Mars Helicopter to Fly on NASA's Next Red Planet Rover Mission

NASA - Mars Rover Mission logo.

May 12, 2018

Image above: The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with NASA's Mars 2020 rover, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA is sending a helicopter to Mars.

The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with the agency's Mars 2020 rover mission, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet.

"NASA has a proud history of firsts," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "The idea of a helicopter flying the skies of another planet is thrilling. The Mars Helicopter holds much promise for our future science, discovery, and exploration missions to Mars."

NASA Mars Helicopter Technology Demonstration

Video above: The Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration that will travel to the Red Planet with the Mars 2020 rover. It will attempt controlled flight in Mars' thin atmosphere, which may enable more ambitious missions in the future.

U.S. Rep. John Culberson of Texas echoed Bridenstine's appreciation of the impact of American firsts on the future of exploration and discovery.

"It's fitting that the United States of America is the first nation in history to fly the first heavier-than-air craft on another world," Culberson said. "This exciting and visionary achievement will inspire young people all over the United States to become scientists and engineers, paving the way for even greater discoveries in the future."

Started in August 2013 as a technology development project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Mars Helicopter had to prove that big things could come in small packages. The result of the team's four years of design, testing and redesign weighs in at little under four pounds (1.8 kilograms). Its fuselage is about the size of a softball, and its twin, counter-rotating blades will bite into the thin Martian atmosphere at almost 3,000 rpm -- about 10 times the rate of a helicopter on Earth.

"Exploring the Red Planet with NASA's Mars Helicopter exemplifies a successful marriage of science and technology innovation and is a unique opportunity to advance Mars exploration for the future," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency headquarters in Washington. "After the Wright Brothers proved 117 years ago that powered, sustained, and controlled flight was possible here on Earth, another group of American pioneers may prove the same can be done on another world."

The helicopter also contains built-in capabilities needed for operation at Mars, including solar cells to charge its lithium-ion batteries, and a heating mechanism to keep it warm through the cold Martian nights. But before the helicopter can fly at Mars it has to get there. It will do so attached to the belly pan of the Mars 2020 rover.

"The altitude record for a helicopter flying here on Earth is about 40,000 feet. The atmosphere of Mars is only one percent that of Earth, so when our helicopter is on the Martian surface, it's already at the Earth equivalent of 100,000 feet up," said Mimi Aung, Mars Helicopter project manager at JPL. "To make it fly at that low atmospheric density, we had to scrutinize everything, make it as light as possible while being as strong and as powerful as it can possibly be."

Once the rover is on the planet's surface, a suitable location will be found to deploy the helicopter down from the vehicle and place it onto the ground. The rover then will be driven away from the helicopter to a safe distance from which it will relay commands. After its batteries are charged and a myriad of tests are performed, controllers on Earth will command the Mars Helicopter to take its first autonomous flight into history.

NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Artist's Concept. Image Credits: NASA/JPL

"We don't have a pilot and Earth will be several light minutes away, so there is no way to joystick this mission in real time," said Aung. "Instead, we have an autonomous capability that will be able to receive and interpret commands from the ground, and then fly the mission on its own."

The full 30-day flight test campaign will include up to five flights of incrementally farther flight distances, up to a few hundred meters, and longer durations as long as 90 seconds, over a period. On its first flight, the helicopter will make a short vertical climb to 10 feet (3 meters), where it will hover for about 30 seconds.

As a technology demonstration, the Mars Helicopter is considered a high-risk, high-reward project. If it does not work, the Mars 2020 mission will not be impacted. If it does work, helicopters may have a real future as low-flying scouts and aerial vehicles to access locations not reachable by ground travel.

"The ability to see clearly what lies beyond the next hill is crucial for future explorers," said Zurbuchen. "We already have great views of Mars from the surface as well as from orbit. With the added dimension of a bird's-eye view from a 'marscopter,' we can only imagine what future missions will achieve."

Mars 2020 will launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and is expected to reach Mars in February 2021.

The rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. Scientists will use the instruments aboard the rover to identify and collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in sealed tubes, and leave them on the planet's surface for potential return to Earth on a future Mars mission.

The Mars 2020 Project at JPL in Pasadena, California, manages rover development for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.

For more information about NASA's Mars missions, go to: https://www.nasa.gov/mars

Mars 2020 rover mission: https://www.nasa.gov/mars2020

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Dwayne Brown/JoAnna Wendel/JPL/DC Agle.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

SpaceX - Bangabandhu Satellite-1 Mission Success

SpaceX - Falcon 9 / Bangabandhu-1 Mission patch.

May 11, 2018

Falcon 9 carrying Bangabandhu Satellite-1 launch

SpaceX successfully launched the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 on Friday, May 11 from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Liftoff occurred at 4:14 p.m. EDT and Bangabandhu Satellite-1 was deployed into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) approximately 33 minutes after launch.

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 Mission

The Bangabandhu Satellite-1 mission served as the first flight of Falcon 9 Block 5, the final substantial upgrade to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Falcon 9 Block 5 is designed to be capable of 10 or more flights with very limited refurbishment as SpaceX continues to strive for rapid reusability and extremely high reliability. Following stage separation, SpaceX successfully landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. This will be the first launch of the upgraded Block 5 version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite

Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. The spacecraft will provide broadcasting and telecommunication services to rural areas and introduce direct-to-home television programming across Bangladesh and neighboring countries. The Bangabandhu 1 satellite was built by Thales Alenia Space.

For more information about SpaceX, visit: http://www.spacex.com/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: SpaceX/Günter Space Page/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Station to Orbit Higher Before Spacewalk and Crew Landing

ISS - Expedition 55 Mission patch.

May 11, 2018

The International Space Station will be orbiting a little higher this weekend to prepare for the departure of three Expedition 55 crew members and the arrival of a new Russian cargo craft. The docked Russian Progress 69 resupply ship will fire its engines Saturday at 6:07 p.m. EDT for two minutes and 52 seconds slightly boosting the orbital lab’s altitude.

Image above: The six-member Expedition 55 crew poses inside the Harmony module which links both the Japanese Kibo and the European Columbus laboratory modules. In the bottom row from left, are Soyuz MS-08 crew members Drew Feustel, Ricky Arnold and Oleg Artemyev. In the top row from left, are Soyuz MS-07 crew members Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai. Image Credit: NASA.

This orbital reboost sets up the proper phasing trajectory for the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft when it undocks June 3.  The Soyuz will carry Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineers Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai back to Earth after six-and-a-half month mission in space. The reboost will also enable a two-orbit launch to docking opportunity for Russia’s next resupply ship the Progress 70 in July.

Overnight and early Friday morning robotics controllers from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency supported the deployment of small satellites from outside the Kibo laboratory module. The Japanese robotic arm attached to Kibo ejected several small satellites to support a series of technology demonstrations.

Image above: Flying over North Pacific Ocean, seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27'615 Km/h, altitude: 404,49 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live application with EarthCam's from ISS on May 10, 2018 at 22:22 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Two spacewalkers and a pair of Flight Engineers continued more computer training and procedure reviews today ahead of next week’s spacewalk. NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel will go outside in their U.S. spacesuits Wednesday for about 6.5 hours to swap out thermal control gear that cools external station systems. Tingle and Kanai will assist the duo in and out of the Quest airlock and help choreograph the spacewalk tasks.

Related links:

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Expedition 55: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition55/index.html

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), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Hubble Spies Glowing Galaxies in Massive Cluster

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

May 11, 2018

In the darkness of the distant universe, these galaxies resemble glowing fireflies, flickering candles, charred embers floating up from a bonfire, and light bulbs softly shining. This image, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a massive group of galaxies bound together by gravity: a cluster named RXC J0032.1+1808.

This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 as part of an observing program called RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey). RELICS imaged 41 massive galaxy clusters with the aim of finding the brightest distant galaxies for the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope to study.

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

Expected to launch in 2020, the Webb telescope is designed to see in infrared wavelengths, which is exceedingly useful for observing distant objects. As a result of the expansion of the universe, very distant objects are highly redshifted (their light is shifted toward the redder end of the spectrum), and so infrared telescopes are needed to study them. While Hubble currently has the ability to peer billions of years into the past to see “toddler” galaxies, the Webb telescope will have the capability to study “baby” galaxies, the first galaxies that formed in the universe.

Related link:

RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey): https://relics.stsci.edu/

For more information about Hubble, visit:

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

Image, Animation, Text, Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, RELICS/Text: European Space Agency/NASA/Karl Hille.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of May 7, 2018

ISS - Expedition 55 Mission patch.

May 11, 2018

This week, the crew members aboard the International Space Station continued scientific operations and spacewalk preparation as tons of science and hardware returned to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule on Saturday, May 5.

International Space Station (ISS). Image Credit: NASA

NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel will conduct the 210th spacewalk at the space station beginning Wednesday, May 16. The veteran spacewalkers will work to swap thermal control gear that controls the circulation of ammonia to keep external station systems cool. NASA TV begins its live coverage at 6:30 a.m.

Here is a look at some of the science that happened this week aboard your orbiting laboratory:

Crew member examines blood vessels and heart

Cardiac and Vessel Structure and Function with Long-Duration Space Flight and Recovery (Vascular Echo) examines changes in blood vessels and the heart, both in space and on Earth. The results may provide insight into potential countermeasures to help maintain crewmember health, and quality of life for those on Earth.

Animation above: NASA astronaut Scott Tingle works within the CIR as a part of the ACME E-FIELD Flames investigation. Animation Credit: NASA.

This week, a crewmember attached Electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes to himself, marked his femoral artery and then performed an ultrasound scan with remote guidance from the ground team.

Imagery contributes to study of Intracranial Pressure

The Non-invasive Assessment of Intracranial Pressure for Spaceflight and Related Visual Impairment (IPVI) investigation studies changes to crewmembers’ eyes and optic nerves by analyzing arterial blood pressure and blood flow to the brain before and after spaceflight. This investigation uses non-invasive methods to measure intracranial pressure, rather than commonly used more invasive methods.

Image above: The SpaceX Dragon capsule, pictured above, returned to Earth Saturday full of science and hardware. Image Credit: NASA.

This week, a crewmember took front and side photographs to check for any facial swelling, followed by a conference with ground experts.

Studying crew culture

The Culture, Values, and Environmental Adaptation in Space (At Home in Space) investigation, sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency, looks at changes in perceptions about home in space and the ways a unique culture may develop aboard the station during a mission.

Animation above: The SpaceX Dragon capsule departs the International Space Station, carrying with it samples and hardware from research conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory. Animation Credit: NASA.

Participants answer a series of questionnaires before, during and after flight, enabling researchers to see whether perceptions and the relative importance of values change over the course of a mission. Questions explore individual and culturally related differences, family functioning and relationships, personal values and coping with stress. This week, a crew member completed the questionnaire prior to his midday meal.

Space to Ground: Ready for a Walk: 05/11/2018

Other work was done on these investigations: Crew Earth Observations, Veggie PONDS, CBEF, CIR, Multi-Use Variable-g platform (MVP), MERLIN, Probiotics, Radi-N2, ELF, Microbial Tracking-2, J-SSOD #8, and Food Acceptability.

Related links:

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Vascular Echo: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1664

At Home in Space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/at_home_in_space

Crew Earth Observations: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=84

Veggie PONDS: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7581

CBEF: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=333

CIR: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=317

Multi-Use Variable-g platform (MVP): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1777

MERLIN: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=29

Probiotics: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2047

Radi-N2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=874

ELF: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1738

Microbial Tracking-2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1663

J-SSOD: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=883

Food Acceptability: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7562

Spot the Station: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

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), Animations (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Michael Johnson/Yuri Guinart-Ramirez, Lead Increment Scientist Expeditions 55 & 56.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Virtual Reality Training and Global Robotics Work Before Spacewalk

ISS - Expedition 55 Mission patch.

May 10, 2018

Two Expedition 55 Flight Engineers are using virtual reality and computer training today to prepare for next week’s spacewalk at the International Space Station. Robotics controllers from Houston and Japan are also maneuvering a pair of robotic arms for the upcoming spacewalk and satellite deployments.

Image above: The Kibo laboratory module from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency was pictured as the International Space Station orbited over the southern Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand. Image Credit: NASA.

NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel will conduct the 210th spacewalk at the space station beginning Wednesday, May 16 at 8:10 a.m. EDT. The veteran spacewalkers will work for about 6.5 hours swapping thermal control gear that controls the circulation of ammonia to keep external station systems cool. NASA TV begins its live coverage at 6:30 a.m.

The veteran spacewalkers checked the functionality a pair of jet packs that will be attached to their U.S. spacesuits next week. The jet packs, known as Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER), provide mobility for spacewalkers in the unlikely event they become untethered from the station. The duo also wore virtual reality goggles to practice maneuvering their SAFER jet packs and reviewed their spacewalk procedures.

Image above: Flying over North Pacific Ocean, seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27'615 Km/h, altitude: 404,49 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live application with EarthCam's from ISS on May 10, 2018 at 22:22 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Robotics controllers from opposite sides of the world maneuvered a pair of robotic arms independently of each other today. Canada’s 57.7-foot-long robotic arm, nicknamed Canadarm2, was remotely positioned today by engineers in Houston in advance of next week’s spacewalk activities. Controllers from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency remotely operated the Kibo laboratory module’s robotic arm to prepare for the deployment of small satellites Friday morning.

Related links:

Canadarm2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/mss.html

Kibo laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/jem.html

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Expedition 55: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition55/index.html

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), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s NICER Mission Finds an X-ray Pulsar in a Record-fast Orbit

ISS - Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) patch.

May 10, 2018

Scientists analyzing the first data from the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission have found two stars that revolve around each other every 38 minutes — about the time it takes to stream a TV drama. One of the stars in the system, called IGR J17062–6143 (J17062 for short), is a rapidly spinning, superdense star called a pulsar. The discovery bestows the stellar pair with the record for the shortest-known orbital period for a certain class of pulsar binary system.

The data from NICER also show J17062’s stars are only about 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) apart, less than the distance between Earth and the Moon. Based on the pair’s breakneck orbital period and separation, scientists involved in a new study of the system think the second star is a hydrogen-poor white dwarf.

“It’s not possible for a hydrogen-rich star, like our Sun, to be the pulsar’s companion,” said Tod Strohmayer an astrophysicist at Goddard and lead author on the paper. “You can’t fit a star like that into an orbit so small.”

NICER Finds X-ray Pulsar in Record-fast Orbit

Video above: The stars of IGR J17062–6143, illustrated here, circle each other every 38 minutes, the fastest-known orbit for a binary system containing an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar. As they revolve, a superdense pulsar pulls gas from a lightweight white dwarf. The two stars are so close they would fit between Earth and the Moon. Video Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

A previous 20-minute observation by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in 2008 was only able to set a lower limit for J17062’s orbital period. NICER, which was installed aboard the International Space Station last June, has been able to observe the system for much longer periods of time. In August, the instrument focused on J17062 for more than seven hours over 5.3 days. Combining additional observations in October and November, the science team was able to confirm the record-setting orbital period for a binary system containing what astronomers call an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar (AMXP).

When a massive star goes supernova, its core collapses into a black hole or a neutron star, which is small and superdense — around the size of a city but containing more mass than the Sun. Neutron stars are so hot the light they radiate passes red-hot, white-hot, UV-hot and enters the X-ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star.

The 2008 RXTE observation of J17062 found X-ray pulses recurring 163 times a second. These pulses mark the locations of hot spots around the pulsar’s magnetic poles, so they allow astronomers to determine how fast it’s spinning. J17062’s pulsar is rotating at about 9,800 revolutions per minute. 

Hot spots form when a neutron star’s intense gravitational field pulls material away from a stellar companion — in J17062, from the white dwarf — where it collects into an accretion disk. Matter in the disk spirals down, eventually making its way onto the surface. Neutron stars have strong magnetic fields, so the material lands on the surface of the star unevenly, traveling along the magnetic field to the magnetic poles where it creates hot spots.

Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Image Credit: NASA

The constant barrage of in-falling gas causes accreting pulsars to spin more rapidly. As they spin, the hot spots come in and out of the view of X-ray instruments like NICER, which record the fluctuations. Some pulsars rotate over 700 times per second, comparable to the blades of a kitchen blender. X-ray fluctuations from pulsars are so predictable that NICER’s companion experiment, the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT), has already shown they can serve as beacons for autonomous navigation by future spacecraft.

Over time, material from the donor star builds up on the surface of the neutron star. Once the pressure of this layer builds up to the point where its atoms fuse, a runaway thermonuclear reaction occurs, releasing the energy equivalent of 100 15-megaton bombs exploding over every square centimeter, explained Strohmayer. X-rays from such outbursts can also be captured by NICER, although one has yet to be seen from J17062.

The researchers were able to determine that J17062’s stars revolve around each other in a circular orbit, which is common for AMXPs. The white dwarf donor star is a “lightweight,” only around 1.5 percent of our Sun’s mass. The pulsar is much heavier, around 1.4 solar masses, which means the stars orbit a point around 1,900 miles (3,000 km) from the pulsar. Strohmayer said it’s almost as if the donor star orbits a stationary pulsar, but NICER is sensitive enough to detect a slight fluctuation in the pulsar’s X-ray emission due to the tug from the donor star.

“The distance between us and the pulsar is not constant,” Strohmayer said. “It’s varying by this orbital motion. When the pulsar is closer, the X-ray emission takes a little less time to reach us than when it’s further away. This time delay is small, only about 8 milliseconds for J17062's orbit, but it’s well within the capabilities of a sensitive pulsar machine like NICER.”

The results of the study were published May 9 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Image above: Artist's illustration of The stars of IGR J17062–6143, illustrated here, circle each other every 38 minutes, the fastest-known orbit for a binary system containing an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar. Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NICER’s mission is to provide high-precision measurements to further study the physics and behavior of neutron stars. Other first-round results from the instrument have provided details about one object’s thermonuclear bursts and explored what happens to the accretion disk during these events.

“Neutron stars turn out to be truly unique nuclear physics laboratories, from a terrestrial standpoint,” said Zaven Arzoumanian, a Goddard astrophysicist and lead scientist for NICER. “We can’t recreate the conditions on neutron stars anywhere within our solar system. One of NICER’s key objectives is to study subatomic physics that isn’t accessible anywhere else.”

NICER is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA's Explorer program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined, and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate supports the SEXTANT component of the mission, demonstrating pulsar-based spacecraft navigation.

Related links:

Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER): https://www.nasa.gov/nicer

Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE): https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/xhp_geninfo.html

Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT): https://gameon.nasa.gov/projects/deep-space-x-ray-navigation-and-communication/

The Astrophysical Journal Letters: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aabf44

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), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Rob Garner/Goddard Space Flight Center, by Jeanette Kazmierczak.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Ash from Kilauea Eruption Viewed by NASA's MISR

NASA - EOS Terra Mission patch.

May 10, 2018

On May 3, 2018, a new eruption began at a fissure of the Kilauea volcano on the Island of Hawaii. Kilauea is the most active volcano in the world, having erupted almost continuously since 1983. Advancing lava and dangerous sulfur dioxide gas have forced thousands of residents in the neighborhood of Leilani Estates to evacuate. A number of homes have been destroyed, and no one can say how soon the eruption will abate and evacuees can return home.

On May 6, 2018, at approximately 11 a.m. local time, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured this view of the island as it passed overhead. Much of the island was shrouded by clouds, including the fissure on its eastern point. However, an eruption plume is visible streaming southwest over the ocean. The MISR instrument is unique in that it has nine cameras that view Earth at different angles: one pointing downward, four at various angles in the forward direction, and four in the backward direction. This image shows the view from one of MISR's forward-pointing cameras (60 degrees), which shows the plume more distinctly than the near-vertical views.

The information from the images acquired at different view angles is used to calculate the height of the plume, results of which are superimposed on the right-hand image. The top of the plume near the fissure is at approximately 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) altitude, and the height of the plume decreases as it travels south and west. These relatively low altitudes mean that the ash and sulfur dioxide remained near the ground, which can cause health issues for people on the island downwind of the eruption. The "Ocean View" air quality monitor operated by the Clean Air Branch of the State of Hawaii Department of Health recorded a concentration of 18 μg/m3 of airborne particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter at 11 a.m. local time. This amount corresponds to an air quality rating of "moderate" and supports the MISR results indicating that ash was most likely present at ground level on this side of the island.

EOS Terra satellite. Image Credit: NASA

These data were acquired during Terra orbit 97780. The smoke plume height calculation was performed using the MISR INteractive eXplorer (MINX) software tool, which is publicly available at https://github.com/nasa/MINX. The MISR Plume Height Project maintains a database of global smoke plume heights, accessible at https://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/getData/accessData/MisrMinxPlumes2/.

MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Terra spacecraft is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The MISR data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center in Hampton, Virginia. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena.

Related article:

NASA Satellite detects Kilauea Fissures
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2018/05/nasa-satellite-detects-kilauea-fissures.html

For more information about Terra satellite, visit:

Terra Satellite: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/terra/index.html

Images, Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/MISR.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Astronauts and Robotics Setting Up For Next Week’s Spacewalk

ISS - Expedition 55 Mission patch.

May 9, 2018

Image above: A portion of the Canadarm2 robotic arm (left) and stormy clouds are seen in the north Pacific Ocean as the International Space Station orbited off the eastern coast of Russia. Image Credit: NASA.

Activities on the International Space Station are moving ahead towards next week’s spacewalk to swap out thermal control equipment. Flight Engineers Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel will work outside the orbital lab for the maintenance job on May 16.

Robotics engineers are setting up the worksite on the Port 6 truss today ahead of next week’s spacewalk. Ground teams are remotely maneuvering the Canadarm2 with the Dextre robotic hand attached to relocate a leaky pump flow control subassembly (PFCS). The Canadarm2 will then be positioned afterward to support Arnold’s and Feustel’s work next week.

Image above: Flying over South Pacific Ocean, seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27'567 Km/h, altitude: 420,30 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live application with EarthCam's from ISS on May 9, 2018 at 22:02 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

The duo will work outside the station for about 6.5 hours to swap locations of 2 PFCS boxes. The PFCS controls the circulation of ammonia to keep station systems cool. Other spacewalk tasks planned in the timeline include swapping out a variety of communications gear.

The two spacewalkers gathered their tools and were joined on Tuesday by Flight Engineers Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai for a spacewalk procedures review. The foursome also checked in with mission controllers to discuss the upcoming spacewalk. Tingle and Kanai will assist the spacewalkers in and out of their spacesuits next week and help choreograph the excursion.

Related links:

Expedition 55: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition55/index.html

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), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Jupiter’s Dynamic Atmosphere

NASA - JUNO Mission logo.

May 9, 2018

This image captures the dynamic nature of Jupiter's northern temperate belt. The view reveals a white, oval-shaped anticyclonic storm called WS-4.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft took this color-enhanced image on April 1 at 2:38 a.m. PST (5:38 a.m. EST) during its 12th close flyby of the gas giant planet. At the time, the spacecraft was 4,087 miles (6,577 kilometers) from the tops of Jupiter’s clouds at 35.6 degrees north latitude.

This image was created by citizen scientist Emma Walimaki using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

JUNO orbiting Jupiter

JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at:

http://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam    

More information about Juno is at: https://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu

Image, Animation, Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Emma Walimaki.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Spinning Science: Multi-use Variable-g Platform Arrives at the Space Station

ISS - International Space Station logo.

May 9, 2018

International Space Station (ISS). Image Credit: NASA

Delivered to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX CRS-14, the Multi-use Variable-g Platform (MVP) is a new commercial testbed for centrifuge-based science aboard the orbiting laboratory. Because gravity determines so much of a live organism’s behavior and growth, centrifuge-based experiments have long been a part of biological investigations in space. While the pull of Earth’s gravity makes this type of investigation difficult at home, the space station’s microgravity environment makes it the perfect place for fractional gravity experimentation. MVP greatly expands that testing capability for the space station.

“This is a permanent, commercially owned research facility that gives researchers the opportunity to study the effects of gravity and partial gravity on living organisms, and, hopefully, by extrapolation to humans,” said Rich Boling of Techshot, the company responsible for MVP’s design and build.

Image above: An outer view of Techshot’s MVP facility, launched to the space station aboard SpaceX-14. Image Credit: Techshot.

What makes the facility so special is its size and capability. Containing two carousels that spin quickly to simulate up to two times the force of gravity, the platform is the largest centrifuge in the U.S. segment of the space station and allows investigators more room for, and control over, their research.

With room for six experiment modules on each carousel, Techshot can fly up to 12 separate modules on MVP at a time. Each module is equipped with temperature sensors, and the box that houses the carousels and modules can be set to the exact environmental specifications requested for any investigation.

This degree of control and precision makes for better science and clearer data.

Image above: Two carousels sit inside MVP and can create up to 2 g of force. Each carousel can be set to spin at a different speed. Image Credit: Techshot.

But before the real science can begin it must undergo hardware validation. Validation testing of the facility uses Drosophila (fruit flies) to verify environmental controls and check MVP’s overall performance. For MVP’s hardware validation run, one carousel will stay stationary to allow scientists to collect a baseline of behavior in microgravity. The other carousel will spin at the normal force of gravity on Earth (1 g) as control group. In addition to validating the controls and operability of MVP, this initial investigation – known as MVP-Fly-01 - will provide science data for researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center. MVP is especially exciting for fruit fly research because it can host larger samples for multiple generations. This initial study will look at biological issues common between humans and fruit flies. The investigation concluded in late April, and the modules were removed from MVP and returned to Earth aboard the same Dragon that delivered them to space.

During the run, testing was monitored and controlled from Techshot’s own Payload Operations Control Center in Greenville, Indiana. Much like NASA’s own Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center, the Payload Operations Control Center allows the team at Techshot to talk to, adjust, and pull data from their hardware. A live video link also allows the team to monitor crew interactions with the equipment.

Image above: The first investigation aboard MVP will be a hardware validation run employing laboratory flies, but future investigations could involve a variety of small organisms. Image Credit: Techshot.

Asked what kinds of investigations the platform could host, Boling said, “It’s really whatever investigators could dream up that they want to put inside of these experiment modules. Each one empty is about 800ccs of volume. So whatever a research team wants for that volume, we can make it happen, get it up there, and get it back. For example, we have a tissue chip investigation coming up this year for a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

MVP greatly expands commercial and research opportunities in low-Earth orbit. Several investigations are already lined up for the platform, and customers include government, academic and commercially-based teams.

Says Boling of working with NASA, “The payload that eventually became MVP started out as a Small Business Innovative Research proposal.” After seven years and several phases of development, investment, and product improvement, Techshot was able to secure six research campaigns to get MVP started. These campaigns include research from industry, academia, and two additional investigations for Ames in 2019.

Spinning Science: Multi-use Variable-g Platform Arrives at the Space Station 

“We love working with the investigators,” said Boling. “This isn’t our science, but we are the tool that allows scientists to do research that hasn’t been done before or ask questions that haven’t been proposed. The future is bright for MVP, and research gleaned from its upcoming missions will hold benefits for both future missions beyond low-Earth orbit and science back here at home.

This investigation is sponsored for the station’s U.S. National Laboratory, which the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) manages.

Related article:

New Research Heading to Space Station Aboard 14th SpaceX Resupply Mission
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2018/04/new-research-heading-to-space-station.html

Related links:

Multi-use Variable-g Platform (MVP): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1777

Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS): http://www.iss-casis.org/

U.S. National Laboratory: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/nlab/index.html

Commercial Space: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/index.html

Spot the Station: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

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), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Michael Johnson/JSC/Morgan McAllister.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Spacecraft Discovers New Magnetic Process in Turbulent Space

NASA - Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) patch.

May 9, 2018

Animation above: In a turbulent magnetic environment, magnetic field lines become scrambled. As the field lines cross, intense electric currents (shown here as bright regions) form and eventually trigger magnetic reconnection (indicated by a flash), which is an explosive event that releases magnetic energy accumulated in the current layers and ejects high-speed bi-directional jets of electrons. Animation Credits: NASA Goddard’s Conceptual Image Lab/Lisa Poje; Simulations by: University of Chicago/Colby Haggerty; University of Delaware/Tulasi Parashar.

Though close to home, the space immediately around Earth is full of hidden secrets and invisible processes. In a new discovery reported in the journal Nature, scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS — have uncovered a new type of magnetic event in our near-Earth environment by using an innovative technique to squeeze extra information out of the data.

Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes in the space — filled with charged particles known as plasma — around Earth. This fundamental process dissipates magnetic energy and propels charged particles, both of which contribute to a dynamic space weather system that scientists want to better understand, and even someday predict, as we do terrestrial weather.  Reconnection occurs when crossed magnetic field lines snap, explosively flinging away nearby particles at high speeds. The new discovery found reconnection where it has never been seen before — in turbulent plasma.

NASA Spacecraft Discovers New Magnetic Process in Turbulent Space

Video above: In a new discovery reported in the journal Nature, scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS — uncovered a new type of magnetic event in our near-Earth environment. Video Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng.

“In the plasma universe, there are two important phenomena: magnetic reconnection and turbulence,” said Tai Phan, a senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author on the paper. “This discovery bridges these two processes.”

Magnetic reconnection has been observed innumerable times in the magnetosphere — the magnetic environment around Earth — but usually under calm conditions. The new event occurred in a region called the magnetosheath, just outside the outer boundary of the magnetosphere, where the solar wind is extremely turbulent. Previously, scientists didn’t know if reconnection even could occur there, as the plasma is highly chaotic in that region. MMS found it does, but on scales much smaller than previous spacecraft could probe.

Explosive Magnetic Reconnection in Turbulent Plasma

Video above: In a turbulent magnetic environment, magnetic field lines become scrambled. As the field lines cross, intense electric currents (shown here as bright regions) form and eventually trigger magnetic reconnection (indicated by a flash), which is an explosive event that releases magnetic energy accumulated in the current layers and ejects high-speed bi-directional jets of electrons. NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission witnessed this process in action as it flew through the electron jets the turbulent boundary just at the edge of Earth’s magnetic environment. Video Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center's Conceptual Image Lab/Lisa Poje; Simulations by: Colby Haggerty (University of Chicago), Tulasi Parashar (University of Delaware).

MMS uses four identical spacecraft flying in a pyramid formation to study magnetic reconnection around Earth in three dimensions. Because the spacecraft fly incredibly close together — at an average separation of just four-and-a-half miles, they hold the record for closest separation of any multi-spacecraft formation — they are able to observe phenomena no one has seen before. Furthermore, MMS’s instruments are designed to capture data at speeds a hundred times faster than previous missions.

Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS). Image Credit: NASA

Even though the instruments aboard MMS are incredibly fast, they are still too slow to capture turbulent reconnection in action, which requires observing narrow layers of fast moving particles hurled by the recoiling field lines. Compared to standard reconnection, in which broad jets of ions stream out from the site of reconnection, turbulent reconnection ejects narrow jets of electrons only a couple miles wide.

“The smoking gun evidence is to measure oppositely directed electron jets at the same time, and the four MMS spacecraft were lucky to corner the reconnection site and detect both jets”, said Jonathan Eastwood, a lecturer at Imperial College, London, and a co-author of the paper.

Crucially, MMS scientists were able to leverage the design of one instrument, the Fast Plasma Investigation, to create a technique to interpolate the data — essentially allowing them to read between the lines and gather extra data points — in order to resolve the jets.

“The key event of the paper happens in only 45 milliseconds. This would be one data point with the basic data,” said Amy Rager, a graduate student at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the scientist who developed the technique. “But instead we can get six to seven data points in that region with this method, allowing us to understand what is happening.”

Exploring Turbulent Space Around Earth

Video above: Earth is surrounded by a protective magnetic environment — the magnetosphere — shown here in blue, which deflects a supersonic stream of charged particles from the Sun, known as the solar wind. As the particles flow around Earth’s magnetosphere, it forms a highly turbulent boundary layer called the magnetosheath, shown in yellow. Scientists, like those involved with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, are studying this turbulent region to help us learn more about our dynamic space environment. Video Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith; NASA Goddard’s Conceptual Image Lab/Josh Masters.

With the new method, the MMS scientists are hopeful they can comb back through existing datasets to find more of these events, and potentially other unexpected discoveries as well.

Magnetic reconnection occurs throughout the universe, so that when we learn about it around our planet — where it’s easiest for Earthlings to examine it — we can apply that information to other processes farther away.  The finding of reconnection in turbulence has implications, for example, for studies on the Sun. It may help scientists understand the role magnetic reconnection plays in heating the inexplicably hot solar corona — the Sun’s outer atmosphere — and accelerating the supersonic solar wind. NASA’s upcoming Parker Solar Probe mission launches directly to the Sun in the summer of 2018 to investigate exactly those questions — and that research is all the better armed the more we understand about magnetic reconnection near home.

Related Links:

Nature: http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0091-5

Learn more about the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mms/index.html

Learn more about NASA’s research on the Sun-Earth environment: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/index.html

Animation (mentioned), Image (mentioned), Videos (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Rob Garner/Goddard Space Flight Center, by Mara Johnson-Groh.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Black Hole Bounty Captured in the Milky Way Center

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch.

May 9, 2018

Astronomers have discovered evidence for thousands of black holes located near the center of our Milky Way galaxy using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

This black hole bounty consists of stellar-mass black holes, which typically weigh between five to 30 times the mass of the Sun. These newly identified black holes were found within three light years – a relatively short distance on cosmic scales – of the supermassive black hole at our Galaxy’s center known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*).

Theoretical studies of the dynamics of stars in galaxies have indicated that a large population of stellar mass black holes – as many as 20,000 – could drift inward over the eons and collect around Sgr A*. This recent analysis using Chandra data is the first observational evidence for such a black hole bounty.

A black hole by itself is invisible. However, a black hole – or neutron star – locked in close orbit with a star will pull gas from its companion (astronomers call these systems “X-ray binaries”). This material falls into a disk and heats up to millions of degrees and produces X-rays before disappearing into the black hole. Some of these X-ray binaries appear as point-like sources in the Chandra image.

A team of researchers, led by Chuck Hailey of Columbia University in New York, used Chandra data to search for X-ray binaries containing black holes that are located near Sgr A*. They studied the X-ray spectra – that is the amount of X-rays seen at different energies – of sources within about 12 light years of Sgr A*.

The team then selected sources with X-ray spectra similar to those of known X-ray binaries, which have relatively large amounts of low energy X-rays. Using this method they detected fourteen X-ray binaries within about three light years of Sgr A*. Two X-ray sources likely to contain neutron stars based on the detection of characteristic outbursts in previous studies were then eliminated from the analysis.

The dozen remaining X-ray binaries are identified in the labeled version of the image using red colored circles. Other sources with relatively large amounts of high energy X-rays are labeled in yellow, and are mostly binaries containing white dwarf stars.

Hailey and his collaborators concluded that a majority of these dozen X-ray binaries are likely to contain black holes. The amount of variability they have shown over timescales of years is different from that expected for X-ray binaries containing neutron stars.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

Only the brightest X-ray binaries containing black holes are likely to be detectable at the distance of Sgr A*. Therefore, the detections in this study imply that a much larger population of fainter, undetected X-ray binaries – at least 300 and up to a thousand – containing stellar-mass black holes should be present around Sgr A*.

This population of black holes with companion stars near Sgr A* could provide insight into the formation of X-ray binaries from close encounters between stars and black holes. This discovery could also inform future gravitational wave research. Knowing the number of black holes in the center of a typical galaxy can help in better predicting how many gravitational wave events may be associated with them.

An even larger population of stellar-mass black holes without companion stars should be present near Sgr A*. According to theoretical follow-up work by Aleksey Generozov of Columbia and his colleagues, more than about 10,000 black holes and as many as 40,000 black holes should exist in the center of the Galaxy.

While the authors strongly favor the black hole explanation, they cannot rule out the possibility that up to about half of the observed dozen sources are from a population of millisecond pulsars, i.e., very rapidly rotating neutron stars with strong magnetic fields.

A paper describing these results appeared in the April 5th issue of the journal Nature. 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.harvard.edu/photo/2018/sgra_swarm/

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

Images, Text, Credits: NASA/Lee Mohon/CXC/Columbia Univ./C. Hailey et al.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Exiled Asteroid Discovered in Outer Reaches of Solar System

ESO - European Southern Observatory logo.

9 May 2018

ESO telescopes find first confirmed carbon-rich asteroid in Kuiper Belt

Artist’s impression of exiled asteroid 2004 EW95

An international team of astronomers has used ESO telescopes to investigate a relic of the primordial Solar System. The team found that the unusual Kuiper Belt Object 2004 EW₉₅ is a carbon-rich asteroid, the first of its kind to be confirmed in the cold outer reaches of the Solar System. This curious object likely formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and has been flung billions of kilometres from its origin to its current home in the Kuiper Belt.

The early days of our Solar System were a tempestuous time. Theoretical models of this period predict that after the gas giants formed they rampaged through the Solar System, ejecting small rocky bodies from the inner Solar System to far-flung orbits at great distances from the Sun [1]. In particular, these models suggest that the Kuiper Belt — a cold region beyond the orbit of Neptune — should contain a small fraction of rocky bodies from the inner Solar System, such as carbon-rich asteroids, referred to as carbonaceous asteroids [2].

Orbital exile

Now, a recent paper has presented evidence for the first reliably-observed carbonaceous asteroid in the Kuiper Belt, providing strong support for these theoretical models of our Solar System’s troubled youth. After painstaking measurements from multiple instruments at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), a small team of astronomers led by Tom Seccull of Queen’s University Belfast in the UK was able to measure the composition of the anomalous Kuiper Belt Object 2004 EW₉₅, and thus determine that it is a carbonaceous asteroid. This suggests that it originally formed in the inner Solar System and must have since migrated outwards [3].

The peculiar nature of 2004 EW95 first came to light during routine observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope by Wesley Fraser, an astronomer from Queen’s University Belfast who was also a member of the team behind this discovery. The asteroid’s reflectance spectrum — the specific pattern of wavelengths of light reflected from an object — was different to that of similar small Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), which typically have uninteresting, featureless spectra that reveal little information about their composition.

Lost in space (artist's impression)

“The reflectance spectrum of 2004 EW₉₅ was clearly distinct from the other observed outer Solar System objects,” explains lead author Seccull. “It looked enough of a weirdo for us to take a closer look.”

The team observed 2004 EW₉₅ with the X-Shooter and FORS2 instruments on the VLT. The sensitivity of these spectrographs allowed the team to obtain more detailed measurements of the pattern of light reflected from the asteroid and thus infer its composition.

Asteroid fly-by

However, even with the impressive light-collecting power of the VLT, 2004 EW₉₅ was still difficult to observe. Though the object is 300 kilometres across, it is currently a colossal four billion kilometres from Earth, making gathering data from its dark, carbon-rich surface a demanding scientific challenge.

“It’s like observing a giant mountain of coal against the pitch-black canvas of the night sky,” says co-author Thomas Puzia from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

“Not only is 2004 EW₉₅ moving, it’s also very faint,” adds Seccull. “We had to use a pretty advanced data processing technique to get as much out of the data as possible.”

Orbit in exile

Two features of the object’s spectra were particularly eye-catching and corresponded to the presence of ferric oxides and phyllosilicates. The presence of these materials had never before been confirmed in a KBO, and they strongly suggest that 2004 EW₉₅ formed in the inner Solar System.

Seccull concludes: “Given 2004 EW95’s  present-day abode in the icy outer reaches of the Solar System, this implies that it has been flung out into its present orbit by a migratory planet in the early days of the Solar System.”

“While there have been previous reports of other ‘atypical’ Kuiper Belt Object spectra, none were confirmed to this level of quality,” comments Olivier Hainaut, an ESO astronomer who was not part of the team. “The discovery of a carbonaceous asteroid in the Kuiper Belt is a key verification of one of the fundamental predictions of dynamical models of the early Solar System.”

Notes:

[1] Current dynamical models of the evolution of the early Solar System, such as the grand tack hypothesis and the Nice model, predict that the giant planets migrated first inward and then outward, disrupting and scattering objects from the inner Solar System. As a consequence, a small percentage of rocky asteroids are expected to have been ejected into orbits in the Oort Cloud and Kuiper belt.

[2] Carbonaceous asteroids are those containing the element carbon or its various compounds. Carbonaceous — or C-type — asteroids can be identified by their dark surfaces, caused by the presence of carbon molecules.

[3] Other inner Solar System objects have previously been detected in the outer reaches of the Solar System, but this is the first carbonaceous asteroid to be found far from home in the Kuiper Belt.

More information:

This research was presented in a paper entitled “2004 EW95: A Phyllosilicate-bearing Carbonaceous Asteroid in the Kuiper Belt” by T. Seccull et al., which appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The team was composed of Tom Seccull (Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, UK), Wesley C. Fraser (Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, UK) , Thomas H. Puzia (Institute of Astrophysics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile), Michael E. Brown (Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, USA) and Frederik Schönebeck (Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 15 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a strategic partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links:

ESOcast 160 Light: Lost in Space: http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1814a/

Research paper: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1814/eso1814a.pdf

Photos of the VLT: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT): https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/

X-Shooter: https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/vlt-instr/x-shooter/

FORS2: https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/vlt-instr/fors/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESO/M. Kornmesser/L. Calçada/Richard Hook/Calum Turner/Institute of Astrophysics, Pontificia Universidad Catolica Santiago/Thomas H. Puzia/Queen’s University, Belfast/Wesley C. Fraser/Tom Seccull.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch