March 17, 2008, 10:16 PM CT

Novel spots found on Jupiter

Researchers have observed unexpected luminous spots on Jupiter caused by its moon Io.

Besides displaying the most spectacular volcanic activity in the solar system, Io causes auroras on its mother planet that are similar to the Northern Lights on Earth. The auroral emissions associated with the volcanic moon are called the Io footprint.

From prior studies, scientists had found the Io footprint to be a bright spot that is often followed by other auroral spots. Those spots are typically located downstream relative to a flow of charged particles around the giant planet. Now, a team of planetologists from Belgium and Gera number of have discovered that Ios footprint can include a faint spot unexpectedly upstream of the main spot.

Each appearance of such a leading spot occurs in a distinctive pattern, the researchers say: When the main footprint is preceded by a leading spot in the northern or southern hemisphere of Jupiter, it is also followed by downstream spots in the opposite hemisphere.

Previously, we only observed downstream spots, but only half of the configurations of Io in the Jovian magnetic field had been studied, says Bertrand Bonfond of the University of Lige in Belgium, who is a member of the team that found the new type of spot. Now we have the complete picture. The results are surprising because no theory predicted upstream spots......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

March 12, 2008, 9:49 PM CT

Icy Promethei Planum

Promethei Planum, an area seasonally covered with a more than 3500 m thick layer of ice in the martian south polar region, was the subject of the High Resolution Stereo Camera's focus on 22 September 2005 as Mars Express was in orbit above the Red Planet.

Promethei Planum lies at approximately 76 degree south and 105 degree east on the Red Planet. The image data acquired in the region has a ground resolution of approximately 40 m/pixel.

An impact crater that is approximately 100 km wide and 800 m deep is visible in the northern part of the image. The crater's interior is partly covered in ice.

Latest results from the Mars Advanced Radar for Ionosphere and Subsurface Sounding (MARSIS) onboard Mars Express have revealed that the thickness of this extension of the south polar ice cap exceeds 3500 m. The total amount of water ice contained at both the south and north poles of Mars makes up the largest water reservoir on the planet today.

If polar ice melted, the entire surface of the planet would be covered by an ocean 11-m deep.

The colour scenes have been derived from the three High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) colour channels and the nadir channel. The perspective views have been calculated from the digital terrain model derived from the stereo channels......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

March 9, 2008, 5:35 PM CT

Seeing through the Dark

Astronomers have measured the distribution of mass inside a dark filament in a molecular cloud with an amazing level of detail and to great depth. The measurement is based on a new method that looks at the scattered near-infrared light or 'cloudshine' and was made with ESO's New Technology Telescope. Linked to the forthcoming VISTA telescope, this new technique will allow astronomers to better understand the cradles of newborn stars.

The vast expanses between stars are permeated with giant complexes of cold gas and dust opaque to visible light. Yet these are the future nurseries of stars to be.

"One would like to have a detailed knowledge of the interiors of these dark clouds to better understand where and when new stars will appear," says Mika Juvela, lead author of the paper in which these results are reported.

Because the dust in these clouds blocks the visible light, the distribution of matter within interstellar clouds can be examined only indirectly. One method is based on measurements of the light from stars that are located behind the cloud [1].

"This method, albeit quite useful, is limited by the fact that the level of details one can obtain depends on the distribution of background stars," says co-author Paolo Padoan.

In 2006, astronomers Padoan, Juvela, and colleague Veli-Matti Pelkonen, proposed that maps of scattered light could be used as another tracer of the cloud's inner structure, a method that should yield more advantages. The idea is to estimate the amount of dust located along the line of sight by measuring the intensity of the scattered light......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

March 9, 2008, 5:31 PM CT

First advert to be broadcast into space

The campaign to broadcast the first ever advert into space is launched today (Friday March 7)- with University of Leicester space researchers playing a key part in the process.

The British public is being asked to shoot a 30-second ad about what they perceive life on earth to be as part of Doritos You Make It, We Play It user-generated-content campaign. The winning advert in the competition will be beamed past the earth's atmosphere, beyond our solar system and into the Universe, to anyone 'out there' that may be watching. The winning ad will also be broadcast on terrestrial TV.

On 12th June, the space-bound ad will be broadcast from a 500MHz Ultra High Frequency Radar from the EISCAT Space Centre in Svalbard, which lies in the Arctic Ocean about midway between northern Norway and the North Pole.

The transmission is being directed at a solar system just 42 light years away from Earth with planets that orbit its star '47 Ursae Majoris' (UMa). 47 UMa is located in the Great Bear Constellation (also known as The Plough) - easily identifiable to even the most amateur stargazer. It is very similar to our Sun and is believed to host a habitable zone that could potentially harbour small terrestrial planets and support life as we know it.

The advert will travel at the speed of light and continue for an indefinite period. Within 1.2 seconds the transmission will pass our moon, after 4.5 minutes it will pass Mars (77million kilometres away), in under 9 minutes the signal will whiz past the Sun and five and a half hours later it will travel past Pluto and out of our solar system......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

March 9, 2008, 4:20 PM CT

New discovery at Jupiter could help protect Earth-orbit satellites

Radio waves accelerate electrons within Jupiters magnetic field in the same way as they do on Earth, as per new research published in Nature Physics this week. The discovery overturns a theory that has held sway for more than a generation and has important implications for protecting Earth-orbiting satellites.

Using data collected at Jupiter by the Galileo spacecraft, Dr Richard Horne of British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and his colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Iowa observed that a special type of very low frequency radio wave is strong enough to accelerate electrons up to very high energies inside Jupiters magnetic field.

As per lead author, Dr Richard Horne,.

Weve shown before that very low frequency radio waves can accelerate electrons in the Earths magnetic field, but we have now shown that exactly the same theory works on Jupiter, where the magnetic field is 20,000 times stronger than the Earths and the composition of the atmosphere is very different. This is the ultimate test of our theory.

On Jupiter, the waves are powered by energy from volcanoes on the moon Io, combined with the planets rapid rotation once every 10 hours. Volcanic gasses are ionized and flung out away from the planet by centrifugal force. This material is replaced by an inward flow of particles that excite the waves that in turn accelerate the electrons......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

February 26, 2008, 10:27 PM CT

The next-best thing to being on Mars

Last week, two MIT students began living, working and communicating with the outside world as if they were on a mission to Mars. Whenever they go outside their small, round habitat where eight people are spending a two-week "mission," they don spacesuits and pass through an airlock. When they send e-mail, it takes 20 minutes before the recipient can see it-the time it takes for radio waves to travel to and from the red planet.

They're not really on Mars, of course-human missions there are still not even in NASA's long-term schedule and are not expected to take place for at least two decades. So, in order to begin understanding the logistical, mechanical, scientific and psychological issues that a real crew of Mars explorers will someday face, teams have been practicing the details of Mars exploration in several Mars-base simulators in some of Earth's most Mars-like places. The most heavily used simulation is the Mars Society Desert Research Station, near Hanksville, Utah, which was built in 2002 by the Mars Society.

Engineering graduate students Zahra Khan and Phillip Cunio, from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, began their stay at the Utah facility on Sunday, Feb. 17. Cunio is working on a project to develop a "smart" carrier to be used for research fieldwork in remote expeditions such as planetary exploration. The footlocker-sized container and its contents are fitted with radio-frequency ID tags, so that it constantly keeps track of its contents and can alert people if supplies are about to run out or if an item has been misplaced. Running out of supplies is not just an inconvenience-on a faraway planetary surface it could be a life-or-death issue......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

February 24, 2008, 9:57 PM CT

Space tourism to rocket in this century

Seeking an out-of-this-world travel destination?

Outer space will rocket into reality as "the" getaway of this century, as per scientists at the University of Delaware and the University of Rome La Sapienza.

In fact, the "final frontier" could begin showing up in travel guides by 2010, they predict.

"In the twenty-first century, space tourism could represent the most significant development experienced by the tourism industry," says Prof. Fred DeMicco, ARAMARK Chair in UD's Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management program.

"With the Earth under attack from a myriad of environmental impacts, including climate change concerns and pollution, outer space is the next viable frontier to explore and make longtime plans for," he notes. "While there are global policies to be determined relating to private ventures in space, the technology to make space travel safer and cheaper is moving forward".

DeMicco and Silvia Ciccarelli, a geoeconomist who was a recent visiting scholar at UD, co-wrote "Outer Space as a New Frontier for Hospitality and Tourism," which is in review for an upcoming issue of the Hospitality Educator. Ciccarelli is a consultant to the Italian Association of Aerospace Industries.

What kind of person will be lured to space travel? Is it those of us who've loved "The Jetsons," "Star Trek," or peering at the heavens through a telescope?........ Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

February 14, 2008, 10:16 PM CT

New Solar System Discovered

Harnessing Lawrence Livermore's pioneering work in gravitational microlensing, supercomputer modeling and adaptive optics, researchers have found two planets in a solar system much like our very own.

A team of international researchers have discovered a solar system nearly 5,000 light years away that contains two scaled-down gas giant planets. They are about half the distance from their source star as Jupiter and Saturn are from our sun, but the two new planets are the same distance apart as Jupiter and Saturn are to each other.

Because this is just the fifth exoplanetary system found via microlensing, the finding suggests that our galaxy hosts a number of solar systems like our own.

"This is the first time something analogous to our solar system has been found," said Kem Cook, one of three LLNL scientists on the team and a pioneer in gravitational microlensing. "This indicates that our kind of planetary system is relatively common and that in and of itself is exciting".

The research appears in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal, Science.

The two planets were seen when the star they orbit crossed in front of a more distant star as seen from Earth (gravitational microlensing). For a two-week period from late March through early April 2006, the nearer star's gravity magnified the light shining from the farther star. The planets altered this magnification in a distinctive manner......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

February 13, 2008, 9:34 PM CT

Special Supernova Type Detected

Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers have reported the possible detection of a binary star system that was later destroyed in a supernova explosion. The new method they used provides great future promise for finding the detailed origin of these important cosmic events.

In an article appearing in the February 14th issue of the journal Nature, Rasmus Voss of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Gera number of and Gijs Nelemans of Radboud University in the Netherlands searched Chandra images for evidence of a much sought after, but as yet unobserved binary system - one that was about to go supernova. Near the position of a recently detected supernova, they discovered an object in Chandra images taken more than four years before the explosion.

The supernova, known as SN 2007on, was identified as a Type Ia supernova. Astronomers generally agree that Type Ia supernovas are produced by the explosion of a white dwarf star in a binary star system. However, the exact configuration and trigger for the explosion is unclear. Is the explosion caused by a collision between two white dwarfs, or because a white dwarf became unstable by pulling too much material off a companion star?

Answering such questions is a high priority because Type Ia supernovas are major sources of iron in the Universe. Also, because of their nearly uniform intrinsic brightness, Type Ia supernova are used as important tools by researchers to study the nature of dark energy and other cosmological issues......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

February 11, 2008, 10:49 PM CT

Jules Verne ATV launch

After the successful launch of ESA's Columbus laboratory aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on Thursday (7 February), it is now time to focus on the next imminent milestone for ESA: the launch of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to be sent to the International Space Station.

The 20-tonne European resupply and space-tug module will be carried into orbit by a special version of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. The launcher, operated by Arianespace, is now scheduled to lift off from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 8 March at 01:23 local time, 05:23 CET.

From 2008 onward, ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle will be one of the space station's supply spacecraft, delivering experiments, equipment and spare parts, as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew.

Constructed by EADS-Astrium, the ATV, which is the most powerful automatic spaceship ever built, will carry up to 9 tonnes of cargo to the station as it orbits 400 km above the Earth.

Equipped with its own propulsion and navigation systems, the ATV is a multi-functional spacecraft, combining the fully automatic capabilities of an unmanned vehicle with the safety requirements of a crewed vehicle. Its mission in space will resemble that, on the ground, of a truck (the ATV) delivering goods and services to a research establishment (the space station)......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source