Universe Today

November 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Robert Simpson

The Extremely Large Telescope

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is planning on building a massive – and I do mean massive – telescope in the next decade. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is a 42-meter telescope in its final planning stages. Weighing in at 5,000 tonnes, and made up of 984 individual mirrors, it will be able to image the discs of extrasolar planets and resolve individual stars in galaxies beyond the Local Group! By 2018 ESO hope to be using this gargantuan scope to stare so deep into space that they can actually see the Universe expanding!

The E-ELT is currently scheduled for completion around 2018 and when built it will be four times larger than anything currently looking at the sky in optical wavelengths and 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope – despite being a ground-based observatory.

With advanced adaptive optics systems, the E-ELT will use up to 6 laser guide stars to analyse the twinkling caused by the motion of the atmosphere. Computer systems move the 984 individual mirrored panels up to a thousand times a second to cancel out this blurring effect in real time. The result is an image almost as crisp as if the telescope were in space.

This combination of incredible technological power and gigantic size mean that that the E-ELT will be able to not only detect the presence of planets around other stars but also begin to make images of them. It could potentially make a direct image of a Super Earth (a rocky planet just a few times larger than Earth). It would be capable of observing planets around stars within 15-30 light years of the Earth – there are almost 400 stars within that distance!

The E-ELT will be able to resolve stars within distant galaxies and as such begin to understand the history of such galaxies. This method of using the chemical composition, age and mass of stars to unravel the history of the galaxy is sometimes called galactic archaeology and instruments like the E-ELT would lead the way in such research.

Incredibly, by measuring the redshift of distant galaxies over many years with a telescope as sensitive as the E-ELT it should be possible to detect the gradual change in their doppler shift. As such the E-ELT could allow humans to watch the Universe itself expand!

ESO has already spent millions on developing the E-ELT concept. If it is completed as planned then it will eventually cost about €1 billion. The technology required to make the E-ELT happen is being developed right now all over the world – in fact it is creating new technologies, jobs and industry as it goes along. The telescope’s enclosure alone presents a huge engineering conundrum – how do you build something the size of modern sports stadium at high altitude and without any existing roads? They will need to keep 5,000 tonnes of metal and glass slewing around smoothly and easily once it’s operating – as well as figuring out how to mass-produce more than 1200 1.4m hexagonal mirrors.

The E-ELT has the capacity to transform our view not only of the Universe but of telescopes and the technology to build them as well. It will be a huge leap forward in telescope engineering and for European astronomy it will be a massive 42m jewel in the crown.

November 23, 2009April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

First Collisions for the LHC

Screens showing two beams in the LHC. Credit: CERN

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Two beams circulated simultaneously inside the Large Hadron Collider for the first time today, allowing for the first proton-proton collisions to take place. “It’s a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “But we need to keep a sense of perspective – there’s still much to do before we can start the LHC physics program.”

The beams crossed at points where various detectors are stationed. The beams were made to cross at point 1, where the ATLAS all purpose detector is located, then at point five at the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) detector. Later, beams crossed at points 2 and 8, where the ALICE (heavy ion detector) and the LHCb (looking for heavy particles containing a bottom quark) are positioned.

The first collisions are allowing operators to test the synchronization of the beams.

“This is great news, the start of a fantastic era of physics and hopefully discoveries after 20 years’ work by the international community to build a machine and detectors of unprecedented complexity and performance,” said ATLAS spokesperson, Fabiola Gianotti at a press conference today.

“The events so far mark the start of the second half of this incredible voyage of discovery of the secrets of nature,” said CMS spokesperson Tejinder Virdee.

“It was standing room only in the ALICE control room and cheers erupted with the first collisions” said ALICE spokesperson Jurgen Schukraft. “This is simply tremendous.”

“The tracks we’re seeing are beautiful,” said LHCb spokesperson Andrei Golutvin, “we’re all ready for serious data taking in a few days time.”

The first collisions come just three days after the LHC restart. Since the start-up this weekend, the operators have been circulating beams around the ring alternately in one direction and then the other at the injection energy of 450 GeV (gigaelectron volts). The beam lifetime has gradually been increased to 10 hours, and today beams have been circulating simultaneously in both directions, still at the injection energy.

Next on the schedule is an intense commissioning phase aimed at increasing the beam intensity and accelerating the beams. If everything goes as planned, everyone at CERN hopes to obtain good quantities of collision data for all the experiments’ calibrations by Christmas, when the LHC should reach 1.2 TeV (terraelectron volts) per beam.

Source: CERN

November 23, 2009April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

Mystery of the Flyby Anomaly Endures

Artist concept of Rosetta flyby. Credit: ESA

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The weird mystery of the flyby anomaly just got even weirder. Since the early 1990’s scientists and mission controllers have noticed that some spacecraft experience unexpected changes in speed during Earth-flybys. The unexplained variation is extremely small and has occurred as either speed gained or lost, but this variant is not predicted by fundamental physics. The anomaly doesn’t happen to every spacecraft but scientists were hoping to gain more insight into the anomaly when the Rosetta spacecraft swung by Earth on Nov. 13 to pick up a gravitational boost for its journey to rendezvous with a comet in 2014. However, in a major disappointment – which had deepened the mystery — the Rosetta spacecraft did not experience the flyby anomaly during this swingby of Earth, even though the same spacecraft did experience the anomaly when it flew by Earth 2005, but didn’t in 2007.

“It’s a mystery as to what is happening with these gravity events,” said Trevor Morley, lead flight dynamics specialist working on Rosetta. “Some studies have looked for answers in new interpretations of current physics. If this proves correct, it would be absolutely ground-breaking news.”

For the Earth swingbys where the anomaly has been detected, Morley said the main manifestation has been “the inability to get anything like a reasonable fit of an orbit to an arc of radiometric data that encompasses both the pre- and post-perigee (closest to the Earth) intervals.”

For those cases when an anomaly has been seen, the change has been very slight, but noticeable. “In every case, a reasonable data fit could be established only by inserting an artificial velocity change along the direction of the orbital velocity in the vicinity of perigee,” Morley said.

Earth as seen by the Osiris camera on Rosetta. Credit: ESA

For this flyby, the team made allowances for the software to estimate an impulsive maneuver at perigee, aligned along the orbital velocity. But after analyzing the radiometric data gathered by ESA and NASA ground stations, nothing anomalous was seen.

“The difference in the quality of the data fit was absolutely negligible,” Morley said. “For Rosetta’s third and final Earth swingby, there was no anomaly.”

Several ideas have been tossed around in an attempt to explain why the anomaly occurs, but no one has been able to pin the cause down as of yet.

Ideas range from tidal effects of the near-Earth environment, atmospheric drag, or the pressure of radiation emitted or reflected by the Earth, to much more extreme possibilities, such as dark matter, dark energy or previously unseen variations in General Relativity.

One American research team, led by ex-NASA scientist John Anderson, is even looking at the possibility that Earth’s rotation may be distorting space-time – the fundamental fabric of our Universe – more than expected, and affecting nearby spacecraft. But there is as yet no explanation how this could happen.

Plus no one can explain why some flybys experience the anomaly and others don’t.

The mystery continues!

Source: Rosetta Blog

November 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Bill Dunford

Cold as Hell with a Chance of Dust Storms: Weather Movies from Mars

Caption: One frame from an animation of weather patterns around the south pole of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

If you think about it, those hypnotizing patterns of swirling clouds you see in TV weather reports are pretty amazing: satellites let us see what’s happening in the skies all over the world. But these days, that kind of global vision even goes beyond the Earth. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter makes daily weather observations of the Red Planet, and mission scientists regularly compile the pictures into movies that are available online. The result is that anyone can follow along as fierce dust storms rage across the plains of Mars, clouds cling to the peaks of towering volcanoes and polar ice advances and retreats.

On board the MRO is a wide-angle camera called the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) that scans the face of Mars in both visible and ultraviolet light. MARCI views Mars from pole to pole, snapping dozens of images every day that are combined into a global map with resolution comparable to weather satellites at home.

This daily weather report helps Mars explorers understand day-to-day events, as well as seasonal and annual changes on the Red Planet. Sometimes the weather watch also gives rover drivers a crucial warning when a storm might be headed in the direction of Spirit or Opportunity.

The weather images can be striking and intriguing. This animation shows the south pole of Mars during a period of about a month earlier this year, when storms raged along the retreating edge of frost in the polar cap. You can see giant, swirling clouds of dust, as well as the changing shape of the cap as it shrinks with the approach of Summer.

Malin Space Science Systems is the firm that built and operates MARCI for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They post weekly movies that show a spinning, global view of the most recent Martian weather. You never know what you’ll see each week, but a careful look often turns up water ice clouds, wind storms or the giant canyon Valles Marineris filled to the brim with dust.

The descriptions that Malin scientists write to accompany each movie are fascinating. They sound both as exotic as a science fiction novel–and as routine as your local weatherman’s report on the evening news. One sample:

“A large dust storm moved south down the Acidalia/Chryse/Xanthe corridor, partially spilling into eastern Valles Marineris at the beginning of the week. From there the storm moved over Thaumasia and Argyre, picking up intensity as it moved into the subtropics of Aonia and Icaria/Daedalia… Dust storms and water-ice clouds also formed in the northern mid-latitudes, with more notable activity occurring over Deuteronilus and Utopia. The increased amount of dust activity on the planet has created a haze that lingers in the atmosphere and has caused skies over both Opportunity and Spirit to be hazy during the past week.”

That’s why Mars fascinates. It’s an alien world that in some ways is tantalizing similar to home.

MARCI will be turned back on in early December after a hiatus of a few months. Previous weather movies are still online.

November 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Ken Kremer

Tranquility Module Formally Handed over to NASA from ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) formally transferred ownership of the Tranquility habitable manned module over to NASA at a commemorative handoff ceremony inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, November 20. Tranquility is the last element of a barter agreement between ESA and NASA for station hardware. Included on the module is the “Cupola,” which will provide astronauts with a panoramic view from the largest window flown in space.

ESA contributed the module known as Node 3 in exchange for NASA’s delivery of ESA’s Columbus laboratory to the station in 2008. Thales Alenia Space in Turin (Torino), Italy, built the module in partnership with ESA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and delivered it to KSC in May 2009 aboard an Airbus ‘Beluga’.

Official documents formalizing the ownership exchange were signed by Bernardo Patti, the space station manager for ESA and Michael Suffredini, the space station manager for NASA. A crowd of managers and technicians from NASA, ESA, Thales and Boeing involved in building and processing the node for flight witnessed the event. Media like myself were in attendance to document the transfer formalities.

Bernardo Patti (left), the ESA space station manager for ESA and Michael Suffredini (right), the NASA space station manager sign Tranquility module ownership transfer documents inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) on 20 November 2009. Credit: Ken Kremer

“We are very proud to accept this module”, said Suffredini. “In some ways it’s a bittersweet moment because it represents a tailing off of assembly and using the SSPF. But Tranquility was built to start human life beyond Earth as we put things together on-orbit. More than just the work, history will look back at the legacy of the partnership that was built here.

Patti responded saying, “Yes it’s sad that the room is getting empty, but we are very happy that Tranquility is going to the ISS which is a platform for an exploration program that we are privileged to have a future with”.

Attached to the end cone of Tranquility is the Cupola advanced observation module and robotics work station. Both segments are set to launch aboard the next shuttle flight, STS 130, presently scheduled for a 4 February 2010 blast off.

One of the major tasks of spacewalking astronauts aboard the current STS 129 flight of shuttle Atlantis is equipment work to prepare the way for the attachment of Tranquility and the Cupola to the port side hatch of the Unity Node on the ISS by the STS 130 crew of shuttle Endeavour. The astronauts have removed and repositioned external brackets, handrails, micrometeoroid shields, computer and electrical connections.

Tranquility is a complex pressurized interconnecting node that will provide increased living and scientific workspace for the resident ISS crews and house “many of the stations critical life support systems”, Suffredini said to me in an interview following the ceremony. Tranquility will be home to the racks for the advanced Environmental Control and Life Support Systems. This includes the equipment for revitalizing the station atmosphere and removing contaminants, generating oxygen and providing breathable air, carbon dioxide removal, recycling waste water into potable drinking water, the crew toilet and the Colbert Treadmill for crew exercise. Suffredini added, “The check out and activation period for Tranquility will occur during the shuttle mission. The racks are already aboard the ISS and just need to be moved and installed. Many of them are aboard the Destiny module. Their relocation will free up research space”.

The Cupola will function as a panoramic control tower through which operations outside the station can be observed and guided with command and control workstations inside. The circular top window is 80 cm in diameter, making it the largest window flown in space.

Side view of the Tranquility and Cupola modules which will be delivered to the ISS on the STS130 mission by shuttle Endeavour. The two modules combined weigh over 13.5 tons. Tranquility has six docking ports and is 7 meters (21 ft) in length and 4.5 meters (14.7 ft) in diameter with a pressurized volume of 75 cubic meters (2650 cubic ft). Credit: Ken Kremer

The unique 7 windowed Cupola module will afford astronauts a heretofore unparalleled 360 degree viewing spectrum of the Earth, the station and the cosmos, said KSC Director Bob Cabana. It will be used for earth observation and space science. Cabana commanded the space shuttle mission which delivered the first US space station component to space, the Unity node and docked it to the Russian Zarya control module to commence ISS assembly in 1998.

‘Tranquility’ is named in honor the Sea of Tranquility, the lunar landing site for Apollo 11 which was NASA’s first flight to land man on the moon in July 1969.

Lead image caption: Michael Suffredini, the ISS manager for NASA accepts ownership of the Node 3 Tranquility module from ESA at hand off ceremony inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center on 20 November 2009. Cupola observation module is attached at forward hatch in center and covered with thermal protection blankets. Note robotic arm grapple fixture at lower right. Credit: Ken Kremer

November 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Large Ocean, Extensive River Network, Rainfall on Ancient Mars

An enhanced network of river valleys on Mars. Credit: NIU, LPI

Did Mars once have a vast network of river valleys – “canals” if you will – and an ocean that covered most of the planet’s northern hemisphere? A new computer-generated map of the Red Planet provides a more detailed look at the valley networks on Mars, and indicates the networks are more than twice as extensive as had been previously depicted in the only other planet-wide map of the valleys. “All the evidence gathered by analyzing the valley network on the new map points to a particular climate scenario on early Mars,” said Wei Luo, from Northern Illinois University (NIU). “It would have included rainfall and the existence of an ocean covering most of the northern hemisphere, or about one-third of the planet’s surface.”

This is a global map depicting the dissection density of valley networks on Mars, in relation to the hypothesized northern ocean. Credit: NIU, LPI

NIU and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston used an innovative computer program to produce the new map that shows regions dissected by the valley networks roughly form a belt around the planet between the equator and mid-southern latitudes, consistent with a past climate scenario that included precipitation and the presence of an ocean covering a large portion of Mars’ northern hemisphere.

Scientists have previously hypothesized that a single ocean existed on ancient Mars, but the issue has been hotly debated.

Luo and Tomasz Stepinski, a staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, publish their findings in the current issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research — Planets.

“The presence of more valleys indicates that it most likely rained on ancient Mars, while the global pattern showing this belt of valleys could be explained if there was a big northern ocean,” Stepinski said.

The researchers created an updated planet-wide map of the valley networks by using a computer algorithm that uses topographic data from NASA satellites and recognizes valleys by their U-shaped topographic signature. “The basic idea behind our method is to flag landforms having a U-shaped structure that is characteristic of the valleys,” Stepinski added. “The valleys are mapped only where they are seen by the algorithm.”

Valley networks on Mars exhibit some resemblance to river systems on Earth, suggesting the Red Planet was once warmer and wetter than present.

The networks were discovered in 1971 by the Mariner 9 spacecraft, but scientists have debated whether they were created by erosion from surface water, which would point to a climate with rainfall, or through a process of erosion known as groundwater sapping. Groundwater sapping can occur in cold, dry conditions.

The large disparity between river-network densities on Mars and Earth had provided a major argument against the idea that runoff erosion formed the valley networks. But the new mapping study reduces the disparity, indicating some regions of Mars had valley network densities more comparable to those found on Earth.

A zoomed-in area comparing the old map of valley networks and the new one. (Left) A satellite image, with color indicating elevation; (center) the old map of valley networks; (right) the new map of valley networks. Credit: Wei Luo, Northern Illinois University

“It is now difficult to argue against runoff erosion as the major mechanism of Martian valley network formation,” Luo said. “When you look at the entire planet, the density of valley dissection on Mars is significantly lower than on Earth,” he said. “However, the most densely dissected regions of Mars have densities comparable to terrestrial values. The relatively high values over extended regions indicate the valleys originated by means of precipitation-fed runoff erosion—the same process that is responsible for formation of the bulk of valleys on our planet.”

“The only other global map of the valley networks was produced in the 1990s by looking at images and drawing on top of them, so it was fairly incomplete and it was not correctly registered with current datum,” Stepinski said. “Our map was created semi-automatically, with the computer algorithm working from topographical data to extract the valley networks. It is more complete, and shows many more valley networks.”

The Martian surface is characterized by lowlands located mostly in the northern hemisphere and highlands located mostly in the southern hemisphere. Given this topography, water would accumulate in the northern hemisphere, where surface elevations are lower than the rest of the planet, thus forming an ocean, the researchers said.

“Such a single-ocean planet would have an arid continental-type climate over most of its land surfaces,” Luo said.

The northern-ocean scenario meshes with a number of other characteristics of the valley networks.

“A single ocean in the northern hemisphere would explain why there is a southern limit to the presence of valley networks,” Luo added. “The southernmost regions of Mars, located farthest from the water reservoir, would get little rainfall and would develop no valleys. This would also explain why the valleys become shallower as you go from north to south, which is the case.

“Rain would be mostly restricted to the area over the ocean and to the land surfaces in the immediate vicinity, which correlates with the belt-like pattern of valley dissection seen in our new map,” Luo said.

Source: EurekAlert

November 22, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

Ring of Stars in Centaurus A Uncovered

Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is one of the most studied objects in the Southern sky, because it is the giant elliptical galaxy with the closest proximity to our own Milky Way. It lies 11 million light years away from the Milky Way, and is believe to have merged with another gaseous galaxy about 200 to 700 million years ago. The result of this galactic mashup: the birth of hundreds of thousands of stars in a kiloparsec-spanning ring near the core.

This is the first time that the inner structure of the galaxy has been resolved in such detail. Using the SOFI large field Infra-Red (1-2.5 micron) spectro-imager at the ESO New Technology Telescope, a research team led by Jouni Kainulainen of the University of Helsinki and Max Planck Institute for Astronomy was able to image a large ring of stars that have formed – and are still continuing to form – near the center of the galaxy. The brightest sources in the ring are red supergiants, or low-mass star clusters.

“It is important to note that it is not decisively the instrument (the telescope or the instrument attached to it) that enables us to see through dust, but the data analysis technique that is used to analyze the images taken with it. Of course, the instrument plays a big role in a sense that adequately high-quality images are needed to perform the analysis,” Dr. Kainulainen said in an email interview.

“There is a fundamental difference between the images we use in our paper and the Spitzer images: the wavelength that the images cover. In the images we used in our work, the dust lane of Centaurus A shows itself as “a shadow”, or more precisely, as an absorption feature (the wavelength is 1-2 micrometers). The Spitzer images represent somewhat longer wavelengths, and show the radiation emitted by the dust itself. As a concrete example, the most famous Spitzer image of Centaurus A … shows a parallelogram-like structure, but the image describes radiation mainly from dust, not from stars,” he said.

There is a large, S- or bar-shaped dust lane straight through the center of Centaurus A that obscures observations in the visible light spectrum. As shown in the image below, the ring structure of star formation is obscured by dust, but visible in the near-infrared.

Centaurus A is believe to house a supermassive black hole that has the mass of 200 million Suns at its core, evidenced by the radio emissions streaming out from the galaxy. Previous images of the galaxy from the Spitzer Space Telescope, the ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope revealed some aspects of the structure of the galaxy. The infrared eyes of Spitzer peered partway through the dust to show a warped parallelogram, the cause of which is the gravitational disturbance caused by the merger of Centaurus A with a smaller spiral galaxy.

The presence of rings such as the one seen in Centaurus A is probably not common among other elliptical galaxies, but other such galaxies are known to exist. It’s possible that they are present during only certain periods of an elliptical galaxy’s formation after it merges with another galaxy.

Dr. Kainulainen commented on this possiblity: “One should consider that seeing so bright ring structure is probably quite time-critical. The rings are believed to be induced by “a violent event” of merging galaxies, and they may evolve rather quickly to something that no longer looks like a clear, bright ring. Therefore, they might actually be quite common for merging galaxies, but they “last” only such a short time that we don’t see them in so many galaxies.”

The analysis technique used by the team could be applied to other galaxies to resolve formation structures previously hidden by dust, and provide more information about how violent events alter the formation of elliptical galaxies.

“Potentially, the technique can be applied to any relatively nearby galaxy showing prominent dust features. Such targets could be M31, M83, M51, Fornax A, or any similarly large, bright, dust containing galaxy. Due to geometrical reasons, Centaurus A was a very suitable target for applying the method. It will be more challenging in the case of, for example, normal Spiral galaxies. However, we have already experimented with such galaxies and feel positive about the possibilities they give,” said Dr. Kainulainen.

The striking image of Centaurus A’s ring of star formation was a somewhat surprising result of the imaging that the astronomers took of the galaxy, though there were hints from images taken by other telescopes that stellar formation was present in the obscured, dusty core.

Dr. Kainulainen said, “It was very surprising that the structure contained so much stars and star-forming activity, and that we could reveal it in such great detail. However, it was expected that a structure of this kind exists there, and contains at least some star formation. This was evident, for example, from the earlier Spitzer images. But when I first saw our result, “The Naked Picture of Centaurus A”, on my computer screen, it really was a big WOW-feeling!”

Further observations of Centaurus A are definitely in order to further explore the structure of the stellar ring, and the gravitational dynamics that allowed for its formation.

“Our plans include observations with the Very Large Telescope (European Southern Observatory) and the Hubble Space Telescope. In that work, the information we got about the dust lane in our published Letter will play a significant role. The planned observations aim particularly at determining how long, and in what magnitude, the structure has been forming stars in the past. Such information will help to understand galaxy-merging process, which is not an uncommon event in the Universe.

Dr. Kainulainen and his team published their results in a letter to Astronomy & Astrophysics, published online July 2nd, 2009. The full text of the letter is available here.

Source: ESO, Astronomy and Astrophysics, email interview with Jouni Kainulainen

November 22, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

Astronaut Becomes Dad While in Space

Rebecca Bresnik, the wife of STS-129 Mission Specialist Randy Bresnik, gave birth to their new daughter on Saturday night, making Randy the second astronaut ever to become a father while out in space. Bresnik reported this morning that his wife and new daughter, Abigail, are doing fine, and thanked the flight control team for their assistance.

Abigail was born in Houston on Saturday at 11:04 p.m. CST. The STS and ISS crews were awoken by the song “Butterfly Kisses” this morning, which was chosen by Rebecca for Randy, and contains the lyrics “There’s two things I know for sure/She was sent here from heaven and she’s daddy’s little girl.”

Becoming a new father is just a series of first for Bresnik on this mission: STS-129 is the first mission for Bresnik, and this was his first spacewalk. Bresnik installed antennas and other equipment on the ISS Saturday while awaiting the birth of his daughter. He will do another spacewalk Monday, before returning to Earth with the rest of the STS crew on Friday.

Bresnik and his wife adopted a Ukrainian orphan last year, who is now three years old, but this is the first child born to the couple. Mrs. Bresnik, who is an attorney that specializes in international law at Johnson Space Center, said in a pre-flight interview with NASA:

I’m a little disappointed that he won’t be able to be there but understanding that we don’t choose the timing and excited for him that he’s doing what he’s doing. He’s trained one year for this mission but really he’s been here five, almost six years, and I’m just real excited for him and excited for us and just to be gone basically a week beyond her being born. So, I’m excited for him to come home safely.

Bresnik is the second astronaut to become a father while in space. The first was astronaut Mike Fincke, whose wife gave birth while he was working at the International Space Station in 2004. If you would like to view the entire pre-flight interview with Rebecca and Randy, it’s available from NASA here.

Source: NPR, NASA

November 21, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

De Plume! De Plume! Enceladus Raw Flyby Images

Raw images are already being returned from Cassini’s Nov. 21 “E-8” or eighth flyby of the tiger-striped moon Enceladus. Visible in this raw image are several plumes from fissures in the south polar region of the moon. These fissures spew jets of water vapor and other particles hundreds of kilometers from the surface. This flyby included a very different geometry to the flyby trajectory – and a different look at the plumes — approaching within 1,606 kilometers (997.9 miles) of the surface, buzzing over 82 degrees south latitude. This is the last look we’ll have for several years at this intriguing area of Enceladus before winter darkness blankets the area. See below for looks at Baghdad Sulcus, the “tiger stripe” that scientists were focusing on.

While Cassini was taking these high-resolution images of the southern part of the Saturn-facing hemisphere, the Composite Infrared Spectrograph (CIRS) instrument was collecting data to create a contiguous thermal map of Baghdad Sulcus. This image was taken approximately 1,858 kilometers away.

Here’s a look at Baghdad Sulcus from 3,556 kilometers away. And below is a 3-D version, created by Stu Atkinson. Stay tuned for more details on the data gathered from the flyby!

Enceladus canyon 3-D. Credit: NASA/JPL, 3-D by Stu Atkinson

Source: Cassini raw images

Thanks to Stu for alerting us the images were here!

* The title is in reference to the “Fantasy Island” television show.

November 20, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

Hayabusa May Come Home After All

Artist concept of the Hayabusa spacecraft, which visited asteroid Itokawa in 2005 and returned samples to Earth in 2010. Credit: JAXA

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As we reported last week, it seemed as if the Hayabusa asteroid explorer mission was dealt a fatal blow when the third of its four ion engines failed. But the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced yesterday that it may have come up with a solution to that problem to get Hayabusa back home by using components from two different inoperable thrusters in combination.

The Hayabusa mission has been rather plagued with problems throughout the entire mission. Its goal was to land on the asteroid Itokawa and return a sample to the Earth. It orbited the asteroid for three months in late 2005, and took near-infrared and X-ray spectral data. The landing, unfortunately, may or may not have gathered up a sample of the asteroid – though the container that the sample was supposed to go into may contain dust kicked up by the landing.

After taking off from the asteroid, communication was temporarily lost with the craft. Communication was re-established with the craft, but the ion thrusters that propel it began to have problems, and as we reported last week, 3 of the 4 thrusters on Hayabusa were no longer operational. Thruster D, which has been the sole source of propulsion for the craft since February 2009, gave out due to a voltage spike. The remaining thruster, C, was shut down to avoid damage. Things were starting to look pretty grim for a mission that has overcome a lot of problems so far.

In an announcement made by JAXA yesterday, a solution has been proposed to use part of two different thrusters in combination to propel the craft. Ion engines work ionizing a neutral gas – in Hayabusa’s case, xenon – and forcing them out of an electrified grid on the back of the craft. When this is done, though, there is a negative charge imbalance in the craft which would attract the ions right back into the engines. To compensate, a neutralizer ejects electrons into the ionized gas that has been released, so that they don’t come back into the craft and the charge of the craft remains neutral.

To fix the current problem, the JAXA engineers have proposed using the ion propellant from thruster B and the neutralizer from thruster A, effectively combining them into one complete thruster. Thruster A was deemed “unstable” after launch, and remains unused.

Thruster C will remain shut off, and only be used in case of failure of this rigged-up system. Its neutralizer is operating poorly, and given that the cause of failure for thrusters B and D was due to a neutrializer problem, the mission engineers want to be cautious.

Combining the engines will consume twice as much fuel and power as they would consume alone, but Hayabusa apparently has plenty of both in spades. 5 kg of fuel will be required to gain 200 meters per second acceleration over 2000 hours, but Hayabusa still has 20 kilograms of fuel in reserve. This system wasn’t tested on the ground, but apparently has worked in space for over one week (180 hours).

This thrusting combination will continue to propel the craft (barring further problems) until March 2010. If any other problems crop up, though, the team will have to delay the return of Hayabusa until 2013. If you want to see a cool – though somewhat cheesy – video of the Hayabusa mission so far, there’s a 30 minute one available on the mission site here.

Source: JAXA, The Planetary Society Blog