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Students Become FjordPhyto Volunteers and Discover that Antarctica Is Much Colder Than Texas
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By NASA
More than 30,000 scientists gathered in Washington, D.C. during the second week of December – many to show off the work of NASA’s science volunteers! The American Geophysical Union held its annual meeting of professionals this month – the world’s largest gathering of Earth and Space Scientists. Here’s what they were talking about.
Eighteen NASA-sponsored project team members presented discoveries made with volunteers on topics from solar eclipses to global freshwater lake monitoring and exoplanet research. Overall, 175 posters and presentations featured the work of volunteers (up from 137 in 2023). Overall, 363 scientists and presenters at the conference described themselves as being involved in citizen science research (up from 201 in 2023). Two dozen scientists at the meeting gathered for lunch in the atrium of the National Portrait Gallery to talk about doing NASA science with volunteers. They discussed projects about asteroids, landslide hazard prediction, solar eclipse science, water quality, martian clouds, and more. Science done with volunteers is often called citizen science or participatory science – it does not require citizenship in any particular country. “Between the immense datasets being collected by NASA missions and the perennial need to open wide the doors to science so everyone can experience the joy and rewards of doing research together, citizen science is needed now more than ever!” said Sarah Kirn, the participatory science strategist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland.” You can join one of NASA’s many participatory science projects right here!
Two dozen scientists gathered for lunch in the atrium of the National Portrait Gallery to talk about working with volunteers. They discussed projects about asteroids, landslide hazard prediction, solar eclipse science, water quality, martian clouds and more. Credit: Sarah Kirn Facebook logo @DoNASAScience @DoNASAScience Share
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Last Updated Dec 23, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
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Rebecca Anderson, a junior enrolled at the Portage School of Leaders High School in South Bend, Indiana, spent time with NASA Glenn Research Center’s Daniel Sutliff, an acoustic engineer, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame on Nov. 7, 2024. Students witnessed the operation of the Advanced Noise Control Fan owned by NASA and on loan to the university for STEM experiences.Credit: Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame High school students in Indiana are contributing to NASA’s groundbreaking research to develop quieter, more fuel-efficient aircraft engines.
Their learning experience is a collaboration between aircraft noise researchers from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and educators from the University of Notre Dame’s Turbomachinery Laboratory. The collaboration aims to encourage students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.
Recently, Notre Dame hosted students from The Portage School of Leaders High School and a team from NASA Glenn to see the Advanced Noise Control Fan operate in an outdoor setting. The fan is a NASA-owned test rig that has been configured to enable the study of a quieter aircraft engine technology. Known as the open rotor fan concept, the configuration involves an engine fan without a cover. Ground microphones were used during the test operated by Notre Dame to evaluate the radiated sound as the open rotor fan spun at various speeds.
NASA’s Advanced Noise Control Fan is on loan at the University of Notre Dame through a Space Act Agreement. It provides a hands-on learning laboratory for students in STEM.Credit: Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame Students from the high school, which is part of the Career Academy Network of Public Schools, used 3D printers from the school’s facilities to fabricate parts for the open rotor test fan. The parts, known as stator blades, help direct and control airflow, ensuring smooth operation of the large, exposed fan blades that are the defining feature of an open fan engine design.
“It was beyond words,” said Rebecca Anderson, a junior from the high school. “The part I enjoyed most was when they got the fan running. It was really impressive to see how quiet it was. I feel like everyone involved in STEM would love to work for NASA, including me.”
NASA researcher Dr. Daniel Sutliff was part of the team from NASA Glenn to spend time mentoring the students.
“This is real-world, hands-on research for them,” Sutliff said. “If airlines are able to use technologies to make flight quieter and cleaner, passengers will have more enjoyable flights.”
The Advanced Noise Control Fan is on loan to Notre Dame from NASA through a Space Act Agreement. The fan research is supported by NASA’s Advanced Air Transport Technology project and its Efficient Quiet Integrated Propulsors technical challenge.
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
A scientific balloon is inflated during NASA’s 2023 Antarctic campaign in McMurdo, Antarctica. NASA/Scott Battaion NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has returned to Antarctica’s icy expanse to kick off the annual Antarctic Long-Duration Balloon Campaign, where two balloon flights will carry a total of nine missions to near space. Launch operations will begin mid-December from the agency’s Long Duration Balloon camp located near the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf.
“Antarctica is our cornerstone location for long-duration balloon missions, and we always look forward to heading back to ‘the ice,’” said Andrew Hamilton, acting chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. “It’s a tremendous effort to stage a campaign like this in such a remote location, and we are grateful for the support provided to us by the U.S. National Science Foundation, New Zealand, and the U.S. Air Force.”
This year’s Antarctic campaign includes investigations in astrophysics, space biology, heliospheric research, and upper atmospheric research, along with technology demonstrations. The campaign’s two primary missions include:
GAPS (General Anti-Particle Spectrometer), led by Columbia University in New York, is an experiment to detect anti-matter particles produced by dark matter interactions. The anti-particles stemming from these interactions in our galaxy can only be observed from a suborbital platform or in space, since Earth’s atmosphere shields us from the cosmic radiation. GAPS aims to provide an unprecedented level of sensitivity to certain classes of anti-particles, allowing the exploration of a currently unexplored energy regime of the elusive dark matter. Salter Test Flight Universal, led by NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, will test and validate long-duration balloon and subsystems, while supporting several piggyback missions on the flight. Piggyback missions, or smaller payloads, riding along with the Salter Test Flight Universal mission include:
MARSBOx (Microbes in Atmosphere for Radiation, Survival, and Biological Outcomes Experiments), led by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, will expose melanized fungus, called Aspergillus niger, to the stratosphere’s extreme radiation and temperature fluctuations, low atmospheric pressure, and absence of water — conditions much like the surface of Mars. Knowledge of how this fungus adapts to protect itself in this harsh environment could lead to the development of treatments to protect astronauts from high radiation exposure. EMIDSS-6 (Experimental Module for Iterative Design of Satellite Subsystems 6), led by National Polytechnical Institute − Mexico, is a technological platform with experimental design and operational validation of instrumentation that will collect and store data from the stratospheric environment to contribute to the study of climate change. SPARROW-6 (Sensor Package for Attitude, Rotation, and Relative Observable Winds – 6), led by NASA’s Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, will demonstrate relative wind measurements using an ultrasonic anemometer designed for the balloon float environment. WALRUSS (Wallops Atmospheric Light Radiation and Ultraviolet Spectrum Sensor), led by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, is a technology demonstration of a sensor package capable of measuring the total ultraviolet wavelength spectrum and ozone concentration. INDIGO (INterim Dynamics Instrumentation for Gondolas), led by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops, is a data recorder meant to measure the shock, rotation, and attitude of the gondola during the launch, float, and landing phases of flight. Data will be used to improve understanding of the dynamics of flight and to inform the design of future components and hardware. The remaining two piggyback missions are led by finalists of NASA’s FLOATing DRAGON (Formulate, Lift, Observe, And Testing; Data Recovery And Guided On-board Node) Balloon Challenge, sponsored by the Balloon Program Office at NASA Wallops and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace. The challenge was created for student teams to design, build, and fly an autonomous aerial vehicle, deployed from a gondola during a high-altitude balloon flight. The teams’ student-built data vaults will be safely dropped from around 120,000 feet with the capability to target a specific landing point on the ground to manage risk. The missions participating in the Antarctic campaign are Purdue University’s Purdue DRAGONfly, and University of Notre Dame’s IRIS v3.
NASA’s zero-pressure balloons, used in the Antarctic campaign, are made of a thin plastic film and are capable of lifting up to 8,000 pounds of payload and equipment to altitudes above 99.8% of Earth’s atmosphere. Zero-pressure balloons, which typically have a shorter flight duration from the loss of gas during the day-to-night cycle, can support long-duration missions in polar regions during summer. The constant daylight of Antarctica’s austral summer and stable stratospheric wind conditions allow the balloon missions to remain in near space for days to weeks, gathering large amounts of scientific data as they circle the continent.
NASA’s Long Duration Balloon camp is located about eight miles from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf. NASA/Scott Battaion NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA’s scientific balloon program. The Columbia team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations. NASA’s balloons are fabricated by Aerostar. The NASA Scientific Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division. NASA balloon launch operations from Antarctica receive logistical support from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, which oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program.
For mission tracking, click here. For more information on NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons.
By Olivia Littleton
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
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Last Updated Dec 10, 2024 EditorOlivia F. LittletonContactOlivia F. Littletonolivia.f.littleton@nasa.govLocationWallops Flight Facility Related Terms
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By NASA
This artist’s concept shows interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) after its discovery in 2017. While itself not a dark comet, ‘Oumuamua’s motion through the solar system has helped researchers better understand the nature of the 14 dark comets discovered so far.European Southern Observatory / M. Kornmesser These celestial objects look like asteroids but act like comets now come in two flavors.
The first dark comet — a celestial object that looks like an asteroid but moves through space like a comet — was reported less than two years ago. Soon after, another six were found. In a new paper, researchers announce the discovery of seven more, doubling the number of known dark comets, and find that they fall into two distinct populations: larger ones that reside in the outer solar system and smaller ones in the inner solar system, with various other traits that set them apart.
The findings were published on Monday, Dec. 9, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists got their first inkling that dark comets exist when they noted in a March 2016 study that the trajectory of “asteroid” 2003 RM had moved ever so slightly from its expected orbit. That deviation couldn’t be explained by the typical accelerations of asteroids, like the small acceleration known as the Yarkovsky effect.
“When you see that kind of perturbation on a celestial object, it usually means it’s a comet, with volatile material outgassing from its surface giving it a little thrust,” said study coauthor Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “But try as we might, we couldn’t find any signs of a comet’s tail. It looked like any other asteroid — just a pinpoint of light. So, for a short while, we had this one weird celestial object that we couldn’t fully figure out.”
Weird Celestial Objects
Farnocchia and the astronomical community didn’t have to wait long for another piece of the puzzle. The next year, in 2017, a NASA-sponsored telescope discovered history’s first documented celestial object that originated outside our solar system. Not only did 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) appear as a single point of light, like an asteroid, its trajectory changed as if it were outgassing volatile material from its surface, like a comet.
“‘Oumuamua was surprising in several ways,” said Farnocchia. “The fact that the first object we discovered from interstellar space exhibited similar behaviors to 2003 RM made 2003 RM even more intriguing.”
By 2023, researchers had identified seven solar system objects that looked like asteroids but acted like comets. That was enough for the astronomical community to bestow upon them their own celestial object category: “dark comets.” Now, with the finding of seven more of these objects, researchers could start on a new set of questions.
“We had a big enough number of dark comets that we could begin asking if there was anything that would differentiate them,” said Darryl Seligman, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Physics at Michigan State University, East Lansing, and lead author of the new paper. “By analyzing the reflectivity,” or albedo, “and the orbits, we found that our solar system contains two different types of dark comets.”
Two Kinds of Dark Comets
The study’s authors found that one kind, which they call outer dark comets, have similar characteristics to Jupiter-family comets: They have highly eccentric (or elliptical) orbits and are on the larger side (hundreds of meters or more across).
The second group, inner dark comets, reside in the inner solar system (which includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), travel in nearly circular orbits, and are on the smaller side (tens of meters or less).
Like so many astronomical discoveries, Seligman and Farnocchia’s research not only expands on our knowledge of dark comets, but it also raises several additional questions: Where did dark comets originate? What causes their anomalous acceleration? Could they contain ice?
“Dark comets are a new potential source for having delivered the materials to Earth that were necessary for the development of life,” said Seligman. “The more we can learn about them, the better we can understand their role in our planet’s origin.”
For more information about asteroids and comets, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/topics/asteroids/
Small Body Research at JPL NASA Learns More About Interstellar Visitor 'Oumuamua Lesson: Comet on a Stick News Media Contacts
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Bethany Mauger
Michigan State University, East Lansing
maugerbe@msu.edu
2024-168
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Last Updated Dec 09, 2024 Related Terms
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