From the Cat’s Eye to the Eskimo, planetary nebulae are arguably among the most dazzling objects in the Universe. These misnamed stellar remnants are created when the outer layers of a dying star blows off and expands into space. However, they can look radically different from one another, revealing complicated histories and structures.
But recently, astronomers have argued that some of the most exotic shapes are the result of not one, but two stars at the center. It is the interaction between the progenitor star and a binary companion that shapes the resulting planetary nebula.
The archetypal planetary nebula is spherical. Most planetary nebulae, however, have been shown to be non-spherical, complex structures.
“LoTr 1 is one such planetary nebula, but with a twist,” Amy Tyndall – a graduate student at the University of Manchester and lead author on the study – told Universe Today. It has not one star at its center but two. The binary central star system consists of a faint, hot white dwarf and a cool companion – a rapidly rotating giant.
LoTr 1 with a binary central star system and two slightly elongated shells, with ages of 17 and 35 thousand years. Credit: Tyndal et al.
LoTr 1 was first discovered by astronomers using the 1.2 meter telescope at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the time it seemed that LoTr 1 was similar to a particular group of 4 planetary nebulae (Abell 35, Abell 70, WeBo 1 and LoTr 5), all of which had a central binary star system.
Another common factor amongst this particular group is that in most cases the companion star seemed to be a barium star – a cool giant that shows relatively large amounts of barium. Before the planetary nebula forms, the progenitor star dredges up an excess amount of Barium on its surface. It then releases a Barium-enriched stellar wind, which falls on its companion star.
“After the stellar envelope is ejected to form the surrounding nebula, the giant star evolves into a white dwarf, while the contaminated star retains the barium from the wind as it continues to evolve to form a Barium star,” explains Tyndall.
Tyndall and her collaborates set out to see if the companion star within LoTr 1 was in fact a Barium star. They acquired data from telescopes in both Chile and Australia and compared their results to the two other elusive planetary nebulae in the group: Abell 70 and WeBo 1.
“If barium is indeed present, it would be a good step further towards our understanding of how mass is transferred between stars in a binary system, and how that subsequently affects the formation and morphology of planetary nebulae,” says Tyndall.
While the results show that LoTr 1 does consist of binary star system, the companion star is not a Barium star. But a null result is still a result. “LoTr 1 remains an interesting object to us as it shows that we still have huge gaps in our knowledge as to how these stunning objects form,” Tyndall told Universe Today.
Without the presence of Barium, it would appear at first that little mass was transferred to the companion star. However, the companion star is rotating rapidly, which is a direct consequence of mass transfer. The most plausible explanation is that the mass was transferred before the barium could be dredged up to the stellar surface.
If the stellar evolution was cut short this way then there will be detectable evidence in the properties of the white dwarf. The next step will be to take another look at this odd planetary nebula in hopes of better understanding the complexities of this system.
The paper has been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is available for download here.
Oxus Patera, a candidate supervolcano on Mars. The image was created by putting color pictures from Mars Express' High Resolution Stereo Camera on top of digital elevation data it collected. Credit: ESA/Mars Express/Freie Universitat Berlin/Google
Once-active “supervolcanoes” in northern Mars likely spewed ash and dust thousands of miles away, producing powdery deposits noticed by the NASA’s Curiosity and Opportunity rovers closer to the equator, a new study suggests.
The scientists suspect that irregularly shaped craters in Arabia Terra, which is in the northern highlands of Mars, are leftovers of huge volcanoes from eons ago. Until now, those areas weren’t pegged as volcanoes at all.
“Discovering supervolcanic structures fundamentally changes how we view ancient volcanism on Mars,” stated Joseph Michalski, a Mars researcher at the Natural History Museum in London and the Planetary Institute in Tucson, Arizona.
“Many Martian volcanoes are easily recognized from their massive shield-shaped structure, similar to what we see in Hawaii. But these are relatively youthful features on Mars, and we have always wondered where the ancient volcanoes are. It is possible that the most ancient volcanoes were much more explosive and formed structures similar to what we now see in Arabia Terra.”
As some scientists believe that the crust of Mars was thinner than it is now, this would let magma erupt to the surface before it could release gases inside the crust, the team added. The finding also has implications for predicting the ancient atmosphere and looking at habitability.
“If future work shows that supervolcanoes were present more widely on ancient Mars, it would completely change estimates of how the atmosphere formed from volcanic gases, how sediments formed from volcanic ash and how
habitable the surface might have been,” Michalski added.
Be sure to check out the full paper in Nature. Author affiliations include the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, the London Natural History Museum, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
HiRISE image of comet ISON from Mars orbit (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
It’s not much to look at, but there it is: the incoming comet ISON (aka C/2012 S1) as seen by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. An enlarged version of one of four just-released images, this represents a 256-by-256-pixel patch of sky imaged by HiRISE on Sunday, September 29. ISON is the fuzzy blob at center, 8.5 million miles (13.8 million km) away.
See all four images below:
HiRISE images of ISON on Sept. 29, 2013 (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
HiRISE researchers Alan Delamere and Alfred McEwen explained in a news release:
Based on preliminary analysis of the data, the comet appears to be at the low end of the range of brightness predictions for the observation. As a result, the image isn’t visually pleasing but low coma activity is best for constraining the size of the nucleus. This image has a scale of approximately 8 miles (13.3 km) per pixel, larger than the comet, but the size of the nucleus can be estimated based on the typical brightness of other comet nuclei. The comet, like Mars, is currently 241 million kilometers from the Sun. As the comet gets closer to the sun, its brightness will increase to Earth-based observers and the comet may also become intrinsically brighter as the stronger sunlight volatilizes the comet’s ices.
More images of ISON from HiRISE are expected as the comet came even closer to Mars, approaching within 6.7 million miles (10.8 million km), but the illumination from those angles may not be as good.
NOTE: These are preliminary single (non-stacked) images, and still contain noise and background stars – hence the fuzziness. Plus HiRISE was not really designed for sky imaging! (Thanks to HiRISE team member Kristin Block for the info.)
So even though it’s at the “low end” of brightness predictions in these HiRISE images, ISON certainly hasn’t “fizzled” like some reports claimed earlier this year (although just how bright it will get in our skies remains to be seen.)
Comet ISON will make its closest pass of the Sun (perihelion) on November 28, 2013, coming within 724,000 miles (1.16 million km) before heading back out into the Solar System… if it survives the encounter, that is. Read more about how to view ISON here and here.
Worried about ISON’s first (and possibly last) visit to the inner Solar System? Don’t be. Recent rumors of comet-caused catastrophe are greatly exaggerated… read more on David Dickinson’s article Debunking Comet ISON Conspiracy Theories (No, ISON is Not Nibiru).
Artist's conception of the Mars 2020 rover. Credit: NASA
As Day 2 of the United States government shutdown continues, some short-term effects are already in evidence when it comes to Earth and space.
Most of the NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) websites are offline. Social media updates are silent. At NASA, 97% of agency employees are off work and media reports indicate that 55% of NOAA’s employees are furloughed.
If the shutdown lasts for very long, however, long-term programs could feel the pain. This includes a couple of Mars missions NASA is developing, as well as Earth-based climate research and satellite observation from NOAA.
Mars 2020
A twin rover to Mars Curiosity, called Mars 2020 for now, is expected to leave for the Red Planet in 2020 and do investigations into past life and habitability. Planning is still in the early stages, but an announcement of opportunity for science investigators was supposed to happen on Oct. 8. Notices of intent were due Oct. 15.
“The preproposal conference, scheduled for 10/8, may be rescheduled and the due date for NOIs (currently 10/15) could be delayed, if the government is still shut down closer to those dates,” NASA officials wrote in an update before the shutdown on Monday.
MAVEN team members, including chief scientist Bruce Jakosky (2nd from left) pose with spacecraft inside the cleanroom at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 27, 2013. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
MAVEN
As widely reported yesterday, the next Mars orbiter from NASA is expected to lift off from Earth on Nov. 18. Now, however, preparatory work has ceased and there is some concern from team members that it will miss the launch window, which extends into December. At worst, this means MAVEN’s launch could be delayed until 2016, when the next opportunity opens.
“The hardware is being safed, meaning that it will be put into a known, stable, and safe state,” Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN’s principal investigator, told Universe Today‘s Ken Kremer yesterday. “We’ll turn back on when told that we can. We have some margin days built into our schedule.”
NOAA
As with NASA, NOAA is keeping up with mission-critical activities — which in their case, includes weather forecasting. Long-term climate research, however, is reportedly being shelved.
“For example, Harold Brooks, a top tornado researcher who works at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., reported his furlough notice on Facebook on Tuesday,” Climate Central wrote on Oct. 1. “Much of the staff at NOAA’s Earth Systems Research Lab and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, except for positions related to maintaining computing resources, have also been furloughed. Those two labs are heavily involved in NOAA’s climate research programs.”
A view of Hurricane Irene taken by the GOES satellite at 2:55 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on August 24, 2011. Credit: NASA
Observers are also worried that a lengthy shutdown could push back the time when new weather satellites become available. There have been multiple reports about a “weather satellite gap” coming in the United States as many of NOAA’s geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites are nearing the end of their expected lives. The Subcommittees on Oversight and Environment held hearings into this issue in September.
What’s still online?
These are some of the programs that are still happening at NASA and NOAA:
NASA’s Curiosity rover reaches out in ‘handshake’ like gesture with dramatic scenery of Mount Sharp in the background. This mosaic of images was snapped by Curiosity on Sol 262 (May 2, 2013) and shows her flexing the robotic arm. Two drill holes are visible on the surface bedrock below the robotic arm’s turret. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer-(kenkremer.com)/Marco Di Lorenzo
NASA:
Bare-bones management on programs such as the International Space Station and several robotic missions that are already in operation (such as the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE).
Certain missions are in critical phases that could be hurt if work stops, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, which is undergoing cryogenic testing on some of its instruments.
Several missions run out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Applied Physics Laboratory are still running as usual, according to the Planetary Society, as these receive contract money from NASA; this means Mars Curiosity is still working, for example.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera is still snapping pictures, its Twitter account reported, which is positive given that it was intended to snap shots of Comet ISON during its closest approach to Mars yesterday.
The decades-long Landsat Earth observation program is still operating, according to The Atlantic, with data being sent back to Earth as usual. The difference is this information won’t be packaged as usual until government operations restart.
NOAA (all information according to this Department of Commerce document):
The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research will keep 73 employees on board “to ensure continuity of crucial long-term historical climate records, and real-time regular research to support ongoing weather and air quality prediction services,” NOAA said.
184 employees will stay with the Environmental Satellite and Data Information Service for command and control of several satellites for NOAA and the Department of Defense.
474 employees will remain with the National Marine Fisheries Service. 174 are funded in another form besides appropriations. The others are a mix of law enforcement, fisheries management and property protection officials.
490 employees are with the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations for observational data collection related to weather forecasting.
173 employees are with the National Ocean Service. 17 are funded outside of appropriations, while the 156 remaining “are required to protect against imminent and significant threats to life and property by supporting safe maritime commerce in U.S. waters, including real-time water level data for ships entering U.S. ports, critical nautical chart updates, and accurate position information,” NOAA stated. Some are also monitoring marine health aspects such as algal blooms.
There are 19 IT-related employees and 20 employees providing support services.
The large bulk of employees still at work, 3,935 people, are with the National Weather Service to keep up weather forecasting.
There’s no word yet on when government employees could go back to work. Congress representatives are jousting over the implementation of a spending bill to keep the money flowing to government departments. One big issue: whether to include the Affordable Care Act, sometimes dubbed Obamacare, in the bill.
Another deadline is looming, too. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned repeatedly that on Oct. 17, if the debt ceiling is not raised, the United States government may default on some financial obligations.
Comet ISON near to its close approach to Mars, imaged together from the 2 meter Liverpool Telescope. Credit: Remanzacco Observatory/Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes, and Martino Nicolini/NSO Liverpool Telescope.
Comet ISON made its closest approach to Mars yesterday (October 1, 2013) at a distance of 10.5 million km (6.5 million miles). While we await to find out if attempts to image the comet by spacecraft on the surface (update: those images are in — see them here) and in orbit of Mars were successful, astronomers from Earth were able to capture the two planetary bodies together.
You can see the two planetary bodies together in one image below from Ari Koutsouradis in Maryland, but the Remanzacco Observatory team obtained images of Comet ISON as it passed by Mars using the 2 meter Liverpool Telescope. This main image above consists of a stack of 20 exposures, 11 seconds each.
Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes and new team member Martino Nicolini produced this image, showing a “well developed coma and tail measuring at least 3 arc minutes,” the trio wrote on their website.
This image of Mars (lower right) and Comet ISON (upper left) was taken about 5:00 AM EDT in Westminster Maryland using a Nikon D5000 and a Stellarvue 80ED telescope. It’s composed of 44 30-second exposures at ISO1600, stacked using DeepSkyStacker. Credit and copyright: Ari Koutsouradis.
This image, directly above, taken early this morning by Ari Koutsouradis in Maryland, shows both Mars and the comet in one image, although it highlights the relative distance between the two. Koutsouradis said via Flickr that the comet was not visible with an eyepiece on the scope, but the image stack did manage to bring it out.
During the observations by the Remanzacco team, they wanted to look to see if they could discern additional jet structures on the comet, which had been reported by other observers. Howes told Universe Today, however, the are still looking at their observations to analyze this.
“There was some debate as to the existence of additional jet structures on the comet,” Howes said via email. “Our data analysis seems to show that some reports of this were possibly spurious, however, our one process does seem to show a possible small jet, which a 2m class instrument would be able to detect. Our analysis is undergoing additional review and peer checking with our collaborators in the USA. The scientific analysis of this comet and its inner coma is ongoing, and being monitored closely.”
Update: Later in the day on October 2nd, The Remanzacco team obtained analysis from their U.S collaboration partners. Using their data from the 2m Liverpool telescope, and after processing by Dr. Nalin Samarasinha of the Planetary Science Institute, they have conclusively confirmed a sunward facing feature on Comet ISON. A dust feature was detected by Nalin and Howes’ team in previous ISON observations —see one of our previous articles for more details — though they are not sure if this and the new jet feature are connected.
Using Samarasinha’s own modeling and processing algorithms, the PSI team validated the processing performed by the Remanzacco team which showed a small, but discernible forward-facing feature on the comet. Dr. Samarasinha, a world leading cometary scientist, believes this to be a real feature and not the result of processing artifacts, given the very good signal-to-noise of the data.
“As we said earlier, we suspected one of the processing routines we used showed a real feature, but wanted to be 100% sure with a peer review and further analysis,” said Guido, “and the PSI team has independently shown this.
Here is Dr. Samarasinha’s image processing, using his own division by azimuthal average process to the left, and the Remanzacco team’s MCM (median coma model) process image to the right. The pixel scale is 0.3″/pixel:
Additional analysis and processing shows a forward, Sun-facing feature on Comet ISON. Credit: Dr. Nalin Samarasinha of the Planetary Science Institute.
Howes added that their team will continue to monitor ISON as it approaches perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on November 28.
“Our team has an ongoing programme of observations with a range of telescopes around the world,” he said, “including the iTelescope Network, the LT on La Palma and also with schools on the Faulkes Telescope, in support of two U.S observatory teams. The LT and iTelescope network is currently well placed to take these early observations as the comet approaches perihelion.”
If the comet survives its close pass by the Sun, it will pass closest to Earth on December 26, about 64 million km (40 million miles) away.
Meanwhile, even though NASA had to curtail many of its activities due to the government shutdown, many missions such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity were still up and running because they are run out of the Jet Propulsion Lab, which runs as a contractor to NASA, and are not government facilities. (JPL is privately run by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the Applied Physics Lab, which operates the MESSENGER and New Horizons missions, is run by Johns Hopkins University, also a contractor to NASA. They’ll be able to operate as long as the money they have received from NASA previously holds out. (So, keep your fingers crossed for a short government shutdown.)
Therefore, imaging attempts by MRO and MSL of Comet ISON from Mars went ahead as scheduled, and we should be hearing how those attempts fared as soon as the images can be received back on Earth and processed. The word from the HiRISE camera team via Twitter is that they were able to image the comet. Stay tuned!
Three different views of Comet ISON’s inner coma. Credit: Remanzacco Observatory/Ernest Guido, Nick Howes and Martino Nicolini.
Here’s an enlargement of additional observations by the Remanzacco team, showing the inner coma of Comet ISON. Their explanation:
In the image (above) you can see 3 different elaborations of the ISON inner coma. The first panel on the left is a Larson-Sekanina filter. In the middle panel elaboration with the MCM filter creates an artificial coma, based on the photometry of the original image, and subtract the original image itself in order to highlight the internal zones of different brightness that are very close to the inner core and that would normally be hidden from the diffuse glow of the comet. While the last panel on the right is the elaboration with filter RWM – 1/r theoretical coma subtraction.
A view of the world's largest solar sail, Sunjammer. Credit: sunjammermission.com
We’re sure the people in that picture above must have had sweaty hands as they unfurled a huge solar sail in front of the camera. What you’re seeing there is a crucial ground test in which a quarter of Sunjammer — the largest solar sail ever expected to fly — was unfurled under Earth gravity conditions Monday (Sept. 30).
Sunjammer is expected to launch in January 2015, a slight delay from an earlier projection of November 2014. This test took place under even tougher conditions than the sail will face in space, as there will be no atmosphere and it will be operating in microgravity, officials said.
According to the team (which included prime contractor L’Garde Inc., NASA and Space Services Inc.), everything went well.
Sunjammer team members stand behind their solar sail. Credit: sunjammermission.com
“If this test succeeded under these stressing conditions, we certainly anticipate it will work exceedingly well in space,” stated Nathan Barnes, L’Garde president.
Solar sails could one day be an alternative to conventional propellant-based spacecraft, providing that the spacecraft roam close enough to the sun to receive photonic pressure to do their maneuvers. There have been decades of development on the ground, but the first solar sail test took place in 2010 when Japan unfurled its IKAROS solar sail successfully.
At around 10 p.m. last night, the northern sky was alive with colorful auroral patches and arcs. Details: 15mm lens at f/2.8, ISO 800 and 25 second exposure. Credit: Bob King
I’m writing this at 1:30 a.m. running on what’s powering the sky over northern Minnesota right now – auroral energy. Even at this hour, rays are still sprouting in the southern sky and the entire north is milky blue-white with aurora borealis. Frankly, it’s almost impossible to resist going out again for another look.
Now updated with additional images.
An erupting filament and sharp, southward dip in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) was responsible for last night’s northern lights show. This image was taken with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory’s sun-blocking coronagraph on Sept. 30. Credit: NASA/ESA
The arrival of a powerful solar wind in excess of 375 miles per second (600 km/second) from a coronal mass ejection shocked the Earth’s magnetic sheath last night beginning around 9 p.m. CDT. The sun’s magnetic field, embedded in the wind, pointed sharply southward, allowing eager electrons and protons to worm their way past our magnetic defenses and excite the atoms in the upper atmosphere to glow. Voila! Northern lights.
A classic quiet start to Tuesday night’s northern lights – a low green arc below the Big Dipper topped by a very faint red border. Credit: Bob King
Sure, it started innocently enough. A little glow low in the northern sky. But within half an hour the aurora had intensified into a dense bar of light so and green and bright it cast shadows. This bar or swath grew and grew like some atomic amoeba until it swelled beyond the zenith into the southern sky. Meanwhile, an isolated patch of aurora glowed like an green ember beneath the Pleiades in the northeastern sky. The camera captured its eerie appearance as well as spectacular curtains of red aurora dancing above the dipper-shaped cluster.
A single patch of aurora glows beneath the Pleiades star cluster at center. Beautiful red rays as seen in the time exposure were only faintly visible with the naked eye. Credit: Bob King
Soft patches, oval glows and multiple arcs lit up the north, east and west, but in the first two hours of the display I never saw a ray or feature with any definition. The camera recorded a few but all was diffuse and pillowy to the eye. Rays finally made their appearance later – after midnight and later – when they massed and surged to the zenith and beyond.
Looks a little scary. A thick wall of green aurora surges upward in the northern sky headed for the zenith. Credit: Bob King
Then came the flickering, flame-like patches and snaky shapes writhing lifelike across the constellation Pegasus during the phase called the coronal aurora. That’s when all the curtains and rays gather around the local magnetic zenith. As they flicker and flame, their shapes transform into eagle wings and snakes wriggling across the stars.
A large comet-like auroral form accented with red rays took up residence in the southeastern sky in Cetus from about 10:15 until 11 p.m. last night. around 10:30 p.m. Credit: Bob King
Funny, the space weather forecast called for quiet conditions last night and for the next two nights. But the eruption of a large filament, a tubelike region of dense hydrogen gas held aloft in the sun’s atmosphere by magnetic fields, sent a bundle of subatomic joy in Earth’s direction a bit earlier than expected. More auroras are possible tonight and tomorrow night as the effect of the shock wave continues. Despite the U.S. government shutdown, the Space Weather Prediction Center remains open.
There are so many ways to appreciate the aurora but my favorite is simply to stand there dumbfounded and try to take it all in. Few phenomena in nature are more deeply moving.
Opposite Cetus in the Aquila Milky Way, a huge ghostly patch resembling breath on a mirror lingered for some 20 minutes before fading away. Credit: Bob KingThis comet-like wisp next to Alpha Andromeda east of the Square of Pegasus appeared to flutter in the wind as it constantly dimmed, brightened and shape-shifted. Click photo to learn more about when to expect the next auroral display. Credit: Bob KingFinally – a mighty show of rays around 3 a.m. this morning. What you don’t see in the photo are the rhythmic pulsations fluttering through the entire display, a phenomenon known as “flaming”. Credit: Bob King
Magnetic and auroral activity indicators shot up to high levels last night and this morning. Left image from the POES satellite shows the extent of the auroral oval shortly after midnight CDT. At right, the Kp index shot up to 6 – a G2 or moderate geomagnetic storm – by the early morning. Click to see the current oval. Credit: NOAA
UPDATE: Other astrophotographers in the US also were able to capture some aurora images. John Chumack, whose images we frequently feature here on UT got this shot early on the morning of October 2:
Aurora Borealis, ‘The Northern Lights, as seen near Dayton, Ohio on October 2, 2013. Credit and copyright: John Chumack/Galactic Images.
And Alan Dyer in Canada got this amazing “fiery” shot:
A red and green aurora, from southern Alberta, Canada on Oct 1, 2013. Credit and copyright: Alan Dyer/Amazing Sky Photography.
This timelapse from Arthur, Ontario was shot on Oct. 2 as well:
The upcoming Nov. 18 blastoff of NASA’s new MAVEN Mars orbiter is threatened by the today’s US Federal Government shutdown. Launch processing work has now ceased! Spacecraft preps had been in full swing when MAVEN was unveiled to the media, including Universe Today, inside the cleanroom at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 27, 2013. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
The upcoming Nov. 18 blastoff of NASA’s new MAVEN Mars orbiter is threatened by today’s US Federal Government shutdown. Launch processing work has now ceased! Spacecraft preps had been in full swing when MAVEN was unveiled to the media, including Universe Today, inside the clean room at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 27, 2013. With solar panels unfurled, this is exactly how MAVEN looks when flying through interplanetary space and orbiting Mars.
Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com[/caption]
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The upcoming Nov. 18 blastoff of NASA’s next mission to Mars – the “breathtakingly beautiful” MAVEN orbiter – is threatened by today’s (Oct. 1) shutdown of the US Federal Government. And the team is very “concerned”, although not yet “panicked.”
MAVEN’s on time launch is endangered by the endless political infighting in Washington DC. And the bitter gridlock could cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars or more on this mission alone!
Why? Because launch preparations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) have ceased today when workers were ordered to stay home, said the missions top scientist in an exclusive to Universe Today.
“MAVEN is shut down right now!” Prof. Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN’s principal Investigator, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, told Universe Today in an exclusive post shutdown update today.
“Which means that civil servants and work at government facilities [including KSC] have been undergoing an orderly shutdown,” Jakosky told me.
The nominal interplanetary launch window for NASA’s $650 Million MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission) mission to study the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere only extends about three weeks until Dec. 7.
If MAVEN misses the window of opportunity this year, liftoff atop the Atlas V rocket would have to be postponed until early 2016 because the Earth and Mars only align favorably for launches every 26 months.
Any launch delay could potentially add upwards of tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in unbudgeted costs to maintain the spacecraft and rocket – and that’s money that NASA absolutely does not have in these fiscally austere times.
MAVEN spacecraft preps for Nov. 18 launch to Mars were on schedule when it was unveiled to the media inside the clean room at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 27, 2013. The Oct. 1 US Government shutdown has stopped all work. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
MAVEN and much of NASA are not considered “essential” – despite having responsibility for hundreds of ongoing mission operations costing tens of billions of dollars that benefit society here on Earth. So about 97% of NASA employees were furloughed today.
What’s happening with the spacecraft right now?
“The hardware is being safed, meaning that it will be put into a known, stable, and safe state,” Jakosky elaborated.
Team members say there are about nine days of margin built into the processing schedule, which still includes fueling the spacecraft.
“We’ll turn back on when told that we can. We have some margin days built into our schedule,” Jakosky told me.
“We’re just inside of 7 weeks to launch, and every day is precious, so we’re certainly as anxious as possible to get back to work as quickly as possible.
And he said the team will do whatever necessary, including overtime, to launch MAVEN to the Red Planet by Dec. 7.
“The team is committed to getting to the launch pad at this opportunity, and is willing to work double shifts and seven days a week if necessary. That plus the existing margin gives us some flexibility. “
“That’s why I’m concerned but not yet panicked at this point.”
But a lengthy delay would by problematical.
“If we’re shut down for a week or more, the situation gets much more serious,” Jakosky stated.
Until today, all of the spacecraft and launch preparations had been in full swing and on target – since it arrived on Aug. 2 after a cross country flight from the Colorado assembly facility of prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
Indeed it was all smiles and thumbs up when I was privileged to personally inspect MAVEN inside the clean room at KSC a few days ago on Friday, Sept 27 during a media photo opportunity day held for fellow journalists.
Until now, “MAVEN was on schedule and under budget” said Jakosky in an interview as we stood a few feet from the nearly fully assembled spacecraft.
See my MAVEN clean room photos herein.
NASA’s MAVEN Mars orbiter, chief scientist Prof. Bruce Jakosky of CU-Boulder and Ken Kremer of Universe Today inside the clean room at the Kennedy Space Center on sept 27, 2013. MAVEN was due to launch to Mars on Nov. 18, 2013 from Florida – before the Oct. 1 government shutdown derailed plans. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
And in an ultra rare viewing opportunity, the solar panels were fully unfurled.
“The solar panels look exactly as they will be when MAVEN is flying in space and around Mars.”
“To be here with MAVEN is breathtaking,” Jakosky told me. “
“Its laid out in a way that was spectacular to see!”
Magnetometer science instrument juts out from MAVEN solar panel during launch processing inside the clean room at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
If absolutely necessary it might be possible to extend the launch window a little bit beyond Dec. 7, but its uncertain and would require precise new calculations of fuel margins.
“The nominal 20-day launch period doesn’t take into account the fact that our actual mass is less than the maximum allowable mass,” Jakosky explained.
“The last day we can launch has some uncertainty, because it also requires enough fuel to get into orbit before our mission would begin to be degraded.”
MAVEN team members, including chief scientist Bruce Jakosky (2nd from left) pose with spacecraft inside the clean room at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 27, 2013. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
It sure was breathtaking for me and all the media to stand beside America’s next Mission to Mars. And to contemplate it’s never before attempted science purpose.
“MAVENS’s goal is determining the composition of the ancient Martian atmosphere and when it was lost, where did all the water go and how and when was it lost,” said Jakosky.
That’s the key to understanding when and for how long Mars was much more Earth-like compared to today’s desiccated Red Planet.
Following a 10 month interplanetary voyage, MAVEN would fire thrusters and brake into Mars orbit in September 2014, joining NASA’s Red Planet armada comprising Curiosity, Opportunity, Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Lets all hope and pray for a short government shutdown – but the outlook is not promising at this time.
Learn more about MAVEN, Curiosity, Mars rovers, Cygnus, Antares, SpaceX, Orion, LADEE, the Govt shutdown and more at Ken’s upcoming presentations
Oct 3: “Curiosity, MAVEN and the Search for Life on Mars – (3-D)”, STAR Astronomy Club, Brookdale Community College & Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ, 8 PM
Oct 8: NASA’s Historic LADEE Lunar & Antares/Cygnus ISS Rocket Launches from Virginia”; Princeton University, Amateur Astronomers Assoc of Princeton (AAAP), Princeton, NJ, 8 PM
Up for a challenge? Got a big 12” light bucket of a Dobsonian telescope and looking for something new to point it at? This week, as the Moon reaches New phase on October 4th and stays safely out of the late evening sky, why not check out Uranus and its retinue of moons. And yes, we’ve heard just about ALL the Uranus jokes —its pronouncedyer-in-us, thank you very much — but feel free to attempt to pen an original if you must.
Now, back to astronomy. Uranus reaches opposition for 2013 on Thursday, October 3rd at 14:00 Universal Time. Opposition is the point in time that an outer planet rises as the Sun sets. In the case of Uranus, its opposition dates advance forward by about 4-5 days each year.
The current location of Uranus in Pisces. Created by the author using Stellarium. (click to enlarge).
This also marks the start of the best time to hunt for the planet among the star fields of the constellation Pisces. Uranus will reach its maximum elevation above the southern horizon for northern hemisphere viewers for early October around local midnight. For observers south of the equator, Uranus will transit to the north. Incidentally, Uranus also currently sits near the equinoctial point occupied by the Sun during the March equinox, making viewing opportunities nearly equal for both hemispheres.
Uranus is 19.04 astronomical units distant during opposition 2013, or about 158 light minutes away. Shining at magnitude +5.8, Uranus presents a tiny blue-green disk just under 4” across at opposition.
Uranus currently lies six degrees SW of the +4.4 magnitude star Delta Piscium, on the border of the constellations Pisces and Cetus. Uranus will actually be crossing once again into the non-zodiacal constellation of Cetus later this year.
Discovered in 1781 by Sir William Herschel, Uranus has only completed 2 full orbits (2.75 to be precise) in its 84.3 year trips about the Sun. We can be thankful that William’s proposal to name the planet Geogium Sidus after his benefactor King George the III didn’t stick!
The path of Uranus into Cetus. Created by the author using Starry Night Education software.
At opposition, Uranus will be located at;
Right Ascension: 0h 40’
Declination: +3° 25’
Five of the 27 known moons of Uranus are also within the grasp of a moderate-sized backyard scope as well. The trick is to catch ‘em near greatest elongation, when they appear farthest from the “glare of Uranus” (hey, there’s a freebie for a snicker or two). An eyepiece equipped with an occulting bar, or simply nudging Uranus out of the field of view can also help.
With magnitudes ranging from +13 to +16, the moons of Uranus are similar in brightness to Neptune’s large moon Triton or the tiny world Pluto.
The five brightest moons of Uranus and their respective maximum elongations are:
Chart constructed by author.
And here’s a handy finder chart for the coming month, showing maximum elongations for each:
A corkscrew graph featuring the greatest elongations for the five brightest moons of Uranus through October. (Created by Ed Kotapish using PDS Rings Node).
The first two moons were named Titania and Oberon by William’s son John after characters from William Shakespeare’s A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. William discovered the first two moons of Uranus on the night of January 11th, 1787 using his 49.5” reflector. His scopes were so advanced for his day, that it wasn’t until over a half a century later that William Lassell discovered Umbriel and Ariel using the Liverpool Observatory’s 24” reflector in 1851.
Gerard Kuiper would later add tiny Miranda to the list, nabbing it with the McDonald Observatory’s 82” Otto Struve Telescope in 1948. We would then have to wait until Voyager 2’s 1986 flyby of Uranus in 1986 to add more. To date, Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune.
The current convention established by the International Astronomical Union is to name the moons of Uranus after characters from the plays of Shakespeare or Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock.
There’s still a wide range of names in said literature to choose from!
It’s interesting to note that the orbits of the moons of Uranus are also currently tipped open about 25 degrees to our line of sight and widening. They were edge on in December 2007, and will be perpendicular to our Earthly view come 2029, after which they’ll head back to edge on in 2049. This is because Uranus and the orbits of its moons are tipped at a 97 degree angle relative to the planet’s orbit. This is why elongations for its moons are often quoted it terms of “north and south” of the planet, rather than the familiar east and west. Shadow transits of the moons can occur with about a year and a half during plane-crossing seasons, but they’re ~42 years apart and tough to spot on the tiny disk of Uranus!
An example of the orientation of Uranus’s moons on October 4th, with Oberon at greatest elongation. Note that Miranda is the tiny unlabeled moon with the interior orbit. (Created by the author using Starry Night Education software).
Uranus also reached aphelion in 2009 at 20.099 AU from the Sun —we’re still at the farther end of the spectrum, as oppositions of Uranus can range from 19.09 to 17.28 AU distant.
Uranus will rise earlier on each successive evening until it reaches quadrature at the end of the year on December 30th. At this point, it’ll be roughly due south at local sunset. Keep in mind, there’s also another ice giant worth hunting for in the adjacent constellation of Aquarius named Neptune.
So ignore those bad puns, and be sure to take out that 10” (scope, that is) and point it at Uranus!
A quasar resides in the hub of the nearby galaxy NGC 4438. Credit: NASA/ESA, Jeffrey Kenney (Yale University), Elizabeth Yale (Yale University)
50 million light-years away a quasar resides in the hub of galaxy NGC 4438, an incredibly bright source of light and radiation that’s the result of a supermassive black hole actively feeding on nearby gas and dust (and pretty much anything else that ventures too closely.) Shining with the energy of 1,000 Milky Ways, this quasar — and others like it — are the brightest objects in the visible Universe… so bright, in fact, that they are used as beacons for interplanetary navigation by various exploration spacecraft.
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”
Deep-space missions require precise navigation, especially when approaching bodies such as Mars, Venus, or comets. It’s often necessary to pinpoint a spacecraft traveling 100 million km from Earth to within just 1 km. To achieve this level of accuracy, experts use quasars – the most luminous objects known in the Universe – as beacons in a technique known as Delta-Differential One-Way Ranging, or delta-DOR.
How delta-DOR works (ESA)
Delta-DOR uses two antennas in distant locations on Earth (such as Goldstone in California and Canberra in Australia) to simultaneously track a transmitting spacecraft in order to measure the time difference (delay) between signals arriving at the two stations.
Unfortunately the delay can be affected by several sources of error, such as the radio waves traveling through the troposphere, ionosphere, and solar plasma, as well as clock instabilities at the ground stations.
Delta-DOR corrects these errors by tracking a quasar that is located near the spacecraft for calibration — usually within ten degrees. The chosen quasar’s direction is already known extremely well through astronomical measurements, typically to closer than 50 billionths of a degree (one nanoradian, or 0.208533 milliarcsecond). The delay time of the quasar is subtracted from that of the spacecraft’s, providing the delta-DOR measurement and allowing for amazingly high-precision navigation across long distances.
“Quasar locations define a reference system. They enable engineers to improve the precision of the measurements taken by ground stations and improve the accuracy of the direction to the spacecraft to an order of a millionth of a degree.”
– Frank Budnik, ESA flight dynamics expert
So even though the quasar in NGC 4438 is located 50 million light-years from Earth, it can help engineers position a spacecraft located 100 million kilometers away to an accuracy of several hundred meters. Now that’s a star to steer her by!
