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Posts Tagged ‘Space’

NASA: "We've Discovered the First Tatooine-Like Planet" [Video]

15 Sep
One of the most iconic scenes in Star Wars was of the two setting suns over Tatooine's dusty plains. Now, after years of searching, we've discovered that such a vista could exist outside science fiction. Scientists at NASA today announced the discovery of what they're describing as the very first confirmed, unambiguous example of a "circumbinary planet," orbiting not one, but two stars — just like Tatooine. More »
 
 

Super-Dense Stars May Squash Neutrons Into Cubes

16 Aug

Deep inside the super-dense hearts of exploding stars, gravity may squash neutron particles from spheres into cubes.

The idea could mean that neutron stars, as researchers call the stellar corpses, are denser than anyone expected. It could also question what stops them from collapsing into black holes and out of existence.

“If you take this result purely at face value, it means neutron star theoreticians are in trouble. [Neutron stars] should collapse into black holes at lower masses,” said theoretical physicist Felipe Jose Llanes-Estrada of Complutense University of Madrid, co-author of a study published Aug. 9 on the prepublication server arXiv.

“But that’s not what we observe. It’s possible there’s an additional repulsive interaction [between neutrons] to counter a collapse that we just haven’t thought of yet,” he said.

A star between nine and 20 times the sun’s mass detonates as a supernova toward the end of its life. At that weight, a star isn’t heavy enough to create a critical, ultra-dense state and shrink into a black hole. Instead, its core collapses into a sphere no bigger than 15 miles wide and so dense that a single teaspoon of it weighs as much as everyone on Earth, multiplied by 18.

Late last year, astronomers discovered the biggest-ever neutron star, called J1614-2230, that weighed in at 1.97 times the sun’s mass.  Prior to its discovery, the most massive neutron star weighed 1.67 solar masses.

The find left more than a few astrophysicists scratching their heads. Its existence ruled out some models of neutron stars that relied on exotic forms of matter and can’t explain the halt in the collapse of such a heavy object. Instead, the discovery supported models of neutron stars as containing only neutrons and protons.

When Llanes-Estrada and his university colleague Gaspar Moreno Navarro heard of J1614-2230, they wanted to know what might be happening inside of it.

The duo knew of a model from the 1970s suggesting pure neutrons could form a crystal lattice under incredible pressure (similar to how carbon forms diamonds in the bowels of the Earth). When they tweaked a familiar computer model to incorporate the idea, they discovered that — at the pressures anticipated deep in neutron stars — neutrons deformed from spheres into cubes.

“There’s an optimum packing density with spheres, including neutrons. It’s about 74 percent. No matter how efficiently you arrange them, like oranges on display at a supermarket, there’s always space in between,” Llanes-Estrada said. “If you want to be most efficient, you distort the oranges. Pack them a mile high and squish the ones on the bottom.”

Gravity shapes aggregate particles of matter into the simplest, most efficiently-packed object possible, normally a sphere like the Earth. The particles themselves, though, remain individually unaffected; gravity is too weak to overcome the strong interactions that hold neutrons and other particles together. But if gravity becomes intense enough, it might overpower the interactions.

So deep within the newly discovered neutron star — which may have a core pressure two times higher than the rest — a neutron’s most efficient shape may be a cube. “They’ll be flattened on all sides, like dice” starting at pressures found about 2.5 miles below the surface, Llanes-Estrada said.

So far, responses to the study have proven lukewarm.

Particle physicist Richard Hill of the University of Chicago, for example, noted the study looks at a neutron in isolation, not in aggregate.

“It’s an interesting idea, but what happens among the neutrons isn’t clear,” said Hill, who wasn’t involved in the study. At the densities in neutron stars, he noted, the “identities of individual neutrons may be blurred out.”

Llanes-Estrada acknowledged the criticism, which a second physicist who wished to remain anonymous also shared. But Llanes-Estrada said that pushing boundaries was, in part, the point.

“I think there is a large uncertainty of what happens to neutrons at very high compressions,” he said. “We should keep studying all of the possibilities.”

Updated: Aug. 17, 2011; 8:45 a.m. EDT

Images: 1) Illustration of a neutron star. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) 2) As pressure and density in a neutron star go up, normally sphere-like neutrons might take on an increasingly cubic shape. (F.J. Llanes-Estrada and G.M. Navarro/arXiv.org)

Via: MIT Technology Review

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Mars Rover Reaches Giant Crater After 3-Year Trek

10 Aug

After nearly three years of dragging through the Martian dust, NASA’s Opportunity rover has reached the rim of an expansive and ancient crater.

Since leaving Victoria crater in August 2008, Opportunity has rolled 13 miles to reach the rim of 24-mile-wide Endeavour crater — the biggest of 11 craters the robot has visited. It’s the site of an ancient impact that shot out dark rocks onto the crater’s rim.

“We’re soon going to get the opportunity to sample a rock type the rovers haven’t seen yet,” said planetary scientist and Mars rover team member Matthew Golombek of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a press release. “Clay minerals form in wet conditions so we may learn about a potentially habitable environment that appears to have been very different from those responsible for the rocks [found on] the plains.”

Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 and has far exceeded its 3-month warranty. A faulty front-right wheel forced its Earth-based operators to drive most of the trip to Endeavour backwards.

The robot’s twin, named Spirit, stopped phoning home in March. Mission managers considered the robot a goner in May and have refocused their efforts on squeezing as much science as possible out of Opportunity.

Images: 1) The western rim of Endeavour crater on Mars, as seen by Opportunity looking southward. (NASA) [full-resolution version available] 2) A recent view of the trek Opportunity has made since landing on Jan. 25, 2004. The rover is now near Spirit Point. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) [full-resolution version available]

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Plutonium Is Hot Suspect in Pioneer Spacecraft Mystery

26 Jul

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK

A 30-year mystery as to why the Pioneer spacecraft have slowly been drifting off course is close to being explained — the latest analysis pins the blame on heat.

The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively, were designed to fly past the asteroid belt and investigate the Jovian and Saturnian systems. Both are now located in the interstellar medium, and radio contact has been lost, but each is slowing gradually due to the influence of the sun’s gravity.

In 1980, an algorithm to study gravitational effects in the outer solar system was concocted by astronomer John Anderson, but it didn’t quite work. There was a discrepancy — small but noticeable — between the readings predicted by the algorithm and those actually observed from the Pioneer spacecrafts’ radio signal. The phenomenon was named the Pioneer Anomaly.

Physicists struggled to explain the discrepancy, proposing complex theories that even included a suggestion that gravity might behave differently at large distances from the Earth. However, the most recent analysis suggests a rather more mundane explanation — heat from the plutonium inside the spacecrafts’ generators.

If heat is radiating evenly in all directions from the spacecraft, then there will be no effect on its course, but if there’s a difference of as little as five percent between the front and the back then that could explain the difference between the predicted course and the course that’s actually been observed. The smoking gun is that the level of deceleration seems to be decreasing at an exponential rate, which tallies with the radioactive decay of the plutonium-238 that powers the two spacecraft.

It’s not completely out of the question that there might be another culprit, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely. NASA is performing its own investigation to compare to the data, but if that comes out with heat as the cause too, then the 30-year mystery may finally be over.

Image: NASA

Source: Wired.co.uk

Via: Discovery News

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Black Hole Holds Universe’s Biggest Water Supply

25 Jul

By Mark Brown, Wired UK

Two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever found in the universe. It’s 12 billion light years away, and holds at least 140 trillion times the amount of water in all the Earth’s oceans combined.

It manifests itself as a colossal mass of water vapor, hidden in the distant APM 08279+5255 quasar. Quasars are bright and violent galactic nuclei fueled by a supermassive black hole at their center.

This quasar holds a black hole that’s 20 billion times more massive than the sun, and after gobbling down dust and gas it belches out as much energy as a thousand trillion suns. The water vapor is spread around the black hole in a gaseous region spanning hundreds of light years.

“The environment around this quasar is unique in that it’s producing this huge mass of water,” says Matt Bradford from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a press release.

“It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times,” adds Bradford in the release. As the light from this watery quasar took 12 billion years to reach Earth, the observations come from a time when the universe was only 1.6 billion years old.

The water reservoir was discovered by astronomers, led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology, and using the Z-Spec instrument at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in Hawaii and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) in the Inyo Mountains of Southern California.

Both instruments observe in the millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, which lie between infrared and microwave wavelengths. Over the last two to three decades, this technique has allowed astronomers to find trace gases, including water vapor, in the earliest universe.

Astronomers are now building a new telescope that specializes in these wavelengths. The proposed 25-meter telescope is called CCAT (Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope) and would be plopped on the Cerro Chajnantor lava dome, more than 5,600 meters above sea level.

By measuring the presence of water and other important trace gases, it would allow cosmic researchers to hunt out primordial galaxies and more accurately study their composition. CCAT should start construction in 2013 and be completed in 2017.

Image: ESA/V. Beckmann (NASA-GSFC)

Source: Wired.co.uk

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Goodbye, Space Shuttle: Now the Space Race Can Really Begin

21 Jul

NASA’s 135th space shuttle flight ended this morning when Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, marking the close of a 30-year run for NASA’s ambitious, controversial and troubled orbital vehicle.

America’s space programs will continue, but without their flagship space plane — or any manned vehicle, for now. Over the next few years at least, U.S. astronauts will hitch rides to the International Space Station in Russian capsules. Meanwhile, purely robotic systems will take over other space duties.

Listening to some critics, you’d think America had just retreated from space, forever. “We’re basically decimating the NASA human spaceflight program,” former astronaut Jerry Ross told Reuters. “The only thing we’re going to have left in town is the station and it’s a totally different animal from the shuttle.”

Today many observers consider the Shuttle the ultimate expression of American technological prowess, and see its demise as a signal of America’s decline. In one sense, they’re right: With its huge size, distinctive shape and fiery launches, the shuttle has always been an impressive symbol. But as a practical space vehicle, it has long been an overpriced, dangerous compromise.

There’s a reason the Soviets canceled their space shuttle, and that the Chinese have never attempted one. Even without their own shuttles, both nations are now nipping at America’s heels in space. Russia has increasingly reliable rockets and capsules; China began manned spaceflights back in 2003 and is mulling a space station and a moon mission. Both countries are working hard to expand their satellite fleets, though they remain far behind the United States with its roughly 400 spacecraft.

In truth, the shuttle’s retirement could actually make the U.S. space program stronger, by finally allowing the shuttle’s two users — NASA and the Pentagon — to go their separate ways in space, each adopting space vehicles best suited to their respective missions.

“When I hear people say, or listen to media reports, that the final shuttle flight marks the end of U.S. human space flight, I have to say … these folks must be living on another planet,” NASA administrator Charlie Bolden said in a July 1 speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

For NASA, future manned missions will ride in upgraded 1960s-style manned capsules: first Russian models, then potentially American-built ones. Missions that don’t require a human passenger will fall to rockets of various sizes. The military will use many of the same rockets, and could also expand its brand-new fleet of small, robotic space planes.

Together, these vehicles will make space flight cheaper, safer and more flexible than was ever possible with the shuttle.

 
 

Photo: Father and son at first and last Space Shuttle launches, 30 years apart

12 Jul
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"Father and Son: STS-1 and STS-135," a photo by Chris Bray, who is the younger of the two in these side-by-side captures from the very first shuttle launch thirty years ago, and the final one, last Friday. "The picture we waited 30 years to complete."

(Flickr, via Reddit and Laughing Squid.)

 
 

Space Exploration: 9 Private Sector Companies Ready to Take Off

08 Jul

When Atlantis launched on Friday morning, it was the last of NASA’s space shuttle flights.

The event marks the end of a 30-year program that has put 777 people in orbit.

But it is not the end of space exploration in the United States. Companies have been engaging in a private sector space race alongside and in partnership with NASA for quite some time.

SEE ALSO: Space Shuttle Launch: Photos from the Final Atlantis Flight

In April, NASA awarded four of these companies $269 million to develop spacecraft, and companies in the private sector have also established expertise in other aspects of space travel, like space suits and climate control. Some are even famously selling tickets for consumer space flights.

Here are what some of them are working on.


1. Armadillo Aerospace





What it does: Builds reusable rocket-powered vehicles.

Claim to fame: An exclusive agreement with Space Adventures, a consumer space travel company. "Eventually, we wish to provide a platform for civilian flights to suborbital space, and ultimately, we plan to reach orbit," reads the site's FAQ.


2. Masten Space




What it does: Designs and builds reusable space vehicles. Unlike most other commercial space companies, Masten specializes in unmanned, suborbital flights.


3. Oribital Outfitters




What it does: makes space suits for commercial and government space travels.

Most interesting project: Orbital Outfitters partnered with a company called SpaceDiver on a project that will demonstrate the capability to dive from a space shuttle and return to Earth safely.


4. Oribital Sciences




What it does: About 3,700 employees help make space launch vehicles, missile defense systems and satellites as well as offer space technical services at this more than 29-year-old company. It's like a department store for space.

Claim to Fame: In 2002, the company signed its largest contract ever: $900 million to develop, build, test and support missile interceptor booster vehicles for the Boeing Company.


5. Paragon Space Development




What it does: Makes environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments, like space.

Claims to fame: Paragon is responsible for the first full-motion, long-duration video (4 months, 60 total minutes) of plant and animal growth on orbit, the first multigenerational animal experiment in space and the first commercial experiment on the International Space Station.


6. Virgin Galactic




What it does: Sells tickets for consumer space trips. The company has already sold about 430 tickets.

Cost per ticket: $200,000


7. XCOR Aerospace




What it does: Flight vehicles, piston pumps and rocket engines. And of course, consumer sub-orbital space travel. Its two rocket-powered vehicles, the X-Racer and EX-Rocket, have safely completed 67 piloted demonstrations.

Cost per ticket: $95,000


8. SpaceX




What it does: Space transport. Eventually wants to put a man on Mars.

Famous Founder: SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk, the cofounder of PayPal and Tesla Motors.


9. Blue Origin




What it does: Develops vehicles and technologies to lower the cost and increase the reliability of human access to space.

What Amazon and space have in common: Blue Origin is owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos.


10. Bigelow Aerospace




What it does: "Expandable space habitat technology." The company creates space stations that have more breathing room than your everyday "aluminum can" International Space Station by using inflatable components. Eventually it hopes to lease space on one of its stations for experiments and research. Two prototypes are already in orbit.

Great Expectations: "We anticipate construction of our first space station to begin with a Sundancer launched in early 2014, and that by 2015 the station will be available for client use," says Bigelow's website.

More About: astronomy, Atlantis, List, Lists, Science, space, startups, tech

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Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch Video: The Final Flight

08 Jul


At 11:26 ET Friday, space shuttle Atlantis flew up in the sky toward the International Space Station, marking an end of an era: It was the last aircraft to launch as part of NASA’s space shuttle program.

Atlantis will carry four astronauts during the 12-day mission, bring supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station and conduct an experiment to test new refueling and repair technology for satellites in orbit, after which it will return to Earth and retire.

SEE ALSO: Space Shuttle Launch: Photos from the Final Atlantis Flight

If you’ve missed the live stream of the launch, you can see it in the archived video below. The actual liftoff starts somewhere around 18:00 in the video.


Photos from the Final Atlantis Flight


Stay tuned. We’ll keep updating this gallery with new photos.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Solid Rocket Booster Separation




Photo courtesy of NASA.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Liftoff




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Mashable Media Badge




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


NPR Tweeted




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Official Launch M&Ms




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Elmo Reports Launch




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Media Getting Signals




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


@SethGreen Tweeted




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Badge




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup Participants




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


@schierholz Handed Out M&Ms




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


@schierholz Tweeted




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


@schierholz's Badge




Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Shuttle Atlantis




Shuttle Atlantis moves into the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Atlantis Sunrise




The sun rises over the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Atlantis Sunset




Sunset over Launch Pad 39A before the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) is delivered.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Atlantis Sunrise




Another sun rises over the Shuttle Atlantis.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


The Crew Celebrates




The STS-135 crew wave American flags in honor of Independence Day. From left: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


The Crew Heads for Final Launch Preparation




The STS-135 team departs for the Astronaut Crew Quarters in Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Firing Room 4




In Firing Room 4, NASA team members prepare for launch.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Launch Pad




Atlantis was "hard down" at its seaside launch pad by 3:29 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 1.

Photo courtesy of NASA.


Atlantis Flag




The Atlantis flag flutters below the American flag.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Launch Pad




A view of the launch pad from across the water.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Media Gathers




News crews prepare their equipment at tents near the launch pad.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Media Tents




Two-tier media tents provide better views of the Atlantis.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Launch Clock




Ryan Matzner, lead strategist at Fueled, a mobile app development firm, stands in front of the countdown-to-launch clock.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Media Tripods




Media stakes out their turf with tripods aimed at the shuttle launch.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Tweetup




Media and spectators alike participate in the lunch Tweetup.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


En Route




The van will lead the procession of astronauts to the shuttle.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


En Route




The astronauts en route to the launch pad.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


En Route




Precious cargo on the way to the launch pad.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Vehicle Assembly Building




An impressive spectacle in itself, the Vehicle Assembly Building has been used to assemble NASA vehicles since 1968. It is the largest single-story building in the world.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


Vehicle Assembly Building




A view of the vehicle assembly building.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Matzner.


BONUS: Amazing Photographs From Endeavour’s Last Voyage


NASA recently released these breathtaking images from the last voyage of Endeavour following its return from space last month. Until October 2010, it was believed that the Endeavour mission would be the last space shuttle flight — now Atlantis is set to take that honor.


Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage





Endeavour's final voyage




More About: flight, NASA, space, space shuttle, Space Shuttle Atlantis, video

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Listen to a Thunderstorm on Saturn

06 Jul

Great White Spot

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft eavesdropped on a storm on Saturn on March 15, 2011, by capturing pulses of radio waves from the lightning strikes, and sent back audio of the event.

First spied by amateurs in early December, this storm is the largest and most powerful to be observed in detail. Once spotted the storm grew dramatically, from 2,500 km across on the first day to 17,000 three weeks later, with a tail sweeping around the entire planet.

Instruments aboard Cassini recorded lightning strikes as fast as 10 per second, too fast for the spacecraft’s radio and plasma wave instrument to easily separate into individual signals. The team created this sound file from radio waves emanating from the storm on March 15, during a relatively calm period. The 11-second clip contains data gathered over 57 seconds.

Two teams of researchers describe the storm’s churnings in this week’s Nature. Storms large enough to be spotted by Earth-bound telescopes, occur on Saturn about once every 30 years and are dubbed Great White Spots — a play on Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

Image: False-color images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft of the huge storm raging on Saturn. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute).