Young sun’s violent history solves meteorite mystery

ESA - Herschel Mission patch.

1 July 2014

Astronomers using ESA’s Herschel space observatory to probe the turbulent beginnings of a Sun-like star have found evidence of mighty stellar winds that could solve a puzzling meteorite mystery in our own back yard.

In spite of their tranquil appearance in the night sky, stars are scorching furnaces that spring to life through tumultuous processes – and our 4.5 billion-year-old Sun is no exception. To glimpse its harsh early days, astronomers gather clues not only in the Solar System but also by studying young stars elsewhere in our Galaxy.

Violent wind gusting around protostar

Using Herschel to survey the chemical composition of regions where stars are being born today, a team of astronomers has noticed that one object in particular is different.

The unusual source is a prolific stellar nursery called OMC2 FIR4, a clump of new stars embedded in a gaseous and dusty cloud near to the famous Orion Nebula.

“To our great surprise, we found that the proportion of two chemical species, one based on carbon and oxygen and the other on nitrogen, is much smaller in this object than in any other protostar we know,” says Dr Cecilia Ceccarelli, of the Institute de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, France, who lead the study with Dr Carsten Dominik of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

In an extremely cold environment, the measured proportion could arise by one of the two compounds freezing onto dust grains and becoming undetectable. However, at the relatively ‘high’ temperature of about –200°C found in star-forming regions like OMC2 FIR4, this should not occur.

“The most likely cause in this environment is a violent wind of very energetic particles, released by at least one of the embryonic stars taking shape in this proto-stellar cocoon,” Dr Ceccarelli adds.

Violent wind gusting around protostar in Orion

The most abundant molecule in star-forming clouds, hydrogen, can be broken apart by cosmic rays, energetic particles that permeate the entire Galaxy. The hydrogen ions then combine with other elements that are present – albeit only in trace amounts – in these clouds: carbon and oxygen, or nitrogen.

Normally, the nitrogen compound is also quickly destroyed, yielding more hydrogen for the carbon and oxygen compound. As a result, the latter is far more abundant in all known stellar nurseries.

Strangely enough, though, this was not the case for OMC2 FIR4, suggesting that an additional wind of energetic particles is destroying both chemical species, keeping their abundances more similar.

Astronomers think that a similarly violent wind of particles also gusted through the early Solar System, and this discovery might finally point to an explanation for the origin of a particular chemical element seen in meteorites.

Meteorites are the remains of interplanetary debris that survived the trip through our planet’s atmosphere. These cosmic messengers are one of the few tools we have to directly probe the elements in our Solar System.

Herschel space observatory

“Some elements detected in meteorites reveal that, long ago, these rocks contained a form of beryllium: this is quite puzzling, as we can’t quite understand how it got there,” explains Dr Dominik.

The formation of this isotope – beryllium-10 – in the Universe is an intricate puzzle of its own. Astronomers know that it is not produced in the interior of stars, like some other elements, nor in the supernova explosion that happens at the end of a massive star’s life.

The majority of beryllium-10 was formed in collisions of very energetic particles with heavier elements like oxygen. But since this isotope decays very quickly into other elements, it must have been produced just before it was incorporated in the rocks that would later appear on Earth as meteorites.

In order to trigger these reactions and produce an amount of beryllium matching that recorded in meteorites, our own Sun must have blown a violent wind in its youth.

These new observations of OMC2 FIR4 give a very strong hint that it is possible for a young star to do this.

“Observing star-forming regions with Herschel not only provides us with a view on what happens beyond our cosmic neighbourhood, but it’s also a crucial way to piece together the past of our own Sun and Solar System,” says Göran Pilbratt, ESA’s Herschel project scientist.

More information:

“Herschel finds evidence for stellar wind particles in a protostellar envelope: is this what happened to the young Sun?” by C. Ceccarelli et al. is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, July 2014.

The study is based on observations performed with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) on Herschel, as part of the Herschel Guaranteed Time Key Programme Chemical HErschel Surveys of Star forming regions (CHESS).

Related links:

Herschel: ESA's giant infrared observatory: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel

Herschel overview: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel_overview

Online Showcase of Herschel Images OSHI: http://oshi.esa.int/

Herschel in depth: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=16

Herschel Science Centre: http://herschel.esac.esa.int/

Images, Text, Credits: Herschel image: ESA/Herschel/Ph. André, D. Polychroni, A. Roy, V. Könyves, N. Schneider for the Gould Belt survey Key Programme; inset and layout: ESA/ATG medialab.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

First LDSD Test Flight a Success

NASA logo.

June 30, 2014

 NASA's LDSD powered flight test. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA representatives participated in a media teleconference this morning to discuss the June 28, 2014 near-space test flight of the agency's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), which occurred off the coast of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.

A high-altitude balloon launch occurred June 29,  2014 at 8:45 a.m. HST (11:45 a.m. PDT/2:45 p.m. EDT) from the Hawaiian island facility. At 11:05 a.m. HST (2:05 p.m. PDT/5:05 p.m. EDT), the LDSD test vehicle dropped away from the balloon as planned and began powered flight. The balloon and test vehicle were about 120,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean at the time of the drop. The vehicle splashed down in the ocean at approximately 11:35 a.m. HST (2:35 p.m. PDT/5:35 p.m. EDT), after the engineering test flight concluded. The test vehicle hardware, black box data recorder and parachute were all recovered later in the day.

Image above: Hours after the June 28, 2014, test of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator over the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range, the saucer-shaped test vehicle is lifted aboard the Kahana recovery vessel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"We are thrilled about yesterday's test," said Mark Adler, project manager for LDSD at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The test vehicle worked beautifully, and we met all of our flight objectives. We have recovered all the vehicle hardware and data recorders and will be able to apply all of the lessons learned from this information to our future flights."

This test was the first of three planned for the LDSD project, developed to evaluate new landing technologies for future Mars missions. While this initial test was designed to determine the flying ability of the vehicle, it also deployed two new landing technologies as a bonus. Those landing technologies will be officially tested in the next two flights, involving clones of the saucer-shaped vehicle.

Image above: Two members of the Navy's Explosive Ordinance Disposal team swim towards the pilot ballute (a combination balloon and parachute used for braking at high altitudes and speeds) that was used to deploy the parachute. The recovery vessel Mana'o II is in the background. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"Because our vehicle flew so well, we had the chance to earn 'extra credit' points with the Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator [SIAD]," said Ian Clark, principal investigator for LDSD at JPL. "All indications are that the SIAD deployed flawlessly, and because of that, we got the opportunity to test the second technology, the enormous supersonic parachute, which is almost a year ahead of schedule."

The Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD) is a large, doughnut-shaped first deceleration technology that deployed during the flight. The second is an enormous parachute (the Supersonic Disk Sail Parachute). Imagery downlinked in real-time from the test vehicle indicates that the parachute did not deploy as expected, and the team is still analyzing data on the parachute so that lessons learned can be applied for the next test flights, scheduled for early next year.

Image above: The LDSD test vehicle is unseen at the tip of the slash-like contrail at the upper left of this image. Just to the right of the contrail, and about a third of the way up, is the balloon that carried the saucer. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

In order to get larger payloads to Mars, and to pave the way for future human explorers, cutting-edge technologies like LDSD are critical. Among other applications, this new space technology will enable delivery of the supplies and materials needed for long-duration missions to the Red Planet.

Image above: The first "flown" test vehicle of Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator project relaxes aboard the recovery vessel Kahana. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"This entire effort was just fantastic work by the whole team and is a proud moment for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate," said Dorothy Rasco, deputy associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This flight reminds us why NASA takes on hard technical problems, and why we test - to learn and build the tools we will need for the future of space exploration. Technology drives exploration, and yesterday's flight is a perfect example of the type of technologies we are developing to explore our solar system."

Image above: Hours after its successful engineering flight, the first test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator project is lifted aboard the recovery vessel Kahana. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the LDSD mission, a cooperative effort led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA's Technology Demonstration Mission program manages LDSD at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, coordinated support with the Pacific Missile Range Facility and provided the balloon systems for the LDSD test.

For more information about the LDSD space technology demonstration mission: http://go.usa.gov/kzZQ

For more information about the Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech

The follow-along page from the media teleconference can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/ldsd/telecon2014/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / David Steitz / JPL / DC Agle / Marshall Space Flight Center / Shannon Ridinger / Pacific Missile Range Facility / Stefan Alford.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Saturn’s shadows

ESA - Cassini Missio to Saturn logo.

June 30, 2014

It may seem odd to think of planets casting shadows out in the inky blackness of space, but it is a common phenomenon. Earth’s shadow obscures the Moon during a lunar eclipse, and Jupiter’s moons cast small shadows onto their parent planet. 

One of the best places in our Solar System to spot intriguing and beautiful celestial shadows is at Saturn. On 1 July, the international Cassini mission celebrates 10 years of exploring Saturn, its rings and its moons, an endeavour that has produced invaluable science but also stunning images like this.

Drifting along in the foreground, small and serene, is Saturn’s icy moon Mimas. The blue backdrop may at first appear to be the gas giant’s famous and impressive set of rings, with pale and dark regions separated by long inky black slashes, but it is actually the northern hemisphere of Saturn itself. The dark lines slicing across the frame are shadows cast by the rings onto the planet.

Although we may not associate the colour blue with Saturn, when Cassini arrived at the planet the northernmost regions displayed the delicate blue palette shown in this image. As this region of Saturn is generally quite free of cloud, scattering by molecules in the atmosphere causes sunlight to take a longer path through the atmosphere. The light is scattered predominantly at shorter – bluer – wavelengths. This is similar to why the sky on Earth appears blue to our eyes.

Cassini spacecraft

Seasonal changes over the years since this photo was taken have turned the blue into Saturn's more familiar golden hue. The reverse is occurring in the south, which is slowly becoming bluer.

This image is composed of infrared, optical and ultraviolet observations from Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on 18 January 2005. The colours closely match what the scene would look like in true colour.

The Cassini–Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and Italy’s ASI space agency.

This image was first published on the NASA Cassini website, in 2005.

For more information about Cassini mission, Visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/ and http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens

ESA / NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Rosetta’s comet ‘sweats’ two glasses of water a second

ESA - Rosette Missio patch.

30 June 2014

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has found that comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is releasing the equivalent of two small glasses of water into space every second, even at a cold 583 million kilometres from the Sun.

The first observations of water vapour streaming from the comet were made by the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter, or MIRO, on 6 June, when the spacecraft was about 350 000 kilometres from the comet.

First detection of water vapour

Since the initial detection, water vapour has been found every time MIRO has been pointed towards the comet.

“We always knew we would see water vapour outgassing from the comet, but we were surprised at how early we detected it,” says Sam Gulkis, the instrument’s principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA.

“At this rate, the comet would fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in about 100 days. But, as it gets closer to the Sun, the gas production rate will increase significantly. With Rosetta, we have an amazing vantage point to observe these changes up close and learn more about exactly why they happen.”

Comet on 4 June

Water is a major volatile component of comets, along with carbon monoxide, methanol and ammonia. MIRO is designed to help determine the abundance of each of these ingredients, in order to understand the nature of the comet’s nucleus, the process of outgassing and where they originate on the surface.

These gases stream away from the nucleus carrying dust, forming the comet’s surrounding ‘coma’. As the comet moves closer to the Sun, its coma will expand and, eventually, pressure from the solar wind will cause some of the material to stream out into a long tail.

Rosetta will be there to watch these developments up close. The comet – and Rosetta – will make its nearest approach to the Sun in August 2015, between the orbits of Earth and Mars.

Determining the changes in production rate of water vapour and other gases as the icy object moves around the Sun is important for comet science. But it is also vital for mission planning, because once Rosetta is closer to the comet, the outflow of gases may alter the craft’s trajectory.

“Our comet is coming out of its deep-space slumber and beginning to put on a show for Rosetta’s science instruments,” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist.

“Rosetta’s engineers will also be using MIRO’s observations to help them plan for future mission events when we are operating close to the comet’s nucleus.”

Today, the spacecraft is within 72 000 km of its destination. Six out of a total of ten rendezvous manoeuvres still need to be carried out to ensure that Rosetta arrives at a distance of just 100 km from the nucleus on 6 August.

More about Rosetta: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/More_about_Rosetta

More about MIRO: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/More_about_MIRO

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Launch of Indian PSLV Rocket with French SPOT-7 Satellite

ISRO logo.


June 30, 2014

Launch of Indian PSLV Rocket with French SPOT-7 Satellite

A French Satellite, Spot-7 was launched today, June 30th 2014 at 04:22 UTC on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India.

Launch of Indian PSLV Rocket with French SPOT-7 Satellite

Spot-7 is an agile Earth observation satellite offering 2 meter resolution imagery for the French Space Agency, CNES.

SPOT-7 Satellite

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ISRO / Günter Space Images / Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Puffing Sun Gives Birth To Reluctant Eruption

NASA / ESA - SOHO Mission patch / NASA - Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) patch.

June 27, 2014

A suite of NASA's sun-gazing spacecraft have spotted an unusual series of eruptions in which a series of fast puffs forced the slow ejection of a massive burst of solar material from the sun's atmosphere. The eruptions took place over a period of three days, starting on Jan. 17, 2013. Nathalia Alzate, a solar scientist at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales, presented findings on what caused the puffs at the 2014 Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Portsmouth, England.

Animation above: This animation from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shows puffs emanating from the base of the sun's atmosphere, exploding outward into interplanetary space. These drive a later, larger eruption. The bright light of the sun itself is hidden behind the black circle at the center. Animation Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Alzate.

The sun's outermost atmosphere, the corona, is made of magnetized solar material, called plasma, that has a temperature of millions of degrees and extends millions of miles into space. On Jan. 17, the joint European Space Agency and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, spacecraft observed puffs emanating from the base of the corona and rapidly exploding outwards into interplanetary space. The puffs occurred roughly once every three hours. After about 12 hours, a much larger eruption of material began, apparently eased out by the smaller-scale explosions.

By looking at high-resolution images taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, and NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, over the same time period and in different wavelengths, Alzate and her colleagues could focus on the cause of the puffs and the interaction between the small and large-scale eruptions.

Image above: This combination of three wavelengths of light from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows one of the multiple jets that led to a series of slow coronal puffs on Jan. 17, 2013. The light has been colorized in red, green and blue. Image Credit: Alzate/SDO.

"Looking at the corona in extreme ultraviolet light we see the source of the puffs is a series of energetic jets and related flares," said Alzate. "The jets are localized, catastrophic releases of energy that spew material out from the sun into space. These rapid changes in the magnetic field cause flares, which release a huge amount of energy in a very short time in the form of super-heated plasma, high-energy radiation and radio bursts. The big, slow structure is reluctant to erupt, and does not begin to smoothly propagate outwards until several jets have occurred."

Because the events were observed by multiple spacecraft, each viewing the sun from a different perspective, Alzate and her colleagues were able to resolve the three-dimensional configuration of the eruptions. This allowed them to estimate the forces acting on the slow eruption and discuss possible mechanisms for the interaction between the slow and fast phenomena.

"We still need to understand whether there are shock waves, formed by the jets, passing through and driving the slow eruption," said Alzate. "Or whether magnetic reconfiguration is driving the jets allowing the larger, slow structure to slowly erupt. Thanks to recent advances in observation and in image processing techniques we can throw light on the way jets can lead to small and fast, or large and slow, eruptions from the sun."

Related links:

More about SDO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/main/index.html

More about STEREO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/index.html

More about SOHO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/soho/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / Royal Academy of Sciences.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Closing the recycling circle

ISS - International Space Station patch.

27 June 2014

The International Space Station welcomes up to eight supply vessels a year bringing oxygen, water and food for the six astronauts continuously circling our planet. Building, launching, docking and unloading these spacecraft is costly and time-consuming – is there a better way?

Spirulina

Many mission designers dream of crewed spacecraft that require no resupplies. A vehicle that indefinitely recycles astronaut waste such as exhaled carbon dioxide and urine and turns it into fresh oxygen and water like a miniature Earth would be ideal.

Even a half-closed ecosystem would save a great deal of planning and weight, freeing up space for more experiments and travel.

Our ecosystem

ESA’s Melissa project has been working on this goal for over 25 years by looking at how to fit bacteria, algae, plants, chemicals and physical processes together into a self-sustaining circuit that turns astronaut waste into fresh supplies. 

Spirulina bioreactors

The ‘Melissa loop’ is about to take off. All around the world – and soon above it – key pieces of the puzzle are being tested to see how they fit into the whole.

Bioreactor

First up is a photo-bioreactor that uses light to power organisms for turning unwanted carbon dioxide into something we can use.

Bioreactors cultivate organisms in closed containers but getting a species to thrive is no easy task. As the occupants grow they need space and different lighting. And continuously drawing the good stuff out of the reactor ready for human consumption cannot be allowed to disturb the mini-ecosystem.

Spirulina astronaut food

The Melissa team has made great progress in this domain and is ready to test their system in space. In the next 12 months they will send Spirulina algae to the International Space Station to see how well it grows in microgravity.

Spirulina has been harvested for food in South America and Africa for centuries. It turns carbon dioxide into oxygen, multiplies rapidly and can also be eaten as a delicious protein-rich astronaut meal.

The first experiment will simply assess how Spirulina adapts to weightlessness so researchers can fine-tune the unit.

Spirulina

The next step is a hands-on test: an experiment that mimics astronauts’ breathing will be connected to the bioreactor so the Spirulina can grow on a steady stream of carbon dioxide, delivering oxygen in return.

If these early tests in space go well, the team will be a long way towards the ultimate goal of recycling carbon dioxide, water and organic waste into food, water and oxygen.

Related links:

About research in space: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Research/About_research_in_space

How it began: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/How_it_began

MELiSSA’s future in space: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/MELiSSA_s_future_in_space

Images, Text, Credits: ESA / NASA / SCK / CEN.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch