Kentucky Space

Astronomers find Water world

[Cross-posted from the IdeaFestival] In recent years, astronomers have cataloged over 400 planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy, and, as techniques are continuously refined and new missions carried out, more are being discovered regularly. Targeting a rich area of the Milky Way, scientists, for example, are pouring over the data returned by the newly launched observatory Kepler, which is seeking transiting terrestrial worlds in the habitable zone of their parent star. Follow-up missions that might directly observe these planetary finds are being considered.  

Yesterday, however, news emerged that the ground based telescopes of the MEarth Project in Arizona had located a transiting water world orbiting a star very much like ours. Though the second so-called super-Earth, this one is interesting because subsequent observations in South America have demonstrated that this planet has an atmosphere - though perhaps not for long, given the proximity to its host. Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams provided this other bit of interesting news.

At a distance of 1.3 million miles, the planet orbits its star every 38 hours, with an estimated temperature a little over 200 degrees Celsius. Because GJ 1214b transits the star, astronomers are able to measure its radius, which turns out to be 2.7 times that of Earth. The density derived from this suggests a composition of about three-fourths water and other ices and one-fourth rock.

The atmospheric pressures and resulting lack of light reaching the planet's surface make life improbable, or at least unlike anything we might know, but it's another step along the path toward what could be truly extraordinary find in our lifetimes.

Wayne

The credit for the artist's impression of GJ 1214b goes to ESO/L. Calçada.

Kentucky Space

Kris Kimel: "It's a new era in entrepreneurial space"

Kris Kimel, the president of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (the managing partner for Kentucky Space), talks about last Friday's events and 2010 in general in this audio recorded on the University of Kentucky campus.

The very first Nanorack is currently on its way to Florida for a March Shuttle flight to the International Space Station. The January date for the suborbital "SOCEM" mission Kris refers to was recently mentioned @kyspace on Twitter. For the most recent information, you may want to follow Kentucky Space there.

Wayne

Cubelabs: Big payloads come in small packages

Following up on yesterday's post about the delivery of the first Nanorack and pair of Cubelabs to Florida to prepare for a March flight to the ISS, UK Prof. Jim Lumpp takes a moment to talk about the 10cm x 10cm x 10cm Cubelab.

Wayne

Kentucky Space

Kentucky Space delivers Nanorack, Cubelabs on Wednesday

On Friday, Kentucky Space held a get together to celebrate the delivery of its first Nanorack and accompanying Cubelabs. As Prof. Jim Lumpp explains, the hardware is scheduled for a Wednesday delivery to the Space Shuttle  Processing Facility, where it will be made ready for a March flight to the International Space Station aboard Discovery.

Check back tomorrow to hear Jim explain a little bit about the Cubelab form factor and why doing microgravity research in these small labs is an important development in orbital science. All Nanorack and Cubelab posts may be found here.

Wayne

Kentucky Space

Just for Fun

This video accompanied the unveiling of SpaceShipTwo, the world's first spaceliner.

Wayne

Kentucky Space

Nanoracks, cubelabs building on "growing utility of small satellites"

In the context of a 2010 Small Satellite Systems and Services (4S) conference, the Space Fellowship reports on the "growing potential for small satellites."

'Underlying technological developments such as miniaturisation and micro-electrical-mechanical systems (MEMs) have enhanced small satellite capabilities and broadened their range of uses,' said 4S Symposium organiser Luca Maresi. 'Small satellites have moved on from being simply university engineering projects or technology testbeds, growing in maturity to a point where they are employed in operational commercial applications as well as scientific missions.'

While not free orbiting, now would be a good time to point out that Kentucky Space will delivers the first Nanorack to Cape Canaveral next Wednesday for a March delivery via STS 131 to the International Space Station! Low cost research may be accomplished by experimenters in the repurposed Cubesats, called Cubelabs^TM, which will be powered by the Nanorack, the first of three.

Wayne

CubeSat, Kentucky Space

132nd Carnival of Space

The 132nd edition of the Carnival of Space has been posted at Steve's Astro Corner.

Wayne

Kentucky Space

MIT wins DARPA balloon hunt challenge

In a follow-up designed to test how people are using the networking phenomenon it had a big hand in creating, the $40k DARPA riddle was solved over the weekend by MIT. Thank Chris for the link!

Wayne

Kentucky Space

Finding Avatar's Pandora

"James Cameron’s new movie Avatar depicts a gas giant with a habitable moon around it, and the MarketSaw editors are interested in whether such a planet could exist around one of the Centauri stars."

Posting parts of an interview with Yale astronomer Debra Fischer, Paul Gilster connects popular entertainment and the search for planets around our closest stellar neighbor. MarketSaw is a blog that reviews 3D motion pictures and recently interviewed Fischer. The stellar companions are of course the triple Centauri system, a mere four light years away from our star.

Wayne

Kentucky Space

High resolution Mercury

Covering 98 percent of the planet, this image is one of many that will form the first high resolution map of Mercury.

MESSENGER snapped it on the third flyby of the planet in September. The craft will settle into permanent orbit in March, 2011.

Wayne

Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington