Ian O'Neill, Author at Universe Today

June 19, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Disney-Pixar and NASA Join Forces to Explore Space with WALL-E (Video)

Disney-Pixar and NASA have embarked on a project to promote science and technology amongst school children. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is gearing up for the premier of their new animated space adventure WALL-E on June 27th, and NASA has signed a Space Act Agreement to use this event as an opportunity to promote educational-based projects to build kids interest in space exploration. The collaboration sounds like an excellent chance to communicate NASA’s endeavours in space, plus the movie and possible NASA spin-offs look very cool (besides, WALL-E looks like a very cute Mars rover)…

It sounds like a film I’ll definitely be watching at the theatre. With some great timing, this Disney creation features an animated robotic rover not too dissimilar to NASA’s Mars Expedition Rovers Spirit and Opportunity (minus the binocular, expressive eyes) currently trundling around on the Red Planets surface. Plus we saw the robotic lander Phoenix touch down only a couple of weeks ago. If there’s a time to release a film about the last rover-robot on Earth exploring space, this would be the time to do it! Apparently there are quite a few similarities between the movie’s plotline and NASA’s actual work with robotics, propulsion and astrophysics. Seems like a great time for NASA to communicate with the young minds that will shape the next generation of space explorers.

“Great ideas for future exploration of the universe start with the imagination. We hope that with the help of our new robot friend WALL-E, NASA can encourage young people to learn about science and technology and become the explorers of tomorrow.” – Robert Hopkins, chief of strategic communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The team at Disney-Pixar have already produced a 30-second promotional video announcing the Disney-NASA partnership which also promotes NASA’s TV channels and NASA’s website. It is hoped this campaign will draw a younger audience to NASA’s Kids’ Club pages. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is using this time to showcase their current Phoenix mission and the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory mission. WALL-E will be showing from June 27 to August 27 in the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood and NASA will be hosting a special display of imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope at the location, so the audience will have a real entertaining visit.

“All of us at Disney are delighted to be working with NASA in their educational and public outreach efforts to teach schoolchildren about space exploration, robot technology, and the universe they live in. WALL-E is one of the most lovable and entertaining characters that Pixar ever has created, and he is the perfect spokes-robot for this program. Disney-Pixar’s WALL-E takes moviegoers on a thrilling and imaginative journey into outer space, and now the film’s title character will be able to stimulate imaginations further through these efforts.” – Mark Zoradi, President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group

See the 30 second WALL-E/NASA trailer »

Source: SpaceRef.com

June 19, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

When Cloud Seeding Goes Wrong: Cement Chunk Falls From the Sky

The Russian Air Force, during a mission to clear the skies of potentially rain-filled clouds, dropped a mixture of silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder in an attempt to seed the clouds. This form of climate modification is common practice in Russia, when attempting to engineer dry days on public holidays and special events in Moscow. However, during the cloud seeding operation last week, cement dropped from one of the aircraft failed to fragment when falling through the air, falling as a solid mass, crashing through the roof of a Moscow suburban home…

Cloud seeding is a highly controversial method used to modify local climates. Russia and China are two large nations that believe various methods of cloud seeding are effective in deflecting storms and preventing rain clouds from precipitating on events requiring dry weather. Silver iodide, dry ice and various salts are used as artificial particles acting as water droplet nuclei. Dropping these particles can trigger precipitation, but any form of climate modification can be unpredictable, and in some cases, dangerous.

One such unpredictable outcome from last week’s “routine” cloud seeding effort by the Russian Air Force above the skies of Moscow resulted in something bigger than rain hitting the ground. A pack of cement (with rain-making properties I’m guessing) was dropped from one of the 12 seeding planes with a cocktail of silver iodide and liquid nitrogen. The point? To clear the skies above Moscow in preparation for a dry national holiday on June 12th known as Russia Day. The result? The cement mix failed to break apart, creating the desired cloud of dust after it was released. Instead it maintained its shape (and presumably its cement-like hardness) and dropped to the ground like a ~~stone~~ rock.

“A pack of cement used in creating good weather in the capital region failed to pulverize completely at high altitude and fell on the roof of a house, making a hole about 80-100 cm (2.5-3 ft).” – Naro-Fominsk Police when talking with agency RIA-Novosti.

Fortunately no one was hurt, but the Russian homeowner is less than impressed. He has shunned the Air Force’s offer of $2,100 to fix the roof and is suing for “moral suffering” damages instead. The Air Force claims this was a freak accident and unheard of in the 20 years of cloud seeding operations.

Sources: Reuters, Environmental Graffiti

June 19, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

2012: Planet X is not Nibiru

The Solar System’s outer reaches still contain many minor planets yet to be discovered. Ever since the search for Planet X began in the early 20th Century, the possibility of a hypothetical planet orbiting the Sun beyond the Kuiper Belt has fuelled many Doomsday theories and speculation that Planet X is actually the Sun’s long lost binary sibling. But why the fear about the Planet X/Doomsday combination? Surely Planet X is just an unknown, hypothetical object and nothing sinister?

Related 2012 articles:

As I’ve previously discussed in “2012: No Planet X“, doomsayers have linked the modern day search for Planet X, the ancient Mayan 2012 Prophecy and the Sumerian mythical planet Nibiru, culminating in bad news for December 21st 2012. However, the astronomical evidence for these links is seriously flawed.

Yesterday (Wednesday, June 18th), Japanese researchers announced news that their theoretical search for a large mass in the outer Solar System has produced results. From their calculations, there might just be a planet, possibly a bit bigger than a Plutoid but certainly smaller than Earth orbiting beyond 100 AU from the Sun. But before we get carried away, this is not Nibiru, this is not proof of the end of the world in 2012; it is a new and very exciting development in the search for minor planets beyond the Kuiper Belt…

In a new theoretical simulation, two researchers have deduced that the outermost reaches of the Solar System may contain an undiscovered planet. Patryk Lykawka and Tadashi Mukai of Kobe University have published a paper in the Astrophysical Journal detailing a minor planet that they believe may be interacting with the mysterious Kuiper Belt.

Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs)

The Kuiper Belt occupies a huge region of space, approximately 30-50 AU from the Sun. It contains a vast number of rocky and metallic objects, the largest known body being the dwarf planet (or “Plutoid”) Eris. It has been known for many years that the Kuiper Belt has a few strange characteristics that may signal the presence of another large planetary body orbiting the Sun beyond the Kuiper Belt. One such feature is the aptly named “Kuiper Cliff” that occurs at 50 AU. This is an abrupt end to the Kuiper Belt, very few Kuiper Belt objects (or KBOs) have been observed beyond this point. This cliff cannot be attributed to orbital resonances with massive planets such as Neptune, and there doesn’t appear to be any obvious observational error. Many astronomers believe that such a sharp cut-off in KBO population may be due to an as-yet to be discovered planet, possibly as large as Earth. This is an object Lykawka and Mukai believe they have calculated to exist.

This research predicts a large object, 30-70% the mass of the Earth, orbiting at a distance of around 100-200 AU from the Sun. This object may also help explain why some KBOs and tran-Neptunian objects (TNOs) have some strange orbital characteristics (such as Sedna).

Ever since Pluto was discovered in 1930, astronomers have been looking for another more massive body that could explain the orbital perturbations observed in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. This search became known as the “search for Planet X”, which literally meant the “search for an as yet unidentified planet.” In the 1980’s these perturbations were put down to observational error. Therefore, the modern-day scientific search for Planet X is the search for a large KBO or a minor planet beyond. Although Planet X may not be larger than the mass of the Earth, researchers are still very excited about finding more KBOs, possibly the size of a Plutoid, possibly a little bigger, but not much bigger.

“The interesting thing for me is the suggestion of the kinds of very interesting objects that may yet await discovery in the outer solar system. We are still scratching the edges of that region of the solar system, and I expect many surprises await us with the future deeper surveys.” – Mark Sykes, Director of the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona.

Planet X is not scary

So where does Nibiru come in? Back in 1976 a controversial book called “The Twelfth Planet” was written by Zecharia Sitchin. Sitchin had interpreted some ancient Sumerian cuneiform texts (the earliest known form of writing) as a literal translation of the origin of humankind. These 6000 year old texts apparently reveal that an alien race known as the Annunaki travelled to Earth on a planet called Nibiru. It’s a long and involved story, but in a nutshell, the Anunnaki genetically modified primates on Earth to create homo sapiens to be their slaves. (I just worked out where the storyline for Kurt Russell’s 1994 movie Stargate probably came from…)

When the Anunnaki left Earth, they let us rule the planet until they return. All this may seem a little fantastical, and perhaps a little too detailed when considering it is a literal translation from 6000 year old texts. Sitchin’s work has been disregarded by the scientific community as many of his methods of interpretation are considered imaginative at best. Nevertheless, many people have taken Sitchin’s work literally, and believe Nibiru (in its highly eccentric orbit around the Sun) will be returning, possibly as soon as 2012 to cause all sorts of terror and destruction here on Earth. It is important to note here that I am not calling into question any archaeological, spiritual or historic evidence for Nibiru, I am simply pointing out the link between the 2012 Doomsday Planet X theory is based on very dubious astronomical “discoveries”; if this is the case, how can Planet X be considered to be the embodiment of Nibiru?

Then there’s the IRAS “discovery of a brown dwarf in the outer Solar System” in 1984 and the “NASA announcement of a 4-8 Earth mass planet travelling toward Earth” in 1993. Doomsayers (often with a book to sell) cling on to these astronomical discoveries as proof that Nibiru is in fact the Planet X astronomers have been searching for over the last century. Not only that, by manipulating the facts about these scientific studies, they “prove” that Nibiru is travelling toward us, and by 2012, this massive body will pass through the inner Solar System, causing all sorts of gravitational damage. For more information on this topic, see “2012: No Planet X.”

In its purest form, Planet X is an unknown, theoretically possible planet orbiting peacefully beyond the Kuiper Belt. If yesterday’s announcement does lead to the observation of a planet or Plutoid, it will be an incredible discovery that will help to shed some light on the evolution and characteristics of the mysterious outer reaches of the Solar System.

But as I write, I can guarantee that doomsayers are adapting this new research to be used as support for their nonsensical theories that Planet X is in fact Nibiru, and it’s coming in our direction by 20 12 2012. Why do I get the feeling we’ll still be here in the year 2013?

Leading image credits: MIT (supernova simulation), NASA (Pluto and Charon). Effects and editing: myself.

June 17, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Seals Use Astronomy as Navigation Aid

A baby Harp Seal, looking upward (Care2.com)

Yes, we’ve heard bees use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate by. We’ve also heard about some bird species following the Sun to find the location of their evening roost. But what do we know about the animals living at sea? Do they use astronomical aids to help them find their way around the planet? Mammals such as whales are known to exhibit “skyhopping” behaviour when they surface from the water to have a look around, but seals go one step further; they can recognise and orientate themselves with the stars…

It was one of the first methods us humans used for navigation when sailing across the middle of a featureless ocean, we’d pick out known stars and constellations and relate them to our location on the planet’s surface. Explorers used astronomy to guide them to new lands, captains used the stars to direct their battleships toward the enemy and trade routes were repeatedly used thanks to star navigation. In its most basic form, star navigation could be carried out by linking stars with the location on the horizon when they rise, as was traditionally done by Polynesian sailors to colonize vast numbers of islands in the Pacific.

In a revealing study, researchers at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense have discovered that seals have the ability to recognise stars and groups of stars inside a modified planetarium. A five-metre round pool plus two harbour seals were covered with a dome with 6000 point light sources to simulate the Northern Hemisphere’s starry sky. BjÃ¶rn Mauck and his team found that if they selected an individual star with a laser pointer, they could train the seals to swim toward that star and then rewarded them with a treat if they did it correctly. Then the researchers would randomly orientate the dome, and without the help of a laser pointer, the seals would continue to swim toward the correct star.

“Seals and many other animals are exposed to the starry sky every clear night, and thus certainly have sufficient opportunities to learn the patterns of stars.” – BjÃ¶rn Mauck

This study strongly suggests that these two harbour seals have an amazing, natural ability to recognise the distribution of stars on a clear night.

So when you next see a seal popping to the ocean surface, it might not be simply checking out its surroundings, it might be trying to look for Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major…

Paper abstract: “Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) can steer by the stars“, Mauck et al., 2008
Source: New Scientist

June 16, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Phoenix Finds No Water on Mars Surface… So Far

Color-coded elevation map shows the "Dodo-Goldilocks" trench dug by the Robotic Arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University/NASA Ames Research Center)

The results are now in from the first sample of Mars regolith to be baked in Phoenix’s oven. It’s not good news… there’s no water. After a difficult time of actually delivering the sample to the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) – a.k.a. the “oven” – scientists were hopeful for a clear science run. They were finally able to sift the clumpy regolith through the TEGA screen last week. However, the sample was waiting on the deck of Phoenix for some time until tests could be carried out on the sample; it seems probable that any water ice will have sublimed into the thin atmosphere. This first null result by no means suggests the area is devoid of water, Phoenix has many more water-finding tricks up its sleeves yet…

On June 11th, Phoenix mission control breathed a sigh of relief as they found a solution to the problem of getting the clumpy Mars regolith through the oven screen. Over the weekend they were able to carry out the first tests on the sample and it appears that everything functioned as it should when the sample was heated to 35°C (95°F). At this temperature any water in the sample will have melted. In the second phase of the test, the sample was heated up to 175°C (350°F). No water vapour was detected.

“We saw no water coming off the soil whatsoever” – William Boynton, TEGA team leader, University of Arizona.

Scientists are in no way surprised or discouraged about this early result. The regolith sample sat atop the lander’s TEGA hatch for several days whilst scientists tried to find an answer as to why no particles had fallen into the oven. It is believed that any water ice in the sample will have quickly vaporized in the Martian sunlight and thin atmosphere. As the atmospheric pressure is so low on Mars, exposed water ice cannot melt into liquid water, it will sublime straight to water vapour (by-passing the liquid phase).

Over the coming days, scientists will instruct Phoenix to fire up the TEGA again to heat the sample to 1000°C (1800°F). This will vaporize minerals that might be chemically bound to H₂O, CO₂ or SO₂ and then use instrumentation to measure the vented gases. Scientists are very confident that, although water has not been directly detected today, they will detect evidence of its existence in the next round of tests.

Whilst the drama unfolds in the lander’s oven, Phoenix continues its excavation work on the surface with its robotic arm. It has just expanded a trench (a 3D visualization can be seen at the top of this post) by linking the two trenches “Dodo” and “BabyBear” into a new united “Dodo-Goldilocks” trench. This is the location where scientists noticed white sediment last Friday, so they will be keen to learn whether this is water or salt.

Source: Space.com

June 16, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Rare Asteroid Studied by Hawaiian Scientists

A huge impact with the asteroid Vista created a lot of debris. Credit :Don Davis)

Asteroid 10537 (1991 RY16) is a rarity. It is composed of basaltic rock (i.e. rock that cooled quickly after formation from a molten state) and appears to have evolved independently from the large asteroid Vesta. Vesta suffered a huge impact billions of years ago, and the debris from this collision litters the inner asteroid belt. These “Vestoids” make up the majority of the basaltic asteroids apart from three known isolated bodies including asteroid 1991 RY16. Scientists are therefore very interested to understand the evolution of 1991 RY16, possibly helping us understand the formation of the Solar System and why there aren’t more basaltic asteroids out there…

The asteroid belt occupies the volume of space roughly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. There are thousands of known rocky bodies in the belt, but half of the mass can be found in four major asteroids; Ceres, 4 Vesta, 2 Pallas, and 10 Hygiea. Ceres is actually classified as a minor (or dwarf-) planet as it is over 900km (560 miles) in diameter and is roughly spherical, unlike other asteroids that are irregular in shape. Large asteroid Vesta suffered a huge impact during the formation of the Solar System some 3.5 billion years ago and the debris (about 1% of its total mass) from this collision can be found scattered around the orbit of Vesta (~2.4 AU). These Vestoids usually explain many of the basaltic asteroids in this region of the asteroid belt.

So where does 1991 RY16 come in? Researchers at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA), University of Hawaii, carried out an analysis of the object after a previous study that utilized the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Moving Object Catalog. The IfA astronomers then used optical and near-infrared observations to derive spectroscopic data for 1991 RY16 to see whether it can be related to any of the asteroid groups in the asteroid belt. It turns out that its basaltic surface composition doesn’t appear to match up with any of the large groups of asteroids, and if its orbital radius is worked into the equation, it is highly unlikely that it could have travelled from any of the groups. 1991 RY16 appears to be an asteroid loner… or does it?

Firstly, the 5-15 km wide asteroid had to be ruled out from being a more common Vestoid. For a start 1991 RY16 isn’t even a remotely close spectroscopic match to any of the known Vestoids. Its orbit beyond the 3:1 Jupiter orbital resonance (at a distance of 2.5 AU) suggests that it could not have travelled from 2.4 AU, through the resonance and to its present orbit of 2.85 AU. The orbital resonances of the larger planets cause separation in the asteroid belt populations, confining them to their orbits. So, 1991 RY16 doesn’t originate from the Vesta impact event 3.5 billion years ago. Looking at the positions of the known asteroids (chart pictured), the IfA group ruled out the association of 1991 RY16 with any of the neighbouring asteroid groups (such as Gefion and Eos) as there is little spectroscopic evidence and it isn’t possible that the asteroid simply drifted (even after considering the strange Yarkovsky effect that predicts small rocky bodies experience a small deflection in trajectory due to anisotropic emission of thermal photons).

The possible remaining explanation could lie with a large asteroid near the orbital vicinity of 1991 RY16. The spectroscopic analysis of 1991 RY16 reveals that it could be a large chunk from another, differentiated asteroid. Although more analysis is required, 349 Dembowska (of ~140km in diameter) could be the parent asteroid 1991 RY16 was chipped from during an impact in the young Solar System. The IfA researchers are keen to point out that more observations are required to see if there is any other debris from this possible collision matching the surface composition of 1991 RY16.

For more detail into this very interesting research, check out the paper below.

Source: “A Spectroscopically Unique Main Belt Asteroid: 10537 (1991 RY16)” (arXiv pdf)

June 12, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Where are the Sunspots? Are we in for a Quiet Solar Cycle?

The Suns photosphere is looking particulary boring (NASA/SOHO)

So what’s up with our Sun? Is it going through a depression? It seems as if our closest star is experiencing a surprisingly uneventful couple of years. Solar minimum has supposedly passed and we should be seeing a lot more magnetic activity, and we certainly should be observing lots more sunspots. Space weather forecasts have been putting Solar Cycle 24 as a historically active cycle… but so far, nothing. So what’s the problem? Is it a ticking bomb, waiting to shock us with a huge jump in solar activity, flares and CMEs over a few months? Or could this lack of activity a prelude to a very boring few years, possibly leading the Earth toward another Ice Age?

It’s funny. Just as we begin to get worried that the next solar maximum is going to unleash all sorts of havoc on Earth (i.e. NASA’s 2006 solar storm warning), scientists begin to get concerned as to whether there is going to be a solar maximum at all. In a conference last week at Montana State University, solar physicists discussed the possibility that the Sun could be facing a long period of calm, leading to the concern that there could be another Maunder Minimum. The Maunder Minimum (named after the late 19th Century solar astronomer Edward W. Maunder, who discovered the phenomenon) was a 17th Century, 30-year period when very few sunspots were observed on the disk of the Sun. It is thought by many scientists that this period contributed to what became known as the “Little Ice Age” here on Earth. As the Sun provides Earth with all its energy, during extended periods when the solar output is lower than average, it seems possible a lack of sunspots on the Sun (i.e. low activity) may be linked with periods of cold down here.

“It continues to be dead. That’s a small concern, a very small concern.” – Saku Tsuneta, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and program manager for the Hinode solar mission.

However, solar physicists are not too worried about this possibility, after all, it’s only been two years since solar minimum. Although activity has been low for the beginning of Cycle 24, sunspots have not been non-existent. In January of this year, a newborn spot was observed, as expected, in high latitude regions. More spots were seen in April. In March, sunspots from the previous solar cycle even made an appearance, putting on an unexpected show of flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

As pointed out by David Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the fact that sunspots have already been observed in this new cycle means that it is highly unlikely we face anything as extreme as another Maunder Minimum. Hathaway says there is nothing unusual about having a relatively understated solar cycle after several particularly active cycles. Solar Cycle 23 was a very active period for the Sun with a greater than average number of sunspots observed on the solar surface.

It appears there are two different predictions for the activity level of the next solar cycle. On the one hand we have scientists that think this cycle might be below average, and on the other hand we have scientists who believe the next cycle will be the biggest yet. We certainly have a long way to go before we can begin making any accurate solar forecasts…

Source: Space.com

June 12, 2008April 26, 2016 by Ian O'Neill

New Transistor Could Side-Step Space Radiation Problem

A simulation of the impact a cosmic ray has on entering the atmosphere (credit: AIRES package/Chicago University)

Space is a very dangerous place to be, whether you’re a human or a transistor. Highly energetic particles may hit astronauts, causing damage to their DNA, but as computers become more and more powerful (yet more and more sensitive); the hazards to unprotected circuitry are increasing. There are many examples of satellites and robotic space missions getting hit by energetic particles, sometimes with crippling results. Not only are millions of dollars at stake, lives are put at risk too. Now, using a new technique and material, Northwestern University scientists have developed a new type of transistor with a twist and it is currently being tested on the International Space Station…

Only a few days ago, the spectre of space radiation reared its ugly head. On June 4th, NASA reported that the Mars orbiter Odyssey had been switched to “safe mode” after the spacecraft’s onboard circuitry was hit by energetic particles from the Sun or from deep space. Fortunately, to avoid system errors, the satellite switched itself into “safe-mode” to await an investigation by mission control to assess any damage. It is not thought this event has caused any lasting harm to Odyssey, but it did cause delays in communications between Earth and Phoenix.

Other spacecraft have not been so lucky. One of the earliest examples of satellite failure through space radiation was the world’s first communications satellite, Telstar. In 1962, this historic satellite was launched to provide trans-Atlantic communications for the first time. Unfortunately, it was launched too soon after a high-altitude US nuclear weapon test codenamed “Star Fish Prime” (see the archival footage of the test) which resulted in manmade energization of the Earth’s Van Allen Belts, causing artificial aurorae in equatorial locations such as Hawaii. Little was known at this time about the response of electrical equipment inside a high-energy environment and Telstar was soon severely damaged as its transistors succumbed to the high energy particles a few months later.

As we now have a huge armada of satellites in orbit around the Earth, and an increasing number of exploratory craft throughout the solar system, there are many vulnerabilities to energetic particles ejected by the Sun.

To address this problem, scientists from Northwestern University sent their new design of transistor to the ISS in March on board Space Shuttle Endeavour. Since then these microscopic components have been rigorously tested and exposed to a space environment to see how the new material reacts.

Traditionally, computer transistors are manufactured from the semi-conducting material silicon dioxide. Your home computer uses them, deep space missions such as the New Horizons Pluto mission use them; silicon-based electronics have revolutionized the computing world. However, silicon dioxide transistors are susceptible to radiation. Should a high energy particle impact one of the microscopic transistors of millions that can be built in a microchip, silicon-based material captures the particle, causing a loss of charge or a build-up of charge. Either way, this is bad for computing as it can result in calculation errors.

The new transistors developed by Northwestern use a new type of gate dielectric material called self-assembled nanodielectric (SAND). SAND has an added benefit – they can be printed and they are flexible. This has obvious applications for flat-screen technology and condensing vastly complex circuitry into a very small space. As this is a departure from silicon dioxide, these transistors appear to be very robust when faced with a high-radiation environment here on Earth.

The ISS experiments are expected to take a year to complete, so the space computing world will be waiting to see if this new technology can revolutionize space-based instrumentation, protecting valuable spacecraft from the ravages of energetic particles…

For more information:

“Northwestern Transistors Blast Off Into Space, Hang Out At International Space Station” – McCormick News Article
“Intel to Protect Microchips from Cosmic Rays” – Universe Today

Source: EurikAlert

June 11, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

XMM-Newton Discovers Strange-Shaped Supernova Remnant

X-ray emission from supernova remnant (to the left) and neutron star (to the right). (ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC)

XMM-Newton has just released this beautiful image of a supernova remnant and its companion neutron star. To be more accurate, it didn’t “discover” the object, remnant G350.1-0.3 had previously been mistaken to be a distant galaxy. The X-ray observatory has reclassified the object as a Milky Way binary system with one neutron star and the remnant of a young supernova. A wonderful tale about mistaken identity and re-opening a cosmic cold-case, a thousand years after the event…

G350.1-0.3 is special in so many ways. Many astronomers have dubbed this object a “celestial gem” because it is a strikingly beautiful X-ray observation. Apart from its looks, this re-classification by XMM-Newton is very significant to astrophysicists studying the chemical composition, formation and cause of a supernova event. This said, G350.1-0.3 isn’t any normal supernova remnant.

Supernova remnants are usually observed as symmetrical, expanding “bubbles” of hot stellar plasma. Generally, as a massive star finally dies, the explosion should send material out equally in all directions, it is for this reason they are usually easy to distinguish from background galaxies. G350.1-0.3 doesn’t obey this rule; some outside influence had given the remnant a rather odd shape. In the 1980’s, this celestial object was observed in high-resolution images and the knotted gases in the image gave astronomers the impression that the object was “just another distant galaxy” and then forgotten about. That was until NASA’s X-ray observatory XMM-Newton re-examined the object. It quickly became apparent that it was a supernova remnant in the Milky Way, not a far-flung galaxy.

This is also a very young supernova remnant. According to Bryan Gaensler and Anant Tanna, from the University of Sydney, who used XMM-Newton to not only prove appearances can be deceptive, but also that the remnant is only 1000 years old. Finding such a young remnant is extremely valuable. “We’re seeing these heavy elements fresh out of the oven,” said Gaensler when referring to G350.1-0.3. Generally, any supernova remnant over 20,000 years old is pretty much the same as another remnant of that age. Finding one so young, so bright and so close gives astrophysicists a prime opportunity to understand the dynamics of a supernova only a short period of time after it blew.

But why the strange shape? It turns out the supernova detonated right next to a dense cloud of gas about 15,000 light-years from Earth. The cloud strongly influenced the expanding gas, preventing the hot matter from expanding uniformly in all directions. This is rare, misshapen supernova remnants aren’t seen very often.

The supernova may have occurred around the time when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066; perhaps the Battle of Hastings was being waged when the explosion happened overhead. Unfortunately, it may not have been witnessed:

“The X-ray data tell us that there’s a lot of dust lying between it and Earth. Even if you’d been looking straight at it when it exploded, it would’ve been invisible to the naked eye.” – Bryan Gaensler

This is some tremendous detective work by the Australian team and the XMM-Newton telescope, ensuring G350.1-0.3 will never be forgotten again. I just hope they give it a better name soon!

Source: ESA

June 10, 2008December 24, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Arecibo Joins Forces with Global Antennae to Simulate 6,800 Mile Telescope

The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has joined forces with telescopes located in North America, South America, Europe and Africa to create the observing power of a radio telescope 6,800 miles (nearly 11,000 kilometres) in diameter. This collaboration is called the Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service (EXPReS) project, and on May 22nd, the system went “live” with all antennae observing the same part of the sky. This is an historic project where international collaboration has resulted in the most powerful radio telescope system available to date…

May 22nd heralded the first live demonstration of the EXPReS project that used radio telescopes from four continents. e-VLBI stands for “electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometery” and the system has the huge benefit of taking real-time observations. Data from the EXPReS project is transmitted to the central signal processor at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) in Holland, where speeds of data-streaming have exceeded Arecibo’s previous record four times over. Apart from being an acronym fest, the e-VLBI, EXPReS, JIVE collaboration will observe the cosmos with a resolution of 100 times better than the worlds most advanced optical telescopes.

So how can a single radio telescope dish with a diameter of 6,800 miles be simulated if the project has telescopes scattered around the planet? This is where the clever technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometery (VLBI) comes in. If you have multiple telescopes observing the same radio source in the cosmos simultaneously (and using very precise atomic clocks as a guide), the distance (or base-line) between observatories will simulate the effect of using a telescope with a diameter of that distance. The resolution of the observation is improved when the interferometer has several observatories working as one. Traditionally, the radio signal received at each antenna was recorded on a magnetic tape and then shipped to a central processing facility. The results of a campaign usually took weeks to be compiled. By using the e-VLBI system, recording data at the telescope site can be bypassed and transmitted real-time to the central processing facility along with the other telescopes observing the same source. Results are now available in a matter of hours – essential rapid processing when fast astronomical processes (such as supernovae) are in progress.

“These results are very significant for the advance of radio astronomy. It shows not only that telescopes of the future can be developed in worldwide collaboration, but that they can also be operated as truly global instruments.” – Huib Jan van Langevelde, JIVE Director.

The EXPReS project is funded by the European Commission and aims to connect 16 of the world’s most sensitive radio observatories. In the middle of this collaboration is the JIVE processor so real-time data processing can help astronomers achieve very quick results and react to transient radio sources.

Sources: Physorg.com, Arecibo Observatory