Posted on by Fraser Cain

NASA Competition to Get Air from Lunar Soil

Astronauts in a lunar base will need a lot of air. Image credit: NASA. Click to enlarge.
NASA, in collaboration with the Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI), today announced a new Centennial Challenges prize competition.

The MoonROx (Moon Regolith Oxygen) challenge will award $250,000 to the first team that can extract breathable oxygen from simulated lunar soil before the prize expires on June 1, 2008.

For the MoonROx challenge, teams must develop hardware within mass and power limits that can extract at least five kilograms of breathable oxygen from simulated lunar soil during an eight-hour period. The soil simulant, called JSC-1, is derived from volcanic ash. The oxygen production goals represent technologies that are beyond existing state-of-the-art.

NASA’s Centennial Challenges promotes technical innovation through a novel program of prize competitions. It is designed to tap the nation’s ingenuity to make revolutionary advances to support the Vision for Space Exploration and NASA goals.

“The use of resources on other worlds is a key element of the Vision for Space Exploration,” said NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Craig Steidle. “This challenge will reach out to inventors who can help us achieve the Vision sooner,” he added.

“This is our third prize competition, and the Centennial Challenges program is getting more and more exciting with each new announcement. The innovations from this competition will help support long-duration, human and robotic exploration of the moon and other worlds,” said Brant Sponberg, NASA’s Centennial Challenges program manager.

“Oxygen extraction technologies will be critical for both robotic and human missions to the moon,” said FSRI Executive Director Sam Durrance. “Like other space-focused prize competitions, the MoonROx challenge will encourage a broad community of innovators to develop technologies that expand our capabilities,” he added.

The Centennial Challenges program is managed by NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. FSRI is a state-wide center for space research. It was established by Florida’s governor and legislature in 1999.

For more information about Centennial Challenges on the Internet, visit: http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA and agency programs on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

For information about the Florida Space Research Institute on the Internet, visit: http://www.fsri.org

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Cosmic Rays Cause the Brightest Radio Flashes

Low-frequency radio sky at the time of a cosmic ray hit. Image credit: MPIFR. Click to enlarge.
Using the LOPES experiment, a prototype of the new high-tech radio telescope LOFAR to detect ultra-high energy cosmic ray particles, a group of astrophysicists, in collaboration of Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, has recorded the brightest and fastest radio blasts ever seen on the sky. The blasts, whose detection are reported in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, are dramatic flashes of radio light that appear more than 1000 times brighter than the sun and almost a million times faster than normal lightning. For a very short moment these flashes – which had gone largely unnoticed so far – become the brightest light on the sky with a diameter twice the size of the moon.

The experiment showed that the radio flashes are produced in the Earth atmosphere, caused by the impact of the most energetic particles produced in the cosmos. These particles are called ultra-high energy cosmic rays and their origin is an ongoing puzzle. The astrophysicists now hope that their finding will shed new light on the mystery of these particles.

The scientists used an array of radio antennas and the large array of particle detectors of the KASCADE-Grande experiment at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. They showed that whenever a very energetic cosmic particle hit the Earth atmosphere a corresponding radio pulse was recorded from the direction of the incoming particle. Using imaging techniques from radio astronomy the group even produced digital film sequences of these events, yielding the fastest movies ever produced in radio astronomy. The particle detectors provided them with basic information about the incoming cosmic rays.

The researchers were able to show that the strength of the emitted radio signal was a direct measure of the cosmic ray energy. “It is amazing that with simple FM radio antennas we can measure the energy of particles coming from the cosmos” says Prof. Heino Falcke from the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (ASTRON) who is the spokesperson of the LOPES collaboration. “If we had sensitive radio eyes, we would see the sky sparkle with radio flashes”, he adds.

The scientists used pairs of antennas similar to those used in ordinary FM radio receivers. “The main difference to normal radios is the digital electronics and the broad-band receivers, which allow us to listen to many frequencies at once”, explains Dipl. Phys. Andreas Horneffer, a graduate student of the University of Bonn and the International Max-Planck Research School (IMPRS), who installed the antennas as part of his PhD project.

In principle some of the detected radio flashes are in fact strong enough to wipe out conventional radio or TV reception for a short time. To demonstrate this effect the group has converted their radio reception of a cosmic ray event into a sound track (see below). However, since the flashes only last for some 20-30 nanoseconds and bright signals happen only once a day, they would be hardly recognisable in everyday life.

The experiment also showed that the radio emission varied in strength relative to the orientation of the Earth magnetic field. This and other results verified basic predictions that had been made in theoretical calculations earlier by Prof. Falcke and his former PhD student Tim Huege, as well as by calculations of Prof. Peter Gorham from the University of Hawaii.

Cosmic ray particles constantly bombard the earth causing little explosions of elementary particles which form a beam of matter and anti-matter particles rushing through the atmosphere. The lightest charged particles, electrons and positrons, in this beam will be deflected by the geomagnetic field of the Earth which causes them to emit radio emission. This type of radiation is well known from particle accelerators on Earth and is called synchrotron radiation. In analogy, the astrophysicists now speak of “geosynchrotron” radiation due to the interaction with the Earth magnetic field.

The radio flashes were detected by the LOPES antennas installed at the KASCADE-Grande cosmic ray air shower experiment at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany. KASCADE-Grande is a leading experiment for measuring cosmic rays. “This shows the strength of having a major astroparticle physics experiment directly in our neighbourhood – this gave us the flexibility to also explore unusual ideas as this one” says Dr. Andreas Haungs, spokesperson of KASCADE-Grande.

The radio telescope LOPES (LOFAR Prototype Experimental Station) uses prototype antennas of the largest radio telescope of the world, LOFAR, to be built after 2006 in the Netherlands and parts of Germany. LOFAR has a radical new design, combining a multitude of cheap low-frequency antennas which collect the radio signals from the entire sky at once. Connected by high-speed internet a supercomputer then has the ability to detect unusual signals and make images of interesting regions on the sky without moving any mechanical parts. “LOPES achieved the first major scientific results of the LOFAR project already in the development phase. This makes us confident that LOFAR will indeed be as revolutionary as we had hoped it will be.” explains Prof. Harvey Butcher, director of the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (ASTRON) in Dwingeloo, The Netherlands, where LOFAR is currently being developed.

“This is indeed an unusual combination, where nuclear physicists and radio astronomers work together to create a unique and highly original astroparticle physics experiment”, states Dr. Anton Zensus, director at the Max-Planck-Institut f?r Radioastronomie (MPIfR) in Bonn. “It paves the way for new detection mechanisms in particle physics as well as demonstrating the breathtaking capabilities of the next generation telescopes such as LOFAR and later the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). Suddenly major international experiments in different research areas come together”

As a next step the astrophysicists want to use the upcoming LOFAR array in the Netherlands and Germany for radio astronomy and cosmic ray research. Test are under way to integrate radio antenna into the Pierre Auger Observatory for cosmic rays in Argentina and possibly later in the second Auger Observatory in the Northern hemisphere. “This may be a major breakthrough in detection technology. We hope to use this novel technique for detecting and understanding the nature of the highest energy cosmic rays and also to detect ultra-high energy neutrinos from the cosmos”, says Prof. Johannes Bl?mer, Astroparticle Physics programme director of the Helmholtz Association and at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe.

The detection has been confirmed in part by a French group using the large radio telescope of the Paris observatory at Nan?ay. Historically, work on radio emission from cosmic rays was first done in the late 1960ies with the first claims of detections. However, no useful information could be extracted with the technology of these days, and the work ceased quickly. The main shortcomings were the lack of imaging capabilities (now implemented by software), the low time resolution, and the lack of a well-calibrated particle detector array. All of this has been overcome with the LOPES experiment.

Original Source: MPI News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Actual Photo of Mars Odyssey in Orbit

Mars Global Surveyor took this image of Mars Odyssey while both spacecraft were in orbit around Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL. Click to enlarge.
Photographs from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft released today are the first pictures ever taken of a spacecraft orbiting a foreign planet by another spacecraft orbiting that planet.

The new images of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Odyssey are available on the Internet from NASA at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mgs-images.html and from Malin Space Science Systems, the San Diego company that built and operates the camera, at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/19/index.html.

Mars Global Surveyor has been orbiting Mars since 1997, Mars Odyssey since 2001. Both are managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. Mars Express has been in orbit since late 2003.

Mars Express was passing about 155 miles away when the Mars Orbiter Camera on Mars Global Surveyor photographed it on April 20. The next day, the camera caught Mars Odyssey passing 56 to 84 miles away.

All three spacecraft are moving at almost 7,000 miles per hour, and at 62 miles distance the field-of-view of the Mars Orbiter Camera is only 830 yards across. If timing had been off by only a few seconds, the images would have been blank.

The images were obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor operations teams at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; JPL and Malin Space Science Systems.

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Dark Energy Could be a Breakdown of Einstein’s Theory

Hubble deep field view. Image credit: Hubble. Click to enlarge.
Cosmologists from Princeton University announced a new method to understand why the expansion of the universe is speeding up. The proposed technique will be able to determine if the cosmic acceleration is due to a yet unknown form of Dark Energy in the universe or if it is a signature of a breakdown of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity at very large scales of the universe. The result is being presented today by the principal investigator, Dr. Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki, a research associate at Princeton University in New Jersey, to the Canadian Astronomical Society meeting in Montreal, QC.

“The accelerating expansion of the universe constitutes one of the most intriguing and challenging problems in astrophysics. Moreover, it is related to problems in many other fields of physics. Our research work is focused on constraining different possible causes of this acceleration.” says Dr. Ishak-Boushaki.

During the last 8 years, several independent astronomical observations have demonstrated that the expansion of the universe has entered a phase of acceleration. The discovery of this acceleration came as a surprise to astrophysicists who were expecting to measure a slowing down of the expansion caused by the gravitational attraction of ordinary matter in the universe.

In order to explain the cosmic acceleration, theoretical cosmologists introduced the notion of a new energy component that would constitute two thirds of the entire energy density of the universe and that is gravitationally repulsive rather than attractive. This component has been termed Dark Energy.

Is Dark Energy real? “We don’t know,” comments Professor David Spergel from Princeton. “It could be a whole new form of energy or the observational signature of the failure of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Either way, its existence will have profound impact on our understanding of space and time. Our goal is to be able to distinguish the two cases.”

The simplest case of Dark Energy is the cosmological constant that Einstein introduced 80 years ago in order to reconcile his theory of General Relativity with his prejudice that the universe is static. He had to withdraw the cosmological constant a few years later when the expansion of the universe was discovered. The discovery of the cosmic acceleration has revived the debate about the cosmological constant in a new context.

Another fundamentally different possibility is that the cosmic acceleration is a signature of a new theory of gravity that enters at very large scales of the universe rather than the product of Dark Energy. Some of the recently proposed modified gravity models are inspired by Superstring theory and extra dimensional physics.

Could we distinguish between these two possibilities? The proposed procedure shows that the answer is yes. The general idea is as follows. If the acceleration is due to Dark Energy then the expansion history of the universe should be consistent with the rate at which clusters of galaxies grow. Deviations from this consistency would be a signature of the breakdown of General Relativity at very large scales of the universe. The procedure proposed implements this idea by comparing the constraints obtained on Dark Energy from different cosmological probes and allows one to clearly identify any inconsistencies.

As an example, a universe described by a 5-dimensional modified gravity theory was considered in this study and it was shown that the procedure can identify the signature of this theory. Importantly, it was shown that future astronomical experiments can distinguish between modified gravity theories and Dark Energy models.

The research work on the results presented was led by Dr. Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki in collaboration with Professor David Spergel, both from the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, and Amol Upadhye, a graduate student at the Physics Department at Princeton University.

Original Source: Princeton News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Planet Forces its Star’s Rotation

ESO image of a completely different star, 2M1207, and its planet. Image credit: ESO. Click to enlarge.
Canadian astronomers using the MOST space telescope have observed a remarkable planetary system where a giant close-in planet is forcing its parent star to rotate in lock-step with the planet’s orbit. “This is truly a stellar story of `tail wags dog’,” according to Dr. Jaymie Matthews of the University of British Columbia, leader of the Canadian Space Agency’s MOST space telescope mission, in an announcement about the exoplanetary system tau Bootis made at the annual meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society in Montreal today.

“The interactions between the star and the giant planet in the tau Bootis system are unlike anything astronomers have seen before,” elaborates Dr. Matthews. “And they would be undetectable by any instrument on Earth or in space other than MOST.”

The MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) satellite has revealed that the star tau Bootis is undergoing subtle variations in its light output that are in synch with the orbit of the planet – unimaginatively designated tau Bootis b – in a tight orbit around it. The best explanation is that the planet’s gravity has forced the outer envelope of the star to rotate so it always keeps the same face to the planet – despite the fact that the planet is probably under 1% of the star’s mass.

“It’s no surprise when a star or planet gravitationally forces its smaller companion to spin according to its orbital rhythm, like the Moon always keeping the same face to the Earth,” Dr. Matthews explains. “But for a planet to force a star to do this is very unusual.” In all likelihood, only the surface layers of gas in the star have succumbed to the planet’s influence, just as in the Earth-Moon system, where the Moon has succeeded in causing a bulge in the thin layer of water on the Earth’s surface which results in the ocean tides, but has not forced the massive solid Earth underneath to rotate in step.

The only reason why the planet can lead even part of the star in the tau Bootis system is because it orbits so closely – only 1/20th of the Earth-Sun distance – and because it’s quite big as planets go – at least 4 times the mass of Jupiter, the largest planet in our own Solar System. The planet was discovered in 1997 by American astronomers Paul Butler, Geoff Marcy and colleagues based on the wobbling motions induced in the star by the 3.3-day orbit of an unseen companion. With such a small orbit, you might expect other complicated interactions between the star and planet, and MOST has observed evidence for these as well. There are indirect indications of starspots, tidal distortion, and even magnetic activity on the surface of tau Boo a.

Last year, another team of Canadian scientists, led by Evgenya Shkolnik (an alumna of UBC now at the University of Hawaii) and Gordon Walker (an exoplanet pioneer and MOST Science Team member at UBC), presented evidence in a system similar to tau Boo, HD179949, for a planet heating up the gas in its parent star, which is also behaviour never seen before. This would probably be caused by the entanglement of a magnetic field of the planet with the star’s field. “We may be witnessing another example of this in tau Bootis,” notes Dr. Walker. “The nature of the light variations is different for each of the nine exoplanet orbits monitored by MOST in 2004 and 2005. The explanation for all the variability will have to include intrinsic stellar effects, like rotation, and planet-induced effects, like heating caused by tides and magnetic fields – a complex model, to be sure.”

The theories of the origins and evolution of planetary systems were shaken up a decade ago with the discovery of the first of these giant close-in exoplanets (dubbed “hot Jupiters”) around the Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi. The planet in the tau Bootis system is more massive and closer to its star than the one in 51 Pegasi, and represents a remote laboratory for planetary scientists to test new theories about planet formation that will eventually be applied to our own Solar System. The details revealed by MOST have already excited theorists, and certainly excited the observers on the MOST team. Dr. Rainer Kuschnig, MOST Instrument Scientist (UBC) can barely contain his enthusiasm: “It’s tremendous fun to watch the data on this system come in from the satellite and see something new every day. It’s so cool!”

MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) is a Canadian Space Agency mission. Dynacon Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario, is the prime contractor for the satellite and its operation, with the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) as a major subcontractor. The University of British Columbia (UBC) is the main contractor for the instrument and scientific operations of the MOST mission. MOST is tracked and operated through a global network of ground stations located at UTIAS, UBC and the University of Vienna.

Animations of eta Boo and tau Boo are available at:

http://www.astro.umontreal.ca/~casca/PR/etaBoo2.wmv
http://www.astro.umontreal.ca/~casca/PR/tauBootis3.wmv

Original Source: MOST News Release

Posted on by Mark Mortimer

CD Review: Cosmic Fireflies

Story Musgrave flew into space six times. His training began in the Apollo era. He was capcom for many flights, including the Skylab missions, and he completed EVA’s, including repairs to Hubble. In total, he has logged over 1281 hours off of Earth’s surface. He certainly has had ample opportunity to reflect upon his circumstances and develop a sense of being space bound. Further, amongst his many accolades he has a master of arts in literature. This combination should remedy the typical astronauts angst at expressing feelings. And it does, as Musgrave, in his disc, portrays a warm, special dimension to space travel.

There are 13 separate tracks on the disc. They alternate between a poem with musical accompaniment and purely musical tracks. Musgrave wrote the poems and does his own recitations. His voice doesn’t have the polish of professional actors, yet enthusiasm and honest feelings are palpably present. And, of course, each of the spoken passages have a direct relation to space.

The first poem presents the ‘rush’ of the rockets launch. An underlying direct feed from an Atlantis launch amplifies the sensation. Another gives a timely and provocative recital of the changing views of Earth seen out the orbiting shuttle’s window. Still another tackles the justification for putting so much natural resources into space exploration. The title piece, Cosmic Fireflies, captures the bedazzlement, like fireworks, that astronauts envision while passing through the Earth’s magnetosphere. Each poem has its own rhythm and sense and each evokes an image or feeling well aligned with space. As a collection, they combine into a journey from the launch, through controlled flight and into the free floating realm that pushes to transcend the pull of gravity and even diminish the continual roar of competition.

The musical style is effectively new age with a touch of techno. Whether in accompaniment or standing alone, each softly encourages reflection and meditation. Perhaps not remarkable on their own, they are nevertheless perfect companions for the poems and add to the emotional journey the listener can travel upon.

This disc would be a perfect addition to an evening spent sitting by a fire and watching the stars. The slow dance of flames would balance with the music and words of the poems. Being outside, under the stars would give credence to the message of humankind’s place on or off planet Earth. However, though the words to the poems are available at the associated web site, it seems a shame that they weren’t included with the disc itself.

As much as people have the power of speech, sometimes we are still left speechless. The wonders of space, perhaps due to their novelty, seem to be well ahead of our descriptive ability. However, Story Musgrave in his compact disc Cosmic FireFlies seeks to redress this situation and the result is a pleasant musical journey and a simple moment for reflecting and pondering.

Visit Story Musgrave’s website at: www.spacestory.com

Listen to samples or purchase a copy of Cosmic Fireflies from Countdown Creations.

Review by Mark Mortimer.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Asteroid Will Zip Past the Earth in 2029

The orbits of Earth and asteroid 2004mn4. Image credit: NASA/JPL. Click to enlarge.
Friday the 13th is supposed to be an unlucky day, the sort of day you trip on your shoe laces or lose your wallet or get bad news.

But maybe it’s not so bad. Consider this: On April 13th–Friday the 13th–2029, millions of people are going to go outside, look up and marvel at their good luck. A point of light will be gliding across the sky, faster than many satellites, brighter than most stars.

What’s so lucky about that? It’s asteroid 2004 MN4 … not hitting Earth.

For a while astronomers thought it might. On Christmas Eve 2004, Paul Chodas, Steve Chesley and Don Yeomans at NASA’s Near Earth Object Program office calculated a 1-in-60 chance that 2003 qq47 would collide with Earth. Impact date: April 13, 2029.

The asteroid is about 320 meters wide. “That’s big enough to punch through Earth’s atmosphere,” devastating a region the size of, say, Texas, if it hit land, or causing widespread tsunamis if it hit ocean, says Chodas. So much for holiday cheer.

Asteroid 2004 MN4, also known as the 2029 meteor, had been discovered in June 2004, lost, then discovered again six months later. With such sparse tracking data it was difficult to say, precisely, where the asteroid would go. A collision with Earth was theoretically possible. “We weren’t too worried,” Chodas says, “but the odds were disturbing.”

This is typical, by the way, of newly-discovered asteroids. Step 1: An asteroid is discovered. Step 2: Uncertain orbits are calculated from spotty tracking data. Step 3: Possible Earth impacts are noted. Step 4: Astronomers watch the asteroid for a while, then realize that it’s going to miss our planet.

Killer Asteroid! headlines generally appear between steps 3 and 4, but that’s another story.

Astronomers knew 2004 MN4 would miss Earth when they found pictures of the 2029 asteroid taken, unwittingly, in March 2004, three months before its official discovery. The extra data ruled out a collision in 2029.

Instead, what we’re going to have is an eye-popping close encounter:

On April 13, 2029, asteroid 2004 MN4 will fly past Earth only 18,600 miles (30,000 km) above the ground. For comparison, geosynchronous satellites orbit at 22,300 miles (36,000 km). “At closest approach, the asteroid will shine like a 3rd magnitude star, visible to the unaided eye from Africa, Europe and Asia–even through city lights,” says Jon Giorgini of JPL. This is rare. “Close approaches by objects as large as 2004 MN4 are currently thought to occur at 1000-year intervals, on average.”

The asteroid’s trajectory will bend approximately 28 degrees during the encounter, “a result of Earth’s gravitational pull,” explains Giorgini. What happens next is uncertain. Some newspapers have stated that the asteroid might swing around and hit Earth after all in 2035 or so, but Giorgini discounts that: “Our ability to ‘see’ where 2004 MN4 will go (by extrapolating its orbit) is so blurred out by the 2029 Earth encounter, it can’t even be said for certain what side of the sun 2004 MN4 will be on in 2035. Talk of Earth encounters in 2035 is premature.”

In January 2004, a team of astronomers led by Lance Benner of JPL pinged 2004 MN4 using the giant Arecibo radar in Puerto Rico. (Coincidentally, the Arecibo dish is about the same size as the asteroid.) Echoes revealed the asteroid’s precise distance and velocity, “allowing us to calculate the details of the 2029 flyby,” says Giorgini, who was a member of the team along with Benner, Mike Nolan (NAIC) and Steve Ostro (JPL).

More data are needed to forecast 2004 MN4’s motion beyond 2029. “The next good opportunities are in 2013 and 2021,” Giorgini says. The asteroid will be about 9 million miles (14 million km) from Earth, invisible to the naked eye, but close enough for radar studies. “If we get radar ranging in 2013, we should be able to predict the location of 2004 MN4 out to at least 2070.”

The closest encounter of all, Friday the 13th, 2029, will be a spectacular opportunity to explore this asteroid via radar. During this encounter, says Giorgini, “radar could detect the distortion of 2004 MN4’s shape and spin as it passes through Earth’s gravity field. How the asteroid changes (or not) would provide information about its internal structure and material composition.” Beautifully-detailed surface maps are possible, too.

The view through an optical telescope won’t be so impressive. The asteroid’s maximum angular diameter is only 2 to 4 arcseconds, which means it will be a starlike point of light in all but the very largest telescopes.

But to the naked eye–wow! No one in recorded history has ever seen an asteroid in space so bright.

Friday the 13th might not be so bad after all.

Original Source: Science@NASA

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Amateurs Command Gemini for an Hour

Gemini North image of stellar nursery RY Tau. Image credit: Gemini. Click to enlarge.
Using a giant telescope on Mauna Kea Hawaii is a dream for most amateur sky watchers. Recently a Canadian amateur astronomy group took advantage of a rare opportunity and used one of the largest telescopes in the world, the Gemini 8-meter telescope, to look more deeply into the remains of a particular stellar nursery than anyone ever has.

The observations of a star emerging from its cocoon were the result of a proposal submitted as part of a nationwide contest in Canada. The winning group from Quebec received its data/images during a special ceremony at the annual meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society at the University of Montreal on May 15, 2005.

“Our group knew that this object was unique and hadn’t been observed in detail with a big telescope like Gemini,” said Gilbert St-Onge, the club member who submitted the proposal. “I feel like we’ve not only made a pretty picture, but probably provided some new and valuable data for the pros!”

Gemini Astronomer Tracy Beck, who studies these stellar incubators, agrees. “This object is a classic, and one of the first-known examples of this type of young star,” she said. “I believe this is by far the deepest and most detailed image ever taken of this object and scientists will no doubt use these data for important research in the future.”

The object, known as RY Tau is part of a class of objects known as T Tauri stars. These stars represent the very youngest of low-mass stellar specimens that have only recently emerged from the cocoon of gas and dust in which they formed. The new Gemini image of RY Tau displays a striking array of wispy gas filaments that glow from scattering caused by radiation from the nearby star. Over the next few million years this gas will be blown away by the central star leaving a normal star and perhaps a family of planets that also formed from gas and dust in the cloud.

The observations, which took a total of about one hour using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS), were challenging to make. The central star is so bright that it can overwhelm the faint glowing clouds around it. To overcome this, a series of many short exposures were obtained and stacked to produce the final image. A selection of four filters were also used to bring out specific color features in the dynamic cloud.

The program was sponsored by the team of scientists who coordinate Gemini observations for Canada (through the Canadian Gemini Office) at the National Research Council of Canada’s Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (HIA) in Victoria. B.C. The contest, which began in 2004, solicited proposals from more than a hundred amateur astronomy clubs throughout Canada as a way to thank them for the work they do to support and excite the public about astronomy. The winning proposal was selected by a process similar to that used by professional astronomers, where selection criteria include scientific merit and an assessment of the uniqueness of the observation.

“When we first worked on scheduling these observations, we jokingly referred to the program as the “amateur hour” since it allows amateur astronomers to get an hour of time on a large telescope,” said Doug Welch, Canadian Gemini Project Scientist. “However, the caliber of the proposals and scientific potential of this data has shown that it is more like a pro-am golf tournament where the hobbyists work directly with the pros!”

The contest also included an hour of time on Gemini’s neighbor on Mauna Kea, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The winning observation at CFHT was from a group in Alberta, Canada who used the wide-field capability of the telescope to image a large field of the Pleiades star cluster with the MegaPrime imager.

Original Source: Gemini News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

B-15 About to Crash Again

ESA’s Envisat image of iceberg B-15A. Image credit: ESA. Click to enlarge.
The mammoth B-15A iceberg appears poised to strike another floating Antarctic ice feature, a month on from a passing blow that broke off the end of the Drygalski ice tongue. As this Envisat image reveals, this time its target is the ice tongue of the Aviator Glacier.

First discovered in 1955, and named to mark the work done by airmen to open up the Antarctic continent, the Aviator Glacier is a major valley glacier descending from the plateau of Victoria Land along the west side of the Mountaineer Range. It enters the sea at Lady Newnes Bay, where it forms a floating ice tongue that extends into the water for about 25 kilometres.

This Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) image was acquired on 16 May 2005 in Wide Swath Mode (WSM), providing spatial resolution of 150 metres across a 400-km swath. ASAR can pierce through clouds and local darkness and is capable of differentiating between different types of ice.

The sensor has been following the movements of B-15A since the beginning of the year, gathering the highest frequency weather-independent dataset of this part of the Ross Sea.

Measuring around 115 kilometres in length with an area exceeding 2500 square kilometres, the B-15A iceberg is the world’s largest free-floating object. It is the largest remaining section of the even larger B-15 iceberg that calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000 before breaking up into smaller sections.

Since then its B-15A section has drifted into McMurdo Sound, where its presence blocked ocean currents and led to a build-up of sea ice that decimated local penguin colonies, deprived of open waters for feeding. During the spring of this year prevailing currents took B-15A slowly past the Drygalski ice tongue. A full-fledged collision failed to take place, but a glancing blow broke the end off Drygalski in mid-April.

The stretch of Victoria Land coast parallel to B-15A’s current position is unusually rich in wildlife, noted for colonies of Adelie penguins as well as Weddell seals and Skuas. If B-15A were to remain in its current position for any prolonged length of time, the danger is that the iceberg could pin sea-ice behind it, blocking the easy access to open water that local animal inhabitants currently enjoy.

Twin-mode Antarctic observations
Envisat’s ASAR instrument monitors Antarctica in two different modes: Global Monitoring Mode (GMM) provides 400-kilometre swath one-kilometre resolution images, enabling rapid mosaicking of the whole of Antarctica to monitor changes in sea ice extent, ice shelves and iceberg movement.

Wide Swath Mode (WSM) possesses the same swath but with 150-metre resolution for a detailed view of areas of particular interest.

ASAR GMM images are routinely provided to a variety of users including the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Ice Centre, responsible for tracking icebergs worldwide.

ASAR imagery is also being used operationally to track icebergs in the Arctic by the Northern View and ICEMON consortia, which provide ice monitoring services as part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, jointly backed by ESA and the European Union.

This year also sees the launch of CryoSat, a dedicated ice-watching mission designed to precisely map changes in the thickness of polar ice sheets and floating sea ice.

CryoSat, in connection with regular Envisat ASAR GMM mosaics and SAR interferometry – a technique used to combine radar images to measure tiny centimetre-scale shifts between acquisitions – should answer the question of whether the kind of ice-shelf calving that gave rise to B-15 and its descendants are a consequence of ice sheet dynamics or other factors.

Together they will provide insight into whether such iceberg calving occurrences are becoming more common, as well as improving our understanding of the relationship between the Earth’s ice cover and the global climate.

Original Source: ESA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

What’s Up This Week – May 16 – May 22, 2005

Lunar Map courtesy of The Sky Plus. Click to enlarge.
Monday, May 16 – With the Moon now approaching first quarter, this would be an excellent time to look for it in late afternoon skies. If you’re not busy this evening, why don’t we take the opportunity to explore the lunar surface and look at four very cool features.

Central on the terminator tonight will be Sinus Medii – the adopted “center” of the lunar disc and the point from which latitude and longitude are measured. This smooth plain may look small, but covers about as much area as the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined. On a curious note, in 1930 Sinus Medii was chosen by Edison Petitt and Seth Nicholson for surface temperature measurements during full Moon. Experiments of this type were began by Lord Rosse as early as 1868, and they found the surface to be just slightly warmer than boiling water. Around a hundred years after such experiments began, Surveyor 6 successfully landed in Sinus Medii on November 9, 1967 confirming Surveyor 5’s findings – and became the very first probe to “lift off” from the lunar surface.

To the south/southeast of the Sinus Medii is the unmistakable Albategnius. It is an old formation, with its walls broken by many more recent craters, like Klein on its southwestern edge. Albategnius is historic as well, because in 1962, it became the target of the laser beam projected onto the lunar surface. To the north, look for the long dark scar of the Alpine Valley as it angles across the lunar Alps and the Sun beginning to rise on the single, unusual peak of pyramid-like Mons Piton.

Tuesday, May 17 – Today in 1835, J. Norman Lockyer was born. While that name might not stand out, Lockyer was the first to note previously unknown absorption lines while making visual spectroscopic studies of the Sun in 1868. Little did he know at the time, he had correctly identified the most simple and second most abundant element in our universe – helium – an element not discovered on Earth until 1891! Also known as the “Father of Archeoastronomy”, Sir Lockyer was one of the first to make the connection with ancient astronomical structures such as Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. (As a curious note, 14 years after Lockyer’s notation of helium, a sun-grazing comet made its appearance in photographs of the solar corona taken during a total eclipse in 1882… It hasn’t been seen since.)

If you would like to see a helium rich star, look no further tonight than Alpha Viginis – Spica. As the sixteen brightest star in the sky, this brilliant blue/white “youngster” appears to be about 275 light years away and is about 2300 times brighter than our own Sun. Although we can not see it visually, Spica is a double star. Its spectroscopic companion is roughly half its size and is also helium rich.

Feeling like some peaceful contemplation? Then visit the lunar surface tonight and spend some time with crater Plato. This huge ellipse to the lunar north has an unusual dark stained lava floor that has been the site of many unconfirmed changes. Visit along its east wall where the shadow play among its many crests will appear almost like a distant city skyline.

Wednesday, May 18 – On this day in 1910, Comet Halley transited the Sun, but could not be detected visually. Since the beginning of astronomical observation, transits, eclipses and occultations have provided science with some very accurate determinations of size. Since Comet Halley could not be spotted against the solar surface, we knew almost a century ago that the nucleus had to be smaller than 100 km.

So, would you like to get a grasp on that concept? Then have a look at the lunar surface tonight and the most prominent crater of all – Copernicus. In a study done by Shoemaker, this ancient crater is no doubt formed by a gigantic impact. Feature after feature so closely resembles geological impact craters seen here on Earth, that we can say with complete certainty that this crater was formed by a large meteoritic body. And just how large is crater Copernicus? Oh, about the size of a certain famous comet’s nucleus – 100 km…

Thursday, May 19 – Tonight on this universal date, the Moon will occult Jupiter for viewers in a small portion of south Africa and the northern tier of South America. Please visit this IOTA webpage for specific times in your location. For viewers in North America, the Moon and Jupiter will make a very picturesque sight as they pass very closely to each other.

While watching this pair tonight, take the time to look at the lunar surface and enjoy the “Bay of Rainbows” – Sinus Iridium. If you’re watching Jupiter, a great many viewers will get to enjoy the both the transits of Io and Europa as well as their shadows and the “Great Red Spot” will happily join the show at 22:10 UT.

Friday, May 20 – Tonight let’s skip the Moon and head for the stars as we set our sights towards the fourth brightest star in the sky – Arcturus.

Located around 37 light years from us, the orange giant is heading our way at about 5 kilometers per second and will pass us in a couple of thousand years. With a diameter of roughly 33 million kilometers, this population II star was one of the very first to be observed during the daylight in 1635 and is often referred to as the “Watcher of the Bear”. Oddly enough, it reached fame in 1933 when its light was focused telescopically on a photoelectric cell and the power it generated used to turn on a switch. That switch was connected to the floodlights at the Chicago Exposition “Century of Progress” – with Arcturus chosen for the honors because the light that reached the Earth that night had left the star during the Chicago 1893 Exposition. Here’s to guessing you couldn’t see Arcturus once the lights were on….

But keep your lights off and your eyes trained on the finderscope as we explore four “neighbors” of Arcturus. About a fist width east, you will see four dim stars that will require optical aid with tonight’s “lunacy”. To the north is Xi – a very pretty double star with a yellowish primary and a more orange secondary. The next star to the south is Omicron and then Pi. You will find Pi to be a 5th magnitude double with a 6th magnitude companion relatively close to the east/southeast. For larger scopes, keep heading south for double Zeta, which are matched magnitudes and close enough to need high power and steady skies to split.

Saturday, May 21 – In 1961, United States President John F. Kennedy launches the country on a journey to the Moon as he makes one of his most famous speeches to Congress: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space…”

Tonight let’s explore the lunar surface with binoculars as we view the areas of all the historic Apollo missions. Starting with Apollo 11, you will find its landing site on the southwest corner of Mare Tranquillitatus where it meets with Mare Nectaris. Apollo 12 is near the terminator to the west and just north of the small, bright punctuation of Euclid. Apollo 14’s remains lay due east on the border of Mare Cognitum. Look to the north for shallow Archimedes and the Apennine Mountain range where you will find Apollo 15 forever waiting in Palus Putredinus. Look southeast of Apollo 11’s site in the rugged terrain west of Theophilus for Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 ends the lunar tour on the southeastern shore of Mare Serenitatis where it joins Mare Nectaris.

Since you’re out with binoculars, tonight would be a great opportunity to spot an asteroid as well! At close to 7th magnitude, you’ll find Ceres just about a degree south of Delta Librae. Check the minor planets listing at Heaven’s Above for a locator chart.

Sunday, May 22 – Tonight the Moon will be at minimum libration tipping crater Otto Struve our way. You will find this strange, tomato-shaped crater on the extreme limb just west of bright Aristarchus.

Since Struve was the master of double stars, let’s make it easy to find one of his discoveries! Start with reasonably accurate equatorial alignment and take the time to enjoy fantastic double Cor Caroli again. Turn off any drive units, or just wait… Wide, white double, Struve 1702 will “drift” into the eyepiece in 150 seconds.

Until next week? Ask for the Moon, but keep reaching for the stars! May all your journeys be at Light Speed… ~Tammy Plotner