The Tarantula Nebula taken by the Super Pressure
Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT). Credits: NASA/SuperBIT
The Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) that launched on a
scientific super pressure balloon April 16, 2023, local time from Wānaka, New
Zealand, captured its first research images from this flight of the
Tarantula Nebula and Antennae Galaxies. These images were captured on a
balloon-borne telescope floating at 108,000 feet above Earth’s surface, allowing
scientists to view these scientific targets from a balloon platform in a
near-space environment.
The advantage of balloon-based versus space telescopes is the reduced cost
of not having to launch a large telescope on a rocket. A super pressure balloon
can circumnavigate the globe for up to 100 days to gather scientific data. The
balloon also floats at an altitude above most of the Earth’s atmosphere, making
it suitable for many astronomical observations.
The SuperBIT telescope captures images of galaxies in the visible-to-near
ultraviolet light spectrum, which is within the Hubble Space Telescope’s
capabilities, but with a wider field of view. The goal of the mission is to map
dark matter around galaxy clusters by measuring the way these massive objects
warp the space around them, also called “weak gravitational lensing.”
The Antennae Galaxies taken by the Super Pressure
Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT). Credits: NASA/SuperBIT
The Tarantula Nebula is a large star-forming region of ionized hydrogen gas
that lies 161,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and its
turbulent clouds of gas and dust appear to swirl between the region’s bright,
newly formed stars. The Tarantula Nebula has previously be captured by both
the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space
Telescope.
The Antennae galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, are two large
galaxies colliding 60 million light-years away toward the southerly
constellation Corvus. The galaxies have previously been captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra
X-ray Observatory, and now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope. A composite image of the
galaxies combines data taken by all three telescopes.
SuperBIT’s first research images from this flight were released by Durham
University here. The SuperBIT
team is a collaboration among NASA; Durham University, United Kingdom; the
University of Toronto, Canada; and Princeton University in New Jersey.
In Sri Lanka, a large Minneriya
reservoir built by King Mahasen in the third century provides Asian elephants
with a year-round water supply and floodplain vegetation for foraging. Credit:
Shermin de Silva
In Sri Lanka, a large Minneriya reservoir built by
King Mahasen in the third century provides Asian elephants with a year-round
water supply and floodplain vegetation for foraging. Credit: Shermin de Silva
More than 3 million square
kilometers of the Asian elephant's historic habitat range has been lost in just
three centuries, a new report from an international scientific team led by a
University of California San Diego researcher reveals. This dramatic decline
may underlie present-day conflicts between elephants and people, the authors
argue.
Developing new insights from a
unique data set that models land-use change over 13 centuries, a research team led by new UC
San Diego faculty member Shermin de Silva found that habitats suitable for
Asian elephants have been cut by nearly two-thirds within the past 300 years.
The largest living land animal in
Asia, endangered Asian elephants inhabited grasslands and rainforest ecosystems
that once spanned the breadth of the continent. Analyzing land-use data from the years 850 to 2015, the researchers
describe in the journal Scientific Reports a troubling
situation in which they estimate that more than 64% of historic suitable
elephant habitat across Asia has been lost. While elephant
habitats remained relatively stable prior to the 1700s, colonial-era land-use
practices in Asia, including timber extraction, farming and agriculture, cut
the average habitat patch size more than 80%, from 99,000 to 16,000 square
kilometers.
The study also suggests that the
remaining elephant populations today may not have adequate habitat areas. While
100% of the area within 100 kilometers of the current elephant range was
considered suitable habitat in 1700, the proportion has since declined to less
than 50% by 2015. This sets up a high potential for conflicts with people
living in those areas as elephant populations alter their behavior and adjust
to more human-dominated spaces.
Animation tracking the loss of suitable habitat
for Asian elephants (yellow) between 1700-2015. A study published in Scientific
Reports led by UC San Diego examining habitats across centuries
reveals an urgent need for sustainable land-use and conservation strategies to
avoid dangers for wildlife and human communities. Credit: Ashley Weaver
"In the 1600s and 1700s there
is evidence of a dramatic change in land use, not just in Asia, but
globally," said de Silva, an assistant professor in the School of
Biological Sciences' Department of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, and founder
of the nonprofit Trunks & Leaves. "Around the world we see a really
dramatic transformation that has consequences that persist even to this
day."
Also contributing to the study were
researchers from across the globe, including Smithsonian's National Zoo and
Conservation Biology Institute, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Frankfurt
Zoological Society, Vietnam National University of Forestry, Wild Earth Allies,
Zoological Society of London and Colby College.
"This study has important
implications for our understanding of the history of elephant landscapes in
Asia and it lays the groundwork for better understanding and modeling the
potential future of elephant landscapes as well," said Philip Nyhus,
Professor of Environmental Studies at Colby College and one of the study
co-authors.
In addition to Nyhus, three Colby
undergraduate students contributed to the study. "This was a collaborative
and multi-institutional effort," added Nyhus, "and I was proud that
Colby students contributed significantly to the models and analyses used in the
study."
The global space available for Asian
elephant habitats has been in rapid decline since the 1700s. Credit: Report
coauthors
Beyond
the immediate impact on Asian elephants, the study offers the results as a
mechanism to assess land-use practices and much-needed conservation strategies
for all of the area's inhabitants.
"We're using elephants as
indicators to look at the impact of land-use change on these diverse ecosystems
over a longer time scale," said de Silva.
Human impacts leading to reductions in
the habitat ranges of several land-based mammal species have been well
documented in the recent past. Climate change is also thought to have
accelerated this decline over the past century. But assessing the impact of
such changes on wildlife over the long-term has been difficult to study due to
the lack of historical records.
The newly published findings were based
on information from the Land-Use Harmonization (LUH) data set, produced by
researchers at the University of Maryland. The data set provides historical
reconstructions of various types of land uses—including forests, crops,
pastures and other types—that reach back to the ninth century.
Asian elephants inhabit dry deciduous
forests, seen here in Sri Lanka, as well as lush rainforests. Credit: Shermin de
Silva
"We
used present-day locations where we know there are elephants, together with the
corresponding environmental features based on the LUH data sets, to infer where
similar habitats existed in the past," said de Silva. "In order for
us to build a more just and sustainable society, we have to understand the
history of how we got here. This study is one step toward that
understanding."
The research team notes that the
historical range of elephants is likely to have extended well beyond protected
areas, which are of insufficient size to support elephant populations in Asia.
They included lands under traditional systems of management that were altered
within the past three centuries. The loss of these traditional practices, the
authors suggest, may be a major reason behind the loss of habitat.
Much more work, the authors argue, is
needed to understand possible changes facing these habitats in the future.
Considering the people—along with wildlife—at the frontiers of elephant-human
conflict zones, the researchers caution that attempts at habitat restoration
need to be guided under a reckoning of social and environmental justice for
historically marginalized communities.
"Exploring the relationship between
past land management practices and the distributions of elephant ecosystems
would be a useful direction for future studies from the perspectives of both
ecological and social policy," they note in the report.
A
stunning smash-up of two spiral galaxies shines in infrared with the light of
more than a trillion suns. Collectively called Arp 220, the colliding galaxies
ignited a tremendous burst of star birth. Each of the combining galactic cores
is encircled by a rotating, star-forming ring blasting out the glaring light
that Webb captured in infrared. This brilliant light creates a prominent,
spiked, starburst feature. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alyssa Pagan
(STScI) Download the
full-resolution image from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Shining
like a brilliant beacon amidst a sea of galaxies, Arp 220 lights up the night
sky in this view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Actually two spiral
galaxies in the process of merging, Arp 220 glows brightest in infrared
light, making it an ideal target for Webb. It is an
ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with a luminosity of more than a
trillion suns. In comparison, our Milky Way galaxy has a much more modest
luminosity of about ten billion suns.
Located
250 million light-years away in the constellation of Serpens, the Serpent, Arp
220 is the 220th object in Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.
It is the nearest ULIRG and the brightest of the three galactic mergers closest
to Earth.
The
collision of the two spiral galaxies began about 700 million years ago. It
sparked an enormous burst of star formation.
About 200 huge star clusters reside in a packed, dusty region about 5,000
light-years across (about 5 percent of the Milky Way's diameter). The amount of
gas in this tiny region is equal to all of the gas in the entire Milky Way
galaxy.
Previous
radio telescope observations revealed about 100 supernova remnants in an area
of less than 500 light-years. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope uncovered the cores
of the parent galaxies 1,200 light-years apart. Each of the cores has a
rotating, star-forming ring blasting out the dazzling infrared light so
apparent in this Webb view. This glaring light creates diffraction spikes —
the starburst feature that dominates this image.
On the outskirts of this merger, Webb reveals faint tidal tails, or material
drawn off the galaxies by gravity, represented in blue — evidence of the
galactic dance that is occurring. Organic material represented in
reddish-orange appears in streams and filaments across Arp 220.
The
James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory.
Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds
around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our
universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with
its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
For more than two
decades, the International Space Station has provided a platform for growing
and studying protein crystals. In the early days of microgravity research,
scientists discovered that they protein crystals grown in space were more
uniform and larger than those grown in Earth’s gravity. Since then, drug
companies and academic researchers have conducted hundreds of protein crystal
growth (PCG) experiments on the space station – by far the largest single
category of experiments conducted on the orbiting lab.
Proteins are involved in every aspect of our
lives, including as essential components of our immune system and as parts of
viruses that can make us sick. When we take a medication, it binds to a
specific protein in the body. This process changes the protein’s function – and
if it works properly, that can make us well.
ESA
(European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and cosmonaut Fyodor
Yurchikhin pose with canister bags from the Protein Crystallization Research
Facility (PCRF) during Kristallizator operations. Credits: NASA
In many diseases,
the proteins that can trigger the disease state fit into very specific
locations, like a biological keyhole. The protein of a potential drug for
treating that disease must be designed to fit that keyhole. A good key and
keyhole fit results in a more effective medicine with fewer side effects, but
to achieve that fit, scientists need detailed knowledge of the structure of
both proteins. One of the best ways to analyze a protein structure is to grow
it in crystalline form.
Since 2005, the Kristallizator program from the State Space
Corporation Roscosmos has created single protein crystals especially suited for
analysis using X-ray diffraction. One outcome of these studies was
identifying the structure of a target for anti-tuberculosis drugs, which could
help scientists develop a treatment.
Protein
crystals form in microgravity in the space station’s Kibo Module. Credits: JAXA
JAXA (Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency) has been active in protein crystal growth research in microgravity, accounting
for about two-thirds of all PCG experiments on the station. A series of studies, JAXA PCG, has provided precise structures of many protein types and has led to the discovery of
potential drugs.
One of these studies examined the crystal structure of a
protein associated with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a currently
incurable genetic disorder. The work provided hints for compounds that could
inhibit the disease, leading to several promising compounds, including one
called TAS-205. The research team estimates the drug may slow the
progression of DMD by half, increasing the lifespan of many patients. A clinical trial in human patients was completed in
2017. Co-investigator Mitsugu Yamada of JAXA says a larger Phase 3 trial to
examine the effectiveness of TAS-205 in situations similar to actual clinical
use began in December 2020 and will continue until 2027.
JAXA Moderate Temperature PCG continued this work, producing high quality
crystals to advance basic biochemical knowledge and support drug discovery.
In addition to creating completely new
treatments, PCG research on station can lead to drug formulations that are
easier to store and last longer – such as those stable at room temperature that
eliminate the need for refrigeration. This modification lowers the cost and
simplifies distribution of drugs.
JAXA
astronaut Koichi Wakata prepares Moderate Temperature PCG samples to ride the
SpaceX Dragon cargo craft back to Earth for additional analysis. Credits: NASA
PCG-5, work sponsored by the ISS National Lab,
focused on how drugs known as monoclonal antibodies are given to patients.
Monoclonal antibodies do not dissolve easily in liquid and typically are
delivered intravenously, requiring a patient to spend hours in a clinic
setting. High-quality crystalline suspensions produced by PCG-5 could enable delivery by injection,
making treatment more convenient for patients and caregivers and significantly
reducing cost.
Merck Research Laboratories, developer of
a series of PCG experiments, produced simple hardware and processes that
scientists from other disciplines can use to conduct microgravity research.
JAXA has worked to increase interest in PCG research in microgravity as well,
developing a technology for membrane protein
crystallization, for example. Other studies have advanced the field of protein
crystallization by producing new processes for growing
high-quality crystals aboard the space station.
By providing a platform for PCG research,
the space station plays a key role in bringing people on Earth new and better
treatments for diseases.
Crystallizing Biological Macromolecules
and Obtaining Biocrystalline Films in Microgravity Conditions (Kristallizator) JAXA PCG
JAXA Moderate Temperature PCG PCG-5
Crystallization of LRRK2 Under Microgravity Conditions-2 (CASIS PCG 16)
Structural and Crystallization Kinetics Analysis of Monoclonal Antibodies (Monoclonal Antibodies PCG)
Screening and Batch Manufacture of Complex Biotherapeutics in Microgravity (Monoclonal Antibodies PCG-2)
Monoclonal Antibody Stability in Microgravity-Formulation Study (CASIS PCG 19)
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