Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal - UNIVERSE

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features spiral galaxy UGC 10043.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Windhorst, W. Keel

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a spiral galaxy, named UGC 10043. We don’t see the galaxy’s spiral arms because we are seeing it from the side. Located roughly 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens, UGC 10043 is one of the somewhat rare spiral galaxies that we see edge-on.

This edge-on viewpoint makes the galaxy’s disk appear as a sharp line through space, with its prominent dust lanes forming thick bands of clouds that obscure our view of the galaxy’s glow. If we could fly above the galaxy, viewing it from the top down, we would see this dust scattered across UGC 10043, possibly outlining its spiral arms. Despite the dust’s obscuring nature, some active star-forming regions shine out from behind the dark clouds. We can also see that the galaxy’s center sports a glowing, almost egg-shaped ‘bulge’, rising far above and below the disk. All spiral galaxies have a bulge similar to this one as part of their structure. These bulges hold stars that orbit the galactic center on paths above and below the whirling disk; it’s a feature that isn’t normally obvious in pictures of galaxies. The unusually large size of this bulge compared to the galaxy’s disk is possibly due to UGC 10043 siphoning material from a nearby dwarf galaxy. This may also be why its disk appears warped, bending up at one end and down at the other.

Like most full-color Hubble images, this image is a composite, made up of several individual snapshots taken by Hubble at different times, each capturing different wavelengths of light. One notable aspect of this image is that the two sets of data that comprise this image were collected 23 years apart, in 2000 and 2023! Hubble’s longevity doesn’t just afford us the ability to produce new and better images of old targets; it also provides a long-term archive of data which only becomes more and more useful to astronomers. 

By: NASA Hubble Mission Team, Goddard Space Flight Center

Source: Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal - NASA Science 

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Discovery Alert: a ‘Hot Neptune’ in a Tight Orbit - UNIVERSE

Artist's concept of "hot Neptune" TOI-3261 b.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Miller (Caltech/IPAC)

By Grace Jacobs Corban

The Discovery

A Neptune-sized planet, TOI-3261 b, makes a scorchingly close orbit around its host star. Only the fourth object of its kind ever found, the planet could reveal clues as to how planets such as these form.

Key Facts

An international team of scientists used the NASA space telescope, TESS (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), to discover the exoplanet (a planet outside our solar system), then made further observations with ground-based telescopes in Australia, Chile, and South Africa. The measurements placed the new planet squarely in the “hot Neptune desert” – a category of planets with so few members that their scarcity evokes a deserted landscape. This variety of exoplanet is similar to our own Neptune in size and composition, but orbits extremely closely to its star. In this case, a “year” on TOI-3261 b is only 21 hours long. Such a tight orbit earns this planet its place in an exclusive group with, so far, only three other members: ultra-short-period hot Neptunes whose masses have been precisely measured.

Details

Planet TOI-3261 b proves to be an ideal candidate to test new computer models of planet formation. Part of the reason hot Neptunes are so rare is that it is difficult to retain a thick gaseous atmosphere so close to a star. Stars are massive, and so exert a large gravitational force on the things around them, which can strip the layers of gas surrounding a nearby planet. They also emit huge amounts of energy, which blow the gas layers away. Both of these factors mean that hot Neptunes such as TOI-3261 b might have started out as much larger, Jupiter-sized planets, and have since lost a large portion of their mass.

By modeling different starting points and development scenarios, the science team determined that the star and planet system is about 6.5 billion years old, and that the planet started out as a much larger gas giant. It likely lost mass, however, in two ways: photoevaporation, when energy from the star causes gas particles to dissipate, and tidal stripping, when the gravitational force from the star strips layers of gas from the planet. The planet also might have formed farther away from its star, where both of these effects would be less intense, allowing it to retain its atmosphere.

The remaining atmosphere of the planet, one of its most interesting features, will likely invite further atmospheric analysis, perhaps helping to unravel the formation history of this denizen of the “hot Neptune desert.” Planet TOI-3261 b is about twice as dense as Neptune, indicating that the lighter parts of its atmosphere have been stripped away over time, leaving only the heavier components. This shows that the planet must have started out with a variety of different elements in its atmosphere, but at this stage, it is hard to tell exactly what. This mystery could be solved by observing the planet in infrared light, perhaps using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – an ideal way to see the identifying fingerprints of the different molecules in the planet’s atmosphere. This will not just help astronomers understand the past of TOI-3261 b, but also begin to uncover the physical processes behind all hot, giant planets.

Fun Facts

The first-ever discovery of an ultra-short-period hot Neptune, LTT-9779 b, came in 2020. Since then, TESS discoveries TOI-849 b and TOI-332 b have also joined the elite ultra-short-period hot-Neptune club (with masses that have been precisely measured). Both LTT-9779 b and TOI-849 b are in the queue for infrared observations with the James Webb Space Telescope, potentially broadening our understanding of these planets’ atmospheres in the coming years.

The Discoverers

An international science team led by astronomer Emma Nabbie of the University of Southern Queensland published their paper on the discovery, “Surviving in the Hot Neptune Desert: The Discovery of the Ultrahot Neptune TOI-3261 b,” in The Astronomical Journal in August 2024. 

By: Pat Brennan

Source: Discovery Alert: a ‘Hot Neptune’ in a Tight Orbit - NASA Science 

Engineers build raptor-inspired drone with morphable wings, twisting tail that can initiate banking

High-speed sharp turning maneuvers enabled by tail twist with and without coordination of wing shape morphing. Credit: Hoang-Vu Phan

A pair of engineers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has designed, built and tested a feathered, hawk-inspired drone capable of carrying out banking maneuvers without using its wings.

In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, Hoang-Vu Phan and Dario Floreano describe the factors that went into building their robot raptor and how well it performed during testing in a wind tunnel.

The work by the researchers began when they learned that many types of raptors have been found to initiate banking while soaring without moving their wings. The entire procedure is carried out by manipulation of the tail. In contrast, airplanes and drones carry out banks by manipulation of ailerons on the back of the wings. 

Intrigued by the difference between the way human-built craft and raptors conduct banks, the pair designed and built a feathered, mechanical raptor capable of mimicking the technique of a hawk.

To build their drone, the researchers turned to the anatomy of the hawk. Using light materials, they created raptor-like bones and joints to make the wings and tail and fashioned them onto an equally light body and then covered them with foam feathers. The simple drone was held aloft by the attachment of a rod to the body—the other end of the rod was held in a researchers' hand. They called the result LisRaptor.

Credit: Hoang-Vu Phan

Next, they studied video of hawks in flight to learn how they manipulate their tails to initiate a banking maneuver and mimicked what they saw with their mechanical bird. They then put it in a wind tunnel for testing.

The researchers' artificial hawk was able to successfully bank inside the wind tunnel without using its wings. Instead, all it took was a certain twisting of the tail.

Coupled motion of bird wing skeletons around elbow and wrist joints (C) inspires design of the robotic wing skeleton (D). Credit: Hoang-Vu Phan

They found it worked due to the proximity of the tail to the wings—a slight twisting allowed for asymmetric wind flow over the wings and tail, resulting in asymmetric lift—which made the entire bird tilt to one side even as it pointed slightly upward, to prevent stalling.

The research pair suggest their robot not only helps explain certain aspects of raptor flight but might be useful in designing new kinds of drones that are able to turn more smoothly. 

by Bob Yirka , Tech Xplore

Source: Engineers build raptor-inspired feathered drone with morphable wings and twisting tail that can initiate banking  

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