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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 |
Numerous successful observations have already been reported - including by yours truly: collected results (including the reconstructed outline of Polyxo) and a long report with further links! Jupiter daytime occultation by the Moon observed: S&T. No clearcut Leonid outbursts on Nov. 8 or 19 seen in visual observations which "do not show any peaks coinciding with one of the encounter times" with specific old dust trails: IMO News of Nov. 25, 22, 21 and 9. What was predicted: a joint paper by Vaubaillon & al. (PDF), a website with even more predictions and stories by NG (earlier), AB, CNN, AFP, SC. Aurorae & other solar-terrestrial FX on Nov. 8: gallery, APOD, S&T, NOAA, ARRL, DPA. Plus a report on an aurora trip to Norway.
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Swift launched, GRB hunt to commence in JanuaryNASA's Swift satellite was finally launched on November 20 on a Delta 2 rocket: About 80 minutes later, the spacecraft was successfully separated from the second stage. Swift is expected to detect and analyze more than 100 gamma-ray bursts a year: Each gamma-ray burst is a short-lived event, lasting only a few milliseconds to a few minutes, never to appear again. They occur several times daily somewhere in the Universe, and Swift should detect several weekly. To track these mysterious bursts, Swift carries a suite of three main instruments. The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) will detect and locate the bursts, relaying a rough position to the ground within 20 seconds. The satellite will swiftly re-point itself to bring the burst area into the narrower fields of view of the on-board X-ray Telescope (XRT) and the UltraViolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT): These telescopes study the afterglow of the burst.The XRT and UVOT instruments will determine a precise arc-second position of the burst and measure the spectrum of its afterglow from visible to X-ray wavelengths. The afterglow phenomenon can linger in X-ray light, optical light, and radio waves for hours to weeks, providing detailed information about the burst - for most of them the Swift data, combined with complementary observations with ground-based telescopes, will enable measurements of their redshift and thus distance. Swift will check in on the bursts regularly to study the fading afterglow, as will ground-based optical and radio telescopes. The crucial link is having a precise location to direct the other telescopes: Swift will provide extremely precise positions for bursts in a matter of minutes. Swift notifies the astronomical community via the Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network. The Swift Mission Operations Center, operated from Penn State's University Park, Pa., campus, controls the Swift observatory and provides continuous burst information. I between catching GRBs, Swift will also perform a deep, hard X-ray sky survey. |
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SMART-1 in lunar orbitESA's SMART-1 is successfully making its first orbit of the Moon, a significant milestone for the first of Europe's Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART) spacecraft. SMART-1 reached its closest point to the lunar surface so far - its first perilune - at an altitude of about 5000 km at 17:48 UTC on 15 November. Just hours before that, at 05:24 UTC, SMART-1's ion engine was started up and is now being fired for the delicate manoeuver that will stabilise the spacecraft in lunar orbit. During this crucial phase, the engine will run almost continuously for four days, and then for a series of shorter burns, allowing SMART-1 to reach its final operational orbit by making ever-decreasing loops around the Moon. By about mid-January, SMART-1 will be orbiting the Moon at altitudes between 300 km (over the lunar south pole) and 3000 km (over the lunar north pole), beginning its scientific observations.During its long trip to the Moon - which was used to test many technical systems - SMART-1 clocked up 332 orbits around Earth. It fired its engine 289 times during this cruise phase, operating for a total of about 3700 hours. Only 59 kg of xenon propellant were used (out of 82 kg). Overall, the engine performed extremely well, enabling the spacecraft to reach the Moon two months earlier than expected. The extra fuel available also allowed the mission designers to significantly reduce the altitude of the final orbit around the Moon. This closer approach to the surface will be even more favourable for the science observations that start in January. The extra fuel will also be used to boost the spacecraft back into a stable orbit, after six months of operations around the Moon, in June, if the scientific mission is extended. |
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VLT Interferometer confirms Cepheid distance scale with direct geometric methodFor the first time pulsations of Cepheid variable stars have been observed directly - as growing and shrinking stellar disks in the sky - with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, despite those stars never exceeding 3 milli arc seconds. Combined with spectroscopy that also shows the diameter changes via the Doppler effect it was then possible to derive the distances to these stars directly, without further assumptions, and thus to absolutely calibrate the famous period - luminosity relation for this class of stars. As it turned out, the previous calibration through much more indirect means was dead on: Thus a key element of the cosmological distance ladder is now established much more reliably. With further instruments being added to the VLTI many more Cepheids will come into range, and the PL relationship will be nailed down even better. |
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Mars UpdateMars Express - a House of Commons Report on the Beagle 2 failure, ESA Press Releases of Nov. 11 (hot Phobos pix!) [SN] and Nov. 3 and coverage (also of the excited debate about the Mars Express & groundbased discovery of methane in Mars' atmosphere) of Nov. 23: UT. Nov. 20: APOD (stereo Phobos). Nov. 19: Plan. Soc. Nov. 16: SciAm. Nov. 15: New Sci. Nov. 12: Dsc. Nov. 11: S&T, BBC. Nov. 4: Nature. Nov. 2: BBC, Guard., PolUK, AFP, Telegr., ST. |
Visions of a Beagle 3 voiced in the UK:
BBC,
AFP,
Cordis.
Martian surface chemistry:
AB.
Martian meteorites:
Antarctic Sun.
MER JPL Releases of Nov. 11 [MER] and Nov. 4 [MER], hi-res pictures of the rocks Wopmay, Uchben and Palenque and coverage of Nov. 25: AB. Nov. 22: AB. Nov. 16: AB. Nov. 15: APOD. Nov. 12: ST. Nov. 11: SC. Nov. 8: ST. Nov. 5: SF Gate, New Sci., HC, AP, FT. Nov. 4: FT. Oct. 31: AW&ST. Mars Laser Communication Demonstration: Space News. Next Scout proposals include UAVs for Mars: AD. |
Saturn UpdateThe flood of Cassini discoveries continues. Pictures # 69 94 (hi-res rings from stellar occultation), 93, 92 (radar false-color), 91, 90, 89, 65 28 (Dione), 27 (Hyperion), 26 (resolved Tethys & Saturn!), 25 (Rhea), 22, 21 (Iapetus), 19, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 and 09, 61 41 (high contrast Titan mosaic) and 40 (Tethys) and raw images 23 784, 696 and 618. | Univ. of AZ Press Releases of Nov. 18 and Nov. 8 [SR], ESA Releases of Nov. 23 and Nov. 4, Univ. of CO Press Releases of Nov. 9 [SN] and Nov. 8 [SN, SR], JPL and PPARC [SD] Press Releases and coverage of Nov. 25: Nature. Nov. 24: Reg., New Sci. Nov. 23: AZ Daily Wildcat. Nov. 19: Dsc., AFP. Nov. 17: AB. Nov. 16: SC, BdW. Nov. 11: Austr., ST. Nov. 10: S&T, BBC, New Sci., AFP. Nov. 9: New Sci., Dsc. Nov. 6: Guard. Nov. 5: BBC. Nov. 4: BdW. Nov. 2: APOD, Dsc., New Sci., Plan. Soc. Nov. 1: AB, SPX. |
ISS etc. UpdateNASA will get $16.2b in 2005, but some details are still unclear - and the American Physical Society sharply criticizes the MoonMars plans. The Conference Report on the (NASA) Spending Bill, its highlights, the APS Report (16 pg. PDF) and Press Release (PDF), a Weldon PR and NASA Releases of Nov. 23, Nov. 19, Nov. 18, Nov. 14 and Nov. 5. |
Coverage of
Nov. 24:
FT,
ST.
Nov. 23:
Plan. Soc.,
AD,
HC
(other,
earlier stories),
FT
(other story and
OpEd),
ST.
Nov. 22:
FT
(other story),
GZ.
Nov. 21:
FT,
ST.
Nov. 20:
FT.
Nov. 19:
FT.
Nov. 18:
ST.
Nov. 17:
HC,
FT,
ST.
Nov. 16:
FT
(earlier).
Nov. 15:
AD,
FT.
Nov. 12:
UPI.
Nov. 10:
BBC.
Nov. 9:
ST
(other story).
Nov. 8:
FT,
SN,
AFP.
Nov. 6:
FT.
Nov. 5:
UPI.
Nov. 3:
FT,
ST.
Nov. 1:
Nature.
Oct. 31:
FT.
Oct. 30:
FT.
The HST crisis - coverage of Nov. 1: SpaceRev. |
Final X-43A reaches Mach 9.6During the Nov. 16 flight the NASA scramjet demonstrator (see also Update # 275 story 2) reached the highest speed of an air-breathing aircraft: NASA Releases of Nov. 17 and Nov. 16 (earlier), Boeing and DFRC Releases, the status and coverage by FT (earlier, still earlier), HC (earlier), BBC (Q&A), Wired (earlier, still earlier), New Sci. (earlier, still earlier), Guard. (earlier), UPI, AP, AFP, ST (earlier), Welt and NZ.Next launch attempt with heavy Ariane not before Jan. 2005 - but "99.5%" of the work necessary is done: Space News, AFP. Ariane testing: ESA Release. Solar sail to launch on March 1, 2005The world's first spacecraft to use a solar sail for propulsion is set to be launched from a submerged Russian submarine on 1 March next year - Cosmos-1 has been built by space advocacy group The Planetary Society and will deploy eight triangular sail blades once it is in space: Plan. Soc. Press Release, IthakaT, BBC, USAT, SC, ST.China details Shenzhou 6 plansChina plans to launch its next manned spacecraft next year, sending two people on a five-day mission, Chinese media report: Xinhua, BBC, AFP, ST. Another experimental satellite launched: ST.Alcantara spaceport controversial in Brazil: BBC. Another space prize announced: go orbital!A new prize offered by a multimillionaire businessman would give $50 million to the first privately-developed orbital spacecraft capable of flying twice in 60 days: Nature, Space News, New Sci., ST. X Prize awarded: BBC, UPI, STL, ST. Da Vinci visions: SpaceRev. Space tourism regulations: ST. Bezos still dreaming: Register.DART launch delayed until March 2005The long delay is needed to allow engineers time to review g-force loading data on the spacecraft: Status, KSC and NASA Releases of Nov. 24, Nov. 8 and Nov. 4 and coverage of Nov. 25: ST. Nov. 9: SR. Nov. 8: FT, ST. Nov. 4: ST.Still no clearance for 1st Delta-IV Heavy launch while an exhaustive review of testing records and data is under way: SN (other story), SPX. Keck outrigger construction approved, new law suits loomCritics of NASA's Outriggers telescopes say a new lawsuit over the project "seems likely" after a state panel approved the last major permit needed before construction can begin: Honolulu Advertiser, Star Bulletin. Laser guide star now also at Hale telescope on Palomar Mtn.: Caltech PR [SN].VLA Low-frequency Sky Survey in progress, producing sky images made at an observing frequency of 74 MHz, a far lower frequency than used for most current radio-astronomy research: NRAO Press Release. Field Programmable Gate Array spectrometer introduced in radio astronomy: Uni Bonn PM. |
H.E.S.S. links cosmic rays to SNRHard gamma rays have been detected from the shell of an old supernova, implying that nuclear particles get accelerated here, too: MPG, PPARC, Univ. Bochum and Humbold Univ. Press Releases and coverage by BBC, APOD and ST.Massive star cluster linked to Galactic Center - it's in the infrared source IRS 13: Gemini PR [SR], Nature, SC, BdW. Sunspot activity reconstructed for the past 11,400 yearswith the help of C-14 in tree rings - the current level of activity is not normal and should end soon, statistically speaking: MPG Press Release [German original], Nature, New Sci., Dsc., ADW HD PM, BdW, NZ. Solar B field increase not that great? A paper by Mursula & al. Link between sunspots and economy? New Sci.Doubts about the detection of frame-dragging with the LAGEOS satellites (see last Update small items) are being raised by Iorio. What the October TLE was really likehas been studied by a Brazilian observers network: brightness, umbral brightness distribution, analysis. More analysis by Soulsby. Serial picture: APOD. More reports: Espenak. TLE vs. Titan: JPL.Keck AO views of Uranusshow the planet getting more active as the equinox approaches: Berkeley, U Wisc. and Keck Releases, S&T, Dsc., BdW.TAOS set to go, will hunt for KBOs with the help of stellar occultations: New Sci. Controversial KBO diameter measurements with Spitzer imply high albedos: UA PR, Plan. Soc., S&T, New Sci., BdW. What radio astronomers say: current MPIfR table. 'Kissing' KBO discovered: S&T. A near-perfect AU from the ToV after all?A re-analysis of thousands of contact timings from the 2004 transit of Venus is again yielding a shockingly precise result: analysis page, ESO Press Release. But can it be true in the light of experiments on the precision of visual contact timings by Fischer? ToV effect on solar irradiance: Schneider study. Wild airplane transit: Dire series. Jupiter & Venus in conjunction: Pikhard pix, APOD.Funny asteroid track on HST image - it left a series of 13 reddish arcs on an ACS picture: HST Release. China installs big NEO telescope: Xinhua. More KTB confusion: GSA, OU Press Releases, BBC. Lunar meteorite SaU 169 and what it says about heavy bombardement: PSRD.
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Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
