Universe Today

August 20, 2009February 8, 2021 by Nancy Atkinson

Latest LRO Image Solves Apollo 14 Mystery

Cropped image of LRO's image from Apollo 14 landing site and Cone Crater. Tracks from the astronauts can be seen. Click for larger version.

During the second EVA of the Apollo 14 mission on the moon, astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell had a goal of hiking to the rim of nearby Cone Crater in the Fra Maura highlands. But the steep terrain made the going difficult, elevating the astronauts’ heart rates. Additionally, without landmarks it was difficult to judge distances. With the rolling terrain, filled with similar-looking ridges, Shepard and Mitchell couldn’t really tell if they were close to the rim or not.

Realizing time and available oxygen were getting short, Mission Control told the astronauts to head back to the Lunar Module, and although disappointed, the astronauts agreed. But how close did they actually come to the crater? No one knew for sure, until now.

Annotated figure showing the positions of various landmarks surrounding the Apollo 14 landing site. The small white arrows highlight locations where the astronauts’ path can be clearly seen [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

One of the latest images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows new details of the Apollo 14 landing site. If you look closely at the image above, visible are the tracks from the astronauts steps and their three-wheeled MET cart, and you can clearly follow the trail of the astronauts on their “radial traverse.” Click the image for larger version if you’re having trouble seeing the tracks. Their tracks stop just 30 meters short of the rim, near a dark spot just to the lower left of the crater, which might be Saddle Rock, shown in the image below. Shepard and Mitchell never realized just how close they really were.

*This photograph shows Saddle Rock, the largest boulder seen on this mission. Named for its shape, Saddle Rock is 4.5 meters across. Credit: NASA*

On the LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) website, Samuel Lawrence notes that more and different detail is visible on this image as opposed to the initial images released prior to the Apollo 11 anniversary in July because the lighting is different. “This time the Sun is 24 degrees higher above the horizon providing a clearer view with fewer shadows. Albedo contrasts are greater, and more clearly show soil disturbances from landing, astronaut surface operations, and blast off.”

*The MET cart from Apollo 14. Credit: NASA*

Lawrence notes how the term “radial traverse” does not quite do the crew of Apollo 14 justice.

“Their journey sounds like a stroll in the park, however the reality is quite the contrary. The hike up Cone crater was quite challenging. For the first time, astronauts traveled out of the sight of their lunar module while hiking uphill over 1400 meters with only a poor map, dragging the tool cart (MET), and wearing their bulky spacesuits. It was an amazing feat that the two astronauts made it to the top of Cone ridge and acquired all their samples. They ended up about 30 meters shy of peering into Cone crater itself, surely a disappointment at the time, but absolutely no reflection on the success of the traverse and the scientific results gleaned after the mission.”

Source: LROC

August 19, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

South Korea Launch No Go, Shuttle Launch a Go

The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, South Korea's first space rocket, sits on its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. Space officials aborted South Korea's first rocket launch just minutes before liftoff Wednesday. AP Photo/Yonhap. Lim Hun-jung

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The launch of South Korea’s first domestic rocket launch was aborted on Wednesday just minutes before scheduled liftoff because of a technical problem, delaying South Korea’s mini space race with North Korea. The two-stage rocket, called the Naro will be South Korea’s first launch from its own territory. Officials expect another liftoff will be attempted in a few days. Another launch attempt on July 30 was also aborted. The satellite was domestically built, with help from Russia and will observe the atmosphere and ocean. The launch attempt came about four months after North Korea was widely criticized for firing its own rocket in defiance of United Nations sanctions.

Meanwhile, NASA officials have cleared space shuttle Discovery to launch on August 25 for the STS-128 mission to the International Space Station. As of now, weather is the only issue that might delay the mission.

Discovery will carry the Leonardo supply module to the International Space Station during STS-128, along with a new crew member for the station, Nicole Stott.

Launch is set for 1:36 am EDT (yes, that’s EXTREME am!) on the 25th. The good news about that hour is that launch should come well before any typical afternoon storms can brew up in the Florida skies. But then, it is hurricane season, and NASA is keeping an eye on a few tropical storms on the horizon.

Commanded by veteran astronaut Rick “C.J.” Sturckow, the STS-128 mission crew will deliver refrigerator-sized racks full of equipment, including the COLBERT treadmill, an exercise device named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

Stott will take the place of Tim Kopra, who moved into the station during STS-127. Pilot Kevin Ford and Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester, Jose Hernandez, John “Danny” Olivas and Sweden’s Christer Fuglesang round out the crew.

Sources: Discovery News, NASA

August 19, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

LRO, Chandrayaan-1 Team Up For Unique Search for Water Ice

Chandrayaan-1, India’s first unmanned mission to the Moon, successfully entered lunar orbit on November 8, 2008

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and India’s Chandrayaan-1 will team up on August 20 to perform a Bi-Static radar experiment to search for water ice in a crater on the Moon’s north pole. Both spacecraft will be in close proximity approximately 200 km above the lunar surface, and both are equipped with radar instruments. The two instruments will look at the same location from different angles, with Chandrayaan-1’s radar transmitting a signal which will be reflected off the interior of Erlanger crater, and then be picked up by LRO. Scientists will compare the signal that bounces straight back to Chandrayaan with the signal that bounces at a slight angle to LRO to garner unique information, particularly about any water ice that may be present inside the crater.

Both spacecraft are equipped with a NASA Miniature Radio Frequency (RF) instrument that functions as a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), known as Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan 1 and Mini-RF on LRO.

“The advantage of a Bi-Static experiment is that you’re looking at echoes that are being reflected off the Moon at an angle other than zero,” said Paul Spudis,principal investigator for Chandrayaan-1’s Mini-SAR,discussing the mission on The Space Show. “Mono-static radar sends a pulse, and you are looking in the same phase or incident angle. But with Bi-Static, you can look at it from a different angle. The significance of that is ice has a very unique bi-static response.”

Erlanger Crater from the Lunar Orbiter. Credit: NASA

Stewart Nozette, Mini-RF principal investigator from the Universities Space Research Association’s Lunar and Planetary Institute, said, “An extraordinary effort was made by the whole NASA team working with ISRO to make this happen”

While this coordination sounds easy, this experiment is extremely challenging because both spacecraft are traveling at about 1.6 km per second and will be looking at an area on the ground about 18 km across. Due to the extreme speeds and the small point of interest, NASA and ISRO need to obtain and share information about the location and pointing of both spacecraft. The Bi-Static experiment requires extensive tracking by ground stations of NASA’s Deep Space Network, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and ISRO.

Even with the considerable planning and coordination between the U.S. and India the two instrument beams may not overlap, or may miss the desired location. Even without hitting the exact location Scientists may still be able to use the Bi-Static information to further knowledge already received from both instruments.

“The international coordination and cooperation between the two agencies for this experiment is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate future cooperation between NASA and ISRO, “says Jason Crusan, program executive for the Mini-RF program, from NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.

August 19, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Where In The Universe #67

Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here’s #67! Take a look and see if you can name where in the Universe this image is from. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image. As usual, we’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until tomorrow. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.

This colorful image is of NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic cloud, a dwar galaxy that orbits the Milky Way at a distance of 210,000 light-years. It combines X-ray, infrared and visible light captured by ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory’s New Technology Telescope — so a composite from space- and ground-based telescopes.

This images was released in October 2008 and it provides a new information on how stars in the Universe form. This image shows that wind- and radiation-induced star formation are at play in the same cloud, telling astronomers that star formation is a complicated process comprising different competitive and collaborative mechanisms.

Learn more about his image here.

Thanks for participating in this week’s WITU challenge, and check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos!

August 19, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Violence Rocks the Cosmic Cradle

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We humans like to coddle and cuddle our young, protecting them in comfy, quiet nurseries where they will come to no harm. But what kind of treatment do infant planetary systems receive? They get bombarded with powerful winds and blazing heat, and pummeled by short-lived, massive stars that explode as supernovae. New images released today delve into the heart of a cosmic cloud, called RCW 38, crowded with budding stars and planetary systems. Although this is a hostile place, it makes a pretty picture, and new solar systems are in the process of forming in the same kind of environment from which our home may have evolved.

“By looking at star clusters like RCW 38, we can learn a great deal about the origins of our Solar System and others, as well as those stars and planets that have yet to come”, says Kim DeRose, first author of a new study that appears in the Astronomical Journal.

Star cluster RCW 38 is located about 5500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). Like the Orion Nebula Cluster, RCW 38 is an “embedded cluster,” in that the nascent cloud of dust and gas still envelops its stars. Astronomers have determined that most stars, including the low mass, reddish ones that outnumber all others in the Universe, originate in these matter-rich locations. Accordingly, embedded clusters provide scientists with a living laboratory in which to explore the mechanisms of star and planetary formation.

Around the massive star ISR 2. Credit: ESO

Using the NACO adaptive optics instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope astronomers have obtained the sharpest image yet of RCW 38. They focused on a small area in the center of the cluster that surrounds the massive star IRS2, which glows in the searing, white-blue range, the hottest surface color and temperatures possible for stars. These observations reveal that IRS2 is actually not one, but two stars — a binary system consisting of twin scorching stars, separated by about 500 times the Earth–Sun distance.

In the NACO image, the astronomers found a handful of protostars — the faintly luminous precursors to fully realized stars — and dozens of other candidate stars that have eked out an existence here despite the powerful ultraviolet light radiated by IRS2. Some of these gestating stars may, however, not get past the protostar stage. IRS2’s strong radiation energises and disperses the material that might otherwise collapse into new stars, or that has settled into so-called protoplanetary discs around developing stars. In the course of several million years, the surviving discs may give rise to the planets, moons and comets that make up planetary systems like our own.

Click here for video that zooms in on the RCW 38 massive cluster of stars. Starting with a wide angle view made with an amateur telescope, then to an image from Digitized Sky Survey 2, going to an image made with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla and finishing with an image made with the NACO adaptive optics instrument attached to ESO’s Very Large Telescope.

As if intense ultraviolet rays were not enough, crowded stellar nurseries like RCW 38 also subject their brood to frequent supernovae when giant stars explode at the ends of their lives. These explosions scatter material throughout nearby space, including rare isotopes — exotic forms of chemical elements that are created in these dying stars. This ejected material ends up in the next generation of stars that form nearby. Because these isotopes have been detected in our Sun, scientists have concluded that the Sun formed in a cluster like RCW 38, rather than in a more rural portion of the Milky Way.

“Overall, the details of astronomical objects that adaptive optics reveals are critical in understanding how new stars and planets form in complex, chaotic regions like RCW 38”, says co-author Dieter Nürnberger.

August 19, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

New Limits on Gravitational Waves From the Big Bang

Artists concept of graviational waves. Credit: NASA

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The only way to know what the Universe was like at the moment of the Big Bang requires analysis of gravitational waves created when the Universe began. Scientists working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) say their initial investigations of these gravitiation waves have turned up nothing. But that’s a good thing. Not detecting the waves provides constraints about the initial conditions of the universe, and narrows the field of where we actually do need to look in order to find them.

Much like it produced the cosmic microwave background, the Big Bang is believed to have created a flood of gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space and time. From our current understanding, gravitational waves are the only known form of information that can reach us undistorted from the beginnings of the Universe. They would be observed as a “stochastic” or random background, and would carry with them information about their violent origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot be obtained by conventional astronomical tools. The existence of the waves was predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 in his general theory of relativity.

Analysis of data taken over a two-year period, from 2005 to 2007, yields that the stochastic background of gravitational waves has not yet been discovered. But the nondiscovery of the background, described in a new paper in the August 20 Nature, offers its own brand of insight into the universe’s earliest history.

“Since we have not observed the stochastic background, some of these early-universe models that predict a relatively large stochastic background have been ruled out,” said Vuk Mandic, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and the head of the group that performed the analysis. “We now know a bit more about parameters that describe the evolution of the universe when it was less than one minute old.”

According to Mandic, the new findings constrains models of cosmic strings, objects that are proposed to have been left over from the beginning of the universe and subsequently stretched to enormous lengths by the universe’s expansion; the strings, some cosmologists say, can form loops that produce gravitational waves as they oscillate, decay, and eventually disappear.

“Since we have not observed the stochastic background, some of these early-universe models that predict a relatively large stochastic background have been ruled out,” said Mandic. “If cosmic strings or superstrings exist, their properties must conform with the measurements we made—that is, their properties, such as string tension, are more constrained than before.”

This is interesting, he says, “because such strings could also be so-called fundamental strings, appearing in string-theory models. So our measurement also offers a way of probing string-theory models, which is very rare today.”

The analysis used data collected from the LIGO interferometers in Hanford, Wash., and Livingston, La. Each of the L-shaped interferometers uses a laser split into two beams that travel back and forth down long interferometer arms. The two beams are used to monitor the difference between the two interferometer arm lengths.

The next phase of the project, called Advanced LIGO, will go online in 2014, and be 10 times more sensitive than the current instrument. It will allow scientists to detect cataclysmic events such as black-hole and neutron-star collisions at 10-times-greater distances.

The Nature paper is entitled “An Upper Limit on the Amplitude of Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background of Cosmological Origin.”

Source: EurekAlert

August 18, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Once Classified Russian Rockets to be Used for Commercial Space Venture

n Almaz Reusable Re-entry Vehicle (RRV), like this one shown here, will form the cornerstone of a private orbital spaceflight service planned by the international company Excalibur Almaz. The vehicle was originally developed to support Soviet Almaz space stations in the 1970s. Credit: Excalibur Almaz.

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An international company announced plans to launch a commercial space venture using spacecraft designed for a once classified Russian space program. Excalibur Almaz Limited plans to offer week-long orbital space flights beginning as early as 2013 with updated 1970’s era Reusable Return Vehicles, designed for flying to the USSR’s top-secret Almaz space station. Excalibur Alamaz’s press release said they would be “taking a big leap beyond the sub-orbital flight market targeted by most other private space companies.”

Excalibur Almaz (EA) is currently updating the spacecraft to conduct crew and cargo space missions for private individuals, corporations, academic institutions and national governments.

JSC MIC NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia originally built the spacecraft and EA has purchased both the rockets and modules for the Almaz space station, which was never flown. The RRVs went through nine flight tests, with two RRVs flown to orbit several times.

EA Founder and CEO Art Dula said, “Through cooperation with NPOM and with the support of leading space contractors around the world and an exceptionally strong management and advisory team, EA is in a unique position to initiate a new era of private orbital space exploration.”

Cosmonaut Vladimir Titov, advisor to EA in Russia, said, “With this announcement, the dream of private orbital space exploration may become a reality in the very near future.”

Former NASA astronaut LeRoy Chiao, a current member of the Augustine Commission, is the Executive Vice President for EA.

EA is headquartered in Isle of Man, British Isles, and support contractors are located in Moscow, Tokyo, Houston and Los Angeles.

EA’s spacecraft will consist of two parts: an RRV and an expendable service module to provide crewmembers with room to comfortably operate during spaceflight. EA said they will “update the Almaz RRVs with flight-proven technologies where appropriate, while retaining tested legacy systems to ensure safety and economy of operation. A critical feature of the RRVs is their reusability, which will reduce logistical, overhead and program costs for commercial access to space.”

EA plans for its spacecraft to be compatible with a number of launch vehicles and capable of being launched from worldwide sites.

Excalibur Almaz website.

Source: EA Press Release

August 18, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Report: UFO Sightings Coincide with Popular Sci-Fi Films, TV

Scene from the movie "Independance Day." Credit: 20th Century Fox

The British Ministry of Defense released 4,000 pages of documents detailing hundreds of UFO sightings between 1981 and 1996. A summary of the documents by UFO expert David Clarke comes as no surprise to scientists and skeptics: many of the sightings coincide with the release of popular sci-fi movies or television shows.

609 UFO sightings in 1996, compared with 117 in 1995 correspond with the rise in popularity of the “X Files” television show and the release of the alien blockbuster film “Independence Day.” “Obviously, films and TV programs raise public awareness of UFOs and it’s fascinating to see how that appears to lead more people to report what they see to the authorities,” Clarke said.

The documents released include sightings reported by police officers and fighter pilots as well as young children, the Daily Mail reported Monday. 90% of the sightings could be explained by mundane objects such as bright stars and planets, meteors, artificial satellites and airship advertising.

The other 10% were listed as “unexplained,” mainly because of insufficient information.

For an excellent overview of what really happened in one of the most famous UFO stories of all, the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico alien spaceship crash, listen to Brian Dunning’s 365 Days of Astronomy podcast on the subject.

Source: Reuters, UPI

August 18, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

2000 Sols on Mars

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Another milestone for the Mars Exploration Rovers: Spirit has been operating on Mars for 2000 sols, or Martian days. Who would have ever thought the rovers would last this long? But here they are, still going, um, pretty strong. Even though she’s got plenty of electrical power, Spirit is currently stuck in loose soil at her location, called Troy. But engineers are working hard to figure out how to set her free. Check out the latest on the efforts at the Free Spirit website.

To celebrate Spirit’s milestone, Unmanned Spaceflight’s Astro0 has put together a Sol 2000 poster over at his website, Astro0 in Space. It’s gorgeous, and includes a new poem by my pal Stuart Atkinson, so check it out!

August 18, 2009April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

Send a Tweet to our Alien Friends on Gliese 581 D

An artist’s impression of Gliese 581d, an exoplanet about 20.3 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Libra. Credit: NASA

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If you’ve ever wanted to communicate with aliens, here’s your chance. Cosmos Magazine is offering the chance to send a message to another planet, Gliese 581 d. This exoplanet is about 20.3 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Libra, and some have said if life is elsewhere in the Universe, this is the mostly likely place that we currently know about. It was first discovered in 2007, and astronomers say this planet is well within the habitable zone around its star, where liquid water oceans could exist. Cosmos is collecting short, 160 character messages to be transmitted out to the vicinity of Gliese 581 d with the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Tidbinbilla, Australia. Cosmos says it will take about 20 years for the message to reach its destination, and admits there is no guarantee of a response. If interested, check out Cosmos’ “Hello From Earth” webpage. Hurry, as the deadline is 5pm Monday August 24, 2009 Sydney time (07:00 GMT Monday 24 August 2009).

This is Cosmos’ way of celebrating the IYA and National Science Week in Australia. However, we’ve had lively discussions here on before UT about if we are sending too much information out into the cosmos. What do you think?