Lifeboat Foundation

The findings suggest the star Fomalhaut may have orbiting planets hidden among its rings of debris.

An international team of astronomers including several Dutch researchers has observed, for the first time, the benzene molecule (C₆H₆) in a planet-forming disk around a young star. Besides benzene, they saw many other, smaller carbon compounds and few oxygen-rich molecules. The observations suggest that, like our own Earth, the rocky planets forming in this disk contain relatively little carbon. The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The researchers studied the young, small star J160532 (one tenth of the mass of our sun) some 500 light years away from us towards the constellation Scorpio. Around such small young stars, many rocky planets similar to Earth form, in disks made of gas and dust. Until now, it has been difficult to study molecules in the warm inner part of these disks where the majority of planets form due to the limited sensitivity and spectral resolution of previous observatories.

For their research, the scientists used data from the MIRI spectrometer aboard the James Webb Space Telescope. MIRI can see right through dust clouds and is particularly well suited to measure hot gas in inner disks. The main optics of the MIRI spectrometer were designed and built by the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA).

The company offers features such as a large window dome with a view of space, internet access via onboard Wi-Fi, and a dedicated room for exercise and rest at Haven-1.

We have entered a brand new era of space exploration, from flying a chopper on Mars to re-directing an asteroid’s trajectory to retrieving soil samples from a distant space rock.

The future of space is dynamic, with technological prowess allowing science fiction-inspired ideas to become reality. And next-generation space outposts are one such area that has piqued the interest of space startups. Especially since the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to be decommissioned by the end of this decade.

As well as helping us learn about the earliest galaxies in the universe and taking stunning images of parts of our solar system, the James Webb Space Telescope is also letting astronomers learn more about how planets form. Although we know that planets form from disks of dust and gas around stars called protoplanetary disks, there’s still a lot we don’t know about this process, particularly about how forming planets affect the rest of the system around them.

So it was an exciting moment when astronomers recently used Webb to study an asteroid belt in another planetary system and were able to peer into the rings of dust around the star to see where planets were forming.

Webb was used to study to study the Fomalhaut star, located in the constellation Piscis Austrinus, which is forming planets in a manner that is similar to what happened in our solar system around 4 billion years ago. The forming planets themselves aren’t visible, but the researchers could infer their presence based on the gaps in the dusty disk. They saw three concentric disks stretching a total of 14 billion miles from the star.

For the first time, astronomers have spotted an evolving star engulfing an orbiting planet.

When our Sun nears the end of its life, it will start to swell. During this expansion, which is expected to happen in some 6 billion years, the dying Sun will engulf our Solar System’s inner planets, including Earth. Though scientists are certain of Earth’s far-future fate, no direct observation had been made of a dying star swallowing an orbiting planet, until now [1].

The unique observation comes from Kishalay De of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues. The team found the planet-eating star in data taken as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a large-area optical survey of the night sky. While comparing a few weeks’ worth of consecutive ZTF scans—a new survey of the sky is performed every 48 hours—a brightening star 12,000 light-years from Earth caught De’s attention, he says.

A new laser capability aboard the Artemis II crewed mission to journey around the moon will beam back high-definition video and images of the lunar surface to Earth.

Cristina Montes Muntinlupa, Philippines

The most common method astronomers use to determine the composition of stars, planets, and other objects is spectroscopy. Today, this process uses instruments with a grating that spreads out the light from an object by wavelength. This spread-out light is called a spectrum. Every element — and combination of elements — has a unique fingerprint that astronomers can look for in the spectrum of a given object. Identifying those fingerprints allows researchers to determine what it is made of.

Chemists have made an iridescent, plant-based film that gets cooler in sunlight.

The material, which comes in a range of shining colours, could one day coat buildings and cars, lowering the need for air conditioning.

The film exhibits a smart property: called passive daytime radiative cooling, or PDRC, it doesn’t absorb much light, and it radiates heat out at a wavelength that escapes the atmosphere and zooms straight into space.

Space Renaissance International has recently launched a world-wide campaign for adding an 18^th SDG to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Our initiative suddenly resulted to be in tune with similar initiatives, undertaken by other space advocacy organizations, e.g. the National Space Society of USA, and many others. All of these promoter organizations are now working to a joined campaign. Two initial milestones will be the presentation, by the NSS, of the #Space18SDG to the COPUOS (the United Nations Committee for the Peaceful Use of Outer Space) the first week of June, and a panel organized by SRI at the UN General Assembly in New York, for the 18 of September.

Space for All, on Earth and Beyond, a civilian-led space development, with human communities living and working in outer space to expand and multiply benefits to all the peoples of Earth.

The above is the main concept supporting our proposal, trying to make it evident, in few words, that, though we praise and consider very important the huge contribution so far given by space technologies to the achievement of the Earthly 17 SDGs, we think that they will not be enough to overcome the global crisis of human development on our mother planet, should humanity remain closed and confined inside its limits.