Searching the skies to keep us all alive

JWST has found signs of an essential carbon molecule in a planet-forming disk. Methenium, also known as the methyl cation, is a carbon compound thought to play an important role in organic chemistry by building more complex carbon molecules, which are foundational to life as we know it. JWST once again proved its astonishing sensitivity when it detected methenium in a protoplanetary disk in the Orion Nebula. Pictured: The location of the protoplanetary disk within the Orion Nebula. Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani, the PDRs4All ERS Team.

Researchers have found an object that blurs the line between planet and star. The object is a brown dwarf, a class of celestial objects that typically is hotter than planets but cooler than the coolest red dwarf stars. This particular brown dwarf has temperatures hotter than those of the Sun, although just on one side. This is because that side faces a very nearby white dwarf star. This new discovery is shedding light on classes of objects that defy our usual categorization.

ESA is taking big steps to reduce orbital debris. The European Space Agency and three European satellite manufacturers recently announced plans to address the issue of potentially dangerous debris in Earth orbit. They are developing a Zero Debris Charter that will hold signatories responsible for deorbiting their satellites at the end of their operating lives.

Mars Sample Return is facing challenges. The NASA program — which aims to collect and return to Earth the samples of Martian regolith that the Perseverance rover has been selecting and caching — is undergoing a second independent review amid growing cost estimates and daunting technical and managerial challenges. Planetary Society Chief of Space Policy Casey Dreier unpacks the issue and explains how it could affect other planetary science missions. Pictured: An illustration of the various elements of the overall Mars Sample Return effort. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

There’s an important asteroid-hunting mission that needs your help. NEO Surveyor would complement ground-based asteroid hunting work by looking for near-Earth objects from a place in space, aiming to find 90% of "city-killer"-sized asteroids within a decade. If you live in the United States you can send a pre-written letter to your representatives in Congress, asking them to support funding for this essential planetary defense mission.

The Sun has it all: power, beauty, and mystery. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which has been studying the Sun from a closer position than any previous mission ever has, is working to reduce some of that mysteriousness. James Drake from the University of Maryland joins this week’s Planetary Radio to talk about the latest results from the probe, particularly about the mystery of fast solar wind.