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Remote Viewing confirms Ashtar Command base hidden in Jupiter’s clouds
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By European Space Agency
Image: These two images acquired by Copernicus Sentinel-2 highlight how the mission can help distinguish between clouds and snow. View the full article
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By NASA
3 min read
Buckle Up: NASA-Funded Study Explores Turbulence in Molecular Clouds
This image shows the distribution of density in a simulation of a turbulent molecular cloud. NASA/E. Scannapieco et al (2024) On an airplane, motions of the air on both small and large scales contribute to turbulence, which may result in a bumpy flight. Turbulence on a much larger scale is important to how stars form in giant molecular clouds that permeate the Milky Way.
In a new NASA-funded study in the journal Science Advances, scientists created simulations to explore how turbulence interacts with the density of the cloud. Lumps, or pockets of density, are the places where new stars will be born. Our Sun, for example, formed 4.6 billion years ago in a lumpy portion of a cloud that collapsed.
“We know that the main process that determines when and how quickly stars are made is turbulence, because it gives rise to the structures that create stars,” said Evan Scannapieco, professor of astrophysics at Arizona State University and lead author of the study. “Our study uncovers how those structures are formed.”
Giant molecular clouds are full of random, turbulent motions, which are caused by gravity, stirring by the galactic arms and winds, jets, and explosions from young stars. This turbulence is so strong that it creates shocks that drive the density changes in the cloud.
The simulations used dots called tracer particles to traverse a molecular cloud and travel along with the material. As the particles travel, they record the density of the part of the cloud they encounter, building up a history of how pockets of density change over time. The researchers, who also included Liubin Pan from Sun Yat Sen University in China, Marcus Brüggen from the University of Hamburg in Germany, and Ed Buie II from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, simulated eight scenarios, each with a different set of realistic cloud properties.
This animation shows the distribution of density in a simulation of a turbulent molecular cloud. The colors represent density, with dark blue indicating the least dense regions and red indicating the densest regions. Credit: NASA/E. Scannapieco et al (2024) The team found that the speeding up and slowing down of shocks plays an essential role in the path of the particles. Shocks slow down as they go into high-density gas and speed up as they go into low-density gas. This is akin to how an ocean wave strengthens when it hits shallow water by the shore.
When a particle hits a shock, the area around it becomes more dense. But because shocks slow down in dense regions, once lumps become dense enough, the turbulent motions can’t make them any denser. These lumpiest high-density regions are where stars are most likely to form.
While other studies have explored molecular cloud density structures, this simulation allows scientists to see how those structures form over time. This informs scientists’ understanding of how and where stars are likely to be born.
“Now we can understand better why those structures look the way they do because we’re able to track their histories,” said Scannapieco.
This image shows part of a simulation of a molecular cloud. The colors represent density, with dark blue indicating the least dense regions and red indicating the densest regions. Tracer particles, represented by black dots, traverse the simulated cloud. By examining how they interact with shocks and pockets of density, scientists can better understand the structures in molecular clouds that lead to star formation. NASA/E. Scannapieco et al (2024) NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is exploring the structure of molecular clouds. It is also exploring the chemistry of molecular clouds, which depends on the history of the gas modeled in the simulations. New measurements like these will inform our understanding of star formation.
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By NASA
Learn Home Kites in the Classroom:… Earth Science Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 3 min read
Kites in the Classroom: Training Teachers to Conduct Remote Sensing Missions
The NASA Science Activation program’s AEROKATS and ROVER Education Network (AREN), led by Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) in Wayne County, MI, provides learners with hands-on opportunities to engage with science instruments & NASA technologies and practices in authentic, experiential learning environments. On July 25, 2024, the AREN team held a four-day virtual workshop: “Using Kites and Sensors to Collect Local Data for Science with the NASA AREN Project”. During this workshop, the team welcomed 35 K-12 educators and Science, Technology, Education, & Mathematics (STEM) enthusiasts from across the country to learn about the AREN project and how to safely conduct missions to gather remote sensing data in their classrooms.
Teachers were trained to use an AeroPod, an aerodynamically stabilized platform suspended from a kite line, in order to collect aerial imagery and introduce their students to topics like resolution, pixels, temporal and seasonal changes to landscape, and image classification of land cover types. Educators were also familiarized with safe operation practices borrowed from broader NASA mission procedures to ensure students in the field can enjoy experiential education safely. The AREN team will also meet with workshop participants during follow-up sessions to highlight next steps and new instrumentation that can be used to gather different data, help broaden the educators depth of understanding, and increase successful implementation in the classroom.
“This session has been very helpful and informative of the program and the possible investigations that we can conduct. The fact that it can connect hands on experiments, data analysis, and draw conclusions from the process is going to be a fantastic learning experience.” ~AREN Workshop Participant
The AREN project continually strives to provide low cost, user-friendly opportunities to engage in hands-on experiential education and increase scientific literacy. The versatility of the NASA patented AeroPod platform allows learners to investigate scientific questions that are meaningful to their community and local environment. Learn more about AREN and how to implement AREN technologies in the classroom: https://science.nasa.gov/sciact-team/resa/
AREN is supported by NASA under NASA Science Mission Directorate Science Education Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) Solicitation NNH15ZDA004C Award Number NNX16AB95A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
Kite with Aeropod for Collecting Data
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Last Updated Oct 25, 2024 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
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