Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

GLAST Blasts Off

A powerful new space observatory called GLAST launched successfully today, and will provide a huge leap in our capabilities to study gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope will enable scientists to answer persistent questions about a broad range of topics, including supermassive black-holes, pulsars, cosmic rays, and searches for signals of new physics in the stars of our galaxy. GLAST blasted off at 12:05 pm EDT, after a brief delay regarding weather and concerns on the water suppression system at the launchpad. But the problems were cleared and the launch proceeded with no complications. Now, the big question is, what will be GLAST’s new name?

As per tradition, GLAST will be renamed with a more user friendly, non-acronym name following it’s successful launch and deployment. The vehicle will go into a parking orbit for about 55 minutes following launch, then the second stage will restart, burn for two minutes, coast for about 5 minutes, then the spacecraft will separate and deploy the solar arrays. That’s when the mission is officially underway.

In its first year of operations, GLAST will concentrate on using its high sensitivity to create a new map of the skies, which is expected to reveal between 5,000 and 10,000 new sources of gamma-rays, which are invisible to human eyes.

The GLAST spacecraft is about 9-feet high by 8-feet in diameter when stowed in the fairing section of the rocket. GLAST will become a little bit taller and much wider after it is launched into space, when the Ku-band antenna deploys and the solar arrays are extended.

With high sensitivity GLAST is the first imaging gamma-ray observatory to survey the entire sky every day. It will give scientists a unique opportunity to learn about the ever-changing universe at extreme energies. GLAST will detect thousands of gamma-ray sources, most of which will be supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies.

The observatory will be a significant upgrade to the previous orbiting gamma-ray telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. GLAST should make observations in days that took the Compton years to make.

“GLAST is about to open up the Universe to us in new and exciting ways,” said Steven Ritz, of Nasa’s Goddard Space Science Center, and the project’s chief scientist. “GLAST enables scientists to look under the hood and see how the universe works.”

The mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed by NASA in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.

Sources: NASA TV, GLAST website

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Phoenix Sprinkles Successfully

Successful Sprinkle

The Phoenix Mars Lander used its Robotic Arm during the mission’s 15th Martian sol to test the “sprinkling” method for delivering small samples of soil to instruments on the lander deck. The “movie” shown here is a sequence of four images from the spacecraft’s Surface Stereo Imager, and demonstrates the actions of Phoenix for a 20 minute period. The sprinkling was tested because a couple of days ago, the first attempt at bringing soil samples to the scientific instruments was unsuccessful. The soil, when just dumped as a whole onto Phoenix’s deck, clumped together and wouldn’t go through a screen that brings the materials to the TEGA instrument to analyze the soil. The sprinkling technique, by contrast, holds the scoop at a steady angle and vibrates the scoop by running the motorized rasp located beneath the scoop. This gently jostles some material out of the scoop to the target below.

This method seems to distribute the material better, and “unclumps” the frozen clods of soil. For this test, the target was near the upper end the cover of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer instrument suite, or MECA. The cover is 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) across. The scoop is about 8.5 centimeters (3.3 inches) across.

Based on the test’s success in delivering a small quantity and fine-size particles, the Phoenix team plans to use the sprinkle method for delivering more samples to MECA and then to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. The delivery to MECA’s Optical Microscope, will be via the port in the MECA cover, visible at the bottom of the image.

Meanwhile, Phoenix will continue a set of atmospheric observation begun during the Martian evening on Tuesday in coordination with overhead passes of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These take advantage of opportunities for instruments on Phoenix and on the orbiter to examine the same column of atmosphere simultaneously from above and below.

“It allows us to put the Phoenix measurements into global perspective and gives a ground level calibration for the orbiter’s measurements,” said Phoenix Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Source: Phoenix News

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Launchpad Damage Threatens Future Missions

The damage to Launchpad 39 A is apparently worse than first thought. According to a report from WESH TV in Orlando, not only were bricks blasted from launchpad walls during the launch of Discovery on May 31, 2008, but damage also extended hundreds of square feet under the pad. NASA Officials said engineers inspected the walls and found more areas ready to fail, making the pad dangerous to use. Repairs will begin as soon as possible, as there are only two launchpads for the shuttle. Complicating matters is that both pads, 39 A and 39 B must be available for the next space shuttle mission, a flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, and preliminary work has begun to switch 39 B from a shuttle launch pad to the site where the first Ares rockets will be tested next year for the new Constellation program.

STS-125’s mission to Hubble, scheduled for October 2008, will require a shuttle ready on each launchpad, as post-Columbia flight guidelines require a backup shuttle to serve as a recue ship for any mission not going to the International Space Station, where the crew could take refuge if any damage occurred that would prohibit the shuttle from landing.

So, just closing down the damaged Pad 39A is not an option, said shuttle program manager Leroy Cain. “We need both launch pads, so that’s not a negotiable term at this point.”

But switching to pad 39B as the primary launch pad would also present issues, as this site is currently being readied for launches for the Constellation program.

Last week’s launch tore huge gouges into the pad’s walls. Bricks were blasted and thrown on a roadway a quarter of a mile away, and into the waterway behind the pad. NASA is concerned about bricks being thrust up and damaging the space shuttle during future launches.

“We have lots of things that are susceptible to breaking away, or peeling away and hitting the launch vehicle,”said Leroy Cain. “Will there be impacts to the shuttle program, potentially the station, and no doubt the Constellation program? I’m sure there would be.”

Both launchpads were initially built to launch the Saturn rockets for the Apollo program, back in the 1960’s.

But as it stands now, Launchpad 39 A can’t be used again until NASA determines how and why the damage occurred, and how to prevent it from happening again.

Sources: WESH TV, NASA TV

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

New Details on Venus’ Clouds from Venus Express

Mysterious clouds blanket Venus, obscuring our sister planet from view. These clouds billow up between 45 and 70 km above the surface, and in the upper part of the atmosphere, clouds swirl by at a rate of 300 km/h, driven by fierce winds. Composed mainly of sulfuric acid along with chlorine and fluorine, these clouds wouldn’t be friendly to life as we know it, but still, their mysteries beckon us. The science team from the European Space Agency’s Venus Express has been imaging the planet’s enigmatic atmosphere, and has released new images in several different wavelengths that provide new details on the clouds of Venus.
Continue reading “New Details on Venus’ Clouds from Venus Express”

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Arecibo Joins Forces with Global Antennae to Simulate 6,800 Mile Telescope

The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has joined forces with telescopes located in North America, South America, Europe and Africa to create the observing power of a radio telescope 6,800 miles (nearly 11,000 kilometres) in diameter. This collaboration is called the Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service (EXPReS) project, and on May 22nd, the system went “live” with all antennae observing the same part of the sky. This is an historic project where international collaboration has resulted in the most powerful radio telescope system available to date…

May 22nd heralded the first live demonstration of the EXPReS project that used radio telescopes from four continents. e-VLBI stands for “electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometery” and the system has the huge benefit of taking real-time observations. Data from the EXPReS project is transmitted to the central signal processor at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) in Holland, where speeds of data-streaming have exceeded Arecibo’s previous record four times over. Apart from being an acronym fest, the e-VLBI, EXPReS, JIVE collaboration will observe the cosmos with a resolution of 100 times better than the worlds most advanced optical telescopes.

So how can a single radio telescope dish with a diameter of 6,800 miles be simulated if the project has telescopes scattered around the planet? This is where the clever technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometery (VLBI) comes in. If you have multiple telescopes observing the same radio source in the cosmos simultaneously (and using very precise atomic clocks as a guide), the distance (or base-line) between observatories will simulate the effect of using a telescope with a diameter of that distance. The resolution of the observation is improved when the interferometer has several observatories working as one. Traditionally, the radio signal received at each antenna was recorded on a magnetic tape and then shipped to a central processing facility. The results of a campaign usually took weeks to be compiled. By using the e-VLBI system, recording data at the telescope site can be bypassed and transmitted real-time to the central processing facility along with the other telescopes observing the same source. Results are now available in a matter of hours – essential rapid processing when fast astronomical processes (such as supernovae) are in progress.

“These results are very significant for the advance of radio astronomy. It shows not only that telescopes of the future can be developed in worldwide collaboration, but that they can also be operated as truly global instruments.” – Huib Jan van Langevelde, JIVE Director.

The EXPReS project is funded by the European Commission and aims to connect 16 of the world’s most sensitive radio observatories. In the middle of this collaboration is the JIVE processor so real-time data processing can help astronomers achieve very quick results and react to transient radio sources.

Sources: Physorg.com, Arecibo Observatory

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Double Spaceship Sighting Alert

Looking for the International Space Station flying overhead is one of my favorite space-related pastimes. But for a couple of evenings (or early mornings, depending where you are) starting on Wednesday, June 11 you can see two spacecraft for the price of one. Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on Wednesday morning, June 11th, at 7:42 am EDT. This means some sky watchers will be able to see both spaceships flying in tandem. They’ll be seen as separate but closely-spaced points of light. Double flybys will continue on Thursday the 12th and to a lesser extent on Friday the 13th, with Discovery scheduled to land on Saturday. Southeastern parts of the United States (e.g., Miami and Atlanta) are favored with some especially good viewing, depending, of course, on cloud cover.

To find out if you’ll be able to see spaceships in your area, there are a few different sites to check out:

Spaceweather.com, has a Satellite Tracker Tool. Just put in your zip code (good for the US and Canada) to find out what satellites will be flying over your house.

NASA has a Skywatch page where you can find your specific city to look for satellite sighting info.

Heaven’s Above also has a city search, but also you can input your exact latitude and longitude for exact sighting information, helpful if you live out in the country.

Seeing the two spacecraft flying closely in tandem is a very unique and thrilling sight. Good luck!

And if you like the image above, it is from the current STS-124 mission: Astronaut Mike Fossum used a digital camera to create this self-portrait during one of the EVAs of the mission, with both himself and the International Space Station visible in his helmet visor.

Original News Source: Spaceweather.com

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Space Station Astronauts Could Get Stranded in Kibo

The Kibo lab (NASA)

This could be a bit of a tricky (and amusing) situation for astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS). Space Shuttle Discovery astronaut Mark Kelly mentioned a minor technicality with the new Kibo laboratory during an in flight interview last Friday: It might be too spacious. Surely this is a good thing right? It is, and it isn’t. On the one hand the lab provides a large volume for four astronauts to work in comfortably, but on the other hand, if you get stuck in the middle, you may not be able to reach the sides. This could result in a rather frustrating situation where one of the astronauts may become “stranded” in zero-G…

The brand new Japanese Kibo laboratory was successfully delivered to the ISS last Tuesday (June 3rd) by Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-124). After successfully attaching the large module to the station using the onboard robotic arm, the station astronauts connected the electrical, water and air supply, pressurized the module ready for use. This was all being done whist cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko carried out some essential plumbing on the station toilet pump.

So all is going well on board the ISS, especially with the prospect of carrying out some exciting new science activities inside the largest module of the station. However, the astronauts will have to be careful when inside Kibo, they might become stranded. As observed by STS-124 commander Mark Kelly last Friday, “You have to be a little extra careful, you can get out in the middle of it and you can’t reach a handrail and you could possibly get stuck there for a little while.”

The Kibo module is the largest module attached to the ISS. The laboratory measures 37 feet (11 meters) long by over 14 feet (4.3 meters) wide, should an astronaut drift into the middle of Kibo, he or she may not be able to reach the handrails or the sides. Kelly obviously had first-hand experience of this during the setup of Kibo as he said that he and his crew had little time for orbital antics, like flailing around in the middle of Kibo when work needed to be done.

This isn’t a serious issue as there will likely be more than one astronaut inside Kibo to assist should their crewmate get stranded. It also seems easy enough to stretch lengths of cord from one side of Kibo to the other (or one down the axis) so astronauts can quickly right themselves. But I’m sure that the station astronauts will be happy to have such a volumous space to float around in rather than being too worried about getting stuck in the middle…

Source: Reuters

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Unique Telescope Facility Opens In Swiss Biosphere

Alpine Swiss Village

In the easternmost part of Switzerland near the Italian border, lies a pristine area of land ranging from 1,400 to 3,173 meters above sea level. It encompasses 172,400 hectares of forests, alpine grasslands and bare rocks or screes that are strictly protected and not inhabited. Each year, around 50 researchers from Switzerland and abroad carry out scientific studies in the area. A research committee is responsible for the coordination of the various projects, such as hydrology, meteorology, biodiversity, ecology. Now, another specialty is arriving in this area in form of a private endeavor – astronomy.

AAV Lue-Stailas is a new center for amateur astrophotography in the eastern Alps of Switzerland. Built on a sunny terrace at 1935 m (6300 ft) and facing south into the beautiful valley of Muestair, the center’s prime geographical location benefits from excellent sky conditions with about 250 clear nights a year. Thanks to its rigorous protection policy, Val Muestair was able to keep much of its original rural and natural habitat. This will soon be honored by the regions participation in a new high-alpine UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the European Alps, the Val Muestair/Swiss National Park Reserve. AAV Lue-Stailas will collaborate with this unique “Biosfera”-Project in order to bring its pristine skies to the public. The center will open in March of 2009, the International Year of Astronomy.

AAV Lue-Stailas is the brainchild of Václav and Jitka Ourednik who hold both a PhD in neuroscience and have been studying the regenerative capacity of the central nervous system for over 20 years. While pursuing competitive research and publishing in foremost scientific journals, they present their scientific results at international symposia and organize professional meetings and seminars. But what’s happening in Switzerland has been born of the unique love of both the micro and macro cosmos. Says Jitka, “The views through a microscope can be remarkably similar to vistas in the universe imaged through a telescope such as the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) or simulated with computers according to current cosmological theories.”

Microscope VS. TelescopeInner Space or Outer Space?

–caption: Filamentous clusters of galaxies as pictured by the HST (left) or in a computer simulation (right). Neuronal cell culture as seen in a fluorescent microscope.

In order to promote public awareness for the need to protect the natural habitat and dark skies, Václav and Jitka have decided to make their life-long hobby a profession and create a center for amateur astrophotography in Europe. Their search for the best possible location for hosting a unique telescope facility lasted several years. Finally, being both fond of the Swiss Alps, they chose a sunny terrace at an altitude of 2000 m in the county of Lue in eastern Switzerland for the creation of the Alpine Astrovillage Lue-Stailas. Says Vaclav, “Recent statistics show that the global interest in astronomy increases every year dramatically. Moreover, people are not only interested in astronomy and astrophotography but they also realize how important their contribution is in the preservation of our global natural habitat, which also includes the protection of dark night skies by a strict control of light pollution.”

At Alpine Astro Village, each living quarters/studio will have its own automated dome, telescope and imaging equipment, which can be, if needed, operated from the studios. Another treat of the center are its two robotic telescopes in Australia for remote imaging of the southern skies.. Yet, although the main purpose of the site is astrophotography, and there will also be telescopes set up for visual exploration for public activities like star parties and AAV club activities, there’s just a little more to this sphere than the astronomy angle:

“One of the unique aspects of AAV Lue-Stailas is that we strive to maintain and profit from the contrast of embedding our center of modern life style and high-tech equipment within the historical heritage of the region . This allows the visitors to fully enjoy and capture the beauty of the local night sky while having the opportunity to enjoy all the treasures of the valley and its vicinity during the day” say the Ouredniks, “The region provides limitless opportunities for daytime nature walks, biking tours, or demanding hiking expeditions. In winter, downhill skiing is less than one car-hour away (famous resorts such as Davos, Pontresina, St-Moritz…)and cross-country ski tracks are right at our center’s door step. We also strongly suggest visiting of the neighboring villages in the valley and beyond. You will find beautiful, traditional, and historic architecture, led by the Monastery of Saint John in Muestair, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Center dating from the 8th century and famous for its frescos from the times of Charlemagne. A visit to Val Muestair and AAV Lue-Stailas will stay forever in your memory.”

And so will meeting the lovely, giving Vaclav and Jitka Ourednik.

Here’s an article about another project like this: remember Biosphere 2?

Posted on by Astronomy Cast

Podcast: Missions to Mars, Part 1



With last month’s safe arrival of the Phoenix Mars Lander, Mars enthusiasts breathed a collective sigh of relief… phew. Now it’s time to search for evidence of organic molecules in the ice at Mars’ north pole. But this is just the latest in a long series of missions sent to the Red Planet. Let’s have a history lesson, and look back at the missions sent to Mars, successful and unsuccessful.

Click here to download the episode

Missions to Mars, Part 1 – Show notes and transcript

Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Hubble Zooms In On Coma Galaxy Cluster

The Coma Cluster is one of the densest known clusters of galaxies, containing thousands of elliptical and spherical star systems. The entire cluster is huge, more than 20 million light-years in diameter. It’s also very far away, over 300 million light years distant. But no telescope brings the Coma Cluster closer than the Hubble Space Telescope, and a new Hubble image has captured the magnificent starry population in one area of the Coma Cluster with the Advanced Camera for Surveys.

The above Hubble image focuses on an area that is roughly one-third of the way out from the center of the whole cluster. One bright spiral galaxy is visible in the upper left of the image (see below for a close-up of this galaxy). It is distinctly brighter and bluer than the galaxies surrounding it. A series of dusty spiral arms appears reddish brown against the whiter disc of the galaxy, and suggests that this galaxy has been disturbed at some point in the past. The other galaxies in the image are either elliptical galaxies, S0 (s-zero) galaxies or background galaxies that are far beyond the Coma Cluster sphere.

Ellipticals are featureless “fuzz-balls,” pale golden brown in color and contain populations of old stars. Both dwarf and giant ellipticals are found in abundance in the Coma Cluster.

Farther out from the centre of the cluster there are several spiral galaxies. These galaxies contain clouds of cold gas that are giving birth to new stars. Spiral arms and dust lanes “accessorise” these bright bluish-white galaxies, which have a distinctive disc structure.

S0 (S-zero) galaxies form a morphological class of objects between the better known elliptical and spiral galaxies. They consist of older stars and show little evidence of recent star formation, but they do show some structure — perhaps a bar or a ring that may eventually give rise to more disc-like features.


This image zooms in on one area of the new Hubble image, the stunning Lenticular galaxy (in the lower left of the first image) with numerous background galaxies visible as well.

The cluster’s position in space – near the Milky Way’s north pole— places it in an area not obscured by dust and gas, making it easily visible from Earth.

Original News Source: Hubble Site