Space News & Blog Articles

Few things in life are certain. But it seems highly probable that people will explore the lunar surface over the next decade or so, staying there for weeks, perhaps months, at a time. That fact bumps up against something we are certain about. When human beings spend time in low-gravity environments, it takes a toll on their bodies.

What can be done?

Scientists have studied the effects of microgravity and low gravity on the human body. Several problems crop up, like muscle atrophy and bone demineralization. Cardiovascular conditioning suffers, as does neural control of body posture and movement. But while researchers are learning more and more about the effects, solutions are lagging behind.

A new paper published in Royal Society Open Science suggests a novel, low-tech solution for these problems. Its title is “Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements: a comprehensive countermeasure for low-gravity deconditioning?” The lead author is Alberto Minetti, a Physiology Professor at the University of Milan.

Minetti and his co-authors point out that specific exercises for specific problems may not be the best approach. Instead, whole-body exercise could be a powerful tool for supporting astronaut health. “Rather than training selected muscle groups only, ‘whole-body’ activities such as locomotion seem better candidates,” they explain. However, there’s a problem with that. “But at Moon gravity, both ‘pendular’ walking and bouncing gaits like running exhibit abnormal dynamics at faster speeds,” they write.

Space debris is a growing problem, so companies are working on ways to mitigate it. A new satellite called ADRAS-J was built and launched to demonstrate how a spacecraft could rendezvous with a piece of space junk, paving the path for future removal. Astroscale Japan Inc, the Japanese company behind the satellite, released a new picture from the mission showing a close image of its target space debris, a discarded Japanese H2A rocket’s upper stage, captured from just a few hundred meters away.

ADRAS-J stands for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, and is the first satellite ever to attempt to safely approach, characterize and survey the state of an existing piece of large debris. This mission will only demonstrate Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) capabilities by operating in near proximity to the piece of space debris, and gather images to assess the rocket body’s movement and the condition of the structure, Astroscale Japan said.

The mission launched from New Zealand on February 18 and is part of Phase 1 of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s plan to deal with space debris. Shortly after launch, the ADRAS-J spacecraft began its maneuvers to rendezvous with the chosen piece of space debris. On April 9, mission engineers maneuvered the spacecraft to a desired position several hundred kilometers away from the rocket stage. Then, by April 16, the spacecraft was able to match the orbit of the rocket stage. By the next day, using  navigation inputs from the spacecraft’s suite of rendezvous payload sensors, ADRAS-J was able to attain close approach of several hundred meters.  

“The unprecedented image marks a crucial step towards understanding and addressing the challenges posed by space debris, driving progress toward a safer and more sustainable space environment,” Astroscale Japan said in a press release.

This particular rocket stage was chosen because it did not have any GPS data. Instead, the operations team had to rely on ground based observational data to approximate its position to make the approach. This provided a realistic target for testing debris analysis activity.

Few space images are as iconic as those of the Horsehead Nebula. Its shape makes it instantly recognizable. Over the decades, a number of telescopes have captured its image, turning it into a sort of test case for a telescope’s power.

The JWST has them all beat.

The Horsehead Nebula is about 1300 light-years away in Orion. It’s part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Horsehead is visible near the three stars in Orion’s Belt in a zoomed-in image.

The leading image shows JWST’s view of the Horsehead Nebula alongside two other views. The Euclid image was captured in November 2023. Euclid features a wide-angle, 600-megapixel camera, and its primary job is to measure the redshift of galaxies and the Universe’s expansion due to dark energy. It took Euclid about one hour to capture the image, showcasing the telescope’s ability to gather highly detailed images quickly.

The Hubble captured its image in 2013 and was released as the telescope’s 23rd-anniversary featured image. The venerable Hubble does a good job of revealing structures hidden by dust. There’s nothing left to say about the Hubble that hasn’t been said already. It’s the revered elder among telescopes, and if you feel no reverence towards it, its contribution to science, and the people responsible for it, you may have a bad case of ennui.

It stands to reason that stars formed from the same cloud of material will have the same metallicity. That fact underpins some avenues of astronomical research, like the search for the Sun’s siblings. But for some binary stars, it’s not always true. Their composition can be different despite forming from the same reservoir of material, and the difference extends to their planetary systems.

New research shows that the differences can be traced back to their earliest stages of formation.

Binary stars are the norm, while solitary stars like our Sun are in the minority. Some estimates place the number of binary stars in the Milky Way at up to 85%. These pairs of stars form from the same giant molecular clouds. Each cloud has a certain abundance of metals, and that abundance should be reflected in the stars themselves.

But that’s not always the case.

Sometimes, the metallicity of a pair of binary stars doesn’t agree. Astrophysicists have proposed three explanations for this.