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Our solar system does not exist in isolation. It formed within a stellar nursery along with hundreds of sibling stars‚ and even today has the occasional interaction with interstellar objects such as Oumuamua and Borisov. So it’s reasonable to presume that some interstellar material has reached Earth. Recently Avi Loeb and his team earned quite a bit of attention with a study arguing that it had found some of this interstellar stuff on the ocean seabed. But a new study finds that the material has a much more local origin. The original study is based on a 2014 meteor that entered the Earth’s atmosphere off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Observations of its impact trajectory suggested it might have been extraterrestrial in origin. And since we had an idea of where it hit‚ why not look for its debris? This led Loeb’s team to the seafloor near Papua New Guinea‚ where they found small‚ iron-rich spheres known as spherules. The study analyzed the composition of these spherules and found the isotope distribution was so unusual they must have an interstellar origin. The iron isotopes of these spherules show a local origin. Credit: Desch‚ et al While that sounds compelling‚ there are a few caveats. The first is that the trajectory of the 2014 meteor isn’t that precisely known. We know the general impact region‚ but the data simply isn’t good enough to prove that these spherules came from this particular meteor. The second is that “unusual” isotopes aren’t uncommon within our solar system. As the new study shows‚ there is a distribution of iron isotope ratios for objects originating in the solar system‚ specifically the ratios of 57Fe and 56Fe. The ratio for the “alien” spherules is well within that range. So well that the odds of them being interstellar is less than 1 in 10‚000. So these spherules have a local origin. But they were likely formed from an impact event‚ so this new study went further. Is there a known impact from which these spherules originated? Turns out there is. The region in which they were found is part of what’s known as the Australasian tektite strewn field. It is a vast field that spans southeast Asia to Antarctica and was caused by a large impact 790‚000 years ago. The team looked at other isotope ratios and found they are consistent with other known Australasian tektites. So these particular spherules have a local origin. But that doesn’t mean interstellar meteorites don’t exist. Given what we know‚ there are almost certainly interstellar objects on Earth just waiting to be found. We just have to keep looking for them. Reference: Loeb‚ A.‚ et al. “Recovery and Classification of Spherules from the Pacific Ocean Site of the CNEOS 2014 January 8 (IM1) Bolide.” Research Notes of the AAS 8.1 (2024): 39. Reference: Desch‚ Steve. “Be‚ La‚ U-rich spherules as microtektites of terrestrial laterites: What goes up must come down.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.05161 (2024). The post A 790‚000 Year-Old Asteroid Impact Could Explain Seafloor Spherules appeared first on Universe Today.

Space flight is an expensive business and that money has to come from somewhere. The White House has just released their budget for fiscal year 2025. What does that mean for NASA?‚ they will get $25.4 billion‚ the same as it received last year but $2 billion less than it requested. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the constraints come from a debt ceiling agreement that limits non-defence spending. Alas the $2 billion deficit means NASA will need to cut costs from various missions. Nelson went on to put the blame squarely on a small handful of people in the House of Representatives. It was his opinion that they would only agree to raising the debt ceiling (the maximum amount of money the US Government can spend) if spending caps were implemented. Whilst the deficit in this years budget is $2 billion‚ for NASA that means a lot. Their budget figures included $7.6 billion for science so NASA will have to look long and hard at their upcoming missions and spend over the next year to see what costs can be cut.  One of the projects that looks like it may be cancelled is the Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission. It plans to accomplish breakthroughs in our understanding of the processes that govern the dynamics of the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The layer is the region that is on the very boundary of space and includes the ionosphere and components of the thermosphere.  The Earth System Observatory series of missions looks set to be restructured under the new budget too. The project is a joint enterprise with the Japanese Space Agency and‚ in an endeavour to preserve the partnership‚ NASA are assessing their options. These may focus on aerosol and cloud convection and precipitation studies.  Sadly this reduction also means NASA will have to reduce spending on Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray telescope. Given that Hubble has surpassed its original goals ten fold it is perhaps no surprise its no the list of cuts with a 5% reduction in spend. The reductions for Chandra are more substantial with $68.3 million last year reducing to $41.1 million. Over the period of its operational mission‚ several of the systems are degrading and require active management to keep ticking along. This means Chandra will undertake minimal operations to account for the cuts. The Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission is now under scrutiny given the budget costs. The original budget proposal for planetary science was $2.7 billion but this lists only as TBD for MSR. A sad day given that the Perseverance Rover has been trundling around Mars collecting samples ready for MSR to collect and return to Earth. The mission is under review which should conclude by end March.  Thankfully it seems the Artemis program is unaffected with the full amount requested being received. There will be one tiny change though‚ Artemis 5 (which will be using the Blue Origin Lunar Lander for the first time) will slip back half a year to March 2030.  In the grand scheme of things and the challenges facing governments the world over‚ perhaps NASA should be content with only losing $2 billion of their overall ask. As Nelson said “the current situation was not as bad for the agency as was the case a decade ago‚ when a budget sequestration made deeper cuts” he went on to say “I’d say this is mild by comparison back then”. Source : President’s NASA FY 2025 Funding Supports US Space‚ Climate Leadership and NASA chief Bill Nelson promises a ‘fight’ for agency’s 2025 budget request The post NASA Announces its 2025 Budget. Lean Times Ahead. appeared first on Universe Today.

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