Graduate student Samantha Hasler and her colleagues have gathered new information on Uranus using the Hubble Space Telescope and the New Horizons spacecraft, reports Jamie Carter for Forbes. "Studying how known benchmarks like Uranus appear in distant imaging can help us have more robust expectations when preparing” for future missions, explains Hasler.
Researchers at MIT have developed a “set of wearable robotic limbs to help astronauts recover from falls,” reports Amy Gunia for CNN. “The so-called ‘SuperLimbs’ are designed to extend from a backpack containing the astronauts’ life support system,” explains Gunia. “When the wearer falls over, an extra pair of limbs can extend out to provide leverage to help them stand, conserving energy for other tasks.”
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found a connection between “the bursts and tidal disruptions events” of black holes, research that could help "astrophysicists understand the extreme environments around supermassive black holes, as well as the occupants of those environments,” reports Isaac Schultz for Gizmodo. “There had been feverish speculation that these phenomena were connected, and now we’ve discovered the proof that they are,” says Research Scientist Dheeraj Pasham. “It’s like getting a cosmic two-for-one in terms of solving mysteries.”
Researchers at MIT have developed “AstroAnts,” autonomous, magnetic, robotic rovers roughly the size of a Hot Wheels toy car designed to monitor space vehicles and other hard-to-reach machinery, reports Jesus Diaz for Fast Company. “The idea is that, by constantly watching over the temperature and structural integrity of their cosmic rides, spaceships will be more resilient to the extreme conditions of space and astronauts will be safer,” explains Diaz.
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered an exoplanet that “is 50% larger than Jupiter and as fluffy as cotton candy,” reports Aylin Woodward for The Wall Street Journal. “Basically, for over 15 years now, the astronomy community has been puzzled by a category of gas giants that are bigger than what they should be given their mass,” explains Prof. Julien de Wit.
MIT scientists have solved a decades old mystery by demonstrating impact vaporization is the primary cause of the moon’s thin atmosphere, reports Eric Lagatta for USA Today. The findings, “have implications far beyond determining the moon's atmospheric origins,” writes Lagatta. “In fact, it's not unthinkable that similar processes could potentially be taking place at other celestial bodies in the solar system.”
By analyzing isotopes of potassium and rubidium in the lunar soil, Prof. Nicole Nie and her team have demonstrated that micrometeorite impacts are the main cause of the moon’s thin atmosphere, reports Isabel Swafford for National Geographic. “Understanding the space environments of different planetary bodies is essential for planning future missions and exploring the broader context of space weathering,” says Nie.
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Washington Post reporter Lizette Ortega about Apophis – an asteroid estimated to fly past Earth in April 2029. “Nature is performing this once-per-several-thousand-years experiment for us,” says Binzel. “We have to figure out how to watch.”
Newsweek reporter Jess Thomson spotlights, Prof. Nicole Nie’s research uncovering the origins of the moon’s thin atmosphere. “The researchers described how lunar samples from the Apollo missions revealed that meteorites of varying sizes have constantly hit the moon's surface, vaporizing atoms in the soil and kicking them up into the atmosphere,” writes Thomson. “The constant hitting of the moon replenishes any gases lost to space.”
By analyzing lunar soil samples, MIT scientists have found that the moon’s thin atmosphere was created by meteorite impacts over billions of years, reports Will Dunham for Reuters. “Many important questions about the lunar atmosphere remain unanswered,” explains Prof. Nicole Nie. “We are now able to address some of these questions due to advancements in technology.”
MIT scientists analyzed lunar soil samples and discovered that meteorite impacts likely created the moon’s thin atmosphere, reports Nicola Davis for The Guardian. “Our findings provide a clearer picture of how the moon’s surface and atmosphere interact over long timescales, [and] enhance our understanding of space weathering processes,” explains Prof. Nicole Nie.
Visiting Scientist Ariel Ekblaw speaks with Scientific American’s Andrew Chapman about a microgravity water cooker called the H0TP0T, part of a mock space habitat set to open in Boston in early August. For the project “Ekblaw and a colleague interviewed nearly two dozen astronauts—who often mentioned better cooking options and tastier food as important ways to improve their well-being,” Chapman explains.
Prof. Richard Binzel talks with Meghan Bartels of Scientific American about the importance of studying Asteroid Apophis – a sizeable space rock that will near Earth within “one tenth of the Earth-moon distance” in 2029. “It’s an incredibly rare event that an asteroid like Apophis would hit the Earth, but it’s better to be knowledgeable than to [be] caught unaware,” says Binzel, a planetary scientist Bartels notes has “spent years raising awareness about the scientific opportunities of the 2029 flyby.”
Prof. Richard Binzel organized a centennial celebration for the Johnstown meteorite, which was seen crashing into Earth on July 6, 1924 in Weld County, Colorado, and later “became a link to understanding a whole class of meteorites,” reports Elizabeth Gamillo for Astronomy. “Binzel describes the Johnstown rock not as the meteorite that launched a thousand ships, but one that instead launched one major mission to the asteroid belt,” writes Gamillo.
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Popular Science reporter Briley Lewis about how frequently asteroids come close to Earth. "I would be worried if we weren’t taking the asteroid survey challenge seriously,” says Binzel. "NASA and its funding sources are stepping up to the adult responsibility of doing the necessary searching to make sure our asteroid future is secure.”