Astronomers have imaged more than 300 newborn stars, revealing new clues about the early stages of star formation and the birth of planets. In the new research, astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) studied hundreds of young stars surrounded by rings of dust and gas. These stellar infants lie in a dense star-forming region known as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The ring of dust and gas surrounding a young star, also known as a protoplanetary disk, supports the birth of new planets. Using the VLA and ALMA telescopes, the astronomers could peer through the dense clouds of dust and gas in the Orion Complex to see the protoplanetary disks forming around the infant stars, according to a statement from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

SpaceNews.com First SLS launch now expected in second half of 2021 by Jeff Foust — March 2, 2020 NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk said Feb. 28 that the first SLS launch, on the Artemis 1 mission, will likely take place in mid to late 2021. Credit: NASA WASHINGTON — A top NASA official said Feb. 28 he expects the first flight of the Space Launch System to take place in the second half of 2021, a later date than prior agency statements. Speaking at the kickoff meeting of the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk said that all of the elements needed for the Artemis 3 2024 human lunar landing are either under development or will soon be under contract. That includes the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The SLS core stage for the Artemis 1 uncrewed test flight is currently at the Stennis Space Center for a “Green Run” static-fire test scheduled for later this year, while the Orion spacecraft for that mission is wrapping up testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station. The SLS core stage, he said, should arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in late summer or early fall, allowing teams to begin “integrating for a launch hopefully in the mid ’21 timeframe, mid to late ’21 timeframe for Artemis 1.” NASA has yet to provide a new formal launch date for that mission, which has slipped by several years. In December, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that launch would take place in 2021 after the agency had been holding on a November 2020 launch. Doug Loverro, the agency’s new associate administrator for human exploration and operations, commissioned a review of NASA’s exploration plans when he started work in December, including setting a new date for Artemis 1. The outcome of that review should be released in the coming weeks. Jurczyk said NASA is moving ahead with other elements of its exploration plan, including development of modules and related systems for the lunar Gateway. NASA is in negotiations with Northrop Grumman for a contract for the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module, after the agency announced last summer its intent to sole-source the module with that company. He added that the agency is “getting ready to award” a contract for Gateway logistics services, a cargo delivery service similar to the International Space Station’s commercial cargo program. What’s left to award are study contracts for the Human Landing System program. NASA is expected to issue several such contracts for initial studies of commercially developed lunar landers for carrying astronauts to the lunar surface and back, and later select one or two companies to proceed in full development. “We’ve very close to awarding, most likely, multiple contracts,” he said. Those awards will come “within weeks,” he added. That’s in line with a Feb. 10 procurement update from NASA, which projected making awards in late March or early April. The next nine to 12 months, he said, “will be critical to nail down the requirements and get to a preliminary design review,” he said of that program. He noted later in his talk that NASA plans to gets those lunar lander requirements finalized with companies that win awards within 90 days. Companies can either elect to use NASA technical standards or offer an equivalent alternative. “But after 90 days, if we can’t get agreement, you’re going to use ours.” Jurczyk said NASA is not neglecting planning for the second, “sustainable,” phase of the Artemis program for missions after Artemis 3. He said he was in a four-hour “pre-acquisition strategy meeting” the previous day to discuss what centers would lead various elements of that second phase of Artemis, and what would be developed in-house at NASA versus outside the agency. Details about those plans, he said, should be released within a month. “If I was here a month from now, I would be doing that presentation on the current plan for Artemis phase 2.

Roughly 74,000 years ago, Mount Toba erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and ash fell like snow on the Indian subcontinent. Known as the Toba eruption, the event was one of the most colossal volcanic eruptions to shake the earth in the last 2 million years. The magnitude of eruption gave birth to debate on whether the "volcanic winter" wiped the entire human race. Archaeological evidence from Asia and Africa gathered over the years has suggested that the eruption was indeed tremendous, but not so apocalyptic to leave humans on the brink of extinction. A new study, published in Nature Communications, of shaped stone tools buried under the ash suggests not only early humans in central India survived the eruption but thrived for another 50,000 years. Scientists, who analysed these ancient tools found at the Dhaba dig site in the Madhya Pradesh, claimed that the same types of tools continued to be used before and after the eruption. Hence, they assert that one continuous population must have survived the fallout from Toba. The ancient tools appeared in layers of sediment that date to between 80,000 and 65,000 years ago. The tools continued to be manufactured with increasing complexity, suggest scientists, which indicated that modern humans were not only present in the region when Toba exploded but that they survived for many more years. The Toba eruption was not so devastating, says Michael Petraglia, an anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "The impact of the Toba eruption on climate has been over-estimated," agrees Chad Yost, a geo-scientist at Arizona State University, Tempe, who was not involved with the work. Critics, however, say there is not enough evidence that the tools were made by Homo sapiens at all.

As the hunt for life on Mars starts getting into full swing, some scientists are already looking beyond the Red Planet, to our solar system's next astrobiological frontier. Two rovers are scheduled to launch toward the Red Planet this summer: NASA's Mars 2020 vehicle and Rosalind Franklin, a joint effort of the European and Russian space agencies. Both six-wheeled robots will search for signs of ancient Mars life, and NASA's craft will also collect and cache promising samples for eventual return to Earth, with an arrival here perhaps occurring as early as 2031. These missions follow on the heels of a lengthy, NASA-led "follow the water" campaign, which has established that Mars was a relatively warm and wet world billions of years ago, complete with rivers, lakes and even, some researchers believe, a big ocean.