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The Guardian
13 Dec 2013, 20:02 UTC
European Space Agency's €740m craft will spend five years orbiting sun to create most detailed 3D map of stars producedThe European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft is poised to begin its mission to map a billion stars in our galaxy to an unprecedented level of detail, with its scheduled launch on Thursday."It's going to be the most accurate and the most detailed 3D map of stars there has ever been," said Dr Ralph Cordey, head of science at Astrium UK, a company involved in the building of the spacecraft.More than a decade in gestation, and costing €740m (£625m), Gaia is set to spend five years orbiting around the Sun at a distance of 1.5m km from the Earth at the so-called L2 Lagrangian point, capturing information relating to stars distributed across the Milky Way.The starry "census" will record many parameters including stars' distances from the Earth accurate to around 1%. "It's a revolution in accuracy," said Albert Zijlstra, Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and Professor in Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. "In astronomy 1% is marvellous."Gaia will also measure stars' velocities and movements as well as their type, age and spectra – which reveal details of their ...
Gaia spacecraft set for launch on mission to map a billion stars
13 Dec 2013, 20:02 UTC
European Space Agency's €740m craft will spend five years orbiting sun to create most detailed 3D map of stars producedThe European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft is poised to begin its mission to map a billion stars in our galaxy to an unprecedented level of detail, with its scheduled launch on Thursday."It's going to be the most accurate and the most detailed 3D map of stars there has ever been," said Dr Ralph Cordey, head of science at Astrium UK, a company involved in the building of the spacecraft.More than a decade in gestation, and costing €740m (£625m), Gaia is set to spend five years orbiting around the Sun at a distance of 1.5m km from the Earth at the so-called L2 Lagrangian point, capturing information relating to stars distributed across the Milky Way.The starry "census" will record many parameters including stars' distances from the Earth accurate to around 1%. "It's a revolution in accuracy," said Albert Zijlstra, Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and Professor in Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. "In astronomy 1% is marvellous."Gaia will also measure stars' velocities and movements as well as their type, age and spectra – which reveal details of their ...
Universe Today
13 Dec 2013, 19:24 UTC
When it’s a brown dwarf — but where do we draw the line? Often called “failed stars,” brown dwarfs are curious cosmic creatures. They’re like swollen, super-dense Jupiters, containing huge amounts of matter yet not quite enough to begin fusing hydrogen in their cores. Still, there has to be some sort of specific tipping point, […] Artist’s impression of a brown dwarf. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) When it’s a brown dwarf — but where do we draw the line? Often called “failed stars,” brown dwarfs are curious cosmic creatures. They’re like swollen, super-dense Jupiters, containing huge amounts of matter yet not quite enough to begin fusing hydrogen in their cores. Still, there has to be some sort of specific tipping point, and astronomers (being the scientists that they are) would like to know: when does a brown dwarf stop and a star begin? Researchers from Georgia State University now have the answer. (...)Read the rest of When Is a Star Not a Star? (510 words) © Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Astronomy, brown dwarf, GSU, mass, NOAO, recons, stars, stellar evolution Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
When Is a Star Not a Star?
13 Dec 2013, 19:24 UTC
When it’s a brown dwarf — but where do we draw the line? Often called “failed stars,” brown dwarfs are curious cosmic creatures. They’re like swollen, super-dense Jupiters, containing huge amounts of matter yet not quite enough to begin fusing hydrogen in their cores. Still, there has to be some sort of specific tipping point, […] Artist’s impression of a brown dwarf. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) When it’s a brown dwarf — but where do we draw the line? Often called “failed stars,” brown dwarfs are curious cosmic creatures. They’re like swollen, super-dense Jupiters, containing huge amounts of matter yet not quite enough to begin fusing hydrogen in their cores. Still, there has to be some sort of specific tipping point, and astronomers (being the scientists that they are) would like to know: when does a brown dwarf stop and a star begin? Researchers from Georgia State University now have the answer. (...)Read the rest of When Is a Star Not a Star? (510 words) © Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Astronomy, brown dwarf, GSU, mass, NOAO, recons, stars, stellar evolution Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
The Planetary Society Blog
13 Dec 2013, 18:05 UTC
I once argued that the concept of a space race represented old thinking. The modern way forward in space would be through international cooperation and coordination. Today, I think my insistence that the space race was over was naive. There are now many space races.
Op-Ed: The new space race: It's not just the U.S. and Russia anymore
13 Dec 2013, 18:05 UTC
I once argued that the concept of a space race represented old thinking. The modern way forward in space would be through international cooperation and coordination. Today, I think my insistence that the space race was over was naive. There are now many space races.
Universe Today
13 Dec 2013, 17:26 UTC
NASA may allow its first spacewalk since summer to deal with a malfunction that crippled a cooling loop on the International Space Station. If extravehicular activity is deemed necessary for a fix, it would be the first time NASA spacesuits were used “outside” since Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut, experienced a water leak in one that […] NASA Television graphic of where spare cooling pumps are located on station as of Dec. 13, 2013. On that day, NASA was weighing whether spacewalks were necessary to deal with a cooling problem caused by a malfunctioning flow control valve inside of a pump. Credit: NASA TV NASA may allow its first spacewalk since summer to deal with a malfunction that crippled a cooling loop on the International Space Station. If extravehicular activity is deemed necessary for a fix, it would be the first time NASA spacesuits were used “outside” since Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut, experienced a water leak in one that cut short a spacewalk in July. NASA suspended all spacewalks as a precaution while the cause was investigated. Since then, the agency has put in place procedures to protect astronauts from it happening again, opening up a spacewalk or spacewalks ...
NASA Weighs Spacewalk To Fix Cooling Problem On Station
13 Dec 2013, 17:26 UTC
NASA may allow its first spacewalk since summer to deal with a malfunction that crippled a cooling loop on the International Space Station. If extravehicular activity is deemed necessary for a fix, it would be the first time NASA spacesuits were used “outside” since Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut, experienced a water leak in one that […] NASA Television graphic of where spare cooling pumps are located on station as of Dec. 13, 2013. On that day, NASA was weighing whether spacewalks were necessary to deal with a cooling problem caused by a malfunctioning flow control valve inside of a pump. Credit: NASA TV NASA may allow its first spacewalk since summer to deal with a malfunction that crippled a cooling loop on the International Space Station. If extravehicular activity is deemed necessary for a fix, it would be the first time NASA spacesuits were used “outside” since Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut, experienced a water leak in one that cut short a spacewalk in July. NASA suspended all spacewalks as a precaution while the cause was investigated. Since then, the agency has put in place procedures to protect astronauts from it happening again, opening up a spacewalk or spacewalks ...
The Daily Galaxy
13 Dec 2013, 16:23 UTC
Huge active plumes containing water vapour being released from the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa have been discovered. This sensational find was made using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Europa has been a focus of extraterrestrial research for some time now as there were clear indications that it harbours a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust. Lorenz Roth of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas and Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne used the Hubble to prove that there is water vapour erupting near its south pole. The water plumes are in comparison to earth geysers immensely large and reach heights of approximately 200 km. Europa has a circumference of 3200 kilometers, comparable in size with the Moon. “Water is generally considered a basic prerequisite for life – at least as we know it on earth,” says Lorenz Roth, who was in charge of analysing the observations and has been working at the Southwest Research Institute in America. “For this reason, the discovery of a water vapour plumes on the moon Europa has increasingly become a focus of extraterrestrial research.” The plumes eject material from the surface which will make further investigations of the moon Jupiter much ...
Spectacular Water Plumes Taller than Mount Everest Discovered on Europa
13 Dec 2013, 16:23 UTC
Huge active plumes containing water vapour being released from the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa have been discovered. This sensational find was made using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Europa has been a focus of extraterrestrial research for some time now as there were clear indications that it harbours a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust. Lorenz Roth of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas and Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne used the Hubble to prove that there is water vapour erupting near its south pole. The water plumes are in comparison to earth geysers immensely large and reach heights of approximately 200 km. Europa has a circumference of 3200 kilometers, comparable in size with the Moon. “Water is generally considered a basic prerequisite for life – at least as we know it on earth,” says Lorenz Roth, who was in charge of analysing the observations and has been working at the Southwest Research Institute in America. “For this reason, the discovery of a water vapour plumes on the moon Europa has increasingly become a focus of extraterrestrial research.” The plumes eject material from the surface which will make further investigations of the moon Jupiter much ...
The Daily Galaxy
13 Dec 2013, 15:48 UTC
An extraordinarily dynamic galaxy cluster, MACS J0717.5+3745, with a total mass greater than 1015 (a million billion) times the mass of the sun or more than 1,000 times the mass of our own galaxy appears to contain three relatively stationary subclusters (A, C, and D) and one subcluster (B) that is being drawn into the larger galaxy cluster, moving at a speed of 3,000 kilometers per second. By observing a high-speed component of this massive galaxy cluster, Caltech/JPL scientists and collaborators have detected for the first time in an individual object the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, a change in the cosmic microwave background caused by its interaction with massive moving objects. "By using the kinetic SZ effect to measure the velocities of whole clusters relative to the expanding universe, we may be able to learn more about what causes the universe's accelerating expansion," explains Sunil Golwala, professor of physics at Caltech and director of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) in Hawaii. The next step in the process is the development of new, more sensitive instrumentation, including the new Multiwavelength Sub/millimeter Inductance Camera. The galaxy cluster was observed by a team led by Golwala. Subcluster B was observed during what appears to ...
Extraordinary Galaxy Cluster 1000 Times Mass of the Milky Way Verifies Theory About Big Bang Afterglow
13 Dec 2013, 15:48 UTC
An extraordinarily dynamic galaxy cluster, MACS J0717.5+3745, with a total mass greater than 1015 (a million billion) times the mass of the sun or more than 1,000 times the mass of our own galaxy appears to contain three relatively stationary subclusters (A, C, and D) and one subcluster (B) that is being drawn into the larger galaxy cluster, moving at a speed of 3,000 kilometers per second. By observing a high-speed component of this massive galaxy cluster, Caltech/JPL scientists and collaborators have detected for the first time in an individual object the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, a change in the cosmic microwave background caused by its interaction with massive moving objects. "By using the kinetic SZ effect to measure the velocities of whole clusters relative to the expanding universe, we may be able to learn more about what causes the universe's accelerating expansion," explains Sunil Golwala, professor of physics at Caltech and director of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) in Hawaii. The next step in the process is the development of new, more sensitive instrumentation, including the new Multiwavelength Sub/millimeter Inductance Camera. The galaxy cluster was observed by a team led by Golwala. Subcluster B was observed during what appears to ...
Universe Today
13 Dec 2013, 14:47 UTC
Exoplanets are really tiny compared to their host star, and it’s hard to imagine sometimes how astronomers can even find one of these worlds — let alone thousands of them. This nifty two-part series from PBS explains how it’s possible in an easy-to-understand and hilarious way. As an example, this is how they describe the Kepler space telescope’s capabilities: “It can’t actually see those exoplanets because the stars that they surround are so big and bright. Instead, it looks for the tiny shadow of the planet as it passes in front of its parent star. If that sounds hard, that’s because it is. It’s like seeing a flea in a lightbulb in Los Angeles from New York City,” said host Joe Hanson in the video. Near the end, he provides an interesting segway into the question of life beyond Earth: “The question we’re really interested in is not how common are planets, but how common are we.” That gets tackled in part 2 of the video, which you can see below the jump. (...)Read the rest of Why Exoplanet-Hunting Is ‘Like Seeing A Flea In A Lightbulb’ (88 words) © Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No ...
Why Exoplanet-Hunting Is ‘Like Seeing A Flea In A Lightbulb’
13 Dec 2013, 14:47 UTC
Exoplanets are really tiny compared to their host star, and it’s hard to imagine sometimes how astronomers can even find one of these worlds — let alone thousands of them. This nifty two-part series from PBS explains how it’s possible in an easy-to-understand and hilarious way. As an example, this is how they describe the Kepler space telescope’s capabilities: “It can’t actually see those exoplanets because the stars that they surround are so big and bright. Instead, it looks for the tiny shadow of the planet as it passes in front of its parent star. If that sounds hard, that’s because it is. It’s like seeing a flea in a lightbulb in Los Angeles from New York City,” said host Joe Hanson in the video. Near the end, he provides an interesting segway into the question of life beyond Earth: “The question we’re really interested in is not how common are planets, but how common are we.” That gets tackled in part 2 of the video, which you can see below the jump. (...)Read the rest of Why Exoplanet-Hunting Is ‘Like Seeing A Flea In A Lightbulb’ (88 words) © Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No ...
Astro Bob
13 Dec 2013, 13:59 UTC
China’s Chang’e 3 lander will begin its descent to moon’s surface at 7:10 a.m. (CST) tomorrow Dec. 14. In an era when it takes months and years to arrive at places like Mars and Jupiter, it’s almost shocking that the Chinese … Continue reading → Chang’e 3 lowers its orbit from a 62-mile circle to elliptical with the low point of 9.3 miles over the Bay of Rainbows. Credit: CNSA China’s Chang’e 3 lander will begin its descent to moon’s surface at 7:10 a.m. (CST) tomorrow Dec. 14. In an era when it takes months and years to arrive at places like Mars and Jupiter, it’s almost shocking that the Chinese mission, launched less than two weeks ago, will soon touch lunar soil. Of course, the moon’s so much closer than any planet, it’s a no-brainer to get there in a hurry, but it’s been so long since we’ve visited the place, it makes me wonder why we haven’t considered putting rovers up there sooner and as routinely as we send them whizzing off to Mars. Chang’e 3′s thrusters fire after it separated from its booster while in Earth orbit. Credit: CCTV Few would deny Mars is a bigger, juicier ...
