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Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Stardust

SpaceShipOne wins the X Prize - and related stories

SS1 reached 103 and 112 km on Sep. 29 and Oct. 4, resp., while da Vinci has delayed its first launch for an unspecified time - and Virgin will have Rutan develop a 5-passenger version for commercial flights out of SS1: the SS1 Status, the X Prize Launch page, X Prize Press Releases of Oct. 4, Oct. 2, Sep. 30 (another one) and Sep. 20, Scaled Press Releases of Oct. 1 and Sep. 29, NASA Releases of Oct. 4 and Sep. 29, Virgin [Scaled], House Science Com., CA Space Auth., SFF, NSS and Transport Canada Press Releases, pictures of SS1 flights X1 and X2, the homepage of "Virgin Galactic" and coverage of Oct. 10: AW&ST. Oct. 9: HC, Trin. Ex. Oct. 8: HC. Oct. 7: SpaceRev (other story), Nat'l Geogr., BBC, Novosti. Oct. 6: Guard., AP. Oct. 5: AD, New Sci., APOD, Seattle T., HC, FT, CSM, AFP, Dsc., ARRL, SPI, UPI, Guard. (earlier). Oct. 4: SN (other story), CNN, BBC (other, another and earlier story), Plan. Soc., Nature, FT (earlier, OpEd), Wired (other story), Dsc., New Sci. (earlier), UPI, AFP (earlier), AP, HC, SpaceRev, ST (earlier), NZ (fr�her). Oct. 3: AW&ST, FT, HC, AFP, ST. Oct. 2: SpaceRev, FT, SR. Oct. 1: HC, Wired (earlier), BBC, AFP, SPX, ST. Sep. 30: AD, FT, New Sci., BBC, SPI, AFP. Sep. 29: SN, CNN, Plan. Soc., Wired, Nature, New Sci. (earlier), HC, HobbySpace, Guard., Telegr., AFP (earlier), AP, FT (earlier), AD, USAT, ST (earlier), NZ. Sep. 28: Wired, USAT, Dsc., SFG, BBC, Guard., IHT, Telegr., AFP, SPI. Sep. 27: Nature, AVWeb, CNN, BBC (other story), SpaceRev, New Sci., STL, AFP (earlier, other stories), SC, ST, NZ. Sep. 26: AW&ST, HC. Sep. 25: BBC. Sep. 24: Tor. Star, CNN, Wired, ST. Sep. 23: STL. Sep. 21: ST.
Update # 281 of Sunday, October 10, 2004
Posted in part from the HQ of The Astronomer, Basingstoke, United Kingdom
Supernova early warning / "TA" at 40 / A new class of Nova / NASA approves WISE / Physics Nobel Prizes for QCD / Astronaut Cooper dead at 77 / New Horizons go for 2006

Neutrino-based supernova warnings

 A unique early-warning system for supernovae in our neighbourhood is already in operation - and is expected to be triggered once every 30 years or so, the estimated SN rate all over the galaxy. Thus one may well risk to subscribe to the mailing list of the SNEWS (open for every one): There will be an alert only when at least two real-time neutrino detectors a great distance from each other see a simultaneous burst, and false positives might be expected just once a century. An alert would then most likely signify a stellar core collapse somewhere in the Milky Way - which according to theory should precede the visible supernova outburst in all wavelengths by some interval. An automatic (or in more dubious cases man-tended) e-mail alert will go out to everyone on the mailing list, urging monitoring of a wide field in the sky where the supernova should light up.

Since the information on the location of the expected supernova will be very vague, basically an intense all-sky monitoring will at first be needed: At that very early stage amateur astronomers with wide-field imaging capabilities (and the cleverness to locate a suddenly appearing new source) may well have an advantage over professionals. It could be you who first spots the first galactic supernova in centuries! So far three neutrino detectors in Japan, Canada and Italy are in the network (and one computer in the U.S., heavily shielded from hacker attacks), but more will join and eventually also gravitational wave detectors which may see a signal even before the neutrinos arrive. It's now exactly 400 years that »Kepler's Supernova« was discovered on Oct. 9, 1604; many more since were probably hidden behind interstellar dust - when the next one lights up, we will be forewarned!

0.27 arc seconds on average: the best seeing on planet Earth

can be found on »Dome C« in Antarctica, automated measurements have now shown. This is far better than the average value at all middle-latitude sites where large observatories have been built - and at times the seeing improves to 0.07 arc seconds which has not been measured anywhere else on this planet. The Australian astronomers who made these 'easurements are already lobbying for the construction of an international optical observatory on Dome C - where Italy and France are building a large research station that will be manned around the year soon - with first moderate and then really big (20-meter class) telescopes. Other conditions are good at Dome C, too, and the logistics are not that much harder than on a remote mountain in Chile or Hawaii. Only the temperatures tend to be significantly lower, with -60°C possible in winter ... (Lawrence & al., Nature 431 [16 Sep. 2004] 278-81)

The future of intercontinental interferometry: e-VLBI

 Until recently radio astronomers involved in Very Long Baseline Interferometry - coherently combining measurements from radiotelescopes on several continents to get extremely high angular resolution - had to ship the recordings on tapes around the world to an institute where they were »correlated« and images reconstructed: There simply was no way to send the enormous amounts of data any other way. But this is changing now: Designated high-speed data connections have finally been set up that allow the transfer of the measurements to the correlator in real-time. Now the astronomers don't have to wait anymore for weeks or months until they get the results, and observations of rapidly changing sources that require quick reactions are finally becoming possible. The new approach is called e-VLBI, and the first successful experiment has just been completed.
SNEWS: the Homepage, a paper by Antonioli & al. [Preprint], and a Duke Univ. PR [SD].
Dome C: an AAO Press Release [SR] and stories by SciAm, New Sci., Australian and AFP.
e-VLBI: PPARC Press Release.

Laser Guide Star AO in regular use at Keck

The system brings a dramatic boost in telescope performance: Keck PR.
LBT progress - but full operation not until 2007: UA, MPG Press Releases, ZEIT. Continuing trouble on Mauna Kea: Honol. Adv.
CFHT celebrates 25 years with image releases: Press Release.

Intelligent telescopes survey the skies

British astronomers have just begun a project to operate a global network of the world's biggest robotic telescopes, dubbed 'RoboNet-1.0': PPARC PR, Scotsman.
Large sky survey with new Arecibo instrument - the $1 million upgrade, nicknamed the ALFA project, has been completed in August: AP. Optimizing a radio telescope for the unknown: a paper by Wilkinson & al.
New secondary mirror for Effelsberg, greatly improving the quality of the German 100 m radio dish: MPIfR PM.

Groundbreaking for Cosmic Ray project

"Telescope Array" in Utah - it's the first step towards implementation of an $18 million project: Univ. of Utah PR [SR].
SINFONI installed at VLT, for the imaging and spectroscopic studies of very complex sky regions: ESO, MPG Releases.

»The Astronomer« celebrates its 40th anniversary

 And as every year this international - but British-run - organization of very active amateur observers and discoverers of novae, supernovae, comets etc. held a packed meeting in the U.K., this year on Oct. 9 in Basingstoke. Here, besides reviews of the past 40 years and a ceremonial cutting of a birthday cake, quite a lot could be learned about a vast range of topics from professional astronomers (who make good use of the »Astronomer« observations) and amateurs alike. E.g. there
  • are now severe doubts about the reality of the »Exo-Neptune« of µ Arae recently announced by ESO astronomers (see last Update story 3), as demonstrated by H. Jones from a competing Australian exoplanet search. He showed a power spectrum of the radial velocities of µ Arae from measurements over many years - with the »European« signal clearly absent. And this not the only exoplanet among the 135 or so published the Australians doubt, though many are undeniably real ...

  • M. Kidger from Tenerife reported that comet scientists now believe that comet Tempel 1 will jump from +10m to zero mag. when Deep Impact hits its nucleus with a mass of 370 kg next July - this 10m increase of the comet's brightness through the release of vast amounts of dust is some 100 times higher than believed 5 years ago (see Update # 152 story 10) but still has a huge uncertainty. The impact will most likely come at 5:30 UTC on July 5, 2005, which would put California in one of the best viewing positions for groundbased observers.

  • There is substantial progress in the fight against light pollution in the U.K., as B. Mizon from the Campaign for Dark Skies could report: E.g. a regular map publisher is these days coming out with a detailled map of the sky brightness all over the U.K., to allow everyone to find darker skies (and to emphasize the general problem). Mizon also detailled how the British government has eventually started to take the issue seriously, with the Deputy Prime minister being put in charge. Persistence from the amateur community will pay off in the end.
There were many more intriguing papers at the one-day meeting, ranging from amazing progress in amateur webcam imaging of planets to historical supernovae (why do they - and the candidates for future bright Type II Sne - cluster in Cassipeia?) and the orientation of churches in Devon that is not towards the East at all. Everyone left tired but full of inspiration - which may actually lead to something. During one past meeting the fact had been raised that no nova was discovered from British soil in almost a century: One participant grabbed his sky camera on returning - and promptly caught three novae in one frame ...
The homepages of The Astronomer, the suddenly controversial planet of µ Arae, of the mission Deep Impact and a related amateur network and of the British Campaign for Dark Skies.

Reports from numerous space events

that took place all over the world in September:

Comets crossed paths in SOHO field of view

They included the new ASAS, fainter than hoped for: SOHO Pick of the Week. Three planets close to the Sun: SOHO PoW.
Crescent nebula imaged w/10" and 400 minutes exposure time by Messner.
A "light relay" planned to coincide with the anniversary of Albert Einstein's death is facing opposition in the United States as well as the UK: BBC.

»Combination Novae«: a new class of symbiotic stars

 has been identified, with Z Andromedae as its first member. Symbiotic stars are interacting binaries in which matter is transferred from an evolved star to a hot, compact partner, usually a white dwarf - a process that inevitably leads to occasional outbursts (which leave the white dwarf largely intact). Three types of such outbursts had been known before, two kinds of nova explosions in which a thermonuclear detonation takes place on the white dwarf's surface, and the so-called classical symbiotic outbursts that have not been explained yet - they occur too frequently for thermonuclear explosions. And there is also the seemingly unrelated phenomenon of dwarf nova explosions which are explained by disk instabilities of accreting white dwarfs.

The well-monitored behavior of Z And since 1994 now for the first time combines outbursts of both types: An eruption in 1997 looked like a typical dwarf nova outburst, a bigger one from 2000 to 2002, however, clearly did not, as shown by multi-wavelength observations. Initially it still did, so the trigger mechanism seems to have been the same and both eruptions probably started with a disk instability. But during the 2nd outburst the white dwarf later seems to have ejected an optically thick shell of material, and the overall increase in luminosity was far larger than could be explained by a simple disk instability - so nova-style enhanced thermonuclear burning most likely was involved, probably triggered by a sudden infall of fresh fuel. A mild nova one could call that - and Z And the first known »combination nova«.

A paper by Sokoloski & al.

A star that gave it all

to a companion and thus became something tiny and substellar similar to a Brown Dwarf is EF Eri (known from Update # 218 story 7), now studied in detail w/large telescopes: a new Gemini Press Release, an old RAS Press Release and a story by Sky & Tel.
Mira stars shrouded in mysterious molecular shell - an IR interferometer reveals that the stars themselves are much smaller than thought: a NOAO Press Release and coverage by New Sci. and SC.
Starbursts near the Galactic Center every 20 Myr or so lead to a wave of supernovae soon thereafter: CfA Press Release.

NASA approves WISE; satellite to scan sky in IR for cool stuff

 A new NASA mission will scan the entire sky in infrared light in search of nearby cool stars, planetary construction zones and the brightest galaxies in the universe: Called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the mission has been approved to proceed into the preliminary design phase as the next in NASA's Medium-class Explorer program of lower cost, highly focused, rapid-development scientific spacecraft. It is scheduled to launch in 2008. Like a powerful set of night vision goggles, the new space-based telescope will survey the cosmos with infrared detectors up to 500,000 times more sensitive than previous survey missions. It will reveal hundreds of cool, or failed, stars, called brown dwarfs, some of which may lie closer to us than any known stars.

The telescope will also provide a complete inventory of dusty planet-forming discs around nearby stars, and find colliding galaxies that emit more light - specifically infrared light - than any other galaxies in the universe. In the end, the survey will consist of more than one million images, from which hundreds of millions of space objects will be catalogued. JPL will manage the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer at a total cost to NASA of approximately $208 million. The cryogenic instrument will be built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft will be built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colorado. Science operations and data processing will take place at the JPL/Caltech Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Pasadena.

JPL, UCLA Releases, Homepage.

Swift now to launch on Nov. 8

The Swift spacecraft satellites in NASA's long line of Explorer missions is scheduled to fly November 8 from Cape Canaveral - the mission was delayed from its original launch date of October 7 in the wake of Hurricane Frances; then Hurricane Jeanne impacted a planned October 26 liftoff attempt: SN. Earlier: a RAS Press Release and a paper by Gehrels & al.
Space Infrared Interferometric Telescope studied for launch NET 2014: GSFC Release.

Physics Nobel Prize for key discovery in strong interaction theory

 The Physics Nobel laureates of 2004, David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczek, have been honored for an important theoretical discovery concerning the strong force, or the 'colour force' as it is also called. The strong force is the one that is dominant in the atomic nucleus, acting between the quarks inside the proton and the neutron. What this year's Laureates discovered was something that, at first sight, seemed completely contradictory. The interpretation of their mathematical result was that the closer the quarks are to each other, the weaker is the 'colour charge'. When the quarks are really close to each other, the force is so weak that they behave almost as free particles. This phenomenon is called "asymptotic freedom". The converse is true when the quarks move apart: the force becomes stronger when the distance increases. This property may be compared to a rubber band. The more the band is stretched, the stronger the force.

This discovery was expressed in 1973 in an elegant mathematical framework that led to a completely new theory, Quantum ChromoDynamics, QCD. This theory was an important contribution to the Standard Model, the theory that describes all physics connected with the electromagnetic force (which acts between charged particles), the weak force (which is important for the Sun's energy production) and the strong force (which acts between quarks). With the aid of QCD physicists can at last explain why quarks only behave as free particles at extremely high energies. In the proton and the neutron they always occur in triplets. Thanks to their discovery, David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczek have brought physics one step closer to fulfilling a grand dream, to formulate a unified theory comprising gravity as well - a theory of everything (ToE).

Prize Page
Coverage by Physics News Update, BBC, BdW, ZEIT, NZ.

CERN celebrates 50 years of particle research

Numerous key discoveries have been made at the Swiss-based international laboratory: Anniversary site, Physics News Update, BBC.
New CMBR polarization measurements from the CBI telescope refine earlier data: New Sci. How the Universe is constructed from the tiniest building-blocks of space-time: Nature. Gravitational anomaly speculations: Economist.

Mars Update

The MER mission has been extended by another 6 months, after both rovers 'came back' alive from behind the Sun - though Spirit has developped new steering problems. MER Press Releases of Oct. 7 [NASA], Oct. 5 and Sep. 21 [NASA], a JPL Release on MGS spotting the rover tracks of the MER, an Indiana Univ. PR and coverage of Oct. 9: ST. Oct. 8: Nature, FT, New Sci., Rtr. Oct. 7: Cornell Chr., ST. Oct. 6: FT (other story). Oct. 5: FT. Sep. 30: S&T. Sep. 28: SC. Sep. 24: AD. Sep. 23: Register. Sep. 22: FT, Dsc, New Sci., APOD, ST. Sep. 21: FT. 		Ancient Mars atmosphere modelled, could explain puzzling orbiter, MER data: Nature, Nat'l Geogr.
Mars Express data link water vapor, methane sources and explain the loss of an earlier atmosphere through the solar wind - while the deployment of the MARSIS boom has been delayed further. ESA Press Releases of Oct. 7, Oct. 5, Sep. 27 [alt.] and Sep. 20, DLR and MPG Pressemitteilungen and coverage of Oct. 8: New Sci. Oct. 7: Nat'l Geogr. Sep. 30: APOD. Sep. 28: S&T. Sep. 27: NZ. Sep. 22: CNN. Sep. 21: New Sci., UPI, ST, NZ. Sep. 20: DW, BBC, CBC, AFP, SC. Groundbased Mars methane detection published, current life implied: Nature. No new small Martian moons found: a paper by Sheppard & al.

Saturn Update

New pictures # 64... 88, 85, 81 and coverage of Oct. 9: AB. Sep. 30: IEEE Spectrum.

ISS etc. Update

The next shuttle launch has been delayed by at least 2 months because of the hurricanes hitting the KSC, the Senate Appropriations Committee has used a somewhat controversial technique to increase NASA's fiscal year 2005 budget by $200 million over the request, the next Soyuz launch has been delayed several times to now Oct. 14 - and Northrop has been chosen as the contractor for JIMO. NASA Release on the shuttle delay, NASA [SN] and Northrop Releases on JIMO and coverage of Oct. 9: FT, BBC, ST. Oct. 8: AP. Oct. 7: BBC. Oct. 6: FT. Oct. 5: FT. 		Oct. 4: FT (OpEd), BBC, New Sci., AFP, NZ. Oct. 2: ST. Oct. 1: FT (other story), Nature, HC, UPI. Sep. 30: FT, ST. Sep. 29: FT. Sep. 28: AFP, ST. Sep. 27: New Sci. Sep. 25: FT, HC, ST. Sep. 24: AP, Austr. Sep. 23: USA Today, HC, FT, ARRL. Sep. 22: HC, Register (other story), AD, FT (other story), SPX, ST (other story), NZ. Sep. 21: FT, USA T., BBC, AP, ST. Sep. 20: Wired, SR, SC.
The HST crisis - an MDD Press Release and coverage on Oct. 7: UPI, Denver Post. Oct. 6: Wired. Also: Physics Today.
UK to join ESA's Aurora program with emphasis on robotic Mars missions: PPARC Press Release, PA, BBC, Guardian (OpEd), Register (other story) ST.

Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper gone at age 77

Astronaut Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, a veteran of NASA's Mercury and Gemini programs that paved the way for the Apollo moon landings, died on Oct. 4 at his home in Ventura, Calif.: NASA page, NASA Release, SN, FT (OpEd), HC, CNN, CollectSpace, Guard., AFP, ST, NZ.

Earliest star-forming galaxies found in the HUDF?

Detailed analyses of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field may have at last identified some of the earliest star-forming galaxies - but did they provide enough radiation to reionize the Universe? HST Press Release, BIS, S&T, Wired, New Sci., BBC, BdW, Welt.

Massive merger of galaxies is most powerful on record - XMM X-ray observations support the theory the Universe built its hierarchal structure from the "bottom up": NASA Release [SN], S&T, Register, ScAm, New Sci., NZ. Motions in the Fornax cluster: Chandra Release [MSFC]. Fewer galaxy collisions in the Universe: ANU Press Rel.

H.E.S.S. sees strong gamma source near Sgr A*

The observed energy spectrum best fits theories of the source being a giant supernova explosion: a paper by Aharonian & al., MPG [engl. short vers.] and PPARC [SR] Press Releases and coverage by BdW. Formal inauguration: MPG PM, NZ. The status of H.E.S.S. earlier this year: a paper by Hinton & al.

The first detailed study of the behavior of high-energy particles around a fast moving pulsar has been done with Chandra - it provides insight into theories for the production of powerful winds of matter and antimatter by pulsars: Chandra PR. Doomed matter followed into black hole: Cambridge Univ. PR.

What the interior of a neutron star looks like, has been studied with X-ray means: a GSFC Press Release and coverage by SC and BdW. What one can learn from the binary pulsar: S&T. X Ray Flashes as a supernova early warning system? GSFC, NASA Releases.

Toutatis came close to Earth

The actual closest approach on Sep. 29 could be seen only from Southern countries, though: ESO and NASA Releases, NEO News, APOD, S&T, BBC, Guard., Economist, AB, Nat'l Geogr., AFP [SD], Rtr, UPI (earlier), SC, NYPress, BdW, NZ. UK pupils scan the skies for hazardous asteroids: PPARC PR.

The Leonids of 2004 will not bring anything like a storm but could have rates of up to 70 an hour: a brand-new study by Vaubaillon. Pre-solar grains in meteorites: MPG PM, SC.

Most accurate date for Earth's largest extinction

Uranium/lead (U/Pb) dating can be extremely accurate - to within 250,000 years - but only if the zircons from volcanic ash used in the analysis are specially treated: Berkeley Release, Dsc. Dinosaurs were not suffering at all before the KT/B: BdW. Largest crater field found in Egypt, thanks to old satellite data: CNRS Release, CNRS Journal, AFP.

Asteroid orbits indicate drifting Jupiter in the early Universe: New Sci. Traces of SL-9 impact seen by Cassini: SC, BdW. Where Io's dust is going: Science@NASA.

Better send ET a letter?

Huge amounts of information are better sent as message in a bottle than via radio through deep space, calculations show: Rutgers Univ. PR, New Sci., Nature, SC, Guard., BBC, BdW.

New Horizons to launch with minimum amount of Plutonium

NASA is still targeting a January 2006 launch of the New Horizons Pluto probe after the U.S. Department of Energy confirmed it can deliver most of the nuclear fuel the spacecraft will need for its 10-year mission: Space News.

Maneuver keeps MESSENGER probe on track - the Mercury-bound spacecraft completed a maneuver on Sept. 24 that kept it on course for next summer's Earth flyby: JHU Status [SN]. SMART-1 one year in space, ready for the Moon: ESA, AFP.

Westerners put their chips on 2007 Indian Moon mission - developing countries have started their own moon race, and scientists from cash-strapped developed countries are hoping to hitch a ride: Science. Indian lunar program going smoothly: SPX.

Genesis recovery continues

The first samples have already been shipped to institutes: a JSC Release, JPL Releases of Sep. 30 and Sep. 23, Genesis investigation report # 1 and coverage of Oct. 7: AP. Oct. 6: AB. Oct. 2: AB. Oct. 1: SPX. Sep. 30: FT. Sep. 26: ST. Sep. 24: AP. Sep. 20: SC. What the science is good for: UC Davis PR [SN].

A satellite learns to service itself, another futuristic experiment on the satellite EO-1: NASA Release.

India launches EDUSAT

An Indian GSLV rocket has successfully launched a communications satellite devoted to educational purposes: ISRO Press Release, SN, BBC, AFP, New Sci., ST. US lifts export restrictions on ISRO: State Dep. PR, ST.

China recovers satellite 27 days after launch: Xinhua. Next satellite launched on Sep. 27: Xinhua, AFP, UPI, ST. Shenzhou's legacy: SD. China & the IAF: SpaceRev.

KSC suffers only minor damage from Jeanne

Hurricane Jeanne appears to have spared NASA's space shuttle orbiters as well as unlaunched components of the ISS, however, high winds caused more damage to the landmark Vehicle Assembly Building: the current Status and coverage of Sep. 28: HC, FT, AP, ST. Sep. 27: SN, FT, HC. Sep. 26: FT (earlier), AP. Sep. 25: FT. Sep. 24: ST. Sep. 23: FT (other story).

Cold sugar in space

The GBT has discovered a frigid reservoir of simple sugar molecules in a cloud of gas and dust near the center of the Galaxy: NRAO Press Release, Scotsman, Dsc., BdW.

Helium flow in ISM near the Sun modelled, based on analysis of data from three complementary observation methods: ESA Release, Science@NASA, BdW.

Sun's luminosity over centuries probably pretty constant and not a relevant climate factor, studies of other stars show: UCAR Press Release [SN], BdW.

  • How GRACE observes Earth's climate with gravity measurements from space: JPL Release.
  • Buran sold to Germany, is parked at the Persian Gulf so far: Novosti.
  • Water slosh experiment planned for Ariance ECA during next attempt in October: New Sci. Ariane to launch 50 nanosats: Arianespace PR, BBC.
  • Delta 4 Heavy to launch on Nov. 18: SN. SeaLaunch mishap explained: Boeing PR, SN, ST. Iran's launch plans: UPI.
  • Workers blamed for NOAA satellite accident in which the spacecraft toppled over: NASA Release, SN. Satellite back on schedule, LockMart to refund profits: FT, Space News, ST,
  • ORBIMAGE wins NextView contract - the National Geospatial-Intelligence agency (NGA) has selected ORBIMAGE to build a next-generation commercial remote sensing satellite: ST.
  • Bigelow's gamble - it's a high-stakes game to develop commercial inflatable space modules while proposing a $50-million prize for a new piloted spacecraft to service them: AW&ST, ST.

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