This image shows Neptune observed with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). At each pixel within Neptune, MUSE splits the incoming light into its constituent colours or wavelengths. This is similar to obtaining images at thousands of different wavelengths all at once, which provides a wealth of valuable information to astronomers. The image to the right combines all colours captured by MUSE into a “natural” view of Neptune, where a dark spot can be seen to the upper-right. Then we see images at specific wavelengths: 551 nanometres (blue), 831 nm (green), and 848 nm (red); note that the colours are only indicative, for display purposes. The dark spot is most prominent at shorter (bluer) wavelengths. Right next to this dark spot MUSE also captured a small bright one, seen here only in the middle image at 831 nm and located deep in the atmosphere. This type of deep bright cloud had never been identified before on the planet. The images also show several other shallower bright spots towards the bottom-left edge of Neptune, seen at long wavelengths. Imaging Neptune’s dark spot from the ground was only possible thanks to the VLT’s Adaptive Optics Facility, which corrects the blur caused by atmospheric turbulence and allows MUSE to obtain crystal clear images. To better highlight the subtle dark and bright features on the planet, the astronomers carefully processed the MUSE data, obtaining what you see here.

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have observed a large dark spot in Neptune’s atmosphere, with an unexpected smaller bright spot adjacent to it. This is the first time a dark spot on the planet has ever been observed with a telescope on Earth. These occasional features in the blue background of Neptune’s atmosphere are a mystery to astronomers, and the new results provide further clues as to their nature and origin.

Large spots are common features in the atmospheres of giant planets, the most famous being Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. On Neptune, a dark spot was first discovered by NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1989, before disappearing a few years later.

“Since the first discovery of a dark spot, I’ve always wondered what these short-lived and elusive dark features are,”

says Patrick Irwin, Professor at the University of Oxford in the UK and lead investigator of the study published today in Nature Astronomy.

Irwin and his team used data from ESO’s VLT to rule out the possibility that dark spots are caused by a ‘clearing’ in the clouds. The new observations indicate instead that dark spots are likely the result of air particles darkening in a layer below the main visible haze layer, as ices and hazes mix in Neptune’s atmosphere.

Coming to this conclusion was no easy feat because dark spots are not permanent features of Neptune’s atmosphere and astronomers had never before been able to study them in sufficient detail. The opportunity came after the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope discovered several dark spots in Neptune’s atmosphere, including one in the planet’s northern hemisphere first noticed in 2018. Irwin and his team immediately got to work studying it from the ground — with an instrument that is ideally suited to these challenging observations.

Using the VLT’s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), the researchers were able to split reflected sunlight from Neptune and its spot into its component colours, or wavelengths, and obtain a 3D spectrum [1]. This meant they could study the spot in more detail than was possible before.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to have been able to not only make the first detection of a dark spot from the ground, but also record for the very first time a reflection spectrum of such a feature,”

says Irwin.

This image shows Neptune observed with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope. At each pixel within Neptune, MUSE splits the incoming light into its constituent colours or wavelengths. This is similar to obtaining images at thousands of different wavelengths all at once, which provides a wealth of valuable information to astronomers. This image combines all colours captured by MUSE into a “natural” view of Neptune, where a dark spot can be seen to the upper-right.

Since different wavelengths probe different depths in Neptune’s atmosphere, having a spectrum enabled astronomers to better determine the height at which the dark spot sits in the planet’s atmosphere. The spectrum also provided information on the chemical composition of the different layers of the atmosphere, which gave the team clues as to why the spot appeared dark.

The observations also offered up a surprise result.

“In the process we discovered a rare deep bright cloud type that had never been identified before, even from space,”

says study co-author Michael Wong, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. This rare cloud type appeared as a bright spot right beside the larger main dark spot, the VLT data showing that the new ‘deep bright cloud’ was at the same level in the atmosphere as the main dark spot. This means it is a completely new type of feature compared to the small ‘companion’ clouds of high-altitude methane ice that have been previously observed.

With the help of ESO’s VLT, it is now possible for astronomers to study features like these spots from Earth. “This is an astounding increase in humanity’s ability to observe the cosmos.

At first, we could only detect these spots by sending a spacecraft there, like Voyager. Then we gained the ability to make them out remotely with Hubble. Finally, technology has advanced to enable this from the ground,”

concludes Wong, before adding, jokingly:

“This could put me out of work as a Hubble observer!”

Notes

[1] MUSE is a 3D spectrograph that allows astronomers to observe the entirety of an astronomical object, like Neptune, in one go. At each pixel, the instrument measures the intensity of light as a function of its colour or wavelength. The resulting data form a 3D set in which each pixel of the image has a full spectrum of light. In total, MUSE measures over 3500 colours. The instrument is designed to take advantage of adaptive optics, which corrects for the turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in sharper images than otherwise possible. Without this combination of features, studying a Neptune dark spot from the ground would not have been possible.

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An Infinity of Worlds:
Cosmic Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe

In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, Space Systems

Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Aug.21.2023

August 21, 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:

** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Mission to the Space Station (Official Trailer) – NASA

An international crew is preparing to launch to the International Space Station aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos will perform research technology demonstrations, science experiments, and maintenance activities aboard the microgravity laboratory.

Crew-7 is targeted to launch no earlier than 3:49 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 25 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Crew-7 marks the eighth human spaceflight mission supported by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the seventh crew rotation mission to the space station since 2020 for NASA.

You can watch the launch live on NASA TV, NASA.gov, the NASA app, and on social media (@NASA).

Learn more about the Crew-7 mission here: https://blogs.nasa.gov/crew-7/

** Gateway: A New Era of Utilization in Deep Space – ISS National Lab

** ISSRDC Day1 Fireside Chat – Getting to the Heart of the Matter in LEO – ISS National Lab

** Full Bishop Airlock Animation – Nanoracks

** Progress MS-22 undocking and departure – SciNews

The Progress MS-22 spacecraft autonomously undocked from the aft port of the Zvezda service module, on the International Space Station, on 20 August 2023, at 23:50 UTC. Progress MS-22 (ISS Progress 83 mission) delivered about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 68 crew aboard the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA/Roscosmos

** Experiment Cabinet on China’s Space Station Versatile for Sci-Tech Verification – CCTV Video News Agency

Standing at two meters tall and one meter wide and with a design life of 15 years, the Space Basic Experiment Cabinet mounted on one of the lab modules of China’s Tiangong Space Station has served as a versatile space technology verification platform, facilitating fruitful scientific research achievements in a microgravity environment, since its launch into orbit last year.

** China Completes In-Orbit Observation of Conductive Ring Wear Debris – CCTV Video News Agency

China has completed its first in-orbit observation of the generation process and clustering phenomenon of conductive ring wear debris on the country’s space station Tiangong.

** 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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ESO: New type star may help explain magnetars

August 17, 2023 TopSpacer

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

New type of star gives clues to mysterious origin of magnetars

Magnetars are the strongest magnets in the Universe. These super-dense dead stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields can be found all over our galaxy but astronomers don’t know exactly how they form. Now, using multiple telescopes around the world, including European Southern Observatory (ESO) facilities, researchers have uncovered a living star that is likely to become a magnetar. This finding marks the discovery of a new type of astronomical object — massive magnetic helium stars — and sheds light on the origin of magnetars.

Despite having been observed for over 100 years, the enigmatic nature of the star HD 45166 could not be easily explained by conventional models, and little was known about it beyond the fact that it is one of a pair of stars [1], is rich in helium and is a few times more massive than our Sun.

“This star became a bit of an obsession of mine,”

says Tomer Shenar, the lead author of a study on this object published today in Science and an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

“Tomer and I refer to HD 45166 as the ‘zombie star’,”

says co-author and ESO astronomer Julia Bodensteiner, based in Germany.

“This is not only because this star is so unique, but also because I jokingly said that it turns Tomer into a zombie.“

Having studied similar helium-rich stars before, Shenar thought magnetic fields could crack the case. Indeed, magnetic fields are known to influence the behaviour of stars and could explain why traditional models failed to describe HD 45166, which is located about 3000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros.

“I remember having a Eureka moment while reading the literature: ‘What if the star is magnetic?’,”

says Shenar, who is currently based at the Centre for Astrobiology in Madrid, Spain.

Shenar and his team set out to study the star using multiple facilities around the globe. The main observations were conducted in February 2022 using an instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope that can detect and measure magnetic fields. The team also relied on key archive data taken with the Fiber-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS) at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Once the observations were in, Shenar asked co-author Gregg Wade, an expert on magnetic fields in stars at the Royal Military College of Canada, to examine the data. Wade’s response confirmed Shenar’s hunch:

“Well my friend, whatever this thing is — it is definitely magnetic.”

Shenar’s team had found that the star has an incredibly strong magnetic field, of 43 000 gauss, making HD 45166 the most magnetic massive star found to date [2].

“The entire surface of the helium star is as magnetic as the strongest human-made magnets,”

explains co-author Pablo Marchant, an astronomer at KU Leuven’s Institute of Astronomy in Belgium.

This observation marks the discovery of the very first massive magnetic helium star.

“It is exciting to uncover a new type of astronomical object,” says Shenar, ”especially when it’s been hiding in plain sight all along.”

Moreover, it provides clues to the origin of magnetars, compact dead stars laced with magnetic fields at least a billion times stronger than the one in HD 45166. The team’s calculations suggest that this star will end its life as a magnetar. As it collapses under its own gravity, its magnetic field will strengthen, and the star will eventually become a very compact core with a magnetic field of around 100 trillion gauss [3] — the most powerful type of magnet in the Universe.

Shenar and his team also found that HD 45166 has a mass smaller than previously reported, around twice the mass of the Sun, and that its stellar pair orbits at a far larger distance than believed before. Furthermore, their research indicates that HD 45166 formed through the merger of two smaller helium-rich stars.

“Our findings completely reshape our understanding of HD 45166,”

concludes Bodensteiner.

Notes

[1] While HD 45166 is a binary system, in this text HD 45166 refers to the helium-rich star, not to both stars.

[2] The magnetic field of 43 000 gauss is the strongest magnetic field ever detected in a star that exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass limit, which is the critical limit above which stars may collapse into neutron stars (magnetars are a type of neutron star).

[3] In this text, a billion refers to one followed by nine zeros and a trillion refers to one followed by 12 zeros.

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In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, Space Systems

Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Aug.15.2023

August 15, 2023 TopSpacer

Here is this week’s selection of videos about space stations and living in space starting with NASA’s latest Space to Ground report for the International Space Station:

** Expedition 69 Astronaut Frank Rubio Talks with ABC’s Good Morning America – Aug. 11, 2023 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Frank Rubio of NASA discussed life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight interview August 11 with ABC’s “Good Morning America”. Rubio is in the midst of a record breaking long-duration 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. When Rubio returns to Earth on September 27 he will have spent a total of 371 days in space—the longest single spaceflight by a US astronaut.

** Expedition 69 Space Station Crew Answers Kingfisher, Oklahoma, Student Questions – Aug. 14, 2023 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 69 Flight Engineers Frank Rubio and Steve Bowen of NASA answered questions about life and work on the orbiting laboratory during an in-flight event Aug. 14 with students attending Kingfisher High School in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Rubio and Bowen are in the midst of a science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies. 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.

** ISSRDC 2023: Multiple videos of presentations and panel discussions from the 12th Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference (ISSRDC) held July 31-August 3, 2023 in Seattle, Washington
are available on the ISS National Lab YouTube channel. Here are two samples:

*** ISSRDC Day1 Panel – Future Of R&D in Low Earth Orbit:

*** ISSRDC Day2 Panel – Pioneering Low Earth Orbit (LEO):

** Replay! Russian spacewalkers outside International Space Station [Aug.9.2023] – VideoFromSpace

Streamed live on Aug 9, 2023 … Two Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin will perform a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) today (Aug. 9). Learn more: https://www.space.com/russian-cosmona…

** China’s Space Station “Tiangong” Fly Around – Hazegrayart

The Tiangong Space Station is a Chinese space station that is fully operational. It is being developed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) as a part of China’s ambitious space program. The name “Tiangong” translates to “Heavenly Palace” in English.

The Tiangong Space Station consists of multiple modules that will serve various purposes, including living quarters for astronauts, scientific research laboratories, and facilities for conducting experiments in microgravity. It is designed to be a long-term, modular space station similar to the International Space Station (ISS), but with a smaller scale.

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

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Education, Space Arts, Space participation

Space arts roundup – Aug.14.2023

August 14, 2023 TopSpacer

This Space arts roundup offers a selection of news and resources from the intersection of space and the arts.

** Ax-2 Mission | John Shoffner announced International Space Art Content winners from the ISS – Axiom Space

Axiom Space is guided by the vision of a thriving home in space that benefits every human, everywhere. The leader in providing space infrastructure as a service, Axiom offers end-to-end missions to the International Space Station today while privately developing its successor – a permanent commercial destination in Earth’s orbit that will sustain human growth off the planet and bring untold benefits back home. More information about Axiom can be found at www.axiomspace.com.

See also the gallery of submissions to the Space Art Contest for the Axiom mission.

** Moon Gallery is an

international collaborative artwork and a gallery of ideas worth sending to the Moon. Moon Gallery aims to set up the first permanent museum on the Moon. Moon Gallery will launch 100 artefacts to the Moon within the compact format of 10 x 10 x 1cm plate on a lunar lander exterior panelling as early as 2025. In this Petri-dish-like gallery, we are developing a culture for future interplanetary society. What are the ideas we want to promote into the future? What are the ideas we want to leave behind?

A collection of art pieces were sent to the ISS in February 2022 on the NG-17 mission of the Northrop-Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft. For this test mission, the gallery grid featured

… 8×8 cells housing 64 physical artefacts and one engraved AR artwork. Sixty-five art projects featured in the gallery reached the final frontier of human habitation and marked the historical meeting point of the Moon Gallery and the cosmos. Reaching low Earth orbit on our way to the Moon is the first step in extending our cultural dialogue to space.

Check out an image at Instagram of the housing floating on the ISS.

See the gallery of diverse artwork for the Moon mission. More info at their LinkTree page.

** A profile of Don Davis in the final episode of the Artist Depiction film series about noted space artists:

** A European Ariane 5 rocket launched last April with a student’s artwork on the nosecone: Ariane 5 rocket decorated with winning Juice artwork – ESA

ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) will launch in April on an Ariane 5 rocket. The nosecone faring has been decorated with the winning artwork in the *‘**JUICE Up Your Rocket!**’ competition*. The artwork came from 9-year-old Yaryna.

Here is a video about the “JUICE Up Your Rocket!” art project:

The Jupiter Icy moons Explorer (Juice) is an ESA planetary exploration mission currently under construction, development and testing at different sites across Europe. This is the seventh episode of a series, in which we take the viewer behind the scenes of the European space industry, space technology and planetary science community around the Juice mission.

In this Episode Manuela Baroni, head of the Juice Project Control Section, presents the idea and results of the ‘JUICE Up Your Rocket!’ competition, which invited children from all over the world to create a work of art related to the mission. The winning artwork will be placed on the nose (fairing) of the rocket that will launch Juice into space!

This episode is part of a film project that will result in a one-hour documentary film to be released before the launch of Juice. Produced for ESA by Lightcurve Films. Original music by William Zeitler. Animations by Rafael Andres (ESA).

** The STAR SPHERE | Space Inspiration Project is a Sony sponsored project to support creativity inspired by space. The Art from Space Perspectives

… is not limited to creating works such as photographs, videos, movies, and media art from images and footage taken by the space camera.

We will work on various creative activities with many people, including artists and creators, by offering new inspiration from experiences connecting with space through operation of our satellite and content that brings users various forms of “Space perspectives.”

It will have the possibility to bring about inspiration in creativity in all kinds of domains, from creations such as artworks including paintings and sculptures, design in fashion and architecture, animation, games, narratives, and poetry to expressions and performances such as music, theater, and dance. STAR SPHERE will unleash space for artists and creators with the latest technology and entertainment that imparts fresh meanings of space.

Here is a profile of Hiroshi Sugimoto, the first partner in this initiative: Inspiring Space Experiences × Hiroshi Sugimoto

** Boldly Going: Planet and The Roddenberry Foundation Collaboration – Planet Labs

The company Planet Labs has built, launched, and operated hundreds of small satellites in orbit that provide near continuous high resolution images of the entire surface of the Earth. On January of 2022, three dozen Planet satellites were taken into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The side panels of ten of the satellites were engraved with artwork and quotes selected from submissions from over 1000 fans of Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry.

A Planet SuperDove with the Boldly Go Campaign artwork laser etched onto its side panels. Credit: Planet Labs PBC

Here is a video from Planet about The Boldly Go Campaign:

We recently launched 36 Planet SuperDove satellites with SpaceX, with a select number of these satellites featuring Star Trek inspired quotes as a part of Planet and Roddenberry Foundation’s shared commitment to make the world a more sustainable and secure place. The Roddenberry Foundation’s Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek Creator’s Gene Roddenberry, gets the scoop from our very own VP of Launch Mike Safyan on how sats are reaching the final frontier…of making the world a better place. Watch now!

** Sci-Fi Short Documentary “Artist Depiction by Steve R. Dodd” | DUST

Working at home in Tennessee with no internet or computer, Steve R. Dodd has created hundreds of beautiful ‘spacescapes’ visions of a positive future. Now 69 years old, this is his first on camera interview.

“Artist Depiction by Steve R. Dodd” directed by Brett Ryan Bonowicz

Connect with the Filmmaker:
https://twitter.com/BRBonowicz
https://twitter.com/artistdepiction
https://www.clindar.net/

** An interview with artist James Vaughan: NSS Space Forum – From Fashion to Space: An Artist’s Adventures, A Conversation with James Vaughan – Youtube. This video presents a conversation with

… James Vaughan, aerospace illustrator and primary cover artist for Ad Astra magazine. Ad Astra Editor-in-Chief Rod Pyle sits down to talk with Jim about his stunning work in illustrating the future of spaceflight, his career in Chicago’s advertising and fashion industries, and what makes some of his landmark works stand out in a crowded field–and why everyone from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to Lockheed Martin, to the NSS have engaged him to communicate their vision. Enjoy this informative and fun space forum with one of the most prominent space artists of today.

** Lunar lander to include artist’s engraving

The artist Sacha Jafri has placed an engraving on Astrobotic‘s Peregrine lunar lander, which will be launched to the Moon on the first flight of the ULA Vulcan rocket. The UK company Spacebit worked with Jafri on the installation of the artwork on the lander.