Prof. Danielle Wood speaks with CNBC reporter Laya Neelakandan about NASA’s Artemis III, the United States’ first venture back to the moon in over 50 years, which will carry the first female and first Black astronaut to the Moon. “NASA’s been thinking through this whole process, two decades’ worth, of what we’re going to do is prepare the government to focus on these harder, next-generation missions and be able to do things that are not already demonstrated,” says Wood.
Prof. Anna-Christina Eilers and postdoctoral associate Rohan Naidu speak with Scientific American reporter Rebecca Boyle about the discovery and study of Little Red Dots, mysterious, red spots that showed up in images from the James Webb Space Telescope. The dots, which astronomers dated to 600 million years after the big bang, “are in every single image the telescope takes,” says Naidu. “We have to find out about them if we want to tell a complete story about the early universe."
A new study by Prof. Sara Seager and her colleagues has found a solar system that contradicts the patterns commonly “seen across the galaxy and in our own solar system,” reports Jacopo Prisco for CNN. The study offers “some of the first evidence for flipping the script on how planets form around the most common stars in our galaxy,” says Seager. “Even in a maturing field, new discoveries can remind us that we still have a long way to go in understanding how planetary systems are built.”
Prof. Olivier de Weck speaks with Forbes reporter Alex Knapp about the challenges and opportunities posed by building data centers in space. Data centers are “physically secure from intrusion and environmentally friendly once operational,” says de Weck. “Essentially, the three primary resources required on Earth—land, power, and cooling—are available ‘for free’ in space after the initial launch and deployment costs are covered.”
Using the James Webb Telescope, postdoctoral associate Rohan Naidu and his colleagues have captured a glimpse of Galaxy MoM-z14, which existed 280 million years after the Big Bang, and could provide clues as to what the universe was like during its infancy and how it has evolved over time, reports Passant Rabbie for Gizmodo. “We can take a page from archeology and look at these ancient stars in our own galaxy like fossils from the early universe,” says Naidu. “Except in astronomy we are lucky enough to have Webb seeing so far that we also have direct information about galaxies during that time.”
Quanta Magazine reporter Jonathan O’Callaghan spotlights Prof. David Kaiser and graduate student Alexandra Klipfel, and their work searching for evidence of primordial black holes. “Very little mass gets radiated over the majority of the black hole’s lifetime,” explains Klipfel. “But then, right at the end, it emits a majority of its mass in a very rapid explosion. It heats up really, really quickly, a runaway process that ends in a big explosion of ultra-high-energy particles.”
A new analysis conducted by postdoctoral associate Rohan Naidu and his colleagues has found evidence that suggests “little red dot” galaxies may contain baby black holes, reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. “In ordinary black holes, what you actually see with your eyes is the tip of the iceberg of the total energy that is coming out of the system, but the little red dots we now understand should really be thought of as these puffed-up black hole stars,” says Naidu. “It seems that most of their energy is coming out at these wavelengths that we see with our eyes, so what you see is what you get.”
Prof. Lonnie Petersen speaks with Benjamin Rachlin, executive editor of MIT Horizon, about the future of space medicine in an article for The Boston Globe. “The next generation of flight surgeons might work from orbit. They might accompany a crew on a long-term mission, like a medic with a platoon,” writes Rachlin. “There is no standard yet for medical care in space. Doctors are inventing it.” Petersen notes that: “Space is like New York. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”
A new report co-authored by Prof. Dava Newman and Lindy Elkins-Tanton '87, SM '87, PhD '02 explores the highest-priority science objectives for the first human missions to Mars, reports Eric Berger for Ars Technica. “We’re searching for life on Mars. The answer to the question ‘are we alone’ is always going to be ‘maybe,’ unless it becomes yes,” explains Newman.
The American Academy of Sciences & Letters has awarded Prof. Richard Binzel the Barry Prize for his contributions to expanding “humanity’s knowledge of the cosmos,” reports Michael Nietzel for Forbes. The prize is “awarded to scholars at U.S. colleges and universities for distinguished intellectual achievements in the arts, sciences and learned professions,” writes Nietzel.
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with New Scientist reporter Alex Wilkins about his work inventing the Near-Earth Object Hazard Index (later renamed the Torino scale), asteroid hunting and the future of planetary defense. “Speaking very personally, as a scientist who’s been in the field for 50 years, who has largely been supported by public funds, I feel a moral responsibility to push forward the idea that, because we now have the capability to find any serious asteroid threat, we have a moral obligation to do it,” says Binzel of his work. “Otherwise, we are not doing our job as scientists.”
Prof. Kerri Cahoy speaks with New York Times reporter Katrina Miller about the risks to satellites during geomagnetic storms. Cahoy explains that satellites in low-Earth orbit can experience anomalies, like signal dropouts and reboots. But molecules in Earth’s atmosphere and the strength of its magnetic field can offer some natural protection for satellites closest to the ground.
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS), Earth.com reporter Derek Davis spotlights the contributions of a number of MIT-trained astronauts and engineers, who played pivotal roles in the ISS’ history.
Prof. Paulo Lozano has received funding from NASA’s University SmallSat Technology Partnership (USTP) to “explore integration of tiny electronic thrusters – a propulsion system using electrical power to propel spacecraft – onto satellites, reports Robin Roenker for USA Today. “We have many ideas (for application),” says Lozano. “One is to send tens or even hundreds of these small satellites to the asteroid belt to help study and characterize the asteroids’ surface structures.”
Visiting Scholar Ariel Ekblaw SM '17, PhD '20 speaks with WBUR’s On Point host Meghna Chakrabarti about her academic career, the space industry and her new non-profit company the Aurelia Institute. The company is “dedicated to building humanity’s future in space for the benefit of the earth,” says Chakrabarti. Additionally, the company plans to use “space infrastructure, satellites, and large scale space structures in orbit to do really profound things for day-to-day life on Earth,” adds Ekblaw.