Il Molise visto dallo spazio

Il Molise visto dallo spazio

STAR LIGHT GETS BENT

FROM: NASA

This artist's animation depicts an ultra-dense dead star, called a white dwarf, passing in front of a small red star. As the white dwarf crosses in front, its gravity is so great that it bends and magnifies the light of the red star.

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope was able to detect this effect, called gravitational lensing, not through direct imaging, but by measuring a strangely subtle dip in the star's brightness.

The red dwarf star is cooler and redder than our yellow sun. Its companion is a white dwarf, the burnt-out core of a star that used to be like our sun. Though the white dwarf is about the same diameter as Earth, 40 times smaller than the red dwarf, it is slightly more massive. The two objects circle around each other, but because the red dwarf is a bit less massive, it technically orbits the white dwarf.

Kepler is designed to look for planets by monitoring the brightness of stars. If planets cross in front of the stars, the starlight will periodically dip. In this case, the passing object turned out to be a white dwarf not a planet. The finding was serendipitous for astronomers because it allowed them to measure the tiny "gravitational lensing" effect of the white dwarf, a rarely observed phenomenon and a test of Einstein's theory of relativity. These data also helped to precisely measure the white dwarf's mass.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA Team Investigates Complex Chemistry at Titan

NASA Team Investigates Complex Chemistry at Titan

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science Update

FARTHEST SUPEROVA SO FAR DISCOVERED

FROM: NASA
Hubble Breaks Record in Search for Farthest Supernova

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found the farthest supernova so far of the type used to measure cosmic distances. Supernova UDS10Wil, nicknamed SN Wilson after American President Woodrow Wilson, exploded more than 10 billion years ago.

SN Wilson belongs to a special class called Type Ia supernovae. These bright beacons are prized by astronomers because they provide a consistent level of brightness that can be used to measure the expansion of space. They also yield clues to the nature of dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the rate of expansion.

"This new distance record holder opens a window into the early universe, offering important new insights into how these stars explode," said David O. Jones of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., an astronomer and lead author on the paper detailing the discovery. "We can test theories about how reliable these detonations are for understanding the evolution of the universe and its expansion."

The discovery was part of a three-year Hubble program, begun in 2010, to survey faraway Type Ia supernovae and determine whether they have changed during the 13.8 billion years since the explosive birth of the universe. Astronomers took advantage of the sharpness and versatility of Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to search for supernovae in near-infrared light and verify their distance with spectroscopy.
Leading the work is Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., and Johns Hopkins University.

Finding remote supernovae provides a powerful method to measure the universe's accelerating expansion. So far, Riess's team has uncovered more than 100 supernovae of all types and distances, looking back in time from 2.4 billion years to more than 10 billion years. Of those new discoveries, the team has identified eight Type Ia supernovae, including SN Wilson, that exploded more than 9 billion years ago.

"The Type Ia supernovae give us the most precise yardstick ever built, but we're not quite sure if it always measures exactly a yard," said team member Steve Rodney of Johns Hopkins University. "The more we understand these supernovae, the more precise our cosmic yardstick will become."

Although SN Wilson is only 4 percent more distant than the previous record holder, it pushes roughly 350 million years farther back in time. A separate team led by David Rubin of the U.S. Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California announced the previous record just three months ago.

Astronomers still have much to learn about the nature of dark energy and how Type Ia supernovae explode.
By finding Type Ia supernovae so early in the universe, astronomers can distinguish between two competing explosion models. In one model the explosion is caused by a merger between two white dwarfs. In another model, a white dwarf gradually feeds off its partner, a normal star, and explodes when it accretes too much mass.

The team's preliminary evidence shows a sharp decline in the rate of Type Ia supernova blasts between roughly 7.5 billion years ago and more than 10 billion years ago. The steep drop-off favors the merger of two white dwarfs because it predicts that most stars in the early universe are too young to become Type Ia supernovae.

"If supernovae were popcorn, the question is how long before they start popping?" Riess said. "You may have different theories about what is going on in the kernel. If you see when the first kernels popped and how often they popped, it tells you something important about the process of popping corn."

Knowing the type of trigger for Type Ia supernovae also will show how quickly the universe enriched itself with heavier elements such as iron. These exploding stars produce about half of the iron in the universe, the raw material for building planets, and life.

The team's results have been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., in Washington operates STScI.

Space Apps Challenge a Roma – Registratevi ed unitevi al movimento

Space Apps Challenge a Roma – Registratevi ed unitevi al movimento

Un agujero negro se despierta para tomar un aperitivo

Un agujero negro se despierta para tomar un aperitivo

NASA - Bluish-Black Rock with White 'Crystals' on Mars

NASA - Bluish-Black Rock with White 'Crystals' on Mars

ISON: WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

 

FROM: NASA
Comet ISON's Trek Around the Sun

Comet ISON is now approaching the inner solar system. Discovered last year, the comet remains unusually active for its distance from the sun. If current trends continue, ISON could rank as one of the brightest comets in decades when it makes its close approach to the sun in late November. This animation shows the comet's approach and departure from the inner solar system from various perspectives. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

SPACEX DRAGON DELIVERS RESEARCH BACK TO EARTH

FROM: NASA
SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft Returns Critical NASA Science to Earth

WASHINGTON -- A Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft successfully completed the company's second cargo flight to the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 26, with a 12:36 p.m. EDT splashdown in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico.

"The scientific research delivered and being returned by Dragon enables advances in every aspect of NASA's diverse space station science portfolio, including human research, biology and physical sciences," said Julie Robinson, International Space Station Program scientist. "There are more than 200 active investigations underway aboard our orbiting laboratory in space. The scientific community has eagerly awaited the return of today's Dragon to see what new insights the returned samples and investigations it carries will unveil."

Science being conducted aboard the space station includes research on physical and biological processes that cannot be done anywhere else, applied research to improve lives on Earth, and exploration research to help humans move safely beyond Earth orbit.

A boat will take the Dragon capsule to a port near Los Angeles, where it will be prepared for a return journey to SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas, for processing. Some cargo will be removed at the port in California and returned to NASA within 48 hours. This includes a freezer packed with research samples collected in the space station's unique microgravity environment. The remainder of the cargo will be returned to Texas with the capsule.

Dragon is the only space station resupply spacecraft able to return a significant amount of cargo to Earth. The spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on March 1, carrying about 1,268 pounds (575 kilograms) of supplies and investigations. It returned about 2,668 pounds (1,210 kilograms) of science samples, equipment and education activities.

Investigations included among the returned cargo could aid in food production during future long-duration space missions and enhance crop production on Earth. Others could help in the development of more efficient solar cells, detergents and semiconductor-based electronics.

Among the returned investigations was the Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures (CSLM-3) experiment, which also launched to space aboard this Dragon. CLSM-3 studies how crystals known as dendrites form as a metal alloy becomes solid. The research could help engineers develop stronger materials for use in automobile, aircraft and spacecraft parts.

Dragon also is returning several human research samples that will help scientists continue to examine how the human body reacts to long-term spaceflight. The results will have implications for future space exploration and direct benefits here on Earth.

The mission was the second of at least 12 cargo resupply trips SpaceX plans to make to the space station through 2016 under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract.

SpaceX is one of two companies to build and test new cargo spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., is the other company participating in COTS. A demonstration flight of Orbital's Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft to the station is planned for later this year.

NASA initiatives such as COTS and the agency's Commercial Crew Program are helping develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station and low Earth orbit. In addition to cargo flights, NASA's commercial space partners are making progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next few years.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop and advance these commercial spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration in the solar system.

Le premier "SpaceUp Paris" se tiendra au siège de l’ESA

Le premier "SpaceUp Paris" se tiendra au siège de l’ESA

Inhuldiging Europees coördinatiecentrum voor ruimteweerdiensten in Brussel

Inhuldiging Europees coördinatiecentrum voor ruimteweerdiensten in Brussel

Buscando un tesoro oculto en Marte

Buscando un tesoro oculto en Marte

AIRCRAFT TO SURVEY POLAR ICE

 

FROM: NASA
P-3B Starts the Day
On March 21, 2013, the P-3B waits outside the hangar at Thule Air Base with the Greenland Ice sheet in the background.

IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of the Greenland and Antarctic ice.

Data collected during IceBridge will help scientists bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) -- in orbit since 2003 -- and ICESat-2, planned for early 2016. ICESat stopped collecting science data in 2009, making IceBridge critical for ensuring a continuous series of observations.

IceBridge will use airborne instruments to map Arctic and Antarctic areas once a year. IceBridge flights are conducted in March-May over Greenland and in October-November over Antarctica. Other smaller airborne surveys around the world are also part of the IceBridge campaign.

Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/Michael Studinger

STATE DEPARTMENT REMARKS ON U.S.-INDIA SPACE COOPERATION

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S.-India Space Cooperation
Remarks
Geoffrey Pyatt
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
U.S.-India Civil Space Joint Working Group
Washington, DC
March 21, 2013

Good morning everyone. It’s an enormous privilege to welcome Administrator Bolden, Ambassador Rao, the Indian delegation, and our colleagues from the Indian Embassy, NASA, NOAA, and the State Department here in Washington to this Joint Working Group.

The United States and India are leaders in earth observation. We’re excited to see how this working group can build on joint activities using U.S. and Indian earth observation satellites to better understand earth systems and provide information to improve economies and lives.

We also should seek to increase our commercial space cooperation and create opportunities for U.S. and Indian companies.

And our very capable space science communities have much to offer each other through collaboration. India’s first Indian Mars Orbiter Mission, slated for October 2013, is an exciting opportunity for U.S.-India collaboration.

Being here at this working group this morning is a particular pleasure for me, as I’ve been working for many years on helping make this sort of cooperation possible. Thanks to visionary, bipartisan U.S. and Indian leadership, we’ve recognized how much we have to offer each other and have made great strides in the past decade in bringing our scientific and technical communities together.

The hard work on both sides in transforming our interactions with each other has allowed successes such as including U.S. instruments on India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission -- a path-finding step to show our two systems how to work together, as well as a fruitful scientific endeavor pointing out the promise of this cooperation. More recently, the removal of ISRO subordinate entities from the Entity List at the 2011 Civil Space Joint Working Group meeting and additional measures taken since have further expanded the possibilities for trade and cooperation in civil space.

In January, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes satellite export reform measures expected to expedite trade in space technology.

U.S.-India science and technology builds on a relationship that is robust and vibrant. The U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund, established in 2009 and with an annual budget of $2 to $3 million, is a landmark in our belief to work together to promote commercialization of innovative technologies.

This collaboration on innovation across a wide range of disciplines is generating new jobs for our people and helping to address many of the globe’s big challenges.

Our space cooperation has become a signature aspect of this science, technology, and innovation cooperation, highlighting both the constancy of our mutual respect and appreciation for each others’ capabilities through the decades, as well as the vast potential – dare I say universal? -- opened up by the changes in our relationship.

I congratulate all of you – the experts and practitioners from both our countries – for your participation in building closer ties in space exploration, space science, earth observation, and launch and ensuring the safety and security of outer space activities. I know your efforts this week will further the cooperation that expands our collective knowledge, brings practical benefits to our citizens, and helps us plan for our future. I wish you all the best in this meeting of the Civil Space Joint Working Group.