Universe Today

Working out the mass of huge black holes, like the ones hiding in the centre of galactic nuclei, is no easy task and attempts are being made to find novel ways to weigh them. Using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, two scientists have confirmed a theory they conceived ten years ago, that the supermassive black holes in the centre of galaxies strongly influence the nature of the gases surrounding them. So, acting like a remote thermometer, Chandra is being used to probe deep into the neighbourhood of these exotic objects, gauging their masses very accurately…
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OK, everyone: get out your funky 3-D glasses for a whole new look at Mars! We've seen the smooth plains of Meridiani from Opportunity in 3-D; we've gazed upon the rocky terrain of Gusev Crater from Spirit in more than two dimensions. But now it's time to feast your eyes on Mars' arctic tundra as its never been seen before: in super frozen 3-D from the Phoenix lander! The image above shows a color, stereoscopic 3D view of the Martian surface near the lander, and is one of Phoenix's workplaces called "Wonderland." But wait! There's more…..
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A tiny new circuit could make a big difference in the way astronomers can see infrared light. This newly developed nano-sized electronic device is 100 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, and is sensitive to faint traces of light in the far-infrared spectrum, well beyond the colors humans see. Infrared light makes up 98% of the light emitted since the Big Bang. Better detection methods with this new device should provide insights into the earliest stages of star and galaxy formation almost 14 billion years ago.

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For a geologist, looking inside a rock is essential to help determine the makeup and history of the rock sample. That's why geologists have rock hammers, and also why the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have their Rock Abrasion Tool. For future missions to Mars, or even for a sample return mission, one of the main goals will be to look for signs of life, past or present, that might be hiding inside the rocks. Scientists are working on a new, simple technique for detecting biological and pre-biotic molecules that become trapped inside the minerals in rocks.
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Supernovae are kind of a big deal in the Universe, so you'd think that when one occurred we would notice, especially if it were visible to the naked eye. A star that exploded in June of 2007 in the constellation of Puppis, though, slipped by the network of professional and amateur astronomers that are dedicated to watching the skies for novel stars. Luckily, the orbiting X-ray telescope XMM-Newton just happened to be observing the area, and discovered the supernova that everyone else had missed. Read more…

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The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) continues to churn up stunning images as NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passes over the Martian surface. However, today's example probably creates more questions than answers. Close to the Mars equator, south of Elysium Planitia, exists a crater and inside are some strange mounds that have so far eluded formal explanation. There are a few possibilities how these mounds may have formed and there may also be some examples on Earth too…
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The International Space Station (ISS) is the jewel in the crown of human ingenuity and a testament to the incredible engineering mankind is capable of. The modular human outpost began construction in 1998 and it is hoped the final configuration will be complete by 2010. Apart from orbiting the Earth and the occasional re-boost by the docked Automated Transport Vehicle (ATV) "Jules Verne," the ISS is going nowhere in a hurry. But wait a minute, isn't that what the ISS is all about? Isn't it simply an orbital science outpost? Well it is, but could it be something a bit more dynamic? Some critics cite the ISS as the most expensive waste of time the international collaboration of space agencies have ever been committed to; after all, who needs more zero-G experiments?

Solution: Attach a rocket and a steerage system and behold, we have a huge interplanetary transport vehicle, capable of travelling to the Moon and possibly to Mars. Who needs the Constellation Program anyway…
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Ever wonder what an approaching alien spacecraft would see as it comes within tracking range of our Earth/Moon system? NASA's EXPOXI mission, which uses the old Deep Impact spacecraft, has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. "Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said astronomer Michael A’Hearn, principal investigator for the Deep Impact extended mission, called EPOXI. The video is pretty amazing and there's actually two versions of the video; the first one uses a red-green-blue filter, showing how it looks with our human eyes, and the second uses an infrared-green-blue, which makes the vegetation on the land masses show up in red.
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On the heels of news about NASA engineers who feel the Constellation program is using the wrong kind of rockets comes word that efforts to build the spacecraft which will replace the shuttle and return astronauts to the moon is running behind and over-budget. NASA Watch published a leaked internal NASA document showing the Constellation Program has encountered financial and technical problems, and the Associated Press quoted Doug Cooke, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration as saying the first test flights for Orion may be delayed. However, the delay thus far is only of NASA's internal goal of having the spacecraft ready by 2013. Cooke said they are still on target for NASA's public commitment of first test flights by 2015, and returning to the moon by 2020. But unless the space agency can receive more funding, further delays may be inevitable.
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On July 17, 1975, something momentous and unprecedented happened: two Cold War-rivals met in space. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project saw spacecraft from the United States and the Soviet Union docking together in space, ushering in a new era of cooperative ventures between the two countries that once were rivals in the "space race." Preparing for the mission, the astronauts and cosmonauts had to visit each other's countries for training, and the two space agencies had to share classified information with each other in order for the rendezvous and docking to work successfully. A few years ago, Tom Stafford, one of the American astronauts said the Apollo-Soyuz mission "showed the whole world that if the Soviet Union and America could work together in space, they could work together on the Earth."
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Rocketplane Global has announced they will be offering the opportunity for people to get married in space. On their upcoming planned suborbital flights, the space tourism company is making available specialty charter flights that include space wedding ceremonies. Billed as "the ultimate high-end celebrity wedding," the package was first un"veiled" in Japan earlier this month by Rocketplane Japan and First Advantage Travel. With the shirtsleeve cabin environment of the XP spaceplane and its redundant life support systems, the wedding party can wear clothing of their own choosing. No need for "bulky helmets or pressure suits which would detract from the beauty of the ceremony and of course the Wedding Kiss," said the press release. No mention if the happy couples can then become part of the 60 Mile High Club.
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The Great Red Spot on Jupiter has been observed for over 150 years, and it doesn't appear this anti-cyclonic storm is showing any signs of letting up. How does it maintain its power? Well, like a planetary Pac-Man, it "eats up" other storms, zapping them of their power. The sequence of images here from the Hubble Space Telescope shows three different storms on Jupiter: The Great Red Spot, Red Spot Jr. (otherwise known as Oval BA, to the south of GRS), and Baby Red Spot, to the left of GRS in the first two images. Baby got a little too close to big brother GRS, and may have been snuffed out. But GRS keeps on keeping on. These three natural-color Jupiter images were made from data acquired on May 15, June 28, and July 8, 2008, by the Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
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Remember the amazing images of an avalanche on Mars back in March of this year from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter? If not for two geologists studying landforms in Alaska, MRO scientists might not have been on the lookout for such an event, or may not have known what they were seeing. A serendipitous week-long trip to Alaska by Craig Kochel and Jeffrey Trop, geology professors at Bucknell University, helped them predict one of the most important, and breathtaking planetary observations ever made. Witnessing an avalanche, or landslide in action on Mars has helped us realize the Red Planet is still a dynamic, ever-changing planet.
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ESA's Venus Express spacecraft will be cozying up to the planet it has been studying for over two years to begin new and more detailed observations of Venus. This week, engineers began executing a series of maneuvers to gradually bring the spacecraft to a new orbit, closer to Venus. In its new, modified orbit the spacecraft will be able to observe unexplored regions and investigate phenomena that were not within its reach before. The maneuvers will be executed through the month of July, settling it into its new orbit by August 4. Venus Express will eventually get close enough to the planet to dip slightly into the atmosphere, testing out its aerobraking capabilities to further alter its orbit, as well as evaluating the density of the upper atmosphere by measuring the drag on the spacecraft with its on-board accelerometers.
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It's time once again for another "Where In The Universe" challenge. See if you can guess where in our vast universe this picture was taken. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image, too. We've been getting a lot of positive feedback on this challenge, and readers seem to enjoy this weekly test of their visual space-themed recognition skills. And we've been enjoying the reader comments on their successful and the not-so-successful identification of these space images. We've learned so much about the universe by the images taken by all the different spacecraft, and scientists can refer again and again images to study the fine details. And sometimes, they see something they didn't even know was there.

Alright, its time to make your guess, and no peeking below before your guess has been made.

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The Japanese lunar mission SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), also known as "Kaguya" has imaged the "halo" left behind in the lunar surface from Apollo 15's lunar module engine exhaust plume. This is the first time a mission after the Apollo Program has detected such a feature. Apollo 15 landed on the Moon in 1971 in a region called Mare Imbrium, and SELENE's Terrain Camera (TC) is continuing to reconstruct a 3D view of the region in unprecedented high-resolution.
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A NASA contractor needs urine. And lots of it, too, about 30 liters (8 gallons) a day, even on weekends. All the details, if you need to know or need to go, of how to collect the specimens are over at SpaceRef, but the quick scoop is that contractor Hamilton Sundstrand is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center. The company is working on the new Orion space capsule that will replace the shuttle and eventually take astronauts to the moon. This is nothing new. NASA has a long-standing tradition of collecting samples from its workers to help design better space toilets because "you can't make fake urine," said John Lewis, NASA's head of life support systems for Orion.
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The Phoenix Mars Lander successfully used a rasp on the end of its robotic arm to drill into the frozen soil on Mar's arctic tundra. This effort loosened the icy material, which was then scraped up and collected in the lander's scoop. Images and data sent from Phoenix early today indicated the shaved material in the scoop had changed slightly over time during the hours after it was collected, which is a sign that the material includes water ice. Water ice sublimates, or evaporates on Mars surface because of the low surface pressure on the Red Planet. It can exist just under the surface, however, protected by the soil.
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Seemingly, people in the space community have a tendency to push the boundaries of thought about all the possibilities that await us in the universe. Case in point: Geoffrey Landis. Landis is a scientist at NASA's Glenn Research Center who writes science fiction in his spare time. Last week Landis shared with us his ideas for using a solar powered airplane to study Venus. This week, Landis goes a step farther (actually, several steps farther) with his ideas about colonizing Venus. Yes, Venus, our hot, greenhouse-effect-gone-mad neighboring planet with a crushing surface pressure that has doomed the few spacecraft that have attempted to reach the planet's mysterious landscape. Landis knows Venus' surface itself is pretty much out of the question for human habitation. But up about 50 kilometers above the surface, Landis says the atmosphere of Venus is the most Earth-like environment, other than Earth itself, in the solar system. What Landis proposes is creating floating cities on Venus where people could live and work, as well as study the planet below.
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A 3-D image of a trough in the Nili Fossae region of Mars shows phyllosilcates (in magenta and blue hues) on slopes of mesas and canyon walls, showing water played a role in Mars' past.

For all the Mars romanticists out there, we (yes, that means me, too) hope and maybe even dream that Mars once harbored water. And not just a little spurt of groundwater every once in awhile; we want the water to have been there in abundance and for enough time to make an impact on the planet and its environment. Now, proof of copious amounts of water in Mars' past may have been found. Two new papers based on data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) found that vast regions of the ancient southern highlands of Mars hosted a water-rich environment, and that water played a sizable role in changing the minerals of a variety of terrains in the Noachian period – about 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago.
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More bad news for NASA: even their administrator thinks China could beat the US to the Moon. Speaking with the BBC today, Michael Griffin shared his views about the Chinese space aspirations, pointing out that the super-state could, if they wanted to, send a manned mission to the lunar surface within a decade. NASA's return mission to the Moon is planned to launch, at the earliest, in 2020, so this news is bound to knock the wind out of the US space agency's hopes to continue where it left off in 1972…
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HD 189733b is a Jupiter-sized extrasolar planet orbiting a yellow dwarf star. Due to its size can compact orbit, HD 189733b is one of the most studied extrasolar planets. HD 189733b shares many similar characteristics as HD 209458b (a.k.a. "Osiris," as I reported in a UT article yesterday), and similar techniques have been used to analyse the spectral emissions from both parent stars. Although HD 189733b's atmosphere isn't thought to be evaporating like Osiris', atmospheric gases extend far beyond the planetary "surface" allowing stellar light to pass through, giving astronomers a peek into what chemical compounds surround HD 189733b. From this analysis, scientists have deduced that water and methane is contained in the atmosphere; the Spitzer space telescope has even mapped the temperature distribution around the globe. Now, an Indian researcher has published work indicating a thin layer of particles exists in the upper atmosphere of HD 189733b. So what is the weather like on HD 189733b?
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The reigning champion for brightest star in the Milky Way is Eta Carinae, a highly unstable star prone to violent outbursts. Astronomers say Eta Car's life will probably end in 100,000 years or so with a supernova explosion. That's relatively soon in cosmic terms. But the Spitzer Space Telescope has unearthed a contender, both in brightness and in the supernova competition, found in the dusty depths of our galaxy's center. Astronomers say the Peony nebular star might be as bright as Eta. But the biggest question may be, which star will be the first to go supernova?
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There's a group of NASA engineers who believe NASA is making a mistake with its new Constellation program to replace the shuttle, which will use the new Ares rockets for launches starting in 2014. Constellation is an all new program which requires everything to be built from the ground up. The group of engineers asks, why not use the systems we already have that work reliably? The engineers, who are working clandestinely after hours on their plans have been joined by business people and space enthusiasts, and they call the plan Direct 2.0. They believe this approach could be flying sooner than Ares, reducing the gap in the US's access to space, and providing a smoother transition for the workforce. Additionally it is more powerful than Ares, has lower risks for the astronauts, adds additional servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, and reduces the cost to orbit by half.
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Observations of planets orbiting other stars are becoming increasingly common as astronomical techniques become more and more sophisticated. But some extrasolar planets have a stronger than normal spectroscopic signature, often stronger than their optical signature. What could be causing this? In a recent study, observations of the extrasolar planet HD 209458b (also unofficially known as "Osiris", which orbits a star in the constellation of Pegasus) revealed the strongest ever spectroscopic signature for a giant extrasolar planet, indicating Osiris is producing a huge cloud of gas. This gas is being lost from the planet's atmosphere; Osiris is evaporating…
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