|
By Daniel Fischer Every page present in Europe & the U.S.!
| Ahead | Awards 
The latest issue!
| A German companion! (SuW version) Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Galileo + NEAR |
| |
|
|
Survey of U.S. astronomy sets priorities for the next 10 yearsA new report from the National Research Council of the U.S. National Academies has mapped out the priorities for investments in astronomy research over the next decade: A total of $ 4.7 billion should be spent, more than half of it for 7 large projects. The highest priority is given to the Next Generation Space Telescope, an 8 meter instrument that will be far more advanced than the Hubble telescope and should dramatically increase our understanding of how the first stars and galaxies formed billions of years ago and how stars and planets form today. The report also zeroes in on other projects that have the greatest promise for providing more knowledge.In addition to the NGST, a ground-based Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope is also a high priority, the report says: This 30 meter (!) instrument could provide the means to trace the evolution of galaxies and study the matter between them. Developing the technology for the telescope should begin immediately, with construction getting under way within the decade. Several other major initiatives also should receive priority attention, the committee said. For example, completion of the Constellation-X Observatory would make it the premier instrument for studying the formation of black holes (if they exist). Expansion of the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico would permit the study of distant galaxies and the disk-shaped regions around stars where planets form. A large ground-based survey telescope (with a 6.5 meter mirror) could open up the study of how objects in the universe change and move over short periods of time. In particular, this telescope could be used to catalog 90 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than 300 meters in diameter. Also high on the list is the Terrestrial Planet Finder, the most ambitious science mission ever attempted by NASA: This unmanned spacecraft would study planets around nearby stars and search for evidence of life. Among moderate-sized programs, the committee placed precedence on a plan to increase funding from the National Science Foundation for developing new instrumentation at private observatories with optical telescopes. In return, the facilities would be required to provide observing time to the community at large (and not just their own astronomers). Other highly rated programs of this size include a large telescope to study gamma rays from space, an instrument to measure the gravitational waves predicted by general relativity, and a powerful telescope to study the Sun. The top billing among small initiatives goes to a "virtual observatory" that would make large sets of astronomical data available to scientists and the public on the Internet. |
| ||||||||||
Joint BOOMERANG, MAXIMA analysis promises even better numbersAt this very moment the teams behind the cosmology balloons BOOMERANG (see Update # 187 story 3) and MAXIMA (see Update # 189 story 3) are working on a joint analysis of the data sets that are already revolutionizing observational cosmology. Both balloon experiments had been conceived together, but then executed completely independently - and yet the results match almost precisely. Some minor calibration issues aside, an improved angular power spectrum was easy to calculate from the combined data sets, with amazingly small error bars and information down to an angular scale of 10 arc minutes.The 'first acoustic peak' at around 1 degree stands out now in all its glory, and there are hints of the 2nd and even one flank of the 3rd acoustic peak: The data "are consistent with" the detection of either peak, though still not good enough for a significant proof that they exist (that is likely to come within the next 12 months from the VSA telescope on Tenerife and/or within 2-3 years from NASA's MAP satellite). The spectrum tells us that
|
| ||||||||||
ISS orbit raised by 16 kilometersOn the morning of May 24th UTC, the Atlantis crew performed another critical task of their mission: The orbiter's steering jets were fired 27 times in 59 minutes, in a first of three re-boost maneouvers, that will eventually raise the ISS' orbit by 43 kilometers. Contrary to some media reports this was no 'rescue' operation: The ISS could have done the maneouvering itself but would have spend valuable fuel. Meanwhile a 3rd battery on Zarya has been replaced as have been 10 smoke detectors - and the astronauts have repeated their statement that the air onboard the station is fine and that it isn't too noisy.
ISS EVA, repairs proceed smoothlyAtlantis' crew ventured into the International Space Station for the first time on the morning of May 23 UTC, finding the outpost comfortable, clean and in overall good condition as they completed a series of maintenance tasks well ahead of schedule. Susan Helms and Yury Usachev replaced two of six batteries in the Zarya module along with some associated battery-charging electronics; two additional fresh batteries will be installed on successive days of the mission. Station controllers in Moscow have already begun charging the first of the two newly installed batteries, finding it functioning perfectly thus far.The crew also installed three fresh fire extinguishers in Zarya, replacing three that were nearing the end of their design life. Inside the Unity module, Pilot Scott Horowitz and Mission Specialist Jim Voss replaced a power distribution box for a United States-built communications system. The crew also inspected the station for signs of condensation or mold, finding all areas clean and dry. On the morning of May 22, astronauts Jim Voss and Jeff Williams had spent over six hours outside Atlantis, completing a variety of planned assembly and maintenance tasks on the ISS with ease. Voss and Williams had started the 6-hour, 44-minute spacewalk early and remained ahead of schedule throughout: The astronauts secured a US-built crane that was installed on the station last year, installed the final parts of a Russian-built crane on the station, replaced a faulty antenna for one of the station's communications systems, and installed several handrails and a camera cable on the station's exterior. Atlantis' docking to the ISS at 4:31 UTC on May 21 for a 5-day stay had been without problems as well.
Atlantis in orbit for 3rd ISS visitThis time everything worked without a glitch: Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off on time at 10:11 UTC on May 19th with a crew of 7 (6 Americans, 1 Russian), reaching orbit 8 minutes later and starting the chase for the ISS. This is mainly a maintenance flight - see Update # 186 (story 3) for its goals - in preparation of the July docking of the Zvezda module. Four of the six batteries on the space station have failed or are failing, and replacing them has #1 priority. And during the past three weeks, another electrical component started to act up, a Russian battery-charging device, which will have to be replaced as well. The other key task of the Atlantis crew will be raising the ISS' orbit which is decaying about 3 km every week, now that the solar activity is so high and the atmosphere is expanding.In other ISS news it has been announced that an ISS airlock will serve as a temporary science lab: German and Russian physicists will use the bubble-shaped connection chamber between Zvezda and Zarya for a multi-million dollar project to investigate the properties of a complex plasma, starting this year, way ahead of all other science users of the station. The Plasma Crystal Experiment will examine the unusual plasma states that can be created by introducing microspheres into normal plasmas where they introduce order - the plasma liquefies, then crystalllizes. Russia is paying for the launch costs and logistics, a value of about $U.S. 10m, with Germany contributing another $ 5m. Already the first-ever crew of the ISS will work with the experiment, starting perhaps in October. (Nature of May 4, 2000, p. 7) |
| ||||||||||
The 5th meteorite with a well-known orbithas fallen in Southern Poland on May 6th - after a mid-day fireball as bright as the Sun had dazzled thousands of witnesses. Fortunately there are at least 3 video recordings of the event, and thus it will be possible to calculate a precise orbit of the cosmic visitor: This has been possible only 4 times in the past, the last time in 1992 in the famous Peekskill, NY, case, where the meteorite smashed an old car (and thus increased its market value tremendously). Here's a first report from Pavel Spurny from Ondrejov Observatory in the neighboring Chech republic:"It was a really huge event - at the maximum the brightness was comparable with the Sun! Just after the bolide, the meteorite fall was observed on the garden at small silesian village Moravka (Ostrava and Beskydy mountain region) and one very nice small meteorite (214.2g) was immediately found. What is very important for us is the fact that we already have three good quality videorecords of this event and thus we are able completely reconstruct the atmospheric trajectory and also heliocentric orbit. [...] We have also very detailed record of the terminal part of the trajectory and there is a lot of pieces - in any case more than 20. The classification of the meteorite will be definitively done in the mid of the next week, now we know that it is stony meteorite, and probably not very common case. Now the meteorite is in the labs in Italy for radionuclides testing." |
| ||||||||||
Close Galileo flybys, Hubble boost knowledge about IoDetailed analysis of Jupiter's moon Io reveals a colorful, active world full of surprises, according to five reports published in the May 19 issue of Science, and based on new results from NASA's Galileo spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope: The reports describe giant, erupting plumes migrating with lava flows, red and green deposits that change as unstable sulfur compounds condense from huge plumes, and mountains that may split and slide sideways for hundreds of kilometers. Some aspects of Io's volcanism resemble Earth's, others do not. The size and shape of Io's most consistently active plume, Prometheus, e.g., have remained constant since at least 1979, but the plume location wandered about 85 km to the west between 1979 and 1996 - a type of behavior never seen on Earth.Although Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system, its mountains (up to 16 km high) are not volcanoes but appear to be giant tilted blocks of crust. Giant depressions on Io are thought to be calderas formed by collapse over empty magma chambers. Unlike Earth's calderas, many Io depressions have very straight margins, sharp corners, and are located next to mountains. In new images of the Hi'iaka Patera depression and adjacent mountains, it looks as though two mountain blocks have split and slid apart by 145 km, forming a pull-apart basin like California's Death Valley or Salton Sea. This is surprising because such large-scale lateral movements on Earth are caused by plate tectonics, but there are no indications of a similar process on Io. |
|
Overlooked comet found in SOHO data - from 1997In data from SOHO's SWAN instrument from 1997, the UV emission of the hydrogen coma of a comet that had come and gone unnoticed has been discovered - the object, C/1997 K2, should have reached 11th visual magnitude for some time and thus been visible in moderate amateur instruments: Nature Science Update, Space.com, AFP, CCNet, SpaceViews.XMM-Newton peeks through the Lockman hole, Chandra views the Hubble Deep FieldThe two new big X-ray satellites have spent some time looking into famous 'deep fields' of the sky, where the distant Universe can be observed without much moreground obstruction:
LMC X-3 dims as XMM looks on - the X-ray observatory has chanced on a sudden and dramatic alteration in a binary star system, whose properties had not changed for thirty years: ESA Science News.
CGRO to die despite protests"The $670-million Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, one of America's four great observatories in space, will be deliberately - and needlessly - destroyed by NASA," says J. Oberg in USA Today & Fla. Today: "the urgency of its destruction is greatly exaggerated. In fact, the observatory is irreplaceable in some of its functions, and worth saving from such colossal waste."Goddard contracts for rapid GLAST studies - TRW and Lockheed Martin have been awarded three-month study contracts to determine how best to accommodate the science payload for the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), using a spacecraft from Goddard's Rapid II Catalog of spacecraft: Fla. Today, Space Daily. Stunningly sharp sunspot pictures with AO(Adaptive Optics) are being shot at the Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope at La Palma - here are some results and some earlier pictures, all from a site maintained by Luc Rouppe van der Voort!A 360-degree panorama of the Milky Way has been assembled from 51 photographs, using a Minolta 28 mm wide angle lens: Axel Mellinger's pages Astronomy under extreme cold, 100 km North of Ottawa: Herrero's page. |
Big Mars image library opensMore than 20 000 new images of the planet Mars taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available in a web-based photo album - the single largest one-time release of images for any planet in the history of solar system exploration: The MGS Image Gallery and a Martian Sampler, JPL Press Release, Space Daily, AP, Spacefl. Now, Space.com, SPIEGEL.Martian meteorite found in Oman - the brownish grey stone weighing 1.056 kg is thought to be only the 15th known meteorite to originate from Mars: discovery details, BBC, Space.com, CNN. FIDO tests wrapped up in the Nevada desert: Space.com, SPIEGEL . U.K.'s Beagle plans for ESA's Mars Express: Space.com. Man with nuclear power to Mars? Space.com. SETI@home has 2 million usersafter one year of 'operation', but the largest distributed-computing experiment ever has yet to catch an alien transmission: Planetary Society Press Release, SpaceViews, Discovery, TeachersNews, Space.com, Welt.40 years of SETI - how the Boston celebrations went. Why no solar systems like ours have been found: Gannett. How special are we really? SETI.org. LunaCorp gets corporate backingfrom a big (and yet anonymous) company for its daring Moon mission in 2003 - which involves the "IceBreaker Moon Rover", an electric vehicle that will try to confirm that ice exists at the lunar poles of the moon: Space.com.ARTeMiS, the AMATEUR RADIO TRANSPONDER MOON SYSTEM - a proposal for an amateur radio transponder to put on the lunar surface: QRZ.com. 30 years later, the Moon rocks retain their secrets - scientists don't know, e.g., which craters the rocks come from or the origin of all the cosmic objects that smashed into the Moon over the past 4 billion years: Space.com.
|
All other historical issues can be found in the Archive.
The U.S. site of this Cosmic Mirror has been visited
since it was issued (the German site has no counter).
Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
(send me a mail to [email protected]!), Skyweek
