Posted on by Fraser Cain

Cassini’s First View of Iapetus

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This Cassini image hints at the split personality of Saturn?s 1436 kilometer (892 mile)-wide moon Iapetus. The Voyager spacecraft first imaged this curious yin/yang moon, with its light and dark hemispheres. The dark hemisphere is the side of Iapetus that leads in its orbit. In this view, both light and dark areas are visible.

The image was taken in visible light with the narrow angle camera on May 23, 2004, from a distance of 20.2 million kilometers (12.5 million miles) from Iapetus. The image scale is 12 kilometers (75 miles) per pixel. The image was magnified to aid visibility.

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.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

TV Alert: “The Dark Side of the Universe”

Scientific American Frontiers, one of my favorite TV shows, is going to be looking into the mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy on Tuesday on PBS, so if you’re around a television, I highly recommend you set aside some time to watch. It’s called “The Dark Side of the Universe“. As usual, it’s hosted by Alan Alda, who traveled to Chile to talk to astronomers working on the latest research. You’ll have to check your local show times, but it’s airing on Tuesday, June 22 from 8-9 pm on my local PBS station, which broadcasts out of Seattle. For those of you who can’t get PBS, I’m pretty sure the entire show is going to be available on the web a few days after it airs on TV.

Enjoy!

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Earth’s Oceans are Banded Like Jupiter’s Clouds

Image credit: NASA/JPL
In a study published in Geophysical Research Letters (Vol. 31, No.13), University of South Florida College of Marine Science professor Boris Galperin explained a link between the movement and appearance of ocean currents on Earth and the bands that characterize the surface of Jupiter and some other giant planets.

“The banded structure of Jupiter has long been a subject of fascination and intensive research,”said Galperin, a physical oceanographer who analyzes turbulence theory and applies theory and numerical modeling to analyze planetary processes. “The visible bands on Jupiter are formed by clouds moving along a stable set of alternating flows.”

Galperin and colleagues have discovered that the oceans on Earth also harbor stable alternating bands of current that, when modeled, reveal a striking similarity to the bands on Jupiter due to the same kinds of “jets.”

“We think this resemblance is more than just visual,” he said. “The energy spectrum of the oceanic jets obeys a power law that fits the spectra of zonal flows on the outer planets.”

The observation begs the question of whether the similar phenomena are rooted in similar physical forces.

“To answer this question,” said Galperin, “one needs to determine what physical processes govern the large-scale dynamics in both systems.”

According to Galperin, there is a similarity in the forcing agents for planetary and oceanic circulations. The study maintains that both sets of zonal jets – the ocean’s bands of currents and the bands of Jupiter’s clouds – are the result of an underlying turbulent flow regime common in nature.

Comparing the energy spectra on giant planets and in the Earth’s oceans can yield valuable information about the transport properties of the oceans, said Galperin, especially about the strongest currents in the mid-depth ocean.

“The implications of these findings for climate research on Earth and the designs of future outer space observational studies are important,” he explained.

Galperin (http://www.marine.usf.edu/phy/galperin.html) and colleagues Hideyuki Nakano, Meteorological Research Institute, Ibaraki, Japan; Huei-Ping Huang, Lamont-Dougherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York; and Semion Sukoriansky, Center for Aeronautical Engineering Studies, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel, reported their research at the 25th Conference of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics’s Committee on Mathematical Geophysics, held June 16-18 at Columbia University.

Funding for the study came from the Army Research Office and the Israel Science Foundation.

Original Source: USF News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

New Molecules Discovered in Interstellar Space

Image credit: NRAO
A team of scientists using the National Science Foundation’s Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) has discovered two new molecules in an interstellar cloud near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. This discovery is the GBT’s first detection of new molecules, and is already helping astronomers better understand the complex processes by which large molecules form in space.

The 8-atom molecule propenal and the 10-atom molecule propanal were detected in a large cloud of gas and dust some 26,000 light-years away in an area known as Sagittarius B2. Such clouds, often many light-years across, are the raw material from which new stars are formed.

“Though very rarefied by Earth standards, these interstellar clouds are the sites of complex chemical reactions that occur over hundreds-of-thousands or millions of years,” said Jan M. Hollis of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “Over time, more and more complex molecules can be formed in these clouds. At present, however, there is no accepted theory addressing how interstellar molecules containing more than 5 atoms are formed.”

So far, about 130 different molecules have been discovered in interstellar clouds. Most of these molecules contain a small number of atoms, and only a few molecules with eight or more atoms have been found in interstellar clouds. Each time a new molecule is discovered, it helps to constrain the formation chemistry and the nature of interstellar dust grains, which are believed to be the formation sites of most complex interstellar molecules.

Hollis collaborated with Anthony Remijan, also of NASA Goddard; Frank J. Lovas of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md.; Harald Mollendal of the University of Oslo, Norway; and Philip R. Jewell of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va. Their results were accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

In the GBT experiment, three aldehyde molecules were observed and appear to be related by simple hydrogen addition reactions, which probably occur on the surface of interstellar grains. An aldehyde is a molecule that contains the aldehyde group (CHO): a carbon atom singly bonded to a hydrogen atom and double-bonded to an oxygen atom; the remaining bond on that same carbon atom bonds to the rest of the molecule.

Starting with previously reported propynal (HC2CHO), propenal (CH2CHCHO) is formed by adding two hydrogen atoms. By the same process propanal (CH3CH2CHO) is formed from propenal.

After these molecules are formed on interstellar dust grains, they may be ejected as a diffuse gas. If enough molecules accumulate in the gas, they can be detected with a radio telescope. As the molecules rotate end-for-end, they change from one rotational energy state to another, emitting radio waves at precise frequencies. The “family” of radio frequencies emitted by a particular molecule forms a unique “fingerprint” that scientists can use to identify that molecule. The scientists identified the two new aldehydes by detecting a number of frequencies of radio emission in what is termed the K-band region (18 to 26 GHz) of the electromagnetic spectrum.

“Interstellar molecules are identified by means of the frequencies that are unique to the rotational spectrum of each molecule,” said Lovas. “These are either directly measured in the laboratory or calculated from the measured data. In this case we used the calculated spectral frequencies based on an analysis of the literature data.”

Complex molecules in space are of interest for many reasons, including their possible connection to the formation of biologically significant molecules on the early Earth. Complex molecules might have formed on the early Earth, or they might have first formed in interstellar clouds and been transported to the surface of the Earth.

Molecules with the aldehyde group are particularly interesting since several biologically significant molecules, including a family of sugar molecules, are aldehydes.

“The GBT can be used to fully explore the possibility that a significant amount of prebiotic chemistry may occur in space long before it occurs on a newly formed planet,” said Remijan. “Comets form from interstellar clouds and incessantly bombard a newly formed planet early in its history. Craters on our Moon attest to this. Thus, comets may be the delivery vehicles for organic molecules necessary for life to begin on a new planet.”

Laboratory experiments also demonstrate that atomic addition reactions — similar to those assumed to occur in interstellar clouds — play a role in synthesizing complex molecules by subjecting ices containing simpler molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, and methanol to ionizing radiation dosages. Thus, laboratory experiments can now be devised with various ice components to attempt production of the aldehydes observed with the GBT.

“The detection of the two new aldehydes, which are related by a common chemical pathway called hydrogen addition, demonstrates that evolution to more complex species occurs routinely in interstellar clouds and that a relatively simple mechanism may build large molecules out of smaller ones. The GBT is now a key instrument in exploring chemical evolution in space,” said Hollis.

The GBT is the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope; it is operated by the NRAO.

“The large diameter and high precision of the GBT allowed us to study small interstellar clouds that can absorb the radiation from a bright, background source. The sensitivity and flexibility of the telescope gave us an important new tool for the study of complex interstellar molecules,” said Jewell.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Original Source: NRAO News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Update on Gravity Probe B

Image credit: NASA
Gravity Probe B ? a NASA mission to test two predictions of Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity ? is about half way through the initialization and orbit checkout phase of the mission. The mission’s operations team has successfully transmitted over 5,000 commands to the spacecraft, which remains healthy on orbit. Launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Gravity Probe B is managed by the Marshall Center.

On its 52nd day in orbit, the spacecraft continues to be in good health, with all subsystems performing very well. The spacecraft’s orbit, which will remain in full sunlight through August, is stable and meets our requirements for transition into the science phase of the mission. All four gyros are digitally suspended and have passed several very slow-speed calibration tests. Furthermore, the science telescope is locked onto the guide star, IM Pegasi, and we have verified that it is locked onto the correct star

Over the past two weeks, through a combination of software modifications, revised procedures, and commands sent directly to the spacecraft, considerable progress has been made in adjusting the Attitude and Translation Control system (ATC) to properly maintain the spacecraft’s attitude (pitch, yaw, and roll) in orbit. The ATC system accomplishes this important job by controlling the flow of helium gas, continually venting from the Dewar, through the spacecraft’s micro thrusters. This system is critical to the success of the mission because it maintains the required roll rate of the spacecraft, it keeps the spacecraft and science telescope pointed at the guide star, and it keeps the spacecraft in a drag-free orbit. Thus, the team is particularly gratified to now have the ATC functioning reliably, with the science telescope locked onto IM Pegasi.

The “Pegasi” part of the guide star’s name indicates that is located in the constellation Pegasus; the “IM” prefix (as opposed to a Greek letter prefix) indicates that it is a variable star; in fact, it is actually part of a binary star system (one of a pair of stars that closely orbit each other). On a star map, its location coordinates are:

Right Ascension–22 hours 53 minutes 2.27 seconds
Declination–16 degrees 50 minutes 28.3 seconds

IM Peg is about 300 light years from Earth, and its maximum magnitude is 5.85–barely visible to the naked eye. In the Northern Hemisphere, you can view the constellation Pegasus in the evening sky from late August (rises on the Eastern horizon) to early January (sets on the Western horizon).

The process of locking the science telescope onto IM Pegasi started with star trackers on either side of the spacecraft locating familiar patterns of stars. Feedback from the star trackers was used to adjust the spacecraft’s attitude so that it was pointing to within a few degrees of the guide star. The telescope’s shutter was then opened, and a series of increasingly accurate “dwell scans” was performed to home in on the star. Since the spacecraft is rotating along the axis of the telescope, imbalance in the rotation axis can cause the guide star to move in and out of the telescope’s field of view. Feedback from the telescope was sent to the ATC system, which adjusted the spacecraft’s attitude until the guide star remained focused in the telescope throughout multiple spacecraft roll cycles. The ATC was then commanded to “lock” onto the guide star.

Finally, to verify that the telescope was locked onto the correct guide star, the micro thrusters were used to point the spacecraft/telescope at a known neighboring star, HD 216635 (SAO 108242), 1.0047 degrees above IM Pegasi. When the telescope was pointed at this location, the neighboring star appeared with anticipated brightness, and there were no other stars in the immediate vicinity. Thus, the sighting of the star, HD 216635, confirmed the correct relationship between the locations of the two stars, ensuring that the telescope is indeed locked onto the correct guide star. In addition, the telescope has also seen the star HR Peg (HR 8714), a brighter and redder star, located less than half a degree to the left of IM Pegasi.

This past week the team continued performing calibration tests of all gyros, spinning at less than 1 Hz (60 rpm). In addition, the team successfully tested a back-up drag-free mode of the spacecraft with three of the gyros for an entire orbit, and, more significantly, the team completed its first successful test of the primary drag-free mode since re-configuring the micro thrusters, using gyro #3.

In primary drag-free mode, the Gyro Suspension System (GSS) is turned off on one of the gyros, so that no forces are applied to it. The ATC uses feedback from the position of this gyro in its housing to “steer” the spacecraft, keeping the gyro centered. Back-up drag-free mode is similar, but in this case the GSS applies very light forces on the gyro to keep it suspended and centered in its housing. The ATC uses feedback from the GSS to “steer” the spacecraft so that the GSS forces are nullified or canceled, thereby keeping the gyro centered. Applying forces with the GSS to suspend the drag-free gyro adds a very small, but acceptable, amount of noise to the gyro signal, and thus, either primary or back-up drag-free mode can be employed during the science experiment. Upcoming milestones include maintaining the spacecraft in a drag-free orbit, and beginning gyro calibration tests at spin rates of up to 5 Hz (300 rpm).

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Gravity Probe B program for NASA’s Office of Space Science. Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., developed and built the science experiment hardware and operates the science mission for NASA. Lockheed Martin of Palo Alto, Calif., developed and built the GP-B spacecraft.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Success for SpaceShipOne!

Image credit: Scaled Composites
The weather was cooperating perfectly in Mojave this morning, as the White Knight carrier airplane lifted off from the runway, cheered on by thousands of space enthusiasts. White Knight circled the airport, steadily rising until it reached an altitude of 15,250 metres (50,000 feet).

And then, at 7:50 am PDT SS1 was released and test pilot Mike Melvill ignited the rubber and nitrous oxide engine and blasted straight up into the sky, experiencing more than 5Gs for just over a minute. Just a few minutes later ground-based radar from several sources confirmed that SS1 had become the first privately built vehicle to reach space.

First a pilot, and now an astronaut, Melvill put SS1’s wings into a position that would guide it into the right trajectory to glide right back where the journey began just an hour earlier: Mojave Airport in California. The return journey took just 25 minutes, and SS1 landed safely.

Although SpaceShipOne reached space today, it wasn’t a qualification flight for the Ansari X Prize, which awards $10 million for the first privately built spacecraft that can carry 3 people to space twice in 2 weeks. On this flight, SS1 only carried the pilot, and it wasn’t officially registered with the X Prize, which requires a month’s notice.

Designer Burt Rutan allayed any fears that it couldn’t make altitude with 3 people, however, warning that Melvill needed to turn the rocket engine off at the right time or he’d be flying to 130 km. Initial reports indicated that this wasn’t necessary on the flight; that the engine might have turned itself off early.

With the success of SS1, official X Prize flights will probably take place before the end of summer. Unless another competitor emerges out of nowhere, SS1 is expected to take the $10 million.

SpaceShipOne has been in development for more than 8 years, even before designer Rutan heard about the X Prize. But for the past few years, billionaire Paul Allen is believed to have invested more than $20 million to get to this point.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Upcoming Radio Interview

I’ve been listening to the Space Show for the past year or so, and I’ve been really pleased with the quality of guests and topics. You can check out the site here and listen to past archives with literally hundreds of space experts. Well, it’s my turn in the hot seat. Host Dr. David Livingston is going to be interviewing me on Sunday, June 20th at 12:00pm PDT for about 90 minutes. Normally, I’d run out of things to say in a few minutes, but with the release of the Aldridge Report, SpaceShipOne’s launch preparations, and Cassini’s arrival at Saturn, I’m sure we’ll have lots to talk about – after that, I’ll just start making things up. 😉

Here’s a link that explains how and where you can listen to it live, and if you miss the broadcast, you can always listen to it from the archive later.

See you on the radio.

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Rosetta’s Self Portrait

Image credit: ESA
ESA’s Rosetta comet-chaser has photographed itself in space at a distance of 35 million kilometres from Earth. The CIVA imaging camera system on the Philae lander returned this image as part of its testing in May 2004.

The back of a solar panel is seen here, with contours on the panel are illuminated by sunlight and surfaces of the spacecraft main body are recognisable at lower right.

The CIVA imaging system consists of six identical micro-cameras which will take panoramic pictures of the comet’s surface, when Rosetta arrives at its target in ten years’ time. A spectrometer will also study the composition, texture and albedo (reflectivity) of samples collected from the surface.

Original Source: ESA News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Swirling Cloudtops of Saturn

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn?s bright equatorial band displays an exquisite swirl near the planet?s eastern limb. This image was taken with the narrow angle camera on May 18, 2004, from a distance of 23.4 million kilometers (14.5 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to absorption and scattering of sunlight by methane gas in the infrared (centered at 889 nanometers). The image scale is 139 kilometers (86 miles) per pixel. No contrast enhancement has been performed on this image.

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.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Earth Has Blueberries Too

Image credit: University of Utah
Even before marble-shaped pebbles nicknamed ?blueberries? were discovered on Mars by the Opportunity rover, University of Utah geologists studied similar rocks in Utah?s national parks and predicted such stones would be found on the Red Planet.

In a study published in the June 17 issue of the journal Nature, the Utah researchers suggest both the Martian and Utah rocks ? known as hematite concretions ? formed underground when minerals precipitated from flowing groundwater.

?We came up with the ?recipe? for blueberries,? says Marjorie Chan, chair and professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah. ?Before Opportunity landed, we thought there might be hematite concretions on Mars. That was based on our study of hematite-rich regions of southern Utah, where hematite balls are found in national parks and have long been a geological oddity that shows up in many rock shops.?

The round rocks are found in southern Utah in Zion and Capitol Reef national parks, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Snow Canyon State Park and the Moab area.

Their diameters range from one-25th of an inch to 8 inches or more. They are known to New Agers as ?moqui marbles.? Some are the size of small blueberries like those on Mars.

Chan and her colleagues believe the Utah concretions formed perhaps 25 million years ago when minerals precipitated from groundwater flowing through much older Navajo sandstone, the spectacular red rock in southern Utah.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration?s Opportunity robot rover vehicle landed on Mars? Meridiani Planum on Jan. 25. Five days later, it detected hematite within gray pebbles dotting the landing site, and such pebbles later were spotted embedded in a rock outcrop. Cornell University scientist Steve Squyres, who heads the Opportunity science team, said Feb. 9 the small spheres look ?like blueberries in a muffin? and might be concretions.

In their Nature paper, Chan and colleagues say the Martian ?blueberries? may have formed in a similar manner to those in Utah, namely, when significant volumes of groundwater flowed through permeable rock, and chemical reactions triggered minerals to precipitate and start forming a layered, spherical ball.

?Given the similarities between the marbles in Utah and on Mars, additional scientific scrutiny of the Utah concretions and how they form will probably shed further light on the similar phenomenon on Mars,? University of Washington scientist David Catling wrote in a Nature commentary accompanying the University of Utah study.

The concretions may bear on the search for evidence of past life on Mars because bacteria on Earth can make concretions form more quickly. Chan and colleagues plan to analyze whether there is evidence of past microbial activity in Utah concretions.

Chan conducted the new study with geology graduate student Brenda Beitler and emeritus professor of geology Bill Parry, both at the University of Utah; geologist Jens Ormo of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology in Madrid, Spain; and planetary scientist Goro Komatsu of the International Research School of Planetary Sciences at G. d’Annunzio University in Pescara, Italy.

Martian blueberries and marbles of the spirits
The Utah and Mars hematite concretions have similarities and differences.

In Utah and likely on Mars, ?you have rocks that had iron in them originally,? says Beitler. ?Fluids travel through these rocks and leach out the iron. The water moves through cracks, holes, layers or pores until it reaches some place where the chemistry is different and causes the iron to precipitate out of the water as hematite.?

A major difference is that the Martian ?blueberries? probably are pure hematite ? a form of iron oxide that is gray because it has a larger crystal structure than the reddish form of iron oxide, commonly known as rust. The Utah concretions are mostly sandstone, cemented by hematite that makes up a few percent to perhaps one-third of the rock. The Martian concretions likely precipitated from acidic groundwater. Those in Utah precipitated when hydrocarbon-rich, briny fluids encountered oxygen-rich groundwater.

After the Utah concretions formed in groundwater, the surrounding Navajo sandstone slowly eroded away over millions of years, so the hard, erosion-resistant concretions accumulated on the ground, often in great numbers.

?The loose Utah concretions roll like marbles into depressions, forming ?puddles,? just like their Martian counterparts,? Catling wrote. ?The Hopi Indians have a legend that ?moqui,? or spirits of their ancestors, played games of marbles with the hematite concretions in the American southwest. Although anthropologists discourage use of the word ?moqui? to be respectful to Native Americans, New Age gem collectors sell concretions as ?moqui marbles? and claim that they are endowed with metaphysical powers.?

Hematite, water and life
In 1998, the Mars Global Surveyor orbiting Mars detected what appeared to be a large area of hematite on Meridiani Planum. The broad plain was picked as Opportunity?s landing site because scientists wanted to study the hematite, which almost always forms in water.

Scientists are interested in whether water once existed on Mars (or now exists beneath its surface) because water is necessary for life ? and the possibility of life beyond Earth is one of the great questions long pondered by humanity.

?On Earth, whenever we find water, we find life ? in surface water or underground water, hot water or cold water ? any place there is water on Earth there are microbes, there is life,? says study co-author Bill Parry. ?That?s the bottom line: hematite is linked to life.?

While other evidence from Opportunity suggests there once may have been standing water on Meridiani Planum, the Utah team?s study strongly indicates the Martian ?blueberries? probably formed in groundwater and not in surface water.

?The ?blueberries? easily could have formed in groundwater before there was standing water, if that did exist,? Chan says.

Other scientists previously offered various explanations for Meridiani Planum?s hematite, including that the mineral precipitated in large lakes or in hot springs when Mars? ancient volcanoes were active, or that hematite was left when water leached away other minerals, or that it formed when volcanic ash deposits were altered chemically.

Like Southern Utah, Like Mars
Chan says her team long suspected concretions like those in Utah might be found on Mars. The idea first was suggested by Ormo and Komatsu in a 2003 scientific abstract that got little if any attention. Ormo contacted Chan in spring 2003 and they started collaborating.

The researchers completed a much broader but yet-unpublished study last year indicating that several geological features were seen both in aerial photos of southern Utah?s hematite-rich areas and in images of Mars? hematite regions taken by orbiting spacecraft. These features include large rocky landforms shaped like knobs, pipes and buttes, and places where bleached-looking rock forms white sediment beds or ring-shapes on the surface. Some of the pipes and other features are tens of yards long or wide.

The geologists determined the processes responsible for these large-scale features in Utah involved the flow of briny groundwater saturated with natural gas that bleaches sandstone, and that such groundwater flow, the precipitation of hard hematite-cemented rock and the later erosion of surrounding softer rock also would explain the formation of the erosion-resistant pipes, buttes, knobs and concretions. They concluded a similar process could have formed concretions and larger landforms on Mars.

Chan says studying concretions from Utah and Mars ?will help us learn more about the history of Mars. When we have something to compare it to, it?s a lot easier to figure out.?

Original Source: University of Utah News Release