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Did the Hubble telescope find the 1st exomoon?

Astronomers recognize eight major planets in our solar system, with 200 orbiting moons known so far. Much farther away, they’ve discovered nearly 4,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars, but, to date, no exomoons have conclusively been found, despite some earlier possibilities. On Wednesday, however – October 3, 2018 – astronomers announced new evidence for what could be the first true discovery of an exomoon. It appears to orbit the planet Kepler-1625b, 8,000 light-years away, in the direction to the constellation Cygnus the Swan, high in the west on October evenings.

As with the discovery of exoplanets, finding exomoons hasn’t been easy. Astronomers David Kipping and Alex Teachey, both of Columbia University, used data from both the planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope to discover the possible exomoon. It’s a saga that’s been unfolding for these astronomers over several years, and the final results still aren’t in … but the new evidence is tantalizing. If an exomoon does indeed orbit Kepler-1625b, Kipping said:

The closest analog would be picking up Neptune and putting it around Jupiter.

If it can be confirmed, this first known exomoon also presents astronomers with a riddle. Such large moons don’t exist in our own solar system. That’s why the researchers are saying this discovery might require experts to revisit their theories of how moons form around planets. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., commented:

If confirmed, this finding could completely shake up our understanding of how moons are formed and what they can be made of.

The scientific study of a possible exomoon for Kepler-1625b was published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.

It’s uncertain because – just as most planets outside our solar system have never been seen directly – we don’t have a direct image of this possible exomoon.

“It was definitely a shocking moment to see that Hubble light curve, my heart started beating a little faster … ” said astronomer David Kipping (l). He and Alex Teachey (r), both of Columbia University, may be co-discovers of the 1st exomoon.

Instead, astronomers have discovered most known exoplanets – and this exomoon – during their passages in front of their stars. Such an event is called a transit, and it causes a tiny dip in the star’s light. The transit method has been used to detect most of the known exoplanets cataloged to date.

Transit signals from distant exoplanets are vanishingly small. That is why the search for exoplanets went on for decades before technological advances let astronomers begin confirming the exoplanets in the 1990s. Exomoons are even harder to detect than exoplanets because they’re smaller, and their transit signal is weaker. Exomoons also shift position with each transit because the moon is orbiting the planet.

David Kipping has spent about a decade of his career looking for exomoons. In 2017, he and his team analyzed data from 284 exoplanets, discovered by the planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft. They chose to look at exoplanets in comparatively wide orbits, longer than 30 days, around their host stars. The researchers found one instance, in Kepler-1625b, of a transit signature with intriguing anomalies, suggesting the presence of a moon. Kipping said:

We saw little deviations and wobbles in the light curve that caught our attention.

Kipping then requested time on the Hubble Space Telescope. The new Hubble results – though inconclusive – appear to confirm the earlier finding of an exomoon for Kepler-1625b. The announcement of the discovery at HubbleSite explained:

Based upon their findings, the team spent 40 hours making the observations with Hubble to study the planet intensively — also using the transit method — obtaining more precise data on the dips of light. Scientists monitored the planet before and during its 19-hour transit across the face of the star. After the transit ended, Hubble detected a second and much smaller decrease in the star’s brightness approximately 3.5 hours later. This small decrease is consistent with a gravitationally-bound moon trailing the planet, much like a dog following after its owner. Unfortunately, the scheduled Hubble observations ended before the complete transit of the candidate moon could be measured and its existence confirmed.

In addition to this dip in light, Hubble provided supporting evidence for the moon hypothesis by finding the planet transit occurring more than an hour earlier than predicted. This is consistent with the planet and moon orbiting a common center of gravity that would cause the planet to wobble from its predicted location, much the way the Earth wobbles as our moon orbits it.

The researchers note the planetary wobble could be caused by the gravitational pull of a hypothetical second planet in the system, rather than a moon. While Kepler has not detected a second planet in the system, it could be that the planet is there, but not detectable using Kepler’s techniques.

Kipping said:

A companion moon is the simplest and most natural explanation for the second dip in the light curve and the orbit-timing deviation.

It was definitely a shocking moment to see that Hubble light curve, my heart started beating a little faster and I just kept looking at that signature. But we knew our job was to keep a level head and essentially assume it was bogus, testing every conceivable way in which the data could be tricking us.

Earth’s moon is known to be a major factor in the evolution, possibly even the presence, of life on our planet. This possible exomoon and its host planet lie within their star’s habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water might exist on planetary surfaces. Could the planet, or its moon be life supporting? The answer is: probably not. Both the exoplanet Kepler 1625b – and its possible exomoon – are gaseous, making them unsuitable for life as we know it.

These astronomers said that future searches for exomoons:

… will target Jupiter-sized planets that are farther from their star than Earth is from the sun. The ideal candidate planets hosting moons are in wide orbits, with long and infrequent transit times. In this search, a moon would have been among the easiest to detect because of its large size.

Currently, there are just a handful of such planets in the Kepler database.

Whether future observations confirm the existence of the Kepler-1625b moon, NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will be used to find candidate moons around other planets, with much greater detail than Kepler.

Artist’s concept of a possible Neptune-sized moon, orbiting a planet several times larger than Jupiter – our solar system’s largest planet – in a distant solar system, some 8,000 light-years away. Image via HubbleSite.

Via HubbleSite.



from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Nmod0e

Astronomers recognize eight major planets in our solar system, with 200 orbiting moons known so far. Much farther away, they’ve discovered nearly 4,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars, but, to date, no exomoons have conclusively been found, despite some earlier possibilities. On Wednesday, however – October 3, 2018 – astronomers announced new evidence for what could be the first true discovery of an exomoon. It appears to orbit the planet Kepler-1625b, 8,000 light-years away, in the direction to the constellation Cygnus the Swan, high in the west on October evenings.

As with the discovery of exoplanets, finding exomoons hasn’t been easy. Astronomers David Kipping and Alex Teachey, both of Columbia University, used data from both the planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope to discover the possible exomoon. It’s a saga that’s been unfolding for these astronomers over several years, and the final results still aren’t in … but the new evidence is tantalizing. If an exomoon does indeed orbit Kepler-1625b, Kipping said:

The closest analog would be picking up Neptune and putting it around Jupiter.

If it can be confirmed, this first known exomoon also presents astronomers with a riddle. Such large moons don’t exist in our own solar system. That’s why the researchers are saying this discovery might require experts to revisit their theories of how moons form around planets. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., commented:

If confirmed, this finding could completely shake up our understanding of how moons are formed and what they can be made of.

The scientific study of a possible exomoon for Kepler-1625b was published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.

It’s uncertain because – just as most planets outside our solar system have never been seen directly – we don’t have a direct image of this possible exomoon.

“It was definitely a shocking moment to see that Hubble light curve, my heart started beating a little faster … ” said astronomer David Kipping (l). He and Alex Teachey (r), both of Columbia University, may be co-discovers of the 1st exomoon.

Instead, astronomers have discovered most known exoplanets – and this exomoon – during their passages in front of their stars. Such an event is called a transit, and it causes a tiny dip in the star’s light. The transit method has been used to detect most of the known exoplanets cataloged to date.

Transit signals from distant exoplanets are vanishingly small. That is why the search for exoplanets went on for decades before technological advances let astronomers begin confirming the exoplanets in the 1990s. Exomoons are even harder to detect than exoplanets because they’re smaller, and their transit signal is weaker. Exomoons also shift position with each transit because the moon is orbiting the planet.

David Kipping has spent about a decade of his career looking for exomoons. In 2017, he and his team analyzed data from 284 exoplanets, discovered by the planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft. They chose to look at exoplanets in comparatively wide orbits, longer than 30 days, around their host stars. The researchers found one instance, in Kepler-1625b, of a transit signature with intriguing anomalies, suggesting the presence of a moon. Kipping said:

We saw little deviations and wobbles in the light curve that caught our attention.

Kipping then requested time on the Hubble Space Telescope. The new Hubble results – though inconclusive – appear to confirm the earlier finding of an exomoon for Kepler-1625b. The announcement of the discovery at HubbleSite explained:

Based upon their findings, the team spent 40 hours making the observations with Hubble to study the planet intensively — also using the transit method — obtaining more precise data on the dips of light. Scientists monitored the planet before and during its 19-hour transit across the face of the star. After the transit ended, Hubble detected a second and much smaller decrease in the star’s brightness approximately 3.5 hours later. This small decrease is consistent with a gravitationally-bound moon trailing the planet, much like a dog following after its owner. Unfortunately, the scheduled Hubble observations ended before the complete transit of the candidate moon could be measured and its existence confirmed.

In addition to this dip in light, Hubble provided supporting evidence for the moon hypothesis by finding the planet transit occurring more than an hour earlier than predicted. This is consistent with the planet and moon orbiting a common center of gravity that would cause the planet to wobble from its predicted location, much the way the Earth wobbles as our moon orbits it.

The researchers note the planetary wobble could be caused by the gravitational pull of a hypothetical second planet in the system, rather than a moon. While Kepler has not detected a second planet in the system, it could be that the planet is there, but not detectable using Kepler’s techniques.

Kipping said:

A companion moon is the simplest and most natural explanation for the second dip in the light curve and the orbit-timing deviation.

It was definitely a shocking moment to see that Hubble light curve, my heart started beating a little faster and I just kept looking at that signature. But we knew our job was to keep a level head and essentially assume it was bogus, testing every conceivable way in which the data could be tricking us.

Earth’s moon is known to be a major factor in the evolution, possibly even the presence, of life on our planet. This possible exomoon and its host planet lie within their star’s habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water might exist on planetary surfaces. Could the planet, or its moon be life supporting? The answer is: probably not. Both the exoplanet Kepler 1625b – and its possible exomoon – are gaseous, making them unsuitable for life as we know it.

These astronomers said that future searches for exomoons:

… will target Jupiter-sized planets that are farther from their star than Earth is from the sun. The ideal candidate planets hosting moons are in wide orbits, with long and infrequent transit times. In this search, a moon would have been among the easiest to detect because of its large size.

Currently, there are just a handful of such planets in the Kepler database.

Whether future observations confirm the existence of the Kepler-1625b moon, NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will be used to find candidate moons around other planets, with much greater detail than Kepler.

Artist’s concept of a possible Neptune-sized moon, orbiting a planet several times larger than Jupiter – our solar system’s largest planet – in a distant solar system, some 8,000 light-years away. Image via HubbleSite.

Via HubbleSite.



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Zap! Lightning strikes Empire State Building

Alexander Krivenyshev of WorldTimeZone.com captured a bolt of lightning striking New York City’s Empire State Building on October 2, 2018 (above). On the same evening, he also captured lightning striking the city’s One World Trade Center (below), the tallest building in the U.S.

Thanks for sharing these with us Alexander!



from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Rpnleg

Alexander Krivenyshev of WorldTimeZone.com captured a bolt of lightning striking New York City’s Empire State Building on October 2, 2018 (above). On the same evening, he also captured lightning striking the city’s One World Trade Center (below), the tallest building in the U.S.

Thanks for sharing these with us Alexander!



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Arctic sea ice reaches 2018 minimum

Arctic sea ice likely reached its minimum extent for the year on September 19 and again on September 23, 2018, according to researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA.

Scientists track sea ice in the Arctic as it grows to a maximum extent through the winter and shrinks back in the summer to its minimum extent in September each year. This year’s minimum sea ice extent – the smallest area of ice for the year – reached 1.77 million square miles (4.59 million square km). That tied with 2008 and 2010as the sixth lowest sea ice minimum since consistent satellite records began 40 years ago.

Researchers at NSIDC noted that the estimate is preliminary, and it is still possible (but not likely) that changing winds could push the ice extent lower.

According to NASA’s Earth Observatory:

Arctic sea ice follows seasonal patterns of growth and decay. It thickens and spreads during the fall and winter and thins and shrinks during the spring and summer. But in recent decades, increasing temperatures have led to significant decreases in summer and winter sea ice extents. The decline in Arctic ice cover will ultimately affect the planet’s weather patterns and the circulation of the oceans.

The map above shows the extent of Arctic sea ice as measured by satellites on September 19, 2018. Extent is defined as the total area in which the ice concentration is at least 15 percent. The yellow outline shows the median September sea ice extent from 1981–2010. Image via NASA.

Claire Parkinson is a climate change senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. She said in a statement:

This year’s minimum is relatively high compared to the record low extent we saw in 2012, but it is still low compared to what it used to be in the 1970s, 1980s and even the 1990s.

Bottom line: On September 19 and 23, 2018, Arctic sea ice extent dropped to 1.77 million square miles (4.59 million square km) – tied for the 6th lowest minimum in the satellite record.

Read more from NASA



from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2ye6WAP

Arctic sea ice likely reached its minimum extent for the year on September 19 and again on September 23, 2018, according to researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA.

Scientists track sea ice in the Arctic as it grows to a maximum extent through the winter and shrinks back in the summer to its minimum extent in September each year. This year’s minimum sea ice extent – the smallest area of ice for the year – reached 1.77 million square miles (4.59 million square km). That tied with 2008 and 2010as the sixth lowest sea ice minimum since consistent satellite records began 40 years ago.

Researchers at NSIDC noted that the estimate is preliminary, and it is still possible (but not likely) that changing winds could push the ice extent lower.

According to NASA’s Earth Observatory:

Arctic sea ice follows seasonal patterns of growth and decay. It thickens and spreads during the fall and winter and thins and shrinks during the spring and summer. But in recent decades, increasing temperatures have led to significant decreases in summer and winter sea ice extents. The decline in Arctic ice cover will ultimately affect the planet’s weather patterns and the circulation of the oceans.

The map above shows the extent of Arctic sea ice as measured by satellites on September 19, 2018. Extent is defined as the total area in which the ice concentration is at least 15 percent. The yellow outline shows the median September sea ice extent from 1981–2010. Image via NASA.

Claire Parkinson is a climate change senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. She said in a statement:

This year’s minimum is relatively high compared to the record low extent we saw in 2012, but it is still low compared to what it used to be in the 1970s, 1980s and even the 1990s.

Bottom line: On September 19 and 23, 2018, Arctic sea ice extent dropped to 1.77 million square miles (4.59 million square km) – tied for the 6th lowest minimum in the satellite record.

Read more from NASA



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Moon and Leo before sunup October 5 to 7

Before dawn on October 5, 6 and 7, 2018, watch as the moon slides in front of the constellation Leo the Lion. Leo is identifiable for the prominent backwards question mark pattern within it; this pattern is a well-known asterism, called The Sickle. The illuminated portion of the waning moon always points eastward. That’s also the moon’s direction of travel in front of the background stars of the zodiac. This motion is, of course, due to the moon’s movement in orbit around Earth.

So – on the mornings of October 5, 6 and 7 – you can easily see the moon’s change of position relative to Regulus, the constellation Leo’s only 1st-magnitude star, located at the bottom of the backwards question mark pattern. Regulus depicts the Lion’s Heart and is sometimes known as Cor Leonis.

On the morning of October 5, note that the lit side of the waning crescent moon points at Regulus.

By the the morning of October 6, the moon will have swept past Regulus, moving, as it always does, in its ceaseless orbit around Earth. It’ll be located in Leo’s mid-section.

By the morning of October 7, the very thin waning crescent moon will have moved closer to Leo’s hindquarters, represented by a triangle pattern. On the chart below, pick out the star Denebola in Leo. Many stars have deneb in their name. It means tail, in this case the tail of Leo the Lion.

Regulus is part of a backwards question mark pattern known as The Sickle in Leo. Image via Derekscope.

The ecliptic is shown in green on the chart at the top of this post. It’s like a center line on the great big celestial highway. It divides the band of stars that we call the zodiac into its northern and southern sides. Regulus, the only 1st-magnitude star to align almost squarely with the ecliptic, resides a scant 1/2 degree north of it. For reference, the moon’s angular diameter equals about 1/2 degree.

The moon’s monthly path in front of the zodiac is inclined by about 5 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. So, in the course of one month, the moon gets as far as 5 degrees (10 moon diameters) south of the ecliptic, and then about two weeks later, gets as far as 5 degrees north of the ecliptic. Midway between these extremes, the moon crosses the ecliptic at points called nodes. In fact, the moon recently crossed the ecliptic, going from south to north, on October 4, 2018, at 3:10 Universal Time.

Node passages of the moon: 2001 to 2100

Every month, for years on end, the moon will be swinging to the north of Regulus as its parades in front of the constellation Leo the Lion. Finally, the moon will sweep directly in front of this star, to stage a lunar occultation of Regulus, starting on July 26, 2025. There will be a total of 20 occultations of Regulus that’ll end on December 27, 2026. (Of course, you have to be at the just right spot on Earth to witness any one of these occultations.)

Then, after that, the moon will swing to the south of Regulus every month, for years on end, until the next series of monthly Regulus’ occultations from June 11, 2035, to November 11, 2036.

Bottom line: Watch for the waning crescent moon to sail to the north of Regulus and the ecliptic as it passes in front of Leo from October 5 to 7, 2018.



from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2DVD2aq

Before dawn on October 5, 6 and 7, 2018, watch as the moon slides in front of the constellation Leo the Lion. Leo is identifiable for the prominent backwards question mark pattern within it; this pattern is a well-known asterism, called The Sickle. The illuminated portion of the waning moon always points eastward. That’s also the moon’s direction of travel in front of the background stars of the zodiac. This motion is, of course, due to the moon’s movement in orbit around Earth.

So – on the mornings of October 5, 6 and 7 – you can easily see the moon’s change of position relative to Regulus, the constellation Leo’s only 1st-magnitude star, located at the bottom of the backwards question mark pattern. Regulus depicts the Lion’s Heart and is sometimes known as Cor Leonis.

On the morning of October 5, note that the lit side of the waning crescent moon points at Regulus.

By the the morning of October 6, the moon will have swept past Regulus, moving, as it always does, in its ceaseless orbit around Earth. It’ll be located in Leo’s mid-section.

By the morning of October 7, the very thin waning crescent moon will have moved closer to Leo’s hindquarters, represented by a triangle pattern. On the chart below, pick out the star Denebola in Leo. Many stars have deneb in their name. It means tail, in this case the tail of Leo the Lion.

Regulus is part of a backwards question mark pattern known as The Sickle in Leo. Image via Derekscope.

The ecliptic is shown in green on the chart at the top of this post. It’s like a center line on the great big celestial highway. It divides the band of stars that we call the zodiac into its northern and southern sides. Regulus, the only 1st-magnitude star to align almost squarely with the ecliptic, resides a scant 1/2 degree north of it. For reference, the moon’s angular diameter equals about 1/2 degree.

The moon’s monthly path in front of the zodiac is inclined by about 5 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. So, in the course of one month, the moon gets as far as 5 degrees (10 moon diameters) south of the ecliptic, and then about two weeks later, gets as far as 5 degrees north of the ecliptic. Midway between these extremes, the moon crosses the ecliptic at points called nodes. In fact, the moon recently crossed the ecliptic, going from south to north, on October 4, 2018, at 3:10 Universal Time.

Node passages of the moon: 2001 to 2100

Every month, for years on end, the moon will be swinging to the north of Regulus as its parades in front of the constellation Leo the Lion. Finally, the moon will sweep directly in front of this star, to stage a lunar occultation of Regulus, starting on July 26, 2025. There will be a total of 20 occultations of Regulus that’ll end on December 27, 2026. (Of course, you have to be at the just right spot on Earth to witness any one of these occultations.)

Then, after that, the moon will swing to the south of Regulus every month, for years on end, until the next series of monthly Regulus’ occultations from June 11, 2035, to November 11, 2036.

Bottom line: Watch for the waning crescent moon to sail to the north of Regulus and the ecliptic as it passes in front of Leo from October 5 to 7, 2018.



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Theresa May’s commitment to diagnosing cancers earlier is great news. She’ll need more NHS staff to get there

Prime Minister Theresa May

Today, the Prime Minister set out an important ambition to improve cancer survival as part of the Government’s NHS 10-year plans, which are currently being drafted.

She wants to see 3 in 4 patients diagnosed at an early stage in the next decade. This is a huge commitment, and one we strongly support.

Early diagnosis means patients are more likely to get treatment that has the best chance of curing them. And because of this, earlier diagnosis forms a key part of tackling poor survival across the UK.

For the Prime Minister to make cancer one of the focuses of her speech at the Conservative Party conference, and give a timeframe for when they will achieve their ambition, is extremely encouraging.

But while ambition is good, it must be backed up with action to achieve it. And the scale of the challenge is massive.

What’s the ambition?

The Prime Minister said: “The key to boosting your chance of surviving cancer is early diagnosis. Five-year survival rates for bowel cancer are over 90% if caught early, but less than 10% if diagnosed late.

“We will increase the early detection rate from one-in-two today, to three-in-four by 2028.”

This, she says, will bring about a “step-change” in how the UK diagnoses cancer. “It will mean that by 2028, 55,000 more people will be alive five years after their diagnosis compared to today,” she added.

Why is it important?

UK cancer survival continues to lag behind the world’s best. Only in breast cancer are we starting to catch up. And while survival has been improving in the UK, our estimates show that as a nation we need to at least double the rate of progress over the next 10 years to match those world leading countries.

A major reason for this is that the UK tends to diagnose more patients at stage 3 and 4, where curative treatment options are limited, and survival prospects are poorer. Diagnosing more patients at an early stage is therefore critical – and as a result forms the basis of Theresa May’s ambitions.

But the number of people getting cancer is going up – by 2035 over 500,000 people across the UK will be diagnosed with cancer each year, that’s about 1 person every minute. So, the scale of the challenge is significant.

What will it take to achieve this ambition?

Over the last month, organisations have been sending their thoughts to the Government about what should be a priority for the future of the NHS in England – Cancer Research UK included.

We believe the 10-year plan provides a huge opportunity to reset Government’s ambitions for improving cancer survival. And to do this, we want the NHS to refocus efforts on preventing more cancers and diagnosing the rest at the earliest possible stage.

In her speech, Theresa May mentioned a few things she believes will help achieve her ambition. First, she restated plans to lower “the age at which we screen for bowel cancer from 60 to 50”. This will be accompanied by investment “in the very latest scanners and building more Rapid Diagnostic Centres – one stop-shops that help people get treatment quicker”.

Making these changes will be positive and matches some of what we have set out in our priorities for the NHS. But achieving 3 in 4 patients getting an early diagnosis will need much more.

Reaching this ambition will rely on having enough NHS staff to make it happen. More screening tests, newer machinery and more complex diagnostic centres all need people to run them. And the fact that the NHS is already short on diagnostic staff, and that this must be addressed urgently, is something that other organisations involved in improving cancer services wholeheartedly agree with.

As we’ve blogged about before, 1 in 10 posts for diagnostic NHS staff are vacant and we’re campaigning for workforce shortages to be addressed. Plugging these gaps, and planning for the right number of staff for the future, will be crucial to achieving earlier diagnosis for all.

We also need doctors to send more people with suspicious symptoms for testing, and of course we need more research to further improve the ways we detect cancer.

With the number of patients being diagnosed with cancer increasing, and survival lagging behind other countries, we need an NHS that’s staffed not just to meet current demand, but to transform services to give all patients the best prospects.

This ambition is a fantastic start, the hard work in making it happen is the challenge ahead. And it should start with fixing staff shortages.

Emlyn Samuel is head of policy development at Cancer Research UK



from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2P6yzmp
Prime Minister Theresa May

Today, the Prime Minister set out an important ambition to improve cancer survival as part of the Government’s NHS 10-year plans, which are currently being drafted.

She wants to see 3 in 4 patients diagnosed at an early stage in the next decade. This is a huge commitment, and one we strongly support.

Early diagnosis means patients are more likely to get treatment that has the best chance of curing them. And because of this, earlier diagnosis forms a key part of tackling poor survival across the UK.

For the Prime Minister to make cancer one of the focuses of her speech at the Conservative Party conference, and give a timeframe for when they will achieve their ambition, is extremely encouraging.

But while ambition is good, it must be backed up with action to achieve it. And the scale of the challenge is massive.

What’s the ambition?

The Prime Minister said: “The key to boosting your chance of surviving cancer is early diagnosis. Five-year survival rates for bowel cancer are over 90% if caught early, but less than 10% if diagnosed late.

“We will increase the early detection rate from one-in-two today, to three-in-four by 2028.”

This, she says, will bring about a “step-change” in how the UK diagnoses cancer. “It will mean that by 2028, 55,000 more people will be alive five years after their diagnosis compared to today,” she added.

Why is it important?

UK cancer survival continues to lag behind the world’s best. Only in breast cancer are we starting to catch up. And while survival has been improving in the UK, our estimates show that as a nation we need to at least double the rate of progress over the next 10 years to match those world leading countries.

A major reason for this is that the UK tends to diagnose more patients at stage 3 and 4, where curative treatment options are limited, and survival prospects are poorer. Diagnosing more patients at an early stage is therefore critical – and as a result forms the basis of Theresa May’s ambitions.

But the number of people getting cancer is going up – by 2035 over 500,000 people across the UK will be diagnosed with cancer each year, that’s about 1 person every minute. So, the scale of the challenge is significant.

What will it take to achieve this ambition?

Over the last month, organisations have been sending their thoughts to the Government about what should be a priority for the future of the NHS in England – Cancer Research UK included.

We believe the 10-year plan provides a huge opportunity to reset Government’s ambitions for improving cancer survival. And to do this, we want the NHS to refocus efforts on preventing more cancers and diagnosing the rest at the earliest possible stage.

In her speech, Theresa May mentioned a few things she believes will help achieve her ambition. First, she restated plans to lower “the age at which we screen for bowel cancer from 60 to 50”. This will be accompanied by investment “in the very latest scanners and building more Rapid Diagnostic Centres – one stop-shops that help people get treatment quicker”.

Making these changes will be positive and matches some of what we have set out in our priorities for the NHS. But achieving 3 in 4 patients getting an early diagnosis will need much more.

Reaching this ambition will rely on having enough NHS staff to make it happen. More screening tests, newer machinery and more complex diagnostic centres all need people to run them. And the fact that the NHS is already short on diagnostic staff, and that this must be addressed urgently, is something that other organisations involved in improving cancer services wholeheartedly agree with.

As we’ve blogged about before, 1 in 10 posts for diagnostic NHS staff are vacant and we’re campaigning for workforce shortages to be addressed. Plugging these gaps, and planning for the right number of staff for the future, will be crucial to achieving earlier diagnosis for all.

We also need doctors to send more people with suspicious symptoms for testing, and of course we need more research to further improve the ways we detect cancer.

With the number of patients being diagnosed with cancer increasing, and survival lagging behind other countries, we need an NHS that’s staffed not just to meet current demand, but to transform services to give all patients the best prospects.

This ambition is a fantastic start, the hard work in making it happen is the challenge ahead. And it should start with fixing staff shortages.

Emlyn Samuel is head of policy development at Cancer Research UK



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MASCOT returns 1st image from asteroid Ryugu

View larger. | The MASCOT lander captured this image of asteroid Ryugu while descending to the asteroid’s surface on October 3, 2018. The lander’s shadow is visible in the upper right. Image via DLR.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) reported today (October 3, 2018) that the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, located approximately 200 million miles (300 million km) from Earth, has a new inhabitant and has returned its first image. The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) – built by the space agencies of France and Germany – has landed on the asteroid’s surface and begun its work. DLR said the lander successfully separated from the Japanese Hayabusa2 space probe at 03:58 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2; translate UTC to your time). The 16 hours in which the lander will conduct measurements on the asteroid’s surface have begun for the international team of engineers and scientists.

The new released image shows the tiny asteroid (about .6 miles or 1 km) in great detail, as well as MASCOT’s shadow on the top right of the photo. The Japanese Space Agency’s Hayabusa2 began its descent towards Ryugu on October 2. MASCOT was ejected at an altitude of 167 feet (51 meters) and descended in free fall – slower than an earthly pedestrian – to the asteroid. MASCOT came to rest on the surface approximately 20 minutes after the separation. DLR reported:

The relief about the successful separation and subsequent confirmation of the landing was clearly noticeable In the MASCOT Control Center at DLR.

The scene at the DLR control room in Cologne, Germany for the MASCOT lander. Image via DLR.

MASCOT project manager Tra-Mi Ho from the DLR Institute of Space Systems said:

It could not have gone better. From the lander’s telemetry, we were able to see that it separated from the mothercraft, and made contact with the asteroid surface approximately 20 minutes later.

The team is now in contact with the lander, DLR said, adding:

The moment of separation was one of the risks of the mission: If MASCOT had not successfully separated from Hayabusa2 as planned and often tested, the lander’s team would hardly have had the opportunity to solve this problem. But everything went smoothly: Already during the descent on the asteroid, the camera switched MASCAM on and took 20 pictures, which are now stored on board the Japanese space probe.

Ralf Jaumann, DLR planetary scientist and scientific director of the camera instrument, said:

The camera worked perfectly. The team’s first images of the camera are therefore safe.

Although MASCOT is basically square and does not has wheels, it has an internal mechanism that will allow it to jump over the asteroid’s very low gravity, and reposition itself after an area has been analyzed. The team reported it is now analyzing the data that MASCOT is sending to Earth.

Left: Artist’s concept MASCOT lander separating from Japan’s Hayabusa2 mother ship. Right: Artist’s concept of MASCOT landing on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu. Hayabusa2 successfully dropped the MASCOT lander on the asteroid Ryugu on October 3, 2018. Image via JAXA.

Bottom line: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft deployed the MASCOT lander to asteroid Ryugu on October 2, 2018. MASCOT returned its 1st image on October 3. An international team of engineers and scientists in Germany is busy gathering MASCOT’s data.



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View larger. | The MASCOT lander captured this image of asteroid Ryugu while descending to the asteroid’s surface on October 3, 2018. The lander’s shadow is visible in the upper right. Image via DLR.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) reported today (October 3, 2018) that the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, located approximately 200 million miles (300 million km) from Earth, has a new inhabitant and has returned its first image. The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) – built by the space agencies of France and Germany – has landed on the asteroid’s surface and begun its work. DLR said the lander successfully separated from the Japanese Hayabusa2 space probe at 03:58 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2; translate UTC to your time). The 16 hours in which the lander will conduct measurements on the asteroid’s surface have begun for the international team of engineers and scientists.

The new released image shows the tiny asteroid (about .6 miles or 1 km) in great detail, as well as MASCOT’s shadow on the top right of the photo. The Japanese Space Agency’s Hayabusa2 began its descent towards Ryugu on October 2. MASCOT was ejected at an altitude of 167 feet (51 meters) and descended in free fall – slower than an earthly pedestrian – to the asteroid. MASCOT came to rest on the surface approximately 20 minutes after the separation. DLR reported:

The relief about the successful separation and subsequent confirmation of the landing was clearly noticeable In the MASCOT Control Center at DLR.

The scene at the DLR control room in Cologne, Germany for the MASCOT lander. Image via DLR.

MASCOT project manager Tra-Mi Ho from the DLR Institute of Space Systems said:

It could not have gone better. From the lander’s telemetry, we were able to see that it separated from the mothercraft, and made contact with the asteroid surface approximately 20 minutes later.

The team is now in contact with the lander, DLR said, adding:

The moment of separation was one of the risks of the mission: If MASCOT had not successfully separated from Hayabusa2 as planned and often tested, the lander’s team would hardly have had the opportunity to solve this problem. But everything went smoothly: Already during the descent on the asteroid, the camera switched MASCAM on and took 20 pictures, which are now stored on board the Japanese space probe.

Ralf Jaumann, DLR planetary scientist and scientific director of the camera instrument, said:

The camera worked perfectly. The team’s first images of the camera are therefore safe.

Although MASCOT is basically square and does not has wheels, it has an internal mechanism that will allow it to jump over the asteroid’s very low gravity, and reposition itself after an area has been analyzed. The team reported it is now analyzing the data that MASCOT is sending to Earth.

Left: Artist’s concept MASCOT lander separating from Japan’s Hayabusa2 mother ship. Right: Artist’s concept of MASCOT landing on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu. Hayabusa2 successfully dropped the MASCOT lander on the asteroid Ryugu on October 3, 2018. Image via JAXA.

Bottom line: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft deployed the MASCOT lander to asteroid Ryugu on October 2, 2018. MASCOT returned its 1st image on October 3. An international team of engineers and scientists in Germany is busy gathering MASCOT’s data.



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Gaia reveals stars flying between galaxies

View larger. | Artist’s reconstruction of the movements of high-velocity stars found by ESA’s Gaia satellite. Image via ESA/Marchetti et al. 2018/NASA/Hubble.

ESA’s Gaia mission is proving to be a great provider of fascinating data. Launched in 2013, the mission had its second data release in April, providing a catalog of exact positions and motions for 1.7 billion stars. Since then, astronomers from around the world have been mining the data for many different purposes – for example, to trace the path of the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua back to its home solar system. On October 2, 2018, ESA announced that astronomers – who’d been using Gaia’s second data release to look for high-velocity stars being kicked out of the Milky Way – were surprised to find stars instead rushing inwards, perhaps from another galaxy.

Gaia gathers its data via what’s called astrometry. Its job is to scan the sky repeatedly, observing each of its targeted stars an average of 70 times over its five-year mission. We know our sun and all the stars in the Milky Way are moving continuously in great orderly masses around the center of our galaxy. We know that … but, before Gaia, we didn’t have many details about how each star moves. How could we? The data for so many stars would be (are) massive; collecting the data, storing it and analyzing it requires today’s spacecraft and computer technologies. Of the new discovery of 20 high-velocity stars, ESA said in a statement:

For 1.3 billion stars, Gaia measured positions, parallaxes – an indicator of their distance – and 2D motions on the plane of the sky. For 7 million of the brightest ones, it also measured how quickly they move toward or away from us.

Elena Maria Rossi of Leiden Observatory, one of the authors of the new study, said:

Of the 7 million Gaia stars with full 3D velocity measurements, we found 20 that could be traveling fast enough to eventually escape from the Milky Way.

What’s more, the stars don’t seem to be flying away from our galaxy’s center. That might have been expected, since stars can be accelerated to high velocities by interacting with a supermassive black hole, like the one in our galaxy’s center. But, instead of racing away from our galaxy, most of the high velocity stars spotted by these astronomers seem to be racing towards it.

These could be stars from another galaxy, zooming right through the Milky Way.

The astronomers speculate the stars might have come from the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. Or they might have originate in a galaxy even farther away. If so, ESA said:

… they carry the imprint of their site of origin, and studying them at much closer distances than their parent galaxy could provide unprecedented information on the nature of stars in another galaxy – similar in a way to studying martian material brought to our planet by meteorites.

Ultimately, Gaia’s goal is to provide the first-ever 3D catalog of star positions and motions in the Milky Way. For now, though, as astronomers mine the data gathered so far, it’s providing many fascinating glimpses of the behavior of Milky Way stars.

Read more via ESA

Gaia’s view of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, in a 360-degree interactive view (click arrows in upper left) via ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ATG medialab.

Bottom line: Astronomers working with Gaia’s second data release have discovered 20 more high-velocity (aka hypervelocity) stars that appear to be coming from another galaxy and racing right through our galaxy.



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View larger. | Artist’s reconstruction of the movements of high-velocity stars found by ESA’s Gaia satellite. Image via ESA/Marchetti et al. 2018/NASA/Hubble.

ESA’s Gaia mission is proving to be a great provider of fascinating data. Launched in 2013, the mission had its second data release in April, providing a catalog of exact positions and motions for 1.7 billion stars. Since then, astronomers from around the world have been mining the data for many different purposes – for example, to trace the path of the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua back to its home solar system. On October 2, 2018, ESA announced that astronomers – who’d been using Gaia’s second data release to look for high-velocity stars being kicked out of the Milky Way – were surprised to find stars instead rushing inwards, perhaps from another galaxy.

Gaia gathers its data via what’s called astrometry. Its job is to scan the sky repeatedly, observing each of its targeted stars an average of 70 times over its five-year mission. We know our sun and all the stars in the Milky Way are moving continuously in great orderly masses around the center of our galaxy. We know that … but, before Gaia, we didn’t have many details about how each star moves. How could we? The data for so many stars would be (are) massive; collecting the data, storing it and analyzing it requires today’s spacecraft and computer technologies. Of the new discovery of 20 high-velocity stars, ESA said in a statement:

For 1.3 billion stars, Gaia measured positions, parallaxes – an indicator of their distance – and 2D motions on the plane of the sky. For 7 million of the brightest ones, it also measured how quickly they move toward or away from us.

Elena Maria Rossi of Leiden Observatory, one of the authors of the new study, said:

Of the 7 million Gaia stars with full 3D velocity measurements, we found 20 that could be traveling fast enough to eventually escape from the Milky Way.

What’s more, the stars don’t seem to be flying away from our galaxy’s center. That might have been expected, since stars can be accelerated to high velocities by interacting with a supermassive black hole, like the one in our galaxy’s center. But, instead of racing away from our galaxy, most of the high velocity stars spotted by these astronomers seem to be racing towards it.

These could be stars from another galaxy, zooming right through the Milky Way.

The astronomers speculate the stars might have come from the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. Or they might have originate in a galaxy even farther away. If so, ESA said:

… they carry the imprint of their site of origin, and studying them at much closer distances than their parent galaxy could provide unprecedented information on the nature of stars in another galaxy – similar in a way to studying martian material brought to our planet by meteorites.

Ultimately, Gaia’s goal is to provide the first-ever 3D catalog of star positions and motions in the Milky Way. For now, though, as astronomers mine the data gathered so far, it’s providing many fascinating glimpses of the behavior of Milky Way stars.

Read more via ESA

Gaia’s view of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, in a 360-degree interactive view (click arrows in upper left) via ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ATG medialab.

Bottom line: Astronomers working with Gaia’s second data release have discovered 20 more high-velocity (aka hypervelocity) stars that appear to be coming from another galaxy and racing right through our galaxy.



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