Twitter Images from Scott Kelly

The image above comes from astronaut Scott Kelly on the International Space Station.  It shows the Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon more or less aligned.  It is one of many on his twitter account that you might want to see for yourself.  With a full year on the station, I expect we will get a lot of great shots from Mr. Kelly.

Kepler Finds Another Earth-like Exoplanet

The discoveries keep coming.  NASA recently announced the discovery of a new exoplanet, Kepler-452b. The exoplanet, about 1,400 light years away,  is a close match with Earth in terms of size and proximity to the sun.  That means the light we are seeing from this exoplanet dates back to a time when Europe was starting to recover from a  plague that wiped out half the continent's population. That would have been a good time to look for a safe and distant harbor. Other runner-up Earth-like candidates spotted by the Kepler space telescope are provided in the image above. 

Credits: NASA Ames/W. Stenzel

The Periodic Table Explained in a Different Way

I noticed the image above when visiting Dr. Brian Cox's tweets.  It shows the periodic elements as well as the country where they were first discovered.  It was created by UK PhD student Jamie Gallagher. In a Smithsonian SmartNews interview, he stated he had a particular affinity for the story behind polonium, discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie: 

Working together they isolated this element and later named it Polonium after Marie’s home country. (A country, I may add, that turned her away from her pursuit of education as she was a politically interested female). It was her hope that by naming the element after Poland she could generate interested in the independence (from Germany) campaign for the country. Yet the victory comes in under the French flag where the work was carried out.

As you can see from the table above, the UK, Sweden, and Germany were the three countries that led the pack in the discovery of elements.

Professor Cox: No Time for Fools

"I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you don't think Apollo 11 landed on Moon you are a colossal nob end & should get a new brain."

--Tweeted by professor Brian Edward Cox, English physicist and professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester, in conjunction with 46th anniversary since the first humans setting foot on the moon.  Dr. Cox was the presenter on the BBC series Wonders of the Solar System and Wonders of the Universe, both of which are terrific programs. 

You Knew It Was Coming: The Pluto Petition

Now that New Horizons has provided us with a fascinating view of the dwarf planet Pluto, some are thinking it is time to restore Pluto to its rightful place among the full planets.  If you agree, you might want to visit change.org, which has a petition with about 4,300 names on it as of today.  

And what does this group want?  Hopefully, the petitioners can capture the attention of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is the same culprit that knocked Pluto off the planetary list:

The IAU meets again for its general assembly in August 2015. And in the coming weeks, New Horizons will collect unprecedented amounts of data about the Pluto system, calling in to question the definition set forth by the IAU.

I am wondering if I need to start a petition for Eris, also floating out there with Pluto, or even Ceres (shown below), now being studied by the Dawn spacecraft.  With the five dwarf planets, we would have 13 officials planet for now.  I say the more the merrier. 

More on the Falcon 9 Mishap

SpaceX's Elon Musk earlier in the week announced that Falcon 9 failure was due to a faulty strut that did not properly contain a helium bottle within  the rocket's liquid oxygen tank.  This is certainly better news than an engine failure.  Mr. Musk is still hopeful his company can start sending humans into space in about two years.

This video by Scott Manley, the Scott astronomer, gives you a colorful explanation of the accident and cause.  He noted that the strut supplier will probably not be used again, which is a good idea. He also discusses accelerometers placed around the rocket tracking vibrations and waves that helped to pinpoint the area of failure.

The most important point is that the Dragon capsule survived the explosion, indicating that a human mission facing a similar mishap might have had a safe landing.  SpaceX is working on software and additional safety features in anticipation of such a need.  That is very encouraging. 

Noteworthy Quote: Everything Changed

"We've established something fundamental in planetary science...In one fell swoop, in 10 minutes, we got the image, we knew: Everything changed."

-- Pluto mission head Dr. Alan Stern in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He was making reference to the 100 million years old mountains on the dwarf planet's surface, which was unexpected for what was thought to be a long dead frozen world. In response to a question about Pluto's demotion from the realm of planets, he noted it was as dumb as only naming seven mountains on Earth.

Image Credit:  New Horizons image (top) showing 12 miles of plain nicknamed "Sputnik Planum."  The bottom photo shows the location of the plain.

Great Image: Mountains on Pluto

Now that the flyby of Pluto is done, we have some great shots of the surface of the dwarf planet.  Images will continue to be broadcast from New Horizons to NASA for at least another 16 months, so prepare for many more pictures.  The image above shows relatively young mountains near Pluto's equator.

Here is the story from NASA:

A new close-up image of an equatorial region near the base of Pluto’s bright heart-shaped feature shows a mountain range with peaks jutting as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body.
The mountains on Pluto likely formed no more than 100 million years ago -- mere youngsters in a 4.56-billion-year-old solar system. This suggests the close-up region, which covers about one percent of Pluto’s surface, may still be geologically active today.

“This is one of the youngest surfaces we’ve ever seen in the solar system,” said Jeff Moore of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

Unlike the icy moons of giant planets, Pluto cannot be heated by gravitational interactions with a much larger planetary body. Some other process must be generating the mountainous landscape.
“This may cause us to rethink what powers geological activity on many other icy worlds,” says GGI deputy team leader John Spencer at SwRI.

 Image Credit:  NASA/JHU APL/SwRI

New Horizons Back Online

The New Horizons flyby of Pluto has been  a success, with the spacecraft communicating again yesterday after coming within 7,800 miles of the dwarf planet's surface.  Images from the mission will be coming back to Earth for some time to come as NASA continues to analyze the treasure trove of new information.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden stated:

I know today we’ve inspired a whole new generation of explorers with this great success, and we look forward to the discoveries yet to come...This is a historic win for science and for exploration. We’ve truly, once again raised the bar of human potential.

Pluto Mission Broadcast on Television

In addition to watching the NASA website, you can see a number of television specials this week to mark the Pluto flyby.  Tomorrow on the National Geographic Channel, you can see Mission Pluto, where the scientists at the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA discuss the events leading up to New Horizons' historic arrival at the former planet Pluto.  You can also see a trailer for the new show on the website. 

And on July 15th, PBS's NOVA will be showing Chasing Pluto:

On July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft, one of the most advanced ever built, is scheduled to fly by Pluto to take the very first detailed images of the dwarf planet. After nine years and 3 billion miles, we will finally get a close look at this strange, icy world, but only if the craft can survive the final, treacherous leg of its journey, which could take it through a dangerous field of debris. If it does, New Horizons is poised to make dramatic new discoveries, not just about Pluto, but about the vast realm of icy bodies lurking beyond Neptune, relics of the earliest days of the solar system’s formation. Back on Earth, the planetary scientists who have spent decades working on this mission anxiously await a signal from their spacecraft. Our cameras will be there to witness the moment. If all goes well, we’ll see Pluto’s mysterious surface in unprecedented detail and learn new secrets about other alien worlds at the far limits of our solar system.

A Mountain on Ceres?

While all of the attention is on Pluto at the moment, let's not forget that the Dawn spacecraft is exploring Ceres, another dwarf planet.  The image above of Ceres' surface was taken in mid June and demonstrates continuing mysteries on the planet's surface beyond those strange bright spots.  But what I find most interesting about the story below is how Dawn will be orbiting this dwarf planet for millions of years.  Now that is impressive.

Here is the story as told by NASA on June 30th:

What created this large mountain on asteroid Ceres? No one is yet sure. As if in anticipation of today being Asteroid Day on Earth, the robotic spacecraft Dawn in orbit around Ceres took the best yet image of an unusually tall mountain on the Asteroid Belt's largest asteroid. Visible at the top of the featured image, the exceptional mountain rises about five kilometers up from an area that otherwise appears pretty level. The image was taken about two weeks ago from about 4,400 kilometers away. Although origin hypotheses for the mountain include volcanism, impacts, and plate tectonics, clear evidence backing any of these is currently lacking. Also visible across Ceres' surface are some enigmatic light areas: bright spots whose origin and composition that also remain an active topic of investigation. Even though Dawn is expected to continue to orbit Ceres, officially dubbed a dwarf planet, for millions of years, the hydrazine fuel used to point Dawn's communications antenna toward Earth is expected to run out sometime next year.

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA, MPS/DLR/IDA

Another Red Planet: Pluto

With New Horizons set to make the long-awaited July 14th fly by of Pluto, we are getting an unprecedented view of this distant dwarf planet.   And now we can clearly see we have one more red planet (see the NASA image above), the color attributed to hydrocarbon molecules formed from the interaction of cosmic rays and solar ultraviolet light with Pluto's methane atmosphere and surface.

New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, recently stated:

Pluto’s reddish color has been known for decades, but New Horizons is now allowing us to correlate the color of different places on the surface with their geology and soon, with their compositions...This will make it possible to build sophisticated computer models to understand how Pluto has evolved to its current appearance.

While Dr. Stern may believe everyone knew Pluto was a red planet, I am not sure that was the case with everyone in the past.  Take a look at solar system illustration below and you will see it was not a red planet for everyone.  Yet now we know, and I expect future graphics will be somewhat different. 

Supplies Aboard the Space Station

After numerous attempts, the International Space Station finally has been resupplied by a Russian Soyuz capsule.  The Progress 60 mission (shown above) successfully docked with the station earlier today, bringing water, spare parts, propellant, oxygen, and more.  You can watch the docking process here. 

I imagine all of this is more excitement that Astronaut Scott Kelly was anticipating when he signed up to spend a year on the station.  If the purpose of the mission is to test his reaction to stress, NASA is doing a great job piling it on. 

Update: Speaking of Mr. Kelly, he shared his experiences recently with CBS Evening News.  He compared his time on the space station to time in prison:

...no matter what happens, you're not going home. We don't get to go outside, so that's a little bit different. I would imagine in a lot of jails people get fresh air. You don't get that here. And you don't get real sunlight. ... The big difference, though, is we're here by choice. So that makes, I guess, the situation a little bit better.

But he also discussed the importance of his research, giving an example concerning why NASA needs to study the impact of long-term space travel on the eyes:

 You wouldn't want some astronauts to get on Mars after a year and a half, or longer when they're coming home, and not be able to see...It's something we don't understand, but it's something we're working hard at understanding and mitigating the effects. We've done a lot of research up here since I've been here to better understand that.

Amazing Image of Pluto and Charon

The film above shows us that New Horizons has arrived at Pluto and is already sending back amazing imagery.  Here is the story from NASA concerning the film above:

This is the first movie created by New Horizons to reveal color surface features of Pluto and its largest moon Charon. “It’s a bit unusual to see so much surface detail at this distance,” said New Horizons co-investigator William McKinnon of the Geology and Geophysics Investigation Team, Washington University in Saint Louis. “What’s especially noteworthy is the level of detail in both bodies. It’s certainly whetting our appetite for what’s to come.”

The images were taken between June 23 and June 29, 2015, as New Horizons’ distance to Pluto decreased from a distance of 15 million to 11 million miles (24 million to 18 million kilometers). Six high-resolution black-and-white images from New Horizons’ LORRI instrument were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to produce the movie.

Russia to the Rescue: New Supplies Heading to the Space Station

Earlier today the Russians launched the Progress 60 resupply mission aboard a Soyuz rocket.  The International Space Station (ISS) will soon have its supplies while SpaceX and NASA decide the next steps for future Falcon/Dragon resupply missions.  SpaceX's next resupply mission to the ISS was scheduled for September, but that has been put on hold pending the investigation results.

SpaceX: The Knives Are Out

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal had an editorial penned by retired USAF General William Shelton, who served as the commander of the Air Force Command as late as August 2014.  Titled National Security After the SpaceX Explosion, he makes the point that the explosion "should give everyone pause about jettisoning a dependable arrangement vital to U.S. security."  Of course, that "arrangement" is with United Launch Alliance (UAL), a continual foe of SpaceX, which continues to argue that it needs access to Russian rockets.  

I do not doubt General Shelton's interest in obtaining the best assets for military and space missions.  Early last year, in reference to Elon Musk, he stated, "I don’t doubt that guy anymore, by the way...What he says, he’s going to do."

That said, the General goes on to boast about the ULA rockets, noting:

Current U.S. space policy is implemented by buying both the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets from the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.  Both rockets have a 100% success record - 83 launches without failure.

I think the General has very selective memory and forgot the difficulties any rocket maker will experience as they develop new approaches and technology.  Maybe he does not remember this headline from almost 30 years ago - Delta Rocket Failure Cripples Nation`s Space Program.  The article states:

The accident effectively guts the nation`s space program. This is why:  The most dependable launch vehicles, the Delta rockets, are now grounded indefinitely...The $30 million rocket, considered the most dependable and described as the workhorse of NASA`s fleet, was carrying a $57.5 million weather satellite that was to help forecasters track Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. The satellite was destroyed...The Delta rocket has been launched 178 times since 1960, with 12 failures during that time. Until Saturday`s accident, there had been 43 successful launches since 1977.

What makes this Delta explosion eerily similar is this statement that accompanied the article:  

It was the third space-related accident in three months, leaving the space program with no reliable means of getting satellites, or people, into orbit.

Well, here we are again General, and this time it is SpaceX finding its legs after a disaster.  And while I agree with need some redundancy in the space program, I would rather it be US-based rocket redundancy.  Maybe we still will need some Russian rockets, and maybe Congress should be a little more flexible on the issue, but we should be working full speed on multiple alternatives to the Russian option.  Why does a South African-born entrepreneur running a US rocket company seem to appreciate this argument more than a USAF general?