Space and astronomy news
If these videos don’t get your heart pumping or your eyes misting, I don’t know what will. Let’s all cheer along with SpaceX on their incredible accomplishment today! As has been said on Twitter, these are the people who really powered today’s launch.
More below:
Continue reading “Awesome Videos: Cheer Along with SpaceX Employees”
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Here’s a great shot from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft of Mercury (top planet) and Jupiter snuggling up together, along with the Pleiades cluster, all close to Sun, as seen from SOHO’s LASCO C3 instrument (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph). SOHO has been in space since 1995, and is a workhorse of solar observing, giving us insights into the workings of the Sun, comets and other bodies in the Solar System. Check out the SOHO website for more great images.
Hat tip to @Sungrazercomets on Twitter.
[/caption]Following this morning’s (May 22) spectacular nighttime blastoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, human exploration of the cosmos embarked on a radical new course that will never be the same again.
The long awaited liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 3:44 a.m. lit up the Florida Space Coast for miles around as it roared off Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida on a history making mission bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
In a split second the page was turned to open a new era in humankinds exploration and exploitation of space that promises adventures to come that will one day be viewed as building a bridge from the dawn of the space age and the first human steps on the moon to starships that will one day ply the shores of interstellar space.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped by the Dragon cargo capsule thundered to space from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 3:44 am (May 22) and is now safely in orbit with solar arrays deployed and is chasing the ISS flying some 249 miles overhead.
“I congratulate SpaceX for just an absolutely amazing countdown, launch and orbit insertion today, said Bill Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “I’ve had the pleasure of working down here at the Cape with a lot of fantastic teams that have put together a lot of quality rockets and launched a lot of amazing things. I tell you, the SpaceX team, there is none better than this team that has really done a phenomenal job today.”
The on time Falcon 9 blastoff came three days after the first launch attempt was aborted a T Minus 0 when a computer automatically shutdown the already firing engines as it detected a high chamber pressure in one of the nine first stage Merlin 1 C engines.
“Every bit of adrenaline in my body released at that moment,” said Elon Musk to reporters at the post launch media briefing about the moment the rocket lifted off the pad. Musk is the founder, CEO and chief designer of SpaceX. “People were really giving it their all. For us, it was like winning the Super Bowl.”
Dragon will be the first private spacecraft that will rendezvous and dock with the ISS. After conducting a complicated series of rendezvous tests and maneuvers, docking is expected on day 4 of the mission on Friday morning EDT, May 26.
“There’s still a thousand things that have to go right, but we are looking forward to this exciting mission,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program.
Dragon will fly within range of the robotic arm. NASA Astronaut Don Pettit will grapple it and berth the Dragon on the earth facing side of the Harmony module.
NASA TV will provide live docking coverage
Do you believe in Dragons? In a spectacular night launch, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule is now heading for the first commercial rendezvous at the International Space Station. With an official launch time of 07:44:38 UTC/3:44:38 a.m. EDT, the Dragon capsule is now safely in orbit with its solar array wings deployed, and the mission begins for the COTS-2/3 cargo delivery demonstration mission.
“Falcon flew perfectly!! Dragon in orbit, comm locked and solar arrays active!! Feels like a giant weight just came off my back :),” Tweeted Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era in exploration,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, following the launch. “A private company has launched a spacecraft to the International Space Station that will attempt to dock there for the first time. And while there is a lot of work ahead to successfully complete this mission, we are certainly off to good start… This demonstrates the future of American space exploration, to have private industry provide for access to low Earth orbit while NASA goes off and does what it does best in exploring beyond in our solar system. It’s a great day for America, a great day for the world because there were people who thought that we were going away. We are not going away at all. The SpaceX/NASA team came through with flying colors.”
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“The entire team at SpaceX and at NASA should be commended for their success on this third test flight of the Falcon 9 rocket,” said former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is now the President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “The preparations and precautions taken by SpaceX and NASA in months past have contributed to their exemplary performance today. After seeing the smooth launch SpaceX just executed, it is easy to forget that this is indeed rocket science.”
The Falcon 9 appeared to fly flawlessly, and after the crucial moment of solar array deploy, there were hugs and cheers all around in SpaceX’s mission control room.
The rendezvous at the ISS will happen on May 25, with the Canadarm2 grapple occurring at 12:06 GMT (8:06 a.m. EDT) on the 25th.
NASA has updated their Satellite Sightings page to include when the Dragon will be visible in the night skies.
The White House issued a statement from John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology: “Congratulations to the teams at SpaceX and NASA for this morning’s successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Every launch into space is a thrilling event, but this one is especially exciting because it represents the potential of a new era in American spaceflight. Partnering with U.S. companies such as SpaceX to provide cargo and eventually crew service to the International Space Station is a cornerstone of the President’s plan for maintaining America’s leadership in space. This expanded role for the private sector will free up more of NASA’s resources to do what NASA does best — tackle the most demanding technological challenges in space, including those of human space flight beyond low Earth orbit. I could not be more proud of our NASA and SpaceX scientists and engineers, and I look forward to following this and many more missions like it.”
We’ll have more details and images from Ken Kremer and our group of photographers, live from Kennedy Space Center.
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While many of us here on Earth were waiting for the Moon to take a bite out of the Sun this past Sunday, Cassini was doing some moon watching of its own, 828.5 million miles away!
The image above is a color-composite raw image of Methone (pronounced meh-tho-nee), a tiny, egg-shaped moon only 2 miles (3 km) across. Discovered by Cassini in 2004, Methone’s orbit lies between Mimas and Enceladus, at a distance of 120,546 miles (194,000 km) from Saturn — that’s about half the distance between Earth and the Moon.
At an altitude of 1,200 miles (1900 km) this was Cassini’s closest pass ever of Methone, a rare visit that occurred after the spacecraft departed the much larger Tethys.
Along with sister moons Pallene and Anthe, Methone is part of a group called the Alkyonides, named after daughters of the god Alkyoneus in Greek mythology. The three moons may be leftovers from a larger swarm of bodies that entered into orbit around Saturn — or they may be pieces that broke off from either Mimas or Enceladus.
Earlier on Sunday, May 20, Cassini paid a relatively close visit to Tethys (pronounced tee-this), a 662-mile (1065-km) -wide moon made almost entirely of ice. One of the most extensively cratered worlds in the Solar System, Tethys’ surface is dominated by craters of all sizes — from the tiniest to the giant 250-mile (400-km) -wide Odysseus crater — as well as gouged by the enormous Ithaca Chasma, a series of deep valleys running nearly form pole to pole.
Cassini passed within 34,000 miles (54,000 km) of Tethys on May 20, before heading to Methone and then moving on to its new path toward Titan, a trajectory that will eventually take it up out of Saturn’s equatorial plane into a more inclined orbit in order to better image details of the rings and Saturn’s poles.
Read more about this flyby on the Cassini mission site here. and see more raw images straight from the spacecraft on the CICLOPS imaging lab site here.
Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. (Color-composite image edited by J. Major.)
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Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Here’s hoping you had an opportunity to witness yesterday’s eclipse! Even the partial phase here in Ohio was exciting… and to be able to watch virtually via live feeds was equally impressive! The week begins with dark skies and deep studies. Get up early to enjoy the apparition of Jupiter and Mercury just ahead of the rising Sun and check out Venus as it dances near the Earthshine Moon. When you’re ready to observe, meet me in the back yard!
Monday, May 21 – In 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy launches the country on a journey to the Moon as he makes one of his most famous speeches to Congress: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space…”
Tonight we’ll take an exploration of space as we study an interacting pair of galaxies. All that is required is that you find 31 Corvii, an unaided eye star west of Gamma and Epsilon Corvii. Now we’re ready to nudge the scope about one degree north. The 11th magnitude NGC 4038/39 (Right Ascension: 12 : 01.9 – Declination: -18 : 52) is a tight, but superior pair of interacting galaxies. Often referred to as either the “Ringtail” or the “Antenna”, this pair deeply captured the public’s imagination when photographed by the Hubble. (Unfortunately, we don’t have the Hubble – that’s why I used a more “natural image”, but what we have is set of optics and the patience to find them.) At low power the pair presents two very stellar core regions surrounded by a curiously shaped nebulosity. Now, drop the power on it and practice patience – because it’s worth it! When that perfect moment of clarity arrives, we have crackling structure. Unusual, clumpy, odd arms appear at strong aversion. Behind all this is a galactic “sheen” that hints at all the beauty seen in the Hubble photographs. It’s a tight little fellow, but worth every moment it takes to find it.
Tuesday, May 22 – Celestial scenery alert! If you’re up before dawn this morning, look for the very close pairing of Jupiter and Mercury racing together just ahead of sunrise. The disparate pair will be less than half a degree apart. It’s worth getting up early for!
Tonight the slender crescent Moon will make a very brief appearance at dusk along the western skyline. If your atmosphere is very steady, why not set the telescope down on it and look for some very unusual features that will soon wash out as the Sun overtakes the moonscape. Almost central along the eastern lunar limb, look for Mare Smythii and Mare Marginis to its north. Between them you will see the long oval crater Neper bordered by Jansky at the very limb. And speaking of the limb, did you notice bright Venus accompanying the Moon? It’s a splendid conjunction and well worth alerting friends, family and neighbors to watch for! But don’t delay… The pair will set quickly!
Now let’s visit a galaxy very similar to our own Milky Way – NGC 2903 (Right Ascension: 9 : 32.2 – Declination: +21 : 30). Located less than two degrees south of Lambda Leonis, this magnificent 9.0 magnitude barred spiral can be spotted with binoculars from a dark location, and is easily seen in a small scope.
While NGC 2903’s size and central bar closely resemble our own galaxy’s structure, the Hubble Space Telescope crossed the 25 million light-year gap and found evidence of young globular clusters in its galactic halo – unlike our own old structures. This widespread star forming region is believed to be attributed to the gravity of the central bar. Small telescopes will show the bar as a lateral concentration across the central structure, while larger apertures will reveal spiral arms and condensed regions of innumerable stars.
Wednesday, May 23 – Tonight the Moon is a little bit older and brilliantly lit with earthshine. Power up and let’s go look for crater named for historian and theologian Denis Petau – Petavius!
Located almost centrally along the terminator in the southeast quadrant, a lot will depend tonight on your viewing time and the age the moon itself. Perhaps when you look, you’ll see 177 kilometer diameter Petavius cut in half by the terminator. If so, this is a great time to take a close look at the small range of mountain peaks contained in its center as well as a deep rima which runs for 80 kilometers across its otherwise fairly smooth surface. To the east lies a long furrow in the landscape. This deep runnel is Palitzsch and its Valles. While the primary crater that forms this deep gash is only 41 kilometers wide, the valley itself stretches for 110 kilometers. Look for crater Haas on Petavius’ southern edge with Snellius to the southwest and Wrottesley along its northwest wall.
Now let’s have a look at Iota Virginis. While there is nothing particularly special about this spectral F type star, it does reside in a very interesting field for low power. Enjoy the colors!
Thursday, May 24 – If you chose to scope tonight, we’re going in search of another lunar club challenge that will prove difficult because you’ll be working without a map. Relax! This will be much easier than you think. Starting at Mare Crisium, move along the terminator to the north following the chain of craters until you identify a featureless oval that looks similar to Plato seen on a curve. This is Endymion…and if you can’t spot it tonight don’t worry. We’ll take a look in the days ahead at some features that will point you to it!
While the Moon is still west, let’s have a look at telescopic star W Virginis located about three and a half degrees southwest of Zeta (RA 13 26 01.99 Dec -03 22 43.4). This 11,000 light-year distant Cepheid type variable is oddly enough a Population II star that lies outside the galactic plane. This expanding and contracting star goes through its changes in a little over 17 days and will vary between 8th and 9th magnitude. Although it is undeniably a Cepheid, it breaks the rules by being both out of place in the cosmic scheme and displaying abnormal spectral qualities!
Friday, May 25 – Tonight let’s take our own journey to the Moon as we look at a beautiful series of craters – Fabricius, Metius and Rheita.
Bordered on the south by shallow Jannsen, lunar club challenge Fabricius is a 78 kilometer diameter crater highlighted by two small interior mountain ranges. To its northeast is Metius, which is slightly larger with a diameter of 88 kilometers. Look carefully at the two. Metius has much steeper walls, while Fabricius shows differing levels and heights. Metius’ smooth floor also contains a very prominent B crater on the inside of its southeast crater wall. Further northeast is the lovely Rheita Valley which stretches almost 500 kilometers and appears more like a series of confluent craters than a fault line. 70 kilometer diameter crater Rheita is far younger than this formation because it intrudes upon it. Look for a bright point inside the crater which is its central peak.
Now let’s go revisit Omega Centauri. At magnitude 3.7, NGC 5139 (Right Ascension: 13 : 26.8 – Declination: -47 : 29) is one of the few studies in the night sky receiving a Greek letter despite being decidedly “unstarlike!”
Recorded by Ptolemy as a star, given the designation “Omega” by Bayer, and first noted as non-stellar by Edmond Halley in 1677, J.L.E. Dreyer went on to add three exclamation marks (!!!) to his abbreviated description after including it as entry 5139 in the 1888 New General Catalogue. As the largest globular cluster in our own galaxy, this 5 million solar mass “star of stars” contains more matter than Sagittarius A – the supermassive black hole on which the Milky Way pivots. Omega’s mass is greater than some dwarf galaxies. Of the more than thirty galaxies associated with our Local Group, only the Great Andromeda possesses a globular (G1) brighter than Omega!
Saturday, May 26 – Tonight the Moon will be our companion. Now well risen above atmospheric disturbance, this would be a great time to have a look for several lunar club challenges that you might have missed.
Most prominent of all will be two craters to the north named Atlas and Hercules. The eastern-most Atlas was named for the mythical figure which bore the weight of the world on his shoulders, and the crater spans 87 kilometers and contains a vivid Y-shaped rima in the interior basin. Western Hercules is considerably smaller at 69 kilometers in diameter and shows a deep interior crater called G. Power up and look for the tiny E crater which marks the southern crater rim. North of both is another unusual feature which many observers miss. It is a much more eroded and far older crater which only shows a basic outline and is only known as Atlas E.
If you want to continue with tests of resolution, why not visit Theta Virginis? It might look as close as the Moon, but it’s only 415 light-years away from Earth! The primary star is a white A-type subgiant, but it’s also a spectroscopic binary of two companions which orbit each other about every 14 years. In turn, this is orbited by a 9th magnitude F-type star which is a close 7.1 arc-seconds away from the primary. Look for the fourth member of the Theta Virginis system well away at 70 arc-seconds, but shining at a feeble magnitude 10.4.
Sunday, May 27 – Tonight no two lunar features in the north will be more prominent than Aristoteles and Eudoxus. Why not revisit them? Viewable even in small binoculars, let’s take a closer look at larger Aristoteles to the north.
As a Class 1 crater, this ancient old beauty has some of the most massive walls of all lunar features. Named for the great philosopher, it stretches across 87 kilometers of lunar landscape and drops below the average surface to a depth of 366 meters – a height which is similar to Earth’s tallest waterfall, the Silver Cord Cascade. While it has a few scattered interior peaks, the crater floor remains almost unscarred. As a telescopic lunar club challenge, be sure to look for a much older crater that sits on Aristoteles eastern edge. Tiny Mitchell is extremely shallow by comparison and only spans 30 kilometers. Look carefully at the formation, for although Aristoteles overlaps Mitchell, the smaller crater is actually part of the vast system of ridges which supports the larger.
When you’re done, let’s have a look at another delightful pair that’s joined together – Gamma Virginis…
Better known as Porrima, this is one cool binary with almost equal spectral types and brightnesses. Discovered by Bradley and Pound in 1718, John Herschel was the first to predict this pair’s orbit in 1833 and state that one day they would become inseparable to all but the very largest of telescopes – and he was right. In 1920 the A and B stars had reached their maximum separation, and during 2007 they will be as close together as they will ever be. Observed as a single star in 1836 by William Herschel, its 171 year periastron will put Porrima in the exact position now as it was when Sir William saw it!
Until next week? Ask for the Moon… But keep on reaching for the stars!
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SpaceX engineers have successfully replaced a faulty valve in a first stage engine that triggered a launch abort on May 19 and that now clears the way for a second launch attempt of the firms Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft in the overnight hours early on Tuesday, May 22.
Litfoff of the Falcon 9/Dragon duo on the first private rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS) is slated for 3:44 AM on May 22 on the historic test flight mision dubbed COTS 2.
“We are ready for blastoff on May 22,” SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Grantham told Universe Today during an interview at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida earlier today as the Falcon 9 rocket was standing erect at the pad under a brilliant blue sky.
“The work to replace a faulty nitrogen engine valve is complete and took just a few hours,” Grantham confirmed to me.
After a thorough inspection of the vehicle and analysis of the repair, the SpaceX team cleared the rocket for launch. The rocket remained vertical during the repair work.
The weather forecast has improved markedly to an 80% chance of favorable conditions at launch time because the chance of rain showers has decreased. The primary concern is for cumulus clouds.
The launch will be broadcast live on NASA TV and via SpaceX Webcast at http://spacex.com
As on May 19, the launch window is instantaneous meaning SpaceX has just a fraction of a second to get the vehicle off the ground and there is no chance to recycle to a later launch time on the same day.
“The next possibility to launch after May 22 is on May 25,” said Grantham in the event of a scrub on Tuesday. “We could not reserve May 23 due to a conflict with Air Force requirements.”
The two stage Falcon 9 rocket is 157 feet tall. The first stage generates a million pounds of thrust from nine Merlin 1 C engines configured in a 3 by 3 by 3 arrangement.
The May 19 launch was aborted in a split second by the flight computer just 0.5 seconds before liftoff when they detected a slightly high pressure in the combustion chamber of engine number 5 located at the center of the first stage core.
If the launch proceeds as planned, the Dragon will separate from the Falcon 9 second stage some nine minutes after liftoff. Over the next two days, Dragon will close in on the ISS and then perform a series of complicated and stringent rendezvous and abort tests that bring the vehicle to within 1.5 miles and prove it can safely dock at the ISS and pull away in an emergency to prevent any chance of crashing into the ISS.
If NASA is satisfied with the test results, Dragon will be grappled with the robotic arm by US Astronaut Don Pettit and berthed at a port on the ISS on May 25. Astronauts would open the hatch on May 26 and begin unloading the nearly 1200 pounds of cargo consisting of non-critical items such as food, water, clothing and science experiments.
This is the first third test flight of the Falcon 9 rocket and the first test flight of the Dragon in this vastly upgraded configuration with solar panels.
Only four entities have ever sent a spacecraft to dock at the ISS – the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Union.
If successful, SpaceX will open a new era in spaceflight by giving birth to the first fully commercial mission to the orbiting space station complex and unlock vast new possibilities for its utilization in science and exploration.
SpaceX is under contract with NASA to conduct twelve Falcon 9/Dragon resupply missions to carry about 44,000 pounds of cargo to the ISS for a cost of some $1.6 Billion over the next few years.
The purpose of Dragon is to carry supplies to the ISS and partially replace the cargo capabilities of NASA’s now retired space shuttle. Dragon is a commercial spacecraft designed and developed by SpaceX that will eventually blast astronauts to space.
We’ve added loads of images and videos to our eclipse gallery from last night annular solar eclipse, but this one stands on its own. An amazing timelapse video by Cory Poole was made from 700 photographs taken with a Coronado Solar Max 60 Double Stack telescope. Usually, the chromosphere can’t usually be seen due to the overwhelming brightness of the photosphere, and to see it requires special equipment. Thankfully, Poole has it: “The Telescope has a very narrow bandpass allowing you to see the chromosphere and not the much brighter photosphere below it,” Poole wrote on YouTube. Additionally, the special hydrogen alpha filter Poole used “only allows light that is created when hydrogen atoms go from the 2nd excited state to the 1st excited state.”
The chromosphere is the red circle around the outside of the Sun; its red coloring is caused by the abundance of hydrogen. Watch how the chromosphere appears along the outline of the Moon, too!
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Recent reports of dark matter’s demise may be greatly exaggerated, according to a new paper from researchers at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Astronomers with the European Southern Observatory announced in April a surprising lack of dark matter in the galaxy within the vicinity of our solar system.
The ESO team, led by Christian Moni Bidin of the Universidad de Concepción in Chile, mapped over 400 stars near our Sun, spanning a region approximately 13,000 light-years in radius. Their report identified a quantity of material that matched what could be directly observed: stars, gas, and dust… but no dark matter.
“Our calculations show that it should have shown up very clearly in our measurements,” Bidin had stated, “but it was just not there!”
But other scientists were not so sure about some assumptions the ESO team had based their calculations upon.
Researchers Jo Bovy and Scott Tremaine from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, have submitted a paper claiming that the results reported by Moni Biden et al are “incorrect”, and based on an “invalid assumption” of the motions of stars within — and above — the plane of the galaxy.
(Read: Astronomers Witness a Web of Dark Matter)
“The main error is that they assume that the mean azimuthal (or rotational) velocity of their tracer population is independent of Galactocentric cylindrical radius at all heights,” Bovy and Tremaine state in their paper. “This assumption is not supported by the data, which instead imply only that the circular speed is independent of radius in the mid-plane.”
The researchers point out the stars within the local neighborhood move slower than the average velocity assumed by the ESO team, in a behavior called asymmetric drift. This lag varies with a cluster’s position within the galaxy, but, according to Bovy and Tremaine, “this variation cannot be measured for the sample [used by Moni Biden’s team] as the data do not span a large enough range.”
When the IAS researchers took Moni Biden’s observations but replaced the ESO team’s “invalid” assumptions on star movement within and above the galactic plane with their own “data-driven” ones, the dark matter reappeared.
“Our analysis shows that the locally measured density of dark matter is consistent with that extrapolated from halo models constrained at Galactocentric distances,” Bovy and Tremaine report.
As such, the dark matter that was thought to be there, is there. (According to the math, that is.)
And, the two researchers add, it’s not only there but it’s there in denser amounts than average — at least in the area around our Sun.
“The halo density at the Sun, which is the relevant quantity for direct dark matter detection experiments, is likely to be larger because of gravitational focusing by the disk,” Bovy and Tremaine note.
When they factored in their data-driven calculations on stellar velocities and the movement of the halo of non-baryonic material that is thought to envelop the Milky Way, they found that “the dark matter density in the mid-plane is enhanced… by about 20%.”
So rather than a “serious blow” to the existence of dark matter, the findings by Bovy and Tremaine — as well as Moni Biden and his team — may have not only found dark matter, but given us 20% more!
Now that’s a good value.
Read the IAS team’s full paper here.
(Tip of the non-baryonic hat to Christopher Savage, post-doctorate researcher at the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics at Stockholm University for the heads up on the paper.)
Most of our regular readers understand why astronauts and objects appear to float around on the International Space Station, but there are some misconceptions and preconceived notions out there on this topic that aren’t true and which don’t represent a very good understanding of physics! This video provides an entertaining look at some of the ideas people have about the zero-gravity environment on board an orbiting spacecraft, and shows why the astronauts actually appear weightless.
But let’s discuss it, too:
Continue reading “Why Are Astronauts Weightless in Space?”