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Scientists are to build technologies to use and study nanoparticles in space pushing the limits of quantum technologies

Nanoparticles will be used as special sensors both on Earth and in space for example measuring gravity, the density of a high-up region of the atmosphere (known as the thermosphere), and to test the limits of the quantum superposition principle.

This research is commissioned by the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and involves the Universities of Strathclyde, Swansea and Warwick. It is known as Levitated Optomechanical Technologies In Space (LOTIS)

A UK-wide consortium is developing technologies to use nanoparticles as state-of-the-art sensors on small, shoebox-sized satellites known as CubeSats.

The Universities of Warwick, Swansea and Strathclyde have been awarded 250k to further research into nanoparticles and quantum physics in the application of space technology.

Recent advances in the field of levitated optomechanics (the motion of tiny particles held and measured in free space by laser light), have shown that nanoparticles can exhibit behaviours that are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics (a fundamental theory which describes how atoms and subatomic particles interact).

This has led to nanoparticles, which are a thousand times larger than an atom and a thousand times smaller than a single grain of sand, being investigated as new sensors in laboratory conditions. But scientists are yet to apply this to the real world and beyond.

Now, in an Enabling Technologies Programme funded by the UK Space Agency (UKSA), researchers are pushing the limits of quantum technology so that nanoparticles can be used as sensors in space. Levitated Optomechanical Technologies In Space (LOTIS) is an 18-month project to develop technologies to enable future space-borne devices using nanoparticles.

LOTIS will develop devices which are small, lightweight, and, rather than car-sized satellites, can fit on more compact nanosatellites the size of a shoebox, known as CubeSats. This approach dramatically lowers development and launch costs.

There are many applications for nanoparticles as sensors. Little is known of the density of the thermosphere a layer of the Earths atmosphere which begins around 80km above sea level, and this technology could shed detailed light on this. Determining the density of the region has spaceflight applications; understanding the drag experienced by satellites in orbit, helping to map their trajectories.

The project also aims to develop gravimeters (devices for measuring gravitational fields), which is especially useful back on Earth as a tool in geophysics and Earth observation. As gravity permeates through opaque objects, gravimeters can help map what is underneath the ground particularly useful for civil engineering or monitoring aquifers.

LOTIS will also underpin technologies for the proposed macroscopic quantum resonators (MAQRO) mission which seeks to test the predictions of quantum mechanics of increasingly larger objects, with greater masses. This is vital for understanding the validity of quantum mechanics which typically describes the behaviour of small objects, atoms and subatomic particles, but not objects larger than this.

Dr James Bateman, Physics, University of Swansea, said: I am thrilled to lead this UKSA project, which will create the necessary technologies to establish a functioning sensing platform for both space and terrestrial applications. Our team is comprised of experts in nanosatellites, quantum sensing, and experimental optomechanics, and this project will help to make levitated optomechanical sensors a reality.

Professor Animesh Datta, expert of Theoretical Physics at the University of Warwick, said: LOTIS is a concrete step towards the realisation of a new generation of experiments that will help shed light on the interface of quantum mechanics and gravity. I look forward to contributing to its success.

Quantum theorist Dr Daniel Oi, Physics, University of Strathclyde, added: We are developing highly sensitive sensors for satellites which are greatly reduced in size and able to perform measurements of the space environment. This is part of a wider, international quantum technology programme which will extend its applications from Earth and space bound applications.

Further details can be found here: https://levitation.wales

Image credit: Swansea University

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Notes to Editors:

University of Warwick press office contact:

Annie Slinn

Communications Officer |Press & Media Relations | University of WarwickLink opens in a new windowEmail: annie.slinn@warwick.ac.uk

22 June 2023

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Space tech to shrink as the limits of quantum physics are tested on ... - University of Warwick

One of the oldest known objects in the universe is wandering around the Milky Way.

Star cluster M92, a densely packed ball of stars roughly 27,000 light-years from Earth, is about 13.8 billion years old, researchers report in a paper submitted June 3 to arXiv.org. The newly refined age estimate makes this clump of stars nearly the same age as the universe.

Refining the ages of clusters like M92 can help put limits on the age of the universe itself. It can also help solve cosmic conundrums about how the universe evolved.

The age is on the edge of the age of the universe, as estimated by other groups, says astronomer Martin Ying of Dartmouth College. It helps us set the lower bound of the age of the universe. We dont expect M92 to be born before the universe, right?

Globular clusters like M92 are tight knots of stars that are thought to have all formed at the same time. That makes it easier for astronomers to measure the stars ages (SN: 7/23/21). Stars that are born at different masses have different fates: The big ones use up their fuel quickly and die young, and the small ones linger. Figuring out how many of the clusters stars have aged out of the main parts of their fuel-burning years gives a sense of when the whole cluster was born.

But those estimates rely on assumptions about how stellar evolution works. Ying and colleagues wanted to find an age measurement that would sidestep those assumptions.

Using a computer, the team created 20,000 synthetic stellar populations for M92, each for a different possible cluster age. They then compared the colors and brightnesses for each of these populations with Hubble Space Telescope observations of M92 and calculated the age that fit the collection best.

This isnt the first time astronomers have measured M92s age, but previous estimates relied on just one synthetic collection of stars. Comparing thousands of them reduced the uncertainty introduced by the assumptions baked into each one. The new technique reduced the uncertainty of the cluster age by about 50 percent, Ying says. The team found the cluster is 13.8 billion years old, give or take 750 million years. Thats strikingly close to the best estimate of the age of the universe: a smidge over 13.8 billion years, plus or minus 24 million years, according to the Planck satellites measurement of the first light emitted after the Big Bang (SN: 12/20/13).

The age of clusters like M92 is important partly because of a rising tension over how fast the universe is growing. Astronomers have known since the 1990s that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, thanks to a mysterious substance dubbed dark energy (SN: 8/25/22). But recent measurements of the rate of that expansion, a figure called the Hubble constant, disagree with each other (SN: 7/30/19).

One way around that tension is to accept a different age for the universe, says cosmologist and study coauthor Mike Boylan-Kolchin of the University of Texas at Austin.

We often think about it as, Moses came down from Mount Sinai with 13.8 billion years written on some tablets or something, but its not quite like that, he says. If one takes the Hubble tension seriously, then one also has to say we dont know the age of the universe that well.

Thats where M92 comes in. Before spacecraft measured the cosmos earliest light, globular cluster ages were the best way to place limits on the age of the universe. That practice had fallen out of fashion for a while, says cosmologist Wendy Freedman of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the new work.

But improvements in computing, theory, and measurements of the distances to clusters like M92 make it worth trying again.

The Hubble tension itself is a really challenging nut to crack, Freedman says. This measurement alone isnt precise enough to settle the debate. But the more kinds of constraints we have, the better, she says. Its showing a way for the future.

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A star cluster in the Milky Way appears to be as old as the universe - Science News Magazine

Molecular fossils found in ancient sedimentary rocks have unveiled a lost world of primitive eukaryotes that dominated aquatic ecosystems from at least 1.6 billion to 800 million years ago.

The findings, published June 7 in Nature, come from laboratory analyses of rock samples from around the world that revealed remnants of primitive compounds called protosteroids. The majority of these molecules, which form in the process of creating steroids, were likely produced by primordial eukaryotes, relatively complex life-forms that today include animals, plants, algae and fungi, the researchers say.

Almost all eukaryotes produce molecules called steroids, like cholesterol, that are crucial components of cell membranes. Steroids dont degrade easily and their remnants can be detected in sedimentary rocks as molecular fossils.

The last common ancestor of all eukaryotes lived around 1.2 billion to more than 1.8 billion years ago. But scientists know almost nothing about the abundance, ecology and habitats of those early microorganisms. Molecular and physical fossils of eukaryotes dated to 800 million years ago have been found. But farther back in time, their physical fossils become scarce and molecular fossils of the steroids become undetectable. The existence of protosteroids had been predicted but it was unclear what they would look like or if they could even be detected until the researchers figured out a way to re-create those molecular footprints in the lab.

This study explains why we dont see footprints of these guys in the rocks, as researchers were looking for the wrong thing, says biologist Laura Katz, a biologist at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., who was not involved with the new work. It fills a void in the fossil records.

A dearth of obvious eukaryote fossils before 800 million years ago led scientists to speculate that the ecosystem at that time was dominated by bacteria. Alternatively, primordial eukaryotes may have simply lacked strength in numbers to leave behind detectable steroid remnants.

Some scientists had a different explanation: What if some intermediate molecule in the chemical pathway that produces modern steroids was actually the end product of the process in primordial eukaryotes? This theory had been proposed by the biochemist Konrad Bloch, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1964 for discovering the biosynthetic pathway of cholesterol.

To test this, geochemist Jochen Brocks of the Australian National University in Canberra and colleagues artificially matured molecules made in the first few steps of steroid biosynthesis, including lanosterol and cycloartenol. That revealed what the compounds molecular fossils would look like. Then the researchers looked for these fossils in tarlike bitumens and oils extracted from ancient rocks from all over the world.

The researchers discovered a deluge of the protosteroids in samples ranging from deep to relatively shallow water environments. The oldest sample, dating back to 1.6 billion years ago, came from the Barney Creek Formation in Australia.

One of the greatest puzzles of early evolution is, why didnt our highly capable eukaryotic ancestors come to dominate the worlds ancient waterways? Where were they hiding? says Benjamin Nettersheim, a geobiologist at University of Bremen in Germany. We show that the protosteroid-producing microorganisms were hiding in plain sight and were in fact abundant in the worlds ancient oceans and lakes all along.

While most bacteria produce a different molecule, called hopanoids, some bacteria also have the chemical tools to kick-start protosteroid production. But these bacteria exist in niche environments, such as methane seeps and hydrothermal vents. And their molecular footprints have not been found in sediments older than 800 million years, leading the researchers to conclude that eukaryotes dominated the ancient ecosystems.

Konrad Bloch would have been delighted, had he lived, to see this, says MIT geobiologist Roger Summons, who wasnt involved in the study. This paper has elegantly confirmed his prediction that biosynthetic precursors to cholesterol reflect ancient lifes quest for improvement. (Bloch died in 2000.)

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Making these steroid precursors requires less oxygen and energy, so that may have given the primordial eukaryotes an advantage in thriving in early Earths harsh low oxygen conditions, the researchers propose (SN: 10/30/15).

If true, [this study] suggests that we may be able to examine the stepwise evolution of eukaryotes at [an] unprecedented level of detail, says evolutionary biologist Yosuke Hoshino of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, who was not involved in the study. This is such a great opportunity to understand the evolution of complex life, which biologists have always dreamed of.

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1.6-billion-year-old steroid fossils hint at a lost world of microbial life - Science News Magazine