SPECIAL NEWS
New measurements from a NASA satellite show a dramatic cooling in the upper atmosphere that correlates with the declining activity of the current solar cycle. For the first time, researchers can show a timely link between the Sun and the climate of Earth's thermosphere, the region above 100 km, an essential step in making accurate predictions of climate change in the high atmosphere. This finding also correlates with a fundamental prediction of climate change theory that says the upper atmosphere will cool in response to increasing carbon dioxide.
Earth's thermosphere and mesosphere have been the least explored regions of the atmosphere, in fact some have called it the "ignorosphere." The NASA Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission was developed to explore the Earth's atmosphere above 60 km altitude and was launched in December 2001. One of four instruments on the TIMED mission, the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument, was specifically designed to measure the energy budget of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The SABER dataset now covers eight years of data and has already provided some basic insight into the heat budget of the thermosphere on a variety of timescales.
The extent of current solar minimum conditions has created a unique situation for recent SABER datasets. The end of solar cycle 23 has offered an opportunity to study the radiative cooling in the thermosphere under exceptionally quiescent conditions.
"The Sun is in a very unusual period," said Marty Mlynczak, SABER associate principal investigator and senior research scientist at NASA Langley. "The Earth's thermosphere is responding remarkably — up to an order of magnitude decrease in infrared emission/radiative cooling by some molecules."
The TIMED measurements show a decrease in the amount of ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Sun. In addition, the amount of infrared radiation emitted from the upper atmosphere by nitric oxide molecules has decreased by nearly a factor of 10 since early 2002. These observations imply that the upper atmosphere has cooled substantially since then. The research team expects the atmosphere to heat up again as solar activity starts to pick up in the next year.
While this warming has no implications for climate change in the troposphere, a fundamental prediction of climate change theory is that the upper atmosphere will cool in response to increasing carbon dioxide. Emissions of carbon dioxide may warm the lower atmosphere, but they cool the upper atmosphere, because of the density of the atmospheric layer.
As the atmosphere cools the density will increase, which ultimately may impact satellite operations through increased drag over time.
The SABER dataset is the first global, long-term, and continuous record of the Nitric oxide (NO) and Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the thermosphere.
"We suggest that the dataset of radiative cooling of the thermosphere by NO and CO2 constitutes a first climate data record for the thermosphere," says Mlynczak.
The TIMED data provide a fundamental climate data record for validation of upper atmosphere climate models which is an essential step in making accurate predictions of climate change in the high atmosphere. SABER provides the first long-term measurements of natural variability in key terms of the upper atmosphere climate. As the TIMED mission continues, these data derived from SABER will become important in assessing long term changes due to the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco.
Source: NASA Langley
Filed under: Earth Observation, Environment
Tags: atmosphere
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SOFIA Seeks Secrets of Planetary Birth
(from NASA)
Short for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA will observe the universe while gliding through the stratosphere at 45,000 feet. When it begins operations next year, it will be the world's biggest, most advanced airborne observatory.
Right: NASA's SOFIA infrared observatory 747SP overflies its home, the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. Credit: NASA/Jim Ross.
"SOFIA is set to achieve some spectacular science," says project scientist Pamela Marcum. "For instance, this telescope will help us figure out how planets form and how our own solar system came to be."
And as a mobile observatory, it can fly anywhere, anytime. SOFIA can move into position to capture especially interesting astronomical events such as stellar occultations (when celestial objects cross in front of background stars), while ground-based telescopes fastened to the "wrong" geographic locations on Earth's surface miss the show. SOFIA will fly above the veil of water vapor1 that surrounds Earth to take a wide-eyed look at the cosmos.
Below: (Left) SOFIA's 2.5-meter infrared telescope peers out from its cavity in the rear fuselage. (Right) A close-up of the German-built telescope assembly. Photo credit: NASA/Tom Tschida. Larger images: #1, #2.
Although our galaxy teems with planetary systems, astronomers don't know exactly how they form. That's because ordinary telescopes can't see through the giant, dense clouds of gas and dust that spawn planets. Using infrared wavelengths, SOFIA can pierce the haze and watch the birthing process – showing scientists how molecules come together to construct worlds.
"SOFIA will be able to locate the 'planetary snowline,' where water vapor turns to ice in the disk of dust and gas around young stars," says Marcum. "That's important because we think that's where gas giants are born. The most massive planetary cores are fashioned [around the snowline] because conditions are best for rock and ice to build up." (Sticky ice particles help form planets just as they help you make a snowball to hurl at an unsuspecting friend.)
"Once a large enough core forms, its gravity becomes strong enough to hold on to gas so more hydrogen and helium molecules can 'stick.' Then these large cores can grow into gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. Otherwise, they remain as smaller rock-ice planets."
Right: An artist's concept of a protoplanetary disk where young planets are being born. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
"SOFIA will also be able to pinpoint where basic building blocks like oxygen, methane, and carbon dioxide2 are located within the protoplanetary disk."
Knowing where various substances are located in the disk will cast light on how they come together, from the "ground" up, to form planets.
One of the telescope's key strengths is its ability to complement other infrared observatories. With a 20-year lifetime, it can do follow up studies on objects shorter-lived infrared scopes don't have time to hone in on. If, for example, an orbiting observatory like WISE spots something deserving of more attention, SOFIA can move in for a long, slow look, while WISE continues gazing at the rest of the sky.
(Note: For more information about WISE, check out the recent Science@NASA story "In Search of Dark Asteroids and Other Sneaky Things.")
"WISE is designed to scan the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, gathering survey data for multitudes of objects rather than studying targeted objects in great depth," explains Marcum. "But SOFIA has time to spare for deeper studies."
Below: To illustrate how infrared sensors can see things the human eye cannot, Marcum offers these white light vs. IR images of a warm-blooded dog and a cold-blooded lizard. [larger image]
SOFIA can also do follow-up science to reap the full benefits of discoveries from Herschel's deep spatial surveys, and later, the James Webb Space Telescope's near- to mid-infrared investigations.
"Once Herschel runs out of its 3-year supply of coolant, SOFIA will be the only observatory routinely providing coverage within the far-infrared to submillimeter wavelength range. This part of the spectrum is largely unexplored territory."
"And although SOFIA covers the same part of the spectrum James Webb (JWST) covers, SOFIA is optimized for wavelengths just beyond JWST to complement its observations. SOFIA will do a bang-up job observing between the JWST and Herschel wavelength gap."
Unlike these space-based scopes, SOFIA can "head back to the barn" periodically for instruments to be repaired, adjusted, or even swapped out for new and improved science instruments – keeping pace with cutting edge science from a "mere" airplane.
Author: Dauna Coulter | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
footnotes and more information
For more information on SOFIA's science mission, see http://www.sofia.usra.edu.
Footnotes:
1The veil of water vapor enveloping Earth acts like an invisible "brick wall" to the infrared energy from cosmic objects, absorbing most all of it. The energy journeys millions of light years only to be stopped by our planet's atmosphere within 5 miles of reaching us. SOFIA solves this problem by viewing the heavens from "above the veil" – something ground-based scopes can’t do. Like SOFIA, space-based telescopes collect the infrared energy before it reaches Earth.
2SOFIA has an exceptional ability to finely separate out and distinguish different infrared wavelengths, allowing it to capture these spectra.
More information:
* SOFIA is a joint program between NASA and the German Space Agency, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Bonn, Germany. The SOFIA program is managed by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.; the aircraft is based at the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility, Palmdale, Calif. NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Md., and the Deutsches SOFIA Institute, Stuttgart, Germany.
* Plans are in the works for writers and teachers to be invited to join scientists with SOFIA up where the air is thin.
* How do you keep a telescope still enough to point accurately and stay "on point" in a moving airplane? "First, SOFIA's plane will fly in the relatively stable stratosphere," says Marcum. "Also, we have a clever vibration isolation system. The mirror is mechanically isolated from the plane. Shock absorbers, serving the same purpose as those found in a automobile, surround the giant bearing that bears the telescope's weight, isolating the mirror from vibration in all directions."
THE ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY FOR 2009 October 28
JKCS041: The Farthest Galaxy Cluster Yet Measured - 9 Billion LY
Credit: X-ray: NASA, CXC, INAF, S. Andreon et al.; Optical: DSS, ESO/VLT
Explanation: What if we could see back to the beginning of the universe? We can -- since it takes the age of the universe for light to cross the universe. Peering at distant objects, therefore, tells us about how the universe used to be, even near its beginning. Since telescopes are therefore also time portals, observations of distant clusters can be used, for example, to investigate when and how these huge galaxy conglomerations formed. Previously, the redshift record for a galaxy cluster was about 1.5, corresponding to about NINE BILLION light years distant. Recently, using data including X-ray images from the orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory, a new farthest cluster was identified. Shown above, JKCS041 is seen at Redshift 1.9, corresponding to nearly one billion light years farther than the previous record holder. The hot X-ray gas that confirmed the apparent galaxy grouping as a true cluster of galaxies is shown above in diffuse blue, superposed on an optical image showing many foreground stars. JKCS041 is seen today as it appeared at only one quarter of the present age of the universe.
THE STORY BELOW IS ABOUT AN ASTRONOMICAL CRIME THAT TOOK PLACE IN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS:
Thieves Make Off with SA's Largest Telescope
05:35 PM CDT on Thursday, October 8, 2009
James Muñoz / KENS 5
An 11-foot telescope was stolen from the home of a San Antonio astronomer Wednesday night Oct.7 or early Thursday Oct. 8.
Bryan Tobias
Bryan Tobias, former Chairman of the San Antonio Astronomical Association, said the telescope is to the largest telescope in San Antonio. Tobias says the stolen telescope is one of only twelve that were ever built, and is valued at over $20,000. He purchased the telescope only last year, and used it to educate the public about astronomy and space science.
In fact, it was last used Wednesday evening to make a presentation to children who might be interested in pursuing careers in space science.
A special white cargo trailer was designed to haul the huge telescope to public school events and other educational venues in the San Antonio area. That is where the telescope was stored at the time of the theft.
The telescope, along with the trailer, a 1996 Ford F-150 (used to pull the trailer) and a white Chevrolet suburban were all reported stolen either late Wednesday night, or early Thursday morning from Tobias' home near Jones Maltsberger and Morning Trail. The license plate for the trailer is 90ZVVV.
To Watch the Video Click on the Line Below:
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News Release
My Moon Campaign set to launch UNdeclared World Space Week
My Moon Campaign is the first joint effort of the Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP), one of the Cornerstones of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), and the World Space Week Association (WSWA), a global celebration of space taking place between October
4th & 10th every year. In 2009 several important dates are marked including the 400th anniversary of Galileos observations, 150 years of Charles Darwins Origin of Species, and the 40th anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing. The Moon is the ideal target for this campaign as it presents a perfect link between all these important turning points in science history.
Students around the world will engage in the study of several different aspects of the Moon, using whatever means they have available to reach this purpose: naked eye observations, small telescopes, binoculars, astrophotography, robotic telescopes, webcams, image databases, imagination, and creativity. They will then submit a report, present a project, an essay, anything and everything that will make our natural satellite worthy of being called My Moon by the student.
During World Space Week a forum will be opened to connect classrooms from around the world, giving students the opportunity to interact with astronomers and space scientists. The My Moon Campaign builds up to fellow IYA2009 Cornerstone project Galilean Nights, where over three nights students, astronomers and enthusiasts will share their knowledge for the Universe by encouraging as many people as possible to look through telescopes. Students will be participating in several initiatives:
· The Great World Wide Star Count, a project which invites everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations, and report what they see online in a global effort to monitor the ecological effects of light pollution.
· You are Galileo, a project devoted to excite participants in the recreation of Galileos discoveries.
· An astrophotography campaign.
· And many other very challenging ideas.
Rosa Doran, GTTP Chair, elaborates: The Galileo Teacher Training Program, one of the Cornerstones of IYA2009, aims to create a worldwide network of Galileo Teachers trained in the effective use and transfer of astronomy education tools and resources into classroom science curricula. Through workshops, online training tools and basic education kits, the products and techniques developed by this programme can be adapted to reach locations with few resources of their own, as well as computer-connected areas that can take advantage of access to robotic optical and radio telescopes, webcams, astronomy exercises, cross-disciplinary resources, image processing and digital universes such as web and desktop planetaria. With the objective of further inspiring Galileo Teachers in the use of modern resources for science education GTTP will invite educators to participate in programmes and campaigns such as the World Space Week. This is the first joint GTTP and World Space Week effort and we hope to keep on building on the good experience this campaign will bring and suggestions we hope to receive.
My Moon Campaign begins 4 October and ends 10 November and offers the following:
Prizes that can be won:
- For teachers, World Teachers Day falls on 5 October within World Space Week.
Educational Awards of $500 are available for the most creative use of space in the classroom.
- For students, books, DVDs, models of the Apollo lander and the International Space Station, and other prizes especially made available by the European Space Agency.
- For the class as a whole, you can participate in a Virtual Telescope session with guidance and presentation by Dr. Gianluca Masi. The Virtual Telescope will also have interactive sessions during Galilean Nights (22-24 October).
All projects should be submitted by e-mail to: gttp-event@worldspaceweek.org and info@galileoteachers.org. The deadline of entering into the competition is 10 November.
Send us your class creation and win prizes! Please include the name of your school, class and your teachers name. Also mention your location (city and country). There shall be only one entry per class. This means your class has to work as a team and/or make a team decision to send the best creation or make a compilation. Each class will receive a participation certificate and as we will put up a gallery on our website, all entries will get global recognition!
The following tasks are proposed. Suggested resources to assist educators and students in all these tasks can be found on the GTTP webpage devoted to the My Moon Campaign.
1) Observe the Moon: by naked eye, small telescopes, robotic telescopes, webcams, cameras, image databases, and so on.
Suggestion of projects to be submitted: sketch of the Moon done by hand, Moon pictures, pictures / drawings, tales.
2) Exploring the Moon
Suggested Projects: write an essay / produce a presentation on the importance of space exploration, make a drawing or a picture of the Moon as you observed it and identify features on the Moon, identify the Apollo Landing spots, measure Moon craters and find one with the same size of your city, propose an exploration mission.
3) Faces and phases of the Moon
Suggested Projects: write a tale explaining the phases and faces of the Moon. Write an essay / produce a presentation on what we know about the far side of the Moon. Build a model to help explain the phases of the Moon and the synchronous rotation. Build an activity using Stellarium or Celestia to explain the different views of the Moon in different parts of the world.
4) Size of the Moon and the eclipses
Suggested Projects: write a tale explaining why eclipses happen. Write an essay / produce a presentation rebuilding the history of mens perception of what eclipses are. Build a selection of digital images using Celestia or Stellarium reproducing a solar and a lunar eclipse from different points of observation on Earth, Moon and Sun.
5) The Moons importance for life on Earth
Suggested Projects: write an essay / produce a presentation spotting the relevant aspects of our natural satellite that makes it so important to life on Earth. Write an essay / produce a presentation exploring the possibilities of life existing elsewhere in the Solar System.
6) Moon exploration in our daily lives
Suggested Projects: produce a video in your school selecting everything whose development started in space exploration. Write an essay / produce a presentation on the impact of astronomy and space exploration in our daily lives.
7) Careers and technology transfer in space exploration
Suggested Projects: write an essay / produce a presentation on all possible careers a student might choose related to space exploration. Write an essay / produce a presentation on how industry largely benefits from space exploration.
Notes for Editors:
World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition. The United Nations General Assembly declared in 1999 that World Space Week will be held each year from October 4-10.
World Space Week is celebrated all over the world and is open to all government agencies, industry, non-profit organizations, teachers, or even individuals can organize events to celebrate space. This week is coordinated by the United Nations with the support of World Space Week Association and local coordinators in many countries. As the theme of World Space Week 2009 is "Space for Education" we encourage in particular the participation of educational establishments to join us in celebrating our 10th Anniversary.
The Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) is a Cornerstone project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009). This celebration of astronomy and its contribution to science and society aims to boost the quality of education for children and young adults and GTTP is at the forefront of these efforts. The core concept is that by training teachers better, and equipping them with the right resources to tackle astronomy in the classroom, the effect will be significant and long-lasting, enduring far beyond 2009.
Links
Galileo Teacher Training Program website: http://www.galileoteachers.org
World Space Week : http://www.worldspaceweek.org
Great World Wide Star Count website: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/starcount/
Galilean Nights: http://www.galileannights.org/
You are Galileo: http://www-irc.mtk.nao.ac.jp/~webadm/Galileo-E/index.php
My Moon Campaign Forum: http://groups.google.co.uk/group/my-moon
For more information:
Rosa Doran
Galileo Teacher Training Program Chair
Email: rosa.doran@nuclio.pt
Alexandra Ruths
Media Director, World Space Week Association
Email: aruths@worldspaceweek.org
Rosa Doran
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August 14th, 2009
From SPACEWEATHER.COM Written by Nancy Atkinson
Planetary nebula – the glowing gaseous shells thrown off by stars during the latter stages of their evolution – were thought to only form around stars the size of our Sun or smaller. Although astronomers had predicted these shells should form around "heavier" stars, none had ever been detected. Until now. An international team of scientists has discovered a new class of object which they call “Super Planetary Nebulae,” found around stars up to 8 times the mass of the Sun.
“This came as a shock to us,” said Miroslav Filipovic from the University of Western Sydney “as no one expected to detect these object at radio wavelengths and with the present generation of radio telescopes. We have been holding up our findings for some 3 years until we were 100% sure that they are indeed Planetary Nebulae”.
The team surveyed the Magellanic Clouds, the two companion galaxies to the Milky Way, with radio telescopes of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Australia Telescope National Facility. They noticed that 15 radio objects in the Clouds match with well known planetary nebulae observed by optical telescopes.
The new class of objects are unusually strong radio sources and are associated with larger original stars (progenitors), up to 8 times the mass of the Sun. The nebular material around each star may have as much as 2.6 times the mass of the Sun.
Filipovic's team argues that the detections of these new objects may help to solve the so called “missing mass problem” – the absence of planetary nebulae around central stars that were originally 1 to 8 times the mass of the Sun. Up to now most known planetary nebulae have central stars and surrounding nebulae with respectively only about 0.6 and 0.3 times the mass of the Sun but none have been detected around more massive stars.
Some of the 15 newly discovered planetary nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds are 3 times more luminous than any of their Milky Way cousins. But to see them in greater detail astronomers will need the power of a coming radio telescope – the Square Kilometre Array planned for the deserts of Western Australia.
The scientist's paper appears in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Image caption above: An optical image from the 0.6-m University of Michigan/CTIO Curtis Schmidt telescope of the brightest Radio Planetary Nebula in the Small Magellanic Cloud, JD 04. The inset box shows a portion of this image overlaid with radio contours from the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The planetary nebula is a glowing record of the final death throes of the star. (Optical images are courtesy of the Magellanic Cloud Emission Line Survey (MCELS) team).
Source: RAS
Filed under: Astronomy
Related stories on Universe Today
August 12th, 2009
Artist's impression of two close extra-solar planets.
Credit: KASI/CBNU/ARCSEC.
Planet hunters from the UK have discovered the largest exoplanet yet, and its uniqueness doesn't end there. Dubbed WASP-17, this extra large world is twice the size of Jupiter but is super-lightweight, "as dense as expanded polystyrene" one astronomer said. Plus it is going the wrong way around its home sun, making it the first exoplanet known to have a retrograde orbit. As a likely a victim of planetary billiards, astronomers say this unusual planet casts new light on how planetary systems form and evolve.
Filed under: Extrasolar Planets | 5 Comments »
Newfound Planet Orbits Backwards
Jeanna Bryner and Robert Roy Britt
SPACE.com Jeanna Bryner And Robert Roy Britt
space.com – Wed 2009 Aug 12, 11:21 am ET
Planets orbit stars in the same direction that the stars rotate. They all do. Except one.
A newfound planet orbits the wrong way, backward compared to the rotation of its host star. Its discoverers think a near-collision may have created the retrograde orbit, as it is called.
The star and its planet, WASP-17, are about 1,000 light-years away. The setup was found by the UK's Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) project in collaboration with Geneva Observatory. The discovery was announced today but has not yet been published in a journal.
"I would have to say this is one of the strangest planets we know about," said Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at MIT who was not involved in the discovery.
What's going on
A star forms when a cloud of gas and dust collapses. Whatever movement the cloud had becomes intensified as it condenses, determining the rotational direction of the star. How planets form is less certain. They are, however, known to develop out of the leftover, typically disk-shaped mass of gas and dust that swirls around a newborn star, so whatever direction that material is moving, which is the direction of the star's rotation, becomes the direction of the planet's orbit.
WASP-17 likely had a close encounter with a larger planet, and the gravitational interaction acted like a slingshot to put WASP-17 on its odd course, the astronomers figure.
"I think it's extremely exciting. It's fascinating that we can study orbits of planets so far away," Seager told SPACE.com. "There's always theory, but there's nothing like an observation to really prove it."
Cosmic collisions are not uncommon. Earth's moon was made when our planet collided with a Mars-sized object, astronomers think. And earlier this week NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence of two planets colliding around a distant, young star. Some moons in our solar system are on retrograde orbits, perhaps at least in some cases because they were flying through space alone and then captured; that's thought to be the case with Neptune's large moon Triton.
The find was made by graduate students David Anderson at Keele University and Amaury Triaud of the Geneva Observatory.
Bloated world
WASP-17 is about half the mass of Jupiter but bloated to twice its size. "This planet is only as dense as expanded polystyrene, 70 times less dense than the planet we're standing on," said professor Coel Hellier of Keele University.
The bloated planet can be explained by a highly elliptical orbit, which brings it close to the star and then far away. Like exaggerated tides on Earth, the tidal effects on WASP-17 heat and stretch the planet, the researchers suggest.
The tides are not a daily affair, however. "Instead it's creating a huge amount of friction on the inside of the planet and generating a lot of energy, which might be making the planet big and puffy," Seager said.
WASP-17 is the 17th extrasolar planet found by the WASP project, which monitors hundreds of thousands of stars, watching for small dips in their light when a planet transits in front of them. NASA's Kepler space observatory is using the same technique to search for Earth-like worlds.
Original Story: Newfound Planet Orbits Backward
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Long solar minimum explained - and rise in sunspots imminent?
While some are already speculating about a defective solar dynamo and a new Maunder minimum upon us, real solar physicists have taken data instead on what's really going on underneath the solar photosphere. And on June 17 they've come up with answers. Scientists from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, have discovered that a solar jet stream deep inside the Sun is migrating slower than usual through the star's interior, giving rise to the current lack of sunspots and low solar activity. They used long-term observations from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) facility to detect and track an east-to-west jet stream, known as the "torsional oscillation", at depths of ~1000 to 7000 km below the surface of the Sun. The Sun generates new jet streams near its poles every 11 years; the streams migrate slowly, over a period of 17 years, to the equator, and are associated with the production of sunspots once they reach a critical latitude of 22 degrees.
The researchers found that the stream associated with the new solar cycle has moved sluggishly, taking three years to cover a 10 degree range in latitude compared to two years for the last solar cycle, but has now reached the critical latitude. The current solar minimum has become so long and deep, some scientists have speculated the Sun might enter a long period with no sunspot activity at all. The new result both shows that the Sun's internal magnetic dynamo continues to operate, and heralds the beginning of a new cycle of solar activity. Just as this sluggish stream reaches the usual active latitude of 22°, a year late, we finally begin to see new groups of sunspots emerging at the new active latitude. Since the current minimum is now one year longer than usual, the extended solar minimum phase may have resulted from the slower migration of the flow.
AURORA SURPRISE: Sometimes the auroras are so bright, you just can't sleep. "I was up all night on July 21st, but it was totally worth it!" says photographer Zoltan Kenwell of Chip Lake, Alberta. This is what kept him awake:
"It was a very impressive show that lasted 4.5 hours!" says Kenwell.
Forecasters did not predict this display. It began on when a seemingly minor solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field. The minor hit turned into a not-so-minor display because a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to pour in and fuel the storm. Northern Lights descended as far south as the Dakotas, Montana, Iowa and Wisconsin. The solar wind is still blowing, but the crack has closed, bringing an end to the lights. Until next time, browse the gallery:
UPDATED: July 2009 Aurora Gallery
[previous Julys: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003]
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MANY MORE ECLIPSE PHOTOS AT Left Menu - SEE July 22 Solar Eclipse
From Donald Gardner in Huangshan, China - A Good Coronal Shot
The Eclipse Chaser: We Have an Eclipse! From China
By Jay M. Pasachoff Eclipse and Solar Expert from Williams College - Veteran of 50 Solar Expeditions
J
Photo by Jay M. Pasachoff The total solar eclipse, seen from the mountains of China.
The longest total solar eclipse this century started in India, sweeping east across China and into the Pacific Ocean. Blogging about the event for TierneyLab is Jay M. Pasachoff, a Williams College astronomer who is chasing the eclipse from a mountain outside Hangzhou, China.
9:49 a.m. Wednesday 2009 July 22nd (9:49 p.m. Tuesday, E.D.T.)
We saw it! The clouds kept getting thinner, and we even had a pretty good-sized hole in the clouds for the five minutes of totality. So everyone saw all the coronal phenomena. The diamond rings were spectacular. Just before totality, the clouds were just the right thickness that allowed us to see partial phases without filters.
All our equipment and those collaborating on our terrace here in Tianhuangping seems to have worked, so now we still have an hour or so of partial eclipse to image, and then we will download photos and start looking at them. The oscillation experiment has a lot of data through two filters, and we will assess later whether comparison of the two channels allow us to account for the cloud cover.
It was wonderful.
9:07 a.m. (9:07 p.m. Tuesday, E.D.T.)
In half an hour, we’ll be in the midst of totality. The sun has come and gone a bit, through clouds and behind clouds, but we mostly have sun. We remain hopeful that we can see and photograph the corona. When we have lost view of the sun, it has been for a couple of minutes only, and this is, after all, a 5 1/2 minute eclipse.
8:05 a.m. (8:05 p.m. E.D.T.)
We have an eclipse! It is four minutes past first contact, and we can all clearly see a bite out of the top of the Sun, at about 11 o’clock orientation. The sky is hazy, but we can see the shape of the Sun very clearly through the haze. We should see the corona very well, if this sky condition continues.
7:33 a.m. (7:33 p.m. E.D.T.)
Just two hours before totality, and the Sun is out! It is still through clouds, but the sky is definitely improving.
7:00 a.m. (7 p.m. Tuesday, E.D.T.)
The sky is a little brighter, but there are still two layers of clouds. At least we can see structure in the clouds, and we hear that there is some clearing behind the front that is now passing through. We have 2 1/2 hours to go.
Though we can’t see the eclipse visually if the sky is completely cloudy, we do have one meteorological experiment that will work anyway. We will be measuring the temperature falloff that results from the eclipse. Michael Thomas Roman, a grad student from Cornell, and Marcos Peñaloza, a professor from Universidad de los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela, are here with us, and Michael as brought some devices to follow the temperature. At last year’s eclipse, Joe Ciotti, a college student from Hawaii, measured the temperature just under the ground and at a few centimeters above the ground. The temperature in the part of the eclipse path in China where they were dropped by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit over what it would have declined to in the late afternoon for that eclipse, reaching a low point about 10 minutes after the end of totality (the expected thermal lag), and then rising again. Marcos and Michael spent a lot of time walking around a few days ago to find the right place for their sensors.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------UPDATE -THE NEXT GENERATION EARTH-BASED TELESCOPE OF THE FUTURE - THE THIRTY METER TELESCOPE
UPDATE 2 - THIS TELESCOPE WILL BE BUILT ON TOP OF
MAUNA KEA, HAWAII - COMPLETED BY 2018
Thirty Meter Telescope Technology Milestone: First Component of Adaptive-optics System Passes Test with Flying Color
April 20, 2009
PASADENA, Calif — The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) marked a major milestone on its way to becoming the world’s most advanced and capable optical telescope. A key part of the telescope’s adaptive optics (AO) system, which will give TMT the sharpest eye possible on the Universe, was successfully tested and is ready to become actual hardware.
The AO component, known as the Tip-Tilt Stage, will work in tandem with a deformable mirror to correct for the blurring of Earth’s atmosphere.
“TMT is quickly developing the technologies that will enable it to see distant objects in the Universe as clearly as if the telescope were in space,” said TMT Adaptive Optics Group Leader Brent Ellerbroek. “The Tip-Tilt Stage is essential for achieving the highest possible image quality, as needed to optimize the resolution and sensitivity of scientific observations with TMT.”
Adaptive optics systems sense atmospheric turbulence in real-time. They then adjust the optics of the telescope many hundreds-of-times each second to erase the distortion caused by light passing through Earth’s atmosphere.
The deformable mirror being designed for TMT will be connected to 3,000 actuators that push and pull the mirror’s surface up to 800 times each second. This flowing and rippling of the mirror’s surface reshapes the light-waves entering the telescope. Multiple wave-front sensors will ensure the mirror precisely changes shape to counteract the blurring of Earth’s turbulent atmosphere.
Though extremely precise, the deformable mirror actuators do not have the range available to correct for the overall image motion that is one important part of the distortion. To correct for this motion (referred to as “tip-tilt”), the mirror itself—which weights 40 kilograms (88 pounds)—must change its orientation at least 20 times each second. The accuracy of these adjustments must be very precise, corresponding roughly to the angle that a star appears to move across the sky in about one-ten-thousandth of a second.
“Although tip-tilt mounts for deformable mirrors have been successfully demonstrated before,” said Ellerbroek, “the TMT design is exceptional in terms of the size of the mirror, the mass of the mirror, and the 3,000 electrical connections that are attached to the back of the mirror structure.”
The Tip-Tilt Stage was developed by TMT’s industrial partner CILAS, located in Orleans, France. CILAS began work on the stage in April 2007 and the completed unit was ready for testing in September of 2008. “All critical performance characteristics of the stage have now been successfully demonstrated,” said Ellerbroek. “The stage has actually exceeded our specifications, and will be able to correct for image motion at rates of up to 100 times per second. These results are one of the most exciting examples of the continuing progress being made by the TMT AO program.”
The stage is now at the Canadian National Research Council's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, Canada, the TMT associate responsible for integrating the Tip-Tilt Stage into the overall AO system.
Controlling the overall shifting and warping of the mirror is a significant technological feat. Fortunately, scientists and engineers at TMT and its suppliers have also successfully developed and tested the specialized programs and electronics (field-programmable gate arrays) that will derive the correct commands from the measurements provided from the adaptive optics wavefront sensors. Roughly 40,000 measurements will need to processed into 7,000 commands up to 800 times each second, requiring a total of up to 200 billion calculations for each tick of the second hand.
As of April 2009, the TMT will have moved from the design into its early construction phase. TMT plans to initiate on-site construction as early as 2010, with ‘first light’ in early 2018.
The TMT project is a partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and ACURA, an organization of Canadian universities. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation provided $50 million for the design phase of the project and pledged an additional $200 million for the construction of the telescope. ACURA committed an additional $17.5 million for the design and development of TMT. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has also joined TMT as a Collaborating Institution.
For more information on the project, see http://www.tmt.org.
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The TMT project is a collaboration of Caltech, University of California (UC) and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA). © Thirty Meter Telescope
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THE ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY FOR 2009 MARCH 25
LOOK DIRECTLY BELOW THESE LINES
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Orcus of the Outer Solar System
Credit: M. Brown (Caltech), C. Trujillo (Gemini), D. Rabinowitz (Yale), Samuel Oschin Telescope
Explanation: A newly discovered object in the outer Solar System moves like an anti-Pluto. 90482 Orcus was first discovered in 2004 and is slightly smaller than Pluto, although still one of the largest Kuiper belt objects known. Orcus may one day have the same IAU designation as Pluto: a dwarf planet. Orcus and Pluto have similar orbits: each achieves nearly the same maximum and minimum distances from the Sun, each orbits on a similarly shaped ellipse, and each orbital ellipse is tilted toward the other planets' orbital ellipse by roughly the same angle. The great mass of Neptune causes each to circle the Sun twice for every three Neptune orbits. Orcus is like an anti-Pluto, however, because the two objects always remain across the Solar System from each other. Orcus can be found as the spot near the upper left center of these discovery frames moving slightly down from the top. Until the end of next week, the discoverers of Orcus ask for your help in naming its newly discovered moon.
FROM SCIENCE@NASA
Mt. Redoubt Gives Alaskans a Taste of the Moon
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April 3, 2009: "It's very fine but angular – the sharp edges make it feel gritty and abrasive."
"It can cause short circuits and failure of electronic components ... and physical damage to equipment."
"It's much more abrasive than sand....scratches anything that comes in contact...."
"...a real nuisance....stuck to everything – equipment, instruments,...likely to penetrate seals,....plugs bolt holes, fouls tools, ....."
These quotes seem to all refer to the same annoying substances, but they don't. In fact, the substances they refer to aren't even from the same planet.
The first two quotes are from Alaska, where people are dealing with volcanic ash from the ongoing eruption of Mount Redoubt. The next two come from the Moon, where Apollo astronauts once dealt with a similar problem: moondust.
Right: Mt. Redoubt has erupted at least 19 times since March 22, 2009. Alaska photographer Thomas Kerns took this picture of the volcano in action on March 31st. [Larger image]
"Volcanic ash and moondust have a lot in common," says Carole McLemore* of the Marshall Space Flight Center. "Both coat things and stick to them, are grimy, abrasive, damaging to equipment and vehicles, susceptible to electric charging, and risky to inhale.
"Mount Redoubt is giving Alaskans a taste of life on the Moon!"
The stories Alaskans and astronauts tell reveal some of the parallels:
Charles Sloan, a retired hydrogeologist living in Anchorage, has experienced ash first hand. He was around for one of Mount Redoubt's previous eruptions in 1989 and remembers a particularly harrowing incident.
"An international carrier flight -- a large jet -- flew into the hot ash plume from the volcano. The ash was sucked into the engines, causing them to shut down, and the plane plummeted!" All 245 terrified passengers on board KLM flight 867 held their breaths. "The plane dropped more than 2 miles before the crew could get the engines restarted! It limped in to an emergency landing in Anchorage."
"That was the third such incident over a five year period," adds Tom Miller, former director and now scientist emeritus of the Alaska Volcano Observatory** in Anchorage.
Way back in 1972, astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt experienced their own transportation problems when their moonbuggy lost a fender. That doesn't sound like a disaster on the scale of a plummeting airplane—but when moondust is involved, even a lost fender can have serious consequences.
Above: Dust flies from the tires of a moonbuggy driven by Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. When a fender fell off, plumes of high-flying dust caused serious problems, which the astronauts solved using duct tape: full story.
A rolling moonbuggy without a fender kicks up a "rooster tail" of moondust, spraying the rover and its occupants with dark, abrasive grit. White spacesuits blackened by dust turn into absorbers of the fierce lunar sun with astronauts overheating dangerously inside. Sharp-edged dust wiped off visors scratch the glass, making helmets difficult to see out of. Watch out for that crater! And moondust has an uncanny way of working itself into hinges, latches and joints, rendering them useless.
The resourceful astronauts repaired the fender with duct tape, but even with all four fenders, Cernan had to dust off the rover at each stop. Getting rid of moondust remained a top priority.
Back in Alaska, Miller relates what happened when Mt. Redoubt erupted just last week: "We lost three seismic stations. The one nearest the volcano was fried – probably due to lightning. When you have a tremendous and powerful explosion of ash, the violent movement of all the ash particles generates static electricity and therefore lightning."
Right: Lightning flashes in a roiling cloud of ash over Mt. Redoubt on March 27th. Particles of ash rubbing together in the cloud (like socks rubbing against carpet) are partly responsible for the buildup of electrostatic charge. Photo credit and copyright: Bretwood Higman, Ground Truth Trekking. [more]
Dust particles on the Moon are also electrified, at least in part, by the buffeting of the solar wind. Earth is protected from the solar wind by our planet's magnetic field, but the Moon has no global magnetic field to ward off charged particles from the sun. Free electrons in the solar wind interact with grains of moondust and, in effect, "charge them up." The electrostatic charges cause moondust to cling tenaciously to everything.
Including your lungs…
Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan suffered from the first recorded case of extraterrestrial hay fever. He was taking off his spacesuit after a moonwalk and the air was filling up with dust knocked off the surface of the suit. "It came on pretty fast," he radioed Houston with a stuffy-nose twang. "I had a significant reaction to the dust," he later recalled. "My turbinates (cartilage plates in the walls of the nasal chambers) became swollen."
Some researchers believe sustained breathing of moondust could be dangerous. The sharp-edged grains are able to make tiny cuts in flesh, and they could easily become stuck in lung tissue. Ash presents a similar hazard.
"With volcanic ash, people are advised to wear particle masks or stay indoors," notes Miller. "It's not poisonous, but people with asthma or emphysema can have problems if they inhale it. And people who wear contacts have to take their contacts out."
Above: An Alaskan moonscape. "Highlights of gray volcanic ash around the snow remind me of craters on the Moon," says photographer Michelle Cosper of Girdwood, Alaska. [Larger image]
Alaska resident Michelle Cosper is one of the people suffering. "My throat is sore and stingy, and it smells vaguely like sulfur outside," she reports from the town of Girdwood, which has received a coating of ash from Redoubt's recent eruptions. "We aren't supposed to walk our dogs or go outside for any other reason unnecessarily. Even local newscasters are wearing face masks."
Moondust and volcanic ash cause many of the same troubles—but that does not mean they are the same thing. Volcanic ash comes from active volcanoes, something the Moon does not have. Liquid rock decompresses and explodes from the volcano's mouth, producing a mixture of 'foamed' glass and micro- and mini-crystals. Moondust, on the other hand, is created by meteoroids. Space rocks hit the Moon's surface at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, fusing topsoil into glass and shattering the same into tiny sharp-edged pieces.
NASA is returning to the Moon in ~2020. Thanks to Mt. Redoubt, Alaskans are already getting a taste of the new frontier.
Author: Dauna Coulter | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
more information
* McLemore is Project Manager of Lunar Simulant Development and Characterization at Marshall Space Flight Center.
** The Alaska Volcano Observatory is a joint program of the United States Geological Survey, the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.
Don't Breathe the Moondust -- Science@NASA
The Mysterious Smell of Moondust -- Science@NASA
Moondust and Duct Tape -- Science@NASA
Moon Fountains -- Science@NASA
NASA's Future: US Space Exploration Policy
THE ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY FOR 2009 March 21
Fermi's Gamma-Ray Sky
Credit: NASA, DOE, Fermi LAT Collaboration
Explanation: Scanning the entire sky in gamma-rays, photons with over 50 million times the energy of visible light, the Fermi mission's Large Area Telescope (LAT) explores the high-energy universe. This all-sky map constructed from 3 months of LAT observations (August 4 to October 30, 2008) represents a deeper, better-resolved view of the gamma-ray sky than any previous space mission. What shines in Fermi's gamma-ray sky? A new paper describes the 205 brightest gamma-ray sources, but this map highlights a Fermi "top ten" list of five sources within, and five sources that lie beyond our Milky Way Galaxy. Within our galaxy: the Sun traces a faint arc across the map between the observation dates, LSI +61 303 is an X-ray binary star about 6,500 light-years away, PSR J1836+5925 is a type of pulsar (spinning neutron star) that is only seen to pulse at gamma-ray energies, and 47 Tuc is a globular star cluster some 15,000 light-years away. A fifth galactic source (unidentified), just above the center of the galactic plane, is intriguing because it is a variable source and has no clear counterpart at other wavelengths. Beyond our galaxy: NGC 1275 is a large galaxy at the heart of the Perseus galaxy cluster some 233 million light-years away, while 3C 454.3, PKS 1502+106, and PKS 0727-115 are active galaxies billions of light-years distant. Another unidentified source, seen below the galactic plane, is likely beyond the boundaries of the Milky Way. Its nature remains a mystery.
VANGUARD I LAUNCHED 51 YEARS AGO ON 1958 MARCH 17 - ABOUT 200,000 ORBITS AGO
Vanguard 1
United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
March 17, 1958 at 12:15:41 UTC
May 1964; ~2,200 days
1.47 kg (3.2 lb)
8,689.7 km (5,399.5 mi)
0.1909
34.25°
134.2 minutes
3,969 km (2,466 mi)
654 km (406 mi)
THIS ARTICLE IS FROM WIKIPEDIA
Vanguard 1 (international designation 1958 Beta[1]) was the fourth artificial satellite launched, and is the oldest still orbiting Earth, though there is no longer any communication with it. As of March 2009, it remains the oldest piece of space junk still in orbit.[2] It was also the first satellite to be solar powered.[3] It was designed to test the launch capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle as a part of Project Vanguard, and the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit. It also was used to obtain geodetic measurements through orbit analysis.
Spacecraft design
The spacecraft is a 1.47 kg (3.2 lb) aluminum sphere 6.4 inches (165 mm) in diameter. It contains a 10 mW, 108 MHz transmitter powered by a mercury battery and a 5 mW, 108.03 MHz transmitter that was powered by six solar cells mounted on the body of the satellite. Six short antennas protrude from the sphere. The transmitters were used primarily for engineering and tracking data, but were also used to determine the total electron content between the satellite and ground stations. Vanguard also carries two thermistors which measured the interior temperature over sixteen days in order to track the effectiveness of the thermal protection. A backup version of Vanguard 1 is on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.
Mission
The three stage launch vehicle placed Vanguard into a 654×3969 km (406×2466 mi.), 134.2 minute elliptical orbit inclined at 34.25 degrees on March 17, 1958. Original estimates had the orbit lasting for 2000 years, but it was discovered that solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag during high levels of solar activity produced significant perturbations in the perigee height of the satellite, which caused a significant decrease in its expected lifetime to only about 240 years.[4]
Mission results
Radio beacon
A 10 mW mercury battery powered transmitter on the 108 MHz band used for International Geophysical Year (IGY) scientific satellites, and a 5 mW, 108.03 MHz[5] transmitter powered by six solar cells were used as part of a radio phase-comparison angle-tracking system. The tracking data was used to show that the shape of the Earth has a north-south asymmetry, occasionally described as pear-shaped with the stem at the North Pole. These radio signals were also used to determine the total electron content between the satellite and selected ground-receiving stations. The battery-powered transmitter provided internal package temperature for about sixteen days and sent tracking signals for twenty days. The solar cell powered transmitter operated for more than six years. Signals gradually weakened and were last received at Quito, Ecuador in May 1964 after which the spacecraft was optically tracked from Earth.
Satellite drag atmospheric density
Because of its symmetrical shape, Vanguard 1 was used by experimenters for use in determining upper atmospheric densities as a function of altitude, latitude, season, and solar activity. As the spacecraft continuously orbited, it would lag its predicted positions slightly, accumulating greater and greater delay due to drag of the residual atmosphere. By measuring the rate and timing of orbital shifts, together with the body's drag properties, the relevant atmosphere's parameters could be back-calculated. It was determined that atmospheric pressures, and thus drag and orbital decay, were higher than anticipated, as Earth's upper atmosphere tapered into space gradually.
This experiment was very much planned prior to launch. Initial Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) proposals for the project included conical satellite bodies; this eliminated the need for a separate fairing and ejection mechanisms, and their associated weight and failure modes. Radio tracking would gather data and establish a position. Early in the program, optical tracking (with a Baker-Nunn camera network and human spotters) was added. A panel of scientists proposed changing the design to spheres, at least twenty inches in diameter and hopefully thirty. A sphere would have a constant optical reflection, and constant coefficient of drag, based on size alone, while a cone would vary with orientation. James Van Allen proposed a cylinder, which eventually flew. NRL finally accepted a 6.4-inch sphere as a "test vehicle," with twenty inches for follow-on satellites. The weight savings, from reduced size as well as decreased instrumentation in the early satellites, was considered acceptable.
As the three Vanguards are still orbiting, with their drag properties essentially unchanged, they form a baseline atmospheric dataset fifty years old and counting.
Fiftieth anniversary
The Vanguard 1 satellite holds the record for being in the space the longest, as a human made object. On March 17, 2008 it logged its 50th year in Earth orbit.
A small group of former NRL and NASA workers has been in communication, and a number of government agencies were asked to commemorate the event. The Naval Research Laboratory commemorated the event with a day-long meeting at NRL on March 17, 2008.[6] The meeting concluded with a simulation of the satellite's track as it passed into the orbital area visible from Washington, D.C. (where it is visible from the Earth's surface). The National Academy of Sciences scheduled some seminars to mark the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year, which were the only official observances known.[7]
References
^ Yost, Charles W. (1963-09-06) (PDF), Registration data for United States Space Launches, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/inf044E.pdf, retrieved on 2009-02-19
^ Space junk, USA WEEKEND Magazine, by Julian Smith, August 26, 2007
^ Vanguard I the World's Oldest Satellite Still in Orbit, accessed September 24, 2007
^ "Vanguard 1". NASA. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1958-002B. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
^ "Sounds from the First Satellites". AMSAT. 2006-12-15. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/features/sounds/firstsat.html. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
^ Vanguard Approaches Half A Century In Space, Space Ref Interactive, by Keith Cowing, November 4, 2007
Vanguard TV3 · Vanguard 1 · Vanguard 2 · Vanguard 3
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_1"
Categories: 1958 in space exploration | 1958 in the United States | Artificial satellites currently orbiting Earth | Project Vanguard
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ON 2009 JANUARY 19 WAS THE 3rd ANNIVERSARY OF THE LAUNCH OF
THE NEW HORIZONS MISSION TO PLUTO
SEE WHERE IT PLUS 4 OTHER SPACECRAFT ARE:
5 Spacecraft Escaping the Solar System
This chart shows the CURRENT POSITIONS and other interesting data of the FIVE spacecraft which are leaving the Solar System on escape trajectories - our first emissaries to the stars. The graphics and data table are generated dynamically and so always represent the latest positions. The New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto has been added to the table, and now the charts too. Note that 1 AU = 92,955,807 MILES WHICH IS THE AVERAGE DISTANCE FROM THE EARTH TO THE SUN.
CHART ABOVE IS FROM HEAVENS-ABOVE.COM
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In the April 2009 issue of Sky and Telescope on page 17 discusses how new measurements of the mass of our Milky Way Galaxy using a worldwide network of 10 radio telescopes on 18 radio sources indicates that our Galaxy is rotating 15% faster than was previously thought. This translates into a new mass of the Milky Way that is DOUBLE the old value which means the Milky Way Galaxy actually equals the mass of M31 (The Andromeda Galaxy) but with fewer stars. (This could be due to all those extra pizzas, burgers, fries and desserts we've been eating. It's strange though, can you spin faster when you gain weight!)
March 2nd, 2009
Written by Nancy Atkinson
A sequence of four images reveal the motion of asteroid 2009 DD45 (at center) over 36 minutes during its discovery on February 27th. Credit: Robert McNaught / ANU / UA
As I'm writing this (13:40 UT) a newly-discovered asteroid, 2009 DD45, is flying past Earth at only 74,800 km (46,478.5 miles or 0.000482 AU) away. That's only about twice the height of a typical geostationary communications satellite, and well inside the moon's orbit. According to Spaceweather.com, the 30- to 40-meter wide space rock is similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908, but this time there is no danger of a collision. At closest approach on March 2nd, (which just occurred) 2009 DD45 will speed through the constellation Virgo shining as brightly as an 11th magnitude star. So if you're in the Pacific region like Hawaii or Tahiti, go out and take a look! But this rock is moving fairly fast, and by tonight, it will only be 13th magnitude, and fading fast.
UPDATE: Below see video of 2009 DD45 as seen from Australia:
(Thanks to Aaron Slack for the heads up on the video) TO SEE THIS VIDEO CLICK ON:
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/03/02/asteroid-2009-dd45-just-buzzed-by-earth/#more-26434
The asteroid was only discovered three days ago by the prolific asteroid hunter Robert McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, when the space rock was already within 2,414,016 km (1½ million miles) of Earth and closing fast. If you want to try to track it, here's the ephemeris information from the Minor Planet Center (MPC).
The MPC also has an interesting list of the closest approaches to Earth by other minor planets.
Sources: Spaceweather.com, Sky and Telescope
The VLT inferometer delivers a real image: a spherical molecular shell around an aged star
A team of French astronomers has captured one of the sharpest colour images ever made: They observed the star T Leporis, which appears, on the sky, as small as a two-storey house on the Moon. The image was taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), emulating a virtual telescope about 100 metres across and reveals a spherical molecular shell around the aged star. This is one of the first images made using near-infrared interferometry. When doing interferometry, astronomers must often content themselves with fringes, the characteristic pattern of dark and bright lines produced when two beams of light combine, from which they can model the physical properties of the object studied. But, if an object is observed on several runs with different combinations and configurations of telescopes, it is possible to put these results together to reconstruct a real image of the object.
This is what has now been done with ESO's VLTI, using the 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes. "We were able to construct an amazing image, and reveal the onion-like structure of the atmosphere of a giant star at a late stage of its life for the first time," says a team member: "Numerical models and indirect data have allowed us to imagine the appearance of the star before, but it is quite astounding that we can now see it, and in colour." Although it is only 15 by 15 pixels across, the reconstructed image shows an extreme close-up of a star 100 times larger than the Sun, a diameter corresponding roughly to the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This star is, in turn, surrounded by a sphere of molecular gas, which is about three times as large again. To create this image with the VLTI astronomers had to observe the star for several consecutive nights, using all the four movable 1.8-metre VLT Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs).
NASA/ESA Flagship mission decision: It'll be the Jovian system!
But studies will also continue for a later mission to Saturn & Titan
At a meeting in Washington in mid-February, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and European Space Agency officials decided to continue pursuing studies of a mission to Jupiter and its four largest moons, and to plan for another potential mission to visit Saturn's largest moon Titan and Enceladus. The missions, called the Europa Jupiter System Mission and the Titan Saturn System Mission, are the result of NASA and ESA merging their separate mission concepts. NASA originally studied four mission concepts during 2007, which were narrowed down to two proposals in 2008. One finalist was a Europa Orbiter to explore that icy moon of Jupiter and its subsurface water ocean. The other was a Titan Orbiter to visit the Saturn moon. Independently, in 2007, ESA also initiated a competition to select its flagship mission for the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 slot of the ESA scientific programme.
Two finalists, called Laplace and Tandem, were selected by ESA for further study. Laplace was a set of spacecraft to orbit Jupiter and eventually orbit and land on Europa. Tandem was a set of spacecraft intended to orbit Titan and explore its surface, after also exploring the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus. NASA and ESA engineers and scientists carefully studied both potential missions in preparation for the crucial meeting. Based on these and other studies as well as stringent independent assessment reviews, NASA and ESA agreed that the Europa Jupiter System Mission, called Laplace in Europe, was the most technically feasible to do first. However, ESA's Solar System Working Group concluded the scientific merits of this mission and a Titan Saturn System Mission could not be separated.
The group recommended, and NASA agreed, that both missions should move forward for further study and implementation. Although the Jupiter system mission has been chosen to proceed to an earlier flight opportunity, a Saturn system mission clearly remains a high priority for the science community: Both agencies will need to undertake several more steps andr detailed studies before officially moving forward. The Saturn mission in particular faces several technical challenges requiring significant study and technology development. NASA will continue studying and developing those technologies. On the European side, the interested community of scientists will have to re-submit the Titan mission at the next opportunity for mission proposals in the Cosmic Vision programme in the years to come.
There are some interesting dynamics going on with Centaurus A, an elliptical galaxy about 13 million light-years away. This is a very active and luminous region of space and a great disturbance is going on as another spiral galaxy is trying to get in on the action by merging with Centaurus A. But astronomers now have new insight on what causing all the ruckus: a supermassive black hole at the core of Centaurus A. Jets and lobes emanating from the central black hole have been imaged at submillimeter wavelengths for the first time by using the 12-meter Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile. By using a combination of visible and X-ray wavelengths, astronomers were able to produce this striking new image. Help me APEX, you are our only hope!
Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is one of our closest galactic neighbors, and is located in the southern constellation of Centaurus. The supermassive black hole is the source of the force: strong radio and X-ray emissions. Visible in the image is a dust ring encircling the giant galaxy, and the fast-moving radio jets ejected from the galaxy center. In submillimeter light, the heat glow from the central dust disc can be seen and also the emission from the central radio source.
APEX was also able to discern – for the first time in the submillimeter – the inner radio lobes north and south of the disc. Measurements of this emission, which occurs when fast-moving electrons spiral around the lines of a magnetic field, reveal that the material in the jet is travelling at approximately half the speed of light. In the X-ray emission, we see the jets emerging from the centre of Centaurus A and, to the lower right of the galaxy, the glow where the expanding lobe collides with the surrounding gas, creating a shockwave.
Source: ESO
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Gamma-ray Flare Star
02.10.2009
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February 10, 2009: NASA's Swift and Fermi spacecraft are monitoring a neutron star 30,000 light years from Earth that is drawing attention to itself with a series of powerful gamma-ray flares.
"At times, this remarkable object has erupted with more than a hundred flares in as little as 20 minutes," said Loredana Vetere, who is coordinating the Swift observations at Pennsylvania State University. "The most intense flares emitted more total energy than the sun does in 20 years."
Right: An artist's concept of the flare star in action. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab. [more]
The star, known as SGR J1550-5418, lies in the southern constellation Norma. It began a series of modest eruptions on Oct. 3, 2008, settled down for a while, then roared back to life on Jan. 22, 2009, with an intense episode.
Because of its rapid-fire outbursts and gamma-ray spectrum, astronomers classify the object as a "soft-gamma-ray repeater" -- only the sixth known. In 2004, a giant flare from another soft-gamma-ray repeater was so intense it ionized Earth's upper atmosphere from 50,000 light-years away: more.
Using data from an X-ray telescope onboard Swift, Jules Halpern at Columbia University captured the first "light echoes" ever seen from a soft-gamma-ray repeater. Images acquired when the latest flaring episode began show what appear to be expanding halos around the source. Multiple rings form as X-rays interact with dust clouds at different distances. Click on the image to play a 6-day movie:
Above: Swift's X-Ray Telescope (XRT) captured an apparent expanding halo around the flaring neutron star SGR J1550-5418. The halo formed as X-rays from the brightest flares scattered off of intervening dust clouds. Credit: NASA/Swift/Jules Halpern, Columbia Univ. [more]
Scientists think the source of the flares is a spinning neutron star--the superdense, city-sized remains of a supernova. Although only about 12 miles across, a neutron star contains more mass than the sun. This particular neutron star is believed to be a "magnetar," a neutron star with an incredibly intense magnetic field.
A popular theory of soft-gamma-ray repeaters holds that flares are caused by "starquakes" in the outer rigid crust of the magnetar. As a magnetar's colossal magnetic field shifts, it strains the crust with monstrous magnetic forces, often breaking it. When the crust snaps, it vibrates with seismic waves like in an earthquake and emits a flash of gamma-rays.
No one is really certain of the details, however, and much work remains to be done to understand these powerfully hyperactive stars.
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, launched in June 2008, is ideal for this work. "The ability of Fermi's gamma-ray burst monitor to resolve the fine structure within these events will help us better understand how magnetars unleash their energy," said Chryssa Kouveliotou, an astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The object has triggered Fermi's gamma-ray burst monitor more than 95 times since Jan. 22nd.
NASA's Wind satellite, the joint NASA-Japan Suzaku mission, and the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL satellite also have detected flares from SGR J1550-5418.
The flashes continue! Stay tuned to Science@NASA for updates.
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A Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field
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Dec. 16, 2008: NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.
"At first I didn't believe it," says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction."
The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind. Exploring the bubble is a key goal of the THEMIS mission, launched in February 2007. The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance.
Right: One of the THEMIS probes exploring the space around Earth, an artist's concept. [more]
"The opening was huge—four times wider than Earth itself," says Wenhui Li, a space physicist at the University of New Hampshire who has been analyzing the data. Li's colleague Jimmy Raeder, also of New Hampshire, says "1027 particles per second were flowing into the magnetosphere—that's a 1 followed by 27 zeros. This kind of influx is an order of magnitude (10X) greater than what we thought was possible."
The event began with little warning when a gentle gust of solar wind delivered a bundle of magnetic fields from the Sun to Earth. Like an octopus wrapping its tentacles around a big clam, solar magnetic fields draped themselves around the magnetosphere and cracked it open. The cracking was accomplished by means of a process called "magnetic reconnection." High above Earth's poles, solar and terrestrial magnetic fields linked up (reconnected) to form conduits for solar wind. Conduits over the Arctic and Antarctic quickly expanded; within minutes they overlapped over Earth's equator to create the biggest magnetic breach ever recorded by Earth-orbiting spacecraft.
Above: A computer model of solar wind flowing around Earth's magnetic field on June 3, 2007. Background colors represent solar wind density; red is high density, blue is low. Solid black lines trace the outer boundaries of Earth's magnetic field. Note the layer of relatively dense material beneath the tips of the white arrows; that is solar wind entering Earth's magnetic field through the breach. Credit: Jimmy Raeder/UNH. [larger image]
The size of the breach took researchers by surprise. "We've seen things like this before," says Raeder, "but never on such a large scale. The entire day-side of the magnetosphere was open to the solar wind."
The circumstances were even more surprising. Space physicists have long believed that holes in Earth's magnetosphere open only in response to solar magnetic fields that point south. The great breach of June 2007, however, opened in response to a solar magnetic field that pointed north.
"To the lay person, this may sound like a quibble, but to a space physicist, it is almost seismic," says Sibeck. "When I tell my colleagues, most react with skepticism, as if I'm trying to convince them that the sun rises in the west."
Here is why they can't believe their ears: The solar wind presses against Earth's magnetosphere almost directly above the equator where our planet's magnetic field points north. Suppose a bundle of solar magnetism comes along, and it points north, too. The two fields should reinforce one another, strengthening Earth's magnetic defenses and slamming the door shut on the solar wind. In the language of space physics, a north-pointing solar magnetic field is called a "northern IMF" and it is synonymous with shields up!
"So, you can imagine our surprise when a northern IMF came along and shields went down instead," says Sibeck. "This completely overturns our understanding of things."
Northern IMF events don't actually trigger geomagnetic storms, notes Raeder, but they do set the stage for storms by loading the magnetosphere with plasma. A loaded magnetosphere is primed for auroras, power outages, and other disturbances that can result when, say, a CME (coronal mass ejection) hits.
The years ahead could be especially lively. Raeder explains: "We're entering Solar Cycle 24. For reasons not fully understood, CMEs in even-numbered solar cycles (like 24) tend to hit Earth with a leading edge that is magnetized north. Such a CME should open a breach and load the magnetosphere with plasma just before the storm gets underway. It's the perfect sequence for a really big event."
Sibeck agrees. "This could result in stronger geomagnetic storms than we have seen in many years."
A video version of this story may be found here. For more information about the THEMIS mission, visit http://nasa.gov/themis
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE FROM NASA IS ABOUT THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE TO BE LAUNCHED INTO AN ORBIT 1 MILLION MILES AWAY IN 2013 . IT WILL BE THE SUCCESSOR TO THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE WHICH IS TO BE REPAIRED AND UPGRADED IN MAY 2009
The Incredible Journey of the James Webb Space Telescope
12.10.2008
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December 10, 2008: The James Webb Space Telescope, targeted for launch in 2013, is already taking an incredible journey right here on Earth. It's zigzagging up, down, and across the US to be "spit and polished" to perfection for its lofty space mission.
"To find the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe, which are millions and even billions of light years away, the Webb telescope mirror has to be wickedly smooth," says Jeff Kegley of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
Right: The James Webb Space Telescope, an artist's concept. Credit: ESA. [Larger image]
To get ready for space, the 18 mirror segments that will ultimately form the Webb telescope’s huge primary mirror are trucked from pit stop to pit stop in tandem cross-country for careful processing and polishing. They visit seven different states, some several times.
During the long odyssey, every precaution is taken for their protection. How many years of bad luck would you have if you broke one of these mirrors?
"That's something we don't talk about," laughs Helen Cole, also of Marshall. "But seriously, we do have three spare segments, so no problem there."
Let's trace a mirror segment's Earthly journey from rough start to "wickedly smooth," and finally to union with its 17 siblings to form a 6.5 meter (21 ½ foot) wide whole with a total area of 25 square-meters (almost 30 square yards).
The story begins in a Utah beryllium mine. Beryllium is one of the lightest of all metals, and the "stuff" of the telescope's mirrors.
Above: The making of the JWST mirrors begins here in a Utah Beryllium mine. Photo credit: Brush Wellman, Inc., Beryllium Products division. [Larger image]
Technicians in Ohio sift and purify the gritty beryllium powder from Utah into an extremely uniform optical grade especially for the Webb mirror. Then they pour the powder in a big, flat can, apply heat and pressure, and pump out the residual gas to create a large slab called a mirror billet. They bathe the billet in acid to burn off any stainless steel stuck to the billet when the can is removed. Next they split the billet in half Oreo-cookie-style to form two mirror blanks (no cream!). These mirror blanks are the largest ever produced in beryllium.
Workers in Alabama machine the back of each blank into a honeycomb structure to make the blanks lighter without reducing stiffness. The machined ribs are less than 1 millimeter thick -- almost paper cut thin!
"This precision machining/etching removes 92 percent of a blank's mass," says Lee Feinberg of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Mass is critical in launching space missions."
Next, a California company grinds and polishes the segments to a very smooth and exact shape and optically tests them at room temperature.
Above: Key stops in the long journey of the JWST. Not shown: space. [Larger image]
But the Webb telescope will not operate in room temperature. Not only will this telescope mirror be "wickedly smooth," it will also be wickedly cold in space. Because it is an infrared telescope, the JWST is designed to pick up the heat of faint, awesomely distant stars and galaxies. To do that it has to be kept extremely cold. It will operate in space at about -238 deg Celsius (-396 deg Fahrenheit, 35K).
"The extreme cold may cause the telescope's structures and mirrors to change shape, so testing has to be done here on Earth under similar, hyper-cold conditions," says Cole.
This super-cold testing is done in Alabama. The Marshall Space Flight Center's X-ray & Cryogenic Facility has a vacuum chamber that can simulate the incredibly cold conditions of space. Testing in this chamber reveals even the tiniest distortions that happen to the mirror segments in the cold. The tests provide precise data that specifies the exact repolishing to be done to compensate ahead of time for distortions likely to occur in space.
Above: (Left) A prototype JWST beryllium mirror segment at Tinsley Labs in Richmond, California; (Right) Mirror testing under space-cold conditions at the Marshall Space Flight Center's X-ray & Cryogenic Facility. [Larger images: #1, #2]
Once the mirror segments are polished to precision, gold is evaporated over them, forming a very thin coating on the smooth mirror surface.
"This gold coating is highly reflective over all the wavelengths of the Webb telescope, from visible to mid-infrared," says Feinberg.
All 18 segments finally meet at Goddard Space Flight Center. Here, they're mounted on structures that will ultimately hold them in place and let them perform as if they were part of a single giant hexagonal mirror. (The mirror structure will be folded with its shield origami style when it's time to fit in a rocket.) Next the telescope is fully assembled and attached to the instrument module, and the whole kit and caboodle is acoustic and vibration tested.
Final cryogenic testing takes place at Johnson Space Center, in the same vacuum chamber that tested the Apollo lunar lander.
The telescope is integrated with the spacecraft and sunshield at Northrop Grumman in California. It will lift-off from Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5 rocket.
Are we there yet? Almost. Only 930,000 more miles to go....
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Composite picture of NASA' Rover during the parade, as President and Michelle Obama look on. Credit: NASA
If you didn't get a chance to watch the inaugural parade on Jan 20 in honor of the new US president, here are a few NASA-related pictures and videos. NASA seemingly made a good impression on President and Michelle Obama by bringing up the rear of the parade with the new Lunar Electric Rover. The LER pivoted, pirouetted, and performed flawlessly as the crowd cheered wildly and the Obamas seemed transfixed by the rover. Too bad many of the spectators in the Presidential booth had already left. Take a look by going to "Click to Continue":
Compare the new rover with the old "moon buggy" from the 1970's Apollo missions:
Written by Ian O'Neill for Spaceweather.com
Washington D.C. from orbit. The Google Satellile GeoEye-1 will spy on Obama's inauguration (GeoEye)
President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Capitol Hill will be the place-to-be on Tuesday (January 20th). According to some news sources, tickets for the event were trading for a price exceeding 5 figures (in one case, according to CNN in November, an online vendor was asking for $20,095 for a single ticket - I hope they get a "free" bottle of Champagne with that!). It would appear that ticket demand outstripped supply, making the 44th presidential inauguration one of the hottest (and most costly) events to attend in 2009.
However, there is a far cheaper (and less crowded) alternative to view Obama and Biden getting sworn into office. A satellite called GeoEye-1 will be orbiting 423 miles above Washington D.C. looking down at the vast crowd minutes before the excitement begins…
GeoEye-1 launch on September 6th 2008 (Reuters)
In August 2008, Google signed a deal with the satellite imagery company GeoEye for exclusive use of the images produced by the company's new GeoEye-1 satellite. GeoEye-1 was launched on board a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on September 6th 2008. The satellite is currently in a Sun-synchronous orbit, over 400 miles above the surface of Earth, imaging the surface in unprecedented detail. A US government license actually limits the resolution of available images to 0.5 meters (the camera on GeoEye-1 can attain a resolution of 0.41 meters). GeoEye-1's competitors can resolve objects down to 0.6 metres at the smallest. The GeoEye products are currently used by Google for several projects, such as Google Earth and Google Maps.
On Tuesday, however, it is not Google that is interested in getting the ultimate birds-eye view of the festivities at Capitol Hill; GeoEye itself is commissioning a high-resolution photography run at 11:19 EST as the satellite buzzes overhead at a speed of 17,000 mph. Usually, the presidential inauguration takes place at noon, so GeoEye-1 will be able to grab a snapshot of the growing crowds of spectators 41 minutes before the new commander-in-chief takes office.
"An image of the Inauguration has been requested by many news organizations," a GeoEye spokesperson said. "So, if the weather cooperates, the image will be distributed to news organizations and bloggers around the world. The image will be available about three hours after it's taken."
I for one, will be hovering over the GeoEye website, waiting for the orbital view of Washington D.C. to appear in the comfort of my office…
Source: VentureBeat
MORE INFORMATION AT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoEye
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Arecibo Message Sent 35 Years Ago to Cluster M13
On 1974 November 16
The Message is Now 35 Light Years Away with about 25,000 LY more to go!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is the message with color added to highlight its separate parts. The actual binary transmission carried no color information.
The Arecibo message as decoded into 23 rows and 73 columns.
The Arecibo message was beamed via frequency modulated radio waves into space at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo radio telescope on 16 November 1974.[1] It was aimed at the globular star cluster M13 some 25,000 light years away because M13 was a large and close collection of stars that was available in the sky at the time and place of the ceremony.[2] The message consisted of 1679 binary digits, approximately 210 bytes, transmitted at a frequency of 2380 MHz and modulated by shifting the frequency by 10 Hz, with a power of 1000kW.[1] The cardinality was chosen because it is a semiprime[3] (the product of two prime numbers), to be arranged rectangularly as 73 rows by 23 columns. The alternate arrangement, 23 rows by 73 columns, produces jumbled nonsense. The message forms the image shown on the right, or its inverse,[3] when translated into graphics characters and spaces. The entire transmission lasted 1679 seconds and was not repeated.[4]
Dr. Frank Drake, then at Cornell University and creator of the famous Drake equation, wrote the message, with help from Carl Sagan, among others.[1] The message consists of 7 parts that encode the following[3]:
the numbers one (1) through ten (10)
the atomic numbers of the elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus, which make up deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
the formulas for the sugars and bases in the nucleotides of DNA
the number of nucleotides in DNA, and a graphic of the double helix structure of DNA
a graphic figure of a human, the dimension (physical height) of an average man, and the human population of Earth
a graphic of Earth's solar system
a graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope and the dimension (the physical diameter) of the transmitting antenna dish
Because it will take 25,000 years for the message to reach its intended destination of stars (and an additional 25,000 years for any reply), the Arecibo message was more a demonstration of human technological achievement than a real attempt to enter into a conversation with extraterrestrials. In fact, the stars that the message was aimed at will no longer be there when it arrives.[1] According to the Cornell News press release of Nov. 12, 1999, the real purpose of the message was not to make contact, but to demonstrate the capabilities of newly installed equipment.[1]
Explanation
Numbers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
----------------------
0 0 0 1 1 1 1 00 00 00
0 1 1 0 0 1 1 00 00 10
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 01 11 01
X X X X X X X X X X <-least-significant-digit marker
The numbers from 1 to 10 appear in binary format (the bottom row marks the beginning of each number).
Even knowing binary, the encoding of the numbers may not be immediately obvious due to the way they have been written. To read the first seven digits, ignore the bottom row, and read them as three binary digits from top to bottom, with the top digit being the most significant.
The readings for 8, 9 and 10 are a little different, as they have been given an additional column next to the first (to the right in the image). This is probably intended to show that numbers too large to fit in a column can be written in several contiguous ones, where the contiguous columns do not have the base marker.
DNA elements
H C N O P
1 6 7 8 15
----------
0 0 0 1 1
0 1 1 0 1
0 1 1 0 1
1 0 1 0 1
X X X X X
The numbers 1, 6, 7, 8 and 15 appear. These are the atomic numbers of hydrogen (H), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), and phosphorus (P), the components of DNA.
The numbers 8 and 15 are written in a logical extension of binary encoding, rather than with the contiguous-columns method shown in the message's number figures at the top:
Nucleotides
Deoxyribose Adenine Thymine Deoxyribose
(C5OH7) (C5H4N5) (C5H5N2O2) (C5OH7)
Phosphate Phosphate
(PO4) (PO4)
Deoxyribose Cytosine Guanine Deoxyribose
(C5OH7) (C4H4N3O) (C5H4N5O) (C5OH7)
Phosphate Phosphate
(PO4) (PO4)
The nucleotides are described as sequences of the five atoms that appear on the preceding line. Each sequence represents the molecular formula of the nucleotide as incorporated into DNA (as opposed to the free form of the nucleotide).
For example, deoxyribose (C5OH7 in DNA, C5O4H10 when free), the nucleotide in the top left in the image, is read as:
11000
10000
11010
XXXXX
-----
75010
i.e. 7 atoms of hydrogen, 5 atoms of carbon, 0 atoms of nitrogen, 1 atom of oxygen, and 0 atoms of phosphorus.
Double helix
11
11
11
11
11
01
11
11
01
11
01
11
10
11
11
01
X
1111111111110111 1111101101011110 (binary)
= 4,294,441,822 (decimal)
DNA double helix (the vertical bar represents the number of nucleotides, but the value depicted is around 4.3 billion when in fact there are about 3.2 billion base pairs in the human genome).
Humanity
X011011
111111
X0111 110111
111011
111111
110000
1110 (binary) = 14 (decimal)
000011 111111 110111 111011 111111 110110 (binary)
= 4,292,853,750 (decimal)
The element in the center represents a human. The element on the left (in the image) indicates the average height of a person: 1764 mm. This corresponds to the horizontally written binary 14 multiplied by the wavelength of the message (126 mm). The element on the right depicts the size of human population in 1974, around 4.3 billion. In this case, the number is oriented horizontally rather than vertically, with the least-significant-digit marker to the upper left in the image.
Earth
Sun Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto
The solar system, showing the Sun and the planets in the order of their position from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. (Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet, but was still considered a planet at the time the message was written.)
The Earth is the third planet from the Sun - its graphic is shifted up to identify it as the planet from which the signal was sent. The human figure is shown "standing on" the Earth graphic.
In addition to showing position, the graphic provides a general, not-to-scale size reference of each planet and the Sun.
Telescope
bottom two rows:
100101
<--- 111110X --->
100101 111110 (binary) = 2,430 (decimal)
The last part represents the Arecibo radio telescope with its diameter (2430 multiplied by the wavelength gives 306.18 m). In this case, the number is oriented horizontally, with the least-significant-digit marker to the lower right in the image.
0000001010101000000000000101000001010000000100100010001000100101100101010
1010101010100100100000000000000000000000000000000000001100000000000000000
0011010000000000000000000110100000000000000000010101000000000000000000111
1100000000000000000000000000000000110000111000110000110001000000000000011
0010000110100011000110000110101111101111101111101111100000000000000000000
0000001000000000000000001000000000000000000000000000010000000000000000011
1111000000000000011111000000000000000000000001100001100001110001100010000
0001000000000100001101000011000111001101011111011111011111011111000000000
0000000000000000010000001100000000010000000000011000000000000000100000110
0000000001111110000011000000111110000000000110000000000000100000000100000
0001000001000000110000000100000001100001100000010000000000110001000011000
0000000000001100110000000000000110001000011000000000110000110000001000000
0100000010000000010000010000000110000000010001000000001100000000100010000
0000010000000100000100000001000000010000000100000000000011000000000110000
0000110000000001000111010110000000000010000000100000000000000100000111110
0000000000010000101110100101101100000010011100100111111101110000111000001
1011100000000010100000111011001000000101000001111110010000001010000011000
0001000001101100000000000000000000000000000000000111000001000000000000001
1101010001010101010100111000000000101010100000000000000001010000000000000
0111110000000000000000111111111000000000000111000000011100000000011000000
0000011000000011010000000001011000001100110000000110011000010001010000010
1000100001000100100010010001000000001000101000100000000000010000100001000
0000000001000000000100000000000000100101000000000001111001111101001111000
or
00000010101010000000000
00101000001010000000100
10001000100010010110010
10101010101010100100100
00000000000000000000000
00000000000011000000000
00000000001101000000000
00000000001101000000000
00000000010101000000000
00000000011111000000000
00000000000000000000000
11000011100011000011000
10000000000000110010000
11010001100011000011010
11111011111011111011111
00000000000000000000000
00010000000000000000010
00000000000000000000000
00001000000000000000001
11111000000000000011111
00000000000000000000000
11000011000011100011000
10000000100000000010000
11010000110001110011010
11111011111011111011111
00000000000000000000000
00010000001100000000010
00000000001100000000000
00001000001100000000001
11111000001100000011111
00000000001100000000000
00100000000100000000100
00010000001100000001000
00001100001100000010000
00000011000100001100000
00000000001100110000000
00000011000100001100000
00001100001100000010000
00010000001000000001000
00100000001100000000100
01000000001100000000100
01000000000100000001000
00100000001000000010000
00010000000000001100000
00001100000000110000000
00100011101011000000000
00100000001000000000000
00100000111110000000000
00100001011101001011011
00000010011100100111111
10111000011100000110111
00000000010100000111011
00100000010100000111111
00100000010100000110000
00100000110110000000000
00000000000000000000000
00111000001000000000000
00111010100010101010101
00111000000000101010100
00000000000000101000000
00000000111110000000000
00000011111111100000000
00001110000000111000000
00011000000000001100000
00110100000000010110000
01100110000000110011000
01000101000001010001000
01000100100010010001000
00000100010100010000000
00000100001000010000000
00000100000000010000000
00000001001010000000000
01111001111101001111000
See also
References
^ a b c d e "Cornell News: It's the 25th anniversary of Earth's first (and only) attempt to phone E.T., FOR RELEASE: Nov. 12, 1999". Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
^ "Larry Klaes. Ithaca Times - Making Contact". Retrieved on 2007-07-27.
^ a b c d Cassiday, George. "The Arecibo Message". Retrieved on 2007-07-27.
^ Jay M. Pasachoff. "Chapter 20: Life in the Universe". Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe, Updates by Chapter, 5th Ed.. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
External links
Arecibo Observatory message on Alien Research
Ithaca Times article on 31st anniversary of Arecibo Message broadcast.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message"
Categories: Interstellar messages | SETI | Time capsules
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FIRST PLANET AROUND ANOTHER STAR VISUALLY PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE
Hubble Directly Observes a Planet Orbiting Another Star
Nov. 13, 2008: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish."
Above: Artist's concept of the star Fomalhaut and the Jupiter-type planet that the Hubble Space Telescope observed. The planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the 200-million-year-old star every 872 years. Credit: ESA, NASA, and L. Calcada (ESO for STScI)
Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust (a telltale sign of planet formation) was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS.
In 2004, the coronagraph in the High Resolution Camera on Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys produced the first-ever resolved visible-light image of the region around Fomalhaut. (Note: A coronagraph is a device that can block the bright light of a central star to reveal faint objects around it.) It clearly showed a ring of protoplanetary debris approximately 21.5 billion miles across and having a sharp inner edge.
This large debris disk is similar to the Kuiper Belt, which encircles the solar system and contains a range of icy bodies from dust grains to objects the size of dwarf planets, such as Pluto.
Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley, and team members proposed in 2005 that the ring was being gravitationally modified or "shepherded" by a planet lying between the star and the ring's inner edge.
Now, Hubble has actually photographed a point source of light lying 1.8 billion miles inside the ring's inner edge. The results are being reported in the November 14 issue of Science magazine.
"Our Hubble observations were incredibly demanding. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than the star. We began this program in 2001, and our persistence finally paid off," Kalas says.
Observations taken 21 months apart by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys' coronagraph show that the object is moving along a path around the star, and is therefore gravitationally bound to it. The planet is 10.7 billion miles from the star, or about 10 times the distance of the planet Saturn from our sun.
The planet is brighter than expected for an object of three Jupiter masses. One possibility is that it has a Saturn-like ring of ice and dust reflecting starlight. The ring might eventually coalesce to form moons. The ring's estimated size is comparable to the region around Jupiter and its four largest orbiting satellites.
Right: This visible-light image from the Hubble shows the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting its parent star. [Larger image]
Kalas and his team first used Hubble to photograph Fomalhaut in 2004, and made the unexpected discovery of its debris disk. At the time they noted a few bright sources in the image as planet candidates. A follow-up image in 2006 showed that one of the objects had changed position since the 2004 exposure. The amount of displacement between the two exposures corresponds to an 872-year-long orbit as calculated from Kepler's laws of planetary motion.
Future observations will attempt to see the planet in infrared light and will look for evidence of water vapor clouds in the atmosphere. This would yield clues to the evolution of a comparatively newborn 100-million-year-old planet. Astrometric measurements of the planet's orbit will provide enough precision to yield an accurate mass.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2013 will be able to make coronagraphic observations of Fomalhaut in the near- and mid-infrared. Webb will be able to hunt for other planets in the system and probe the region interior to the dust ring for structures such as an inner asteroid belt.
For more information about this story and the Hubble Space Telescope, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
MORE ON THIS DISCOVERY JUST BELOW
Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY FOR 2008 November 14
Fomalhaut b
Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (Univ. California, Berkeley),
M. Clampin (NASA/Goddard), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore NL),
K. Stapelfeldt, J. Krist (NASA/JPL)
Explanation: Fomalhaut (sounds like "foam-a-lot") is a bright, young, star, a short 25 light-years from planet Earth in the direction of the constellation Piscis Austrinus. In this sharp composite from the Hubble Space Telescope, Fomalhaut's surrounding ring of dusty debris is imaged in detail, with overwhelming glare from the star masked by an occulting disk in the camera's coronagraph. Astronomers now identify, the tiny point of light in the small box at the right as a planet about 3 times the mass of Jupiter orbiting 10.7 billion miles from the star (almost 14 times the Sun-Jupiter distance). Designated Fomalhaut b, the massive planet probably shapes and maintains the ring's relatively sharp inner edge, while the ring itself is likely a larger, younger analog of our own Kuiper Belt - the solar system's outer reservoir of icy bodies. The Hubble data represent the first visible-light image of a planet circling another star.
Fomalhaut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fomalhaut (α PsA / α Piscis Austrini / Alpha Piscis Austrini) is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and one of the brightest stars in the night time sky. Its name means "mouth of the whale", from the Arabic فم الحوت fum al-ḥawt. It is a class A star on the main sequence approximately 25 light-years (7.7 pc) from Earth.
Until about March 2000, Fomalhaut and Achernar were the two first magnitude stars furthest in angular distance from any other first magnitude star in the celestial sphere. Antares, in the constellation of Scorpius, is now the most isolated first magnitude star.
The planet Fomalhaut b was the first exoplanet to be directly imaged via telescope.[1]
Age
Fomalhaut is believed to be a young star, only 200 to 300 million years old, with a potential lifespan of only a billion years. The surface temperature of the star is around 8500 kelvins. Compared to the Sun, its mass is about 2.3, its luminosity is about 15, and its diameter is roughly 1.7.
System
It is surrounded by a disk of dust in a toroidal shape with a very sharp inner edge at a radial distance of 133 AU, inclined 24 degrees from edge-on.[2][3] The dust is distributed in a belt about 25 AU wide. The geometric centre of the disk is offset by about 15 AU from Fomalhaut.[4] The disk is sometimes referred to as "Fomalhaut's Kuiper belt". Fomalhaut's dusty disk is believed to be protoplanetary, and emits considerable infrared radiation.
On Nov 13, 2008, astronomers announced the discovery of an extrasolar planet orbiting just inside the debris ring. This was the first extrasolar planet to be seen with visible light, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.[5] The mass of the planet, (Fomalhaut b), is estimated to be no more than 3 times the mass of Jupiter,[6][7] and at least the mass of Neptune.[8]
The much-fainter flare star TW Piscis Austrini is located within a light year of Fomalhaut and the two share a common proper motion through the sky. They are believed to be companion stars and may have had a common origin in a star cluster.
Etymology and cultural significance
Fomalhaut has had various names ascribed to it through time. One such name in common use is the Lonely Star of Autumn, because it is the only first-magnitude star in the autumn sky of mid-northern latitudes. It has been recognized by many cultures of the northern hemisphere, including the Arabs, Persians and Chinese. Archaeological evidence links it to rituals dating back to about 2500 BCE. It is one of the Persians' four "royal stars". The Stregheria religion from Italy, portrays Fomalhaut as a fallen angel and quarter guardian of the northern gate.
The name Fom al-Haut comes from scientific Arabic فم الحوت fam al-ħūt (al-janūbī) "the mouth of the (southern) fish/whale"
The Latin names are ōs piscis merīdiāni, ōs piscis merīdionālis, ōs piscis notii "the mouth of the southern fish"
The name Difda al Auwel comes from the colloquial Arabic الضفدع الأول aḍ-ḍifdiˤ al-’awwal "the first frog" (the second frog is Beta Ceti)
See also
References
^ Kalas, Paul; Graham, James R.; Clampin, Mark (2005). "A planetary system as the origin of structure in Fomalhaut's dust belt". Nature 435 (7045): 1067–1070. doi:10.1038/nature03601.
^ The disc was reported by Wayne S. Holland and Ben M. Zuckerman in Nature, 23 April 1998; they noted that the disc was centred on a cavity, which they sugg ested might have been swept out by planets.
^ "Fomalhaut's Kuiper Belt". Sky & Telescope. Retrieved on October 16, 2007.
^ "From afar, the first optical photos of an exoplanet", AFP (2008-11-13).
^ "Hubble Directly Observes a Planet Orbiting Another Star". Retrieved on November 13, 2008.
^ John Timmer. "Three planets directly observed orbiting distant star". Retrieved on November 13, 2008.
^ a b Paul Kalas (2008-11-13). "Direct Image Of Extrasolar Planet". Retrieved on 2008-11-14. (at 3 minutes 45 seconds: "... has to be less than three Jupiter masses. In fact our lower limit to Fomalhaut b is Neptune")
External links
Characteristics
Details
Database references
STAR DESIGNATED HR 8799 HAS
THREE MORE EXOPLANETS (After Fomalhaut b Explained Above) DISCOVERED AND PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE KECK AND GEMINI OBSERVATORIES ON EARTH
HR 8799 is a young (~60 million year old) A-type main sequence star located 129 light years (39 parsecs) away from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus, roughly 1.5 times the Sun's mass and 4.9 times its luminosity. The designation HR 8799 is the star's identifier in the Bright Star Catalogue. The star is a Gamma Doradus variable: its luminosity changes because of non-radial pulsations of its surface. The star is also classified as a Lambda Boötis star, which means its surface layers are depleted in iron peak elements.[6] This may be due to the accretion of metal-poor circumstellar gas.[7]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Planetary system
On November 13, 2008, Christian Marois of the National Research Council of Canada's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics and his team announced they had directly observed three planets orbiting the star with the Keck and Gemini telescopes in Hawaii,[8][9][10][11] in both cases employing adaptive optics to make observations in the infrared. The outer planet orbits just inside a dusty disk like the Solar Kuiper belt. It is one of the most massive disks known around any star within 300 light years of Earth, and there is room in the inner system for terrestrial planets.[10]
The orbital radii of planets d, c and b are 2 to 2.5 times those of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, respectively. Because of the inverse square law relating radiation intensity to distance from the source, comparable radiation intensities are present at distances √4.9 = 2.2 times farther from HR 8799 than from the sun, meaning that corresponding planets in the solar and HR 8799 systems are in regions of similar temperature.
These objects are near the upper mass limit for classification as planets; if they exceeded 13 Jupiter masses, they would be capable of deuterium fusion in their interiors and thus qualify as brown dwarfs under the definition of these terms used by the IAU's Working Group on Extrasolar Planets.[12] If the mass estimates are correct, the HR 8799 system is the first multiple-planet extrasolar system to be directly imaged.[9] The orbital motion of the planets was confirmed via multiple observations dating back to 2004.[8] Our vantage point is apparently close to the system's north polar axis (the planets revolve anticlockwise).[8]
See also
References
^ a b c d e f g h V* V342 Peg -- Variable Star of gamma Dor type, entry, SIMBAD. Accessed on line November 14, 2008.
^ HR 8799, database entry, The Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed. (Preliminary Version), D. Hoffleit and W. H. Warren, Jr., CDS ID V/50. Accessed on line November 14, 2008.
^ a b c van Leeuwen, F. (2007). "HIP 114189". Hipparcos, the New Reduction. Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
^ a b c d e f g h HR 8799: A Link between γ Doradus Variables and λ Bootis Stars, Richard O. Gray and Anthony B. Kaye, The Astronomical Journal118, #6 (December 1999), pp. 2993-2996, doi:10.1086/301134, Bibcode: 1999AJ....118.2993G.
^ a b Schneider, J.. "Notes for star HR 8799". The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
^ Gray, R.O. and Kaye, A.B. (1999). "HR 8799: A Link between γ Doradus Variables and λ Bootis Stars". The Astronomical Journal 118 (6): 2993–2996. doi:10.1086/301134. Bibcode: 1999AJ....118.2993G.
^ Gray, R.O. and Corbally, C.J. (2002). "A Spectroscopic Search for λ Bootis and Other Peculiar A-Type Stars in Intermediate-Age Open Clusters". The Astronomical Journal 124 (2): 989–1000. doi:10.1086/341609. Bibcode: 2002AJ....124..989G.
^ a b c d Marois, Christian; et al. (November 2008). "Direct Imaging of Multiple Planets Orbiting the Star HR 8799". Science Forthcoming. doi:10.1126/science.1166585. (Preprint at exoplanet.eu)
^ a b Gemini Observatory (2008-11-13). "Gemini Releases Historic Discovery Image of Planetary First Family". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-11-13.
^ a b W. M. Keck Observatory (2008-11-13). "Astronomers capture first images of newly-discovered solar system". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-11-13.
^ Achenbach, Joel (2008-11-13). "Scientists Publish First Direct Images of Extrasolar Planets", The Washington Post, The Washington Post Company. Retrieved on 13 November 2008.
^ "Definition of a "Planet"". Working Group on Extrasolar Planets (WGESP) of the International Astronomical Union. Retrieved on 2008-11-16.
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ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY FOR 2008 November 12
HR 8799
HR 8799 (center blob) with HR 8799d (bottom), HR 8799c (upper right), HR 8799b (upper left)
Characteristics
Details
Phoenix and the Holy Cow
Image Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo, Kenneth Kremer,
Phoenix Mission, NASA, JPL, UA, Max Planck Inst., Spaceflight
Explanation: The northern Martian summer is waning. As predicted, a decline in daylight hours, deteriorating weather, and dust storms are preventing solar arrays on the Phoenix Mars Lander from providing power. Phoenix's last signal was received on November 2, its successful mission ending after more than five months in the arctic region of the Red Planet, a run that exceeded its planned operational lifetime. Attempting to discover if Mars' surface has ever been able to support microbial life, Phoenix performed an extensive analysis of the soil and returned a wealth of image data. Of course, one of the lander's most exciting results was the detection of water-ice near the Martian surface. Recorded in October, this picture from the lander's Robotic Arm Camera shows the region under the Phoenix with flat, exposed icy patches. That area caused researchers to exclaim "Holy Cow!" when it was first imaged a few days after the May 25 touchdown of the Phoenix Mars Lander.
MORE ON THIS STORY WITH ADDITIONAL PICTURES AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
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ON OCTOBER 7 THE EARTH WAS STRUCK BY A SMALL ASTEROID CALLED 2008TC-3
THE ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY FOR 2008 NOVEMBER 8 SHOWING THE CONTRAIL OF ASTEROID 2008 TC-3 AS A BRIGHT METEOR
Database references
On the Trail of 2008 TC3
Credit: Mohamed Elhassan Abdelatif Mahir (Noub NGO), Dr. Muawia H. Shaddad (Univ. Khartoum),
Dr. Peter Jenniskens (SETI Institute/NASA Ames)
Explanation: On October 7, the early dawn over northern Sudan revealed this twisted, high altitude trail. Captured in a video frame, the long-lasting persistent train is from the impact of a small asteroid catalogued as 2008 TC3. That event was remarkable because it was the first time an asteroid was detected in space before crashing into planet Earth's atmosphere. In fact, after astronomers discovered 2008 TC3, the time and location of its impact were predicted based on follow-up observations. Later, the impact predictions were confirmed by sensors, including a Meteosat-8 image of a bright flash in the atmosphere. Astronomers are now hoping for more reports of local ground-based observations of what must have been a brilliant meteor streaking through Sudan's night sky. Additional reports could improve the chances of recovering meteorites.
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VOTING FROM SPACE
Astronauts cast votes from space station
Only four Americans in NASA's 50-year history have voted from space
NASA astronaut Michael Fincke, Expedition 18 commander,in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station.
NASA
By Tariq Malik
Updated 12:51 p.m. ET, Mon., Nov. 3, 2008 FROM MSNBC.COM
While most Americans will flock to the polls Tuesday to cast their vote for the next U.S. president, two U.S. citizens will beam their ballots down from the International Space Station as they fly 220 miles (354 km) above Earth.
Like all U.S. spaceflyers since 1997, NASA astronauts Michael Fincke and Gregory Chamitoff can vote in their local and national elections thanks to a handy Texas state law that ensures their ballots can be counted, even from space.
"So I'm going to exercise my privilege as a citizen and actually vote from space on Election Day," Fincke, the space station's Expedition 18 commander, told SPACE.com before he left Earth. "I think the candidates this year are exciting in and of themselves. But hopefully we get people to realize what a privilege it is, and they exercise and get a chance to vote."
UPDATE - THEY DID VOTE FROM SPACE.
Only four Americans in NASA's 50-year history have voted from space, largely because the Texas law allowing was passed just 11 years ago, said Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters, a spokesperson with NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. And just one of those four, now-retired spaceflyer Leroy Chiao, voted during a presidential election in 2004 while commanding the space station's Expedition 10 crew.
"I was so busy preparing for my ISS mission in 2004 that I almost forgot about the fact that I would be in space during that U.S. presidential election," Chiao told SPACE.com, adding that it was his wife Karen who remembered he'd be in orbit on Election Day. "As she and NASA looked into it, the process turned out to be fairly straightforward. Another astronaut had already voted from space earlier for a state election, so the law allowing this was already established. It was just a matter of applying it to the presidential election."
The 1997 Texas bill allowed NASA's first orbital voter David Wolf to cast his ballot from Russia's Space Station Mir, Cloutier-Lemasters told SPACE.com. Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Clayton Anderson also voted during their separate missions to the International Space Station in 2006 and 2007, respectively.Fincke and Chamitoff have been encouraging the American people to remember that no matter which presidential candidate they choose, be it a ballot for Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of John McCain (R-Arizona), that they remember to vote above all else.
"Voting is the most important statement Americans can make in fulfilling a cherished right to select its leaders," Fincke said in a NASA TV video with Chamitoff. "So this Election Day, take time to go to the polls and vote. If we can do it, so can you."
How astronauts vote from space
The process of voting from space actually begins on the ground. According to the 1997 bill, astronauts in space can cast an absentee ballot from their spacecraft with the help of the County Clerk of Harris and Brazoria counties, which contain Houston and its surrounding area.
The County Clerk's office prepares a secure electronic ballot that is then relayed to the International Space Station via NASA's Mission Control room at the Johnson Space Center. Meanwhile, the Clerk's Office sends a separate e-mail to the astronaut with login information to access the ballot and vote.
"So there's this plan in place and I'll have an electronic ballot and be able to vote from up here," Chamitoff told SPACE.com from the space station recently.
The completed ballot is then beamed back to Mission Control and sent back to the County Clerk's office to be tallied.
The process, Chiao explained, is an appreciated link to life on Earth among NASA's spaceflyers.
"I was thankful for everyone making it possible for me to vote from space," he said, adding that he too hoped it encouraged others to vote. "I think it was an important symbolic gesture. Also, it was important to me personally."
Coincidentally, Chiao is also outside the U.S. during this presidential election, but not in space. He made sure to vote early before departing the country on travel, he told SPACE.com.
There is one drawback to voting from space. Unlike the privacy of a booth on Earth, at least one other person besides the astronaut will actually know who the spaceflyer voted for, since a voting officer must decrypt the secure form in order to count it, Fincke said.
"So one other person, she's going to see who I voted for," he said. "If you can't trust her, you can't trust anyone. So it's a pretty solid system."
© 2007 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.
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October 27th, 2008
Written by Nancy Atkinson from UniverseToday.com
NASA
Astronaut Greg Chamitoff, Expedition 17 flight engineer works in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station.
Cosmologist Stephen Hawking will retire from his post at Cambridge University next year, but he still intends to continue his exploration of time and space. University policy is that officeholders must retire at the end of the academic year in which they become 67. Hawking will reach that age on Jan. 8, 2009. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the university, a title once held Isaac Newton. The university said on Friday that he would step down at the end of the academic year in September, but would continue working as Emeritus Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. Hawking became a scientific celebrity through his theories on black holes and the nature of time, work that he carried on despite becoming severely disabled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
He has written a very candid piece on living quite a full life in spite of this disease.
Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 (300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. He attended University College in Oxford, and wanted to study mathematics, but it wasn't available as a major, so he chose Physics instead. After three years and "not very much work," Hawking said, he was awarded a first class honours degree in Natural Science. He then went to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, since no one was working in that area in Oxford at the time.
After getting his Ph.D. he became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. 1973 Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and since 1979 has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.
Hawking first earned recognition for his theoretical work on black holes. Disproving the belief that black holes are so dense that nothing could escape their gravitational pull, he showed that black holes leak a tiny bit of light and other types of radiation, now known as "Hawking radiation."
His 1988 book, "A Brief History of Time," was an international best-seller; in 2001 he published "The Universe in a Nutshell," and a children's book, "George's Secret Key to the Universe," was published in 2007, which was co-authored with his daughter Lucy.
To celebrate his 65th birthday in 2007, he took a zero-gravity flight. In part, he went on the flight to bring public attention to space travel. "I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space," he said.
Most of Hawkings papers are available here (type his name in the search box.)
Sources: MSNBC, Hawking's website
October 28th, 2008
Written by Nancy Atkinson from UniverseToday.com
Phoenix lander. Credit: Canadian Space Agency
It appears the end is nigh for the Phoenix Mars Lander. Today, engineers have begun to shut down some of the lander's instruments and heaters. But this is in hopes of extending the mission by saving power as available sunlight begins to wane with the approach of Martian autumn. But at the same time, the spacecraft requires more power to run heaters in order to survive as the temperatures decline. “If we did nothing, it wouldn’t be long before the power needed to operate the spacecraft would exceed the amount of power it generates on a daily basis,” said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “By turning off some heaters and instruments, we can extend the life of the lander by several weeks and still conduct some science.”
Today, commands were sent to disable the first heater, one that warms the robotic arm, the robotic arm camera and the TEGA instrument – the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer. Likely, this means no more digging and no more "baking and sniffing" of soil samples. Engineers say by shutting down this heater, they'll save 250 watt-hours of power.
Before power was shut down to the arm and the camera, Phoenix took one last image of the "Holy Cow" ice patch underneath the lander.
Over the next several weeks, four survival heaters will be shut down, one at a time, in an effort to conserve power. The heaters serve the purpose of keeping the electronics within tested survivable limits. As each heater is disabled, some of the instruments are also expected to cease operations. The energy saved is intended to power the lander’s main camera and meteorological instruments until the very end of the mission.
Engineers are also preparing for solar conjunction, when the sun is directly between Earth and Mars. Between Nov. 28 and Dec. 13, Mars and the sun will be within two degrees of each other as seen from Earth, blocking radio transmission between the spacecraft and Earth. During that time, no commands will be sent to Phoenix, but daily downlinks from Phoenix will continue through NASA’s Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance orbiters. At this time, controllers can’t predict whether the fourth heater would be disabled before or after conjunction.
In the final step, Phoenix engineers may turn off a fourth heater — one of two survival heaters that warm the spacecraft and its batteries. This would leave one remaining survival heater to run out on its own.
“At that point, Phoenix will be at the mercy of Mars,” said Chris Lewicki of JPL, lead mission manger.
The Phoenix team has parked the robotic arm on a representative patch of Martian soil. No additional soil samples will be gathered. The thermal and electrical-conductivity probe (TECP), located on the wrist of the arm, has been inserted into the soil and will continue to measure soil temperature and conductivity, along with atmospheric humidity near the surface. The probe does not need a heater to operate and should continue to send back data for weeks.
Throughout the mission, the lander’s robotic arm successfully dug and scraped Martian soil and delivered it to the onboard laboratories. “We turn off this workhorse with the knowledge that it has far exceeded expectations and conducted every operation asked of it,” said Ray Arvidson, the robotic arm's co-investigator, and a professor at Washington University, St. Louis.
Source: JPL
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander monitors the atmosphere overhead and reaches out to the soil below in this artist's depiction of the spacecraft fully deployed on the surface of Mars.
Tools:
NASA Finishes Listening for Phoenix Mars LanderDecember 01, 2008 PASADENA, Calif. -- After nearly a month of daily checks to determine whether Martian NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander would be able to communicate again, the agency has stopped using its Mars orbiters to hail the lander and listen for its beep. As expected, reduced daily sunshine eventually left the solar-powered Phoenix craft without enough energy to keep its batteries charged. The final communication from Phoenix remains a brief signal received via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter on Nov. 2. The Phoenix lander operated for two overtime months after achieving its science goals during its original three-month mission. It landed on a Martian arctic plain on May 25. "The variability of the Martian weather was a contributing factor to our loss of communications, and we were hoping that another variation in weather might give us an opportunity to contact the lander again," said Phoenix Mission Manager Chris Lewicki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The end of efforts to listen for Phoenix with Odyssey and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had been planned for the start of solar conjunction, when communications between Earth and Mars-orbiting spacecraft are minimized for a few weeks. That period, when the sun is close to the line between Earth and Mars, has begun and will last until mid-December. The last attempt to listen for a signal from Phoenix was when Odyssey passed overhead at 3:49 p.m. PST Saturday, Nov. 29 (4:26 p.m. local Mars solar time on the 182nd Martian day, or sol, since Phoenix landed). Nov. 29 was selected weeks ago as the final date for relay monitoring of Phoenix because it provided several weeks to the chance to confirm the fate of the lander, and it coincided with the beginning of solar conjunction operations for the orbiters. When they come out of the conjunction period, weather on far-northern Mars will be far colder, and the declining sunshine will have ruled out any chance of hearing from Phoenix.
Media contact: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.Webster@jpl.nasa.gov 2008-223 › News releases archives
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NOTE THAT ON NOVEMBER 1 OCCURRED THE LATEST POSSIBLE SUNRISE BECAUSE OF BEING ON DAYLIGHT TIME.
ON NOVEMBER 2 AT 2AM WE FELL BACK 1 HOUR TO STANDARD TIME. THE SUN NOW APPEARED TO RISE ABOUT
59 MINUTES EARLIER THAN ON NOV 1, GETTING LATER UNTIL ABOUT 2009 JANUARY 7. SUNRISE WAS SEVERAL
MINUTES LATER ON NOVEMBER 1 IN DAYLIGHT TIME THAN IT WILL BE ON 2009 JANUARY 7 IN STANDARD TIME.