On Orbit - Social Space News and Networking

Wayne Hale's NASA Blog: Real Life is Not Like Star Trek

keithcowing — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:20:18 -0700

For my birthday, my son and fellow Star Trek aficionado gave me some DVDs with the old TV series. Needless to say, I have made a lengthy review of the subject lasting far into the evenings over the last week or so.

Cooling Planck

keithcowing — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:08:59 -0700

The extremely low operational temperature of just a tenth of a degree above absolute zero (0.1 K) has been reached on the detectors of Planck's High Frequency Instrument (HFI). This makes the HFI detectors the coldest known objects in outer space. The achievement, seven weeks after launch, marks a key milestone for the Planck mission. The spacecraft's active cooling system has now reached its final operational conditions and the two instruments onboard Planck (HFI and the Low Frequency Instrument, LFI) are now both at their cryogenic operational temperatures.

GOES-O is now GOES-14

keithcowing — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:04:56 -0700

On June 27, 2009, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-O, soared into space during a spectacular launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. GOES-O has now been renamed and its solar array has been deployed.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-O satellite is the second in the GOES N Series that will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world.

Come Fly With Me

keithcowing — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:05:33 -0700

July 20, 2009 will mark the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's historic moonwalk. Having successfully won the race to the moon, the world, and Americans in particular, watched in awe as Armstrong bounded out of Apollo 11 and took the first steps on the moon's surface. Children everywhere expected their turn would surely come in the not-so-distant future and budding, or at least daydreaming, astronauts were born.

Solar Dynamics Observatory Arrives at Launch Site

keithcowing — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:58:00 -0700

NASA's upcoming mission to study the sun in unprecedented detail and its effects on Earth, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. on July 9. The spacecraft left NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., on July 7, where it was built and tested.

Herschel Observes the Infrared Sky

keithcowing — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:34:59 -0700

Herschel has carried out the first test observations with all its instruments, with spectacular results. Galaxies, star-forming regions and dying stars comprised the telescope's first targets. The instruments provided spectacular data on their first attempt, finding water and carbon and revealing dozens of distant galaxies.

Supermassive Black Hole Kick

keithcowing — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:53:09 -0700

The tight cluster of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole after it has been violently kicked out of a galaxy represents a new kind of astronomical object and a fossil record of the kick.

Did Galileo Discover Neptune?

keithcowing — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:44:31 -0700

Galileo knew he had discovered a new planet in 1613, 234 years before its official discovery date, according to a new theory by a University of Melbourne physicist.

Professor David Jamieson, Head of the School of Physics, is investigating the notebooks of Galileo from 400 years ago and believes that buried in the notations is the evidence that he discovered a new planet that we now know as Neptune.

Methane-eating Microbes Use Iron and Manganese Oxides to Breathe

keithcowing — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:41:40 -0700

Caption: A microbial mat above a methane seep in the Eel River Basin, Calif. This methane seep is being cored to obtain sediment from the seep. The sediment used in experiments was sampled in this manner.

Iron and manganese compounds, in addition to sulfate, may play an important role in converting methane to carbon dioxide and eventually carbonates in the Earth's oceans, according to a team of researchers looking at anaerobic sediments. These same compounds may have been key to methane reduction in the early, oxygenless days of the planet's atmosphere.

Simulations Illuminate Universe's First Twin Stars

keithcowing — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:29:44 -0700

This computer-simulated image shows the formation of two high density regions (yellow) in the early universe, approximately 200 million years after the Big Bang. The cores are separated by about 800 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and are expected to evolve into a binary--or "twin"--star system.