July 03, 2019

Good Morning,

Titan is the next destination for NASA's rotorcraft-lander to explore. That's right, we're heading to Saturn's largest moon.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Questions? Comments? Scientific Discoveries? Email Us

*-- New model explains appearance of supermassive black holes in early universe --*

Scientists have developed a new model for the formation and growth of supermassive black holes that could explain their appearance in the early universe.

According to the new study, published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, supermassive black holes grow extremely fast over a very short amount of time, and then very suddenly, stop growing.

Scientists came up with the new model to better explain the distribution of supermassive black hole masses and luminosities throughout the distant universe.

"This is indirect observational evidence that black holes originate from direct-collapses and not from stellar remnants," Shantanu Basu, an astronomy professor at the University of Western Ontario, said in a news release.

Basu and his colleague Arpan Das analyzed the mass growth function of supermassive black holes that gain an exponentially large amount of mass in a relatively short amount of time. They determined the rapid growth is capped by the Eddington limit, the balancing of outward radiation and and inward gravitation forces. For brief periods of time, rapidly expanding supermassive black holes can even slightly exceed the Eddington limit.

"Supermassive black holes only had a short time period where they were able to grow fast and then at some point, because of all the radiation in the universe created by other black holes and stars, their production came to a halt," said Basu. "That's the direct-collapse scenario."

Over the last 10 years, astronomers have discovered several supermassive black holes in the early universe that were formed and already growing just 800 million years after the Big Bang. The standard stellar remnant model for black hole formation can't explain how these black holes got so big, so quickly, so early in the evolution of the universe. The new model can.

*-- NASA will send rotorcraft-lander to Titan for newest exploratory mission --*

For the space agency's next mission to a new destination in the solar system, NASA will send a miniature helicopter to Titan, Saturn's largest moon. NASA announced the upcoming mission at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The drone-like rotorcraft-lander, dubbed Dragonfly, will take advantage of Titan's dense atmosphere and low gravity, traveling to and from a variety of test sites in search of signs of biological activity. Dragonfly will be the first multi-rotor vehicle deployed on another planet.

Scientists estimate Titan is similar to primordial Earth in many ways. Investigations of the moon could offer planetary scientists new insights into how life on Earth first emerged.

The rotorcraft is scheduled to launch in 2025 and land on Saturn's moon in 2034. After its nearly decade-long, 888-million-mile journey through the solar system, Dragonfly will execute daily trips to interesting locations on Titan's surface, including the bed of an impact crater and windswept dunes. Dragonfly's instruments will study prebiotic chemistry in the moon's subsurface ocean and liquid reservoirs.

Nitrogen and methane are abundant in Titan's atmosphere. Research suggests the chemicals react with radiation to form complex organic molecules. Some scientists hypothesize that these molecules could react with water on Titan's surface to yield amino acids, the building blocks of life.

Titan's complex geography offers a wide variety of interesting places -- rivers, lakes, oceans, dunes, craters -- to look for these prebiotic molecules.

"Titan is unlike any other place in the solar system, and Dragonfly is like no other mission," Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science at the agency's headquarters, said in a news release. "It's remarkable to think of this rotorcraft flying miles and miles across the organic sand dunes of Saturn's largest moon, exploring the processes that shape this extraordinary environment. Dragonfly will visit a world filled with a wide variety of organic compounds, which are the building blocks of life and could teach us about the origin of life itself."

The Dragonfly mission is part of NASA's New Frontiers program, which has produced New Horizons' trek to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Juno's trip to Jupiter and OSIRIS-REx's mission to the asteroid Bennu.

"The New Frontiers program has transformed our understanding of the solar system, uncovering the inner structure and composition of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere, discovering the icy secrets of Pluto's landscape, revealing mysterious objects in the Kuiper belt, and exploring a near-Earth asteroid for the building blocks of life," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. "Now we can add Titan to the list of enigmatic worlds NASA will explore."

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