Cassini’s First Detailed Look at Titan

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Sciences
The veils of Saturn’s most mysterious moon have begun to lift in Cassini’s eagerly awaited, first glimpse of the surface of Titan, a world where scientists believe organic matter rains from hazy skies and seas of liquid hydrocarbons dot a frigid surface.

Surface features previously observed only from Earth-based telescopes are now visible in images of Titan taken in mid-April through one of the narrow angle camera’s spectral filters specifically designed to penetrate the thick atmosphere. The image scale is 230 kilometers (143 miles) per pixel, and rivals the best Earth-based images.

The two narrow angle camea images displayed here show Titan from a vantage point 17 degrees below its equator, yielding a view from approximately 50 degrees north latitude all the way to its south pole. The image on the left was taken four days after the image on the right. Titan rotated 90 degrees in that time. The two images combined cover a region extending halfway around the moon. The observed brightness variations suggest a heterogenous surface, with variations in average reflectivity on scales of a couple hundred kilometers.

The images were taken through a narrow filter centered at 938 nanometers, a spectral region in which the only obstacle to the transmission of light through the molecular nitrogen atmosphere is the ubiquitous carbon-based, organic haze. Despite the rather long 38-second exposure times, there is no perceptible smear due to spacecraft motion. The images have been magnified 10 times using a procedure which smoothly interpolates between pixels to create intermediate pixel values, and have been enhanced in contrast to bring out details. No further processing to remove the effects of the overlying atmosphere has been performed.

The superimposed coordinate system grid in the accompanying images illustrates the geographical regions of the moon that are illuminated and visible, as well as the orientation of Titan — north is up and rotated 25 degrees to the left. The yellow curve marks the position of the terminator, the boundary between day and night on Titan. The enhanced image contrast makes the sunlit region within 20 degrees of the terminator darker than usual. The Sun illuminates Titan from the right at a phase (ie, Sun-Titan-Cassini) angle of 66 degrees. Because the Sun is in the southern hemisphere as seen from Titan, the north pole is canted relative to the terminator by 25 degrees.

Also shown here is a map of relative surface brightness variations on Titan as measured in images taken in the 1080-nanometer spectral region in 1997 and 1998 by the Near Infrared Camera (NICMOS) on Hubble Space Telescope (Meier, Smith, Owen and Terrile, Icarus 145: 462-473, 2000). NICMOS images have scales of about 300 kilometers (186 miles) per pixel. The map colors indicate different surface reflectivities. From darkest to brightest, the color progression is: deep blue (darkest), light blue, green, yellow, red, and deep red (brightest). The large, continent-sized, red feature extending from 60 degrees to 150 degrees West longitude is called Xanadu. It is unclear whether Xanadu is a mountain range, giant basin, smooth plain, or a combination of all three. It may be dotted with hydrocarbon lakes, but that is also unknown. All that is presently known is that in Earth-based images, it is the brightest region on Titan.

A comparison between the Cassini images and the Hubble map indicates that Xanadu is visible as a bright region in the Cassini image on the right. The dark blue northwest-southeast trending feature from 210 degrees to 250 degrees West longitude, and the bright yellow/green region to the east (right) and southeast of it at -50 degrees latitude and 180 to 230 degrees West longitude on the Hubble map, can both be seen in the image on the left.

It is noteworthy that the surface is visible to Cassini from its present approach geometry, which is not the most favorable for surface viewing. The success of these early Cassini observations portends success for upcoming imaging sequences of Titan in which the resolution improves by a factor of five over the next two months. These results are also encouraging for future, in-orbit observations of Titan that will be acquired from lower, more favorable phase angles.

The first opportunity to view small-scale features (2 kilometers or 1.2 miles) on the surface comes during a 350,000 kilometer (217,500 mile) flyby over Titan’s south pole on July 2, 2004, only 30 hours after Cassini’s insertion into orbit around the ringed planet.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.

Original Source: CICLOPS News Release

The Results of the Venus Challenge

Thanks to everyone who participated in my little Venus challenge. About two dozen of you took it on to head outside and snap a picture of Venus in your night sky. I love the international aspect of astronomy. No matter where on Earth you are right now, Venus is blazing in the night sky when the Sun goes down. How cool is that? I got photos from six continents, and many different countries. So, wherever you are, get out there and enjoy the night sky. Share your enthusiasm for space and astronomy with your friends.

Book Review: Comm Check

The seven-member crew of space shuttle Columbia was a picture perfect cross section of humanity. It included a range of ages, both sexes, a number of ethnicities and several nationalities. Each person was a very talented individual who was excelling in their chosen vocation. Almost all were living out a childhood fantasy of travelling in space. However, their goal was not that of personal glorification but rather of being a participant of the much larger space exploration effort undertaken by NASA, the United States and other world governments. These astronauts realized that they were a beacon for young and old alike; a symbol of what cooperation and skill can achieve. Their hopes, as well as the hopes of their families who were waiting at the landing site, were dealt a serious blow when Columbia didn’t return.

Of course, the shuttle relies on more than just the seven astronauts. Its related workforce totalled about 17,500 people of whom over 90% were contractors. These people were responsible for processing the shuttle before each flight and ensuring that the flight went smoothly. Here is where the main cause of Columbia’s failure arose. The people who were making these decisions were becoming over confident with every successful flight. In particular they were neglecting the fact that the shuttles were still designated as experimental. The mindset appeared to change from proving that the shuttle was ready to fly to one of proving that there was an anomaly that would make the shuttle unflyable. For example standing requirements for meeting readiness to flight were being challenged due to semantics rather than considering the safety implications. Expediency was replacing safety as the mantra of the day and this was a dark foreboding for the experimental shuttle.

Though the CAIB and this book share many of the same concerns about the accident, the authors raise a more fundamental one regarding NASA’s very existence. This concern centres on the political climate that now engages NASA. In the beginning, NASA was a political instrument with the very singular task of landing people on the moon and safely returning them to earth before the year 1970. Yes, in their time they had trials and disasters, but they were focussed and, more importantly, they had the support of the politicians words and especially the budget allocations. NASA succeeded in their task and deserved all the accolades given them.

Today NASA is drastically different. It has no singular goal and it seems to drift from one purpose to the next, as depending on the whim of the party in power. Further, most politicians happily vouch their support for space exploration yet almost yearly force a decrease in NASA’s budget. On top of this, NASA has gotten itself into a program bind. The shuttle’s reason for existence is to build the International Space Station (ISS). Yet the goal of the station itself appears to be mostly to provide rationale for the shuttle’s existence. Neither have strong justification for existence on their own nor do either have an apparent succession plan other than complete replacement. Through an executive order the shuttle is forbidden from launching commercial satellites and when flown for experiments, as Columbia was, there is precious little justification for the $500 million launch cost. NASA is unfocused and unsupported and needs to pull together to define a goal which would clearly places a value on programs, schedules and safety.

Cabbage and Harwood have written an engaging text that strongly focuses on the people directly involved with Columbia’s final flight. Part of it is like a testimonial to the crew and clearly we see the sacrifice made by the crew. I like the chronological narration particular in the rendition of what happened while Columbia was flying in orbit and the ground crew thought there was a problem but couldn’t prove it.

However though there was a lot of personal information sometimes it was excessive. The text contains the complete academic background and most of the career progression of the main individuals. Further, this information appears to be copied straight from a dossier rather than determined from personal interviews. I would have preferred more insight into the person’s feelings than their work accomplishments.

In Comm Check… The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia, Michael Cabbage and William Harwood co-author an easy to read book that portrays the main people involved with the Columbia accident and the events surrounding it. Though there is no vilification of any person, and none appears to be due, there is a sense that something is not quite right at NASA. Reading this book will remind you of the sorrows of the second loss of a shuttle and will also give you a feeling of how close the United States is to cancelling any future human space flight. This would be a significant decision and reading this book may help you decide where you want to vote on this issue.

Read more reviews, and find similar books from Amazon.com

Review by Mark Mortimer

New Research Doubts Life in Martian Meteorite

Image credit: NASA
The scientific debate over whether a meteorite contains evidence of past life on Mars continues to intensify, with colleagues of the team that announced the possibility in 1996 revealing new findings that may cast doubt on some of that earlier work.

?These new findings illustrate the excellent scientific process that was ignited by the announcement in 1996 of possible meteorite evidence of past life on Mars,? said Dr. Steven Hawley, Associate Director, Office of Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science at the Johnson Space Center. ?As work on this fundamental question continues, it is quite likely the final answer may not be known until Mars samples can be retrieved for study by scientists there or back on Earth.?

In the recent study, a team of scientists based largely at JSC found that a mineral in Mars meteorite ALH84001 that had been asserted to be most likely caused by an ancient microscopic organism may have been caused by a non-biological process. The team, led by D.C. Golden of Hernandez Engineering Inc. in Houston and including many NASA scientists from the Office of Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science, will have its work published in the May/June issue of American Mineralogist. The same office includes Dave McKay, Everett Gibson and several other scientists who contributed to the 1996 findings.

The new paper reports that magnetite, an iron-bearing mineral found in Martian meteorite ALH84001, was likely caused by inorganic processes, and that those same processes can be recreated in the laboratory, forming magnetite identical to that found in the Mars meteorite.

Magnetite crystals in ALH84001 have been a focus of debate about the possibility of life on Mars. The 1996 study led by McKay suggested that some magnetite crystals associated with carbonate globules in ALH84001 are biogenic because they share many characteristics with those found in bacteria on Earth. A study led by Kathie Thomas-Keprta in 2000 showed that some of the magnetite crystals in ALH84001 carbonate globules are characterized by elongation, a ?unique habit? identical to magnetite grains produced by bacteria on Earth.

Golden and his team first investigated whether an inorganic process can produce magnetite crystals identical to those in ALH84001 claimed by Thomas-Keprta?s team to be biogenic. Then, they sought to replicate the tenet of McKay?s 1996 hypothesis that the purported biogenic magnetite grains in ALH84001 are identical to those produced by a bacterium called MV-1.

Golden?s team concluded that the shapes of the MV-1 and ALH84001 elongated crystals differ. Their study concluded that inorganic processes can make the magnetite crystals in ALH84001, so any claim to a biological source is uncertain. Golden?s team found that decomposition of iron-bearing carbonate under high heat produced magnetite crystals identical to those found in ALH84001.

?The strength of the inorganic process provided here is that not only does it produce elongated magnetite crystals identical to those of the ALH84001 meteorite, but also it produces a whole range of features found in the meteorite,? said Golden, a mineralogist at JSC.

McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at JSC, stands by his 1996 findings. ?We originally proposed a suite of four lines of evidence which, taken together, were consistent as a package with a possible biological origin,? McKay said. ?The Golden group has singled out one very specific feature, the shape of the magnetite crystals, to try to discredit the whole biogenic hypothesis. Their alternative inorganic hypothesis, thermal decomposition of carbonate, will not explain many of the features described by us in ALH84001. A plausible inorganic model must explain simultaneously all of the properties that we and others have suggested as possible biogenic properties of this meteorite.?

ALH84001 was discovered in 1984 in the Allan Hills region of Antarctica by an annual expedition of the National Science Foundation?s Antarctic Meteorite Program. Its Martian origin was not recognized until 1993. One of about 30 meteorites discovered on Earth thought to be from Mars, it is a softball-sized igneous rock weighing 1.9 kilograms (4.2 pounds). With the exception of ALH84001, all are less than 1.3 billion years old. ALH84001 is 4.5 billion years old.

To view the study on the Internet, visit:

http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/AmMin/AmMineral.html For information about space research on the Internet, visit: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/Video to accompany this release will air on the NASA Television Video File at 11 a.m. CDT May 5. NASA TV is on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band, at 85 degrees west longitude, frequency 3880.0 MHz, polarization vertical, audio monaural at 6.80 MHz.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Planetary Society Wants to Aim for Mars

The Planetary Society has come on strong to support the human exploration of the Solar System with a new petition – Aim for Mars – that they intend to deliver to the US Congress. One of the cool things with this petition is that they’ve opened it up to people from other countries as well, as there are ways we can support the initiative (I’m from Canada, remember). They’ve also got lots of other resources to help you understand how to get involved.

Sign the petition!

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

Opportunity Reaches Endurance Crater

Image credit: NASA/JPL
This 180-degree view [false-color] from the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is the first look inside “Endurance Crater.” The view is a cylindrical projection constructed from four images. The crater is about 130 meters (about 430 feet) in diameter.

Plans are for the rover first to circumnavigate the 1,350-foot perimeter of the crater, then mission planners will be faced with the tough decision about whether to go into Endurance. One potential hazard that choice might entail stems from the steep walls and fine soil.

Even when exiting the much smaller Eagle Crater (about 1/7th the size of Endurance, the rover eventually ground to a halt. The rover’s wheel traction is generally rated to between 15 and 20 degrees for climbing slopes, but particularly near a crater rim, the soil is through to resemble talcum or powdered cement, rather than sand.

Scientists expect to release a spectacular color, high-resolution panorama of Endurance for their next news conference scheduled Thursday.

One characteristic that struck onlookers even from a distance was the layering along the rim and similarity of light colored outcrops thought to represent ancient Martian bedrock. Such stratigraphy reveals a layered history, where the newest sediments deposit on top and the older material is exposed below. By reading this layering like tree rings, scientists hope to read more chapters of their ongoing mystery: what happened to surface water on Mars?

Compared to the most detailed layer at Eagle crater (about 16 inches high), the much older and deeper layers at Endurance appear to be up to 8 feet tall in places. The more layers, the farther back in martian times the bedrock may reveal.

A key scientific objective for this part of Opportunity’s extended mission will be to seek geologic context for the outcrop in the “Eagle” crater by reaching other outcrops in the “Endurance” crater and perhaps elsewhere. Other science objectives are to continue atmospheric studies at both sites to encompass more of Mars’ seasonal cycle and to calibrate and validate data from Mars orbiters for additional types of rocks and soils examined on the ground.

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the planet, the Spirit rover logged another record-breaking day of driving. The last odometer reading turned nearly 100 yards, a goal-to-goal trek traversing the length of a football field.

“We’re going to continue exploring and try to understand the water story at Gusev,” said JPL’s Dr. Mark Adler, deputy mission manager for Spirit. Spirit is in pursuit of geological evidence for an ancient lake thought to have once filled Gusev Crater. Reaching “Columbia Hills,” which could hold geological clues to that water story, is one of several objectives for the extended mission.

New engineering objectives are to traverse more than a kilometer (0.62 mile) to demonstrate mobility technologies; to characterize solar-array performance over long durations of dust deposition at both landing sites; and to demonstrate long-term operation of two mobile science robots on a distant planet. During the past month or so, rover teams at JPL have switched from Mars-clock schedules to Earth-clock schedules designed to be less stressful and more sustainable over a longer period towards what is hoped will be another September mission extension.

Original Source: Astrobiology Magazine

Astronomers Peer Into Our Universe’s Dark Age

Image credit: NASA
Astronomers who want to study the early universe face a fundamental problem. How do you observe what existed during the “dark ages,” before the first stars formed to light it up? Theorists Abraham Loeb and Matias Zaldarriaga (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) have found a solution. They calculated that astronomers can detect the first atoms in the early universe by looking for the shadows they cast.

To see the shadows, an observer must study the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – radiation left over from the era of recombination. When the universe was about 370,000 years old, it cooled enough for electrons and protons to unite, recombining into neutral hydrogen atoms and allowing the relic CMB radiation from the Big Bang to travel almost unimpeded across the cosmos for the past 13 billion years.

Over time, some of the CMB photons encountered clumps of hydrogen gas and were absorbed. By looking for regions with fewer photons – regions that are shadowed by hydrogen – astronomers can determine the distribution of matter in the very early universe.

“There is an enormous amount of information imprinted on the microwave sky that could teach us about the initial conditions of the universe with exquisite precision,” said Loeb.

Inflation and Dark Matter
To absorb CMB photons, the hydrogen temperature (specifically its excitation temperature) must be lower than the temperature of the CMB radiation – conditions that existed only when the universe was between 20 and 100 million years old (age of Universe: 13.7 billion years). Coincidentally, this is also well before the formation of any stars or galaxies, opening a unique window into the so-called “dark ages.”

Studying CMB shadows also allows astronomers to observe much smaller structures than was possible previously using instruments like the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite. The shadow technique can detect hydrogen clumps as small as 30,000 light-years across in the present-day universe, or the equivalent of only 300 light-years across in the primordial universe. (The scale has grown larger as the universe expanded.) Such resolution is a factor of 1000 times better than the resolution of WMAP.

“This method offers a window into the physics of the very early universe, namely the epoch of inflation during which fluctuations in the distribution of matter are believed to have been produced. Moreover, we could determine whether neutrinos or some unknown type of particle contribute substantially to the amount of ‘dark matter’ in the universe. These questions – what happened during the epoch of inflation and what is dark matter – are key problems in modern cosmology whose answers will yield fundamental insights into the nature of the universe,” said Loeb.

An Observational Challenge
Hydrogen atoms absorb CMB photons at a specific wavelength of 21 centimeters (8 inches). The expansion of the universe stretches the wavelength in a phenomenon called redshifting (because a longer wavelength is redder). Therefore, to observe 21-cm absorption from the early universe, astronomers must look at longer wavelengths of 6 to 21 meters (20 to 70 feet), in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Observing CMB shadows at radio wavelengths will be difficult due to interference by foreground sky sources. To gather accurate data, astronomers will have to use the next generation of radio telescopes, such as the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). Although the observations will be a challenge, the potential payoff is great.

“There’s a gold mine of information out there waiting to be extracted. While its full detection may be experimentally challenging, it’s rewarding to know that it exists and that we can attempt to measure it in the near future,” said Loeb.

This research will be published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, and currently is available online at http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0312134.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.

Original Source: Harvard CfA News Release

Probing for Dark Matter Underground

Image credit: Fermilab
With the first data from their underground observatory in Northern Minnesota, scientists of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search have peered with greater sensitivity than ever before into the suspected realm of the WIMPS. The sighting of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles could solve the double mystery of dark matter on the cosmic scale and of supersymmetry on the subatomic scale.

The CDMS II result, described in a paper submitted to Physical Review Letters, shows with 90 percent certainty that the interaction rate of a WIMP with mass 60 GeV must be less than 4 x 10-43 cm2 or about one interaction every 25 days per kilogram of germanium, the material in the experiment’s detector. This result tells researchers more than they have ever known before about WIMPS, if they exist. The measurements from the CDMS II detectors are at least four times more sensitive than the best previous measurement offered by the EDELWEISS experiment, an underground European experiment near Grenoble, France.

“Think of this improved sensitivity like a new telescope with twice the diameter and thus four times the light collection of any that came before it,” said CDMS II cospokesperson Blas Cabrera of Stanford University. “We are now able to look for a signal that is just one-fourth as bright as any we have seen before. Over the next few years, we expect to improve our sensitivity by a factor of 20 or more.”

The results are being presented at the April Meeting of the American Physical Society on May 3 and 4 in Denver by Harry Nelson and graduate student Joel Sanders, both of the University of California-Santa Barbara, and by Gensheng Wang and Sharmila Kamat of Case Western Reserve University.

“We know that neither our Standard Model of particle physics nor our model of the cosmos is complete,” said CDMS II spokesperson Bernard Sadoulet of the University of California at Berkeley. “This particular missing piece seems to fit both puzzles. We are seeing the same shape from two different directions.”

WIMPs, which carry no charge, are a study in contradictions. While physicists expect them to have about 100 times the mass of protons, their ghostly nature allows them to slip through ordinary matter leaving barely a trace. The term “weakly interacting” refers not to the amount of energy deposited when they interact with normal matter, but rather to the fact that they interact extremely infrequently. In fact, as many as a hundred billion WIMPs may have streamed through your body as you read these first few sentences.

With 48 scientists from 13 institutions, plus another 28 engineering, technical and administrative staffers, CDMS II operates with funding from the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy, from the Astronomy and Physics Divisions of the National Science Foundation and from member institutions. The DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory provides the project management for CDMS II.

“The nature of dark matter is fundamental to our understanding of the formation and evolution of the universe,” said Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, Director of DOE’s Office of Science. “This experiment could not have succeeded without the active collaboration of the DOE’s Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.”

Michael Turner, Assistant Director for Math and Physical Sciences at NSF, described identifying the constituent of the dark matter as one of the great challenges in both astrophysics and particle physics.

“Dark matter holds together all structures in the universe-including our own Milky Way-and we still do not know what the dark matter is made of,” Turner said. “The working hypothesis is that it is a new form of matter-which, if correct will shed light on the inner workings of the elementary forces and particles. In pursuing the solution to this important puzzle, CDMS is now at the head of the pack, with another factor of 20 in sensitivity still to come.”

Dark matter in the universe is detected through its gravitational effects on all cosmic scales, from the growth of structure in the early universe to the stability of galaxies today. Cosmological data from many sources confirm that this unseen dark matter totals more than seven times the amount of ordinary visible matter forming the stars, planets and other objects in the universe.

“Something out there formed the galaxies and holds them together today, and it neither emits nor absorbs light,” said Cabrera. “The mass of the stars in a galaxy is only 10 percent of the mass of the entire galaxy, so the stars are like Christmas tree lights decorating the living room of a large dark house.”

Physicists also believe WIMPs could be the as-yet unobserved subatomic particles called neutralinos. These would be evidence for the theory of supersymmetry, introducing intriguing new physics beyond today’s Standard Model of fundamental particles and forces.

Supersymmetry predicts that every known particle has a supersymmetric partner with complementary properties, although none of these partners has yet been observed. However, many models of supersymmetry predict that the lightest supersymmetric particle, called the neutralino, has a mass about 100 times that of the proton.

“Theorists came up with all of these so-called ‘supersymmetric partners’ of the known particles to explain problems on the tiniest distance scales,” said Dan Akerib of Case Western Reserve University. “In one of those fascinating connections of the very large and the very small, the lightest of these superpartners could be the missing piece of the puzzle for explaining what we observe on the very largest distance scales.”

The CDMS II team practices “underground astronomy,” with particle detectors located nearly a half-mile below the earth’s surface in a former iron mine in Soudan, Minnesota. The 2,341 feet of the earth’s crust shields out cosmic rays and the background particles they produce. The detectors are made of germanium and silicon, semiconductor crystals with similar properties. The detectors are chilled to within one-tenth of a degree of absolute zero, so cold that molecular motion becomes negligible. The detectors simultaneously measure the charge and vibration produced by particle interactions within the crystals. WIMPS will signal their presence by releasing less charge than other particles for the same amount of vibration.

“Our detectors act like a telescope equipped with filters that allow astronomers to distinguish one color of light from another,” said CDMS II project manager Dan Bauer of Fermilab. “Only, in our case, we are trying to filter out conventional particles in favor of dark matter WIMPS.”

Physicist Earl Peterson of the University Minnesota oversees the Soudan Underground Laboratory, also home to Fermilab’s long-baseline neutrino experiment, the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search.

“I’m excited about the significant new result from CDMS II, and I congratulate the collaboration,” Peterson said. “I’m pleased that the facilities of the Soudan Laboratory contributed to the success of CDMS II. And I’m especially pleased that the work of Fermilab and the University of Minnesota in expanding the Soudan Laboratory has resulted in superb new physics.”

As CDSMII searches for WIMPs over the next few years, either the dark matter of our universe will be discovered, or a large range of supersymmetric models will be excluded from possibility. Either way, the CDMS II experiment will play a major role in advancing our understanding of particle physics and of the cosmos.

The CDMS II collaborating institutions include Brown University, Case Western Reserve University, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, Princeton University, Santa Clara University, Stanford University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of California-Santa Barbara, the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of Florida, and the University of Minnesota.

Fermilab is a DOE Office of Science national laboratory operated under contract by Universities Research Association, Inc.

Original Source: Fermilab News Release

Sea Launch Sends DIRECTV Satellite to Orbit

Image credit: Boeing
Sea Launch Company today successfully delivered the DIRECTV 7S broadcast satellite to orbit from its ocean-based platform on the Equator, marking ten consecutive successes for this highly reliable system. Early data indicate the spacecraft is in excellent condition.

The Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket lifted off at 5:42 am PDT (12:42 GMT) from the Odyssey Launch Platform, positioned at 154 degrees West Longitude, precisely on schedule. All systems performed nominally throughout the flight. The Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 5,483 kg (12,063 lb.) DIRECTV 7S satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, on its way to a final orbital position at 119 degrees West Longitude. A ground station in Weilheim, Germany, acquired the spacecraft?s first signal, shortly after spacecraft separation, as planned.

Immediately following the mission, Jim Maser, president and general manager of Sea Launch, said, “In a 29-minute flight with a single-burn of our upper stage, Sea Launch has once again broken its own record by successfully deploying the heaviest commercial satellite in history. This achievement further solidifies Sea Launch?s position as the preeminent heavy lift commercial launch service in the industry.”

“I want to congratulate DIRECTV on today?s exciting mission. We are so proud to be able to provide another launch for DIRECTV and we look forward to building upon a long and mutually beneficial relationship as you continue to expand your direct-to-home business. I also want to congratulate the entire Sea Launch team and thank each member of the team for their enormous contribution to today?s flawless mission.”

DIRECTV 7S, the second spot beam satellite in the DIRECTV fleet, will use highly focused spot beam technology to provide DIRECTV with the capacity to deliver local channels to 41 additional markets, expanding local channel coverage to a total of 106 markets. Built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) at their state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, Calif., the 1300-series spacecraft is one of several high capacity direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast satellites SS/L has produced for DIRECTV, the leading U.S. digital television provider. This is Sea Launch’s second mission for DIRECTV and third for Loral. The first DIRECTV launch was on October 9, 1999, when Sea Launch successfully placed DIRECTV 1R into orbit. The most recent launch for Loral was Telstar 14/Estrela do Sul 1 on January 10, 2004.

Through a cooperative arrangement with Boeing Launch Services (BLS), Sea Launch signed an agreement with Arianespace in November 2003 to launch DIRECTV 7S. This arrangement allowed Arianespace to negotiate a seamless transfer of the satellite to Sea Launch, and for DIRECTV to secure a guaranteed launch slot for this important mission. The launch services alliance utilizes launch systems from three leading service providers – Arianespace, Boeing Launch Services and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries – to provide customers with on-time launches and total mission assurance.

Original Source: Boeing News Release

Send Me Your Venus Photos

With Venus reaching its brightest point, I’m going to set you all a little challenge: take some photos. Grab your digital camera (with or without a telescope) and snap a picture. Since Venus is just a really bright star in the sky, I’d like to see some context in the picture. Maybe show some of your local horizon, or a nice sunset – let’s see Venus from where you live. Send in your pictures and I’ll publish a bunch. Tell me your name, location, and anything interesting you did to capture your image (or an interesting story about how you organized your family to get outdoors).

Get outside, enjoy the sky!

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today