Chandra Serves Up Cosmic Holiday Assortment

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch.

Dec. 18, 2018

This is the season of celebrating, and the Chandra X-ray Center has prepared a platter of cosmic treats from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This selection represents different types of objects -- from relatively nearby exploded stars to extremely distant and massive clusters of galaxies -- that emit X-rays detected by Chandra. Each image in this collection blends data from Chandra with observations from other telescopes, creating a colorful medley of light from our universe.

Top row (left to right):

E0102-72.3: This supernova remnant was produced by a massive star that exploded in a nearby galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud. X-rays from Chandra (blue and purple) have helped astronomers confirm that most of the oxygen in the universe is synthesized in massive stars.  The amount of oxygen in the E0102-72.3 ring shown here is enough for thousands of solar systems. This image also contains optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope in Chile (red and green). http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2018/archives/more.html

Abell 370: Located about 4 billion light-years from Earth, Abell 370 is a galaxy cluster containing several hundred galaxies. Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity.  In addition to individual galaxies, clusters contain vast amounts of multimillion-degree gas that emits X-rays, and dark matter that supplies most of the gravity of the cluster, yet does not produce any light. Chandra reveals the hot gas (diffuse blue regions) in a combined image with optical data from Hubble (red, green, and blue). http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2018/archives/more.html

Messier 8: Also known as NGC 6523 or the Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8 is a giant cloud of gas and dust where stars are currently forming. At a distance of about 4,000 light years from Earth, Messier 8 provides astronomers an excellent opportunity to study the properties of very young stars. Many infant stars give off copious amounts of high-energy light including X-rays, which are seen in the Chandra data (pink). The X-ray data have been combined with an optical image of Messier 8 from the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center in Arizona (pale blue and white). http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2018/archives/more.html

Bottom row (left to right):

Orion Nebula: Look just below the middle of the three stars of “belt” in the constellation Orion to find the Orion Nebula – to your unaided eyes, it appears as a small fuzzy dot. With a powerful telescope like Chandra, however, the view is much different. In this image, X-rays from Chandra (blue) reveal individual young stars, which are hot and energetic. When combined with radio emission from the NSF’s Very Large Array (purple), a vista of this stellar nursery is revealed. http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2018/archives/more.html

Messier 33: The Triangulum Galaxy, a.k.a., Messier 33, is a spiral galaxy about 3 million light-years from Earth. It belongs to the Local Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. Chandra’s X-ray data (pink) reveal neutron stars and black holes that are pulling material from a companion star, while an optical image from the Subaru telescope in Hawaii (red, green, and blue) shows the majestic arms of this spiral galaxy that in many ways is a cousin to our own Milky Way. http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2018/archives/more.html

Abell 2744: This composite image contains the aftermath of a giant collision involving four separate galaxy clusters at a distance of about 3.5 billion light-years. Officially known as Abell 2744, this system is also called “Pandora’s Cluster” because of the different structures found within it. This view of Abell 2744 contains X-ray data from Chandra (blue) showing hot gas, optical data from Subaru and the VLT (red, green and blue), and radio data from the NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (red). Most of the cluster’s mass is invisible dark matter. http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2018/archives/more.html

Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

Read more from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory: http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2018/archives/

For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/chandra

Images, Animation, Text, Credits: NASA/Lee Mohon/CXC/SAO.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Research Reveals Saturn is Losing Its Rings at “Worst-Case-Scenario” Rate

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center logo.

Dec. 18, 2018

New NASA research confirms that Saturn is losing its iconic rings at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 & 2 observations made decades ago. The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn’s magnetic field.

Saturn's Rings Are Disappearing

Video above: This video explores how Saturn is losing its rings at a rapid rate in geologic timescales and what that reveals about the planet’s history. Video Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/David Ladd.

“We estimate that this ‘ring rain’ drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn’s rings in half an hour,” said James O’Donoghue of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “From this alone, the entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years, but add to this the Cassini-spacecraft measured ring-material detected falling into Saturn’s equator, and the rings have less than 100 million years to live. This is relatively short, compared to Saturn’s age of over 4 billion years.” O’Donoghue is lead author of a study on Saturn’s ring rain appearing in Icarus December 17.

Image above: This image was made as the Cassini spacecraft scanned across Saturn and its rings on April 25, 2016, capturing three sets of red, green and blue images to cover this entire scene showing the planet and the main rings. The images were obtained using Cassini's wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.9 million miles (3 million kilometers) from Saturn and at an elevation of about 30 degrees above the ring plane. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Scientists have long wondered if Saturn was formed with the rings or if the planet acquired them later in life. The new research favors the latter scenario, indicating that they are unlikely to be older than 100 million years, as it would take that long for the C-ring to become what it is today assuming it was once as dense as the B-ring. “We are lucky to be around to see Saturn’s ring system, which appears to be in the middle of its lifetime. However, if rings are temporary, perhaps we just missed out on seeing giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which have only thin ringlets today!” O’Donoghue added.

Various theories have been proposed for the ring’s origin. If the planet got them later in life, the rings could have formed when small, icy moons in orbit around Saturn collided, perhaps because their orbits were perturbed by a gravitational tug from a passing asteroid or comet.

Animation above: An artist's impression of how Saturn may look in the next hundred million years. The innermost rings disappear as they rain onto the planet first, very slowly followed by the outer rings. Animation Credits: NASA/Cassini/James O'Donoghue.

The first hints that ring rain existed came from Voyager observations of seemingly unrelated phenomena: peculiar variations in Saturn’s electrically charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere), density variations in Saturn’s rings, and a trio of narrow dark bands encircling the planet at northern mid-latitudes. These dark bands appeared in images of Saturn’s hazy upper atmosphere (stratosphere) made by NASA’s Voyager 2 mission in 1981.

In 1986, Jack Connerney of NASA Goddard published a paper in Geophysical Research Letters that linked those narrow dark bands to the shape of Saturn’s enormous magnetic field, proposing that electrically charged ice particles from Saturn’s rings were flowing down invisible magnetic field lines, dumping water in Saturn’s upper atmosphere where these lines emerged from the planet. The influx of water from the rings, appearing at specific latitudes, washed away the stratospheric haze, making it appear dark in reflected light, producing the narrow dark bands captured in the Voyager images.

Saturn’s rings are mostly chunks of water ice ranging in size from microscopic dust grains to boulders several yards (meters) across. Ring particles are caught in a balancing act between the pull of Saturn’s gravity, which wants to draw them back into the planet, and their orbital velocity, which wants to fling them outward into space. Tiny particles can get electrically charged by ultraviolet light from the Sun or by plasma clouds emanating from micrometeoroid bombardment of the rings. When this happens, the particles can feel the pull of Saturn’s magnetic field, which curves inward toward the planet at Saturn’s rings. In some parts of the rings, once charged, the balance of forces on these tiny particles changes dramatically, and Saturn’s gravity pulls them in along the magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere.

Once there, the icy ring particles vaporize and the water can react chemically with Saturn’s ionosphere. One outcome from these reactions is an increase in the lifespan of electrically charged particles called H3+ ions, which are made up of three protons and two electrons. When energized by sunlight, the H3+ ions glow in infrared light, which was observed by O’Donoghue’s team using special instruments attached to the Keck telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

Their observations revealed glowing bands in Saturn’s northern and southern hemispheres where the magnetic field lines that intersect the ring plane enter the planet. They analyzed the light to determine the amount of rain from the ring and its effects on Saturn’s ionosphere. They found that the amount of rain matches remarkably well with the astonishingly high values derived more than three decades earlier by Connerney and colleagues, with one region in the south receiving most of it.

The team also discovered a glowing band at a higher latitude in the southern hemisphere. This is where Saturn’s magnetic field intersects the orbit of Enceladus, a geologically active moon that is shooting geysers of water ice into space, indicating that some of those particles are raining onto Saturn as well. “That wasn’t a complete surprise,” said Connerney. “We identified Enceladus and the E-ring as a copious source of water as well, based on another narrow dark band in that old Voyager image.” The geysers, first observed by Cassini instruments in 2005, are thought to be coming from an ocean of liquid water beneath the frozen surface of the tiny moon. Its geologic activity and water ocean make Enceladus one of the most promising places to search for extraterrestrial life.

Image above: Saturn’s moon Enceladus drifts before the rings and the tiny moon Pandora in this view that NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured on Nov. 1, 2009. The entire scene is backlit by the Sun, providing striking illumination for the icy particles that make up both the rings and the jets emanating from the south pole of Enceladus, which is about 314 miles (505 km) across. Pandora, which is about (52 miles, 84 kilometers) wide, was on the opposite side of the rings from Cassini and Enceladus when the image was taken. This view looks toward the night side on Pandora as well, which is lit by dim golden light reflected from Saturn. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

The team would like to see how the ring rain changes with the seasons on Saturn. As the planet progresses in its 29.4-year orbit, the rings are exposed to the Sun to varying degrees. Since ultraviolet light from the Sun charges the ice grains and makes them respond to Saturn’s magnetic field, varying exposure to sunlight should change the quantity of ring rain.

The research was funded by NASA and the NASA Postdoctoral Program at NASA Goddard, administered by the Universities Space Research Association. The W.M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and the data in the form of its files are available from the Keck archive. The authors wish to recognize the significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has within the indigenous Hawaiian community; they are fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.

Related links:

Geophysical Research Letters: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/GL013i008p00773

Icarus: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103518302999?via%3Dihub

Keck telescope: http://www.keckobservatory.org/

Keck archive: https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/koa/public/koa.php

Voyager: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/index.html

Goddard Space Flight Center: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Bill Steigerwald/Nancy Jones.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

LHC experiments share highlights for 2018

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

18 December, 2018

ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb presented their key physics results at an end-of-year series of talks 

Image above: Particle showers in the ALICE detector during the first lead nuclei collisions of 2018 (Image: ALICE/CERN).

It has been a record-breaking year for the LHC, with the accelerator delivering over twice as much proton–proton collision data as it did in all three years of its first run. But while the experimental collaborations were eagerly collecting fresh data from the LHC, they were also busy analysing data they have gathered over the years, presenting many new physics results during the course of 2018. Today, young scientists from the four main LHC experiments presented the year’s highlights at an open session of the CERN Council. Below are a few of dozens of new results, which showcase the richness and diversity of the LHC’s physics programme.

The hot early universe

The results from ALICE, the heavy-ion specialist at the LHC, focused mainly on studies of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a dense state of free quarks and gluons thought to have existed in the early universe. The LHC can recreate these conditions by colliding together lead nuclei. ALICE showed that the particle jets emerging from lead–lead collisions are narrower (more collimated) than those formed in proton–proton collisions, due to the way these particles interact with the QGP “soup”.

Comparing results with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the US, ALICE noted that the production of J/ψ mesons at the LHC was not as suppressed at low transverse momenta, concluding that the suppression caused by the QGP was countered by the recombination of charm and anticharm quarks into J/ψ mesons. They also observed that the ratio of Λ_c baryons to D mesons produced in lead–lead collisions was higher than in proton–proton and proton–lead collisions. This behaviour is expected if the charm quarks bind with other quarks in the QGP around them and form baryons and mesons. The dynamics of these processes will be studied precisely with future datasets that ALICE will collect in the next runs of the LHC. Furthermore, ALICE noted that this Λ_c-to-D ratio was higher than expected from theoretical calculations even in proton–proton and proton–lead collisions.

New Higgs signatures

The LHC’s two general-purpose experiments – ATLAS and CMS – continued their examination of the Higgs boson that they jointly discovered in 2012. This scalar boson transforms into lighter particles almost immediately after it is produced, and by studying the various transformations, or “decay modes”, available to it, physicists can test the Standard Model of particle physics. This year, both ATLAS and CMS announced that they had observed the Higgs transforming into a pairs of bottom–antibottom quarks for the first time. Although the Standard Model predicts that this decay mode is the most abundant, such bottom-antibottom pairs are produced in the LHC from a variety of processes, making it challenging to isolate those that come from the Higgs.

Image above: An ATLAS candidate event for the Higgs boson (H) decaying to two bottom quarks (b), in association with a W boson decaying to a muon (µ) and a neutrino (ν) (Image: ATLAS/CERN).

Since the top quark is heavier than the Higgs boson, nature forbids a Higgs transformation to pairs of top–antitop quarks. However, scientists can study their interactions by looking for instances where the a Higgs boson is produced along with a top–antitop pair, and ATLAS and CMS observed this “associated production” in data recorded in previous years. Both collaborations also highlighted their observations of the Higgs transforming into a tau–antitau pair, which was first reported by combining data from ATLAS and CMS.

Testing the Standard Model

Discovered over twenty years ago, the top quark remains a source of novel physics measurements and observations. Its mass is of particular interest, and ATLAS recently measured it to a precision of 0.3% – 172.69 ± 0.25 (statistical error) ± 0.41 (systematic error) GeV – by combining data in different channels. Meanwhile, CMS explored rare production modes of the top quark that are sensitive to signs of physics beyond the Standard Model. The collaboration observed the production of a top quark in association with a Z boson and a second quark (tZq), and presented evidence for the production of a top along with a photon and another quark (tγq).

Image above: A candidate collision recorded by CMS in which a top quark is produced in association with a Z boson. The tZq state is characterised by three leptons (in this case two electrons and one muon), a jet produced from decay of a bottom quark, and a forward jet that is close to the LHC beam direction (Image: CMS/CERN).

Unlike the massless photon, the W and Z bosons can bounce or “scatter” off each other, and the probability of this occurring is affected by the presence of the Higgs boson. ATLAS presented their observation of such scattering of pairs of W bosons (W^±W^±→W^±W^±) as well as of a W and a Z boson (W^±Z→W^±Z), both with statistical significances of over five standard deviations. Future data will help measure this scattering with greater precision, as physicists look for deviations from predicted values. W and Z bosons can also help in searches for new particles, and ATLAS searched for instances in which extremely massive particles transform into pairs of these. Analysis of the data recorded by the detector ruled out the presence of specific types of massive particles up to a 4.15 TeV.

Some extensions of the Standard Model propose the existence of an exotic Z boson, known as the Z′ (“Z-prime”) boson. CMS searched for such Z′ particles, but found no deviation in the data from the Standard Model’s predictions. CMS also searched for hypothetical particles known as leptoquarks, which are thought to be hybrids of leptons and quarks; the data did not show their presence. Other highlights from CMS included measurements of known Standard Model processes with improved precisions as well as novel studies in physics of B mesons.

Both ATLAS and CMS searched for many different signatures for the presence of dark matter and supersymmetry but found no evidence for their existence in the various parameters that were explored. These null results are crucial as they allow scientists to place stringent constraints on theoretical models that seek to explain gaps in the Standard Model.

The mystery of matter-antimatter asymmetry

Particle physicists are looking for possible solutions to explain why the universe is dominated by matter with almost no antimatter around. This asymmetry could be explained by differences in the way matter and antimatter interact with the weak force. The LHCb experiment was built to study these differences, known as charge-parity (CP) violation, and presented a variety of precision measurements at the session. LHCb measured several parameters associated with the so-called CKM matrix, which quantifies possible CP violation among quarks. In particular, the collaboration measured the angle γ with different methods, and obtained an average value of around 74°, making it the most precise measurement of this angle from a single experiment. They also presented the first evidence of the rare B_s meson transforming into an excited kaon and two muons as well as the best limits on the transformation of a B⁺ meson into three muons and a neutrino. Further, LHCb also highlighted new properties of the Ξ_cc baryon, which they observed for the first time last year.

Image above: A proton–proton collision event detected by LHCb in 2018 (Image: LHCb/CERN).

LHCb also operated in fixed-target mode besides its regular collider mode by injecting noble gases such as helium into the beam pipe in between particle bunches that race around the LHC. The atoms of these noble gases served as stationary targets for the circulating protons, and LHCb was able to observe the production of J/ψ and D⁰ particles in these collisions as well as make the first measurement of the production rate of antiprotons in proton-helium collisions.

Looking forward...

The LHC’s Run 2 came to an end earlier this month and the second long shutdown (LS2) has begun; but this does not mean that the collaborations go into hibernation! Indeed, the wealth of data already gathered will take many more months to be fully explored. And the detectors will undergo transformations of their own while collisions are suspended over the course of LS2. The LHCb detector has fulfilled its original mandate and will soon be overhauled completely, with every major subsystem getting upgraded or replaced. ALICE will be upgrading most of its subdetectors, aiming for greater precision in measuring particle tracks. CMS and ATLAS will similarly receive major modifications as they prepare for the restart of the LHC in 2021 and eventually higher luminosities from the High-Luminosity LHC in 2025. These upgrades will ensure that the LHC experiments can keep recording excellent data in the forthcoming runs and continue their searches for new discoveries.

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States.

Related links:

Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC): https://www.bnl.gov/rhic/

ALICE: https://home.cern/science/experiments/alice

ATLAS: https://home.cern/science/experiments/atlas

CMS: https://home.cern/science/experiments/cms

LHCb: https://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/lhcb

High-Luminosity LHC: https://home.cern/science/accelerators/high-luminosity-lhc

Higgs boson: https://home.cern/science/physics/higgs-boson

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: https://home.cern/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Achintya Rao.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

New Shepard to Fly 9 NASA-sponsored Payloads to Space on NS-10

Blue Origin logo.

Dec. 17, 2018

Blue Origin’s next New Shepard mission (NS-10) is currently targeting liftoff  on January 2019. This will be the 10th New Shepard mission and is dedicated to bringing nine NASA-sponsored research and technology payloads into space through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.

New Shepard on the launch pad the morning of Mission 9, July 18, 2018

NASA’s Flight Opportunities program is an essential program for researchers providing access to microgravity for technology development. Blue supports NASA’s Flight Opportunities program and its role in perfecting technology for a future human presence in space.

The payloads flying with us on NS-10 include:

Carthage College Space Sciences Program: The Modal Propellant Gauging experiment led by Dr. Kevin Crosby is a joint effort with the NASA Kennedy Space Center Cryogenics Laboratory. It demonstrates a way to measure fuel levels in microgravity by using sound waves: https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/123/

Controlled Dynamics Inc.: The Vibration Isolation Platform (VIP) aims to separate payloads from the normally occurring vibrations experienced during spaceflight. The payload led by Dr. Scott Green allows researchers to have a clear understanding of microgravity’s effects on their research results: https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/77/

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab: On its second flight with Blue, the EM Field experiment will observe and collect data on the naturally occurring electromagnetic fields both inside and outside New Shepard during the launch. Principal Investigator Dr. Todd Smith will use success of this experiment to determine how global measurements of the Earth’s electromagnetic field can be conducted in the future: https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/15/

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Cooling tightly-packed electronics onboard a spacecraft can be challenging, and many solutions have not been able to undergo robust testing. Principal Investigator Franklin Robinson will test one of these solutions in his Flow Boiling in Microgap Coolers experiment: https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/173/

NASA Johnson Space Center: On its third flight on New Shepard, the Suborbital Flight Experiment Monitor-2 (SFEM-2) led by Dr. Katy Hurlbert will analyze various aspects of the flight environment during New Shepard’s mission profile, measuring cabin pressure, temperature, CO2, acoustic conditions, acceleration and more. The data collected will help future researchers on New Shepard design the most effective experiments for the vehicle: https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/168/

Purdue University: Dr. Steven Collicott’s payload looks at Zero-Gravity Green Propellant Management Technology, which aims to help advance the use of a safer and more environmentally friendly rocket propellant by better understanding the fuel’s behavior in microgravity: https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/128/

University of Central Florida: Two teams led by Dr. Josh Colwell and Dr. Addie Dove both have planetary science payloads on NS-10. The Collisions Into Dust Experiment (COLLIDE) aims to understand how dust particles react after surface contact during exploration missions to places such as the Moon, Mars and asteroids. The Collection of Regolith Experiment (CORE) addresses the unique challenge of collecting and analyzing material samples in microgravity: https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/36/ and https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/52/

University of Florida: Dr. Rob Ferl and Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul are adapting technology designed for the ISS to suborbital uses with their experiment, Validating Telemetric Imaging Hardware for Crew-Assisted and Crew-Autonomous Biological Imaging in Suborbital Applications. By recalibrating the way data is collected, the experiment will enable more biological research on suborbital missions: https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/technologies/53/

Image above: Blue Origin's New Shepard reusable, suborbital rocket. Image Credit: Blue Origin.

For more information about Blue Origin, visit: https://www.blueorigin.com/

Images, Text, Credits: Blue Origin/Team Blue/Gradatim Ferociter.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of December 10, 2018

ISS - Expedition 57 Mission patch.

Dec. 17, 2018

Crew members aboard the International Space Station had a busy week of science and spacewalks as they prepared for the departure of veteran station residents Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos.

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev conducted a seven-hour, 45-minute spacewalk to inspect the Soyuz MS-09 crew ship docked to the station. The duo took detailed photos and captured video of some of the sealant on the outer hull of the Habitation Module used in the repair of a hole discovered inside the vehicle in August.

Image above: The three Expedition 57 crew members are gathered inside the cupola, the International Space Station's "window to the world," for a portrait wearing t-shirts displaying their home in space. From left are Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA and Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency). The space station was orbiting nearly 253 miles above the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Image Credit: NASA.

Here’s a look at some of the science conducted last week aboard the orbiting lab:

Crew tracks sleeping habits

In addition to studying alternative lighting options to improve sleeping habits in space, researchers are also examining changes in in circadian rhythms in humans during long-term spaceflight. The Circadian Rhythms investigation provides important insight into adaptations of the human autonomic nervous system in space over time, helps to improve physical exercise plans, rest- and work shifts and fosters adequate workplace illumination during future spaceflight.

This week, a crewmember donned the wearable hardware and initiated the data collection. The hardware is to be worn for three days. Learn more about how we study sleep in space here: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/catching_zs_microgravity

Investigation studies muscle loss in space

In space, the human body loses muscle mass. Although living in microgravity requires no heavy lifting, this loss of muscle reduces physical performance. Decreased muscle mass could also prove particularly problematic on future missions to destinations such as the Moon or Mars. Molecular Muscle aims to understand how this loss occurs so scientists will know more about how to keep astronauts strong.

Image above: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst inserts sample cartridges for the Molecular Muscle investigation into the Kubik centrifuge facility. Image Credit: NASA.

This investigation examines the mechanisms behind muscle loss at the molecular level, and the potential for developing countermeasures targeting those mechanisms. It looks specifically at the activity of genes involved in insulin signaling and cell attachment. Previous research shows that spaceflight affects this activity, leading to muscular and metabolic abnormalities in a variety of organisms.

This week, crew members inserted samples into the Kubik facility, photographed the samples and conducted a status check of the experiment run.

Stems cells tested against microgravity environment

Understanding stem cell growth in microgravity is an important concept of space-based biophysiology, as microgravity has been show to affect all such systems. The STaARS BioScience-4 investigation examines how oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) react to microgravity, specifically the rate at which the cells proliferate and differentiate in the microgravity environment. OPCs are precursors to a type of central nervous system cells and results may help to improve neural stem cell studies, including those on tissue regrowth and organ farming.

Animation above: NASA astronaut Anne McClain activated NanoRacks Module-74, Hydrogel Formation and Drug Release in Microgravity Conditions. Animation Credit: NASA.

This week, crew members processed samples in the STaARS facility, then removed and stowed them in the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory for ISS (MELFI).

Crew studies plants response to microgravity

Plants are likely to make up a large part of future bio-regenerative life support systems, used to sustain crew survival during future long-duration spaceflight. The molecular mechanisms behind spaceflight-induced stress responses in plants remains poorly defined.

When grown in the microgravity environment of the space station, plants do not seem to get enough air and as a result, exhibit a stress response in their genes and proteins. The Spaceflight-induced Hypoxic/ROS Signaling (APEX-05) experiment grows different wild and mutant varieties of Arabidopsis thaliana, in order to understand how their genetic and molecular stress response systems work in space.

This week, the APEX-05 petri plates were inserted into the Veggie Facility.

Image above: Petri plates for the APEX-05 investigation were inserted into the Veggie plant growth facility this week. Image Credit: NASA.

Other work was done on these investigations:

- The MVP facility is used to conduct research with a wide variety of sample types, such as fruit flies, flatworms, plants, fish, cells, protein crystals and many others. It includes internal carousels that simultaneously can produce up to 2 g of artificial gravity.  MVP Cell-05 investigates the complex process of cement solidification at gravity levels of interest: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1777

- Behavioral Core Measures examines an integrated, standardized suite of measurements for its ability to rapidly and reliably assess the risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during long-duration spaceflight: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7537

- Rodent Research-8 (RR-8) examines the physiology of aging and the effect of age on disease progression using groups of young and old mice flown in space and kept on Earth. This week, crew members prepared for the arrival of the mice by installing two habitats and stowing habitats used in previous investigations: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7713

- Hydrogels are often used for tissue regeneration purposes due to their high water content and how easily they can be customized.  Hydrogel Formation and Drug Release in Microgravity Conditions takes advantage of reduced fluid motion in microgravity to more precisely study behavior of the gel and its potential as a wound-healing patch: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7749

- The Made In Space Fiber Optics-2 investigation demonstrates the merits of manufacturing fiber optic filaments in microgravity. The fiber optic material chosen for this demonstration is ZBLAN: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7388

- On Earth, oil floats above water due to the liquids’ different densities. NanoRacks-NSL Satellites Ltd-Oil Bubbles explores whether microgravity affects this mixing phenomenon in space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1217

Space to Ground: A Second Chance: 12/14/2018

Related links:

Expedition 57: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition57/index.html

Soyuz MS-09: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/soyuz-launches-arrivals-and-departures/

Circadian Rhythms: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=869

Molecular Muscle: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7576

STaARS BioScience-4: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7503

MELFI: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=56

APEX-05: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1775

Veggie Facility: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=374

MVP Cell-05: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7874

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Video (NASA), Text, Credits: NASA/Michael Johnson/Vic Cooley, Lead Increment Scientist Expeditions 57/58.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Hubble Goes Deep

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

Dec. 17, 2018

This image from the Hubble Deep UV (HDUV) Legacy Survey encompasses 12,000 star-forming galaxies in a part of the constellation Fornax known as the GOODS-South field. With the addition of ultraviolet light imagery, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured the largest panoramic view of the fire and fury of star birth in the distant universe.

Hubble’s ultraviolet vision opens up a new window on the evolving universe, tracking the birth of stars over the last 11 billion years up to the busiest star-forming period in the cosmos, which happened about three billion years after the big bang.

So far, ultraviolet light has been the missing piece of the cosmic puzzle. Now, combined with data in infrared and visible light from Hubble and other space- and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have assembled the most comprehensive portrait yet of the universe’s evolutionary history. The image straddles the gap between the very distant galaxies, which can only be viewed in infrared light, and closer galaxies, which can be seen across different wavelengths. The light from distant star-forming regions in remote galaxies started out as ultraviolet, but the expansion of the universe has shifted the light into infrared wavelengths. By comparing images of star formation in the distant and nearby universe, astronomers can get a better understanding of how nearby galaxies grew from small clumps of hot, young stars long ago.

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

The observation program harnessed the ultraviolet vision of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. This study extends and builds on the previous Hubble multi-wavelength data in the CANDELS-Deep (Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey) fields within the central part of the GOODS (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) fields. This mosaic is 14 times the area of the Hubble Ultraviolet Ultra Deep Field released in 2014.

For more information about Hubble, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
http://www.spacetelescope.org/

Image, Animation, Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA/Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA/Karl Hille.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Rocket Lab successfully launches NASA CubeSats to orbit on first ever Venture Class Launch Services mission

Rocket Lab - Electron Flight Test 2 Mission patch.

Dec. 16, 2018

The mission follows just five weeks after the successful ‘It’s Business Time’ launch in November, and marks Rocket Lab’s third orbital launch for 2018

 Rocket Lab successfully launches NASA CubeSats to orbit

Huntington Beach, California – December 16, 2018 – US small satellite launch company Rocket Lab has launched its third orbital mission of 2018, successfully deploying satellites to orbit for NASA. The mission, designated Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa)-19 , took place just over a month after Rocket Lab’s last successful orbital launch, ‘It’s Business Time.’ Rocket Lab has launched a total of 24 satellites to orbit in 2018.

On Sunday, December 16, 2018 UTC, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle successfully lifted off at 06:33 UTC (19:33 NZDT) from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. After being launched to an elliptical orbit, Electron’s Curie engine-powered kick stage separated from the vehicle’s second stage before circularizing to a 500x500 km orbit at an 85 degree inclination. By 56 minutes into the mission, the 13 satellites on board were  individually deployed to their precise, designated orbits.

Rocket Lab Electron launches NASA ELaNa XIX

Until now, launch opportunities for small satellites have mostly been limited to rideshare-type arrangements, flying only when space is available on large launch vehicles. This mission, awarded under a Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) Agreement, marks the first time NASA CubeSats received a dedicated ride to orbit on a commercial launch vehicle. VCLS is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program headquartered at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck says the ELaNa-19 mission represents a forward-thinking approach from NASA to acquiring launch services and recognizes the increasingly significant role small satellites are playing in exploration, technology demonstration, research and education.

Rocket Lab historic CubeSat mission for NASA

“The ELaNa-19 mission was a significant one for NASA, the Rocket Lab team and the small satellite industry overall. To launch two missions just five weeks apart, and in the first year of orbital flights, is unprecedented. It’s exactly what the small satellite industry desperately needs, and Rocket Lab is proud to be delivering it. Regular and reliable launch is now a reality for small satellites. The wait is over,” says Rocket Lab CEO and founder Peter Beck. “We’re providing small satellite customers with more control than they’ve ever had, enabling them to launch on their own schedule, to precise orbits, as frequently as they need to.”

NASA ELaNa-19 Mission Manager Justin Treptow adds, “The CubeSats of ELaNa-19 represent a large variety of scientific objectives and technology demonstrations. With this the first launch of a Venture Class Launch Service on the Rocket Lab Electron, NASA now has an option to match our small satellite missions with a dedicated small launch vehicle to place these satellites in an optimal orbit to achieve big results.”

Rocket Lab Electron ELaNa XIX satellites deployment

The ELaNa-19 launch webcast can be viewed in full at http://youtu.be/F7Kr3664hJs and images from the mission are available in the media library at https://www.rocketlabusa.com/news/updates/link-to-rocket-lab-imagery-and-video

The next Rocket Lab Electron vehicle will be on the pad at Launch Complex 1 in January 2019. For real-time updates and mission announcements, follow Rocket Lab on Twitter @RocketLab.

Fro more information about Rocket Lab, visit: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/

Images, Text, Videos, Credits: Rocket Lab/Trevor Mahlmann/SciNews.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch