• A proposal for a city on planet Mars by a Catalan-led team was presented on Saturday, 17 October 2020, in the final of the Mars Society competition.
• The team is led by researchers from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC), the School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa (ESEIAAT- UPC) and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), together with the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM, CSIC).
• Using the available scientific knowledge about the environment on Mars, the proposal touches on all aspects of human life: from settling, architecture and life support to arts, economics and political systems.
• The project team will now look for industry, academic and private partners to make further steps in making the martian city a feasible option for future human settling on the Red Planet.

Welcome to Nüwa, capital city on Mars. Human settlers would live here and in four other vertical cities on the cliffs of the Red Planet, which provide protection from radiation, but also exposure to sunlight. The buildings inside the cliffs would be mix-use, able to hold 200,000 to 250,000 people, and comprising areas for living and working, lush gardens in the so-called Green-Domes, “public squares” at the bottom of the cliff, underground sports arenas and music halls, as well as areas to lodge art displays. Settlers would eat a diet based 50% on agriculture, 20% microalgae, and 30% coming from animal meat, insects, mushrooms and cellular meat.

The work per person should be eight times higher than for the average human on Earth, but this can be sorted by imposing automation, standardisation and the use of Artificial Intelligence methods at the design level. Water would be mainly extracted from clays and the oxygen mainly produced by crops and microalgae. After death, the biomass of animals, humans and plants would be incorporated back into the system, but loved ones would be able to keep a small, compressed sample. Mars would eventually become a democracy, with its own constitution and body of law. Each citizen would be a shareholder of Mars’ cities. Society would evolve to a model based on community and sustainability.

This is how a city on Mars would look like and function according to a team of international professionals led by catalan researchers. Using knowledge about the geology, geography and atmosphere of the Red Planet, as well as complex human sociological and psychological research, they have imagined a sustainable evidence-based and technologically viable model for life on Mars.

Their proposal was presented in the Mars City State Design competition of the Mars Society, the world’s largest and most influential space advocacy organisation dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. The team presented the project on Saturday, 17 October 2020, during the Mars Society Convention after being selected among the 10 finalists from over 175 submitted proposals. Even though they did not win the award, the team stands convinced that the sustainable and human centered approach to the exploration of space is the right way to go. Therefore, they will continue to pursue industry and academic partnerships to bring to life some of the core concepts for humanity’s next habitat on Mars.

This design proposal was initiated and promoted by SONet (the Sustainable Off-world Network), which is a community of mainly European professionals interested in multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable exploration of space. The project is led by researchers from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), the School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa (ESEIAAT - UPC), and its core architectural & urban planning has been led by the ABIBOO studio. It also has important contributions from members of the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM, CSIC) and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB). Participants from other countries include researchers and professionals from the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, USA and Argentina.

“The challenge for the team was to design a settlement with all the welfare of a modern city that was also capable of obtaining all resources locally, and rapidly gaining its financial and logistic independence from Earth”, declared Guillem Anglada-Escudé, Ramón y Cajal researcher of ICE and coordinator of the team. The project touches on all aspects of human life: from the materials used to build settlements and the mechanisms for ensuring oxygen and other life support systems to money, art, childcare, education, political system, workload, death and even inheritance on Mars.

“From a real world architect point of view, designing a functional urban development, while working with the constraints of an alien world was both a mind-boggling and an extremely enriching experience”, declared Alfredo Muñoz, cofounder of ABIBOO studio and leader of the urban and architectural development team. “We cannot wait to keep evolving this first design, and also identify radical new solutions that shall work on Earth as well”.

“The project team will now look for industry, academic and private partners to make further steps in making the martian city a feasible option for future human settling on the Red Planet. “In such a big endeavour, cooperation between experts in many different areas is needed,” explained Miquel Sureda, lecturer of aeronautical engineering at ESEIAAT- UPC. “The success of Nüwa’s project in the Mars Society competition can help SONet gain visibility and attract members and resources.”

"The world has changed radically since we started in March, and will continue to change at forced rates”, concludes Anglada-Escudé. “Meanwhile —he adds— the problems of Earth's sustainability have not disappeared. Although we won't be coming to Mars next year or in twenty years, if after all it serves to inspire Catalan or all-over-the-world professionals and young people working together for a more sustainable world, we have already won."

The next immediate step is seek funding to perform a new design iteration and begin conversations to develop an Earth demonstrator, which should also be used to develop sustainability technologies and as an inspirational element to promote sciences among young and not so young people.

COLLABORATION LIST:
Project Coordination, Economic model & High-level concepts: Guillem Anglada-Escudé, Ph.D.; RyC fellow in Astrophysics; Institute for Space Science/ CSIC & Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (EU)

Co-coordination. Space, Earth-Mars transportation & Socio-economics: Miquel Sureda, Ph.D.; Space Science and Technology Research Group, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya & Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (EU)

Life Support, Biosystems & Human factors: Gisela Detrell, Ph.D; Institute for Space Systems, Universität Stuttgart (EU)

Design. Architecture & Urbanism: Design Strategy & Coordination: ABIBOO Studio (USA) Preliminary Analysis & Urban Configuration: Alfredo Muñoz (USA); Owen Hughes Pearce (UK)

Detailed Architecture & Urban Design: Alfredo Muñoz (USA); Gonzalo Rojas (Argentina); Engeland Apostol (UK); Sebastián Rodríguez (Argentina); Verónica Florido (UK)

Identity & Graphic Design: Verónica Florido (UK); Engeland Apostol (UK)
Video Direction & CGI: Sebastián Rodríguez (Argentina); Gonzalo Rojas (Argentina)

Mars Materials & Location: Ignasi Casanova, Ph.D.; Prof. Civil and Environmental Engineering; Institute of Energy Technologies (INTE), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (EU)

Manufacturing, Advanced Biosystems & Materials: David Cullen; Prof. of Astrobiology and Space Biotechnology; Space Group, University of Cranfield (UK)

Energy & Sustainability: Miquel Banchs i Piqué; School of Civil Engineering & Surveying, University of Portsmouth (UK)

Mining & Excavation systems: Philipp Hartlieb; Prof. in Excavation Engineering, Montan Universitaet Leoben (EU)

Social Services & Life Support Systems: Laia Ribas, Ph.D.; RyC fellow in Biology, Institut de Ciències del Mar/CSIC, (EU)

Mars Climate modeling & Environment: David de la Torre; Dept. of Physics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (EU)

CONTRIBUTORS:
Jordi Miralda Escudé (ICREA Prof. in Astrophysics - Ground Transport, UB, EU); Rafael Harillo Gomez-Pastrana (Lawyer, - Political Organization & Space law, EU); Lluis Soler (Ph.D. in Chemistry - Chemical processes, UPC, EU); Paula Betriu (Topographical analysis, - UPC, EU); Uygar Atalay (Location, temperature & Radiation analysis, UPC, EU); Pau Cardona (Earth-Mars Transportation, UPC, EU); Oscar Macia (Earth-Mars Transportation, UPC, EU); Eric Fimbinger (Resource Extraction & Conveyance, Montanuniversität Leoben, EU); Stephanie Hensley (Art Strategy in Mars, USA); Carlos Sierra (Electronic Engineering, ICE/CSIC, EU); Elena Montero (Psychologist, EU); Robert Myhill (Mars science – U. Bristol, UK); Rory Beard (Artificial Intelligence, UK)

SUPPORTING INSTITUTIONS :
CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas); ABIBOO Studio; UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya); Cranfield University; University of Stuttgart; IEEC (Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya); Montan University Leoben; Institut de Ciencies del Mar; University of Portsmouth.

Links

• IEEC
• ICE - CSIC
• ABIBOO Studio
• UPC
• ICM - CSIC
• ICCUB
• The Sustainable Offworld Network (SONet)
• Mars Society

More information
The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) promotes and coordinates space research and technology development in Catalonia for the benefit of society. IEEC fosters collaborations both locally and worldwide and is an efficient agent of knowledge, innovation and technology transfer. As a result of over 20 years of high-quality research, done in collaboration with major international organisations, IEEC ranks among the best international research centers, focusing on areas such as: astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and Earth Observation. IEEC’s engineering division develops instrumentation for ground- and space-based projects, and has extensive experience in working with private or public organisations from the aerospace and other innovation sectors.

IEEC is a private non-profit foundation, governed by a Board of Trustees composed of Generalitat de Catalunya and four other institutions that each have a research unit, which together constitute the core of IEEC R&D activity: the University of Barcelona (UB) with the research unit ICCUB — Institute of Cosmos Sciences; the Autonomous University of Barcelona

(UAB) with the research unit CERES — Center of Space Studies and Research; the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) with the research unit CTE — Research Group in Space Sciences and Technologies; the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) with the research unit ICE — Institute of Space Sciences. IEEC is integrated in the CERCA network (Centres de Recerca de Catalunya).

Contacts
IEEC Communication Office Barcelona, Spain
Ana Montaner Pizà
E-mail: comunicacio@ieec.cat

Institute of Space Sciences (ICE - CSIC) Barcelona, Spain
Guillem Anglada-Escudé
E-mail: anglada@ice.csic.es

Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) Barcelona, Spain
Miquel Sureda Anfres
E-mail: miquel.sureda@upc.edu

• The Mars city proposal is led by researchers from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB). 
• The project is one of the 10 finalists, selected from more than 175 proposals submitted to the competition.
• The final presentation will take place on 17 October 2020, with the event being streamed around the world via Facebook live.

What would a city look like on Mars? How would trade work? How would the urban population evolve? An international group led by researchers from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC  — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) imagined the Mars city NÜWA, detailed in a comprehensive project that includes scientific, engineering, architectural, economical and social aspects. The project proposes not only a feasible urban design, but also a socio-economic development plan, as well as high-level descriptions of the industry, infrastructure, generation and distribution of energy and services needed to make it a reality. 

The project of the international team “The Sustainable Offworld Network" (SONet) has been selected as one of the 10 finalist proposals in the Mars City State Design competition of the Mars Society, the world’s largest and most influential space advocacy organisation dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. The competition is focused on developing a city of one million people on Mars in a sustainable way.

The proposal is led by IEEC researchers at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), together with other research centers throughout Spain, including the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM, CSIC). Participants from other countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, USA and Argentina are also part of the team.

The finalist projects, selected from over 175 proposals, will be publicly defended on 17 October 2020 at the Mars Society Convention. Five proposals will finally receive an award. The defense will be public and shared via streaming around the world via Facebook live.

The SONet proposal consists of a 20-page long report with a conceptual design combining a wide range of aspects, from space exploration to sustainability. The city, called NÜWA in honour of the Chinese goddess who created humanity, symbolises the beginning of a new era of our civilisation on Mars and the protection that must be ensured in such an inhospitable world.

"The proposal is an effort to combine many disciplines in a way that is not usually done in space projects" explains Guillem Anglada-Escudé, Ramón y Cajal researcher of ICE and coordinator of the team. "In addition to scientists and engineers, we wanted from the very beginning to incorporate experts in other disciplines and from outside the academic sector." The collaboration includes, as a very important contributor, the architecture and design team ABIBOO studio.

The project was forged during online meetings in April, May and June 2020 in the midst of the confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the proposal has borne fruit. "Reaching the final is already a great success for the whole team", explains Miquel Sureda, lecturer of aeronautical engineering at The School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa (ESEIAAT- UPC). "We hope the competition will provide us with the visibility we need to gather support and develop concepts related to both space and sustainability, and the necessary transformation of the productive system that we must also face here on Earth".

The director of the Institute of Energy Techniques - UPC and co-author of the initiative, Ignasi Casanova, explains: "Performing these exercises also makes us realise the great dependence we have on what our planet gives us in return for nothing. For example — he adds —  the production of food requires a huge amount of energy that here on Earth comes from the Sun, but which involves the use of large arable areas, and it is therefore one of the more aggressive human activities towards the terrestrial ecosystem”. Issues such as the use and abuse of plastics, construction and material solutions that minimise the intensive use of energy and total recyclability have also been studied in the proposal.

"In reality, the Earth is just a place in a vast Universe. If we learn how to create societies with closed resource circulation, which do not critically depend on remote imports to another planet, we should also be able to solve many of the problems we have on Earth today", concludes Anglada-Escudé.

The presentation will be broadcasted on Saturday, 17 October 2020 at 22:00h (CEST), via 'Facebook live'. Viewers must register for free on the Mars Society website.

Links
- IEEC
- ICE - CSIC
- UPC
- ICC - UB
- The Sustainable Offworld Network (SONet) 
- Mars Society

More information
The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC  — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) promotes and coordinates space research and technology development in Catalonia for the benefit of society. IEEC fosters collaborations both locally and worldwide and is an efficient agent of knowledge, innovation and technology transfer. As a result of over 20 years of high-quality research, done in collaboration with major international organisations, IEEC ranks among the best international research centers, focusing on areas such as: astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and Earth Observation. IEEC’s engineering division develops instrumentation for ground- and space-based projects, and has extensive experience in working with private or public organisations from the aerospace and other innovation sectors.  
IEEC is a private non-profit foundation, governed by a Board of Trustees composed of Generalitat de Catalunya and four other institutions that each have a research unit, which together constitute the core of IEEC R&D activity: the University of Barcelona (UB) with the research unit ICCUB — Institute of Cosmos Sciences; the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) with the research unit CERES — Center of Space Studies and Research; the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) with the research unit CTE — Research Group in Space Sciences and Technologies; the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) with the research unit ICE — Institute of Space Sciences. IEEC is integrated in the CERCA network (Centres de Recerca de Catalunya).

Contacts
IEEC Communication Office
Barcelona, Spain
Ana Montaner Pizà
E-mail: comunicacio@ieec.cat 

Institute of Space Sciences (ICE - CSIC)
Barcelona, Spain
Guillem Anglada-Escudé
E-mail: anglada@ice.csic.es

Technical University of Catalonia (UPC)
Barcelona, Spain
Miquel Sureda Anfres
E-mail: miquel.sureda@upc.edu

The researcher from the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) Enrique Gaztañaga has been awarded the first prize ex-aequo in the Ciencia en Acción 2020 competition, in the modality Scientific Shorts, with the work entitled “2019 THE ACCELERATING COSMOS Part I Chap. III”. This award has been shared with Álex Muntada and Jaume Benet, both from the Facultat de Comunicació Blanquerna of the Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona. The different awards were announced in a virtual event that, a priori, had to be held in Murcia on 2-4 October.

Santiago Serrano, also an IEEC researcher at ICE-CSIC, has participated in the production of audiovisual material, with videos showing images of the MICE (Marenostrum Institute of Space Sciences) cosmological simulations carried out by members of the ICE-CSIC Cosmology group: Francisco Castander, Pablo Fosalba and Martin Crocce.

"2019 THE ACCELERATING COSMOS Part I Chap. III" is an outreach documentary that explains the efforts of the scientific community to elucidate what is the cause of the accelerated expansion of the Universe. This scientific short film tells us how the world's largest digital camera has been installed on a giant telescope to carry out the largest map of the cosmos to date. It is the story of Enrique Gaztañaga and his work in making galaxy maps such as the Spanish initiative PAU (Physics of the Accelerating Universe) and DES (Dark Energy Survey), both galactic mapping projects in which Gaztañaga participates decisively. 

But why are these cosmic maps so necessary? The answer comes from a discovery made public in 1998 and awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011: the Universe is expanding at an accelerated rate. This idea, not alway well known by the general public, challenges our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature and constitutes one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the cosmos. There seems to be an enigmatic dark matter that holds stars and galaxies together. And an even stranger force, called dark energy, that is accelerating the expansion of the Universe. Combined, both make up 95% of its matter-energy. However its nature is still unknown. As far as we know today the only way to solve the mystery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe is mapping it, that is, creating large galaxy maps such as PAU and DES. 

Ciencia en Acción is an international competition aimed at students, lecturers, researchers and disseminators of the scientific community, in any of its disciplines. Its main goal is to present science in an attractive and motivating way. The programme is run by Rosa María Ferré, PhD in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona, ​​who has assumed its development over 20 editions since its inception. Several institutions participate in Ciencia en Acción: the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Fundación Lilly, the Fundació Princesa de Girona (FPdGi), the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT), the Royal Spanish Physical Society (RSEF), the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ), the Spanish Astronomy Society (SEA), the Geological Society of Spain (SGE) and the National University of Distance Education (UNED).

You can enjoy the short here, whlie a large version can be found here.

A proposal for the new generation Einstein Telescope observatory — potential infrastructure of the future

• The Einstein Telescope is an ambitious third-generation gravitational-wave ground-based observatory project.
• The proposal to include the project in the 2021 update of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap has been signed by 40 European institutions, eight of which are Spanish.
• Spanish researchers have contributed significantly to the development of the project’s physics program, as well as to the preparation of its technical design report.

The Einstein Telescope (ET) is the most ambitious project for a future terrestrial observatory for gravitational waves (GWs). The conceptual design of this pioneering third-generation observatory has been supported by a grant of the European Commission. Now, a consortium of European countries and of research institutions and universities has officially submitted the proposal for the realisation of such an infrastructure in the 2021 update of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap [1].
The ET consortium brings together about 40 research institutions and universities in several European countries, including France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Among the institutions that signed the proposal, eight are Spanish [2]. The proposal also has the political support of Belgium, Poland, Spain and The Netherlands, and is led by Italy. Its transnational headquarters was established at the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) in Italy.

The amazing scientific achievements of Advanced Virgo (in Europe) and Advanced LIGO (in the USA) in the last 5 years initiated the era of GW astronomy. The adventure began with the first direct detection of gravitational waves in September 2015 and continued in August 2017 when the two observatories observed gravitational waves emitted by two merging neutron stars. Simultaneously, signals of this event were observed with a variety of electromagnetic telescopes —on the ground and in space— over the entire observable wavelength range —from radio waves to gamma rays—. This marked the beginning of the era of multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves.
 
The recent observation of the merging of two black holes to create one 142 times more massive than the Sun —a so-called Intermediate Mass Black Hole— demonstrated the existence of such previously unknown objects in our Universe. The Einstein Telescope will enable scientists to detect any merge of two intermediate-mass black holes in the entire universe and thus contribute to the understanding of its evolution. This will shed new light on the Dark Universe and will clarify the roles of dark energy and dark matter in the structure of the cosmos. ET will explore the physics of black holes and will detect thousands of coalescences of neutron stars improving our understanding of the behaviour of matter under such extreme conditions of density and pressure. In addition, we will have a chance to explore the nuclear physics underlying the supernova explosions of the stars.
These challenging scientific targets need a new observatory capable of observing GWs with a sensitivity at least one order of magnitude better than the current detectors (the so-called second generation). The Einstein Telescope will be located in a new infrastructure and will apply technologies that are dramatically improved over the current ones. Two sites for the development of the ET infrastructure are currently being evaluated: the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, at the borders of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, and Sardinia, Italy.  It is hoped that a companion project in the US, Cosmic Explorer, will follow.

The Einstein Telescope has aroused great interest in the Spanish scientific community involved in gravitational waves, which includes all the centers that currently participate in ground-based (LIGO / Virgo / KAGRA) and space (LISA) programs. Spanish researchers have contributed significantly to the development of the ET physics program, as well as to the preparation of its technical design report. Furthermore, motivated by the development of new technologies and the potential significant returns for Spanish industry, explicit support was also provided by research institutions, including some “Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructures” (ICTS). In total, up to 23 Spanish institutions supported the ESFRI initiative [3].

Notes
[1] The European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap describes the future major research infrastructures in Europe.
[2] List of Spanish Institutions that have signed the ET ESFRI proposal: Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), Institute of Structure of Matter (IEM), Institute of Physics of High Energy (IFAE), Institute of Theoretical Physics (IFT-CSIC), University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and University of Valencia (UV).
[3] List of Spanish Institutions that initially supported the ET ESFRI initiative: Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), ALBA Synchrotron, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC), Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Institute of Structure of Matter (IEM), Institute of High Energy Physics (IFAE), Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC-CSIC), Institute of Theoretical Physics (IFT-CSIC), Port d'informació Científica (PIC), RedIris, University of Alicante (UA), Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), University of Cádiz (UC), University of Murcia (UMU) , University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), University of Salamanca (USAL), University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and University of Valencia (UV). The candidacy was also supported by the Spanish Society of Relativity and Gravitation (SEGRE).

Links

• IEEC
• ICE
• ICCUB
• ESFRI
• Einstein Telescope

More information
The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC  — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) promotes and coordinates space research and technology development in Catalonia for the benefit of society. IEEC fosters collaborations both locally and worldwide and is an efficient agent of knowledge, innovation and technology transfer. As a result of over 20 years of high-quality research, done in collaboration with major international organisations, IEEC ranks among the best international research centers, focusing on areas such as: astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and Earth Observation. IEEC’s engineering division develops instrumentation for ground- and space-based projects, and has extensive experience in working with private or public organisations from the aerospace and other innovation sectors. 
 
IEEC is a private non-profit foundation, governed by a Board of Trustees composed of Generalitat de Catalunya and four other institutions that each have a research unit, which together constitute the core of IEEC R&D activity: the University of Barcelona (UB) with the research unit ICCUB — Institute of Cosmos Sciences; the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) with the research unit CERES — Center of Space Studies and Research; the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) with the research unit CTE — Research Group in Space Sciences and Technologies; the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) with the research unit ICE — Institute of Space Sciences. IEEC is integrated in the CERCA network (Centres de Recerca de Catalunya).
 
Contacts
IEEC Communication Office
Barcelona, Spain
Ana Montaner Pizà
E-mail: comunicacio@ieec.cat
 
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC)
Barcelona, Spain
Carlos F. Sopuerta
E-mail: sopuerta@ice.csic.es
 
Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICC-UB)
Barcelona, Spain
Jordi Portell i de Mora
E-mail: jportell@fqa.ub.edu
 
Institute of High Energy Physics (IFAE)
Barcelona, Spain
Member of the Einstein Telescope Directive Committee
Mario Martínez
E-mail: mmp@ifae.es

Press Release elaborated by the IEEC Communication Office in collaboration with Science Wave.
 

Our recent research on SS433 "Gamma-ray heartbeat powered by the microquasar SS 433” has been featured as Astronomy Picture of the day! APOD 2020 August 31: https://https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200831.html

Reference:
Gamma-ray heartbeat powered by the microquasar SS 433;  Jian Li, Diego Torres , Ruo-Yu Liu, Matthew Kerr, Emma de Oña Wilhelmi, Yang Su; Nature Astronomy, 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1164-6

NASA High Energy Astrophysics Archive has selected an image related to a recent Nature Astronomy paper for its Picture of the Week: https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/heapow/archive/nebulae/SS433_fermi.html

Using Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and the giant Arecibo radio telescope our study revealed a high-energy "heartbeat", coming from a cosmic gas cloud located about 100 light years away from SS 433. The surprising gamma-ray signal from this otherwise cold, innocuous cloud pulses with the rhythm of the precessing jet from the black hole in SS 433. This shows that shomehow there must be a direct connection between the precessing jet from SS 433 and the gamma-ray pulsations at the cloud.

Reference:
Gamma-ray heartbeat powered by the microquasar SS 433;  Jian Li, Diego Torres , Ruo-Yu Liu, Matthew Kerr, Emma de Oña Wilhelmi, Yang Su; Nature Astronomy, 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1164-6

Strange cosmic coincidence: gamma-ray heartbeat puzzles scientists 

• Astronomers detected a cosmic gas cloud that beats with the rhythm of a black hole 100 light years apart, in a microquasar. 
• The microquasar is located in the Milky Way and consists of a giant star and a black hole. The cloud is located in the constellation Aquila.
• Previously published theoretical models did not predict such a result, which challenges common interpretations. 
• The study is led by a scientist from the DESY Laboratory in Hamburg and a researcher from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC). The results are published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Scientists have detected a mysterious gamma-ray heartbeat coming from a cosmic gas cloud. The unremarkable cloud, which is located in the constellation Aquila, is beating with the rhythm of a nearby black hole, indicating a connection between the two objects. The study, led by the DESY scientist Jian Li and ICREA Professor Diego F. Torres, a researcher from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), appears today in the journal Nature Astronomy. 

Researchers rigorously analysed more than ten years of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, looking at a so-called microquasar. Microquasars, the local siblings of extragalactic quasars, are binary systems comprising a compact object and a companion star. By collecting matter from their companions, microquasars launch powerful winds and jets, influencing the interstellar environment around them. The system observed in this study, catalogued as SS 433, is one of the most famous systems of its kind and even though it has been studied for decades it still surprises researchers. Located some 15,000 light years away, within the Milky Way, it consists of a giant star of about 30 times the mass of our Sun and a black hole of 10 to 20 solar masses. The two objects are orbiting each other while the black hole sucks matter from the giant star. 

“The material from the star accumulates in a disc around the black hole before falling into it like water in the whirl above the drain of a bathtub”, explains Li, a DESY researcher. “However, a part of that matter does not fall down the drain but shoots out at high speed in two narrow jets in opposite directions above and below the rotating disc”. “The accretion disc does not lie exactly in the plane of the orbit of the two objects but it sways like a spinning top that has been set up slanted on a table”, says Li. “As a consequence, the two jets spiral into the surrounding space, rather than just forming a straight line.” 

The sway of the black hole's jets makes a complete round in about 162 days. The high-speed particles and the ultra-strong magnetic fields in the jet produce X-rays and gamma rays, the latter being observed by the team. A meticulous analysis revealed one gamma-ray signal with the same period coming from an unremarkable gas cloud located relatively far from the microquasar's jets. The consistent periods indicate the gas cloud's emission is powered by the microquasar. 

“The timing signal we found provides an unambiguous connection between the microquasar and the cloud, separated by about 100 light years. This is as amazing as is intriguing, opening questions regarding how the black hole powers the cloud's heartbeat thus far”, says Torres, IEEC researcher at ICE-CSIC. An explanation that the team explored is based on the impact of fast protons produced at the ends of the jets, or near the black hole, that are injected into the cloud and hit the gas particles, producing gamma rays. Protons could also be part of an outflow of fast particles from the edge of the accretion disc. Whenever this outflow strikes the gas cloud, it lights up in gamma rays, explaining its strange heartbeat. “Energetically, the outflow from the disc could be as powerful as that of the jets and is believed to sway in solidarity with the rest of the system,” explains Torres. 

Further observations as well as theoretical work are required to explain the gamma-ray heartbeat of this unique system beyond this initial discovery. “SS 433 continues to amaze observers at all frequencies and theoreticians alike,” emphasises Li. “And it is certain to provide a test-bed for our ideas on cosmic-ray production and propagation near microquasars for years to come.” 
The research team led by Torres and Li is composed of international scientists from Spain (IEEC-ICE-CSIC), Germany (DESY), China (Nanjing University and Purple Mountain observatory) and USA (NRL). 

Instruments
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on 11 June 2008. Fermi has two gamma-ray instruments: the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). The LAT is a wide-field gamma-ray telescope. From the start of regular observations, LAT scans the sky, providing all-sky coverage every two orbits. The GBM is an all-sky monitor that detects transient events such as occultations and gamma-ray bursts. 
Diego F. Torres and Jian Li are Fermi-LAT members.

 Links
- IEEC
- ICE
- DESY

More information
This research is presented in a paper entitled “Gamma-ray heartbeat powered by the microquasar SS 433”, by Jian Li, D. F. Torres, Ruo-Yu Liu, Matthew Kerr, Emma de Oña Wilhelmi & Yang Su, that is published in the journal Nature Astronomy, 2020, on 17 August 2020.

The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC  — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) promotes and coordinates space research and technology development in Catalonia for the benefit of society. IEEC fosters collaborations both locally and worldwide and is an efficient agent of knowledge, innovation and technology transfer. As a result of over 20 years of high-quality research, done in collaboration with major international organisations, IEEC ranks among the best international research centers, focusing on areas such as: astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and Earth Observation. IEEC’s engineering division develops instrumentation for ground- and space-based projects, and has extensive experience in working with private or public organisations from the aerospace and other innovation sectors.  

IEEC is a private non-profit foundation, governed by a Board of Trustees composed of Generalitat de Catalunya and four other institutions that each have a research unit, which together constitute the core of IEEC R&D activity: the University of Barcelona (UB) with the research unit ICCUB — Institute of Cosmos Sciences; the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) with the research unit CERES — Center of Space Studies and Research; the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) with the research unit CTE — Research Group in Space Sciences and Technologies; the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) with the research unit ICE — Institute of Space Sciences. IEEC is integrated in the CERCA network (Centres de Recerca de Catalunya).

Contacts
IEEC Communication Office
Barcelona, Spain
Ana Montaner Pizà
E-mail: comunicacio@ieec.cat 

Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC)
Barcelona, Spain
Diego Torres
E-mail: dtorres@ice.csic.es

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
Hamburg, Germany
Jian Li
E-mail: jian.li@desy.de

Press Release created by the IEEC Comunication Office with the collaboration of Science Wave
 

Magnetic fields in molecular clouds play a crucial role in regulating flows of gas and the formation of stars. Far-infrared polarimetric observations obtained with the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) unveil the small-scale magnetic field structure within dense gas filaments, discovering a new transition in the relative orientation between the magnetic field and cloud structure. Gemma Busquet, a researcher from the Institute of Space Science (ICE-CSIC) comments these scientific results, published in Nature Astronomy by Pillai et al. (2020), within the News & Views section of Nature Astronomy [1]. The work by Pillai et al. [2] provides observational evidence for gravity entraining the frozen-in large-scale magnetic field and causing it to become parallel to the gas flow that is nurturing the forming star cluster. Such gravity-induced gas flows in filaments supports a scenario in which gravitational collapse and star cluster formation occur even in the presence of relatively strong magnetic fields.

References:
[1] Busquet, G., Nature Astronomy News & Views. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1180-6 (2020)
[2] Pillai, T., et al. Nature Astronomy. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1172-6 (2020)

• An investigation conducted by two researchers from the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), a research unit of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), has been published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters
• The researchers have found massive black holes in 37 dwarf galaxies and have identified active galactic nuclei not seen until now. These nuclei are similar to the seed black holes that produced the massive black holes
• The study constitutes the widest work so far done in dwarf galaxies using the integral field spectroscopy technique

A project conducted by the Institute of Space Science (ICE - CSIC), a research unit of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), has used the integral field spectroscopy technique (also known as IFU - integral field unit) to identify massive black holes in dwarf galaxies. The researchers have found 37 of these phenomena, 23 of which are new as evidence of their presence were not found in previous works of the same galaxies. This is the widest study ever done with this technique in dwarf galaxies. 

The analysis, published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is the widest study of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in dwarf galaxies ever done using the almost 5,000 observations of galaxies measured by MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) with the IFU technique.

An AGN is a compact area in the centre of a galaxy that emits energy in its central region, usually generated by a massive black hole, among other elements.

“Thanks to the observations with IFU we have been able to find AGNs that seemed to be hidden in previous works”, emphasises Mar Mezcua, an IEEC researcher at ICE-CSIC. 

The other co-author of the study and ICE-CSIC researcher, Helena Domínguez Sánchez, says: “The advantage of the IFU technique with respect to the classic observations with long-slit spectroscopy, that gives one spectrum per object, is that it allows us to obtain multiple spectra, sometimes more than one thousand per galaxy, in different regions”. “This way”, she adds, “we can study with much more detail the stellar populations, their gas and the kinematics of both.

The “light echo” from the black hole has been captured by the spectroscopy

From the 1,609 dwarf galaxies that have been studied, the researchers have found AGNs in 37 of them, 23 of which are new cases that had not been previously identified.

“The classic spectroscopy has the limitation that it detects only the dominant energy source”, clarifies Domínguez, “meaning that in galaxies where the energy emerging from the stellar formation dominates its total emission, the AGN would be left «hidden»”.

The factors that explain the difficulty of observing these nuclei could be related to their activity or their location. On one hand, it can be that the AGN is no longer active and the IFU technique detects its last emission, the “light echo”, generally very weak. On the other hand, the AGN can be active but outside the centre of the galaxy.  At the same time, it could be that the nucleus is active and in the centre of the galaxy, but the stellar emission from the central region is brighter than the active nucleus, which makes its observation more difficult.  

“With this investigacion we conclude that the IFU technique allows us to identify the last emission from nuclei that are no longer active, something that can not be done with other techniques”, says Mezcua. “Moreover, the active nuclei found are much weaker than those known until now”.

Searching for active nuclei in dwarf galaxies to understand the beginning of the Universe

These active nuclei could contain the vestiges of the first black holes formed in the early Universe, those which did not grow until becoming supermassive. The search for AGNs or massive black holes in dwarf galaxies allows us to increase our knowledge about the origin of the Universe, because they are considered to be the type of galaxies most similar to the first ones.

“It is believed that the black holes powering the AGNs are very similar to the seed black holes, the ones that were first formed”, notes Mezcua. The researcher adds that the scientific community considers that the supermassive black holes, those with one-million-times larger mass than that of the Sun, could have grown from these seed black holes.

Links
- IEEC
- ICE
- CSIC

More information
This research is presented in a paper entitled “Hidden AGN in dwarf galaxies revealed by MaNGA: light echoes, off-nuclear wanderers, and a new broad-line AGN”, by Mezcua, M. & Domínguez Sánchez, H., and it has appeared in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters,  2020, ApJL, 898, L30, on 28 July 2020. 
The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC  — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) promotes and coordinates space research and technology development in Catalonia for the benefit of society. IEEC fosters collaborations both locally and worldwide and is an efficient agent of knowledge, innovation and technology transfer. As a result of over 20 years of high-quality research, done in collaboration with major international organisations, IEEC ranks among the best international research centers, focusing on areas such as: astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and Earth Observation. IEEC’s engineering division develops instrumentation for ground- and space-based projects, and has extensive experience in working with private or public organisations from the aerospace and other innovation sectors.  
IEEC is a private non-profit foundation, governed by a Board of Trustees composed of Generalitat de Catalunya and four other institutions that each have a research unit, which together constitute the core of IEEC R&D activity: the University of Barcelona (UB) with the research unit ICCUB — Institute of Cosmos Sciences; the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) with the research unit CERES — Center of Space Studies and Research; the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) with the research unit CTE — Research Group in Space Sciences and Technologies; the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) with the research unit ICE — Institute of Space Sciences. IEEC is integrated in the CERCA network (Centres de Recerca de Catalunya).

Contacts
IEEC Communication Office
Barcelona, Spain
Ana Montaner Pizà
E-mail: comunicacio@ieec.cat 

Institute of Space Science (ICE - CSIC)
Barcelona, Spain
Mar Mezcua
E-mail: mezcua@ice.csic.es

Institute of Space Science (ICE - CSIC)
Barcelona, Spain
Helena Domínguez Sánchez
E-mail: dominguez@ice.csic.es



 

ESA’s Euclid mission to study more than a billion galaxies is a step closer to launch as its two instruments are now built and fully tested, including the complex Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) instrument delivered by an international consortium coordinated by France, with partners from Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Norway and the United States.

Once Euclid is launched from French Guiana in 2022, the NISP instrument will feed the world largest near infrared wide field camera put into space and will deliver near-infrared photometry, spectra and redshifts of tens of million distant galaxies providing a detailed description of the 3-dimensional structure of the Universe, and its evolution as function of look back time.

Euclid has a 1.2-metre mirror telescope that is designed to work at both visible and near- infrared wavelengths. It will collect light from distant cosmic objects and feed it into NISP and the second instrument, the VISible instrument (VIS), both working in parallel and observing the exact same regions of the sky at each exposure of the telescope.

Euclid will survey the 3-D distribution of galaxies and dark matter and map the geometry of the Universe with the aim of making accurate measurements of the mysterious Dark Matter and Dark Energy, which make up most of the cosmos. No-one yet knows what Dark Energy is, and Euclid will be the yet most powerful tool for cosmologists and astronomers looking to find out.

Dr Yannick Mellier (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS/Sorbonne Université and CEA/IRFU, Saclay), lead of the 1500-strong Euclid Consortium of which NISP is a part, said “Euclid will revolutionise our knowledge of the Universe by making the most accurate measurements of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, testing whether Einstein's theory of General Relativity requires modification, weighing neutrinos, and exploring the details of how galaxies evolve.”

NISP is composed of several subsystems that were designed, built, and tested by a team of astronomers and engineers from several laboratories of the Euclid Consortium with the help and supports from the Centre National d’Etudes Spatial (CNES, France), the Astronomy and Particle Physics Departments of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France),the Institute for Research on the Fundamental laws of the Universe (IRFU) Research Division of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA, France), the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI, Italy), the Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF, Italy), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN, Italy), the Deutsches Zentrum für LuftundRaumfahrt (DLR, Germany), the Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterestrische Physik (MPE, Germany), the Max-Plank-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA, Germany), the Ministerio de Economia y Competividad (MINECO, Spain), the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies - The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (IFAE-BIST, Spain) and the Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya - Institut of Space Science (IEEC-ICE-CSIC, Spain), Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena (Spain), the University of Oslo (UiO, Norway), the Norwegian Space Agency (Norway), the Niels Bohr institute (Denmark), the technical University of Denmark (DTU, Denmark), and NASA / JPL (USA).

Thierry Maciaszek (CNES/LAM), NISP instrument project manager, said, "The international NISP team in the Euclid Consortium and industries has made an incredible quasi perfect job to design, develop and test this challenging complex instrument. The delivery of NISP is however not the end of the story for the NISP team. Many major activities have to be completed with NISP at satellite level. We are looking forward to seeing the first light in flight demonstrating the excellent performances of the instrument."

NISP was designed, built and tested under the lead of the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM, France).
The NISP instrument consists of three main assemblies:

• The NISP Opto-Mechanical Assembly (cooled to 130K) made of:
  • A silicon carbid estructure, developed by LAM, with elements provided by UiO, supporting the different NISP subsystems and interfacing with the Euclid Payload module.
  • The NISP Optical Assembly (built by MPE) made of a Correction Lens and a 3-lens focusing optics.
  • Three near infrared Y, J, and H broad band filters (MPIA) are mounted on a dedicated rotating wheel (IFAE, IEEC, ICE-CSIC & CEA/Irfu).
  • Four near infrared grisms developed by LAM (grism is a grating and a prism used for spectrometry) are mounted on a dedicated rotating wheel (INAF and CEA/Irfu).
  • A calibration Unit having 5 near-infrared LEDs (MPIA).
• The NISP detector system, composed of:
  • 16 high quality detectors cooled to 95K (NASA/ESA).
  • 16 electronics dedicated to detector controlling (NASA/ESA) o A detector/electronic support structure (LAM).
• The NISP warm electronic units composed of:
  • The Instrument Control Unit (Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain). The software of the ICU is developed by INAF.
  • The Data Processing Unit managing the detector electronics and performing detectors onboard data processing (ASI, OHB-I, SAB,TEMIS). The software of the DPU has been developed by INAF.

The detector system has been deeply characterized in Europe by the Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM) and the Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon (IP2I).
The NISP integration and cold functional / performances tests were performed at LAM in a large cryochamber, in collaboration with all the partners. A complex optical setup has been developed by LAM and Niels Bohr / DTU institutes for the NISP cold performance verification. The NISP ground commanding setups are under INAF/INFN responsibility. The NISP vibration testing were done at the Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL, Belgium).

Dr Anne Ealet, NISP Spectroscopy Instrument Scientist said “NISP will provide the photometry of a billion distant galaxies in 3 photometric bands (Y, J, H) and the spectra of tens of millions distant galaxies using a slitless multi-object spectrograph”. “NISP will reveal the large-scale distribution of galaxies and how cosmic structures formed under the complex combined effects of gravity, dark matter, and dark energy over the last ten billion years” added Dr Knud Jahnke NISP Photometry Instrument Scientist.

The NISP instrument, which is being built by a consortium of nationally funded institutes led by the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) in France, is dedicated to making distance measurements and near infrared photometry of galaxies. With the VIS instrument, it will allow Euclid’s data to be turned into the largest, most accurate 3D survey of the Universe ever conducted.

Now that the instruments have been delivered to ESA, Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defense and Space, they will be integrated first with the telescope, and next with the rest of the payload module and the satellite, which will take several months to ensure everything is precisely aligned and electronically communicating.

It has been a long journey getting this far. Euclid was selected for implementation in 2011, having already undergone almost five years of studies. While there is still a lot of hard work and testing ahead, the delivery of the instruments and telescope means that the spacecraft is now really beginning to come together.

Notes to Editors
For more information or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact: NISP technical: Thierry Maciaszek (thierry.maciaszek@lam.fr / thierry.maciaszek@cnes.fr
NISP science: spectroscopy : Anne Ealet (anne.ealet@cppm.fr), Photometry : Knud Jahnke (jahnke@mpia.de)
For information about the Euclid Consortium or the Euclid mission please contact Audrey Le Reun (audrey.le_reun@iap.fr, +33 (0) 173 775 523) or Yannick Mellier (mellier@iap.fr).

Additional material

Websites:

• European Space Agency main site: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html
• European Space Agency Euclid site: http://sci.esa.int/science- e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=102
• Euclid Consortium main site: https://www.euclid-ec.org/
• CNES Space Agency site: https://cnes.fr/en
• ASI Space Agency site: https://www.asi.it
• DLR Space Agency site: https://www.dlr.de/EN/Home/home_node.html NASA Space Agency site: https://www.nasa.gov
• INAF site: http://www.inaf.it/it
• INFN site: https://www.infn.it
• CEA/Irfu site: http://irfu.cea.fr
• CNRS site: https://www.cnrs.fr
• CPPM site: https://www.cppm.in2p3.fr/web/en/index.html DTU site: https://www.dtu.dk/english
• Institut de Física d'Altes Energies: https://www.ifae.es
• Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya: https://www.ieec.cat
• Institute of Space Sciences, IEEC-CSIC site: https://www.ice.csic.es
• IP2I site: https://www.ip2i.in2p3.fr/?lang=en
• Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias site: https://www.iac.es/en
• JPL site: https://jpl.nasa.gov
• LAM site: https://www.lam.fr/?lang=en
• MINECO site: https://mineco.gob.es
• MPE site: http://www.mpe.mpg.de/main
• MPIA website: http://www.mpia.de/en
• Niels Bohr site: https://nbi.ku.dk
• Norwegian Space Agency site: https://www.romsenter.no
• Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena site: https://upct.es
• University of Oslo site: https://www.uio.no/english/