NOVA SPATIA BEHIND the heat p.04-p.05
possible
FARTHEST galaxy p.14-p.15
JAMES WEBB
space telescope p.06-p.08
PUSHING
boundaries
p.12-p.13
GNU RADIO
p.09-p.10
2022 ISSUE
FOREWORD Many know of the Hubble Space Telescope, released over thirty years ago. It led to a boom in popularity for astronomy and important breakthroughs in astrophysics. Recently in December 2021, its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, was launched ready to continue Hubble’s legacy of observing space and everything in it. Astronomers discovered HD1, a galaxy located 13.5 billion light years away. It is the most distant object ever discovered and formed right after the big bang, the start of our universe. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein was recently discovered by Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein and is the largest comet more than 100 miles across. With a multitude of discoveries, astronomers are closer to unearthing the secrets of our universe and everything in it. Continuing off of Ad Astra, last year’s edition of our Astronomy Magazine, we hope to bring scientific advancements and astronomical creativity to light in Nova Spatia. We seek to explore the causes behind astronomical phenomena and instruments, highlight new discoveries, and release our creativity. This magazine contains articles and astronomy-inspired art, featuring wonderful and unique designs created by Design Club members. Nova Spatia is a Latin phrase for “New Reaches” and in this past year, we have seen researchers, amateur astronomers, and ourselves reach new heights. Explorations are reaching new astronomical bodies; telescopes are reaching faraway stars; discoveries are reaching far into space-time. The world of astronomy will continue to reach far and unknown expenses. In astronomy and outside of it, reach back and reach out. Enjoy. Saratoga High Astronomy Club and Design Club
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AUTHORS LISA FUNG Writer
KASIE YANG Layout designer
SHERRY LEI Writer
ANGELA ZHAO Layout designer
JENNY CAMPBELL Writer
EVA RUEMMLER Layout designer Cover designer
LEVANA LAI Writer ELSA FANG Artist SOFIYA MALKO Writer
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LYNN DAI Layout designer AMY PAN Layout designer
Table of
Contents 04
Behind the Heat
09
The Importance of GNU Radio
12
Pushing Boundaries
06
James Webb Telescope: an eye into the past
11
Space
14
Farthest Galaxy to Date
BEHIND THE HEAT A new study shows how some exoplanets are always incredibly hot. By Levani Lai
ESA/Hubble, N. Bartmann ot Jupiters: No, not the planet Jupiter, despite the namesake. This term actually describes exoplanets of around the same size that have continuously high temperatures; there are even “ultra hot Jupiters.” A recent study, using around 1000 hours of data from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, is one of the first to analyze more than a single case.
these show a phenomenon called thermal inversion, where atmospheric temperature also rises with altitude.
WHAT ARE THESE “HOT JUPITERS”? These planets are extremely close to their parent stars and are therefore being “roasted at seething temperatures” (NASA). These temperatures are high enough to cause extreme weather events and even vaporize titanium. This has quite large effects on the atmospheres of the “hot Jupiters”; for instance, normally, atmospheric temperature drops with altitude, but
“Researchers believe that these compounds absorb the light and heat from the nearby star due to its proximity to the host.”
H
CAUSES What causes the thermal inversion layers on these exoplanets? One super-hot Jupiter, KELT 20-b around 400 light-years away, was able to
give the first observational data on how host stars impact planets’ atmospheres. The ultraviolet light from its host star created a thermal layer which was able to heat metals in the atmosphere and therefore caused thick thermal inversion. Scientists
were able to come to these conclusions due to Hubble’s detection of water in near-infrared wavelengths, as well as Spitzer finding carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. These planets’ atmospheres contain compounds such as hydrogen, titanium oxide, vanadium oxide, and iron hydride; data suggested that their temperatures were also hotter on average than those of planets without. Researchers believe that these compounds absorb the light and heat from the nearby star due to its proximity to the host. In addition, the higher temperatures likely maintain the compounds’ stability in the atmospheres; therefore, they are able to absorb even more light and warm further. FURTHER IMPACTS Though super-hot Jupiters are clearly uninhabitable. Josh Lothringer, of the Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, noted, “If we can’t figure out what’s happening on superhot Jupiters where we have reliable solid observational data, we’re not going to have a chance to figure out what’s happening in weaker spectra from observing terrestrial exoplanets…This is a test of our techniques that
allows us to build a general understanding of physical properties such as cloud formation and atmospheric structure.”[2] An article from NASA adds, “Studying extreme weather gives astronomers better insights into the diversity, complexity, and exotic chemistry taking place in far-flung worlds across our galaxy.”[2] If we are ever going to have the ability to study extraterrestrial planets where there could be life, we are going to have to start here.
NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
Why James Webb Space Telescope is considered to be the most powerful telescope launched into space.
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE: AN EYE INTO THE PAST By Sofia Malko
One of the most complicated things, that humans have ever created. A telescope that looks nothing like other telescopes. It is fascinating how that huge object was folded, put into a rocket and then sent into space to orbit around our sun and take pictures of stars, planets and galaxies that were never seen before.
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HOW WAS IT BUILT? This telescope is able to create the highest resolution infrared images from space. It took 30 years to build and send to space for us to now watch high quality pictures of events from space. Mirrors It has a huge hexagonal mirror made out of 18 smaller hexagons to collect light coming from stars and galaxies. Those hexagons are made of beryllium which is very light and stiff. An important thing is that it holds its shape when it is cold. Light bounces off the mirrors three times before it gets to the sensors that are taking the photo.
The big mirror collects all the light and is focused down onto the little secondary mirror in front of it. Then it bounces off one more mirror and then it goes to the fine steering mirror which works as an image stabilization, then bounces to the camera sensor where all the astigmatism is taken out of the picture.
A selfie that the telescope did using a specialized pupil imaging lens inside of the NIRCam instrument. Detectors Behind those mirrors is the instrument package, cameras and spectrometers. Better detectors were needed than the ones that existed, they are made of two things, mercury cadmium telluride and arsenic doped silicon. Combination of the two gave the sensitivity, the whole wavelength range. Reaction wheels that are located underneath the sunshield are used to point the spacecraft in the right direction.
Sun shield Unlike Hubble, James Webb Telescope is orbiting the Sun and not Earth and as the name gives it away the job it does is protecting the telescope from the sun’s rays. It will be tilted in such a way that the sun's heat won’t damage the sensitive mirrors, because it is only able to function in cold temperatures. It also basically gives it a continuous night time to look at the stars. There are a lot more things that can be talked about but I am not the one who is able to explain the way that amazing telescope works. Most of the explanation of how the telescope works was provided by an interview with a person who worked on it with the team, Dr. John Mather. 7
JAMES WEBB ABLE TO SEE FAR INTO THE PAST
A photo that James Webb Telescope took of a star, which is called 2MASS J17554042+6551277 that. James Webb Telescope is alThe James Webb telemost able to reach the Dark ages, scope is able to pick up light at and right in front of Dark ages different wavelengths and see are the first stars and then galaxthrough dust and gas to pick ies. JWST is able to see into 200 up infrared light that allows to million years after the big bang. see inside those dust grains the This image is showing how newborn stars. All light bounces far the telescope can look and also off dust particles, but the longer the universe expansion slowing the wavelength, the less bounce down. After the Big Bang was the which allows us to see more. afterglow light pattern.Right afThis is a photo of a star called ter the Dark Ages first stars began 2MASS J17554042+655127. All forming and later planets, galaxies, the mirrors went through a stage etc. began developing. of alignment also known as “fine phasing.” It takes time for light to travel and get to us. Looking at the sun for an example, we look Space is still a very unexat the sun as it was 8 minutes plored place and people putting ago. The same concept goes for their heads together to create other stars and galaxies that are something like the James Webb farther away. Easier way to exSpace Telescope to help underplain is sound waves the closer stand our universe more. It is the object that is releasing the fascinating.The Telescope’s joursoundwaves the louder it is, the ney is still not complete but we farther the object is the less we can say for sure that it will help can hear. The Hubble telescope was us continue discovering and able to see far into the Quasar era learning. but JWST is able to go farther than 8
The range that Webb can see can almost reach the very early universe. Credit: STSci
CONCLUSION
A quick fan fact of how big the primary mirror actually is compared to a person and hubble primary mirror.
The future of radio astronomy looks bright thanks to one free and easily accessible software.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GNU RADIO By Sherry Lei
Green Bank Telescope, the world’s largest steerable radio telescope. The antenna pointed to the sky collects radio waves, while receivers and amplifiers process the waves to be studied.
In 1930, a young engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories was tasked with finding why natural radio signals might interfere with telephone communications. During his research, he saw something intriguing — a faint radio hiss that happened everyday, later discovering it was radio waves coming from the Milky Way. He was Karl Guthe Jansky, the inventor of radio astronomy. In the past, radio astronomers used sophisticated and complicated hardware, and each radio observatory built their own custom hardware for their own needs, making it needlessly expensive. However, recently, an engineer released GNU Radio to the public. GNU Radio, a software-defined radio that is
easily accessible, is the solution and the future of radio astronomy as we know it today.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF RADIO ASTRONOMY While objects in space emit visible light, they also radiate light from other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum such as radio waves. Radio Astronomy focuses on studying these radio waves with radio telescopes to gain a better understanding of space. Radio telescopes use signal processing to combine and synchronize data into measurable waves that can be studied. Filters are used to separate interfering radio signals from the signals required for astronomy.
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A picture of a pulsar. Credit: NASA Discoveries in radio astronomy include Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, evidence for the Big Bang Theory, and detection of new celestial objects like pulsars.
WHAT IS GNU RADIO?
Software-defined radio is when signal processing for radio signals is done using software instead of hardware. This makes software-defined radio more flexible and can be run on a computer. GNU Radio is free software that allows you to im-
plement software radios using basic signal processing blocks. The basic processing blocks are written in Python and C++ where Python is for the high level interface and C++ is for the low level. People use GNU Radio Companion, an extension, to edit flowgraphs easily. GNU Radio Companion has pre-made blocks, but new blocks can be added using the Python script.
GNU RADIO IN RADIO ASTRONOMY
In 2020, SETI Institute, a research
organization dedicated to study life in our universe, formed a partnership with GNU Radio to “continue work already underway for signal processing at the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory,” according to SETI.org. GNU Radio is also prominent among amateur astronomers, those who do radio astronomy as a hobby not a job. For example, one used GNU Radio to receive the 21 cm emission of neutral hydrogen, a common project for new amateur astronomers. Since GNU Radio provides a solution to many problems radio astronomers face and makes radio astronomy more accessible to amateurs, more people, including high schoolers and undergraduate students alike, will become interested in radio astronomy.
An example flowgraph. Throttle converts the signal into a signal that can be graphed.The blocks QT Frequency Sink and QT GUI Time Sink graphs the signal.
When the flowgraph is run, these two graphs pop up. Released in 2001 by Eric Blossom.
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Allen Telescope Array. (SETI)
SPACE By Elsa Fang
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
NASA’s Recent Confirmation of Record 5000 Exoplanets Sets a Milestone for Modern Space Exploration
By: Jenny Campbell
For around 30 years, the space telescopes deployed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) have been probing space in search for exoplanets, or planets that have orbits around stars, omitting those in our solar system. On March 21, 2022, the 5000th exoplanet under the radar was officially added into the NASA Exoplanet Archive at California Institute for Technology after being confirmed via methods of exoplanet detection, marking a cosmic milestone for modern astronomy and exoplanet discovery.
30 % GAS
4% TERRESTRIAL
GIANTS
The size of Saturn or Jupiter (the largest planet in our solar system), or many times bigger. They can be hotter than some stars!
Small, rocky planets. Around the size of our home planet, or a little smaller.
31 %
SUPER-EARTH Planets in this size range between Earth and Neptune don’t exist in our solar system. Super- Earths, a reference to larger size, might be rocky worlds like Earth, while miniNeptunes are likely shrouded in puffy atmospheres. 12
35 %
NEPTUNELIKE
Similar in size to Neptune and Uranus. They can be ice giants, or much warmer. “Warm” Neptunes are more rare. Credit: NASA
EXOPLANET
DETEXTION Dating back to 1992, scientists have dedicated increasingly greater efforts into the discovery of exoplanets after the initial detection of a type of neutron star classified as a pulsar, which is essentially a “rapidly spinning stellar corpse that pulses with millisecond bursts of searing radiation” (2). Pulsars have significantly powerful magnetic fields that are able to funnel jets of particles along the two magnetic poles, which results in the emission of heavily accelerated particles through beams of light.
From Earth, those beams of light give the impression of a flickering light switch. By measuring the slight changes in the timing of the relative pulses of the beams of light, scientists were able to obtain data indicating that there were potential planets in orbit around the puslar. Astronomers are also able to locate exoplanets by detecting “wobbles,” or gravitationally induced motions, of stars due to the tug of the orbiting planets, or via the “transit” method, which observes the relative luminosities of stars and fluctuations caused by crossing planets that will slightly diminish the brightness. Astronomer William Borucki developed this method by “attacking extremely sensitive light detectors to a telescope, then launching it into space.
TELES COPES
Amidst the recent surge in discoveries, the current $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is able to detect objects up to 100 times fainter than Hubble, setting the stage for a new promising era for space exploration and exoplanet identification. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) which was launched in 2018 and scheduled to spend 2 years discovering transiting exoplanets, as well as the Kepler space telescope which ran out of fuel in 2018, have discovered more than 2700 exoplanets to date. Other telescopes such as Hubble and CHEOPS are other powerful tools that can scan
the sky in search of new discoveries. Not only does the James Webb Telescope give signs of a promising future with regards to space exploration, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, expected to launch in 2027, will use an array of exoplanet detection methods, giving astronomers immense hope for future explorations.
IMPLICATIONS IMPLiCATIONS With masses of exoplanets officially acknowledged in NASA’s records, scientists acknowledge the inevitability of extraterrestrial, primitive life residing on the foreign worlds.
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Close up image of HD1 and its signature red color. (Source: Harikane et al.)
FARTHEST GALAXY TO DATE? Astronomers from Center for Astrophysics Harvard and Smithsonian have recently discovered HD1, a candidate for the farthest galaxy found to date at 13.5 billion light years away from Earth. 14
A
By: Lisa Fung
stronomical discoveries continue to be made, with a recent discovery in the farthest astronomical object and possible galaxy known as HD1 that lies 13.5 billion light years away from Earth. Spotted amidst a wide array of other light-emitting objects in deep space, this galaxy candidate raises some interesting conjectures and many questions.
WHAT IS IT? While confirmation on the exact distance and identity of HD1 is still needed, HD1 was found to be a distant astronomical object and a galaxy candidate located 13.5 billion light years away (proper distance of 33.4 billion light-years). Not only is HD1 far away, but it was also created a long time ago, with light traveling very far to reach Earth. For comparison, the current record holder of the farthest astronomical object is GN-z11 at 13.39 billion light years away (proper distance of 32 billion light years) and HD1 is estimated to be 100 million light years farther away.
HOW WAS IT DISCOVERED? Astronomers from Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian discovered HD1 after spending more than 1200 hours observing time through multiple telescopes including the Subaru Telescope and VISTA Telescope. From among more than 700,000 objects, astronomer Yuichi Harikane identified HD1 by its signature red color—a key indicator for redshift and distant objects.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES AND PROPOSITIONS The researchers estimated that HD1 was form ing stars very quickly—more than 100 stars a year—and may even contain the hypothesized Population III stars created in the earliest stages of the universe that are very massive, luminous, and hot—a phenomenon that has never been
“For comparison, the current record holder of the farthest astronomical object is GN-z11 at 13.39 billion light years away (proper distance of 32 billion light years) and HD1 is estimated to be 100 million light years farther away.” observed before. HD1 was first believed to be a starburst galaxy, a galaxy that creates stars at an incredibly high rate, and due to its high UV light emission, researchers postulate that Population III stars reside in HD1 since they produce more UV than “normal” stars. Another plausible option may be that a supermassive black hole may be located in HD1 causing the high energy behavior emitted by HD1. High energy photons may be ejected as a supermassive black hole pulls in gas from HD1. However, it is very difficult to pinpoint the nature of HD1 because it is so far away from Earth.
CONTINUING OBSERVATIONS The researchers plan to observe HD1 with the James Webb Space telescope as well to verify its distance from Earth. Moreover, spectroscopic data is needed to confirm the exact redshift of HD1. What does this mean for the future? New astronomical objects are continually observed, but the challenge is identifying the most likely candidates such as HD1 out of hundreds of thousands of light-emitting objects. As telescopes continue to improve and as scientists understand more about the nature of observable astronomical objects, new discoveries are bound to follow. 15
CREDITS Possible Farthest Galaxy
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.09141.pdf https://news.abplive.com/science/astronomers-may-discovered-most-distant-astronomical-object-ever-observed-named-hd1-estimated-13-5-billion-light-years-away-1524645 https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/04/scientist-have-spotted-farthest-galaxy-on-record/ https://cfa.harvard.edu/news/scientists-have-spotted-farthest-galaxy-ever https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/farthest-galaxy/
The Importance of GNU Radio
https://www.skatelescope.org/signal-processing-2/ https://www.seti.org/press-release/seti-institute-and-gnu-radio-join-forces https://physicsopenlab.org/2020/07/26/gnuradio-software-for-the-21-cm-neutral-hydrogen-line/ https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2020/05/25/what-is-sdr-and-what-can-you-do-with-sdr/ https://www.wondriumdaily.com/who-invented-radio-astronomy-a-history-of-the-radio-telescope/ https://www.seti.org/gnu-radio-and-seti
James Webb Space Telescope: an eye into the past
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-webb-reaches-alignment-milestone-optics-working-successfully https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-webb-telescope-reaches-major-milestone-as-mirror-unfolds
Behind the Heat
https://www.space.com/hubble-telescope-hot-jupiter-exoplanet-atmospheres-survey https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/hubble-probes-extreme-weather-on-ultra-hot-jupiters https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/KELT-20b%3A-A-Giant-Planet-with-a-Period-of-P-%E2%88%BC-3.5V-Lund-Rodriguez/ab55dadabba053d18b6d09b12a36817902ebe3c5/figure/10 http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/fastest-orbiting-hot-jupiter-ngts-10b-07655.html
Pushing Boundaries
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cosmic-milestone-nasa-confirms-5000-exoplanets