Weekly Space Hangout

Historically, scientists using spectrographic analysis to study exoplanet atmospheres have considered oxygen and methane as two key biosignatures when identifying "life-friendly" planets. But could nitrous oxide (N2O) — aka "Laughing Gas" — also be a reliable biosignature? A recent paper published in the October, 2022, Astrophysical Journal explains why N2O can — and should — be included as a biosignature gas. Tonight we are pleased to welcome the paper's lead author, Dr. Eddie Schwieterman, astrobiologist at UC Riverside, to discuss why N2O is an indicator of life. Dr. Eddie Schwieterman is an Assistant Professor of Astrobiology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. He earned his undergraduate degrees in physics and astrophysics from the Florida Institute of Technology and his PhD in astronomy and astrobiology from the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Schwieterman studies the climate, atmospheric chemistry, geochemical evolution, and spectral appearance of terrestrial (rocky) planets. His research specifically focuses on the habitability and potential biosignatures of exoplanets. To learn more about Eddie's research visit his website (www.eddieschwieterman.com) and follow him on Twitter: @nogreenstars. You can also read more about nitrous oxide as biosignature in the following SciNews article: Nitrous Oxide Could Help Detect Extraterrestrial Life on Exo-Earths. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

During our November 16th show, Carolyn Collins Petersen introduced us to the hourglass/butterfly of L1527, an image captured by JWST using its onboard NIRCam. (You can read the original story here. This week we are joined by Dr. Karl Stapelfeldt, Chief Scientist for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program at JPL who will help us understand the science behind this amazing structure. Karl earned a B.S.E. in Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Physics at Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics at Caltech. His career at NASA includes positions at both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and most recently at the Goddard Space Flight Center, where he has served as the Chief of Goddard's Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory since 2011. Karl's NASA science contributions include project science roles for the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes and science observations using the Herschel Space Observatory. He served as chair of the Exoplanet-Coronagraph Probe-Scale Science and Technology Definition Team, and as a member of the Astrophysics Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who lived in the second century BCE, is considered to be the greatest astronomical observer of his time. Among his achievements are the development of trigonometry, the ability to predict solar eclipses, discovering and measuring the precession of the equinoxes, and, in approximately 135 BCE, the compilation of the first comprehensive star catalogue in the western world. Since that time, scientists have spent centuries searching for Hipparchus' Star Catalogue, but it disappeared and has never been found. Or has it? In 2017, researchers used multispectral imaging and computer algorithms to examine an ancient manuscript that had been discovered in a Greek Orthodox monastery in Egypt in 2012. The resulting images not only uncovered astronomy-related writings (e.g., Eratosthenes' star-origin myths and the third-century poem Phaenomena about the constellations,) but also hidden in the manuscript were star coordinates. Could this manuscript include part of Hipparchus' star catalogue? Tonight we are airing Fraser's prerecorded interview with Dr. Victor Gysembergh, research professor at the French National Scientific Research Centre. Victor is one of the two experts who examined the manuscript images - tune in to hear all about his conclusions. Victor Gysembergh is a CNRS research professor at the Centre Léon Robin (Sorbonne Université). He is currently working on an edition of the fragments of Eudoxus of Cnidus, as well as on editions of Claudius Ptolemy's treatise On the Analemma and his recently discovered treatise on the Meteoroscope. You can read all about this exciting discovery here: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/medieval-parchment-worlds-oldest-star-map-2195744 You can also read the resulting paper about this find here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/00218286221128289 You can learn more about Hipparchus here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparchus Image credit: Heritage Daily/Peter Mallik - (Adapted) **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

Since its final commissioning and being placed in service, JWST has been delivering on its promise to provide unprecedented insight into the most distant — and oldest — regions of our Universe. Whether it's providing a new view of our nearby neighbor Jupiter, or sussing out never-before-seen details of the iconic Eagle Nebula and its Pillars of Creation, let's face it - the imagery so far has been nothing less than stunning! But more importantly, the data being collected by JWST's onboard instrumentation are allowing scientists the ability to peer back in time to study the oldest cosmic structures while they are still in their infancy, potentially unlocking never-before understood processes that have led to the Universe as we know it today. This week we are joined by Dr. Andrey Vayner, a member of a multinational team led by Dominika Wylezalek of Heidelberg University (Germany) that has been studying SDSS J165202.64+172852.3, an "extremely red" QUASAR that dates back to the earliest days of the Universe, some 11.5 billion years ago. Using data collected by NIRSpec, JWST's near infrared spectrograph (https://webb.nasa.gov/content/observatory/instruments/nirspec.html), the team has been able to confirm the presence of not just one, but three, companion galaxies of the QUASAR that are actively in the process of merging. Andrey is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Physics and Astronomy Department. He obtained his Ph.D. from UC San Diego in 2019. He studies how galaxies and supermassive black holes evolve over cosmic time using advanced ground and space-based telescopes. His current focus is on early-release science observations with JWST, studying the most powerful active galactic nuclei that are heavily obscured by dust. Want to learn more about this exciting research? Visit: https://hub.jhu.edu/2022/10/20/webb-quasar-galaxies/ https://esawebb.org/news/weic2217/ Want to take a deeper dive? You can find the team's paper on Arxiv. To follow Andrey and learn more about his research, visit: https://astrovayner.com/ and you can also follow him on Twitter: @astrovayner **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

As we discover new exoplanets on an almost daily basis - particularly now that JWST is online - scientists are ramping up their research into identifying those planets that may exhibit traces of life (as we know it.) Scientists use spectrographs to examine the composition of these exoplanet atmospheres looking markers called technosignatures - trace elements that may be indicative of life. What constitutes a technosignature? Does the presence of one or more technosignatures mean that an exoplanet is a strong candidate for hosting life? Can atmospheric markers not included in our current list of technosignatures still be indicative of life, just not as we know it? This week, we welcome Dr. Sofia Sheikh from the SETI Institute to discuss how the ATA is playing an instrumental role in this research. Dr. Sofia Z. Sheikh is a radio astronomer and astrobiologist working at the SETI Institute. She obtained her undergraduate degrees in physics and astronomy at UC Berkeley, and has recently returned to the Bay Area with an NSF-ASCEND Postdoctoral Fellowship after getting her PhD in Astronomy and Astrobiology at Penn State. Currently, she is performing SETI searches and studying pulsars and fast radio bursts with the Allen Telescope Array, a 42-dish radio array located in Hat Creek, California. You can learn more about the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) by visiting their website. *************************************** Cover image/file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en. File name: Technosignatures.jpg; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Technosignatures.jpg Study name: "Searching for technosignatures in exoplanetary systems with current and future missions" Study/source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576522002594 Authors of the study: Jacob Haqq-Misraa, Edward W. Schwieterman, Hector Socas-Navarro, Ravi Kopparapu, Daniel Angerhausen, Thomas G. Beatty, Svetlana Berdyugina, Ryan Felton, Siddhant Sharmaa, Gabriel G. De la Torre, Dániel Apai, TechnoClimes 2020 workshop participants **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

It's our first News Roundup of the season! News, news, and more news! **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

On August 5, 2022, a plucky little rover named Curiosity celebrated its 10th Anniversary on the surface of Mars. Since being lowered on Mars that summer day it has continued to exceed all mission expectations. For ten years, Curiosity has called Gale Crater and the foothills of Mount Sharp "home," all while wandering around the name of science and traveling nearly 18 miles (29 kilometers) and ascending 2,050 feet (625 meters). What have we been able to learn about Mars during this decade? And what lies ahead for the "Little Rover that Could?" Join us tonight as Dr. Ashwin Vasavada brings piques our "Curiosity" and answers these questions. Dr. Ashwin Vasavada is a planetary scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Currently he is the Project Scientist for NASA's Curiosity rover that began development in 2003 and just completed its tenth year on the surface of Mars. He now leads the international team of scientists as they explore Gale Crater. He also has participated in the operation and analysis of data from several other NASA spacecraft missions, including the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Cassini mission to Saturn, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. He holds a B.S. in Geophysics and Space Physics from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Planetary Science from Caltech. You can stay up to date with Curiosity by visiting the project's web site and by following it on both Twitter and Instagram. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

The first suspected exoplanet was identified back in 1988, and was then confirmed in 1992. Since then, the rate at which detection/confirmations have been made has been increasing. And JWST has already directly imaged its first exoplanet! What data are we able to gather from here on Earth? What are we able to learn about these planets from the data collected? How does exoplanet geology compare with our own geology here on Earth? Let's find out as we welcome planetary geologist Dr. Paul Byrne, to the WSH. Paul Byrne received his B.A. in geology, and Ph.D. in planetary geology, from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He was a MESSENGER postdoctoral fellow at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC, and an LPI postdoctoral fellow at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. He is an Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis; before coming to WashU, he was an assistant and then associate professor at North Carolina State University. Paul's research focuses on comparative planetary geology—comparing and contrasting the surfaces and interiors of planetary bodies, including Earth, to understand geological phenomena at the systems level. Byrne's research projects span the solar system from Mercury to Pluto and, increasingly, to the study of extrasolar planets. He uses remotely sensed data, numerical and physical models, and fieldwork in analogue settings on Earth to understand why planets look the way they do. Be sure to follow Paul on Twitter! **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

NOTE: Due to an unexpected production issue, our audio cuts out at 11:44 for just over one minute, and again at 13:51 for just over 15 seconds. We apologize for this. Since JWST launched in December, 2022, we have been holding our collective breath as it made its way to its final home at the L2 Lagrange point. Throughout its approximate month-long journey, JWST systematically worked through a complicated series of deployment and commissioning procedures, including the all-critical focusing and alignment of the telescope's 18 primary mirror segments using 132 different actuator motors. On April 29, 2022, it was announced that focusing and alignment had completed successfully. Tonight, we are joined by Lee Feinberg, Optical Telescope Element (OTE) Manager for JWST, who will tell us what this exacting process truly entailed. Lee Feinberg is the NASA Optical Telescope Element (OTE) Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a role he has been in since 2002. Earlier in his career, Lee was the Assistant Chief for Technology in the Instrument Systems and Technology Division at Goddard and prior to that Lee was part of the optical team that repaired the Hubble Space Telescope on SM1, STIS instrument manager on SM-2, and he co-led the concept study for Wide Field Camera-3. Lee was a member of the LUVOIR and Habex Science and Technology Definition Teams and focuses his current research on ultra-stable telescopes and segmented space telescopes. Lee is a Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Fellow and a Goddard Space Flight Center Senior Fellow. To learn more about Lee, visit his NASA webpage https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/meetTheTeam/people/feinberg.html as well as this featured Conversations With Goddard interview https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/james-webb-manager-lee-feinberg-is-committed-to-space-telescopes-and-music Lee explains the process of Webb's early alignment: https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=1087563742007119&_rdr Seeing the Light | Lee Feinberg | TEDxUniversityofRochester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWbd4-C4NaY Interview on Your Space Journey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEMWVo2HJnI Finally, be sure to follow Lee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/leefeinberg1 And of course, be sure to visit the JWST website to stay up to date with the latest news: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

As humanity dreams of exploring destinations both within our own solar system as well as those far beyond, the greatest challenge to be overcome is how to provide effective protection against the inevitable, prolonged exposure to lethal levels of radiation. We all know that Earth's strong magnetic field continually protects us. But can a sufficiently strong magnetic field be generated aboard a spacecraft? 2022 NIAC winner Dr. Elena D'Onghia joins us tonight to discuss a new concept that may just be the solution we need! Elena is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Department of Astronomy, and the principal investigator for this innovative concept called CREW HaT which stands for Cosmic Radiation Extended Warding using the Halbach Torus. The project, which has been awarded funding from NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), incorporates superconductive tape technology, a deployable design, and a Halbach Torus (shown in tonight's thumbnail). The Halbach Torus is a circular array of magnets that generates an asymmetric magnetic field with an enhanced magnetic field outside of a spacecraft that diverts cosmic radiation particles and a suppressed magnetic field within the astronaut's habitat. To learn more about CREW Hat visit their NIAC page here: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2022/CREW_HaT/ You can also read more about it here: https://phys.org/news/2022-05-magnetic-astronauts-dangerous-space.html Dr. Elena D'Onghia is an Associate Professor in the Astronomy Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining UWM, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Elena's research combines unique analytic models and high-resolution numerical simulations to get new insights into the dynamical processes that form the stellar skeleton of our Galaxy. You can learn more about Elena on her UWM faculty page here: http://www.astro.wisc.edu/our-people/faculty/donghia-elena/. And be sure to check out the Mad Astro Dynamics Research Group at UWM here: https://www.madastrodynamics.com/ **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

Developing reliable, renewable, and safe power/energy storage systems is a key requirement for future space missions, both within our solar system and those venturing beyond it, as well as for establishing a permanent human presence on the moon and/or Mars. Are fuel cells one solution to this need? And what exactly constitutes a fuel cell? Find out tonight as we are joined by Ian Jakupca from NASA's Glenn Research Center. After graduating from the University of Dayton, Ian began developing specialized flow control components, instrumentation and electrochemical stacks for aerospace systems at the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio in 2000. His initial work supported the development team working on the next generation Space Shuttle Orbiter fuel cell power system before transitioning to oxygen and hydrogen generation through water electrolysis and regenerative fuel cell energy storage systems. This early component work supported efforts to monitor and operate regenerative fuel cell energy storage systems in vacuum environments. Over time his work expanded to system-level designs to meet the requirements of a range of vehicles. Ian's primary research interest is the efficiency of integrated electrochemical systems with a focus on low-power techniques to manage reactants, heat, power and instrumentation. He led multiple system design and demonstrations efforts for air-independent (H2/O2) primary and regenerative fuel cell systems. To date, he has innovation awards for software and hardware and is the lead author on over 20 external publications. As the Fuel Cell Technology Lead at NASA Glenn Research Center, he supervises and consults for multiple technology development projects involving ISRU electrolysis, primary fuel cells, and regenerative fuel cells for space and aerospace applications. To learn more about the research being done in fuel cell technology (and more!) view the following presentations: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/05/f34/fcto_bop_workshop_jacupka.pdf https://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/pdfs/review19/ia011_jakupca_2019_o.pdf Also be sure to check out the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC). **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.

NOTE: We apologize for the audio issues in this week's podcast. We are working to diagnose and resolve the issues, and we appreciate your patience as we do so. Gravitational lensing has been used to discover far-distant galaxies that are obstructed from view thanks to the inconvenient positioning of astronomical interlopers. Recently, researchers have begun asking if this same lensing technique could be adapted to use the gravity of OUR SUN to suss out never-before seen details of the more than 5000 exoplanets discovered to date. It is thought that by aligning the sun in a straight line between a space-based telescope and an exoplanet, exoplanet images could be obtained. But this would require a lot of fuel and time. Tonight's guest is Alexander Madurowicz, PhD candidate at Stanford University. Alex has developed an algorithm that reconstructs an exoplanet's surface using a single, annular image acquired by looking directly at the sun. Light from this ring is then undistorted by reversing its having been bent by the gravitational lens (i.e., our Sun,) which yields the ring of light being turned back into a whole, round planet. This method of imaging exoplanets was presented in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal on May 2, 2022. Alex Madurowicz is a Physics PhD candidate at Stanford University. His research interests are in astronomical instrumentation, specifically for the direct imaging of extrasolar planets. He works with his advisor Bruce Macintosh and other collaborators from universities around the world on the Gemini Planet Imager project. The Gemini Planet Imager combines adaptive optics and coronagraphy to correct distortions from Earth's atmosphere and obscure noise from host stars to directly observe planets which millions of times fainter than the stars they orbit. He has also worked on speculative instrument designs such as star shades and the solar gravitational lens which could revolutionize the future of exoplanet imaging. You can read more about this technique here. **************************************** The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest. Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are some specific ways you can help: Subscribe FREE to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/cosmoquest Subscribe to our podcasts Astronomy Cast and Daily Space where ever you get your podcasts! Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/cosmoquestx – follow and subscribe! Become a Patreon of CosmoQuest https://www.patreon.com/cosmoquestx Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx Join our Discord server for CosmoQuest - https://discord.gg/X8rw4vv Join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew! - http://www.wshcrew.space/ Don't forget to like and subscribe! Plus we love being shared out to new people, so tweet, comment, review us... all the free things you can do to help bring science into people's lives.