Jun 11

Could Astronomers Have Found the First Exoplanet in Another Galaxy?

Posted in: science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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To date, scientists have discovered over 300 exoplanets, which are planets orbiting stars other than our own sun. Recently, a group of astronomers may have detected another one, as Universe Today reports. In and of itself, that’s not news–except that this one may be in another galaxy.

It turns out that one specific star in the Andromeda Galaxy–which is over two million light-years away–has some kind of object orbiting it that’s about six times the mass of Jupiter. At that size and distance, it could be either a planet or a brown dwarf star, but astronomers are leaning toward the former.
To find the exoplanet, the report said that the astronomers used a technique called pixel-lensing, which is essentially gravitational microlensing: looking for bent light rays when they pass close to a massive object, as per Einstein’s general theory of relativity. (Image credit: NASA/Tony Hallas)
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Jun 09

Stuck Mars Rover Images Itself

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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When in doubt, take a picture? NASA’s Spirit rover has taken photographs of its underside in order to help engineers figure out the best way to free the stuck rover, according to Space.com. The rover is currently buried up to its hubcaps, with the problem being that if someone gives it the wrong command–such as flooring it, which admittedly did work once before–the rover could end up even more stuck.

To get a better look, Spirit took images of its belly on June 2nd (Sol 1925). Scientists utilized the rover’s microscopic imager instrument, which is mounted on the end of her robotic arm, according to the report. Project scientists tested out the operation using the other rover, Opportunity, which is currently exploring the opposite side of the red planet. (If it looks a little blurry, that’s because the camera was designed to focus on targets only a few centimeters away.)
The next step is for scientists to figure out whether a small mound, showing in some of the photos, is in fact touching the rover–and whether it is a rock or more of the same soft soil, according to Steve Squyres, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover Project. The report said that a rock would mean more risk for any emergency maneuvers. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS)
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Jun 01

Worlds Strongest Laser Debuts in California Lab

Posted in: science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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Looks like things are going smashingly well: the world’s most powerful laser, dubbed the National Ignition Facility, was unveiled Friday at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California near San Francisco, according to the Associated Press.

As we reported in April, the NIF consists of 192 separate beams, each one capable of traveling 1,000 feet per thousandth of a second and converging on a single target “the size of a pencil eraser.”

The report said that federal officials plan to use the super laser to maintain aging nuclear weapons without having to test them underground. Other applications will include astrophysics (including simulations of new planet and solar system formations), green energy development, and–here’s the one I always find fun–creating “controlled fusion reactions similar to those found in the sun.”

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May 20

Mars Probes Team Up to Un-Stick Stuck Rover

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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The Spirit Mars rover has been stuck in the red planet’s soil for a couple of weeks, so NASA is trying out a bunch of procedures–some involving other Mars craft–in order to figure out how to best extract Spirit from its predicament.

The problem: one of Spirit’s wheels stalled out, and the other wheels dug themselves in part of the way. The trick is to avoid sinking the rover further to the point where the belly pan is touching the soil, according to Space.com.
The report said that initially the Mars project team was worried that the left-middle wheel had jammed, but a recent diagnostic test of the motor on May 16th proved that its electrical resistance was within normal operating range, indicating that the motor is probably fine.
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May 19

Hubble is Released Into Orbit

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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And that’s a wrap: Space shuttle Atlantis crew member Megan McArthur used the shuttle’s robotic arm to release the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit at 8:57 a.m. EST Tuesday, CNN reports. The mission marks the last time humans will touch the 19-year old telescope. Hubble has taken hundreds of thousands of high-resolution images–all free of the earth’s murky atmosphere.

“With soft separation burn, Atlantis now is slowly backing away from the telescope,” NASA said in a statement. “A jet firing will be performed in about a half-hour to increase Atlantis’ separation rate from the telescope, as the seven crew members bid farewell to Hubble for the final time.”
During the repair mission, NASA astronauts performed five spacewalks to install a new deep-space camera, a new spectrograph, new batteries, a guidance sensor, and insulation, and repaired the older main camera and an older spectrograph.
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May 18

Astronauts On Final Hubble Spacewalk

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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Two NASA astronauts are on a spacewalk performing the last repairs to the Hubble, and will be the last two humans ever to touch the aging space telescope, according to Space.com.

Atlantis astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel are working in the shuttle cargo bay to add new batteries, insulation and a guidance sensor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Over the weekend, the crew ran into some minor trouble with a stuck bolt and a dead battery in one of the tools, so the repairs are slightly behind schedule.
Nonetheless, the new guidance sensor will help the telescope keep its camera steady and aid in tracking star positions and motions, according to the article. So far, the astronauts have installed a new deep-space camera and a new spectrograph, and have refurbished Hubble’s advanced camera and older spectrograph.
Finally, they’re also adding a special docking ring so a robotic spacecraft can help guide the Hubble many years from now into the Pacific Ocean when it is decommissioned. (Image credit: NASA)
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May 15

Europeans Launch Two Space Telescopes

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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Two European space telescopes have lifted off atop an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency’s launch center in French Guiana on Thursday, according to MSNBC. The two telescopes will help astronomers learn more about the origins of the universe.

Herschel, an infared telescope, will study the earliest stages of star and galaxy development and search for the presence of water in outer space. Planck, meanwhile, is a microwave telescope that will study the radiation left behind by the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, the report said, in an attempt to learn more about dark matter and dark energy–both of which constitute over 90 percent of the material in space.
“Our previous images of the baby universe were like fuzzy snapshots–now we’ll have the cleanest, deepest and sharpest images ever made of the early universe,” Charles Lawrence, a NASA Planck project scientist, said in a Jet Propulsion Laboratory statement.
On both telescopes, liquid helium will cool the instruments to 459 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, or 0.3 Kelvin (for Herschel) and 0.1 Kelvin (for Planck), in order for both of them to work properly, the report said. Herschel will arrive in orbit in two months, and then four months later will begin its 3.5-year mission. Planck will also reach orbit in two months and start its 15-month mission one month later. The two missions together cost about $2.5 billion. (Image credit: ESA)
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May 13

Space Shuttle Catches Hubble

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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The space shuttle Atlantis has caught up with the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope 350 miles above Earth, and is now preparing for its robot arm to grab hold of the telescope at 3:54 PM EST, according to CNN. In order to do so, the astronauts must periodically fire the shuttle’s thrusters to line it up with the scope. Meanwhile, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is ordering Hubble to stow its two high-gain antennas and close a door to shield the sensitive mirror and other gear, according to the report.


By the end of the procedure, the shuttle will come within 35 feet of the scope, grab hold onto it, and bring it into the shuttle’s cargo bay for repairs. This will be the fifth and final repair mission for the Hubble, which last saw service seven years ago–four years beyond the usual maintenance interval. Originally NASA had decided to EOL Hubble in 2004 after the Columbia disaster the year before, but public pressure and a comprehensive boost in shuttle safety procedures (like the one we saw yesterday) caused the agency to reconsider. (Image credit: NASA)
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May 07

Physicists: Star Trek Warp Drive Could Happen (Some Day)

Posted in: science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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Okay, so we all know that warp drive isn’t possible, since nothing can go faster than the speed of light, right? It turns out that some physicists believe it may be feasible after all. According to Space.com, the idea is to find another method of propulsion besides a rocket, which could never propel something faster than the speed of light–the universe’s speed limit as set by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. (A few physicists theorize that this has already happened, just after the time of the Big Bang.)

“The idea is that you take a chunk of space-time and move it,” said Marc Millis, former head of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, in the article. “The vehicle inside that bubble thinks that it’s not moving at all. It’s the space-time that’s moving.” So how do you do that? Since any concentration of mass warps space-time around it–just very little, given real world, everyday objects–“some unique geometry of mass or exotic form of
energy can manipulate a bubble of space-time so that it moves faster than
light-speed, and carries any objects within it along for the ride.”

To accomplish this, scientists are already experimenting with rotating super-cold rings, parallel uncharged metal plates, and (in a purely theoretical sense) harnessing dark energy, that mysterious stuff that is supposedly out there but no one can find yet. So they’re on it–awesome. In the meantime, got your tickets for Star Trek yet?

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May 04

Comet Dust Predates Solar System

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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Search-and-retrieve space missions are high up on our list of cool
things, so check this out. Six years after a high-altitude NASA
research jet collected comet dust from the wake of Comet
26P/Grigg-Skjellerup, the effort has finally paid off: Scientists determined through isotopic analysis that the age of the comet dust predates the formation
of our solar system, according to Discovery.

“This was the equivalent of sampling a meteor shower. Nobody had
previously collected samples of a comet in that way,” said University
of Washington’s Donald Brownlee, who leads a science team analyzing
particles returned by another spacecraft (Stardust, which flew by Comet
Wild-2 in 2004), in the article. Could Mars be next? Here’s hoping. 

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