Serina Jain, who is a student at San Francisco University High School, said in a statement, “This experience further propelled my fascination with the subject of astronomy, specifically in regard to exoplanetary science.”

How can high school contribute to finding exoplanets? The answer is easy and effective, as a recent study published in The Astronomical Journal announced the confirmation of exoplanet TIC 139,270,665 b with the help of an enthusiastic group of high school students who are part of the Unistellar Citizen Science Network, which is a worldwide collaboration of citizen astronomers. This discovery holds the potential to not only improve the hunt for exoplanets, but also improve the chances of citizen scientists using public data to contribute to finding exoplanets, as well.

The confirmation of TIC 139,270,665 b, which is located approximately 483 light-years from Earth, was made through a collaboration between SETI Institute Affiliate, Dr. Dan Peluso, and Chabot Space & Science Center’s Galaxy Explorer program, the latter of which consists of high school students. TIC 139,270,665 b was initially found using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), where it measured one transit in front of its parent star.

However, the science team wanted to measure a second transit and utilized the Unistellar Citizen Science Network, which is a worldwide collaboration of citizen astronomers, for which the SETI Institute and Galaxy Explorer program are both members. Using Unistellar eVscopes, the Galaxy Explorer program successfully measured a second transit of TIC 139,270,665 b, determining its orbital period is approximately 1,010 days with a minimum mass just under five masses of Jupiter. The study notes how this discovery could open doors for future contributions by citizen scientists regarding exoplanet science.

Dr. Shantanu Naidu: “When DART made impact, things got very interesting…the entire shape of the asteroid has changed, from a relatively symmetrical object to a ‘triaxial ellipsoid’ – something more like an oblong watermelon.”

On November 24, 2021, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission with the goal of demonstrating that deflecting an incoming asteroid could prevent it from striking Earth by striking the asteroid itself. Just over nine months later, on September 26, 2022, this demonstration was successfully carried out as DART acted as a kinetic impactor and intentionally struck the Dimporphos asteroid, which measures 560 feet (170 meters) in diameter.

But while the impact successfully altered Dimorphos’ orbit around the binary near-Earth asteroid, Didymos, could it have altered other aspects of Dimorphos, as well? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of international researchers led by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) discovered the impact also altered the shape of Dimporphos.

“Our research in the past decade has made analog memristor a viable technology,” said Dr. Qiangfei Xia. “It is time to move such a great technology into the semiconductor industry to benefit the broad AI hardware community.”

Digital computing has become the norm in our everyday lives, but their limits are being reached in terms of computing power. Can analog computing step in and outperform them? This is what a recent study published in Science hopes to address as a team of researchers from the University of Southern California, TetraMem Inc., and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass Amherst) have spent the last decade developing memristors, which are capable of overcoming the computing limits of digital computing. This study holds the potential to help researchers develop more efficient methods in storing data without the drawbacks of holding too much of it, thus creating a clog.

“In this work, we propose and demonstrate a new circuit architecture and programming protocol that can efficiently represent high-precision numbers using a weighted sum of multiple, relatively low-precision analog devices, such as memristors, with a greatly reduced overhead in circuitry, energy and latency compared with existing quantization approaches,” said Dr. Qiangfei Xia, who is a professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at UMass Amherst and a co-author on the study.

How deep is the lunar regolith and megaregolith, the latter of which consists of the cracked lunar crust layers resulting from billions of years of impact craters? This is what the Synthetic Pulse Artemis Radar for Crustal Imaging (SPARCI, pronounced “sparky”) instrument hopes to address as the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) was recently awarded a 3-year, $2,041,000 grant from NASA’s Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI) program as part of advancing lunar exploration technologies.

Image of the Synthetic Pulse Artemis Radar for Crustal Imaging (SPARCI, pronounced “sparky”). (Credit: Southwest Research Institute/Bryan Pyke)

“Learning more about the lunar megaregolith will help us gain a wider understanding of the Moon’s formation and that of similar bodies with thin, sparse atmospheres,” said Dr. David Stillman, who is a geophysicist at SwRI and SPARCI’s principal investigator. “If we are able to pinpoint exactly where this layer begins, we can use that to create more accurate formation and evolution models.”

Can virtual reality (VR) be tailored to explore larger areas and allow users to “walk” around their environment? This is what a recent study published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics hopes to address as a team of international researchers have developed a new VR system called RedirectedDoors+ that can allow users to expand their environments beyond the real-world physical boundaries, such as walls and doors. This study holds the potential to not only expand VR environments but also drastically reduce the real-world environments that are typically required for VR experiences.

“Our system, which built upon an existing visuo-haptic door-opening redirection technique, allows participants to subtly manipulate the walking direction while opening doors in VR, guiding them away from real walls,” said Dr. Kazuyuki Fujita, who is an assistant professor in the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) at Tohoku University and a co-author on the study. “At the same time, our system reproduces the realistic haptics of touching a doorknob, enhancing the quality of the experience.”

Sourabh Shubham: “This area of Mars is known to have a wide variety of hydrated minerals spanning a long stretch of Martian history. A volcanic setting for these minerals had long been suspected. So, it may not be too surprising to find a volcano here. In some sense, this large volcano is a long-sought ‘smoking gun’.”

The planet Mars is known for its vast array of inactive shield volcanoes, and a new volcano could be added to the family with a recent study presented at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, as a team of researchers announced the discovery of a massive volcano on Mars that is buried underneath the surface and could even possess a base comprised of glacier ice. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand past volcanism and glaciation on the Red Planet that could provide clues to Mars’ geologic history.

For the study, the researchers used images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera and data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), which are both onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), along with data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) that was onboard the Mars Global Surveyor to analyze “Noctis Mons” (official name pending), which is located southeast of Mars’ Tharsis volcanic region and in the western region of Valles Marineris, known as the largest and deepest canyon in the solar system.

With coral reefs under attack from ongoing climate change effects, what steps can be taken to reverse the damage? This is what a recent study published in iScience hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated how to monitor coral reef health that is impacted through climate change, specifically with altering biomineralization, which is the driving force behind coral reef formation. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand how climate change impacts coral reef health and potential steps to improve conservation of corals throughout the world.

“The whole ecosystem is dying. You can listen to the death all you want, but what are you going to do to fix it?” said Dr. Mark Martindale, who is the director of the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and a co-author on the study. “In order to do that, you need to understand what the problems are. And you need an experimental system to do that. Now we have that system.”

How fast did the first galaxies and stars form after the Big Bang? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of scientists led by the University of Melbourne used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the merger of two galaxies that occurred approximately 510 million years after the Big Bang, or approximately 13 billion years ago. This study holds the potential to help astronomers better understand the processes behind galaxy formation and evolution during the universe’s youth.

“It is amazing to see the power of JWST to provide a detailed view of galaxies at the edge of the observable Universe and therefore back in time” said Dr. Michele Trenti, who is a Professor and Cosmologist in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne and a co-author on the study. “This space observatory is transforming our understanding of early galaxy formation.”

For the study, the researchers used JWST’s powerful infrared instruments to observe what they hypothesize to be two merging galaxies comprised of a primary clump and a long tail with a mass equivalent to approximately 1.6 × 109 masses of our Sun that contains approximately 10 percent of the metals of our Sun and growing by approximately 19 solar masses per year. Additionally, they estimate the stars within these merging galaxies are less than 10 million years old within the main clump of the merger and stars in the outer regions to be approximately 120 million years old.

What can Titan’s methane-rich atmosphere teach us about finding life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in Planetary and Space Science hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated the photochemistry of Saturn’s largest moon, which is also the only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere, to ascertain if the moon’s methane-rich atmosphere can support life. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the conditions necessary for life to emerge, along with where to search for it beyond Earth.

“Titan’s atmosphere works like a planetary-sized chemical reactor, producing many complex carbon-based molecules,” said Rafael Rianço-Silva, who is a master’s degree student at the University of Lisbon and lead author of the study. “Of all the atmospheres we know in the Solar System, the atmosphere of Titan is the most similar to the one we think existed on the early Earth.”

For the study, the team used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (VLT-UVES) to conduct high resolution analyses of Titan’s hazy and methane-rich atmosphere. Using this data, the team identified possible traces of the tricarbon molecule (C3), which is known for being a building block for the development of complex molecules and has been previously identified in cometary comas and interstellar clouds, the latter of which was found using VLT-UVES. If confirmed, Titan will be the first planetary body to possess tricarbon either in its atmosphere or on its surface.

With the continued advancement of human space exploration, how can forensic science—which contributes to the criminal justice system by analyzing evidence through a myriad of methods—be applied to outer space? This is what a soon-to-be-published study in Forensic Science International Reports hopes to address as a team of international researchers led by Staffordshire University investigated how bloodstain patterns behave under microgravity conditions. This study holds the potential to help scientists and astronauts better understand how Earth-based science can be applied to space, specifically long-term spaceflight.

“Studying bloodstain patterns can provide valuable reconstructive information about a crime or accident,” said Zack Kowalske, who is a PhD student at Staffordshire University and a Crime Scene Investigator for the Roswell Police Department in the State of Georgia, and lead author of the study. “However, little is known about how liquid blood behaves in an altered gravity environment. This is an area of study that, while novel, has implications for forensic investigations in space.”

For the study, the researchers conducted blood spatters experiments on parabolic flights onboard a modified Boeing 747 with an emphasis on observing various angles of impact of the blood droplets and comparing their splatter patterns to those obtained under normal gravity conditions. The reason parabolic flights were used was due to their ability to simulate microgravity conditions, as they are designed to rapidly drop in altitude, thus providing passengers with a few moments of weightlessness.