Supernova Remnants Reveal How the Star Exploded

At a very early age, children learn how to classify objects according to their shape. Now, new research suggests studying the shape of the aftermath of supernovas may allow astronomers to do the same.

A new study of images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory on supernova remnants -- the debris from exploded stars -- shows that the symmetry of the remnants, or lack thereof, reveals how the star exploded. This is an important discovery because it shows that the remnants retain information about how the star exploded even though hundreds or thousands of years have passed.

"It's almost like the supernova remnants have a 'memory' of the original explosion," said Laura Lopez of the University of California at Santa Cruz, who led the study. "This is the first time anyone has systematically compared the shape of these remnants in X-rays in this way."

Astronomers sort supernovas into several categories, or "types," based on properties observed days after the explosion and which reflect very different physical mechanisms that cause stars to explode. But, since observed remnants of supernovas are leftover from explosions that occurred long ago, other methods are needed to accurately classify the original supernovas.

Lopez and colleagues focused on the relatively young supernova remnants that exhibited strong X-ray emission from silicon ejected by the explosion so as to rule out the effects of interstellar matter surrounding the explosion. Their analysis showed that the X-ray images of the ejecta can be used to identify the way the star exploded. The team studied 17 supernova remnants both in the Milky Way galaxy and a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

For each of these remnants there is independent information about the type of supernova involved, based not on the shape of the remnant but, for example, on the elements observed in it. The researchers found that one type of supernova explosion -- the so-called Type Ia -- left behind relatively symmetric, circular remnants. This type of supernova is thought to be caused by a thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf, and is often used by astronomers as "standard candles" for measuring cosmic distances.

On the other hand, the remnants tied to the "core-collapse" supernova explosions were distinctly more asymmetric. This type of supernova occurs when a very massive, young star collapses onto itself and then explodes.

"If we can link supernova remnants with the type of explosion," said co-author Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, also of University of California, Santa Cruz, "then we can use that information in theoretical models to really help us nail down the details of how the supernovas went off."

Models of core-collapse supernovas must include a way to reproduce the asymmetries measured in this work and models of Type Ia supernovas must produce the symmetric, circular remnants that have been observed.

Out of the 17 supernova remnants sampled, ten were classified as the core-collapse variety, while the remaining seven of them were classified as Type Ia. One of these, a remnant known as SNR 0548-70.4, was a bit of an "oddball." This one was considered a Type Ia based on its chemical abundances, but Lopez finds it has the asymmetry of a core-collapse remnant.

"We do have one mysterious object, but we think that is probably a Type Ia with an unusual orientation to our line of sight," said Lopez. "But we'll definitely be looking at that one again."

While the supernova remnants in the Lopez sample were taken from the Milky Way and its close neighbor, it is possible this technique could be extended to remnants at even greater distances. For example, large, bright supernova remnants in the galaxy M33 could be included in future studies to determine the types of supernova that generated them.

Brown Dwarf Pair Mystifies Astronomers

We have found two brown dwarf-sized masses around an ordinary star, which is very rare," said Alex Wolszczan, Evan Pugh professor of astronomy and astrophysics, Penn State and lead scientist on the project.

The star, BD +20 2457, is a K2 giant -- an old bloated star nearing the end of its life. Seeing a pair of brown dwarfs around a K-type giant is a first for astronomers and offers a unique window into how they can be produced. The researchers from the Toruń Center for Astronomy, Poland and the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, Penn State report their findings in the current issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Brown dwarfs are dim, elusive objects that straddle the dividing line between planets and stars. They are too massive to be planets, but not massive enough to generate the fusion-powered energy of a star. These stellar cousins represent a kind of "missing link" between planets and stars, but little is known about how they are made.

"If we find one brown dwarf, we are not sure where it came from," Wolszczan explained. "It could be either from the process of planet formation or it could be a direct product of star formation."

Seeing two of them around a parent star means they must have originally formed from the enormous supply of raw materials that surrounded the star when it was young. Astronomers call this thick, solar system-sized pancake of gas and dust the "circumstellar disk."

"If that is the case," he continued, "then if we add up the minimum masses of these two objects, we know the disk had to be extremely massive."

by science daily

Astronomers Uncover Faintest Stars Ever Seen In Ancient Star Cluster

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the team took hundreds of high-resolution photos and compared the images pixel-by-pixel to identify the dimmest stars in the globular star cluster NGC 6397.

“The light from these faint stars is so dim that it is equivalent to that produced by a birthday candle on the Moon, as seen from Earth,” says led by University Of British Columbia professor Harvey Richer, lead investigator of the project, which was chosen over several thousand other proposals to gain almost five days access to Hubble.

The team surveyed two distinct stellar populations -- red dwarfs and white dwarfs -- in NGC 6397. Located in the southern constellation Ara, approximately 8,500 light-years away, NGC 6397 is the second closest globular star cluster to Earth.

At approximately eight per cent the mass of the Sun, the lowest mass red dwarfs are the least massive stars in the Universe still capable of burning hydrogen in their cores and supporting stable nuclear reactions.

White dwarfs are the burnt out remnants of more massive stars that died long ago. By measuring the temperatures of white dwarfs -- much like checking the temperature of smoldering coals in a campfire to estimate how long ago it was burning -- astronomers are able to determine the star’s age. This information provides important clues to the age of the globular cluster, which formed in the early Universe.

Analysing this relic population of white dwarfs is also the only way to calculate the original number of high-mass stars in the cluster.

“These stars, which died long ago, were among the first to have formed in the Universe,” says Richer, the world’s leading expert in using white dwarfs as a tool for dating globular clusters. “Pinning down their age narrows down the age range of the Universe.”

by science daily

NASA Study Links Severe Storm Increases, Global Warming

The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics -- the type associated with severe storms and rainfall -- is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

In a presentation today to the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, JPL Senior Research Scientist Hartmut Aumann outlined the results of a study based on five years of data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft. The AIRS data were used to observe certain types of tropical clouds linked with severe storms, torrential rain and hail. The instrument typically detects about 6,000 of these clouds each day. Aumann and his team found a strong correlation between the frequency of these clouds and seasonal variations in the average sea surface temperature of the tropical oceans.

For every degree Centigrade (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in average ocean surface temperature, the team observed a 45-percent increase in the frequency of the very high clouds. At the present rate of global warming of 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, the team inferred the frequency of these storms can be expected to increase by six percent per decade.

Climate modelers have long speculated that the frequency and intensity of severe storms may or may not increase with global warming. Aumann said results of the study will help improve their models.

"Clouds and rain have been the weakest link in climate prediction," said Aumann. "The interaction between the daytime warming of the sea surface under clear-sky conditions and increases in the formation of low clouds, high clouds and, ultimately, rain is very complicated. The high clouds in our observations—typically at altitudes of 20 kilometers (12 miles) and higher—present the greatest difficulties for current climate models, which aren't able to resolve cloud structures smaller than about 250 kilometers (155 miles) in size."

Aumann said the results of his study, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, are consistent with another NASA-funded study by Frank Wentz and colleagues in 2005. That study found an increase in the global rain rate of 1.5 percent per decade over 18 years, a value that is about five times higher than the value estimated by climate models that were used in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Low Mass Planets May Be Common Around Nearby Stars

An international team of planet hunters has discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, including two "super-Earths" with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of Earth. The researchers, led by Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said the two "super-Earths" are the first ones found around Sun-like stars.

Astronomers discover 11 new planets

Astronomers have unveiled a plethora of planets, with more Earth-like ones likely on the way. In separate studies, teams report up to 11 planets orbiting the stars 61 Virginis (with three confirmed), HD 1461 (one confirmed and two more likely) and 23 Lib (four confirmed) and HD 134987 (one more likely.)

International teams using the Anglo-Australian Telescope in Australia and the Keck Telescope in Hawaii made the discoveries, some slated for the Astrophysical Journal. Astronomers have detected more than 400 worlds orbiting nearby stars since 1995, according to the Paris Observatory's Extra-solar Planet Catalog.

The finds include two "super-Earths" only 5 and 7.5 times heavier than Earth, the first ones discovered orbiting a sun-like star. The smaller one, "61 Vir b", circles 61 Virginis, and the other, "HD 1461b", circles HD 1461.

“These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,” said one team's chief, Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, in a statement.

Next year, astronomers hope to release first results, likely more Jupiter-sized worlds, from NASA's Kepler space telescope, which scans thousands of stars within 3,000 lights years of Earth (one light year is 5.9 trillion miles) for telltale light "dips" caused by planets passing in front of their stars.

By Dan Vergano

10 most amazing galaxy

2MASX J00482185-2507365

2MASX J00482185-2507365 occulting galaxy pair is a pair of overlapping spiral that found around NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy. The two galaxies are more distant than NGC 253, with a background galaxy, 2MASX J00482185-2507365, lying in the redshift z = 0.06, and the foreground galaxy NGC located between 253 and galaxies in the background (0.0008 <>

Black Eye

A spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, Messier 64, the famous “Black Eye” galaxy or “Sleeping Beauty galaxy,” has a spectacular dark band of dust in front of the absorbing galaxy bright core. It’s well known among amateur astronomers because of his appearance in a small telescope.

Sombrero

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104 or NGC 4594) is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. Has a bright core, huge central bulge and prominent dust disk inclined road. The dark dust lane and the bulge of this galaxy gives the appearance of a sombrero. Galaxies have apparent magnitude of 9.0, so easily seen with amateur telescopes. Large bulge, the central supermassive black holes, and dirt roads all the attention of professional astronomers that occurred in the Milky Way itself. The light from the supernova reached Earth on February 23, 1987. As the first supernova discovered in 1987, it was labeled “1987a”. Brightness which culminated in May with a clear amount of about 3 and slowly declined in subsequent months. This is the first opportunity for modern astronomers to see a supernova up close.

Galaxy NGC 3370

Dusty spiral galaxy located about 98 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo, NGC 3370 shows the central dust lane is well illustrated and extraordinary ill-defined nucleus. This view is NGC 3370 obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope using the camera to survey and sharp enough to identify individual Cepheid variable stars in the galaxy. Cepheid variable stars are used to determine extragalactic distances. In 1994, he exploded in sypernova Type NGC 3370. (Credit: NASA, The Hubble Heritage Team and A. Riess; STScI) galaxy is about 70,000 light years across, which is almost as large as our own Milky Way galaxy. Core galaxy remarkable for its “circumnuclear” Starburst ring, which is a remarkable circle of groups of young stars that includes several light years in 2400. Galaxies “starbursts” is a passionate episode of new star formation and galaxy found in various environments.

Grand Spiral Galaxy

Grand Spiral Galaxy also known as NGC 123, this amazing galaxy is dominated by millions of bright stars and dark dust, caught in a spiral arm gravity vortex swirling around the center. Open star clusters containing bright blue stars can be seen sprinkled along these spiral arms, while the dark line of solid interstellar dust can be seen sprinkled between them. Less visible, but can be detected, is widely billions of dim normal stars and interstellar gas, together with a high mass held like they dominate the dynamics of the inner galaxy. Invisible is a greater amount of material in a form that we do not yet know - pervasive dark matter needed to explain the movement seen in the outer galaxy.

Supernova 1987 A

Two decades ago, the astronomers saw one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years: a doomed star, called Supernova 1987a. This figure shows the entire region around the supernova. The most prominent feature in the image is a ring with dozens of bright spots. A material shock waves caused by an exploding star that hit the area along the inner ring, heating them and causing them to glow. Ring, around the year across the light, might shed by the star about 20,000 years before it exploded. In the next few years, the entire ring will light up like an accident to absorb the full force. Ring burning is expected to be bright enough to illuminate the star surroundings, providing astronomers with new information about how the star expelled material before the explosion. The picture was taken in December 2006 with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. (Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Kirshner; Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Galaxy NGC 1512

A spiral galaxy located about 30 million light-years away toward the Horologium constellation, Galaxy NGC 1512 is bright enough to be seen with amateur telescopes. The galaxy is about 70,000 light years across, which is almost as large as our own Milky Way galaxy. Core galaxy remarkable for its “circumnuclear” Starburst ring, which is a remarkable circle of groups of young stars that includes several light years in 2400. Galaxies “starbursts” is a passionate episode of new star formation and galaxy found in various environments.

The Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51A, M51a, or NGC 5194, Whirlpool Galaxy is a grand-design spiral galaxy interaction that lies at a distance of about 23 million light-years away in the constellation Cane Venatici. This is one of the most famous spiral galaxies in the sky. And the companion galaxy (NGC 5195) is easily observed by amateur astronomers, and the two galaxies may even be seen with binoculars. The Whirlpool Galaxy is also a popular target of professional astronomers, who studied to better understand the structure of galaxies (particularly structure associated with spiral arms), and galaxy interactions.

Spiral galaxy M81

Big and beautiful spiral galaxy M81, in the northern constellation Ursa Major, is one of the brightest galaxies visible in the sky of planet Earth. This extraordinary detailed view reveals a bright nucleus, a large spiral arms and sweeping cosmic dust lanes with a scale comparable to the Milky Way. Hinted in the past that chaotic, dusty streets that used to walk straight out through the disk, below and right of the galactic center, contrary to other leading M81 spiral features. Errant dust lane may be firmly attached the results of a meeting between the galaxies M81 and the smaller companion, M82. Control variable stars in M81 (aka NGC 3031) has produced the best one to determine the distance of external galaxies -11.8 million light years.

Hoag’s Object

Not typical, type of galaxies known as the ring galaxy, Hoag’s Object appearance has attracted as many amateur astronomers common structure professional fascinated. Is this one galaxy or two? This question was revealed in 1950 when astronomer Art Hoag in extragalactic coincidence that this strange object. Outside is a ring dominated by blue stars bright, while located near the center of the ball a lot of red stars that may be much older. Between the two is the gap that appears almost completely dark. How Hoag’s Object formed remains unknown, although similar objects have now been identified and are collectively labeled as a form of ring galaxy. Genesis hypothesis including collisions of galaxies billions of years ago and perturbative gravitational interactions involve the core incredible shape. The above photo was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in July 2001 had never happened before revealing the details of Hoag’s Object, and can produce a better understanding. Hoag’s Object a range of about 100,000 light years and lies about 600 million light-years away toward the constellation Serpens. Incidentally, look at the ring gap again galaxies that may lie far in the distance.

NASA remembers storied past, but looks to uncertain future

Cape Canaveral, Florida - As the world marked the 40th anniversary of the first human on the moon this year, the future of the space programme that pioneering astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins helped found looks more uncertain than ever. The Apollo astronauts are old men now. In July, it seemed like they recreated that golden age of space flight when they shook hands with US President Barack Obama, who praised them for their contributions.

But even as NASA announced unprecedented findings from scientific missions to the moon and Mars, the Obama administration conducted a review of its activities that could alter or scrub the space agency's future plans.

NASA is winding down its nearly three-decade-old space shuttle programme and is set to retire the ageing space "trucks" in late 2010. Just five more flights remain, aimed at preparing the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) for life without the shuttle, the only craft large enough to transport major parts to the station.

NASA Airborne Telescope Will Be Used to Study Cosmos

A NASA jumbo jet that will help scientists unlock the origins of the universe with infrared observations reached a milestone Friday when doors covering the plane’s telescope were fully opened in flight.


The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a modified 747SP jet known as SOFIA, flew for one hour and 19 minutes, which included two minutes with the telescope's doors fully opened. The goal was to allow engineers to understand how air flows in and around the telescope. It was the first time outside air has interacted with the part of the plane that carries the 98-inch infrared telescope.

"Today we opened the telescope cavity door, the first time we have fully exposed the telescope and the largest cavity ever flown while in flight," said Bob Meyer, SOFIA program manager at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. "This is a significant step toward certifying NASA's next great observatory for future study of the universe."

Besides these test flights of the airplane, two flights to operate and verify the scientific capabilities of the telescope assembly are planned for spring 2010. Telescope systems such as the vibration isolation system, the inertial stabilization system and the pointing control system will be tested during daytime flights.

These flights will prepare the telescope assembly for the first flight with the telescope operating. That first flight will be the initial opportunity scientists have to use the telescope and begin the process of quantifying its performance to prepare for SOFIA's planned 20-year science program.

SOFIA is a joint venture of NASA and the German Aerospace Center. NASA supplied the aircraft. The telescope was built in Germany.

Dryden manages the SOFIA program. The aircraft is based at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., manages SOFIA's scientific program. The Universities Space Research Association, in Columbia, Md., and the German SOFIA Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, operate SOFIA's scientific program.

NASA's Flight Research

NASA's Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in 1959 with the Air Launched Sounding Rocket (ALSOR) attached to its underbelly. NASA test pilot Milton O. Thompson ejected from this aircraft on Dec. 20, 1962, after an asymmetrical flap condition made the jet uncontrollable.

NASA research pilot Milton O. Thompson was scheduled to evaluate weather conditions over Mud Lake, Nev., in preparation for the launch of an X-15 rocket plane over that area a few hours later. Weather flights were critical because go/no-go decisions were based on real-time observations made along the planned flight path.

Black hole closer to Earth than thought

Astronomers have accurately measured the distance between Earth and a particular black hole for the first time. And wow, is it close.

The researchers determined that the black hole V404 Cygni is located 7,800 light-years from Earth — or just slightly more than half the distance that was previously assumed.

That puts it relatively nearby to Earth, where the distance to the center of the galaxy is about 26,000 light-years, and the nearest star beyond the sun is a mere 4.2 light-years away.
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The more accurate distance measurement will enable scientists to paint a better picture of how black holes evolve, the team says.

“For example, we hope to be able to answer the question as to whether there is a difference between black holes that evolve directly from the collapse of a star without a supernova and black holes that evolve via a supernova and a temporary intermediate star,” said study team member Peter Jonker of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research.

“We expect that the black holes in the last group can get a kick. Black holes formed in this way could then move through space faster.”

Jonker and his team measured the distance to V404 Cygni by measuring radio emissions from the black hole and its associated dying star.

The outermost layers of the star are being siphoned by the black hole. The swirling gas forms a hot plasma disk around the black hole before it disappears, and the process emits a lot of X-rays and radio waves.

Using an international system of radio telescopes called the High Sensitivity Array, the team measured the so-called parallax shift of the black hole system. This method involves measuring the annual movement in the sky of the black hole system as a consequence of Earth’s orbit around the sun.

The team says the previous overestimation of V404 Cygni’s distance was due to an underestimation of the absorption and diffraction of interstellar dust, which can give an error margin of about 50 percent. The error margin of the new measurement is less than 6 percent.

New NASA space telescope launched

by CBC news

NASA launched its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope Monday morning, a device which will be able to survey the entire sky in six months.

A Delta II rocket carrying the WISE space telescope lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A Delta II rocket carrying the WISE space telescope lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (NASA TV) The WISE telescope launched aboard a Delta II rocket at from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:09 ET.

The satellite will orbit the Earth over the north and south poles and will detect objects that are difficult to see from the ground, including asteroids, cool stars such as brown dwarfs, and galaxies that shine brightly in infrared light.

“The last time we mapped the whole sky at these particular infrared wavelengths was 26 years ago,” said Edward Wright of UCLA, the principal investigator of the mission.

“Infrared technology has come a long way since then. The old all-sky infrared pictures were like impressionist paintings. Now, we’ll have images that look like actual photographs,” he said in a statement.

Once in orbit, the valves in the telescope’s cooling system will automatically open, venting super-cooled hydrogen into space.

An artist’s concept of NASA’s WISE space telescope. An artist’s concept of NASA’s WISE space telescope. (NASA/JPL) “By venting the hydrogen to space, we cool our instrument down to extremely low temperatures so that the eyes of WISE won’t be blinded by their own heat,” said William Irace, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Because WISE has a limited supply of hydrogen coolant, the satellite’s mission will last only about 10 months, enough time to survey the entire sky about one-and-a-half times.

New satellite blasts off for space mapping

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched Monday a new breed of satellite called WISE on a mission to orbit Earth and map the skies to find elusive cosmic objects, including potentially dangerous asteroids.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) will use infrared rays to map the locations and sizes of roughly 200,000 asteroids and give scientists a clearer idea of how many space rocks loom and what danger they pose.

“When we find them, we will give the information to policy-makers to decide what to do to try to prevent these near-Earth asteroids colliding with our planet,” NASA public affairs officer J. D. Harrington told AFP.

The launch went ahead flawlessly at 6:09 a.m. (10:09 p.m. in Manila) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. WISE will orbit 500 kilometers above Earth’s surface for 10 months as it hunts for and collects data on dim objects such as dust clouds, brown dwarf stars and asteroids in the dark spaces between planets and stars.

The satellite will map the cosmos in infrared light, covering the whole sky one-and-a-half times – one orbit of Earth will take six months – and snapping pictures of everything.

European space telescope reveals newborn stars

CBC News

The European Space Agency has unveiled images taken by the Herschel space telescope of a stellar nursery that was shrouded in dust until now.

The cloud, located 1,000 light years away in the constellation Aquila, the eagle, contains about 700 clumps of gas and dust in the process of becoming stars.

ESA astronomers say about 100 of these condensations are protostars, stars in the final stages of forming but not yet undergoing nuclear fusion.

The image shows an area of space 65 light years across. No previous infrared space telescope has been able to penetrate the dense clouds of dust that hide the stellar nursery from view.

The Herschel telescope contains more sensitive infrared instruments than any previous telescope, the ESA says.

The image was taken Oct. 24, combining data from two different instruments on Herschel. The two bright spots in the image are caused by newborn stars that make the hydrogen gas around them shine.

The stellar nursery picture is the first one released from the ESA’s Online Showcase of Herschel Images, a library of the telescope’s best images, due to go live Wednesday.

The Herschel Space Observatory was launched May 15 along with the Planck space telescope.

The mirror the Herschel relies on to draw and focus light is the largest ever launched into space, with a diameter of 3.5 metres, almost 1½ times as large as the mirror on the Hubble space telescope.

The James Webb infrared space telescope, a joint project of NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency scheduled to go into space in 2012, will have a 6.5-metre mirror.

WISE: NASA launches a new space telescope

A new NASA space telescope was successfully launched today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This new space telescope known as WISE (which stands for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), was launched aboard a Delta II rocket.

"The satellite will orbit the Earth over the north and south poles and will detect objects that are difficult to see from the ground, including asteroids, and stars such as brown dwarfs, and galaxies that shine brightly in infrared light."

"The last time we mapped the whole sky at these particular infrared wavelengths was 26 years ago," said Edward Wright of UCLA, the principal investigator of the mission.
"Infrared technology has come a long way since then. The old all-sky infrared pictures were like impressionist paintings. Now, we'll have images that look like actual photographs," he said in a statement.
"Once in orbit, the valves in the telescope's cooling system will automatically open, venting super-cooled hydrogen into space."

An artist's concept of NASA's WISE space telescope. (NASA/JPL)

"By venting the hydrogen to space, we cool our instrument down to extremely low temperatures so that the eyes of WISE won't be blinded by their own heat," said William Irace, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"Because WISE has a limited supply of hydrogen coolant, the satellite's mission will last only about 10 months, enough time to survey the entire sky about one-and-a-half times."

NASA Looks for Safer Icing Forecast For Pilots

Of the many dangers that plague commercial airplanes, icing stands out as one of the most treacherous. The threat of ice build-up on aircraft surfaces has been known and studied for decades, but now NASA is putting new effort into understanding a different kind of ice danger.

A well-known icing problem involves ice forming on wings and other surfaces that can cause drag and power loss on an aircraft. A different threat emerges when airplanes fly into clouds with high ice content found near thunderstorms in very high altitudes. Ice particles, once thought benign because they would simply bounce of airplane surfaces, can accrete deep inside jet engines and shut down the power. This is called “ice particle icing,” to distinguish it from icing caused by super-cooled liquid droplets, which typically occurs at lower altitudes.

There have been more than 240 icing-related incidents in commercial aviation since the 1990s, of which 62 resulted in power-loss likely due to ice particle icing, according to a study authored by Jeanne G. Mason, J. Walter Strapp and Phillip Chow. This condition is difficult for pilots to identify because in many cases the ice is forming only inside the engine, without any visible icing on the wings.

Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center are taking a closer look at the phenomenon, which is considered a significant threat to commercial airlines. NASA scientists are developing ways to identify the conditions that cause ice particle icing to better warn pilots about where this might occur.

Deep convective clouds create conditions conducive for a dangerous icing threat to commercial flights, one that can cause engine power loss. Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center are trying to improve forecasts for this specific threat. These storm clouds were captured from the International Space Station over the East Coast of the United States in Sept., 2003. Image courtesy of: NASA’s Johnson Space Center

“It’s something that hasn’t been explored much,” said Chris Yost, a NASA contractor and research scientist with Science Systems and Applications Inc. in Hampton, Va. Yost said his research is at a preliminary stage now, focused on pinpointing the types of clouds connected with ice particle icing. He will present his latest results at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco on Dec. 14.

“These are deep convection, thunderstorm-like clouds,” Yost said. “Thin, wispy cirrus stuff is not so much a problem.”

NASA research is aiming to improve weather forecasts that could steer pilots away from trouble. Building on tools developed to detect surface icing conditions, NASA scientists are using cloud observations from two satellites, CALIPSO and CloudSat.

CALIPSO and CloudSat fly only seconds apart on the same orbit. Together they provide never-before-seen 3-D perspectives of how clouds and aerosols form, evolve, and affect weather and climate. In preliminary research, CloudSat and CALIPSO have been used to build on previous methods of identifying the type of moisture particles that lead to ice particle icing problems. CALIPSO’s lidar is used to create a vertical profile of clouds to accurately measure cloud height while CloudSat provides the estimates of ice concentration in those clouds. Together the two instruments provide very detailed information about the vertical structure of clouds, and the ice particles within them.

Yost and other SSAI researchers have been working with Patrick Minnis, at NASA’s Langley Research Center, on incorporating CALIPSO and CloudSat data into forecast models with the goal of identifying potential ice particle icing conditions.

NASA’s research on ice particle icing began in 2005 with the integration of cloud data from the NOAA satellite GOES. This was followed on by a field experiment on NASA’s DC-8 in 2007 to compare ice particle measurements from GOES with actual aircraft measurements. While this data significantly increased researchers understanding of the icing process, the integration of CALIPSO and CloudSat data has vastly enhanced the ability to see what is within the clouds.

NASA’s Cloud-Aerosol Lidar Pathfinder Infrared Satellite (CALIPSO) flies in constellation with CloudSat to provide a unique vertical profile of cloud height and ice-water content. The satellites’ data products are helping scientists try to improve forecasts of dangerous icing conditions for commercial aircraft. Image credit: NASA.

Yost is currently comparing satellite records of weather conditions with the coordinates and time and date of specific airplane power-loss incidents in recent years. The research could illuminate more specifically what type of weather leads to ice particle icing and whether ice particle icing was a factor in these accidents. Future plans include flights with NASA’s DC-8 to take on-board measurements as a comparison point for CALIPSO and CloudSat observations.

Minnis described the group’s ongoing work as a first cut, but envisions it leading to better forecasting of potential ice particle icing conditions in the future.

“The ultimate goal of the project is to be integrated into existing forecast models and eventually into the NextGen (Next Generation Air Transportation System) cockpit system,” Minnis said.

Aviation safety organizations around the world are presently working with the ultimate goal of being able to accurately forecast inflight icing conditions in real-time for pilots. The integration of NASA satellite data into forecasting models is bringing them closer than to that goal, step by step.

Exo-Planets Galore But No Earths Yet.

Exo-Planets Galore

We've come an amazing distance in our ability to detect other planets around distant stars in the last twenty years. As a brief refresher, what happens is that a telescope watches a star for signs of either dimming (from a planet crossing in front of it) or a wobble (indicating an unseen partner is tugging it - imagine holding a child's hand and spinning around with them, and you'll get a picture of what's going on.)

When you have an orbital period and the amount of 'wiggle' in the star, you can make a decent estimate of what the mass of the unseen orbiting body is, by reversing Newton's tidal calculations, and you can also get a rough idea of the orbital velocity and the orbital radius.

To Quote the European Southern Observatory:

At an international ESO/CAUP exoplanet conference in Porto, the team who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, better known as HARPS, the spectrograph for ESO's 3.6-metre telescope, reports on the incredible discovery of some 32 new exoplanets, cementing HARPS's position as the world's foremost exoplanet hunter. This result also increases the number of known low-mass planets by an impressive 30%. Over the past five years HARPS has spotted more than 75 of the roughly 400 or so exoplanets now known.

This discovery was widely reported as having discovered earth like planets, but clearly this is not the case. These techniques have their limits; the first is that we're unable to resolve planets that are lower than about 5 to 6 times the mass of the Earth, which means we're still no closer to finding another habitable planet in the distant solar system around the host star.

The second is that the radial velocity and transit method can only identify planets that have their orbital plane within about 15 degrees of perpendicular to ours. However, we're getting a large catalog of data on extrasolar planets, and are discovering that the Solar System is, in some ways, atypical.

One on usual discovery in exoplanets is that the most commonly found ones are multiple Jovians. That is to say the size of our planet Jupiter and bigger in mass, but orbiting with periods of less than a month - imagine if Jupiter were orbiting at 1/3 the orbital distance of Mercury, if you will.

Indeed, if you did this with Jupiter, you would get a planet that showed enough of a disk in the sky that its phases would be seen with the Naked eye as it traveled around the sun. A quick run on relative diameters shows that Jupiter would show over 850 times the surface area of Mercury at the same distance from either; the difference in reflected light from the greater distance would probably reduce this to about a 700-fold increase in brightness from Mercury. Sky watching in such a system would be pretty spectacular.

However, there's something else we get to see from those Hot Jupiters transiting across the faces of stars hundreds of light years away. They're actually close enough to their stars that they're (slowly) being boiled off by them - and we can do spectroscopic readings of the gases coming off; mostly they've been carbon dioxide and methane, which are two fairly common gasses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Maclean

Near Earth Objects to Hit Planet - Where is the Safest Place to Live.

Near Earth Objects to Hit Planet

Most people do not realize how often our planet narrowly misses "the big one" as in a large Meteor or Asteroid hitting the Earth, and such a NEO or Near-Earth-Object hitting the Earth is guaranteed, there have been many in the past and will be many in the future. Really large ones could end life for most species on the planet in fact, yes, perhaps including wiping out a good chuck of humanity as well. Not funny.

Not long ago, I met an acquaintance in Ecuador and he stated he was living there because of its location. Well, I asked him; "Are you in the belief that a NEO will hit the Earth and cause catastrophic problems, giant ocean waves, thus being near the equator makes the most sense, and since Ecuador is on the equator and has one of the highest mountain, it is therefore the safest place?"

You see, a really large NEO hitting the earth as in 50-100 meters across could cause a gigantic Tsunami making the Indonesia Tsunami look like a fly hitting the Jacuzzi water compared to a mega-tidal surge of such enormous proportion that unless you were living at high altitude (up in the mountains) or 500 miles from the coast, you may not make it.

But, if an NEO hits the Earth and our Earth's atmosphere is compromised the higher elevations maybe the most dangerous as the air is already thinner, so sea level would be better, thus, Death Valley CA, inland, safe from 1000 ft Tsunamis and yet, 200 feet below sea level, in that case it might be best. Turns out, that the software modeling of such an event depending on the location of impact, might make every place on Earth pretty unsafe, both short and long-term.

And Ecuador has volcanoes too, so a major jarring of Earth, great movements in plate tectonics would cause many volcanoes to erupt simultaneously, including those within 500 to 1,000 miles of my acquaintance's home and current location. Add in prevailing weather patterns and those modified after such an event and well, all-bets are off due to changes from a strike of a large magnitude.

According to SpaceWeather [dot] com; and a huge Asteroid over ten-meters across exploded in the Earth's Atmosphere not too long ago over Indonesia and no one in the NEO community saw it coming, further SpaceWeather noted;

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Galactic Positioning System and Math Modification For Space Warping and Time Travel

It has often been said that the human race are just infants when it comes to physics. Not long ago, an acquaintance of mine made such a statement, and actually she is correct. It does appear that human scientists have a lot to learn. If we are going to travel to other parts of the galaxy and to other faraway places, we are going to need a highly sophisticated super computer GPS device. But, not a "global positioning system," in this case the letter "G" will stand for Galactic, instead of global.

You see, we need to create a Galactic Positioning System which takes into consideration the movement of all the planets and solar systems, and our current location. And when we do long-term space travel, or traveling through artificially created wormholes, or black holes we can use this device to always know where we are in relation to everything else, which is also constantly in motion. Without that we can never travel to where we want to go, with any accuracy. And remember things are pretty far apart if you miscalculate.

What we may find is that we can travel to faraway locations by jumping off at exactly the right time, by creating an energy event that leaves us in one place while the entire system rotates around us and where we are will soon be where we want to be. The concept of space warping and time travel will eventually be conquered by human scientists, and we should expect with our increasing computer technology that this will be inevitable.

Thus, it makes sense to get working on it right away, to figure out the mathematics involved, and use our current theories to predict how best to get from one place to another quickly. Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Mystery of the Spiral Staircase

The Chapel of Our Lady of Light in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the home of a wooden spiral staircase steeped in mystery. Actually, it is not the staircase that is the mystery, it is the lone carpenter who built it...

In 1852, seven nuns left Kentucky travelling in covered wagons to Santa Fe to bring education and religion to the growing city. Five nuns arrived in Santa Fe, one nun died of Cholera, one turned back too sick to continue. Once in Santa Fe, the Sisters of Loretto set up camp and began their work.

In 1873, construction began on the Chapel of Our Lady of Light, the chapel commissioned along with Our Lady of Light Academy. The architect of the beautiful gothic chapel was the charming and talented Projectus Mouly,18 year old son of master architect Antoine Mouly. Sadly, in 1878, just before it's completion, the charismatic French architect was shot and killed by John Lamy, the nephew of the archbishop, because John believed his wife received too much of the young architect's attention.

The Loretto nuns were left with a beautiful chapel and no stairway to the choir loft. It was determined that the staircase in Mouly's plans wouldn't fit. Many architects and carpenters visited the chapel, but none could come up with a staircase to fit inside the chapel without remodelling the inside of the chapel itself, and taking up valuable space. So the nuns prayed for an answer to their staircase dilemma.

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The Beauty and Mystery of the Planet Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is the sixth largest. It is the brightest object in the night sky except for the Moon. Venus orbits the Sun once every 224.7 Earth days and gets as close to the Sun as 107.476 million kilometers and as far away from the Sun as 108.942 million kilometers. This makes the orbit of Venus less elliptical and more circular than any other planets. The temperature on the surface of Venus can reach as high as 740 degrees Kelvin. This is due to a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect whereby carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus traps the Suns heat inside. This makes Venus the hottest planet in the Solar System. Venus is even hotter than Mercury despite being farther away from the Sun.

Venus is 12,100 kilometers in diameter and has a mass of 4.869e+24 kilograms. This makes Venus similar to the Earth and has often been called Earths sister planet. But the similarities end there. One major difference between the Earth and Venus is that Venus rotates on its axis from east to west, which means if you lived on Venus you would see the Sun rise in the west and set in the east. The atmosphere on Venus is mostly carbon dioxide choked with sulfuric acid and has a pressure at the surface more than 92 times the pressure at sea level on Earth. Unlike the Earth, Venus does not have a magnetic field generated by its iron core. This may be the result of how slowly Venus rotates on its axis. The only magnetic field Venus has is very weak and is produced by the interaction of the solar wind and the ionosphere of Venus.

The surface of Venus is difficult to see through the thick, dense clouds and the first crude images of the surface were obtained using ground based radar. More detailed images were obtained by the Magellan spacecraft which was launched to Venus on May 4, 1989 and spent four and a half years radar mapping 98 percent of the surface of Venus. Later, the European Space Agency launched the Venus Express on November 9, 2005 and on April 11, 2006 it slipped into a polar orbit around Venus. These probes have now provided us with an accurate map of Venus.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Burl_T_Collins

Killing a Low Density Asteroid

We have heard science fiction writers talk about killing asteroids to save our planet for decades. We have also heard them write about Comets hitting the Earth and life never being the same again. In fact we cannot be so sure that it has not happened before and that the dinosaurs were killed by a giant object hitting the Earth in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula half a billion years ago.

Has man really come to the point of being able to shoot down flying rocks in space to save humankind's destiny? Has our brain capacity grown to the point that we are ready to meet such a challenge head on? It appears so as this year NASA launched a satellite, which crashed into an asteroid on the Fourth of July. Shooting down an asteroid maybe tougher than you think, for instance it maybe easier to deflect one slightly to miss Earth.

Today we track asteroids, meteors and comets around our solar system, just like we track space junk which could endanger our ISS International Space Station or satellites. We need to be sure that one will not hit the Earth.

Some asteroids, meteors and Comets are made out of different things. Some might be made of iron and nickel, some out of ice and some like a sponge. It is rather hard to hit a flying sponge as it would absorb any such impact. Perhaps it might be better to lodge a device inside of it or attach a propulsion system too it, to gradually steer it to one side clearing the Earth. Something to think on, as NASA works out a plan for such an eventuality.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Asteroid - 2012 - Will 433 Eros Hit?

A gigantic asteroid is moving towards Earth at an alarming speed. Oh the humanity! I will now go over some facts regarding the asteroid named 433 Eros, expected to arrive early 2012.

Some quick facts about 433 Eros:

• Eros is the first near-Earth asteroid that we've discovered. It was discovered by Carl Witt on August 13. 1898.
• The asteroid is named after the Greek god of Love, Eros.
• Eros is a Type-S asteroid, meaning it consists of stony composition. About 17% of discovered asteroids are of Type-S, which is the second most common type after Type-C(about 75%).
• The temperature on Eros varies from -150 Celsius to 100 Celsius.
• Eros is not round, but instead has a strange peanut like shape, which rotates every 5.27 hours.
• Eros' dimension is 34.4*11.2*11.2 kilometers, making it the second largest near-Earth asteroid after 1036 Ganymed.
• Eros orbits mostly between the Earth and Mars about 172,800,000 kilometers away from the Sun.
• Eros has been visited by a spacecraft called NEAR-Shoemaker. NEAR-Shoemaker launched February 17. 1996 and was placed in orbit around Eros on February 13. 2000. The spacecraft landed on Eros February 12. 2001 and shut down February 28. 2001. NEAR-Shoemaker was the first spacecraft ever to land on an asteroid.

Eros will pass Earth on January 31. 2012 about 16.6 million miles away, which is about 70 times the distance to the moon. It's therefore highly unlikely that it will have any impact on Earth, indirectly or directly.

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