ScienceDaily: Space & Time News

Mobile launcher tests confirm designs, NASA analysis concludes

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:15:15 EST

The 355-foot-tall mobile launcher, or ML, behaved as expected during its move to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in November 2011, an analysis of multiple sensors showed. The top of the tower swayed less than an inch each way.

NASA small explorer mission celebrates 10 years and 40,000 X-ray flares

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:13:13 EST

On February 5, 2002, NASA launched what was then called the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) into orbit. Renamed within months as the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) after Reuven Ramaty, a deceased NASA scientist who had long championed the mission, the spacecraft's job was to observe giant explosions on the sun called solar flares. Ten years since its launch, RHESSI has observed more than 40,000 X-ray flares, helped craft and refine a model of how solar eruptions form, and fueled additional serendipitous science papers on such things as the shape of the sun and thunder-storm-produced gamma ray flashes.

Mars-bound NASA rover carries coin for camera checkup

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:08:08 EST

The camera at the end of the robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has its own calibration target, a smartphone-size plaque that looks like an eye chart supplemented with color chips and an attached penny. When Curiosity lands on Mars in August, researchers will use this calibration target to test performance of the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. MAHLI's close-up inspections of Martian rocks and soil will show details so tiny, the calibration target includes reference lines finer than a human hair. This camera is not limited to close-ups, though. It can focus on any target from about a finger's-width away to the horizon.

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer in standby mode

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:06:06 EST

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, or Galex, was placed in standby mode Feb. 7, 2012 as engineers prepare to end mission operations, nearly nine years after the telescope's launch. The spacecraft is scheduled to be decommissioned -- taken out of service -- later this year. The mission extensively mapped large portions of the sky with sharp ultraviolet vision, cataloguing millions of galaxies spanning 10 billion years of cosmic time.

New views show old NASA Mars landers

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:04:04 EST

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded a scene on Jan. 29, 2012, that includes the first color image from orbit showing the three-petal lander of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mission. Spirit drove off that lander platform in January 2004 and spent most of its six-year working life in a range of hills about two miles to the east.

New image captures 'stealth merger' of dwarf galaxies

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:30:30 EST

New images of a nearby dwarf galaxy have revealed a dense stream of stars in its outer regions, the remains of an even smaller companion galaxy in the process of merging with its host. The host galaxy, known as NGC 4449, is the smallest primary galaxy in which a stellar stream from an ongoing merger has been identified and studied in detail.

Milky Way's black hole found grazing on asteroids

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:30:30 EST

The giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way may be vaporizing and devouring asteroids, which could explain the frequent flares observed, according to astronomers.

Spotlight on Carina Nebula stellar nursery

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:25:25 EST

Astronomers have obtained the most detailed – and dramatic - infrared image of the Carina Nebula stellar nursery taken so far. Many previously hidden features have emerged.

Most detailed infrared image of the Carina Nebula ever

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:24:24 EST

ESO's Very Large Telescope has delivered the most detailed infrared image of the Carina Nebula stellar nursery taken so far. Many previously hidden features, scattered across a spectacular celestial landscape of gas, dust and young stars, have emerged. This is one of the most dramatic images ever created by the VLT.

Mars Express radar yields strong evidence of ocean that once covered part of Red Planet

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:18:18 EST

ESA's Mars Express has returned strong evidence for an ocean once covering part of Mars. Using radar, it has detected sediments reminiscent of an ocean floor within the boundaries of previously identified, ancient shorelines on Mars.

High-precision map of Milky Way's magnetic fields charted

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:15:15 EST

Scientists have pooled their radio observations into a database, producing the highest precision map to date of the magnetic field within our own Milky Way galaxy.

Classic portrait of a barred spiral galaxy

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:24:24 EST

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a similar barred spiral, and the study of galaxies such as NGC 1073 helps astronomers learn more about our celestial home.

Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600-million-year drought, say scientists

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:20:20 EST

Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet’s surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analyzing individual particles of Martian soil.

Millisecond pulsar paradox: Stellar astrophysics helps explain behavior of fast rotating neutron stars in binary systems

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:14:14 EST

Pulsars are among the most exotic celestial bodies known. They have diameters of about 20 kilometers, but at the same time roughly the mass of our sun. A sugar-cube sized piece of its ultra-compact matter on Earth would weigh hundreds of millions of tons. A sub-class of them, known as millisecond pulsars, spin up to several hundred times per second around their own axes. Previous studies reached the paradoxical conclusion that some millisecond pulsars are older than the universe itself. Now this paradox may be solved by computer simulations, new research shows.

New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby cool star

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:14:14 EST

Sientists have discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. The star is a member of a triple star system and has a different makeup than our Sun, being relatively lacking in metallic elements. This discovery demonstrates that habitable planets could form in a greater variety of environments than previously believed.

Hubble zooms in on a magnified galaxy

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:08:08 EST

Astronomers aimed Hubble at one of the most striking examples of gravitational lensing, a nearly 90-degree arc of light in the galaxy cluster RCS2 032727-132623. Hubble's view of the distant background galaxy, which lies nearly 10 billion light-years away, is significantly more detailed than could ever be achieved without the help of the gravitational lens.

Do black holes help stars form?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:43:43 EST

The center of just about every galaxy is thought to host a black hole, some with masses of thousands of millions of Suns and consequently strong gravitational pulls that disrupt material around them. They had been thought to hinder the birth of stars, but now astronomers studying the nearby galaxy Centaurus A have found quite the opposite: a black hole that seems to be helping stars to form.

NASA mission returns first video from moon's far side

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:21:21 EST

A camera aboard one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon. MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, will be used by students nationwide to select lunar images for study.

Sun delivered curveball of powerful radiation at Earth

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:24:24 EST

A potent follow-up solar flare, which occurred Jan. 17, 2012, just days after the Sun launched the biggest coronal mass ejection seen in nearly a decade, delivered a powerful radiation punch to Earth's magnetic field despite the fact that it was aimed away from our planet.

Scientists help define structure of exoplanets

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST

Using models similar to those used in weapons research, scientists may soon know more about exoplanets, those objects beyond the realm of our solar system. Astronomers have come up with new methods for deriving and testing the equation of state of matter in exoplanets and figured out the mass-radius and mass-pressure relations for materials relevant to planetary interiors.

Stellar nursery: A pocket of star formation

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:43:43 EST

A new view shows a stellar nursery called NGC 3324. It was taken using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The intense ultraviolet radiation from several of NGC 3324's hot young stars causes the gas cloud to glow with rich colors and has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust.

IBEX probe glimpses interstellar neighborhood

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:08:08 EST

Space scientists have described the first detailed analyses of captured interstellar neutral atoms -- raw material for the formation of new stars, planets and even human beings.

NASA's THEMIS satellite sees a great electron escape

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:37:37 EST

When scientists discovered two great swaths of radiation encircling Earth in the 1950s, it spawned over-the-top fears about "killer electrons" and space radiation effects on Earthlings. The fears were soon quieted: the radiation doesn't reach Earth, though it can affect satellites and humans moving through the belts. Nevertheless, many mysteries about the belts -- now known as the Van Allen Radiation belts -- remain to this day.

Glimpses of the interstellar material beyond our solar system

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:01:01 EST

A great magnetic bubble surrounds the solar system as it cruises through the galaxy. The sun pumps the inside of the bubble full of solar particles that stream out to the edge until they collide with the material that fills the rest of the galaxy, at a complex boundary called the heliosheath. On the other side of the boundary, electrically charged particles from the galactic wind blow by, but rebound off the heliosheath, never to enter the solar system. Neutral particles, on the other hand, are a different story. They saunter across the boundary as if it weren't there, continuing on another 7.5 billion miles for 30 years until they get caught by the sun's gravity, and sling shot around the star.

IBEX spacecraft measures 'alien' particles from outside solar system

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:57:57 EST

Using data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft, an international team of researchers has measured neutral "alien" particles entering our solar system from interstellar space. A suite of studies provides a first look at the constituents of the interstellar medium, the matter between star systems, and how they interact with our heliosphere.

'Cool' gas may form and strengthen sunspots

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:31:31 EST

Hydrogen molecules may act as a kind of energy sink that strengthens the magnetic grip that causes sunspots, according to scientists using a new infrared instrument on an old telescope.

Scientists see 'sloshing' galaxy cluster

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:24:24 EST

Scientists have recently discovered that vast clouds of hot gas are "sloshing" in Abell 2052, a galaxy cluster located about 480 million light years from Earth.

Sun unleashes an X1.8 class flare on Jan. 27, 2012

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:02:02 EST

The sun unleashed an X1.8 class flare that began at 1:12 PM ET on January 27, 2012 and peaked at 1:37. The flare immediately caused a strong radio blackout at low-latitudes, which was rated an R3 on NOAA's scale from R1-5. The blackout soon subsided to a minor R1 storm. Models from NASA's Goddard Space Weather Center predict that the CME is traveling at over 1500 miles per second. It does not initially appear to be Earth-directed, but Earth may get a glancing blow.

Astronomers solve mystery of vanishing electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:09:09 EST

Researchers have explained the puzzling disappearing act of energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft.

Mars-bound instrument detects solar burst's effects: RAD measures radiation from solar storm

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:27:27 EST

The largest solar particle event since 2005 hit Earth, Mars and the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft traveling in-between, allowing the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector to measure the radiation a human astronaut could be exposed to en route to the Red Planet.

NuSTAR spacecraft arrives in California

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:23:23 EST

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, mission arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Jan. 27 after a cross-country trip by truck from the Orbital Sciences Corporation's manufacturing plant in Dulles, Va. The mission is scheduled to launch from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean on March 14.

NASA's Kepler announces 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 planets

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:59:59 EST

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified Kepler planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, the star. Such systems will help astronomers better understand how planets form.

Cosmology in a Petri dish

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:13:13 EST

Scientists have found that micron-size particles which are trapped at fluid interfaces exhibit a collective dynamic that is subject to seemingly unrelated governing laws. These laws show a smooth transitioning from long-ranged cosmological-style gravitational attraction down to short-range attractive and repulsive forces.

Photo from NASA Mars orbiter shows wind's handiwork

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:06:06 EST

Some images of stark Martian landscapes provide visual appeal beyond their science value, including a recent scene of wind-sculpted features from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Giant asteroid Vesta likely cold and dark enough for ice

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:05:05 EST

Though generally thought to be quite dry, roughly half of the giant asteroid Vesta is expected to be so cold and to receive so little sunlight that water ice could have survived there for billions of years, according to the first published models of Vesta's average global temperatures and illumination by the sun.

NASA's NuSTAR ships to Vandenberg for March 14 launch

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:04:04 EST

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, shipped to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Jan. 24, 2012, to be mated to its Pegasus launch vehicle. The observatory will detect X-rays from objects ranging from our sun to giant black holes billions of light-years away. It is scheduled to launch March 14 from an aircraft operating out of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

World's most powerful X-ray laser creates 2-million-degree matter

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:26:26 EST

Researchers working at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have used the world's most powerful X-ray laser to create and probe a 2-million-degree piece of matter in a controlled way for the first time. This feat takes scientists a significant step forward in understanding the most extreme matter found in the hearts of stars and giant planets, and could help experiments aimed at recreating the nuclear fusion process that powers the sun.

Classifying solar eruptions

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:38:38 EST

Solar flares are giant explosions on the sun that send energy, light and high speed particles into space. These flares are often associated with solar magnetic storms known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). While these are the most common solar events, the sun can also emit streams of very fast protons -- known as solar energetic particle (SEP) events -- and disturbances in the solar wind known as corotating interaction regions (CIRs). All of these can produce a variety of "storms" on Earth that can -- if strong enough -- interfere with short wave radio communications, GPS signals, and Earth's power grid, among other things.

Durable NASA rover beginning ninth year of Mars work

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:36:36 EST

Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, NASA's enduring Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on what essentially became a new mission five months ago.

Cassini sees the two faces of Titan's dunes

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:35:35 EST

A new analysis of radar data from NASA's Cassini mission, in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, has revealed regional variations among sand dunes on Saturn's moon Titan. The result gives new clues about the moon's climatic and geological history.

The wild early lives of today's most massive galaxies: Dramatic star formation cut short by black holes

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:11:11 EST

Astronomers have found the strongest link so far between the most powerful bursts of star formation in the early Universe, and the most massive galaxies found today. The galaxies, flowering with dramatic starbursts in the early Universe, saw the birth of new stars abruptly cut short, leaving them as massive — but passive — galaxies of aging stars in the present day. The astronomers also have a likely culprit for the sudden end to the starbursts: the emergence of supermassive black holes.

Jupiter’s 'Trojans' on an atomic scale

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:10:10 EST

The planet Jupiter keeps asteroids on stable orbits -- and in a similar way, electrons can be stabilized in their orbit around the atomic nucleus. Calculations have now been verified in a new experiment.

Lab mimics Jupiter's Trojan asteroids inside a single atom

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:23:23 EST

Physicists have built an accurate model of part of the solar system inside a single atom. Scientists have shown that they could make an electron orbit the atomic nucleus in the same way that Jupiter's Trojan asteroids orbit the sun. The findings uphold a 1920 prediction by physicist Niels Bohr.

Catching a comet death on camera

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:06:06 EST

On July 6, 2011, a comet was caught doing something never seen before: die a scorching death as it flew too close to the sun. That the comet met its fate this way was no surprise -- but the chance to watch it first-hand amazed even the most seasoned comet watchers.

Hearty bacteria help make case for life in the extreme

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:33:33 EST

The bottom of a glacier is not the most hospitable place on Earth, but at least two types of bacteria happily live there, according to researchers.

Helix Nebula in new colors

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:15:15 EST

Astronomers have captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. A new picture, taken in infrared light, reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are invisible in images taken in visible light, as well as bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies. The Helix Nebula is one of the closest and most remarkable examples of a planetary nebula.

Solar Dynamics Observatory helps measure magnetic fields on the sun's surface

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:31:31 EST

A subset of data that helps map out the sun's magnetic fields was recently released from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Observations that measure the strength and direction of magnetic fields on the solar surface -- known as vector magnetograms -- play a crucial role in understanding how those fields change over time and trigger giant eruptions off the surface of the sun such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Planck space telescope warms up as planned

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:12:12 EST

The High Frequency Instrument aboard the Planck space telescope has completed its survey of the remnant light from the Big Bang explosion that created our universe. The sensor ran out of coolant on Jan. 14, as expected, ending its ability to detect this faint energy.

Montana students pick winning names for moon craft

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:10:10 EST

Twin NASA spacecraft that achieved orbit around the moon New Year's Eve and New Year's Day have new names, thanks to elementary students in Bozeman, Mont. Their winning entry, "Ebb and Flow," was selected as part of a nationwide school contest that began in October 2011.

Voyager instrument cooling after heater turned off

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:08:08 EST

In order to reduce power consumption, mission managers have turned off a heater on part of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, dropping the temperature of its ultraviolet spectrometer instrument more than 23 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit). It is now operating at a temperature below minus 79 degrees Celsius (minus 110 degrees Fahrenheit), the coldest temperature that the instrument has ever endured. This heater shut-off is a step in the careful management of the diminishing electrical power so that the Voyager spacecraft can continue to collect and transmit data through 2025.

Revisiting the 'Pillars of Creation'

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:06:06 EST

In 1995, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took an iconic image of the Eagle nebula, dubbed the "Pillars of Creation," highlighting its finger-like pillars where new stars are thought to be forming. Now, the Herschel Space Observatory has a new, expansive view of the region captured in longer-wavelength infrared light.

Most distant dwarf galaxy detected

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:51:51 EST

Scientists have long struggled to detect the dim dwarf galaxies that orbit our own galaxy. So it came as a surprise on Jan. 18 when a team of astronomers using Keck II telescope's adaptive optics has announced the discovery of a dwarf galaxy halfway across the universe.

Moon-walk mineral discovered in Western Australia

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:36:36 EST

The last mineral thought to have been unique to the Moon has been discovered in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Dark side of the moon revealed: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's LAMP reveals lunar surface features

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:06:06 EST

New maps produced by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal features at the moon's northern and southern poles in regions that lie in perpetual darkness. LAMP uses a novel method to peer into these so-called permanently shadowed regions, making visible the invisible.

Novel chemical route to form organic molecules

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:20:20 EST

Scientists have discovered a novel chemical route to form polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- complex organic molecules such as naphthalene carrying fused benzene rings -- in ultra-cold regions of interstellar space.

Astronomers release unprecedented data set on celestial objects that brighten and dim

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:26:26 EST

Astronomers have released the largest data set ever collected that documents the brightening and dimming of stars and other celestial objects -- two hundred million in total.

Astronomers find three smallest planets outside solar system

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:40:40 EST

Astronomers have discovered the three smallest confirmed planets ever detected outside our solar system. The three planets, which all orbit a single star, are smaller than Earth and appear to be rocky. Their existence suggests that the galaxy could be teeming with similarly rocky planets—and that there's a good chance that many are in the so-called habitable zone, where liquid water and possibly life could exist.

Calculating what's in the universe from the biggest color 3-D map

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:40:40 EST

Astronomers have used visual data from nearly a million luminous galaxies for the most accurate calculation yet of how matter clumps together in the universe. By deriving cosmic rulers from an immense volume of sky, from a time when the universe was half its present age until now, the study establishes how much dark matter, dark energy, and even hard-to-detect neutrinos it contains.

Discovery of the smallest exoplanets: The Barnard's star connection

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:40:40 EST

The smallest exoplanets yet discovered orbit a dwarf star almost identical to Barnard's star, one of the sun's nearest neighbors. The similarity helped the astronomers calculate the size of the distant planets.

Planets with double suns are common

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:40:40 EST

Astronomers have discovered two new circumbinary planet systems -- planets that orbit two stars, like Tatooine in the movie Star Wars. Their find, which brings the number of known circumbinary planets to three, shows that planets with two suns must be common, with many millions existing in our galaxy.

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