NASA’s Webb Pinpoints Millions of Stars Within Cigar Galaxy - UNIVERSE

Located 12 million light-years away and undergoing rapid star formation, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is a scientifically unique sight to behold, and now NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed previously unseen details.

M82’s intense star formation, thought to be the result of a galaxy merger, will be a short-lived event in astronomical terms, estimated to last a few hundred million years in its entirety. This temporary phase of extreme star formation relative to the galaxy’s mass, as well as its location in the local universe, are among the factors that make M82, also known as the Cigar galaxy, a one-of-a-kind environment to study.

Image: M82 Cigar Galaxy (Webb + Hubble)

Scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82 and trace its evolutionary history. This Webb and Hubble composite image includes 16.5 million stars (blue-white), dust grains (red-orange), and ionized hydrogen gas (yellow).

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Adam Smercina (STScI, Tufts), Thomas Williams (University of Manchester); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

A team of astronomers recently completed an imaging survey with the Webb telescope. This program entailed a total of 65 hours of observation time with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument and revealed never-seen-before details of the starburst galaxy, including its distended disk structure and millions of individual stars. Webb’s high-resolution imaging, specifically of the main plane of the galactic disk, has unlocked vital information for astronomers as they seek to uncover M82’s formation history. Additionally, the Webb data will help scientists understand the current processes occurring within the starburst galaxy.

“M82 is a mess, but it’s a beautiful mess. We don’t fully understand what’s going on, especially concerning its evolutionary history. What could have triggered such an elevated rate of star formation? How long has this galaxy been driving plumes of material away from its center?” said principal investigator Adam Smercina, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and incoming Assistant Professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts. “M82 is an ideal galaxy evolution laboratory because it has properties that allow us to probe important physical processes, such as how stars form in such environments and how that activity drives outflows. M82 provides a simultaneous window onto many astrophysical questions, in a way that no other galaxy in the local universe can.”

Image: M82 Cigar Galaxy (NIRCam Image)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82, peering through dust to reveal 16.5 million stars and the galaxy’s distended disk structure. Scientists seek to learn the galaxy’s evolutionary history with the Webb data.

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Adam Smercina (STScI, Tufts), Thomas Williams (University of Manchester); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Prior to Webb, many observatories looked at the starburst galaxy, including NASA’s Hubble and retired Spitzer space telescopes. However, the sheer volume of dust within that galaxy limited the amount of information astronomers could acquire on M82 at high resolution. While Webb has previously looked at this galaxy, the duration of the new imaging survey, combined with the telescope’s infrared sensitivity, enabled it to pierce through the thick dust.

Image: M82 Cigar Galaxy (Hubble/Webb Side-by-Side)

Side-by-side comparison of a portion of starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82) as seen by NASA’s Hubble (left) and James Webb (right) space telescopes. Hubble detailed M82’s gas and dust structure, while Webb pierced through the dust and resolved millions of stars in infrared light.

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Adam Smercina (STScI, Tufts), Thomas Williams (University of Manchester); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

The telescope’s near-infrared-light view is a snapshot of a scene that has been evolving over a couple hundred million years. Webb’s image contains approximately 16.5 million individual stars dispersed throughout the galaxy. The light from these stellar sources is depicted as luminous blue granules. This is only a small portion of the total amount of stars astronomers think reside in a galaxy like M82, with the majority too faint to be seen.

“The sheer number of stars that we were able to resolve with Webb is incredible,” said team member Benjamin Williams of the University of Washington. “It’s a whole different world from what we’ve been able to see with other telescopes. All of these stars collectively provide a detailed fossil record of the formation and evolution of M82.”

Moving inward, the increase in brightness and the asymmetrical shape of the galactic disk hints at the spiral galaxy’s unique underlying structure. The differing radii between the two sides suggests that M82 has a distorted shape, which can happen during intense galaxy mergers.

“At first glance, the disk of the galaxy may seem less spectacular because Webb sees through the dust,” said team member Eric Bell of the University of Michigan. “But M82 is a delightfully complex system. Webb’s observations will help us address some ongoing mysteries, such as how star formation has moved within M82 over the last few billion years.”

Video: M82 Cigar Galaxy (Webb + Hubble Fade)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared observation of M82 is the most recent addition to overall data on this starburst galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope is one observatory that has previously looked at M82, detailing the gas and dust structure seen in visible light.

Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Because of the extreme star formation within the galaxy, which is 10 times faster than the Milky Way galaxy’s star formation rate, stellar birth will eventually be disrupted. M82’s stellar frenzy is causing bipolar plumes of material to be ejected above and below the disk. Though it looks like a tumultuous region, the hourglass-shaped outflows appear to have a layered structure. The yellow tendrils of material closest to the galaxy’s disk represent ionized gas, whereas the orange material farther away depicts small dust grains. These grains are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and are helpful in tracing material in the space between the galaxy’s stars, also known as the interstellar medium.

The information collected as part of this Webb study is just one dataset scientists will analyze as they seek to piece together this starburst galaxy’s formation history.

“Galaxies are such intricate ecosystems that if you truly want to understand them, you have to pull datasets from different missions together,” said team member Kristen McQuinn of the Space Telescope Science Institute. “One mission cannot fully answer all of the questions we have about M82. Combining the data collected by different telescopes, like Webb and Hubble, is powerful. When you marry the datasets, you expand what you can probe, and the questions that you can pose are even more complex.”

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing 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 CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

To learn more about Webb, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/webb 

Source: NASA’s Webb Pinpoints Millions of Stars Within Cigar Galaxy - NASA Science 

A thermodynamic approach to gravity could explain cosmic acceleration without dark energy - Physics - General Physics - Quantum Physics

A small causal diamond used as a tiny local laboratory for deriving gravity from thermal physics. Heat flows in and out across the light-like boundaries of the diamond, allowing the authors to ask what kind of gravitational theory emerges from a more general thermodynamic process that might happen inside the diamond. Credit: Isichei and Magueijo / Physical Review Letters.

Gravity, the force that attracts objects toward each other, is currently framed by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This framework describes gravity as the curvature of spacetime, the invisible four-dimensional fabric of the universe.

While general relativity is now the central theory of gravity, it fails to explain some cosmological phenomena and mysteries, such as the so-called cosmological constant problem. This is the unexplained mismatch between the observed energy of empty space and the far greater values predicted by quantum theories.

In a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at Imperial College London tried to frame gravity using thermodynamics, the framework that describes how energy and heat transform. Their study builds on a seminal paper by theoretical physicist Ted Jacobson, published more than three decades ago.

"I first came across Jacobson's seminal 1995 work when I was just out of my Ph.D., and I found the idea fascinating," João Magueijo, senior author of the paper, told Phys.org.

"He inverted the logic of Hawking and Bekenstein's arguments that Einstein gravity has temperature and entropy and instead used thermal physics to derive Einstein gravity. I wanted to do something with this idea for years, but all my attempts failed miserably. Then last year, while on holiday on a remote Greek island, part of which has no internet, which may have helped, I realized that most previous work had tried to retrofit existing theories of gravity into Jacobson's construction." 

The thermodynamic cycle proposed in the Letter. Standard Einstein gravity corresponds to the degenerate case in which only heat-flow legs are present. Allowing the additional work-producing legs opens the door to new gravitational theories, including ones in which matter-energy conservation is modified. Credit: Isichei and Magueijo / Physical Review Letters.

Building on this realization, Magueijo started exploring the possibility of describing gravity starting from thermal physics alone, without trying to determine what type of gravity theory would emerge. His hope was that this process would lead to entirely new theories of gravity that no one had thought of before.

Linking gravity, thermodynamics and the expanding universe

To further develop the ideas he had been contemplating, Magueijo started collaborating with Ray Isichei, a Ph.D. student he was supervising at Imperial College. Together, the two researchers started examining gravity from a thermodynamic standpoint, specifically framing it as an Otto cycle, a thermodynamic construct that describes how gasoline engines work.

"We asked what happens if the thermodynamic process behind gravity is not just heat flow," Magueijo explained. "In ordinary thermodynamics, heat is almost never the whole story: There may also be chemical reactions, expansion against a piston, work being done or other contributions. So, we added this missing 'something else' to the argument, without prejudice regarding what would come out the other side."

To their surprise, the researchers found that the gravitational theory they derived allowed matter and energy to be created or destroyed. This was a total shock, as the conservation of energy and matter is a fundamental physical principle. The fact that it could be violated almost prompted them to abandon their theory altogether.

"The idea did not end up in the garbage bin because we realized that, when applied to the universe as a whole, it could reproduce the observed acceleration of cosmic expansion without having to posit dark energy, a cosmological constant, or any of the usual ingredients invoked to explain it," Magueijo said.

"Normal matter should pull back and decelerate the expansion of the universe, but that assumes the usual conservation laws. In this model, normal matter whose conservation law is modified (allowing for continuous creation) can instead drive acceleration."

Fueling new theoretical studies

The team's study offers a fresh and unconventional theory of gravity, suggesting that Einstein's theory of relativity could also potentially be framed as a thermodynamic process. This theoretical framework could eliminate the need for a conventional cosmological constant, potentially helping to tackle a long-standing issue in cosmology.

While the new theory devised by Magueijo and Isichei is intriguing, it is still speculative and in its early stages. The researchers are now planning further studies aimed at developing it further and comparing its predictions with available cosmological evidence and experimental results.

"A lot of work now needs to be done comparing the model in detail with cosmological observations," Magueijo added. "When I started my Ph.D., back in 1990, you could still say almost anything in cosmology, because the paucity of data allowed it. Cosmology has since become a high-precision, data-driven subject. Any new idea now must pass the gauntlet of observation." 

Source: A thermodynamic approach to gravity could explain cosmic acceleration without dark energy

NASA Seeks Volunteers for New Yearlong Simulated Moon, Mars Mission

A research volunteer uses augmented reality goggles to perform astronaut-like tasks during a simulated space mission. Participants selected for NASA’s first Moon and Mars Exploration Analog mission also will perform tasks in immersive, interactive environments while living inside habitats that simulate traveling to and living on the Moon and Mars.

Credit: NASA

NASA is recruiting research participants for the agency’s next simulated deep space mission. Beginning no earlier than August 2027, research volunteers will spend one year living and working in interplanetary environments at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, operating under isolated conditions expected during crewed missions to the Moon or Red Planet.
 
Insights from this new, yearlong experience, called the Moon and Mars Exploration Analog, can be used to help keep astronauts safe and mission-ready during future planetary surface operations. The results also could inform plans for a sustained lunar presence through the agency’s Moon Base and future Artemis missions.
 
NASA is looking for applicants for the approximately year-long mission simulation, which will take place in two confined habitats. In addition to specific physical and education requirements, volunteers must be willing to take part in a multi-day selection process and pass NASA’s physical and psychological assessments, found on the Moon and Mars Exploration Analog web page. Candidates also should have a strong desire for unique, rewarding experiences, and interest in contributing to NASA’s work to prepare for extended stays on the lunar surface and the first crewed mission to Mars.
 
The Moon and Mars Exploration Analog evolves elements of the agency’s HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) and CHAPEA (Crew Health And Performance Exploration Analog) missions into a single, integrated mission to streamline how researchers evaluate astronaut adaptation across the full range of potential mission scenarios. Using the HERA habitat as a spacecraft and the CHAPEA habitat as a base, the volunteers will live and work in confined, isolated environments that simulate months-long flights to and from other planetary surfaces. They also will mimic surface operations, including mock Mars walks and using a rover to travel to exploration sites located beyond the main habitat.
 
Throughout the Moon and Mars Exploration Analog mission, researchers will study crew health and performance under resource limitations and mission demands. These missions also help NASA assess and validate hardware, technologies, protocols, requirements, and other systems designed to support crew health and performance on long-duration deep space missions, all without leaving Earth. The effort will provide valuable data for NASA’s Human Research Program, which innovates ways to keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready.
 
To apply, visit:  NASA Analogs Recruiting

As part of the Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface, and to build on the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
 
For more about NASA’s Human Research Program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/ 

Source: NASA Seeks Volunteers for New Yearlong Simulated Moon, Mars Mission - NASA  

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NASA’s Chandra Reveals ‘Red, White, Blue’ Universe for US 250th - UNIVERSE

In celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States, NASA has unveiled four cosmic images from its Chandra X-ray Observatory rendered in red, white, and blue that represent the wonders of the universe the agency explores. The images are accompanied by a trio of new sonifications – a technique that translates astronomical data into sounds.

In celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has unveiled four cosmic images rendered in red, white, and blue that represent the wonders of the universe that NASA explores.

NASA/CXC/SAO

The image set begins with Cassiopeia A in the top panel, where X-rays from Chandra (represented in blue and purple) have been combined with an infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (red and white). Chandra’s X-ray vision reveals the blast wave that tore through the star, as well as elements in the debris field like iron, calcium, and oxygen. Webb’s infrared data also shows the expanding shell of material from the explosion and cosmic dust throughout the remnant.

 In the bottom row, the first image on the left is the nebula NGC 3603, which contains a massive cluster of stars and is located in the Milky Way Galaxy. This new composite image contains Chandra’s X-ray data (red and white) and shows diffuse emissions near the galaxy’s center along with point-like X-ray sources throughout the middle of the image. Optical, infrared, and ultraviolet light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (red-orange, green, blue, and yellow) reveal stars in the center of the image and dust and gas toward the bottom. The combined layering of the colors makes this nebula and the stars forming within it appear primarily red, white, and blue, with X-rays showing the sparkling lights of young stars.

The middle panel of the bottom row is a new look at the galaxy NGC 4736, also known as Messier 94. In this image, X-rays of different wavelengths from Chandra (red, orange, and blue) are layered with a visible light image from astrophotographers using their telescopes on the ground (red, green, and blue). Messier 94 is a spiral galaxy with a bright inner ring around it, called a starburst ring, where new stars are forming, perhaps fueled by gas driven in the unique oval-shaped structure seen here.

The final image in this red, white, and blue quartet features ZwCl 0024+1652. This is a distant galaxy cluster in which astronomers have found evidence for dark matter by using specially processed data from Hubble (blue). Another image from Hubble reveals the individual galaxies in the cluster (appearing as yellow and white). X-ray data from Chandra shows the enormous reservoir of superheated gas that pervades this galaxy cluster (red) with much more mass than all the galaxies taken together.

New sonifications of the three images along the bottom row of this mosaic are also available, allowing listeners to experience data through sound.

The translation of NGC 3603 into sound begins with a left to right scan, where the brightnesses of the sources once again dictate volume. Chandra’s observations of compact sources sprinkled throughout the galaxy are heard as piano notes, while the diffuse X-ray emission is mapped to a range of audio frequencies. The Hubble optical data is played as sustained tones and acoustic guitar harmonics.

In the sonification of NGC 4736, the radar-like scan moves clockwise, and the brightness of the sources dictates the volume of the sounds. X-rays from Chandra have been turned into wind-like sounds that follow the shape of the X-ray emission. Neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes (known as “compact sources”) detected by Chandra are mapped to pitched tones on a glass marimba. Optical data from ground-based observations is mapped to musically pitched tones, creating a low drone, while stars and background galaxies are heard as a soft piano.

For ZwCl 0024+1652, the sonification begins as a circle on the outside of the image and moves inward. The volume is linked to the brightness of the data, reaching one peak as the circle passes over the dark matter detected by inference from Hubble optical observations and another as it reaches the core. The background stars are heard as a swelling glockenspiel-like sound, and the galaxies are played on a piano. Chandra’s X-rays, which dominate the center of the galaxy cluster and reveal superheated gas, are represented by airy synthesizer notes.

The sonification program is led by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) and included as part of NASA's Universe of Learning program. The collaboration was driven by visualization scientist Kimberly Arcand, (CXC), Matt Russo, astrophysicist; and Andrew Santaguida, musician, SYSTEM Sounds project; along with Christine Malec, consultant. Previously released sonifications of data from Cassiopeia A can be found at chandra.si.edu/sound.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. 

To learn more about NASA’s Chandra mission, visit: https://nasa.gov/chandra

Source: NASA’s Chandra Reveals ‘Red, White, Blue’ Universe for US 250th - NASA Science

Unexpected pathway turns water and CO₂ into climate‑neutral methane on nickel–zirconia - Chemistry - Materials Science

Under an applied electric voltage, the surface of nickel on zirconia can convert carbon dioxide and water vapor into methane—a possible way to store renewable energy chemically. Credit: Vienna University of Technology

Natural gas still plays an important role in many industrial sectors, but it is a climate-damaging fossil fuel. TU Wien and the University of Innsbruck have now discovered an unexpected reaction pathway that makes it possible to synthesize natural gas, or methane (CH₄), using CO₂ that was previously captured from exhaust gas streams or directly from the air. In this way, methane can become climate-neutral overall.

To achieve this, however, special materials are needed. The search for such materials is the focus of the research project MECS, an Austrian Cluster of Excellence. Now, an important step has been achieved: The team investigated nickel on yttria-stabilized zirconia. In contact with water vapor and carbon dioxide, this material enables a complicated cascade of chemical processes, which has now been deciphered in detail for the first time—ultimately producing methane. The research is published in the journal Chemistry of Materials.

Two steps at once

"The idea of converting carbon dioxide into product gases is not new," says Prof. Günther Rupprechter from the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien. "Carbon dioxide can be split and then reacted with hydrogen. However, the question then is: Where does the hydrogen come from?"

Today, most hydrogen is still produced from fossil sources—known as "black" or "gray" hydrogen. If one relies on such hydrogen, the overall process is not climate-neutral. "For us in the MECS research cluster, it was clear that it would be much more elegant to develop a process that accomplishes two things at the same time: first, splitting carbon dioxide to provide carbon, and second, splitting water to simultaneously provide 'green' hydrogen," Rupprechter explains.

Hydrogen and carbon can then be used to form fully renewable methane (CH₄). In further steps, if required, this methane could also be converted into other substances, such as renewable liquid fuels.

Zirconia, the underestimated star

"For years, it was assumed that nickel was the main factor determining this chemical process," says Bernhard Klötzer from the University of Innsbruck. "But some experimental findings did not quite fit this picture. We wanted to understand exactly what is happening at the electrochemically active surface."

To find out, the team developed a very special porous model electrode made of nickel on yttria-stabilized zirconia and analyzed it using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. This technique makes it possible to track chemical changes directly during the process, in real time.

The result was a surprise: Zirconia had originally been used mainly because it is permeable to oxygen ions and can transport oxygen away. "But as it turned out, zirconia plays a much more active role here than previously thought," says Christoph Thurner, the first author of the study.

"When we apply an electric voltage, carbon is initially deposited on the nickel atoms—that was what we expected. But part of this carbon then migrates further onto the zirconia surface, where a reactive carbon-zirconium compound is formed. As soon as small amounts of water vapor come into contact with this compound, it reacts again, and methane is formed."

Storing solar power chemically

"The dynamic behavior of the zirconia surface turned out to be crucial," says Alexander Genest from TU Wien, who carried out simulations. "We were able to show that methane is formed via a previously unknown reaction pathway. This opens up new perspectives for the development of electrolysis cells.

"It gives us a way to use surplus electrical energy electrochemically, for example, on particularly sunny days when photovoltaics generate excess power and produce methane. In this way, energy can be stored in the form of versatile fuels that can be stored over the long term without difficulty." 

Provided by Vienna University of Technology 

by Vienna University of Technology

edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Unexpected pathway turns water and CO₂ into climate‑neutral methane on nickel–zirconia 

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