NASA's plans for commercial space travel going forward, 06.30.11

A new dream for space travel that began 20 years ago is being revisited, and could be a reality in less than a decade. The HL-20, a spacecraft created from models made in the early 1980s, is in the process of testing.

Originally designed to serve as a “life raft” for the International Space Station (for which purpose it could still serve), the HL-20 was just recently unveiled by NASA as a commercial enterprise undertaken by their industrial partners.

“We’re only 60 days into CCDev2 (Commercial Crew Development 2), and their progress is right on schedule,” said Phil McAlister, acting director of NASA’s commercial spaceflight development program.        

HL-20. Image credit: NASA.

Credit: NASA. 

One of Saturn's moons: Helene. Image credit: NASA.

     On June 18, NASA received this image from their Cassini spacecraft. Helene is an irregularly shaped ice moon in orbit at an average distance of 234,500 miles away from Saturn, and is about 22 miles across. NASA dubbed it Saturn’s “ice queen” when they received the image from Cassini. The moon was discovered March 1, 1980, and is named after the mythical granddaughter of Kronos. Kronos was the Greek version of Rome’s god Saturn. Helene is one of Saturn’s 62 known moons, and one of the 53 actually given formal names.

     Credit: NASA and SPACE.com. 

And now, something a little different! 06.17.11

Star clusters fall into two main types: open clusters, which are fairly young, and globular clusters, which can be as old as the Milky Way itself. The older the cluster, the less elements heavier than hydrogen it contains. Open clusters tend to scatter and spread out over time.

So what’s the deal with open cluster NGC 6791? Out of the 2,000-some known clusters, it is different. At 13,000 light years away in the constellation Lyra, and with around 60,000 members, NGC 6791 has both old and new characteristics, the first of its kind. The large open star cluster is twice as enriched in heavy elements as our sun, which makes it about 8 billion years old, but has stars belonging to both types of clusters, red and very blue stars, and bright horizontal branch stars that are normally found in globular clusters.

     It’s an oddball that will keep the astronomers, like Imants Platais of Johns Hopkins University, busy for awhile.

Endeavour’s sonic booms help end crime spree, 06.07.11

A trademark of the space shuttle landing—a double sonic boom—turned out to benefit the residents of Florida last week. It helped end a string of car burglaries.

Last Wednesday morning at 2:31 am, Amanda Kay Way in Kissimmee, Florida, was awoken by the sonic boom produced by the double sonic boom made by the space shuttle re-entering earth’s atmosphere at a velocity higher than the speed of sound. Wide awake, she looked out her window and saw two young men rummaging around inside her car. After police responded to her call, the two men were apprehended and provided information that actually ties them to a string of recent burglaries over the past few weeks. Now that is a triumphant arrival and a good end to a mission!

Space shuttle Endeavour coming in for a landing. Image credit: NASA.

Sonic booms are created by air pressure and shockwaves as the space shuttle (or any fast jet plane, for that matter) as it accelerates to speeds faster than the speed of sound. Every space shuttle creates a double sonic boom as it comes screeching back to earth, both less than a second apart and created by the shuttle’s nose and tail.

Space shuttle Endeavour returned after its final 16-day mission to the ISS. After a month of decommissioning work, the space shuttle (and all the other shuttles), will go to various large museums around the nation. Only one shuttle launch—Atlantis—remains for the U.S. space program this summer, and will close out the program until further notice.

Credit: NASA.

Party stars and raining glitter, 05.31.11

Astronomers have recently analyzed some rather sparkly data from the Spitzer telescope. It seems HOPS-68, a star in the constellation Orion, is raining glitter. Yes, glitter.

Image credit: NASA/Tom Trower.

The star, it has been found, is actually raining small crystals of olivine, a mineral commonly found in periodots and green sand, particularly from Hawai’i, like these olivine samples pictured here.

The findings are puzzling, though. According to Tom Megeath of the University of Toledo in Ohio, a lead researcher in the case, “you need temperatures as hot as lava to make these crystals.” The problem, though, is that the cloud surrounding the proto-star is approximately 280 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, so it is impossible they could have formed in the star’s atmosphere in its current state. The prevailing theory is that the crystals formed when the star was hot and wild, and were swept out in solar winds and jets through the years. It seems they are still close enough to be affected by the star’s gravity, however. As time wore on and things began to settle down, the crystals began falling back down on the star, creating the glitter rain effect observed by astronomers.

The same theories surround the green haze created by olivine particles in the vicinity of comets because, well, they just might actually be great clumps of the stuff frozen together. According to Charles Poteet, the lead author on the project, it is probable that many of these crystals formed early on and were carried to the outer rim of the solar system as time wore on. Then, they eventually clumped together as they began to freeze, and consequently became the orbiting objects they are now, comets. That is how the theory goes, any way.

In any case, this star may be cold, but it sure knows how to party! Who needs a disco ball when you can have crystal rain?

Credit: NASA/JPL.

Loner planets, 05.23.11

Researchers recently gathered evidence for the existence of at least 10 free-floating planets that are roughly the same mass as Jupiter.

The Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA), a joint project between Japan and New Zealand, and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) survey group, made the discovery using telescopes that scan the center of the Milky Way galaxy. By measuring light as one star or planet passes in front of a distant star, the scientists can narrow down the possibilities of what the object may be. From the data they have gathered, they have discovered at least 10 free-floating planets (planets that do not orbit any particular star). Not only that, but based on census-style calculations, they say that for every star in our galaxy, there could be at least two such wandering worlds.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

So where did they come from? Several theories have been formed, and both seem equally plausible. One theory is that the planets were thrown out of their solar systems in the early centuries after their creation, due to the turbulence of all the new gravitational fields. Since they are not orbiting any one particular star, they have dropped into their own stable orbits around the center of the Milky Way.

The other theory regards how the planets formed. Brown dwarfs, a classification of stars, are extremely cool for stars (about the same temperature as a fresh cup of coffee), and are about as small as planets. Could these loner planets have formed the same way as those stars, or did they form the same way as the other planets and just get separated from the rest of their solar system? The researchers say both theories are just as likely.

 Credit: NSF.

Space junkies fed up with all the junk, 05.18.11

According to General William Shelton, commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, there are well over 20,000 man-made junk objects floating around earth, collectively referred to as “detritus.” Those pieces of trash are just the ones that have been logged and are being tracked. According to Gen. Shelton, it is possible that at least 10 times that much is out there now; we just cannot detect it.

Image credit: ESA.

So where did all of this space junk come from? It is not just dust and rocks floating around, but actual pieces of satellites, missiles, and space ships floating around planet earth. 50 years in the space program is a lot of time for garbage to build up. Some of the pieces are satellites that served their purpose and either “died” or were deactivated, some are extra parts that fell off or were blown off of spacecraft, and still other pieces came from satellites that collided with other objects or were blown up intentionally by missiles, as in a fairly recent test by China (their anti-satellite or ASAT test) in 2007. The pieces of detritus can vary in size from just a few millimeters to a few meters across, and can be travelling at dangerously high speeds in a geosynchronous orbit around earth. This creates serious headaches for operators of live satellites, space shuttles, and the International Space Station, because all active instruments in space must alter their orbit and stay at least one mile away from every single piece of debris orbiting our planet. This computer generated graphic is meant to illustrate the approximate density of the garbage at this point.

A problem created by the 50 or so individual nations now involved in space exploration, it is impossible to point the finger at any one group for causing the mess. Therein lies the problem in getting cooperation for cleanup. If something is not done soon to either alter practices or make a serious effort to reduce the trash, experts project the amount of detritus to triple by 2030.

 Credit: SPACE.com.