This image shows close-up (left) and wide (right) views of the two bright galactic nuclei, each housing a supermassive black hole, in NGC 7727, a galaxy located 89 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. Each nucleus consists of a dense group of stars with a supermassive black hole at its centre. The two black holes are on a collision course and form the closest pair of supermassive black holes found to date. It is also the pair with the smallest separation between two supermassive black holes found to date — observed to be just 1600 light-years apart in the sky. The image on the left was taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile while the one on the right was taken with ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope.

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have revealed the closest pair of supermassive black holes to Earth ever observed. The two objects also have a much smaller separation than any other previously spotted pair of supermassive black holes and will eventually merge into one giant black hole.

Located in the galaxy NGC 7727 in the constellation Aquarius, the supermassive black hole pair is about 89 million light-years away from Earth. Although this may seem distant, it beats the previous record of 470 million light-years by quite some margin, making the newfound supermassive black hole pair the closest to us yet.

Supermassive black holes lurk at the centre of massive galaxies and when two such galaxies merge, the black holes end up on a collision course. The pair in NGC 7727 beat the record for the smallest separation between two supermassive black holes, as they are observed to be just 1600 light-years apart in the sky.

“It is the first time we find two supermassive black holes that are this close to each other, less than half the separation of the previous record holder,”

says Karina Voggel, an astronomer at the Strasbourg Observatory in France and lead author of the study published online today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

“The small separation and velocity of the two black holes indicate that they will merge into one monster black hole, probably within the next 250 million years,”

adds co-author Holger Baumgardt, a professor at the University of Queensland, Australia. The merging of black holes like these could explain how the most massive black holes in the Universe come to be.

Voggel and her team were able to determine the masses of the two objects by looking at how the gravitational pull of the black holes influences the motion of the stars around them. The bigger black hole, located right at the core of NGC 7727, was found to have a mass almost 154 million times that of the Sun, while its companion is 6.3 million solar masses.

Just as people at a busy crossroad may accidentally bump into each other, so too can galaxies in the Universe! But in this case, the outcome is more dramatic than a small nudge. When two galaxies clash, they merge into each other, giving birth to a new, bigger one. One example is the NGC 7727 galaxy, shown in this image from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) in Chile. Located 89 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius, NGC 7727 is believed to be the result of a clash between two galaxies that occurred about one billion years ago. The consequences of this tremendous cosmic bump are still evident in the peculiar, irregular shape of NGC 7727 and the streams of stars in its outer regions. The image was taken in visible light as part of the VST-ATLAS survey. The goal of the survey is to map a vast region of the Southern Sky — so large you could fit about 19,000 full moons in it! By studying the galaxies in this region, astronomers aim to shed new light on the nature of dark energy, the mysterious force permeating the Universe and causing its accelerating expansion.

It is the first time the masses have been measured in this way for a supermassive black hole pair. This feat was made possible thanks to the close proximity of the system to Earth and the detailed observations the team obtained at the Paranal Observatory in Chile using the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s VLT, an instrument Voggel learnt to work with during her time as a student at ESO. Measuring the masses with MUSE, and using additional data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, allowed the team to confirm that the objects in NGC 7727 were indeed supermassive black holes.

Astronomers suspected that the galaxy hosted the two black holes, but they had not been able to confirm their presence until now since we do not see large amounts of high-energy radiation coming from their immediate surroundings, which would otherwise give them away.

“Our finding implies that there might be many more of these relics of galaxy mergers out there and they may contain many hidden massive black holes that still wait to be found,” says Voggel. “It could increase the total number of supermassive black holes known in the local Universe by 30 percent.”

The search for similarly hidden supermassive black hole pairs is expected to make a great leap forward with ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), set to start operating later this decade in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

“This detection of a supermassive black hole pair is just the beginning,” says co-author Steffen Mieske, an astronomer at ESO in Chile and Head of ESO Paranal Science Operations. “With the HARMONI instrument on the ELT we will be able to make detections like this considerably further than currently possible. ESO’s ELT will be integral to understanding these objects.”

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The Space Show this week – Nov.29.2021

November 29, 2021 TopSpacer

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): We welcome Dr. Brian Weeden to discuss the recent Russian ASAT test plus more on space policy for the year.

2. Hotel Mars – Wednesday, Dec.1.2021: TBD. See the Space Show Newsletter for updates.

3. Friday, Dec.3, 2021; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): No Friday show this week.

4. Sunday, Dec.5, 2021; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): We welcome back Michael Listner, Atty, for a 2021 review of space law and policy.

Some recent shows:

** Sunday, Nov.28.2021 – Ryan Reynolds “joined us [transitioning] from being an Open Lines first time caller to a Space Guest. We talked [about] getting more people interested in space, Ryan had some new ideas that got lots of discussion, we [also] talked settlement and more.”

** Tuesday, Nov.23.2021 – Dr. Wendell Mendell discussed “current developments with NASA, NewSpace, lunar return and much more“.

** Sunday, Nov.21.2021 – Charles Miller gave an update on Lynk Global, the company he co-founded to provide mobile phone broadband services with a low earth orbit constellation of satellites.

** Friday, Nov.19.2021 – Kasper Kubica discussed “his idea for $10 million luxury condos in free space as a way to kick off space settlement. His proposed structure which you will hear discussed was very much like a typical condominium structure and project here on Earth other than our guest modeled his condos on high end luxury units being sold in NYC“.

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation .

The Space Show - David Livingston — The Space Show – Dr. David Livingston

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Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Nov.26.2021

November 26, 2021 TopSpacer

Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:

** Thanksgiving Message from the International Space Station – NASA

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer shared their thoughts about spending Thanksgiving in orbit and the foods they plan to enjoy. Vande Hei is in the midst of a year-long mission, while Chari, Marshburn, Barron and Maurer arrived on the space station Nov. 11 for a planned six-month mission. Together, they’re living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human spaceflight missions

** STEMonstrations: Moment of Inertia – NASA

NASA Astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough discuss moment of inertia and its effects on rotating objects. Watch as Megan demonstrates what happens to her angular speed as she alters her moment of inertia in microgravity aboard the International Space Station. Be sure to check out https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstrations for more videos like this, along with their corresponding classroom connection lesson plans.

** New Space Station Module Docks to the International Complex – NASA

The Russian “Prichal” Node Module and the attached Progress M-UM docked to the “Nauka” Multipurpose Laboratory (MLM) of the International Space Station November 26 following a launch from the Baikonur Cosmondrome in Kazakhstan on November 24. The node module will serve as a multi-hatch docking port for Russian visiting vehicles to the complex.

** Expedition 66 ESA Education Event – November 24, 2021 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 66 flight engineer Mattias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) discussed living and working in space during an in-flight downlink November 24 with students from Germany, the Czech Republic, and Ireland. Maurer launched in November on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance for a planned six-month science mission to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions.

** Expedition 66 – Northrup Grumman Cygnus 16 Release – November 202, 2021 – NASA Video

More than three months after arriving at the International Space Station to deliver more than three tons of food, supplies and scientific experiments, the unpiloted Northrop Grumman “SS Ellison Onizuka” Cygnus cargo craft departed the complex, headed for destructive entry back into the Earth’s atmosphere in December. Ground controllers at Mission Control, Houston sent commands to release Cygnus from the grasp of the Canadarm 2 robotic arm after it was detached from the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity module. Cygnus launched on Aug. 10 atop a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

** Video Shows Beautiful Images of Earth Shot from China’s Tiangong Space Station – CCTV Video News Agency

China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Tuesday released a video of Earth shot from China’s Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) space station.

** A Glimpse into How Chinese Astronaut Works Out in Space – CCTV Video News Agency

A footage released by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Wednesday has given people a glimpse into Chinese astronauts’ life at the country’s space station, showing how the crew member Ye Guangfu works out hard to stay fit for better performing the crew’s tasks in space.

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Nanoracks to deploy FEES2 picosat from the ISS

November 23, 2021 TopSpacer

Nanoracks and GP Advanced Projects (GPAP) will soon deploy a picosat a third the size of a standard CubeSat from the International Space Station. GPAP refers to its picosat design as a 1/3U CubeSat (10cm x 10cm x 3cm). The first demo reached orbit in 2020 and was called the Flexible Experimental Embedded Satellite or FEES.

FEES is a 1/3U Cubesat for in-orbit demonstration and validation of electronic components.

Cubesats systems were born in 1999 as a result of the cooperation between California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University, which defined the standards of this new satellite category. Typical Cubesats have a 10x10x10 cm dimension, 1U volume and are nominally in the nanosat or picosat satellite class.

These attributes being set, Cubesats allow affordable cost launch and different applications, since they lend themselves to educational, scientific and commercial purposes.

…

More than fifteen years later than the first cubesat prototype, we knew we could go even further. This vision led us to the development a 1/3U Cubesat, miniaturising the Cubesat technology in just 30% of former volume. FEES is the result of our commitment to this project.

Incredible partners like Politecnico di Milano, Brno University of Technology, CESI, LINKIT, Laser and Pandigital joined us in the program, giving birth to a 10x10x3cm satellite with a 300g mass which has been launched into orbit in October 2020.

Here is the announcement of the deployment of second FEES satellite (FEES2) into orbit, this time from the ISS:

Nanoracks to Deploy First-Ever 0.3U CubeSat from Space Station

NOVEMBER 23, 2021 – Torino, Italy – Nanoracks Europe is on track to set a new record as the company prepares to deploy the first-ever 0.3U CubeSat from the International Space Station (ISS). The satellite, named FEES2, was developed by the Italian company GP Advanced Projects and is approximately the thickness of a cherry. It will be one of the smallest trackable objects deployed directly from the Space Station.

FEES2 (Flexible Experimental Embedded Satellite-2) is a platform for demonstrating and validating CubeSat technology in orbit. The mission will test critical satellite components, such as GPS receivers and attitude control systems that have specifically been designed for miniaturized experiments.

GP Advanced Projects (GPAP) selected Nanoracks Europe for the integration services, launch brokerage, and deployment of FEES2 in June 2021 to reach orbit quickly and efficiently. Nanoracks’ proven business model provides flexible opportunities for its customers to demonstrate innovative technologies utilizing the ISS.

Guido Parissenti, CEO and co-founder of GPAP, remarked that

“The ISS has been a sort of booster for our company’s growth. Thanks to this deployment opportunity, which we contracted just five months ago, we will reach a major milestone towards the building of the first Italian nanosatellite constellation for IoT [Internet of Things], which is our long-term goal.”

The miniaturization of space technologies is a trend that allows for broader participation in space research and for CubeSat developers to make progress more rapidly. Companies like GP Advanced Projects that are seeking to deploy small satellites might have had difficulties reaching orbit in the past due to funding or launch accommodations. This mission demonstrates that such deployments are not only possible but that they can also be completed in a very short amount of time.

To approve FEES2 for deployment from the ISS, Nanoracks performed a feasibility study with NASA to verify the satellite’s trackability and quantify its deployment parameters. After careful evaluation, FEES2 was approved for integration into a Nanoracks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD). The satellite is now integrated into an NRCSD with several other CubeSats and is manifested on the 24^th SpaceX Commercial Resupply (SpX CRS-24) mission to the ISS, which is planned to launch in December 2021.

“We were excited that GP Advanced Projects entrusted Nanoracks to get the job done,”

said Adriana Aiello, Systems Engineer for Nanoracks Europe.

“Of course, we were going to make this happen for GP Advanced Projects – this is our specialty. Our customers’ needs challenge us to be innovators and disruptors, and we’re proud to bring a new customer and new technology to the Space Station.”

[Nanoracks Europe’s CEO, Veronica La Regina, said,]

“This is an absolutely exciting opportunity for Nanoracks Europe to make a difference in enabling wider access to space in our community,” […] . “Nanoracks’ passion for opening space access is one of our greatest assets, and this mission proves to be yet another example of the tenacity for making new things happen.”

Nanoracks offers a variety of satellite launch opportunities, including deployments from the International Space Station, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, the SpaceX Rideshare program, and from India’s PSLV. Learn more about Nanoracks’ satellite opportunities here.

About Nanoracks: Nanoracks, a Voyager Space Company, is the world’s leading commercial space services provider. Nanoracks owns and operates private hardware on the International Space Station and has launched over 1,300 research experiments, deployed over 300 small satellites, and owns and operates the Bishop Airlock on the ISS. Today, Nanoracks leverages over a decade of experience to develop new commercial space systems in direct response to customer needs. These space systems include converting commercial launch vehicle upper stages into functional secondary platforms, building new habitable space stations, supplying payload and crew airlock systems and services infrastructure, and more. Follow @Nanoracks on Twitter to learn more.

About GP Advanced Projects: GP Advanced Projects is an innovative SME active in both production and management of space projects. The company is developing PiCo, a picosatellite constellation dedicated to IoT data retrieval anywhere in the world. The first demonstrator satellite has been successfully deployed in March 2021.

In addition, thanks to its experience in project & innovation management, GP Advanced Projects enabled different non-space companies and institutions entering the space sector; the company is also actively engaged in scientific projects for both ESA and NASA.

For more information, visit https://www.gpadvancedprojects.com/

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The Space Show this week – Nov.22.2021

November 22, 2021 TopSpacer

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): We welcome Dr. Wendell Mendell is a retired planetary scientist and lunar guy from JSC. We are fortunate to have him return as a Space Show guest.

2. Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021 – Hotel Mars: No show due to Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

3. Friday, Nov.26, 2021; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): No show due to Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

4. Sunday, Nov.28, 2021; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): We welcome Ryan Reynolds who called us on our Open Lines program for those wanting to be a Space Show guest.

Some recent shows:

** Sunday, Nov.21.2021 – Charles Miller gave an update on Lynk Global, the company he co-founded to provide mobile phone broadband services with a low earth orbit constellation of satellites.

**Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021 – Hotel Mars: William Harwood talked with John Batchelor and Dr. David Livingston about “the LUCY Mission and the deployment of the solar panels plus Trojan asteroids, the JWST due to launch in a few weeks and the recent Russian ASAT test with its huge corresponding debris field“.

** Tuesday, Nov.16.20201 – Adlai Salcedo spoke about “his new website launched in September 2021, www.spaceisforyou.com. This is an educational website with a searchable database to help inform people about the part space plays in our everyday life.”

** Wednesday, Nov.10.2021 – Hotel Mars: Dr. Peter Schultz talked with John Batchelor and Dr. David Livingston about a comet that exploded over Atacama Desert in Chile 12,000 years ago.