Above: IC 2163 and NGC 2207 from combined Hubble and Webb data, processed by Joseph DePasquale (STScI). From the website: These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes using Hubble's WFPC2 and Webb's MIRI instruments. See webbtelescope.org for more info.
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (January-February 2025) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Arabic at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).
The January-February 2025 cover. Click to go to the issue.
I mentioned to our fearless leader Michele that issues with new content and issues with curated content remind me of a comment by the great jazz/fusion guitarist Steve Khan. Issues with new content are like albums with new music, where you're trying to expand repertoire and introduce new themes. Issues made of content from other sources are like albums of standards, where you're specifically trying to develop your improvisational skills In this case, it's all about curation, framing, and presentation, which is excellent in this issue (I have no doubt that the exobiological/technosignature bent of articles over the past few years will not end, perhaps with a focus on the nonsensical New Jersey drone reports from this month).
I'm also very happy to see the recent increase in the number of international conferences and symposia being included in issues (not at all unfamiliar to readers of The Reflector or Amateur Astronomy Magazine).
Above: Among other events to look forward to, 2025 should be excellent for more aurora with our Sun being in/just past solar max. Even lousy fish-eye lens aurora pics from the light polluted near-suburbs of Rochester with no forethought into optimizing the capture should still be completely reasonable this coming year.
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (November-December 2024) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Arabic at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).
Running past the finishing line for the year with a slew of exceptionally well-presented NASA, ESA, CSA, ESO, and NOIRLab articles that go from the Kitt Peak Visitor Center to Barnard’s Star to the very, very edge of it all.
Also looking into 2025 for notable space and space science missions, for which Suni and Butch's return to Earth is a major event for the household (as Suni'stour of the ISS was on our dinner playlist for months), ESA's BepiColumbo will finally settle into Mercury's orbit in early December, NASA's own Lucy will be flying by asteroid Donaldjohanson (get it?) in late April, and a bunch of other missions will be reaching milestones.
Above: An international team of scientists have used data collected by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect a molecule known as the methyl cation (CH3+) for the first time, located in the protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. They accomplished this feat with a cross-disciplinary expert analysis, including key input from laboratory spectroscopists. The vital role of CH3+ in interstellar carbon chemistry has been predicted since the 1970s, but Webb’s unique capabilities have finally made observing it possible — in a region of space where planets capable of accommodating life could eventually form. Also, the slider bar option to compare Hubble (visible) and Webb (near-infrared) in the same region is a real treat. ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), the PDRs4All ERS Team
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (November-December 2023) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Arabic at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).
Another gorgeous edition and I was delighted to get a second SSA contribution myself in for 2023 (with Michele leading the article beautification effort with his selection of images). The article "Ancient and everywhere, Webb detects organic molecules" is based on only two publications of recent Webb discoveries, in both cases articles that came out in June of this year. The June 5th article in Nature on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the galaxy SPT0418-47 only provided about five days MAX to get something into the July-August issue. The second article, also from Nature and on the detection of methyl cation, landed on the 26th, ruining any chance for inclusion in the next issue. The September-October issue might have been an option, but it was booked solid by the time the final edition of my article was ready for translation.
And the article could have gone on and on with other relevant articles discussing organic molecules detected by Webb during June and early July.
The organization background of scheduling and publishing is not without its complexities – the goal is still about 50 pages per issue, for which precious few issues have had a singular focus (I've only been an active participant for one). Add to that the need to translate each article roughly four times (my English article to French, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic), which itself is a feat of coordination by our fearless leader. With ten pages and pictures to sharpen the mind, this forces a tug-of-war of depth vs. breadth (especially if you're a scientist who really enjoys all this stuff and would rather bore someone to tears for pages and pages on the fine details).
Additionally, the cadence of the (bimonthly) magazine means that, in terms of one writer's publication proximity to the original article, quite a bit of liquid water will have been shot out of an Enceladus geyser by the time your take on the new science is available for download and reading. Personally, I take that as a challenge to find something else to say that hasn't been a focus of any of the rapid-response articles on the subject. This article featured a little bit of an expansion on our amazing ability to do vibrational spectroscopy over 12-ish billion years and a little bit more about how highly reactive chemical species combine with time and a reactivity driver (UV radiation) to enable the synthesis of increasingly large molecules – admittedly in an exobiological vein that has been a staple topic in the magazine for years now.
And we will endeavor to show Hubble, which has produced data that will remain a centerpiece in the peer review process long after Webb shuts off completely, some love in future issues.
