Tag: scientists

Lift-Off from Shannon Airport for NASA competition winning teen scientists

It’s lift-off for five Irish secondary school students flying from Shannon Airport to Orlando today having won a prestigious space design competition founded by NASA. The St Flannan’s College students from Ennis, County Clare, flew from Shannon to Chicago this morning before continuing on to Orlando, where they will present their design at the International Space Development Conference, an annual gathering organised by the National Space Society which brings together leaders and enthusiasts from all sectors of the space industry.

The student’s – Alex Furey, Damian Woros, Najib Haq, Gavin Shiels and Ahmed Ibrahim from St Flannan’s, together with Shreya Mariya Saju and Lexie McKenna from St Dominic’s College in Cabra, Dublin – designed a next-generation space habitat which they named “Inis Beatha” or “Island of Life”. This design uses artificial gravity and plants grown without soil to create a system capable of recycling the food, water and oxygen needed to sustain life in space.

Speaking from Shannon Airport ahead of their flight to Chicago, physics teacher John Conneely from St. Flannan’s College said: “Winning first place in the senior section of this year’s NSS Space Settlement Contest—against over 26,000 entries from schools worldwide—is an incredible achievement, and we couldn’t be prouder of our students! We’re also immensely grateful to Shannon Airport for their continued support, making this unforgettable trip to Orlando possible for our students.

I think Shannon Airport has always been inspirational when it comes to innovation —from welcoming the first transatlantic passenger flight 80 years ago to the recent debut of an Advanced Air Mobility aircraft. Remarkably, at one point it was also an alternate landing site for the space shuttle, making it the perfect launchpad for our students as they set out on this incredible journey to the International Space Conference.”

Welcoming them this morning Tim Ryan, Group Head of Brand & Marketing at The Shannon Airport Group said: “We are thrilled to welcome the team from St Flannan’s College to Shannon Airport today as they travel to such a prestigious event in the U.S. These innovative young minds are a testament to the exceptional talent and ambition coming from this region, making an impact on the world stage. We are immensely proud to support Alex, Damian, Najib, Gavin, Ahmed, and their dedicated teachers on this exciting adventure.”

Irish scientists are part of groundbreaking discovery with James Webb Space Telescope

Irish astronomers, including two researchers from Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), are part of an international team that has detected radiation from a veiled neutron star in the Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The findings from the study were published today (22.02.2024) in the journal Science.

Commenting on the discovery, Tom Ray, Senior Professor and Director of Cosmic Physics at DIAS, said “When a massive star exploded back in 1987, and easily visible to the naked eye, it was the nearest such explosion to Earth in almost four hundred years. Supernovae, as these explosions are called, are thought to leave a collapsed remnant of their star behind but the search for the remnant proved very difficult and only indirect evidence was found. We are, of course, very excited that the Webb has shown us where the remnant is, verifying our understanding of such explosions.”

Using the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), astronomers were able to observe narrow emission lines from ionized argon and sulphur atoms located at the centre of a nebula around SN 1987A. The team concluded that the emission line strengths observed by the Webb Telescope must be triggered by radiation from the hot neutron star or from a pulsar wind nebula around the neutron star.

Professor Ray along with Dr Patrick Kavanagh, DIAS Research Associate and a faculty member of Maynooth University, and Jeroen Jespers, an Astronomy and Astrophysics PhD student at DIAS and Maynooth, played a significant role in the discovery.

Professor Ray is Co-Principal Investigator on the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the Webb Telescope and has worked on its development for over two decades. Dr Kavanagh has also worked on the MIRI and is a member of the Supernova 1987A team that made the discovery of the long sought collapsed stellar remnant at the centre of the supernova. He is one of the main authors of the study and an SFI-IRC Pathway Fellow.

Commenting today, Dr. Eucharia Meehan, CEO and Registrar of DIAS, said: “This is an exciting day for us at DIAS which sees years of work coming to fruition and another mystery of the universe unveiled. Our scientists involved in the development of the Mid-Infrared Instrument and the SN 1987A team are at the forefront of ground-breaking research in space, helping us to unlock mysteries of the universe. After four centuries, it is finally possible to show conclusive evidence for the presence of a neutron star at the centre of SN 1987A. It is wonderful that Ireland played an important role in this discovery, recently announced by Dr Kavanagh in Denver at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.”

Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A) was the first supernova visible to the naked eye in four centuries and provided astronomers with a close-up view of a supernova explosion using modern observatories. SN 1987A is one of the most studied objects in our skies and the detection of neutrinos, unimaginably small sub-atomic particles produced in the supernova, indicated that a neutron star must have formed. However, whether or not the neutron star persisted or collapsed into a black hole has been one of the biggest puzzles regarding SN 1987A. Even after three and a half decades of intense monitoring with cutting-edge, world-class observatories, no conclusive evidence for the presence of a neutron star at the centre of SN 1987A has been found, until now.

Irish space scientists develop new project using AI to forecast space weather

Space scientists from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) have developed a new project, using artificial intelligence, which will allow them to give faster and more accurate warnings about powerful explosions on the Sun, known as solar flares.

Solar flares can disrupt vital technologies and infrastructure, including radio communications, electrical power grids, navigation systems and pose risks to spacecrafts and astronauts.

This new project, called ‘Active Region Classification and Flare Forecasting’ (ARCAFF), will use a special kind of artificial intelligence known as ‘deep learning’ to make better predictions than what is currently used in operational forecasting centres. It will also provide information about how certain the predictions are – information which is not currently available.

Commenting on the project, Dr Shane Maloney, Senior Research Fellow at DIAS and Project Lead for ARCAFF, said “As scientists, we have long been predicting the weather, but now we also have the ability to predict events happening much further away on the Sun.  It may seem like these events have little effect on our daily lives, as we are largely protected from the Sun’s harmful radiation, by the magnetic field around the Earth. However, solar flares emission can change the atmosphere and create technological issues, like interfering with radio communication and GPS on Earth. They can also create beautiful displays in our night skies like the Northern Lights or aurora borealis.

“Space weather covers a variety of phenomena that occur because of the Sun’s turbulent behaviour, and its predictions are becoming more important as we further advance technology. Studying these space weather events helps us learn more about the Sun and better predict space weather. The new ARCAFF system will be more accurate and faster at giving us warnings about solar flares – which will greatly benefit space weather forecasters who provide guidance to spacecraft operators, and the power and aviation industries that are impacted by space weather.”

Also commenting on the ARCAFF project, Prof. Peter Gallagher, Head of Astronomy and Astrophysics at DIAS, said “The ARCAFF project is unique as it brings together science, analytics, and computing experts to work together in creating an advanced system to forecast solar flares. It has been an excellent opportunity for cross-disciplinary collaboration in DIAS and across the various partners involved.

“As well as being faster and more accurate at predicting solar flares, ARCAFF will make new datasets and software available for scientists to use, and the outputs of the project will be freely available online. We are also excited to educate the wider public about space weather and how it impacts Ireland and Europe, through our public engagement hub at DIAS Dunsink Observatory.”

The ARCAFF team includes partners across Europe that combines expertise in the fields of solar physics, machine learning, and computer science, including:

  • DIAS – solar physics and space weather forecasting experts;
  • Università di Genova in Italy – machine learning experts;
  • University of Westminster in the UK – science gateway development experts;
  • SZTAKI in Hungary – science gateway development experts.

The project is funded by Horizon Europe. Further information can be found here.