The Cosmic Mirrorof News events across the Universe |
Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer, Skyweek - older "Mirrors" in the Archive - and find out what the future might bring! The latest issue! |
Current mission news: MGS (science!) + Cassini + Galileo + Prospector |
Major cable car disaster at radio observatory in France20 people have died when a cable car crashed 80 meters to the ground early on July 1st - the privately owned installation was the main access to the radio astronomy interferometer on the Plateau de Bure in the French Alps in 2552 meters altitude. It belongs to the French-German-Spanish IRAM institute, and astronomers had been frequent users of the cable car for almost 20 years. The car that crashed (apparently after suddenly reversing its motion) at about 7:15 a.m. had been the first of the day; the people on board were employees of and contractors for the observatory, some of them working there for over 10 years. Astronomers were not among the casualties, but 5 members of IRAM's engineering team; all victims are French. Astronomers around the world are still in shock: The accident is certainly the worst ever to hit a professional astronomical institution. The observatory is closed right now and will reopen on July 5th, serviced by helicopters. |
Reports on the accident from CNN, BBC, ABC, Die Welt, Der Spiegel, ZDF, RTL, Le Monde. Yahoo News collection (in German). MPG Statement (in German). IRAM Statement. IRAM Homepage and de Bure Homepage; Spain's IRAM Page. |
ABRIXAS mission declared a total failureSources close to the ill-fated German X-ray satellite project (see Updates # 127, 128 and 129) have told the Cosmic Mirror that all attempts to bring the spacecraft back under control have failed and that the mission has been "declared dead" on July 1st. From June 25th to that day the solar arrays of ABRIXAS were expected to be illuminated well enough that some basic start-up process could have been initiated, but apparently that never happened. Perhaps some minor technological experiments can be made with the satellite wreck in the future, but there will be no astronomy whatsoever. Already the depressed scientists are talking about demanding an "ABRIXAS 2" that could be built for even less money than the first spacecraft. |
Some ABRIXAS Homepages at MPE, IAAT and AIP (neither had been updated by late July 2nd). The next three X-ray observatories to be launched are And two futuristic concepts are XEUS (ESA) and Constellation X (NASA). |
Giotto returned to Earth; no reactivation attemptedOn July 1st the famous European Giotto comet explorer that had visited the comets Halley and Grigg-Skjellerup in 1986 and 1992 returned to the vicinity of Earth, but no attempt was made to reactivate it and to use it for more daring science plans. It was estimated that the s/c would sweep past the Earth at approximately 220 000 km, just over half the Earth-Moon distance. Giotto operations had been terminated on 23 July 1992, after the completion of final orbit adjustments and configuration of the spacecraft for its third hibernation. The spacecraft had about 15 kg of propellant left, barely enough to adjust the orbit for one last Earth flyby. Travelling at a velocity of about 3.5 km/sec, Giotto should have been closest to Earth at around 02:40 UTC on July 1st. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere might have been able to detect it with large telescopes. |
ESA Science News on the silent encounter. Giotto Homepage. The occasion was used for a briefing on ROSETTA, discussed here in greater detail and covered by the BBC and MSNBC. Meanwhile Stardust has cleared its memory in a monthly downlink. |
How to deal with lost dangerous asteroidsItalian astronomers have discovered a surprisingly 'economical' way to make sure that potential Earth-colliding asteroids that are lost soon after their discovery will not hit. If recovery of the object is essentially impractical, because it was not observed well enough (as is the case for many small asteroids in the 100 m to 500 m diameter range), the next best thing is to make sure that the lost asteroid is not on a collision course. The procedure involves the computation of an orbit which is compatible with the available observations and, by hypothesis, results in an impact at some later encounter; this is called a Virtual Impactor (VI). The collision at some future time is a strong constraint, thus the VI has a well determined orbit.The new study shows that it is possible to compute for each given time of observation the "skyprint" of the VI, that is the set of astrometric positions compatible with an impact (or a near impact). The skyprint needs to be scanned to assure a negative observation; once this has been done for the skyprints of all VIs, collisions can be excluded even without recovery. The first candidate for such a procedure is 1998 OX4 (see Update # 134, small stuff) for which impacts in the years 2014, 2038, 2044 and 2046 are possible in principle. Suitable observing windows exist when the VI is close to the Earth in 2001 and in 2003, and the corresponding skyprints are small enough to be covered with very few frames. This procedure might become more and more necessary in the future, as the number of discoveries of small potentially hazardous asteroids increases. (Preprint by Milani & al.) |
The Paper by Milani & al. and its announcement. Near Earth Objects Dynamic Site analysis for potential Earth-crahing asteroids; from there the outlook for 1998 OX4 and 1999 AN10. NEO News & Updates from JPL. Spaceguard Australia's unofficial homepage with lots of general NEO information. Big Rock News. |
Prison to be built near Stellafane!The Town of Springfield, Vermont, has voted to accept the State contract to build the largest State Prison in Vermont in the neighborhood of 4 miles from the world-famous Stellafane Observatory, a National Historic Landmark and venue of the largest star party worldwide each year. The final Town vote was: 1633 FOR and 1564 AGAINST. The Springfield Telescope Makers vow to continue their fight against the prison plans and are being supported by many American astronomers: "We may have lost this battle, but the war is not over. We are working on a strategy to keep up the fight. We are keeping the petition going as a means to strengthen our arguments." |
Stellafane Homepage. Prison Page with all the background and a Petition to save Stellafane. ABCNEWS story. |
Galileo Callisto encounter went wellOn June 30th at 07:47 UTC, NASA's Galileo spacecraft zoomed past Jupiter's moon Callisto at a distance of only 1047 km. The encounter was a success and that the spacecraft is operating normally: NASA Science News.The physics of Meteor CraterMost of the asteroid that blasted Meteor Crater out of the Colorado Plateau melted, according to new evidence which contradicts a previously held theory that the Canyon Diablo meteor vaporized. More than four-fifths of the Earth-crossing asteroid completely melted: LPL Press Release, MSNBC story.Hubble's images of Mars in 1999are the sharpest ever, with a resolution of 19 km! That were the raw images; now we also have processed versions. NASA's version plus stories from BBC, CNN and Astr. Now.MGS spots Martian dust devils: During the geodesy campaign the MOC2 has captured several dusty twisters, up to 8 km high - the images! IR vision brings light into dark cloudA Near-IR-Camera can for the first time look right through even the most opaque regions of a classical dark globule and see what is inside: ESO Press Release.SETI@home close to 750 000 participantsThe first search for alien radio signals involving computers around the world is getting more popular every day and has suffered some glitches, too, but new software has arrived: MSNBC story. |
First captive flight of X-34NASA made its first test flight of the X-34 test model, a prototype of a robotic spacecraft that will test new technologies and methods of operations needed to develop low-cost reusable space vehicles. The first of several captive carry flights was conducted on June 29th from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center: NASA story, X-34 Homepages at NASA and Orbital, coverage by Florida Today, CNN and SpaceViews.Is that the timetable for China's manned space program?The latest rumors have it that an unmanned version of the space capsule will fly this October, while the first manned flight of a 2 person crew will follow 9-12 months later: A CNN story, a a fan page for the Chinese "taikonauts" and some background.The next attempt to raise Grissom's capsulethat was located and imaged on May 1st (see Update # 128) has begun - and perhaps the infamous hatch of Liberty Bell 7 will be found as well: CNN Story.
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Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
