KySat

High energy observatory, GLAST, is launched

GLAST, which will scan the heavens for high energy bursts, and perhaps help solve the mystery of dark matter, has successfully launched according to Wired. A nice graphic illustrating the electromagnetic spectrum accompanies the article.

From NASA:

After a 75-minute flight, the GLAST spacecraft was deployed into low Earth orbit. It will begin to transmit initial instrument data after about three weeks. The telescope will explore the most extreme environments in the universe, searching for signs of new laws of physics and investigating what composes mysterious dark matter. It will seek explanations for how black holes accelerate immense jets of material to nearly light speed, and look for clues to crack the mysteries behind powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.

Wayne

Carnival of Space 57 online

The very latest Carnival of Space, this one with an emphasis on space economies and intersteller space, has been posted.

Wayne

GLAST's "new physics" search begins next week

GLAST has a launch date of next Tuesday, June 2. The telescope is now on the launch pad atop a Delta II rocket. The space-borne observatory

"will open a wide window on the universe through the study of Gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. GLAST data will enable scientists to answer persistent questions across a broad range of topics, including supermassive black-hole systems, pulsars, the origin of cosmic rays, and searches for signals of new physics."

GLAST could help scientists get closer to answering what Dark Matter is made of. A more complete list of the science that this instrument will undertake is here.

Above right, workers add the payload fairing around the observatory in preparation for launch.

Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Wayne

Wikipedia: Gamma Rays, Dark Matter

Name that satellite

NASA is asking the public to name its Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST. The telescope is designed to peer at "extreme environments," looking for "signs of new laws of physics," including what dark matter might be.

To name that satellite, go here. According to NASA:

Anyone who drops a name into the "Name That Satellite!" suggestion box on the Web page can choose to receive a "Certificate of Participation" via return e-mail. Participants also may choose to receive the NASA press release announcing the new mission name. The announcement is expected approximately 60 days after launch of the telescope.

Wayne

Deep survey finds star makers

Astronomers have uncovered evidence that black holes lie at the center of most galaxies. NASA has published an artist's conception, above, of the imagery taken by the Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes. 

According to the agency press release:

Scientists now believe most massive galaxies spent their adolescence building up their stars and black holes simultaneously. The Spitzer observations were made as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey program, which aims to image the faintest distant galaxies using a variety of wavelengths

A higher resolution image is here. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

Wayne

Zeno, black holes, Martian salt

> In response to a listener question, Astronomy Cast is out with a show on inflation. Just how could the universe have expanded faster than the speed of light in its initial moments? In response to another question, there is also a particularly good quantum explanation of one of Zeno's paradoxes.
> Star Stryder is hosting the carnival of space this week.
> Universe Today: Astronomers believe that there may be super massive black holes at the center of every galaxy.
> The premier issue of Communicating Astronomy with the Public is out with suitably big picture articles such as the Top Ten Astronomical Breakthroughs of the 20th Century.
> Just in from my YouTube subscriptions: Jeff Foust, space journalist and the man behind the blog Personal Spaceflight, has contributed video of Armadillo Aerospace's efforts at the Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. 
> Are there Ancient salt deposits on Mars? HiRISE has potential photo evidence, above. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Wayne

Wikipedia: black holes

ESA selects "Vision" candidates

The European Space Agency has selected candidate missions for Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. The selected missions include extended exploration of the Jovian system, an asteroid sample-return mission, a new platform to study dark energy, a new space-borne exoplanetary finder called Plato capable of separating rocky exoplanets from the star glare, and a new collaboration with Japan that would field an infrared observatory to study the origin of the universe.

The European scientific community submitted over 50 proposals to ESA for consideration.

Wayne

Stardust, Falcon, Cassini & more

• Linked as part of last Thursday's edition of the Carnival of Space, Pamela Gay discusses why it's difficult to find extrasolar planets.
• Also linked from the carnival, A Babe in the Universe uses the movie Stardust to explain that revolutionary scientific theories often begin in controversy.
• Cosmic Log imaginatively connects Oscar Wilde to the surprising age of galaxy I Zwicky 18.
• NASA has officially concluded the FUSE mission and extended the missions of Spirit and Opportunity. 
• Do you know why Saturn bulges in the middle? Don't peak before you give it some thought.
• The Cassini imaging team has released the most magnificent view of the entire Saturn system that I've seen. Click the linked image to get more visual detail.
• According to the CalPoly CubeSat site, Elon Musk's Falcon 1 will fly again in March and is soliciting cubesat developers. The news is also an excuse to show the video above of the March 2007 launch of Falcon recorded by on-board cameras. I still get kick out of watching stage separation.
• Finally, JPL has posted a video of what the October holds for sky watchers.

Wayne

Explore! The week in news

The latest Carnival of Space is up and guess what story is dominating the news? Not willing to wait, Advanced Nanontechnology has already outlined how to win the $30 million Google Lunar Lander X Prize.

Other stories not included in the latest iteration of the space carnival include Paul Gilster's piece on Tau Ceti, which asks the question: what should the constant bombardment of potential planets in the dust belt surrounding that star tell us about the development of life on Earth?

The European Space Agency's super-chilled infrared observatory, Herschel, designed to register the faintest heat objects in the most distance past, is one step closer to being ready to fly.

Wired reports that NASA's GLAST is designed to peer into every corner of the universe as well, looking for the sources of gamma-ray radiation, the kinds of fantastic energy produced by merging neutron stars, for example. Wired's science blog also links to Scientific American articles on the future of space travel and the hard choices NASA may face - funding for every worthy goal simply isn't available.

Lastly, the image above is from Cassini's recent very close flyby of Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons. The image is of its "Himalayas." In this press release from NASA, the moon is characterized as the "Yin-and-Yang moon." Image Source: CICLOPS, the Cassini Imaging Team.

Wayne

Dark energy probe selected

What makes up the other 74 percent of the universe?

According news from PhysOrg.com, the National Research Council has selected one of three competing Dark Energy Missions - the SuperNova/Acceleration Probe, or SNAP - to be the first Beyond Einstein cosmology mission developed and launched.

SuperNova/Acceleration Probe, or SNAP [is] a versatile space-borne observatory with a powerful two-meter-class telescope and a half-billion pixel imager, designed to study dark energy by recording the distance and redshift of some 2,000 Type Ia supernovae a year and mapping the sky with unprecedented resolution. Dark energy is the name given to the mysterious entity which is causing the universe to expand ever more rapidly. It accounts for nearly three-quarters of all the energy in the universe.

In addition to comparing the redshift of supernovae, the craft will also employ "weak gravitational lensing." According to  SNAP's co-principle investigator and project director, Michael Levi:

'Weak gravitational lensing has been part of the SNAP concept since its beginning in 1999. SNAP will make a high-resolution map of the sky covering an area 2,000,000 times larger than the Hubble Deep Field. This map will be sensitive to the minute distortions of distant galaxy shapes when their light passes through uneven distributions of matter — a phenomenon called weak lensing. Weak lensing promises a powerful way to measure the distribution of dark matter and to probe dark energy's effect on the growth structure of the universe. The huge survey map will also provide astronomers with an unparalleled wealth of high-resolution images never before seen.'

There are three Beyond Einstein missions planned, the Joint Dark Energy Mission, described here, and the Inflation Probe and Black Hole Finder Probe.

Wayne

Wikipedia: Dark Energy, gravitational lens

"Building block" galaxies found

Each a "hundred to a thousand times" smaller than our own Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have announced the discovery of "building block" galaxies, which likely contributed to the universe as we know it, according to a Caltech news release yesterday.

The Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble took these pictures.

The galaxies, individually pictured across the bottom of the picture, are approximately one billion years old. The current estimated age of the universe is about 13.7 billion years old.

Wayne

Credit: NASA, ESA, and N. Pirzkal (STScI/ESA)

Herschel to study earliest heat

Science Daily has posted an update on Herschel, the European Space Agency's far-infrared space observatory. Designed to study the evolution of galaxies and stars by recording light at far-infrared wave lengths, the craft is built to exacting tolerances. This paragraph suggests the engineering challenge to produce images from the earliest radiated heat:

In order to achieve its objectives and to be able to detect the faint radiation coming from the coolest objects in the cosmos, otherwise ‘invisible’, Herschel’s detectors must operate at very low and stable temperatures.

The spacecraft is equipped so as to cool them close to absolute zero (-273.15 ºC), ranging from -271 ºC to only a few tenths of a degree above absolute zero. To have achieved this particular feature alone is a remarkable accomplishment for European industry and science.

Like the Spitzer Space Telescope, Galaxy Evolution Explorer and ESA's Planck missions, efforts to observe the deepest space in order to answer the biggest questions really interest me.

A July 2008 launch is expected. A mission summary is here.

Wayne

Wikipedia: infrared astronomy Caltech: Cool Cosmos

Voyager: into the deep

In a news release, JPL commemorates 30 years of Voyagers' flight and issues a new podcast, Voyager: is the Best Yet to Come?

Launched in 1977, both craft are healthy and communicate regularly with Earth, sending information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network.

In ten years, Voyager 1 will reach heliopause, and from there pass cross the threshold to intersteller space carrying a message for the deep. 

Wayne

Hat tip: Centauri Dreams

Finding a hole in the universe

Not a black hole, not anything, really, University of Minnesota astronomers have discovered a gaping hole in the universe that is nearly a billion light years across, which is "empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies and gas, as well as the mysterious, unseen 'dark matter.'"

This nothing may turn out to be a big something.

Wayne

"A star unlike any before"

At 1p today, NASA is scheduled to deliver an announcement from Galaxy Evolution Explorer "about a star unlike any seen before." Supporting images and graphics will appear here.

CalTech's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that observes galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history.

The image above is some of its handiwork, a picture of the remnants of a nova from a few thousand years ago. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Wayne

Largest telescope now online

The world's largest optical telescope collected its first light last Friday. Boasting a main mirror over 10 meters across, the Great Canary Telescope (it is situated on the island of La Palma, part of the Canary Islands) cost $180 million to construct.

Wayne

"Cosmic Vision:" 50 big missions

The European Space Agency (ESA) has made note of 50 new mission concepts received in response to a challenge to the European scientific community. ESA:

Out of these 50 concepts, three medium-class missions (with costs to ESA not exceeding 300 million euros) and three large-class missions (with costs to ESA not exceeding 650 million euros) will be selected for assessment (or feasibility) studies starting in October this year.

The selection will follow a careful evaluation process, taking into account the scientific value and novelty of the proposal as main criteria, together with its technological maturity and its estimated cost.

At the end of the full assessment cycle in 2011, one medium- and one large-class mission will be adopted for implementation by ESA's Science Programme Committee. Their launches are currently foreseen for 2017 and 2018 respectively.

The proposals are broken into three categories: "Astrophysics," such as star transits and dark matter studies; "Fundamental physics," a theoretical exploration of time and dimension, for example, or missions to verify the laws of gravity; and science dedicated to exploring further our Solar System.

Wayne

Friday Space Links

Here are space-related links from around the Web for your Friday. Have a great weekend.

• The launch of the Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres has been delayed for a few hours, but should fly soon.
• Planet Quest asked top star hunters for their 10 most intriguing stars.
• Investigating life in extreme environments on Earth might yield clues about life off-planet.
• Alan Boyles Cosmic Log links to a couple of interesting pieces, an article from National Geographic on Swarm Behavior, the other a news story about a space-related business plan competition at the Space Frontier Foundation.
• Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams describes a new method for detecting faint objects using a characteristic, a flaw if you will, of telescopes.
• Not sure where an object will be in the night sky? Hobbyspace.com suggests that you text a message to www.ezipsky.com to find out.
• HiRISE continues to release amazingly detailed pictures from its equipment on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Wayne   

Missions to explore mysteries

NASA has just released news of a proposed new office, the Einstein Probes Office, to develop "future medium-class science missions to investigate... profound cosmic mysteries" like dark energy, black holes and cosmic microwave background radiation. From the news release:

The Beyond Einstein Program consists of five proposed missions: two major observatories and three smaller probes. Technology development already is under way on the proposed observatories. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna would orbit the sun measuring gravitational waves in our galaxy and beyond. Constellation-X would view matter falling into supermassive black holes.

In September NASA and the Department of Energy are expected to recommend which of the proposed missions should be developed and launched first.

ESA's Planck, set to fly in 2008, has a similar mission profile, seeking to measure remnant radiation from the universe's earliest moments.

Wayne

Wikipedia: dark energy, cosmic inflation, black holes

Planets in the starglare

Is there a new way of finding exoplanets? Alice Quillen at the University of Rochester, who is an expert on stellar disks, may have developed another method to add to the list of ways exoplanetologists have for finding new worlds, according to Centauri Dreams.

Wayne

Wikipedia: coronograph

The shape of dark matter?

In a galaxy five billion light years away astronomers have discovered the best evidence to date for dark matter, according to MSNBC.com.

Dark matter cannot be observed directly, but only inferred from the gravitational effects on visible matter. In the image at the top, astronomers mapped the distortions of background galaxies by the gravity of the galaxy cluster. The application of some "fiendish math and physics" to the observations revealed the ghost ring of dark matter, according to Bad Astronomy.

Centauri Dreams and Bad Astronomy have descriptions of the significance of the find, and explain it far better than I can.

Wayne

Ancient, early star discovered

According to MSNBC.com, astronomers have discovered an ancient star nearly as old as the universe itself.

The finding by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile follows on the recent news of a potential Earth-like planet orbiting Gliese 581 by the same observatory.

HE 1523 is estimated to be about 13.2 billion years old.

The piece also describes some differences between stars then and now that I thought I'd pass along. 

Scientists think the first stars in the universe formed between 30 and 150 million years after the Big Bang and were massive behemoths, with masses up to 200 times that of our sun. Scientists think those stellar first born burned brightly and quickly, lasting only a few hundred million years before exhausting their fuels and winking out as black holes or exploding as supernovas....

Recent observations of a supernova 240 million-light years away suggests the explosive star deaths of early stars were fundamentally different from the supernovas of later stars, and that they lasted longer, burned brighter and were fueled by an exotic antimatter engine.

Because it measures 0.8 solar mass, the star has been able to burn longer than the much larger mass first generation stars, which typically burned for only a few hundred million years.

Wayne

"Hot Jupiters" mapped

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have succeeded in mapping an extrasolar planet using the Spitzer Space Telescope. 

The team examined the planet, known as HD 189733b, using the Infrared Array Camera on board NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Infrared observations offer an advantage because the brightness difference between star and planet is lessened, making it easier to tease out the planet's signal.

Over the course of 33 hours, the team collected more than a quarter million data points. Although Spitzer could not resolve the planet into a disk, by measuring changes as the planet rotated, the team created a simple longitudinal map. That is, they measured the planet's brightness in a series of pole-to-pole strips across the planet's visible cloud-tops, then assembled those strips into an overall picture.

Though the Spitzer telescope can only map large hot worlds, the James Webb Telescope, scheduled for a 2013 launch, may be able to map Earth-like worlds, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center press release.

The team's findings have been published in the May 9 issue of Nature.

Hat tip: Bad Astronomy

Wayne

SETI, KySat and Possibility

Kentucky native Scott Hubbard, according to KySat founder Kris Kimel, who introduces him, was at one time the "Mars Czar."

But he's currently the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute, which is a private nonprofit organization whose mission is to "explore and explain the nature and prevalence of life in the universe."

You may know SETI better for this.

About fifty scientists study the potential for life in the universe. "Extremophiles," those organisms, for example, that live in sulfur vents, are an Earth bound object of study for these individuals.

Small Sat Future

"What is the future for small spacecraft missions?" Where is "Sutter's Gold?"

Before getting to those answers, he discusses the work at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., which has pioneered small satellite technology.

And back to answer his question:

1) Space biology - There is radically different gene expression in microgravity. They "light up in space." Lignum, a compound vital to connective tissue growth in plants, can be studied in that environment in ways that can't be accomplished on Earth.

GeneSat is a clever biological project. He shows an animation of GeneSat that appears to show the satellite exposing its cargo to space. What other science can small sats carry out?

2) Regional climate change - Small satellites, for instance, might explore the roughly sixteen climate regions of California, to "follow the water" in the state in order to predict climate change. Hubbard believes that Sacramento delta "is a Katrina waiting to happen." He suggests that small satellite technology can answer the question, "how high should the levees be?"

Similarly, Kentucky could use the technology to make observations of special interest to the commonwealth.

A European model for small sat work RapidEye.

3) "Pure Space Science" - Small satellites can be used to return samples of other bodies to Earth for study.

4) Test beds. He shows that what looks like a bent paper clip is actually a better antenna than the current standard. It had to be tested in space aboard a CubeSat to prove what had been worked out on paper.

5) "Operationally Responsive Space" is another use for small sats. These initiatives can get to space in short order to to develop accurate observations of a region.

Potential Small Sat Businesses

As for KySat, Hubbard says, the key is to "drive down the size and drive up the capability."

For example, "bio/info/nano" technology is ideal for small sats. These new technologies expand the business proposition for the diminutive satellites. Organic memory media might be available soon, which will develop unknown flight possibilities by making more software available to the craft.

Bigelow Aeronautics, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are pursuing suborbital opportunities. A space entrepreneurial system that promotes targeted advertising will also emerge. 

Google has changed the business model for software. Likewise, remote sensing satellites have made information available for free. Remote sensing, based on advertising, can turn into a business.

The Far Future

Finishing on a "visionary note," he asks, "what about the far future?"

Describing the quantum entanglement, he wonders if it offers a way to teleportation?

Since 1972, experiments have demonstrated that as light or photons are thrown together, they become entangled. By measuring one, the spin of the other proton is instantly affected. This phenomenon has been demonstrated at distances of 140km.

What spooky communication is happening that occurs even faster than the speed of light?

Could technology devised from this phenomenon be sued to explore interstellar space?

On that, he concludes.

Wayne

Astronomers find Earth twin?

Using an observatory in Chile, astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet to date, according to the BBC. The planet is in orbit around a red dwarf star Gliese 581, which is about 20 light years away according an article on the front page of the USA Today.

The original story may be located here, at the European Southern Observatory web site, which has this to say:

'We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,' explains Stéphane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland) and lead-author of the paper reporting the result. ' Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky - like our Earth - or fully covered with oceans,' he adds.

The image is an artist's impression of the system around Gliese 581, which has other, gaseous planets, in orbit.

Image credit: The European Southern Observatory.

Wayne

Into the unknown

Since I just mentioned the possibility of solar sails being used for interstellar travel, it's worth pausing to remember the two most distant human-made objects, Voyager 1 and 2, both of which are beginning the transition into interstellar space. Both are still returning data. Reading a bit about the two craft on the mission page, NASA says that the mission team is down to 10 people. 

After 30 years, that's dedication.

Wayne

Image source: NASA/JPL

Solar sails, atom by atom

The wonderful web log Centauri Dreams considers the possibility, raised by nanotechnologist Eric Drexler, of "building solar sails by the mile."

Wayne

Astronomers refine Earth hunt

According to SpaceDaily, astronomers may now be able to detect another Earth in orbit around distant stars using a specially rigged telescope. In a successful demonstration of the technique, NASA researchers have shown that the method can make out the image of an Earth-like planet that would ordinarily be overpowered by the light emitted from its star.

'Our experiment demonstrates the suppression of glare extremely close to a star, clearing a field dark enough to allow us to see an Earth twin. This is at least a thousand times better than anything demonstrated previously,' said John Trauger, lead author of a paper appearing in the April 12 issue of Nature. This paper describes the system, called the High Contrast Imaging Testbed, and how the technique could be used with a telescope in space to see exoplanets. The lab experiment used a laser as a simulated star, with fainter copies of the star serving as 'planets.'

To date, scientists have used various techniques to detect more than 200 exoplanets. Most of these exoplanets are from five to 4,000 times more massive than Earth, and are either too hot, too cold or too much of a giant gas ball to be considered likely habitats for life. So far, no one has managed to capture an image of an exoplanetary system that resembles our own solar system. Scientists are eager to take a closer look at nearby systems, to hunt for and then characterize any Earth-like planets - those with the right size, orbit and other traits considered friendly for life.

In the lab demonstration, the High Contrast and Imaging Testbed overcame two significant hurdles that all telescopes face when trying to image exoplanets - diffracted and scattered light.

The image above, contained in the NASA/JPL press release, shows three simulated planets. One is as bright as Jupiter, one is half as bright as Jupiter and the other is as faint as another Earth might appear. The asterisk marks the location of the system's simulated star.

Wayne

New Finnish take on Solar Sails

Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams describes the work of a Finnish team that has proposed an interesting new solar sail technology, which the team calls an "electric sail."

Centauri Dreams: 

The so-called ‘electric sail’ would use fifty to one hundred 20-kilometer long charged tethers, their voltage maintained by a solar-powered electron gun aboard the vehicle. We’re talking about tethers made of wires that are thinner than a human hair, thin enough that each can be wound into a small reel.

But unwind the tethers and you get interesting results. The electric field of each wire now extends tens of meters into the solar wind flow. A single tether yields the equivalent effective area of a sail roughly a square kilometer in size. You can see the promise of deploying multiple tethers to reach high velocities. What’s more, this sail allows the spacecraft to ‘tack’ towards the Sun as well as sailing outward from it.

The blog links to this background page, which includes an animation of the technology.

Wayne

Space telescope detects exoplanet atmospheres

Michael Cabbage, aerospace editor for the Orlando Sentinel, reports that "NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has, for the first time, detected signatures of molecules in the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system."

According to NASA, the collected data indicates that the two planets observed - HD 189733b, which is 370 trillion miles away in the constellation Vulpecula, and HD 209458b, which is 904 trillion miles away in the constellation Pegasus - are drier and cloudier than predicted.

Wayne

[update] Seed has more on the discovery.

Centauri Dreams tracks intersteller research

Just added to the list of space-related feeds I'm tracking: Centauri Dreams. The blog says it "reviews research issues in deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities." At the top of the blog today is a story about a possible, workable photon drive.

Wayne