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By European Space Agency
The Copernicus Sentinel Expansion Missions are a major leap forward in Europe’s Earth observation capabilities. With the United Kingdom’s re-entry to the EU’s Copernicus programme, funding has been confirmed to complete the development of all six Copernicus Sentinel Expansion Missions, as discussed this week during the International Astronautical Congress taking place in Milan, Italy.
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By Space Force
The American Indian Science and Engineering Society National Conference brought together thousands of indigenous students, educators and professionals to promote opportunities and celebrate achievements in STEM.
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA has selected Metis Technology Solutions Inc. of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to provide engineering services as well as develop and maintain software and hardware used to conduct simulations for aerospace research and development across the agency.
The Aerospace Research, Technology, and Simulations (ARTS) contract is a hybrid cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price contract with an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity component and has a maximum potential value of $177 million. The performance period begins Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, with a one-year base period, and options to extend performance through November 2029.
Under this contract, the company will support the preparation, development, operation, and maintenance of future and existing simulators, integration laboratories, aircraft research systems, simulation work areas, and aircraft research systems. The scope of work also will include the development, testing, and validation of advanced air traffic management automation tools, including, but not limited to, advanced concepts for aviation ecosystems. Work will primarily be performed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, as well as other agency or government locations, as needed.
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
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Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, Calif.
650-604-4789
rachel.hoover@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 10, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Ames Research Center Langley Research Center NASA Centers & Facilities NASA Headquarters View the full article
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By NASA
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Queen’s Univ. Belfast/M. Nicholl et al.; Optical/IR: PanSTARRS, NSF/Legacy Survey/SDSS; Illustration: Soheb Mandhai / The Astro Phoenix; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have identified a supermassive black hole that has torn apart one star and is now using that stellar wreckage to pummel another star or smaller black hole, as described in our latest press release. This research helps connect two cosmic mysteries and provides information about the environment around some of the bigger types of black holes.
This artist’s illustration shows a disk of material (red, orange, and yellow) that was created after a supermassive black hole (depicted on the right) tore apart a star through intense tidal forces. Over the course of a few years, this disk expanded outward until it intersected with another object — either a star or a small black hole — that is also in orbit around the giant black hole. Each time this object crashes into the disk, it sends out a burst of X-rays detected by Chandra. The inset shows Chandra data (purple) and an optical image of the source from Pan-STARRS (red, green, and blue).
In 2019, an optical telescope in California noticed a burst of light that astronomers later categorized as a “tidal disruption event”, or TDE. These are cases where black holes tear stars apart if they get too close through their powerful tidal forces. Astronomers gave this TDE the name of AT2019qiz.
Meanwhile, scientists were also tracking instances of another type of cosmic phenomena occasionally observed across the Universe. These were brief and regular bursts of X-rays that were near supermassive black holes. Astronomers named these events “quasi-periodic eruptions,” or QPEs.
This latest study gives scientists evidence that TDEs and QPEs are likely connected. The researchers think that QPEs arise when an object smashes into the disk left behind after the TDE. While there may be other explanations, the authors of the study propose this is the source of at least some QPEs.
In 2023, astronomers used both Chandra and Hubble to simultaneously study the debris left behind after the tidal disruption had ended. The Chandra data were obtained during three different observations, each separated by about 4 to 5 hours. The total exposure of about 14 hours of Chandra time revealed only a weak signal in the first and last chunk, but a very strong signal in the middle observation.
From there, the researchers used NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) to look frequently at AT2019qiz for repeated X-ray bursts. The NICER data showed that AT2019qiz erupts roughly every 48 hours. Observations from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and India’s AstroSat telescope cemented the finding.
The ultraviolet data from Hubble, obtained at the same time as the Chandra observations, allowed the scientists to determine the size of the disk around the supermassive black hole. They found that the disk had become large enough that if any object was orbiting the black hole and took about a week or less to complete an orbit, it would collide with the disk and cause eruptions.
This result has implications for searching for more quasi-periodic eruptions associated with tidal disruptions. Finding more of these would allow astronomers to measure the prevalence and distances of objects in close orbits around supermassive black holes. Some of these may be excellent targets for the planned future gravitational wave observatories.
The paper describing these results appears in the October 9, 2024 issue of the journal Nature. The first author of the paper is Matt Nicholl (Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland) and the full list of authors can be found in the paper, which is available online at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.02181
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center 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.
Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
Visual Description
This release features an artist’s rendering that illustrates the destructive power of a supermassive black hole. The digital image depicts a disk of stellar material surrounding one such black hole. At its outer edge a neighboring star is colliding with and flying through the disk.
The black hole sits halfway down our right edge of the vertical image. It resembles a jet black semicircle with a domed cap of pale blue light. The bottom half of the circular black hole is hidden behind the disk of stellar material. In this illustration, the disk is viewed edge on. It resembles a band of swirling yellow, orange, and red gas, cutting diagonally from our middle right toward our lower left.
Near our lower left, the outer edge of the stellar debris disk overlaps with a bright blue sphere surrounded by luminous white swirls. This sphere represents a neighboring star crashing through the disk. The stellar disk is the wreckage of a destroyed star. An electric blue and white wave shows the hottest gas in the disk.
As the neighboring star crashes through the disk it leaves behind a trail of gas depicted as streaks of fine mist. Bursts of X-rays are released and are detected by Chandra.
Superimposed in the upper left corner of the illustration is an inset box showing a close up image of the source in X-ray and optical light. X-ray light is shown as purple and optical light is white and beige.
News Media Contact
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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By NASA
Credit: NASA Two proposals for missions to observe X-ray and far-infrared wavelengths of light from space were selected by NASA for additional review, the agency announced Thursday. Each proposal team will receive $5 million to conduct a 12-month mission concept study. After detailed evaluation of those studies, NASA expects to select one concept in 2026 to proceed with construction, for a launch in 2032.
The resulting mission will become the first in a new class of NASA astrophysics missions within the agency’s longstanding Explorers Program. The new mission class, Probe Explorers, will fill a gap between flagship and smaller-scale missions in NASA’s exploration of the secrets of the universe.
“NASA’s Explorers Program brings out some of the most creative ideas for missions that help us reveal the unknown about our universe. Establishing this new line of missions – the largest our Astrophysics program has ever competed – has taken that creativity to new heights,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Both of the selected concepts could enable ground-breaking science responsive to the top astrophysics priorities of the decade, develop key technologies for future flagship missions, and offer opportunities for the entire community to use the new observatory, for the benefit of all.”
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s 2020 Decadal Survey, Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s, recommended NASA establish this new mission class, with the first mission observing either X-ray or far-infrared wavelengths of light. Mission costs for the new Probe Explorers are capped at $1 billion each, not including the cost of the rocket, launch services, or any contributions.
NASA evaluated Probe Explorers proposals based on their scientific merit in alignment with the Decadal Survey’s recommendations, feasibility of development plans, and use of technologies that could support the development of future large missions.
The selected proposals are:
Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite
This mission would be an X-ray imaging observatory with a large, flat field-of-view and high spatial resolution. It would study the seeds of supermassive black holes; investigate the process of stellar feedback, which influences how galaxies evolve; and help determine the power sources of a variety of explosive phenomena in the cosmos. The observatory would build on the successes of previous X-ray observatories, capturing new capabilities for X-ray imaging and imaging spectroscopy. Principal investigator: Christopher Reynolds, University of Maryland, College Park Project management: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland Probe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics
This observatory would be a 5.9-foot (1.8-meter) telescope studying far-infrared wavelengths, helping bridge the gap between existing infrared observatories, such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and radio telescopes. By studying radiant energy that only emerges in the far-infrared, the mission would address questions about the origins and growth of planets, supermassive black holes, stars, and cosmic dust. Principal investigator: Jason Glenn, NASA Goddard Project management: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California The Explorers Program is the oldest continuous NASA program designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the Science Mission Directorate’s astrophysics and heliophysics programs. Since the Explorer 1 launch in 1958, which discovered Earth’s radiation belts, the Explorers Program has launched more than 90 missions, including the Uhuru and Cosmic Background Explorer missions that led to Nobel prizes for their investigators.
The Explorers Program is managed by NASA Goddard for the Science Mission Directorate, which conducts a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system and universe.
For more information about the Explorers Program, visit:
https://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov
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Alise Fisher
Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Oct 03, 2024 EditorJessica TaveauLocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division Astrophysics Explorers Program View the full article
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