Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Crew Sees Object Float Away From Shuttle (Update)

Update: After a quick but thorough analysis of photos and video of the object and the “protuberance” on the shuttle tail fin, NASA officials say neither should pose any problem for the shuttle landing on Saturday. The object floating away was determined to be one of three thermal clips that are inside the rudder speed brake on the tail fin. They are normally fixed to the back end of the rudder, and NASA astronaut Terry Virts said it is common for these clips to be missing following a mission. Image analysts compared previous images of the clips to telephoto images taken by the crew today to determine it was one of the clips. The “protuberance” on the tail fin is considered to be “nominal” or normal, and was just a separation in the tail’s thermal cover that was enhanced by the lighting from the sun at that time, and does not pose a problem.
This morning around 6:30 am EDT, the crew of STS-124 activated the shuttle’s auxiliary power units to test the shuttle’s re-entry systems for Saturday’s scheduled landing. Everything checked out fine, but shortly afterward the crew reported seeing an object floating away from the shuttle. The crew was able to capture video of the object as it tumbled away. “We observed an object depart aft of the starboard wing,” Commander Mark Kelly said. “Looked like, and obviously it’s hard to tell dimensions and size looking out the aft windows, but it looked like it might have been a foot to a foot and a half in width. And we’ve got a pretty reasonable image of it.”

Additionally, the crew also noticed a protuberance on the shuttle’s tail fin, thought to be a small piece of thermal insulation. NASA TV reported that NASA officials are not currently overly concerned about the protuberance, but additional images are being taken by the crew and downloaded for review by experts in Houston.

NASA TV commentator Rob Navias it is not uncommon for objects to become dislodged from the payload bay or for ice from the engine bell to become dislodged after the shuttle has unusual movements, such as when auxiliary power units are activated or tested. However, the object is large enough that further review of the incident is warranted. There is no concern about the object re-contacting the shuttle, but it is being tracked from the ground.

NASA is also studying video plus digital stills of the area on the shuttle’s tail fin, at the intersection of the lower and top sections of the rudder that meet to form the speed brake, used during landing. All the aero surfaces of the rudder and speed brake were tested this morning, with five movements in either direction, and no unusual data was detected. NASA reports that all the landing systems appear to be in good shape to support entry and landing.

The area in question on the tail fin is covered with a reusable thermal protection system and it does have a thermal barrier seal. That seems to be where the slight “bump” as the crew called it, or protuberance is.

This morning Kelly, Pilot Ken Ham and flight engineer Ron Garan are honing in on their piloting skills by conducting a computer simulation of landing the shuttle.

There will be media interviews with the shuttle crew at about 11:50 this morning, where details of the object and protuberance might be discussed. Look for updates here.

News Sources: NASA TV, Spaceflightnow.com

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Ulysses Mission to End After 17 Years

For more than 17 years the Ulysses spacecraft studied the sun, pioneering solar science and defining our knowledge of the sun’s heliosphere. But on July 1, the mission will end. The spacecraft has been slowly “dying” due a dwindling power supply which can no longer keep the spacecraft warm enough. But Ulysses lasted almost four times its expected lifespan and has forever changed the way scientists view the sun and its effect on the surrounding space.

Ulysses ends its career after revealing that the magnetic field emanating from the sun’s poles is much weaker than previously observed. This could mean the upcoming solar maximum period will be less intense than in recent history.

“Over almost two decades of science observations by Ulysses, we have learned a lot more than we expected about our star and the way it interacts with the space surrounding it,” said Richard Marsden, Ulysses project scientist and mission manager for the European Space Agency (ESA). “Solar missions have appeared in recent years, but Ulysses is still unique today. Its special point of view over the sun’s poles never has been covered by any other mission.”

Ulysses is in a six-year orbit around the Sun. Its long orbital path carries it out to Jupiter’s orbit and back again. The further it ventures from the Sun, the colder the spacecraft becomes. Once it drops to 2ºC, the spacecraft’s hydrazine fuel will freeze.

This has not been a problem in the past because Ulysses carries heaters to maintain a workable on-board temperature. The spacecraft is powered by the decay of a radioactive isotope and over the 17-plus years, the power it has been supplying has been steadily dropping. Now, the spacecraft no longer has enough power to run all of its communications, heating and scientific equipment simultaneously.

The spacecraft and its suite of 10 instruments had to be highly sensitive, yet robust enough to withstand some of the most extreme conditions in the solar system, including intense radiation while passing by the giant planet Jupiter’s north pole.

Ulysses was the first mission to survey the environment in space above and below the poles of the sun in the four dimensions of space and time. It showed the sun’s magnetic field is carried into the solar system in a more complicated manner than previously believed. Particles expelled by the sun from low latitudes can climb to high latitudes and vice versa, sometimes unexpectedly finding their way out to the planets. Ulysses also studied dust flowing into our solar system from deep space, and showed it was 30 times more abundant than astronomers suspected. In addition, the spacecraft detected helium atoms from deep space and confirmed the universe does not contain enough matter to eventually halt its expansion.

Ulysses has traveled over 8.6 billion kilometers (5.4 billion miles) during its lifetime.

“Ulysses has been a challenging mission since launch,” said Ed Massey, Ulysses project manager at JPL. “Its success required the cooperation and intellect of engineers and scientists from around the world.”

Ulysses has been a joint mission between NASA and ESA.

“When the last bits of data finally arrive, it surely will be tough to say goodbye,” said Nigel Angold, ESA’s Ulysses mission operations manager. “But any sadness I might feel will pale in comparison to the pride of working on such a magnificent mission. Although operations will be ending, scientific discoveries from Ulysses data will continue for years to come.”

News Source: JPL Press Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Carnival of Space #58



This week, the Carnival returns to its home port for a week. That’s right, we’re hosting it here at Universe Today. Let’s get right to this week’s entries.

At Mang Bat’s Page, David Gamey thinks budding astronomers should never start with a telescope – invest in a good pair of binoculars instead.

Over at Colony Worlds, Darnell Clayton considers how future colonists will want to grow bamboo to get instant forests.

At Dynamics of Cats, Steinn Sigurðsson analyzes NASA’s newly announced shortlist of Small Explorer missions.

As Phoenix settles down on Mars to begin its third week of work, Stuart Atkinson wonders what could be responsible for the problems with getting samples of precious martian dust into the waiting TEGA ovens, and comes up with two – surprising – possible explanations…

Martian Chronicles also looks at the very clumpy soil that Phoenix tried, and failed, to process through its shake and bake method.

Catholic Sensibility begins a series on Solar System satellites. First up, the Galilean Moons of Jupiter.

Pluto gets to raise its head high again, with the newly designated Plutoids. Astroprof has the details about the IAU’s new decision.

Irene Klotz over at Discovery News thinks the US should steal the Soyuz. Well, not steal it exactly.

The space show airs the audio of the first ever Space Cynics’ Roundtable, and all sacred cows are fair game, so to speak…

At A Babe in the Universe, you can get a look at the newly announced probe that will fly right through the hot corona of the Sun.

Next Big Future has a list of the top 10 upcoming developments in space technology that will vastly improve the exploration of space.

At Bad Astronomy, Phil talks about an experiment that will test quantum mechanics on the International Space Station.

Centauri Dreams reports on plans to build a light tower to memorialize the victims of hurricane Katrina, and thinks about how this could apply to solar sail technology.

Ed Minchau has a space video of the week. This time, a summary of the major events of mission STS-124.

How many astronomers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

The Lunar and Planetary Institute has some new 35 mm images taken during the Apollo 17 mission.

David Portree has a piece about model rocketry on Mars.

Our very own Ian O’Neill has an article entitled “The Case of the Supermassive Black Hole, the Infrared Object and Perceived Accuracy of Science”

Clark Lindsey at Hobbyspace announces an upcoming event for the X-Prize Lunar Lander Challenge.

Music of the Spheres discusses cycling to Mars. No, not on a bicycle, but on a space station that travels back and forth from Earth to Mars.

At Starts with a Bang, Ethan Siegel has completed the 3rd part of a series about the natural history of the Universe. Here are all 3 parts. Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

At Visual Astronomy, Sean Welton explains how the Aurora Borealis works.

And last, but not least, Universe Today’s Nancy Atkinson shows what the new Constellation spacesuits might look like.

Phew, that’s all of them.

And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past carnivals of space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to [email protected], and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, let me know if you can be a host, and I’ll schedule you into the calendar.

Finally, if you run a space-related blog, please post a link to the Carnival of Space. Help us get the word out.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

What is the Driest Place on Earth?

Dry Valleys. Image credit: NASA

The driest place on Earth is in Antarctica in an area called the Dry Valleys, which have seen no rain for nearly 2 million years. There is absolutely no precipitation in this region and it makes up a 4800 square kilometer region of almost no water, ice or snow. Water features include Lake Vida, Lake Vanda, Lake Bonney and the Onyx River. There is no net gain of water. The reason why this region receives no rain is due to Katabatic winds, winds from the mountains that are so heavy with moisture that gravity pulls them down and away from the Valleys.

One feature of note is Lake Bonney, a saline lake situated in the Dry Valleys. It is permanently covered with 3 to 5 meters of ice. Scientists have found mummified bodies of seals around the lake. Lake Vanda, also in the region, is 3 times saltier than the ocean. Temperatures at the bottom of this lake are as warm as 25 degrees Celsius.

The next driest place in the world measured by the amount of precipitation that falls is the Atacama Desert in Chile and Peru. There are no glaciers that are feeding water to this area; and thus, very little life can survive. Some weather stations in this region have received no rain for years, while another station reports an average of one millimeter per year.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Lowest Point on Earth

The Dead Sea from space. Image credit: NASA

The lowest point on land is the Dead Sea that borders Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. It’s 420 meters below sea level.

The Dead Sea sits on top of the Dead Sea Rift, a tectonic fault line between the Arabian and the African plates. The movement of these plates causes the Dead Sea to sink about one meter per year! The Dead Sea used to be connected to the Mediterranean Ocean, but over a geologic time scale, it became cut off and evaporation concentrated the salt in the water so that today, the Dead Sea is 30 to 31 percent mineral salts. It has the highest level of salinity of any body of water in the world. Just a side note, I’ve had a chance to swim in the dead sea, and it’s one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had.

The lowest point on land in the Western Hemisphere is Death Valley in California at 86 meters below sea level.

The lowest point on the Earth’s crust is the Mariana’s Trench in the North Pacific Ocean. It is 11 kilometers deep. Like many of Earth’s extremes, the Mariana’s Trench is caused by the Pacific tectonic plate subducting beneath the Philippine plate; this means that the Pacific Plate is sliding underneath the Philippine plate. The point where the Philippine plate overlaps is Mariana’s Trench.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Could Humans Move the Earth?

When people learn that energy output from the Sun is increasing, and will boil away the planet’s oceans within a billion years, they wonder if there’s any way to stop the process. Obviously, we can’t stop the Sun from shining and increasing its energy output. But is there a way humans could move the Earth further away from the Sun?

The answer is yes. Well, it’s theoretically possible. Not with today’s technology, and not without an enormous amount of energy, but the laws of physics say it’s possible. In fact, nature does it all the time.

The trick is to replicate a natural process called a 3-body interaction. This is what happens when you have nice orbit perturbed by a 3rd object. In this case, we’ve got the Earth nicely orbiting the Sun. But if we could have an asteroid pass by the Earth in just the right way, its gravity would pull our planet out of its orbit just a tiny bit.

Instead of its current elliptical orbit, the Earth would start to spiral outward from the Sun, slowly drifting further and further away. This is very similar to how the Moon is slowly drifting away from the Earth.

If you timed things right, and used several asteroid passes, you could make the Earth spiral outward as the Sun’s energy output is increasing. Instead of getting roasted, we would slowly drift away from the Sun, matching the expanding habitable zone. This would give life on Earth billions more years, instead of a few hundred million.

Of course, playing pool with asteroids is a dangerous game. Give an asteroid the wrong trajectory and it could crash into our planet and end humanity in an instant. And if you get the calculations wrong, you could end up spiraling the Earth away from the Sun too quickly, and freeze the planet. You’ve got to get it just right.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

How Far Down is the Center of the Earth?

Cut away of planet Earth

Everyone has wanted to dig a hole down to the center of the Earth at some time in their lives. I think I was in the 3rd grade, and my friends and I tried to dig down as far as we could go. I never told them my goal, but in my heart, we were going all the way through. In the end we actually got down about 2 meters, but the bottom kept filling in with water.

Of course, digging down to the centre of the Earth was always out of reach.

In order to be able to dig down to the center of the Earth, my friends and I would have needed to dig our way through 6,378 km of rock, mantle, and iron. Most of this journey would be through temperatures hot enough to melt rock, getting as high as 7,000 Kelvin at the center.

The first 35 km or so of digging would be through the outer crust of the Earth. Assuming we could actually get through the solid rock, and keep water from filling back into our super deep hole, we might actually be able to make some progress through this.

Temperatures rise as you get deeper, though. One of the deepest mines in the world is the TauTona gold mine in South Africa, a mere 3.6 kilometers deep. Even though this just scratches the surface of the Earth, temperatures at the bottom of TauTona already get as high as 55°C.

Once you break through the crust, you’re into the Earth’s mantle. At this point, you’re looking at about 3,000 km of rock heated to such a high temperature that it’s a liquid. Volcanoes are points on the Earth when magma from the mantle breaks through to the surface.

How we’d dig through that… I have no idea. But let’s say we could.

Then we’d break through into the core of Earth. This region extends for another 3,500 km or so, and its comprised almost entirely of iron, with a little nickel, and some other trace metals. And it’s even hotter than the mantle above it. This is where temperatures get to 7,000 Kelvin. Assuming we could bore through the iron, and could withstand the heat, we could get down to the center of the Earth.

At this point, we would have traveled 6,378 km to complete our journey. And then another 6,378 km to get through the other side and visit the folks in China.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_radius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TauTona_Mine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantle_%28geology%29

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

The Latest in Space Fashion from NASA

NASA unveiled a new design of spacesuits for the Constellation program today. Astronauts will be donning the new suits on the first flights of the Orion spaceship, scheduled for 2015, on trips to the International Space Station, with additional EVA suits ready for the first missions to the moon, scheduled for 2020. The spacesuits feature rear entry, enhanced shoulder mobility and modular, interchangeable parts. The spacesuits will be designed and produced by Oceaneering International Inc. of Houston, Texas, which received a contract worth $183.8 million for 2008-2014.

NASA required two spacesuit system configurations for the Constellation program. The first type of spacesuit (Configuration One) will be used for launch and landing operations, as well as inside the spacecraft during an emergency like loss of pressurization of the Orion crew compartment.


Configuration Two will build upon Configuration One and will support lunar surface operations. While preparing to walk on the moon, the astronauts will be able to build their own personal Configuration Two spacesuits by replacing elements of Configuration One with elements specialized for surface operations.

Suits and support systems will be needed for as many as four astronauts on moon voyages and as many as six space station travelers. For short trips to the moon, the suit design will support a week’s worth of moon walks. The system also must be designed to support a significant number of moon walks during potential six-month lunar outpost expeditions. In addition, the spacesuit and support systems will provide contingency spacewalk capability and protection against the launch and landing environment, such as spacecraft cabin leaks.

Video of the new Constellation spacesuits.

Video of spacesuit tests.

Pdf. file for more info on the new spacesuits and the contract award.
Original News Source: NASA Press Release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Alien Mineral From Comet Dust Found in Earth’s Atmosphere

Astoundingly, about 40,000 tons of dust particles fall to Earth each year which originates from space “leftovers,” mostly from disintegrating comets and asteroid collisions. Scientists are very interested in this dust because of its pristine nature –it is made of the original building blocks of the solar system. Some of that dust also resides in Earth’s atmosphere, and for years, NASA has routinely collected cosmic and interplanetary dust from Earth’s stratosphere with high-altitude research aircraft. NASA announced today that a new mineral has been found from this atmospheric research, in material that likely came from a comet.


Usually, any unique dust particles found in the atmosphere are difficult to trace as far as their origin, and whether it came from a comet or other space debris. But this new mineral, a manganese silicide which has been named “Brownleeite,” was discovered within an interplanetary dust particle, or IDP, that appears to have originated from comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup. The comet was discovered in 1902 and reappears every 5 years. A new method of collecting IDPs was suggested by space scientist Scott Messenger, from Johnson Space Center. He predicted comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup was a source of dust grains that could be captured in Earth’s stratosphere at a specific time of the year.

In response to his prediction, NASA performed stratospheric dust collections, using an ER-2 high-altitude aircraft flown from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The aircraft collected IDPs from this particular comet stream in April 2003. The new mineral was found in one of the particles. To determine the mineral’s origin and examine other dust materials, a powerful new transmission electron microscope was installed in 2005 at Johnson.

“When I saw this mineral for the first time, I immediately knew this was something no one had seen before,” said Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, also from Johnson Space Center. “But it took several more months to obtain conclusive data because these mineral grains were only 1/10,000 of an inch in size.”

“Because of their exceedingly tiny size, we had to use state-of-the-art nano-analysis techniques in the microscope to measure the chemical composition and crystal structure of Keiko’s new mineral,” said Lindsay Keller, Johnson space scientist and a co-discoverer of the new mineral. “This is a highly unusual material that has not been predicted either to be a cometary component or to have formed by condensation in the solar nebula.”

The mineral was surrounded by multiple layers of other minerals that also have been reported only in extraterrestrial rocks. There have been 4,324 minerals identified by the International Mineralogical Association, or IMA. This find adds one more mineral to that list.

Brownleeite, is named after Donald E. Brownlee, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, Seattle. Brownlee founded the field of IDP research. The understanding of the early solar system established from IDP studies would not exist without his efforts. Brownlee also is the principal investigator of NASA’s Stardust mission.

Brownlee says he’s always been intrigued by minerals and now “it’s great to be one.”

Original News Source: PhysOrg, AP

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Where are the Sunspots? Are we in for a Quiet Solar Cycle?

The Suns photosphere is looking particulary boring (NASA/SOHO)
The Suns photosphere is looking particulary boring (NASA/SOHO)

So what’s up with our Sun? Is it going through a depression? It seems as if our closest star is experiencing a surprisingly uneventful couple of years. Solar minimum has supposedly passed and we should be seeing a lot more magnetic activity, and we certainly should be observing lots more sunspots. Space weather forecasts have been putting Solar Cycle 24 as a historically active cycle… but so far, nothing. So what’s the problem? Is it a ticking bomb, waiting to shock us with a huge jump in solar activity, flares and CMEs over a few months? Or could this lack of activity a prelude to a very boring few years, possibly leading the Earth toward another Ice Age?

It’s funny. Just as we begin to get worried that the next solar maximum is going to unleash all sorts of havoc on Earth (i.e. NASA’s 2006 solar storm warning), scientists begin to get concerned as to whether there is going to be a solar maximum at all. In a conference last week at Montana State University, solar physicists discussed the possibility that the Sun could be facing a long period of calm, leading to the concern that there could be another Maunder Minimum. The Maunder Minimum (named after the late 19th Century solar astronomer Edward W. Maunder, who discovered the phenomenon) was a 17th Century, 30-year period when very few sunspots were observed on the disk of the Sun. It is thought by many scientists that this period contributed to what became known as the “Little Ice Age” here on Earth. As the Sun provides Earth with all its energy, during extended periods when the solar output is lower than average, it seems possible a lack of sunspots on the Sun (i.e. low activity) may be linked with periods of cold down here.

“It continues to be dead. That’s a small concern, a very small concern.” – Saku Tsuneta, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and program manager for the Hinode solar mission.

However, solar physicists are not too worried about this possibility, after all, it’s only been two years since solar minimum. Although activity has been low for the beginning of Cycle 24, sunspots have not been non-existent. In January of this year, a newborn spot was observed, as expected, in high latitude regions. More spots were seen in April. In March, sunspots from the previous solar cycle even made an appearance, putting on an unexpected show of flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

As pointed out by David Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the fact that sunspots have already been observed in this new cycle means that it is highly unlikely we face anything as extreme as another Maunder Minimum. Hathaway says there is nothing unusual about having a relatively understated solar cycle after several particularly active cycles. Solar Cycle 23 was a very active period for the Sun with a greater than average number of sunspots observed on the solar surface.

It appears there are two different predictions for the activity level of the next solar cycle. On the one hand we have scientists that think this cycle might be below average, and on the other hand we have scientists who believe the next cycle will be the biggest yet. We certainly have a long way to go before we can begin making any accurate solar forecasts…

Source: Space.com