Space

CIRES, NOAA lead testbed exercise to enhance preparedness for 2026 Artemis-II mission

Megan Maneval — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 16:28:18 +0000

CIRES, NOAA lead testbed exercise to enhance preparedness for 2026 Artemis-II mission Megan Maneval Wed, 06/18/2025 - 10:28

CIRES

Employees in the Space Weather Prediction Center created a simulated space weather event to help foster communication and teamwork.

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Chasing hail: Researchers fly drones into storms as part of largest US hail study in 40 years

Daniel William Strain — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 05:47:07 +0000

Chasing hail: Researchers fly drones into storms as part of largest US hail study in 40 years Daniel William鈥� Tue, 06/17/2025 - 23:47

Daniel Strain

麻豆免费版下载Boulder researchers follow a storm brewing in south central Kansas. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/麻豆免费版下载Boulder)

Gray clouds swirl above a dusty highway in eastern Colorado between the towns of Akron and Atwood鈥攚hat鈥檚 left of a thunderstorm that rolled through this stretch of prairie and rangeland just minutes before.

Wind whistles through patches of stubbly grass nearby. Then a hiss and a pop break the silence. A group of researchers release a blast of compressed air to fling a flying drone from a metal scaffold, or 鈥渃atapult,鈥� sitting on top of a white SUV. The uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) measures more than 6 feet from wingtip to wingtip. It catches the wind, and its rear propeller buzzes to life, lifting the plane dozens of feet into the air in a matter of seconds.

C茅u G贸mez-Faulk makes adjustments to the RAAVEN drone. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/麻豆免费版下载Boulder)

The IRISS team rides out an oncoming storm near Wichita, Kansas. (Patrick Campbell/麻豆免费版下载Boulder)

The chase is on.

Aerospace engineering sciences Professor Brian Argrow and his team at the 麻豆免费版下载 have joined a research project called the In-situ Collaborative Experiment for the Collection of Hail In the Plains, or ICECHIP. For six weeks this summer, scientists from 15 U.S. research institutions and three overseas are criss-crossing the country from Colorado east to Iowa and from Texas to North Dakota.

They鈥檙e searching for summer thunderstorms.

The group is exploring the conditions that give rise to hail in this part of the country鈥攑eaking in the summer and causing billions of dollars of damage every year. In the United States, hail is most common in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and nearby regions, which are sometimes dubbed 鈥渉ail alley.鈥� Today, ice the size of grapes and even bigger litter the side of Colorado鈥檚 State Highway 63.

The campaign is led by Rebecca Adams-Selin at the company Atmospheric and Environmental Research and is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. It鈥檚 the largest effort to study hail in the United States in 40 years.

The researchers hope to understand not just how ice forms miles above the ground, but also how homeowners and builders can protect their properties from dangerous weather. They鈥檒l do that by using radar to peer inside hailstorms. They鈥檒l collect and freeze hailstones, and they鈥檒l crush hail in vice-like devices to see how strong it is. Argrow鈥檚 team is usings its drone to map the swaths of hail that storms leave behind them in their wake.

鈥淚t is about saving lives and saving property,鈥� said Argrow, professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and director of the Integrated Remote and In-Situ Sensing (IRISS) research center at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder. 鈥淲e鈥檙e working with meteorologists and atmospheric scientists trying to increase warning times to give people a chance to get to safety and work with engineers and insurance companies to build better infrastructure to withstand these onslaughts.鈥�

His team pilots the plane, known as the RAAVEN, short for Robust Autonomous Airborne Vehicle - Endurant and Nimble, north toward the rear flank of the thunderstorm. Then, they jump into two SUVs and follow the drone as it flies as low as 120 feet above them. A camera in the plane鈥檚 belly captures the ice trailing behind the storm. From that vantage point, the landscape, normally brown dotted with green, now also has pearly white patches for hundreds of yards in either direction.

For C茅u G贸mez-Faulk, who鈥檚 piloting the drone today, the sight is a testament to thunderstorms.

鈥淚t鈥檚 awe-inspiring in a very serious sort of way,鈥� said G贸mez-Faulk, a graduate student in aerospace engineering sciences.

Credit: College of Engineering and Applied Science

Dark skies

Five days earlier, Argrow and his team from 麻豆免费版下载Boulder join the ICECHIP armada at a Phillips 66 gas station in Greensburg, Kansas. The crew includes three graduate students, two IRISS employees and Eric Frew, professor of aerospace engineering sciences. They鈥檙e marking the first day of the project鈥檚 field season, or what the researchers call Intensive Observation Period 1 (IOP 1).

Judging by the conditions, the team should have plenty to study today. Weathervanes sitting on top of vans whip in circles as gusts blow a misty rain through Greensburg, a town in south central Kansas that is home to just over 700 people.

What makes hail

When conditions are right in states like Kansas and Colorado, winds blowing over the prairie can start to lift upward, forming a powerful column of rising air. These updrafts can push clouds from the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere, up to the colder stratosphere, which begins miles above Earth鈥檚 surface.

Within those towering, cauliflower-like clouds, tiny drops of water may freeze, then bounce around in the air鈥攁 sort of atmospheric game of Plinko.

That鈥檚 how hail is born.

鈥淚t starts with what we call a hail embryo, or ice,鈥� said Katja Friedrich, professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder. 鈥淚t goes through the cloud, and it accumulates supercooled liquid, which is liquid that is below freezing. The embryos accumulate more and more until they fall.鈥�

But there鈥檚 still a lot that scientists don鈥檛 know about what happens inside the clouds.

To help find out, Friedrich is participating in the ICECHIP campaign through an effort that鈥檚 separate from Argrow鈥檚 team and its drone. Over the summer, two researchers in her lab, Jack Whiting and Brady Herron, are traveling with the armada in a red pickup truck. They鈥檙e using a device called a microwave radiometer to collect measurements of the air that rushes into hailstorms from outside鈥攅xploring how environmental conditions can feed a storm to keep it churning, or even cause it to die off.

鈥淚t鈥檚 my dream to be doing this, to be in the field studying severe weather,鈥� said Whiting, who graduated from 麻豆免费版下载Boulder with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in atmospheric and oceanic sciences in spring 2025. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a good chance that these events are going to become more frequent in the future because of climate change, so it鈥檚 really important to understand these dangerous storms.鈥�

鈥淭his is relatively typical this time of the year, mid-May for the Great Plains. That鈥檚 when the storms really turn up and pass through,鈥� Argrow said. 鈥淚f you live in this area, you know what this means.鈥�

In Greensburg, they definitely do.

In 2007, a tornado ripped through the heart of this community, damaging or destroying more than 1,400 homes and buildings and killing 10 people. Just hours after the ICECHIP crew departed on May 18 this spring, another tornado touched down south of Greensburg. It traveled 11 miles before dying out, and no injuries were reported.

Argrow is no stranger to the danger storms bring. He grew up in Stroud, Oklahoma, in the heart of Tornado Alley and remembers sheltering in his family鈥檚 storm cellar during severe weather warnings.

The engineer and his colleagues previously worked on a project, led by long-time collaborator. Adam Houston of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, called Targeted Observation by Radar and UAS of Supercells (TORUS). Over two seasons, the group flew RAAVEN aircraft into supercell thunderstorms, the phenomena that give rise to dangerous tornadoes.

But while storm-chasers may pay a lot of attention to those kinds of weather events, hail causes more damage than tornadoes every year, said Ian Giammanco. He鈥檚 the lead research meteorologist for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a non-profit organization supported by property insurance and reinsurance companies.

Since 2012, hail has caused an estimated $280 billion worth of damage in the United States, according to IBHS estimates. The largest piece of hail ever discovered was about 8 inches wide, the size of a large cantaloupe.

鈥淥ur role is to understand how we can design better building materials to withstand hail,鈥� said Giammanco, whose team is joining the ICECHIP expedition on the road. 鈥淲hether it鈥檚 a lot of small hail, or these really big hailstones, we want to understand what that risk looks like.鈥�

Ellington Smith, a graduate student on Argrow鈥檚 team, was an undergrad at Iowa State University in spring 2023 when hailstorms erupted around the state, flattening corn fields.

鈥淜nowing what hail can do to farmland, its鈥� really important to be able to quantify the damage鈥攆iguring out why these hailstorms happen and how to better predict them,鈥� Smith said.

Intrepid aircraft

Adams-Selin and the ICECHIP team are taking what she calls a 鈥渉olistic鈥� approach to studying those kinds of dangers.

The study armada is something to behold: At the start of the field season, the ICECHIP campaign included around 100 researchers traveling in more than 20 vehicles鈥攊ncluding pickup trucks with mesh canopies overhead to protect them from hail damage and two Doppler on Wheels trucks. These massive vehicles carry portable, swiveling radar dishes that can peer into the heart of hailstorms.

鈥淚CECHIP is 100% NSF funded,鈥� Adams-Selin said. 鈥淚f you want to know who is responsible for improved hail forecasts, better understanding of hail science and any of these technological advances that we are using, like mobile radar, that is all NSF funding.鈥�

The IRISS team depends on a vehicle that is a little smaller鈥攖he RAAVEN.

It鈥檚 a tough little drone. The aircraft is based off a kit designed by the company Ritewing RC. This same design inspired a storm-chasing drone that appeared in the 2024 summer blockbuster Twisters. The body of the RAAVEN is made from the same kind of foam that鈥檚 in your car bumper. It also carries sensors for measuring wind speeds and air pressure, temperature and humidity.

If the RAAVEN is flying with the wind, it can hit speeds of 75 miles per hour or more, and the aircraft can fly for up to two hours uninterrupted.

鈥淩adar can only tell you so much,鈥� said Frew, who joins Argrow on the ICECHIP campaign. 鈥淭o really further our understanding of the atmosphere, you have to be in it.鈥�

For ICECHIP, the team also added a 360-degree camera that drops out of the belly of the RAAVEN after it launches.

The IRISS team鈥檚 key role on the ICECHIP campaign is to measure the swaths of hail that storms leave in their wake.

A storm builds near Greensburg, Kansas. (Credit: Patrick Campbell/麻豆免费版下载Boulder)

The team doesn鈥檛 fly the RAAVEN directly into storms for ICECHIP. Instead, it stays safely behind the bad weather, soaring in a zig-zag pattern in the wake of hailstorms as they billow across the landscape. Using the drone鈥檚 camera in real-time, the researchers view the area below that鈥檚 covered in ice. They can then measure the width of these hail swaths, capturing how big a storm鈥檚 path of destruction can grow. Argrow likens it to 鈥渁 snail that leaves a trail.鈥�

Federal Aviation Administration rules require Argrow鈥檚 team to stay in sight of the RAAVEN at all times. To do that, the researchers get in their SUVs.

G贸mez-Faulk explained that the RAAVEN is semi-autonomous. Pilots like him can control where the aircraft goes, but it鈥檚 also programed to follow a sort of digital marker the team refers to as a 鈥渃arrot.鈥�

鈥淭here鈥檚 a carrot guide point that we set off some distance from the car, usually in front of the car,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he aircraft is going to chase that guide point as we drive.鈥�

Heart pounding

Back in Greensburg, Frew emphasizes that safety is the number one priority of the IRISS team. But he acknowledges that central Kansas at the height of storm season may be an odd place to find an aerospace engineer.

Before Frew started working on projects like TORUS and ICECHIP, he didn鈥檛 know a lot about weather. His time on these studies, however, has taught him to respect the power of storms鈥攁nd what engineers can accomplish when they bring their work out of the lab and into the real, windy world.

鈥淭he first time I did it, my heart was pounding. I didn鈥檛 know what to expect,鈥� Frew said. 鈥淚n order to understand this environment, someone has to go into it and take the measurements, and that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e here for.鈥�

IRISS snapshots from the road

Tracking a storm near Wichita Falls, Texas

Taking a break in Tucumcari, New Mexico

Seeing hail in northeast Colorado

Posing for a photo in eastern New Mexico

Finding hail near Morton, Texas

For six weeks this summer, scientists from across the country, including researchers at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder, are criss-crossing the Great Plains to investigate how hailstorms form鈥攁nd how homeowners and builders can protect their properties.

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Trio of tiny CubeSats unveiled secrets of the sun's X-ray light

Megan Maneval — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:56:32 +0000

Trio of tiny CubeSats unveiled secrets of the sun's X-ray light Megan Maneval Fri, 06/13/2025 - 08:56

Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

In this Q&A, astrophysicist Kevin France, a LASP researcher and associate professor, explores how astrophysics鈥攐nce considered to be the purview of big telescopes like Hubble鈥攊s being revolutionized by SmallSats.

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Supernovae may have kicked off abrupt climate shifts in the past, and they could again

Megan Maneval — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:46:33 +0000

Supernovae may have kicked off abrupt climate shifts in the past, and they could again Megan Maneval Fri, 06/13/2025 - 08:46

INSTAAR

Robert Brakenridge has spent decades trying to understand how distant exploding stars may have affected Earth's atmosphere in the past. A new analysis indicates the need for continued research in the field.

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But how's the atmosphere there?

Megan Maneval — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 18:15:23 +0000

But how's the atmosphere there? Megan Maneval Thu, 06/12/2025 - 12:15

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

In newly published research, 麻豆免费版下载Boulder scientists study a rocky exoplanet outside our solar system, learning more about whether and how planets maintain atmospheres.

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In new dawn of solar science, tiny CubeSats unveiled secrets

Megan Maneval — Fri, 23 May 2025 17:06:29 +0000

In new dawn of solar science, tiny CubeSats unveiled secrets Megan Maneval Fri, 05/23/2025 - 11:06

From 2016 to 2022, NASA's MinXSS CubeSat mission launched small satellites built by LASP students to study X-ray emissions from the sun. The mission, which officially ended in March, provided groundbreaking insights into solar activity and demonstrated how small, cost-effective satellites can achieve significant scientific results.

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Astrophysicist searches for ripples in space and time in new way

Daniel William Strain — Mon, 12 May 2025 16:16:18 +0000

Astrophysicist searches for ripples in space and time in new way Daniel William鈥� Mon, 05/12/2025 - 10:16

Daniel Strain

Artist's depiction of supermassive black holes generating the universe's gravitational wave background. (Credit: Olena Shmahalo for NANOGrav)

麻豆免费版下载 astrophysicist Jeremy Darling is pursuing a new way of measuring the universe鈥檚 gravitational wave background鈥攖he constant flow of waves that churn through the cosmos, warping the very fabric of space and time.

The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, could one day help to unlock some of the universe鈥檚 deepest mysteries, including how gravity works at its most fundamental level.

鈥淭here is a lot we can learn from getting these precise measurements of gravitational waves,鈥� said Darling, professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. 鈥淒ifferent flavors of gravity could lead to lots of different kinds of gravitational waves.鈥�

To understand how such waves work, it helps to picture Earth as a small buoy bobbing in a stormy ocean.

Darling explained that, throughout the history of the universe, countless supermassive black holes have engaged in a volatile dance: These behemoths spiral around each other faster and faster until they crash together. Scientists suspect that the resulting collisions are so powerful they, literally, generate ripples that spread out into the universe.

Jeremy Darling

This background noise washes over our planet all the time, although you鈥檇 never know it. The kinds of gravitational waves that Darling seeks to measure tend to be very slow, passing our planet over the course of years to decades.

In 2023, a team of scientists belonging to the NANOGrav collaboration achieved a coup by measuring that cosmic wave pool. The group recorded how the universe鈥檚 gravitational wave background stretched and squeezed spacetime, affecting the light coming to Earth from celestial objects known as pulsars, which act somewhat like cosmic clocks.

But those detailed measurements only captured how gravitational waves move in a single direction鈥攁kin to waves flowing directly toward and away from a shoreline. Darling, in contrast, wants to see how gravitational waves also move from side-to-side and up and down compared to Earth.

In his latest study, the astrophysicist got help from another class of celestial objects: quasars, or unusually bright, supermassive black holes sitting at the centers of galaxies. Darling searches for signals from gravitational waves by precisely measuring how quasars move compared to each other in the sky. He hasn鈥檛 spotted those signals yet, but that could change as more data become available.

鈥淕ravitational waves operate in three dimensions,鈥� Darling said. 鈥淭hey stretch and squeeze spacetime along our line of sight, but they also cause objects to appear to move back and forth in the sky.鈥�

Galaxies in motion

The research drills down on the notoriously tricky task of studying how celestial objects move, a field known as astrometry.

Darling explained that quasars rest millions of light-years or more from Earth. As the glow from these objects speeds toward Earth, it doesn鈥檛 necessarily proceed in a straight line. Instead, passing gravitational waves will deflect that light, almost like a baseball pitcher throwing a curve ball.

Those quasars aren鈥檛 actually moving in space, but from Earth, they might look like they are鈥攁 sort of cosmic wiggling happening all around us.

鈥淚f you lived for millions of years, and you could actually observe these incredibly tiny motions, you鈥檇 see these quasars wiggling back and forth,鈥� Darling said.

Or that鈥檚 the theory. In practice, scientists have struggled to observe those wiggles. In part, that鈥檚 because these motions are hard to observe, requiring a precision 10 times greater than it would take to watch a human fingernail growing on the moon from Earth. But our planet is also moving through space. Our planet orbits the sun at a speed of roughly 67,000 miles per hour, and the sun itself is hurtling through space at a blistering 850,000 miles per hour.

Detecting the signal from gravitational waves, in other words, requires disentangling Earth鈥檚 own motion from the apparent motion of quasars. To begin that process, Darling drew on data from the European Space Agency鈥檚 Gaia satellite. Since Gaia鈥檚 launch in 2013, its science team has released observations of more than a million quasars over about three years.

Beyond the story

Our space impact by the numbers:

19 麻豆免费版下载Boulder-affiliated astronauts
No. 1 public university recipient of NASA research awards
Only academic research institute in the world to have sent instruments to every planet in the solar system

Follow 麻豆免费版下载Boulder on LinkedIn

Darling took those observations, split the quasars into pairs, then carefully measured how those pairs moved relative to each other.

His findings aren鈥檛 detailed enough yet to prove that gravitational waves are making quasars wiggle. But, Darling said, it鈥檚 an important search鈥攗nraveling the physics of gravitational waves, for example, could help scientists understand how galaxies evolve in our universe and help them test fundamental assumptions about gravity.

The astrophysicist could get some help in that pursuit soon. In 2026, the Gaia team plans to release five-and-a-half more years of quasar observations, providing a new trove of data that might just reveal the secrets of the universe鈥檚 gravitational wave background.

鈥淚f we can see millions of quasars, then maybe we can find these signals buried in that very large dataset,鈥� he said.

Massive ripples in the very fabric of the universe wash over Earth all the time, although you'd never notice. 麻豆免费版下载Boulder's Jeremy Darling is trying a new search for these gravitational waves.

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CUriosity: A 50-year-old Soviet spacecraft will soon crash to Earth. Why, and where will it land?

Daniel William Strain — Wed, 07 May 2025 19:55:08 +0000

CUriosity: A 50-year-old Soviet spacecraft will soon crash to Earth. Why, and where will it land? Daniel William鈥� Wed, 05/07/2025 - 13:55

Daniel Strain

In CUriosity, experts across the 麻豆免费版下载Boulder campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

This week, space weather experts Charles Constant, Marcin Pilinski and Shaylah Mutschler answer: 鈥淎 50-year-old Soviet spacecraft will soon crash to Earth. Why, and where will it land?鈥�

An aurora seen from the International Space Station reveals the influence of the sun on Earth's atmosphere. (Credit: NASA/JSC/ESRS)

Get updates about the Venus lander

Later this week, a piece of Cold War space history is expected to return to Earth鈥攁lthough where it will land remains unclear.

Scientists estimate that Kosmos 482, a Soviet spacecraft that launched from Earth in 1972 with plans to land on Venus, will reenter Earth鈥檚 atmosphere sometime this weekend. The spacecraft, which was fortified to withstand the extreme conditions at the surface of Venus, will likely reach Earth鈥檚 surface intact.

Don鈥檛 panic: The odds that this relic will land in a populated area are very low, said Marcin Pilinski, a research scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the 麻豆免费版下载.

The Kosmos 482 Venus lander. (Credit: NASA)

鈥淚t鈥檚 an infinitesimally small number,鈥� Pilinski said. 鈥淚t will very likely land in the ocean.鈥�

He鈥檚 keeping a close eye. Pilinski is part of a team of scientists that has tracked Kosmos 482 as it orbited Earth. They include Shaylah Mutschler, director of the space weather division for the company Space Environment Technologies, and Charles Constant, a doctoral student at University College London.

The researchers say that the case of Kosmos 482 shows why it鈥檚 so important for scientists to get a handle on the space environment around Earth鈥攗nderstanding how spacecraft orbit the planet, interact with its wispy upper atmosphere and, in some cases, fall back down.

It鈥檚 a story five decades in the making: Kosmos 482 set out for Venus in March 1972, but, due to an unknown error with its rockets, never made it far. Today, it orbits the planet in what scientists call an 鈥渆ccentric鈥� orbit, similar in shape to a stretched-out rubber band. Because of Cold War secrecy, the researchers aren鈥檛 sure how big the spacecraft is. But estimates suggest it鈥檚 more than meter (almost 3.5 feet) wide and weighs about 495 kilograms (1,090 pounds).

鈥淚t was supposed to escape the sphere of influence of Earth,鈥� said Mutschler, who earned her doctorate in aerospace engineering sciences from 麻豆免费版下载Boulder in 2022. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 quite do enough to get out.鈥�

Previously in CUriosity

CUriosity: Why, and how, do ants walk in a perfect line?

Or read more CUriosity stories here

And it鈥檚 been slowing down ever since. Mutschler explained that, as Kosmos 482 orbited Earth, it sliced through the upper parts of the atmosphere, experiencing drag much like an airplane flying against the wind. Scientists like her even track tiny changes in the way the spacecraft moves past Earth to improve their simulations, or models, of the conditions in that region of space.

But predicting where the spacecraft will crash is more difficult. In part, that鈥檚 because this environment, known as low-Earth orbit, can change a lot. During events called solar storms, for example, the sun releases intense bursts of energy that can cause our planet鈥檚 atmosphere to inflate like a balloon. Weather near Earth鈥檚 surface can also send disturbances upwards, creating waves and ripples in low-Earth orbit. Pilinski is part of a group at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder called the Space Weather Technology Research and Education Center (SWx TREC). The center seeks to study the weather in space to better protect satellites in orbit around Earth.

鈥淧eople who monitor asteroids to see if they will potentially impact Earth actually have an easier job,鈥� Pilinski said. 鈥淭hose objects would enter at a really steep angle. They鈥檙e not skimming part of the atmosphere for days or weeks like this spacecraft.鈥�

Constant noted that understanding space weather is critical as companies across the globe launch more satellites into orbit.

鈥淥ne collision could spell disaster for everyone else,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou鈥檇 get this cloud of debris flying around, causing other potential collisions鈥攚hat we call a 鈥楰essler event.鈥欌€�

As for Kosmos 482, Mutschler said the researchers may be able to narrow down their estimates of where the spacecraft will crash about a day ahead of time.

鈥淎bout a day out, we should know with a reasonable amount of certainty whether there鈥檚 going to be a solar storm affecting Earth,鈥� Mutschler said, 鈥渙r if the atmospheric conditions are going to continue to be quiet.鈥�

In 1972, a Soviet lander known as Kosmos 482 launched for Venus. It never made it past Earth's gravity, and now the spacecraft is coming back.

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New Horizons collects first map of galaxy in important type of ultraviolet light

Daniel William Strain — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:09:24 +0000

New Horizons collects first map of galaxy in important type of ultraviolet light Daniel William鈥� Mon, 04/28/2025 - 09:09

Map of the universe's Lyman-alpha emissions collected by New Horizons looking away from the sun. (Credit: SwRI)

This story was adapted from a version published by the Southwest Research Institute. Read the original story here.

The NASA New Horizons spacecraft鈥檚 extensive observations of Lyman-alpha emissions have resulted in the first-ever map from the galaxy at this important ultraviolet wavelength, providing a new look at the galactic region surrounding our solar system.

鈥淯nderstanding the Lyman-alpha background helps shed light on nearby galactic structures and processes,鈥� said Randy Gladstone, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, and lead author of the study. 鈥淭his research suggests that hot interstellar gas bubbles like the one our solar system is embedded within may actually be regions of enhanced hydrogen gas emissions at a wavelength called Lyman-alpha.鈥�

The team published its findings April 21 in The Astronomical Journal. Michael Shull, professor emeritus in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder, served as a co-author of the study.

New Horizons launched in 2006, and, after passing by Pluto in 2015, the spacecraft traveled outside the dustiest regions of Earth鈥檚 solar system鈥攁 good vantage point for viewing Lyman-alpha emissions.

Lyman-alpha is a specific wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted and scattered by hydrogen atoms. It is especially useful to astronomers studying distant stars, galaxies and the interstellar medium, as it can help detect the composition, temperature and movement of these distant objects.

After New Horizon鈥檚 primary objectives at Pluto were completed, scientists used the Alice instrument to make broader and more frequent surveys of Lyman-alpha emissions as the spacecraft traveled farther from the sun. These surveys included an extensive set of scans in 2023 that mapped roughly 83% of the sky.

The results indicate a roughly uniform background Lyman-alpha sky brightness 10 times stronger than expected from previous estimates. Shull explained that this intense glow is likely produced an 鈥渋nterstellar greenhouse effect.鈥�

鈥淭he strong Lyman-alpha emission line was scattered millions of times by the hydrogen gas, bouncing around space outside the solar system like interstellar ping-pong balls,鈥� he said.

The study also found no evidence that a hydrogen wall, thought to surround the sun鈥檚 heliosphere, substantially contributes to the observed Lyman-alpha signal. Scientists had theorized that a wall of interstellar hydrogen atoms would accumulate as they encountered the edge of our heliosphere, the vast region of space dominated by the solar wind as it interacts with the interstellar medium. However, the New Horizons data saw nothing to indicate the wall is an important source of Lyman-alpha emission.

鈥淭he Lyman-alpha emission map produced by New Horizons represents one of our first glimpses of the interstellar gas clouds that surround the 鈥楲ocal Hot Bubble,鈥欌€� Shull said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing to think that the hot bubble and interstellar structures were shaped by exploding stars just a few millions years ago.鈥�

SwRI鈥檚 Alan Stern, a co-author of the new study and principal investigator for New Horizons, added:

鈥淭hese are really landmark observations, in giving the first clear view of the sky surrounding the solar system at these wavelengths, both revealing new characteristics of that sky and refuting older ideas that the Alice New Horizons data just doesn鈥檛 support. 鈥� This Lyman-alpha map also provides a solid foundation for future investigations to learn even more.鈥�

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto in 2015, giving it an unprecedented opportunity to view the universe's Lyman-alpha emissions鈥攁n important kind of ultraviolet light that can reveal new information about stars, distant galaxies and more.

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Student-built rocket soars to 2nd place finish at 24,000 feet

Megan Maneval — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 14:53:11 +0000

Student-built rocket soars to 2nd place finish at 24,000 feet Megan Maneval Mon, 04/28/2025 - 08:53

Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences

The 麻豆免费版下载in Space Club's entry to the Argonia Cup rocket competition reached 24,000 feet and broke the sound barrier on its way to second place in the tournament.

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