This artist’s impression shows how the distant quasar P172+18 and its radio jets may have looked. To date (early 2021), this is the most distant quasar with radio jets ever found and it was studied with the help of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. It is so distant that light from it has travelled for about 13 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was only about 780 million years old.Credits: ESO
With the help of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have discovered and studied in detail the most distant source of radio emission known to date. The source is a “radio-loud” quasar — a bright object with powerful jets emitting at radio wavelengths — that is so far away its light has taken 13 billion years to reach us. The discovery could provide important clues to help astronomers understand the early Universe.
Quasars are very bright objects that lie at the centre of some galaxies and are powered by supermassive black holes. As the black hole consumes the surrounding gas, energy is released, allowing astronomers to spot them even when they are very far away.
The newly discovered quasar, nicknamed P172+18, is so distant that light from it has travelled for about 13 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just around 780 million years old. While more distant quasars have been discovered, this is the first time astronomers have been able to identify the telltale signatures of radio jets in a quasar this early on in the history of the Universe. Only about 10% of quasars — which astronomers classify as “radio-loud” — have jets, which shine brightly at radio frequencies [1].
P172+18 is powered by a black hole about 300 million times more massive than our Sun that is consuming gas at a stunning rate.
“The black hole is eating up matter very rapidly, growing in mass at one of the highest rates ever observed,”
explains astronomer Chiara Mazzucchelli, Fellow at ESO in Chile, who led the discovery together with Eduardo Bañados of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.
The astronomers think that there’s a link between the rapid growth of supermassive black holes and the powerful radio jets spotted in quasars like P172+18. The jets are thought to be capable of disturbing the gas around the black hole, increasing the rate at which gas falls in. Therefore, studying radio-loud quasars can provide important insights into how black holes in the early Universe grew to their supermassive sizes so quickly after the Big Bang.
“I find it very exciting to discover ‘new’ black holes for the first time, and to provide one more building block to understand the primordial Universe, where we come from, and ultimately ourselves,” says Mazzucchelli.
P172+18 was first recognised as a far-away quasar, after having been previously identified as a radio source, at the Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile by Bañados and Mazzucchelli.
“As soon as we got the data, we inspected it by eye, and we knew immediately that we had discovered the most distant radio-loud quasar known so far,” says Bañados.
However, owing to a short observation time, the team did not have enough data to study the object in detail. A flurry of observations with other telescopes followed, including with the X-shooter instrument on ESO’s VLT, which allowed them to dig deeper into the characteristics of this quasar, including determining key properties such as the mass of the black hole and how fast it’s eating up matter from its surroundings. Other telescopes that contributed to the study include the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array and the Keck Telescope in the US.
While the team are excited about their discovery, to appear in The Astrophysical Journal, they believe this radio-loud quasar could be the first of many to be found, perhaps at even larger cosmological distances.
“This discovery makes me optimistic and I believe — and hope — that the distance record will be broken soon,” says Bañados.
Observations with facilities such as ALMA, in which ESO is a partner, and with ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) could help uncover and study more of these early-Universe objects in detail.
A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport (find previous roundups here):
** SpaceX SN10 became the first Starship prototype to make a successful vertical landing on March 2nd. Unfortunately, a propellant leak of some sort led to a destructive explosion several minutes after the landing. Here’s the SpaceX webcast, which ended before the explosion. Here is the SpaceX webcast video:
An earlier attempt to lift off in the mid-afternoon was aborted just as the engines fired. Elon Musk said on Twitter, “Launch abort on slightly conservative high thrust limit. Increasing thrust limit & recycling propellant for another flight attempt today.” About three hours later the vehicle lifted off. The ascent to 10 kilometers, the sequential shutdown of the engines as the rocket reached apogee, the flip to the horizontal “belly-flop” orientation, and the aerodynamic control of the vehicle during the descent, all appeared to go quite well.
The technique of bringing all three engines back to life at the start of the flip from horizontal to vertical also appeared to work well. This differed from the previous two landings where two engines were fired up for landing. However, for the SN9 flight, one of the two engines failed during startup and this led to the explosive landing. Elon Musk subsequently (see transcript below) said they would start up all three engines to insure that at least two would operate for the landing. This worked for SN10. After the vehicle was vertical and stable, two of the three engines were shut off and the vehicle descended in a controlled hover via one engine.
Note that the Starship hovering capability differs from the Falcon 9 booster. The F9 booster’s Merlin engine cannot throttle down sufficiently to hover. If the engine did not shut down at the instant the vehicle touches the landing pad, the booster would accelerate back up. The greater power, efficiency, and deep throttling capabilities of the Raptor engines allow for hovering the Starship. This will also be true for the Super Heavy booster. (That’s one reason SpaceX believes they can bring a Super Heavy directly into a catch mechanism on the launch stand. Hovering allows for much greater precision and gentler handling during the landing.)
The SN10 vehicle leaned somewhat after the landing. In closeup videos of the vehicle as it was descending, three of the legs can be seen dangling after deployment rather than in a latched position as intended. The vehicle then rested on the metal skirt surrounding the engines on the side where it should have been supported by legs.
During the final vertical descent, one can also see flames along one side after the two engines stopped firing. After the engines were shut off, there was a fire along one edge along the ground near the same section. Perhaps a methane valve was stuck open or propellant line burst. A robotic water cannon soon began spraying the flames but after a few minutes stopped for some reason and before long the the explosion occurred.
The loss of the vehicle was disappointing but ultimately will be of little significance. These early prototype flights are providing important data on previously untried systems and maneuvers, especially the Raptor engines, the belly-flop descent and the flip to vertical maneuver. Perhaps this vehicle would have flown once more if the landing had gone perfectly but regardless it eventually would have been dismantled and sent to the recycling bin. It was never intended for space.
Everyday Astronaut provides hi-res video of the flight and explosion: Starship SN10 [4k, Clean Audio & Slow Mo Supercut]
Scott Manley’s analysis: SpaceX’s Starship SN10 Successfully Lands After Amazing Flight. Dismantles Itself Spectacularly
** Rocket Lab going public through a SPAC arrangement that will bring in sufficient capital to fund development of the medium-lift Neutron launch system. The SPAC deal gives a value of about $4.1B for Rocket Lab and will produce about $750M in cash.
Initial launch site will be Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops Island, Virginia. (An Electron launch pad facility is nearly operational there.)
A factory to manufacturing the rocket will be placed near the launch site.
The Arktika (Арктика, meaning “Arctic“) satellites will carry out a variety of missions to compliment other satellite constellations with additional coverage of Russia’s most northern regions. The Arktika-M component of this program focuses on meteorology, with its satellites carrying multi-spectral imaging payloads to help gather data for forecasting. These spacecraft are also equipped with a communications payload to relay data from remote surface-based weather stations and emergency signals.
Each Arktika-M satellite has a mass of about 2,100 kilograms (4,600 lb) and is designed to operate for ten years. Constructed by NPO Lavochkin, the Arktika-M spacecraft are based on the company’s Navigator platform. The spacecraft are three-axis stabilized and carry a pair of deployable solar arrays to generate power.
Original plans called for a pair of Arktika-M spacecraft to be launched, however Russia now plans to deploy at least five over the next four years. A follow-on Arktika-MP series is expected to begin launching in 2026.
The Indian Space Research Organization has launched their first mission of 2021 with a flight of their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to deliver Brazil’s Amazônia-1 satellite, along with 18 co-passengers, into Sun-synchronous orbit.
Liftoff from First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, India, occurred Sunday, 28 February at 10:24 IST at the launch site — which is 04:54 UTC, or Saturday, 27 February at 23:54 EST.
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Amazônia-1 is the first Earth observation satellite designed, built, tested, and operated completely by Brazil and is the first of three such satellites planned by the National Institute of Space Research (INPE), a Brazil’s space research and exploration company.
As major progress is being made on the New Glenn launch vehicle and its Cape Canaveral facilities, the schedule has been refined to match the demand of Blue Origin’s commercial customers. The current target for New Glenn’s maiden flight is Q4 2022. The Blue Origin team has been in contact with all of our customers to ensure this baseline meets their launch needs.
This updated maiden flight target follows the recent Space Force decision to not select New Glenn for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement (LSP).
New Glenn is proceeding to fulfill its current commercial contracts, pursue a large and growing commercial market, and enter into new civil space launch contracts. We hope to launch NSSL payloads in the future, and remain committed to serving the U.S. national defense mission.
Recent milestones include completion of a New Glenn first stage mockup simulator, completion of a structural test facility, and hardware milestones for tanks, stage modules, and composite fairings.
In addition to program progress, more than 600 jobs have been created in the region. Blue Origin has invested more than $2.5 billion in facilities and infrastructure at all sites, including $1 billion invested in the rebuild of historic LC-36, which is nearing completion.
Blue also posted three videos about the status of the New Glenn facilities in development on Cape Canaveral:
The company intends to have a cargo-only version of the descent element lander ready to take on a demonstration mission to the moon one year in advance of the first crewed landing for NASA’s Artemis program.
“That provides an enormous amount of risk reduction,” Blue Origin chief scientist Steve Sqyures — a veteran of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover missions — explained in the video. “We get to practice. … We can pre-position material, and it can be whatever you want it to be. We can begin to build up Artemis Base Camp.”
Sqyures said the cargo lander will have a crane system to offload a rover and other payloads. NASA’s Langley Research Center has already provided a crane for the pathfinder tests, and Sqyures said Honeybee Robotics is developing a payload-lowering davit system.
Here is a brief video update: Lunar Descent Element Demo Mission – Blue Origin
At our Huntsville, Alabama factory, we built a full-scale pathfinder of our Descent Element lander in preparation for our demonstration mission. This mission will happen a year before landing crew on the Moon. By proving out our technology and pre-positioning equipment, it will start America’s sustainable return to the Moon. To learn more about the Blue Origin-led HLS National Team, visit: www.blueorigin.com/blue-moon/national-team
** Jeff Bezos expected to spend more time with Blue Origin after stepping down as CEO of Amazon. In addition to the lunar lander development mentioned above, Blue needs to begin crewed suborbital New Shepard rocket flights and, as mentioned above, get the New Glenn heavy lifter into operation.
Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Expedition 64 Crew 2 Crew News Conference – March 1, 2021 – NASA Video
The crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA, Akihiko Hoshide of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet discussed their upcoming mission in a preflight briefing from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than April 20 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew is scheduled for a long duration stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting science and maintenance and are set to return in fall 2021.
** Expedition 64 Crew 2 Mission Overview Briefing – March 1, 2021 – NASA Video
** Spacewalk at the International Space Station – NASA
Slip into the weekend while cheering on two astronauts working in the vacuum of space! At 7 a.m. EST on Friday, Mar. 5, Kate Rubins of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) will exit the International Space Station to vent ammonia from the Early Ammonia System and complete several other tasks outside the orbital lab. Once their spacesuits are switched to battery power, the spacewalk is scheduled to last approximately six-and-a-half hours.
A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest (find previous space policy roundups here):
In this first Space Café “Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland”, global space law experts discuss the legal issues from everyday space activities.
Space Café “Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland” analysed current space developments with a legal focus. It, at the same time discussed and ‘demystifyed’ the law for everyone.
In this episode Host Steven Freeland, Emeritus Professor of International Law at Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia and Co-Host Torsten Kriening, SpaceWatch.Global’s Publisher and their invited guests discussed:
The recent Chang’e 5 and Hayabusa2 missions The various Starlink/SpaceX/Starship program The just announced US Space Policy/approach and the priorities of the incoming Biden administration regarding space
Our two exceptional experts were: Donna Lawler, commercial space lawyer and Principal, AZIMUTH Advisory Chris Newman, Professor, Northumbria University
For decades, a prevailing sentiment in America has been that the money spent on the space race would be better spent on domestic problems. As a result, the US space program has not fulfilled its potential for several decades. But this perspective is shortsighted; many technologies we take for granted came from midcentury investments in the space program, and there is no telling what innovations we forego by failing to support space exploration today. Fortunately, private actors have begun revitalizing the US space program, and the public sphere has also shown a renewed interest. This panel discusses why America should renew its commitment to exploring space and the actions policymakers and private actors should take to facilitate America’s return to the final frontier.
Panelists: Tim Fernholz, Senior Reporter, Quartz Sara Seager, Professor of Planetary Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stan Veuger, Resident Scholar, AEI Matthew C. Weinzierl, Joseph and Jacqueline Elbling Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Moderator: James Pethokoukis, DeWitt Wallace Fellow, AEI
** Sino-Russian ties for the Moon, Geely’s Satellite Factory, New CN Space Report – News Roundup Ep 21 – Dongfang Hour – YouTube
1) Russia and China close to signing an MoU on Lunar Exploration… 2) Release of a new report on the Chinese space sector … 3) Announcement by Geely about their satellite factory getting the “green light”…
Earth Observation, Space Situational Awareness and Contested/Congested Space are terms increasingly heard in satellite and space media, brought about, in part, by the growing accessibility and democratization of the space industry. Our guest, Gino Bucciol – Co-founder and Chief Development Officer at Officina Stellare, a company based in Italy active in the design and production of telescopes, optomechanical, and aerospace instrumentation for ground and space-based applications will touch on each of these.
Listen as Gino discusses the difference between ground-based and space-based telescopes; the former best suited for research, astronomy and defense applications like weapon tracking; while the latter is most often used for debris tracking, satellite collision avoidance, or laser communication. Gino further discusses why telescopes are perfect to provide information on an object’s angular position, thanks to their extremely high resolution, while radar is perfect to obtain a precise measurement of the object’s distance.
Gino attributes launch reduction costs and availability of space compliant technologies as key contributors to the creation of the “New Space Economy” where private companies can now do business in space.
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** The Space Show – Sunday, Feb.28.2021 – Open lines program welcomed discussion of topics suggested by listeners. “Robert Jacobson started us off with his commercial space update. We then took multiple calls from callers on lots of subjects including space settlement, children and childbirth for space settlement, Mars, Moon and much more.”
With the increasing visibility of private space companies, the safe arrival of the Perseverance rover on Mars, and renewed interest in space exploration, it seems like space is now solidly back in the public imagination.
We traditionally associate space innovation with the US, China and Russia, but the UK is at the forefront of the new space economy, with 5.1% share of the global space market and plans to capture 10% by 2030.
In this episode I speak to Melissa Thorpe, Interim Head of Spaceport Cornwall, about the next phase of space innovation, how horizontal launch capabilities are being built here in the UK, and the economic and technological opportunities this will provide.
(Spaceport Cornwall is the horizontal space launch site at Cornwall Airport Newquay, in South West England. Spaceport Cornwall is a partnership between Cornwall Council, commercial launch operator Virgin Orbit and Goonhilly Earth Station. The consortium will deliver small satellite launch into lower Earth Orbit, for the first time ever from the UK by 2022.)
Special Topic Webinar Moderator: Antonino Salmeri, Space Generation Advisory Council – Luxembourg Panelists: Ian Christensen, Secure World Foundation – USA Ruvimbo Samanga, Open Lunar Foundation – Zimbabwe
The proposed live panel would explore the usefulness of the “social license to operate” concept for managing space resource activities, with a special focus on the Moon. The term “Social License to Operate” (SLO) indicates a series of measures agreed between a mining company and the community where it operates with the goal of establishing guidelines for fair and sustainable extraction activities.
The applicability of SLO within the context of space resources activities has been firstly introduced by the Socio-Economic Panel of The Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group. This work suggested that considering the SLO for space resources might provide a conceptual framework through which affected sociocultural, heritage and environmental factors might be considered in governance. Since then, the topic has been further researched by the Space Exploration Project Group of Space Generation Advisory Council, as well as by the Open Lunar Foundation. At the latest International Astronautical Congress, the SEPG presented a first follow-up research investigating the development of a Lunar SLO, covering the relevant rationale, as well as proposed objectives and governance mechanisms.
Based on these findings, the panel will discuss the merits and drawbacks of developing a Lunar SLO, as well as suitable models for its concrete application. The future development of a Lunar SLO is one that will encompass multi-level, multi-stakeholder initiatives, towards sustainable resource utilization. More so than that, a balancing of interests between community and operators is required. To this end, the diverse pool of proposed panelists will promote a cross-disciplinary, intergenerational, and multinational dialogue with the goal of representing the various viewpoints of the space community.
Special Topic Webinar Moderator: Brian Weeden, Secure World Foundation – USA Panelists: Dan Oltrogge, Center for Space Standards, AGI – USA Sujai Shivakumar, National Academy of Public Administration – USA Quentin Verspieren, University of Tokyo – Japan
For much of the last sixty years of space activities, a few national militaries have developed capabilities to track and monitor objects and activities in orbit around the Earth. The recent growth in commercial, civil, and international space activities and an overall number of satellites has stretched those current capabilities to their breaking point and highlighted gaps in how countries provide authorization and oversight of rapidly expanding space activities. Space Traffic Coordination and Management has been debated in various forms for nearly as long but has achieved new salience in recent years, particularly in the United States. The panel will describe current initiatives towards a polycentric framework for governance that brings together concerned agencies of the U.S. government, contributions from commercial actors, and other space nations and international actors.
** Yan Song – How Can We Solve the Challenge of Operationalizing Cultural Development? – CSP S04E04 – Cold Star Technologies – YouTube
Systems Thinking thought leader and Fortune 500 executive Yan Song is our guest on this first episode of a series on the Cold Star Project. Our series topic is about culture in organizations. The question we’re asking in this episode is: How can we solve the 21st Century challenge of operationalizing cultural development? Begin with the possibility that we can build culture development right into our operations, and have our people improve it as they carry out their daily tasks.
** What’s Up: March 2021 Skywatching Tips from NASA – NASA JPL
What are some skywatching highlights in March 2021? Look for Mars close to the Pleiades in the first couple of weeks of March. Then wake up early to observe the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, which return as morning planets this month. 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/whats-up….
In March, the stars of spring lie eastward: Look for the constellations Gemini and Cancer to spot interesting celestial features like star clusters M35 and the Beehive Cluster, and NGC 3923, an oblong elliptical galaxy with an interesting ripple pattern. Keep watching for space-based views of the galaxies.
