Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

SOFIA Sees First Light

With a NASA F/A-18 flying safety chase nearby, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy – or SOFIA – flies a test mission over the Mojave Desert with the sliding door over its 17-ton infrared telescope open. Credit: NASA/ Jim Ross

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Flying SOFIA has opened her eyes! The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint program by NASA and the German Aerospace Center made its first observations on May 26. The new observatory uses a modified 747 airplane to carry a German-built 2.5 meter (100 inch) reflecting telescope. “With this flight, SOFIA begins a 20-year journey that will enable a wide variety of astronomical science observations not possible from other Earth and space-borne observatories,” said Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA. “It clearly sets expectations that SOFIA will provide us with “Great Observatory”-class astronomical science.”

Scientists are now processing the first light data, and say that preliminary results show the sharp, “front-line” images that were predicted for SOFIA. They reported the stability and precise pointing of the German-built telescope met or exceeded the expectations of the engineers and astronomers who put it through its paces during the flight.

Infrared image of Jupiter from SOFIA’s First Light flight composed of individual images at wavelengths of 5.4 (blue), 24 (green) and 37 microns (red) made by Cornell University’s FORCAST camera. A recent visual-wavelength picture of approximately the same side of Jupiter is shown for comparison. The white stripe in the infrared image is a region of relatively transparent clouds through which the warm interior of Jupiter can be seen. (Visual image credit: Anthony Wesley)

“The crowning accomplishment of the night came when scientists on board SOFIA recorded images of Jupiter,” said USRA SOFIA senior science advisor Eric Becklin. “The composite image from SOFIA shows heat, trapped since the formation of the planet, pouring out of Jupiter’s interior through holes in its clouds.”

Faint specks of starlight are reflected by the 100-inch (2.5 meter) primary mirror on SOFIA. Credit: NASA/Tom Tschida

Cornell University built the primary instrument on the telescope, the Faint Object infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope, also known as FORCAST. FORCAST is unique in that it records energy coming from space at infrared wavelengths between 5 and 40 microns – most of which cannot be seen by ground-based telescopes due to blockage by water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere. SOFIA’s operational altitude, which is above more than 99 percent of that water vapor, allows it to receive 80 percent or more of the infrared light accessible to space observatories, so FORCAST captures in minutes images that would require many hour-long exposures by ground-based observatories

Composite infrared image of the central portion of galaxy M82, from SOFIA’s First Light flight, at wavelengths of 20 (blue), 32 (green) and 37 microns (red). The middle inset image shows the same portion of the galaxy at visual wavelengths. The infrared image views past the stars and dust clouds apparent in the visible-wavelength image into the star-forming heart of the galaxy. The long dimension of the inset boxes is about 5400 light years. (Visual image credit: N. A. Sharp/ NOAO/AURA/NSF)

The first light flight took off from SOFIA’s home base at the Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. The in-flight personnel consisted of an international crew from NASA, the Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., Cornell University and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) in Stuttgart. During the six-hour flight, at altitudes up to 35,000 feet, the crew of 10 scientists, astronomers, engineers and technicians gathered telescope performance data at consoles in the aircraft’s main cabin.

More info on SOFIA.

Source: NASA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Air Force Launches Next Generation GPS Satellite

Delta IV rocket launching with the Air Force’s Global Positioning System GPS IIF SV-1. Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com) for Universe Today

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The first in a series of next-generation GPS satellites launched late Thursday from Cape Canaveral launch Complex 37 on board a Delta IV rocket. The Air Force’s Global Positioning System GPS IIF SV-1 satellite blasted off at 11 p.m. EDT on May 27, 2010, after overcoming three different launch aborts over the last week due to weather and technical glitches. Following its three hour, 33 minute flight into orbit, the new satellite has reached its orbit 18,000 km (11,000 miles) above the Earth, joining a constellation of 24 other GPS satellites that aids in military operations and helps civilians navigate the planet. Boeing, who built the satellite for the Air Force, said they acquired the first on-orbit signals from the new satellite early Friday, and all indications are that the spacecraft bus is functioning normally and ready to begin orbital maneuvers and operational testing.

This new era of GPS satellites are solar powered, designed for a minimum 12-year life. There will be a constellation of 12 of these new navigation satellites, which will have twice the signal accuracy of previous GPS satellites and are equipped with a new signal capability for more robust civilian and commercial aviation applications, Boeing said.

Close-up view of the Delta IV rocket before launch of the new GPS satellite. Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com) for Universe Today

For the United Launch Alliance, which prepared the Delta IV rocket, this was the 41st successful launch in the 41 months and six days since the company was created as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. This launch also marked a milestone for the Delta rockets. The first Delta rocket, called a Thor-Delta booster, launched 50 years ago on May 13, 1960.

The Delta IV was first launched in 2002, and this is the rocket’s 13th successful flight. GPS IIF-SV1 is the first GPS satellite to launch on a Delta 4. Previous navigation satellites were launched on the smaller Delta 2 boosters, and upcoming GPS IIF constellation satellites are expected to fly on the Delta IV rockets or Atlas 5 boosters.

Sources: SatNews, Boeing

Posted on by Fraser Cain

How Many Miles to the Center of the Earth?

Earth's core.
Earth's core.

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Were you wondering how many miles to the center of the Earth? The simple quick answer is 3,958.8 miles – the mean radius of the Earth in miles. In other words, if you dug a tunnel straight down, you’d reach the center of the Earth after going 3,958.8 miles, and then you’d need to go another 3,958.8 miles to reach the opposite side of the planet.

But wait, if you need to be really precise, the answer depends on where you’re standing on Earth. That’s because the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere. It’s rotating in space, and so it bulges around the middle, while it’s more flattened at the poles. And so, if you’re standing at the poles, you’re only 3,949.9 miles from the center of the Earth. And if you’re standing on the equator, the distance is 3,963.2 miles.

The difference between those two amounts is 13.3 miles. In other words, you would have to dig 13.3 miles further if you were standing on the equator to reach the center of the planet.

This might not sound like much, but it’s actually a pretty big deal. The furthest point from the center of the Earth isn’t Mount Everest. In fact, it’s Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. Even though it’s shorter than Mount Everest, it’s actually 8,969.8 feet further from the center of the Earth because it’s located near the equator.

We’ve written several articles about the center of the Earth for Universe Today. Here are some interesting facts about the Earth, and here’s an article about the radius of the Earth.

Want to learn more about the interior of the Earth? Check out NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on Earth. And here’s a link to NASA’s Earth Observatory.

We have also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about the Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Japan Shoots for Robotic Moon Base by 2020

Concept drawing of a robotic lunar base. Credit: JAXA

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These ARE the droids we’ve been looking for. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has plans to build a base on the Moon by 2020. Not for humans, but for robots, and built by robots, too. A panel authorized by Japan’s prime minister has drawn up preliminary plans of how humanoid and rover robots will begin surveying the moon by 2015, and then begin construction of a base near the south pole of the moon. The robots and the base will run on solar power, with total costs about $2.2 billion USD, according to the panel chaired by Waseda University President Katsuhiko Shirai.

Moon base robot. Credit: JAXA

Some of the planned droids weigh about 300 kg (660 pounds) and move on tank-like treads. Reportedly, they will be able to operate within a 100 km (60 mile) radius of the base. They’ll be equipped with solar panels, seismographs to investigate the moon’s inner structure, high-def cameras, and arms to gather rock samples, which will be returned to Earth via a sample return rocket.

The exact location for the base will be chosen from high-resolution images returned by Japan’s Kaguya orbiter, which has provided stunning images of the Moon’s surface.

Previously, JAXA had set a goal of constructing a manned lunar base starting in about 2030, and apparently, the robotic base would be a precursor. That plan calls for astronauts to visit the Moon by around 2020 which is about the same timetable as the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is hoping to have a manned mission to the Moon. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has said they would like to have a manned lunar mission in 2030. NASA? Not sure yet. The Constellation program to return to the Moon has seemingly been axed, but it’s not going down without a fight from members of Congress and others. But surely, even if NASA decides an asteroid or Mars is their destination of choice, they would have to start by practicing on the Moon.

Let’s all work together on this and perhaps returning to the Moon will actually happen.

Source: NODE via PopSci

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Tsunami Photos

Tsunami damage along Sumatra northern coasts, Indonesia
Image Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Here are some amazing tsunami photos – at least, the after effects from tsunami impacts on coastlines. You can make any of these images into your computer desktop background. Just click on an image to enlarge it, and then right-click and choose “Set as Desktop Background”.

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This is an image of the island of Sumatra after the 2004 tsunami struck, destroying huge portions of the coastline. If you look closely at the photo, you can see how most of the island is green, except for a patch of brown along the western coast.

Deep Ocean Tsunami Waves off the Sri Lankan Coast
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team

This is an image of the southern coast of Sri Lanka, another part of the world ravaged by the 2004 tsunami. This image was taken by NASA’s Terra satellite, showing huge waves just a few kilometers off the coast of the island nation.

Breaking Tsunami Waves along India's Eastern Coast
Image credit:NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team

Here’s an image taken by NASA’s Terra satellite showing huge waves breaking off the coast of India. These were generated by the 2004 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, which traveled across the ocean to strike the coast of India and other countries.

Earthquake off Samoa Generates Tsunami
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using data from the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

This is an image of the island of Samoa, showing the damage caused by a 2009 tsunami. The damaged areas are highlighted in brown.

Camaná, Peru, and Tsunami Vulnerability
Image Credit: Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center

This is an image of Camaná, in southern Peru, which was struck by a tsunami in 2001. The dotted line shows the part of the town which was inundated by water – waves rose to 8 meters high in some spots.

If you’d like more information about tsunami, check out the NOAA Tsunami website, which has alerts when there are tsunami dangers. And here’s a link to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

We’ve written many articles about tsunami for Universe Today. Here’s a story about a recent earthquake in Chile that generated a tsunami, and here’s an article about the biggest tsunami ever recorded.

We’ve recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about our home planet. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

Posted on by Nicholos Wethington

Andromeda’s Unstable Black Hole

The Andromeda galaxy as seen in optical light, and Chandra's X-ray vision of the changing supermassive black hole in Andromeda's heart. Image Credit: X-Ray NASA/CXC/SAO/Li et al.), Optical (DSS)

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The Andromeda galaxy, the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, has a supermassive blackhole at the center of it much like other galaxies. Because of its proximity to us, Andromeda – or M31 – is an excellent place to study just how the supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies consume material to grow, and interact gravitationally with the surrounding material.

Over the course of the last ten years, NASA’s Chandra X-Ray observatory has monitored closely the supermassive black hole at Andromeda’s heart. This long-term data set gives astronomers a very nuanced picture of just how these monstrous black holes change over time. Zhiyuan Li of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) presented results of this decade-long observation of the black hole at the 216th American Astronomical Society meeting in Miami, Florida this week.

From 1999 to 2006, M31 was relatively quiet and dim. In January of 2006, though, the black hole in the center of Andromeda suddenly brightened by over 100 times, and has remained 10 times as bright since. This suggests that the black hole swallowed something massive, but the details of the outburst in 2006 remain unclear.

The black hole in M31, located in the Andromeda constellation, likely continues to feed off of the stellar winds of a nearby star or the material in a large gas cloud that is falling into the black hole. As material is consumed, it drives the productions of X-rays in a relativistic jet streaming out from the black hole, which are then picked up by Chandra’s X-ray eyes.

The black hole in M31 is 10 to 100,000 times dimmer than expected, given that it has a large reservoir of gas surrounding it.

“The black holes in both Andromeda and the Milky Way are incredibly feeble. These two ‘anti-quasars’ provide special laboratories for us to study some of the dimmest type of accretion even seen onto a supermassive black hole,” Li said.

Accretion of matter into supermassive black holes is important to study because the evolution of galaxies is influenced by this process, Li said. The gravitational interplay of the black hole with the surrounding material in a galaxy, as well as the energy released when such supermassive black holes consume material in their surrounding accretion disks, change the structure of the galaxy as it forms. A better understanding of just how these supermassive black holes act in the later stages of spiral galaxy life may give clues as to what astronomers can expect to see in other galaxies.

M31 is readily seen with the naked eye in the constellation Andromeda, and is breathtaking to see through a telescope or binoculars. You won’t be able to see the black hole at its center, however! For more information on observing Andromeda, see our Guide to Space article on M31.

Source: Eurekalert

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Successful Test of Air-Breathing Scramjet Engine

Boeing and the US Air Force tested a supersonic combustion ramjet engine on May 26 with the longest hypersonic flight in history. The X-51A WaveRider was dropped from a B-52 and flew for nearly three and a half minutes, flying at five times the speed of sound – Mach 5. The unmanned aerial vehicle was tested off the southern California coast around 10 a.m. on May 26, and it flew autonomously for more than 200 seconds, but then something then occurred that caused the vehicle to lose acceleration. But the teams who worked on the project are still calling the test a success.
Continue reading “Successful Test of Air-Breathing Scramjet Engine”

Posted on by Nicholos Wethington

Black Hole in M87 Wanders using Jetpack

Hubble Space Telescope Images of M87. At right, a large scale image taken with the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera-2 from 1998. The zoom-in images on the left are of the central portion of M87. HST-1 is a knot in the jet from the SMBH. (NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. A. Biretta, W. B. Sparks, F. D. Macchetto, E. S. Perlman)

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The elliptical galaxy M87 is known for a jet of radiation that is streaming from the supermassive black hole (SMBH) that the galaxy houses. This jet, which is visible through large-aperture telescopes, may have functioned as a black hole ‘jetpack’, moving the SMBH from the center of mass of the galaxy – where most SMBHs are thought to reside.

Observations taken with the Hubble Space Telescope by a collaboration of astronomy researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology, Florida Institute of Technology and University of Sussex in the United Kingdom show the SMBH in M87 to be displaced from the center of the galaxy by as much as 7 parsecs (22.82 light years). This contradicts the long-held theory that supermassive black holes reside at the center of the galaxies they inhabit, and may give astronomers one way to trace the history of galaxies that have grown through merging.

What caused M87’s SMBH to wander off so far from the center of the galaxy? The most likely cause is a merger between two smaller supermassive black holes sometime in the past. This merger could have created gravitational waves that gave the engorged black hole a swift kick. Elliptical galaxies like M87 are thought to become the size they are through the merger of smaller galaxies.

Another theory is that the jet of radiation that sprays out of the SMBH has pushed with enough energy to essentially propel the black hole away from the center of M87. Okay, so it’s not really a ‘black hole jetpack’, but you have to admit that the combination of black holes – which are cool – and jetpacks, also cool, is too good to pass up. The motion of the SMBH happens to be in the opposite direction of the jet that we can see streaming from the object. For this scenario to be true, however, the jet would have to have been much more energetic millions of years ago, the researchers concluded.

There also does exist evidence for another jet of material that is streaming out of the other side of the SMBH, which would cancel the pushing motion of the jet that we can see, making the merger scenario much more likely. If the two jets were asymmetric to a high degree, however, this scenario still may be the case. More information on the structure and history of the jets would better clarify the cause of the black hole’s displacement.

This study of M87 is part of a wider project aimed at constraining the placement of supermassive black holes, also known as Active Galactic Nuclei or quasars, in their home galaxies. David Axon, dean of mathematical and physical sciences at Sussex, said in a press release, “In current galaxy formation scenarios galaxies are thought to be assembled by a process of merging. We should therefore expect that binary black holes and post coalescence recoiling black holes, like that in M87, are very common in the cosmos.”

The displacement of such black holes would be apparent in archived Hubble Space Telescope images, and the researchers that discovered this phenomenon in M87 used the HST archives to pinpoint the location of the SMBH. Further analysis of these archives could yield many, many more ‘wandering’ black holes.

These findings were presented on May 25th at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Miami, Florida. The team of researchers that collaborated on the finding include Daniel Batcheldor and Eric Perlman of the Florida Institute of Technology, Andrew Robinson and David Merritt of the Rochester Institute of Technology and David Axon of the University of Sussex. Their results were accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters, and the original paper, A Displaced Supermassive Black Hole in M87, is available on Arxiv right here.

Source: Eurekalert, Arxiv, Eric Perlman’s website

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Time-Lapse Satellite View of Growing Oil Spill

We’ve featured many aerial satellite images of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, here on Universe Today, but this time-lapse video puts them all together. The video reveals a space-based view beginning on April 12 before the accident, then after the April 20 explosion, with the burning oil rig. Later, the ensuing oil spill is captured through May 24. Two NASA satellites are constantly capturing images Earth, focusing on particular areas of interest, the Terra and Aqua satellites which both have the MODIS instrument (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.) The oil slick appears grayish-beige in the image and changes due to changing weather, currents, and use of oil dispersing chemicals.

The latest word on the “top kill” effort to stop the gushing oil well is that it has seen initial success.
Continue reading “Time-Lapse Satellite View of Growing Oil Spill”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Where In the Universe #106

Here’s this week’s Where In The Universe Challenge. You know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the instrument responsible for the image. We’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until tomorrow. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.

This is Mars, from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and this is a new image that was just released this week. It’s from the Gordii Dorsum region, which is an equatorial area just west of the Thasis bulge. The image shows a large area covered with polygonal ridges in an almost geometric pattern. If you remember, there were polygon features around the Phoenix landing site near the Mars Arctic region, and scientists thought they were created from freezing and thawing of suburface ice. But these polygons are huge, and Nicolas Thomas of the HiRISE teams writes,” The ridges may have originally been dunes which hardened (indurated) through the action of an unknown process. Groundwater might have been involved.”

See more about this image at the HiRISE site.