The Cosmic Mirror
By Daniel Fischer
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Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Galileo + NEAR

Max Waldmeier, Swiss solar astronomy giant, dead at 88
One of the leading personalities of solar astronomy of the 20th century (and eyewitness of over 20 total eclipses) has died on September 26th - see the obituary in SolarNews.
Update # 209 of November 13, 2000, at 18:15 UTC
Moderate Leonid prospects / GRBs linked to supernovae / Hot stars in the Orion Nebula / More Chandra, XMM discoveries / M 44 = 2 clusters in collision?

Leonids 2000: Nice meteor shower possible, another storm unlikely

 Contrary to some sensationalist predictions already making the rounds another Leonid meteor storm, i.e. thousands of meteors per hour, is highly unlikely this year - a repeat of last years sky show (see Updates # 158 and 186 story 2 plus eyewitness reports from Jordan and France) remains likely for next year, however (see the links in this announcement). In 2000, the Earth will not come close to any of the dust trails which comet Tempel-Tuttle has left behind, and thus most experts are not expecting more than a few hundred meteors per hour - and because of the last-quarter Moon in the sky, you won't even see that number, as the sky brightness will render fainter meteors invisible.

Still it is worth to go out and watch on the morning of November 18th. A first peak, visible from western Europe and Africa (including central Europe) and NE South America, is expected around 3:44 UTC, which is 4:44 a.m. local time for most of the favored continental European and African locations, 3:44 a.m. for the British Isles, mainland Portugal, and the Canary Islands, and 1.44 a.m. for eastern Brazil. A second peak, visible from large parts of North America, Central America, and NW South America, is expected around 7:51 UTC, which is 3:51 a.m. Atlantic Standard Time, 2:51 a.m. Eastern Standard time, 1:51 Central Standard Time, and 0:51 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. There is also a very vague chance that enhanced rates could be seen around 7:53 UTC on November 17th, also favoring North America.

"At the times mentioned above," the International Meteor Organization predicts, "an observer at the indicated locations may expect to see 50 to 100 meteors per hour. A veritable meteor storm with several tens of meteors per minute as last year is much less likely this year, but not ruled out. Therefore, vigilance is called for! [...] In order to see meteors, the sky must be clear and the selected observing site should preferentially be free of light pollution; the less light, the more meteors will be seen! Notice that Leonid meteors cannot be seen before around midnight. Hence, there is no point in starting an observation earlier. Die-hards who do not want to miss anything of the show should then continue to watch until dawn. People who cannot afford to stay up that long should focus on a period of 1 to 2 hours centered around the predicted peak time for their region."

IMO Press Release and other serious information, plus the related IMO site.
Pages with current information by Science@NASA, ESA, J. Rao (who also wrote in the NYT) and P. Jenniskens (including cool animations from 1999).

Three detailed Science@NASA articles on the Leonids 2000 in general, on possible effects on the Moon and on a planned balloon experiment.
The basics of the Leonid mechanics in websites by D. Asher and and R. McNaught.
Homepage of a Dutch expedition, which is keeping a close eye on the weather in Europe.

The final word from Asher & McNaught on what might happen this year, reprinted in CCNet (first item).
An MSFC Press Release on observing plans in the U.S. and ESA Science News on the prospects (including some extreme fringe views about a storm on the 17th) and on observing plans.
How space dust (incl. the 2001 Leonids) can harm satellites: New Scientist.

One class of Gamma Ray Bursts traced to supernovae - but perhaps not all

 Major progress in the hunt for the cause of Gamma Ray Bursts, these giant explosions in distant galaxies: While the long (and best studied) GRBs have been traced back to - albeit exotic - supernova explosions thanks to X-ray spectral features seen for the first time, it is also becoming more obvious that the short bursts could well have an entirely different origin. All eyes are now on the HETE satellite which should be so quick that one can, for the first time, hunt for optical counterparts of the short bursts as well and to narrow down their possible origins.

The GRB - supernova link was uncovered by two groups working ith three satellites. They found evidence that, as the bursts expanded like an inflating bubble, they moved through a nearby gas cloud enriched in iron - and iron is produced in supernova explosions, by which massive stars end their lives. Both groups found "fingerprints" in the X-ray spectra of two different GRBs which indicate that the bursts had encountered an iron-rich gas cloud.

The cloud was probably produced during a supernova explosion: As stars evolve and become hotter, nuclear reactions in their core produce increasingly heavy elements. By the time a star gets to the supernova stage, it's producing the heaviest element possible, iron. The density of the "iron cloud" the GRBs encounter is quite low, however, meaning that the GRB event takes places perhaps 10 days after the respective supernova. This might favor an exotic - though little developed - 2-stage "supranova" model ... (Amati & al./Piro & al., Science Nov. 3, 2000, p. 953-8)

The different origin of long and short GRBs was deduced from the different gamma-ray burst time histories: The shorter bursts, lasting less than two seconds, have different characteristics than longer bursts. Bursts just under two seconds and just over two seconds appear completely different. The characteristics of the short burst and the abrupt change after two seconds suggest that the two types of bursts may come from very different types of sources. One could speculate that the shorter bursts might be binary neutron star mergers, a model that has fallen into disfavor for the source of long gamma-ray bursts.

The GRB-SN link: AAAS, Chandra & MSFC Press Releases.
The differences between short and long bursts: GSFC Press Release.
Coverage by BBC, Space.com, Spacefl. Now (earlier).

Closest neutron star imaged racing through the sky

The neutron star's trajectory was caught in three Hubble snapshots taken in 1996 and 1999 - the the star moves across the sky with a characteristic apparent "wobble" (a reflection of earth's own orbital motion, the parallax), showing a distance of only about 200 light years: SUNY and STScI Press Releases, CNN, Space.com, BBC, SpaceViews.
A 3-hour nuclear explosion on a neutron star was likely caused by over a year's worth of stored carbon (the nuclear ash from daily helium-fueled explosions) packed so tightly below the neutron star surface that it finally fused and exploded: GSFC Press Release, more material, coverage by Space.com, Discovery.
A 'collar of gas' around the fountainhead of the jet of SS433 has been imaged in the radio: AAS Release.

Young stars in the Trapezium extremely hot

 In resolving the hot core of one of the Earth's closest and most massive star-forming regions, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has shown that almost all the young stars' temperatures are higher than expected. The X-ray sources detected by Chandra include several externally illuminated protoplanetary disks ("proplyds") and several very massive stars, which burn so fast that they will die before the low mass stars even fully mature. The five main young and massive Trapezium stars are responsible for the illumination of the entire Orion Nebula. These stars are born with masses 15 to 30 times larger than the mass of our sun.

X-rays in such stars are thought to be produced by shocks that occur when high velocity stellar winds ram into slower dense material. Chandra's spectra show a temperature component of about 10 million Kelvin, which is consistent with this model. However, four of these five stars also show additional components between 25 million and 37 million K. That some of these massive stars show such a hot component and some not, and that a hot component seems to be more common than previously assumed, is an important new aspect in the spectral behavior of these stars: Standard shock models cannot explain such high temperatures, which may be caused by magnetically confined plasmas, which generally are only attributed to stars like the Sun.

MIT Press Release, additional material, Space.com, SpaceViews.

101 giant galaxy clusters

have been discovered by the Massive Cluster Survey (MACS), many of them so distant and thus forming so early in the history of time that they challenge our current understanding of how quickly the Universe evolved into its current hierarchical structure of stars, galaxies and clusters: U HI Press Release, ENN.

Yet five more Chandra discoveries

 have also been presented at a high-energy astrophysics conference:
  • The mechanism that drives a quasar jet can now be studied thanks to Chandra's high spatial resolution: For the first time, Chandra has seen the area between the core of 3C273 and the beginning of the jet - and detected a faint, but definite, stream of energy.
  • A cavity within X-ray emitting hot gas surrounding the galaxy Cygnus A has been studied in detail which has been created by two powerful jets emitted from the galaxy's central engine; hot gas is steadily being piled up around the cavity as it continuously expands, creating a bright rim of X-ray emission.
  • Using gravitational lenses in X-rays to derive the Hubble constant should be possible by carefully monitoring the light travel times in such systems - a pretty good Ho should come out of such an experiment within a day.
  • The first "P Cygni profile" in X-rays has been seen, revealing a fast wind coming from a highly compact pair of stars in our galaxy: The system, known as Circinus X-1, is located about 20,000 light years from Earth and contains a super-dense neutron star in orbit around a normal fusion-burning star like our Sun.
  • Violent X-ray flares on protostars have been found in the Rho Ophiuchi star forming region - the plasma is ten times hotter and 100 to 100,000 times brighter than the flares on our Sun. The X-ray flares have also provided the closest look yet at the youngest stars in the Universe, never before detected because they are hidden within dust and molecular clouds that filter all other types of light.

More and more of the X-ray background traced to distant galaxies

XMM-Newton observations are backing up the view that the faint glow of X-rays pervading the cosmos comes essentially from many individual but so-far undetected celestial objects and not just from the hot environment within galaxies: ESA Science News, Spacefl. Now.

'Beehive' star cluster = two clusters in collision?

 One of the most well-known star clusters in the night sky, the 'Beehive' cluster in the constellation Cancer, is probably two distinct clusters colliding with each other - it could be the first case of merging star clusters ever to be found. In this cluster, also known as Praesepe or M 44, are two distinct concentrations of stars: It looks like cluster within a cluster. But the Beehive is about 800 million years old and any clumpiness in the distribution of stars when the cluster first formed should long since have evened itself out completely as the stars move around. What's more, the 'sub-cluster' seems to be rather older than the main cluster. The evidence for this is that the emission from its X-ray stars is weaker.

Furthermore, the Beehive cluster is unstable! Its stars are moving so quickly that they will fly apart over a timescale of only 10 million years. A similar analysis on the 1500 stars belonging to the Pleiades cluster (the 'Seven Sisters' in the constellation Taurus) produced the result that the Pleiades is quite stable as a cluster. So the question is, 'What happened to the Beehive?' An obvious explanation is that two clusters have collided. The energy released by the collision is enough to cause the rapid break-up of both of them.

RAS Press Release.

Nuclear activity, star formation linked in galaxy evolution? A starburst phase may be a common stage of development for Seyfert galaxies and quasars: JHU Press Release, Space.com.

Hubble spies colliding galaxies - NGC 6745 is actually two galaxies passing through each other: STScI, BBC.

ISS Update

With Expedition One settling into orbital routine after a few hectic early days (and enduring a solar storm), the Cosmic Mirror changes its ISS coverage to a new format: In such a green box between the main stories and the small items you will always find current status reports and links to coverage elsewhere - for the next 20 years or so. Only major ISS milestones will be covered with separate articles from now on.
Status Reports # 55, 54, 53, 52, 51, 50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, 44, 43, 42.
Continuous Expedition One updates by Spaceflight Now and Florida Today. Picture gallery by SPIEGEL.
The ISS Guide with a detailled chronology and many documents: Russian Aerospace Guide. 		Coverage of Nov. 11: Fla. Today, AP. Nov. 10: Baltimore Sun, Discovery, again, Fla. Today. Nov. 9: AvNow, Spacefl. Now, SpaceViews, SpaceRef, RP, Fla. Today. Nov. 8: JSC Press Release, Spacefl. Now, AvNow, Fla. Today. Nov. 7: Discovery, WELT, SpaceRef, BdW, Fla. Today. Nov. 6: JSR, ABC, Discovery. Nov. 5: Fla. Today, SpaceViews, again. Nov. 4: Fla. Today, Reuters, ZEIT, SPIEGEL. Nov. 3: Spacefl. Now, BBC, CNN, Fla. Today, again, WELT, Discovery, Space.com, again, SpaceViews. Nov. 2: Energia Press Release, Science@NASA, PBS, Spaceflight Now, again, Discovery, Hou. Chr., AFP, again and again, AP, again, BBC, CNN, Fla. Today, SPIEGEL, Space.com, SpaceViews, again. Nov. 1: Discovery, AP, SPIEGEL, Fla. Today.
Funding to deorbit Mir confirmed - the Russian government has set aside the $25 million needed to bring down the Mir space station, if such a decision is made early next year: Space.com = SpaceViews. No room in ISS for Mir cast-offs: Space.com. Soyuz TM26 for sale: Hou. Chr., Space Daily.

Asteroid to occult naked-eye star on Nov. 20!

An extremely rare sky event can be observed on the early morning og Nov. 20 in parts of the U.S., when the 65-km asteroid (752) Sulamitis will occult the 2.9 mag star Mu Geminorum: IOTA Press Release, an overview map and more IOTA announcements, maps etc.!

Another asteroid scare vanishes quickly

For just a few hours the small object 2000 SG344 (which is either an asteroid or an old Apollo stage) had a 1:500 chance of hitting Earth in 2030, but then pre-discovery observations were found that have removed that possibility - but a very close encounter decades later is still possible: the "official" IAU page, NEO News (Space Daily, SpaceRef, Spacefl. Now versions), Science@NASA, BBC, AP ( earlier), RP, BdW, Space.com = SpaceViews. The initial report & coverage: IAU Technical Review (Spacefl. Now version), AP, Knight-Ridder, SPIEGEL. Full coverage and commentary in CCNet of Nov. 3 (at the end), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Surprisingly big Apollo asteroid found only now - 2000 UV13 has between 5 and 12 km diameter: CCNet. Toutatis came close at Halloween but stayed 29 lunar distances away: Science@NASA.

Asteroid rover cancelled by NASA

Japan's Muses-C won't have a fellow passenger from JPL after cost, weight rises, but the U.S. will retain a role in the first asteroid sample return mission: JPL Release, Spacefl. Now, Space.com = SpaceViews. Planetary Society reaction.

NEAR back at 200 km distance from Eros: News Flash, NYT. Mining asteroids: Space.com.

A new website on the Tagish Lake fireball & meteorites from UWO.

Young lava flows on Mars

A team of US scientists have identified young lava flows on the flanks of two of Mars' largest, thought to be extinct, volcanoes: BBC, SpaceRef. The latest MOLA maps of Mars in: orthographic projection, Martian volcanoes in 3D and Valles Marineris, also discussed by Space.com - and make your own Mars globe from these data (plus a normal Mars)! Plus MOC views of Mangala Vallis: MSSS.

What we know about Mars: a new ESA site. The new Mars plans for the 21st century reviewed by Space.com and Space Daily. France, U.S. target 2001 kickoff for sample return missions: AW&ST. "Committee Against Mars Sample Return" afraid of Martian invasion: CNN. Next Mars movie sucks, too: USA Today.

New Cassini pictures show full Jovian rotation

Newly released images captured by the Saturn-bound spacecraft show Jupiter in all its glory, as it rotates a full 360 degrees in the space of its 10-hour day: PhotoJournal, Spacefl. Now. IR images with bright Europa: PhotoJournal, Spacefl. Now. The latest Jupiter pictures from Cassini (and Galileo), the Jupiter imaging diary and the Jupiter Flyby page with data from other instruments as well. Coverage by CNN, Space.com, SpaceViews. And again tons of amateur pictures & drawings.

Life most likely in Europa's cracks? New Scientist.

CERN's hunt for the Higgs is over

for the time being - managers at the lab in Switzerland have decided to scrap the LEP machine as planned after 11 years of forefront experiments, despite the recent possible discovery of the Higgs particle (see Update # 204 small items) there: NYT, AP ( earlier), BBC, RP, SPIEGEL (earlier). Earlier: CERN Press Release and the LEP story.

CERN celebrates its antimatter research and other research highlights with several P.R. events; see also Discovery.

Integral Announcement of Opportunity

Gamma-ray astronomers and astrophysicists the world over are now being solicited for Guest Observer proposals using ESA's Integral observatory - the European Space Agency officially issued its Announcement of Opportunity (AO-1) on 1st November: ESA Science News.

China's first manned launch in 2002 the earliest

One year after the first - unmanned - test launch of China's space capsule (see Update # 158 story 4) the timeline of the program is becoming clearer: In late 2000 or early 2001 as well as in late 2001 or early 2002 two more unmanned tests are planned, and only then will the first astronauts fly on Shenzhou. (Space News of Nov. 6) More recent coverage by Reuters, AFP, SPIEGEL.

Altitude record for laser lightcraft - 71 meters reached, and space is still the goal: Space.com.

Amateurs don't make it into space - the 'CATS Prize' has not been grabbed, and the competition is now over: CATS Homepage, SpaceViews = Space.com. Earlier: Wired.

Something wrong with astronomy in Spain, France, Germany & Italy?

Scientific papers by astronomers working in these countries get substantially less often quoted and have less "impact" than those from Australia, the Netherlands, Japan, the UK and the U.S. - but why? Study by Sanchez & Benn.
  • New IAU definition of "planet" coming? Recent discoveries call for new definitions of celestial objects: Space.com = SpaceViews. The nature of the Kuiper Belt Objects: NYT.
  • EUVE will be turned off - a campaign to save the astronomy satellite has failed: Space.com = SpaceViews.
  • NASA budget signed into law - the Authorization Act of 2000 permits the space agency to spend $14.2 billion in 2001 and $14.6 billion in 2002: SpaceViews.

  • Pictures of an aurora seen on Nov. 6: AKM and SpaceWeather galleries, Kaiser. Solar eclipse used for ozone studies: BdW. An online exhibit on the Sun: ISTP.
  • The first instruments for the VLT Interferometer are almost ready: ESO Press Release.
  • A 51-cm telescope at 'Biosphere 2' will be used for serious variable star work: Homepage, Space.com story.

  • The U.S.A. in their own light as imaged from space: EPOD. The whole world: PhotoJournal. Preserve the Dark Skies! A show of 49 slides.
  • A bizarre solar system montage compiled from many spacecraft images: PhotoJournal, Spacefl. Now.
  • Former astronaut wins Senate seat, was 2nd "politician in space" when still a congressman: SpaceViews.Man pleads guilty to selling fake moon rocks and faces 5 years in prison: Spacefl. Now.

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All other historical issues can be found in the Archive.
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Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
(send me a mail to [email protected]!), Skyweek
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