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Weird, Wild & Breaking News Stories in Space and Astronomy from around the World 24/7 delivered free every week with regular updates as they happen.

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For The Media

If you are interested, an interview with astronomer, writer, educator and public lecturer representing Australasian Science Magazine and Editor of Astro Space News, Dave Reneke(Astro-Dave) can be arranged by contacting Dave by Phone/Fax(02) 65 85 2260 Mobile: 0400 636 363 or email Dave for an instant reply to davereneke@gmail.com. David is well experienced talking to the media and presents information in an easy to understand, up to date and informative manner. Interviews can be on any subject, tailored to your requirements.

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LETTERS TO DAVE

Your letters are welcome on any subject covered by the scope of this newsletter or any aspect of astronomy/space in general. All letters requesting help or advice will be answered personally by me.

Hello Dave,

I read your articles that appear in our local newspaper, the Geraldton Guardian with great interest and wondered if you are locally based (in WA) however on checking your website it appears you live in NSW with an 02 phone number. I was hoping to ask you to attend our the Mid West Youth Science Forum which is being held on the 22nd July for Yr10 and 11 students who are showing a keen interest in a career in a science field. It would have been fantastic to have you but it would be a very big ask to get you here from NSW. I look forward to hearing from you with regards to this email.

Kind regards, Carolyn P.

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Dave

Thank you so much David for my book I received yesterday, I’ve only glanced through it and it looks fantastic, again thank you and take care out there. Wendy S.

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Hi Dave

I have been looking over the net to see if there were any reported sighting of space craft re-entry, meteorites etc. on Thursday 24/06/2010. At 5.00pm AEST, (Maryborough QLD) I noticed a strip of white light to the west – approximately where the evening star is currently rising. I thought this odd, because my initial thought was it was the new moon. As these thoughts ticked over, I noticed the light moving / extending / something – it was not the moon. As I watched, and called my partner over to witness, I noticed it was moving toward Earth at a steady pace and I could easily detect 2 tails (V shape) of growing reddish light. As it got to the tree line level – it stopped descending, moved slightly left and hovered. It then moved slightly left again, very slowly and I gradually lost sight of it behind the tree line.… Any ideas ? Your thoughts are appreciated -

Cheers, Kylie M.

Hi Kylie

Thanks for the email and the interesting sighting you had. I used to be a UFO researcher so I can add a bit of authority to this. Quite frankly, I don't know what you saw because you say it hovered, stopped, moved sideways etc…. I would have guessed an unusual meteor but not after hearing that. I think the best shot would be to turn it over to one of the civilian UFO research groups to look into, if you give me the OK. Hear from you soon.

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Dave,

Rod S.

Hi Rod, nice to hear from you again and thanks for the question. No question this is a star… I've had similar reports. While I'd really need to be there with you to see which one you're looking at suffice to say it may be one of the brighter stars … possibly even Sirius or Canopus nearby… or just a normal garden variety star. Either way the weather conditions we've been having had led to unstable air masses lately and this is what's breaking up the starlight getting to your eye and causing excess twinkling and the different colours.

Dave

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Dave

Thanks for what you do for people like me. I asked someone on the ABC a few weeks ago, but they got off track and didn't actually answer my question. I live south of Hobart and walk at 4.30-5am for an hour or so every day. I love gazing and fortunately my daughter does too . Looking Sth. East and reasonable high in the sky is a star that flashes from red to blue, to green etc. Now later in the morning about 5.30 low directly east is another large star flashing the same and looks stunning. Can you tell me what they are called. One unusually hot night at 12.30am in summer my wife and I were walking along a beach when suddenly the whole land for as far as you could see turned into like completed day light as a brilliant blue/green meteor hit the atmosphere. It was unbelievable. My wife and I have witnesseed 2 of these occasions. The Astro man said we are the luckiest people on earth to see 2 of these in our lifetime. I reckon 'you gotta be out there gazing or one will see nothing and miss these incredible events. I also saw an amazing 'shooting star' at 5am a month ago. It travelled at least a quarter the way across the night sky. Thanks for your web site and for this blog. As you may tell, I am very enthusiastic about being a 'star gazer'. Thanks for what you do for people like me/us.

Mark .

Hi Mark, terrific to hear from you and thanks for the kind words.

Your Questions:

Q/Looking sth east and reasonable high in the sky is a star that flashes from red to blue, to green- I checked and it's called Fomalhaut, one of the brightest in the night sky. The twinkling and various colours are associated with the starlight being broken up by turbulent air high up and splitting the light into it's various colour components.

Q/ Now later in the morning about 5.30 low directly east is another large star .. not a star mate, I think you're seeing the giant planet Jupiter rising…brilliant bright whitish light. Although this is a little higher up at the moment than what you said. Two other stars that fit would be 1. Canopus (2nd brightest in the night sky) and 2. Archernar.

Q/ "…..suddenly the whole land for as far as you could see turned into like completed day light as a brilliant blue/green meteor hit the atmosphere." This was a fireball you saw. A meteor actually so hot they start to burn, literally and produce a whole lot of light and usually end up exploding or breaking up into hundreds of fragments in the sky… a pretty rare event mate.

Keep listening and if you need an more help don't hesitate to let me know. Good luck in your future stargazing.

Dave

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Hi Dave , 

Since I started to listen to you on 5aa Tuesday mornings , I have a renewed interest in Astronomy. I look forward to enhancing my knowledge and following and listening to you. Steve S.

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Hi

Kind regards, Carly Morrissey. 
The Gympie Times

Hi Carly

Curly question… thanks for thinking of me. This is a fallacy. There was, in fact, a full moon in February, 1865. It occurred on 1865 February 10 but February 1866 did NOT. It happens about 4 to 6 times a century so it's not unique to February 1865 or 1866 whichever they meant. This is not to say, however, that it is impossible for February to miss the full phase. February is the ONLY month that can NOT have a full moon because the month only has 28 days.

The moon phases cycle every 29.5 days. February, with 28 days (and 29 on a leap year), does miss a phase periodically. As recently as 1999, there was no full moon during February. In fact 1866, 1885, 1915, 1934, 1961 did not have a full phase. In fact in the past century there have only been four occurrences of a February not having a full moon, the last being in 1999.

All this information is on a world scale. In the month of February 2010, using Australian time zones, there was no Full Moon at all. The coming century (in 2018, 2037, 2067, and 2094) will also have a February without a full moon. The Blue Moon months and the no full moon months are rare occurrences that both entranced and frightened the superstitious peoples of the past.

Regards
Dave

           Why does the Moon look bigger at the horizon? 

The "Moon illusion," in which the Moon appears larger than normal when close to the horizon, is not the result of magnification by the atmosphere or a change in Earth-Moon distance. Instead, the answer is, as Einstein might say, completely relative.

At most times we see the Moon high in the sky among thousands of stars. We develop our sense of how "big" the Moon ordinarily appears by comparing it with the vast panorama of outer space.

When the Moon is nestled along the horizon, however, we see it surrounded by a foreground of familiar Earth-bound objects — trees, buildings, or distant landmarks. In comparison with these everyday features, the bright disk of the full Moon appears quite large indeed, and relative to our "normal" sense of the Moon's size, much bigger than we would expect.

                     Try your hand at this teaser : " Who said, "Beam me up Scotty?"

Email in your answers to davereneke@gmail.com          Also at my FaceBook fans Page' . www.facebook.com/AstroDave

THIS WEEK'S TOP STORIES

Powerhouse Black Hole Blows a Huge Bubble

A relatively small black hole is producing tremendously powerful jets while creating a huge bubble of hot gas. Both the jets and the bubble are the largest ever seen, meaning this mini black hole is a powerhouse. But the most unusual feature of this remarkable black hole is not its energy output, but how it is emitting energy.

"The energy output is impressive, but is comparable with the X-ray luminosity of so-called Ultraluminous X-ray sources," said Manfred Pakull, the lead author of a new paper. "The notion that powerhouses exist that generate most of their energy in the form of jets (kinetic energy) and not as radiation (photons) is rather new."

Black holes are known to release an incredible amount of energy when they swallow matter, and as Pakull said, it was previously thought that most of the energy came out in the form of radiation, predominantly X-rays. But this new gas-blowing black hole, called S26, is showing that some black holes can release at least as much energy, and perhaps much more, in the form of collimated jets of fast moving particles.

"This black hole is just a few solar masses, but is a real miniature version of the most powerful quasars and radio galaxies," said Pakull, "which contain black holes with masses of a few million times that of the Sun. "This object is a microquasar, which are formed by two objects — either a white dwarf, neutron star or a black hole, along with a companion star. The X-rays are produced by matter falling from one component to the other, and can produce jets of high-speed particles. The fast jets slam into the surrounding interstellar gas, heating it and triggering an expanding bubble made of hot gas and ultra-fast particles colliding at different temperatures.

Of the dozen or so microquasars that have been found in the Milky Way Galaxy, most of the bubbles are fairly small, – less than 10 light-years across. But this one is 1,000 light-years wide. Plus this microquasar is tens of times more powerful than ones previously seen. Using ESO's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope Pakull and his team were able to observe the areas where the jets smash into the interstellar gas around the black hole, and saw that the bubble of hot gas is inflating at a speed of almost one million kilometers per hour.

The jets are equally impressive, about 300 parsecs long, and although powerful jets have been seen from supermassive black holes, they were thought to be less frequent in the smaller microquasar variety. This new discovery may have astronomers looking more closely at other microquasars. "The length of the jets in NGC 7793 is amazing, compared to the size of the black hole from which they are launched," said co-author Robert Soria. "If the black hole were shrunk to the size of a soccer ball, each jet would extend from the Earth to beyond the orbit of Pluto."

S26 is located 12 million light-years away, in the outskirts of the spiral galaxy NGC 7793. From the size and expansion velocity of the bubble the astronomers have found that the jet activity must have been ongoing for at least 200,000 years. With all this incredible speed, size and activity, what do Pakull and his team project as the future of this microquasar? "Yes, the expansion velocity (275 km/s) is quite impressive, but it will diminish with time," Pakull said.  The future of S26 depends on the evolution of the central microquasar which emits the jets. I expect that it could be active for another 100,000 to few million years."

Pakull added that this new finding will help astronomers understand the similarity between small black holes formed from exploded stars and the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, and he hopes this work will stimulate more theoretical work in how black holes produce energy.

Universe Today

Space probe has close encounter with giant asteroid

Pic: Artist impression of the encounter

Scientists have been puzzled by the composition of Lutetia, which is named after the Latin name for Paris, since it was discovered 150 years ago.

They hope to be able to tell whether Lutetia, which is currently around more than 282 million miles from Earth, is either a primitive form of asteroid made of rock and carbon or a metallic one. 

The information gleaned by Rosetta during its fleeting fly-by will provide scientists with new information about what giant asteroids are made of how the solar system formed.

They also hope to obtain new information about the treat such asteroids may pose to the Earth and allow them to develop strategies that might be able to divert them from a collision course. Rosetta was able to obtain high resolution pictures of the Lutetia as it approached and flew past the asteroid at a speed of more than 9.3 miles per second.

"At the moment we know very little about it," project scientist Rita Schulz said in a webcast presentation from Darmstadt. "We are now going to get the details of this asteroid, which is very important," Schulz said. "There will be a lot of science coming from that mission." Asteroids have regularly struck our planet in the past and major impacts are thought to be behind the mass extinctions of species such as the dinosaurs.

By comparing the data from the Rosetta mission with observations from Earth, astronomers hope they will better able to predict the trajectories and threats posed by passing asteroids in the future. It may also provide clues on how to destroy them if they come too close. Rosetta paid a visit to Lutetia as part of its mission to intercept and rendezvous with a comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The 3 ton spacecraft is due to encounter the comet in 2014, where it will orbit the comet before attempting to send a lander to touch down on the surface.

Pic: Lutetia at Closest approach.

Unlike asteroids, comets typically are made of ice and have a characteristic tail as they orbit the Sun. Earlier in Rosetta's ten year mission, the space craft flew within 500 miles of another asteroid called Steins and sent back pictures. At just 3 miles in diameter, Steins is just a fraction of the size of Lutetia.  

Dr Dan Andrews of The Open University, which developed one of the instruments on board Rosetta, said: "Asteroid Lutetia is an enigmatic body, roughly 100km across and like all asteroids composed of the 'rubble' left over from the formation of the planets – as such, understanding these mysterious objects orbiting mostly between Mars and Jupiter can shed new light on our own origins.

"Rosetta will be using its suite of instruments to study Lutetia in amazing detail, producing stunning images of a surface battered and cratered since the dawn of time.

"As well as visible light images, Rosetta is making a plethora of other observations, from measuring the asteroid's temperature, determining its composition, capturing dust particles along the fly-by trajectory to attempting to 'sniff' any tenuous atmosphere surrounding the body."
The images sent back by Rosetta revealed Lutetia as being battered and pockmarked with craters. A giant bowl-shaped depression, stretching across much of the asteroid, rotated into view as the spacecraft approached.

Although the images revealed for the first time how the asteroid looked up close, scientists will have to wait to analyse other data gathered by the spacecraft before being able to understand more about what the Lutetia is made of. David Southwood, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, said: “It has been a great day for exploration, a great day for European science. The clockwork precision is a great tribute to the scientists and engineers in our member states in our industry and, not least, in ESA itself. Roll on 2014 and our comet rendezvous.”

Telegraph UK

MORE ASTRO SPACE NEWS

'Doomsday Ark' to be housed on the Moon

If the human species should be destroyed on Earth, our future may reside on the Moon if plans.being drawn up for a “Doomsday ark” on the moon by the European Space Agency are carried through. The Ark will contain the essentials of life and human civilization, to be activated in the event of earth being devastated by a giant asteroid or nuclear war.

“Eventually, it will be necessary to have a kind of Noah’s ark there, a diversity of species from the biosphere." Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist/Research, European Space Agency

The construction of a lunar information bank, discussed at a conference in Strasbourg last month, would provide survivors on Earth with a remote-access toolkit to rebuild the human race. A basic version of the ark would contain hard discs holding information such as DNA sequences and instructions for metal smelting or planting crops. It would be buried in a vault just under the lunar surface and transmitters would send the data to heavily protected receivers on earth. if no receivers survived, the ark would continue transmitting the information until new ones could be built.

The vault could later be extended to include natural material including microbes, animal embryos and plant seeds and even cultural relics such as surplus items from museum stores. As a first step to discovering whether living organisms could survive, European Space Agency scientists are hoping to experiment with growing tulips on the moon within the next decade. The first flowers – tulips or arabidopsis, a plant widely used in research – could be grown in 2012 or 2015 according to Bernard Foing, chief scientist at the agency’s research department.

Tulips are ideal because they can be frozen, transported long distances and grown with little nourishment. Combined with algae, an enclosed artificial atmosphere and chemically enhanced lunar soil, they could form the basis of an ecosystem. The first experiments would be carried out in transparent biospheres containing a mix of gases to mimic the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide given off by the decomposing plants would be mopped up by the algae, which would generate oxygen through photosynthesis.

The databank would initially be run by robots and linked to earth by radio transmissions. Scientists hope to put a manned station on the moon before the end of the century. The databank would need to be buried under rock to protect it from the extreme temperatures, radiation and vacuum on the moon. It would be run partly on solar power. The scientists envisage placing the first experimental databank on the moon no later than 2020 and it could have a lifespan of 30 years. The full archive would be launched by 2035.

The information would be held in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish and would be linked by transmitter to 4,000 “Earth repositories” that would provide shelter, food, a water supply for survivors

Daily Galaxy

Was the Universe created by a cyclical trillion-year collision?

String theorists Neil Turok of Cambridge University and Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science and Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton believe that the cosmos we see as the Big Bang was actually created by the cyclical trillion-year collision of two universes (which they define as three-dimensional branes plus time) that were attracted toward each other by the leaking of gravity out of one of the universes. 

In their view of the universe the complexities of an inflating universe after a Big Bang are replaced by a universe that was already large. flat, and uniform with dark energy as the effect of the other universe constantly leaking gravity into our own and driving its acceleration.

According to this theory, the Big Bang was not the beginning of time but the bridge to a past filled with endlessly repeating cycles of evolution, each accompanied by the creation of new matter and the formation of new galaxies, stars, and planets.

Turok and Steinhardt were inspired by a lecture given by Burt Ovrut who imagined two branes, universes like ours, separated by a tiny gap as tiny as 10-32 meters. There would be no communictaion between the two universes except for our parallel sister universe's gravitational pull, which could cross the tiny gap.

Orvut's theory could explain the effect of dark matter where areas of the universe are heavier than they should be given everything that's present. With their theory, the nagging problems surrounding the Big Bang (beginning from what, and caused how?) are replaced by an eternal cosmic cycle where dark energy is no longer a mysterious unknown quantity, but rather the very extra gravitational force that drives the universe to universe (brane-brane) interaction. 

New US satellite to monitor debris in Earth orbit

A new U.S. Air Force satellite will provide the first full-time, space-based surveillance of hundreds of satellites and thousands of pieces of debris that could crash into American and allied assets circling the Earth. Launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., it will have an unobstructed, around-the-clock view of the increasingly heavy traffic in Earth orbit — something the Air Force doesn't have now.

Pic: This 2009 photo provided by the Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., shows technicians working on the Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite in Boulder, Colo. The satellite is a $500 million U.S. Air Force spacecraft that will provide the first full-time, space-based eye on thousands of other satellites and pieces of debris that could crash into American assets circling the Earth. (AP Photo/Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.)

Currently, the Air Force relies on a ground-based network of radar and optical telescopes around the globe to monitor about 1,000 active satellites and 20,000 pieces of debris. The telescopes can be used only on clear nights, and not all radar stations are powerful enough to detect satellites in deep space orbit, about 22,000 miles from Earth.
From its orbit about 390 miles above the Earth, the new satellite will have a clear view of deep space, unaffected by daylight or weather.

"It really has tremendous capabilities," said Todd Citron, director of advanced space and intelligence systems for Boeing Co., prime contractor for the satellite, known as SBSS.
Citron said SBSS will revolutionize "space situational awareness," the military term for knowing not only where the objects are, but where they're headed and what might be in their path.

An Air Force official was more cautious. "We do know that the sensor is going to provide a lot of capability," said Col. J.R. Jordan, mission director for the SBSS launch and vice commander of the Air Force Space Superiority Systems Wing. "We haven't really come up with broad statements" about how much SBSS is expected to improve monitoring, Jordan said. SBSS was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., working with Boeing. It carries an optical camera on a swivel mount, so the camera's view can be changed without burning fuel to move the satellite, and will concentrate on satellites and debris in deep space. It will beam information to ground stations. 

The SBSS system, including ground-control facilities, cost $500 million. It is the first satellite dedicated solely to space situational awareness, Jordan said. The Air Force space surveillance network previously had partial use of a satellite called the Midcourse Space Experiment, which was designed to track missiles but could also monitor objects in orbit. It's no longer functioning.
Millions of pieces of space debris are orbiting the Earth, from tiny pellets of escaped coolant to spent rocket stages and dead satellites, said Brian Weeden, a former Air Force space operations officer who is now the technical adviser for the Secure World Foundation, a Colorado think tank and advocacy group that focuses on the use of space.

The Air Force monitors objects that are at least 10 centimeters across, or about 4 inches, big enough to destroy a satellite or a module of the International Space Station with a direct hit, Weeden said. Almost all are man-made, because natural bodies caught in Earth orbit tend to be smaller. The military shares some of the information with civil and commercial space operators, who can maneuver satellites or the space station out of harm's way. President Barack Obama's National Space Policy, released Monday, pledged U.S. cooperation with other nations on monitoring debris. 

Like ground-based sensors, SBSS won't continuously track objects but will make spot checks and use the data to predict trajectories. The entire network collects about 400,000 observations daily, the Air Force said.Space junk has collided with satellites at least twice. In 1996, a French satellite was damaged by a rocket fragment. In 2009, a satellite owned by Bethesda, Md.-based Iridium Communications was destroyed in a collision with a derelict Russian satellite.

Iridium said it had no warning before the collision but has since been getting more accurate data from the government on potential collisions. In 2007, China purposely destroyed one of its own satellites with a missile in a test, creating an estimated 2,400 pieces of debris at least 5 centimeters across and prompting criticism from the U.S. and others.

AAP

Hayabusa contains a hint of dust

The sample return canister from the Hayabusa spacecraft has been opened, and does contain a small amount of dust, possibly from the asteroid Itokawa. Studying samples from an asteroid can help astrobiologists determine if impacts delivered materials important to the origins of life on the early Earth.

The sample return canister from the Hayabusa spacecraft has been opened, and does contain a small amount of dust particles, according to the JAXA website. This is very encouraging news! However, it is not yet known if the dust is from the asteroid Itokawa, where Hayabusa briefly touched down, or if it could be from Earth — left in the container from before launch, or it possibly could have made its way in there during the landing, or during post-landing handling.

Pic: Hayabusa's sample return canister was opened to reveal a small particle inside. Credit: JAXA

"Material on the planet or asteroid or particulate matter is at this stage is unknown, we will consider in detail," is the Google translate version of the JAXA press release. According to Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society, the dust grains are extremely small, about 0.01-millimeter in size, and there are about a dozen of them inside the container. It likely will take several weeks to confirm whether the particles are from the asteroid, but if so, would be the first-ever asteroid sample return.

Launched in 2003, the Hayabusa spacecraft rendezvoused with asteroid Itokawa in September 2005. Over the next two-and-a-half months, the spacecraft made up-close and personal scientific observations of the asteroid's shape, terrain, surface altitude distribution, mineral composition, gravity, and the way it reflected the Sun's rays. On Nov. 25 of that year, Hayabusa briefly touched down on the surface of Itokawa, and supposedly shot "bullets" into the asteroid in order to stir up dust for the container to capture

That was only the second time in history a spacecraft descended to the surface of an asteroid. NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker spacecraft landed on asteroid Eros on Feb. 12, 2001. Hayabusa left asteroid Itokawa in 2007 for its long journey back to Earth. The sample return capsule was ejected from the Hayabusa spacecraft and landed in the Australian Outback on June 13, 2010.

If the dust is indeed from Itokawa, the samples could provide insight into the composition of the space rock. Such information can help astrobiologists understand the role of asteroid impacts in delivering materials to the early Earth that could have been important in the origin of life.

Physorg

Bird Astronomy….Eh,? bird what?

In the 1950s, the Sauer research team locked some birds in Olbers planetarium and started messing with them. First they projected a northern hemisphere autumn sky and the birds flew 'south' – away from Polaris and keeping Betelgeuse to the left ('east').

Then they projected a spring night sky and the birds flew 'north' towards Polaris with Betelgeuse again to their left, albeit this time in the 'west'.

The position of Betelgeuse appeared to be significant, perhaps because it's one of the brighter stars in the northern hemisphere and just to the north of the celestial equator. Later experiments with Indigo Buntings demonstrated that birds raised with no experience of the night sky didn’t have a clue what to do when released into a planetarium. 

However, birds that were raised with the night sky visible would fly ‘south’ away from the sky’s axis of rotation, whether that was Polaris or an artificial arbitrary axis created within the planetarium.From this work, researchers concluded that it was unlikely that birds were born with a genetic star map, but instead learned to orientate themselves with respect to the rotating night sky by reference to other directional cues – like the position of the Sun and the Earth’s magnetic field.

It’s thought that many migratory birds closely monitor sunrise and sunset – allegedly when you see a line of birds on a power line, most will be facing east in the morning and west in the evening, recalibrating their internal compasses. Checking for a north-south plane of polarized light at sunrise and sunset may help them determine their latitude – by indicating how far off due east or west the Sun is when it’s at the horizon. Pigeons have well developed magnetoreception that they can use as an alternative to solar navigation.

For example, they can ‘home’ even with a heavily overcast sky – but get them to wear a little magnetized helmet that screws up their perception of the Earth’s magnetic field and they get lost. On the other hand, if it’s a clear day with the Sun visible they can find home just fine – even with a little magnetized helmet on. As well as the birds – bacteria, bees, termites, lobsters, salamanders, salmon, turtles, mole rats and bats have all been shown to possess magnetoreception.

Magnetotactic bacteria manufacture their own magnetite crystals – building chains of crystals that mimic a compass needle. The bacteria appear to use their magnetite crystals for the simple purpose of determining which way is down – since a straight line to magnetic north will pass through the Earth’s surface.

Magnetospirillum with a line of synthesized magnetite crystals visible. Credit: www.microbiologybytes.com
It’s yet to be determined how a complex nervous system might interface with magnetite or whether magnetite is the primary mechanism in larger multicellular animals. Magnetite crystals have been isolated from bees and termites – and are apparently synthesized by them.

However, in larger animals it’s harder to tell – as these crystals are tiny and difficult to find or visualize in vivo. An alternate magnetoreception mechanism based on photochemicals in the retina has been proposed for migratory birds – although a role for magnetite, particularly in pigeons which have relatively large concentrations of it in their beaks, can’t be ruled out. Humans have traces of magnetite in their brains – although the court is still out on whether this gives us any capacity for direction finding by magnetoreception.

Some research suggests a few individuals may have some very minor ability – but not enough for anyone to consider preferring this to their GPS.

Universe Today

Jupiter's 'Mozzie Bite – A Recap

You may remember that almost a year ago, a new dark spot was discovered on Jupiter. It was thought to be a scar left over from the impact of a comet or asteroid, just like the ones seen after the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1993.

The discovery of the 2009 scar was made by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, who seems to have his telescope trained permanently on the solar system's biggest planet. Early in June of 2010, he was taking images of Jupiter when a brief bright flash of light appeared in the planet's atmosphere, and quickly faded. 

A few thousand kilometers north, in the Philippines, Christopher Go had captured images of the same event. (NASA's follow up images reveal no trace of a long-lasting scar this time, so it seems that this was relatively small compared to other impacts we've observed on Jupiter.) Visit Anthony Wesley's website to see the original discovery images and some video.

Hunting for Fossils on Europa

Charles Q. Choi: If extraterrestrial life exists on Jupiter's moon Europa, instead of deploying probes to drill past its ice shell to look for aliens in the ocean below, one might just go fossil-hunting on the icy surface.

"A prospector sent there could possibly find extraterrestrial life within our lifetimes," suggested planetary scientist Richard Greenberg at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at Tucson.

Europa, which is roughly the size of Earth's moon, is enveloped by a global ocean that may be about 100 miles deep (160 km). This ocean is overlain by an icy crust of unknown thickness, although some estimates are that it could be only a few miles thick.

Since wherever there is water on Earth there is a chance of life, for many years scientists have entertained the notion that this Jovian moon could support extraterrestrials. Recent findings even suggest its ocean could be loaded with oxygen, enough to support millions of tons worth of marine life like the type that exists on Earth.  To see if any kind of life actually evolved on Europa, scientists have proposed missions to drill through its outer shell, perhaps using heat to melt through the ice, whirring blades to clear away rocks and robot subs to explore the ocean.

"With that vision in mind, NASA has a multi-staged plan, first with a Europa orbiter scheduled for 18 years from now, and 10 or 20 years after that, a lander to see what the surface is like, and then maybe a generation later, hopefully we can figure out how to drill all the way down through the ice," Greenberg noted. He recently wrote a book, "Unmasking Europa," which touched upon how one might search for life on the Jovian moon.

However, rather than deploying complex equipment to try and penetrate an uncertain distance into the ice, the remains of marine life on Europa could be available right on the outer shell for landers to find. Scientists aren't suggesting that any life from Europa somehow managed to dig its way up through the ice. Instead, the constant upheaval this Jovian moon undergoes could drag unwitting organisms upward, Greenberg explained.

The scarcity of craters seen on Europa suggests the ice shell is no older than 50 million years old, hinting that it underwent complete turnover in that time. The culprit for this extraordinary activity is the gravitational pull Europa experiences from Jupiter. This leads to tidal forces roughly 1,000 times stronger than what Earth feels from our moon, flexing and heating the Jovian moon and constantly stirring its crust.  Ice — probably newly frozen ocean water — apparently regularly gets pushed up from below, leading double ridges typically 330 feet high (100 meters) to form and cover at least half of Europa's surface.

Parts of the surface also could partially melt from below, creating rafts of ice that break loose and tumble around. This process creates the "chaotic terrain" that comprises roughly 40 percent of the ice shell, and also sends matter both upward and downward. "If there are organisms in Europa's ocean, one could well imagine that all over the surface there might be frozen chunks of that stuff," Greenberg said. "People are talking about various kinds of drills and melting down through the ice, and I think we can jump past that and sample the ocean from the surface."

One of the best places to look for any fossils on Europa would be newly formed double ridges, Greenberg said. "The ridges that crisscross others are going to be the most recent ones," he explained. "One could then imagine landers scooping up the ice and analyzing it." Chaotic terrain would also be another good area to explore, as would an active crack in Europa's crust. "If we can land right next to an active crack, there's a good chance we could sample some of the most recent ice," Greenberg said. "If we could put a penetrator into it, we could even sample water as it comes up."

If any microbes did manage to make their way to Europa's surface, the constant stream of radiation from Jupiter would likely break their proteins down over time, assuming such life would have proteins at all, said planetary geologist Brad Dalton at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Still, experiments of Dalton's have suggested orbiters could investigate the infrared signature of Europa's icy crust to look for tattered remnants of life. Landers could conduct even more detailed analyses — for instance, using "lab-on-a-chip" devices on melted ice samples to look for biomolecules, he added.

Also "there's always the possibility that we could find structures — something analogous to skeletal remains," Greenberg noted.  Dalton added that if landers dug "even a meter or so down might also be able to find viable organisms, if there are any there."  Of course, if there is life in Europa's ocean, it remains uncertain whether it would indeed get lofted up via geological processes to its surface. Conversely, if no life is seen on Europa's surface, that does not mean there is no life in Europa's ocean.

"My point is only why wait to look for life at the hardest place on Europa to get to?" Greenberg said. "Why not go to the easy place first?"

SpaceRef

Mystery Object In Space. Michio Kaku On Fox

Scientists are offering up their own theories as to what created the striking star-inspired image, which was captured by NASA's Hubble telescope in January. "Two small and previously unknown asteroids recently collided, creating a shower of debris that is being swept back into a tail from the collision site by the pressure of sunlight," said principal investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles.

The object – dubbed P/2010 A2 after it was discovered in early January by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program sky survey – has traits similar to a comet, but the x-shape appears disconnected from the tail. "The filamentary appearance of P/2010 A2 is different from anything seen in Hubble images of normal comets," Jewitt said. Follow UFO Report on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/uforeport2009

Comment:

The asteroid belt itself contains abundant evidence for ancient collisions that have shattered precursor bodies into fragments. The orbit of P/2010 A2 is itself consistent with membership in the Flora asteroid family, produced by collisional shattering a few hundred million years ago. (One fragment of that ancient smashup may have struck Earth 65 million years ago, triggering a mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.) But, until now, no such asteroid-asteroid collision has been caught 'in the act'.

Continued observations with Hubble and an armada of ground-based telescopes may reveal the mechanisms by which natural impacts generate dust to supply the zodiacal cloud, a plane of dust in our solar system. At the time of the Hubble observations, the object was approximately 180 million miles (300 million km) from the Sun and 90 million miles (140 million km) from Earth.

The Hubble images were recorded with the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

Frustrating zombie satellite still adrift in space

The so-called Galaxy 15 zombie satellite that lost contact with ground controllers on Earth in April is still adrift in space, with engineers keeping a close eye on the wayward satellite as it approaches two other spacecraft this month. The Galaxy 15 satellite is currently drifting along a stable and predictable path, according to its communications satellite fleet operator Intelsat.

The main focus now is preventing Galaxy 15 from interfering with other nearby satellites, including two of Intelsat's own, though no collisions are expected. "The overall goal is to minimize disruption," Steve Good, Intelsat's global director of customer solutions engineering  said. "It's in all of our best interests to minimize any disruption."

The company is preparing several techniques to mitigate potential signal interference as Galaxy 15 is set to fly by two other Intelsat satellites this month: Galaxy 13 and Galaxy 14. The 4,171-pound Galaxy 15 satellite went rogue on April 5, when it stopped responding to controllers on the ground. 

Yet, while the satellite veered from its assigned orbital slot of 133 degrees west longitude, 36,000 kilometers over the equator, the " zombie satellite" maintained an active payload, with its C-band telecommunications still functioning. Interference from Galaxy 15's stuck-on signal is the main concern, since the chance of it actually crashing into other satellites is remote to non-existent, Intelsat officials have said.

On Thursday, July 8, Galaxy 15 is expected to begin approaching Galaxy 13, making its closest pass on July 13.
"Galaxy 15 has a very large inclination, and if it stayed there, that would be great," Good said, referring to the tilt of the satellite's orbit with respect to Earth's equator. "But, twice a day it crosses the zero longitude line. At that point in time, that's when the physical distance between the two satellites is going to be minimized." Intelsat's Galaxy 13 and Galaxy 14 satellites both provide video media services to U.S. customers, and the satellite operator has been in regular contact with users in preparation for the flybys.

"We're looking at each customer specifically," Good said. "Were working with them and we've offered them options. We've been in talks almost daily." Galaxy 15 will begin entering Galaxy 14's orbit on July 26. It will make its closest pass on July 30. Intelsat engineers have planned a variety of techniques to address interference concerns from Galaxy 15, including boosting the sensitivity of satellites the zombiesat flies near, and moving them if necessary. They are also arranging for some customers who uplink to Galaxy 13 or 14 services to shift or "mispoint" their antennas, depending on the location of the rogue satellite, so they don't receive its wayward signals.

"If you have a large antenna, for example, you can mispoint to the east, and as soon as Galaxy 15 passes, you then mispoint to the west," Good explained. "It's like you're intentionally avoiding the Galaxy 15 satellite." In addition, while each case is different, Good and his team can look to their successful collaboration with SES as inspiration.

In May, the satellite operator SES World Skies, whose AMC-11 satellite orbited into Galaxy 15's cross-hairs, worked with Intelsat to successfully perform a series of intricate maneuvers in order to avoid interference and service interruptions.

"Not all flybys are created equal, but we certainly learned a lot of lessons from the first one," he said. Intelsat will also be able to use this knowledge to tackle similar circumstances in the future. The company will next work closely with Telesat, a satellite services provider headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, since Galaxy 15 is expected to swoop near Telesat's Anik F3 satellite, following the Galaxy 13 and 14 encounters.

MSNBC

NASA releases videogame, Moonbase Alpha

NASA has abandoned plans to return to the Moon but videogamers can explore the lunar landscape with a free new online game released by the US space agency.

"Moonbase Alpha" allows players to join an exploration team in a futuristic 3D settlement on the south pole of the Moon. "In Moonbase Alpha, you assume the exciting role of an astronaut working to further human expansion and research," NASA said in an explanation of the game. 

"Returning from a research expedition, you witness a meteorite impact that cripples the life support capability of the settlement.
"With precious minutes ticking away, you and your team must repair and replace equipment in order to restore the oxygen production to the settlement," NASA said

To accomplish their mission, players of the "first-person explorer" game use an interactive command center, lunar rover and mobile robotic repair units. "Proper use and optimal allocation of their available resources are key to the team's overall success," NASA said. NASA said the game is designed to "engage and educate students about agency technologies, job opportunities and the future of space exploration." Moonbase Alpha can be played by one or up to six players. NASA said it is a precursor to a planned NASA-based "multiplayer online game project."  The game is available at  MoonbaseAlphaGame.com.

Physorg

Nasa space shuttle firm to cut 1,000 jobs

The US's leading space contractor is to cut the jobs of more than 1,000 of the world's leading scientists and technicians after Nasa ended its space shuttle programme. United Space Alliance, which manages the shuttle fleet and handles Nasa's International Space Station, said most jobs would go in Florida and Texas. Two shuttle missions remain, which are scheduled to be completed by 2011.

The job cuts represent about 15% of the workforce, with more cuts expected. "People being laid off now is just the beginning. Many more thousands will be laid of as the shuttle programme is wound down," Keith Cowing, the editor of space specialist website Nasa Watch said.

United Space Alliance is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The space shuttle has enjoyed a recent run of success, launching eight flights in 14 months, with the staff setting records for the rapid processing of shuttles and the lowest numbers of in-flight anomalies. Private sector companies can do it cheaper and make a profit by using less people .

 Last month, John Shannon, the manager of the space shuttle programme, wrote to employees saying: "I am extremely proud of how all of you are maintaining your focus and completing the incredible legacy of the programme." But with so many scientists, technicians and aerospace experts looking for work, Mr Cowling said the prospect of them getting work at private companies that launch satellites were slim.

"The whole idea behind private sector companies is that they can do it cheaper and with a lot more automation than the space shuttle programme used," he said. "So sort of by definition they can do it cheaper and make a profit by using less people," Because these leading space experts have worked with top secret technology makes it very unlikely that they would be allowed to work for foreign companies, he added.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin do not have any plans to transfer them to other departments of their aerospace businesses. Nasa intends to make the last shuttle flight next February, although several factors could delay that plan.

 BBC

Cosmological anomaly confounds astronomers

An international team of researchers have uncovered a cosmological anomaly and are now trying to determine if it is an uncanny coincidence or a vital clue to understanding the origins of our Universe. The irregularity, described in a paper accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters, has left the team, including researchers from Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology, scratching their heads.

According to Swinburne co-author Dr Michael Murphy, the paper reveals a strange coincidence – or at least what appears to be a strange coincidence – occurring in distant galaxies. “We were studying the abundance of molecules containing deuterium-deuterated molecular hydrogen (HD) in two different galaxies in the distant Universe.

“What we inadvertently discovered was that in these two galaxies the fraction of molecules which were HD was the same as the fraction of atoms which were deuterium (D), hydrogen's doubly-heavy cousin. We then looked at the only other two existing measurements of HD in distant galaxies and found almost exactly the same thing.”

Dr Murphy said this was extremely unusual because HD should have a far more complex life cycle than D and researchers would expect it to be produced in very different amounts. “Because deuterium was produced just after the Big Bang and never again, measures of its abundance are extremely important in telling us about cosmology.

It is one of the few relatively precise probes of how many atoms there are in the Universe overall. Knowing this basic parameter is important if you want to know how the Universe began, the fate of the Universe and all of the steps in between,” he said. “But HD should be a completely different story,” according to co-author Adrian Malec, a PhD student at Swinburne. ”When we realised that the abundance of HD aligned with the abundance of D we were extremely surprised. 

“It would appear that HD can be used to probe cosmology like D can. But this seems extremely far-fetched because of the complex life of HD molecules – how they're formed and how they're destroyed,” he said. “You would expect the abundance of HD to vary dramatically from place to place in the Universe. So if it is a coincidence, then it is a one in a million. Which means we now have to ask the question – is this is a bizarre coincidence or is it actually meaningful?”

According to Malec the finding raises more questions that now need to be answered. “We have four measurements of this molecule separated by very large distances, and in each case the abundance aligns with D,” he said. “But we probably need a dozen more measurements before we can conclusively say whether this is a really strange coincidence or whether HD could potentially be used as a tracer for cosmology,” he said.

The measurements were conducted using the world’s largest optical telescopes at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Swinburne has an agreement with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) that gives Swinburne astronomers access to the telescopes for up to 20 nights per year.

You can read the full media release here: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/chancellery/mediacentre/media-centre/news/2010/07/cosmological-anomaly-confounds-astronomers

DID YOU KNOW?

* It’s thought that many migratory birds closely monitor sunrise and sunset – allegedly when you see a line of birds on a power line, most will be facing east in the morning and west in the evening, recalibrating their internal compasses. Checking for a north-south plane of polarized light at sunrise and sunset may help them determine their latitude – by indicating how far off due east or west the Sun is when it’s at the horizon.

* A supernova is the most energetic single event known in the Universe. Material is exploded into space at about 10,000 kilometres per second. All the stars in our galaxy (about 100,000,000,000) would have to shine for six months to produce the amount of energy released by just one supernova.

* The planet Venus’s day is longer than its year. It takes 225 ‘Earth’ days to rotate around the Sun (a Venusian year) and 243 ‘Earth’ days to rotate on its axis (a Venusian day).

Image Of The Week

Starburst Cluster Shows Celestial Fireworks

Credit: NASA, ESA, 

Like a July 4 fireworks display a young, glittering collection of stars looks like an aerial burst. The cluster is surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust – the raw material for new star formation. The nebula, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, contains a central cluster of huge, hot stars, called NGC 3603.

This environment is not as peaceful as it looks. Ultraviolet radiation and violent stellar winds have blown out an enormous cavity in the gas and dust enveloping the cluster, providing an unobstructed view of the cluster. Most of the stars in the cluster were born around the same time but differ in size, mass, temperature, and color. The course of a star's life is determined by its mass, so a cluster of a given age will contain stars in various stages of their lives, giving an opportunity for detailed analyses of stellar life cycles.

NGC 3603 also contains some of the most massive stars known. These huge stars live fast and die young, burning through their hydrogen fuel quickly and ultimately ending their lives in supernova explosions. Star clusters like NGC 3603 provide important clues to understanding the origin of massive star formation in the early, distant universe. Astronomers also use massive clusters to study distant starbursts that occur when galaxies collide, igniting a flurry of star formation. The proximity of NGC 3603 makes it an excellent lab for studying such distant and momentous events.

This Hubble Space Telescope image was captured in August 2009 and December 2009 with the Wide Field Camera 3 in both visible and infrared light, which trace the glow of sulfur, hydrogen, and iron.

NASA

Northern Galactic – Southern Galactic

Members Images

Northern Galactic and Southern Galactic International was established to commemorate the United Nations International Year of Astronomy in 2009 and was officially launched in November 2008. In partnership Northern Galactic and Southern Galactic International aims to gather together research and discoveries in the areas of optical and radio astronomy, astrophotography, planetary studies, and space atmospheric sciences as a service to the interested public. Our service is available to all astronomers and scientists throughout the world. Northern Galactic also makes available for its Members its own Research Grade 406mm/16" RCOS Carbon Truss Telescope for a Low Annual Subscription Fee.

IN THE SKY THIS MONTH JULY 2010

HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH 

* July 11 – Total Solar Eclipse. The path of totality will only be visible in the southern Pacific Ocean, Easter Island, and parts of southern Chile and Argentina. A partial eclipse will be visible in many parts of southern South America. 

* July 26 – Full Moon

* July 28, 29 – Southern Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower. The Delta Aquarids can produce about 20 meteors per hour at their peak. The shower usually peaks on July 28 & 29, but some meteors can also be seen from July 18 – August 18. The radiant point for this shower will be in the constellation Aquarius. Best viewing is usually to the east after midnight.

Dave Reneke

Roswell, New Mexico Celebrates July 4th With UFO Festival (PHOTOS)
Huffington Post (blog)
… our nation's independence and, apparently, those pesky alien invaders they have a history of seeing through an event called the Roswell UFO Festival. …

Oregon witnesses report multiple UFOs over Summer Lake Hot Springs
Examiner.com
Another Oregon UFO sighting was reported from June 27, 2010, with two witnesses at Summer Lake Hot Springs who watched multiple lights in the sky and some …

Clearest ever alien footage stuns UFO researchers
Allnewsweb.com
A UFO and ET related event that might have a profound effect on the course of history took place around two weeks ago in Alberta, Canada. …

Roswell's Legacy: How a Town Became UFO Central
AOL News
But enough people favor the alien spaceship theory to warrant a huge annual festival this weekend, as Roswell — or, if you will, UFO central — celebrates …

Roswell's Legacy: How a Town Became UFO Central (Part 2)
AOL News
If you also happen to like aliens, UFOs and military secrets, you've hit the mother lode this weekend. Roswell — population 50000 — is in full celebration …

Spooks vs Aliens: Are Russian spies working the UFO Spy Game?
American Chronicle
The recent bust of an alleged Russian spy network working under covert cover in the US reveals lessons for the UFO spy game. (STARpod.org)– Why would …

Military training offshore could explain Wrightville Beach UFO report
StarNewsOnline.com
By Julian March Strange lights reported off Wrightsville Beach last week may have been from a military training exercise – not a UFO. …

FEATURE STORY

Recipes for Renegade Planets

Artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk, based on observations from NASA’s Spitzer space telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech Image

Recent discoveries of gas giant planets in unusual orbits challenge the generally accepted theory of planet formation. While these discoveries do not disprove the theory, they have opened our eyes to chaotic solar systems quite unlike our own. Over the past two hundred years, a standard model emerged to explain how solar systems form. Using our own solar system as a guide, the model explains the existence of a central star (our Sun), an inner system of rocky, “terrestrial” planets, and an outer system of “gas giant” planets, all orbiting in nearly the same plane of rotation as the central star.

Recent discoveries of planetary systems around other stars have challenged this model. These exoplanet discoveries have included gas giant planets in close orbit around their stars, some of which are in radically different planes of rotation from their primary stars. In the generally accepted model for solar system formation, everything begins with a nebula (or cloud) containing gas and dust. Gravitational attraction causes the cloud to collapse, and if the collapse is less than perfectly symmetric, angular momentum will lead the cloud to form a nearly flat rotating disc.

The greatest concentration of material collects at the center of the disk, forming a protostar, while protoplanets may form at some distance from the center around areas of higher than average density within the disk. When the protostar eventually collects enough matter, fusion reactions begin and it becomes a young star, heating the inner portion of the disk and vaporizing any gases that may have collected – which naturally explains why planets that form near the star are rocky. At greater distances, gases can remain in icy form and accrete into gas giant planets. The limiting radius that defines the division between the rocky inner planets and outer gas giants is called the “ice line”.

Whether inside or outside the ice line, planets sweep out material within a particular radius of the disk as they orbit the star, and over time bring together whatever dust (and beyond the ice line, gas) are available at that radius. Interaction between the planets and central star eventually put most of the planets in stable, near-circular orbits. Over the past few years, as exoplanets have been discovered around other stars, we’ve learned that not every solar system follows our recipe. Among the first exoplanet findings were so-called "Hot Jupiter" gas giant planets in close orbit around stars.

Then there’s the case of a gas giant planet orbiting a brown dwarf star in a system that hasn’t been around long enough to provide time for the slow accretion of icy particles predicted by the condensation model. In addition, a team of astronomers at the Geneva Observatory recently announced that a majority of 27 “Hot Jupiter” exoplanets are not orbiting in the same plane of rotation of their host star, with six actually in retrograde orbit (opposite the direction of rotation of the host star). Various schemes have been suggested to explain how a gas giant could form beyond the ice line and then move inward toward the star to become a “hot Jupiter.”

One model, called “migration”, involves interaction between a gas giant and a ring of debris in the protoplanetary nebula. Tidal interaction between the gas giant, the primary star and the debris ring could cause the gas giant to slowly spiral in, ultimately arriving in a circular orbit close to the primary star. However, this model would still leave the gas giant orbiting in the plane of the primary star’s rotation. It cannot explain the high inclination and retrograde orbits observed by the Geneva team.

There is, however, a model that can explain them: In a 2007 paper, Princeton graduate student Daniel Fabrycky, expanding on earlier work by others, showed how they could occur in a binary star system. In this scenario, the primary star is orbited by a distant companion star, and gravitational interaction between a gas giant planet orbiting the primary star and the companion star could destabilize the gas giant’s orbit. This would turn the planet’s circular orbit in the plane of the primary star’s rotation to an eccentric orbit much like that of a comet, tilted significantly to the plane of rotation. Over time, tidal interaction between the gas giant and the primary star circularizes the gas giant’s orbit at its closest distance to the primary star – making it a hot Jupiter. When Fabrycky used computer simulation to model variations on his theory, he found that a significant proportion of the gas giants he modeled wound up in retrograde orbit, opposite the direction of rotation of the primary star – as was subsequently observed by the Geneva group.

Even without a distant binary companion, the orbit of a gas giant could be destabilized if a number of other giant planets in the same system happen to come close together. A 2008 paper by Mikio Nagasawa of the Tokyo Institute of Technology found that interactions between gas giant planets could produce a significant percentage of hot Jupiters, with “a broad range of orbital inclinations (even retrograde ones).”

This artist's conception shows binary-star system HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rocky Earth-like planet is forming around one of the stars. At approximately 10-16 million years old, astronomers suspect this star is at just the right age for forming rocky planets. The brown ring of material circling closest to the central star depicts a huge belt of dusty material. The rocky material in the belt represents the early stages of planet formation, when dust grains clump together to form rocks, and rocks collide to form even more massive rocky bodies called planetesimals. The white outer ring shows a concentration of icy dust also detected in the system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As Fabrycky (who is now a fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) says, “If you have a planet in a high-inclination, comet-like orbit, the orbital elements couple. That gives you very little angular momentum, and makes it easy to change the orbit into a retrograde motion.” Fabrycky believes the discovery of hot Jupiter exoplanets in retrograde orbits does not invalidate the standard accretion model, but their existence does “raise a new point of view. In general, solar systems are chaotic and violent,” which means that our own “relatively peaceful” solar system may be something of an exception.

Rory Barnes, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Astronomy and Astrobiology at the University of Washington, agrees with Fabrycky on that point. “The simple quiescent model we think of with our solar system isn't ubiquitous. There are a lot of things going on that we didn't anticipate.” Barnes also agrees that a companion star in a binary system could destabilize planetary orbits, but adds, “I have a hard time believing that improbable events like this could lead to a large percentage of planets in retrograde orbits.”

Whatever the mechanism, any process that destabilizes the orbit of a gas giant enough to change the plane of its orbit and move it close to the primary star would spell doom for any terrestrial planet in the same system. Interaction with the gas giant would probably destabilize the orbit of planets in the inner solar system, potentially tossing them out of the solar system entirely and making it unlikely that life as we know it would have time to develop. Thus, if planetary systems with renegade gas giants turn out to be common, life as we know it may be very rare.

Physorg

FEATURE STORY

Was Life Discovered on Mars By NASA? Some Experts Say "Yes" 

Mars once boasted gravity, an athmosphere, and liquid water in great abundance. According to Zubrin, if life is indeed a natural, chemical development wherever liquid water, reasonable temperatures and various minerals occur, then why shouldn't it have appeared on Mars? "If we can go to Mars and find evidence of past life, then we will have proven that the development of life from chemistry is a general phenomenon in the universe," Zubrin says in an interview.

Evidence of possible life on Mars sent back from by two Mars Viking Landers in 1976 and 1977 was inconclusive, at least according the then primitive knowledge of both extreme life that we now know exists on Earth as well as the abundant existence of water and methane on Mars past and present. On Mars, as on Earth, methane is extremely unstable because it's continually being broken up by ultraviolet rays from the Sun and chemical reactions with other gases. The average life of a methane molecule on Mars is 400 years, which means the gas must be continually replenished or it will disappear. Something is producing methane on Mars today -the big question is: What?

There is potentially a vast biosphere a few meters below Mars' surface, which the Viking mission may not have been able to access since it was only scratching the surface of the uppermost layer of soil.

In fact, NASA's first press release about the Viking tests announced that the results were positive. The "labeled Release" (LR) experiments had given positive results. But after lengthy discussions in which Carl Sagan participated, NASA reversed its position, mainly because another experiment detected no organics in the soil.

Yet to this day, Gilbert Levin, the principal designer of the LR experiment, believes the tests pointed to life. When the same two experiments were run on soil from Antarctica, the same conflicting results were obtained (LR – positive; organics – negative.) Soil and ice from Antarctica's Dry Valley certainly contains extreme life forms. The test for organics was negative because it is far less sensitive than the LR experiment. The same problem could have caused the organics test on to give a false negative.

Before oxygen could accumulate in Earth's atmosphere, all the exposed iron had to rust. During that process, lasting hundreds of millions of years, Earth was also a red planet. In the journal Nature, Corinna Wu asked: Could the oxygen that rusted the iron on have been produced biologically? Could life on have simply "run out of steam" after that stage of its development? Awesome new satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface.

The research, by a team from Imperial College London and University College London (UCL), suggests that during the Hesperian Epoch, approximately 3 billion years ago, Mars had lakes made of melted ice, each around 20km wide, along parts of the equator. Earlier research had suggested that Mars had a warm and wet early history but that between 4 billion and 3.8 billion years ago, before the Hesperian Epoch, the planet lost most of its atmosphere and became cold and dry.

In the new study, the researchers analysed detailed images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is currently circling the red planet, and concluded that there were later episodes where Mars experienced warm and wet periods.

3D virtual reality video of Ares Vallis, which is a giant gorge that runs 2000 km across the equator of Mars. The lakes and their interconnecting channels can be seen a third of the way through the video. The researchers say that there may have been increased volcanic activity, meteorite impacts or shifts in Mars' orbit during this period to warm Mars' atmosphere enough to melt the ice. This would have created gases that thickened the atmosphere for a temporary period, trapping more sunlight and making it warm enough for liquid water to be sustained.

The researchers used the images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to analyse several flat-floored depressions located above Ares Vallis, which is a giant gorge that runs 2,000 km across the equator of Mars. Scientists have previously been unable to explain how these depressions formed, but believed that the depressions may have been created by a process known as sublimation, where ice changes directly from its solid state into a gas without becoming liquid water. The loss of ice would have created cavities between the soil particles, which would have caused the ground to collapse into a depression.

In the new study, the researchers analysed the depressions and discovered a series of small sinuous channels that connected them together. The researchers say these channels could only be formed by running water, and not by ice turning directly into gas. The scientists were able to lend further weight to their conclusions by comparing the Mars images to images of thermokarst landscapes that are found on Earth today, in places such as Siberia and Alaska. Thermokarst landscapes are areas where permafrost is melting, creating lakes that are interconnected by the same type of drainage channels found on Mars.

The team believe the melting ice would have created lakes (images at top of page) and that a rise in water levels may have caused some of the lakes to burst their banks, which enabled water to carve a pathway through the frozen ground from the higher lakes and drain into the lower lying lakes, creating permanent channels between them. Professor Jan-Peter Muller, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Department of Space Climate Physics at University College London, was responsible for mapping the 3D shape of the surface of Mars. He adds: "We can now model the 3D shape of Mars' surface down to sub-metre resolution, at least as good as any commercial satellite orbiting the Earth. This allows us to test our hypotheses in a much more rigorous manner than ever before."

The researchers determined the age of the lakes by counting crater impacts, a method originally developed by NASA scientists to determine the age of geological features on the moon. More craters around a geological feature indicate that an area is older than a region with fewer meteorite impacts. In the study, the scientists counted more than 35,000 crater impacts in the region around the lakes, and determined that the lakes formed approximately three billion years ago. The scientists are unsure how long the warm and wet periods lasted during the Hesperian epoch or how long the lakes sustained liquid water in them.

The researchers say their study may have implications for astrobiologists who are looking for evidence of life on Mars. The team say these lake beds indicate regions on the planet where it could have been warm and wet, potentially creating habitats that may have once been suitable for microbial life. The team say these areas may be good targets for future robotic missions. The next step will see the team extend their survey to other areas along the equator of Mars so that they can ascertain how widespread these lakes were during the Hesperian Epoch. The team will focus their surveys on a region at the mouth of Ares Vallis called Chryse Planitia, where preliminary surveys of satellite images have suggested that this area may have also supported lakes.

"If life will develop wherever it has a decent planet, it means that the universe is filled with life," Zubrin says, "And if life is everywhere, it means intelligence is everywhere. It means we're living in an inhabited universe. This is something that thinking men and women have wondered about for thousands of years, and we can find out the answer to this if by going to Mars."

Common sense and 21st century astrobiology gives us the answer before we even make our first undisputed discovery of life on Mars and elsewhere. Future missions, such as NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and the European Space Agency's ExoMars will shed some final light on the debate. It's entirely possible that Mars goes through periods of reawakening of its biosphere during spells when a surge of liquid surface water becomes available from heightened volcanic activity that pump vast quantities of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere and dormant cycles when lengthier cold and dry periods prevail as is the case on Mars today

Daily Galaxy

HISTORY KEYS

Where have names of some stars like Aldebaran, Canopus and Sirius come from? Have a read below to discover some intriguing facts. 

There are billions and billions of stars but only some 6,000 or so are visible to the naked eye. Of those only a handful of the brightest have proper names like Sirius or Betelgeuse. The rest are simply designated by the constellation they are located in preceded by letters of the Greek alphabet (Bayer Letters) such as Alpha Orionis (an alternate for Betelgeuse) or else by numbers after them (Flamsteed Numbers). Thus Betelgeuse is also 58 Orionis.

International Contribution to Astronomy: 

Sirius is well known because it is the brightest star in the night sky. Most people have probably heard of Betelgeuse because of that movie even if it’s often mispronounced as ‘Beetle-juice’ right? But what about other stars that bear exotic names like Gienah, Mira and Mimosa? Or even the strange-sounding Zubeneschamali? Where do these names come from?

It’s no great secret that western astronomy borrowed from other cultural traditions to add to their knowledge base. Thus we see many individual stars and constellations bearing ancient Babylonian, Greek, Arabic and Indian names.

25 Brightest Stars Bearing Proper Names

Perhaps the greatest cross-cultural influence is to be seen in astronomy’s list of the 25 brightest stars in the night skies. Of the 25 only three don’t have proper names at all. The first of these is Alpha Centauri in the constellation of the Centaur which simply bears its Bayer designation as does Beta Crucis in the constellation of the Southern Cross (Crux Australis). Alpha Crucis on the other hand has a shortened version of its Bayer designation becoming simply Acrux.

Dog Day Afternoon

Top of the list is Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major in Latin meaning the ‘Great Dog’ hence its nickname the ‘Dog Star’. Because it rises the same time as the Sun during late summer in the Northern Hemisphere it lent itself to the saying ‘dog days’. Sirius was equally important to the ancient Egyptians who associated it with their goddess Isis.

Just as in Greece its heliacal rising was significant for it heralded the Nile’s annual flooding, the waters fertilizing the fields with silt. This event was of such importance to them that it marked the beginning of their year in the Egyptian Calendar.

Arabic Named Stars

Scorpio has two of its brightest stars listed among the 25. The Arabic name for Scorpio is Al Akrab while the huge red star Antares bears its Latin name ‘rival of Mars’ for its splendid coloring. Its other bright star Shaula is also Arabic from Al Shaulah ‘the sting’ where it lies.

Many other stars have Arabic names such as Altair the brightest star in Aquila the Eagle and the beautiful orange star Aldebaran in Taurus both stars making the coveted list. It’s easy to recognize Arabic names from the prefix ‘Al’, which is the equivalent of ‘the’ in English. Thus Aldebaran means ‘the follower’ because it is seen to follow the stars of the Pleiades across the night skies while Altair means ‘the flying eagle’.

The constellation of Orion the Hunter boasts three bright stars that make the top list – Rigel, Bellatrix and Betelgeuse. Orion’s Arabic equivalent is Al Jabbar ‘the giant’ from which we derive the English word algebra. All three stars are Arabic in origin albeit corrupted in pronunciation. Rigel for the giant’s left leg and Betelgeuse for his armpit. In a loose translation Bellatrix refers to a female warrior and is otherwise called the 'Amazon star'. Other Arabic star names include Hadar (Beta Centauri) meaning ‘ground’ and Adhara (Epsilon Canis Majoris) referring to ‘the Virgin’.

Greek Named Stars

Capella the she-goat star in the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer comes from Greek and is sixth brightest. Although classified as a bright white star it hangs low in the southern hemisphere skies where it dazzles multi-colored like a gem. The brilliant white star Spica in Virgo signifies the ‘ear of wheat’ she holds in her left hand as the Goddess Ceres from which we obtain the word cereal. The legendary Greek twins, Castor and Pollux are identified as two of the brightest stars in Gemini. They were two of the Argonauts that accompanied Jason on his sailing adventures.

In similar maritime fashion Canopus was the chief pilot of Menelaus’ fleet on his return from the destruction of Troy. Sadly whilst still in Egyptian waters twelve miles to Alexandria’s north-east Canopus died. A monument was erected to his memory.

Many more stars with strange and exotic sounding names lie in wait to be discovered. Why not tuck into a star atlas for a good read? References: Allen, Richard Hinckley. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning. New York: Dover Publications, 1963.

Levy, David. Skywatching. Surry Hills: Reader’s Digest, 1995. Related articles: Munya Andrews

Story Opportunities from Australasian Science, July 2010

The True Believers
Are we pre-programmed to believe in weird and wonderful things that lack any significant scientific basis, and are some of us more likely to believe than others?

Climate Change or Natural Variability?
Meteorological records since the 1950s reveal a decrease in rainfall that is consistent with anthropogenic climate change, but a different picture emerges when looking at records since 1900.

Microbe Genes Could Curb Livestock Burps
The DNA sequence of a microbe that produces methane in ruminants provides a target for vaccines and other drugs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.

The Biggest Losers
New evidence tightens the noose on humans as the decisive factor in the extinction of the last of the megafauna in Australia and North America.

It’s a Wiggly, Wiggly Universe
A map of the Universe as it existed six billion years ago is close to completion, and may provide new insights into the physics of dark energy.

A?Matter of Taste
Newborn babies will smile when they first taste sucrose and wrinkle their noses at the bitter taste of quinine. What is the adaptive significance of such innate responses to taste?

The Young Visionaries
Early-career scientists are using goggles that mimic common eye diseases to teach primary school children about their vision research and the importance of eye care.

Evidence for Indigenous Australian Agriculture
The assumption that indigenous Australians did not develop agriculture is highly contestable, with a body of evidence revealing that they developed food production systems and in some cases lived in large villages.

The Hazards of Synthesis
Synthesis of knowledge from different disciplines is underused in research and has hazards for practitioners.

Please cite AUSTRALASIAN SCIENCE MAGAZINE as the source of these stories.

CONTACT:  Guy Nolch (Editor/Publisher) on 03 9500 0015

BOOK REVIEW

Review: Live TV From the Moon

by Dwight Steven-Boniecki
Apogee Books, 2010
soft cover, 248 pp., illus.US$25.95
 

Last week, NASA issued a press release warning the public that NASA TV service would be affected by planned maintenance in the early morning hours last Thursday. That prompted at least one wag to suggest that, without that release, no one would have noticed the outage: most of the time NASA TV hardly qualifies as “must see TV”. One exception is during a mission: space aficionados tune to NASA TV (or, more likely, watch it on the web) for live coverage of a shuttle launch, landing, or other key events, such as EVAs. Today, we tend to notice such live video more by its absence, such as when a Ku-band antenna problem on a recent shuttle mission prevented it from transmitting video to the ground.

Television cameras had to be designed to work in the harsh environment of space and transmit with limited communications bandwidth back to Earth but also be small enough to fit into cramped, mass-constrained spacecraft and still be used by astronauts who were trained as pilots and scientists, not cameramen.

In the early days of the Space Age, though, it was a very different story. Spaceflight was in its infancy, and television at the same time was still coming into its own. In hindsight it made perfect sense to try and use television to provide a live perspective on these early missions, offering a way for the public to follow along in a way not possible ever before in the history of exploration, be it in space or on the Earth. However, that effort was fraught with obstacles, both technical and institutional, as recounted in Dwight Steven-Boniecki’s new book, Live TV From the Moon.

The obvious challenge to providing live TV from space, be it Earth orbit or the surface of the Moon, was technical. Television cameras had to be designed to work in the harsh environment of space and transmit with limited communications bandwidth back to Earth but also be small enough to fit into cramped, mass-constrained spacecraft and still be used by astronauts who were trained as pilots and scientists, not cameramen. That’s a tall order, yet within a decade, thanks to efforts by teams at companies like RCA and Westinghouse, TV cameras evolved from a crude slow scan black-and-white camera flown on the last Mercury mission to remotely-controlled color TV cameras mounted on the lunar rover and providing, among other things, the only view of the launch of the lunar module from the surface of the Moon.

Technology, though, was only half the battle. As Steven-Boniecki recounts, there was opposition within NASA, including within the astronaut corps, to including TV cameras on their missions. They saw the cameras as distractions not essential to completing their missions, while taking up precious mass in the cramped spacecraft. The debate lasted well into the Apollo program. Frank Borman, commander of Apollo 8, was one initial critic of including TV cameras on the mission, believing that it served no purpose in carrying out the mission. “I didn’t want to take the damn television camera with me,” he recalls in the book. He was overruled by mission planners, though, and later realized his original views were “short sighted”. “It turned out to be so important because we could share what we saw with the world.”

Remarkably, even after Apollo 8 there was still a perception by some at NASA that television was not essential to the mission. In the final months of planning for the historic Apollo 11 mission there was debate as to whether include a TV camera on the lunar lander: scientists, for example, has no objection to including it, but had no requirement for it as well. It took the intervention of key people in the program, including Chris Kraft and public affairs director Julian Scheer, to get the camera included in order to show the American public what their tax dollars had financed. Even then, a NASA report on the mission prepared less than a month before launch and quoted in the book bent over backwards to provide a more technical rationale for the camera’s inclusion, including as “a supplemental real time data source to assure or enhance the scientific and operational data return.”

Apollo 8’s Frank Borman originally opposed live TV on his mission, but later changed his mind. “It turned out to be so important because we could share what we saw with the world.” Live TV From the Moon does a good job of recounting both the technical and other issues associated with providing live TV from space, from Mercury through Apollo 17. One minor drawback to the book is that, while it includes many stills of the TV transmissions from those missions, they are all in black and white, even those from the later Apollo missions that had color TV. However, the book does come with a DVD that includes a variety of materials, from the video of the liftoffs of the last three Apollo lunar modules taken by the color camera mounted on the lunar rover to a half-hour Westinghouse documentary of their work on the lunar TV camera systems.

There is also a video of a press conference last year to discuss the search for the “missing tapes” of the live video of Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the Moon that may be of higher quality than what was broadcast to the world because of conversion and transmission losses; those tapes, NASA concluded, were likely reused, their historic imagery lost.

In a mid-1960s journal article, John Lowrance, an engineering team manager at RCA, wrote that providing live TV would allow “a vicarious participation by the television audience in the most exciting and significant exploration of modern times and perhaps of all time.” Despite the naysayers who were focused tightly on carrying out the mission, that statement proved correct: the public was riveted, at least initially, to their television sets by what just a few years earlier would have seemed like science fiction: people walking on the Moon. It’s worth noting, though, that this interest quickly subsided; the novel became banal at nearly the speed of light.

Today, we’ve come to expect live TV as a given for any human space mission, an expectation that will carry over to whatever effort for human exploration beyond Earth orbit that emerges from the current debate about NASA’s future direction. And, as the agency’s interest in so-called “participatory exploration” demonstrates, NASA now realizes that live TV is a necessary, but alone not sufficient, component of any effort to promote “vicarious participation”—and thus sustained interest—by the public in those future journeys.  Jeff Foust

Events

Call for Papers

10th Australian Space Science Conference

27th to 30th September 2010

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit an abstract for the 10th Australian Space Science Conference (ASSC), to be held in Brisbane at the University of Queensland. This will be the fourth ASSC jointly sponsored and organized by the National Committee for Space Science (NCSS) and the National Space Society of Australia (NSSA). This year the Australian Space research Institute (ASRI) is also helping. The ASSC is intended to be the primary annual meeting for Australian research relating to space science. It welcomes space scientists, engineers, educators, and workers in Industry and Government.

This year's ASSC will run in conjunction with the NCSS's workshop on implementing Australia's first Decadal Plan for Space Science, which will shortly be published. This one-day workshop will discuss the Plan and Government's responses, better link the scientific community and associated stakeholders in Government and industry, and start implementing the Plan's recommendations. This year, there will also be a dedicated session to showcase ASRI research, as well as others on space technology and engineering more generally, plus a dedicated session for Australian government units with interests and expertise in space.

 Complete details of all registration rates and details of accommodation will be available in early July. There are now less than 3 weeks remaining for abstract submission, as the deadline of July 11 approaches! The proceedings for peer-reviewed papers from the 2009 conference are now available to view at URL: http://www.nssa.com.au/9assc/downloads/9assc-proceedings-lores.pdf Please make the conference known to your colleagues. We hope that you will attend. You may email asscconference@nssa.com.au for more information. Wayne Short, Co-Chair, National Space Society of Australia Iver Cairns, Co-Chair, National Committee for Space Science, University of Sydney

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