Hubble captures the Pillars of Creation twenty years on

ESA - Hubble Space Telescope logo.

6 January 2015

Revisiting an icon

New view of the Pillars of Creation — visible

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured many breathtaking images of the Universe, but one snapshot stands out from the rest: the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation. In 1995 Hubble’s iconic image revealed never-before-seen details in the giant columns and now the telescope is kickstarting its 25th year in orbit with an even clearer, and more stunning, image of these beautiful structures.

New view of the Pillars of Creation — infrared

The three impressive towers of gas and dust captured in this image are part of the Eagle Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 16. Although such features are not uncommon in star-forming regions, the Messier 16 structures are by far the most photogenic and evocative ever captured. The Hubble image of the pillars taken in 1995 is so popular that it has appeared in film and television, on tee-shirts and pillows, and even on postage stamps.

The Pillars of Creation — visible and infrared comparison

Now Hubble has revisited the famous pillars, capturing the multi-coloured glow of gas clouds, wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and the rust-coloured elephants’ trunks with the newer Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009. The visible-light image builds on one of the most iconic astronomy images ever taken and provides astronomers with an even sharper and wider view.

The Pillars of Creation — 1995 and 2015 comparison

In addition to this new visible-light image, Hubble has also produced a bonus image. This image is taken in infrared light, which penetrates much of the obscuring dust and gas and unveils a more unfamiliar view of the pillars, transforming them into wispy silhouettes set against a background peppered with stars. Here newborn stars, hidden in the visible-light view, can be seen forming within the pillars themselves [1].

Digitized Sky Survey Image of the Eagle Nebula

Although the original image was dubbed the "Pillars of Creation", this new image hints that they are also pillars of destruction. The dust and gas in these pillars is seared by intense radiation from the young stars forming within them, and eroded by strong winds from massive nearby stars. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars in the visible-light view is material that is being heated by bright young stars and evaporating away.

Pillars of Creation

With these new images come better contrast and clearer views of the region. Astronomers can use these new images to study how the physical structure of the pillars is changing over time. The infrared image shows that the reason the pillars exist is because the very ends of them are dense, and they shadow the gas below them, creating the long, pillar-like structures. The gas in between the pillars has long since been blown away by the winds from a nearby star cluster.

Pan over Pillars of Creation — visible

At the top edge of the left-hand pillar, a gaseous fragment has been heated up and is flying away from the structure, highlighting the violent nature of star-forming regions.

Pan over Pillars of Creation — Infrared

These massive stars may be slowly destroying the pillars but they are also the reason Hubble sees the structures at all. They radiate enough ultraviolet light to illuminate the area and make the clouds of oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur glow.

The Pillars of Creation — fade from visible to infrared

Although structures like these exist throughout the Universe, the Pillars of Creation — at a distance of 6500 light-years away — provide the best, and most dramatic, example. Now, these images have allowed us to see them more clearly than ever, proving that at 25 years of age, Hubble is still going strong.

Zoom into Pillars of Creation

This image and the associated results were presented today at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington, USA.

3D exploration of Pillars of Creation

Tour of Eagle Nebula

Notes:

[1] There is evidence to suggest that the Sun formed in a similar turbulent star-forming region to the one we see in this image.
Notes for editors

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Links:

Images of Hubble: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/category/spacecraft/

Link to NASA release: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/01/

Hubblecast 82: New view of the Pillars of Creation: http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic1501a/

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/NASA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team/ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin/Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University)/Videos:  NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team, ESO, M. McCaughrean & M. Andersen (AIP)/Music: movetwo.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s Chandra Detects Record-Breaking Outburst from Milky Way’s Black Hole

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch.

January 5, 2015

Astronomers have observed the largest X-ray flare ever detected from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This event, detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, raises questions about the behavior of this giant black hole and its surrounding environment.

The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*, is estimated to contain about 4.5 million times the mass of our sun.

Astronomers made the unexpected discovery while using Chandra to observe how Sgr A* would react to a nearby cloud of gas known as G2.

“Unfortunately, the G2 gas cloud didn’t produce the fireworks we were hoping for when it got close to Sgr A*,” said lead researcher Daryl Haggard of Amherst College in Massachusetts. “However, nature often surprises us and we saw something else that was really exciting.”

On Sept. 14, 2013, Haggard and her team detected an X-ray flare from Sgr A* 400 times brighter than its usual, quiet state. This “megaflare” was nearly three times brighter than the previous brightest X-ray flare from Sgr A* in early 2012. After Sgr A* settled down, Chandra observed another enormous X-ray flare 200 times brighter than usual on Oct. 20, 2014.

Image above: Astronomers have detected the largest X-ray flare ever from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This event was 400 times brighter than the usual X-ray output from the black hole. Credit: NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ/D.Haggard et al. X-ray Image Credit: NASA/CXC/Stanford/I. Zhuravleva et al.

Astronomers estimate that G2 was closest to the black hole in the spring of 2014, 15 billion miles away. The Chandra flare observed in September 2013 was about a hundred times closer to the black hole, making the event unlikely related to G2.

The researchers have two main theories about what caused Sgr A* to erupt in this extreme way. The first is that an asteroid came too close to the supermassive black hole and was torn apart by gravity. The debris from such a tidal disruption became very hot and produced X-rays before disappearing forever across the black hole's point of no return, or event horizon.

“If an asteroid was torn apart, it would go around the black hole for a couple of hours – like water circling an open drain – before falling in,” said co-author Fred Baganoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “That’s just how long we saw the brightest X-ray flare last, so that is an intriguing clue for us to consider.”

If this theory holds up, it means astronomers may have found evidence for the largest asteroid to produce an observed X-ray flare after being torn apart by Sgr A*.

A second theory is that the magnetic field lines within the gas flowing towards Sgr A* could be tightly packed and become tangled. These field lines may occasionally reconfigure themselves and produce a bright outburst of X-rays. These types of magnetic flares are seen on the sun, and the Sgr A* flares have similar patterns of intensity.

“The bottom line is the jury is still out on what’s causing these giant flares from Sgr A*,” said co-author Gabriele Ponti of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. “Such rare and extreme events give us a unique chance to use a mere trickle of infalling matter to understand the physics of one of the most bizarre objects in our galaxy.”

In addition to the giant flares, the G2 observing campaign with Chandra also collected more data on a magnetar: a neutron star with a strong magnetic field, located close to Sgr A*. This magnetar is undergoing a long X-ray outburst, and the Chandra data are allowing astronomers to better understand this unusual object.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.Image Credit: NASA/CXC

These results were presented at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society being held in Seattle.  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.

NASA is exploring our solar system and beyond to understand the universe and our place in it. The agency seeks to unravel the secrets of our universe, its origins and evolution, and search for life among the stars.

An interactive image, a podcast, and a video about the findings are available at: http://chandra.si.edu

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

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Felicia Chou/Marshall Space Flight Center/Janet Anderson/Chandra X-ray Center/Megan Watzke.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Astronaut feels the force

ESA - Space Robotics logo.

5 January 2015

In a milestone for space robotics, the International Space Station has hosted the first full run of ESA’s experiment with a force-reflecting joystick.

Think of the kind of tasks you can do with your hands without looking down, such as typing or tying laces. These are helped by ‘force feedback’ – the touch you feel in your hands and fingertips.

Force-feedback experiment on Space Station

Harnessing that sensation for robotics would extend the human sense of touch to space or other remote areas, making robotic control much more natural and easy.

Ultimately, robots could work thousands or tens of thousands of kilometres away, yet perform tasks of equal complexity to those a human operator could manage with objects immediately at hand.

NASA crewmember Barry Wilmore operated the force-feedback joystick to gather information on physiological factors such as sensitivity of feeling and perception limits. He finished a first run on New Year’s Eve.

The deceptively simple-looking lever is connected to a servomotor that can withstand any force an astronaut operator might unleash on it, while generating forces that the astronaut will feel in turn – just like a standard video gaming joystick as a player encounters an in-game obstacle. The joystick measures such forces at a very high resolution.

Body-mounted astronaut joystick

To stop the weightless users being pushed around by the force, the ‘Haptics-1’ experiment can be mounted either to a body harness or be fixed to the Station wall.

“With Haptics-1 we are paving the way towards an entirely new type of combined human–robot mission,” explains André Schiele, the experimenter and founder of ESA’s Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory.

“We are investigating in fine detail the limits of human perception and ability to apply fine forces and manipulation with their limbs and hands in a weightless environment.

“This allows us to understand the technology boundaries for advanced robotic equipment to support human astronauts in space when performing remote robotic control tasks.

“In addition to measuring physiological factors, Haptics-1 is providing important insights into how force-reflection from a remote robotic system changes human perception in space.

“With these measurements, advanced robotic control equipment can be better designed to reflect the realities of human manipulation through a robotic interface in a weightless environment.”

Experiment setup

“Haptics-1 marks the first time a force-reflecting device has been used in space. Before today, ESA, NASA or any other spacefaring nation has gained such experience in this domain.”

In future, orbiting astronauts might be operating a rover in real time on a planet, allowing human dexterity and intuition to help explore an alien environment without the expense and danger of landing.

Such advanced robotic remote control also has many potential terrestrial applications working at sites that are inaccessible or dangerous to humans, such as deep under water or within contaminated zones.

Related links:

Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory: http://esa-telerobotics.net/

Telerobotics flight experiments: http://esa-telerobotics.net/meteron/flight-experiments

ESA Bulletin article on Meteron: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_Publications/ESA_Publications_Bulletin/ESA_i_Bulletin_i_147_August_2011

@ESATelerobotics: https://twitter.com/esatelerobotics

Images, Text, Credit: ESA.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Is Europe an underestimated sink for carbon dioxide?

ESA - European Space Agency patch.

5 January 2015

A new study using satellite data suggests that Europe’s vegetation extracts more carbon from the atmosphere than previously thought.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is the most important human-made greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Large areas of vegetation, such as forests, are considered carbon ‘sinks’ because they assist in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

European carbon uptake

Without the natural carbon cycle, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration would be much higher and, consequently, the effects of global warming would be much larger.

Current knowledge about the European terrestrial biospheric carbon sink mostly comes from ‘inverse modelling’ studies using in situ measurements, and from inventories of biomass and ecosystem studies.

To determine the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by Europe’s vegetation, scientists from the University of Bremen analysed carbon dioxide concentration measurements from satellites.

The data were generated by the GHG-CCI  project under ESA's Climate Change Initiative, Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It included eight years of data from the Sciamachy instrument on ESA’s Envisat mission, and one year of data from Japan’s greenhouse gas-observing satellite, GOSAT.

Each satellite dataset was generated using a different method, ensuring that the results did not depend on a potential calculation problem specific to a single method. All calculations showed that Europe’s terrestrial vegetation – between the Atlantic Ocean and Ural mountains – absorbs about twice the amount of carbon per year more than previous estimates.

Average satellite carbon dioxide concentrations over Europe

The use of in situ carbon dioxide measurements in inverse modelling yielded similar results as measurements derived from biomass inventories. But the in situ stations are sparsely distributed across western Europe. Satellite measurements, however, cover the entire European continent and acquire spatially denser data.

“Our estimate is at the high end of the uncertainty range estimated by previous studies, which did not use any satellite carbon dioxide observations,” said Maximilian Reuter, lead author of the study.

“Using satellite data for this application is challenging, as even small measurement errors can result in significant errors of the strength of the inferred carbon source or sink. This is because the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is already quite high, so that even a large source or sink of carbon dioxide only results in a quite small relative change of the atmospheric carbon dioxide amount which we are measuring.”

The study was published recently in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/13739/2014/acp-14-13739-2014.html

Frederic Chevallier, a climate modeller working at France’s Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, and leader of the GHG-CCI’s Climate Research Group, notes, “The various satellite products tested in this study all suggest a large continental sink. However, differences in the inner-European carbon dioxide patterns should be subject to future research.

“Scientists agree that there are still open questions on carbon sinks, especially for the northern hemisphere, and that more research has to be performed on understanding the differences found by using satellite and in-situ carbon dioxide measurements and biomass inventory information.”

A future extended in-situ network in Europe, along with NASA’s recently launched Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 and the possible CarbonSat mission – one of the two candidates for ESA’s eighth Earth Explorer – will potentially provide the data to continue such research to clarify these open questions on Europe’s and the global carbon budget.

Related links:

GHG-CCI  project: http://www.esa-ghg-cci.org/

Study: Satellite-inferred European carbon sink larger than expected: http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/13739/2014/acp-14-13739-2014.html

University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Physics: http://www.iup.unibremen.de/

ESA's Climate Change Initiative (CCI): http://www.esa-cci.org/

National Institute for Environmental Studies: http://www.nies.go.jp/gaiyo/index-e.html

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/home/index.html

IPCC, AR5, ‘The Physical Science Basis’, Section 6: Carbon and Other Biogeochemical Cycles 2013: http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter06_FINAL.pdf

Related missions:

Envisat: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Envisat

OCO-2: http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/

GOSAT: http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gosat/index_e.html

CarbonSat at University of Bremen: http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/carbonsat/

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/University of Bremen.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Chasms and cliffs on Mars

ESA - Mars Express mission patch.

5 January 2015

(Click on the image for enlarge)

Although Mars is a very alien planet, some aspects of its geology are surprisingly familiar. This Mars Express image shows a snippet of a region of Mars filled with cliffs, trenches, faults, giant plateaus and volcanoes.

The flowing cracks and fault-like lines in this image form part of the Claritas Rupes escarpment, a 950 km-long network of steep cliffs and sloping outcrops. This escarpment lies within a larger geological system named Claritas Fossae, a weaving network of ‘grabens’ (a German term meaning ditch or trench) that stretches for some 2000 km.

The many chasms, fractures and cracks in this area are thought to have been caused by stress in the planet’s crust as it stretched and pulled apart, triggered by the formation of a nearby raised mound known as the Tharsis Bulge.

This bulge, located within the volcanic Tharsis region, extends to a height of about 10 km at its peak. Its violent formation caused parts of the crust to crack and shift, sliding into depressions and gaps, forming a distinctive pattern of geological features such as sunken grabens and raised blocks known as ‘horsts’. These two features can be very roughly imagined as an ‘M’ shape – grabens form the bottom of the central dip, while horsts form the two uppermost tips.

Similar patterns can be found on Earth around the Upper Rhine Valley between Basel in Switzerland, and Karlsruhe in Germany, or the Eger Graben in the Czech Republic, near the Ore Mountains.

Prominent examples of terrestrial grabens include California’s Death Valley, and the Dead Sea depression in the Jordan Rift Valley. Examples of horsts include France’s Vosges Mountains, and the Palestine Plateau.

Claritas Rupes forms the eastern boundary of the Tharsis region. This region contains some of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System, including the famous Olympus Mons, which stands some three times the height of Earth’s Mount Everest.

Mars Express spacecraft

This image was acquired by the High Resolution Stereo Camera of Mars Express on 30 November 2013 at a resolution of about 14 m per pixel. It was first published on 13 February 2014 on the DLR German Aerospace Center and Freie Universität Berlin websites.

Related links:

Chasms and cliffs on Mars - DLR German Aerospace Center: http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10453/651_read-9514/year-all/#/gallery/13644

Chasms and cliffs on Mars -  Freie Universität Berlin: http://www.geo.fu-berlin.de/en/geol/fachrichtungen/planet/press/claritas1/index.html

For more information about Mars Express, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch

Russian cosmonaut and doctor Boris Morukov dies after car park mission to Mars

ROSCOSMOS logo.

January 3, 2015

Boris Morukov, a Russian cosmonaut and doctor who led an extraordinary experiment in which volunteers simulated a flight to Mars while never leaving a Moscow car park, has died at 64.

"We announce with grief that Boris Morukov died suddenly on New Year's Eve," Moscow's Institute of Biomedical Problems, where Morukov was deputy director, said on its website on Friday.

Morukov, a doctor and a former cosmonaut, was project director of the unprecedented Mars-500 simulation, in which an international team of six men spent 520 days in isolation to simulate a flight to Mars.

The experiment, which began in 2010 and ended in 2011, was organised jointly with the European Space Agency and the Institute of Biomedical Problems.

The experiment simulated the duration and isolation of a return journey to the Red Planet, even including "walks" on a sandpit replicating the Martian surface and 20-minute time gaps in communication with outside.

Cosmonaut Boris Morukov

The international team of one Chinese, one Italian, one Frenchman and three Russians spent the entire period in a 180-square-metre wood-lined complex in the carpark of the Moscow institute.

"Everything that we got out of this, both the positive and perhaps the negative, undoubtedly can be used in planning a real Mars flight," Morukov said after the experiment ended.

Morukov earlier led a series of experiments into the effects of long-term weightlessness on the human body.

In the most extreme experiment that started in 1986, a group of eight men spent 370 days lying in tilted beds to study the effect on their bone mass.

Born in Moscow, Morukov studied to become a doctor before undergoing training to become a specialist in space medicine. He also trained as a cosmonaut at the Gagarin training centre.

In 2000, he was a crew member on a flight on the US Space Shuttle Atlantis to prepare the International Space Station for its first permanent crew.

Morukov "will always remain in our hearts as a talented scientist, a brilliant organiser and a kind, helpful person", the Institute of Biomedical Problems said.

Biography and more information about the deceased Cosmonaut Boris Morukov, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Morukov

Image, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/NASA/AFP.

R.I.P. 
Condolences, Orbiter.ch

Crew Aboard Station Prepares for Arrival of Dragon

ISS - Expedition 42 Mission patch.

January 3, 2015

Happy New Year 16 Times on Space Station!

The Expedition 42 crew orbiting Earth on the International Space Station gets the opportunity to celebrate New Year’s Eve a whopping 16 times as it circles the globe at 17,500 miles an hour.

Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and his crew, which includes NASA’s Terry Virts, Russian cosmonauts Elena Serova, Alexander Samoukutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, say they plan to celebrate with fruit juice toasts. The year 2015 starts officially for the station crew at 7 p.m. EST Jan. 31, which is midnight by the Universal Time Clock (UTC), also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in London. The crew is scheduled to be in its sleep shift, but may elect to stay up late since it has a day off planned for New Year’s Day.

Watch the Happy New Year message: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXvYcIbFVzs&list=PLiuUQ9asub3Qq1AQRirDI-naOwo1H5gaB&index=1

Image above: Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) tweets: Unwrapping an early Christmas gift last week: @AstroRobonaut is my favorite action figure.

The crew spent New Year’s Eve day working on a variety of experiments, ranging from those directed at better understanding changes that occur in the human eye during long-duration spaceflights, and with Earth observations aimed at helping with disaster aid on the Earth’s surface.

Read more about the Ocular Health experiment: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/204.html

Read more about the ISS SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System (ISERV): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/867.html

The crew also continued preparations for the arrival of the next cargo supply ship, the commercial resupply mission of SpaceX-5 and the Dragon spacecraft. Launch of Dragon on a Space-X Falcon 9 booster is planned for 6:20 a.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015. NASA Television launch coverage begins at 5 a.m.

Dragon will rendezvous with the space station Thursday, Jan. 8, and Wilmore will use the 58-foot robotic arm to grab the Dragon by its tail and berth if to the station. Grapple is expected about 6 a.m. NASA Television coverage of the grapple starts at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, and installation coverage will begin at 8:15 a.m. Dragon is loaded with more than 3,700 pounds of scientific experiments, technology demonstrations and supplies, including critical materials to support 256 science and research investigations that will take place on the space station during ISS Expeditions 42 and 43.

SpaceX Dragon cargo

A series of briefings outlining Dragon’s mission and the scientific research it will be carrying is planned Monday, Jan. 5.

Read full schedule of SpaceX-5 and ISS Research briefings: http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/nasa-updates-pre-launch-briefings-for-upcoming-resupply-mission-to-space-station/#.VKQns1q99W8

Watch Terry Virts’ #SpaceVine of Robonaut: https://t.co/kNtYDaJI2M

For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images, Text, Credit: NASA / NASA TV.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch