After sunset, use Venus to find Mercury

Given clear skies and an unobstructed western horizon, the dazzling planet Venus – and the planet Mercury, our sun’s innermost planet – will be yours to behold after sunset from about mid-May 2020 until nearly the end of this month. It’ll be the Northern Hemisphere’s best evening apparition of Mercury; the Southern Hemisphere has a crack at Mercury, too. To find Mercury in mid-May, first look west after sunset for Venus. You can’t miss it. It’s very, very bright in the west after sunset. Next, draw a line with your mind’s eye between Venus and the sunset point. Mercury will be along that line, below Venus, near the sunset point.

Then watch in the coming evenings, as Mercury ascends in the evening sky, while Venus descends toward its June 3 passage between the Earth and sun. The conjunction of Venus and Mercury will come around May 20 and 21.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Radu Anghel caught Mercury just after sunset on May 13, 2020, against a bright twilight sky. He wrote: “Mercury is back on the evening sky. On May 22, it will be right next to Venus! :)” Nice catch, Radu! Thanks for posting.

Venus ranks as the third-brightest celestial object to light up the heavens, after the sun and moon. You might see this brilliant beauty of a planet as little as 15 minutes (or less) after sunset. In mid-May – as Mercury is just beginning its ascent into our evening sky – bring binoculars, if you have them, to locate Mercury sooner after sunset in the bright twilight. With binoculars, you might spot Mercury near the sunset point on the horizon some 30 to 45 minutes after sunset.

Although Mercury is nowhere as bright as Venus, Mercury shines more brilliantly than a 1st-magnitude star. The difficulty will be that Mercury is in a sky bathed in twilight; the brightness of twilight will cause Mercury to look fainter than it really is.

Venus and Mercury will stay out longer after sunset at Earth’s more northerly latitudes. They’ll set sooner after the sun at Earth’s more southerly latitudes. We give the approximate setting times for Mercury and Venus at 60 degrees north latitude, 40 degrees north latitude, equator (0 degrees latitude) and 35 degrees south latitude for the few days around mid-May 2020 (assuming a level horizon):

60 degrees north latitude:
Mercury sets 1 1/2 hours after sunset
Venus sets 4 hours after sunset

40 degrees north latitude
Mercury sets 1 1/6 hours after sunset
Venus sets 2 1/3 hours after sunset

Equator (0 degrees latitude)
Mercury sets less than one hour after sunset
Venus sets less than 2 hours after sunset

35 degrees south latitude
Mercury sets over 1/2 hour after sunset
Venus sets 1 1/3 hours after sunset

Want more specific information? Click here for a recommended sky almanac.

But, as always with sky objects, things will change!

Conjunction of Venus and Mercury around May 20 and 21. Day by day, during the latter half of May 2020, watch for Mercury to set later and for Venus to set sooner after sunset. It’s inevitable that these two worlds will meet up for a conjunction, as Venus sinks into the sunset while Mercury ascends in the western sky. Depending on where you live worldwide, Mercury and Venus will be the closest together on the sky’s dome on May 21 or 22, 2020. These two worlds will be quite close together for several days before – and after – their conjunction. So – for some evenings around May 21 or 22 – take advantage of your opportunity to view both Mercury and Venus in the same binocular (or low-powered telescopic) field of view.

Depending on where you live worldwide, the planets Mercury and Venus will couple up most closely on the sky’s dome on May 21 or May 22, 2020. If you can see Venus, but not Mercury, aim binoculars at Venus to see Mercury and Venus taking stage in a single binocular field of view.

Even in mid-May, however – as Mercury is just beginning its ascent into the western evening sky – you can use Venus (and binoculars) to hop down to Mercury. Seek for Mercury beneath Venus and close to the sunset point on the horizon as evening dusk is giving way to darkness. Mercury is especially bright in mid-May 2020, shining some seven times brighter than a 1st-magnitude star (such as Spica). Mercury is dimming somewhat day by day, and will be shining about 3 times brighter than Spica by the end of the month.

Bottom line: Use dazzling Venus to locate Mercury at dusk in May 2020! It’s the best opportunity of 2020 to spot Mercury in the evening sky. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, these next few weeks will provide your best view of Mercury’s evening apparition.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/3cvMazn

Given clear skies and an unobstructed western horizon, the dazzling planet Venus – and the planet Mercury, our sun’s innermost planet – will be yours to behold after sunset from about mid-May 2020 until nearly the end of this month. It’ll be the Northern Hemisphere’s best evening apparition of Mercury; the Southern Hemisphere has a crack at Mercury, too. To find Mercury in mid-May, first look west after sunset for Venus. You can’t miss it. It’s very, very bright in the west after sunset. Next, draw a line with your mind’s eye between Venus and the sunset point. Mercury will be along that line, below Venus, near the sunset point.

Then watch in the coming evenings, as Mercury ascends in the evening sky, while Venus descends toward its June 3 passage between the Earth and sun. The conjunction of Venus and Mercury will come around May 20 and 21.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Radu Anghel caught Mercury just after sunset on May 13, 2020, against a bright twilight sky. He wrote: “Mercury is back on the evening sky. On May 22, it will be right next to Venus! :)” Nice catch, Radu! Thanks for posting.

Venus ranks as the third-brightest celestial object to light up the heavens, after the sun and moon. You might see this brilliant beauty of a planet as little as 15 minutes (or less) after sunset. In mid-May – as Mercury is just beginning its ascent into our evening sky – bring binoculars, if you have them, to locate Mercury sooner after sunset in the bright twilight. With binoculars, you might spot Mercury near the sunset point on the horizon some 30 to 45 minutes after sunset.

Although Mercury is nowhere as bright as Venus, Mercury shines more brilliantly than a 1st-magnitude star. The difficulty will be that Mercury is in a sky bathed in twilight; the brightness of twilight will cause Mercury to look fainter than it really is.

Venus and Mercury will stay out longer after sunset at Earth’s more northerly latitudes. They’ll set sooner after the sun at Earth’s more southerly latitudes. We give the approximate setting times for Mercury and Venus at 60 degrees north latitude, 40 degrees north latitude, equator (0 degrees latitude) and 35 degrees south latitude for the few days around mid-May 2020 (assuming a level horizon):

60 degrees north latitude:
Mercury sets 1 1/2 hours after sunset
Venus sets 4 hours after sunset

40 degrees north latitude
Mercury sets 1 1/6 hours after sunset
Venus sets 2 1/3 hours after sunset

Equator (0 degrees latitude)
Mercury sets less than one hour after sunset
Venus sets less than 2 hours after sunset

35 degrees south latitude
Mercury sets over 1/2 hour after sunset
Venus sets 1 1/3 hours after sunset

Want more specific information? Click here for a recommended sky almanac.

But, as always with sky objects, things will change!

Conjunction of Venus and Mercury around May 20 and 21. Day by day, during the latter half of May 2020, watch for Mercury to set later and for Venus to set sooner after sunset. It’s inevitable that these two worlds will meet up for a conjunction, as Venus sinks into the sunset while Mercury ascends in the western sky. Depending on where you live worldwide, Mercury and Venus will be the closest together on the sky’s dome on May 21 or 22, 2020. These two worlds will be quite close together for several days before – and after – their conjunction. So – for some evenings around May 21 or 22 – take advantage of your opportunity to view both Mercury and Venus in the same binocular (or low-powered telescopic) field of view.

Depending on where you live worldwide, the planets Mercury and Venus will couple up most closely on the sky’s dome on May 21 or May 22, 2020. If you can see Venus, but not Mercury, aim binoculars at Venus to see Mercury and Venus taking stage in a single binocular field of view.

Even in mid-May, however – as Mercury is just beginning its ascent into the western evening sky – you can use Venus (and binoculars) to hop down to Mercury. Seek for Mercury beneath Venus and close to the sunset point on the horizon as evening dusk is giving way to darkness. Mercury is especially bright in mid-May 2020, shining some seven times brighter than a 1st-magnitude star (such as Spica). Mercury is dimming somewhat day by day, and will be shining about 3 times brighter than Spica by the end of the month.

Bottom line: Use dazzling Venus to locate Mercury at dusk in May 2020! It’s the best opportunity of 2020 to spot Mercury in the evening sky. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, these next few weeks will provide your best view of Mercury’s evening apparition.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/3cvMazn

Submerged in water, this new device uses sunlight to produce energy

Plants use the process of photosynthesis to generate chemical energy from sunlight. Likewise, a new energy-producing device developed at Rice University is triggered by sunlight. Image via Didgeman/ Pixabay.

Rice University researchers have created an efficient, low-cost device that splits water to produce hydrogen fuel.

The device was developed by the Brown School of Engineering lab of Jun Lou, materials scientist at Rice University, and his team. It integrates catalytic electrodes and perovskite solar cells that, when triggered by sunlight, produce electricity. The current flows to the catalysts that split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, with a sunlight-to-hydrogen efficiency as high as 6.7%.

Hydrogen can be stored and used as fuel.

This sort of catalysis isn’t new, but the lab packaged a perovskite layer and the electrodes into a single modular unit that, when dropped into water and placed in sunlight, produces hydrogen with no further input.

Here’s what the new device looks like. Cross-sections show the structure of an integrated, solar-powered catalyst that splits water into hydrogen fuel and oxygen. Immersed in water, the device produces fuel when exposed to sunlight. Image via Jia Liang/ Rice University.

The device was described by lead author Lou, postdoctoral fellow Jia Liang and their colleagues in the peer-reviewed journal ACS Nano April 29, 2020. The module is a self-sustaining producer of hydrogen, which can be used for fuel. The researcher say it should be simple to produce in bulk. Lou described the device in a statement:

The concept is broadly similar to an artificial leaf. What we have is an integrated module that turns sunlight into electricity that drives an electrochemical reaction. It utilizes water and sunlight to get chemical fuels.

Perovskites are crystals with cubelike lattices that are known to harvest light. The most efficient perovskite solar cells produced so far achieve an efficiency above 25%, but the materials are expensive and tend to be stressed by light, humidity and heat. Lou said:

Jia has replaced the more expensive components, like platinum, in perovskite solar cells with alternatives like carbon. That lowers the entry barrier for commercial adoption. Integrated devices like this are promising because they create a system that is sustainable. This does not require any external power to keep the module running.

The key component may not be the perovskite but the polymer that encapsulates it, protecting the module and allowing to be immersed for long periods, Liang said.

Others have developed catalytic systems that connect the solar cell outside the water to immersed electrodes with a wire. We simplify the system by encapsulating the perovskite layer with a Surlyn (polymer) film.

The patterned film allows sunlight to reach the solar cell while protecting it and serves as an insulator between the cells and the electrodes, Liang said. Lou added:

With a clever system design, you can potentially make a self-sustaining loop. Even when there’s no sunlight, you can use stored energy in the form of chemical fuel. You can put the hydrogen and oxygen products in separate tanks and incorporate another module like a fuel cell to turn those fuels back into electricity.

The researchers said they will continue to improve the encapsulation technique as well as the solar cells themselves to raise the efficiency of the modules.

Bottom line: Rice University researchers have designed a device which, when immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, generates hydrogen and oxygen.

Source: A Low-Cost and High-Efficiency Integrated Device toward Solar-Driven Water Splitting

Via Rice University

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Z1ns6f

Plants use the process of photosynthesis to generate chemical energy from sunlight. Likewise, a new energy-producing device developed at Rice University is triggered by sunlight. Image via Didgeman/ Pixabay.

Rice University researchers have created an efficient, low-cost device that splits water to produce hydrogen fuel.

The device was developed by the Brown School of Engineering lab of Jun Lou, materials scientist at Rice University, and his team. It integrates catalytic electrodes and perovskite solar cells that, when triggered by sunlight, produce electricity. The current flows to the catalysts that split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, with a sunlight-to-hydrogen efficiency as high as 6.7%.

Hydrogen can be stored and used as fuel.

This sort of catalysis isn’t new, but the lab packaged a perovskite layer and the electrodes into a single modular unit that, when dropped into water and placed in sunlight, produces hydrogen with no further input.

Here’s what the new device looks like. Cross-sections show the structure of an integrated, solar-powered catalyst that splits water into hydrogen fuel and oxygen. Immersed in water, the device produces fuel when exposed to sunlight. Image via Jia Liang/ Rice University.

The device was described by lead author Lou, postdoctoral fellow Jia Liang and their colleagues in the peer-reviewed journal ACS Nano April 29, 2020. The module is a self-sustaining producer of hydrogen, which can be used for fuel. The researcher say it should be simple to produce in bulk. Lou described the device in a statement:

The concept is broadly similar to an artificial leaf. What we have is an integrated module that turns sunlight into electricity that drives an electrochemical reaction. It utilizes water and sunlight to get chemical fuels.

Perovskites are crystals with cubelike lattices that are known to harvest light. The most efficient perovskite solar cells produced so far achieve an efficiency above 25%, but the materials are expensive and tend to be stressed by light, humidity and heat. Lou said:

Jia has replaced the more expensive components, like platinum, in perovskite solar cells with alternatives like carbon. That lowers the entry barrier for commercial adoption. Integrated devices like this are promising because they create a system that is sustainable. This does not require any external power to keep the module running.

The key component may not be the perovskite but the polymer that encapsulates it, protecting the module and allowing to be immersed for long periods, Liang said.

Others have developed catalytic systems that connect the solar cell outside the water to immersed electrodes with a wire. We simplify the system by encapsulating the perovskite layer with a Surlyn (polymer) film.

The patterned film allows sunlight to reach the solar cell while protecting it and serves as an insulator between the cells and the electrodes, Liang said. Lou added:

With a clever system design, you can potentially make a self-sustaining loop. Even when there’s no sunlight, you can use stored energy in the form of chemical fuel. You can put the hydrogen and oxygen products in separate tanks and incorporate another module like a fuel cell to turn those fuels back into electricity.

The researchers said they will continue to improve the encapsulation technique as well as the solar cells themselves to raise the efficiency of the modules.

Bottom line: Rice University researchers have designed a device which, when immersed in water and exposed to sunlight, generates hydrogen and oxygen.

Source: A Low-Cost and High-Efficiency Integrated Device toward Solar-Driven Water Splitting

Via Rice University

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Z1ns6f

Coronavirus reports – Part 2: “We’re ahead when it comes to isolation”

We caught up with people living with cancer across the country, to find out how isolation due to the pandemic has been affecting them and their families. 

Amber: “It’s a bit of a kick in the teeth” 

“I was planning to return to university in September, I have changed my course to do Drama and English Lit as

it is more line with what I want to do, but I am not sure if that will happen now in September with all that is going on.”  

Amber was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in August 2019. During her intensive phase of her treatment, she was

Amber, diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in August 2019

in isolation, and had been due to start her maintenance treatment in March 2020 but it was slightly postponed due to a slow recovery.   

After the government announced the COVID-19 shielding measures, Amber was advised to continue isolating until mid-June. Despite isolation, she’s still going to hospital appointments.  

“I am coming to the hospital quite a bit at the moment. I had to have some blood transfusions recently and also for these tests too. I am collected in a car to take me to and from the hospital. We are given masks to wear, so they are trying to take precautions to reduce the risk.”  

She feels as though her experience last year has prepared her for this phase of isolation and is taking time to bounce back from the weight gained during her treatment. Aside from using a FitBit to track her exercise and taking part in online fitness classes, she also understands the importance of mental health.  

“After nine months of not being able to do much, it is a bit of a kick in the teeth to have to now self-isolate for another 12 weeks. But in some ways, I guess I am more equipped to deal with this than most people. I think it is really important to look after your mental health during this time. I like to do creative writing and doodling to keep me occupied.” 

 Thea: “We’re being asked to protect our loved ones”  

“I’ve experienced isolation before. But it was very, very different to this. It was very clinical, very scary, and there were no luxuries. I was in a room that was about three metres by three metres. The day I was ‘checked’ into that room, I didn’t know whether I was going to come out of that room. I didn’t know if I would live or die”  

Thea on a bike ride.

Living in Shropshire, Thea was diagnosed with a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukaemia in December 2014. During her treatment, she found herself having to isolate in cramped conditions attached to machines giving her life saving drugs and chemotherapy so – to her – this period of isolation is far better.

“For me, it’s five star, I have the freedom to leave that three metre by three metre room, and take my hours exercise. I have the freedom to make a cup of tea when I want a cup of tea. I have the freedom to make choices.”  

Being so close to open green spaces, she’s able to regularly take daily runs with her dog and keeps in touch with friends online, things she was unable to do during her previous isolation. From her perspective, she’s helping her community.  

“We’re doing it because we’re protecting our villages, our towns, our counties, our country, our nation.  This is a global effort. This isn’t just one person doing something. This is the whole world. Soon we will all be able to live our ‘new normal’ lives again.” 

Dylan and Siobhan: “We’re ahead when it comes to isolation” 

“The last three and a half years have put us ahead when it comes to isolation. We are used not to having choices and freedom.” 

Siobhan and Dylan.

In December 2016, Siobhan’s son Dylan was diagnosed with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma known as B-cell

Lymphoblastic lymphoma. Although Dylan’s treatment finished in March, Siobhan says it’s still a stressful time. Dylan’s treatment has left him with no immune system and Siobhan is constantly looking out for any sign of relapse. She’s aware that any exposure to the virus, be it in a public space or at a hospital, could be life-threatening. 

“Dylan has been out of the house four times over the whole time, and always just to walk around the block – we are usually back home inside in about seven minutes!” 

Despite Dylan’s inability to get out, Siobhan makes use of her daily exercise time to clear her head. She maintains that the biggest difference between this and Dylan’s last experience of isolation is what’s happening in the outside world. 

“I am watching people dealing with this current situation and have been fascinated and flabbergasted by people who have not understood the seriousness of it. The lockdown is only going to be temporary for most. But you can’t overstate how important it is to help people like Dylan to get this under control.” 

Clare: “Mum has struggled the most” 

Clare was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in 2013 and has gone through radiotherapy, chemotherapy and brachytherapy – a form of internal radiation. Even before the government officially announced the lockdown, her doctor phoned her to tell her she needed to shield.    

“It’s the 10th week for us now.”

Clare’s friends have been dropping things off at her house and, aside from sneaking out in the early hours of the morning one day to give them Easter treats, she’s been staying at home. 

However, it’s not just Clare. Both her mum and her dad, who was given the all clear in 2013 from his own cancer treatment, are having to shield. Clare says that her mum has struggled the most with this experience as “she was the most independent of us”.  

Clare’s been spending some of her time at home helping others, by providing online support for people in the cancer community. “There is a fear that people are going to die and not get the treatments they need. People are really worried.”

Alex

Read more about the experience of people living with cancer and how the pandemic has affected their treatments.

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/3bAfsvn

We caught up with people living with cancer across the country, to find out how isolation due to the pandemic has been affecting them and their families. 

Amber: “It’s a bit of a kick in the teeth” 

“I was planning to return to university in September, I have changed my course to do Drama and English Lit as

it is more line with what I want to do, but I am not sure if that will happen now in September with all that is going on.”  

Amber was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in August 2019. During her intensive phase of her treatment, she was

Amber, diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in August 2019

in isolation, and had been due to start her maintenance treatment in March 2020 but it was slightly postponed due to a slow recovery.   

After the government announced the COVID-19 shielding measures, Amber was advised to continue isolating until mid-June. Despite isolation, she’s still going to hospital appointments.  

“I am coming to the hospital quite a bit at the moment. I had to have some blood transfusions recently and also for these tests too. I am collected in a car to take me to and from the hospital. We are given masks to wear, so they are trying to take precautions to reduce the risk.”  

She feels as though her experience last year has prepared her for this phase of isolation and is taking time to bounce back from the weight gained during her treatment. Aside from using a FitBit to track her exercise and taking part in online fitness classes, she also understands the importance of mental health.  

“After nine months of not being able to do much, it is a bit of a kick in the teeth to have to now self-isolate for another 12 weeks. But in some ways, I guess I am more equipped to deal with this than most people. I think it is really important to look after your mental health during this time. I like to do creative writing and doodling to keep me occupied.” 

 Thea: “We’re being asked to protect our loved ones”  

“I’ve experienced isolation before. But it was very, very different to this. It was very clinical, very scary, and there were no luxuries. I was in a room that was about three metres by three metres. The day I was ‘checked’ into that room, I didn’t know whether I was going to come out of that room. I didn’t know if I would live or die”  

Thea on a bike ride.

Living in Shropshire, Thea was diagnosed with a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukaemia in December 2014. During her treatment, she found herself having to isolate in cramped conditions attached to machines giving her life saving drugs and chemotherapy so – to her – this period of isolation is far better.

“For me, it’s five star, I have the freedom to leave that three metre by three metre room, and take my hours exercise. I have the freedom to make a cup of tea when I want a cup of tea. I have the freedom to make choices.”  

Being so close to open green spaces, she’s able to regularly take daily runs with her dog and keeps in touch with friends online, things she was unable to do during her previous isolation. From her perspective, she’s helping her community.  

“We’re doing it because we’re protecting our villages, our towns, our counties, our country, our nation.  This is a global effort. This isn’t just one person doing something. This is the whole world. Soon we will all be able to live our ‘new normal’ lives again.” 

Dylan and Siobhan: “We’re ahead when it comes to isolation” 

“The last three and a half years have put us ahead when it comes to isolation. We are used not to having choices and freedom.” 

Siobhan and Dylan.

In December 2016, Siobhan’s son Dylan was diagnosed with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma known as B-cell

Lymphoblastic lymphoma. Although Dylan’s treatment finished in March, Siobhan says it’s still a stressful time. Dylan’s treatment has left him with no immune system and Siobhan is constantly looking out for any sign of relapse. She’s aware that any exposure to the virus, be it in a public space or at a hospital, could be life-threatening. 

“Dylan has been out of the house four times over the whole time, and always just to walk around the block – we are usually back home inside in about seven minutes!” 

Despite Dylan’s inability to get out, Siobhan makes use of her daily exercise time to clear her head. She maintains that the biggest difference between this and Dylan’s last experience of isolation is what’s happening in the outside world. 

“I am watching people dealing with this current situation and have been fascinated and flabbergasted by people who have not understood the seriousness of it. The lockdown is only going to be temporary for most. But you can’t overstate how important it is to help people like Dylan to get this under control.” 

Clare: “Mum has struggled the most” 

Clare was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in 2013 and has gone through radiotherapy, chemotherapy and brachytherapy – a form of internal radiation. Even before the government officially announced the lockdown, her doctor phoned her to tell her she needed to shield.    

“It’s the 10th week for us now.”

Clare’s friends have been dropping things off at her house and, aside from sneaking out in the early hours of the morning one day to give them Easter treats, she’s been staying at home. 

However, it’s not just Clare. Both her mum and her dad, who was given the all clear in 2013 from his own cancer treatment, are having to shield. Clare says that her mum has struggled the most with this experience as “she was the most independent of us”.  

Clare’s been spending some of her time at home helping others, by providing online support for people in the cancer community. “There is a fear that people are going to die and not get the treatments they need. People are really worried.”

Alex

Read more about the experience of people living with cancer and how the pandemic has affected their treatments.

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/3bAfsvn

This brown dwarf might look a lot like Jupiter

The quality of mass is what separates planets from brown dwarfs from stars. Here’s a general comparison of the masses of each. Image via NASA/ Caltech/ R. Hurt (IPAC).

Scientists studying the closest-known brown dwarf – an object much heavier than a planet but lighter than a star – have found that it has bands of clouds reminiscent of those on our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter. As reported by Caltech, while evidence for cloud bands on brown dwarfs has been seen before, this discovery represents the first time that these features have been inferred using an observing technique known as polarimetry. The researchers used the NaCo instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to make the discovery.

The peer-reviewed findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal on May 5, 2020.

Polarimetry works in a way related to the way polarized sunglasses block out bright sunlight. Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer, a scientist at Caltech and lead author of the new study, said in a statement:

I often think of polarimetric instruments as an astronomer’s polarized sunglasses. But instead of trying to block out that glare we’re trying to measure it.

Of course, we don’t really know what brown dwarfs look like. They’re far away, and we’ve never seen one up close. But here’s an artist’s concept of the brown dwarf called Luhman 16A, basd on recent evidence of Jupiter-like bands on its surface. Image via Caltech/ R. Hurt (IPAC).

Astronomer Dimitri Mawet, also of Caltech, described the use of polarimetry this way:

Polarimetry is receiving renewed attention in astronomy. Polarimetry is a very difficult art, but new techniques and data analysis methods make it more precise and sensitive than ever before, enabling groundbreaking studies on everything from distant supermassive black holes, newborn and dying stars, brown dwarfs, and exoplanets, all the way down to objects in our own solar system.

The brown dwarf Luhman 16A is actually one of a pair of brown dwarfs in a binary system, similar to a system of binary stars. It is the closest such system known, only 6.5 light-years away from Earth. Each brown dwarf in this system is similar in size to Jupiter, but 30 times more massive. Both have similar temperatures of about 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).

Scientists had previously found evidence for patchy clouds on the other brown dwarf of the pair, Luhman 16B, but not bands. How and why the other brown dwarf may be different is as yet unknown. Study co-author Julien Girard of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, said:

Like Earth and Venus, these objects are twins with very different weather.

The researchers ruled out other possibilities before determining that Luhman 16A really did have a banded atmosphere. Theodora Karalidi of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, said:

To determine what the light encountered on its way [from the brown dwarf to Earth], we compared observations against models with different properties: brown dwarf atmospheres with solid cloud decks, striped cloud bands, and even brown dwarfs that are oblate due to their fast rotation. We found that only models of atmospheres with cloud bands could match our observations of Luhman 16A.

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope previously found banding on three other brown dwarfs. The difference between all the previous observations and the new one is that the old measured changing brightness but not polarized light.

This time, though, NaCo observed polarized light from both of the Luhman brown dwarfs. Millar-Blanchaer said:

Polarimetry is the only technique that is currently able to detect bands that don’t fluctuate in brightness over time. This was key to finding the bands of clouds on Luhman 16A, on which the bands do not appear to be varying.

Jupiter as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on April 1, 2018. How much more detail would we see in Luhman 16A, if we could see it up close like this? Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ SwRI/ MSSS/ Gerald Eichstäd/ Seán Doran © CC NC SA.

Polarimetry doesn’t image the brown dwarfs per se, but rather simply measures the amount of polarized light they emit. Scientists then use atmospheric modeling to infer the presence of the cloud bands.

Right now, scientists don’t know how many bands there are on Luhman 16A, but the data suggest at least two.

On Luhman 16A’s brother brown dwarf – Luhman 16B – the study shows that the cloud patches are probably very active and stormy, similar to storms on Jupiter. According to Girard:

We think these storms can rain things like silicates or ammonia. It’s pretty awful weather, actually.

Brown dwarfs are enigmatic objects; they are often referred to as failed stars, since they don’t have enough mass to ignite and shine as full-fledged stars. But they are also more massive than any known planets. They’re sometimes referred to as hybrid objects, between large planets and small stars.

Brown dwarfs are not the only objects that can be studied with polarimetry. The technique is also useful for observing exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – especially giant, hot planets like hot Jupiters. It’s not easy, though, since hot Jupiters orbit very close to their stars, and so are relatively faint. Other planets are even fainter.

Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer at Caltech, lead author of the new study. Image via Caltech.

Millar-Blanchaer said:

Polarimetry is very sensitive to cloud properties, both in brown dwarfs and exoplanets. This is the first time that it’s really been exploited to understand cloud properties outside of the solar system.

According to Millar-Blanchaer, polarimetry is sensitive enough that it might even be able to detect surface liquid water on exoplanets. Now that would be exciting!

NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will also be able to observe brown dwarfs like Luhman 16A and look for signs of clouds. WFIRST will be equipped with a coronagraph instrument to conduct polarimetry, and may even be able to detect giant exoplanets in reflected light, as well as evidence of clouds in their atmospheres. With missions like these in the near future, scientists will be able to learn much more about brown dwarfs and their variously decorated atmospheres.

Bottom line: Scientists have found evidence of banded clouds on one of the two closest brown dwarfs.

Source: Detection of Polarization due to Cloud Bands in the Nearby Luhman 16 Brown Dwarf Binary

Via Caltech

Via Hubblesite

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Ws6QCZ

The quality of mass is what separates planets from brown dwarfs from stars. Here’s a general comparison of the masses of each. Image via NASA/ Caltech/ R. Hurt (IPAC).

Scientists studying the closest-known brown dwarf – an object much heavier than a planet but lighter than a star – have found that it has bands of clouds reminiscent of those on our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter. As reported by Caltech, while evidence for cloud bands on brown dwarfs has been seen before, this discovery represents the first time that these features have been inferred using an observing technique known as polarimetry. The researchers used the NaCo instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to make the discovery.

The peer-reviewed findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal on May 5, 2020.

Polarimetry works in a way related to the way polarized sunglasses block out bright sunlight. Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer, a scientist at Caltech and lead author of the new study, said in a statement:

I often think of polarimetric instruments as an astronomer’s polarized sunglasses. But instead of trying to block out that glare we’re trying to measure it.

Of course, we don’t really know what brown dwarfs look like. They’re far away, and we’ve never seen one up close. But here’s an artist’s concept of the brown dwarf called Luhman 16A, basd on recent evidence of Jupiter-like bands on its surface. Image via Caltech/ R. Hurt (IPAC).

Astronomer Dimitri Mawet, also of Caltech, described the use of polarimetry this way:

Polarimetry is receiving renewed attention in astronomy. Polarimetry is a very difficult art, but new techniques and data analysis methods make it more precise and sensitive than ever before, enabling groundbreaking studies on everything from distant supermassive black holes, newborn and dying stars, brown dwarfs, and exoplanets, all the way down to objects in our own solar system.

The brown dwarf Luhman 16A is actually one of a pair of brown dwarfs in a binary system, similar to a system of binary stars. It is the closest such system known, only 6.5 light-years away from Earth. Each brown dwarf in this system is similar in size to Jupiter, but 30 times more massive. Both have similar temperatures of about 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).

Scientists had previously found evidence for patchy clouds on the other brown dwarf of the pair, Luhman 16B, but not bands. How and why the other brown dwarf may be different is as yet unknown. Study co-author Julien Girard of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, said:

Like Earth and Venus, these objects are twins with very different weather.

The researchers ruled out other possibilities before determining that Luhman 16A really did have a banded atmosphere. Theodora Karalidi of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, said:

To determine what the light encountered on its way [from the brown dwarf to Earth], we compared observations against models with different properties: brown dwarf atmospheres with solid cloud decks, striped cloud bands, and even brown dwarfs that are oblate due to their fast rotation. We found that only models of atmospheres with cloud bands could match our observations of Luhman 16A.

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope previously found banding on three other brown dwarfs. The difference between all the previous observations and the new one is that the old measured changing brightness but not polarized light.

This time, though, NaCo observed polarized light from both of the Luhman brown dwarfs. Millar-Blanchaer said:

Polarimetry is the only technique that is currently able to detect bands that don’t fluctuate in brightness over time. This was key to finding the bands of clouds on Luhman 16A, on which the bands do not appear to be varying.

Jupiter as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on April 1, 2018. How much more detail would we see in Luhman 16A, if we could see it up close like this? Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ SwRI/ MSSS/ Gerald Eichstäd/ Seán Doran © CC NC SA.

Polarimetry doesn’t image the brown dwarfs per se, but rather simply measures the amount of polarized light they emit. Scientists then use atmospheric modeling to infer the presence of the cloud bands.

Right now, scientists don’t know how many bands there are on Luhman 16A, but the data suggest at least two.

On Luhman 16A’s brother brown dwarf – Luhman 16B – the study shows that the cloud patches are probably very active and stormy, similar to storms on Jupiter. According to Girard:

We think these storms can rain things like silicates or ammonia. It’s pretty awful weather, actually.

Brown dwarfs are enigmatic objects; they are often referred to as failed stars, since they don’t have enough mass to ignite and shine as full-fledged stars. But they are also more massive than any known planets. They’re sometimes referred to as hybrid objects, between large planets and small stars.

Brown dwarfs are not the only objects that can be studied with polarimetry. The technique is also useful for observing exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – especially giant, hot planets like hot Jupiters. It’s not easy, though, since hot Jupiters orbit very close to their stars, and so are relatively faint. Other planets are even fainter.

Maxwell Millar-Blanchaer at Caltech, lead author of the new study. Image via Caltech.

Millar-Blanchaer said:

Polarimetry is very sensitive to cloud properties, both in brown dwarfs and exoplanets. This is the first time that it’s really been exploited to understand cloud properties outside of the solar system.

According to Millar-Blanchaer, polarimetry is sensitive enough that it might even be able to detect surface liquid water on exoplanets. Now that would be exciting!

NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will also be able to observe brown dwarfs like Luhman 16A and look for signs of clouds. WFIRST will be equipped with a coronagraph instrument to conduct polarimetry, and may even be able to detect giant exoplanets in reflected light, as well as evidence of clouds in their atmospheres. With missions like these in the near future, scientists will be able to learn much more about brown dwarfs and their variously decorated atmospheres.

Bottom line: Scientists have found evidence of banded clouds on one of the two closest brown dwarfs.

Source: Detection of Polarization due to Cloud Bands in the Nearby Luhman 16 Brown Dwarf Binary

Via Caltech

Via Hubblesite

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Ws6QCZ

Venus is waning! Here are some photos

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Some people are surprised to learn that Venus sometimes appears as a crescent, from our earthly vantage point. But, indeed, it does. Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona, captured an image of Venus (left, inset) on May 13, 2020, and contrasted it, in this montage, with a photo of a crescent moon (right). Thank you, Eliot!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Victor C. Rogus of Sedona, Arizona, caught Venus as a waning crescent on May 11, 2020. He wrote: “It is becoming thinner!” Indeed, it is. And Venus will continue to wane in phase for the rest of this month, as it drops closer and closer to the sunset each evening. It will finally go between us and the sun on June 3, afterwards re-emerging into the morning sky. Thank you, Victor!

You can see Venus now in the west after sunset each evening. To the eye alone, it looks like an extremely bright point of light. Steadily held binoculars might show it as something other than round. This chart by Guy Ottewell (via his blog) depicts Venus’ disk size and phase – best seen through a telescope – in the evening sky from the planet’s superior conjunction (August 14, 2019, when it was on the far side of the sun from us) to inferior conjunction (June 3, 2020, when it’ll pass between us and the sun).

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Aurelian Neacsu in Visina, Dambovita County, Romania, caught Venus as a 15.9% illuminated crescent on May 10, 2020. Thank you, Aurelian.

View larger at EarthSky Community Photos. | Dion Rust – Subsonic0 (@trent900uk on Twitter) – posted this beautiful crescent Venus photo to EarthSky’s Twitter feed. Dion wrote: “Managed a quick snap of it last week. It’s a lovely crescent at the moment so if anyone can have a look it’s worth it.” It was taken May 7, 2020, from East Hertfordshire, U.K. Thanks, Dion!

Why does Venus look like a crescent now? Just before and after superior conjunction last August – when Venus swept behind the sun from Earth – we saw a nearly full Venus. Inferior conjunction – when Venus will sweep between us and the sun – will happen next on June 3, 2020. Just before and after, we see a crescent Venus. Image via UCLA.

Bottom line: Photos of Venus in a waning crescent phase from the EarthSky Community, plus a diagram showing the phases of Venus during its evening apparition of late 2019 and early 2020, and, also, a diagram illustrating why Venus changes in phase.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/366GEkF

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Some people are surprised to learn that Venus sometimes appears as a crescent, from our earthly vantage point. But, indeed, it does. Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona, captured an image of Venus (left, inset) on May 13, 2020, and contrasted it, in this montage, with a photo of a crescent moon (right). Thank you, Eliot!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Victor C. Rogus of Sedona, Arizona, caught Venus as a waning crescent on May 11, 2020. He wrote: “It is becoming thinner!” Indeed, it is. And Venus will continue to wane in phase for the rest of this month, as it drops closer and closer to the sunset each evening. It will finally go between us and the sun on June 3, afterwards re-emerging into the morning sky. Thank you, Victor!

You can see Venus now in the west after sunset each evening. To the eye alone, it looks like an extremely bright point of light. Steadily held binoculars might show it as something other than round. This chart by Guy Ottewell (via his blog) depicts Venus’ disk size and phase – best seen through a telescope – in the evening sky from the planet’s superior conjunction (August 14, 2019, when it was on the far side of the sun from us) to inferior conjunction (June 3, 2020, when it’ll pass between us and the sun).

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Aurelian Neacsu in Visina, Dambovita County, Romania, caught Venus as a 15.9% illuminated crescent on May 10, 2020. Thank you, Aurelian.

View larger at EarthSky Community Photos. | Dion Rust – Subsonic0 (@trent900uk on Twitter) – posted this beautiful crescent Venus photo to EarthSky’s Twitter feed. Dion wrote: “Managed a quick snap of it last week. It’s a lovely crescent at the moment so if anyone can have a look it’s worth it.” It was taken May 7, 2020, from East Hertfordshire, U.K. Thanks, Dion!

Why does Venus look like a crescent now? Just before and after superior conjunction last August – when Venus swept behind the sun from Earth – we saw a nearly full Venus. Inferior conjunction – when Venus will sweep between us and the sun – will happen next on June 3, 2020. Just before and after, we see a crescent Venus. Image via UCLA.

Bottom line: Photos of Venus in a waning crescent phase from the EarthSky Community, plus a diagram showing the phases of Venus during its evening apparition of late 2019 and early 2020, and, also, a diagram illustrating why Venus changes in phase.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/366GEkF

COVID-19: The cancer experts lending their tech to the search for a treatment

COVID-19 is delaying cancer research and treatment. We’re catching up with some of the cancer researchers who are using their expertise, experience and equipment to help tackle COVID-19 and get cancer services back on track.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many research labs have closed or drastically slowed down in an effort to protect their staff. But in Oxfordshire, a 1,800-feet donut-shaped building is still open for science – COVID-19 related science, that is. It’s the Diamond synchrotron, a particle accelerator that acts like a giant microscope and allows scientists to look at the structure and shape of molecules in exceptional detail.

Researchers from the Cancer Research UK Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit at Newcastle University have been harnessing the power of the synchrotron to identify the cancer drugs of the future. Now, the leading technology they’ve developed is helping Professors Steve Wedge, Martin Noble and Mike Waring to discover potential new drugs against COVID-19.

At a time when measures taken to slow the virus’ spread prevent us from fully focusing on our work to beat cancer, they’re one of the many Cancer Research UK-funded teams making their expertise and world-leading technologies available to accelerate the search for COVID-19 treatments.

Intelligent drug databases

Hundreds of miles away, Professor Bissan Al-Lazikani from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, has just unveiled an updated version of their ‘intelligent’ database canSAR, which has been optimised for COVID-19.

CanSAR is a powerful database that pulls together cancer research results. It connects billions of experimental results and measurements to give a comprehensive overview of some of the fundamental questions in cancer drug discovery. Over the past 10 years, it’s been used by researchers and companies alike to better understand cancer and help guide drug development. What would have otherwise taken 2-3 weeks to research and review, canSAR can achieve in a few minutes.

This speed and clarity are invaluable in the current situation, as the research community is scrambling for a vaccine and the evidence about potential treatments is constantly evolving.

The new Coronavirus-CanSAR resource is updated daily and integrates data from all around the world on what’s known about COVID-19 and similar viruses, how they interact with the human body, as well as information on drugs and clinical trials. The resource also uses canSAR’s unique AI-tools to help researchers prioritise the best avenues to explore and uncover hidden opportunities for the potential discovery of new therapies.

“Right now, there are lots of opportunities that might be missed with conventional methods, because there is so much chaos,” explains Al-Lazikani. “But our analysis of all the relevant 3D information that we have in the database, and which canSAR allowed us to do very quickly, has already pointed out that the way the virus interacts with human cells could be a good target for drug discovery.”

This type of information is gold dust to the Newcastle team, whose speciality is finding drugs that work against specified targets.

Accelerating drug discovery

In principle, identifying a promising new drug is not very different from throwing hundreds of small molecules at a cancer target to see what sticks. Only these molecules must be carefully curated to yield the most promising candidates.

The incredible power of the synchrotron is to show exactly how and where these molecules attach to the target – a powerful insight that helps screen for the most promising future drugs, before they’re refined to make them more efficient at targeting cancer. “If you get the screening process right, you stand the best chance of developing things on towards a drug,” says Noble.

So, when the team at the Diamond synchrotron asked to use their library of molecules to screen for drugs against a COVID-19 target, the researchers agreed immediately. The screen returned two candidates that can bind a protein found on the virus. “They bind in a way that we’d expect would stop the viral protein from working,” Waring explains, “so if developed further, they might be effective in slowing down the virus’ ability to multiply”.

The team are now hoping to kick start the process of drug development to refine the molecules little by little, each step bringing them closer to a usable drug. They’ll start by making the drugs attach better to their target, and further down the line, they’ll make sure the drugs go where they’re needed and don’t affect other parts of the body.

It’s a process that may take years, but needs to begin now if we want to achieve long-term control of COVID-19.

“This virus is probably not going to go away,” Noble concedes. “So it’s quite likely we’ll need a treatment for it in years to come, and potentially for other mutated forms of the virus too.”

But there will be another, more immediate beneficiary: cancer research. Using their library in the Diamond synchrotron helps scientists refine it, meaning it will ultimately perform better for cancer drug discovery.

Looking to the future

Similar to Newcastle’s drug library, the canSAR platform is constantly evolving, and researchers are learning from innovations put in place for Coronavirus-CanSAR, like the user-friendly interface they’ve developed to easily visualise all the ongoing COVID-19 clinical trials.  “We built the oncology canSAR to include much information from outside cancer from which we can learn. This is why it was a natural platform to adapt to coronavirus research. And now, the learnings we have gained from this exercise will go back and improve our cancer platform” says Al-Lazikani, “as it would be very useful for oncologists.”

Despite the encouraging results in the COVID-19 sphere, there is a latent restlessness in our research community. Finding drugs to target cancer remains the main mission, but with COVID-19 delaying cancer research, treatment and care, using some of our scientific expertise to fight the virus will ultimately help us to better support people affected by cancer.

“We’re also getting inventive to find ways to carry on our research against cancer, for example outsourcing what we can to labs that are still operational to keep drug discovery projects running” says Wedge. “Our researchers are involved in analysing data and working from home in many different ways, but they’re desperate to get back to normal.”

Daimona Kounde is a science media officer at Cancer Research UK. 

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2WtAdov

COVID-19 is delaying cancer research and treatment. We’re catching up with some of the cancer researchers who are using their expertise, experience and equipment to help tackle COVID-19 and get cancer services back on track.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many research labs have closed or drastically slowed down in an effort to protect their staff. But in Oxfordshire, a 1,800-feet donut-shaped building is still open for science – COVID-19 related science, that is. It’s the Diamond synchrotron, a particle accelerator that acts like a giant microscope and allows scientists to look at the structure and shape of molecules in exceptional detail.

Researchers from the Cancer Research UK Newcastle Drug Discovery Unit at Newcastle University have been harnessing the power of the synchrotron to identify the cancer drugs of the future. Now, the leading technology they’ve developed is helping Professors Steve Wedge, Martin Noble and Mike Waring to discover potential new drugs against COVID-19.

At a time when measures taken to slow the virus’ spread prevent us from fully focusing on our work to beat cancer, they’re one of the many Cancer Research UK-funded teams making their expertise and world-leading technologies available to accelerate the search for COVID-19 treatments.

Intelligent drug databases

Hundreds of miles away, Professor Bissan Al-Lazikani from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, has just unveiled an updated version of their ‘intelligent’ database canSAR, which has been optimised for COVID-19.

CanSAR is a powerful database that pulls together cancer research results. It connects billions of experimental results and measurements to give a comprehensive overview of some of the fundamental questions in cancer drug discovery. Over the past 10 years, it’s been used by researchers and companies alike to better understand cancer and help guide drug development. What would have otherwise taken 2-3 weeks to research and review, canSAR can achieve in a few minutes.

This speed and clarity are invaluable in the current situation, as the research community is scrambling for a vaccine and the evidence about potential treatments is constantly evolving.

The new Coronavirus-CanSAR resource is updated daily and integrates data from all around the world on what’s known about COVID-19 and similar viruses, how they interact with the human body, as well as information on drugs and clinical trials. The resource also uses canSAR’s unique AI-tools to help researchers prioritise the best avenues to explore and uncover hidden opportunities for the potential discovery of new therapies.

“Right now, there are lots of opportunities that might be missed with conventional methods, because there is so much chaos,” explains Al-Lazikani. “But our analysis of all the relevant 3D information that we have in the database, and which canSAR allowed us to do very quickly, has already pointed out that the way the virus interacts with human cells could be a good target for drug discovery.”

This type of information is gold dust to the Newcastle team, whose speciality is finding drugs that work against specified targets.

Accelerating drug discovery

In principle, identifying a promising new drug is not very different from throwing hundreds of small molecules at a cancer target to see what sticks. Only these molecules must be carefully curated to yield the most promising candidates.

The incredible power of the synchrotron is to show exactly how and where these molecules attach to the target – a powerful insight that helps screen for the most promising future drugs, before they’re refined to make them more efficient at targeting cancer. “If you get the screening process right, you stand the best chance of developing things on towards a drug,” says Noble.

So, when the team at the Diamond synchrotron asked to use their library of molecules to screen for drugs against a COVID-19 target, the researchers agreed immediately. The screen returned two candidates that can bind a protein found on the virus. “They bind in a way that we’d expect would stop the viral protein from working,” Waring explains, “so if developed further, they might be effective in slowing down the virus’ ability to multiply”.

The team are now hoping to kick start the process of drug development to refine the molecules little by little, each step bringing them closer to a usable drug. They’ll start by making the drugs attach better to their target, and further down the line, they’ll make sure the drugs go where they’re needed and don’t affect other parts of the body.

It’s a process that may take years, but needs to begin now if we want to achieve long-term control of COVID-19.

“This virus is probably not going to go away,” Noble concedes. “So it’s quite likely we’ll need a treatment for it in years to come, and potentially for other mutated forms of the virus too.”

But there will be another, more immediate beneficiary: cancer research. Using their library in the Diamond synchrotron helps scientists refine it, meaning it will ultimately perform better for cancer drug discovery.

Looking to the future

Similar to Newcastle’s drug library, the canSAR platform is constantly evolving, and researchers are learning from innovations put in place for Coronavirus-CanSAR, like the user-friendly interface they’ve developed to easily visualise all the ongoing COVID-19 clinical trials.  “We built the oncology canSAR to include much information from outside cancer from which we can learn. This is why it was a natural platform to adapt to coronavirus research. And now, the learnings we have gained from this exercise will go back and improve our cancer platform” says Al-Lazikani, “as it would be very useful for oncologists.”

Despite the encouraging results in the COVID-19 sphere, there is a latent restlessness in our research community. Finding drugs to target cancer remains the main mission, but with COVID-19 delaying cancer research, treatment and care, using some of our scientific expertise to fight the virus will ultimately help us to better support people affected by cancer.

“We’re also getting inventive to find ways to carry on our research against cancer, for example outsourcing what we can to labs that are still operational to keep drug discovery projects running” says Wedge. “Our researchers are involved in analysing data and working from home in many different ways, but they’re desperate to get back to normal.”

Daimona Kounde is a science media officer at Cancer Research UK. 

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2WtAdov

Touching the asteroid Ryugu

Asteroid Ryugu photographed from a distance of about 12 miles (20 kilometers) looks just gray and bland, but a close-up provides more color. Image via JAXA/ University of Tokyo/ Kochi University/ Rikkyo University/ Nagoya University/ Chiba Institute of Technology/ Meiji University, University of Aizu/ AIST/ The Conversation.

By Paul K. Byrne, North Carolina State University

On February 21, 2019, we shot an asteroid.

More precisely, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, built and operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, fired a 5-gram metal projectile into the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, a spinning-top-shaped body about 1 kilometer (.6 mi) across and some 210 million miles (350 million km) from Earth. This projectile disrupted the surface of the asteroid, allowing Hayabusa2 to capture some of the lofted material and tuck it safely away on board. Having departed from Ryugu in November 2019, Hayabusa2 is expected to fly past Earth in late 2020 and release its samples in a reentry capsule for detailed analyses in labs across the world.

In a new paper

published in Science, the Hayabusa2 team reports on their observations of the sampling process itself, and what measurements of Ryugu’s surface generally can tell us of its evolution. These observations paint a remarkable story of a cosmic traveler that traveled from the main asteroid belt, taking a short-lived excursion near the sun, before ultimately settling into an orbit in our neighborhood as a near-Earth asteroid.

I’m a planetary scientist, and I’m fascinated by why planetary bodies look the way they do. By understanding better how and why Ryugu gained its current appearance, we’ll have a more comprehensive model for how solar system bodies form and develop – including common, “C-type” carbonaceous asteroids, of which Ryugu is one.

The surface of near-Earth carbonaceous asteroid 162173 Ryugu, as observed by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft just before its landing. The spacecraft’s solar ray paddle casts a shadow on Ryugu’s surface.
JAXA/U. Tokyo/ Kochi U./ Rikkyo U./ Nagoya U./ Chiba Inst. Tech./ Meiji U./ U. Aizu/ AIST/ The Conversation.

A colorful past

The new paper describes how some parts of Ryugu are “bluer” and others are “redder.”

These terms relate to subtle variations in color of the asteroid surface across the visible spectrum. The Hayabusa2 team found that the equator and poles of the asteroid are bluer, whereas the midlatitudes are redder. Intriguingly, this color difference may be tied to age – or, rather, how long material is directly exposed to space. That’s because exposed surfaces are darkened and reddened by space weathering – bombardment by micrometeorites, solar and cosmic particles – and heating by the sun, which is the primary mechanism for Ryugu.

When Hayabusa2 fired its projectile from a distance of about a meter, and then its thrusters to move away from the asteroid, a cloud of redder, dark pebbles and fine grains blew outward before falling back onto the surface. The mission team concluded that these particles, originally only on the exposed surfaces of boulders, landed all over the sampling site, turning it from a slightly blue color to slightly red.

This observation offered the team an insight into the latitudinal “stripes” on Ryugu. Exposed material, reddened by the Sun and by space weathering, slowly moves under the asteroid’s weak gravity from the topographically high equator and poles to the topographically low midlatitudes. This movement exposes fresher, bluer material at the equator and poles and deposits the reddened material in between.

What I found most exciting was that, from the analysis of the size and colors of craters on Ryugu, the Hayabusa2 team concluded that at some point the asteroid must have been closer to the sun that it is now. That would explain the amount of reddening of the surface. Using two different models for calculating the age of craters, the team estimated that this solar heating-induced reddening must have happened either eight million years ago or as recently as 300,000 years ago – a mere blink of an eye, cosmologically speaking.

These crater statistics, based on images collected by Hayabusa2, even show that the age of the overall asteroid surface itself is likely no more than around 17 million years, much younger than the time when the main-belt parent asteroids of Ryugu are thought to have broken apart, which happened hundreds of millions to over a billion years ago.

Asteroid Ryugu photographed from a distance of about 12 miles (20 kilometers) looks just gray and bland, but a close-up provides more color. Image via JAXA/ University of Tokyo/ Kochi University/ Rikkyo University/ Nagoya University/ Chiba Institute of Technology/ Meiji University, University of Aizu/ AIST/ The Conversation.

By Paul K. Byrne, North Carolina State University

On February 21, 2019, we shot an asteroid.

More precisely, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, built and operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, fired a 5-gram metal projectile into the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, a spinning-top-shaped body about 1 kilometer (.6 mi) across and some 210 million miles (350 million km) from Earth. This projectile disrupted the surface of the asteroid, allowing Hayabusa2 to capture some of the lofted material and tuck it safely away on board. Having departed from Ryugu in November 2019, Hayabusa2 is expected to fly past Earth in late 2020 and release its samples in a reentry capsule for detailed analyses in labs across the world.

In a new paper

published in Science, the Hayabusa2 team reports on their observations of the sampling process itself, and what measurements of Ryugu’s surface generally can tell us of its evolution. These observations paint a remarkable story of a cosmic traveler that traveled from the main asteroid belt, taking a short-lived excursion near the sun, before ultimately settling into an orbit in our neighborhood as a near-Earth asteroid.

I’m a planetary scientist, and I’m fascinated by why planetary bodies look the way they do. By understanding better how and why Ryugu gained its current appearance, we’ll have a more comprehensive model for how solar system bodies form and develop – including common, “C-type” carbonaceous asteroids, of which Ryugu is one.

The surface of near-Earth carbonaceous asteroid 162173 Ryugu, as observed by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft just before its landing. The spacecraft’s solar ray paddle casts a shadow on Ryugu’s surface.
JAXA/U. Tokyo/ Kochi U./ Rikkyo U./ Nagoya U./ Chiba Inst. Tech./ Meiji U./ U. Aizu/ AIST/ The Conversation.

A colorful past

The new paper describes how some parts of Ryugu are “bluer” and others are “redder.”

These terms relate to subtle variations in color of the asteroid surface across the visible spectrum. The Hayabusa2 team found that the equator and poles of the asteroid are bluer, whereas the midlatitudes are redder. Intriguingly, this color difference may be tied to age – or, rather, how long material is directly exposed to space. That’s because exposed surfaces are darkened and reddened by space weathering – bombardment by micrometeorites, solar and cosmic particles – and heating by the sun, which is the primary mechanism for Ryugu.

When Hayabusa2 fired its projectile from a distance of about a meter, and then its thrusters to move away from the asteroid, a cloud of redder, dark pebbles and fine grains blew outward before falling back onto the surface. The mission team concluded that these particles, originally only on the exposed surfaces of boulders, landed all over the sampling site, turning it from a slightly blue color to slightly red.

This observation offered the team an insight into the latitudinal “stripes” on Ryugu. Exposed material, reddened by the Sun and by space weathering, slowly moves under the asteroid’s weak gravity from the topographically high equator and poles to the topographically low midlatitudes. This movement exposes fresher, bluer material at the equator and poles and deposits the reddened material in between.

What I found most exciting was that, from the analysis of the size and colors of craters on Ryugu, the Hayabusa2 team concluded that at some point the asteroid must have been closer to the sun that it is now. That would explain the amount of reddening of the surface. Using two different models for calculating the age of craters, the team estimated that this solar heating-induced reddening must have happened either eight million years ago or as recently as 300,000 years ago – a mere blink of an eye, cosmologically speaking.

These crater statistics, based on images collected by Hayabusa2, even show that the age of the overall asteroid surface itself is likely no more than around 17 million years, much younger than the time when the main-belt parent asteroids of Ryugu are thought to have broken apart, which happened hundreds of millions to over a billion years ago.