ISSUE 3 August 2009

Here’s a selection of Astronomy/Space related stories you may find interesting. Be sure to sign up for your own copy of Astro Space News, delivered automatically to you each week. I absolutely do not disclose your address to anyone!

Feel free to forward this information to your friends and colleagues for their use. There is no cost and no obligation for this service. Anyone can subscribe by completing the opt in form just over there … see it, do it now!

We work 24/7/365 to report the most relevant ‘Astro-Space’ news back to you … virtually as it breaks. Bookmark this page and check back regularly.

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.If you experience problems and need a printed copy email me and I’ll get a copy to you.

AUSTRALASIAN SCIENCE MAGAZINE

Get your science news straight from the scientists themselves. No hype, no spin, no bull: just the facts.Australia’s most inspiring scientists choose to write about their world-class discoveries in Australasian Science, Australia’s only monthly science magazine.

Australasian Science is dedicated to Australian and New Zealand science, providing a unique local perspective on scientific developments and issues that other science magazines can’t match. Australasian Science boasts Australia’s most experienced team of science journalists, including Australia’s only two international Science Journalism Laureates.

Its Patrons are Nobel Laureate Prof Peter Doherty and renowned science broadcaster Robyn Williams, representing excellence in science and its communication. Written in simple language, Australasian Science is a unique and independent source of news and commentary on local scientific developments.

Check out the latest issue NOW: http://www.australasianscience.com.au/

For school & institution rates please contact Control Publications on 03 9500 0015. Fax: (03) 9500 0255 Email science@control.com.au

Letters To Dave

Hi Dave

I am half way through your story (Apllo-11 E-Book). Excellent in every respect. You may not believe this but I can remember the day of the Moon landing very well. I was riding my motor bike to work (I had just started work after leaving school) on a gravel road and fell off! Not badly hurt but watched the landing in bed! Recovering from grazes and a dent in my bullet proof attitude! Cheers Mike

Dave,

I have only in the past few days signed up to your website for a newsletter. I have been listening to you on abc radio am 630 North Queensland for some time and I love to listen to the information you have to share.Keep up the great work.

Dez Kirwan. Townsville

Hi Dave,

I listen to you on Coast FM (Sunshine Coast ABC) and really enjoy hearing about what goes on ‘up there’. Don’t always catch you, though so thought I would check out your website. I have just sent a link to my grandchildren as they will be interested in the kid’s links. Keep up the good work,

Cheers, Diane.

Hi David,

To introduce myself, I am a special correspondent with The Times of India and the main focus of my coverage is space. I have written extensively about the Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, and recently did a number of stories relating to the 40th anniv of Apollo 11. In short I am a space buff!!!! This morning while surfing the net, I read about ur book–”Apollo 11 The Untold Story.” I am extremely keen on reading it and maybe if an opportunity arises in future I can certainly refer the contents in one of my future reports. Please advice how I can read the full book. Looking forward to your response and wishing you a pleasant day.

Thanks and regards. Srinivas Laxman

TWO NEW PUBLICATIONS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

- Book and Magazine reviews by Dave Reneke -

ROCKET MEN by Craig Nelson                                  UNIGALACTIC Space Travel Magazine

UniGalactic Space Travel Magazine was launched with the first issue published on May 29, 2009.

In the first year of release, UniGalactic will be issued every 2 months and are committed to increasing the frequency of publishing the magazine to once a month starting in May, 2010.

You’ll find articles on a variety of topics including but not limited to SpaceX’s and Virgin Galactic’s space tourism developments, international space station, Mars missions, future space launches, as well as outer space news. UniGalactic Space Travel Magazine purchased through subscription will be available in the continental United States only. Amazon, however, will ship ANYWHERE in the Globe.

Footnote from Dave: I’m so impressed with this magazine and it’s contents that I’ve asked to write for them and have been accepted. I highly recommend this publication forit’s different slant and content we don’t normally get a chance to hear about in Oz.

Subscribe to UniGalactic Space Travel Magazine Website: Click here

DVDs – Limited Offer

Purchase Any Two DVDs and Receive The Third DVD

ABSOLUTELY FREE

NEW … Check them out here

* Part of the proceeds go towads running Dave’s Schools       ‘Astronomy Outreach’ program.

Still Available - over 700 downloads in one week!

Dave Reneke’s New E-Book

‘APOLLO 11 – The Untold Story’

Over 50 Things You Didn’t Know About The First Moon Landing

OVER 40 PAGES OF FACTS, PHOTOS, STORIES AND BOOK REVIEWS… PLUS MUCH MORE!

More details here

******************************************************************************

WINNERS

E BOOK WINNERS ON JEFF BURZACOTT’S EARLY MORNING PROGRAM ON 5AA ADELAIDE MONDAY 27 JULY

CONGRATULATIONS! Adrian – South Australia AND David P. South Australia

Thanks for appearing on the show and congratulations on winning, I hope you both enjoy my first E-Book which will be emailed to you shortly. All the best. Astro Dave

******************************************************************************

This Week’s Top Story

Space Tourism Takes A giant Step

Attendees at the AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin were treated with watching Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo take flight. On board the mothership – which will launch space tourism and science customers into space – was none other than Vigin’s founder Richard Branson.

“This was one of the most incredible experiences of my life,” Branson said after the flight. “It’s a beautiful aircraft to fly and its incredibly light carbon construction and efficient design points the way to a much brighter future for commercial aviation as well as the industrial revolution in space which I believe our entire space launch system heralds.”

Branson and Virgin Galactic also signed an agreement last week at the air show for an Abu Dhabi-based investment group to buy almost a third of the space tourism company.

Aabar Investments received 32 percent of the company for $280 million. Virgin would like to see the WhiteKnightTwo used to launch small payloads into orbit, similar to how Orbital Sciences’ Pegasus launcher operates.

Branson says most people never thought this would ever be a reality. He says he still pinches himself when he realizes he’s only a couple years away from becoming an astronaut. The money from Aabar will go toward developing Virgin Galactic’s orbital capability, and it’s hoped the first satellite launches can take place in three years. Watch WhiteKnightTwo Take Flight (Video)

Virgin Galactic

Who’s First?

Virgin Group’s billionaire chairman Richard Branson says he hopes to have a spaceship ready in time to take his 92-year-old father and 89-year-old mother into space with him. He said last Monday he promised they could come. Branson was at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual AirVenture convention. He spoke to the press while waiting for Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo to land. Dad, feeling his age, has only one message to Richrd, “Hurry up!”

Sources: Technology Review, Richard Branson’s Blog

More Astro Space News

What If There Is Only One Universe?

When it comes to universes, perhaps one is enough after all.

Many theories in physics and cosmology require the existence of alternate, or parallel, universes. But Dr. Lee Smolin of Waterloo, Canada, explains the flaws of theories that suggest our universe is just one of many, and which also perpetuate the notion that time does not exist.

Smolin explains how theories describing a myriad of possible universes, or a “multiverse”, with many dimensions and particles and forces have become more popular in the last few years. However, through his work with the Brazilian philosopher Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Smolin believes that multiverse theories, which imply that time is not a fundamental concept, are “profoundly mistaken”.

Smolin says a timeless multiverse means our laws of physics can’t be determined from experiment. And he explains the unclear connection between fundamental laws, which are unique and applicable universally, and effective laws, which hold based on what we can actually observe.

Smolin suggests new principles that rethink the notion of physical law to apply to a single universe. These principles say there is only one universe; that all that is real is real in a moment, as part of a succession of moments; and that everything real in each moment is a process of change leading to future moments. As he explains, “If there is just one universe, there is no reason for a separation into laws and initial conditions, as we want a law to explain just one history of one universe.”

He hopes these principles will bring a fresh adventure in science.

If we accept there is only one universe and that time is a fundamental property of nature, then this opens up the possibility that the laws of physics evolve with time. As Smolin writes, “The notion of transcending our time-bound experiences in order to discover truths that hold timelessly is an unrealizable fantasy. When science succeeds, we do nothing of the sort; what we physicists really do is discover laws that hold in the universe we experience within time. This, I would claim, should be enough; anything beyond that is more a religious urge for transcendence than science.”

Petrol Stations In Space

The panel reviewing NASA’s long-range plans is giving a new boost to the old idea of setting up orbital fueling stations for spaceflight. If the space agency and the White House go down that route, it would mark a dramatic change in direction for future journeys beyond Earth orbit.

Some would say that’s just what the nation’s space effort needs.

The idea of setting up a permanent infrastructure for travel in deep space was floated on Thursday during a hearing in Cocoa Beach, Fla., conducted by the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee.

Panel members who have been focusing on future travel beyond Earth orbit spoke favorably of the fuel-depot idea, and it’s likely to appear as one of the options in a final report that’s due by the end of August. It will be up to NASA and the White House to decide which option to pursue and how much money to spend. (The current ballpark figure is US$80 billion over 10 years.)

Basically, here’s how a fuel-depot system would change the spaceflight situation:

Spaceships currently have to carry all the fuel they’d need for an entire trip at once. That was the case for the Apollo-Saturn missions of the 1960s and the space shuttle missions of the past 28 years. If fuel depots were built in orbit, however, spaceships coming up from Earth’s “gravity well” could fill ‘er up and continue their journey with a full tank of gas (or, say, liquid oxygen and hydrogen). Alternatively, you could design a different sort of transfer vehicle, optimized for making the trip from one orbital spaceport to another rather than launching and landing.

That would lighten the load for launch vehicles leaving Earth, since they wouldn’t have to carry all the fuel for a long trip at once. And it might reduce the need to develop a new heavy-lift vehicle like the Ares V. You could get by instead with a smaller booster, launched empty and fueled up in orbit. “It really is a game changer,” Jeff Greason, chief executive officer of California-based XCOR Aerospace and a member of the review panel, was quoted as saying in a New York Times report on the hearing.

The idea has been floated before. As the Apollo program was winding down, planners at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama touched upon orbital fuel depots as a key piece of space infrastructure for deep-space flights. At the time, the space shuttle was little more than a twinkle in the space agency’s eye. “An orbital modular propellant storage depot, supplied periodically by the space shuttle or Earth-to-orbit fuel tankers, would be critical in making available large amounts of fuel to various orbital vehicles and spacecraft,” NASA said in 1971. (The artwork above conceptualized how the system might look.)

NASA’s space ambitions didn’t pan out the way those planners planned. The cost of building the infrastructure for those deep-space trips was deemed too high, with too little payoff. As a result, no manned spacecraft has gone beyond Earth orbit since Apollo was shut down.

Five years ago, when President George W. Bush announced a new goal of returning to the moon by 2020, NASA turned to an “Apollo on steroids” approach that passed up orbital refueling. The plan did call for a maneuver that would link up moon-bound crews with their fueled-up transfer vehicles, however. Now the Bush-era vision is being reviewed by Obama-era officials, and many of the previously laid plans are open for discussion again.

Long Duration Space Underwear

As Japan’s first astronaut to spend long duration missions on board the International Space Station, Koichi Wakata has had the opportunity to do all sorts of interesting experiments the past few months.

For example, he conducted several different cellular growth and crystal growth experiments, and has even flown a magic carpet in space. One other experiment has been – shall we say – kept under wraps. Wakata has been wearing the same underwear on board the ISS for two months.”(For) two months I was wearing these underwear and there was no smell and nobody complained,” Wakata, said. “I think that new J-ware underwear is very good for myself and my colleagues.”

Wakata has been wearing special underwear and other clothing called “J-ware” designed for the Japanese space agency. Apparently the clothes are treated with antibacterial and deodorizing materials. In addition to odor control, the clothes are designed to absorb water, insulate the body and dry quickly. They also are flame-resistant and anti-static — as well as comfortable and attractive.

Typically, clothes can only be worn for a few days in space, and especially the clothing worn by astronauts as they exercise. Since there’s no laundromat in space, the clothing is discarded as garbage.

Astronaut Takao Doi, who flew with a shuttle crew last year to deliver Japan’s Kibo laboratory to the station, exercised as much as his crewmates, but his clothes stayed dry. Wakata’s clothes include long- and short-sleeved shirts, pants, shorts and underwear. Special socks have a separate pouch for the big toes so the astronauts can use their feet like an extra pair of hands, helpful for anchoring themselves on the floor while doing work on the station.

Originally, Wakata was scheduled to wear the underwear for just a couple of weeks. But obviously, he decided to go the long duration route.t least he wasn’t testing this other option proposed by JAXA. Read more about these special underwear here.

Discovery News

Could Atmosphere of Venus Harbor Life?

Scientists suspect that Venus’s atmosphere might hide extraterrestrial lifeforms, and in the ultimate safari ever, they want to go there and capture them with a flying balloon. Interplanetary travel, extraterrestrial life, and Venusian airships – anyone doing anything other than science is missing out.

Venus doesn’t score very highly when we think of life-capable planets – with surface pressures twenty times those of Earth and temperatures which can melt tin and vaporise mercury, it’s not a a good place for organics. In fact, it’s not a good place for Terminators.

But go up far enough and you find clouds with Earth-like temperatures, pressures, even chemistry (at least as far as original ingredients go). The fact that Venus boiled off all its oceans and turned them into sulfuric acid doesn’t cancel out the fact there’s water and heat aplenty.

In fact, the sulphur might help. High above the Venusian surface the atmosphere is bathed in ultraviolet radiation, aka “That stuff that burns big things and kills small ones”, but Professor Ingersoll (of the Californian Institute of Technology) believe that extraplanetary microbes could learn to use these chemicals as a sunscreen – if they haven’t adapted to UV altogether.

We’ve already seen Earth-borne bacteria surviving high in the clouds or in acidic environments, and the fact we haven’t seen both at the same time is only because Earth doesn’t have places like that. Some suggest that Venus’s conversion from an early Earth-a-like to a fair approximation of hell might have been slow – slow enough to allow life to occur, then evolve to adapt to a narrowing habitable zone.

There’s even a NASA option to fly there, deploy a floating collector, and rocket the samples back to Earth for analysis.

Daily Galaxy

Massive Black Holes Roaming Edge of Milky Way

New calculations by Ryan O’Leary and Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics suggest that hundreds of massive rogue black holes, left over from the galaxy-building days of the early universe, may wander the Milky Way.

The Earth appears safe, however, with the closest rogue black hole thousands of light-years away.

“These black holes are relics of the Milky Way’s past,” said Loeb. “You could say that we are archaeologists studying those relics to learn about our galaxy’s history and the formation history of black holes in the early universe.”

According to theory, rogue black holes originally lurked at the centers of tiny, low-mass galaxies. Over billions of years, those dwarf galaxies smashed together to form full-sized galaxies like the Milky Way.

Each time two proto-galaxies with central black holes collided, their black holes merged to form a single, “relic” black hole. During the merger, directional emission of gravitational radiation would cause the black hole to recoil. A typical kick would send the black hole speeding outward fast enough to escape its host dwarf galaxy, but not fast enough to leave the galactic neighborhood completely. As a result, such black holes would still be around today in the outer reaches of the Milky Way halo.

One telltale sign could mark a rogue black hole: a surrounding cluster of stars yanked from the dwarf galaxy when the black hole escaped. Only the stars closest to the black hole would be tugged along, so the cluster would be very compact. “The surrounding star cluster acts much like a lighthouse that pinpoints a dangerous reef,” explained O’Leary. “Without the shining stars to guide our way, the black holes would be all but impossible to find.”

The number of rogue black holes in our galaxy depends on how many of the proto-galactic building blocks contained black holes at their cores, and how those proto-galaxies merged to form the Milky Way. Finding and studying them will provide new clues about the history of our galaxy

“Until now, astronomers were not searching for such a population of highly compact star clusters in the Milky Way’s halo,” said Loeb. “Now that we know what to expect, we can examine existing sky surveys for this new class of objects.”

Daily Galaxy

Asteroid Alerts Come to Twitter

Alerts about asteroids cruising near Earth have come to Twitter. @AsteroidWatch will let you know any time a space rock gets within a few lunar distances. Much more asteroid info will be distributed via a new NASA/JPL website. (Though if you want to know if a nuke is the best way to stop an asteroid, you’ll still need to come to Wired Science.)

“Most people have a fascination with near-Earth objects,” Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a press release. “And I have to agree with them. I have studied them for over three decades and I find them to be scientifically fascinating, and a few are potentially hazardous to Earth.”

The recent collision between a comet and Jupiter underscored the very real presence of possibly dangerous space objects in the solar system.

The Twitter feed, @lowflyingrocks, already uses NASA’s raw data to let you know after an asteroid has passed the Earth. But the site tells you about every rock within 0.2 astronomical units — that’s more than 18 million miles — so you get a ton of updates. @AsteroidWatch will be choosier about the near-earth objects it tells you about. Only rocks that come within a scant 750,000 miles or so of Earth will earn a Tweet.

With previous Twitter accounts, NASA employees have created voices for the various robots and machines that the agency operates. Some, like @MarsPhoenix, were cute and cuddly. Perhaps the proper voice for the near earth object warning system will be slightly more urgent and prone to profanity.

Any kind of personality would be an improvement on @lowflyingrock’s robotic language. Its last Tweet went a little something like this: “2007 LL, ~220m-490m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 6km/s, missing by ~twenty-seven million, five hundred thousand km.”

Star Trek Type Ion Drive Aiming At Mars

Nuclear-powered plasma drives carrying men to Mars – the fact we can say that as a future instead of fiction makes us so happy! Tests on a new kind of ion drive establish that’s already applicable to orbital operations, and could be the breakthrough that blasts us to the next planet.

We’ve already covered first stage tests of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), but now – as electro-rocket scientists at Ad Astra power through second stage testing – people are already looking much further afield. VASIMR’s upgrade over previous plasma engines mean it could have a permanent place in orbit, moving satellites and stations around for free by making use of solar power (tests on the International Space Station are scheduled for 2013).

But never mind being a parking assistant for a crowded orbit – it’s time to adventure! Forward-thinkers say that VASIMR’s continuous thrust could be what we need to get to Mars. The technology to maybe bang a bucket of bolts together and half-land it on Mars has been around for a while – the real race is against time, with the inconvenient fact that most of space is trying to kill us.

You have to get there before the radiation that soaks interplanetary space becomes too much, and the superconducting plasma rocket could cut the trip down to 39 days – within what we’re able to do with our soft flesh. Which means that those guys who just finished 105 days of isolation experiment are officially 2.7 times as prepared as they need to be.

This ambitious objective would mean making a few changes to craft design. Strapping in a nuclear reactor, for one thing, as the energy requirments of crossing interplanetary space is a little beyond what we can get from solar power without panels the size of cities. But really, if you’re landing on a new planet, doesn’t being strapped to a nuclear reaction just make it MORE awesome?

Daily Galaxy

NASA and Google Launch Virtual Exploration of the Moon

Forty years ago on July 20, 1969, the world watched as the crew of Apollo 11 took the first steps on the surface of the moon. To celebrate this historic occasion, NASA and Google announced the launch of the Moon in Google Earth, an interactive, 3D atlas of the moon, viewable with Google Earth 5.0.

The announcement was made during a press conference featuring remarks by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin; Alan Eustace, a Google senior vice president; Andrew Chaikin, author and space historian; and Anousheh Ansari, the first female space tourist.

With the Moon in Google Earth, users can explore a virtual moonscape, follow guided tours from astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Jack Schmidt, view high-resolution “street view” style panoramic images and see previously unreleased footage captured from the lunar surface.

Whether rediscovering iconic moments from the history of lunar exploration, or learning about them for the first time, the Moon in Google Earth enables users to better understand the moon and mankind’s relationship to it using an immersive, 3D experience.

The result of a close collaboration with NASA, the Moon in Google Earth showcases current and historic content about the moon. All NASA data sets used in the Moon in Google Earth are included on a non-exclusive basis.

“This announcement builds on the ongoing relationship with Google that Ames Research Center initiated in November 2006, when we signed a Space Act Agreement to foster collaboration with our Silicon Valley neighbor,” said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center. “We’re excited to be a part of this latest chapter in Google’s efforts to bring virtual exploration of the moon to anyone with a computer.”In addition to satellite imagery and topographical data, the following layers can be explored:

* Featured Satellite Imagery – Explore overlaid satellite imagery and detailed descriptions of selected areas on the moon from Arizona State University’s “Lunar Image of the Week.”

* Spacecraft Imagery – View selected imagery captured by the Apollo Metric Camera, and the Clementine and the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft.

* Apollo Missions – Travel back to the Apollo era and discover the landing sites of Apollo missions 11-17. Explore “street view” style panoramic images, watch previously unreleased footage from spacecraft films and read about the places astronauts saw on their trips to the moon.

* Guided Tours – Take a narrated tour of the moon with Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11) and Jack Schmitt (Apollo 17)

* Historic Maps – Explore Apollo-era geologic and topographic maps of the moon.

* Human Artifacts – Learn about the various types of exploratory equipment that humans have left on the moon and where those objects can be found today.

To learn more about Moon in Google Earth, visit: earth.google.com

On Mars,  Rover Spots Large Meteorite

The Opportunity rover has come across an odd-shaped, large, dark rock, about 0.6 meters (2 feet) across on the surface of Mars, which may be a meteorite.

The rover team spotted the rock called “Block Island,” on July 18, 2009, in the opposite direction from which it was driving. The team then had the rover do a hard right (not really, but you know what I mean) and backtrack some 250 meters (820 feet) to study it closer.

Oppy has been studying the rock with its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to get composition measurements and to confirm if indeed it is a meteorite. Right, see a close-up, colorized version of Block Island and a 3-D version, both created by Photoshopper Extraordinaire Stu Atkinson.

Pic: Block Island close up and colorized. Credit: NASA/JPL, with image editing by Stuart Atkinson

Block Island really does have a meteorite-like look to it. Stu suggested on his blog that it looks like several meteorites found on Earth, such as one of the Derrick Peak meteorites found in Antarctica, shown below. The Derrick Peak meteorites are iron meteorites, and about 27 were found in one location in Antarctica. Researchers believe they all came from one meteor shower.

Universe Today

Large Meteor Shower Headed Our Way

Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, the source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Although the shower won’t peak until August 11th and 12th, the show is already getting underway.

Don’t get too excited, we’re just in the outskirts of the debris stream now. If you go out at night and stare at the sky, you’ll probably only see a few Perseids per hour. This will change, however, as August unfolds.

Earth passes through the densest part of the debris stream Sometime on August 12th. Then, you could see dozens of meteors per hour.

For most sky watchers it all begins after nightfall on August 12th and continues until sunrise. Veteran observers suggest the following strategy: Unfold a Blanket on a flat patch of ground. (Note: The middle of your street is not a good choice.) Lie down and look up. Perseids can appear in any part of the sky. Get away from city lights if you can.

There is one light you cannot escape on August 12th. The 55% gibbous Moon will glare down just next door to the shower’s radiant in Perseus. The Moon is beautiful, but don’t stare at it. Bright moonlight ruins night vision and it will wipe out any faint Perseids in that part of the sky.

Earthgrazers might appear which are meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond. They are long, slow and colorful-among the most beautiful of meteors. An hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile.

The Perseids are coming. Enjoy the show.

NASA

Are We the Sole Intelligent Life in the Milky Way?

The “Rare Earth” hypothesis is the idea that life is a staggeringly unlikely event, and that the reason we haven’t seen hide nor hair of aliens is that there aren’t any. It’s had some time in the spotlight, it makes us sound very important, and it’s wrong.

The Rare Earth argument ignores a number of essential factors, the first being how staggeringly huge the numbers involved are. Even the Milky Way has 200 to 400 billion stars, and it’s only one of a hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe, and there have been billions of years for things to happen. Countering “it’s really unlikely” with “but there are lots of things!” might sound weak, but it’s the Rare Earthers who are taking the burden of proof – claiming that nothing happens anywhere else ever. The more places there are, the worse their argument gets.

Geologist Peter Ward and astrobiologist Donald Brownlee, both of the University of Washington have outlined a short list of conditions needed: Right distance from a star; habitat for complex life; liquid water near surface; far enough to avoid tidal lock; right mass of star with long enough lifetime and not too much ultraviolet; stable planetary orbits; right planet mass to maintain atmosphere and ocean with a solid molten core and enough heat for plate tectonics; a Jupiter-like neighbor to clear out comets and asteroids; plate tectonics to build up land mass, enhance bio-diversity, and enable a magnetic field; not too much, nor too little ocean; a large moon at the right distance to stabilize tilt; a small Mars-like neighbor as possible source to seed Earth-like planet; maintenance of adequate temperature, composition and pressure for plants and animals; a galaxy with enough heavy elements, not too small, ellipitcal or irregular; right position the galaxy;; and, of course, biological evolution.

Claims that there aren’t many suitable planets over all these stars are like hiding in a closet and claiming there’s no such thing as coffee tables – we’re now detecting planets at an ever-increasing rate, because now we have technology actually capable of detecting planets. Almost as soon as we try any new planet-detecting technique it detects a whole bunch of the things. We’re even edging into the ability to find Earth-size planets, and what do you know? There they are! And some even have water!

The second slip-up is ignoring the suitability of the laws of physics to life – or rather, the suitability of our form of life to the laws of physics. The idea of someone sitting in pre-existence limbo and tuning the weak nuclear force in order to create bald monkeys is patently ridiculous, as is the idea that only a tiny range of values could give rise to any repeating pattern – our pattern, DNA, is just the one that happened to work for the collection of constants we call reality.

Once life is possible in a universe, expecting it to occur in one place only is like leaving a loaf of bread and expecting exactly one slice to go moldy. Life just happens here – thermodynamic math has shown that amino acids simply will be built anywhere their components can be found. Since those components are on the periodic table, the literal “this is what happens in this universe” list, they’re going to be all over. Assuming aliens don’t come up with another pattern anyway (increasing the odds again).

Claiming that we’re the only life in existence is a combination of ignorance and self-importance.

Daily Galaxy

Download The Evening Sky Map:

The Evening Sky Map (PDF) is a 2-page monthly guide to the night sky suitable for all sky watchers including newcomers to Astronomy. AND its entirely FREE.

Designed to print clearly on all printers, The Evening Sky Map is ready-to-use and will help you to:

• Identify planets, stars and major constellations
• Find sparkling star clusters, wispy nebulae & distant galaxies
• Locate and follow bright comets across the sky
• Learn about the night sky and Astronomy

The Evening Sky Map is free for personal non-commercial educational use. Astronomy Education and Outreach groups may freely distribute printed handouts of The Evening Sky Map subject to the Terms of Use.

Follow Skymaps.com on Twitter. Receive news of updated sky maps, reminders of Sky Calendar events, and other noteworthy news for sky watchers. And it’s FREE! Sky Map Download

Book Review

Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon

From the outset, I’d like to say that this was one of the best books I’ve ever read on the race to land a man on the Moon. It was one of those books that I didn’t want to put down. When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon it galvanized the entire world… I was one of the billion or so people watching that day. Sadly, the climax of the space race seems dim and shadowed now 40 years later, lost among the mysteries of the cold war. Nelson acknowledges that and like me, laments its passing.

Craig Nelson sheds light on Apollo’s complicated story in Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon. His point is made from the start as he ably combines the history of the time with the fallout that came in the aftermath of those great adventures. Nelson’s book explores the work of the men who went to the moon through their own words and deeds. In doing so, it personalizes the book.

Included are numerous anecdotes that give you a sense of perspective about the mission, given our huge leap in technology since. Nelson reports that both Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin carried slide rules with them to the moon and reminds us that our digital watches carry more computing power than the lunar lander! With a hard drive rated at 74kb you sort of stop for a moment and reflect on just how many obstacles Armstrong and Aldrin had to overcome. Wait till you find out how NASA were worried the astronauts would return carrying ‘moon germs’ – now that’s quirky Craig!

The concepts of Rocket Men are well defined from the start. Nelson’s book is a masterpiece of space history. He has a way of taking you back to the time, almost like standing in the control room, as the mission unfolds. Becoming engrossed in the expanding timeline and then being jerked back to reality by Nelson with incisive comment, witty examples and photos that compliment the text are, to me, the hallmarks of a writer who knows his craft. The notes included at the back of the book are extensive, almost obsessively so, and the book’s sources are similarly treated.

Nelson begins his account of the Apollo missions as the mighty Saturn V rocket arrives at its launch pad. The story unfolds as implacably as the countdown itself as the astronauts lock down their helmets and plug in their suits while engineers tick off maddening, endless lists of tasks; wives cringe and smoke as reporters trample one another for vantage points.

The gravity of “Rocket Men” increases once Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins are safely in orbit and Nelson steps back to consider the strange history of rocket science and spaceflight in the 20th century. There’s a great deal of ground to cover here as he highlights the efforts of pioneer rocket engineers like Robert Goddard, German whiz Werner von Braun, and Soviet designer Sergei Korolyov battling health problems and the suspicion of the Soviet hierarchy.

It’s here that Nelson’s narrative and analytic skills are most effectively put to use weaving the political and cultural history of the cold war together with the more ancient strands of science and wonder that attend it. Nelson returns to Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins en route to the moon. His account of the mission relies heavily on long quotes, and in places the sequence of events drags a little, but when Nelson conveys the worries, wonder, and sheer delight the astronauts felt when they landed on the moon you forgive him. Again you’re taken on a personal ride

On the negative side there are occasional missteps and flat notes, and in some early chapters I found the continuity had to follow. A minor flaw though as Nelson eventually threads his way back to find you again and draws you once more into a time that will never come again. At just on 350 pages I thought the book could have been reduced in size somewhat by the removal of some of the more superfluous ‘facts’ and digressions that added little to the context of the book.

What did the book accomplish? Well, Nelson manages a formidable task here, tackling not only the complex story of Apollo, but the massive literature spawned by the space race. I found compelling evidence to believe much of the moon landing was luck, tempered with a lot of sheer guts, blood, sweat and the efforts of more than 400,000 people who worked on the project.

The book has a similar feel as Deborah Cadbury’s 2006 book ‘Space Race’ and I found similarities in both authors writing styles. Would I recommend Nelson’ book to anyone even remotely interested in man’s landing on the Moon? You bet! Would I suggest it as a definitive text to a future historian or up and coming space academic – of course.

Buy Now: Best Price $15.06 Craig Nelson Rocket Men

== In The Sky This Week ==

The full Moon is Thursday August 6. The Moon passes in front of the bright star Sigma Scorpii around 10:15pm (AEST) on Friday July 31. Mercury is now visible in the evening twilight, low in the western sky. Saturn is visible in the early evening and can be easily seen as the second brightest object above the north-western horizon but now sets around 9:00pm local time.

Jupiter is easily seen as the brightest object above the eastern horizon from around 9pm local time. On Thursday August 6 the Moon is near Jupiter. Jupiter’s moons are readily visible in binoculars or a small telescope. In the morning, Venus and Mars are readily visible in the eastern sky. Red Mars is below the A-shaped Hyades cluster, which forms the head of Taurus the Bull.

Bright white Venus is well below Aldebaran, and forms a triangle with Aldebaran and red Betelguese in Orion.

http://abcmail.net.au/t/581652/682450/1764/0/

International Year of Astronomy 2009 reaches its six-month milestone

As the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) reaches its six-month milestone, over a million people have already looked at the sky through a telescope for the first time, and even more have newly engaged in astronomy. This is just one of many achievements, as countless ongoing projects and planned initiatives indicate that the IYA2009 is well on the way towards achieving many of its goals.

The IYA2009 is a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, with events at national, regional and global levels throughout the whole of 2009. Now, halfway through 2009, much has been achieved and even more can be expected in the future.

The Galileoscope project headlines the IYA2009. With the aim of providing low-cost telescopes that offer views far better than those obtained by Galileo Galilei some 400 years ago, the venture has picked up significant pace since the IYA2009 began. By the end of July, the first 60 000 Galileoscopes will have been shipped, and a further 100 000 are currently in production. More than 4000 Galileoscopes have been generously donated by the IYA2009 and individuals to organisations and schools in developing countries. This gesture aptly demonstrates the commitment of astronomy enthusiasts to the IYA2009 goal of making the skies accessible to all.

But perhaps the most impressive figures for the IYA2009 have come from the national activities that have brought together hundreds of thousands of people in many countries for astronomy-themed events. For example, more than 400 000 people gathered for the Sunrise Event on New Year’s Day in Busan City, South Korea. In Brazil, more than 750 000 students participate from 32 500 schools. In Norway, every student from grades 5-11 will soon receive a free astronomy kit, including a Galileoscope and an educational guide. For the first time in postal service history, and in just six months, more than 70 postal agencies around the world have issued over 140 new stamps inspired by astronomy.

IYA

ASTRO PIC OF THE WEEK

Stunning Image of ISS and Endeavour Transitting Sun

Wow! Take a look at this image captured by award-winning French astrophotographer Thierry Legault. The visible detail of the shuttle and parts of the International Space Stations is absolutely amazing! If you remember, Legault also took images of space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope transiting the sun back in May during the HST servicing mission.

Legault is an engineer who lives near Paris. He started his digital imaging in 1994, and currently uses a SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera with AO-L system that is equipped with large and narrow band filters. He also uses a reflex Canon 5D, webcams from Philips as well as Astrovid video cameras.

He has written two books: “The New Atlas of the Moon” with Serge Brunier (Firefly) and “Astrophotographie” (Eyrolles), and is featured in a new book by Robert Gendler, “Capturing the Stars: Astrophotography by the Masters.”

Visit Thierry’s website for more great images!

OnOrbit

Events & Activities

* Book Reviews: I’ve recently been given the opportunity to become a book reviewer for some of the most respected publication houses in the world. This offer has been extended to the review and critique of DVDs as well so, in the coming months, I’ll be looking at a few new releases and giving you my impression of them in an impartial and non-biased manner. Any other publishers interested in having me review their material as well as are asked to contact me direct from any of the personal adresses on these pages. The first publication just receieved is the newly released hard cover book ‘The New Race For Space’ from Rosenberg Sales N.Y. followed by another new release ‘Rocket Men – The Epic Story Of The First Men On The Moon by Craig Nelson by the Penguin Group New York. Stay tuned!

Profiles – People, Events etc

Southern Cross Observatory – Tasmania, Australia.

If you are interested in Astro-Photography, at any level, then this is the site for you. Take note and learn from the experts!

Shevill Mathers

Shevill Mathers is recognized as one of the world’se leading amateur astronomers and is a specialist in his field. His regular columns and newspaper articles are now augmented by a wide range of articles including ATM articles, Astro News items and Activities from Tasmania as well as reviewing a wide range of astronomical equipment.

Shevill is a regular contributor to many various magazines including the Tasmania 40 Degrees South magazine, Leatherwood On-Line, Discover Tasmania, Quasar Publishing ‘Astronomy Yearbook’, Universe Today and various overseas scientific forums. He is a local media source for TV, radio and the print media.

Shevill Mathers has been a keen amateur astronomer / telescope and camera builder in the UK since the early 60’s, with a special interest in astrophotography. A member of the BAA, London (Lunar Section), his photographic expertise was greatly encouraged by Patrick Moore, with whom he has maintained a lasting friendship. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1968.

Southern Cross Observatory – IYA – Two special sites have been established at the International ’Macedon Ranges Observatory’, in Victoria, to coordinate and share images, experiences and events around the world, the links are: http://www.southerngalactic.com/ andhttp://www.northerngalactic.com/

Contact details:shevill.mathers@southernphone.com.au Shevillm@gmail.com Web: www.shevillmathers.id.au

The International Year of Astronomy for Everyday Folk

Astronomer Galileo Galilei made these drawings of the moon based on telescope observations made four centuries ago. Could you do any better? The Galileoscope project is planning a contest for sketchers and photographers. The International Year of Astronomy isn’t just for astronomers anymore: There’s a whole constellation of projects aimed at getting regular folks like you and me involved in celestial adventures.

“Anyone can be a space explorer, just by going outside at night and looking up with a little bit of a prepared mind,” said Andrew Chaikin, a former editor of Sky & Telescope magazine who wrote “A Man on the Moon,” the classic history of the Apollo moon effort.

Chaikin did a little bit of virtual exploration himself, after coming upon 40-year-old Apollo 11 imagery that revealed a little-seen side of moonwalker Neil Armstrong. Do-it-yourself space science extends far beyond archival searches. Some of the leaders of the citizen astronomy movement provided status reports on their own missions at this week’s American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena, Calif. Here’s just a sampling:

Galileoscope: Shipments of a high-tech, low-cost telescope, modeled after the instrument used by Galileo Galilei 400 years ago, are making their way from China to the United States and other destinations by boat. About 60,000 telescope kits have been sold in advance, at a retail price of $15 (less for bulk quantities). Buyers should be receiving the kits by the end of July. The next steps include figuring out how many more telescopes should be made before the production line is shut down (get your orders in now!) … and also setting up a contest for Galileoscope imagery. The idea is to solicit photos of celestial objects taken through the telescope, as well as drawings based on Galileoscope observations (a la Galileo, as shown above). Contest rules and submission procedures will be on the Galileoscope Web site when they’re ready for release. The first round of winners should be announced by the end of the year.

Galaxy Zoo: The Galaxy Zoo 2 project has recruited more than 200,000 participants to sort through online pictures of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and classify them according to their shape – something that human eyes and brains can do much more easily than computers. During the “100 Hours of Astronomy” celebration in April, more than 2.5 million classifications were made – and if you count up all the clicks since Galaxy Zoo 2 started in February, the classifications add up to 32 million. Combine that with Galaxy Zoo 1’s results, and you get more than 100 million galaxy checkups. The Galaxy Zoo team says that’s the equivalent of a Ph.D. student working for almost 20 years without sleep or a coffee break. The project already has spawned a dozen journal articles – relating to patterns in galaxy rotation, for example, or the effects of galaxy mergers.

Star parties galore: If you thought “100 Hours of Astronomy” was big, just you wait: IYA organizers are planning a collaboration with the Year of Science celebration starting in July, a worldwide moon-watching effort on Aug. 1 (linked to NASA’s LCROSS moon-smashing mission), a “Galilean Nights” festival on Oct. 23-24 (featuring Jupiter and its moons). They’ll take on a big role in this year’s Great World Wide Star Count in October as well. October also happens to be prime time for the year’s second round of Astronomy Day celebrations.

Social astronomy: Space fans are really catching on to social-networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. You can follow updates from Endeavour shuttle commander Mark Polansky, for example, or from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that’s slated for launch next week. (Today the plucky probe touts its “new movie trailer.”) One idea that’s circulating is to create a social network dubbed AstroTwitter to allow telescope handlers around the world to answer the question “What are you observing?” Another idea is to use Twitter as a way for observers to share their skywatching experiences online in real time, as British moon-watchers did during an experimental session last month.

Online astronomy: Much has been written about online astronomy programs such as the outward-looking side of Google Earth and Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope. (Microsoft is a partner in the msnbc.com joint venture.) Watch for further updates and grassroots enhancements in the future, including a fresh beta release for the WWT next month. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ MicroObservatory is also coming into play, along with other portals to remote-controlled telescopes.

Virtual-world astronomy: The virtual world known as Second Life boasts its own universe of astronomical projects. The online offerings have pushed light-years ahead in the two years since I first wrote about the virtual final frontier. To see how far things have gone, check out Second Astronomy .

Acknowledgments

This newsletter was brought to you by ASTRONOMY MEDIA SERVICES

Feel free to forward this content to your friends and colleagues for their use. There is no cost and no obligation for this service. Anyone can subscribe by completing the opt in form at the top of the side menu bar.

No, No, No, I don’t want your newsletter!! - OK, then no problem.

To remove yourself from our list click the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of any newsletter to automatically be removed.

FREE USAGE POLICY

You are free to quote from any story for your radio programs and/or press stories providing you cite original sources where included. If you give credit to Astronomy Media Services as your base source that would be nice. When forwarding by email please include the credit information below.

Sources: NASA, SKY & SPACE Magazine, Associated Press, Nature, Space.Com, Universe Today, BBC Science News, JPL, European Space Agency, Science Daily, ABC News Online, New Scientist Magazine, Reuters, Astrobiology News, Google Astronomy/Space News Alerts, Cornell University News Service, The Australian, NASA Science News, SpaceRef Interactive Inc. and Associated Affiliates. (E&OE)

ISSUE 27 July 2009

Here’s a selection of Astronomy/Space related stories you may find interesting. Be sure to sign up for your own copy of Astro Space News, delivered automatically to you each week. I absolutely do not disclose your address to anyone!

Feel free to forward this information to your friends and colleagues for their use. There is no cost and no obligation for this service. Anyone can subscribe by completing the opt in form just over there … see it, do it now!

We work 24/7/365 to report the most relevant ‘Astro-Space’ news back to you … virtually as it breaks. Bookmark this page and check back regularly.

Letters To Dave

Hello Dave,

Just checking out your April 2, 2007 Astro-Space News concerning flatulence in space. I’m currently working on my third fart book (see www.Electricearl.com/fart), which will include a chapter on the gassy problems that several astronauts suffered on two Apollo flights, thanks to too much hydrogren in the drinking water.

I’d like to attribute a couple of items on your page to you. Thanks. Jim Dawson

Errr, Great!!! …. thanks Jim

Dave

——————————————————————————————-

Hi Dave,

Thank you very much for the book reviews & advice on what to purchase – I’m sure the recipient (my brother) will enjoy the read – he’s been interested in astronomy for years & lives in a remote part of NSW where stargazing is ‘easy’ (no other light sources) & when there is ‘no’ moon it is dark!! I’ll have a look at your e-book when I get a chance. It’s much appreciated for getting back to me & its refreshing to see someone who is passionate about ’space’ & wishes to share it with us all – it’s really valued & important for the community especially the kids who will be the next generation of scientists.

Cheers. Kathryn

—————————————————————————————————

Hi Dave,

My son and I were discussing the moon landing etc and also the many conspiracy theories that have circulated since, and personally I believe that it did happen and that man did land on the moon. My son raised a very valid point though and it is a question that I put to you. With all the powerful telescopes we have available to us, including the Hubble telescope, why haven’t they just used the telescopes to take photographs of the junk that was left up there by Apollo 11 and prove once and for all that it is true?

Hi Neil. Good to hear from you. OK, all your questions have now been answered…check this out and wonder no more. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html

—————————————————————————————————–

G’day Dave ,

Listened to you on the ABC radio while on nightshift – look fwd to reading your E-Bbook on Apollo 11 – I was 8 at the time & remember it all.The sky is so clear tonight here at Sandy Hollow – can see the milky way stretch from north to south . Would be good at Sidings Springs or MT Kaputar !! What was it that Buzz saw on the way to the moon. Was Apollo 11 visited on it’s way do you reckon ? Thanks for what you do bloke – I look fwd to the read & have you website bookmarked .

Astro Dave

—————————————————————————————————–

* LAST CHANCE

to Pick Up Dave Reneke’s New E-Book

APOLLO 11

The Untold Story

Over 50 Things You Didn’t Know About The First Moon Landing

What followed Apollo 11 partway to the Moon?

Was Armstrong NASA’s first choice to be first on the Moon ?

We all thought we were watching the original transmission, but were we?

The original Moon landing TV tapes are now missing…why?

President John F. Kennedy, really didn’t see much purpose in spending money on going to the Moon. Who did?

Read about President Nixon’s Apollo ‘death tape’

Did they really go to the Moon as the conspiracy therorists continue to tout? Find out the real answer.

As Armstrong and Aldrin approached the Moon their onboard computer froze, unable to cope with too many commands.

The lunar lander was on a collision couese on landing and about to crash.

A devout Christian, Buzz Aldrin actually took communion while he was on the moon.

Neil and Buzz landed on the Moon with just a bare minimum of fuel to spare.

Did Neil Armstrong leave out the ‘A’ in his famous quote..” One small step…..”?

Amazing news – All the lunar landing sites have now just been photographed.

OVER 40 PAGES OF FACTS, PHOTOS, STORIES AND BOOK REVIEWS… PLUS MUCH MORE!

This is the untold story of what went wrong and what we weren’t told. David Reneke has unearthed dozens of amazing facts from previously classified government files and personal astronaut interviews. Some of these facts will shock you. Includes an examination of all the various Moon conspiracy theories….and finally the proof we’ve allw aited for! Downlods in a moment to your computer.

Check these comments from some of our first purchasers….

Hi Dave

Just a word of thanks for this E-Book. WOW! It had me enthralled. I really didn’t know any of this stuff… shows you how much we were kept in the dark. Amazing book, really!! Ruby Tynan, Lorne NSW

Great E-Book Dave.

Congratulations on an excellent job. Bought it tonight. I read it right through then printed it out. Was reluctant to buy it BUT glad I did. Any more on the way?  Damien Jones. London, England

Hello Dave.

Just thought I’d write to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this. Well written, chock full of info and the pics were amazing. You’ve got a winner here, thanks!  Leigh, Rouse Hill NSW

Dave

Many thanks for your new E-Book, and what a delightful and informative read. You are to be congratulated on presenting facts that are not well-known – and straight from the ‘Moon-Man’ himself. I am so pleased that you are sharing this with others. A great presentation, Dave! Shevill -Tasmania

More details here

———————————————————————————————————————————

DVDs – Limited Offer

Purchase Any Two DVDs and Receive The Third DVD

ABSOLUTELY FREE

NEW … Check them out here

* Part of the proceeds go towads running Dave’s Schools ‘Astronomy Outreach’ program.

——————————————————————————————————————————–

APOLOGY

We had an overwhelming reaction to my E-Book ‘Apollo 11 The Untold Story’ (see above) last week and the DVD Triple Set we released for the first time. We literally had hundreds of orders come in over a 3-day period PLUS I fielded about 3 dozen radio interviews as well which caught us all off guard.The story appeared on numerous websites around the world ie/ ‘MoonDaily’ and in magazines like ‘Unigalactic’ I consequently missed getting back to a few radio stations and for that I apologise. It wasn’t intentional. All orders have been dispatched, your items will be arriving soon.

******************************************************************************

This Week’s Top Story

Huge Asteroid or Comet Collides With Jupiter!

An Australian amateur stargazer who spotted a “one in a million” impact on Jupiter Wednesday told of his astonishment as he chanced upon the Earth-sized dent in its gassy atmosphere.

Anthony Wesley, 44, who has had a life-long passion for the stars, was photographing the planet close to midnight on Sunday when he noticed a black mark that hadn’t been there two nights earlier.

Pic: This Hubble picture, taken on July 23, is the sharpest visible-light picture taken of the impact feature.See spot highlighted.

The computer programmer, who watches the sky with his 14.5-inch (37 centimetre) telescope in the backyard of his farm outside Canberra, said he first thought it was a shadow cast by one of the planet’s 63 moons.

“But after a few minutes I realised it was in the wrong place and it was the wrong shape to be anything like that, and then it was a case of my eyes convincing my brain,” Wesley said. “The eyes are saying ‘There it is, it’s on the screen, you can’t deny it,’ but the brain is saying ‘Hang on, there’s such an unlikely chance of this being an impact, it’s a one in a million, or worse than that,’ so it did take me a while to actually believe what I was seeing.”

For the next two hours, Wesley said he frantically photographed the mark and then started emailing astronomers, desperate to alert as many other people as he could “to get the professional astronomers in and let them take over.”

After NASA experts spent six hours examining the spot with an infra-red telescope in Hawaii, the verdict came in — Jupiter had been hit, possibly by a stray comet or a planet-sized block of ice. “It was completely unlike any of the weather phenomena that we observe on Jupiter,” said Glenn Orton from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California, on Tuesday. “Our first image showed a really bright object right where that black scar was, and immediately we knew this was an impact.

Wesley took up astronomy as a hobby aged 10, and said anyone with a telescope had been watching Jupiter since Monday, keen to watch the atmospheric fallout from the impact. “A lot of material down low in Jupiter’s atmosphere gets brought up by one of these impacts, so that gives some of the planetary scientists around the world invaluable opportunity to study parts of Jupiter that they can’t normally see,” Wesley said.

Pic: Anthony Wesley with his 14.5 ” telescope.

Jupiter, which is 11 times larger than Earth, was last hit by fragments of the Shoemaker Levy 9 comet in 1994, and Wesley said Sunday’s collision also raised some interesting questions about how rare such events really were.

“Maybe there are more of these cometary objects up there that Jupiter sweeps up and maybe these impacts, rather than being once in a few thousand years, maybe they’re happening several times every century,” he said. “Now that we’ve got better telescopes and now that we’ve got an army of amateur astronomers looking at Jupiter all the time these things will get picked up.

Jupiter’s massive gravitational pull had helped to shape the solar system and, thankfully for Earth’s inhabitants, continued to draw such objects into its path, Wesley said.

“I think the last time, according to fossil records, any impact like that happened on Earth we had the extinction event hundreds of millions of years ago, which appears to have finished off the dinosaurs,” he said.

AAP

More Astro Space News….

Jupiter Explosion highlights the Hawking “Asteroid” theory

In further evidence that space itself is an action movie, an explosion some say was the size of the Pacific ocean has scarred Jupiter.  Yes, the entire ocean…. that’s what they say. The Jupiter impact event is another big red line underscoring Stephen Hawking’s theory that one of the major factors in the possible scarcity of intelligent life in our galaxy is the high probability of an asteroid or comet colliding with inhabited planets.

We have observed, Hawking pointed out in his lecture Life in the Universe, the collision of a comet, Schumacher-Levi, with Jupiter (left) which produced a series of enormous fireballs, plumes many thousands of kilometers high, hot “bubbles” of gas in the atmosphere, and large dark “scars” on the atmosphere which had lifetimes on the order of weeks. The  July 19th event is a weak second place, but still totally awesome (and awesome if projected to a planet called Earth).

The new scar on the surface of Jupiter shows up as a dark patch in visible light, but a very bright spot in infrared, caused by a radical rearrangement of gases in the region of the detonation.  The bright spot will also allow scientists to examine the motion of gases in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

As Stephen Hawking says, the general consensus is that any comet or asteroid greater than 20 kilometers in diameter that strikes the Earth will result in the complete annihilation of complex life – animals and higher plants. (The asteroid Vesta, for example, one of the destinations of the Dawn Mission, is the size of Arizona).

But back to Professor Hawking, he of black-hole radiation fame: How many times in our galaxy alone has life finally evolved to the equivalent of our planets and animals on some far distant planet, only to be utterly destroyed by an impact? Galactic history suggests it might be a common occurrence. Our cold comfort comes from the adjective “galactic” -that’s a hugely different time perspective that our biblical three score and ten.

Daily Galaxy

Pluto To become a Planet Again?

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) are meeting this week to review their decision on axing Pluto from the list of planets. The review has come about after Pluto lovers, astronomers and state governors voiced concerns about the definition of a ‘planet’ and that only 4 per cent of the IAU’s 10,000 members were involved in the vote.

Astronomers realized that it was only a matter of time before an object larger than Pluto was discovered in the Kuiper Belt and in 2005, Mike Brown and his team dropped the bombshell. They had discovered an object, further out than the orbit of Pluto that was probably the same size, or even larger.

Officially named 2003 UB313, the object was later designated as Eris. Since its discovery, astronomers have determined that Pluto’s size is approximately 2,600 km (1,600 miles) across. It also has approximately 25% more mass than Pluto.

With Eris being larger, made of the same ice/rock mixture, and more massive than Pluto, the concept that we have nine planets in the Solar System began to fall apart. What is Eris, planet or Kuiper Belt Object; what is Pluto, for that matter? Astronomers decided they would make a final decision about the definition of a planet at the XXVIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, which was held from August 14 to August 25, 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Astronomers from the association were given the opportunity to vote on the definition of planets. One version of the definition would have actually boosted the number of planets to 12; Pluto was still a planet, and so were Eris and even Ceres, which had been thought of as the largest asteroid. A different proposal kept the total at 9, defining the planets as just the familiar ones we know without any scientific rationale, and a third would drop the number of planets down to 8, and Pluto would be out of the planet club. But, then… what is Pluto?

In the end, astronomers voted for the controversial decision of demoting Pluto (and Eris) down to the newly created classification of “dwarf planet”. Is Pluto a planet? Stay tuned!

Universe Today

Poll: 40 years later most Americans approve of NASA, space program

Most Americans say the country’s broad-scale effort to land a man on the moon 40 years ago was worth it, but there’s wider skepticism of the overall space program, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Overall, 70 percent call the moon-landing worth its costs, with big majorities across party lines expressing the positive view. Both younger and older adults also say the efforts were worth it, although those age 65 and up are more evenly divided (52 percent worth it; 45 percent not) than those who are younger.

Seniors also split 51-42 in favor of the benefits of government’s space program more broadly, and they’re joined here across the board: overall, 51 percent of Americans say the program has brought enough benefits to justify its cost; 43 percent say it hasn’t done so.

Among the biggest divides on these questions is along gender lines, with men significantly more apt than women to see the moon landing and the entire space program as sufficiently valuable. The differences are particularly stark among Republican and independent women, vis-à-vis their male counterparts.

These figure have shown a noticeable increase over the years since the Apollo 11 mission four decades agso. In 1980 for instance only 41% felt the costs were justified and in 1995 that number was still less than half (47%).

According to the Gallup survey the support for space program spending has bounced around a little over the years but the number consistently remains high. Currently 60% feel that spending on the space program should either be increased or at least kept at current levels. This figure is actually down considerably from a 75% clip in late-2003 but up from a low of 46% in late-1993 and some would suggest impressive considering current economic conditions.

Furthermore those who think that NASA is doing a good or excellent job also continue to score with the American public. Their overall approval ratings have consistently been over 50% since the mid-90s and currently sit at 58%.

Saturn Moon Could Be Targeted in Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Plumes spewing from a tiny moon of Saturn are filled with molecules that suggest that the moon, Enceladus, is likely another place in the solar system to look for life, Cassini scientist Jonathan Lunine of The University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory said.

When NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flew through a plume erupting from Enceladus early last October, its instruments measured ammonia, argon 40 and an abundance of carbon-bearing molecules, or “organics,” entrained in the water vapor.

Cassini discovered water vapor and particles spewing from Enceladus in a previous, more distant flyby in 2005. Since then, scientists have been trying to determine if the source of the jets is liquid.

“The fact that there’s ammonia on Enceladus is important because it argues the plumes are erupting from a region of liquid water beneath the surface of Enceladus, rather than erupting from what is just warm ice,” Lunine said. Ammonia acts as antifreeze. Water containing ammonia remains liquid at temperatures as low as minus 143 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cassini has measured temperatures higher than minus 136 degrees Fahrenheit near the fractures where Enceladus shoots out its water vapor plumes, so “We think we have an excellent argument for a liquid water interior,” said Hunter Waite of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

Argon 40, an isotope of argon, which is a decay product of potassium, also strengthens the argument for a liquid water source, Lunine said. Rocks on Earth and elsewhere, including Saturn’s giant moon Titan, give off argon 40. “The fact that we found a lot of argon 40 also argues for liquid water,” Lunine said. Liquid water most likely circulating through Enceladus’ rocky core is the best explanation for all the argon 40 detected, he said.

The Cassini team also discovered such carbon-bearing molecules as methane, formaldehyde, ethanol and hydrocarbons are plentiful in the plumes. Given other recently reported Cassini evidence for sodium and potassium in Saturn’s E ring – a ring made of material that comes from Enceladus, there must be a salty, liquid layer in Enceladus that “seems like a pretty good environment for life,” Lunine said.

“What I think is really interesting now is that we have four places in the outer solar system with interior oceans,” he said. Scientists have evidence that Saturn’s Titan and Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede also have oceans.

Mars, Titan, Europa and now Enceladus seem to be good sites to search for extraterrestrial life.

University of Arizona

World’s Worst Idea: Billboards in Space

The 1993 “Space Billboard” by the American company Space Marketing Inc. was a scheme for a one kilometer illuminated mylar billboard. The advertisement would be roughly the same apparent size and brightness as the moon that would be launched into a low orbit and be visible from Earth. When It was estimated that it would be bombarded by space debris around 10,000 times, the funding sorta dried up.

Not to be dismayed , in 2001 Pizza Hut they were the first to deliver pizzas to outer space when their vacuum-sealed food arrived at the International Space Station, a year after signing a deal to have a 30-foot Pizza Hut logo placed on the side of the unmanned Proton rocket that launched ISS Zvezda. Pizza Hut marketers initially considered using lasers to burn a billboard into the surface of the Moon, but ditched the project when they learned that the image would have to be the size of Texas to be visible from Earth.

But the true lunar lunacy prize goes to Moon Publicity – a new venture who’s press release says that “beginning July 20, 2009, the fortieth anniversary of man’s first step on the Moon, exclusive licensing for this patent pending technology is publicly available.

Moon Publicity is accepting bids from accredited investors and companies for 44 lunar regions until October 20, 2009. You could license moon-imaging technology potentially worth a fortune in advertising value for about the cost of an SUV. Minimum bids start as low as US$46,000.

For more information visit MoonPublicity.com.” As we’re so fond of saying, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

Daily Galaxy

How do you sneeze in a spacesuit? Very carefully

When it comes to sneezing in a spacesuit during a spacewalk in the void of space, it is best to aim well.

That is the advice lead spacewalker David Wolf gave Tuesday to Dawn from Indianapolis, who along with more than a dozen others had questions they had posted on YouTube answered by some of the crew of space shuttle Endeavour.

“I’ve done it quite a few times, most recently yesterday,” said Wolf, who led the mission’s second spacewalk Monday and was set to go on a third spacewalk Wednesday. “You learn in training, and I don’t know how to say this, aim well. It can mess up your view and there is no way to clear it.”

The YouTube questioners, mostly children and teenagers, had posted their questions well before last week’s launch of Endeavour on a 16-day mission to the international space station. Their posts were played one at a time for commander Mark Polansky, pilot Doug Hurley, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and Wolf, who took turns answering the questions live, more than 200 miles above Earth.

Other questioners asked the astronauts what they missed most in space (friends and family), what they did in their spare time (look out the window) and what would happen if the shuttle or space station flew into a black hole (don’t know). There are currently 13 crew members at the space station – seven visiting from the shuttle and six living at the station.

The YouTube questions were the latest effort by NASA to embrace social media. Polansky has a Twitter account with more than 37,500 followers, and since the mission began last Wednesday, Polansky has tweeted regularly with the help of workers at the Johnson Space Center who actually post his messages.

Last May, under the moniker Astro-Mike, Astronaut Mike Massimino became the first person to tweet from space during space shuttle Atlantis’ repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

While Wolf and astronaut Christopher Cassidy prepared for Wednesday’s spacewalk, other crew members used robotic arms Tuesday to move a storage pallet holding equipment for three experiments from the belly of the docked space shuttle Endeavour to the outside of the orbiting outpost’s Japanese-made lab.

Endeavour’s seven astronauts had some rare off-duty hours Tuesday afternoon, when they had the opportunity to do nothing but look out the window.

Physorg

Aquariid meteor shower peaks

On Tuesday July 28 until Wednesday July 29 the Aquariid meteor shower peaks. People in the suburbs should see a meteor around once every 6 minutes, and in the country about once every 3 minutes, from between 1am to 3am on July 29.

The Southern Delta Aquariids are a meteor shower visible from mid July to mid August each year. The shower originated from the breakup of what are now the Marsden and Kracht Sungrazing comets.

The Delta Aquariids get their name because their radiant appears to lie in the constellation Aquarius, near one of the constellation’s brightest stars, Delta Aquarii. The name derives from the Latin possessive form “Aquarii”. There are two branches of the Delta Aquariid meteor shower, Southern and Northern.

The Southern Delta Aquariids are considered a strong shower, with an average meteor observation rate of 15-20 per hour, and a peak zenith hourly rate of 18. The Northern Delta Aquariids are a weaker shower, peaking later in mid August, with an average peak rate of 10 meteors per hour.

Southern Hemisphere viewers usually get a better show because the radiant is higher in the sky during the peak season. Since the radiant is above the southern horizon for Northern Hemisphere viewers, meteors will primarily fan out in all compass points, east, north and west. Few meteors will be seen heading southward, unless they are fairly short and near the radiant.

Australia Selected To Support Research For Future Mars Mission

Volunteers from the Mars Society Australia’s Sydney chapter have been selected to support this year’s Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) expedition by running the Pacific-based Mission Support Centre. FMARS is an annual research expedition conducted at a research station located at Devon Island near the North Pole.

The  research conducted at Devon Island, a Mars-like ‘analogue’ environment, is geared towards learning how humans will live and work on Mars, and has been visited by scientists and engineers from around the world since it was first constructed in 2000. Australia’s contribution to this expedition follows in the tradition of assisting international space-related projects and makes this valuable research possible.

In order to help develop key knowledge needed to prepare for human Mars exploration, and to inspire the public by making real the vision of human exploration of Mars, the Mars Society maintains multiple habitats or stations such as FMARS around the world, where simulation missions can take place in conditions as similar as possible to actual Mars missions.

All of the information gained will help the efforts to send humans to Mars, which may take place around 2030 based on current plans that have been announced by NASA and the European Space Agency.

“Australia was a critical mission control centre during the Apollo Moon missions, and it will be equally important for a trip to Mars,” states the Australian Mission Support team leader Dr. Jason Held. “There are also real-world dangers with any expedition to the high Canadian Arctic. This dedicated Australian support team serves to ease some of the normal burden felt by our American friends, while giving Aussies some valuable operations experience.”

The Australian team will be helping the field team throughout the three-week simulation. “We are just so proud to adding to the shining history of Australian input in space exploration,” says team member Joseph Callingham.

Mars Society

“Space Fence”: Will it Solve the Coming Space Litter Crisis?

Man has made it to the moon, hurled equipment to the edges of the solar system, even examined the very beginning of time, but our true achievements are even more important (if less awe-inspiring): we’ve raised litter above and beyond the surface of the Earth! So much so that we need a new detection grid if we’re ever to get off-planet without having our heads bashed in by a ball of old trash.

There’s an entire ring of old, broken, or blasted to pieces bits and bobs in near Earth orbit, each with enough energy to permanently ruin an astronauts entire day (at least until the explosive decompression sets in).

With twenty thousand objects already tracked, and hundreds of thousands more still in orbit, the International Space Station has already had to make emergency maneuvers to avoid collisions twice – and an Iridium satellite famously didn’t make such maneuvers, colliding with a Cosmos-2511 colleague and exploding both (producing a storm of extra debris in what could be the world’s most expensive, if slow, chain reaction.)

The new tracking system has been contracted to Northrop Grumman, who were handed thirty million dollars, pointed up and told “Keep track of all that stuff.” The new system builds on previous technology and is called a “Space Fence” because it projects constant radio beams up from a few points on Earth – as Earth rotates, the radio region sweeps across all the objects in orbit.

The interesting note is that this strategy is still observation and avoidance – you need careful timing or maneuvering systems to actually evade any identified impact-possible pieces, otherwise you just get a countdown to space explosion. Awesome for Michael Bay, sucks for everyone else. It’s pretty tricky to get garbage collectors into low Earth orbit but we’re going to have to do something soon – or literally become penned into our own home by all the trash we threw out the front door. And then wonder why nobody’s coming to visit.

Note: there was one attempt to bring down trash, the student-project SNAP satellite. Ironically, it failed and became space-trash itself.

Daily Galaxy

Obama pledges backing for inspiring US space program

President Barack Obama last week hailed the astronauts who 40 years ago landed on the moon for the first time and pledged to keep the US space program alive for future generations of Americans.The Apollo program, which on July 20, 1969 saw US astronauts step onto the lunar surface for the first time in history, was “an example of how Americans can do anything they put their minds to,” Obama told Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins at the White House.

He praised the trio who landed on the moon 40 years ago, and others who took part in Apollo missions, for inspiring an entire generation of US scientists and engineers, and vowed to support the US space agency, NASA, so that future generations of Americans might follow in their footsteps.

“There is another generation of kids out there that is looking up at the sky and they’ll be the next Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin,” Obama said. “We want to be sure that NASA will be there for them when they want to take their journey.”

The US Apollo program fired the public’s imagination throughout the 1960s after president John F. Kennedy set the United States on a race against its Cold War arch rival, the Soviet Union, to be the first country to put men on the moon.

An estimated 500 million people crowded around televisions and radios to watch and listen as Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo 11 lunar lander onto the moon’s Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969 to declare: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But soon after, as the United States became mired in the war in Vietnam, public interest in and government funding for the Apollo program waned.

Only a dozen men, all American, walked on the moon between Apollo 11 in July 1969 and Apollo 17, in December 1972, when the program was shelved to make way for the space shuttle — seen as a cheap, reliable and reusable mode of going into space. After massive budget overruns and a patchy safety record, the shuttle, which was used chiefly to ferry parts into space to build the International Space Station, is due to be taken off the launchpad once and for all as of next year.

The Constellation program, which is supposed to replace it won’t be ready for spaceflight until 2015 and has been plagued by its own set of problems, including spiraling costs in a time of economic hardship, which have dented the project’s popularity in the eyes of the US public.

Obama in May ordered a review of the problem-plagued, budget-busting rocket, and a panel of experts headed by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine is due to issue recommendations in late August. But on Monday, as the world marked the 40th anniversary of the first moonwalk, Apollo veterans urged Americans to look beyond NASA’s problems and not just shoot for the moon again but to aim beyond it and set their sights on Mars.

“We need to go back to the moon,” Eugene Cernan, the Apollo 17 astronaut who was the last man to walk on the lunar surface in 1972, told a news conference held with half a dozen other Apollo astronauts. “We need to learn a bit more about what we think we know already, we need to establish bases, put new telescopes on the moon, get prepared to go to Mars. Because the ultimate goal is to go to Mars.”

Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, called for a bold resumption of the US space exploration program, with Mars as the goal. “There may be life on Mars and if there is, it’s damn sure we ought to go there and look at it,” he said, calling for Americans to revive their pioneering spirit.

Australia steps towards giant future in astronomy

Simon Couper ANU Media

Astronauts on Mars in our lifetime

NASA’s new boss says he will be “incredibly disappointed” if people aren’t on Mars – or even beyond it – in his lifetime.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., who’s 62, told The Associated Press that his ultimate goal isn’t just Mars – it’s anywhere far from Earth.

“I did grow up watching Buck Rogers and Buck Rogers didn’t stop at Mars,” Bolden said in one of his first interviews since taking office last Friday. “In my lifetime, I will be incredibly disappointed if we have not at least reached Mars.”

That appears to be a shift from the space policy set in motion by President George W. Bush, who proposed first returning to the moon by 2020 and then eventually going to Mars a decade or two later. Bolden didn’t rule out using the moon as a stepping stone to Mars and beyond, but he talked more about Mars than the moon.

Bolden said NASA and other federal officials had too many conflicting views on how to get to Mars, including the existing Constellation project begun under Bush. That project calls for returning to the moon first, with a moon rocket design that Bolden’s predecessor called “Apollo on steroids.”

A new independent commission is reviewing that plan and alternatives to it. Bolden said his main job over the next few months will be to champion an “agreed-upon compromise strategy to get first to Mars and then beyond. And we don’t have that yet.” Bolden, a former astronaut, also vowed to extend the life of the international space station beyond 2016, the year the

Associated Press

Buzz Aldrin: Put humans on Mars By 2031

The moon may have been the entire world for a day for Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin 40 years ago, but today he hopes the United States and the world set their sights on a far grander goal: Spreading humanity to Mars and perhaps asteroids and comets.

But NASA’s plan to replace its three aging space shuttles with Orion capsules to carry astronauts to the moon by 2020 may not justify its $35 billion cost if it stops there, said Aldrin, one of the first humans to set foot on the moon during the Apollo 11 landing on July 20, 1969.

Instead, the United States can aid international partners in exploring the moon and free up its own spaceflight resources to develop systems for even more ambitious goals, he told in an interview.

“While the international explorers, with our help, are going to the moon, we can develop the long-duration life support systems for other things,” said Aldrin, 79. “Flying by a comet, visiting an asteroid and station-keeping with it.”

With an international base on the moon and vital technologies like in-space refueling, Aldrin envisions an ambitious series of expeditions to send astronauts on a deep space mission to visit the asteroid Aphophis when it swings near Earth in 2021. A temporarily manned base on the Mars moon Phobos could follow, he added.

“By that time, we’d be ready to put people in a gradual permanence on Mars by 2031,” Aldrin said. “That, in a nutshell, is what I really think we should be doing.”

NASA’s current transition from the space shuttle to Orion is a huge step backward, Aldrin said. The shuttle’s may not have lived up to its initial expectations, but its ability to haul tons of cargo to orbit and land on a runway is a capability that should not be lost in order to replace it with something faster and cheaper, he stressed.

“What happens to U.S. space global leadership if everything is going to be done on the cheap and we’re not going to think ahead, and we’re going back to the moon for some reason that really won’t justify the cost of human habitation,” he said.

The United States should “do the things that this nation can do and strive toward maintaining globally space leaderships. And that means lifting bodies, runway landers and not going back to the moon, because we’ve been there,” Aldrin added.

Space.Com

Pocket Universe for your I-Phone

When the warmer weather comes along it would be great  to look at our beautiful summer skies. Pocket Universe [App Store] is a US$2.99 app that has been updated to make star finding easier for those that have a new iPhone 3GS.

The app uses the position sensors and the compass to orient your phone to match the real sky. As you turn or tilt the phone, the sky map changes to give you a very accurate picture of where you are pointing, with lots of labels and links to more information. This is one of the first examples of an augmented reality app to hit the platform since the introduction of the 3GS.

If you have an older iPhone or iPod touch running OS 3.0, you can tilt the phone to match where the real sky is, but you’ll have to manually set the direction you’re facing. This changes everything for the novice astronomer.

You can tap the ‘locate’ button to find any object that is above the horizon. Select it and it centres on the map. Tap a pop-up for more info and you get a quick summary of the object. In the new version of the app a further tap gets you a Wikipedia entry.

You also get a list of meteor showers, lunar phases and a very nice ‘tonight’s sky’ feature that tells you right away what’s up and worth seeing.

The 3GS features are similar to a Celestron product called the Sky Scout that is a dedicated astronomical instrument. The Sky Scout has a lot more information, and audio tours of the skies, but it costs $200.00. If you’re really serious about the stars and planets I’d give it a look.

Meanwhile, another favorite astronomy app, Distant Suns [App Store] has been updated recently, and is now on sale for US$3.99. It has added features to the wonderful tour guides and now includes more information about the objects displayed, including travel time at light speed to the planets. It also includes some breathtaking images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

This is the International Year of Astronomy, so it’s a great time to get outdoors and look up. It’s fun to do, and the iPhone apps really make it a more compelling and educational experience.

Crew Emerges from Simulated Mars Mission

Six crewmembers emerged from 105 days of isolation last Tuesday, completing a simulated Mars mission. This experiment was the first phase of the Mars 500 program to help understand the psychological and medical aspects of long spaceflights.

“We have successfully completed our mission,” said crew member Oliver Knickel. “This is a big accomplishment that I am very proud of. I hope that the scientific data we have provided over the last months will help to make a mission to Mars possible.”

The simulated mission began on March 31 of this year. Inside the isolation facility in Moscow, Russia the crew participated in a range of scenarios as if they really were traveling to the Red Planet – including launch, the outward journey, arrival, transfer to and from the Martian surface, simulated emergencies, and finally the long journey home.

All communications with anyone outside the facility had a delay of up to 20 minutes each way, just as a real mission to Mars would have. The only thing missing was microgravity during the simulated flight and one-third of Earth’s gravity during the simulated time on Mars. Plus, of course, the crew never faced any of the real dangers of launch, spaceflight, landing or living on a planet hostile to human life.

The crew includes Knickel, a mechanical engineer in the German army, Cyrille Fournier, an airline pilot from France and four Russians: cosmonauts Sergei Ryazansky (commander) and Oleg Artemyev, Alexei Baranov, a medical doctor, and Alexei Shpakov, a sports physiologist.The crew grew some of their own food to supplement the usual space-style pre-packaged meals. Any spare time was spent reading, watching films and playing music and games together.

“We had an outstanding team spirit throughout the entire 105 days,” said Cyrille Fournier. “Living for that long in a confined environment can only work if the crew is really getting along with each other. The crew is the crucial key to mission success, which became very evident to me during the 105 days.”

This initial 105-day study is the precursor to a complete simulation of a fully-fledged mission to Mars and back due to start in early 2010. That exercise will see another six-member crew sealed in the same chamber to experience a complete 520-day Mars mission.

ESA/Universe Today

Insight article:

Our Progress In Space:

Machines, not humans, have taken the biggest steps in the heavens, and we should keep relying on our hardware.

Few people couldn’t help but be besotted by the exploits of  Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the surface of the moon and famously declared his and NASA’s feat “one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” Watching the ghostly images of Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin hop around on the moon for a couple of hours on that Sunday night 40 years ago, we were sure — I think most of us were sure — that we were watching only the beginning of human travel beyond Earth.

Yet last week’s anniversary of the first moon walk revives the question, what did any of it mean? I wish I could say that it indeed meant a giant leap for mankind. I wish I could say that it led to a future of passenger service into orbit, to rotating space stations and moon colonies and trips to Mars and beyond. The world of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” seemed within reach when the movie was released in April 1968, a short 15 months before Apollo 11, but the future promised by it and Apollo 11turned out to be fantasy — as distant from reality as those jet packs we also thought would be part of our everyday lives in the new millennium.

The moon landing was a thrilling chapter in the Cold War, but what was its historical impact, beyond maybe contributing to a nascent environmental sensibility thanks to photos of Earth floating in the loneliness of space? In his obituary published July 18 in the American-Statesman, Walter Cronkite is quoted telling the Statesman in 1997 that the moon landing was the most important story he covered.

With all due respect to the recently departed Cronkite, the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, Nixon’s campaign strategy during the 1968 election, Watergate, the sexual revolution, the Iranian revolution and the rise of Islamic extremism, the Reagan revolution, the arrival of home computing — all of which took place during Cronkite’s tenure as CBS’ anchor — changed American and world history far more than Apollo 11.

For the past five years, NASA has been following former President George W. Bush’s moon-Mars blueprint. The idea is to return to the moon by 2020, establish a base there and use our moon base as a proving ground for the technologies and equipment that will be needed for a mission to Mars, perhaps to be launched in the early 2030s.

It’s anyone’s guess how much an extended stay on the moon and a trip to Mars would cost, since technologies either are still being worked out or don’t even exist. Estimates are all over the place, from $80 billion to $150 billion to as high as $500 billion.

Delays and cost overruns already plague the rocket and crew capsule NASA is developing for getting back to the moon, and if going to the moon is hard, getting to Mars is exponentially harder. The problems posed by the cosmic radiation and isolation that astronauts would face while traveling to Mars continue to confound NASA; simply provisioning a mission to Mars with enough food and water is a challenge with no real solution yet.

In May, President Barack Obama, whose budget for next year includes $18.7 billion for NASA, about a 5 percent increase over this year, appointed an independent panel to review NASA’s plans for the moon and Mars. The panel is expected to release its recommendations next month. Critics say we lack the resolve to return to the moon and go to Mars, but it’s more than a matter of resolve; it’s also a matter of money, of course, and purpose. Seven Apollo astronauts were in Washington, D.C., last week as part of the Apollo 11 observations.

Most expressed regret that the U.S. gave up on the moon after Apollo and hasn’t yet gone to Mars. But as David Scott, who flew on Gemini 8 and Apollo 9 and walked on the moon as commander of Apollo 15, said, a trip to Mars is “very expensive. It costs about 2 jillion dollars. … We have to find a reason to go to Mars that will continue the funding.”

Apollo was about beating the Russians and establishing technical preeminence over the commies. What will returning to the moon and flying to Mars be about? Beating the Chinese, who have launched only three manned space flights since 2003? Mining helium-3 from the moon? Simply getting up and boldly going, because we humans need to explore frontiers?

But we haven’t given up on exploring space. You probably have heard lamentations during the past couple of weeks that we’ve been stuck in low Earth orbit for the past 40 years.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Since the last Apollo moon landing in December 1972, humans have landed on Venus, Mars and Titan, probed the atmosphere of Jupiter, orbited Saturn, flown by Mercury, Uranus and Neptune, landed on an asteroid, returned comet samples to Earth and are on our way to Pluto. We have peered deep into the cosmos and are on the verge of reaching interstellar space.

That all this has been done with probes and robots should not diminish the accomplishments of Viking, Voyager, Spirit, Opportunity, Venera, Huygens and Hubble. These and other unmanned missions rival — and scientifically exceed — the accomplishments of Apollo.

In lunar orbit with Apollo 11 in July 1969 was an unmanned Soviet probe named Luna 15. Its mission: to land on the moon, drill into the surface and return a soil sample to Earth — beating Apollo 11 back home if possible.

Luna 15 crashed several hours after Armstrong and Aldrin completed their single, 2½-hour moonwalk. But the Soviets’ next attempt succeeded; Luna 16 returned to Earth on Sept. 24, 1970, with about a quarter of a pound of lunar soil.

Two later Luna probes also returned soil samples and two Soviet rovers roamed the moon’s surface in 1970 and 1973 — at a fraction of the cost of Apollo. Apollo was the greater adventure (maybe the greatest there ever was), but Luna was the future of space exploration.

Statesman

International Year of Astronomy 2009 reaches its six-month milestone

As the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) reaches its six-month milestone, over a million people have already looked at the sky through a telescope for the first time, and even more have newly engaged in astronomy. This is just one of many achievements, as countless ongoing projects and planned initiatives indicate that the IYA2009 is well on the way towards achieving many of its goals.

The IYA2009 is a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, with events at national, regional and global levels throughout the whole of 2009. Now, halfway through 2009, much has been achieved and even more can be expected in the future.

The Galileoscope project headlines the IYA2009. With the aim of providing low-cost telescopes that offer views far better than those obtained by Galileo Galilei some 400 years ago, the venture has picked up significant pace since the IYA2009 began. By the end of July, the first 60 000 Galileoscopes will have been shipped, and a further 100 000 are currently in production. More than 4000 Galileoscopes have been generously donated by the IYA2009 and individuals to organisations and schools in developing countries. This gesture aptly demonstrates the commitment of astronomy enthusiasts to the IYA2009 goal of making the skies accessible to all.

But perhaps the most impressive figures for the IYA2009 have come from the national activities that have brought together hundreds of thousands of people in many countries for astronomy-themed events. For example, more than 400 000 people gathered for the Sunrise Event on New Year’s Day in Busan City, South Korea. In Brazil, more than 750 000 students participate from 32 500 schools. In Norway, every student from grades 5-11 will soon receive a free astronomy kit, including a Galileoscope and an educational guide. For the first time in postal service history, and in just six months, more than 70 postal agencies around the world have issued over 140 new stamps inspired by astronomy.

The many other signature events of the IYA2009 have further enabled astronomy enthusiasts to share their excitement. In April, the highly anticipated 100 Hours of Astronomy extravaganza kicked off. This planet-wide celebration involved over 100 countries and thousands of events, with more than two million people taking part in observing events. Widely regarded as an outstanding success, 100 Hours of Astronomy brought people from all seven continents together with the help of a live 24-hour webcast called “Around the World in 80 Telescopes”. This groundbreaking broadcast was watched by over 150 000 individuals.

Dark Skies Awareness is an ongoing initiative to combat light pollution and raise awareness of the importance of deep darkness for appreciating and studying the cosmos. As part of this effort, the GLOBE At Night project encourages members of the public to become citizen scientists by performing star-counts and reporting their findings. The 2009 campaign, held this March, garnered 15 700 measurements, nearly 80 percent more than the previous record in 2007.

Universe Awareness (UNAWE) is an international outreach initiative that uses the beauty and scale of the Universe to inspire very young children in underprivileged environments. To date, programmes have been organised in 30 countries, producing many hundreds of educational resources. For example, in Tunisia more than 40 000 children have participated in UNAWE activities since January 2009.

It is fitting that cutting-edge astronomical research is reaching new heights in 2009. The IYA2009 logo and motto was proudly displayed on the Ariane 5 rocket that sent two forefront space observatories into space in May: ESA’s Herschel and Planck flagship missions. Herschel, the largest-ever infrared space telescope, will study the birth and evolution of stars and galaxies. Planck will measure tiny fluctuations in the relic radiation from the Big Bang, opening the way for theories that can more fully describe the origin of the Universe. These two space missions are set to break new ground in Astronomy. Also in May, astronauts performed repairs and equipped the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope with the latest in instrument technology. To honour the IYA2009, astronaut Mike Massimino took onboard with him a replica of Galileo’s telescope as well as an IYA2009 flag.

Although IYA2009’s achievements to date are certainly impressive, it has only reached its halfway point and many new initiatives are in the works. For example, 23-24 October will see the launch of Galilean Nights, the follow-up to the highly successful 100 Hours of Astronomy presentation. “Events such as this, in conjunction with ongoing projects, will ensure that the IYA2009 sprints to the finish, and will leave a legacy that lasts long into the future,” says Cesarsky.

IYA

ASTRO PIC OF THE WEEK

The Horsehead Nebula

Credit & Copyright: Nigel Sharp (NOAO), KPNO, AURA, NSF One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead’s neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula’s base are young stars just in the process of forming. Light takes about 1,500 years to reach us from the Horsehead Nebula. The above image was taken with the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

APOD

Events & Activities

* Book Reviews: I’ve recently been given the opportunity to become a book reviewer for some of the most respected publication houses in the world. This offer has been extended to the review and critique of DVDs as well so, in the coming months, I’ll be looking at a few new releases and giving you my impression of them in an impartial and non-biased manner. Any other publishers interested in having me review their material as well as are asked to contact me direct from any of the personal adresses on these pages. The first publication just receieved is the newly released hard cover book ‘The New Race For Space’ from Rosenberg Sales N.Y. followed by another new release ‘Rocket Men – The Epic Story Of The First Men On The Moon by Craig Nelson by the Penguin Group New York. Stay tuned!

Profiles – People, Events etc

Southern Cross Observatory – Tasmania, Australia.

If you are interested in Astro-Photography, at any level, then this is the site for you. Take note and learn from the experts!

Shevill Mathers

Shevill Mathers is recognized as one of the world’se leading amateur astronomers and is a specialist in his field. His regular columns and newspaper articles are now augmented by a wide range of articles including ATM articles, Astro News items and Activities from Tasmania as well as reviewing a wide range of astronomical equipment.

Shevill is a regular contributor to many various magazines including the Tasmania 40 Degrees South magazine, Leatherwood On-Line, Discover Tasmania, Quasar Publishing ‘Astronomy Yearbook’, Universe Today and various overseas scientific forums. He is a local media source for TV, radio and the print media.

Shevill Mathers has been a keen amateur astronomer / telescope and camera builder in the UK since the early 60’s, with a special interest in astrophotography. A member of the BAA, London (Lunar Section), his photographic expertise was greatly encouraged by Patrick Moore, with whom he has maintained a lasting friendship. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1968.

Southern Cross Observatory – IYA – Two special sites have been established at the International ’Macedon Ranges Observatory’, in Victoria, to coordinate and share images, experiences and events around the world, the links are: http://www.southerngalactic.com/ andhttp://www.northerngalactic.com/

Contact details:shevill.mathers@southernphone.com.au Shevillm@gmail.com Web: www.shevillmathers.id.au

The International Year of Astronomy for Everyday Folk

Astronomer Galileo Galilei made these drawings of the moon based on telescope observations made four centuries ago. Could you do any better? The Galileoscope project is planning a contest for sketchers and photographers. The International Year of Astronomy isn’t just for astronomers anymore: There’s a whole constellation of projects aimed at getting regular folks like you and me involved in celestial adventures.

“Anyone can be a space explorer, just by going outside at night and looking up with a little bit of a prepared mind,” said Andrew Chaikin, a former editor of Sky & Telescope magazine who wrote “A Man on the Moon,” the classic history of the Apollo moon effort.

Chaikin did a little bit of virtual exploration himself, after coming upon 40-year-old Apollo 11 imagery that revealed a little-seen side of moonwalker Neil Armstrong. Do-it-yourself space science extends far beyond archival searches. Some of the leaders of the citizen astronomy movement provided status reports on their own missions at this week’s American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena, Calif. Here’s just a sampling:

Galileoscope: Shipments of a high-tech, low-cost telescope, modeled after the instrument used by Galileo Galilei 400 years ago, are making their way from China to the United States and other destinations by boat. About 60,000 telescope kits have been sold in advance, at a retail price of $15 (less for bulk quantities). Buyers should be receiving the kits by the end of July. The next steps include figuring out how many more telescopes should be made before the production line is shut down (get your orders in now!) … and also setting up a contest for Galileoscope imagery. The idea is to solicit photos of celestial objects taken through the telescope, as well as drawings based on Galileoscope observations (a la Galileo, as shown above). Contest rules and submission procedures will be on the Galileoscope Web site when they’re ready for release. The first round of winners should be announced by the end of the year.

Galaxy Zoo: The Galaxy Zoo 2 project has recruited more than 200,000 participants to sort through online pictures of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and classify them according to their shape – something that human eyes and brains can do much more easily than computers. During the “100 Hours of Astronomy” celebration in April, more than 2.5 million classifications were made – and if you count up all the clicks since Galaxy Zoo 2 started in February, the classifications add up to 32 million. Combine that with Galaxy Zoo 1’s results, and you get more than 100 million galaxy checkups. The Galaxy Zoo team says that’s the equivalent of a Ph.D. student working for almost 20 years without sleep or a coffee break. The project already has spawned a dozen journal articles – relating to patterns in galaxy rotation, for example, or the effects of galaxy mergers.

Star parties galore: If you thought “100 Hours of Astronomy” was big, just you wait: IYA organizers are planning a collaboration with the Year of Science celebration starting in July, a worldwide moon-watching effort on Aug. 1 (linked to NASA’s LCROSS moon-smashing mission), a “Galilean Nights” festival on Oct. 23-24 (featuring Jupiter and its moons). They’ll take on a big role in this year’s Great World Wide Star Count in October as well. October also happens to be prime time for the year’s second round of Astronomy Day celebrations.

Social astronomy: Space fans are really catching on to social-networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. You can follow updates from Endeavour shuttle commander Mark Polansky, for example, or from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that’s slated for launch next week. (Today the plucky probe touts its “new movie trailer.”) One idea that’s circulating is to create a social network dubbed AstroTwitter to allow telescope handlers around the world to answer the question “What are you observing?” Another idea is to use Twitter as a way for observers to share their skywatching experiences online in real time, as British moon-watchers did during an experimental session last month.

Online astronomy: Much has been written about online astronomy programs such as the outward-looking side of Google Earth and Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope. (Microsoft is a partner in the msnbc.com joint venture.) Watch for further updates and grassroots enhancements in the future, including a fresh beta release for the WWT next month. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ MicroObservatory is also coming into play, along with other portals to remote-controlled telescopes.

Virtual-world astronomy: The virtual world known as Second Life boasts its own universe of astronomical projects. The online offerings have pushed light-years ahead in the two years since I first wrote about the virtual final frontier. To see how far things have gone, check out Second Astronomy .