Sky & Telescope - April 2023 QR - 8

NEWS NOTES
SPACE
The Webb Telescope's Distance Record Is Official
Spectra of distant galaxies have a
detailed spectroscopic measurements,
provide concrete distances to galaxies
first revealed in Webb images. " It was
crucial to prove that these galaxies do,
indeed, inhabit the early universe, "
says Emma Curtis-Lake (University of
Hertfordshire, UK). " It's very possible
for closer galaxies to masquerade as very
distant galaxies. "
Curtis-Lake is part of the JWST
Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey
(JADES), a group that has been given a
month's worth of observing time spread
over two years to take spectra of distant
galaxies. The first part of this effort saw
them observe an area of the night sky
in and around the famous Hubble Ultra
Deep Field (HUDF). (The team is still in
the process of publishing these data.)
MISSION UPDATE
Trio of Spacecraft Launch
for the Moon
THREE MISSIONS ARE moonbound,
after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lit up
early-morning skies over Florida on
December 11th.
The launch carried the Hakuto-R
Mission 1 lander, built by the Japanese
company ispace; the Rashid lunar rover
fielded by the United Arab Emirates
Space Agency; and NASA's Lunar Flashlight
orbiter.
Hakuto (meaning " white rabbit " in
Japanese) will attempt to land in Atlas
Crater near Mare Frigoris. As a technical
demonstration mission, the solarpowered
lander will operate for approximately
14 days, or one lunar day (from
local sunrise to sunset).
The Hakuto R lander will deliver
the Rashid rover to the lunar surface.
The four-wheeled, 10-kg (22-pound)
8
APRIL 2023 * SKY & TELESCOPE
pThe Lunar Flashlight CubeSat unfolded its
solar panels in a clean room.
distinct cut-off point, called the Lyman
break, at 91.2 nanometers; intergalactic
hydrogen absorbs any light at shorter
wavelengths. Because the ongoing
expansion of the universe stretches
the wavelength of light from galaxies
in the early universe, it shifts their
Lyman breaks, too. Thus, the longer the
wavelength at which a galaxy appears
to drop off in brightness, the older and
more distant it is.
Broadband images taken at multiple
wavelengths can reveal the Lyman
break, which is how astronomers first
pinpointed several distant galaxies.
However, galaxies may appear to " drop
out " at shorter wavelengths for other
reasons, such as the enshrouding effects
of dust. Spectroscopic measurements
can confirm that a drop in brightness is
indeed due to a galaxy's distance.
The JADES team collected up to 28
hours of data on 250 different galaxies
using Webb's Near Infrared Spectrograph.
They hit the jackpot on four
craft will also operate for one lunar
day, carrying a microscopic imager for
analyzing lunar dust, a Langmuir probe
system for examining the plasma that
surrounds the Moon, and a thermal
imager for study of the surface.
" The mission's instruments are
designed to study the lunar regolith in
great detail, " says Dimitra Atri (New
York University Abu Dhabi). " Data from
the Langmuir probe aboard the rover
will help [us] understand how solar
ASTRONOMERS USING THE James
Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have confirmed
the most distant galaxies ever
observed. Some formed just 330 million
years after the Big Bang, when the universe
was a mere 2% of its current age.
These new results, based on highly
of them: The galaxies are all beyond
redshift 10, and two of them have a redshift
around 13, meaning they formed
as early as 330 million years after the
Big Bang.
Studying these galaxies is a crucial
part of working out how we arrived at
the universe we see today. " It is hard
to understand galaxies without understanding
the initial periods of their
development, " says team member Sandro
Tacchella (University of Cambridge,
UK). " As with humans, so much of what
happens later depends on the impact of
these early generations of stars. "
Michael Strauss (Princeton University),
who wasn't involved in the
research, is excited to see the results:
" It's completely amazing that we are
measuring spectroscopic redshifts for
galaxies at a redshift of 13, looking back
to the first few hundred million years of
the universe's history, " he says. " We're
just starting to probe what is often
called the 'Cosmic Dawn' with these
observations, and who knows what the
next year - much less the next 20 years
- with JWST will teach us. "
¢COLIN STUART
charged particles interact with the lunar
regolith. And based on data from the
microscopic imager, we plan to create a
replica of the lunar regolith in our lab
and study its properties. "
Hitching a ride with these missions
is the Lunar Flashlight CubeSat, originally
intended to launch aboard Artemis
1 last November. The satellite has
already been released from its dispenser
and has communicated with mission
controllers. Once at the Moon, it will
enter a near-rectilinear halo orbit, taking
it as close as 15 kilometers (9 miles) to
the lunar surface, and as far away as
70,000 kilometers. The close approach
will enable the four laser reflectometers
on this briefcase-size spacecraft to map
out the water ice distribution on the
Moon's surface. The CubeSat, along
with the rover-carrying lander that it's
accompanying, will arrive in lunar orbit
around May 2023.
¢DAVID DICKINSON
NASA / JPL-CALTECH

Sky & Telescope - April 2023 QR

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Sky & Telescope - April 2023 QR - Cover1
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Sky & Telescope - April 2023 QR - 1
Sky & Telescope - April 2023 QR - Contents
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