Lifeboat Foundation

It may seem like the sun is stationary while the planets in its orbit are moving, but the sun is actually orbiting around the Milky Way galaxy at an impressive rate of about 220 kilometers per second—almost half a million miles per hour. As fast as that may seem, when a faint red star was discovered crossing the sky at a noticeably quick pace, scientists took notice.

“Many primary atmospheres of those planets will probably be dominated by hydrocarbon compounds and not so much by oxygen-rich gases such as water and carbon dioxide,” said Dr. Thomas Henning.

Can rocky planets form around stars smaller than our Sun, also called low-mass stars? This is what a recent study published in Science hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated the chemical properties of an exoplanetary system orbiting the star, ISO-Chal 147, which is located approximately 600 light-years from Earth and whose star has a mass of 11 percent of our Sun with age estimates between 1 to 2 million years old. For context, our Sun is approximately 4.5 billion years old. This study holds the potential to help astronomers better understand the formation and evolution of young exoplanetary systems and their potential to host rocky planets.

For the study, the researchers used the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to identify carbon-bearing molecules at temperatures of approximately 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) within the protoplanetary disk forming around the young star. However, the team also found these molecules did not possess compounds containing oxygen, meaning the system might not have water or carbon dioxide, which are typically found in systems surrounding stars like our Sun.

Continue reading “Implications for Rocky Planet Formation Around Low-Mass Stars” »

Around two million years ago, Earth was a very different place, with our early human ancestors living alongside saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and enormous rodents. And, depending on where they were, they may have been cold: Earth had fallen into a deep freeze, with multiple ice ages coming and going until about 12,000 years ago.

Scientists theorize that ice ages occur for a number of reasons, including the planet’s tilt and rotation, shifting plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. But what if drastic changes like these are not only a result of Earth’s environment, but also the sun’s location in the galaxy?

In a new paper published in Nature Astronomy, lead author and astrophysicist Merav Opher—an astronomy professor at Boston University and fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute— found evidence that some two million years ago, the solar system encountered an interstellar cloud so dense that it could have interfered with the sun’s solar wind. Opher and her co-authors believe this shows that the sun’s location in space might shape Earth’s history more than previously considered.

Images from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory have been combined to reveal how the Crab Nebula’s neutron star is changing.

While roboticists have developed increasingly sophisticated systems over the past decades, ensuring that these systems can autonomously operate in real-world settings without mishaps often proves challenging. This is particularly difficult when these robots are designed to be deployed in complex environments, including space and other planets.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft’s recent exploration of asteroid Dinkinesh not only highlighted the asteroid’s internal complexities but also led to a fascinating discovery: the formation of a double moon, Selam. This rare configuration, known as a contact binary, formed from debris orbiting Dinkinesh after a significant geological event. Credit: NASA/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab.

NASA ’s Lucy spacecraft’s November 2023 flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh revealed significant geological features indicating its internal strength and complex history. Images showed a trough, a ridge, and a contact binary satellite, Selam. These findings, suggesting that Dinkinesh responded dynamically to stress over millions of years, help scientists understand the formation and evolution of small bodies in the solar system.

Continue reading “Twin Moons of Dinkinesh: NASA’s Lucy Unveils a Surprising Discovery” »

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The estimated $1 billion IDIQ contract — a pre-negotiated agreement between the government and multiple vendors — is for a program known as R2C2, short for Rapid Resilient Command and Control, focused on developing a next-generation ground system built on a commercial cloud architecture.

Stars die at different rates depending on how they kick the bucket.

Turns out growing food in the dry, rocky dirt of Mars holds valuable insights for growing crops in the climate-ravaged soil here on Earth.