Notices by Fraser Cain (fraser@m.universetoday.com), page 2

It's widely accepted that the Moon formed when a Mars-sized planet crashed into the Earth, creating a stream of debris that coalesced into the Moon. But when did it happen? Current estimates range from 4.52 to 4.35 billion years ago, but a new presentation at LPSC pushes that timeline much earlier. They analyzed some of the oldest lunar crustal rocks and calculated that they formed just 65 million years after the Solar System formed, much earlier than previous estimates.

https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/pdf/2111.pdf

Evidence is growing that dark energy's influence on the expansion rate of the universe has been changing over time. A range of space and ground-based observatories are coming online to measure the expansion rate across the universe's history, but a supercomputer has crunched the data and found similar results. Researchers compared two large-scale simulations of the universe, one with constant dark energy and one where it varies, and that better matched the observations.

https://www.anl.gov/article/argonne-team-uses-aurora-supercomputer-to-investigate-potential-dark-energy-breakthrough#:~:text=While%20scientists%20continue%20to%20validate,Global%20Physics%20Summit%20this%20week.

This week, I decided to remove all ads from everything on Universe Today. And I couldn't be happier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0uKlAHcUGk

Good news! It turns out that safely landing on the Moon isn't impossible. After a string of lunar landers failed, Firefly's Blue Ghost touched down on March 2nd in Mare Crisium on the near side of the Moon, becoming the first privately built lander to complete this feat. Blue Ghost is carrying ten experiments, which will operate over the next two weeks before the lunar night sets in. It will take the first images of a total solar eclipse seen from the Moon.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/touchdown-carrying-nasa-science-fireflys-blue-ghost-lands-on-moon/

Neutrinos are produced by fusion reactions in the Sun, passing effortlessly through its dense interior. Different reactions produce neutrinos with different energies, and researchers think this could be a way they could probe the interior of the Sun. Various Earth-based solar neutrino observatories are catching neutrinos hurled by the Sun, which can be compared to those produced by nuclear reactors. This will allow astronomers to build up an interior map of the Sun.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.17546

Magnetars are a type of neutron star with the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe. They're formed by the death of massive stars, like pulsars and other neutron stars. So, what creates such intense magnetic fields? Thanks to a new simulation, astronomers have discovered that a magnetar probably forms when material ejected by the supernova explosion falls back down onto the star's surface, amplifying its dynamo effect.

https://www.unige.ch/medias/en/2025/aux-origines-des-etoiles-mega-magnetiques

Until someone tells them otherwise, engineers at NASA are continuing to prepare for the upcoming Artemis II mission, where 4 astronauts will take an Apollo 8-style flight around the Moon in an Orion Capsule and return to Earth. As part of this mission, technicians fully stacked the twin Space Launch System solid rocket boosters in the Vehicle Assembly Building. They started stacking the twin rockets in late November 2024, completing them on February 19th.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-rocket-booster-stacking-complete/

Astronomers have discovered a hypervelocity star blasting through the Milky Way at 540 km/s. These have been seen before, but what makes this special is a super-Neptune exoplanet in orbit around the star. It's possible that the star was part of a binary system that came too close to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which stripped away one of the pair, hurling the other away at high velocity. Amazingly, it hung onto its planet through the process.

https://www.nasa.gov/universe/nasa-scientists-spot-candidate-for-speediest-exoplanet-system/

The Japanese lunar mission Hakuto-R turned its cameras back to Earth to capture an image of our home planet. The very center of the image is Point Nemo, the most remote place on Earth, 2,688 km from anywhere else on Earth. The image was taken by the Resilience rover, which is similar to the first Hakuto-R mission that crashed on the lunar surface in April 2023. The rover will scoop up samples of lunar regolith for study, and the lander has other science experiments.

https://x.com/ispace_inc/status/1884558826558607740

Astronomers have announced the discovery of a new asteroid with a non-zero chance of striking the Earth on December 22, 2032. Designated 2024 YR4, the space rock measures between 40 m and 100 m across, which would create regional damage if it struck the Earth. Initial observations estimate it has a 99% chance of passing the Earth safely but a 1% chance of hitting, which gives it a Level 3 designation on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale.

https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Planetary_Defence/ESA_actively_monitoring_near-Earth_asteroid_2024_YR4

Mars is cold and dry today, but it was warmer and wetter billions of years ago, with flowing lakes and rivers. The Sun was fainter then, deepening the mystery. Researchers have long believed that atmospheric hydrogen was the key, mixing with carbon dioxide to provide a greenhouse effect. But atmospheric hydrogen is short-lived, so what was replenishing it? A new paper finds that warm periods were driven by crustal hydration, building hydrogen in the atmosphere.

https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2025/01/explaining-persistent-hydrogen-mars-atmosphere

Japanese scientists have found that asteroid samples returned from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission contain the building blocks of DNA and RNA. The researchers have detected all five nitrogenous bases, which serve as the raw materials for the molecules needed for life. They had already discovered two of these bases in Hayabusa 2 samples from asteroid Ryugu, but Bennu had all five. This shows that the raw materials for life could have been delivered by asteroids.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1071865

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanetary system with two gas giant planets that are messing up each other's orbit. One planet has 3.8 Jupiter masses and orbits every 82 days, while the other has 1.4 Jupiter masses. There's also a mini-Neptune world in the system. The two giant planets are locked in a 2:1 orbital resonance, and because of their gravitational interactions, the heavier planet can vary in its orbit by up to 4 days.

https://www.avcr.cz/en/media/press-releases/Violent-dance-of-massive-gas-giant-planets/

Thousands of years ago, a supernova detonated in the constellation Cassiopeia. The flash of light traveled outward, passing through the gas and dust that had been shed by the star before it exploded. Thanks to JWST, astronomers can see how the pulse of radiation continues outward, causing regions of the gas to glow in infrared radiation. The nebula looks like layers of an onion, which could be caused by interstellar magnetic fields interacting with the material.

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-102

At the end of 2023, there were more than 5,000 satellites orbiting Earth, with 10s of 1000s more on the way. Although individual satellites might be invisible to the unaided eye, their collective light might already be causing a 10% brightness increase in the night sky. Large surveys like Vera Rubin will see frequent satellite trails obscuring important data. And the radio pollution is also increasing with communications satellites. What can be done to restore the sky?

https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.08244

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica is one of the most sensitive instruments ever built, detecting neutrinos from across the Universe. But physicists have hoped that it could also be used to search for evidence of dark matter particles. If dark matter is trapped inside the Earth, the particles would release neutrinos detectable by IceCube. Researchers completed analysis of 10 years of data, but didn't find an excess of neutrinos coming from within the Earth.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.12972

Astronomers have found some unusual planetary systems, including planets that orbit around two stars. These are circumbinary planets, and it takes special conditions to be stable. Even if the planets can remain in orbit around both stars, what about their moons? Astronomers haven't found any exomoons yet, but a new paper explores the conditions under which they could form and survive. This is exciting because many would be in the habitable zone of the binary stars.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.02847

Humans and robots will retrieve samples from the Moon and bring them back to Earth for study. Instead of finding random locations on the Moon, a new map is helping scientists pinpoint the exact spots that have the greatest potential for study. It's a high-resolution geologic map of the Orientale basin, where an enormous asteroid struck the Moon billions of years ago. The map helps identify parts from the original basin impact melt, which is ideal for sample return.

https://www.psi.edu/blog/new-lunar-maps-can-help-guide-future-sample-return-missions/

Globular clusters are ancient relics of the early Universe, perhaps all that remain from the dwarf galaxies that were torn apart by the Milky Way. They can be 12-13 billion years old, containing 1-2 million stars with several hundred thousand times the mass of the Sun. A new paper shows that globular clusters contain two distinct populations of stars: the primordial ones with normal chemical composition and a second with unusual amounts of heavier elements.

http://www.inaf.it/en/inaf-news/3dview-galactic-globular-clusters

Nine years ago, Blue Origin revealed the plans for their New Glenn rocket, a heavy-lift vehicle with a reusable first stage that would compete with SpaceX for orbital flights. Since that time, SpaceX has launched hundreds of rockets, while Blue Origin has been working mostly in secret on New Glenn. This week, the company rolled out the first prototype first-stage booster to the launch pad. If all goes well, we could see a late November test.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/blue-origin/posts?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_detail_base%3BKIYtJMi4TM24hZFC1kUiwA%3D%3D