Comet ISON on October 8, 2013 as seen through the Schulman 0.8 Telescope atop Mount Lemmon at the University of Arizona SkyCenter. Credit: Adam Block/UA SkyCenter.
As we reported yesterday, the latest data on Comet ISON indicates there is some encouraging news as far as the Comet surviving perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun. While some are all doom and gloom about the potential for Comet ISON putting on a good show, these latest images indicate that as of now, this comet is alive and doing well!
“We really do not know what comet ISON is going to do when it gets near the Sun,” wrote astronomer Karl Battams of the Comet ISON Observing Campaign website. “But what we can say for certain, right now, is that comet ISON is doing just fine! It continues to behave like a fairly typical, if somewhat smaller-than-average, Oort Cloud comet. It has given no indication that it has fragmented and while such an event can never be ruled out, we see no evidence or hint that the comet is in any imminent danger of doing so. Any reports to the contrary are just speculation.”
You can read more from Battams about the current status of ISON, but just take a look at some of these gorgeous latest images from a variety of astrophotographers:
Comet ISON on October 9, 2013, an 18-minute exposure from 10:22 – 10:43 U.T.. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.Comet ISON (top) passing above Mars This is a stack of 5 x 5 minute exposures. Credit and copyright: Alan Dyer/Amazing Sky PhotographyComet ISON on October 7, 2013, imaged with a robotic iTelescope facility. Credit and copyright: Peter Lake.A 20-exposure stack of images from the 2-meter Liverpool Telescope. Credit and copyright: Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes and Martino Nicollini/Remanzacco Observatory.Comet ISON on October 4, 2013 as seen over Arizona, viewed with a 12.5″ telescope, over an hour exposure time. Credit and copyright: Chris Schur.
Keep checking Universe Today’s Flickr page for more additions and the latest shots from around the world. You can also keep tabs on Comet ISON from SpaceWeather.com’s Comet ISON Realtime Gallery. Better yet, try and see it for yourself! As of now, you’ll need to find someone with a fairly good telescope, so check out your local amateur astronomy club or observatory and find out when they are planning on viewing ISON. And if the comet can hold itself together, we’re all holding out hope that it will be visible with the naked eye after is passes by the Sun in late November. Here’s our detailed viewing guide from now until perihelion.
Project Mercury Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter smiles, in his pressure suit, prior to participating in a simulated mission run at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Credit: NASA.
One of the original “Mercury 7” astronauts, Scott Carpenter, has died. He was the sixth person to fly in space; the fourth American to fly in space and the second US astronaut to orbit Earth. Carpenter died on Thursday, October 10, 2013 at age 88 after suffering a recent stroke. With the death of Carpenter, the only remaining surviving member of the original US astronauts is John Glenn.
collectSPACE is reporting that Carpenter was being cared for at a hospice center in Denver when he passed. Carpenter was initially expected to make a full recovery from the stroke, but his condition worsened this week, sources close to his family shared.
Carpenter was chosen as an astronaut in 1959. He launched in his Aurora 7 capsule on May 24, 1962 in the fourth manned mission and the second orbital flight of the Mercury program. The video below celebrates the Aurora 7 flight, which successfully made three Earth orbits. But a targeting mishap during reentry took the spacecraft about 400 km (250 miles) off course, delaying recovery of Carpenter and the capsule. Carpenter was picked up after nearly 3 hours in the water, and the Mercury capsule was not retrieved until about 6 hours later.
Carpenter said of his flight, “The zero-g sensation and the visual sensation of space flight are transcending experiences, and I wish everybody could have them.”
Carpenter was born on n May 1, 1925. He is survived by his wife, seven children, two step-children and six grandchildren.
Almost every part of a rocket is destroyed during the launch and re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. This makes spaceflight really expensive. Rocket delivery of even a single kilogram into orbit costs tens of thousands of dollars. But what if we could just place our payloads directly into orbit, and didn’t need a rocket at all?
This is the idea of a space elevator, first envisioned by the Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895. Tsiolkovsky suggested building a tower all the way up to geostationary orbit, this is the point where a satellite appears to hang motionless in the sky above the Earth. If you could carry spacecraft all the way up to the top, and release them from that tower they’d be in orbit, without the expense of a discarded rocket. A fraction more energy and they’d be traveling away from the Earth to explore the Solar System.
The major flaw with this idea is that the entire weight of the tower would be compressing down on every part below. And there’s no material on Earth, or in the Universe, that can handle this kind of compressive force. But the idea still makes sense.
Newer thinking about space elevators propose using a cable, stretched out beyond geostationary orbit. Here the outward centripetal force counters the force of gravity, keeping the tether perfectly balanced. But now we’re dealing with the tensile strength of a cable tens of thousands of kilometers long.
Imagine the powerful forces trying to tear it apart. Until recently, there was no material strong enough to withstand those forces, but the development of carbon nanotubes has made the idea more possible.
How would you build a space elevator? The most reasonable idea would be to move an asteroid into geostationary orbit – this is your counterbalance. A cable would then be manufactured on the asteroid, and lowered down towards the Earth.
As the cable extends down, the asteroid is orbited further from the Earth, keeping everything in balance. Finally, the cable reaches the Earth’s surface and is attached to a ground station.
Artists concept of a space elevator. Credit: Caltech
Solar powered machines are attached to the space elevator and climb up from the surface of the Earth, all the way to geostationary orbit. Even traveling at a speed of 200 km/hour, it would take the climber almost 10 days to make the journey from the surface to an altitude of 36,000 kilometers. But the cost savings would be dramatic.
Currently, rockets cost about $25,000 per kilogram to send a payload to geostationary orbit. A space elevator could deliver the same payload for $200 per kilo.
Obviously there are risks associated with a megastructure like this. If the cable breaks, portions of it would fall to Earth, and humans traveling up in the elevator would be exposed to damaging radiation in the Earth’s Van Allen belts.
Building a space elevator from Earth is at the very limits of our technology. But there are places in the Solar System which might make much more useful places to build elevators.
The Moon, for example, has a fraction of the Earth’s gravity, so an elevator could operate there using commercially available materials. Mars might be another great place for a space elevator.
Whatever happens, the idea is intriguing. And if anyone does build a space elevator, they will open up the exploration of the Solar System in ways that we can’t even imagine.
The Earth at night. What will it look like 100 years from now? Image credit: NASA-NOAA
The Earth is warming up.
Ocean temperatures are rising. Arctic sea ice is melting. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are growing. The oceans are becoming more acidic. The weather is already more extreme.
With the release of the fifth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – a panel of more than 2,500 experts, more commonly known as the IPCC – it’s clear that climate change is very real. But it’s especially clear that we are the cause. If we don’t act now by taking vigorous action to reduce emissions the results will be catastrophic.
Toward the end of this 900-page report, the IPCC looked toward our future, focusing on the climate after the year 2100. Here, Universe Today, explores two extreme scenarios for the Earth by 2100.
1.) Embracing the Challenges of Climate Change
The conclusions reached by climate scientists at the end of the 21st Century were undeniable. We embraced climate change by investing heavily in renewable energies. Both large-scale companies and individuals bought energy drawn from the sunlight, wind, and geothermal heat.
Homes across the world became more sustainable. Their total square feet shrunk, as home owners learned to live with less. It was not uncommon to dress a roof with plants or solar panels. Even the layout of homes changed. They rested partially underground, taking advantage of geothermal heat, and faced South (in the case of the Northern hemisphere) to take advantage of the warm sunlight.
We also embraced geoengineering technologies. We added artificial clouds to our atmosphere, which reflected sunlight, and built towers to collect greenhouse gas emissions. The gases are now trapped deep underground. Our goal was not only to slow the process of climate change, but to stop it, and quite possibly reverse it.
We now eat far less meat than we did in the early 21st Century to cut the emissions generated from livestock farming. Pastures have been replaced with booming forests – helping to absorb CO2. We also eat more locally.
The world followed in China’s footsteps and restricted couples to a certain number of children, reducing our overall population.
We live in small compact cities where we drive hybrid cars and take public transport to work. Carbon offsets must be purchased when taking long trips. Most families vacation in their own backyard – exploring all that nature has to offer in the nearby vicinity.
We viewed climate change as an exciting opportunity to embrace the needs of our environment. We now live much simpler lives and the census shows that our overall intelligence and happiness is much higher than it was a century ago.
2.) The Point of No Return
We simply didn’t want to face the facts. We live in a global economy with a population that has increased significantly over the last century. Most of our energy still comes from fossil fuels. We never invested in renewable energies.
We measure our happiness based on the cars we drive, the number of material possessions we can cram into our large homes, and how often we travel the globe.
The world is, on average, 9 degrees warmer. The entire arctic has melted. Ocean levels have risen by over a meter – flooding coastal communities across the world. Millions have been left homeless.
Our weather is extreme. Hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods, draughts, and earthquakes kill hundreds of thousands per year. Climate change has devastated food production and water supplies.
Air quality is much poorer across the world. Due to haze, it is perfectly safe to look at the sun directly. We can only see a third of the stars visible a century ago.
We have triggered various tipping points. The thawing of permafrost released further CO2 and methane. Large areas of the planet are becoming uninhabitable. Our efforts are working toward damage control only. We fear that it may be too late.
Climate change is still in our hands, but we have to act now.
The fifth Assessment Report by the IPCC may be found here. Emphasis in this article may be found in the long term climate change section, as well as descriptions published by the IPCC in 2000.
The path of the Juno spacecraft imaged as it flies past Earth on October 9, 2013, using the iTelescope Observatory in Nerpio, Spain. Credit and copyright: Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes and Martino Nicolini/Remanzacco Observatory.
With the government shutdown, news out of NASA is sometimes sparse. But thankfully amateur astronomers can fill in some of the holes! While Juno’s project manager Rick Nybakken has confirmed that the spacecraft successfully completed its slingshot flyby of Earth yesterday, images taken by amateur astronomers around the world also conclusively confirm that Juno is now “bang on target!” tweeted Nick Howes of the Remanzacco Observatory team. This image from Howes, Ernesto Guido and Martino Nicolini shows the path of Juno across the sky, as seen from a remote telescope in Spain. “The spacecraft is trailed in the image due to its fast speed,” the team wrote on their website, and extrapolations of Juno’s orbit shows it is heading straight for Jupiter.
You can see a gallery of images of Juno’s flyby taken by amateurs on this SpaceWeather.com page.
Meanwhile, there are some concerns about the spacecraft going into safe mode immediately after the flyby. Our previous article by Ken Kremer reported that the mission teams are assessing the situation, and that the spacecraft is “power positive.”
One idea of why the spacecraft went into safe mode is that the battery was being depleted faster than anticipated, but the team is still working to confirm the reason.
Closest approach was at 12:21 PM PST (19:21 UTC, 3:21 PM EDT).
For more information about the flyby, check out this new video from Bill Nye the Science Guy — who has a new video series called “Why With Nye.”
Pluto's solar system in a 2012 artist's conception. P4 and P5 are now called Kerberos and Styx, respectively. Credit: NASA/John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
A smash-up that created Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, likely sprayed debris four billion years ago that formed the genesis of the other moons scientists are spotting today, a new study concludes.
The find could explain why the satellites Styx, Nix, Kereberos and Hydra have orbital periods that are, respectively, just about exactly 3, 4, 5 and 6 times longer than Charon’s, scientists said.
“Any initially surviving satellites would likely be destroyed in collisions, but these shattered moons wouldn’t be lost; rather, their remains would stay in the Pluto/Charon system and become the starting point for building new satellites,” stated the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), which led the study.
Artist’s impression of New Horizons’ encounter with Pluto and Charon. Credit: NASA/Thierry Lombry
“In modeling the destruction of the satellites, the SWRI study found that there may be a method for moving them, or their building blocks, outward, due to the competing effects of Charon’s gravitational kicks and collisions among the debris of the disrupted satellites.”
Given Charon’s large size relative to Pluto (it’s a tenth of the dwarf planet’s size, compared to the Earth-Moon 81: 1 ratio), its large mass could easily perturb these smaller moons if they got close. Also, collisions between the debris could alter the orbits “to keep things away from Charon”, the scientists said.
The findings were presented yesterday (Oct. 9) at the American Astronomical Association’s division of planetary sciences meeting in Denver; information on whether the results are peer-reviewed was not immediately available.
PGC 6240, a petal-like galaxy that probably was altered by a galactic merger. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA with acknowledgement to Judy Schmidt
Across the universe, some 350 million light-years away, lies a galaxy that looks like it has white rose petals. Don’t let the tranquil appearance of PGC 6240 fool you as to its past, however. This galaxy in Hydrus (The Water Snake) likely was dramatically altered by a galactic merger.
There’s a bunch of evidence pointing to this. There are “star shells” of globular clusters around the galaxy, but they’re distributed unevenly — some are close in, some are way out in the distant suburbs. Also, “several wisps of material have been thrown so far that they appear to be almost detached from the galaxy altogether,” stated the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre.
“The most likely explanation for both the galaxy’s stacked shell structure and the unexpectedly young star clusters is that PGC 6240 merged with another galaxy at some point in the recent past,” the agency added.
“Such a merger would send ripples through the galaxy and disrupt its structure, forming the concentric shells of material seen here. It would also ignite a strong burst of star formation in the galaxy, which would then trigger similar activity in nearby space — leading to the creation of new, younger globular clusters around PGC 6240.”
Artist's conception of PSO J318.5-22. Credit: MPIA/V. Ch. Quetz
The planetary world keeps getting stranger. Scientists have found free-floating planets — drifting alone, away from stars — before. But the “newborn” PSO J318.5-22 (only 12 million years old) shows properties similar to other young planets around young stars, even though there is no star nearby the planet.
“We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone,” stated team leader Michael Liu, who is with the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”
Image from the Pan-STARRS1 telescope of the free-floating planet PSO J318.5-22, in the constellation of Capricornus. Credit: N. Metcalfe & Pan-STARRS 1 Science Consortium
The planet is about 80 light-years from Earth, which is quite close, and is part of a star group named after Beta Pictoris that also came together about 12 million years ago. There is a planet in orbit around Beta Pictoris itself, but PSO J318.5-22 has a lower mass and likely had a different formation scenario, the researchers said.
Astronomers uncovered the planet, which is six times the mass of Jupiter, while looking for brown dwarfs or “failed stars.” PSO J318.5-22’s ultra-red color stood apart from the other objects in the survey, astronomers said.
The free-floating planet was identified in the Pan-STARRS 1 wide-field survey telescope in Maui. Follow-up observations were performed with several other Hawaii-based telescopes, including the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, the Gemini North Telescope, and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.
The discovery will soon be detailed in Astrophysical Letters, but for now you can read the prepublished verison on Arxiv.
“Picture yourself in a boat on a river…” And make it a river of liquid hydrogen and helium deep within the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. You might not find a girl with kaleidoscope eyes, but you may very well find diamonds. According to new research, there may be an abundance of these precious gemstones swirling about in the skies of our solar system’s giant planets.
Recent data compiled by planetary scientists Mona L. Delitsky of California Specialty Engineering in Pasadena, California, and Kevin H. Baines of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been combined with newly published pressure temperature diagrams of Jupiter and Saturn. These diagrams, known as adiabats, allow researchers to decipher at what interior level that diamond would become stable. They also allow for calculations at lower levels – regions where both temperature and pressure are so concentrated that diamond becomes a liquid. Imagine diamond rain… or rivulets of pure gemstone.
These adiabats of Saturn and Jupiter’s interior materials have been improved through new equations. Through the use of shockwave techniques, researchers at Sandia Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have been provided with set boundaries for the various states of carbon. From these findings, you would be amazed at the chain of events at what might make diamonds occur. According to Delitsky and Baines, carbon could be generated as soot or graphite from a lightning strike. Since lightning is normal during Saturn’s many huge electrical storms, it stands to reason this elemental carbon would descend to a lower atmospheric level to be compressed into solid diamonds. It would then further descend towards the planet’s core to be eventually “pressure cooked” into a liquid state.
While the idea of diamonds at the heart of planets like Uranus and Neptune has been known for at least three decades, planetary scientists have been hesitant to include Jupiter and Saturn, concluding they were either too cool, too hot, or otherwise not suitable for the production of solid diamonds. Just as Jupiter and Saturn are much warmer at their cores, Uranus and Neptune are much too cold to sustain diamonds in a liquid state. However, thanks to the latest data, researchers are confident that deep inside Saturn there may be diamonds so large that they could be referred to as “diamondbergs”!
Is this the kind of stuff we dream of one day mining? You bet. In a book entitled “Alien Seas” (Springer 2013), Baines and Delitsky have devoted a chapter to the ringed planet entitled “The Seas of Saturn”. Here the duo elucidates on the new, accurate data and makes up a story about robotic mining missions delving deep into the interior of Saturn. Spooky robot hands reach out through the mist, gathering chunks of diamonds and ready them for return to Earth. Because of this new information, theorists Delitsky and Baines report that “diamonds are forever on Uranus and Neptune and not on Jupiter and Saturn.”
Ah, well… I’m still watching for Lucy in the sky.
This news release is based on DPS abstract #512.09 by M. L. Delitsky and K. H. Baines for their conference oral talk on Friday, 11 October 2013.
The first color reconstruction of the Moon by Adam Hurcewicz
Developing story – NASA’s Juno-bound Jupiter orbiter successfully blazed past Earth this afternoon (Oct. 9) and gained its huge and critical gravity assisted speed boost that’s absolutely essential to reach the Jovian system in 2016.
However, Juno’s project manager Rick Nybakken told me moments ago that the Juno spacecraft unexpectedly entered ‘safe mode’ during the fly by maneuver and the mission teams are assessing the situation.
But the very good news is “Juno is power positive at this time. And we have full command ability,” said Nybakken in an exclusive phone interview with me.
“After Juno passed the period of Earth flyby closest approach at 12:21 PM PST [3:21 PM EDT] and we established communications 25 minutes later, we were in safe mode,” Nybakken told me. Nybakken is the Juno mission project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA.
Furthermore, the Earth flyby did place the $1.1 Billion Juno spacecraft exactly on course for Jupiter as intended.
“We are on our way to Jupiter as planned!”
“None of this affected our trajectory or the gravity assist maneuver – which is what the Earth flyby is.”
Juno’s closest approach was over South Africa at about 500 kilometers (350 miles).
“Juno hit the target corridor within 2 km of the aim point,” Nybakken elaborated to Universe Today.
Juno needs the 16,330 mph velocity boost from the Earth swingby because the Atlas V launcher was not powerful enough to hurtle the 8000 pound (3267 kg) craft fast enough on a direct path to Jupiter.
And the team is in full radio contact with the probe. Safe mode is a designated protective state.
“Prior to the eclipse, which was a few minutes earlier than closest approach, the spacecraft was ‘nominal’. When we came out of the eclipse Juno was in safe mode,” Nybakken stated.
“We are going through safe mode diagnostics steps right now.”
“We have established full uplink and downlink. And we have full command ability of the spacecraft.”
First JunoCam image of the day! Taken at 11:07 UTC when Juno was 206,000 Kilometers from the Moon.
Speed boosting slingshots have been used on numerous planetary missions in the past
The spacecraft’s power situation and health is as good as can be expected.
“Juno is power positive at this time and sun pointed and stable. So we are very pleased about that,” Nybakken explained.
I asked if Juno had ever entered ‘safe mode’ before?
“We have never been in safe mode before. We are in a safe, stable state.”
“We are investigating this,” said Nybakken.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Today’s (Oct. 9) Earth flyby is the only time the spacecraft experiences an eclipse period during Juno’s entire five year and 1.7 Billion mile (2.8 Billion km) trek to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.
When it finally arrives at Jupiter on July 4, 2016, Juno will become the first polar orbiting spacecraft at the gas giant.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft blasted off atop an Atlas V rocket two years ago from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on Aug. 5, 2011 on a journey to discover the genesis of Jupiter hidden deep inside the planet’s interior.
Juno soars skyward to Jupiter on Aug. 5, 2011 from launch pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 12:25 p.m. EDT. View from the VAB roof. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.comThe science team had also hoped to use the on board JunoCam imager to make a cool and unprecedented movie of Earth as it approached from the sunlit side – showing the passage as though you were a visitor from outer space.
I had an inkling that something might be amiss this afternoon when no images of Earth appeared on the Juno mission website.
So I asked the status.
“We don’t know yet if any images of Earth were collected. We hope to know soon.”
Juno flew past the Moon before the gravity assist slingshot with Earth. And it did manage to successfully capture several lunar images. See the images herein.
Read more about Juno in my flyby preview story – here.
Note: Due to the continuing chaos resulting from the US government partial shutdown caused by gridlocked politico’s in Washington DC, NASA public affairs remains shut down and is issuing no official announcements on virtually anything related to NASA! This pertains to Juno’s flyby, LADEE’s lunar arrival on Oct. 6, MAVEN’s upcoming launch in November, Cygnus at the ISS, and more!
Stay tuned here for continuing Juno, LADEE, MAVEN and more up-to-date NASA news.
