Science

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Before snagging a chunk of space junk, Astroscale must first catch up to one

Astroscale, Commercial space, electron, Japan, new zealand, rocket lab, Science, Space, space debris / /
This artist's illustration released by Astroscale shows the ADRAS-J spacecraft (left) approaching the defunct upper stage from a Japanese H-IIA rocket.

Enlarge / This artist’s illustration released by Astroscale shows the ADRAS-J spacecraft (left) approaching the defunct upper stage from a Japanese H-IIA rocket.

Astroscale, a well-capitalized Japanese startup, is preparing a small satellite to do something that has never been done in space.

This new spacecraft, delivered into orbit Sunday by Rocket Lab, will approach a defunct upper stage from a Japanese H-IIA rocket that has been circling Earth for more than 15 years. Over the next few months, the satellite will try to move within arm’s reach of the rocket, taking pictures and performing complicated maneuvers to move around the bus-size H-IIA upper stage as it moves around the planet at nearly 5 miles per second (7.6 km/s).

These maneuvers are complex, but they’re nothing new for spacecraft visiting the International Space Station. Military satellites from the United States, Russia, and China also have capabilities for rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), but as far as we know, these spacecraft have only maneuvered in ultra-close range around so-called “cooperative” objects designed to receive them.

The difference here is the H-IIA rocket is uncontrolled, likely spinning and in a slow tumble, and was never designed to accommodate any visitors. Japan left it in orbit in January 2009 following the launch of a climate monitoring satellite and didn’t look back.

That was the case, at least, until a few years ago, when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) partnered with Astroscale in a public-private partnership to demonstrate capabilities the private sector could use to eventually remove large pieces of space debris littering low-Earth orbit. The same robotic technologies could also apply to satellite servicing or refueling missions.

“We are putting this debris removal by robotic technology as one of our main technology development areas because safely approaching an object, and also observing the object and capturing the object, is basically a common technology for any on-orbit servicing,” said Eddie Kato, president and managing director of Astroscale Japan.

In hot pursuit

This mission is called ADRAS-J, short for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan. “This mission entails the first ever approach of actual space debris and will be a monumental step toward a more sustainable future in space,” Mike Lindsay, Astroscale’s chief technology officer, posted on X.

The ADRAS-J spacecraft, built in-house at Astroscale’s Tokyo headquarters, is about the size of a kitchen oven and weighs roughly 330 pounds (150 kilograms) fully fueled. The satellite launched from New Zealand at 9: 52 am EST (1452 UTC) Sunday aboard an Electron rocket provided by Rocket Lab. About an hour after liftoff, ADRAS-J deployed from the Electron’s kick stage into an on-target polar orbit reaching an altitude of 370 miles (600 kilometers) at its highest point.

The liftoff from Rocket Lab’s spaceport in New Zealand was timed to allow ADRAS-J to launch into the same orbital plane as its objective—the H-IIA upper stage. Astroscale reported the spacecraft was healthy after Sunday’s launch. In a pre-launch interview, Kato said ADRAS-J will begin its pursuit of the spent H-IIA rocket in a couple of weeks, once ground teams complete initial checkouts of the spacecraft.

ADRAS-J will fire thrusters to match orbits with the H-IIA rocket, and as soon as next month, it could be flying within about 300 feet (100 meters) of the abandoned upper stage. Astroscale engineers will initially rely on ground-based tracking data to pinpoint the H-IIA’s location in space. Once in closer range, ADRAS-J will use visible and infrared cameras, along with laser ranging sensors, to transition to relative navigation mode. These sensors will measure the distance, closing rate, and orientation of the upper stage.

Astroscale officials view the switch from relying on ground tracking data to onboard relative navigation sensors as a crucial moment for the ADRAS-J mission. ADRAS-J will circle the rocket to assess its spin rate, spin axis, and the condition of its structure. This is the crux of the challenge for ADRAS-J because the rocket is unpowered and therefore unable to hold position. The upper stage also lacks laser reflectors and targets that would aid an approaching spacecraft.

This will mark the conclusion of the JAXA-supported portion of the ADRAS-J mission. If everything is working as planned, the spacecraft could move closer to the rocket to further validate Astroscale’s sensor suite and automated navigation and guidance algorithms. This will allow the company’s engineers to gather data for a proposed follow-on mission to actually go up and grab onto the same H-IIA upper stage and remove it from orbit.

“We are targeting to go closer, maybe 1 to 2 meters away from the object. Why? Because the next mission will be to really capture the H-IIA launch vehicle,” Kato told Ars last week. “In order to safely approach to a range where a robotic arm is able to be extended, it’s probably like 1.5 to 2 meters away from the object. We want to demonstrate up to that point through this ADRAS-J mission. Then on the next mission, called ADRAS-J2, we are actually equipping the robotic arm and capturing the H-IIA launch vehicle.”

Before snagging a chunk of space junk, Astroscale must first catch up to one Read More »

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Measles erupts in Florida school where 11% of kids are unvaccinated

CDC, Florida, health, Infectious disease, measles, Science, Transmission, vaccination rate, virus / /

outbreak potential —

Over 100 children at the school are susceptible to virus.

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A child with measles.

Enlarge / A child with measles.

Florida health officials on Sunday announced an investigation into a cluster of measles cases at an elementary school in the Fort Lauderdale area with a low vaccination rate, a scenario health experts fear will become more and more common amid slipping vaccination rates nationwide.

On Friday, Broward County Public School reported a confirmed case of measles in a student at Manatee Bay Elementary School in the city of Weston. A local CBS affiliate reported that the case was in a third-grade student who had not recently traveled. On Saturday, the school system announced that three additional cases at the same school had been reported, bringing the current reported total to four cases.

On Sunday, the Florida Department of Health in Broward County (DOH-Broward) released a health advisory about the cases and announced it was opening an investigation to track contacts at risk of infection.

At Manatee Bay Elementary School, the number of children at risk could be over 100 students. According to a Broward County vaccine study reported by the local CBS outlet, only 89.31 percent of students at Manatee Bay Elementary School were fully immunized in the 2023/2024 school year, which is significantly lower than the target vaccination coverage of 95 percent. The school currently has 1,067 students enrolled, suggesting that up to 114 students are vulnerable to the infection based on their vaccination status.

Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known. It spreads via respiratory and airborne transmission. The virus can linger in air space for up to two hours after an infected person has been in an area. People who are not vaccinated or have compromised immune systems are susceptible, and up to 90 percent of susceptible people exposed to the virus will become infected. Measles symptoms typically begin around eight to 14 days after exposure, but the disease can incubate for up to 21 days. The symptoms begin as a high fever, runny nose, red and watery eyes, and a cough before the telltale rash develops. Infected people can be contagious from four days before the rash develops through four days after the rash appears, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people with measles is hospitalized, the CDC adds, while 1 in 20 infected children develop pneumonia and up to 3 in 1,000 children die of the infection.

Those who are not immunocompromised and are fully vaccinated against measles (who have received two doses of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine) are generally not considered at risk. The two doses are about 97 percent effective at preventing measles and protection is considered to be life-long.

The DOH-Broward said it is now “identifying susceptible contacts that may be candidates for post-exposure prophylaxis through MMR or immunoglobulin.”

While the risk of measles is generally low in the US—the country declared it eliminated in 2000—the threat of large outbreaks is growing as vaccination rates slip. Many cases in the US are linked to travel from countries where the virus still circulates. But, if a travel-related case lands in a pocket with low vaccination coverage, the virus can take off. Such was the case in 2019, when the country tallied 1,274 measles cases and nearly lost its elimination status.

Health officials typically consider vaccination coverage of 95 percent or greater to protect from ongoing transmission. In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, vaccination rates among US kindergartners have slipped to 93 percent, and vaccination exemptions reached an all-time high in the latest data from the 2022-2023 school year. There are now at least 10 states that have vaccination exemption rates above 5 percent, meaning that even if every non-exempt child is vaccinated, those states will not have enough coverage to reach the 95 percent target.

The CDC has tallied 20 measles cases in the US so far this year. But that is the tally as of February 15; it does not include any of the Florida cases reported since Friday. In 2023, there were 58 measles cases reported to the CDC.

This story was updated to include additional information about measles infection outcomes.

Measles erupts in Florida school where 11% of kids are unvaccinated Read More »

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New compact facial-recognition system passes test on Michelangelo’s David

3D surface imaging, facial recognition, nanotechnology, optics, Science / /

A face for the ages —

Flatter, simpler prototype system uses 5-10 times less power than smartphone tech.

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A new lens-free and compact system for facial recognition scans a bust of Michelangelo’s David and reconstructs the image using less power than existing 3D surface imaging systems.

Enlarge / A new lens-free and compact system for facial recognition scans a bust of Michelangelo’s David and reconstructs the image using less power than existing 3D-surface imaging systems.

W-C Hsu et al., Nano Letters, 2024

Facial recognition is a common feature for unlocking smartphones and gaming systems, among other uses. But the technology currently relies upon bulky projectors and lenses, hindering its broader application. Scientists have now developed a new facial recognition system that employs flatter, simpler optics that also requires less energy, according to a recent paper published in the journal Nano Letters. The team tested their prototype system with a 3D replica of Michelangelo’s famous David sculpture, and found it recognized the face as well as existing smartphone facial recognition.

The current commercial 3D imaging systems in smartphones (like Apple’s iPhone) extract depth information via structured light. A dot projector uses a laser to project a pseudorandom beam pattern onto the face of the person looking at a locked screen. It does so thanks to several other built-in components: a collimator, light guide, and special lenses (known as diffractive optical elements, or DOEs) that break the laser beam apart into an array of some 32,000 infrared dots. The camera can then interpret that projected beam pattern to confirm the person’s identity.

Packing in all those optical components like lasers makes commercial dot projectors rather bulky, so it can be harder to integrate for some applications such as robotics and augmented reality, as well as the next generation of facial recognition technology. They also consume significant power. So Wen-Chen Hsu, of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and the Hon Hai Research Institute in Taiwan, and colleagues turned to ultrathin optical components known as metasurfaces for a potential solution. These metasurfaces can replace bulkier components for modulating light and have proven popular for depth sensors, endoscopes, tomography. and augmented reality systems, among other emerging applications.

Schematic of a new facial recognition system using a camera and meta surface-enhanced dot projector.

Enlarge / Schematic of a new facial recognition system using a camera and meta surface-enhanced dot projector.

W-C Hsu et al., Nanoletters, 2024

Hsu et al. built their own depth-sensing facial recognition system incorporating a metasurface hologram in place of the diffractive optical element. They replaced the standard vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with a photonic crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL). (The structure of photonic crystals is the mechanism behind the bright iridescent colors in butterfly wings or beetle shells.) The PCSEL can generate its own highly collimated light beam, so there was no need for the bulky light guide or collimation lenses needed in VCSEL-based dot projector systems.

The team tested their new system on a replica bust of David, and it worked as well as existing smartphone facial recognition, based on comparing the infrared dot patterns to online photos of the statue. They found that their system generated nearly one and a half times more infrared dots (some 45,700) than the standard commercial technology from a device that is 233 times smaller in terms of surface area than the standard dot projector. “It is a compact and cost-effective system, that can be integrated into a single chip using the flip-chip process of PCSEL,” the authors wrote. Additionally, “The metasurface enables the generation of customizable and versatile light patterns, expanding the system’s applicability.” It’s more energy-efficient to boot.

Nano Letters, 2024. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c05002  (About DOIs).

Listing image by W-C Hsu et al., Nano Letters, 2024

New compact facial-recognition system passes test on Michelangelo’s David Read More »

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Webb telescope spots hints that Eris, Makemake are geologically active

astronomy, dwarf planet, Eris, geology, Kuiper belt, Makemake, planetary science, Science / /
Image of two small planets, one more reddish, the second very white.

Enlarge / Artist’s conceptions of what the surfaces of two dwarf planets might look like.

Active geology—and the large-scale chemistry it can drive—requires significant amounts of heat. Dwarf planets near the far edges of the Solar System, like Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects, formed from frigid, icy materials and have generally never transited close enough to the Sun to warm up considerably. Any heat left over from their formation was likely long since lost to space.

Yet Pluto turned out to be a world rich in geological features, some of which implied ongoing resurfacing of the dwarf planet’s surface. Last week, researchers reported that the same might be true for other dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt. Indications come thanks to the capabilities of the Webb telescope, which was able to resolve differences in the hydrogen isotopes found on the chemicals that populate the surface of Eris and Makemake.

Cold and distant

Kuiper Belt objects are natives of the distant Solar System, forming far enough from the warmth of the Sun that many materials that are gasses in the inner planets—things like nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide—are solid ices. Many of these bodies formed far enough from the gravitational influence of the eight major planets that they have never made a trip into the warmer inner Solar System. In addition, because there was much less material that far from the Sun, most of the bodies are quite small.

While they would have started off hot due to the process by which they formed, their small size means a large surface-to-volume ratio, allowing internal heat to radiate out to space relatively quickly. Since then, any heat has come from rare collision events or the decay of radioactive isotopes.

Yet New Horizons’ visit to Pluto made it clear that it doesn’t take much heat to drive active geology, although seasonal changes in sunlight are likely to account for some of its features. Sunlight is less likely to be an influence for worlds like Makemake, which orbits at a distance one and a half times Pluto’s closest approach to the Sun. Eris, which is nearly as large as Pluto, orbits at over twice Pluto’s closest approach.

Sending a mission to either of these planets would take decades, and none are in development at the moment, so we can’t know what their surfaces look like. But that doesn’t mean we know nothing about them. And the James Webb Space Telescope has added to what we know considerably.

The Webb was used to image sunlight reflected off these objects, obtaining its infrared spectrum—the amount of light reflected at different wavelengths. The spectrum is influenced by the chemical composition of the dwarf planets’ surfaces. Certain chemicals can absorb specific wavelengths of infrared light, ensuring they don’t get reflected. By noting where the spectrum dips, it’s possible to figure out which chemicals are present.

Some of that work has already been done. But Webb is able to image parts of the spectrum that were inaccessible earlier, and its instruments are even able to identify different isotopes of the atoms composing each chemical. For example, some molecules of methane (CH4) will, at random, have one of their hydrogen atoms swapped out for its heavier isotope, deuterium, forming CH3D. These isotopes can potentially act as tracers, telling us things about where the chemicals originally came from.

Webb telescope spots hints that Eris, Makemake are geologically active Read More »

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SpaceX wants to take over a Florida launch pad from rival ULA

cape canaveral, Commercial space, launch, Science, slc-37, Space, spacex, starship, united launch alliance, US Space Force / /

First step —

SpaceX now plans at least four Starship launch pads, two in Texas and two in Florida.

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SpaceX's fully-stacked Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster on a launch pad in South Texas.

Enlarge / SpaceX’s fully-stacked Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster on a launch pad in South Texas.

One of the largest launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will become vacant later this year after the final flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket. SpaceX is looking to make the sprawling facility a new home for the Starship launch vehicle.

The environmental review for SpaceX’s proposal to take over Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral is getting underway now, with three in-person public meetings and one virtual meeting scheduled for March to collect comments from local residents, according to a new website describing the plan.

Then federal agencies, led by the Department of the Air Force, will develop an environmental impact statement to evaluate how Starship launch and landing operations will affect the land, air, and water around SLC-37, which sits on Space Force property on the Atlantic coastline.

Environmental studies for rocket launch facilities typically take more than a year, so it will be a while before any major construction begins to convert SLC-37 for Starship launches. In this case, federal officials anticipate publishing a draft environmental impact statement by December, then a final report by October 2025.

More immediately, ULA still has one more Delta IV Heavy rocket to launch from SLC-37 in March with a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. Once that launch is complete, ULA will wind down operations at SLC-37, and eventually turn over the facility back to the Space Force, which will look for a new tenant. For several months, industry sources have pointed to SpaceX as the leading contender to take over SLC-37 after ULA is finished with the launch pad.

But that’s not quite a done deal yet. Last year, a senior official at ULA told Ars on background that the company was also interested in maintaining a presence at SLC-37.

ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, which debuted last month and will replace the Delta IV and Atlas V launch vehicles, uses a different launch pad a few miles up the coast from SLC-37. ULA is upgrading and expanding its ground facilities at Cape Canaveral to ramp up the Vulcan launch cadence, and the ULA official told Ars the company may want to continue using a rocket processing hangar just south of the Delta IV launch pad for storage and horizontal processing of Vulcan rockets.

Details are scarce about everything SpaceX wants to do with SLC-37, but officials wrote on the environmental review website that SpaceX would “modify, reuse, or demolish the existing SLC-37 infrastructure to support Starship-Super Heavy launch and landing operations.”

This aerial view shows a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket awaiting liftoff from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Enlarge / This aerial view shows a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket awaiting liftoff from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

The history of SLC-37 dates back to the 1960s, when NASA used the site for eight flights of the Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets to prepare for the Apollo program. The facility sat dormant for 30 years until Boeing moved in to ready SLC-37 for the Delta IV rocket, which has now flown 34 times from SLC-37. The launch pad currently includes a 330-foot-tall (100-meter) mobile gantry, a fixed erector, a fixed umbilical tower, and a flame trench for Delta IV missions.

Starship, the world’s largest rocket, would not need any of that that infrastructure, so if SpaceX takes over the pad, the facility will likely undergo extensive demolition and construction.

If SpaceX isn’t cleared to use SLC-37, the company could build a brand new launch pad designated Space Launch Complex 50. If this is the path SpaceX takes, SLC-50 would be built on undeveloped land north of SLC-37 and south of SpaceX’s primary launch pad for the Falcon 9 rocket at Space Launch Complex 40.

Goodbye to LC-49, hello to SLC-37

SpaceX’s interest in setting up shop at SLC-37 shows the company is getting serious about developing a second base for Starship on Florida’s Space Coast. In 2022, SpaceX constructed a launch tower and launch mount for Starship at Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A), located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. But the company made little progress there last year as teams focused on Starship test flights from South Texas.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, says Starship is the rocket that will make possible his dream of building a settlement on Mars. He has also touted Starship as a vehicle for point-to-point travel on Earth. Both stages of Starship are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, with the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage returning to Earth for propulsive landings. Starship launch pads will double as landing pads.

Before any of those dreams are realized, Starship needs to get into orbit. The first two full-scale Starship test flights last year didn’t make it that far, but SpaceX got close on the second launch in November. SpaceX hopes to achieve a near-orbital mission with the third Starship test launch, perhaps as soon as early March.

Eventually, Musk envisions Starship launching multiple times per day on a variety of missions, carrying people, satellites, cargo, or refueling tankers into orbit. In order to do this, SpaceX will need a lot of launch and landing pads. SpaceX has toyed with the idea of floating offshore launch and landing platforms, but those plans are on hold.

In the near-term, SpaceX plans to build a second Starship launch tower at the company’s Starbase test site in Cameron County, Texas. There’s also the partially-built launch tower at LC-39A, and now SpaceX has set its sights on SLC-37.

SpaceX was previously looking at building another Starship launch pad from scratch on NASA property at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA environmental studies for this location, known as Launch Complex 49, kicked off in 2021. Patti Bielling, a NASA spokesperson, told Ars on Friday the agency is no longer working on Launch Complex 49.

“At this time, there are no activities involving LC-49 on Kennedy,” Bielling said. “Any previous activities regarding LC-49 were suspended, and no actions were taken.”

One of the first operational applications for Starship will be to serve as a human-rated lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program. SpaceX is developing a version of Starship to ferry astronauts to and from the Moon’s surface, but in order for Starship to reach the Moon, it has to be refueled in low-Earth orbit. This will require perhaps 10 or more refueling flights using a version of Starship called a tanker, all launching in a matter of weeks. Those tanker flights will launch on Super Heavy boosters from pads in Texas and Florida.

In parallel with continued Starship test flights and demonstrating in-space refueling technology, SpaceX needs to build more launch pads to make all this possible. Although SpaceX has backpedaled on several of its Starship launch pad ideas, the company’s interest in SLC-37 suggests it still has big plans for Starship in Florida.

SpaceX wants to take over a Florida launch pad from rival ULA Read More »

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Flowers grown floating on polluted waterways can help clean up nutrient runoff

flowers, Science, syndication / /

here’s hoping it also masks the runoff smell —

Cut-flower farms could be a sustainable option for mitigating water pollution.

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Hands cutting yellow flowers with scissors

Enlarge / The cut flowers could pay for themselves and even turn a profit.

Flowers grown on inexpensive floating platforms can help clean polluted waterways, over 12 weeks extracting 52 percent more phosphorus and 36 percent more nitrogen than the natural nitrogen cycle removes from untreated water, according to our new research. In addition to filtering water, the cut flowers can generate income via the multibillion-dollar floral market.

In our trials of various flowers, giant marigolds stood out as the most successful, producing long, marketable stems and large blooms. Their yield matched typical flower farm production.

Why it matters

Water pollution is caused in large part by runoff from farms, urban lawns, and even septic tanks. When it rains, excess phosphorus, nitrogen, and other chemicals wash into lakes and rivers.

These nutrients feed algae, leading to widespread and harmful algae blooms, which can severely lower oxygen in water, creating “dead zones” where aquatic life cannot survive. Nutrient runoff is a critical issue as urban areas expand, affecting the health of water ecosystems.

Water pollution is an escalating crisis in our area of Miami-Dade and Broward counties in Florida. The 2020 Biscayne Bay fish kill, the largest mass death of aquatic life on record for the region, serves as a stark reminder of this growing environmental issue.

How we do our work

We study sustainable agriculture and water pollution in South Florida.

Inspired by traditional floating farm practices, including the Aztecs’ chinampas in Mexico and the Miccosukees’ tree island settlements in Florida, we tested the idea of growing cut flowers on floating rafts as a way to remove excess nutrients from waterways. Our hope was not only that the flowers would pay for themselves, but that they could provide jobs here in Miami, the center of the US cut-flower trade.

Chemical conditions in the test tanks were the same as in nearby polluted waterways.

Enlarge / Chemical conditions in the test tanks were the same as in nearby polluted waterways.

We floated 4-by-6-foot (1.2-by-1.8-meter) mats of inexpensive polyethylene foam called Beemats in 620-gallon (2,300-liter) outdoor test tanks that mirrored water conditions of nearby polluted waterways. Into the mats, we transplanted flower seedlings, including zinnias, sunflowers, and giant marigolds. The polluted tank water was rich in nutrients, eliminating the need for any fertilizer. As the seedlings matured into plants over 12 weeks, we tracked the tanks’ improving water quality.

Encouraged by the success of the marigolds in our tanks, we moved our trials to the nearby canals of Coral Gables and Little River. We anchored the floating platforms with 50-pound (22.7-kilogram) weights and also tied them to shore for extra stability. No alterations to the landscape were needed, making the process simple and doable.

Some plants grow roots in places–such as the stem–other than where their original roots began.

Enlarge / Some plants grow roots in places–such as the stem–other than where their original roots began.

What still isn’t known

The success of the giant marigolds might be linked to the extra roots that grow from their stems known as adventitious roots. These roots likely help keep the plants stable on the floating platforms. Identifying additional plants with roots like these could help broaden plant choices.

Future raft designs may also need modifications to ensure better stability and growth for other cut-flower and crop species.

What’s next

Our promising findings show floating cut-flower farms could be a sustainable option for mitigating water pollution.

One of us (Locke-Rodriguez) is expanding this research and working to scale up floating farms in South Florida as a demonstration of what could take place in the many locations facing similar issues worldwide.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.The Conversation

Jazmin Locke-Rodriguez, Post Doctoral Associate in the Institute of Environment, Florida International University, and Krishnaswamy Jayachandran, Professor of Agroecology, Florida International University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Flowers grown floating on polluted waterways can help clean up nutrient runoff Read More »

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Skyrocketing ocean temperatures have scientists scratching their heads

climate change, global warming, ocean temperatures, Science, syndication / /
beach scene with thermometer

jay_zynism via Getty

For nearly a year now, a bizarre heating event has been unfolding across the world’s oceans. In March 2023, global sea surface temperatures started shattering record daily highs and have stayed that way since.

You can see 2023 in the orange line below, the other gray lines being previous years. That solid black line is where we are so far in 2024—way, way above even 2023. While we’re nowhere near the Atlantic hurricane season yet—that runs from June 1 through the autumn—keep in mind that cyclones feed on warm ocean water, which could well stay anomalously hot in the coming months. Regardless, these surface temperature anomalies could be triggering major ecological problems already.

“In the tropical eastern Atlantic, it’s four months ahead of pace—it’s looking like it’s already June out there,” says Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami. “It’s really getting to be strange that we’re just seeing the records break by this much, and for this long.”

You’ll notice from these graphs and maps that the temperature anomalies may be a degree or two Celsius warmer, which may not sound like much. But for the seas, it really is: Unlike land, which rapidly heats and cools as day turns to night and back again, it takes a lot to warm up an ocean that may be thousands of feet deep. So even an anomaly of mere fractions of a degree is significant. “To get into the two or three or four degrees, like it is in a few places, it’s pretty exceptional,” says McNoldy.

University of Maine

So what’s going on here? For one, the oceans have been steadily warming over the decades, absorbing something like 90 percent of the extra heat that humans have added to the atmosphere. “The oceans are our saviors, in a way,” says biological oceanographer Francisco Chavez of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California. “Things might be a lot worse in terms of climate impacts, because a lot of that heat is not only kept at the surface, it’s taken to depths.”

A major concern with such warm surface temperatures is the health of the ecosystems floating there: phytoplankton that bloom by soaking up the sun’s energy and the tiny zooplankton that feed on them. If temperatures get too high, certain species might suffer, shaking the foundations of the ocean food web.

Skyrocketing ocean temperatures have scientists scratching their heads Read More »

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Rocket Report: Falcon 9 flies for 300th time; an intriguing launch from Russia

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Co-planar —

Starship is fully stacked in South Texas for the rocket’s third test flight.

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The upper stage for the first Ariane 6 flight vehicle is seen inside its factory in Bremen, Germany. The upper stage's hydrogen-fueled Vinci engine is visible in this image.

Enlarge / The upper stage for the first Ariane 6 flight vehicle is seen inside its factory in Bremen, Germany. The upper stage’s hydrogen-fueled Vinci engine is visible in this image.

Welcome to Edition 6.31 of the Rocket Report! Photographers at Cape Canaveral, Florida, noticed a change to the spaceport’s skyline this week. Blue Origin has erected a full-size simulator of its New Glenn rocket vertically on its launch pad for a series of fit checks and tests. Late last year, we reported Blue Origin was serious about getting the oft-delayed New Glenn rocket off the ground by the end of 2024. This is a good sign of progress toward that goal, but there’s a long, long way to go. It was fun to watch preparations for the inaugural flights of a few other heavy-lift rockets in the last couple of years (Starship, SLS, and Vulcan). This year, it’s New Glenn.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Russia launches a classified satellite. On February 9, Russia launched its first orbital mission of the year with the liftoff of a Soyuz-2-1v rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the far north of the country. The two-stage rocket delivered a classified satellite into orbit for the Russian military, Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com reports. In keeping with the Russian military’s naming convention, the satellite is known simply as Kosmos 2575, and there’s little indication about what it will do in space, except for one key fact.

But wait, there’s more … It turns out the launch of Kosmos 2575 occurred at exactly the same time of day as another Soyuz-2-1v rocket launched on December 27 with a Russian military satellite named Kosmos 2574. The newer spacecraft launched into the same orbital plane as Kosmos 2574, a strong indication that the two satellites have a shared mission. In recent years, Russia has tested rendezvous, proximity operations, and, at least in one instance, a projectile that would have applications for an anti-satellite weapon. You can be sure the US military and a global community of hobbyist satellite trackers will watch closely to see if these two satellites approach one another. If they do, they could continue technology demonstrations for an anti-satellite system. It’s unclear if the recent revelations regarding US officials’ concerns about Russian anti-satellite capabilities are related to these recent launches.

European startup testing methane-fueled rocket engine. Space transportation startup The Exploration Company has continued testing its methane-fueled Huracán engine, which will power an in-space and lunar transportation vehicle under development, European Spaceflight reports. Most recently, the Huracán engine completed another round of thrust chamber testing using liquid methane fuel as a coolant and tested a new thermal barrier coating. The methane/liquid oxygen engine is undergoing testing at a facility in Lampoldshausen, Germany, ahead of use on The Exploration Company’s Nyx Moon spacecraft, a transfer vehicle designed for transportation to and from cislunar space and also capable of Moon landings. The Nyx Moon is an evolution of a transfer vehicle the European startup is developing to ferry satellites between different orbits around Earth.

Other uses for Huracán… The Exploration Company appears to be positioning itself not only as a builder and operator of orbital and lunar transfer vehicles but also as a propulsion supplier to other space companies. In 2022, The Exploration Company received funding for the Huracán engine from the French government. At the time, the company described the engine as serving the needs of “the upper stages of small launchers and those of orbital vehicles.” (submitted by Ken the Bin)

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Rocket Report: Falcon 9 flies for 300th time; an intriguing launch from Russia Read More »

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New FDA-approved drug makes severe food allergies less life-threatening

fda, food allergies, health, omalizumab, peanut, Science, Xolair / /

Taking the edge off —

Injections over several months allowed people to tolerate larger doses of trigger foods.

–

Peanuts

Enlarge / Peanuts

Living with food allergies can be a fraught existence. There is no cure, and the standard management is to be ever vigilant of everything you eat and have an emergency shot of epinephrine constantly handy in case an accidental ingestion leads to a swift, life-threatening reaction. But, for the millions of people in the US who live with such allergies, a new drug may dull the threat.

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the antibody drug omalizumab (brand name Xolair) as an injection to lessen allergic reactions to foods in people ages 1 and up. In a trial of 168 children and adults with multiple food allergies, participants who received shots of omalizumab for 16 to 20 weeks were much more likely to tolerate a test dose of allergy-inducing foods at the end than those who received a placebo.

Omalizumab—which was previously approved to treat asthma, hives, and nasal polyps—works by binding to a class of antibodies in the body called immunoglobulin E (IgE) that are specifically involved in allergic responses. The monoclonal antibody drug binds IgE, blocking it from binding to its target receptor, thus preventing it from triggering the immune responses that lead to allergy symptoms.

“This newly approved use for Xolair will provide a treatment option to reduce the risk of harmful allergic reactions among certain patients with IgE-mediated food allergies,” Kelly Stone, associate director of the Division of Pulmonology, Allergy, and Critical Care in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in today’s announcement. “While it will not eliminate food allergies or allow patients to consume food allergens freely, its repeated use will help reduce the health impact if accidental exposure occurs.”

The trial began in 2019 and was run by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is still ongoing. But an interim analysis of early data was enough to convince the FDA of the drug’s benefit.

More tolerance

For the trial, researchers recruited people who had an allergy to peanuts, as well as at least two other food allergies, including milk, egg, wheat, cashew, hazelnut, or walnut. Those assigned to get omalizumab received shots every two to four weeks for 16 to 20 weeks. Afterward, researchers looked at whether participants could handle 600 milligrams or more of peanut protein, which is equivalent to eating about 2.5 or more peanuts. Of those who got the shot, 68 percent (75 of 110 subjects) handled the peanut doses without moderate to severe allergy symptoms, such as whole-body hives, persistent coughing, or vomiting. In the placebo group, only 6 percent (3 of 55 subjects) managed this.

As secondary tests, the researchers tried other allergy-triggering foods at the higher dose of 1,000 milligrams or more. For cashews, 42 percent (27 of 64) of participants who received omalizumab tolerated the challenge without moderate or severe allergic reactions, compared with 3 percent (1 of 30) in the placebo group. For milk, 66 percent (25 of 38 subjects) who received the drug tolerated the dairy, while only 11 percent (2 of 19) of the placebo group did so. For egg, 67 percent (31 of 46 subjects) on the drug tolerated the dose, compared to 0 percent of the 19 who received placebo.

The benefits of omalizumab were not universal. The FDA notes that 17 percent of the people who received the drug had no significant improvement in their sensitivity to allergy-triggering food. As such, the FDA cautions that even if people receive Xolair, they should still avoid the foods that trigger their allergies.

The trial is ongoing, and researchers plan to look at the longevity of the drug’s effectiveness and whether it can be paired with another strategy to ratchet down food allergies: oral immunotherapy (OIT), which uses small, daily doses of an allergen to build tolerance over time. For the look at longevity, some trial participants will get shots for an additional 24 weeks, followed by more food challenges to see if the drug remains useful at easing allergic responses over the prolonged time period. For the OIT part of the trial, participants will get another 16 weeks of injections and, halfway through that, some will undergo multi-allergen OIT. They will then be followed for 44 additional weeks.

The FDA says the most common side effects of omalizumab are injection site reactions and fever, but the agency also warns of the possibility of joint pain, rash, parasitic infections, malignancies, and abnormal laboratory tests.

New FDA-approved drug makes severe food allergies less life-threatening Read More »

it’s-a-fake:-mysterious-280-million-year-old-fossil-is-mostly-just-black-paint

It’s a fake: Mysterious 280 million-year-old fossil is mostly just black paint

Archaeology, forgeries, fossils, geology, paleontology, Science, Tridentinosaurus antiquus / /

A cautionary tale —

The long bones of the hind limbs appear to be genuine. The rest? Not so much.

–

image of a reptilian fossil in a rock

Enlarge / Discovered in 1931, Tridentinosaurus antiquus has now been found to be, in part, a forgery.

Valentina Rossi

For more than 90 years, scientists have puzzled over an unusual 280 million-year-old reptilian fossil discovered in the Italian Alps. It’s unusual because the skeleton is surrounded by a dark outline, long believed to be rarely preserved soft tissue. Alas, a fresh analysis employing a suite of cutting-edge techniques concluded that the dark outline is actually just bone-black paint. The fossil is a fake, according to a new paper published in the journal Paleontology.

An Italian engineer and museum employee named Gualtiero Adami found the fossil near the village of Piné. The fossil was a small lizard-like creature with a long neck and five-digit limbs. He turned it over to the local museum, and later that year, geologist Giorgio del Piaz announced the discovery of a new genus, dubbed Tridentinosaurus antiquus. The dark-colored body outline was presumed to be the remains of carbonized skin or flesh; fossilized plant material with carbonized leaf and shoot fragments were found in the same geographical area.

The specimen wasn’t officially described scientifically until 1959 when Piero Leonardi declared it to be part of the Protorosauria group. He thought it was especially significant for understanding early reptile evolution because of the preservation of presumed soft tissue surrounding the skeletal remains. Some suggested that T. antiquus had been killed by a pyroclastic surge during a volcanic eruption, which would explain the carbonized skin since the intense heat would have burnt the outer layers almost instantly. It is also the oldest body fossil found in the Alps, at some 280 million years old.

Yet the fossil had never been carefully analyzed using modern analytical techniques, according to co-author Valentina Rossi of University College Cork in Ireland. “The fossil is unique, so this poses some challenges, in terms of analysis that we can do when effectively we cannot afford to make any mistakes, i.e., damaging the fossil,” Rossi told Ars. “Previous preliminary studies were carried out in the past but were not conclusive and the results not straightforward to interpret. The incredible technological advancement we are experiencing in paleontology made this study possible, since we can now analyze very small quantities of precious fossil material at the molecular level, without the risk of damaging the whole specimen.”

The fossil under normal light (left) and under UV light (right).

Enlarge / The fossil under normal light (left) and under UV light (right).

Valentina Rossi

Rossi et al. focused on the dark body outline believed to be carbonized soft tissue for their analysis. This involved photographing the fossil—plus some fossilized plants found in the same area—in both white light and UV light, and using those images to build a photogrammetric map and 3D model. They also took minute samples and examined them with scanning electron microscopy, micro X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and ATF-FTIR spectroscopy.

The entire specimen, both the body outline and the bones, fluoresced yellow under UV light; the plant specimens did not. But coatings like lacquers, varnishes, glues, and some artificial pigments do fluoresce yellow under UV light. There was no evidence of fossilized melanin, which one might expect to find in preserved soft tissue. Also, fossils with preserved soft tissue are typically flattened with little topography; the T. antiquus specimen showed a lot of topographical variation in the dark outline areas.

The authors thought this was consistent with some kind of mechanical preparation, perhaps to (unsuccessfully) expose more of the skeleton. They concluded that one or more layers of some kind of coating had been applied to the body outline and the bones. The granular texture of what had been presumed to be soft tissue was more consistent with manufactured pigments used in historical paintings—specifically, “a manufactured carbon-based pigment mixed with an organic binder,” i.e., bone black paint. Conclusion: T. antiquus is a forgery and scientists therefore should be wary of using the specimen in comparative phylogenetic analysis.

Tridentinosaurus antiquus.” height=”428″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/fakefossil2-640×428.jpg” width=”640″>

Enlarge / Valentina Rossi with an image of Tridentinosaurus antiquus.

Zixiao Yang

How could scientists have presumed the dark outline of carbonized soft tissue for so many decades? “This fossil was discovered in 1931 and back then fossils were treated very differently than today,” said Rossi. “Application of paints, consolidates and lacquers on fossil bones was the norm, because that was the only way to protect the specimens for further deterioration. It was also sometimes to embellish specimens by making them sleek and shiny. Unfortunately, in the case of Tridentinosaurus, the mechanical preparation did most of the damage and then the application of a black paint created the illusion of a lizard-like animal impression on the surface of the rock.”

This analysis also casts doubt on the validity of the fossil’s assigned taxon, which was based on observations of the body proportion and measurements of limbs, neck, and abdomen. Part of the fossil, at least, appears to be genuine—the long bones of the hind limbs—but that doesn’t mean it will be easier now to determine species or where the specimen fits in the fossil record. “The bones that are recognizable appear to be very poorly preserved, so it might be very difficult to extrapolate any information,” said Rossi. “But perhaps the discovery of new fossil material from the same area where this specimen was found might help identify this ancient animal.”

So how can paleontologists prevent this kind of error from happening in the future? Rossi recommends reporting such finds via scientific journals with a detailed explanation of the methods that were used to characterize the surface materials on both the fossil and the rock. “It’s important to be aware that certain practices are not acceptable anymore, and not just because it creates—whether intentionally or by genuine mistake—misinformation and distorts our perception of a specimen,” said Rossi. “But also because the fossil will be irreparably damaged, and we might have lost key information about the original aspect and preservation state of the fossil.”

Paleontology, 2024. DOI: 10.1111/pala.12690  (About DOIs).

It’s a fake: Mysterious 280 million-year-old fossil is mostly just black paint Read More »

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Scientists aghast at bizarre AI rat with huge genitals in peer-reviewed article

AI, frontiers, MidJourney, rats, Science, Scientific publishing / /

AI gone wild —

It’s unclear how such egregiously bad images made it through peer-review.

–

An actual laboratory rat, who is intrigued.

Enlarge / An actual laboratory rat, who is intrigued.

Appall and scorn ripped through scientists’ social media networks Thursday as several egregiously bad AI-generated figures circulated from a peer-reviewed article recently published in a reputable journal. Those figures—which the authors acknowledge in the article’s text were made by Midjourney—are all uninterpretable. They contain gibberish text and, most strikingly, one includes an image of a rat with grotesquely large and bizarre genitals, as well as a text label of “dck.”

AI-generated Figure 1 of the paper. This image is supposed to show spermatogonial stem cells isolated, purified, and cultured from rat testes.

Enlarge / AI-generated Figure 1 of the paper. This image is supposed to show spermatogonial stem cells isolated, purified, and cultured from rat testes.

On Thursday, the publisher of the review article, Frontiers, posted an “expression of concern,” noting that it is aware of concerns regarding the published piece. “An investigation is currently being conducted and this notice will be updated accordingly after the investigation concludes,” the publisher wrote.

The article in question is titled “Cellular functions of spermatogonial stem cells in relation to JAK/STAT signaling pathway,” which was authored by three researchers in China, including the corresponding author Dingjun Hao of Xi’an Honghui Hospital. It was published online Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.

Frontiers did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment, but we will update this post with any response.

The first figure in the paper, the one containing the rat, drew immediate attention as scientists began widely sharing it and commenting on it on social media platforms, including Bluesky and the platform formerly known as Twitter. From a distance, the anatomical image is clearly all sorts of wrong. But, looking closer only reveals more flaws, including the labels “dissilced,” Stemm cells,” “iollotte sserotgomar,” and “dck.” Many researchers expressed surprise and dismay that such a blatantly bad AI-generated image could pass through the peer-review system and whatever internal processing is in place at the journal.

Figure 2 is supposed to be a diagram of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway.

Enlarge / Figure 2 is supposed to be a diagram of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway.

But the rat’s package is far from the only problem. Figure 2 is less graphic but equally mangled. While it’s intended to be a diagram of a complex signaling pathway, it instead is a jumbled mess. One scientific integrity expert questioned whether it provide an overly complicated explanation of “how to make a donut with colorful sprinkles.” Like the first image, the diagram is rife with nonsense text and baffling images. Figure 3 is no better, offering a collage of small circular images that are densely annotated with gibberish. The image is supposed to provide visual representations of how the signaling pathway from Figure 2 regulates the biological properties of spermatogonial stem cells.

Some scientists online questioned whether the text was also AI-generated. One user noted that AI detection software determined that it was likely to be AI-generated; however, as Ars has reported previously, such software is unreliable.

Figure 3 is supposed to show the regulation of biological properties of spermatogonial stem cells by JAK/STAT signaling pathway.

Enlarge / Figure 3 is supposed to show the regulation of biological properties of spermatogonial stem cells by JAK/STAT signaling pathway.

The images, while egregious examples, highlight a growing problem in scientific publishing. A scientist’s success relies heavily on their publication record, with a large volume of publications, frequent publishing, and articles appearing in top-tier journals, all of which earn scientists more prestige. The system incentivizes less-than-scrupulous researchers to push through low-quality articles, which, in the era of AI chatbots, could potentially be generated with the help of AI. Researchers worry that the growing use of AI will make published research less trustworthy. As such, research journals have recently set new authorship guidelines for AI-generated text to try to address the problem. But for now, as the Frontiers article shows, there are clearly some gaps.

Scientists aghast at bizarre AI rat with huge genitals in peer-reviewed article Read More »

after-a-decade-and-$1.2-billion,-nasa-reveals-its-booty-from-bennu:-121-grams

After a decade and $1.2 billion, NASA reveals its booty from Bennu: 121 grams

bennu, Science, Space / /

To Bennu and back —

A long way, and a lot of money, for half a cup.

–

A view of eight sample trays containing the final material from asteroid Bennu.

Enlarge / A view of eight sample trays containing the final material from asteroid Bennu.

NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold

After years of speculation, NASA finally revealed on Thursday the totality of the asteroid sample returned from Bennu to Earth last fall: 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams).

To put that number into perspective, the total mass is only slightly more than one-half cup of sugar or a box of 100 paper clips. It’s about the same mass as a small avocado, and you can’t even smear it on toast.

So, in some sense, it’s a pretty small sample. Especially when you consider the lengths to which NASA and its partners went to retrieve it. The space agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center worked with the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin to build the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft for $800 million. It launched in September 2016 on an Atlas V rocket, which cost an additional $183.5 million. And as it has traipsed across the inner Solar System and back, NASA has spent an additional $200 million on mission operations.

A tin of tuna

Putting that all together, NASA has invested $1.2 billion and the better part of a decade to retrieve a volume of asteroid dust that could fit—comfortably—within a small can of tuna.

But, as the saying goes, good things come in small packages. And small though the sample may be, it is 20 times greater than the amount of asteroid material previously returned to Earth by a pair of Japanese sample return missions. A little will go a long way as scientists study the organics and other materials in this asteroid dust to divine clues to the origin of life and conditions that existed at the dawn of our Solar System. You don’t need handfuls of material to get a meaningful result from an electron microscope.

Moreover, the sample retrieval was double the minimum requirement for the mission, 60 grams. So, OSIRIS-REx can now definitively be labeled as an unqualified success.

Biding their time

The scientific community had to wait longer than expected to know how much material OSIRIS-REx brought back to Earth. As engineers and technicians at Johnson Space Center in Houston worked to open the sample container last October, they were stymied by two stubborn fasteners. Only after new tools were devised was the sample container finally opened to reveal the tiny treasure in January.

In the coming weeks, some Bennu material will be packaged and distributed for researchers to study. As part of the OSIRIS-REx mission, a cohort of more than 200 scientists around the world will explore the regolith’s properties, including researchers from many US institutions, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency.

NASA, however, intends to reserve about 70 percent of the material for future study.

After a decade and $1.2 billion, NASA reveals its booty from Bennu: 121 grams Read More »