Great Image: A Gathering of Galaxies

This Hubble Space Telescope image is labeled "A Day in the Lives of Galaxies" on the hubblesite.org website.  Here is the rest of the story: 

Like a photographer clicking random snapshots of a crowd of people, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken a view of an eclectic mix of galaxies. In taking this picture, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys was not looking at any particular target. The camera was taking a picture of a typical patch of sky, while Hubble's infrared camera was viewing a target in an adjacent galaxy-rich region. 

The jumble of galaxies in this image, taken in September 2003, includes a yellow spiral whose arms have been stretched by a possible collision [lower right]; a young, blue galaxy [top] bursting with star birth; and several smaller, red galaxies.

But the most peculiar-looking galaxy of the bunch – the dramatic blue arc in the center of the photo — is actually an optical illusion. The blue arc is an image of a distant galaxy that has been smeared into the odd shape by a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. This "funhouse- mirror effect" occurs when light from a distant object is bent and stretched by the mass of an intervening object. In this case the gravitational lens, or intervening object, is a red elliptical galaxy nearly 6 billion light-years from Earth. The red color suggests that the galaxy contains older, cooler stars.

The distant object whose image is smeared into the long blue arc is about 10 billion light-years away. This ancient galaxy existed just a few billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was about a quarter of its present age. The blue color indicates that the galaxy contains hot, young stars.
Gravitational lenses can be seen throughout the sky because the cosmos is crowded with galaxies. Light from distant galaxies, therefore, cannot always travel through space without another galaxy getting in the way. It is like walking through a crowded airport. In space, a faraway galaxy's light will travel through a galaxy that is in the way. But if the galaxy is massive enough, its gravity will bend and distort the light.

Long arcs, such as the one in this image, are commonly seen in large clusters of galaxies because of their huge concentrations of mass. But they are not as common in isolated galaxies such as this one. For the gravitational lens to occur, the galaxies must be almost perfectly aligned with each other.
Gravitational lenses yield important information about galaxies. They are a unique and extremely useful way of directly determining the amount of mass, including dark matter, in a galaxy. Galaxies are not just made up of stars, gas, and dust. An invisible form of matter, called dark matter, makes up most of a galaxy's mass. A study of this newly discovered system, dubbed J033238-275653, was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. This study, together with similar observations, may allow astronomers to make the first direct measurements of the masses of bright, nearby galaxies.

A New Earth Like Planet

Scientists have discovered a new Earth like planet, but do not worry - it is not Nibiru.  The new planet, dubbed Tau Ceti e, is about four times the size of the Earth and orbits within the "habitable zone" of its sun Tau Ceti.  The star itself is only 12 light years from Earth, making it the closest Earth like planet located thus far.  Not to say it 12 light years is just a skip away. 

James Jenkins, an astronomer from the Universidad de Chile and Visiting Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, noted in a recent paper:

Tau Ceti is one of our nearest cosmic neighbours and so bright that we may be able to study the atmospheres of these planets in the not too distant future. Planetary systems found around nearby stars close to our Sun indicate that these systems are common in our Milky Way galaxy.

In the same paper, Steve Vogt from the University of California Santa Cruz stated:

This discovery is in keeping with our emerging view that virtually every star has planets, and that the galaxy must have many such potentially habitable Earth-sized planets. They are everywhere, even right next door! We are now beginning to understand that Nature seems to overwhelmingly prefer systems that have a multiple planets with orbits of less than one hundred days. This is quite unlike our own solar system where there is nothing with an orbit inside that of Mercury. So our solar system is, in some sense, a bit of a freak and not the most typical kind of system that Nature cooks up.

And we thought we might be the model for other planetary systems. I guess our ideas needed to start somewhere.

As far as locating a promising planet around Tau Ceti, this would not be all that surprising to science fiction writers such as Asimov, Heinlein, and Niven.  For example, in Larry Niven's 1968 story A Gift from Earth, he discusses the planet of Plateau circling Tau Ceti, as noted in this Wikipedia summary:

Plateau, a colony in the Tau Ceti system, was settled by humans some 300 years before the plot begins. The colony world itself is a Venusian type planet with a dense, hot, poisonous atmosphere. It would be otherwise uninhabitable, except for a tall monolithic mesa that rises 40 miles up into a breathable layer in the upper atmosphere. This gives the planet a habitable area about half the size of California.

Man's imagination can be quite a source of inspiration for later science.

Note:  Not to say it is always inspirational.  Here is the description of Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream:

In this satirical alternate history, Adolph Hitler emigrates as a youth to the United States, where he becomes first a pulp science fiction illustrator, then a hack genre author of distinctly limited talents. In a story-within-a-story he pens a potboiler novel entitled Lord of the Swastika, which culminates in legions of seven-foot, blond, superintelligent male SS clones being shipped off to Tau Ceti where they will establish a colony as the first step to a literal thousand-year reich and galactic domination.

Russian Rocket Problems

With all of the attention earlier this month directed at the North Korean rocket launch, most of the newspapers were ignoring a Russian rocket launch that went awry.  On December 8th, a Russian Proton rocket failed to place a satellite into correct orbit.  This was the third such failure in the last 16 months. 

The communications satellite, built by France's Thales Alenia Space, belonged to Russian oil giant Gazprom.  The Proton rocket's upper stage failed after launch, placing the satellite outside its intended orbit.  While the Russian government ordered an investigation of the mishap, Thales Alenia Space was working to get the satellite into its proper slot by firing on-board thrusters, though this is expected to reduce the life of the spacecraft. 

The satellite is expected to be in its proper orbit and functioning as intended by January 8, 2013. 

Mars News: New Rover and More

Earlier this month, NASA announced plans to send a new rover to Mars as well as other initiatives designed to better understand Mars and prepare for a human mission.  Here is the key part of NASA's Mars announcement:  

On Dec. 4, NASA announced plans for a robust multi-year Mars program, including a new robotic science rover based on the Curiosity design set to launch in 2020. The planned portfolio includes the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers; two NASA spacecraft and contributions to one European spacecraft currently orbiting Mars; the 2013 launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter to study the Martian upper atmosphere; the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, which will take the first look into the deep interior of Mars; and participation in ESA's 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, including providing "Electra" telecommunication radios to ESA's 2016 mission and a critical element of the premier astrobiology instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover. With InSight, there will be a total of seven NASA missions operating or being planned to study and explore our Earth-like neighbor. 

The 2020 mission will constitute another step toward being responsive to high-priority science goals and the president's challenge of sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s. 

What is interesting is that the "multi-year" plan discusses putting human in "orbit" around Mars in the 2030s.  I cannot imagine we would send humans all that way just to take pictures from above.  I think robotic missions can do that just as well.  We need humans on the surface. 

I was also surprised to see NASA contributions to ExoMars after the space agency pulled out of the mission earlier this year because of funding difficulties.  Maybe NASA found funds, since it now has plans to support ExoMars and build another Mars rover, though the ExoMars mission was to include an orbiter and rover.  Here is what NASA originally planned to do, which can still be found on its website here:

The ExoMars/Trace Gas Orbiter mission was a joint mission proposed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. This mission was proposed as the first in a series of joint missions to Mars for ESA and NASA. The two space agencies signed the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative agreement in 2009. Under the former proposed plan, NASA would have supplied the launch vehicle, four science instruments, and a communications system. This joint mission is not currently in NASA’s Mars Exploration Program plans. See information on ESA’s ExoMars mission: http://exploration.esa.int/.

 After NASA has walked away from ExoMars, our European friends reached out to Russia for support.  Under a new agreement, Roscosmos with provide the European Space Agency with two launch vehicles.  The Voice of Russia shared more:   

The Naples meeting was crucial for Russian space research as it was to approve the ExoMars mission deal between ESA and Russia’s Roskosmos space agency. The project has been approved and the deal will be sealed November 27.

Thus, Russia got another chance to explore Mars, five years after the Phobos mission failure. The first phase of the ExoMars mission is planned for 2016 and Russia’s Academy of Sciences has already begun research to design equipment for the Trace Gas Orbiter robotic orbit carrier which includes ACS spectrometers and the FREND neutron detector to study water distribution on the Mars surface. It also includes the EDL demonstrator module to exploit the entry descent and landing. Russia is also expected to contribute its Proton carrier rocket to the project.

The second ExoMars phase will be the launch of the Pasteur rover scheduled for 2018. Russia is providing a carrier rocket and a landing platform with research equipment as well as two gadgets for the rover.

The Secret Shuttle is Airborne Again

On December 11, 2012, the U.S. Air force launched its X-37b unmanned shuttle on its third mission.  It is interesting how the shuttle went up one day before the North Korean's launched their rocket to place a satellite in orbit.  However, it appears to be a coincidence since the X-37b was initially scheduled to launch on October 25, 2012, but was delayed due to rocket problems.

Even so, could the U.S. be monitoring this North Korean mission as well as others?  We may never know since the X-37b missions are classified.  However, the U.S. has other assets in the region and in orbit that can do this work just fine.  As noted by Wired magazine:

The US has at least two infrared sensors in HEO orbits as part of the Space-Based Infrared System. Open source information indicates that they are hosted on two classified satellites, USA 184 and USA 200. The same satellites are also believed to carry a signals intelligence payload that can collect electromagnetic emissions. Observations from amateur satellite observers indicate that their orbits "hang" over Asia, indicating that they likely could have been used to monitor the launch site and observe the launch.

Changing of the Guard on the ISS

NASA reported that the latest International Space Station (ISS) crew has safely arrived:

Expedition 34 Flight Engineers Tom Marshburn, Roman Romanenko and Chris Hadfield docked their Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft to the International Space Station’s Rassvet module at 9:09 a.m. EST on Friday after spending two days in orbit.

The hatches between the Soyuz and the Rassvet module are set to be opened at 11:45 a.m. when Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin will greet their new crewmates. Once the hatches are opened, the six-member crew is set to take part in a welcome ceremony with family members and mission officials then participate in a safety briefing. 

Expedition 34 will be a six-member crew until March 2013 when Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin undock from the Poisk module and return home inside the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft for a landing in Kazakhstan. When they undock Expedition 35 will officially begin as Hadfield becomes commander staying behind with Marshburn and Romanenko before finally returning home in May 2013. 

You can watch the December 19th launch in Kazakhstan of the Expedition 34 flight crew here.  

A Year on the International Space Station

It is nice to see that the United States and Russia can agree on a few things. Back in October, NASA announced plans to leave an astronaut on the International Space Station for more than a year.  U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russia cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will start their mission in 2015. 

In its press release, NASA stated:

"In order for us to eventually move beyond low Earth orbit, we need to better understand how humans adapt to long-term spaceflight," said Michael Suffredini, International Space Station program manager. "The space station serves as a vital scientific resource for teaching us those lessons, and this yearlong expedition aboard the complex will help us move closer to those journeys."

But then I had a case of deja vu.  I thought the Russians did this years ago.  And they did on that often forgotten Russian space station Mir (Russian for "Peace" or "World").  Mir operated from 1986 to 2001 and during that time the Russians became very familiar with long durations in space. Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov still holds the record for the longest period in space, remaining on Mir for more than 14 months (437 days 18 hours) in one trip. 

So a year in space has already been tested, and the Russians should be proud of this feat.  What NASA needs to do is look to new adventures, such as the gateway spacecraft on the far side of the moon.

If You Don't Believe Me, Here is the U.S. Government's Statement

I wanted to follow up on my earlier message about the end of the world, as foretold by the Mayans.  Here is what the U.S. Government released to the public:

False rumors about the end of the world in 2012 have been commonplace on the Internet for some time. Many of these rumors involve the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 (it won’t), a comet causing catastrophic effects (definitely not), a hidden planet sneaking up and colliding with us (no and no), and many others.  The world will not end on December 21, 2012, or any day in 2012.

NASA has also contributed to the argument, tackling the various doomsday scenarios circling the world, such as a collision with Nibiru:

The waxing obsession with Nibiru, which conspiracy theorists say is a planet swinging in from the outskirts of our solar system that is going to crash into Earth and wipe out humanity in 2012 — or, in some opinions, 2011 — shows that an astonishing number of people “are watching YouTube videos and visiting slick websites with nothing in their skeptical toolkit,” in the words of David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute and NASA Lunar Science Institute.

Morrison estimates that there are 2 million websites discussing the impending Nibiru-Earth collision. He receives, on average, five email inquiries about Nibiru every day. “At least a once a week I get a message from a young person ― as young as 11 ― who says they are ill and/or contemplating suicide because of the coming doomsday,” Morrison said.
 
The Russian government and others are making similar statements.  As with the Year 2000 scare, I expect we shall see continued chatter up until the next morning (December 22) when we all wake up and get back to our daily chores.

By the way, if you are interested in recent doomsday films, check out my earlier story.  Enjoy them and relax.

North Korea: A New Space Race?

With North Korea threatening to launch another rocket to place a satellite into orbit, are we looking at a future with North Korean outposts on the moon?  I think this is unlikely, but a more local space race (and arms race) seems to be capturing everyone's attention.  The planned launch this month (more or less corresponding to the anniversary of death of Kim Jong II) will be the country's second attempt to launch such a rocket, with the first attempt (Galaxy 3) ending in failure. 

So what is North Korea really up to?  The country says it has a right to establish a space program, though the U.S. and many others believe this is really part of North Korea's efforts to develop an inter-continental ballistic missile to threaten an even wider ring of nations.  The planned launch may be delayed by snow, but various countries are readying themselves for a potential mission.  The U.S. is sending additional warships to the area while Japan is preparing its Patriot missiles to intercept the rocket if it comes anywhere near the country.  Not exactly a peaceful space venture here. 

This has always been the risk of this technology from the time of Sputnik - will we explore and learn about the universe around us or concentrate on national politics and exploit space to conquer others?  Maybe North Korea can join the rest of the world at some point with more peaceful space missions, but for now it seems reasonable to doubt their sincerity on launching satellites that monitor agriculture.  I would rather other nations share their space images for now while North Korea concentrates on more pressing issues, such as how it can feed its population.  One step at a time.  First pass through the dark ages, North Korea, and then maybe you will be more credible in the space age.

 

Update:  The North Koreans successfully launched their rocket on December 12th to place a weather satellite in orbit (see the photo provided by North Korea below).  While the rocket flew over Japan, the government did not attempt to destroy it.  Nations around the world condemned the launch and the South Korean military recovered wreckage of the rocket. 

Mars: An Endless Dust Bowl?

With the recent broadcast on PBS of Ken Burn's latest documentary The Dust Bowl, I was reminded of the pitfalls of living on the surface or Mars (until we do some terraforming, mind you).  As with any colonization, Americans settled a new frontier out West completely unaware of what awaited them.  Of course, the tragedy in the American West was man made, whereas Mars has yet to experience our plow.  Yet I would expect stories of black walls of sand (or red on Mars) and ensuing madness as one tries to rid oneself of this sand would be future tales as well should we ever start to settle on the surface of Mars. 

In fact, NASA is currently tracking a massive dust storm developing on Mars that may engulf the entire planet (see an image of a similar storm in 2001 below).  Fortunately, we have two operating rovers on the surface that can observe this storm, as well as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter orbiting the planet with another unique view.  One of the rovers, Opportunity, depends on solar energy and would be most impacted by the storm.  At least in this case it will be quite a show with no danger to farmers.

Great Image: Centaurus A Black Hole

Here is a terrific image of a black hole at the center of Centaurus A, a nearby galaxy in the constellation of Centaurus, taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory.  According to the Chandra's website:

Jets and lobes powered by the central black hole in this nearby galaxy are shown by submillimeter data (colored orange) from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile and X-ray data (colored blue) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Visible light data from the Wide Field Imager on the Max-Planck/ESO 2.2 m telescope, also located in Chile, shows the dust lane in the galaxy and background stars. The X-ray jet in the upper left extends for about 13,000 light years away from the black hole. The APEX data shows that material in the jet is travelling at about half the speed of light.

More from the website concerning Chandra, first launched on July 23, 1999:

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a telescope specially designed to detect X-ray emission from very hot regions of the Universe such as exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and matter around black holes. Because X-rays are absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, Chandra must orbit above it, up to an altitude of 139,000 km (86,500 mi) in space. The Smithsonian's Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA, hosts the Chandra X-ray Center which operates the satellite, processes the data, and distributes it to scientists around the world for analysis. The Center maintains an extensive public web site about the science results and an education program.

Putting the New NASA Telescope to Work

Do you remember the story about those two telescopes the National Reconnaissance Office provided to NASA earlier this year?  Well, NASA issued a request for information (RFI) on Monday to determine how to use them in "innovative and imaginative" ways. 

NASA's Michael Moore, a senior program executive, stated the potential uses can "...range from simple balloon flights to complex missions in science using new technologies under development and the capabilities available with the International Space Station and our commercial space flight partners."

If you have any ideas, you have until January 7, 2013, to submit them to NASA.  The RFI allows only four pages for your idea, so do not be too wordy.  The submissions will be discussed at a 2-day workshop on February 5 and 6, 2013, in Huntsville, AL, with a final report on these proceedings to be finalized May 2013.

By The Way: The World is Not Ending

In about a month's time, or on December 21, 2012, to be exact, the world is supposed to end.  I just wanted to remind everyone again that this may be a slight exaggeration.  Hence, commence with your Christmas shopping. 

The story of the Mayan calendar that supposedly foretold this disaster was updated earlier this year based on findings in Xultún, Guatemala.  The wall paintings, some of the few remaining writings from a period almost obliterated by the book-burning Spanish, tells a story of time being recycled rather than ending.  As the New York Times wrote:

Rest assured, however, that nothing written on those walls foretells the world coming to an end on Dec. 21, 2012, as some have feared through a misinterpretation of the Maya Long Count calendar. That date is simply when one cycle of the Maya calendar ends and a new one begin...A change in the Long Count cycle, said Dr. Aveni, an astroarchaeologist, is like the odometer of a car rolling over from 120,000 to 130,000. “The car gets a step closer to the junkyard as the numbers turn over,” he said. “The Maya just start over.”

Amazon.com did well last holiday when everyone was buying books about the coming disaster, just like they will now do well with more books debunking this story.  Never underestimate the profitability of gullibility.

Happy Birthday, Carl Sagan!

Okay, I am a few days late since his birthday was last Friday (November 9), but I did not want the occasion to pass without a quick note.  While Dr. Sagan passed away about 16 years ago, his papers, books and television series Cosmos, as well as the Carl Sagan Memorial Station on Mars, are constant reminders of the talents and hard work he brought to astronomy and cosmology.  He was the great popularizer of science, as well as a social critic forever warning us of our blind spots.  In this 1994 interview with Anne Kalosh, he voiced his concerns:

We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster. 

A nice way to remember Dr. Sagan is to listen to his words in this video about this Pale Blue Dot we call home. 

Senator Coburn's Waste Book and NASA

Last month, Senator Coburn recently released his 2012 Waste Book, a government waste-watching effort of his for many years running. The Senator notes in his foreword:

Thousands, millions and even billions of dollars in an annual budget in excess of $3.7 trillion may not seem like much to Washington politicians, but these days a dollar can make a big difference for families on fixed budgets.

His latest report targets 100 government programs, including a number of government research programs.  And this year spending on space exploration is one of his targets, including (1) $947,000 spent by NASA's Advanced Food Technology Project to develop about 100 food items that could be consumed on Mars; (2) $1.6 million on apps to market the space program, such as Starlite, a "massive multiplayer online game to simulate the journey to Mars and the life of astronauts on the planet," and a free Xbox download Mars Rover Landing; (3) $771,000 for NASA to maintain a Lessons Learned Information System containing scientific information said to be outdated and little used; (4) $12.4 million for a new visitor center at NASA's Stennis Space Center facility in Mississippi; and (5) $300,000 in defense funds to support the 100-Year Starship Initiative's September symposium for interstellar discussion and related activities. 

While the Senator is looking for "waste," maybe he needs to learn a little more about how science works.  For instance, the Mars food project sounds like an excellent idea if we truly have our eyes set on a trip to the Red Planet. As part of the program, we are told:

Six volunteers will head into a barren landscape in Hawaii to simulate a 120-day Mars mission. In exchange, they receive an all-expenses-paid trip, plus $5,000 each, for completing the journey.
Volunteers will perform the activities Mars explorers might do, including wearing space suits and taking “Navy showers,” in order to see how different foods might affect their moods and health. In keeping with the purpose of the food study, one of the stated primary procedures for the participants is to “consume only ‘instant’ foods and foods prepared from shelf stable ingredients…and rate these foods.”Preparation for this extreme food-tasting challenge starts before the 120-day “mission.” Participants will attend a four-day workshop, and a two-week training exercise in the months leading up to the simulation, slated for early 2013.

And a quick look at the "outdated" Lessons Learned Information System shows information from the 1970s through 2012, so I am not sure what the report finds so troubling.  Finally, I am glad someone is thinking in terms of 100 years since Congress is unable to think past the next election.  Here is the mission of the 100-Year Starship Initiative:

100 Year Starship will pursue national and global initiatives, and galvanize public and private leadership and grassroots support, to assure that human travel beyond our solar system and to another star can be a reality within the next century.  100 Year Starship will unreservedly dedicate itself to identifying and pushing the radical leaps in knowledge and technology needed to achieve interstellar flight while pioneering and transforming breakthrough applications to enhance the quality of life on earth. We will actively include the broadest swath of people in understanding, shaping, and implementing our mission.

That said, money does not grows on trees and projects should held accountable, particularly in this time of tight budgets.  Yet this summary of problems strikes me more as overeager staffers trying to have fun at the cost of science so their boss can make a splash.  We need to have a real discussion about the merits of each program find ways to get even more funding to promising ideas that steer us towards a better future.

Great Images: The Ant Nebula

The image at right, titled the Ant Nebula, was first captured in 1997 by the Hubble Space Telescope and is available on Hubblesite.org.  The accompanying description of what we are seeing may say something about our own future as well:

From ground-based telescopes, the so-called "ant nebula" (Menzel 3, or Mz 3) resembles the head and thorax of a garden-variety ant. This dramatic NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, showing 10 times more detail, reveals the "ant's" body as a pair of fiery lobes protruding from a dying, Sun-like star.

The Hubble images directly challenge old ideas about the last stages in the lives of stars. By observing Sun-like stars as they approach their deaths, the Hubble Heritage image of Mz 3 — along with pictures of other planetary nebulae — shows that our Sun's fate probably will be more interesting, complex, and striking than astronomers imagined just a few years ago. 

Though approaching the violence of an explosion, the ejection of gas from the dying star at the center of Mz 3 has intriguing symmetrical patterns unlike the chaotic patterns expected from an ordinary explosion. Scientists using Hubble would like to understand how a spherical star can produce such prominent, non-spherical symmetries in the gas that it ejects. 

One possibility is that the central star of Mz 3 has a closely orbiting companion that exerts strong gravitational tidal forces, which shape the outflowing gas. For this to work, the orbiting companion star would have to be close to the dying star, about the distance of the Earth from the Sun. At that distance the orbiting companion star wouldn't be far outside the hugely bloated hulk of the dying star. It's even possible that the dying star has consumed its companion, which now orbits inside of it, much like the duck in the wolf's belly in the story "Peter and the Wolf." 

A second possibility is that, as the dying star spins, its strong magnetic fields are wound up into complex shapes like spaghetti in an eggbeater. Charged winds moving at speeds up to 1000 kilometers per second from the star, much like those in our Sun's solar wind but millions of times denser, are able to follow the twisted field lines on their way out into space. These dense winds can be rendered visible by ultraviolet light from the hot central star or from highly supersonic collisions with the ambient gas that excites the material into florescence.

Space Quotes: President Kennedy

We have learned more about President Kennedy now that we have greater access to his secret tapings from the Oval Office.  One quote in particular recently noted in a New York Times article caught my eye:

In a meeting in November 1962, the president bluntly told James Webb, the NASA administrator, that putting a man on the moon was his top priority. Mr. Webb said it was more important to understand the environment of space, prompting Mr. Kennedy to say, “If we get second to the Moon, it’s nice, but it’s like being second anytime.” 

Mr. Webb continued to push back, prompting the president to spell it out: “I’m not that interested in space,” he said, only in beating the Russians. 

As I have noted here earlier, the arms race was the controlling issue in the 1960s.  This only confirms it further.  Maybe we need to start considering how we can beat the Chinese or at least ensure they do not eventually beat us at our own game. 

New Moons Around Pluto

While Pluto might no longer be considered a planet, NASA still plans to visit the dwarf planet via New Horizons in July 2015.  Launched in 20016, the New Horizons space craft is already half-way to Pluto after passing Uranus. 

In preparation for the flight, the Hubble space telescope has been monitoring Pluto's neighborhood to make sure the New Horizons spacecraft does not smack into any unknown objects.  This turned out to be a pretty good idea since Hubble has already discovered two new moons over the course of about a year. 

In July 2011, NASA announced the discovery of a fourth moon, labeled P4.  This new moon has a diameter of only 8 to 21 miles, making it small enough to escape detection all of these years but large enough to cause problems for a NASA mission.  And this past July, Hubble located Pluto's fifth moon, P5 (yes, this naming is quite creative).  P5 is even smaller than P4.  Oddly, NASA's New Horizons website has yet to announce this discovery.  The graphic below provides some size comparisons.

Remember, Hubble located the second and third moon, Nix and Hydra, back in 2005.  The largest moon, Charon, was discovered in 1978 by the U.S. Naval Observatory.  Pluto and its moons reside inside the Kuiper Belt about 3 billion miles from the Sun.

If you are looking for more on why Pluto is no longer a "real" planet, you can always read Mike Brown's book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.  Mike Brown is the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology,  As he explains, not everyone was happy with his discovery of 10th planet, Eris:

My daughter Lilah, now five years old, is mad at me for killing Pluto. When I began a project 13 years ago to chart the slowly-moving objects of the distant outer solar system, my goal was never to pull Pluto off of its cherished planetary pedestal. I wanted to be a planet discoverer, like William Herschel or Clyde Tombaugh before me. I had a strong feeling that somewhere out there something bigger than Pluto was lurking, and I knew that whoever found it would get to claim the mantle as the only living planet discoverer. 

I was right. Something bigger than Pluto was out there (or at least something more massive than Pluto; sizes are a little harder to pin down precisely) and one January morning in 2005, my small team of astronomers and I found it. We announced the discovery of the 10th planet to an unsuspecting world late on the afternoon of Lilah’s 22nd day of life. A little after her first birthday, though, the doors to the planetary club were locked and Pluto and my own discovery were kicked out on the curb. The solar system was down to only eight planets.

Is ARC Still Active?

I have been linking my site to the Alliance to Rescue Civilization (ARC) for some time now but the site has been inactive for years.  For example, the last news clipping was from August 2006.  It is really unclear if this group is kaput or has merged into something else.  The mission of ARC was to

... protect the human species and its civilization from destruction that could result from a global catastrophic event, including nuclear war, acts of terrorism, plague and asteroid collisions. To fulfill its mission, ARC is dedicated to creating continuously staffed facilities on the Moon and other locations away from Earth. These facilities will preserve backups of scientific and cultural achievements, and of the species important to our civilization. In the event of a global catastrophe, the ARC facilities will be prepared to reintroduce lost technology, art, history, crops, livestock and,if necessary, even human beings to the Earth.

We certainly still need something like ARC to deal with potential problems here on Earth, though it appears the ARC team has moved on to other (more important?) matters.

The genesis of ARC goes back to William E. Burrow's 2006 book The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth.  In the summary to the book, we read:

We are living through one of the most dangerous times in human history. Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons technology are proliferating, and missile technology is falling into more and more hands. Extreme natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, fires, and earthquakes, are becoming increasingly costly - not only in dollars, but in lives - as population expands. Environmental crises threaten to provoke massive famines and widespread social collapse. Asteroids the size of battleships streak within striking distance of the earth every year.

Not much has changed over the past few years, so the idea of a project to preserve some of what we have and know is a fine idea.  Unfortunately, it does not appear to be on NASA's radar, so more will need to be done by other public and private groups.

Some government efforts are already underway.  For example, the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in the UK has been storing seeds with its partners in 50 countries to ensure we do not  lose them to extinction (see the Wakehurst Seed Bank area to the right).  The Partnership already has stored more than 10 percent of the world's seeds and aims for 25 percent by 2020.

Norway's government established the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on Spitsbergen island deep inside a mountain (see below).  This is often called the Doomsday Vault.  The Vault stores duplicates, or back ups, of seed samples from around the world. Given its location, deep within thick rock, the Vault can keep its seeds in a frozen state for thousands of years even if the location were to lose power. Of course, with global warming and even disasters that can readily change the Earth's atmosphere may change that equation. 

Both of these seed banks are a good start, though of course these seeds are being stored Earth-side, which is what ARC was trying to correct by putting this history (and future) into space as well.

Another group with a broader mission is the Lifeboat Foundation. From its mission statement, you might get the impression that the Foundation is more concerned about a human-initiated disaster than a stray asteroid:

The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity.

Lifeboat Foundation is pursuing a variety of options, including helping to accelerate the development of technologies to defend humanity, including new methods to combat viruses (such as RNA interference and new vaccine methods), effective nanotechnological defensive strategies, and even self-sustaining space colonies in case the other defensive strategies fail.

At first, I thought the Foundation has some ideas that are closer to what ARC envisioned.  For instance, the Foundation's Ark I is a project is to build a space colony of 1,000 hearty individuals to survive a disaster on Earth.  What is strange is that the initial selling point for the space colony is to escape from a world that continually invades your privacy.  In fact, ARK I is defined as the "ultimate gated community":

On Earth it is essential that diverse groups learn to live in close proximity. It’s hard to live with six or seven billion homo sapiens, and some people can’t seem to do it gracefully. Space settlements offer an alternative to changing human nature or endless conflict — the ability to live in fairly homogeneous groups, as has been the norm throughout hundreds of thousands of years of human existence. Those who can’t get along can be separated by millions of miles of hard vacuum, which in some cases seems necessary. All entry into a space settlement must be through an airlock, so controlling immigration should be trivial.

Hence, the first thought is to run away from a meddling Earth rather than to save its civilization.  This libertarian thread is often more pronounced than any scientific thread.  And why would you want a "homogeneous group" if you are trying to preserve what makes the Earth unique?  What races are you leaving to fend for themselves on Earth?  This is not an ark but rather a luxury cruise ship.

Other ongoing and planned projects include AsteroidShield, LifeShield Bunkers, SeedPreserver, and SunShield (yes, pretty long-term if we are waiting for the sun's red giant phase).  Such projects seem very reasonable in terms of future planning, though I am concerned that this organization might have a preference for who and what survives.

So do we have a solely scientific endeavor to maintain civilization off-planet?  I am still looking but I have not found anything yet.  And I would not mind a couple of competing endeavors so that we do not put all of our eggs in one savior basket.  Maybe the Chinese are working on something.  I will check back later.

A New Black Hole in our Galaxy?

NASA reported last week that the Swift satellite has detected X-rays from a new black hole close to the center of our Milky Way galaxy.  According to a NASA press release: 

"The pattern we're seeing is observed in X-ray novae where the central object is a black hole. Once the X-rays fade away, we hope to measure its mass and confirm its black hole status," said Boris Sbarufatti, an astrophysicist at Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy, who currently is working with other Swift team members at Penn State in University Park, Pa. 

The black hole must be a member of a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) system, which includes a normal, sun-like star. A stream of gas flows from the normal star and enters into a storage disk around the black hole. In most LMXBs, the gas in the disk spirals inward, heats up as it heads toward the black hole, and produces a steady stream of X-rays.  

The Milky way may have quite a few black holes.  A February 2012 Mail news story noted:

If the roughly 200 globular clusters in the Milky Way have indeed spawned intermediate-sized black holes, this means that hundreds of them are probably wandering invisibly around the Milky Way, waiting to engulf the nebulae, stars and planets that are unfortunate enough to cross their paths. 

Fortunately, the existence of a few rogue black holes in the neighbourhood does not present a major danger. 

‘These rogue black holes are extremely unlikely to do any damage to us in the lifetime of the universe,’ Holley-Bockelmann stressed. ‘Their danger zone, the Schwarzschild radius, is really tiny, only a few hundred kilometres. There are far more dangerous things in our neighbourhood!’ 

Black holes seem to be quite ubiquitous these days, though I never want to see one in our neighborhood.

SpaceX: Mixed Results

After a rough start, the SpaceX Dragon capsule has reached the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday morning with new supplies.  Unlike the test mission earlier this year, this was the first of hopefully many resupply runs that NASA has contracted for.  The capsule should remain attached to the ISS for about 18 days.

The mission was off to a shaky start on Sunday when one of the nine first-stage engines shut down shortly after the launch.  According to SpaceX:

Approximately one minute and 19 seconds into last night’s launch, the Falcon 9 rocket detected an anomaly on one first stage engine. Initial data suggests that one of the rocket’s nine Merlin engines, Engine 1, lost pressure suddenly and an engine shutdown command was issued. We know the engine did not explode, because we continued to receive data from it. Panels designed to relieve pressure within the engine bay were ejected to protect the stage and other engines. Our review of flight data indicates that neither the rocket stage nor any of the other eight engines were negatively affected by this event.

What  SpaceX did not mention in its press release is that the engine failure probably doomed an Orbcomm satellite that was hitching a ride on the resupply run.  According to an Orbcomm press release:

The OG2 prototype satellite, flying as a secondary payload on this mission, was separated from the Falcon 9 launch vehicle at approximately 9:00 pm EST. However, due to an anomaly on one of the Falcon 9’s first stage engines, the rocket did not comply with a pre-planned International Space Station (ISS) safety gate to allow it to execute the second burn. For this reason, the OG2 prototype satellite was deployed into an orbit that was lower than intended. ORBCOMM and Sierra Nevada Corporation engineers have been in contact with the satellite and are working to determine if and the extent to which the orbit can be raised to an operational orbit using the satellite’s on-board propulsion system.

This was presumably the first of nine satellites that Orbcomm hopes to place into orbit via SpaceX.  If SpaceX wants a revenue stream beyond NASA, it will need to ensure the Falcon 9 rocket is error free in the future.  Nonetheless, the ISS mission is another big step for the company.

Update:  On October 28th, SpaceX's Dragon capsule safely landed in the Pacific Ocean with return cargo, including scientific samples.  This completes the first private sector resupply missions of the ISS.  

Science Friday: Mars Contamination

Last month NPR's Science Friday program had an interesting story on the Curiosity mission, noting how the craft may have been contaminated prior to its launch.  Specifically, the program noted that part of Curiosity's drill may have been exposed to microbes on Earth before the rover launched to Mars. 

During the broadcast, Catharine Conley, NASA’s planetary protection officer, walks the listener through NASA sterilization procedures, as well as the risk to the Mars mission.  The bottom line is that Ms. Conley is troubled by sloppy procedures but not too concerned about the mission since Gale Crater is not expected to have any water or ice, which would be subject to Earth contamination.

Another piece on the matter from The Christian Science Monitor notes:

“Water or ice near the surface in Gale Crater was not a significant probability,” said David Lavery, program executive for solar system exploration at NASA headquarters. “We weighed that against the risks of not having a bit mounted in the drill prior to launch, and the specter of not being able to drill any holes at all on Mars.”

“Of course, there is always a possibility that Mars will surprise us,” Lavery said.

Given the significant investment and hopes related to this mission, it would have been best to follow procedure and not jeopardize any aspect of the critical science.  Hopefully, NASA made the right decision.  The Monitor article goes on to state:

Conley’s predecessor at NASA, John D. Rummel, a professor of biology at East Carolina University, said, partly in jest: “It will be a sad day for NASA if they do detect ice or water. That’s because the Curiosity project will most likely be told, ‘Gee, that’s nice. Now turn around.'"

I recommend subscribing to the Science Friday podcast.  You will also be able to tap into other great Mars stories such as:

-- Martian Lab Made in Manhattan (Aug. 10, 2012):  

Curiosity carries one of the most "complicated instruments ever to land on the surface of another planet," according to NASA. The rover's  "Sample Analysis at Mars" -- which can take dirt and crushed rock from the Red Planet and analyze those samples for indicators of alien life -- was partly built in the Big Apple by Honeybee Robotics. Flora Lichtman got a tour of the facility.

-- Mars Excitement: Back to the Future (Aug. 08, 2012):

The excitement about the first pictures of Mars' surface coming back from the Curiosity mission to Mars is déjà vu all over again. I recall being at Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the Viking missions to Mars back in the mid 1970s and feeling the joy and exhilaration of seeing the first pictures ever sent back to Earth from another planet when Viking 1 touched down in July 1976. Think about it: The first pictures ever sent back from the surface of another planet! 

-- Carl Sagan's Welcome to Mars (Aug. 08, 2012):

Shortly before his death in 1996, astronomer and science broadcaster Carl Sagan recorded a message for future Mars explorers:

"Maybe we’re on Mars because of the magnificent science that can be done there — the gates of the wonder world are opening in our time. Maybe we’re on Mars because we have to be, because there’s a deep nomadic impulse built into us by the evolutionary process — we come, after all, from hunter-gatherers, and for 99.9% of our tenure on Earth we’ve been wanderers. And the next place to wander to is Mars. But whatever the reason you’re on Mars is, I’m glad you’re there. And I wish I was with you."

Last Chance to Participate in the MARS Project

Today is the last day to volunteer as a crew member for The Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station, a project that has been underway for more than a decade:

In order to help develop key knowledge needed to prepare for human Mars exploration, and to inspire the public by making sensuous the vision of human exploration of Mars, the Mars Society has initiated the Mars Analog Research Station (MARS) project. A global program of Mars exploration operations research, the MARS project will include four Mars base-like habitats located in deserts in the Canadian Arctic, the American southwest, the Australian outback, and Iceland. In these Mars-like environments, we will launch a program of extensive long-duration geology and biology field exploration operations conducted in the same style and under many of the same constraints as they would on the Red Planet. By doing so, we will start the process of learning how to explore on Mars.

Each Station's centerpiece is a cylindrical habitat, "The Hab," an 8-meter diameter, two-deck structure mounted on landing struts. Peripheral external structures, some inflatable, may be appended to the Hab as well.

Each station will serve as a field base to teams of four to six crew members: geologists, astrobiologists, engineers, mechanics, physicians and others, who live for weeks to months at a time in relative isolation in a Mars analog environment. Mars analogs can be defined as locations on Earth where some environmental conditions, geologic features, biological attributes or combinations thereof may approximate in some specific way those thought to be encountered on Mars, either at present or earlier in that planet's history. Studying such sites leads to new insights into the nature and evolution of Mars, the Earth, and life.

It sounds like a great experiment that allows for greater participation in the planning of a future Mars journey.  Go here for the application if you want to be a member of the MARS crew.  Other volunteer opportunities are also available here. 

Note:  Each research team has its own mission patch.