On May 25th, the Phoenix spacecraft will hopefully land at the northern Martian ice cap and return some amazing science. Before that happens, Phoenix needs to arrive in one piece, something that has proven historically difficult on Mars. NASA's history in successfully planting a lander on Mars is not good, at least when using old-school rocket-based machines. When NASA uses the airbag method, all seems well. But these rocket landings.....oiy, much stress indeed. To better illustrate the challenge Phoenix faces, JPL has released a video that plays like a trailer for a summer blockbuster.
NASA has finally ended their week-long mystery, revealing the secret object located in our galaxy to be that of a very young supernova, which you see above. It exploded 140 years ago, making it the youngest by far, considering the supernova of 1680 A.D. had been the previous contender.
Why is this so important? I'll let NASA explain:
Finding such a recent, obscured supernova is a first step in making a better estimate of how often the stellar explosions occur. This is important because supernovae heat and redistribute large amounts of gas, and pump heavy elements out into their surroundings. They can trigger the formation of new stars as part of a cycle of stellar death and rebirth. The explosion also can leave behind, in addition to the expanding remnant, a central neutron star or black hole.
That young age was confirmed in recent weeks when the Very Large Array made new radio observations. This comparison of data pinpoints the age of the remnant at 140 years - possibly less if it has been slowing down - making it the youngest on record in the Milky Way.
Besides being the record holder for youngest supernova, the object is of considerable interest for other reasons. The high expansion velocities and extreme particle energies that have been generated are unprecedented and should stimulate deeper studies of the object with Chandra and the Very Large Array.
"No other object in the galaxy has properties like this," Reynolds said. "This find is extremely important for learning more about how some stars explode and what happens in the aftermath."
At 10:00 a.m. Pacific, NASA will be announcing the discovery of an object in our galaxy that brings to an end a 50 year search for...whatever it is. Many theories abound, but only NASA knows for sure.
Lots of cool space stuff today, so just bear with me. Earlier this week, NASA announced that they've completed restoring over one hundred hours of footage from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs that got us to the moon. MSNBC has more on the story:
The HD makeover was performed by the Discovery Channel for "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions," a documentary series due to premiere in June.
The archive includes dramatic shots of the first American spacewalk, conducted in 1965 by Gemini 4 astronaut Ed White. If White's spacesuit failed, there were few options available for rescuing him, Gemini 4 commander James McDivitt recalled.
"We didn't have a plan. We didn't have a checklist on how you kill your best friend," McDivitt told the filmmakers behind "When We Left Earth."
The best part about all of this? Besides receiving what will surely be a great Discovery Channel special, the entire high definition library will be made available for our viewing pleasure. This news has me itching to watch one of my favorite mini-series, From the Earth to the Moon, all over again. MSNBC has some of the remastered footage available to watch, but it's not streamed in HD. Go figure.
NASA sent out a media advisory today, announcing a press conference for next Wednesday, May 14. What's the purpose of the press conference? NASA is being rather coy about the whole ordeal, but according to them it's to "announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations."
What does that mean? What could it be? We'll have to wait to find out, but based on the kind of research the Chandra X-ray Observatory performs, my guess is that they've found direct evidence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. What are your thoughts?
On September 1, 1859, the Sun let loose a Coronal Mass Ejection of impressive size. How impressive?
Just before dawn the next day, skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii.
Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted.
When the Chaiten Volcano in southern Chile erupted on May 2, it ended an amazing 9,000 years of slumber. It apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed, as the plume rose as high as 55,000 feet and forced the evacuation of 4,000 people. Images from the ground have been stunning, but nothing says perspective like an image taken by NASA's Terra Satellite, which you see below.
Who knew the physics of whipped cream was so mysterious? NASA, apparently, as they are curious about a phenomena known as shear thinning. You can see shear thinning for yourself by grabbing a can of whipped cream and spaying some onto the surface of an object. What you'll see is that it initially emerges as a liquid and then suddenly goes rigid. That's sheer thinning, and it occurs in ketchup, blood, motor oil and paint.
NASA now has some answers as to how this effect occurs, thanks to an experiment aboard the space shuttle.
To test shear thinning, CVX-2 adjusted the temperature and pressure in a small cylinder to bring xenon to its critical point, and then gently stirred the fluid with a nickel-screen paddle. By measuring how strongly the fluid resisted the movement of this paddle, the experiment could determine the xenon's thickness. CVX-2 searched for changes in this thickness as it slowly changed the speed of the stirring and the temperature of the fluid.
Results nicely matched the predictions of dynamic mode-coupling theory. "This more fundamental understanding could help us build better theories for shear thinning in fluids more complex than xenon," Zimmerli says.
That would be good news for, say, engineers who want to design high-performance oils for automobiles or manufacturers who would like to create liquid plastics with just the right shear thinning properties for a particular mold. The sky's the limit.
Whether it would be possible to improve whipped cream, however, is highly debatable.
We know where Clinton, Obama and McCain stand on Iraq, taxes, health care, education and the environment, but one topic that just never seems to come up is their respective plans for NASA. Well, Popular Mechanics seeks to fill in this gap by exploring each candidate's rhetoric in relation to reality.
Barack Obama
The Rhetoric
“The retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2010 will leave the United States without manned spaceflight capability until the introduction of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) carried by the Ares I Launch Vehicle. As president, Obama will support the development of this vital new platform to ensure that the United States’ reliance on foreign space capabilities is limited to the minimum possible time period. The CEV will be the backbone of future missions, and is being designed with technology that is already proven and available.”
The Reality
Senator Obama has already declared himself a fan of space: “I grew up on Star Trek,” Obama said, quite famously, in Wyoming last month. “I believe in the final frontier.” But he has also made it clear that he does not agree with the way the space program is now being run, saying as recently as last week in Indiana that NASA “needs to be redefined,” with looming decisions between manned launches and “unmanned probes which are oftentimes cheaper and less dangerous.” That doesn’t sound like a candidate who is going to stick with the status quo. But how important does Obama really think that fixing the program is? Earlier in the campaign, his Web site had no explicit space policy other than a plan to pay for an early education program with a delay of NASA’s Constellation program. It was unclear why he chose that particular pot of money for such a seemingly unrelated item, or how he would maintain NASA’s team for half a decade when it would presumably need to continue to bringing home a paycheck.
Any Southern California space junkies out there? Do you want to go on a field trip to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA? Well you're in luck, as JPL will be providing a rare opportunity for the general public to tour its labs when they hold their open house on Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4. Here's a bit more on the event, direct from JPL:
At this free, all-day event, visitors can watch 700-pound robots glide under artificial stars in JPL's Robodome, get an up-close view of full-scale models of Mars rovers, and learn how spacecraft are prepared for their journeys in special clean rooms.
They will see numerous solar system, robotics and Earth science exhibits and learn about various space missions, including the Mars Phoenix Lander, scheduled to land on the Red Planet on May 25. Visitors can also see how NASA instruments measure greenhouse gases, which will help scientists better understand global climate change.
What better way to celebrate Earth Day than by driving a Humvee while chain-smoking? Viewing NASA's amazing gallery that represents their Top 10 Crew Earth Observations. Amazing photos await you.
The HiRISE camera hitching a ride aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken several stunning photographs of the Martian moon Phobos. At only 22 km in diameter, Phobos is a dinky object, which is good news for Mars, as Phobos will eventually slam into the planet. How Phobos, and its smaller brother Deimos, came into existence remains unclear. Each were either asteroids in their former life that were eventually captured by the gravity of Mars, or both moons formed from material that was shed from Mars during an ancient and mammoth impact.
The most prominent feature on Phobos is the Stickney crater, which has a diameter of 9 km. If whatever clobbered Phobos to form that crater had been just a hair larger, it would have shattered the moon into a zillion pieces.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a 19-page report that is highly critical of NASA's Constellation Program. Constellation is the program that is supposed to find America returning to the moon, building a base, and eventually heading to Mars for human exploration.
According to the GAO:
NASA is currently working toward preliminary design reviews for the Ares I and Orion vehicles. While this is a phase for discovery and risk reduction, there are considerable unknowns as to whether NASA's plans for these vehicles can be executed within schedule goals and what these efforts will ultimately cost. This is primarily because NASA is still in the process of defining many performance requirements. Such uncertainties could affect the mass, loads, and weight requirements for the vehicles. NASA is aiming to complete this process in 2008, but it will be challenged to do so given the level of knowledge that still needs to be attained. The challenges NASA is facing pose risks to the successful outcome of the projects.
Personally, as a hardcore supporter of NASA, the Constellation Program is a massive waste of money to achieve goals that aren't adequately defined or needed, which shouldn't come as a surprise when one considers this entire thing was urged by the Bush Administration. Sending humans to Mars is more for our collective ego than it is for science, especially when robotics are far more inexpensive.
That didn't take long. In less than 24-hours, NASA has reversed course on unplugging the Spirit rover on Mars due to budget cuts.
From Discovery News:
NASA is saying Tuesday that it has rescinded a letter that recommended budget cuts in the Mars Rover program to cover the cost of a next-generation rover on the Red Planet.
The move comes a day after scientists at the agency's robotics center said they would need to hibernate one of the twin Mars robots and limit the duties of the other because their budget was being cut by $4 million.
I guess we can scrap plans for that cookie-drive now.
NASA has ordered $4-million in funding for the Mars Exploration Rover program to be cut from its paltry $20-million annual budget, putting at least one of the rovers in serious jeopardy.
Steve Squyres, main man for the project, tells CNN that operations for Spirit will be the likely target, with Spirit entering a forced hibernation until more money is somehow found.
These poor rovers have managed to live well beyond their projected shelf life, returning amazing data that will aid humanity in the future, have faced perilous cliffs, dust-devils and wicked storms, yet good ole budget problems are going to do them in.
Sad. Sad. Sad.
$4-million is chump change when the advancement of human knowledge and understanding is involved, but for some reason, we can always find money if it involves killing people.
