Universe Today

February 1, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Watch Tonight: Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope

The Columbia crew. From the left: Mission Specialist David Brown, Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla and Michael Anderson, Pilot William McCool and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon. Credit: NASA.

Airing on PBS stations in the US tonight (January 31, 2013) a new film in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia disaster. Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope tells the little-known story of Columbia astronaut Ilan Ramon from Israel, the son of Holocaust survivors who became Israel’s first astronaut. Ramon carried into space a miniature Torah scroll that had survived the horrors of the Holocaust, given to a boy in a secret bar mitzvah observed in the pre-dawn hours in the notorious Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen.

“Moving tributes like this film remind us all that spaceflight always carries great risk,” said NASA Administrator and four-time space shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden. “But fallen heroes like Ilan were willing to risk the ultimate sacrifice to make important science discoveries and push the envelope of human achievement.”

See the trailer, below:

The film premieres tonight at 9:00 p.m. EST (check local listings here) on PBS stations. It will be followed by an encore broadcast of NOVA “Space Shuttle Disaster” at 10:00 p.m. EST, which examines the causes of the tragedy.

Most PBS specials are rebroadcast and are usually available later on the internet, and so check your local listings if you missed it, and we’ll also post a link if/when this film becomes available online.

January 31, 2013December 23, 2015 by Evan Gough

Book Review: Unraveling the Universe’s Mysteries

“Unraveling the Universe’s Mysteries” is Louis A. Del Monte’s contribution to the world of science writing. If you haven’t heard of him, don’t be surprised. He’s not a prolific author or researcher, but worked in the development of microelectronics for the US companies IBM and Honeywell before forming a high-tech e-marketing agency.

The book lives up to its title and long subtitle: “Explore sciences’ most baffling mysteries, including the Big Bang’s origin, time travel, dark energy, humankind’s fate, and more.” It covers string theory, the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, time travel, the existence of God, and other mysterious aspects of our Universe. Del Monte also discusses artificial intelligence, the end of the Universe, and the mysterious nature of light. These subjects have all been covered in great detail by other authors in other books. How does Del Monte’s treatment of these subjects stand up in comparison?

Not great, in my opinion. The writing is somehow uninviting. The book reads more like a textbook or a lecture than it does a science book for an interested audience. It’s somewhat dry, and the writing is kind of heavy. After looking into Del Monte’s background, it becomes clear why. He’s an engineer, and his background is in writing technical papers.

This book is a bit of a puzzle, as is the author himself. I’ve mentioned the problems with the writing, but there are other issues. In one instance Del Monte references a study from the Journal of Cosmology. If you haven’t heard of that journal, it’s come under heavy criticism for its peer-review process, and isn’t highly regarded in science circles. The Journal of Cosmology seems to be a journal for people with an axe to grind around certain issues more than a healthy part of the science journal community. To be quoting studies from it is a bit of a black mark, in my opinion.

In another instance, he opens the chapter on Advanced Aliens with a quote from “Chariot of the Gods”, that old book/documentary from the 1970’s that just won’t seem to die, no matter how discredited it is. The main thrust of “Chariot of the Gods” is that human civilisation got a technological boost from visitations by advanced aliens. Readers can judge for themselves the wisdom of quoting “Chariot of the Gods” in a science book.

The publisher bills the book as “a new theory to explain one of cosmology’s most profound mysteries, the accelerated expansion of the universe,” and that Del Monte “presents an original solution to Einstein’s equations of special relativity.” But without conducting peer reviewed research, the validity of his theory comes into question.

If I seem puzzled by this book, it’s because I am. Del Monte seems to be a bit of an outsider when it comes to writing about astronomy and cosmology. He has no background in it. There’s nothing wrong with that in principle; there’s always room for new perspectives in science. But I can’t help thinking that he could’ve benefited from working more closely with an experienced editor.

Readers will get something out of this book; it’s an interesting discussion of the mysterious aspects of our Universe. But it’s also a somewhat strange book. For those of you who decide to read it, you’re in for an interesting read.

For more information about Louis Del Monte, see his website.

January 31, 2013April 26, 2016 by Jason Major

First Color Image of Curiosity’s Tracks from Orbit

HiRISE image of Curiosity’s tracks, landing zone and the MSL rover at John Klein outcrop (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

As Curiosity prepares for the historic first drilling operation on Mars, the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of it from 271 km (169 miles) up, along with twin lines of tracks and the blast marks from the dramatic rocket-powered descent back on August 6 (UTC).

The image here was acquired on Jan. 13, Sol 157 of the MSL mission, as part of a dual HiRISE/CRISM observation of the landing site. According to The University of Arizona’s HiRISE site it’s the first time the rover’s tracks have been imaged in color.

Her original landing site can be seen at the right edge. (Wait… did I just say “her?”)

The pair of bright white spots in the HiRISE image show the area immediately below where sky crane’s rockets were pointed. Those areas were “blasted clean” and therefore show brightest. The larger dark scour zone is dark because the fine dust has been blown away from the area leaving darker materials.

– Ross A. Beyer, UofA HiRISE team

Curiosity can be seen as she (yes, it was confirmed today during ScienceOnline2013 that the rover — like all exploration vehicles — is a girl) was preparing for drilling into a rock outcrop called John Klein within the “Yellowknife” region in Gale Crater. Drilling is expected to begin today, Jan. 31.

Orbital view (detail) of Curiosity at her drilling site in Yellowknife. Image was rotated so north is up. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Read more about the first drilling to be performed on Mars in this article by Ken Kremer, and see more news from the MSL mission here.

January 31, 2013June 5, 2022 by Ken Kremer

Historic First Use of Drill on Mars Set for Jan. 31 – Curiosity’s Sol 174

Image caption: Curiosity will conduct Historic 1st drilling into Martian rock at this spot where the robotic arm is pressing down onto the Red Planet’s surface at the John Klein outcrop of veined hydrated minerals. The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is in contact with the ground. This panoramic photo mosaic of Navcam camera images was snapped on Jan. 25 & 26, 2013 or Sols 168 & 169 and shows a self-portrait of Curiosity dramatically backdropped with her ultimate destination- Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo

The long awaited and history making first use of a drill on Mars is set to happen on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, or Sol 174, by NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover, if all goes well, according to science team member Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS.

Curiosity’s first drilling operation entails hammering a test hole into a flat rock at the location where the rover is currently parked at a scientifically interesting outcrop of rocks with veined minerals called ‘John Klein’. See our mosaics above & below illustrating Curiosity’s current location.

“Drill tailings will not be collected during this test, which will use only the percussion (not rotation) drilling mode,” says Herkenhoff.

Curiosity is an incredibly complex robot that the team is still learning to operate. So the plan could change at a moment’s notice.

The actual delivery of drill tailings to Curiosity’s CheMin and SAM analytical labs is still at least several days or more away and must await a review of results from the test drill hole and further drilling tests.

“We are proceeding with caution in the approach to Curiosity’s first drilling,” said Daniel Limonadi, the lead systems engineer for Curiosity’s surface sampling and science system at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “This is challenging. It will be the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.”

On Sol 166, Curiosity drove about 3.5 meters to reach the John Klein outcrop that the team chose as the 1st drilling site. The car sized rover is investigating a shallow depression known as ‘Yellowknife Bay’ – where she has found widespread evidence for repeated episodes of the ancient flow of liquid water near her landing site inside Gale Crater on Mars.

In anticipation of Thursday’s planned drilling operation, the rover just carried out a series of four ‘pre-load’ tests on Monday (Jan. 27), whereby the rover placed the drill bit onto Martian surface targets at the John Klein outcrop and pressed down on the drill with the robotic arm. Engineers then checked the data to see whether the force applied matched predictions.

“The arm was left pressed against one of them overnight, to see how the pressure changed with temperature,’ says Herkenhoff.

Image caption: Curiosity’s robotic arm places the robotic arm tool turret and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument on top of John Klein outcrop shown in this photo mosaic taken with the Mastcam 34 camera on Jan. 25, 2013, or Sol 168. The drill bit and prongs are pointing right on the tool turret. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo

Because huge temperature swings occur on Mars every day (over 65 C or 115 F), the team needs to determine whether there is any chance of excessive stress on the arm while it is pressing the drill down onto the Martian surface. The daily temperature variations can cause rover systems like the arm, chassis and mobility system to expand and contact by about a tenth of an inch (about 2.4 millimeters), a little more than the thickness of a U.S. quarter-dollar coin.

“We don’t plan on leaving the drill in a rock overnight once we start drilling, but in case that happens, it is important to know what to expect in terms of stress on the hardware,” said Limonadi. “This test is done at lower pre-load values than we plan to use during drilling, to let us learn about the temperature effects without putting the hardware at risk.”

The high resolution MAHLI microscopic imager on the arm turret will take close-up before and after images of the outcrop target to assess the success of the drilling operation.

On Sol 175, another significant activity is planned whereby one of the ‘blank” organic check samples brought from Earth will be delivered to the SAM instrument for analysis as a way to check for any traces of terrestrial contamination of organic molecules and whether the sample handing system was successfully cleansed earlier in the mission at the Rocknest windblown sand ripple.

Meanwhile on the opposite side of Mars, NASA’s Opportunity rover starts Year 10 investigating never before touched phyllosilicate clay minerals that formed eons ago in flowing liquid water at Endeavour crater – detailed here.

Stay tuned for exciting results from NASA’s Martian sisters.

Ken Kremer

Image caption: View to Mount Sharp from Curiosity at Yellowknife Bay and John Klein outcrop. This photo mosaic was taken with the Mastcam 34 camera on Jan. 27, 2013, or Sol 170. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/ Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer

Curiosity’s Drill in Place for Load Testing Before Drilling. The percussion drill in the turret of tools at the end of the robotic arm of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has been positioned in contact with the rock surface in this image from the rover’s front Hazard-Avoidance Camera (Hazcam). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image caption: Curiosity found widespread evidence for flowing water in the highly diverse, rocky scenery shown in this photo mosaic from the edge of Yellowknife Bay on Sol 157 (Jan 14, 2013) before driving to the John Klein outcrop at upper right. The rover then moved and is now parked at the flat rocks at the John Klein outcrop and is set to conduct historic 1st Martian rock drilling here on Jan. 31, 2013. ‘John Klein’ is filled with numerous mineral veins which strongly suggest precipitation of minerals from liquid water. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo

January 31, 2013January 4, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

Watch a Magical Moonrise

This is absolutely lovely. Photographer Mark Gee says this incredible real-time video “is as it came off the memory card and there has been no manipulation whatsoever.” It shows the full Moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand.

“People had gathered up there this night to get the best view possible of the moon rising,” Gee wrote on Vimeo. “I captured the video from 2.1km away on the other side of the city. It’s something that I’ve been wanting to photograph for a long time now, and a lot of planning and failed attempts had taken place. Finally, during moon rise on the 28th January 2013, everything fell into place and I got my footage.”

While Gee said it was a challenge to shoot, the final result is stunning.

Full Moon Silhouettes from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

January 31, 2013April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

Next Generation TDRS Satellite Launches to Orbit

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket streaks away from Space Launch Complex 41 into the night sky over Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-K, TDRS-K, to orbit. Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System will get an upgrade as the first of a new generation of communications satellites was launched to orbit on Wednesday, January 30 at 8:48 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral. See the launch video and more images of the launch, below.

The TDRS system provides a critical communications link to Earth for the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and many satellites.

“TDRS-K bolsters our network of satellites that provides essential communications to support space exploration,” said Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator for Space Communications and Navigation at NASA. “It will improve the overall health and longevity of our system.”

The TDRS system provides tracking, telemetry, command and high-bandwidth data return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth. These include the International Space Station and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

“With this launch, NASA has begun the replenishment of our aging space network,” said Jeffrey Gramling, TDRS project manager. “This addition to our current fleet of seven will provide even greater capabilities to a network that has become key to enabling many of NASA’s scientific discoveries.”

TDRS-K was launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41. After a three-month test phase, NASA will accept the spacecraft for additional evaluation before putting the satellite into service.

The TDRS-K spacecraft includes several modifications from older satellites in the TDRS system, including redesigned telecommunications payload electronics and a high-performance solar panel designed for more spacecraft power to meet growing S-band requirements. Another significant design change, the return to ground-based processing of data, will allow the system to service more customers with evolving communication requirements.

The next TDRS spacecraft, TDRS-L, is scheduled for launch in 2014. TDRS-M’s manufacturing process will be completed in 2015.

The Atlas rocket clears the utility tower. Credit: John O'Connor/nasatech.

Tower Clear! The vehicle begins to gain speed as she burns off fuel. Credit: John O'Connor/nasatech/ — he vehicle begins to gain speed as she burns off fuel. Credit: John O'Connor/nasatech.

The TDRS-K launch at the beginning of the roll program. Credit: John O'Connor/nasatech.

See more images and details of the launch at the nasatech website.

Sources: nasatech, NASA

January 30, 2013April 26, 2016 by Jason Major

The Cost of Exploring Space: Film vs. Reality

We all know that space exploration, while certainly not the largest expenditure of most countries, doesn’t come cheap. But neither do big-budget science fiction films, either. Special effects, sets, special effects, popular acting talent… special effects… those all come with hefty price tags that make sci-fi and fantasy films costly ventures — although bigger definitely isn’t always better. If you were to compare the price of real space exploration missions (which provide actual information) to the costs of movies about space exploration (which provide “only” entertainment) what would you expect to find?

This infographic does just that:

“Prometheus’ movie budget would be enough to keep the search for real aliens going for another 52 years.”

Wow. (Maybe they should have just written a check to SETI.)

January 30, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Kepler Spacecraft Back in Action After Reaction Wheel Problem

Artist's concept of Kepler in action. NASA/Kepler mission/Wendy Stenzel.

There has been some concern about the Kepler spacecraft after one of the devices that provide the ability for super-precise pointing began misbehaving. Reaction wheels are devices which aim a spacecraft in different directions without firing rockets or jets, which reduces the amount of fuel a spacecraft needs; Kepler has four of them. Earlier this year, elevated friction was detected in reaction wheel #4, and so as a precaution for wheel safety, and as a measure to mitigate the friction, the reaction wheels were spun down to zero-speed and the spacecraft was placed in a thruster-controlled safe mode.

But now after a “rest” of the wheels for ten days, Kepler has now returned to science data collection beginning on January 28, 2013, and reaction wheel #4 seems to be operating normally, for now. During the 10-day resting safe mode, daily health and status checks with the spacecraft using NASA’s Deep Space Network were normal.

This is of special concern because last year, reaction wheel #2 failed. Kepler scientists say the spacecraft needs at least three wheels must operate until at least 2016 for Kepler to achieve its prime objective of finding Earth-like planets around sun-like stars. Last year, NASA approved an extended mission for Kepler through 2016, and so a lot is riding on the health of the spacecraft’s reaction wheels.

During much of the mission, ground controllers have observed intermittent friction on wheel # 4. Wheel # 2, on the other hand, showed no problems until early 2012, and it failed several months later.

“Since the failure of reaction wheel #2 in July 2012, the performance of the spacecraft on three wheels has been excellent,” said Kepler Project Manager Roger Hunter, writing an update on the Kepler website, noting that when reaction wheel #2 began to fail, it also exhibited elevated and somewhat chaotic friction.

“Reaction wheel #4 has been something of a free spirit since launch, with a variety of friction signatures, none of which look like reaction wheel #2, and all of which disappeared on their own after a time,” Hunter said. “Resting the wheels can provide an opportunity for the lubricant in the bearings to redistribute and potentially return the friction to nominal levels. Over the next month, the engineering team will review the performance of reaction wheel #4 before, during, and after the safe mode to determine the efficacy of the rest operation.”

As Emily Lakdawalla noted in one of the Weekly Space Hangouts, engineers are getting creative in how to deal with hardware issues in spacecraft, and compared the Kepler team’s approach to “resting” the reaction wheel to how engineers working with the Spirit Mars rover came up with the plan to have the rover drive backwards when one of the wheels started acting up, and the lubricant lasted longer when the wheel was used in the opposite direction.

Engineers for Kepler have implemented additional procedures to extend the lives of the reaction wheels, including running the wheels at warmer temperatures and alternating their spin directions.

Kepler was launched in March 2009, and is in an Earth-trailing solar orbit. It is pointed toward constellations Cygnus and Lyra, observing a 10-degree-wide field containing at least 4.5 million stars. Kepler is focusing on approximately 156,000 stars for the purposes of its research. Kepler scientists have found 105 new planets around other stars, and the mission’s data archive has evidence for more than 2,700 planet candidates.

January 30, 2013December 23, 2015 by Jason Major

Lighting Up Andromeda’s Coldest Rings

Cold rings of dust are illuminated in this image taken by Herschel’s Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) instrument. Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/B. Schulz (NHSC)

Looking wispy and delicate from 2.5 million light-years away, cold rings of dust are seen swirling around the Andromeda galaxy in this new image from the Herschel Space Observatory, giving us yet another fascinating view of our galaxy’s largest neighbor.

The colors in the image correspond to increasingly warmer temperatures and concentrations of dust — blue rings are warmer, while pinks and reds are colder lanes of dust only slightly above absolute zero. Dark at shorter wavelengths, these dust rings are revealed by Herschel’s amazing sensitivity to the coldest regions of the Universe.

The image above shows data only from Herschel’s SPIRE (Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver) instrument; below is a mosaic made from SPIRE as well as the Photodetecting Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) instrument:

“Cool Andromeda” Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS & SPIRE Consortium, O. Krause, HSC, H. Linz

Estimated to be 200,000 light-years across — almost double the width of the Milky Way — Andromeda (M31) is home to nearly a trillion stars, compared to the 200–400 billion that are in our galaxy. And within these cold, dark rings of dust even more stars are being born… Andromeda’s star-making days are far from over.

Herschel’s mission will soon be coming to an end as the telescope runs out of the liquid helium coolant required to keep its temperatures low enough to detect such distant heat signatures. This is expected to occur sometime in February or March.

Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission with science instruments provided by consortia of European institutes, and with important participation by NASA. Launched May 14, 2009, the telescope orbits the second Lagrange point of the Earth-Sun system (L2), located 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) from Earth. Read more from the Herschel mission here.

January 30, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophotos: Northern Lights Over Iceland

Northern Lights from Osar, Iceland 1-19-2013. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco.

Photographer Jack Fusco recently took a trip to Iceland, hoping to capture the unique Icelandic landscapes and night skies but ran into bad weather. “The weather wasn’t favorable for photography during the day and the skies completely cloud covered at night,” Jack said on Flickr, “and the last night I spent in Iceland was the only night that I was able to see the stars.” But what a night it was!

“I wasn’t completely sure what the Northern Lights would look like when I saw them, but when I first spotted them streaking across the sky I could hardly contain my excitement. I may not have gotten to photograph all of the spots that I had hoped, but on this night, for me, I felt like I truly had found something incredible,” he said, and the experience reminded him of Carl Sagan’s words, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

The Northern Lights fill the Icelandic Sky - 1-20-2013. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco. — The Northern Lights fill the Icelandic Sky on 1-20-2013. Credit and copyright: Jack Fusco.

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