Fraser Cain, Author at Universe Today

October 2, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Discovery Rolls Out to the Pad

I know it feels like it was just yesterday that Endeavour returned from its mission to the International Space Station. With the new compressed space shuttle schedule, get used to it – NASA’s got a lot of missions to schedule if they’re going to hit their 2010 completion date of the International Space Station. Next up, Discovery. The shuttle was moved out to the launch pad on Sunday, and now awaits its October 23rd launch.

The shuttle made the 5.5 km (3.4 mile) journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to its launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It started out at 6:47 am EDT, and was firmly down at the launch pad at 1:15 pm. The huge crawler transporter only moves about 1.6 kph (1 mph), so it’s really slow going.

With the shuttle on the pad, everyone still has a series of activities to complete before the beginning of mission STS-120. The crew will arrive on October 7th, and perform a dress rehearsal on October 10th.

If all goes well, Discovery will blast off on October 23rd, once again bound for the International Space Station. The shuttle will be carrying the US-built Harmony module. This six-hatched cylinder will serve as a pressurized gateway to attach future science laboratories to the station.

The STS-120 crew is led by Pam Melroy, only the second woman ever to command a space shuttle mission.

Original Source: NASA News Release

October 2, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

NGC 3603, as Seen by Hubble

It’s time for another amazing image from Hubble. You’re looking at nebula NGC 3603, one of the most spectacular star forming regions in the Milky Way. It’s located about 20,000 light-years away from the Earth, in the Carina spiral arm. Apart from offering up pretty pictures, this region is important for science too. Birth and death, gas and dust, NGC 3603 has it all.

This Hubble image shows many different things happening, all at the same time. Most of the stars in the image were all born in the nebula, and differ in size, mass, temperature and colour. There are some absolute monsters in there, dozens of times the mass of our own Sun. These huge stars live fast and die young, burning through their hydrogen fuel quickly, and blowing out fearsome ultraviolet radiation. The combined radiation of all the stars has carved out an enormous cavity of gas and dust in the centre of the nebula – the clear region in the middle.

According to astronomers, the most massive stars are concentrated into the centre of the cluster. In fact, three of them seem to have more mass than is theoretically possible. Instead of single stars; however, they might be binary pairs, so close that even Hubble can’t distinguish them. The largest star was measured with a mass of 115 times the mass of our Sun. So, either the observations or the theories are wrong; stay tuned to see how this one plays out.

Around the swirling nebula are some darker regions called Bok globules. These are dark clouds of gas and dust with the mass of about 10-50 times our Sun. They’re under the process of collapsing, and will eventually form stars, but for now they’re some of the coldest objects in the Universe. You need cold gas before you can get hot stars.

The entire nebula seems contain about 400,000 times the mass of the Sun. That’s enough material for plenty of stars.

Original Source: ESA Hubble News Release

October 2, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Lunar Probe’s High Definition View of the Earth

There’s nothing as nice as a pretty view of our home planet. It really puts things in perspective. I’m on that planet, and so are you. It’s a high definition image of the Earth, of course, captured on September 29th by the Japanese spacecraft Kaguya (aka Selene) from a distance of 110,000 km. It’s currently in Earth-orbit, but on October 3rd, it’ll begin transferring its orbit to the Moon.

As to the actual mission, here’s an article we posted a couple of weeks ago, when the spacecraft was launched. We’ll report back with further updates, for now, just enjoy the pretty picture.

Original Source: JAXA News Release

October 2, 2007January 24, 2021 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for October 2, 2007

Today’s astrophoto was captured by Mike Salway. It’s the Milky Way. Wow.

Here’s a new blog that I’m watching: Black Holes and Astro Stuff. In other words, space bloggers are contacting me, and letting me know they exist. And you should do the same. Email me at [email protected]. That way I can help you out and raise awareness of your hard work.

Personal Spaceflight has an interesting story about the trials and tribulations Anousheh Ansari went through to become a space tourist.

Pamela looks at a group of galaxies called Seyfert’s Sextet. It looks like an important stage in galaxy evolution.

CNet has this interview with X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis.

My blogging comrades over at Wired News have wrapped up a contest for people to choose a new tagline for NASA. I won’t spoil it for you, check out the top entries.

Phil finds a garden shaped like a galaxy.

The 2007 Spaceward Games are just two weeks away.

And finally, a community of space enthusiasts are building a fictional galaxy, star by star, planet by planet. It’s called the Galaxiki, and it’s one of those wiki things, where the public is able to freely edit it.

September 28, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for September 28th, 2007

Today’s space photo was captured by Phil22. I don’t I have to tell you that it’s the Horsehead Nebula.

First some sad news. The life of a young space blogger was ended in a motorcycle accident a couple of days ago. Matt Bowes was the mind behind Space Liberates Us!; an extremely well-written blog. Matt’s blog was one of the ones I was following every day, and I had no idea he was only 19. The obituary is here. Thanks to Clark, Keith and Rand for the heads up on this.

He’s both a rocket scientist and an astronaut. MIT Technology review has an interview with Franklin Chang Diaz discussing his plasma rocket research.

The launch of Dawn brings another ion engine into space. Centauri Dreams wonders when we’ll see solar sails propel a spacecraft.

If you listen to the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, you’ll be pleased to hear that Skepchick Rebecca Watson has won a fierce competition to get her own public radio show. If you need a guest Rebecca… call me. 😉

Do you have a space-related blog? Email me your URL, and I’ll start watching you. Write something interesting, and I’ll link to it.

September 27, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Exotic Collision Releases a Blast of Radio Waves

It’s not every day that you see something completely new in the night sky. But that’s what Australian and US researchers have announced this week. They uncovered a mysterious burst of radio energy that came from outside our galaxy. It was incredibly bright, emanating from a tiny object, and lasted for only 5 milliseconds. Blink and you would have missed it (actually, don’t bother blinking, you’d still miss it). So, the big question is: what was that?!

Astronomers from Swinburne University and West Virginia University announced their unexpected discovery this week, with an article in the journal Science.

Their discovery was made by chance. The researchers were analyzing radio observations of rotating pulsars – the corpses of massive stars – when they noticed a brief, bright flash of radio waves in their images. They were looking at the Small Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy, and were fortunate to have the flash occur in their field of view; off to the side away from the galaxy.

Based on their further analysis, whatever made the flash of radio waves is millions of light-years away, well outside the galaxy, and tiny; probably less than 1,500 km across. Objects at this distance should be very faint, but what they found overwhelmed the radio telescope’s detectors.

So what was it?

There are two theories on the table right now. One is a collision between a binary pair of neutron stars. These exotic objects were once stars much larger than our own Sun. After both detonated as supernovae, they spiraled inward towards one another, eventually merging. Astronomers think this event can also cause a certain kind of gamma ray burst, but a flash of radio waves has never been seen before.

Another, even more exotic explanation is the death of black hole. Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking proposed that black holes can actually evaporate, losing mass over long periods of time. As the black hole loses mass, the evaporation speeds up, and the last few moments of a black hole could actually go quite quickly, perhaps with a flash of radio waves like this.

Based on the fact that the discovery was a total coincidence, the astronomers are hopeful that this kind of event is happening all over the sky, all the time. Astronomers have just never thought to look for them. It’s possible that this discovery could even open up a whole new field of astronomy, just like when gamma ray bursts were first discovered 30 years ago when the military orbited satellites designed to see nuclear explosions on the Earth.

Original Source: Swinburne University News Release

September 27, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Deep Impact… the Second Visit

When Deep Impact smashed into Comet Tempel 1, it did its job well… too well. Yes, it did carve out a crater on the surface of the comet, releasing a plume of debris visible from here on Earth. But there was a problem. The impact released so much debris into space that the spacecraft couldn’t see the surface of the comet before it sped by. No problem, there’s another handy spacecraft out there, with all the right equipment and nothing to do: Stardust.

Why wasn’t Deep Impact able to see the crater it had just helped carve out of Comet Tempel 1? That was all part of the plan. Researchers wanted to be able to measure the cloud of particles ejected into space after the impact. In order to do that, they needed the flyby spacecraft to pass the comet moments after the impact; to get the best view of the dust. Deep Impact was traveling so quickly that it just swept past and back out into space.

But what size and depth of crater was left behind?

That’s still a mystery that astronomers want solved. Fortunately, NASA’s Stardust spacecraft is in an orbit that will let it rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1 in the future. This was the spacecraft that flew through the tail of Comet Wild 2 in 2004, capturing particles and returning them back to Earth. Stardust released its payload to return to Earth safely, but it remained in space, looking for another task. The spacecraft will be given a new trajectory, burning up some of its remaining fuel.

Obviously, recycling a spacecraft like this can be done at a huge discount to sending a new vehicle up. You just have the operating costs for people; you’re looking at 15% the cost of doing a full mission.

Stardust will arrive in 2011, almost exactly one-cometary year after Deep Impact did the damage in the first place. The dust cloud will have dissipated away into space, and Stardust will have a good view down into the crater. Scientists will also learn what kind kind of changes the Sun will have on the new wound.

The original Deep Impact spacecraft is going to be recycled too. NASA has plans to fly it past Comet Boethin in December 2008 to examine that comet’s nucleus. It will even be tasked to help search for extrasolar planets, by using its sensitive instruments to watch for planets dimming stars as they pass in front.

Original Source: Science@NASA

September 27, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Opportunity is Now Working Inside Victoria Crater

When last we saw our plucky rover, it was tentatively crawling down into the massive Victoria crater on the surface of Mars. Well, NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover has been making some serious progress since then. In fact, it’s already gotten down to do some science. The rover is currently several metres down inside the rim of Victoria crater, balancing on a steep slope, and peering at an ancient slab of exposed bedrock.

Opportunity is now slowly descending down into the 800-metre-wide Victoria Crater; slowly, and carefully. Its first stop is a patch of exposed bedrock. Even though it’s still on the slope, Opportunity was able to reach over with its robotic arm and use some of its tools to examine the bright outcropping.

Controllers had Opportunity make a few extra safety checks, since it’s currently driving down a 25-degree slope, and stretching out the arm too far could unbalance it. The rover drove down 2.25 metres (7.38 feet) to get the rock within easy – and safe – reach. This was the third drive the rover has made since it entered the crater on September 13th.

NASA is watching the rover’s traction very carefully. This 25-degree angle is the steepest the rover is going to see. And so far, the worst slippage has only been about 10%. So it should be able to get down into the crater, and still be able to crawl back out again. Fortunately, Victoria crater won’t be Opportunity’s final home on Mars.

Researchers are hoping the rover will find older and older patches of rock, exposed when an asteroid impacted the surface of Mars millions of years ago. These ancient rocks will tell a story of Martian history much older than the fragmented pieces scientists have been able to put together so far. Were there long periods where the planet was covered by liquid water?

It’s your job Opportunity. Don’t come out of your hole until you’ve got some answers.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

September 27, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Dawn is Gone

The big day arrived, and nothing could keep that spacecraft on the ground. At 7:34 am EDT NASA’s Dawn spacecraft was lofted into space atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket, beginning a 3 billion km (1.7 billion mile) journey to meet with two different large asteroids. If all goes well, the spacecraft will make its first encounter with Vesta in October, 2011, and then Ceres in February, 2015.

I know I say this about every mission, but this one, this mission is currently my favourite. In just a few years, a spacecraft is going to orbit an entirely unvisited asteroid, and then just a few years later, it’s going to do it again. It’ll all be so new, I can’t wait. They were once two asteroids, but now Ceres has been reclassified as a dwarf planet, along with Pluto in 2006.

Dawn will serve as a time machine, helping astronomers look back 4.6 billion years to the earliest times in our Solar System’s history. Although they’re both in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, Ceres and Vesta formed in dramatically different ways. Vesta was closer in, and is dry, without a trace of water – even its interior is probably still hot. Ceres formed further out, and astronomers think it might have a thick layer of ice under its crust, covering a rocky core.

Scientists are especially interested in the large crater on Vesta’s southern pole. It alone is 460 km wide and 13 km deep. Astronomers think this mighty collision could account for 5 percent of all the meteorites found here on Earth.

The key to Dawn’s ability to enter orbit around two different objects is its ion drive. Unlike a heavy chemical rocket, an ion propulsion drive uses solar power to accelerate xenon ions to tremendous speeds. It’s not a strong thrust, but it builds up over long periods helping the spacecraft reach tremendous speeds, with a relatively tiny mass of fuel.

NASA originally canceled Dawn, as part of its science cutbacks to help pay for the human missions to return to the Moon, but then the agency revived the mission in 2006, after they had already invested $449 million to get the mission to this point.

Dawn’s next task will be to report in to NASA, to confirm that it reached its proper trajectory, and is able to communicate. We’ll know later today if the mission hit its target window.

Next stop, Vesta.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

September 27, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for September 27th, 2007

Today’s space photo was captured RickJ. He says it’s a photograph of a pelican, but I think he’s talking about the nebular variety.

The Carnival of Space continues. Wandering Space has the 22nd iteration of this wonderful collection of links.

Well now, this is just cool. ESA has instructions so you can make your own Hipparcos star globe. It looks like a 20-sided die (come on, can I get some D&D love here?) which you print out on your printer and then cut and glue together. It has all the constellations and the Milky Way on it. Lucky I just bought a colour laser printer.

Here’s a cool picture of Canada’s northernmost lake at Livescience, and a description of the changes happening from global warming.

The 50th anniversary of Sputnik’s launch is coming up. What are you doing to celebrate? The Rocketry Blog has 10 good ideas.

How much will it cost to go back to the Moon? Not a trillion dollars, that’s for sure. Space Politics deals with misinformation about the costs of space exploration.

Most scientists think water on Earth came from cometary bombardment. But there’s another theory that elemental hydrogen in the atmosphere combined with oxygen in rocks to create the oceans. Quasar9 has the story.

Do you have a space-related blog? Email me your URL, and I’ll start watching you. Write something interesting, and I’ll link to it.