Category: 7. Science

In October 2022, space telescopes detected the most powerful gamma ray burst ever recorded. Known as GRB 221009A and dubbed the “BOAT” (Brightest Of All Time), this explosion was so intense it overwhelmed multiple instruments designed to study such events. Now, new observations from this burst are helping us to understand one of the universe’s most mysterious phenomena.

This sequence constructed from Fermi Large Area Telescope data reveals the sky in gamma rays centered on the location of GRB 221009A. (Credit : NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration)

Gamma ray bursts are among the most powerful events in the universe, releasing more energy in seconds than our Sun will produce in its entire 10 billion year lifetime. These brilliant flashes occur when massive stars collapse into black holes or when neutron stars collide. The initial burst lasts only seconds to minutes, followed by an afterglow that gradually fades over hours to months.

Despite their incredible brightness, gamma ray bursts are notoriously difficult to study. They occur in distant galaxies billions of light years away, and their gamma rays weaken significantly during the long journey to Earth. Their brief, unpredictable nature makes catching them in the act extremely challenging.

Swift captured the afterglow of GRB 221009A about an hour after it was first detected. The bright rings form as a result of X-rays scattered from otherwise unobservable dust layers within our galaxy that lie in the direction of the burst. (Credit : NASA/Swift)

When GRB 221009A erupted, it triggered follow up observations worldwide. The ‘Large Sized Telescope’ (LST-1) in La Palma, Spain, began studying the burst just 1.33 days after the initial explosion. Over the following 20 days, researchers collected data that revealed something unexpected.

The team detected an excess of high energy gamma rays from the burst’s afterglow. While this signal wasn’t strong enough to claim a formal detection by scientific standards, it provided valuable clues about the burst’s structure and behaviour. The observations support a more complex picture of how gamma ray bursts work. It’s long been debated whether these explosions produce simple, uniform jets of plasma or more complicated structures. The LST-1 data suggests that GRB 221009A involved a structured jet, essentially a narrow, ultra fast core surrounded by a wider, slower moving shell of material.

The LST-1 pictured at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the Canary island of La Palma.

This challenges the simpler ‘top-hat’ model that many researchers previously used to understand these events. The structured jet model helps explain how particles get accelerated to extreme energies and why we see the specific patterns of radiation that we do.

The LST-1 telescope achieved something remarkable during these observations. It successfully collected data under very bright moonlight conditions, a significant challenge given its extremely sensitive cameras. The full Moon initially prevented other similar telescopes from observing the burst, but technical innovations by the LST team allowed them to continue working despite the bright conditions.

Their new observational technique now opens new possibilities for studying transient events, even when lunar conditions would normally make observations impossible. The success with GRB 221009A marks just the beginning of a new era in high energy astrophysics, where researchers can examine the inner workings of astronomical sources in extraordinary detail.

Source : Brightest gamma-ray burst hints at hidden layers in cosmic jet formation

Space travel takes quite a toll on the human body. Astronauts experience muscle weakness, bone loss, vision changes, and cardiovascular shifts during their time in microgravity. While scientists understand many of the immediate effects of spaceflight, questions have long been asked about whether these changes cause lasting damage, particularly to the heart and blood vessels.

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology provides encouraging answers to the previous concerns. The researcher team followed 13 NASA astronauts for up to five years after their return from the International Space Station, monitoring their cardiovascular health through detailed medical examinations and ultrasound imaging of key arteries.

Boeing crew flight test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, center, pose with Expedition 71 flight engineers Mike Barratt, left, and Tracy Dyson, both NASA astronauts, in their spacesuits aboard the International Space Station’s Quest airlock on June 24, 2024. (Credit : NASA)

The astronauts, ranging from their late 30s to late 50s when they launched, spent between four months and nearly a year aboard the space station. During their missions, they experienced the typical cardiovascular changes associated with microgravity; reduced blood circulation, decreased physical capacity, and the dizziness that many astronauts feel when first returning to Earth’s gravity.

However, the team found that long term results were remarkably positive. They used ultrasound to examine the astronauts’ carotid arteries in the neck and brachial arteries in the arms, key indicators of cardiovascular health. They found no evidence of the arterial thickening or stiffening that typically signals future heart disease risk.

Blood and urine tests revealed that inflammation and oxidative stress markers, which had elevated during spaceflight, returned to normal within just one week of landing. The astronauts’ blood vessels maintained their ability to dilate properly, another crucial sign of cardiovascular health.

The crew of Apollo 11 floats on the ocean after their return from the Moon as Navy divers assist in retrieving them (Credit : NASA)

Perhaps most importantly, none of the astronauts developed any signs, symptoms, or diagnoses of cardiovascular disease during the five year follow up period. When researchers used standard risk assessment tools to calculate the astronauts’ chances of developing heart disease in the next decade, they found only modest increases that were largely attributable to normal ageing rather than spaceflight exposure.

The study did reveal some minor changes over time. Total cholesterol and glucose levels rose moderately over the seven year observation period, but other diabetes markers remained stable.

These findings are particularly significant because the astronauts maintained active lifestyles after their missions, including those who retired from NASA. This suggests that the protective effects aren’t just due to continued rigorous training but reflect genuine cardiovascular resilience.

Astronauts on board ISS and during long duration space missions must undertake significant exercise to maintain health. (Credit : NASA)

The research addresses crucial questions as space agencies plan increasingly ambitious missions, including eventual trips to Mars that could last years rather than months. Understanding how the human body responds to extended spaceflight is essential for ensuring astronaut safety and mission success.

The study concluded that astronauts appear remarkably resilient to the cardiovascular stresses of spaceflight, with their heart and blood vessel systems showing no signs of lasting damage even years after returning to Earth. This represents positive and encouraging news for both current astronauts and the future of human space exploration.

Source : Good news for astronauts: Arteries remain normal years after long-duration spaceflight

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The scientists who precisely measure the position of Earth are in a bit of trouble. Their measurements are essential for the satellites we use for navigation, communication and Earth observation every day.

Defense tech company AeroVironment and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have shown off a wild concept for deploying six helicopters above the surface of Mars to scout for water and possible human landing sites.

The concept, dubbed “Skyfall,” builds on NASA’s extremely successful and revolutionary Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which became the first manmade object to achieve powered flight on another planet in 2021. It flew a whopping 72 times over three years, vastly exceeding expectations.

AeroVironment’s plan is to “deploy six scout helicopters on Mars, where they would explore many of the sites selected by NASA and industry as top candidate landing sites for America’s first Martian astronauts,” according to a press release.

As seen in a flashy animation, the “Skyfall Maneuver” will attempt to deploy the six rotorcraft from a much larger spacecraft during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, making it a highly ambitious endeavor. However, the plan would also “eliminate the necessity for a landing platform — traditionally one of the most expensive, complex and risky elements of any Mars mission,” per the company.

Whether such a venture will receive enough funding to be realized remains unclear at best. While AeroVironment has kicked off internal investments ahead of a planned 2028 launch, budgetary restraints at NASA could pose a major challenge. The Trump administration is planning to massively slash the space agency’s budget in what critics are calling an “existential threat” to science, making anything at NASA currently an uncertain bet. Just last week, NASA’s JPL reportedly held a “going out of business sale” for existing satellites, signaling tough times ahead.

It’s not the only concept vying to follow up on the tremendous success of Ingenuity. In December, NASA showed off a SUV-sized “Mars Chopper” with six rotor blades that could allow it to carry science payloads up to 11 pounds across distances of up to 1.9 miles per Mars day.

AeroVironment’s leadership claims its Skyfall concept could explore far more of the Red Planet for a fraction of the price, compared to conventional landers and rovers.

“Skyfall offers a revolutionary new approach to Mars exploration that is faster and more affordable than anything that’s come before it,” said AeroVironment’s head of space ventures, William Pomerantz, in the statement. “With six helicopters, Skyfall offers a low-cost solution that multiplies the range we would cover, the data we would collect, and the scientific research we would conduct — making humanity’s first footprints on Mars meaningfully closer.”

Skyfall is planning to borrow heavily from its predecessor Ingenuity, including “its lightweight aircraft structure suitable for the thin atmosphere of Mars.”

“Ingenuity established the United States as the first and only country to achieve powered flight on another planet,” said AeroVironment’s president of autonomous systems, Trace Stevenson. “Skyfall builds on that promise, providing detailed, actionable data from an aerial perspective that will not only be of use planning for future crewed missions, but can also benefit the planetary science community in their search for evidence that life once existed on Mars.”

AeroVironment has worked on space-based laser communication terminals, as well as ground-based phased array antennas, to improve satellite command and control capabilities. How that expertise will translate to launching and landing six rotorcraft on Mars remains to be seen — but we’ll be rooting for the project.

More on Mars helicopters: NASA Shows Off SUV-Sized “Mars Chopper” With Six Rotor Blades

Sometime between 16 and 11.6 million years ago, a young caiman came upon a tasty snack in modern-day South America. The meal, however, turned out to be rather ambitious, because the croc hadn’t come upon just any old prey.

It was a phorusrhacid, a large carnivore in its own right, aptly known as a “terror bird.” The now-extinct terror bird wouldn’t have given in without a fight—unless, of course, it was already dead, and the opportunistic croc simply scavenged its dead body. That doesn’t seem to be the case, however. The meeting of the two apex predators played out, and all that’s left of it today is a handful of puncture wounds on a fossilized bone dating back to the Middle Miocene Epoch. For paleontologists, it’s offering rare insights into a prehistoric feeding interaction between two formidable but very different beasts.

“Evidence of direct trophic [feeding] interactions between apex predators remains as a topic that has been historically understudied,” researchers wrote in a study reconstructing the encounter, published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters. “Prey is most often represented by herbivores and other animals that are not on the top of the trophic web,” i.e. non-apex predators, according to the study. This anecdotal account of an “aquatic apex predator feeding on a terrestrial apex predator” adds to our understanding of how complex food webs can be in both modern and ancient vertebrate ecosystems,” the scientists wrote.

To investigate the prehistoric showdown, the researchers scanned the previously identified terror bird fossil to create a digital model of the puncture wounds. They then turned the tooth marks into negatives to compare them to the teeth of crocodyliforms (a group of predatory reptiles including crocodiles, alligators, and caimans) from La Venta, the fossil hotspot in Colombia where the specimen originates.

“Comparisons with specimens of [modern] black caiman, Melanosuchus niger, suggest that the traces were likely inflicted by a large caimanine, between 4.6 and 4.8 m [15.1 to 17.7 feet] long,” explained the researchers, including University of the Andes’ biologist Andres Link. “In the current fossil assemblage of La Venta, the best match for a large caiman in this size range would be a juvenile or subadult specimen of the giant caimanine P. neivensis, the largest crocodyliform in the La Venta Fauna.”

Because the bite marks on the terror bird bone don’t show signs of healing, the bird likely did not survive the Purussaurus neivensis’ attack, or was already dead.

The study ultimately sheds light on an interaction between “some of the most emblematic apex predators in the Miocene of South America,” suggesting that large phorusrhacids may have had more to worry about than researchers previously thought.

The molecules that form the building blocks to life may be far more common in space than once thought, according to researchers from the Max Planck Institute.

Their work, published in The Astrophysical Journal, reports the detection of over a dozen types of complex organic molecules swimming closely around a protostar in the constellation Orion, suggesting that the chemicals can survive the violent processes that give birth to stars and thus may abound in space, instead of having to wait for a planet with the right conditions to form them.

Two of the most notable organic molecules detected in the system — tentatively, the astronomers stress — are ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile. Both are precursors of the nucleic acids that form DNA and RNA.

“Our finding points to a straight line of chemical enrichment and increasing complexity between interstellar clouds and fully evolved planetary systems,” lead author Abubakar Fadul, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute, said in a statement about the work.

And thus, quoting the researchers’ statement: “this suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and are widespread.”

Until now, the assumption has been that most organic molecules would be destroyed when a star system is born from a chilly cloud of collapsing gas called an interstellar cloud. 

When this happens, the protostar undergoes a violent, tumultuous change, blasting out damaging radiation that heats the surrounding gas while pummeling it with powerful shockwaves. This leaves behind a protoplanetary disk that can eventually form little worlds in the star’s orbit. But in the process, this was also believed to “reset” all the progress that’d been made towards seeding the system with chemical building blocks, which wouldn’t start again until the right planet with the ideal conditions came along.

“Now it appears the opposite is true,” study co-author Kamber Schwarz, a fellow astronomer at MPI, said in a statement about the work. “Our results suggest that protoplanetary disks inherit complex molecules from earlier stages, and the formation of complex molecules can continue during the protoplanetary disk stage.”

Complex organic molecules are difficult to detect because they’re typically trapped in shards called icy dust grains, where they first formed. But in the V883 system, the star is still blasting bursts of radiation into space as it feeds on the leftover gas in its disk.

“These outbursts are strong enough to heat the surrounding disk as far as otherwise icy environments, releasing the chemicals we have detected,” Fadul said.

Once liberated, the gases quickly heat up and produce emissions that astronomers can see. The researchers spotted them, fortuitously, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a huge radio telescope in Chile made of 66 separate antennas working in tandem.

Poetically, it appears that a young star’s destructive tendencies are freeing the seeds of life to roam space. If the precursors to life’s building blocks can survive a system’s violent formation, that means their chemical evolution can start way before planet formation begins. In short, it looks like life’s building blocks can form in space, and may be rife throughout the cosmos.

Follow-up observations will need to confirm the detections, but the results have the researchers buzzing.

“Perhaps we also need to look at other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to find even more evolved molecules,” Fadul said. “Who knows what else we might discover?”

More on astronomy: Hubble Snaps Photos of Interstellar Invader

The slender waxing crescent moon will shine near the ‘Kingly’ star Regulus in the constellation Leo on the night of July 26, offering a photogenic — if challenging — target for those with a clear view of the western horizon.

Look west at sunset to find the razor-thin crescent moon hanging less than 10 degrees above the horizon. Regulus will appear as a blue-white point of light roughly 1 degree to the lower right of the moon’s glowing edge, becoming more prominent as the sun slips further below the horizon.