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By Daniel Fischer Every page present in Europe & the U.S.!
| Ahead | Awards 
The latest issue!
| A German companion - only available here! Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Stardust |
The first science results from Mars Express have been published in Nature, including the detection of "vast" amounts of water ice in the SPC, while methane has been detected in the atmosphere: ESA Science News of March 30, March 22 and March 17 plus coverage of March 30: NSU, Scotsman, AFP, ST, Welt. March 29: BBC, New Sci., SC, NZ. March 24: SciNow. March 20: ST. March 18: PA. March 17: BBC, AFP, ST. And cross-bedding shows that the Opportunity Ledge has sedimented out of liquid water, while the 'blueberries' are made of hematite indeed: MER Press Releases of March 26 [JPL], March 23 [NASA] and March 18 [JPL, SN] and coverage of March 29: AB (other story). March 27: FT, ST. March 26: SD, SC. March 25: HC, BdW. March 24: Ast., FT, HC, BBC, Guardian, New Sci., CSM, SF, UPI, NZ, RP. March 23: AB, SN, SR, USA Today (other and another story), Wired, Dsc., BBC, SC (earlier), ST (earlier) CENAP. March 22: AB, SN, AP. March 20: ST. March 19: S&T, FT, CSM, SC. March 18: Dsc., SC. March 17: S&T, BBC, New Sci., SC, RP. March 16: SR. How the Marsrover of 2009 will search for traces of life with a device looking for amino acids: NSU. Life search problems: SC. Spiral troughs of Mars' polar ice caps could be explained: UA News [SN], Ast., New Sci., SC, BdW. Water past: Ast.
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First "quasi-satellite" of Earth discoveredThe newly found asteroid 2003 YN107 is the first and only known current quasi-satellite (QS) of the Earth, sharing its orbit almost perfectly for an extended period. The earlier found asteroid 2002 AA29 (see Updates # 244 and 247 small items) is in a horseshoe orbit (HS) near Earth's with periods of QS behavior: Both asteroids closely follow Earth's orbit. 2002 AA29 has inclination i~11� while for 2003 YN107 i<5�, making it the most Earth-like orbit known. 2003 YN107, 2002 AA29 and other Earth-resonant objects in less Earthlike orbits form an important new class of co-orbital bodies with interesting dynamics and are the best targets for sample return missions to asteroids.2003 YN107 has an extremely Earth-like orbit: It remains within 0.1 AU of Earth for approximately 10 years (1996-2006), making satellite-like loops of high inclination and apparent period of one year. During QS the "orbits" around Earth are not completely closed, and more correctly are parts of the asteroid's orbit around the Sun, heavily perturbed by Earth's gravity. QS motion is a temporary part of a three-body interaction also featuring HS co-orbital motion, with the asteroid librating along Earth's orbit and bouncing when it encounters Earth in the gap of the horseshoe. Prior to QS, 2003 YN107 had been in a HS orbit closely following Earth's for several hundred years. |
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Scramjet experiment soars, reaches Mach 7 for 11 secondsNASA's experimental X-43A hypersonic research vehicle was successfully launched on March 27, demonstrating for the first time an airbreathing scramjet-powered aircraft while soaring 29 km above the Pacific Ocean at seven times the speed of sound. The experiment was part of NASA's high-risk, $250 million Hyper-X program that seeks alternate propulsion technologies for access to space and high-speed flight within the atmosphere. A scramjet operates by supersonic combustion of fuel in a stream of air compressed by the high forward speed of the aircraft itself, as opposed to a normal jet engine, in which fan blades compress the air. However, as NASA is terminating many research programs not directly involved in the return-to-the-Moon activities, the future of this kind of research is in doubt and a planned successor (X-43C) has already been cancelled.In order to test the scramjet, the 3.6 meters long and 1.5 meters wide X-43A vehicle was blasted high above Earth on the end of a solid-fueled Pegasus rocket booster. The single-stage Pegasus was carried from California's Edwards Air Force Base to a position 80 km off the Southern California coast by a B-52B aircraft, then dropped at an altitude of 12 km at 22:00 UTC. After free-falling for five seconds, the Pegasus ignited for an 80-second firing. Once the rocket motor had burned out, the 1270-kg X-43A was released to fly on its own and perform its history-making experiment at nearly 8000 km/h. The supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, operated for about 10 seconds - the duration of its hydrogen fuel supply. Controllers gathered several additional minutes of data as X-43A glided back to Earth, eventually splashing down in the Pacific approximately 725 km off the coast about 10 minutes after launch. Researchers believe the Hyper-X technologies may someday offer more airplane-like operations and other benefits compared to traditional rocket systems. Rockets provide limited throttle control and must carry heavy tanks filled with liquid oxygen, necessary for combustion of fuel. An air-breathing engine, like that on the X-43A, scoops oxygen from the air as it flies. The test flight came nearly three years after an initial X-43A launch was destroyed moments after it began when the Pegasus rocket booster veered off course (see Update # 224 story 2). Investigators reported there was no single contributing factor, but the root cause of the problem was identified as the control system of the booster. |
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Janet Aky�z Mattei, AAVSO director, dead at 61Janet Aky�z Mattei, who served as director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) for 30 years, has passed away on March 22nd after a courageous six-month battle with acute leukemia. Founded in 1911, the AAVSO is one of the world's oldest and largest amateur organizations, with members in more than 40 countries and more than 10 million observations in its database. On her 30th anniversary with the AAVSO, Janet was leading the organization into the brave new world of CCD observing. She had also begun the massive project of validating 10.5 million observations of 5,000 stars against the original observing reports until her illness overcame her. "The AAVSO has lost a strong leader who had guided the organization to greatness," says longtime friend and AAVSO colleague Mario Motta: "Amateur astronomers around the world have lost a mentor. I, along with many others who knew her well, have lost a dear friend. She will be deeply missed." |
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2004 FH approached Earth's center to within 49,400 kmat approx. 22:05 UTC on March 18 - and a number of observers could actually follow the minor planet race over the sky: the asteroid showed strong and fast brightness variations. The orbit had been updated slightly later that day, thanks to numerous new positional measurements, but the fact remained that no known asteroid has ever come closer to Earth without actually impacting. On average, objects about the size of 2004 FH pass within such a distance roughly once every two years, but most of these small objects pass by undetected. The fact that an object as small as asteroid 2004 FH has been discovered now is mostly a matter of perseverance by the LINEAR team, which is funded to search for larger km-sized NEAs, but also routinely detect much smaller objects.Asteroid to speed by Earth tonight, could reach 10m during closest predicted flyby ever!A tiny, newly discovered asteroid will make the closest flyby past Earth that has ever been predicted by astronomers on March 18, just two days after its discovery. According to Sky & Telescope's alert service 2004 FH "is probably only about 20 meters in diameter (the size of a house). An electronic circular issued late on March 17th by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, indicates that it will definitely not hit the Earth." The object was discovered on March 16th by astronomers of MIT's LINEAR survey in New Mexico. Further observations made on the 17th at Klet Observatory (Czech Republic), Starkenburg Observatory (Germany), and Modra Observatory (Slovakia) helped the Minor Planet Center compute its exact trajectory. It will pass about 49,000 km from Earth's center. The flyby scenario for 2004 FH goes like this:
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"Diffuse" soft gamma radiation from Galactic Center is actually the sum of 91+ point sourcesESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory has resolved the diffuse glow of low-energy gamma rays in the centre of our Galaxy and has shown that most of it is produced by a hundred individual sources. Integral's high sensitivity and pointing precision have allowed it to detect these celestial objects where all other telescopes, for more than thirty years, had seen nothing but a mysterious, blurry fog of gamma rays. During the spring and autumn of 2003, Integral observed the central regions of our Galaxy, collecting some of the perpetual glow of diffuse low-energy gamma rays that bathe the entire Galaxy. Initially, astronomers had believed that the glow - discovered in the mid-1970s - was caused by interactions involving the atoms of the gas that pervades the Galaxy.Whilst this theory could explain the diffuse nature of the emission, it failed to match the observed power of the gamma rays. The gamma rays produced by the proposed mechanisms would be much weaker than those observed. Now Integral's superb gamma-ray telescope IBIS has seen clearly that, instead of a fog produced by the interstellar medium, most of the low-energy gamma-rays are coming from individual celestial objects. 91 individual gamma-ray sources could be indentified, responsible for almost 90% of the radiation, the remainder probably stemming from further sources below the detection threshold. Interestingly almost half of the sources do not fall in any class of known gamma-ray objects: They probably represent a new population of gamma-ray emitters. |
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ISS etc. UpdateAs the speed brake actuator issue is becoming central for the shuttle RTF activities, another ISS tourist is announced. ESA Release on ATV tests, a Space Adventures PR and coverage of March 30: FT (other story), Rtr, SD, AFP, NZ. March 29: AP, AFP, UPI, HC, USA Today, SpaceRev, SC (other story), ST. March 27: FT. |
March 26:
FT
(other story),
AP,
SC,
ST
(earlier).
March 25:
HC,
Guardian,
SC
(other,
another and
another story).
March 24:
Xinhua,
SC
(other story).
March 23:
Dsc.,
New Sci.,
FT,
HC,
UPI,
ST.
March 22:
SpaceRev,
SR,
SC,
RP.
March 21:
SR.
March 20:
FT,
HC.
March 19:
NY Books,
SR.
March 18:
FT,
March 17:
AD,
BBC,
SD.
March 16:
FT,
HC.
The HST crisis - a Senate Resolution and coverage of March 30: BBC. March 25: SC, Guardian. March 22: SpaceRev. March 18: AP. March 17: Dsc, SF Gate. |
NASA delays MESSENGER launchThe launch of the Mercury orbiter is now scheduled for launch no earlier than July 30, at the beginning of a launch window that runs through August 13 - this will give the project more time to complete launch preparations but will delay the spacecraft's insertion into orbit around the planet by nearly two years: KSC Status, SN, ST.More Cassini images of Saturn from less than 60 million km distance: blue image, Near IR movie. US space pioneer William Pickering dead at 93William Pickering, a key figure over the years in the US space program, has died of pneumonia - known affectionately as "Mr. JPL," Pickering as director of the Jet Propulsion Lab from 1954 to 1976 led the successful effort to place the first US satellite, Explorer 1, into Earth orbit: JPL Release [NASA], AFP, ST, NZ.NASA dusts historic launch tower - NASA will begin demolishing remnants of a historic Apollo launch tower after a failed private bid to raise money to erect it as a national monument: FT. Ulysses is perilously coldas it begins a newly extended mission to study the Sun - when the spacecraft was launched in 1990 the RTG produced 285 watts, but now it's down to 207 watts, barely enough power to run the science instruments and the heaters at the same time: Science@NASA, BdW.SMART-1 has orbited the Earth 250 times already - and made it through the eclipses without problems: Status. Double Star up & running: ESA News, New Sci. Technology testing for the Space Interferometry Mission with the Microarcsecond Metrology Testbed, a collection of lasers, lenses and mirrors, aimed at proving the ability to determine stellar distances accurate to within one-tenth the width of a hydrogen atom: SC. |
"McNeil's Nebula" seen close-upwith the Gemini North telescope - and the physics explained: a paper by Reipurth & Aspin, a Gemini PR [SN and coverage by Ast. The context: Gaehrken pic vs. POSS.How the light echo grew around V838 Mon over two years: S&T. The physics of Supernova 2002ic - a white dwarf explodes inside a dense circumstellar disk: a paper by Deng & al. and a LBL Press Release. Lots of Magnesium in SNR N49B: Chandra Release. Shenzhou V orbiting capsule ends space experimentsExperiments being carried out in the orbiting capsule of China's Shenzhou V space flight ended March 16 after 152 days of tests related to space environmental monitoring: AFP. Shenzhou VI preparations: SC.China Moves Up Moon Orbiter Launch Date - instead of 2007 the launch is now planned for 2006: Xinhua, AFP, AP. Report blames management problems for Brazilian accident - an investigation has pinned the root cause of an August 2003 rocket explosion at Brazil's launch site on poor management and a lack of funding: ST.
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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
