2016年4月30日 星期六

Moon over Makemake


Makemake, second brightest dwarf planet of the Kuiper belt, has a moon. Nicknamed MK2, Makemake's moon reflects sunlight with a charcoal-dark surface, about 1,300 times fainter than its parent body. Still, it was spotted in Hubble Space Telescope observations intended to search for faint companions with the same technique used to find the small satellites of Pluto. Just as for Pluto and its satellites, further observations of Makemake and orbiting moon will measure the system's mass and density and allow a broader understanding of the distant worlds. About 160 kilometers (100 miles) across compared to Makemake's 1,400 kilometer diameter, MK2's relative size and contrast are shown in this artist's vision. An imagined scene of an unexplored frontier of the Solar System, it looks back from a spacecraft's vantage as the dim Sun shines along the Milky Way. Of course, the Sun is over 50 times farther from Makemake than it is from planet Earth. via NASA http://ift.tt/26DRj0x

Why SLS Has Always Been About Maintaining Jobs

Why NASA Is Building An $18 Billion Rocket To Nowhere, Buzzfeed "It is more the politics of pork than the politics of progress," former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver told BuzzFeed News. "There's a long-time pattern at NASA where money...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1pTVDY7
via IFTTT

No, Saturn Won’t Be Huge in the Sky on May 1

Another day, another weird Facebook astronomy hoax.

The photo with the caption above have been spread around Facebook quite a bit the past few days; it shows Saturn looming huge in the sky over a city, with the annotation, “On 5/1/16 Saturn will be the closest it ever has been to Earth. It will look like this.”

I got a few notes from readers on Twitter about it. Unlike a lot of other wrong but possibly sincere memes, this one is clearly a hoax. It’s just silly and wrong on every level, so it couldn’t possibly have just been an honest mistake. It’s a joke.

What’s wrong with it? Well, two main things: Saturn isn’t the closest it’s ever been on May 1 (its closest approach to Earth this year is in June), and Saturn can’t get big enough to look like that, ever. Which is a good thing.

The closest Saturn ever gets to Earth is about 1.2 billion kilometers. That’s something of a hike. Saturn is big — 120,000 km in diameter, not including the rings which are 250,000 km across — but from that distance it’s not even big enough to appear as a disk to the eye. Through binoculars you can see the rings as a tiny ellipse, and through a smallish ‘scope you can more clearly see the planet as a disk and the rings circling it.

To be that big, Saturn would have to get as close to us as our Moon! In fact, that’s where the image comes from. It was easy enough to track down; a reverse image search on Google showed it’s from a Russian video intended to show what the sky would look like if the Moon were replaced with the other planets in our solar system:

It’s a fanciful idea, and as far as I can tell first done by my pal Ron Miller, a space artist, in 2012, and again by videographer yeti dynamics in 2013. In fact, yeti dynamics went ever farther and created a wonderful video showing what it would look like if Saturn were actually passing the Earth in the solar system:

As I wrote at the time, that would be the most amazing sight ever witnessed… and also the last thing you’d see. From that distance, Saturn’s gravity would inflict monstrous tidal forces on the Earth, causing apocalyptic floods, massive earthquakes, and generally dealing out death on a global scale.

As much as I love looking at Saturn, I’m pretty happy it’s over a billion klicks away.

So where is Saturn right now? It’s currently about 1.37 billion km away, where it always is. It rises around 10:30 p.m. local time, and shines at a magnitude of about 0.2, making it one of the brightest objects in the sky. In fact, it’s very much worth going out and taking a look around midnight; very close to it in the sky is the much brighter and much oranger Mars, and the bright red supergiant star Antares, the heart of Scorpius. Face south and look low to the horizon for the trio; your outstretched fist can cover all three.

And if you have a telescope, well then what are you waiting for? Saturn is one of the most magnificent objects in the sky. Patience pays off, too: in early June it will be at opposition, opposite the Sun in the sky, which means it rises at sunset and it up all night. As an added bonus, that’s when it truly is closest to the Earth, and appears as big as it can. But then, that means it’ll be 0.3 arcminutes across: Only 1/100th the width of the Moon in the sky.

But through a telescope, it’s glorious. So forget the dumb Facebook hoaxes, and go see the real Universe for yourself. It’s way, way better. 



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1r5ljSr
via IFTTT

2016年4月29日 星期五

NASA Is Now Censoring Its Videos

In this video #NASA has blurred one specific screen on the @Boeing CST-100 simulator. Why? https://t.co/CucSmx6rud http://pic.twitter.com/SQ1lIZ7N13— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) April 30, 2016 Keith's note: These are the pictures with the blurred display (lower right of astronaut) 1 and...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/23fKxcP
via IFTTT

Fermi's Gamma-ray Moon


If you could only see gamma-rays, photons with up to a billion or more times the energy of visible light, the Moon would be brighter than the Sun! That startling notion underlies this novel image of the Moon, based on data collected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope's Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument during its first seven years of operation (2008-2015). Fermi's gamma-ray vision doesn't distinguish details on the lunar surface, but a gamma-ray glow consistent with the Moon's size and position is clearly found at the center of the false color map. The brightest pixels correspond to the most significant detections of lunar gamma-rays. Why is the gamma-ray Moon so bright? High-energy charged particles streaming through the Solar System known as cosmic rays constantly bombard the lunar surface, unprotected by a magnetic field, generating the gamma-ray glow. Because the cosmic rays come from all sides, the gamma-ray Moon is always full and does not go through phases. The first gamma-ray image of the Moon was captured by the EGRET instrument onboard the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, launched 25 years ago. via NASA http://ift.tt/1NFCW5y

Future High-Resolution Imaging of Mars: Super-Res to the Rescue?

HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen explains an imaging technique known as Super-Resolution Restoration (SRR), and how it could come in handy for high-resolution imaging of the Red Planet.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1SzqDrQ
via IFTTT

NASA’s Juno Mission on Course for July 4 Arrival at Jupiter, Media Accreditation Open

Media accreditation now is open for events around the arrival of NASA’s Juno spacecraft at Jupiter on July 4. The spacecraft, which will reveal the story of the formation and evolution of the planet Jupiter, will enter into orbit around the gas giant that evening, five years after leaving Earth.

April 29, 2016
from NASA http://ift.tt/1WvJK7n
via IFTTT

Sen. Mikulski, NASA Administrator Bolden to View Progress at Wallops Flight Facility

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia will host Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and agency Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday, May 3, for an employee town hall and tour. The tour will include a stop at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad 0A, where preparations are underway to conduct a hot fire test of Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket

April 29, 2016
from NASA http://ift.tt/1VXiPD9
via IFTTT

James Webb Space Telescope's Golden Mirror


Inside the clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the golden James Webb Space Telescope is viewed from overhead with its secondary mirror booms stowed. In the next few months, engineers will install other key elements, and take additional measurements to ensure the telescope is ready for space. via NASA http://ift.tt/1O0fSJy

The Warped Path to Understanding the Universe

The Universe is a bit bent.

You’d think that light would travel in straight lines, going directly from point A to point B. But it’s more complicated than that. Space is curved, warped, distorted by the matter lodged within it. It’s hard for our puny three-dimensionally-adapted brains to wrap themselves around (so to speak), but what we think of as space is actually a framework that can be bent.

Mass does that bending, and we perceive that bending as gravity.

But we can see the effects of this bending, too. Like a car following a curve in the road, light follows the gravitationally induced curving of space. We poetically call this effect “gravitational lensing”, because a lens bends light as well. 

Sometimes the curve in space is profound, like when a black hole makes a warp so severe it’s almost a puncture in the fabric of reality. The path a beam of light takes can be whipped around quite viciously — we call this strong lensing — or even plunge down into the black hole, never to return. Clusters of galaxies can do this as well, warping light from even more distant galaxies into bizarre shapes.

Other times that curve is more gentle, when the mass is more spread out. Individual galaxies and some galaxy clusters are like that. Instead of an obvious distortion in the direction light takes, it’s subtler, only marginally changing the light’s path.

Although harder to detect, this weak lensing can tell us a lot about the mass doing the bending of space. And that’s why astronomers used Hubble to take that lovely image of the galaxy PGC 54493 seen above.

That galaxy dominates the view, our eyes drawn to magnificent spiral arms, the bar-shaped distribution of stars in its center, the blue patches where massive stars are being born by the thousands. But it’s not the most important thing in this image.

Look around it. See all the smaller, fainter galaxies? PGC 54493 is perhaps 500 million light years or so away, but these other galaxies are much farther. The light we see from them was emitted when the Universe was far younger, and has traversed billions of light years of space to reach us.

On that trip, this light passed near PGC 54493, traveling through the region of space subtly distorted by the galaxy’s mass. The shapes of these distant galaxies thus get distorted, too, the amount of change in their shapes determined by the amount of mass in the big spiral galaxy bending space. It’s difficult to determine that for any individual faint galaxy, but if you observe enough of them, you can show statistically how much they’re warped, and therefore where the mass of the intervening galaxy lies and how much there is.

That is critical. We know that normal matter — the kind of matter that makes up you, me, the computer you read this on, and essentially every visible object in the Universe — is in the minority. Dominating the amount of matter in the cosmos is a mysterious form of it that we cannot see, but which has mass, and therefore gravity. Dark matter can’t be observed directly, but its gravity warps space, and that distorts the light from those distant galaxies, and that we can indeed measure.

Astronomers have been mapping dark matter in this way for many years; perhaps most famously in the Pandora Cluster, which showed just how dark matter in clusters of galaxies can affect the light from more distant galaxies. They continue to observe other clusters to make even more maps of the distribution of dark matter in the Universe, and that’s why PGC 54493 was the target of these observations.

Although bright and beautiful, it’s the dark reach of that galaxy that concerns us, invisible matter making invisible bends in space, distorting more distant galaxies in almost, but not quite, invisible ways.

Sometimes the Universe is obvious, ostentatious, perhaps even gaudy. But other times it whispers, hints at us to follow the rules of math and science that shape it, and in so many cases it is following that path — distorted and subtle as it may be — that leads to seeing its underlying structures.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1pOlIrq
via IFTTT

ISS Daily Summary Report – 04/28/16

Fluid Shifts (FS) Baseline Imaging Operations: With guidance from the ground teams, crewmembers continued supporting the second week of FS operations by conducting an Ultrasound 2 scan and eye exams using the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) hardware. Fluids Shift is divided into three one-week segments: Dilution Measures, Baseline Imaging, and Baseline Imaging using the Russian Chibis Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) device. The experiment measures how much fluid shifts from the lower body to the upper body, in or out of cells and blood vessels, and determines the impact these shifts have on fluid pressure in the head, changes in vision and eye structures.   Cell Mechanosensing- 3 (CMS-3) Closeout: Following completion of microscope observations last week, the crew completed closeout activities by removing the Thermal Container from the Microscope in Multi-purpose Small Payload Rack Work Volume (MSPR WV). The investigation identifies gravity sensors in skeletal muscle cells to develop countermeasures to muscle atrophy. Scientists believe that the lack of mechanical stress from gravity causes tension fluctuations in the plasma membrane of skeletal muscle cells which changes the expression of key proteins and genes and allows muscles to atrophy.   Strata Payload Activation: The crew configured and activated Strata-1 in the US LAB. Strata-1 investigates the properties and behavior of regolith on small, airless bodies.  Regolith is the impact-shattered “soil” found on asteroids, comets, the Moon, and other airless worlds, but it is different from soil on Earth in that it contains no living material.  Strata-1’s goal is to provide answers about how regolith behaves and moves in microgravity, how easy or difficult it is to anchor a spacecraft in regolith, how it interacts with spacecraft and spacesuit materials, and other important properties.   Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations/HTV-6 Get-ahead Tasks: Robotics Ground Controllers are currently performing 1A battery operations.  The first bolt’s torque has been successfully released. Engineering and robotics teams are working a forward plan for battery 3A2-2 H1 bolt completion including increasing the maximum commanded torque. Additional attempts are tentatively scheduled tomorrow.   Inadvertent Time Tag Command during 4A3 Battery Reconditioning: During 4A3 battery reconditioning operations this morning, a time-tagged command executed after the time tag queue had been cleared. The executed command was the Battery Charge Discharge Unit (BCDU) Fault Isolator Closed command.  After the error was discovered, a BCDU Fault Isolator Open command was executed to correct. There were no impacts to the vehicle. Data will be evaluated following 4A3 battery reconditioning completion on May 4 to determine if there was any impact to the reconditioning effort.   Human Research Facility (HRF) Resupply: The crew restocked HRF supplies and trashed expired and limited life items.   Today’s Planned Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. CORRECTSIYA. Blood Collection r/g 2091 CORRECTSIYA. Venous blood sample processing using Plasma-03 centrifuge / r/g 2091 CORRECTSIYA. Sample Handover to USOS for MELFI Insertion / r/g 2091 RUEXP – Blood Sample Insertion into MELFI ENERGY Diet Log of Breakfast JEMAL Slide Table extension FLUID SHIFTS. OCT Setup FS-OCT-BL SETUP Baseline OCT Setup DRAGON Transfers Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR) Payload Closeout Ops CORRECTSIYA. Closeout Ops / r/g 2091 FINEMOTR Experiment Ops FLUID SHIFTS. Ultrasound 2 Power On FLUID SHIFTS Donning CardioLab Holter, Subject CORRECTSIYA. Questionnaire Photos / r/g 2091 FLUID SHIFTS Baseline Ultrasound Scan, Subject Formaldehyde Monitoring Kit (FMK) Stow Operations CIR Hardware Setup OTKLIK. Hardware Monitoring / r/g 1588 JEMRMS  Hardware Checkout FLUID SHIFTS Scanning Operator Assistance SPHEROIDS Copying KUBIK 6 Data to EDR Intermodular TORU Test with Mated Progress 431 (DC1) r/g 2096 SPHEROIDS Taking KUBIK 6 Temperature Data SPHEROIDS Copying KUBIK 6 Data to EDR Medical Kit Audit / r/g 2056 Changeout of Replaceable Condensate Removal Lines [СМОК] r/g 2056 Retracting Slide Table in JEMAL and closing Outer Hatch JEMRMS Equipment deactivation FLUID SHIFTS CCFP Baseline Test, Subject METERON Onboard Training Laser Eye Protection Disk Removal from Cupola windows Part 2 Periodic Fitness Evaluation – Nom Ops (subject) FLUID SHIFTS Assisted Test, Subject FLUID SHIFTS Baseline Test, Operator FLUID SHIFTS DPOAE Baseline Test, Subject FLUID SHIFTS Hardware Power Off and Stow FLUID SHIFTS Tonometry Baseline Setup FLUID SHIFTS. Ultrasound 2 Hardware Power Off FLUID SHIFTS Baseline Test, Operator FLUID SHIFTS Tonometer Test, Subject FLUID SHIFTS Doffing CardioLab Holter, Subject FLUID SHIFTS. Tonometry Equipment stow FLUID SHIFTS CCFP Baseline Stowage RSS1 laptop BRI data download / r/g 2052 DRAGON Transfers THERM Closeout Ops ENERGY Diet Log of Lunch SPHEROIDS. Temperature Check. URAGAN. [ВСС] R&R and Test Photography r/g 2095 Changeout of Replaceable Condensate Removal Lines [СМОК] r/g 2056 Pre-packing EDV 1240 shell for return / r/g 2093 WRS – Recycle Tank Fill from EDV Crew Prep For PAO PCO2M Interface Check PAO Snapchat [Deferred] СОЖ Maintenance Water Recovery System (WRS): Payload Water Reservoir (PWR) Fill 1 SmartCycler (SCYC) Battery Check HRF Blood collection setup Vacuum cleaning ventilation grille on FGB interior panels (201, 301, 401) IMS Delta File Prep WRS-PWR-Reservoir Fill (PWR) DRAGON Transfers HRF2 Supply Kit Resupply Dragon Cargo Operations Conference ENERGY Diet Log of Dinner   Completed Task List Items None   Ground Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. 1A battery bolt ops Nominal ground commanding   Three-Day Look Ahead: Friday, 04/29: SmartCycler, METERON, ENERGY, MSPR Microscope closeout, N1 reconfig Saturday, 04/30: Crew off duty; housekeeping Sunday, 05/01: Crew off duty   QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:                               Component Status Elektron On Vozdukh Manual [СКВ] 1 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV1”) On [СКВ] 2 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV2”) Off Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab Standby Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 Operate Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab Idle Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 Operate Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) Process Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Normal Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab Off Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 Full Up  

April 29, 2016 at 01:33AM
from NASA http://ift.tt/1NFwECV
via IFTTT

2016年4月28日 星期四

NASA Hypes Its Imaginary Plan for the #JourneyToMars

NASA's Role in International Affairs, Center for Strategic & International Studies, 26 April 2016 (Video) "42:20: Q: When are we going to get to Mars? What is the time line? Bolden: "2030s. As I said before the was no plan....

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1T95tMX
via IFTTT

A Dust Angel Nebula


The combined light of stars along the Milky Way are reflected by these cosmic dust clouds that soar some 300 light-years or so above the plane of our galaxy. Dubbed the Angel Nebula, the faint apparition is part of an expansive complex of dim and relatively unexplored, diffuse molecular clouds. Commonly found at high galactic latitudes, the dusty galactic cirrus can be traced over large regions toward the North and South Galactic poles. Along with the refection of starlight, studies indicate the dust clouds produce a faint reddish luminescence, as interstellar dust grains convert invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Also capturing nearby Milky Way stars and an array of distant background galaxies, the deep, wide-field 3x5 degree image spans about 10 Full Moons across planet Earth's sky toward the constellation Ursa Major. via NASA http://ift.tt/1QCgbtZ

Changing The Way We Explore Space

NASA cuts funds for Mars landing technology work, SpaceNews "In September Elon Musk is going to reveal his plans for colonizing Mars. "NASA is cutting funding for a Mars landing technology demonstration project by about 85 percent in response to...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1SUo5GJ
via IFTTT

NASA Dedicates Facility to Mathematician, Presidential Medal Winner

NASA will commemorate the many contributions of retired mathematician Katherine Johnson to America’s space program during a building dedication ceremony at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 5 -- the 55th anniversary of Alan Shepard's historic rocket launch and splash down, which Johnson helped make possible. The ceremony will air live on NASA Television and

April 28, 2016
from NASA http://ift.tt/1STH0kU
via IFTTT

What NASA Can Learn from SpaceX

SpaceX's announcement that it will send Dragon capsules to Mars demonstrates the advantage of having a clear plan to explore the red planet. NASA should take note.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/26xDFfp
via IFTTT

ULA Struggles With Old Engines and New Business Realities

House panel doubles authorized purchase of Russian rocket engines, The Hill "The House Armed Services Committee voted Thursday morning to double the allowed purchase of Russian-made rocket engines from nine to 18, despite a desire to develop an American-made alternative....

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1NDgbPE
via IFTTT

Orion Crew Module for Exploration Mission-1 Lifted to Test Stand


The Orion spacecraft crew module for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) is lifted into a test stand for pressure testing in the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The work is an important milestone on Orion’s journey toward EM-1, its mission beyond the moon atop the Space Launch System rocket in 2018. via NASA http://ift.tt/1NX1IZI

The phases of the far side of the Moon

Serbian artist Ivica Stošić used Clementine and Kaguya data to give a glimpse of the phases of the lunar farside.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1SvovBt
via IFTTT

ISS Daily Summary Report – 04/27/16

Energy Operations: The crew completed day six of the ten-day European Space Agency (ESA) Energy experiment run by collecting ISS tap water samples taken from the Potable Water Dispenser (PWD) and body samples. This investigation will help determine the crewmembers’ energy requirements for long-term space flight.  Energy also measures adaptations in the components of total energy expenditure of crewmembers so that an equation to determine the energy requirements of crewmembers during space flight may be derived. Such knowledge of energy requirements is of a great importance to ensure health, good performance and the overall success of a mission, and also contributes to ensure adequate exercise load and cargo allotments for food during space flight.   Fluid Shifts Baseline Imaging Operations: With guidance from the ground teams, crewmembers began the second week of operations for Fluid Shifts by configuring Ultrasound 2 and performing an Ultrasound scan before conducting Cerebral and Cochlear Fluid Pressure (CCFP) measurement tests. Fluids Shifts is divided into three one-week segments: Dilution Measures, Baseline Imaging, and Baseline Imaging using the Russian Chibis Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) device. The experiment measures how much fluid shifts from the lower body to the upper body, in or out of cells and blood vessels, and determines the impact these shifts have on fluid pressure in the head, changes in vision and eye structures.   Genes in Space: The crew completed the final of four planned sessions of the Genes in Space experiment by retrieving the miniPCR sample tubes from the Glacier, configuring the hardware in the Maintenance Work Area (MWA), and processing the samples in the miniPCR.  The investigation is a winning student-designed experiment to test whether the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be used to study deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) alterations aboard the ISS.  Spaceflight causes many changes to the human body, including alterations in DNA and a weakened immune system. Understanding whether these two processes are linked is important for safeguarding crew health, but DNA technology that can track these changes is relatively untested in space.   NanoRack Module 9 Operations: The third of five NanoRacks Module 9 experiment sessions was completed today. The crew activated, deactivated, and shook the mixture tubes to facilitate the experiment. Module-9 is a collection of student research projects utilizing the NanoRacks mix sticks. Student teams from across the United States designed their own experiments using flight approved fluids and materials. The experiments include the Staphylococcus Epidermidis in Microgravity, Evaporation Investigation, Operation Germination of Cottonseeds, and Rust Formation in Microgravity.   Fine Motor Skills: A series of interactive tasks was completed for this investigation which is the first fine motor skills study to measure long-term microgravity exposure, different phases of microgravity adaptation, and sensorimotor recovery after returning to Earth gravity.   Dose Tracker: The crew configured the Dose Tracker app and completed entries for medication tracking. This investigation documents the medication usage of crew members before and during their missions by capturing data regarding medication use during spaceflight, including side effect qualities, frequencies and severities. The data is expected to either support or counter anecdotal evidence of medication ineffectiveness during flight and unusual side effects experienced during flight. It is also expected that specific, near-real-time questioning about symptom relief and side effects will provide the data required to establish whether spaceflight-associated alterations in pharmacokinetics (PK) or pharmacodynamics (PD) is occurring during missions.   Habitability Human Factors Directed Observations: The crew recorded and submitted a walk-through video documenting observations of an area or activity providing insight related to human factors and habitability. The investigation collects observations about the relationship between crew members and their environment on the ISS. Observations can help spacecraft designers understand how much habitable volume is required, and whether a mission’s duration impacts how much space crew members need.   Japanese Small Satellite Orbital Demonstration (JSSOD) Microsat “DIWATA” #1 (M-1) Deploy: Earlier this morning the crew opened the outer hatch and extended the Slide Table (ST) to the JEM Exposed Facility (JEF) in preparation for JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS) Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) grapple and deployment of the JSSOD M-1 satellite. Satellite deployment was completed successfully. The crew then retracted the ST and closed the hatch.  Microsat is a 50-kg-class microsatellite named “DIWATA-1” (meaning “fairy” in Filipino). It is the first microsatellite owned by the Philippine government with Filipino engineers involved in its development. The satellite will observe Earth and monitor climate changes.   Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations/H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)-6 Get-ahead Tasks: The robotics ground controllers continued with Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) operations to retract the secondary bolts (H1), breaking torque on the primary bolts (H2), and re-torqueing the primary bolts to a lower setting on the S4 batteries.  All 3A battery bolts are complete except for battery 3A2-2 H1 bolt. Engineering and robotics teams are working a forward plan for battery 3A2-2 completion including whether the maximum commanded torque can be increased. The arm is now in position to support 1A battery operations scheduled to begin tomorrow.   Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles (C2V2) Radio Frequency (RF) Checkout Day 3: C2V2-A RF checkout test D was completed. C2V2-A sent Global Positioning System (GPS) Auxiliary Data (GAD) to the simulated Visiting Vehicle (Electronic System Test Laboratory) on the forward link. Ground teams verified health and status telemetry from the Visiting Vehicle on the return link.   Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM) LA2B_A Remote Power Controller (RPC) 4 Trip: RPCM LA2B_A RPC 4 tripped today.  This RPC powers the Rack Flow Control Assembly (RFCA) for EXPRESS Rack 2 (ER2). The RFCA was open at the time of the trip, so coolant is still flowing to the rack and there is no immediate impact to ER2 operation or Payloads in the rack. Review of the 50 Hz data dump indicates that this was an overcurrent trip of 3.5 +/ 0.2 amps which met the RPC Trip Limit. The RPC is currently open with closed command inhibited. Ground teams are investigating the cause of the trip.   Dragon Cargo Operations: As […]

April 28, 2016 at 12:44AM
from NASA http://ift.tt/24mkaEt
via IFTTT

Climate Change Is Strangling Our Oceans

As our globe heats up, the effects of those rising temperatures are complex and varied.

Overall, we call these effects “climate change”, but that’s an umbrella phrase that covers a vast number of changes. Melting polar ice, glacial melt, changing weather patterns, more extreme weather, rising sea levels, ocean acidification… these are the topics we hear about quite a bit. But there are other changes going on, and these are every bit as much a cause for concern.

For example, global warming is strangling our oceans.

By that I mean that oxygen levels in the oceans are affected by global warming, too. This occurs in two general ways. One is that warmer water has a harder time holding on to dissolved gases — that’s a basic law of chemistry. So oxygen levels drop as water warms. The other is that as surface waters warm, they expand, and mix less with deeper water. Surface water gets most of its oxygen from phytoplankton that breathe it out. That water sinks, and mixes with deeper water. As the water becomes more stratified due to global warming, less of that oxygenated water gets to lower depths.

The question then becomes, when will we start to see the effects of global warming on the oceans’ oxygen content? Like so many other aspects of climate change, we’re seeing that deoxygenation due to human-generated global warming occurring now. Not sometime in the distant future. Now.

That’s the result of a new study done by a team of scientists led by Matthew Long, an oceanographer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. He and his fellow scientists used a sophisticated computer model that calculates the amount of oxygen dissolved in the oceans over the globe and with ocean depth. The model accounts for a great number of factors, including air temperatures, water temperatures, layers in the water, sea ice, and much more.

Global warming changes the air temperature, which affects the model. In the past, global warming was small, and natural variations in the environment change the oxygen levels far more than human-made warming. But, as the world warms more and more, the effect of warming increases, and at some point becomes noticeable over the natural variations.

Think of it this way: Imagine being in a loud room, with many people talking, and someone nearby whispers at you. You can’t hear them at first over the ambient noise, but if they keep speaking more and more loudly, at some point you can distinguish their voice from the crowd.

The scientists running the model wanted to know when they could hear the voice of warming over the babble of the natural variations. They ran the model many times, varying the air temperature a small amount with each run. This gave them a range of outcomes that they could compare to physical measurements; that gave them a check to make sure they had real-world testable outcomes.

What they found is sobering. Deoxygenation due to human-made global warming is already detectable in the southern Indian Ocean, and in some regions in the eastern tropical Pacific and Atlantic. By 2030 to 2040 — two decades from now —  they expect to see more and more widespread deoxygenation over the globe. By the year 2100 (which is how far into the future they ran the models) a significant fraction of the global oceans will see some deoxygenation due to human activity.

This is, obviously, bad. The amount of deoxygenation may not be very much, just a drop of a few percent. But as we learned with increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and rising temperatures, it doesn’t take much change to destabilize a system.

The worst effects will come from areas already low in oxygen, called hypoxic zones, where the levels can be as much as 70-90 percent lower than average, and in suboxic zones, where it’s even lower. In those regions, a few percent drop can mean the difference between life barely holding on, and death.

Even when the change isn’t so dramatic, it can be devastating. You might think of the ocean as one big fish tank, but it’s actually incredibly diverse, depending on water temperatures, currents, pressure, and more. Changes in oxygen levels in the water reduce marine life habitats, stressing the inhabitants there. Changes in regional oxygen levels have caused migrations of fish, and even massive die-offs. Besides the effect on the life there, this has an impact on human activity including fishing, on which many countries depend.

Mind you, about half the oxygen we breathe comes from ocean phytoplankton. Messing with their habitat is like setting fire to your own house. Which is pretty much what we’re doing.

So you can add this to the list of deleterious effects of global warming to our planet. And don’t forget that the past six months have all had record-breaking high temperatures, with many scientists already expecting 2016 to be the hottest year on record globally, and carbon dioxide levels still rising.

Global warming is our future, but it’s also our present. It’s now. Once again, Americans, I implore you to consider this, what is perhaps the greatest long-term threat facing humanity, when you go to the voting booth in November. And for the rest of the world, know that most of us here in the US are aware of the problem and doing our best to urge our leaders to take action as well. We can minimize the damage of global warming, but first we have to make sure our government is facing reality.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/24mgKSd
via IFTTT

Shuttle tank, meet canal: Engineering wonders cross paths in Panama

Two modern engineering marvels crossed paths this week here in Central America, as the last unflown space shuttle external fuel tank passed through the Panama Canal during a multi-week voyage from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1SS8PtP
via IFTTT

2016年4月27日 星期三

Omega Centauri: The Brightest Globular Star Cluster


This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy. Of the 200 or so globular clusters that survive today, Omega Centauri is the largest, containing over ten million stars. Omega Centauri is also the brightest globular cluster, at apparent visual magnitude 3.9 it is visible to southern observers with the unaided eye. Cataloged as NGC 5139, Omega Centauri is about 18,000 light-years away and 150 light-years in diameter. Unlike many other globular clusters, the stars in Omega Centauri show several different ages and trace chemical abundances, indicating that the globular star cluster has a complex history over its 12 billion year age. via NASA http://ift.tt/1WpI4MP

Putin Wants To Jail Spaceport Employees

Humiliated Putin warns Russia's botched spaceport officials they will be JAILED, Daily Mail "Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned workers at the country's botched spaceport they will be jailed after he flew thousands of miles to watch the inaugural rocket...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/237GX4y
via IFTTT

NASA Awards Academic Mission Services Contract

NASA has selected Universities Space Research Association (USRA) of Columbia, Maryland, to provide academic/university-based program and project support for science and engineering teams at the agency’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

April 27, 2016
from NASA http://ift.tt/1St8gou
via IFTTT

NASA Selects American Small Business, Research Institution Projects for Further Development

NASA has selected 399 research and technology proposals from 259 American small businesses and 42 research institutions that will enable NASA's future missions into deep space, while also benefiting the U.S. economy. The awards have a total value of approximately $49.7 million.

April 27, 2016
from NASA http://ift.tt/1qUYVee
via IFTTT

Full-Circle Vista from 'Naukluft Plateau' on Mars


This mid-afternoon, 360-degree panorama was acquired by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on April 4, 2016, as part of long-term campaign to document the context and details of the geology and landforms along Curiosity's traverse since landing in August 2012. via NASA http://ift.tt/1T4XSz6

SpaceX Will Go To Mars Starting in 2018

SpaceX Will Start Going to Mars in 2018 "SpaceX announced today that it is going to start sending specially modified Dragon spacecraft aka "Red Dragon" to Mars as early as 2018. The purpose of these missions is to demonstrate the...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1VCpQsA
via IFTTT

A Moon for Makemake

Well now, this is very cool: Astronomers have just announced that Makemake has a moon!

Makemake (pronounced MAH-kay-mah-kay; it’s named after a Rapa Nui god who created humanity) is a Kuiper Belt Object (or KBO), a large icy world orbiting the Sun way out past Neptune. It’s what’s called a “classical” KBO, because its orbit is far enough from Neptune’s that it can orbit the Sun stably for billions of years (Pluto actually gets closer to the Sun than Neptune does, but their orbits are timed such that they never get very close together). At 1430 km across, it’s the biggest known classical KBO, and the third biggest such body known past Neptune. Only Pluto and Eris are bigger.

We know quite a bit about Makemake from previous observations. It takes about 7.77 hours to rotate once, and must have a very reflective surface. Spectra show it has a lot of frozen methane on it, too, more than any other object out past Neptune. Its orbit is elliptical, taking it as close to the Sun as 5.8 billion km and as far as 7.9 billion km out. Right now it’s almost at aphelion, the point in its orbit when it’s farthest from the Sun.

It’s been observed many times, but until now no moon had been found. The discovery was made using Hubble Space Telescope, which observed Makemake exactly one year ago, on Apr. 27, 2015. The moon — which for now has the cumbersome designation S/2015 (136472) 1 — was seen very close to the KBO, almost lost in its glare.

That may be why it hasn’t been seen before. For one thing, it’s much fainter than Makemake, making it hard to detect. The astronomers who discovered it also propose that we may be seeing its orbit edge-on, which means it spends much of its time too close to Makemake to easily detect from Earth.

The observations were split into two “visits”; one on Apr. 27 and the next on the 29th. The moon was seen in the first visit but not the second, meaning it was too close to Makemake to see in the second set. Each visit consisted of six long exposures, and the moon was seen in all six images on the first visit.

The problem is, the time between the first and last images in the first visit was only a couple of hours, which was not enough to show any motion of the moon. That means the orbit isn’t well known. The best the astronomers could do was say that the orbital distance is at least 21,000 km, but may be as much as 300,000! For comparison, the Moon orbits the Earth at a distance of about 380,000 km. The moon orbits Makemake with a period somewhere between 12 and 660 days.

Those are pretty wide ranges. And that’s too bad, because the orbit of a moon is really critical: It tells you the mass of the object it orbits. Gravity depends on mass of the primary object and the distance to the moon, so if the orbital period of S/2015 (136472) 1 had been measured, the mass of Makemake could have been found.

What makes this even more frustrating is that we know how big Makemake is, because in 2011 it passed directly in front of a star as seen from Earth; the length of time it blocked the star combined with its known orbital speed yielded the diameter of 1430 km. With that number, plus the mass, its density could be determined, and that gives a huge clue about what it’s made of. Rock is denser than ice, for example, so just knowing Makemake’s density would constrain its composition.

However, the good news is that now that we know the moon exists, more observations can be made. It may take Hubble to see it once again — Hubble’s really good at spotting faint things near bright things — but it can be done. And if carefully planned (which it will be) the moon’s orbital period and shape can be found.

There are some interesting implications of this, too. Earlier infrared observations of Makemake indicated the surface had at least two different materials on it, which had different thermal properties (darker material, for example, gets warmer than more reflective stuff). If that were the case, though, the brightness of Makemake should change enough to measure as it spins, but no such change was seen.

The moon may solve this problem! If it’s darker than Makemake then that would throw off the infrared observations. Those telescopes couldn’t separate the moon and the KBO, so they merged together, confusing the interpretation.

I find that very interesting indeed. As you may remember from last year, Charon, Pluto’s moon, is much darker than Pluto as well. If this new moon is indeed dark, that might indicate a similar origin story. Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope, due to launch in 2018, may help figure this all out; it has the keen vision in the infrared to separate the two objects and determine how reflective the moon is.

Just the fact that the moon exists is interesting, too. Pluto has a moon, as does Eris and Haumea (another large trans-Neptunian object a bit smaller than Makemake). Are they ubiquitous? Two other such objects, Sedna and 2010 OR10, have no known moons. Perhaps we just haven’t seen them because they’re too close to their primaries. Clearly, more and deeper observations are needed.

And let’s not lose sight of the more general nature of this: We’re still learning basic information about our solar system! Finding a moon like this gives precious insight into what the outskirts of our celestial neighborhood are like, a region that is terribly far away and dark, and very difficult to explore. Each discovery about it is a clue to how it came to be, how it changed over time, and why it looks the way it does now.

All of this tells us more about our existence, and informs us about our own world. A cold and distant moon orbiting a smallish iceball may not seem like much, but it’s another piece of the puzzle, one worth investigating and understanding.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1rzltlU
via IFTTT

2016年4月26日 星期二

NGC 6872: A Stretched Spiral Galaxy


What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known. The galaxy's protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872's spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo). via NASA http://ift.tt/1reZNLn

Some - But Not All - Politics Is Good For NASA

Transition Fever, Lori Garver, Op Ed, SpaceNews "The bottom line is that we in the space community can't have it both ways. We can't take the public's money, but then not allow the leaders they elect to have any say...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1SO7PXS
via IFTTT

ISS Daily Summary Report – 04/26/16

Rodent Research 3 (RR-3) Operations: The RR-3 access units were inspected with no issues and restocked with food bars. RR-3 studies molecular and physical changes in the musculoskeletal system that happen in space. Results expand scientists’ understanding of muscle atrophy and bone loss in space, while testing an antibody that has been known to prevent muscle wasting in mice on Earth.   Fluid Shifts Baseline Imaging Preparation: In preparation for this week’s Fluid Shifts exercises, the crew configured hardware and the Cerebral and Cochlear Fluid Pressure (CCFP) analyzer device which will be used to conduct measurement tests. Fluids Shift is divided into three one-week segments: Dilution Measures, Baseline Imaging, and Baseline Imaging using the Russian Chibis Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) device. The experiment measures how much fluid shifts from the lower body to the upper body, in or out of cells and blood vessels, and determines the impact these shifts have on fluid pressure in the head, changes in vision and eye structures.   Habitability Human Factors Directed Observations: The crew recorded and submitted a walk-through video documenting observations of an area or activity providing insight related to human factors and habitability. The Habitability investigation collects observations about the relationship between crew members and their environment on the International Space Station. Observations can help spacecraft designers understand how much habitable volume is required, and whether a mission’s duration impacts how much space crew members need.   Wet Lab Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) SmartCycler Session: The crew completed the third of four Wet Lab RNA SmartCycler sessions by processing a quality control sample to verify that the SmartCycler operates as expected in microgravity. The Wet Lab RNA SmartCycler is a research platform for conducting real-time quantitative gene expression analysis aboard the ISS. The system enables spaceflight genomic studies involving a wide variety of biospecimen types in the unique microgravity environment of space.   Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles (C2V2) Radio Frequency (RF) Checkout: The C2V2 Comm Units are two fully redundant radios (C2V2 A and C2V2 B) that are planned for use with future visiting vehicles. The units were installed on March 11 in MSS-2 rack in the LAB. Initial activation was performed on April 1. The following tests have been completed. Monday: A Radio Frequency (RF) pass lasting approximately 8 minutes was completed successfully with appropriate “fill frames” transmitted to the ground. This test provided confirmation that the C2V2 A’s forward and aft antennas are functioning as planned. Tuesday: Two tests were performed. In the first test, C2V2-A successfully sent a command and GPS Auxiliary Data (GAD) to Electronic System Test Laboratory (ESTL) on the forward link. In the second test, C2V2-A successfully sent GAD, Broadcast Auxiliary Data (BAD) and Audio to ESTL on the forward link and successful performed a comm check on S/G 4 between CAPCOM and ESTL. Checkout tests are planned daily until May 6.   Recycle Fill Tank Assembly (RFTA): On Sunday the RFTA stopped short of empty when draining to a Russian [EDV]. The ball bearing level indication stopped short of full by ½” to ¾”.  The crew proceeded with troubleshooting and completed the RFTA drain to a Temporary Urine and Brine Storage System (TUBSS).  The likely cause was the EDV initially used had some residue brine that caused the RFTA to not drain completely. Ground teams will continue to track the performance of the tanks.   Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations/HTV-6 Get-ahead Tasks: Yesterday, Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) operations began fully retracting the secondary bolts (H1), breaking torque on the primary bolts (H2), and re-torquing the primary bolts to a lower setting on the S4 batteries. Ground teams operations were successful for 6 bolts, unsuccessful for 2 bolts, and have 4 bolts that remain to be attempted. Later today, re-attempts on bolts 3A2-1 H1, 3A2-2 H1 and initial attempts on the 4 remaining H2 bolts will resume. Order of operation and status is as follows: 3A Battery 3A2-1, Bolt H1 – Not successful 3A Battery 3A2-2, Bolt H1 – Not successful 3A Battery 3A2-1, Bolt H2 – Forward work (Can’t be attempted until H1 released) 3A Battery 3A2-2, Bolt H2 – Forward work (Can’t be attempted until H1 released) 3A Battery 3A1-1, Bolt H1 – Successful 3A Battery 3A1-2, Bolt H1 – Successful 3A Battery 3A1-2, Bolt H2 – Successful 3A Battery 3A1-1, Bolt H2 – Successful 3A Battery 3A3-1, Bolt H1 – Successful 3A Battery 3A3-2, Bolt H1 – Successful 3A Battery 3A3-1, Bolt H2 – Forward work (Ran out of time on 4/25/16) 3A Battery 3A3-2, Bolt H2 – Forward work (Ran out of time on 4/25/16)   London Marathon: On Sunday, Peake ran the 26.2-mile London Marathon on the Treadmill 2 (T2) in an estimated time of 3:35:21. He was the official starter of the race and watched BBC coverage of the event while running. He is the second astronaut to run a marathon on the ISS. In 2007, Sunita Williams ran the Boston Marathon on T2.   Today’s Planned Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. ENERGY Diet Log of Breakfast On MCC Go Micropurification Unit (БМП) Ф2 Absorption Cartridge Regeneration (Start) CORRECTSIA. Logging Liquid and Food (Medicine) Intake / r/g 2047 Transfer from EDV to TUBSS Greetings Video Recording / r/g 2075 EDV swap WRS – Water Sample Analysis Soyuz 720 Samsung Tablet Recharge – Start VIZIR. Hardware Installation, Software Update and Hardware Calibration r/g 2079 + New SW version SCYC. Sample retrieval from MERLIN-3 for Session 2 Soyuz 719 Samsung Tablet Recharge – Start MDE. Sample Retrieval and Temporary Stowage Tear down EDV to TUBBS transfer setup SEISMOPROGNOZ. Data Transfer from МКСД HDD (Start) r/g 1595 КОХ1 Technical Specifications Check.  р/г 2057 In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Full Fill Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR) Rack Doors Open Photo TV Camera Set Up LMM- Plate Change out Photo/TV RR- Camcorder Video Setup In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Full Fill Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR) Rack Doors Close СОЖ Maintenance HABIT […]

April 27, 2016 at 01:07AM
from NASA http://ift.tt/1pDkfny
via IFTTT

The Senate Just Proposed to Slash Planetary Science Funding

The Senate has released its draft of NASA's 2017 budget which, despite increasing NASA's top-line by $300 million, would cut $270 million from the Planetary Science Division. Here's why we shouldn't worry—yet.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1VQJ0LQ
via IFTTT

Charlie Bolden Is Very Confused These Days

Keith's note: I am not sure what to make of this comment by Charlie Bolden. Either he is very confused or someone is giving him really stupid talking points. Let's see, where do I start: how "old" is SLS...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1NPS5Mm
via IFTTT

Light Echoes Used to Study Protoplanetary Disks


This illustration shows a star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. A new study uses data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and four ground-based telescopes to determine the distance from a star to the inner rim of its surrounding protoplanetary disk. Researchers used a method called "photo-reverberation," also known as "light echoes. via NASA http://ift.tt/26rHbbb

Field Report From Mars: Sol 4333 - April 1, 2016

Opportunity has climbed west and up Marathon Valley in one of the final campaigns before moving on and beginning the summer field activities to the south southward.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1NOTsuP
via IFTTT

An Emerald Green Comet and a Billion Stars

I’ve said many times that there are no green stars, but that doesn’t mean there are no green objects in space.

My pal Babak Tafreshi makes this point beautifully in his phenomenal photograph of the night sky over the Paranal Observatory in Chile:

Oh my. Isn’t that gorgeous? In the foreground is one of the four smaller auxiliary telescopes that make up the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, a sophisticated piece of equipment that can take observations with far higher resolution even than Hubble. And by smaller, it’s a 1.8-meter wide mirror; that’s only small when compared to the 8.2 meter behemoths that make up the Very Large Telescope!

But that sky. To the right of the telescope blazes the billions of stars of Milky Way, our home galaxy, partially obscured by dark dust lanes and punctuated by the pink glow of hydrogen in the Lagoon Nebula.

But that green fuzzy glow above the telescope somehow manages to steal the show, perhaps because its color makes it stand out in stark contrast to the other objects in the sky. That emerald blob is the comet 252P/LINEAR, which passed the Earth in mid-March at a close distance of more than 5 million kilometers.

Many comets glow green; it’s due to the presence of a molecule made of two carbon atoms (C2), so that’s not a big surprise. But that’s about the only nonweird thing about 252P.

It turns out it was full of surprises. For one thing, it was followed closely by another comet, P/2016 BA 14, which had a very similar orbit, sparking hypotheses that they were once the same object that split. Both passed very close to Earth (the fourth and seventh closest passes of comets in recorded history).

This gave astronomers a chance to observe BA 14 with radar and lead to another surprise: BA 14 was way bigger than first thought. From its brightness it was at first estimated to be less than 200 meters across, and probably much less. But the radar observations showed it was more like a kilometer across! It turns out the solid nucleus of BA 14 is incredibly dark, reflecting less than 3 percent of the light that hits it. That makes it fainter than expected, which is why astronomers thought it was small.

Around the same time, 252P had a huge outburst, suddenly becoming 100 times brighter in a short period of time. It went from obscurity to becoming naked-eye visible, though unfortunately for us in the Northern Hemisphere it was too far south to see. But that was good news for Babak, who was able to capture it in the photo above while he was visiting the European Southern Observatory facilities.

It’s rare, but sometimes comets flare in brightness. This can happen if they clave (split off a piece), which can release a lot of ice that turns into gas; that reflects sunlight and makes the comet brighten. In 2007 Comet Holmes underwent a tremendous outburst that made it easily visible to the naked eye even though it was out past Mars; it’s brightness increased by a factor of a million! I was fortunate to be in a place where I could see it, and it showed a disk easily to the naked eye; the cloud was more than 1 million kilometers across. I’ve never seen anything like that before, nor since.

Which goes to show you, it always pays to keep your eyes on comets. Sometimes they fizzle, but when they perform, they can really perform, and all the time spent watching them can suddenly pay off.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/24huNIU
via IFTTT

Vector Launch Systems Enters Microsat Launch Business

SpaceX Founding Team Launches Vector Space Systems to Redefine Space Commerce, SpaceRef Business "I am truly honored and thrilled to be leading a team of industry veterans on such an important and pivotal space startup. We see innovation and value...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1WnMQdx
via IFTTT

2016年4月25日 星期一

America's Hypocritical Fear of Indian Rockets

Of India and ICBMs: two current concerns for American small-satellite launch, Space Review "A primary argument of the launch companies is that lifting the ban on the PSLV will enable vehicles subsidized by foreign governments to compete against American industry....

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1SL16xT
via IFTTT

NASA Created OpenStack, Dumped It, And Now Re-Embraces It

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab moves to OpenStack cloud platform, Fedscoop "The NASA lab responsible for building the Mars rovers and robotic probes to scout the solar system has begun using an open-source cloud platform to house its mission-critical data. NASA's...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/21dMtTO
via IFTTT

Simeis 147: Supernova Remnant


It's easy to get lost following the intricate strands of the Spaghetti Nebula. A supernova remnant cataloged as Simeis 147 and Sh2-240, the glowing gas filaments cover nearly 3 degrees -- 6 full moons -- on the sky. That's about 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. This sharp composite includes image data taken through a narrow-band filter to highlight emission from hydrogen atoms tracing the shocked, glowing gas. The supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth about 40,000 years ago. But the expanding remnant is not the only aftermath. The cosmic catastrophe also left behind a spinning neutron star or pulsar, all that remains of the original star's core. via NASA http://ift.tt/1rcmIXv

The RD-180 Food Fight Just Got Crazier

Draft House bill would scramble Air Force's rocket engine plan, SpaceNews "The proposed restrictions essentially would forbid the Air Force from funding several recently announced co-investment deals with Orbital ATK, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance beyond this year. The Air...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1Sw83gM
via IFTTT

Quick Curiosity update, sol 1320: "Lubango," the 10th drill site on Mars

Curiosity has drilled into Mars for the 10th time at a site named Lubango, on sol 1320 (April 23, 2016). Lubango is in a bright-toned halo around a crack in the Stimson sandstone unit on the western edge of the Naukluft Plateau.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1NtGDeB
via IFTTT

Five Days in Paradise: Come to Science Luau 2016

Aloha! I’m pleased to announce registration is open for Science Luau 2016, a five-day vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii, with a special bonus: SCIENCE.

My wife and I run a company called Science Getaways, where we take people on vacations that are already really nice and add science to them. For this trip, we’re spending Sep. 19–23 on the Big Island, in the lovely and luxurious Mauna Lani hotel on the Kohala coast.

We have several special extras planned. We’ll take a trip to the Kilauea volcano with an expert tour guide, ending in a stop at dusk at the summit crater, Halema'uma'u (ha-LAY-mah-oo-mah-oo), to see the lava pool glowing and illuminating the sulfur plume huffing and puffing out of it. We’ve chartered a boat to go to some coral reefs for snorkeling, and then we’ll go night diving with manta rays. We’ll also be taking a hike through a dry forest with another expert guide to look at the amazing native Hawaiian trees and wildlife. 

I know a thing or two about astronomy, so I’ll be bringing my solar telescope to show you what our active Sun is doing that week. On top of all that, there will be talks by experts about what we’ll be experiencing; I’ll be giving an astronomy talk as well.

We’ve been doing these Getaways for a few years now, and they have always been a lot of fun, with honestly wonderful people (many have made lifelong friends on these trips). We went to the Big Island last year and it was so popular we decided to do it again. 

I hope you’ll join us. All the information you need is on the Science Getaways page. Mahalo, and see you in paradise in September!



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1pyiFDI
via IFTTT

NASA Puts Dallas Students on Phone with Orbiting Astronauts

Students in Dallas will have the opportunity to speak with two astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station at 11:15 a.m. EDT Tuesday, April 26. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

April 25, 2016
from NASA http://ift.tt/1VOrVSK
via IFTTT

Ice Scours the North Caspian Sea


The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite acquired this large natural-color image showing a wide view of the Caspian Sea around the Tyuleniy Archipelago on April 16, 2016. Ocean scientist Norman Kuring of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center found a puzzling feature in the image -- lines crisscrossing the North Caspian Sea. via NASA http://ift.tt/1SnBS6G

A Martian Crater Torn in Half

Sometimes geologists have it easy.

In astronomy, you can have two stars right next to each other, maybe even born in the same cluster, but you can’t be sure they’re the same age, or which one is older than the other. Differences can be really subtle, and have to be teased out of the data.

Geologists, on the other hand, get stuff like this:

WOW. That is a scene on Mars, taken by the wonderful HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Its shows a small portion of Ganges Chasma, a huge, sprawling channel cut into the surface of Mars, probably due to catastrophic flooding a billion or more years ago. The violent rush of water cut through the landscape like God’s trowel, carving out the chasm.

Over time, erosion, weakness in the walls, or subsequent floods would have caused the walls to collapse inward further. Eventually, though, all that stopped, leaving behind the tableau we see now.

In the shot above, a crater about 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) across had the misfortune to be too near the flood. The surface just south of it collapsed, slicing the crater nearly in half.

But this is good fortune to Terran geologists! The crater was obviously there first, sitting in the surface from some ancient impact, minding its own business when the world collapsed next to it. The edge of the crater over the canyon is clean and sharp, and the crater itself quite nicely formed. If the crater had occurred after the flood, the shape would be distorted by the edge of the canyon.

The crater itself is interesting. It’s terraced, with circular ledges inside the main rim. Quite a few of these are seen on Mars. This can happen when there’s a layer of material under the surface with a different strength, like ice under rock. The shock wave from the impact carves out the main crater, then slams into the layer underneath and creates a smaller crater inside the first one. There are also smaller craters dotting the interior, and you can even see rippling sand dunes in the upper left of the floor.

Speaking of layers under the surface, using Google Mars to get some context, you can really see more of what happened after the channel formed:

The crater is arrowed. Note the weird raised features in the canyon floor; those are likely muddy or possibly dry material flows that happened when sections of the canyon wall collapsed. These landslides can create scalloplike indentations in the wall; many of them look like impact craters. But the featured crater here is clearly from an older impact.

One more thing: HiRISE takes multiple images as it sails over features, which means 3-D anaglyphs can be made. Got red-green or red-blue glasses? Check this out!

Yegads. That really drives home the size and scale of this catastrophe.

Not that this in any way makes me less jealous of geologists, who sometimes have the timeline of events spelled out right in front of them. It’s a little ironic. Studying Mars used to be astronomy, and in some ways it still is. But now we go there, now we explore it, now we send robots to the surface to drill into it and zap it with lasers and sift through the dust to determine what it’s made of and what its history is.

Mars used to be astronomy, but now it’s a world, a place. Handing over the keys to the planet to geologists is hard, but oh, it’s so rewarding.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1VxrD25
via IFTTT

2016年4月24日 星期日

M16: Pillars of Star Creation


Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula. This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars. At each pillars' end, the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away. The pillars of creation were imaged again in 2007 by the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light, leading to the conjecture that the pillars may already have been destroyed by a local supernova, but light from that event has yet to reach the Earth. via NASA http://ift.tt/1WPb4Ow

A Twice-Lit Moon Kisses the Horizon

Sometime you see a photograph that’s just so wonderful you can’t wait to show it to other people.

That shot above is one of those photos.

It was taken by Petr Horálek, a European Southern Observatory Ambassador — the Ambassadors are a group of excellent photographers who shoot pictures of the ESO observatories for public outreach.

The photo was taken on April 6, 2016, just minutes before sunrise. Smack dab in the center is Venus, cruel twin of the Earth, covered in clouds so reflective they make the planet the third brightest natural object in our skies.

Below it is the crescent Moon, less than a day before its new phase. The crescent is so thin it’s almost an afterthought. Amazingly, the rest of the Moon’s surface was unlit by the Sun. So why can we see it? Earthshine! Light from the Sun hits the Earth, reflects off of it, illuminating the Moon, which then reflects it back into space, and to Earth. Our planet is very bright in the lunar skies, 50 times brighter than a full Moon. That’s enough to softly bathe the surface of our satellite in light.

Note too the Moon looks a little squished. That’s an effect of our atmosphere, which curves along with the Earth’s surface. Near the horizon, the light from the bottom of the Moon goes through a thicker layer of air than the top part of the Moon. The air acts like a lens, bending that light, making the Moon look flat.

Horálek timed this photo perfectly, getting the shot just as the Moon cleared the distant mountains. Had he waited much longer the Sun would have lit things up too much anyway. This was a time exposure, too: You can see the faint stars of Pisces surrounding the Moon and Venus.

And let’s not ignore the foreground! The silhouetted dome houses the 1.2 meter VLT Auxiliary Telescope, part of the Very Large Telescope array. See the two people crouched nearby? That’s my friend Babak Tafreshi on the left and Yuri Beletsky on the right, wrapping things up after a long night of photography in the incredibly rich and dark skies of this remote location in the high desert of Chile. I’ve featured both their works on this blog many times; click their names to fill your eyes and brain with delight.

I dream of capturing a photograph like this some day. But I just dabble in this; Horálek, Babak, and Beletsky are professionals. I might feel a pang of jealousy seeing shots like this, but it evaporates rapidly as I take in the sheer beauty. I’m glad there are so many people out their willing to collect the few photons the Universe graces us with, and share them with the world.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1XPGLp8
via IFTTT

2016年4月23日 星期六

Milky Way in Moonlight


A waning crescent moon, early morning twilight, and Al Hamra's city lights on the horizon can't hide the central Milky Way in this skyscape from planet Earth. Captured in a single exposure, the dreamlike scene looks southward across the region's grand canyon from Jabal Shams (Sun Mountain), near the highest peak in Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula. Mist, moonlight, and shadows still play along the steep canyon walls. Dark rifts along the luminous band of the Milky Way are the galaxy's cosmic dust clouds. Typically hundreds of light-years distant, they obscure starlight along the galactic plane, viewed edge-on from the Solar System's perspective. via NASA http://ift.tt/1SDb1W1

First astronaut to run a marathon in space

Despite what several major-media organisations may have reported in recent months, the first astronaut to run a marathon in space was Sunita Williams. She ran the Boston Marathon in 2007 onboard the International Space Station.

The Telegraph (UK), ITV News (UK) and the Courier Mail (Australia) all seem to think that Tim Peake will be the "first person" to do this during tomorrow's London Marathon.


Given their publication dates of these stories, I imagine that they read the Principia Mission blog, saw "Tim Peake will become the first man to run a marathon in space", and didn't appreciate that "man" was a very necessary qualifier to the statement. Converting "first man" to "first person" may be due to an unconscious assumption that men set records first. It also suggests that these stories were written by people who didn't have any relevant background knowledge or time for basic fact checking.

US news outlets (including the Washington Post and Fox News) have remembered that Sunita Williams already did a marathon. Hopefully that isn't just because she is American.

Good luck to Tim for the London marathon tomorrow morning. He could break Sunita Williams' current record for completing a marathon in space.
- taken from Astronomy Blog (http://ift.tt/1g8FhhM)

from Astronomy Blog http://ift.tt/1VPPcD6
via IFTTT

Valley of the Cosmos

Photographer Michael Shainblum is a wonder. His photographs are just stunning, one after another. I’ve been following his work for years, and every time he posts something it’s awe-inspiring.

Oh, you want an example? Then how about this for your eyeballs?

He titled that one “Valley of the Cosmos”, which is pretty much on the button. The “valley” in this case is Yosemite Valley — see Half Dome in the center? — and the “cosmos” bit is obvious enough.

… or is it? In this view, a panorama, the Milky Way spans the frame. Our galaxy is a thick disk, and we’re inside it, so we see it as a broad splash across the sky. The central region bulges outward, and that can be seen off to the right. The colors are interesting; probably not what your eye would see, but that happens when the contrast is stretched in a photo when you’re trying to bring out faint details. Still, very pretty.

The orange glow is from humans; the horizon commonly shows light pollution from towns sometimes hundreds of kilometers away (Fresno is only about 100 km south of Half Dome).

But what the heck is that green glow? You might guess it’s the aurora — a few people on Facebook did think that, in fact, when he posted the picture — but it’s not; Shainblum was facing south when he took this shot, not north.

That emerald radiance is actually airglow. During the day, sunlight hits atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, 100 km above the Earth’s surface. The energy can be stored, then released slowly at night in a process called chemoluminescence. Green is a strongly favored color due to oxygen atoms (similar to why many aurorae are green).

And the ripples? Even at that height, the air is subject to wind and flows. Those ripples are called “gravity waves” (not to be confused with gravitational waves), which I’ve written about before:

The rippling is due to gravity waves. This is simply an up-and-down oscillation of something under the influence of gravity. For example, waves on the surface of the water in your bathtub are gravity waves; the water gets pushed up a little bit (maybe when you plop your rubber ducky into the water), and then gravity pulls that crest of water back down. But the water itself pushes back, and you get oscillatory motion.
This can happen in air, too (air is a fluid, after all). Currents of air in the upper atmosphere bob up and down pretty often, similar to the water in your tub. This motion can disturb the process that creates airglow, so you get those rippling waves moving across the sky.

I love how perspective makes those parallel ripples in Shainblum’s photo appear to converge on the horizon, right behind Half Dome! You couldn’t hope for a better bit of placement.

More of Shainblum’s photography can be found on his website, on 500px, on Facebook, and on Instagram. Treat yourself, and go take a look. Everyone could use a little more beauty in their world.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/22WgS8q
via IFTTT

2016年4月22日 星期五

NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula


Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 7 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and left of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and around 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex lie a mere 7,100 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp, tantalizing view of the cosmic bubble is a composite of Hubble Space Telescope image data from 2016, released to celebrate the 26th anniversary of Hubble's launch. via NASA http://ift.tt/1WK50qB

What Will The NASA Budget Look Like? Just Follow The Money

New NASA budget eats the seed corn of its Journey to Mars, Ars Technica "In other words, Mikulski gets a nice Earth-observing project for her backyard, wholly unrelated to human spaceflight, and agrees to whatever budget increases for SLS that...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1NFUdX5
via IFTTT

How The #JourneyToMars Becomes The #JourneyToNowhere

New NASA budget eats the seed corn of its Journey to Mars, Ars Technica "This week, the US Senate's Appropriations subcommittee overseeing spaceflight put forward its blueprint for NASA's FY2017 budget. The top-line number looks promising at $19.306 billion -...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1MNGOkT
via IFTTT

NASA Space Apps Challenge: Women hacking space image data

Today I'm participating in a program called the International @SpaceApps Women in Data Bootcamp. I'm presenting a brief talk highlighting the way that my personal discovery of NASA's image data archives shaped my path into public communication about science, and briefly showcasing three other women who do amazing work with public image data.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1VqueLh
via IFTTT

Sometimes NASA Goes Too Far With The Whole Green Thing

FYI @NASA_SLS You burn tons of polybutadiene acrylonitrile & Ammonium perchlorate composite Not very enviro-friendly http://ift.tt/1WKWQhH NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) April 22, 2016 Happy #EarthDay! @NASA works hard for our home planet and beyond, including enviro-friendly improvements to #SLS. http://pic.twitter.com/ajUFMW7P4t—...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/248xPz4
via IFTTT

Morning Sunglint Over the Pacific


This Earth observation composite image from the International Space Station captures morning sunglint and low clouds over the central Pacific Ocean. The image was put together at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, from a series of photographs taken by Expedition 47 Commander Jeff Williams on March 25, 2016. via NASA http://ift.tt/1SgYGou

Noon on a Comet

A couple of weeks ago I posted a dramatic shot of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko backlit by the Sun, taken by the Rosetta spacecraft from a distance of a few hundred kilometers. I mentioned how the spacecraft was on a long looping path that would soon take it back to the comet, passing directly between it and the Sun at a distance of about 30 km, which should make for some very pretty pictures.

Well, here you go: As promised, the image above shows that exact event! Rosetta was 29.9 kilometers above the surface of 67P when it took that shot on April 12, 2016, using the OSIRIS wide-angle camera. As you can see, shadows are nearly non-existent, and only appear where there’s a sudden change in the topography of the comet (cliffs, shelves, and the like) near the edge of the comet.

And that glowing spot left of center is real, too! There are lots of fancy names for it, including the zero phase effect and heiligenschein, but I think my favorite is “opposition surge”. Poetic and scientific, all at the same time.

There are two reasons for it. One is that from the spacecraft’s view, the Sun is directly behind it, so the Sun’s light is shining straight down on the comet. At that spot directly below the spacecraft you don’t see shadows, so the surface looks brighter. Not only that, but some types of terrain bounce sunlight straight back in the direction it came. If you’re on that line, you see that spot on the ground being brighter than the area around it.

The Sun is in the opposite side of the sky as that spot, hence the term “opposition”, and the surge is pretty obvious. Heiligenschein means “halo” in German, and if you’ve ever seen a faint glow around the shadow of your head as walk past a patch of dewy grass, you’ll understand that term, too.

As for zero phase, the technical term for the angle between the source of light, the observer, and the spot illuminated is the “phase angle”. When they’re all on a line that’s defined as zero. The term should actually be familiar to you in another guise: The angle between the Sun, you, and the Moon defines the Moon’s phase! Surprise! You know more technical stuff than you probably thought.

By the way, the Rosetta shot is looking up at the flattish “underside” of the comet, the broad region across the wider of the two lobes making up 67P’s rubber ducky shape. You can see part of the smaller lobe, the “head” on the left. The shape looks funny when shadows go away; it’s hard to tell what’s what. Shadows actually help us understand the terrain, and can be used to make 3D maps of the surface. But this zero phase angle helps too; the surge can be used to understand better the surface on much smaller scales; different sized grains of ice or other materials change the brightness of the surge.

Fantastic! Science and geometry come together to form beauty. As they often do.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1SVnmPf
via IFTTT

ISS Daily Summary Report 04/21/16

Genes in Space: The crew completed the second of four planned sessions of the Genes in Space experiment by retrieving the miniPCR sample tubes from the Glacier and processing the samples in the miniPCR.  Data will be transferred to a Space Station Computer (SSC) for downlink to the ground. The Genes in Space investigation is a winning student-designed experiment to test whether the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be used to study deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) alterations aboard the ISS.  Spaceflight causes many changes to the human body, including alterations in DNA and a weakened immune system. Understanding whether these two processes are linked is important for safeguarding crew health, but DNA technology that can track these changes is relatively untested in space. Energy: The crew set up the Pulmonary Function System (PFS) hardware and the Armband Activity Monitor to support the European Space Agency (ESA) Energy experiment. The PFS will be used to conduct 4 metabolic measurement sessions and the Armband Activity Monitor will be used during the 10-day experiment run to monitor activities and assess energy expenditures. The investigation assesses energy requirements of astronauts on long-duration missions. This is important for future planning of longer-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.  JAXA Small Satellite Orbital Deployer MICROSAT (JSSOD-M1) Installation: In preparation for upcoming JSSOD-M1 deployment currently planned for April 27, the crew installed the JSSOD-M1 onto Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) and the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Airlock (AL) slide table.  The slide table was then retracted and the inner hatch closed, making the airlock ready for deployment activities.  J-SSOD provides a safe, small satellite launching capability to the ISS as well as containment and deployment mechanisms for several individual small satellites. MAGVECTOR: Crewmembers configured the portable power supply and connected the universal serial bus (USB) jump drive to the MAGVECTOR in preparation for automatic data transfer that began immediately after activation. MAGVECTOR investigates how Earth’s magnetic field interacts with an electrical conductor. Using extremely sensitive magnetic sensors placed around and above a conductor, researchers can gain insight into ways that the magnetic field influences how conductors work. This research not only helps improve future ISS experiments and electrical experiments, but it could offer insights into how magnetic fields influence electrical conductors in general, the backbone of our technology.  Sprint Portable Pulmonary Function System (PFS) Setup: In preparation for tomorrow’s Sprint VO2 operations, the crew set up the Portable PFS power, data, front panel, and gas connections and configured the Portable PFS Mixing Bag System (MBS).  Sprint VO2 is a test that measures oxygen uptake, ventilatory threshold, and other physiological parameters for evaluation of Sprint exercise prescription. It evaluates the use of high intensity, low volume exercise training to minimize loss of muscle, bone, and cardiovascular function in ISS crew members during long-duration missions.  Fluid Shifts: Fluid Shifts operations continue today with the crew conducting body sample collections and stowing the samples in the Minus Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI).  Fluid Shifts measures how much fluid shifts from the lower body to the upper body, in or out of cells and blood vessels, and determines the impact these shifts have on fluid pressure in the head, changes in vision and eye structures.  Lab Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Air Selector Valve (ASV) 104 Remove & Replace (R&R): From January 21 to February 4, 2016, the Lab CDRA valve 104 failed to reach its commanded position on numerous occasions. Data indicates that the valve stalled in the intermediate position and repeatedly had slow transition times as well as frequent position dropouts resulting in CDRA shutdowns. Today the crew R&Rd the valve with one of two spares available on orbit and ground teams successfully commanded to the valve. The CDRA has been activated for a 24-hour checkout period.  Robotics Operations: Yesterday Robotics ground controllers successfully performed a FMS (Force Moment Sensor) characterization on LEE B, then picked up the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) to prepare for the HTV-6 battery get-ahead tasks to break torque and retorque bolts on S4 batteries that are planned for replacement with Lithium Ion batteries.  When ORU Tool Changeout Mechanism 1 (OTCM #1) attempted to grasp the Robotic Offset Tool (ROST) to set up for the get-aheads, the OTCM stopped short of the expected gripper close range and was not able to perform the grasp.  A second attempt was unsuccessful.  The remainder of robotic operations for the day were postponed. Teams are meeting to discuss the anomaly and a forward plan. Nitrogen/Oxygen Recharge System (NORS) O2 Repress: Today the first O2 repress of the ISS cabin atmosphere was performed using O2 from the NORS tank. When the NORS tank is empty, it will be returned to ground for reflight. Today’s Planned Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. FLUID SHIFTS. Saliva Test FLUID SHIFTS. MELFI Urine Sample Insertion FLUID SHIFTS. Urine Sample Collection FLUID SHIFTS. MELFI Urine Sample Insertion FLUID SHIFTS. Basic blood values Fluid Shifts Blood Collection, Operator FLUID SHIFTS Refrigerated Centrifuge Configuration FLUID SHIFTS. Water Collection from the Galley and taking radioisotope marker FLUID SHIFTS. Conclude spin FLUID SHIFTS. MELFI Urine Sample Insertion Genes in Space (GIS). Maintenance Work Area preparation for Payload use СОЖ Maintenance JEMAL Slide Table extension COSMOCARD. Closeout Ops / r/g 2013 ESA Weekly Crew Conference Genes in Space (GIS). Sample Retrieval XF305. Camcorder Setup Genes in Space (GIS). Sample Processing SSOD. Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform Installation Water transfer from Progress 432 (Aft) Rodnik H2O Tank 1 to EDV r/g 2027 KUBUK 5 Fan Status Check FLUID SHIFTS. Urine Sample Collection KUBUK 5 Fan Status Check, Calldown SPHEROIDS. Copy Temperature and Centrifuge Data UDOD. Experiment Ops with DYKNANIYE-1 and SPRUT-2 Sets r/g 2022 FLUID SHIFTS. MELFI Urine Sample Insertion FSL Optical Adapter Cable installation to O2 Second video line Portable Power Supply 1 (PPS1) Configuration for MagVector JEM System Laptop Terminal Reboot Connecting USB jump drive to MagVector DRAGON  Transfers FLUID SHIFTS. 3-hour blood collection Fluid Shifts Blood Collection, Operator FLUID SHIFTS. 3-hour saliva collection FLUID SHIFTS Refrigerated Centrifuge Configuration FLUID […]

April 22, 2016 at 01:06AM
from NASA http://ift.tt/1Wh5FPD
via IFTTT

Understanding What NASA's FY 2017 Budget Numbers Really Mean

Senate Appropriators Approve $19.3 Billion for NASA for FY2017, SpacePolicyOnline "NASA displays its budget request as the combination of the three -- $19.025 billion -- and breaks down the request for individual accounts like science, aeronautics, and space technology accordingly....

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1VGyI0I
via IFTTT

Sometimes It Is Purple in Space #Prince

"Morning breaks for astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft sits on the left side of frame, attached to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module. Taken 17 April 2016. ISS047e066509 (04/17/2016) larger image"...

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/22T8mHb
via IFTTT

Planetary Society solar sails paved way for Alpha Centauri starshot

A new initiative to send a fleet of tiny spacecraft to Alpha Centauri is connected to The Planetary Society through its founders and efforts to advance solar sailing technology.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1VpqjOD
via IFTTT

2016年4月21日 星期四

The Comet the Owl and the Galaxy


Comet C/2014 S2 (PanSTARRS) poses for a Messier moment in this telescopic snapshot from April 18. In fact it shares the 1.5 degree wide field-of-view with two well-known entries in the 18th century comet-hunting astronomer's famous catalog. Outward bound and sweeping through northern skies just below the Big Dipper, the fading visitor to the inner Solar System was about 18 light-minutes from our fair planet. Dusty, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 108 (upper right) is more like 45 million light-years away. A planetary nebula with an aging but intensely hot central star, the owlish Messier 97 is only about 12 thousand light-years distant though, still well within our own Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers expect the orbit of this comet PanSTARRS to return it to the inner Solar System around the year 4226. via NASA http://ift.tt/1pkHliR

NASA Astronaut Kjell Lindgren Visits Washington April 25-29

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, who lived and worked nearly five months on the International Space Station as a flight engineer, will make multiple appearances across Washington April 25-29 to share highlights from his 141-day mission in space.

April 21, 2016
from NASA http://ift.tt/22RolFY
via IFTTT

NASA Seeks Industry Ideas for an Advanced Mars Satellite

NASA is soliciting ideas from U.S. industry for designs of a Mars orbiter for potential launch in the 2020s. The satellite would provide advanced communications and imaging, as well as robotic science exploration, in support of NASA’s Journey to Mars.

April 21, 2016
from NASA http://ift.tt/1VJimns
via IFTTT

A Seriously MASSIVE Bubble Blown in Space Celebrates Hubbles 26th Anniversary

On April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was lofted into orbit onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Sunday is the 26th anniversary of this grand event, and to celebrate, the good folks at the Space Telescope Science Institute have created a new and simply spectacular image.

Get a load of this!

That is the Bubble Nebula, aka NGC 7635. It looks almost delicate, doesn’t it? Like a thin soap bubble floating in space.

But that's a lie. Nothing about this tremendous beast is delicate.

What you’re seeing is the gas blowing outward from a massive star. Called SAO 20575, it’s the brightest star in the image, near the left edge of the bubble. And by massive, I mean somewhere between 10 and 40 times the mass of the Sun, so it’s a real bruiser. It’s already used up all the hydrogen in its core and is fusing heavier elements to generate energy. The vast amounts of energy generated in the core when this happens heats the outer layers so much that they get blown away from the star, forming the nebula.

The star is incredibly bright; it emits something like 400,000 times as much energy as the Sun does! If you replaced the Sun with SAO 20575, we’d have about one second before regretting that decision. The Earth would be cooked. Good thing SAO 20575 is 8,000 light-years away.

Because the wind is so fiercely powerful, the nebula itself is huge. When a star like the Sun dies and blows a similar (but far less energetic) wind, the nebula it makes might be one or two light-years across. Because the distance isn't well constrained, the exact size of the Bubble Nebula isn't well known, but measured from Hubble images it's something like five to eight light-years in diameter. That’s 50–80 trillion kilometers across! Put simply, that’s ridiculously big.

The Bubble really is a bubble, too: The wind blows away in a sphere, but winds up being bright around the edge because of an effect called edge brightening; when we look at the nebula, we see more material near the edge than when looking through the middle, making the edge look brighter. This can be reinforced if the nebula is expanding into gas that was previously outside the star; the material gets snowplowed up, adding its own brightness to the nebula’s.

You may have noticed the star blowing the bubble is way off-center, far to the left. That can happen if the star is moving rapidly in space, so fast it moves away from the center of the nebula it blew. The star’s motion has been measured and is in the right direction to account for this.

There’s also another possibility. The interstellar material surrounding the bubble is pretty thick; massive stars don’t live long and don’t usually get very far from the cloud of dust and gas from which they were born. The star is so bright that its ultraviolet light is evaporating that material, which is thickest to the upper left as seen in this image. That created a density gradient in the gas, a change in its density from one side to the other. If that’s the case, than the wind from the star can expand more easily in the direction away from the denser gas, making the bubble off-center from the star.

If that’s the case the Bubble may not actually be spherical; we just happen to see it looking down its elongated axis (that’s the case for the famous Ring Nebula, which looks round but is actually more barrel-shaped).

There is still some uncertainty about how this object was sculpted in this way. We’re still learning about it. The Bubble was observed before by Hubble, in 1998 and in 1999, the best images ever taken at the time, and you can see how much clearer our view is now.

And I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to Hubble itself. Launched more than a quarter century ago, it’s opened up so much of the sky to us, and brought the beauty of the heavens to humanity in a way never done before. Over time it’s been upgraded, with new and more powerful cameras installed, sharpening our view and our understanding of the cosmos.

And it’s not done yet. There’s still so much to see, so much to learn. Hubble has brought us a long way, but—happily—this is a journey that never ends.



from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1XKPsRD
via IFTTT

Moonset over Mars

Enjoy this serene image of a moonset on another world, captured by Curiosity's Mastcam in April 2014 and processed here by Justin Cowart.

from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1YIPSrK
via IFTTT