Meteorite Damage in Russia

While 2012 DA14 safely passed the earth on Friday, another unexpected rock plummeted to Earth and struck Russia (again) the very same day.  More than 100 years after the Tunguska, Siberia, meteor strike, a new meteor struck Russia in the Chelyabinsk region (see map below).  The two regions are about 3,000 miles apart.

The meteor was estimated to be about 55 feet and weighing approximately 10,000 tons. The incoming explosion released nearly 500 kilotons of energy and early estimates indicate 1,000 people where injured, primarily from broken glass as windows shattered.

According to the Associated Press, 

The explosions broke an estimated 100,000 square meters (more than 1 million square feet) of glass, city officials said.

Chelyabinsk health chief Marina Moskvicheva, said Friday that 985 people in her city had asked for medical assistance. The Interfax news agency quoted her as saying 43 were hospitalized. Athletes at a city sports arena were among those cut up by the flying glass.

NASA stated that such occurrences are to be expected every 30 years or so, and noted that this event and the 2012 DA14 asteroid were unrelated:

"We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average," said Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones."

The trajectory of the Russia meteor was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, which hours later made its flyby of Earth, making it a completely unrelated object. 
 
It is understandable that people will conflate the two events occurring on the same day.  I would like to know the odds of this event happening.  

In a February 14 editorial in The Wall Street Journal, the authors provided additional estimates on the likelihood of future meteor strikes,

The chance of another Tunguska-size impact somewhere on Earth this century is about 30%. That isn't the likelihood that you will be killed by an asteroid, but rather the odds that you will read a news headline about an asteroid impact of this size somewhere on Earth. Unfortunately, that headline could be about the destruction of a city, as opposed to an unpopulated region of Siberia.

The chance in your lifetime of an even bigger asteroid impact on Earth—with explosive energy of 100 megatons of TNT—is about 1%. Such an impact would deliver many times the explosive energy of all the munitions used in World War II, including the atomic bombs. This risk to humanity is similar to an individual's odds of dying in a car accident.

This was published one day before the meteor struck Russia.  I wonder if the authors would update their estimates today (or turn in their car keys).

How Do We Protect the Milky Way Galaxy from a Collision?

Just one idea from the comic site Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:

Asteroids: Post-Valentine's Day Massacre? Not Really

With the pending approach of a large asteroid the day after Valentine's Day, one which will come between us and the moon, it is reasonable to ask if we are prepared.  The asteroid in question is called 2012 DA14, and is about 150 feet across in size and traveling at a speed of 17,450 miles per hour.

NASA scientists have told us that there is nothing to be worried about (I remember a similar statement in the movie Melancholia, though that did not work out too well).  Even in the worst case scenario we are not looking at a 6-mile wide asteroid like the one that hit 66 million years ago (the effect of which is being questioned), but this is quite an event.  The closest the asteroid should get will be about 17,200 miles above the Earth's surface, or about one-tenth the distance between Earth and moon.  To date, the only Earth objects threatened by this large rock would be some of the weather and communications satellites circling the Earth.  The International Space Station orbits well below the expected path of 2012 DA14 at an altitude of 240 miles.  You can see some of the risk calculations in the box below from NASA (good luck). 

NASA noted that this asteroid was only discovered recently: 

2012 DA14 has not been in our catalogs for very long -- it was discovered in February 2012 by astronomers at the La Sagra Sky Survey program in southern Spain and reported to the Minor Planet Center. The asteroid had just made a fairly distant passage by the Earth, about 7 times farther than the distance to the Moon when it was first detected by the Spanish group. Since 2012 DA14's orbital period around the Sun has been about 368 days, which is very similar to the Earth's, the asteroid made a series of annual close approaches, this year's being the closest. But this encounter will shorten 2012 DA14's orbital period to about 317 days, changing its orbital class from Apollo to Aten, and its future close approaches will follow a different pattern. The close approach this year is the closest the asteroid will come for at least 3 decades. 

This passage of 2012 DA14 by the Earth is a record close approach for a known object of this size. A few other known asteroids have flown by the Earth even closer, but those asteroids were smaller. On average, we expect an object of this size to get this close to the Earth about once every 40 years. An actual Earth collision by an object of this size would be expected much less frequently, about once every 1200 years on average. 

This all sounds very reassuring, until you also read:
 
Scientists believe there are approximately 500,000 near-Earth asteroids the size of 2012 DA14. Of those, less than one percent have been discovered...

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will not impact Earth, but if another asteroid of a size similar to that of 2012 DA14 (about 150 feet across) were to impact Earth, it would release approximately 2.5 megatons of energy in the atmosphere and would be expected to cause regional devastation.

A comparison to the impact potential of an asteroid the size of 2012 DA14 could be made to the impact of a near-Earth object that occurred in 1908 in Tuguska, Siberia. Known in the asteroid community as the "Tunguska Event," this impact of an asteroid just slightly smaller than 2012 DA14 (approximately 100 – 130 feet/30-40 meters across) is believed to have flattened about 750 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) of forest in and around the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. 

Good grief! Do you feel better now?

Update:  All is well.  2012 DA14 safely passed by Earth with no damage to those below. NASA provided the image below from the telescope known as the iTelescope.net Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

Great Image: The Storm on Saturn That Ate Itself

This Cassini image captures a massive storm on the surface of Saturn that lasted about 267 days before petering out last summer.  Here is a little more on the storm from NASA:

In a new paper that provides the most detail yet about the life and death of a monstrous thunder-and-lightning storm on Saturn, scientists from NASA's Cassini mission describe how the massive storm churned around the planet until it encountered its own tail and sputtered out. It is the first time scientists have observed a storm consume itself in this way anywhere in the solar system.

"This Saturn storm behaved like a terrestrial hurricane - but with a twist unique to Saturn," said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, who is a co-author on the new paper in the journal Icarus. "Even the giant storms at Jupiter don't consume themselves like this, which goes to show that nature can play many awe-inspiring variations on a theme and surprise us again and again." 

By Aug. 28, after 267 days, the Saturn storm stopped thundering for good. While Cassini's infrared detectors continue to track some lingering effects in higher layers of Saturn's atmosphere, the troposphere -- which is the weather-producing layer, lower in the atmosphere - has been quiet at that latitude. 

"This thunder-and-lightning storm on Saturn was a beast," said Kunio Sayanagi, the paper's lead author and a Cassini imaging team associate at Hampton University in Virginia. "The storm maintained its intensity for an unusually long time. The storm head itself thrashed for 201 days, and its updraft erupted with an intensity that would have sucked out the entire volume of Earth's atmosphere in 150 days. And it also created the largest vortex ever observed in the troposphere of Saturn, expanding up to 7,500 miles [12,000 kilometers] across."

Notes on Cassini:  The mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.  At the time of launch, Cassini-Huygens had two parts - the Cassini orbiter and the Huygens probe. In 2004, Cassini-Huygens reached Saturn and its moons. At that point, the Cassini spacecraft began orbiting the system in July 2004, while Huygens entered the murky atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's biggest moon, and descended via parachute onto its surface.

Space Launches: Monkeys in Space

These past few weeks have seen a number of space launches, including:

--  Japan:  On January 27, Japan launched a two satellites into space, including one that will keep tabs on the North Koreans (who launched their own rocket back in December). 

-- South Korea:  On January 30, South Korea successfully launched a weather satellite.  The Nara rocket used in the launch was built with the assistance of the Russian space agency.  This was the country's first successful attempt to put a satellite into orbit with one of its own rockets. 

-- United States:  On January 30, NASA successfully launched the first of three Tracking and Data Relay Stations to improve communications with the International Space Stations, the Hubble Space Telescope, and other space missions.

-- Russia: On February 1, the Russian-owned, Pacific-based Sea Launch AG rocket (Ukrainian-built) failed to put an Intelsat 27 satellite into orbit.  In a press release, Sea Launch reported:

"We are very disappointed with the outcome of the launch and offer our sincere regrets to our customer, Intelsat, and their spacecraft provider, Boeing,” said Kjell Karlsen, president of Sea Launch AG. “The cause of the failure is unknown, but we are evaluating it and working closely with Intelsat, Boeing, Energia Logistics Ltd. and our Zenit-3SL suppliers. We will do everything reasonably possible to recover from this unexpected and unfortunate event.”

However, the real news story of the past week or so was Iran's launch of a monkey into space.  On January 28, Iran announced the successful rocket launch.  However, no one could independently confirm the launch, which is pretty strange given the number of nations currently monitoring (aka "spying on") the country.  And now there are more stories about two different pictures of the space monkey, something the Iranians attribute to confusion by the Iranian press.  Of course, the Iranians have lost credibility over the years with false statements, such as 2008 doctored images of a Revolutionary Guards missile launch. 

Iran is credited for earlier launches including a rat, two turtles and a worm (it also tried a monkey with no luck in 2011), as well as two Earth-observing satellites back in 2011 and 2012, so they are not new to this. Iranian space officials see the early tests as part of plans to send a human into space by 2020, and maybe even place an astronaut on the moon by 2025.  The moon may be very crowded in the 2020s if all of the countries aiming for it meet their goals. 

Launch Image Above:  March 19, 2008 Zenit-3SL rocket launch by the Sea Launch Co.

PBS: Columbia Shuttle 10th Anniversary

Tonight on PBS you can see Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope, marking the 10th anniversary of the shuttle disaster.  The PBS special will primarily highlight the life of  Colonel Ilan Ramon, a fighter pilot and son of Holocaust survivors who became the first astronaut from Israel.  Here is PBS's description of tonight's program: 

Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope goes behind the scenes to explore the “mission within the mission” for Ramon, who carried into space a miniature Torah scroll that had survived the horrors of the Holocaust, given to a boy in a secret bar mitzvah observed in the pre-dawn hours in the notorious Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. The bar mitzvah boy grew up to become Israel’s lead scientist for the mission, Joachim “Yoya” Joseph.

The film follows the scroll’s path into Ramon’s hands, and the dramatic moment when he tells its story live to the world from the flight deck of Columbia. From the depths of hell to the heights of space, his simple gesture would serve to honor the hope of a nation and to fulfill a promise made to generations past and future. 

Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope includes drawings from the concentration camp made in secret by a camp inmate, and archival NASA footage of the astronauts as they prepared for their mission. Interviewees include Ilan Ramon’s widow, Rona Ramon, and other Columbia crew family members; astronaut Garrett Reisman and other members of NASA’s space program; Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean; former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and many others. The film was shot on location throughout the world, from Jerusalem to the Kennedy Space Center to Washington, D.C. 

Space Art: The Visions of Children

If we want to have a future in space, we need to educate and motivate the children of today. One way to motivate children is to let them share their vision of the future.  The accompanying image was created by Zoya Baakza from The City School, P.A.F. Chapter, in Karachi, Pakistan.  He won third place among the 6th-8th grade entries in the 2012 Space Foundation Student Art Contest.  Go here for all of the 2012 winners. And go here for a video showing the winning entries narrated by astronauts.

The 2013 winners will be selected from the 4,735 entries as part of the International Student Art Contest at the April 8-11, 2013, Space Foundation's 29th National Space Symposium, to be held in Colorado Springs, CO, this year.

Below I provide more art, this time from the 2011 contest winners.

Emilee Ullom, Peyton Elementary, Peyton, Colo.: Second Place, Grades 6-8 Multimedia

 Joann Wong, Sand Creek High School, Colorado Springs, Colo: Second Place, Grades 9-12 Multimedia

Great Image: Spirit on Mars

With all of the attention on Curiosity, we sometimes forget about the earlier Mars rover Spirit that was rolling around on the Red Planet's surface from 2004 to 2010 (when we lost communication).  Above is an 360-degree panoramic image from Spirit while nestled in its "Winter Haven."  Below is the rest of the story from NASA:

This 360-degree view, called the "McMurdo" panorama, comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. From April through October 2006, Spirit stayed on a small hill known as "Low Ridge." There, the rover's solar panels were tilted toward the sun to maintain enough solar power for Spirit to keep making scientific observations throughout the winter on southern Mars. This view of the surroundings from Spirit's "Winter Haven" is presented in approximately true color.

The Pancam began shooting component images of this panorama during the 814th Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's work on Mars (April 18, 2006) and completed the part shown here on Sol 980 (Oct. 5, 2006).

This beautiful scene reveals a tremendous amount of detail in Spirit's surroundings. Many dark, porous-textured volcanic rocks can be seen around the rover, including many on Low Ridge. Two rocks to the right of center, brighter and smoother-looking in this image and more reflective in infrared observations by Spirit's miniature thermal emission spectrometer, are thought to be meteorites. On the right, "Husband Hill" on the horizon, the rippled "El Dorado" sand dune field near the base of that hill, and lighter-toned "Home Plate" below the dunes provide context for Spirit's travels from mid-2005 to early 2006.

Left of center, tracks and a trench dug by Spirit's right-front wheel, which could no longer rotate, exposed bright underlying material. This bright material is evidence of sulfur-rich salty minerals in the subsurface, providing clues about the watery past of this part of Gusev Crater.
A version of the McMurdo panorama without the rover deck, but including a supplemental figure with landscape features labeled, is at PIA01907.

Silly Questions Keep NASA Hopping

Do you remember the calls to NASA back in 2011 related to the non-existent Apollo 18 mission following the movie by the same name? NASA responded as follows:

There never was a DoD-dedicated Apollo mission and no astronauts named Anderson, Walker or Grey were ever selected for NASA's astronaut corps, as the movie depicts, or failed to return from the moon...And for the record, [the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter] LRO found no evidence of an Apollo 18 mission. 

Then last year NASA spent time explaining to the public that the world would not end on December 21, 2012, as part of a Mayan calendar prediction.   Luckily, we are still here to discuss the matter, which further supports NASA's comments that such predictions were silly. 

So now 2013 rolls around and new questions arise concerning the possible construction of a Death Star by the United States government.  Yes, some are petitioning for such a contraption.  Specifically, about 34,000 individuals signed a petition at the We the People site, which stated:

Those who sign here petition the United States government to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016.

By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.

The White House, with NASA's assistance, responded in part by stating:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

Okay, I believe in this case at least that the authors of this position, and hopefully most of those signing it, were having a little bit of fun.  And the Administration was smart to use this opportunity to educate the public about the International Space Station, Mars rovers, Voyager spacecraft and more.  In noting the lack of a Death Star, the White House stated:

However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. 

So, should we expect more such questions?  Maybe, but getting them through the system may be more difficult now that the We the People website has upped the number of required signatures from 25,000 to 100,000.  Here is another petition idea that was still floating around as of today: Publicly admit and disclose all information about extra-terrestrial beings, our true history, and peaceful technologies.  This one may require a combined response from NASA and the Department of Defense, though the petition has only 1,833 signatures and a week to go under the 30-day deadline.  However, in response to a similar petition concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life, the White House responded:

The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye.

By the way, our solar system already has a Death Star, according to NASA.  The image below of Saturn's moon Mimas seems to be a pretty close replica and therefore earned the nick name in the accompanying press release. 

NASA for Sale - Everything Must Go

The story in the Orlando Sentinel starts this way:
 

Does anyone need a 15,000-foot landing strip? How about a place to assemble rocket ships? Or a parachute-packing plant? An array of aerospace tracking antennas? A launchpad?

Make us an offer, says NASA, which is quietly holding a going-out-of-business sale for the facilities used by its space-shuttle program.

If you thought the budget cuts in Washington would be avoided, you have yet to speak with NASA. The space agency needs every penny it can find and it has no time (or money) for nostalgia, such as holding onto the roots of the U.S. space program at the Kennedy Space Center

According to Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, the marketplace will determine the fate of the Space Center:

"The facilities are not the end game; the market is," DiBello said. "If the infrastructure helps you reach market, then it has value. If it doesn't, then it's just a building, it's just a launchpad, and nobody wants it."

Not the most inspiring thought as we plan for more missions to the moon and Mars.

Kepler: The Planet Finder

I really should have put the Kepler Space Telescope on my list of Great Accomplishments in 2012 since the little spacecraft was very busy in 2012 identifying more possible Earth-like planets in our galaxy. Launched in March 2009, Kepler has already investigated the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, identified more than 2,400 planet candidates, and confirmed more than 100 planets.  Many of these planets are Earth-sized and many are within the "habitable zone."  As part of its next mission, Kepler will begin to focus on Earth-like candidates in 1-year orbits around stars similar to our sun. 

At a January 7, 2013, press conference during the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Long Beach, CA, we learned that we are far from alone:

A new analysis of Kepler data shows that about 17 percent of stars have an Earth-sized planet in an orbit closer than Mercury. Since the Milky Way has about 100 billion stars, there are at least 17 billion Earth-sized worlds out there.

This is a pretty amazing discovery from this little spacecraft.  We went from guessing about our lonely status only a few years back to confirming that we are only one of billions of planets in a similar scenario - talk about a "Kepler moment."  Carl Sagan's book Cosmos provides this quote from the first Kepler that sums it up:

We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.

You can get more information on this latest announcement by viewing the accompanying paper on Kepler.

Scary Images: Mars Storm on Earth?

While I already mentioned some of the devastating dust storms of the past, I was surprised to see red dust storms happening here on Earth right now.  The recent fires in Australia have created some massive dust storms off the coast of Western Australia that have to be seen to be believed.  Below is an image of a "red wave" provided by The Newcastle Herald. The paper noted that "The Bureau of Meteorology said the incredible sight of a 'red wave' at sea was created  as wind and rain caused the storm to dump the sand and dust it had taken from the land." 

You can find more images here, such as the two below.

Special Delivery: Martian Meteorite

While we are spending significant resources putting rovers on the surface of Mars, we are finding that the very treasure we are seeking is literally in our own back yard.  A Martian meteorite that found in the Sahara desert back in 2011, called "black beauty" due to its coal-like coloring, is estimated to be about 2 billion years old and provides evidence of a wetter Mars.  The News International noted:

The abundance of water molecules in the meteorite -- about 6,000 parts per million, 10 times more than other known rocks -- suggests water activity persisted on the Martian surface when it was formed.

The baseball size meteorite is officially known as NWA 7034 because of where it was found - Northwest Africa.  The basalt rock is from a volcanic past, the same period being studied by the Opportunity and Spirit rovers. 

In terms of such space rocks, The Guardian story on the meteorite stated:

About 65 Martian rocks have been recovered on Earth, mostly in Antarctica or the Sahara. The oldest dates back 4.5bn years to a time when Mars was warmer and wetter. About half a dozen Martian meteorites are 1.3bn years old and the rest are 600m years or younger.

Here is the more scientific statement on the meteorite from the authors of a paper titled Unique Meteorite from Early Amazonian Mars: Water-Rich Basaltic Breccia Northwest Africa 7034:

We report data on the martian meteorite, Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, which shares some petrologic and geochemical characteristics with known martian (SNC, i.e., Shergottite, Nakhlite, and Chassignite) meteorites, but also possesses some unique characteristics that would exclude it from the current SNC grouping. NWA 7034 is a geochemically enriched crustal rock compositionally similar to basalts and average martian crust measured by recent rover and orbiter missions. It formed 2.089 ± 0.081 Ga, during the early Amazonian epoch in Mars' geologic history. NWA 7034 has an order of magnitude more indigenous water than most SNC meteorites, with up to 6000 ppm extraterrestrial H₂O released during stepped heating. It also has bulk oxygen isotope values of Δ¹⁷O = 0.58 ± 0.05‰ and a heat-released water oxygen isotope average value of Δ¹⁷O = 0.330 ± 0.011‰, suggesting the existence of multiple oxygen reservoirs on Mars. 

I think my summary was easier to digest.

Great Accomplishments in 2012

Before we get too far into 2012, I wanted to highlight some of the great space-related achievements from last year.  While there were many noteworthy events, a few come to mind as setting the stage for years to come.  Here are four that I have selected.

-- SpaceX:  The company's successful resupply mission to the International Space Station has created a new relationship between the U.S. space program and the private sector.  Today private companies are in a position to replace NASA for routine missions.  The question now is whether they someday supplant NASA.

-- Higgs Bosom:  The discovery of this mysterious particle explaining most of the universe will keep scientists busy for years.  Brian Cox, the English professor and particle physicist, stated in The Guardian:

The hubristic nature of daring to imagine it, of daring to say: "This is how I think the universe works", is truly brilliant. It's difficult for anyone to get their head around – it's only a century ago that Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus. We didn't even know that atoms existed 150 years ago. This will speed up our understanding of the universe rapidly.

-- Voyager Exiting the Solar System:  The two Voyager spacecraft are crossing the border between home and the unknown as they exited our solar system and began a new journey.  They are still part of the protecting heliosphere of our system, but not for much longer. What is amazing beyond this feat is that we can still communicate with both spacecraft 35 years after their launch. According to NASA, the signal from Voyager 1 takes approximately 17 hours to travel to Earth. The durability of these craft and ingenuity of our space program is pretty amazing. 

-- Curiosity on Mars:  The successful landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars was a solid accomplishment for NASA and mankind.  With its cluster of sophisticated instruments, we have a chance to learn much more about the Red Planet and its origins.  With the success of Curiosity, NASA is planning a second rover.  Nothing breeds optimism (and duplication) like success. 

Update:  Scientific American released its own list of Top 10 Science Stories of 2012.  We certainly agree on many topics.

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.