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CONTOUR is on its way to 2 (or 3) comets! The cheap NASA space probe was launched on July 3: Status, Homepage, CONTOUR, APL and KSC Press Releases, the next steps and AW&ST, FT (earlier), SN, S&T, SC (earlier), SD, CNN (earlier), BBC, AFP, ST, Sp, NZ on the launch, an earlier JPL and GSFC Releases and pre-launch coverage by AD, FT, Ast., BBC, UPI, CNN, ST, NZ, Welt, Sp.

Update # 240 of Saturday, July 20, 2002

Three solar sails to fly / Exo-Earth confirmed? / Two new Small Explorer missions selected

Three different solar sails set to fly in the coming years Solar sails propelling interplanetary spacecraft just with the radiation pressure from the Sun will turn from theoretical concepts to real space experiments in this decade, and no fewer than three different designs will probably be tested between this year and 2004: Two will just try out basic techniques in low Earth orbit and one might actually start to speed out of the solar system. Here is the status of the three projects as discussed at a conference in the UK in May or told to the Cosmic Mirror by a leading German solar sail scientist on July 11: The first sail to launch will most likely be the Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 - while the launch of a prototype was a failure (due to rocket problems) one year ago (see Update # 226 story 2), the first orbital spacecraft with a full set of 8 inflatable »blades« is already undergoing tests and should fly, again on a Russian submarine-launched Volna, in late 2002. Cosmos 1 will test both the inflation of the sail and simple sailing maneuvers in the Sunlight. This October the German and European space agencies DLR and ESA expect to finally get the green light for the kick-off of their own solar sail project which should lead to a launch in the 2nd half of 2004. The rocket and the upper stage are the same as for Cosmos 1, but the sail's deployment mechanics are very different (and already validated in a ground test in 1999). Also the launch just aims at an altitude of 450 km (instead of Cosmos' 800 km), and only the unfolding of the sail in space will be tested. Then the satellite reenters within 2 weeks. The most ambitious solar sail project under concrete development to date is the Team Encounter satellite by the private company Encounter 2001: To be launched piggyback on an Ariane 5 in 2004 or later, the satellite is to carry DNA samples and other materials supplied by millions of paying customers (including Arthur C. Clarke) straight out of the solar system. Alltogether the satellite, its payload and the folded sail will weigh just 18 kg. An orbital test of the sail's deployment system, again different from the other two, may precede the actual Team Encounter launch. None of the other solar sail projects under consideration, e.g. by NASA as a possible New Millennium mission, have advanced as far as those three, and no real science or application mission is in the pipeline at all. There are numerous ideas around, though, what solar sails could be good for one day: They promise easier travel to Mercury, going onto a polar orbit around the Sun, heading for interstellar space - or to keep Sun- or Earth-observing satellites in non-Keplerian orbits close to the Sun or over the Earth's poles. The latter concepts are actually of interest for the U.S. weather service NOAA which has started to support Team Encounter.	An invitation to and a report from the May conference. A Planetary Society Press Release and SN and NZ on a successful ground test of Cosmos 1 and a Team Encounter Press Release on their progress. The Homepages of Cosmos 1 and Team Encounter. Comeback for Venus Express! On 11 July 2002 the ESA Science Programme Committee agreed unanimously to start work on Venus Express which will reuse the Mars Express spacecraft design and needs to be ready for launch in 2005 - the mission's fate is not yet final because Italy has still to confirm its participation in the payload: ESA Science News, ST, Ast., CNN, SN, NZ. NASA urged to give Pluto a priority A mission to Pluto should be a top priority in exploring the solar system over the next decade, a federal advisory committee, the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council, has said: S&T, New Sci., NYT, SD, HC, OS, UPI, CNN, SC, NZ.
Earth-sized exoplanet confirmed? The announcement in 1999 (see Update # 130 story 3) had caused both excitement and skepticism: Did slight deviations in the light curve of a microlensing event really hint at the effects of a planet around the lensing star that has by far the lowest mass of all extrasolar planets ever announced? After three more years of analysis and model checks the observers of the event known as MACHO 98-BLG-35 are certain now: A star with one or two Earth-mass planets fits the data far better than a star without any planets. »The estimated probability for explaining the data on MACHO 98-BLG-35 without a planet is < 1 percent,« the astronomers based in New Zealand and Japan now conclude: »The best planetary model has a planet of mass ~ 0.4 to 1.5 Earth masses at a projected radius of either ~1.5 or ~2.3 AU,« as several solutions remain viable. And it is also clear that »Jupiter-mass planets can be excluded with projected radii from as wide as about 30 AU to as close as around 0.5 AU« - if there is an exo-Earth circling around the lensing star, it may be alone. (Bond & al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 333 [June 11, 2002] 71-83) The least massive exoplanetary object ever imaged could be S Ori 70 - if the faint dot of light is really a member of the young star cluster Sigma Orionis where already numerous »free-floating« bodies with masses below even that of brown dwarfs have been discovered (see Update # 206 story 3 sidebar 2). Assuming a membership of the object to the cluster with its age of only 3 million years, which is indicated by IR photometry and spectroscopy, the mass of S Ori 70 is just 2 to 8 Jupiter masses, with 3 Jupiters the most likely value. The discoverers call it a »free-floating methane dwarf« though »sub-brown dwarf« would be another accepted term. H3+ ions shining in a protoplanetary disk: evidence for a forming Jupiter? The ring around the star HD 141569 had already caused excitement when it was first imaged by the HST (see Update # 117), and now there are surprising spectroscopic observations from it as well: There is infrared emission from CO as well as from H3+. The CO comes only from distances from the star of at least 17 AU, confirming the impression that the interior of the ring has already been cleared out by planetary formation. But H3+ cannot coexist with CO, and its emission has so far only been seen from the atmospheres of the gas planets in the solar system: Could it be that its emission from the HD 141569 system is indicating the ongoing formation of a giant proto-Jupiter? (Brittain & Rettig, Nature 418 [July 4, 2002] 57-9)	S Ori 70: A new paper by Zapatero Osorio & al., an earlier U HI Press Release [SR] and SC, NZ and BdW articles. HD 141569: U Notre Dame Press Release, NSU and coverage by S&T, Ast., SC, NZ. The exoplanet count is now past 100 with the radial velocity technique alone - and there could be billions of Earths in the Milky Way: the 100th planet, the full catalog and coverage by BBC, SC, Ast. Another Saturn-like planet has been found, one of the smallest exoplanets ever detected: HD 76700, BBC, NZ. Most transiting objects are not planets! Early spectroscopic studies of the stars with regularly transiting dark objects from the OGLE program (see Update # 237 small items) show that most of those are too big to be exoplanets: paper by Dreizler & al. The closest Brown Dwarf companion to a normal star has a distance of just 3 AU - and there are more close pairs out there: Gemini Press Release [SR], Ast., SC, NZ. Weather on Brown Dwarfs: Ames Press Release, CNN, NZ.
NASA selects two new Small Explorer missions Spacecraft that will observe the Earth's highest clouds and detect hidden matter in the universe have been chosen as the next two missions in NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) program. The first mission, to be launched in 2005, is the Explorer for Spectroscopy and Photometry of the Intergalactic Medium's Diffuse Radiation (SPIDR), a mission to map the "cosmic web" of hot gas that spans the universe. Half of the normal matter in the nearby universe is in filaments of hot gas, and SPIDR will observe its emission and distribution for the first time. The second mission, to be launched in 2006, is the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) Explorer, which will determine the causes of the highest altitude clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. There are indications that the number of clouds in the upper atmosphere (mesosphere) over the Earth's poles has been increasing over the past couple decades, and it is hypothesized that this results from increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases at high altitudes. AIM will measure atmospheric temperatures and water vapor concentrations in the cloud forming region, as well as the properties of the clouds themselves.	NASA Press Release. SPIDR, AIM and Explorer program Homepages. Coverage by Ast., CNN. Two Earth System Science Pathfinder satellites selected As part of this small-satellite program, NASA has selected two new space mission proposals that will yield fresh insight into our home planet's carbon cycle and how oceans affect and respond to climate change - Aquarius and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory: NASA and GSFC Press Releases.

ISS Update The Homepage of the long awaited ISS Research Maximization and Prioritization (ReMaP)Task Force Results, a note from O'Keefe regarding a ISS Science Community Petition and coverage of July 20: ST. July 19: AFP, CNN. July 18: FT, SD, OS. July 17: ST, SC, CNN. July 16: ABC. July 12: ST, Guardian, AFP, Sp.N.. July 11: HC, NYT, WP, FT ( other story), OS, FT. July 10: New Sci., UPI, SC, ST. July 9: AP (other story). July 5: FT. July 3: AW&ST, HC. June 30: HC. SRTM maps to be released from the 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission beyond U.S. borders to the rest of the globe: NASA Release, News Factor.

Cracks found in the fuel lines of all four orbiters might have to be repaired - the shuttles are grounded until at least September: SN (earlier, still earlier), AFP (earlier, still earlier, even earlier), FT (earlier, still earlier), ST (earlier, still earlier), OS, HC, NYT, SC, Welt. Earlier: BBC, SC, AP, NYT, OS, New Sci., SR (earlier), Sp, RP, NZ. Russia has launched another IRDT (see Update # 176 story 4) from a submarine, a system that may one day help support the ISS - the Demonstrator 2 hasn't been recovered so far, though: New Sci., AFP (earlier), Space&Tech, AP, NZ. Russia talks about plans to put people on Mars - but that would require international co-operation and support from both NASA and ESA: OS, BBC, New Sci., AP, AFP, SPIEGEL. .

No diamonds in the sky ... A paper announcing the discovery of vast amounts of tiny diamonds in the ISM (as reported in Update # 238 small items) has been "withdrawn after reanalysis of the data": the old abstract and InScight on what had been claimed. H218O detected in Ikeya-Zhang with the ODIN satellite - the preliminary measurement of the H216O/H218O ratio in the comet is in agreement with that measured in terrestrial oceans (500), and confirms measurements done in comet Halley: ObsPM PR. ND3 found in molecular cloud - a really unexpected molecule: MPG Press Release (deutsch), BBC. HSOH studied in the lab - a "missing link" in its chemical family: OSU Press Release. A gigantic sunspot group with the number 30 (the count since 1972 passed 10,000 in mid-June and has started again with 0) is transiting the Sun's disk: S&T, CNN, a picture of July 15 and more pix. Jupiter & Mercury are now very close to the Sun and can be observed only by SOHO. Big solar eruption captured by SOHO: GSFC, NASA, BBC, Rtr [ABC], SC, Sp. Earth in aphelion: Science@NASA. Aurorae underneath space shuttles: Science@NASA. The Cluster satellites: ESA Science News. The eclipses of 2003 (two total lunar, an annular and a total solar) previewed by Espenak, the (dire) weather prospects for the annular one by Anderson and more details by Williams. Plus hi-res world maps with all total and annular eclipses from 2001 to 2025 and a World Atlas of Solar Eclipse Paths. Supernova 2002dj in NGC5018 as photographed at CTIO, long before it peaked: Press Release, SC. The UK is now an ESO member It's a turning point for astronomy in the UK: ESO Press Release, Ast., S&T, BBC ( earlier w/links to more stories plus Q&A), Guardian, Rtr. Chile as an astronomer's heaven: CSM. New giant optical interferometer will be built from 8...10 1.4-meter telescopes: NMT Press Release, Ast., MRO Homepage. First Light" of new powerful spectrograph at the VLT - the first observations of stellar spectra have just been performed with the new GIRAFFE multi-object spectrograph: ESO Press Release. Amateur astronomers discover dozens of supernovae Tim Puckett and his team of more than a dozen volunteers have discovered 54 supernovae to date: S&T. And amateur astronomers in general portrayed by the NYT. The Perseids are coming, one of the year's most inviting sky shows: Science@NASA. Celestron reborn - 3 senior managers of Celestron International have purchased the assets of the company, as well as the name "Celestron," from now-defunct Tasco Worldwide: Press Release, Ast., S&T.

Radio interferometry at 18 µas resolution! The sharpest radio images ever have been obtained at 2 mm wavelength: MPIfR Press Release. Germany's "Mr. Apollo" dead at 73 G�nter Siefarth hosted the around-the-clock live coverage of the first Moon landings, perhaps the last great German space TV personality: WDR, Tagesschau, DPA [Mannh. Morgen]. Another legal fight over a Moon rock, this time from Apollo 17: CollectSpace, Guardian, AP. Fossils point to asteroid causing dinosaurs' demise A massive asteroid impact, not volcanic activity, caused the climate change that wiped out the dinosaurs, new fossil evidence suggests - the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased suddenly and dramatically 65 million years ago: New Sci., NZ, Sp. Detecting airbursts via infrasound: NSU, Welt, NZ, Sp.. A report about the annual meeting of minor planet observers in Germany - work that could be called professional: Bericht. Panel debates defense against NEOs: CC Net (earlier, later), Worden statement, S&T, Ast., SN, SC, ST, BBC. Do most Oort cloud comets just vanish? There are far too few dormant long-period comets around than models predict: SwRI Press Release [SN], S&T, Ast., SC, NZ. Seven win the 2002 comet awards for discoveries by amateur astronomers - successes abound despite all those automated searches: CfA Press Release, S&T, Ast. Student-polished space mirrors ready for Starshine 4 launch The mirror-covered satellite is set for launch January in 2003 on Atlantis during the STS-114 mission to the ISS: MSFC [SN]. 'Cheap' routes thru interplanetary space, using the Lagrange points: JPL Release, CNN, RP, NZ. Artemis continues climbing with its ion engine, one year after the launch failure (Update # 226 story 4): ESA News. Returned HST hardware still valuable for long-term space exposure studies: ESA Science News. An HST image of planetary nebula Henize 3-401, one of the most elongated planetary nebulae ever seen: ESA Science News, S&T, Ast., NZ. A Chandra picture of M 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy: Chandra Release, S&T, Ast., SC, Sp, NZ. An HST image of Cas A, the famous supernova remnant: STScI Release, BBC, Rtr, SC. Galileo's tape recorder believed fixed - on June 8 the tape was successfully pulled free: Status. What to do at Amalthea: SD. Falung Gong jammed a Chinese TV satellite to broadcast short video clips: WP. Hong Kong police investigates: AFP. 5th anniversary of the Pathfinder landing observed by JPL. Martian weather forecasts: ESA Science News, BBC. 40th anniversary of satellite live TV - Telstar sent a signal over the Atlantic: BBC, AP. The fires in the American SW as photographed from the ISS. PROBA pictures: ESA News, New Sci., Ast., NZ.

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Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
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