Universe Today

January 18, 2011December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

More Asteroids Could Have Made Life’s Ingredients

This artist's concept uses hands to illustrate the left and right-handed versions of the amino acid isovaline. Credit: NASA/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

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A wider range of asteroids were capable of creating the kind of amino acids used by life on Earth, according to new NASA research. Amino acids are used to build proteins, which are used by life to make structures like hair and nails, and to speed up or regulate chemical reactions. Amino acids come in two varieties that are mirror images of each other, like your hands. Life on Earth uses the left-handed kind exclusively. Since life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, scientists are trying to find out why Earth-based life favored left-handed amino acids.

In March, 2009, researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., reported the discovery of an excess of the left-handed form of the amino acid isovaline in samples of meteorites that came from carbon-rich asteroids. This suggests that perhaps left-handed life got its start in space, where conditions in asteroids favored the creation of left-handed amino acids. Meteorite impacts could have supplied this material, enriched in left-handed molecules, to Earth. The bias toward left-handedness would have been perpetuated as this material was incorporated into emerging life.

In the new research, the team reports finding excess left-handed isovaline (L-isovaline) in a much wider variety of carbon-rich meteorites. “This tells us our initial discovery wasn’t a fluke; that there really was something going on in the asteroids where these meteorites came from that favors the creation of left-handed amino acids,” says Dr. Daniel Glavin of NASA Goddard. Glavin is lead author of a paper about this research published online in Meteoritics and Planetary Science January 17.

This is a photo of a carbon-rich meteorite analyzed in the study. Credit: Antarctic Meteorite Laboratory/NASA Johnson Space Center

“This research builds on over a decade of work on excesses of left-handed isovaline in carbon-rich meteorites,” said Dr. Jason Dworkin of NASA Goddard, a co-author on the paper.

“Initially, John Cronin and Sandra Pizzarello of Arizona State University showed a small but significant excess of L-isovaline in two CM2 meteorites. Last year we showed that L-isovaline excesses appear to track with the history of hot water on the asteroid from which the meteorites came. In this work we have studied some exceptionally rare meteorites which witnessed large amounts of water on the asteroid. We were gratified that the meteorites in this study corroborate our hypothesis,” explained Dworkin.

L-isovaline excesses in these additional water-altered type 1 meteorites (i.e. CM1 and CR1) suggest that extra left-handed amino acids in water-altered meteorites are much more common than previously thought, according to Glavin. Now the question is what process creates extra left-handed amino acids. There are several options, and it will take more research to identify the specific reaction, according to the team.

However, “liquid water seems to be the key,” notes Glavin. “We can tell how much these asteroids were altered by liquid water by analyzing the minerals their meteorites contain. The more these asteroids were altered, the greater the excess L-isovaline we found. This indicates some process involving liquid water favors the creation of left-handed amino acids.”

Another clue comes from the total amount of isovaline found in each meteorite. “In the meteorites with the largest left-handed excess, we find about 1,000 times less isovaline than in meteorites with a small or non-detectable left-handed excess. This tells us that to get the excess, you need to use up or destroy the amino acid, so the process is a double-edged sword,” says Glavin.

Whatever it may be, the water-alteration process only amplifies a small existing left-handed excess, it does not create the bias, according to Glavin. Something in the pre-solar nebula (a vast cloud of gas and dust from which our solar system, and probably many others, were born) created a small initial bias toward L-isovaline and presumably many other left-handed amino acids as well.

One possibility is radiation. Space is filled with objects like massive stars, neutron stars, and black holes, just to name a few, that produce many kinds of radiation. It’s possible that the radiation encountered by our solar system in its youth made left-handed amino acids slightly more likely to be created, or right-handed amino acids a bit more likely to be destroyed, according to Glavin.

It’s also possible that other young solar systems encountered different radiation that favored right-handed amino acids. If life emerged in one of these solar systems, perhaps the bias toward right-handed amino acids would be built in just as it may have been for left-handed amino acids here, according to Glavin.

The research was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), which is administered by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.; the NASA Cosmochemistry program, the Goddard Center for Astrobiology, and the NASA Post Doctoral Fellowship program. The team includes Glavin, Dworkin, Dr. Michael Callahan, and Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA Goddard.

January 18, 2011December 24, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

Mercury Mapper Is Really Hot Stuff

BepiColombo's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) in the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC, The Netherlands. The octagonal spacecraft is Japan’s contribution to BepiColombo and will explore Mercury's magnetic field. Credits: ESA/JAXA

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Most of us have heard the expression “hot enough to cook eggs on the sidewalk”, but have we really thought about what kind of technology it would take to send a probe to Mercury? Just what kind of tests would we need to do to ensure a spacecraft could endure the kind of temperatures present while in orbit of the inner planet? It’s going to take more than a microwave set on high to find out…

According to ESA’s press release, the key components of the ESA-led Mercury mapper BepiColombo have been tested in a specially upgraded European space simulator. ESA’s Large Space Simulator is now the most powerful in the world and the only facility capable of reproducing Mercury’s hellish environment for a full-scale spacecraft. The Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) has survived a simulated voyage to the innermost planet. The octagonal spacecraft, which is Japan’s contribution to BepiColombo, and its ESA sunshield withstood temperatures higher than 350 degrees C. Worse than a Ohio August day!

BepiColombo_Testing_H1 — The Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) is tested inside ESA's Large Space Simulator. The octagonal spacecraft is Japan’s contribution to BepiColombo, and must survive temperatures of 350°C. Credits: ESA/JAXA

This is a taste of things to come for the spacecraft. BepiColombo will encounter fully ten times the radiation power received by a satellite in orbit around Earth and, to simulate this, the Large Space Simulator (LSS) at ESA’s ESTEC center in the Netherlands had to be specially adapted. Engineers talk about the power of the Sun in units called the solar constant. This is how much energy is received every second through a square meter of space at the distance of Earth’s orbit. “Previously, the LSS was capable of simulating a solar constant or two. Now it has been upgraded to produce ten solar constants,” says Jan van Casteren, ESA BepiColombo project manager.

The improvements have been achieved in two ways: the lamps from the simulators are being used at their maximum power and the mirrors that focus the beam have been adjusted. (Think magnifying glass focusing the Sun. We’ve all done it!) Instead of producing a parallel beam of light 6 m across, they now concentrate the light into a cone just 2.7 m in diameter when it reaches the spacecraft. This creates a beam so fierce that a new shroud with a larger cooling capacity had to be installed to ‘catch’ the light that missed the spacecraft and prevent the chamber walls from heating up. BepiColombo consists of separate modules. The MMO will investigate the magnetic environment of Mercury. It is kept cool during its six-year cruise to Mercury by the sunshield. These are the two modules that have now completed their thermal tests. “The sunshield test was successful. Its function to protect the MMO spacecraft during the cruise phase was demonstrated,” says Jan.

VUE_ORBIT_MPO_MMO_H — BepiColombo consists of two spacecraft that will orbit Mercury. The Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) follows a larger orbit and investigates the planet's magnetic field. The Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) traces a lower orbit and is designed to study the planet itself. Credits: ESA, C. Carreau

Once at Mercury, most of the Sun’s fearsome heat will be prevented from entering BepiColombo by special thermal blankets. They consist of multiple layers including a white ceramic outer layer and several metallic layers to reflect as much heat as possible back into space. “The tests allowed us to measure the thermal blanket’s performance. The results allow us to prepare some adjustments for the tests of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter next year,” says Jan.

In addition to enduring temperatures of 350 degrees C, ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) will go where no spacecraft has gone before: down into a low elliptical orbit around Mercury, of between just 400 km and 1500 km above the planet’s scorching surface. At that proximity, Mercury is worse than a hot plate on a cooker, releasing floods of infrared radiation into space. So, the MPO will have to deal with this as well as the solar heat. The MPO begins its tests in the LSS in the summer.

Summer? What a perfect season to begin!

January 18, 2011December 24, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

Sun Plays A Major Role In Climate Change

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It’s not often I voice my opinion on climate change without sounding like a tree-hugger or a total kook. However, in this circumstance I had an opportunity to read about some findings that hit home with my own personal thoughts and I figured you might like to know, too.

According to the latest American Astronomical Society Press Release, “Scientists have taken a major step toward accurately determining the amount of energy that the Sun provides to Earth, and how variations in that energy may contribute to climate change. In a new study of laboratory and satellite data, researchers report a lower value of that energy, known as total solar irradiance, than previously measured and demonstrate that the satellite instrument that made the measurement — which has a new optical design and was calibrated in a new way — has significantly improved the accuracy and consistency of such measurements. The new findings give confidence, the researchers say, that other, newer satellites expected to launch starting early this year will measure total solar irradiance with adequate repeatability — and with little enough uncertainty — to help resolve the long-standing question of how significant a contributor solar fluctuations are to the rising average global temperature of the planet.

“Improved accuracies and stabilities in the long-term total solar irradiance record mean improved estimates of the Sun’s influence on Earth’s climate,” said Greg Kopp of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) of the University of Colorado Boulder. Kopp, who led the study, and Judith Lean of the Naval Research Laboratory, in Washington, D.C., published their findings today in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The new work will help advance scientists’ ability to understand the contribution of natural versus anthropogenic causes of climate change, the scientists said. That’s because the research improves the accuracy of the continuous, 32-year record of total solar irradiance, or TSI. Energy from the Sun is the primary energy input driving Earth’s climate, which scientific consensus indicates has been warming since the Industrial Revolution.

Lean specializes in the effects of the Sun on climate and space weather. She said, “Scientists estimating Earth’s climate sensitivities need accurate and stable solar irradiance records to know exactly how much warming to attribute to changes in the Sun’s output, versus anthropogenic or other natural forcings.” The new, lower TSI value was measured by the LASP-built Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) instrument on the NASA Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft. Tests at a new calibration facility at LASP verify the lower TSI value. The ground- based calibration facility enables scientists to validate their instruments under on-orbit conditions against a reference standard calibrated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Before the development of the calibration facility, solar irradiance instruments would frequently return different measurements from each other, depending on their calibration. To maintain a long-term record of the Sun’s output through time, scientists had to rely on overlapping measurements that allowed them to intercalibrate among instruments.

Kopp said, “The calibration facility indicates that the TIM is producing the most accurate total solar irradiance results to date, providing a baseline value that allows us to make the entire 32-year record more accurate. This baseline value will also help ensure that we can maintain this important climate data record for years into the future, reducing the risks from a potential gap in spacecraft measurements.” Lean said, “We are eager to see how this lower irradiance value affects global climate models, which use various parameters to reproduce current climate: incoming solar radiation is a decisive factor. An improved and extended solar data record will make it easier for us to understand how fluctuations in the Sun’s energy output over time affect temperatures, and how Earth’s climate responds to radiative forcing.” Lean’s model, which is now adjusted to the new lower absolute TSI values, reproduces with high fidelity the TSI variations that TIM observes and indicates that solar irradiance levels during the recent prolonged solar minimum period were likely comparable to levels in past solar minima. Using this model, Lean estimates that solar variability produces about 0.1 degree Celsius (0.18 degree Fahrenheit) global warming during the 11-year solar cycle, but is likely not the main cause of global warming in the past three decades.”

I think the new findngs are awesome. For one, we really haven’t been studying our weather with any great accuracy or scientific instruments for that long – only about 5 decades. For those of us who enjoy viewing sunspots, you also might have noticed that when sunspot activity is high, it really does seem to affect our weather – especially cloud cover. Global warming is real, and there is no doubt that mankind has contributed to it. However, take solar findings very much to heart because my opinion is the Sun plays a more important role in our climate than we could have ever dreamed possible.

Original Source: American Geophysical Union – Image Courtesy of NASA

January 18, 2011December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Most Exoplanetary Solar Systems Have Inclined Orbits

Illustration of the HAT-P-11 System Based on Observations from Subaru Telescope. The planet orbits the star in a highly inclined orbit.

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From a press release by the Subaru Telescope and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan:

A research team led by astronomers from the University of Tokyo and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has discovered that inclined orbits may be typical rather than rare for exoplanetary systems — those outside of our solar system. Their measurements of the angles between the axes of the star’s rotation (stellar rotational axis) and the planet’s orbit (planetary orbital axis) of exoplanets HAT-P-11b and XO-4b demonstrate that these exoplanets’ orbits are highly tilted. This is the first time that scientists have measured the angle for a small planet like HAT-P-11 b. The new findings provide important observational indicators for testing different theoretical models of how the orbits of planetary systems have evolved.

Since the discovery of the first exoplanet in 1995, scientists have identified more than 500 exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system, nearly all of which are giant planets. Most of these giant exoplanets closely orbit their host stars, unlike our solar system’s giant planets, like Jupiter, that orbit the Sun from a distance. Accepted theories propose that these giant planets originally formed from abundant planet-forming materials far from their host stars and then migrated to their current close locations. Different migration processes have been suggested to explain close-in giant exoplanets.

Disk-planet interaction models of migration focus on interactions between the planet and its protoplanetary disk, the disk from which it originally formed. Sometimes these interactions between the protoplanetary disk and the forming planet result in forces that make the planet fall toward the central star. This model predicts that the spin axis of the star and the orbital axis of the planet will be in alignment with each other.

Schematic Diagram of the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) Effect. Copyright © Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)

Planet-planet interaction models of migration have focused on mutual scatterings among giant planets. Migration can occur from planet scattering, when multiple planets scatter during the creation of two or more giant planets within the protoplanetary disk. While some of the planets scatter from the system, the innermost one may establish a final orbit very close to the central star. Another planet-planet interaction scenario, Kozai migration, postulates that the long-term gravitational interaction between an inner giant planet and another celestial object such as a companion star or an outer giant planet over time may alter the planet’s orbit, moving an inner planet closer to the central star. Planet-planet migration interactions, including planet-planet scattering and Kozai migration, could produce an inclined orbit between the planet and the stellar axis.

Overall, the inclination of the orbital axes of close-in planets relative to the host stars’ spin axes emerges as a very important observational basis for supporting or refuting migration models upon which theories of orbital evolution center. A research group led by astronomers from the University of Tokyo and NAOJ concentrated their observations with the Subaru Telescope on investigating these inclinations for two systems known to have planets: HAT-P-11 and XO-4. The group measured the Rossiter-McLaughlin (hereafter, RM) effect of the systems and found evidence that their orbital axes incline relative to the spin axes of their host stars.

The RM effect refers to apparent irregularities in the radial velocity or speed of a celestial object in the observer’s line of sight during planetary transits. Unlike the spectral lines that are generally symmetrical in measures of radial velocity, those with the RM effect deviate into an asymmetrical pattern (see Figure 1). Such apparent variation in radial velocity during a transit reveals the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and planetary orbital axis. Subaru Telescope has participated in previous discoveries of the RM effect, which scientists have investigated for approximately thirty-five exoplanetary systems thus far.

In January 2010, a research team led by the current team’s astronomers from the University of Tokyo and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan used the Subaru Telescope to observe the planetary system XO-4, which lies 960 light years away from Earth in the Lynx region. The system’s planet is about 1.3 times as massive as Jupiter and has a circular orbit of 4.13 days. Their detection of the RM effect showed that the orbital axis of the planet XO-4 b tilts to the spin axis of the host star. Only the Subaru Telescope has measured the RM effect for this system so far.

In May and July 2010, the current research team conducted targeted observations of the HAT-P-11 exoplanetary system, which lies 130 light years away from the Earth toward the constellation Cygnus. The Neptune-sized planet HAT-P-11 b orbits its host star in a non-circular (eccentric) orbit of 4.89 days and is among the smallest exoplanets ever discovered. Until this research, scientists had only detected the RM effect for giant planets. The detection of the RM effect for smaller-sized planets is challenging because the signal of the RM effect is proportional to the size of the planet; the smaller the transiting planet, the fainter the signal.

;The team took advantage of the enormous light-collecting power of the Subaru Telescope’s 8.2m mirror as well as the precision of its High Dispersion Spectrograph. Their observations not only resulted it the first detection of the RM effect for a smaller Neptune-sized exoplanet but also provided evidence that the orbital axis of the planet inclines to the stellar spin axis by approximately 103 degrees in the sky. A research group in the U.S. used the Keck Telescope and made independent observations of the RM effect of the same system in May and August 2010; their results were similar to those from the University of Tokyo/NAOJ team’s May and July 2010 observations.

The current team’s observations of the RM effect for the planetary systems HAT-P-11 and XO-4 have shown that they have planetary orbits highly tilted to the spin axes of their host stars. The latest observational results about these systems, including those obtained independently of the findings reported here, suggest that such highly inclined planetary orbits may commonly exist in the universe. The planet-planet scenario of migration, whether caused by planet-planet scattering or Kozai migration, rather than the planet-disk scenario could account for their migration to the present locations.

However, measurements of the RM effect for individual systems cannot decisively discriminate between the migration scenarios. Statistical analysis can help scientists determine which, if any, process of migration is responsible for the highly inclined orbits of giant planets. Since different migration models predict different distributions of the angle between the stellar axis and planetary orbit, developing a large sample of the RM effect enables scientists to support the most plausible migration process. Inclusion of the measurements of the RM effect for such a small-sized planet as HAT-P-11 b in the sample will play an important role in discussions of planetary migration scenarios.

Many research groups are planning to make observations of the RM effect with telescopes around the world. The current team and the Subaru Telescope will play an integral role in investigations to come. Continuous observations of transiting exoplanetary systems will contribute to an understanding of the formation and migration history of planetary systems in the near future.

January 18, 2011January 19, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

NASA’s Top Movie Lists That Never Were

Just after the first of the year, a story came out that NASA had held a private meeting at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to discuss the movies Hollywood has been releasing, asking filmmakers “to stick to more rational plots.” Additionally, the article — which was widely passed around and republished on lots of big news sites — reported that the people at the meeting came up with two lists of movies: one was the top seven worst science fiction movies ever and the other was the seven most realistic science-based movies. Comments about the story ranged from disagreeing with the lists to, more importantly, people wondering why NASA suddenly taken on the task of being movie critics. It turns out, they didn’t.

“This was a case of spectacularly bad reporting,” said Don Yeomans, a senior research scientist at JPL, in an article on the Planetary Society blog by Charleen Anderson. “We would never be so foolish as to compile a list of the worst science-based films.”
Continue reading “NASA’s Top Movie Lists That Never Were”

January 18, 2011December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Double Moon Illusion

Enceladus and Dione, as seen by Cassini. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

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We’ve all experienced the Moon Illusion, where our own full Moon looks bigger when seen on the Earth’s horizon. But how about this illusion where you can’t really tell which of these two moons of Saturn is actually bigger, or which is closer, as seen by the Cassini spacecraft? Here, Dione, top right, appears closer to the spacecraft because it is larger than the moon Enceladus, lower left. However, Enceladus was actually closer to Cassini when its visible light, narrow-angle camera took this image.

Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles, across) is more than twice the size of Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles, across). The two moons are contrasted with Enceladus’ bright, reflective trailing hemisphere, and Dione’s darker, micrometeor-dusted side, decorated with wispy lighter materials.

Cassini took this image on Dec. 1, 2010 from about 510,000 kilometers (317,000 miles) from Enceladus and approximately 830,000 kilometers (516,000 miles) from Dione. Image scale is 3 kilometers (2 miles) per pixel on Enceladus and 5 kilometers (3 miles) per pixel on Dione.

Source: CICLOPS, the Cassini imaging website

January 18, 2011January 19, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

ISS Commander Discusses Arizona Shooting Tragedy

ISS Commander Scott Kelly, twin brother of astronaut Mark Kelly, spoke with various news agencies this morning about the shooting of his sister in-law, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Kelly was asked several times about the emotional trauma, etc., of the shooting and how he is coping. Scott Kelly confirmed he talks to his brother a couple of times a day, but that is not unusual. Asked about what words the two brothers share about Giffords’ current condition, the ISS Commander said, “We’re not touchy, feely kind of people, … we just talk about her condition, but we normally talk about things like we do regularly.” And later, Kelly was asked if he would like to be there at his brother’s side. “I’m kind of a realist,” he said. “I understand this is the situation I’m in. I would prefer to be there to support everyone, but the fact is that I can’t, even if it was a tragedy worse than this, there is no way I’m coming back to Earth before March 18. We know that going into a flight like this. I just continue to do my job and support my brother and family through the means we have through the station.”

January 18, 2011May 18, 2016 by Matt Williams

What Is The Double Slit Experiment?

Light… is it a particle or a wave? What fundamental mechanics govern the behavior of it? And most importantly, does the mere act of observation alter this behavior? This is the conundrum quantum physicists have been puzzling over for many centuries, ever since photon-wave mechanics was theorized and the Double Slit experiment was first conducted.

Also known as Young’s experiment, this involved particle beams or coherent waves passing through two closely-spaced slits, the purpose of which was to measure the resulting impacts on a screen behind them. In quantum mechanics the double-slit experiment demonstrated the inseparability of the wave and particle natures of light and other quantum particles.

The Double Slit Experiment was first conducting by Thomas Young back in 1803, although Sir Isaac Newton is said to have performed a similar experiment in his own time. During the original experiments, Newton shone light on a small hair, whereas Young used a slip of card with a slit cut into it. More recently, scientists have used a point light source to illuminate a thin plate with two parallel slits, and the light passing through the slits strikes a screen behind them.

Relying on classical particle theory, the results of the experiment should have corresponded to the slits, the impacts on the screen appearing in two vertical lines. However, this was not the case. The results showed in many circumstances a pattern of interference, something which could only occur if wave patterns had been involved.

Classical particles do not interfere with each other; they merely collide. If classical particles are fired in a straight line through a slit they will all strike the screen in a pattern the same size and shape as the slit. Where there are two open slits, the resulting pattern will simply be the sum of the two single-slit patterns (two vertical lines). But again and again, the experiment demonstrated that the coherent beams of light were interfering, creating a pattern of bright and dark bands on the screen.

However, the bands on the screen were always found to be absorbed as though it were composed of discrete particles (aka. photons). To make matters even more confusing, measuring devices were put in place to observe the photons as they passed through the slits. When this was done, the photons appeared in the form of particles and their impacts on the screen corresponded to the slits, tiny particle-sized spots distributed in straight vertical lines.

By placing an observation device in place, the wave function of the photons collapsed and the light behaved as classical particles once more! This could only be resolved by claiming that light behaves as both a particle and a wave, and that observing them causes the range of behavioral possibilities to narrow to the point where their behavior become predictable once more.

The Double Slit experiment not only gave rise to the particle-wave theory of photons, it also made scientists aware of the incredible, confounding world of quantum mechanics, where nothing is predictable, everything is relative, and the observer is no longer a passive subject, but an active participant with the power to change the outcome. For an animated demonstration of the Double Slit experiment, click here.

We have written many articles about the Double Slit Experiment for Universe Today. Here’s an a forum discussion about a home-made double slit experiment, and here’s an article about the wave-particle duality.

If you’d like more info on the double slit experiment, check out these articles from Physorg.com and Space.com.

We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about Quantum Mechanics. Listen here, Episode 138: Quantum Mechanics.

January 17, 2011December 24, 2015 by Ken Kremer

Holes in the Sun’s Corona in 2 D, 3 D and Video

Developing coronal holes. Two coronal holes that develop over several days stand out in this image taken of the Sun from SDO's AIA instrument on Jan. 12, 2010. Coronal holes are areas of the Sun's surface that are the source of open magnetic field lines that head way out into space. Credit: NASA

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A pair of coronal holes on the Sun newly imaged by NASA’s flagship solar probe, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) may cause auroral activity here on Earth soon.

The pair of holes were captured in images taken from Jan 9-12, 2011 by SDO’s AIA instrument in the extreme untraviolet (UV). The images – shown above and below – were also made into a cool timelapse video (shown below) of the rotating sun and were released by NASA as “SDO Pick of the Week” for Jan. 14, 2011.

SDO research results on the solar corona are featured as the cover photo and story for the current issue of Science magazine on Jan. 7, 2011. Updated

Science magazine Jan. 7 2011, COVER.
Multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the Sun taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly. Colors represent different gas temperatures: ~800,000 kelvin (K) (blue), ~1.3 million K (green), and ~2 million K (red). New observations reveal a link between hot plasma and jets propelled upward from the region immediately above the Sun's surface and help explain why the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is much hotter than its surface. Image: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA)
Click to enlarge all images

Coronal holes on the sun’s surface are the source of open magnetic field lines and are areas from which high-speed solar wind particles stream out into space. The fast solar wind travels at approximately 800 km/s (about 1.8 million mph). After traveling through space for a few days the particles will impact the Earth and may spark the formation of some auroral activity for lucky spectators.

The two holes developed over several days. In a video here, one hole is above the suns equator and the other is below. According to a NASA press release, the coronal holes appear dark at the extreme UV wavelength of 193 Angstroms because there is just less of the material – ionized iron- that is being imaged.

2 D Video: A Hole in the Sun’s Corona

Caption: This timelapse video shows a coronal hole, as captured in ultraviolet light by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory around Jan. 10, 2011. Coronal holes are areas of the sun’s surface that are the source of open magnetic field lines that head way out into space. They are also the source regions of the fast solar wind, which “blows” at a relatively steady clip of 1.8 million mph. (No audio). Credit: NASA

3 D Video: Coronal holes from STEREO

Check out this 3 D movie of a coronal hole snapped by NASA’s twin STEREO solar probes orbiting the sun. You’ll need to pull out your red-cyan 3 D anaglyph glasses. First, watch the short movie with you 3 D glasses. Then, I suggest to pause the movie at several intervals for a longer look. Remember – its red on the left eye.

View more 3 D from SDO below. And enjoy more 3 D space imagery here – at a big Martian crater through the eyes of the Opportunity rover.

Caption: This STEREO image features an active region and a coronal hole. The hole is the large dark spot in the middle of the sun. Coronal holes are the source of solar wind and a generator for space weather activity. Credit: NASA

More at this NASA press release

SDO roared to space on February 11, 2010 atop a powerful Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch photo below.

The billion dollar probe is the “crown jewel” in NASA’s solar fleet and will soon celebrate its first anniversary in space. SDO’s mission is to explore the Sun and its complex interior mechanisms in unprecedented detail. It is equipped with three science instruments (HMI, AIA, and EVE)

This Solar Dynamics Observatory image of the Sun taken on January 10, 2011 in extreme ultraviolet light captures a dark coronal hole just about at sun center. Coronal holes are areas of the Sun's surface that are the source of open magnetic field lines that head way out into space. Credit: NASA

SDO blast off on Feb. 11, 2010 atop Atlas V rocket from Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral as viewed from the KSC press site. Credit: Ken Kremer

Solar 3 D in Extreme UV - from SDO.
This 3 D image was created by combined two images that were taken in one extreme UV wavelength about 8 hours apart on June 25, 2010. The Sun's rotation created enough of a perspective change for this to work. Although the SDO mission cannot produce true 3D images of the Sun like STEREO, 3D solar images can still be made from SDO images. Credit: NASA/SDO

January 17, 2011December 24, 2015 by Jason Rhian

NASA Says it Cannot Produce Heavy-Lift Rocket on Time, Budget

NASA has been tasked with producing a heavy-lift rocket similar to the one seen here - a task that the space agency says it cannot do in the required time or budget. Image Credit: NASA.gov

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NASA has sent Congress a report stating that it cannot meet the requirements that it produce a heavy-lift rocket by the current 2016 deadline – or under the current allocated budget. In the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, NASA was directed to develop a heavy-lift rocket in preparation to flights to an asteroid and possibly Mars. NASA said it cannot produce this new rocket despite the fact that the agency would be using so-called “legacy” hardware – components that have been employed in the shuttle program for the past 30 years. NASA would also utilize modern versions of engines used on the massive Saturn V rocket.

Now, approximately three months after the act was signed into law, NASA is telling Congress that they can’t build the vehicles that will succeed the shuttle. At least, NASA said, not in the time allotted or for the amount allocated to them. The agency expressed these inadequacies in a 22-page report that was submitted to Congress.

In the report, NASA said it “recognizes it has a responsibility to be clear with the Congress and the American taxpayers about our true estimated costs and schedules for developing the SLS and MPCV, and we intend to do so.”

“Currently, our SLS (Space Launch System) studies have shown that while cost is not a major discriminator among the design options studied, none of the design options studied thus far appeared to be affordable in our present fiscal condition.”

Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) who helped to draft and pass the NASA Authorization Act said that none of the rationale posted within the report provided justification for NASA not to meet its requirements.

Congress has been hoping to shore up any potential failings of the emerging commercial space market by having NASA design, in parallel, a heavy-lift rocket. That way, if these firms don’t produce, the nation has a ‘backup’ in place. NASA has essentially admitted that it cannot accomplish the task set in front of it. Congress might decide to take funds from other areas of the space agency’s budget to fill in the projected shortfall. There have been some suggestions that these funds may come from those intended for Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

KSC has already been sent reeling from massive layoffs which are set to continue until the end of the shuttle program. There is no established program set to follow the space shuttle program. Many have tried to compare the gap between shuttle and whatever is to follow to the gap between Apollo and shuttle. But this is a false analogy. At the end of Apollo the next program was established (the space shuttle was approved during the Apollo 16 mission). As the twilight of the shuttle era nears – there no longer is any established program. Under the Vision for Space Exploration, the succeeding program was called Constellation and consisted of a Apollo-like capsule, man-rated rocket the Ares-I (based off a single shuttle solid rocket booster) and a unmanned heavy-lift booster – the Ares-V.

While Congress may have signed the directive to produce the new heavy-lift booster into law – they haven’t done as much to pay for it. NASA was supposed to receive $11 billion over the course of the next three years to build both the rocket as well as the Orion spacecraft. Congress is now working to find ways to cut federal spending and NASA could find itself receiving far less than promised.