Space and Astronomy News

Second computer glitch shuts down NASA Mars rover

2013-03-18T15:03:00.001-07:00

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 18 - The Mars rover Curiosity has had a second computer glitch, extending an unplanned work break for the NASA robot that discovered the first life-friendly chemistry beyond Earth, scientists said on Monday.

Engineers had hoped to resume Curiosity science operations on Monday following a problem with the rover's main computer two weeks ago.

But a second computer problem surfaced on Sunday night as the rover was attempting to radio data files back to Earth, said lead scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology.

'This is not something that is rare or even uncommon,' Grotzinger said at a webcast news conference during the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston.

The problem, however, is expected to keep Curiosity's next batch of science results on hold for a few more days, Grotzinger told Reuters.

Before the glitch, the rover had radioed back to Earth its first analysis of rock samples drilled from the inside of slab of bedrock in the rover's Gale Crater landing site.

The rover touched down on August 6 to learn if the planet most like Earth has or ever had the chemical ingredients to support microbial life. The early results, announced last week, were a definitive yes.

Scientists also announced additional evidence on Monday that Curiosity is located in an area once flush with water, a key ingredient for life.

Infrared images and an instrument that fires neutrons into the ground to probe for hydrogen detected minerals that form in water near the mudstone that Curiosity drilled and chemically analyzed.

The rover's camera and its Russian-made neutron probe found more evidence for water in the so-called Yellowknife Bay area, where the rover is presently located, than at sites studied earlier in the mission.

'I see the difference between Yellowknife and the area which is just before Yellowknife ... showing the different distribution of water. This is a significant variation,' Maxim Litvak of the Space Research Institute in Moscow told reporters.

The rover is seven months into a planned two-year, $2.5 billion mission at Gale Crater, a giant impact basin located near the Martian equator. Scientists eventually want to explore a 3-mile (5-km) mountain of what appears to be layered sediments rising from the crater floor.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Cynthia Osterman)

NASA Helps Break Guinness World Record for Biggest Astronomy Lesson

2013-03-18T12:03:00.001-07:00

With their eyes turned up at the Texas night sky, NASA and 526 space fans have set a new Guinness World Record for the largest outdoor astronomy lesson in Austin.

The huge group gathered on the lawn of the Long Center for the Performing Arts at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival on March 10 to learn about how astronomers use light and color to understand cosmic objects, from the moon to distant galaxies.

'Astronomy awakens the natural curiosity and awe in all of us,' Frank Summers, an astrophysicist from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, said in a statement. 'Many people think that astronomy and physics is only complicated math equations. They don't recognize how natural it is and how much they already know.'

Summers and Dan McCallister, an education specialist at STScI, used colored filter glasses to show how light can be broken down into its different wavelengths. They explained how certain wavelengths are selected for specific studies of an astronomical object. In the background of the lesson was a full-scale model of NASA's next giant space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is the size of a tennis court and as tall as a four-story building. The real space observatory is slated to launch in 2018.

Sunday's event was organized by NASA, STScI and Northrop Grumman, which are all involved in the Webb Telescope mission. It was intended to highlight how amazing space telescope pictures help answer big questions about the universe.

'Astronomy tries to answer the questions that everyone wonders about like, 'how did we get here?'' Alberto Conti, an astrophysicist and Webb Telescope innovation scientist at STScI, who was also at SXSW, added in a statement. 'Astronomy showcases the physical laws of nature. It shows all of the processes. You can learn a lot about physics and nature by studying it.'

The record for the largest astronomy lesson was previously held by Mexico, which hosted a similar event including 458 participants, organized by Juarez Competitiva, on Oct. 14, 2011.

Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Scientists to Unveil New Planetary Science Discoveries This Week

2013-03-18T09:03:00.001-07:00

Nearly 2,000 astronomers have converged in Texas this week to reveal the latest discoveries on the moon, Mars and other destinations across the solar system.

The gathering marks the start of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, near Houston, an annual conference to discuss new discoveries by scientists and unmanned spacecraft.

'This is the premiere conference for planetary scientists, and has been a significant focal point for planetary science research since its beginning in 1970, when it was known as the Apollo 11 Lunar Science Conference,' officials with the Lunar and Planetary Institute of Houston said in a statement. The institute organizes the five-day conference each year.

NASA officials said the U.S. space agency's unmanned Mars and moon missions will be featured prominently in the conference this week. [Spacecraft Now Exploring Deep Space (Photo Gallery)]

'Presentations will include recent science findings from the rover Curiosity on Mars, and an update on NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter missions,' NASA officials said in an announcement.

NASA will webcast two press conferences on Monday and Tuesday (March 18 and 19) to discuss the Curiosity rover's Mars discoveries and the Grail moon probes. Today's press conference begins at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) and will focus on the Curiosity rover, which has confirmed that Mars was habitable for microbial life in the ancient past. NASA unveiled that discovery last week.

You can watch the Curiosity press conference live on SPACE.com here, courtesy of NASA and the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Curiosity landed on Mars in August to begin a two-year primary mission to determine if Mars could have ever supported life. The rover accomplished that goal in just seven months, NASA officials said.

On Tuesday, NASA will hold another press conference at 1 p.m. EDT to discuss the Grail mission to map the moon's gravity. The two Grail spacecraft launched 2011 and orbited the moon together in order to measure the lunar gravitational field with unprecedented detail. The probes completed their mission last year, ending the expedition with spectacular back-to-back crashes into the lunar surface.

The conference will also include updates on the latest planetary science discoveries by scientists around the world, as well potential future missions to explore the solar system by NASA and other space agencies.

Visit SPACE.com each day this week for news from the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

SpaceX's Reusable 'Grasshopper' Rocket Makes Highest Flight Yet

2013-03-18T08:03:00.001-07:00

A private experimental rocket that could lay the foundation for a fully reusable launch system has passed its most ambitious test yet, flying 24 stories high and then sticking its landing.

SpaceX's Grasshopper rocket ascended 263 feet (80 meters) into the Texas sky during its fourth-ever test flight on March 7, doubling its highest hop to date. Grasshopper hovered for 34 seconds before heading back down and landing softly at the center of its launchpad, SpaceX officials said.

This latest test flight, conducted at SpaceX's rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas, was unmanned. But a dummy dressed as Johnny Cash rode along on the rocket's exterior, which explains why SpaceX set its video of the Grasshopper flight to Cash's famous song 'Ring of Fire.'

'Hey Johnny, how was the ride?' SpaceX officials said Thursday (March 14) via the company's official Twitter feed in a post that also linked to a screenshot showing the rocket-riding 'Mannequin in Black.'

SpaceX wants to make spaceflight much cheaper by developing fully and rapidly reusable rockets. Grasshopper is key to making this goal a reality, officials said.

'With Grasshopper, SpaceX engineers are testing the technology that would enable a launched rocket to land intact, rather than burning up upon reentry to the Earth's atmosphere,' company officials said in a statement after the rocket's fourth test flight.

Grasshopper stands about 10 stories tall and incorporates the first-stage tank of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which launched the company's robotic Dragon capsule on its second contracted cargo run to the International Space Station for NASA earlier this month.

Grasshopper is powered by a single engine (compared to nine for the Falcon 9). It lands vertically on four metallic legs.

The experimental rocket's test campaign has achieved exponential altitude increases with every successive flight.

Grasshopper's first flight, which took place last September, reached a height of 8.2 feet (2.5 m). The rocket then flew to altitudes of 17.7 feet (5.4 m) and 131 feet (40 m) in November and December, respectively.

The California-based SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion NASA contract to make 12 unmanned supply runs to the space station. Dragon is slated to end its current mission on March 25, when it will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.

The company is also developing a manned version of Dragon and is one of several firms competing to fly NASA astronauts to and from the orbiting lab.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

Astronaut Celebrates St. Patrick's Day in Space

2013-03-17T08:03:00.001-07:00

You don't need gravity to have a great St. Patrick's Day, just ask astronaut Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station.

Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, is celebrating the Irish holiday in orbit by wearing a green shirt and a bright green bow tie today (March 17) while photographing Ireland from space.

'Maidin mhaith from the International Space Station! Happy Saint Patrick's Day to the Irish all around the globe. Good morning!' Hadfield wrote in one of several Irish-themed Twitter posts today. Maidin mhaith is Gaelic for 'Good Morning.'

Hadfield also snapped a photo of Tralee, Ireland, as the space station passed over the region this morning and even recorded a cosmic version of the traditional Irish song 'Danny Boy.' Tralee was the first patch of green land Hadfield saw as the space station soared over the Atlantic Ocean today. [Astronaut Chris Hadfield's Amazing Space Photos]

'Danny Boy strikes home with me now more than ever. I've recorded a version for today in orbit,' Hadfield wrote. He posted his version of Danny Boy on the Soundcloud.com audio website.

Hadfield is an accomplished guitarist and is the first astronaut to record an original song in space. Last month, he was one of several astronauts to perform with the Irish band The Chieftains during a Feb. 15 concert in Houston. NASA astronauts Cady Coleman and Dan Burbank joined the Chieftains live on stage during the concert, with Hadfield prerecording his portion for the show.

Coleman also performed with the Chieftains from space during a mission to the International Space Station that ran from December 2010 to May 2011. She took five different flutes to the space station and also performed an Irish song in space for St. Patrick's Day.

Hadfield commands the Expedition 35 mission on the International Space Station and took charge the orbiting lab last week when the previous Expedition 34 crew returned to Earth. He is the first Canadian ever to command the space station.

The space station's Expedition 35 crew consists of Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. The three men launched to the space station in December and are due to return to Earth in May.

Hadfield and his crew will welcome three more crewmembers on March 28, bringing the space station back up to its full six-person crew size.

You can listen to Chris Hadfield's version of Danny Boy on SoundCloud.com here.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Russia and Europe Team Up for Mars Missions

2013-03-17T07:03:00.001-07:00

Russia and the European Space Agency have officially teamed up to send a series of spacecraft to search for signs of life on Mars.

European space officials and Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) signed a deal Thursday (March 14) to launch a Mars orbiter mission in 2016 and a rover in 2018 as part of what is now a joint ExoMars program.

The Mars exploration agreement outlines the two agencies' responsibilities for the upcoming unmanned missions. In 2016, ESA will provide the Trace Gas Orbiter to study the atmosphere of Mars to measure its chemical composition, as well as an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module.

For the 2018 mission, ESA will provide the carrier and the ExoMars rover, which will search for signs that life on Mars existed in the past or present, collecting samples from as deep as 6.5 feet (2 meters) beneath the surface of the Red Planet.

'It will be the first Mars rover able to drill to depths of 2 m, collecting samples that have been shielded from the harsh conditions of the surface, where radiation and oxidants can destroy organic materials,' ESA officials said in a statement.

Roscosmos, meanwhile, will supply the rockets to launch both Mars missions, as well as the 2018 descent module and surface platform. Both space agencies will provide scientific instruments and will work together on the scientific goals of the missions, according to ESA officials.

ESA director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain called Thursday's agreement a 'momentous occasion' for the ExoMars program after meeting with the head of Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, at the ESA headquarters in Paris. Dordain said in a statement that the agreement 'will demonstrate the competitiveness of European industry, be important for preparing a solid participation of ESA in future international exploration missions and address the key question of whether life ever arose on Mars.'

NASA pulled out of the ExoMars program last year due to budget cuts in its planetary science program, but ESA officials said the U.S. space agency will still contribute some communications and engineering support for the new Mars missions.

Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original story on SPACE.com.

See Jupiter and Moon Pair Up on St. Patrick's Day

2013-03-16T08:03:00.001-07:00

On Sunday evening, revelers can cap their St. Patrick's Day by enjoying a view of a rendezvous involving two of the brightest objects in the night sky: the moon and the planet Jupiter.

About 45 minutes after sunset on Sunday (March 17), the eye-catching celestial duo will be visible in the southwest sky, roughly two-thirds up from the horizon to the point directly overhead (called the zenith).

The moon will be a wide crescent at the time, 34 percent illuminated by the sun, and will sit below Jupiter. At its closest pass - which will occur at around 10:30 p.m. local daylight time along the U.S. East Coast, and around 7:00 p.m. local time for the West Coast - Earth's natural satellite will be just 2 degrees from the giant planet. (For reference, your clenched fist held at arm's length measures about 10 degrees.)

After its closest approach, the moon, moving at its own apparent diameter per hour, will appear to slowly move away from Jupiter to the east (left). [Amazing Night Sky Photos by Stargazers (March 2013)]

Even without the moon, Jupiter readily attracts attention. It's the brightest 'star' of the night, coming into view high in the southwest during the early stages of twilight. The first-magnitude star Aldebaran flickers into view next, about 5 degrees to the lower left of Jupiter, its orange color helping it to stand out from the deepening dark-blue sky.

Last to appear are the famous Pleiades and Hyades star clusters as the sky darkens from purple to black. The entire array of the moon, planet, bright star and star clusters sits within the constellation of Taurus (The Bull).

Binoculars are perfect for observing the whole Taurus get-together. Even the most ordinary pair will show dozens of Pleiades and Hyades stars, and at least one, two, or three of Jupiter's four bright Galilean moons (Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa).

Be sure to check out Jupiter on the evening of March 24, when any small telescope will show it closely flanked above and below by two seventh-magnitude background stars in Taurus, masquerading as an extra pair of renegade Galilean satellites.

In a telescope, Jupiter is best observed during early evening when it's still high and its image reasonably calm. Viewing at such times shows the king of planets as a great big belted ball with tantalizing glimpses of detail.

As the evening grows late, the whole assemblage wheels lower in the west and sets soon after midnight.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Jupiter and the moon in the night sky, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

Celebrated Keck Telescopes Seek Funding on 20th Anniversary

2013-03-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

A celebration of the W.M. Keck Observatory's 20th anniversary this week will also include a plea for more money to keep the iconic telescopes running in the next year.

'We're a little concerned because of what's going on in Washington,' said Debbie Godwin, director of advancement for Keck's foundation.

Roughly $6.5 million, more than a quarter of the Keck Observatory's annual budget, comes from the U.S. National Science Foundation, but that could change due to across-the-board federal cuts coming under the sequestration process, Godwin said.

Half of the Hawaiian observatory's $23 million budget comes from the University of California and the California Institute of Technology. Representatives from each institution sit on Keck's board of directors. [10 Amazing Keck Discoveries]

It's not the universities but rather the philanthropists that Keck hopes will fill the shortfall. Normally, the observatory's minders 'would really be over the moon if we received $5 million of philanthropy a year,' Godwin said.

But this year, she said, they'll really have to step that up. Godwin added that the directors are optimistic the 20th anniversary celebrations will convince philanthropists to be generous.

'We are hoping that this anniversary will put a clarion call that says this is something of value in our world,' she said.

Larger telescopes coming

At 20 years old, Keck is an invaluable tool for hunting down exoplanets, exploring galaxies on the edge of the universe and occasionally snapping pictures of moons and planets in Earth's own solar system.

The twin telescopes, each with 32-foot (10 meter) diameters, are the largest optical scopes around. They boast an extensive legacy of discovery, ranging from co-discovering methane on Mars to charting the acceleration of the universe.

Competition is fierce for observing time at Keck, with a typical research project receiving a couple of nights annually. Last year, the telescopes generated 315 research papers - almost a paper for every observing night of the year, Godwin pointed out.

Look 10-20 years further down the line, though, and Keck will be a small telescope amid newer and larger observatories.

For example, the European Extremely Large Telescope in Chile should come online around 2022. Its 129-foot (39.3 meter) mirror will be more than four times the size of one Keck telescope.

Godwin anticipates demand for Keck will begin to fade around then, but that decreased traffic will be a boon to astronomers now jostling for observing time.

Instead of brief runs, interested scientists may be able to use the telescope for days at a time. Astronomers could do complementary runs to the Thirty Meter Telescope, a giant observatory planned for Hawaii. This scope will observe in wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared and could come online as early as 2020. [The 10 Biggest Telescopes on Earth]

'We'll not be obsolete for many decades,' Godwin said.

Future-proofing

Like any technological marvel, Keck has to keep innovating to stay near the top of the game. The telescopes each use a laser-guided system that allows them to focus their mirrors properly on distant targets, correcting for distortions in the atmosphere.

In 2015, the observatory plans to put in a new laser system for the Keck II telescope. It's the first instrument entirely funded by private philanthropy.

Coinciding with the anniversary, Keck's foundation will also launch fundraising for the cosmic web imager. This spectrograph instrument would probe the structure of the universe.

While that instrument is still on the drawing board, Keck's foundation hopes to have it online within five years. Construction will require about $1 million from private donors.

Since the dates that new instruments will come online are not guaranteed, the staff working on the observatories sometimes need to adapt the older ones to new uses.

One example comes from studies of the field of ultra-faint galaxies, a collection of hobbit-like galaxies scattered around the Milky Way that are the least luminous ones known. However, they also contain the most dark matter, a mysterious substance that makes up most of the matter in the universe.

Keck's existing spectrograph was not designed to pick up these objects, as nobody knew the dim galaxies existed, said Yale University astronomer Marla Geha. That spectrograph does, however, perfectly balance the needs of adequate resolution and light collection to pick up these wispy objects.

Geha, who was observing at Keck while SPACE.com spoke with her Tuesday (March 12), said she is currently using the telescope to peer at stars in these galaxies and measure the stellar chemistries.

'These stars are some of the oldest stars we know in the universe, and [contain] the least amount of metals,' she said. The oldest stars tend to have fewer metals, since heavier elements were formed in supernova explosions, which took place later in the universe when stars aged and died.

The ultra-faint galaxies 'probably formed all those stars within the first billion years of the universe,' Geha added. The galaxies 'are really quite old, and there's no other galaxy out there that has quite as old stars.'

Adaptive observatory

The staff at Keck also lets astronomers try new techniques, allowing them to make discoveries that would not have been possible when using the hardware in its existing configuration, said astronomer Adam Kraus.

Kraus, who is a Hubble Fellow at Harvard University, praised Keck's 'adaptive optics' system, which adjusts the mirror to correct for turbulence in the atmosphere, producing sharper images.

However, adaptive optics can sometimes create ghost images of the star. That's not ideal for finding alien planets.

Last year, Kraus and his collaborators put an aperture mask in the light path of one of the Keck telescopes. The mask, punched with holes, allowed light to pass through several smaller paths.

'It lets us ferret out these remaining imperfections,' Kraus said. That makes it easier to see exoplanets under certain conditions, such as if they are bright and close to the star.

In this case, Kraus and his team made a major discovery: spotting an alien planet being born in a dusty disc around its star. No one had ever seen a planet in the process of formation before.

'It's a very nimble and flexible observatory,' he said.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

Lowell Observatory Launches Crowdsourcing Campaign to Restore Classic Telescope

2013-03-15T08:04:00.001-07:00

An historic telescope could be on its way to an upgrade.

The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., launched a two-month-long 'crowdfunding' campaign Wednesday (March 13) to help raise money to restore its vintage Clark Telescope.

Now designated a National Historic Landmark, the 24-inch refracting telescope was once used to map the moon, study Mars and observe the expanding cosmos .

'The telescope was built in 1896 and it hasn't been completely taken apart since 1897,' Kevin Schindler, the outreach manager for Lowell said.

Officials with the observatory are hoping to raise at least $256,718 to help keep the telescope in working order.

For the past 20 years, the Clark Telescope has been used as a tool for public outreach, not research, Schindler said. More than 1 million people have looked through the eyepiece of the telescope to observe various celestial bodies in the night sky, he added.

All that wear and tear, however, has left the telescope in bad health.

'It's really getting to the critical point,' Schindler said. 'We don't want it to get any worse. If we're going to close it, we want to have a plan in place.'

Today, when the telescope is pointed at one particular object in the sky, it does not stay in place, Schindler added. Although officials at the observatory are hoping to restore the telescope back to working order, they are not interesting in modernizing it.

Both the dome and the telescope need work, Shindler said, but they do not want to change its 'historic flavor.' The kitchen chair on the observing ladder used by the observatory's namesake astronomer Percival Lowell and other quirky objects were added to the telescope throughout the years will remain in place.

In all, the renovation is expected to take about nine months from start to finish.

Officials at Lowell picked Wednesday as the kickoff date for a variety of reasons, Schindler said. March 13 would have been Lowell's 158th birthday, and it was also the anniversary of the announcement that marked the discovery of Pluto in 1930. Uranus was found on the same day in 1781 as well.

As of the writing of this story, the campaign has raised more than $5,870. For more information on the Clark Telescope project, visit the Restore the Clark IndieGoGo website.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Queen Elizabeth II Congratulates 1st Canadian Space Station Commander

2013-03-15T05:04:00.001-07:00

If becoming the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station weren't exciting enough by itself, Chris Hadfield now has the best wishes of Queen Elizabeth II to go along with it.

The queen - who reigns over the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms, including Canada - offered her congratulations to Hadfield, who took charge of the orbiting lab's new Expedition 35 today (March 13).

'I am pleased to transmit my personal best wishes, and those of all Canadians, to Colonel Christopher Hadfield as he takes command of the International Space Station on Wednesday,' Queen Elizabeth II said in a statement. 'Our thoughts and best wishes are with him and the entire crew, as are our prayers for an eventual safe return to family, friends and fellow Canadians.'

Hadfield assumed command of the orbiting lab from NASA astronaut Kevin Ford during a ceremony this afternoon.

'Thank you very much for giving me the keys to the family car,' Hadfield said during the ceremony, which featured the playing of 'O Canada' in his honor. 'We're going to put some miles on it, but we'll bring it back in good shape.'

Ford and Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy will head home to Earth Friday (March 15) - one day later than planned due to bad weather at their landing site - marking the official end of the station's Expedition 34 and the start of Expedition 35.

Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko will have the station to themselves until March 28, when three new crewmembers will arrive aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Hadfield is the first citizen of a Commonwealth nation - the group of 54 countries that have maintained ties after the British Empire came to an end - to hold the space station's keys. He's just the second-ever commander who is neither a NASA astronaut nor a Russian cosmonaut. (Belgian spaceflyer Frank De Winne led Expedition 21 in 2009).

The guitar-strumming Hadfield had already made a mark on the space station before taking charge. Shortly after arriving in December, he played the first original song ever recorded on the space station. And in February, Hadfield performed a duet with Barenaked Ladies singer Ed Robertson, a fellow Canadian, who did his part from Earth.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

Space Station Crew's Landing Delayed by 'Horrible' Earth Weather

2013-03-14T17:03:00.001-07:00

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are stuck in space for one more day after freezing rain and fog on Earth prevented them from landing in Central Asia on Thursday (March 14), NASA officials say.

The foul weather, which one Russian space agency official described simply as 'horrible,' means NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin had to delay their return from the International Space Station for at least 24 hours. The three men have been living in space for 141 days and were preparing to enter their Soyuz spacecraft for a landing on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan tonight.

'We are waving off landing,' NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live mission commentary. 'No Soyuz landing tonight.'

The rain and fog in Kazakhstan is not a threat to the Soyuz spacecraft and crew, Navias said. But the recovery helicopters essential for retrieving the astronauts after landing would not be able to make it to their staging grounds for the landing because of bad weather conditions. [See photos of the Expedition 34 space station mission]

'I talked to our colleagues in Kazakhstan last night and the weather is really horrible, and a decision was made not to risk, and we suggest that we delay the landing.' chief Russian flight director Vlademir Solovyev said through a translator on NASA TV.

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin were originally scheduled to undock their Russian-built Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft at the International Space Station tonight at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT), with an expected landing of 11:56 p.m. EDT (0356 GMT).

Landing is now scheduled to occur on Friday (March 15) at 11:06 p.m. EDT (0206 March 16 GMT), NASA officials said.

This is not the first time weather has affected a Soyuz spacecraft's landing. In 2009, another Soyuz craft had its return to Earth delayed by a day because snowy conditions on the ground made the landing potentially unsafe.

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin have spent nearly five months on board the station. The mission is Ford's second spaceflight and the first trip to space for Novitskiy and Tarelkin.

When Ford and his two crewmates depart the station, three other spaceflyers - Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian Roman Romanenko and American Tom Marshburn - will remain aboard orbiting lab to await a new set of crewmembers.

That new crew will launch on March 28 to ferry cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy to the space station.

NASA has relied on Russia's Soyuz crafts ferry astronauts between the Earth's surface and orbit since the retirement of the agency's shuttle program in 2011. Officials with the space agency hope to instead depend on privately built unmanned and crewed spacecraft to bring people and cargo to and from the space station.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Giant Alien Planet in Supersized Solar System May Solve Mystery

2013-03-14T12:03:00.001-07:00

The glowing atmosphere of a strangely giant alien world could help solve mysteries of not just how it formed, but how our own solar system arose, scientists say.

The exoplanet discovery comes from the most detailed look yet at the alien planets around the distant star HR 8799, which lies about 130 light-years from Earth. The HR 8799 system is home to four giant planets orbiting a relatively young, 30-million-year-old star, with each planet far larger than any world found in Earth's solar system.

The planets orbiting HR 8799 weigh in at between five to 10 times the mass of Jupiter and are still glowing with the heat of their formation, allowing researchers to directly image them.

'It's the only system in which multiple planets can individually be seen,' said study co-author Bruce Macintosh, an astronomer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The planetary system resembles a scaled-up version of our solar system, suggesting there may be smaller Earth-size planets closer in, although the researchers currently have not yet seen any.

It even 'has something that kind of looks like maybe an asteroid belt interior to the closest giant planet like we have in our solar system, and something that maybe you can refer to as an Oort cloud analog out beyond the most distant gas giant' - that is, a cloud of icy comets, said study lead author Quinn Konopacky, an astronomer at the University of Toronto. [Alien Planet Quiz: Are You an Exoplanet Expert?]

Exoplanet's atmosphere revealed

The astronomers concentrated on one of the star's visible planets, named HR 8799c, a colossal gas giant about seven times the mass of Jupiter. It circles the star HR 8799 at a range comparable to Pluto's distance from the sun.

The birth of such a massive planet at such a great distance from its parent star conflicts with the two popular models of planetary formation. In the multistep process known as core accretion, gas slowly accumulates onto a planetary core, while the mechanism known as gravitational instability involves the simultaneous creation of a planet's interior and atmosphere.

'In the traditional core accretion model of planet formation, it is difficult to form planets as large as the HR 8799 planets at such large distances from their parent star,' Konopacky told SPACE.com. 'Typically, in this model, objects the size of Jupiter or larger must form much closer to their parent star. This is for several reasons, but has a lot to do with there being less material at large distances from the star that can form planets.'

'In the gravitational instability method of formation, it is possible to form big planets at large distances, usually because they invoke a much more massive disc of material,' Konopacky added. 'But the model generally predicts that there should be many more massive objects orbiting lots of other stars at these distances, and these kinds of objects have not been discovered in surveys [of many stars for exoplanets].'

To help solve this mystery, the scientists analyzed the glow from HR 8799c using a high-resolution imaging spectrograph called OSIRIS at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Molecules in atmospheres can absorb light, resulting in patterns known as spectra that allow scientists to identify what they are.

HR8799c is both fairly bright and located a fair distance from its star, helping the researchers acquire this spectral data for the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-like planet beyond the solar system. [Birth of Giant Planet Seen? (Artist Animation)]

'The most exciting part of this result is that we were able to make these observations of an exoplanet atmosphere with this level of detail, much more than I even imagined was possible,' Konopacky said. 'We have broken the light from the planet down to such a fine level of detail that the chemical fingerprints of the molecules in the atmosphere are breathtakingly sharp and distinct. This is important because it requires data of this quality to truly probe the makeup of a planetary atmosphere, and in turn, say something about how the planet formed.'

Missing methane: a clue

The scientists detected water and carbon monoxide in the exoplanet's atmosphere, but not methane.

The lack of methane 'tells us that there must be mixing between the different layers of the atmosphere, much like a lava lamp swirls material up and down,' Konopacky said. 'Since methane is a sensitive molecule, it can be destroyed when it gets mixed into the deeper, hotter parts of the atmosphere. This mixing tells us about the atmospheric conditions in young Jupiter-like planets.'

In addition, although the researchers see a lot of water vapor in the atmosphere of HR 8799c, 'we actually detect slightly less than we would have expected if the planet had the same composition as its host star,' Konopacky said. 'This tells us that the planet has a slightly elevated amount of carbon compared to oxygen.' [Types of Alien Planets Explained (Infographic)]

This high ratio of carbon to oxygen is a clue regarding the exoplanet's formation. The researchers suggest that grains of water ice condensed in the disc of matter surrounding HR 8799 that gave rise to the planets orbiting the star. Oxygen inside the ice depleted any other oxygen for the formation of HR 8799c.

'These ice grains stuck together to make bigger ice chunks, a few kilometers across, that kept colliding and building up the planet's solid core,' Konopacky said. 'The atmosphere came later - from gas that the planet attracted after it got big enough. By the time that happened, some of the ice grains were gone and the gas didn't have as much water in it.'

How planets are born

These findings imply that a planet-building mechanism known as core accretion led to the formation of HR 8799c, 'much in the same way we think the planets in our own solar system formed,' Konopacky said. The exoplanet's core arose first, and the atmosphere came afterward.

'These results represent a first step in finding direct evidence about how planets form, which in general, is a difficult thing to do observationally,' Konopacky said. 'It is really exciting that we have these tantalizing suggestions that this extrasolar system that looks like our own solar system in so many ways may have formed in the same way.'

Researchers are now tinkering with existing models of core accretion to see how planets might form via the process at great distances from their stars. For instance, there may be more matter at the outer edges of the protoplanetary discs of matter around stars that give rise to planets than before thought, or perhaps solid matter could stick together and form planetary cores easier or faster than previously suspected.

'By further refining the core accretion model of formation to explain the HR 8799 planets, we may be able to learn more about the formation of planetary systems in general, including our own solar system,' Konopacky said.

'We would also like to discover more planets through direct imaging that can be studied at this level of detail,' Konopacky added. 'We work on a new instrument called the Gemini Planet Imager that is designed to do just this. It will arrive at the Gemini South Telescope in Chile this year, and discover new planets that are both smaller than the HR 8799 planets and closer to their parent star.'

Konopacky and her colleagues Travis Barman, Bruce Macintosh and Christian Marois detailed their findings online March 14 in the journal Science.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Space Station Astronauts Returning to Earth Tonight: How to Watch Online

2013-03-14T10:03:00.001-07:00

Three astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth today (March 14) after 141 days on board the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin's will board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft tonight at 5:15 EDT (2115 GMT) after a brief farewell ceremony, and are expected to land at 11:57 p.m. EDT (0357 GMT), touching down on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

You can watch the landing live on SPACE.com courtesy of NASA. The space agency will begin broadcasting the farewell ceremony at 4:45 p.m. EDT (2045 GMT) on its NASA TV channel and webcast. The Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft returning Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin home will undock from the space station at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT).

On Wednesday, the departing station crew held a brief change of command ceremony with the three spaceflyers remaining behind the space station, marking the end of Expedition 34 mission and the official beginning the Expedition 35 increment. During the ceremony, Ford - who commanded the Expedition 34 crew - handed control of the space station to Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield.

'It's not a competition,' Ford said of the culture on the International Space Station. 'It's about 15 of the most affluent countries on the planet coming together and doing something for the future.'

The Expedition 34 mission is Ford's second career spaceflight and the first mission for both Tarelkin and Novitskiy. [See photos of the Expedition 34 space station mission]

'I tell you, they are like brothers to me. They say they consider me their 'papa,' and I'm not sure how to take that,' Ford joked of Novitskiy and Tarelkin.

In honor of Hadfield's new rank as the first Canadian space station commander, Expedition 34 commander Ford played the Canadian national anthem during the command change ceremony.

'Chris brings his super, super special talents to the table,' Ford said of the new commander. 'He is a uniquely talented person on the planet and now a uniquely talented person off the planet.'

Hadfield and his crewmates - NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko - won't be on their own for long. Three more spaceflyers will replace the Earth-bound Ford, Tarelkin and Novitskiy later this month, bringing the space station crew back up to its full six-person size.

Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy are due to launch toward the International Space Station on March 28 and arrive at the orbiting lab the same day. The flight will mark the first time a Soyuz space capsule has launched a station crew and arrived at the orbiting lab in one day.

Russia's Federal Space Agency has proven the one-day flight profile during unmanned Progress cargo ship deliveries to the space station.

Since the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program in 2011, the space agency has relied on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the space station. The U.S. space agency plans to rely on new privately built unmanned and crewed spacecraft to ferry astronauts and cargo to the space station.

The $100 billion International Space Station was constructed by space agencies representing the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Assembly began in 1998, and rotating crews of astronauts have continuously occupied the space station since 2000.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

NASA Fireball Website Launches with New Russian Meteor Explosion Details

2013-03-14T08:04:00.001-07:00

NASA has launched a new website to share details of meteor explosion events as recorded by U.S. military sensors on secretive spacecraft, kicking off the project with new details of last month's fireball over Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The new 'Fireball and Bolide Reports' website, overseen by NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, debuted Friday (March 1) with its first entry: a table with a chronological data summary of the Russian meteor explosion of Feb. 15 gleaned from U.S. Government sensor data. Scientists are calling the event a 'superbolide,' taken from the term 'bolide' typically used for fireballs created by meteors.

Sharing the information publicly is part of a renewed collaboration between the U.S. military and the scientific community.

'And what better way to kick this site off than the Chelyabinsk superbolide . the most energetic recognized-fireball event since Tunguska in 1908,' said Don Yeomans, a senior research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He is also manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL.

'This website is meant to be the vehicle for future reports of fireballs/bolides as seen by U.S. government sensors,' Yeomans told SPACE.com. 'This is the first posting of its kind on this site. Future data on bright fireballs will be added to this table. We won't capture every fireball event . only the unusually bright ones,' he said.

'I consider this a major step forward since these fireball events are by far the most frequent impactors into the Earth's atmosphere,' Yeomans said. 'And these reports will go a long way toward defining the annual flux of small Earth impactors.' [Russian Meteor Explosion Explained (Infographic)]

New Russian meteor details

The Feb. 15 Russian meteor event is the first entry on this new site, and it provides the following information about the fireball:

Time of maximum brightness:
03:20:33 GMT on Feb. 15

Geographic location of maximum brightness:
Latitude: 54.8 deg. N
Longitude: 61.1 deg. E

Altitude of maximum brightness:
23.3 km (14.5 miles)

Velocity at peak brightness:
18.6 km/s (11.6 miles/s)

Approximate total radiated energy of fireball:
3.75 x 1014 Joules. This is the equivalent of about 90 kilotons of TNT explosives, but it does not represent the total impact energy, which is several times larger than the observed total radiated energy.

Approximate total impact energy of the fireball in kilotons of TNT explosives (the energy parameter usually quoted for a fireball):
440 kilotons.

New fireball agreement

This public release of government detector data was made possible by a newly signed memorandum of agreement (MOA) between NASA's Science Mission Directorate and Headquarters Air Force Space Command Air, Space and Cyberspace Operations Directorate.

The MOA was signed on Jan. 18, said Capt. Chris Sukach, spokesperson for U.S. Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. For security reasons, the actual MOA is classified, she told SPACE.com.

As a result of the agreement, Sukach said, NASA's Near Earth Object (NEO) Program is receiving information on bolide/fireball events based on analysis of data collected by U.S. Government sensors.

'Data on the recent Chelyabinsk event has been released,' Sukach said.

Sukach added that when Air Force Space Command receives data on bolide events, it pushes that data to the NASA Near Earth Object Office. 'From then on, it is a NASA-owned process, but our understanding is NASA distributes the information via the publically-accessible Near Earth Object Office website to assist the scientific community's investigation of bolides,' she said.

Relatively small asteroid

According to Don Yeomans and Paul Chodas, also of the NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program office, the Russian fireball was technically a 'superbolide' that was observed on the morning of Feb. 15 in the skies near Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The object was a relatively small asteroid, approximately 55 to 65 feet (17 to 20 meters) in size. As it roared through the Earth's atmosphere at high speed and a shallow angle, the asteroid released a huge amount of energy. The object broke apart at high altitude, producing a shower of pieces of various sizes that fell to the ground as meteorites. [Russian Meteor Fragments Found (Video)]

'The fireball was observed not only by video cameras and low-frequency infrasound detectors, but also by U.S. Government sensors,' Yeomans and Chodas said. 'As a result, the details of the impact have become clearer. There is no connection between the Russian fireball event and the close approach of asteroid 2012 DA14, which occurred just over 16 hours later.'

Congress wants to know about NEOs

Congressional action on NEOs for this year, spurred in part by the Russian event, was initially slated kick off on March 6 during a House subcommittee hearing, but the meeting was postponed due to weather concerns. The meeting is now scheduled for Tuesday, March 19.

The full committee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology is expected to hold a multi-panel hearing on 'Threats from Space: a Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors.'

Slated to testify on one panel is John Holdren, White House science officer; General William Shelton, commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command; and Charles Bolden, NASA's chief.

More info: NASA's Fireball and Bolide Reports website.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

See Jupiter and Moon Shine with Comet Pan-STARRS This Week

2013-03-14T06:11:00.001-07:00

If you step outside shortly after twilight on Sunday night (March 17), you may catch a spectacular heavenly panorama involving the moon, a planet and a visiting comet.

High in the southwestern sky, weather permitting, observers can see the moon riding close by brilliant Jupiter, locked in a close conjunction. The Comet Pan-STARRS, meanwhile, rounds out the evening sky view low on the western horizon.

The moon will be a narrow crescent, two days short of first quarter, and you should be able to see its darkened portion faintly illuminated by earthshine, sunlight reflected from the sunlit Earth.

Jupiter is now receding towards the far side of the sun, but it is still the brightest object in the sky other than the moon.

The moon and Jupiter both stand in front of the vast Hyades star cluster, with the red giant star Aldebaran nearby. Just to their right is the brighter, more compact Pleiades star cluster.

Off to their left is the familiar constellation Orion, with its two contrasting, first-magnitude stars, red Betelgeuse and blue-white Rigel, along with its jaunty belt of three equal stars. Further to the left is the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius.

To the right of the moon and Jupiter and low on the horizon, is the downward-pointing 'finger' of Comet Pan-STARRS, a special visitor to our skies this month. [How to see the comet]

Comet Pan-STARRS, officially known as C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS), was discovered in June 2011 and is one of several comets gracing the night sky in 2013. The Comet Lemmon has been visible in recent weeks by stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere. In late November, the incoming Comet ISON may potentially put on a dazzling display when it makes its closest approach to the sun, NASA scientists and astronomers have said.

As Pan-STARRS, the moon and Jupiter move towards setting on the western horizon, the skies of spring are rising in the east: Leo, Virgo and Bootes, with their bright stars Regulus, Spica and Arcturus -and, in their midst, the ringed wonder planet, Saturn.

This is the sort of vista on which stargazers thrive, available freely to all who will turn their eyes to the darkened skies. It is sad that so many on Earth see only a dim ghost of this view because light pollution denies them their stellar heritage. This weekend, try to seek out darker, unpolluted skies so that you, too, can share in the beauty of the night sky.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of the moon and Jupiter's close conjunction in the night sky, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu and follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Quasars Still Mystify Scientists 50 Years After Discovery

2013-03-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

Half a century after first getting a bead on quasars, astronomers still lack a basic understanding of how the most luminous objects in the universe work, a prominent researcher says.

Scientists first measured the distance to a quasar - an incredibly bright galactic core powered by a supermassive black hole - 50 years ago this Saturday (March 16), finding that it lay billions of light-years away.

The discovery was a seminal one in astronomy, opening the distant, ancient universe to observation and study. But in the decades since, researchers have shed little light on the powerful engine that drives quasars, says astrophysicist Robert Antonucci of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

'We have found thousands of quasars in the past 50 years, but we still don't have good physical models for how they radiate their prodigious energy,' Antonucci writes in the current issue of the journal Nature, which was published online today (March 13). 'Without predictive theories, we have nothing. Our best hope for understanding quasars is that extraterrestrials might drop in and explain them to us.' [Most Powerful Quasar Discovered (Video)]

The brightest objects in the universe

Quasars radiate energy broadly across the electromagnetic spectrum, but they take their name from their radio emissions. Astronomers dubbed them'quasi-stellar radio sources' because the signals appeared to be coming from one place, like a star. The shortened version of the moniker, 'quasar,' stuck.

Many quasars blast out twin jets of particles that travel at nearly the speed of light, which in turn create enormous, radio-emitting 'lobes' near the quasars, Antonucci writes.

Scientists think quasars and other types of active galactic nuclei mark a particular stage in the lifetime of galaxies, one at which their central black holes, which can be more massive than 10 billion suns, are gobbling up lots of gas, dust and other matter.

'This trait was more common in the past, so there are fewer quasars today,' Antonucci writes. 'Now starved of fuel, black holes linger in galaxies, including our Milky Way.'

Questions remain

Astronomers have been documenting ever-more distant quasars, pushing back closer and closer to the Big Bang that created our universe 13.7 billion years ago. But a fundamental understanding of quasars remains elusive, Antonucci says.

'The theory of radio sources has not changed significantly in the past 30 years,' he writes. 'Basic questions remain: do the jets and lobes comprise electrons and protons or electron-positron pairs? Do the protons carry a lot of energy, as cosmic rays do? Is the energy divided evenly between electric and magnetic fields? Without answers to these [questions], we can set only lower limits on how much energy the jets and lobes hold.'

It doesn't help that astrophysicists continue to investigate quasars using models developed for much smaller black holes, Antonuccci says.

'These models simply don't match the observations without lots of special pleading,' he writes. 'The properties of small accretion disks that are inferred to exist around stellar-mass black holes cannot be scaled up to explain the spectra of much more luminous quasars.'

But a better understanding of quasars is achievable, Antonucci adds, urging his colleagues to work on developing advanced computational models of black-hole systems. And more sensitive X-ray telescopes could make a difference, too.

'The important thing is that the X-rays come from so extremely close to the black hole, much closer than the optical light,' Antonucci told SPACE.com via email. 'So it offers a hope of giving us a picture of the 'central engine' of the black hole, where the gravitational potential energy is actually produced. That's where the money is.'

Antonucci voiced optimism that astronomers will unlock quasars' key mysteries, though he's not sure about the timeline.

'Eventually, I suppose we'll get it, although I may be in heaven by then, or else in the other place!' he told SPACE.com.

Follow Mike Wall @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

NASA Launches Space Radiation Challenge for Students

2013-03-13T08:04:00.001-07:00

The danger of space radiation is one of the biggest obstacles to the manned exploration of deep space, and NASA is hoping today's kids can help overcome it.

NASA has launched an exploration design challenge asking K-12 students around the world to help protect astronauts and spacecraft hardware from the high levels of space radiation they will experience beyond Earth's protective magnetosphere, the agency announced today (March 11).

'America's next step in human space exploration is an ambitious one and will require new technologies, including ways to keep our astronauts safe from the effects of deep-space radiation,' NASA chief Charles Bolden said in a statement. 'That is the focus of this challenge, and we are excited students will be helping us solve that problem.'

Kids in elementary and middle school will recommend materials that could be used as astronaut-protecting shielding on NASA's Orion deep space capsule, which is currently in development. High schoolers will be tasked with actually designing shielding that protects an Orion sensor from space radiation; the winning design will ride to space on an Orion test flight in 2014, officials said. [Photos: NASA's Orion Space Capsule]

The student challenge - which is a joint effort involving NASA, aerospace firm Lockheed Martin and the National Institute of Aerospace - aims to get kids excited about science, technology, engineering and math.

'Space exploration has inspired and fascinated young people for generations, and the Exploration Design Challenge is a unique way to capture and engage the imaginations of tomorrow's engineers and scientists,' Lockheed Martin CEO and president Marillyn Hewson said in a statement.

NASA is gearing up to send people farther from Earth than they've ever gone before. In 2010, President Barack Obama directed the agency to get astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.

They will get there using Orion and NASA's huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The pair are slated to fly together for the first time in 2017, with SLS launching Orion on an unmanned flight around the moon.

Orion will reach space before then, however, blasting to Earth orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 heavy rocket in 2014 on an unmanned mission called Exploration Flight Test 1.

'Exploration Flight Test 1 is set to launch next year, so participating in this challenge will give the students a real sense of being part of the NASA team,' NASA associate administrator for education Leland Melvin said in a statement. 'They will be able to chart Orion's progress as it moves closer to the test launch. That's important because these students represent our future scientists, engineers and explorers.'

To learn more about the Exploration Design Challenge, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education/edc

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

Wow! Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Primitive Life, NASA Says

2013-03-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

This story was updated at 3:00 p.m. EST.

It's official: Primitive life could have lived on ancient Mars, NASA says.

A sample of Mars drilled from a rock by NASA's Curiosity rover and then studied by onboard instruments 'shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes,' NASA officials announced today (March 12) in a statement and press conference.

The discovery comes just seven months after the Curiosity rover landed on Mars to spend at least two years determining if the planet could ever have hosted primitive life.

'A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment,' said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. 'From what we know now, the answer is yes.' [The Search for Life on Mars (Photo Timeline)]

Drilling into Mars

Curiosity drilled into a rock on Feb. 8, boring 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) into an outcrop called John Klein using its arm-mounted hammering drill - deeper than any robot had ever dug into the Red Planet before.

Two weeks later, the rover transferred the resulting gray powder sample into two onboard instruments called Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM.

CheMin and SAM identified some of the key chemical ingredients for life in this dust, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon, researchers said. Intriguingly, the mix also suggested a possible energy source for indigenous Martian life, if any ever existed in the area.

'The range of chemical ingredients we have identified in the sample is impressive, and it suggests pairings such as sulfates and sulfides that indicate a possible chemical energy source for micro-organisms,' Paul Mahaffy, SAM principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

The fine-grained John Klein rock also contains clay minerals, suggesting a long-ago aqueous environment - perhaps a lake - that was neutral and not too salty, researchers said.

'We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and supportive of life that probably - if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it,' said Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena. [The Search for Water on Mars (Photos)]

Exactly when this water flowed or pooled is unknown, Grotzinger added, though it was likely at least three billion years ago or so.

Still looking for complex organics

SAM is also capable of detecting organic chemicals, the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it.

The instrument detected two simple chlorinated organics at John Klein, chloromethane and dichloromethane, just it did in a scoop of soil late last year at a different site called Rocknest. Mahaffy urged caution in interpreting the recent find, as the John Klein sample was the first one to go through Curiosity's drill.

'There's always the possibility that some residual carbon that was on the drill bit made its way into the sample,' he said. 'So we're really looking forward to repeating this experiment and seeing if these signatures of simple chloromethane compounds persist.'

The next drilling opportunity won't come until May, researchers said, since the relative positions of Earth and Mars will make communicating with Curiosity difficult for most of April.

Curiosity still hasn't found any complex organic compounds - things like amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. That's not necessarily a surprise, researchers said, since such long, complicated molecules tend to be degraded over time, making their detection a challenge, even here on Earth.

Even if complex organics are absent at John Klein, the site could still have supported life, researchers said. SAM detected carbon dioxide in the drilled sample, showing that the area had a carbon source for putative microbes to tap into.

Carbon 'can be inorganic to be utilized by a microbe,' Grotzinger said, pointing out that many micro-organisms on Earth feed on rocks and use carbon dioxide to generate the organics they incorporate into their cellular machinery.

Still, the rover team will continue searching for spots with a unique set of characteristics - including protection against Mars' relatively high levels of radiation - that could allow organics to be preserved for billions of years.

'That could take the entire length of this mission, but we're going to give it our best,' Grotzinger said.

Troubleshooting a glitch

Analysis of the drilled sample was complicated by a computer glitch that's still affecting Curiosity today.

In late February, Curiosity's handlers determined that a glitch had affected the flash memory on the rover's main, or A-side, computer system. So they swapped the rover over to its backup (B-side) computer, which caused the robot to go into a protective 'safe mode' on Feb. 28.

Curiosity emerged from this safe mode on March 2, only to be put on standby briefly once again a few days later to wait out a Mars-bound solar eruption. Full science operations have yet to resume, but Curiosity's B-side computer is working well as engineers continue to work through the mysterious problem with the A-side, team members said.

'These tests have provided us with a great deal of information about the rover's A-side memory,' Jim Erickson, Curiosity deputy project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said in a statement. 'We have been able to store new data in many of the memory locations previously affected and believe more runs will demonstrate more memory is available.'

Engineers plan to upload two software patches later this week, then reassess when full mission operations can resume, officials said.

Curiosity landed inside Mars' huge Gale Crater on Aug. 5, kicking off a two-year prime surface mission to determine if the Red Planet has ever been able to support microbial life. CheMin and SAM are two of the 10 instruments it carries to aid this quest.

While Curiosity has already made a number of interesting discoveries near its landing site - including an ancient streambed where water likely flowed continuously for thousands of years - its main destination is a set of interesting deposits at the base of Mount Sharp, which rises 3 miles (5 kilometers) from Gale's Center.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

NASA to reveal contents of drilled Martian rock

2013-03-12T09:03:00.001-07:00

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Mars rover Curiosity drilled into its first rock a month ago. Now scientists will reveal what's inside.

Gathering at NASA headquarters Tuesday, the rover team will detail the minerals and chemicals found in a pinch of ground-up rock.

The results come seven months after Curiosity made a dramatic landing in an ancient crater near the equator. It has been slow going since then as engineers learn to handle the car-size rover.

Scientists are thrilled with the latest achievement - a first on Mars. It involved boring a hole, scooping the powder and running it through Curiosity's instruments.

By analyzing the rock, researchers hope to determine whether the landing spot was ever habitable. They already have one hint - an ancient streambed that Curiosity crossed to get to the rock.

Comet Pan-STARRS Near the Moon Tonight: How to See It

2013-03-12T05:04:00.001-07:00

Many stargazers attempting to view the Comet Pan-STARRS on recent nights have been thwarted by the comet's low position in the western sky. But tonight (March 12), the thin crescent moon will lend a hand.

Over the past weekend countless observers across in North America and Europe tried - and for the most part failed - to see Comet Pan-STARRS, in part due to its low altitude above the west-northwest horizon. The bright glare of the evening twilight sky just is also a hurdle, since it can as make the comet harder to see just after sunset.

But fret not, comet lovers! Weather permitting, observing conditions will improve by this evening, since Comet Pan-STARR's position above the horizon will be noticeably higher and the moon can be used as a benchmark to point your way.

Clear western view essential

The best suggestion I can make is for your Tuesday night comet watch is to first find an observing site with the least amount of any obstructions in the direction of the western part of the sky. [How to see the comet]

If you end up successfully catching a glimpse of them, the moon and the comet will not be any higher than 10 degrees above the horizon. That is about the size of your clenched held out at arm's length.

If you have a house or some trees in your line of sight, then you're going to have to find some other viewing site.

Step 1: Find the moon

In order to boost your chances of seeing Comet Pan-STARRS, be sure to arrive at your viewing site in time to see the sunset. Take note of where on the horizon the sun sets.

Now wait about 30 minutes as the sky slowly begins to darken. Truthfully, it will still be rather bright looking toward the west a half hour after the sunset . this was one of the main problems people have had in recent days in trying to see the comet.

However, first things first: Let's locate the moon. Take your clenched fist and measure off 10 degrees up from that point on the horizon where the sun disappeared about a half hour before. Now look a bit to the right from the top of your fist. That's where the crescent moon will be.

Seeing the moon will be a bit of a challenge in itself because it will be very narrow, appearing only about 28 hours after passing its new phase. Because of this, the lunar disk will be only 1-percent illuminated. It will be oriented with its bright sliver down, resembling a cup or a thin smile on the sky.

If you can't see the moon with your unaided eye, then use binoculars. Once you pick it up with binoculars you should be able to find it without optical aid.

Finding Comet Pan-STARRS

With the moon found in the evening sky, it is time to use it as a guide to spot Comet Pan-STARRS.

The comet will be located about 5 degrees to the left of the moon. Once again, you might not initially see it with your eyes, so use binoculars if you need to. Five degrees measures roughly 'half a fist' in length.

You'll know Comet Pan-STARRS when you see it. It will appear as a bright, star-like 'head' with a short, stubby tail extending from the head upwards and slightly to the left from the bright end. Like the moon, once you find it with binoculars, you should, with time, be able to make it out against the bright twilight sky.

Comet Pan-STARRS and the moon should be visible for about a half hour before they disappear into the murky haze always located near the horizon.

Not so 'Great Comet'?

Comet Pan-STARRS was discovered in June 2011 by a team of astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (or PAN-STARRS), a telescope in Hawaii. The comet is officially designated as C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and is thought to take more than 100 million years to make a single orbit around the sun. [Comet Pan-STARRS Explained (Infographic)]

Right now the brightness of Comet Pan-STARRS, according to viewers who spotted it in the Southern Hemisphere, ranks at about first-magnitude on the astronomy brightness scale. That is about as bright as the brightest stars.

Normally, a comet as bright as this would be categorized as a 'Great Comet ', but most observers feel that Pan-STARRS does not fall into this category because it's not visible against a fully dark sky. The bright twilight background is working against making it a prominent eye-catching sight.

And the comet's dust tail is not breathtakingly long, but rather, short and rather stubby. To the naked eye, not much of the may be visible at all, though in big binoculars or small telescopes, some say that Pan-STARRS is a rather impressive sight.

Comet Pan-STARRS is one of at least three comets in the night sky currently thrilling stargazers. Another comet (the Comet Lemmon) is currently visible to observers in Southern Hemisphere, while the third object is Comet ISON.

Comet ISON is a promising celestial object that was discovered by amateur astronomers in 2012 and is expected to make its closest approach to the sun in late November. The comet will be only 800,000 miles (1.2 million km)from the sun at its closest point, and could put on a dazzling night sky spectacle. But it could also fizzle out, NASA scientists have said.

NASA astronomers and stargazers around the world are regularly tracking Comet ISON, as well as comets Pan-STARRS and Lemmon as they shine in the night sky.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS in the night sky, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.This article was first published on SPACE.com.

Comet Pan-STARRS or PANSTARRS: What's In a Celestial Name?

2013-03-11T16:03:00.001-07:00

What's the name of the bright comet currently visible in the western sky at sunset?

Look around the Internet and you'll find many different names for Comet Pan-STARRS, which is visible in the twilight sky of the Northern Hemisphere this week, weather permitting. Some NASA statements refer to the comet as PANSTARRS, while others use the object's official designation C/2011 LR (PANSTARRS).

Comet Pan-STARRS made its closest approach to the sun on Sunday (March 10), with stargazers reporting to SPACE.com that it is visible to the naked eye if you know when and where to look. This week, the comet is visible low in the western sky, just after sunset. [How to see the comet]

The official body that governs the names of everything astronomical is the International Astronomical Union. Remember them? They are the people who reclassified Pluto a dwarf planet in 2006.While observing the comet may seem straightforward, the specifics of its name are a bit more complicated.

The IAU's rules for comet names, which are republished from the group's website below, say that each comet's moniker should include:

1) 'A prefix, alluding to the type of comet, that can be any of the following- P/ for a periodic comet.

- C/ for a comet that is not periodic.

- X/ for a comet for which a meaningful orbit cannot be computed.

- D/ for a periodic comet that no longer exists or is deemed to have disappeared.

2) The year of discovery, including:

- An uppercase letter identifying the half-month of observation during that year (A for first half of January, B for second half and so on).

- A number representing the order of discovery within that half month.

3) When a periodic comet is observed after its second apparition, the IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC) gives it a permanent number indicating the order of the discovery.

4) To complete the designation a comet is given the name of its two first discoverers (last name for an individual or one word or acronym for a team of astronomers). The names appear in chronological order and are separated by a hyphen. In very rare cases the title can consist of three discoverers, or even be generic.'

If you had X-ray vision and could see the names attached to the comets currently in the evening sky, you'd see the vast variety of names that are possible. Most people are surprised at just how many comets are actually in the sky at any given time. Most of these are too faint to be seen except by large telescopes.

When the comet currently gracing our western sky was discovered in late June 2011, the CBAT gave it the name 'C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS).'

There are no problems with the first part of the name, 'C/2011 L4.' The disagreements come with the name in parentheses. Because it was discovered by the members of a project as a group, the CBAT used the acronym of the group. The group's name is a mouthful: the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System. On their website and in their logo, they use the acronym 'Pan-STARRS.'

Wikipedia uses Pan-STARRS to refer to the project, but PANSTARRS to refer to the comet, and this is probably the most correct. Do a search for 'panstarrs' on NASA's webpage, and you find three different spellings in the first five hits: the two above plus 'PanSTARRS' without the hyphen. I've even seen it spelled 'PanSTARRs,' which is obviously wrong.

The problem with a hyphen in 'Pan-STARRS' is that hyphens are used in comet names very specifically to indicate that a comet has two discoverers. For example, Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) was named thus to indicate its co-discovery by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.

No matter how you spell it, the Pan-STARRS project is a 'discovery machine.' Its entire purpose is to discover asteroids and comets, and it's doing so very efficiently. Just look at all the comets named for Pan-STARRS in the related sky map to this story.

Whatever name it goes by, it's a lovely comet, and worth a look.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Congressman Suspects NASA Let in Chinese Spies

2013-03-11T11:04:00.001-07:00

Given recent budget cuts, it's refreshing to see a politician lobbying for additional NASA funding. Astrophiles may be less encouraged, however, to learn the rationale behind Congressman Frank Wolf's plea. Wolf claims that a Chinese national with ties to a potentially dangerous organization brought sensitive NASA information back to his native country, and the representative wants to channel resources into tightening security at the space agency.

'I was recently contacted by whistleblowers who provided me with a report alerting me to a very potential situation at NASA Langley Research Center involving a Chinese national who was allegedly provided access and information he should have otherwise been restricted from receiving,' said Wolf in a press conference. 'It is my understanding that this Chinese national is affiliated with an institution in China that has been designated as an 'entity of concern' by other U.S. government agencies.'

The national in question was able to return to China and share the information he learned with others, Wolf said. While NASA itself is not allowed to hire Chinese nationals unless they have U.S. citizenships or green cards, subcontractors that provide the agency with talent may employ whomever they wish.

In addition to security concerns, Wolf cites preserving and growing the American aerospace industry as a reason behind his irritation. 'If we can't keep cutting-edge technology protected from espionage, we will never be able to commercialize it and create the jobs our country needs,' he said.

Wolf points out that there may be dozens of other Chinese nationals working for NASA subcontractors, workers who, if granted continued access to sensitive information, could jeopardize U.S. security. He also calls for the immediate takedown of a NASA website that shares sensitive, but declassified information with the world, including interested parties in China and Iran. [See also: Thirty Years of NASA Space Shuttle Missions]

While the story presents some discomfiting information, many details are still sketchy. Wolf did not cite a name or a particular position for his potential Chinese spy. Furthermore, much of Wolf's previous work in Congress has been directed towards curbing the influence of the Chinese government in American affairs.

Wolf plans to work along with Congress and NASA in order to prevent a repeat incident. To this end, he is willing to increase NASA's funding - something that the U.S. government has been very hesitant to do lately.

'I am prepared to approve a reprogramming from NASA to reallocate additional funding and staffing for agency security-related functions, including center security, export control and counterintelligence,' stated Wolf. 'There is no reason that these positions at any center or headquarters should not be fully staffed and resourced.'

Refining protocol may not directly lead to better technology to explore space, but ensuring that NASA is fully staffed without resorting to contractors is a promising first step. Wolf makes seven security recommendations in total; now it's up to NASA and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to see how many they can implement.

Follow Marshall Honorof @marshallhonorof. Follow us @TechNewsDaily, Facebook or Google+.

6 Surprising Facts about World's Most Powerful Radio Telescope

2013-03-11T06:05:00.001-07:00

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the world's most powerful observatory for studying the universe at the long-wavelength millimeter and submillimeter range of light. It's designed to spot some of the most distant, ancient galaxies ever seen, and to probe the areas around young stars for planets in the process of forming.

The opening of the $1.3 billiontelescope array is being celebrated in an inauguration ceremony on Wednesday (March 13) at its observation site in Chile's Atacama desert. Here are six things you should know about the ambitious, not to mention immense, astronomy project.

1) It is ginormous

ALMA combines the forces of 66 radio antennas, most almost 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter, to create images comparable to those that could be obtained with a single 46,000-foot-wide (14,000 meters) dish.

The observatory is accurate enough to discern a golf ball 9 miles (15 kilometers) away.

2) A decade to build

The telescope is a collaboration of four continents, being sponsored by countries in North America, Europe and East Asia, with the cooperation of Chile. Planning and constructing the observatory took thousands of scientists and engineers from around the world more than 10 years.

3) ALMA is one high eye on the sky

The observatory is among the highest instruments on Earth, at an altitude of 16,570 feet (5,050 meters) above sea level. Its perch high atop the Chajnantor plateau puts it above much of the Earth's atmosphere, which blurs and distorts light.

4) It's in the driest place on Earth

ALMA's location in Chile's Atacama desert, the driest place in the world, means almost every night is clear of clouds and free of light-distorting moisture. Some weather stations in the desert have never received rain, and scientists think the Atacama got no significant rainfall between 1570 and 1971. [10 Driest Places on Earth]

5) ALMA dishes are nearly perfect

The surfaces of its dozens of radio dishes are almost perfect, with none deviating from an exact parabola by more than 20 micrometers (20 millionths of a meter, or about 0.00078 inches). This prevents any incoming radio waves from being lost, so that the resulting picture captures as much distant cosmic light as possible. The radio dishes, which weigh about 100 tons each, are made of ultra-stable CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) for the reflector base, with reflecting panels of rhodium-coated nickel.

6) This is one cool telescope - literally

The electronic detector called the 'front end' that amplifies and converts the radio signals collected at each ALMA antenna must be kept at a chilling 4 Kelvin ( minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 269 degrees Celsius), to prevent introducing noise to the signal.

Ultimately, the ground-breaking observatory promises to reveal many new secrets of the cosmos - not to mention some really pretty pictures.

Follow Clara Moskowitz @ClaraMoskowitz and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Comet Pan-STARRS Is Closest to Sun Today: See It at Sunset

2013-03-10T08:03:00.001-07:00

A comet sailing through the inner solar system make its closest approach to the sun and will be at its brightest at sunset tonight, but the glare of twilight may make it tricky to see, NASA says.

The Comet Pan-STARRS will be 28 million miles (45 million kilometers) from the surface of the sun when it swings around the star today, and should be bright enough to see without the aid of telescopes or binoculars, weather permitting. But the comet is also appearing low on the western horizon at sunset so some planning is needed to spot the celestial wanderer with the naked eye tonight.

'Look too early and the sky will be too bright,' said Rachel Stevenson, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. 'Look too late, the comet will be too low and obstructed by the horizon. This comet has a relatively small window.'

A good time to look is about 40 minutes after sunset. The comet may appear as a sort of exclamation point in the evening sky, with the point being the comet itself and its diffuse tail stretching nearly straight up from the horizon, JPL officials added. [How to see the comet]

Comet Pan-STARRS, officially known as comet C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS, was discovered in June 2011 by astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (or PAN-STARRS), a telescope atop the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii. The comet takes more than 100 million years to orbit the sun and appears to come from the Oort cloud, a vast halo of comets and icy objects at the outer edge of the solar system.

While the comet is making its closest pass by the sun tonight, the best views of the object are still to come. NASA scientists said the comet's proximity to the sun may make it too difficult to spot tonight, but that will change over the next few days.

'As it continues its nightly trek across the sky, the comet may get lost in the sun's glare but should return and be visible to the naked eye by March 12,' JPL officials explained. 'As time marches on in the month of March, the comet will begin to fade away slowly, becoming difficult to view (even with binoculars or small telescopes) by month's end.'

And there is another reason to look for comet Pan-STARRS later this week. On Tuesday (March 12), the moon rises into the cosmic display.

'The comet will be joined in the western sky after dark by the slender crescent moon on March 12, 13, and 14,' the editors of StarDate Magazine, a stargazing publication of the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas. 'Good naked-eye views of the comet should continue for several nights, with the comet remaining visible through binoculars into April.'

Comet Pan-STARRS is one of three comets capturing the attention of stargazers this year. The Comet Lemmon C/2012 F6 is currently visible to observers in the Southern Hemisphere and at times was in the night sky at the same time, allowing stargazers to capture rare photos of two comets in the sky together.

Meanwhile, the Comet ISON is making its way into the inner solar system and could put on a spectacular cosmic display later this year. Officially designated C/2012 S1 (ISON), Comet ISON was discovered in September 2012 by Russian amateur astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using a remotely operated International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) telescope.

Some astronomers have billed Comet ISON as a potential 'comet of the century' since it could be brighter than the full moon in daylight when it makes its closest approach to the sun on Nov. 28. At that time, Comet ISON will be much closer to the sun than Comet Pan-STARRS is now. ISON will approach within 800,000 miles (1.2 million km) of the star, making it a true sungrazing comet.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Spellbinding Cosmic Beauty: Why Astronomy Images Matter

2013-03-09T12:03:00.001-08:00

We all know that pictures are worth a thousand words, but does that maxim also apply to the world of astronomy?

A team based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., has been trying to find out the answer with a years-long review of the lure of cosmic photos. The project, known as 'Aesthetics & Astronomy,' consists of astronomy outreach coordinators, science writers and astrophysicists, as well as education professors who specialize in aesthetics.

Since 2008, the group has been conducting experiments to determine how much the images produced by orbiting space telescopes, faraway Mars rovers and other interplanetary spacecraft are understood by professional scientists and the public alike.

Aesthetics & Astronomy was born 10 years ago in the backyard of a home in Ohio. Lisa and Jeffrey Smith, the team's two education professionals (and currently professors at the University of Otago, New Zealand) found themselves talking to Jeffrey's nephew about astronomy and reality. Were the vibrant colors and swirling shapes in popular astronomy images real? After all, weren't the images constructed by scientists from data, and weren't the colors in the pictures assigned arbitrarily by astrophysicists? [Amazing Space Photos by Chandra and Hubble Telescopes]

They soon realized that the astronomical community could best serve the public if astronomers explained how each color was chosen and why it was assigned a particular wavelength of light.

In Cambridge, the Smiths teamed with Megan Watzke, a science writer associated with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Kimberly Kowal, the visualization and media production coordinator for the Chandra team. Collaborating with Chandra astrophysicists Jay Bookbinder and Randall Smith, the growing team devised questions that could gauge the effectiveness of astronomical images.

For instance, what happens to the understanding of an image if the colors are altered, or if the scale is changed? What about captions - do they help, and if so, what kinds of captions are the most helpful? Do astrophysicists and the public approach the images differently, and if so, what is that difference? What are some of the public's misconceptions about astronomy and astronomical images?

'Even after many years of working in science communication, I was surprised to hear in a focus group that someone felt 'tricked' when they learned that the colors in these astronomical images are applied,' Kowal told SPACE.com in an email interview. 'That is, if you were able to zoom across the galaxy in a spacecraft, stars and nebulae would not appear as the images show because of the way the human eye works.' [How Chandra Observatory X-Rays the Sky (Video)]

'As a result, we at the Chandra X-ray Center have tried to be more proactive in our communications and more transparent in what we do with our images,' Kowal said.

The team's first experiment was carried out in 2008. It consisted of both online questionnaires and in-person meetings; in all, 8,000 people completed the questionnaire.

One of the primary results is also not especially surprising. Laypeople found themselves drawn to the image's beauty and the awe it inspired. Professional astrophysicists, on the other hand, were more interested in how an image was created and what it was meant to convey. Laypeople liked longer, more narrative captions; professionals liked captions that were short and pithy. And both groups thought that having a sense of scale was helpful.

Based on the study's results, the Chandra communications team made immediate changes to the images they had posted online. They began including basic information in a sidebar, explaining the size of the object in the image, how far away the object is, where the data came from and what the colors mean. They even included roll-over information that popped up as the computer cursor passed over the image.

Color in astronomical images is crucial.

'For example, for the nonexpert, the color red tends to represent heat, while the color blue plays that role for the scientist,' Kowal said. 'So, if you are coloring an image of a super-hot cloud of gas, do you use red or blue? Contextually, it makes sense to be aware of the differences in color perception so the writer can account for that in the captions.'

The Aesthetics & Astronomy team recently conducted another study, this time examining whether viewing astronomical images on mobile devices affects the understanding of those images. The study, which was developed with funding from the Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Program, examined the perception of images shown on small mobile devices (like cellphones), iPads and overhead projection screens. Additional funding was provided by the Hinode X-ray Telescope, performed under NASA contract NNM07AB07C, with in-kind contributions from the Education and Outreach group for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, operated by SAO under NASA Contract NAS8-03060.

The results, which have not yet been published, indicated that the bigger the size, the better, unless the viewer wasn't able to compare image sizes. In that case, the viewer adapted, the team members said.

Kowal noted that studying how images affect understanding can apply to other science disciplines, like public health and chemistry. Clearly, the field is ripe for more study, she said.

You can see many examples of imagery from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory at the Chandra mission website here.

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