Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

There's so many good reasons to fund science that it is shocking that anyone would think otherwise.

Jan Hattenbach ‏@JanHattenbach Oct 30

#2015TB145 "we didn't know it existed until Oct.10" Or: why funding #astronomy is important. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/great-pumpkin-asteroid-1.3287983…

 

[ScienceRocks]

Is deep space travel a step closer to reality? Nasa reveals successful test of 'impossible' fuel-free engine that breaks the laws of physics

Quote

6 November 2015

An 'impossible' fuel-free engine, which could take a humans to Mars in just 10 weeks, is still defying science after another batch of tests by Nasa suggested the thruster does work.

The so-called EM Drive creates thrust by bouncing microwaves around in an enclosed chamber, and uses only solar power.

When the concept was first proposed, it was considered implausible because it went against the laws of physics - and subsequent tests of the engine have shown that the idea could revolutionise space travel.

Now Nasa has provided the first update on the test in months, and it seems to suggest that the futuristic engine does, in fact, work.

http://www.dailymail...-knows-why.html

 

[ScienceRocks]

47th DPS Meeting Science Schedule and Events | American Astronomical Society

Abstract from 47th DPS meeting this week page 636)

An Exo-Venus Around a Cool, Nearby Star
I. Angelo; 1, 2; J. F. Rowe; 2, 3; S. B. Howell; 2;
1. Physics and Astronomy, UC Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
2. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States.
3. SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, United States.

Abstract (2,250 Maximum Characters):

We present the discovery and planetary confirmation of KOI-3138, a likely Earth-sized (1.08 Earth radii ) planet in a 9-day orbit around a nearby M Dwarf star. A planet transit was detected around KOI-3138 with the Kepler spacecraft and confirmed via false positive analysis using data from the UK Infrared telescope, Digital Sky Survey, and DSSI Speckle imaging. The planet’s short orbital period places it close to its host star, making it an interesting Venus analog around a cool star.
It remains possible, although unlikely, that KOI-3138.01 instead orbits a bound, undetected binary companion to KOI-3138. Under these conditions, the planet becomes a mini-Neptune-sized planet orbiting a brown dwarf with a mass of ~0.05 solar mass. Follow-up radial velocity measurements on the host star are required in order to accurately assess the likelihood of this possibility. Specifically, detection of a significant radial velocity ( ~725 m/s) upon observation of KOI-3138 will indicate the presence of a bound companion that was not detected by our false positive analysis procedures. Such a companion, if detected, cannot be ruled out as the host star around which KOI-3138.01 orbits.
KOI-3138.01 is too small to induce a detectable “wobble" in its host star. We therefore make no conclusions about mass or composition. However, there is reasonable incentive to determine these properties in the hopes of understanding the nature of habitable zones around M-type stars. Kepler-186f, a previously discovered Earth-like exoplanet, is similar in size to KOI-3138.01 and orbits the outer reaches of its star’s conservative habitable zone. KOI-3138.01, also Earth-sized, orbits a similar star but resides much closer in. The two planets together span the range of distances within the habitable zones of M Dwarfs. Determining the composition and atmosphere of KOI-3138.01 is therefore useful in understanding the nature of habitable zone boundaries of such star types. This task may in fact be possible with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which will characterize atmospheric compositions of nearby Earth-sized planets like KOI-3138.01 and thereby provide insight into the habitability of both known and to-bediscovered exoplanets.

 

[ScienceRocks]

A candidate second planet in HD 100546's disk

Resolving the HD 100546 Protoplanetary System with the Gemini Planet Imager: Evidence for Multiple Forming, Accreting Planets

We report Gemini Planet Imager H band high-contrast imaging/integral field spectroscopy and polarimetry of the HD 100546, a 10 $Myr$-old early-type star recently confirmed to host a thermal infrared bright (super)jovian protoplanet at wide separation, HD 100546 b. We resolve the inner disk cavity in polarized light, recover the thermal-infrared (IR) bright arm, and identify one additional spiral arm. We easily recover HD 100546 b and show that much of its emission originates an unresolved, point source. HD 100546 b likely has extremely red infrared colors compared to field brown dwarfs, qualitatively similar to young cloudy superjovian planets, however, these colors may instead indicate that HD 100546 b is still accreting material from a circumplanetary disk. Additionally, we identify a second point source-like peak at $r_{proj}$ $\sim$ 13 AU, located just interior to or at inner disk wall consistent with being a 10--20 $M_{J}$ candidate second protoplanet-- "HD 100546 c" -- and lying within a weakly polarized region of the disk but along an extension of the thermal IR bright spiral arm. Alternatively, it is equally plausible that this feature is a weakly polarized but locally bright region of the inner disk wall. Astrometric monitoring of this feature over the next 2 years and emission line measurements could confirm its status as a protoplanet, rotating disk hot spot that is possibly a signpost of a protoplanet, or a stationary emission source from within the disk.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA reveals evidence of cryovolcanos on Pluto

• Anthony Wood
• November 10, 2015
• 4 PICTURES

NASA has identified evidence of ice volcanoes present on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. The news comes as New Horizon's team discusses new scientific discoveries made by the spacecraft during its July flyby, at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society, in Maryland.

 

[ScienceRocks]

GJ 1132b earth-sized rocky planet at 39 l.y

by Led_Zep Today at 3:54 pm

New exoplanet in our neighborhood

The new planet, named GJ 1132b, is Earth-sized and rocky, orbiting a small star located a mere 39 light-years from Earth, making it the closest Earth-sized exoplanet yet discovered. Astrophysicists from MIT and elsewhere have published these findings today in the journal Nature.
(…)
Berta-Thompson and his colleagues discovered the planet using the MEarth-South Observatory, a Harvard University-led array of eight 40-centimeter-wide robotic telescopes located in the mountains of Chile.
(...)
Based on the amount of starlight the planet blocks, and the radius of the star, scientists calculated that planet GJ 1132b is about 1.2 times the size of Earth. From measuring the wobble of its host star, they estimate the planet’s mass to be about 1.6 times that of Earth. Given its size and mass, they could determine its density — and they believe it to be rocky, like Earth

Link Nature :
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v527/n7577/full/nature15762.html

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/MEarth/gj1132b.pdf

 

[ScienceRocks]

'Most distant' Solar System object spied

11 November 2015

Astronomers have identified the most distant object yet in the Solar System.

Observations with Japan's Subaru telescope reveal the likely icy body to be some 15.5 billion km from the Sun - about three times further away than even far-flung Pluto.

Scientists say their initial studies suggest that the object - catalogued as V774104 - is some 500-1,000km across.

It will need to be tracked over time to learn the shape and extent of its orbit through the Solar System.

The discovery was announced at the 47th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, taking place in National Harbor near Washington DC.

The team behind the find is led by Scott Sheppard, from the Carnegie Institution for Science, and Chad Trujillo, from the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.

They specialise in detecting Solar System outliers.



http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-34787422

 

[ScienceRocks]

Cassini finds monstrous ice cloud in Titan's south polar region
November 12, 2015 by Elizabeth Zubritsky

As winter sets in at Titan’s south pole, a cloud system called the south polar vortex (small, bright “button”) has been forming, as seen in this 2013 image. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
New observations made near the south pole of Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft add to the evidence that winter comes in like a lion on this moon of Saturn.

Scientists have detected a monstrous new cloud of frozen compounds in the moon's low- to mid-stratosphere – a stable atmospheric region above the troposphere, or active weather layer.

Cassini's camera had already imaged an impressive cloud hovering over Titan's south pole at an altitude of about 186 miles (300 kilometers). However, that cloud, first seen in 2012, turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. A much more massive ice cloud system has now been found lower in the stratosphere, peaking at an altitude of about 124 miles (200 kilometers).

 

[CrusaderFrank]

There's so many good reasons to fund science that it is shocking that anyone would think otherwise.

Jan Hattenbach ‏@JanHattenbach Oct 30

#2015TB145 "we didn't know it existed until Oct.10" Or: why funding #astronomy is important. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/great-pumpkin-asteroid-1.3287983…

Need to redirect the money we're wasting on global warming and domestic spying towards this project

 

[ScienceRocks]

Yep, I agree...

Giant Magellan Telescope: Super-scope project breaks ground
A ceremony has been held to mark the start of construction of one of the key astronomical facilities of the next decade - the Giant Magellan Telescope.

The GMT will be built atop Cerro Las Campanas in Chile.

With its 24.5m-wide primary mirror system, it should be able to probe the first objects to emit light in the Universe, to investigate dark energy and dark matter, and to identify potentially habitable planets.

The international project is US-led.

The non-American partners come from Australia, Brazil, and Korea, with Chile as the host country.

Representatives were invited to the mountain top on Wednesday to celebrate the occasion.

Two-and-a-half-thousand cubic metres of rock have already been removed to flatten the peak of Las Campanas to make it ready for the works.

Three-way race
Engineers can now start to bring in the components that make up the GMT's structure.

Its main reflecting surface will comprise seven 8.4m mirrors. These are currently in the process of being fabricated.

Giant Magellan Telescope: Super-scope project breaks ground - BBC News

 

[ScienceRocks]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Ne..._2016_999.html

China is preparing to launch a new-generation quick-response rocket in 2016 to seize more of the international commercial launch market, industry insiders said.

The Kuaizhou-11, or Fast Vessel-11, is being developed by the Fourth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, a major supplier of missiles to the People's Liberation Army. Its first launch is planned for late 2016 or early 2017, said Zhang Di, head of the company's space projects department, at the First China Commercial Launch Forum in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Friday.

Zhang said the solid-fuel rocket will be able to place a 1-metric-ton payload into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers. Prelaunch preparations will take very little time, and the launch can be conducted on rough terrain.

God do I wish the chinese would invest into extrasolar plantary telescops and space based kepler telescopes.

I'd like to see them build a 40 meter ground base
and then build a base on the moon and mars

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Another picture taken by MOM has been released. This time it is a image of Arabia Terra.

http://spaceref.com/mars/arabia-terr...tm_source=t.co

Arabia Terra is a large upland region in the north of Mars located mostly in the Arabia quadrangle. It is densely cratered and heavily eroded. This battered topography indicates great age, and Arabia Terra is presumed to be one of the oldest terrains on the planet. Gill Crater is an impact crater in the Arabia quadrangle of Mars.

This image is taken by Mars Color Camera on 22nd October 2015 at an altitude of 14893 km with a resolution of 774 m.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Two Transiting Low Density Sub-Saturns from K2
Erik A. Petigura, Andrew W. Howard, Eric D. Lopez, Katherine M. Deck, Benjamin J. Fulton, Ian J. M. Crossfield, David R. Ciardi, Eugene Chiang, Eve J. Lee, Howard Isaacson, Charles A. Beichman, Brad M. S. Hansen, Joshua E. Schlieder, Evan Sinukoff
(Submitted on 14 Nov 2015)
We report the discovery and confirmation of two sub-Saturn planets orbiting a bright (V = 11.3), metal-rich ([Fe/H] = 0.42 ± 0.04 dex) G3 dwarf in the K2 Campaign 2 field. The planets are 5.68 ± 0.56 Earth-radii and 7.82 ± 0.72 Earth-radii and have orbital periods of 20.8851 ± 0.0003 d and 42.3633±0.0006 d, near to the 2:1 mean-motion resonance. We obtained 32 radial velocities (RVs) with Keck/HIRES and detected the reflex motion due to EPIC-203771098b and c. These planets have masses of 21.0 ± 5.4 Earth-masses and 27.0 ± 6.9 Earth-masses, respectively. With low densities of 0.63 ± 0.25 g/cc and 0.31 ± 0.12 g/cc, respectively, the planets require thick envelopes of H/He to explain their large sizes and low masses. Interior structure models predict that the planets have fairly massive cores of 17.6 ± 4.3 Earth-masses and 16.1 ± 4.2 Earth-masses, respectively. They may have formed exterior to their present locations, accreted their H/He envelopes at large orbital distances, and migrated in as a resonant pair. The proximity to resonance, large transit depths, and host star brightness offer rich opportunities for TTV follow-up. Finally, the low surface gravities of the EPIC-203771098 planets make them favorable targets for transmission spectroscopy by HST, Spitzer, and JWST.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1511.04497v1.pdf

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If there was one thing I wish the Chinese would do I'd have to say building a 100 meter ground base like the VLT, ELT or GMT would top the list.

That thing would be as good as kepler and would be far cheaper to maintain.

 

[ScienceRocks]

A one year feasibility study to do a joint Venus mission between the USA and NASA has been approved. If it takes off then possible launch date is late 2020s.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/11/12...ission-resume/

NASA has resumed discussions with Russia on a potential joint robotic mission to Venus in the late 2020s after the Ukraine crisis stalled the partnership, according to scientists involved in the talks.

Russian scientists have studied the Venera-D mission to Venus more than a decade as a follow-up to the Soviet-era Venera and Vega probes to the second rock from the sun.

Rob Landis, a program executive at NASA Headquarters, told a meeting of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group last month that the discussions are taking a “100,000-foot view” of the mission.

NASA has only committed to a year-long feasibility study, which will produce a report for top NASA and Russian managers to decide whether to pursue a cooperative mission to Venus, Landis said Oct. 27 at the VEXAG meeting in Washington.

The joint science definition team met in Moscow from Oct. 5-8, and scientists plan two more face-to-face meetings in the Russian capital over the next year. Scientists from the Moscow-based Space Research Institute, known by the Russian acronym IKI, are in charge of the Venera-D concept.

This is good news from the Russian front. Russia will have a budget of roughly $37 billion to last through 2025.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Pu...itive_999.html

"Russian rockets must be reliable and competitive, meet requirements of leading domestic and foreign customers," the president stressed.

Putin stressed the development and equipment of the International Space Stations with the newest technologies should be a priority for the Russian Federal Space Program.

Fundamental space exploration should also be prioritized, the president said. According to the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the Federal Space Program will have a budget of roughly $37 billion to last through 2025.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Congress Says Yes to Space Mining, No to Rocket Regulations

SPACE: THE FINAL franchise. These are the entrepreneurs funding near space voyages and starship enterprises. Their continuing mission statement: to explore lucrative new orbits, to seek out new ores and new deregulations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Capitalistic Captain Kirks rejoice! Yesterday the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act soared through both congressional houses with vacuum-like ease. First and foremost, the bill protects private spaceflight from regulatory oversight, giving the industry up to 8 years to get its innovations in place before government overseers step in and start counting rivets. But more interesting (if less immediately applicable), the bill lets entreprenauts keep whatever nonliving souvenirs they find out in the void, opening the door to everything from asteroid-based gold mines to comet-collected rocket fuel. The next step is President Obama’s desk, but he’s likely to sign.

Great news! We need a economic basis and the private sector is very good at doing such. I love science but we need the infrastructure if we want to do more serious science.

​

First photo of planet in making captured
There are 450 light-years between Earth and LkCa15, a young star with a transition disk around it, a cosmic whirling dervish, a birthplace for planets.

 

[ScienceRocks]

A new free-floating planet in the Upper Scorpius association

We report on a deep photometric survey covering an area of 1.17 deg2 in the young Upper Scorpius stellar association using VIMOS Iz and UKIDSS ZJHK data taking several years apart. The search for the least massive population of Upper Scorpius (∼5-10 Myr, 145 pc) is performed on the basis of various optical and infrared color-color and color-magnitude diagrams, including WISE photometry, in the magnitude interval J=14.5-19 mag (completeness), which corresponds to substellar masses from 0.028 through 0.004 M⊙ at the age and distance of Upper Scorpius. We also present the proper motion analysis of the photometric candidates, finding that two objects successfully pass all photometric and astrometric criteria for membership in the young stellar association. One of them, UScoJ155150.2−213457, is a new discovery. We obtained low resolution, near-infrared spectroscopy (R∼450, 0.85--2.35 μm) of this new finding using the FIRE instrument. We confirmed its low-gravity atmosphere expected for an Upper Scorpius member (weak alkaline lines, strong VO absorption, peaked H-band pseudocontinuum). By comparison with spectroscopic standards, we derive a spectral type of L6±1, and estimate a mass of ≈0.008-0.010 M⊙ for UScoJ155150.2−213457. The colors and spectral slope of this object resemble those of other young, cool members of Upper Scorpius and σ Orionis (∼3 Myr) and field, high gravity dwarfs of related classification in contrast with the very red indices of field, low gravity, L-type dwarfs of intermediate age. UScoJ155150.2−213457, which does not show infrared flux excesses up to 4.5 μm, becomes one of the least massive and latest type objects known in the entire Upper Scorpius stellar association.

 

[ScienceRocks]

WASP-135b: a highly irradiated, inflated hot Jupiter orbiting a G5V star

We report the discovery of a new transiting planet from the WASP survey. WASP-135b is a hot Jupiter with a radius of 1.30 pm 0.09 Rjup, a mass of 1.90 pm 0.08 Mjup and an orbital period of 1.401 days. Its host is a Sun-like star, with a G5 spectral type and a mass and radius of 0.98 pm 0.06 Msun and 0.96 pm 0.05 Rsun respectively. The proximity of the planet to its host means that WASP-135b receives high levels of insolation, which may be the cause of its inflated radius. Additionally, we find weak evidence of a transfer of angular momentum from the planet to its star.

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[ScienceRocks]

HATS-15 b and HATS-16 b: Two massive planets transiting old G dwarf stars

We report the discovery of HATS-15 b and HATS-16 b, two massive transiting extrasolar planets orbiting evolved (∼10 Gyr) main-sequence stars. The planet HATS-15 b, which is hosted by a G9V star (V=14.8 mag), is a hot Jupiter with mass of 2.17±0.15MJ and radius of 1.105±0.0.040RJ, and completes its orbit in nearly 1.7 days. HATS-16 b is a very massive hot Jupiter with mass of 3.27±0.19MJ and radius of 1.30±0.15RJ; it orbits around its G3 V parent star (V=13.8 mag) in ∼2.7 days. HATS-16 is slightly active and shows a periodic photometric modulation, implying a rotational period of 12 days which is unexpectedly short given its isochronal age. This fast rotation might be the result of the tidal interaction between the star and its planet.

 

[ScienceRocks]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/11/18...roaches-venus/

Imamura said the Akatsuki spacecraft, named for the Japanese word for dawn, will zoom 541 kilometers, or 336 miles, above Venus for a 20-minute insertion burn using the probe’s secondary attitude control thrusters. Japanese ground controllers have programmed the probe to use the backup rocket jets after a faulty valve knocked out Akatsuki’s main engine during its first attempt to enter orbit around Venus in December 2010.

Four of the eight attitude control thrusters aboard Akatsuki will fire for 20 minutes and 33 seconds to slow the spacecraft down enough for Venus’ gravity to pull it into an egg-shaped orbit that skims above the planet’s cloud tops on the low end and ranges several hundred thousand miles in altitude at peak altitude.

The reaction control thrusters, originally designed to help point the spacecraft, were not rated for such a hefty propulsive maneuver.

“In the original plan, we used these RCS (thrusters) only for attitude control — mostly using these thrusters only for unloading angular momentum — so we did not expect such a long (burn),” Imamura said last month in a presentation to NASA’s Venus Exploration Analysis Group. “So yes … this kind of operation is rather dangerous, but in the previous (burns) already conducted, we have already tested 10 minutes of propulsion, so 20 minutes is not very long compared to the (maneuvers) we have already conducted.”

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA calls on SpaceX to send astronauts to ISS

SpaceX received orders Friday from the US space agency to send astronauts to the International Space Station in the coming years, helping restore US access to space, NASA said.

Great news!


New detector perfect for asteroid mining, planetary research

The grizzled asteroid miner is a stock character in science fiction. Now, a couple of recent events - one legal and the other technological - have brought asteroid mining a step closer to reality.
The legal step was taken when the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee passed a bill titled H.R. 2262—SPACE Act of 2015. The bill has a number of measures designed to facilitate commercial space development, including a provision that gives individuals or companies ownership of any material that they mine in outer space. According to one estimate, asteroid mining could ultimately develop into a trillion-dollar market.
The technological development is a new generation of gamma-ray spectroscope that appears perfectly suited for detecting veins of gold, platinum, rare earths and other valuable material hidden within the asteroids, moons and other airless objects floating around the solar system - just the type of "sensor" that will be needed by asteroid miners to sniff out these valuable materials.

The concept was developed by a team of scientists from Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Planetary Science Institute. It is described in the article "New ultra-bright scintillators for planetary gamma-ray spectroscopy" published Oct. 23 in the SPIE Newsroom. SPIE is the International Society for Optics and Photonics and the SPIE Newsroom highlights noteworthy scientific achievements in the area of optics and photonics.

 

[longknife]

SpaceX to Take US Astronauts to Space Station



About time! No longer have to depend on the Russians to get us there. A private company is already sending supplies so this appears to be an expansion of the effort to put more private companies into space exploration.



Read more @ Nasa give SpaceX its first contract to send astronauts to ISS