SDO: Year 6 Ultra-HD

NASA - Solar Dynamics Observatory patch.

Feb. 12, 2016

SDO: Year 6 Ultra-HD

The sun is always changing and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is always watching. Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk of the sun, with a prime view of the graceful dance of solar material coursing through the sun's atmosphere, the corona. SDO's sixth year in orbit was no exception. This video shows that entire sixth year -- from Jan. 1, 2015, to Jan. 28, 2016, as one time-lapse sequence. At full quality on YouTube, this video is ultra-high definition 3840x2160 and 29.97 frames per second. Each frame represents 2 hours. A downloadable version has a frame rate of 59.94 with each frame representing 1 hour.

See below for the link. SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. The images shown here are based on a wavelength of 171 angstroms, which is in the extreme ultraviolet range and shows solar material at around 600,000 kelvins (about 1,079,540 degrees F). In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun's 25-day rotation. During the course of the video, the sun subtly increases and decreases in apparent size. This is because the distance between the SDO spacecraft and the sun varies over time.

Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft

The image is, however, remarkably consistent and stable despite the fact that SDO orbits Earth at 6,876 mph, and Earth orbits the sun at 67,062 mph. Scientists study these images to better understand the complex electromagnetic system causing the constant movement on the sun, which can ultimately have an effect closer to Earth, too: Flares and another type of solar explosion called coronal mass ejections can sometimes disrupt technology in space. Moreover, studying our closest star is one way of learning about other stars in the galaxy.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, built, operates and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Learn more about SDO and see more imagery: http://www.nasa.gov/sdo and http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Image, Video, Text, Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Wiessinger Music: "Tides," a track available from Killer Tracks.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Particles in Love: Quantum Mechanics Explored in New Study

JPL - Jet Propulsion laboratory logo.

Feb. 12, 2016

This cartoon helps explain the idea of "entangled particles." Alice and Bob represent photon detectors, which NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology developed. Cartoon Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Here's a love story at the smallest scales imaginable: particles of light. It is possible to have particles that are so intimately linked that a change to one affects the other, even when they are separated at a distance.

This idea, called "entanglement," is part of the branch of physics called quantum mechanics, a description of the way the world works at the level of atoms and particles that are even smaller. Quantum mechanics says that at these very tiny scales, some properties of particles are based entirely on probability. In other words, nothing is certain until it happens.

Testing Bell's Theorem

Albert Einstein did not entirely believe that the laws of quantum mechanics described reality. He and others postulated that there must be some hidden variables at work, which would allow quantum systems to be predictable. In 1964, however, John Bell published the idea that any model of physical reality with such hidden variables also must allow for the instantaneous influence of one particle on another. While Einstein proved that information cannot travel faster than the speed of light, particles can still affect each other when they are far apart according to Bell.

Scientists consider Bell's theorem an important foundation for modern physics. While many experiments have taken place to try to prove his theorem, no one was able to run a full, proper test of the experiment Bell would have needed until recently. In 2015, three separate studies were published on this topic, all consistent with the predictions of quantum mechanics and entanglement.

"What's exciting is that in some sense, we're doing experimental philosophy," said Krister Shalm, physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, Colorado. Shalm is lead author on one of the 2015 studies testing Bell's theorem. "Humans have always had certain expectations of how the world works, and when quantum mechanics came along, it seemed to behave differently."

How 'Alice and Bob' Test Quantum Mechanics

The paper by Shalm, Marsili and colleagues was published in the journal Physical Review Letters, with the mind-bending title "Strong Loophole-Free Test of Local Realism."

“Our paper and the other two published last year show that Bell was right: any model of the world that contains hidden variables must also allow for entangled particles to influence one another at a distance," said Francesco Marsili of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who collaborated with Shalm.

An analogy helps to understand the experiment, which was conducted at a NIST laboratory in Boulder:

Imagine that A and B are entangled photons. A is sent to Alice and B is sent to Bob, who are located 607 feet (185 meters) apart.

Alice and Bob poke and prod at their photons in all kinds of ways to get a sense of their properties. Without talking to each other, they then each randomly decide how to measure their photons, using random number generators to guide their decisions. When Alice and Bob compare notes, they are surprised to find that the results of their independent experiments are correlated. In other words, even at a distance, measuring one photon of the entangled pair affects the properties of the other photon.

Image above: Technology used to study the "love" between particles is also being used in research to improve communications between space and Earth. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"It's as if Alice and Bob try to tear the two photons apart, but their love still persists," Shalm said. In other words, the entangled photons behave as if they are two parts of a single system, even when separated in space.

Alice and Bob -- representing actual photon detectors -- then repeat this with many other pairs of entangled photons, and the phenomenon persists.

In reality, the photon detectors are not people, but superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs). SNSPDs are metal strips that are cooled until they become "superconducting," meaning they lose their electric resistance. A photon hitting this strip causes it to turn into a normal metal again momentarily, so the resistance of the strip jumps from zero to a finite value. This change in resistance allows the researchers to record the event.

To make this experiment happen in a laboratory, the big challenge is to avoid losing photons as they get sent to the Alice and Bob detectors through an optical fiber. JPL and NIST developed SNSPDs with worldrecord performance, demonstrating more than 90 percent efficiency and low "jitter," or uncertainty on the time of arrival of a photon. This experiment would not have been possible without SNSPDs.

Why This is Useful

The design of this experiment could potentially be used in cryptography -- making information and communications secure -- as it involves generating random numbers.

"The same experiment that tells us something deep about how the world is constructed also can be used for these applications that require you to keep your information safe," Shalm said.

Cryptography isn't the only application of this research. Detectors similar to those used for the experiment, which were built by JPL and NIST, could eventually also be used for deep-space optical communication. With a high efficiency and low uncertainty about the time of signal arrival, these detectors are well-suited for transmitting information with pulses of light in the optical spectrum.

"Right now we have the Deep Space Network to communicate with spacecraft around the solar system, which encodes information in radio signals. With optical communications, we could increase the data rate of that network 10- to 100-fold," Marsili said.

Deep space optical communication using technology similar to the detectors in Marsili's experiment was demonstrated with NASA's Lunar Atmosphere Dust and Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission, which orbited the moon from October 2013 to April 2014. A technology mission called the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration, with components on LADEE and on the ground, downlinked data encoded in laser pulses, and made use of ground receivers based on SNSPDs.

NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate is working on the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) mission.  The mission proposes to revolutionize the way we send and receive data, video and other information, using lasers to encode and transmit data at rates 10 to 100 times faster than today's fastest radio-frequency systems, using significantly less mass and power.

"Information can never travel faster than the speed of light -- Einstein was right about that. But through optical communications research, we can increase the amount of information we send back from space," Marsili said. "The fact that the detectors from our experiment have this application creates great synergy between the two endeavors."

And so, what began as the study of "love" between particles is contributing to innovations in communications between space and Earth. "Love makes the world go 'round," and it may, in a sense, help us learn about other worlds.

Editor note:

This experiment was conducted by several laboratories including CERN and UNIGE (University of Geneva) used the photons to "teleport" data for several kilometers with quantum computers, Geneva physicists set quantum teleportation to 25 km.

Related article (from editor note):

Physicists Achieve Quantum Teleportation of Photon Over 25 Kilometers:
http://www.iflscience.com/physics/physicists-achieve-quantum-teleportation-photon-over-25-kilometers

Related links:

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL): http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/home/index.html

Quantum teleportation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation

Université de Genève (University of Geneva): http://www.unige.ch/

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research: http://home.web.cern.ch/

Image (mentioned), Cartoon (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Elizabeth Landau/Tony Greicius/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Hubble Watches the Icy Blue Wings of Hen 2-437

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

Feb. 12, 2016

In this cosmic snapshot, the spectacularly symmetrical wings of Hen 2-437 show up in a magnificent icy blue hue. Hen 2-437 is a planetary nebula, one of around 3,000 such objects known to reside within the Milky Way.

Located within the faint northern constellation of Vulpecula (The Fox), Hen 2-437 was first identified in 1946 by Rudolph Minkowski, who later also discovered the famous and equally beautiful M2-9 (otherwise known as the Twin Jet Nebula). Hen 2-437 was added to a catalog of planetary nebula over two decades later by astronomer and NASA astronaut Karl Gordon Henize.

Planetary nebulae such as Hen 2-437 form when an aging low-mass star — such as the sun — reaches the final stages of life. The star swells to become a red giant, before casting off its gaseous outer layers into space. The star itself then slowly shrinks to form a white dwarf, while the expelled gas is slowly compressed and pushed outwards by stellar winds. As shown by its remarkably beautiful appearance, Hen 2-437 is a bipolar nebula — the material ejected by the dying star has streamed out into space to create the two icy blue lobes pictured here.

For images and more information about Hubble, visit:

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

Image Credits: ESA (European Space Agency)/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt/Text Credits: ESA/NASA/Rob Garner.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Rosetta's lander faces eternal hibernation

ESA - Rosetta Mission patch.

12 February 2016

Silent since its last call to mothership Rosetta seven months ago, the Philae lander is facing conditions on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from which it is unlikely to recover.

Rosetta, which continues its scientific investigations at the comet until September before its own comet-landing finale, has in recent months been balancing science observations with flying dedicated trajectories optimised to listen out for Philae. But the lander has remained silent since 9 July 2015.

Reconstructing Philae’s flight

“The chances for Philae to contact our team at our lander control centre are unfortunately getting close to zero,” says Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager at the German Aerospace Center, DLR. “We are not sending commands any more and it would be very surprising if we were to receive a signal again.”

Philae’s team of expert engineers and scientists at the German, French and Italian space centres and across Europe have carried out extensive investigations to try to understand the status of the lander, piecing together clues since it completed its first set of scientific activities after its historic landing on 12 November 2014.

Philae descends to the comet

A story with incredible twists and turns unfolded on that day. In addition to a faulty thruster, Philae also failed to fire its harpoons and lock itself onto the surface of the comet after its seven-hour descent, bouncing from its initial touchdown point at Agilkia, to a new landing site, Abydos, over 1 km away. The precise location of the lander has yet to be confirmed in high-resolution images.

A reconstruction of the flight of the lander suggested that it made contact with the comet four times during its two-hour additional flight across the small comet lobe. After bouncing from Agilkia it grazed the rim of the Hatmehit depression, bounced again, and then finally settled on the surface at Abydos.

Even after this unplanned excursion, the lander was still able to make an impressive array of science measurements, with some even as it was flying above the surface after the first bounce.

Once the lander had made its final touchdown, science and operations teams worked around the clock to adapt the experiments to make the most of the unanticipated situation. About 80% of its initial planned scientific activities were completed.

Reconstructing Philae’s trajectory

In the 64 hours following its separation from Rosetta, Philae took detailed images of the comet from above and on the surface, sniffed out organic compounds, and profiled the local environment and surface properties of the comet, providing revolutionary insights into this fascinating world.

But with insufficient sunlight falling on Philae’s new home to charge its secondary batteries, the race was on to collect and transmit the data to Rosetta and across 510 million kilometres of space back to Earth before the lander’s primary battery was exhausted as expected. Thus, on the evening of 14–15 November 2014, Philae fell into hibernation.

As the comet and the spacecraft moved closer to the Sun ahead of perihelion on 13 August 2015 – the closest point to the Sun along its orbit – there were hopes that Philae would wake up again.

Estimates of the thermal conditions at the landing site suggested that the lander might receive enough sunlight to start warming up to the minimum –45ºC required for it to operate on the surface even by the end of March 2015.

It is worth noting that if Philae had remained at its original landing site of Agilkia, it would have likely overheated by March, ending any further operations.

Welcome to a comet

On 13 June 2015, the lander finally hailed the orbiting Rosetta and subsequently transmitted housekeeping telemetry, including information from its thermal, power and computer subsystems.

Subsequent analysis of the data indicated that the lander had in fact already woken up on 26 April 2015, but had been unable to send any signals until 13 June.

The fact that the lander had survived the multiple impacts on 12 November and then unfavourable environmental conditions, greatly exceeding the specifications of its various electronic components, was quite remarkable.

After 13 June, Philae made a further seven intermittent contacts with Rosetta in the following weeks, with the last coming on 9 July. However, the communications links that were established were too short and unstable to enable any scientific measurements to be commanded.

Despite the improved thermal conditions, with temperatures inside Philae reaching 0ºC, no further contacts were made as the comet approached perihelion in August.

Approaching perihelion – Animation

However, the months around perihelion are also the comet’s most active. With increased levels of outflowing gas and dust, conditions were too challenging for Rosetta to operate safely close enough to the comet and within the 200 km where the signals had previously been detected from Philae.

In more recent months, the comet’s activity has subsided enough to make it possible to approach the nucleus again safely – this week the spacecraft reached around 45 km – and Rosetta has made repeated passes over Abydos.

No signal has been received, however. Attempts to send commands ‘in the blind’ to trigger a response from Philae have also not produced any results.

The mission engineers think that failures of Philae’s transmitters and receivers are the most likely explanation for the irregular contacts last year, followed by continued silence into this year.

Another difficulty that Philae may be facing is dust covering its solar panels, ejected by the comet during the active perihelion months, preventing the lander from powering up.

Also, the attitude and even location of Philae may have changed since November 2014 owing to cometary activity, meaning that the direction in which its antenna is sending signals to Rosetta is not as predicted, affecting the expected communication window.

Rosetta approaching comet

“The comet’s level of activity is now decreasing, allowing Rosetta to safely and gradually reduce its distance to the comet again,” says Sylvain Lodiot, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft operations manager.

“Eventually we will be able to fly in ‘bound orbits’ again, approaching to within 10–20 km – and even closer in the final stages of the mission – putting us in a position to fly above Abydos close enough to obtain dedicated high-resolution images to finally locate Philae and understand its attitude and orientation.”

“Determining Philae’s location would also allow us to better understand the context of the incredible in situ measurements already collected, enabling us to extract even more valuable science from the data,” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist.

“Philae is the cherry on the cake of the Rosetta mission, and we are eager to see just where the cherry really is!”

Rosetta mission selfie at 16 km

At the same time, Rosetta, Philae and the comet are heading back out towards the outer Solar System again. They have crossed the orbit of Mars and are now some 350 million km from the Sun. According to predictions, the temperatures should be falling far below those at which Philae is expected to be able to operate.

Nevertheless, while hopes of making contact again with Philae dwindle, Rosetta will continue to listen for signals from the lander as it flies alongside the comet ahead of its own comet landing in September.

“We would be very surprised to hear from Philae again after so long, but we will keep Rosetta’s listening channel on until it is no longer possible due to power constraints as we move ever further from the Sun towards the end of the mission,” says Patrick Martin, ESA’s Rosetta mission manager.

“Philae has been a tremendous challenge and for the lander teams to have achieved the science results that they have in the unexpected and difficult circumstances is something we can all be proud of.

“The combined achievements of Rosetta and Philae, rendezvousing with and landing on a comet, are historic high points in space exploration.”

Notes for Editors:

Lander contacts were made on 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 23 and 24 June, and 9 July 2015. Housekeeping data were transferred from Philae to Rosetta on all but the 23 June contact. Background information about Philae’s wake-ups last year is discussed in our September blog post “Understanding Philae’s wake-up”: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/09/11/understanding-philaes-wake-up-behind-the-scenes-with-the-philae-team/

Status reports were also published today by DLR, CNES and ASI.

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its Member States and NASA. Rosetta’s Philae lander was contributed by a consortium under the leadership of DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.

Related links:

For more information about Rosetta mission, visit: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta

Rosetta overview: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta_overview

Rosetta in depth: http://sci.esa.int/rosetta

Rosetta at Astrium: http://www.astrium.eads.net/en/programme/rosetta-1go.html

Rosetta at DLR: http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10394/

Ground-based comet observation campaign: http://www.rosetta-campaign.net/home

Rosetta factsheet: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_factsheet

Frequently asked questions: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Frequently_asked_questions

Images, Animations, Text, Credits: ESA/Data: Auster et al. (2015)/Comet image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA/ATG medialab/ESA's scientists: Markus Bauer/Patrick Martin/Sylvain Lodiot/Matt Taylor/Stephan Ulamec/The video was prepared with inputs from the ROMAP, RPC-MAG, OSIRIS, ROLIS, CIVA CONSERT, SESAME and MUPUS instrument teams as well as from the Lander Control Centre at DLR and Science Operation and Navigation Center at CNES.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Putting Pluto’s Geology on the Map

NASA - New Horizons Mission logo.

Feb. 11, 2016

Image above: This map of the left side of Pluto’s heart-shaped feature uses colors to represent Pluto’s varied terrains, which helps scientists understand the complex geological processes at work. Image Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.

How to make sense of Pluto’s surprising geological complexity? To help understand the diversity of terrain and to piece together how Pluto’s surface has formed and evolved over time, mission scientists construct geological maps like the one shown above. 

This map covers a portion of Pluto’s surface that measures 1,290 miles (2,070 kilometers) from top to bottom, and includes the vast nitrogen-ice plain informally named Sputnik Planum and surrounding terrain.  As the key in the figure below indicates, the map is overlaid with colors that represent different geological terrains.  Each terrain, or unit, is defined by its texture and morphology – smooth, pitted, craggy, hummocky or ridged, for example.  How well a unit can be defined depends on the resolution of the images that cover it.  All of the terrain in this map has been imaged at a resolution of approximately 1,050 feet (320 meters) per pixel or better, meaning scientists can map units with relative confidence.

Image above: Pluto’s informally-named Sputnik Planum region is mapped, with the key indicating a wide variety of units or terrains. Image Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.

The various blue and greenish units that fill the center of the map represent different textures seen across Sputnik Planum, from the cellular terrain in the center and north, to the smooth and pitted plains in the south.  The black lines represent troughs that mark the boundaries of cellular regions in the nitrogen ice.  The purple unit represents the chaotic, blocky mountain ranges that line Sputnik’s western border, and the pink unit represents the scattered, floating hills at its eastern edge.  The possible cryovolcanic feature informally named Wright Mons is mapped in red in the southern corner of the map.  The rugged highlands of the informally named Cthulhu Regio are mapped in dark brown along the western edge, pockmarked by many large impact craters, shown in yellow.

By studying how the boundaries between units crosscut one another, mission scientists can determine which units overlie others, and assemble a relative chronology for the different units. For example, the yellow craters (at left, on the western edge of the map) must have formed after their surrounding terrain. Producing such maps is important for gauging what processes have operated where on Pluto, and when they occurred relative to other processes at work. 

The base map for this geologic map is a mosaic of 12 images obtained by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at a resolution of 1,280 feet (about 390 meters) per pixel.  The mosaic was obtained at a range of approximately 48,000 miles (77,300 kilometers) from Pluto, about an hour and 40 minutes before New Horizons' closest approach on July 14, 2015.

For more information about New Horizons, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tricia Talbert.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

IXV spaceplane flight helped guide Irish firm to new business

ESA - Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) patch.

11 February 2016

Working with ESA – leading in turn to a key contribution to the IXV spaceplane – was the catalyst to help turn one Irish firm into a full-fledged space solution company, whose customers today include NASA, SpaceX, Boeing and Airbus Defence and Space.

The 100-minute flight of ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) one year ago today was keenly followed all across Europe, but especially in the crowded lunch canteen of Curtiss-Wright in Dublin.

Vega rocket carrying IXV launch

“It was a fantastic day, witnessing the launch on a large screen,” recalls Danny Gleeson, the company’s Space Business Development Manager. “I felt like an expectant father! Our company had put years of work into IXV, making a mission-critical contribution.

“The whole point of IXV was to get as full a picture as possible of the impact of the extreme conditions of atmospheric reentry on the spacecraft, and it was our systems that were gathering all the data from the hundreds of sensors on board, to be transmitted back to the ground.

“In the event it all worked perfectly, and we hope to be playing a similar part in the follow-up Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator in Europe, PRIDE, mission.”

The company was founded back in 1991 by a quartet of Dublin City University graduates, originally named ‘Acra’ – from the Gaelic for ‘utensil’  – and specialising in data acquisition systems for test flights. Acra was acquired by Curtiss-Wright in 2011.

Test flight instrumentation

Each time a new aircraft is first sent aloft, its test pilots are accompanied by a multitude of sensors capturing data on every aspect of its performance, in terms of acceleration, vibration, shock, temperature extremes and so on, usually in tandem with video.

“The key aspect is that these systems have to be rugged, because test flights are all about exploring the extremes of the aircraft performance envelope,” adds Mr Gleeson. “So when we were thinking about markets to expand into, the thought came: what about space missions?”

To operate in the space environment involves significant challenges, including exposure to vacuum, a still wider range of temperature and vibration extremes and increased radiation exposure above Earth’s atmosphere.

ESA is the European authority on working in space, and in 2002 an initial contract to subject the Acra equipment to the space environment was arranged through the Enterprise Ireland development agency. On the ESA side, the attraction was the prospect of ‘spin in’ – transferring an existing, well-proven technological solution to the space sector.

“There’s been a lot of interest in making use of what’s called ‘commercial off-the-shelf’, COTS, products for space in recent years,” comments Mr Gleeson.

IXV recovery

“For space missions you get to shorten the development cycle, starting with existing products and adapting them, rather than starting from a blank piece of paper. What is needed is to ‘qualify’ them – to carry out the exhaustive tests to prove the products, once suitably modified, can perform as required. This is a process we call ‘space-qualified COTS’

“So the testing ESA carried out, and the resulting documentation, opened up other opportunities, not only for IXV – which we began to work on in 2009 – but with other space companies.”

Curtiss-Wright Dublin began working with SpaceX in 2006, supplying equipment to the Falcon family of launchers and the Dragon reentry spacecraft while also contributing to experimental SpaceX ‘DragonEye’ payloads flown on some of the final Space Shuttle flights in 2009 and 2011.

Micro-sections for electronics testing

The company is also supplying sensor data acquisition systems to the Boeing-CST crew vehicle. It has also won contracts with Airbus Defence and Space to supply data handling systems: the most recent  as part of the Advanced Closed Loop System (ACLS) ISS Life Support System payload– converting waste carbon dioxide into breathable air.

Curtiss-Wright was also selected by ESA as prime contractor for an ISS payload to monitor the micro-gravity environment for experimental payloads, destined for the European Columbus module of the International Space Station.

Columbus module

“Our success in the space sector has led us to forge a local supply chain here in Ireland, with a variety of partner companies, including Realtime and Schivo,” adds Mr Gleeson. “Our needs include quality electronics and mechanical parts – one supplier, Schivo is actually primarily a medical device company, so they understand the reliability and quality we need.

“We’ve also built up an indigenous skill base. We’re one of about 20 Irish companies with common training needs that are participating in the national Space Industry Skillnet, the only space industry skills training network in Europe – building up the expertise we will need to go on making inroads into space markets and growing the space sector in Ireland.”

Related links:

Curtiss-Wright: http://www.curtisswright.com/home/default.aspx

European space laboratory Columbus: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Columbus

Ireland: http://www.esa.int/ESA_in_your_country/Ireland

Enterprise Ireland: http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/

Space Industry Skillnet: http://www.spaceskills.net/

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/S. Corvaja/Tommaso Javidi/Sergi Ferreté Aymerich/Curtiss-Wright/NASA.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

The sleeping giant

ESA - Hubble Space Telescope logo.

11 February 2016

The sleeping giant NGC 4889

The placid appearance of NGC 4889 can fool the unsuspecting observer. But the elliptical galaxy, pictured in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, harbours a dark secret. At its heart lurks one of the most massive black holes ever discovered.

Located about 300 million light-years away in the Coma Cluster, the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4889, the brightest and largest galaxy in this image, is home to a record-breaking supermassive black hole. Twenty-one billion times the mass of the Sun, this black hole has an event horizon — the surface at which even light cannot escape its gravitational grasp — with a diameter of approximately 130 billion kilometres. This is about 15 times the diameter of Neptune’s orbit from the Sun. By comparison, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is believed to have a mass about four million times that of the Sun and an event horizon just one fifth the orbit of Mercury.

Wide-field view of NGC 4889 (ground-based view)

But the time when NGC 4889’s black hole was swallowing stars and devouring dust is past. Astronomers believe that the gigantic black hole has stopped feeding, and is currently resting after feasting on NGC 4889’s cosmic cuisine. The environment within the galaxy is now so peaceful that stars are forming from its remaining gas and orbiting undisturbed around the black hole.

When it was active, NGC 4889’s supermassive black hole was fuelled by the process of hot accretion. When galactic material — such as gas, dust and other debris — slowly fell inwards towards the black hole, it accumulated and formed an accretion disc. Orbiting the black hole, this spinning disc of material was accelerated by the black hole’s immense gravitational pull and heated to millions of degrees. This heated material also expelled gigantic and very energetic jets. During its active period, astronomers would have classified NGC 4889 as a quasar and the disc around the supermassive black hole would have emitted up to a thousand times the energy output of the Milky Way.

Zooming onto the galaxy NGC 4889

The accretion disc sustained the supermassive black hole’s appetite until the nearby supply of galactic material was exhausted. Now, napping quietly as it waits for its next celestial snack, the supermassive black hole is dormant. However its existence allows astronomers to further their knowledge of how and where quasars, these still mysterious and elusive objects, formed in the early days of the Universe.

Although it is impossible to directly observe a black hole — as light cannot escape its gravitational pull — its mass can be indirectly determined. Using instruments on the Keck II Observatory and Gemini North Telescope, astronomers measured the velocity of the stars moving around NGC 4889’s centre. These velocities — which depend on the mass of the object they orbit — revealed the immense mass of the supermassive black hole.

Panning across the elliptical galaxy NGC 4889

More information:

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

Related links:

Keck II Observatory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._M._Keck_Observatory

Gemini North Telescope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_Observatory

Links:

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

Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/Digitized Sky Survey 2/Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/Videos: Akira Fujii/David Malin Images, DSS, ESA/Hubble/Music: Johan B. Monell.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch