NASA ADMINISTRATOR BOLDEN VIEWS THE DRAGON CAPSULE

FROM:  NASA
Bolden, Musk and the Dragon
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, left, congratulates SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk in front of the historic Dragon capsule that returned to Earth on May 31 following the first successful mission by a private company to carry supplies to the International Space Station.
Bolden and Musk also thanked the more than 150 SpaceX employees working at the McGregor facility for their role in the historic mission.
This image was taken on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 at the SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden joined SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk at the SpaceX Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas, Wednesday to see the first commercial space capsule to complete a mission to the International Space Station.

WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden joined SpaceX CEO and
Chief Designer Elon Musk at the SpaceX Rocket Development Facility in
McGregor, Texas, Wednesday to see the first commercial space capsule
to complete a mission to the International Space Station.
Bolden and Musk also thanked the more than 150 SpaceX employees
working at the McGregor facility for their role in the historic
mission. SpaceX's Dragon capsule made history May 31 when it returned
to Earth after delivering supplies to the space station.

"The Dragon capsule is a tangible example of the new era of
exploration unfolding right now," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
said. "Commercial space is becoming a reality as SpaceX and our other
commercial partners look ahead to future missions to the space
station and other destinations. I congratulate Elon Musk and the
entire SpaceX team again for this historic milestone."

While on-site, Bolden had the opportunity to view some of the 1,367
pounds of cargo the spacecraft returned to Earth from the space
station. Dragon is the only spacecraft capable of returning a
significant quantity of science experiments and cargo from the
station. Experiments will be given back to researchers hoping to gain
new insights provided by the station's unique microgravity
environment. The cargo was transferred to NASA June 13 and will be
taken to the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston for further
processing.

Dragon's journey to the station was SpaceX's second demonstration
mission under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
Program (COTS), which provides investments intended to lead to
regular resupply missions to the International Space Station and
stimulate the commercial space industry in the United States. The
mission began May 22 as the capsule launched from Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After its
maneuverability and abort systems were tested, crew members of
Expedition 31 aboard the station grappled the capsule and berthed it
to the orbiting laboratory.

Dragon, its exterior scorched by the heat of re-entry, splashed down
in the Pacific Ocean May 31. SpaceX recovered the capsule immediately
and transported it to McGregor, where engineers unloaded cargo and
removed hazardous materials. Dragon will be shipped to SpaceX
Headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., later this year.

On Thursday, Bolden and Musk will be at SpaceX Headquarters and speak
with reporters at 9 a.m. PDT. They will see the Dragon spacecraft
that flew the first COTS demonstration mission in December 2010,
during which SpaceX became the first private company to recover a
spacecraft after it orbited Earth. They also will see a prototype
Dragon spacecraft being designed to carry astronauts to the space
station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

ESA Portal - Czech Republic - Akvanauti už jsou pod vodou

ESA Portal - Czech Republic - Akvanauti už jsou pod vodou

HEAVY ELEMENTS AND SMALL PLANETS

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- The formation of small worlds like Earth
previously was thought to occur mostly around stars rich in heavy
elements such as iron and silicon. However, new ground-based
observations, combined with data collected by NASA's Kepler space
telescope, shows small planets form around stars with a wide range of
heavy element content and suggests they may be widespread in our
galaxy.

A research team led by Lars A. Buchhave, an astrophysicist at the
Niels Bohr Institute and the Centre for Star and Planet Formation at
the University of Copenhagen, studied the elemental composition of
more than 150 stars harboring 226 planet candidates smaller than
Neptune.

"I wanted to investigate whether small planets needed a special
environment in order to form, like the giant gas planets, which we
know preferentially develop in environments with a high content of
heavy elements," said Buchhave. "This study shows that small planets
do not discriminate and form around stars with a wide range of heavy
metal content, including stars with only 25 percent of the sun's
metallicity."

Astronomers refer to all chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and
helium as metals. They define metallicity as the metal content of
heavier elements in a star. Stars with a higher fraction of heavy
elements than the sun are considered metal-rich. Stars with a lower
fraction of heavy elements are considered metal-poor.

Planets are created in disks of gas and dust around new stars. Planets
like Earth are composed almost entirely of elements such as iron,
oxygen, silicon and magnesium. The metallicity of a star mirrors the
metal content of the planet-forming disk. Astronomers have
hypothesized that large quantities of heavy elements in the disk
would lead to more efficient planet formation. It has long been noted
that giant planets with short orbital periods tend to be associated
with metal-rich stars.

Unlike gas giants, the occurrence of smaller planets is not strongly
dependent on the heavy element content of their host stars. Planets
up to four times the size of Earth can form around stars with a wide
range of heavy element content, including stars with a lower
metallicity than the sun. The findings are described in a new study
published in the journal Nature.

"Kepler has identified thousands of planet candidates, making it
possible to study big-picture questions like the one posed by Lars.
Does nature require special environments to form Earth-size planets?"
said Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist at NASA's Ames
Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "The data suggest that small
planets may form around stars with a wide range of metallicities --
that nature is opportunistic and prolific, finding pathways we might
otherwise have thought difficult."

The ground-based spectroscopic observations for this study were made
at the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands;
Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins in Ariz.; McDonald
Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin; and W.M. Keck
Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Launched in March 2009, Kepler searches for planets by continuously
monitoring more than 150,000 stars, looking for telltale dips in
their brightness caused by passing, or transiting, planets. At least
three transits are required to verify a signal as a planet. Follow-up
observations from ground-based telescopes are also needed to confirm
a candidate as a planet.

Ames manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations
and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission development.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the
Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of
Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives hosts and
distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery
Mission and is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the
agency's headquarters in Washington.

Otevírá se sezóna evropské robotiky

Otevírá se sezóna evropské robotiky

ESA Portal - Switzerland - Français - Euronews : Quand Vénus se dévoile

ESA Portal - Switzerland - Français - Euronews : Quand Vénus se dévoile

Pitch to Market and win 3000 EURO*

Pitch to Market and win 3000 EURO*

NUSTAR, GALACTIC EXPLORER

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT ARMED WITH SCIENCE
This photo shows the Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket with the NuSTAR spacecraft after attachment to the L-1011 carrier aircraft known as "Stargazer." Image credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB 

Written on JUNE 10, 2012 AT 7:54 AM by JTOZER
NuStar Headed To The Stars
 NASA‘s Nuclear Spectroscopic Teelscope Array, or NuSTAR, is now perched atop its Pegasus XL rocket, strapped to the plane that will carry the mission to an airborne launch. Launch is scheduled for June 13, no earlier than 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT).
The plane — the L-1011 “Stargazer” aircraft — is now at Vandenberg Air Force Base  in central California. It is scheduled to fly to Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean from June 5 to 6. About an hour before launch, the plane will lift off from the island, and drop NuSTAR and its rocket over the ocean. The rocket will then ignite, carrying NuSTAR to its final orbit around Earth’s equator.

NuSTAR will be the first space telescope to create sharp images of X-rays with high energies, similar to those used by doctors and dentists. It will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and extreme physics around collapsed stars.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va.  Launch management and government oversight for the mission is the responsibility of NASA’s Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

ESA Portal - Belgium - Nederlands - Nieuwe robotrace ISS van start

ESA Portal - Belgium - Nederlands - Nieuwe robotrace ISS van start

ESA Portal - Italy - Sforzi concentrati sul lancio delle missioni Sentinel dell'ESA

ESA Portal - Italy - Sforzi concentrati sul lancio delle missioni Sentinel dell'ESA

NASA'S SPITZER FINDS FIRST OBJECTS BURNED FURIOUSLY

FROM:  NASA
WASHINGTON -- The faint, lumpy glow from the very first objects in the
universe may have been detected with the best precision yet using
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The objects could be wildly massive
stars or voracious black holes. They are too far away to be seen
individually, but Spitzer has captured new, convincing evidence of
what appears to be the collective pattern of their infrared light.

The observations help confirm the first objects were numerous in
quantity and furiously burned cosmic fuel.

"These objects would have been tremendously bright," said Alexander
"Sasha" Kashlinsky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md., lead author of a new paper appearing in The
Astrophysical Journal. "We can't yet directly rule out mysterious
sources for this light that could be coming from our nearby universe,
but it is now becoming increasingly likely that we are catching a
glimpse of an ancient epoch. Spitzer is laying down a roadmap for
NASA's upcoming James Webb Telescope, which will tell us exactly what
and where these first objects were."

Spitzer first caught hints of this remote pattern of light, known as
the cosmic infrared background, in 2005, and again with more
precision in 2007. Now, Spitzer is in the extended phase of its
mission, during which it performs more in-depth studies on specific
patches of the sky. Kashlinsky and his colleagues used Spitzer to
look at two patches of sky for more than 400 hours each.

The team then carefully subtracted all of the known stars and galaxies
in the images. Rather than being left with a black, empty patch of
sky, they found faint patterns of light with several telltale
characteristics of the cosmic infrared background. The lumps in the
pattern observed are consistent with the way the very distant objects
are thought to be clustered together.

Kashlinsky likens the observations to looking for Fourth of July
fireworks in New York City from Los Angeles. First, you would have to
remove all the foreground lights between the two cities, as well as
the blazing lights of New York City itself. You ultimately would be
left with a fuzzy map of how the fireworks are distributed, but they
would still be too distant to make out individually.

"We can gather clues from the light of the universe's first
fireworks," said Kashlinsky. "This is teaching us that the sources,
or the "sparks," are intensely burning their nuclear fuel."

The universe formed roughly 13.7 billion years ago in a fiery,
explosive Big Bang. With time, it cooled and, by around 500 million
years later, the first stars, galaxies and black holes began to take
shape. Astronomers say some of that "first light" may have traveled
billions of years to reach the Spitzer Space Telescope. The light
would have originated at visible or even ultraviolet wavelengths and
then, because of the expansion of the universe, stretched out to the
longer, infrared wavelengths observed by Spitzer.

The new study improves on previous observations by measuring this
cosmic infrared background out to scales equivalent to two full moons
-- significantly larger than what was detected before. Imagine trying
to find a pattern in the noise in an old-fashioned television set by
looking at just a small piece of the screen. It would be hard to know
for certain if a suspected pattern was real. By observing a larger
section of the screen, you would be able to resolve both small- and
large-scale patterns, further confirming your initial suspicion.

Likewise, astronomers using Spitzer have increased the amount of the
sky examined to obtain more definitive evidence of the cosmic
infrared background. The researchers plan to explore more patches of
sky in the future to gather more clues hidden in the light of this
ancient era.

"This is one of the reason's we are building the James Webb Space
Telescope," said Glenn Wahlgren, Spitzer program scientist at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "Spitzer is giving us tantalizing clues,
but James Webb will tell us what really lies at the era where stars
first ignited."

Other authors are Richard Arendt of Goddard and the University of
Maryland in Baltimore; Matt Ashby and Giovanni Fazio of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.; and
John Mather and Harvey Moseley of Goddard. Fazio led the initial
observations of these sky fields.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., manages the
Spitzer Space Telescope mission for the agency's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the
Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology
(Caltech) in Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science
Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at
Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Un cráter de Marte muestra cómo cambió el clima del planeta

Un cráter de Marte muestra cómo cambió el clima del planeta

NASA to Host News Teleconference About NuSTAR Launch

NASA to Host News Teleconference About NuSTAR Launch

Roste potřeba vypuštění misí ESA Sentinel

Roste potřeba vypuštění misí ESA Sentinel

VENUS VERSUS THE SOL

FROM:  NASA
This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows Venus as it nears the disk of
The sun on June 5, 2012.  Venus’s 2012 transit will be the last such event until 2117. Photo:  NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory.

RIPPLES IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE EJECT BLACK HOLE FROM A GALAXY

FROM:  NASA
GIANT BLACK HOLE KICKED OUT OF HOME GALAXY
WASHINGTON -- Astronomers have found strong evidence that a massive
black hole is being ejected from its host galaxy at a speed of
several million miles per hour. New observations from NASA's Chandra
X-ray Observatory suggest that the black hole collided and merged
with another black hole and received a powerful recoil kick from
gravitational wave radiation.

"It's hard to believe that a supermassive black hole weighing millions
of times the mass of the sun could be moved at all, let alone kicked
out of a galaxy at enormous speed," said Francesca Civano of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who led the new
study. "But these new data support the idea that gravitational waves
-- ripples in the fabric of space first predicted by Albert Einstein
but never detected directly -- can exert an extremely powerful
force."

Although the ejection of a supermassive black hole from a galaxy by
recoil because more gravitational waves are being emitted in one
direction than another is likely to be rare, it nevertheless could
mean that there are many giant black holes roaming undetected out in
the vast spaces between galaxies.

"These black holes would be invisible to us," said co-author Laura
Blecha, also of CfA, "because they have consumed all of the gas
surrounding them after being thrown out of their home galaxy."

Civano and her group have been studying a system known as CID-42,
located in the middle of a galaxy about 4 billion light years away.
They had previously spotted two distinct, compact sources of optical
light in CID-42, using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

More optical data from the ground-based Magellan and Very Large
Telescopes in Chile supplied a spectrum (that is, the distribution of
optical light with energy) that suggested the two sources in CID-42
are moving apart at a speed of at least 3 million miles per hour.

Previous Chandra observations detected a bright X-ray source likely
caused by super-heated material around one or more supermassive black
holes. However, they could not distinguish whether the X-rays came
from one or both of the optical sources because Chandra was not
pointed directly at CID-42, giving an X-ray source that was less
sharp than usual.

"The previous data told us that there was something special going on,
but we couldn't tell if there were two black holes or just one," said
another co-author Martin Elvis, also of CfA. "We needed new X-ray
data to separate the sources."

When Chandra's sharp High Resolution Camera was pointed directly at
CID-42, the resulting data showed that X-rays were coming only from
one of the sources. The team thinks that when two galaxies collided,
the supermassive black holes in the center of each galaxy also
collided. The two black holes then merged to form a single black hole
that recoiled from gravitational waves produced by the collision,
which gave the newly merged black hole a sufficiently large kick for
it to eventually escape from the galaxy.

The other optical source is thought to be the bright star cluster that
was left behind. This picture is consistent with recent computer
simulations of merging black holes, which show that merged black
holes can receive powerful kicks from the emission of gravitational
waves.

There are two other possible explanations for what is happening in
CID-42. One would involve an encounter between three supermassive
black holes, resulting in the lightest one being ejected. Another
idea is that CID-42 contains two supermassive black holes spiraling
toward one another, rather than one moving quickly away.

Both of these alternate explanations would require at least one of the
supermassive black holes to be very obscured, since only one bright
X-ray source is observed. Thus the Chandra data support the idea of a
black hole recoiling because of gravitational waves.

These results will appear in the June 10 issue of The Astrophysical
Journal.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the
Chandra Program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge,
Mass., controls Chandra's science and flight operations.