Genome-wide association study identifies human genetic variants associated with fatal outcome from Lassa fever – Nature.com

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Genome-wide association study identifies human genetic variants associated with fatal outcome from Lassa fever - Nature.com

Patients’ perceptions and practices of informing relatives: a qualitative study within a randomised trial on healthcare … – Nature.com

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Patients' perceptions and practices of informing relatives: a qualitative study within a randomised trial on healthcare ... - Nature.com

Unlocking the Genetic Puzzle of Obesity Across Sexes and Ages – SciTechDaily

A study has identified genes that influence obesity risk differently across sexes and age groups, offering new insights into the biological pathways of obesity. These discoveries underscore the importance of considering sex and age in obesity research and could lead to new treatments.

Researchers have discovered genes that impact obesity risk differently in men and women and across various ages, revealing potential new pathways for understanding and treating obesity.

From influencing how our body stores fat to how our brain regulates appetite, hundreds of genes, along with environmental factors, collectively determine our weight and body size. Now, researchers add several genes, that appear to affect obesity risk in certain sexes and ages, to that list. The study, published in the journal Cell Genomics, may shed light on new biological pathways that underlie obesity and highlight how sex and age contribute to health and disease.

There are a million and one reasons why we should be thinking about sex, age, and other specific mechanisms rather than just lumping everyone together and assuming that disease mechanism works the same way for everyone, says senior author John Perry, a geneticist and professor at the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, U.K. Were not expecting people to have completely different biology, but you can imagine things like hormones and physiology can contribute to specific risks.

To untangle sexs role in obesity risk, the research team sequenced the exomethe protein-coding part of the genomeof 414,032 adults from the UK Biobank study. They looked at variants, or mutations, within genes associated with body mass index (BMI) in men and women, respectively. Based on height and weight, BMI is an estimated measurement of obesity. The search turned up five genes influencing BMI in women and two in men.

Researchers identified age-specific and sex-specific obesity genes by looking into the genome of 414,032 people from the UK. Credit: Cell Genomics/Kaisinger et al.

Among them, faulty variants of three genesDIDO1, PTPRG, and SLC12A5are linked to higher BMI in women, up to nearly 8 kg/m more, while having no effect on men. Over 80% of the women with DIDO1 and SLC12A5 variants had obesity, as approximated by their BMI. Individuals carrying DIDO1 variants had stronger associations with higher testosterone levels and increased waist-to-hip ratio, both risk indicators for obesity-related complications like diabetes and heart disease. Others with SLC12A5 variants had higher odds of having type 2 diabetes compared with non-carriers. These findings highlight previously unexplored genes that are implicated in the development of obesity in women but not men.

Perry and his colleague then repeated their method to look for age-specific factors by searching for gene variants associated with childhood body size based on participants recollections. They identified two genes, OBSCN and MADD, that were not previously linked to childhood body size and fat. While carriers of OBSCN variants had higher odds of having higher weight as a child, MADD variant carriers were associated with smaller body sizes. In addition, the genetic variants acting on MADD had no association with adult obesity risk, highlighting age-specific effects on body size.

Whats quite surprising is that if you look at the function of some of these genes that we identified, several are clearly involved in DNA damage response and cell death, says Perry. Obesity is a brain-related disorder, whereas biological and environmental factors act to influence appetite. Theres currently no well-understood biological paradigm for how DNA damage response would influence body size. These findings have given us a signpost to suggest variation in this important biological process may play a role in the etiology of obesity.

Next, the research team hopes to replicate the study in a larger and more diverse population. They also plan to study the genes in animals to peer into their function and relationship with obesity.

Were at the very earliest stages of identifying interesting biology, says Perry. We hope the study can reveal new biological pathways that may one day pave the way to new drug discovery for obesity.

Reference: Large-scale exome sequence analysis identifies sex- and age-specific determinants of obesity by Lena R. Kaisinger, Katherine A. Kentistou, Stasa Stankovic, Eugene J. Gardner, Felix R. Day, Yajie Zhao, Alexander Mrseburg, Christopher J. Carnie, Guido Zagnoli-Vieira, Fabio Puddu, Stephen P. Jackson, Stephen ORahilly, I. Sadaf Farooqi, Laura Dearden, Lucas C. Pantaleo, Susan E. Ozanne, Ken K. Ong and John R.B. Perry, 2 August 2023, Cell Genomics. DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100362

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Unlocking the Genetic Puzzle of Obesity Across Sexes and Ages - SciTechDaily

Dynamics Of Space Debris Removal: A Review – Space Ref

Space debris, also known as space junk, presents a significant challenge for all space exploration activities, including those involving human-onboard spacecraft such as SpaceXs Crew Dragon and the International Space Station.

The amount of debris in space is rapidly increasing and poses a significant environmental concern. Various studies and research have been conducted on space debris capture mechanisms, including contact and contact-less capturing methods, in Earths orbits. While advancements in technology, such as telecommunications, weather forecasting, high-speed internet, and GPS, have benefited society, their improper and unplanned usage has led to the creation of debris.

The growing amount of debris poses a threat of collision with the International Space Station, shuttle, and high-value satellites, and is present in different parts of Earths orbit, varying in size, shape, speed, and mass. As a result, capturing and removing space debris is a challenging task.

This review article provides an overview of space debris statistics and specifications, and focuses on ongoing mitigation strategies, preventive measures, and statutory guidelines for removing and preventing debris creation, emphasizing the serious issue of space debris damage to space agencies and relevant companies.

Mohammad Bigdeli, Rajat Srivastava, Michele ScaraggiSubjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Space Physics (physics.space-ph)Cite as: arXiv:2304.05709 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2304.05709v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)Submission historyFrom: Rajat Srivastava[v1] Wed, 12 Apr 2023 09:03:50 UTC (16,980 KB)https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.05709

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Dynamics Of Space Debris Removal: A Review - Space Ref

‘A whole new world of possibility for viewing the stars and planets’ – CT Insider

My interest in astronomy began in grade school, when I first looked at the moon with my grandfather through his telescope. This interest stayed with me throughout my life, and after retiring a few years ago following a career in the Coast Guard and the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, I finally made the decision to buy a telescope and pursue the hobby. Recently, with a desire to see more in the night sky, I began learning astrophotography, which opened up a whole new world of possibility for viewing the stars and planets.

When I first got my telescope, it took a while to learn how to find objects in the night sky, but soon I got the hang of it. I joined the Thames Amateur Astronomical Society, based in southeastern Connecticut, where I went to observing events (aka star parties) to learn more about astronomy. It was a fun way to learn the hobby, and club members were tremendously helpful in giving me pointers on how to find things in the night sky and tips on using my new telescope.

After a while, I started taking pictures of the planets through the telescopes eyepiece with my cellphone. I can remember how satisfying it was to find Mars for the first time, which appeared as just a tiny red dot in the evening sky. I snapped a picture of it, and though it was not much of a photo, it was a real milestone for me, being able to find and photograph something using my telescope. That led to more and more photos of heavenly bodies, including the moon, Saturn and Jupiter.

The Whirlpool Galaxy (aka Messier 51) is located 31 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Then one day everything changed; it was like a light switch had been turned on. I came across Pat Prokops Heavenly Backyard Astronomy YouTube channel, and he was giving a tutorial on how to photograph Saturn. During the tutorial, he started with Saturns small, bright disc on his computer screen, taken with his telescope and camera, and began processing it using specialized software to bring out the details. As he scrolled through the programs menus and clicked on the different settings, the planets details truly began to emerge. He finished by producing a full-color image of Saturn with its expansive, sharply defined rings circling the planet and multi-colored, banded atmosphere. The transformation was fascinating, and it was amazing that he was able to produce a spectacular image with only amateur equipment. I was inspired, and my astrophotography adventure began.

Learning astrophotography wasnt easy for me, since I had very little experience with either astronomy or photography. I looked for websites and YouTube channels for tutorials to learn enough to get the basics. Before long I was totally immersed in the hobby, and upgraded my equipment to take more detailed digital photos. Though it was challenging to learn, it also provided satisfaction when I achieved good results, so I continued on with it. It was well worth it.

Astronomy is a blend of the hard sciences of math, physics and chemistry, and astrophotography adds an element of art to it. When you are able to capture the glowing colors of a nebula or the expansive spiral arms of a distant galaxy, it can also have an element of spirituality. Recently, after someone had seen one of my photos of the Whirlpool Galaxy, he commented Wow, youre an artist. After thinking about that for a minute, I replied, God is the artist. Im just the messenger.

The Horsehead Nebula (aka Barnard 33), is a small, dark, interstellar cloud located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orions Belt.

It is easy to see the allure of this hobby. Astrophotography takes astronomy to another level, allowing you to see things you cant normally see just by looking through a telescope. Astro cameras have specialized sensors that amplify dim light, making it possible to capture a lot more detail. Taking photos of deep-sky objects such as galaxies, nebulae and star clusters is fascinating, and it is amazing these objects are visible to us at all with their great distance from Earth. Just within our own solar system there is enough to keep any astrophotographer busy for a lifetime, capturing details of the sun, moon and planets. I never get tired of taking photos of Saturns rings, Jupiters great red spot and moons, and the red deserts of Mars. And the details of the moon, with its vast lava fields, bright mountain peaks and harsh cratered landscape come to life when captured by a camera.

When I set up my telescope, a new world opens up. When it is dark, you can look up at the night sky and see the wonders of the heavens. While we are consumed with our daily routines and worries, up above, the universe awaits. You can see galaxies that are light-years away, with their massive spiral arms extending from their center, and clouds of stars and cosmic dust interwoven within the spiral mass. And here we are on our tiny planet Earth, within our Milky Way Galaxy, just one of billions of galaxies in the universe. It gives you a sense of smallness, but at the same time a sense of order and belonging in the grand scheme of things. It somehow makes our daily troubles seem insignificant, and reminds you of our place in the universe. Being able to capture the night sky in greater detail through astrophotography makes the experience all the more meaningful.

John Natale lives in East Haddam. Aspiring astronomers and astrophotographers who would like more information can email him at jsnatale@att.net.

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'A whole new world of possibility for viewing the stars and planets' - CT Insider

Surface Pressure Impact On Nitrogen-dominated USP Super-Earth … – Astrobiology News

Massradius for USP planets, with massradius measurements better than 25 per cent from http://www.astro.keele.ac.uk/jkt/tepcat/ and for our USP TESS candidates (see Table 1), colour coded by their equilibrium temperature. Two-layer models from Zeng et al. (2016) are displayed with different lines and colours. Earth-like here means a composition of 30 per cent Fe and 70 per cent MgSiO3, whereas 100 per cent Rock means a composition of 100 per cent MgSiO3. Earth and Venus are identified in this plot as pale blue and orange circles, respectively astro-ph.EP

In this paper, we compare the chemistry and the emission spectra of nitrogen-dominated cool, warm, and hot ultra-short-period (USP) super-Earth atmospheres in and out of chemical equilibrium at various surface pressure scenarios ranging from 0.1 to 10 bar.

We link the one-dimensional VULCAN chemical kinetic code, in which thermochemical kinetic and vertical transport and photochemistry are taken into account, to the one-dimensional radiative transfer model, PETITRADTRANS, to predict the emission spectra of these planets. The radiative-convective temperature-pressure profiles were computed with the HELIOS code.

Then, using PANDEXO noise simulator, we explore the observability of the differences produced by disequilibrium processes with the JWST. Our grids show how different surface pressures can significantly affect the temperature profiles, the atmospheric abundances, and consequently the emission spectra of these planets.

We find that the divergences due to disequilibrium processes would be possible to observe in cooler planets by targeting HCN, C2H4, and CO, and in warmer planets by targeting CH4 with HCN, using the NIRSpec and MIRI LRS JWST instruments. These species are also found to be sensitive indicators of the existence of surfaces on nitrogen-dominated USP super-Earths, providing information regarding the thickness of these atmospheres.

Jamila Chouqar, Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, Zouhair Benkhaldoun, Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Abdelhadi Jabiri, Abderahmane Soubkiou

Comments: 12 pagesSubjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)Cite as: arXiv:2304.08690 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2304.08690v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.08690Focus to learn moreJournal reference: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 522, June 2023, Pages 648-659Related DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1034Focus to learn moreSubmission historyFrom: Jamila Chouqar[v1] Tue, 18 Apr 2023 01:53:58 UTC (1,912 KB)https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.08690Astrobiology,

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Surface Pressure Impact On Nitrogen-dominated USP Super-Earth ... - Astrobiology News

The Powerful Legacy of Homer A. Neal | U-M LSA U-M College of LSA – University of Michigan

The University of Michigans mission is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving, and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.

Completely embodying that mission is a tall order, but the late professor emeritus Homer A. Neal, a groundbreaker in the field of physics and champion of the undergraduate experience, was able to do it despite the unique obstacles he faced. In honor of Neals contributions to science, education, and leadership at U-M, the new portion of Randall Laboratory, a portion he oversaw the planning and construction of in 1995 as U-Ms vice president for research, has been named the Homer A. Neal Laboratory.

The naming was celebrated April 14 at a dedication event where tours of the laboratory were given and students, faculty, staff, and family members paid tribute to the higher education leader.

As Physics Department chair, Homer led an intellectual revitalization of our department that added to our historical strength in high-energy physics, and featured expansions in atomic, molecular, and optical physics, condensed matter physics, and our first hires in astrophysics and cosmology, said David Gerdes, current chair of the Department of Physics.

A pioneer in diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia, Neal hired the departments first three female faculty members and led the first comprehensive national report of undergraduate STEM education as a member of the National Science Board, resulting in the creation of the National Science Foundations Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program. The program continues to provide summer research opportunities to hundreds of students each year.

The word underrepresented is typically associated with gender and race. It isnt always associated with intelligent people who just have a lack of confidence in achieving their dreams, said his son, Homer Neal Jr. My dad was brilliant in science and technology, but also very human. He took time with people. If he was not who he was, my sister and I would have suffered with a lot of self-doubt growing up.

He shared that behind his father was Donna Jean Neal, who supported her husband for more than 58 years. Had she not been the kind of extraordinary woman she was, the younger Neal said, Homer Neal Sr. would not have been able to achieve all that he did.

The time and energy Neal expended to see others succeed, emotionally and professionally, showed how caring of a person he was. Those who knew him could tell he was that kind of person immediately upon meeting him.

I met Homer when he came to the university as our new chairperson in the 1990s and invited the department to his house for a welcoming event, said Shawn McKee, a senior research scientist in the Physics Department. I was impressed with how nice he was. Very down-to-earth. One thing that struck me about him was his quiet, unassuming presence. He was not shy, but he was very modest and polite in all his interactions, even though he was in multiple distinguished roles.

Gerdes shared a similar sentiment about Neal as he recalled his first interaction with him in 1998.

I was a new assistant professor. Homers office was around the corner from mine on the third floor of West Hall I did not know Homer well then, but I knew he was very senior and very important.

After encountering Neal coming down the hallway, Gerdes averted his gaze to the carpet spread out in front of the double doors he was approaching. Neal looked down and asked, I have noticed that this carpet is always wrinkled up. Why do you think that is?

Gerdes panicked, thinking he was being given an oral preliminary exam.

I stammered something about people slowing down to open the doors and dumping their linear momentum into the carpet. Homer reflected on this for a moment, brightened, and to my everlasting relief said, I think that is exactly right! Gerdes shared.

In the 25 years I worked with Homer, he was always looking out for those who worked with him. He would always stop by and ask how things were going, what challenges people were facing, and what they wanted for their future, said McKee. It did not matter if you were an undergraduate student, staff member, technician, graduate student, or janitor. Homer was genuinely interested in others wellbeing.

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The Powerful Legacy of Homer A. Neal | U-M LSA U-M College of LSA - University of Michigan

Metal-poor stars more likely to have planets with alien life – study – The Jerusalem Post

Stars rich in metals needed for the creation of planets and ultimately life may actually, and somewhat ironically, be less suitable for hosting alien life compared to metal-poor stars, a new study has found.

The findings of this study were published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Nature Communications.

These findings go against common preconceptions in astrophysics since metal-poor stars blast far more intense ultraviolet radiation.

As a result, the findings can point scientists in a new direction when looking for extraterrestrial life.

The first thing to note about metals in this study is that in astrophysics, the word "metal" does not exclusively refer to the different elements classified as metals on the periodic table. Rather, "metal" is a label that can be used to describe literally any element heavier than hydrogen and helium. In addition, and this is by no means a coincidence, hydrogen and helium are the two lightest elements.

The reason for this classification is because of the sheer abundance of hydrogen and helium compared to everything else. But in addition, it also is due to the fact that the heavier elements are also more complex than hydrogen and helium.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk stars.

At first glance, stars seem to be just big balls of flaming gas and light. While this is technically true, there is far more inside it than just gas. The star works to process its materials to create new complex elements.

The planets that form around these stars are formed due to the massive rings of dust and minerals formed, accreting into each other to eventually form worlds.

One might think being rich in metals is crucial to the planet-forming process, and that would be the issue at the heart of the study, but that actually isn't the issue here.

The real issue is ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This type of radiation can be very powerful and damaging. In some ways, this makes sense it has long been hypothesized that intense UV radiation exposure on a young planet may very well be essential for life to start forming.

However, it can also be so strong that it would essentially kill any life on the planet.

Consider, for a moment, our own sun. The amount of UV radiation the Sun emits is far greater than what living beings should be able to withstand, meaning that in theory, life on Earth is completely impossible.

Of course, it has happened, so why and how?

This is where the atmosphere comes into play. Earth's atmosphere rich in oxygen absorbs most of the UV radiation.

Interestingly, low UV radiation from a star can lead to a planet having low ozone levels, which in turn means low UV radiation protection.

So how does this involve metals?

A star's metallicity impacts the level of UV radiation it emits. As a general rule, the more metal-rich a star is, the less UV radiation it emits.

Does the level of metallicity impact UV radiation as well as UV shielding?

This is what the study sought to find out.

To do this, the research team, led by Anna Shapiro, ran a simulation with a bunch of hypothetical Earth-like planets, each within the habitable zones of their own stars. These stars ranged in terms of metallicity, some being metal-rich and others being metal-poor.

The question was not which stars emitted more UV radiation, but rather which planets were better shielded from UV radiation.

The result was that, surprisingly, it was the planets around metal-poor stars. This is because while the metal-rich stars emit less UV radiation, their planets end up with weaker shielding.

The major result of this study is that is now an even more narrow range of stars to look at for finding alien life. With this newfound information, it may be possible to better limit the parameters of further research to specifically detect worlds that could host such life on their surface.

This is important for the upcoming PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations (PLATO) of stars space telescope, which has the main objective of finding Earth-like planets.

It should be noted though, that not all scientists agree with the central premise of this entire study: That life can only exist in the conditions humanity itself requires.

According to Peter Worden, executive director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, there is no reason to assume that life can't or doesn't exist in environments that drastically differ from that of Earth's surrounding our Sun.

"Many experts believe life can and does exist under ice crusts in our own outer solar system. Some measurements suggest life exists in the hostile upper atmosphere of Venus," Worden explained to The Jerusalem Post back in 2022.

"The truth is we dont know much about how life forms or where it can develop."

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Metal-poor stars more likely to have planets with alien life - study - The Jerusalem Post

Could this copycat black hole be a new type of star? – EurekAlert

image:Movie clip showing the gravitational lensing effects caused by no object in an observers line of sight, a black hole, and the topological soliton. view more

Credit: CREDIT: Pierre Heidmann/Johns Hopkins University.

It looks like a black hole and bends light like a black hole, but it could actually be a new type of star.

Though the mysterious object is a hypothetical mathematical construction, new simulations by Johns Hopkins researchers suggest there could be other celestial bodiesin space hiding from even the best telescopes on Earth. The findings are set to publish inPhysical Review D.

We were very surprised, said Pierre Heidmann, a Johns Hopkins University physicist who led the study. The object looks identical to a black hole, but theres light coming out from its dark spot.

The detection of gravitational waves in 2015 rocked the world of astrophysics because it confirmed the existence of black holes. Inspired by those findings, the Johns Hopkins team set out to explore the possibility of other objects that could produce similar gravitational effects but that could be passing as black holes when observed with ultraprecise sensors on Earth, said co-author and Johns Hopkins physicistIbrahima Bah.

How would you tell when you don't have a black hole? We don't have a good way to test that, Bah said. Studying hypothetical objects like topological solitons will help us figure that out as well.

The new simulations realistically depict an object the Johns Hopkins team calls a topological soliton. The simulations show an object looking like a blurry photo of a black hole from afar but like something else entirely up close.

The object is hypothetical at this stage. But the fact that the team could construct it using mathematical equations and show what it looks like with simulations suggests there could be other types of celestial bodies in space hiding from even the best telescopes on Earth.

The findings show how the topological soliton distorts space exactly as a black hole doesbut behaves unlike a black hole as it scrambles and releases weak light rays that would not escape the strong gravitational force of a true hole.

Light is strongly bent, but instead of being absorbed like it would in a black hole, it scatters in funky motions until at one point it comes back to you in a chaotic manner, Heidmann said. You dont see a dark spot. You see a lot of blur, which means light is orbiting like crazy around this weird object.

A black holes gravitational field is so intense that light can orbit around it at a certain distance from its center, in the same way that Earth orbits the sun. This distance determines the edge of the holes shadow, so that any incoming light will fatally hit the region that scientists call the event horizon. There, nothing can escapenot even light.

The Hopkins team simulated several scenarios using pictures of outer space as if they had been captured with a camera, placing a black hole and the topological soliton in front of the lens. The results produced distorted pictures because of the gravitational effects of the massive bodies.

These are the first simulations of astrophysically relevant string theory objects, since we can actually characterize the differences between a topological soliton and a black hole as if an observer was seeing them in the sky, Heidmann said.

Motivated by various results from string theory, Bah and Heidmann discovered ways to construct topological solitons using Einsteins theory of general relativity in 2021. While the solitons are not predictions of new objects, they serve as the best models of what new quantum gravity objects could look like compared to black holes.

Scientistshave previously created models of boson stars, gravastars, and other hypothetical objects that could exert similar gravitational effects with exotic forms of matter. But the new research accounts for pillar theories of the inner workings of the universe that other models dont. It uses string theory that reconciles quantum mechanics and Einsteins theory of gravity, the researchers said.

Its the start of a wonderful research program, Bah said. We hope in the future to be able to genuinely propose new types of ultracompact stars consisting of new kinds of matter from quantum gravity.

The team includes Johns Hopkins physicist Emanuele Berti. Thetopological soliton in the simulations was first constructed in research published in 2022 by Bahs group.

Physical Review D

Computational simulation/modeling

Not applicable

Imaging topological solitons: The microstructure behind the shadow

25-Apr-2023

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Could this copycat black hole be a new type of star? - EurekAlert

India joins global effort to detect gravitational waves with new LIGO … – Interesting Engineering

The Indian Union cabinet penned an estimated $335 million (Rs 2,600 crore) deal on the 6th of April 2023, which will see the establishment of an advanced gravitational wave detector in India.

The project, in collaboration with the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) laboratory in the United States and three premier Indian research institutions- the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, the Institute for Plasma Research, and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics- is expected to complete construction by 2030.

Jitendra Singh, Union minister for space and technology, stated that 174 acres of land had been acquired in the Hingoli district, Maharashtra for the observatory- a third of its kind and the first outside the US.

Indian S&T will leap-frog in a number of cutting-edge frontiers of great national relevance, in particular quantum-sensing and metrology, said Tarun Souradeep, director of the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, and former spokesperson of LIGO-India to The Hindu.

An aerial photo of Virgo detector

Gravitational waves are considered to be ripples in the fabric of spacetime. These are emitted by astronomical objects such as black holes and neutron stars.

Although first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, the first indirect evidence of gravitational waves would not be recorded until 1974, when orbital decay of the HulseTaylor binary pulsar was observed.

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India joins global effort to detect gravitational waves with new LIGO ... - Interesting Engineering

UTSA astrophysicist leads international team in discovery of new … – EurekAlert

image:An international research team led by UTSA Associate Professor of Astrophysics Thayne Currie has made a breakthrough in accelerating the search for new planets. In a paper slated for publication April 14 in Science, Currie reports the first exoplanet jointly discovered through direct imaging and precision astrometry, a new indirect method that identifies a planet by measuring the position of the star it orbits. Data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawai`i and space telescopes from the European Space Agency (ESA) were integral to the teams discovery. view more

Credit: The University of Texas at San Antonio

(SAN ANTONIO) April 13, 2023 - An international research team led by UTSA Associate Professor of Astrophysics Thayne Currie has made a breakthrough in accelerating the search for new planets.

In a paper slated for publication April 14 in Science, Currie reports the first exoplanet jointly discovered through direct imaging and precision astrometry, a new indirect method that identifies a planet by measuring the position of the star it orbits. Data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawai`i and space telescopes from the European Space Agency (ESA) were integral to the teams discovery.

An exoplanetalso called an extrasolar planetis a planet outside a solar system that orbits another star. With direct imaging, astronomers can see an exoplanets light in a telescope and study its atmosphere. However, only about 20 have been directly imaged over the past 15 years.

By contrast, indirect planet detection methods determine a planets existence through its effect on the star it orbits. This approach can provide detailed measurements of the planets mass and orbit.

Combining direct and indirect methods to examine a planet's position provides a more complete understanding of an exoplanet, Current says.

Indirect planet detection methods are responsible for most exoplanet discoveries thus far. Using one of these methods, precision astrometry, told us where to look to try to image planets. And, as we found out, we can now see planets a lot easier, said Currie.

The newly discovered exoplanet, called HIP 99770 b, is about 14 to 16 times the mass of Jupiter and orbits a star that is nearly twice as massive as the Sun. The planetary system also shares similarities with the outer regions of our solar system. HIP 99770 b receives about as much light as Jupiter, our solar systems most massive planet, receives from the Sun. Its host star is surrounded by icy debris left over from planet formation, similar to our solar systems Kuiper belt, the ring of icy objects observed around the Sun.

Currie and team used the Hipparcos-Gaia Catalogue of Accelerations to advance their discovery of HIP 99770 b. The catalogue consists of data from ESAs Gaia mission and Hipparcos, Gaias predecessor, providing a 25-year record of accurate star positions and motions. It revealed that the star HIP 99770 is likely being accelerated by the gravitational pull of an unseen planet.

The team then used the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) instrument, which is permanently installed at the focus of the Subaru Telescope in Hawai`i, to image and confirm the existence of HIP 99770 b.

The discovery of HIP 99770 b is significant, because it opens a new avenue for scientists to discover and characterize exoplanets more comprehensively than ever before, Currie said, shedding light on the diversity and evolution of planetary systems. Using indirect methods to guide efforts to image planets may also someday lead scientists closer to the first images of other Earths.

This is the first of many discoveries that we expect to have. We are in a new era of studying extrasolar planets, Currie said.

Direct Imaging and Astrometric Detection of a Gas Giant Planet Orbiting an Accelerating Star

14-Apr-2023

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UTSA astrophysicist leads international team in discovery of new ... - EurekAlert

ETH Zurich’s LIFE space mission aims to detect life on exoplanets – Science Business

With a constellation of five satellites, the international LIFE initiative led by ETH Zurich hopes to one day detect traces of life on exoplanets. A laboratory experiment in the Department of Physics is now set to demonstrate the planned measurement method.

Its an important step on a very long road, says Adrian Glauser, a senior scientist at the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics at ETH Zurich. In late March, he and Sascha Quanz, a professor of astrophysics at ETH Zurich and head of the Exoplanets and Habitability Group, learned that the Swiss government will contribute nearly three million euros to support the NICE project as part of PRODEX (PROgramme de Dveloppement dEXpriences scientifiques), a European Space Agency (ESA) programme. This funding will enable ETH researchers to develop important technological foundations that are indispensable to realising the ambitious LIFE space mission.

The hunt for traces of life

The LIFE (Large Interferometer for Exoplanets) initiative is aimed at undertaking a more detailed study of Earth-like exoplanets planets that are similar to Earth in size and temperature but orbit other stars. It will focus particularly on planetary systems within a distance of up to 65 light years from our solar system. The plan is to position five smaller satellites at L2, the Lagrange point that is home to the James Webb Space Telescope. Together, these satellites will form a large telescope that will act as an interferometer to pick up the exoplanets infrared thermal radiation. The spectrum of the light can then be used to deduce the composition of those exoplanets and their atmospheres. Our goal is to detect chemical compounds in the light spectrum that hint at life on these exoplanets. Earths atmosphere, for example, contains oxygen and methane produced by biological activity, explains Quanz, who leads the LIFE initiative.

Its an important step on a very long road, says Adrian Glauser, a senior scientist at the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics at ETH Zurich. In late March, he and Sascha Quanz, a professor of astrophysics at ETH Zurich and head of the Exoplanets and Habitability Group, learned that the Swiss government will contribute nearly three million euros to support the NICE project as part of PRODEX (PROgramme de Dveloppement dEXpriences scientifiques), a European Space Agency (ESA) programme. This funding will enable ETH researchers to develop important technological foundations that are indispensable to realising the ambitious LIFE space mission.

The hunt for traces of life

The LIFE (Large Interferometer for Exoplanets) initiative is aimed at undertaking a more detailed study of Earth-like exoplanets planets that are similar to Earth in size and temperature but orbit other stars. It will focus particularly on planetary systems within a distance of up to 65 light years from our solar system. The plan is to position five smaller satellites at L2, the Lagrange point that is home to the James Webb Space Telescope. Together, these satellites will form a large telescope that will act as an interferometer to pick up the exoplanets infrared thermal radiation. The spectrum of the light can then be used to deduce the composition of those exoplanets and their atmospheres. Our goal is to detect chemical compounds in the light spectrum that hint at life on these exoplanets. Earths atmosphere, for example, contains oxygen and methane produced by biological activity, explains Quanz, who leads the LIFE initiative.

This article was first published on 14 April by ETH Zurich.

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ETH Zurich's LIFE space mission aims to detect life on exoplanets - Science Business

Understanding our place in the universe | MIT News | Massachusetts … – MIT News

Brian Nord first fell in love with physics when he was a teenager growing up in Wisconsin. His high school physics program wasnt exceptional, and he sometimes struggled to keep up with class material, but those difficulties did nothing to dampen his interest in the subject. In addition to the main curriculum, students were encouraged to independently study topics they found interesting, and Nord quickly developed a fascination with the cosmos. A touchstone that I often come back to is space, he says. The mystery of traveling in it and seeing whats at the edge.

Nord was an avid reader of comic books, and astrophysics appealed to his desire to become a part of something bigger. There always seemed to be something special about having this kinship with the universe around you, he recalls. I always thought it would be cool if I could have that deep connection to physics.

Nord began to cultivate that connection as an undergraduate at The Johns Hopkins University. After graduating with a BA in physics, he went on to study at the University of Michigan, where he earned an MS and PhD in the same field. By this point, he was already thinking big, but he wanted to think even bigger. This desire for a more comprehensive understanding of the universe led him away from astrophysics and toward the more expansive field of cosmology. Cosmology deals with the whole kit and caboodle, the whole shebang, he explains. Our biggest questions are about the origin and the fate of the universe.

Dark mysteries

Nord was particularly interested in parts of the universe that cant be observed through traditional means. Evidence suggests that dark matter makes up the majority of mass in the universe and provides most of its gravity, but its nature largely remains in the realm of hypothesis and speculation. It doesnt absorb, reflect, or emit any type of electromagnetic radiation, which makes it nearly impossible for scientists to detect. But while dark matter provides gravity to pull the universe together, an equally mysterious force dark energy is pulling it apart. We know even less about dark energy than we do about dark matter, Nord explains.

For the past 15 years, Nord has been attempting to close that gap in our knowledge. Part of his work focuses on the statistical modeling of galaxy clusters and their ability to distort and magnify light as it travels through the cosmos. This effect, which is known as strong gravitational lensing, is a useful tool for detecting the influence of dark matter on gravity and for measuring how dark energy affects the expansion rate of the universe.

After earning his PhD, Nord remained at the University of Michigan to continue his research as part of a postdoctoral fellowship. He currently holds a position at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and is a senior member of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago. He continues to investigate questions about the origin and destiny of the universe, but his more recent work has also focused on improving the ways in which we make scientific discoveries.

AI powerup

When it comes to addressing big questions about the nature of the cosmos, Nord has consistently run into one major problem: although his mastery of physics can sometimes make him feel like a superhero, hes only human, and humans arent perfect. They make mistakes, adapt slowly to new information, and take a long time to get things done.

The solution, Nord argues, is to go beyond the human, into the realm of algorithms and models. As part of Fermilabs Artificial Intelligence Project, he spends his days teaching machines how to analyze cosmological data, a task for which they are better suited than most human scientists. Artificial intelligence can give us models that are more flexible than what we can create ourselves with pen and paper, Nord explains. In a lot of cases, it does better than humans do.

Nord is continuing this research at MIT as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Visiting Scholars and Professors Program. Earlier this year, he joined the Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS), with Jesse Thaler in the Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP) as his faculty host. Thaler is the director of the National Science Foundations Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI). Since arriving on campus, Nord has focused his efforts on exploring the potential of AI to design new scientific experiments and instruments. These processes ordinarily take an enormous amount of time, he explains, but AI could rapidly accelerate them. Could we design the next particle collider or the next telescope in less than five years, instead of 30? he wonders.

But if Nord has learned anything from the comics of his youth, it is that with great power comes great responsibility. AI is an incredible scientific asset, but it can also be used for more nefarious purposes. The same computer algorithms that could build the next particle collider also underlie things like facial recognition software and the risk assessment tools that inform sentencing decisions in criminal court. Many of these algorithms are deeply biased against people of color. Its a double-edged sword, Nord explains. Because if [AI] works better for science, it works better for facial recognition. So, Im working against myself.

Culture change superpowers

In recent years, Nord has attempted to develop methods to make the application of AI more ethical, and his work has focused on the broad intersections between ethics, justice, and scientific discovery. His efforts to combat racism in STEM have established him as a leader in the movement to address inequities and oppression in academic and research environments. In June of 2020, he collaborated with members of Particles for Justice a group that boasts MIT professors Daniel Harlow and Tracy Slatyer, as well as former MLK Visiting Scholar and CTP researcher Chanda Prescod-Weinstein to create the academic Strike for Black Lives. The strike, which emerged as a response to the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others, called on the academic community to take a stand against anti-Black racism.

Nord is also the co-author of Black Light, a curriculum for learning about Black experiences, and the co-founder of Change Now, which produced a list of calls for action to make a more just laboratory environment at Fermilab. As the co-founder of Deep Skies, he also strives to foster justice-oriented research communities free of traditional hierarchies and oppressive power structures. The basic idea is just humanity over productivity, he explains.

This work has led Nord to reconsider what motivated him to pursue a career in physics in the first place. When he first discovered his passion for the subject as a teenager, he knew he wanted to use physics to help people, but he wasnt sure how. I was thinking Id make some technology that will save lives, and I still hope to do that, he says. But I think maybe more of my direct impact, at least in this stage of my career, is in trying to change the culture.

Physics may not have granted Nord flight or X-ray vision not yet, at least. But over the course of his long career, he has discovered a more substantial power. If I can understand the universe, he says, maybe that will help me understand myself and my place in the world and our place as humanity.

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Understanding our place in the universe | MIT News | Massachusetts ... - MIT News

Earth Was Shaped By Primordial Hydrogen Atmospheres … – Astrobiology News

The sequence of events leading to formation of water, light elements in metal, and increases in oxygen fugacity for Earths progenitor embryos in this work. Stage 1 is the embryo where surface temperatures are too high to retain primary atmospheres of hydrogen. Stage 2 is the initial condition for our calculations in which the molten embryos accrete and retain primary atmospheres of H2. Metalsilicate differentiation may have already begun at this stage. Stage 3 is the result of chemical equilibration of the silicate and metal melts with the evolved atmospheres. Annotations show the changes in oxygen fugacity and metal density deficits. Reactions shown are simplifications of the full set, for illustration purposes. Two or more such embryos combine to form the final Earth. astro-ph.EP

Earths water, intrinsic oxidation state, and metal core density are fundamental chemical features of our planet. Studies of exoplanets provide a useful context for elucidating the source of these chemical traits. Planet formation and evolution models demonstrate that rocky exoplanets commonly formed with hydrogen-rich envelopes that were lost over time.

These findings suggest that Earth may also have formed from bodies with H2-rich primary atmospheres. Here we use a self-consistent thermodynamic model to show that Earths water, core density, and overall oxidation state can all be sourced to equilibrium between H2-rich primary atmospheres and underlying magma oceans in its progenitor planetary embryos.

Water is produced from dry starting materials resembling enstatite chondrites as oxygen from magma oceans reacts with hydrogen. Hydrogen derived from the atmosphere enters the magma ocean and eventually the metal core at equilibrium, causing metal density deficits matching that of Earth.

Oxidation of the silicate rocks from solar-like to Earth-like oxygen fugacities also ensues as Si, along with H and O, alloys with Fe in the cores. Reaction with hydrogen atmospheres and metal-silicate equilibrium thus provides a simple explanation for fundamental features of Earths geochemistry that is consistent with rocky planet formation across the galaxy.

Edward D. Young, Anat Shahar, Hilke E. Schlichting

Comments: 3 main figures, 5 auxiliary figuresSubjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)Cite as: arXiv:2304.07845 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2304.07845v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)Journal reference: Nature, v. 616 (7956), 306-311 (2023)Related DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05823-0Focus to learn moreSubmission historyFrom: Edward Young[v1] Sun, 16 Apr 2023 17:56:53 UTC (36,069 KB)https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.07845Astrobiology

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Earth Was Shaped By Primordial Hydrogen Atmospheres ... - Astrobiology News

TOI-733 b – A Planet In The Small-planet Radius Valley Orbiting A … – Astrobiology News

RV (top panel) and FWHM (bottom panel) time-series. The purple markers in each panel represent the HARPS RV and FWHM measurements with inferred offsets extracted. The inferred multi-GP model is shown as a solid black curve, where the dark and light shaded areas show the 1- and 2- sigma credible intervals from said model, and can also explain the data but with a correspondingly lower probability. The solid red line in the top panel shows the star-only model, while the teal sine curve the Keplerian for TOI-733 b. In both panels the nominal error bars are in solid purple, and the jitter error bars (HARPS) are semi-transparent purple. astro-ph.EP

We report the discovery of a hot (Teq 1055 K) planet in the small planet radius valley transiting the Sun-like star TOI-733, as part of the KESPRINT follow-up program of TESS planets carried out with the HARPS spectrograph. TESS photometry from sectors 9 and 36 yields an orbital period of Porb = 4.884765+1.9e52.4e5 days and a radius of Rp = 1.992+0.0850.090 R.

Multi-dimensional Gaussian process modelling of the radial velocity measurements from HARPS and activity indicators, gives a semi-amplitude of K = 2.230.26 m s1, translating into a planet mass of Mp = 5.72+0.700.68 M. These parameters imply that the planet is of moderate density (p = 3.98+0.770.66 g cm3) and place it in the transition region between rocky and volatile-rich planets with H/He-dominated envelopes on the mass-radius diagram.

Combining these with stellar parameters and abundances, we calculate planet interior and atmosphere models, which in turn suggest that TOI-733 b has a volatile-enriched, most likely secondary outer envelope, and may represent a highly irradiated ocean world one of only a few such planets around G-type stars that are well-characterised.

Iskra Y. Georgieva, Carina M. Persson, Elisa Goffo, Lorena Acua, Artyom Aguichine, Luisa M. Serrano, Kristine W. F. Lam, Davide Gandolfi, Karen A. Collins, Steven B. Howell, Fei Dai, Malcolm Fridlund, Judith Korth, Magali Deleuil, Oscar Barragn, William D. Cochran, Szilrd Csizmadia, Hans J. Deeg, Eike Guenther, Artie P. Hatzes, Jon M. Jenkins, John Livingston, Rafael Luque, Olivier Mousis, Hannah L. M. Osborne, Enric Palle, Seth Redfield, Vincent Van Eylen, Joseph D. Twicken, Joshua N. Winn, Ahlam Alqasim, Kevin I. Collins, Crystal L. Gnilka, David W. Latham, Hannah M. Lewis, Howard M. Relles, George R. Ricker, Pamela Rowden, Sara Seager, Avi Shporer, Thiam-Guan Tan, Andrew Vanderburg, Roland Vanderspek

Comments: Accepted for publication in A&ASubjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)Cite as: arXiv:2304.06655 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2304.06655v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)Submission historyFrom: Iskra Georgieva[v1] Thu, 13 Apr 2023 16:35:36 UTC (3,171 KB)https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.06655Astrobiology

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Could a Rogue Planet Destroy the Earth? – Newsweek

The vast universe is filled with strange and mysterious phenomena, from quasars and black holes to the Botes void. One bizarre element in space is rogue planets, worlds just like our own, untethered by a star, wandering free and alone through the abyss.

Could one of these lonely planets find its way to our own solar system or even collide with the Earth?

Rouge planets, also known as free-floating planets, are thought to be a result of gravitational interactions in the early days of the formation of solar systems. Or they could be a result of the failed formation of stars.

"Modern theories of planetary system formation suggest that many planets are formed around young stars when they are in the short-lived phase of growing their planetary systems. But many of these are ejected due to gravitational scattering as the planetary systems organize themselves over time," Michael Zemcov, an associate professor of physics at the Rochester Institute of Technology, told Newsweek.

As a solar system forms, numerous chunks of rock of varying sizes and speeds whirl around each other in chaotic orbits. As these bodies soar past each other, they alter the orbits of other bodies as a result of their gravity.

"In typical three-body interactions characteristic of these ejection events, it is usually the lowest-mass object that gets ejected," Zemcov said. "So I think a generic prediction of these 'clearing out' episodes during planetary system formation is that the heavier objectswhether rocky or, more likely, ice or gas giantssurvive and the smaller ones don't."

Rogue planets may also come from another source, which is a star that failed to ignite and instead became stuck as a lone gas giant.

"They might form out of gas clouds in space, in the same way stars do, or they may have formed in a disc around a star and then been ejected due to an encounter with another star or an interaction with another planet in the same system," Richard Parker, a lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told Newsweek.

"In the former case, they are likely to be predominantly gas giants like Jupiter. In the latter case, they could be rocky like Earth," he said.

Scientists aren't sure how many rogue planets are in our Milky Way galaxy since they are extremely hard to observe.

"[There are] likely many billions, or more, but they are ferociously hard to see," Zemcov said. "They would emit very little light on their own, mostly at very long wavelengths that are extremely difficult to pick out of the background emission. As a result, our primary way of detecting them is via gravitational microlensing, where we monitor a field of stars and then look for the light of a background source being temporarily magnified by the mass of a rogue planet as it passes precisely between our telescopes and the background star.

He continued: "We have found many objects this way, but without other information the lensing objects are impossible to weigh. So we don't have a good idea of demographics except in the general sense that larger things should be easier to see just because their temporary magnification is brighter and longer."

While we don't have a true idea of the number of rogue planets, scientists expect it is large.

"We expect a really big population," Alberto Fairn, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist at Cornell University, told Newsweek. "Think this way: The smallest the object in our galaxy, the larger the number of them we expect."

According to Dorian Abbot, a geophysical sciences professor at the University of Chicago, it is likely that most rogue planets are terrestrial because there are probably more terrestrial planets in general.

"It's easier to throw them out through an interaction with a gas giant because they are less massive. But gas giants can be ejected too. The Hot Jupiters detected in [around] 1 percent of systems suggest major dynamical evolution of those systems since Jupiters have to form where it is cold. This dynamical evolution could be associated with generating rogue planets," Abbot told Newsweek.

With all these invisible planets zipping around the galaxy, could one enter our solar system or even collide with the Earth?

"Assuming that there is a rogue planet for every star in the Milky Way, and we assume the solar system will be in a similar region of the galaxy over its lifetime, then I would estimate that the likelihood of a rogue planet coming within the solar system over the next 1,000 years to be a 1 in a billion chance," Garrett Brown, a celestial mechanics and computational physics researcher at the University of Toronto, told Newsweek.

"Here, I define 'coming within the solar system' to mean that we could see the rogue planet in such a way that when we look at it with a telescope it would look like Neptune or Pluto," Brown said. "For a rogue planet that were to come at least this close, there would be a 1 in 2,000 chance that it would directly alter Earth's orbit."

He continued: "It's difficult to say how likely it would be to actually collide with Earth without a more detailed analysis, but it would be much, much less likely. Thus, I would estimate the likelihood of a rogue planet coming closer to the Earth than Mars or Venus to be 1 in 2 trillion in the next 1,000 years. If there is one heading our way within the next 1,000 years, it would currently be about 0.2 light-years away."

Even if a rogue planet came close to the Earth, the interaction may not even destroy the planet if there wasn't a direct hit.

"It would need to come close enough to Earth to either collide with it or, a bit less unlikely, alter its orbit. If it does collide, this would be at high speed and likely destroy Earth, if it is comparable in mass and density to Earth," Jacco van Loon, an astrophysicist at Keele University, told Newsweek.

"A planet like Jupiter might even swallow Earth. Or Earth might come out the other way if it is a grazing encounter, but probably without its atmosphere," he said.

Rather than destroying the Earth, a passing rogue planet could even bump our planet out of orbit and cause it to become a rogue planet itself.

"I would say the more scary thing, rather than a direct collision, is having the Earth be scattered by a brief encounter by, say, an exo-Neptune passing through, which would move us to a different orbit or perhaps eject us from the solar system altogether," Zemcov said. "Then we would likely all freeze, or possibly cook, in a matter of weeks. That said, I am not losing any sleep over such a possibility."

It's very unlikely that interactions of the planets already in our solar system could suddenly boot Earth out into the abyss, thanks to our planet's orbits having had billions of years to settle into an equilibrium.

"One open and extremely good question is why our own solar system has been stable over 4.5 billion years," Zemcov said. "In many ways, it shouldn't be. As an example, some models for planet formation suggest that Jupiter was formed much closer in and then somehow migrated out to where it is today, likely by exchanging momentum with something that got ejected from our solar system."

He continued: "How we might retain the four rocky planets in the inner solar system in such a scenario is a complete mystery. And then we look around our solar system and see evidence for massive disruptionsfor example, Uranus rotating on its side. And it's clear that over astronomical time scales the details of these [solar systems] are not terribly robust."

One possibility is that there were once more planets in our early solar system but one was ejected as a rogue planet, leaving the solar system to never return.

"What's possible is that our sun would have ejected a rogue billions of years ago, when Jupiter and Saturn traveled from their original inner orbits to their actual positions. That's a scenario we cannot discard but we cannot confirm either," Fairn said.

Could a planet be ejected after life has evolved on its surface, or could life evolve after the planet left its star?

"Another much more interesting, to me, possible feature of rogue planets [is] the possibility that they can host life," Lorenzo Iorio, an astronomy and astrophysics professor at the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research, told Newsweek.

Even without a star, life could be sustained under certain conditions. According to the Planetary Society, if a rogue planet had a large moon that orbited at close quarters, it could keep the center of the planet hot enough so that life could exist in volcanic vent environments.

So, while a rogue planet's collision would likely spell the end of life on Earth, such planets may be capable of hosting their own unique ecosystems.

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about rogue planets? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.

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Could a Rogue Planet Destroy the Earth? - Newsweek

Does the sun really belong in its family? Astronomers get to the … – Space.com

The sun is having an identity crisis: Because it shows different magnetic activity and rotation rates than other stars in its current classification, scientists have debated whether the sun is really like the other stars in its family.

Now, the debate may finally be settled, as an investigation has found that the sun does indeed belong in this group.

The research was led by ngela Santos, a scientist at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, whose work focuses primarily on how solar and stellar rotation and stellar magnetic activity change as stars evolve. She explained the controversy over the sun's classification.

Related: Our sun is a weirdly 'quiet' star and that's lucky for all of us

"In the community, there is an ongoing debate on whether the sun is a 'sun-like' star," Santos said in a statement (opens in new tab). "In particular, about its magnetic activity; several studies suggested that stars similar to the sun were significantly more active. However, the problem doesn't seem to be with the sun, but with the stars classified as sun-like, because there are several limitations and biases in the observational data and the inferred stellar properties."

To investigate the question of whether the sun is truly a sun-like star, Santos and the team turned to data from NASA's now-retired Kepler space telescope, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia mission, and the NASA-ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

They focused on multiple stars that have similar stellar properties and magnetic activity to the sun and compared the data with observations of the sun's last two 11-year solar cycles collected by SOHO, which launched in 1995.

One star featured in the data, which is nicknamed "Doris" and officially designated KIC 8006161, is a blue star of a similar size and mass to the sun. The researchers had previously noted that the amplitude of Doris' stellar cycle was twice that of the last two solar cycles, indicating that Doris became twice as strong as our star, even though the two stars were similar in many ways.

The difference was caused by a disparity in the proportions of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium that make up the two stars' compositions. Astronomers call elements heavier than helium "metals," and they refer to the proportion of these elements as the "metallicity" of the star. Doris has a higher metallicity than the sun, and the researchers linked this difference to stronger activity.

"The difference was the metallicity," Santos said. "Our interpretation is that the effect of metallicity, which leads to a deeper convection zone, produces a more effective dynamo, which leads to a stronger activity cycle."

The researchers then went back and disregarded metallicity to select stars from their catalogs that demonstrated similar behavior to Doris. They found that most of these stars also had high metallicities, though Doris was still the most active of these stars.

"In our selection, the only parameter that could lead to this excess is the rotation period," Santos said. "In particular, Doris had a longer period than the sun. And, in fact, we found evidence of a correlation between the rotation period and metallicity."

In addition, despite being younger than the sun, Doris rotates more slowly. This is typical; astrophysicists think all stars are born spinning and slow down, or "spin down," as they age. This slowdown happens because of a phenomenon called "magnetic braking," in which material is caught by the star's magnetic field and eventually flung into space, carrying some of the sun's angular (rotational) momentum with it.

Doris' stronger magnetic activity is causing more magnetic braking, leading it to spin more slowly than the sun, the researchers explained.

Despite some key differences, however, the sun fits in nicely with a family of stellar objects aptly called sun-like stars, the team concluded.

"What we found is that although there are stars which are more active than the sun, the sun is indeed a completely normal sun-like star," Santos said.

The research was published in the April edition of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (opens in new tab).

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Does the sun really belong in its family? Astronomers get to the ... - Space.com

Kenya’s Third Attempt to Launch First 3U Observation Satellite Delayed – Voice of America – VOA News

Taifa 1, Kenya's first operational 3U nanosatellite, was set to launch aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in the U.S. state of California on Friday after being delayed twice. But the launch was scrubbed at the last minute because of unfavorable weather.

Teddy Warria, with Africa's Talking Limited, a high-tech company, traveled to the University of Nairobi in Kenya from Kisumu, 563 kilometers west of Nairobi. He said he'll stay as long it takes to witness the historic day.

"It shows us through science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and if we apply the lessons learned from STEM, we can go as far as our minds and imagination can take us," Warria said.

Regardless of the delay, Charles Mwangi, the acting director of space sector and technology development at the Kenya Space Agency, said the satellite is quite significant.

"... [I]t's initiating conversations we've not been having in terms of what our role within the space sector should be," Mwangi said. "How do we leverage the potential space to address our societal need. More importantly, how do we catalyze research and activities of developing systems within our region."

FILE - Delegates attend the preparation of the launch of Kenya's first operational 3U Earth observation satellite, the Taifa-1, at the University of Nairobi's Taifa Hall, in Nairobi, Kenya, April 11, 2023.

Mwangi told VOA that launching the satellite will have some major benefits "that will help us in monitoring our forests, doing crop prediction, determine where the yield for our crops, disaster management, planning."

The satellite was developed by nine Kenyan engineers and cost $385,000 to build. The engineers collaborated with Bulgarian aerospace manufacturer Endurosat AD for testing and parts.

Pattern Odhiambo, an electrical and electronics engineer at the Kenyan Space Agency, who worked on the Taifa 1 mission, said, "I took part in deciding what kind of a camera we are supposed to have on this mission, so that we can meet the mission's objectives, which is to take images over the Kenyan territory for agricultural use, for urban planning, monitoring of natural resources and the likes."

And, as the communication subsystem lead, he also had other tasks.

"I took part in the design of the radio frequency link between the satellite and the ground station, the decision-making process on the kind of modulation schemes you can have on the satellite, the kind of transmitter power, the kind of antenna you are supposed to have," he said.

Samuel Nyangi, a University of Nairobi graduate in astronomy and Astro physics, was also at the university to witness his country's history making.

"If you look at the African countries that are economically strong Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt they all have very strong space industries. We are so proud of the Kenya Space Agency, having taken this initiative, because the satellite data that we use [is] from foreign nations, specifically NASA in the United States. For us having our own data, tailoring it to our own needs as Kenyans, it's a very big step," Nyangi said.

This sentiment is echoed by Paul Baki, professor of Physics at the Technical University of Kenya, who participated in a panel discussion on education and research to help answer students' questions. Baki told VOA this is a big leap for Kenya.

"We have walked this journey, I think, for over 20 years when the first draft space policy was done in 1994," Baki said. "We've decided that we are going to walk the talk and build something domestically. It has happened in approximately three years, which to me is no mean feat, and this is quite inspiring to our students because they have something to look up to."

Student James Achesa, who is in his fourth year studying mechanical engineering at Nairobi University, explained his understanding of the Taifa 1 mission.

"It'll help the small-scale farmer, as well as just general people in Kenya to see and understand where our country is going to. So, they might not enjoy the science of putting a spacecraft into space, but the science that does will come and disseminate to them at grassroots levels and will help them plan for their future," Achesa said.

Ivy Kut, who has a bachelor's degree in applied sciences and geoinformatics from the Technical University of Kenya, said, "It's going to benefit Kenyans in that we are going to get our own satellite data with better resolution and that is going to inform a lot of decisions in all sectors, especially in the analysis of earth data."

The next launch attempt is scheduled for Saturday.

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CU to showcase 75 years of innovation and impact at the 38th … – University of Colorado Boulder

Representatives from across the university, including LASP, CU Boulders AeroSpace Ventures initiative, and the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS), are jointly hosting an exhibit booth at this years Space Symposium. Together, they will highlight CUs prominence in aerospace engineering and climate and space-weather research, as well as the crucial role the university plays in developing Colorados aerospace workforce.

This coordinated presence at the Space Symposium is a great example of how leaders and units from across the university system collaborate to highlight CUs extensive aerospace expertise and the many resources our campuses have to offer, said Chris Muldrow, the Smead Director and Department Chief of Staff in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. We are a world leader in aerospace, and our impact is multiplied when we bring the best of CU aerospace to the space ecosystem.

The College of Engineering and Applied Science at UCCS produces highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students with solid technical backgrounds plus crucial experiential learning. The colleges new Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, which launched this fall with a full cohort of students, will leverage the existing expertise in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. This summer, to stand up the program, the college broke ground ona new facility, the Anschutz Engineering Center,slated to open for classes in January 2024, says Sue McClernan, the colleges career and industry outreach program director. Student and workforce demand prompted the new degree, and we believe the Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering at UCCS is well suited for a thriving aerospace economy in Colorado Springs and the region.

AeroSpace Ventures brings together researchers, students, industry leaders, government partners, and entrepreneurs to envision and create the future for space and Earth systems. This initiative is helping to drive the discovery and innovation that will shape the 21stcenturysaerospaceeconomy, says George Hatcher III, executive director of industry and foundation relations at CU Boulder. AeroSpace Ventures brings together CU Boulder departments, institutes, centers, and programsacross the universityto amplify the more than $120 million in aerospace-related research that happens on campus each year.

CU Boulder also hosts the Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center to serve as a catalyst site for space weather research and technology development among CU and other Front Range space research and technology organizations. The campus also hosts the Center for National Security Initiatives. It provides high-impact national security research to government and industry partners and addresses the ever-increasing demand for qualified and experienced aerospace and defense professionals in Colorado and across the nation.

From LASPs humble beginnings 75 years ago, the University of Colorado has developed into an epicenter of space research and aerospace workforce development crucial to Coloradoand our nation.

Founded a decade before NASA, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder is on a mission to transform human understanding of the cosmos by pioneering new technologies and approaches to space science. LASP is the only academic research institute in the world to have sent instruments to every planet in our solar system. LASP began celebrating its 75th anniversary in April 2023.

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CU to showcase 75 years of innovation and impact at the 38th ... - University of Colorado Boulder

NASAs TESS celebrates fifth year scanning th – EurekAlert

Now in its fifth year in space, NASAs TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) remains a rousing success. TESSs cameras have mapped more than 93% of the entire sky, discovered 329 new worlds and thousands more candidates, and provided new insights into a wide array of cosmic phenomena, from stellar pulsations and exploding stars to supermassive black holes.

Using its four cameras, TESS monitors large swaths of the sky called sectors for about a month at a time. Each sector measures 24 by 96 degrees, about as wide as a persons hand at arms length and stretching from the horizon to the zenith. The cameras capture a total of 192 million pixels in each full-frame image. During its primary mission, TESS captured one of these images every 30 minutes, but this torrent of data has increased with time. The cameras now record each sector every 200 seconds.

The volume of high-quality TESS data now available is quite impressive, said Knicole Coln, the missions project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. We have more than 251 terabytes just for one of the main data products, called full-frame images. Thats the equivalent of streaming 167,000 movies in full HD.

TESS extracts parts of each full-frame image to make cutouts around specific cosmic objects more than 467,000 of them at the moment and together they create a detailed record of changing brightness for each one, said Christina Hedges, lead for the TESS General Investigator Office and a research scientist at both the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Goddard. We use these files to produce light curves, a product that graphically shows how a sources brightness alters over time.

To find exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, TESS looks for the telltale dimming of a star caused when an orbiting planet passes in front of it. But stars also change brightness for other reasons: exploding as supernovae, erupting in sudden flares, dark star spots on their rotating surfaces, and even slight changes due to oscillations driven by internal sound waves. The rapid, regular observations from TESS enable more detailed study of these phenomena.

Some stars give TESS a trifecta of brightness-changing behavior. One example is AU Microscopii, thought to be about 25 million years old a rowdy youngster less than 1% the age of our Sun. Spotted regions on AU Mics surface grow and shrink, and the stars rotation carries them into and out of sight. The stormy star also erupts with frequent flares. With all this going on, TESS, with the help of NASAs now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, discovered a planet about four times Earths size orbiting the star every 8.5 days. Then, in 2022, scientists announced that TESS data revealed the presence of another, smaller world, one almost three times Earths size and orbiting every 18.9 days. These discoveries have made the system a touchstone for understanding how stars and planets form and evolve.

Here are a few more of the missions greatest hits:

New discoveries are waiting to be made within the huge volume of data TESS has already captured. This is a library of observations astronomers will explore for years, but theres much more to come.

Were celebrating TESSs fifth anniversary at work and wishing it many happy returns! Coln said.

TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Additional partners include Northrop Grumman, based in Falls Church, Virginia; NASAs Ames Research Center in Californias Silicon Valley; the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts; MITs Lincoln Laboratory; and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. More than a dozen universities, research institutes, and observatories worldwide are participants in the mission.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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NASAs TESS celebrates fifth year scanning th - EurekAlert