Roman one step closer to helping answer essential questions about the role of dark energy and other cosmic mysteries.

"The test could be considered as powerful as a pretty severe earthquake, but there are key differences," said Cory Powell, the Roman lead structural analyst at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"Unlike an earthquake, we sweep through our frequencies one at a time, starting with very low-level amplitudes and gradually increasing them while we check everything along the way.

It's a very complicated process that takes extraordinary effort to do safely and efficiently."

The team simulated launch conditions as closely as possible.

"We performed the test in a flight-powered configuration and filled the propulsion tanks with approximately 295 gallons of deionized water to simulate the propellant loading on the spacecraft during launch," said Joel Proebstle, who led this test, at NASA Goddard.

This is part of a series of tests that ratchet up to 125% of the forces the observatory will experience.

This milestone is the latest in a period of intensive testing for the nearly complete Roman Space Telescope, with many major parts coming together and running through assessments in rapid succession.

Roman currently consists of two major assemblies: the inner, core portion (telescope, instrument carrier, two instruments, and spacecraft) and the outer portion (outer barrel assembly, solar array sun shield, and deployable aperture cover).

Now, having completed vibration testing, the core portion will return to the large clean room at Goddard for post-test inspections. They'll confirm that everything remains properly aligned and the high-gain antenna can deploy.

The next major assessment for the core portion will involve additional tests of the electronics, followed by a thermal vacuum test to ensure the system will operate as planned in the harsh space environment.

In the meantime, Goddard technicians are also working on Roman's outer portion.

They installed the test solar array sun shield, and this segment then underwent its own thermal vacuum test, verifying it will control temperatures properly in the vacuum of space.

Now, technicians are installing the flight solar panels to this outer part of the observatory.

The team is on track to connect Roman's two major assemblies in November, resulting in a whole observatory by the end of the year that will then undergo final tests.

Roman remains on schedule for launch by May 2027, with the team aiming for as early as fall 2026.

https://phys.org/news/2025-06-core-components-nasa-roman-space.html

https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/interactive/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux75BfGL9aw

https://www.awazthevoice.in/india-news/india-heads-to-the-international-space-station-isro-38147.html

https://x.com/isro/status/1932008693681283346

https://www.youtube.com/live/J1xfppWABZo

India heads to the International Space Station!: ISRO

09-06-2025

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) provided details on Monday for people to watch the launch of ISRO's Gaganyatri to International Space Station.

Sharing the details in a post on X, ISRO said, "ISRO-NASA Mission to ISS India heads to the International Space Station! Join the YouTube LIVE on June 10, 3:45 PM IST liftoff at 5:52 PM!

As per ISRO, the live telecast of the launch of astronauts can be viewed at the following link-

https://www.youtube.com/live/J1xfppWABZo

In a video message shared by Axiom Space, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla shared a stirring message ahead of his departure.

The video by Axiom Space praised his technological prowess and described him as a fighter pilot for 15 years.

In the video message he said, "Namaste. I'm Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla. The first Indian astronaut wing commander Rakesh Sharma traveled to space in 1984.

I grew up reading about him in textbooks and listening to his stories from space. I was deeply, deeply impressed by him. This journey that I'm on, it has been a long one for me.

It started out somewhere. I didn't know that this is the path it is going to finally take.

I would say that I have been extremely fortunate and extremely lucky to have gotten the opportunities to first, fly all my life, which was a dream job for me, and then have the opportunity to apply to astronaut's core, and now consequently be here.

The way this worked out for me was that probably a week before we arrived at Axiom was the time I came to know that I would be going.

I was extremely excited to be here. I was very, very happy because this was a possibility for me to actually fly to space. You don't know how to respond to such things."

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is part of Axiom Space's fourth private astronaut mission (Ax-4), marking a historic moment for India's space collaboration with NASA.

1/2

>>23146842

According to Axiom Space, the Ax-4 mission will "realise the return" to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, marking each nation's first government-sponsored flight in more than 40 years.

While this is the second human spaceflight mission in history for these countries, it will be the first time all three will execute a mission aboard the International Space Station.

This historic mission highlights how Axiom Space is redefining access to low-Earth orbit and elevating national space programs globally.

The Ax-4 crew includes members from India, Poland, and Hungary, marking each nation's first mission to the space station in history and the second government-sponsored human spaceflight mission in over 40 years, according to Axiom Space.Shubhanshu Shukla will be India's second national astronaut to go to space since 1984.

Slawosz Uznanski, European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut, will be the second Polish astronaut since 1978. Tibor Kapu will be the second national Hungarian astronaut since 1980.

Peggy Whitson will command her second commercial human spaceflight mission, adding to her standing record for the longest cumulative time in space by an American astronaut.

His group member, Tibor Kapu said, "Shuk's wisdom, the knowledge that he possesses, he could be 130 years old.

Peggy Whitson said, "For me, having him as my pilot in the Dragon capsule is great. He already has that operational savvy. He's just wicked smart when it comes to spacecraft technologies."

Slawosz Uznanski, European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut said about Group Captain Shukla, "He is very focused and he will basically go one, two, three, four in a record time. I don't even know how he gets there so fast".

Describing the team with whom he is going on the mission, Group Captain Shukla said, "The team that I'm flying with on this mission, it is fantastic. I do feel that I have exceptional crewmates.

I will have these crew members for this one flight. But post this mission, these are going to be my friends for life. It has been an amazing journey.

These are moments that really tell you that you are getting to be a part of something that is much larger than yourself. I can only say how extremely fortunate I am to be a part of this.

It is my sincere endeavor through my mission to inspire an entire generation back home in the country. I want to use this opportunity to ignite curiosity among kids.

Even if this story, my story, is able to change one life, it would be a huge success for me. I'm Group Captain Subhanshu Shukla. and I am the mission pilot for Axiom 4 mission."

On June 8, the Ax-4 crew and SpaceX teams successfully completed a full rehearsal of launch day activities ahead of their scheduled liftoff on Tuesday, June 10, SpaceX said in a post on their official handle.

2/2

>>23146842

>>23146844

Watch live: Ignis launches into space

09/06/2025

In brief

Tune in on Tuesday 10 June from 10:15 GMT (12:15 CEST) to watch the launch of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), as ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski embarks on his first journey to the International Space Station.

Watch the action live on ESA Web TV 2 and ESA YouTube.

In-depth

The mission will launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The crew will travel to the Space Station aboard a Dragon spacecraft, launched on a Falcon 9 rocket.

During the journey to the International Space Station, Sławosz will serve as a mission specialist. He will be joined by commander Peggy Whitson (USA), pilot Shubhanshu Shukla (India) and fellow mission specialist Tibor Kapu (Hungary).

Ax-4 marks the second commercial human spaceflight mission for an ESA project astronaut. Sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT) and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), the mission features an ambitious programme of technological and scientific research.

During the Ignis mission, Sławosz will conduct 13 experiments proposed by Polish companies and institutions and developed in collaboration with ESA, along with three additional ESA-led experiments.

These cover a broad range of areas including human research, materials science, biology, biotechnology and technology demonstration.

Sławosz and his crewmates are expected to reach the International Space Station approximately 36 hours after launch. The capsule is scheduled to dock on Wednesday, 11 June at 16:30 GMT (18:30 CEST).

Live coverage will begin two hours before docking. You can also watch the crew entering the station and the welcome ceremony live on ESA Web TV and on ESA’s YouTube channel.

The Ignis mission will officially begin as soon as Sławosz goes through the hatch. 

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/ignis/Watch_live_Ignis_launches_into_space

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/ignis

https://www.youtube.com/live/J1xfppWABZo

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/what-a-waste-us-scientists-decry-trumps-47-percent-cuts-to-nasa-science-budget

'What a waste:' US scientists decry Trump's 47% cuts to NASA science budget

June 9, 2025

Since January, when President Donald Trump took office for the second time, the White House has been asking U.S. government organizations to implement some pretty radical changes. Things have been tense, to say the least.

Thousands of federal workers have been laid off with little explanation, programs that improve diversity in the workplace have been eliminated, research grants have been cancelled in large sweeps, and international college students find themselves at risk of losing their legal status.

One government organization that could be hit the hardest is NASA.

The agency has faced a particularly extensive amount of pressure from the Trump administration: surveillance, goal restructuring, website purging and more.

Other federal science organizations haven't been spared, either — places like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have been targeted as well.

The ground of U.S. science seems to be quaking for political reasons rather than scientific ones, leaving scientists disheartened by their government and anxious about what's next.

"I don't think it is an overstatement to say that morale among U.S.-based scientists is at an all-time low," Sarah Horst, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, told Space.com.

"People are afraid for their jobs, their students, the projects they've often spent decades working on, and they are afraid for the future of the United States."

And things only got worse on May 30, when the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget request for NASA came out.

It proposes cutting the agency's science funding by 47%, and the agency's workforce by about one-third — from 17,391 to 11,853. This budget has to be officially passed by Congress to take effect, but if it indeed does, the effects could be brutal.

"That would represent the smallest NASA workforce since mid-1960, before the first American had launched into space," Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit exploration and advocacy organization, told Space.com.

"If this budget is made real, I am most concerned about people," John O'Meara, chief scientist at the Keck Observatory, told Space.com. "Missions deliver data and are essential, but the data is meaningless without the people there to interpret it, test theories and share discoveries with the world."

An 'extinction-level event'

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the White House's 2026 NASA budget proposal is the sheer amount of missions it would cancel altogether: 41 projects, as the Planetary Society said in a statement denouncing the report.

"This is the extinction-level event we were warning people about," Dreier said.

Some specifics: The sharply reduced budget would cancel the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program, which was meant to bring samples of the Red Planet's surface to Earth — samples that NASA's Perseverance rover has been dutifully collecting over the last few years, and which scientists have long stressed must be analyzed in a lab to reach their full potential.

MSR has experienced its own share of complications since its genesis, to be fair, including a huge price tag and what some believe is an overcomplicated mechanism of sample retrieval.

However, cancelling the project outright instead of coming up with a solution would waste much of Perseverance's work on the Red Planet.

The OSIRIS-APEX mission (you may remember it by its previous moniker, OSIRIS-REx) would also be cut off.

This mission successfully sent a spacecraft on a multi-billion-mile expedition to an asteroid named Bennu, then had it grab a few pieces of the asteroid before traveling all the way back to Earth and safely dropping the samples to the ground.

This same probe is now on round two, headed to examine the infamous asteroid Apophis — but if the FY26 NASA budget is confirmed, it won't complete its trip.

"I'm personally mostly concerned for in-flight missions that already have a significant investment in both taxpayer dollars and peoples' lives/careers (including my own)," Kevin McGill, an employee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the agency's lead center for robotic planetary exploration, told Space.com.

"Luckily, my work on [the Curiosity Mars rover] and Mars2020 [Perseverance] are mostly safe, but a lot of other stuff isn't."

1/3

>>23146977

The budget also suggests ceasing operations for the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft, which has been circling our solar system's gas giant since 2016 while regularly delivering rich information about the world and its moons.

Juno is responsible for all those swirly blue images of Jupiter the astronomy community holds high; it took five years for this spacecraft to get to where it is, and many more for it to be built in the first place.

"The operating missions cancellations alone represent over $12 billion of invested taxpayer value — and once they're gone, they're gone. It would take years and many millions more to replace them," Dreier said.

NASA would also need to pull out of its collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the Rosalind Franklin rover — for the second time, no less — which is a robotic life-hunting explorer set to launch toward Mars in 2028.

NASA had to pull out in 2012 because of budget cuts as well but re-entered the rover program after ESA cut ties with its other partner, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, once Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

"This makes the U.S. an untrustworthy partner and our allies hesitate the next time we ask them for help," Dreier said.

Two operational Mars orbiters — Mars Odyssey and MAVEN — would be cancelled as well, as would the New Horizons spacecraft currently studying the outer reaches of the solar system and the DaVinci and VERITAS missions, which would explore Venus.

The Lunar Gateway, which NASA envisioned as a sort of International Space Station around the moon, would also be cancelled.

"What was surprising was the level of cuts within parts of each of the agencies. An example is astrophysics, where the cut was nearly 2/3 of the astrophysics budget," O'Meara said.

According to the Planetary Society's analysis of the budget, that huge astrophysics reduction could mean eight spacecraft dedicated to studying extreme events in the universe (think, the Chandra X-ray Observatory) would be terminated.

This analysis also suggests 10 missions constructed to study the region around Earth and the sun would be cancelled, as well as about a dozen Earth-specific missions that help scientists forecast natural disasters such as hurricanes and track global warming.

The latter is especially concerning, given the speed with which Earth is heating up due to human activities that lead to greenhouse gas emissions — activities the Trump administration favors, such as burning coal for cheap power.

Per the budget proposal, the White House also wants NASA to eliminate its "green aviation" spending, dedicated to making airplanes better for the environment, and instead work on "protecting the development of technologies with air traffic control and defense applications."

It is also worth considering that other Trump-mandated moves have heavily impacted climate initiatives as well: more than 800 NOAA workers were laid off, for example, and NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which houses climate change records dating back to the 1800s, was closed down — leading members of NASA's largest union to speak out in solidarity with their coworkers.

Hundreds of scientists working on the National Climate Assessment, a huge report that details the dangers of climate change for policymakers to lean on, were also dismissed. (That represented all of the authors of this report).

"This budget request, and its implications, has been highly disruptive to the entire field," O'Meara said. "We are forced to focus on 'what-if' planning that changes in scope rapidly. That takes the time away from what we do best: doing science and sharing it with the world."

Moving toward Mars?

Furthermore, the White House's FY26 NASA budget proposal centers around a shift toward human missions to the Red Planet; this was a rare area that saw a budget boost in the President's request.

For example, one slide in the budget summary says NASA should invest "more than $1 billion in new technology investments to enable a crewed mission to Mars."

Another says the agency should allocate "$200M for Commercial Mars Payload Services (CMPS) to start launching robotic precursor missions to the Martian surface, and $80M to start deploying communications relay capabilities for Mars."

"It just bothers me that they are changing almost the entirety of NASA's mission to this pipe dream of a human mission to Mars in any reasonable time frame and cost," McGill said.

2/4

>>23146987

Space.com reached out to NASA for comment on the possible impact of these budget cuts, and was directed to acting administrator Janet Petro's statement in the proposal's Technical Supplement.

This statement is supportive of the budget request overall, mentioning items such as a renewed push for human spaceflight to the moon and Mars.

"The President's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for NASA reflects the Trump-Vance Administration's commitment to strengthening America's leadership in space exploration while exercising fiscal responsibility.

With this budget, we aim to shape a Golden Age of innovation and exploration," it reads.

This shift toward Mars crewed missions is perhaps predictable, given Trump's affiliation with SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. (Former affiliation, maybe, given the heated feud currently unfolding on social media between the two.)

Musk was a prominent backer of Trump's campaign and worked very closely with him over the past four months. For example, the SpaceX chief ran the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), which was responsible for the bulk of government funding cuts in the name of saving "wasted taxpayer money."

Independently, Musk has earned a reputation as maybe the most outspoken advocate of settling Mars, even going so far as to say he wishes to "die on Mars." SpaceX, as well as its fans, are extremely focused on achieving that goal.

"In isolation, a serious humans to Mars campaign should be exciting — Mars exploration is a worthy goal, and The Planetary Society has advocated for that for years," Dreier said. "But the cost here is too high."

Another concern Dreier has is that the White House expects to achieve this major goal while simultaneously reducing NASA's workforce at an unprecedented rate.

"This isn't just poor policy," he added. "It's fundamentally wasteful and inefficient, exactly what this administration is saying it does not want."

And the layoffs could be even more far-reaching than anticipated.

McGill says morale at JPL had already been very low after sweeping layoffs took place last year, but also that the energy was further damaged by the agency's recent return-to-office order.

For context, nearly 5,500 JPL employees who have been working remotely since the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic were told they must return to in-person work.

The deadlines for that return were Aug. 25 for general employees within California and Oct. 27 for teleworkers living outside the state.

"Employees who do not return by their required date will be considered to have resigned," JPL officials said in a workforce-wide email that was obtained by Space.com.

"It's clear that it's a silent layoff of the over 1,000 remote employees who they don't want to pay severance to," a NASA employee at JPL not authorized to speak on behalf of the agency previously told Space.com.

McGill says the order "threatens to decimate the workforce and a lot of critical institutional knowledge."

"I love JPL and its mission, but it's been a rough time as of late," he said.

3/4

>>23146989

Is this bill 'dead on arrival?'

According to Dreier, there's good news and bad news concerning whether the budget proposal will go through. The good news is that, as he explains, there seems to be bipartisan dislike for the proposal.

"We've heard directly from multiple congressional offices — Republican and Democrat — that this budget is 'dead on arrival,'" he said.

Of note, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation released his legislative directives for Senate Republicans' budget reconciliation bill on Friday (June 6).

The senator proposes dedicating $10 billion more to NASA's science programs — and, though most of it is indeed in line with the FY26 budget request's Mars endeavors, some of that funding would be used for other things, like NASA Space Launch System (SLS) rocket meant for moon exploration and Lunar Gateway.

This united aversion to the budget proposal is unsurprising. The bipartisan U.S. Planetary Science Caucus, for instance, previously released a statement in response to early blueprints of the proposal that suggested the huge cuts we're seeing presented now.

"We are extremely alarmed by reports of a preliminary White House budget that proposes cutting NASA Science funding by almost half and terminating dozens of programs already well underway, like the Mars Sample Return mission and the Roman Space Telescope," co-chairs Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) wrote.

Such agreement across the aisle makes sense when we consider how long it takes for space missions to reach fruition. Collaboration isn't just key — it's unavoidable.

"Spaceflight, and human spaceflight in particular, requires hand-off from one administration to another," Dreier said. "The timelines are just too long for any one presidential administration."

The bad news, however, is the White House may have a workaround.

"Even if Congress ultimately rejects this budget, the slow pace of legislation and gridlock we've seen in recent years make it unlikely that appropriations will be in place by October 1st of this year," Dreier said.

"If there's another continuing resolution, the White House budget office will throttle spending to match the lowest of all possible budget scenarios: theirs. So, we face the possibility of these cuts going into effect by default.

Given the breadth and depth of these cuts, that could be very hard to recover from."

"This budget proposal threatens to tear down that carefully constructed coalition in favor of a narrow vision that lacks the political durability necessary for long-term success," he added.

"What a waste."

4/4

There's an infinite amount of energy locked in the vacuum of space-time. Could we ever use it?

June 9, 2025

There may be an infinite amount of energy locked in the vacuum of space-time. So could we ever harness this energy for anything useful?

The idea of vacuum energy comes from quantum field theory, which is a marriage of quantum mechanics with Einstein's theory of special relativity. In quantum field theory, particles are not really what we think they are. Instead, they are better represented as fields, which are quantum entities that span all of space and time. When a localized patch of the field gets sufficient energy and starts traveling, we identify it as a particle. But the real fundamental object is the field itself.

In quantum mechanics, any system has a defined set of energies, like the energies that an electron can have in its orbital shells around an atomic nucleus.

Similarly, the quantum fields have energies associated with them at every point in space. Any finite volume, like an empty box, contains an infinite number of geometric points, so this means there's an infinite amount of energy in that volume.

This happens even when the fields are in their lowest energy state possible, also known as the zero-point state or the ground state.

This is the state with no extra energy added to it, no extra vibrations, no extra excitations whatsoever — just the lowest possible ground state, below which there is nothing.

But due to the fundamental uncertainties of quantum mechanics, even this ground state has an energy associated with it, so you still run into an infinite amount of energy.

However, we can't extract energy out of the vacuum and use it to do work. That's because whatever its value is, it is the lowest energy state possible for the universe.

To get work done, you have to transfer energy from one state to another. But if you could somehow "pull" energy out of the vacuum, there would be no place to put it, because no matter what you do, you are still surrounded by a vacuum.

It's like drawing water out of the bottom of a dry well: There's nothing left to give.

Another way to look at it that is completely compatible with the field portrait is via the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that you can never know both the energy of a particle and the duration of its existence with a perfect degree of precision.

This means that at the ground state or zero-point state of the universe, particles can temporarily pop into existence, "borrowing" energy from the vacuum, as long as they disappear in a short enough time to return that energy back.

If you were to pluck out one of these particles and make it permanent, that would violate the Heisenberg uncertainty principle because you borrowed energy from the ground state without giving it back in time.

These particles are known as virtual particles. They are the manifestation of all the fundamental energies of the quantum fields that permeate space-time.

The bottom line is that no matter what the zero-point energy is, it's the background of the universe on top of which all of physics takes place.

Just as you can't go lower than the ground floor of a building with no basement, you can't get lower than the ground state of the universe — so there's nothing for you to extract, and there's no way to leverage that into useful applications of energy.

So, unfortunately, any work you do in the universe will have to be done the old-fashioned way.

https://www.space.com/astronomy/theres-an-infinite-amount-of-energy-locked-in-the-vacuum-of-space-time-could-we-ever-use-it