Thomas Zurbuchen

Dec 23, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Thomas Zurbuchen

There is a joke at NASA that says missions are deliberately planned so key milestones fall on or around big holidays. I've heard that grumpy science reporters often refer to the pattern with the hashtag #NASAHatesHolidays. Juno pulled into orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016; InSight landed on Mars just after Thanksgiving in 2018; the James Webb Space Telescope launched on Dec. 25, 2021; and 56 years ago, the Apollo 8 crew snapped the famed "Earthrise" image on Christmas Eve 1968.

Oct 1, 2024 | scientificamerican.com | Thomas Zurbuchen

The moon is our closest celestial neighbor—and a prize to be won. It has already served as a battleground for one of history’s most epic technological triumphs, the race between the U.S. and the Soviets that put footprints and flags on the lunar surface. In 1969 the U.S. won that battle with NASA’s Apollo program and its “giant leap for mankind,” emerging as the clear leader in human space exploration. Now a new race for lunar dominance is taking flight.

Aug 18, 2024 | wired.jp | Thomas Zurbuchen

太陽は全宇宙のなかで最も観察が進んでいる星だ。 わたしたちは毎日、その光を浴びている。何世紀にもわたって、科学者たちは太陽の輝く表面に浮かびあがる黒点を追ってきたし、近年では宇宙や地表に設置された望遠鏡が、電磁スペクトルを計測し太陽光線の波長を精査している。さまざまな実験により、太陽の大気構成の推測、強い太陽風の観測、太陽ニュートリノや高エネルギー粒子の収集、太陽の磁場の地図作成といった試みにも成功してきた。ただし、極地についてはまだあまり観測が進んでおらず、今後その研究が太陽内部の磁気構造を知るためのカギになってくるだろう。 多くの観測が進むなかで、非常に重要な疑問が、なぜかまったく解明されずに残っている。太陽の表面温度は、6,000℃とかなり高い。ところがコロナと呼ばれる太陽の外層大気では、表面温度を100万℃も上回る、とんでもなく高い数値が観測される。それはなぜなのか？...

Aug 2, 2024 | scientificamerican.com | Thomas Zurbuchen |Nadia Drake

In July NASA announced its intent to erase its planned VIPER lunar rover from its roster of robotic explorers. Slated to launch in 2025, the rover’s primary job was to study water ice near the moon’s south pole. For the first time, scientists would measure from the lunar surface how much ice might be tucked beneath shadowed soils, and see how deep that ice goes and whether it comes in chunks or cubes or if it clings in minuscule amounts to tiny dust grains.

May 13, 2024 | wired.me | Thomas Zurbuchen

|     Science     |    3m ago The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface. NASA sent a probe to find out why—by getting closer to the star than ever before. THE ORIGINAL VERSION of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Our sun is the best-observed star in the entire universe. We see its light every day.