Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Cygnus Commercial Resupply Ship Berths to Space Station on 45th Apollo 11 Anniversary

Cygnus Commercial Resupply Ship Berths to Space Station on 45th Apollo 11 Anniversary:



The International Space Station's robotic arm, Canadarm2, grapples the Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo craft on July 16, 2014. Image Credit: NASA TV

The International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, grapples the Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo craft on July 16, 2014. Image Credit: NASA TV
Following a nearly three day journey, an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus commercial cargo freighter carrying a ton and a half of science experiments and supplies for the six person crew was successfully installed onto the International Space Station at 8:53 a.m. EDT this morning, July 16, after a flawless arrival and being firmly grasped by station astronauts deftly maneuvering the Canadarm2 robotic arm some two hours earlier.

Cygnus was captured in open space at 6:36 a.m. EDT by Commander Steve Swanson as he maneuvered the 57-foot (17-meter) Canadarm2 from a robotics workstation inside the station’s seven windowed domed Cupola, after it was delicately flown on an approach vector using GPS and LIDAR lasers to within about 32 feet (10 meters) of the massive orbiting complex.

Swanson was assisted by ESA astronaut and fellow Expedition 40 crew member Alexander Gerst working at a hardware control panel.

“Grapple confirmed” radioed Houston Mission Control as the complex soared in low orbit above Earth at 17500 MPH.

“Cygnus is captured as the ISS flew 260 miles (400 km) over northern Libya.”

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo craft approaches the ISS on July 16, 2014 prior to Canadarm2 grappling and berthing. Credit: NASA TV

Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo craft approaches the ISS on July 16, 2014 prior to Canadarm2 grappling and berthing. Credit: NASA TV
Cygnus by the book arrival at the million pound orbiting laboratory coincided with the 45th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969 on America’s first manned moon landing mission.

This mission dubbed Orbital-2, or Orb-2, marks the second of eight operational cargo resupply missions to the ISS under Orbital’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.

The supplies are critical to keep the station flying and humming with research investigations.

Up-close side view of payload fairing protecting Cygnus cargo module during launch for Orb-2 mission to ISS. Vehicle undergoes prelaunch processing at NASA Wallops during visit by Universe Today/Ken Kremer. Credit: Ken Kremer - kenkremer.com

Up-close side view of payload fairing protecting Cygnus cargo module during launch for Orb-2 mission to ISS. Vehicle undergoes prelaunch processing at NASA Wallops during visit by Universe Today/Ken Kremer. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
The supply ship thrusters all worked perfectly normal during rendezvous and docking to station with streaming gorgeous views provided by the stations new high definition HDEV cameras.

“We now have a seventh crew member. Janice Voss is now part of Expedition 40,” radioed Swanson.

“Janice devoted her life to space and accomplished many wonderful things at NASA and Orbital Sciences, including five shuttle missions. And today, Janice’s legacy in space continues. Welcome aboard the ISS, Janice.”

The Cygnus spacecraft was christened in honor of Janice Voss who flew five shuttle missions during her prolific astronaut carrier, worked for both NASA and Orbital Sciences and passed away in February 2012.

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo craft approaches the ISS on July 16, 2014 prior to Canadarm2 grappling and berthing. Credit: NASA TV

Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo craft approaches the ISS on July 16, 2014 prior to Canadarm2 grappling and berthing. Credit: NASA TV
A robotics officer at Mission Control in Houston then remotely commanded the arm to move Cygnus into place for its berthing at the Earth-facing port on the Harmony module.

Once Cygnus was in place at the ready to latch (RTF) position, NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman monitored the Common Berthing Mechanism operations and initiated the first and second stage capture of the cargo ship to insure the craft was firmly joined.

The hard mate was completed at 8:53 a.m. EDT as the complex was flying about 260 miles over the east coast of Australia. 16 bolts were driven to firmly hold Cygnus in place to the station.

“Cygnus is now bolted to the ISS while flying 260 miles about the continent of Australia,” confirmed Houston Mission Control.

Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft blasts off on July 13 2014 from Launch Pad 0A at NASA Wallops Flight Facility , VA, on the Orb-2 mission and loaded with over 3000 pounds of science experiments and supplies for the crew aboard the International Space Station. Credit: Ken Kremer - kenkremer.com

Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft blasts off on July 13, 2014 from Launch Pad 0A at NASA Wallops Flight Facility , VA, on the Orb-2 mission and loaded with over 3000 pounds of science experiments and supplies for the crew aboard the International Space Station. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
Cygnus roared to orbit during a spectacular blastoff on July 13 atop an Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket on the Orb-2 mission at 12:52 p.m. (EDT) from the beachside Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

The US/Italian built pressurized Cygnus cargo freighter delivered 1,657 kg (3653 lbs) of cargo to the ISS Expedition 40 crew including over 700 pounds (300 kg) of science experiments and instruments, crew supplies, food, water, computer equipment, spacewalk tools and student research experiments.

Student Space Flight teams at NASA Wallops. Science experiments from these students representing 15 middle and high schools across America were selected to fly aboard the Orbital Sciences Cygnus Orb-2 spacecraft which launched to the ISS from NASA Wallops, VA, on July 13, 2014, as part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). Credit: Ken Kremer - kenkremer.com

Student Space Flight teams at NASA Wallops

Science experiments from these students representing 15 middle and high schools across America were selected to fly aboard the Orbital Sciences Cygnus Orb-2 spacecraft which launched to the ISS from NASA Wallops, VA, on July 13, 2014, as part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
The crew will begin work today to remove the Centerline Berthing Camera System that provided the teams with a view of berthing operations through the hatch window.

Swanson will then pressurize and outfit the vestibule area between Harmony and Cygnus. After conducting leak checks they will open the hatch to Cygnus either later today or tomorrow and begin the unloading process, including retrieving a stash of highly desired fresh food.

The wide ranging science cargo and experiments includes a flock of 28 Earth imaging nanosatellites and deployers, student science experiments and small cubesat prototypes that may one day fly to Mars.

“Every flight is critical,” said Frank Culbertson, Orbital’s executive vice president of the advanced programs group, at a post launch briefing at NASA Wallops. Culbertson was a NASA shuttle commander and also flew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

“We carry a variety of types of cargo on-board, which includes food and basic supplies for the crew, and also the research.”

The cargo mission was crucial since the crew supply margin would have turned uncomfortably narrow by the Fall of 2014.

Cygnus will remain attached to the station approximately 30 days until August 15.

For the destructive and fiery return to Earth, the crew will load Cygnus with approximately 1,340 kg (2950 lbs) of trash for disposal upon atmospheric reentry over the Pacific Ocean approximately five days later after undocking.

The Orb-2 launch was postponed about a month from June 9 to conduct a thorough re-inspection of the two Russian built and US modified Aerojet AJ26 engines that power the rocket’s first stage after a test failure of a different engine on May 22 at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi resulted in extensive damage.

The July 13 liftoff marked the fourth successful launch of the 132 foot tall Antares in the past 15 months, Culbertson noted.

The first Antares was launched from NASA Wallops in April 2013. And the Orb-2 mission also marks the third deployment of Cygnus in less than a year.

Orbital Sciences was awarded a $1.9 Billion supply contract by NASA to deliver 20,000 kilograms (44,000 pounds) of research experiments, crew provisions, spare parts and hardware for 8 flights to the ISS through 2016 under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) initiative.

Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing ISS, OCO-2, GPM, Curiosity, Opportunity, Orion, SpaceX, Boeing, Orbital Sciences, MAVEN, MOM, Mars and more Earth & Planetary science and human spaceflight news.



Tagged as:
alexander gerst,
Antares rocket,
apollo 11 mission,
Canadarm2,
commercial cargo,
commercial resupply services (CRS),
CRS,
Cygnus cargo vessel,
International Space Station (ISS),
ISS,
NASA,
Orb-2,
Orbital Sciences Corporation,
reid wiseman,
steve swanson
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:36 PM 0 comments

DARPA’s Experimental Space Plane XS-1 Starts Development

DARPA’s Experimental Space Plane XS-1 Starts Development:



Concept images for DARPA’s Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program. Credit: DARPA.

Concept images for DARPA’s Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program. Credit: DARPA.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking to develop a fully-reusable unmanned spaceplane, and they are now ready to start working their proposed Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1). The agency has put together a “special forces” of sorts in the space industry, awarding prime contracts for the first phase of development to a combination of six companies. These six are a combination of “old” and “new” space companies and are:



The Boeing Company (working with Blue Origin, LLC)

Masten Space Systems (working with XCOR Aerospace)

Northrop Grumman Corporation (working with Virgin Galactic)

“We chose performers who could prudently integrate existing and up-and-coming technologies and operations, while making XS-1 as reliable, easy-to-use and cost-effective as possible,” Jess Sponable, DARPA program manager. “We’re eager to see how their initial designs envision making spaceflight commonplace—with all the potential military, civilian and commercial benefits that capability would provide.”



Each commercial entity will be able to outline their vision of the XS-1, but DARPA wants the the spaceplane to provide aircraft-like access to space for deploying small satellites to orbit and it its development, they’d like to create technology for next-generation hypersonic vehicles, — and do it more affordably.

They envision that a reusable first stage would fly to hypersonic speeds at a suborbital altitude. Then, one or more expendable upper stages would separate and deploy a satellite into low Earth orbit (LEO). The reusable first stage would then return to earth, land and be prepared for the next flight.

Key to the development, DARPA says, are modular components, durable thermal protection systems and automatic launch, flight and recovery systems that should significantly reduce logistical needs, enabling rapid turnaround between flights.

DARPA’s key technical goals for the XS-1 include flying 10 times in 10 days, flying to Mach 10+ at least once and launching a representative small payload to orbit. The program also seeks to reduce the cost of access to space for 3,000- to 5,000-pound payloads to less than $5 million per flight.

Source: DARPA

Tagged as:
DARPA,
XS-1
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:15 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Into The Black? Maybe Radio Bursts Are From Outside The Galaxy After All, Study Says

Into The Black? Maybe Radio Bursts Are From Outside The Galaxy After All, Study Says:



Image of the sky where the radio burst FRB 121102 was found, in the constellation Auriga. You can see its location with a green circle. At left is supernova remnant S147 and at right, a star formation area called IC 410. Credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (DeepSkyColors.com)

Image of the sky where the radio burst FRB 121102 was found, in the constellation Auriga. You can see its location with a green circle. At left is supernova remnant S147 and at right, a star formation area called IC 410. Credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (DeepSkyColors.com)
Where are these radio bursts coming from? Astronomers have heard these signals from the sky several times, but always with the same telescope (Parkes Observatory in Australia). There was debate about whether these were coming from inside or outside the galaxy, or even from Earth itself (given only the one observatory was detecting them.)

A new study with a different telescope, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, concludes that the bursts are from outside the galaxy. This is the first time one of these bursts have been found in the northern hemisphere of the sky.

“Our result is important because it eliminates any doubt that these radio bursts are truly of cosmic origin,” stated Victoria Kaspi, an astrophysics researcher at McGill University who participated in the research. “The radio waves show every sign of having come from far outside our galaxy – a really exciting prospect.”

Fast radio bursts are a flurry of radio waves that last a few thousandths of a second, and at any given minute there are only seven of these in the sky on average, according to the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. Their cause is unknown. They could be anything from black holes, to neutron stars coming together, to the magnetic field of pulsars (a type of neutron star) flaring up — or something else.

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Credit: NAIC - Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Credit: NAIC – Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF
The pulse was found Nov. 2, 2012 in the constellation Auriga. Astronomers believe it is from quite far away from measuring its plasma dispersion, or the slowdown of radio waves as they crash into interstellar electrons. This particular source had triple the maximum dispersion than what would be found inside the galaxy, astronomers stated.

“The brightness and duration of this event, and the inferred rate at which these bursts occur, are all consistent with the properties of the bursts previously detected by the Parkes telescope in Australia,” stated Laura Spitler, who led the research. (She was at Cornell University when the study began, but is now at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany.)

But other research has been back-and-forth on whether these are actually extragalactic bursts. One 2013 paper supposed it could be colliding neutron stars from far away, while another said it could instead be nearby stars flaring up.

The research was published in the Astrophysical Journal and is also available in preprint version on Arxiv.

Source: McGill University and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy

Tagged as:
arecibo observatory,
fast radio burst,
radio burst
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:28 PM 0 comments

Your Weekend ‘SuperMoon’ Photos from Around the World

Your Weekend ‘SuperMoon’ Photos from Around the World:



The big proxigean full Moon rises over Daganzo de Arriba, near Madrid, Spain on July 12, 2014. Credit and copyright: Alvaro Ibañez Perez.

The big proxigean full Moon rises over Daganzo de Arriba, near Madrid, Spain on July 12, 2014. Credit and copyright: Alvaro Ibañez Perez.
Did you hear there was something special about the full Moon this weekend… that it would be, well… really super? I heard about it on every newscast I watched or listened to. Even xkcd got into the ‘Supermoon’ craze. The July “Buck” Moon was the first of three Supermoons on tap for 2014, where the Moon is at its perigee, the closest point to Earth in its orbit, close to the time when it is “officially” full.

If you didn’t hear about it, (or weren’t paying attention) you may not have noticed anything different, as its not radically different from a regular full Moon. Read all the detail of what a Supermoon is here. But as Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory, said on NASA’s website, “However, if it gets people out and looking at the night sky and maybe hooks them into astronomy, then it’s a good thing,”

And people were out with their cameras, too! Here’s a great collection of full Moon images from this weekend, as seen in our Flickr Gallery.

An over-exposed beauty showing the full Moon rising through the clouds on July 12, 2014 near Bromsgrove, England, United Kingdom. Credit and copyright: Sarah and Simon Fisher.

An over-exposed beauty showing the full Moon rising through the clouds on July 12, 2014 near Bromsgrove, England, United Kingdom. Credit and copyright: Sarah and Simon Fisher.
The rising "super moon" of July 12, 2014, rising above a canola field in southern Alberta, Canada. Credit and copyright: Alan Dyer/Amazing Sky Photography.

The rising “super moon” of July 12, 2014, rising above a canola field in southern Alberta, Canada. Credit and copyright: Alan Dyer/Amazing Sky Photography.
A Mississippi Super Moonscape on July 12, 2014. Credit and Copyright: Veronica M Photography.

A Mississippi Super Moonscape on July 12, 2014. Credit and Copyright: Veronica M Photography.
The 'Supermoon' setting on the morning of July 13, 2014 at around 6 am local time near Kapiolani, Honolulu, Hawaii. Credit and copyright: Henry Weiland.

The ‘Supermoon’ setting on the morning of July 13, 2014 at around 6 am local time near Kapiolani, Honolulu, Hawaii. Credit and copyright: Henry Weiland.
A 3-exoposure of the full Moon on July 12, 2014, taken near Cap-Rouge, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Credit and copyright: Denis Marquis.

A 3-exoposure of the full Moon on July 12, 2014, taken near Cap-Rouge, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Credit and copyright: Denis Marquis.
The July 12, 2014 Supermoon or perigee full moon shares the night sky with fireworks from a display in Chester, New York. Credit and copyright: Tom Bushey.

The July 12, 2014 Supermoon or perigee full moon shares the night sky with fireworks from a display in Chester, New York. Credit and copyright: Tom Bushey.
Moonrise with a flyby. July 13, 2014 from the UK. Credit and copyright: SculptorLil on Flickr.

Moonrise with a flyby. July 13, 2014 from the UK. Credit and copyright: SculptorLil on Flickr.
The rising waning Moon on July 13, 2014, from near Bedfordshire, UK. Credit and copyright: DawnSunrise on Flickr.

The rising waning Moon on July 13, 2014, from near Bedfordshire, UK. Credit and copyright: DawnSunrise on Flickr.
Thanks to everyone who submitted images! Check out even more great images in Universe Today’s Flickr Group!



Be advised that this month’s big full Moon was not the closest of the year. The closest Full Moon of 2014 occurs next month on August 10th at 18:11 Universal Time (UT) or 1:44 PM EDT. On that date, the Moon reaches perigee or its closest approach to the Earth at 356,896 kilometres distant at 17:44, less than an hour from Full.

Tagged as:
Moon,
Supermoon,
supermoon 2014
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:27 PM 0 comments

SpaceX Launches Six Commercial Satellites on Falcon 9; Landing Test Ends in “Kaboom”

SpaceX Launches Six Commercial Satellites on Falcon 9; Landing Test Ends in “Kaboom”:





SpaceX successfully launched six ORBCOMM advanced telecommunications satellites into orbit on Monday, July 14, to significantly upgrade the speed and capacity of their existing data relay network. The launch had been delayed or scrubbed several times since the original launch date in May due to varying problems from payload integration issues, weather conditions and issues with the Falcon 9 rocket. But the launch went off without a hitch today and ORBCOMM reports that all six satellites have been successfully deployed in orbit.

SpaceX also used this launch opportunity to try and test the reusability of the Falcon 9?s first stage and its landing system while splashing down in the ocean. While SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported that the rocket booster reentry, landing burn and leg deployment worked well, the hull of the first stage “lost integrity right after splashdown (aka kaboom),” Musk tweeted. “Detailed review of rocket telemetry needed to tell if due to initial splashdown or subsequent tip over and body slam.”



Screenshot from the SpaceX webcast of the Falcon 9 launch on July 14, 2013.

Screenshot from the SpaceX webcast of the Falcon 9 launch on July 14, 2013.


SpaceX wanted to test the “flyback” ability to the rocket, slowing down the descent of the rocket with thrusters and deploying the landing legs for future launches so the first stage can be re-used. These tests have the booster “landing” in the ocean. The previous test of the landing system was successful, but the choppy seas destroyed the stage and prevented recovery. Today’s “kaboom” makes recovery of even pieces of this booster unlikely.






As far as the ORBCOMM satellites, the six satellites launched today are the first part of what the company hopes will be a 17-satellite constellation. They hope to have all 17 satellites in orbit by the end of the 2014.

Tagged as:
Falcon 9,
launches,
ORBCOMM,
SpaceX
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:26 PM 0 comments

The Search for Alien Life Could Get A Boost From NASA’s Next-Generation Rocket

The Search for Alien Life Could Get A Boost From NASA’s Next-Generation Rocket:



Artist's conception of NASA's Space Launch System. Credit: NASA

Artist’s conception of NASA’s Space Launch System. Credit: NASA
In three years, NASA is planning to light the fuse on a huge rocket designed to bring humans further out into the solar system.

We usually talk about SLS here in the context of the astronauts it will carry inside the Orion spacecraft, which will have its own test flight later in 2014. But today, NASA advertised a possible other use for the rocket: trying to find life beyond Earth.

At a symposium in Washington on the search for life, NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld said SLS could serve two major functions: launching bigger telescopes, and sending a mission on an express route to Jupiter’s route Europa.

The James Webb Space Telescope, with a mirror of 6.5 meters (21 feet), will in part search for exoplanets after its launch in 2018. Next-generation telescopes of 10 to 20 meters (33 to 66 feet) could pick out more, if SLS could bring them up into space.

“This will be a multi-generational search,” said Sara Seager, a planetary scientist and physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She added that the big challenge is trying to distinguish a planet like Earth from the light of its parent star; the difference between the two is a magnitude of 10 billion. “Our Earth is actually extremely hard to find,” she said.

Much like our solar system, Kepler-62 is home to two habitable zone worlds. The small shining object seen to the right of Kepler-62f is Kepler-62e. Orbiting on the inner edge of the habitable zone, Kepler-62e is roughly 60 percent larger than Earth. Image credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech.

Much like our solar system, Kepler-62 is home to two habitable zone worlds. The small shining object seen to the right of Kepler-62f is Kepler-62e. Orbiting on the inner edge of the habitable zone, Kepler-62e is roughly 60 percent larger than Earth. Image credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech.
While the symposium was not talking much about life in the solar system, Europa is considered one of the top candidates due to the presence of a possible subsurface ocean beneath its ice. NASA is now seeking ideas for a mission to this moon, following news that water plumes were spotted spewing from the moon’s icy south pole. A mission to Europa would take seven years with the technology currently in NASA’s hands, but the SLS would be powerful enough to speed up the trip to only three years, Grunsfeld said.

And that’s not all that SLS could do. If it does bring astronauts deeper in space as NASA hopes it will, this opens up a range of destinations for them to go to. Usually NASA talks about this in terms of its human asteroid mission, an idea it has been working on and pitching for the past year to a skeptical, budget-conscious Congress.

But in passing, John Mather (NASA’s senior project scientist for Webb) said it’s possible astronauts could be sent to maintain the telescope. Webb is supposed to be parked in a Lagrange point (gravitationally stable location) in the exact opposite direction of the sun, almost a million miles away. It’s a big contrast to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was conveniently parked in low Earth orbit for astronauts to fix every so often with the space shuttle.

An Artist's Conception of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: ESA.

An Artist’s Conception of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: ESA.
While NASA works on the funding and design for larger telescope mirrors, Webb is one of the two new space telescopes it is focusing on in the search for life. Webb’s infrared eyes will be able to peer at solar systems being born, once it is launched in 2018. Complementary to that will be the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which will fly in 2017 and examine planets that pass in front of their parent stars to find elements in their atmospheres.

The usual cautions apply when talking about this article: NASA is talking about several missions under development, and it is unclear yet what the success of SLS or any of these will be until they are battle-tested in space.

But what this discussion does show is the agency is trying to find many purposes for its next-generation rocket, and working to align it to astrophysics goals as well as its desire to send humans further out in the solar system.

Tagged as:
James Webb Space Telescope,
jwst,
life beyond earth,
SLS,
space launch system,
TESS,
transiting exoplanet survey satellite
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:26 PM 0 comments

A Stunning Image of our Home Star

A Stunning Image of our Home Star:



Sunspots and a detached prominence photographed on July 11, 2014. (© Alan Friedman, All Rights Reserved.)

Sunspots and a detached prominence photographed on July 11, 2014. (© Alan Friedman, All Rights Reserved.)
Active regions 2108 and 2109 are now passing around the limb of the Sun, but not before solar photography specialist Alan Friedman grabbed a few pictures of them on Friday!   The image above, captured by Alan from his location in Buffalo, NY, shows the two large sunspots nestled in a forest of solar spicules while a large detached prominence hovers several Earth-diameters inside the corona. A beautiful snapshot of our home star!

Captured in hydrogen-alpha wavelengths, the image above has been colored by Alan, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, and inverted from the original. The sunspots and standing prominence are cooler in Ha than the surrounding chromosphere and corona, and so actually photograph darker.

A view of sunspot 2109 in visible light can be seen below:

AR2109 photographed by Alan Friedman on July 11, 2014.

AR2109 photographed by Alan Friedman on July 11, 2014.
Sunspots are the result of magnetic fields rising up from deep within the Sun, preventing convection from occurring in large areas on the Sun’s surface and thereby creating relatively cooler regions we see as dark spots. They can often be many times the size of Earth and can be sources of powerful solar flares.



Tagged as:
Alan Friedman,
astrophotography,
hydrogen alpha,
prominence,
Star,
sun,
sunspot
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:25 PM 0 comments

Video: A Bright Orange Moon Watches Bastille Day Fireworks from Above

Video: A Bright Orange Moon Watches Bastille Day Fireworks from Above:





Who had the best view of the Bastille Day fireworks last night? From this lovely video from astrophotographer Thierry Legault, it appears the low-hanging, bright waning Moon may have had the preferred vantage point to watch the fine pyrotechnics from the Eiffel Tower. But Thierry had a pretty good view, as well! He told us he took this video from a hill a few kilometers west of Eiffel Tower.

Enjoy! and thanks to Thierry for sharing.



Screenshot from Thierry Legault's video of the Bastille Day fireworks from the Eiffel Tower, July 14, 2014.

Screenshot from Thierry Legault’s video of the Bastille Day fireworks from the Eiffel Tower, July 14, 2014.
Tagged as:
Bastille Day,
Fireworks,
Moon,
Supermoon
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:25 PM 0 comments

Rosetta’s Lander Facing An Unexpected Comet Shape: A Double Nucleus

Rosetta’s Lander Facing An Unexpected Comet Shape: A Double Nucleus:





It appears that Rosetta’s comet has a double nucleus. A video from the spacecraft speeding towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko shows what looks two lobes touching each other, which could send a small wrinkle in the plans to land Philae on the comet’s surface later this year.

Citing a French space agency webpage that is now unavailable, the Planetary Society’s Emily Lakdawalla said she can hardly wait to see more views of the comet.

“The nucleus of the comet is clearly a contact binary — two smaller (and unequally sized object) in close contact,” she wrote, adding the nucleus measures 4 kilometers by 3.5 kilometers (2.5 miles by 2.17 miles).

“Philippe Lamy is quoted as estimating that the two components would have come into contact at a relative speed of about 3 meters per second in order to stick together in this way … This unusual shape could present a navigational challenge for the Philae lander team.

“The CNES release quotes Philae navigator Eric Jurado,” she continued, “as saying that ‘navigation around such a body should not be much more complex than around a nucleus of irregular spherical type, but landing the Philae probe [scheduled for November 11], however, could be more difficult, as this form restricts potential landing zones.’ ”

A view from the Rosetta spacecraft on July 11, 2014 showing what appears to be double lobes in the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Screenshot from YouTube. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

A view from the Rosetta spacecraft on July 11, 2014 showing what appears to be double lobes in the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Screenshot from YouTube. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Only a handful of spacecraft have ever got up close to a comet (see the picture gallery of the others here). While a contact binary may be a surprise to scientists, the irregular shape spotted from afar was something that we’ve seen before in other comets.

“Irregular, elongated, and structured shapes are not uncommon for small bodies such as asteroids and comets,” stated the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in a release last week. “Of the five cometary nuclei that have been visited by spacecraft in close flybys so far, all are far from spherical.”

Makes us all eager to see what Rosetta finds out as it draws closer to the comet, for its rendezvous in August. The spacecraft will remain with the comet as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko makes its closest approach to the Sun in 2015.

Some astronomers are already having fun imagining the possibilities of the new shape, such as the University of California, Berkeley’s Alex Parker.

Tagged as:
Comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:24 PM 0 comments

Targeting Icy Europa: NASA Seeks Ideas To Explore Potentially Habitable Moon

Targeting Icy Europa: NASA Seeks Ideas To Explore Potentially Habitable Moon:



A "colorized" image of Europa from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, whose mission ended in 2003. The whiteish areas are believed to be pure water ice. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

A “colorized” image of Europa from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, whose mission ended in 2003. The whiteish areas are believed to be pure water ice. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
What lies beneath the cracked, thick ice on the surface of Europa? NASA is hoping to fly a mission to the Jupiter moon in the coming years to see if it is indeed a promising site for life. If this concept is approved in the budget, think of the mission as a recce: NASA will either orbit the moon, or do several flybys on it, to scout the surface for science and potential landing sites.

NASA just announced its desire to have science instruments proposed for the mission. Of the submitted list, 20 proposals will be selected in a year’s time, when selectees will have $25 million to do a more advanced concept study.

“The possibility of life on Europa is a motivating force for scientists and engineers around the world,” stated John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate. “This solicitation will select instruments which may provide a big leap in our search to answer the question: are we alone in the universe?”

The Europa mission is not a guarantee, and it’s unclear just how much money will be allocated to it in the long run. (NASA has requested $15 million in fiscal 2015 for the mission). The mission is also subject to budgetary approvals from Congress. If it passes all obstacles, it would fly sometime in the 2020s, according to information released with the budget earlier this year.

Reprocessed Galileo image of Europa's frozen surface by Ted Stryk (NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk)

Reprocessed Galileo image of Europa’s frozen surface by Ted Stryk (NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk)
In April, NASA sent out a request for information to interested potential participants on the mission itself, which it plans to cost less than $1 billion (excluding launch costs).

“Recent NASA studies have focused on an orbiter mission concept and a multiple flyby mission concept as the most compelling and feasible,” the agency stated.

Besides its desire to look for landing sites, NASA said the instruments should also be targeted to meet the National Resource Council’s (NRC) Planetary Decadal Survey’s desires for science on Europa. In NASA’s words, these are what those objectives are:

Rendering showing the location and size of water vapor plumes coming from Europa's south pole. Credit: NASA/ESA/L. Roth/SWRI/University of Cologne

Rendering showing the location and size of water vapor plumes coming from Europa’s south pole. Credit: NASA/ESA/L. Roth/SWRI/University of Cologne
  • Characterize the extent of the ocean and its relation to the deeper interior;
  • Characterize the ice shell and any subsurface water, including their heterogeneity, and the nature of surface-ice-ocean exchange;
  • Determine global surface, compositions and chemistry, especially as related to habitability;
  • Understand the formation of surface features, including sites of recent or current activity, identify and characterize candidate sites for future detailed exploration;
  • Understand Europa’s space environment and interaction with the magnetosphere.
Any instruments must meet NASA’s landing scout goal or the NRC goals, the agency said. The instruments also must be highly protected against the harsh radiation in the area, and also meet planetary protection requirements to ensure no extraterrestrial life is contaminated with our own.

Just yesterday (July 15), a NASA symposium on extraterrestrial life included a musing that the agency’s unflown next-generation rocket could send a Europa mission there in three years instead of the expected seven. That said, the Space Launch System is not tested in space and it is unclear what the budgetary environment for the rocket would be in the coming years.

You can view the entire solicitation on this page. Solicitations are due Oct. 17.

Source: NASA

Tagged as:
europa mission,
life beyond earth
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:24 PM 0 comments

Look Out, Pluto! Spacecraft Will Fly By In Less Than One Year

Look Out, Pluto! Spacecraft Will Fly By In Less Than One Year:



A NASA "poster" marking the one year to Pluto encounter by New Horizons. Credit: NASA

A NASA “poster” marking the one year to Pluto encounter by New Horizons. Credit: NASA
Countdown! Just under one year from now, the New Horizons will finally reach its mission goal after sailing through the solar system for the better part of a decade. It will fly by the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons on July 14, 2015, showing us the surface of these distant bodies for the very first time.

“On a historic voyage that has already taken it over the storms and around the moons of Jupiter, New Horizons will shed light on new kinds of worlds on the outskirts of the solar system,” NASA stated.

“Pluto gets closer by the day, and New Horizons continues into rare territory, as just the fifth probe to traverse interplanetary space so far from the sun. And the first ever to travel to Pluto.”

It’ll be a treat to see what the dwarf planet looks like after so many tantalizing glimpses by the Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft itself (see this story from last week for some views.) Happy sailing!

Pluto's surface as viewed from the Hubble Space Telescope in several pictures taken in 2002 and 2003. Though the telescope is a powerful tool, the dwarf planet is so small that it is difficult to resolve its surface. Astronomers noted a bright spot (180 degrees) with an unusual abundance of carbon monoxide frost. Credit: NASA

Pluto’s surface as viewed from the Hubble Space Telescope in several pictures taken in 2002 and 2003. Though the telescope is a powerful tool, the dwarf planet is so small that it is difficult to resolve its surface. Astronomers noted a bright spot (180 degrees) with an unusual abundance of carbon monoxide frost. Credit: NASA
Tagged as:
New Horizons
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:23 PM 0 comments

Rock On! Curiosity Spots a Heavy Metal Meteorite

Rock On! Curiosity Spots a Heavy Metal Meteorite:



2-meter wide iron meteorite dubbed "Lebanon," as imaged by Curiosity's ChemCam and Mastcam on May 25, 2014

2-meter wide iron meteorite dubbed “Lebanon,” as imaged by Curiosity’s ChemCam and Mastcam on May 25, 2014
Talk about heavy metal! This shiny, lumpy rock spotted by NASA’s Curiosity rover is likely made mostly of iron — and came from outer space! It’s an iron meteorite, similar to ones found in years past by Curiosity’s forerunners Spirit and Opportunity, but is considerably larger than any of the ones the MER rovers came across… in fact, at 2 meters (6.5 feet) wide this may very well be the biggest meteorite ever discovered on Mars!

Click the image for a supermetallicious high-resolution version from JPL’s Planetary Photojournal.



The picture above was made by combining high-resolution circular images (outlined in white) acquired with the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) of Curiosity’s ChemCam instrument with color and context from the rover’s Mastcam. The images were taken on mission Sol 640 (May 25, 2014).

Dubbed “Lebanon,” the large meteorite has a smaller fragment lying alongside it, named “Lebanon B.”

While iron meteorites are relatively common on Earth, on Mars they are the most common types of meteorites that have been discovered — if just for the sheer fact that they are highly resistant to erosion.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/LPGNantes/CNRS/IAS/MSSS

Source: NASA

Tagged as:
ChemCam,
Curiosity,
JPL,
Lebanon,
Mars,
Mastcam,
meteorite
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 3:22 PM 0 comments

Friday, July 11, 2014

Blast! Sun Pops Off A Moderate Solar Flare. Could Others Follow Soon?

Blast! Sun Pops Off A Moderate Solar Flare. Could Others Follow Soon?:





With a watchful NASA spacecraft capturing its moves, the Sun sent off a “mid-level” solar flare on Tuesday (July 8) that you can watch (over and over again) in the video above. The Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the explosion around 12:20 p.m. EDT (4:20 p.m. UTC), which led into a coronal mass ejection that sent a surge of solar material into space.

Solar flares can be disruptive to Earth communications and also cause auroras in the atmosphere. In this case, the M6 solar flare created “short-lived impacts to high frequency radio communications on the sunlit side of Earth … as a result,” wrote the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a forecast July 8.

In this case, however, the coronal mass ejection (seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory) is not expected to hit Earth. But with the Sun around its maximum of solar activity in the 11-year cycle, other eruptions could head into space in the coming days. M is considered a moderate flare and X the strongest kind.

“Solar activity is low, but the quiet is unlikely to persist,” wrote SpaceWeather.com in an update published today (July 10). “There are three sunspots with unstable magnetic fields capable of strong eruptions: AR2108, AR2109, AR2113. NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of M-flares and 15% chance of X-flares on July 10th.”

This flare caused a surge in shortwave activity that you can hear in this audio file, recorded by New Mexico amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft. “Radio bursts such as these are sparked by shock waves moving through the sun’s atmosphere,” SpaceWeather added. “Set in motion by flares, these shock waves excite plasma instabilitties that emit static-y radio waves.”

A moderate solar flare erupts on the sun July 8, 2014 in this image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The image uses a wavelength of light (131 Angstroms) that emphasizes the hot material of the sun. Credit: NASA/SDO

A moderate solar flare erupts on the sun July 8, 2014 in this image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The image uses a wavelength of light (131 Angstroms) that emphasizes the hot material of the sun. Credit: NASA/SDO
Tagged as:
coronal mass ejection,
solar flare
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:50 PM 0 comments

Rosetta’s Comet Looks Like A Kidney Flying Through Space

Rosetta’s Comet Looks Like A Kidney Flying Through Space:



The Rosetta spacecraft captured these pictures of its destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, from 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers) away on July 4, 2014. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The Rosetta spacecraft captured these pictures of its destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, from 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers) away on July 4, 2014. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Up for a little abstract art, anyone? The latest images of the nucleus of Rosetta’s comet makes it look like the celestial object is a kidney. Or perhaps a bean. But regardless of what you “see” in the shape, scientists agree that the comet’s heart certainly isn’t round.

It’s a tantalizing view as the spacecraft speeds towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for an August rendezvous. These pictures were taken just a few days ago from 23,000 miles (37,000 kilometers) away, and the spacecraft is drawing noticeably nearer every week. What will a closer view reveal?

“Irregular, elongated, and structured shapes are not uncommon for small bodies such as asteroids and comets,” stated the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in a release. “Of the five cometary nuclei that have been visited by spacecraft in close flybys so far, all are far from spherical.”

To illustrate, we’ve put some examples below of the other comets that have had close-up views:

Jets can be seen streaming out of the nucleus, or main body, of comet Hartley 2 in this image from NASA's EPOXI mission. The nucleus is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long and .4 kilometers (.25 miles) across at the narrow "neck." Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD

Jets can be seen streaming out of the nucleus, or main body, of comet Hartley 2 in this image from NASA’s EPOXI mission. The nucleus is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long and .4 kilometers (.25 miles) across at the narrow “neck.” Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Halley's Comet, as seen by the European Giotto probe. Credit: Halley Multicolor Camera Team, Giotto Project, ESA

Halley’s Comet, as seen by the European Giotto probe. Credit: Halley Multicolor Camera Team, Giotto Project, ESA
NASA's Stardust-NExT mission took this image of comet Tempel 1 at 8:39 p.m. PST (11:39 p.m. EST) on Feb 14, 2011. The comet was first visited by NASA's Deep Impact mission in 2005. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell. Image brightened and enhanced to show additional detail.

NASA’s Stardust-NExT mission took this image of comet Tempel 1 at 8:39 p.m. PST (11:39 p.m. EST) on Feb 14, 2011. The comet was first visited by NASA’s Deep Impact mission in 2005. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell. Image brightened and enhanced to show additional detail.
comet Borrelly's 5-mile (8-kilometer) long nucleus taken from more than 2,000 miles (3,400 kilometers) away. Picture from NASA's Deep Space 1 probe. Credit: NASA/JPL

Comet Borrelly’s 5-mile (8-kilometer) long nucleus taken from more than 2,000 miles (3,400 kilometers) away. Picture from NASA’s Deep Space 1 probe. Credit: NASA/JPL
The nucleus of Comet 81P/Wild taken by NASA's Stardust probe in 2004. Credit: NASA

The nucleus of Comet 81P/Wild taken by NASA’s Stardust probe in 2004. Credit: NASA
The new pictures from Rosetta come shortly after the spacecraft caught its comet tumbling through space. It’s not really known for sure what the nucleus will look like, although several artists have lent their ideas over the years. Luckily, the European Space Agency probe will give us a very close-up view of the comet, as it plans to deploy a lander called Philae to land on the comet’s surface in November.

Both Rosetta and Philae successfully awoke from hibernation earlier this year and all systems appear to be working well so far as they get ready for the close-up encounter with the comet. The spacecraft have been flying through space for about a decade, and will remain with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it sweeps to its closest approach to the sun in 2015, between the orbits of Earth and Mars.

Tagged as:
Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko,
comet 81p/wild,
comet borrelly,
Comet Hartley 2,
Comet Tempel 1,
halley's comet,
philae,
rosetta
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:50 PM 0 comments

Black Sky: Virgin’s Spaceship Carrier Takes To Air For 150th Time

Black Sky: Virgin’s Spaceship Carrier Takes To Air For 150th Time:



WhiteKnightTwo during a test flight in 2014, the 150th it has taken so far. Credit: Virgin Galactic

WhiteKnightTwo during a test flight in 2014, the 150th it has taken so far. Credit: Virgin Galactic
As Virgin Galactic gets ready for its first space test of SpaceShipTwo — a feat widely expected to take place later this year — the private company recently posted a new photo of the carrier aircraft that will bring the spaceship to altitude for its kick to orbit. Called WhiteKnightTwo, the aircraft completed its 150th flight.

The post comes not too long after Virgin and others commemorated the 10th anniversary of SpaceShipOne’s first flight into space. The company subsequently sent the spacecraft there again, winning the Ansari X-Prize.

The Scaled Composites spaceship sparked an agreement with Virgin Galactic to start what the companies call the world’s first spaceliner, Virgin Galactic. The first test flight has been pushed back several years during development. Virgin founder Richard Branson has said he is planning to be on the first flight, along with some of his family.

Tagged as:
Richard Branson,
SpaceShipOne,
spaceshiptwo,
WhiteKnightTwo
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:50 PM 0 comments

Merging Giant Galaxies Sport ‘Blue Bling’ in New Hubble Pic

Merging Giant Galaxies Sport ‘Blue Bling’ in New Hubble Pic:



In this new Hubble image shows two galaxies (yellow, center) from the cluster SDSS J1531+3414 have been found to be merging into one and a "chain" of young stellar super-clusters are seen winding around the galaxies's nuclei. The galaxies are surrounded by an egg-shaped blue ring caused by the immense gravity of the cluster bending light from other galaxies beyond it. Credit: NASA/ESA/Grant Tremblay

In this new Hubble image shows two galaxies (yellow, center) from the cluster SDSS J1531+3414 have been found to be merging into one and a “chain” of young stellar super-clusters are seen winding around the galaxies’s nuclei. The galaxies are surrounded by an egg-shaped blue ring caused by the immense gravity of the cluster bending light from other galaxies beyond it. Credit: NASA/ESA/Grant Tremblay
On a summer night, high above our heads, where the Northern Crown and Herdsman meet, a titanic new galaxy is being born 4.5 billion light years away. You and I can’t see it, but astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope released photographs today showing the merger of two enormous elliptical galaxies into a future  heavyweight adorned with a dazzling string of super-sized star clusters.

The two giants, each about 330,000 light years across or more than three times the size of the Milky Way, are members of a large cluster of galaxies called SDSS J1531+3414. They’ve strayed into each other’s paths and are now helpless against the attractive force of gravity which pulls them ever closer.

A few examples of merging galaxies. NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University), K. Noll (STScI), and J. Westphal (Caltech)

A few examples of merging galaxies. NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University), K. Noll (STScI), and J. Westphal (Caltech)
Galactic mergers are violent events that strip gas, dust and stars away from the galaxies involved and can alter their appearances dramatically, forming large gaseous tails, glowing rings, and warped galactic disks. Stars on the other hand, like so many pinpoints in relatively empty space, pass by one another and rarely collide.

Elliptical galaxies get their name from their oval and spheroidal shapes. They lack the spiral arms, rich reserves of dust and gas and pizza-like flatness that give spiral galaxies like Andromeda and the Milky Way their multi-faceted character. Ellipticals, although incredibly rich in stars and globular clusters, generally appear featureless.

The differences between elliptical and spiral galaxies is easy to see. M87 at left and M74, both photographed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA

The differences between elliptical and spiral galaxies is easy to see. M87 at left and M74, both photographed with the Hubble Space Telescope. What look like stars around M87 are really globular star clusters. Credit: NASA/ESA
But these two monster ellipticals appear to be different. Unlike their gas-starved brothers and sisters, they’re rich enough in the stuff needed to induce star formation. Take a look at that string of blue blobs stretching across the center – astronomers call it a great example of ‘beads on a string’ star formation. The knotted rope of gaseous filaments with bright patches of new star clusters stems from the same physics which causes rain or water from a faucet to fall in droplets instead of streams. In the case of water, surface tension makes water ‘snap’ into individual droplets; with clouds of galactic gas, gravity is the great congealer.

Close up of the two elliptical galaxies undergoing a merger. The blue blobs are giant star clusters forming from gas colliding and collapsing into stars during the merger. Click for the scientific paper on the topic. Credit: NASA/ESA/Grant Tremblay

Close up of the two elliptical galaxies undergoing a merger. The blue blobs are giant star clusters forming from gas colliding and collapsing into stars during the merger. Click to read the scientific paper on the topic. Credit: NASA/ESA/Grant Tremblay
Nineteen compact clumps of young stars make up the length of this ‘string’, woven together with narrow filaments of hydrogen gas. The star formation spans 100,000 light years, about the size of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Astronomers still aren’t sure if the gas comes directly from the galaxies or has condensed like rain from X-ray-hot halos of gas surrounding both giants.

The blue arcs framing the merger have to do with the galaxy cluster’s enormous gravity, which warps the fabric of space like a lens, bending and focusing the light of more distant background galaxies into curvy strands of blue light. Each represents a highly distorted image of a real object.



Simulation of the Milky Way-Andromeda collision 4 billion years from now

Four billion years from now, Milky Way residents will experience a merger of our own when the Andromeda Galaxy, which has been heading our direction at 300,000 mph for millions of years, arrives on our doorstep. After a few do-si-dos the two galaxies will swallow one another up to form a much larger whirling dervish that some have already dubbed ‘Milkomeda’. Come that day, perhaps our combined galaxies will don a string a blue pearls too.

Tagged as:
elliptical,
galaxy,
Hubble,
merger,
Milkomeda,
SDSS J1531+3414,
spiral
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:49 PM 0 comments

Flaming Space Junk Makes Jaws Drop in Australia

Flaming Space Junk Makes Jaws Drop in Australia:



Frame grab from a Youtube video of the brilliant meteor that flared over Australia overnight.

Frame grab from a Youtube video of the brilliant meteor that flared over Australia overnight.
“It first looked like a plane with fire coming out of the tail.” – Aaron O.

“I have never seen anything like it. Big, bright and moving gently across sky – slower than a plane, not falling at all but moving across.” – Shannon H.

“Viewed from cockpit of aircraft at 37,000′. Was visible for two or three minutes.” – Landy T.

Flaming plane? Incandescent visitor from the asteroid belt? The brilliant and s-l-o-w fireball that seared the sky over  southeastern Australia tonight was probably one of the most spectacular displays of re-entering space junk witnessed in recent years.

Ted Molzcan, citizen satellite tracker and frequent contributor to the amateur satellite watchers SeeSat-L site, notes that the timing and appearance almost certainly point to the decay or de-orbiting of the Russian Soyuz 2-1B rocket booster that launched the meteorological satellite Meteor M2 on July 8.



Meteor over New South Wales. Look closely near the end and you’ll see it disintegrate into small pieces.

The magnificent man-made meteor, weighing some 4,400 pounds (2,000 kg), was seen from Melbourne to Sydney across the states of Victoria and New South Wales around 10 p.m. Hundreds of people were stopped in their tracks.  Most noticed how slowly the fireball traveled and how long it continue to burn on the way down.

Spacecraft that reenter from either orbital decay or controlled entry usually break up at altitudes between 45-52 miles (84-72 km) traveling around 17,500 mph (28,000 km/hour) . Compression and friction from the ever-thickening air cause the craft, or in this case, the rocket booster, to slow down and heat up to flaming incandescence just like a hunk of space rock arriving from the asteroid belt. In both cases, we see a brilliant meteor, however manmade debris.

Jan 21, 2001, a Delta 2 third stage, known as a PAM-D, reentered the atmosphere over the Middle East. The titanium motor casing, weighing about 70 kg, landed in Saudi Arabia about 240 km from the capital of Riyadh. Credit: NASA, Orbital Debris Program Office

A Delta 2 third stage, known as a PAM-D, reentered the atmosphere over the Middle East on Jan. 21, 2001. The titanium motor casing, weighing about 154 lbs. (70 kg), landed in Saudi Arabia about 150 miles from the capital of Riyadh. Credit: NASA, Orbital Debris Program Office
Occasional meteoroids break apart in the atmosphere and scatter meteorites just as pieces of occasional satellites, especially large, heavy craft, can survive the plunge and land intact –  if a tad toasted.  Whether anything remains of Russian rocket stage or where exactly it fell is still unknown. Here are a few more photos of successful space junk arrivals.

The only person to be hit by manmade space debris was Lottie Williams in 1997. She was unharmed. Credit: Tulsa World

The only person to be hit by manmade space debris was Lottie Williams in 1997. She was unharmed. Credit: Tulsa World
Reportedly, only one person has been struck by satellite debris. In 1997 Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma was hit on the shoulder while walking by a small, twisted piece of metal weighing as much as a crushed soda can. It was traced back to the tank of a Delta II rocket that launched a satellite in 1996. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before someone else gets hit, but the odds aren’t great. More likely, you’ll see what alarmed and delighted so many southeastern Australians Thursday night: a grand show of disintegration.

Tagged as:
Fireball,
Lottie Williams,
meteor,
Meteor M2,
meteoroid,
reentry,
rocket booster,
Soyuz 2-1B
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:49 PM 0 comments
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