Lifeboat Foundation

“Sharper images at visible wavelengths like those provided by SHARK-VIS and LBT are essential to identify both locations of eruptions and surface changes not detectable in the infrared, such as new plume deposits,” said Dr. Imke de Pater.

Can ground-based telescopes obtain the same image resolution of planetary objects as space-based telescopes, or even spacecraft directly orbiting other worlds? This is what a recently submitted study to Geophysical Research Letters hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated volcanic activity on Jupiter’s innermost Galilean Moon, Io, using a high-resolution ground-based telescope. This study holds the potential to help researchers gain insights into Io’s volcanic activity along with developing new methods in studying planetary bodies throughout the solar system using ground-based telescopes, as well.

For the study, the researchers used the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), which is located on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona, to analyze images of Io obtained in January 2024 with the goal of learning more about the geological processes responsible for Io’s incredible volcanic activity, specifically tidal heating, as Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. in the end, the team was able to identify recent resurfacing events, specifically how volcanic eruptions from one site is covering another volcano on Io.

Continue reading “Observations of Jupiter’s Moon, Io, with SHARK-VIS” »

Battery technologies that can reliably operate at very low temperatures could be highly valuable for a wide range of applications. These batteries could, for instance, power devices, vehicles, and robotic systems in outer space, deep under the sea, and in other extreme environments.

Boeing and NASA said on Sunday that their teams are preparing to launch the new Starliner space capsule on June 5 after scrubbing its inaugural test flight launch attempt on Saturday.

The Starliner capsule had stood ready for blast-off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday before a ground system computer triggered an automatic abort command that shut down the launch sequence.

NASA said its teams worked overnight to assess the ground support equipment at the launch pad that encountered issues during the countdown and identified an issue with a ground power supply within one of the chassis which provides power to a subset of computer cards controlling various system functions.

Spirals, ellipticals, and irregulars are all more common than ring galaxies. At last, we know how these ultra-rare objects are made.

June’s astronomical events include a beautiful crescent moon, noctilucent clouds, the summer solstice, the first full moon of summer, and a giant rocket launch.

1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) was discovered in October 2017; shortly after, it was determined to be the first object ever seen inside the solar system that had come from beyond it. But by the time its origins had been discerned, the interstellar interloper had already rounded the Sun and was speeding away at some 85,700 mph (138,000 km/h). Just an estimated 1,300 feet (400 meters) across, it faded from view of even the most powerful telescopes within weeks.

The only way to gather more data and uncover its true nature would be to send a spacecraft to study it up close. But uncertainties in ‘Oumuamua’s exact trajectory, the difficulty of detecting its ever-dimming light, and its rapid retreat make the idea of designing, building, and launching a mission in time to catch up to it seem utterly impossible.

Astronomers from the Stanford University in California have performed joint X-ray and optical observations of a massive “spider” pulsar designated PSR J2215+5135. Results of the observational campaign, presented in a paper published May 22 on the pre-print server arXiv, provide more hints into the nature of this pulsar.

On June 3, an alignment of six planets—Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune —will be visible shortly before sunrise from dark, high vantage points with minimal light pollution. This rare event requires optical aids to view all planets.

Stargazers will have an incredible opportunity to look for six planets in Earth’s solar system on June 3. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will appear, from some dark, weather-free vantage points on Earth, to form a more-or-less straight line in the night sky – but it’ll take some optical assistance to see them all.

The alignment is a bit of an illusion, astronomers are quick to point out, given the widely varying elliptical path of each planet’s orbit around the Sun. But the uncommon arrangement could prove captivating indeed – if local weather does not interfere.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, University of Copenhagen researchers have become the first to see the formation of three of the earliest galaxies in the universe, more than 13 billion years ago.

For the first time in the history of astronomy, researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have witnessed the birth of three of the universe’s absolute earliest galaxies, somewhere between 13.3 and 13.4 billion years ago.

The discovery was made using the James Webb Space Telescope, which brought these first ‘live observations’ of formative galaxies down to us here on Earth.