Space

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.” 

The Economist chronicles the life and work of Prof. Nuno Loureiro, from his childhood in Portugal where he dreamed of becoming a scientist to his work at MIT as a “fusion pioneer” leading the Plasma Science and Fusion Center. “He walked into his classes beaming, ready to cover the blackboard with figures. He joked like a friend, but he worked his students vigorously, advising them that if they were not yet the best, they should strive to be. Failure was not to be feared, because it showed they were trying to tackle the really hard problems.”

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.”

Prof. Nuno F.G. Loureiro is remembered as a “brilliant ‘physicist’s physicist,’” who “pushed for revolutionary breakthroughs in the complex, arcane field of plasma science,” in a tribute by Boston Globe reporter Brian MacQuarrie. “Inside and outside the lab, Mr. Loureiro also was known for a charismatic leadership style that combined warmth, humor, and personal engagement in the relentless pursuit of excellence,” MacQuarrie writes. “Nuno represents what MIT treasures in its people,” notes Prof. Joseph Paradiso, “at the top of his game in research, but with a wide-ranging curious mind ready to grapple with new ideas.”

The Advanced LIGO Documentary Project commemorates the life and legacy of Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics and “LIGO’s heart and soul.” Said Weiss of the significance of detecting gravitational waves: "The discovery isn't the measurement of the gravitational waves…it's the black holes. That's absolutely spectacular... that this exists, and if you see a couple more, then you could say something about the universe. It's something new that we're going to be able to say about the universe. It's spectacular. To me, that's the big discovery."

George Smoot '66, PhD '70, who was honored for his work in cosmology with the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics, has died at the age of 80, reports Douglas Scott, Joseph Silk and Tom Broadhurst for Nature. Smoot’s work “contributed to our understanding of the Universe on the largest scales and at the earliest observable times by measuring temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background,” they explain. 

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 25^th 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. 

George Smoot '66, PhD '70, the 2006 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, has died at the age of 80, reports Kasha Patel for The Washington Post. Smoot’s work “helped take an image of the universe in its infancy, providing strong support for the Big Bang theory and new insight into the origins of the cosmos,” writes Patel. 

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. 

Using the James Webb Telescope, researchers at MIT and elsewhere are studying the potential presence of “an Earth-like atmosphere on an exoplanet for the first time,” reports Jacopo Prisco for CNN. “The planet is part of a planetary system about 40 light-years away from Earth called TRAPPIST-1,” explains Prisco. 

Prof. Richard Binzel spoke at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) about efforts to create a system that could help deflect deadly asteroids away from Earth, reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. “If we had to deal with an actual asteroid threat,” says Binzel, “we would certainly want to know these properties, like the spin or tumbling state [of an asteroid].”

Visiting Scholar Ariel Ekblaw SM '17, PhD '20 co-founded Rendezvous Robotics, a space infrastructure company developing new space technology, reports Aria Almalhodaei for TechCrunch. “The company is commercializing a technology called ‘tesserae,’ flat-packed modular tiles that can launch in dense stacks and magnetically latch to form structures on orbit,” writes Almalhodaei. “With a software command, the tiles are designed to unlatch and rearrange themselves when the mission changes.”