Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Which Of These Moon Pictures Catches Your Eye? NASA Asks You To Pick The Best

Five moon pictures based on data gathered by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA

If you’re a fan of moon observation, it’s lucky for you that spacecraft such as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter exist. For about the past five years, the NASA spacecraft has been in orbit around a closest large neighbor, taking images of the surface in high-definition.

To celebrate LRO’s fifth anniversary, NASA is asking members of the public to vote on which of those images (above) is their favorite. This isn’t so much a statement about the scientific data it has collected, NASA said, but more appreciating the images as art.

Voting runs from May 23 to June 6, and the winner will be announced with the full collection’s release on June 18 — the actual official fifth anniversary of the launch. You can find more information about the vote at this page.

By the way, LRO not only takes good pictures of the moon, but also of other spacecraft. You can check out its pictures of LADEE and Chang’e-3 in these past Universe Today articles.

Meanwhile, James Garvin — NASA’s chief scientist of the sciences and exploration directorate — eloquently weighs in below on his favorite images of the moon. His description of Aristarchus is interesting: “Here is Mother Nature’s expression of a gigantic landform made by a cosmic collision.” You can check out the other four below.

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Amateur Asteroid Hunters Take Note: NASA and Slooh Will Ask For Your Help

Artist's impression of an asteroid breaking up. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Do you lack a telescope, but have a burning desire to look for asteroids near Earth? No problem! NASA and the Slooh telescope network will soon have you covered, as the two entities have signed a new agreement allowing citizen scientists to look at these objects using Slooh.

This is all related to NASA’s Asteroid Grand Challenge (which includes the agency’s desire to capture and redirect an asteroid for further study.) What the two entities want to do is show citizen astronomers how to study asteroids after they are discovered by professionals, looking at properties such as their size and rotation and light reflectivity.

Additionally, Slooh will add 10 new telescopes to the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, the facility it is using until at least 2020. The hope is to add to the total of 10,957 discovered near-Earth asteroids, which include 1,472 that are “potentially hazardous.” Astronomers believe only about 30% of the 140-meter sized asteroids near Earth have been discovered, and less than 1% of 30-meter sized asteroids. (Bigger ones more than a kilometer across are about 90% discovered.)

Screenshot from a live webcast from SLOOH Space Camera.
Screenshot from a live webcast from SLOOH Space Camera.

We talk about Slooh frequently on Universe Today because it is one of the go-to locations for live events happening in the cosmos, such as when a solar eclipse occurs. NASA also plans to work with Slooh on these live events, beginning with looking at Comet 209P/LINEAR and its meteor shower when it goes past our planet Friday (May 23).

“This partnership is a great validation of our approch to engage the public in the exploration of space,” stated Michael Paolucci, the founder and CEO of Slooh.

“NASA understands the importance of citizen science, and knows that a good way to get amateur astronomers involved is to offer them ways to do productive astronomy. Slooh does that by giving them remote access to great telescopes situated at leading observatory sites around the world.”

Sources: NASA and Slooh

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

These Ultra-Black ‘Cosmic Clumps’ Will Give Birth To Powerful Stars

"Cosmic clumps" seen in NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope throw the deepest shadows scientists have ever seen. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Zurich

When gas and dust squeeze tightly enough together in space, no light can get through and the place is black as pitch. But this dusty cloud seen about 16,000 light-years away from us will eventually generate new stars, with the darkest parts creating powerful O-type stars — a star-type poorly known to scientists.

“The map of the structure of the cloud and its dense cores we have made in this study reveals a lot of fine details about the massive star and star cluster formation process,” stated Michael Butler, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich in Switzerland who led the study.

The new study, which included observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, examined the shadows these clumps cast and concluded this cloud is about 7,000 times more massive than the sun, and about 50 light-years in diameter. Because Spitzer examines the universe in infrared light, this allows it to peer through dusty areas that are difficult or impossible to see in visual light, allowing Spitzer to examine different astronomical phenomena.

Artist's concept of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope surrounded by examples of exoplanets it has looked at. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Artist’s concept of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope surrounded by examples of exoplanets it has looked at. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Looking at clouds such as this one are expected to shed more light (so to speak) on how O-type stars are created. This stellar type is at least 16 times as massive as the sun (but can be much more) and is known for its wind and powerful radiation, that clean out the neighborhood of any dust or gas that could have formed other planets or stars.

Once these stars reach the end of their short lives, they explode as supernovas and also create heavier elements that are found in rocky planets and in the case of Earth (as far as we know), living beings. Researchers are still unclear on how the stars are able to pick up mass that is so much more the mass of our sun without breaking apart.

A mission extension for Spitzer was not approved after a NASA Senior Review made public last week, but officials were told to submit a revised budget for consideration in 2016.

You can read more about the study, which was published earlier this year, in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

New Supernova Likely Arose From Massive Wolf-Rayet Star

M1-67 is the youngest wind-nebula around a Wolf-Rayet star, called WR124, in our Galaxy. Credit: ESO

They’ve been identified as possible causes for supernovae for a while, but until now, there was a lack of evidence linking massive Wolf-Rayet stars to these star explosions. A new study was able to find a “likely” link between this star type and a supernova called SN 2013cu, however.

“When the supernova exploded, it flash ionized its immediate surroundings, giving the astronomers a direct glimpse of the progenitor star’s chemistry. This opportunity lasts only for a day before the supernovablast wave sweeps the ionization away. So it’s crucial to rapidly respond to a young supernova discovery to get the flash spectrum in the nick of time,” the Carnegie Institution for Science wrote in a statement.

“The observations found evidence of composition and shape that aligns with that of a nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet star. What’s more, the progenitor star likely experienced an increased loss of mass shortly before the explosion, which is consistent with model predictions for Wolf-Rayet explosions.”

NGC 3199 - Credit: Ken Crawford
NGC 3199 – Credit: Ken Crawford

The star type is known for lacking hydrogen (in comparison to other stars) — which makes it easy to identify spectrally — and being large (upwards of 20 times more massive than our Sun), hot and breezy, with fierce stellar winds that can reach more than 1,000 kilometres per second. This particular supernova was spotted by the Palomar 48-inch telescope in California, and the “likely progenitor” was found about 15 hours after the explosion.

Researchers also noted that the new technique, called “flash spectroscopy”, allows them to look at stars over a range of about 100 megaparsecs or more than 325 million light years — about five times further than what previous observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed.

The research was published in Nature. It was led by Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Source: Carnegie Institution for Science

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Dramatic Starscape Helps Astronomers Learn About Our Own Galaxy

Star cluster NGC 3590 seen in a 2.2 -meter telescope located at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Credit: ESO/G. Beccari

Such stars, much science! Shining in front of darker dust, this star cluster (NGC 3590) is about 7,500 light-years from Earth. And because the cluster is located in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, looking at the new European Southern Observatory can help astronomers figure out more about our how galaxy came to be.

“These spiral arms are actually waves of piled up gas and stars sweeping through the galactic disc, triggering sparkling bursts of star formation and leaving clusters like NGC 3590 in their wake. By finding and observing young stars like those in NGC 3590, it is possible to determine the distances to the different parts of this spiral arm, telling us more about its structure,” ESO stated.

“Typical open clusters can contain anything from a few tens to a few thousands of stars, and provide astronomers with clues about stellar evolution. The stars in a cluster like NGC 3590 are born at around the same time from the same cloud of gas, making these clusters perfect test sites for theories on how stars form and evolve.”

As a spiral galaxy, the Milky Way has multiple “arms”. The one this cluster is located in is called the Carina spiral feature (part of the Carina-Sagittarius minor arm) after the constellation in which it is “most prominent.”

Source: European Southern Observatory

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Did That Star Eat A Planet? Rocky Elements Could Tell The Tale

Earth scorched by red giant Sun
Artist's impression of the Earth scorched by our Sun as it enters its Red Giant Branch phase. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Fsgregs

It’s amazing what astronomers can figure out from afar, and this now might include whether a star ate a few planets sometime during its history. Through looking at the predicted elements that make up a star, and any changes, this could be a key to figuring out if any planets were swallowed up by the star.

“Imagine that the star originally formed rocky planets like Earth. Further, imagine that it also formed gas giant planets like Jupiter,” stated Trey Mack, a graduate student in astronomy at Vanderbilt University who led the research.

 

“The rocky planets form in the region close to the star where it is hot and the gas giants form in the outer part of the planetary system where it is cold. However, once the gas giants are fully formed, they begin to migrate inward and, as they do, their gravity begins to pull and tug on the inner rocky planets. If enough rocky planets fall into the star, they will stamp it with a particular chemical signature that we can detect.”

Stars are mostly made up of hydrogen and helium (98%), meaning other elements only make up about 2% of the star. These elements (all of which are heavier than hydrogen and helium) are referred to as metals and when it comes to iron abundance, you will sometimes see the term “metallicity” referred to, concerning the ratio of iron to hydrogen.

To expand on previous studies concerning metallicity and how planets form, Mack examined sun-like stars to see the abundance of 15 elements, especially those such as aluminum, silicon, calcium and iron — considered to be the foundation of rocky planets such as the Earth.

The astronomers examined binary sun-like stars HD 20781 and HD 20782, which started with the same chemical compositions since they both came to be in the same gas and dust cloud. One star hosts two Neptune-sized planets, while the other has a Jupiter-sized planet.

“When they analyzed the spectrum of the two stars, the astronomers found that the relative abundance of the refractory elements was significantly higher than that of the Sun,” Vanderbilt University stated. “They also found that the higher the melting temperature of a particular element, the higher was its abundance, a trend that serves as a compelling signature of the ingestion of Earth-like rocky material.”

One of these stars (the one with the Jupiter-sized  planet) probably ate up 10 Earth masses while the other star ate about 20 Earth masses. Between the star’s chemical composition and the fact that the gas giants are either in close or eccentric orbits, this implies there would be no rocky planets in the systems. More generally, if other stars are found to meet up with these explanations, this could be a clue to finding rocky planets.

“When we find stars with similar chemical signatures, we will be able to conclude that their planetary systems must be very different from our own, and that they most likely lack inner rocky planets,” added Mack. “And when we find stars that lack these signatures, then they are good candidates for hosting planetary systems similar to our own.”

The study was published earlier this month in the Astrophysical Journal.

Source: Vanderbilt University

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Updated! Zoomable Poster Now Shows Off 54 Years Of Space Exploration

Cosmic Journey by Sean McNaughton, Samuel Velasco, 5W Infographics, Matthew Twombly and Jane Vessels, NGM staff, Amanda Hobbs.

We humans are busy creatures when it comes to exploring the solar system. This new graphic (which updates one from four years ago) showcases all the planets we have visited in the past half-century. Both successful missions and failures are included on this updated list, although sadly you won’t find much about the various visits to comets and asteroids.

“The only downside to this spectacular map is the absence of orbits around minor bodies,” wrote Franck Marchis, a researcher at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute, in a blog post describing the graphic — which he often uses in public talks.

“Samuel Velasco, one of its creators, told me me that missions to asteroids and comets were not included because the graphic was getting too difficult to read. Tough choices had to be made.”

Other features of the graphic worth noting are the growing number of moon and Mars missions and the current locations of spacecraft in the outer solar system (or in Voyager 1’s case, beyond the solar system).

Explore the full resolution version by clicking on the lead image or here.

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

NASA Mars Lander InSight ‘Go’ For Construction

Artist's conception of the NASA InSight Mars lander. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

It’s time to get ready for Mars, again! NASA has given the approval to begin construction on its 2016 mission, the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission.

As the mission implies, the lander (which isn’t moveable) will focus on learning more about the inside of Mars. The idea is to figure out how terrestrial planets are “differentiated” inside between core, mantle and crust. Also, watchers of the Mars program may recognize some parts of the lander, as it will borrow the design from the successful Phoenix mission in 2008.

“We will incorporate many features from our Phoenix spacecraft into InSight, but the differences between the missions require some differences in the InSight spacecraft,” stated Stu Spath, InSight program manager at Lockheed Martin.

“For example, the InSight mission duration is 630 days longer than Phoenix, which means the lander will have to endure a wider range of environmental conditions on the surface.”

View of Mars' surface near the north pole from the Phoenix lander. Credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona
View of Mars’ surface near the north pole from the Phoenix lander. Credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona

NASA mission planners are still determining where InSight will go, but they expect it will be a site near the equator of Mars and that it will last at least two years on the surface.

The Mars lander will include a robotic arm with “surface and burrowing” instruments whose projects are led by the French and German space agencies, which are CNES (National Center of Space Studies) and DLR (German Center for Aerospace), respectively. CNES will contribute a seismic experiment to look at “Marsquakes” and when meteors smack the surface, while DLR’s science experiment will look at interior planetary heat.

Mars on March 8, 2014 shows not only clouds over Hellas but evening limb clouds. Credit: W.L. Chin
Mars on March 8, 2014 shows not only clouds over Hellas but evening limb clouds. Credit: W.L. Chin

The seismometer will sit on the surface, covered up to protect it from the cold and wind, while the heat-flow probe will be hammered in about three to five yards or meters. Investigators also plan an experiment that will communicate with NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna network to see how much the rotation of Mars wobbles, which could hint if the core of the Red Planet is solid or liquid. The mission will also include wind, temperature and pressure sensors, as well as a magnetometer.

“Mars actually offers an advantage over Earth itself for understanding how habitable planetary surfaces can form,” stated Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Both planets underwent the same early processes. But Mars, being smaller, cooled faster and became less active while Earth kept churning. So Mars better preserves the evidence about the early stages of rocky planets’ development.”

Construction will be led by Lockheed Martin. You can check out more information about InSight at this website. NASA has several missions working at Mars right now, such as the Mars Curiosity rover, the Opportunity rover and the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Posted on by Elizabeth Howell

Saturn Aurora Sparkles In New Hubble Images

Several images of an aurora on Saturn's north pole taken in April and May 2013 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA, Acknowledgement: J. Nichols (University of Leicester)

It’s amazing to see what some flashes of light can tell us. New images the Hubble Space Telescope took of Saturn not only reveal auroras dancing in the north pole, but also reveal some interesting things about the giant planet’s magnetic field.

“It appears that when particles from the Sun hit Saturn, the magnetotail collapses and later reconfigures itself, an event that is reflected in the dynamics of its auroras,” the European Space Agency wrote in a description of the image.

“Saturn was caught during a very dynamic light show – some of the bursts of light seen shooting around Saturn’s polar regions traveled more than three times faster than the speed of the gas giant’s roughly 10-hour rotation period.”

And for those readers that remember the music video from Saturn that the Cassini spacecraft took — also of auroras — ESA said this new research complements what the other spacecraft did, too.

The research has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters.

Source: ESA