Wolf-Rayet 124

In March, NASA released a JWST image of the star Wolf-Rayet 124 (as seen above). Wolf-Rayet stars are among the most luminous, most massive, and most briefly detectable stars known to exist. The star is 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta.

Wolf-Rayet stars are estimated to have a temperature in the range of 20,000-200,000K, and are so hard to detect due to their super short lifetimes. Even though this may sound counterintuitive, it turns out that the most massive stars live the shortest lives. Stars like WR 124 serve as an analog to help astronomers understand a crucial period in the early universe. Similar dying stars first seeded the young universe with heavy elements forged in their cores – elements that are now common in the universe today, including on Earth.

The JWST image shows the star in its dying moments, putting off its inevitable supernova for as long as possible. We can see the star in the middle of the image shining bright, surrounded by red-pink cosmic gas/dust. This gas used to be the outer atmosphere of the star, which is subsequently being blown away as the star nears its final breath. 

Volcanic Venus

Herrick and Hensley claim to have found evidence of active volcanic eruptions on Venus from images taken on the NASA Magellan mission way back in 1992. We've known for some time now that Venus' surface was shaped by volcanism, but it's hard to tell if these volcanoes are active due to the thick cloudy atmosphere surrounding the planet. 

Various space agencies plan to send probes to Venus in the near future, but at the moment, the Magellan mission still contains the most detailed radar-surface data of Venus. Astonishingly, NASA were able to map 98% of the planet's surface! Since there was a lot of overlap in the mapping, and with a single cycle taking quite a long time (approx 200 days), scientists are able to use this data to see how the surface changed over time. 

Harrick and Hensley spent over 200 hours filtering through the images taken on the mission and found an area on Venus (a region known as "Alta Regio") which looked noticeably different as time went on. It's presumed that this is due to volcanic activity on Earth's rocky twin. We cannot say for sure, though, since this is technically only one data point. We'll be able to paint a clearer picture once we analyse the data from future missions.

JUICE

ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission is scheduled for launch on the 13th of April. The mission objective is to make detailed observations of the gas giant planet, Jupiter, and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. It'll use some of the planets in our Solar System as a gravitational slingshot, with an ETA to Jupiter of 2031. You can livestream the launch on the day using this link :)

Looking up

In the month of April, make sure to keep an eye out for meteors (aka shooting stars)! These bright streaks of debris which light up the night sky are caused by stuff burning up in Earth's atmosphere (I published an article on them in February if interested :) ). The Lyrid meteor shower is expected to peak on the night of April 23rd, with an average of 18 meteors per hour. It'll be most visible in the northern hemisphere, with the best viewing experience just before dawn. Remember to make a wish!

On the other side of the world, a total solar eclipse will take place on the 20th of April. There are a few different types of eclipses – a total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in between the Sun and the Earth.

I don't think many people read my posts, but I still put them out there because I really enjoy writing them. To the few of you who are still reading, I have some pretty exciting personal news! :) – I've started a research project at MIT, supervised by Aaron Smith and Paola Domínguez Fernández. I'll be investigating the role of magnetic fields in the early universe; more specifically, at the epoch of reionisation, a period in the history of the universe which *likely* arose from the formation of the first ever stars and galaxies.

I'll be conducting the project remotely (mainly because moving to the US is crazy expensive lmao, and my project is Python-based anyways). I'm hoping that this'll lead to my first ever scientific publication!!! :) I'll probs make a more detailed post about the research I'm doing once I begin making some good progress with it.

happy birthday <3

published: 11/04/23 by kaan evcimen