This month, two rockets were heard to be launched from Australia, carrying out experiments to determine whether the ultraviolet light emitted by Alpha . stars

This month, two rockets were heard to be launched from Australia, carrying out experiments to determine whether the ultraviolet light emitted by stars from the Alpha Centauri system is detrimental to potential life on planets around them. The study will also reveal how typical – or abnormal – the sun is.

Alpha Centauri consists of two main stars, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B (which form a binary pair), as well as a third star, Proxima Centauri, which is only 4.3 light-years away. While no planets have been detected positively orbiting Alpha Centauri A or B, if they do exist, the ultraviolet radiation from their stars may have a significant impact on whether or not they support life.

The right amount of ultraviolet light can break down simple organic molecules, such as methane, prompting molecular fragments to reshape the more complex molecules necessary for life. On the other hand, too much ultraviolet could separate out water vapor, make it escape from the planet’s atmosphere by the solar wind and make the planet dry and barren, like Mars today.

“Understanding ultraviolet radiation is critical to understanding what makes a habitable planet,” Brian Fleming, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a statement. Fleming is the principal investigator for one of the missions, the Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuing Experiment (DEUCE). Another experiment launched with audible rockets is called the Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet host stars (SISTINE). The audible rocket flew on a parabolic trajectory, spending perhaps 20 minutes in space before reentering the atmosphere, meaning each experiment would only have a short time to make observations.

The mission had to be launched from the Southern Hemisphere because the Alpha Centauri system is not visible above latitude 29 degrees north, and only circles the horizon from Florida, even though it is high in the sky as seen from Australia. SISTINE collects data at the longer far ultraviolet wavelengths while DEUCE complements it by looking at the shorter extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, with some overlap between the two experiments so that the data can be calibrated and used as a single data set.

SISTINE first launched Wednesday (July 6) from the Arnhem Space Center in Australia’s Northern Territory. It was the second launch from a privately owned commercial space center following the launch of NASA’s X-ray Quantum Calorimeter in June. If all goes well, DEUCE will launch on July 12th. Each mission will take a suborbital path aboard NASA’s two-stage Black Brant IX sound rocket.

Observing stars in the ultraviolet is difficult, because the ozone layer in Earth’s atmosphere blocks ultraviolet light, forcing scientists to send ultraviolet telescopes into space. Meanwhile, the interstellar gas and dust medium between the stars also absorbs ultraviolet light, so any stars that are far enough away cannot be observed very clearly in ultraviolet light.

Thus, we have full ultraviolet observations for only one star, the sun. But how typical are the sun’s ultraviolet emissions? Astronomers don’t know; they need ultraviolet readings from other stars to find out. Alpha Centauri A and B make good targets for studying, for two reasons. First, they are close, so their ultraviolet light is not attenuated by the interstellar medium. Second, they have a mass and temperature similar to that of the sun.

“Looking at Alpha Centauri will help us check whether other stars like the sun have the same radiation environment or whether there is a range of environments,” said Kevin France, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and principal investigator of SISTINE. in the statement. The three rocket launches heard from the Arnhem Space Center were the first launches by NASA from a commercial spaceport outside the United States. (NASA has launched from Australia before — most recently, in 1995 — but the rockets were launched from the Royal Australian Air Force Woomera Range Complex.)

“This commercial launch range in Australia opens up new access to the Southern Hemisphere night sky, expanding the possibilities of future science missions,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

News Summary:

• NASA’s sound rocket launches to investigate Alpha Centauri
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