Category: Astronomy

Almost two years after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly demoted Pluto from a “real” planet to the new category of dwarf planets, the IAU, as promised, has decided on a name for trans-Neptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. The name “Plutoid” was proposed and accepted by the IAU at its recent meeting in Oslo, Norway. Here’s the definition of a Plutoid: “Celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit.” The two known and named Plutoids are Pluto and Eris. It is expected that more Plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made, for example, when the New Horizons mission arrives at the Kuiper Belt region in 2015.

Ceres, however, although a dwarf planet, is not a Plutoid, as it is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers believe that Ceres is the only object of its kind. Therefore, a separate category of Ceres-like dwarf planets may be defined and named at a later date.

The IAU has been responsible for naming planetary bodies and their satellites since the early 1900s, and oversees the assignment of names to surface features on bodies in the Solar System.

The IAU confirmed that in French plutoid is “plutoïde,” and in Spanish “plutoide.”

Sources: PhysOrg, International Astronomical Union

A powerful new space observatory called GLAST launched successfully today, and will provide a huge leap in our capabilities to study gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope will enable scientists to answer persistent questions about a broad range of topics, including supermassive black-holes, pulsars, cosmic rays, and searches for signals of new physics in the stars of our galaxy. GLAST blasted off at 12:05 pm EDT, after a brief delay regarding weather and concerns on the water suppression system at the launchpad. But the problems were cleared and the launch proceeded with no complications. Now, the big question is, what will be GLAST’s new name?

As per tradition, GLAST will be renamed with a more user friendly, non-acronym name following it’s successful launch and deployment. The vehicle will go into a parking orbit for about 55 minutes following launch, then the second stage will restart, burn for two minutes, coast for about 5 minutes, then the spacecraft will separate and deploy the solar arrays. That’s when the mission is officially underway.

In its first year of operations, GLAST will concentrate on using its high sensitivity to create a new map of the skies, which is expected to reveal between 5,000 and 10,000 new sources of gamma-rays, which are invisible to human eyes.

The GLAST spacecraft is about 9-feet high by 8-feet in diameter when stowed in the fairing section of the rocket. GLAST will become a little bit taller and much wider after it is launched into space, when the Ku-band antenna deploys and the solar arrays are extended.

With high sensitivity GLAST is the first imaging gamma-ray observatory to survey the entire sky every day. It will give scientists a unique opportunity to learn about the ever-changing universe at extreme energies. GLAST will detect thousands of gamma-ray sources, most of which will be supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies.

The observatory will be a significant upgrade to the previous orbiting gamma-ray telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. GLAST should make observations in days that took the Compton years to make.

“GLAST is about to open up the Universe to us in new and exciting ways,” said Steven Ritz, of Nasa’s Goddard Space Science Center, and the project’s chief scientist. “GLAST enables scientists to look under the hood and see how the universe works.”

The mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed by NASA in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.

Sources: NASA TV, GLAST website

Successful Sprinkle

The Phoenix Mars Lander used its Robotic Arm during the mission’s 15th Martian sol to test the “sprinkling” method for delivering small samples of soil to instruments on the lander deck. The “movie” shown here is a sequence of four images from the spacecraft’s Surface Stereo Imager, and demonstrates the actions of Phoenix for a 20 minute period. The sprinkling was tested because a couple of days ago, the first attempt at bringing soil samples to the scientific instruments was unsuccessful. The soil, when just dumped as a whole onto Phoenix’s deck, clumped together and wouldn’t go through a screen that brings the materials to the TEGA instrument to analyze the soil. The sprinkling technique, by contrast, holds the scoop at a steady angle and vibrates the scoop by running the motorized rasp located beneath the scoop. This gently jostles some material out of the scoop to the target below.

This method seems to distribute the material better, and “unclumps” the frozen clods of soil. For this test, the target was near the upper end the cover of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer instrument suite, or MECA. The cover is 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) across. The scoop is about 8.5 centimeters (3.3 inches) across.

Based on the test’s success in delivering a small quantity and fine-size particles, the Phoenix team plans to use the sprinkle method for delivering more samples to MECA and then to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. The delivery to MECA’s Optical Microscope, will be via the port in the MECA cover, visible at the bottom of the image.

Meanwhile, Phoenix will continue a set of atmospheric observation begun during the Martian evening on Tuesday in coordination with overhead passes of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These take advantage of opportunities for instruments on Phoenix and on the orbiter to examine the same column of atmosphere simultaneously from above and below.

“It allows us to put the Phoenix measurements into global perspective and gives a ground level calibration for the orbiter’s measurements,” said Phoenix Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Source: Phoenix News

Looking for the International Space Station flying overhead is one of my favorite space-related pastimes. But for a couple of evenings (or early mornings, depending where you are) starting on Wednesday, June 11 you can see two spacecraft for the price of one. Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on Wednesday morning, June 11th, at 7:42 am EDT. This means some sky watchers will be able to see both spaceships flying in tandem. They’ll be seen as separate but closely-spaced points of light. Double flybys will continue on Thursday the 12th and to a lesser extent on Friday the 13th, with Discovery scheduled to land on Saturday. Southeastern parts of the United States (e.g., Miami and Atlanta) are favored with some especially good viewing, depending, of course, on cloud cover.

To find out if you’ll be able to see spaceships in your area, there are a few different sites to check out:

Spaceweather.com, has a Satellite Tracker Tool. Just put in your zip code (good for the US and Canada) to find out what satellites will be flying over your house.

NASA has a Skywatch page where you can find your specific city to look for satellite sighting info.

Heaven’s Above also has a city search, but also you can input your exact latitude and longitude for exact sighting information, helpful if you live out in the country.

Seeing the two spacecraft flying closely in tandem is a very unique and thrilling sight. Good luck!

And if you like the image above, it is from the current STS-124 mission: Astronaut Mike Fossum used a digital camera to create this self-portrait during one of the EVAs of the mission, with both himself and the International Space Station visible in his helmet visor.

Original News Source: Spaceweather.com