de Sitter Space : Physics and Astronomy News Blog

New Awesome Views of Andromeda Galaxy

noreply@blogger.com (Mushfiq) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:50:00 +0000

Two new stunning views of Andromeda galaxy are observed recently from the Herschel space observatory.

The ring-like swirls of dust filling the Andromeda galaxy stand out colorfully in this new image from the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation. Image credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/NHSC

The glow seen in the picture above comes from the longer-wavelength, or far, end of the infrared spectrum, giving astronomers the chance to identify the very coldest dust in our galactic neighbor. These light wavelengths span from 250 to 500 microns, which are a quarter to half of a millimeter in size. Herschel's ability to detect the light allows astronomers to see clouds of dust at temperatures of only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. These clouds are dark and opaque at shorter wavelengths. The Herschel view also highlights spokes of dust between the concentric rings.

In this new view of the Andromeda galaxy from the Herschel space observatory, cool lanes of forming stars are revealed in the finest detail yet. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation. Image credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS & SPIRE Consortium, O. Krause, HSC, H. Linz

The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth. It is estimated to have up to one trillion stars, whereas the Milky Way contains hundreds of billions.

The Herschel Space Observatory is a European Space Agency space observatory sensitive to the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands. The Herschel Observatory is capable of seeing the coldest and dustiest objects in space; for example, cool cocoons where stars form and dusty galaxies just starting to bulk up with new stars.

[via NASA/JPL]

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity Prepares to Drill

noreply@blogger.com (Mushfiq) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:52:00 +0000

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has placed its drill onto a series of four locations on a Martian rock and pressed down on it with the rover's arm, in preparation for using the drill in coming days.

The percussion drill in the turret of tools at the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has been positioned in contact with the rock surface in this image from the rover's front Hazard-Avoidance Camera (Hazcam). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The drill was positioned for pre-load testing, and the Hazcam recorded this image during the 170th Martian day of Curiosity's work on Mars (Jan. 27, 2013). Other tests with the drill are planned before the first drilling into a rock on Mars to collect a sample of rock material for analysis

Limonadi said, "We are proceeding with caution in the approach to Curiosity's first drilling. This is challenging. It will be the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.

[via NASA/JPL]

NASA Joins ESA to Explore the Dark Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Mushfiq) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:57:00 +0000

NASA has joined the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Euclid mission, a space telescope designed to investigate the cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

This artist's concept shows the Euclid spacecraft. The telescope will launch to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. The Lagrange point is a location where the gravitational pull of two large masses, the sun and Earth in this case, precisely equals the force required for a small object, such as the Euclid spacecraft, to maintain a relatively stationary position behind Earth as seen from the sun. Image credit: ESA/C. Carreau

Euclid will launch in 2020 and spend six years mapping the locations and measuring the shapes of as many as 2 billion galaxies spread over more than one-third of the sky. It will study the evolution of our universe, and the dark matter and dark energy that influence its evolution in ways that still are poorly understood.

The telescope will launch to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. The Lagrange point is a location where the gravitational pull of two large masses, the sun and Earth in this case, precisely equals the force required for a small object, such as the Euclid spacecraft, to maintain a relatively stationary position behind Earth as seen from the sun.

"NASA is very proud to contribute to ESA's mission to understand one of the greatest science mysteries of our time," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington.

NASA and ESA recently signed an agreement outlining NASA's role in the project. NASA will contribute 16 state-of-the-art infrared detectors and four spare detectors for one of two science instruments planned for Euclid.

"ESA's Euclid mission is designed to probe one of the most fundamental questions in modern cosmology, and we welcome NASA's contribution to this important endeavor, the most recent in a long history of cooperation in space science between our two agencies," said Alvaro Giménez, ESA's Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.

In addition, NASA has nominated three U.S. science teams totaling 40 new members for the Euclid Consortium. This is in addition to 14 U.S. scientists already supporting the mission. The Euclid Consortium is an international body of 1,000 members who will oversee development of the instruments, manage science operations and analyze data.

Euclid will map the dark matter in the universe. Matter as we know it -- the atoms that make up the human body, for example -- is a fraction of the total matter in the universe. The rest, about 85 percent, is dark matter consisting of particles of an unknown type. Dark matter first was postulated in 1932, but still has not been detected directly. It is called dark matter because it does not interact with light. Dark matter interacts with ordinary matter through gravity and binds galaxies together like an invisible glue.

While dark matter pulls matter together, dark energy pushes the universe apart at ever-increasing speeds. In terms of the total mass-energy content of the universe, dark energy dominates. Even less is known about dark energy than dark matter.

Euclid will use two techniques to study the dark universe, both involving precise measurements of galaxies billions of light-years away. The observations will yield the best measurements yet of how the acceleration of the universe has changed over time, providing new clues about the evolution and fate of the cosmos.

Euclid is an ESA mission with science instruments provided by a consortia of European institutes and with important participation from NASA. NASA's Euclid Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. JPL will contribute the infrared flight detectors for the Euclid science instrument. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will test the infrared flight detectors prior to delivery. Three U.S. science teams will contribute to science planning and data analysis. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about Euclid, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/euclid ,
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=102 and http://www.euclid-ec.org/ .

Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.

Astronomy Pictures of the Month

noreply@blogger.com (Mushfiq) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 07:01:00 +0000

Saturn's Rings from the Dark Side

Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

The Center of Trifid Nebula

Image Credit: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope, Martin Pugh; Processing: Robert Gendler

NGC 1309: Spiral Galaxy and Friends

Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing - Martin Pugh

Saturn at Night

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute, Cassini Imaging Team

The Cygnus Wall of Star Formation

Credit & Copyright: Nick Pavelchak

The Elusive Jellyfish Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Dieter Willasch (Astro-Cabinet)

Doomed Star Eta Carinae

Image Credit: J. Morse (Arizona State U.), K. Davidson (U. Minnesota) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA

NASA's TDRS-K Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Mushfiq) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:23:00 +0000

NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, also known as the Space Network, will get an upgrade this month when the agency launches the first of a new generation of communications satellites to connect man of NASA's spacecraft to their control centers and mission data centers.

The TDRS-K spacecraft stands inside a processing hangar in Titusville, Fla., awaiting packaging for launch into orbit 22,300 miles above Earth. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 is due to loft the TDRS-K spacecraft Jan. 29 on a course to geosynchronous orbit where the spacecraft will have a wide view of Earth. From that position, the spacecraft will provide communications with NASA's fleet of Earth-orbiting science spacecraft, including the International Space Station and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The advanced spacecraft, known as TDRS, is needed to ensure the communications network is able to provide critical services to user spacecraft in the next decade.

"We have some aging satellites, so we need new spacecraft to go in there and help carry more of the data," said Diana Calero, mission manager for NASA's Launch Services Program, or LSP, based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The processing for this mission included the standard in-depth reviews but also took into account extra engineering sessions to investigate whether the underperformance of an upper stage engine during an earlier, non-NASA launch would occur during the TDRS ascent, said Tim Dunn, NASA launch director. The Centaur upper stage used by the Atlas V uses an engine similar to the one that underperformed during a Delta IV launch last year.

"Our engineers and analysts from the Launch Services Program, working alongside the United Launch Alliance engineers, we've been methodically reviewing data and working very closely on flight clearance for the TDRS-K mission, so that's been our biggest challenge to date," Dunn said.

The TDRS spacecraft is large and looked impressive as it stood with its large steerable antennas folded over top of each other inside a processing hangar at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla. The spacecraft, built by The Boeing Company in El Segundo, Calif., arrived in Florida on Dec. 18 on an Air Force C-17 transport plane. Following testing, fueling and launch preparations, it was positioned inside a two-part payload fairing and taken to Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Onboard thrusters will provide the final propulsion to reach geosynchronous orbit following separation from the Centaur upper stage.

"The antennas are furled and they have a certain amount of days that they can stay furled," Calero said. "If they pass that, then the antennas, when they're deployed, they can actually degrade in space and so we have to play close attention to how long they stay furled. So it was really challenging trying to schedule the shipping of the spacecraft with the moving launch date. We're still watching it very closely."

TDRS-K will be the 11th TDRS launched by NASA since it began building the space-borne network in 1983. The most recent spacecraft launched in 2002 on an Atlas IIA.

Orbiting about 22,300 miles above Earth, positioned roughly over Hawaii, TDRS-K will use its antennas to receive and transmit signals from a wide range of spacecraft to Earth in several frequency bands.

Even rockets carrying spacecraft carry TDRS-compatible communications gear and transmit telemetry during ascent through the orbiting network instead of ground stations, an advancement that saves money by not having to field specialized aircraft and ships or maintain a string of remote stations to monitor a launch.

The number of TDRS satellites required to serve NASA's orbiting fleet of scientific spacecraft has grown from the original architecture of two to six to service the requirements of a diverse set of users.

"All the Hubble images come through TDRS, all the video that we see from the space station and the astronauts and the video we saw from the shuttle, it all comes through TDRS, and then we have all the Earth-orbiting satellites, all that data comes through TDRS," said Paul Buchanan, deputy project manager for TDRS.

The communications constellation replaced the ground stations positioned on Earth so NASA could communicate with astronauts in orbit. That system allowed contact only when the spacecraft passed within range of the antennas, however. With TDRS satellites in place, controllers have near-constant contact with spacecraft.

"If you roll back in history maybe 30, 40 years, back in Mercury days and Apollo there were no TDRS satellites for communication so you had outages between the ground stations," Buchanan said. "We didn't want the outages, we wanted continuous (communications), so that's what motivated the desire for the Space Network."

"We've had to decommission two spacecraft in the last few years due to the electronics degradation after 20, 25 years," Buchanan said. "We're launching now for an immediate need and replenishment schedule."

When their service life is up, the TDRS satellites are boosted about 250 miles higher into what's called a disposal orbit.

This post is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.

Apollo 10 Recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Mushfiq) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:38:00 +0000

Apollo 10 Helicopter Recovery - Source: space.com

May 26, 1969. At 11:53 a.m about 400 miles east of American Samoa Apollo 10 splashed down. In this historic photo we can see a Navy helicopter arrives to recover the Apollo 10 astronauts.