In this series of posts, we sit down with a few of the keynote speakers of the 244th AAS meeting to learn more about them and their research. You can see a full schedule of their talks here, and read our other interviews here!

We all know that academic careers are usually a winding path and not a simple straight line. No one is a better example of this than Prof. Kerstin Perez, whose career in particle physics and astrophysics took her across multiple different research fields and at least two continents.

She started out as an undergraduate studying physics at Columbia University, and moved to Caltech to complete her doctorate. After she earned her Ph.D, she returned to Columbia as an NSF Fellow. She then accepted a faculty position at Haverford College before moving and joining the faculty at MIT as an assistant professor. Finally, she returned to Columbia University again and currently serves as their Lavine Family Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences in the Department of Physics. Thats already painting an impressive picture, and we havent even started discussing her research.

Prof. Perezs reason for studying astronomy is very simple. Basic scientific research is here to help us answer the big questions and uncover things that we dont yet understand. Einstein wasnt thinking about satellite communications when he described general relativity, but without general relativity, we wouldnt have satellite communications. Its the job of astrophysics to ask these big questions, even if they dont go anywhere. Asking that question [why one studies astronomy] is, in my mind, the same as asking why we paint paintings and why we create art in any way. Its all about how we understand our space in the universe, how we relate to the rest of the world, and how we relate to each other.

Her science focuses on looking for dark matter interactions using cosmic rays in order to better understand or modify the Standard Model. In particular, she focuses on looking at extremely rare particles like antideuterons and hypothetical light particles like axions. In her quest to find these particles, Prof. Perez became a part of, and in some cases the leader of, many large science collaborations in particle physics and astronomy. So, lets take a quick walk through some of her current projects as well as show a quick preview of her upcoming research!

NuStar, or Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, is a NASA X-ray telescope that launched in 2012 and has been revolutionary in furthering the field of X-ray astronomy. However, while the primary intent of the telescope was to study black holes and supernova remnants, Prof. Perez had other uses for it. She originally got involved in the project as a postdoc, where she helped develop the optics for the telescope. What happened in my career was I did [part of] my Ph.D at CERN. I was on the ATLAS experiment when it first turned on, and when I got to the end of my Ph.D, I still loved the fundamental particle physics questions, but I wanted to be part of building something new. That led me to the GAPS group at Columbia University since it was very similar physics. When I came here, I was in the same group that built the NuStar optics right when NuStar was launching.

Now that its operational, she uses it to study potential X-ray probes of dark matter. After I learned all the astrophysics and how all the instruments worked, I turned back to what we can do with particle physics using this same instrumentation? What kind of dark matter processes would give me X-rays? Thats where I pivoted with NuStar and did a lot of work with light dark matter candidates like sterile neutrinos and axions, as well as how we can probe them with astrophysics.

The General AntiParticle Spectrometer, or GAPS for short, is another mission in which Prof. Perez plays a large part. The goal of GAPS is to launch at least three balloon flights, lasting roughly 30 days each, in Antarctica to measure low-energy antideuterons, among other cosmic rays. Originally, when I came into GAPS, I was developing the recipes for the semiconducting silicon detectors at the heart of the instrument.

Recently, Prof. Perez took on the role of a project manager. Im now deputy PI (Principle Investigator) which means Ill take over as primary investigator after flight one, and Im also project manager of the whole project. This means Im the one making sure all our trucks are getting from point A to point B and every moving part is on schedule and getting on the boats to Antarctica. Assuming it goes well, we will do our first flight at the end of this year. With these balloons, we want to fly again and again and again for the next five to ten years. I always say that every balloon mission wants to grow up to be a satellite, so assuming all goes well with those flights, we have a good idea what this would look like if we put it in space.

Prof. Perez is also a part of two planned missions in the future. The first is HEX-P (High Energy X-ray Probe), a proposed NASA X-ray probe, and the second is IAXO (International Axion Observatory), an upcoming axion helioscope whose goal is to observe the Sun with incredibly powerful magnets in order to hopefully detect axions.

Lastly, she had some advice for all early career astronomers, including undergrads and grad students. My number one advice for undergrads is to find your people! People who support you and make you laugh. Without that, I dont think anyone makes it very far in this field. My other answer is to get some sleep!

To hear more about Dark Matter, tune into Kerstin Perezs Plenary Lecture at 11:40 AM CT on Thursday June 13th at #AAS244!

Edited by: Archana Aravindan

Featured Image Credit: AAS

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Meet the AAS Keynote Speakers: Dr. Kerstin Perez - Astrobites

A recent study from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics suggests that neutron stars could play a crucial role in understanding dark matter. The study found that dark matter particles, when colliding within neutron stars, can quickly heat these stars, potentially making them observable through future astronomical technologies. This rapid heating process, previously thought to take longer than the universes age, now appears achievable within days, providing a new method to study dark matters interactions with regular matter.

Scientists may be one step closer to unraveling one of the universes greatest mysteries. Their recent calculations suggest that neutron stars could play a crucial role in shedding light on the mysterious dark matter.

In a paper published in The Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, physicists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, led by the University of Melbourne, calculated that energy transferred when dark matter particles collide and annihilate inside cold dead neutron stars can heat the stars up very quickly.

It was previously thought that this energy transfer could take a very long time, in some cases, longer than the age of the universe itself, rendering this heating irrelevant.

Professor Nicole Bell of the University of Melbourne said the new calculations show for the first time that most of the energy would be deposited in just a few days.

The search for dark matter is one of the greatest detective stories in science. Dark matter makes up 85 percent of the matter in our universe, yet we cant see it. Dark matter doesnt interact with light it doesnt absorb light, it doesnt reflect light, it doesnt emit light. This means our telescopes cant directly observe it, even though we know it exists. Instead, its gravitational pull on objects we can see tells us it must be there.

It is one thing to theoretically predict dark matter, but it is another thing to experimentally observe it. Experiments on Earth are limited by the technical challenges of making sufficiently large detectors. However, neutron stars act as huge natural dark matter detectors, which have been collecting dark matter for astronomically long timescales, so they are a good place for us to concentrate our efforts, Professor Bell said.

Neutron stars are formed when a supermassive star runs out of fuel and collapses. They have a mass similar to that of our Sun, squeezed into a ball just 20km wide. Any denser, they would become black holes.

While dark matter is the dominant type of matter in the Universe, it is very hard to detect because its interactions with ordinary matter are very weak. So weak, in fact, that dark matter can pass straight through the Earth, or even through the Sun.

But neutron stars are different they are so dense that dark matter particles are much more likely to interact with the star. If dark matter particles do collide with neutrons in the star, they will lose energy and become trapped. Over time, this would lead to an accumulation of dark matter in the star, Professor Bell said.

University of Melbourne PhD candidate Michael Virgato said this is expected to heat up old, cold, neutron stars to a level that may be in reach of future observations, or even trigger the collapse of the star to a black hole.

If the energy transfer happens quickly enough, the neutron star would be heated up. For this to happen, the dark matter must undergo many collisions in the star, transferring more and more of the dark matters energy until, eventually, all the energy has been deposited in the star, Mr. Virgato said.

Its previously been unknown how long this process would take because, as the energy of the dark matter particles becomes smaller and smaller, they are less and less likely to interact again. As a result, transferring all the energy was thought to take a very long time sometimes longer than the age of the universe. Instead, the researchers calculated that 99% of the energy is transferred in just a few days.

This is good news because it means that dark matter can heat neutron stars to a level that can potentially be detected. As a result, the observation of a cold neutron star would provide vital information about the interactions between dark and regular matter, shedding light on the nature of this elusive substance.

If we are to understand dark matter which is everywhere it is critical that we use every technique at our disposal to figure out what the hidden matter of our universe actually is, Mr. Virgato said.

Reference: Thermalization and annihilation of dark matter in neutron stars by Nicole F. Bell, Giorgio Busoni, Sandra Robles and Michael Virgato, 3 April 2024, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2024/04/006

This research was conducted by a team of international experts at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, including Professor Nicole Bell and Michael Virgato from the University of Melbourne, Dr. Giorgio Busoni from the Australian National University and Dr. Sandra Robles from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, USA.

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Dark Matter Decoded: How Neutron Stars May Solve the Universe's Biggest Mystery - SciTechDaily

In this series of posts, we sit down with a few of the keynote speakers of the 244th AAS meeting to learn more about them and their research. You can see a full schedule of their talks here, and read our other interviews here!

Looking out far into the edges of our Universe, we can essentially travel back in time to when our Universe was just forming. With new telescopes like the JWST, we can look back further than ever before, which is exactly what Dr. Bezanson, this years opening speaker at AAS 244, aims to do!

Dr. Rachel Bezanson is currently a professor at the University of Pittsburghs Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Bezanson and her team, the UNCOVER JWST Project, use JWST to observe some of the galaxies and stars that formed at the beginning of our Universe.

Dr. Bezanson is this years Kavli Lecturer, the first presentation of the meeting, given to someone to highlight recent research of great importance. She and her team received this honor for the remarkable diversity of ground-breaking science that has resulted from their deep imaging and spectroscopic survey of Pandoras Cluster with JWST.

The UNCOVER program was designed with two main scientific goals: identifying and understanding the first galaxies and those galaxies that reionized the universe. They do this by imaging a relatively nearby (redshift z~0.3) galaxy cluster, Abell 2744. But the cluster isnt the actual target its things in the background, so distant galaxies that lie behind the giant cluster of galaxies, says Dr. Bezanson. Their image of the cluster can be seen in Figure 1.

The cluster itself acts as a gravitational lens, which magnifies the galaxies behind the cluster (this is also described in this Astrobite). Because of the gravitational lensing, we get this additional boost so we can see things that are intrinsically fainter, says Dr. Bezanson. Because the cluster is extremely massive, it is able to magnify objects behind it by two or more times.

They start by taking very high resolution images of the cluster with JWSTs NIRCam instrument. But the image is only the first part: after this initial image, the team created a catalog of objects they saw and identified 700 objects that they wanted to study further using the capabilities of the NIRSpec instrument to take spectra of the objects. According to Dr. Bezanson, spectroscopy is where you learn about the physics, from objects distances to information about their composition.

The NIRSpec instrument has very broad spectral coverage, from 600 5000 nanometers (nm). As we look at objects further away from us, their light appears to have longer wavelengths than it would if the same object is closer to us (redshifted), which means a sodium light bulb emitting in optical wavelengths on earth will seem to be emitting infrared light if it is moved 100 Giga-lightyears away. The broad coverage of the NIRSpec instrument means that we can study sources of optical light (like stars!) at a huge range of distances.When they took their images and spectra, they found a whole slew of interesting objects. They found two extremely high redshift galaxies at redshifts of 12.393 and 13.079, which are among some of the furthest away objects observed with JWST. They also found a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy, actively devouring gas from around it (called an AGN) in a fortuitous location where it is behind the cluster, her team saw three images of it! Weve learned a bunch from the spectra that we took with UNCOVER, Dr. Bezanson said.

Another interesting type of object they were able to study is a curious type of AGN, dubbed Little Red Dots. These are so far away that they look like a single red dot but are unlike any other AGN we know of theyre more massive than expected, but are missing X-ray emission (see this Astrobite for more properties of these galaxies). We dont really understand what is the physics behind them, says Dr. Bezanson, but the spectra she and her team took with UNCOVER are starting to shed light on these mysterious objects.

She emphasizes how her collaborators have been essential to the success of the project. Alongside her co-PI, Ivo Labbe, and many others theyve made this survey a success. Its been this incredible experience because of my team, she says.

Dr. Bezanson got her undergraduate degree at Barnard College in New York City. She knew she liked math and science and happened upon an astronomy class for non-majors, which prompted her to take more physics and astronomy. She taught labs and tutored as an undergrad. Upon graduation, she taught middle and high school physics for four years. She really enjoyed teaching but decided in her third year of teaching that she wanted to apply to grad school. She graduated with her PhD from Yale University and went on to become a Hubble Fellow at the University of Arizona and spent a year as a fellow at Princeton before becoming a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Her advice for undergraduates is to find mentors who support you if you find somebody that you think could be your advocate, try as best you can to cultivate that relationship. When deciding if you want to go to graduate school, its important to not think of grad school as the default and that its okay to take time off and come back to it. In that case, its best to talk with mentors and her advice to make sure that you lay the foundation such that you could come back. And if you apply and dont get in, dont take it personally.

Part of the reason I was so successful in graduate school was because I came in knowing I wanted to go to graduate school and treated it like a job, she says. Graduate school can be long and, at times, frustrating, so for her, the time between undergrad and grad school proved to be immensely valuable. Her time away helped her in taking stock of priorities and helping to get through the drudgery of graduate school.

To hear more about studying the edges of our observable universe, tune into Dr. Bezansons Plenary Lecture at 8:00 AM CT on Monday, June 10th at #AAS244!

Edited by: Sowkhya Shanbhog

Featured Image Credit: AAS

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Meet the AAS Keynote Speakers: Dr. Rachel Bezanson - Astrobites

In this series of posts, we sit down with a few of the keynote speakers of the 244th AAS meeting to learn more about them and their research. You can see a full schedule of their talks here and read our other interviews here!

Have you ever wondered about the breathtaking images from space? Astronomy offers some of the most visually stunning datasets in all of science, but theres a lot more to the field than just breathtaking multi-wavelength images. A whole universe of complex concepts and intricate stories needs to be visualized and understood. Dr. Robert Hurt is tackling these exciting challenges head-on.

Trained as an astronomer, Dr. Hurt now tackles the universe as an Astrovizicist (short for astro-visualizer) at Caltech/IPAC. He firmly believes in the power of outreach and its vital role in the astronomy community. Dr. Hurt has combined his passions for astronomy, education, photography, art, and computer graphics to craft the visual public image of the Spitzer Space Telescope.

The work Dr. Hurt and his team have done for various missions has been featured in a wide range of print media, including National Geographic (NatGeo), Science, Nature, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and newspapers worldwide. His images and animations have appeared in numerous science documentaries, such as The Universe (History Channel) and The Known Universe (NatGeo), as well as on national news networks. Some of his imagery has even been used in television shows like Star Trek Voyager, Battlestar Galactica, and Stargate.

Data alone isnt always sufficient. Dr. Hurt and his colleagues at Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are developing processes to create illustrations that are not only meaningful and helpful but also compelling and engaging. Its all about communication, he says. Artists, scientists, and communications officers must talk to each other, working collaboratively rather than in the traditional, sequential manner still standard in many places.

NASAs Universe of Learning backs Dr. Hurts efforts. This science activation project brings together IPAC, JPL, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Hes on a mission to foster a community of practice for astrophysical visualizers. Theyve got a Google Group (you can join here), regular online events (check out their YouTube channel for recorded meetings), and have been hosting workshops at the winter AAS meetings for the past few years.

Dr. Hurt thinks this is a crucial skill for all astronomers to learn. It is important to communicate what you are doing clearly and expressively, he says, encouraging more early-career scientists to incorporate visualization into their work or outreach efforts. Hes witnessed outreach evolve from a niche, often frowned upon activity done by a few enthusiasts to a widely recognized and essential aspect of the profession, especially among young scientists.

Another one of Dr. Hurts passion projects is maintaining a website called Astropix. This public image library features stunning and impactful illustrations from all major surveys, complete with necessary metadata that is often lost when using Google search and finding low-resolution thumbnails instead. In astronomy visualization, this metadata is similar to photography metadata but includes additional fields specific to astrophysics, like its position in the sky and color table that lists the observations and the respective wavelengths that have gone into making that image.

Dr. Hurt has been developing metadata standards for astronomy images, specifically the Astronomy Visualization Metadata (AVM), which can also be utilized in planetariums. Data to Dome is a related standard based on AVM and is now compatible with planetarium software. This allows presenters to seamlessly integrate live feeds of images into their presentations, placing them accurately in the sky.

These standards also work with tools like AAS Worldwide Telescope, one of the first supporters of this initiative. This integration lets users drop images directly into the screen through Digital Sky Survey (DSS) and see their precise location and context in the sky. Many passionate individuals are dedicated to advancing this work, enhancing the tools and methods available for astronomy visualization.

I never intended to end up here! Dr. Hurt exclaimed when asked about his journey into this unique field. His love for art began early, with an airbrush gift from his dad that he used to paint nebulae. After earning a Physics degree from UNC Chapel Hill, he moved to Los Angeles for graduate school at UCLA. Art remained his stress relief throughout his studies.

During his postdoc, he played with Photoshop, finding solace in the convenience of digital artwork over traditional ones! He also experienced the realities of a tenure-track position through his first postdoctoral advisor, Mary Barsony, realizing that the additional institutional burdens (especially grant writing) werent for him. For his second postdoc, he sought opportunities at Caltechs IPAC, where he occasionally helped colleagues create posters and animations for press releases. This is where he discovered his passion for science communication.

He then joined the 2MASS team. I really owe a lot to Mike Skrutski, the PI of 2MASS, he says, who encouraged him to pursue more visualization work to support the project after seeing his posters. Following this, he transitioned to a full-time role as a visualization scientist with Spitzer.

Dr. Hurt often talks to early career scientists at workshops who express frustration because their advisors discourage them from learning anything beyond processing data for papers. He believes these broader skill sets are crucial for effective communication within the scientific community. Its important for researchers to understand that these ancillary skills can be just as critical in their day-to-day work, he emphasizes.

Moreover, Dr. Hurt highlights the practical necessity of developing a diverse skill set. With a limited number of tenured faculty positions available, he advises students to cultivate additional skills that can open doors to different career paths. These other skill sets are also the things that people can use to branch into different directions, he notes, stressing that such pursuits are essential for personal growth and professional flexibility.

Reflecting on his career, Dr. Hurt shares his pivotal decision: choosing a second postdoc that allowed him to branch into science support. He encourages students to remain open to all opportunities and to pursue their passions outside of research with the same dedication they apply to their scientific work. I never knew that the things I was doing for fun would turn into my portfolio when I was offered this position for Spitzer, he says. Pursuing diverse interests can set you apart from others.

To hear more about Astro-visualization and why data alone isnt enough, tune into Dr. Hurtss Plenary Lecture at 11:40 AM CT on Wednesday, June 12 at #AAS244!

Edited by: Jessie Thwaites

Featured Image Credit: AAS

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Meet the AAS Keynote Speakers: Dr. Robert Hurt - Astrobites

Magnetic fields have been detected for the first time in three massive stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. This discovery is significant as it offers insights into the role of magnetism in star formation and evolution, particularly in galaxies with young stellar populations. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

New findings reveal magnetic fields in three massive stars in the Magellanic Clouds, shedding light on the influence of magnetism on stellar evolution and the formation of neutron stars and black holes. The use of advanced spectropolarimetry techniques was crucial to overcome past observational challenges.

Magnetic fields have been discovered in three massive, hot stars within our neighboring galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, for the first time. Although magnetic fields in massive stars are not new to our own galaxy, their detection in the Magellanic Clouds is particularly significant due to the abundance of young, massive stars in these galaxies. This discovery offers a rare chance to investigate actively forming stars and explore the maximum mass a star can achieve while maintaining stability.

Notably, magnetism is considered to be a key component in massive star evolution, with a far-reaching impact on their ultimate fate. Its the massive stars with initially more than eight solar masses that leave behind neutron stars and black holes by the end of their evolution. Spectacular merging events of such compact remnant systems have been observed by gravitational wave observatories. Furthermore, theoretical studies propose a magnetic mechanism for the explosion of massive stars, relevant for gamma-ray bursts, x-ray flashes and supernovae.

Studies of magnetic fields in massive stars in galaxies with young stellar populations provide crucial information on the role of magnetic fields in star formation in the early Universe with star-forming gas not polluted by metals, says Dr. Swetlana Hubrig, from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and first author of the study.

Most massive star-forming region NGC346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Toucan in the southern starry sky located some 200,000 light years away from Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, Andi James (STScI)

Stellar magnetic fields are measured using spectropolarimetry. For this circularly polarised starlight is recorded and the smallest changes in spectral lines are investigated. However, in order to achieve the necessary accuracy of the polarization measurements, this method requires high-quality data.

The method is extremely hungry for photons. This is a special challenge because even the brightest massive stars, which have more than eight solar masses, are relatively light-poor when observed in our neighboring galaxies, the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds, as Dr. Silva Jrvinen from the AIP explains.

Because of these conditions, conventional high-resolution spectropolarimeters and smaller telescopes are unsuitable for such investigations. Therefore, the low-resolution spectropolarimeter FORS2 was used, which is mounted on one of the four 8-meter telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Previous attempts to detect magnetic fields in massive stars outside our galaxy were unsuccessful. These measurements are complex and depend on several factors. The magnetic field that is measured with circular polarization is called the longitudinal magnetic field, and it corresponds exclusively to the field component that points in the direction of the observer. It is similar to the light coming from a lighthouse, which is easy to see when the beam shines towards the observer.

Because the magnetic field structure in massive stars is usually characterized by a global dipole with the axis inclined to the rotation axis, the strength of the longitudinal magnetic field can be zero at rotation phases when the observer is looking directly at the magnetic equator of the rotating star. The detectability of the polarization signal also depends on the number of spectral features used to investigate the polarization. The observation of a broader spectral region with a larger number of spectral features is preferable. In addition, longer exposure times are crucial for recording polarimetric spectra with a sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio.

Taking these important factors into account, the team carried out spectropolarimetric observations of five massive stars in the Magellanic Clouds. In two presumably single stars with spectral characteristics typical for magnetic massive stars in our own galaxy and in one actively interacting massive binary system (Cl*NGC346 SSN7) located within the core of the most massive star-forming region NGC346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, they succeeded to detect magnetic fields of the order of kiloGauss. On our Suns surface, such strong magnetic fields can only be detected in small highly magnetized regions the sunspots.

The reported magnetic field detections in the Magellanic Clouds present the first indication that massive star formation proceeds in galaxies with young stellar populations in a similar way as in our galaxy.

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First Detection of Magnetism in Massive Stars Beyond Our Galaxy - SciTechDaily

Rome Newsroom, Jun 11, 2024 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

In 1931, when astrophysicist Father Georges Lematre proposed the Big Bang theory the idea that the universe expanded from the massive explosion of a primordial atom some scientists hated it, because it was too religious, according to Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno.

A lot of people said, Oh, youre just trying to reproduce Genesis, Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory, said in comments to EWTN News on June 11.

In recently recovered footage of a 1964 interview, Lematre explains that the theory of the expansion of the universe was not accepted at first because it made the idea of a creation necessary.

Consolmagno added that [Lematre] was very careful to say [the Big Bang] is not the same thing as the creation in Scripture. Its our best description of what happens after that creation.

Dozens of astrophysicists and cosmologists will explore the Big Bang and other topics of the universe next week at a conference hosted by the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.

Titled Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and Space-Time Singularities, the June 1721 workshop is the second international conference in celebration of the legacy of Lematre, who is called the father of the Big Bang theory.

The Big Bang is our best understanding today of what happened once the universe had been created, Consolmagno said at a June 11 press conference at the Vatican.

But perhaps the result of meetings like this [will be that] next year, or in a hundred years, or in a thousands years time, we may find a theory better than that.

What the creation point in Genesis describes is the creation of the laws of physics themselves, the laws we are still attempting to discover, he added.

While the Big Bang theory was originally received with skepticism by the scientific community, there was no great opposition from the Church, Consolmagno said.

Ironically, the pope was too enthusiastic, he continued. In 1951, [Pope Pius XII] had an audience with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and, in passing, said, essentially, Isnt it wonderful that scientists are talking about the beginning of the universe? But we could have told them that. And when Lematre heard that he said, No, you cant make that conflation.

Emphasizing that science and religious belief are not opposed, Consolmagno and conference organizer Jesuit Father Gabriele Gionti said there is a very good accord between scientists and those who work at the Vatican Observatory.

They feel more able to speak freely at the Vatican Observatory, Gionti said.

A practical reason for the respect, Consolmagno said, is because we do not compete with them for positions or for money This, as Father Gionti said, makes us a neutral ground, where they can come, in a beautiful setting in Castel Gandolfo, and know that we dont have an agenda.

According to organizers, 40 scientists will participate in the conference in person, and another 150 will join online. Conference attendees expect to have an audience with Pope Francis during the week if the pontiffs schedule allows.

Fabio Scardigli, a theoretical physicist from Italy who helped organize the conference in Castel Gandolfo, said they have assembled a dream team of scientists and thinkers from two different communities: cosmology and astrophysics.

Hopefully, he said, through open discussion and debate, there can be a small step forward in bringing these two groups into dialogue.

Father Matteo Galaverni, a cosmologist of the Vatican Observatory, said they want the conference to bring forth new points of view and to create a healthy optimism for those who believe in research.

Consolmagno referenced the opening of St. John Paul IIs encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason), in which the pope says that faith and reason are the two wings that bring us to the truth.

That image, the brother said, reminds us that faith is not the goal, reason is not the goal, the Church is not the goal, science is not the goal. Truth is the goal. And for those of us who believe that God is truth, then exploring the truth brings us closer to God.

Cosmologists, he added, are so aware of how much we do not know that there is a great openness to the need to accept a way of addressing the fundamental question from [the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm] Leibniz: Why is there something instead of nothing?

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

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From the Big Bang to black holes: Vatican, scientists to explore questions of the universe - Catholic World Report

WATCH: Exploding meteor bright as a full moon spotted in skies of south Spain amid days of endless rain  The Olive Press

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WATCH: Exploding meteor bright as a full moon spotted in skies of south Spain amid days of endless rain - The Olive Press

One small leap: Governors of human time plan to remove extra second from calendar year  EL PAS USA

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One small leap: Governors of human time plan to remove extra second from calendar year - EL PAS USA

Welp, that didn't take long. The first civil suit against the still-imploding crypto exchange FTX was just filed in a Florida court, accusing FTX, disgraced CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and 11 of the exchange's many celebrity ambassadors of preying on "unsophisticated" retail investors.

The list of celeb defendants impressive — honestly, it reads more like an invite list to a posh award show than a lawsuit.

Geriatric quarterback Tom Brady and soon-to-be-ex-wife Gisele Bündchen lead the pack, followed by basketball players Steph Curry and Udonis Haslem, as well as the Golden State Warriors franchise; tennis star Naomi Osaka; baseballers Shoehi Ohtani, Udonis Haslem, and David Ortiz; and quarterback Trevor Laurence.

Also named is comedian Larry David — who starred in that FTX Super Bowl commercial that very specifically told investors that even if they didn't understand crypto, they should definitely invest — and investor Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank" fame.

"The Deceptive and failed FTX Platform," reads the suit," "was based upon false representations and deceptive conduct."

"Many incriminating FTX emails and texts... evidence how FTX’s fraudulent scheme was designed to take advantage of unsophisticated investors from across the country," it continues. "As a result, American consumers collectively sustained over $11 billion dollars in damages."

Indeed, a number of FTX promos embraced an attitude similar to the cursed Larry David commercial. In one, Steph Curry tells viewers that with FTX, there's no need to be an "expert," while a Naomi Osaka promotion pushed the idea that crypto trading should be "accessible," "easy," and "fun."

It's also worth noting that this isn't the first suit of its kind. Billionaire Mark Cuban, also of "Shark Tank" fame, was named in a class action lawsuit launched against the bankrupt lender Voyager in August, while reality TV star Kim Kardashian was recently made to pay a roughly $1.2 million fine for hawking the "EthereumMAX" token without disclosing that she was paid to do so.

The FTX suit, however, appears to be the most extensive — and high-profile — of its kind. And while a fine for a million or two is basically a one dollar bill to this tax bracket, $11 billion, even if split amongst a group of 11 exorbitantly wealthy celebs, is a more substantial chunk of change.

Of course, whether anyone actually ever has to pay up remains to be seen. Regardless, it's still a terrible look, and real people got hurt. If there's any defense here, though? At least they didn't promise to be experts.

READ MORE: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried hit with class-action lawsuit that also names Brady, Bündchen, Shaq, Curry [Fox Business]

More on the FTX crash: Experts Say Sam Bankman-fried's Best Legal Defense Is to Say He's Just Really, Really Stupid

The post Celebrities Are Officially Being Sued by FTX Retail Investors appeared first on Futurism.

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Celebrities Are Officially Being Sued by FTX Retail Investors

Effecting Change

The disgraced former head of the crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, built his formidable public persona on the idea that he was a new type of ethical crypto exec. In particular, he was a vocal proponent of "effective altruism" — the vague-but-noble concept of using data to make philanthropic giving as targeted and helpful as possible.

But in a direct message, Vox's Kelsey Piper asked Bankman-Fried if the "ethics stuff" had been "mostly a front."

Bankman-Fried's reply: "Yeah."

"I mean that's not *all* of it," he wrote. "But it's a lot."

Truth Be Told

If the concept of becoming rich to save the world strikes you as iffy, you're not alone — and it appears that even Bankman-Fried himself knows it.

When Piper observed that Bankman-Fried had been "really good at talking about ethics" while actually playing a game, he responded that he "had to be" because he'd been engaged in "this dumb game we woke Westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths and everyone likes us."

Next time you're thinking of investing in crypto, maybe it's worth taking a moment to wonder whether the person running the next exchange might secretly be thinking the same thing.

More on effective altruism: Elon Musk Hired A Professional Gambler to Manage His Philanthropic Donations

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Sam Bankman-Fried Admits the "Ethics Stuff" Was "Mostly a Front"

Meat and Greet

Behold, ethical omnivores: the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given a key go-ahead to what could be the first lab grown meat product bound for human consumption in the US.

The decision, a first for cultivated meat in the US, paves the way for Californian startup Upside Foods to start selling its lab-grown chicken product domestically — meaning that now, it only needs approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) before the ersatz chicken can hit restaurant menus.

"The world is experiencing a food revolution and the [FDA] is committed to supporting innovation in the food supply," FDA officials said in a statement. "The agency evaluated the information submitted by Upside Foods as part of a pre-market consultation for their food made from cultured chicken cells and has no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusion."

Upside Foods' products were evaluated via a process in which manufacturers divulge the production process to the agency for review, along with a sample. If everything looks good after inspection, the FDA then sends back a "no further questions" letter to the company.

"We are thrilled at FDA's announcement," said Upside director of communications David Kay in an email to Reuters. "This historic step paves the way for our path to market."

Going Protein

Lab meat like Upside's aren't a plant-based imitation, unlike popular vegan alternatives such as Beyond Burgers. Instead, they're made from real animal cells grown in bioreactors, sparing the lives of actual livestock.

But while at a cellular level the meat may be the same, customers will definitely notice a difference in price. For now, cultivating meat remains an extremely expensive process, so pending USDA approval notwithstanding, it could still be a while before you see it hit the shelves of your local grocer.

To let eager, early customers try out the lab meat, Upside, which already announced its collaboration with Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn last year, will be debuting its chicken at specific upscale restaurants.

"We would want to bring this to people through chefs in the initial stage," CEO Uma Valeti told Wired. "Getting chefs excited about this is a really big deal for us. We want to work with the best partners who know how to cook well, and also give us feedback on what we could do better."

While the FDA's thumbs-up only applies to a specific product of Upside's, it's still a historic decision, signalling a way forward for an industry that's rapidly accruing investment.

Updated to clarify details regarding the FDA's evaluation of the product.

More on lab grown meat: Scientists Cook Comically Tiny Lab-Grown Hamburger

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FDA Gives First Go Ahead for Lab Grown Meat Product

Big Baby

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's name has clearly lost its luster among the parents of newborns.

According to BabyCenter's review of the data the name "Elon" has cratered in popularity over the last year, dropping from 120 babies per million in 2021 to just 90 babies per million, falling in the popularity rankings by 466 spots.

The name had seen a meteoric rise over the last seven or so years, but is currently falling out of favor big time, plummeting back down to 2019 levels.

The read? It seems like Musk's public reputation has been taking a significant hit.

Name Game

There are countless reasons why Musk could be less popular public figure than he was three years ago.

Especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Musk emerged as a controversial figure, speaking out against vaccinations and lockdowns. He has also become synonymous with an unhealthy work culture, firing practically anybody standing in his way and forcing his employees to work long hours.

The fiasco surrounding Musk's chaotic takeover of Twitter has likely only further besmirched his public image.

For reference, other baby names that have fallen out of fashion include "Kanye" — almost certainly in response to the travails of rapper Kanye West, who's had a years-long relationship with Musk — which fell a whopping 3,410 spots over the last year.

More on Elon Musk: Sad Elon Musk Says He's Overwhelmed In Strange Interview After the Power Went Out

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"Elon" Plummets in Popularity as a Baby Name for Some Reason

Elon Musk's Twitter operations are still in free fall.

Earlier this week, the billionaire CEO sent an email to staff telling them that they "need to be extremely hardcore" and work long hours at the office, or quit and get three months severance, as The Washington Post reports.

Employees had until 5 pm on Thursday to click "yes" and be part of Twitter moving forward or take the money and part ways. The problem for Musk? According to former Uber engineer Gergely Orosz, who has had a close ear to Twitter's recent inner turmoil, "far fewer than expected [developers] hit 'yes.'"

So many employees called Musk's bluff, Orosz says, that Musk is now "having meetings with top engineers to convince them to stay," in an  embarrassing reversal of his public-facing bravado earlier this week.

Twitter has already been rocked by mass layoffs, cutting the workforce roughly in half. Instead of notifying them, employees had access to their email and work computers revoked without notice.

Even that process was bungled, too, with some employees immediately being asked to return to the company after Musk's crew realized it had sacked people it needed.

According to Orosz's estimations, Twitter's engineering workforce may have been cut by a whopping 90 percent in just three weeks.

Musk has been banging the war drums in an active attempt to weed out those who aren't willing to abide by his strict rules and those who were willing to stand up to him.

But developers aren't exactly embracing that kind of tyranny.

"Sounds like playing hardball does not work," Orosz said. "Of course it doesn't."

"From my larger group of 50 people, 10 are staying, 40 are taking the severance," one source reportedly told Orosz. "Elon set up meetings with a few who plan to quit."

In short, developers are running for the hills — and besides, they're likely to find far better work conditions pretty much anywhere else.

"I am not sure Elon realizes that, unlike rocket scientists, who have relatively few options to work at, [developers] with the experience of building Twitter only have better options than the conditions he outlines," Orosz argued.

Then there's the fact that Musk has publicly lashed out at engineers, mocking them and implying that they were leading him on.

Those who spoke out against him were summarily fired.

That kind of hostility in leadership — Musk has shown an astonishing lack of respect — clearly isn't sitting well with many developers, who have taken up his to get three months of severance and leave.

"I meant it when I called Elon's latest ultimatum the first truly positive thing about this Twitter saga," Orosz wrote. "Because finally, everyone who had enough of the BS and is not on a visa could finally quit."

More on Twitter: Sad Elon Musk Says He's Overwhelmed In Strange Interview After the Power Went Out

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Panicked Elon Musk Reportedly Begging Engineers Not to Leave

Floored Apes

The value of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have absolutely plummeted, leaving celebrities with six figure losses, in a perhaps predictable conclusion to a bewildering trend.

Earlier this year, for instance, pop star Justin Bieber bought an Ape for a whopping $1.3 million. Now that the NFT economy has essentially collapsed in on itself, as Decrypt points out, it's worth a measly $69,000.

Demand Media

NFTs, which represent exclusive ownership rights to digital assets — but usually, underwhelmingly, just JPGs and GIFs — have absolutely plummeted in value, spurred by the ongoing crypto crisis and a vanishing appetite.

Sales volume of the blockchain knickknacks has also bottomed out. NFT sales declined for six straight months this year, according to CryptoSlam.

According to NFT Price Floor, the value of the cheapest available Bored Ape dipped down to just 48 ETH, well below $60,000, this week. In November so far, the floor price fell 33 percent.

Meanwhile, the crypto crash is only accelerating the trend, with the collapse of major cryptocurrency exchange FTX leaving its own mark on NFT markets.

Still Kicking

Despite the looming pessimism, plenty of Bored Apes are still being sold. In fact, according to Decrypt, around $6.5 million worth of Apes were moved on Tuesday alone, an increase of 135 percent day over day.

Is the end of the NFT nigh? Bored Apes are clearly worth a tiny fraction of what they once were, indicating a massive drop off in interest.

Yet many other much smaller NFT marketplaces are still able to generate plenty of hype, and millions of dollars in sales.

In other words, NFTs aren't likely to die out any time soon, but they are adapting to drastically changing market conditions — and leaving celebrities with deep losses in their questionable investments.

READ MORE: Justin Bieber Paid $1.3 Million for a Bored Ape NFT. It’s Now Worth $69K [Decrypt]

More on NFTs: The Latest Idea to Make People Actually Buy NFTs: Throw in a House

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Celebrities' Bored Apes Are Hilariously Worthless Now

Italian Import

Carbon dioxide has a bad rep for its role in driving climate change, but in an unexpected twist, it could also play a key role in storing renewable energy.

The world's first CO2 battery, built by Italian startup Energy Dome, promises to store renewables on an industrial scale, which could help green energy rival fossil fuels in terms of cost and practicality.

After successfully testing the battery at a small scale plant in Sardinia, the company is now bringing its technology to the United States.

"The US market is a primary market for Energy Dome and we are working to become a market leader in the US," an Energy Dome spokesperson told Electrek. "The huge demand of [long duration energy storage] and incentive mechanisms like the Inflation Reduction Act will be key drivers for the industry in the short term."

Storage Solution

As renewables like wind and solar grow, one of the biggest infrastructural obstacles is the storage of the power they produce. Since wind and solar sources aren't always going to be available, engineers need a way to save excess power for days when it's less sunny and windy out, or when there's simply more demand.

One obvious solution is to use conventional battery technology like lithium batteries, to store the energy. The problem is that building giant batteries from rare earth minerals — which can be prone to degradation over time — is expensive, not to mention wasteful.

Energy Dome's CO2 batteries, on the other hand, use mostly "readily available materials" like steel, water, and of course CO2.

In Charge

As its name suggests, the battery works by taking CO2, stored in a giant dome, and compressing it into a liquid by using the excess energy generated from a renewable source. That process generates heat, which is stored alongside the now liquefied CO2, "charging" the battery.

To discharge power, the stored heat is used to vaporize the liquid CO2 back into a gas, powering a turbine that feeds back into the power grid. Crucially, the whole process is self-contained, so no CO2 leaks back into the atmosphere.

The battery could be a game-changer for renewables. As of now, Energy Dome plans to build batteries that can store up to 200 MWh of energy. But we'll have to see how it performs as it gains traction.

More on batteries: Scientists Propose Turning Skyscrapers Into Massive Gravity Batteries

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Startup Says It's Building a Giant CO2 Battery in the United States

In just about a year, Facebook-turned-Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse vision has cost his company upwards of $15 billion, cratering value and — at least in part — triggering mass company layoffs. That's a high price tag, especially when the Facebook creator has shockingly little to show for it, both in actual technology and public interest.

Indeed, it seems that every time Zuckerberg excitedly explains what his currently-legless metaverse will one day hold, he's met with crickets — and a fair share of ridicule — at the town square. Most everyone finds themselves looking around and asking themselves the same question: who could this possibly be for, other than Zucko himself?

That question, however, doesn't really seem to matter to the swashzuckling CEO, who's either convinced that the public wants and needs his metaverse just as much as he does, or is simply just convicted to the belief that one day people will finally get it. After all, he's bet his company on this thing and needs the public to engage to stay financially viable long-term.

And sure, points for conviction. But conviction is easy if you're surrounded by a bunch of yes men — which, according to Vanity Fair, the founder unfortunately is. And with $15 billion down the line, that may not bode well for the Silicon Valley giant.

"The problem now is that Mark has surrounded himself with sycophants, and for some reason he's fallen for their vision of the future, which no one else is interested in," one former Facebook exec told Vanity Fair. "In a previous era, someone would have been able to reason with Mark about the company's direction, but that is no longer the case."

Given that previous reports have revealed that some Meta employees have taken to marking metaverse documents with the label "MMA" — "Make Mark Happy" — the revelation that he's limited his close circle to people who only agree with him isn't all that shocking. He wants the metaverse, he wants it bad, and he's put a mind-boggling amount of social and financial capital into his AR-driven dream.

While the majority of his many thousands of employees might disagree with him — Vanity Fair reports that current and former metamates have written things like "the metaverse will be our slow death" and "Mark Zuckerberg will single-handedly kill a company with the metaverse" on the Silicon Valley-loved Blind app — it's not exactly easy, or even that possible, to wrestle with the fact that you may have made a dire miscalculation this financially far down the road.

And if you just keep a close circle of people who just agree with you, you may not really have to confront that potential for failure. At least not for a while.

The truth is that Zuckerberg successfully created a thing that has impacted nearly every single person on this Earth. Few people can say that. And while it can be argued that the thing he built has, at its best, created some real avenues for connection, that same creation also seems to have led to his own isolation, in life and at work.

How ironic it is that he's marketed his metaverse on that same promise of connection, only to become more disconnected than ever.

READ MORE: "Mark Has Surrounded Himself with Sycophants": Zuckerberg's Big Bet on the Metaverse Is Backfiring [Vanity Fair]

More on the Meta value: Stock Analyst Cries on Tv Because He Recommended Facebook Stock

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Former Facebook Exec Says Zuckerberg Has Surrounded Himself With Sycophants

Birth Canal

The James Webb Space Telescope's latest mind-bending image just dropped — and this one is, in a word, splendid.

As NASA notes in a blog post about the finding, the telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) was put to incredible use when capturing the "once-hidden features" of the beginnings of a star.

Known as "protostars," celestial objects like this one — found inside an uber-absorbant "dark nebula" cloud — are not yet stars, but will be soon. In short, the Webb telescope capture imagery of a star being born.

As NASA notes, the fledgling star itself is hidden within the tiny "neck" disk of the spectacular, fiery hourglass shape in the image — which is, as NASA notes, "about the size of our solar system" — and the colorful lights seen below and above this neck are emitted by the protostar's birth.

Countdown to a new star

Hidden in the neck of this “hourglass” of light are the very beginnings of a new star — a protostar. The clouds of dust and gas within this region are only visible in infrared light, the wavelengths that Webb specializes in: https://t.co/DtazblATMW pic.twitter.com/aGEEBO9BB8

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) November 16, 2022

Stellar Anatomy

While this incredible capture is not the first time space telescopes have observed star birth, Webb's latest does provide an incredible look at the phenomenon.

"The surrounding molecular cloud is made up of dense dust and gas being drawn to the center, where the protostar resides," the post reads. "As the material falls in, it spirals around the center. This creates a dense disk of material, known as an accretion disk, which feeds material to the protostar."

Some of that material, NASA notes, are "filaments of molecular hydrogen that have been shocked as the protostar ejects material away from it," most of which the stellar fetus takes for itself. It continues to feed on that material, growing more massive and compressing further until its core temperature rises to the point that it kickstarts nuclear fusion.

This gorgeous peek at that process is extraordinary to witness — and a yet another testament to the power of the mighty James Webb.

More on Webb: NASA Fixes Months-Long Issue With Webb Telescope

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NASA Drops Stunning New James Webb Image of a Star Being Born

Red Crew, Blue Crew

Had it not been for the heroics of three members of NASA's specialized "Red Crew," NASA's absolutely massive — and incredibly expensive — Space Launch System (SLS) likely wouldn't have made it off the ground this week.

During the launch, the painfully delayed Mega Moon Rocket sprang a hydrogen leak. The Red Crew ventured into the dangerous, half-loaded launch zone to fix it live. Incredible work indeed, although in spite of their heroics, keen-eyed observers did notice something strange about the so-called Red Crew: they, uh, don't wear red?

"How is it we spent $20B+ on this rocket," tweeted Chris Combs, a professor at the University of Texas San Antonio, "but we couldn't manage to get some RED SHIRTS for the Red Team."

Alas, the rumor is true. Red shirts seemed to be out of the budget this year — perhaps due to the ungodly amount of money spent on the rocket that these guys could have died while fixing — with the Red Crew-mates donning dark blue shirts instead. Per the NYT, they also drove white cars, which feels like an additional miss.

A leftover from last night that’s still bothering me:

how is it we spent $20B+ on this rocket but we couldn’t manage to get some RED SHIRTS for the Red Team pic.twitter.com/FO10Y6mg3H

— Chris Combs (@DrChrisCombs) November 16, 2022

Packing Nuts

For their part, the Red Crew didn't seem to care all that much, at least not in the moment. They were very much focused on needing to "torque" the "packing nuts," as they reportedly said during a post-launch interview on NASA TV. In other words, they were busy with your casual rocket science. And adrenaline, because, uh, risk of death.

"All I can say is we were very excited," Red Crew member Trent Annis told NASA TV, according to the NYT. "I was ready to get up there and go."

"We were very focused on what was happening up there," he added. "It's creaking, it's making venting noises, it's pretty scary."

In any case, shoutout to the Red Crew. The Artemis I liftoff is historic, and wouldn't have happened if they hadn't risked it all. They deserve a bonus, and at the very least? Some fresh new shirts.

READ MORE: When NASA'S moon rocket sprang a fuel leak, the launch team called in the 'red crew.' [The New York Times]

More on the Artemis I launch: Giant Nasa Rocket Blasts off Toward the Moon

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Experts Baffled by Why NASA’s “Red Crew” Wear Blue Shirts

Nice Rocket

Revenge porn is a horrible thing, and Twitter should definitely continue to ban anyone who attempts to post it on the app. That being said, a video of a rocket taking off — an actual rocket, you pervs — does not revenge porn make, and shouldn't be flagged as such.

It seems like a silly thing to have to say, but such is the exact situation that spaceflight photographer John Kraus found himself in earlier this week. Kraus, who was on site to photograph the historic Artemis I launch, took to Twitter to post a mesmerizing video of the liftoff — only to find himself kicked off of the app shortly thereafter, due to the fact that his post, for whatever inexplicable reason, had been marked as revenge porn.

"I’d like to acknowledge that our good friend and rocket photography extraordinaire, [John Kraus], has been completely locked out of twitter since yesterday, for an arbitrary and silly reason, the day of the biggest launch of his career," read an angry tweet from the Tim "Everyday Astronaut" Dodd. "Worst possible timing."

I’d like to acknowledge that our good friend and rocket photography extraordinaire @johnkrausphotos has been completely locked out of twitter since yesterday, for an arbitrary and silly reason, the day of the biggest launch of his career. Worst possible timing pic.twitter.com/USNUajwPJ4

— Everyday Astronaut (@Erdayastronaut) November 17, 2022

Let Freedom Ring

Twitter finally let Kraus back online today. But for a rocket photographer, getting kicked off of Twitter on the day of the Artemis I launch really is a nightmare scenario.

"Almost two days later, I'm back. Twitter just acknowledged that they falsely locked my account instantly after I posted a benign video/caption of the Artemis I launch," he tweeted upon his return. "This was an unfortunate error after one of the biggest launches of my career."

While there was some speculation that new Twitter owner Elon Musk — who fired waves of employees, then effectively forced a mass exodus of quitters, and has reportedly been begging employees to come back so the ship that is Twitter doesn't fully sink beneath the digital waves — was to blame for Kraus' unfortunately-timed ban, given the chaos that's ensued on the tech side since Musk's takeover. Kraus, however, denied that Musk had anything to do with it.

"Anyone speculating it had to do with [Elon Musk] / new Twitter policy / not wanting NASA content instead of SpaceX, or that it was an ITAR violation — you are WRONG," he clarified. "It was falsely auto-flagged by software/AI."

So, maybe not Musk's fault, but a screwup that now falls directly on his presumably still-full plate. Anyway. We're glad that Kraus is free. And, for the record, here's the video that led to the whole debacle:

For reference, this was the original, exact tweet that got my account falsely locked for almost two days. It is now visible. Enjoy! https://t.co/Rpnaqfw6yX

— John Kraus (@johnkrausphotos) November 18, 2022

More on Artemis I: Experts Baffled by Why Nasa's "Red Crew" Wear Blue Shirts

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Twitter Claims Video of Moon Rocket Launch Is Revenge Porn

No Photos, Please

NASA barred the press from photographing the launch site of its Space Launch System after it boosted the agency's Artemis I Moon mission into space earlier this week.

Multiple space reporters said on Twitter that the agency had sent them a message telling them they were prohibited from photographing the Artemis 1 launch tower after the liftoff.

"NASA did not provide a reason," Eric Berger, Ars Technica's senior space editor, tweeted. The reporter added that according to his sources, the ban was apparently an attempt to save face after the launch damaged the tower.

"So now sources are saying that yes, Launch Complex-39B tower was damaged during the Artemis I launch on Wednesday morning," Berger tweeted. "Basically, there were leaks and damage where there weren't supposed to be leaks and damage."

Damaging Reports

Later, Washington Post space reporter Christian Davenport posted a statement from NASA that seemed to corroborate Berger's sources, though he emphasized that there was "no word on damage" to the launch pad.

"Because of the current state of the configuration, there are [International Traffic in Arms Regulations license] restrictions and photos are not permitted at this time," the statement given to Davenport read. "There also is a launch debris around the pad as anticipated, and the team is currently assessing."

Whatever NASA's reasoning, it's pretty clear that the agency doesn't want unapproved photos of its expensive and overdue Space Launch System rocket going out to the public. NASA loves positive publicity, it seems — but not negative.

More on the Artemis 1 launch: NASA Says It's Fine That Some Pieces May Have Fallen Off Its Moon Rocket During Launch

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NASA Orders Press Not to Photograph Launch Site After Moon Mission Takes Off