Universe Today

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Pulsar Jackpot Scours Old Data for New Discoveries

Space Shuttle Atlantis passes behind the Parkes radio telescope after final undocking from the International Space Station in July 2011. (Image Copyright: John Sarkissian; used with permission).

Chalk another one up for Citizen Science. Earlier this month, researchers announced the discovery of 24 new pulsars. To date, thousands of pulsars have been discovered, but what’s truly fascinating about this month’s discovery is that came from culling through old data using a new method.

A pulsar is a dense, highly magnetized, swiftly rotating remnant of a supernova explosion. Pulsars where first discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish in 1967. The discovery of a precisely timed radio beacon initially suggested to some that they were the product of an artificial intelligence. In fact, for a very brief time, pulsars were known as LGM’s, for “Little Green Men.” Today, we know that pulsars are the product of the natural death of massive stars.

The data set used for the discovery comes from the Parkes 64-metre radio observatory based out of New South Wales, Australia. The installation was the first to receive telemetry from the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon and was made famous in the movie The Dish. The Parkes Multi-Beam Pulsar Survey (PMPS) was conducted in the late 1990’s, making thousands of 35-minute recordings across the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. This survey turned up over 800 pulsars and generated 4 terabytes of data. (Just think of how large 4 terabytes was in the 90’s!)

Artist's conception of a pulsar. (Credit: NASA/GSFC). — Artist’s conception of a pulsar. (Credit: NASA/GSFC).

The nature of these discoveries presented theoretical astrophysicists with a dilemma. Namely, the number of short period and binary pulsars was lower than expected. Clearly, there were more pulsars in the data waiting to be found.

Enter Citizen Science. Using a program known as Einstein@Home, researchers were able to sift though the recordings using innovative modeling techniques to tease out 24 new pulsars from the data.

“The method… is only possible with the computing resources provided by Einstein@Home” Benjamin Knispel of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics told the MIT Technology Review in a recent interview. The study utilized over 17,000 CPU core years to complete.

Einstein@Home screenshot. (Credit: LIGO Consortium).

Einstein@Home is a program uniquely adapted to accomplish this feat. Begun in 2005, Einstein@Home is a distributed computing project which utilizes computing power while machines are idling to search through downloaded data packets. Similar to the original distributed computing program SETI@Home which searches for extraterrestrial signals, Einstein@Home culls through data from the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) looking for gravity waves. In 2009, the Einstein@Home survey was expanded to include radio astronomy data from the Arecibo radio telescope and later the Parkes observatory.

Among the discoveries were some rare finds. For example, PSR J1748-3009 Has the highest known dispersion measure of any millisecond pulsar (The dispersion measure is the density of free electrons observed moving towards the viewer). Another find, J1750-2531 is thought to belong to a class of intermediate-mass binary pulsars. 6 of the 24 pulsars discovered were part of binary systems.

These discoveries also have implications for the ongoing hunt for gravity waves by such projects as LIGO. Specifically, a through census of binary pulsars in the galaxy will give scientists a model for the predicted rate of binary pulsar mergers. Unlike radio surveys, LIGO seeks to detect these events via the copious amount of gravity waves such mergers should generate. Begun in 2002, LIGO consists of two gravity wave observatories, one in Hanford Washington and one in Livingston Louisiana just outside of Baton Rouge. Each LIGO detector consists of two 2 kilometre Fabry-Pérot arms in an “L” configuration which allow for ultra-precise measurements of a 200 watt laser beam shot through them. Two detectors are required to pin-point the direction of an incoming gravity wave on the celestial sphere. You can see the orientation of the “L’s” on the display on the Einstein@Home screensaver. Two geographically separate detectors are also required to rule out local interference. A gravity wave from a galactic source would ripple straight through the Earth.

Arial view of LIGO Livingston. (Image credit: The LIGO Scientific Collaboration).

Such a movement would be tiny, on the order of 1/1,000^th the diameter of a proton, unnoticed by all except the LIGO detectors. To date, LIGO has yet to detect gravity waves, although there have been some false alarms. Scientists regularly interject test signals into the data to see if system catches them. The lack of detection of gravity waves by LIGO has put some constraints on certain events. For example, LIGO reported a non-detection of gravity waves during the February 2007 short gamma-ray burst event GRB 070201. The event arrived from the direction of the Andromeda Galaxy, and thus was thought to have been relatively nearby in the universe. Such bursts are thought to be caused by neutron star and/or black holes mergers. The lack of detection by LIGO suggests a more distant event. LIGO should be able to detect a gravitational wave event out to 70 million light years, and Advanced LIGO (AdLIGO) is set to go online in 2014 and will increase its sensitivity tenfold.

The control room at LIGO Livingston. (Photo by Author).

Knowledge of where these potential pulsar mergers are by such discoveries as the Parkes radio survey will also give LIGO researchers clues of targets to focus on. “The search for pulsars isn’t easy, especially for these “quiet” ones that aren’t doing the equivalent of “screaming” for our attention,” Says LIGO Livingston Data Analysis and EPO Scientist Amber Stuver. The LIGO consortium developed the data analysis technique used by Einstein@Home. The direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO or AdLIGO would be an announcement perhaps on par with CERN’s discovery of the Higgs Boson last year. This would also open up a whole new field of gravitational wave astronomy and perhaps give new stimulus to the European Space Agencies’ proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) space-based gravity wave detector. Congrats to the team at Parkes on their discovery… perhaps we’ll have the first gravity wave detection announcement out of LIGO as well in years to come!

-Read the original paper on the discovery of 24 new pulsars here.

-Amber Stuver blogs about Einstein@Home & the spin-off applications of gravity wave technology at Living LIGO.

-Parkes radio telescope image is copyrighted and used with the permission of CSIRO Operations Scientist John Sarkissian.

-For a fascinating read on the hunt for gravity waves, check out Gravity’s Ghost.

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Tito Wants to Send Married Couple on Mars Flyby Mission

An artist's concept of how the spacecraft for the Inspiration Mars Foundation's "Mission for America" might be configured. Credit: Inspiration Mars.

Millionaire and space tourist Dennis Tito announced his plans for funding a commercial mission to Mars, and the mission will send two professional crew members – one man and one woman who will likely be a married couple – flying as private citizens on a “fast, free-return” mission, passing within 100 miles of Mars before swinging back and safely returning to Earth. The spacecraft will likely be tinier than a small Winnebago recreational vehicle. Target launch date is Jan. 5, 2018.

That date was picked because of the unique window of opportunity when the planets align for a 501-day mission to Mars and back.

“If we don’t seize the moment we might miss the chance to become a multi-planet species,” said journalist Miles O’Brien, who introduced the Inspiration Mars team at a webcast announcing the mission, “and if we don’t do that, one day humanity might cease to exist.”

Tito said there are lots of reasons to not to do a mission like this, “but sometimes you just have to lift anchor shove off. We need to stop being timid… Our goal is to send two people but take everyone along for the ride.”

Tito has started a new nonprofit organization, the Inspiration Mars Foundation, “to pursue the audacious to provide a platform for unprecedented science, engineering and education opportunities, while reaching out to American youth to expand their visions of their own futures in space exploration,” said a statement released by the Foundation.

Tito said this will be an American mission, not international.

The mission will be built around “proven, existing space transportation systems and technologies derived from industry, NASA and the International Space Station that can be available in time to support the launch date.”

Inspiration Mars has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA, specifically the Ames Research Center (Ames), to conduct thermal protection system and technology testing and evaluation, as well as tapping into NASA’s knowledge, experience and technologies.

“We went to NASA and said we don’t want money, but want to partner with you for certain technologies,” said said Taber MacCallum, chief technology officer for Inspiration Mars. MacCallum is also CEO/CTO of Paragon Space Development Corporation, and was a member of the Biosphere 2 Design, Development, Test & Operations team, and a crew member in the first two-year mission. “NASA had a tremendous can-do spirit about this, and we are thrilled to be working with them.”

Here’s look at the mechanics of the free return trajectory:

The profile of the mission means once it launches, there’s no way to abort.

Tito said the mission will engage “the best minds in industry, government and academia to develop and integrate the space flight systems and to design innovative research, education and outreach programs for the mission. This low-cost, collaborative, philanthropic approach to tackling this dynamic challenge will showcase U.S. innovation at its best and benefit all Americans in a variety of ways.”
Inspiration Mars will also offer educational programs to inspire children.

“It is important that it is a man and a woman going on this mission because they represent humanity,” said Jane Poynter, also with Paragon and Inspiration Mars, who is married to MacCallum, and together they were part of the Biosphere-2 project. “But more importantly, it represents our children, because whether they are a boy or a girl, they will see themselves in this mission. Inspiration is the name of this mission and its mission.”

She said it would “challenge our children to live audacious lives,” and Inspiration Mars is partnering with several organizations to create educational programs.

Poynter said it would be important for the two astronauts to be married, to provide a “backbone of support for the crew psychologically.

“Imagine, it’s a really long road trip and you’re jammed into an RV and you can’t get out,” Poynter said. “There’s no microgravity … all you have to eat for over 500 days are 3,000 lbs of dehydrated food that they rehydrate with the same water over and over that will be recycled,” adding that the two crew will need the proven ability to be with each other for the long term.

But that segue ways into how the mission will be funded. While Tito will fund the mission exclusively for the next two years, beyond that it will be funded primarily through private, charitable donations, as well as government partners that can provide expertise, access to infrastructure and other technical assistance.

But media rights will be a big part of funding, Tito said. “I envision Dr. Phil talking to the husband-wife crew about marital problems on way to Mars,” he said.

But this is not a money-making endeavor, Tito said. “I won’t make any money on this – I’ll be a lot poorer after this mission.”

Speaking of money, one thing the Inspiration Mars team didn’t do at the briefing today was talk about how much the mission was going to cost. They said that whatever number they might quote today would probably end up being wrong. But they did say it would be a fraction of what the Curiosity rover mission cost, which is $2.5 billion.

The mission system will consist of a modified capsule launched out of Earth orbit using a single propulsive maneuver to achieve the Mars trajectory. An inflatable habitat module will be deployed after launch and detached prior to re-entry. Closed-loop life support and operational components will be located inside the vehicle, designed for simplicity and “hands-on” maintenance and repair.

Tito said the time is right for this mission, not only because of the orbital window of opportunity. “Investments in human space exploration technologies and operations by NASA and the space industry are converging at the right time to make this mission achievable,” he said.

Foundation officials are in talks with several U.S. commercial aerospace companies about prospective launch and crew vehicles and systems.

Asked about how they can possibly get a launch vehicle ready by 2018, Tito said, “The vehicles are there and we have time to get it together. I’m more concerned about the life support, the radiation and the re-entry systems.”

“Mars presents a challenging, but attainable goal for advancing human space exploration and knowledge, and as a result, we are committed to undertaking this mission,” MacCallum said. “Experts have reviewed the risks, rewards and aggressive schedule, finding that existing technologies and systems only need to be properly integrated, tested and prepared for flight.”

Tito explained that the “beauty of this mission is its simplicity.” The flyby architecture lowers risk, with no critical propulsive maneuvers after leaving Earth vicinity, no entry into the Mars atmosphere, no rendezvous and docking, and represents the shortest duration roundtrip mission to Mars. The 2018 launch opportunity also coincides with the 11-year solar minimum providing the lowest solar radiation exposure.

Find out more about the mission at the Inspiration Mars website.
. Here is a link to a fact sheet about this mission.

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by Jason Major

The Secret of the Stars

“Say, do you like mystery stories? Well we have one for you. The concept: relativity.”

Well look at that, it’s a new video from John D. Boswell — aka melodysheep — which goes into autotuned detail about one of the standard principles of astrophysics, Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Featuring clips from Michio Kaku, Brian Cox, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Greene and Lisa Randall, I’d say E=mc(awesome).

John has been entertaining science fans with his Symphony of Science mixes since 2009, when his first video in the series — “A Glorious Dawn” featuring Carl Sagan — was released. Now John’s videos are eagerly anticipated by fans (like me) who follow him on YouTube and on Twitter as @musicalscience.

“E = mc²… that is the engine that lights up the stars.”

(What does Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalence equation mean? For a brief and basic explanation, check out the American Museum of Natural History’s page here.)

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

The Vela Pulsar as a Spirograph

This image compresses the Vela movie sequence into a single snapshot by merging pie-slice sections from eight individual frames. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

I loved my Spirograph when I was young, and obviously Eric Charles, a physicist with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope team did too. Charles has taken data from Fermi’s Large Area Telescope and turned it into a mesmerizing movie of the Vela Pulsar. It actually is a reflection of the complex motion of the spacecraft as it stared at the pulsar.

The video shows the intricate pattern traced by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope’s view of the Vela Pulsar over the spacecraft’s 51 months in orbit.

Fermi orbits our planet every 95 minutes, building up increasingly deeper views of the universe with every circuit. Its wide-eyed Large Area Telescope (LAT) sweeps across the entire sky every three hours, capturing the highest-energy form of light — gamma rays — from sources across the universe. The Fermi telescope has given us our best view yet of the bizarre world of the high energy Universe, which include supermassive black holes billions of light-years away to intriguing objects in our own galaxy, such as X-ray binaries, supernova remnants and pulsars.

Francis Reddy from the Goddard Spaceflight Center describes the movie:

The Vela pulsar outlines a fascinating pattern in this movie showing 51 months of position and exposure data from Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT). The pattern reflects numerous motions of the spacecraft, including its orbit around Earth, the precession of its orbital plane, the manner in which the LAT nods north and south on alternate orbits, and more. The movie renders Vela’s position in a fisheye perspective, where the middle of the pattern corresponds to the central and most sensitive portion of the LAT’s field of view. The edge of the pattern is 90 degrees away from the center and well beyond what scientists regard as the effective limit of the LAT’s vision. Better knowledge of how the LAT’s sensitivity changes across its field of view helps Fermi scientists better understand both the instrument and the data it returns.

The pulsar traces out a loopy, hypnotic pattern reminiscent of art produced by the colored pens and spinning gears of a Spirograph, a children’s toy that produces geometric patterns.

The Vela pulsar spins 11 times a second and is the brightest persistent source of gamma rays the LAT sees. While gamma-ray bursts and flares from distant black holes occasionally outshine the pulsar, the Vela pulsar is like a persistant beacon, much like the light from a lighthouse.

Find out more about this movie and the Fermi Telescope here.

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

3 Comets That Fizzled

An artist's conception of a comet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Take a dirty snowball in space and hurl it towards the Sun. I dare you… and then make a prediction as to how that will look.

This is the problem comet scientists face when talking about how bright a comet will appear from Earth. They’re imaging a conglomerate of dust, ice and other materials millions of miles away. After figuring out where the comet will go, then they have to predict how it will behave.

It’s a science, to be sure, but an unpredictable one. That’s why it’s so hard to figure out how Comet ISON will fare when it gets closer to the Sun in November 2013. It could blow into pieces before arriving. It could break up when it gets close to the Sun. Or, it could live up to wildest expectations and shine so brightly you’ll be able to see it in daylight.

Veteran comet-gazers can name a few visitors that didn’t perform as well as predicted. Michael Mumma, who is with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s solar system exploration division, was the lead for the agency’s scientific campaign on many comets of the past few decades. In an e-mail to Universe Today, he shared what made three comets less spectacular than predictions.

Comet Kohoutek (1973)

Comet Kohoutek in 1973. Credit: NASA/University of Arizona

Billed by some as the comet of the century, Comet Kohoutek was predicted to pass close to the Sun after it was discovered in March 1973. NASA initiated “Operation Kohoutek” to keep an eye on the comet from a network of observatories in the sky, on the ground and even telescopes in mid-air.

Mumma joked that Kohoutek was a great career launcher for him, as a spectrometer that searched for ammonia ended up getting sustained funding for further development. But the comet was a visual disappointment, he acknowledged.

“The hype surrounding Comet Kohoutek was inspired by two predictions of its possible brightness, made by a recognized senior comet scientist. The NASA spokesman chose to promote the brighter of the two, that predicted the comet would become as ‘bright as the full Moon’. He usually mentioned (softly) that we couldn’t be certain it would actually brighten that much – but the press usually ignored that disclaimer,” Mumma wrote.

“Actually, the comet really did fizzle, failing to reach even the fainter estimate – probably because at discovery it was far from the Sun and activated by something other than water ice. Under those circumstances, any prediction was bound to be highly uncertain.”

Halley’s Comet (1986)

Halley's Comet in 1986. Credit: NASA — Halley’s Comet in 1986. Credit: NASA

Halley’s is the most famous periodic comet, meaning that it returns to the inner solar system over and over again. Its bright appearance made it show up repeatedly in the historical record, most famously in the Bayeux Tapestry after it arrived in 1066 shortly before William the Conquerer successfully led the Norman Conquest of England. However, astronomers in each era saw the comet’s appearance as separate, unpredictable events.

English astronomer Edmond Halley, in examining the astronomical record in 1705, supposed that a comet with similar properties that appeared every 75 years or so was probably the same comet. Ever since then, astronomers and the public alike eagerly await each appearance. The 1910 visit was particularly spectacular, making the press set high expectations for 1986. However, the comet was much further away from the Sun in the 1980s and was fainter.

According to Mumma, the comet did not actually fizzle. Many press reports just got the brightness of the comet wrong, leading the public to believe the comet was less spectacular than predicted.

“It was a bright comet, just as scientists predicted. However, it was much brighter in the southern hemisphere than in the northern, as predicted. From Christchurch (New Zealand), and again from Cairns (Australia), it was large and the brightest object in the sky – easily seen with the unaided eye.”

As a scientific sidenote, Mumma’s team probed the comet with NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory and, using infrared fluorescence spectroscopy that Mumma developed, found water for the first time in a comet.

Comet Austin (1990)

A negative image of Comet Austin. Credit: European Southern Observatory

In 1989, Sky & Telescope published a cover article on Comet Austin with the eye-catching headline: “Monster Comet is Coming!” As with Halley, many people anticipated this would be a bright comet, easily visible with the naked eye. In the book Hunting and Imaging Comets, United Kingdom amateur astronomer Martin Mobberley pointed out it was a great object in telescopes or binoculars, but not so much with the eye alone.

“Austin was less bright than some had predicted, but it was bright enough to permit major scientific successes,” Mumma added in his e-mail to Universe Today. “My team detected CO (carbon monoxide) and methanol in that comet, among the first detections of these molecules in comets at infrared wavelengths.”

All in all, these comets show that it’s really hard to figure out what they look like when they get by Earth. This means that nobody knows exactly how ISON will behave until it’s almost upon us.

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophoto: Planet Aurora

A 'polar panoramic effect' view of the aurora in Finland on Feb. 9, 2013. Credit and copyright: Martin Stojanovski.

I love these ‘Polar Planet Effect‘ images, and this one is awesome. Photographer Martin Stojanovski traveled from Macedonia to Finland during an #AuroraTweetup event in early February 2013 to try and capture the aurora. And he really wanted to try doing one of these “planet” pictures.

“This was one of the photos that I really wanted to create on my aurora trip during #AuroraTweetup and it came together at last,” Martin said via email. “It is really hard to get the final result as the aurora is so dynamic (it changes every second) and also the night sky is difficult for stitching, but the end result came up great. That night Aurora was amazing, and it got really bright and colorful from time to time, as our guide said that night the best of the season.”

In this image the aurora stretches more than 120 degrees from side to side, and a faint glow go higher up towards zenith. It was created from 21 30-second exposures at f-4, 10mm ISO 1600. Image of the whole sky and foreground was taken at the Aurora Camp on Lake Inari in Finland.

He took some other great shots, too, like this one:

Aurora borealis over Lake Inari in Finland. Shot on 9th Feb. 2013 during #AuroraTweetup. Credit and copyright: Martin Stojanovski.

See more images from his trip at his website.

We featured another ‘Polar Planet’ image in our astrophotos of the full Moon yesterday.

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.

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Big Meteorite Chunk Found in Russia’s Ural Mountains

Lecturer at Ural Federal University's Institute of Physics and Technology Viktor Grokhovsky with meteorite fragment found during an expedition in the Chelyabinsk region on February 25, 2013. Credit: RIA Novosti / Pavel Lysizin.

Scientists and meteorites hunters have been on a quest to find bits of rock from the asteroid which exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia on February 15. More than 100 fragments have been found so far that appear to be from the space rock, and now scientists from Russia’s Urals Federal University have discovered the biggest chunk so far, a meteorite fragment weighing more than one kilogram (2.2 lbs).

The asteroid has been estimated to be about 15 meters (50 feet) in diameter when it struck Earth’s atmosphere, traveling several times the speed of sound, and exploded into a fireball, sending a shockwave to the city below, which broke windows and caused other damage to buildings, injuring about 1,500 people.

A hole in Chebarkul Lake made by meteorite debris. Photo by Chebarkul town head Andrey Orlov.Via RT.com — A hole in Chebarkul Lake made by meteorite debris. Photo by Chebarkul town head Andrey Orlov. Via RT.com

Fragments of the meteorite have been found along a 50 kilometer (30 mile) trail under the meteorite’s flight path. Small meteorites have also been found in an eight-meter (25 feet) wide crater in the region’s Lake Chebarkul, scientists said earlier this week. Viktor Grokhovsky from the Urals University believes there are more to be found, including a possible biggest chunk that he says may lie at the bottom of Lake Chebarkul. It could be up to 60cm in diameter, he estimated.

This video from NASA explains more:

Please note that while many pieces have been found, and if you are looking to buy a chunk of this famous meteorite, you need to approach this with a lot of skepticism. There have been some reports of people trying to sell pieces that they claim to be from the Ural/Russian meteorite, but they likely are not. Be careful and do your research on the seller before you buy.

Source: RT.com

February 27, 2013December 23, 2015 by Ken Kremer

Curiosity Mars Rover Eats 1st Sample of Gray Rocky Powder

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of Curiosity's sample-processing and delivery tool just after the tool delivered a portion of powdered rock into the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. This Collection and Handling for In-situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) tool delivered portions of the first sample ever acquired from the interior of a rock on Mars into both SAM and the rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Curiosity rover has eaten the 1st ever samples of gray rocky powder cored from the interior of a Martian rock.

The robotic arm delivered aspirin sized samples of the pulverized powder to the rover’s Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments this past weekend on Feb. 22 and 23, or Sols 195 and 196 respectively.

Both of Curiosity’s chemistry labs have already begun analyzing the samples – but don’t expect results anytime soon because of the complexity of the operation involved.

“Analysis has begun and could take weeks,’ NASA JPL spokesman Guy Webster told Universe Today.

The samples were collected from the rover’s 1st drilling site known as ‘John Klein’ – comprised of a red colored slab of flat, fine-grained, sedimentary bedrock shot through with mineral veins of Calcium Sulfate that formed in water.

“Data from the instruments have confirmed the deliveries,” said Curiosity Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

On Feb. 8, 2013 (mission Sol 182), Curiosity used the rotary-percussion drill mounted on the tool turret at the end of the 7 foot (2.1 meter) long robotic arm to bore a circular hole about 0.63 inch (16 mm) wide and about 2.5 inches (64 mm) deep into ‘John Klein’ that produced a slurry of gray tailings

Curiosity accomplished Historic 1st drilling into Martian rock at John Klein outcrop on Feb 8, 2013 (Sol 182), shown in this context mosaic view of the Yellowknife Bay basin taken on Jan. 26 (Sol 169) where the robot is currently working. The robotic arm is pressing down on the surface at John Klein outcrop of veined hydrated minerals - dramatically back dropped with her ultimate destination; Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo — Curiosity accomplished Historic 1st drilling into Martian rock at John Klein outcrop on Feb 8, 2013 (Sol 182), shown in this context mosaic view of the Yellowknife Bay basin taken on Jan. 26 (Sol 169) where the robot is currently working. The robotic arm is pressing down on the surface at John Klein outcrop of veined hydrated minerals – dramatically back dropped with her ultimate destination; Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo

The gray colored tailings give a completely fresh insight into Mars that offers a stark contrast to the prevailing views of reddish-orange rusty, oxidized dust.

The eventual results from SAM and CheMin may give clues about what exactly does the color change mean. One theory is that it might be related to different oxidations states of iron that could potentially inform us about the habitability of Mars insides the rover’s Gale Crater landing site.

“The rock drilling capability is a significant advancement. It allows us to go beyond the surface layer of the rock, unlocking a time capsule of evidence about the state of Mars going back 3 or 4 Billion years,” said Louise Jandura of JPL and Curiosity’s chief engineer for the sampling system.

Additional portions of the first John Klein sample could be delivered to SAM and CheMin if the results warrant. The state-of-the-art instruments are testing the gray powder to elucidate the chemical composition and search for simple and complex organic molecules based on carbon, which are the building blocks of life as we know it.

Curiosity’s Mastcam camera snapped this photo mosaic of 1st drill holes into Martian rock at John Klein outcrop inside Yellowknife Bay basin where the robot is currently working. Notice the gray powdery tailings from the rocks interior. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo — Curiosity’s Mastcam camera snapped this photo mosaic of 1st drill holes into Martian rock at John Klein outcrop inside Yellowknife Bay basin where the robot is currently working. Notice the gray powdery tailings from the rocks interior. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo

The Curiosity science team believes that this work area inside Gale Crater called Yellowknife Bay, experienced repeated percolation of flowing liquid water long ago when Mars was warmer and wetter – and therefore was potentially more hospitable to the possible evolution of life.

Curiosity is nearly 7 months into her 2 year long primary mission. So far she has snapped over 45,000 images.

“The mission is discovery driven,” says John Grotzinger, the Curiosity mission’s chief scientist of the California Institute of Technology.

The rover will likely remain in the John Klein area for several more weeks to a month or more to obtain a more complete scientific characterization of the area which has seen repeated episodes of flowing water.

Eventually, the six-wheeled mega rover will set off on a nearly year long trek to her main destination – the sedimentary layers of the lower reaches of the 3 mile (5 km) high mountain named Mount Sharp – some 6 miles (10 km) away.

Ken Kremer

February 26, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Is a Comet on a Collision Course with Mars?

Simulation of the close approach of C/2013 A1 to Mars in Celestia using info from the Minor Planet Center. Credit: Ian Musgrave/Astroblog.

There is an outside chance that a newly discovered comet might be on a collision course with Mars. Astronomers are still determining the trajectory of the comet, named C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), but at the very least, it is going to come fairly close to the Red Planet in October of 2014. “Even if it doesn’t impact it will look pretty good from Earth, and spectacular from Mars,” wrote Australian amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave, “probably a magnitude -4 comet as seen from Mars’s surface.”

The comet was discovered in the beginning of 2013 by comet-hunter Robert McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. According to a discussion on the IceInSpace amateur astronomy forum when the discovery was initially made, astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona looked back over their observations to find “prerecovery” images of the comet dating back to Dec. 8, 2012. These observations placed the orbital trajectory of comet C/2013 A1 right through Mars orbit on Oct. 19, 2014.

However, now after 74 days of observations, comet specialist Leonid Elenin notes that current calculations put the closest approach of the comet at a distance of 109,200 km, or 0.00073 AU from Mars in October 2014. That close pass has many wondering if any of the Mars orbiters might be able to acquire high-resolution images of the comet as it passes by.

But as Ian O’Neill from Discovery Space points out, since the comet has only been observed for 74 days (so far), so it’s difficult for astronomers to forecast the comet’s precise location in 20 months time. “Comet C/2013 A1 may fly past at a very safe distance of 0.008 AU (650,000 miles),” Ian wrote, “but to the other extreme, its orbital pass could put Mars directly in its path. At time of Mars close approach (or impact), the comet will be barreling along at a breakneck speed of 35 miles per second (126,000 miles per hour).”

Elenin said that since C/2013 A1 is a hyperbolic comet and moves in a retrograde orbit, its velocity with respect to the planet will be very high, approximately 56 km/s. “With the current estimate of the absolute magnitude of the nucleus M2 = 10.3, which might indicate the diameter up to 50 km, the energy of impact might reach the equivalent of staggering 2×10¹º megatons!”

An impact of this magnitude would leave a crater 500 km across and 2 km deep, Elenin said.

Fragments of Shoemaker-Levy 9 on approach to Jupiter (NASA/HST)

While the massive Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 (15 km in diameter) that crashed into Jupiter in 1994 was spectacular as seen from Earth orbit by the Hubble Space Telescope, an event like C/2013 A1 slamming into Mars would be off the charts.

Astronomers are certainly keeping an eye on this comet, and they will refine their measurements as more data comes in. You can see the orbital parameters available so far at JPL’s Solar System Dynamics website.

We’ll keep you posted.

Sources: Astroblog, IceInSpace, SpaceObs, Discovery Space

February 26, 2013December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Spotting the Dragon: How to See SpaceX on Approach to the ISS This Weekend

Capture of the Dragon during the October 2012 CRS-1 mission. (Credit: NASA/ISS).

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft may be appearing in a backyard sky near you this weekend. Scheduled to launch this Friday on March 1^st at 10:10 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST)/15:10 Universal Time (UT), this will be the 3^rd resupply flight for the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). And the great news is, you may just be able to catch the spacecraft as it chases down the ISS worldwide.

The Space Shuttle and the ISS captured by the author as seen from Northern Maine shortly after undocking in June, 2007.

Catching a satellite in low Earth orbit is an unforgettable sight. Satellites appear as moving “stars” against the background sky, shining steadily (unless they’re tumbling!) in the sunlight overhead in the dawn or dusk sky. Occasionally, you may catch a flare in brightness as a reflective panel catches the sunlight just right. The Hubble Space Telescope and the Iridium constellation of satellites can flare in this fashion.

At 109 metres in size, the ISS is the largest object ever constructed in orbit and is easily visible to the naked eye. It has an angular diameter of about 50” when directly overhead (about the visual size of Saturn plus rings near opposition). I can just make out a tiny box-like structure with binoculars when it passes overhead. If the orientation of the station and its solar panels is just right, it looks like a tiny luminous Star Wars TIE fighter as viewed through binoculars!

Dragon in the processing hangar at Cape Canaveral. (Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett).

But what’s even more amazing is to watch a spacecraft rendezvous with the ISS, as diligent observers may witness this weekend. Your best bet will be to use predictions for ISS passes from your location. Heavens-Above, CALSky and Space Weather all have simple trackers for sky watchers. More advanced observers may want to use an application known as Orbitron which allows you to manually load updated Two-Line Element sets (TLEs) from Celestrak or NORAD’s Space-Track website for use in the field sans Internet connection. Note that Space-Track requires permission to access; they welcome amateur sat-spotters and educators, but they also want to assure that no “rogue entities” are accessing the site! Continue reading “Spotting the Dragon: How to See SpaceX on Approach to the ISS This Weekend”