ESO: Most distant galactic magnetic field detected

September 6, 2023 TopSpacer

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Note that the galaxy of interest was initially discovered by a citizen science project sponsored by the BBC’s Stargazing Live television program [1].

Furthest ever detection of a galaxy’s magnetic field

This image shows the orientation of the magnetic field in the distant 9io9 galaxy, seen here when the Universe was only 20% of its current age — the furthest ever detection of a galaxy’s magnetic field. The observations were done with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. Dust grains within 9io9 are somewhat aligned with the galaxy’s magnetic field, and due to this they emit polarised light, meaning that light waves oscillate along a preferred direction rather than randomly. ALMA detected this polarisation signal, from which astronomers could work out the orientation of the magnetic field, shown here as curved lines overlaid on the ALMA image. The polarised light signal emitted by the magnetically aligned dust in 9io9 was extremely faint, representing just one percent of the total brightness of the galaxy, so astronomers used a clever trick of nature to help them obtain this result. The team was helped by the fact that 9io9, although very distant from us, had been magnified via a process known as gravitational lensing. This occurs when light from a distant galaxy, in this case 9io9, appears brighter and distorted as it is bent by the gravity of a very large object in the foreground.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The result provides astronomers with vital clues about how the magnetic fields of galaxies like our own Milky Way came to be.

Lots of astronomical bodies in the Universe have magnetic fields, whether it be planets, stars or galaxies.

“Many people might not be aware that our entire galaxy and other galaxies are laced with magnetic fields, spanning tens of thousands of light-years,”

says James Geach, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, and lead author of the study published today in Nature.

“We actually know very little about how these fields form, despite their being quite fundamental to how galaxies evolve,”

adds Enrique Lopez Rodriguez, a researcher at Stanford University, USA, who also participated in the study. It is not clear how early in the lifetime of the Universe, and how quickly, magnetic fields in galaxies form because so far astronomers have only mapped magnetic fields in galaxies close to us.

Now, using ALMA, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, Geach and his team have discovered a fully formed magnetic field in a distant galaxy, similar in structure to what is observed in nearby galaxies. The field is about 1000 times weaker than the Earth’s magnetic field, but extends over more than 16 000 light-years.

“This discovery gives us new clues as to how galactic-scale magnetic fields are formed,”

explains Geach. Observing a fully developed magnetic field this early in the history of the Universe indicates that magnetic fields spanning entire galaxies can form rapidly while young galaxies are still growing.

The team believes that intense star formation in the early Universe could have played a role in accelerating the development of the fields. Moreover, these fields can in turn influence how later generations of stars will form. Co-author and ESO astronomer Rob Ivison says that the discovery opens up

“a new window onto the inner workings of galaxies, because the magnetic fields are linked to the material that is forming new stars.”

To make this detection, the team searched for light emitted by dust grains in a distant galaxy, 9io9 [1]. Galaxies are packed full of dust grains and when a magnetic field is present, the grains tend to align and the light they emit becomes polarised. This means that the light waves oscillate along a preferred direction rather than randomly. When ALMA detected and mapped a polarised signal coming from 9io9, the presence of a magnetic field in a very distant galaxy was confirmed for the first time.

“No other telescope could have achieved this,”

says Geach. The hope is that with this and future observations of distant magnetic fields the mystery of how these fundamental galactic features form will begin to unravel.

Notes

[1] 9io9 was discovered in the course of a citizen science project. The discovery was helped by viewers of the British BBC television programme Stargazing Live, when over three nights in 2014 the audience was asked to examine millions of images in the hunt for distant galaxies.

Links

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Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Sept.4.2023

September 4, 2023 TopSpacer

This week’s selection of videos about space stations and living in space including NASA’s latest Space to Ground report for the International Space Station:

** Expedition 69 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Space Station Farewell Remarks – Aug. 31, 2023 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, Crew-6 which includes NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg as well as UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev provided farewell remarks on August 31 ahead of their upcoming departure from the space station. Joining Crew-6 for the farewell remarks were NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev. Crew-6 is slated to undock on September 2 and splashdown off the coast of Florida September 3 after completing a six-month mission

** SpaceX Crew-6 undocking and departure – SciNews

The “Endeavour” Crew Dragon spacecraft autonomously undocked from the Harmony module’s forward International Docking Adapter, departing the International Space Station, on 3 September 2023, at 11:05 UTC (07:05 EDT). The “Endeavour” Crew Dragon spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, is scheduled to splashdown off the coast of Florida, on 4 September 2023, at 04:17 UTC (00:17 EDT).
Credit: NASA/SpaceX, Music: “Blue Danube by Strauss” courtesy of YouTube Audio Library

** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Flight Day 3 Highlights – September 4, 2023 – NASA Video

NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg as well as UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev began their journey back to Earth from the International Space Station on Sunday, September 3, by closing the hatch to the SpaceX Dragon, named Endeavour, followed by undocking. After nearly 16 hours of transit, Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev returned to Earth with a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida on Monday, September 4. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 completed an approximately six-month mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration flights that pave the way for NASA’s Artemis program.

** Andreas Mogensen’s second mission Huginn soars high – European Space Agency, ESA

Huginn, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen’s second mission to the International Space Station, is now under way. Together with Crew-7, the ESA astronaut was launched on the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance on 26 August 2023, at 08:27 BST (09:27 CEST).

Alongside him are NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli, Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA, and Konstantin Borisov from Roscosmos. The crew will spend approximately six months on the Space Station, 420 km above Earth.

This isn’t Andreas’s first journey into space. In 2015, he participated in the 10-day ‘iriss’ mission. However, Huginn marks his first launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, and his first flight with a Crew Dragon.

Watch the replay of pivotal moments such as the crew’s arrival at the Kennedy Space Center on 20 August, liftoff, as well as Andreas piloting Crew Dragon on its 11th crewed flight.

The journey also included a special passenger, who served as microgravity indicators. After approximately 30 hours, the Crew Dragon approached and docked with the Space Station, where Andreas and his colleagues were greeted by the resident astronauts.

For more about Andreas and his Huginn mission, visit the Huginn mission page: https://www.esa.int/Science_Explorati…

** Hurricane Franklin as Seen from the International Space Station – NASA

External cameras on the International Space Station captured views of major Hurricane Franklin at 9:56 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023 as the station flew 260 miles overhead. Franklin was located over the Atlantic well out to sea at the time of the flyover, packing winds of 130 miles an hour. Franklin is moving north-northeast over the Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center.

** Chinese Astronauts Clean Space Station in Shift Change – CCTV Video News Agency

The three Chinese astronauts aboard the country’s space station Tiangong did some cleaning chores during the interval in the change of shifts, to make their space home clean and tidy.

** Shenzhou-16 Crew Reap Good Harvest in Space Planting Experiment – CCTV Video News Agency

The space vegetable planting experiment conducted by the Shenzhou-16 crew who have been in orbit for almost three months has yielded a good harvest.

** Live Video from the International Space Station (Official NASA Stream) – NASA

Watch live video from the International Space Station, including inside views when the crew aboard the space station is on duty. Views of Earth are also streamed from an external camera located outside of the space station. During periods of signal loss due to handover between communications satellites, a blue screen is displayed.

The space station orbits Earth about 250 miles (425 kilometers) above the surface. An international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries operates the station, and it has been continuously occupied since November 2000. It’s a microgravity laboratory where science, research, and human innovation make way for new technologies and research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. More: https://go.nasa.gov/3CkVtC8

Did you know you can spot the station without a telescope? It looks like a fast-moving star, but you have to know when to look up. Sign up for text messages or email alerts to let you know when (and where) to spot the station and wave to the crew: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov

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Night sky highlights for September 2023

September 1, 2023 TopSpacer

Check out the night sky this month, September 2023. Here are videos highlighting the top sights to observe.

** What’s Up: September 2023 Skywatching Tips from NASA – NASA JPL

Venus returns to the early morning skies as a bright beacon in the east. The full moon at the end of the month is known as the Harvest Moon. And if you have access to dark skies away from urban light pollution, you might be able to glimpse the faint, glowing pillar of the zodiacal light.

0:00 Intro
0:13 Venus in the morning sky
0:36 Viewing Jupiter and Saturn
1:01 The Harvest Moo
1:37 The Zodiacal Light
2:50 OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return
3:21 September Moon phases

Additional information about topics covered in this episode of What’s Up, along with still images from the video, and the video transcript, are available at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/skywatch….

** Tonight’s Sky: September 2023 – Space Telescope Science Institute – Tonight’s Sky

In September, Pegasus becomes increasingly prominent in the southeastern sky, allowing stargazers to locate globular star clusters and a nearby double star, Alpha Capricorni. Keep watching for space-based views of densely packed, spherical collections of ancient stars in visible and X-ray light.

** What to see in the night sky: September 2023 – BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Pete Lawrence and Paul Able guide us through this month’s night-sky highlights, including Mercury emerging as a morning planet, Neptune at opposition, lunar occultation of Botein, Gruithuisen’s Lunar City, the autumn equinox and 2023’s Harvest Moon.

** Sky & Telescope’s Sky Tour Podcast – September 2023 | The Harvest Moon and the Summer Triangle – Sky & Telescope Youtube

Our monthly Sky Tour #astronomy #podcast provides an informative and entertaining 10-minute guided tour of the nighttime sky. Listen to the September episode and celebrate the equinox; stalk the Harvest #Moon; check in with #Saturn, #Jupiter, and #Venus; and explore the #Summer Triangle. Grab your curiosity, and come along on this month’s Sky Tour.

ESO: Explaining the ups and downs in a pulsar’s brightness

August 30, 2023 TopSpacer

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO):

ESO telescopes help unravel pulsar puzzle

This artist’s impression shows the pulsar PSR J1023+0038 stealing gas from its companion star. This gas accumulates in a disc around the pulsar, slowly falls towards it, and is eventually expelled in a narrow jet. In addition, there is a wind of particles blowing away from the pulsar, represented here by a cloud of very small dots. This wind clashes with the infalling gas, heating it up and making the system glow brightly in X-rays and ultraviolet and visible light. Eventually, blobs of this hot gas are expelled along the jet, and the pulsar returns to the initial, fainter state, repeating the cycle. This pulsar has been observed to switch incessantly between these two states every few seconds or minutes.

With a remarkable observational campaign that involved 12 telescopes both on the ground and in space, including three European Southern Observatory (ESO) facilities, astronomers have uncovered the strange behaviour of a pulsar, a super-fast-spinning dead star. This mysterious object is known to switch between two brightness modes almost constantly, something that until now has been an enigma. But astronomers have now found that sudden ejections of matter from the pulsar over very short periods are responsible for the peculiar switches.

“We have witnessed extraordinary cosmic events where enormous amounts of matter, similar to cosmic cannonballs, are launched into space within a very brief time span of tens of seconds from a small, dense celestial object rotating at incredibly high speeds,”

says Maria Cristina Baglio, researcher at New York University Abu Dhabi, affiliated with the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), and the lead author of the paper published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

A pulsar is a fast-rotating, magnetic, dead star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation into space. As it rotates, this beam sweeps across the cosmos — much like a lighthouse beam scanning its surroundings — and is detected by astronomers as it intersects the line of sight to Earth. This makes the star appear to pulse in brightness as seen from our planet.

PSR J1023+0038, or J1023 for short, is a special type of pulsar with a bizarre behaviour. Located about 4500 light-years away in the Sextans constellation, it closely orbits another star. Over the past decade, the pulsar has been actively pulling matter off this companion, which accumulates in a disc around the pulsar and slowly falls towards it.

Since this process of accumulating matter began, the sweeping beam virtually vanished and the pulsar started incessantly switching between two modes. In the ‘high’ mode, the pulsar gives off bright X-rays, ultraviolet and visible light, while in the ‘low’ mode it’s dimmer at these frequencies and emits more radio waves. The pulsar can stay in each mode for several seconds or minutes, and then switch to the other mode in just a few seconds. This switching has thus far puzzled astronomers.

“Our unprecedented observing campaign to understand this pulsar’s behaviour involved a dozen cutting-edge ground-based and space-borne telescopes,”

says Francesco Coti Zelati, a researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences, Barcelona, Spain, and co-lead author of the paper. The campaign included ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and ESO’s New Technology Telescope (NTT), which detected visible and near-infrared light, as well as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. Over two nights in June 2021, they observed the system make over 280 switches between its high and low modes.

“We have discovered that the mode switching stems from an intricate interplay between the pulsar wind, a flow of high-energy particles blowing away from the pulsar, and matter flowing towards the pulsar,”

says Coti Zelati, who is also affiliated with INAF.

In the low mode, matter flowing towards the pulsar is expelled in a narrow jet perpendicular to the disc. Gradually, this matter accumulates closer and closer to the pulsar and, as this happens, it is hit by the wind blowing from the pulsating star, causing the matter to heat up. The system is now in a high mode, glowing brightly in the X-ray, ultraviolet and visible light. Eventually, blobs of this hot matter are removed by the pulsar via the jet. With less hot matter in the disc, the system glows less brightly, switching back into the low mode.

While this discovery has unlocked the mystery of J1023’s strange behaviour, astronomers still have much to learn from studying this unique system and ESO’s telescopes will continue to help astronomers observe this peculiar pulsar. In particular, ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in Chile, will offer an unprecedented view of J1023’s switching mechanisms.

“The ELT will allow us to gain key insights into how the abundance, distribution, dynamics, and energetics of the inflowing matter around the pulsar are affected by the mode switching behavior,”

concludes Sergio Campana, Research Director at the INAF Brera Observatory and coauthor of the study.

Links

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Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Aug.29.2023

August 29, 2023 TopSpacer

This week’s selection of videos about space stations and living in space including NASA’s latest Space to Ground report for the International Space Station:

** Hurricane Idalia seen from the International Space Station – VideoFromSpace

The International Space Station flew over Hurricane Idalia on Aug. 29, 2023.

** Crew-7 | Approach and Docking – SpaceX

On Sunday, August 27 at 9:16 a.m. ET, SpaceX’s Dragon autonomously docked with the International Space Station. Almost 30 hours earlier at 3:27 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft and Crew-7 to orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct science and technology demonstrations to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth.

** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Flight Day 2 Highlights – NASA Video

NASA’s SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov autonomously docked to the space-facing port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station at 9:16 a.m. EDT on Aug. 27 following a launch the day before on the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Following docking, the quartet opened the hatch and floated onboard the orbital outpost before providing welcoming remarks as their mission aboard the space station began. The four crew members will conduct a long-duration science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars.

** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Mission Overview – NASA Johnson

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission will carry NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos to the International Space Station. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the company’s seventh crew rotation mission for NASA. Learn more about the crew and mission: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/what-you…

** The Science of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Mission – NASA

After launching to the International Space Station on March 2, 2023, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is wrapping up its time in orbit, with a return to Earth in early September 2023.

NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev spent their months on the orbiting lab conducting scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, including running a student robotic challenge, studying plant genetic adaptations to space, and monitoring human health in microgravity to prepare for exploration beyond low Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth.

The astronauts also released Saskatchewan’s first satellite, which tests a new radiation detection and protection system derived from melanin.

Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/3OOOR3l

** Expedition 69 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Talks with Media Before Station Departure – Aug. 23, 2023 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev gave remarks about their mission during a news conference August 23. The Crew-6 astronauts have been aboard the space station since March and will return to Earth via a parachute assisted splashdown in September. The four crew members have been living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars.

** Expedition 69 Progress 85 Cargo Ship Docks to Space Station – Aug. 24, 2023 – NASA Video

The uncrewed Roscosmos ISS Progress 85 cargo spacecraft docked to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module August 24 after launching to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan August 22 on a Soyuz booster rocket. Progress is filled with almost three tons of supplies and cargo and will remain docked to the space station until early next year.

** Timelapse showing Canadarm2 operations with Nanoracks Bishop Airlock – ISS Above

“On Monday, August 28, 2023, Robotics ground controllers plan to perform the Gambit Sortie to demate NRAL, install Gambit on an exterior NRAL site, and then remate NRAL to Node 3. The objective of Gambit is to evaluate and catalog performance of the NRAL external sites. Gambit will be moved to all six external NRAL sites throughout the course of the investigation, and various sensors measure temperature, vibrations, and radiation to characterize each site. Results could support design and development of future science investigations that use these sites.” – NASA Station Report.

** ISSRDC Day2 Lightning Talk – Vast: Building the First Crewed, Independent Space Station – ISS National Lab

** Shenzhou-16 Crew Reap Good Harvest in Space Planting Experiment – CCTV Video News Agency

The space vegetable planting experiment conducted by the Shenzhou-16 crew who have been in orbit for almost three months has yielded a good harvest.

** Live Video from the International Space Station (Official NASA Stream) – NASA

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