NASA Analyzed Single Grain Of Lunar Soil As Part Of Plans For Moon Base
NASA's plan to build a moon base has taken a "giant leap" forward after the lunar surface was analyzed... using a single grain of soil.
The groundbreaking technique sheds fresh light on the barren world - and could make colonization a reality.
Moon dust, known as regolith, could be made into construction materials for a domed or underground city.
They may also be used to protect the first human settlers from heat, cold and radiation.
NASA/JSC
First author Jennika Greer, a PhD student in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, said:
"We are analyzing rocks from space, atom by atom."
"It is the first time a lunar sample has been studied like this. We're using a technique many geologists haven't even heard of."
Paraphrasing Neil Armstrong, she added:
"One small grain of moon dust is one giant leap for lunar studies."
The moon is the only place we can go to find traces of the geological record from the earliest epochs of our own planet when life emerged.
NASA/Ames Research Center/Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project
NASA plans to return this decade - for the first time in more than half a century. Permanent habitation may begin within 20 years.
Co author Professor Philipp Heck, a curator at the Field Museum, Chicago, said:
"We can apply this technique to samples no one has studied."
"You are almost guaranteed to find something new or unexpected. This technique has such high sensitivity and resolution, you find things you would not find otherwise and only use up a small bit of the sample."
Called APT (atom probe tomography), it worked on the sharp and gritty grain samples brought back by Apollo 17 geologist Harrison Schmitt in 1972.
The study published in Meteoritics & Planetary Science will help us learn more about conditions there and the formation of precious resources like water and helium.
Apollo 9 Mission image - Command Module NASA/JSC
APT is normally used to improve industrial processes such as making steel and nanowires.
Most Apollo samples are stowed in a bank style vault at Johnson Space Center, Houston.
They are loaned to researchers sparingly. Ms Greer required just one single grain, about as wide as a human hair.
In that tiny speck she identified products of space weathering, pure iron, water and helium that formed through the interactions of the lunar soil with the environment.
Ms Greer said:
"Extracting these precious resources from lunar soil could help future astronauts sustain their activities on the Moon."
She used a focused beam of charged atoms to carve a tiny, super-sharp tip into its surface.
This was only a few hundred atoms wide. To put this in context, a sheet of paper is hundreds of thousands of atoms thick.
Prof Heck said:
"We can use the expression nano-carpentry. Like a carpenter shapes wood, we do it at the nano-scale to minerals."
Once the sample was inside the ATP scanner, Greer zapped it with a laser to knock atoms off one by one. As they flew off, they struck a detector plate.
NASA/JSC
Heavier elements, like iron, take longer to reach the detector than lighter elements, like hydrogen.
By measuring the time between the laser firing and the atom striking the detector, the instrument is able to determine the type at that position, and its charge.
Finally, Ms Greer reconstructed the data in three dimensions using a color-coded point for each atom and molecule to make a nano-scale 3D map of the Moon dust.
SWNS
It's the first time scientists can see both the type of atoms and their exact location in a grain of lunar soil.
Nobody had ever tried using the device for lunar samples before. The researchers encourage other cosmo-chemists to try it out.
Ms Greer said:
"It is great for comprehensively characterizing small volumes of precious samples."
"We have these really exciting missions like Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx returning to Earth soon - uncrewed spacecrafts collecting tiny pieces of asteroids."
"This is a technique that should definitely be applied to what they bring back because it uses so little material but provides so much information."
Studying soil from the moon's surface gives scientists insight into an important force within the solar system - space weathering.
Space is a harsh environment with tiny meteorites, streams of particles coming off the Sun and radiation in the form of solar and cosmic rays.
While Earth's atmosphere protects us, other bodies like the Moon and asteroids don't have atmospheres.
NASA/Artemis
As a result, the soil on the Moon's surface has undergone changes caused by space weathering, making it fundamentally different from the satellite's interior rock.
Ms Greer said:
"It is kind of like a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone - the outer surface does not match what is inside."
Her nano-sized tip also means her original grain of moon dust is still available for future experiments.
Future generations of scientists can make new discoveries and predictions from the same precious sample.
Prof Heck said:
"Fifty years ago, no one anticipated someone would ever analyze a sample with this technique, and only using a tiny bit of one grain."
"Thousands of such grains could be on the glove of an astronaut, and it would be sufficient material for a big study."
Lunar dust is fine, like a powder, but it cuts like glass. It is formed when meteoroids crash on the moon's surface, heating and pulverizing rocks and dirt, which contain silica and metals such as iron.
Since there is no wind or water to smooth rough edges, the tiny grains are sharp and jagged, and cling to nearly everything.
Added Ms Greer:
"It is important to understand these materials in the lab so we understand what we're seeing when we look through a telescope."
"Because of something like this, we understand what the environment is like on the Moon."
"It goes way beyond what astronauts are able to tell us as they walk on the Moon. This little grain preserves millions of years of history."
NASA was so impressed it is funding the team for the next three years to study different types of lunar dust with APT to quantify its water content and investigate other aspects of space weathering.
*A version of this story originally appeared on SWNS and was written by Mark Waghorn
Astronauts Onboard The ISS Are Celebrating Easter Dinner, And It Sounds Absolutely Delicious
Who says Easter dinner is exclusive to those back on terra firma?
Not NASA.
A bounty of provisions headed towards the International Space Station for the six astronauts on board to ensure they would not miss out on the obligatory feast.
According to AP, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus capsule was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, on Wednesday and retrieved by space station astronaut Anne McClain, via a robot arm, just in time for Good Friday.
The intergalactic menu offered 800 meals consisting of pork chops with gravy, smoked turkey, potatoes au gratin, lemon meringue pudding and apricot cobbler.
.@NorthropGrumman's Cygnus spacecraft is on its way to the @Space_Station with ~7,600 pounds of science investigati… https://t.co/qSkL4Gxc5I— NASA (@NASA) 1555555846.0
@ABC Cargo is incredible— Michael “Big Husk” Boes (@Michael “Big Husk” Boes) 1555715641.0
The 7,600-pound shipment also included test and repair equipment, along with three free-flying robots and 40 black lab mice to be used for a tetanus vaccination study.
@ABC Ah yes. The eating of mice on Easter is a tradition in many religions.— Frank Ramsay (@Frank Ramsay) 1555716563.0
Mice have similar immune systems as humans. The research will observe "the effects of spaceflight on the function of antibody production and immune memory," as reported by the Daily Mail.
What a feast! https://t.co/XMxUITMVA8— Globalnews.ca (@Globalnews.ca) 1555696985.0
@ABC Expensive feast— Caring Citizen (@Caring Citizen) 1555723805.0
Northrop Grumman paid tribute by naming Cygnus the "S.S. Roger Chaffee," after the youngest of the three astronauts who died in the Apollo 1 fire during a pre-launch test from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1967.
Fellow astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Ed White were also casualties.
McClain officially welcomed the newly minted cargo ship via radio.
"We never forget that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Please know that every day we remember his sacrifice and that we will continue to honor his legacy by pursuing his passion for exploration. To the S.S. Roger Chaffee, welcome aboard."
Chafee (pictured at right in the photo below) was the only crew member who never made it into space.
#OTD in 1967, a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test of Apollo 1 tragically took the lives of all three crew… https://t.co/EI3KXOrbep— The Astronauts Memorial Foundation (@The Astronauts Memorial Foundation) 1548598592.0
While the private shipment was generally appreciated, The Takeout had some beef over the conspicuous omission of a traditional feast offering: ham.
"Technology has evolved far enough that we as a species are capable of sending rats and what we assume are three copies of EVE from Wall-E to the ISS. And still, no ham."
@CBCAlerts Pie in the sky. Literally.— Andy Sawers (@Andy Sawers) 1555677689.0
@CBCAlerts Uber eats— Mike (@Mike) 1555679491.0
Something tells me the six astronauts will survive no ham in addition to the lack of hidden Easter eggs on board the cargo. Happy Easter!
NASA Sent Several Mice Into Space To Analyze Their Behavior In Microgravity—And The Mice Actually Had A Blast
Mice are the often unsung heroes of humans' scientific research. We use them as a proxy for our own species when researching how things might affect humans.
Obviously, we aren't mice, but their bodies are similar enough that they can tell us a lot about the safety of different medications or situations.
Mice also live shorter lives than humans, so they are excellent for testing the long-term effects of microgravity—like that experienced during prolonged space travel.
Humanity is getting closer and closer to taking a trip to Mars but, before we can make that idea a reality, we need to learn how being weightless for the amount of time it takes to get there will do to the astronauts that take the trip.
Rodent Research in Microgravity www.youtube.com
In order to study how mice react to the microgravity of space, NASA designed a special enclosure to hold and observe mice on the International Space Station (ISS).
Called the NASA Rodent Research Hardware System, the enclosure had enough room for the mice to move around freely.
A researcher from NASA's Ames Research Center, located in Silicon Valley, talked about the enclosure
Studying Behavior in Space Shows Mice Adapt to Microgravity www.youtube.com
Surprisingly, the mice didn't seem to mind being in space at all!
They did all of the same things that the control group of mice who stayed here on Earth did: grooming, eating, and interacting with the other mice in the enclosure (including adorable snuggle huddles—mice are very social animals).
They also did some things that the earthbound mice didn't, mostly because they couldn't. The space mice rapidly adjusted to the microgravity quickly, and some of the younger mice began doing what scientists called "race tracking."
They would run laps around the walls of the cage, eventually in groups!
Scientists aren't sure of the reason for these mousy jogging clubs, but they could be do to a few different factors.
It might be because the mice enjoy the physical exercise itself, like many human runners, or the motion helped stimulate the mice's sense of balance.
There is also the possibility that it is a stress response, but scientists think this is the least likely possibility. The mice were in perfect health, and didn't show any other abnormal behaviors.
Ronca commented on the importance of mouse research and the success of this initial study.
"Our behavioral study shows that the NASA Rodent Hardware System provides the capability to conduct meaningful long-duration biological research studies on the International Space Station."
"Experiments conducted in the habitat can focus on how mouse physiology responds to the spaceflight environment during extended missions and on similarities in response to astronaut crew."
Twitter users were excited by the study's results.
Mice in space. That one mouse figured it out - run around the cage and use circular acceleration to "stick" to the… https://t.co/9TLBux23Yb— Rhett Allain (@Rhett Allain) 1555441691.0
So @nasa sent mice up to the #ISS and the findings are pretty fun. Looks like it only took them a day or two to get… https://t.co/Ic68JOZMP0— Christopher Combs (@Christopher Combs) 1555433695.0
NASA is sending up another group of mice with the next cargo shipment to the ISS today!
Our moustronauts have arrived at Wallops 🐭 and are ready for flight! These brave mice are headed to the space stati… https://t.co/SUu13CAUVO— NASA Wallops (@NASA Wallops) 1555473412.0
@NASA_Wallops I was legitimately disappointed nobody called them moustronauts at the press conference! 🐭 Consider y… https://t.co/YaSn2fYqel— Aaron Edgar (@Aaron Edgar) 1555499898.0
@NASA_Wallops I heard they're the best mouse-kind has to offer!— Justin Wilt (@Justin Wilt) 1555473711.0
If we really plan to make it to Mars, or even farther planets, these studies of the effects of being in space are vital. The ISS is too small to conduct a large-scale study on humans, and a sufficient number of samples are vital to understanding whether a reaction is a species-wide one or just an individual one.
These mouse studies are the first step in understanding the effects of space on bodies that are designed to exist with significantly more gravity.
Space And Physics Reporter Gives Some Helpful Answers To The Internet's Burning Questions About Black Holes
Wednesday, researchers with The Event Horizon Telescope project released the first-ever photograph of a black hole, more than a century after Albert Einstein theorized their existence.
The photograph is a huge step forward, marking the culmination of a century's work of scientific theory.
So naturally, people had lots of questions once the news began to trend online.
Meet Leah Crane.
She's a space and physics reporter with New Scientist who decided to answer questions in conjunction with the photograph's release.
It all started when the New Scientist Twitter account offered to answer as many questions as possible once the results of the research team's findings were published.
We're counting down to the release of the first results from the Event Horizon Telescope today. While we wait, we w… https://t.co/pCza2asxwW— New Scientist (@New Scientist) 1554893409.0
The questions came in rather speedily.
@newscientist What if there is no black holes?— ALFAIFI SUAD (@ALFAIFI SUAD) 1554894892.0
@22susu22 @newscientist We are pretty sure that there are black holes - we hadn't observed any directly until 2015… https://t.co/HYhdDlIUKp— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554900277.0
In case you've ever wondered about getting sucked into a black hole...
@newscientist What's the probability of our solar system, including planet Earth, being sucked by a blackhole? When is it likely to occur?— Guru - eTestZone.com (@Guru - eTestZone.com) 1554894821.0
@Equateall @RMR7_ @newscientist Our galaxy has about 100 million relatively small (the mass of a star) black holes,… https://t.co/Ccanfj072F— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554900379.0
In case you're wondering what dying by black hole would be like...
@newscientist Is it true that with a smaller black whole you would get ripped apart when you hit the event horizon… https://t.co/0IvaPXJsgU— PUG MASTER 22🇺🇸 (@PUG MASTER 22🇺🇸) 1554897573.0
@22Pug @newscientist You're pretty much going to die either way. But yes, this is about right - with a smaller blac… https://t.co/bNCXH91gOP— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554900617.0
Soon the now famous photograph made its debut...
We've got the first image of a black hole. The fact that this is possible is absolutely incredible. Amazing. The EH… https://t.co/QFcAmq7UpS— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554902886.0
...and with it came even more questions, like:
"How did we even manage this?"
How is it possible that a picture of a black hole was taken? I always thought that a black sucks everything in, inc… https://t.co/uYoDL5UnF1— Mannie (@Mannie) 1554901434.0
@brah_Skhokho The picture is of the black hole's silhouette against the bright material circling it. You're right,… https://t.co/jEPJa1lvOh— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554903103.0
In case you're wondering about that brightness...
@newscientist Why is it brighter on one side? Are we closer to the bright side?— harold wynne (@harold wynne) 1554902686.0
@har38 @newscientist It's brighter on one side because it's rotating - the light that's coming toward us appears br… https://t.co/lZyejhPYGP— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554903264.0
Oh, and about that rotation...
@DownHereOnEarth @har38 @newscientist what is rotating? the accretion disk or the blackhole? is it a kerr black hole or not?— Marcus Strom (@Marcus Strom) 1554904664.0
@strom_m @har38 @newscientist From this image, we can't be totally sure whether it's just the accretion disk rotati… https://t.co/ZtkhX5nTgx— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554904818.0
Where IS that event horizon we keep hearing about?
@newscientist Where is the event horizon? Inside the orange ring meeting the black area?— Gene (@Gene) 1554902180.0
@flylinuxinspace @newscientist The event horizon is in that black area - the black area is the shadow of the black… https://t.co/YMqhwDKTYK— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554903786.0
In case you're wondering about this discovery's scientific impact...
@newscientist How exactly the new discovery and Theories will impact Quantum Mechanics and General relativity? And… https://t.co/fOvElWbDpt— ✨❗•A•❗✨ (@✨❗•A•❗✨) 1554900155.0
@__ArcadianX @newscientist So far, the new image is consistent with general relativity! The hope is that eventually… https://t.co/bleRTM2CxR— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554903993.0
And what about the singularity?
@newscientist Does the singularity have any size? Black holes have different mass. Some of them are millions of tim… https://t.co/wqhB6PJ76o— Bartosz Janiszewski (@Bartosz Janiszewski) 1554900615.0
@MrMortarz @newscientist The singularity itself is infinitely small, but the size of the entire black hole (the are… https://t.co/Pww1lywHe9— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554904091.0
On the subject of energy...
@DownHereOnEarth @MrMortarz @newscientist Is the energy “locked up” in a black hole still counted as part of the ov… https://t.co/NRvvsJ07Kb— Ken Goodwin (@Ken Goodwin) 1554905573.0
@KenGoodwinITV @MrMortarz @newscientist The energy in a black hole still counts, because the black hole is still in… https://t.co/xhWdUaSJ6V— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554905782.0
And what about Hawking radiation?
@newscientist Has hawking radiation actually been observed near a real blackhole and not in some laboratory conditions?— Persona~ lie of everyone. (@Persona~ lie of everyone.) 1554896805.0
@Chimchim916 @newscientist Hawking radiation has never been observed - for now, it is a purely theoretical quantum effect.— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554904249.0
And what about spiral galaxies?
@newscientist does every spiral galaxy have one at its center?— alex foti (@alex foti) 1554895115.0
@alexfoti @newscientist Yes, we think that pretty much all galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centres!… https://t.co/9ZNKXhudkf— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554904328.0
What came first?
@DownHereOnEarth @alexfoti @newscientist Which came first the blackhole or the galaxy?— John Detlefs (@John Detlefs) 1554905874.0
@jdetle @alexfoti @newscientist We don't know which came first! Big clouds of gas could collapse to form galaxies a… https://t.co/Ru2UIGfnNd— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554906467.0
Where does all this stuff actually go?
@newscientist Where do particles and objects sucked into black holes go ?— Independent thinker (@Independent thinker) 1554894329.0
@blazet @newscientist They don't exactly go anywhere - their constituent particles just become part of the black ho… https://t.co/oo3tB7hZHh— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554904396.0
And do black holes actually grow?
@DownHereOnEarth @blazet @newscientist Does its size and mass increase portionately to the size of whatever falls into it?— Mz Scarlette (@Mz Scarlette) 1554906370.0
@MzScarlette @blazet @newscientist Yep! A black hole grows as stuff falls into it (just like a person gets a little… https://t.co/lljgazIjxB— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554906541.0
How hot is this thing?
@newscientist What is the Temperature of a Black Hole?— THE REAL JP (@THE REAL JP) 1554894284.0
@1TheRealJP @newscientist The area just outside a black hole (the bright bit of the black hole picture) is extremel… https://t.co/mP3pyyiau8— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554904731.0
But what about Sagittarius A*?
@newscientist why didn't they release a picture of Sagittarius A*? Is that still in the works? @DownHereOnEarth #EHTBlackHole— Conrad Quilty-Harper (@Conrad Quilty-Harper) 1554905424.0
@Coneee @newscientist They've focused all their energy so far on making this image of M87 (which is easier by virtu… https://t.co/a0HnLtcz5K— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554905706.0
We'd love to know the difference.
@DownHereOnEarth How is a supermassive black hole more massive than a regular black hole? The singularity at the ce… https://t.co/yBrocWR9Xg— Rowan Hooper (@Rowan Hooper) 1554906437.0
@rowhoop The singularity is infinitely dense, but not infinitely massive (just infinitely small). So the singularit… https://t.co/YGPHYdnRz6— Leah Crane (@Leah Crane) 1554906795.0
Crane eventually had to stop answering questions—she, like most of us, had to get back to work—but we greatly appreciate the time she spent demystifying one of science's most fascinating achievements.
NASA never ceases to amaze with its research, and their latest YouTube video is a great example.
The video depicts a Hubble Space Telescope image of our universe. The sound for the clip is a Sonification of the image.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a sonification as:
"The use of non-speech sound to convey quantifiable information or represent data, typically as the output from an electronic device; the conversion of data into sound for this purpose."
In this case, the information being conveyed is the contents of the image in music. NASA describes the sound in the description of the video:
"Time flows left to right, and the frequency of sound changes from bottom to top, ranging from 30 to 1,000 hertz. Objects near the bottom of the image produce lower notes, while those near the top produce higher ones."
Sonification of a Hubble Deep Space Image youtu.be
The Hubble Space Telescope has given us a wealth of other amazing images. We now know more about distant galaxies, and not-so-distant planets thanks to the telescope.
Galaxy D100NASA, ESA, M. Sun (University of Alabama), and W. Cramer and J. Kenney (Yale University)
Uranus and NeptuneNASA, ESA, A. Simon (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong and A. Hsu (University of California, Berkeley)
Twitter users seemed to have mixed feelings about the sonification.
Many didn't find the clip particularly scary. Several people got distinct sci-fi vibes though.
Felines evidently do find the sounds disturbing, though.
Quite a few people suggested what the clip sounded like. Whales were a popular suggestion.
Some certainly did find the sounds creepy.
The Hubble Space Telescope has given us so much information about the universe around us—observations that we literally could not have made without the ability to see deep into outer space. So if occasionally someone at NASA decides to turn one of those discoveries into a bit of vaguely creepy music, we think that's just fine.