Category: Space

bookmark_borderMagnetic Field of the Sun to Flip

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Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun’s vast magnetic field is about to flip.

“It looks like we’re no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal,” says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. “This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system.”

The sun’s magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun’s inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself. The coming reversal will mark the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. Half of ‘Solar Max’ will be behind us, with half yet to come.

Hoeksema is the director of Stanford’s Wilcox Solar Observatory, one of the few observatories in the world that monitor the sun’s polar magnetic fields. The poles are a herald of change. Just as Earth scientists watch our planet’s polar regions for signs of climate change, solar physicists do the same thing for the sun. Magnetograms at Wilcox have been tracking the sun’s polar magnetism since 1976, and they have recorded three grand reversals—with a fourth in the offing.

Solar physicist Phil Scherrer, also at Stanford, describes what happens: “The sun’s polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle.”

A reversal of the sun’s magnetic field is, literally, a big event. The domain of the sun’s magnetic influence (also known as the “heliosphere”) extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field’s polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space.

When solar physicists talk about solar field reversals, their conversation often centers on the “current sheet.” The current sheet is a sprawling surface jutting outward from the sun’s equator where the sun’s slowly-rotating magnetic field induces an electrical current. The current itself is small, only one ten-billionth of an amp per square meter (0.0000000001 amps/m2), but there’s a lot of it: the amperage flows through a region 10,000 km thick and billions of kilometers wide. Electrically speaking, the entire heliosphere is organized around this enormous sheet.

During field reversals, the current sheet becomes very wavy. Scherrer likens the undulations to the seams on a baseball. As Earth orbits the sun, we dip in and out of the current sheet. Transitions from one side to another can stir up stormy space weather around our planet.

Cosmic rays are also affected. These are high-energy particles accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy. Cosmic rays are a danger to astronauts and space probes, and some researchers say they might affect the cloudiness and climate of Earth. The current sheet acts as a barrier to cosmic rays, deflecting them as they attempt to penetrate the inner solar system. A wavy, crinkly sheet acts as a better shield against these energetic particles from deep space.

As the field reversal approaches, data from Wilcox show that the sun’s two hemispheres are out of synch.

“The sun’s north pole has already changed sign, while the south pole is racing to catch up,” says Scherrer. “Soon, however, both poles will be reversed, and the second half of Solar Max will be underway.”

When that happens, Hoeksema and Scherrer will share the news with their colleagues and the public.

Stay tuned to Science@NASA for updates.

Credits:

Author:Dr. Tony Phillips| Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

bookmark_borderEarth From 900 Million Miles

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Earth From 900 Million Miles Away
Earth From 900 Million Miles Away

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured the color images of Earth and the moon from its perch in the Saturn system nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away. MESSENGER, the first probe to orbit Mercury, took a black-and-white image from a distance of 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) as part of a campaign to search for natural satellites of the planet.

In the Cassini images Earth and the moon appear as mere dots — Earth a pale blue and the moon a stark white, visible between Saturn’s rings. It was the first time Cassini’s highest-resolution camera captured Earth and its moon as two distinct objects.

It also marked the first time people on Earth had advance notice their planet’s portrait was being taken from interplanetary distances. NASA invited the public to celebrate by finding Saturn in their part of the sky, waving at the ringed planet and sharing pictures over the Internet. More than 20,000 people around the world participated.

“We can’t see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Cassini’s picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space, and also testifies to the ingenuity of the citizens of this tiny planet to send a robotic spacecraft so far away from home to study Saturn and take a look-back photo of Earth.”

Pictures of Earth from the outer solar system are rare because from that distance, Earth appears very close to our sun. A camera’s sensitive detectors can be damaged by looking directly at the sun, just as a human being can damage his or her retina by doing the same. Cassini was able to take this image because the sun had temporarily moved behind Saturn from the spacecraft’s point of view and most of the light was blocked.

A wide-angle image of Earth will become part of a multi-image picture, or mosaic, of Saturn’s rings, which scientists are assembling. This image is not expected to be available for several weeks because of the time-consuming challenges involved in blending images taken in changing geometry and at vastly different light levels, with faint and extraordinarily bright targets side by side.

“It thrills me to no end that people all over the world took a break from their normal activities to go outside and celebrate the interplanetary salute between robot and maker that these images represent,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. “The whole event underscores for me our ‘coming of age’ as planetary explorers.”

In the MESSENGER image, Earth and the moon are less than a pixel, but appear very large because they are overexposed. Long exposures are required to capture as much light as possible from potentially dim objects. Consequently, bright objects in the field of view become saturated and appear artificially large. (To view the MESSENGER images, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/16Vnt5G)

“That images of our planet have been acquired on a single day from two distant solar system outposts reminds us of this nation’s stunning technical accomplishments in planetary exploration,” said MESSENGER Principal Investigator Sean Solomon of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y. “And because Mercury and Saturn are such different outcomes of planetary formation and evolution, these two images also highlight what is special about Earth. There’s no place like home.”

Credits: Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

bookmark_borderSpace Debris and Data Security

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Cyber Security at the Membrane Domain
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Committed to promoting safety and transparency in the space domain, U.S. Strategic Command maintains a registry of tens of thousands of man-made objects in space and shares the information freely with anyone who seeks it through a command-run website.

Air Force Space Command, recognizing that collisions could damage orbiting satellites and cause more space junk, started the database as a pilot program before turning the project over to Stratcom in 2010, said Air Force Col. Lina Cashin, Stratcom’s division chief for space, cyber and deterrence policy and security cooperation.

The project, which involves regular tracking of old rocket bodies, debris and about 1,000 active satellites, has become one of Stratcom’s most universally popular products, Cashin said.

Space-Track.org has 85,000 account holders in 185 countries.

In addition to providing basic satellite catalog data to all account holders, Stratcom provides more advanced data services on request. The command also has agreements in place with 35 commercial companies to expedite information-sharing, and hopes to enter similar agreements with space-faring nations to better support their space operations, Cashin said.

Space situational awareness is crucial to Stratcom’s efforts to understand what is going on in space and to cope with the increasing amount of space debris, she explained.

Both the National Space Policy and the National Security Space Strategy call on the United States to be a leader in sharing satellite positional information to the greatest extent possible, Cashin said.

“We think that providing more transparency on the data that we have to satellite owners and operators — whether they are commercial, intergovernmental or foreign entities — promotes a more stable environment in space,” Cashin said.

“We want to share information with the rest of the world that we think can help them, and in turn help us be more responsible space operators.”

The registry serves a two-fold mission for those with satellites in orbit or planning to launch them, she explained. Nations and commercial companies can tap basic satellite data to plan space launches that won’t collide with objects already in space. And in the event that one of their satellites comes dangerously close to another object, Stratcom provides emergency notification so they can adjust course, if necessary.

During 2012, the command provided orbital data to 90 commercial and foreign organizations and 180 U.S. entities, Air Force Gen. C. Robert Kehler, Stratcom’s commander, reported to Congress last month.

“We received nearly 500,000 satellite observations and screened over 1,000 active satellites on a daily basis,” he told the Senate and House armed services committees. Based on those screenings, he said, the command issued more than 10,000 warnings of potential collisions, supported 75 “avoidance maneuvers” to prevent them and filled more than 300 requests for orbital data from 85 entities.

“Those numbers will go [up] every year,” Kehler told Congress. He emphasized the need for improvements to Stratcom’s space situational awareness capabilities and established “rules of the road” that govern behavior in space and allow the command to detect problems as they occur.

Space has changed dramatically since the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, Cashin said. Sixty nations are now considered “space-faring,” with others anxious to join them to take advantage of the communication, navigation and other capabilities satellites and other space-based assets provide.

That makes space situational awareness more important than ever before in what Cashin characterized as an increasingly congested, competitive and contested domain.

In addition to the tens of thousands of fist-size manmade objects Stratcom regularly monitors, those too small to be tracked with current sensors could reach into the hundreds of thousands, she said.

The collision of an Iridium Communication Inc. satellite and a Russian Kosmos satellite in 2009 generated some 2,200 pieces of trackable debris. China’s anti-satellite test in 2007 generated more than 4,500 pieces — more than 3,000 of them still in orbit, and many to remain so for hundreds of years, Cashin said.

Meanwhile, space is increasingly competitive as more countries, civilian agencies and commercial companies jockey for an advantage within increasingly limited real estate.

Particularly coveted is the area of geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of about 22,000 miles directly over the equator, explained Air Force Brig. Gen. David Thompson, Stratcom’s deputy director for global operations. This orbit provides the best location for communications satellites, all requiring separation from other satellites to prevent interference.

“Those specific spots and those orbits are increasingly scarce, increasingly expensive and increasingly sought-after,” Thompson said.

That’s made space more contested as users want to take advantage of what it offers — and sometimes deny others’ access in the process.

Kehler told Congress he’s made a priority of ensuring that space capabilities that have become integral to the American way of warfare are available “whenever and wherever they are needed.”

The general also emphasized the importance of promoting trust and collaboration in space, a global common shared by nations and nongovernmental space operators around the globe.

Cashin reiterated the importance of promoting trust and collaboration in space.

“We are shifting to be completely transparent and share with our allies and partners so we can promote a … safe and stable space environment that benefits us all,” Cashin said. “As space becomes increasingly congested, competitive and contested, collaboration with our allies is more important now than ever before.”

By Donna Miles, from www.defense.gov
American Forces Press Service

bookmark_borderHuman Asteroid Initiative

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NASA’s FY2014 budget proposal includes a plan to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it.

Performing these elements for the proposed asteroid initiative integrates the best of NASA’s science, technology and human exploration capabilities and draws on the innovation of America’s brightest scientists and engineers. It uses current and developing capabilities to find both large asteroids that pose a hazard to Earth and small asteroids that could be candidates for the initiative, accelerates our technology development activities in high-powered solar electric propulsion and takes advantage of our hard work on the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, helping to keep NASA on target to reach the President’s goal of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s.

When astronauts don their spacesuits and venture out for a spacewalk on the surface of an asteroid, how they move and take samples of it will be based on years of knowledge built by NASA scientists and engineers who have assembled and operated the International Space Station, evaluated exploration mission concepts, sent scientific spacecraft to characterize near-Earth objects and performed ground-based analog missions.

As early as the 1970s, NASA examined potential ways to use existing hardware to visit an asteroid to understand better its characteristics. On the International Space Station, scientific investigations and technology demonstrations are improving knowledge of how humans can live and work in space. The agency also has examined many possible mission concepts to help define what capabilities are needed to push the boundaries of space exploration.

During the early space shuttle flights and through assembly of the space station, NASA has relied on testing both in space and on Earth to try out ideas through a host of analog missions, or field tests, that simulate the complexity of endeavors in space.

Through 16 missions in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s underwater Aquarius Reef Base off the coast of Key Largo, Fla., aquanauts have tested techniques for human space exploration. These underwater tests have been built upon the experience gained by training astronauts in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to assemble and maintain the space station. The NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 15 and 16 missions in 2011 and 2012, respectively, simulated several challenges explorers will face when visiting an asteroid, including how to anchor to and move around the surface of a near-Earth object and how to collect samples of it.

NASA also has simulated an asteroid mission as part of its 2012 Research and Technology Studies ground test at Johnson. During the simulation, a team evaluated how astronauts might do a spacewalk on an asteroid and accomplish other goals. While performing a spacewalk on a captured asteroid will involve different techniques than the activities performed during recent analog exercises, decisions made about ways to best sample an asteroid will be informed by the agency’s on-going concept development and past work.

Scientific missions also have investigated the nature of asteroids to provide a glimpse of the origins of the solar system. From the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, which in 1972 was the first to venture into the Main Asteroid Belt, to the Dawn mission, which recently concluded its investigations of asteroid Vesta and is on its way to the dwarf planet Ceres, NASA’s forays help us understand the origins of the solar system and inform decisions about how to conduct missions to distant planetary bodies. Scientists both at NASA and across the world also continue to study asteroids to shed light on their unique characteristics.

As NASA ventures farther into the solar system, the agency continues to simulate and evaluate operations and technical concepts for visiting an asteroid.

bookmark_borderSound Thinking

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A conversation on FaceBook about the Universal Hum / Om:

 

A Faulty Formula
A Faulty Formula

i’ve been trying to figure out how it fits into e=mc². i think i’m getting warmer…

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Also of interest:
When an opera singer shatters glass — standing wave
* resonant vibration *
“A standing wave is formed when energy moves in two directions at once.”

bookmark_borderHappy Birthday Universe!

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Map Of The Universe
Map Of The Universe

 

Q: How old is the universe?
A: 13.8 billion years old

Planck, the European space agency, in cooperation with NASA have created a detailed map of the universe. “Astronomers worldwide have been on the edge of their seats waiting for this map,” said Joan Centrella, Planck scientist. “These measurements are profoundly important to many areas of science, as well as future space missions.”

“The Planck map reveals not only the very young universe, but also matter, including dark matter, everywhere in the universe.”

“You can see the seeds from which the Universe is come,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, the agency’s director general.

Findings:

  • The universe appears to be 13.81 billion years old, slightly older than previous estimates.
  • The universe also contains a bit more matter than previously thought. A new precision measurement based on Planck shows that ordinary matter – including atoms, stars, galaxies and everything else astronomers can observe directly – accounts for about 4.9 per cent of the energy content of the universe. Another 26.98 per cent is taken up by dark matter, which cannot be seen but only “felt” through its gravitational influence. The remaining 68.3 per cent is in the form of dark energy, a mysterious phenomenon thought to be causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate.
  • There are no signs for new, unknown particles of ordinary matter, such as new types of neutrinos, which have been proposed by some theories.

bookmark_borderWhen Does an Asteroid Become a Meteor?

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EARTH — NASA has been watching an asteroid, Asteroid 2012 DA14, fly near Earth; however, they missed another asteroid that became a meteor in Russia. An asteroid when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. Usually, they burn up upon entry. Not this time.

A Russian health official estimated 1,000 people were injured when a 10 ton meteor exploded in the sky. A resident said, “There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people’s houses to check if they were OK. We saw a big burst of light, then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud thundering sound.”

The sonic boom shattered 1,000,000 square feet of glass.

NASA says, “”According to NASA scientists, the trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14’s trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north.”

bookmark_borderEarthrise On Christmas

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This photo of “Earthrise” over the lunar horizon was taken by the Apollo 8 crew on December 24, 1968, showing Earth for the first time as it appears from deep space.

Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders had become the first humans to leave Earth orbit, entering lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. In a historic live broadcast that night, the crew took turns reading from the Book of Genesis, closing with a holiday wish from Commander Borman: “We close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.”

Earthrise: First Color Photograph of Earth
Earthrise: First Color Photograph of Earth

bookmark_borderNASA Crashing Rockets Into the Moon

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PASADENA, CA. — NASA conducted a  lunar surface impact mission of its twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft Monday, Dec. 17. The event was broadcast on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s website.

The two probes hit a mountain near the lunar north pole at approximately 2:28 p.m. Monday, bringing their successful prime and extended science missions to an end.

Commentary originated from the control room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

Data from the GRAIL twins are allowing scientists to learn about the moon’s internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. The two probes are being sent purposely into the moon because they do not have enough altitude or fuel to continue science operations.


Last Flight for GRAIL’s Twin Spacecraft

This animation shows the final flight path for NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission spacecraft, which will impact the moon on Dec. 17, 2012, around 2:28 p.m. PST. Their successful prime and extended science missions now completed, the twin GRAIL spacecraft Ebb and Flow are being sent purposefully into the moon because their low orbit and fuel state precludes further scientific operations.

The animations were created from data obtained by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/ASU