NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this self-portrait, composed of more than 50 images using its robotic arm-mounted MAHLI camera, on Feb. 3, 2013. The image shows Curiosity at the John Klein drill site. A drill hole is visible at bottom left. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Marco Di Lorenzo / Ken Kremer- kenkremer.com
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – NASA’s car sized CuriosityMars rover has resumed full science operations and driving following a six day long halt to research activities due to concerns about an electrical power system glitch, which have now been resolved.
On Nov. 17, engineers noticed a fluctuation in voltage on Curiosity that caused the robots handlers to stop science activities and driving towards mysterious Mount Sharp while they searched for the root cause of the electrical issue.
NASA says that the voltage change did not impact the rovers safety or health and the team was acting out of an abundance of caution while investigating the situation from millions of miles away back on Earth.
“The vehicle’s electrical system has a “floating bus” design feature to tolerate a range of voltage differences between the vehicle’s chassis — its mechanical frame — and the 32-volt power lines that deliver electricity throughout the rover. This protects the rover from electrical shorts,” NASA said in a statement.
Curiosity’s voltage level had been about 11 volts since landing day and had declined to about 4 volts on Nov. 17. The electrical issue did not trigger the rover to enter a safe-mode status.
Curiosity scans the Martian landscape to the distant rim of Gale Crater landing site on Sol 463, November 2013. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Marco Di Lorenzo / Ken Kremer- kenkremer.com
Engineers amassed a list of possible causes for the voltage change while suspending science operations and roving across the Martian crater floor where Curiosity landed nearly a year and a half ago in August 2012.
“We made a list of potential causes, and then determined which we could cross off the list, one by one,” said rover electrical engineer Rob Zimmerman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
NASA says that the likely cause is an internal short stemming from the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) – the rovers nuclear power source.
RTG’s have been commonly used on many NASA missions that also experienced occasional shorts and that had no long term impact or loss of capability on their flights.
“This type of intermittent short has been seen in similar RTGs, including the one on the Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn for years. The rover electronics are designed to operate at variable power supply voltages, so this is not a major problem,” says Curiosity team member Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS in a mission update.
The voltage level had returned its normal level of 11 volts on its own by Nov. 23, when the team had decided to resume science operations.
So it is possible that the same type of intermittent voltage change could recur in the future.
Meanwhile the rover has resumed her epic trek to Mount Sharp and is expected to arrive at the base of the mountain sometime in mid-2014.
Curiosity Spies Mount Sharp – her primary destination. Curiosity will ascend mysterious Mount Sharp and investigate the sedimentary layers searching for clues to the history and habitability o the Red Planet of billions of years. This mosaic was assembled from Mastcam camera images taken on Sol 352 (Aug 2, 2013). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer
This past weekend, the robot delivered additional portions of powdered rock to the CheMin and SAM labs inside the rover. The sample was collected 6 months ago after drilling into a rock nicknamed “Cumberland” and will supplement prior measurements.
Curiosity has already accomplished her primary science goal of discovering a habitable zone at her landing site.
Scientists expect to broaden the region of Martian habitability once the 1 ton robot begins the ascent of Mount Sharp to investigate the sedimentary layers in the lower reaches of the towering 3 mile (5 km) high mountain, that record Mars geologic and climatic history over a time span of billions of years.
Curiosity looks to the base of Mount Sharp and the Murray buttes – her ultimate climbing destination – in this mosaic assembled from navcam camera images from Sol 465, November 2013. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Marco Di Lorenzo / Ken Kremer- kenkremer.com
And as both of NASA’s rovers Curiosity and Opportunity ascend Martian mountains, they’ll be joined next September 2014 by a pair of new Martian orbiters from the US and India – MAVEN and MOM – that will significantly expand Earth’s invasion force at the Red Planet.
Stay tuned here for continuing Mars rover, MOM and MAVEN news and Ken’s MAVEN and SpaceXFalcon 9 launch reports from on site at the Kennedy Space Center press center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
First ever image of Earth Taken by Mars Color Camera aboard India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft while orbiting Earth and before the Trans Mars Insertion firing on Dec. 1, 2013. Image is focused on the Indian subcontinent. Credit: ISRO
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – MOM is looking at you, kid!
And if the spectacular new image of billions of Earth’s children captured by India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is any indication (see above), then we can expect absolutely gorgeous scenes of the Red Planet once the groundbreaking probe arrives there in September 2014.
But despite all that’s been accomplished so far, the space drama is still in its infant stages – because MOM still needs to ignite her thrusters this weekend in order to achieve escape velocity, wave good bye to Earth forever and eventually say hello to Mars!
The picture – snapped from Earth orbit – is focused on the Indian subcontinent, the probes origin.
MOM has captured the imagination of space enthusiasts worldwide.
During testing of the MOM probes payloads – while it’s still flying in a highly elliptical orbit around our Home Planet – engineers from India’s space agency turned the crafts camera homewards to capture the “First ever image of Earth Taken by Mars Color Camera,” according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
The beautiful image was taken on Nov. 20 at around 1350 hrs (IST) from a height of almost 70,000 km above earth and has a spatial resolution of 3.5 km, said ISRO.
The image also gives a rather good approximation of what MOM’s color camera will actually see from apoapsis after reaching the Red Planet since the probe will enter a similarly highly elliptical orbit around Mars – ranging in altitude from 366 kilometers (km) x 80,000 kilometers (km).
MOM has just passed by its penultimate perigee. With this, the final orbit of MOM around Earth begins! Credit: ISRO
Following a 10 month interplanetary cruise, MOM is due to arrive in the vicinity of Mars on September 24, 2014 to study the Red Planets’ atmosphere.
At that time, the 440 Newton liquid fueled main engine must fire precisely as planned during the absolutely essential Mars orbital insertion burn to place the probe into orbit about Mars.
But before MOM can accomplish anything at Mars, she must first successfully fire her main engine – to complete the crucial departure from Earth and Trans Mars Insertion (TMI) scheduled for this Saturday!
MOM’s picture perfect Nov. 5 liftoff atop India’s highly reliable four stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C25 from the ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, precisely injected the spacecraft into an initial elliptical Earth parking orbit of 247 x 23556 kilometers with an inclination of 19.2 degrees.
Since then the engine has fired 6 times to gradually raise the spacecrafts apogee.
The most recent orbit raising maneuver occurred at 01:27 hrs (IST) on Nov 16, 2013 with a burn time of 243.5 seconds increased the apogee from 118,642 km to 192,874 km.
The nail-biting final main engine burn of 1351 seconds is set for this weekend on Dec. 1. It will place MOM on a precise interplanetary trajectory to the Red Planet.
Graphic of MOM approaching its penultimate perigee pass on Nov 26. Credit: ISRO
If all continues to goes well, India will join an elite club of only four who have launched probes that successfully investigated the Red Planet from orbit or the surface – following the Soviet Union, the United States and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The low cost $69 Million MOM mission is the first of two new Mars orbiter science probes from Earth that flawlessly blasted off for the Red Planet this November.
Both MAVEN and MOM’s goal is to study the Martian atmosphere, unlock the mysteries of its current atmosphere and determine how, why and when the atmosphere and liquid water was lost – and how this transformed Mars climate into its cold, desiccated state of today.
The MAVEN and MOM science teams will “work together” to unlock the secrets of Mars atmosphere and climate history, MAVEN’s top scientist Prof. Bruce Jakosky told Universe Today.
Clouds on the ground ! The sky seems inverted for a moment ! Blastoff of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on Nov. 5, 2013 from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Credit: ISRO
Stay tuned here for continuing MOM and MAVEN news and Ken’s MAVEN and SpaceX Falcon 9 launch reports from on site at the Kennedy Space Center press center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
Learn more about MOM, MAVEN, Mars rovers, SpaceX, Orion and more at Ken’s upcoming presentations
Nov 28: “SpaceX launch, MAVEN & MOM Mars Launches and Curiosity Explores Mars, Orion and NASA’s Future”, Kennedy Space Center Quality Inn, Titusville, FL, 8 PM
Dec 11: “Curiosity, MAVEN, MOM and the Search for Life on Mars”, “LADEE & Antares ISS Launches from Virginia”, Rittenhouse Astronomical Society, Franklin Institute, Phila, PA, 8 PM
The Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the closest galaxies to our own. Astronomers have now used the power of the ESO’s Very Large Telescope to explore NGC 2035, one of its lesser known regions, in great detail. This new image shows clouds of gas and dust where hot new stars are being born and are sculpting their surroundings into odd shapes. But the image also shows the effects of stellar death — filaments created by a supernova explosion (left). Credit: ESO
Some 160,000 light years away towards the constellation of Dorado (the Swordfish), is an amazing area of starbirth and death. Located in our celestial neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud, this huge stellar forge sculpts vast clouds of gas and dust into hot, new stars and carves out ribbons and curls of nebulae. However, in this image taken by ESO’s Very Large Telescope, there’s more. Stellar annihilation also awaits and shows itself as bright fibers left over from a supernova event.
For southern hemisphere observers, one of our nearest galactic neighbors, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is a well-known sight and holds many cosmic wonders. While the image highlights just a very small region, try to grasp the sheer size of what you are looking at. The fiery forge you see is several hundred light years across, and the factory in which it is contained spans 14,000 light years. Enormous? Yes. But compared to the Milky Way, it’s ten times smaller.
Even at such a great distance, the human eye can see many bright regions where new stars are actively forming, such as the Tarantula Nebula. This new image, taken by ESO’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, explores an area cataloged as NGC 2035 (right), sometimes nicknamed the Dragon’s Head Nebula. But, just what are we looking at?
The Dragon’s Head is an HII region, more commonly referred to as an emission nebula. Here, young stars pour forth energetic radiation and illuminate the surrounding clouds. The radiation tears electrons away from the atoms contained within the gas. These atoms then gel again with other atoms and release light. Swirling in the mix is dark dust, which absorbs the light and creates deep shadows and create contrast in the nebula’s structure.
However, as we look deep into this image, there’s even more… a fiery finale. At the left of the photo you’ll see the results of one of the most violent events in the Universe – a supernova explosion. These troubled tendrils are all that’s left of what once was a star and its name is SNR 0536-67.6. Perhaps when it exploded, it was so bright that it was capable of outshining the Magellanic Cloud… fading away over the weeks or months that followed. However, it left a lasting impression!
ISON: A 2013 pre-perihelion portrait. (Credit and copyright: Efrain Morales/Jaicoa observatory. Used with permission).
“ISON Lives!!!”
“ISON R.I.P…”
Those are just some of the possible headlines that we’ve wrestled with this week, as Comet C/2012 S1 ISON approaches perihelion tomorrow evening. It’s been a rollercoaster ride of a week, and this sungrazing comet promises to keep us guessing right up until the very end.
Comet ISON reaches perihelion on U.S. Thanksgiving Day Thursday, November 28th at around 18:44 Universal Time/ 1:44 PM Eastern Standard Time. ISON will pass 1.2 million kilometres from the surface of the Sun, just over eight times farther than Comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoy did in 2011, and about 38 times closer to the Sun than Mercury reaches at perihelion.
Comet ISON as seen from Ottawa, Canada on the morning of November 20th. (Credit: Andrew Symes/@FailedProtostar).
Earth-based observers essentially lost sight of ISON in the dawn twilight this past weekend, and there were fears that the comet might’ve disintegrated all together as it was tracked by NASA’s STEREO spacecraft. Troubling reports circulated early this week that emission rates for the comet had dropped while dust production had risen, possibly signaling that fragmentation of the nucleus was imminent. Certainly, this comet is full of surprises, and our observational experience with large sungrazing comets of this sort is pretty meager.
ISON (entering frame, to the right) currently “photobombing” SOHO’s LASCO C3 camera. Credit: NASA/ESA/SOHO.
However, as ISON entered the field of view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory’s LASCO C3 camera earlier today it still appeared to have some game left in it. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory will pick up ISON starting at around 17:09UT/12:09 PM EST tomorrow, and track it through its history-making perihelion passage for just over two hours until 19:09UT/2:19PM EST.
And just as with Comet Lovejoy a few years ago, all eyes will be glued to the webcast from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory as ISON rounds the bend towards its date with destiny… don’t miss it!
Note: you can also follow ISON’s current progress as seen from SOHO at their website!
The tracking plan for the Solar Dynamics Observatory on November 28th as ISON passes through perihelion. (Credit: NASA/SDO).
For over the past year since its discovery, pundits have pondered what is now the astronomical question of the approaching hour: just what is ISON going to do post-perihelion? Will it dazzle or fizzle? In this context, ISON has truly become “Schrödinger’s Comet,” both alive and dead in the minds of those who would attempt to divine its fate.
Recent estimates place ISON’s nucleus at between 950 and 1,250 metres in diameter. This is well above the 200 metre size that’s considered the “point of no return” for a comet passing this close to the Sun. But again, another key factor to consider is how well put together the nucleus of the comet is: a lumpy rubble pile may not hold up against the intense heat and the gravitational tug of the Sun!
Current updated light curve for ISON. Be sure to check with NASA’s Comet ISON Observing Campaign for the latest updates. (Compiled by Matthew Knight on November 24th, 2013).
But what are the current prospects for spotting ISON after its fiery perihelion passage?
If the comet holds together, reasonable estimates put its maximum brightness near perihelion at between magnitudes -3 and -5, in the range of the planet Venus at maximum brilliancy. ISON will, however, only stand 14’ arc minutes from the disk of the Sun (less than half its apparent diameter) at perihelion, and spying it will be a tough feat that should only be attempted by advanced observers.
Note that for observers based at high northern latitudes “north of the 60,” the shallow angle of the ecliptic might just make it possible to spot Comet ISON low in the dawn after perihelion and before sunrise November 29th:
ISON post-perihelion at sunrise on November 29th as seen from Fairbanks, Alaska. (Created using Starry Night Education software.
We’ve managed to see the planet Venus the day of solar conjunction during similar circumstances with the Sun just below the horizon while observing from North Pole, Alaska.
Most northern hemisphere observers may catch first sight of Comet ISON post-perihelion around the morning of December 1st. Look low to the east, about half an hour before local sunrise. Use binoculars to sweep back and forth on your morning comet dawn patrol. Note that on December 1st, Saturn, Mercury, and the slim waning crescent Moon will also perch nearby!
Comet ISON, Mercury, Saturn and the Moon: looking east on the morning of December 1st as seen from latitude 30 degrees north. (Created using Starry Night Education software).
Comet ISON will rapidly gain elevation on successive mornings as it heads off to the northeast, but will also rapidly decrease in brightness as well. If current projections hold, ISON will dip back below magnitude 0 just a few days after perihelion, and back below naked eye visibility by late December. Observers may also be able to start picking it up low to the west at dusk by mid-December, but mornings will be your best bet.
The path of comet ISON for the first week of December as seen from latitude 30 degrees north. Note: the planets and the Moon are depicted for December 1st. (Created using Stellarium).
Keep in mind, if ISON fizzles, this could become a “death-watch” for the remnants of the comet, as fragments that might only be visible with binoculars or a telescope follow its outward path. If this turns out to be the case, then the best views of the “Comet formerly known as ISON” have already occurred.
Another possible scenario is that the comet might fragment right around perihelion, leaving us with a brief but brilliant “headless comet,” similar to W3 Lovejoy back in late 2011. The forward light scattering angle for any comet is key to visibility, and in this aspect, ISON is just on the grim edge in terms of its potential to enter the annals of “great” comets, such as Comet Ikeya-Seki back in 1965.
ISON will then run nearly parallel to the 16 hour line in right ascension from south to north through the month of December as it crosses the celestial equator, headed for a date with the north celestial pole just past New Years Day, 2014.
Whether as fragments or whole, comets have to obey Sir Isaac and his laws of physics as they trace their elliptical path back out of the solar system. Keep in mind, a comet’s dust tail actually precedes it on its way outbound as the solar wind sweeps past, a counter-intuitive but neat concept we may just get to see in action soon.
Here are some key dates to watch for as ISON makes tracks across the northern hemisphere sky. Passages are noted near stars brighter than +5th magnitude and closer than one degree except as mentioned:
The celestial path of ISON from November 29th to December 15th. (Credit: Starry Night).
December 1st: ISON is grouped with Saturn, Mercury and the slim crescent Moon in the dawn.
December 2nd: Passes near the +4.9 magnitude star Psi Scorpii.
December 3rd: Passes into the constellation Ophiuchus.
December 5th: Passes near the +2.7 magnitude multiple star Yed Prior.
December 6th: Crosses into the constellation Serpens Caput.
December 8th: Crosses from south to north of the celestial equator.
December 15th: Passes into the constellation Hercules and near the +5th magnitude star Kappa Herculis.
December 17th: The Moon reaches Full, marking the middle of a week with decreased visibility for the comet.
December 19th: Passes into the constellation of Corona Borealis.
December 20th: Passes near the +4.8th magnitude star Xi Coronae Borealis.
December 22nd: Passes 5 degrees from the globular cluster M13. Photo op!
The path of Comet ISON from December 16th to January 8th. (Credit: Starry Night).
December 23rd: Crosses back into the constellation Hercules.
December 24th: Passes near the +3.9 magnitude star Tau Herculis.
December 26th: Comet ISON passes closest to Earth at 0.43 A.U. or 64 million kilometres distant, now moving with a maximum apparent motion of nearly 4 degrees a day.
December 26th: Crosses into the constellation Draco and becomes circumpolar for observers based at latitude 40 north.
December 28th: Passes the +2.7 magnitude star Aldhibain.
December 29th: Passes the +4.8 magnitude star 18 Draconis.
December 31st: Passes the 4.9 magnitude star 15 Draconis.
January 2nd: Crosses into the constellation Ursa Minor.
January 4th: Crosses briefly back into the constellation Draco.
January 6th: Crosses back into the constellation Ursa Minor.
January 7th: Crosses into Cepheus; passes within 2.5 degrees of Polaris and the North Celestial Pole.
And after what is (hopefully) a brilliant show, ISON will head back out into the depths of the solar system, perhaps never to return. Whatever the case turns out to be, observations of ISON will have produced some first-rate science… and no planets, popes or prophets will have been harmed in the process. And while those in the business of predicting doom will have moved on to the next apocalypse in 2014, the rest of us will have hopefully witnessed a dazzling spectacle from this icy Oort Cloud visitor, as we await the appearance of the next Great Comet.
Enjoy the show!
ISON: “Great Comet” or “Great Pumpkin?” Photo and gourd-based artwork by author.
Artist's impression of the Milky Way, looking at it edge on. This makes the bulge at the center look like a peanut, astronomers say. Credit: ESO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Kornmesser/R. Hurt.
Remember that 3-D map of the Milky Way that postulated that the center of the galaxy is shaped like a box or peanut? A new math model of the bulge shows that stars in the center of that bulge move in figure-eight orbits (which can also be interpreted as a peanut-shell shape.) Before, previous studies suggested these orbits looked more like bananas.
“The difference is important; astronomers develop theories of star motions to not only understand how the stars in our galaxy are moving today but also how our galaxy formed and evolves,” the Royal Astronomical Society stated.
In the middle of the galaxy, there are a lot of gravitational forces at play due to the sheer number of stars, as well as particles of dust and dark matter, congregating in the area. This makes it harder to model orbits than in more simple situations, such as our own solar system.
This is how a new model envisions it working:
Milky Way. Image credit: NASA
“As the stars go round in their orbits, they also move above or below the plane of the bar. When stars cross the plane they get a little push, like a child on a swing,” the RAS said.
“At the resonance point, which is a point a certain distance from the center of the bar, the timing of the pushes on the stars is such that this effect is strong enough to make the stars at this point move up higher above the plane. (It is like when a child on the swing has been pushed a little every time and eventually is swinging higher.) These stars are pushed out from the edge of the bulge.”
The researchers suppose that the stars would have two “vertical oscillations” in each orbit, but in between the orbits are shaped somewhat like a peanut shell. This “could give rise to the observed shape of the bulge, which is also like a peanut-shell,” RAS stated.
Infographic showing how the Kepler space telescope could continue searching for planets despite two busted reaction wheels. Credit: NASA Ames/W Stenzel
The planet-seeking Kepler space telescope had to stop its primary mission this summer after the failure of a second of its four reaction wheels, the devices that keep it pointing at a spot in the constellation Cygnus. NASA, however, has a backup plan. It’s considering stabilizing the spacecraft using the sun! You can see the details in this infographic.
The plan is still preliminary as it needs testing, and it also needs budgetary approval while NASA is fighting to keep other programs going at the funding levels the agency wants. But if it works, this is what NASA is proposing:
Keep the spacecraft oriented almost parallel to its orbit around the sun.
Gaze at a particular part of the sky for 83 days.
When the sun is close to coming into the telescope, move the spacecraft and do another 83-day observation period.
This would mean the spacecraft will have 4.5 “unique viewing periods” a year, NASA says.
“With the failure of a second reaction wheel, the spacecraft can no longer precisely point at the mission’s original field of view. The culprit is none other than our own sun,” NASA stated in a recent press release.
Artist’s conception of the Kepler Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The very body that provides Kepler with its energy needs also pushes the spacecraft around by the pressure exerted when the photons of sunlight strike the spacecraft. Without a third wheel to help counteract the solar pressure, the spacecraft’s ultra-precise pointing capability cannot be controlled in all directions.”
But this could be a way to counteract it. Mission managers put Kepler through a 30-minute test in October where the telescope looked at a spot in the constellation Sagittarius, which “produced an image quality within five percent of the primary mission image quality,” NASA stated. More testing is underway.
NASA should have more details at the end of this year as to whether to proceed to a 2014 Senior Review, which is held every two years to review current missions and decide which ones are still worth funding.
NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio inspects a spacesuit during repairs in the Quest airlock aboard the International Space Station. Taken during Expedition 38 in November 2013. Credit: NASA
Judging from the way those food packets are floating around, looks like the folks on the International Space Station will have to catch their turkey! NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins, two of the six people working on Expedition 38, recently shared their plans for U.S. Thanksgiving on Thursday.
“Though we miss our families, it’s great to be in space. As astronauts, this is what we train for and this is where we want to be. Opportunities to fly in space are rare, so we have to take advantage of them whenever they occur,” Hopkins said in the message.
The best part of this missive? Watching the astronauts casually toss the microphone back and forth in between their statements. That’s the fun of recording in microgravity.
Thanksgiving will be a full workday on station as the astronauts continue to work on their experiments. A recent status report indicated that Mastracchio (the crew medical officer) was examining Hopkins’ eyes as part of ongoing work looking at how microgravity affects ocular health. Flight controllers also moved one of the solar arrays for Mastracchio to take pictures and monitor how the mast is doing “for future inspections”, NASA stated.
A comparison between our solar system and a second solar system: KOI-351. Image Credit:
A team of European astronomers has discovered a second planetary system, the closest parallel to our own solar system yet found. It includes seven exoplanets orbiting a star with the small rocky planets close to their host star and the gas giant planets further away. The system was hidden within the wealth of data from the Kepler Space Telescope.
KOI-351 is “the first system with a significant number of planets (not just two or three, where random fluctuations can play a role) that shows a clear hierarchy like the solar system — with small, probably rocky, planets in the interior and gas giants in the (exterior),” Dr. Juan Cabrera, of the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center, told Universe Today.
Three of the seven planets orbiting KOI-351 were detected earlier this year, and have periods of 59, 210 and 331 days — similar to the periods of Mercury, Venus and Earth.
But the orbital periods of these planets vary by as much as 25.7 hours. This is the highest variation detected in an exoplanet’s orbital period so far, hinting that there are more planets than meets the eye.
In closely packed systems, the gravitational pull of nearby planets can cause the acceleration or deceleration of a planet along its orbit. These “tugs” cause the variations in orbital periods.
They also provide indirect evidence of further planets. Using advanced computer algorithms, Cabrera and his team detected four new planets orbiting KOI-351.
But these planets are much closer to their host star than Mercury is to our Sun, with orbital periods of 7, 9, 92 and 125 days. The system is extremely compact — with the outermost planet having an orbital period less than the Earth’s. Yes, the entire system orbits within 1 AU.
While astronomers have discovered over 1000 exoplanets, this is the first solar system analogue detected to date. Not only are there seven planets, but they display the same architecture — rocky small planets orbiting close to the sun and gas giants orbiting further away — as our own solar system.
Most exoplanets are strikingly different from the planets in our own solar system. “We find planets in any order, at any distance, of any size; even planetary classes that don’t exist in the solar system,” Cabrera said.
Several theories including planet migration and planet-planet scattering have been proposed to explain these differences. But the fact of the matter is planet formation is still poorly understood.
“We don’t know yet why this system formed this way, but we have the feeling that this is a key system in understanding planetary formation in general and the formation of the solar system in particular,” Cabrera told Universe Today.
The team is extremely hopeful that the upcoming mission PLATO will receive funding. If so, it will allow them to take a second look at this system — determining the radius and mass of each planet and even analyzing their compositions.
Follow-up observations will not only allow astronomers to determine how this planetary system formed, it will provide hints as to how our own solar system formed.
The paper has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal and is available for download here.
Earlier today the near-Earth asteroid 2013 NJ sailed by, coming as close as 2.5 lunar distances — about 960,000 km/596,500 miles. That’s a relatively close call, in astronomical terms, but still decidedly a miss (if you hadn’t already noticed.) Which is a good thing since 2013 NJ is estimated to be anywhere from 120–260 meters wide (400-850 feet) and would have caused no small amount of damage had its path intersected ours more intimately.
Luckily that wasn’t the case, and instead we get watch 2013 NJ as it harmlessly passes by in the video above, made from images captured by “shadow chaser” Jonathan Bradshaw from his observatory in Queensland, Australia. Nice work, Jonathan!
Keep tabs on known near-Earth objects on the JPL close pass page here.
An annotated version of a deep-sky wide field view of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Credit and copyright: Miguel Claro.
This new panorama of the Milky Way by astrophotographer Miguel Claro is really amazing, and you definitely want to click on the image to have access to larger versions! This is an 18-image mosaic taken with a Canon 60Da, with 60 second exposures, and it rivals wide-field images taken by larger ground-based telescopes. The images, were, however, taken from the home of some of the darkest skies and largest telescopes in the world, near Roque de Los Muchahos, in La Palma, Canary Islands. Visible is the hazy band of white light that comes from unresolved stars and other material that lie within the galactic plane, contrasting with interesting shapes within the dark regions of the band, corresponding to areas where light from distant stars is blocked by interstellar dust.
Thanks to Miguel Claro for sharing his images with Universe Today!
The Milky Way Galaxy – Deep Sky Wide Field view, captured from Los Andenes, near Roque de Los Muchahos, in La Palma, Canary Island. Credit and copyright: Miguel Claro.
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