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By NASA
This artist’s illustration represents the results from a new study that examines the effects of X-ray and other high-energy radiation unleashed on potential exoplanets from Wolf 359, a nearby red dwarf star. Researchers used Chandra and XMM-Newton to study the impact of steady X-ray and energetic ultraviolet radiation from Wolf 359 on the atmospheres of planets that might be orbiting the star. They found that only a planet with greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in its atmosphere and at a relatively large distance away from Wolf 359 would have a chance to support life as we know it.X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/S.Wolk, et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.Weiss; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk Planets around other stars need to be prepared for extreme weather conditions, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) XMM-Newton that examined the effects of X-rays on potential planets around the most common type of stars.
Astronomers found that only a planet with greenhouse gases in its atmosphere like Earth and at a relatively large distance away from the star they studied would have a chance to support life as we know it around a nearby star.
Wolf 359 is a red dwarf with a mass about a tenth that of the Sun. Red dwarf stars are the most common stars in the universe and live for billions of years, providing ample time for life to develop. At a distance of only 7.8 light-years away, Wolf 359 is also one of the closest stars to the solar system.
“Wolf 359 can help us unlock the secrets around stars and habitability,” said Scott Wolk of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), who led the study. “It’s so close and it belongs to such an important class of stars – it’s a great combination.”
Because red dwarfs are the most prevalent types of stars, astronomers have looked hard to find exoplanets around them. Astronomers have found some evidence for two planets in orbit around Wolf 359 using optical telescopes, but those conclusions have been challenged by other scientists.
“While we don’t have proof of planets around Wolf 359 yet, it seems very possible that it hosts multiple planets,” Wolk added. “This makes it an excellent test bed to look at what planets would experience around this kind of star.”
Wolk and his colleagues used Chandra and XMM to study the amounts of steady X-rays and extreme ultraviolet (UV) radiation – the most energetic type of UV radiation – that Wolf 359 would unleash on the possible planets around it.
They found that Wolf 359 is producing enough damaging radiation that only a planet with greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in its atmosphere – and located at a relatively large distance from the star – would likely be able to sustain life.
“Just being far enough away from the star’s harmful radiation wouldn’t be enough to make it habitable,” said co-author Vinay Kashyap, also of CfA. “A planet around Wolf 359 would also need to be blanketed in greenhouse gases like Earth is.”
To study the effects of energetic radiation on the habitability of the planet candidates, the team considered the star’s habitable zone – the region around a star where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.
The outer limit of the habitable zone for Wolf 359 is about 15% of the distance between Earth and the Sun, because the red dwarf is much less bright than the Sun. Neither of the planet candidates for this system is located in Wolf 359’s habitable zone, with one too close to the star and the other too far out.
“If the inner planet is there, the X-ray and extreme UV radiation it is subjected to would destroy the atmosphere of this planet in only about a million years,” said co-author Ignazio Pillitteri of CfA and the National Institute for Astrophysics in Palermo, Italy.
The team also considered the effects of radiation on as-yet undetected planets within the habitable zone. They concluded that a planet like the Earth in the middle of the habitable zone should be able to sustain an atmosphere for almost two billion years, while one near the outer edge could last indefinitely, helped by the warming effects of greenhouse gases.
Another big danger for planets orbiting stars like Wolf 359 is from X-ray flares, or occasional bright bursts of X-rays, on top of the steady, everyday output from the star. Combining observations made with Chandra and XMM-Newton resulted in the discovery of 18 X-ray flares from Wolf 359 over 3.5 days.
Extrapolating from these observed flares, the team expects that much more powerful and damaging flares would occur over longer periods of time. The combined effects of the steady X-ray and UV radiation and the flares mean that any planet located in the habitable zone is unlikely to have a significant atmosphere long enough for multicellular life, as we know it on Earth, to form and survive. The exception is the habitable zone’s outer edge if the planet has a significant greenhouse effect.
These results were presented at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland, and are being prepared for publication in a journal. 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.
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By NASA
On Dec. 19, 2024, NASA released two amendments to the NASA Research Announcement Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2024 (NNH24ZDA001N) to announce the E.9 Space Biology: Research Studies and E.12 Physical Sciences Research Studies program elements.
Space Biology Proposals
The research emphases of E.9 Space Biology: Research Studies fall under two broad categories: Precision Health and Space Crops
For Precision Health-focused studies, investigators may propose to use any non-primate animal model system and any appropriate cell/tissue culture/microphysiological system/organoid or microbial models that are supported by the chosen platform. For Space Crop-focused studies, applicants may propose to use any plant, relevant microbe, and/or plant and microbe model system(s) that is (are) supported by the chosen platform. The E.9 Space Biology: Research Studies opportunity includes five different Project Types: Research Investigations, Early Career Research Investigations, New NASA Investigators, OSDR Analytical Investigations, and Tissue Sharing Investigations. Specific requirements for each of these Project Types are described in the program element text. Questions concerning E.9 Space Biology: Research Studies may be directed to Lynn Harrison (for Precision Health) and Elison Blancaflor (for Space Crops) at nasa-spacebiology@mail.nasa.gov.
Physical Sciences Proposals
E.12 Physical Sciences: Research Studies solicits proposals to investigate physical phenomena in the absence of gravity and fundamental laws that describe the universe, and applied research that contributes to the basic understanding of processes underlying space exploration technologies.
The Physical Sciences program is divided into two key goals: Foundations and Quantum Leaps. Foundations focuses on understanding the behavior of fluids, combustion, soft matter, and materials in the spaceflight environment. Quantum Leaps aims to probe the very nature of the universe using exquisitely precise space-based quantum sensors to test the Einstein equivalence principle, dark sector physics, and the nature of fundamental physical constants.
The E.12 Physical Sciences: Research Studies opportunity will include four different Project Types: Research Investigations, New NASA Investigators, Physical Sciences Informatics, and Fundamental Physics Investigations. Specific requirements for each of these Project Types are described in detail in the program element text. Questions concerning E.12 Physical Sciences Research Studies may be directed to Brad Carpenter (regarding Foundations and PSI) or Mike Robinson (regarding Quantum Leaps) by writing to BPS-PhysicalSciences@nasaprs.com.
Town Hall
A pre-proposer’s townhall for applicants interested in submitting a proposal to these program elements will be held virtually on Jan. 22, 2025, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Meeting information will be posted on the NSPIRES page for each of the program elements under “Other Documents.”
Proposals to these program elements shall be submitted via a two-step process
Step-1 proposals must be submitted by Feb. 4, 2025 Step-2 proposals are due on May 6, 2025 Related Resources:
PSI Database is Live with New Features to Improve User Experience Space Biology Physical Sciences View the full article
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By NASA
NASA’s Roman Coronagraph Instrument will greatly advance our ability to directly image exoplanets, or planets and disks around other stars.
The Roman Coronagraph Instrument, a technology demonstration designed and built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will fly aboard NASA’s next flagship astrophysics observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Coronagraphs work by blocking light from a bright object, like a star, so that the observer can more easily see a nearby faint object, like a planet. The Roman Coronagraph Instrument will use a unique suite of technologies including deformable mirrors, masks, high-precision cameras, and active wavefront sensing and control to detect planets 100 million times fainter than their stars, or 100 to 1,000 times better than existing space-based coronagraphs. The Roman Coronagraph will be capable of directly imaging reflected starlight from a planet akin to Jupiter in size, temperature, and distance from its parent star.
Artwork Key
1. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
2. Exoplanet Count : Total number of exoplanets discovered at the time of poster release. This number is increasing all of the time.
3. Nancy Grace Roman’s birth year : Nancy Grace Roman was born on May 16, 1925.
4. Color Filters : Filters block different wavelengths, or colors, of light.
5. Exoplanet Camera
6. Deformable Mirrors : Adjusts the wavefront of incoming light by changing the shape of a mirror with thousands of tiny pistons.
7. Focal Plane Mask : This is a mask that helps to block starlight and reveal exoplanets.
8. Lyot Stop Mask : This is a mask that helps to block starlight and reveal exoplanets.
9. Fast Steering Mirror : This element corrects for telescope pointing jitter.
10. Additional Coronagraph Masks : These masks block most of the glare from stars to reveal faint orbiting planets and dusty debris disks.
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By NASA
The Wide-Field Instrument (WFI), the primary instrument aboard NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, is a 300-megapixel visible and infrared camera that will allow scientists to perform revolutionary astrophysics surveys.
This specialized camera detects faint light across the cosmos and will be used to study a wide range of astrophysics topics including the expansion and acceleration of our universe, planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way, and far off galaxies.
WFI will conduct surveys to detect and measure billions of stars and galaxies along with rare phenomena that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to find. To survey large areas of sky, WFI uses a suite of 18 detectors that convert incoming light into electrical signals that are translated into images.
While Roman will operate alongside other space telescopes like Hubble, WFI’s capabilities are pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Roman’s WFI has a similar sensitivity and resolution to Hubble, but WFI will capture images that cover about 100 times more sky in a single observation and will survey the sky up to 1,000 times faster.
Artwork Key
1. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
2. Light Path : The light entering the telescope will take this path, bouncing off of multiple focusing mirrors and passing through filters or dispersers in the element wheel to reach the detectors.
3. Important Years : 1990: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope launched. 1960: Nancy Grace Roman became NASA’s Chief Astronomer.
4. Field of View : Roman’s field of view is about 100 times larger than that of the infrared camera onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. WFI’s large field of view is achieved using an array of 18 detectors which are represented by the squares in this graphic
5. Detectors : This dial has one tick mark for each of WFI’s 18 detectors.
6. Modes : WFI has imaging and spectroscopy modes.
7. Wavelengths : WFI will observe in both visible and infrared light and can select which wavelengths reach the detectors using filters in the element wheel.
8. “Dark Energy” Drink + “Dark Matter” Candy : Roman will enable new research into the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter.
9. Science Goals : The names of these games capture WFI’s role as a survey instrument and the types of surveys it will perform.
10. Joystick : This joystick features design elements found on the WFI’s element wheel assembly, a large, rotating metal disk with optics that filter or disperse light.
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By NASA
Astronomers have released a set of more than a million simulated images showcasing the cosmos as NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see it. This preview will help scientists explore a myriad of Roman’s science goals.
“We used a supercomputer to create a synthetic universe and simulated billions of years of evolution, tracing every photon’s path all the way from each cosmic object to Roman’s detectors,” said Michael Troxel, an associate professor of physics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who led the simulation campaign. “This is the largest, deepest, most realistic synthetic survey of a mock universe available today.”
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This video begins with a tiny one-square-degree portion of the full OpenUniverse simulation area (about 70 square degrees, equivalent to an area of sky covered by more than 300 full moons). It spirals in toward a particularly galaxy-dense region, zooming by a factor of 75. This simulation showcases the cosmos as NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could see it, allowing scientists to preview the next generation of cosmic discovery now. Roman’s real future surveys will enable a deep dive into the universe with highly resolved imaging, as demonstrated in this video. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Troxel The project, called OpenUniverse, relied on the now-retired Theta supercomputer at the DOE’s (Department of Energy’s) Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The supercomputer accomplished a process that would take over 6,000 years on a typical computer in just nine days.
In addition to Roman, the 400-terabyte dataset will also preview observations from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, and approximate simulations from ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Euclid mission, which has NASA contributions. The Roman data is available now here, and the Rubin and Euclid data will soon follow.
The team used the most sophisticated modeling of the universe’s underlying physics available and fed in information from existing galaxy catalogs and the performance of the telescopes’ instruments. The resulting simulated images span 70 square degrees, equivalent to an area of sky covered by more than 300 full moons. In addition to covering a broad area, it also covers a large span of time — more than 12 billion years.
Each tiny dot in the image at left is a galaxy simulated by the OpenUniverse campaign. The one-square-degree image offers a small window into the full simulation area, which is about 70 square degrees (equivalent to an area of sky covered by more than 300 full moons), while the inset at right is a close-up of an area 75 times smaller (1/600th the size of the full area). This simulation showcases the cosmos as NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could see it. Roman will expand on the largest space-based galaxy survey like it – the Hubble Space Telescope’s COSMOS survey – which imaged two square degrees of sky over the course of 42 days. In only 250 days, Roman will view more than a thousand times more of the sky with the same resolution. The project’s immense space-time coverage shows scientists how the telescopes will help them explore some of the biggest cosmic mysteries. They will be able to study how dark energy (the mysterious force thought to be accelerating the universe’s expansion) and dark matter (invisible matter, seen only through its gravitational influence on regular matter) shape the cosmos and affect its fate. Scientists will get closer to understanding dark matter by studying its gravitational effects on visible matter. And by studying the simulation’s 100 million synthetic galaxies, they will see how galaxies and galaxy clusters evolved over eons.
Repeated mock observations of a particular slice of the universe enabled the team to stitch together movies that unveil exploding stars crackling across the synthetic cosmos like fireworks. These starbursts allow scientists to map the expansion of the simulated universe.
This simulation showcases the dynamic universe as NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could see it over the course of its five-year primary mission. The video sparkles with synthetic supernovae from observations of the OpenUniverse simulated universe taken every five days (similar to the expected cadence of Roman’s High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey, which OpenUniverse simulates in its entirety). On top of the static sky of stars in the Milky Way and other galaxies, more than a million exploding stars flare into visibility and then slowly fade away. To highlight the dynamic physics happening and for visibility at this scale, the true brightness of each transient event has been magnified by a factor of 10,000 and no background light has been added to the simulated images. The video begins with Roman’s full field of view, which represents a single pointing of Roman’s camera, and then zooms into one square.NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Troxel Scientists are now using OpenUniverse data as a testbed for creating an alert system to notify astronomers when Roman sees such phenomena. The system will flag these events and track the light they generate so astronomers can study them.
That’s critical because Roman will send back far too much data for scientists to comb through themselves. Teams are developing machine-learning algorithms to determine how best to filter through all the data to find and differentiate cosmic phenomena, like various types of exploding stars.
“Most of the difficulty is in figuring out whether what you saw was a special type of supernova that we can use to map how the universe is expanding, or something that is almost identical but useless for that goal,” said Alina Kiessling, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California and the principal investigator of OpenUniverse.
While Euclid is already actively scanning the cosmos, Rubin is set to begin operations late this year and Roman will launch by May 2027. Scientists can use the synthetic images to plan the upcoming telescopes’ observations and prepare to handle their data. This prep time is crucial because of the flood of data these telescopes will provide.
In terms of data volume, “Roman is going to blow away everything that’s been done from space in infrared and optical wavelengths before,” Troxel said. “For one of Roman’s surveys, it will take less than a year to do observations that would take the Hubble or James Webb space telescopes around a thousand years. The sheer number of objects Roman will sharply image will be transformative.”
This synthetic OpenUniverse animation shows the type of science that astronomers will be able to do with future Roman deep-field observations. The gravity of intervening galaxy clusters and dark matter can lens the light from farther objects, warping their appearance as shown in the animation. By studying the distorted light, astronomers can study elusive dark matter, which can only be measured indirectly through its gravitational effects on visible matter. As a bonus, this lensing also makes it easier to see the most distant galaxies whose light the dark matter magnifies. Caltech-IPAC/R. Hurt “We can expect an incredible array of exciting, potentially Nobel Prize-winning science to stem from Roman’s observations,” Kiessling said. “The mission will do things like unveil how the universe expanded over time, make 3D maps of galaxies and galaxy clusters, reveal new details about star formation and evolution — all things we simulated. So now we get to practice on the synthetic data so we can get right to the science when real observations begin.”
Astronomers will continue using the simulations after Roman launches for a cosmic game of spot the differences. Comparing real observations with synthetic ones will help scientists see how accurately their simulation predicts reality. Any discrepancies could hint at different physics at play in the universe than expected.
“If we see something that doesn’t quite agree with the standard model of cosmology, it will be extremely important to confirm that we’re really seeing new physics and not just misunderstanding something in the data,” said Katrin Heitmann, a cosmologist and deputy director of Argonne’s High Energy Physics division who managed the project’s supercomputer time. “Simulations are super useful for figuring that out.”
OpenUniverse, along with other simulation tools being developed by Roman’s Science Operations and Science Support centers, will prepare astronomers for the large datasets expected from Roman. The project brings together dozens of experts from NASA’s JPL, DOE’s Argonne, IPAC, and several U.S. universities to coordinate with the Roman Project Infrastructure Teams, SLAC, and the Rubin LSST DESC (Legacy Survey of Space and Time Dark Energy Science Collaboration). The Theta supercomputer was operated by the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems, Inc in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
By Ashley Balzer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jan 14, 2025 EditorAshley BalzerContactAshley Balzerashley.m.balzer@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Astrophysics Dark Energy Dark Matter Galaxies Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research Galaxy clusters Goddard Space Flight Center High-Tech Computing Science & Research Stars Supernovae Technology The Universe Explore More
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