Reach to the Moon. In this month’s episode, we talk to Dr Harry Bevins from the University of Cambridge about the cosmology experiment REACH. Then, from the University of Exeter, we talk to Dr Claire Davies about her experiences as a queer person in academia. In the jodbite, we talk to JBCA’s own Dr. Soheb Mandhai about his simulation research and post-doc experience at the University of Manchester.

Interview with Dr Harry Bevins

Dr Harry Bevins talks to Jamie and Jordan about the ongoing work for REACH, a 21cm global signal experiment based in South Africa and Cosmocube, a potential future mission to detect a signal from the dark ages in lunar orbit.

Interview with Dr Claire Davies

Dr Claire Davies talks to Thea and Sohini about her experiences as a queer person in the world of academia, as well as her role working as a lecturer.

Jodbite with Dr Soheb Mandhai

Lily and Sohini interview Dr. Soheb Mandhai (aka AstroPhoenix) about doing a postdoc at the University of Manchester, working on simulations, integrating art into science and keeping the wonder of Astronomy alive.

The News

It's windy in M82.

Scientists using the NASA and JAXA XRISM space telescope have measured a gigantic stream of superheated gas blasting out of the famous “Cigar Galaxy,” Messier 82, at more than 2 million miles per hour.
Located 12 million light-years away, M82 is the closest starburst galaxy to us in the northern sky and has a star formation rate 10 times that of the milky way. Exploding stars and supernovae have heated the gas in the galaxy to nearly 25 million degrees celsius, generating enormous winds powerful enough to push matter tens of thousands of light-years into space.
Using XRISM’s advanced X-ray instruments, researchers tracked the motion of superheated iron atoms to directly measure the speed of the galactic outflow for the first time.
The discovery could change scientists’ understanding of how galaxies evolve, suggesting that intense heat and pressure from stellar explosions alone may be enough to drive these massive cosmic winds.
The findings showcase XRISM’s ability to study some of the universe’s most extreme environments — and reveal the violent forces shaping galaxies across space.

Hello Universe

NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing project is developing a new multicore processor for the next generation of spacecraft., designed to provide up to 100 times the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been evaluating processor performance through a rigorous functional test campaign - with radiation, thermal and shock tests attempting to mimic the harsh conditions involved in space exploration. The processor must be able to survive the degrading effects of electromagnetic radiation and extreme temperature swings, and enter into a safe mode to stop nonessential operations when faced with high energy particles from the Sun and interstellar space. High-fidelity landing scenarios from real NASA missions that would typically require power-intensive hardware to process huge volumes of landing-sensor data are also used in simulations. The processor has been shown to operate at 500 times the performance of the radiation-hardened chips currently in use. Symbolically, the JPL team sent an email with the subject “Hello Universe” using the chip at the beginning of testing.
The processor is being developed in a commercial partnership with the Arizona-based company “Microchip Technology Inc.”, with one of the explicitly stated purposes being the deployment of autonomous spacecraft which use artificial intelligence to respond in real time to complex situations and environments where human input isn’t possible. Arguably this could accelerate the rate of scientific discoveries and support future human missions to the Moon and Mars, however personally I think that the deployment of autonomous observatories, rovers and other spacecraft could be a controversial direction for future missions.
Remember to let us know your opinion on the use of artificial intelligence in astronomy by answering our monthly listeners question!

Interview 1 : Harry Bevins, Jamie Incley and Jordan Norris
Interview 2 : Claire Davies, Thea Hauxwell and Sohini Dutta
Presenters : Emily Walls and Louis Hurrey
Editors : Thea Hauxwell, Josh Bishop and George Bendo
Website : Lilia Correa Magnus & George Bendo & Phoebe Ryder
Producer : Phoebe Ryder
Cover Art : The REACH system is now transmitting data halfway across the world to servers in Cambridge. CREDIT:Saurabh Pegwal, REACH collaboration