KOSMOSEST #4: Late-November News Roundup
Lunar capsule's record, a new class of astronauts, a leap in exoplanet studies, and more.
Welcome to the fourth issue of KOSMOSEST!
Today’s newsletter includes a brief selection of cosmic news.
Orion spacecraft’s journey to the Moon
Newsletter #3 focused on the Artemis I mission in preparation of sending humans to the Moon again. The Orion spacecraft completed an engine burn near the Moon on Nov. 21, 2022, and glimpsed at a beautiful blue marble that outshines the stars (as seen in the image above). Orion’s optical navigation camera has also sent back close-up views of the lunar surface.
The spacecraft flew past record distance set by Apollo 13 at 400,171 kilometers (248,655 miles) from Earth at about 13:40 GMT (8:40 a.m. EST) on Saturday, Nov. 26.
New class of Europe’s astronauts
The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced its new class of astronauts. Over 22,500 people applied to ESA’s call, which was the first new recruitment in 13 years. Five career astronauts, 11 members of an astronaut reserve and one astronaut with a disability were chosen from the large pool of candidates.
What’s next for the five career astronauts:
After completion of the 12-month basic training, the new astronauts will be ready to enter the next Space Station training phase and, once assigned to a mission, their training will be tailored to specific mission tasks.
Astronauts in the reserve remain with their current employers, and will start basic training only in case a flight opportunity has been identified.
For the first time ever, a person with a physical disability has been included among astronaut candidates. John McFall is a 41-year-old British paralympic sprinter, Paralympic World Cup Champion, and a medical doctor. McFall will take part in the “Parastronaut Feasibility Project”. ESA explains: “Including people with special needs also means benefiting from their extraordinary experience, ability to adapt to difficult environments, and point of view.”
Reading about the qualifications of the chosen individuals is indeed a humbling experience. A military rank of Sergeant, Doctor of Medicine, Skydiving instructor for pre-military paratrooper courses, and Helicopter rescue doctor—that’s the CV of just one astronaut! Marco Alain Sieber from Switzerland.
Newest leap in studying the atmospheres of exoplanets
Exoplanets are planets outside our Solar System, orbiting stars other than the Sun. Astrophysicists used the J. W. Space Telescope (JWST) to examine WASP-39 b—a planet about as massive as Saturn, but in an orbit very close to its star. As the planet sweeps in front of the host star (makes a transit), the starlight filters through the planet’s atmosphere, and molecules present absorb specific wavelengths of the light. In this study, a full inventory of atoms and molecules were picked up by the space telescope’s sensitive instruments, retrieving the first 'chemical profile' of an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
The star that the planet orbits is located 700 light years or 215 parsecs from Earth, but it was possible to detect signs of active chemistry and clouds.
Read more: Press release by the University of Leiden
Sharper eyes for ground-based telescopes
While JWST continues to stand out with impressive results, it runs on an extremely tight schedule attainable to a very limited number of astronomers. Telescopes on the ground are much more accessible to astronomers, and sophisticated technology—Adaptive Optics—allows them to observe distant objects with impressive details. Adaptive Optics corrects for the blurring effects of Earth's atmospheric turbulence.
Above, you can see the beautiful details in the galaxy NGC 1097, as seen by ERIS, a new infrared instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile.
(ERIS is the instrument my proposal was accepted for—I can hardly contain my excitement for the measurements that await!)
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this week’s look into the universe.
Were there other space news that stood out for you this month? Feel free to leave a comment.
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Mari-Liis 🇪🇪 "Marie" 🌍
Astrophysics Researcher, Science Communicator