NASA Science Programs
JohnEB
WISE is a new telescope to scan the cosmos for undiscovered objects,
including asteroids and comets that might threaten Earth.
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft will
employ an infrared camera to detect light- and heat-emitting objects
that other orbiting telescopes, such as the Hubble, might miss.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/12/14/wise.spacecraft.launch/index.html
This image provided by NASA shows the immense Andromeda galaxy, also
known as Messier 31, captured in full in this new image from NASA's
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. NASA on Wednesday Feb.
17, 2010 released the first images from the instrument which spots
celestial objects that give off infrared light. Andromeda is the
closest large galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, and is located 2.5
million light-years from our sun.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12832
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
A galaxy located billions of light-years away is commanding the
attention of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and astronomers
around the globe. Thanks to a series of flares that began September
15, the galaxy is now the brightest source in the gamma-ray sky --
more than ten times brighter than it was in the summer.
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/index.html
wiki - Gamma-ray burst
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray_burst
Testing Einstein’s special relativity with Fermi’s short hard γ-ray
burst GRB090510
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0908/0908.1832.pdf
“It would be amazing that in effect we don’t need a quantum theory of
gravity” - Dr. Mario Livio
Einstein's Cosmic Speed Limit
http://www.nasa.gov/mp4/399027main_Einsteins_Cosmic_Speed_Limit_320x240.mp4
NASA Goddard said:
"Because Fermi saw no delay in the arrival time of the two photons, it
confirms that space and time is smooth and continuous as Einstein had
predicted. "
NASA Goddard
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest
organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that
build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth,
the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html
Robert Jastrow was the first Director of NASA Goddard and I think he
set the tone for this very impressive group. Jastrow died on February
8, 2008.
http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=576
"If I am asked whether I would choose to be descended from the poor
animal, of low intelligence and stooping gait, who grins and chatters
as we pass—or from a man, endowed with great ability and a splendid
position, who would use these gifts to discredit and crush humble
seekers after truth, I hesitate what answer to make." -- Thomas
Huxley, who had become Darwin's most ardent supporter.
The following is from Robert Jastrow's book "Red Giants and White
Dwarfs" and it points out a critical part of Jastrow's philosophy of
science:
"Millions of Generations
MANY planets revolve about other stars; there may be millions in our
galax and perhaps an infinite number in the universe. Doubtless, most
are dead bodies of rock, washed by sterile seas. But on some, situated
at favorable distances from their suns, the environment is suitable
for the formation of nucleotides and amino acids—the building blocks
of life. On these planets the chaotic succession of inanimate
processes gives way to a pattern of chemical evolution, complex and
self-reproducing.
Life appeared on the earth as the product of this sequence of events,
at some point in the first billion years of its existence. The
earliest organisms were very simple, scarcely more than giant
molecules immersed in the primeval waters of the planet. During the
billions of years that followed those organic molecules developed into
the rich variety of plants and animals that now live on the earth.
What guided the course of evolution on this planet from the first
primitive organisms to the complicated creatures of today? If life has
arisen elsewhere, what guides the course of evolution on other
planets? Is there a law in nature which controls the forms of life?
The fossil record contains clues to the resolution of this question.
Thousands of skeletons and fossil remains mark the path by which life
climbed upward from its crude beginnings. The initial steps along that
path are not known; those first forms must have been fragile, for no
trace of them remains. The earliest signs of life to appear in the
record, already far advanced beyond the "living" molecule, are the
deposits of simple one-celled plants called algae, and the shells of
rod-shaped organisms resembling bacteria. These are found in rocks
formed 3 billion years ago, when the earth was already more than a
billion years old.
Very little happened for several billion years thereafter; at least,
very little that has been preserved in the record of the rocks. But
suddenly, 600 million years ago, the pace of evolution quickened. In
rocks of that age the first hardbodied animals--corals, starfish,
snails, and trilobites--appear in great numbers. During the next 200
million years life exploded into a profusion of different forms. By
400 million B.C. all the major branches of the animal kingdom had
developed.
At that time the highest forms of animal life were still confined to
the waters of the planet, and the land was relatively barren. But 350
million years ago one class of aquatic animals—the fishes--developed
air-breathing forms; some air-breathing fishes evolved into
amphibians--the first vertebrate animals* to venture onto the land—and
out of the amphibians, 50 million years later, came the reptiles. The
reptiles were the first vertebrates to be completely emancipated from
the water. Branches of the reptiles gave rise to the snake, lizard,
turtle and bird; other branches produced the dinosaurs and their
descendants, the crocodile and alligator; still other branches led to
the mammals.
(* A vertebrate is an animal possessing a backbone and an internal
skeleton, as distinct from invertebrates such as the insect, for
example, whose skeleton is external and surrounds its body.)
The dinosaurs ruled the earth for 100 million years, and during the
long reign of these highly successful reptiles the mammals were kept
in check and made little evolutionary progress. But suddenly, 70
million years ago, the dinosaurs disappeared. With their disappearance
the mammalian stock flowered in a variety of forms, until, by 10
million B.C., the ancestors of most of the animals we see on the earth
today, from aardvarks to zebras, evolved. Two or three million years
ago, late in this story, an animal recognizably similar to man
appeared on the scene.
The record of these changes contains many gaps, but the segments which
are present convey a clear message: Man has evolved slowly, during
some billions of years, out of lower and simpler organisms. And,
although the first part of the record is missing, it is probable that
these lower organisms, in turn, came from nonliving molecules formed
in the waters of the primitive earth.
In this book I have shown how the basic forces of nature—grayity,
electromagnetism and the nuclear force—acting on the basic building
blocks of matter, have led, first, to the synthesis of the elements
within the interior of stars; then, to the formation of the sun and
planets out of those elements, and, finally, on the surface of one of
these planets, to the formation of organic molecules lying on the
threshold of life. I have shown how that threshold may have been
crossed in the early years of the earth's existence. Throughout this
long history my viewpoint has been that of the physicist, seeking to
understand the essence of the world around him in terms of a few
simple principles. One might call them the laws of physics. These laws
are the distillation of all the observations regarding the physical
world which have been acquired in thousands of years of human
experience.
Now we have come to the explanation of the subsequent course of events
in the history of life, leading from the first simple organisms to
man. Here, for the first time, the principles of physics are no longer
helpful. The stars and planets have yielded the secrets of their
history to the physicist; the molecular foundations of living
organisms are beginning to be understood; but the complete organism—
even of the simplest and most primitive kind—is incalculably more
complicated than any star, or planet, or giant molecule. New insights
are needed for the understanding of its structure and evolution. A new
law must be found.
The new law was discovered by Charles Darwin more than a century ago.
Darwin showed that evolution is the result of a mechanism or "force"
in nature, which works on plants and animals slowly, over the course
of many generations, to produce changes in their forms. This "force"
has no mathematical description; it is not to be found in any textbook
of physics, listed alongside the basic forces which control the world
of nonliving matter; but, nonetheless, it guides the course of
evolution and shapes the forms of living creatures--on this planet and
on all planets on which life has arisen—as firmly and as surely as
gravity controls the stars and the planets.
Darwin was led to his discovery by observations of plant and animal
life carried out between 1832 and 1836, during a voyage around the
world on HMS Beagle, a British navy vessel assigned to surveying and
mapping duties in the southern hemisphere. He had sailed on the Beagle
as a naturalist, serving without pay and collecting specimens during a
journey that carried him around most of the South American continent,
to Australia, New Zealand, Africa and many Atlantic and Pacific
islands.
Darwin suffered from seasickness throughout the five-year journey,
from the day he stepped on board the Beagle to the day he quit her
decks. He wrote from Brazil, shortly before the end of the voyage, "I
loathe ... the sea and all ships which sail upon it." And when he
reached England he never boarded a ship or left his native country
again. But throughout the rest of his life Darwin drew on the store of
experiences accumulated in that single voyage. Toward the end of his
life he wrote, "The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most
important event of my life...."
From 1832 to 1835 the ship sailed up and down the coast of South
America, and on several occasions during that time Darwin went ashore
for long overland journeys of exploration. During these trips ashore
Darwin unearthed the evidence which first turned his mind toward
evolution. He came upon beds of fossils containing the skeletons of
animals that had once roamed the Argentine Pampas but had been extinct
for tens of thousands of years.
One of them was a toxodon, "one of the strangest animals ever
discovered," the size of a rhinoceros, but with front teeth resembling
those of a rodent; another was a "gigantic armadillolike animal"
resembling the modern armadillo of South America, but ten times
larger.
None of these extinct creatures was the same as any animal now alive
on the South American continent; and yet some of them bore a
surprising resemblance to existing species. Darwin thought about this
"wonderful relationship ... between the dead and the living"; was it
possible that all the animals living on the earth were directly
descended from vanished species? Could it be that the passage of vast
amounts of time had, in some way, worked the changes between those
ancient animals and their modern descendants?
Other facts impressed Darwin later in the voyage. The Beagle stopped
for a month at the islands of the Galapagos Archipelago, situated on
the equator 500 miles west of the coast of South America. During the
visit Darwin noticed a "most remarkable feature" of these islands:
although they were close to one another, and the climate and soil were
the same on all, different kinds of plants and animals lived on them.
Some of the islands even contained plants or animals which were to be
found on those islands and on no others. On James Island, for example,
Darwin found thirty kinds of plants which were exclusively confined to
this one island, and were not to be found elsewhere in the
Archipelago. He wrote, "I never dreamed that islands, about fifty or
sixty miles apart ... formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under
a quite similar climate ... would have been differently tenanted...."
Darwin puzzled over the "eminently curious" nature of these variations
in species; if all forms of life on the earth had been placed here by
separate acts of creation, why was the creative force so prodigal in
bestowing separate species on each island in the Galapagos?
Another observation led Darwin to the answer. He had also noticed that
most of the animals on the islands resembled animals which were
peculiar to the neighboring South American continent, and were not to
be found in other parts of the world. The significance of this fact
did not occur to Darwin until his return from the voyage of the Beagle
in 1836. Then an explanation occurred to him: a long time ago plants,
insects, birds, reptiles and mammals, carried by currents of air and
wind, or floating on driftwood, must have reached the Archipelago from
the adjacent coast. Isolated from the mainland. they evolved into
forms which came to differ more and more, in the course of time, from
those of their mainland cousins. Moreover, when the migrant plants and
animals first arrived at the Archipelago and became established. they
were identical on every island; but gradually, because the islands
were isolated and cross-breeding between islands rarely occurred,
distinct lines of evolution developed on each. In this way the
separate islands acquired their characteristic flora and fauna.
Darwin's reasoning implied that the forms of life could change and
evolve with the passage of many generations. By 1838 he was convinced
that "such facts as these ... could only be explained on the
supposition that species gradually become modified." He was convinced
of the truth of evolution.
These views were contrary to the opinions of many scientists and
nearly all laymen, the common view being that every form of life had
been specially and independently created. They were contrary also to
the views held by Darwin himself when he boarded the Beagle in 1832.
Yet six years later. Darwin found he could not ignore his own evidence
on the Pampas; he had dug fossil skeletons, some closely resembling
living forms, out of the ground in Argentina with his own hands; in
the Galapagos he had seen with his own eyes the basic resemblance of
island animal life to the life on the South American mainland; and he
had seen the differences between corresponding species on separate
islands in the Archipelago.
But how could Darwin convince a skeptical world that it must accept
theory which violated its basic beliefs? He wrote subsequently in his
Autobiography regarding his belief in evolution: "The subject haunted
me ... It seemed to me almost useless to endeavor to prove by indirect
evidence . .
So he sought a direct proof; he looked for a cause of evolution—a
principle in nature which would make evolution a necessary and
inevitable aspect of life, and, at the same time, would explain the
different forms which plants and animals had assumed.
Throughout the years following the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin's mind
turned on the problem of a cause for evolution. Gradually the outlines
of new theory emerged. It is hard to say precisely when Darwin first
saw the light; no doubt the truth dawned on him slowly; but by the end
of 1838 th t new law of nature was clearly formulated in his
notebooks. Yet he did not announce it to the world immediately; he
knew that his belief in evolution would make him an unpopular figure.
"It is like confessing a murder," he wrote later. In order to
strengthen his case he first collected every bit of evidence which
could bear on the question; he wrote in 1844, "I have read heaps
of ... books, and have never ceased collecting facts"; and in 1858, "I
am like Croesus overwhelmed with my riches and facts." At last, in
November, 1859, Darwin's theory appeared in print* with the title of
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION
OR
THE PRESERVATION OF FAVORED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
(* Darwin might have put off publication and collected facts to the
end of his life if an accident of history had not goaded him into
action. For years his colleagues had urged him to publish; they had
warned him that he would be anticipated if he delayed. In June, 1858,
their predictions came true; Darwin received a letter from the
naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace proposing a theory of evolution very
clearly formulated and identical with Darwin's but arrived at
independently. Friends arranged for presentation of a joint paper to
the Royal Society over the names of Darwin and Wallace. Then Darwin
set to work in earnest. In 1859, after "13 months and 10 days of hard
labor," The Origin of Species appeared, and it became clear that
Darwin had taken infinitely greater pains than had Wallace to collect
evidence for the defense of the theory. It was the mountain of detail
in the Origin, and Darwin's painstaking analysis of the evidence, that
eventually overcame the fierce opposition to the theory and secured
its acceptance.)
Darwin's apprehensions regarding the reception of his theory were
confirmed immediately on its publication. The first edition of the
Origin aroused intense interest; the entire printing sold out on the
day of its appearance, and it drew down on the head of its author a
storm of vituperation and ridicule such as has never greeted any other
work in the history of science. After reading it, his geology
professor at Cambridge wrote to him, "I laughed .. . till my sides
were almost sore ... utterly false and grievously mischievous .. deep
in the mire of folly." Other critics were less gentle; an anonymous
reviewer wrote in the Edinburgh Quarterly Review of Darwin's "rotten
fabric of guess and speculation .. , dishonorable to Natural Science."
But the argument set forth in The Origin of Species was beautifully
simple and clear; its validity should have been apparent to everyone.
Darwin began with an almost self-evident set of observations on the
nature of life: All living things reproduce themselves; reproduction
is the essence of life; but the process of reproduction is never
perfect. The offspring in each generation are not exact copies of
their parents; brothers and sisters differ from one another; no two
individuals in the world are exactly alike, except for identical twins
at the moment of birth.
Usually the variations are small; brothers and sisters resemble one
another, all human beings look more or less alike, and all elephants
look more or less like other elephants.
Yet, Darwin asserted, these small variations are critically important;
for, the struggle for existence, the creature which is distinguished
from its brethren by a special trait, giving it an advantage in the
competition for food, or in the struggle against the rigors of the
climate, or in the fight against the natural enemies of its species—
that creature is the one most likely to survive, to reach maturity,
*and to reproduce its kind.* Some of the offspring of the favored
individual will inherit the advantageous characteristic; a few will
possess it to a greater degree than the parent. These individuals are
even more likely to survive and to produce offspring.
Thus, through successive generations, the advantageous trait appears
ever-increasing strength in the descendants of the individual who
first possessed it.
Not only does the trait become more pronounced in each individual with
the passage of successive generations, but the number of individual
animals possessing it also increases. For these favored individuals
have slightly larger families than the average, because they and their
offspring have a greater chance of survival; in each generation they
leave behind a greater number of offspring than their less-favored
neighbors; their descendants multiply more rapidly than the rest of
the population, and in the course of many generations their progeny
replace the progeny of the animals that lack the desirable trait.
In *The Origin of Species*, Darwin gave this process the name by which
it known today: "This principle of preservation or the survival of the
fittest. I have called *Natural Selection*."
Through the action of natural selection, a favorable trait which first
appeared as an accidental variation in a single individual will, with
the passing of sufficient time, become a pronounced characteristic of
the entire species. So the deer became fleet of foot, for the deer
which ran fastest in each generation usually escaped their predators
and lived to produce the greatest number of progeny for the next
generation. So did man become more intelligent, for superior
intelligence was of premium value: the intelligent and resourceful
hunter was the one most likely to secure food. Thus developed the
brain of man; thus, too, in response to other pressures and
opportunities in their environments, developed the trunk of the
elephant and the neck of the giraffe.
Of course, the incorporation of one new trait does not create an
entire. new animal. But if we count all the births which occur to a
single species over the face of the globe in one year, an enormous
number of variations will appear in this multitude of young creatures.
On all these variations the same process of selection works steadily,
preserving for future generations the new traits which give strength
to the species, and eliminating those which lend weakness. The changes
may be imperceptible from one generation to the next, but over the
course of many generations the accumulation of many favorable
variations, each slight in itself, completely transforms the animal.
According to Darwin,
"Natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the
world, the slightest variations, rejecting those that are bad,
preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly
working at the improvement of each organic being in relation to
its ... conditions of life."
Natural selection molds the forms of life. Under its continuing action
the shapes of animals change with time; old species disappear in
response to changing conditions, and new ones arise. Few of the
species of animals which roamed the face of the earth 10 million years
ago still exist today, and few of those existing today will survive 10
million years hence. To quote again from The Origin of Species: "...
Not one living species will transmit its unaltered likeness to a
distant futurity." But natural selection works its effects subtly. Its
influence is not felt in one individual or in his immediate
descendants. A thousand generations may elapse before a change becomes
noticeable; in man that amounts to 20,000 years. Yet, ever since
Rutherford measured the age of the earth, we have known that enough
time is available. Our planet has existed for billions of years; that
is the secret strength of Darwin's theory. "We have almost unlimited
time," he wrote in 1858, in explaining how the slightest variations in
the form of an animal can grow, through their effect on the
probability of producing progeny, until, after the passage of
"millions on millions of generations," great changes are effected. And
in the Origin
The mind cannot grasp the full meaning of the term of even a million
years ; it cannot add up and perceive the full effects of many slight
variations, accumulated during an almost infinite number of
generations.... We see nothing of these slow changes in progress,
until the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages, and then .. , we
see only that the forms of life are now different from what they
formerly were.
Darwin's critics were not accustomed to thinking in terms of millions
of generations and tens of millions of years; they accused him of
proposing that natural selection could convert "an oyster into an
orangutan" or "tadpoles into philosophers"; they taunted him with his
inability to supply the missing link—the animal caught midway in the
transition from one species to another. A British magazine wrote in
1861, "We defy any one, from Mr. Darwin downwards, to show us the link
between the fish and the man. Let them catch a mermaid.. .
The hapless naturalist could not oblige them. Throughout the long
battle for the acceptance of his views, Darwin was plagued continually
by his inability to compress the time scale of nature and demonstrate
a transformation of species to his critics. Had he known it, an
example was at hand which would have provided him with the proof he
needed. The case was an exceedingly rare one, in which a major
evolutionary change occurred in the brief interval of fifty years.
The animal which underwent the transformation was a member of the
insect world, the humble Peppered Moth, found in abundance throughout
England. In the nineteenth century two varieties of this moth were
known. One possessed a speckled coloration, blending perfectly into
the background of lichen-covered tree trunks, which provided its
normal resting place. The other variety was dark, almost black in
color, and stood out conspicuously against the light background of
lichens and bark. The speckled variety, known as the Peppered Moth,
was the commoner form; the dark variety was readily picked off and
eaten by birds, and was relatively rare.
During the course of the nineteenth century, soot progressively
darkened the tree trunks of the English Midlands. As much as two tons
of soot fell each day on every square mile of some industrial towns in
that area. The speckled coloration of the Peppered Moth, which must
originally have appeared as a chance mutation, had been developed and
refined by the action of natural selection over many generations,
because of its favorable effects in the struggle for survival. This
same characteristic, because of a change in the environment, in this
case wrought by man, now placed its possessor at a disadvantage; the
Peppered Moth stood out clearly against the background of the soot-
covered tree trunks, and was detected with ease by the birds of the
region. The black moth, on the other hand, blended well into the new
background; the trait which had formerly been unfavorable was now
favorable. enhancing the chances of survival to maturity and the
production of offsprin€. The black moth, once a rare variety,
multiplied in number until it became the dominant form. The change was
dramatic and swift; the first recorded capture of a dark moth took
place in Manchester in 1848, and by 1900 the dark moth outnumbered the
speckled variety by 99 to 1.
Even if Darwin had been able to produce the example of the Peppered
Moth, it is doubtful if he would have stilled the voices of criticism,
for the objections to his theory of evolution were not raised on
rational grounds alone. There was also an emotional reaction to the
implications of the theory for the descent of man. In the Origin,
Darwin had deliberately avoided discussion of man's ancestry; while
the book was in preparation he had written to a friend, "You ask
whether I shall discuss man. I think I shall avoid the whole
question...." Darwin's critics were quick to supply the missing
discussion: Darwin asserted that the forces of nature, acting through
the struggle for survival, work continuously for the improvement of
all forms of life; it followed that each animal now on the face of the
earth must be descended from a related but more primitive ancestor.
What animals provided a clue to man's primitive ancestry? Monkeys and
apes were less advanced than man, yet closer to him in form and
intelligence than any other creature; they represented primitive forms
of the human being. The ridiculous monkey and the brutelike gorilla
resembled man's ancestors.
Many articulate defenders of man's noble heritage entered the lists
against the rash and blasphemous scientist. One of the most prominent
and eloquent anti-Darwinians was Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford.
On June 29, 1860, six months after the publication of the Origin, 700
people crowded into a hall in Oxford University to hear Bishop
Wilberforce debate the merits of Darwin's theory with the biologist,
Thomas Huxley, who had become Darwin's most ardent supporter. Toward
the end of the debate, Bishop Wilberforce turned to Huxley and asked,
"Was it through his grandmother or his grandfather that he claimed his
descent from a monkey?"
Huxley's reply is one of the most famous ripostes in the history of
science. Whispering to his neighbor, "The Lord hath delivered him unto
my hands," he rose and said, "If I am asked whether I would choose to
be descended from the poor animal, of low intelligence and stooping
gait, who grins and chatters as we pass—or from a man, endowed with
great ability and a splendid position, who would use these gifts to
discredit and crush humble seekers after truth, I hesitate what answer
to make."
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
SOHO, the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory, is a project of
international collaboration between ESA and NASA to study the Sun from
its deep core to the outer corona and the solar wind.
SOHO was launched on December 2, 1995. The SOHO spacecraft was built
in Europe by an industry team led by prime contractor Matra Marconi
Space (now EADS Astrium) under overall management by ESA. The twelve
instruments on board SOHO were provided by European and American
scientists. Nine of the international instrument consortia are led by
European Principal Investigators (PI's), three by PI's from the US.
Large engineering teams and more than 200 co-investigators from many
institutions supported the PI's in the development of the instruments
and in the preparation of their operations and data analysis. NASA was
responsible for the launch and is now responsible for mission
operations. Large radio dishes around the world which form NASA's Deep
Space Network are used for data downlink and commanding. Mission
control is based at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/home.html
Kepler Space Telescope
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Discovers its First Five Exoplanets.
NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in
the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five
new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system.
Kepler's high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the
discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. The
discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by the members of the
Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American
Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.
"These observations contribute to our understanding of how planetary
systems form and evolve from the gas and dust disks that give rise to
both the stars and their planets," said William Borucki of NASA's Ames
Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki is the mission's
science principal investigator. "The discoveries also show that our
science instrument is working well. Indications are that Kepler will
meet all its science goals."
Kepler Space Telescope
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html
Spitzer Space Telescope
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is starting a second career and taking
its first shots of the cosmos since warming up.
The infrared telescope ran out of coolant May 15, 2009, more than five-
and-a-half-years after launch. It has since warmed to a still-frosty
30 degrees Kelvin (about minus 406 degrees Fahrenheit).
New images taken with two of Spitzer's infrared detector channels --
two that work at the new, warmer temperature -- demonstrate the
observatory remains a powerful tool for probing the dusty universe.
The images show a bustling star-forming region, the remains of a star
similar to the sun, and a swirling galaxy lined with stars.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitz ... index.html
Ancient City of Galaxies Looks Surprisingly Modern
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-157
The Coolest of Orbs01.29.10
This artist's concept shows a pair of cool brown dwarfs.
› Larger image An international team of astronomers using several
telescopes has discovered what appears to be the coolest star-like
body known, a brown dwarf called SDSS1416+13B. The dim ball of gas is
roughly 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius). NASA's Spitzer
Space Telescope helped nail down the temperature of the object by
observing at a particular range of light called mid-infrared.
Too small to be stars, brown dwarfs have masses lower than stars but
larger than gas-giant planets like Jupiter. Due to their low
temperature, these objects are very faint in visible light, and are
detected by their glow at infrared wavelengths. They were originally
dubbed "brown dwarfs" long before any were actually discovered, to
describe bodies that are cooler, fainter and redder than "red dwarf"
stars, with the color brown representing the mix of red and black.
Spitzer Space Telescope
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer20100129.html
Hubble Space Telescope
The spectacular new camera installed on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
during Servicing Mission 4 in May has delivered the most detailed view
of star birth in the graceful, curving arms of the nearby spiral
galaxy M83.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html
Hubble, sky survey catch rare asteroid crash, NASA says
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/02/asteroids.collide.nasa/index.html
The Hubble Telescope's Greatest Hits
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1984100,00.html
Solar Dynamics Observatory: The 'Variable Sun' Mission
"The sun," explains Lika Guhathakurta of NASA headquarters in
Washington DC, "is a variable star."
But it looks so constant...
That's only a limitation of the human eye. Modern telescopes and
spacecraft have penetrated the sun's blinding glare and found a
maelstrom of unpredictable turmoil. Solar flares explode with the
power of a billion atomic bombs. Clouds of magnetized gas (CMEs) big
enough to swallow planets break away from the stellar surface. Holes
in the sun's atmosphere spew million mile-per-hour gusts of solar
wind.
And those are the things that can happen in just one day.
http://www.physorg.com/news184603827.html
NASA debuts new solar images
NASA holds a briefing to unveil new images of the sun taken by the
Solar Dynamics Observatory.
http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream4&hpt=T2
http://www.space.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=SP-100422_SDO
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
AMS experiment embarks on first leg of mission into space
February 12, 2010 The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) left CERN this
morning on the first leg of its journey to the International Space
Station (ISS). A special convoy carrying the experiment is due to
arrive at the European Space Agency’s research and technology centre,
ESTEC, at Noordwijk in the Netherlands in six days time. Once there,
the detector will undergo testing of its ability to survive a shuttle
lift-off and to operate in space. Twenty members of the AMS
collaboration will accompany the detector on its journey.
http://www.physorg.com/news185200551.html
"The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) will search space for dark
matter, missing matter, and antimatter.
Not Even Wrong - Assorted News
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=3298
A Costly Quest for the Dark Heart of the Cosmos
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/science/space/17dark.html?_r=1
JohnEB
Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the ISS is set for April 1, 2011
Launch Target: NET April 1, 2011
Orbiter: Endeavour
Mission Number: STS-134 (134th space shuttle flight)
Launch Window: 10 minutes
Launch Pad: 39A
Mission Duration: 14 days
Spacewalks: 4
Landing Site: KSC
Inclination/Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles
Primary Payload: 36th station flight (ULF6), EXPRESS Logistics Carrier
3 (ELC3), Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)
The STS-134 crew members are Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H.
Johnson and Mission Specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew
Feustel and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori.
Endeavour will deliver spare parts including two S-band communications
antennas, a high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre
and micrometeoroid debris shields. This will be the 36th shuttle
mission to the International Space Station.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts134/index.html
Luke Setzer
> The last space shuttle flight, STS-134, that will carry the Alpha
> Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the ISS is set for April 1, 2011
>
> Launch Target: NET April 1, 2011
for AMS since a faulty cosmology will deliver a null result!
:'-(
JohnEB
is a good result. I'm after "truth" Luke!
All the best
JohnEB
kmarinas86
http://ams.nasa.gov/
http://ams-02project.jsc.nasa.gov/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Magnetic_Spectrometer#AMS-02
If on schedule, within minutes of launch, the shuttle and the AMS-02
cargo will be going back and forth between April 1st and April 2nd.
The whole concept of a day is blurred in space because you no longer
stay in the same time zone. The case might be different for
geostationay satellites, but the space shuttle has never been sent
there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_fools_day
"In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is
set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two.[3] Chaucer probably meant
32 days after March, i.e. May 2,[4] the anniversary of the engagement
of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in
1381. However, readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean
"March 32," i.e. April 1.[5] In Chaucer's tale, the vain cock
Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox."
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales/The_Nun%27s_Priest%27s_Tale
"Sin March bigan, thritty dayes and two,"
Even more silly:
"* Space Shuttle lands in San Diego: In 1993, DJ Dave Rickards told
listeners of KGB-FM in San Diego that Space Shuttle Discovery had been
diverted from Edwards Air Force Base and would be landing at
Montgomery Field, a small municipal airport with a 4,577 foot runway.
Thousands of people went to the airport to watch the purported
landing, causing traffic jams throughout Kearny Mesa.[18] Moreover,
there wasn't even a shuttle in orbit at the time.[19]"
Luke Setzer
> Any result that is real experimental data, and NOT mysticism & dogma,
> is a good result. I'm after "truth" Luke!
AMS, namely the search for antimatter particles remaining from the Big
Bang. People have criticized Mills' theory as one not even worth
testing. The same could be said of any experiment looking for Big
Bang particles if, in fact, the Big Bang never happened.
Still, a null result from AMS would at least force cosmologists once
again to re-think their theories!
JohnEB
JohnEB
been found.
JohnEB
A solar filament that had been lurking atop the sun for a week finally
exploded this month, the latest in a string of large solar explosions
that NASA scientists say will peak in 2013. This explosion, seen
below, released high-energy plasma into the solar system, but did not
create auroras on Earth because it dispersed before reaching our
atmosphere.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the image sequence, which
shows the filament exploding. In August, NASA scientists observed a 28-
hour period of shock waves, solar flare explosions and solar
"tsunamis" that rocked the sun. They've named the event "The Great
Eruption."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20101215/ts_yblog_thelookout/watch-the-suns-great-eruption
JohnEB
Using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, scientists have recently discovered a gigantic, mysterious structure in our galaxy. This feature looks like a pair of bubbles extending above and below our galaxy's center. Each lobe is 25,000 light-years tall and the whole structure may be only a few million years old.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=13587
JohnEB
(CNN) -- A NASA spacecraft has detected a rocky planet that is the smallest ever discovered outside the Sun's solar system, the agency announced Monday.
JohnEB
NASA's newest 3-D photos are the latest in a long line of spectacular images of the star at the center of our planetary system
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2048103,00.html#ixzz1DXyGwJ00
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2048103,00.html?hpt=C2
JohnEB
Where might extraterrestrials live? The first step is figuring out what other planets out there have conditions like our own.
Scientists using NASA's Kepler space telescope are working hard to find candidates for inhabitable planets. So far, it seems that for approximately every two stars in the galaxy, there is one possible planet, NASA's William Borucki said Saturday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Washington.
Researchers have found some 1,200 candidate-planets and, of them, about 54 are earth-size candidate planets in habitable zones - in other words, perhaps at a distance from their stars that may be suitable for life. Earlier this month officials at NASA announced the discovery of five probable planets about the size of Earth, as well as six larger than our planet that are orbiting a single star. But bear in mind that Venus is also considered an "Earth-sized planet," and clearly no lifeforms live there (as far as we know).
JohnEB
Space weather could wreak havoc in gadget-driven world
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A geomagnetic space storm sparked by a solar eruption like the one that flared toward Earth Tuesday is bound to strike again and could wreak havoc across the gadget-happy modern world, experts say.
Contemporary society is increasingly vulnerable to space weather because of our dependence on satellite systems for synchronizing computers, airline navigation, telecommunications networks and other electronic devices.
A potent solar storm could disrupt these technologies, scorch satellites, crash stock markets and cause power outages that last weeks or months, experts said Saturday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.
JohnEB
NASA released an image of the planet Mercury on Tuesday, the first
obtained from a spacecraft orbiting the solar system's innermost
planet.
The image is the first of many expected to come from the Messenger
probe, the first space mission to orbit the planet closest to the sun.
The Messenger spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and after flybys
of Earth, Venus and Mercury, started its historic orbit around Mercury
on March 17.
The dominant rayed crater in the upper portion of the image is
Debussy, according to NASA. The smaller crater, Matabei, with its dark
rays, is visible to the west of Debussy. The bottom portion of the
full image, which can be seen here, is near Mercury's south pole and
includes a region of Mercury's surface not previously seen by
spacecraft.
Over the next three days, Messenger will acquire 1,185 more images in
support of a phase to review spacecraft and instrument performance.
The yearlong primary science phase of the mission will begin on April
4, during which it is expected to acquire more than 75,000 images.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/29/first-image-of-mercury-from-orbit-released/?hpt=C1
JohnEB
We have never received more for our money than the NASA Science Programs --
here are two examples:
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
A galaxy located billions of light-years away is commanding the
attention of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and astronomers
around the globe. Thanks to a series of flares that began September
15, the galaxy is now the brightest source in the gamma-ray sky --
more than ten times brighter than it was in the summer.
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/main/index.html
wiki - Gamma-ray burst
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray_burst
Testing Einstein’s special relativity with Fermi’s short hard γ-ray
burst GRB090510
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0908/0908.1832.pdf
“It would be amazing that in effect we don’t need a quantum theory of
gravity” - Dr. Mario Livio
Einstein's Cosmic Speed Limit
http://www.nasa.gov/mp4/399027main_Einsteins_Cosmic_Speed_Limit_320x240.mp4
NASA Goddard said:
"Because Fermi saw no delay in the arrival time of the two photons, it
confirms that space and time is smooth and continuous as Einstein had
predicted. "
_____________________________________________
NASA Gravity Probe Confirms Two Einstein Theories
A NASA probe orbiting Earth has confirmed two key predictions of Albert Einstein's
general theory of relativity, which describes how gravity causes masses to warp
space-time around them.
The Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission was launched in 2004 to study two aspects of
Einstein's theory about gravity: the geodetic effect, or the warping of space and
time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, which describes the amount
of space and time a spinning objects pulls with it as it rotates.
"Imagine the Earth as if it were immersed in honey," Francis Everitt, GP-B
principal investigator at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., said in a statement.
"As the planet rotates, the honey around it would swirl, and it's the same with space
and time. GP-B confirmed two of the most profound predictions of Einstein's
universe, having far-reaching implications across astrophysics research."
[6 Weird Facts About Gravity]
Gravity Probe B used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the two gravitational
hypotheses. The probe confirmed both effects with unprecedented precision by
pointing its instruments at a single star called IM Pegasi.
If gravity did not affect space and time, GP-B's gyroscopes would always point in
the same direction while the probe was in polar orbit around Earth. However, the
gyroscopes experienced small but measurable changes in the direction of their
spin while Earth's gravity pulled at them, thereby confirming Einstein's theories.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20110505/sc_space/nasagravityprobeconfirmstwoeinsteintheories
NASA Goddard
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest
organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that
build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth,
the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html
Robert Jastrow was the first Director of NASA Goddard and I think he
set the tone for this very impressive group. Jastrow died on February
8, 2008.
http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=576
The following is from Robert Jastrow's book "Red Giants and White
Dwarfs" and it points out a critical part of Jastrow's philosophy of
science:
"If I am asked whether I would choose to be descended from the poor
animal, of low intelligence and stooping gait, who grins and chatters
as we pass—or from a man, endowed with great ability and a splendid
position, who would use these gifts to discredit and crush humble
seekers after truth, I hesitate what answer to make." -- Thomas
Huxley, who had become Darwin's most ardent supporter.
The latest adventure for the NASA Science Programs is the Alpha
Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) which will start with the space shuttle
launch of Endeavour on STS-134
AMS Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5nJKp5Ar38&feature=related
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
http://www.ams02.org/
wiki - Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Magnetic_Spectrometer
Space shuttle launch of Endeavour on STS-134 set for May 16
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2011/05/space-shuttle-launch-of-endeavour-on-sts-134-set-for-may-16.html
JohnEB
The launch of the Endeavour, with its research payload for two new vaccines aboard, marked yet another milestone in VA’s longstanding collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The payload, which carries National Pathfinder Vaccine 10, is the last in a series working toward vaccines for two common infections: salmonella, which commonly contaminates the U.S. food chain, leading to food recalls and gastrointestinal illnesses, and an antibiotic resistant form of Staphylococcus aureus, also known as “golden staph,” the most common bacterial agent found in combat infections.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110516007436/en/Endeavour-Launch-Research-Payload-Milestone-VA-NASA-Partnership
JohnEB
JohnEB
JohnEB
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer in Place
At 5:46 a.m. EDT, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS) was installed successfully on the outside of the International Space Station’s right side. Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel and Roberto Vittori used the space shuttle’s robotic arm to extract it from Endeavour’s payload bay. They handed it off to the space station’s Canadarm2, and Pilot Greg Johnson and Mission Specialist Greg Chamitoff then used the robotic arm to install AMS on the starboard side of the station’s truss.
The AMS team will monitor the experiment 24 hours a day, gathering data for as long as the space station is in orbit. Using a large magnet to create a magnetic field that will bend the path of the charged cosmic particles already traveling through space, eight different instruments will provide information on those particles as they make their way through the magnet.
Armed with that information, hundreds of scientists from 16 countries are hoping to determine what composes the universe and how it began, as the AMS searches for clues on the origin of dark matter and the existence of antimatter and other unusual matter. AMS also could provide information about pulsars, blazers, gamma ray bursts and any number of other cosmic phenomena.
Luke Setzer
Courtesy of Space Ops PAO:
To begin Flight Day 5, Endeavour's crew woke at 10:30 p.m. EDT to the
song “We All Do What We Can Do” by Dan Keenan, a thermal protection
system engineer, and Kenny McLaughlin, a launch pad engineer, for
Mission Specialist Mike Fincke. The two shuttle workers created the
song to honor those who have helped make the space program a success.
In their note to Fincke they said, “Together as dedicated individuals
we did what we could do to help.”
Today Mission specialists Drew Feustel and Greg Chamitoff perform the
first of four spacewalks of this shuttle mission. The spacewalk is
expected to begin at 3:16 a.m. and last six to six and a half hours.
Feustel and Chamitoff will retrieve two experiments and install a new
package of experiments on ELC-2, which is already on the station. They
will install jumpers between segments on the left-side truss, or
backbone of the station, for ammonia refills; vent nitrogen from an
ammonia servicer; and install an external wireless communication
antenna on the Destiny laboratory that will provide wireless
communication to the Express Logistics Carriers mounted on the
station’s truss.
Below are highlights for Flight Day 5.
Thursday, May 19
EDT EVENT11:01 p.m. Spacewalk preparations resume
Friday, May 20
EDT EVENT2:01 a.m. Station crew wakeup
3:16 a.m. Spacewalk begins (Drew Feustel & Greg Chamitoff)
3:41 a.m. Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE 7) retrieval from
ExPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC2) & stow in Endeavour’s payload bay
4:41 a.m. MISSE 8 install on ELC 2 & S2 CETA light installation
5:06 a.m. Starboard SARJ cover #7 installation
5:26 a.m. P3-P4 Truss ammonia jumper connections
5:56 a.m. P4 jumper stow & P5-P6 ammonia jumper connections
6:31 a.m. Destiny laboratory external wireless communications
antenna installation
9:46 a.m. Spacewalk ends
11:30 a.m. NASA TV: Mission Status Briefing
12:56 p.m. ISS Expedition 27 Flight Engineer 3 sleep (Ron Garan)
1:26 p.m. Endeavour crew sleep
3:00 p.m. NASA TV: Flight Day 5 Highlights (played hourly until
crew wake up)
5:31 p.m. Station crew sleep
7:45 p.m. NASA TV: ISS Flight Director update from PAO Console
9:26 p.m. Endeavour/ISS Ron Garan wakeup (begins Flight Day 6)
The NASA TV schedule is updated regularly here:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttletv
JohnEB
Kelly said the mothballing of Endeavour will not mean an end to space missions. "The retirement of Endeavour and the shuttle fleet will not end the human need to explore,"
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/31/nasa.endeavour.return/index.html?&hpt=hp_c1
Next-to-last space shuttle flight lands on Earth
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110601/ap_on_sc/us_space_shuttle
I can still remember when I first heard of Sputnik in 1957 after having read every SciFi book in the library:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1
Space is the one area where Mankind seems to have followed Einstein's advice to "Never Forget . . ."
JohnEB
With today's shuttle Endeavour landing at NASA's KSC, the STS-134 mission that delivered AMS-02 to the International Space Station officially completed. From May 19th the experiment is safely anchored at center of the ISS's starboard truss and started catching and sending data to the payload operation control center (POCC) at JSC - Houston: the first events collected were a 20 GeV electron and a 42 GeV Carbon nucleus. To have an idea of the huge data acquisition rate, have a look at the applet simulations we added in the new "data acquisition" page on our website.
After April 29th STS-134 mission scrub, the Endeavour finally lifted off on May 16th at 8:56 a.m. EDT, docking two days later to the ISS where AMS-02 was insta lled on Flight Day fourth as scheduled. You could see the really exciting installing manoeuvre in a video we added in the video&animation page.
In about half a month AMS-02 team will move to Geneva at CERN, where a dedicated POCC has been prepared to handle remote commanding and data acquisition.
In our website you can also find new pictures about the Endeavour first launch attempt, and unique images of the Shuttle bay closing doors, that took place on April 26th.
If you want to know more about AMS, its history, its scientific goals and the people who are making all this possible, please visit the AMS website: www.ams02.org, where you will also find impressive immersive images, videos and pictures of the experiment.
You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.
JohnEB
An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory could cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/08/3238436.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/youtube.htm?v=Hyi4hjG6kDM&feature=player_embedded
JohnEB
WASHINGTON (AFP) – For years, scientists have been predicting the Sun would by around 2012 move into solar maximum, a period of intense flares and sunspot activity, but lately a curious calm has suggested quite the opposite.
According to three studies released in the United States on Tuesday, experts believe the familiar sunspot cycle may be shutting down and heading toward a pattern of inactivity unseen since the 17th century.
Luke Setzer
psychics.
1970s: "Global cooling!"
1990s: "Global warming!"
2000s: "Sunspots more active!"
2010s: "Sunspots less active!"
JohnEB
JohnEB
JohnEB
A giant "magnetic rope" made up of twisting magnetic field lines could produce the strong electric currents that trigger solar storms, a new study finds.
Researchers at George Mason University sifted through data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to study the magnetic rope phenomenon. Scientists have predicted that this rope is the cause of violent eruptions on the sun, but have previously struggled to prove its existence because of how quickly it moves.
Confirming the magnetic rope's existence would not only help astronomers understand the formation of solar storms, but would also be a key first step toward mitigating the adverse effects these eruptions can have on satellite communications on Earth. [Amazing New Sun Photos from Space]
mockan1
and Mars, being able to predict solar flare radiation storms will
enable travel without the ship carrying massive shielding to protect
the crew and passengers. That would enable faster transits and safer
trips.
On Jun 20, 7:42 am, JohnEB <johnbarc...@frontier.com> wrote:
> *Solar Storms Sparked By Giant 'Magnetic Rope,' Study Finds*
> A giant "magnetic rope" made up of twisting magnetic field lines could
> produce the strong electric currents that trigger solar storms, a new study
> finds.
>
> Researchers at George Mason University sifted through data from NASA's Solar
> struggled to prove its existence because of how quickly it moves.
>
> Confirming the magnetic rope's existence would not only help astronomers
> these eruptions can have on satellite communications on Earth. [Amazing New
> ]http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20110619/sc_space/solarstormssparkedbyg...
JohnEB
In the future when space tourism is routine between colonies on Lunaand Mars, being able to predict solar flare radiation storms willenable travel without the ship carrying massive shielding to protectthe crew and passengers. That would enable faster transits and safertrips.
JohnEB
Tempest-from-hell seen on Saturn
Imagine being caught in a thunderstorm as wide as the Earth with discharges of lightning 10,000 times more powerful than normal, flashing 10 times per second at its peak.
Now imagine that this storm is still unfolding, eight months later.
One of the most violent weather events in the Solar System began to erupt on Saturn last December and is still enthralling astronomers, the British journal Nature reported on Wednesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/tempest-hell-seen-saturn-190517740.html
JohnEB
The universe is capable of some pretty spectacular displays, but few things approach the cosmic grandeur of a planetary nebula. The "planetary" part has to do with the formation's shape, which is roughly spherical, like a planet. But these objects are a lot bigger than any planet or even any star. They're enormous clouds of gas — like smoke rings, but bubble-shaped — puffed out by sun-like stars undergoing their death throes. In 5 billion years or so, our own sun may well emit a gorgeous belch of its own, perhaps to be noted by alien astronomers somewhere out in the Milky Way.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2085456,00.html
JohnEB
The first close-up pictures of the massive asteroid Vesta reveal a northern hemisphere littered with craters — including a trio nicknamed "Snowman" — and a smoother southern half, researchers reported Monday.
http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-stunned-surface-asteroid-vesta-204550456.html
JohnEB
Coal-Black Alien Planet Is Darkest Ever Seen
An alien world blacker than coal, the darkest planet known, has been discovered in the galaxy.
The world in question is a giant the size of Jupiter known as TrES-2b. NASA's Kepler spacecraft
detected it lurking around the yellow sun-like star GSC 03549-02811 some 750 light years away in
the direction of the constellation Draco.
The researchers found this gas giant reflects less than 1 percent of the sunlight falling on it,
making it darker than any planet or moon seen up to now.
http://news.yahoo.com/coal-black-alien-planet-darkest-ever-seen-220601419.html
JohnEB
Stardust (spacecraft)
Stardust is a 300-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on February 7, 1999 to study
the asteroid 5535 Annefrank and collect samples from the coma of comet Wild 2. The primary
mission was completed January 15, 2006, when the sample return capsule returned to Earth.[1]
Operating for 12 years, 6 months and 12 days, Stardust intercepted comet Tempel 1 on
February 15, 2011, a small Solar System body previously visited by Deep Impact on July 4, 2005.
It is the first sample return mission to collect cosmic dust and return the sample to Earth and
the first to acquire images of a previously visited comet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_%28spacecraft%29
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
JohnEB
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted the signature of flat carbon flakes, called graphene, in space. If confirmed, this would be the first-ever cosmic detection of the material -- which is arranged like chicken wire in flat sheets that are one atom thick.
Graphene was first synthesized in a lab in 2004, and subsequent research on its unique properties garnered the Nobel Prize in 2010. It's as strong as it is thin, and conducts electricity as well as copper. Some think it's the "material of the future," with applications in computers, screens on electrical devices, solar panels and more.
Graphene in space isn't going to result in any super-fast computers, but researchers are interested in learning more about how it is created. Understanding chemical reactions involving carbon in space may hold clues to how our own carbon-based selves and other life on Earth developed.
Spitzer identified signs of the graphene in two small galaxies outside of our own, called the Magellanic Clouds, specifically in the material shed by dying stars, called planetary nebulae. The infrared-sensing telescope also spotted a related molecule, called C70, in the same region – marking the first detection of this chemical outside our galaxy.
JohnEB
NASA: Space station may be evacuated by late Nov.
If Russia's essential Soyuz rockets remain grounded beyond mid-November, there will be no way to launch any more astronauts before the current residents are supposed to leave, said NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini.
JohnEB
SIM PlanetQuest Mission
SIM PlanetQuest, scheduled for launch within the next decade, will be the most powerful planet-hunting space telescope ever devised. Using two separated mirrors and combining their light with a technique known as interferometry, SIM PlanetQuest will able to detect planets as small as Earth. These are the kind of planets that scientists believe have the most potential to support life.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_706.html
JohnEB
NASA Web App Lets You Control Space & Time in 3D [VIDEO]
NASA has released its "Eyes on the Solar System" 3D environment, a free web browser-based application that lets you navigate a 3D version of the solar system. The app uses video game technology to let you control your point of view from anywhere in our solar system, speeding up time so you can see the motion of the planets, their satellites and NASA spacecraft.
JohnEB
NASA to Launch Twin Moon Probes This Week
NASA is gearing up for this week's launch of twin lunar orbiters built to map the gravity of Earth's moon in unprecedented detail.
The twin GRAILl lunar probes are slated to blast off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday (Sept. 8). The mission has two instantaneous (one-second) launch windows on that date, one at 8:37 a.m. EDT and another at 9:16 a.m. EDT (1237 and 1316 GMT), NASA officials said.
JohnEB
The Great Crab Nebula Superflare
JohnEB
Luke Skywalker looks out over a desert dominated by two setting suns in an iconic scene from "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope." But this isn’t just the stuff of fiction. Now, astronomers have confirmed the first direct evidence that planets with two suns do exist.
Scientists at NASA and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute [SETI] are informally calling the newly discovered world Tatooine, as homage to Skywalker's planet imagined by George Lucas.
The so-called circumbinary planet has been dubbed with an official name that's much less interesting: Kepler-16b.
JohnEB
JohnEB
NASA: Space station may be evacuated by late Nov.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Astronauts may need to temporarily abandon the International Space
Station this fall if last week's Russian launch accident prevents new crews from flying,
a NASA official said Monday.
If Russia's essential Soyuz rockets remain grounded beyond mid-November, there will be no
way to launch any more astronauts before the current residents are supposed to leave, said
NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini.
UPDATE:
Soyuz lands safely in Kazakhstan, rattles nerves
MOSCOW – A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three returning astronauts from the International
Space Station touched down safely Friday in the central steppes of Kazakhstan, but not
without rattling nerves after a breakdown in communications.
NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrei Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyayev
landed some 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan at 10 a.m. local
time (0400 GMT) after 164 days in space.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110916/ap_on_sc/sci_space_station
JohnEB
New Video Reveals Giant Asteroid Vesta as Seen by Spacecraft
A new video from a NASA spacecraft takes viewers on a flyover journey of Vesta, the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Scientists constructed the two-minute video from images taken by NASA's Dawn probe, which has been orbiting Vesta since July.
In addition to giving armchair astronomers around the world a great look at Vesta, the video should help scientists better understand the forces that shaped the massive space rock, researchers said. [Video: Amazing Vesta: Video Look at the Asteroid]
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50 Fabulous Deep-Space Nebula Photos
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The Fermi Space Telescope has detected 1,873 gamma ray sources in space, and nearly 600 are complete mysteries, NASA wrote today on its website.
NASA's Fermi team has recently released the second catalog of gamma ray sources from its satellite's Large Area Telescope and have no idea where nearly one-third of gamma rays originated.
"Fermi sees gamma rays coming from directions in the sky where there are no obvious objects likely to produce gamma rays," said David Thompson, Fermi deputy project scientist, of Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Gamma rays are a "super-energetic form of light produced by sources such as black holes and massive exploding stars," according to NASA.
JohnEB
New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- Last weekend, another large piece of "space junk" tumbled to Earth, perhaps in Southeast Asia. Many people -- if they noted the event at all -- probably worried about being hit on the head, even though the odds are overwhelmingly against such a catastrophe (trillions to one).
But for thousands of astrophysicists around the world, the German Roentgen satellite ("ROSAT") was no mere rubbish; it was an old and important friend. Launched in 1990, a few months after the better known Hubble Space Telescope, ROSAT provided images of the sky in X-rays (very short wavelength light), as opposed to the red-green-blue light visible with Hubble, meaning it could see the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. Plus ROSAT had better image quality than any X-ray satellite had before, an improvement comparable to the superiority of Hubble imaging compared to ground-based telescopes.
JohnEB
Huge Crack Discovered in Antarctic Glacier
NASA's Operation Ice Bridge, the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown, is in the midst of its third field campaign from Punta Arenas, Chile. The six-year mission will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. The glaciers of the Antarctic, and Greenland, Ice Sheets, commonly birth icebergs that break off from the main ice streams where they flow in to the sea, a process called calving.
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NASA readies launch of 'dream machine' to Mars
The US space agency is getting ready to launch later this month the biggest, most expensive robotic vehicle ever built to explore Mars for signs of previous life there, NASA said Thursday.
The Curiosity rover, known formally as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), is a $2.5 billion state-of-the-art vehicle equipped with video cameras and a sophisticated mobile tool kit for analyzing rocks and soil on the red planet.
The launch of the 1,982-pound (899-kilogram) rover is set for November 25 at 10:21 am (1521 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
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Building the next Hubble
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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/devoured-star.html
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NASA Kepler Probe Finds Two Earth-Sized Planets Orbiting Star
NASA's Kepler space telescope has found two new planets orbiting a distant sun-like star, and the researchers who made the find say these two are the size of Earth or smaller. That's a first in the search for extraterrestrial life.
JohnEB
Surface of Pluto May Contain Organic Molecules
The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted new evidence of complex organic molecules — the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it — on the frigid surface of Pluto, a new study finds.
Hubble observations revealed that some substances on Pluto's surface are absorbing more ultraviolet light than expected. The compounds in question may well be organics, possibly complex hydrocarbons or nitrogen-containing molecules, researchers said.
The dwarf planet Pluto is known to harbor ices of methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen on its surface. The ultraviolet-absorbing chemical species may have been produced when sunlight or super-speedy subatomic particles known as cosmic rays interacted with these ices, researchers said.
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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News012312-M8.7.html
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....gIQA1cSzNT_blog.html
Discovery
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/orbitersdis.html