A graphic designer in Rhode Island, Jason writes about space exploration on his blog Lights In The Dark, Discovery News, and, of course, here on Universe Today. Ad astra!
Shepherd moon Prometheus hovers just inside the reflective F ring
Lit by eerie, reflected light from Saturn’s F ring (and a casting a faint shadow through a haze of icy “mist”) Saturn’s moon Prometheus can be seen in the raw image above, captured by Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on Feb. 5 from a distance of 667,596 miles (1,074,392 km). It’s also receiving some light reflected off Saturn, which is off frame at the top (where the outermost edge of the A ring and the Keeler gap can be seen.)
As the potato-shaped Prometheus approaches the ring it yanks fine, icy material in towards itself, temporarily stretching the bright particles into long streamers and gaps and even kicking up bright clumps in the ring. It’s a visual demonstration of gravity at work! Watch an animation of this below, made from images acquired just before and after the one above:
Streamers and clumps created by the passing Prometheus on Feb. 5, 2014. (NASA/JPL/SSI. Animation by Jason Major.)
At its longest Prometheus is about 92 miles (148 km) across, but only 42 miles (68 km) in width. It circles Saturn in a wave-shaped, scalloping orbit once every 14.7 hours.
Ariane 5 launch on Feb. 6, 2013 captured on camera by NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio
We all know what a big rocket launch looks like from the ground, but this is what it looks like from above the ground — 260 miles above the ground! The photo above was captured from the Space Station earlier today by NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, and it shows the contrail from a heavy-lift Ariane 5 that had just launched from ESA’s spaceport on the French Guiana coast: flight VA217, Arianespace’s milestone 250th launch carrying the ABS-2 and Athena-Fidus satellites into orbit.
Rick shared his view on Twitter with his nearly 39,000 followers, and now less than an hour later, we’re sharing it here. (Isn’t technology wonderful?)
For a more “natural” look, here it is reversed:
Rick Mastracchio’s photo of the Ariane 5 launch, rotated 180 degrees.
The ISS was in the process of passing over Costa Rica when the image was taken. The rocket launched from Kourou, French Guiana — about 2,175 miles (3,500 km) away. What a view!
For this and more great images from orbit follow Rick on Twitter @AstroRM.
Watch a video of the VA217 launch below:
The 250th launch performed by Arianespace lifted off from ESA’s spaceport in French Guiana, delivering a dual-satellite payload into geostationary transfer orbit: ABS-2 for global satellite operator ABS, and Athena-Fidus for the defense/homeland security needs of France and Italy. The flight lasted just over 32 minutes. (Source)
Expedition 38 Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin, holding the Olympic torch, and Flight Engineers Koichi Wakata and Rick Mastracchio wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz TMA-11M rocket for launch. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Ever since the first relay for the 1936 summer Olympic games in Berlin, Olympic torches have traditionally been used to carry a burning flame — symbolically and physically — from Greece to the host country’s stadium. These journeys, undertaken by privileged individuals and athletes from around the world, span months and many thousands of miles… but this year, the fire illuminating the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia will be ignited with a torch that has truly traveled around the globe — many times, in fact.
On Nov. 6, 2013 (Nov. 7 UT) a Soyuz TMA-11M rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ferrying the Expedition 38/39 crew to the ISS. Along with their mission supplies and personal items, the crew members brought along something special: a torch for the 2014 Olympics.
The torch was brought into space two days later by Expedition 38 crew members Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy during an EVA on Nov. 9, and handed off from one cosmonaut to the other in a symbolic relay in orbit, the first to be carried out 265 miles above the planet traveling 17,500 mph. (Watch a video of the EVA below.)
The Olympic torch in orbit during an EVA on Nov. 9, 2013
I say “symbolic” because the torch was not lit during its time aboard the ISS or, obviously, while in space. (Open flames are highly frowned upon aboard Station!) Still, it was the first time in history an Olympic torch, a symbol of peace, human achievement, and international cooperation, has been brought aboard the Space Station — which itself represents the same noble values.
Considering the ISS travels around the Earth 16 times each day, and the torch spent nearly four days in space, that’s one well-traveled fire bearer!
The spacefaring torch was carried back to Earth with Expedition 37 crew members Karen Nyberg of NASA, Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency on Sunday, Nov. 10. And while the actual Olympic flame had continued to be carried by torchbearers across more than 40,000 miles through 2,900 towns and villages in Russia, it will be that particular spacefaring torch that will be used to light the 2014 Olympic cauldron during the Opening Ceremony in Sochi on Feb. 7.
“As the torch is used to light the Olympic flame in Sochi, and symbolizes harmony and goodwill throughout the games, the space station will remain one of the brightest objects in the night sky, a beacon of international cooperation and research providing tangible benefits for all humanity.” (NASA)
Read more in a recent NASA news article here, and learn more about the 2014 Sochi Olympic torch here.
Felix Baumgartner about to step out of his pressurized capsule on October 14, 2012 (Credit: Red Bull)
Remember BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner’s incredible freefall from the “edge of space” in October 2012? The highly anticipated (and highly publicized) Red Bull-sponsored stunt was watched live by viewers around the world (including me — it was very cool!) and set new records for highest jump, fastest freefall, and highest balloon-powered human flight. That day Baumgartner even broke the long-standing record held by his mentor Col. Joe Kittinger, who jumped from 102,800 feet in August 1960… and with seven GoPro Hero2 cameras mounted to Felix’s high-tech suit and helmet, you can see what he saw during every one of the 127,852 feet that he fell down to Earth.
(That’s ah, over 24 miles/39 km. *Gulp.*)
The video above was released today by GoPro, and is a more polished and edited version than the one released by Red Bull this past October. Check it out above, or for full vertigo-inducing* freefall effect watch it in fullscreen HD on YouTube. *Consider yourself warned!
The spiral galaxy NGC 6946 and its smaller companions are found to be surrounded by "cold rivers" of hydrogen
What happens when a galaxy doesn’t have enough hydrogen to support its stellar production process? Why, it sucks it from its hapless neighbors like some sort of cosmic vampire, that’s what. And evidence of this predatory process is what’s recently been observed with the National Science Foundation’s Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, in the form of faint “cold flows” bridging intergalactic space between the galaxy NGC 6946 and its smaller companions.
“We knew that the fuel for star formation had to come from somewhere,” said astronomer D.J. Pisano from West Virginia University, author of the study. “So far, however, we’ve detected only about 10 percent of what would be necessary to explain what we observe in many galaxies. A leading theory is that rivers of hydrogen – known as cold flows – may be ferrying hydrogen through intergalactic space, clandestinely fueling star formation. But this tenuous hydrogen has been simply too diffuse to detect, until now.”
NGC 6946 also goes by the festive moniker of “the Fireworks Galaxy,” due to the large amount of supernovae that have been observed within its arms — eight within the past century alone. Located 22 million light-years away between the constellations Cepheus and Cygnus, NGC 6946’s high rate of star formation has made astronomers curious as to how it (and other starburst galaxies like it) gets its stellar fuel.
One long-standing hypothesis is that large galaxies like NGC 6946 receive a constant supply of hydrogen gas by drawing it off their less-massive companions.
Chandra and Gemini image of NGC 6946 (X-ray: NASA/CXC/MSSL/R.Soria et al, Optical: AURA/Gemini OBs)
Now, thanks to the GBT’s unique capabilities — such as its immense single dish, unblocked aperture, and location in the National Radio Quiet Zone — direct observations have been made of the extremely faint radio emissions coming from neutral hydrogen flows connecting NGC 6946 with its smaller satellite galaxies.
According to a press release from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory:
Earlier studies of the galactic neighborhood around NGC 6946 with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) in the Netherlands have revealed an extended halo of hydrogen (a feature commonly seen in spiral galaxies, which may be formed by hydrogen ejected from the disk of the galaxy by intense star formation and supernova explosions). A cold flow, however, would be hydrogen from a completely different source: gas from intergalactic space that has never been heated to extreme temperatures by a galaxy’s star birth or supernova processes.
Another possible source of the cold flow is a previous collision with another galaxy, possibly even one of its own satellites, which would have left strands of atomic hydrogen in its wake. But if that were the case stars would likely have since formed within the filaments themselves, which has not yet been observed.
Image credit: D.J. Pisano (WVU); B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); Palomar Observatory – Space Telescope Science Institute 2nd Digital Sky Survey (Caltech); Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
It’s no mystery that the planets, moons, asteroids, etc. in the Solar System are arranged in a more-or-less flat, plate-like alignment in their orbits around the Sun.* But why is that? In a three-dimensional Universe, why should anything have a particular alignment at all? In yet another entertaining video from the folks at MinutePhysics, we see the reason behind this seemingly coincidental feature of our Solar System — and, for that matter, pretty much all planetary systems that have so far been discovered (not to mention planetary ring systems, accretion disks, many galaxies… well, you get the idea.) Check it out above.
Artist's impression (not to scale) of the Rosetta orbiter deploying the Philae lander to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA–C. Carreau/ATG medialab.
It’s being called “the most important alarm clock in the Solar System” — this Monday, January 20, at 10:00 GMT (which is 5:00 a.m. for U.S. East Coasters like me) the wake-up call will ring on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, bringing it out of hibernation after over two and a half years in preparation of its upcoming and highly-anticipated rendezvous with a comet.
The wake-up will incite the warming of Rosetta’s star trackers, which allow it to determine its orientation in space. Six hours later its thrusters will fire to stop its slow rotation and ensure that its solar arrays are receiving the right amount of sunlight. Using its thawed-out star trackers Rosetta will aim its transmitter towards Earth and, from 500 million miles (807 million km) away, will send a thumbs-up signal that everything is OK and it’s time to get back to work.
From that distance the transmission will take 45 minutes to reach us. Rosetta’s first signal is expected between 17:30 – 18:30 GMT (12:30 – 1:30 p.m. ET). Once we’re assured all is well, Rosetta has a very exciting year ahead!
After nearly a decade of soaring through the inner solar system, flying past Mars and Earth several times and even briefly visiting a couple of asteroids (2867 Steins on September 5, 2008 and 21 Lutetia on July 10, 2010) Rosetta is finally entering the home stretch of its mission to orbit the 4-km-wide comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Once Rosetta enters orbit around the comet — the first time a spacecraft has ever done so — it will map its surface and, three months later in November, deploy the 220-lb (100-kg) Philae lander that will intimately investigate the surface of the nucleus using a suite of advanced science instruments. (Watch a video here of how all this will happen… using Legos!)
With Philae firmly attached to the comet, Rosetta will follow it around the Sun as it makes its closest pass in August 2015 and then heads back out towards the orbit of Jupiter. Rosetta will provide the most detailed observations ever of a comet’s composition and dramatic evolution as it encounters the heat and energy of our home star.
Of course, before all this can happen Rosetta first has to… WAKE UP! It entered hibernation in July 2011 and has remained silent in a slow spin ever since, with only its computer and some heaters kept running. Waking up from a 31-month nap can’t be easy, so ESA is inviting people around the world to help Wake Up Rosetta (and possibly even win a trip to Germany for the landing in November) by sharing their short movies of how best to awaken a sleeping spacecraft and sharing them to the contest page on Facebook or to Twitter, Vine, or Instagram with the #WakeUpRosetta hashtag.
See more about the contest below:
Video submissions to the Wake Up Rosetta video contest will be accepted until 17:30 GMT on Monday so if you haven’t already, get your cameras out and your imaginations going… this spacecraft isn’t going to wake itself! (Well, actually it kinda is but you can still show off your creativity!)
Want to find out where Rosetta is right now? Check out this cool interactive map from Daniel Scuka, Senior Editor of Spacecraft Operations at ESOC.
Rosetta launched on March 2, 2004 by an Ariane-5 G+ from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Read more on the mission page and the Rosetta blog here.
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UPDATEJan. 20: Rosetta has awoken! This afternoon at 18:18 UTC, after 48 minutes of increasingly tense anticipation, a signal from the spacecraft was received by both NASA’s Deep Space Network in Goldstone, CA and the ground station in Canberra, Australia. Rosetta is up and running and so far seems to be in good condition — Go Rosetta and Philae! Read the full story here.
In the early pre-dawn hours on December 19, 2013, with a rumble and a roar, a Soyuz rocket blazed through the clouds above the jungle-lined coast of French Guiana, ferrying ESA’s long-awaited Gaia spacecraft into orbit and beginning its mission to map the stars of the Milky Way. The fascinating time-lapse video above from ESA shows the Gaia spacecraft inside the clean room unfurling like a flower during its sunshield deployment test, the transfer of the Soyuz from the assembly building to the pad, and then its ultimate fiery liftoff.
That’s a lot going on in two minutes! But once nestled safely in its L2 orbit 1.5 million kilometers out, Gaia will have over five years to complete its work… read more here.
Credit: ESA–S. Corvaja, M. Pedoussaut, 2013. Source: ESA
Cassini narrow-angle camera image of Janus from Sept. 10, 2013 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
One of 62 moons discovered thus far orbiting giant Saturn, Janus is a 111-mile (179-km) -wide pockmarked potato composed of rock and ice rubble. The image above shows Janus as seen with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on September 10, 2013, from a distance of 621,000 miles (1 million km), floating against the blackness of space.
Despite its apparent isolation in the image above, though, Janus isn’t alone. It shares its orbit around Saturn with its slightly smaller sister moon Epimetheus, and they regularly catch up to each other — and even switch places.
Janus and Epimetheus: Saturn’s “dancing moons” (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Janus and Epimetheus travel in nearly the same track, about 94,100 miles (151,500 km) out from Saturn. They occasionally pass each other, their gravity causing them to switch speeds and positions as they do; Janus goes faster and higher one time, slower and lower the next – but the two never come within more than about 6,200 miles of each other.
The two moons switch positions roughly every four years.
This scenario is referred to in astrophysics as a 1:1 resonance. Astronomers were initially confused when the moons were discovered in 1966 as it wasn’t known at the time that there were actually two separate moons in a single orbit. (This wasn’t confirmed until Voyager 1’s visit to Saturn in 1980.) It’s been suggested that Janus and Epimetheus will eventually come to orbit a single Lagrangian point around Saturn instead of trading places… in about another 20 million years.
The view above looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Janus. Covered in both dark and light colored material, Janus’ surface is thought to be coated with a layer of fine dust that slides down its steeper slopes, revealing the brighter ice beneath.
Cassini image of Janus from April 2010 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
What’s the oldest thing you’ve ever held in your hand? A piece of petrified wood? A fossilized trilobite? A chunk of glacier-carved granite? Those are some pretty old things, sure, but there are even older objects to be found across the world… that came from out of this world. And thanks to “Meteorite Men” co-host, author, and educator Geoff Notkin and his company Aerolite Meteorites, you can own a truly ancient piece of the Solar System that can date back over 4.5 billion years.
Founded in 2005, Aerolite (which is an archaic term for meteorite) offers many different varieties of meteorites for sale, from gorgeous specimens worthy of a world-class museum to smaller fragments that you could proudly — and economically — display on your desk. Recently I had the opportunity to talk in depth with Geoff about Aerolite and his life’s work as a meteorite collector and dealer. Here are some of the fascinating things he had to say…
So Geoff, what initially got you interested in meteorites and finding them for yourself?
“It’s been a lifelong passion for me, but I’m lucky in that I can really put my finger on a specific event when I was a kid and that was my mother taking me to the Geological Museum in London when I was six or seven… I was already a rock hound, I loved collecting fossils, and my dad was a very keen amateur astronomer. And so I had this love of astronomy and this fascination with other worlds for as long as I can remember. I’m a very tactile person; I’m very hands-on. I like to know how things work… I want to know all the bits and pieces. I was frustrated a bit, because I wanted to know more about astronomy. I could see all these planets and places through the ‘scope, but I couldn’t touch them. But I could touch rocks and fossils.
“So I’m six or seven years old, and I’m on the second floor of the Museum in the Hall of Rocks and Minerals. And at the back was this small display area that’s very dark. And you walked through an arch, it’s almost like walking into a cave. And it was very low light back there, and that was the meteorite collection.
“There were a couple of large meteorites on stands, and in those days — it was the late 60s — security wasn’t the issue that it is today. So you could touch the big specimens, and so I put my hands on these giant meteorites and I was absolutely enthralled. And I had this sort of epiphany: meteorites were the locus between my two interests, astronomy and rock-hounding. Because they’re rocks… they’re rock samples from outer space. I promised myself as a kid that one day I would have an actual meteorite.
“By finding or owning meteorites, you are forging a solid and tangible connection with astronomy.”
“Of course at the time there was no meteorite business, no meteorite magazines, there was no network of collectors like there is today. Back in the late 60s when I gave myself this challenge it was like saying I was going to start my own space program! But not only did it come true, it’s become my career.”
What makes Aerolite such a great place to buy meteorites?
“I think the caring for the subject matter really shows on the website. We have the best photography in the entire meteorite industry. I think we have the largest selection… we certainly spend a great deal of time discussing the history and importance of pieces… every single meteorite on our website has a detailed description and in most cases multiple photographs. My view is if you’re going to do something, you should really do it to the best of your ability. We don’t cut any corners, we don’t sell anything unless we’re one hundred percent sure of what it is and where it came from.
“I want buyers and visitors to look at the website and share my sense of wonder about meteorites. I think meteorites are the most wonderful things in existence, they’re actual visitors from outer space — they’re inanimate aliens that have landed on our planet.”
“We do this because we want to share our passion. We stand by every piece that we sell.”
How can people be sure they are getting actual meteorites (and not just funny-looking rocks?)
“This is something that’s more important to pay attention to now than ever. Are there fakes, are there shady people? Yes and yes. If you go on eBay at any given time you will find numerous pieces that are being offered for sale that are either not meteorites at all or are one thing being passed off as another thing. Sometimes this is malicious, sometimes people just don’t know any better. So the best way to buy a meteorite and know that it’s real is to buy from a respected dealer who has a solid history in the field.
“I’m by no means the only person who does this. There are a number of very well-established dealers around the world, and a good place to start is the International Meteorite Collectors Association(of which Geoff is a member) which is an international group with hundreds of members — collectors and dealers… it’s sort of a watchdog group that tries to maintain high standards of integrity in the field.
“My company has a very strict policy of never offering anything that’s questionable.”
“I see fakes all the time,” Geoff added. “On eBay, on websites, in newspaper ads… you do have to be careful. My company has a very strict policy of never offering anything that’s questionable. And we do get offered questionable things. There are some countries that have strict policies about exporting meteorites — Australia and Canada being two of them — and we work very closely with academia in both countries, and we have legally exported meteorites from those countries. Not only do we abide by international regulations, we actively support them.”
So you not only offer meteorites for sale to the general public, but you also donate to schools and museums.
“We work very closely with most of the world’s major meteorite institutions. I have provided specimens to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the British Museum of Natural History in London, the Vienna Museum of Natural History, the Center for Meteorite Studies… we work with almost everyone. When we find something that is new or different or exciting, we always donate a piece or pieces to our colleagues in academia. It’s just the right thing, it’s the right thing to do if you discover something important to make it available to science.
“Most universities and museums don’t have acquisitions budgets and can’t afford to buy things that they might like to have. In return they classify the meteorites that we found, and they go into the permanent literature and become more valuable as a result. A meteorite with a history and a name and classification is worth more than a random meteorite that somebody just found in a desert. So everybody benefits, it’s a really good match.”
In other words, you really are making a contribution to science as opposed to just “looting.”
“Exactly. And I have, a very few times, gotten emails from disgruntled viewers who didn’t understand what we were doing, saying ‘what makes you think it’s okay to come to Australia and take our meteorites,’ for example. So I wrote a very courteous email back saying that we were in Australia with the express permission and cooperation of the Australian park services and one of the senior park rangers was there with us. And not only did we follow the proper procedure in having those specimens exported from Australia, I donated rare meteorites to collections just as a ‘thank you’ for working with us. It wasn’t a trade, it was a thank you. So everywhere we go, whatever we do, we try and leave a good impression.”
Geoff added, “I do this out of love… this isn’t the best way to make a living! Being a meteorite hunter is probably not the best capital return on your time but it’s a very exciting and rewarding life in every other way.”
And thus, by buying meteorites from Aerolite, customers aren’t just helping pay for your expeditions and your work but also supporting research and education too.
“People who purchase from us are really participating in the growth of this science. Also, something very near and dear to my heart is science education for kids. You know that I am the host of an educational series called STEM Journals, which is a very — I think — amusing, entertaining, funny, fast-paced look at science, technology, engineering, and math topics. But you can’t make a living doing television shows like that. This is a labor of love… we do it because we think it’s important. If I didn’t have a commercial meteorite company to help underwrite the costs of educational programming and educational books, we just couldn’t do it. It’s as simple as that.
“So we always try to give back. That’s why I speak at schools and universities and give away meteorites to deserving kids at gem shows… because it was done to me when I was seven years old. The look of wonder you see on a kid’s face when you connect with them and they start to grasp the wonder of science… that’s something they’ll never forget.”
That’s great. And it sounds like you haven’t forgotten it yet either!
“I must say after all these years, I’ve been doing this close to full time for nearly twenty years and you never lose the amazement and the wonder of when a meteorite’s found or uncovered. I never go ‘oh, jeez, it’s just another billion-year-old space rock that fell to Earth!’ So it is a privilege to be in a work field where almost daily something wondrous happens.”
As we here at Universe Today know, when it concerns space that’s a common occurrence!
“Exactly!”
One last thing Geoff… do you think we’ll ever run out of meteorites?
“The meteorite collecting field has grown tremendously in the past ten years, and Meteorite Men is part of that. There is a finite supply of meteorites. Of course there are more landing all the time, but not enough to replenish the demand. Periodically there is a new very large discovery made, such as the Gebil Kamil iron in Egypt a couple of years ago. But what is happening is a significant increase in price and a decrease in selection, so some of the real staples we used to see… you can’t get them anymore.
“Still, people who want a meteorite collection, now is a great time for them to be buying because there are more meteorites available than in the past — but it’s not going to stay that way for very long. It’s like any other collectible that has a finite supply.”
Makes sense… I’ll take that as ‘inside advice’ to place an order soon!
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My thanks to Geoff for the chance to talk with him a little bit about his fascinating past, his passion, and his company. And as an added bonus to Universe Today readers, Geoff is extending a special 15% off on orders from Aerolite Meteorites — simply mention the code UNIVERSETODAY when you place an order!* (Trust me — once you browse through the site you’ll find something you want.) Also, if you’re in the Tucson area, Geoff Notkin and Aerolite Meteorites will have a table at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show starting Jan. 31.
One of several meteorite-hunting books by Geoff, featuring an introduction by Neil Gaiman.
Be sure to check out Geoff’s television show STEM Journals on COX7 — the full first two seasons can be found online here and here, and shooting for the third season will be underway soon.
Want to know how to find “inanimate aliens” for yourself? You can find Geoff’s books on meteorite hunting here, as well as some of the right equipment for the job.
