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Mars closest to Earth, in opposition, with dust storms Right around closest approach (Oct. 30) several local but impressive dust storms were observed on the Red Planet, by amateur astronomers, the HST and even MER Opportunity. HST Release (with Oct. 28 dust storm picture), ESA Release, S&T (more), BBC, SC (earlier, more), SFG, Excalibur, CENAP, selected pictures of Nov. 11 (animation), Nov. 10, Nov. 9 (other CM), Nov. 8 (other CM), Nov. 7, Nov. 6, Nov. 5, Nov. 4 (other CM), Nov. 3, Nov. 2, Oct. 30 (other CM), Oct. 29 (other CM), Oct. 28 (other CM - it's the same dust storm as imaged by Hubble!), Oct. 27 (other CM - and an animation), Oct. 26 (another CM), Oct. 25, Oct. 24, Oct. 23 (another CM), Oct. 22 (another and another CM), Oct. 22, Oct. 21 (other CM) and Oct. 19 and rapidly growing collections by OAA (the site to start your search!), MarsWatch (incl. professional data) and Kowollik. Plus how Mars grew and its path in the sky in recent months. More Mars news below!

Update # 293 of Friday, November 11, 2005

Venus Express launched! / Light from the Population III? / Two more moons for Pluto?! / SSETI in space but dead after one day / SALT inaugurated, and first light for the LBT / Taurid fireballs? / Showdown for Hayabusa

Venus Express begins 5-month journey Picture-perfect launch in Baikonur Everything went exactly by the book on the morning of November 9th (albeit 14 days late because of contamination problems in the payload shroud): A Soyuz rocket and its Fregat upper stage carried ESA's Venus Express first into a parking orbit and 1½ hours later on their way to Earth's inner sister planet. (Two little trajectory maneuvers have since refined the trajectory.) At 5:30 UTC, two hours after lift-off, the spacecraft first phoned home to an ESA ground station in Western Australia, and now the check-out has begun which will last til December 13th. During instrument testing a few shots of the Earth from great distance are expected, but they probably won't look like much. Then it's quiet cruising until with a 51-minute firing of the main engine Venus Orbit Insertion will take place on April 11, 2006. At first the orbit will be a very elongated ellipse of 250 x 350,000 km which will be reduced to 250 x 66,000 km; on June 4, 2006, the scientific work from a Venus orbit of exactly 24 hours will begin in earnest. Venus Express is mostly a copy of the successful Mars Express that entered Martian orbit on X-mas 2003 (see Update # 267): The bus and most subsystems are identical, while most of the 7 instruments are spares from either the Mars Express or Rosetta (comet) spacecraft. In fact both Mars and Venus Express would probably not have been possible without Rosetta: Many subsystems used in the Mars and Venus craft have a heritage going back to the - well-funded - development work on the comet mission, one of the so-called cornerstones of ESA's science program. Venus - like Mars - Express is anything but a mere afterthought, of course: There hasn't been a new Venus mission in over 15 years by either Russia (which led the field in the 1970s and '80s) or the U.S., while many questions about the composition, structure and dynamics of the Venusian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind have remained unsolved. Plus new atmospheric windows in the near-IR have been discovered since that permit views all the way to the surface. Venus Express will study all these aspects of the Venusian system and then some (e.g. searching for active volcanoes) - and since there are so few competitors of recent, some ESA managers actually expect the scientific impact of Venus Express to outshine Mars Express' in the end. In any case they consider it a bargain, at 220 million Euros, rocket included. (On location at a launch party at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany: DF)	Status updates by SN, ESA and myself via the PS blog (earlier), ESA Releases of Nov. 11, Nov. 10, Nov. 9 (earlier), Nov. 8 (another one), Nov. 7 (another one), Nov. 3 (another one), Oct. 25, Oct. 21 (earlier), Oct. 18 (another one), Oct. 17, Sep. 29 and Sep. 19, and Univ. K�ln, TU Braunschweig, Univ. of CO and MPS Press Releases. Coverage of Nov. 10: G, W. Nov. 9: SN, BBC, PS, Ast., G, DW, Dsc., Pravda, AFP, NwS, SC, ST. Nov. 8: BBC, NwS, AP. Nov. 7: BBC. Nov. 6: Colorado Daily, AFP (sidebar). Nov. 5: TASS. Nov. 1: PS, AP. Oct. 31: BBC, AP, NwS, AFP, ST, W. Oct. 26: BBC, SC. Oct. 24: NwS, SC. Oct. 22: ST. Oct. 21: BBC, SC. Oct. 18: BBC. Sep. 30: G. Sep. 28: NwS. Sep. 7: AFP. Delay for Dawn mission! NASA has told the team developing an asteroid mission to "stand down" from launch preparations: SC, NwS, ST. Storm damage prompts booster replacement for Pluto probe - post-Wilma inspections revealed a ding on the solid motor casing: SN. Mission overview: JHU Mag. Earlier: NwS. Still earlier: Dsc.
Did Spitzer catch the light from the »Population III stars«? They are the first generation of stars in the Universe of which probably not one is still around today - but the heavy elements cooked in these stars (called »Pop. III« for historical reasons) were crucial in starting the chemical evolution of the galaxies. Never has an individual Pop. III star been detected even in a distant galaxy, but now it is being claimed that the IRAC camera of the Spitzer Space Telescope has seen the integrated glow of countless of these stars: as a lumpy infrared sky background that remains in long exposures when all foreground sources are subtracted. Whether this crucial subtraction has been done properly is already a matter of contention, but the authors of the study are adamant that their detection is solid (Kashlinsky & al., Nature 438 [Nov. 3, 2005] 45-50). The pattern in the sky is the same in all four near-IR colors seen by the IRAC, and it is statistically identical year-round, so it cannot come from zodiacal dust in our own solar system. The properties of the light instead match what one would expect to see from the Pop. III in the first forming galaxies: Their light would be shifted into the IRAC spectral window by cosmic expansion, and the blobs apparent in the IR background would correspond to structures 10 million light years across which one would expect to find at that time as cosmic matter started to contract under the influence of Dark Matter. The detection of the IRAC IR background was right at the limit of what small Spitzer could do, however, hampering confirmation as well as follow-up studies: These will probably have to be left to the large IR telescope JWST - the launch of which, unfortunately, has already slipped to 2013 ...	Spitzer Release and coverage by S&T, BBC, ScAm, PhysWeb, NG, G, Ast., NwS, SC, ST, TP, BdW. Speeding star visitor from the LMC? Using the Very Large Telescope, astronomers have recorded a massive star moving at more than 2.6 million kilometres per hour and perhaps coming to us from our neighbor galaxy: a paper by Edelman & al., ESO and FAU Erlangen Press Releases, Dsc., BdW. Another superfast star, this time probably born here: a paper by Hirsch & al. Eta Carinae's double nature supported by FUSE spectra: NASA Release, S&T, Reg., SC.
Two tiny moons of Pluto suspected in HST images Using NASAs Hubble Space Telescope astronomers have discovered Pluto may have not one, but three moons. If confirmed, the discovery of the two new moons could offer insights into the nature and evolution of the Pluto system, Kuiper Belt Objects with satellite systems and the early Kuiper Belt: Pluto would become the first body in the Kuiper Belt known to have more than one satellite. The candidate moons, provisionally designated S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, were observed approximately 43,000 km away from Pluto. The objects are roughly two to three times as far from Pluto as Charon. The team plans to make follow-up Hubble observations in February to confirm the newly discovered objects are truly Pluto's moons. Only after confirmation will the International Astronomical Union consider names for S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2. The Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys observed the two new candidate moons on May 15, 2005. The candidates are roughly 5000 times fainter than Pluto. Three days later, Hubble looked at Pluto again. The two objects were still there and appeared to be moving in orbit around Pluto. The team looked long and hard for other potential moons around Pluto. The HST images represent the most sensitive search yet for objects around Pluto, and it is unlikely that there are any other moons larger than about 15 km across in the Pluto system.	NASA (pictures), HST and SwRI Press Releases, Science@NASA. More details [alt.], plus recollections by the Pluto discoverer's widow! Coverage by S&T, Science News, PS, FT (earlier), BBC, Dsc., Ast., NwS, IOTA, WP, NYT, SC, ST, BdW.
SSETI Express in severe trouble as batteries don't charge Since the morning of Oct. 28, the ground control station in Aalborg has not had any contact with SSETI Express: Thorough analysis over the following weekend indicates that a failure in the electrical power system on board the spacecraft is preventing the batteries from charging, resulting in a shutdown of the satellite. There is a small but significant possibility of recovery, the likelihood of which is being ascertained by ongoing testing. On top of the educational purpose, several of the operational goals were met in the short time the satellite operated. All evidence suggests that the three CubeSat passengers were successfully deployed into orbit by SSETI Express, and were hence able to begin their own independent missions. The CubeSats Xi-V and UWE-1 are alive and well, the status of NCube-2 has yet to be confirmed. Posted on October 27 Student-built satellite launched, deploys three picosats Rocket carried four more satellites, including Iran's first SSETI Express, a low Earth orbit spacecraft designed and built by European university students under the supervision of ESA's Education Department, was successfully launched on October 27 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Russian Kosmos 3M launcher. Soon thereafter the ground control centre at the University in Aalborg (DK) received the first signals from the satellite. SSETI Express - SSETI being the acronym for Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative - is a small spacecraft, similar in size and shape to a washing machine (approx. 60 x 60 x 90 cm). Weighing about 62 kg it has a payload of 24 kg. On-board the student-built spacecraft were three pico-satellites, extremely small satellites weighing around one kg each: They were deployed one hour and 40 minutes after launch. In addition to acting as a test bed for many designs, including a cold-gas attitude control system, SSETI Express will also take pictures of the Earth and function as a radio transponder. Also on board the Kosmos rocket were four more satellites, including Sinah-1, a 170-kilogram spacecraft from Iran - it's late delivery was apparently the reason the launch had slipped from Sep. 30.	The satellite's homepage, ESA Press Releases of Oct. 31, Oct. 28 (another one), Oct. 27, Oct. 26, July 22 and July 13, an Uni Stuttgart PM of Oct. 26, Uni W�rzburg PMn of Oct. 31, Aug. 27, June 29 and June 22, an OHB PR of Oct. 27, a BNSC PR of Oct. 27 and coverage of Oct. 31: SN, BBC, SD. Oct. 28: NwS, SC. Oct. 27: SN, BBC, AFP (other story), SC, NwS, ST. Oct. 26: BBC, NwS. Sep. 22: AFP. Sep. 21: SC. Ban on Rockot launches lifted The cause of the crash of the Rokot booster (that was used to launch the CryoSat satellite) has been determined: ESA Release, BBC, NwS, Novosti, SD. XSS-11 performs several rendezvous and proximity operations A 100-kg microsatellite recently accomplished significant mission milestones by rendezvousing three to fours times with the upper stage of the Minotaur I launch vehicle at distances between 1.5 km and 500 m: AFRL PR, NwS.
South Africa's giant telescope inaugurated On November 10th the South African Large Telescope or SALT - now the largest single optical telescope in the Southern hemisphere and in all of Africa, Europe and Asia - was formally inaugurated, with many high-ranking politicians present: For South Africa it's more than just a fine astronomical instrument, it's a symbol of huge technological strides the »rainbow nation« can take and is clearly meant to inspire the population at large. The design of the SALT, of course, is an - albeit somewhat improved - copy of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) built a decade ago in Texas by an international group of universities, most of which are also contributors to the SALT. First light was already celebrated in September: Now the instrument is open for scientific use. First light for the Large Binocular Telescope - though only with one eye Both mirrors for the LBT are on its mountain home in Arizona already, but the first light celebrated on Oct. 26 was only making use of the first one - it'll take a while to arrange the unique double-system. Upon completion, however, the LBT will peer deeper into space than ever before, and with ten times the resolving power of the Hubble Space Telescope. With unparalleled observational capability, astronomers will - hopefully - be able to view planets in distant solar systems, and detect and measure objects dating back to the beginning of time (14 billion years ago). Located on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona, the $120m (USD) LBT is a marvel of modern technology. It will eventually use two massive 8.4-meter diameter primary mirrors mounted side-by-side to produce a collecting area equivalent to an 11.8-meter circular aperture. Furthermore, the interferometric combination of the light paths of the two primary mirrors will provide the resolution of a 22.8-meter telescope. The "honeycomb" structured primary mirrors are unique in that they are lighter in weight than conventional solid-glass mirrors. The second primary mirror was recently transported from the University of Arizona to Mount Graham: By fall 2006, the LBT will be fully operational with both of its enormous eyes wide open. The LBT's first light images were taken on 12 October: The target was an edge-on spiral galaxy (type Sb) in the constellation of Andromeda known as NGC 891. This galaxy lies at a distance of 24 million light years. NGC 891 is of particular interest because the galaxy-wide burst of star formation inferred from X-ray emission is stirring up the gas and dust in its disk, resulting in filaments of obscuring dust extending vertically for hundreds of light-years.	SALT: McDonald Obs., OOSA and Volkswagenstiftung Press Releases. LBT: The images, Press Releases by U of A [SR], MPG, MPIfR and MPIA and coverage by NwS, ScAm and Ast. Mirror for the Discovery Channel Telescope finished The nearly $3-million 4.3-meter mirror blank will now undergo a two to three-year polishing process: Lowell Press Release. First GMT mirror looks nice: U of A PR. Progress for PanSTARRS: Honol. Adv. APEX now operational - new radio telescope in the Andes already busy: ESO and MPIfR Press Releases. Gravitational wave hunt intensifies: G. Hydrogen clouds in the Milky Way mapped in huge radio survey: Uni Bonn PM, Welt. Big H-Alpha survey results: IHAPS gallery. Efficient nulling demonstrated at Keck: JPL Release, NwS. Gemini-N improved: PR.

Mars Update Mars Express' PFS instrument working again! ESA Release of Nov. 2 and coverage of Nov. 3: NwS (earlier). Super-cheap Russian Phobos Sample Return? Flight International.

Methane source remains mysterious: NwS. Liquid water on Mars possible for some time: Univ. of Ark. PR. MER Press Release of Nov. 9, Journal of Oct. 24 and Oct. 16, pictures # 31... 94, 30... 95 and 70 and coverage of Nov. 11: SD. Oct. 27: PS. Oct. 25: AP. Oct. 24: ScAm. Odyssey bistatic radar experiment: JPL Spotlight.

Saturn Update New radar images of Titan are now in hand - but matching them with the Huygens DISR mosaics isn't exactly easy ... Cornell, SSI and PPARC Releases, pictures

# 81... 11, 10, 77... 55, 54, 53, 52, 50, 76... 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 and 14, 35... 69, 68, 67 and 66 and coverage of Nov. 8: PS Blog. Nov. 7: AB. Nov. 3: AB. Nov. 2: PS, NwS. Oct. 31: AB. Oct. 28: BBC. Oct. 27: Dsc., AB. Oct. 26: PS. Oct. 25: Dsc. How Jupiter's bands work: MPG [engl.], UCLA and Univ. Alberta Press Releases.

ISS etc. Update The INA has been amended by the House and Senate alike, clearing NASA to buy Soyuzzes from Russia, and ESA's ATV will be delayed again. House Science Com. PRs of Nov. 3 (plus House Dem. PR) and Oct. 26 (plus the debate itself), NASA Releases of Nov. 10 and Nov. 1 and Griffin remarks on Nov. 3 and Nov. 1,

ESA Releases of Nov. 7 and Nov. 2, Science@NASA of Nov. 9, Oct. 28 and Oct. 26, Space Adv. PR, pictures taken from the ISS and coverage of Nov. 11: Dsc., NwS, ST. Nov. 10: PS, NwS (other story), SC, ST. Nov. 9: NwS, SC. Nov. 8: NwS. Nov. 7: SpaceRev, SN, SC, ST. Nov. 4: Dsc., HC, AFP, NwS, ST. Nov. 3: SC (other story). Nov. 2: SC. Nov. 1: SC. Oct. 31: SpaceRev. Oct. 28: NwS. Oct. 27: HC, WP, NwS (other story), ST. Oct. 26: HC, ST. Oct. 25: NwS. Oct. 24: SpaceRev, NwS, SC. Oct. 23: AW&ST, ST.

Flurry of bolides blamed on Taurids Numerous observations of bright fireballs could be linked to the Taurid stream: Science@NASA, Ast., CENAP (fr�her, noch früher), Astronomie.at, Nat'l Geogr., Anchorage Daily News, Bild. Asteroids blamed for early cataclysm in the inner solar system: UA PR, Ast. Secondary impact craters more significant than thought, potentially damaging planetary surface dating: SC. Plus reports on ongoing studies of the Tagish Lake and Portales Valley meteorites and meteorite hunting in Antarctica. Debating the role of comets in Earth impacts: are they far less or far more (PDF) significant than thought? Life's building blocks in space? NASA Release, SC, CSM. Clay material may have acted as 'primordial womb' for first organic molecules: ASU PR. Strange mammoth impact speculations: Berkeley PR, SFG, BdW, TP. "Cloudshine" outlining interstellar clouds And one can even learn something from this effect: CfA Press Release, NwS. Young stars sculpt gas with powerful outflows, as seen in HST image of NGC 346: HST, ESA HST Releases. Spitzer captures cosmic "Mountains of Creation", billowing mountains of dust ablaze with the fires of stellar youth: CfA Press Release, Dsc., SC, BBC. And the Black Widow nebula: Spitzer Release. CSM. Even Brown Dwarfs could make planets, Spitzer data imply: Spitzer, JPL and MPG Releases, SC, BdW. Dusty debris around dead star: Gemini and McDonald Obs. Releases, NwS, SC. Planet-created gaps in disks around young stars: Rochester Univ. PR, SC. Tighter upper limit for Sgr A* diameter The object in the center of the Milky Way is even smaller: NRAO PR, CSM, NwS, SC, BdW, TP, W. Distance to M 31 determined directly - Cepheids confirmed: Ast. Robert's Quartet of galaxies: ESO Release. Tadpole galaxy's halo: NwS. Even very massive stars don't necessarily end up as Black Holes, a surprising neutron star discovery in a star cluster implies: UCLA and Chandra Press Releases, SC. Yet another hypothesis why supernovae explode at all: S&T.

Hayabusa approaches Itokawa in 2nd attempt After a botched first attempt on Nov. 4 the asteroid probe has descended to within 70 meters the surface of the asteroid on Nov. 9; the first sampling is now planned for Nov. 19. Official weblog, pictures of Hayabusa's shadow on the asteroid and (among other things) the target marker drifting off, updates from Nov. 11, Nov. 6, Nov. 3, Nov. 2 (with stunning new close-ups!) [Japanese version], Nov. 1, Oct. 29 and Oct. 27, coverage of Nov. 11: NwS, SC, W. Nov. 10: PS. Nov. 8: PS, W. Nov. 7: WP. Nov. 5: HC. Nov. 4: BBC (earlier), NwS, SC, PS, ST. Nov. 3: BBC, NwS, SC. Nov. 2: PS. Nov. 1: SpN. And the orbital evolution of Itokawa investigated in the computer plus a WikiPedia entry. "Gravity tractor" could deflect asteroids - the miniscule but sustained gravitational attraction between a spacecraft and an asteroid could be sufficient over time to deflect an asteroid from an Earth-threatening trajectory: BBC, NwS, NG, SC, Dsc., WP, ST, TP, BdW. STEREO Spacecraft Arrive at Goddard SFC for Final Testing The two Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft on Nov. 9 arrived at GSFC for major testing as they near completion for a launch in Spring 2006: GSFC Release. What became of the Genesis samples, over a year after the crash: LA Monitor. Voyager 1 did really reach the edge of the solar system, analysis of Dec. 2004 data confirms: UMD Press Release, FT. First Galileo s/c named "Giove-A" The first demonstrator spacecraft will fly from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a Soyuz rocket on the 28th of the month: ESA, BBC. Lichen survives in Space - during the recent Foton-M2 mission it was discovered that lichens are very adept at surviving in open space: ESA Release, NwS. IceCube - One hole done, 79 more to go With hot water and a hose fit for a giant, drillers melted the first hole for the world's largest neutrino detector earlier this year: Antarctic Sun. Big detector for GLAST delivered, s/c to launch in 2007: UCSC PR. For the big picture, look to the skies: SF Chronicle.