Universe Today

September 6, 2013December 23, 2015 by Evan Gough

Giveaway: The Shirtsleeve Invention by Gloria Beasley Lauston

I love all things space related. I’m excited by the jaw-dropping images from the Hubble, awed by the Kepler spacecraft’s discoveries, and to be honest, almost moved to tears by the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory. As a boy, the Space Shuttle program seemed like science fiction come to life. Behind these peak moments in discovery, there are a lot of people doing a lot of hard work, dedicating their whole lives to solving one problem. One such person is Robert Beasley, the man behind the Thermal Protection tiles used on the Space Shuttle. Robert Beasley was an American chemist who invented and developed the Thermal Protection system for the Space Shuttles which allowed them to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere without burning up.

Universe Today and Bohlsen Group are teaming up to give away 2 free copies of The Shirtsleeve Invention by Gloria Beasley Lausten. Here’s how:

In order to be entered into the giveaway drawing, just put your email address into the box at the bottom of this post (where it says “Enter the Giveaway”) before Friday, September 13, 2013. We’ll send you a confirmation email, so you’ll need to click that to be entered into the drawing.

The Shirtsleeve Invention is the story of Beasley and his idea. The book is a very detailed history of Beasley’s life and career; sometimes a little too detailed. The Shirtsleeve Invention is written by his widow, Gloria Beasley Lausten, who is not a professional writer. At times it is a deeply personal account of her husband. It contains the kind of detail that only a spouse would know, so along with being an account of Beasley’s career, and how his drive and determination helped lead to the development of the Space Shuttle, it also contains lots of detail about his personal life and struggles through childhood, college, and adult life. The book is so personal and full of insight, it’s quite touching at times.

Interviewed after the initial successful flight and re-entry of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981, when Beasley’s ceramic tile system did its job and protected Columbia from the 2400 degree heat of re-entry, Bob said to a reporter, “That’s the end of so many years of heartache you can’t imagine. All the heartaches, all the stress, it was worth it.”

The meat of The Shirtsleeve Invention is the account of his idea for the Space Shuttles, and how the idea grew. How he struggled to convince others that his idea was a sound one. It wasn’t always easy, but like things sometimes turn out, his idea proved to be the key for the development of the Space Shuttle and the things that followed. Without the Shuttle Program, there would be no International Space Station and no Hubble Space Telescope. Without Beasley and his creativity and perseverance, who knows where the state of space exploration would be?

This book is a little miscast as a science book. There’s science in there, but for me the book bogged down a little with too much detail about his personal life. There are lots of letters back and forth between him and his relatives and future wife detailing his struggles in school and early working life. The book is realistic; no doubt about that. Without Robert Beasley, and countless others like him, where would the state of human knowledge be? He’s certainly deserving of recognition.

I enjoyed the book, but I found myself skimming over some of the more detailed parts of his private life. Universe Today readers may have a similar experience reading it. But for those of you specifically interested in the lives of people behind the science of space exploration, The Shirtsleeve Invention is for you.

If you don’t want to wait for the win, you can buy a copy on Amazon.com

September 6, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Ride Along With SpaceShipTwo: Tail Footage Video of Latest Test Flight

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo soars in a powered flight test on Sept. 5, 2013. Credit: MarsScientific.com and Clay Center Observatory

Yesterday, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo successfully completed its second supersonic rocket-powered test flight. In our previous article, we were able to share a video view of the flight — as seen from the ground. But now Virgin Galactic has shared the flight footage from a camera mounted on the tail of the ship, allowing us all to ride along and see the views. I’m hoping for they’ll eventually show a cabin view video so that we can see what the ride inside will be like.

The ship went to 69,000 feet (21 km, 13 miles) but you can still see the blackness of space and the curvature of Earth in the video.

Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson said yesterday that commercial flights with passengers should begin in 2014 … which is next year, meaning that perhaps space flight for the rest of us is not always 5-10 years off anymore.

September 6, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Sunspot Flyover

A detailed image of the Sun's photosphere taken near Paris, France, with an added detail: at 747 airplane. Credit and copyright: Sebastien Lebrigand.

Watch out! That plane is heading straight for a sunspot! Astrophotographer Sebastien Lebrigand was taking some detailed images of the Sun and when something zoomed into his field of view, a 737 airplane. He was about 70 km outside of Paris France when he took this image, using a CANON EOS 500D camera and a 114 mm refractor telescope with a 1200mm focal length. Exposure: 1 / 3200s in 100 iso. The image was taken on September 5, 2013.

Nice catch!

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.

September 6, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

This Black Stain On Mars Could Be Volcanic Leftovers

The dark material in Becquerel crater on Mars might have come from a volcanic eruption. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

At first glance, it looks like somebody dropped a huge paint can on Mars, spilling black stuff all over Becquerel crater. That dark material, however, is likely blown from another location on the Red Planet. It could even be volcanic eruption remnants, the European Space Agency says.

A set of stunning new images of the spot in the Arabia Terra region — which straddles the so-called “transition zone” between the north and south regions of the planet — reveal a combination of probable effects from wind, water and perhaps even the tilt of the axis of Mars. These pictures came courtesy of ESA’s Mars Express, which is orbiting the planet.

The crater — named after French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel, a co-discoverer of radioactivity — is 103 miles (167 kilometers) in diameter and sinks 2.2 miles (3.5 km) below the rest of the area. This depression might have held water at some point.

“The mound rises about 1 km [0.62 miles] above the crater floor and comprises hundreds of layers of light-toned sediments, each just a few metres thick, made of sulphate-bearing rocks,” ESA stated. “On Earth, sulphates are most often formed via the evaporation of water, so the presence of these minerals in Becquerel crater suggests that water may once have pooled here in a vast crater lake, before evaporating away.”

This view of Becquerel Crater on Mars shows the effects of wind on the Red Planet. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

The mystery of Mars’ missing water is one that is still puzzling scientists — NASA’s Spirit, Curiosity and Opportunity rovers all found rocks that likely formed in the presence of water, and several spacecraft have spotted features that appear to be similar to riverbeds or perhaps even oceans.

“One popular theory is that large changes in the tilt of the rotational axis of Mars leads to significant changes in its climate, reflected in the thickness and repeating patterns found in the layers of sediment,” ESA added. “A change in the environmental conditions would affect the way in which the sediments were initially deposited, as well as their subsequent resistance to erosion.”

Speaking of sediments, the image above shows the dark material extending far beyond the crater walls, a sign of powerful winds on the Red Planet. Now who’s tempted to go down there with a shovel to see what’s underneath?

As a point of trivia, another spot in Arabia Terra (Vernal Crater) was once considered a possible landing site for Mars Curiosity because scientists found evidence of ancient hot springs on the Red Planet. On Earth, these locations are usually filled with bacterial life.

The topography of Becquerel crater on Mars. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

September 6, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Um, Being an Astronaut or Cosmonaut Isn’t Interesting?

In an unusual news item from Russia’s RiaNovosti news, cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, who was scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in 2015, has resigned for undisclosed reasons. But one of the heads the Russian Space Corporation Energia, former cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, was quoted by Russian media as saying that Lonchakov had “found a more interesting job.”

The type of new job was not disclosed, but it has to be pretty good to beat flying in space … at least in our opinion.

It’s not that astronauts and cosmonauts haven’t ever quit or retired, but usually they don’t quit when they have a space flight scheduled. Lonchakov was set to fly to the ISS as the commander of Expedition 44 in May 2015 along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly; the latter two are going to be part of an experimental one-year mission on the ISS.

Lonchakov has flown in space three times: on space shuttle Endeavour in 2001 on a construction mission to the ISS, helping to deliver the Canadarm2 Arm, then was part of the Soyuz flight to the ISS in 2002, staying just ten days, and then was part of Expedition 18 to the International Space Station in 2008-2009.

RiaNovosti said Lonchakov will be formally discharged from his job on September 14.

Hat tip: Jeff Foust

September 5, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Elon Musk Creates Rocket Parts With the Wave of a Hand

SpaceX SuperDraco inconel rocket chamber w regen cooling jacket emerges from EOS 3D metal printer. Via Elon Musk on Twitter.

We knew SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was powerful, but now he’s gone all Ironman on us. Last week on Twitter he posted a teaser, saying, “Will post video of designing a rocket part with hand gestures & immediately printing in titanium.”

And now, here it is.

“I believe we’re on the verge of a major breakthrough in design and manufacturing,” says Musk in the video, “in being able to take a concept of something from your mind and translate into a 3-D object intuitively on the computer, then make that virtual 3-D object real just by printing it. It’s going to revolutionize manufacturing and design in the 21st century.”

See a montage of images of a SuperDraco rocket part made of Inconel-X, an austenitic nickel-chromium-based superalloy, emerge from a 3-D printer:

Musk and his design team have been working on using natural gesture-based interaction with a computer-aided design program called Leap Motion, allowing designers to work quickly to create parts, and then equally as quick, use 3-D printing in a metal superalloy to create the part.

Very cool.

September 5, 2013December 23, 2015 by Katrina Cain

Giveaway: Star Walk: the Stargazing App for the iPad

Once again, we are giving away 10 promo copies of Star Walk by Vito Technology. Whereas we provided 10 free copies for the iPhone, this contest is for 10 free copies for your iPad. What a great teaching tool this app can be: as parents, many of us are looking for interesting and educational activities to do with their kids. What better way to support family learning than by looking at high resolution, beautiful images of the night sky while learning the properties of various celestial objects? Vito Technologies have recently launched Dino Walk and Geo Walk. Look for a promotion in the coming weeks for their other app, Solar Walk.

More information can be found on Vito’s website.

From the developer:

Let’s find out more about our neighbouring planets in the Universe, play around with them determining the speed of circulation, time, choosing a particular planet to become the centre of the Universe, seeing the moons of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Uranus. The 3D model in the Solar Walk app is the scaled reproduction of the real Solar System and the Milky Way galaxy.

Improved high resolution interface and textures of planets make the exploration of the Solar System breathtaking and true to life. Each planet is portrayed in detail including the internal structure.

Here is how you enter to win a free copy of Star Walk for the iPad:

In order to be entered into the giveaway drawing, just put your email address into the box at the bottom of this post (where it says “Enter the Giveaway”) before Thursday, September 12, 2013. We’ll send you a confirmation email, so you’ll need to click that to be entered into the drawing.

September 5, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

SpaceShipTwo Feathers Wings During Second Powered Test Flight

Is that the smell of rocket fuel in the air, or customer excitement?

The reported 600+ customers waiting in line for a trip to space aboard SpaceShipTwo (nickname: Enterprise) surely must have been excited when the suborbital spaceship successfully sailed through another powered flight test today (Thursday).

“SS2 has successfully completed another supersonic rocket-powered test flight! Hit our planned duration, altitude, and speed,” Virgin Galactic wrote on Twitter.

Watch the video of the flight below:

SpaceShipTwo also tested a “feathering” system that it has on board to assist with controlled re-entry. It allows the entire tail of the spaceship to rotate up to about 65 degrees, which Virgin says allows fine control of the attitude as the spacecraft comes back to Earth. “The feather configuration is also highly stable, effectively giving the pilot a hands-free re-entry capability, something that has not been possible on spacecraft before,” Virgin said of the system on its website.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, aboard WhiteKnightTwo, takes off during a flight test Sept. 5, 2013. Credit: Virgin Galactic (Twitter) — Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, aboard WhiteKnightTwo, takes off during a flight test Sept. 5, 2013. Credit: Virgin Galactic (Twitter)

The test, which started at about 8 a.m. Mojave time, saw the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft take off from the Mojave Air and Space Port carrying SpaceShipTwo underneath. At 46,000 feet, pilots Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols released their spacecraft from the carrier and turned on the rocket motor for a 20-second burn. They climbed as high as 69,000 feet at a maximum speed of Mach 1.43, or 1.43 times the speed of sound.

“The main progress with this test is that we deployed the full expansion (up and down) of the feather mechanism at a high altitude, alongside testing the rocket motor performance,” wrote Virgin founder Richard Branson on his blog. “This feather mechanism was the key innovation that enabled us to get into the space program in the first place. It acts like a giant shuttlecock and slows the spaceship up as it comes back into the earth’s atmosphere.”

Branson also described Thursday’s test — the second powered flight for SpaceShipTwo, which did its first in April — as “the highest commercial winged vehicle [flight] in history.”

Reports say Branson and some members of his family will be on the first test flight. Should that go to plan, there is a parade of celebrities and ordinary citizens to come. Read more about SpaceShipTwo’s expected flight profile here.

September 5, 2013December 23, 2015 by Jason Major

Supermassive Black Holes Keep Galaxies From Getting Bigger

Radio telescope image of the galaxy 4C12.50, nearly 1.5 billion light-years from Earth. Inset shows detail of location at end of superfast jet of particles, where a massive gas cloud (yellow-orange) is being pushed by the jet. (Credit: Morganti et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF)

It’s long been a mystery for astronomers: why aren’t galaxies bigger? What regulates their rates of star formation and keeps them from just becoming even more chock-full-of-stars than they already are? Now, using a worldwide network of radio telescopes, researchers have observed one of the processes that was on the short list of suspects: one supermassive black hole’s jets are plowing huge amounts of potential star-stuff clear out of its galaxy.

Astronomers have theorized that many galaxies should be more massive and have more stars than is actually the case. Scientists proposed two major mechanisms that would slow or halt the process of mass growth and star formation — violent stellar winds from bursts of star formation and pushback from the jets powered by the galaxy’s central, supermassive black hole.

“With the finely-detailed images provided by an intercontinental combination of radio telescopes, we have been able to see massive clumps of cold gas being pushed away from the galaxy’s center by the black-hole-powered jets,” said Raffaella Morganti, of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and the University of Groningen.

The scientists studied a galaxy called 4C12.50, nearly 1.5 billion light-years from Earth. They chose this galaxy because it is at a stage where the black-hole “engine” that produces the jets is just turning on. As the black hole, a concentration of mass so dense that not even light can escape, pulls material toward it, the material forms a swirling disk surrounding the black hole. Processes in the disk tap the tremendous gravitational energy of the black hole to propel material outward from the poles of the disk.

NGC 253, aka the Sculptor Galaxy, is also blowing out gas but as the result of star formation (Image: T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, T. Abbott and NOAO/AURA/NSF)

At the ends of both jets, the researchers found clumps of hydrogen gas moving outward from the galaxy at 1,000 kilometers per second. One of the clouds has much as 16,000 times the mass of the Sun, while the other contains 140,000 times the mass of the Sun.

The larger cloud, the scientists said, is roughly 160 by 190 light-years in size.

“This is the most definitive evidence yet for an interaction between the swift-moving jet of such a galaxy and a dense interstellar gas cloud,” Morganti said. “We believe we are seeing in action the process by which an active, central engine can remove gas — the raw material for star formation — from a young galaxy,” she added.

The researchers published their findings in the September 6 issue of the journal Science.

Source: NRAO press release

September 5, 2013April 26, 2016 by David Dickinson

See Venus and the Moon Together in the Sky on September 8

A close conjunction of Venus and the crescent Moon as seen on February 27th, 2009. (Photo by author).

Sky watchers worldwide are in for a treat Sunday evening September 8, 2013 as the waxing crescent Moon passes near the dazzling planet Venus. And for a select few, the Moon will actually pass in front of Venus, in what is known as an occultation.

The action has already started this week, as the Moon reached New phase earlier today at 7:36 AM EDT/11:36 UT. The appearance of the slim crescent Moon nearest to the September equinox marks the start of the Jewish New Year with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, which this year began as early as it possibly can at sundown on September 4^th. As per tradition, Rosh Hashanah formally begins when the sky is dark enough for three stars to be seen. The convention established by Hillel II in 363 A.D. uses the mean motion of the Moon to fix the start dates of the Jewish luni-solar calendar, which means that occasionally Rosh Hashanah can start a day early. This also occurred in 2002.

The New Moon has also been historically an opportune time for nighttime military operations to commence —Desert Storm in 1991 and the raid against Bin Laden in 2011 were both conducted under the darkness afforded by the absence of moonlight around a New Moon. It’s yet to be seen if planners looking to conduct airstrikes on Syria are planning on taking advantage of the same conditions to begin operations soon.

Tonight, you can see the +1^st magnitude star Spica less than two degrees away from -4^th magnitude Venus. This places Venus at 100 times brighter than Spica and visible before sunset if you know exactly where to look for it.

The brightest star in the constellation Virgo, Spica is 260 light years distant and on the short list of nearby stars that will eventually go supernova. Fortunately for us, Spica is well outside of the ~100 light year radius “kill zone”.

You might just be able to spy the Moon and the -1st magnitude planet Mercury low to the west at dusk for the first time for this lunation tonight or (more likely) Friday night. This is also a great time to check out LADEE’s future home as it departs for lunar orbit from Wallops Island in Virginia on Friday night.

Hey, LADEE sitting on the pad atop its Minotaur V rocket with the slim crescent Moon in the background at dusk Friday night would be a great money shot, I’m just sayin’…

This weekend will see the Moon increase in illumination and elevation above the western horizon each evening until Spica, Venus, and the waxing crescent Moon fit within a four degree circle on Sunday night. The Moon will be 12% illuminated, while Venus is currently at a gibbous phase and 72% lit.

Looking west from latitude 30 north Sunday night from the US east coast... note that Mercury and Saturn are in the picture as well! (Created by the author in Stellarium). — Looking west from latitude 30 north Sunday night from the US east coast… note that Mercury and Saturn are in the picture as well! (Created by the author in Stellarium).

This will also present a good chance to see Venus during the daytime, using the nearby crescent Moon as a guide. This is a fun thing to try, and no gear is required! Though Venus may seem tough to find against the bright daytime sky, appearances are deceptive. With an albedo of 67% versus the Moon’s average of 14% Venus is actually brighter than the Moon per square arc second of size!

The Moon will also occult Spica on the evening of September 8^th for observers in the Middle East and Europe right around sunset. Spica is one of four bright stars that the Moon can occult in the current epoch, along with Antares, Aldebaran, and Regulus. This is also part of a series of fine occultations of Spica by the Moon ongoing from 2012 to 2014.

Sundown on September 8^th offers a special treat, as the 3-day old Moon passes less than a degree from Venus worldwide. The pair will fit easily into the field of view of binoculars or a telescope at low power and present an outstanding photo op.

And for observers based in Argentina and Chile, the Moon will actually occult Venus. Occultations are grand events, a split-second astronomical event in a universe that seems to usually move at a glacial pace. This particular occultation occurs for South American observers just before & after sunset.

The occultation of Venus by the Moon; the footprint over South America. (Credit: Occult 4.1.0.2).

We witnessed and recorded a similar pairing of Venus and the daytime Moon from the shores of our camp on Saint Froid Lake in northern Maine back in 2007:

Also, keep an eye out for a ghostly phenomenon known as the ashen light on the dark limb of the Moon. Also known as Earthshine, what you’re seeing is the reflection of sunlight off of the Earth illuminating the (cue Pink Floyd) dark side of the Moon. When the Moon is a crescent as seen from the Earth, the Earth is at gibbous phase as seen from the nearside of the Moon. Remember, the lunar farside and darkside are two different things! Earthshine can vary in brightness, based on the amount of cloud and snow cover present or absent on the Earth’s moonward side. My Farmer’s Almanac-consulting grandpappy would call ashen light the “Old Moon in the New Moon’s arms,” and reckon rain was a comin’…

Be sure to check out these astronomical goings on this weekend, and send those pics in to Universe Today!