Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Ares V Rocket Gets an Upgrade: It will be Bigger and Stronger for 2020 Moon Mission (Video)

The future of space travel - Artist impression of Ares V on the launchpad (NASA)

NASA announced on Wednesday that the original Constellation project’s principle rocket, the Ares V, will need to be designed to carry a larger payload for manned missions to the Moon by the year 2020. This means the original concept will need to have a length extension of 20 feet (6 metres) and will need to use six main engines at its base, rather than the current five. This upgrade will be capable of sending far more instrumentation into space, an extra 15,600 lb (7,000 kg, or the equivalent mass of a male African elephant)…

When the Shuttle is retired in 2010, there is going to be a five-year gap before the Constellation Program prepares its first Ares launch. There can therefore be little room for setbacks in the design phase of the Ares rocket system as there are already concerns for the US dependence on Russia to provide access to space between 2010 and 2015.

In a move to make the heavy-lift vehicle more robust (predicting an increased launch thrust requirement) to send four astronauts, a lunar lander plus supplies, NASA has announced the Ares V rocket will be “beefed up” to cater for our future needs to get man back to the Moon. This huge vehicle is now designed to carry payloads of over 156,600 lb (71,000 kg), some 15,600 lb (or 10%) more than the original concept. Ares V was originally designed to be approximately the same length as the original Saturn V lunar rocket (361 feet or 110 metres long), but to accommodate an extra booster engine and extra payload volume, Ares V will be 381 feet (116 metres) long. That’s the height of a 38-story building. This increased capability will obviously be of huge benefit to the future lunar and Mars missions.

These design alterations were announced after a nine-month study to investigate whether NASA could succeed in its goal to be ready for a return mission to the Moon in 2020, and a manned mission to Mars afterwards. Constellation program manager Jeff Hanley is upbeat about the study’s findings. “This extensive review proves we are ready for the next phase: taking these concepts and moving forward,” he said.

The Constellation Program will use a two-step method for getting man and machine into space. The Ares V will launch heavy payloads, using its superior power, whilst the smaller Ares I will be used as a general low-mass/manned transit vehicle. For large missions, both Ares V and Ares I launch vehicles will be used, allowing astronauts to dock with their equipment in space before travelling to the Moon and beyond.

View the excellent NASA visualization of what it will be like to see the Ares V and Ares I rockets launch and enter Earth orbit and dock before beginning their mission »

All I know is, whether Constellation is completed on time or not, I’ll be at the launch to watch the awesome Ares V lift off from Cape Canaveral…

Source: Space.com

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Two Faces of Mars Explained

Mars has two faces. No, not those kind of faces, but the notable differences between the northern and southern hemisphere. Mars has lowlands in the north and highlands in the south. This disparity has long puzzled planetary scientists, but most concurred that early in Mars history, impacts shaped the planet’s two-faced landscape. But many disagreed whether several small impacts or one big one were responsible for sculpting Mars’ surface. Now scientists at the California Institute of Technology have shown through computer modeling that the Mars dichotomy, as the divided terrain has been termed, can indeed be explained by one giant impact early in the planet’s history.

“The dichotomy is arguably the oldest feature on Mars,” said Oded Aharonson from Caltech. Scientists believe the differences in hemispheric features arose more than four billion years ago.

Previously, scientists discounted the idea that a single, giant impactor created the lower elevations and thinner crust of Mars’s northern region, says Margarita Marinova, a graduate student at Caltech, and one of the lead authors of the study.

For one thing, Marinova explained, it was thought that a single impact would leave a circular footprint, but the outline of the northern lowlands region is elliptical. There is also a distinct lack of a crater rim: topography increases smoothly from the lowlands to the highlands without a lip of concentrated material in between, as is the case in small craters. Finally, it was believed that a giant impactor would obliterate the record of its own occurrence by melting a large fraction of the planet and forming a magma ocean.

“We set out to show that it’s possible to make a big hole without melting the majority of the surface of Mars,” Aharonson says. The team modeled a range of projectile parameters that could yield a cavity the size and ellipticity of the Mars lowlands without melting the whole planet or making a crater rim.

The team ran over 500 computer simulations combining various energies, velocities, and impact angles. Finally, they were able to narrow in on a “sweet spot”–a range of single-impact parameters that would make exactly the type of crater found on Mars. Their dedicated supercomputer allowed them to run simulations not run in the past. “The ability to search for parameters that allow an impact compatible with observations is enabled by the dedicated machine at Caltech,” Aharonson said.

The favored simulation conditions outlined by the sweet spot suggest an impact energy of around 1029 joules, which is equivalent to 100 billion gigatons of TNT. The impactor would have hit Mars at an angle between 30 and 60 degrees while traveling at 6 to 10 kilometers per second. By combining these factors, Marinova calculated that the projectile was roughly 1,600 to 2,700 kilometers across.

Estimates of the energy of the Mars impact place it squarely between the impact that is thought to have led to the extinction of dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago and the one believed to have extruded our planet’s moon four billion years ago.

Marinova said the timing of formation of our moon and the Mars dichotomy is not coincidental. “This size range of impacts only occurred early in solar system history,” she says. The results of this study are also applicable to understanding large impact events on other heavenly bodies, like the Aitken Basin on the moon and the Caloris Basin on Mercury.

This report, published in the June 26 issue of Nature, goes along with two other papers on the Mars dichotomy. One published by Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna and Maria Zuber of MIT and Bruce Banerdt of JPL examine the gravitational and topographic signature of the dichotomy with information from the Mars orbiters. Another accompanying report, from a group at UC Santa Cruz led by Francis Nimmo, explores the expected consequences of mega-impacts.

Original News Source: EurekAlert

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Mars Atmosphere Once Held Enough Moisture for Dew or Drizzle

Data from Mars orbiters and landers have suggested that any past water on the Red Planet’s surface probably came from subsurface moisture bubbling up from underground. But a new study of Martian soil data implies that Mars’ atmosphere was once thick enough to hold moisture and that dew or even drizzle hit the ground. Geoscientists at the University of California Berkeley combined data from the Viking 1 and 2 landers, the Pathfinder rover, and the current rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The scientists say tell-tale signs of this type of moisture are evident on the planet’s surface.

“By analyzing the chemistry of the planet’s soil, we can derive important information about Mars’ climate history,” said Ronald Amundson, UC Berkeley professor of ecosystem sciences and the study’s lead author. “The dominant view, put forward by many now working on the Mars missions, is that the chemistry of Mars soils is a mix of dust and rock that has accumulated over the eons, combined with impacts of upwelling groundwater, which is almost the exact opposite of any common process that forms soil on Earth. In this paper, we try to steer the discussion back by re-evaluating the Mars data using geological and hydrological principles that exist on Earth.”

The team says soil at the various spacecraft landing sites have lost significant fractions of the elements that make up the rock fragments from which the soil was formed. This is a sign, they say, that water once moved downward through the dirt, carrying the elements with it. Amundson also pointed out that the soil also shows evidence of a long period of drying, as evidenced by surface patterns of the now sulfate-rich land. The distinctive accumulations of sulfate deposits are characteristic of soil in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, where rainfall averages approximately 1 millimeter per year, making it the driest region on Earth.

Researchers compared images such as this image of the Atacama Desert with the above image taken by the Opportunity rover on Mars, which show similar surface patterns.

“The Atacama Desert and the dry valleys of Antarctica are where Earth meets Mars,” said Amundson. “I would argue that Mars has more in common geochemically with these climate extremes on Earth than these sites have in common with the rest of our planet.”

Amundson noted that sulfate is prevalent in Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, and is incorporated in rainwater. However, it’s so soluble that it typically washes away from the surface of the ground when it rains. The key for the distinctive accumulation in soil to appear is for there to be enough moisture to move it downward, but not so much that it is washed away entirely.

The researchers also noted that the distribution of the chemical elements in Martian soil, where sulfates accumulate on the surface with layers of chloride salt underneath, suggest atmospheric moisture.

“Sulfates tend to be less soluble in water than chlorides, so if water is moving up through evaporation, we would expect to find chlorides at the surface and sulfates below that,” said Amundson. “But when water is moving downward, there’s a complete reversal of that where the chlorides move downward and sulfates stay closer to the surface. There have been weak but long-term atmospheric cycles that not only add dust and salt but periodic liquid water to the soil surface that move the salts downward.”

Amundson pointed out that there is still debate among scientists about the degree to which atmospheric and geological conditions on Earth can be used as analogs for the environment on Mars. He said the new study suggests that Martian soil may be a “museum” that records chemical information about the history of water on the planet, and that our own planet holds the key to interpreting the record.

“It seems very logical that a dry, arid planet like Mars with the same bedrock geology as many places on Earth would have some of the same hydrological and geological processes operating that occur in our deserts here on Earth,” said Amundson. “Our study suggests that Mars isn’t a planet where things have behaved radically different from Earth, and that we should look to regions like the Atacama Desert for further insight into Martian climate history.”

Original News Source: EurekAlert

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Primordial Stars Frozen Indefinitely by Dark Matter

Dark, cold stars from the young Universe could still be here today (University of Utah)

It is thought that primordial or “Population III” stars were born in dense clouds of dark matter, 100 million years after the Big Bang. During the period between birth and dark matter depletion, these first stars were effectively but into a “deep freeze” where normal star development was prevented. After this period when all the dark matter fuel had been consumed, these stars were allowed to commence normal stellar evolution, dying out within a few hundred thousand years. But say if a Population III star was born in an exceptionally dense cloud of dark matter? How long could “normal stellar evolution” be frozen for? According to new research, dark matter could theoretically freeze the star indefinitely, over timescales longer than the age of the Universe…

This amazing theory comes from research carried out by Gianfranco Bertone and his team at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics in France. The thought that the first stars, born over 14 billion years ago, could possibly inhabit the Universe today is a very impressive idea. These primordial stars are thought to have been seeded inside dense clouds of dark matter, where gravity caused dark matter compression. As the matter became concentrated, non-baryonic particles may have begun annihilating, stopping natural hydrogen fusion (the mechanism commonly associated with star creation). “Normal” stellar evolution was therefore paused and the “dark star” phase began as dark matter annihilation heated the stellar cores.

It has long been the assumption that the “dark star” phase occurred for a short period of time in the early Universe where vast halos of dark matter may have dominated. Once the dark matter fuel ebbed away, primordial stars were left to self-destruct in a flurry of accelerated evolution. Now Bertone and his colleagues believe a few primordial specimens might be alive today, hidden inside particularly dense clouds of dark matter, in galactic centres, keeping some of the Universe’s first stars in a state of suspended animation.

“There could be conditions in the early universe where stars form in big enough reservoirs of dark matter to last until the present day.” – Gianfranco Bertone.

One of the most exciting implications to come from this research is the fact that these ancient relics may be observed, what’s more, we may have already seen some. “A frozen star would appear much bigger and colder than a normal star with the same mass and chemical composition,” says Marco Taoso, co-investigator in the French group. If stars matching the characteristics of these frozen stellar bodies are (or already have been) found, the discovery would have huge consequences for the quantum search for supersymmetry, indicating dark matter was indeed made up of massive “superpartners” to ordinary matter.

If dark matter influenced stars a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, can it still influence stellar evolution today? Researchers believe this could be the case. Present-day stars evolving in regions of dark matter clouds may be influenced by non-baryonic particles. White dwarfs are formed after the death of Sun-like stars and it is believed that should the dwarf star encounter a cloud of dark matter, it could be resurrected as a dark matter burner, shining like 30 Suns.

It will be interesting to see if there have already been any observations of these primordial stars, possibly providing more indirect evidence of dark matter in our Universe.

Source: New Scientist

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Huge Camera to Observe Dark Energy

Discovering the universe is accelerating and not slowing down made it obvious to astronomers there’s a lot we don’t know about the universe; namely, a big chunk of it is missing from our visible observations. Astronomers determined roughly 4% of the universe is made up of ordinary matter and 27% of Dark Matter (inferred from gravitational affects on visible matter), leaving 68% unaccounted for. Dark energy, while still hypothetical, is what is believed to keep the pedal to the metal, so to speak, on the universe’s expansion. But an international group of astronomers believes that dark energy should be detectable, and they are constructing a huge camera, designed to look for it. The camera will consist of five massive lenses, with the largest at one meter in diameter, making it one of the biggest lenses in the world. A milestone was reached in the construction of this camera, as the pieces of glass for these unique lenses, seen in the image here, are ready to be shaped and polished into their final form.

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) camera will map 300 million galaxies using the Blanco 4-meter telescope – a large telescope with new advanced optics at Chile’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. This instrument will consist of an extremely red sensitive 500 Megapixel camera, with a 1 meter diameter, 2.2 degree field of view prime focus corrector, and a data acquisition system fast enough to take images in 17 seconds.

Creating this huge map of the galaxy will enable astronomers to measure the dark energy far more precisely than current observations. Professor Ofer Lahav, who leads the United Kingdom DES Consortium said, “Dark Energy is one of the biggest puzzles in the whole of Physics, going back to a concept proposed by Einstein 90 years ago. The DES observations will tell us if Einstein was right or if we need a major shift in our understanding of the universe.”

The glass for the five lenses was manufactured in the US. In France the lenses will be polished to a smoothness level of one millionth of a centimeter.

After, polishing, the lenses will be sent to the telescope in Chile. Observations are scheduled to begin in 2011, continuing until 2016.

The team’s goals are to extract cosmological information on dark energy from counting galaxy clusters and the spatial distribution of clusters, and measuring the redshift of galaxies and supernovae.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is providing support for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) collaboration, which involves over 100 scientists from the US, UK, Spain and Brazil.

Orignal news sources: Science and Technology Facilities Council, Dark Energy Survey

Posted on by Nicholos Wethington

Homer’s “Odyssey” May Chronicle Ancient Eclipse

It’s likely that sometime in your education career, an English teacher had you enjoy (or suffer through, depending on your tastes) at least part of that classic of classics, Homer’s Odyssey. It tells the story of Odysseus, a Greek general, who embarks on a 10-year journey back home after battling in the fall of Troy. The tale is filled with imagery that is referenced often in contemporary films and books. As old as it is, one would think that we’ve learned pretty much all we can from the book, but a new analysis of celestial events referenced in the Odyssey reveals that Homer may have documented a total solar eclipse.

Here’s a little background on the epic: Odysseus fights in the battle of Troy, which is believed to have occurred in approximately 1200 B.C. After the battle, he must find his way back to Ithaca in Greece, and the journey home is a harrowing one in which he is captured by the nymph Calypso, drifts on a raft at sea, battles a cyclops, resists the temptation of the Sirens and in general has hard luck. While he is away, his wife Penelope is living at his house with 108 suitors who are trying to convince her that she should accept her husband as dead and marry one of them.

Near the end of the story, a seer named Theoclymenus foretells the death of all the suitors, saying:

Poor men, what terror is this that overwhelms you so? Night shrouds your heads, your faces, down to your knees — cries of mourning are bursting into fire — cheeks rivering tears — the walls and the handsome crossbeams dripping dank with blood! Ghosts, look, thronging the entrance, thronging the court, go trooping down to the realm of death and darkness! The sun is blotted out of the sky — look there — a lethal mist spreads all across the Earth.

The reference to the Sun being blotted out of the sky on the day Odysseus returns home to retake his house and slaughter the suitors has been thought for a long time to be a reference to an actual eclipse, and was debated by astronomers, historians and classicists until it was finally decided that there was not enough evidence in the book to pinpoint a specific date for the event.

An analysis of overlooked passages in the book by Marcelo O. Magnasco, who heads the Laboratory of Mathematical Physics at Rockefeller, and Constantino Baikouzis of the Proyecto Observatorio at the Observatorio Astronómico in La Plata, Argentina reveals that there is enough evidence – if their interpretation of the events is correct – to place the eclipse on April 16th of 1178 B.C. Magnasco and Baikouzis reported their findings in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

There are four celestial clues in the Odyssey that individually happen rather often, but rarely coincide within a short period of time. As Odysseus is making his way home on a raft, he navigates by the use of the constellations Bootes and the Pleiades, which only appear together in the sky in March and September. The Moon is new when Odyesseus returns home, and on that day Venus rises before dawn, which only happens during one-third of new moons. The most important clue, though, is that Homer refers to the god Hermes flying west to the island of Ogygia about a month earlier. This reference is likely to the planet Mercury, which is low in the sky and experiences retrograde motion – seems to go backward in the sky relative to the stars – every 116 days.

Magnasco said, “Not only is this corroborative evidence that this date might be something important but if we take it as a given that the death of the suitors happened on this particular eclipse date, then everything else described in The Odyssey happens exactly as is described.”

Baikouzis and Magnasco analyzed all 1,684 new moons between 1250 and 1125 B.C. with commercial astronomy software for any dates that would match this confluence of events and came up with April 16th, 1178 B.C. Given that Homer matched the story to events in reality, this could help historians date the fall of Troy and shows that this great poet may also have had a penchant for astronomy.

Source: EurekAlert, Scientific American

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Unusual Galaxies Eat Their Neighbors

Seyfert galaxies appear to be normal spiral galaxies, but they have fluctuating bright centers. And now, their deep-down, hidden nature has been revealed: they are cannibals. While visible-light images didn’t provide much evidence that these galaxies had any interaction with their neighbors, radio-telescope images from the Very Large Array revealed that Seyfert galaxies are snacking on neighboring galaxies, with the “meal” feeding the supermassive black hole at their centers. Astronomers had suspected this was the case, but until now, they didn’t have the evidence to support the idea.

One leading theory said that the fluctuations seen in Seyfert galaxies’ centers were caused by close encounters with neighboring galaxies. The gravitational encounters stirred up gas from the neighboring galaxies and brought it within reach of the black hole. However, when astronomers looked at Seyferts with visible-light telescopes, only a small fraction showed any evidence of such an encounter. Now, new images of hydrogen gas in Seyferts made using the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope show the majority of them are, in fact, disturbed by ongoing encounters with neighbor galaxies.

“The VLA lifted the veil on what’s really happening with these galaxies,” said Cheng-Yu Kuo, a graduate student at the University of Virginia. “Looking at the gas in these galaxies clearly showed that they are snacking on their neighbors. This is a dramatic contrast with their appearance in visible starlight,” he added.

The effect of the galactic encounters is to send gas and dust toward the black hole and produce energy as the material ultimately is consumed. Black holes, concentrations of matter so dense that not even light can escape their gravitational pull, reside at the cores of many galaxies. Depending on how rapidly the black hole is eating, the galaxy can show a wide range of energetic activity. Seyfert galaxies have the mildest version of this activity, while quasars and blazars are hundreds of times more powerful.

The astronomers picked a number of relatively nearby Seyfert galaxies that had previously been observed with visible-light telescopes. They then carefully studied the Seyferts with the VLA, specifically looking for radio waves emitted by hydrogen atoms. The VLA images showed the vast majority of the Seyferts were disturbed by encounters with neighbor galaxies.

By comparison, similar VLA images of inactive galaxies showed that very few were disturbed. “This comparison clearly shows a connection between close galactic encounters and the black-hole-powered activity in the cores,” said Ya-Wen Tang, who began this work at the Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (ASIAA), in Taiwan and now is a graduate student at the National Taiwan University.

“This is the best evidence yet for the fueling of Seyfert galaxies. Other mechanisms have been proposed, but they have shown little if any difference between Seyferts and inactive galaxies,” Tang added.

Original News Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

ATV Jules Verne Surpasses All Expectations (Videos)

The ATV on approach to the station in April. Mission will end next month (ESA/NASA)

Last week’s record re-boost from ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) pushed the International Space Station 7 kilometres (4.3 miles) higher to an orbit of 345 kilometres (214 miles) above Earth. This was the second re-boost carried out by the ATV, a mission (dubbed “Jules Verne”) that has surpassed all expectations. In fact, the ATV has not only passed each and every mission objective perfectly, it has gone above and beyond the call of duty…

After 11 weeks attached to the ISS, ATV Jules Verne continues to provide an unexpected service to the ISS crew. Last Thursday it successfully boosted the 300 tonne ISS to a higher orbit (this was the second re-boost, the first was at the end of April) and it has since refuelled the station with 856 kg of propellant. Although these were essential tasks, the ATV has provided an invaluable service to the crew. Not in the design plan of the ATV, the roomy temporary supply vessel has provided a great area for the crew to sleep and wash, plus one of its empty tanks has been used to store 110 litres of condensation water from the ISS. But the best news of all: the ATV’s mission has been extended for a month, allowing the crew to enjoy the ATV for a little while longer. The scheduled undocking and planned burn up on re-entry will now take place in September, not August.

Watch the ESA video montage of the crew working (and playing) inside the spacious ATV »

Ever since Jules Verne docked at the ISS on April 3rd, the ISS astronauts have had access to the roomy 48 m3 vessel and they have made it a centre for daily life onboard the station. The ATV mission control gave the crew special permission to use the spaceship for a variety of everyday needs. For starters, the astronauts and cosmonauts have been using the ATV as an improved “Crew Hygiene Station” where they have been able to wash their laundry. They have also been able to use the space to wash their hair with an alcohol-free rinse less shampoo (I’d love to know how that stuff works!). This additional space also has the effect of keeping the station’s air humidity low.

Watch an animated version of last week’s re-boost operation »

Crewmembers have also used the ATV as alternative sleeping quarters. Apparently, the ATV is a quieter environment to the rest of the station as the sound levels of the ventilator fans and air circulation is fairly low. The station’s sleeping arrangements are fairly strict, two crewmembers must sleep in the small ISS crew cabins, but the third can sleep anywhere in the station. It turns out the ATV has proven to be the location of choice for the third crewmember.

For further detail about the huge array of ATV successes, check out the ESA news release. For now, the crew have a little more time to enjoy the ATV before it ends its mission in September only to be dropped into the atmosphere where it will burn to a cinder, leaving any mass left to drop to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. How sad.

Sources: ESA [1], [2]

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

US Senator: NASA Job Losses Could Generate Jobs for Russian Space Program

Could the Shuttle launch after 2010? (NASA)

It’s not good news, but it could be worse. On Monday, NASA announced that it anticipates shedding 3,000-4,000 jobs in two years once the Space Shuttle fleet is retired to make way for the Constellation Program. This is obviously terrible news for the staff, scientists and engineers and their families, but it is in improvement on previous estimates that up to 8,000 personnel could have lost their livelihoods. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin confirmed that about 3,000 jobs would be saved by filling positions in the new space program that will build spaceships to supply the International Space Station and eventually take man to the Moon and Mars. However, the early Shuttle retirement and late Constellation completion will increase the dependence on Russia to provide access to space…

In April, Nancy reported that NASA could cut 8,000 jobs mainly around the Kennedy Space Center where the Shuttle launches are administered. Although job losses were to be expected during the Shuttle-Constellation handover, this high figure will have come as a shock, not only to NASA’s workforce, but the whole space exploration community. Today’s announcement will come as a relief as although 6,000-7,000 Kennedy Space Center employees will be lost, around 3,000 will be relocated to the new exploration program, most likely based at Cape Canaveral.

This news has surfaced from a two-hour hearing at Port Canaveral, on the doorstep of the space center where officials, residents and protesters attended. About 1,000 people had gathered earlier in the day for an outdoor rally before the morning meeting.

“America – one small step, one giant voice”
“America the place for space”
– Slogans written on rally protester’s banners this morning.

Protesters this morning (Canaveral Port Authority)

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, chairman of the space subcommittee and ex-astronaut who flew on Columbia in 1986, organized the hearing so concerned employees could have direct communication with NASA officials. Although the news was still tough to swallow, Nelson was upbeat about Griffin’s announcement. “I can’t say it’s good news, but it’s certainly news that’s a step in the right direction,” he said. The Senator also suggested that the forthcoming presidential elections may be fruitful when trying to find a change in policy for space exploration funding.

For now, workers at the site will have to wait until 2009 until a clearer picture emerges. In 2010, NASA has been instructed by the government to wind up Shuttle operations so a new focus can be set on Moon launches.

Nelson voiced concerns that these cutbacks at NASA will have the effect of “generating jobs in Russia to accomplish the same mission,” as once the Shuttle is retired there will be a dependence on the Russian space agency for access to space. Griffin responded by saying the situation was “unseemly in the extreme” but ultimately unavoidable. More NASA funding would be required to bring the new Constellation program into operation to fill the 5-year gap (from 2010 to 2015) in US launches to the space station. Nelson has also voiced his concern that the area could be economically damaged during this time through job lay-offs, identical to the situation in the 1970’s when Apollo was decommissioned and the Shuttle made its first flight in 1981.

Sources: Link to Launch, Associated Press

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Rare Binary Pulsars Provide High Energy Physics Lab

For the first time, a spacecraft has detected signals from both stars of a binary pulsar system in X-rays. XMM-Newton is watching both stars radiate pulsating X-rays, providing scientist with the perfect laboratory for high energy physics and a never-ending source of intriguing physical problems. The binary pulsar PSR J0737-3039 was first spotted by astronomers in 2003 in radio wavelengths, but now X-rays can be used to investigate this system in greater detail.

Binary pulsars are extremely rare. Each star of the closely-packed system is a dense neutron star, spinning extremely fast, radiating X-rays in pulses. One pulsar (B) rotates slowly, what scientists call a ‘lazy’ neutron star, while orbiting a faster and more energetic companion (pulsar A).

Each pulsar or neutron star once existed as a massive star. “These stars are so dense that one cup of neutron star-stuff would outweigh Mt. Everest,” says Alberto Pellizzoni, who has been studying this system. “Add to that the fact that the two stars are orbiting really close to each other, separated by only 3 light-seconds, about three times the distance between Earth and the Moon.”

Pellizzoni added, “One cup of neutron star-stuff would outweigh Mt. Everest. Add to that the fact that they’re orbiting really close, separated by only about three times the distance between Earth and the Moon.”

Pulsar B is an oddity, in that it is very different from a ‘normal’ pulsar. Additionally, the amount of X-rays coming from the system is greater that the scientists predicted. But how the two pulsars work together is still not understood.

“One possible solution for the mystery could be mutual interaction between the two stars, where the lazy star derives energy from the other,” says Pellizzoni.

Watch video of how the two pulsars may interact

The fundamental physical processes involved in these extreme interactions are a matter of debate among theoretical physicists. But now, with XMM-Newton’s observations, scientists have gained new insight, providing a new experimental setting for them. In X-rays, it will be possible to study the subsurface and magnetospheres of the stars as well as the interaction between the two in that close, heated environment.

This system also provides the study of strong-field gravity, given how close and dense the two stars are. Future tests of general relativity by radio observations of this system will supersede the best Solar System tests available. It is also a unique laboratory for studies in several other fields, ranging from the equation of state of super-dense matter to magneto-hydro dynamics.

Original News Source: ESA