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Saturn and its slender ring system make an appearance next to the Moon this week.

In this view at 4 a.m. EDT local time on May 31, Saturn lies just 0.4 from the Moon. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly

This week, we have another beautiful conjunction in the morning sky as the Moon slides by Saturn and its magnificent ring system. Early on May 31, at 4 A.M. EDT, from the Northern Hemisphere, the just-past Last Quarter Moon will be about 0.4 from Saturn. (That separation is less than the half-degree width of a Full Moon.)

Observers in southern South America and parts of Africa will get an even more spectacular show as they will see the Moon occult Saturn. At the moment, the tilt of the saturnian system is decreasing as seen from our perspective, so its rings appear narrow and foreshortened, lining up beautifully with its moons.

For more on viewing Saturn, check out our May edition of Sky This Month.

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The Moon meets Saturn: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher - Astronomy Magazine

Venus, the star Regulus, the Moon, Mars, and Mercury seen over the Badlands in South Dakota on Sept. 18, 2017. Credit: Gregg Alliss.

When we look up at the night sky, the dance of the planets is a constant, mesmerizing ballet. And occasionally, this dance creates patterns that spark both wonder and curiosity, as is the case when the planets align.

For centuries, the sight of multiple planets appearing close together in the night sky has fueled myths, legends, and prophecies. But what does it truly mean, astronomically speaking, when the planets align? And when can we expect to see the planets align next?

First, lets clear up a common misconception. When we talk about planetary alignment, were not suggesting that the planets line up in a perfect straight line in space. Rather, we are usually referring to a celestial event wherein multiple planets appear close together in the sky from our perspective on Earth. This phenomenon is known as a conjunction.

The alignments we see from Earth are based on our line of sight. For instance, even if Mars and Venus appear close in the sky, they might still be separated by millions of miles in space. Its like standing on a hill and seeing two distant trees appear close together, even if theyre far apart on the landscape.

The planets orbit the Sun at different speeds and distances. This means theyre frequently moving relative to each other in our night sky. Occasionally, their paths will seem to cross, leading to an alignment, or conjunction.

For example, Jupiter takes about 12 years to orbit the Sun, while Mars takes about two years. This difference in orbital periods means that every so often, Mars and Jupiter are positioned in a way that they appear right next to each other in our sky, creating a temporary alignment.

However, because the solar systems planets dont all perfectly orbit the Sun in the same plane, its relatively rare for more than two planets to align at once although it does happen.

Planetary conjunctions arent just beautiful events for stargazers. They have practical implications too. For instance, conjunctions can serve as key reference points for calibrating astronomical instruments.

And when planets do truly align in 3D space, exploration missions, particularly those that involve flybys or gravitational assists, might also leverage their positions.

For example, NASAs Voyager 2 mission took advantage of a rare planetary alignment of the four outer planets during the late 1970s and 1980s. Such an alignment, which only occurs about every 175 years, allowed the mission to fuel-efficiently explore the outer reaches of the solar system.

Although conjunctions between two planets are relatively common, given the different orbital periods of each planet, full alignments (where many planets all seem close together at once) are rather rare.

One of the most awaited alignments will occur in the 2040s. This event will showcase Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, which will all be visible within a small segment of the sky next to a thin crescent Moon.

Historically, planetary alignments have held immense significance for a variety of civilizations. Ancient cultures often associated these celestial events with prophecies, omens, or significant earthly occurrences. While today we understand the scientific reasons behind these alignments, looking back provides a fascinating perspective on human culture and our intrinsic connection with the cosmos.

The Mayans, for instance, were keen astronomers. They meticulously tracked the movements of the planets, and their calendar system intricately interwove planetary cycles. Eclipses and alignments were deemed powerful enough to influence terrestrial events, warranting careful observation and record-keeping.

Similarly, the Babylonians, known for their detailed astronomical diaries, documented conjunctions. These records provide modern scientists with a treasure trove of historical astronomical data, including a cuneiform description of a massing of planets in BC 185. On March 25 of that year, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn all shared a small portion of the sky.

In Renaissance Europe, meanwhile the appearance of multiple planets in the night sky was often seen through a dual lens: scientific curiosity and divine interpretation. Great minds like Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler observed and studied these phenomena, meticulously tracking the planets positions to help better understand their motion.

By recognizing our ancestral fascination with the cosmos, we not only gain insight into our past, but also foster a deeper appreciation for the astronomical events that continue to captivate us.

Planetary alignments and conjunctions serve as beautiful reminders of the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of our solar system. They bridge the gap between ancient observers, who gazed upward in wonder, and todays technologically-empowered astronomers, who seek to gain a glimpse into the mysteries of the universe.

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What it means for planets to align | Astronomy.com - Astronomy Magazine

Astronomy has a bright future.

The universe is being revealed in exquisite detail with the current generation of large optical telescopes, reaching back close to the big bang. Theres hope that the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy will be solved. Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered, and astronomers may be closing in on the first detection of life beyond Earth.

However, observations into the cosmic frontier involve extremely faint targets and astronomers are always hungry for more light. In order to keep peering farther into unknown reaches of the universe, the next generation of giant telescopes on the ground and in orbit will each cost billions of dollars. That price tag is leading to a collision between scientific aspirations and fiscal realities.

Related: The 10 biggest telescopes on Earth

For most of the history of astronomy until 1980, there was an approximate scaling of telescope cost with mirror diameter, where cost was equal to the telescope's diameter multiplied to the 2.8 power. That meant if the size doubled, the cost went up by a factor of seven and if the size tripled, the cost went up by a factor of twenty-two. Many people doubted that a telescope larger than the Palomar 5-meter would ever be built.

In the past four decades, however, telescope costs have gone up at a shallower rate with size, breaking the previous cost curve. The innovations that led to this change were thinner and lighter mirrors, the practice of making a large collecting area from a mosaic of smaller mirrors, using fast optics to enable more compact telescope designs, and shrinking the sizes of telescope enclosures. Thanks to these innovations, sixteen telescopes with diameters between 6 meters and 12 meters were built between 1993 and 2006.

The next generation of extremely large telescopes will have 100 times the light-gathering power and 10 times the image quality of the Hubble Space Telescope. However, theyre running into serious funding problems. There are two American-led projects with international partners. The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project uses a design with 492 mirror segments. It faces headwinds from the opposition of native Hawaiians to construction of another large telescope on Mauna Kea, which they consider to be a sacred site. Another project, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), is combining seven 8.4-meter mirrors to make an effective 25-meter aperture.

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The TMT project is stalled as it negotiates a way to begin construction in Hawaii. The GMT and another large telescope being built in Chile, the Rubin Observatory, are facing escalating costs. The pandemic, inflation, and supply chain problems are to blame. TMT and GMT will each cost around $3 billion. Both have philanthropic support, but they also rely on federal funding. For a while, the National Science Foundation (NSF) supported both projects. But recently, the National Science Board set a cap of $1.6 billion on federal support for large telescopes and gave the NSF until May to decide which project to support. One large telescope will be left out in the cold.

Meanwhile, the Europeans are sitting pretty. The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is a third gigantic telescope, currently under construction in Chile. The ELT doesnt face financial hurdles since its being built by the European Southern Observatory, which is funded by an intergovernmental treaty. At 39-meters in diameter, the ELT is the largest of the three telescopes, and it will be completed first, in 2028.

Space telescopes cost a thousand times more per kilogram than ground-based telescopes, but they're worth their high price. These telescopes gain the benefit of the total darkness of a space environment, and many forms of radiation that these telescopes can observe such as gamma rays, ultraviolet light, and infrared radiation cannot penetrate the Earths atmosphere to reach ground-based telescopes.

One such instrument, the Hubble Space Telescope has run up a total cost of $16 billion since the U.S. Congress approved its mission in 1977. Another, NASAs James Webb Telescope, faced delays and technical challenges, and its budget ballooned to $5 billion. Its price tag helped it earn the nickname the telescope that ate astronomy and that was in 2010. By the time of its launch in 2021, the price tag had doubled to $10 billion.

NASA has other exciting missions in the pipeline. The Roman Space Telescope, with a 2.4-meter mirror but a hundred times Hubbles field of view, is likely to cost over $3 billion, and the Habitable Worlds Observatory, designed to sniff the atmospheres of Earth-like planets for traces of biology, will come in around $11 billion.

These space telescope missions take a big bite out of a NASA budget that has been declining for twenty years. Just as is the case with the NSF's budget caps, big capital projects leave less money to spend on other forms of research. But the private sector may come to the rescue. SpaceX's Starship could be used to launch a 6.5-meter mirror in one piece, avoiding the complicated and expensive folding mirrors used by JSWT. The same innovations used with ground-based telescopes could cut the cost of telescopes in space.

As they face the costs of viewing the distant universe and returning rocks from a nearby planet, astronomers and planetary scientists are being brought back down to Earth with a bump. While it seems to be a golden age for astronomy, the glitter is dimmed by the cost of all that gold and the hard trade-offs that must be made in a time of fiscal austerity.

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The future is bright for astronomy, and very expensive (op-ed) - Space.com

Planets in the Galaxy | Representative image credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock (Elements furnished by NASA)

Astrophotography and astronomy enthusiasts unite! It is time to take out your cameras, binoculars, and telescopes as a rare planetary alignment, fondly called the Parade of Planets, will occur soon. Skygazers eagerly await the stunning Planetary Parade, but figuring out the best way to witness it can be tricky. June is dotted with other astronomical events like the Summer Solstice, Strawberry Moon and Arietids meteor showers to fascinate curious minds.

If you are wondering when to witness these dazzling celestial events, tag along as we take you through the dates, explaining what these are exactly. And, consider a trip in June to a destination known for Astro tourism, away from city lights, for the best viewing experiences of all these events.

Colloquially referred to as the Parade of Planets or Planetary Parade, the rare alignment of the six planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will occur on June 3 in the eastern sky around dawn.

A planetary alignment is an astronomical event wherein two or more planets appear to be in a single line, as visible from the Earths vantage point. This path shared by the planets is known as ecliptic. Interestingly, these are not technically in one line but in their respective orbits, which when close to the Sun, appear in a neat row.

While the bright yellow Saturn will be visible late night onwards, with Neptune positioned nearby, the reddish Mars will rise slightly later, followed by Uranus, Jupiter and Mercury.

Astrophotography enthusiasts might be elated to know that Saturn, Mars and Jupiter may be clearly or faintly visible. However, spotting Neptune and Uranus with the naked eye is challenging due to their faintness (high magnitude). Good quality binoculars and telescopes are recommended. As Mercury will be closest to the Sun, it will be difficult to view it too.

For further insights into the rare planetary alignment, click here, or watch the informative video by The Secrets of the Universe below.

Did you know?

Next date for Parade of Planets: August 28, 2024

While most parts of the world (Northern Hemisphere) can witness the phenomenon on June 3, it also depends on your location and area. For a better viewing experience and exact time, use the Sky Tonight app.

Active from April 14 to June 24, 2024, the Arietids meteor shower is expected to peak on June 7. While Daytime Arietids are difficult to observe due to their extreme brightness, the meteors might be visible at dawn, precisely around 3:00 am, according to various reports. One of the strongest meteor showers of the year, Arietids can be spotted in the Aries constellation.

The solstice occurs twice every year when the Suns path is the farthest north in the Northern Hemisphere and when it is the farthest south in the Southern Hemisphere. The Earth experiences the longest day in the former case when the Sun is above the Tropic of Cancer. It is fascinating to watch the Suns position and experience more daylight on this day in the Northern Hemisphere.

It is interesting to note that the June 2024 Strawberry Moon coincides with the Solstice Full Moon. It will be visible after sunset in the southeast direction, reaching its peak illumination at 9:08 pm ET. You can check the local time using this full moon calculator.

According to the Almanac, the June 2024 Strawberry Moon will be special and wont appear this beautiful for the next 18 years.

Explore more with our guide to full-moon tourism in India.

Interestingly, the Strawberry Moon is called so not because of its hue but owing to the ripening of strawberries during this time, as coined by native American Algonquian tribes. Other unique names for the full moon in June include Blooming Moon, Green Corn Moon and Hoer Moon.

[Representative feature image credit: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock (Elements furnished by NASA)]

Related: This South American Country Is Often Called The Astronomy Capital Of The World

What is the Summer Solstice and when does it occur in June? Summer Solstice occurs when the suns path is farthest north in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun is above the Tropic of Cancer and the earth experiences the longest day on June 21.

Are there any meteor showers in June? Yes, active from April 14 to June 24, 2024, the Arietids meteor shower is expected to peak on June 7.

Which planets are visible in the night sky in June? While the rare alignment of the six planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will occur on June 3 in the eastern sky around dawn, only three of them can be seen with the naked eye.

What is a planetary conjunction, and are there any in June? According to Royal Museums Greenwich, when two astronomical objects such as asteroids, moons, planets, or stars appear close to each other as viewed from the Earths vantage point, a conjunction occurs. Planetary conjunction is the alignment of planets close to each other.

Can I see any eclipses in June? There are no eclipses in June.

What is the significance of the full moon in June? The June 2024 full moon will be special and wont appear this beautiful for the next 18 years as it is the Solstice Full Moon.

How can I best observe astronomical events in June? While some astronomical events can be viewed with the naked eye, some require binoculars and telescopes for better viewing.

What are some tips for photographing astronomical events in June? It is always good to plan early using the apps to know the exact time well ahead. Additionally, good quality cameras with exceptional shutter speed may help capture stunning photographs.

Are there any notable star clusters or constellations visible in June? Yes, some of the constellations visible in June include Botes, Libra, Lupus and Ursa Minor.

A journalist, Pyusha has previously worked with media organisations including The New Indian Express and Hindustan Times. A solo traveller by choice, she loves exploring life more than anything else, after food of course. When she isn't gardening, writing, reading, cooking or singing out loud, you can spot her watching films and series, debating with friends or organising things unnecessarily.

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Parade Of Planets And More Your Skywatching Guide To Astronomical Events This June - TRAVEL + LEISURE INDIA

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An analysis of 1990s-era data from the Magellan mission adds to the evidence that enigmatic Venus is an active world.

A portion of the video that highlights the areas of Sif Mons and Niobe Planitia on Venus, where ongoing lava flows have been detected. Credit: IRSPS - Universit d'Annunzio.

In a recent study, published in Nature Astronomy, a group of planetary scientists at Universit degli Studi G. dAnnunzio in Pescara, Italy and Universit degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza in Rome, Italy, discovered geologically recent volcanic activity on Venus. The scientists combed through radar data collected by the first spacecraft to image the entire surface of Venus, Magellan, and compared data taken between 1990 and 1992 to confirm the presence of volcanism.

Essentially, these Magellan radar images revealed indications of lava flow reshaping the terrain at various sites on Venus. Scientists have been building an emerging picture of Venus as an active world, however, the tools needed are limited because Venus has only been studied by one spacecraft ever since Magellan dove into Venuss atmosphere and went offline in 1994 the evidence has only slowly accumulated using archival data.

The planetary scientists searched for radar backscatter (or, the reflection of more diffuse radar data traveling back to Magellan), to find areas of recent lava flows. Not only did they complete their goal of finding recent lava flows, but they may have discovered active volcanic activity.

(Watch below: This video highlights the areas of Sif Mons and Niobe Planitia on Venus where ongoing lava flows have been detected.)

Interestingly, our analysis revealed significant increases in radar backscatter in two different areas: the western flank of Sif Mons, a broad shield volcano, and the western part of Niobe Planitia, a lowland area characterized by numerous shield volcanoes, Davide Sulcanese of Universit dAnnunzio, lead author of the study, says. These changes are most likely due to new lava flows that occurred during the Magellan mission, providing evidence of ongoing volcanic activity on Venus.

The magma on Venus can also be basaltic, almost like Earth but not quite Sulcanese says there are a number of differences between the magma on both planets. These differences are often driven by the lack of plate tectonics on Venus, resulting in more frequent volcanoes across the planet somewhat randomly. It also means many volcanoes are direct plumes from Venuss mantle.

Where Venus is particularly dry, most water has been driven out of the planet, which also means the magma will be especially viscous. The volcanoes tend to be more effusive than explosive, due to the low viscosity of basaltic lava and the lack of water in the magma.

Related: Why did Venus turn inside out? | New research explains what happened to all the water on Venus

Venus has several shield volcanoes that are larger (reaching hundreds of kilometers) but less steep than the volcanoes on Earth. The planet also has numerous sites with elliptical patterns surrounded by crown-like rough terrain, known as coronae. The coronae are likely formed from mantle plumes, and pancake domes (large volcanoes stretching out several kilometers and a few kilometers high). Once the magma erupts from these volcanoes, the lack of strong winds leads to low erosion rates with many existing relatively intact from formation, save a slight breakdown from sulfuric acid over time.

The volcanoes have consequences for Venuss thick, hazardous environment.

Volcanic activity releases gasses into the atmosphere, contributing to the planets thick atmosphere and extreme greenhouse effect, Sulcanese says. The dense atmosphere, composed mainly of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid, traps heat and leads to surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Moreover, this resurfacing means Venus has a relatively low amount of craters, ensuring Venus stays hellish.

Further understanding of Venuss volcanism could come soon. Later this decade or early next, NASA plans to launch two important missions to Venus, VERITAS and DAVINCI+. VERITAS will take a wealth of radar data, while DAVINCI+ with drop a probe down toward Venus to examine the planet in infrared bands.

These missions will offer comprehensive data on Venuss volcanic processes, enhancing our understanding of terrestrial planets formation and evolution, Sulcanese says.

In the meantime, scientists will have to rely on archival data to make new discoveries about our tempestuous sister planet.

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Venus likely has active volcanoes, flowing streams of lava - Astronomy Magazine

This breathtaking image features Messier 78 (the central and brightest region), a vibrant nursery of star formation enveloped in a shroud of interstellar dust. Credit: ESA.

Scientists with the European Space Agencys Euclid mission released a fresh batch of breathtaking images of our universe this week. This is the second set released after a similarly stunning batch from last November, which provided a sneak peek of the telescopes capabilities before researchers began analyzing the data in earnest.

The new batch of images hold exquisite detail that once again shows off the robotic telescopes capabilities. They accompany several new discoveries, reported in a series of 10 papers published May 23. These are the first science results released for the six-year mission, which launched last July.

Those results include the discovery of free-floating, or rogue, planets hidden within a stellar nursery in Orion and a new dwarf galaxy hiding close to a nearby, well-studied spiral galaxy. Researchers even uncovered some 1,500 billion orphaned stars in the Perseus cluster of galaxies, whose presence suggests the dense cluster merged with another galaxy group not too long ago.

All in all, the new finds illustrate that Euclid can surpass its main science goals, astronomers say.

Its no exaggeration to say that the results were seeing from Euclid are unprecedented, Carole Mundell, ESAs director of science, said in a statement. Its both thrilling and a little overwhelming to keep up with all the developments, Mike Seiffert, the NASA project scientist for the Euclid mission, said in a statement by the space agency.

In a pre-recorded video released Thursday (above), the Euclid team once again hailed the telescopes capability to observe large portions of the universe up to 10 billion light-years away in unprecedented detail. Euclid is designed to investigate how dark matter and dark energy have shaped the universe over its history. To do that, Euclid is mapping some of the earliest galaxies in the universe from its perch about a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. The 3D maps will unveil the distribution of dark matter based on how the mysterious substance bends light from galaxies behind it, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.

Scientists are using what they can see in the light to try to trace what we cannot see in the dark, Mundell said in the video. This actually gives me goosebumps when I think about the power of Euclid to really unveil the hidden cosmos.

Astronomers say these results are just the tip of the iceberg of what Euclid will achieve by 2030, when it will have mapped more than a third of the sky and imaged over a billion galaxies. They give just a hint of what Euclid can do, said Euclid project scientist Valeria Pettorino. We are looking forward to six more years of data to come!

You are viewing Abell 2390, a cluster comprising tens of thousands of gravitationally bound galaxies some 2.7 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Its cosmic distance means light from this cluster started its journey toward Earth as the first living organisms were sprouting on our planet.

Galaxy clusters can contain trillions of times the mass of our Sun and are dominated by dark matter. Images such as these allow astronomers to map how dark matter is distributed within galaxy clusters by studying how its gravity warps the light from more distant galaxies located behind the foreground group. Gravitational lensing smears light from background galaxies into arcs, with the same distant galaxy sometimes showing up as multiple images.

Each speckle of blue light in this image represents a very hot, young star in the large spiral galaxy NGC 6744, which is about 30 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Pavo. Astronomers say studying this image can uncover clues about how the dust and gas in a galaxys swirling arms contribute to star formation.

Although NGC 6744 is relatively nearby, Euclids view of it is unprecedented. While it is quite common to have a detailed view of small portions of star forming regions, it is quite rare to have such a detailed view of the whole galaxy, said Francesca Annibali of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) in Italy. We can even count individual stars.

This galaxy has already been extensively studied, so astronomers were surprised to find a previously unknown dwarf galaxy nearby. It appears as a foggy ellipse of light that NGC 6744 appears to be flinging off to its upper right. The zoomed-in view below shows a trail of stars from a disrupted arm of NGC 6744 all the way to the smaller galaxy, betraying a recent interaction between the two.

M78 is the bright central region in this larger, seahorse-shaped complex of star-forming dust and gas. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Young stars and planets previously hidden by dust have come to light in this image of M78, a stellar nursery some 1,300 light-years from Earth in Orion.

This image is unprecedented, said Marusa Zerjal of the Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias in the Canary Islands. It is the first snapshot of this region in such exquisite detail, and astronomers can finally peer past the thick blanket of dust to study the bright blue stars hiding within.

Euclid has now unveiled 300,000 new objects in and around M78, including for the first time free-floating planets a few times heavier than Jupiter. Such starless worlds are one potential candidate for dark matter.

At first glance, this image shows only a bright star and some scattered galaxies. But look closely at the upper right-hand corner, and youll spot Abell 2764, a massive cluster of galaxies that resides about 1 billion light-years from Earth. Because the cluster is not centered, astronomers can use it to explore the very outskirts of Abell 2764, where cluster galaxies are sprinkled among other galaxies in the field that are not associated with the cluster.

It may seem that a bright yellow star at lower left should be the images focus, but Euclid scientist Jean-Charles Cuillandre told CBS News that its inclusion in the frame was actually due to an error in pointing the telescope. However, he added, its presence shows just how adept Euclid is at capturing faint, distant objects even with a bright star in the frame.

Within Abell 2764, astronomers see signs of galaxies interacting with each other. Below, the close-up of a portion of the cluster reveals galaxies whose stellar halos appear noticeably disrupted, revealing how they are gravitationally influenced by near neighbors.

Galaxy mergers are quite common throughout the universe. In this image, We see galaxy evolution as its happening, said Karina Voggel of the Strasbourg Observatory in France. The shot shows two galaxies merging within the Dorado Group 62 million light-years away. The interaction has already resulted in slightly disrupted shapes, including wispy tidal tails.

In addition to showing disruptions as the galaxies merge, this image is also allowing researchers to catalog individual globular clusters within the galaxies. Previously, identifying such clusters was only possible by piecing together tiny chunks of data. Thats changing fast thanks to Euclid. For us, it has been a revolution, said Voggel.

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New photos of the dark universe from Euclid are filled with wonder - Astronomy Magazine

When Kevin Hainline saw the data on his screen, he jumped up from his desk, startled by what he saw.

In January 2023, Hainline an associate research professor in the University of ArizonaDepartment of Astronomy and Steward Observatory was the first person to ever lay eyes on the galaxies JADES GS-z14-0 and the slightly less distant GS-z14-1.At the time of their discovery, these galaxies were merely two candidates among the hundreds Hainline had discovered, each one requiring careful follow-up observation to help confirm their extreme distances.

Months later, standing over his desk, he had data confirming that the international team of astronomers working on the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, had actually found the two most distant galaxies ever seen by humans.

The data that had gotten Hainline and members of the JADES collaboration so excited had traveled as light for quite a long time, emitted from these galaxies when the universe was very young. They were seeing GS-z14-0 when the universe had only existed for 290 million years only 2% of its age, from an era astronomers call the cosmic dawn. The other galaxy, GS-z14-1 appears as it was roughly 300 million years after the universe began with the Big Bang.

While the first few years of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observations had uncovered a wealth of these ultra-distant galaxies, the JADES scientists were stunned by how GS-z14-0 was bright enough to be seen with the telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI, Hainline said.

They were also surprised that it appears to be more mature than astronomers would expect, bursting with many massive stars and displaying the signatures of unexpected elements that shouldn't have yet evolved in a galaxy so early in the universe's history, according to current understandings of how and when the first galaxies formed.

The JADES team published its discovery and interpretation of the galaxies in a trio of papers on arXiv, a free online archive of research papers.

The first paper, led by Stefano Carniani from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, confirms the distance of GS-z14-0. Hainline is the paper's second author and pinpointed the galaxy from images taken with the Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, instrument onboard the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST.Jakob Helton, a UArizona graduate student, led the second paper, which reports the properties of the galaxy using data collected by JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. Brant Robertson, a University of California Santa Cruz astronomer, led athird paper addressing the conundrum of how such a massive galaxy could have formed so early.

The first two papers, which have not yet been formally peer-reviewed, have been submitted to two different high-impact journals. The third has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

One of the most surprising aspects of GS-z14-0 was how "stupendously bright" the galaxy was, Hainline said. It was initially detected in deep images taken with JWST's very sensitive NIRCam. Follow-up observations, which Helton analyzed using data from MIRI, revealed the galaxy glowing even brighter at longer wavelengths of light. The JADES scientists were puzzled. While the galaxy had all the hallmarks of being very distant, it was seemingly too bright to be at that distance.

"All the distant galaxies that we've found thus far were pretty faint," Hainline said. "They all look like a little smudge."

This includes the previous record holder, GS-z13-0, discovered by the JADES team in 2022 at redshift 13.2, seen 325 million years after the Big Bang. Astronomers use redshift to explain how distant a galaxy is from Earth. As light travels from these distant galaxies, it is stretched to longer wavelengths by the expansion of the universe. The most distant galaxies are moving fastest away from us, and their light has undergone the most stretching, or redshift.

For comparison, GS-z14-0 was found at redshift 14.3, and it's almost five times brighter than the old record holder. GS-z14-1, at a redshift of 13.9, is similar to GS-z13-0, and is the type of galaxy Hainline expected to find at such an extreme distance.

One other aspect of GS-z14-0 that made Hainline pause was that another galaxy partially obstructed the view of the distant source, confusing scientists' understanding of it.

"It looked like it might be part of the same object," Hainline said. "Either GS-z14-0 was a strange, dusty object relatively close to us, like its neighbor, or it was an unbelievable discovery, and we were the victim of an extraordinary set of coincidences."

But once the team was able to tease out the details in the data, the evidence for its great distance was strong.

"The fact that this galaxy was seen at long wavelengths with MIRI by Jake (Helton), and the fact that it was even brighter in the MIRI image than with NIRCam, was one of the crucial pieces that led us to thinking the source could be so far away," Hainline said. MIRI sees longer wavelengths than NIRCam, and more distant galaxies are stretched to longer wavelengths.

To confirm that these galaxies are as distant to us as they appear, astronomers look at a galaxy's spectrum, which is made by using a prism to spread the light from the source, and examine the intensity of different wavelengths.

For high-redshift galaxies, astronomers focus on the short wavelength ultraviolet light that a galaxy produces from very young stars. There's a cliff in the spectra of galaxies that are forming stars, called the Lyman break, which is caused by hydrogen gas from around the galaxy absorbing ultraviolet light. This cliff is a very clear marker that astronomers can use to calculate how much a galaxy's light has redshifted and verify that it's truly at the predicted distance.

If GS-z14-0 wasn't as distant as they hoped, a spectrum of the source would show some light at shorter wavelengths than the potential Lyman break.

The JADES team observed GS-z14-0 for almost 10 hours in January 2024, taking an ultra-deep spectrum using the NIRSpec instrument, Hainline said. They were stunned when the spectrum showed a strong Lyman break.

"The fact that we see nothing on the other side of this break is unambiguous evidence that this galaxy is very distant," Hainline said. "We were being conservative with this object because it's reallytricky, just from images of a galaxy alone, to estimate its redshift, and there are many ways in which a galaxy can look like it's ultra distant, but in reality, is a close-by interloper. Given all that we knew about the source, I was worried that this was too good to be true. The universe can be verymischievous."

Scientists used NASAs James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Spectrograph to obtain a spectrum of the three most distant galaxies GS-z14-0, GS-z14-1 and GS-z13-0 to accurately measure its redshift and therefore determine its age. The farther a spectrum is shifted to the right, the more distant it is. The redshift can be determined from the location of a critical wavelength known as the Lyman break. GS-z14-0 is the most distant galaxy ever discovered and dates back to less than 300 million years after the big bang.

The reason the galaxy appeared so bright at the longer wavelengths observed by MIRI is because of an abundance of nebular gas between the stars. Like a neon sign, radiation from massive stars excites and ionizes the nebular gas, causing it to glow brightly, Helton said. This process produces distinct signatures in the galaxy's light, which indicates the presence of hydrogen and, surprisingly, oxygen.

"At the predicted distance, glowing hydrogen and oxygen gas in the galaxy would naturally explain the bright MIRI observation," Helton said.

This is significant because oxygen is only created in the bellies of stars or in their explosive deaths. Multiple generations of stars must have lived and died for GS-z14-0 to look the way it does.

It's thought that the universe only contained the conditions for galaxies to evolve around 200 million years after the Big Bang, corresponding to a redshift of 20, said co-author and MIRI lead scientistGeorge Rieke, a UArizona Regents Professor of astronomy. This means that GS-z14-0 had less than 100 million years to produce oxygen.

The presence of so many massive stars within GS-z14-0 hints at another problem for astronomers to untangle.

"There's this concept of dark halos. They're clumps of dark matter concentrated where galaxies form," Rieke said. "Simulations show that they grow as the universe ages. And the problem with this galaxy is it's pushing against what we think is the maximum mass for a dark halo at that time."

Hainline compared finding oxygen in this galaxy from the very early universe to finding a smartphone in the archaeological ruins of ancient Rome.

"It raises the question, if you find the smartphone of GS-z14-0, where are the calculators? Where are the TVs? Where are all the things that are slightly less evolved and less impressive?" Helton said. "Also, if we found something this bright in such a small area of the sky, it naturally makes us think that there are many more galaxies out there that are similar but as of yet undiscovered."

GS-z14-0 was discovered in an area of the sky that appears to be as large as a grain of sand held at arm's length, Hainline said, so galaxies like it could potentially be common.

When Hainline found GS-z14-0 last year, he immediately messaged Helton using the JADES Collaboration Slack online messaging channel, where they share interesting and mysterious galaxies they find as they look through the data.

"The JADES Slack is a living document of human beings grappling with the unknown," Hainline said. "I love the fact that I've got experts at my fingertips to give feedback. The papers we submit have gone through our own internal review. Jake and the other co-authors have had to revise hundreds of comments about these papers, which is a good thing for the paper."

The JADES team never thought MIRI was capable of a discovery such as this.

"For many years, MIRI was the first instrument to go in the event of budget cuts," Rieke said, "and that was in part because the people were really focused on the very high redshift galaxies" that NIRCam was expected to find.

"They didn't think MIRI could contribute anything to that," Rieke said. "But it's more sensitive than we expected, so these discoveries are really gratifying. The other part of the story is that nobody dreamed that there would be galaxies this bright at this high redshift."

Helton said he wasn't expecting to find anything like this. When Hainline brought him the first evidence that GS-z14-0 was as distant as he thought it was, Helton was using MIRI to look for galaxies at redshift 8, corresponding to roughly 630 million years after the Big Bang. He expected to find a few at that redshift and ended up finding more than 20.

"It was already outperforming expectations," Helton said.

Marcia Rieke UArizona Regents Professor of astronomy, NIRCam principal investigator and George Rieke's wife didn't anticipate a discovery like this, but she was excited about MIRI being a part of the JWST payload.

"I viewed MIRI as the instrument onboard JWST that offered us the most discovery space," she said. "There's never been an instrument in space like MIRI."

"The 20,000 people that helped build JWST did an incredibly good job to have this just working exactly the way we dreamed it would work, and even better than expected," George Rieke said.

Going forward, the JADES team will continue "marching our way back in time," Hainline said, "if only because of the mysteries we have been continually presented with, like GS-z14-0."

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James Webb Space Telescope spots the two most distant galaxies ever seen at cosmic dawn - University of Arizona News

Anash and bochurim gathered in the Crown Heights Kolel for a unique visual presentation the Rambams Kiddush Hachodesh, now being learned in the three perokim cycle of Rambam. Watch a replay.

One picture is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to understanding complex halachos.

On Monday evening, a crowd of Anash and bochurim gathered in the Crown Heights Kolel for a unique visual presentation the Rambams Kiddush Hachodesh, now being learned in the three perokim cycle of Rambam.

Many who follow the Rebbes takana of learning the entire Rambam annually find the halachos of Kiddush Hachodesh to be among the most challenging sections of the 14 books of Mishneh Torah. Historically, only a select group of talmidei chachamim were fluent in the intricate calculations involving the sun, moon, and stars, which result in the molad and other related phenomena.

The presentation was led by Rabbi Chaim Shmuel Friedman, creator of the acclaimed Beis Hamikdash 3D presentation VeHarenu Bebinyano. The Kiddush Hachodesh presentation brought to life the subjects discussed in the Rambam, such as the molad, mahalach hashemesh, mahalach halevana, and so on, enabling the participants to fulfill the Rebbes takana properly.

The event was organized by the Lubavitch Youth Organization.

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Audience Mesmerized by 3D Shiur on Rambam's Astronomy - Anash.org - Good News

Communications Policy

Astronomers say some LEO satellites will become the brightest objects in the night sky after the moon.

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2024 A major communications initiative by the federal government to use satellite technology to eliminate cell phone dead zones is under attack by astronomers who want to protect the night sky from light pollution.

Under a plan dubbed the Single Network Future, the Federal Communications Commission under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has given the go-ahead for satellite operators to work with wireless carriers in expanding their coverage maps to include terrestrial locations that are far too difficult or expensive to serve on their own.

One benefit of the Single Network Future is the ability to locate lost or injured people with mobile devices who cant get a signal to seek help.

We can make mobile dead zones a thing of the past, Rosenworcel said last March. That vision is what we call the Single Network Future and the opportunities are big.

Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX is working with T-Mobile to expand mobile coverage that relies on SpaceXs Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation Starlink. On May 15, AT&T and satellite carrier AST SpaceMobile announced an agreement to provide their first space-based broadband network direct to everyday cell phones.

The FCCs Single Network Future rules officially called Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) go into effect on Thursday.

Ahead of the new rules, astronomers told the FCC that the cost of the Single Network Future is the destruction of the night sky from light pollution created by satellites reflecting sunlight.

The ability to see and study and appreciate and be inspired by the cosmos [is] now seriously threatened by the advent of large constellations of LEO satellites, said James Lowenthal, Professor of Astronomy at Smith College in Massachusetts, in a May 23 letter to the FCC. Research astronomy has been thrown into panic by this new wicked problem.

In developing the Single Network Future, the FCC is attempting to balance the introduction of a new tool to enhance public safety and convenience with the concerns raised by scientists fearing irreparable harm to their ability to observe galaxies near and far.

The naked-eye view of the dark night sky is already changed: On a recent field trip, my students were astounded and horrified by the large number of satellites we saw. It was impossible to get away from them, Lowenthal said.

Catherine Lovekin, Associate Professor of Physics at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada, told the FCC in a May 22 letter that AST SpaceMobiles BlueWalker 3 satellite is the first direct-to-cell satellite in orbit and is one of the brightest objects in the night sky anytime it is sunlit.

Lowenthal said AST SpaceMobiles BlueWalker 3 satellite and next generation Starlink satellites are so large that they will likely be the brightest things in the night-time sky besides the Moon and will emit powerful radio signals capable or damaging or destroying millions of dollars of sensitive radio telescope receivers.

Several years ago, Starlink responded to astronomer critics by pledging to coat its satellites with light-absorbing material. But Starlinks 5,800 operational satellites orbiting 342-miles above the Earth continue to be visible against the night sky.

For instance, people across the country continue to place 911 calls to report that a neckless of white boxcars moving across the sky is a UFO sighting when what they are really seeing is an array of Starlink satellites.

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Astronomers Fear Destructive Light Pollution From FCC's 'Single Network Future' - BroadbandBreakfast.com